The Great Conspiracy

February 16

It’s truly mind boggling the number of men who are in our local jail who just don’t get it. I ministered for nearly two years to them trying to help them get a grasp on the problems they were bringing upon themselves by violating God’s plan for marriage. During that time I met over forty men who were in jail because they yelled at, verbally abused, or physically abused the woman with whom they were living out of wedlock. Every single one acknowledged the problem and assured me they would not continue in that situation once they got out of jail. Most of them are out of jail now. Not one has changed with regard to his idea of marriage and recognition that sexual sin is an abomination to God (I Cor. 3:16, 17, 6:18; I Thes. 4:3-5).

Just today, I confronted a young man who came to me several months ago, destitute, without a job, having just been left hanging at the altar by a girl with whom he had a beautiful child. A few months ago, he came to me and informed me he wanted to get his life in order, do whatever was necessary to be pleasing to God, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. I assured him the journey would not be easy. He assured me he didn’t care; he just wanted to be right with God. Apparently, he was the soil of thorns as depicted in Matthew 13:7, 22. If anyone has suggested to you following Jesus is easy, they have lied to you. He made it abundantly clear following Him would require us to take up our cross daily. That means we must die to self daily and live to God. We can’t continue to seek self gratification and expect to be pleasing to our Creator. Jesus makes a rather disturbing statement in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” A few years back I was counseling a man who had just gotten out of jail. I quoted the above verse to him. He was incredulous. He told me he wasn’t interested in following a God who presumed to be more important than his own wife. Let it be known to all reading this study. God will not be placed in a league with any created thing. He will not play “second fiddle” to any person, place, or thing. He is God, and there is no other God besides Him (Deut. 32:39).

Satan is the head of the great conspiracy. He wants you to believe that woman or man you’re dating is the answer to your loneliness, your feelings of being unloved, your sexual drives, and/or your insatiable lust for sex. He is the father of lies. I pray my following comments don’t offend the woman I love, but when I met and married her nearly forty years ago, I didn’t love her. Frankly, I must confess, had no idea what love was. I did lust for her, because I had no one who could explain to me the difference. The only thing that save her was that she tested God along the entire path of our relationship. She asked him to verify I was the one He had for her with a variety of signs. I was a brand new, wet behind the ears, confused, hot blooded, all American boy who loved God but didn’t have a clue what He expect of me. Of course, since then, I have grown to appreciate and love her as I didn’t believe it was possible for a man to love a woman.

The point of my own confession and this story about a dear friend who is currently caught up in his own sin is this. Satan has a plan and God has a plan. God’s plan is that a man and woman must not cohabit or have any sexual activity until they are married. Satan's pl;an is that any man and woman who want to "get it on" have his blessing. Sex is an incredible blessing when it is practiced in a marriage between a man and a woman who have taken the vows of exclusivity and lifelong faithfulness. When a man and a woman who love God have entered into that covenant, God’s blessing on that relationship is guaranteed, and it is boundless. Outside of His plan and prescription for marriage, the relationship is doomed to mediocrity at best and it is doomed to divorce at worst. More than 50% of marriages that began with two people living together end in divorce. Why would any sane human being play Russian Roulette with those kinds of odds.

My closing counsel for any reading this study is to seek God about anyone with whom you are considering a lifelong relationship in marriage. He will faithfully reveal to you if that relationship has His blessing. Seeking His blessing will protect you from marrying anyone who will, at some future time, make it clear he/she was a phony.

(I Cor. 7:1-16; 11:3-10; I Thes. 4:3-6; Col. 3:17-19; Eph. 5:22-33; I Pet. 3:1-7; I Tim. 2:11--14)