A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to be Bitter against One’s Wife and How not to Make a Husband Bitter – Part 4

Who can find a virtuous woman? Pro 31:10

[Study Aired August 5, 2023]

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 

  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them” – Col 3:18,19. 

All young women passionate about the Lord in Babylonian Christianity aspire to be the Proverbs 31 wife, and all young, another-Jesus-centric (2 Cor 11:1) males believe that if they can attain her, they will secure the foundation of a perfect life. Deep in both parties lies disquiet for the unidentifiable complication that dogs their spirit.  A seemingly inevitable disconnection that their peers and the world have proven for thousands of years, yet the nuptials cannot define. Yet, off they go hand in hand to the teary-eyed, overjoyed wedding guests’ farewells.

Sadly, in today’s world, newlyweds are rarely virgins, with the husbands being delighted that their living together arrangements have proven too big a fuss has been made about her seemingly folkloric tardy arousals; she has proven them all wrong! And for now, she has ~ as did Israel in the wilderness.

This scriptural business of his wife having a heart that ‘ensnares and nets’ his libertine freedom certainly doesn’t indicate that she has “hands like bands” over his self-proclaimed steamy liberty. The righteous and respectful husband, at least in the flesh, believes the same.

Exo 19:8 And all the people [Israel, the Lord’s first wife] answered together and said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people to Jehovah. 

Nonetheless, most young husbands have been educated for the past seventy years yet do not necessarily respect nor fully understand a wife’s much slower boudoir arousals. Despite that, the flush of sensual wedding preparations, the big day and now the honeymoon unwittingly amplifies her every Shulamite sensory allurement for mutual delight.

As time passes, the husband sees little cues of discontent and disdain in his wife’s body language that increase alarmingly for his anytime indulgences of the flesh. He can’t believe that his lovely wife is enacting that harsh term, rejection ~ and she doesn’t seem to care! He’s hit with a tonne of bricks in the flesh, at least when he realises what Solomon meant when he said, “And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her”. (Ecc 7:26)

It is commonly believed that a woman invites intimacy. That is true in every sense of her beautiful sensual self, yet the protocols are utterly back-to-front. Rather, our Lord invites/drags us to his spiritual self, and we, the woman, are given to enthusiastically respond, as exemplified by the Shulamite.

Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Our lovely ladies in the Body of Christ electrifyingly understand the depth of a wife ruling a husband, as do their husbands, and the stab in both parties’ self-righteous hearts for the “curse” is fading. Our wound is healing, and we look forward to learning outstanding Shulamite daily arousals.

By the Lord’s design, a virtuous wife’s most potent instrument of seduction and power (ironically, she dissolutely craved in the flesh) is every detail of her Christ-authentic self! Christ wants daily to be seduced (Son 4:9) by this beauty, who mirrors his virtuously seductive qualities and is the impetus of mutual arousal and honouring both husbands.

Let’s now see how we can amplify our Lord’s glory that is guaranteed to inflame rebounding arousal for us. The answer for a Babylonian is downright boring; simply keep the commandments with all your heart, and its hidden result is the gift of “kisses”, the holy spirit.

Col 1:26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
Col 1:27 For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, 

Joh 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments. 
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, 
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you.
Joh 15:16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.

The Body of Christ, wherever he is in the World, is alone chosen by God to receive the spirit of Christ and his Father. They alone have been given to see all the nuances of how a husband is not to be bitter against his wife, and she in no way causes him to be bitter!

However, the now jaded wife is mostly a disengaged marionette waiting for her sweating, ghoulish husband to learn, <>most un-Shulamite-like, by himself, how to awaken her millions of sensory delights. Five years into marriage, they grow barley-subdued bitterness and frequently divorce. Self-righteous commitment to their mutual shabby understandings guarantees them mourning negatively, ‘all things are yours’ (1 Cor 3:21), and hopefully positively physically and spiritually for the Saints.

The Shulamite’s Terrible Blue Lyrics

And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (Rev 4:6. Eze 1:22).

‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned’ (or sometimes ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’) is usually attributed to the English playwright and poet William Congreve. He wrote these lines in his play [ironically] The Mourning Bride, 1697:

Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,

Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d. [Quote: The Phrase Finder]

Pro 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

Who can find an unscorned, joyfully virtuous woman who has made herself ready?

Christ, of course, is the answer!

Upon understanding the previous three parts of this study and seeing how we are becoming far less that woman from Mt. Agar, it seems almost trite to further examine the Shulamite’s arousals. Yet, rather than merely talk and muse about the Shulamite’s methodology, we must, with Rachel’s bright eyes, walk the talk.

Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The Internet is crammed full of sex therapists’ (Babylonian churches) “how-tos” to fix every intricate detail of broken bedroom intimacies to the volume it runs out of our noses and mostly frustration. Men and women of all ages, ethnicities and spiritual persuasions have their ‘proven’ method of ‘fixing’ the eternal unrighteous disunion of female torpor and male vigour, equal to Agar and Jerusalem above and Queen Vashti, Queen Esther and Amnon’s embarrassing lust (2 Sam 13). None of the worldly fixers of intimacies has the absurdly simple answer, bar the Bride of Christ by her Lord’s hand, to which we are somewhat sorry that it appears ostentatious but delighted that it’s the Lord’s doing.  

Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 
Joh 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

The first line in the Song of Solomon states the end from the beginning, “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s” (Son 1:1)

It is her glorious “song of songs” since it holds the master key to the “Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to Be Bitter against One’s Wife & How Not to Make a Husband Bitter”. It is her, the Bride of Christ’s God-given modus operandi.

Almost all physical, psychological and past sexual abusive complications precipitously decrease by the Shulamite’s methodology guided by her Lord’s spirit. So, let’s begin.

In Babylon, as did Israel, most wives drop the ball soon after marriage and breathe a micro-expressed irritated sigh for their husband’s goal-focused ardour. Christ is also goal-focused with his Bride, yet at a far more leisurely pace ~ something like 2,000 years of Shulamite foreplay.

Long-standing marriages maturing from torrid youthful sexuality doesn’t mean the Lord slackens off with His ardour for His wife. Only weak flesh invariably grows weary, disguising it as maturity. Fleshy maturity is worth nothing if it doesn’t point to its spiritual counterpart, where spiritual ardour takes up the slack.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. 

Rev 3:15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot. 
Rev 3:16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 

Like the Shulamite, almost all brides and cute, dreamy, righteous young girls in times past spent months or years preparing for every detail of their marriage. Such a bride doesn’t realise that she is passively and unwittingly arousing her mind for her wedding day, just as we do spiritually daily in the Body’s studies. Upon marriage, and after the first few years, the flush of heated bedroom intimacies subsides, and she becomes more exasperated that her husband hasn’t likewise “matured”. They don’t understand that the husband’s potency (subject to health) reflects the permanency and vigour of Christ and spirit life.

At one hundred years, Abraham sired Isaac (Gen 18) and, in part, reflects the Lord’s undying flame for his wife by washing her with the word, the ultimate “maturity”. 

Joh 8:51 Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man keeps My Word, he shall never see death.

We don’t know if Abraham and Sarah had matured past direct sexual expression; nonetheless, it is an immense relief, particularly for wives, to have limited child-bearing fruitfulness. Yet, maturity is a work of spiritual progress for the Lord’s purpose in us.

Husbands and wives have to stop thinking that “sex” is penetrative intimacies. Wives will irritatedly remark that is what they have been advocating for thousands of years! ~ righteous husbands will equally be miffed for the direct accusation against their bedroom prowess. As Lord willing, we hope to see “sex” as a state of consistent micro-arousals moment by moment, hour by hour and daily that keep us constantly in a state of spiritual arousal that doesn’t have to end in penetration (interestingly, in contemporary terms means discernment; piercing, equivalent to “terrible crystal” clarity). It builds anticipatory tension in a husband to be instant in thought for his wife to delight in coming home to her increasing beauty; it is really that simple.

Col 4:2 Be instant in prayer: watching in it with thanksgiving.
Col 4:3 Praying withal for us also, that God may open unto us a door of speech to speak the mystery of Christ (for which also I am bound): (DRB) 

1Ch 16:9 Sing [the Shulamite song] to Him, sing psalms to Him, talk of all His wondrous works.
1Ch 16:10 Glory in His holy name, let the heart of those who seek Jehovah rejoice. 
1Ch 16:11 Seek Jehovah and His strength; seek His face continually. 
1Ch 16:12 Remember His marvelous works which He had done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth [as the Shulamite amorously did].

For the major part, those moments-by-moment micro-spiritual arousals through immersion in prayer arouse within the mystery of Christ, our Lover. It is not a state of lukewarm.

The Lord designed that blindness until the Shulamite was given the lyrical key to her Song of Songs! She now enthusiastically and unashamedly set about building her house (Pro 14:1). To most Babylonian wives, their wedding night laid the foundation for her home, and she doesn’t have the structural (Lord’s) understanding of how to finish her Temple, neither does her ‘other Jesus’ husband. Their subsequent few years quickly establish bitterness in her husband, who no longer knows how to love his wife, not that he ever did, and she, like Leah, feels rejected and is tearfully bewildered. 

Luk 14:27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple. 
Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he may have enough to finish it;
Luk 14:29 lest perhaps, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all those seeing begin to mock him, 

Luk 14:3 saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

The primary effect of a wife not having the passion to finish building her house is embedded in the curse of her rulership over her husband.Unconsciously, she wonderfully prepared her mind and body for her wedding night, and in subsequent years, Queen Vashti style (attempted) forced her husband to come to her. Like King Ahasuerus (akh-ash-vay-rosh), he is humiliated by her rulership over his headship and becomes bitter for her Laodocean spirit. She, marionette-like, now expects him to work enchantment on her mind and body, just as the 40,000 wives of Babylonian Christianity lay limp before their workers of magic arts, plucking her strings and breathlessly singing their song of lies to tingle her ears.

To physically and spiritually refuse to come at our husband’s behest to see our arousing beauty will result in Esther taking our place. 

Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

One of the doctrines that the Lord’s wife will be ruling with the rod of iron in the One Thousand Year rulership of her “young women” (and men) is how to love their husbands, and he, her. Unlike the Shulamite, to their endless frustration and ironic “bitterness”, both parties will be forced to sustain submission and be under rulership.

Eze 1:22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible^H3372 crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

Noah and his family, upon exiting the Ark, were the first humans to ever see the vast blue sky of the firmament above; from Eden to this point in time, mist and clouds obscured the entire sky. Now, the sun shone like lightning in the pure atmosphere in a setting of sapphire blue. The site from the mountains of Ararat was breathtakingly “terrible” [H3372 – 1. to fear, revere, be afraid a. (Qal) 1. to fear, be afraid 2. to stand in awe of, be awed 3. to fear, reverence, honour, respect] It all represents Christ the sun/Son sitting in his heavenly throne for the coming terrible clarity of his word in our heavens. Our understanding will become reverently clear as crystal and utterly free from the clouds of darkness that covered the understanding of our former selves represented as the Egyptians, Old Jerusalem and the Israelites in the wilderness, and Babylon (Exo 14:19,20)

The Shulamite was equally “black” and thus hidden from Solomon’s understanding, yet she saw her Lord’s ravishings of her in trembling awe, honour and respect in the crystal clarity of understanding. She now perfectly understands how to arouse her naturally inherent morbidity of excitement for her Lord’s word.

The “we” in the following verse is the Shulamite’s 1,000 sisters, Solomon’s figurative Babylonian Christian wives all running after a different Jesus, and only the Shulamite sees with terrible crystal clarity.

Son 1:4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
Son 1:5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Son 1:6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun [Christ] hath looked upon me: my mother’s children [Old Israel and today, Babylon] were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept [her Lord is the keeper of her vineyard bringing forth his fruit from her following much pruning and dunging].

“The Shulamite’s Terrible Blue Lyrics” methodology is to plan daily cunningly skilful seductions. In the flesh, her God-designed beautiful femininity is perfectly designed to sexually arouse her husband; it faultlessly aligns with the Bride’s daily spiritual arousals that her Lord is ravished to be equally “sick of love” (Son 2:4)

The terrible crystal is a type of Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Solomon desperately tried to look behind his understanding of the Shulamite, Return, Return, Return that we may look upon you without success. Conversely, Job, like the Shulamite, was given to look behind him and have their eyes opened to their respective “terrible crystal” understandings.

Out of all the women and wives ever to exist, only the Bride of Christ leaves behind the sexual and spiritual contrivances more bitter than death that Saul, Jonathan, and Solomon knew in the flesh that a woman could never suppress the reliable love of another man, in the reality of Christ.

Ecc 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
Ecc 7:28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. 

2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. 
2Sa 1:24 Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. 
2Sa 1:25 How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
2Sa 1:26 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
2Sa 1:27 How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

We have gone full circle: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee” (Son 1:2-3). 

Luk 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word [every Shulamite-received kiss] of God.

The Shulamite has “reversed the curse” physically and spiritually at her Lord’s hand. She has seen how not to make a husband bitter in terrible blue crystal clarity. She enthusiastically uses her immensely seductive and glorious femininity first by dwelling on skilful micro-intensities of physically awakening her husband (absurdly easy!) to keep his mind on her. In doing that, she automatically and semi-consciously awakens and prepares her body and mind ~ spiritually, the process is precisely the same!

