Sermon on the Mount Part 7

Well, brethren, we all put a lot of stock in our homes, don't we? If you think about it, for most of us, our home is our most valuable asset from a physical standpoint. Most of us have more money invested in our homes than any other single thing. If our home develops a cracked foundation, it can cost us thousands of dollars. Possibly, it could even cost us the house. Some foundations have been so bad that the house was condemned, and people have lost their homes. Because of a bad foundation. That's a scary thought, isn't it? To think that you could lose your home because the foundation was bad. But much more importantly, we want to be sure that our spiritual house is built on a firm foundation. That our spiritual house is built on our Savior Jesus Christ. That our house is built on the rock. So do you want to be sure that your spiritual house is not going to seriously waver and certainly not fall no matter how difficult the times become? We all know that the Bible prophesies some very difficult times to come upon the earth. It's called Jacob's Trouble. It will come upon Israel. It will affect the people of God, surely. So are you ready when that time comes? If it comes in your lifetime, are you ready for it? Well, brethren, it only makes good sense to study the teachings of the rock. Of our foundation, of our chief cornerstone, of the head of the church of God. It only makes sense to study the teachings of Jesus Christ. So it's important that we do read and we study Christ's teachings. But more importantly, we need to strive to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. So as Christians, we do need to take to heart Christ's words, His teachings throughout the Bible, and especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Because the Sermon on the Mount capsulates as much of what Christ really wants us to focus upon. It's such an important sermon. In fact, it's the most popular sermon ever given. And here we find instructions, we find words from the Word of God, from our foundation upon which we build our house. So today we're going to continue Christ's foundational teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Do you remember that? Do you remember we are in the middle of a series on the Sermon on the Mount? I hope you haven't forgotten. Do you know where we're at? Probably not. Today is actually the seventh installment, the seventh sermon, on this topic. So I'm not going to go back and reiterate everything we covered in the first six sermons because that would obviously take too long. But if you really want to go back, I mean, they're online, you can go back and listen to them to refresh your memory on the Sermon on the Mount. Today we're going to begin in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, verse 31. Matthew 5 and verse 31. In fact, we'll read verse 30 as kind of a transition verse. Matthew 5, verse 30. And if your right hand offends you, cut it off. Cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hellfire. So the point Christ was making, and we discussed this last time, is that from a figurative sense, we need to be willing to take some very drastic measures, take some drastic measures. God doesn't want us to pluck our eyes out. He doesn't want us to cut off our limbs. But from a spiritual perspective, He wants us to take very seriously our spiritual condition. He wants us to put away anything that would harm us spiritually. And sometimes we have to make drastic decisions. We have to stop doing certain things that we're doing because those things are hurting us spiritually. We have to be willing to do that. We have to be willing to make the hard decisions in life.

Now, Christ goes on to say in verse 31, And Moses talked about that because of the hardening of your hearts. This was being allowed, that there would be a divorce allowed because of the hardness of people's hearts and because of their bad conduct, because of sin that was involved in the marriage or outside the marriage. They were allowed to do some divorcing.

But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife except for the cause of fornication, fornaya, causing her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commits adultery. So this was a very important teaching of Jesus Christ. Now, we know that in the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. He did not create Adam and Steve. He created Adam and Eve for obvious reasons. Man and woman, they work together to have children.

That doesn't happen any other way. So the first couple was Adam and Eve. That's the way God ordained it. That's the way it ought to be. And so, from that very first marriage, because Adam and Eve were married in God's sight, there was a covenant that was made, a sacred covenant.

They were to be faithful to each other. And the Scripture says, they became one flesh. The two came together, they became one flesh. And what God has brought together, no man should put asunder, Christ says. And I think it's Matthew 19. He says, no man should put that asunder. So obviously, God wants and expects a married couple to stay together for life. To make a commitment, to stick to that commitment, to honor that commitment, that's ideally what God wants.

But, as I already mentioned, because of the hardness of people's hearts, because of the inability to treat each other in a godly and respectful and honorable way, divorce happens. And we know that. I mean, this world is filled with divorces. I guess close to 50% of all marriages end up in divorce. And a lot of people aren't even getting married. So I guess they're not part of the statistics, but they break up at an even greater rate.

People who live together and end up separating. So it really is a sad state of affairs, what we see in regard to the sacred covenant of marriage today. But, you know, we should be clear on what the Bible says. And we should understand what the Bible says about it. I mean, mistakes that have been made, oftentimes you can't do anything about that. You know, you can't necessarily go back and change it. It is what it is. You live with it.

