Everyone Who Divorces His Wife and Marries Another Commits Adultery

This week we'll be studying one verse, Luke 16, 18, and it has to do with divorce and remarriage. And it doesn't seem to be connected to anything else that's around it. There are other passages and other Gospels that are longer. We're going to be looking at those as we study this text. But this morning, you know, the meal for us from God's Word is concerning divorce. And divorce has largely been accepted within the church today, that it's just something that happens, it's just something that is. And it's an issue that can become very controversial very quickly, especially when it's related to the issue of remarriage. I remember when I was, long before I was a pastor, a friend's children wanted to get married. And they wanted me to do the wedding. Well, I couldn't do the wedding because I wasn't ordained. I wasn't a pastor. I was in training. And so one of the things that we asked, I went with another pastor.

And one of the questions that he asked was, well, neither one of these people were Christians. And he says, well, were either one of you previously married? And the husband-to-be said, yes, I was. And then the pastor starts asking about the circumstances regarding his divorce. Why were you divorced? Now, why was he asking those questions? Well, because scripturally there are people who are not. biblically allowed to get remarried. That there are things that, depending on the circumstance of their divorce, remarriage is not an option for them. And that can get really hairy. You can imagine having that conversation with two people who are professing love for one another, and you say, Scripture doesn't allow for you to marry one another. The drop-off's real quick into the deep water here. And so this is what our topic is this morning.

And if you understand this conflict or the potential for this conflict surrounding the issue of divorce and remarriage, you might be tempted to think that these problems are unique to our day and our age. But if you had that same conversation 500 years ago, you wouldn't have had that kind of problem that we would have today. One of the purposes of our study this morning is to see that there really is nothing new under the sun. That problem is not a problem of our day. That's been a problem for centuries. There really is nothing new. And God has made provision for and provided us with instruction about how to honor him, even when we face these sorts of difficult situations. So our purpose this morning is to understand what God's word has to say about divorce and remarriage. I do want to say to you, we could talk about this for weeks. And so I don't intend for this sermon to be exhaustive. I do intend for it to provoke thought in you, and I would be happy to answer any questions further about it afterward.

But this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic of divorce, remarriage, biblically speaking. So would you stand now for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 16, verse 18. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now this is an abbreviated account of what Jesus said on a few different occasions concerning this topic. And for us to gain a better understanding of our Lord's teaching on this topic, we're going to be relying on parts of Matthew chapter 5, part of the Sermon on the Mount, as well as Matthew chapter 19. And so I want to read to you now from chapter 5 what Jesus has to say during the Sermon on the Mount. And in this passage, there's a structure in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus goes through the law and he says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you. And so he's explaining what they think they already know. They think, oh, the law says this. And he says, yeah, it says that, but here's actually what it means. And so one of the things that he brings up is the commandment that you shall not commit adultery. And in this text, he explains what that means.

What does it mean to not commit adultery? And so we can only presume that the people of that time and us, because we're made like them, have a propensity to misunderstand what is said there. So I don't normally have this, but I've actually got the supplementary scriptures on the screen so you can read them. So Matthew 5, 27 through 32. Jesus says, You have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you, That everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And so you see at the very end of this text the parallel statement to what we find in Luke. Whoever divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Now there are three major aspects concerning our topic that we need to note from this passage.

The first is that adultery is not limited to physical infidelity. You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that any man who looks on a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, there's a discussion to be had about the similarities and differences between physical infidelity and lust and that sort of infidelity. I'm happy to talk about it more later with you. That's not what our purpose here is this morning, other than to say that there is wickedness and sin. There's a breaking of this commandment long before physical infidelity comes into play. And that Jesus actually says that you've committed adultery in your heart. The man who looks at a woman with lust in his heart has broken this commandment. Similarly, The woman who behaves or dresses in a way to garner those sorts of looks has also broken this commandment. You guys hear these conversations about lust and whose responsibility is it and whose fault is it and these sorts of things, and the answer is both. Men should never look at women in this way, ever. There's no excuse for it. And women should never dress in a way that brings these looks upon them.

