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Jeremiah chapter 3 beginning verse number 1 the Bible reads, They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Now let me just start out by explaining what this chapter is about. Throughout the chapter he's using this illustration of the fact that the children of Israel, and he brings up both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, he talks to them both separately in this chapter, he brings up the fact that they have turned after other gods. And he uses adultery as a picture of that. Now, God in the Old Testament would often use an illustration of marriage to describe his relationship with the children of Israel, with that nation. And he would use the illustration that's very similar to what he used in the New Testament, where he talks about the church. Where he says, husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, etc. Well in the Old Testament, it was the nation of Israel that he used that illustration with. And whenever they go after other gods, he likens that unto a wife who would commit adultery with other men. He's saying that's what it's like, because God had made a covenant with the nation of Israel known as the Old Covenant, or the Old Testament. And they were going after other gods in violation of that covenant. So he uses the illustration of people being married. They have a covenant with each other, where they swear unto each other, till death do us part. And then when, you know, of course, one of them goes and commits adultery with someone else, then they're breaking that agreement. So it's a perfect illustration, right? Now throughout the Bible, God uses parables like this just to help us understand spiritual truths. The most famous parable in the Bible is, of course, the parable of the sower, where some of the seed falls on good ground, some of it falls in stony places. And here's where people make a mistake. They go too far with the parable, and instead of just basing what they believe on clear statements from the Bible, they'll take a parable and just kind of run with it and create all kinds of new doctrines in contradiction to what the Bible has clearly taught. So one of the most basic principles of studying the Bible that you should learn is that you should always base what you believe on clear statements in the Bible, statements, commandments from God, not on a parable. If a parable is the foundation of your doctrine, something's wrong with your doctrine. You should have a clear scripture to base your doctrine on, and then parables will just help illustrate that scripture and illuminate that point and bring it down to earth and relate it unto our lives. But we shouldn't base what we believe on the parable. I mean, how many times do you have people come at you with some false doctrine that's just based on a parable? Like, you'll show them a whole bunch of scriptures that flat out say you cannot lose your salvation, it's eternal life, it's faith alone that saves us, but, oh, but what about the parable of the ten virgins? Oh, what about this parable of the... And they'll pull out parables, and they'll misinterpret the parable and misunderstand the parable. And the Bible says, as a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. So whenever we interpret a parable, we should always understand that it has to jive with the clear statements in the Bible. And not only that, but we have to understand that no parable is a perfect illustration of that which is being represented. It's just to get us an idea of what God's talking about. I mean, it's not like we take it so literally that, well, the parable of the sower, the sower soweth the word, so we should go out and physically throw the word of God. You know, we're going to go out and get a bunch of gospel tracts with Bible words on them and just start sowing them and throwing, you know, that would be ridiculous, right? So you don't want to go too far with this uber-literal or hyper-literal interpretation which doesn't make any sense when you, you know, get that literal with it. So in this illustration, he likens it unto marriage because marriage is a bond that's until death does do part. And it's kind of interesting when you think about the fact that we went from Old Testament into New Testament, you say, well, wasn't the Old Covenant till death does do part? Yeah, somebody died, Jesus. Okay, so they killed him, right? So you kill your husband, well, then, you know, the marriage is over at that point. But anyway, the point is in the Old Testament, he's talking about them going after other gods and saying that that's a spiritual adultery. That's why he says a little bit later in this chapter that they had committed adultery. Look at the end of verse 9. It says, and it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stalks. Well, stock there is like what we would think of as a tree stump. So it's saying they committed adultery with stones and stalks because they're worshiping idols. In the previous chapter, it talked about them having gods that were carved out of stone or carved out of wood. That's who they're committing adultery with. So it's not a literal adultery. It's a spiritual adultery. It's figurative. Now, here's where people get false doctrine from this chapter. And this may be a new doctrine because I had never heard of this doctrine until about six or seven years ago. But it seems like this doctrine has really gained a lot of steam in the last several years. And it is a divers and strange doctrine that maybe it was around, but I sure had never heard of it. And it's definitely a false doctrine. And basically what they do is they take this passage in Jeremiah chapter 3 and they use it to turn the Bible's clear teaching on divorce just to turn it on its head based on a parable. And again, that's one of the most dangerous things you can do when you're just basing everything on a parable. Now, look at verse number one in this parable where God's using an illustration. Keep in mind, these people did not literally commit adultery. What they did was bow down and worship another god. And he's saying, that's like a spiritual adultery because we're sort of like married in the sense that I'm your god and you're my people. And that if you worship other gods, you're violating the sanctity of that agreement. Look at verse one. They say, now who's the they? Well, let's keep reading. They say, if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou has played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Now keep your finger there, okay, and flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 24. The they there, you know, if we go back into chapter two to kind of get an antecedent, we understand that it's the children of Israel that are saying that. The children of Israel say, that if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? And he's basically saying, if she does, wouldn't the land be greatly polluted? Where are the children of Israel getting that? Well, they're getting it from God's law in Deuteronomy chapter 24. Now look what the Bible clearly teaches in the word here. Not a parable, not an illustration, but a clear statement from the Bible. Deuteronomy 24 beginning in verse number one. 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. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. And if the latter husband hate her and write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, watch verse four, this is key, her former husband which sent her away may not take her again to be his wife. After that she is defiled, for that is abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. Now notice this is exactly what they say in Jeremiah chapter three verse one. If a man put away his wife, if a man divorce his wife, and she go from him and become another man's wife, is what it's saying, shall he return unto her again? Shall not the land be greatly polluted? Because remember, what did it say back in Deuteronomy 24? Five, it said that, or I mean 24 four, it says that the land would be defiled. It said in verse number four in the latter part there, thou shalt not cause the land to sin. So the land becomes polluted, the land becomes defiled if they would have this practice where a woman would be divorced and be married to another man and then go back to the original husband. Now you're like, what in the world? This is complicated. Let me just break this down for you. I know this sounds like, you know, some kind of a daytime talk show or something where people are getting divorced and going back to their original spouse, but here's the deal. The Bible is saying that if a man divorces his wife and she gets married to another man, that she can never go back to the original husband again. Does everybody understand that? She can never go back. So let's say two people get divorced. Well, as long as neither one of them is remarried, then there's always hope that they could be reconciled. That'd be the ideal situation. If people are divorced, hopefully they could be reconciled. And I've seen that happen where people are divorced and they're just single for a while and then they end up getting back together and patching things up. Okay. But once one of them gets remarried, there is no hope of ever restoring that original marriage. And if you do, the Bible says it's an abomination. I mean, that's a clear teaching here in Deuteronomy chapter 24. It's crystal clear, right? I mean, does everybody see it? There it is. Now in Jeremiah 3, what he says here in verse 1 is, if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou has played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Now, first of all, notice, even in the parable, which we shouldn't use a parable to turn a commandment on its head. I mean, the commandment is the commandment. It's just an illustration. It's just a parable. And often parables are about people who do things that are wrong, but they're just parables. Well, let's say, even if we went with this parable, does this say in verse 1 that she had gone and married someone else or just that she'd been with many lovers? Do you kind of see the difference there? He didn't say here, well, you've gone and married someone else, but I'm still going to take you back. That's not even what it says. It says you've been with many lovers, yet return unto me, number one, okay? Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is because this strange doctrine has arisen in the last like six or seven years I've become aware of it that says that if you're divorced and remarried, that your second marriage is null and void, and you're supposed to go back to the original spouse. Who's heard of this doctrine before? Who's heard that, Todd? Okay, yeah, a couple people. Thank God it hasn't gotten that popular, but it's a doctrine out there that says, you know, let's say you've been married two times, three times, it doesn't matter. None of that is recognized in the sight of God, so therefore, you must go back to be with your original spouse. Now, that is the exact opposite of what the Bible says because the Bible says that if you go back to your original spouse, it's an abomination once you've been remarried or once one of the people has been remarried. So, they're turning scripture on its head here. That's not what this passage is saying whatsoever. It's an illustration not even about that. It's about adultery where she's with a bunch of other lovers and he is still saying, return to me anyway. I'll still take you back even though you've done that. That's actually what's being said in the passage. Now, another false doctrine that's more common, that's more popular that I've heard of my whole life that people will use this passage to teach is basically that it's okay to divorce your spouse or that it's okay to get divorced and marry someone else. And what they'll do is they'll say this, well, even God's divorced. I mean, if God's divorced, then I can get divorced too. I mean, if God's doing it, who's ever heard that one before? Yeah, because they'll point to this where it says in verse 8, look down if you would at verse 8, and I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and played the harlot also. Here's the thing, God did not literally divorce anyone because God was not literally married to anyone. So again, these people are just going crazy with a parable, getting real silly and turning the clear teaching of scripture on its head by saying, oh, well, God divorced them. Well, no, no, because God is saying return unto me and God is staying with them. It's just an illustration. He's saying it's like I divorced you in the sense that I sent you into captivity in Babylon. Now you're coming back to me. It's a parable. It's just figurative. It's just symbolic. But people use this to say, well, God's divorced so I can get divorced too. Now, if you would, let's go to Matthew 5 and let's just get the Bible's teaching on divorce from the mouth of Jesus because the Bible in clear statements, not in parables, not in illustrations, not in dark sayings, the Bible in plain English tells us over and over again what our view of divorce should be biblically speaking. Okay? Let's look at the scriptures. And it's interesting because this is covered in Matthew, Mark, Luke. It's also covered in the epistles and it's always worded just a little bit differently just to make sure that there's no misunderstanding. He says it a little different in each place. Look at Matthew 5. This is our first New Testament teaching on this subject. It says in verse number 31 of chapter 5, it has 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, causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery. Now, this is real clear. The Bible says if you marry a divorced woman, you are committing adultery. Does everybody see that? And the Bible is also saying that if you put away your wife for any cause other than fornication, you're causing her to commit adultery. Why? Because he's saying that when people get divorced, you know, it's very rare that those people are just going to stay alone for the rest of their life. You know, if they get divorced, it's very rare that that person would just say, well, I'm divorced, so now I'm just going to be alone for the rest of my life. So what he's basically saying is that it's almost inevitable that the woman is going to marry someone else, especially back then when you didn't have a lot of women in the workforce and stuff like that. So he's saying, you know, if you divorce your wife, you're causing her to commit adultery because she's probably going to, that's probably what she's going to end up doing. And he's basically saying it's your fault because you divorced her in that sense. Okay. And then he's saying that if you marry a divorced woman, you're participating in that sin. You are committing adultery. Now here's one thing that the modern versions toy with about this verse. They'll basically change fornication to adultery, even though if you're reading a Greek New Testament, it's two separate words for fornication and adultery, which is why our King James gives us an accurate translation of two separate words. Fornication is fornications and adultery is adultery. You know, it's that simple. But what they'll do is in the new versions, they'll translate that word as adultery here. Even though it's not the word for adultery, they just have decided well that's what he's talking about. So we're just going to change it for you. Well that's not true because fornication is different than adultery in the sense that fornication takes place before people are married and adultery takes place after they're married, which is why in the Old Testament it talks about him going in unto her when he first marries her and finding uncleanness in her. And it talks about in Deuteronomy 22, going in and finding her not to be a virgin, finding her not to be a maid, finding some kind of a disease or something there, you know, some kind of an uncleanness, whatever the uncleanness, whether it's a moral uncleanness of not being a virgin or whether it's a physical uncleanness of being diseased. But God basically gives that allowance for a divorce at the very beginning of the marriage because of the hardness of their heart. And if you remember, this is something that Joseph was going to take advantage of in Matthew chapter 1. Because when Joseph found out that his espoused wife Mary, who he'd not been with physically yet, the marriage had not been consummated, when he found out she was pregnant, he wanted to divorce her privately. He didn't want to make her a public example, so he was going to put her away privily, Matthew chapter 1. And it says, being a just man, he was going to put her away privily. So there's nothing sinful about him saying, well, you know, if you're pregnant with some other dude's kid, I don't want to be married to you. You know, that was up to him. He had that prerogative. But then, of course, he gets a vision in the night explaining to him that she had not been unfaithful, but that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. You know, it was going to be Jesus Christ, the virgin-born son of God that was going to be born. Okay, so that's a case where she was going to be divorced for what? Was she being divorced for adultery there in Matthew chapter 1? No, she was being divorced for fornication, something that happened before the marriage, okay? And we see that taught also in Deuteronomy 22 and Deuteronomy 24. Another thing that the modern versions will do here is they will translate the word fornication as sexual immorality, basically just this blanket term that can mean anything, okay? And they'll do that, and now here's the problem with it, because they'll say, well, if you go back to the Greek, the Greek word for fornication is porneia. But here's the thing, these people don't speak Greek. They can't order Greek in a Greek restaurant, but I've heard pastors get up and go back to the Greek and say, and even the people who work on the translation committees, if you actually meet them in real life, some of these people on the NIB translation committee, New American Standard translation committee, New King James, they're not even fluent in the language like the 54 expert scholars that gave us the King James. But they're just like, oh, porneia, that sounds like porno. So then they just jump to conclusions about what the word means without really knowing what it means, okay? Now, there are lots of words like this in other languages that can lead us astray where we think we know what they mean, but that's not really what they mean. Like, for example, we're speaking Spanish and we talk about affectivo. What do you think that means, affectivo? Effective. No, it means cash. Affectivo is cash. So just because a word sounds like an English word, okay, or how about this one? You know in Jude when they go after strange flesh? Going after strange flesh. You want to know what the Greek word for strange is there? Hetero. Now, define irony, right? But here's the thing. It's another language, folks. Don't try to dabble in another language that you don't understand because you think you know what words mean. Oh, you know, embarazada. I know it. Embarrassed. No, it means pregnant. Okay, so you can't just sit there and look at a word and say, oh, I bet I know what that means. Okay, how about this word? Here's a beautiful German word, mist. Now, mist is a beautiful thing in English, right? But in German, mist is a cow pie, all right? So it's dung, all right? So you know, you think you know what words mean. Okay, here's another beautiful German word, gift. Doesn't that sound like something you'd like to receive? Gift. Gift is poison in German. Okay, so we think we know what words mean. We don't. So you can't just go to the Greek and be like, well, the Greek word, you know, for offend is skandalizi, so it means it's scandalous, you know. You can't just make things up like that, okay? Because you don't know the language. If you only speak English, then you need to read an English Bible and not exercise yourself in things that are too lofty for you, too high for you, over your head. But here's why it's such a dangerous doctrine of saying, well, if you go back to the Greek, it said porneia, and that just means any kind, according to them, not biblically, but according to them, it just means any kind of sexual immorality, or it just means porn. Then basically what you have is people saying, oh, you can divorce your spouse if they looked at porn. Or you can divorce your spouse if they just did anything immoral. You know, let's say they're just looking at scantily clad women, or let's say that they're just, you know, let's say they just kissed someone. And look, I'm not condoning these type activities. But, you know, oh, let's say someone got drunk, and obviously no Christian