All right, amen. Chapter 19 of Matthew there, the Bible reads in verse 1,
And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from
Galilee, and came in the coast of Judea beyond Jordan, and great multitudes
followed him, and he healed them there. And the Pharisees also came on to
him, tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his
wife for every cause? And the title of the sermon this evening is The Devastation
of Divorce, The Devastation or the Devastating Effects of Divorce, The
Devastating Effects of Divorce. And I think it's an important sermon to preach
in the day that we're living in because we're seeing a lot of people getting
divorced. And this country is just full of people that are, I mean the divorce
rate in this country is just off the charts, it's terrible. And it's even, it's
even so among those that would claim the name of Christ, we're seeing that the
divorce rates within the house of God, so-called, are even paralleled with those
of the world. They're on track with the divorce rate of the world. So it's
an important sermon, and I think it's interesting there in verse 3 where he
says, the Pharisees came unto him and said, tempting him. See they were
tempting, they're trying to catch Jesus in their words, and that's something that
they did often. But what it tells me there is that this is probably a little
bit about the culture of that day. It's similar to the culture that we're
living in today. They were probably living in a culture where people were
getting divorced quite a bit. They're trying to tempt him and say, you know,
shall a man put away his wife for every cause? Because they knew that in the
Word of God, if they understood the law correctly, that there's only one instance
in when God would permit somebody to put away their wife. And we're going to look
at that in a minute. So we're seeing even here from verse 3 that we're living in a
similar culture where people are just getting divorced. And it's just kind of
this attitude, shall a man put his wife for every cause? And that's what we see a
lot today, isn't it? That's why so many people are getting divorced. They have
all these different reasons why they think they're right to leave their
spouse when the Bible is very specific in the one instance where it allows
people to get a divorce. It goes on and says there in verse 4,
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at
the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain, shall be one
flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain but one flesh. Therefore, God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. So he gives them the straight answer and says,
Look, this is what God said. This is God's will. That's not enough for him. And a lot
of times that's the way it is with us today. Like, we'll read something from the
Word of God, we'll hear the preaching of the Word of God, and we still want to
come up with an excuse and say, Well, I know that's what the Bible says, but what
about this? And they go on there and in verse 7 it says, They say unto him, Why
did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He
saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you. See,
when God gives somebody the okay and the one instance to get the divorce, it's
not because God is just being nice. It's because there's a hardness of heart,
because God knows that people are going to get a divorce, that this type of thing
is going to happen. But that's not what God's will is, that people would get
divorced. God has very plainly said there that what God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder. Verse 9, it says, And I say unto you, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, here's the exception, except it be for fornication.
And people get this all messed up today. And I've heard Christians, or people who
claim to be Christians, you know, who have been divorced, that they say, Well, you
know, I left because my husband was committing fornication. When in fact what
was going on was adultery. And they don't even understand the difference today.
They're so ignorant of the Word of God, of the difference between fornication and
adultery. And he said, I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso
marrieth her, which is put away, doth commit adultery. And that's a hard saying.
That's a hard saying to hear if you're one that has been married and remarried,
that you've committed adultery. And I'm not here to pick on those that have done
that. That's not my goal. The goal of this kind of preaching is to prevent people
who have not made that mistake to not make that mistake. That's the goal of
this type of preaching. And because that's a hard saying, so many people draw
back. They don't want to offend people. They don't want to hurt people's
feelings. And they spare those people at the cost of others. And those people go
on and make that mistake. You see, in the Bible, there is one lawful cause for
divorce, and it's fornication. That's why Jesus said, except it be for fornication.
Go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 24. Keep something in Matthew, but go
ahead and turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 24. You're going to Deuteronomy.
I'll just read to you from Matthew. It says in Matthew 5, it hath been said,
whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, committed adultery. So again, in another passage, Jesus says the one
exception is fornication. And we find that exception in the law and the word of God
in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 1, where the Bible reads, when a man hath taken a
wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes,
because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of
divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. So there's the
one cause where a man can write his wife a bill of divorcement, put in her hand,
and put her away. It's if he finds some uncleanness in her. And I guarantee you,
the vast majority, in fact, I would say it's probably almost never happens that
people are getting divorced for this reason today. I mean, this is such a rare
exception that what it's speaking of is if a woman is saying, you know, a man is
marrying a woman under the impression that, you know, she's kept herself pure,
and he's going in unto her on their wedding night and finding out that that's
not the case, that he's been, you know, beguiled in that way, that he's been
tricked, and that she hasn't been forthcoming about her past, or he's given
the impression that, you know, she's a maid, that she's a virgin, and he's
finding out, you know, that they're not. And it's not something that he's bringing
up years later. It's something that has to be taken care of at that moment. It's
not something you can just say, well, let's see how it goes, you know, and if I
don't like this, then I can always bring this up later. It's something that has to
be taken care of immediately. Joseph is, that sounds crazy, but I mean, we don't
want to give anybody an excuse, right? People have got enough already. But Joseph
is a great example of that. If you're in Matthew, turn to Matthew chapter 1.
Matthew chapter 1. Joseph is a great example of him actually having a
legitimate reason, you know, at least at first, when he was first given the
impression of what was going on before he fully understood the situation of
having a correct reason to put away his wife. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18, of the
birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was
espoused to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. So Joseph, of course, he doesn't know what's going on. He just
sees that his wife's pregnant and figures, you know, she's been playing the harlot,
that she's been going around behind his back, and says, well, I'm not gonna marry
her, you know. I was given the impression that she was a virgin, that she was a maid,
that she was chaste. Then Joseph, her husband, the Bible says, being a just man,
so what he was doing, the Bible's telling us, the narrator, the author of the Word
of God, is telling us that what Joseph was doing was correct, that he was just
and what he was doing, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to
put her away privately. But while he thought in these things, behold, the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not
to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Ghost. So then, of course, he understands that this is something that God has done,
that it wasn't what he thought at first, that Mary wasn't running around, that
this is a miracle, and, of course, we know the story there. But a lot of people will
say, you know, they'll, like, as I said earlier, they'll think that, that adultery
and fornication are the same thing, and that if their spouse has been unfaithful
to them, that that gives them a reason to divorce them. But that's not the case.
Adultery is not a justifiable cause for divorce. It isn't. And that's, that's a
hard saying, because we're living in a culture that just mocks adultery, that
thinks it's just funny. You know, I was on, I was just on the 17 the other day coming
up the highway, and I see this sign, this ungodly sign by that, that furniture store
The Dump. You know, it's an appropriate name for them, because their, their, their
billboard is trash. You know, and it says, I don't even want to say what it said on
that, on that thing in mixed company. It was that bad, and it's just on the side
of the road for everyone. I'm glad my wife wasn't there. You know, I'm glad my
daughter wasn't there, and I had, I could explain to her what that meant. And what
it was, was just mocking adultery. It was just making a joke out of it. And that's
why our country is just filled with adulterers, and that's why so many people
are just getting divorced. Now, adultery is not a justifiable cause for divorce.
Go over and turn over to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 20, because that is a
hard saying. I mean, people, if they're living with somebody, or they've gotten
married to someone who's unfaithful to them, I mean, I can't think of a worse
thing you could do to somebody. I mean, it's, it's such a terrible thing to
commit adultery on your spouse. It's, it's wicked. I mean, it's right up there, in my
opinion, with murder. I mean, it's, it's harmful. It's just a terrible thing to do.
And God has some pretty strong feelings about adultery. He'll say,
well, what is the answer for adultery? Well, the Bible gives us, gives us the
answer right here. Leviticus chapter 20, and I want everyone to look and see this,
because what I'm about to say is not popular. It's, it's gonna probably rub
some people the wrong way. The Bible says in verse 10 of Leviticus 20, and the man
that comitteth adultery with another man's wife, even he that comitteth
adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall
surely be put to death. That's Bible. That's God's solution for adultery. And
you know what? People, they don't like that. They want to buck that. They want to
say, you know, that's not very nice of God. But, you know, they're the ones that
committed adultery. And now this person who cannot get a divorce, they have to
live with this person. You know, they can't just leave that spouse. But if we
were to enact God's loss, instead of just granting these divorces, the person that
was cheated on could move on with their life, couldn't they? They could at least
move on with their life and remarry and have, and have, try to pick up the pieces
and have some semblance of a normal life. But that's where, that's what the Bible
says. It's, it's plain as day, you know, and if it rubs the cat the wrong way,
well, the cat can turn around and get right with God. Go ahead and turn over to
John chapter 8, John chapter 8. Because people, even when you turn to a verse as
plain as that, it's just in your face, right there, there's no question about
what that means, they'll still try to come up with excuses of why it's okay to
get it, you know, why adultery is a justifiable way, reason to get a divorce.
