Divorce And Remarriage

Matthew 19:1-9 says, “It came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto him..,” notice why they came to him, “… tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause,” or any cause. Now in that time and in that culture, only a man could divorce a woman. A woman could not divorce a man. And so, Jesus answers (verse 4) and said unto them, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.” Now, here’s a commentary of Jesus on the book of Genesis. He says, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Those are the words of Jesus Christ based on that text from Genesis 2. Now they respond in verse 7, the Pharisees who were trying to trap Jesus, and they said, “Why did Moses then command…,” that’s where they make their big mistake. Moses did not command. “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered…,” notice that he doesn’t say commanded, but allowed, “… you to put away your wives…,” and then notice how he ends in verse 8, “… but from the beginning it was not so.” Those are the words of Jesus Christ. Is it okay for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? And Jesus says, from the beginning no that is not God’s plan. That is not God’s design, that is not God’s intention or purpose. Now, the Pharisees come to Jesus in verse 3 and they are tempting him. They are trying to trap him. They ask him this question, “Is it okay, is it lawful, is it within the law for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

There were two schools of thought about divorce at the time of Jesus. These two schools of thought followed two Rabbinical schools led by these two rabbis. The first was Hillel. Hillel taught that a man could divorce his wife for any reason. He actually said that if a man found a woman more beautiful than his wife, he has found an uncleanliness in her and he can divorce her. If she burns his bagel in the morning or his falafel, and he eats it and feels awful after he ate his falafel, that he could divorce his wife. So the school of Hillel was very broad, very liberal, and very prominent. Everyone liked Hillel. “Yes! I can dig that. Yeah any reason I want to divorce my wife.” I believe (this is a little footnote here), that lax divorce laws are detrimental to our culture. I believe that lax, easy divorce laws are detrimental to our culture. I believe that we need to hold to the sanctity of marriage, that it is a sacred covenant and commitment between a man and a woman before God and man. It’s a contract, and we need to hold marriage as sanctified by God. We’ve been all over the doctrines of marriage in the book of Genesis, and we draw as well from Jesus’ words here in Matthew 19, but one of the problems here in the school of Hillel was prevailing. The other school was Shammai. So, Hillel—liberal, Shammai—very restrictive, based on the law of Moses in Deuteronomy, which I will allude to in a minute. The only reason a man could divorce his wife was for some moral uncleanliness. In the book of Deuteronomy the passage says that if a man finds an uncleanliness in his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement and send her away. So Shammai said that for only a moral uncleanness. It would seem to be some kind of sexual immorality. The word means, nakedness. We don’t really know from the Hebrew what that means, but that was a very narrow, restrictive view. However, the school of Hillel was prevalent.

This is what I want to say. Their problem was that they were focusing on divorce. They were thinking about divorce. They were captivated by divorce, that’s a bad thing. If you are a married person, you shouldn’t think about divorce. You shouldn’t talk about divorce. Never, ever ever, if you are a married person, use the “D” word. “Well, I want a divorce.” People throw that out. God takes that very seriously, and we should too. We shouldn’t be focusing on it and thinking about it and all enamored by it. “I want to know, can I get a divorce?” “I want to know, can I get out of this marriage,” instead of being focused on God’s laws and God’s Word and God’s principles and making your marriage what God wants it to be. We need to think Biblically. Don’t listen to the world. If I want to know what I believe about divorce, I don’t watch the Jerry Springer Show. When you watch that, you feel like taking a bath it’s so disgusting—which I don’t know from experience because I haven’t watched it. I’ve caught it going through, you know, channel surfing. It’s like, “Oh my goodness! This is insane!” I don’t watch the Oprah show to find out what I should believe about divorce. I don’t want to listen to people at work around the drinking fountain or my best friends. I want to turn to the Bible and know what God says about this subject of marriage and divorce.

