So, um, we left off last week ending Matthew 18. And the whole the basic, um, I guess subject of the whole chapter was teaching Christians the correct way to interact with each other mostly. But then obviously that that has farreaching effects with how we interact with everyone. Um the the last thing we left off with last week in that chapter is is emphasizing that Christians are to forgive without limits. Okay? We are to be the most forgiving people in the world for the sole reason of we've been forgiven for so much. It should be easy for us to forgive when we think about the infinite forgiveness God gave us and and and the price he paid to forgive us on the cross. And so we should be able to freely forgive people as well.
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I want you to understand that as I prepared this this outline and as I'm studying these verses, I had to realize that a a solid Christian marriage, a loving, happy home. It's for God's glory first and foremost, not necessarily for ours. So as I as I preach these truths to you, I want you to understand I understand I'm speaking to people people who have have maybe a lot of you messed up, right? Maybe a lot of us can look back on a lot of regrets. And so I'm talking to people, but really what we're trying to do is is apply these truths to our lives so that our savior gets glory. And listen, he can clean up some big messes, right?
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Understand that that it should be um something that's that's somewhat I don't know if easy is the right word. We should be able to live together as Christian spouses and have a happy home for God's glory. When we consider that at some point in the past, we have singled that person out as our favorite person in the world, right? I mean, any of you that's been married, at some point in your life, you looked at that person and said, "I love that one. I love that one so much that I want to spend the rest of my life with them." Now, we should be able to get along, especially considering what we've talked about here in these verses just before, right, in chapter 18 about forgiveness.
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Now, of course, one thing is is for sure. Sin complicates everything, right? So, along with these truths, we're going to look at the exceptions to the rule as well. We'll have to to keep this balanced and and just say what the Bible says about it. And let me again, let me just give you a bit of a of a disclaimer here. Understand as we read this that this happens in kind of a question and answer conversation. The Pharisees are asking questions. Jesus is giving answers. And this all happened fairly quick. We're having to go through this fairly slow. Okay? So, as I'm as I'm preaching for the next, you know, 40 minutes or so, what we're preaching about something that's happening in in four or five minutes, okay? So, I can't preach all that at one time because we have to put it in context, understand it. If you'll stick with me, if you hear something you're going, that's not right. I don't know about that. Give me a minute, okay? Keep listening. And I hope some some of your questions, if not all, will be answered as we keep moving.
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Here's what I love about it. As I read Christ's words, he did not care in the least what anybody was going to think about this. When they asked this question, the thought never entered his mind, h if everybody's following Shemi, if everybody's following hell or what are these people's thoughts or what's this going to do to my crowd? He didn't go to a specific uh you know situation that he knew of of a husband and wife divorcing and think what about that. He he didn't take that into account in the least little bit. He simply said okay what is the truth? That's it.
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There's a time to get specific about your specific situation, but first we have to say, okay, what is truth? What does God say? Okay, I love that Jesus just speaks the truth and he lets people do what they do. Meaning, there's some people that are looking to justify themselves or some other situation they know that's close to them and so they'll figure out a way to justify it. Some people just hate the word of God anyway. They don't care what it says. There's some people are really looking for truth though and they want to conform their lives to it. And those people are everybody's going to do what they do and the truth makes them do it.
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What he's saying is, "Haven't you read the Bible? Can't you just read it? Don’t I mean, he's looking at them going like, "Hey, y'all are the rabbis. You're the You're the scholars. You're the Pharisees. Uh why are you asking this? You can just read it. Let me tell you, every complication, every problem, every if this, then that that comes up after that moment can be traced back to that right there. Have Have you not read everything that comes up just just read the Bible. Just obey it. He's saying you should have already known this, but he goes back to creation.
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Now, Jesus's point here when he when he talks about these two verses, he's saying that when God gave humanity the gift of marriage, there was no need for divorce. There was not even a thought of divorce. Okay, he's going back to what did God make to begin with? He made something perfect. Get it? Then came the fall of man, right? Sin curse came into creation, came into the human heart. The man and his wife though in that moment they were totally innocent. They were in perfect harmony. Right? When God created man and woman and he gave Eve to Adam, she was his compliment. He was uh she was his help meat.
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That cleave. We need to get that. That's a that's a really great word. Cleave means uh to glue to something. It means to adhere to something. And don't miss this last part. This I love this. It means to join one's self to. What I mean is you didn't pick your parents, right? But you singled out that spouse. You glued yourself to that person. You hitched your star to that wagon, right? You said, "This is Yeah, that's that's that's the one for me." You glued yourself to this person.
