By Robert Wurtz II
CHAPTER 2
THE OLDEST INSTITUTION
God designed marriage as the foundational element of all human society. Before there was a Church, a government, a school, or a business, God formally instituted marriage. God created man and placed him in a Garden. Because it was not good that man was alone, God took a rib from Adam's side and formed Eve. God then decreed... \\"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.\\" (Genesis 2:24) The institution of marriage is subject only to the rules and regulations set down by God in His immutable word. Individuals may marry, be divorced, and be remarried-, only if, when, and how He says they may. No private individual or the state has competence or authority to decide who may be married or divorced and on what basis. The state has been given by God the task of keeping records, etc., but it has no right or authority to determine the rules of marriage; that is the perogative of God alone.
Marrying and Giving in Marriage
Jesus said that 'As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming at the Son of Man.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.' (Matthew 24:37 &38). For years this passage has made little sense. What could possibly be so bad about marriage and giving in marriage? Is not marriage what God wants people to do? Marriage and divorce are so rampant now that even same sex marriages are being debated and are likely to become law apart from a miracle from God. Having been used to 'putting asunder' that which God hath 'joined together' these many years- now they seek to join that which God will never regard. Satan is attempting to sit in the throne of God and decree the affairs of men through demonized liberal judges. With sodomy laws now deemed unconstitutional; any sex act imaginable will be sanctioned by the state. Any perverse joining together of man or beast they will no doubt cite as a civil right and will press for public approval and then sanction. No generation including Sodom and Gomorrah would believe what we are seeing in America today. Jesus warned us about this 'giving in marriage,' but no generation in man's vile and debauched history could imagine this.
Digging up Sodom?
Those cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) were destroyed by fire and are a warning of the eternal fire that will punish all who are evil (Jude 7 NLT). Sexual sins are over-running America and the Church. Revelation speaks of one third of the earth being burned up by fire at the sounding of the first trumpet judgment (Revelation 8:7-10). This is no doubt a reference to a nuclear exchange or a giant asteroid hitting earth at 40,000 MPH. If a third part of the earth is destroyed and the Middle East, Europe, Russia (Gog and Magog), India and China (kings of the east), and Egypt are still around at the battle of Armegeddon- what was this third part that was annhilated? If America does not repent God will not be digging anyone up to apologize- archeologists will be digging up America. There is something about sexual sins and transgressions that bring on the firey judgments of God and America is in the crosshairs. Never in history has God allowed such highhanded perversion to go long unpunished.
What God Hath Joined Together
Most of society treats marriage as though it were a simple man made agreement or contract that can be entered 'into' and 'out of' at will. In God's word we discover that marriage is not a contract; it is not a partnership. It is a blood covenant - a covenant of such consequence that a man and a woman have become fused by God into one being. The Bible uses the language: \\"They are no more twain, but one flesh\\" (Matthew 19:6). In Mark 10:6-8 we read 'But from the beginning of the creation of God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.' When man and woman are joined in marriage and consummate that relationship in the marriage bed, it is a union made by God. The hymen is broken, the blood is spilled, and the covenant begins. This is indeed a remarkable truth. It is hard to find any other physical human experience that can rival such a wonder - that God would join a man and woman together (Mark 10:9). Society is in chaos today because this pattern is so foreign to both saint and sinner alike.
'Blasphemous Unions'
America has literally got a fist in the air in the face of God in this generation. Mankind has exalted themselves to try to define what marriage is and is not. This is utter blasphemy. It should go without saying and beyond reproach that God joins only a male and female in marriage. Same sex unions are born in the same reprobate minds that sought to legalize partial birth abortion. How would God sanction an abomination such as homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22,23) when John the Baptist lost his head over Herod's adulterous and incestous marriage? Adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality all were under the death penalty in Levitucus 18 & 20. These are the sins that caused God to destroy the world in Noah's time and Sodom and Gomorrah. If God is merciful the land will simply vomit the people out (Leviticus 18-20). Asking forgiveness after the marriage did not allow Herod to keep his brother's wife and it would not allow a man to keep his husband or a woman her wife. God does not recognize them.
The Bowels of Abominations
As soon as the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy laws of Texas in 2003 a lawsuit was filed in Utah challenging Tom Green and Rodney Holm's polygamy convictions. Supreme Court justice Scalia in his dissenting opinion stated that state laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, adultery, fornication, and bestiality are called into question by that decision.
