Please turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 19. We continue our series of what Jesus says about the various topics which he addressed. And to get it straight from the mouth of our Lord, Before we read this text, let us seek God in prayer. Father, for your word, we give you thanks. As we deal with a very difficult and sensitive topic, be pleased to use it to affect our souls that we might submit to your truth. It is inerrant, infallible, and useful for every good thing we need. Oh Lord, open our hearts and minds and use it to glorify your name and affect our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Chapter 19, verses 1 to 12. Just to let you know, this will be a two-part sermon. I had hoped to deal with the whole thing, but I realized there needed to be a lot of foundational issues established from what our Lord has taught here. So, chapter 19, verses 1 to 12. This is God's word. Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. But therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to him, why did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? He said to them, because of the hardness of the heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. The disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it. Thus ends the reading of God's word. May the Lord bless it for his glory and our benefit and edification. Our Westminster Confession of Faith. makes one of the most perceptive statements regarding marriage and divorce. It introduces this one section with this one statement before it allows for divorce on the cases of adultery and desertion. And just bear with me, we will unpack that in the upcoming weeks. Here is how it starts off in the section on Westminster Confession 14.6. It's in Old English, and I will explain it to you. Although the corruption of man be such, as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God has joined together in marriage, That's how it starts off. Let me read it and I'm gonna explain it to you. Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage. That is in plain English, man being so corrupt, he will come up with all kinds of reasons to legitimize divorce. That's in short what the confession is saying. We are apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God has joined together in marriage. The human heart is desperately wicked and it will study arguments, come up with all kinds of reasons to find grounds for divorce. Our generation has actually outdone itself. We no longer study arguments or come up with reasons. We gave up and came up with no fault divorces. And that is the way our culture has gone. And I know this is a sensitive topic, but please bear with me. We need to hear what our Lord teaches on this matter. I have quoted this statistic some years ago, and it is put in several articles. This statistic apparently is not completely accurate. It's been stated that Christians divorce as much as unbelievers. And several articles historically, I mean, over the years have stated that, and I've even read one where it says that Christians divorce more than atheists. But one of the interesting things when people looked at the study and did research on the data of the study, they found out that it was not accurate for this reason. It lumped together all who said they were Christians into one group. And these sociologists, as they looked into and did further research, said that once they distinguished between those who were serious about the faith and those who just occasionally went to church or didn't go to church but consider themselves Christians, all of a sudden the statistics change drastically. Let me read to you a short paragraph from that article. Couples who regularly practice any combination of serious religious behaviors and attitudes attend church nearly every week, read the Bibles and spiritual materials regularly, pray privately and together, generally take their faith seriously, living not as perfect disciples but serious disciples, enjoy significantly lower divorce rates than mere church members, the general public, and unbelievers. So what's the article saying? Those who take seriously their faith in the way they live their lives, they tend to not divorce as much as the other group. Active, serious, conservative Protestants who regularly attend church, it says, are 35% less likely to divorce compared to those with no religious affiliation. Interestingly, nominal Protestant Christians, those who by name only, they're not serious about it, they're actually 20% more likely to divorce. They claim to be Christian, but they don't take it seriously, 20% more likely to divorce. It's a very interesting study. Why are conservative Protestant Christians less likely to divorce? And I think one of the main reasons is because we take what our Lord says seriously. Like this passage we just read. A serious believer takes Christ's words seriously, want to know it and obey it in his or her life. But even if that's true, there are many in conservative Protestant evangelical churches, they don't really have a firm understanding of what the Bible teaches. Sometimes a topic is never brought up and we deal with these things as the passages present themselves, but we're dealing with it now because we want to deal with different topics our Lord has taught. So let's seek to understand what our Lord has taught here. Today we will deal with verses four to six predominantly, our Lord's response to the Pharisee's question and dealing with the foundation for marriage. And in the subsequent week, we'll deal with the whole issue of divorce and remarriage that's found in the subsequent verses. Here he establishes in verses four to six a foundation, as I said, for marriage. And it's an argument against divorce. And what he said here went against the first century understanding among Jews. And I submit it's against the 21st century understanding of people in general as well. Notice the occasion for this question or for this topic to be addressed in verse three. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by saying, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? The first thing you should be thinking about, at least I did, is how is this testing him? How is asking a question about divorce testing our Lord? Of course, we recognize the Pharisees knew what they were doing. And this topic is so volatile that they wanted Jesus to say something to make him unpopular. And we're going to talk about some of the prevalent views at that time. But this is such a sensitive topic. If he could just step this way or that way, they would have something against him. In a sense, their question was diabolical because of the attempt to test him in such a way that perhaps the people will walk away from him. He would cease to be popular. Of course, our Lord will not fall for that. He will still speak the truth no matter what the consequences. See, people have strong opinions and some have gone through very painful divorces. So the topic incites passion as well as pain. It strikes a raw nerve. Some will not hear anything about what our Lord will say. They went through what they went through and will not apologize or repent or even discuss it. For that person, it's a closed discussion. Over the years, I've heard these three statements and other ones I probably have forgotten, but at least these three I remember. Christians get divorced, so it's not the worst thing in the world. Another one, you have no idea what I had to put up with. Another one, God actually wants me to be happy. And this marriage doesn't make me happy. It becomes a very sensitive topic. It's a dangerous topic for a pastor to preach on. But if we are Christians, we must accept and follow what our Lord teaches on this matter. And I want to say this, if you have sinned in this area, you can find forgiveness in Christ. He will forgive, and your life can be restored. This is not the unpardonable sin, but we do need to accept what he says. There are grounds for divorce the Bible teaches, and we will unpack that in the subsequent weeks, but we want to look at how God designed marriage in the beginning. How did this question arise in the first place? Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? Remember, there are two brilliant scholars in the Old Testament. They knew God's word. And this question seems to be like, well, how would they even ask such a question? Well, they're referring back to Deuteronomy 24.1. When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, And he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house. And she departs out of his house and it goes on. And found some decency in her. As you might expect that many of the Jewish scholars at that time, they spent time to understand this. And there were basically two houses of understanding or a house of Shema and house of Hillel. And I, please bear with me. I'm actually going to quote from the Mishnah. I haven't done that for years, but I looked up this passage in Getim 910 in the Mishnah. Mishnah is a Jewish collection brought together about second century, but it represents centuries before of Jewish teaching of rabbis and various thoughts on various topics. This is how the house of Shammai, and it's important we understand this, it's not for the sake of just academic, it's understand the first century understanding why this question was even posed, first of all. The House of Shammai ruled this way, and this is exactly from the Mishnah. A man should divorce his wife only because he has found grounds for it in unchastity. The House of Shammai focused on the indecency from Deuteronomy 24-1 as sexual immorality. This school, as you might expect, was considered to be conservative. The House of Hillel had a different understanding of this indecency in her. And this is what is written in the Mishnah. Even if she spoiled his dish, he could divorce. because he has found in her indecency in anything. So in other words, it takes the word indecency to be unqualified. It's whatever he finds indecent in his wife, those are grounds for divorce. So everything falls on the husband. I don't like the way you made mashed potatoes. That's indecent. So he gets rid of divorce. And it puts all the advantage, as it were, control, the manipulation, to man. And it's actually an awful situation. There's another rabbi, a third ruling in the Mishnah, that's not quoted often, is Rabbi Akiba. He's even worse. These are the words from Mishnah. Even if he found someone else prettier than she, he can divorce. Because he reads the part of the verse that says, if she finds no favor in his eyes. So he looks at the woman, I don't like you as much as that pretty girl over there. And what this does is it plays into all the hubris and lust of a man at this point. So you have that group of thoughts. So many people had different ideas about marriage and divorce at that time. And basically, they were putting Jesus into a trap. Which school of thought are you going to side with? Because you see, they actually had Deuteronomy 24-1 as a basis to raise this question, they thought. They can pigeonhole him in one group. He follows that rabbi, he follows that rabbi. Then they can just subsume him under the rest and he becomes no longer significant. But what does Jesus do? What he does, he goes back to Genesis in verse four. Listen to what he says. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? That goes back to Genesis. Rather than simply taking sides, he goes into the heart of the matter. He goes back to creation. As one writer says, your argument is not with me, but your argument is with God. It's God purpose against man studied arguments. In a sense, he goes back to creation, which was actually before Moses' teaching in Deuteronomy 24.1. We know that's part of God's law, we'll deal with that in the upcoming weeks. But the understanding back then is the older, is the more original, and especially creation, there's nothing that tops it. goes back to creation to establish a foundational point. And this isn't something that we need to understand in our society in the church. Much of our societal confusion, much of the confusion in the church comes from our understanding or misunderstanding or not understanding what the creation account teaches us. Because in the creation account, in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, we learn about marriage, about sex, about the purpose of life, about work, about rest, about procreation, about worship, and all manner of different things. Yet this account is the one that's most maligned and most misunderstood. And as a result, our culture is utterly confused at every one of these points. But we must go back to creation. This is how you begin to understand what marriage is about. Go back to the one who created us. And Jesus quotes from Genesis. He answers from Genesis on this issue. He answers from Genesis 117 and Genesis 224. In Genesis 1, I'm sorry, 127. In Genesis 127, it says this, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And that's what he is saying here. In the beginning, made them male and female in verse four. Since God created them from the beginning as male and female, the implication seems to be that the two should be united in marriage. That will be drawn out. God created two sexes in 127. In 224, he united the two into one. He created them as two, but not as a group of them. Already the implication at creation was there was Adam and there was Eve. And guess what? There's no divorce. There's no alternative. There's only each other. The option of divorce and remarriage was not possible. Because you see, at creation, that became the perfect ideal circumstance. Put it this way. There was no divorce and remarriage before the fall. And that's why he said, he created a male and female, then he goes to 224. Remember, a Jewish person would read the Old Testament. They didn't have chapter divisions and verse divisions. It's a whole cloth that they would read. It's a narrative that would work together as a whole. Following through on the reading, they would come to 224. Therefore, a man shall live his father and his mother, and he'll fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. The word therefore, or for this reason, or because of this, that means there was an intention. Because they're male and female, for this reason, God has now brought them together to make them one. In Genesis 2, 21 to 23, Adam realizes Eve came from him. The Lord had taken from the man, it says. and was for him because you see we read God brought her to the man from him and for him. And what does he say? That she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. The two were intimately related. Originally they were related. He could not see her separated from him. They were one. One writer put it this way, the one flesh in every marriage between a man and a woman is a reenactment of and a testimony to the very structure of humanity as God created them. So Jesus goes back, that's the way he created them, male, female, he combined them, joined them, and they're one flesh. Notice the points that are drawn out here from the creation account. And these are, I think I got four points I want to bring out from here. One, marriage was from the beginning, from creation. God designed it that way. This is how God created man and female. Marriage between man and a woman was how God created them, and marriage was created by God. Marriage is part of being human. being created by God, it is who we are. Marriage is not a societal invention. It is not a human institution structured by man for mere propagation of the species. Many have argued, following the evolutionary view, like animals, we seek to propagate our species. And if that is the case, then marriage is not needed. All you need is another person. It can be like a dog that would go to another female dog, any dog, anytime he wants. That's not what the Bible teaches. In the beginning was male and female and the two became one. Marriage is between a male and a female. All other unions defy God and pervert God's creation. Gay marriages strike at the very heart of how God created humanity. Because marriage was at the beginning, before the fall, marriage is good, wholesome, natural, and the ideal. And we need to embrace this. It's not a convenience or a concession. There's a view among Roman Catholics that marriage is a tolerable evil in some sense. It isn't. It is good. Now God deals with singles, and God provides for that, and Paul talks about that in Corinthians, and Jesus talks about it in this passage. But the initial creation, at creation, men and women were together, so marriage was from the beginning. Secondly, marriage makes the two one. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. From Genesis 2.24, the man leaves his father and mother and is told to hold fast to his wife. The word in the Hebrew means something like gluing or welding. The two are stuck together. They're fused into one. And that is the idea. The man, in effect, clings to his wife to act out the reality of becoming one. It is more than a sexual union. That does not make the two one. That might express a dimension of it, but that is no means the totality of it. An elderly couple who may not be able to cohabitate are one flesh as much as they were when they first got married. The marriage indicates that the two are one, no longer two. That is, there are always one flesh no matter what. Whether sitting together, Or they're in different states or different countries. They're still one flesh. That means they cannot be divided. They're indivisible, inseparable. They are one flesh. Notice it doesn't say they will feel like they're one flesh. There are many marriages that falter on that basis. I don't feel close to you. I don't feel like we're one. It doesn't matter. You are, and we're going to talk about why that's so significant. Or you don't hear something like this. They need to make that one flesh happen again. They seem to have lost it in their marriage. That doesn't happen. You are one flesh, period. Therefore, divorce is, as one commentator put it, doing violence to the flesh, a mutilation of a sort, an amputation, a dismemberment. That is why divorce is so painful and deep. Some say it is like ripping one's heart out. At creation, Adam and Eve were viewed as one flesh, constituted that way, deemed and viewed that way. And it is like, and this is where you have to bear with me, It is like gluing boards. You're sitting right now on pews. You have a back that is one solid piece. But if you look at the back of the, don't have to look at it, but if you, you can look in front of you. If you look at the bench, there are boards glued together and they become one. And if you know anything about woodworking, modern glue, once you glue them together, they will not break at the glue. They will break at the seam somewhere else, but they will not break at the glue. But they become one board now. When you put the glue together, put them together, it becomes one board. You can make a table out of it, a bench or whatever. That's what happens when you glue it together. Marriage is like that. It combines two individuals and makes them one, and they can no longer be separated. That's the way God views it. Marriage makes the two boards into one big board, as it were. Takes a man and a woman and makes them one. Now there are some implications. That brings us to the third point. God is the one who joins them together. Listen to the words of our Lord. What therefore God has joined together. This is one of the most important truths from our Lord's teaching. Remember in Genesis 2.24, God says, and the two shall become one flesh. That is, by divine fiat, or by God's declaration, God says they are one flesh. When God speaks it, it is so. Therefore God has joined them together. That's what our Lord is saying. So Jesus is saying God has joined the two together and they are one flesh. We often forget this. Once the two are married, we learn God joined them together. We make our pledges, promises, oaths, or whatever in their ceremony. And that covenantal aspect is there. But once they are married, A divine declaration, as it were, comes about, and the two shall become one flesh. God has joined them together. In a sense, as one writer put it, all marriages are made in heaven. It has heaven's recognition and benediction. John McCarthy put it like this. Whether marriage is entered into wisely or foolishly, Sincerely or insincerely, selfishly or unselfishly, with great or little commitment, God designed for every marriage is that it be permanent until the death of the one of the spouses. So a person can never say, I should have never married you. It was a mistake. Perhaps that's how a person feels. Nevertheless, God has united them and made them one. You can't undo what God put together without incurring His displeasure and doing violence to the very fabric of God's created order, because a couple is glued together. Once a couple is married, or once you are married, you're glued to your spouse. There must be no romantic hopes or visions or aspirations or desires or longings for anyone outside of the marriage, or for even a different marriage, because you're one flesh with the one whom you married. There are movies and stories, and you've seen it. I saw one movie some time ago, where there