You go on. But let's go to Malachi 2. And we'll begin in verse 10. We'll read a little bit about what God says, again, in regard to divorce and in regard to marriage. Malachi 2, verse 10. Have we not all one Father? Talking about our spiritual Father. We have one Father, we have God the Father. Have not one God created us? Of course, this is a reference to actually one God family.

Because we know that the Father and the Word, the Logos, the spokesmen, they work together in tandem to create. You know, God spoke, it existed, but the Father and the Word designed this. The one who became Christ was the agent who did the creating by the will of the Father. And again, they work together according to their plan.

And they created Adam and Eve, as I mentioned, for a purpose, for a reason. He says, why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? There was a covenant obviously made between Abraham and God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God, this was a covenant that they would be faithful to God, that He would be their God, and they would be His children.

And Jacob became Israel, and the children of Israel entered into that covenant. And they were supposed to be faithful to that covenant. Whatever you say we will do, remember that's what they said, but the problem was always with the people. It wasn't with God, and it wasn't with God's law. And so that covenant was broken. That covenant between God and the children of Israel was broken repeatedly by the children of Israel who broke God's commandments, who did not do exactly what God told them to do because there is weakness in the flesh, and we're all subject to that weakness.

We all fall short of the glory of God. We all sin. We all need forgiveness. We all need the blood of Christ applied on our behalf. Every last one of us needs that sacrifice counted on our behalf. But clearly, this isn't what God wanted. God wanted the children of Israel to keep that covenant, to be faithful. They were to be a model nation. Instead, they brought shame upon God and upon His name with the people of the land. They were ridiculed. Even God was ridiculed because of the children of Israel.

So we need to be careful that we don't bring reproach upon God ourselves in the way we live our lives. And the choices that we make and the decisions that we make, it's important that we are faithful to that covenant. That we've entered into with God. We all enter into a covenant at baptism.

And basically, we're saying whatever you tell us to do, we're going to do. Now, we will fall short, but that's where repentance comes in. And repentance is an ongoing process. It's something that we continually must do. God grants repentance, but we have to have the heart of repentance. God looks on the heart. God forgives us when we repent. If we don't repent, we're not forgiven. We have to have a repentant heart. God grants us repentance. And yes, we have to say, God, forgive me for what I've done. We have to learn to see our sins and repent of them. That's a part of the process.

So it goes on to say that Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. The house of Judah, just like the house of Israel, went into captivity first because of their sins. Then the house of Judah went into captivity because of their sins. For Judah has profaned the holiness of the Eternal, which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange God. The Eternal will cut off the man that does this, the Master and the Scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offers an offering unto the Eternal of Hosts. And this have you done again, covering the altar of the Eternal with tears, with weeping, and with crying out insomuch that he regards not the offering anymore, or receives it with good will at your hand, because the people were not sincere. The people were worshipping in vain. How be it in vain do you worship me? If you worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and not keeping my commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So God was not impressed with their weeping and with their worldly sorrow.

God isn't so concerned with our worldly sorrow. He's concerned about a true godly sorrow, a true repentance, which means a change in the way we live.

Verse 14, Yet you say, Wherefore, because the Eternal has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, yet is she your companion and the wife of your covenant? So again, this shows the importance of our marriages and the covenant that we enter into. That's why it's so important to not enter into a marriage covenant lightly.

The man and the woman need to do their due diligence. They need, first of all, to stay pure in their relationship so they can see clearly.

They should stay pure from a physical standpoint, ideally virgins, when they're married, on their wedding night. That's the way it is taught in the Bible. Virgins on their wedding night, two people, coming together as virgins, that's the way it's supposed to be done. And sadly, it's certainly not done like that in most cases today. It hasn't been for most of, well, basically all of human history. But that doesn't negate the fact that that's really what God wants, and that's what we should do. So, a lot of people get off on the wrong foot from the very beginning, don't they? They're not pure to begin with. It clouds their judgment in terms of who they marry and how they marry. So, my advice to any young people here is get yourself right with God first, and then find someone else who's on the right track, that's also putting God first in their life. Marry them, and hopefully it will last a lifetime. So, if we don't deal treacherously with the wife of our youth, then likely we're not going to deal treacherously with the wife of our old age either. That's also a point that's being made here. If you treat your wife properly as a young person, we men, then we're likely going to continue to treat them well, and we won't deal treacherously with them, and we will have marriages that last 40, 50, 60 years. And I'm happy to say that there are a lot of fine examples in God's Church of people who have lived a long time, married together, the same woman, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, faithful in their marriage covenant. And that's wonderful, and that's the kind of example that, frankly, we need. So, verse 15, And did not he make one, yet had he the residue of the spirit, the remnant, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed, godly offspring, therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Because, you see, if you treat the wife of your youth properly, then you're probably going to treat your kids properly. You're probably going to have children from the wife of your youth, and you're going to train them properly. And then, hopefully, they will follow suit, and a wonderful cycle will be set up, and marriage will be a wonderful thing for generations in that family. So, again, it shows clearly what God wanted, what he intended, what he would like to see. For the Eternal, verse 16, For the Eternal, the God of Israel, saith that he hates putting away. God hates divorce. He hates the putting away of one another. I mean, that's a shameful thing. You know, we claim to love each other, and yet we're willing to put them away. You know, let's call a spade a spade. And I'm not saying it's oftentimes, most always, there's problems on both sides. If there's a divorce, there may be rare cases where about 95% of it is one or the other. But in most cases, there's a greater percentage of fault on both sides.