So Jesus says to those who were trying to trap him, “Do you follow Hillel or Shammai. Is it okay to divorce your wife for any and every reason?” He answers and says to them (verse 4), I love it, “Have ye not read…,” isn’t that cool! Jesus says, here’s your problem. You’re not reading your Bible. “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning…,” quoting Genesis 1:27, “…made them male and female…,” and by the way, Jesus believed that marriage was one man and one woman. Circle the words male and female. That’s marriage as Jesus defines it, so I’m going to stick with Jesus over the Supreme Court of the United States. If Jesus believed it, I believe it. He’s the One who created and designed marriage. And then He said, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh,” Genesis 2:24, the foundation of marriage; leave—cleave, one flesh. “They are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Then you come to verse 7, and this is where it gets interesting. If I were to paraphrase it I would paraphrase it like, “Aha! We’ve got you!” They were trying to trap Jesus, and this is kind of an “Aha” moment. “Aha! We’ve got you!” They were trying to pit him against the law of Moses. They asked, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to send her away?” They really thought that they had trapped Him and that they were going to be able to get the popular opinion against Jesus because He’s speaking against Moses. Why did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away?

We are going to come right back to this text, but turn with me to Deuteronomy 24. I want you to see it from the pen of Moses. Deuteronomy 24:1, “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness…,” or literally, nakedness or exposure, “… 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.” She can remarry, “And if…,” take note of that word “if” in verse 3. This is kind of a hypothetical scenario, “…the latter husband hate her…,” the second husband she marries, “…and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;” here’s the point Moses is trying to make, “Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” The purpose of this law of Moses was that they would not be able to divorce and remarry, divorce and remarry, divorce or remarry. If a guy was going to divorce his wife and then later on he thought, “You know, she was really a good cook. I gotta get her back.” And, he tried to get her back, that would defile the land. You’re not to be divorcing and then remarrying, divorcing and remarrying. Some people go into marriage like that. They go into marriage with the idea that if it doesn’t work out, then I can just find somebody else, and if that doesn’t work out, I can find somebody else. I heard the story of a woman that wanted to marry four different men. She said, “Because there’s four things that I need most.” She wanted to marry a banker, a movie star, a clergyman and finally she wanted to marry a funeral director. (This is a joke.) Someone asked her, “Why would you want to marry these four different men?” She said, “One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go!” Now, that’s a funny way to look at a not-so-funny subject.

Some people just peel through marriages like they are disposable, and they carry scars for the rest of their lives. I’m not going to focus on the hurt and the pain of divorce. I believe it is some of the greatest pain I’ve ever seen. It’s a horribly painful situation. There’s no doubt many of you here tonight, in a crowd this size, have been divorced and you know the pain. God loves you. He’s never left you. He doesn’t forsake you. He’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You can never do anything to cause Him not to love you. So you have God, you have His love, and God will see you through. Many of you didn’t want divorce and it wasn’t your design, it wasn’t your purpose or maybe you were young and you made some mistakes, or it was before you were saved. I’m going to talk about that at the end of my teaching tonight.

I want to give you some facts about the Law of Moses before we go back to what Jesus said about divorce. Moses only gave one commandment, that the divorced wife could not return to her first husband if she was divorced by her second husband. Moses did not command divorce. He did not require a divorce. He did not recommend a divorce nor even sanction a divorce. He was only giving guidelines to control divorce and remarriage, so that was not the thrust of his legislation here. The Law of Moses would do two things, the husband would think twice before hastily putting away his wife since he couldn’t get her back, and he would take time to find a scribe that would have to write a bill of divorcement. Maybe then he would cool down and perhaps seek to be reconciled to his wife. The Law of Moses was, and here’s what I believe to be a great definition of divorce in God’s economy, that is, it is a divine concession to human weakness, or a divine concession to human sin. God knows our weaknesses. He knows our sin. And so God allows it, as we will see back in Matthew 19, because of the hardness of our hearts. So Moses is not commanding anybody to get a divorce.

Go back with me now to Matthew 19. Jesus responds in verse 8, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts…,” a divine concession to human sin, that’s what divorce is. Moses only allowed you, not commanded you “… to put away your wives…,” because your hearts were hard. I believe the only reason why two Christians would ever end up in divorce is because of the hardness of hearts. This word “hardness” is where we get our word sclerosis from, sclerosis of the heart. If one or both in the relationship hardens their hearts, there is no hope. This is why I tell couples, “Guard your heart from sclerosis. Never harden your heart toward God, always keep your heart tender and soft and say, ‘God, soften my heart. Help me to be sensitive to sin. Help me to fear You. Help me to want Your will in my life. Help me to love my husband. Help me to love my wife. Soften my heart, O God. Don’t let me listen to the world. Don’t let me listen to the ideas of the world. Don’t let me listen to the lies of the devil.’” If you’re a married woman, Satan has all kinds of lies to tell you about your husband. If you’re a married man, Satan has all kinds of lies to tell you about your wife, you know. “You’d be happier with someone else. You could find somebody that can meet your needs better.” “This guy’s a bum, he’s a louse. You don’t deserve that, you deserve better.” The devil, the devil, the devil, the devil. You need to recognize its source. You also need to recognize that we live in a culture that is extremely narcissistic. It’s absorbed with self, it’s self focused, self awareness, self fulfillment. It’s all about “me.” “I gotta be me. I gotta find me. I gotta do what’s good for me. I have to be happy.” So many people bail out of their marriages way too early, way too early. I’ve never met anyone that said, “I should’ve got out earlier.” I think that we need to wait on God. We need to trust God. We need to hope in God.

We’re going to see that Jesus gives an exception clause. Jesus answers their questions and said, “God only allowed you to do this because your hearts were hardened.” So guard your heart against a hard heart. Don’t listen to the world. Actually it was back in 1982, so quite a long time ago, an issue of New Woman magazine which claimed more than 8 million readers, and I quote, “Yes your marriage can wear out. People change their values and lifestyles. People want to experience new things. Change is part of life. Change in personal growth are traits that you should be proud of indicative of a vital searching mind. You must accept the reality that in today’s multifaceted world, it is especially easy for two persons to grow apart. Letting go of your marriage, if it is no longer good for you, can be the most successful thing that you’ve ever done. Getting a divorce can be a positive problem-solving, growth-oriented step. It can be a personal triumph.” Boo is right! That’s a thumbs-down quote. But, that’s the world. That’s what the world is saying. As Christians, we should march to the beat of a different drummer. God wants what’s best for us, and we need to be so careful. Don’t be polluted by the world or listen to the world. I know there are rough times in marriage, you just have to listen to God. Don’t harden your hearts. Don’t harden your hearts. This is not God’s original plan if we’re saved. If we believe that marriage is a divine institution, then we can also trust God to help us to fulfill the purpose and the design for marriage. The higher our concept of marriage and the family, the more devastating the experience of divorce is, and it’s very important that we have a high standard of marriage.

Now, what did Jesus teach about divorce? It’s in verse 9. Jesus said, “I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except…,” this is what is called an exception clause, “…except it be for fornication, and shall marry another…,” in other words, you divorce. It’s not for sexual immorality that you marry another, then you are “…committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.” And verse 10, “His disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.” They’re like, “Whoa! I think it’s a good idea not to get married if this is the case.” Now when Jesus said, “I say unto you…,” I believe that is a claim of Christ to be God, that only God can establish and alter the laws of marriage. And so, Jesus is saying, “I say unto you.” The one exception is fornication, sexual immorality. Let me say this about this exception clause. First, I do believe that it should be accepted and is authentic as an utterance of Jesus. I say that because there are a lot of Christians and Bible scholars that say because the exception clause is not found in Mark, and because the exception clause is not found in Luke, only in Matthew, they don’t believe that it’s legitimate, but there’s no reason to believe it’s not in the text of Matthew. There’s no reason not to believe that it’s in the text of Matthew, that it should be viewed as an authentic utterance of Jesus.

