Seventh Commandments (Part 3)
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The February 1973 issue of McCall’s magazine carried an article entitled, “Is Anyone Faithful Anymore?” in which the author included the following story. A young wife was at lunch with eleven of her friends, who had been meeting together regularly to study French since their children had been in nursery school. As they conversed, one of the women, the group’s leader, asked, “How many of you have been faithful throughout your marriage?” Only one woman at the table raised her hand. That evening when the young wife told her husband about the conversation, she revealed that she was not the one who had raised her hand. He was shocked and devastated. “But I have been faithful,” she added.“Then why didn’t you raise your hand?” She replied, “I was ashamed.”
Is it actually possible that sexual purity and the sanctity of marriage is just gone? It would seem that it would be the opposite. We would do all that we can to hide infidelity but even since the 70’s it seems we hide fidelity. It starts young… Since I was a youngster in the 80’s the shame was upon those who were virgins. He or she is a virgin and everyone laughs. Many psychologists make a category referred loosely as “Healthy Adultery” The rampant fornication and divorce has become so common place and culturally accepted, that to address the issue can now be considered rude even in the church. It makes people uncomfortable to talk about Divorce.
And yet it remains that more than 80 percent of people in our culture are either directly or indirectly affected by divorce. And contemporary relationships today are a smattering of tangled complex mazes and just make things more and more complex. So many difficulties, loopholes, technicalities, complexities, that it is so much easier to just leave it all unaddressed. For the best interest of the church don’t talk about it. We can talk about the simplicity and basics of divorce scripturally, but everybody has a different situation and think they are the exception. But in the end there is only one possible exception. But is seems there are hundreds of variations of that exception. And as the church acquiesces to the culture, the issue becomes a hundred times more confusing. I find myself at times saying… I just don’t know.
The complexities and technicalities have even made its way into the church and you know what… it always has been. Infidelity, unfaithfulness, and divorce has been something that has been a plague in the church since the beginning. Sure, we see lots of immorality coming out in the highest platforms in the church, but it always has been the case. According to Merle D’Augbine, In the 16th century, a church would call a pastor who had lots of misteresses. Because a preacher who had lots of misteresses, would more likely leave their wives alone. And we can go even further back than that. Let’s check it out.
“You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.
The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.
What Moses Taught
What the Scribes and Pharisees Taught
What Christ Taught
Go and Sin No More
First, we have to look at what it is that laid the foundation for the error in this laws interpretation. Second, we should see the error of the scribes and pharisees. Third, we will see how Christ fulfills the law. Finally, we will see another wonderful picture of the extent of the love and grace of our Lord in the gospel of the kingdom.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to stay in the dark concerning sexual purity, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will cause us to see the full extent of the law and find grace in the love of Christ.
I. What Moses Taught
-Get control of the uncontrolled.
A. As we get into this verse we should understand that this is part three of Jesus speaking on the law concerning sexual purity. This is not a seperate section of the sermon of the mount. The shortend you have heard with the de or also or and connects this passage to the one previous. Jesus is continuing his argument on adultery and sexual purity in accordance to the law of God. This is the context. The only context. The reason this passage gets so out of control is that we are trying to find stuff in here that was never the intention. The hermeneutical principle… the passage cannot mean what the author never intended it to mean.
B. As long as you do not commit “actual” adultery you have fulfilled the 7th commandment. As long as you make sure you give a certificate of divorce you have fulfilled the requirements of the command. No if you look lustfully on a womand you commit adultery and even if you give a certificate fo divorce you are still committing adultery. In a nut shell. Remember your righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and pharisees.
C. Clarification on the mosaic interpretation of the law of God in his context.
“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man. But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies, the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession.
D. Important to see here is that the understanding for adultery is not brought up here. Why? Because under the law of Moses adultery was punishable by death. There was no need for a certificate of divorce because the adulterer would be stoned to death. Adultery was not a exception for divorce, it was a capital crime. No divorce was necessary. The purpose for this regulation, was simply to control the divorce chaos. To controll the uncontrolled.
