All right, turn to Matthew, chapter 19.

This is our last message on a kind of a short series, only four weeks, on State of the Union, what God is joining together.

And we're going to start in Matthew 19 and then if you want to put markers and flip to the other passages, we'll go to Genesis 1 and Ephesians 5. And if you're really good, Malachai 2 after that, all right?

So if you want to put a marker at Genesis 1 or Ephesians 5, we'll be there later in the message.

The passage that we're about to read in Matthew 19 is the most amazing passage on marriage I believe

in the Bible.

And that is saying a lot because of Ephesons 5 is probably the one that most people

turn to and read the whole thing. But Matthew 19 has Jesus

himself answering a question about marriage and divorce. And the insight that he gives us is the insight that only God could give us as to what

God's purpose for marriage was in the first place.

The title of this message is that marriage is a mirror and I did that so you would remember the points that we're going to talk about today

But I could have titled this message the importance of marriage. I don't think that we value marriage like God values marriage.

I don't think we understand about marriage what God intended for us to understand and Jesus says it in Matthew 19. So Matthew 19 verse 3.

The Pharisees also came to him testing him and saying to him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?

Now, if you notice in your Bible, the word just is italicized.

What that means when you see that is that it's not in the original text.

The translators added the word just to help us understand the text, but it's not in the

original text. So let me read it to you the way they actually said it. Here's what they

said. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason? And the word any in the Greek implies something even more than that and the new American

standard translates it this way.

Is it lawful for man to divorce his wife for any reason at all. Is there any reason under the sun for a man to divorce

his wife? That's the question to Jesus the son of God. Now watch his answer, verse 4, and he answered and said to them, are you crazy?

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