She IS the one “man” without “many inventions” (Ecc7:29) among 1,000 awakened in perfect clarity by her methodology.

Rev 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 
Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

She has attained her body’s most powerful indirect rulership for (not over) her Husband’s glory.

That is the pure simplicity of not making a carnal and spiritual man/Christ bitter against his wife and ALL to her glory in Him.

Her price is far above rubies!

Hello Mike,

If you believe in God, then you believe that God created our bodies, and the way human beings reproduce was His idea, His creation. God created our hormones and designed our bodies to react a certain way around members of the opposite sex.

So here’s my question. If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does He criminalize it when our bodies simply do what He created them to do?  I have trouble making any sense of this. Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for humans beings to reproduce? One that doesn’t involve lust or sin?

I am going to provide a link to a video discussion on this topic. You may even be familiar with one or both of these men. Anyway, I am supposing that their take on this is different than yours. Both of these men claim to be teaching the Gospel.

Thanks, R____

Hi R____,

The first thing I will tell you is that I have had the exact same thoughts you express here:

So here’s my question. If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does He criminalize it when our bodies simply do what He created them to do?  I have trouble making any sense of this. Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for humans beings to reproduce? One that doesn’t involve lust or sin?”

What you say here about our sexual instincts is just as true about all of our fleshly instincts and the breaking of any of Christ’s commandments. Why did he make us to just naturally hate our enemies, disrespect our parents, lie, covet and put physical possessions ahead of spiritual wealth? Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for human beings to learn to love their enemies, honor and respect their parents, always tell the truth, never covet, etc? Just like you, I did not see the need to have to overcome so many of the pulls of our flesh and to go through the humility of dying daily with Him on His cross.

I was personally especially frustrated with why in the world God would, after putting Satan in prison for a thousand years, after having turned the rulership of this world over to His elect who had overcome the beast within us all and were granted to rule with Him over the nations of this world for that thousand years, after going to all that trouble, why would He then release Satan again “to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth” during “a little season [when] the thousand years are expired.”

Here is that story:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The Defeat of Satan

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the

In the same presumptuous spirit (Job 40:1-8), I actually told God that if I were Him, I would have made mankind with perfect spiritual bodies to begin with, and I would have completely avoided all the “fiery trials” (1Pe 4:12) of this physical life, with all of its sin, shame, suffering, adultery, fornication, stealing and murder, and bearing His cross and being “hated of all men for His name’s sake”. In my Job-like self-righteousness I had a much better way than His way.

So I can honestly say that I can identify with what you say here, but I must also tell you that you and I are both very spiritually immature and ruled by our carnal mindset when we think in those very natural terms. Being flesh is a curse through which we are all predestined to live whether or not we understand why:

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

The men you cite say, “He made us this way, so it must be good.” I sometimes wonder if either of these men bothered reading the scriptures except to find verses that seem to say that flesh is not evil in and of itself.

The Truth of the scriptures is that God made us “marred in the hand of the Potter [with] no good thing… in [our] flesh”. That is why we as men just naturally lust after women in our hearts. It is not that we choose to do so.  It is because “there is no good thing” in us because:

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh [the “old man” sitting on the throne of God in the temple of God, our bodies – 1Co 3:16 and 2Th 2:4], Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Now, here is the same question all men and you and I ask of God…

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

…And this is the same answer God gave to Job:

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Why is this question even being posed if we are to revel in our natural state as this video suggests? “The natural… carnal mind… the works of the flesh” are condemned throughout scripture:

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

The men on this video are both “the natural… carnal men”, as we all are. But in this video they are teaching that being natural and being carnal-minded is something we need to embrace and appreciate. There is a total absence of any of the admonitions found throughout scripture in so many, many verses such as these:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 12:21  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

I am well aware these two men have no use for the epistle of James, discounting him as “an apostle to the circumcision”, but these two men differ even with Paul and want us to believe we can walk in the flesh and still please God. They just ignore Roman 8:7-8. They tell us that flesh was created by God, and therefore it is good and should be appreciated. Anyone who has “the mind of Christ” will know immediately that the words and voice of these two men are definitely not “the voice of… the True Shepherd”:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

No one, neither Christ nor Paul nor I, advocates against taking good care of our fleshly bodies while we are in them. No one, not Christ, Paul nor I in any way condemns sex within the marriage relationship.

