You should have a sheet at the top that says Mark chapter 10 verse 1 through 12. If you don't have a sheet, maybe you can throw a hand up and I can get you one. There should be some around you too, some spare ones. Anybody not have one? All right, you can go ahead and turn your Bible to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Singing with no amplification, it reminded me of the first place we ever met. Y'all remember meeting there? It was like an L-shape. So if you sat on this side, you couldn't see the people sitting on the other side. And the only danger of no amplification then was I sing so loud that I don't know when I'm off for a while. So one time I quiet down and realized that I've led the whole side to be on the different page with the other side. So it was bad. So we don't need it, but I'm thankful for it too. Mark chapter 10. We're at verse one through 12, so most of you know this, but we're just coming through the Book of Mark, and praise God that one comfort you can take in that is you don't just get the teacher's favorite themes all the time, right? Scripture actually lays out what you're gonna teach and what your emphasis is gonna be. So praise God, we're just coming through the Book of Mark, and today, under God's sovereignty, we come to verses one through 12 in chapter 10. So we're gonna read it, and then we'll pray, and we'll talk about these, these verses here. Chapter 10, verse 1. Read along with me, please. Then he arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to him again, and as he was accustomed, he taught them again. The Pharisees came and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife, testing him? And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you? They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to dismiss her. And Jesus answered and said to them, Because of 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 reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." In the house, his disciples also asked him again about the same matter. So he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. Let's pray. Father, thank you for letting us come to this portion of your Word. And God, your Word is so important. Lord, we come to you knowing nothing. Your ways and your thoughts, your wisdom is so high above ours, higher than the heavens above the earth. And so we come, God, we just want We want to see truth in Your Word, God, and we want to glorify You. We just say that You're right. You're right in everything that You say. You're right. You have all knowledge, all wisdom, and we believe You, Lord. I pray that You would work that in us today just to trust You at Your Word. God, help me. You said that if we minister, we should do it in the ability that You supply. You said that if I speak, I should speak the oracles, these oracles that are Yours, and do it in such a way that it's in the ability You supply, and You get all the glory. So God, help me to do that. God, thank You for teaching me these words, and I want to preach it to Your people this morning. So God, help me to do that in the ability You supply, God, by Your Spirit. Supply ability, power, God, to do this. And God, I pray for everyone here, hearing Your Word being read, hearing Your Word being taught, God, I just pray for every person that You would open their eyes to truth, that You would make them like those Bereans who received Your Word with eagerness and then searched the Scriptures daily to see if it was true. I pray You make us a room full of that sort. Thank you so much, Lord, for your help. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, let me ask you a question. Did you know that God calls His people to a higher standard? He calls His people to a higher standard. He calls His people to come out from the world and be separate. Did you know that? Listen to these truths from God's Word. Galatians 1-4, now this is about the world. You want to know what the Bible says about the world? Listen to Galatians 1.4. This present evil age. He calls this world this present evil age. Listen to Philippians 2.15. Become blameless and harmless children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. It says, it calls this world a crooked and perverse generation, this present evil age. 1 John 5, 19 says, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. This is the Bible's description of the world. Do you think of the world this way? And do you know that we're called to come out and be separate from among them? We're called to a higher standard as Christ calls us, okay? We're called to live, according to the verse I just read you, as lights. Lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. This is becoming a lost concept in our culture. It's just a lost concept and usually this worldliness is justified by things like, well, we've got to become like the world in order to win the world. Which is not biblical, it's not true. Listen to this from God's Word. 2 Corinthians 6.17 says, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. So don't buy into the lie that to win the world you must conform to the world. The Scripture says don't be conformed to the world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. James 4.4 says, Adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity towards God? And if you become a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God, is what that verse says. Earlier in James chapter 1, he says pure and undefiled religion looks like what? And one of the things he said is to remain unspotted from the world. So you see this, that we're called to a higher standard. We're called as God's people to come out and be separate from the world. This is very, very clear in the verses I've just shared with you. Also, it's very clear in Matthew chapter 5 in Jesus' breakout sermon. Okay, you've got to hold your place and turn to Matthew 5 real quick. Very fast. I want you to see this. Jesus calls us to a higher standard, to be separate from the world. Matthew chapter 5, this is Jesus' coming out sermon, His breakout sermon, and what does He do? And if you read 5.13, He says, you are the salt of the earth. Here's the earth, you're the salt of the earth. You stand out in that earth as something different. Look at verse 14, it might make more sense to us. You are the light of the world. There's the world, you're the light in the midst of that world. And as it goes on, it continues to explain this. I want you to see this pattern real quick in Matthew 5. As this gets explained, that you're a light of the world, he goes on to say in verse 20 that your righteousness must exceed that which is of the scribes and the Pharisees. So he takes the most righteous seeming people and he says your righteousness must exceed theirs. And then He goes on to give you these sort of statements. I mean, this is all through. As you continue on, He gives you these sort of statements. He says stuff like this, You have heard it said, and He'll give them something, and then He'll say, But I say to you, and He calls them into a higher standard. He calls them in to do something or to be something separate from the world. Look, let me give you an example. Verse 21, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. Look at verse 22, but I say to you, calling you into something higher, I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and it goes on. Does it again in verse 27, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. Look at verse 28, he calls them in, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for has already committed adultery with her in his heart. See what he's doing? Higher standard. Calling him out of the world. Let me give you another one. Verse 31. This one very much so applies to our text in Mark today. Furthermore, it has been said. So he says, you've heard it said. It has been said. Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. Listen to him calling her something higher. But I say to you, that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual morality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. And it walks in and it does this over and over again. Verse 38, you have heard it said. Verse 39, but I tell you. Verse 43, you've heard it said. Verse 44, but I say to you, God calls you out, be separate from the world. Be lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. He calls us into a higher standard. And that's exactly what you see, as you flip back to Mark chapter 10, that's exactly what you see in Mark chapter 10. Okay? Mark chapter 10, we're going to see Jesus calling especially His disciples into a higher standard. It goes from verse 1, We're going to stop in verse 12 today, but if you keep going from verse 1 all the way to verse 31, He calls them to a higher standard even, or particularly, in the areas of marriage, of children, and then of money. And He calls them into a higher standard as you read through this. And you can read that on your own at some point. Verses 1-12. You're going to see Jesus say things that is very counter-cultural. Very counter to the culture He lives in. And it's so shocking that the disciples... He's talking about marriage and divorce. And the disciples say something like this. They say, man, maybe it's better not even to marry. See, it shocks them. It's turning their value systems, their worldview upside down. Be different from the world. It's not like the world's view of these things and Jesus calls them to something higher. Same thing in verse 13 through 16. They're rebuking people for bringing children to Jesus. And Jesus rebukes them and says, let those children come to me. He's turning their worldview upside down. Same thing in verse 17 through 31. It's where Jesus encounters the rich young ruler. Remember that? He encounters a rich young ruler. And then Jesus says this little phrase that shocks the disciples, turning their worldviews upside down. He says about the rich young ruler, it is hard for a rich man to enter heaven. It's hard for a rich man to enter heaven. And what do the disciples do? They're shocked. They say, well then who can go then? Who can go? These idea of riches and money is getting flipped upside down in their mind. This is what the Lord is doing. So Jesus calls us not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Not to adopt the world's ideas, not to adopt the world's values, but to be holy and unspotted from the world. And particularly in this area today that we're looking at is chapter 10, verse 1 through 12, is in the area of marriage and divorce. particularly in this area. Now, I want to say this. I know that this can be a very sensitive issue in our culture, and even among us. I know most of you are my brothers and sisters that I've had extensive conversation with. I know you, most of you, and I love you. And you guys know like I know that almost all of us here have been affected in some way by divorce, and it hurts. It hurts. It's painful. Maybe you've had parents. that have been in a divorce or something that affected you as a child, or maybe you yourself are actually divorced right now. Maybe you're divorced and remarried right now. And these things affect people. This is a very sensitive issue. I want to give you this. This is a quote from Sam Storms, and I really love this when he said it. And I encourage all of us to take this same advice. When you talk about these sort of things away from this setting right now, take this advice from Sam Storms. He says this. Mingle the call of obedience with the tears of compassion. Mingle the call of obedience. So should we back off of what the scripture says? No. Mingle the call of obedience with what though? The tears of compassion. This is not just, and I recognize this, and I want to encourage you guys to recognize this too. This is not just an academic exercise. This is real life. Divorce and remarriage issues affects real people in real life. So it's not an academic exercise. So I encourage you to feel the weight of that. There's too many people that sit from far away and do the academic exercise of deciding what God says about these things and never really in people's life dealing with the hardships that are involved in that. So I encourage you to realize that this hits real people, and there should be sympathy there. And I feel that today, and I do. I wanna faithfully preach the truth as it is in God's word. And at the same time, I wanna be full of sympathy for my brothers and sisters who've been hurt and have pain over the issue of divorce and broken marriages. So we need humility with each other. We need forbearance. I need you guys to forbear me. I want to forbear you in love, and we forbear each other in love as we talk through these sort of things. So let's go to chapter 10, verse 1. Let's just go verse by verse through it. I'm going to read verse 1. Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again. Okay, so He's entered into the region of Judea. He's left Galilee. You remember all the way back in the middle of chapter 8, Jesus was in Caesarea Philippi and He left from there after they said, You are the Christ. And He's been headed on this trek to the cross. He's going from Caesarea Philippi down south through Galilee. He eventually, here in chapter 10 verse 1, enters into Judea, the region of Judea. And where is He headed? He's headed to the cross to die for our sins. And when you get into chapter 11, He gets into Jerusalem. And chapter 11 all the way to 16 is the last week before the crucifixion of his life on earth. Some people call it the Passion Week. So here in chapter 10, he's entered into this region of Judea. These people are much more religious than the region that he's been in, in Galilee. you know, the holy city Jerusalem is in the region of Judea. We've seen, as you read through Mark, you've seen people come from this region, even from Jerusalem itself, and go see Jesus in Galilee. But now we've got Jesus moving into their territory, into their home turf, okay? And you've got multitudes gathered around Jesus and He's teaching them. There were always multitudes gathered around Jesus. And He was always teaching them Even though it was very rare that people were sincerely taken in and heeding His words. And yet He kept teaching them again and again and again. Jesus in His mercy continued to teach these people. He is the ultimate doer of 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. Preach the Word. Be ready in season, out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. Why longsuffering? Because as you preach the Word, you need long-suffering. And Jesus is the ultimate doer of this. He's just, again, He's around these multitudes of people. I want you to notice that word in verse 1. You see where it says, again? It says, And the multitudes gathered to Him again. And as He was accustomed, He taught them again. Jesus is the tireless teacher of the Word of God. Even though He looks out and there are many who don't listen, many that don't heed His words, He's the tireless teacher of God's Word. He teaches it again and again. And I want us to be like Him. That we would be like Him. That we would not grow weary of teaching God's Word again and again and again and again. Listen to J.C. Ryle on this thought. He says, let us see in this fact. And he's talking about chapter 10 verse 1, the fact that Jesus again is teaching God's Word. He said, let us see in this fact a standing pattern to all who try to do good to others, whatever their office may be. Let it be remembered by every minister and every missionary. by every schoolmaster and every Sunday school teacher, by every head of a house who has family prayers, by every caretaker who has the charge of children. Let all such remember Christ's example and resolve to do likewise. We are not to give up teaching because we see no good done. We are not to relax our exertions because we see no fruit of our toil. We are to work on steadily, keeping before us the great principle that duty is ours, And results are God's. Preach the Word. And you see Jesus in verse 1 preaching to them again. Verse 2. The Pharisees came and asked Him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Testing Him. So here we see the Pharisees come on the scene and they have a question. And their question is not a humble question. They are not sincerely seeking answers from Jesus. You see that, right? They are testing Him. They are out to get Him. They want to trip Him up in His words. They want to turn the crowds against Him. They are out to get Jesus with this question. They are testing Him. This word testing, where it says they are testing Jesus, this word testing is used four times in the book of Mark. Three times it's the Pharisees testing Jesus in this antagonistic way, but the first time it's used is in chapter 1 verse 13 where Satan is actually testing Jesus. Now here's what I want you to see in that. This act of testing Jesus is not an honest act of discernment. This is a satanic act of discrediting Jesus. That's what they want to do. And if you spend time meditating on the testing of Satan towards Jesus, and the testing of the Pharisees towards Jesus, you're going to find a common theme. You know what the common theme is? They misuse, mishandle, twist God's Word over and over again. This is what you see. You see it from Satan in the very first testing, and you see it from the Pharisees. They're mishandling God's Word, and they're twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction. Now I want you to notice the Pharisees, look at what they ask Jesus. They say, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? So this is a question about the law. Is it lawful? This is a question about the law. This is a question about God's view on this issue of divorce from the scriptures. This is what the question is about. They're taking it to God's word. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Now that seems innocent enough, right? But, I want you to know, remember they're testing him, they're out to get him, discredit him. Now how would that question, how would that particular question discredit or how would it get at Jesus in a negative way? Why? Why would this question, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Why would this be the route they take to try to get Jesus? More than likely, hear me out on this, more than likely they knew of Jesus' hard stance on divorce. In Jesus' breakout sermon, remember Matthew chapter 5? We just read it. He said, I know you've heard it said, just give her a certificate of divorce, but I'm telling you, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery except for sexual morality. So this is what you say. So knowing that Jesus takes a hard stance against divorce, knowing that, the Pharisees employ this question. Is it lawful in front of all the multitudes? They employ this question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Now how would knowing that, let's put the pieces together. How would knowing his hard stance on divorce, and them asking the question, how would that be getting at him? And there's at least two reasons. Number one, Jesus has entered into Herod's jurisdiction. He's entered into King Herod's territory, okay? And if you remember, Herod was the one who arrested John the Baptist and eventually beheaded him for what statement? John the Baptist said, it is not lawful, Herod, for you to have your brother's wife. You hear the similarities? And the Pharisees come along and say, is it lawful? He knows Jesus is in Herod's territory now. Is it lawful? Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And what happens if Jesus answers this? according to the dogmatism that he had in Matthew chapter five, what happens? What happens if he does that? It sets him in opposition to the same one that beheaded John the Baptist. They want King Herod to do their dirty work and destroy Jesus. That's number one. Number two, if Jesus, why would this question be to get at Jesus? Number two, if Jesus expresses His radical view in comparison to His culture, if He expresses His radical view on divorce, this puts Him in direct opposition to the culture around Him. direct opposition, and the Pharisees who are envious are hoping that this will turn the people away from him. or that this will discredit Him in their eyes. Now, to understand that Jesus' view on divorce was very counter-cultural, you need to understand what was going on in the culture at this time. So let me give you some thoughts on that, okay? This culture, the world that Jesus lived in, had very weak views of marriage. Very weak views. And when it comes to divorce, they were quick to divorce their wives for the pettiest of reasons. And let me give you a few thoughts on that. During this time period, there was two schools of thoughts. Two schools of rabbinical thought, okay? You had one school was a school of Shema. Another school was a school of Hillel. Now the school of Shema, they took this position. The school of Shema, they said, you can only get a divorce for gross immorality. Adultery, something like that, it's the only way it can go down, okay? But the school of Hillel, which was the more broadly believed school, this was the school that most rabbis fell into this category, the school of Hillel, and what they believed is you could pretty much get a divorce for anything. If a husband was displeased, just get a divorce. If she cooked a meal wrong, one rabbi even said, just get a divorce. And this is the culture, this was the more liberal view, and it was the one that was held by the majority of the people. Now you see this in Matthew chapter 19. Matthew 19 gives us the exact same account as Mark chapter 10. And when Jesus gives his view of divorce in Matthew 19, just like I said earlier, what did the disciples say? He said, man, it's better for somebody not to marry then. This shocks them. They've come up in a culture that's rampant in divorce. They've come up in a culture that's just free. Just whatever the husband pleases. Whatever displeases him, he can depart from his wife or make her depart. And they grew up in that culture. And this shocks them to hear Jesus' counter-cultural view. Now, let me give you another thought here. Josephus. He was a Jewish historian during this time. A famous Jewish historian named Josephus. Listen to what he said about divorce. He who desires to be divorced from the wife who is living with him, for whatever cause, and with mortals many such causes may arise, he must certify in writing that he will have no further intercourse with her." So what's he saying? Josephus is saying that if a man wants a divorce from his wife for any reason, and many reasons can come up with mortals, he says as long as he writes her a certificate, she's fine. Just for whatever. In fact, listen to what Josephus said about his own wife. At this time I divorced my wife, not liking her behavior. Ouch. Not liking her behavior. And this is the