In his sermon 'Divorce - Part 2,' Pastor Grant Brown examines biblical teachings on divorce and marriage, focusing on passages from Matthew 5 and 1 Corinthians 7. He argues that marriage is a sacred covenant established by God and that divorce is a severe rebellion against this covenant, only permissible in cases of 'unchastity' (porneia). Pastor Brown explains that porneia encompasses various forms of sexual immorality, including adultery and other unclean sexual behaviors. He discusses the distinction between marriages of believers and those between a believer and an unbeliever. For believing couples, divorce is not an option, and reconciliation should be sought. For mixed marriages, if the unbelieving spouse consents to stay, the marriage should continue. However, if the unbelieving spouse wishes to leave, the believer is not bound and may remarry. The sermon emphasizes the importance of church discipline in addressing marital unfaithfulness and encourages those affected by divorce to seek forgiveness and redemption through Christ.

Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 31 and then we'll move to 1st Corinthians 7. It was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Then turn back to 1 Corinthians 7.

We will turn our attention to verses 10 through 15. 1 Corinthians 7, 10 through 15. But to the married I give instructions, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband. But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

And a woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. For otherwise, your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

May God bless the reading of his word. Amen. You may be seated. We began last Lord's Day examining the doctrine of marriage and divorce. And we found Christ's words in Mark chapter 10 very very clear a marriage is a covenant union between a man and a woman a husband and a wife for life and The author of that covenant is God Himself.

And to break that covenant, to rip apart what God Himself has put together in a one flesh union is outrageous rebellion. That's what divorce is. A ripping apart of the marriage covenant that God Himself put two people together into. It is odious rebellion against God to work against Him in divorce. And someone is always responsible for that rebellion.

It might be both people in the marriage, or it might only be one person in the marriage, but someone is at enmity with God Almighty when divorce happens. And because marriage is a picture of Christ and the church, because your marriage proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ, how Jesus loved his bride the church and gave himself for her on the cross to cleanse her and to make her blameless because your marriage proclaims the church's submission to Christ and her obedience to her groom, to her head, the Lord Jesus Christ, because your marriage is a lifelong sermon about this gospel, when you destroy it, you are preaching something that isn't true about God. You are blaspheming. You're in sin. Someone is always in sin when divorce happens.

Someone, at least one person, is in sin when the one flesh union is torn asunder. And yet, hear this, Christ forgives sinners. He went to the cross for those who tore asunder that which they shouldn't have, and at the cross, Jesus Christ's flesh was torn asunder. And so was the curtain. Friend, though you may have entered into a divorce or a remarriage that was not lawful, depending on the circumstance, if you have sinned in divorce or remarriage, and that is you this morning, listen, today is not a day of condemnation.

Today is the Lord's day. Today is a day where we recognize that the grave could not hold Jesus Christ your Savior. Today is a day that we celebrate that condemnation cannot have the final word for all of God's children. Today is the day that we remind ourselves that He lives triumphant over every enemy of righteousness, triumphant over your sin, triumphant over every divorce, triumphant over your condemnation. Today is the day when you confess your sins and you recognize that Christ has invited you to come to Him.

All of you who are weary and heavy laden, to come to Him with all of the baggage from your past that rests on your back as a heavy burden. He bids you to come, and He will give you rest. Christ does not call you this morning to clean yourself up and then come to Him. No, Jesus Christ says to you today, come. Come to Him with your sin.

Come to Him with your covenant breaking. Come to Him with your adultery. He will not cast you out. Jesus says to you this morning, see my cross on the hill, run to me, I will take that burden, called your iniquity, called your covenant breaking, called your adultery, and I will cut it off of you by the power of my cross. And as you look behind you, you will see that burden rolling down the hill behind you falling into an empty tomb Where I the mighty Messiah Conquered in my resurrection and that burden in that empty tomb will never ever be able to come out again to condemn you ever I have removed your burden as far as the east is from the west, from you.

Jesus says to you today, Christian, your sin is forgiven. If you are trusting in the Savior this day, He tells you your divorce, your sexual immorality, if confessed, is forgiven. As one brother puts it so helpfully, God takes you from where you are, not from where you should have been. And that applies to everyone in this room who has been the one responsible for the ripping apart of their marriage covenant. God takes you from where you are, not from where you should have been, in Christ Jesus.

That's really good news. That's incredible news. For those responsible for tearing apart their marriage covenants, for those whose sin resulted in divorce, for those whose sin made many stumble. But what about those who did not sin in their divorce? We spoke last week regarding how every divorce is occasioned by somebody's sin.

But not always are both spouses in sin when a divorce happens. Sometimes just one of the spouses is sinning. So what about them? Is there a category in the Bible for them? Is divorce ever permissible, though never longed for, is it ever permissible for the believer?

Is it ever lawful? And that's what we seek to understand more fully this morning. Jesus taught in the gospels that marriage is to be held in the highest estimation and that It is sin, it is adultery, it is wicked rebellion against God to bring about a divorce with one exception. And we read that passage together, but let's turn back in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, Let's read it once more to remind ourselves what God has said in Matthew chapter 5, verse 31 and 32.

Verse 31, it was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Now this same principle, really this same statement, is repeated in Matthew chapter 19. So twice in Matthew's Gospel we have the same thing said by Jesus.

And in both instances, an exception is made regarding divorce. And I want you to notice here again very, very clearly, very, very clearly, Jesus is so clear, divorce is not okay. Divorce is never a result of someone's righteous behavior. Divorce never comes about because of innocence on both parties. Someone in the marriage is always in sin when divorce occurs.

But not always is it sin by both parties. Everyone who wishes to divorce his wife, and we could say the opposite, any woman who wishes to divorce her husband, that is not permissible according to God, except for the reason of unchastity. And more on that word in just a moment, unchastity. Except for the reason of unchastity. Otherwise, Jesus says, in divorcing your spouse, you make him or her commit adultery.

You make them commit adultery. So to divorce your spouse is sin, and it results in more sin, the sin of adultery. Unless that spouse has already given themselves to that sin, namely, to adultery. That's the exception. A man cheats on his wife, that woman may divorce that man and she will not be responsible by God for making him commit adultery.

Why? Because he's already committed it. In v. 8, a woman cheats on her husband. That husband may divorce his wife, and he will not be held responsible by God for making her commit adultery.

Why? Because she's already committed adultery in cheating on her husband. They've already sinned in the manner in which divorce would have made them sin. Now I want to key in on that word unchastity. Everyone who divorces their spouse except for the reason of unchastity makes the other commit adultery, makes the other sin.

That word for chastity, for unchastity, is the Greek word pornea. We get an English word from that, the word porn. And that word is translated in the New American Standard Bible as unchastity. Other translations use sexual immorality, fornication, sexual activity outside of marriage. It's at its root, the thought is sexual uncleanness.

A whole array of unbridled sexual urges that are wicked and ungodly. So yes, unchastity, adultery, fornication, pornography use, transgenderism would fall into this category. A man comes to his wife and he tells her, hey honey, I'm going to mutilate my genitalia and I'm going to try to become a woman. That is an example of pornea. Sexual abuse would also fall into this category of pornea.

All of it is sexual uncleanness, uncleanliness. And this teaching from Jesus here in Matthew 5 and in Matthew 19, it really helps explain some seemingly difficult passages in the Old Testament. Take, for example, Ezra chapter 9 and Ezra chapter 10. God tells His people in Ezra chapter 10 that They are to put away their foreign wives to divorce them, but in the Old Testament We are also told that God hates divorce. What's going on there?

Well Jesus here in Matthew 5 gives commentary on what was going on in an instance like Ezra chapter 10. What had happened in that time? Well, the Israelites had forsaken God. They had forsaken God and His law. They had gone into exile, but now they had returned and they began reading from the book of the law and they heard of all the ways that they had disobeyed God in their immorality.

They had been engaging with the Gentiles in that land in pornea, the Hebrew equivalent of the word pornea, abominable deeds. And so they hear from the book of the law, they're convicted, and they're moved to repent. And the instruction for them from God in Ezra chapter 10 is shocking. The instruction is divorce your foreign wives and the reason is because of their abominable practices. If you look in Ezra chapter 9, Ezra chapter 9 tells us, these women, these foreign wives, were giving themselves to unclean things.

A similar word to the Greek word porneia. So the people of God were told to divorce their foreign wives, not because their wives were simply Gentiles, but rather because of their wives' sexual uncleanliness, because of what Jesus is talking about here, because of their Gentile sexual immorality and the way that that was bleeding into the worship of God. These women would not repent in Ezra chapter 10 and so God said you must divorce them otherwise my people will be polluted." And so the people of God were told to divorce their wives. But notice again it's not because they're just Gentiles. The Old Testament holds up all kinds of Gentile women as more godly than that of Israelite women think about Ruth Think about Rahab God is not interested in divorce here for some low reason These are women engaged in the Hebrew equivalent of pornea And that is why He commands them to divorce their wives.