E. The historic biblical understanding at the time was that men, when they were tired of their wives or bored of them, they could cast them aside with a divorce. Excuses ran rampant, but it is understood that it was lust was the cause. They were looking elsewhere saw something they wanted better and came up with a reason. The purpose of the regulation was to greatly limit the reasons for divorce restricting all unjust, frivolous, and superficial reasons.(Kind of like what we have today) Another purpose for the regulation was that he must give her a certificate of divorce so that she could be free to marry with the understanding that there is nothing wrong other than the official reason and that she is officially free. She would be cast out of house and home and at the mercy of the cruel harsh world with no training or ability to provide a life for herself and maybe even children. This is part of the regulation to control the uncontrolled.
F. And to make sure that this was a serious and binding decision when you realize that you actually had it pretty good with her and now she back on the market you are forbidden to remarry. This is a part of the regulation to control the uncontrolled. You cannot go back. There is no going back. There is no rekindling the fire you once had. A regulation to control the madness.
II. What the Scribes and Pharisees Taught
-Emphasized the easy part.
A. The teachers of the Law were relatively divided on the understanding of the “Discovered Something Wrong With Her” Again, we see the tension between the two infamous rabbinical schools at work the Hillel and the Shammai who took the conservative line of something indecent. But Hillel took the more lax view that according to Josepheus a man could divorce a woman simply because he does not like the situation anymore.
B. This is where you hear the famous description… “If she proved to be an incompetent cook and burnt her husband’s food, or if he lost interest in her because of her plain looks and because he became enamoured of some other more beautiful woman, these things were ‘unseemly’ and justified him in divorcing her.”
C. The pharisees believed and taught (You have heard it said) that the main focus of the Mosaic revelation of the Law of God was not necessarily concerned with the seperation to keep the 7th commandment of Adultery. God wants us to make sure that the woman has been give a clean bill of health. You will not be acting in righteousness if you do not give the woman an official certificate of divorce. You will be destroying her. This is not right. So to fulfill the law and to keep yourself away from adultery, give the certificate. That’s the command it has to be or else we cannot fulfill it. Again, the tension. The scribes and pharisees emphasized the aspects of the law that they deemed able to keep. If it is anymore than that, we cannot keep the law. But We are the keepers and teachers of the law.
III. What Christ Taught
-I have come to fulfill the law.
A. Yeah you heard the scribes and pharisees teach this … but I am here to tell you the truth. Do you not understand the sanctity of marriage. Do you not understand the reality of what it means for what the Lord joined together let no man put asunder?
You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
B. Moses permitted the certificate of divorce, because your hearts were hardened and did not listen the the Word anymore. You did not care. Your lust and passion. Your desires and lack of self control. But because he did this, it does not change the fact… that you are committing adultery and transgressing the 7th commandment still. This certificate did not in anyway absolve you from the guilt and shame of adultery for the transgressing of the 7th commandment. The regulation was to help restrain the chaos, not eliminate the guilt.
C. Shane if that is the case then who can keep this command. That is the point. Jesus came to fulfill the law and confirm its fullness. But if that is the fullness then no one can keep this command. Yes thats the point.
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
D. Nobody can do this. The Law was not there to cleans us from sin, but to show us our sin. For many of us we are shown clearly our unfaithfulness in marriage and in singleness. We are all adulterers and we have seen before that we are all murderers. And when we see we cannot keep the law then we recognize a real problem.
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
IV. Go and Sin No More
-Unfaithfulness is not too big for God’s grace.
A. And adultery is real. And it affects us all in so many ways. But Shane do you not understand that I have fallen so short. What just these two explanations of Jesus, I see that I am a murderer and an adulterer. How is it possible that God could save a wretch like me? Yes we all have fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins.
B. I see it. The Law accuses. The law condems. The law condems the adulterer. But there are many who accuse. Lots of people with stones in their hands. Our own self for that matter. But for all of us who have fallen short in Adultery and even murder. Remember the Words of Christ
Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
C. There is no condemnation for those of us who cannot keep the law and whose righteousness do not exceed that of the scribes and pharisees. Why? Because of the work that Christ did for us.
D. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came to seek and save that which was lost. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.
E. And the wonderful news continues. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and that by believing you will have life in his name. This is the beauty of salvation and salvation belongs to the Lord.
F. Unfaithfulness is not the unforgivable sin. And God’s grace is so much bigger than the sins of the whole world. Rejoice today. Christ is the way the truth and the life.