culture that they're coming up in. So if Jesus expressed his hard view in the midst of this culture, what do you think will happen with the multitudes? I want you to see this. The culture of this day is not unlike our culture today. You see that? The culture of this day that I'm describing to you is not unlike our culture today. We have weak views of marriage, and there's skyrocketing in divorce rates. It's just everywhere, okay? There's billboards in our own town that say stuff like this. No fault divorce, $159. Nobody even has to be at fault, just give me some money and you can get a divorce. Or if you Google Mississippi divorce, here's some of the ads that'll come up. Mississippi divorce, $159, we'll complete the paperwork for you. Or another one comes up like this, quick and easy divorce, $150, just quick and easy. So this is the culture, that culture was not too different, or our culture is not too different from where they were. Malachi 2.16 says, God hates divorce. God hates divorce. Malachi 2.16. And yet the world that Jesus lived in took it lightly, just as our world today takes it lightly. And I want you to notice what Jesus is doing. He stands in direct opposition to it. The verse we read in Matthew 5, 31 and 32. You've heard it said, just give her a certificate of divorce. But I'm telling you that whoever divorces his wife and marries another except for sexual morality, commits adultery or makes her an adulteress. So try to imagine Jesus there. All the multitudes around. There's the multitudes. And the Pharisees come and say, they know in his hard view on divorce, he comes and says, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And if Jesus answers, these envious Pharisees are hoping that the people, what do you mean they're testing him? What do you mean the Pharisees are testing him? They're hoping the people will turn on him and he'll lose his favor with those people. So, here's the Pharisees. They come with evil intentions. They ask Him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And how is Jesus going to respond? And look with me at verse 3. And He answered and said to them, What did Moses command you? I love that. Jesus takes them right to the Scriptures. Moses means the Scriptures. The first five books of the Bible are Moses. He said, what does Moses say? He says, what does the Scriptures say? We need to take this lesson to heart. Jesus always did this. The Pharisees, the so-called experts in the law, would come to Him, twisting the Scriptures in some sort of way, and He would not fold under the pressure, but He would fire back with the authority of the Word of God rightly divided. It's awesome. With this response, Jesus says, what did Moses command you? With that response, Jesus lays aside all the opinions of mere men, and he brings them back to the Bible. He discards the traditions of men, he goes over the head of every scholar who's ever weighed in on the subject, and he takes them to the authority, the only authority, which is God's Word. He reaches past all the common practices of the culture around him, and he goes straight to what does the scripture say. In chapter 10, verse 3, we should learn from this. Should we not? Woe to the man that leans on his own intuitions. Woe to the man that leans on his own ability to argue. Jesus says, what does the Scripture say? What does the Scripture say? Now how are the Pharisees going to answer? Look at verse 4. How will the Pharisees answer Jesus? Verse 4. They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to dismiss her. Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and dismiss her is what the Pharisees say. I want you to notice something. Jesus said, what did Moses command you? And the Pharisees respond, well, Moses permitted allowed me, allowed us to do this. Jesus said, what did He command you? They said, well this is what He allowed us, this is what He permitted us to do. People often come to God's Word this way. They come to God's Word looking for an allowance. They're looking for permission to do something that they know they already want to do. and looking for permission, looking for allowance. And if they come to God's Word and they can't find it really plain to do what they already want to do, they begin to do Bible gymnastics to make the Bible fit their own personal views. Sinful, hard-hearted men often reason like this to justify themselves. They focus in not on what Jesus has clearly commanded, but on what's allowed. What can I get away with? What am I permitted to do? And that's what the Pharisees are doing here. They say, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to dismiss her. Now, the Pharisees are making reference to an Old Testament scripture. Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1 through 4. We're going to go flip it. Hold your place and go to Deuteronomy 24. I want you to see what the Pharisees are referring to. Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1 through 4. Now as we do this, I want you to notice the twisting of Scriptures here. You tell me when we read this passage, did God say, did He give a command to divorce your wife here? Or did He even speak about it favorably? You tell me. Look at verse 1. 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 uncleanness in her, and he writes her, a certificate of divorce. That's what they're talking about, a writing. Make it legal. Writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house. When she has departed from his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she's been defiled. For that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Okay. Notice the twisting of the Scriptures here. Try to see it, okay? The Pharisees are using this passage of Scripture, Deuteronomy 24, to try to say that God speaks favorably in some sort of way about divorce. That all you got to do, just give a certificate and everything's fine. But you'll notice that there's no command here to have a divorce, and it's not even spoken of favorably. The only command that's given here is that if this scenario happens, If this scenario happens where a husband divorces his wife and a certificate of divorce is given, the only command here is once she's married another, once that's happened, he cannot return to her again. The command is you must not receive her back as your wife again once she's married another, okay? So, I want us to take this as a warning, okay? If you went a little bit slower and took Deuteronomy 24, you would see the Pharisees finagling with the Word to try to make it fit what they want, to fit their own passions, their own desires. And we need to take this as a warning, not to misuse the Scriptures for our own fleshly desires. We need to be warned by this example, not to take specific verses to make our case and yet miss the heart of God in His Word. That's exactly what they've done, they've missed the heart of God in this area. Now what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen among us? How can we protect, how can we defend against us being the people that twist God's word to fit what we wanted to say? And I'll say this, we need to be a people obsessed with the whole counsel of God. We need to be a people obsessed with rightly handling the Word of Truth and the whole counsel of God. Listen to 2 Timothy 2.15. Be diligent. Be diligent and show yourself approved of God. A worker that doesn't have to be ashamed, but rightly handles the Word of Truth. Or think of Acts 20, verse 26 to 27. This is what Paul says. He says, I'm free from the guilt of all men. Their blood is not on my hand. Why? He says, because I have