were young lovers when they were together, but for some reason they didn't marry, so they married separately. But they came back later on to see each other. And as the movie goes, you feel for them. They should be together. So they finally come together. Oh, finally, they're together. They were meant to be. No, they weren't. That's called adultery. But you see, because God has joined them together. And what that means is that's it. To destroy or divide the marriage is to assault what God joined together. And we don't think about this enough. And adultery is not only assaulting the couple that is married, but assaulting God who actually joined them together. Four, divorce was not part of God's original creation. Let not man separate. Jesus warns, let not man separate. Why? Because God put them together. God joined them. To separate a couple is to go against God. We can't say marriage is sacred. The Bible doesn't say it is. But it is divinely important. And we are warned by Christ not to separate what God has joined together. If a marriage is there, then it can't be separated. Some months ago, in our neighborhood, we live in a in the country area, I guess. There are three houses on this big block. It's not really a block, but this plot of land, there are three houses on it. One was there a long time, and it was demolished, razed, and destroyed. The elderly man had died, and the sons had just, the house was not worth fixing, so they just razed it. So when we come out of our house, we look, and there's this open field. 15 acres, 20 acres, 10, I don't know, a lot of acres, a lot more than ours. And so when I see it, I feel very interested in wanting to go to. Sometimes I would just kind of walk in there. There's nothing to see, just grass. It's just an open field. And the only thing I see at nighttime, I see a bunch of deer running through them. But within weeks, recently, we hear this noise. And it didn't take them long before they fenced the whole area in four different parts. with posts and fence all around. Someone bought it, I don't know who it is, but they're telling me it's their land, I can't walk on it. When I come out, I see this fence. And that tells me I can't trespass. It's their property, and that's good. It's not like I'm inclined towards doing that. I can jump over the fence, and guess what? Same grass over there as over here. It's the same thing. It's just all it is, just open field, fenced in. And that tells me, don't go there. When God puts a couple together, once they're married, that's God's way of telling everybody, don't go there. That couple is fenced in. Let not man put asunder. Let not man separate. Don't go there. That's God's way of saying, once the marriage is there, you do not touch it. You do not go there. And that's what God is teaching. Against the Pharisees, he's saying, that was the original intention. Now he deals with sin after this, and we'll deal with that in a subsequent week. But I want us to understand that was not God's goal. We see that God's original purpose in creation was to create a permanent marriage. That was what God created. Divorce was not designed into marriage. And that's the truth I want us to end with. Divorce was not designed into marriage. Now we'll end with an illustration to prove that point or to illustrate that point. If I bought a brand new Toyota, And I'm happy with it. And a couple days later, I go back to the car salesman, to the dealer. Sir, this Toyota you sold me, it doesn't drive through the river. I took it out of the river several times, and every time I take it back and it just stalls and dies and water overcomes it, I'm almost drowning. What's wrong with your car? Now, what would they say to me? It's not a duck, it's not a submarine. It's a car. It was not designed to go into the water. It was designed to be on the road. It was never designed to be in the water. You would realize that it's a foolish person that would do that. When God created marriage, he did not have a built-in thing for it to be divorced. Now because sin has occurred, a lot of things have been unraveled, but that was not the original intention. And Jesus is making a point to all of us. Remember that. That's what God wants. We will deal with the painful subject of divorce that's dealt with by our Lord here as he deals with the Deuteronomy passage and what Moses taught. But let us remember what our Lord is focusing on. that divorce was not designed into marriage at the beginning, that they were to be one flesh, and it has God's benediction. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, your word is so clear. and our culture is so lost on these matters, and we know that what you have revealed to us is for our edification, for our good, for our health, for our life. Lord, give us hearts to receive it. And we know there is pardon for all our sins in Christ. We know divorce and remarriage, if it's done sinfully, there can be forgiveness and pardon. It is not the unforgivable sin. And we pray that those who might have sinned in this area, that you might have mercy, and they might repent and be restored in fellowship with you in this matter. And we thank you that in Christ there is abundant redemption, full forgiveness of sin, and joy in Him. Oh Lord, deal with all our hearts, in Christ's name, amen. Please turn in your hymn notes to 464464.