Jesus in Mark chapter 10 and here in Matthew chapter 5 is simply clarifying for the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the people of Israel, you may not divorce. Because in divorcing, adultery results. But if adultery, if pornea, if sexual immorality is already present, then divorce is permissible because pornea, adultery, sexual immorality has already occurred in the life of the offending spouse. And I need you to please notice something. Please notice this.

Jesus does not command divorce in Matthew chapter 5, but He does permit it. It doesn't have to result in divorce. It may, but it doesn't have to. And the reason for that is because the Gospel is true, you know. Jesus is almighty, you know.

The Gospel changes hearts and transforms lives. You know what I'm saying? It really does that. You are never without hope in your marriage if the power of God is at work in the gospel in the life of you or your spouse or both. There is always hope because the gospel is triumphant.

Jesus makes sinners born again. And that's not just something that we just read about in the Bible. It actually happens. He makes people brand new. Jesus takes people that are engaged in pornea and He sets those kinds of people free.

Such were some of you. Divorce is permitted for the hardness of heart because of sin. But even for sexual immorality because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Even that can be forgiven. Even that can be cleansed by the blood of the Son. And a marriage can be restored.

There is always hope for any marriage when the Gospel, when the power of God is at work in a spouse. There's always hope. Don't leave here without that in your heart. Jesus says, I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity, pornea, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

And so what I don't want you to have in mind at this junction of the sermon is the idea that your husband comes home from work, and he comes to you, wife, and he confesses that he had lustful thoughts in his heart that day. He had looked out of his office window that afternoon and he'd seen a scantily clad woman walk by and rather than immediately turning away, he lusted for a moment and then angry with himself and angry with his sin, he turned away, he confessed these things to the Lord, and then he came home and with tears in his eyes confessed them to you. What you cannot do, wife, is to look at that sweet husband and to quote Jesus to him Jesus said to look on a woman with lust in your heart is to commit adultery in your heart which it is by the way and you did that husband so I wanna divorce well it is adultery but that is not pornea that's just not pornea Your husband is coming home and confessing sin to you, so that He would walk in purity. So that He would run away from pornea.

He's coming to you to pursue sexual cleanliness. Your husband is acting like a believer. Because he's a believer. And divorce is simply not open to two believers who are acting like believers. Jesus says so.

And that's where Paul picks things up in his letter to the Corinthians. I need you to turn there with me now. We've set the stage with the exception. Let's go now to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7.

At the end of this sermon, I'm going to seek to tie all of these strands together. I need the Lord's help. Jesus has just said divorce is not on the table for believers. Paul picks things up now in his letter to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 beginning in verse 10.

We're going to read These verses again so that we are not confused. First Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10. But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest, I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. Okay.

There are two phrases in that passage that a lot of people get hung up on. Do you see those two phrases? Look at verse 10. To the married I give instruction, not I, but the Lord. And then look at verse 12.

To the rest, I say, not the Lord. You see those two? This confuses many dear saints because it might seem to you that Paul is saying that part of his letter is divinely inspired by Jesus Christ, while the other part of this chapter is not. But there are really two levels of authority going on here in his writing. That there's the words of Jesus, and there's the words of Paul, and those are different.

The Lord is speaking here in verse 10, but in verse 12 it's just My opinion. You need to hear this. Please hear this. That is not at all what Paul is saying. Paul says in another place, 2 Timothy 3, 16, that all Scripture is inspired by God.

All of it. All of it is infallible. All of it comes from the Spirit of Christ. Paul and the rest of the apostles spoke and wrote as Christ spoke through them. So he said it before.

We can say it again. In some real sense, all of the letters in the New Testament and the Old Testament are read. Same spirit. And so here in 1st Corinthians 7, every word is infallible, inerrant, and inspired by God. All of it is from the Lord.

So then, what's Paul saying when he says, not I but the Lord in verse 10, and then I not the Lord in verse 12. I want you to look again at the passage. To the married I give instruction, not I but the Lord. And then in verse 12, but to the rest. But to the rest.

