Mark
10:1-12
Again our Lord is encamped by multitudes of people
seeking to see what miracles He would perform next as He left Capernaum and
entered the region of Judea. Now as it is in every case when He begins to teach
the crowds, along comes some Scribes, Sadducees, or Pharisees with the intent
of finding fault with Him and discrediting His Words. This time He happened to
be questioned by some Pharisees about divorce. Be assured that these men did
not want to be taught truth, but they wanted Him to put His stamp of approval
on their being able to divorce their wives for any reason they deemed fit, so
they would be free to marry someone more desirable to them and so as to have
our Lord ease their conscience in this matter.
Jeremiah
3:1 “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes
another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly
polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,”
says the LORD. NKJV
These Pharisees knew what God’s Law said and meant
in regards to marriage, but they wanted Christ to affirm Moses written permission
for a man to divorce his wife as the will of God but the Lord said, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this
precept.” Our Lord wanted them to know that divorce is not the will of
God and it never will be. However, our Lord would never want some woman to stay
with a man that beats her or the man stay with a woman that is violent with
him. The writer John Mark does not record as the other gospel writers Matthew
and Luke did that He said divorce is permitted for either the husband or the
wife having sex with another (adultery).
Malachi
2:14-16 Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant. But did He not make them
one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the
wife of his youth. “For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For
it covers one’s garment with violence, “Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take
heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.” NKJV
And from that point on now our Lord defines marriage
for them clearly as God the Father intended it as it was God the Father who
married the first man and woman Adam and Eve. It was for the very purpose of
faithfulness that our Lord created only one man and one woman and not many men
and women as He could have so easily done. This issue of marriage was and still
is a serious issue with our Lord. The single man and women created from the
beginning cast eternally what our Lord’s design was and still is in the first sacred
institution He originated, ordered, and ordained for humanity before He founded
the world.
Mark
10:6-9 “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no
longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man
separate.” NKJV
Our Lord went back to the detailed account of
creation from Genesis Chapter 2 and one of the gospel writers even said He
asked them had they not read this before. It has been ever since the fall that
man’s heart in every generation and era is stained with the same coating of sin
and it does not matter whether you live today of if you lived during the time
of these Pharisees or during the days of Noah. Clearly in verse 6 of Mark
Chapter 10 our Lord tells us that marriage is only to be between a man and a
woman. The loving, merciful, and compassionate Son of God does not ordain
same-sex relationships or marriage anywhere in His Holy Word. The people that
wear the label Christian who teach that God will accept homosexual marriage do
not do so under the authority and with the blessing of Jesus Christ and His
Word (see the article entitled “All who
Live in Sexual Immorality will Perish”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=150907
) .
1
Corinthians 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites” NKJV
The word our Lord uses in verse 7 of Mark Chapter 10
translated into English as cleave or join
is from the Greek word proskollao,
which literally means to glue together or weld together. This word demonstrates
the deep commitment it is designed to be between the man and woman. It also
shows how this union is a picture of the Church being our Lord’s bride as He is
the groom. Our Lord will never leave or forsake His true Church and works from
His throne of grace continually to purify those who He purchased with His own
blood washing His Church daily with the water of His Word making her ready for
Him. So is the seriousness of earthly marriage in His sight. It is never to be
defiled by human beings going outside the will of God to redefine marriage
against what our Lord has ordained it to be. The union between two born again believers’
man and woman bring glory to Him as they show forth His grace working in them
together.
Ephesians
5:22-33
The marriage relationship is the only human
relationship that our Lord says will result in the two becoming one and it is
just like our Lord is One with His bride the true Church and He is One with
every individual member of His true Church. The same Jesus that died on Calvary
was buried and rose from the dead by the power of God is the same Jesus that
wants to be the center of a marriage between His son and daughter to empower
them by His Spirit to live out daily that one flesh union before a lost world
that demeans marriage and treats it as optional and is working very hard to
redefine it to suit the pleasures of sin for a season. Every avenue of sexual
behavior that is outside of God’s original plan of marriage between one man and
one woman will never bring lasting satisfaction, sanity, or security because it
is outside of God’s creative order and out there dwells nothing good at all (I
know I lived out there for many years) (see the article entitled “Sex and its
Proper Use (Where must the Church stand?”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=78396
). The love of God the Father compelled Him to send His only Son to earth and
the Father bruised His Son for us sinful human beings. Likewise His love tells
us through His law (Word of God) that safety, soundness, and sweetness are
found only in being obedient to the creative order He has planned and no
manipulation, meddling, or maneuvering of that plan will shield us from the
built in judgment in His Divine and Defined order. God made male and female and
that is the only marriage He ordains.
Here is an excerpt from the book my Lord Jesus
Christ wrote through me for His glory entitled “Silent Assassins of the Soul”,
Chapter 2: How God Designed Us to Function Sexually: “In the beginning, God
created us man and woman and said to us “be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth.” God meant for us to have a fulfilling sexual life in the
divinely-ordained confines of marriage between a husband and a wife with Him as
a partner in the marriage. God provided marriage as the appropriate context for
sexual fulfillment and the oneness necessary for emotional satisfaction. Our
sexuality was designed to be exercised in the context of holiness and
faithfulness. In His Word God has given us thorough guidelines for how we are
to behave sexually. God has affirmed sex as a source of pleasure and shared
intimacy between the husband (man) and the wife (woman) primarily for the
procreation of the human race. The sexual union between husband and wife is at
all times pleasing to God, for it was His creative design from the beginning.
God created us in His image, which means that we are spiritual beings and only
clothed with this physical body for habitation upon the earth. When we read and
study the first and second chapters of Genesis carefully, we find that God
created man (humankind) as spiritual beings—as male and female spiritual
beings. Genesis 1:27 (KJV): “So God
created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him;
male and female He created them.” Here is what Holman Bible Dictionary says
about the gender difference: “Thus, genders are not a mere biological accident
or social construction. The contrast and complementarities between the man and
the woman reveal that gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation. Modern
efforts to redefine or redesign genders are directly contrary to the Bible’s
affirmation of maleness and femaleness as proper distinctions.””
“The condition “except for unchastity” is not a way
out that God provides, but is the grounds for divorce that He will recognize.”
John MacArthur
“The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside
marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of
union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which were intended to go
along with it and make up the total union.” C. S. Lewis
“God created marriage. No government subcommittee
envisioned it. No social organization developed it. Marriage was conceived and
born in the mind of God.” Max Lucado
“The Puritan ethic of marriage was first to look not
for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one
whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with
God’s help to do just that.” J. I. Packer
“If the ultimate meaning of marriage is to represent
the unbreakable covenant-love between Christ and His church (Eph. 5:22-33),
then no human being has a right to break a marriage covenant. When the
impossible day comes that Christ breaks His vow, “I am with you always, to the
end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), then, on that day, a human being may break his
marriage covenant.” John Piper
“When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled
with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations.
He called her Eva, that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her
wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the
glory and the most precious ornament of woman.” Martin Luther
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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