Faith Walk / William Carroll
We will be talking about the word of God and how he moved in my life as I stood on his word. His signs and wonders that I have seen during the last forty years praying for my needs and the needs of others. I hope to encourage a new generation of believers to pray the word of God and to believe that He will move on their behalf. God answers prayers!
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Ep 72 Divorce, Forgiveness, and God's Unwavering Grace
The tension between religious rules and divine grace takes center stage as we continue our journey through Matthew 19. Jesus confronts the Pharisees who attempt to trap him with questions about divorce—revealing how they had gradually expanded Moses' limited provision into a free-for-all where men could dismiss their wives "for any cause." With characteristic wisdom, Jesus redirects them to God's original design while acknowledging the painful reality of human brokenness.
This passage opens a candid conversation about the church's troubling double standards. Why do we often welcome repentant murderers with open arms while permanently stigmatizing those who've experienced divorce? Through vulnerable personal testimony, we explore the reality of unwanted divorce, the crushing weight of failure, and the long road to healing. Most importantly, we discover that nothing—absolutely nothing—catches God by surprise, including the dissolution of a marriage covenant.
God's redemptive power extends to all areas of our lives. While divorce contradicts His original design, His forgiveness remains available to the genuinely repentant. The enemy wants us to believe certain sins lie beyond God's forgiveness, but Christ's sacrifice covers all sin. That doesn't mean we should sin carelessly; it means that when life happens in all its messiness, God remains present to restore us. Are you carrying the weight of past mistakes? Listen as we explore how to find that peace that passes understanding—the kind of peace that comes when you know that you know that you know you've been forgiven. If you're wondering whether God can truly forgive what you've done, this message is for you.
Well, good morning, welcome to Faith Walk. We're going to continue our study in Matthew, chapter 19. And we're going to start in verse 3. And it says that the Pharisees also came unto Jesus, tempting Him, saying unto Him Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered to them and said have you not read that he which had made them at the beginning, made them male and female? And said For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they too shall. And they said to him why did Moses then give a writing of divorcement to put her away? And he said, moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, he suffered you to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you whoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and marry another committeth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her which is put away does commit adultery, all right. So let's talk about this.
Speaker 1:So the Pharisees knew that Moses had gave a writ of divorcement that you could put them away. And then, through time, the Pharisees, sadducees, the priests, took it upon themselves to add laws where you could just put her away for any reason, you know you could divorce your wife for any reason, you know, and it wasn't like that. But as time goes on, you know, we seem to allow stuff that we allow long time, first allow when we first allow it, but it grows over time. It grows over time and gets bigger and bigger and we allow more and more things to happen. And this is what had happened. They were allowing them to divorce for any reason and they said but Moses said see, they didn't believe Jesus was the son of God, they didn't believe he was the Messiah. They thought that he was maybe just a prophet of God, and not even really a prophet of God. Because they didn't believe that, because he was destroying everything they thought he was bringing it. He knew the word better than they knew the word and he was like, like, um, like the fishermen, when they went before the, the council, uh, peter and John, and they uh had healed the lame man, and they said unlearned, these are unlearned men. So, um, jesus was an unlearned man. He was a carpenter, he wasn't a Pharisee, he wasn't a Sadducee. He didn't grow up, go to the Sadducee schools, the Pharisee schools, his line wasn't through that, and so they're kind of making fun of him, you know, saying trying to challenge him on the word of God, and Jesus says you know, no, it's not been so, except for divorce, except for fornication. If there was fornication by one or the other, then you can let the other go and not be under bondage Because they have broken the covenant, the covenant of marriage.
Speaker 1:Alright, now listen, I know in the church we have our pet peeves. You know, I'm going to tell you what. You know if you can murder somebody, the church will open their arms wide, put you up there, let you be pastor. Man that God forgave you. You get a divorce from somebody and the church condemns you. You can never, you can never be a pastor. You can't speak at the church. You need to go ask God for forgiveness, which is true. Now listen, god does not want anybody divorced.