Now divorce is allowed for sexual infidelity. The word fornication is a Greek word pornea. I’ve mentioned this before, the word pornea means sexual immorality. What is sexual immorality? It is sex outside of marriage. So, if you’re single and you have sex with somebody you’re not married to, that’s pornea, that’s fornication, that’s sexual immorality. There is no marriage situation there, but it is still sexual immorality. If you get married and you have sex with someone other than your married partner, (we call them an affair, you can call it a fling or whatever the terms are today) God calls it sin. We use the word adultery, but pornea covers adultery. Fornication is sex before marriage. Adultery is sex outside your marriage relationship. We talked about sexual intimacy last week. The only place that you as a married person or any human being can have sex is in the covenant relationship of marriage, a husband and wife, a husband and wife, a husband and wife. If you're married, there is only one person that can meet that need in your life and that’s your spouse. So, when you go outside that, people always want to know does pornography and other things come under that cover. I’m not going to go there. I have my ideas. I have my convictions. I have my views, but Jesus did say, and I will throw this out, He said if you look lustfully or longingly after somebody, you’ve committed adultery in your heart.

I want you to note something, I’m going to go there, but this exception clause. Jesus isn’t commanding you get a divorce. He’s not saying that you should get a divorce. He is saying that you are allowed to get a divorce. It is an exception clause not a command. So we need to be careful that we don’t view it as, “Well, I get to divorce you and I’m glad,” and “I want a divorce.” We try to focus on divorce rather than on restoration. Divorce for sexual immorality is permissible, but it is not mandatory. Jesus is not teaching that the innocent party must divorce, nor that it is mandatory. The truth is only the innocent party has the allowance in the exception clause to divorce the other individual. It is interesting when Joseph found out that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was pregnant, he was going to put her away privately because he did love her. His heart was broken, but he was going to put her away. They were in the period of espousal. The preferable action to take is to seek reconciliation. I realize that there are situations where the guilty party doesn’t repent, isn’t sorry, doesn’t come back to God, doesn’t ask for forgiveness and continues in their sin. Then, divorce is allowable. It is still not commanded, but it is allowable. There is a fine line there. You don’t want to facilitate or encourage a sexually immoral married partner by allowing them to come and go, come and go and to play around doing whatever they want. I’ve often counseled people in that they need to draw a line. They need to say that it is dishonoring to God. It is sin and God doesn’t want you to do that. He doesn’t want me to put up with that, and you draw a line. You give an ultimatum. How long do you wait? That’s between you and God. I can’t tell you how long to wait, but I’ve seen marriages restored. There has been forgiveness. You need to remember it is God’s will to reconcile. It’s God’s will that your heart be softened and changed. You need to turn your heart back to God. You need to pray that God will soften the heart. If you are the guilty party, you need to face your sin, your selfishness, honestly confess it before God, humble yourself and repent, and turn back to God. Surrender to the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you will the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen a lot of marriages where there has been infidelity and the guilty party has been sorry and truly repentant. The innocent party has forgiven them, and there has been restoration. I do believe there are scars there, and it is awful hard to trust somebody that violates your trust. This is why I always tell people, “Never violate trust! Never violate trust!” Once that is violated, it is almost impossible to regain and be restored.

