WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.919 Take our Bibles, go to Matthew 19. 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:03.359 Matthew 19. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.039 We're moving deeper into the Gospel of Matthew. 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:18.960 We've been going through it for almost two years now. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:27.839 And we're entering a little more deeply into this fourth of five different sections of big chunks of Jesus' teaching. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:35.359 And as I said a few weeks ago, it all wraps this section all wraps around four questions that Jesus is asked. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.399 The disciples ask him, Who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:45.600 Peter asks, What about forgiving a brother who sinned against me up to seven times? 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:52.880 A little bit later, a man asked him, What good thing must I do to gain eternal life? 00:00:53.119 --> 00:01:02.880 And then there's a question that we'll be looking at today, where some Pharisees speak to Jesus once he's returned from Galilee into Judea. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:14.159 As I was getting ready to study this, I was kind of getting all my commentaries together and opening them up and getting them in proper places to do some research and study. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:18.159 I came across one comment by one of the commentators. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.560 This is exactly what he says. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:28.319 The text we are considering in this chapter is certainly not the most inspirational or sensational portion of Matthew's gospel. 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:31.599 Boy, that's exciting, right? 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:51.040 You know, imagine, imagine, you know, spending a long hard day on Sunday teaching and preaching and all the things that go on on Sunday and Monday morning, you're like fighting the weariness of your soul, and you open up your commentary and it goes, This is not the most exciting or exhilarating portion of gospel, Matthew. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.040 Like, wow, thanks, guy. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:54.400 That's that's really fun. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:56.640 However, I think he's wrong. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:59.439 I think this is an exciting portion of scripture. 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:02.480 I think it's a very relevant portion of scripture. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:07.280 Uh, and I think we'll find great value from looking at it. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:21.599 There are some things that are in this that might at first surface be kind of challenging to some of you, might be troubling to some of you in the situations that you might have found yourself in in the past or are in at the moment. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:26.560 And I want us to keep moving through that and just kind of forewarn you a little bit. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:29.840 Some of this is not going to be comfortable for some of you. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:41.360 But I think it'll be helpful for all of us, and I think it'll be significant for all of us, especially in our day and age, and especially as the body of Christ as we represent the Lord Jesus in our society. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:44.639 Now, hopefully, I've not put your guard up at all. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.039 I don't mean to do that by what I've just said. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:55.360 I just want to let you know that we'll be pushing through those challenging points to get to a place that I think all of us can affirm. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:09.520 Because what the Lord talks about here is something to do with part of Scripture's instructions about the sacred institution of marriage and its sanctity as decreed by God. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:20.000 And these things are extremely relevant for us, and especially in our Western culture today, which seems at times to even despise matrimony. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:30.159 First thing I want us to look at here is the sinful situation that arises arises this question that comes in Matthew chapter 19. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:38.400 It says this when Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee, went into the region of Judea on the other side of the Jordan. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.759 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:52.479 Some Pharisees came to him and to test him, they asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:59.599 So after watching Jesus heal people, the Pharisees come up to Jesus with this question. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:11.759 And it's not a simple curiosity question, and it's not a counseling question, it's a corrupt question. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:22.079 The last times the Pharisees show up in Matthew's Gospels back in chapter 16, where they're asking Jesus for a sign, which he's given more than enough of. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:26.959 And so they're really just provoking him there and they're provoking him again. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:29.680 And they're not asking a sincere question. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:35.040 They're not asking a question to kind of help them deal with a personal situation and they need his counsel. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:36.800 They're not asking for that. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:46.879 They're not even asking for him to give an interpretation where they might be able to feel like they have a sense of oneness with him about their particular views, which we'll talk about in just a moment. 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:51.360 No, they're asking this question for a very devious reason. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:55.680 And the reason is because where Jesus is at at the moment. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:11.839 Jesus is teaching and preaching and healing in the very same region where John the Baptist was beheaded for speaking boldly about marriage and divorce in direct application to Herod Antipas. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.519 That's why they're asking the question. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:20.160 They don't care about Jesus' view about marriage and divorce. 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:30.160 They care about putting him into a trap and trying to find a way for Herod Antipas to get behind their desire to have Jesus killed. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:46.720 And so they want to lead Jesus into this discussion with this question in order to put him into face-to-face confrontation with Herod Antipas, who's already killed John and might just do it to Jesus too. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.360 It betrays where their heart's at. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:58.879 This is not a scriptural question with a sincere heart that wants to submit to the teachings of Jesus. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:01.920 This is something far worse. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:11.120 And so they ask, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any and every reason? 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:23.120 And they are alluding to a discussion that they would have amongst themselves about the application of a passage in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 24. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:36.800 And it reads this way: if a man marries a woman and who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and gives it to her and sends her from his house and on it goes. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:47.920 So that verse sets up a four or five verse discussion about this certificate of divorce and what kind of strength it held over their relationship. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:57.519 And the Pharisees were asking that question because even internally there was some debate about what all of that meant. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:03.040 And when you read Deuteronomy 24, you can catch the ambiguities, right? 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:05.759 Becomes displeasing to him. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.000 Well, what what are the criteria? 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.600 What are the limits of being displeasing to him? 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.199 And then there's the find something indecent about her. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:17.040 What does indecent mean? 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:20.959 And is it something significant or lesser? 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:27.040 And so they would have these like long conversations about what all that meant. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:30.079 And the Pharisees were divided up into two different groups. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:43.519 There were some from the followers of Shemmai, who was a rabbi, that this indecency had to be some major offense and would include adultery, but it also got teased into other areas. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:51.360 And then followers of Hillel, who thought that some indecency could be, well, anything that displeased the husband. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:07.199 Well, the Mishnah, which records some of these rabbinic teachings and puts them into writing that were orally transmitted at the time of Jesus, kind of gives us an understanding of what kind of context Jesus was in when this question was asked. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:21.680 So the house of Shemai, for instance, would bring up the whole issue of infidelity and marriage, of adultery, because there was something indecent about her. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:25.519 And it would, some of them would say, that's the adultery. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:32.240 However, some of them took this some indecency and began to say, Well, I think that could be teased out a little further. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:53.679 And it got to the point in the time of Jesus that this sum indecency became as ridiculous as their wife talking to a man in public, or spinning in the streets with bare arms, or loosening her hair in public. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:11.840 And the followers of Halil were just as bad as the followers of Shemmai. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:26.879 They would look at it and say that if there was anything displeasing to the husband, that displeasure was enough grounds for divorce. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:37.200 So if she spoiled his dinner, for instance, if he didn't like that bad badly enough, that was enough of a grounds. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:43.600 If she wasn't as clean in the home as he would like, that was enough reason. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:57.919 Or if she didn't purify the home enough during the times of purification, particularly around some of the festivals, Passover, then she was hampering his quest for holiness and he could divorce her. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:10.960 And it got down to the point, even where one of the rabbis said that even if he found someone prettier than she was, he could divorce her. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:16.960 And he puts it this way: she finds no favor in his eyes. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:25.679 So if his eyes kind of behold something better than she is, then well, that's a disfavor in his eyes, and he can divorce her. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:29.120 Josephus, a lot of us heard of Josephus. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:34.639 Josephus married three times and divorced his second wife for exactly that reason. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:38.720 There was something displeasurable about her. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:40.720 And so he divorced her. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:53.600 And it's against that background that these men are coming to Jesus with their wicked, sinful hearts and their evil intentions to ask Jesus this question. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:55.600 What do you say, Jesus? 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:00.000 What's the reason for this divorce? 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.159 How will you describe it? 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:06.240 Are you on Halel's side or Shemai's side? 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.120 We're going to trap you. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:14.320 And they're reaching in to try to grab a hold of whatever he might say. 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:25.919 And it becomes very, very apparent from our vantage point, as we look back on this, that they were not at all about trying to maintain God's word. 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:40.480 They would hunt down a teacher who would give them the permission that they wanted, no matter what was said, to do what they'd like to do. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:46.080 And if you don't think that doesn't still happen, it certainly does. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:54.159 More than a few times I've had someone come into my study and say, hey, Pastor, here's my situation. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:03.120 And they're not asking, what's the biblical view of this, or what can I do in a way to please God here? 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:08.320 They're they're waiting for me to go, let me write you a permission slip. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.200 And you can do what you want. 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:22.320 Because when the conversation starts to get to the nitty-gritty of the biblical mandates and principles that are involved in their situation, they're like, I'm not getting the answer I'd like. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:25.039 And it becomes, it's written all over their face. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:31.360 And off they go looking for someone who's going to give them just what they want to hear. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:33.519 Happens too often. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:42.480 These men in this society had assumed all the power laid in their hands, right? 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:52.000 And they left the women, their wives, the ones that they made a covenant with, no protection whatsoever. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:57.200 Just imagine what that must have felt like to be under that. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.799 The shame of divorce held over your head. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:19.440 Every burnt dinner, every unguarded moment, every roll up of the sleeve, every toss of your hair, every wrinkle on your face might be the very thing that triggers the man you're married to to say, I'm done. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:23.840 That's extremely unbearable. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.240 Just imagine what the effects would that be. 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:54.159 Hinged on every little detail of her behavior was her stability, her family stability, her social standing, her financial security, to bear the shame of the assumption that she had done something wrong and sinful to receive this kind of action against her. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:01.919 And all the while her ex-husband's got someone under his arm. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:04.639 Just walking around. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.879 You know, showing her off to all the other guys. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:14.399 What a horrible, sinful situation this is. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.399 This is wicked. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.759 Now, that's the sinful situation. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:31.120 Let's get into the scripture significance here because Jesus gets into this and he answers it, not like they'd like him to answer it. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:33.519 But boy, does he answer it. 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:37.120 And his first words are, haven't you read? 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.440 Well, these are men who read the scriptures all the time. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.759 These are men who pride themselves in how much they know God's word. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.000 They have it on their foreheads and they've got it on their wrists. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.200 They've got it all over them. 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:55.360 They've got it on their doors. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.360 They've memorized it. 00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:58.639 They've read it. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:00.879 Haven't you read? 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:03.919 Haven't you read? 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.440 Is a barbed rebuke. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.159 Not just suggesting, but telling them they've been reading scripture wrong. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:26.240 They've been looking for the escape clause rather than for a pathway, a selfless sacrifice and love within the context of a covenant that they've made. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:28.240 They're looking for an out. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:35.039 And so Jesus opens up something they so cavalier cavalierly ignored. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:36.559 What's that? 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:41.600 The very foundational focus of God's design and purpose for marriage at the creation. 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:46.159 And he brings them all the way back to the book of Genesis and starts there. 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.840 And one of the reasons why is he's using one of their beliefs against them. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:55.200 The Pharisees believed that the earlier a passage was written, the more significant it was. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:16:03.039 So if it shows up in Genesis 1 and 2, it's more important than what shows up in Deuteronomy, even though they were resting on Deuteronomy and ignoring Genesis. 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:07.360 They were hypocritical, contradictory. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:21.279 And so he brings them back to what they would have to affirm as the most significant passage, one of the earliest spots in Scripture, the first turn of the page, Genesis. 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:25.919 And he calls them to look more deeply at it. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:33.600 And he's causing us to look more deeply at it because our society is warping the view of marriage just like this one. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:42.480 It's a rampant problem then, and it's a rampant problem now, even in the context of evangelical churches. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:48.879 But before we look at the details, I just want to set this up a little bit. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:59.919 Jesus is about to speak, and no surprise to any of us, Jesus is expressing the revealed will of God in the scriptures. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:02.159 This is not an opinion. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:08.960 Jesus is not kowtowing to the pressures of the changing times. 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:16.559 He is not putting himself subservant to the moving mores of societies. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:26.000 He is not giving himself over to the majority opinions or seeking to find relevance among the culture. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:29.839 He's definitely not politically correct here. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.279 His those things didn't influence him. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:37.200 They didn't influence his understanding. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:41.440 They didn't adjust his insistence on the truth of Scripture at all. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.240 He lays it out directly. 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:52.400 And the first thing that he shows us by way of scripture's significance is found in verse four. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:56.079 That sexuality is God's creation. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:06.160 Haven't you read, he replied, that at the beginning the creator made them male and female? 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:11.519 The first thing he teaches us here is that sexuality is God's creation. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.400 He made them, first of all, different. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:19.039 Male and female. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:25.599 And this difference is not a difference of status, this is a different of function. 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:35.200 This is not a difference of dignity or status or any of that sort of thing, but how they interrelate with each other. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:49.519 And any society that blurs this distinction is circumventing and violating God's direct purposes and plans in creation itself. 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:53.920 God made them male and female. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:19:00.319 This is not a unisex world, nor is it a take your choice world. 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:03.759 It's a world of male and female. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:11.920 And as we get into this, it becomes very, very apparent that people say Jesus never talked about homosexuality or same-sex marriages. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:13.359 I think he did. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:17.279 One man, one woman married. 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.559 One man, one woman married. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:25.680 Yes, he didn't speak about it directly, but the implications of this are extremely clear. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:27.839 There's no ambiguity here. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:33.359 He affirms God's design as the union of a man and a woman together. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:35.680 He made them different. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:41.440 But wonderfully, he also made them dependent, dependent on each other. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:53.920 When we were doing our scripture reading together, and Alan put together that point about God looking at the overall sort of all the things that he created and declared them very good. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:20:02.640 Well, in Exod or Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18, God makes a pronouncement, it's not good for man to be alone. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:06.720 And we're still pre-Genesis 3 in the fall here. 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.720 And he says, It's not good for Adam to be alone. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:18.480 And so he makes Eve, and they too together are dependent on each other. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:25.359 And at that creation, God blesses the two of them. 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:36.720 Adam and Eve are sexual, they are naked, they are married, and they are not ashamed. 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.079 The Lord blessed them. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:45.440 The Lord put his favor upon them and declared it very good. 00:20:48.880 --> 00:21:00.880 He called them to join together in sexual union and to have children and to begin to multiply to bring this world to a fullness that wasn't yet. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:15.839 Telling us here that the sex drive and sexual dependency of a male and female are part of God's original design and not a consequence of the fall. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.599 Part of the perfection which God called humanity to. 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:30.799 And sexuality has been one of those like tough things to talk about that the church has had for a long, long, long time. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:53.119 In fact, in the history, if you were to look at church history about this, they would say that sexuality was somehow base and earthly and less valuable and important than celibacy, was put on a higher scale than this sort of semi Gnostic flesh is bad, spirit is good kind of mentality. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.039 It's not what God says here at all. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:21:59.759 He affirms that. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.119 Their sexual union. 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:03.119 He affirms their differences. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:09.839 He affirms their dependence on each other, the complementariness of their union. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:23.759 Jesus moves on by saying, not only is sexuality God's creation, but he goes on in verses five and six to talk about marriage is a commitment. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:25.440 Marriage is a commitment. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:37.519 And said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they too will become one flesh. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:40.240 So they are no longer two but one. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:46.079 Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. 00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:47.680 Jesus says a lot there. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:54.720 And we could we could turn that little two verse those two verses into a much longer series. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:23:02.480 But what he's talking about are family units, a personal bond, and a sexual union in these words. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.599 Let's take a look at the family union part first. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:09.119 A man will leave his father and mother. 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:11.279 A man will leave his father and mother. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:19.680 And what he's trying to say is that this new union of a man and a woman together in marriage becomes a separate family unit. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:27.119 And that's that relationship of the husband and wife supersedes the relationship of a parent to a child. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:44.720 And it becomes increasingly understandable and intense when you remember that in the Israelite communities, the sons lived in the same location as their parents. 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:51.599 They would just add a room and then add another room and then add another room. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:54.079 So they they lived at the same address. 00:23:54.799 --> 00:24:01.440 So what did Jesus mean, God mean when he said they will leave father and mother and cling to his wife? 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:08.079 It's not a geographical distancing that it's talking about, it's a relational separation. 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:24.079 There is got to be some substantial measure of relational difference from parent to child now that the husband and wife are married. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:31.200 Because a fresh family unit is in the making right there. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:40.720 And so a man doesn't take his wife into his father's house, build an extra room, and expect his wife to be under his father's authority. 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:48.000 There's a mutuality of a new unit there, even if the geography is still the same. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:52.400 And this has application to us. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:25:00.079 Obviously, these children who are gotten married are still going to need their parents. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:02.000 They're still going to love their parents. 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:08.400 There's still going to be some honor to their parents and care for their parents. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:12.000 All of that is assumed here. 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:21.200 But there's something more significant about the relationship of the husband and the wife together. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:24.319 And that needs to be preserved and protected. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.759 That needs to be cultivated and not corroded. 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.440 Because that's the fundamental building block of society there. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:46.799 Now, remember, all of this has been laid out before the new covenant community is brought into this world. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.519 This is a creation ordinance. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:53.839 This is not given simply to redeemed humanity. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:56.160 This is given to all humanity. 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:05.680 This idea of marriage and this idea of sexuality, these are things that God gives to us as humans so that we might understand who we are. 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:12.720 This is not just Christianity's narrow perspective about marriage. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:16.240 This is God's perspective about marriage. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:23.200 So this idea of a family unit, but it goes deeper into a personal bond. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:33.519 For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, held fast, literally glued, glued to his wife. 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:36.240 This is the super glue moment right here. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:55.680 This is that tight bond, meaning that they are to be companions together for life, affectionate and faithful to each other, constantly strengthening each other's bonds and repairing the small breaches that occur day to day. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:04.720 Bonding together, always applying the glue and not the solvent in their marriage. 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:17.599 This is a new family unit with a strong bonding, so much so that this idea of being one flesh comes into view. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:19.759 And it gets repeated. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:30.240 And Jesus says, These two will be one flesh, so they are no longer two but one. 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:36.000 So there is this emphasis by repetition that Jesus gives here. 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:44.480 And by using that word one flesh and by using that word glue, what is the Lord doing? 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:50.400 He's showing us the goodness of their sexual union, the preciousness of their oneness. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:58.640 As one of God's most gracious gifts to humanity is to bond two people together that intimately. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:03.680 One more thing to say here, and we'll keep moving. 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:07.279 Notice that the commitment comes before the consummation. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.960 The commitment comes before the consummation. 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:18.720 He'll leave father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they too will then, is the idea, be one flesh. 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:22.079 Why do we talk about sexual purity here? 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:24.400 Because it's God's design for us. 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.200 Because it's God's creative design for us. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:29.680 Because it is what is good for us. 00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:34.799 Because God looked upon creation and he said he pronounced it all very good. 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:38.079 This is the order, this is the plan. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:45.519 Anything other than that, less than that, against that, is only for our destruction. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.440 And leads only to the pain and agony of sin. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:57.279 So this idea of one flesh means the union is bound together. 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:15.119 Emotionally they're one, volitionally, they're one, mentally they're one, physically they're one, socially they're one, spiritually they're one, sexually they're one, financially they're one, and even geographically, as much as possible, they're going to be one with each other. 00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.079 This is God's design. 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:20.640 This is Scripture's significance. 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:28.400 And verse six tells us the capstone, because marriage is God's doing. 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:36.799 Verse six, therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:41.119 Now it doesn't say that in the book of Genesis. 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:43.119 Jesus said it here. 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:49.440 And Jesus is making an implication on a passive verb in the Old Testament. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:30:08.319 They will be joined together and will become one flesh, as though they're simply recipients of the joining, recipients of the oneness, that something's agently happening on these two people, making them one. 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:11.359 Well, what's making them one? 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:25.519 It's not I married her and she married him, it's they were married because God's the one who joined them. 00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.559 This union is something God put together. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:39.119 And therefore it needs to be respected, it needs to be honored. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:52.400 And he's saying to these men, you're looking for the escape clause, not the pathway that God has designed. 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:55.920 You're asking the very wrong question. 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:03.039 I don't have time to go into the details of the next section. 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:12.480 We've talked about it in Matthew chapter 5 when we went through that passage, but he also says here that divorce is a concession, not a command. 00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:15.599 Divorce is a concession, not a command. 