As American's have become embolden to not feel sufficed to merely commit such abominations they will seek to have them constitutionalized and rights sought for marriage in each respective category. These reprobate marriages will take Romans 1 and 2 to the next level as the people wholly overthrow the law of God in their minds and set themselves up for FULL BLOWN REPROBATION (Romans 1:28). You cannot excuse God from your heart to commit such sins and not be in danger of eternal damnation. First it will be men marry men and women marry women; then men and women marrying close family members. We know it today as incest, but it may soon be a civil right. If the Lord spares America from the same fires of Sodom ere many years pedifilia, pologamy, and beastility may well find their days in court. Prostitution may soon be as legal as gambling. Children could be perpetual victims of adult pedifilia. Adults may well take children not yet past the flower of their age to wife or husband (I Corinthians 7:36; also as did Muhummad). After America is overcome with pagan sexuality the only thing left is to integrate idols and their associated demons (Psalm 106:34-38). Temple prostitution could be legal within the next 10 years. All of these things should have any God fearing person vexed- as our society is now officially more abominable than Sodom and Gommorah in this regard (II Peter 2:8). Fear and trembling should be the state of anyone who knows their bible and God's track record of judgment. Genesis 6 would be the only abominations left to commit.
Why God Created Marriage
Didn\\'t the LORD make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union (Malachi 2:15 NLT). First of all God warns believers not to enter a marriage in which the other person is not a believer. The Mosaic Law clearly stated that an Israelite was never to marry a Canaanite. The Israelite would be constantly tempted to embrace the spouse\\'s god (Exodus 34:10-17; Deuteronomy 7:3-4). This is exactly what happened to Solomon (I Kings 11:1-9). Likewise, the apostle Paul commanded the members of the church at Corinth, \\"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers\\" (II Corinthians 6:14). Statistics reveal overwhelmingly that children whose father's do not serve God are most likely to rebel against God- regardless of whether the mother serves God or not. This leaves generations of damned souls being birthed into the earth. One act of disobedience in this commandment can contribute to the loss of multitudes of souls. A woman who marrys an ungodly man will come under his authority and headship (Ephesians 5:23). When he kicks against the pricks- she and her babies will be along for the ride. God created marriage to raise up godly seed in the earth- disregard this command and the exact opposite will happen. Who could stand watching their sons and daughters damned because they disobeyed God?! This thing ought never happen again among believers; but rebellion and lust is usually stronger than reason, sad stories, or threatenings. In what greater measure could a child of God possibly wax wanton, or sin against Christ than this?
Choosing a Mate
Man in his heart determines his way but the Lord directeth his steps (Proverbs 16:9). If a person seeking a mate will delight themselves in the Lord God will give them the desires of their heart (Psalm 37:4). Psalm 37:5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. When our mind is on God our priorities are right and God will give us the perfect mate. Going ahead of God is sure to bring disaster! God desires good things for His children. James tells us that when we ask sometimes we do not receive because our motive is not love- but lust (James 4:3). This is what Paul was referring to when He told Timothy that young widows often 'wax wanton' against Christ by going after a man at the expense of their relationship with God (I Timothy 5:11-13). Waiting on God is worth it.
Society in Chaos
The enemy seeks first and foremost to undermine the basic unit of the family, because it serves as the foundation from which a godly community is built (Malachi 2). We have watched as the spirit of antichrist has invaded our schools teaching children from a yound age that many abominations are ok to commit- calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Then the child goes home and Hollywood gives them a good dose of adultery and fornication as if they were normal behaviors. Then their parents divorce and a mass of confusion sets in until it's nearly impossible for those kids to fully recover. This is what Malachi 2:16 means when God said that divorce is as cruel as putting on your victim's bloodstained coat! (NLT).
I hear the cry of the Spirit saying God is tired of fornication. He's tired of adultery. He's tired of homosexuality. He's tired of the whoreing and whoremongering. He's most of all tired of the excuses! He is tired once again of the same sets of sins that have plagued mankind since Noah's time. Sins that once destroyed every breathing creature on earth save those on the ark- and caused fired to reduce Sodom and Gomorrah to a mere remembrance. People with eyes full of adultery are sinning and provoking God- totally ignoring warning after warning after warning (II Peter 2:14). People are leaving spouses without cause and unleashing a torrent of confused, twisted, and complex sin that no Spiritual gift can unwind. All that's left for them is judgment if they don't repent- God has talked all He's going to. Hell will be a refuge for these people if they quit not their sins (Compare Matthew 10:15 & Jude 7).
