God is Pro-Divorce

Ah! I'm making a statement. I'm sure people are going to go, What? First, I want to tell you about a friend of mine. Well, a long time. I went to school with him. Let's put it that way. Great school. His name was Larry. I won't give his last name just in case he ever comes across this. I don't want to offend him. But after I graduated high school, I didn't see Larry again for 18 years. And at that time, he was 36 years old. And at that time, he was pro-divorce. He had been married five times. By the time he was age 36. I had but a small conversation with him as he showed up by one of my job sites one time. And I asked him how it was going. He said, well, it could go a lot better. So then he told me about being married five times. And one actually lasted four years, he said, which was a long time for him. And one had actually his last one had lasted two and a half weeks. He said, I guess you could say it was an anomite. And I said two and a half weeks. I don't think I've known anyone who ever been married just two and a half weeks. He said, we spent two weeks in an alcohol binge. And then we got to know each other for about three days and we decided we weren't for each other. So I said, well, Larry, you've led an interesting life. He goes, yes, and I've always seen to be broke. And I could have said I understand why, but I did divorce. It was called the big D when I was younger and it was used to be whispered in the fifties and sixties. I remember my parents sitting in the back of their station wagon as they were talking about some friends of theirs. They was going to be divorced. It was something people were not very proud of and they didn't really boast about it back then. As a matter of fact, there's a country song. I met the father of the songwriter of this one time. He told me about it and one of the lines goes, I'm going through the big D and I don't mean Dallas. That was a true story about his son. There's an undisputable fact that in country music, being from Nashville, Tennessee, I do know a little something about it. Country music would be a fraction of itself without the reference to divorce or getting left by someone. It was Tammy Wynette that had the song way back called, The I-V-O-R-C-E. Becomes final today, she said, and she should know something about that. Her and George Jones, if you remember that name, George and her were married at a time or two. He had a song I just happened to hear this week on the radio called, The Grand Tour. If you've never heard the song, it's worth listening to. As he describes what it's like to go through a divorce and entering the house, finding everything is empty. So, I do remember a song someone wrote years ago. It never became a hit. And I've heard many references from it since then. And as he cries about, his wife and his best friend ran off together and he misses him. That kind of tells the story of sometime our world in divorce and country music. For those of you not in country music, you might know soap operas. They were very famous for the divorce and remarriage time and time again. As a matter of fact, there was an actress named Susan Lucci who was on for years on one of them. I don't know which one. Oh, because some people know.

Well, since you know so much about Mrs. Lucci, I read she was on for 18, 20 years or something like that. Maybe longer. But I read the reference that she was during her tenure on the show. She was married 11 times to eight different men, which kind of shows the divorce and remarriage. So why would I bring this up? Well, because I'd like you to go to a verse with me and Malachi, since we just went through there. David touched on it, the last book in the Old Testament. And God has something to say. Oh, can you hand me my other book Bible down there too, Mary? This is from the New King James version. Malachi 2 and verse 16. I'd like to read that. 2 and verse 16. Over that page says, Why did I put that up there then?

So he kind of even ties the violent part. Known people have gotten a divorce and there's been no violence, but one thing it has been pain. It's usually associated with pain.

I'd like to read in the new living translation the same verses here, except I'd like to go up to verse 15 first. I'd like you to think about this one because they put it in a little different way. Said, So guard your heart, remain loyal to the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel. To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty. Says the Lord of Heaven's armies. So guard your heart. Do not be unfaithful to your wife. You remember back then a time was that especially in Roman time the wife could never divorce a husband. It's only the husband who could divorce a wife. So why is my title God is pro-divorce? Because I want to make the statement here that God wants you to get a divorce. He wants you to get a divorce. Yes, God wants us to get a divorce from this world. He wants us to. He wants us to get separation. He wants us to separate. And He'd like you to proclaim your divorce today. He'd like you to make it official. He'd like you to proclaim it and announce it. Why? Because Jesus Christ did. He proclaimed it. His disciples had to also proclaim it and divorce themselves from the world. I can make that statement because I can go back to Revelation 18 verse 4. Many of you know it. Many of you know it. For He says, What? Come out of her, my people. As He's talking about the world and the influence that it has. And if you think it does not have influence on you, you only fool yourself. It's amazing how I've known people all my life. Various people who were married and some stayed in abusive relationships. Maybe it wasn't physical. Maybe it was mental. Emotional abuse. And they found it easier to stay. In a relationship that abused them to leave. What they felt comfortable in. And I've had to actually tell people to. It's better if you would separate and divorce. Because their relationship with God was falling apart. Because they were too much a part of the world and someone who lived in the world. Now God hates the world. He wants to see it. He didn't want it to happen. But he also had to get a divorce. He divorced Israel first. Then a divorce Judah. Because they were so unfaithful. They loved the world better than they loved Him. That is His message to us today. Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her. What? Sins. It's so easy to be pulled into sin. God knows it. The devil knows it. And most of us know it. And sometimes it takes a lot of willpower. To turn around and go the other way. As David was explaining about the minor prophets. Which I do endorse the book. It's one of the best books I've read on the minor prophets. What ticks God off because it relates it to your life today. Very worthwhile read. I've always kept that book around for a while. But. It says God hates divorce in Malachi. And I found it interesting because the Hebrew word for divorce in Malachi is garage. Garage. Garage. And it's interesting because garage means to cast out. To expel. To thrust out. Not just open the door, get out of here. No, it's more than that. It's like forcing someone out. It's a word that is very strong.

Be cast out. It's interesting that God actually uses those words in a little different way in the Greek. When he's talking about a lukewarm church. That he's going to thrust out or vomit out of his mouth. That's what this word. He hates it when this happens. But sometimes it's necessary. He had to. He had to divorce. From the two nations that he blessed and loved the most at that time. Now I find it interesting. That in the Greek. Because Christ actually talked about a bill of divorce. But the Greek word for divorce is apostation.

Apostation. And it means falling away. To separate. Comes from the root word meaning to desert. To depart. To refrain. And in fact the root word of this. We can relate to even as God talks about it. In a religious term. Apostasy. Apostasy. Just getting totally away from what the original intent was. A divorce takes you down a road that's so far from where you were. When you came together as husband and wife.

Where I heard my wife talking to someone last night. It's the first one I've. I don't know how many couples I've married. But this is the first one that's getting a divorce. That I married, I don't know how long ago. Seven years ago. Six, seven years ago. So in love. So in love. They just couldn't see anything else.

Anybody else. And yet. Now it's going to be gone. It's why God hates it. Because there's damage here. There's pain here. There's two families in the church that are going to be damaged. But it's what both these two people have chosen. It's not what God intended intended it to be one woman, one man forever. That's just the way it is. But in today's society, I just read a report from Barna or somewhere that it's now in the United States is 52% of all marriages end in divorce. Your first marriage.

And if you're going up to your second, it gets even worse. So why would I say that God is pro divorce? Then your understanding is we have to divorce the world. We can't be carried away with the world. It is so easy to get pulled in to this world. Whether it is the politics of this world. Whether it is society. Whether it's your friends. It's very hard. Whether it's your family. Maybe you are one of the few that follow God in your family. That have an understanding. God knows that if we stay a big part of the world, He will have just a little part of you.

And it's the way it is. Now, what am I saying? Oh, we can't have any friends. I have friends. Not in the church. We don't hang around all the time together. But I appreciate them as human beings. I appreciate them as neighbors. I appreciate them for being God made. But we have to be so careful because that's why God warns. I mean, that's what He's talking about Revelation 18. You all know that that's the end time. And the world has to pay a price. They're going to pay a price. And He says, don't get caught up in her sins or you're going to pay the price.

That's why it's so important that we can be friends, but we can't be married to people. Can't be married to our job so much that the job becomes more important than God. And for a lot of men, that's been a problem over the years that they've neglected their wives because they became married to their job. Others have been married to various things in this world, and I don't have to go through them since most of you know. Satan wants you to be married to anyone but Christ, anything but Jesus Christ.

And he's going to do everything in his power to entice you to make everything look so good, so great. So that you will take your eyes off of God. And it doesn't take much because once your eyes, like Bill talked about driving, you're in Florida. You can't take your eyes off what's going on in front of you, even for a little bit.

And we see it all the time down in Dade and Broward. The people take their eyes off because somebody I saw even yesterday as we were visiting somebody, a guy was driving down the road 85 miles an hour looking at his phone doing this right here.

He'll only do that so long. Got his eyes off what is most important. His life, other people's lives. But, brethren, this isn't about that. It's about you. And it's about me. Making sure that we are not too tied into the world. We have to live in it, but not be a part of it because it is so easy for that to happen. I'd like to go with the time I have left. I'd like to go to some scriptures to back up what I'm saying that God wants you to divorce. Divorce from the world. Go with me to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 6. I'll do 14 through 17 from the New King James Version. It says, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Who would that be? Hmm.

For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Because something seems okay, doesn't it? To people in the world. And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Satan? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I would dwell with them. No. You didn't say that, did you? I hear that quite often. Oh, God's going to dwell. No. He says He will actually dwell in them. He will become a part. He will actually give you a part of His Holy Spirit. I will dwell in them and walk among them. It means He's going to be hanging out. Where have you taken Him that He really didn't want to go? Where have you hung out that you think God was saying, Oh, please don't take me there. Maybe there are some friends. I've got a neighbor right beside me. I think you. He's from England. And I he's a good neighbor. He picks up our packages, does whatever. But he has a word that just has to come out at least three times in a sentence and starts with F. He's eighty something years old and he says it all the time. He uses it as an adverb, a noun, a verb, adative. Oh, yeah, adative is a give me. I probably even a pronoun or two, but he's a nice guy, but it's his way of life. So I can't spend a lot of time with him, even though he would like me to. And he knows I'm a pastor and anybody that comes to his house, he tells him, Oh, that's a pastor right over there. But he you know, at least he isn't using that with my name.

He hasn't yet that I know of.

So if he needed help or if he doesn't, he said, I'll be there to help him. I'll be there to alone in my drill. I gave him various things. You know, that's that's who we are. That's being Christlike. But I realize I can't let that too much of that rub off on me. Any of you have ever tarred put tar on a house or repaired something, no matter how well you try to do it, you think I'm going to do this. It gets on you. It gets on you and you're going where I didn't even and it's, you know, where where did that come? That's how the world can be. And we have to be careful of it so that we're not not only affected, but we're infected by it. And that's so very, very important. Now, let me finish this. The 17 come out from among them. Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and you and I will receive you. And I as I read this morning from from verse 18 in my sermon this morning, because I just love it so much because it said, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and my daughters. Nobody really wants their kids, their young kids hanging around somebody that curses all the time that lives in a moral life that's a drunk all the time that does drugs or various things. They don't want that. That's how God is with us. He doesn't want us that rubbing off on us to where we go. Well, you know, the guy's just got a few problems. Oh, God, you know how he is. John 17. We read it every year at Passover. John 17, John 17, verse 15 said, Christ is saying this is as he's praying here. I do not pray that you take them out of the world talking about his disciples actually talking about us also. He's not saying, OK, let's I'm going to move back to Tennessee. I've got we've got a hill or a mountain back there and I'm just going to build a cabinet and I am going to go see anybody. I'll just stay away from everybody. Then I can be perfect. Really. Then you probably got more problems than you ever dreamed of. He said, Take them out of the world, but you but that you should keep them from the evil one trying to assess you teach dance. I mean, you have people that you have you work with and you try and you help them. Hopefully you rub off on them more than they rub off on you. That's part of our job of being a Christian that are when we do rub. We don't get rubbed. We rub. OK, that's what Christ wants us to do. That's what that's what he says here. Then verse 16, They are not of the world just as I am not of the world sanctify set them apart by your truth because your word is truth. We know how to live. We just have to do it. We don't know. We just have to do it. We know when something's not good for us. Even food. We know what when food is not good for us. But boy, sometimes it just tastes so good, doesn't it? And we can take it too far. And. John, seven, John, fifteen, John, fifteen, verse eighteen. Said, If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Why? Because he sets the example. All we're doing is following his example. And hopefully we are because if we don't, the world's not going to have any problem with us. Like, ah, come on, Chuck! Yeah! You're just like us. You don't have to live by any rules. But we do, don't we?

Verse nineteen. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. You betcha. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you, or they hate your religion. They hate what you stand for. Because it's easier. Let's just go along. Let me go to 1 John 2. Most of you know this one. 1 John 2. Verse fifteen. Do not love the world or the things of the world.

Christ didn't, but he loved. He knew how to love people. Are there things in there? If anyone loves the world, the world, the love of the Father is not in him. What is this saying? Oh, we can't... No. What is it saying? If anyone loves the world, you might just put more. The love of the Father is not in him. If you're thinking more of the world than you do of God and what he's promised and what he's doing in you, for all is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God will abide forever. That's his promise, eternal life. And that's what he wants us to have. So, go to 1 Landscripure. You go with me to Matthew 13 because Christ knows how he just knew how to lay it out and tells him parable. Really cuts it down to what it truly means in Matthew 13 and verse 22.

He's talking about the seed, the parable, the sower and the seed and various things. But then he talks about us. We're like that seed. And every one of us in here, we can either be watered by God or watered by the world. And you know, if we're watered by the world, we're going to sprout. And we're going to become different than if we're watered by God.

Because we're going to sprout there too, aren't we? And we're going to sprout into something that he wants to see from us. So verse 22, Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word.

And the cares of this world, and boy, kids, there are a lot of them, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. That is what he wants. Just think about some of the richest men in the world. They become so rich. He's got a new wife, doesn't he? He chose a younger wife. He divorced his wife of his youth. Oh, well, the Bill Gates. I think he, you know, rid of his wife. I don't even know what Elon Musk has. He had so many children by so many women. It's not even... I don't know if anybody really knows how many and what he has. But they have everything in the world.

They are so rich, it would blow your mind. Just play with your calculator sometime and see what a billion dollars would do in your life. And then take if you have two or three hundred billion, because that's what they have.

One billion dollars. Most of you could not even spend it in your lifetime. So much money with the interest. We don't have that many church members. And then they would never work. And then we would have other problems because there's no time because those people don't work. So, yeah, there's a lot of things in this world that can pull us and affect us. So God wants us to live happily ever after. Eternally. Ever after with him, with his son. That's his goal. That's why he made man, why he made woman.

And why he loves children. Because he likes big families. But he knows what happens to a family when they're fragmented and torn apart. And he knows the easiest way for that to be done is for his people to be pulled away by the world.

And be affected and infected to the point that they say, God, I don't need you. And they, you and me, can end up divorcing God. It's all through this Bible. Stay grounded and come out of her, my people.