should ever be drunk, but these are real life situations. You know, somebody got drunk, and they're at a bar, and they're dancing with some other woman or something. Well, that's porneia right there. I mean, just, you know. Because it's just kind of this catch-all word to these people. I mean, think about it. When you just say sexual immorality, that could just mean anything. See how it just opens a real dangerous door for people just basically, if you want to divorce your spouse, you can kind of just find a way to make whatever they've done in the last 30 years somehow fit into that category. And now that's your ticket out of this marriage sum. It's garbage. The Bible says the Lord hateth putting away. God hates divorce. Well, he's divorced. Don't be a fool. That's a parable in the mouth of fools. God is not divorced. Okay? Anyway, so basically, you know, that's the danger of not having a King James Bible. Here's a key doctrine here that's completely screwed up if you're in a modern version. Only the King James is going to steer you right on this scripture. Or Greek New Testament, but you don't speak Greek. But if you did, it would steer you right too. Now, if you would go to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter number 19. And look, we live in a day where a lot of people get divorced, don't they? Why? Because when you allow people to get divorced, they get divorced. I mean, what if God just said, hey, you can get divorced for any reason you want? Well, that's what the Pharisees interpreted the Bible as saying. Look what the Bible says of the Pharisees. Verse three of chapter 19 of Matthew. The Pharisees also came on him, tempting him and saying on him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? I mean, just because you don't like her face. Just because she burned the food or whatever. You know, just you can divorce your wife for every cause. I mean, what kind of a nonsense doctrine? And you know what religion teaches this kind of garbage? Islam. Islam. You can divorce your wife just for any reason. Did you know that in the United States of America, you used to not even be allowed to divorce your wife? It was only in the 70s that we got this easy divorce law where there's a no-fault divorce, where nobody's even done any adultery or abuse or anything. Not that that even, you know, necessarily even justifies divorce. But basically, this easy divorce where you just divorce because, oh, we just don't like each other anymore, that's since like the 1970s. And you know who was the first country to institute that in the modern era? The Soviet Union. The communist Soviet Union instituted a no-fault divorce law, and then next California followed with the same thing. And many other states didn't have it. You had to go to California to get the easy divorce. And then other states at now, pretty much all the states, you can divorce for every cause. Just get a divorce. So basically, it gets to the point where the marriage isn't really even worth the paper it's written on. It's not really a legally binding document. You say, well, I'm a libertarian, it shouldn't be. No, the Bible teaches it should be legally binding. It's a legally binding contract. And by the way, that's to protect women, too, because women are staying at home and they don't really necessarily have the earning capabilities that a man has. So it protects them that their husband's not just going to, you know, have a bunch of kids with them and leave them high and dry, but that he's committed to that relationship and that there's a legally binding document of marriage to protect women as much as to protect men. But the Bible says, Jesus' answer here to this question, hey, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? He answered and said to them, have you 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 to his wife. And they twain, that's two by the way, not three, not four, no polygamy. They too, they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 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 heart, suffered or allowed you to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, comitteth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it's not good to marry. Now look, they understood what he's saying. But based on their response, they understand if you marry her, you're stuck with her. So I don't know if they're kind of jokingly saying that or if they're being 100% serious when they say, hey, in that case, we better just not get married if we're going to be stuck with the old ball and chain for the rest of our lives, you know. And what does he say to them when they say, well, in the case of the man be so with his wife, it's not good to marry. Does he say to them, oh, well, guys, you know, hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod. You can still get divorced, I mean, if things really go south. Is that what he says? No. He just says to them, you know, all men cannot receive this saying. Hey, some people just can't handle this kind of preaching. But guess what? That's the fact. That's the way it is. Now go to Mark chapter 10. You know, I love Jesus' response when people kind of criticize his preaching. Like they come to him and say, hey, notice how not that the Pharisees were offended at this saying? Like, oh, man, I'm so sorry. He never said, he's always just like, you know what, every tree that my father hasn't planted is going to be uprooted. It's going to be plucked up. He said, you know, hey, all men cannot receive this saying. And I love what he says, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. Whoever, what's he basically saying? You know, hey, whoever wants to hear this preaching can listen to it. And he that is unjust, let him be unjust still. Now look at Mark chapter 10. The Bible says in verse number 2, and the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for man to put away his wife, tempting him? And he answered and said to them, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered, or allowed, to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again in the same manner. Why? Because this has always been an issue that people struggle with. They choke on it. The disciples are choking on it. The Pharisees are choking on it. They're like, wait, let's talk about this again, Jesus. I mean, he already made it clear to them, but they're like, now that we're in the house, you know, now that the Pharisees are out there, come on, Jesus, what's going on with this? Is this for real? We're actually supposed to stay married no matter what? And he says to them when they ask him about it again in the house this time, you know, it says in verse 11, whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, comitteth adultery against her. And if a man shall put away her husband, or I'm sorry, if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she comitteth adultery. So here it's worded a little different because now even a woman that divorces her husband, because, you know, we think of men in the Bible divorcing their wives, but, you know, the Bible's even saying, well, what if she divorces him? You know, if the woman divorces her husband and be married to another, she comitteth adultery. Now go to Luke 16. Luke chapter number 16, and the Bible gives us the same teaching, a little bit different. It says in verse 18, whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another, comitteth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband comitteth adultery. I mean, it's just, it's real clear, there it is, Luke 16, 18, and yet today we have all kinds of Christians justifying divorcing their spouse and marrying someone else. And honestly, if you make allowance for that, if that becomes the doctrine, you'll have this happening all the time. That's why we have a divorce rate amongst Christians in America today that is pretty much identical to the divorce rate amongst non-Christians. Because you'd expect the non-Christians to get divorced a lot more often and that Christians would stay faithful. No, no, no, it's the same, same stats. Why? Because churches are not teaching this. Churches are teaching you, oh, oh, your husband was mean to you. Oh, well, oh, oh, oh, he hit you with a pillow? He threw a raw hot dog at you? You know, well then, hey, in that case, you know, you need to get, oh, he smoked marijuana? You know, oh, yeah, you got, I mean, you got to get out of that horrible environment. But look, I'm against drugs, friend. I'm against pornography. I'm against drunkenness. I'm against, you know, you know, non-consensual pillow fights. No, I'm just kidding. I'm actually for them. But the point is, though, that doesn't mean you divorce your spouse because guess what? People aren't perfect. People make mistakes. It's for better or for worse. You married a sinful person. Now look, some people are really laid back, cool people, and they don't have any problems in their marriage and stuff. Okay, the exception proves the rule. But if I were to ask for a raise of hands for who's had some knock-down, drag-out fights with your spouse, you know, virtually every hand would go up in the building if we had our heads bowed and eyes closed and you really knew that no one, if you really knew no one was looking around. You know, there'd be a lot of hands going up. I mean, and when you're a pastor, you hear all kinds of stuff from people. And I don't go around, you know, I don't put a shingle outside my door like, hey, marriage counseling. I actually try to stay away from that stuff. But the thing is, people still constantly come to you and they tell you stuff. And the bottom line is, you know, there's no temptation taking you but such is as common to man. And, you know, you hear about things being thrown and shattering and breaking stuff and screaming and whatever. Look, it's life. And it doesn't mean just oh, it's over, my marriage is over. It's not over till the fat lady sings. You know, it's not over till the bitter end. It's for better for worse. It's for richer till, for poorer. It's till death do us part. And if that would be thundered from the pulpits of America saying it's till death do us part, then you know what, people would be staying married. And another thing that needs to be taught is that these are your choices biblically. If you want to be right with God and walk in the will of God, these are your choices. You stay with the person that you're married to or you get divorced and stay alone for the rest of your life. Because if those are the choices, people would be like, yeah, I think I'm going to make this work. But when the choice is, oh, stay married or trade up for something else, well, then the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and then all of a sudden, you have a divorce rate of 50%, 75%, whatever in churches. That's what's going on. These scriptures aren't being, and look, I talked to a lady that had been divorced over three times and she said, if I would have known what these scriptures said, my life would have gone differently. I wouldn't have made that mistake in the first place if I would have known that that's what the Bible taught. But people don't know they're not being taught. Well, it's going to be taught here. And you say, well, you're offending people in the room that are divorced and remarried. Well, all men cannot receive this saying. This is what the Bible says. And look, if you're divorced and remarried, I don't hate you. I'm not mad at you. And the Bible's teaching is that you are to stay with the person that you're married to right now. Because two wrongs don't make a right. You married somebody, you broke that vow, that was sin, you married someone else, you committed adultery, it's over. Okay? But now you've made a second vow to a second person. Don't break that second vow. Okay? It's your job to going forward do right. And God commands us to keep whatever vows that we make. And so therefore, if you have divorced your spouse and married someone else, you can't go back in time and fix it. And there's no sense in beating yourself up about it. The right thing, and I don't want to spend the whole night on this, let's go back, I've done whole sermons on it, let's go back to Jeremiah 3 so we can get to some other material here. But let me just say this. You say, well Pastor Anderson, what if that's me? What if I'm divorced and remarried? Here's what you do. You confess it as a sin to God one time, once. You say, God, I'm sorry, I did this and it was wrong. And I disobeyed and I'm sorry. Okay? And then you say, Lord, from here on out, I want to obey and whoever I'm married to right now, I'm going to stay married and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. And then you move on with your life. Now look, there could be consequences and punishments that are coming at you from what you've done. Because I'm not going to get up here and say that you commit sin and you have no consequences. Even though God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, there are still often consequences in our lives for the things that we've done. So all we can do is confess and forsake our sin and then we will find mercy with God. And hopefully other people are praying for us when they see us sin and they're interceding for us and asking God to be merciful to us as well. That's all we can do. And then we just live our lives and serve God and forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before. But to sit there and say, oh, go back to your first spouse, that is a false doctrine, that is a lie, that is not biblical, and that is a twisting of scripture that's become popular in recent years. I've never even heard of it because it's so off the wall compared to what the Bible actually teaches. And so look, God is the God of a second chance. I'm not saying hey, if you're divorced and remarried, your life's over, you're doomed, but you know what, it's wrong. And if you're divorced and you're not remarried, then you should go back to your original spouse. And if your original spouse is already remarried, then you should remain single until your original spouse dies. Okay? That's what the Bible teaches. Well, that's a hard saying, but that's what the Bible teaches. Now, there are people that would ask the question, well, what if you divorce your first spouse and then you marry the another, right? And then that person dies. He brings that up in Deuteronomy 24 and says you can still never go back to the first spouse once there's been a remarriage, even if the other people involved die. Now, if the other people involved die, you can go marry someone else, but you can't go back to the old spouse. That's what God's law states. It's an abomination. It defiles the land. And our land tonight is defiled for that and a lot of other worse reasons. Our land is very defiled. So anyway, back to Jeremiah 3. I don't want to spend the whole night on that, but I did want to spend some time showing the Bible's clear teaching so that we don't take a parable in Jeremiah 3 and then throw out the words of Jesus where he clearly stated what his will is. You know what his will is? For two people to get married and to stay together until death. And if anyone divorces their spouse for any reason, it is because of the hardness of their heart and it is not God's perfect will for your life. And if you commit that sin and then you marry someone else, you're adding sin upon sin and it's not God's will. We need to just decide, those of us, who's married here tonight? Put up your hand if you're married. See all the married people? We need to all decide that we are going to stay with the person that we're married to right now until the bitter end, until death do us part, okay? And if things get bad, then we dig in and we pray for better days, you know, and we try to fix things and you find a way to make it work. And you know what? When failure is not an option, it's amazing how people find a way to work, to make it work. It's funny how people ask these people that have been married for fifty or sixty years, and maybe you've even asked people like that. And I know I've been present when someone asked an elderly couple, what's your secret to staying married for sixty years? What's your secret for staying married? You know, whenever they hear that question, you can always see it in their eyes that that's a stupid question. Seriously. You can always see it in their eyes that they're thinking, you don't get it. Because there's no secret, it's just you just don't get divorced. Because see, the people who are asking that question, oh, what's the secret to staying married for fifty years? They think there's some secret where your marriage just becomes all unicorns and rainbows and butterflies and then all of a sudden, like, you're going to stay married for sixty years because it was just so awesome every day. I mean, why wouldn't you stay married when it's this awesome every day, every month, every year for sixty years? I haven't even thought about throwing in the towel. No, that's not true. The real reason is that they stayed married because it was the right thing to do and because they, here's a novel concept, they loved each other. And so they loved each other even when things got bad. I mean, look, even when things get ugly, we should still love our spouse. We should love our spouse even when marriage is at its low point, even when our husband or our wife is, you know, acting in a bad manner and making our life misery, we should still love them and stay faithful. That's what love is. Not this fair weather type of love where you only love when things are going great. No, while we were yet sinners, God commanded his love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ loved the unlovable. And so we need to love our spouse even when they're not at their most lovable. That's true love, true commitment, true faithfulness. What's the secret? The secret is obeying the Bible. That's the secret and it's not a secret at all because it's been published and you can buy it at the Dollar Tree. But anyway, Jeremiah chapter 3 says, verse 2, lift up thine eyes. That was all verse 1. It's going to be a long night. Buckle up. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Anyway, we went to some other verses. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see where thou has not been lying with. In the ways has thou sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness. You're like those Muslims, he's saying, and thou has polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withholding and there has been no latter rain and thou has the whores forehead. Thou refuses to be ashamed. Yes, speaking of the Arabians, obviously there are a lot of godly Arabic Christians, but let me say this, I'm not impressed with the morality of these Muslims. They act like they're so moral and we Christians are so decadent. They divorce their spouse at the drop of a hat. The Quran tells them that they can do that. And their own prophet Mohammed was marrying divorced women. You know how he had multiple wives? One of them was his adopted son's ex-wife. He married a divorced woman in the Quran. What does that make him according to the Bible? An adulterer. And he also was a pedophile. And look, when your religion is started by an open adulterer, an open pedophile like Mohammed, then guess what? The disciple's not above his master and the servant's not above his lord. Therefore, there's a lot of wickedness, there's a lot of porneia going on amongst the Muslims. There's a lot of all kinds of deviancy going on amongst these people. And if you talk to people who actually have been there, they'll tell you. I'm not even going to mention from the pulpit stuff that they told me that they've seen over there, just the immorality that goes on amongst Muslims that are supposedly so clean and moral, but actually they're committing all kinds of filth and wickedness. But notice, he says at the end of verse 3, thou hat'st a whore's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed. So not only did they commit sin, but they were not ashamed about it. They didn't feel bad about it. That made it even worse. And again, it wasn't literal adultery, it's actually that they're worshiping other gods. He's using an illustration. He says in verse 4, wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, my father, thou art the guide of my youth. Will he reserve his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah, the king, hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And then we already read verse 8 about, I saw for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot. So the bill of divorce he gave Israel was when they went captive to the Assyrians. Okay, that's what that, he didn't really literally divorce anyone. Okay, he just allowed them to be taken captive. He's using an illustration or a parable. It says