We need to keep on singing, keep on rejoicing in our Savior, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in our eternal life. We have much to look forward to. This old world in which we live is struggling right now to say the least. We have a grand and beautiful and wonderful future ahead forever and forever and forever. We need to be reminded of that once in a while to lift us above the struggles and trials and persecutions of the world we currently live in. Well, we have to face reality in this world, don't we? And so that's what we've been looking at here in Matthew chapter 19. Jesus was not one to shy away from controversy. Matter of fact, he was just controversial. Well, we're in Matthew chapter 19, I'm going to ask you to take your place there in chapter 19 if you would find your place there And then we're going to flip over to the oldest chapter in Deuteronomy chapter 24 So let me ask you to find Deuteronomy chapter 4 24 as well as Matthew chapter 19 we're going to Bring these two passages of scriptures together as Jesus is doing here and as the Pharisees are Trying to interpret the Word of God and Jesus Christ, of course has to kind of set them straight on their interpretation So those willing and able to I'm going to ask that you stand with me, please as we view these two passages of scripture our text today will start in verse 7 and Okay, verse seven. They said to him, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? And he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. Now you've got to take into consideration Deuteronomy chapter 24 as you think about what's going on here between Jesus and the Pharisees. So let me give you a second here just to find Deuteronomy chapter 4. We'll start reading again in verse 1, okay? When a man takes a wife and marries her and it happens that 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 from his house and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house Or, if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled. For that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance." Got a lot going on here, folks. Let's pray. Father, we come before you. We thank you so much for the opportunity to open the word of God. We still have that freedom. We are still not in threat of our government. But many of our brothers and sisters are in threat. And they read your word and they gather, but they know the consequences It may be death or persecution or whatever. Lord, we pray for our country while we still have this freedom to do this. Somehow, someway, the truth of your word, not what men think it says, not what men want from your word, but what your word actually says, the truth of it, will be what we search for and what we live by. Help us to decipher Satan's deceptions concerning the word of God and men's deceptions concerning the word of God. And to be bold and wise as we present the truths of the word of God to a lost and dying world. Help us to have compassion for the lost Christ and we pray, amen. Thank you and pleased to be seated this morning. So if there's one issue that was particularly controversial at this time, and it's even controversial, it's always been controversial, and that is the subject of divorce. And there are a lot of ideas, there are a lot of conclusions that we draw on this particular subject. And I'll be honest with you this morning, some of what the Bible says about the issue of divorce can appear to be ambiguous. Difficult Hard to get a handle on because it there are different places in the Bible that says different things about Divorce and so and I'll even go so far as to say I don't have a corner On understanding all the ins and outs on this particular subject There's some things I you know, there are a lot of things I have to look at it. Yeah, I've gotten old now and And I'm finding out that I'm quite ignorant because the young people have all the answers now. Whatever the problem is, they have an answer for it. Whatever it is, they have an answer. But I don't have all the answers that I used to have anymore. And this is one of those subjects. We're here, we're dealing with the subject, we're going to deal with the subject, you know, as best as I know how to deal with the subject this morning. And so where are we? Well, quickly the Pharisees are trying to make Jesus make a culturally unpopular decision, a culturally unpopular stand on this subject of divorce. And they already knew what Jesus believed about divorce, He had already preached it on the Sermon on the Mount. They had an idea of what His opinion was going to be when they came to Him with this particular question. But it was still unpopular, Jesus' stand on it was. And they really figured that Jesus' position would put him in disfavor with the crowds and that would discourage the crowds from following him. And it would particularly bring into offense against those who were in political offices. And so they tried to discredit him and demean him and to smear his name And we have a lot of smear campaigns going on today. They had smear campaigns going on against Jesus Christ. And there are smear campaigns going on against Christians today. And so Jesus tells us how to deal with those smear campaigns. You're going to face issues in our culture, and they're not going to like you because you're a Christian, and they're going to kind of smear your name. So what are you going to do? How are you going to respond when that happens? You're going to do what Jesus did, right? You're going to stick with the truth. No matter how unpopular it is, no matter what people may say about you, Jesus Christ stuck with the truth. That's exactly what you're going to do. You may not have all the logic out there to deal with what they say about you and what they say about the truth, okay? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Bottom line is you're going to be responsible for telling the truth even as unpopular as it may be. Jesus Christ did not pick up any friends. As a matter of fact, his disciples were going, what? What are you talking about here? Even his disciples were having a hard time dealing with Jesus' position on this particular matter. It's still true, though. It's still true. No matter how unpopular it is, it's still true. So, Jesus then begins to get into the subject of marriage. They brought to Him the subject of divorce, and I've covered this. You know, Jesus begins to talk about marriage. And when He gets through, and when we get to the end of this passage that we're dealing with, we're going to find out that they were guilty of the very thing that they were charging that they were not guilty. They didn't think they were guilty of divorce. When Jesus gets through with them, they're going to find out that they were guilty. Okay. Let me give you a piece of advice from this passage of scripture that we're looking at. Anytime Never go, never go to Jesus with the attitude that you think you got it figured out. That's where these Pharisees were going to, they were going, they really believed they were right. Never go to Jesus Christ with this attitude that you believe you're just absolutely right. Because if you do that, I promise you that you're walking into a buzz saw. And when Jesus gets through with these people, they are all guilty. So what was the original question? Let's look at the original question in verse 3. Some Pharisees came to Jesus testing him and asking, and you know when they test him that that's a problem. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? Now, so the real reason they're coming to Jesus Christ with this particular question is because they were getting divorced right and left. They already knew what Jesus was going to say. They didn't count on Jesus Christ going to the Old Testament for His answer to them. They didn't count on that. They didn't count Jesus Christ using the Old Testament as His authority, therefore claiming the authority of God. But that didn't deter them. They didn't mind. Have you ever had your mind made up? And it didn't matter when anybody else said to you, you knew what you were going to say, you knew what you believed, you weren't going to change your mind. That's where these Pharisees were. They didn't care what Jesus said. They didn't care if He went to the Old Testament. They didn't care that He claimed the authority of God. They didn't care. They had their minds made up. And you've met people like that, you've tried to talk to people like that, they've got their minds made up, they're not gonna change their minds. But it didn't deter them, they had an agenda, okay. So they said in verse seven, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? So last week we kind of did a spin-off on this because some people, you know, claim that since God divorced Israel, they had a legitimate reason to divorce. And we talked about the reality that that was an analogy in Jeremiah chapter 3. That was a picture. God was picturing the covenant that He made with Israel. as that of a marriage. It was an analogy. That's all it was. It was an allegory. And you can't make an allegory, walk on all fours. First, specifically, when you're talking about God marrying a human or a nation, you can't make that walk on all fours. God's God and He's almighty and He's not human in any way, shape or form. But God entered into a covenant with Israel And that is what this analogy was about. Israel committed spiritual adultery. God did not nullify His covenant with Israel even though they were guilty of spiritual adultery. And we saw that one day that God is going to fulfill His covenant with Israel. Israel is going to come back. They are going to be the nation that rules the world. Jesus Christ is going to be sitting in the capital of Jerusalem. He is going to be ruling from Jerusalem for a thousand years. Now He has cut off His blessings to the nation of Israel, but not in a full fellowship. They have a relationship with Him. The covenant secures the relationship that they have with Christ. But he's cut off his fellowship, and they don't have the blessings that comes from the relationship because they went off into spiritual adultery. So we saw there that even though the Bible makes an analogy of divorce with God divorcing Israel, we saw that the divorce is contained merely to, not to a relationship, but to the fellowship that God has with Israel, that He separated them from Israel. So the Pharisees that are coming then from Deuteronomy chapter 24, where do they get their authority? Why are they thinking what they're thinking? Why are they asking Jesus Christ and telling Jesus Christ that they now have a legitimate reason for their divorce? They go back to Deuteronomy chapter 24 to claim Moses as their authority to get a divorce for any reason. And they're thinking it's in the law. And if it's in the law, then it has to have the approval of Moses, and it has to have the approval of God Almighty. So the Pharisees do what everybody does when they want to prove something. They cherry-pick their scriptures. And that's exactly what they did here in Deuteronomy chapter 24. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 4, and I want us to look at that. Because this is where they're coming from. This is where their thinking is. They didn't have the New Testament. All they had was the Old Testament. They had the book of Deuteronomy. And they were certainly students of the Word of God, but they looked at the Word of God biased, as most people do today. So let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 24, beginning again in verse 1. Follow along as I read. When a man takes a wife and marries her and it happens that 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 from his house and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife And if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled. And that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance." I wanted to read the whole thing. I wanted to set it up for you because we're going to look at this in principle, all right? Now, if you are looking, and this is important for you to understand, if you're looking at the King James Version of the Bible, it's not a bad translation, great translation. However, here in this particular text, there are some changes that you need to note in translation. I like the New American Standard translation of this particular passage of Scripture. But here's what I want you to see if you're looking at a different translation of the Scriptures. It is when a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, let him give her a bill of divorcement. You see there where the King James Version says, let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it into her hand and send it out of her hand. If you're looking at the American Standard Version of the Bible, it reads it a little different. It says, and he writes her a certificate of divorce rather than let him write her. There's a difference there. There's a big difference there. The King James Version there is giving you the idea, let him give her a certificate of divorce as though Moses is giving permission. Let him. Let him. As though Moses is saying, okay, you have permission to divorce your wife. Now if you're looking at the New American Standard Version of the Bible, some different version of the Bible doesn't say that. It simply says in a different version of the Bible, and he writes her, not let him, but and he writes her a certificate of divorce. The King James Version is the way that the Pharisees were interpreting what Moses wrote here. The Pharisees were saying, yes, the Bible says we are allowed, we have permission to divorce his wife, but that's not what it says in the Hebrew at all. The Hebrew is translated correctly by the New American Standard Version where it says, and he writes her a certificate of divorce. There is no command there that Moses gave for divorcing his wife. Although, when you read the King James Version, it seems like you have some liberty to interpret that that way, that you can, that the Word of God is giving you this opportunity, this out, because you don't like this woman, you don't care for this woman, you want to get rid of her, you want to unload her, because you don't like her. Moses is describing what a husband is doing. Moses is looking at the situation. He's saying there are men who are writing certificates of divorce. Moses actually looks at reality and he's recording the reality that men are writing certificates of divorce. He's describing the culture that he sees. This is what men are doing. They are writing these things out. He's describing a culture where husbands find something about their wives that they don't like, and consequently, they just write out a divorce agreement, or divorce, a bill of divorce, and they give it to her, and they say, get out of here, I don't want to deal with you anymore. Now if you're looking, if you remember back in Matthew chapter 19, what did the Pharisees say to Jesus? Why did Moses, what, command and Moses didn't command? But the Pharisees came to Jesus and they said, why did Moses command? It's not a commandment. It's not a commandment. It's an observation of reality. that Moses recorded. That's all it is. That's all it is. There's no commandment there. None. Moses is acknowledging that there is divorce. He's simply acknowledging that that's what's going on in his community. He's not approving it. He's not condoning it. He's not advocating it. He's saying it is a statement of fact. Now, let's look at the reason. It says here that he finds no favor in his eyes because of some indecency or uncleanness, as the King James Version says, some indecency, uncleanness in her. Now, that's a pretty broad Term it's kind of in the script there. What does he mean? Indecency, what does he mean? Uncleanness what I can tell you first of all what it does not mean It does not mean adultery Whatever this uncleanness is Whatever this indecency is it is not adultery Did you how can you be so sure? Because, beloved, in the law, if you were guilty of adultery, what happened to you? They stoned you to death. If you were guilty of adultery and you were caught and it was proven that you were guilty of adultery, they took you out and they stoned you. There was no divorce for adultery. The only penalty for adultery was not divorce, it was being stoned to death. That was it. There's no plan B. So this isn't referring to adultery. You see the word translated indecency there or uncleanness? That word actually has the idea of nakedness, being uncovered or exposing yourself. Now, if you're still in Deuteronomy chapter 24, I want you to look back at Deuteronomy chapter 23. Just just one page back. It may be on the same page, but Deuteronomy chapter 23 And I want to show you something here in Deuteronomy chapter 3 our 23 pardon me 23 in verse 18 Until I want to go is not where I want to go. Well, I can't remember where I want to go. Thirteen is where I want to go. 2313. So in verse 12, you shall also have a place outside the camp and go there, and you shall have a spade among your tools. And it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it, and shall cover up your excrement. The word excrement is the very same word here that Jesus is using for that which is indecent and unclean. Very same word, very same word. You shall go out and you shall cover up your excrement. Why? Because it is foul. because it is indecent. One of the meanings that may be that his wife is exposing herself, not that she's committed adultery, but she may be inappropriately dressing, she may be flirtatious, she may be sexually deviant or sexually divergent. It is just falling short of adultery. And the idea is that she's doing something terribly horrible, just short of adultery, very rude, seriously offensive and insulting to him and to his family. In other words, what I'm trying to tell you is here that this word, this idea here, this that they're observing here is more than just burning biscuits. It's more than just putting too much salt on your eggs. It's more than just not liking the color of the dress that she wore. It's a very serious offense here that they're getting a divorce for. Now, one more thing before we leave this passage of Scripture. There a command in this passage scripture the reason I read the whole thing to you is because I want to ask this question Is there a command is there kid did the Lord give a command in this passage scripture, and he did I? Want you to look down at verse 4 Her former husband which sent her away may not take her again to be his wife. After that she is defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord your God giveth thee as an inheritance." Here's the command. There is a command, and it is, he may not take her again to be his wife. Once she leaves, once she remarries, and even if the man she marries dies, her first husband is commanded, completely prohibited by God, not to marry her again. Period. So what is going on here? What is the principle that we're looking at? Here's what I want you remember The Old Testament Didn't allow divorce Did not The Old Testament governed divorce. The Old Testament puts down laws to govern, to contain, to restrict, and to bring divorce under control. That is what that passage is doing. It is bringing divorce under control. The Bible does not condone slavery, but there are a multitude of laws in the Bible about slavery. And the purpose of those laws in the Bible about slavery is not to condone slavery or to say that slavery is okay, but the reason those laws are in the Bible about slavery is to contain slavery, to control slavery. to make it sure that men do not treat other men barbarically. The reality is there was slavery in the land. That's the reality. But the Bible was put there to make sure it didn't get out of control. The laws were put there to make sure it didn't get out of control. The same thing is true with divorce. It was a reality. It was an observation that Moses made that was going on. But God put the brakes on it. God put controls on it. Didn't condone it just because he did that. He didn't condone it. Now let's pick up the scene back in our text passage in Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. So they ask the question in verse 7, they take the question out of context in verse 7, they make it sound like a command in verse 7, but I want you to notice what Jesus says in verse 8. He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted, not condoned, not approved of, didn't command. permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it has not been this way. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality, adultery, fornication, and marries another woman commits adultery. There are some things that the flesh absolutely cannot deal with. We're bound by sin, we are finite, we are weak, and one of the hardest problems for us to deal with in our covenant relationship of marriage is when one partner becomes unfaithful. When a partner is guilty of adultery, it is as though you have struck at the very heart of the covenant relationship of marriage. Very difficult for our flesh to deal with that. And so the Bible says that there is one exception. Tell it to me. You know, marriages can go through a lot of difficult times. All of our marriages are tough at times. We have hardships. We have fights. We hurt each other. We have sorrows, things which we said we wish we hadn't said, things that we do that we wish we had not done. But adultery is tough, hard, difficult. And the Bible recognizes that. recognizes it. And Jesus said this is allowed because of the hardness of our hearts. It's not commanded by God. Still not God's will. Still not God's will, folks. Still not God's charge. It is something that God permits and controls. So let's draw this to a conclusion. Jesus just made every one of them an adulterer. That's what he did. because they were not getting divorces on the basis of adultery. They were getting divorces on whatever whim they chose. And so he takes the word of God, the very rival that they were using to defend themselves and he shows them that they are sinners, that they are committing adultery, that they are making women they divorce commit adultery. They were making the women who divorced and married another man commit adultery. And so the adulterous situation was being going on and on and on and on. And Jesus was putting a limit on that. He was trying to put some restraints on that, some constraints on that situation. You remember the woman caught in the