Turn to the Gospel according to Mark as we continue to look at Mark's account of the life, death, and resurrection of our friend Jesus.
! As you're turning, I'm discovering that this lectern is too steep to put a stack of books on.
Okay.
Turn to chapter 10 beginning in verse 1. We'll read 12 verses together.
And he left there and went to the region of Judea 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?
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're no longer two, but one flesh.
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.
This is God's word to us, written for his glory and our good.
We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Let's pray together.
Father, we do thank you.
We praise you this morning for your written word to us.
It is by your word that we have the salvation of our souls.
Your spirit combined with your truth and changed our hearts.
And I pray this morning, Father, you will give me ability to speak with care and with clarity about the issue of marriage, remarriage, and divorce.
And that you help us all to apply it appropriately to our hearts.
And we pray this in the name of Christ.
Amen.
So we're moving through the gospel according to Mark, verse by verse, as is our custom here.
And we see now that he has now left this region that he's been working in.
And he's moving through and gone to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan.
We've entered now into kind of the second act, so to speak, of Mark's gospel.
He's moved from his primarily public Galilean ministry to now this journey on his way to Jerusalem where he's finishing off the disciples.
He's giving them the final teaching, the things they need to know to be devoted to him after he leaves.
And we've seen this series beginning in the second part of verse 8 where he heals a blind man at Bethsaida.
And he heals him in varying degrees, not because he didn't have the power to do it in one fell swoop.
But he's communicating, as Mark's recording it for us, that Jesus is the Lord of spiritual blindness.
And we see this to be the case with the disciples as they're coming to further dawning revelation of who it is that Jesus is.
We see Peter's confession in chapter 8 at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ.
And then Jesus teaches them about the cost of discipleship, the surety of the coming kingdom.
And we see the transfiguration, the necessity of faith, the excellence of service, the radical nature of discipleship,
which Kyle so poignantly taught on last week.
And then we come to this teaching on the nature of marriage.
They're now in a region called Perea.
Perea, Mark and Matthew both skip over Jesus' Judean ministry.
Luke records it for us, but Mark and Matthew skip right over the top of it.
And he's now moved south of the Sea of Galilee and out to the east to this area called Perea,
an area that was full of Jews.
So he's moved from a primarily Gentile region now to a primarily Jewish region.
And again, the crowds are gathering to him.
And as was his custom, praise God, Jesus is teaching them once again.
And here we find again in verse 2, the Pharisees.
In order to test him, they ask him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
This was the job of the Pharisees.
This is what they were all about as they surrounded Jesus, following him around, lurking around every corner,
hiding behind every bush, looking for a way for him to slip up as he was a man coming,
declaring to be the Christ, declaring to be the Son of God.
They wanted to do away with this understanding.
And so they ask him a question.
Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
And we must ask at this point, why would that have been a test?
Why would they have asked this question in order to test him?
If you remember back in chapter 3 of Mark, verse 6,
we immediately see the Pharisees going out and holding counsel with the Herodians against him,
how to destroy him.
And if you recall in John chapter 6, we see John the Baptist arrested by Herod.
So you see them holding counsel with the Herodians,
and then we see John the Baptist being taken prisoner by Herod.
Why?
The reason being, this group of Herodians were loyal to Herod the Great,
which was the father of Herod Antipas, which is the one who arrested John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist was telling Herod Antipas that it was not okay
for him to have left his wife and taken his brother's wife.
This was the circumstance, the situation that was going on.
The woman he married's name was Herodias.
She was the one that demanded John's head on a platter.
So remember that John the Baptist had been arrested and beheaded
for speaking against the situation that occurred with Herod.
And so they're trying to trick him into the same thing, this large Jewish population.
They're trying to get him to be also against what Herod had done
in order for him to be arrested and therefore put to death.
So this is a major loaded question.
For us, we just read it.
This was loaded when they asked the question.
But Jesus does not back down from the challenge.
But rather, he responds with a very bold proclamation about divorce and remarriage.
I hope you were wrapping your mind around it as we read it together.
He begins by asking them a question.
What did Moses command you?
And they said Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce
and to send her away, verses 3 and 4.
