Marriage Principles From A Divorce Text | Matthew 5:31-32

Scripture

• Matthew 5:31–32

About this sermon

ntroduction: ESV Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. This is what must characterize the people of God. This is what disappears when a people are under the abandoning wrath of God. This is what the church must resist in the midst of such a culture. Looking at this text from a big picture view, we see FIVE PRINCIPLES ABOUT MARRIAGE FROM A TEXT THAT DEALS WITH DIVORCE. • THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP IS A TEST OF TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS Godly marriages require salvation. Godly marriages require a right relationship to God through Jesus Christ and therefore a right relationship to God’s Word. Godly marriages exist for God’s glory. Godly marriages require supernatural desires, ambitions, concerns, and selflessness, that can only exist where the new nature exists — where the Holy Spirit abides. • THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP IS ACCOUNTABLE TO THE GOD WHO DESIGNED MARRIAGE Sinful violations of the marriage covenant result in sin. They result in adultery. By whose standard? By God’s, of course. Violate the marriage covenant and God holds one accountable for that violation. That tells us that every married person is accountable to God for the way they conduct themselves in marriage. If the OUTCOME of marriage must answer to God, then the CONDUCT in marriage must answer to God. ESV 1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. • THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP IS DESIGNED TO BE LIFELONG (GOD HATES DIVORCE) Jesus is REAFFIRMING the PERMANENCE of marriage. ESV Matthew 19:3 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. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." 10 The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." 11 But he said to them, "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it." • THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP ENDED IMPROPERLY RESULTS IN MULTIPLIED SINNING This teaching indicates that divorce can dishonor God in multiplied ways. • THE SIN OF DIVORCE • THE SIN OF ADULTERY (SAVE THE DETAILS FOR NEXT WEEK) • THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP GLORIFIES GOD BY THE POWER OF GOD NOT BY THE STRENGTH OF THE FLESH

Topics

• Marriage