Divorce & Remarriage Pt. 2 Series

Malachi Series (6 of 12)

Divorce & Remarriage Pt. 2

July 14, 2013

Chester FBC, Chester, ILDr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker

Introduction:

A This morning we learned how adultery torn apart the sacred oneness that God established in marriage.

1 Unfaithfulness in marriage is the one reason Jesus gave for a couple to get divorced.

a He didn’t require it, but it was permitted.

b Tonight, we are going to see more of the revelation on divorce & remarriage.

2 Because marriage is a physical relationship, physical things can breach the covenant.

a Death, sexual sin, abandonment.

b All are dealt with in Scripture.

B Malachi 2:10-16 (NASB) 10 "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? 11 "Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 "As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts. 13 "This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 "Yet you say, 'For what reason?' Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 "But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16 "For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says the LORD of hosts. "So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously."

1 Divorced people cannot rebuild their lives on the ashes of ruins.

a When marriages dissolve we say they have “failed.”

b All the rubble of failure must be swept away and new foundations laid for rebuilding life.

2 This is the task of the church, and one that Spirit-filled leaders will seek to establish in their ministries.

3 I am of the opinion that many churches have omitted many qualified people from ministry, leadership because they have been divorced.

a Perhaps no fault of their own, put because they have been divorced.

b Like shooting somebody and putting the wounded person in prison.

I Divorce on the Grounds of Abandonment.

A Paul was in agreement with Jesus’ teachings on divorce & remarriage, yet Paul experienced new situations involving marital conflict in his ministry: What happens when two Christians get divorced or an unequally yoked marriage. (1 Cor. 7.10-16)

1 Corinthians 7:10-16 (NASB) 10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (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. 12 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. 13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14 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. 15 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. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

1 When two Christians, who have been sexually faithful, wind up divorced, Paul encourages them to reconcile. (No reconcile, remain unmarried.)

2 v. 15, If a Christian has a mate that abandons the marriage, they should be free to formalize the divorce; “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.”

a Some scholars interpret “not under bondage” in two ways:

aa The deserted Christian spouse may lawfully go from divorce to remarriage.