Trinity Baptist Church

 

Tonight we're coming to the last in our three‑part study of divorce from the text in Matthew 5:31 and 32.

 

Now let me briefly review what we have been learning already. I said there are three things necessary to understanding what Jesus is saying here in this text. 

 

First of all, there is the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. 

 

As you know, in Matthew chapter 5 our Lord is confronting the scribes and the Pharisees to show them that their supposed standards of righteousness were inadequate. He uses this series of You’ve heard it said, but I say to you statements. 

 

In particular, in verse 31 He says, "It hath been said," and that He means by that in your religious system, according to your teachers, according to the things you believe, "whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement".

 

They taught that divorce was valid for any and every reason based on the rabbinic tradition. It was only necessary to be sure you did the paper work. In other words, who ever wants to put away his wife just be sure he gives her a writing of divorcement, make sure you do the paper work, keep the technicalities, abide by the external law and then you'll be righteous before God.

 

By the time Jesus came around, divorce was very common, and that's why He confronts them with verse 31.

 

In fact, the key to the teaching is in verse 27. I believe that the whole context here is about adultery. Jesus confronts them about adultery by saying your standard doesn’t go far enough.

 

You pride yourselves that you don't commit adultery I'm telling you, verse 28, you've committed it in your heart when you look on a woman to lust after her.

 

Further He says in verse 31, "When you get a divorce you're committing adultery and causing others to commit adultery. 

 

But the point is this, it was so easy for them to get a divorce they didn't need to commit adultery, all they had to do was divorce their wife for any reason whatever, do a little paper work and they could have any kind of relationship they wanted with somebody else. They could shed their wife so fast and marry the one they wanted that they didn't need to do divorcing.

 

So that's what our Lord is after. They're saying, ‑ We don't commit adultery ‑ and He's saying ‑ Yes you do, in your heart and by your divorces for other than God‑allowed reasons.

 

Now that's the thrust of the passage. The whole point here is that divorce leads to adultery. It is just sequential; divorce leads to adultery. That's what He is saying.

 

The next thing critical to understanding this passage in the teaching of the Old Testament. What is the proper teaching of the Old Testament?

 

If the passage in view, Deuteronomy 24, does not teach divorce for any old reason that you want, what does the Old Testament teach?

 

Well, let me remind you very briefly that in the Old Testament God recognized the reality of divorce, there's no question about that, He did. He recognized divorce as a reality. He also recognized a writing of divorcement or a bill of divorcement as a reality. But God never condoned it.

 

In all of the references to divorce whether directly or indirectly, God never sanctions it, God never commends it, God never approves of it, God never puts His stamp on it. He only acknowledges that it exists as a concession to sinful people. In fact, as we saw last time in an adulterous situation, God sets forth the example of Hosea and Gomer and God's own heart in the issue would be that if you have an adulterous situation even that far into your marriage, it's even that severe in your marriage rather than seek a bill of divorcement, seek to do what Hosea did and that is to forgive and redeem the guilty partner.

 

But the point of Deuteronomy is not divorce for anything obnoxious. The point of Deuteronomy is divorce for anything less than adultery causes adultery.

 

 

 

What He's saying in Deuteronomy 24 is that if somebody divorces his wife for short of adultery he forces her to commit adultery, he forces the man who marries her to commit adultery, he forces himself to be guilty of making her an adulterous and anybody that he marries becomes an adulterer.

 

The Old Testament, as illustrated in Deuteronomy is saying exactly what Jesus is saying here in verse 32. When you divorce for something other than adultery you simply compound the sin of divorce with sins of adultery. 

 

Now let's come to the third point for tonight, the teaching of Jesus.

 

Look at verse 32

 

Jesus is saying the same thing. You divorce for anything less than fornication or adultery and you create adulterers, and in every instance where the subject is addressed in the New Testament, there is never an exception clause. 

 

They just lay it out flat, point‑blank that when you get a divorce or you divorce somebody you cause adultery all over the place. Divorce, then, leads everybody into sin. It's precisely what Deuteronomy was saying. Divorce leads to adultery because remarriage is inevitable.

 

So the sin of adultery has become added to the sin of divorce. And that's what really is the whole sum of the passage.

 

Look at the end of verse 32, "Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery". And that's just adding another dimension, no matter how you cut it, it all comes out the same.

 

Now look with me for a minute at chapter 19 of Matthew and verse 3. 1 just want to go through this passage, you'll see what it means and it will just fall open to you and then we'll come back and draw it to a conclusion.

 

In Matthew 19 and verse 3, "The Pharisees came unto Him and testing Him and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?"

 

Now you see that's how they interpreted Deuteronomy 24, that's the way they handled it. They were going to trap Him. They thought they had Him cornered. They wanted Him to get on His little soap‑box and start blasting away at divorce.