Now, it's important for us to understand what was going on culturally
around the issue of divorce and remarriage at the time.
The reigning opinion in the matter was given by a rabbi named Hillel.
And it was common in this day that rabbinic traditions,
rabbis that would interpret the scriptures,
make doctrinal statements about them, and people would follow those things.
In fact, to the degree that they no longer study the scriptures,
but they simply studied the teachings of the rabbi.
And Rabbi Hillel, having died 20 years previous,
this was his prevailing understanding about divorce.
And he had said,
For any reason, unload that woman.
That was his phrase concerning the matter.
And in this day, the religious understanding was that you could divorce a woman for any reason.
Any offense given to you.
Dinner's on the table a little bit too late.
She spoke out of turn.
Any reason that you found her unsatisfactory,
you were able to divorce her.
So this is the common thing that's happening in this day.
Now, we get some Old Testament reference.
And it's very important that we understand what is Jesus talking about
when he asks the question,
What did Moses command you?
And they respond,
Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce
and to send her away.
And Jesus says to them,
Verse 5,
Because of your hardness of heart,
he wrote you this command.
We have to get our minds around us.
We have to understand what's going on here.
And the first thing I want to point out to you
is that when Jesus says,
What did Moses command you?
And then in verse 5,
Because of your hardness of heart,
he wrote you this commandment.
That both the verb and the noun that he uses there,
the verb in the Greek for command
and the verb in the Greek for commandment
are much softer words than we would take them to be.
Command is a definite command.
You do the thing that you're commanded to do.
Many of you on this side saw me command Cademan
to sit still during Aletheia Way,
and he did it, right?
That's a command.
It's a softer form of that verb.
And we get a little bit of insight into that
in the same account,
the parallel account in Matthew,
chapter 19,
second half of verse 6 through 8.
Jesus says,
What therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate.
Verse 7,
They, being the Pharisees,
said to him,
Why then did Moses command
one to give a certificate of divorce
and to send her away?
And listen to Jesus' response.
Verse 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.
So you see the difference there.
Moses didn't, in fact,
command it,
but rather he just allowed it to happen,
and he put some parameters
on the result of divorce.
So let's go.
I want you all to turn
in your copy of God's Word
to Deuteronomy, chapter 24.
Now remember in this day,
as it is in our day,
it was proper,
and it was common
to quote from the Old Testament
in a loose manner.
We do that all the time.
We talk all the time to each other
about biblical truths,
and we don't directly quote.
We'll say the scriptures say
in Ephesians,
and we'll make a loose quotation
of something.
This is okay,
provided that we can firmly back it
with the actual recorded Word of God.
They were doing this as well
in this day,
and when we see New Testament,
loose quotations,
citations of Old Testament,
we can also take those
as the inspired Word of God as well.
So often,
we get some clarity on things
when we look at the New Testament
as it compares to the Old Testament.
Sometimes,
the reverse is true.
We go to the Old Testament
to get greater clarity
about what they were talking about.
That's the case here.
Deuteronomy 24,
verses 1 through 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 the house,
and she departs out of his house,
and if she goes and becomes another man's wife,
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.
Okay?
So follow the logic through there.
If you couldn't stick with it,
that's okay.
It took me a couple of times as well.
If a man gets married,
and he finds for any reason,
this was Hillel's understanding of this,
for any reason,
some indecency,
some reason he no longer wanted her to be his wife,
and gives her a certificate of divorce,
and she goes off
and is married to another man,
and then that man does the same thing,
also finds some indecency in her
and gives her a certificate of divorce,
or he dies,
the only thing,
the only thing
that Moses is forbidding here
is for the first man
to take her again for his wife.
It's the only thing
that he's forbidding in this case.
And what he's doing here
is he's saying,
you can't on a whim divorce your wife
and then change your mind
and go back and remarry her.
Right?
She goes off.
She's married to another man.
There's another one flesh union happening there.
He can't go reclaim her for his own.
So back in our text today,
Mark chapter 10,
Jesus clarifies this whole situation.
Jesus is clarifying it for them.
I think they got it in their context.
We have to do a bit more work.
But beginning of verse 6,
he says,
but,
what did Moses command you?
They respond.
And he says,
but,
from the beginning,
he starts out with the very beginning
of the way God created things to be.
God made them male and female.
Therefore,
a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife.
Quoting there from Genesis 2.24,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two,
but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate.
Right?
Later on,
they're in a house,
the house.
The disciples asked him again
about this matter.
He says,
then whoever divorces his wife
and marries another
commits adultery against her.
And if she divorces her husband
and marries another,
she commits adultery.
A rather absolute statement
given by Jesus
concerning divorce and remarriage.
And if we stop at this point,
if we simply open Mark
and read this,
I don't think there's any wiggle room
in this.
Do you?
We just read this text.
I don't think that there is.
However,
there is a hermeneutic principle
that we let Scripture
interpret Scripture.
We look at the Bible
on the topic,
and there are some other texts
that certainly refer
to divorce and remarriage.
This has led to a spectrum
of views.
Not a couple of views,
but a spectrum
of views on this issue.
There are two widely held,
I'll call them conservative views,
views held by people
that we would respect
and that we align ourselves
with theologically
in other regards.
I'll give some detail
to these shortly,
but I'm going to call them
this morning,
number one,
the more permissive view,
and number two,
the more restrictive view.
Not to give any value
in the way I'm saying that,
but the more permissive view
and the more restrictive view,
these two commonly held views.
But before we get to those things,
I want to talk first
about some non-negotiables.
Things that both of these views
completely agree upon.
Things that if we're going to be
biblically faithful,
we must agree upon.
Five.
I'm sure there are more,
but five that I came up with
this week.
Number one,
God presided over the first marriage
and presides over every subsequent marriage.
End of Genesis chapter 2.
The first marriage happens.
Jesus quotes from it
in verses 7 and 8.
Genesis 2, 24.
What therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate.
We don't join ourselves together.
A priest or a pastor
does not join us together.
The state,
the federal government
doesn't join us together.
God joins us together.
And just as an aside,
let this bake your noodle.
God created marriage
before the fall.
Secondly,
God created marriage
to give us a shadow
of the blessed relationship
between Christ
and the church.
Right?
Creates marriage before the fall.
This is what it's created for.
This is the reason.
There are subservient reasons.
There are other reasons
that marriage exists.
But the primary reason,
the overarching reason,
this is the reason.
If we must put a reason,
God created marriage
to give us a shadow,
a glimpse
of what the relationship
between Christ
and the church
looks like.
What that kind of covenant,
committed love
looks like.
You can read more about this
in Ephesians 5,
22 through 33.
For the sake of time,
we won't go there today.
This is why, though,
marriage was created.
For these reasons,
thirdly,
God hates divorce.
Malachi 2, 16.
And this is in the ESV rendering of it.
Malachi 2, 16 says,
The man who does not love his wife
but divorces her,
says the Lord,
the God of Israel,
covers his garment with violence,
says the Lord of hosts.
So guard yourselves in your spirit
and do not be faithless.
Now, there's a lot of weight
to the way in which
we deal with our marriages
and the way in which
we deal with divorce
in Malachi 2, 16
in the ESV rendering.
However,
I think that they fell a bit short
in their rendering here.
If you read it from the NASB,
another translation
that I respect highly,
and most other translations,
it reads this way.
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.
Now, I think both
are true statements,
but I think the other,
the NASB rendering of it,
has much greater weight to it.
God says,
I hate divorce.
And this is why we do too.
Like, I know that everyone
in this room,
there's not a single person
in this room
or in my hearing
in some later recording of this
that hasn't in some way
been touched.
I have divorced.
Whether you've been part of one,
your parents have been divorced,
you know people
that have been divorced,
it's a rampant issue
in our culture today.
We have all been affected
by this,
and no one loves it.
No one celebrates it.
Right?
We don't rejoice
in the breaking of unions
in this way.
God hates divorce.
Number four.
These are non-negotiables,
remember.
The marriage covenant
is temporal.
That means it exists
in this realm.
That is that death
breaks that covenant
and gives a remaining spouse
the ability to remarry.