And they'll turn to John chapter and they'll say things like, well, Jesus, you
know, he, he, that's the Old Testament. That's the law. Jesus did away with that.
And they'll turn to John chapter 8 and reference this story as a way to, to say,
well, you know, God's, God's okay with, it almost sounds like they're saying God's
okay with adultery, like God has lifted the ban on the death penalty on
adultery. But make, you know, make no mistake, Jesus very plainly said, think
not and come to destroy the law of the prophets. I came not to destroy but to
fulfill for verily one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law to all
be fulfilled. He didn't come to destroy the law, he came to fulfill it. He's gonna
uphold the law. John chapter 8 verse 1, and Jesus went into the Mount of Olives
and early in the morning he came again to the temple and all the people came
unto him and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought
unto him a woman taken adultery and when they had set her in the midst they say
unto him, master, this woman was taken adultery in the very act. Now Moses in
the law commanded us that such should be stoned, what sayest thou? This they said
tempting him that they might have to accuse him. See, they weren't having, they
weren't coming to him within the integrity of their heart trying to, you
know, find out the truth of God's Word. I mean they know full well, I mean they
said right there that in the law that such and one should be stoned. But my
question to them would be, hey, where's the man? Because it says the adulterer and
the adulteress. You know, why didn't you bring the guy too? Because they're not
there to see that God's righteousness upheld. They're there, as it says, to tempt
him. Because at that time it wasn't, it wasn't lawful for the Jews to put
people to death. You know, it wouldn't be right. So they're trying to get him to
say, hey, break the Romans Commandments, you know, break the civil law. And but of
course God, Jesus, you know, he answers them cleverly and it says in verse 6,
But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though
they heard them, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he
lifted himself up and said to them, He that is with sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her. Did Jesus just say, you know, I've done away with with that
law. Leviticus 20 10 is no longer in fact. I've disannulled that. No, he said stoner.
You know, but he did it very in a clever way because he understood what it was
they were really trying to do. They were just trying to trip him up. And again he
stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted by
their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even under the
last. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst and when
Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said unto her, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. You see
Jesus in this passage it's not just, you know, it there's a lot more going on here
I think than just Jesus putting his rubber stamp on adultery or saying, hey
the Leviticus 20 10 is no longer in effect. This is really actually a kind of
a touching story and I believe here that this is speaking this is this moment's
woman of conversion. I believe this is when this woman got saved. I believe he's
speaking there in the end where he says, neither do I condemn thee. He's not saying I'm
okay with adultery. I think he's speaking spiritually like he's not going to
condemn her to hell. Because I believe here if we look at this passage
carefully that we'll see that she actually got saved. And I'm going to take
a minute to explain this and it might be a little bit of a sidetrack but people
are turning to this passage and twisting it in order to justify divorce and
adultery and other things. See my opinion is that woman got saved at this
moment. Now think about this. This woman she had to have heard of who Jesus was. I
mean this is going on in Jerusalem. Jesus ministry is just in full swing so much
so that the Pharisees are coming out and trying to destroy him and stop him. I
mean it's more than likely that she heard of a Jesus. I mean at the very
least she had to have at least heard that there was this guy named Jesus
claiming to be the Son of God and doing all these great miracles. I mean there's
even a good chance that she even seen some of these miracles. That she'd even
you know heard Jesus is preaching perhaps sat under it. She'd heard the
Word of God. And I know people always kind of wonder it's always a question
eventually if you talk to people about Bible they want to know what did Jesus
write on the ground there? And I've heard a lot of different opinions and
all it ever is is opinion because we don't know at the end of the day. And a lot of
people say well maybe it was something out of the law and it could have been maybe
it was something who knows what. But my opinion here is that he was writing
something that only that woman would have known what it meant. I believe God
you know his foreknowledge knew that they were gonna bring this woman and try
to trip him up and he was gonna use that opportunity to get her saved. So Jesus is
stooping down and writing something that only she would have understood. And I
believe that might have maybe that's what kind of brought her to a point
where she put all it was like this is God how could anybody else have known
this about me? I mean that would have been the Word of God right? If Jesus
whatever Jesus is writing in the ground you know that would have been that could
be considered the Word of God. And then you got to kind of consider the
situation. This is going on early in the morning. This woman is getting probably
drugged out of bed. I mean they say they caught her in the very act. And I think
it's probably the morning after kind of a thing going on. And they're dragging
her out. She's probably not dressed to go out in public as she'd like to be.
Probably disheveled. You know didn't have time to get up and put her face on.
They're dragging her out. They're dragging her out. Jesus just got done
preaching in the synagogue. There might have been a crowd there. She's drug out
in front of these people and and and just shamed in front of this group of
people. But what did she do? She remained. It says they went out one by one being
convicted of their own conscience. And when Jesus stood up he was alone with
the woman. I mean she had to have known at that point this is the Son of God and
she was willing to stay there to hear what he had to say. I mean most people
would have gotten out of there quick. But she stuck around. And notice what she
said there in verse 11. She said, No man, Lord. And she calls him Lord right there
at the end. I believe this is the moment when she got saved. And that's really what
this text is showing us. It's something deeper than just Jesus you know doesn't
doesn't condemn adulterers. And that would be really hypocritical if Jesus if
that was how we were to interpret this. If that was the correct interpretation
that Jesus is okay with that he's not going to condemn adulterers. Because
Jesus specifically condemned divorce as adultery. He condemned it. Turn over to
Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. You're turning over to Matthew 10. The
Bible says in Luke 16, Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another
commiteth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her that has put away from her
husband commiteth adultery. Matthew chapter 10. Look at verse 11. He saith
unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another commiteth adultery
against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be marrying to
another she commiteth adultery. There's no way around these verses. And we say,
Well why? Why does God come down so hard on it? And we're only turning to a few of
these passages. We could go to 1st Corinthians chapter 7. We go back to
Matthew 5 and elsewhere in this word of God and just see where Jesus is
condemning divorce as adultery. Why does God come down so hard on it? Because God
knows how destructive divorce is. That's the title of the sermon. The devastating
effects of divorce. Divorce is destructive to the people involved.
Especially if there's children. And God knows it. And God is, you know, God really
doesn't always go into the why of why he tells us to do things, does he? That's
kind of like a parent to the child. Just because I said so. Because the parent
knows better than the child. They say, Do this. Why dad? Because I said so. They
don't have to explain themselves. And you know what? We read these verses from the
Word of God, that should be enough. We shouldn't be back talking to God,
questioning God, asking him why can't we get a divorce? Why is God
coming down so hard? Because he said so. That's the end of the story. But God
knows he's not just trying to ruin everyone's fun or something. What
he's doing is protecting people from the devastating effects of divorce. And
we can read these things and I can turn to the Word of God and
show you this and people are still going to get divorces. People are going to hear
preaching like this and still think, No, that's not good enough for me. And we
see the world's like that. I mean the world's just going after divorce and
they're just hell-bent on finding out for themselves why God condemns divorce.
So in case that's not enough, hopefully you could stick with me. I'm
actually going to read some studies about what happens when people get
divorced. I'll give you the why this evening of why God comes down so hard of
them. This report says the effects associated with divorce affect the
couple's children in both short and long term. After divorce, the couple often
experiences effects including decreased levels of happiness. Now that's ironic
because that's what people so often get divorced for, isn't it? They feel like
they'll be happier. I'm just not happy anymore. They think that they're going to
be happier moving on and finding another spouse. When studies show that they
actually have decreased levels of happiness, they have change in economic
status and emotional problems. The effects on children include academic,
behavioral, and psychological problems. Studies suggest that children from
divorced families are more likely to exhibit such behavioral issues than
those from non-divorced families. Divorce has devastating effects on people.
Divorce and happiness, Linda Waite analyzed the relation between marriage,
divorce, and happiness using the National Survey of Family and Households and
found that unhappily married families who had divorced were no happier than
those who had stayed together. It didn't change anything. One broad-based study
also shows that people have an easier time recovering after the death of a
parent as opposed to divorce. Let me read that again. One broad-based study also
shows that people have an easier time recovering after the death of a parent
as opposed to a divorce. This study reported that children who lose a parent
are usually able to attain the same level of happiness that they had before
the death, whereas children of divorced parents are not able to attain the same
level of happiness that they had before the divorce. This report is saying that
if people getting divorced say, well, it's for the children, it would
be better, this report is saying, it would be better if one of you died than
get divorced. If your happiness of your children, that's how devastating divorce
is. That it would be better that one of you actually died. Your child would
recover better from that than from you getting a divorce. So by all means stay
together for the children. The children of divorced parents have also been
reported more likely to have behavioral problems than
children of married parents and are more likely to suffer abuse than children in
intact families. I mean, if the safety and welfare and the happiness of your
children is what's important to you, then you need to stay married. I mean, more
people are abused by step-parents physically and emotionally than
their own biological parents. Robert H. Combs, professor of behavioral sciences
at UCLA, reviewed over 130 studies measuring how marital status affects
personal well-being. Researchers have also shown that children of
divorced or separated parents have higher rates of clinical depression, seek
formal psychiatric care at higher rates, in the case of men are more likely to
commit suicide and have lower life expectancies. They have more acute
infectious disease, digestive illness, parasitic diseases, respiratory illnesses,
and severe injuries. Married patients are also more likely to
recover than divorced ones. You want to stay cancer-free? Stay married. You want
to be able to recover from cancer? Stay married. Look, divorce is absolutely
devastating on people. They're more likely to have stroke, heart problems,
rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, increased risk of arthritis for
children later in life. Nearly three decades of research, three decades, that's
30 years, evaluating the impact of family structure on the health and
well-building of children demonstrates that children living with their married
biological parents consistently have better physical, emotional, and academic
well-being. Children fare better when parents work at maintaining the
marriage. And then it goes into the study and it talks about, you know, because
here's the thing, people will read that and they go, well, then I guess the solution is to
not get married. And that's the philosophy that's out there now. Let's
not get married, let's just live together. And what this, you know, PC report calls
cohabitating. That's the new friendly way of calling it, you know, what they, not
calling it what they really are, which is fornicators. So when you hear the word
cohabitating, just think fornicator. So that's the philosophy. People are saying,
well, I mean, if so many people are going to divorce, let's just live together. And
you know, people will promote that even to their kids now. Let's say, you know,
before you get married, why don't you live together for a few years, see if you're
compatible in the long run, you know, get a dog, right? It's stupid. The number of
couples who choose to cohabitate rather than marry has increased dramatically.
I mean, here's some numbers with 4.9 million cohabitating
couples in 2002 versus just 500,000 in 1970. So in like 30 years, what's that,
like a 500% increase, I think? I'm not really a math guy, but I think I got that
right. But it's gone from five, half a million to five million in 30 years,
because that's the philosophy. People are seeing marriage as not work. People just,
their lives being ruined with marriage, now they're just thinking, well, let's just
cohabitate, let's just fornicate. Half of the unmarried births are to mothers who
are in cohabitating relationships, and seven in ten children of cohabiting
couples will experience parental separation. And remember, the
philosophy is go ahead and live together and make sure you're compatible, because
then you're more likely to stay together. When the study shows the exact opposite,
that's some of the worst advice you could give anybody. The
dissolution rate, you know, they can't call it divorce, right, because they're
cohabitating. The dissolution rate of cohabitating couples is
four times higher than married couples who did not cohabitate before marriage.
So if you want to marry somebody and have that marriage last and not get a
divorce, you're four times more likely to succeed at that if you do not
live together. So the exact opposite of the world's advice is what's true. So we
can begin to see the devastating effects of divorce. It goes on and says, the
precipitating causes of divorce have also changed over time. Prior to no-fault
divorce laws, the legal procedures for obtaining divorce were often difficult
and expensive, so that only the most dysfunctional marriages ended in divorce.
So what it's saying here is that it's become so easy to get a divorce now that
people who otherwise probably wouldn't get divorced are. It used to be that only
like the most extreme cases would get divorced. You actually had to go before a
judge and plead your case on why you should be allowed to leave your spouse.