act of adultery? You remember that story? how the Pharisees caught this woman in the act of adultery and they brought her to Jesus Christ. And they said to Jesus Christ that the law required that they stone this woman to death immediately. That's what they said to Jesus Christ. You remember the story? They said, Jesus, what do you want to do with this woman? Well, the law says that we need to stone her and we need to stone her right now. So what are you going to do? What position are you going to take on this woman? You remember the story. And Jesus stoops down and begins to write in the dust. And they're clamoring, they're clamoring. And finally, Jesus stood up and he said, He that is without sin among you, Let him first cast a stone at her. He who is without sin, let him be the first one to lift up a stone and to throw it. See they had stones, they were ready. They were ready, they had stones in their hands. The Bible says what? One by one, the stone fell. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. And everybody that dropped a stone, turned around, walked away. And at the end, it was just Jesus and the woman, right? Just Jesus and the woman. That's all that was left. Jesus and the woman. You see, many of them walked away because they knew they were guilty of adultery. These were the Pharisees who divorced their wives right and left. They were guilty of every single thing that they were charging this woman of being guilty of. They were guilty of fornication, lying, cheating, evil thoughts, prejudice, hateful speech, foul ungodly thoughts, unclean habits, and the weight of their own guilt came crushing down on them. So Jesus turns to the woman when it's just her and the woman and he says to her, go and sin no more. Isn't that amazing? They came, they said, here's the law, the law says you've got to stone her. Jesus turns around and he says, wait a minute. Well, I've got to stone her. Go and sin no more. That's what he said, go and sin. Jesus's act of grace in no way minimized the law. But it was an act of, what is the two principles of the law of Moses? What are the two principles of the law of Moses? Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, And the second principle is what? Love your neighbor as yourself. Did these men come with a love for this woman in their hearts to Jesus Christ? No! They came with a hatred for Jesus Christ is what they came with. But Jesus turns around and he takes the principle of the law, the spirit of the law. They were going by the letter of the law. Jesus turns to the principle of the law, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. He said to her, go and sin no more. That was an expression of grace and love and a time for her to have a period of repentance and a turning to the Lord. He gave her an opportunity to trust the Lord, to turn away from her sinful life and to come by the grace of God to a saving knowledge of the Savior and the Messiah, Jesus Christ. What's the penalty of adultery? It's death. Why? Because adultery is a sin. We're all sinners. We're all guilty. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's what the Bible says. But Jesus died on the cross for those sins. The grace of God releases us from our guilt and our shame of sin. There's no sin. There's no sin above the blood of Jesus Christ. None. None. I'm gonna ask R.D. to help us with an invitation hymn this morning. Divorce is not unforgivable. Adultery is not unforgivable. No sin is unforgivable. And it doesn't matter What your sin is or how deep your sin is, it is forgivable. It is forgivable because of the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is infinitely cleansing of our sins. I'm going to ask that Brother R.D. help us by introducing our hymn, then we'll stand and have a word of prayer. Let's stand together. Father, we come before you. We thank you for the opportunity to be in your house. We thank you for the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that it is so cleansing that there is nothing impossible for us to be cleansed of. It can wash us completely clean. We can have a fresh new start, a fresh new experience of your forgiveness and of your grace. and what it means to have a relationship and a fellowship with you, whereby we intimately know you and call you our Father, whereby we appeal to you often over and over again, and you give us direction, you give us an understanding of our culture and our situation, of the world in which we live, and you encourage us with the reality that we have eternal life, eternal life, No matter what this world throws at us, no matter what this world takes from us, no matter what our circumstances might be, no matter how we might wind up in this world in which we live, we still have our freedom from sin and its dominion and its power. I pray, Father, that if there's one here without Christ, that they will come to the reality of their place before You, before a holy God, that they stand condemned, without hope. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be faithful in distributing the gospel of Jesus Christ to our ordinary, everyday, mundane lives. Fill us with the joy and the peace of knowing you personally. Help us to walk with confidence, yet with grace. Help us to walk with hope with our heads held high, not in pride and arrogance, but our heads held high in the fact that we're looking for the coming of Jesus Christ and the reality of His coming is. Now, God, change our hearts. Help us to draw on the hope of forgiveness that we have through Jesus Christ's shed blood on the cross, the freedom and the joy that we find there. In Christ's name we pray, amen.