Right?
So, marriage is
a lifetime commitment.
When somebody dies,
you're freed from that commitment.
Romans 7, 2 and 3.
Paul writes,
For a married woman
is bound by law
to her husband
while he lives.
But if her husband dies,
she was released
from the law of marriage.
Accordingly,
she will be called
an adulteress
if she lives
with another man
while her husband
is alive.
But if her husband dies,
she is free
from that law.
And if she marries
another man,
she is not an adulteress.
So, death frees us
from the covenant
commitment to our spouses
and we are then
able to remarry.
Don't take this
as an endorsement
of murder.
Number five.
Divorce
and or
remarriage
after divorce
is not
an unpardonable
sin.
Whatever stance
you or I,
we take
on this issue,
whichever camp
we decide to align with
in this matter,
right?
So, whatever you deem
in your convictions
in your reading of Scripture
as sinful
in this,
whatever it may be,
it's not
an unpardonable
sin.
In fact,
the only unpardonable
sin is the sin
of unbelief.
The sin of grieving
the Spirit,
which is to say
that we don't
respond to the
convictions
that the Spirit
brings on us,
that we don't
repent of sin.
Both views hold
that if someone
is wrongly divorced
and or wrongly
remarried,
that these are
acts of sin.
Not perpetual sin,
they're an act
of sin.
You're not living
in that sin,
but you've committed
a sin,
as so many of us
have committed sins,
as so many wrongs
have been issued up
against our Lord.
And that is that
they should be confessed
from the past
and should be avoided
in the future.
So, divorce and or
remarriage after divorce
is not an unpardonable
sin.
It does not separate
you from the love
of God in Christ.
Okay.
A few details
about the two views
to get your
theological minds
primed.
Firstly, a few details
about the more
permissive view.
The more permissive view
would say that divorce
is permitted
under three circumstances.
And you get into
some of the spectrum
of different
understandings here,
but I'm going to
present it to you
in this way.
Under three circumstances,
when a spouse
deserts the relationship,
when a spouse
commits adultery,
or when a spouse
is dangerously abusive.
They also believe
that remarriage
is permitted
to the non-offending
spouse
when divorce
has occurred
for the
aforementioned reasons.
So, the non-offending
spouse, the one
who didn't sin
in the severing
of the covenant
relationship,
they are then
free to remarry
in that case.
Secondly,
that was brief,
wasn't it?
The more restrictive
view would say
the divorce
is only permitted
when a believer
is married
to an unbelieving
spouse
who demands
a divorce.
Paul says
in 1 Corinthians,
for the sake of peace,
you grant it to him.
An unbelieving spouse,
being a person
who's not under
church discipline,
demands a divorce
and you grant it
to him.
And remarriage
is not permitted
under any circumstance
provided
that the spouse
is still alive.
Now, remember
that these things
are simply
an act
of sin.
It's not really
a super clear-cut
simple issue.
I have a typo
in my notes
that says
this isn't a clear-cut
smile issue.
It's not that either.
It's a rather
complex issue.
And it's an issue
that can't really
be weighed in a vacuum.
And it's so easy.
Some things in the scriptures
are so easy.
Some theological wrestling,
you can stand
way back
from any real circumstance,
any real consequence,
and you can muse
about it
and you can wonder
what did God mean
by this?
But this isn't that way.
It means things
for our living.
It means things
for the life
of our church.
It's a challenging one.
In addition to that,
it's a widely contested one.
The more permissive view
is held by modern pastors
and scholars
like John MacArthur
and Andreas Kostenberger.
You don't have to know
who that is.
It's the most widely held
evangelical view,
which is not necessarily
a reason to believe it.
It's historically held
by Protestants
like John Murray.
And in fact,
the Westminster Confession
of 1647 reads,
in case of adultery
after marriage,
it is lawful
for the innocent party
to sue out a divorce
and after the divorce
to marry another
as if the offending party
were dead.
The more restrictive view
is held by modern pastors
and scholars
like Votie Bauckham
and John Piper.
Historically,
the Baptists of England,
when they adopted
the Westminster Confession,
omitted the previously
read paragraph.
