From the March 20 sermon, "Jesus and the Law," preached out of Luke 16:14–18: Jesus teaches the religious leaders, who are mocking him, that our success cannot save us and the law cannot save us. The law exists to show us our sin and that we desperately need a savior. Then, because he loves them, he points out a specific sin in their life that reveals that they’re not as holy as they think they are and that they’re hypocrites, like all of us. (We see everyone else’s sin far more clearly than our own.) These religious hypocrites keep straining over details and arguing with the sinless Jesus, while ignoring major sin issues—in this case, divorce and adultery. With the number of Christians getting divorced today, the truth is that many do not have biblical grounds for divorce. Some do. Pastor Mark answers common questions about divorce and remarriage.

You need to be very careful who you marry. For those of you who are single, the second most important decision you will ever make is who you marry. (The first important decision you will ever make is which God you will worship.) If it is not someone you can be faithful to and they can be faithful to you, you will be in a horrible position, particularly if and when you have children. And I see it repeatedly where there are children involved and adultery has been committed, and it leaves the marriage in a very painful place because those who are married with children who have been cheated on by an adulterating spouse know that simply to get a divorce does not mean that it’s over, because, as long as there are children, it’s never over. You’ve got birthdays and holidays and, someday, grandchildren. Subsequently, some people decide, "We’re not going to get a divorce. We’re going to get help. We’re going to work on it. We’re going to try and get through it." Those are noble people. It takes both the adulterer to earnestly repent and the spouse who has been sinned against to earnestly forgive. Trust is built slowly, lost quickly. This takes a lot of tears and time. We have seen couples make it through adultery. It’s not required. It is noble. But divorce is permissible. It is permissible.

First Peter 3:7, "Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel." Weaker here does not mean to regard her less. He is like a thermos; she’s like a crystal goblet, right? You can drop him on the floor; he’s going to make it. You drop her on the floor, different result. Women are different than men. Men tend to be physically tougher and are able to bully, intimidate, harm their wife, but the Bible says, "No. Be considerate. Be understanding. Be loving. Be gentle." That’s absolutely the opposite of abuse. Furthermore, Ephesians 5:25 says clearly and emphatically, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church," that marriage is ultimately a picture of the gospel, that Jesus is like a groom and the church is like a bride. And the church respects Jesus and Jesus loves, serves, cares for, pursues, adores, and blesses the church. And so to be a Christian husband who is consistent with Christian conviction is to love your wife like Jesus loves the church. Jesus is not harsh, mean, boorish. Jesus is altogether, only, always loving, gracious, merciful, and good to the church. And any man who would profess Christian faith and harm his own wife is a heretic in his lifestyle. His hands are preaching a different theology, his mouth is preaching a different theology than the one that he would say that he holds. So in no way are we saying that a wife—and that is most often the case—should endure any abuse at all.

How many of you have heard that there is no statistical difference between Christians and non-Christians when it comes to such things as adultery and divorce? Have you heard that? It’s almost now an urban legend and here’s the good news: it’s not true. … [Wilcox] did a massive study, the largest of its kind. And he published a book on his findings called Soft Patriarchs, New Men. And he says that for those who are Christian, there are three variables that do not necessarily guarantee marital success, but drop the divorce rate in half. So we need to know what they are. …

3. Bring your faith home.

Do you read the Bible together at home? Do you read Christian books together? Are you in a Community Group together? Do you pray together? If so, your odds of divorce go down by 50% because the couple that prays together stays together. Grace and I make it a habit every night, snuggle up with her and I pray for her, I pray over her, I pray with her. Couples who take their faith home, they tend not only to not get divorced, 70% report being, quote unquote, "very happy in their marriage." So here’s the good news: God’s way still works. God’s way still works. And if you’re one of those couples who are here, you really need to be in community with God’s people, you need to be under the authority of God’s Word. And this can’t be something that just happens for a few hours a week on Sunday. It needs to be a lifestyle practiced in your home between you and your spouse.

Next up, Luke 16:19–31, "Heaven and Hell."