Matthew 5:17-32 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way father we we're gonna miss Bob we know that he warmed us with his smile and his mannerism his encouragement his sweetness the gentleness about his character and the way he ministered to us with the love of Jesus Christ in a very sincere and meaningful way we know also Lord that he's smiling bigger than ever right now we rejoice for him in the hope of heaven that he lived with and how he died so graciously and gracefully and went into your arms but Lord we're gonna miss him and his wife Judy and his family and his friends so many of us here we're gonna need the comfort that comes from your Holy Spirit to make it through we thank you also Lord that we have the sure foundation of the hope of heaven in Jesus name Amen would you turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 we were in chapter 4 and made it through a couple of verses of chapter 5 then last week we were outside in our expound exposed under the stars and I didn't want to bite up off too big of a chunk being outside it's sort of limited in visibility and the atmosphere to really understand and dig in so we finished the Beatitudes and the similitudes and we're in verse 17 of chapter 5 tonight it's a lengthy chapter there's a lot of meat in it we're in the middle of what we call the Sermon on the Mount that's what we're most familiar with I've told you a couple times that it's really a mountain of a sermon it's the sermon of the monarch and we're at a very important Junction tonight Jesus Christ by this time has gained lots of popularity he has multitudes we're told in verse 1 multitudes that are following him and those multitudes are impressed by what they have seen so far they have seen many miracles and they're drawn by the miracles this man is like none other they've ever heard or seen they know that and so it only makes sense that multitudes would follow him however no doubt among at least some of them there is a concern they really like this guy and he's very impressive but what does he say about the law of Moses what does he say about the scriptures that they were raised with what is his relationship to the prophets and the law and the reason that some would be worried about that or concerned to any degree is because in their law in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13 God says through Moses if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams it is called among you does a sign and a wonder examine him be careful Moses said and make sure that he's not leading you away from God examine what he says even if that sign or wonder comes to pass and you see a miracle make sure that he's not leading you away because the Lord your God is the one that you should worship so they would have questions what does he say about the law of Moses what does he say about the prophets especially because he is also garnered a reputation not only as a worker of miracles not only in their view as a spokesperson of God but he has been called the friend of tax collectors in sin they can already see by the reaction of some of the religious elite that they don't like this guy and he doesn't always say kind things about them either he's not really the friend of the religious elite he's the friend of tax collectors and sinners so there would be that question mark hanging in their minds as to what he says about what they love the Old Testament Scriptures with that in mind we begin in verse 17 do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets I did not come to destroy but to fulfill for assuredly I say to you and until heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven Jesus speaks about the law and the prophets that's his term don't think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets now that term law and the prophets is a synonym for the entirety of the Old Testament scripture it's a nickname for what we call the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi formerly the Jews divided up their scriptures into three sections what they call the Torah which is the law the neba eeeem which are the prophets and the third that kept you beam which are the writings the law the prophets and the writings but so often they would simply refer to the Old Testament they wouldn't call it the Old Testament because it's the Testament to them it's the Bible to them the Tanakh the Scriptures they would simply refer to it as the law and the prophets so jesus said I didn't come to destroy that if that question is in your minds put that to rest but rather I have come to fulfil now what does he mean by that well he could mean one of two things a he is the fulfillment of all the requirements of the Old Covenant the law of Moses the law that nobody could ever truly totally keep he could he was the only perfect one he came to fulfill he was bringing in a new covenant as predicted by the prophets in Jeremiah and at other places 31 33 etc or he could simply mean I'm the center of the Old Testament I'm the center of the scriptures I am the fulfillment because I am the theme I am what they were writing about I'm the one they were predicting do you recall when Jesus said to the Pharisees you searched the Scriptures because in them you think that you have eternal life but these are they which testify of me I'm the subject I'm the grand single subject of the scriptures that you say you search and that you say you love they were written about me in another place Jesus chided them because they claimed to be ones who loved Moses and kept the law of Moses he said if you believed Moses you would have believed me because Moses wrote about me and then you recall after the resurrection when Jesus was walking on that Emmaus Road with a couple of his disciples and it says