Marriage Divorce and Remarriage 2

00:01 I think maybe we should call this Homecoming Sunday because I see the church full again and see some of you that haven't been here for several weeks, have been on vacation and reunions and all the things that happened in the summertime. Welcome back. And also seeing a number of visitors this morning too. We want to send Christian greetings to each one. 00:20 About two weeks ago I started a what is becoming a series on the subject of marriage and divorce and remarriage. And my purpose is to reinforce to us and to teach us what the Scripture has to say about this most important topic. 00:39 And so we looked at the Book of Mark, Mark chapter 10, and we decided that there would be another message this morning. And I think, I think, I think there's going to have to be a third message. And so because there's just too much today to get into one. And so if you would turn in your copies of the Scriptures to First Corinthians, 01:01 I'd like to leave off or to begin where we left off two weeks ago from First Corinthians 7. But just by way of reminder while you're turning there, we looked at Mark chapter 10, 1 through 12. And in a little bit I'll explain why we started with Mark. And today we'll also be looking at Matthew. 01:23 But we remember that some Pharisees and leaders came to Jesus testing Him, tempting Him. And there were two main approaches of the day. There was the rabbi, people who followed Rabbi Hillel, which basically said that and taught that because of what it says in Deuteronomy 24, 01:43 a man could divorce his wife for basically anything. If she burned the manna or the bagels, if she didn't look at him cross-eyed, if she didn't please him in some way, he could divorce her. And then there was others that followed Rabbi Shammai. 02:00 And he believed that divorce was only for sexual uncleanness and unchastity or unfaithfulness within the marriage. And then we had Moses, his teaching. What did Moses require of you or speak to you or teach you? And they said, 02:18 "Well, Moses said..." and then they went on to say what Moses said. And Jesus bypassed Hillel, bypassed Shammai, and even bypassed Moses and said, "From the beginning it was not so." And we checked out where it says, "From the beginning it has been like this, 02:38 that a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they will become one flesh." That word "from the beginning" has the idea of since the beginning continuing on and continuing on, continuous repeated action. So it never really ceased to be. 02:54 And Jesus is taking us back to the original and reinstituting what is called the universal marriage law. That the one flesh marriage is a covenant marriage that is equally binding upon all of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, all in the human family, 03:13 a one flesh relationship till death parts them. And so we established that looking at the creation and then this then becoming the standard for the New Testament age. Where we left off was to go to First Corinthians chapter 7. 03:32 First Corinthians chapter 7 is a lengthy passage on the subject of both pertinent in the Corinthian church because of the persecution and because of divorce and remarriage and some 03:47 husbands coming into the church without their wives being believers, some wives coming into the church without their husbands being believers. And how do you handle all that? And then you had some people who said, "We're just going to be super Christians and not be bound by the sexual aspects of marriage." And so he addresses that. But what we're attempting to do here in the first part, 04:09 part 1, was to establish the clear passages of Scripture, what Scripture clearly teaches. Because one of the laws of biblical interpretation is that you take the clear teachings of Scriptures and you build the foundation with those. And then the unclear passages of Scripture, 04:28 which there are several, the unclear passages of Scripture get interpreted by the clear passages of Scripture and not the other way around. You don't take and build major doctrines on the unclear ones and then try to fit that into the clear ones. You take and build major doctrines of Scripture on the clear, straightforward teachings of Scripture. 04:50 And then you look for an understanding of the unclear ones that is consistent with the clear ones. That's so important on this subject. And so if you're looking there at First Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10 and 11, it says this, "Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord." So who's doing the commanding here? 05:12 It's the Lord Jesus Himself. Now Paul in this passage of chapter 7 talks about sometimes he says, "Not the Lord but I command." And then he gives some examples and some apostolic instructions which are binding on the church, apostolic instructions in some things that Jesus did not specifically address. 05:34 But in this case it says He is not doing the commanding. Jesus has done the commanding. And so He says, "A wife..." this is the Word of the Lord, "a wife is not to depart from her husband. 05:49 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And the husband is not to divorce his wife." Period. That's very clear, is it not? Very clear, extremely clear teaching of Christ. 06:09 Now you go down to verse 39 and it also sounds like Romans chapter 7, verse 1 through 3 where something similar is stated, "A wife is bound by law..." what law? Well, He's not just talking about the law of Moses because these people were Gentiles and Jews, but largely Gentiles. 