Well, let's turn to Matthew 5. Matthew 5, verses 31 and 32. We're going through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. And we're just going to look at these two verses tonight. I was going to do Also, this one has to do with divorce and adultery and remarriage, and the next one has to do with oaths. I was gonna put them together, but I thought it'd probably be best to just do one at a time. So we're just gonna look at these two verses. Matthew 5, verse 31 and 32, God's word. It was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. That's how far we'll read in God's word. Let's pretend there's a day-long lecture series in Woodbury or somewhere close, and you really want to go to this lecture series. I don't know, you can pick a topic that you'd really be interested in listening to. Maybe if you're into baking or cooking or whatever, it's your favorite chef teaching all day about making awesome food like beef Wellington and wood-fired pizzas and things like that, and you just wanna go get some good lessons on cooking or baking. Or let's pretend you're into some outdoor hobbies and this famous outdoorsman is sharing his top hunting and fishing hacks, things like that, and you really wanna go hear what he has to say about them. Or there's a lot of other examples. Maybe it's this famous YouTuber who's a really good mechanic, and he's going to give four different lectures on improving your horsepower and gas mileage in your car, and you really want to go. You know what I mean? So imagine there's this interesting lecture series in Woodbury that you really want to go to. But now let's say you only ended up hearing about one of the six or seven hours. You just heard one hour of it. I don't know. That's all you could make. You just went from 3 to 4 o'clock when it ended, and that's all you really heard of it. you would definitely not want to act as if you knew everything that was said, right? You're not going to go home and say, well, now I know everything because you only heard an hour of six or seven other hours. And you're going to have to go back and maybe listen to the recording to get all the information. Now, Jesus teaching about adultery and divorce is something like that. These two verses is only a small part of what God's word says about divorce, remarriage, and adultery. Again, just to use that illustration, it's like if there's an eight-hour lecture series, we're only hearing about 30 minutes of it. There's a lot more in the Bible about divorce, adultery, and remarriage. And so I don't want us to think that we know it all just from these two verses. This is just a little part of this teaching of the Bible. And by the way, I think most of us know this, but adultery here that Jesus is talking about is a violation of the seventh commandment. It's when a married person sleeps with someone who's not his or her spouse. And in fact, in the old covenant, adultery was supposed to be punished with a death penalty. You can read about that in Leviticus 20. So we're talking about divorce, adultery, remarriage tonight. And one other thing before we look at these verses, Christians do have different views on adultery and divorce and remarriage. Of course, we wanna go to scripture and do the best that we can, but it's a very complex topic in the Bible, these things are. I, of course, agree with the Reformed confessions, like the Westminster Confessions talks about reasons for legitimate divorce, would be adultery and desertion, and the innocent party can lawfully divorce and remarry. So I agree with what the Westminster Confession says. I think that's a good summary of the Bible's teaching. But some other Christians might not agree with that. So we have to be patient in discussing these difficult topics because the Bible's teaching on them is very complex. I mean, I've dug into this for quite a few years, and there's a lot of complexities that you have to look at when you talk about divorce, adultery, and remarriage. It's a very important topic, these things are. But just remember, they're not the foundational truths of the Christian faith that we stand united on. That's the gospel, right? Like justification this morning or the doctrine of the Trinity. So it's important, but it's not like a fundamental truth that we all need to agree with every point about. So having said that, let's look at these couple of verses that Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. And just by way of reminder, Jesus is teaching his disciples as one with authority. Remember how he started the sermon, or near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he said that he's not there to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. in his person, what he did, but also in his teaching. He's fulfilling the Old Testament. So think about that when we look at these verses. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna look at these two verses kind of briefly, because they're not long, and then I have some observations and applications again. So let's look what Jesus says. Jesus starts out at this point in verse 31 and says, it was also said, dot, dot, dot, And he's going back to, you know, verse 27 and verse 21. You have heard it said, you have heard it said. He's quoting the Old Testament, citing Old Testament teaching. It was also said in the Old Testament, verse 31, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. Now Jesus is getting this from Deuteronomy 24, verse one. You can go back and read Deuteronomy 24, the first few verses talk about this somewhat complex case in the Old Testament, where if a man wants to divorce his wife for something indecent, whatever that means, he has to write a certificate of divorce and sends her out with a certificate of divorce, and she can marry someone else, but if that someone else dies, she can't come back to the first husband. So, like I said, it's a little complex in Deuteronomy 24, but the point Jesus is making here, he's just citing this Old Testament law, one Old Testament law about divorce. You need a certificate, a legal notice of divorce. Now, the Jews, you know, sitting there listening to Jesus' longer teaching are saying, of course, amen. That's what Moses said, that's what Deuteronomy says. Now, verse 32, but I say to you, So here's the contrast again, or whatever you want to call it. He's done this, this is how he does it in the Sermon on the Mount. You've heard these things, but listen to what I'm going to say in fulfilling the teaching of the Old Testament. Everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes or commit adultery. Stop and look at that or think about that. Whoever divorces his wife, makes or commit adultery, except in the case of sexual sin. So kind of like, forget about the certificate of divorce. If you divorce your wife for illegitimate reasons, you make her an adulterer. Something like that. So one thing that Jesus is saying is divorce is a seventh commandment issue. Maybe that was new to some Jews back then. Now, there's a lot going on here, right? This is tough. I'm going to remind you this a lot. There's more in the Bible that talks about this. But a couple of reflections on Jesus' words. If you read Matthew 19, also in Matthew's gospel, there's another section where Jesus talks about divorce. I'm not going to read it all. But in Matthew 19, Jesus makes it clear that the man who does this is breaking the seventh commandment. So Jesus says in Matthew 19, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery. So that's clear in Matthew 19. The man who does this gets a divorce for illegitimate reasons, commits adultery, and Jesus said he makes her an adulteress in some way. So another thing to think about here is that wrongful divorce, like unbiblical divorce, is sinful, like sexual lust is sinful, and it's breaking the seventh commandment, committing adultery. What Jesus is saying about adultery here goes with what he says earlier about lust in the verses right before this. He's talking about adultery with two points, lust and illegitimate divorce and remarriage. They go together. So, of course, we're going to talk about this in a moment. There is biblical reason for divorcing. but other divorce that's unbiblical is breaking the seventh commandment like lust is. Another thing to think about Jesus' words here in the first part of verse 32 is that the woman is the victim in this illustration. Obviously, it's difficult, but it applies both to women and men. I think you can switch the situation around. But notice it says here, he makes her commit adultery. And I've been thinking about that verse all week, or that phrase. Like, how is she guilty if the husband's the one who is suing for this illegitimate divorce? This is a tough one. There is a possibility, and the NIV translates it this way, and it's possible. It's, he makes her the victim of adultery. That does make sense. When this man gets an illegitimate divorce, you know what happens to his wife? Well, he makes her the victim of adultery. And so it's kind of like when a husband gets an illegitimate divorce, he makes her part of this adulterous situation. And like one author says, she has gained a divorce. He kind of drags her down with him, something like that. But another way to think about this is back in the historical context, when a woman would get some kind of divorce, whether proper or improper, she would almost always remarry. Like today, some women don't because sometimes, in some cases, it is hard for women to get along on their own maybe. But back then, there were no such thing really as single women. You would have to get married for a husband to support you. So what this means is, in the cultural context, possibly that when a man illegitimately divorces his wife, he's causing her to commit adultery, because she's going to have to marry someone else, because else she's not going to be