Heb 13:4  Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

God will also judge fornicators who teach and live lives of fornication:

Just because ministers were not tasked with performing marriages in scripture, there are many examples of “wedding feasts” where marriages were recognized by the entire family and community. There is no scripture promoting masturbation or homosexuality. Any form of sex outside of the marriage relationship is condemned in scripture.

Apparently these men have no idea what is meant by this message:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay [that is Adam and all in him]  was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

These deceived men actually argue that since God made us to just naturally lust after women, and since he put their breasts right there in front of us at “eye level”, He obviously intended for us to lust after women” with no need to restrain ourselves or war against that lust as long as we only lust after single women.

What incredible lack of understanding of what God is doing to mankind!!! Our trials in these dying bodies of “sinful flesh” are designed to demonstrate for us that all flesh is sinful flesh and that “in my flesh is no good thing” (Rom 7:18).

These men have defined fornication as prostitution and actually play down the tendency we all have to commit fornication. Compare the message of that video to these inspired words of scripture:

1Co 7:1  Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Whatever ‘fornication’ is it is to be avoided at all cost:

1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

One of the blessings of being married is “to avoid fornication”.

The logic suggested in the video is that since God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right smack in the middle of the garden of Eden and He made it to appeal to “the lust of the flesh… good for food… the lust of the eyes… pleasant to the eyes… pride of life… a tree to be desired to make one wise”, that therefore God had no right to condemn Adam and Eve for doing what He made them to just naturally do. Their doctrine is that since God intended for man to eat of that tree, there should be no sin involved. After all, as both these men keep saying, “God made sex, so why should we ever feel guilty because we want to have sex with every sexy looking woman we see.”

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The fact of the matter is that God intended for Adam to disobey Him so He would have an occasion to judge Adam for His disobedience, as we are plainly told time and again in scripture:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [Adam and all in him] for the day of evil.

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? 

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Mankind does not sin because it chooses to sin of its own free will. Mankind sins because it is corruption and flesh which was created to be destroyed through God’s judgment:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The apostle Paul comes right out and tells us that when we sin, ‘It is not I that do it, but sin in my members’ operating on “the law of sin which is in my members”:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Here is the apostle Paul saying things those who want to excuse their natural actions will never say. Paul is telling us that God did not make us to revel in doing what God has made us to just naturally do. Paul is not reveling in the fact that he just naturally lusts after women.

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Mankind is a “marred… vessel of clay… in the Potter’s hand”, and the Potter is in the process of making every man to conform to the image of His dear Son:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God created us in Adam as sinning machines for the purpose of judging those sinning machines so that through His fiery judgments men would learn to live righteous lives:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

I took the time to listen to that video just so I could answer you. Yes, indeed I am very familiar with those two men. One of them, with his entire family, has spent weekends at my home on several occasions back in the late 90’s.

Neither man knows what is the function of grace. One of the last conversations I had with him as my guest was over the location of heaven. He thinks heaven is a physical planet with a physical city called New Jerusalem. That should give you some idea of the depth of spiritual understanding these two men have.

I have never met the other man, but I am familiar with his writings, and in his writings he does the very thing he condemns Catholics and Protestants of doing. He defines words for himself and then uses them as he defines them. He defines the word ‘fornication’ as being prostitution, and then with his totally physical mindset, he tells you that if you lust after an unmarried woman you are not committing adultery with her in your heart, because she is unmarried and you are unmarried, so go for it. That is the way He actually believes; that since God made us men and women, and since He made us to naturally be attracted to each other, that therefore it is not sinful to have lust in our hearts.

While it is true that many of the churches of this world have no idea of the purpose God has in creating mankind as sexual beings, the conclusions drawn by these two men are nothing short of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness:

Jud 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not waste your time looking for anything in the writings of either of these men concerning all of the unnatural things Christ requires of those who name His name. Things like “love thine enemies… turn the other cheek… return good for evil… resist not evil,” etc.

You said:

If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does he criminalize it when our bodies simply do what he created them to do?

I can easily understand your dilemma because my flesh is the same as yours, but let God be true and every man a liar. That includes you, these falsely directing men and me. Let the Word of God be true, and whether we “have trouble making any sense of this” or not, let’s not deny what is right before our own eyes, telling us that God makes us as “wicked men for [our own] day of destruction of that old first man Adam, that man of sin, Antichrist, a brute beast made to be taken and destroyed.”

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [all men are wicked] for the day of evil.