So, God hates that. He hates divorce. So if we start out properly as children, as young adults, teenagers, who become young men and women, and we have God's guidance, and a lot of it is people don't have God's guidance, and so they follow the way of the world. And I know that's the case with many of us here. We didn't grow up in God's church. We didn't have proper instruction from day one. And we're a product of our society, and that's just the way it is. But that's a sad commentary, but that's the truth. That's the way it is. That's reality. So, He hates divorce for one covers violence with his garments. See, there's always violence in a divorce. I've never known of a happy divorce. There isn't any such thing as a happy divorce. Some are happier than others, but I've never known of one that was a really happy divorce. Both sides, really happy. It doesn't work that way, because there's always some kind of violence that goes on in a marriage that ends up in divorce. Sayeth the Lord of hosts, therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously. You know, that's true in all aspects of our life, not just marriage. We should all take this instruction that we should not deal treacherously in our relationships. Whether it's our brother, our sister, our cousin, our aunt, our uncle, mom and dad, you know, grandparents, people we work with. If we deal treacherously with people, then there will be consequences, right? It doesn't matter what kind of relationship we're talking about. God does not want us to deal treacherously. In other words, God wants us to follow His commands, treat one another with respect, learn to love each other, and reap the consequences of that kind of behavior. Because there are blessings for obedience, and there are curses for disobedience, and it's still going on today, isn't it? Blessings and cursings. It continues today. That hasn't changed. So, God hates divorce, so that's just the way it is. Again, sometimes it happens. It's unfortunate when it does. We have to make the best of it. If we've been through a divorce, we have to learn from our mistakes and not deal treacherously any longer with anyone. I don't judge anybody in their marriages, because I don't know all that goes on. God's the judge. I'm not the judge. We have to discern certain things. Obviously, the Scripture tells us to judge righteous judgment. Certain things we might know, but there's a lot that we don't know that goes on in a marriage. We can assume we know who's at fault, who's not at fault, but we may not know nearly... There may be so much lacking in our understanding that we have to be very careful how we look at people who end up in divorce and blame them. We might not know, so that's between them and God. God worked with them. We need to stay out of that and let that be between them and the couple and also God. During the time of Christ, the institution of marriage was in a horrible state during Christ's time. In fact, William Barclay, on page 150 of this book I'm holding, this is volume 1, of the commentary on the book of Matthew by William Barclay, written in the 1950s, I believe. On page 150, he says, and let me find it here, well actually I've got it in my notes here, he says, there is no time in history when the marriage bond stood in greater peril of destruction than in the days when Christianity first came into the world. So he's writing this in 1950, he's saying there's never been a time where marriage stood in greater peril than it did when this was written. At that time, the world was in danger of witnessing the almost total breakup of marriage and the collapse of the home.

Theoretically, there was no higher approach to marriage than that of the Jewish nation at the time.

In fact, it was expected that men would marry and have children and a family except for one reason, and that would be to devote their entire time to the study of the law, the Torah. Otherwise, they were expected to get married. If you're not going to study the Torah full-time, then get married, have children. That was kind of the thinking. So a man who refused to marry and have a family except for this one reason was looked down upon. But the marital state had deteriorated to the point that in many cases, Jewish and Israelites men were divorcing their wives for almost any reason at the time of Christ.

Women were looked at primarily as property by society. Now, God doesn't teach that in the Bible, but that's the direction society went. It became a man's world to a large degree. Women were looked at primarily as property by society. They were considered a thing in the Jewish oral law. Again, not in the Bible. A woman was at the absolute disposal of her father or her husband. She had virtually no legal rights at all. According to Barclay, a woman said the rabbinic law may be divorced with or without her will, but a man only with his will.

So, obviously, a double standard.

Deuteronomy 24. Let's go there and read the instruction that's given here in the Old Testament in regard to marriage. Deuteronomy 24, verse 1. When a man has taken a wife and married her, and it comes to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house.

And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. And if the latter husband hates her and writes her a bill of divorcement and gives it in her hand and sends her out of his house, where if the latter husband dies, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife. She can't go back to the first husband. After that she is defiled, for that is an abomination before the eternal, and you shall not cause the land to sin, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. Okay, so this is the instruction that was given here. Divorce marries to another and remarries to a former husband is prohibited. Now, the crux of the problem listed here came from the two words, some uncleanness. If you notice verse 1, Because he has found some uncleanness in her.

Strong's concordance has the word translated uncleanness as meaning nudity, literally and figuratively talking about nakedness, shame, being unclean. Essentially, this is talking about any type of sexual immorality. There were two main schools of thought in regard to Jewish law. At the time of Christ, one was called the School of Shemai, S-H-A-M-M-A-I. The other was the School of Hillel. The School of Shemai took the strictest, most severe, austere approach in most matters. Divorce was highly frowned upon by the Shemai. They defined these words as some uncleanness as indecency or unchastity and nothing but unchastity. In other words, sexual immorality, adultery. They basically said that a wife be as mischievous as the wife of Ahab. Remember who Ahab's wife was? Does anyone remember her name? Jezebel. Yeah, Jezebel. Not the best reputation. So I would have thought maybe she was involved in sexual immorality, but maybe not. She was involved in a lot of other shenanigans, that's for sure. Anyway, they basically said that a wife be as mischievous as the wife of Ahab. She cannot be divorced unless she is sexually immoral, adulterous, or unchaste. Now the school of Hillel was much more liberal in their approach to most things, and they defined these two words in a much broader way, in fact the broadest possible way. So I'd like to read from page 152 in Barclay's book here.

Page 152. To the school of Shemai, there was no possible ground of divorce except only adultery and unchastity. On the other hand, the school of Hillel defined some indecency in the widest possible way. They said that it meant that a man could divorce his wife if she spoiled his dinner by putting too much salt in his food. So I could have divorced my wife just a couple days ago, based on this.

If she went in public with her head uncovered, he could divorce her. If she talked with men in the street, if she was a brawling woman, if she spoke disrespectfully of her husband's parents in his presence. So evidently she could speak disrespectfully of his parents to others, but not to the husband. Interesting. If she was troublesome or quarrelsome, he could divorce her. A certain rabbi, Akiba, said that the phrase, if she find no favor in his sight, meant that a man might divorce his wife if he found a woman whom he considered to be more attractive than she. As you get older, chances are they're probably going to find someone who looks a little more attractive.

But that's not how God intended it, of course. Human nature, being such as it is, it is easy to see which school would have the greater influence. In the time of Jesus, divorce had grown easier and easier, so that a situation had arisen in which girls were actually unwilling to marry because marriage was so insecure. Well, just imagine if you could divorce your wife for any reason, and she had no say, she had to go along with it. Why get married?

When Jesus said this, he was not speaking as some theoretical idealist. He was speaking as a practical reformer. He was seeking to deal with a situation in which the structure of family life was collapsing and in which national morals were becoming ever more lax.

So, it's basically true today, isn't it? Man wants to divorce his wife for any reason. And it's true for the woman, too. She can divorce her husband for basically any reason as well if he puts too much salt. When he makes a meal, they're probably going to give him a divorce, too. You know, it's called no-fault divorce. There's no fault anywhere here.

Anyway, the Roman approach to marriage had also a profound impact and effect upon the world scene at Christ's time because, remember, they were subject to the Romans. Marriage among the Romans was, at first, very cherished, but it became a tragedy as time went on. Because, you see, in the beginning, marriage and family was the foundation of early Roman society. That was the foundation, and that's why it went so well, for as long as it did. So let me read from Barclay again, from page 156 and 157.

He says, The history of the development of the marriage situation amongst the Romans is the history of tragedy. The whole of Roman religion and society was originally founded on the home. The basis of the Roman Commonwealth was the patria potestis, which meant the Father's power. The Father had literally the power of life and death over his family. A Roman son never came of age so long as his father was alive.

He might become a council, a very high-ranking individual in the state. He may have reached the highest honor. I suppose he could become emperor, but he was still subject to his father. As long as his father was alive, he was still within his father's power, to a certain degree.

To the Roman, the home was everything. The Roman matron was not secluded like her Greek counterpart. She took her full part in life. Marriage, said Modestinus, the Latin jurist, is a lifelong fellowship of all divine and human rights. Prostitutes, of course, there were, but they were held in contempt, and to associate with them was dishonorable. There was, for instance, a Roman magistrate who was assaulted in a home of ill-repute or ill-fame, and who refused to prosecute or go to law about the case because to do so would have been to admit that he had been there, and did not reflect well on his character.