They just took it out
altogether in the
Second London Confession
of 1689.
So,
you've got,
this is just some examples
of opinions,
respected,
scholarly opinions,
on both sides
of this coin.
All of this
should cause us
to pause.
It should really cause us
to weigh these things out,
to give attention.
Some theological stances
you can just dismiss
altogether from the source
that it's coming from,
right?
You know,
that guy's crazy.
Don't listen to anything
he has to say.
But these are respected men
that are holding
varying opinions,
not only now,
but through history.
I have been vexed
by this issue
for the last
three or four weeks.
In fact,
I've spent a good deal
of my time
on this issue
over the past
three or four weeks.
I brought up here
the things I was complaining
about not stacking.
Just some of the books
that I've been reading
on the matter.
This doesn't include
the online resources
that I've been looking at,
trying to gather
and glean and listen.
Many of you in this room
I've had conversations with.
We've been talking at length
about what this means
and what the truth
could be.
I came to a great deal
of conviction
in the matter
because I have given
advice
concerning,
counsel concerning
divorce and remarriage
without first carefully
consulting the scriptures.
I realized
that whether,
whatever view
may be right
that I had just
wholeheartedly swallowed
the more widely accepted view
and had never really,
really searched the scriptures
myself on the issue.
What a great deal
of conviction
that brought for me
as a pastor.
It's possible,
it's possible
that I've been
partied to sin,
that I've actually
encouraged it
in some ways.
If not,
if not,
if I was right
in the counsel
that I gave,
the conviction
is still there
that I didn't really
give it from a biblical stance.
I hadn't planted
my foot firmly
firmly on the word
of God
as I gave
that counsel.
Much repentance
was necessary for me
on that part.
It's been a bit
of crisis of faith
for me
to be totally honest
with you.
It's caused me
to really look
at the word of God
on the matter
and wrestle with it.
To say,
if this is God's word,
am I willing
to submit to it
no matter what
it requires
of me?
No matter what
uncomfortable situation,
no matter what
apologies I may
have to issue,
no matter what
it says,
am I willing
to submit myself
to it?
Am I going
to put myself
under it,
be governed by it,
or put myself
over it to judge it
and to make my own
calls based on
the circumstances
in my life
and those
in the lives
of people
around me?
No.
No,
of course not.
Of course not.
This is the very
word of God
to us
and it's not ours
to piecemeal
and treat the way
we would like to.
God has spoken
to us
and we must
submit ourselves
to it
whatever
it may say.
I'm very thankful
this past couple
of weeks
for our
general habit
of verse-by-verse
exposition
because I've got
to tell you,
the temptation
for me would
have been
to skip over
chapter 10.
I just would
have gotten
really far away
from the teaching
on divorce.
We'd have just
gone,
yeah,
chapter 10,
it's a great
chapter.
We're going
to start off
in chapter 11
now just to
distance myself
from having to
wrestle
the issues
and the
outcome,
the outworkings
of such
issues.
I'm thankful
for it.
I thank you
that you put
up with slow,
careful,
verse-by-verse
exposition
for that
very reason.
So what
opinion
did I arrive
at?
I haven't.
I know you
probably would
like for me
to have arrived
at opinion,
but I haven't.
I haven't set
my feet firmly.
We can talk
later if you'd
like I'm leaning,
but I haven't
yet.
I'm still
working it
through.
I'm still
trying to
carefully search,
prayerfully consider
what it is the
Word of God
has to say to
us about
marriage,
divorce,
and remarriage.
But here's a
realization that I
came to
together.
It would be
arrogant of me.
It would be
an improper
abuse of my
position if I
stood up here
and told you
what I believed
and then expected
that you all
would believe
it too.
This is not
the way our
church is
governed.
I certainly
am entitled
to my opinion
and my
convictions.
There are many
cases in the
scripture I'm
going to tell
you what I
think it
means,
but often
those things
don't have
real implication.
They don't
work out in
any practical
way in our
living together.
Romans chapter
11, the very
end is an
example of that.
What does it
mean by all
Israel will be
saved?
