THE LIVING WORD TRANSCRIPT
Program Air Date – 8-28-11
LESSON TITLE: “WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER: MAN AND WOMAN”
WELCOME
The prophet Jeremiah was proclaiming the Word of God when he said, “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord!” So what about you, do you know your God on this wondrous Lord ’s Day? Have you chosen to serve your God and to put Him first in all things?
Welcome to our program and let me thank you all for joining us this day for this time of Worship to our God. It is my prayer that we are all doing our best, today and every day, to accomplish everything according to God’s precious will and His eternal purpose. Won’t you do your part this morning so that God may truly be praised and so that all we offer toward His throne will be done in spirit and in truth.
With these thoughts in mind, will you bow with me before His almighty throne in prayer?
(PRAYER)
Now it’s time to join in our first song of the morning. Our first hymn of the day reminds us that our God is ever near the faithful! So, won’t you join in with the congregation at this time as we sing together, “Face To Face?”
(SONG # 1)
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
In Mark 10:9 we read the words of Jesus in connection to those who become husband and wife in the eyes of God. There we read, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” In the context we read about a man and woman leaving their parents to establish a new home in the sight of God. Furthermore, we learn that the joining of this man and woman is before God and He then considers this as one flesh! Thus as the marriage relationship is before God, and is sealed by God, then there is no one on this earth that has a right to dissolve it. Wow, this doesn’t sound at all like what we find happening in our country today.
With this in mind I would like to briefly mention some other things in the Bible which God has joined together, yet man has chosen to separate them - although this is contrary to the Will of our Creator. How about God the Father and God the Son! There are many today who want to accept one or the other, but reject the fact that you must accept, believe in and obey both the Father and the Son. Both are God and you cannot separate the two. This is exactly what Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and My Father are one.” He further stated in John 14:9, “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father…;” Truly the Father and Son are one and the same!
Another thing which many like to separate in our world today is Christ and His church! Somehow, many have been able to ignore what scriptures say and feel that the church is insignificant or unimportant to our salvation. Well, I love the way Luke put it in Acts 20:28, there we read, “…to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” In this text these elders where encouraged to shepherd the church of God which was purchased with the very blood of Christ. I would say that if the church is purchased with the blood of Christ that this makes it of the utmost importance!
On and on we could go, but suffice it to say that many will always turn away and twist the simple truths and teachings of Christ. So what about you, are you willing to accept the teachings of Christ. Or will you be guilty as many men of separating what God has joined together?
With these things in mind we will begin a new series of study today, which is entitled, “What God Has Joined Together….” In this discussion we will consider those things established and joined by our God. Our specific discussion today focuses on, “Man and Woman.” So please stay with us this morning and after our next song together, we will be lead in this study of the day.
As far as our guest speaker, we are happy to again have brother Jerry Sullins with us. As you know, brother Jerry is the director of the Bible Institute of Missouri, here in Springfield. We thank brother Sullins for being with us this day and we look forward to him guiding our thoughts on God’s Word.
Now let’s join together in our second song of the morning. The name of this hymn, “Walking Alone at Eve.”
(SONG # 2)
LESSON
By Jerry Sullins
Again it is a pleasure to have you viewing “The Living Word” broadcast this morning. We certainly are thankful for your presence each Sunday morning. This may be the first Sunday morning or the first time you’ve ever actually turned on the television set to this program and we are so filled with joy over the fact that you are in our audience today.
