2. Jesus On Divorce

3. Mark 9: And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”

4. They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

5. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

6. And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

7. Deuteronomy 24:1-4
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife,

8. and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,

9. And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

10. Mark 7: And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,

11. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,

12. 1. Marriage was invented by God
1. Marriage was invented by God. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
2. Marriage was always intended to be an unbreakable union for life But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,

13. Notice-no provision for polygamy
Notice-no provision for polygamy! It isn’t Adam and Eve and Sally and Alice. And there is no provision for divorce because there are not a few single women hanging around as options or alternatives- just one man and one woman. There are no spare parts. There are no spare people. They were created for each other and for no one else.
– John MacArthur

14. 3. Marriage is about becoming one person, not cohabitating as two
3. Marriage is about becoming one person, not cohabitating as two. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,
4. Marriage is God’s doing, so who are we to undo it? What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

15. When God stands as witness to the covenant promises of a marriage it becomes more than a merely human agreement. God is not a passive bystander at a wedding ceremony. In effect he says, I have seen this, I confirm it and I record it in heaven. And I bestow upon this covenant by My presence and My purpose the dignity of being an image of My own covenant with My wife, the church.
– John Piper
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,

16. And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter
And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

17. When the New Testament speaks of the church's glory, it is speaking of its dignity. By analogy, the husband is called to give himself to the purpose of establishing his wife in the fullness of dignity. When he uses his authority to destroy his wife's dignity, he becomes the direct antithesis of Christ. He mirrors not Christ but the Antichrist.
- R.C. Sproul
burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering,