Jesus and the Law - Part 4
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Welcome… Introduce self
We will be looking at 2 texts today, both in Matthew:
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
[slide]
Today’s Outline:
Marriage
Divorce
Gospel
Marriage (Worldly vs. Biblical Perspective)
Marriage (Worldly vs. Biblical Perspective)
We live in a culture that has perverted marriage and sexuality at it’s core
For some, marriage is simply a right given by the state to grant some legal status or improve your tax situation
For some, marriage is simply a party that has nothing to do with the relationship, some people could take it or leave it, cohabitation
For some, marriage fulfills an identity, as a married woman or a married man
But what I see most commonly in our culture is this idea,
Marriage exists to make ME happy, to fulfill MY needs, to make ME the best version of ME there is, to complete ME.
The world says I deserve happiness and marriage is a means to that happiness, when the marriage doesn’t seem to be heading towards that goal, end the marriage.
I believe this is largely a result of our consumer culture. We shop around until we find what we want, we use it up until we don’t want it anymore and shop around for a new model. That’s exactly how our culture treats marriage.
The idea that marriage means monogamy is becoming less and less popular in our culture. Many will say they don’t want to get married because they want to maintain their sexual freedom, or that they want to wait to get married to maintain that sexual freedom as long as possible.
This isn’t too different from Jesus’ day...
And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
Biblical marriage is a union established by God
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Jesus points back to Genesis to establish his theology of marriage.
This means:
God designed marriage, not man
God’s design for marriage was established in the creation order
Standards and function of marriage do not change with culture
God’s design for marriage is:
1 man, 1 woman, for life
God’s design for sex is that it ought only happen in marriage
HOLD FAST, ONE FLESH
[Slide]
From the beginning, God intended monogamous, life-long marriage to be the only pattern of union between men and women. “Cleave to” carries the idea of firm, permanent attachment, as in gluing. In marriage a man and woman are so closely joined that they become “one flesh,” which involves spiritual as well as physical oneness. In marriage God brings a husband and wife together in a unique physical and spiritual bond that reaches to the very depths of their souls. As God designed it, marriage is to be the welding of two people together into one unit, the blending of two minds, two wills, two sets of emotions, two spirits. It is a bond the Lord intends to be indissoluble as long as both partners are alive. The Lord created sex and procreation to be the fullest expression of that oneness, and the intimacies of marriage are not to be shared with any other human being.
Biblical marriage is not a selfish act, Biblical marriage is a selfless act
Greatest commandment = Love (Jesus’ love is built around service and sacrifice)
Gary Chapman, the tingles, good marriages are not built on romantic tingles...
Man is made in the image of God,
we learned two weeks ago that anger is an attack on that image
Marriage is an image of Christ and the church
we learned last week and are learning this week that lust and divorce are an attack on that image
Divorce (Worldly vs. Biblical Perspective)
Divorce (Worldly vs. Biblical Perspective)
Pharisees’ view of divorce
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”
The religious leaders of the day had gotten into the mindset (misinterpreting Deuteronomy 24)that a man should be able to divorce a women for any reason he saw fit. And as long as he gave her a certificate of divorce, it was okay.
Tying this back to the previous versus, it was often about lust. Jesus condemned the Pharisees saying that adultery starts in the heart as lust.
Because the society was patriarchal in nature, it was culturally acceptable for men to essentially lust, and have multiple sexual partners, they legal way around this was to divorce your wife as soon as she stopped pleasing you and move on to the next woman. ((THIS WAS NEVER GOD’S WAY).
Our culture’s view of divorce
We actually saw something similar happen in our culture, kind of starting in the 70s, probably sooner but really ramping up in the 70s and 80s. Any sense of chivalry and honor in men started to weaken. Men became “players” and it became admirable for a man to have multiple sexual partners. But, what I find interesting is that the woman hung on a lot longer. Women who had many sexual partners were called derogatory names (which I won’t mention here).
But, did you ever stop to realize how modern culture, 2020, now, has responded? Women are pushed to put off the derogatory names, and be as sexually free as men. Instead of men being called back to a moral standard the women were told, “come on in, the waters fine.”
And now we live in a sex-crazed, hookup culture, where sex is completely disconnected from marriage. Culture encourages people to have “casual sex” with many partners.
This is a lie of the enemy folks. God has a better way for sex and relationships.
Jesus’ view of divorce
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The Bible teaches that the bond of marriage is broken only in these 3 situations:
[slide]
Death
Adultery
An unbelievers leaving
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
The Bible indicates that remarriage is assumed in any case a legitimate divorce has occurred.
[Slide]
Without exception, divorce is a product of sin, and God hates it. He never commands it, endorses it, or blesses it.
Grace
Grace
As with everything in the sermon on the mount, the point is to realize that apart from Jesus, we don’t have a chance at righteousness.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
There is this tension in the world, 2 errors...
Some take sin seriously, as they ought, and it leads to shame and condemnation. They treat sin as a big deal, and it is, but in that they have no grace or love.
On the other side is an equally evil error. They take grace and love seriously but at the expense of the seriousness of sin.
Which side is God on?
Does the wrath of God come down on sin as a consuming fire?
Or is God “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34)
Yes. Both. This is the story of the Bible. This is the picture of the cross.