Now, let me ask some questions. You say, “Well, what if you divorce for the wrong reasons?” Maybe it was before you were saved. Well then ask God to forgive you. Divorce is not an unpardonable sin. Is there any sin that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cleanse? Answer, no. There’s no sin but what the blood of Jesus Christ can forgive. You say, “Well, is that a license to have an affair or to commit adultery or to be unfaithful in my marriage?” No. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul says, “God forbid.” I do believe that God can forgive divorce. The second question I am always asked is, “What if you have remarried after divorce that had no scriptural grounds? Should I get another divorce and go back to my previous spouse?” No. No. No. Don’t be stupid. I emphasize that because I have actually heard preachers tell people to do that. If you got a divorce and got remarried and you realized that you didn’t have grounds for divorce, get another divorce and go back—stupid. Let every man abide in the calling where he is called. Repent, get right with God, realize you did a stupid thing, but God forgives you and God will lift you as high as you allow Him to lift you. God will bless you as much as you allow Him to bless you. Walk in obedience. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit and God will bless you in spite of the damage that is done and the affect it has on your children, family, and on other people. The chain reaction of divorce is just tragic. How detrimental it is to children. How detrimental it is to you on your own psyche, physically, economically, emotionally, spiritually. A lot of times people think that it is the easy road to take and then realize all the pain and hurt that it brings about.

Here’s my third question, “What if you’re married to an unbeliever and they are not pleased to be married to you?” This question leads us to what Paul says about divorce and for what I believe to be a second biblical basis for divorce. Go to 1 Corinthians 7:10, Paul says, “And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” Then in verse 12 he says, “But to the rest speak I, not the Lord…,” all he is doing is saying that Jesus didn’t address this issue in marriage. He is not saying that these words are not inspired by God, he is just saying that Jesus didn’t speak about this but I have the mind of Christ, I’m writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So he says, “…the rest speak I, not the Lord,” verse 12, “If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not,” in other words, you have a spouse that is not a Christian. You get saved after you’re married and maybe you get saved but your spouse doesn’t. It happens all the time. You are not to divorce them if they are pleased to dwell with you. And if you be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. Notice verse 14, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.” In other words, the believing spouse has a Christian influence, a sanctifying influence on the unsaved spouse. Now, if you're not married, you shouldn’t choose to marry a non-Christian. You should not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. If you get saved married and your husband or wife is not saved, you don't say, “Man, I want a divorce now cuz you're a heathen and I don’t want to get cooties. You don’t love Jesus and I do, so I want out of this marriage. See you later!” You don't do that. This is something that people constantly come to me with. “My wife’s not a Christian.” “My husband’s not a Christian.” “What do I do?” Pray for them. Fix him some really good meals. Be a good wife. Be a good husband. Submit to them. Be a godly example to them. Let them see what God has done in your life and win them by your love and your submission. Read 1 Peter 3, he talks to wives who have unsaved husbands. You say, “I want a Christian husband. There’s a couple of them at Revival that I’ve got my eye on.” “There’s this one guy with this really, really nice Bible. I think he’d really be a good husband. Any man that carries a Bible like that is the man for me!” No. You don't dump your husband because he’s a heathen. You’re the Christian influence. You’re the sanctifying influence on him and on the children. Then he says something quite amazing in verse 15, “But if the unbelieving depart…,” underline the word “depart,” “…let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases; but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?” What does he mean by, “If the unbeliever depart, let him depart. You’re not under bondage in such cases?” I can make it pretty simple. There are two Biblical bases for divorce. First, pornea, sexual immorality. You have a Biblical bases for divorce. You’re not commanded to divorce. You’re not encouraged to divorce, but if you must divorce, and if necessary, you can divorce and you’re free. Wherever God allows divorce, I believe He allows remarriage, especially on the innocent party’s side. God doesn’t expect you to stay single for the rest of your life.

