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Matthew 5:31-32
Introduction
What is the state of divorce in the United States?
Statistics show that nearly half the marriages in the United States end in divorce.
Perhaps the most alarming statistic is that the divorce rate among members of Southern Baptist churches is actually slightly higher than the national average.
“Each year in the United States there are well over one million divorces, and beneath the rubble of those numbing statistics lie the crushed lives of men, women, and children.
For every million divorces, there are two million adults and several more million children who are directly involved.
None of them escapes suffering and damage, no matter how amicable the divorce may be.
Nearly every state has enacted “no fault” divorce laws, making divorce almost as easy as marriage.
It is not surprising that the largest caseloads in civil courts today relate to family disputes.”
(MacArthur, John F., Jr., /MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary: Matthew 16-23/, Copyright © 1988 by The Moody Bible Institute of ChicagoElectronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1997, Parsons Technology, Inc., Chapter16.)
Something is terribly wrong, we must reclaim God’s standard for marriage.
Now is not the time to compromise God’s standards.
Why is divorce such a difficult issue for the church?
Emotionally charged
There is possibly not a more emotionally charged subject in the church today than divorce.
Because divorce is so common, there are very few families and individuals who have not been affected by divorce.
Most if not all of us here this morning have experienced either directly or indirectly the pain of divorce.
Therefore, whenever divorce is discussed it tends to become and emotionally charged situation.
Too often I have been guilty, as I suspect many of us have of approaching this subject with a good deal of emotional baggage.
I hope to avoid that this morning.
My intent today is to neither condone divorce nor condemn divorcees.
My desire is to set forth our Lords teaching and to call each of us to his standard.
\\ Various views
There are nine passages that are normally referred to on the subject of divorce and remarriage, Genesis 2:24; Deuteronomy 24:1-4; Malachi 2:6-16; Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew 19:3-12; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18; Romans 7:1-6; and 1 Corinthians 7:10-15, obviously we do not have the time to examine each of these this morning.
Evangelical Christians have developed at least four different views concerning divorce.
I do not intend to detail each position this morning.
I simply want to make you aware of what they are.
If you are interested in pursuing this matter further I recommend you purchase /Divorce and Remarriage: Four Christian Views/, edited by H. Wayne House.
The four views simply stated are:
Ø      No divorce and no remarriage
Ø      Divorce, but no remarriage
Ø      Divorce and remarriage for adultery or desertion
Ø      Divorce and remarriage under a variety of circumstances.
Within each of these groups there are various sub-groups.
If I have discovered anything in my study I have discovered there is no set position even among conservative Bible believing Christians.
With such being the case it behooves us to focus on Scripture even more intently.
What is the origin of divorce?  (Matthew 19:8)
John MacArthur is his commentary on Matthew19 traces the origin of the marital problems to our original parents.
“The first sin of mankind was not marital, but it was committed within the framework of marriage.
God created man and woman equal in many ways, but He gave them clearly different roles.
Man was to be the provider and leader and woman his helper in a perfect, balanced, and majestic co regency over all the earth (Gen.
1:27-28).
The man’s headship and the woman’s submission were blended in a loving interdependence that allowed them to multiply and fill the earth together, subdue the earth together, and rule the earth together.
But because Eve did not consult Adam, her head and protector, when temptation came she easily succumbed to Satan’s wiles.
And when Adam forfeited his role of headship and willingly followed her lead, he also succumbed to sin.
As a consequence of that sin, God cursed Eve and all other women to pain in childbirth and cursed Adam and all other men to the hardship of laboring for their food and sustenance (Gen.
3:16-19).
In addition to that, because the God-given harmony between man and woman had been broken, God also placed a curse upon their relationship to each other.
Because they reversed their roles, with Eve usurping the place of leadership and Adam submitting to the place of follower, God destined them to continual conflict.”
(MacArthur, Chapter 16)
 
MacArthur is correct in his premise, divorce is rooted in sin and sin originated with Adam and Eve.
Each of us is born with a sin nature and have been at odds with God and each other ever since.
What can and should we do?
Context
We must always seek to understand the Scripture in context.
This statement is one of six statements made by our Lord in which He uses the formula, “You have heard that it was said…But I say.”
In this particular section the Lord is teaching how our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20).
He is contrasting the truth of God’s word with the false teaching of the Jewish leadership.
In Matthew 19:3-9 Jesus takes up the same subject as a response to the Pharisees questions.
The Matthew 19 passage provides more details on the subject so we will refer to it as we study.
Content
We will examine this passage by seeking to answer three questions.
Ø      What did Moses teach concerning divorce?
Ø      What did the Pharisees and scribes teach concerning divorce?
Ø      What does our Lord teach concerning divorce?
1A.
What did Moses Teach Concerning Divorce?  (Deuteronomy 24:1-4)
1B.
Moses’ law limited divorce to only certain causes.
(24:1a)
“Indecency;” /ervah/; nakedness/, /Usage*: *bare(1), indecency(1),  indecent(1), nakedness(48),  shame(1), undefended parts(2).
“Because the penalty for adultery was death, the indecency mentioned here obviously referred to some kind of sexual looseness or lewdness that came short of adultery.
And it was because such indecency, vile as it might have been, was not sufficient grounds for divorce that the divorced wife was defiled by remarriage and could not be taken back by her first husband.
Because her divorce to her first husband had no sufficient grounds and thus was invalid, she became an adulteress, and therefore defiled, when she married again.
That is why John the Baptist declared that Herod and Herodias were living in adultery.
In God’s sight, she was still “the wife of his brother Philip” (Matt.
14:3-4).
For the first husband to take back a defiled woman would be unholy.”
(MacArthur, Chapter 16)
2B.
Moses’ law protected the woman.
(24:1b)
In a society that treated women as property Moses brought order and decency to the chaos.
Ø      It protected her from being charged with adultery and possibly stoned.
Ø      It protected her from becoming destitute with no means of support.
3B.
Moses’ law made divorce a formal and serious matter.
Ø      Prior to this law men could simply put there wives out without any formal requirements.
4B.
Moses’ law made divorce and remarriage more difficult and in some cases impossible.
(24:2-4)
Once a divorced spouse has left and married someone else the original couple can never remarry.
The net effect was to make divorce a much more permanent and serious matter.
It was a means to convict the hard and sinful heart of man.
2A.
What did the Pharisees and Scribes Teach Concerning Divorce?  (Matthew 19:3, 7)
Among the Jews of Jesus’ day there were essentially two schools of thought concerning divorce.
1B.
Rabbi Shammai held a more conservative view.
Ø      “Indecency” refers to gross indecency but not necessarily adultery.
2B.
Rabi Hillel held a more liberal view.
Ø      “Indecency” could refer to almost anything from adultery to an improperly cooked meal.
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