Alright, that should tell you something. There are two different categories of people. Some that he covers in verse 10 and 11. And then to the rest, verses 12 through 15, there are two different categories of people that Paul is now addressing. Marriage between believers, and marriage between a believer and someone who is lost.

Here's what Paul is doing, lest you be confused. He's telling the Corinthians, and He's telling you, Jesus in the Gospels, like we just read in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus in the Gospels was asked a question by the Pharisees about divorce among God's people. And Jesus responded to that question about divorce among God's people Jesus taught the Lord taught in the Gospels that a husband and a wife should remain meant She should remain married as members of the people of God. Clear? In verses 10 and 11, Paul is repeating what Jesus has said in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

That divorce among two people who are believers is never an option. Paul clarifies that and said that's what Jesus said. That's what Jesus said. Divorce among two people of God is not an option. That's what the Lord said about marriage between believers.

But from that time, where Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, to the day that Paul is writing this letter to the Corinthians, some time has gone by. Some time has passed, and some serious seed sowing gospel victory has been happening to the nations. Now the gospel has gone forth to the nations and the nations, the Gentiles, are hearing the news about Christ's life, death, resurrection and ascension. And as the gospel spreads, many are coming to faith in Christ Jesus many are being born again They're hearing the gospel and believing and a new category of people has formed since the words of Jesus in the gospels. Gentiles are getting converted, but only one of the spouses might be converted.

It's a new category of people that Jesus did not address in the gospels. Gentiles are coming to faith in Christ. Sometimes a husband believed, but the wife did not. Sometimes the wife has repented of her sins and trusted Christ, but the husband is still in rebellion. And now each of them have spouses that aren't believers.

And Paul is writing to the Corinthians to Gentile believers who are now unequally yoked They're asking him the question What do we do about this situation? How are we as new Christians to approach marriage as new creations in Christ Jesus. If we would have been believers before our marriage, we would have never married Josemau. But we married him, then we became Christians. Am I forever in my marriage displeasing to God?

Am I forever in my marriage displeasing to God? Am I forever in my marriage unholy because of this unholy union? Is this an unholy union? What are we to do as spouses that are unequally yoked? So do you see the two categories?

I could go on and on about why there are two categories. You won't believe how much editing I had to do for this sermon. And you will by the end of it go, he did not edit. Jesus answered a question about divorce between two believers in the gospel. Paul repeats it here.

That's why he says, not I but the Lord. The Lord has made it clear, divorced between two believers off the table. Plain and simple. But now a new question has arisen among the Gentile converts of Corinth. The gospel has come to them.

Many are believing, but they're now asking, What about my marriage to my spouse who is unbelieving? What should I do? And Paul says to them, the Lord Jesus didn't address this particular question in the Gospels. So I say to you, In the Spirit of Christ, under the authority of Christ, I say to you, not the Lord in the Gospels, I say to you, not the Lord, that we have two different categories. So we have two situations, two categories of marriage, and that is very important to understand.

Situation number one, marriages between two believers and situation number two, marriages between a believer and an unbelieving spouse. So situation number one, A believer married to another believer. Paul says, not I, but the Lord. In verses 10 and 11, I'll read it again. I want us to get these verses.

To the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and that the husband should not divorce his wife. Two people who believe on Christ must not leave one another. They must not divorce one another. That word leave in verses 10 and 11 is very much in fact referring to divorce. We know that because verse 11, if she does leave, she must remain what?

Unmarried. So she's not married anymore. It's divorce. Divorce has happened. The leaving is divorcing.

The leaving is the breaking of the marriage covenant. She is now no longer married. So believer, I need you to listen to Paul. He's repeating Jesus. If you are married together in the Lord, you and your spouse, if you are both Christians, you may not pursue divorce.

Don't do it. But then Paul says, if divorce does happen, then what? That spouse is to remain unmarried unless she's reconciled to her former husband. Why? So that she can remarry him again.

The only remarriage available to two believers who divorce is remarriage to one another. The only remarriage available to two believers who divorce is remarriage to one another or as Paul says elsewhere or until death releases them from this obligation towards one another. So when two believers divorce that shouldn't happen. That's sin according to God. But if it does happen, Paul says, well don't sin further by remarrying someone else because then you run into the same thing We talked about last week with Deuteronomy chapter 4, where you as a spouse can no longer return to your former spouse and you make even more sin come about as a result.

As a Christian, you're not comfortable with that. You don't want more sin. You hate it. So believers, you need to listen to Paul. He's repeating Jesus, if you're married in the Lord, do not pursue divorce.