in verse 9, and it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. So the thing I want to point out here is that it talks about her not being ashamed. It talks about the lightness of her whoredom. Basically, it means that she did it like without even thinking it was a big deal. You know, lightness, like, eh, so what? Who cares? What's the big deal? Well, if you look toward the end of the chapter, he referred to this, he says in verse number, uh, let me find the place here. It says in verse number 13, only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree and you've not obeyed my voice say the Lord. So what's he pleading with them to do? Just acknowledge your sin. Just admit that you did wrong. So the fact that they're unashamed, that they're treating it lightly, and that they won't acknowledge it, that's what's making them so mad. And you know, God would go easy on us for our sins if we would actually admit our sins. Because the Bible says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word's not in us. So, you know, the thing that really bothers God is when we won't confess our sins, when we won't admit it, and when we just act like it's not a big deal. I mean, we commit some major sin and then we're just like, nah, what's the big deal? You know, we need to get on our knees and confess it to God and tell him that we're sorry and feel bad about it, you know, if we want to have a good walk with God. And then another word that keeps coming up here is backsliding. Now, what does it mean to be a backslider? Backsliding means that you are less spiritual today than you were yesterday. It means that basically instead of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you're actually moving backwards. Okay. Now, backsliding implies that you're going uphill, so then you kind of slide backward, you slide downhill. Now, the Christian life is an uphill battle. I think anyone would agree with that, that it's difficult to do what God wants us to do. And so, therefore, if we are not putting forth effort, if we're not trying, if we're not struggling and sweating and pushing forward, what's going to happen? We're going to slide backward, if there's no effort being put forth to grow. It's like swimming upstream. As soon as we stop swimming, we're going to start to backslide. And we got to keep swimming hard, keep moving forward. Look, in the Christian life, you're either moving forward or you're moving backward. There's no such thing as just, I'm just coasting, I'm just maintaining, I'm just idling. No, you're either growing or you're moving backward. And we have all been backslidden at times. I'll admit to you, I have been backslidden at times. And we're all going to be backslidden at times because it's impossible to just always just, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day. I mean, every day. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love him more and more. Yeah, I mean, it's a great song, but does it really represent reality? Just every day. No, because there's going to be a time in our life where we get backslidden. And the difference between those who make it to the finish line and those who quit on God and quit the church, you know, they're still going to heaven, of course, can't lose their salvation, but they quit serving God. They're no longer used by God. The difference is the people who can get back up, dust it off, and keep moving forward. The Bible says a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again. It doesn't say the just man never falls. It just says he falls and gets up again, okay? You know, it's like a boxing match. You know, you get knocked down, but you're not knocked out. You know, you get back up before the ten count, and you're back in the fight. Okay, that's the way our lives are. You're not just going to go through life with zero knockdowns. You're going to get knocked down. You've got to keep getting back up, just confess your sins, forsake your sins, just keep on moving forward. And it's easy to get backslidden. And listen, if there was a time in the past when you were doing a lot more for God than you're doing right now, you're backslidden. If you're in church now less than you used to be, you're backslidden. If you know less Bible than you used to know, you're backslidden. If you're spending less time on the things of God than you used to and more time on the things of this world than you used to, you are backslidden. So you just need to realize, I need to get back to Bethel. You know, I need to get back to where I once was. I need to get back and realize that you're backslidden. You know, the Bible is warning us about this. He says what to do if you're backslidden. Verse 12, Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel! Say it the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you. For I am merciful, say it the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Isn't that great? God even, look, and Israel was in way worse shape than Judah. And even though the book of Jeremiah is directed primarily at Judah, he's still saying, Even Israel, it's not even too late for you. If you'll just return, I'm merciful. I don't want to be mad forever. Come back, come home. Only acknowledge thine iniquity. See, that's what it takes. Realize, you know, it's like, it's like Backsliders Anonymous or something. You know, my name's Steven Anderson, and I'm backslidden. You know, the first step is just acknowledging that you have a problem, right? And then you can start fixing it. Verse 14, Turn, O backsliding children! Say it the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Now, it's interesting, he says, Turn. What's another word for Turn? Repent, right? Repent and Turn both mean the same thing. So he's telling the backsliding children to turn. So repentance is often directed at saved people. Saved people need to repent. People that are already saved, they're already children of God. Okay? It'd be like if I said unto my children, Repent, Turn, stop being foolish. Do what I tell you to do. It's not that they're gonna stop being my kids, like a person could lose their salvation, which you can't. They're still my kids, but there's no fellowship there. The fellowship's been broken. The blessings aren't there. So I would say to my kids, you know, Turn, O backsliding children, you used to be more obedient. That's what he's saying here. And he says, I'm married to you. Now, look, people break their marriage vow, as we talked about earlier in the sermon. That's the reality of the sinful world that we live in. But let me ask you this, is God ever gonna break his vow to us? I mean, if God says, hey, I'm your father, you're my son. He says, hey, I'm married to you. He's not gonna break that vow. The Bible says that he will never leave us or forsake us. And the Bible says this is the promise that he had promised us even eternal life. But that doesn't prevent us from being backslidden. But a lot of people think, oh, if