21st November 2025

21st November 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20:14)


Message (Alan Burke)


“Congratulations you’re divorced” the cover of the greeting card read that I picked up a while back in the post office. But just think of those words and what they mean, the pain, the heart ache, the broken promises, the shattered lives. To congratulate someone, to offer them your congratulations you are expressing your praise for an achievement and how truly messed up and individualist we are that we think that this is a sentiment that we would want to offer in the case of divorce. I’ve walked through the process with people as they have got divorced and it’s not something to celebrate. 


I’ve seen children used as pawns, I’ve visited a man in hospital after the wife got angry and used the frying pan with saw the hot oil on his face and then she thought it was a good idea to give him a few slaps with it for good measure and he was sorry for making her angry. I’ve sat with wives (yes far more than one) as they have chatted through the mess that has been left because their husband is still a teenage boy and has never grown up. Divorce only happens because of a myriad of stuff that leaves the hopes and promise that were made on what was supposed to be the first day of the rest of the couples lives together in shatters. Of course as we come to adultery it is only one of those reasons that divorce comes about. 


In scripture divorce is allowed, it was never meant to be part of life but it is because of the sinfulness of the human heart and one of the reasons in scripture that it is allowed is because of adultery. While marriage is a gift of God to his image bearers marriage. A gift to them and it’s purpose, for life-long faithfulness between a husband and a wife, it is a good thing, it is for the benefit of each other, it was created good, and in it there are things in it that are to be enjoyed. 


When there is adultery, when individuals seek that intimacy outside of marriage there is often a mess left behind, there is hurt and anger, it not only effects those who have sought that intimacy but others as well, not only in the present but in the future. In giving this command it means that he is concerned for the family, he is concerned about marriage, he cares about purity. That is in part why God forbids adultery. 


But there is another reason. 


Remember a few weeks ago about how the Lord demand our complete devotion with the First Commandment. Well in scripture the relationship between the Lord and his people is described as a covenant relationship, marriage is a covenant relationship, it is described to us in the scripture in the imagery of marriage (Eph 5:22-33). 


God as in marriage covenants himself to his people. They belong to him he belongs to them just as in a marriage the husband belongs to the wife, as the wife to the husband and the LORD is jealous. When his people are unfaithful he calls them adulterous, because the relationship has been violated, the prophet Hosea married a prostitute at the LORD’s command to illustrate the unfaithfulness of his people. Christian marriage is to be a picture of the union with Christ and his church, we are to be faithful to God and faithful in marriage. When we are unfaithful we are sinning first and foremost against God, we are rejecting his rightful rule over us (see Ps 51). 


Yes we are sinning against the other person in our marriage but we are ultimately sinning against God, rejecting his rule, we are taking what should be shared with the person we have covenanted to and rejected it. To us the LORD says ‘NO Adultery’. While you may have committed adultery there can still be restoration, you need to repent and turn to the LORD, confess your sin, accept the consequences. Also you might have been through a divorce, you might have been on the receiving hand of your spouse, you might be an 80 year old teenager, in each cases know there is forgiveness and there can be healing through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to him, repent of your sin while your salvation does not depend on your works, your marriage is helped immensely by how much you work at it.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q25 How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.
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