I wanted to make mention of a work that’s been going on sponsored by many area wide churches of Christ, as well as the major sponsor, the Kansas Expressway church of Christ, and that is The Bible Institute of Missouri. Since 2003 we have operated the school. It is a college level school of Biblical Studies for those who are seeking to not just train to be Gospel preachers but those who want to study in depth the Word of God. Our program covers a period of actually 4 academic years squeezed into a 2 year period where our students come to class 5 days a week, 6 hours a day and study over 40 Bible or Bible related subjects including the Greek language. After they graduate, having some practicum training in the field and preaching at some local churches of Christ we believe that they are fully qualified to be ministers of the Gospel. We also open these classes up to those who are not necessarily seeking to be preachers but maybe they want to be better leaders in the home, better leaders in the church. We also have desire to have anyone who would like to participate in such a program to get in touch with us at The Bible Institute of Missouri. On the web you can just type in bibleinstituteofmissouri.com and you can reach us. We have another email address, but it’s a little bit more complicated so just type in bibleinstituteofmissouri.com and that will lead you to our website and tell you all about our school. And by the way, we start this coming Monday so if you’re interested in joining the program be sure and get in touch with me this week by the information you find on our website.
I would also like to tell you that every Monday night in the fall and in the spring we have two semesters of Biblical Studies in three different Bible subjects. It only lasts an hour for each class beginning at 6:30 through 9:30 each Monday night. If you would like to be a part of that, that is also found on our website. You don’t even have to come to campus to take these courses. You can take them over the web. The teaching is live and we certainly appreciate you taking advantage of these courses.
Now for the subject of the day. It has been announced that this is the beginning of the series on “Things That God Has Joined Together.” I have been given the opportunity to speak on the subject of how God has joined together “Man and Woman.” In future lessons you will hear interesting studies about how God has joined together Christ and the church, sin and salvation. There has to be salvation from sin. Also faith and works and many other very, very interesting subjects so I hope that you will keep this in mind and continue each week to be a part of this television broadcast.
Well when we start thinking about God joining together man and woman, it’s a theme that began in the very first book of all the Bible. One of the real problems that we have in our society today is the problem of divorce. It’s really a serious problem. In fact, in the United States of America it is estimated that over half of our marriages end in divorce. In the state of Missouri alone, people can divorce one another regardless of what the other might want or think about the situation. It seems like very little care is taken by our court systems throughout the United States as well as our federal court system to try to uphold the standards that we found given in the Word of God. We certainly, as we look into God’s Holy Word, we can find some very definite teachings on marriage, divorce, and remarriage.
I want to start off by saying something that may startle you, but it is something that you need to consider as a human being. Most people here in the United States, the majority of people do get married and as we said over half of them or more get a divorce. God only has one reason why a person can separate from his mate. It doesn’t matter what the laws of our land say. Well of course it does to those law makers, but as far as God is concerned, God only authorizes a man or a woman to divorce his or her mate under one circumstance and that is what is going to be taught to us this morning from the book of Matthew chapter 19.
So divorce is a very serious problem. The attitude of our society as far as divorce is concerned is growing more and more that which God has not authorized or what God has not sanctioned among His people. And so we want to look into God’s Holy Word and to understand just exactly what God says. Now the problem is that most people don’t care what the Bible says or what it says or does not say. Well regardless of that, what the Bible says has something to do with anyone and everyone on the face of this earth whether they accept the Bible as their standard of authority makes no difference. The Bible itself given by God the Father through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to those holy men of God as they spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This certainly is something that man needs to understand that he must abide by if he is going to seek God’s favor in the end, if he’s going to enjoy that eternal kingdom, that is that heavenly kingdom. We must adhere to what God has said on every subject.
Well we certainly can look into the Bible and we see in Colossians 3:17 that everything we do in word or deed needs to be done by and through the authority of Jesus Christ. So my friend, this morning I want to present to you the truth from God’s Word as to what the Bible says about marriage, divorce and remarriage.
I call your attention to Matthew 19 verse 1 where it says, “And it came to pass that Jesus had finished these sayings, and He departed from Galilee and came to a region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And great multitudes followed Him and He healed them there.” Now the Pharisees were there, as it says in verse 3, and they came to Him and they wanted to test Him. Now they wanted to test Him because they knew that different peoples, that is different groups of the Jews, different sects of the Jews held different views on marriage, divorce and remarriage. So they wanted to try and trick Jesus into taking a stand where they could condemn Him in what He said. So “the Pharisees came to Him testing Him and saying to Him…” This is verse 3 of chapter 19 of the book of Matthew. “…Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” Now that’s an interesting statement because in the state of Missouri today a man can divorce his wife for any reason or for no reason. And a woman can divorce her husband for any reason or for no reason. It is called irreconcilable differences. In fact nothing has to be said other than the fact that I just do not want to be married any more. When a person makes that statement, “I do not want to be married anymore,” then they are freed by the laws of this state as well as in many other states, freed by those laws to take any action that they want to take on that marriage relationship.
Now how was it? Jesus said, “From the beginning, it has not been so.” He said,” Have you not read from the beginning (verse 4) that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female for this reason. A man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together let not man put asunder.”
So we see in Galatians 1:27 that He made them male and female. That’s the way He created them as male and female.
In verse 18 of chapter 2 of the book of Genesis, He ordained marriage. He looked upon the situation and He said, “It is not good that man should live alone. Therefore I will make a helpmeet for him.” And so He made Eve out of the flesh of Adam and He said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his own wife and the two shall become one flesh.” Now that word “leave” his father and mother means to abandon his father and mother. That means they are no longer part of that family but they are joined together to make a new family. So he leaves his father and mother and flees and that Greek word means that he is actually glued to, in physics it would be that a fusion takes place, where these people are joined together as one flesh. Then the statement is made as the two become one flesh then, “what God has joined together,” listen clearly, “let no man put asunder.” In other words, no man, no woman has a right to put that relationship asunder because those two have been joined together as one flesh. Those two have become one flesh in the mind of God and have been glued together. So as far as God is concerned the laws of the land may allow someone to divorce, remarry, divorce, remarry, divorce, remarry but as far as God is concerned, there is only one reason why that man or that woman can be separated from one another as far as in the mind of God and that is when commits sexual immorality.
This is the statement that was made in Matthew 19. It says in verse 9, “And I say to you whosoever divorces or whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” Now there you have it. They commit adultery. In fact the statement here is that this is a continuous action. They keep on committing adultery because they are married to someone who has been put away for a cause other than fornication. So what do we see here? “Whosoever”- that’s a relative pronoun which means whoever on the face of this earth. God’s law applies to everyone! Whoever puts away, that is divorces or releases his wife or his mate, that is the woman of him, and that’s a coordinate conjunction, marries another, that is they join into another relationship, he then commits adultery which means they keep on committing adultery and unless they divorce their wife except it be for the cause of fornication and they marry another they commit adultery.
Now Paul said in Galatians 5 verse 19 that, “The sins of the flesh are adultery, fornication…” It gives a long list there. “…and those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven.”
Now what has God joined together? Regardless of what man says when a man and woman joined themselves together in marriage they are to be committed to one another because God has fused that relationship together in Heaven. It cannot be broken by any man or by any woman.
Do you want to understand the Word of God more? Study with us. Call us up and we’ll be glad to discuss the subject with you. Try to understand what God’s Will is for you in every way of your life and you will be found in favor with Him if you do so.
(SONG # 3 - “This Is My Father’s World!”)
CLOSING COMMENTS
As always it was great to have you join us this morning. I hope our time together has been uplifting and profitable to all. We invite you back every Sunday morning at 7:30, as we commit ourselves to this worship to God!
But for now let me ask if you have any questions or comments about today’s lesson? Maybe, you would like a free transcript or a cassette tape of this program? Possibly, we could assist you with free Bible materials or correspondence courses? No matter what your need is, please contact us at the following address:
The Living Word
2540 N. Kansas Expressway
Springfield, Mo. 65803
Many of these items are also available on our website, that address: www.thelivingwordprogram.com
Or if you prefer, you may call us at:
(417)869-2284
Do we really understand that those things established and joined by God are unchangeable? May we all submit to what our creator says and understand all things according to the Wisdom of God!
(Program closing)