So high was the standard of Roman morality. For the first 500 years of the Roman Commonwealth, there was not one single recorded case of divorce. 500 years. The first 500 years. There was no recorded divorce. That is very remarkable, isn't it? That it stood that long for 500 years. The first man to divorce his wife was Spurious Cavillius. Ruga. They always have big, long names. Anyway, this was in the year 234 BC, and he did so because she was childless.

He desired a child. So he divorced her so he could marry a woman who could have a child. Then there came the Greeks. In the military and imperial sense, Rome conquered Greece, but in the moral and social sense, Greece conquered Rome. You've heard of the Hellenistic society and how much effect it had on the world. Well, that's true. That's what it's talking about here. By the second century BC, Greek morals had begun to infiltrate into Rome.

So Greece was having its impact on Rome. The descent was catastrophic. Divorce became as common as marriage. Seneca speaks of women who were married to be divorced and who were divorced to be married. Now, last time in installment 6, I mentioned a member of God's church. At least, he was a member a few years ago. Since then, I believe he's divorced and is remarried a couple times.

But his mother had been married 10 times. She was never a part of the church, but she had been married 10 times. As far as I know, she's still married. That was a few years ago, so it could be up to a dozen by now. I really don't know. But that's a lot of divorcing and remarrying. So, in some ways, not a whole lot different from the society that we're reading about. Seneca tells of a woman who identified the years not by the names of the councils, the people who ruled, but by the names of her husbands, their husbands.

Juvenile writes, Is one husband enough for Iberina? Sooner will you prevail upon her to be content with one eye. He cites the case of a woman who had eight husbands in five years. Five years. Eight husbands, five years. That's a lot of divorcing and remarrying. Eight husbands in five years. That's nearly two a year. That's a lot of husbands. To divorce one and find another one, that's moving pretty quickly.

He cites the case of a woman who had... I'm sorry, I read that part. Marshall cites the case of a woman who had ten husbands. A Roman orator, Metallus Numiticus. Aren't you glad you don't have those kinds of names to deal with today? I am. Metallus Numiticus. He made an extraordinary speech. He said, If Romans were possible to love without wives, we would be free from trouble. But since it is the law of nature that we can neither live pleasantly with them, nor at all without them, we must take thought for the continuance of the race rather than for our own brief pleasures. Marriage had become nothing more than an unfortunate necessity. There was a cynical Roman jest. It went like this. Marriage brings only two happy days. The day when the husband first-classed his wife to his breast, and the day when he lays her in the tomb. It's a sad commentary, right? That's a pretty sad commentary. It's not really a laughing matter. What are you laughing for?

Well, we have to find humor in some of these unfortunate situations at times.

To such a past did things come that special taxes were levied on the unmarried. They were prohibited from entering into inheritances. Special privileges were given to those who had children. For children were regarded as a disaster. The very law was manipulated in an attempt to rescue the necessary institution of marriage. I'm sorry, I don't look at children as disasters. There are times when we may think along those lines. But we were once children, right? And we came out of it.

I better be careful.

Anyway, I think you get the general drift here. The Greek approach to marriage had a profound impact and effect upon the world seeing it at Christ's time. Marriage among the Greeks went like this. Infidelity and sexual relations outside marriage were so common and accepted that they brought no stigma whatsoever. In general, nearly every man in Greek society was having relations outside marriage. That was what was happening in almost every case. In every case, thankfully, we're not that bad. Not as many percentage-wise, anyway. It was the normal and expected way of life for Greek men. The famous Greek Demosthenes said, We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure. Basically, courtesans of prostitute. We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure. We have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation. We have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and for having a faithful guardian for all of our household affairs. So the wives were to stay home, be pregnant, have children, take care of the household affairs, keep the books, make sure the bills were paid. That sort of thing. Let me go back to page 153 and read a little bit more here from Barclay. 153.

He says, We have seen the state of marriage in Palestine in the time of Jesus, but the day was soon to come when Christianity would go out far beyond Palestine. And it is necessary that we should look at the state of marriage in that wider world into which the teachings of Christianity were to go. First, then, let us look at marriage amongst the Greeks. Two things initiated the marriage situation in the Greek world. A. W. Varell, the great classical scholar, said that one of the chief diseases from which ancient civilization died was a low view of women. The first thing which wrecked the marriage situation among the Greeks was the fact that relationships outside marriage carried no stigma whatsoever.

And we're, in fact, the accepted and expected thing, as I read earlier. Such relationships brought not the slightest discredit. They were part of the ordinary routine of life.

So, again, it was a sad state of affairs in terms of marriage. Let me read just a little bit more here. Okay, here's what it says. The Greek view of marriage was an extraordinary paradox. The Greek demanded that the respectable woman should live such a life of seclusion that she could never even appear on the street alone, and that she did not even have her meals in the apartments of the men. She had no part even in social life. From his wife, the Greek demanded the most complete moral purity. For himself, he demanded the utmost immoral license. Again, a double standard. To put it bluntly, the Greeks married a wife for domestic security, but found their pleasures elsewhere. Even Socrates said, is there anyone to whom you entrust more serious matters than to your wife, and is there anyone to whom you talk less? So, you women think you got it bad with communication? It was much worse in the old days. So, again, a sad state of affairs. He says, in Greece, an extraordinary situation arose. The temple of Aphrodite at Corinth had a thousand priestesses. A thousand priestesses who were sacred courtesans. My wife and I went to Corinth. We had an opportunity to visit a museum there. You don't have to use your imagination to see what was going on in that society. Some of the symbols and things that were used, phallic symbols, other things, there was a great emphasis upon sex and immorality and acceptance of it. And it was even a part of the religious way of life. So, you got these thousand priestesses, sacred courtesans. They came down to the streets of Corinth at evening time so it became a proverb. Not every man can afford a journey to Corinth. It's expensive to go to Corinth. Because what you're expected to do there costs a lot of money. This amazing alliance of religion with prostitution can be seen in an almost incredible way. In the fact that Solon was the first to allow the introduction of prostitutes into Athens, and the building of brothels, and with the prophets of the brothels, a new temple was built to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Not too surprising, yeah. The Greeks saw nothing wrong in the building of a temple with the proceeds of prostitution. So, sexual immorality and spiritual adultery or immorality were closely intertwined, were they not? It was a state religion.

So, no wonder things were really messed up when it came to marriage. So, I think I've read enough of that. It gives you a good feel, though, of why Christ might have written what he did here and what things were like at that time.

So, the point that I'd like us to make is that marriage is important to God, and faithfulness in marriage is important to God. And, you know, it would be nice if we could get things rolling in the church where parents teach their children godly ways of doing things, and they actually stick with it. And they teach their children. And they teach their children. So, this cycle has stopped. We live in a very immoral society, and it impacts us. You can't turn on the TV set without seeing sexual immorality and premarital sex as though it's the expected norm. That's what we have in society today. It's not what God intended, and it's not something that we should accept. We shouldn't accept it. We should fight back against that whole approach, see it for what it is, and have no part of it. Stay away from it.

Alright, now, let's go to Matthew 5. We'll go back to the Sermon on the Mount.

We're not going to cover a lot of verses today. You might have figured that out by now. But that's okay. It's only going to take 11 installments to get through this. So, we only have, what, four more after this. We should be done by the end of the year.

Maybe. Alright, let's go to Matthew 5. It's all good stuff, right? All good material. So, if it takes a while. Only if you're moving away, then you might have to get online and finish it up. As long as you stick with me here, I will finish this sermon here in Lawton. This series of sermons. Alright, Matthew 5, verse 33.

Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old, You shall not forswear yourself, but you shall perform unto the Lord your oath. But I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. So, Christ's advice is don't enter into vows. Don't give vows. Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool. Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yes, yes, or no, no, for whatever, whatsoever, is more than these comes of evil. It comes from the evil one. So, we need to learn to say yes or no, and keep our promises. If we say yes, then stick to it. If we say no, stick to it.

But the Bible does say quite a bit about vows, and so it can be somewhat confusing to people. So, I would like to go into a number of verses in regards to making vows. For example, let's go to Exodus 20, verse 7, to begin with. Exodus 20, verse 7.

This is, of course, the Ten Commandments. And the Third Commandment is listed here in Exodus 20, verse 7, where it says, So, this is primarily talking about not using God's name in a frivolous way, not using God's name.

Not taking it in vain. Not promising something. Especially as Christians. We don't have to swear. We're to keep our word, right? Our word is to be our bond. So, we take God's name in vain when we disrespect God and we dishonor Him by breaking His commandments. So, in an overall sense, all these commandments could be looked at and we could say, We're taking God's name in vain. We claim to be Christians. That isn't the way Christ lived. Christ was perfect. Christ didn't sin. I and the Father are one. So, they set the example. The Father and the Son set the example for us. So, when we break His commandments, we, in a sense, take His name in vain. So, that's one thing. Don't break the commandments of God. Also, if we were to use God's name in swearing something, obviously, you've got to be really careful if you do that.

However, again, whatever we say, let your yea be yea or no be no. That's mainly how God wants us to live. But, again, to get a better understanding, to look at a fuller picture, we're going to look at a few more scriptures. Leviticus 19, verse 12.

Leviticus 19, verse 12, where we read, Shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shall you profane the name of the Lord your God. I am the Eternal. God wants us to tell the truth. Liars won't be in God's kingdom. So, we're supposed to tell the truth. We're not to tell lies, we're to let our yes be yes and our no be no, and again, we're to keep to our word.

Alright, now, another verse to look at is Deuteronomy 23, when it comes to making vows. Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, verse 21. Here it says, When you shall vow a vow unto the Lord your God, you shall not slack to pay it. So, if you're going to make a vow, if you're going to vow something to God, people have done that. You know, there are vows in the Bible that it talks about. Jephthah made a vow, remember? Jephthah made a vow about whoever came through the door or whatever it was, whoever he saw next, he would sacrifice. That was a stupid thing to do. A really stupid thing to do. But, if you do make a vow, then you're supposed to keep it.

And that's what it's talking about here. Verse 21.

It doesn't say you're supposed to make vows here, does it? It doesn't say, you shall all make vows. It never says that anywhere. But when you shall vow a vow, when you decide and you make a vow, if you're rash, you still are supposed to keep it. So that's why it's important that we don't make these rash vows. Okay, God, if you save me from this, I'll never swear again in my life. I'll never say a cuss word. I'll never do anything. You know, chances are you might not be able to keep that vow. It's better not to make that kind of a bargain with God.

Just ask Him for help and trust that He'll give it to you. So, again, back to this, verse 21. When you shall vow a vow unto the Eternal your God, you shall not slack to pay it. For the Eternal your God will surely require it of you.

And it would be sin in you. If you make a vow and you break it, you've sinned. You've lied. You've gone back. You've been unfaithful.

But if you shall forbear it to vow, it shall be no sin in you.

You know, if you don't... In other words, if you don't make a vow, there's not a sin in that. I mean, there's a sin if you sin. But if you don't promise something in terms of, Okay, God, if you do this, then I'm not going to do this. I'm going to fast three days a week for the rest of my life. You know, it's not a sin to not make that commitment or to make that vow. God doesn't require you to fast three times a week. So you don't want to make foolish vows like that.

If you make a vow, though, you should be quick to pay it. Verse 23, That which has gone out of your lips, you shall keep and perform. So the point is, don't let it come out of your lips. Unless you're willing to follow through and keep it. You shall keep and perform, even if free will offer it, according as you have bowed unto the Lord your God, which you have promised with your mouth. Okay, God, I'm going to pay you $100,000 every year for the rest of my life. Well, you may not have $100,000 to pay for one thing. So don't make stupid vows that you can't keep.

Alright, we could go to... Well, let's go to Deuteronomy 10, verse 20. Deuteronomy 10, verse 20.

Deuteronomy 10, verse 20. You shall fear the Lord your God. Him shall you serve, and to him shall you cleave, and swear by his name. He is your praise. He is your God. This is just saying that we should obviously look to God. God is the source of our strength. God is behind us. You shall fear God. You shall serve him. You shall cleave to him. And your word should be your bond. That's basically what that's saying here. And let God guide you and direct you and show you the way.

Now, Numbers 30, we're not going to go there, but a whole chapter is given here on vows and keeping them.

It talks about how a daughter or a wife could be overruled by her father and her husband in these cases, if they determined that she uttered a vow rashly. I mean, there is some obvious authority in the Bible that men do, fathers and husbands have over their wives. You know, the Bible says submit to your husband, right? It's in the Bible. But it's not the kind of standard that the world set up. It's totally different from that. You know, we are to submit to our husbands who are supposed to, first of all, love and honor us. You know what it says in the book of Ephesians? It talks about submitting to our... Well, let's just go there. This is a good place to go there. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Notice verse 21 where it says, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So there's a time when a husband should submit to his wife. And you know when that is? Do you know when it is? When a husband should submit to his wife? When she's right. If she's right, he ought to submit to her. I mean, that's not that difficult. If she's right, guys, admit that you're wrong and submit to your wife.

You know, it works. If she's right, then you'd be wise to submit to what she's saying and go along with it. It talks about how the husband is head of the wife. Even as Christ is the head of the church. But notice it says, husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church. That's what men are supposed to do. If they love their wives, how much easier will it be for the wives to submit to them? If a husband really loves his wife, he wants her to be happy, he wants to honor her, he wants to cherish her, he wants to do good things for her. It's a lot easier to submit to a man like that, isn't it? Than someone who's a jerk. I mean, it's a whole lot easier if the man's doing his part. And the man should do his part. He should be the leader in the relationship, should love his wife. And if he's doing that, there's a good chance that the marriage is going to last a long time.

So back to this thing about swearing. In Jesus' time, there were two problems, two customs with swearing or taking an oath. One was called frivolous swearing, and the other was evasive swearing.

Okay, frivolous swearing was this, and I'm taking this out of what Barclay says. Taking an oath where no oath was necessary or proper. That's frivolous. You know, don't make stupid vowels and oaths. You know, don't get involved in that. It was far too common for people to use phrases and euphemisms like, I swear by my life that so-and-so is true. Or I swear by my head, or the hair on my head, or the lack of the hair on my head.

Now, that's just plain stupid. Don't be making stupid. Frivolous ways of making vowels and swearing about things. You know, I learned early on that I should not promise my wife something unless I intend to keep it.

You know, it doesn't go well. You're better off if you don't make the promise. So don't enter into these promises rashly. Make sure you're going to pay them. It's far better not that I don't make as many promises as I used to.

And we're still together, so I guess it's working.

All right, now that's frivolous swearing. Now, what about evasive swearing? Okay, here...

They divided oaths into two classes. One was absolutely binding. The second, not so much so. Isn't an oath an oath? Isn't that what it means? You would think that an oath would be binding, right? When I think of oath, I think of, yeah, it should be binding. And obviously, that is the way it should be. But human nature has this way of trying to work around things. So this was evasive. Evasive swearing. If God's name were used, it was considered absolutely binding oaths and could not be broken. So if they entered into an oath and used God's name, absolutely binding. Otherwise, they could break it. If they didn't use God's name, then they could break it and get away with it. God became a partner in the oath if his name was used, not considered so if it wasn't used. Of course, God is involved in all that we do, right? As God's people, we can't play games with God. That's what they were trying to do. They were playing games. We owe everything to God, even the hair on our heads, or lack thereof. We don't need to be making vows by anything. Let your yea be yea, let your no be no, and stick to your word.

We should regard all promises as sacred if we remember that all promises are made before God. God hears everything that we say. We're always in his presence. Our godly character should be seen in the promises that we make.

That's why I learned not to make so many promises, unless I was truly going to fulfill those promises.

I still make some promises, and I try to fulfill them. Our godly character should be seen in the promises that we make. In God's kingdom, no oath will be necessary, as we will always tell the truth and live faithfully. There will be no sin in God's kingdom. Sin is going to be a thing of the past. Liars aren't going to go in. We're not going to have to make oaths and swear this or that or the other thing. Now we have people swearing on a Bible. That's what they do in the court of law. You've got to swear on this Bible. We affirm that we're going to tell the truth. That's the better approach. Today we've covered some very important principles of living from the Sermon on the Mount. Number one, we talked about how God hates divorce. And so should we. Sometimes divorce will occur if there's some sort of unfaithfulness in the marriage. Genuine, godly repentance and true forgiveness may be able to overcome such obstacles in a marriage. But unfortunately, not always. That's just the reality that we live in. Lots of divorcing in the society that we live in today. But genuine, godly repentance and true forgiveness may be able to overcome some such obstacles of unfaithfulness, for example. It is possible, if a person can forgive, that you can get by that. But it's difficult. Number two, one should not remarry unless there are biblical grounds to do so, lest others be caused to sin, as well as the one who remarries unlawfully. Mates should always be treated with the utmost love and respect. And yet too often familiarity does breed contempt. And of course, that's contrary to God's holy ways. So we should treat our husbands and our wives. We should cherish them properly. Treat them with the utmost love and respect. And if you do divorce, you should be careful not to remarry unless you have biblical grounds to do so. Number three, do not allow the permissive immorality of today's society to rub off on you in any way. That's hard to do. I mean, we live in our society today. It does have an impact on us. We need to try to minimize that impact. We need to learn to live by every word of God. The sexual norms of this day and age are completely against God's standards of marriage. They just are. This world is not teaching God's standards on sex and marriage and all of that.

It's completely against God's standards. Homosexuality, it's against God's standard. That's not what God intended. That's why not God. God doesn't okay that or deign that. Number four, do not break the third commandment. Do not take the name of God in vain. And that can be done in many ways. Respect God's name. Don't be making vows and making frivolous vows. Don't try to evade the promises that you make. Keep them. Let your word be your bond. Number five, keep your promises but do not make vows. Simply say yes or no and be faithful to your word. So, brethren, if you want to build your spiritual house on the rock, if your foundation is a little bit cracked, do something about it now. Don't allow your foundation to continue to crack. Your foundation has to be Jesus Christ. If it's anything other than that, your foundation is very faulty. It will fail. Make sure that you're building your spiritual house on Christ, on His laws, on His ways. He said, I and my Father are one. They are in complete harmony with each other. We have to live by every word of God from Genesis to Revelation. So, if you want your spiritual house to stand, then listen to what Christ has to say in the Sermon on the Mount.