you're backslidden, you lost your salvation. No, he's still married to you. You're still his child. It's just that the fellowship is broken. And or people will say if you're backslidden that you were never even saved in the first place. Well, that's ridiculous because it's so easy to get backslidden. It's an uphill battle, folks. As soon as you stop marching, you start sliding backward. It's like going up a muddy hill. The Bible says in verse 15, I'll give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And this is where the Bible says in Ephesians 4, the New Testament, that he gave us pastors and teachers for the edification till we all come to the knowledge. So what is the purpose of a pastor? To feed us with knowledge and understanding. So I put this out there for you. If you go to church and you never learn anything, you're not, you don't have a very good pastor. Right? Like if you're going to church week after week and it's like, wow, I've heard this a bunch of times, and you're never learning anything new, that is not the pastor that God wants to give you. He wants you to have a pastor that feeds you with knowledge and understanding. He gives you new information and he causes you to understand the scriptures. That's the purpose of a pastor. And that's a pastor according to God's heart that will feed knowledge and understanding to the people. And it shall come to pass, verse 16, when you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. At that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land which I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. But I said, how shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? And I said, thou shalt call me my father and shall not turn away from me. Now, I don't have time to go into it, because we're almost out of time. But basically, this is a little bit of prophecy here, talking about the future millennial kingdom, you know, way off in the future, where he talks about all nations flowing, and we cover this a lot in Zechariah in that series, all nations flowing unto Jerusalem, and Israel and Judah becoming one nation again. Okay, this is all talking about stuff in the millennium. And it's interesting, because in that millennial reign, it says, they shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind. Nobody even cares. Is everybody getting this? Nobody cares about the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It's saying, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. So he's already implying that there's going to be a change in the law. Even in the Old Testament here, he's implying that there's going to come a day when there's not going to be a day of atonement where the high priest is sprinkling blood on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant, where that's an important thing anymore. And look, we're already living in that day where that's been abolished, because that was abolished with Jesus. When Jesus Christ came, that was all done away with. And the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8, the priesthood being changed, or chapter 7, rather, the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So don't let these Hebrew roots people tell you, oh, those laws will never change. Well, they already have. Hebrews said, a change of the law. We're no longer under that Levitical priesthood. And the ark of the covenant no longer has significance. Well, here's the thing. In the millennium, the ark of the covenant, he's saying here, is not going to have significance during that time either. So anyway, I just wanted to point that out. We don't have time to really develop that and go into all the detail. Verse 20, Shirley has a wife treacherously departed from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. By the way, though, the antichrist will sit upon the ark of the covenant. He'll sit upon the mercy seat and declare himself to be God. The antichrist, not Jesus Christ. Look at verse 21, a voice was heard upon the high places, weeping in supplications for the children of Israel, for they perverted their way, and they've forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I'll heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel, for shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth. Their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters, we lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us, for we've sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. Here is the whole chapter in a nutshell. What's the chapter about? It's using an illustration about a wife committing adultery on her husband. And he's saying, by worshiping false gods, that's basically what you've done unto me. And he's saying, you're backslidden, but I want you to return to me, and if you return to me, I'll be merciful. So this can teach us so many things, but in a nutshell, the chapter is teaching us that God is always willing to welcome his children home when they're backslidden. So this is encouraging, because if you're a Christian and you ever get backslidden, and you get out of church, and you quit serving the Lord, and maybe you go off and start living a life of sin, God is always there ready to welcome you home. Say, look, I'm not going to be angry forever. Return to me. I'll heal your backsliding. So that's a very encouraging message. But then it's used as an illustration of marriage, because of the fact that God is saying that we as husbands should always be ready to forgive our wives. And wives should always be willing to forgive their husbands. And to be able to say to their backslidden, quote unquote, husband, or backslidden wife, return unto me. Return unto me, you know? I'm not going to be angry forever. The Bible says let not the sun go down on your wrath. So it shows us that number one, there's hope for our marriage, to start over, to push a reset button, to have a fresh start, to heal the marriage, and to have a second chance, third chance, fourth chance. And then it's also showing us that when we get backslidden from the Lord, He always wants us to come back. He's always waiting for us to come home. And He's ready to receive us with open arms, and He's not going to be angry forever. He'll be merciful. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this encouraging chapter, Lord. And it's a chapter that's twisted by those who like to justify their sin into being like a pro-divorce thing, or hey, let's go back to, you know, that wife that we had a couple wives ago because she wasn't so bad. And, you know, all these weird doctrines that people twist out of this. Actually, it's a beautiful passage, Lord, about how you're ready to receive us and give us another chance. Lord, help us always to give our wife another chance, our husband another chance. Lord, help us always to realize that mercy is one of Your attributes and we should have mercy with our own spouse and other people in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.