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

How does God go about ‘making us to err from His ways’? This is how He has ordained that we are all wicked sinners, made to be taken and destroyed, so the new man can be born through the death of our old, wicked, sinful flesh and blood man:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We are not the ones who are sinning of ourselves. We sin simply because God, the “one lawgiver”, has placed within the flesh of all who are “in Adam… the law of sin” which “makes us to err from His ways”. What can we do? We are helpless of ourselves to overcome this “law of sin… in [our] members”. The death of our old man is inevitable. There is just one solution:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind [of Christ] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

There is a “carnal mind” and “the mind of Christ” which supernaturally helps us to fight against the carnal mind with which we are all born. Neither of these men see the need to fight this battle. There verses describe their doctrine to a ‘T’:

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

You and I may struggle to understand why God created us with a carnal mind which ‘cannot be subject to the law of God’, but let us never deny that it is so. Rather, let’s cry out with the apostle Paul:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind [of Christ] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Let’s stop listening to men who “speak smooth things”, which naturally appeal to our carnal logic and carnal desires, and fight the good fight of faith:

Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

That is exactly what these men are doing, and in doing so they, like most ministries, are also making merchandise of God’s people. “This is the best $23 you will ever spend” are words in this video. When you hear anyone say one word about buying the gospel, you should know immediately you are not hearing the voice of the True Shepherd who said this:

Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

These men are quick to point out that “God has ordained that they that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel” (1Co 9:14), but they do not want you to realize that the support of the gospel comes only from “cheerful givers” and not from the ‘peddling of the gospel’ which is specifically condemned in the scriptures:

2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

You will not find one verse of scripture which is not in line with Christ’s words, “freely you have received, freely give.” You can find what the scriptures teach on this and most any subject, and there will never be any mention of money anywhere on the iswasandwillbe.com web site or any of the sites to which we link.

The scriptures are not “smooth things”, but they are “the Truth”, and when it comes to sex outside of the marriage union, you will not find one verse which condones such lascivious fornication. Rather, this is what you will find:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Here is a verse which mystifies these two men who both teach that Christ did everything for us, and we have nothing to do but accept His sacrifice. Dying with Christ makes no sense to those who teach that false doctrine of a “substitutionary sacrifice” instead of “dying daily [with, and being] crucified with Christ”:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Here is that verse in the CLV:

Col 1:24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for you, and am filling up in my flesh, in His stead, the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ, for His body, which is the ecclesia.” (CLV)

I asked Concordant ministers, including one of these men in the videos, about that verse, and I was told, “If you can explain that verse, you will be doing something no one in this room can do.” The reason they cannot understand that verse is because they are preaching smooth things instead of this Truth:

2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

I am the first to acknowledge that none of us is capable of following in Christ’s steps and going ‘as a sheep dumb before his shearers’ to the slaughter of the cross. None of us is, of himself, capable of turning the other cheek when we are slapped in the face. We are no more capable of doing those things than we are of not lusting after a woman. Sex is merely one of many things God has given us to learn to control and use properly in both time and place.

We will all “fall seven times” and we will be forced to acknowledge that we are living in a sinful body of death. Only then, after we have been brought to our wits’ end, will we brought to cry out to God for His strength and His mercy. Only under those specific circumstances will any of us be delivered from the storms of this life which God Himself sends to us to make us to acknowledge our helplessness in fighting against sin in our lives.

What you and I just cannot understand, and which our flesh refuses to accept, is four times in Psalms 107 called, “His wonderful works to the children of men.”

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. 
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

This is what being brought to our wits’ end accomplishes:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts [our old man], made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 

These two men, whom I love and whom I know will, in time, come to know the Christ of all these scriptures, are totally unaware that the very purpose for the natural man is “to be taken and destroyed”. They are totally unaware that God made us all as “natural brute beasts” on the sixth day right along with all the other beasts.

I hope the Lord will grant you to see that the struggles you are enduring are part of what God has intended for all men to endure, and that in His time He will begin to destroy that beast within you and within all of us, and as that old man dies, our new man, Christ in us, will begin to grow:

Joh 3:30  He [Christ in us] must increase, but I [our old man who is still under the law for the lawless (1Ti 1:9-12)] must decrease.

Your brother who, Lord willing, is still dying daily to my own beastly carnal mind.

Mike

Dear Mike,

The other day I came across a video that I thought by the title was some sort of joke, but the speaker in the video said he was serious, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, he was dealing with the passage in the bible where Jesus tells his audience that if a man even looks upon a woman to lust after her he has commited adultery with her in his heart.