And so both men and women can equally break this commandment, either by looking or by trying to get the looks. And Jesus describes this as adultery in our hearts. The second aspect from this text concerning divorce and remarriage is that there is a circumstance in which divorce is allowable. Jesus says that no man should put away his wife except for the reason of unchastity. Also translated, adultery, sexual immorality, or any sort of sexual misconduct that breaks the marriage bond between a man and a woman. And again here, there's a slippery slope. Okay, so what sort of sexual deviancy or misconduct breaks the marriage bond and what kind of sexual misconduct is an affront to it or does harm to it or does damage to it but doesn't break it? And those are things that...

pastors and elders work through with people case by case because there's no two circumstances that are the same. But there is an exception here given by Jesus for those who commit adultery or unchastity, that there actually is a ground here for divorce where it's allowable. Now, you have to understand, though, that there is a difference between allowable and commendable. Paul says in another place, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. And so we have to see what's being said here and not misunderstand what's being said. The fact that something is allowed does not mean that you should do it. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something. And the third thing we learned from this passage about divorce is that there was a way, historically, in the Old Testament, in the law, for getting a divorce. Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. A husband could put away his wife, but only if he gave her the certificate of divorce.

that would have been subject to the judgment of others. It wasn't something that he was able to do just all by himself alone, even in this time. He would have to have reason to dissolve his marriage. He wouldn't just be able to say, I don't like her anymore. Get rid of her. And even in our society, there was a time when you couldn't just go get a divorce if you wanted to get a divorce. You had to have a reason. But now, since 1969, I think is when the no-fault divorce law, came into place, you don't have to have a reason anymore. There doesn't have to be a fault found to base the divorce on. You can just say, we don't like irreconcilable differences. We don't like each other. We're doing different things. And now we can get a divorce. But even in this time, that was not the way. You had to have a reason. And it had to be approved by the judges of that time for it to be allowable. But now that we have no-fault divorce,

The floodgates of divorce have opened up, and about 50% of all marriages, Christian or not, end in divorce. So from Matthew 5, we see that adultery is not limited to physical infidelity. There is a circumstance where divorce is allowable, though not commended, and that there was a process, biblically, for procuring a divorce. This section where, this thing where Jesus says, whoever, you know, it was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her... a certificate of divorce is found in Deuteronomy 24, 1 through 5. But I want to tell you something about this law. You know that we have laws in our land that are meant to curb wickedness once it's already happened. It's like something bad's happened, and here's a thing to keep it from getting worse. Ideally, the bad thing would never happen. But when the bad thing happens, what are you going to do about it? That's the type of law we're dealing with here, with getting divorces.

It's not something that is on equal par with staying married. It's not. It's a lower accommodation for the wickedness of man. Marriage is not treated anywhere in Scripture as, well, get married, and if you don't like it, you can get a divorce. Nowhere in Scripture does God treat divorce this way. I can give you another example of the type of law in the Old Testament that fits the same sort of thing. So let's say that Daniel and I, we go out into the woods to chop firewood. How are we going to warm up our houses? How are we going to cook our food? We're going to go out and we're going to chop wood. Well, lo and behold, while we're out chopping wood, my axe handle flies off of my axe, impales Daniel, and kills him. Now, it seems crazy, but I'm only making you a case exactly from Scripture about what you're supposed to do when that happens. The question then is, am I a murderer?

Because if I'm a murderer, what's the consequence? I'm to be put to death. But what if it was an accident? Then what? You go to a city of refuge. And so there were these places in the Old Testament, called cities of refuge, where if you killed somebody on accident, you could flee to a city of refuge. And that's exactly what it was. The people who wanted to avenge their loss could not take you out of that city. if it was an accident. And the elders of that city were set up to judge whether what you did was malicious and on purpose or whether it was an accident. And if it was an accident, you could live out your days there in safety. Now, if they judged that what you did was malicious and you did it on purpose, what do you think they were supposed to do? Extradition, yes. They're to put you out. They're to hand you over to the people who want to kill you for what you've done. But all of these laws,

The cities of refuge and how do you determine what should happen all flow out of something that none of us would ever like to see happen, which is the axe handle fly off and kill somebody. Axe heads ought to stay on axe handles. But when they don't, what are you going to do? The law makes provision for that. In the same way, divorce is explained and provided for, but it's not commended. It's not something that is given to us. and said, if you want it, here you go. Here's the process that you go through. It's not simply a process that you go through. There's more to it than that. And so what should have been a rare occurrence in Israel, divorce, had become commonplace in Israel. Divorce was widespread. It was constantly happening there. I want to read to you now from Matthew 19, where Jesus, again, in a different context, is responding to a question that is asked of him.

