Take your Bibles this morning to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. We're going to read verses 1 through 12, this section of Scripture this morning, and then we'll back up and kind of walk through it a little bit. Mark chapter 10. And verse 1, here's what it says. And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judea by the farther side of Jordan. And the people resort unto him again. And as he was wont, he taught them again." We're not going to spend much time on that, but that was just Jesus' way. It says, as he was wont, this was his manner of life. When people showed up, he taught them. More people, more teaching. He never had a dearth of things to say to people. So verse 2, it says, And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting him? And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept, but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter, and he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committed adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery. There is a phenomenon, a philosophy of life that many people use as they go through life that applies to any area, many areas of life. And it's often called situational ethics. And that means I believe in ethics. I believe that certain things are ethical and certain things are unethical. in certain situations. But if you change the situation, then I might need to change and modify what the ethics are. So it's another way of saying this would be that black is black and white is white sometimes. But there could be situations where black is actually white or gray or somewhere in between and we might need to modify. And there are a lot of different areas of life where the devil loves to use situational ethics. He loves to kind of crack a door a little bit and get his foot into your life, to get you to fudge on something, to doubt something. And if he can get an itch, then later he'll take a foot. And if he can get a foot, later he'll eventually take a mile. And that's the way the devil works. And situational ethics is one of the ways that he likes to do this. He gets Christians to think that they they might be right to lie in certain situations. God says don't lie, but there might be times when it's okay or even admirable to lie to get out of something. He likes to get Christians to think that there are times when it might be okay to steal. I mean, if you're If you're starving or someone in your family is starving the Bible says Thou shalt not steal, but there could be times when it's okay to steal and the devil loves to just get us to do some mental gymnastics With with the truth and with right and wrong he Loves to get Christians to think that there could be times when abortion things like that that abortion could be an okay thing. And we see this as one of the obviously the hotbed issues in society and has been for 40 years or more. And if the devil can get you to give a little ground here, then it's easier to take the next step, easier to take the next step. And this morning as we look at divorce is one of the issues as well that people can have some hard and fast rules in their minds until the situation changes. And I will say this, that life and marriage is very complicated. And there's nothing new under the sun. But there's all sorts of scenarios that people can experience in their relationships with people and in their marriages. And the devil wants to use all the scenarios to blur the lines of right and wrong in this area of divorce. And so it says here that the Pharisees one day came to Jesus and asked him about this question. They asked him, is it OK? Is it lawful? for a man to put away his wife. At this time in the history of Israel and Jesus' ministry, the Israelites were, and I don't know exactly what the percentages were, the statistics, but from what I read it was very common for them to divorce for many reasons. For instance, if something like a man didn't like the meal that his wife cooked, then he was allowed to write her a bill of divorce and send her away and get a better cook. Now if that were the case today, how many would still be married? Don't raise your hands there. Today there are many reasons that marriages end, that people get divorced. There are common reasons like Some of the most common reasons are a lack of commitment in marriage, too much arguing, infidelity, somebody married too young, they had unrealistic expectations, there was a lack of equality in the relationship, there was a lack of preparation, there's abuse, and on and on. There are many reasons that people give. Irreconcilable differences is common. We just had irreconcilable. It was impossible to reconcile is what many people give. There are also some silly reasons that people divorce. I'm going to list some things real fast. These are real reasons that people got divorced. These are not made up. There was one man who got divorced because of his video game addiction. His wife was fed up with that. And so she ended the marriage. There was one marriage that ended because the husband would not allow his wife to watch soap operas. So that was the end of that. There was one marriage where the husband learned about the divorce through a Facebook post. And so you click on Facebook and, oh, my marriage is over. There was one man that, he was actually too nice. His wife divorced him because he was too nice to her. He was just boring. She wanted marriage to be more mixed up and interesting, so she divorced him. There was one husband who cleaned too much. He was too much of a neat freak, I guess, and his wife couldn't stand that, so they got divorced over that. There was one, marriage that ended because the husband never got around to, I don't know the details, but he never got around to changing his status on his Facebook page to married. He never changed it to married. His wife wanted it. So, because he wouldn't change it, she divorced him. There was one marriage that ended because a parent ratted out the husband's infidelities to her. So, there's always somebody watching. There was one marriage that ended because a man bet his wife in a game of cards and he lost the game. And when the wife heard that he had bet her in the game, she divorced him. She ended up marrying the guy that he lost to. So it's not a good idea. There was one marriage that ended because the husband didn't like the movie Frozen. the Disney movie that came out recently and they had a discussion about it and he couldn't, he watched it, he couldn't understand what the big deal was about the movie, why it was so wonderful and she didn't like that so I guess she just couldn't let that go. There was another marriage that ended because That really did happen. There was another marriage that, and this is a more tragic and sad one, but there was another marriage that ended because they had a baby that was a Down syndrome baby and the husband wanted to keep the baby and the wife said, I don't want to keep the baby because he wanted to keep the baby. They ended up getting divorced and now the husband is, I don't know about now, I don't know how long ago this was, but he started some, fundraising effort to raise money to help support him. There was another marriage where it ended because the wife got his cell phone and she called his cell phone and somehow she saw that his nickname for her on the cell phone was Guantanamo. this really high security prison. And when she saw that her nickname was Guantanamo, she ended their relationship. So people get divorced for many different reasons. And I hope that none of what we just read gave you an idea. But this is where the Pharisees were in this day, where it was very common for many different reasons, some of them silly reasons, to end their marriages. And so they come to Jesus and it says in Mark 10 verse 2, the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful? for a man to put away his wife, tempting him. Now why would they come up and ask him that? It seems out of the blue, doesn't it? Why would the Pharisees just randomly pick marriage and ask Jesus, is it okay to get divorced? And it says they were tempting him. Why would they tempt him with that? We're not going to turn there, but back in Matthew chapter 5 is the one time that I can see in Jesus' ministry that was recorded, where Jesus, of his own volition, brings up marriage. And he basically, let's turn to look at it. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 31. So maybe they're bringing up his words and trying to get him to disagree with the law of Moses in front of everyone. So Matthew 5, verse 31. And Jesus quotes the Old Testament. We're going to go a little bit and look at where Jesus is quoting from in Deuteronomy 24. But here's Matthew 5, verse 31. It says, It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery. To my knowledge, that's the only time that Jesus has brought up marriage, and maybe they remembered that, and so they want to bring that up and ask again. You've heard that it's been said this, but I say unto you this, and is this conflicting, is this contradictory to the law of Moses, to the laws that we abide by? And so they ask him, is it lawful? And they're tempting him, they're trying to trap him in his words. So that's probably why they bring it up, to try to get him to Juxtapose his truth against the law of Moses and to try to get him to disagree with the Old Testament And we'll get to that again in just a minute, but Israel at this point in their lives They've gone away from God's original intent for marriage And so Jesus spoke to it and he corrected it and here he corrects again their Their ideology their make their mindset They're coming to him thinking they're fine. And so he corrects where Israel is as a nation. These are the spiritual leaders here. They represent the nation's idea on marriage. And so they've gone away from a couple of things. Hold your finger here. Look at Genesis chapter 2. Let's go all the way back to the beginning and see that they departed from a couple of things. First of all, they've departed from God's original intent for marriage, which is one man for one woman for one lifetime. Again, this is in what we call the law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, but it's not part of the Mosaic law. God instituted, by the way, we're not going to spend a lot of time on this, but marriage is God's idea. Marriage is not something that Western civilization came around to in the 50s. Marriage is not at all a man-made, if it were a man-made institution, it'd be totally different. We could pick things apart, but when God is the one who created the people involved in marriage, and then God creates the institution of marriage, and He says that it's sacred and holy, then we've got to go by His rules, which apply before the Mosaic Law, as well as after the Mosaic Law is ended. So here's Genesis 2, and let's read this whole passage, verses 18 down through 25. Genesis 2, 18, it says, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him or fitting to him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." So it's interesting, God made man and he said, It's not good that he's alone. And to show Adam that it's not good for him to be alone, I'm going to bring all the animals two by two, male and female, and I'm going to let him name the animals, and I'm going to let him notice the difference between what the animals have and what he does not have at this moment. To show him that there is at this moment a void. It's not that God created something bad or wrong, but that he was not yet finished with his creation. But he wanted to show Adam that it was not good for him to be alone, and to show that there's male and female in the animal kingdom. So how's that for your first day? This happened all before Eve was created. On the first day of Adam's existence, he named all the animals. Wow. I would have got stumped after a couple of, what are we going to call that? That one's a weird looking creature. Orangutan. You know, I would really, but Adam had no lack of creativity. He named all, God didn't name the animals. Adam named the animals, which also speaks, by the way, to man's dominion over the animals. Man named the animals. Man has dominion in control over the animal kingdom, all of creation. And so verse 20, And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found in help meat for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof, And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. And then here's where Jesus quotes from. shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." So this is what God created and what God intended from the beginning. And it doesn't include here the grounds of divorce and there's no mention of the possibility or of the issue of divorce. God just created a man, a woman. He said you're to leave your father, mother, cleave to your wife, and you are now one flesh. You're literally one person. You were two people, but then you came together in marriage, and now you are one flesh. And Jesus goes on from there, and he says there are no more twain. But now they're forever. They're one flesh. What they're for, God, at least until the death do us part. Not forever and ever. We're not, by the way, we're not going to be married in heaven. We will not be one flesh with our spouses in heaven. That's for here and now while we're on