Divorce
/Matthew 19:3-8
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Last Sunday, the topic of divorce came out. I wasn’t planning that. Through that night and the next morning, I felt God wanted the topic exhumed not buried. Anyone who has been divorced has a unique story, and all the details can be complicated.
I don’t expect the world to keep a covenant with a human when they have no covenant with God. Roman’s 1 when truth suppressed, a form of God’s wrath is released, causing a spiraling of societal morality.
Part of that spiraling is that people become covenant breakers. These are the times that we are living in now. Anyone that is honest must admit that divorce has become rampant in the church.
People that are considering divorce, please seek the Lord! Humble yourself before God and get his heart on it first.
Romans 14:12
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Judgment seat of Christ
Paul’s awareness of the judgment seat of Christ motivated him. and he wants his readers to be motivated. God's grace to us in forgiving sin does not mean He's careless about how Christians live their earthly lives. We will stand before Him and be held accountable for our choices we made in this body.
With that said, I am really just using the thought of marriage and other relationships as a springboard to describe gods plan of doing a deeper work in the hearts and lives of his people.
Our ❤️ belongs to the Lord, it’s the place He lives. He likes clean places
Today’s message is really more about relationships and how God uses them to work in our personal lives.
Longsuffering [Galatians 5:22] is a fruit of the Spirit that is learned through having patience with other people. In spite of their shortcomings, in spite of their wrong doings in my life, endurance in these relationships teaches me longsuffering. And longsuffering is the character of god.
The alternative is divorce! Divorce from my wife, my husband, my children, my cousin, my workplace, my Christian brother’s and sisters because they all aggravate me And I’m done,
The scripture says that God is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance [2 Peter 3:9]. All I can say is thank god he didn’t divorce me when he didn’t like what I was doing.
We must really seek God's wisdom regarding relationships. It is likely there are times that we are trying to separate ourselves from people that we shouldn’t while maintaining relationships we shouldn’t.
The beauty is that the Spirit in us will lead and guide us in all truth, and always, I mean always in consistency with His word!!
In Ephesians 5, Paul uses marriage between a man and a woman as an illustration of the relationship between Jesus and his bride.
φόβῳ χριστοῦ. [fear/reverence for Christ]
Ephesians 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. [Reverencing Christ]
Hupo=Under
hupotasso- submit self unto/under
Ephesians 5:22
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ [Submitting to the Lord]
Submission requires meekness
1. Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
2. Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
3. Ephesians 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love
4. Colossians 3:12-13 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Meek— praus, which is translated as “strength under control.” In ancient Greece, war horses were trained to be meek — strong and powerful yet under control and willing to submit.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Gave Himself
sacrifice Deacon/servant
Servant/ minister/ ++diakonoe— The son of man came to minister/serve -one who executes the commands of another
He puts us into an environment of relationships where we can practice learning his ways.
Ephesians 5:29
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church:
Ephesians 5:30
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Ephesians 5:31
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Husband and wife are so different to start w/ and we, as His bride, are so different than Him in the beginning of our relationship. Individual Christianity starts w/ a biblical truth—faith in Christ kills the “old man” [ephesians 4:22] and resurrects the “new man”. But that’s just the ceremony and now the “one flesh” begins.
He doesn’t have his own personal flesh here anymore, except that’s not exactly true, because we are here, and we are his body, and if we are truly saved, his spirit is in us.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. We are one w/ him in spirit, but does our mind think like him? And does our body/flesh act like him?
What causes the body to move? [mind]. What is the helm that drives the mind, causing the body to move in a certain direction? Could we say that the will of man is like the helm of a ship sailing on the sea and wherever the helm pulls the rudder, in that direction, she goes?
Father not my will but your will be done [LK 22:42].
Let “My kingdom come, let my will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what he said, right? No, he said, “father, in heaven…let your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We might can say that we are married to god through salvation and we can definitely say that our spirit is one with his if we are born again, but our mind and our will needs a whole lot of cross work done to our old man and a whole lot of resurrection power for our new man. And the more we and our will dies, the more he and his will lives.
So why don’t I act like him—the new man? There are a lot of different men running around out there.
1 Corinthians 2:14 - 3:1
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1. ψυχικός— 1 cor 2:14 the | natural man | is the soulish man the one who operates with his mind and his will his emotions. He perceives and engages his world through his thinking. His soul is leading not the spirit
2. πνευματικῶς— 1 cor 2:15 He that is spiritual
| spiritual man |. He engages the world that he lives in through the eyes and mind of the Spirit of God. The spirit is preeminent over his own mind and thinking. His mind is subject to the mind of Christ — Gal 5:23- love, joy, peace, longsuffering
3. σαρκικός— 1 cor 3:1the |fleshly man |. The sinful nature arouses the human to want what he wants rather than what the Spirit of God wants. 1 cor 3:3 envy, strife and division.
Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
1Corinthians 2:16
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Family describes closeness. Israel was broken down into families, clans, tribes and a nation. The church is a larger whole broken down into local bodies, but the bodies are supposed to be his body.
There is nothing like the closeness of a family unit. In the church setting, there will be things that will happen that will frustrate the believer and Satan will convince them that they need to leave, but god wants to do something on the inside of us, and he places us in an environment where he can put his finger on some things in our lives that he wants to deal with.
A real church provides an atmosphere and opportunity where closeness of relationships can take place. But There isn’t a more intimate relationship than husband and wife.
they are one flesh and what man will harm his own flesh? Who would tear his own flesh apart? Jesus allowed his flesh to be torn, but his body was torn, so that ours could be healed. His flesh was ripped like the veil, so that we could gain access into the presence of God. Hebrews 10:20
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Jesus tore his flesh, so that his bride could be brought closer to him not to put her away. These relationships that we have in marriage, with our children and in a genuine church setting, they cause a closeness that god uses to expose things in us.
Instruction from the Apostle Paul
Romans 8:12-14
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Illustration: second person shooter vs 1st person
active voice- the subject is active in the verb…
You, through the Spirit. It’s almost like a search and destroy mission where we allow the Holy Spirit to search the heart and try the reins. Okay, Lord we’re going in: lust, fear, pride, contention, anger, arrogance, condescending attitude. Unteachable Spirit. You’re not like my Jesus. Get out of here.
Passive voice- the action of the verb acts upon the subject
But we’re not just sitting on the couch
In order to walk in ch 8, one has to be crucified in ch 6
Romans 6:3-7 3 -- Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
4:22-24]. Which means that you have become a new creation in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Colossians 3:1-3
1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