not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God. And we see this in Jesus' life over and over again. They come to Him twisting the Scriptures, and Jesus says something like this. Have you not read? They come to Him twisting the Scriptures, and how does He defend against it? Have you not read? Or maybe He says something like, you don't know the Scriptures, you're deceived, you don't know the Scriptures, nor the power of God. So you don't get it. And then He usually follows that up with a few references from the Word of God to come against their lies. And that's exactly what Jesus is doing in Mark chapter 10. You can go ahead and turn back to Mark 10. Exactly what we see Jesus doing in Mark 10 is He's going to come against their twisting of the Scriptures, their twisting of Deuteronomy chapter 24. In Mark 10, Mark 10 verse 5 through 9, we're going to see Jesus just dash to pieces the Pharisees' misuse of the Word of God. Jesus is about to just dash it to pieces, okay? And He's going to do it with three points to make it easy to follow. Three points that He's going to use to dash it to pieces. The first point is chapter 10 verse 5. And what he's going to do is give the Pharisees a proper understanding of Deuteronomy chapter 24. He's going to tell them the reason the certificate of divorce was given, not to say divorce is okay or to give God's heart on the matter. That's not the reason it was given. He's going to say it was given because of your hardness of hearts. Listen to verse 5. And Jesus answered and said to them, Because of the hardness of your heart, He wrote you this precept." Because of the hardness of your heart. Now what does he mean by that? Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses wrote this precept. What does that mean? What he's getting at here is Jesus is telling them that Deuteronomy 24 is not written for the sake of showing you the heart of God and divorce. That's not the point. The point was to put a regulation on this sinful practice. Some sort of regulation. Because of their hardness of heart, Moses put some regulation. God the Holy Spirit put some regulation on this sinful practice so that the innocent parties aren't too severely treated. Okay? What do you mean by that? Let me give you some examples of that. If a woman and a man are married, Now he could, but without giving a certificate like Deuteronomy 24 said, he could just put her out, right? Just get out of here. Now she's going somewhere. And if she becomes another man's, then she could be counted for an adulteress in that moment. You realize that, right? She's got no proof. This man that put her out could say, I didn't divorce her. And if she gets counted as an adulteress in that moment, she's supposed to be stoned to death. according to the Old Testament Israel law. So this is a protective measure. No, no, it's not like that. You got to get a certificate of divorce. You need to give this certificate so that she has it, she has proof. That's one example. Let me give you another example of that. And I'm going to get this mainly from Spurgeon's commentary on this. Listen to this. Let me kind of summarize real quick. What he's going to say is the certificate of divorce or making it legal is a way of slowing down the passions of anger and these flippant divorces that happen because of the just over overflowing passions all of a sudden, okay? Listen to what he says. Moses insisted upon a writing of divorcement that angry passions might have time to cool, and that the separation, if it must come, might be performed with deliberation and legal formality. The requirement of a writing was a check upon an evil habit. And that's what we see. In Deuteronomy 24 it's already said. These things are already happening. These people are walking in this sort of sinfulness and a certificate of divorce was a check on an evil habit. Listen to Sinclair Ferguson in the same way. He said, Moses' words were intended to create a legal barrier. A legal barrier. So that they don't sin as they please. Rather than giving permission for divorce, they were intended to restrict the ease with which divorce would take place. In other words, if you could put something on here, Jesus says this was written, Deuteronomy 24, the certificate of divorce thing was written, it was written because of the hardness of their hearts. If you could put some legal formality on it that restricts the ease to which they walk in this sin, then it helps people, it helps keep especially the innocent party from being too severely harmed, okay? So, first thing Jesus does to obliterate the Pharisees' twisting of the Scriptures, twisting of Deuteronomy 24, is he shows them how they're misusing Deuteronomy 24. He just exposes them to that, shows them that it was written for the regulation of this sin. Second thing, second point that Jesus uses here is verses 6 through 8. Okay? Now what you're going to see is Jesus asked them, what does Moses say? He said, what does Moses say? And they pointed to Deuteronomy 24. But now Jesus is about to rightly divide the Word of God. He's about to point them back to the very beginnings of Moses. To Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, okay? And let's read this, verse 6 through 8. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Okay, so first thing that Jesus does is he quotes a verse from chapter 1 verse 27 of Genesis. Chapter 1 verse 27, it says this, that God made them male and female. You see that in verse 6. He made them male and female. In other words, male and female is not an invention of man. This is God's idea. Male and female is not incidental of evolutionary signs. This is God's idea. And God gets to choose what is right between male and female in marriage. God gets to choose, it's not man. Then Jesus takes them to Genesis 2.24, and then He quotes Genesis 2.24 and then He makes an observation. Genesis 2.24, you've got God has brought the woman, has brought Eve to the man, He's brought her to the man, and then this is what Genesis 2.24 says, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Genesis 2.24, a man shall leave his father and mother. Adam and Eve didn't even have a father and mother at this time. This is written, this is a pattern for all, as you look out through all of history, through all the other marriages that will come after Genesis chapter 2. This is supposed to push you out. It says, they were joined so that they are no longer two, that they become one flesh. Then Jesus makes an observation on that verse. You know what his observation was? He says, so then they are no longer two. but are one flesh." Now this is awesome. This is an awesome description of marriage here, right? They are no longer two, but they are one flesh. As it was intended from the beginning. A man and a woman joined together as one flesh. They are no longer two, but one flesh, he says right here. This is a work of God. This is one truth that makes wedding ceremonies amazing. In our culture, we flippantly go to weddings not realizing that when that covenant is made, remember Malachi 2? She's your wife by covenant. When that covenant is made, those vows are shared. God Almighty does something supernatural and awesome. He takes two and He makes them one. And we flippantly go to weddings. And maybe this is why not understanding this one flesh union that goes down is the reason we flippantly walk out of marriages into divorce and broken marriages. Very flippant, but this is an amazing thing. So I want you to think about that. Every wedding ceremony you go to, whether it's a big, fancy American one, or whether it's one somewhere in another country somewhere, but when these vows are exchanged, when