beginning with Moses and all of the prophets the law and the prophets he expounded to them in all of the scripture the things concerning himself so he is the theme what an incredible statement to make I didn't come to destroy the law I'm the subject I'm the fulfillment I'm the one that was predicted there fulfilled in me for assuredly I say to you anytime Jesus says those words assuredly or if you use the old King Jimmy translation verily verily that's really more literal it's a main a main or amen amen verily verily most assuredly it's a statement of solemnity and gravity I say unto you most assuredly until heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled think about what that means first of all he mentions that the jot and the tittle you probably need to know that the jot is the English pronunciation the English transliteration of one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet called the Yoda and since we don't talk yard we wouldn't say that very well in American we just say JA it's the anglicized American Way of saying English way of saying yard it's the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet Aleph bet Aleph bet gimel dalet Ava Zhang het pet Yoda it's number 10 it's it's it's the Y sound it's the Y sound in Hebrew Yoda it's the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet it looks like a little apostrophe but then he says the tittle now the tittle is even smaller it's the little protrusion or hang off mark on a Hebrew letter some think it's the pronunciation marks underneath the Hebrew letters the little dots and the little dashes that tell you the difference between one pronunciation to another so understand the implications of what this means he's saying don't think that the law the scripture the Old Testament the writings of Moses and the prophets will pass away they won't they're eternal in fact the Bible is inspired down to the very smallest letter so if you're wondering well should I believe the Bible you know there's some of it I don't know if I can really trust just ask yourself do you love Jesus yeah I love Jesus but there's other parts of the behind row if I can trust that the Bible is inerrant well do you trust Jesus because the Jesus you love and serve is the one who himself said down to the smallest letter of the law and even the pronounciation marks it's all God's Word turn in your Bibles for just a moment to John chapter 10 you say well we've already covered John on Sunday mornings yeah but it when was the last time we were in Chapter ten was at it about a year ago so if you're with us on Sundays you probably aren't as familiar with it verse 32 jesus answered them many good works I have shown you from My Father for which of those works do you stone me the Jews answered him saying for a good work we do not stone you but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God jesus answered is there not written in your law I said you are gods if he called them gods to whom the Word of God came now watch this watch what's in parenthesis and the scripture cannot be what the scripture cannot be broken there is Jesus view of the Bible the Bible is reliable the scripture cannot be broken whatever God said whatever is written God is big enough to preserve now why is it that we say that the Bible is so impressive and Jesus here says not one jot not one tittle why is it that we as evangelical believers have such a high view of the scripture is it just because we want it and we we we need something as a crutch to hold on to know there's several objective reasons why reason number one because of accurate transmission of the Scriptures meaning years of copying and recopying Andry copying hundreds and thousands of years of that process has not marred the message of the Bible I'll give you example we have in existence today about five thousand seven hundred and fifty that's about right 5750 manuscripts of the New Testament in other words an abundance of manuscript evidence altogether about 24,000 fragments little tiny fragments and whole manuscripts but when it comes to manuscripts we have over 5,000 manuscripts so we're able to look at how things were copied over time and see if there's any differences between those copies not only that but in recent times recent being 1947 they made an incredible discovery in a place in Israel called Qumran and they're called the Dead Sea scrolls a little shepherd boy an Arab boy was throwing a rock up in a cave trying to chase his sheep out one day and he heard a pot crack and he went there and he found these old scrolls and took him to a professor in Bethlehem and they discovered that these things are ancient scrolls and and they were copies of the books of the Old Testament as well as some of the writings of that community in Qumran but here's what we had with the Dead Sea Scrolls suddenly we had a copy of the Old Testament a thousand years older than the oldest manuscript we had up to that time in existence the oldest manuscript we were working off of up to that point was from 900 AD now we have a document written in a hundred and fifty BC so a thousand years removed one copy from another copy now here's what's the most amazing thing about the Dead Sea Scrolls it's not what they found it's what they didn't find what they didn't find were mistakes as they compared for instance the scroll of Isaiah from 900 AD to the oldest one we now have 150 BC the Dead Sea Scrolls they found they were virtually identical a couple little differences in punctuation or spelling that's it and that is because when it came to copying the scriptures the scribes let me just tell you scribes began their training at age 14 and they weren't done until they were 40 it was a meticulous process the parchments were prepared the scribe would begin to write he had to space the letters just so he had have 37 letters per line and the spacing had to be exact so when it was all done there was a visual inspection letters were counted across letters were counted down they had to match the original exactly the center letter of each page had to match exactly if the spacing wasn't right if the center letter wasn't right they would tear it up destroy it and start all over again and that accounts for the reason a document a thousand years removed can be so accurate exactly the same so we have accurate transmission something else we have we have reliable history in the Bible the Bible isn't just a religious book it's a history book about real people real events now either it's true history or it's false history now there have been several people who have said well you can't really rely on the history of those guys one notable was William Ramsay a brilliant historian who for many years did his best to prove that Luke the Gentile doctor who gave us the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts was fraudulent and just not a good historian after years of research William Ramsay said I consider him one of the best if not the best historian in antiquity and some say he even converted we have reliable history years ago scholars used to say well you know you read in the New Testament about this thing in John chapter 5 the Pool of Bethesda they went down to the Pool of Bethesda and they go guess what there's no Pool of Bethesda we've looked all over Jerusalem not there and they published that and they laughed at it until one day they dug in a certain place over by the Antonia fortress and they found the Pool of Bethesda and it's enormous and if you come with us this spring I'll show it to you you'll walk in it they also said well you know you've got this guy named punches pilot who never existed in history there's no record of punches pilot in any of the Roman annals or history books that he ever existed is only in the Bible you can't trust the Bible it's not corroborated anywhere else then they started digging around the city of Caesarea by the sea and they found this huge inscription with the name punches pilatus or punches Pilate the governor of Judea I don't know if it was like his office badge or what but and if you go to says areia as you enter the city you see this huge inscription plate that is still standing there's something else you have you have a unified message think of it this way you've got 66 books written by about 40 authors over a period of about 1,600 years written on three different continents in three different languages by people with a variety of backgrounds some Shepherds some fishermen a Gentile doctor Jewish rabbi prime minister couple kings etc etc and they write about controversial subjects the destiny of man the existence of God the problem of evil and they all agree he zero it's not a big deal really try and experiment go home try it this weekend instead of 40 different people just get 10 people from your neighborhood nevertheless and don't mind different cultures and different languages just three attend people from your neighborhood same cultural background same language same continent same city and ask them to write a paragraph on just one controversial subject like what is the meaning of life I'll guarantee you you will have 10 different opinions or what if you were to take 25 medical books written over 1,600 years on three different continents and treat somebody who had a medical condition based upon the information you'd certainly kill that poor fella and finally what makes it so unique and why we tout it is because of prophecy you have written in the pages of the scripture events predicted hundreds sometimes thousands of years before they ever happened you have predicted 400 years of slavery and captivity by the Egyptians to Abraham it happened you have 70 years captivity of the Judean by the Babylonians happened you have in Isaiah chapter 45 a man by the name of Cyrus mentioned who will deliver the captive Jews Isaiah wrote that two centuries before Cyrus was born and yet his name is named in Scripture besides that you have messianic prophecies and that's I would that would take up the bulk of the night so anyway the scripture cannot be broken and Jesus said verse 18 not one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom so now you have God's opinion and anybody who would shirk the scripture and say no big deal that's God's opinion of you but whoever does and teaches them he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven let me ask you a question is there somebody in your life that you are influencing that you are mentoring that you are teaching that you are training to obey the scripture is there somebody that you are a catalyst of there hertzel growth are you teaching someone to keep the scripture that's not just something that certain people are gifted to do but we're all called in a sphere of influence to do and to teach them you say well I'm busy I'm uh I'm a businessman and and I'm a I'm a dad then you have a sphere of influence you have a family to lead it's a big task you say well I'm busy I'm a mom I've got a lot of kids that's her mission field trained those kids influence those kids if you are a business person owner of a business you have employees perhaps again you can influence and be a catalyst spiritually for the kingdom of heaven for I say to you verse 20 then unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven I can only imagine the reaction among the crowd when Jesus said verse 20 they're listening to him they love this guy he's this guy's a breath of fresh air and then he says oh by the way your righteousness has to be better higher greater than that of the scribes and the Pharisees and at that point their posture must have just sucked down like okay church is over I'll never make it you know there was a saying going around at that time that if only two people make it to heaven one will be a scribe and one will be a Pharisee they were the creme de la creme of a religious righteous person in the eyes of the average Jewish person so Jesus says your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees well that begs the question then how does anybody get to heaven if the righteousness that the scribes and the Pharisees have isn't enough what is enough now listen carefully those of you who think you have to be a good boy or a good girl to and earn your salvation in order to get to heaven well if I'm good enough and I'm sincere enough I'll get to heaven well think of the scribes and the Pharisees they gave their entire lives to understanding what it is to be good enough to get into heaven so if you say you get to heaven by being a good person you have to then ask what is a good person how good is good enough because even the good that the scribes and the pharisees were producing and pumping out in giving their lives to understand and practice the scripture wasn't enough to get them to heaven well we already know the answer to that the answer is back in verse 3 jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit and then after that blessed are those who mourn it's the person who realizes I'm not good enough I'm bankrupt I'm poor I can't get there by anything I can give to God it's what God would give to me and I recognize that before God I'm poverty-stricken and I'm broken up about that that's the morning part that's the repentance part that's how a person enters the kingdom now think about this take all of the different ways all of the different religions all of the various philosophies espoused in this world of how a person gets to heaven all the different religions you can boil everything down into two there's only two basic approaches to God two basic religions in all the world number one the religion of human achievement number two the religion of divine accomplishment either you do something in order to get to heaven or number two God does something for you that's grace the first is works the second is grace every other system except the one espoused by Jesus falls under that first category the religions of human achievement if I make a Hajj to Mecca if I go to church every Sunday or if I pray these set of prayers or if I go on a pilgrimage or if I do whatever it can be self maintained in your own mind there's only two only two one is a gift that's grace that's salvation that's divine accomplishment the other your work your work your work you work hard one is our work the other is his finished work poor in spirit those who mourn think of Paul the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee Paul did work really hard didn't he in fact he writes about his past he gives sort of his pedigree in the book of Philippians he said I was a Pharisee I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law I was perfect and then he said but what was gained unto me I have counted as rubbish that I might be listen to this be found in him not having my own righteousness which comes from the law but the righteousness which is of faith in Jesus Christ he traded the system of human achievement for the approach of divine accomplishment so that helps us when we read verse 20 unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven now beginning in verse 21 again I I I can plan to go through chapters five six and seven I can keep going trust me I'm like the ever-ready Bunny when it comes to this stuff but I'm looking at the time and so who knows we'll just play it by ear beginning in verse 21 we have a series of six statements that finishes up the chapter six statements their comparative statements you have heard that it was said but I say unto you you have heard in times of old but I say unto you where I tell you 6 of those 6 comparisons of truth they were raised with things they had heard things that were passed along to them versus what Jesus declares as being the truth now all that we read from verse 21 to the rest the end of the chapter are illustrations of verse 20 verse 20 is the principle the rest are illustrations and we have six illustrations you can't get to heaven on your own righteousness Jesus strips away self-righteousness and the illustrations begin in verse 21 first statement is concerning murder you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders I'll be in danger of judgment but I say to you whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whoever says to his brother raca shall be in danger of the counsel just when you thought well I've never said that before he says but whoever says you fool will be in danger of hellfire Jesus is referencing the sixth commandment you shall not murder in the list of Ten Commandments the second table of the law that deals with our relationships with other people and the second on that table of the law or the sixth in the Ten Commandments is you shall not murder however Jesus here shows us that obeying God's commandments is not just a matter of outward action but inward attitude you can say well I've never murdered anybody but I've known people who been so angry so bitter they carry around a pack of grudges all their lives and in their thoughts it's like I hate that person I could I wish that person were dead that's how angry a person can get so Jesus goes beyond the veneer of the outward action down to the very heart of the inward attitude and says whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment so one hand you have Jesus saying I agree with the commandment God said that but I disagree with your definition of murder you have defined murder is simply an action I define it as an attitude now the word raka verse 22 the word raka is an Aramaic term that refers to an imbecile an idiot it is an arrogant pronouncement that would insult the lack of intelligence of another person the word you fool is the greek word Matos we get the term from it it's having the the spite and the the despite in your heart toward another person that could if there weren't the laws to keep you from doing it caused you to take that life so murder begins in the heart that's the seed where it all starts so verse 23 therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there you remember your brother has something against you notice that it's not like well I got nothing against a man I'm cool with it it doesn't say if you have anything it's him if you know that he has something against you leave your gift there before the altar go your way first be reconciled to your brother then come and offer your gift agree with your adversary quickly while you were on the way with him lest your ad sorry delivery you to the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and you'd be thrown into prison assuredly I say to you you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny notice the correspondence between first go and then come don't just come don't just come before my throne just don't come before my altar and put your hands up and start worshipping first go reconcile and then come I remember as a kid in class they taught me that the shortest distance between two points is a what that's true but it's not always true spiritually sometimes the shortest distance between you and God isn't a direct approach it's going through another brother or sister to be reconciled to close the gap how would you feel if after church I'm in the parking lot getting in my car and I don't see you I pull out really fast and I hit you as you're walking in the parking lot you fall to the ground and I hear a boom thud and I get out and I survey the damage first of all I look at my car to see if there's a din in it and I see you lying there bleeding and I just go huh it's a shame and then I kneel down and I pray something like this Lord forgive me and Lord just bless leave guide and direct this person and provide all their needs in Jesus name Amen and then I turned and announced to you it's okay now and I speed off would it be okay not at all I got to get things right with the one I offended I ran over you so Jesus says you're coming to worship right there first go and be reconciled and then come and offer your gift agree with your adversary quickly while you were on the way with him how quickly is quickly I'd say pretty quickly in fact if you were to go by Paul's writing in Ephesians 4 he would give it a 24-hour period he said don't let the Sun go down on your wrath in other words clear your accounts with other people every day clearly accounts daily could be a phone call could be an email if you can't physically go to that person clear the accounts clear the decks do it quickly lest your adversary deliver you to the judge the judge hand you over to the officer and you be thrown into prison that it might escalate into a lawsuit etc assuredly I say to you you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny now that could be seen as as some have interpreted if you refuse to reconcile if you refuse to forgive if you refuse to deal with it what's gonna happen is you're gonna find yourself in a prison you're the one caught in that prison you're the one caught in that jail and you're the one that will be tormented and you won't get out until you pay in you and that payment sometimes is a lifetime that you've paid the very last penny or farthing so he deals with murder all illustrating again the principle in verse 20 the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees so he's stripping away self-righteousness it's not just about the outward action it's about the inward attitude now he covers adultery you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not commit adultery now adultery is the seventh commandment if the sixth commandment you shall not murder protects the sanctity of life than the seventh commandment thou shalt not commit adultery protects the sanctity of relationships marriage was the first relationship God established so to protect that the commandment was put order but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her already has committed adultery with her in his heart I bet there were a lot of fellas in the crowd that day shuffling their feet right about now like looking around mmmmmm what time is it a little bit long again it's not external its internal problem is always in the heart that's where it begins the heart is the soil for the seed of sin to germinate and to grow begins adultery always begins first with lust lust is generated typically for men visually by what we see we are stimulated visually David one night went out on his rooftop and because Jerusalem is on an incline he could see in a house nearby there was a beautiful young woman named Bathsheba who was bathing he couldn't help but noticing that that wasn't a sin for him to just notice to just get the glance it wasn't the glance that ruined him it was the gaze it's in the present participle whoever looks and keeps looking it's not like oh it's like whoa because the glance led to the gaze which led to the getting of Bathsheba which led to the fall the adultery which led to many other sins it begins in the heart it's the internal issue of the heart verse 29 if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell I never understood when I heard from people when they when I would witness to him and ask him about their relationship with God do you believe in Jesus here's one of the typical answers I got dude I just live by the Sermon on the Mount you do really like all of it and and when they I hear that I'm thinking this dude never read the Sermon on the Mount for him to say that he thinks the 10 commandments are stiff he never read these babies and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell we read this and we go man that is gross yep that's the intention of the words of Jesus he intended people to have that kind of a reaction to what he said it was done for the sake of shock because that is the reaction we should have to the sin that separates us from God shocking horrible but we do have to understand what Jesus means by this because some people have read this and they have taken drastic measures in their own physical body for instance one of the early church fathers Origen had himself castrated to deal with the lust that mounted up within him because based upon the verse that we just read now obviously this is figurative and I'm sure you believe that if you believe it's not figurative we expect to see physical changes in the near future so I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that it is figurative in Judaism the right hand the right of anything was considered the best not because right-handed people are better than left-handed people okay cuz I have a left-handed wife she's waist martyr than I am usually left-handed people are more deft and more adept and brighter typically but the right hand since most people are right-handed and that's the arm of strength and that's usually the the dominant area of the physique it was considered the very best so to say if your right hand or your right eye if anything in your life is causing you to sin even if it's precious to you you need to deal with it you need to cut it out of your life it could be things that you watch it could be places that you go it could be magazines that come in the mail it could be where you walk in the store certain behaviors you cut out of your life cut off from your life it could be a relationship I may be speaking to someone tonight who's having an emotional relationship with somebody I so it hasn't gotten into an affair there's no adultery yet and there no problem there but there's an attraction you're getting some kind of lift from being around that person emotionally oh they make me feel so good they they say nice things to me so you're drawn in you need to cut that relationship off all but it it's good if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off cast it from you because of the results if you don't and as Jesus said it's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell think back in your mind to a young man by the name of Joseph handsome young strong and mrs. Potiphar when Joseph was brought in as a slave to her house because she didn't have a great relationship with her husband was a lonely housewife she was a desperate housewife cast longing eyes at Joseph and made favorable remarks to him which I'm sure made Joseph feel really good and then one day she said just frankly just brazenly let's go to bed now I wonder if Joseph would have said well she's my boss's wife I do need to respect her I want to be a good witness I mean I just can't like walk away I'd be disrespectful and you know I'm representing God so I have to say something you know he did he ran the other direction I don't care what you think and just yeah literally he streaked in the other direction because she held his robe and he left his robe and just ran away better to lose your robe than to lose your character Joseph II he knew that walk the other direction furthermore verse 31 again all these are harkening back to the principle in verse 20 the righteousness aspect now he's speaking about divorce furthermore it has been said whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce but I say to you whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immoral causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery ideally formerly the Jews hated divorce their own scripture said God hates divorce so on paper the average Jewish person would have said the worst so not into divorce it's such a travesty against God and yet in Judaism 2,000 years ago women had no rights they were considered things to be owned there was also a problem scripture and I say it was a problem Scripture because it's a scripture with a little bit of information the only Scripture we have in the Old Testament that speaks about the actual divorce proceedings and that is Deuteronomy chapter 24 and let me just tell you what it says it opens up by saying when a man finds a wife and marries her but she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her and he gives her a certificate of divorce puts it in her hand and sends her out of the house and then goes on to say that later on if he after that gets married and then decides to leave that wife he can't go back to the first one there's there's that scripture Deuteronomy 24 well I say it's a problem because the rabbi's interpreted it differently some were very conservative in their interpretation some were very liberal in their interpretation one rabbi by the name of Rabbi Shammai II was very conservative he said a man finding uncleanness in his wife can only refer to sexual and cleanness she is immoral she has committed adultery if a man finds his wife as an adulteress well then that's the only cause for a divorce a different rabbi by the name of Rabbi Hillel widened out the definition for a man finding something unclean and his wife for example rabbi Hillel if in preparing her husband's food she puts too much spice in it she over salts the food technically that's an uncleanness that's grounds for divorce I kid you not if the woman goes out in public with her head uncovered that's uncleanness cause for divorce if she speaks to a man publicly that's not her husband divorce if she's a brawling woman divorce if that woman speaks ill of her husband's parents unclean this baby hit the road that was rabbi Hillel which do you think was the more popular interpretation among men hello that was the problem at the time of Jesus many of these people who were saying we keep the law they said we really like rabbi Hillel man that guy he's like really a godly guy okay let me make things a little bit worse there was another rabbi called rabbi Akiba rabbi Akiba even said if a man finds another woman that he finds more attractive than his wife that's uncleanness and his wife he can divorce his wife so you start seeing the problem that was going on 2,000 years ago among Judaism when Jesus was mentioning these things now there's a very key important thing to understand because jesus said whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery if you go back to verse 27 Jesus says you've heard it said those of old you shall not commit adultery so there were these guys lots of them thinking I have never committed adultery and she said well actually if you've looked longingly at a woman in your heart and you've played out what you'd want to do to her and she's not your wife you've already committed adultery in thought-form number one number two if you divorce your wife for any reason except for sexual immorality you are perpetuating adultery all over the place and because these men were freely divorcing their wives on a no-fault divorce you know we're just mutually incompatible and dumping their wives and getting other wives Jesus saying you don't understand do you you are spreading adultery all over the land and the only cause the scripture gives for divorce is pornea is the greek word it's a broad term sexual immorality any kind of illicit sexual intercourse so by now he's really got the crowd quieted down and thinking twice about I'm a good person man I work my way to God I'm a righteous dude when he said unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you won't make it and then he gives these examples now he speaks about what we say promises oaths that we give again you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not swear falsely but you shall perform oaths to the Lord but I say to you do not swear at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool nor by Jerusalem for it is the city of the Great King nor shall you swear by your head because you cannot make one hair white or black this is way before the days of modern hair dye let your yes be yes and your no no for whatever is more than these is from the evil one great stuff there but we're out of time always want to be faithful to time commitments always want to be faithful to the teachers that watch our kids we have a question though that has come and then we'll throw that up on the screen and closing it was texted in we thank you for that we love having questions that come by text or by email and then we like to discuss them or answer them and then we can talk about it once we dismiss it says the man could divorce the woman but could a woman divorce a man that's a excellent question it brings up the whole issue I was touching on that women were considered things women didn't divorce husbands husbands had sole rights over the wife and so unless it was under extreme conditions women were not allowed to divorce the husband only it was once it was a one-way street now here's just an interesting little tidbit on this for the first five hundred and twenty years of Roman history there is not a single recorded instance of a divorce among any of the Romans they esteemed marriage highly they esteemed the Covenant about 520 a half years after the Empire began and spread that's when we start reading of divorce and divorce proceedings and it got to be so rampant that some women were not only divorcing their husbands but it was said that some women would mark their years by the number of husbands they had and divorced and one roman writer named Seneca a historian said women marry to divorce and divorce to marry so among pagans divorce was rampant after history went on in the Roman Empire but among Jews it was considered so sacred that a woman could not divorce her husband but a husband could divorce his wife depending on how you interpret the uncleanness issue so anyway hope that answers the question we have more to say but we have to go so let's pray father we thank you that we sit here before you as recipients of unmerited favor grace we do not deserve the salvation you have given we do not deserve the care you lavish the promises you give but you give them our approach to you is not one of human accomplishment human achievement we trust in the already finished already accomplished work of Christ on our behalf and we're learning Lord we're learning how to relate to you we think of the words of David let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight Lord dua a work beyond just cleaning up the actions that we produce but the attitudes the anger the idea of revenge the words the lust you know our frame Lord that we are dust we take comfort in that we also take courage in the work of your Holy Spirit to be persistent to make us mature to grow us up more and more into the image of your son the Lord Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 8,683

Rating: 4.6335878 out of 5

Keywords: reliability of the Scriptures, righteousness, murder, adultery, divorce, grace, Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermon, Matthew, Calvary Church

Id: sRmhsBUjbNw

Length: 57min 28sec (3448 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018