Okay, Matthew 19, starting in verse 3. Some of the Pharisees came to Jesus. Do you have that one, Miles? Thank you. Some of the Pharisees came to Jesus, testing him and asking him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And he answered and said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one, one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? He said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I said to you, Whoever divorces his wife except for immorality,

and marries another woman, commits adultery. To the disciples, the disciples said to him, If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this. Let him accept it. And so Jesus here is picked in response to a question from the Pharisees who are trying to trap him, trying to find a place where he is deviated from the law and is blaspheming, is lying, is sinning. They bring up the question of divorce. And they start by saying, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And you have to understand the context in which that sort of question wouldn't just be laughed off the stage.

Could you imagine, you know, you're going to go up to your parents, you're going to go up to your pastor, and you're going to say, can I divorce my wife for any reason at all? What would you expect my response to be if you came up and asked me that question? No, you are not free to divorce your spouse for any reason at all. And for that reason, because you know that that would be the response, you would not ask that question. Because you know you look like a fool for asking it. But the Pharisees asked this question and no one balks at it. And what that does is tell you about the culture in which they lived. That divorce was so commonplace and they were divorcing for any reason at all that they could ask that question without anybody thinking that they were breaking the law of God. And so that's the first thing you have to note from Jesus' treatment of this question, can you divorce? That it's a wicked question and that they had departed and misunderstood so much.

of the intention of the law regarding marriage and divorce, that they were getting divorced for any reason they felt like it. And part of Jesus' answer to their question, he says, from the beginning, it was not this way. What he's saying is, you guys have looked to the law where Moses permitted divorce, but I'm telling you that there's a greater, a higher law to be obeyed concerning marriage than what Moses has allowed. And where do we go to find that except when marriage was instituted in the garden when he made Adam, couldn't find a suitor helpable for him, put him to sleep, took his rib and made a woman for him to be his wife. This is when God instituted the made marriage. And like with all other things that are copyrighted, if you will, the creator gets to dictate how it works.

And so in the garden, we see God making a man and a woman, putting them together, establishing a one flesh union. That is how marriage ought to be. We ought to understand biblically from the garden that these are the terms of marriage. When you get married, you're married now. You are not able to just withdraw from that marriage for pretty much any reason. Certainly not because you don't like each other, and you can't agree about money, or you can't agree about whatever it is you disagree about. You cannot lawfully withdraw. You can't even lawfully think about withdrawing without doing great damage to how God intended it to be. Oftentimes in wedding ceremonies, you'll hear a couple of passages. One is that a cord of three strands is not easily separated. And you'll also hear this passage here where it says, What God has joined together, let no man separate. But you have to understand that passage in context. It actually says you cannot get divorced. You can't. Now, am I saying that there's no exception to the clause? No, I'm not. I'm not saying that there is not an exception for adultery. But who in their right mind wants to get married thinking, well, I can get out of this if it goes sideways, if he cheats on me? If that's the concern that you have, and I've talked to old women who've been in those sorts of situations, what they said was,

I knew he wasn't trustworthy ahead of time, and I married him anyway. And she shouldn't have married him. And so what God has joined together, let no man separate. It was not this way from the beginning. Marriage has high stakes, and that's why the disciples respond, and they say, if it's as you say it is, if this is how marriage is, if the stakes are so high and breaking that bond is so difficult, it's better not to marry. It is better not to marry than to get married and get a divorce. That is what the disciples understand Jesus to be saying. And he doesn't go, no, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. He says, some people can't accept this statement. And then he starts talking about eunuchs. And what's a eunuch? This is why I was talking to my kids about this a few days ago. And they said, Dad, you know, Canaan, he was reading it. He couldn't pronounce the word, and he's like, I don't remember what you said, but you really butchered the word.

But what's a eunuch? And I said, someone who's no longer able to have children. And you note that there are three ways that you get eunuchs. One is they're born that way. Some people are unable to have children from birth. Some are made that way by the hands of men. And if you understand how it all works and where babies come from and that kind of stuff, then you understand what it would mean for a man to be made a eunuch at the hands of other men. And then there's this third category, men who've made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God. And what we want to think is the Roman Catholic priesthood and their singleness. And that's an abuse of this text. Marriage is to be held in high estate among all men. That's not what's being spoken about here. The context, you remember, is divorce. So what does it mean for men to be made eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God? It means that their previous sin

And the broken marriage that they have before them prevents them from getting married again. They've lost their ability to get married again, biblically. And they understand that their love for God and their place in his kingdom, as his word applies to their past sins, preclude them from getting married again. Now, could you imagine saying that to anybody? You can't get married again without sinning. But whoever divorces his wife and marries another, except for porneia, except for unchastity or adultery or sexual immorality, commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman who's unlawfully divorced commits adultery. This is how scripture speaks of this. And so we can't go away from that and go, that's crazy. If we were to say that or think that or believe that, do you have any idea what people would say?

I would submit to you that it's more uncomfortable for me than it is for any of you because the likelihood in this room of those words having to come out of your mouth are much more likely to have to come out of my mouth than any of yours or David's or Dan's as officers. Very difficult things to say. But the question is, do we trust what God has to say or do we not? So what about Moses' permission, his accommodation? Jesus is very clear in saying what causes their divorces. From this way, it was not from the beginning, but because of the hardness of your heart, Moses allowed you to get divorced. And you have to think for a minute, if they hadn't gotten divorced, what would they have done instead? And you can come up with all kinds of answers. What would these sort of people with hard hearts, as they're described, do if they weren't allowed to do what they wanted? You suffice it to say they'd do something worse. They might kill their spouse to get out of the marriage.

We don't want to think this way, but this is what people do. They would not have been above it. And so because of the hardness of their heart, they were permitted to divorce their wives. But from the beginning, it was not that way. Even that was a departure from the original design and intent of marriage. One thing I want to say to you about people who end up breaking this commandment, some of you I know are sitting here thinking, I've done what you're saying is wicked and sinful. Well, what are we supposed to do? You're to repent, just like every other sin that you've ever committed. What does repentance look like? You'll see these conversations around this topic, and one of the things people will ask is, well, are they supposed to divorce their current spouse and go back to their former spouse? No. One of the things you might be inclined to think is, it's not a real marriage. If you were married once, and you got a divorce, and then you got remarried and it was wicked, then that's not a legitimate marriage. But nowhere in Scripture is that marriage not given standing, as though it's not legitimate.

Even though it was the fruit of a sinful action. Is it a legitimate marriage? Well, then we have to go back to the garden and we have to see, okay, what constitutes a marriage? Does this union, whether it was born out of righteousness or wickedness and corruption, does it now meet the requirements of a legitimate marriage? And if it does, then it is a marriage. And it was entered into by sin. But it's no less a marriage because of it. And so to take that marriage now and to destroy it and to say, no more, as if we can untie that knot. You understand there's really a corruption and silliness that even asks this question. I don't want to sin now. And so my previous marriage that ended in divorce, to fix that, I'm now going to divorce my current wife, go back to my previous spouse, and it'll all be better.

Brothers and sisters, you can't atone for any of your own sin like that. There are messes that every one of us make in our lives constantly that we cannot clean up. And we must submit them to the blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness and for cleansing and for healing. And this situation is no different. And so if you find yourself and you go, I am in that situation. I was divorced and it was inappropriate and it was wicked and here I am remarried. What should I do? Well, the answer is not feel terrible for the rest of your lives about this. The answer is to repent and to trust God, that he sent his son to die for sinners, not for the rich, not for the wealthy, not for those who had no need, but for those who've made a mess of it and who've done what they ought not to have done. So now that you understand at least an overview of how Scripture treats divorce and remarriage, the question has to be asked, why are the stakes with marriage so high? Why is it that way?

You could ask these sort of questions about all kinds of things in the law. Why couldn't they sell shellfish? Why couldn't they mix their fabrics? Why these questions I don't understand? And they're good questions. And there are good answers. So why are the stakes of marriage so high? Why is divorce so wicked? The reason is this. Marriage is a reflection. of the relationship between Jesus Christ and his bride, the church. And every one of us who's married has been married or will be married. When you get married, you enter into an obligation to tell the truth about Jesus Christ and his bride, the church. That's your job. That's why we have the institution of marriage. That's why there won't be marriage in heaven, because we'll see it.

Jesus will be joined with his bride, the church. You'll be a part of it, and we won't need a type or a picture to show us something that we can't see yet, because we will live it. And so in heaven, there will be no giving and receiving in marriage, because marriage, this picture, this lesser institution, will have been fulfilled, and we won't need it any longer. But as it stands right now, while we live and breathe here on earth, And we're in this flesh. We have the institution of marriage. We have marriages. And particularly for the purpose of proclaiming and telling the truth about who Jesus Christ is, you as husbands, and what his relationship to the church is like to you wives. And we can look through scripture and you can find all kinds of marriages that are messed up, that are broken, that are not as they should be. Abraham putting his wife off as his sister twice.