 

You know why? Because that's how John the Baptist lost his head. And they figured, We'll get Him in the same corner, John the Baptist was thrown into prison, you'll remember, for speaking against the adulterous relationship between Herodias and Herod Antipas and they thought, Boy, let's get Jesus in there to talk about adultery and divorce and then they'll really go after Him when He starts talking against these people who have done that and we'll get Him just like we got John the Baptist.

 

 

 

And so they said, "Tell us, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause", figuring on the basis of what they knew from Matthew 5 He had spoken earlier, He'd condemn it.

 

"He answered and said unto them by asking them a question, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female?"

 

He asked them a question, Don't you know what the Bible teaches? "And He said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh, wherefore they are no more two but one flesh; What therefore, God hath joined together let not man put asunder."

 

All He did was quote Genesis 2. He said, Didn't you ever read Genesis 2? And they said to Him, "Well, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to divorce her?" You see, they were still hung up on the fact that they thought Deuteronomy was a command, and "He said unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives but at the beginning it wasn't so."

 

Now what the Lord is saying here Is that divorce leads to adultery.

 

Well the disciples got the message, look at verse 10, "His disciples say unto Him, If the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to marry.   

 

 

 

 

I mean, if you're stuck and it's that bad, forget it. If it's that indissoluble ‑ one flesh, never put asunder. If divorce is only a concession to an evil, sinful society, if divorce is only something as a last ditch technicality for fornication and other than that marriage is permanent it's better not to get in it because you might have made a mis

 

take and then you are stuck. "And He said unto them, well all the men cannot receive this saying except they to whom it's given."

 

That's fine, you can say ‑ it's better not to marry but not everybody can handle being single. There are some eunuchs who were so born from their mothers' wombs and there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have   made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heavens sake, "He who is able to receive it, let him receive it".

 

In other words, there are some people for varying reasons who can handle singleness. But not everybody can handle it. And the point that the Lord is making is just know when you go in you're going in on the right terms with a commitment to stay there. Because divorce proliferates adultery.

 

And is that not true? Just look around at what is going on these days. People say, ‑ Well, you know, this happened and then that happened and of course this was in the middle and then over here and that ‑ there's no way. The best thing for you is to die, frankly, just die. Go immediately to heaven do not pass go, do not collect $200.

There is no other answer. I mean, you have strangled yourself so far now there's no way out. I tell you ‑ people want to ask questions about ‑ just like the people who came to Jesus and said, ‑ all these people keep marrying and marrying and the seventh husband finally dies and whose wife ‑ it gets to be that way.

 

 You know, whenever there's a divorce Jesus says there's going to be adultery. All over the place on the part of everybody involved because remarriage will be inevitable and with no legitimate grounds for divorce to start with a remarriage is adultery ‑ except, and now we go back to Matthew 5.

 

This is the clause, "except for the cause of fornication".

 

The one exception the Lord makes for divorce is for where there is fornication. And, then, where there's fornication there's technically a cause for divorce. And what He's saying is ‑ Divorce, now get this, leads to adultery unless the divorce was as a result of fornication.

 

Now fornication is a Greek word pornia from which we get pornography. Pornia means according to the finest of Greek scholarship in seeing what the word means, it means simply this ‑ I'll give you the sum of what it means in just a few words, every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse. That's what it means. Every kind.

 

 

 

In this context, Jesus has in mind adultery because the whole passage is about marriage. This is about marriage. Deuteronomy 24 is about marriage. And the issue is adultery as He talks to these Jewish people.

 

And when that is the situation, divorce is the technical option.

 

Why? Well, certainly because God does not want someone to have to endure the terrible pain of being the victim of an unfaithful mate. And so God allows the technicality of divorce as a concession to the evil of men.

 

But from the beginning it was not so and it never was His original plan and a better plan would be to forgive and redeem the partner. But there are times when that partner is even forgiven but will not be redeemed.

 

Right? And if you can't do anything about it then that option is there. Jesus never advocates divorce. He only admits there are times when it doesn't lead to adultery, that's all. He hates it all the time. But there are times when it doesn't lead to adultery. There are times when you're the innocent party in a divorce and you've tried every way you can to reconcile, every way you can to redeem and forgive and put it together and it just doesn't happen.

 

And then you're free and if you remarry again it won't be adultery. So the Bible recognizes it will happen. And when it does, those who remarry, which is inevitable, will commit adultery unless sex sin was the cause.

 

So Jesus sets the record straight. God still hates divorce. His ideal is still monogamous, life‑long marriage and divorce only brings adultery apart from the cause of fornication.

 

A final word from the teaching of Paul, I Corinthians chapter 7.

 

verse 10

 

Now Paul is saying, I'm telling you people that are married, stay together and this isn't mine this is the Lord. In other words, I'm giving you a direct command from the Lord. I got this right from the Lord. This is Matthew 19, this is Luke 16 this is Mark 10, this is Matthew 5. The Lord has told us this, I'm quoting the Lord here. That's what he is saying. I'm quoting the Lord. No divorce. 

 

Now that fits what we learned in the gospels doesn't it? He doesn't even bother with any exception clause here.