Speaker 1:I did go through a divorce. I didn't want it, I fought against it, but there was nothing I could do, All right. And so I struggled for two years with depression, and I struggled because I said, man, I failed God, I failed my family, I failed my kids, I failed my church. You know, I failed myself. I don't believe in divorce, you know, and I prayed for God to put it back together. And then one night I felt a peace about it and I prayed Lord, don't let her come back home. And I'm just going to tell you what. We're great friends now because, after the last message that you just heard about forgiveness, I had to forgive and I had to forget and I had to move on with my life. And now we're great friends, we have grandkids together, we can be around each other and it works out marvelously. Why? Because I believe that she forgave and forgot and I forgave and forgot.
Speaker 1:Well, listen. But God doesn't want us to do that. But is there forgiveness after divorce? Well, listen, it's like any other sin, any other sin. If you go to God and you ask for forgiveness, he forgives you. Well, if you've gone through a divorce, you know and I don't care whether you want it or not if you went through a divorce and God is convicting your heart, saying look, you need to repent, you need to come back to me, and you think that God won't forgive you because you got divorced, you're wrong. See, god loves you so much. He knew, listen, that divorce didn't catch God by surprise. I say this all the time to people. You know your situation caught you up by surprise, but it didn't catch God by surprise. God's bigger than the divorce. God's bigger than your situation and God has forgiveness and grace and mercy. If you repent, truly repent, and you're sorry for it, can he bless another marriage? Yes, he can. He can and he will. He can and he will Listen.
Speaker 1:We've got to quit taking God and start making laws and traditions of man and forgetting the providence of God. We forget how that God is in control, that God knows everything about us and he knows what we go through and he makes a way. See, jesus paid the price that our sins might be forgiven. You know, we don't want to go living in sin, we don't want to go seek out things that are sin, just so we can say that the grace of God is in our life. But when life happens, god is there to restore us. And you can take that to the bank, because the first thing that's going to happen is the liar, the accuser of the brethren. He's going to come and he's going to condemn you. He's going to say God can't forgive.
Speaker 1:And you know, and even some churches will say, well, god can't forgive divorce, you can't. You're going to have to leave the church or you can't get remarried in the church, or, you know, they make all kinds of rules and they become gods to themselves because of what they see in the written word. You know, they see it, but they don't apply it like God would apply it. See, we have to learn to apply the word of God like God applies it. You know he's a forgiving God and, yes, he'll forgive you. It doesn't matter what sin you are. You know it doesn't matter if you're a murderer, yeah, he'll forgive that. He'll forgive that too.
Speaker 1:God restores us all. He don't want any of us to perish because of sin, and if we're a Christian and we sin, there's a direct way right now that we can ask for forgiveness. We don't have to go to confessional. You know we go to confessional, we get on our knees, or we just get on our knees in our heart and ask God to forgive us of our sins. Lord, forgive me of my sins, forgive me what I've done. Forgive me what I've failed to do. Lord, forgive me for not following you. Forgive me for putting a wreck to this marriage. Forgive me, Lord, for my part in this and let me forgive them and let me forget, lord, for my part in this, and let me forgive them. And let me forget Lord. Lord, restore me to my righteous path and my righteous walk, my faith walk with you. Listen, that's what God does. I mean. He loves us so much he's not going to let us go because we sin against Him.
Speaker 1:You know, the religious people was just trying to catch Him in a trap. They still try to catch us in a trap today. But you know, we have to seek God. We have to get the peace of God that passes understanding in our situation, that, instead of just hearing it from me or hearing it from somebody else, that you hear it directly from the Holy Spirit and you get that peace that passes understanding. You get that peace that you know. You get that peace that you know that, you know that you know.
Speaker 1:And when I get that, I know that, I know that I know. When I get that peace, then I know that I'm in the right footsteps, I'm in the right graces of God and I'm going in the right direction and that I have what he says I have and that I can believe that he forgives me for my sin. If you don't know him today, call out to him, ask him, tell him, lord, do you know who I am, what I am or where I am? Lord, I need to know today that you are true, you're real. I need to know today if you know where I am, if you love me, if you can forgive what I've done. Lord, I need to know, Change my heart today. He'll hear that prayer, he'll honor that prayer and he'll answer that prayer In Jesus's name until next time.