Here’s the second reason that God allows divorce. Abandonment. An unbeliever abandons you, does not want to be married to you because you are a Christian and wants out of the marriage. It’s not what you want, but they abandon you. They leave. You are free to divorce and remarry. Years ago I had a woman come to me just crying. She said, “Pastor John, it’s been eight years. My husband left to go shopping somewhere and literally never came back. He never came back, and it’s been eight years. Do I have to stay single for the rest of my life? Do I have to stay unmarried for the rest of my life?” I read her this verse. I said, “You are free to remarry.” Now, I’m not there to tell her what to do, “Yes! Divorce him!” If you want to pray and wait. Maybe he’ll finally see the light and come back. I don’t know, but if he abandons you. Now, that doesn’t mean you send him to get milk some night and then look at your watch and say, “Praise God!” He’s been gone 15 minutes. “Thank God I’m free at last!” The word depart speaks of a permanent abandonment. It speaks of a permanent abandonment. I know it becomes a challenge to be able to define what it means to be abandoned. I think as Christians we should do all we can to pray and to wait. But, if you’ve got an unsaved spouse, or even a professing Christian spouse that is backslidden and wants out of the marriage, I think it is okay to let them have their desire. If you want out of the marriage, I’m not going to force you to stay in this marriage. I’m not going to compel you to stay in the marriage. You can go and you can get a divorce and you can remarry. A brother or a sister is not under bondage, and the word bondage is the same word used for the marriage bond and the marriage relationship.

Let’s flip back to Matthew 19 and wrap this up. You say, “Well, Pastor John, I’m not married.” Well, first, it’s good that you learn what the Bible says about divorce. I’ve already read it. Notice verse 10. The disciples said to Him when they heard Jesus speaking about divorce, they said, “If this is the case of the man, it’s good not to get married.” They were going to do the bachelors to the rapture. This is the bachelors to the rapture club as it first started. Then in verse 11, “He said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.” Not everyone can handle the idea that—I’ll never get married, I want to stay single. “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heavens sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” You can also continue to read back in 1 Corinthians 7. There’s a lot of instruction there for unmarried people, but let me just say this if you are unmarried. First, God’s will for your life is purity. You say, “Well, I’ve already blown that. I’ve already messed up on that.” Okay, then ask God to forgive you. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. God will forgive you, and He will separate your sins as far as the east is from the west.

The second thing you need to do is not only live pure, but you need to be slow. Don’t rush into marriage. I know that there are people that see each other and a few months later they’re married. And, they are married for a long time. Those are very rare. I think it’s better to practice patience, prayer and see that person in all different situations and take your time. Don’t be in a big rush to get married. Once you’re married—you’re married! Duh! “Pastor John, will you marry us?” Okay. How long have you known each other? “We’ve known each other for three weeks.” No I will not marry you! That is just stupid! Slow down. Take your time. Make sure this is the right person, and every time you see a red light, don’t be stupid. Every time you see a red light, put on the brakes, back up a little bit. “Well, he’s got this problem,” or “He’s got that problem, but I know once we get married I can fix him!” You know how that works, right? “She’s kinda this,” or “She’s kind that, but, you know, I feel right cuz she’s really pretty!” Take your time. Use the wisdom that God gives you, and don’t rush into marriage for what God has joined together let no man put asunder.

Now, I know that in a lot of ways I’ve probably opened up a can of worms, but let me reiterate. First, sexual immorality—you have a Biblical bases for divorce. Abandonment—you have a Biblical bases for divorce. If you were divorced before you were saved, and you got saved, the Bible says, old things pass away and behold all things become new. God creates you brand new. Forgetting those things which are behind, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Don’t let the sins of the past hold you down from running the race into the future. The beautiful thing about Jesus and the Gospel is that He is able to create you brand new. He’s able to make people brand new, and He does forgive any sin. There is no sin too great but what He forgives. They brought a woman caught in the act of adultery and they said, “Moses commands that she should be stoned. What do You say?” At the end of the story, Jesus said, “Let him that hath no sin cast the first stone.” As they all trickled off, and she was standing alone with Jesus. I can imagine tears running down her face, she was guilty of sexual immorality. Jesus said with great compassion, “Where are your condemners? Where are your accusers? Hath no man condemned you?” And she said, “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus said these wonderful words. He said, “Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.” What a marvelous truth that is. God is not condemning you. He forgives you, but go and sin no more. Amen?