 

Verse 11, "But if she depart", in other words, if she decides to leave, she has two options, "let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband divorce his wife."

 

If something happens in a marriage and you leave there's no adultery, no adultery, no fornication ‑ you have two options, you can stay single the rest of your life or you can be reunited with your husband. That's the only two options you have.

 

 

You say, "You mean, if I had a divorce for less than biblical grounds, not on the basis of adultery I either have to go back to him or stay single the rest of my life?" 

 

Well, that's what I Corinthians 7:11 says. Now you say, "Well, some of these things happened before I was a Christian."

 

Yes, but you are a Christian now, and now that you're a Christian you have to live in the light of 1 Corinthians 7, just like you do in light of the gospel.

 

Verse 12, "To the rest speak I, not the Lord". In other words, now I've gone as far as the Lord went. The Lord simply said, there is no divorce for less than adulterous grounds, that's what He meant. If you just decided to depart ‑ you either go back or stay single the rest of your life. You can't remarry at all. That would constitute adultery. And he's just reiterating Matthew 5:32, reiterating Deuteronomy 24. There is no divorce apart from fornication which doesn't lead to adultery if you remarry. So he says, You can't do it.

 

But I want to add something to this, he says, the Lord didn't cover this. It doesn't mean that it's not inspired. It just means the Lord didn't talk about it. "What if a brother has a wife that doesn't believe?" You become a Christian and your wife hasn't but she wants to dwell with you. Well, then, don't divorce her. If somebody might have said, "You know, I'm a Christian now and I've got an unsaved wife and we're unequally yoked ‑ Bye, honey. I've seen this Christian gal, boy, terrific!" No. No. You stay with her.

Verse 13, "And the woman which has a husband that believes not, if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him."

 

If you've got an unsaved partner ‑ stay married. Why? "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now they are holy."

 

In other words, you in that family are going to be a sanctifying influence. The best thing you can do for an unsaved husband and the best thing you can do for the children that are going to come through that marriage is to stay there and be Gods representative in the family.

 

That partner is sanctified by your presence. It doesn't mean redeemed it just means the pervasiveness of Gods presence is going to be a benefit in their life.

 

You say, "Well, what if my unbelieving partner wants out?" That's verse 15, "If the unbelieving depart let him depart". Again, the same word korizo, a technical name for divorce, if the unbelieving divorces let him divorce. "A brother or a sister is not under bondage,"

 

That means the bond is broken you are no longer bonded to that individual.

 

So if an unbeliever departs, seeking a divorce, the unbeliever divorces you are not in bondage in such cases. Why? Because God has called us to peace.

God doesn't want you to try to hang on to somebody that hates everything you believe in. That would not be peaceful.

 

Now Paul knows the perversity of human sin, he does not condone divorce. He simply says in addition to what our Lord says, I who am inspired by the Spirit of God add this dimension, in the newness of the church in the wonder of this new age where people are being called out of all peoples and tribes and nations of the world to form my church I am very aware that there will be times when unbelievers will not want to stay with a believer.

 

They will despise that believer for the faith In Christ and if that is the case, they seek a divorce ‑ let it be the believer is not in bondage. And I believe there is liberty there then for remarriage.

 

Why? Because the unbelieving spouse is gone, in a sense he's as good as dead, no longer sanctified. And I believe at that point there is liberty for remarriage. And so Paul adds this one dimension to what our Lord said.

 

Now remember, Paul is not presenting conditions under which divorce Is possible because a believer's not to divorce at all. That's the ideal. He's just saying that it may happen that some unbeliever dumps you because he can't stand what you believe in.

 

He's not saying if you've got an unbelieving husband and you see somebody you like better ‑ do everything you can do to get rid of him.

 

Oh no. Now what you've done is you've kept the letter of the law like a Pharisee maybe, you've forced him to divorce you but you've broken the law which is the ideal that God wants in your heart and in Gods sight you've sinned.

 

God knows if that unbeliever departed after you'd done everything you could to sanctify them, everything you could to win them, everything that you could possibly do to gain an openness in his heart or her heart to Jesus Christ. God knows if it was on those terms or if you just turned your back on him and drove him out. God knows.

 

So the Scripture is wonderfully consistent, isn't it? The believer is not to divorce at all. He says that. But if a believer is divorced and he is a victim of adultery or a divorce by somebody that doesn't want anything to do with Christ then and only then is he or she free to remarry.

 

Now listen in closing, we live in the age of grace, beloved, If you're a Christian I want to tell you some good news, everything you've ever done in the past is forgiven. Is that good news?

 

Everything. You may have blown a marriage; you may have blown three marriages. I've met people who have had four in the past. You may have messed up the whole shooting match time after time after time. I don't know how to unscramble the eggs. I don't know how to put it all together.

 

But I'll tell you one thing I do know and that is that whatever you've done in the past is under the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen? And you start from here.

"And if any man be in Christ he is", what? "A new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become new!' Forget the past, will you? And will you take a hold of the moment and live it according to Gods ideal?

 

Let's pray together.