D-I-V-O-R-C-E And How To Stop It

blot out my transgressions” (Psa 51:1).

a. David also knew that a simple “I’m sorry” won’t get it:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psa 51:17).

b. If you believe repentance is too easy, you’ve never done it.

c. We are faced with a guilty but penitent party. What does the law the law of mercy say?

“For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jam 2:13)

2. We have now come to a second law, the law of redeeming love:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church” (Eph 5:25-29).

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8).

3. The third law is the law of shared responsibility:

“But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matt 5:32)

“The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Cor 7:3-5).

CONCLUSION

A. We have considered three things that cause marriage dilemmas, often resulting in the death of those marriages:

1. A faulty view of persons—a thing to be possessed.

2. A faulty view of sex—an appetite or an activity to deny or indulge.

3. A faulty view of divorce—it is not the cause of failed marriages but the death certificate for those that do fail.

B. Are you married? Do everything you can to make it work.

C. Are you unmarried? I leave you to ponder Paul’s advice

(1 Cor 7:8-9)

“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”