06:29 And He's not just talking about the law of the state. That varies from culture to culture. He's talking about the marriage law, the universal marriage law that's equally binding upon all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. "A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, 06:49 she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord." And so again, a very clear passage of Scripture. Now I'm going to have you turn in your copies of the Scripture to Matthew chapter 19. 07:08 Because in part 2 here we're going to look at an unclear passage of Scripture that follows up and is very consistent with the Mark chapter 10 passage. And so go ahead, Brother Todd, and put that up on the overhead, the first slide. And so here we have Jesus and the Pharisees, a parallel passage to Mark chapter 10. 07:27 We're not going to read it all except look at verse 6. He said, "Then they are no longer two but one flesh." One flesh. They are no longer two. And so how do you take one flesh and make them two again? You can't. This is a covenant. 07:47 This is a one flesh relationship that God has done the joining. We talked about that two weeks ago as to who does the joining in a marriage relationship. It's not the state. It's not the church. It's not even the preacher. And it's certainly not the sex act. 08:03 It is the vow and God's responding to that vow and making husband and wife, man and woman, a one flesh entity, one flesh entity, a new entity and what God has joined together. Who joined it? God. 08:22 What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. In fact, the Living Bible, which is correct, more correct at times than what we give it credit for, says, "What God has joined together, no man may separate." That makes it a little bit clearer. Just don't do it, but you can't do it. 08:41 You dares not do it because it is an illegitimate separation of a one flesh relationship. So then we go on in Matthew 19, "Then they said unto him, 'Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away?'" And of course Jesus, we know His response, 09:01 "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality..." or the King James version, Old King, this is New King. The King James version says, "Except for fornication. 09:23 And marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced, commits adultery." And I don't want you to look at the responses of the disciples. His disciples said to him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry." This is serious business. 09:45 This is extremely serious, they recognized. We'll have more to say about that in a few minutes. Now almost identical to the Mark and Luke passage of Scripture is this passage. Except there is a phrase there of three or four words, 10:06 "Except for fornication" or "Except for sexual immorality." The word there "except" is why people call this the exception clause. And it has been bantered about through the last several hundred years. It has been tried to decide what it's referring to, 10:27 what does it mean, how do you interpret it, and why would Jesus use these Greek words? And so let's look at this question. What is Jesus referring to when He says, "Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality or fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. 10:48 And whoever marries her who is divorced, commits adultery"? And why is it that Matthew is the only one who uses that phrase, that so-called exception clause? I prefer to call it a loophole clause. That's what people want to use it, do with it, is make a loophole. But if you look at the passage, 11:07 at the text, "Except for fornication, sexual immorality," the word there that's used is the word "porneia," which must mean something different than adultery. Because later in the last part of that phrase He says, 11:28 "And marries another, commits adultery." So why would it be if whoever commits adultery and marries another commits adultery? Why would you use the same word? Well, there's two different things being communicated here in these two different words. 11:45 The word "adultery" at the end of that phrase where it says commits adultery and then again says commits adultery is the word "moikia," which pretty much always means adultery, the sexual union of a married person, adultery. Very clear. In fact, there are other Scriptures where these two words are used side by side also. 12:08 In First Corinthians 6:9, when He talks about the list of sins that disqualify someone from being a part of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, and it refers to sexual immorality or fornication and adultery, two different concepts in the same list. They're two different realities. 12:31 And so when Jesus was told by the Pharisees in John 8:41, "We be not children of fornication," what He was referring to was the relationship of Mary and Joseph. 12:46 It was commonly understood or perceived or misunderstood that they had committed fornication, sexual immorality, uncleanness, but not adultery. It does not say, "We are not children of moikia. 13:04 We are not children of porneia." So what is the difference there? What does this mean? And then in Matthew 15:19, if you just turn over to there just briefly, you'll see it again, 15:19, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, 13:25 murders, 13:27 moikia or adulteries, fornications or porneia, and thefts, false witness, and blasphemies." Two different words, adultery or moikia, meaning adultery, and porneia, meaning something else than just adultery. 13:49 So what does it mean and why is it recorded here in Matthew 19:9? What is Jesus trying to communicate? For Jesus to use a different word for the exception, it must mean something different than adultery. What then does it refer to? Mark and Luke do not record the clause. 14:11 They were written to a non-Jewish audience. Now incidentally, I mentioned in part 1 that Mark and Luke were written first and Matthew was written after Mark and Luke. What difference does that make? 14:25 Well, it makes a difference because Mark and Luke do not record the "exception clause." And so if Matthew came along after, then you have Jesus in Mark and Luke teaching a a a more limiting view than what Matthew does. 14:43 If you understand it to be in common terms as they understand it today, that there's an exception to divorce and remarriage. No, because whatever Matthew is saying must be consistent with Mark and Luke. It has to be. 15:03 So how do we understand what is and how can we come with a consistent understanding? Matthew is written primarily to a Jewish audience. Now why is that important? Well, one of the things also of biblical interpretation is you need to try to understand the original audience that a writer was addressing. 15:24 The original audience that Matthew was addressing was a Jewish audience. When they read the exception clause, please understand I don't like that term, but that's what I'm going to use. When they read the exception clause, they know exactly what it means. You speak to a Jewish, 15:43 a non-Jewish, a Roman or Greek audience, they don't know what this was referring to. So it wasn't recorded. The Jews were familiar with the practice of betrothal, betrothal. 15:58 And that was the period between the agreement to marry and the consummation of the marriage. That was the betrothal period. And the agreement to married in that culture was the legally binding agreement. 16:19 So the actual consummation of the marriage or the marriage ceremony did not have as much legal ramifications or involvement to it as did the betrothal, 16:30 the act of becoming betrothed or what we would call engaged or promised was a legal transaction between a man and his father-in-law or maybe the man's father and the father-in-law. And that would take a divorce to negate, to get rid of that would have taken a divorce. 16:52 And so therefore in Matthew chapter 1, where Joseph was minded to put her away privately so as not to make a spectacle of Mary and accuse her outright of fornication, unfaithfulness, uncleanness, he decided to put her away privately. 17:12 That would have taken a legal divorce to break that covenant, that legally binding agreement between the two parties. 17:24 And so when it comes to this, it's not difficult at all to understand what sexual immorality or fornication means in this passage in Matthew 5 and 19. Because the Jews were familiar with this practice. 17:40 And so had anyone come to the marriage bed and discovered a defilement of the wife towards her husband, unfaithfulness, he could have divorced her and then married another. Okay? And so I would believe that this refers to the betrothal period. 18:01 Now why else would this agree to the betrothal period? Well, on the notes there it says, "They were considered married, his espoused wife." Luke talks about that, about Joseph traveling with Mary, his espoused wife. 18:19 But we also can realize that Joseph was a just man. Now in chapter 1 of Matthew is the only place in the Gospels where it talks about Joseph being minded to put her away. The only place. The other three Gospels do not record that. 18:40 Joseph being a just man was going to exercise the prerogative or the opportunity to put her away because she had been unclean. That is why I believe Jesus refers to this in 19:9 is to validate Joseph's response, 19:02 that Joseph was not acting in an ungodly way. He was not acting in an unbiblical way. He was not an unjust man because it calls him a just man. Well, how can it be a just man if you're going to divorce his wife? Well, it has to do with that betrothal period. 19:19 Joseph being a just man and in Matthew 5 and 19, Jesus confirming that, that Joseph was well within his legal, moral, and ethical rights to have done so. Of course, we know that God had other plans. So not to implicate him, Matthew includes this phrase. 19:41 There's another interpretation, and that is it may also refer to illegal marriages. What do you mean by an illegal marriage? Marriage such as incest, where a husband would marry his son, I mean marry his daughter, or a mother may marry her son, 20:01 or a sibling may be contracted to marry a sibling, or a homosexual, in our culture today, homosexual marriage, those are illegal morally and scripturally and ethically and biblically illegal marriages. They are not marriages. 20:20 And so if you have a husband like some would say about 20:31 Muhammad being intimate with girls that are 10, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 years old, those could be considered illegal marriages because there was no opportunity for the girl to resist, no opportunity at all. 20:52 And it was not a good, wholesome, mutually agreed-upon relationship that ends up in a one-flesh relationship. Incest, bestiality, you cannot marry your dog, you cannot marry your horse, you cannot marry your dolphin. 21:12 Some time ago I heard about a woman who wanted to marry a dolphin. And a marriage doesn't mean anything anymore when you get to that point. Those are illegal marriages. 21:21 I don't care what government in the world would say, "You can marry your dolphin or your buffalo or your pet cat." It does not make it binding. It is not a one-flesh relationship. It is not marriage. Neither is homosexual relationships. 21:41 They are not marriage. 21:43 So my question is, can a homosexual who involved himself or herself in a same-sex marriage, if they repent and come to the Lord, can they marry in a one-flesh relationship? And the answer is yes, absolutely. 22:04 Because what they had was not a marriage. It was not a one-flesh relationship. It could never be. So this exception clause can also be seen by many scholars to refer to those illegal marriages. 22:21 Now the testimony of the early church leaders bear record that Jesus did not mean that adultery is the exception. What did Jesus refer to? I just want to say this yet. When we come to Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shemai and even Moses, Jesus had a perfect opportunity to say, 22:42 "Well, you know Rabbi Hillel, I don't think he's right, but Rabbi Shemai I can go with," or vice versa. 22:50 "Or Moses, I can go with Moses." Jesus bypassed all three of those teachers and said, "He who marries a divorced person commits adultery." And so how do you know that he was not buying into Hillel 23:10 or Shemai or even Old Testament theology? You can gauge that by his disciples' response. His disciples said to him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry." I mean, they are blown away. They're familiar with Hillel. 23:31 They're familiar with Shemai. They're familiar with Moses. And Jesus is doing an end run around all three and saying, "This is the standard. That a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and they shall be one flesh," and forbidding divorce and remarriage. 23:51 I'm going to give you the four positions of the early church. Now you're going to have to hang on because we're going to go pretty fast. The reason I want to do this is because not that we are elevating the teachings of men, because the teachings of men are the teachings of men. But the teachings of the early church will help us understand how the early church and the early church leaders, 24:12 we call them the church fathers, understood the teachings of Jesus. We've had about 2,000 years of history now since Jesus taught this and a lot of ideas being passed around out there. There's podcasts, there's books, there's preachers, there's teachers, there's self-appointed experts. 24:33 And so what can we learn from the early church? What did they understand about marriage and divorce and remarriage? The first view was the early fathers' view or the patristic view. This view declared, "If one were to suffer the misfortune of divorce, 24:53 remarriage to a second spouse was not permitted regardless of the cause." Pretty simple, straightforward. The preteritive view or the Augustinian view, this is what Augustine would have espoused. 25:07 This view interpreted Jesus' remarks in Matthew 19 to be refusing to take adultery as a cause for separation, divorce, or nullity, or I added the word annulment. Remarriage is always wrong following a valid marriage. And what we mean by a valid marriage is a one-flesh relationship, 25:30 both parties entering into a first-time covenant as being a valid marriage. 25:36 The betrothal view, which I presented to you a minute ago, the engagement view, this view interprets the Matthew 19:9 passage as an exception clause applying only to a Jewish betrothal period and previous to consummating the actual marriage. 25:55 Thus the word fornication and not adultery is used. Then there's the unlawful marriage view. This view said divorce would be allowed only in the case of a forbidden or incestuous marriage such as when close relatives married. 26:11 Apart from this particular circumstance, neither divorce nor remarriage to a second spouse would be permitted. Now here's what I want you to know. With only one exception, and then I understand that exception turned out to not be a real person. He was writing under another name. 26:30 But almost every leader in the early church for the first four to five centuries believed in one of these views, which basically said in the unfortunate event that there is a divorce, remarriage is not an option. Steele and Riery, 26:50 Charles Riery also said, "Careful research through the hundreds of manuscripts written by church leaders of the first five centuries has revealed that with only one exception, Ambrosiastor, the fourth-century Latin writer, 27:06 that's the one that was the exception and they found out later that he may not have even been a real person, a pen name rather. The church fathers were unanimous in their understanding that Christ and Paul taught, if one were to suffer the misfortune of the divorce, remarriage was not permitted regardless of the cause. 27:27 These were the only doctrinal conclusions the early church knew and continued to know for over 1,500 years concerning the permanence of the marriage covenant." Now Paul says, "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after men. For I neither received it of men, neither was taught it, 27:46 but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Then Paul said to Timothy, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." So Paul got his revelation from Jesus. Now he's passing that on to Timothy and he's telling Timothy, 28:06 "The things you heard from me which I got from the Lord, pass those on to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." So that's what we're looking at this morning. What did the faithful men say? The early church fathers were in complete agreement. 28:23 Of all the early recognized church fathers who ever wrote or who were written about concerning every discussion and every debate in thousands of surviving documents over hundreds of years, there is not a single dissenting authoritative voice on the essential core doctrines of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. Each taught the same doctrine, 28:42 each held the same opinion, and each enforced the same moral standards as you will read here. Hermes, around the AD 90, "If a wife persists in adulterous behavior, the innocent party 'may and should divorce in order to separate away from the sins of the offender. 29:01 If a husband divorces his wife for such reason, he must remain single and not remarry. If a wife repents of her offenses, the husband must forgive her and receive her back as wife. If the husband does not forgive his repentant wife, he brings a great sin upon himself. 29:19 Men and women are to act and be regarded exactly the same in this matter." So there's not a double standard for men and women. Justin Martyr, around the year 151, "To indulge in lust is to be guilty of adultery of the heart. Whoever marries a divorced person commits adultery. 29:38 Whoever contracts a second marriage is sinning against God while a former spouse lives. God does not and the church must not take into account human law when it is in violation of God's law. God judges motives and intentions, private thought life and actions. 29:58 All is known and exposed to the God with which we have to do." Clement of Alexandria in 208, "The scriptures encourage Christians to enter a marriage relationship. The marriage union covenant is permanent and does not allow anyone to be released from the union. 30:18 Adultery is the only legitimate reason for divorce. Otherwise, separation is prohibited. Remarriage while the former spouse is alive is living in the state of adultery." Notice that, is living in the state of adultery. We'll talk more about that in part three of this message. 30:37 "And is expressly forbidden in scripture." So you may see there is a little bit of different opinion as to whether or not there could be a legitimate divorce. But all of these fathers, church fathers, were united and unanimous that remarriage was not an option. "A man who divorces his wife violates and corrupts her. 30:55 For if she remarries for any reason except for the death of her husband, she becomes an adulteress. 31:01 The person who marries a divorced spouse sins not only by committing adultery with another spouse, but also sins against God by acting as an impediment to reconciliation of the original marriage." So he's cutting off the opportunity for reconciliation. 31:20 "If the divorced spouse had remained single, she would have, if possible, returned to the first union." Origen wrote, "For confessedly he who puts away his wife when she is not a fornicator makes her an adulteress. So far as it lies with him, for if when the husband is living, 31:39 she shall be called an adulteress if she be joined to another man. And when by putting her away he gives to her the excuse of a second marriage, very plainly in this way he makes her an adulteress. 31:52 Just as a woman is an adulteress even though she seems to be married to a man while the former husband yet lives, so also the man who seems to marry who has been divorced does not marry her, but according to the declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with her. 32:08 Origen also taught a man that divorces his wife who is not guilty of fornication causes her to become an adulteress if she remarries, and the man that marries her is an adulterer. The marriage covenant between a man and woman is permanent as long as both husband and wife are alive. No matter what the legal circumstances may appear to be, 32:28 a remarriage relationship entered into when either or both parties are divorced and a former partner lives is adultery. The intimate relations between the man and the woman remarried while former spouses still live are adulterous and considered sin. A remarriage is not an actual marriage, 32:50 but disguised adultery." Basil the Great taught that a man that deserts his wife and she remarries another makes his wife commit adultery. The woman who a divorced man marries is guilty of adultery. The second woman is guilty of taking another woman's husband. 33:08 An adulterous relationship is continuous adultery, not a one-time sin. An abandoned wife is to remarry as she is and not, excuse me, is to remain as she is and not remarry. An abandoned woman that takes another man and has sexual intercourse with him is committing adultery. 33:29 If a man is guilty of adultery, so is a woman. It is a serious offense for a woman to take another woman's husband. She will be charged with adultery. It is a serious offense for a man to take another man's wife. He will be charged with adultery. 33:45 Ambrose of Milan taught, "Sex is a marital right that is limited to one's own husband or wife. Legitimate sexual relationships with one's spouse protect from sexual sin. Extramarital sex is sin and a snare that will catch and kill. 34:07 It is forbidden by God for a spouse to divorce and to remarry another." Ambrose interprets Paul's writings in Corinthians to mean, 34:18 I can hardly read that from this far away, that it is forbidden for a man or woman to remarry another while a former or earlier spouse lives. It is wrong understanding to believe that it is simply one's right to divorce a spouse. Even though human law may permit such a thing, God strictly forbids it. 34:36 Anyone who follows human customs and laws regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage instead of divine laws should stand in fearful awe of God. All lawmakers, both in and out of the church, are warned to their peril to hear and obey the word of the Lord. 34:58 Jesus' command is reaffirmed, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder." Conversion to Christianity forgives past sin, but does not nullify or set aside God's law. That's an important one we'll get to in part three. Jerome taught, "The Lord has forbidden divorce and remarriage in the gospel. 35:20 Christians must stop making excuses and stop trying to find justification for divorce and remarriage." Boy, is that guy on or what? None of it stands before God and must not be considered at all when applying the word of God in the church or to our individual lives. A marriage is for life, 35:39 and no matter what a spouse turns out to be or how they may act or the sins they commit, the covenant remains fully in effect. God does not divide the one-flesh relationship. A spouse that is separated or divorced for any reason, no matter how provoked or how circumstances came to be as they are, 35:58 is still bound to the marriage covenant and cannot be remarried to another as long as both live. Augustine taught, "It cannot be rightly held by those writing, wishing to believe so, that anyone who divorces their spouse for adultery and then marries another is in the will of God and avoids the sin of adultery. 36:20 It is adultery to marry another if someone is divorced and then chooses a new husband or wife. 36:26 Whether or not a spouse commits adultery or fornication does not matter insofar as remarriage is concerned. Whoever remarries while a divorced spouse lives is in the state and sin of adultery." I'm going to skip over that. This is a summary of early church doctrines on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. 36:48 "If a spouse persists in adulterous behavior and there is no other alternative, the marriage relationship can be terminated by the innocent party. Spouses that are divorced for any reason must remain celibate and single as long as both spouses live. Remarriage is expressly prohibited." So again, 37:09 there are some early church believed that there may be some unfortunate situations where divorce is acceptable, 37:19 not preferable, but acceptable, but not remarriage. "To indulge in lust with the mind is to be guilty of adultery of the heart. Whoever marries a divorced person commits adultery." You can see all the leaders who taught these things. "Whoever contracts a second marriage while the former spouse lives sins against God, whether a Christian or not. 37:42 God does not and the church must not take into account human law when it is in violation of God's law. God judges motives and intentions, private thought life and actions. The marriage covenant between a man and woman is permanent as long as both husband and wife are alive. It is a serious offense against God to take another person's spouse. 38:04 The church must charge all persons who are in possession of another living person's former husband or wife with adultery. And sexual relationships are a marital right that is limited to one's own husband or wife. Sexual relationships with one's legitimate spouse protect from sexual sin. 38:25 Marriage and sexual relationships with a remarried person while the former spouse lives is a sin of adultery. It is a serious mistake to believe that it is simply one's right to divorce a spouse and take another. Even though human law may permit such a thing, God strictly forbids it. He cannot, he will not honor it. 38:43 Anyone who follows human customs and laws instead of God's divine instructions regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage should stand in fearful awe of God himself. All lawmakers in and out of the church are warned to their peril to hear and obey the word of the Lord in regards to his commands on marriage and divorce. 39:02 Christians must stop making excuses." We looked at that already. "Marriage is for life. No matter what the spouse turns out to be or how they may act, no matter what they do or don't do, or the sins they commit, the covenant remains fully in effect. 39:19 A remarriage while the former spouse lives is not marriage at all, but sinful adultery. God does not divide the one-flesh except by physical death." Is your head swimming yet? My wife will tell me when I'm done, "You packed way too much into this message." And usually she's right. 39:42 Why have I put all this in? For one very simple reason. I want you to see the overwhelming abundance of evidence that this is the position of the early church without credible exception. Period. Now, 40:03 part three, we will look at some of the very difficult questions. What often happens, and it happened after part one, and I'm sure it'll happen after part two, is situations arise. Well, what about this situation? What about this situation? What about this situation? 40:25 And those can get rather complicated. I've heard of many situations that get rather complicated, but they will never get less complicated by looking at the complication. They will only get less complicated when you look at the foundation. 40:43 Then we can untangle some of the tangled webs that have been woven. So I wanted to say this as well. 40:53 I would assume, in fact, I know that in many of our families, in some cases, parents, in some cases, siblings, in some cases, 41:09 aunts and uncles, people that come to our reunions, people that we rub shoulders with, people that we love and are close to. This is a huge issue right here among us in relationships. And who was it this morning? 41:29 Was there somebody here this morning that said about relationships that they get very difficult at times? It was Leon. God's children's relationships get messy. So pray that we can bring some clarity on that. 41:43 But I just want to say that if you are in a situation where you have very close family that is divorced and remarried, we're certainly not wanting to be unkind or unloving. The most loving thing we can do is tell people the truth. 42:04 Amen. 42:07 As I said in part one, the scripture will never let you feel good in your sin. It will always tell you the truth. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time together this morning. 42:24 We pray that the love of Christ that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit would come through in our messages, in our interaction with people. We do not rejoice and delight in making people uncomfortable. 42:45 But Lord, we have no choice but to say what the word of God says and to let that be their judge and their guide. And so Father, I pray that we would have compassion as a church, but that our compassion would be filled with grace and truth. 43:08 That we would not veer to one side or the other, but find that perfect balance as it is in Jesus Christ. We pray it through Christ. Amen.