Hosea having to marry a prostitute and having her continually be unfaithful to him and not divorce her? There's all kinds of pictures in Scripture of marriages that aren't as they should be. And yet, what I want you to understand is that Hosea and his wife, the prostitute, were a better picture of the relationship between Christ and the church than a man and woman who divorce. Divorce tells an awful lie. about the relationship between Jesus and his bride. An awful lie. One is that, what's that lie? Well, one, that it's not redeemable. It's not fixable. It's hopeless. And yet if you're a Christian and you're a part of the church of Jesus Christ, do you want to be told you're hopeless and there's no hope for you and that you're going to be left behind because you're too much of a mess? Or that the one who's supposed to help you is unwilling?

They don't care enough. That's not what I signed up for. At some point, every married couple says that. This isn't what I signed up for. And I say, well, it's just because you were ignorant. It actually is exactly what you signed up for. You just didn't know ahead of time. You thought you were that one couple. But as a husband and a wife, you have obligation to tell the truth about Jesus Christ. And you say, but it's hard and I'm not happy. And I say, we have to trust God and we have to work. To make it true. To make the statement true. And your happiness is not the ultimate goal of your marriage. Is it one of the kind fruits that God gives us as we're faithful to him and as he's kind to us? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You ever meet a couple? You know a couple that's been married 50 years or more? There's just something true about their marriage. There's just something. You just can't argue with them.

Because you know that they're not perfect, and you know that they've had hard times, but they've stuck it out. And there's just something that's unanswerable. And there's something that's comforting. And it's because they, through the good times and the bad times and the richer and the poorer and the sickness and the health and all of that, they told the truth about Jesus Christ and his church. Jesus says to the disciples on the mountain before he ascends and when he gives them their commission, the end of it is, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And how unfaithful has the church been to Jesus Christ over the centuries? And that's the second time in scripture you have that sort of reminder and that sort of comfort given to the people of God. The first time is when they're going to go into the promised land. And Joshua says to them that the Lord will never leave them nor forsake them. And then again in the great commission, he'll never leave you nor forsake you. Now, does that have any,

an import or consequence to the institution of marriage? Yes. Because what you have in that moment is you have the groom saying to the bride, we will never be separated. And there have been dark days in the church with regard to her purity, with regard to her faithfulness, and there continues to be. And the same is true in our marriages. And so when you find those things in your marriage, And you find them to be difficult, hard. You never thought it was going to happen. You're not alone in that struggle. You're not alone in that place. You're not the first person who's been there and thought, this is more than I can bear. This is more than I can handle. This is more than I want to be a part of. You won't be the first person to be in that situation. And may you not be the person who decides that for those reasons, you're going to quit. You know when people get divorced, they commonly will say, well, it was better for everybody. And you know what that is? It's a lie. That's what that is. That's a lie.

You have divorced parents. Was it better for you? It wasn't better for you. And what we want to do when I ask, if you start going down this line, we want to start going, but what about the terrible, awful, no good, dangerous situations? What about those? And I say, we've got, there are answers for those questions, those times and those circumstances. Absolutely, biblically. But are most divorces founded out of those situations? They're not. It's a lie. Most divorces happen because people just don't want to do the work of staying married because they love themselves and their own comforts more than they love God. And they're not willing to have the struggle and the hardship. They won't accept adversity from God along with the good. And in the process, they lie about Jesus Christ and the church. And they move on and they get remarried as though that's perfectly fine and perfectly acceptable. And they found love now and they're happy now. And isn't that the point? Now, should marriage make you happy?

Yes, you really should like the person you're married to. You should grow in your love for them and your appreciation of them. You should become like them. You probably even will start to look like them. That's okay, Allie. Her face was the face in here. It's like, no one looks like me. That's what you're signing up for when you sign up for marriage. And you talk to anyone who's been married for more than, I'd say, two years, and they'll tell you that. And if they're honest, they'll tell you that. And if you ask them, would you do it again? They should say yes. If they don't say yes, what they're telling you is that by their unwillingness to say yes, they're telling you that they're making provision for their flesh. And so the purpose of marriage is to tell the truth about the relationship between Jesus Christ and his bride. And divorce is the primary way that Satan will attack that truth. Because what do kids wonder when their parents get divorced?

