Jeffrey Johnson's sermon on 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 offers a thorough exploration of Christian perspectives on marriage, divorce, and remarriage, emphasizing the sanctity of the marital covenant in the eyes of God. Johnson delineates the passage into advice for those married to believers, grounded in Christ's teachings against divorce, and guidance for those married to unbelievers, addressing the complexities of such unions. He argues against the notion that Apostle Paul's advice is non-authoritative, instead asserting that all of Paul's writings are divinely inspired and authoritative.
The sermon underscores God's disapproval of divorce, rooted in the fact that it contradicts the divine intention for marriage to embody unity, peace, and a reflection of the Gospel. Johnson highlights five reasons why God hates divorce: it results from sin, disrupts unity, mars the Gospel's representation, violates the covenantal nature of marriage, and disregards God's role in uniting couples.
Johnson addresses the permissibility of divorce under specific circumstances, such as adultery and abandonment, aligning with a "modified permanence" view of marriage. He also discusses the conditions under which remarriage is considered biblically acceptable, emphasizing the need for divorces to meet scriptural criteria to allow for a legitimate remarriage.
For those married to unbelievers, Johnson provides pastoral counsel, encouraging spouses to remain faithful and hopeful for the unbelieving partner's salvation. He reassures believers that their marriage and offspring are sanctified through their faith, dispelling fears of defilement or illegitimacy.
In conclusion, Johnson exhorts couples to actively pursue love and unity within their marriages, reflecting Christ's unwavering commitment to His church. He advocates for a covenantal understanding of marriage that transcends temporary difficulties, fostering a relationship that mirrors the divine love and fidelity God offers to humanity.
Jeffrey Johnson's sermon on 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 offers a thorough exploration of Christian perspectives on marriage, divorce, and remarriage, emphasizing the sanctity of the marital covenant in the eyes of God. Johnson delineates the passage into advice for those married to believers, grounded in Christ's teachings against divorce, and guidance for those married to unbelievers, addressing the complexities of such unions. He argues against the notion that Apostle Paul's advice is non-authoritative, instead asserting that all of Paul's writings are divinely inspired and authoritative.
The sermon underscores God's disapproval of divorce, rooted in the fact that it contradicts the divine intention for marriage to embody unity, peace, and a reflection of the Gospel. Johnson highlights five reasons why God hates divorce: it results from sin, disrupts unity, mars the Gospel's representation, violates the covenantal nature of marriage, and disregards God's role in uniting couples.
Johnson addresses the permissibility of divorce under specific circumstances, such as adultery and abandonment, aligning with a "modified permanence" view of marriage. He also discusses the conditions under which remarriage is considered biblically acceptable, emphasizing the need for divorces to meet scriptural criteria to allow for a legitimate remarriage.
For those married to unbelievers, Johnson provides pastoral counsel, encouraging spouses to remain faithful and hopeful for the unbelieving partner's salvation. He reassures believers that their marriage and offspring are sanctified through their faith, dispelling fears of defilement or illegitimacy.
In conclusion, Johnson exhorts couples to actively pursue love and unity within their marriages, reflecting Christ's unwavering commitment to His church. He advocates for a covenantal understanding of marriage that transcends temporary difficulties, fostering a relationship that mirrors the divine love and fidelity God offers to humanity.
If you have your Bible's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, we'll be looking at six verses right in the middle of the chapter, verses 10 through 16. In some ways we'll be looking at the topic of marriage and divorce and remarriage. All those topics we'll be touching upon. But principally this passage is dealing with what God thinks about divorce. And if you're married, and this is addressing those who are married, this text is addressing those who are married to believers and those who are married to unbelievers. If you're married or you're engaged, use this message even if you're not on the verge of divorce. Use this message to push you towards clinging, clinging to your spouse. It's not just a matter of, "Hey, I don't want a divorce." May we be pushed and motivated and encouraged to cling, to run after, to pursue our spouse so that we can represent the gospel well. Start reading with me in verse 10."I am not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be soul. In such cases the brother/sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife?" Now the basic outline is twofold. One, he's instructing those who are married to believers, and he refers to the teachings of Christ. And secondly, he's referring to those who potentially could be married to unbelievers. And imagine you're a first generation Christian, and you were saved out of idolatry as a married person. And though you're saved, your wife or your husband happen not to be saved. So you're married to an unbeliever. You have, if you would, a mixed marriage. You're unequally ill. And so this is the basic outline of this text. In these verses we see a textual difficulty. R.C. Sproul says this is, ranks in one of the top five most difficult passages in all of Scriptures, because Paul in verse 10 says this is what the Lord says. And then verse 12 says, "The Lord did not say this, but I say this to you." And what does he mean? Well even one of my favorite theologians, John Calvin, said that he thought maybe this is referring to Paul speaking in inspired language, and then kind of taking a time out from inspiration. Now what I have been saying and communicating to you is authoritative, inspired, but I'm about to give you some counsel and advice. I think it's good advice, but it's not necessarily of the Lord. It's just my good counsel. And that's what some would say that this means, but I don't think it means that at all. So to clarify this upfront, I think what Paul is doing, clearly he's referring to the teachings of Jesus when he taught the disciples not to divorce. And now he is teaching through inspiration. In both cases it's inspired and authoritative, but one is a reference to the teachings of Christ that is recorded. And that we have in the Scriptures in the Gospel and then what he is speaking through inspiration. In other words, every bit of this is the inspired, authoritative word of God. But in this text we learn what God thinks about divorce in particular. And we need to have a robust, especially us young married, the young married couples need to have a young, a robust understanding of God's perspective of divorce. What does God think about divorce? How should we think about divorce? And we're living in a day, and I think this has been true probably through all history. It's not just our day, but divorce is pretty rapid, rampant. Even in the first century, the reports of divorce was quite common. And it's still common in our day. In fact, it was so common by the time of Christ that no longer did they have to go through a court system to divorce their spouse. It was so common that as long as they had seven witnesses to verify this, they could make their intent known to seven people at one time without a court hearing, and then they could separate our divorce. This was how common and easy it was to walk away from marriage in the first century. But what does God think about this? What does God think about divorce? Well, we see in our text that God disapproves, that God hates divorce. Malachi 2 16 tells us, for the Lord God of Israel says, "I hate divorce." The word divorce means to separate or to suffer, to cut, to break apart. He hates divorce for at least five reasons. He hates divorce, one, because it's the consequences of sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, and one picture of death is separation. It separates us from God and separates us from one another. In fact, sin brought the first divorce, if you would, where man was expelled from the presence of God and expelled, if you would, from the garden sanctuary. And from that sin, you have the first domestic fight. The first argument in the marriage took place because of sin. God hates it because God loves unity, reconciliation. He loves peace. This is why He came into this world, to reconcile us to Himself, to secure Himself a bride for Himself. He loves reconciliation and hates separation. Marriage is to represent the gospel. It's to represent the covenant relationship that God has made with us. Thus, when there is a divorce, it's a marring of that gospel testimony. Third, God hates divorce because marriage is a lifelong covenant relationship. Malachi 2.15 defines marriage as a lifelong companionship brought about by covenant. It's not just an agreement between a man and a woman to say, hey, we're going to live together and potentially have children. It's more than that. It's a covenant commitment, a legal arrangement that even God Himself notifies. When you're married in any court system on earth, God is in above writing down the marriage and says, now they are officially, legally brought together. It is a lifelong covenant. Romans 7 tells us, "For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulterous. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulterous, though she has married another man." That is, you're married until one of you dies. And if your spouse dies, then you're free to remarry. But as long as your spouse is alive, according to the law of God, he sees you as married. We'll see this in a little bit. Just because people get divorced on earth doesn't mean God says you're divorced in heaven. What God joins together, man can't put asunder. Now, God might recognize a divorce, we'll see in a couple of occasions. There are some exceptions. But just because you want to get a divorce because you don't like one another anymore, does it mean that God validates that divorce? It will still view you as a married couple because you have to go before God, not just before man. And God says this is a lifelong arrangement. You've got to remember God hates divorce because He's the one who brings couples together. Matthew 9, teen tells us in verse 3 through 6, "The Pharisees came to Him, testing Him and saying to Him,'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?' And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that he who had made them at the beginning made them male and female?' And He 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 then they are no longer two but one flesh." Now listen to this."Therefore what God joined together," it doesn't say what you joined together. It didn't say what the state brought together. It didn't say what your parents brought together. It says what God Himself has joined together. Let no man separate. To divorce or to separate is to go against the Word of God, is to fight God Himself. You see, bottom line is divorce needs to be viewed as sinful, as wrong. Matthew 5, 32, "I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." And this is why our text going to verse 10 says, "To the married I give discharge, not I but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband." Then in verse 11 it says, "And the husband should not divorce his wife." So this is the Word of the Lord on the matter. Should you get divorced? Can you get divorced? The answer is no. You're bound by covenant and by God's own union to stick with your wife, to stick with your husband, to love your spouse. You say, "What about separation? What about if maybe I don't have to legally get divorced but I just don't want to live with my spouse any longer?" In verse 10, 11 maybe it's given an exemption for a separation clause. Look at it says, "The wife should not separate from her husband." Verse 11, "But if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband." And so we see a changing of the words from divorce. Husbands don't divorce your spouse. Wives don't separate from your husband. And someone might argue from this text that there is a distinction between divorce and separation. And you might could argue back in this fourth, fifth century B.C. prior to the first century, it was true in Roman law that a man could divorce his spouse, but the spouse or the wife couldn't divorce her husband. She had no legal grounds. The man could get out, but the woman couldn't. The man could just hand his wife a certificate of divorce, leave the relationship, marry someone else according to Roman law. But the wife, the spouse had no legal rights to do that. So what women would do was just leave. They would abandon their husbands and just go back to the mother and father's house or just go somewhere else that would take them. And they would just separate. And so maybe this is what Paul is talking about, but I don't think so. I think this word separate is just another word or synonym for divorce, because in verse 11 it says,"If a wife separates from her husband, let her remain unmarried." It's saying that one who separates is no longer married, implying here that separation is essentially divorced. It's simply leaving your spouse. And so there's no biblical category in scriptures for separation. Now, pastorally speaking, if your marriage is such a disarray, maybe you caught your spouse cheating on you. Are there some form of abuse? Are there some form of real difficulty you're dealing with that you're saying, "Pastor Jepp, I'm not going to be stuck in this terrible situation." Well, there is some pastoral counsel to work through that, and maybe separation could be helpful if the goal is reconciliation. Let's pull back for a little bit to gather our thoughts, collect where we're at so that we can work on reconciliation. And so maybe you could possibly say separation is permissible, but only if reconciliation is the objective of the separation. Nowhere in scriptures do we have the permission just to walk away from our covenant commitments. Now, there will