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Now, don't miss this. Okay. Now, we're talking about in a God- orained marriage here. We're talking about a marriage between two believers. In a God- orained marriage, it's not a duty to get married. It's not like, "Okay, I'm supposed to get married. I'm going to do it." That's not it. Okay? It's not even a take it or leave it kind of a relationship, is it? When it's a God- orained marriage, it is a divinely inspired choice for that one. What I mean is, let me tell you something. Hey, young folks, listen. You're unmarried. I'm I'm talking to you right now, okay? And I want some amens from you older folks, too, okay? Who've been there and done it.
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When the other person is hurting, when the other person is even hurting you, you don't say, "I'm done with you." You help them. That's a Christian marriage. And get this, if you did that enough, pretty soon you'd be nothing but bones and you'd be dead, right? Okay? A skeleton is not a human being. A skeleton is useless without that flesh. That flesh is useless without those bones. You getting the picture? God has brought people together and he says, "It's not good for man to be alone. Here is your mate and here is your compliment and you go together and you make a whole person." He says, "You help each other. You do that complimenting. You do that sharpening, you do do the hard parts. That's a biblical godly marriage.
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That's a marriage. When the other person is hurting, when the other person is even hurting you, you don't say, "I'm done with you." You help them. That's a Christian marriage. And get this, if you did that enough, pretty soon you'd be nothing but bones and you'd be dead, right? Okay? A skeleton is not a human being. A skeleton is useless without that flesh. That flesh is useless without those bones. You getting the picture? God has brought people together and he says, "It's not good for man to be alone. Here is your mate and here is your compliment and you go together and you make a whole person." He says, "You help each other. You do that complimenting. You do that sharpening, you do do the hard parts. That's a biblical godly marriage.
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You could say that divorce is an irrelevant subject for the g for the the the citizens of Jesus's kingdom. It's not on the table because forgiveness is the first go-to. as we just talked about last week. Now, I also want you to notice this. Notice how God describes marriage from the start. Okay? What was marriage supposed to be? He describes it by comparing the relationship of a man and wife to the relationship with their parents. Now, look at that. Okay? For this cause should a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife.
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Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not. So, you know why divorce exists? Because sin exists. That's what happened. God created marriage perfect. He created people perfect. His creation perfect. Sin came in and just perverted it all. Okay. Now, I want you to go back to that that uh that that verse seven there where we're talking about um Deuteronomy 24. Uh think about this question. Remember, they ask, "Why did Moses command us to get divorced?" Go back. Go to Deuteronomy 24.
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These divorce laws are are set in the context of man divorcing his wife. These divorce laws hypothetically work both directions and that they apply the same for men and women hypothetically. But throughout human history, that is throughout hard-hearted sinful human history, that's almost never happened where women could divorce men. Now, we know that that's that's that's that can happen today, but we're a blip on the radar screen of history. That didn't happen in this time. Really, what's happening here, what God is doing is he's giving these laws to protect women. And don't forget, there's kids involved here, too. This is not just two people. There's kids, okay? As there are today.
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The reason they wanted to divorce their wives and do what they wanted to do every single day and not take care of and support and love their wives is because their hearts were hard. Because they were children of Satan. They were born serving themselves. They were born spiritually dead. And get it, divorce is born from sin.
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If you want to understand how sinful you are and how far you've got to go in in sanctification, get married. Your spouse will tell you. That's how it works. They're going to see things in you you can't see, and you'll see things in them. That's a that's it's it's the best gift man God ever gave man to become more like Christ.
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There is forgiveness. There is repentance. That now there is scars. They're going to stay, but there is repentance. What if that's the case? What if you have been saved and then you've made all these sinful mistakes? Okay, what then? Let's look at 17-20. 1 Corinthians 7:17. Try to stick with me. I'll see if I can if I can explain this correctly. But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called everyone. Now that word called is very important. Called is the gospel call. called is when he gives you understanding of scripture and how to order your life.
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What matters is, okay, are you following God now? Are you willing to walk in his steps now? Are you willing to make him the Lord of your life now? Because he is, are you willing to follow? Okay, verse 20. Now, this is important. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Get that. A person who's made all the mistakes in the world. All the sin has has just scarred their lives. He says, "You get content where you're at."
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Folks, when you get saved, you're a new creation. Old things are passed away. All those old sins. Now, you're going to bear some scars just the way it is. But get it. There's there's room to move forward. I don't know what situation you're in. There's too many situations to talk about when it comes to marriage and divorce. But but listen, I want to leave you with this.
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