the earth. But it's for as long as we're alive, as God's intent. They are no more twain but one flesh. So that's so that the Israelites had gone away from God's original intent look at Exodus chapter Actually, look at Leviticus chapter 20 in verse 10 Leviticus 20 and I'll read Exodus 20 in verse 14 Israel had also gone away from God's command for What would happen when adultery was committed in marriage? They'd gone away from God's original intent But how about when when there's unfaithfulness infidelity when adultery is committed? Now what should we do? And by the way, we're not advocating that we live by the Mosaic Law today, but here is what God instituted in Israel at that time for when there was unfaithfulness in marriage. Leviticus 20 in verse 10. And by the way, Exodus 20 verse 14, one of the Ten Commandments is, thou shalt not commit adultery. It was a Ten Commandment, one of the Ten Commandments, and here's what God's punishment was for adultery. Leviticus 20 10 it says in the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife Even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death and so when Israel is coming to The issue of divorce over something like unfaithfulness over something like adultery that was not what God had written into the Old Testament God originally in the Old Testament said if there's unfaithfulness if there's adultery then she's to be stoned You actually don't get around to the issue of divorce now again I'm not saying that that we should if someone commits adultery we should take him out and stone them but it is interesting that it's not they don't usually call it on the carpet, but our But many of our states have harsh penalties for adultery. 20 years in prison, state by state, there are different laws. But our states kind of turned the other way. Adultery is no big deal anymore. Even though it's against the law, technically, and against, in God's law, it was a capital offense. You should have been put to death. Now God does give mercy. There are places in the Bible where someone like David committed adultery. And God did not say, it's in the law, put him to death. God gave him mercy. It says God has put away his sin. He would not die, but there were consequences and so forth. But this was God's command here. Israel had gone away from that. We have no indication in the Bible of any instance where someone committed adultery and then they were put to death for that. There may be one in the, I'm drawing a blank, there may be one in the Israelites, 40 years wandering in the wilderness. But it was not a common practice and by the time of Jesus' day they had totally ignored that. Look at the passage in Deuteronomy 24 where Jesus quotes from. He says, From the hardness of your heart, Moses gives you this commandment. This is where Jesus is quoting from. I will say this, the book of Deuteronomy means, Deuteronomy means second law. This was the second giving of the law. Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years. They had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. until all of the generation that had doubted God at Kadesh Barnea died off. And then right before, now this is their children, right before they go into the Promised Land, God gives again the law, and He includes some things that He didn't mention the first time around. Maybe here in Deuteronomy 24, noticing the way that they've been living for 40 years. He's been noticing the hardness of their hearts, as Jesus says. So, Deuteronomy 24 verse 1, here's what it says, When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, And it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her. And that probably primarily refers to a moral uncleanness. And he hath found some uncleanness in her. Then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled. For that is abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." And so this is what the Pharisees have in their minds, Jesus says, what did Moses tell you? What did Moses write? And they said, Moses wrote that if you wanted to divorce your wife, you give her a bill of divorcement and send her out of the house. And Jesus says, it was because of the hardness of your hearts that God wrote this. Back that concept around in my mind. I think it kind of means this. God is noticing that they've totally ignored his intent. They've totally ignored his commands for what to do. and because they're doing, because they're done anyway, they're gonna divorce anyway, no matter what God says, then God puts this boundary there. Well, if you're gonna neglect what I say, if you're gonna do whatever you want, at least let me put this boundary that you don't just bounce around and here and there and back, and I liked him again, and he put that boundary that if a woman remarries, she's not to go back and make the land to sin by remarrying the first husband. And so that hardness of their heart, it's interesting that God does this. I'm not criticizing God's method at all. God doesn't say, you ignore me? No. This is what I said the first time around, stick to it or I'll blow you away, I'll kill you. God, because of the hardness of their hearts, he does something to kind of help the society not to fall apart, even though they're ignoring God's law. I think maybe that's kind of the thrust there. But they say, Moses says it's okay for us to divorce, and basically Jesus says, when you hear what he says there, he basically says this was not what God intended from the beginning. God intended one man for one woman for one lifetime. you're no more twain but one flesh therefore what God hath joined together let not man put asunder and that's the end of the conversation that he has with the Pharisees they leave He goes and he has a further conversation with the disciples. But basically, Jesus answered the question that the Pharisees had. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? He answers it by saying, no. And he goes back to Genesis and he says, from the beginning, God created them male and female and so forth. By the way, this is an aside, but it's a hotbed issue again in our society. God never creates someone with quote-unquote sexual orientation. You don't see that in the Bible. It says God made them male and female. He makes them with gender. And then he commands them to relate, we look at other passages, he commands them to relate to the opposite sex in the appropriate way. But God never creates someone to be heterosexual or God never creates someone to be homosexual. He just creates male and female and then he says make right choices. God never says go with what you feel and live according to that. He says go with my scriptures, go with the word of God and truth. But that's just one of the arguments that they've been fighting for for years and years. is if we can prove that somebody was born gay, then it's okay. And you just don't find that God, who created all men and women, says, I created them male and female, and I told them to reproduce and multiply. By the way, homosexuality, without trying to play God in some test tube, homosexuality does not result in reproduction. And so it's obviously not natural, it's not God's intent. This morning's message is not on homosexuality, but I just wanted to mention that. God created them male and female, I want to mention here a few reasons here. We'll look at six. Six reasons from this passage in Mark 10, as well as some others, of why God would disagree with, of why God would say that divorce is wrong. And we'll, this morning, we'll kind of tie up some loose ends toward the end. But I want to give six reasons here why Jesus would answer their question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? That Jesus would say no for six reasons. One we've already looked at. Number one is that it's against God's original intent for marriage. God never intended for divorce to be present in a marriage. This is in Mark 10 verses 6 through 8. We've already mentioned this, but I'll just read it one more time. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain, but one flesh." And you almost get the idea there, reading that, that no matter what decisions we make, God says you can choose this, step out of this, write this, sign this, but they're no more twain. They're one flesh because God had joined them together. So it was against God's original intent for marriage. It's why Jesus frowned on it here, why Jesus forbade it of them. Number two is that it is against the commands of scripture. Not only for what God intended, but then for what God commanded when he got around to giving commands regarding that Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7, and we see this in Mark 10 verse 9 where Jesus reiterates a command, or he gives his own command here, what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Someone could come to that verse and say, well then my marriage was not put together by God. I think my marriage was put together by the devil. But it says that marriage is something that God instituted, and when people get married, it says that God has joined them together, and Jesus simply gives the command, let not man put that asunder. Look at 1 Corinthians 7, and we'll start reading in verse 10, and we'll read down through verse 16. Part of this is a command that Paul is repeating, that he's repeating a previously revealed command, And part of it, he's giving God's heart and his desire for marriage, for a marriage that's not going well maybe, for a marriage that's on hard times. So 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 10. It says, And unto the married I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. So that's simply, and he'll say the same thing to husbands in a minute, God simply, and he would use this to speak to all the scenarios that people could bring. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if he does that? What if she's not like that? What if she looked pretty, but then I got married and then she took off her makeup and I said, you lied to me. whatever it may be. People have different reasons. Whatever the scenario is, God simply gives us command, let not the wife depart from her husband. And then it says this, what if she has already done it? Or what if she decides to go ahead and go through it? The next verse says, but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife. So that's simply, that's the command God commands married couples not to get divorced. And then it goes on, look at the next verse. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord. When he says that, it doesn't mean that God is done speaking, but it means that he's not reiterating previously revealed scripture and commands. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not. So you've got a Christian married to an unbeliever. and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him." And then it gives a reason. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy. By the way, that does not mean that if somebody is married to a believer that they're automatically grandfathered into heaven. It means that there is the potential there for them to be safe. Stay in that marriage because you could win that person to the Lord. This doesn't mean that a believer should go out and marry an unbeliever and try to win them to the Lord, but two things that could happen here. One is that He did that in his past, and he found out that he shouldn't have married her, and now he wants to stay with her and be saved. Or they were both unbelievers when they got married, and then he gets saved. God says, if you're unbelievers and then you get saved, don't put her away. Try to win her to the Lord. That should be the goal, number one priority. Look at the next verse. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called us to peace, to keeping it together, to reconciliation. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" So here you get God's perspective. You take all that together, it shows that God's perspective in any marriage in any scenario, any situation is, he desires for that marriage to stay together. Even if there's been unfaithfulness, even if one's an unbeliever, even if they're not amicable to living together. The only place here where God says it wouldn't be sin for someone to divorce is if the unbeliever initiates it and says, I'm done. It says still try to keep it together, but if you can't, if he won't stay, if it won't stay together, it says then let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage to keep that marriage together in such cases. So it just shows that God's desire, first of all, what God commands, do not get divorced. He says he never desires anyone to initiate divorce. If the other person initiates it and you can't stop it, then you can't stop it. But God's will is never for someone to initiate divorce. And so many times you say, well, you know, just, I know usually that's what's true and the Bible says this, but you know, with him and her and their makeup and what's under the bridge, maybe it would just be best to go ahead and let it, you know, dissolve and go ahead and walk away. And when you come to the scripture, it simply says that God's command and God's heart, His desire, is for divorce to never be initiated. God desires peace and salvation. Peace not only with each other, but peace with God. That should be priority number one if someone is in a mixed marriage, if they're already married. Number one goal is, I want to win this person to the Lord. That's God's heart in marriage. So number two there, it's against the commands of scripture for divorce. Number three is that divorce results, the end of it, if there's remarriage and so forth, as we looked at back in Mark chapter 10, is that it results in adultery. This is one of the reasons why God would say that divorce is wrong. is because it results in adultery. Mark 10 verse 11, it says, And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her, against the first wife. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. And then a similar verse in Luke 16 verse 18 says, Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, commit adultery and so divorce and remarriage ends up in adultery and so that's why God would say that that it's wrong number four another reason is that according to scripture only death breaks the marriage bond look at a passage in Romans chapter 7 and then we'll look in 1st Corinthians 7 as well Romans chapter 7 so in God from God's perspective when God looks down and says, I believe they're married and I believe that that person's not married. It says that the only thing from God's perspective that ends a marriage is death of one of the spouses. We're not advocating murder here. I'm just saying this is what God says when someone dies. That's what ends a marriage. Romans 7, look at verse 1. So the context here, the flow of thought is Paul is teaching salvation. When somebody is an unbeliever and they're under the law, especially here as a Jewish unbeliever, They are married to the law, so to speak. You're under, you have to submit to the law of Moses. The only way to be able to be saved is for you to be dead to the law of Moses so that you can be married to God in salvation. So he illustrates that truth with marriage. So look at Romans 7, we'll read verses 1 through 4. It says, know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. So if someone is an unbeliever under the Mosaic law, as long as he's alive, the Mosaic law has dominion over him. Verse two, for the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is freed from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Then he gets back to the flow of thought. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." So he uses the truth of marriage to illustrate that truth of salvation, that the only thing that breaks the marriage bond in God's eyes is death, till death do us part. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And we're not gonna do this this morning, but the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 7 is about marriage, a lot of ins and outs, a lot of mindset, the mindset we should have if we're single, the mindset we should have if we're married, some commands regarding that. We're not gonna look at all of it. One thing that Paul mentions is that it's better to be single than to be married for the sake of ministry. He's not saying it's a command that everyone does it. And by the way, we're all called. That's Paul's perspective. Part of 1 Corinthians 7, there's a phrase in there that says, for the present distress, the things that were going on, there was persecution. In being a Christian and it was hard when you when you're a Christian and you know what you're in for it's a Christian To bring along a wife and say you want to go through this with me. It can be difficult There can be difficulties there. So he says I'd prefer if everyone just single just like me So but here's a couple of verses in first Corinthians chapter 7 look at verse 10 Just to show that that only death breaks the marriage bond. It says, let not the wife depart from her husband, but if she does, the phrase there, but if she does, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled. And it's based on that truth, because you're still married in God's sight, even though they divorced, because God still sees them married until they're dead. And so either remain single, remain unmarried, or be reconciled. Look down at verse 39, verses 39 and 40. It says, the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord. That means if somebody's spouse dies, you can marry anyone you want. By the way, that's a good verse. Some people have problems with something like interracial marriage. or marriage across class or all different reasons. The Bible says you can marry anyone in the world as long as they're a Christian. Only in the world, only in the Lord. God says you're never to marry an unbeliever. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Look at verse 40 also. She can be married to whomsoever she will, only the Lord. But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment, if she stays single. And I think also that I have the spirit of God. That's an interesting, interesting that it uses the word happy. Because so many times people say, well, I was unhappy in this marriage, so I divorced. And so now I just know God would want me to be happy. God would want me to have companionship again, to marry again and be happy. And Paul says, Oh, you're going after happiness. Well, if you're going after happiness, you should stay single. Marry up with another loser and, you know, any guy, you know, you've got reason to be, I'm just kidding, unhappy. By the way, it says, it's talking to women there. If it says, if you're a man and your wife dies, you'd be happier marrying a woman again. But if you're a woman and your husband dies, getting married, you got a man to deal with again, that's not happy. Okay, I'm just joking. But in God's perspective, only death. We're not going to take a poll this morning who's happy in marriage. Whether or not you'd be happy or single, we're not going to do that. By the way, that is a great chapter to read through. just to get the right perspective on life. It says, if you're married, don't seek to be loose from a wife. If you're single, don't seek to be married. Wherever God has called you, wherever God has placed you, be content there and thrive for God, thrive in ministry. That should be our heart. Number five, a fifth reason that divorce is wrong is that, and look at Ephesians chapter five, is that it is against the example of Christ and his church. We're married. We are the bride of Christ. Whether you're man or woman, we as the church are married to Jesus. He's the husband, we are the bride. And the commands in Ephesians 5 show that God wants the relationship between Jesus and His church to mirror the relationship in a marriage between husband and wife. And this is a tall order, by the way. This is a great command for all of us. But it shows that there's to be a picture in marriage, and divorce would break this picture. Because, by the way, if you're married to Christ, you're married to Christ forever. There's no divorce. You can't lose your salvation. And when physical marriage divorces, it breaks that picture. God made, in part, God made husbands and wives to show us a beautiful picture of the relationship between Jesus and His church. We are to, and we're to show the world what it can be like in salvation by having a wonderful marriage. And it breaks this picture apart when there's divorce. Look at Ephesians 5 verse 22. It says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. By the way, the word own literally means that a wife owns her husband. Husband owns the wife. The wife owns the husband. You own each other. You belong to each other. You're for each other. It's a beautiful picture. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband, as we read through these verses, look at four separate times that it says for physical marriages like this even as spiritual marriage to Christ is like this. There's this four separate times it shows the correlation. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So this is like at every point along the way, there's to be a correlation and a parallel between a husband and a wife's relationship and Christ and the church. And it's a beautiful picture and divorce wrecks and ruins that picture for us and in the eyes of the world as well. And then number six, the last reason, in turn to Malachi chapter two, is that, to put it bluntly, is that God hates divorce on every level, for what it is, for what it does, for what it results in, for the long-term things that come from it. Malachi chapter two in verse 14. And we'll read down through verse 16. It says, yet ye say, wherefore, I know we're kind of jumping into the middle of a context here, but that's all right. Yet ye say, wherefore, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. By divorcing and putting away, it says you have dealt treacherously against her. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. Like that, you put her away, but she's still your companion and the wife of your covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, and wherefore, one, that he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away, or divorce. For one covereth violence with his garments, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. And there's a lot in those verses, but I just wanted to kind of highlight that truth that it says God hates divorce. What it does to a society, you know, the family is the bedrock, is the building block on which society is built. If the families fall apart, then society ends up falling apart, and there are generations of things that ends up happening. So God hates divorce. So those six reasons are why, if you would say, what does God think about divorce? If I pick right or wrong, does God say divorce is right or wrong? And those six reasons why God would say that divorce is wrong. I'm trying to decide this morning if we're gonna spend some time, Matthew chapter five and Matthew chapter 19, both when Jesus gives instruction about divorce, gives what we often call the exception clause. Let's go ahead and Let's go ahead and read those two passages. I'm still deciding on the fly how much we're going to say about it. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 32, and then we'll look at Matthew chapter 19. They're very similar. We already read Matthew 5, but I want to highlight what he says about fornication in marriage. Matthew 5.32, it says, But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." And then look at Matthew 19, verse 9. So Matthew 19, 9 is going to parallel what we're looking at in Mark 10, when the Pharisees come to him and ask him about marriage. Matthew 19, 9. Matthew 19 says this, And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. So Jesus here in Matthew 5 and 19 mentions that If you put her away, except it be for fornication, commits adultery and causes her to commit adultery and so forth. Why is, it's an interesting phenomenon. I don't have a 100% answer here, but some thoughts. Why is the exception clause only mentioned in the book of Matthew? We read Mark and Luke both say, Jesus just black and white said, If you divorce, if you remarry, then you cause to commit adultery. He doesn't say anything about except to be for the cause of fornication. Only Matthew mentions that. Now Matthew was written to a Jewish audience, whereas the other Gospels were written more to a Gentile audience. Matthew's written most specifically, we're not going to demonstrate that for time right now, but Matthew was written to the Jews who had the law of Moses and who had Jewish customs and culture in their mind. And in Jewish marriage, The word fornication could include and mean more things than what most people, what the Gentiles would consider. For sake of time, I'm going to walk through this quickly. What does the word fornication mean? What is the Greek word pornea? It's translated fornication. It's a broad term that could include adultery. Fornication is just, we could say, any sexual sin outside of the bonds of marriage. If you're single, you could commit adultery. If you're single, you could commit fornication. If you're married, you could commit fornication. But if you're single, you can't commit adultery with another single person. Adultery involves a marriage covenant, whereas fornication does not have to involve a marriage covenant. Look at Matthew chapter 1 and verse 18. One possibility of what fornication is, is premarital sex in the betrothal period, which is kind of like our engagement period, but not exactly. In the Jewish betrothal period, someone could be counted married even though they're not married. How many would want to be married even though you're not married? Don't answer that. But God would consider you, even though you haven't fully consummated the marriage, they were not to consummate the marriage before the covenant, before the vows and the ceremony, and yet God considered them married and he uses the word husband and wife with people that are not married the way that we'd fully, it was a Jewish custom. So look at Matthew 1 in verse 18. This is about Jesus being born of Mary who was a virgin. Joseph didn't think that she was a virgin. Matthew 1.18, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. than Joseph, her husband, being a just man. So notice what he's about to do, he was going to be just doing it. God would not say that if he was married fully to her and then wanted to divorce her, he wouldn't say that she was just. But in what he's potentially thinking about doing, he says because he's a just man, he's doing this. Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away or to divorce her privily or privately. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So he calls her his wife. Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, but they're just, it's very clear, she is a spouse to him before they came together. They've never had sexual relationship, they have not consummated the marriage, and yet they're quote unquote married. their husband and wife, but he could divorce her during this time because of fornication. He thought it was fornication, and it'd be okay. So maybe when Jesus says that the accepted be for the cause of fornication, maybe he's talking about premarital sex during the Jewish betrothal period, during the engagement period. That's not a 100% answer. Here's another option, is that potentially the fornication could be an unlawful marriage or something like incest. A marriage that God would have not condoned and recognized as a real marriage. For instance, and we're not going to take the time to show that in Leviticus 18 verses 6 through 18, God gives a lot of different things that he forbade in marriage. Don't marry your sister. don't marry your brother, don't marry your mom, your husband's wife, and it goes, you know, different scenarios. And this would be considered unlawful marriage. So if someone were to do that, an incestuous relationship, an unlawful marriage, that would be considered pornea, that would be considered fornication, and maybe that would be one of the clauses where you could divorce that. I ended up, I just read recently about someone, some lady, she was 24 years old, she married somebody, and was going through his pictures and then saw a picture of the guy's son and said, that's my dad. She married her grandfather, didn't even know it until after they're married. Anyway, it just recently happened, they're not planning to get a divorce. But God says if there are incestuous relationships, then that would be forbidden by God. If somebody went ahead and did that, potentially this is the fornication that could be divorced. Another example of this is 1 Corinthians 5, the man had married his father's wife and committed incest. It's the Greek word pornea is used of the fornication that this man commits with marrying his father's wife. So one option is that it's an unlawful marriage or incest. Let me just real fast mention this for a second time. In Matthew 19, the historical context is that this happens right on the heels of Jesus I'm sorry, of John the Baptist going to Herod and saying, it is not lawful for you to marry your brother Philip's wife. He says, this is an unlawful marriage and you've committed fornication here. And just on the heels of that is where they, the disciple or the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? And then Jesus says, you know what he says, and it's not lawful except for fornication. Maybe he's talking about unlawful marriage. It also fits well with Romans 7, about death being the only thing that breaks the marriage bond. In Matthew 19, when Jesus says what he says about marriage, the disciples come away and say, If this is true, then it's not good to be married. That's what they said. No, that's not true. But that's what they said. If marriage is this binding, like forever, you cannot divorce your wife. If marriage is this binding, then it is not good to be married because you didn't know what you're signing up for. It's forever. It really is forever. The disciples dropped their mouths, dropped their jaws in astonishment with how permanent Jesus makes out marriage to be. I want to finish with a couple thoughts here. What is God's plan, to kind of tie up loose ends and say wherever we are in our journey of life, what is God's plan regarding marriage? Number one, if you're single, only marry a Christian. If you're single, here's your mindset. I want to get married, only marry a Christian. Do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. We're not going to take time to look at that passage, but if you're single, only marry a Christian. Or you can stay single. If you're married, do not divorce. I would say, here's my scenario. I have 17 things to say, but I'm married, so what do you think? God would say, if you're married, do not divorce. If you are divorced, 1 Corinthians 7, the options are to remain single or to be reconciled to that spouse. That's what God would say. Let's go on. So if you're divorced but not remarried, God would say remain single or be reconciled to the previous spouse. If you've already gone beyond that, if you're divorced and remarried, now what? God would say, stay with your current spouse. God's plan is for wherever you are to stay in that. Don't say, that was a mistake, and then I made this mistake, so to correct this mistake, I'll go back and undo this. God would say, if you're married now, if you're divorced and remarried, God would say, stay in your current situation. Don't seek to divorce. Treat your current marriage like it's the same as the first marriage. Treat your current marriage as one man for one woman for one lifetime. That would be God's plan. God can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. God can bring beauty out of ashes. You know, when there's a divorce, there's a burning there. There's some ashes. But God can restore that. He can bring beauty out of ashes. God can put away the past. He can put away sin and help us to move on in a fresh way. There may be some, on a physical level, on a human level, there may be some consequences. But God can put, you're not like a second-rate Christian for the rest of your life. God puts you on a shelf and he's done with you. No, God, if you're contrite, then God forgives and you can move on. So if you're divorced and remarried, do not divorce. It's God's plan. Stay with that spouse. And then I want to finish with this. The bottom line, and I know this is maybe over simplistic, overly simplistic, but the bottom line to having marriage to last in God's design, to last for a lifetime, boils down to love and not like Love, love, love, all you need is love kind of love. Not like the Beatles kind of love, not the world's kind of love where I've got this ooshy-gooshy emotional feeling. As long as I feel that, then I'm okay. Love in the Bible is very different from that. Love is an action, love is a choice. And there's two ways, there's a lot of ways you can manifest love in a marriage. Flowers, yes. There's two ways that you can manifest love in a way that can keep a marriage, to kind of divorce-proof your marriage, so to speak, to make it last a lifetime. And I want