be a couple exceptions. We'll get to that in a minute. But without those exceptions, we're to work out our problems. We're to cling to our spouse. We're to do what we can to keep our covenant vows to death do us part. Now, let me give you some advice, especially for the young married couples. When you get married, just put it away that divorce is not a word to be used. It's not an option. That's just not part of the vocabulary. Just put that away. And what I love about marriage and why marriage is such a beautiful thing. Now, God never, ever dislikes us in the covenant relationship He has with us. He's never going to divorce us. He's never going to get angry with us. He's never going to get, "Oh, I wish I didn't make this covenant arrangement." He knew what he's getting into before he got in a covenant relationship with us. So our sins doesn't take him by surprise, nor does it cause him to want to divorce us, thankfully. But what I love about marriage being a covenant relationship is because every marriage is going to face difficulties and hardships. Every marriage will face moments where you say, "Did I actually marry the right person?" Was this really what God wanted for my life? And what I love about that is that you have this covenant commitment that you don't have to wonder the will of God anymore. I remember six months after marrying my beautiful wife, who I've always loved, never not loved my wife. But I remember after six months thinking to myself, "Oh, we got married quickly." We did. She was beautiful. Well, I loved her, and I asked her to marry me. And after six months of being married, I was like, "Well, did I rush into this?" You know, that thought, "Did I actually not evaluate the scenario properly?" And I remember thinking to myself, "I don't know if I rushed into it or not, but I do know now that she's my wife, and I have the word of God that I'm to love her and be committed to her." And see, that covenant commitment stuck with me, and this is what will help you in your marriage. You say, "Well, and this is a valuable thing and a beautiful thing. I don't want us to think, "Well, divorce is so ugly and divorce is all this sermon just be negative." I want you to see the beauty of a covenant commitment, the beauty of this, because it keeps the relationship together. The reason that so many people get divorced is because they've dated so much before they get married, and what do you do when the marriage and the dating relationship gets tough and rough, and your girlfriend or your boyfriend hurts your feelings? It's over. There's other fish in the sea, and off they go jumping around, jumping around, jumping around, because that's what you do when things get hard. But when you get married, there's no more, "My feelings got hurt, I'm out." No, I've got this commitment. I've got my promise, and it's before the living God, and thus we should work, not just to stay married, but to stay lovingly married, not just to not keep from divorcing, but we should cling close to our spouse every day. Now, this is if you're married, you need to stay married. That's the basic counsel. But think about maybe you're married to an unbeliever. Maybe you thought they were a believer when you got married, but six months in, a year in, you find out, "Man, they don't even like church. They don't like God. I'm married to someone that's not a helpful father to my children." Definitely is not a good spiritual leader to me. I want out, and that might be one of you in that position, or you know someone in that position. I mean, the Corinthians, think about that. Many of them were converted, and the husband or the wife was converted, but the spouse had not yet been converted. And so now they're in a mixed marriage, and it's difficult. And the Bible tells us, "Do not be unequally ill," because God knows that such a relationship's going to be very difficult. We're told not to marry someone if we're unmarried who's not a Christian. That's not an option for us. But what if you are married to an unbeliever? And so the Corinthians had this struggle, and they really thought,"Well, maybe it's good to divorce an unmarried spouse, I mean, an unchristian, non-Christian spouse." And I think they were afraid of this for a couple of reasons. One, Paul had already said for us not to be unequally ill. And so they're thinking, "Hey, am I in sin because I'm unequally ill? Am I living in sin? Is my marriage unholy? Does God sanction my marriage to an unbeliever?" They may be thinking that. Two, remember that he had already written a previous letter to them telling them not to associate with sexual and moral people. He commanded them not to have sexual intimacy with prostitutes because such activity is a defilement of their own bodies. It's a sin against their own bodies. And it brings the temple of the living God in connection with a prostitute which is a sin against Christ. And so maybe they're thinking, "Hey, I'm a believer. I'm the temple of the living God. I have Christ dwelling in me, and I'm married to my spouse who's an unbeliever. Every time I have sexual intimacy with my unbelieving spouse, am I defiling the body? Am I sinning against Christ?" And so they're thinking such thoughts. And it would be natural for them to wonder if their marriage is actually holy before God. Third, they were afraid that maybe their children of these mixed marriages were not legitimate children. Maybe they're illegitimate. In the book of Ezra, not that I think these Corinthians knew the book of Ezra too well, but in the book of Ezra we learn that those Jewish people who married the Assyrian settlers, even though they had children, they were to divorce their foreign spouses, and their children from those offsprings were illegitimate heirs. And so maybe the thought is that if I'm a Christian and I'm married to an unbeliever, maybe this marriage is not holy before God. It's not legitimate in its sinful marriage, and therefore maybe God is looking at my children as illegitimate children. So as my mixed marriage, holy or unholy, is our sexual union holy or unholy, or is it defiled in some way, and are our children legitimate? For these reasons, they're asking that Paul say,"Paul, should we divorce our unbelieving spouse?" And Paul says, "For four reasons, no. Stick with your unbelieving spouse for four reasons. One, because the marriage remains holy." Look at verse 14."For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband." You see, this marriage, even though you're married to someone who's not a believer, doesn't mean the marriage is not sanctioned by God. God still looks at this marriage as a marriage in his courtroom. The second reason is to stay married to an unbelieving spouse because the believing spouse sanctifies the unbelieving spouse. We see that in verse 14."For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband." Now, what is interesting in the Old Testament, you had some things in certain circumstances that a holy thing was made impure by teaching something that was impure. For instance, a holy man who is a Christian sins against his body when he touches a prostitute. And so in that case, that brings defilement to the body. But other cases in the Old Testament, there's examples of something that's holy touches something that's unholy, and the unholy thing becomes purified by the holy thing. In other words, although a sexual relationship with an unbeliever defiles the believer outside of marriage, marriage, which is God's holy institution, brings the unbeliever into a holy state. So you become unholy when you have sexual intimacy with a prostitute, but your unbelieving spouse becomes holy as she's having intimacy with you. In other words, it's just another way of saying God looks at the sexual intimacy as pure. He sees it as holy. This is not something impure. This is not something to be ashamed of. You don't have to worry that your spouse is an unbeliever in this regard. The third reason to say married is because the sanctification process of the sexual intimacy brings legitimacy to the children. We see that at the end of verse 14, otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Now, a lot of people will want to use this text, and I don't understand why, but they want to use this text to justify justification for infant baptism. And they want to say if you have one believing spouse, then you should baptize your children because the believing spouse brings that child, that covenant child, into some type of relationship with God. And so they're using this text for justification of covenant children and covenant children's baptism. But there's a couple of reasons I don't hold to that position. One, what God says about these children, He says about the unbelieving spouse. He says that they are not baptized or unbelieving spouse, but they are holy in the same way the children are holy. Secondly, notice that the purity of the children is not based upon the purity of the believing spouse alone, but the purity of the children is based upon the unbelieving spouse being purified by the believing spouse. In other words, because of the purity of the sexual intimacy is pure and the right setting of marriage. God says your children, they're not saved by the consequence of this. They're just legitimate. They're pure. They're holy. They're nothing. They're not a byproduct of sin, but they're a byproduct of a right marriage. This is what He is saying. And then the verb here is in the perfect tense, saying that unbelieving spouse has already been purified, that purifies the children or otherwise your children would literally be illegitimate or unholy. So in other words, you should not divorce your unbelieving spouse because your marriage is legitimate. Your children are legitimate. And the fourth reason to not divorce your unbelieving spouse is because you may be the very means of their true salvation. Look at verse 16. Now we'll skip verse 15 for the second, but verse 16 says, "For how do you know why, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?" Now, I know it could be very difficult, and some of you are likely married to an unbeliever. It could be very difficult. It just made it easier just to separate. It'd be easier just to not work on this marriage. It's tough. It's hard. It's exhausting. But here's a word of encouragement that God has set you into their life. First Peter 3.1 tells his wives in the same manner,"Submit yourselves to your husband