able to get by. It could be something like that. But it's difficult to understand. Maybe Jesus has in mind some specific situation back then, and he's correcting some wrong thinking. And we don't have all the historical situation. But it is clear that the man who unlawfully divorces his wife, right? This is an illegitimate, unlawful, unbiblical divorce. The man who unlawfully divorces his wife, in a way, has a double sin. Because he's committing adultery by this illegitimate divorce, and he's dragging her into the mess as well. and bringing her into that realm. And so what Jesus is doing here is he's correcting this, some Jews, they had a lax view of divorce, and they said, basically, you can divorce a woman for any reason, like she burned my toast. I'm gonna file for divorce. And Jesus said, no, no, no, no, no. You can't just divorce for any reason, only for sexual immorality. So let's think about that. Everyone who divorces his wife makes her commit adultery. There's the exception clause that's in the other Gospels, except on the ground of sexual immorality. That's a cause for legitimate, biblical, proper divorce. Now, people debate this word, sexual immorality. It's pornea in the Greek. It could just technically mean adultery, that sexual sin. Some say it means something like incest. But the Greek word is also very broad, and it can mean any kind of sexual immorality, like sex outside of marriage, including homosexuality. So this word, porneia, in Greek can be very broad for sexual sin. Like one of my Greek dictionaries, Loanitis, says, it's to engage in sexual immorality of any kind. So if there's sexual immorality in a marriage, that's biblical grounds for divorce. That's what Jesus is saying. You can't get a divorce for any reason, like burnt toast, but you can get a divorce if there is sexual sin. That's one biblical and lawful reason for divorce. And it's a tough topic, but do remember also in the Old Testament, like Jeremiah 3 and Isaiah 50, God, as it were, gave his wife, Israel, a divorce certificate, because she had been unfaithful. There's that to think about. This kind of divorce is still difficult if there is sexual sin involved. It's sometimes very difficult. And Jesus isn't commanding it, but he's saying it's allowed. And reconciliation is sometimes possible, even when there is sexual sin in a marriage. That's what we try to aim for. But I just want to remind you that This kind of divorce, as difficult as it is, when there's sexual sin involved, of course there's tears and heartbreak, but Christ allows it, says it's okay. It's not sinful. It's not sinful. God doesn't hate this kind of divorce when there's a legitimate reason, like sexual sin. Now, I have to remind you again that Jesus is not giving the full-blown teaching on divorce here. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, as I kind of hinted at earlier, talks about desertion as being a biblical cause for divorce, if there's a desertion involved. But let's go on and look at the last phrase in verse 32. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Now again, that's all we have. Like, that's a general statement. That's hard, isn't it? It's one of those that you think about. You have to look at other scripture. But I would say that Jesus is referring to a specific situation here in the first century that they would understand quite easily. And I think based on the context, and commentaries go this way as well, Jesus is saying if a man marries a woman who had an unlawful divorce, that's the context, then he commits adultery because he's brought into the situation. something like that. It is a difficult phrase, just like the one before it. And if you wanted to do a deep dive study on those, you have to go to all the other texts in the Bible that talk about divorce and remarriage and adultery. But this is what Jesus said here. And I think, like I said, Jesus is talking about a woman who has committed an illegitimate divorce or some kind of adultery or something. Okay, so observations and application. It's not long teaching here on divorce, remarriage, and adultery. But like I said, what, was it the fourth time? This is only a partial picture of what the Bible teaches about divorce, adultery, and remarriage. So don't go home and think, whoa, that's it. Because it's not, there's a lot more. And also, I already mentioned this too, but Jesus is speaking to a specific situation to address the Jewish views that were mistaken. Remember, a lot of the Jews, based on the Pharisees and the scribes, had all these extra teachings added to the Old Testament, and the scribes and the Pharisees kind of muddled the teaching, and Jesus is bringing it back, and he's talking into that specific situation. So I want you to remember that Jesus is not addressing every situation or circumstance of divorce, adultery, and remarriage. He's not addressing everything that might come up. It's kind of like earlier when he