One, was it my fault? What do they learn? I never want to have a divorce. And so what do they do? They never get married. Now, it doesn't mean they don't do what married people do. They often do. They live together. They fornicate. They do all the things that married couples do. But they think somehow they're protected from it. And they're not. Divorce leaves a mark. It always leaves a mark. A very painful mark. A lifelong mark. It doesn't mean that sometimes you can't... It doesn't mean that in... biblically appropriate times, that mark shouldn't be made. There are times when people should get divorced, but not nearly at the rate that they do, and not at all for the reasons that they do. And getting remarried doesn't fix it. It adds to the corruption of the previous divorce. You know Malachi, it says that God hates divorce. Do you think that he hates lawful divorces? Here's a question. Does he hate lawful divorces?

The answer is yes. Yeah, he does. You know who loves divorces? Satan. He absolutely loves them. And so divorce is not the answer to the problems that you have in your marriage. It is not the answer. It will not be better. God will not be glorified. You will not be happier. What am I supposed to do instead then? If that's your question, that's a good question. Because that's the question that comes first to the mind of someone who's concerned about the glory of Jesus Christ. What do I have to do then? How does this work then? If I can't just get out of it, how does this get better? Because I don't want to live like this forever. And a husband and wife who are having trouble, who will both together in sincerity ask that question, there's hope for, because God doesn't abandon us or forsake us. He has a vested interest in your marriage actually working.

and being a true picture of his son's relationship to his bride. And so there is help to be found. Will it be hard? Yeah. But it won't nearly leave the mark that divorce does. There actually can be joy and happiness the other side of it. I know couples that have been on the brink of divorce, had their toes curled over the edge of it, ready to jump, and they've walked back from it, and they're happier for it. And God was glorified in the process instead of dishonored. There are truths bigger than ourselves. That we have obligation to profess and to claim and to demonstrate in our lives if we call ourselves Christians. And marriage is one of the primary places in our society where the spotlight's on you. Your marriage should not look like the marriages of the world. It should not end like the marriages of the world. Your interactions with your spouse shouldn't be like those of the world. Everything about it should be different. It should be Christian. It should be biblical.

It should give glory to Jesus Christ. And when we do that, when God provides that to us by faith, then we tell the truth. And you'll find joy and you'll find satisfaction and hope in that. When you turn to God with the things that are most intimate to you and the most difficult, instead of running away and hiding under your rock, which is what divorce is, hurts too much, I'm going to get out, there you'll find God's mercy and his kindness to you. And so my exhortation to you is to fix it in your mind, wherever you're at right now. That you will not think about, talk about, entertain desires for anything that requires the sort of unfaithfulness that divorce requires. That you will make no provision for your flesh with regards to its lusts. And when you go, but I'm really tempted, you'll ask for help. So that God would be glorified and the truth would be told. Let's pray. Father, in the beginning when you made Adam, it was not good for him to be alone.

And still to this day, Father, it's not good for us to be alone. You've not made us to be independent of the love and care and companionship of a spouse. And so we ask, Father, that having made the institution of marriage, having made man for woman and woman for man, together to demonstrate and proclaim the truths that are mysterious to us otherwise, we ask, Father, that you would give us faithfulness to our spouses, that you give us faithfulness to you in our marriages, that as men and women, husbands and wives, you would grant us repentance for all of the wicked thoughts and the wicked things that we've said and done that have taken your son and trampled him under our feet for the sake of our own lusts and our own desires.

how we've had no care for what's being lied about, even to ourselves or to our spouses when we've acted wickedly as husband or wife. We pray, Father, that you would be merciful to us, that you would show us the danger that we are ever in through Satan's temptations and his attacks. And I pray, Father, that you would give us your Holy Spirit and strengthen us to fight against his onslaught. to be faithful to our spouses, to our vows, to the picture that you have called us to paint of Jesus' relationship to the church. Father, save us. Be merciful to us. Comfort those who have sinned in exactly the way that you've commanded them not to. I pray, Father, that you would bind them up and that you would grant them new repentance and new life and new zeal for your truth and increase their faith, Father.

Help them to look to Jesus Christ, who is the physician of our souls and who heals all of our ailments. Father, we love you and we praise you. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to be faithful servants so that you would receive glory. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.