But not today. I mean, you could just go down every other corner in Phoenix and
look on the street sign and get right down a phone number that's advertising
divorce for 200 bucks. That's how easy it is to get a divorce today. It's easier
than buying a house. With the introduction of no-fault divorce laws,
it is likely that the child that has not experienced severe levels of parental
discord, they're saying, you know, it's not that dysfunctional, so it has even a
more devastating effect on the child. You know, they're getting divorced because he
doesn't put his socks in the hamper, you know, not because he's coming home drunk
and beating up mom and smacking the kids around, you know, things that people would
at least try to make a case for. Now it's just any old reason. The kids are just
sitting back going, well, you know, everything seemed fine, and now mom and
dad are getting divorced. Following a divorce, children. This is really who
suffers the most, I believe, in divorce is the children. Following a divorce,
children are more likely to abandon their faith. You want to raise up a child
and nurture an admonition of the Lord? You want to have not depart from it when he
gets older? Stay married. As adults, those raised in step-families are
less likely to be religious than those raised by both biological parents. Since
religious practice has benefits in areas such as promiscuity, the child of divorce
may lose this protection. You know, you don't want your kid to just start
running around and being a floozy and being a whoremonger, being a whore? Stay
married, because the effects of divorce are devastating. Married people are more
likely to have better physical health. How about some good news, all right? Some
good news. Married people smoke and drink less. Married people are less likely to
commit suicide than men who are divorced or separated. Married individuals have
the lowest incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Married
men are more likely to live longer after a diagnosis of cancer. Married men live
longer than men who were never married. Clock's ticking, single guys. In one
study, married men had a 46% lower rate of dying from cardiovascular
disease than unmarried men. Divorce adversely affects society by diminishing
the child's future competence, weakening the family structure, contributing to
early promiscuity and increased cost for society, adversely affecting religious
practice, diminishing a child's learning capacity and educational attainment,
reducing the household income, increasing time rates and substance abuse with
associated societal and governmental costs, increased risk for school
suspensions, binge drinking, marijuana use, increased, increasing emotional and
mental health risks, including suicide. Studies have attempted to estimate the
financial cost of divorce to the United States with the most recent estimates
reaching 33.3 billion per year, that's with a B, an adolescent pregnancy costing
at least 7 billion. Can we begin to see how devastating divorce is on our
families, on our nation, spiritually, physically, financially? Is it any wonder
that the Bible says, Amalekai, the Lord, the God of Israel, saith, he hateth
putting away. Why does God hate it? Can we begin to see why God hates divorce so
much, why he comes down on it so hard? And what we see from these studies is that
marriage really is a blessing. I mean, the Bible lifts up marriage, you know, it's
something that we should want. The Bible says, Whosoever findeth the wife, findeth
the good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. We should want to get married.
We should want to stay married. So maybe if your marriage is on the rocks, you
know, you need some advice, I would go back and listen to the sermon that
pastor just preached last week on that subject, responsibilities within marriage.
But really, the Bible, you know, gives a pretty simple answer on how to maintain a
marriage. And we need to make it work. Go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter 5. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5, Wives, submit yourselves
unto your husbands as unto the Lord. If we would just fulfill our roles as marriage
partners, a lot of problems would probably dissolve. A lot of tension would go away
in the household and we'd be able to make that marriage work. The Bible says in
Ephesians 5, 24, Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives
be unto their own husbands in everything. Verse 25, Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's really it.
If we could just figure that out and do that, we would have much better marriages.
And you say, well, that sounds pretty simple. And sometimes it's not.
Sometimes it's easier to just read these or just say these things.
But fleshing it out in your marriage, making it work, putting these things into
practice, it's going to take effort. The Bible reiterates these commands in
Colossians. It says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as is
fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.
If we want a good divorce, or not a good divorce, excuse me. There's no such thing,
right? If we want a good marriage, then we have to fulfill our biblical roles.
And we should, you know, this sermon hopefully is going to cause you to want
to fulfill those roles as a husband and as a wife and put the effort into it that
you need to make that marriage work. Because I'm telling you, as we've seen
from the Word of God and even the world itself, divorce has devastating effects
that we do not want to experience. Let's go ahead and pray.
And Father, again, thank you for the warnings that you give us in your word
that help us to take take heed and, Lord, that we might live long and healthy and
profitable lives that would be honoring and pleasing to you. Lord, I pray you'd
help each of us in this room to make our marriages work, that we would never be a
number of those climbing statistics in our country of divorce,
that we would be those that stayed married and, Lord, that we could know your
blessings through it. We love you. Thank you. We pray that you just give us a good
week. Bring us back on Wednesday.