If both you and your spouses are believers and you sin by getting a divorce, then don't sin even further by remarrying a different person, because there is always hope for you when there are two believers in the Gospel. Always. You need to think about what is yours, Christian. The Word of God contains all the precious and very great promises that Christ has secured for you at His cross. You remember them.

In fact, you proclaim them to one another when we partake in this table. That's available to you in your marriage. The Word of God. Both of you love the Word of God. You have the Spirit at work in both of you.

You have God at work in you through the power of His Gospel. Who's stronger than God? Nobody. No marital issue can trump the power of God in His Gospel. Nothing.

Two believers united around that truth, come hell or high water, The Gospel can triumph. The Gospel will triumph. Think about this fact. You both have new hearts that long to obey Christ with all that you are. You're both committed to that as believers.

You've got the same trajectory. You aren't unequally yoked. One's not pulling this way, and the other one pulling this way. You've both got your eyes on the cross, and you're both pulling together. Think of what's yours, Christian couple.

In Christ, there is hope. Do not ever despair in your marriage when you're married to another believer. And beyond all the gifts that God has given you, He's given you one final gift that I haven't talked about. That's the blessing of church discipline. You have Matthew 18 at your disposal as members of a church.

In calling one another to repentance through the help of this church and her members and her pastors. And that reality, that Matthew 18 reality, that church discipline reality, is an important thing as we consider situation number two, The situation, the question that Jesus did not answer in the Gospels. Situation number two, a believer married to an unbeliever where Paul says, I, not the Lord. I'm going to read this passage once more, 12 through 15. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, He must not divorce her.

And a woman who has an unbelieving husband and consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they're holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases.

But God has called us to peace. Again, I want you to key in on that word in verse 12, to the rest I say, to those who fall into a different category, to those who are married to an unbelieving spouse, Paul says, here is what Jesus would have you do. Now, divorce is never, ever to be desired. Divorce is never ever to be considered the ideal. Every attempt, Every attempt should be made to keep your marriage intact.

God has put that union together. The separation of that should cause great fear and trembling. God has established that marriage covenant. Every attempt should be made to keep it intact. And so if a believing spouse has an unbelieving spouse, and that unbelieving spouse wants to maintain the marriage, What should the believing spouse do?

The believing spouse must not get a divorce, but remain married. That's a command from God. That kind of thing happens all the time. It was happening in Corinth. A lost woman is married to a guy who is as lost as they come.

She's lost too, and yet she hears the gospel of grace and she turns from her sin. She's not completely made new within, and her husband, still lost, is all get out. And yet, that husband looks at his wife and he loves her with all of his heart and he's not turned off at all by all her new Bible reading and all her new church attendance and even all the evangelism that she's doing on him, he's rather encouraged by it. She's so much happier. Her cooking is even better.

She is a new person. I married someone that was beautiful, but now she's even more beautiful because of Jesus. I don't know about this Jesus guy, but I know about my wife. He doesn't want to divorce his wife. What's she to do?

She's to stay married. She's to love Him. She's to submit to Him insofar as she can in obedience to Christ. And in doing those things, God says elsewhere, she might just win Him to Christ. And that's what Paul says.

Remain married if the unbeliever will allow it, for that is holy in God's sight. Yours is a holy marriage. And that's a big deal because no doubt the question that we can gather from our passage this morning, no doubt the question was from the believing Gentile in Corinth. They were asking the question, I am now a Christian, and I wouldn't be able to marry this person if I had been a Christian when I married him. But now, I wasn't a Christian then.

I married this unbeliever because I was an unbeliever. But now I'm stuck with this unbeliever. Am I stuck in a relationship that will forever defile me before God? Because my one flesh union partner, spouse, is not converted. Am I forever defiled in my union?

Is my marriage, is it unholy in the eyes of God? Am I perpetually unholy in my relationship? That's the question that's come up. I don't want to be unholy. I don't want to be unholy.

I want to honor God. How do I do it? I love that heart. And Paul says, Dear Christian, your marriage is far from unholy. It is holy to such a degree that verse 14 is true.

Verse 14, that the unbelieving spouse, because of your holiness, is sanctified through you. The believing spouse sanctifies the other one. Sanctified. That word means set apart for a work of God. God has called one spouse, one member of the one flesh union out of darkness and into light.