Writings of Divorcement
And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept (Mark 10:2-5). There were two schools of thought in Jesus time Hillel and Shammai; one believed adultery to be the only cause for divorce and the other would grant it over burned biscuits.
The Grievous Sin of Fornication
Fornication is a blanket term defined as any sexual contact between unmarried people. It runs the full gamut of sin from sins of the heart to beastility and beyond (Gk. pornea). It should not be confused with the sin of adultery that takes place when one or more of the parties involved are married to someone else, but adultery is still under the heading of fornication.
God did not intend that men and women treat their bodies like rental property before they get married. So serious was God in the Old Testament about people marrying in their virginity, that if a woman was supposed to be pure and could not produce the token of her virginity at the consummation of the marriage, she was to be taken to the doorway of her father's house and stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:21). If the daughter of a priest especially were guilty of fornication, she should be stoned and her body burnt (Leviticus 21:9); because these things, as Moses observes in Leveticus 19:29 and Deuteronomy 23:17,18, were a great abomination in the sight of God. The broken hymen is the source of the blood covenant that is made between the man and the woman (Hebrews 9:20). God is the witness of this covenant (Malachi 2:14).
Fornication and especially whoremongering is such an agredgeous sin that God has promised to judge the people who are involved (Hebrews 13:4). Fornication with multiple partners is the single greatest blow that can be dealt to a marriage before it is consummated. Fornication is a sin against God, your future wife, husband, and children. The jealousy that stirs from such behavior can only be dealt with righteously by staying full of the Holy Ghost. For when the flesh takes over it will result in some form of escapism, perversion or extreme anger and resentment.
The coming together of two to make one flesh is such a mysterious and sacred phenemona that we ought to fear and tremble at the very thought of fornication. A fornicator or whoremonger should fear and tremble before the Lord in sackloth and ashes- zealously seeking to conform to God's word. The body is not for fornication (I Cornthians 6:13), but belongs to God (v13b). As members of the Body of Christ we join Him to a harlot if we dare go in to them (v17). Fornication is the only sin that is specifically against our own body (v18), the Temple of the Holy Ghost (v19). If any person defiles this Temple of God (their body)- God Himself will destroy them (I Corinthians 3:17). To avoid fornication everyone who cannot control themselves needs their own wife or husband (I Corinthians 7:1&2). I Corinthians 10:8 reminds us that God killed 21,000 people in one day over the sin of fornication. In II Corinthians 12:21 Paul bewailed the lack of repentance of fornicators and in I Corinthians 5:2 he rebuked them for not mourning of the extreme fornication going on in that Spirit Filled Church. He took it upon himself to order them to turn the man over to satan so he would repent and not loose his soul (I Corinthians 5:5).
Fornication is the one sin that places us in danger of forfeiting our birthright as Christians (Hebrews 12:16). I Corinthians 5 and Galatians 5 tell us that unrepentant fornicators will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Paul told Timothy to flee fornication (II Timothy 2:22). We are not to fellowship with fornicators (I Corinthians 5:11), because a little leaven leavens the whole lump (I Corinthians 5:6). Allowing fornication to go unaddressed emboldens others to commit the sin. Paul told the Ephesian church not to allow the sin to be named even once among their congregation (Ephesians 5:3). Colossians 3:5-7 tells us that fornication brings the wrath of God upon those who commit it and names them as children of disobedience. The greatest aspect of our sanctification is to abstain from sexual sin (I Thessalonians 4:3). And that, because fornication leads to the pagan practice of temple prostitutes and the like and eventually must lead to idolatry. Solomon is the greatest example of how sexual sin can so dominate a life that it would lead to us forsaking God all together for the allurement of idols. This is brought about by the frequency of yielding to the forbidden sexual sins to no satisfaction. The dulled heart then turns to the mighty sin elixir of idol worship to regain the temporary satisfaction of that sin.
The Damnable Sin of Adultery
Adultery is rampant in society and in the Church. It is a sin that is of an exceptional heonousness in that it opens the door for men to raise Children that are not theirs or women to grieve over their husband's mistress's babies as did Sarah with Hagar (Genesis 16). The Old Testament leveled the death penalty for such sins (Deuteronomy 22). And that because people who did such things corrupted whole family geneologies with their sin. Not to mention the extreme hurt and pain that it causes the marriage partner that has kept their vow.
