Case Histories

     The palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of paradise. Thomas Paine

     I know a family who has been made merchandise by the state. The man and woman came together and made their vows, "till death do us part." They supposedly had a Christian relationship. They have two children, one boy and one girl. Somewhere along the way things become really awful. The woman decides that she cannot stand the man anymore. She wants out of their relationship. She tries to figure out how to get rid of her husband.

     She is persuaded to claim her husband is a child abuser. He denies the charge. "What? Me a child abuser? No way, I love my children," he says.

     The wife kicks out her husband and runs to the state for welfare assistance. She finds a lawyer who puts out a restraining order that prevents the husband from seeing his children. In the meantime, she is filing divorce papers saying, "I don't want to see that guy anymore." The grounds? "Irreconcilable differences and he is a pervert. He plays with little children."

     There has been no evidence, no proof of any kind. It really doesn't matter anyway, because they are still married, for better or worse. However, the state is involved and they are going to be her covering instead of her husband. The state proceeds ahead and grants her a divorce, whatever that means.

     The husband is now under a restraining order so that he cannot see his children and the state is demanding child support and threatening him with jail if he does not comply.

     The husband is outraged. He skips the country to get his head back in order. He ponders, "How do I get my children back? Do I have to steal my own children?" Finally, he realizes that would not be smart. He might spend many years in prison if he is caught.

     The state was instrumental in breaking up his marriage. And now the state is keeping his family apart. He feels powerless. A little later his wife meets another man. She thinks she is free to marry this new man. Her true husband is looking at himself and saying, "Here I am, a victim of this whole thing. I want my wife and children back, but they are inaccessible."

     He goes back to mommy and daddy's house, a beaten man. He lives with them. He is afraid to even step outside and look at a woman because he wants his wife. The question becomes, does he believe what the state did? His wife is no longer available. Everybody in the world says that they are divorced and that he has been set free of his marriage vows. But according to the Christian religion, there was no divorce. It was all lies and all the lies were promoted by the state.

     Here is a destroyed man, all at the expense of the state. The state, who claims to be our protector, is no protector at all. Only time will tell how the Lord is going to use this man. Maybe the Lord wants him to be single or separated from his wife. Perhaps the Lord has some work for him to do in the ministry, all is not lost. We have to remember that for the sake of the Gospel this man might be in a position where he is required to live a life apart from his wife and children. If this man remarries, then he will have believed the state, rather than the teachings of Jesus Christ.

     There might come a time in the future, that his wife repents of her foolishness and comes back to him. But maybe she will never come back, it is in the Lord's hands. If the husband moves in with another woman and pretends to be married to her, it will make it much more difficult to make the long trek back to his true and lawful Christian wife.

Woman not eligible to marry again

     There are other situations which come to mind. There is another family where the woman was married and had one child. The man was not being responsible and, for whatever cause, he took off and left her without a covering. She was then forced to go to work and leave the child with her parents.

     In the meantime, a fine young Christian man of upright character found her and took pity upon her situation. He told her, "I will marry you. I will put you under my covering." He is raising the child as his own and together they are raising three more children. They have lived together for approximately seven years.

     Was this man's marriage approved by God? No. Jesus says that anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Luke 16:18). This man with good intent, is living an adulterous life. When he finds out his sin, he has some major decisions to make. He must either continue living in adultery, or move out.

     The woman has been living in adultery. She is not with her husband. The man has never been married in the eyes of God, even though the state considers him married. He has been in fornication the whole time. No, not adultery, but fornication because he has never been lawfully married. He is a fornicator. He is living with a married woman. There are four children involved. He has to decide if he is going to continue to live in sin, or if he is going to remove himself from the sinful relationship and repent.

     Someone says, "Oh, how can you possibly say these kinds of things. Look at the trouble these people are in. How can this be a loving God?" I say these people should have thought about it before they did what they did. We do have a loving God, but we have disobeyed Him. He disapproves of this adulterous generation. He disapproves of it so much He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He will also destroy the United States if it continues in its course.

     Where should this man go in his situation? Number one, if he is going to be repentant, he must quit his relationship with this woman. He still has a responsibility to the children. They need to be raised. He has a financial responsibility to them. This man is free to marry. He can marry any believer who has not been previously married.

     The woman is still a married woman. She only has one husband and she needs to relocate him. Otherwise, she lives a separate life and her husband also leads a separate life. Even though it is a hard life, living as a single person is an option. God sanctions living separately. God also says that if you are going to come together as one flesh, it is for life. Divorce and remarriage are not an option.

God is our true husband

     I know what is going on in your mind. You are thinking, "How can God be so cruel?" Are you telling me that God is cruel because he sanctions one marriage for life? Do you think God would sanction polygamy? If God sanctioned polygamy, He would also sanction that you could worship other gods. And you could stage them the way you wanted. No, God is a jealous God. He wants your entire allegiance.

     You have to remember, God divorced Israel. He was unhappy. He was distraught with Israel because Israel was in rebellion to God. By His grace, He said, "I will take you back if you are repentant." God isn't going to marry anyone else. He is going to take His wife back, but it is based upon your repentance. He is saying, "I don't want you out there committing adultery." In spiritual realms, it is known as idolatry. If we continue to worship the state as a god, then God Almighty is distraught with us. He will have nothing to do with us. He effectively divorces us because He does not have our full loyalty.

     We have to remember, God is our true Husband. If God is going to take us back, then we have to repent. God has the absolute right to put us away. He does not have to receive us back for our adultery or for our idolatry. He can put us away forever, eternally. But the Gospel grace is that He sent His Son to make a blood covenant with us. God said, "I will remarry you. This is My grace. This is My love. This is My mercy. You have no excuse for your idolatry. But by My grace, I want you to repent and put aside your sins and I will receive you."

     Meanwhile the state, as your adversary, is busy painting castles in the air, trying to convince you that God doesn't really want you back. The state says, "God is harsh. God is unmerciful. But we are merciful. We will let you have polygamy."

Destroying what you admire

     It reminds me of a story. A woman admired a young man. This young man had four children and a wife - a very happy, stable family. And this woman was very jealous of this family. She wanted this man for herself. She sought to persuade this man to marry her. She worked diligently to tempt this man to leave his wife and children. She presented herself as a luscious, beautiful woman. She fed his ego and did everything she could to tear him away from his wife and children. One day, she finally succeeds. The man leaves his wife and children and marries her.

     Do you know what happened? She lost the very thing that she tried to gain. The man is no longer loyal. The man is now a sluggard. The man has no further respect for marriage. The man is an adulterer. He has literally been destroyed. This woman, in the process of gaining this man's affection, destroyed all the qualities she admired in him.

     Who are the players? The state is the seducing woman. The state is jealous of the love we have for God and His Kingdom. For the state to gain our loyalty, it must persuade us to hate our Father in Heaven and leave Him and commit idolatry with the state. That is what the state has done. When the state gains our allegiance, what are we? We are unloyal, unfaithful idolaters who obey man rather than God.

     The state promotes our sins. As long as we remain in sin, we can never approach our true Husband, which is Christ. That is the entire obligation of the state. As long as the state can keep us in sin, then the state will own us.

God wills that we repent

     There is a realm of sin. Sin includes all sins. If you have even the tiniest sin, you are in sin. I've heard many people say, "I had a wife and it didn't work out." And the woman says, "I had a husband and it didn't work out." But now they say the Lord has put them together and they claim to be happily married. They are active in a church. They are educating their children at home. They do many wonderful things in the Lord's name, but I cannot applaud them. The reason is because they are both committing adultery, and adultery is a sin. I don't care how many good works they do for the Lord, they are still in sin. They cannot pay their way into Heaven. All their workings in the world will never get them into Heaven. As long as they remain in the sin of adultery, they cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What these people need to do is repent of their sin and then continue to do their good works and leave them not undone.

     Here is the problem. People do not perceive that adultery is sin. The reason is that the state told them that when they obtain a divorce, they are free to marry someone else. The state lied. What God has bound together, no man and no state can tear apart.

     Why would anybody ever need permission from the state to marry? Isn't marriage the institution of God? It is not an institution of man. What the state has done is granted you permission to get married, so they can also dissolve your marriage. There is a maxim of law that says, "Whatever one creates, one can destroy." What the state is claiming is that they created your marriage. Therefore, they can dissolve it. That is where the lie is. The state does not have authority nor power to bind or dissolve any marriage. Marriage is strictly an institution of God. It is His institution. It is not a state institution.

     I've had other people come up to me in their adulterous relationship and say, "I've been living with my adulterous girl- friend for the last ten years. I've never felt anything inside of me that says I'm doing anything wrong. It feels pretty good. We are really happy. I don't see where you are coming from."

     Here is the mistake. The Word of God is not emotional. The Word of God is His Word. It has nothing to do with your emotions. I don't care whether you feel good or bad about a situation. I know a lot of sin that I've done, and it has always felt good. Sin always feels good for awhile, but eventually all sin leads unto death (Romans 6:23). All sin is subject to judgment and judgment is condemnation. The adversary is an expert at making you feel good about sin. But remember this, the Word of God says adultery is sin. All sin will be judged and the judgment will lead to condemnation.

     Thanks be to God, he has given us a way out. It is known as repentance. We are not dealing with feelings. We are talking about doing God's will. He wills that we repent. To be obedient to His will, and not to our feelings, is to repent so that we may see the Kingdom of Heaven.