And so necessarily Paul can say to the one married to an unbelieving spouse God has laid claim to your marriage God has laid claim to your family You're covenanted together with this unbelieving spouse, and now you are covenanted together with Christ. There is covenantal work going on here. No longer is your spouse and your children without gospel witness. God has now seen fit to invade the sphere of your family by His grace. And there is great, great hope that your spouse, in seeing your hope in Jesus, in seeing the radical effect of the Gospel at work in you, there's great hope that your spouse will be won over by your conduct.

That's right there in 1 Peter chapter 3. And he mentions children at the end of verse 14, doesn't he? Why would he do that? Well again, we must ask the question, what was going on in the hearts of the Corinthians? Why are they asking these kinds of questions?

The question, no doubt was, is my marriage to an unbeliever unholy? And if my marriage to an unbelieving spouse is unholy, then will not all of my children, will not all of my offspring that come from this unholy union be defiled too? Will having children with this unbelieving spouse be displeasing to the Lord? Should I just sterilize myself? Should I refrain from any sexual intercourse?

But if I refrain from sexual intercourse, I'll be disobeying God where He says, I should be giving myself to my husband. I should be giving myself to my wife. Where what am I to do? You can see you can see the heart in this passage And God says to them and God says to you The promise of God is surely not. Surely not.

By faith, your marriage is far from displeasing to the Lord. It is pleasing to the Lord. And having children is pleasing to the Lord as you obey the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians. Your children, just as your spouse that is unbelieving, your children too are set apart in a special way by God. Your marriage is not unholy.

Your marriage is not defiled. No far from it, it is sanctified. Your children are not unholy. Your children are not defiled. No far from it, your children are sanctified.

So if you're a Christian right now in this room and you are not married, I need to be very clear here. It's very clear in God's Word that you should not be unequally yoked. Young men, you hearing me? Young women, you should not be unequally yoked. You should only marry a spouse in the Lord.

Otherwise all of your days will be you pulling this way and someone pulling this way and man that will be painful and lousy and most of all it is disobedient. If you are believing on Christ, find another young lady that is running just as hard as you are to the Lord Jesus. And if she's running as hard as you are, you can take a second look. Young ladies, the same as you. Don't waste your time on these weaklings that aren't running hard.

You run hard to the cross, and if you see men outpacing you, you say, I'd like to grab ahold of him. And you best do it quick, because he's going to go fast. And I'd love to marry you. I would love that. I would love that.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, do not be unequally yoked. But if you are already married, if you are already married and you hear the gospel and you become a Christian, but your spouse is not yet a Christian, you need not divorce. Because if your unbelieving spouse will stay with you, then you very much should still have him. And Your marriage to that unbeliever is not displeasing to the Lord. And your bearing children is not displeasing to the Lord.

With that spouse, it is holy. But what if the unbelieving spouse desires to leave? What if the unbelieving spouse wants out? And that's the final verse in our passage this morning, verse 15. That's what this is all about.

Within this second situation, there are two categories as well. Being married to a believer being married to an unbelieving spouse, and the unbelieving spouse wants to remain married, stay married. And now in verse 15, here is a situation where the unbelieving spouse desires to leave. Verse 15, if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

If the unbelieving spouse desires to leave, then it is a command. You must let them leave. Now what's really interesting in the original language is that phrase, let him leave. It's an imperative. It's a permissive imperative.

It's a command from God. God actually says to the Christian who finds themselves married to an unbeliever that if that unbeliever wants to break the marriage covenant, and though you've tried all that you can do to salvage the marriage, and the unbeliever still wants out, then you are required by God to divorce them. And the divorce is not because of your sin, but theirs. That's really huge. Divorce is always occasioned by sin.

You can't get around that. But in this particular situation in verse 15, the culpability is on the one leaving. It's on the one that is in sin, the unbeliever. So if a woman comes home one evening to find her husband with tears in his eyes and a Bible in his hand and he tells her that Christ has saved him and that his whole life has been turned upside down. He starts evangelizing her that very night and she doesn't like that.

Then she doesn't like that he won't go and get drunk with her, won't go to the bars with her anymore. He won't watch raunchy movies with her anymore. She doesn't like that he won't join with her in other kinds of debauchery. And so one day she's had enough. She looks at her husband and says, I'm done.

She walks out. The call on that man's life is not to remain legally married while simply estranged from his wife. The call of God upon that man who has done all that is within his power to do, to maintain his marriage through love and prayer and trying to evangelize his wife, pleading with his wife to come to Christ, to stay, but she'll have none of it. The call of God upon him is actually to divorce his wife, to let her go. And brothers and sisters, lest you be confused, The issue is not on who files for divorce.

It's just not the issue. Who does the filing? I mean, people get hung up on that. I have been in conversations that people get so hung up on William. Who did the filing?

That's not, That's not the issue. The issue is, who's in sin? Who is in sin? Who is the one responsible for breaking apart their marriage covenant? A woman wants out.

She says, but she's so passive aggressive, she goes, but I'm not going to get divorced. So now, right? I want out, I'm going to completely break the marriage covenant, all but in name. I don't want you, I don't love you, We're done. But I know you're a Christian.

And I know you don't like divorce. So, haha. I'm not going to fight. You're being sinned. That man, according to Paul, is not in sin in divorcing his wife.

It doesn't matter who signs the paperwork. If you think that the one that signs the paperwork, the one that initiates the divorce, that they're the one in sin, you need to square that with Paul. Paul says, God says, the Christian might in fact be required to divorce their spouse if their spouse wants out. The issue is not who gets the paperwork done. And in this scenario, scenario two, with the spouse who wants out, again it's the unbelieving spouse who has sinned.

The sin is the unbelieving spouse. And then notice that phrase at the end of verse 15, the brother or sister is not under bondage in such a case, but God has called us to peace. Not under bondage, but freedom. Now some people want to add something there. Some people want to say, okay, yeah, Paul says, yeah, you're not in bondage.

Yeah, not bound, but still bound when it comes to remarriage. Not bound, I agree with you Paul, but bound. Well, that's not what the text says. And you can't have it both ways. You can't say you're unbound to a marriage and then say, but you're still kind of bound to the marriage which disqualifies you from remarriage.

Friends, that's not bound means not bound. Remarriage in this particular situation, situation number two, is completely on the table. Remarriage in this situation is the same thing as when a spouse dies and that living spouse is then free to remarry. We see that principle in Romans chapter 7. When a spouse dies, the other spouse may lawfully remarry.

Because of what? Because of death. Because the covenant has been fulfilled and now is over. The covenant is over because of death. And it's the same in this situation.

There's a death. It's not physical death, but it's a covenantal death that's happened. The unbelieving spouse has broken the covenant. They are dead to the marriage covenant, and so the believing spouse is free to remarry when the unbelieving spouse leaves. If that's not convincing, and that's a big issue a lot of good men disagree about, if that's not convincing I want you to consider this.

Look down a few verses at verse 27. Verse creation 7, look at verse 27. If you're still like, well, I get the part about not being bound for divorce, but remarriage is another thing. Look down at verse 27. Same language that Paul uses, same verbiage, verse 27, are you bound to a wife?

Same word, bound. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Paul has already said that, if you've got a wife who's willing to stay married, Stay married. That's a command.

But then he says, are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. Paul's arguing here that because of the current climate of persecution in the church in Corinth, it would be better to remain single. He does that throughout this portion of the scriptures. Are you released from a wife?

Are you no longer bound to a wife? Do not seek a wife, but but If you marry you have not sinned Are you seeing that? That's are you released from a wife? Has situation number two happened to you? And the unbelieving spouse has divorced you?

Well, let me just tell you, brother in Corinth, it would be better for you to stay single because there's going to be some hard things coming. But if you remarry, If you marry again, what? You have not sinned. Because you're no longer bound to your former marriage or your former spouse. Now lest I be misunderstood, not all people who are divorced should be remarried.

There are many who would be in sin if they remarried because they're not obeying the clear instruction from Jesus and the instruction here from Paul. But There are also many brothers and sisters who find themselves in situation number two that the Lord has given them liberty to be remarried. And I just want to say what God has given to His people, we cannot take away. We cannot take away what God has given to His people. So I think here is as good a place as any to quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Amen. Thank you, brother. And I quote, Nothing but adultery or such willful desertion as can be... Let me start again. Nothing but adultery or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church or the civil magistrate is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage, wherein a public and orderly course of proceedings to be observed, and the person concerned in it not left to their own wills and discretion in their own case." Those guys who wrote that last little bit of their article on divorce and marriage were very wise.

And they were borrowing from the wisdom literature in the Bible that says there is great wisdom and an abundance of counselors. When you are working through something like this, and I need you to hear this I Need you to hear this When you are working through something like divorce you cannot do it by yourself You cannot do this by yourself Emotions get involved in what happens? You don't think straight Your passions start ruling your mind instead of your mind ruling your passion. Who do you need involved in your life when this stuff comes up? Not just you.

You need your pastors. You need your church body. That's what the Westminster Confession is saying. You should not be left up to your own wills or discretion. You need hours and hours with your pastors to work through Biblical truths together.

So I need you to hear me one more time, because I want to say this, because there's a lot of stuff that went on in just a moment. There was a lot of movement. Don't ever start going down the path or the process of divorce without working through things with your pastors. You got that? You start doing things without your pastor?

That's disobedience. These things, the Proverbs are clear, there is a great amount of wisdom and an abundance of counselors. You're not gonna think straight. You need brothers and sisters that can think straight for you. Okay, Well, let's conclude this morning with one final illustration, one final example, and then I'll be through.

I'm going to try to tie some of these strands together. I tried to weave some things. I want to tie them together with one illustration. I want to present to you a situation. This is just one situation.

There are so many situations pastorally you could think about and how to apply these principles. That's why you need an abundance of counsel. Here's one situation to leave you with. A man and a woman, they're married And both of them are professing believers. They are members of a church.

They confess Jesus is Lord and Savior together. The man, unbeknownst to anybody, has a secret porn habit. He's discovered and his wife is appalled. What should she do? He's engaged in some kind of pornea, isn't he?

Here's what she should do according to God's Word, according to Matthew 18, according to these principles. She should confront her husband, who is a professing believer. She should come to her husband and confront him respectfully, and tell him that his engagement in pornea is grounds for divorce. But since he is a professing believer, he must confess his sin, he must repent of his sin, and he must put such things away. The man agrees, but then goes on sinning, and is found out again.

At that juncture, following Matthew chapter 18 in church discipline, the wife should approach the elders. If not, she could have approached the elders before this as well. If she hasn't already done so, the wife should approach the elders, the pastors, and the man told, and with the pastors, this man should be told that his unrepentance will result in church Excommunication if he does not immediately stop engaging in pornea because he's acting like an unbeliever If the husband continues he is to be removed from the fellowship of the church. The church is to excommunicate him in obedience to Christ. And now this man is no longer known as a believer.

But instead he is to everyone outside the church and inside, he is to be known as an unbeliever. He is to be delivered over to Satan with the hope that he might repent. This woman began in situation number one, But she is no longer in situation number one. Where does she find herself? She's no longer married to a believer.

She finds herself now because of church discipline because of the faithful administration of church discipline She finds herself now in situation number two She is unequally yoked and she is married to a man who will not give up his pornea. At that point she may lawfully divorce him as he has made it clear through his pornea that he does not esteem the marriage covenant is valid. After many attempts he has not left his pornea. He has continued to go after other women. He has de facto said, I will leave you.

And so she is free to divorce. And upon being divorced, she is no longer bound and she may remarry another. And all of this from beginning to end should be done alongside the faithful shepherding of local church pastors. So what about you? Has divorce impacted you?

Do you stand this morning? Are you sitting there this morning? Divorce has intersected in your life some way and you feel condemned this morning? Do you stand condemned hearing about divorce and your participation in divorce? Maybe you've participated in an unlawful divorce.

Well, let me end this sermon the way I began it. Jesus is for you. Jesus was accursed and condemned as if the one unclean. He was accursed and condemned on the cross in the place of someone in Pornayah. So that the captive to Pornayah would be set free.

Jesus on the cross was condemned and crucified, and the wrath of God was laid upon him at the cross as if He was the one guilty of divorce so that the sinner who was guilty of divorce would be able to go free and be made new and forgiven and forever changed and forever married to Christ. And So as He did with the woman caught in the act of adultery, as Jesus did with the woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus says to you now, confessing, Christian, I do not condemn you. I was condemned for you at my cross. Believe upon me. And go and sin no more.

Amen? Go and sin No more. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, out of quite an abundance of words, may this Your word remain, may the Gospel of Jesus be held in high esteem, and Lord, in any way that I have failed to explain or rightly apply Your Word, I ask, according to Your rich mercy, that You would intercede and help. Please, Lord, for Your namesake and the esteem of your glory in the world and in the nations we ask.

Amen. I'll ask that you turn with me to hymn number 153.