(Audio) Scheduled for upload
Made Whole from the Ashes of a Great Divorce is devoted—in morning, afternoon, and evening sermons—to the matter of adultery and divorce; it is argued as if it were a legal proceeding in the court of Almighty God according to the Word of God.
Key texts of this series are taken from both the Old and New Testaments.
Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. (Proverbs 30:20)
Love keepeth no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 13:5d)
*
Although the day’s lesson was delivered at Rye Chapel to address the controversary of whether the former minister could or could not remain in the pulpit after his wife had left him, the words were more aimed at the hypocrisy of the general Assembly.
Today’s lesson is not one of what God “suggests” but one of what God decrees may or may not be done in the matter of divorce, of what must be done if a divorce occurs, and under what circumstance the departing spouse must be received back into covenant.
It is a lesson of how you must move forward in the work that is to be done in spite of yourself; it is a work that you are called to do and one that may seem impossible to do but which, in fact, is not so impossible and—even if the work were to be so impossible and is work you think cannot be done, it is work that you are still called to do.
Today’s lesson provides comfort to the injured spouse while it warns the adulteress¹ who has broken her covenant—a covenant promise made before Almighty God—of the sure and certain punishment that will come to her no matter how she excuses her behavior and a punishment that will remain reserved for her soul even should she remarry to move on with her life in the misguided assumption that God will “forgive and forget.” Such is never the case in Scripture. It is always the opposite.
Its words trumpet Heaven’s ominous warning to anyone who would now lie in the arms of the divorced adulteress, condemned in his own adultery for taking what is not his to take, given by one who has no right to give.
Its words likewise trumpet Heaven’s warning to those—parents, family, and friends—any!—who have enabled or supported the illegal disunion of the covenant promise.
Its words are words of death, and of eternal darkness.
And yet its concluding words offer the hope of unimageable forgiveness and reconciliation after adultery and divorce, even after the murder of an unborn—a path so often thought necessary because of the adultery.
*
Many will turn away, complaining that God’s call to obedience is outdated or too difficult, or that they never heard the Word of God explained to them in such a manner (given here using the very words of Scripture).
In truth, those who would turn away do not believe in God and take their pleasures of dalliance and adultery with no concern that their sin is being acted out in the very Sight of God.
Many will argue that “the state” allows divorce and that our society now considers both adultery and abortion to be lesser sins, as if man’s “desire” can supplant the Law of God.
Not only are these content in damning themselves, but they congratulate others whom they have set upon the road to hell—condemning others, by their argument and example, and perhaps condemning even their own children, who will follow suit as they themselves grow into adulthood.
Many will argue that they do not “feel” that divorce is wrong or will argue that a divorce can be justified for so many reasons beyond those reasons given by God—as if to argue “my perception is my reality.”
No, Loved One. Reality is reality. God is reality. Your perception is what you want to believe so that you can remain comfortable and persistent in your state of sin.
“Perception” is what Satan whispers in your ear so that He can keep you in His grasp.
*
If you are troubled or offended or made angry by such words, know that it is because you sin grievously against the Law of God. Fall to your knees in thanksgiving that you are being called by the Holy Spirit to repentance and reconciliation while there is still time.
Your life will all-too-soon be followed by death, the line of “no more chances.”
No one knows the hour, but all will die. And then all will rise from our temporary sleep to that most terrifying moment when each of us will stand before the Creator of the Universe, stripped naked and alone, and be called to answer for our disobedience. And many, in the righteousness and wrath of the Father, will be cast into the Lake of Fire for their eternity.
How that terrible end may be avoided by the adulteress, by her lovers, and by her champions of disunion (parents and the like) is through—and through only—the difficult and often humiliating trial of seeking forgiveness and of undoing the wrong.
Even more difficult, however, is that which God calls the abandoned spouse to do in response. His is a matter begun in the day’s evening sermon and to be fully continued in the lesson of the coming Sabbath—Prayer for an Adulterous Wife, on the Book of Hosea—wherein the aggrieved spouse comes to the realization that adultery can be God’s own pathway to faith.
*
Today, God gives you what may be your last chance, in that today there is still time for you to make right what was made wrong.
Seize this opportunity, no matter how difficult.
Trust God and make the first step, however hesitant and cautious it may be.
As for the others, these will be lost to God.
They will be damned at The Judgment to spend their eternity in the fire of hell, in darkness, and without hope.
*
You have been listening to a message by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Solín, senior pastor at the First Puritan Assembly of Fort Worth. This content has been provided to you free of charge through the thoughtful prayers and generous contributions of the faithful; for information about how you can support this ministry, please visit us online at www.firstpuritan.com.
Audio files of this and other sermons given at Rye Chapel—along with printable text-transcriptions with extensive footnotes and references—are available for download to your laptop, CD, flash drive, or cell phone. You will also find Biblical answers to difficult questions and panel discussions that address such topics as sex, love, marriage & divorce, money, stress, depression, loneliness, and the uncertainty of living in a post-Christian society; all are provided to help you to grow in faith and to assist you in your walk with Christ.
The First Puritan Assembly of Fort—where man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God so that we may fully enjoy Him forever, and where the duty which God requires of man is obedience to His revealed will.
__________________________________________________
¹ In Scripture, the term “adultery” (as is “divorce,” “harlotry,” and “whoredom”) is used in metaphor for a turning-away from one’s First Love, God. It is used less in reference to the physical adultery of a spouse and more-oft directed toward the female bride (the Church) leaving the male bridegroom (Christ).
In preserving the grammatical practice of Scripture and to avoid the cumbersome wife/husband vs. man/woman and “she to him and in the same fashion he to her,” texts are written in the style that “she” commits the adultery against both God and her husband and we leave it to the reader to understand that the situation could be reversed.
I will not allow my words to be hijacked to support any political or social agenda; in the text, “she” takes the generic blame for the physical adultery against her husband merely because we follow the word-pattern of Scripture.
I make no attempt to be “politically correct” or artificially inclusive to sooth the artificially offended. For an in-depth discussion of politically correct speech absent from my sermon texts, please visit Here Am I; Send Me (volume 3a in this series) where I suggest that—before the reader can assign any merit whatsoever to what is being said in the pulpit—the reader must first have a sufficient facility with the language as well as an accompanying willingness to comprehend what is being said in the pulpit.