I presented
to you a
bunch of
options.
I told you
this is what
I think it
means,
but the general
point of the
text is that
we shouldn't
be haughty
towards the
Jews.
Right?
Acceptable in
this case.
I don't think
I have the
power, though,
to say this
is what our
church will
believe on
this particular
issue.
Let me read
to you from
our statement
of faith the
current statement
on the
family.
I'm going to
give you five
reasons why I
think we need
to make a
doctrinal stance
concerning divorce
and remarriage
as a church
together.
Let me read
to you first
what I
think needs
to be amended
in our
statement of
faith to
bring some
more clarity
to the
issue for
our church.
It says,
of the
family,
we believe
that marriage
is the
lifelong
uniting of
one man
and one
woman in
covenant
commitment,
that the
husband and
wife are
of equal
worth before
God,
being created
in the
image of
God,
and in
equal
measure,
dependest
on his
grace,
and that
the marriage
is God's
unique
revelation of
the union
between
Christ and
his church.
There's
some further
things about
the roles that
we play in
that relationship,
but that's
what it
currently says,
and it
leaves some
wondering.
It seems
actually to
be a fairly
restrictive
statement,
but are
there other
circumstances
in which
it's okay,
and how
do we deal
with remarriage?
It doesn't
say anything
about that.
Some people
may say that
this just
doesn't really
matter.
It's not
that important.
Let people
follow their
personal convictions,
but I say
to you that
it does
matter.
It matters
immensely.
How am I
to know
that's
true?
But on my
personal convictions,
what ceremony
should I perform
and not perform?
Someday,
if we have
leadership and
multiple pastors
and one holds
one view and
another holds
another view,
isn't that
going to be
horribly confusing
for someone who
comes and asks
the question,
I've been
divorced,
can I be
remarried?
Shouldn't we
have the same
answer to
that question?
I think we
should.
So let me
give you five
reasons that
I'm going to
lead us to
make a doctrinal
stance concerning
divorce and
remarriage.
Number one,
our church
believes in
a congregational
church polity.
That means
governance,
that the final
say in
matters of
doctrine and
in matters of
discipline belong
to the church,
not to elected
officials of any
sort, but to
the congregation.
It's one example,
Galatians 1.8,
Paul says to
them,
but even if we,
the apostles,
or an angel from
heaven,
should preach to
you a gospel
contrary to
the one we
preached to
you, let him
be accursed,
or cast out,
or separated
away.
Paul's saying
to the church
at Galatia,
hold everyone
accountable.
The apostles,
angels,
and anyone else,
hold them
accountable to
the truth of
God.
Secondly,
these matters
have bearing
on how we
function together
as a faith
family.
What will
permit,
what we
won't permit.
I mentioned
before,
how strange
would it be
if the
leadership
had varying
views on
something.
If one
person says
you need to
confess a sin
and the other
person says
it's not sin
at all.
How horrible
and confusing
that matter
would be.
Thirdly,
we must
contend for
the truth
in this
generation
concerning
marriage.
We must.
As the
people of
God,
we should
be set
apart
concerning
marriage.
There's a
lot of
statistics
running around
out there
and statistics
get skewed
in all kinds
of ways.
For many,
many,
many years
people have
said that
the statistics
outside of
the church
for marriage,
half of
marriages end
in divorce
and those
within the
church,
half end
in divorce.
They're the
same.
Some more
recent studies
have come out
and said,
no,
that's not
the case.
Actually,
people within
the church
are more
successful in
their marriages
but it's
still like
30%.
It's still
a dramatic
rate in
which people
are getting
married.
Whichever
one of those
shows that
we're not
setting
ourselves
apart
from the
culture.
We haven't
separated
ourselves
and fought
for marriage
and what
it's for.
If we have
a right
understanding
of it,
marriage is
not primarily
about our
happiness.
Marriage is
about the
glory of
God.
So whatever
the truth
may be,
we have to
contend for
it.
We have to
set down
firm lines
and stand
on those
things,
not let the
culture
influence
who we are.
We can't
let the
culture at
large define
truth for
us.
We must
let God's
word do
that.
Fourthly,
working together
through a
process to
make a
doctrinal
statement,
as I said,
I'm going to
suggest that we
just make a
change to the
statement of
faith.
We could
write a
paper.
There's many
ways we
could accomplish
this.
But to
form this
kind of
doctrinal
statement is
going to
be a
test,
I think,
a really
healthy
test of
our love
for the
truth.
Do we
love the
truth?
Do we
want to
walk in
the truth
regardless of
what it
says or
what it
means for
our living?
Are we
subservient to
the truth?
Let me read
from you again
from our
statement of
faith on
the scriptures.
We believe
that the
holy
bible was
written by
men divinely
inspired and
is a
perfect
treasure of
heavenly
instruction.
That it
has God
for its
author,
salvation
for its
end,
and truth
without any
mixture of
error for
its matter.
that it
reveals the
principles
by which
God will
judge us
and therefore
is and
shall remain
to the end
of the
world the
true center
of Christian
union and
the supreme
standard by
which all
human conduct,
creeds,
and opinions
should be
tried.
What a lofty
statement about
what we believe
about the
scriptures and
this will be a
test of that.
John 17
7,
Jesus is
saying a
high priestly
prayer and
he's laying
out his
hopes for
his apostles
and therefore
for us,
he says to
God,
sanctify them
in the
truth.
Your word
is truth.
Are we
going to
arrange our
lives by
common
philosophy,
by our
own
circumstance,
or on
revelation?
It will be
a test of
our love
for the
truth.
Fifthly,
it will be
a test of
our love
for one
another.
a test of
our love
for one
another.
If you're
a member,
and I know
that many
of you
right now
in this
room are
not,
but if
you're
a member,
you did
not
commit
to this
church
as a set
of programs
and presentations.
At least I
hope you
didn't.
I hope we
made it
very clear
to you
that that's
not what
you should
be
committing
to,
but rather
you committed
to a group
of people,
a group
of people
who love
Christ and
want to
pursue
the truth,
a group
of people
that you
can pursue
the truth
with,
even when
we don't
get it
exactly right
sometimes.
You want
to walk
through those
things together.
Doctrine
is not
something given
to us
that we
can hurl
at each
other
carelessly,
not giving
any respect
to situation
and what
people have
walked through.
We don't
use doctrine
to beat
each other
over the
head with
it,
but on
the other
side,
there's so
many churches
this day
that just
go along
to get
along,
right?
Peace at
any cost,
and they
dismiss truth
altogether,
right?
So there's
this false
sense of
unity in
the church
which typically
has to do
with a piece
of property,
the building,
and what
they've accomplished
together that
they can
physically see
and touch.
Shame on
them and
shame on
us if
that's what
we do.
A wise
man once
said to me
that there's
a great deal
of difference
between
compliance
and commitment.
I'm just
kidding,
dad.
My dad
said that.
I mean,
he's a
wise man.
Sometimes
I don't
think about
what I'm
going to
say before
I say
it,
and it
comes out
all wrong.
That's
right.
That's
exactly
right.
I often
plagiarize
my dad
unknowingly.
He says
things to
me a lot
that I
end up
repeating.
I knew
this one
that time.
Anyway,
a wise
man,
my father,
said to
me,
there's a
big difference
between
just
compliance
and
commitment.
Just going
along with
things,
right?
Taking a
look at
reports that
we give
and budgets
that we
vote on
and just
going along
because it's
easier to
go along
than to
raise your
hand and
ask a
question,
right?
It's easier
to go
along and
not search
the scriptures
yourself.
Beloved,
as members of
this church,
you have
doctrinal
responsibility.
You have
responsibility to
hold me
accountable to
the truth.
If I get up
here and say
something and I
err in some
way,
it's your
job to
tell me that
I erred,
right?
Not to be
arrogant,
not to say
you figured
something out
ahead of me
and I'm
the pastor
and you're
so smart
sitting in
the pew,
right?
But so that
we can
preserve truth
together,
we can walk
together in it
because it's
best for
all of us
when we do
this.
1 Corinthians
13.
2,
Paul says
if I have
prophetic powers
and understand
all mysteries
and all
knowledge and
if I have
all faith so
as to remove
mountains,
he's setting
up this
hypothetical
scenario,
right?
I'm the most
brilliant person
ever.
I can discern
from right and
wrong with
flawless ability.
I can move
mountains with
my face,
but have
not love.
I'm nothing.
I am
nothing.
Ephesians
chapter 4,
Paul writes
again to us,
verses 11
through 16.
And he gave
the apostles,
the prophets,
the evangelists,
the shepherds
and teachers
jobs given
to the church
to equip
the saints
for the work
of ministry,
for building
up the body
of Christ
until we all
attain to the
unity of the
faith and of
the knowledge
of the Son
of God
to mature
manhood
to the
measure of
the stature
of fullness
of Christ.
This is our
great goal
together,
so that we
may no longer
be children
tossed to
and fro
by the waves
and carried
about by
every wind
of doctrine,
by human
cunning,
by craftiness
in deceitful
schemes.
Rather,
speaking the
truth
in love,
we are to
grow up in
every way
into him
who is the
head,
into Christ,
from whom
the whole
body,
joined and
held together
by every
joint with
which it
is equipped,
when each
part is
working properly,
makes the
body grow
so that it
builds itself
up in
love.
And what I
want you to
take away
from that
is that
we have
the capacity
to walk
in truth
together.
We've been
given the
scriptures,
we've been
given the
spirit of
God,
and we've
beheld
Christ.
We're being
built together
into his
body.
So working
through a
process like
this is
going to be
a great
test of
our love
for one
another.
I hope
that encourages
you to
work on
this process,
to be
involved in
this process,
to begin
wrestling with
these doctrinal
issues.
So how
will we go
about all
this?
I'm going
to form a
committee made
of the elders
of the church
and a few
other members
of our
congregation
just to
broaden the
scopes and
perspectives on
things.
And we're
going to
work really,
really hard
to present
to you a
paper of
some sort
for your
review.
Let me
again encourage
you, you
should be
studying this
on your
own.
If you're
a member
of this
church, I
will be
sending out
an email
later in
this week.
I'll link
this sermon
to it for
those who
weren't here
this Sunday.
And I
will also
include some
links and
resources on
both sides
of the
doctrinal
debate.
You need to
begin working
through it
on your
own.
We'll
together as
a committee
will present
a paper to
you and
then we're
going to
meet to
discuss.
And we're
going to
meet to
discuss and
we're going to
meet to
keep on
working at
it and
keep on
working at
it, loving
one another
in the
truth until
we can
arrive at
I hope a
unanimous
decision,
maybe just
a consensus
among us,
but this is
something I
think is
incredibly,
incredibly
important that
we wrestle
through
together.
This will
likely be a
lengthy process.
I think it's
going to take
us time,
but I think
that the
time and
the energy
invested in
it will be
ultimately
really healthy
for the
long-term
life of
this church
and ultimately
glorifying to
God.
Now in all
of this,
as I said
before,
we've all
been touched
by divorce,
remarriages,
some of those
exist in our
congregation.
Don't hear any
of this as
condemnation
towards you.
My sins are
as deep as
yours.
We have all
failed in so
many respects.
If we arrive
at a position
where you find
that you need
to repent,
just repent
and move
on.
Know that
you're accepted
in this
faith family,
that we
love you.
We want to
lead each
other in
truth.
This is one
thing.
There are so
many other
things we need
to be talking
about.
There's so
much other
sin we need
to be working
out in our
body together.
This is just
one part of a
greater process
of living
together as a
community of
faith.
We're going to
fail.
I am confident
that in our
discussions and
in the things
we do,
we're going
to get
prideful.
We're going
to have to
repent of
that.
We're just
going to get
mad at each
other.
I hope not,
but I bet it
happens.
Praise God
that for all
these things,
there's grace
upon grace
upon grace,
infinite grace
given to those
who are His.
We have been
redeemed in
Christ.
As such,
our natural
response should
want to be
obedience,
discipleship.
This is what
Mark's pressing
us to,
that we would
follow,
Jesus,
with all
that we
are.
Let's pray
together.