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:17.599 Verses 7 to 9. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:24.400 Why then did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away? 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:34.720 Jesus responds, Moses permitted, not commanded, you to divorce your wife because of your hearts were hard. 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:38.319 But it was not this way from the beginning. 00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:46.559 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness and marries another woman commits adultery. 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:59.440 The divorce may not always be sinful itself, but the divorce is always because of some sin in some fashion, is what Jesus is saying here. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:07.279 And he's also saying it's not a mandate that there's even in that a potential for a different response. 00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:10.400 The ideal is offered again. 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.599 He's not going to get into the nitty-gritty arguments with them. 00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:17.039 He's not going to satisfy all the little answers that they want to hear. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:21.440 He's not going to engage them on the level that they've tried to bring him to. 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:32.640 And you've stomped your feet all over them to try to find out what's best for your little desires. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:39.920 What he's trying to drive home is the ideal, the ideal, the ideal, the ideal. 00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:44.160 So they might go, well, yeah, maybe I should pay attention to that. 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:55.519 And then it gets into the area that becomes home to us. 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:02.400 The disciples in verse 10 make a comment. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:13.279 If this is the way, the situation between a husband and his wife, it's better not to marry. 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:18.160 Wow, guys. 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:19.119 Really? 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:23.839 You've been with Jesus for almost three years, and that's your response. 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:26.960 Man. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:34.880 Marriage fidelity, love, care, respect. 00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:39.920 Making priorities in my wife. 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:43.920 Man, it's probably better just not to marry at all. 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.160 Seriously? 00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:53.359 And this aren't this isn't the Pharisees, these are the twelve disciples. 00:33:56.559 --> 00:33:58.160 Come on, guys. 00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:04.400 Listen to what Jesus said. 00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:13.599 He wants to bring us into an understanding of the superior, the surpassing superiority of the new covenant. 00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:24.480 He's going to say something here that's going to tease out a principle that helps us as new covenant believers to understand our priorities in life. 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:30.400 So we've gone from the sinful situation to scripture significances. 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:34.480 And now we're going to look at the surpassing superiority of the new covenant. 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:47.679 Jesus is granted the blueprint for marriage, the high ideal that humanity is to experience from the time they were first created, we were first created, all the way up until our day. 00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:52.800 This declaration that he made in the Garden of Eden, right? 00:34:55.199 --> 00:35:17.360 So what Jesus is teaching here, and what Jesus is implying by what he's saying here, is that all the things that erode marriage, all the things that lead to divorce, all the things that corrupt our relationships, can be fixed if we could somehow go back to Eden. 00:35:18.079 --> 00:35:19.920 Go back to where we were. 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:28.639 That's what he's saying. 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:44.079 That the problems that we deal with, the marriage difficulties that we have, divorce and all the heartache and hardships in marriage, they could all be fixed if every one of us could go back to Eden. 00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:51.519 If every one of us could be right there, just as Adam and Eve were on that very first day. 00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:59.519 And this is what the Old Testament prophets project. 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:03.039 They project a day like that. 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:12.559 They talk about a time that's coming that's like the restoration of Eden in Isaiah 51 and Ezekiel 36. 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:36.480 The prophets project a time when there'll be an end of all the enmity within God's creation, that people will be together, that humans and animals will be as one, that even the creation itself will be free from all of its enmities and strife and the results and effects of the fall. 00:36:38.559 --> 00:36:44.159 They use images that talk about the land being full of fertility and life. 00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:49.280 It's going to be just like the original fruitfulness of the earth. 00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:54.159 They describe a new creation where there's no more sin. 00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:04.960 And in just a little while, Jesus is going to hold up a cup and say, This is the new covenant in my blood. 00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:14.159 And Paul's going to write some couple decor decades later, if anyone is in Christ, he is what? 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:16.079 The new creation. 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:20.239 The new is come, the old is gone. 00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:45.840 So what the Lord is calling us to here is calling us to a newness of life that looks at our relationships and our marriages from a completely different perspective than ever before, restored by the redemption that's in Christ to affirm things that were created for us in the original design of God. 00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:50.000 And the world longs for it too. 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:53.280 Watch a romantic movie. 00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:54.960 How does it end? 00:37:56.079 --> 00:38:20.639 You got a couple after all the ups and downs of the movie and all the tension of the plot comes to resolution, and they're both sitting on a dock in a peaceful, calm waters, and the sun setting, and the glow of the sunset hour is beaming on their faces and just accentuates the happiness that they have, and the next thing you know, the credits start rolling. 