to look at three verses, and then we'll be done. One way is by contentment. Look at Proverbs chapter 5. And when we say contentment, we don't just mean, I'm going to survive. I've decided I'm not gonna get divorced, and I'm gonna grin and bear it. This is not a grin and bear it, white knuckle it through your marriage, and it was miserable, but I stayed in there. The contentment in marriage that God desires is a marriage where you love it. I am content in my marriage, I'm never going anywhere else. And these truths do not apply, well, are you content in your marriage? Well, what's your spouse look like? Tell me more about your spouse. What's his hygiene like? What's her emotional mood? It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with a choice that I make to be content. My contentment has nothing to do with the other person. Here's Proverbs 5 verse 19. It's a beautiful picture about not only surviving but thriving in marriage and being content with what God has given us. It says, let her be your spouse, let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe, let her breast satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? You know who the strange woman is there, a stranger? Anyone that's not your wife. It says, I want you to be content, to be ravished, to be satisfied and fulfilled in every way by your spouse. It's a choice to make. It has nothing to do with how, quote unquote, satisfying they are. It's that I choose to be satisfied. I choose to be ravished and enthralled with what God has given me. And if you have that mentality, if you're content, then you're not looking. Your eyes are not wandering. You're not wondering, oh, what would it be like to be with that person or that person? If you're content, That is a way to divorce, proof your marriage. And number two, another way that we can show love is by forgiveness. This is maybe a number one reason. What's the number one reason to divorce? Maybe this, unforgiveness. This happened and he or she or both were not willing to forgive. And for sake of time, let me just read all three of these verses. We're not going to turn there. But these are principles for all of life, for your Christian life, and they apply to marriage. 1st Peter 4a says, and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves. For charity shall cover the multitude of sins. If you love your spouse, and it's not that, well, we got divorced because we fell out of love. Here's the answer. If you say, well, I just don't love my spouse. You know what God would say? Okay, well then love her. You may not feel like it, but make a choice and choose to love and do the things and then the feelings will follow the actions. That's the way it goes. When you get your emotions out in front, I don't feel like loving, so I won't love her. Now we're in immaturity, we're in infatuation. But a mature love says, I don't feel like it right now, maybe, but I choose to love, and then the feelings will follow. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established, the Bible says. We make a choice to do right. So it says, charity shall cover the multitude of sins. You don't understand what he did, you don't understand what she did. Well, if you love, that will cover any sins. Proverbs 10, 12 is similar. Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins. It says in marriage there should never be any scenario that he did or she did that I have to walk away. Love covers everything, all sins. And then 1 Corinthians 13, 7, it's just one of the truths about love. It says charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." If you have love in a marriage, you can make it through anything. Sometimes you have to make it through the things that they did. Sometimes you together have to make it through the storms of life. But because I love her, we're going to be together and we're going to make it through anything. We're going to bear anything. We can endure anything if I love her. And again, it's not something that just comes and goes. It's a choice that I make when the feelings come and go. So if you want to divorce proof your marriage, those are two ways to do it. Number one, be content with what God gave you. God ordains this. He commands me to be married for life to this person, and I am content in that. I'm not wandering. I'm not trying to see if the grass is greener on the other side. And then number two, forgiveness. seek to be forgiven if we've wronged but if we've been wronged it says love can overlook now don't just pretend it didn't happen but love can forgive anything and everything in two great ways to divorce proof our marriages is by contentment and by forgiveness Jesus intent for all marriages, and God's intent from the beginning is one man for one woman for one lifetime. The devil wants to come in with all these scenarios and bring in a situational ethics. Well, I guess you can do this and that, and I've listened to the radio sometime and I heard a pastor say, well, there's only five reasons that God gives that a divorce is okay. And I'm like, where is that? But God's desire and God's commands and God's heart for marriage is to go through any storm. It doesn't mean that if someone's messed up, we're all human, we all mess up. Even if we don't get divorced, we all mess up big time in our marriages. But if we mess up, we don't just climb on the back burner and I guess I'm done serving God. We just find wherever we are and then make the right choice from here on out is what God's plan is. We shouldn't have the attitude. There was somebody one time that was in an inappropriate relationship. He was in a relationship with someone that was still married. She was still married, they weren't divorced yet, but they said, we know this is wrong, but here's what we want to do. We want to end up getting divorced here, and then we want to get married, and then we want to come back and be part of the church. Can we do that? And they're like deciding in advance, you know, I know that God is forgiving, so God, forgive me in advance for what I'm about to do. I want to do my way, my way, my way, and now I want your blessing on the choice that I've made. That should never be our attitude, but wherever we are, we should say, The past is the past, I've made mistakes, but from right now, I wanna follow your word 100%. I wanna follow you, and God gives grace, he gives mercy, he gives blessing. So this is Jesus teaching on divorce, and God wants our mindset on marriage to blend with his mindset. Don't go out and get marriage advice from the world, from people that are unbelievers. God ordained marriage. He gives the rules, and he gives the grace and blessing. Let's pray together.