covenant is entered into, you're about to see something amazing go down. What? God is going to take two and make them one. God Almighty graciously takes part in these ceremonies. Now, the third and final point, Jesus makes an application. to the verses he just shared. And that application is gonna be a direct answer to the Pharisee's question. The Pharisee said, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife and put her away? Is that lawful? Now he's about to give an application, a direct answer, and what does he say? Verse nine, therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. So is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? No. He said, why? Because God joined them together. This is a fundamental understanding of marriage, is that God does the joining. This is His work. He does the joining. It's not the government who joins man and woman together. It's not a preacher that joins man and woman together. And it's not parents that join a man and his wife together. This is a supernatural work of God. And if you get this fundamental point about marriage, then the answer to the Pharisee's question just makes sense. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? No. Why? Because God has joined them together. And man has no right to wrench apart what God has joined together. The principle is God did it, so man can't undo it. Men shouldn't undo this if God has done this. It's a fundamental idea of marriage is that God does a supernatural work of taking two and making them one. This is very, very often ignored and misunderstood in our culture. And maybe this is the reason, if Jesus is pressing in saying, why am I telling the Pharisees no? A man should not divorce his wife. Why am I saying that? And the main thing He gears in on is He's taken two and God is joining them together as one. If that's His main focus, and we tend to misunderstand, we don't get that, if that's the case, then maybe that's the reason in our culture there's such rampant divorce, such high divorce rates. So do you understand this? Now, if you understand this truth, we'll call it one flesh union that God does. If you understand this truth, then you'll come to the same conclusion as Jesus. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? What God has joined together, let not man separate. Look at verse 10. What we're going to see in verse 10 is a change of scenes. In the house, His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. Okay, so you have a change of scenes here, okay? Jesus is done dealing with the Pharisees. They tried to back Him to a corner. He's not scared, not one bit. He's not scared of them. And He holds nothing back. He does not shrink back from the truth right in the face of a culture that might disagree with Him, okay? Now Jesus is in the house, it says in verse 10, in the house, and He's with His disciples alone. So here He is with His disciples. Remember, His disciples are shocked over this issue. Their worldview is getting turned upside down. And they want to dig a little bit deeper into this. It's like they're saying, is this really what you just said? And they're asking Him. They're talking to Him about it. Now, what we're going to see is Jesus answer His disciples. He's going to give a little bit more detail. Look at verse 11 and 12. We're going to see Jesus answer His disciples. So He said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. So when the pharisees, the multitudes, and the pharisees are looking on, Jesus begins to walk into the scriptures and say, what God's joined together, let not man separate, because look at the way it was at the beginning of creation. Now when He's alone with His disciples, He digs in a little deeper, and He begins to expose the sin of breaking the covenant of marriage and being joined to another. And He calls it adultery. He calls it an adulterous act. Now this is very serious. Adultery is a very serious rebellion against God. And this says, Jesus says, when a woman or a man divorces his or her spouse, that they commit adultery. They walk into adultery. There's other verses, let me give you some. Luke 16, 18 says this. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. Romans 7.3, if while her husband lives she marries another man she will be called an adulteress. Now, the world that we live in today, and the world that these apostles lived in, is under the sway of the wicked one. You realize that? Under the sway of the wicked one. And Satan is on an all-out attack to demean marriage. He wants to demean it before you and I. And if he can do anything to make divorce more comfortable, more easy, he can make it seem okay and more acceptable, then he'll do it. This is a heavy word. Jesus injects the word into the situation, adultery. This is like God writing the Ten Commandments with His own finger on Mount Sinai. He says, you shall not commit adultery. And He applies that word there. Listen to the weightiness of Hebrews 13 forward. Listen to this. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled. For God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. So he says, hold marriage up in high regard. Don't demean it like Satan, or like these Pharisees, or like your world and your culture around you. Don't demean it, but hold it in high esteem. And he says, for God will judge the adulterers. Do you feel the weight of this New Testament command? Do you feel this? Now these things are written for our warning. These things are written for our admonition in regards to this area of life. Whoever divorces his spouse and marries another commits adultery. And this ought to cause us to cry out, Oh God, preserve me. God, keep me from this sin. Keep me, preserve my marriage. It ought to cause you to cry out to God for this or to use David's words in Psalm 19. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. So take the warning of these things. Feel the warning of Jesus' seriousness, His soberness around this issue. You need to feel that. Jesus did not mean to be soft on the issue. Now, at the same time, let me share an amazing truth with you. An amazing truth. Many people here, okay, right now, I know you guys, have dealt very personally with this issue of divorce. You've dealt personally with it, okay? And if you're sitting there thinking, I'm the only one, not true. Not true. I had a brother recently come to that kind of feeling. He was the only one. You're not the only one. You don't know about everybody here, okay? But you've dealt very personally with this issue of divorce, and you've even confessed in some way that it's rooted in sin. It was rooted as an adulterous act of departing from my spouse. You've even talked to me about those sort of things, okay? And maybe reading truths like this from God's word makes you a little uneasy. It's just kind of disturbing to you at times, maybe that's true. And let me say this, even if you've never personally dealt with divorce, I want to tell you this, God looks into you, He knows your thoughts, He looks into your soul, and He says things like this, like whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. So knowing this principle, that God looks into the very thought life, He looks into the soul, He knows what's going on on the inside, I could probably safely say that every one of us here have walked in this act of adultery, right? Every one of us here. So listen to this amazing truth. Awesome truth about redemption from sin. It's a gift to every person who's in Christ Jesus. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, cleansing from sin found in Jesus Christ. He comes and dies for sins, all sins, sins of adultery. He comes and lays down His life and dies for them. He says, cleansed. He says, justified. Justification found in Jesus. He looks at you knowing that you've been in adultery, and if you put your faith in Christ, the one who laid down His life for you, the one who's risen from the dead, who took your punishment, you put your faith in Him, and the God of all the earth says, justified. It's an awesome truth. Jesus does speak very harshly in a sense, to these Pharisees. Now keep in mind, some of the situations that are in this room in regards to divorce and remarriage, it's not necessarily the situation he's dealing with. He's dealing with Pharisees that are trying to come at him right here. And he does speak very harshly in this sense. And we need to receive the force of his words in regards to divorce and marriage issues such as this. But, if this is something you've done in the past, or something you've walked in the past, or something you've been a part of, whatever, and you've turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, He does not look on you with disgust. He doesn't hold it over your head to condemn you. Think about the lady in John chapter 8. She's caught in the very act of adultery. Remember that? What does that tell you? She's caught in the very act of adultery, and these men bring her to Jesus. And they want to stone her. They want to stone her. They want to kill her. And Jesus looks at them and says, He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone. Could you put yourself there? And after those men are convicted by their consciences, and everybody leaves, and it's just Jesus and that woman. They're just all alone. Jesus and the woman that's caught in the act of adultery. And He looks at her and says, Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She says, no one Lord. And Jesus says to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. So may we feel, may we be those who feel the stern warning that Jesus gives in regards to divorce. And at the same time, may we feel the unspeakable joy of forgiveness in Christ Jesus, new life in Christ Jesus, the one who died for our sins, the one who loves us and gave himself for us. May we feel it on both sides. Now, let's talk for just a moment. There's controversy around divorce and remarriage. Anybody know that? There's controversy around this issue. I haven't even hit it. Probably some of you are wondering, when's he going to talk about the controversy around it? Let me mention quickly some of this controversy. What I've tried to do is stick very close to Mark 10, as if if all I have is Mark 10, This is what I know to tell you, you know? So I've tried to stick very close to Mark 10 in this sort of way. But I want you to be informed that as you study the whole of Scripture on this issue of divorce and remarriage, okay, that there's some difficulties there that you're gonna run into. And I just wanna introduce you to them just so you'll be ready. There's really two major views, okay? Two major views. One is called the permanence view. Another one's called a permissive view. I have this on your sheet. Permanence view means this, no divorce, no remarriage under any circumstance whatsoever. I want you to be prepared for this, to think about these things. No divorce, no remarriage under any circumstance. Well, except for death. The spouse dies and I don't think anybody argues you can be remarried if your spouse dies. But under any circumstance other than death, no divorce, no remarriage, that's the permissive view. Permissive view allows for divorce and remarriage, but only, and hear me out, I don't mean somebody just says, yeah, it's cool to be divorced. Only in the cases of adultery, or an unbelieving spouse who departs and says, I don't wanna be around, just leaves. That's a permissive view. Now, there's other views that are mixtures. Some people think, well, you're permitted to get a divorce in that situation, but you can't be remarried. There's mixtures, okay, of this. And there's also, I mean, there's very ungodly liberal views, too, that say just get a divorce doesn't matter, right? The debating of these things, okay, they mainly hinge on two phrases in the Bible. Mainly. I'm not saying that's all you can look at, but the debating over this issue mainly hinges on two phrases, and we're not even going to flip there, I just want to mention them to you, okay? Number one is the exception clause. It's found in Matthew 5.32 and Matthew 19.19. It says this, whoever divorces his wife, hear it out, except for sexual morality. That's the exception clause, except for sexual morality. And marries another commits adultery. So the question is, what does this word mean? Sexual morality, the Greek word is pornea. What does it mean? Does it mean that if adultery goes down, then you're allowed to get a divorce there? Or does it mean something that some people come under the idea that it means in a betrothal relationship, in a Jewish marriage, which would not necessarily apply to us, that when something goes down there, that's when it's OK to divorce? There's some difference in opinion on this, okay? The other phrase that it hinges on is 1 Corinthians 7, verse 15. But if the unbeliever departs... So in the setting of marriage, if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. A brother or sister is not... Here's the phrase. If the unbeliever departs, he's not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. So that's the question. What does not under bondage mean? Some people say if an unbelieving spouse departs, then a Christian is not under bondage, but they're free to divorce and remarry. Some say, no, no, no, that's not talking about divorce and remarriage. That's saying they're not under bondage, but they're free to not be hooked to this departing unbeliever for the rest of their life. They don't have to keep pursuing this. So there's difference of opinion is what I'm getting at. And there are great lovers of God's word on both sides of this issue. I want to encourage you to humility here. There are great lovers of God's Word in all of history, and I'm going to give you some present-day examples. There's great lovers of God's Word on both sides of this issue. Let me give you an example. The permanence view. You've got men. I'm going to give men that I thought people around here might know. Okay, like Votie Bauckham or John Piper would hold to a more permanence view. On a permissive view, you have men. John MacArthur. Or R.C. Sproul. Or some of you know about Tim Conway. He would be another one with a permissive view. So you've got people who love God, love His Word on both sides of this issue. And I'm telling you, I've done a lot of studying them all. I've heard or read each one of these men on what they see on both sides of this issue. And I'm telling you, there are some difficulties. with both views. There's some very serious difficulties on both sides, okay? So here's what I think we need to do. We need to humbly, very humbly approach these issues, okay? And don't treat it like it's an academic exercise, okay? Humbly approach these issues, be fully convinced in your own mind what you see, okay? And let me remind you, you're not deciding is divorce right or wrong. Righteous or unrighteous? That's already been decided. Malachi 2.16, God hates divorce. What you're deciding is, is adultery or desertion of an unbeliever, is that a reason? Is that okay in regards to divorce? But as you do that, don't miss the force of Jesus' words. There's a way to get into the debate part of it and miss the actual force of Jesus' words as He speaks about the sinfulness of divorce and the adultery of it. Let me give you one quote. It's more of a paraphrase really from Tim Conway, he said this. God did not give us these divorce accounts. You saw the divorce accounts in the Gospels. He did not give us these divorce accounts to emphasize the loopholes of marriage. He gave them to emphasize the sanctity of marriage, and that's where we should feel the force. So I want us to encourage us to do that. Feel the force, feel the emphasis that Jesus puts on this particular topic, and come to humble convictions over God's Word. So whatever you decide, wherever you land on these sort of things, you shouldn't land there out of pride, You shouldn't land there out of unconcern about what other people think or non-sympathetic. You shouldn't land there for those reasons or out of fear of man. Land wherever you land because you fear God and you have humble convictions over His Word. I want to address real quick a common question and then we'll move into an application and be done. Okay. Here's a common question and I mention this because it surprised me. I mean it surprised me as I study this. It surprised me how often this question came up, okay? So in case anybody might be dealing with it, I just want to mention it, okay? This will be real quick. Some people have had this question. It came up over and over again. Something like this. I've already been divorced on unscriptural grounds and then remarried to another spouse. Am I therefore walking in constant sin and constant adultery? I said, if somebody really has that question in their mind, that they need an answer to that, right? That's heavy. Am I walking in constant sin or constant adultery because I got a divorce on unscriptural grounds and now I'm remarried? Okay. And then some have even gone as far to say, should I divorce my present spouse to get back with the former spouse? Okay, so let me clearly say something about that. The answer to this question is no. No, you are not walking in constant sin are causing adultery because you are divorced, even if it was on unscriptural grounds, and remarried. No, you don't need to divorce the one that you are with right now. No, the answer is no. In John 4, as you read in John 4 about Jesus dealing with a Samaritan woman, it's very clear on this. Because Jesus is looking at this Samaritan woman and He says, call your husband. And she says, I don't have a husband. And Jesus says, it's right that you say you don't have a husband. In other words, you're correct. You do not have a husband. Now He's about to say, you have had five husbands. But remember, He doesn't say, oh no, you've got a husband is that first one. He doesn't say that. He says, you're right, you don't have a husband. But you've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. Now as you dig into thinking about some of that, that means every single one of those marriages that she had, every single one of those, was a legitimate marriage before God. It was a legitimate marriage, a legitimate union, one flesh union performed by God. Therefore, whatever marriage you are in right now, honor that marriage. Honor your spouse, be faithful, and commit yourself to never leave. Okay, one application. I gave you two there, but we only have time for one. Application. Let's be doers of Hebrews 13 verse 4. OK? Remember Hebrews 13 verse 4? I quoted it. It says, Let marriage be held in honor among all. It means let marriage be held in honor. Let it be esteemed. Let it be valued. And one major way to honor and value marriage It's to get a grip on the reason that God honors and values marriage. If you get why He honors and values it, then you will want to do the same, okay? God created marriage. Hear me out. God created marriage, ultimately, to be a picture of Christ and His bride, the church. God intended marriage to be a living parable of Jesus and His church. You know that? God created earthly marriages. They were intended to be a model of the real thing. A model of the ultimate marriage between Christ Jesus and His bride, His people. And there are many verses to explain this, but there's probably not any as clear as Ephesians chapter 5, verse 31 and 32. Listen to this. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." So he's quoting Genesis 2.24, that from the beginning the two become one flesh. Then he says, this mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ in the church. You see that? I'm telling you, it refers to Christ and the church, this marriage. Christ and the church. This is what marriage is meant to be a picture of. It's always been this way. God didn't look down on the earth and see people getting married and say, how? I'll use that as an example of myself. He intended it. He invented it this way to be a picture of Christ and His church. So what does this mean? Think about it. Just let your mind go there. Christ, the eternal God, He looks on these adulterous people on earth, all of us on earth, He looks on these adulterous people who have turned away from their Creator. They turned away to lesser pleasures and other lovers. And he looks on these adulterous people. And we, the adulterous people, we deserve nothing but His punishment, Rad. That's all that we deserve. His eternal agony. But Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, full of forgiveness and mercy, comes to buy back His bride and win her affection. He comes and lays down His life and dies for her sins. He comes to the earth, He's rejected by men. He's slaughtered like a lamb and a substitute in our place. He dies for our sins. He absorbs our punishment, the punishment that His bride deserved. Three days later, He rises up from the grave. He ascends on high with a covenant laid out. Whoever believes in the Son, whoever trusts in the Son has everlasting life. You put your hope in Christ, you're a part of the Bride. He lays out this covenant. And every single person who's a part of the Bride of Christ, listen to what He says to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's Bible. I will never leave you nor forsake you. He says another way in John 10, He says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. If you're the bride of Christ, that should overwhelm you. Listen, I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He calls us in to be His bride, He purges us to Himself, and then He gives us this promise. It's an inheritance. The Bible says it's incorruptible, undefiled, does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. It's what He gives to you. And there's nothing, nothing, nothing more glorious than these truths. And therefore, if marriage is a model, it's a picture of these truths, then there's hardly a symbol on earth that shouldn't be lifted up and exalted. This is awesome. It's a picture of Christ and what He's done. So let's be doers of Hebrews 13.4. Let's consider marriage as honorable, esteemed among all. And as we do that, may we never, may we never be those that speak lies about Jesus through divorce that He would actually leave His bride because He said, I never will. I never will. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. And God, I pray. I pray for our church, Lord. I pray that you would heal pain. Heal pain, God, that has been produced by broken marriages. God, I pray that you would produce, in our church, Lord, you produce healthy marriages, Lord, persevering marriages, happy marriages. glorifying to you marriages, Lord, fruitful marriages. I just pray that you would produce that for your own glory. God, I pray that you'd make us stand as families in stark contrast to this world. Thank you so much for your help, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.