Jesus' Teaching On Divorce, Part 2

Matthew 19:1‑6

Let's look together at the Word of God, Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. In the first twelve verses of this chapter, we have the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of divorce. And it is a very, very essential area of Scripture. And so, we are unhurried as we examine it. We began last week and we'll look at it this week and again next week as well.

And as we begin this examination of Matthew 19 for the second week, I...I want to reaffirm something to you...just to kind of get our perspective a little bit. As I was ministering this week in the Capital Bible Seminary back in Washington D.C., several of the students and faculty members said to me ‑ John, we appreciate the fact that you emphasize the authority, the truthfulness of the Word of God. We sense that as the emphasis of your life and ministry. And I said ‑ Well, you're picking up the right signals because that's exactly the way I feel.

And they went on to tell me that their goal and objective in working with their students and carrying on the ministry God has given to them is that they should bring their students to the same kind of commitment to the authority of God's holy Word. And there are young men and pastors alike who ask me very often the question, "What do you feel, as a pastor, is your primary role? What is it that you're trying to accomplish with your people?" And I will generally say this to them, I believe the primary objective that I have with the people, at least the ... the target that I'm shooting for, the ultimate goal, of course, to glorify God, but the immediate objective that I have is to bring people to a point in their conscious mind where they are submissive to the Word of God, in general. In other words, where they believe that the Bible is the infallible, authoritative, inerrant, holy Word of God. And when the Bible speaks, it is the end of the argument. It speaks authoritatively and we are to respond to it and obey it. If I, as a pastor, can just get people to make a general commitment to the authority of the Word of God, then you can introduce any principle out of the Word of God and they are bound by that heart commitment to abide by it.

Very often people ask me the question, "Well, you know, when you preach on divorce or when you teach on this subject or that, that's controversial, do you get a lot of negative reaction from your people? Do they kind of fight against what you're teaching?" And I've been able to say to people through the years, "No, that is not what happens." In fact, we have seen that when we teach the Word of God and open its pages, and teach its truths that people willingly submit to it because they have an overall submission to the authority of the Word of God in general. And that's important for us to articulate that because when you come to the subject of divorce, you've got to remember that God is speaking just as authoritatively as He ever spoke in any other time. And that has been somewhat undermined because we have been hearing so many, many different views about the subject. And as I said before, an unholy church membership tends to want more and more concessions. And a very convenient thing happens in many churches they just eliminate the Bible. Or, they just reinterpret it. Or, say, "Well, that part was a cultural issue and we can't hold to that anymore." Or, it isn't that serious. And so, to begin with, I just want to affirm to you where we always stand here at Grace Church and that is that when God speaks, we listen. And there's really no debate with that. We are called to submit to the authority of the Word of God and when the Word of God speaks, we willingly and anxiously and lovingly and eagerly and happily and joyfully submit to the authority of that Word, knowing that in obedience there is great blessedness.

And so, as we open the pages of our Bibles again, look at Matthew 19 and are reminded not only from this text but many others that we'll be examining on the same subject, and we're reminded what God teaches about divorce, the only response is a right response. And that is one of submission to God's word. Jesus said it this way, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." It is our food. We live by every word that comes out of God's mouth and God's mouth has given forth some very essential words on the subject of divorce. The fact today that divorce is an epidemic, that it is all around us, that we are all touched by it, that we are all threatened by its devastating impact, does not change one wit‑‑God's holy word. And the sooner God's people begin to obey His word, the sooner they're going to experience the fullness of His blessing. And so, I just want you to know that it has to work in the subject of divorce, as difficult as it may seem, just as it works in the subject of salvation or any other thing. People, you know, eagerly run under the truth of redemption and run under the truth of forgiveness and want to run out from under the truth about divorce and holy living. But we cannot so dichotomize the revelation of God.

Now, in order to get our eyes again fixed on that our Lord teaches, let me read you verses 3 through 9 of Matthew 19.

"The Pharisees also came unto Him, testing Him and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for every cause? And He answered and said unto them, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning, made them a male and a female and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh? Wherefore there are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man divorce. They say unto Him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to divorce her? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall divorce his wife not on the grounds of fornication and shall marry another, committeth adultery and whosoever marrieth her who is divorced doth commit adultery."

Now, that's the clear teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ on the subject. It's not very mystifying, it's not hidden, it's just very clear. And last time we noted that the Lord, in teaching on divorce here, and confronting the Pharisees, is beginning a new dimension of His life ministry. At the end of chapter 18, He concludes a wonderful lesson on the child likeness of the believer. Then chapter 19 verse 1 says, "When He finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee." That is the end of the Galilean ministry. Several years He had been ministering in Galilee and now it is over. And He starts on His journey to His passion in Jerusalem, to His death and resurrection. And in so doing, He goes across the Jordan into the borders of Judea, or the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And we said that the beyond area was called Perea, from the word peran which means beyond. So, we have then, in chapter 19 and 20, His Perean ministry. He ministered in the Galilean area, now in the Perean area. It's another area where there were many Jewish people who needed to know that He was the Messiah and so He went there. Great multitudes followed Him, verse 2, He healed them there. And Mark in chapter 10 adds that He also taught them. And certainly taught them things concerning the kingdom and concerning Himself as the Savior.

So, we come to this new dimension. And as He is progressing into that Perean ministry, He is confronted in verse 3 by His archenemies who forever were on the aggressive to discredit and destroy Him, the Pharisees. And so verse 3 begins with the attack. And we went into that last time. Now you remember, they come to Him and they test Him. They're not coming with an honest question. They're not true seekers. They don't really want answers. They...all they want to do is ... is make it difficult for the Savior. They come and they test Him. And they have two things in mind. They say to Him, "Is it lawful for you to divorce your wife for every cause." That is the popular view. That is the view held by the popular Rabbi. And everybody sort of liked that view cause it led you shed your wife whenever you want. And so, they're waiting for Jesus to take the opposite view and thus become instantly unpopular, the crowd will disseminate, they hope, and He'll be discredited as one who holds too narrow a line.

So, they're seeking to discredit Him. But more than that, they're seeking to destroy Him. Perea was a territory ruled by Herod Antipas, who had an illegitimate marriage. He had married not only his brother's wife, but his brother's wife who was his near relative, so it was not only adultery and wife stealing, it was incest. John the Baptist had confronted their union and got his head chopped off for it. They were hoping they could get Jesus to take a strong stand against divorce and therefore lose His head, too.

So, they came with the idea of testing Him, hoping Held fail the test, lose His popularity and even lose His head. They wanted to be rid of Him. So they asked a question is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for every cause? They know that Jesus has earlier taught, which is recorded in Matthew 5 and Luke 16, that it is not lawful. And they know He won't take the popular view and they hope that will be enough to end His popularity with the folks that are collecting around Him.

Now, Jesus doesn't evade the issue. He answers them. And we went into verses 4 to 6 last time and saw the answer. The answer to that follows their attack. He did not bypass the question. He did not avoid the issue. He went right at their question.

You know, some years ago when I was first getting involved some times talking to the media on television and radio, I was advised that...to pay no attention to what they asked. And they say that in media, whether you're in politics or whatever, when you're interviewed, people learn not to say...not to necessarily say anything in relation to the question, disregard whatever they ask you and talk about whatever you want to talk about. And later on the reporter will put in a question to fit your answer. And that really works that way. They'll shoot the camera at you and you'll answer a bunch of questions, they'll turn the camera around off of your shoulder, shoot it back at them and they'll ask questions that fit your answers, So, they... the kind of the idea is you just give your line and say what you want to say, don't get caught having to answer a question you don't want to answer in public, just say whatever you want to say and they'll fit questions to your answers so they don't look silly. And that's what they do. That's what they do in many cases. Now it doesn't always work too well on live interviews on television, but when you have a taped interview...when you have a taped interview, that's pretty standard.

But Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't evade anything. They ask a question‑‑He gives them a direct answer. But His omniscient mind, of course, grasps an answer that is going to make sure that He comes out ahead and not them. And so, instead of putting Himself on the line, He just goes back to Genesis and the answer He gives them is to recite the standard laid down by the eternal God... which would be very difficult for the people to take issue with and Herod as well. So, He lets God speak and He starts out by saying, in verse 4, "Have you not read?" So, His authority is not His own opinion, it's not His own idea, it is the revelation of God. He reverts back to the Word of God, quotes out of Genesis and gives four reasons why it is not lawful to divorce ... four reasons.

Reason number one, verse 4, "Have you not read, He who made them at the beginning, made them a male and a female." And that's the first reason not to divorce. When God created, the idea situation it was one male, one female and no spares. That's it. Just one male, one female. And there weren't any alternatives and there weren't any options, that's the way God designed it.

Secondly, divorce is not in God's plan not only because of the one man, one woman creation, but because of the strong bond, verse 5. The word cleave, glue, God intended two people to be glued together.

Thirdly, because of the one flesh. You have two becoming one in verse 5. Then verse 6 says they're therefore no more two and you can't divide one. So, one man, one woman; strong bond; one flesh.

And then the fourth reason why no divorce is in verse 6 in the midway point, "...what therefore God hath joined together, let not man divorce." Marriage is a work of God and we went into that in strong detail last time.

So, when confronted with the question is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? Jesus said, "Don't you know that God said...," and you can't get a higher court than that. God said one man/one woman, strong bond, one flesh, marriage is My divine work, don't divorce ... don't divorce.

Now, they're just really find it difficult to argue against that ... that's the Word of the living God in Genesis 1 and 2. Now Jesus stops with that, but this morning I want to take a little interlude between verses 6 and 7 and I want to go back into the Old Testament a little bit to show you how this is consistently carried out in the Old Testament.

When God laid down the idea one man/one woman for life, strong bond, one flesh, work of God, no divorce, when God laid that down, He really affirmed it. And let me tell you some of the ways that He affirmed it. In the Ten Commandments, which is the crystallization of God's law for man's life, He said: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." In other words, adultery is a word that has to do with sexual relationship outside of a marriage union, by married people. When a married person has a relationship with someone other than their partner, that is adultery. And thou shalt not commit adultery.

In other words, never, never violate marriage ... never violate marriage. That is one of the very most key laws God ever established. In case you do, Leviticus 20 verse 10 says: "If anyone commits adultery, he shall surely be put to death." Now the only thing that can break a marriage, then, the sin that breaks a marriage is adultery according to God's priority law because it results in...what?... death. And where you have death, you have the end of a marriage. There's little question about that.

And so, God says one man/one woman, strong bond, one flesh, work of God, no divorce. And if you commit adultery,