 In the title of our sermon this evening, Marriage and Divorce, our essentials series. Again, one hour, one sermon, one subject, essential to the life health growth of the Christian. And we've been working through various subjects pertaining to the doctrine and practice of the church in particular over recent weeks, considering several subjects, topics important in the Christian life in particular. And this evening we come to the very critical subject of great importance, namely that of marriage and divorce. Marriage is one of the grand sweeping themes throughout the Bible. Have you ever thought about that before reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation? It is a grand theme that runs throughout the scriptures, theme of love and redemption from Genesis to Revelation. At the same time, divorce, a devastating testimony of the fallenness of mankind, the failure of mankind in his depravity. And we find in the scriptures, marriage and divorce to be a very important subject, a prevalent subject. It's fascinating to me to remember that the Bible both begins and ends with a marriage. Isn't that interesting? From God presenting Eve as a suitable helper to Adam in Genesis chapter two, all the way to the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven as a bride adored for her husband in Revelation chapter 21, marriage is a vital thread woven into the fabric of redemptive revelation. And it's important for us, I think, to understand why. But as all things we know corrupted by man's sin, perverted by man's sin, we also see the ravages of sin in that most intimate of human relationships ultimately resulting in divorce, which rears its ugly head in complete contrast. It's in photographic negative as it were to the covenant keeping faithfulness of God represented in the covenant of marriage. So marriage, divorce is a huge topic, tremendous importance. And we have a very limited time tonight in which we're going to discuss that, in which we hope to simply introduce this subject from the Bible. So I've planned to do that tonight. I've planned to just briefly introduce this subject under two headings, very simple, very clear, straightforward. One, the reasons for marriage. Two, the reasons for divorce. I know that's complicated, but we're gonna get through it, okay? The reasons for marriage, the reasons for divorce. Simple, clear to the point. And I pray very helpful to adding to your foundation for future study. First, briefly, the reasons for marriage. God alone, God alone has defined marriage and has determined its scope and its purpose. Having clearly, authoritatively defined marriage as the union of one man to one woman for one lifetime, God then reveals four primary reasons or purposes aims for marriage. I like to think of these reasons for marriage in terms of aggregation, procreation, sanctification, and illustration, okay? Aggregation, procreation, sanctification, and illustration. Now the first three of those we find summarized in our confession of faith. In the London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, chapter 25 of marriage, article two, our confession says this. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and the preventing of uncleanness, right? Three purposes there given for marriage. So taking that statement from our confession as our guide, the first of these reasons we find there is aggregation. I know when I first said that, some of you thought you heard aggravation, you were about to say amen, that wouldn't be nice. It's not aggravation, it's aggregation, okay? The word is aggregation, joining together for mutual benefit, or in other words, the placing together of one husband and one wife for their mutual help and benefit, aggregation, for their mutual fellowship, for their companionship, for their mutual joy, right? Serving together, loving, freely, humbly, mutual blessings, it's for their good, their mutual good. We find that in Genesis chapter two, verse 18. The Lord looked around it, everything that He had created, everything that He had proclaimed to be very good, and the Lord noticed one thing that wasn't good, right? The Lord God said, verse 18, it is not good, not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper, comparable. The word means suitable, suitable to him. So in the midst of all that God had proclaimed good, there was this one thing that wasn't good that God sought to remedy. He determined that husband and wife were not whole separately, husband needed a helper, and that them together whole as one flesh would be greater than the sum of their parts, so to speak, in accomplishing the work that God had given the man to do. Likewise, then, polygamy, for example, or polyamory, or polyandry, all the other polies, are sinful expressions, then, of man's depravity in polluting the perfect design of God for marriage, the perfect decree of God in marriage. What we see immediately, after God has designed and purposed marriage for man's good, is we see man begin to pollute and pervert that godly design toward his own selfish ends. But the second reason given, first reason is aggregation, the second reason given here in our confession is procreation. Procreation for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue. Now, what the authors of our confession are basically saying there is that it's for the purpose, for the purpose of having children within a context of a covenant relationship. Not simply procreation, certainly that's important, but specifically children within the context of a covenant relationship. The issue there in our statement of faith or bringing forth of children is legitimate because it takes place within the context of the covenant of marriage. Takes place within the context of this marriage that God has decreed or designed. God's goodness in joining two centers together in the covenant of marriage is a type or a shadow of God pouring out his grace in uniting sinners to himself in eternity. Marriage joining two centers together is a picture then. We'll talk about that in a moment, but it's a picture. It's an illustration of God pouring out his grace in uniting sinners to himself in eternity. Both take place in the context of covenant, in the context of what should be a permanent covenant. The third reason then for marriage. Third reason given for marriage is sanctification. Our confession refers to this as the preventing of uncleanness. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue and for the preventing of uncleanness. In other words, as a safeguard against sexual immorality. Physical intimacy and marriage, the Puritans would refer to physical intimacy and marriage as rendering due benevolence, rendering due good or as safeguarding moral or marital chastity. It's for the purposes of safeguarding purity. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter seven, verse two, Paul says, because of sexual immorality, for that reason, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. Those are commands by the way, right? Let the husband render to his wife the affection that is due her and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now many have misunderstood, misinterpreted, twisted, corrupted that passage to their own selfish ends. We don't have time to go into all the details of interpreting that text. Suffice it to say, it is to render due benevolence. A husband owes due good, due benevolence to his wife. He's in covenant with her. The wife owes due benevolence to her husband and that is for preventing, the preventing of uncleanness. Marriage then, given for the purpose of honoring the Lord in obeying the seventh commandment while growing in self-sacrificing love on the part of the husband and respectful submission on the part of the wife is for the preventing of uncleanness. Aggregation, procreation, sanctification, the fourth biblical reason given for marriage is illustration, illustration. Earthly physical marriage is a physical and temporal picture of the spiritual and eternal union of Jesus Christ to his bride, the church. It's a picture often, you remember in maybe you've seen old movies or documentaries and the man is going off to war and when he goes off to war, what does he carry with him? A picture of his bride, right? Has it with him in his wallet or he places it up on the dashboard of the plane as he's flying off into battle? It's a picture of his bride, right? Earthly marriage is like that picture. It's a picture and illustration of a heavenly reality. It's intended to be a reminder. It's intended to point us to something greater. Is that picture the reality that the pilot, the man going off to war is in love with? No, he's in love with the reality. He's in love with his bride. The picture is merely a picture. In the same way, marriage is an earthly picture of a spiritual and heavenly reality. Ephesians chapter five, verse 30. For we are members of his body, whose body? The Lord's body, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are members of his body, his flesh, and his bones. Sounds like what Adam said to Eve, doesn't it? Right, it's supposed to. For this reason, because we are members of his body, his flesh, his bones, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Marriage is to picture that union of the Lord's bride to the Lord himself. Paul says in verse 32, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. In other words then, the roles that we've been given in marriage become extremely significant in portraying this reality, this heavenly reality. When a godly, submissive wife rejoices in honoring the Lord by executing her role in marriage with diligence and faithfulness, she brings honor to the Lord in that picture that the Lord has designed of the heavenly bride and her heavenly bridegroom. In the same way, when a husband loves his wife sacrificially, giving himself to her as Christ did for the church, that husband well portrays the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for his own bride and is faithful in representing that heavenly reality that marriage is to point us to, right? So marriage then is a picture of a heavenly reality. Marriage and illustration, a type, a shadow, it's a type or a shadow that is going to be fulfilled at the marriage supper of the lamb will be fulfilled in eternity when the redeemed bride will finally and fully be joined to her redeeming bridegroom, a glorious covenant communion that will last forever, will last forever. Marriage is an illustration of that new covenant union between Jesus Christ and his bride, a knot like that covenant with God, which Israel broke in the wilderness, right? That's one of the reasons that picture, that illustration, those purposes, in particular, that illustration, one of the reasons why God hates divorce. It's a breach of that covenant. It's a breach of that illustration. It's a failure with respect to that reality. Listen to the language of the new covenant from Jeremiah chapter 31, beginning in verse 31. Listen, behold, God says, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers and the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke, even though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. In other words, Israel became an unfaithful bride. But this is the covenant, verse 33, that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, I will write it upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. There's a definiteness, right, about the Lord's promise here. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. There won't be anyone in that covenant that doesn't know the Lord, right? Marriage then, marriage is an illustration, a picture, a type or a shadow of this unbreakable covenant of grace. So when marriage ends in divorce, it's a violation of that illustration, do you see? Divorce is a breach of the covenant. God calls it treachery, calls it treachery. It's an assault on the lordship of God. It's an assault on the sovereignty of God. It's also an assault on those most vulnerable, those who are the victims of divorce. Turn with me to Malachi chapter two. Let's look at an example of this. Malachi chapter two, here at the end of your Old Testament. Malachi chapter two and drop down there to verse 10. God calls divorce, treachery. Verse 10, have we not all one father and has not one God created us? Why do we then deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? Israel had abandoned the covenant that God had made with the nation, had abandoned the covenant of the fathers. That treachery then shows up in how Israel then deals treacherously with one another, right? They had broken the covenant that God had made with Israel in treachery. God calls it treacherousness here, that treacherously broke the covenant, profaned the covenant. Then Israel begins to deal treacherously with one another. Look at verse 11. Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, how so? For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign God. Do you see? Institution there, that holy institution, not referring to marriage only or the temple or temple service, but referring to Israel herself, referring to the nation. Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse three, under the law, strictly forbids marrying outside the covenant. It was treacherous. It was treason. It was covenant breaking to marry someone outside the covenant. And yet Nehemiah, we find in Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 23 that they married, children of Israel, married women from Ashdod, Ammon, Moab. They took foreign wives. So the Lord says then, verse 12, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And this is the second thing you do. The second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so he does not regard the offering anymore nor receive it with goodwill from your hands, yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt, here it is again, treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Not only did they break their covenant with God by taking foreign wives, now they've broken their covenant with God by divorcing the wives that they had married legitimately. They broke their covenant with the wife of their youth. Verse 15, but did he not make them one, having a remnant of the spirit? And why one, because God seeks godly offspring? Therefore take he, dear spirit, let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce. For it covers one's garment with the violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take he, dear spirit, so that you do not deal treacherously. Two acts of covenant breaking treachery, abhorred by God. They had married outside the covenant and they had divorced their wives. Rather than a long lasting repentance on this issue, Israel in their history becomes more and more and more entangled in this sin. The practice of divorcing their wives becomes absolutely widespread in the nation of Israel. We talked about that a little bit this morning, didn't we? This in part, do a misrepresentation of the law. Under the law, Deuteronomy chapter 24, Moses gives regulations or restrictions with respect to divorce. Moses does not establish divorce as acceptable under the law but regulates divorce as it were. As we'll see when we look at the Pharisees and their understanding of this from Matthew 19, Moses was allowing divorce under some circumstances and only do the hardness of their hearts. So in Deuteronomy chapter 24, we're also not dealing with divorce because of adultery. The adulterous woman, the adulterous man would have been put to death in the circumstance of adultery. We're obviously dealing with divorce for other reasons and other reasons typically given by Israelite men. Listen to this from Deuteronomy chapter 24, beginning in verse one. 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 and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house when she is 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, 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 has 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. All right, a little bit wordy there but essentially we understand what the law is saying. If a man divorces his wife, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, typically that word uncleanness associated with sexual immorality and in that circumstance he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, sends her away, she goes, marries another man, she can't come back to him if that man divorces her or if he dies. In other words, the law under Moses, Deuteronomy 24 not in any way commending or even allowing for divorce. Simply not in the text. It's not commended, divorce isn't commended and here there's no language allowing for divorce. The text simply acknowledges the reality of divorce amongst the people and then seeks to regulate it. Right, seeks to regulate it. And what is the basis on which it must be restricted? The woman, verse four, has been, to use the words of the text, defiled in marrying another, defiled in marrying another. Again, another word typically used of sexual immorality. That would be the basis of the Lord's later words that she has made in marrying another, she has made an adulterer. Well, in the history of Israel, as the rabbis began to study, began to apply this text, they would later have varying thoughts about it. The school of Hillel interpreted this passage with the most license possible and interpreted the passage to mean that a man could divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever that was their thought. Divorced for any reason if he finds no favor in her or he finds some uncleanness in her for any reason whatsoever a man may divorce his wife. The school of Shamai was far more restrictive and divorce was only allowable for the sexually immoral behavior that is inferenced in the text. Well, this debate raged on until the first century when we find the Pharisees in the New Testament asking Jesus this question now about marriage and divorce and asking Jesus to weigh in on this very issue. Let's take a look at his words, Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19 and beginning there in verse one. And what does the Lord Jesus Christ then have to say about the law of Moses and about marriage and divorce in particular? Matthew chapter 19, verse one. Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan and great multitudes followed him and he healed them there. The Pharisees then also came to him testing him and saying to him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? Right, now you can ask that question in verse three in two different ways, right? You could ask the question this way, is there any reason whatsoever for which it would be lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Is there any reason whatsoever for which it might be lawful for a man to divorce his wife? In other words, the Pharisees are thinking no, there is no reason, but looking for Jesus to make an exception and going to trap Jesus in his words. Remember, divorce in the first century here is widespread. Divorce among the Jews rampant. Sexual immorality, obviously an acceptable reason for divorce among other reasons. Most at this time are subscribing to Hillel, the school of Hillel and that thought on the subject which meant a man could divorce his wife for just any reason and remember too, Joseph. Now why was Joseph going to put Mary away silently or quietly because of sexual immorality? Joseph was going to divorce, in essence, put away his betrothal to Mary. Or the question could be asked this way, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever? And that debate is still raging and that's the way in which the Pharisees are asking the question. Is it lawful for a man to simply divorce his wife for any reason, for any reason? Jesus answers the question, no. It's not lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason whatsoever. You simply can't divorce your wife for just any reason and here's why, verse four. He answered and said to them, have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, 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. Lord, can you divorce your wife for any reason whatsoever? Jesus says no, right? Jesus says no and he gives them the answer there. So then they said to him, verse seven, why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? He said to them, verse eight and that's a reference to Deuteronomy 24. He said to them, verse eight, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so. In other words, this is not God's intention but because of the hardness of your hearts, because of your sin, Moses permitted divorce. Because of sin, because of the effects of sin, Moses allowed for a certificate of divorce. In other words, Moses when Moses is enacting the law of God, Moses showed mercy. Because of the prevalence of man's sin, because of man's depravity, it's in effect exactly what we see Paul doing later in other New Testament texts concerning divorce, Moses shows mercy. A prohibition on any divorce whatsoever would have been unbearable, untenable to fallen sinful men, right? Living in this fallen world, it's untenable. It wasn't that way from the beginning. That's not God's design but because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed for a certificate of divorce. It can't be frivolously done for any reason whatsoever, the way that many had interpreted that statement from Deuteronomy 24 or the way that the school of Hillel had applied Deuteronomy 24. It couldn't be frivolously done for any reason whatsoever but there was an exception. And let me give you the exception from verse nine. And to clarify the law that Moses had delivered to them, the Lord Jesus Christ said, I say to you, here's the exception, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. So can a man divorce his wife for just any reason whatsoever? No, no, because that's not God's intention but the one exception that the Lord Jesus Christ gives in Matthew 19 is for sexual immorality. We'll see other exceptions in the New Testament as we look at texts by Paul but suffice it to say for now there are four basic views regarding divorce, four basic views. First there's the permanence view, the permanence view. Permanence view teaches that it is speaking of the permanence of the original marriage, that there is no divorce under any circumstances and no remarriage under any circumstances. That's the permanence view, no divorce, no remarriage. There's the semi-permanence view, semi-permanence view. Allows for divorce under certain circumstances. Absolutely no remarriage under any circumstances. So allows for divorce under certain circumstances but absolutely no remarriage under any circumstances. There's the permissive view. Allows for divorce under certain circumstances and allows for remarriage under certain circumstances. And lastly, there's the liberal view. Divorce and remarriage allowable for virtually any reason whatsoever. Okay, permanence view, semi-permanence view, permissive view, and a liberal view. Let's take the permanence view. Is this the way that the Lord intended marriage to be? Does the permanence view represent the way in which the Lord determined or intended marriage to be? Yes, it does. The Lord intended marriage to be permanent. But why then did Moses under the law allow for a certificate of divorce, Matthew chapter 19? Why did God allow for certificates of divorce under the Mosaic covenant? Matthew chapter 19, verse eight, it's due to human sin. The hardness of our fallen hearts, man has made divorce without exception virtually untenable through sin. And we know good example, good reason for that. A man who is abusive to his wife, a man who's been sexually immoral with his wife. God has been merciful in allowing for certain exceptions. One clearly for Matthew 19 is sexual immorality. In that, God has shown mercy. Moses showed mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ upholds that exception in Matthew five and he again upholds the exception for sexual immorality in Matthew chapter 19. And Paul upholds that exception in other places in the New Testament. Because the Bible upholds that exception for divorce on the basis of sexual immorality, then the permanence view has to be abandoned on the basis of scripture. The permanence view would not be biblical, okay? Let's look at the semi-permanence view. Semi-permanence view allows for divorce under certain circumstances, absolutely no remarriage under any circumstances, right? The semi-permanence view. Moses, Moses allowed for a certificate to be given a certificate of divorce. That certificate was for the purpose of remarriage. With the certificate, the woman in Deuteronomy 24 went and married another, remember the text? Went and married another. Matthew chapter 19, verse nine. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery except for, Jesus says, sexual immorality. In other words, remarriage is allowable under the exception. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter seven, verse 27, speaking to a Christian man released from a wife, Paul says, are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife, but even if you do marry, you have not sinned. In other words, the one who became loosed from a wife, if he seeks then to remarry, Paul is saying, you've not sinned. The semi-permanence view must be ruled out on the basis of scripture. The liberal view may obviously be ruled out on the basis of scripture. We are not able to divorce our wives for just any reason and divorced people cannot remarry for just any reason. That leaves us with one view, the permissive view, the permissive view. Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter 19, divorce is allowable when there, with the exception, divorce is allowable when there is sexual immorality. Interestingly, that word for sexual immorality in Matthew chapter 19 is not the word for adultery. The word is porneia refers to sexual immorality more broadly than only adultery, right? There are other horrific forms of sexual immorality that would be left out of a strict definition of adultery and the Lord includes them here with the use of this word, with the exception of porneia, sexual immorality. Now Paul includes other exceptions. Look at Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven. Paul includes essentially two additional exceptions here for divorce, Romans chapter seven beginning in verse one. Paul says, or do you not know brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she has married another man, right? Permanence for you out the window, semi-permanence for you out the window. So divorce and remarriage, Romans chapter seven allowable in the case of sexual immorality and now death. Flip over to the right, first Corinthians chapter seven. First Corinthians chapter seven and look there beginning at verse 10. Here again, first Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10. Paul is not forbidding divorce and remarriage under any circumstances, but Paul is regulating the circumstances under which divorce and remarriage is permittable, right? Paul is regulating these circumstances. Verse 10, now to the married, I command yet not I but the Lord, a wife is not to depart from her husband, don't divorce. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband, do all that you can to maintain faithfulness to that covenant. And a husband likewise is not to divorce his wife, verse 12. But to the rest, I, not the Lord say, if any brother has a wife who does not believe and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. Literally, let him not send her away, right? Reflective of Deuteronomy 24. She is, if she is, soon you doche-o, soon you doche-o, if she approves of, agrees with, joins together with, in approving or sharing with him the marriage life, then she is to stay with him. He's not to send her away, right? Verse 13, and a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her and let her not divorce him, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. That doesn't mean saved. That doesn't mean in the covenant community. It means a beneficiary of the blessings afforded that believing wife or believing husband, right? Verse 15, but if the unbeliever departs, right? Let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. How do you know a wife, whether you will save your husband or how do you know a husband, whether you will save your wife? Departs in keeping with, not soon, you dake'o, not approving, not agreeing, not joining with, but disagreeing with, disapproving of. The contrast set up here by the verses is between the unbelieving spouse who is willing and an unbelieving spouse who is not willing. That's the contrast that Paul is setting up. There's a difference here between being unable and being unwilling, isn't there? There may be some who are unable, but there's a difference between being unable and being unwilling. This one, this unbeliever is unwilling, unwilling. We can all conceive of ways, can't we, in which someone may depart the covenant bonds of marriage without physically leaving the house, right? That reflects that attitude, that spirit of being unwilling to live with his spouse. For example, what about an unbelieving spouse who comes out as a sodomite? An unbelieving spouse who turns out to be a homosexual. What about someone who physically abuses, tortures his wife, hasn't physically departed the household but has physically departed, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, loving in all ways possible, departed the marriage covenant as abandoned his wife. Those are just a couple of examples. Not willing, not willing to live with, agree with, approve of, join together with his spouse in a marriage covenant. Just as with the more broad definition of sexual immorality, there is a broadened definition here used of departure. We must use or exercise great caution, apply biblical wisdom when trying to define the circumstances under which those rules, those words apply, but there simply is no hard and fast rule. And I think that is in the great wisdom, grace and mercy of God who allows us, allows for us on a case by case basis to look at the circumstances with biblical wisdom and do the best that we can to be faithful in defining what that looks like and helping our brothers and sisters to find themselves in these difficult circumstances. So divorce in the New Testament is permittable in cases of death and now abandonment and sexual immorality. Paul continues by saying, verse 15, that the brother or sister is no longer under bondage, literally enslaved in such cases. Not under bondage, those words assume freedom from the obligations of that marriage commitment, right? This freedom would allow the divorced person to assume the obligations of a new marriage. Paul contrasts the use of that word under bondage, meaning enslaved, with free, the word free in verse 39, specifically ties it to being free to marry again and Paul qualifies that only in the Lord. He's free to marry, but only in the Lord. Charles Hodge said this, if the unbeliever broke up the marriage, then the Christian partner is liberated from the contract. Remarriage to a godly husband, then maybe the very means by which God provides for and cares for that believing spouse and her children. A good rule of thumb, where divorce is forbidden, remarriage is forbidden. Where divorce is permitted, remarriage is permitted. And you have really, based on Paul's statements, Romans chapter seven, first Corinthians chapter seven, based on the statements of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and Matthew 19, that the permissive view is the biblical view, is the scriptural view, I believe the right view to go with. Without specific definitions, without hard and fast rules, how is it then that we honor the Lord by not going too far? How is it that you avoid the pitfalls, the potholes that the Pharisees themselves fell into with divorcing one another for just any reason whatsoever? How do we avoid that if we don't have hard and fast rules that define these terms more specifically for us? How do we be faithful? Well, we remember what the Lord says, God hates divorce. All of this doesn't negate that reality, doesn't negate that truth. God hates divorce. God is faithful to His covenants when God makes a promise, God keeps it. Let us, brothers and sisters, be faithful to ours. Let us do everything that we can, all that we can to be faithful to our commitments, to be faithful to our covenants. And then remember, remember the picture that this paints of our union with Jesus Christ. Our union with the Lord Jesus Christ will last into eternity. It is an eternal, unbreakable union. There is nothing that will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, nothing. No one will snatch us from His hand and let this point us to the gospel when there is sin. The Lord is faithful even when we are faithless, amen. Amen, all glory, praise and honor to Him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for the blessing of time together just to consider an overview or an introduction. I know these things are difficult. They can be very complicated. There are so many circumstances, Lord, where these things can be difficult to discern and texts difficult to apply. I pray, Lord, that you would be gracious to us, merciful to us by your spirit and give us wisdom in such cases. Help us to understand, help us to be faithful to you, esteeming you above others as we should and loving in how we deal with one another and loving how we consider one another and the circumstances that the Bible is speaking of here, circumstances that are dealing with marriage and divorce and help us to consider these things with a great weight with which you have attributed to them in your word that we might not flippantly, cavalierly, frivolously make decisions or dispense counsel without knowledge, without understanding, without wisdom. But we need you, Lord, in these things. Please help us to understand. Please, Lord, I pray that for the glory of Lord Jesus Christ, for the glory of your name, that you would grant us faithfulness in our marriages. You would grant that those married in this church would honor you, Lord Jesus Christ, in the picture that marriage is to portray by sacrificially loving their wives and by respectfully submitting to their husbands that these pictures, Lord, that our own marriages would be a faithful portrayal of the gospel for your glory. Help us, Lord, to be faithful husbands, faithful wives. Help us, Lord, to be faithful to the covenant of marriage, the vows that we took and may it be for your everlasting praise and worship. We love you and look forward to the day when this type, this shadow, this picture will be consummated in eternity as we are united to our bridegroom forever. And we enjoy the blessed intimacy of that relationship into eternity. Thank you, Lord, for that blessed promise. Come quickly in Jesus' name, amen.