talked about anger. He didn't go into deep details about all different kinds of anger. Or when he talked about lust, he didn't go into all details about that. Similarly here in these two verses, not going into all the details and circumstances of divorce, adultery, and remarriage. Craig Blomberg, one commentary I read, he had a good phrase. He said, these verses likely do not reflect a specific evidence of every conceivable legitimate or illegitimate ground for divorce. So Jesus isn't considering every legitimate or illegitimate ground for divorce. He's not doing all that. Instead, Blomberg said, Jesus is speaking to a specific debate in first century Jewish or Judaism. You know what I mean? He's speaking into a specific situation. He's not giving us all the reasons for divorce, adultery, and so on. So I think that's correct. Like, if you have questions about divorce and remarriage, some of them might be answered here, but not all of them. Like, for example, what if someone gets divorced and remarried before they were Christians or followers of Jesus? Right? I don't know if Jesus is directly addressing that here. Maybe it has to do with it, but not directly. Or what if someone wants to get a divorce and not remarry? Or what about reconciliation? How does that work? If someone cheats and they want reconciliation, Jesus is not addressing that? Or what if the wife doesn't remarry, like in our society sometimes? You know what I mean? So we have tons of questions, tons of situations about divorce and remarriage and so on. Jesus is not answering them all, but only specific ones. And also another thing here is that the main point of the detail, or I'm sorry, the main point here is not all the details of divorce and adultery and remarriage. The point Jesus is making, and this comes back in Matthew 19, is that marriage ordinarily lasts for life. You have to go to Matthew 19 for that, but that's what Jesus is teaching there, and I think we can kind of think about that here too. He's saying you can't just get out of marriage just because you don't like it anymore. You know, kingdom living has to do with faithfulness to your spouse, but also ordinarily lifelong marriage. So Jesus in Matthew 19, talking to the scribes and Pharisees, echoing the teaching of Genesis 2, says, and you know this phrase, what God has joined together, we should not separate. Sometimes you have to when there's sin and legitimate causes for divorce. But what God has joined together, Jesus said, we should not separate. There's sanctity in marriage. And that wasn't really stressed back then. Like I said, in some Jewish circles, you could get a divorce for a lot of different reasons, just write a certificate, you're good to go. And Jesus says, no, no, not in the kingdom of heaven, not in the Christian church and the Christian faith. There are legitimate reasons for divorce to end a marriage, but ordinarily marriage lasts for life. Man and wife stay together as long as they both shall live. That vow is beautiful, that vow is biblical. And Jesus is teaching that illegitimate or sinful divorce is breaking the seventh commandment. It's committing adultery. And so we all have to take to heart these things, whether you're married or thinking about marriage. Now, a couple of other thoughts just generally on divorce, remarriage, adultery. Again, they're tough subjects. They hit home for some people really hard. And you have to be very sensitive and Like, careful when you talk about these subjects. But I do want to remind you biblically that adultery and even unlawful divorce are not unforgivable sins. You know, that's something we have to remember. Just like anger, he talked about earlier, is breaking, you know, the sixth commandment. It's not an unforgivable sin. It's not great, but it's not unforgivable. And lust, he talked about earlier, that's not an unforgivable sin. Divorce, unlawful divorce and adultery are also not unforgivable sins. Have you ever thought about that? Like, forgive me, Lord, for my adultery. I'm truly sorry for what I did. I confess. Lord, I, I went and got the divorce and I never should have done that. I'm so sorry, God, can you forgive my sin? What does God say when we repent of sin like that to him? You're forgiven. Divorce, even unlawful divorce, adultery, lust, anger, they're not unforgivable sins. Remember David's story, don't you? You can list all the sins that he committed in that whole Bathsheba affair, right? Lust, like adultery, murder, lying. I mean, this is a huge list. And you remember David's prayers of confession in Psalm 51. We say that sometimes here, Lord, you know, you know, I have been sinful from birth, Lord. I know my iniquity, my transgression is ever before me. That's his prayer of repentance. And then also in his Psalm 32, it says, I confess my transgressions to the Lord. Then what? And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So just get that into your heart and