CHAPTER FOUR

God has always demonstrated concern for human families. He promised the Patriarch Abraham that in his Seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, Genesis 28:14. God has also invested human sexuality with the ability to pro create other human beings, each as much in the 'Image and Likeness of God' as was Adam and Eve!

It is a sin of treason against God if people take what God gave and intended for good and for blessing, and use it to ruin and to defile themselves and other people. They usurp Divine agency and commit sin with it. God gave strict commandments NOT to do it. "Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14)."

Fornicators and adulterers conceive babies outside of God's provision. Today, many add murder to their sin of fornication or adultery, by murdering their baby. It is called Abortion. The womb, because of abortion, has become a deadly place for many babies! People ignore or choose not to accept these facts, but they are true. Such sinners will give account to God at the judgment for the babies they have murdered.

People who espouse supposed "sexual freedom" are under the condemnation of Psalms 2:1-5.

"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and His Anointed, saying, Let us break their BANDS asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (My emphasis.) He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His displeasure."

Isn't that what is happening in our society today? Don't sexual perverts seek to desecrate Marriage, by imposing their 'choice' of sexual orientation? Aren't many sex sinners practicing fornication? They choose to call it "A live-in relationship." Harmless sounding names for sins doesn't purge them: they're still sins. Legal sanction doesn't help. The Legal system of the United States is under the same indictment of Divine justice. Psalms 2:1-5 applies equally to Governments, Judges and to individuals.

The Divinely given high, and exalted privilege of pro creating human beings, each made in the Image and Likeness of God, requires great responsibility. God holds fathers and mothers and accountable for their "family unit" and for the offspring within it. Notice that God commended the 'wise woman' in Proverbs 14:1. "Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands."

The Philippian Jailer in Acts 16:31 didn't know that salvation would ensue for his 'house' when he asked how to be saved. But Paul and Silas told him: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house." Thus, God extended salvation to the first European convert and to his 'house'.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house (Acts 16:31)." It is ever the same, for all who wish to be saved from their sins and from the eternal punishment for sins.

The jailer and all his, was baptized the same night, rejoicing and believing in God with all his house. Certainly, that verse intends his family, not the building he lived in when he was 'off duty'. Surely, Acts 16:31 is a great promise.

Godly parenthood is such a high, sacred position, that God demands that children honor and obey their mother and their father. That is the first of the Ten Commandments with promise, according to Ephesians 6:2. According to Exodus 21:17 the death penalty was incurred when a child cursed his father or his mother.

God is the Creator of mankind. When He saves a lost soul, it is by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3:5. James 1:18 tells us that God begets us (born again believers) with the Word of Truth. In this way, He becomes literally, our heavenly Father.

A husband and wife begets children through sexual conception and child birth. In this manner they become Pro Creators. By Divine Agency, they together, CREATE a human soul, which has never existed before! It is an awesome responsibility to conceive a child! God's command in Genesis 1:28 to replenish the earth was extended to all the human race through Adam and Eve.

God provided for the best possible environment for a baby to be born into. He demands that husbands and wives respond in kind, by living within Holy Wedlock.

When men and women desecrate their moral character and conscience by practicing sex sin, they lose the moral conviction and stamina to set right moral standards for their children. Children must have a moral conscience in order

to be responsible citizens. Many parents aren't able to control their children today. So the Government seeks to take the role of parents. But an amoral Government can't induce a moral conscience in children.

Acts 16:31 is the promise of God for the sake of a Godly family. Christian faith produces strong moral qualities. Responsible parents ought to work to instill that in their children. It can become a strong reference for them.

A baby is a new human being entirely. It begins with a blank slate as far as active intelligence and experience goes. They do not have the maturity and the extent of intelligence that Adam and Eve had at creation. They were created as adults. Babies must gain maturity, and the parents are intended to be their first

and chief teachers. The parents are responsible for the child until it reaches the time when it can reasonably make choices based on instruction and experience. Thus, Proverbs 22:6 bids to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

God's Presence hallows holy wed lock. Wed lock is holy and sacred even among unsaved spouses, because marriage was instituted before sin entered the world. Many unsaved married people also become aware that there is a mystic reality to their marriage. It is not an empty ritual!

God's Presence and general blessing is in every marriage that is made in accord with His Institution. That does not mean that they receive God's gift of eternal life simply by getting married. Eternal life must be received by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Rather, it means that they are under the blessing of Genesis 1:28. That was not given for salvation from sin; there wasn't any sin in this world at that time. It was for blessing in pro creation, for family, and for social welfare of man kind.

Lust, sin, greed, and faddish ideas are not grounds for disregarding God's purpose. When people turn away from what God has given, they ALWAYS descend to a corrupt existence. Witness what is happening in our National society today. Crime, injustice, out of control children and every other social ill can be traced to an abandonment of Divine Law. That social track will incur God's judgment. Every nation of history has proved that fact.

Because of man's disrespect for Divine Law, human society has had to institute laws regarding divorce, remarriage, division of goods, child custody and support. Alimony is a dreadful substitute for Divine provision! Also, alimony does not release us from responsibility to God.

In His kindness, under the Law of Moses, God permitted divorce upon the condition of adultery. Jesus in the New Testament conceded the same. But divorce isn't God's will, and it is not His best for people. Divorced persons often must deal with distresses that attend divorce. Also, God will judge any sin involved, at the Judgment Day, unless they repent beforehand.

There is much misery and distress in society because people ignore or defy God's wise, holy, provision. The Lord Jesus said that when a man divorces his wife, except for her sex sin, HE causes HER to commit adultery!

He puts her away, supposing that he is free from her and can 'get on' with his life as he pleases. Yet he must stand before God to give account of himself. God has said that He is going to judge adulterers and whore mongers.

The only way to escape that part of judgment is firstly, not to divorce. Secondly, by repentance and obtaining God's forgiveness for sins. Because Jesus promised that every sin that man commits shall be forgiven him (upon his seeking it is implied), adulterers can be forgiven and saved from penalty at judgment.

According to Romans 5:12, sin and death entered into the world by one man, Adam. Since Adam is the federal head of the human race, every descendant of his is born into the same condition of sin into which he fell. Romans 3:23 emphatically states that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. People ARE lost in sin by means of their sin nature, inherited from Adam, and by their own choice.

1 Corinthians 15:22 states: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That is, those who are descended from Adam all die because of their sins. Those in Christ, by virtue of the new birth, shall all be made alive. The natural descendants of Adam are born but once, and will die twice, according to Revelation 20:15. Those who are born again through faith in Christ, are born twice, and will, maybe, die once, if at all. Some believers are going to escape death when Jesus Christ comes from heaven to receive us to Himself.

Reader, are you born again through faith in Jesus Christ? If you don't know what that means, you may not be, but you ought to find out! Your eternal destiny hangs upon whether you are born again, or not. Romans 10:9-10 clearly states how to be born again. Please read it in your Bible and just DO as it says.

The Lord Jesus Christ said that except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. It is only through the new birth through faith in Jesus Christ, that a person can escape the nature of sin, with which we were all born.

We can only receive the new nature and eternal life in Christ by the new birth. John 3:3-5. When one is born again, he enters a new position of privilege in Christ. He receives access into the grace of God in which he stands, and has peace with God. If he develops his faith enough he can obtain God's grace to help him with every aspect of life, including marriage, family, job, and societal standing in his community. Jesus called such believers the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.