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:21.440 Right? 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:23.760 And you're left to wonder what happened. 00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:25.119 Well, you know what happened. 00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:28.400 It was always good from that point forward. 00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:30.800 Yeah, no, it never is. 00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:32.960 But that's what you're left with. 00:38:33.119 --> 00:38:33.599 Why? 00:38:33.920 --> 00:38:38.239 Because that's what we yearn for, that's what we long for. 00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:41.360 That's heaven set in our hearts. 00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:44.639 We long for something better and greater. 00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:46.639 We long for the ideal. 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:50.000 We can see it, but we can't experience it. 00:38:51.199 --> 00:38:55.760 Whether we know the Lord or not, it's out there. 00:38:55.920 --> 00:38:58.480 It's just beyond our grasp. 00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:04.320 And Jesus is saying, I'm gonna bring it to you. 00:39:04.559 --> 00:39:06.159 I'm gonna bring it to you. 00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:10.239 You will be able to grab this because it's yours. 00:39:10.719 --> 00:39:15.280 All things are yours, Paul said to the Corinthians. 00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:20.480 And so he's talking about the new dynamic that's here. 00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:23.280 He's bringing it. 00:39:24.559 --> 00:39:32.639 And he wraps it up in these statements that Jesus is making to his disciples. 00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:42.800 Well, if this is the situation between a husband and a wife, uh it's better not to marry. 00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.960 Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it's been given. 00:39:53.280 --> 00:40:04.000 For some are eunuchs because they were born that way, others were made that way by men, and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. 00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:08.480 The one who can accept this should accept it. 00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:12.559 It's a very puzzling statement at first glance. 00:40:14.159 --> 00:40:27.679 But at the heart of this statement, Jesus is calling us to unswerving loyalty, not just to the marriage, but to the new kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. 00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:36.480 Loyalty to Christ displayed by our life priorities. 00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:47.599 And so what he's calling us to is, first of all, to acknowledge God's original intents and affirm it. 00:40:48.400 --> 00:40:55.039 But another thing that he's calling us to is to reorder our priorities according to the new covenant. 00:40:57.119 --> 00:41:05.199 Just as much as he's built up marriage a moment ago, now he's giving something even more important than marriage. 00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:07.199 The kingdom of heaven. 00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:16.239 And he lays down here three different kinds of eunuchs. 00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:28.159 There are those that are born that way, there are others that are made that way, and then there are others who make themselves that way. 00:41:28.639 --> 00:41:31.840 And I'll talk about each of those in just a second. 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:43.519 The term eunuch means literally keeper of their bed, signifying that someone sleeps alone in their bed. 00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:50.800 So just let that sort of word picture play out a little bit. 00:41:51.199 --> 00:41:54.159 Because I think it's a clue to what he's about to say. 00:41:57.039 --> 00:42:13.599 In the broadest sense of understanding of the term eunuch, as we know, it's talking about males who do not experience normal sexual development or incapable or lack sexual desire or the ability to reproduce. 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:15.599 Okay. 00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:18.880 And he breaks them up into three categories. 00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:24.159 First of all, those who suffer this condition because of providence. 00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:25.519 Right? 00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:27.360 Some were born this way. 00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:28.320 Okay. 00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:43.360 Some children are born with genetic abnormalities or endocrine disorders, and they're prevented from experiencing sexual maturity. 00:42:44.320 --> 00:42:46.320 Some of them are born this way. 00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:52.079 Now, before we move past this, I need to say something pastoral here. 00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:56.480 It's not the focus of the passage, but I think it's relevant. 00:42:57.760 --> 00:43:01.199 Let me urge you to take to heart what Jesus is saying here. 00:43:02.639 --> 00:43:06.880 Because how we talk to people who are single or childless matters. 00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:11.360 And it matters right in this point that Jesus is making. 00:43:11.920 --> 00:43:16.000 Sometimes our casual comments to single people, aren't you married yet? 00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:19.920 Or to a couple that doesn't have children, when are you going to have kids? 00:43:21.519 --> 00:43:39.360 Can be pierced weapons into a heart of a vulnerable soul, who, because of Providence's sake, no decision of their own, no control of their own, have been living life with a situation they can't change. 00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:46.239 And your words, instead of being helpful to them, have just shot an arrow into their heart. 00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:52.960 You see, all of us suffer from the effects of the fall. 00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:56.800 Some people suffer from the effects of the fall this way. 00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:03.119 And we would never say to a cancer Cancer patient, how come you're not free of cancer? 00:44:03.599 --> 00:44:05.360 God made us to be healthy. 00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:11.679 Then why would you say to a single person, Why don't you get married? 00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:14.000 God made us to have kids, be married. 00:44:14.159 --> 00:44:17.039 Or to say to a childless couple, why don't you have children? 00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:19.039 God made us to have children. 00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:23.679 We all suffer from the effects of the fall in some way. 00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:25.840 Every one of us. 00:44:26.159 --> 00:44:39.599 And there's some folks who, because of the providence of this world, in its fallen state as it is, have a burden that they carry that a lot of other people don't. 00:44:40.639 --> 00:44:49.599