so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives." I've said this story a couple of times in my sermons, but it's so impactful because it's true. It's a true story. And it was a lady in China who was forbidden by her husband to go to church. And she was very respectful to her husband and sought to honor him in every area that she could, but this was one command she could not obey. And one particular Sunday, she took off and left that morning and had to walk an hour to go to the assembly and left early and took off and went to worship. And then all the way back, she came back and found the door to her house locked. And her husband was so mad at her, he wouldn't let her in the house. So she stayed outside on the porch and slept the whole night with no covers or anything. And then the next morning, her husband, her unbelieving spouse, come out, open the door. She walks in, goes straight to the kitchen and cooks him breakfast. And there he's eating breakfast from his hands of his wife, and he breaks down in tears and asks her, "How could you treat me such a way?""After all that I did to you, how can you love me like this?" And she said, "This is the love of Christ." And that led to him going to church and eventually to his salvation. You may be married to a difficult man. You may be married to a difficult woman. But God has set you in that man or that woman's life for a reason. Don't run from this. It might be years of prayer and good example. But you never know that you may be the very means that God has ordained to lead your spouse to himself. So don't run from this. The second question that we have here in verse 15 is, "What if my spouse leaves me?" Implying, "What if the unbelieving spouse departs and separates?""What do I do under the circumstances where they're leaving me?""Am I going to be in habitual sin if I'm abandoned?" Look at verse 12."To the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is not an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him." Notice the word. If your unbelieving spouse is willing, consents to live with you, then don't be the one that initiates divorce. If they are willing, then you are willing. Then verse 15 says, "But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace." That is, if you're in a scenario where your spouse is really not a Christian, and they abandon you, and they file for divorce, and you're under all this guilt, divorce is so wrong, what's the world going to think about it? What's my parents going to think? What's the church going to think about this divorce? No, you're not under any guilt. You can't do anything about this, and you shouldn't feel guilty if you're abandoned. You shouldn't feel condemned by the church, or by your parents, or by your conscience when you did all you could to live peacefully, and your spouse says, "Bye to you." You're free to let them go without any condemnation, without any guilt. Say, "Dod, he loves you, and he's not binding you or enslaving you to something you can't keep." There's real liberty here. And so if your spouse leaves you, don't overly condemn yourself. In fact, don't condemn yourself. Listen, I know you, and I know myself, and every dispute there's two ways in it, and you weren't perfect. You never were perfect in every area of your life. You said some things you shouldn't have said. You did some things you shouldn't have done. Of course, but does that mean you wanted divorce? Meaning you're guilty of separating with your spouse just because you weren't perfect? Of course, you have some blame in the marital problems. Of course, there's all of us who are married who would raise our hands that I have a lot to blame for the problems in my marriage. But does it mean that you're responsible for the divorce? Especially if you did all that you could to live peacefully with your unbelieving spouse? I hold to what is called a modified, permanent view of marriage. I do believe there are two exceptions, adultery and abandonment. But I actually believe that what God joins together is permanent until death, unless there's these two exceptions. J. Adams says, "Let us be clear about the fact that neither is the Bible silent nor the subject of divorce, nor does it always, under all circumstances, for everyone, condemn divorce." So there are legitimate reasons for divorce, adultery and abandonment. Now we are to do what we can to remain married, but we're under no restraint or obligation or guilt if our spouse leaves us. Now my last question in this is coming closer to an end. What does the Bible say about remarriage? Let's say you are divorced. What does it say? Are you free to remarry? Well, that is, depends. If your divorce is legitimate, then you're free to remarry. But if it's illegitimate, that is, if you are the one that separated from your spouse for an unbiblical reason, this is why the Bible says if the woman separates from her husband, you know, that's a sin. But if you commit that sin, then you can't remarry. Remain unmarried unless you seek reconciliation with your first husband. So if you're divorced and you're the cause of the divorce and you say, "Hey, I know I shouldn't have divorced," then I think you should remain single. Well, that's hard. Well, this is what the Lord Jesus says. Matthew 5, 32, "Whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." Why is that? If I get remarried to a divorced person who wasn't legitimately divorced, why should I not marry them? Because the Bible says when you marry that person and you're going to have sexual intimacy, even as a married couple, you're committing adultery. Well, why are you committing adultery? I thought we got married. No, God says that person is still married to the first wife or the first husband. Just because the courts dissolved it didn't mean God dissolved the marriage. And this is how important marriage is to God. Now, on the other hand, if your spouse leaves you, bandons you, you're free. You're free and you're free to remarry. Now, here's one last difficult question. What if you're here and you say, "Hey, I divorced my spouse unlawfully, unbiblically, and I'm already remarried." Am I living in habitual adultery? And I think you're not. I think initially, yes, it was adulterous activity, but God is a forgiving God. And so you seek God's forgiveness in that. You rely upon God's graciousness to you. And now that you're remarried the second time, do all you can to love your wife. For this marriage exemplify the gospel. In this marriage exemplify the love that Christ has for you and I. And remember, let us all remember this. This might seem like a hard teaching, but it's actually a glorious teaching because it is reflection of God's love for us. And remember, remember, Christ will never divorce you and I. We give him calls for divorce. We are very difficult. We're ungrateful. But God loves us steadily and consistently. And he will not put us away. He will never hand us a certificate of divorce. In conclusion, let me give us five encouraging words of exhortation. One, we see here that God loves marriage. That's what we should take away from this. Yes, God hates divorce, but that should cause us to see how much he loves marriage and how important this union is to him. Second, we should take away from this that we should unselfishly draw closer to our spouse. I really believe this. I've given hundreds of marriage counts. I say hundreds, probably hundreds over the 25 years of astral ministry. People couples before me. And I can say marriage is very difficult. It's hard because the selfishness is so entangled in us. But you never ever get and this is what us men, especially us men, we fail. We never get where we don't need to pursue our spouse to draw near to our spouse. I mean, it's not just I don't want to I don't want to go further away from my wife. It's a really obey this this this command here to obey the spirit of what the Bible teaches us about marriage is not just like I'm not going to divorce. That's fine. I'm just going to live with my no. The spirit is I'm going to go after my spouse. I'm going to pursue my spouse. I'm going to love my spouse. And I know some of you, you know, this is what you may feel. I don't feel like it. Not today. I don't feel like it. Here's another bit of counseling that I say a hundred times. When the Bible in Ephesians five tells us to love our our wives. And it tells the wives to submit to their husbands. It doesn't say if your wife is submitting to you, love her, does it? It doesn't say honor your husband if your husband loves you. It doesn't qualify your responsibility. Sometimes we think that we're exempt to obey and love our spouse because they don't love us back. We're exempt from pursuing our spouse because they're not pursuing us. You know, it's hard to hug a porcupine, a cactus. No one wants to embrace a cactus. He said, well, my wife's a dripping faucet. My husband's a porcupine. Every time I get close to him, he pricks me. And it's just I just rather not see him. I rather not hang out with him. I just want to be away from him. He's just it's not easy to love someone that's hard to love a difficult man. Some of us men can be very difficult to love. But God says love them not because they love you. Love them because God loves you and love them because you love God. Your obedience and pursuing your spouse is not contingent upon them pursuing and loving you. Amen. I mean, Amen. If you could especially young Mary, if you could get that I'm going to understand that I'm going to love my spouse regardless if they love me. I'm going to honor my husband regardless if he loves me. I'm going to love my wife regardless if she's good to me or not. Because God I can find the energy and the strength. I can find the love not from them. Where do I get this love? How can I love if I'm not loved? You are loved. You're greatly loved by one who has never hurt you. One who has never done you wrong. One who always cares for you tenderly and gently. And so you focus upon the love of Christ and gain your strength from him. Is it by the love that I'm loved with by Jesus Christ? I can love this difficult person and I can care for them and I can be tender to them because God is tender to me. So my last word is for us as we leave and think about this message. Of course, we don't want a divorce. I don't expect many of us are thinking about divorce today. But don't just not think about divorce. Think about running after the one God has joined you to. Amen..