into your mind, that adultery and unlawful divorce and lust and anger, these are not unforgivable sins. Another story worth thinking about, I'll let you read it on your own, but when I was studying this, it brought to mind the story of Jesus and that Samaritan woman in John 4. Remember, he's going to give her living water. And she said something about a husband or whatever. And Jesus said, you've had five husbands and the one that you're living with right now, he's not even your husband. But she went on to become some sort of an evangelist. And it seems like in the story, she drank of the living water. That's good for us all to remember when we think about adultery, unlawful divorce, the woman at the well, John four, read that story. And so another question that I've been thinking about, I'm not necessarily gonna answer it, but I want you to wrestle over this. Maybe I'll answer it. If there is complete and full forgiveness to someone who truly repents of lust, sexual sin, unlawful divorce, adultery, is that person always living in that sin then? Probably not, because there's forgiveness with the Lord. Something to think about. I just don't want you to fall into that stigma. I think it's an evangelical error that divorced people or those who have committed adultery just have the stigma on them for life. What about people with anger? Jesus starts there. What about people with lust? What about people with pride? You know what I mean? The list goes on. Adultery, illegitimate and divorce are sinful, but they're not at the top of the list of sins and they are forgivable. Okay, just a couple more things. We have to be careful when we read the Old Covenant, the Old Testament teaching about divorce and remarriage, because we have to read it through the New Testament. You know, Jesus is taking Old Testament teaching and he's fulfilling it and bringing it to light in a Christ-centered Christian way, or however you want to call it. So we don't want to just go to the Old Testament, grab teaching on divorce and remarriage, and forget what the New Testament teaches. We have to read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, based on what Jesus is doing here. And one other thing to think about, and then I'll end. This is a good time to remember Jesus' call to love in marriage, husband and wife. Well, we're talking about marriage, right? I don't want us to just brag, I'm never gonna get a divorce, I never am gonna commit adultery, I haven't ever done that. Well, that doesn't give you a right to be a jerk husband or an unloving wife, right? I don't wanna get arrogant and think, well, I'm not divorced, I'm not committing adultery. Well, love your wife, love your husband, Don't commit adultery, of course. Don't file for unlawful divorce, of course. But do love your husband and wife. Love your husband or wife, display the fruit of the spirit, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Think about the beatitudes that Jesus was speaking of right before this in your own marriages. Meek, meekness. Merciful. pure in heart, peacemaking. Think about those in your marriage. Sometimes there are biblical reasons for divorce, and God allows for that, but in marriage, think about the fruit of the Spirit and the Beatitudes. So another thing to think about then, finally, marriage only lasts for this life. Singleness is a calling, by the way, 1 Corinthians 7. Single Christians are not second-rate because it's calling for some. But marriage is only lasts for this life. There's no marriage in heaven. Like you can read about that in Matthew 22 verse 30. They will not be given in marriage. But we are called as Christians and kingdom people who's living in this kingdom. We're called to keep the marriage bed pure and to follow Christ if married with Christ-like love and mutual service. It's a good time to reflect on marriage and love for each other. Actually, correction. There is one marriage relationship that lasts into the new creation. Not ours. But there is one marriage relationship that lasts into the new creation. It's the marriage of Christ and His bride, the Church. He is the loving, faithful bridegroom, the perfect husband, who cared for his bride, his sinful bride, the church, so much that he gave up his life for her in that great act of unselfish service in his death on the cross. That's what the bridegroom did for the sinful bride, to rescue us, his people, the church. That is the ultimate reality of the ultimate marriage that lasts into the new creation. And you, or us, we who follow Christ, will enjoy that forever. So never forget that ultimate marriage of Christ and his bride, the church, that lasts into eternity. Never forget that when you talk about marriage, divorce, adultery, and remarriage. Those are difficult things that we have to deal with now, in this fallen world, in this age. But thank God in the age to come, we won't have to worry about those things anymore. Let's pray.