I always figured that Jesus was only speaking of married women, but you get a lot of people saying that Jesus was speaking of women in general. They imply that we actually sin if we lust after the opposite sex, married or not. This sounds pretty ridiculous to me.

First of all I know God spoke to people in the Old Testament and told them to be fruitful and multiply. Their is no doubt going to be lust involved when people are being fruitful and multiplying.

I know a lot of Christians who are married. No doubt there was probably lust involved during the dating/courtship process.

I want your opinion on this matter, if you will give it.

Was Jesus only speaking of married women when he said you have commited adultery with them in your heart when you lust after them? Or was he speaking of all women married or not?

If the latter is true, then is everyone, including Christians, commiting adultery by dating the opposite sex?

I am going to paste the link to the video that I spoke of earlier to watch if you will. Tell me what you make of this man’s teaching on this subject if you don’t mind. I don’t think the video is too very long.

R____

Hi R____,

Thank you for your question.

You ask:

Was Jesus only speaking of married women when he said you have committed adultery with them in your heart when you lust after them? Or was he speaking of all women married or not?

If the latter is true, then is everyone, including Christians, committing adultery by dating the opposite sex?

I watched the video, and the answer to your question is that he is right when he simply believes these words of Christ:

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

The word ‘whosoever’ is a very all-inclusive word, and the fact that Christ is speaking of adultery does not mean that he is excluding single men. Sex outside of marriage is a sin. The form of the relationship it takes does not change the fact that it is a physically and spiritually ‘adulterous’ relationship.

The fact that men lust after their future wives before they are married does not mean that it is just fine to do so. Most of us have been taught that God created Adam and Eve in a perfected state while the scriptures teach the exact opposite.

I think we can all agree that God made Adam out of the dust of the ground:

Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

When Christ finished His creation, he said it was “very good”:

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

But for what purpose was it all “very good”? Was mankind created as “very good” flesh and blood for the purpose of inheriting the kingdom of God in that condition? The Biblical answer to that question is absolutely not! God created mankind in “corruption… marred in the Potter’s hand”. Adam was created for the very purpose of disobeying God, lusting after the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that is exactly what Adam and Eve did. They were both created in “corruption… marred in the Potter’s hand” for the express purpose of coming to see their own spiritual nakedness into which they were created, and to come to realize that they needed a savior to deliver them from the law of sin which the “one lawgiver” placed within their marred bodies of corruption.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

We know from the scriptures that “the first man Adam” was created to be destroyed because we are told:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

For those who are given eyes to see it and ears to hear it, 1Co 15:50 informs us that flesh and blood are corruption, and that is what this verse also tells us:

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Adam and all who are in him are “marred in the hand of the Potter”. So it follows that Adam and all who are in him have within their members what the scriptures call “the law of sin and death”, and that is exactly what we are told is the case:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

There is no man on earth who can, of himself, resist lusting after women. So how then can any man be saved?

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

The man making that video relates in another video that he had a near-death experience in which he went to hell and came back a changed man who no longer lusts after women in his heart.

I rejoice with him that the Lord has delivered him from lusting after women, but of course I cannot agree with the lie that he went to hell and came back a changed man. I have no doubt he is sincere in saying that, but the Lord is answering him with the idol of his heart, because “the dead know not anything”, including the pain of literal flames of fire.

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is just that, a parable, simply because this is the fact of that matter:

Mat 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

Moses and Elijah are not in heaven in spite of the fact Peter, James and John saw them on the mount of transfiguration for this simple reason:

Mat 17:9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

A vision, like a dream, seems very real, but the fact is there was no one on the mountain with Christ but Peter, James and John.

I hope all of this helps you to see that Christ was right when He said:

Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

He is including all women, and not just married women. Certainly single Christian men commit adultery in their hearts while dating their future wives. Many a child is conceived before a couple is married, and yes, that is a sin. But it is not a sin to date a woman who is in Christ and who you intend to marry. The sin is not the dating, the sin is lusting after her before you are married. While it is ideal not to lust after your fiancée, yet sin is integral to “the wonderful work’ God is working and doing ‘to the children of men’ (Psa 107:21-31). God created us as sinning machines who are in need of dying to that law of sin He has placed within us before we have any hope of being saved from that sinful condition.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Your brother who knows that we can do all things, including no longer lusting after women, through Christ who dwells within us:

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Mike

Hi,

I just want to tell you that your website is truly inspirational. But the real reason I’m e-mailing is because I’m seeking advice. My best friend has drifted from faith and her belief and can’t understand why sex before marriage is a sin. I’m doing my best explaining to her God’s word, but there is only so much I can say. It’s not enough to just point it out in the Bible and tell her “you can’t because God says so”. It just isn’t fulfilling for her, especially because she has lost faith. If there is any way you can help me explain to her and help me be able to help her understand, any verses I could show her that say more than just ‘don’t do it’, I will be so grateful!!

Thank you very much,

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your kind words about our web site. Iswasandwiilbe.com is dedicated to proclaiming the sovereignty of God in all things both good and evil. For this reason it will never become a popular site in this age, but for those who are given eyes to see and ears to hear, the knowledge of God’s total sovereignty makes situations like the one you are dealing with much more understandable and therefore easier to endure.

You say your friend believes sex outside of marriage is okay, and you wonder if there are any scriptures I can give you to help your friend.

The truth is that all of this is all happening with your friend for your sake at this time. God is actually using your friend’s actions to teach you that He has created the wicked you for the day of evil in you. Your friend’s actions are typical of us all at our own appointed time. We are all guilty of spiritual adultery and spiritual fornication and having spiritual sex outside of spiritual marriage. We are all “children of disobedience”, children of “the prince of the power of the air,” before we become children of obedience to our heavenly Father.

2Co 4:15  For all things [your friend’s physical fornication or adultery] are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [in me, you and your friend] for the day of evil [which we will all live within].

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye [me, you and your friend] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The fact that you and I have never committed physical murder, or any other particular sin, does not change the fact that we are all guilty of those sins “by nature.” Only those who come to see and give account of this fact will ever know God and Jesus Christ who say that this is true:

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

“The blood of all the prophets” is the blood of Christ.

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Mat 25:46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

All that ever has been or ever will be done, was done to Christ, be it good or evil. When King Saul was persecuting David, he was persecuting Christ, and when Jonathan helped David, he was helping Christ. The same thing is true today. We all persecute Christ before we serve Him. We are all King Saul before we become King David.

The “coming of the Son of Man” and the separating of the nations at judgment “is now on the house of God”, because His throne, and His kingdom and His dwelling are all within:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

“This generation” is those who “read and understand” and have been given the ability to see the truth of these words. Those who deny that they are guilty of the blood of Christ and all the prophets, are the ninety-and-nine who need no repentance, the well who need no physician, and those who say that they see, and do not need to be healed of their blindness:

Luk 15:7  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Mar 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Please do not think that I have no concern for your fiend. Nothing is further from the Truth. But if you and I have “had our conversation [Greek: anastrepho – behavior, way of life] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others,” then your friend will also be required to endure that part of her walk. We will all “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Your friend, just like you and me, will be delivered up to death, but she will also be justified, in her own time. It will all be accomplished through the fiery words of “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” both the good and the evil:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

None of this is to be understood as being literal or as having to physically commit every sin committed since Adam. It is to be understood as “this generation… which reads and understands,” realizing that it is spiritually “guilty of all the blood of all the prophets” and the blood of Christ. That is how we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

If you have read much on this site at all, then you are aware that turning the grace of God into a license to commit sin will be severely judged and rewarded in kind. But judgment does not change the fact that “all things are of God.”

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Here is a wonderful and comforting promise. It is just as applicable to this situation with your friend as it is to any other ‘thing’.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Remember:

2Co 4:15  For all things [are] for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

I feel sure that you already know that your friend cannot come to God unless His spirit first drags her to Him.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: hello – drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

When that day arrives, your friend will be chastened to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present world.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [Greek: paideuo – chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

God’s grace will one day chasten your friend to the point that she will loath the sins she now thinks are bringing her pleasure. Grace is not a dead noun, but an extremely active and chastening verb. Read the letter entitled What Is Grace on iswasandwillbe. com. God’s grace is the answer to your dilemma with your friend. When God decides to drag her to Himself, she will find His persuasiveness irresistible.

In the meantime just realize that physical sex outside of marriage is a sin, but it is spiritual adultery and spiritual fornication that God is most concerned with in us all. Christ told the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.” The self-righteous Jews never heard such wonderful words, and the sin of self-righteousness is far more insidious than that of overt fornication and adultery. We are all guilty of both by nature, and will all experience God’s wrath on those sins, at the appointed time. It is all already written in His book:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Truly the Lord is “working all things after the counsel of His own will.”

There is a paper already on iswasandwillbe.com bearing on this subject. Here is the link for that letter:

Satan’s Seed

Read that letter, and if you still have a question, then please feel free to get back to me.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike