1689 London Baptist Confession (part 61)

Our great God and Savior, we come before you this morning thankful for all that you've given us, all that you have brought into our lives.

And when we think of all the physical, temporal blessings that you've granted us, in addition to the greatest blessing, forgiveness full and free in Christ Jesus.

Father, we thank you and we praise you and we pray that you would bless us as we look to your word, look to the confession and see what it says about government and about marriage.

And Father, I pray that you would bless our time this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, so we're concluding talking about government.

And I just want to read the last bit of what the confession says about government. Says civil magistrates being set up by God for the ends aforesaid.

And I write that word all the time aforesaid. Said beforehand, subjection in all lawful things commanded by them ought to be yielded by us in the

Lord, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake. And we ought to make supplications and prayers for kings and all that are in authority, that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Let's close in prayer. Okay. True or false?

And I'm hoping that you're going to say it's true. I'm giving you a hint. Christians must submit to the government. Well, with an asterisk, right?

Unless it commands them to do something against God's law. Romans 13, we read this before.

I'll just read the first two verses. Romans 13 verses 1 and 2. Let every person.

Be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.

That kind of underlines it. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what

God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. That old song.

It's old for most of us anyway. I fight authority and authority always wins.

Usually true. But ultimately, when we fight authority, we are fighting against God. That's what the verses tell us.

God institutes that authority. So if we fight against it, we're fighting against him. And this is to be done.

We are to submit to government in the Lord so that our conscience is not defiled.

If you do something that's against the law and you get away with it, is that good? Some people would say yes.

But for a Christian, if you do something is a violation of the law and you get away with it, then what? You have done what to your conscience?

Have you build it up or have you defiled it? Did you strengthen your conscience by violating the law?

The answer is no. In fact, as the confession says, rather than rebel, we ought to pray for those that God has placed over us.

Again, think about it. Submission. What does it mean? We say this all the time, especially to wives or with regard to their husbands.

Sorry to pick on the wives for a moment. Wives, do you agree with your husbands? No. Therefore, I don't have to do what he says.

OK, perfect. Wrong. Wives, do you agree with your husbands? No. Is he sinning?

No. Then submission doesn't mean agreement. It means submission.

I don't agree with what the government's doing. I don't think they should be taking more of my money in taxes. Therefore, I'm not going to pay that money.

OK, you're sinning, but OK. Submission isn't agreement.

Submission is submission. I don't agree, but I submit. So we pray for our leaders, even those we don't agree with.

1 Timothy 2. Let's look at that for a moment. 1 Timothy 2 verses 1 to 3. I think we could call this kind of the under the radar verse.

By that, I mean Christians want to be under the radar. We don't want to be the focus of attention.

I was reading recently about freedom of speech and the things that go on now.

And I was thinking about how freedom of speech has gotten to the point where everything is free.

You're free to say whatever you want. In other words, grown men, this would never happen when I was growing up. I mean, maybe it would if there was a drunken bum standing there or something.

But grown men would never curse in the presence of women or children.

And now, of course, I like I like to say women curse in the presence of their own children. So, you know, things have things have changed quite a bit.

Freedom of speech reigns supreme as long as that speech is anti -Christian.

In other words, a Muslim may say what he or she wants to denigrate somebody else because they're in a protected group.

But if a Christian says something that offends a Muslim, that's some kind of hate crime. Or if you use and we're going to talk about this in a minute.

If you use the wrong pronouns to talk about somebody, you know, the person appears to be a male and you address them as, you know, sir.

Shame on you. You're going to jail. I don't know why, but this is the world that we live in.

Anyway, First Timothy two verses one to three. And when somebody read that, please. It is good and pleasing to pray for those in authority.

Why? Because ultimately what we want is for them to leave us alone and let us do what we do.

Right. We want to be able to gather together on Sunday morning. We want to be able to preach the word. We want to be able to share the gospel.

What we don't want is for the government to say, turn all of its attention, you know, like a aircraft carrier, turn all of its attention on Christians and let loose.

I mean, if we can avoid that, that's not what we want. So we submit to the government unless the government is in commanding us to sin.

Right. Questions about that before we move on to marriage. Because I'm looking forward to this, this section,

I have to say, not because we're going to talk about marriage per se. This isn't going to be me talking about husbands and wives and all that kind of stuff, because that's not what the confession does of marriage.

Now, listen to this and keep in mind that it was written in what, 1678. Right. Long time ago.

Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at any or at the same time.

Now, for anybody who's been following this over the last few years, what have we seen? All these things kind of breaking down.

I mean, there's always been Mormonism and then fundamentalism, fundamentalist Mormonism.

Years ago, Janet and I went to go see a friend of mine, childhood friend of mine in St. George, Utah. And we went out to dinner with him.

We went to a restaurant and they said, you see those people over there?

Yep. Well, the one in the short sleeve, she's the first wife. The one of the long sleeve, she's, you know, and I'm like, they know all this.

They don't participate in it, but the fundamentalists are close there to St. George, Utah. And so they would see him out like that and they knew all the uniforms and all that stuff.

Polygamy has always been around in some form or fashion. But now there are TV shows about it.

Polyandry, having more than one husband. Polyamory, where just a multitude of people get together and call it marriage.

How about homosexual marriage? Is it pertinent to, is the confession pertinent to that?

Again, what does it say? Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. I think it's also important that we talk about these days, talk about so -called transsexuals, transsexualism.

And why do I call it so -called transsexualism? There's only male or female and you can't change.

I was reading something the other day and they were talking about, you know, it was one of these. How many of you probably seen this where couples decide they have a little baby and they're not going to call it a baby.

They call it a baby, a baby. Why? Because you want to make implicit or explicit what is implicit to them.

Right. Which is the baby is going to grow and then the baby is going to decide what gender the baby is.

See, I don't want to say he or she, because again, that would just limit it to two. Right.

And the fact that it has a particular genitalia is not necessarily indicative of what that baby.

Sorry, baby is actually going to be. That's how insane things are.

Right. And this transsexualism, the reason I call it so -called transsexualism is because you are born male.

Then guess what? You are male. That cannot change.

I don't care how many surgeries or mutilations or whatever you go through, how much you're programmed, how many hours you spend writing.

You know, I am a she. I don't care what you do. I don't care if you show up at my aunt's funeral and you're six foot eight and you have a name.

You know, when you appear on TV shows as a woman, as this person did, it doesn't ultimately matter.

And by the way, what's our approach to somebody like that? What do we do with someone who, you know, has switched genders?

And why do I say you can't do that? You can't do that because it's part of your

DNA and there is no magic pill.

There's no magic surgery that is going to change your DNA. You can do better on the girls track team and the girls wrestling team and all all sorts of things.

I mean, ultimately, if this nonsense continues, it's going to wipe out women's sports.

But, you know, I digress. There is no such thing as.

Transsexualism is just a word that they've coined, and I like what you know, when I was reading this,

I just thought that the confessionist says marriage is between is to be between one man and one woman.

And I thought of the old Al Mohler saying, you know, the man, young man comes up to Dr. Mohler and says, you know,

I'm interested in getting married. Dr. Mohler says, that's good, right? It's good for you to be interested in being married.

Well, I think I found the girl. And he says, what? Here are the qualifications for marrying her.

She's single, right? She's not married to anybody else. Is she a Christian?

Is she a believer? Because if you're a believer and she's a believer, that's fine. She's single.

She's a Christian. And his third qualification was. Has she always been female?

These days, you. I wouldn't ask, but, you know, you need to know.

Talk to her parents. You know, you get a good clue there. But from the confession, we are reminded that marriage was instituted by God.

And he is the one who defines what it means. Right. And again, I think this is so critical.

Because we live at a time where if you watch TV. And I'll confess,

I do. But if you watch some shows, what do they say? They give you the idea. There's one show

I've never watched it called Modern Family. What's the idea of modern family? And now, you know, nobody wants to confess because Steve says he doesn't watch it.

You hear it in other venues that a family can look like. Anything, it could be any collective of people who decide to call themselves a family.

So, you know, there could be two dads and maybe there's a mom, a bunch of kids.

There could be, you know, two moms, no dad. It's all just a family.

Family is whatever we want it to be. Marriage is whatever we want it to be. You know, with the

Supreme Court creating a right to homosexual marriage. By the same reasoning, there's no way to limit the number.

There really is no way to limit the number. And so that, I mean, it's all baked into the cake. Unless that decision is overturned, which, by the way, was one of the worst decisions

I've ever read because it stood the law in its head. But unless that's overturned, a challenge will come along challenging the fixed number of people in a marriage.

And then a challenge will come along against the idea that there should be any kind of age limitation.

Sometimes people think, you know, well, that could never happen. Really? I don't think

I've talked about this, but some months ago, a woman was thrown into jail in Austria. Convicted, maybe she was only fined.

I don't want to overstate the case. Here was her crime. She was at a conference about Islam and she was one of the speakers.

You know what she said? She said Mohammed was a pedophile.

That's against the law in Austria. Why? Now, how many of you know, how old was

Mohammed's youngest wife when he married her? I think she was like six. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's a little young for the age of consent.

But she went to jail for expressing that opinion or she got arrested for it and fined. And again, if that isn't clear enough, that yes, in fact, somebody who marries a six year old.

I mean, you should be adopting six year olds, not marrying them. Somebody wants to talk to you.

Oh, you're just worried about the slippery slope. Oh, we're on the slope and it's greased. It's very slippery.

But from the confession, we're reminded that marriage was instituted by God. He defines it.

And so if the state comes up with laws that are contrary to what God says, what does that mean?

OK, they could be resisted. The state defines what is legal. It doesn't define what is moral.

Right. What is right? God alone defines that. The Bible teaches monogamy.

Write it down. One man and one woman. You know, now it just seems so old fashioned.

It's crazy talk. One man and one woman, one husband, one wife. But marriage ultimately is like,

I don't know why I put this, I guess because I was thinking marriage license. And I started thinking, of course, of hunting license.

I don't know why, but there are limitations, right?

You only you know, there when you get that license, there are limitations on it. And when you get a license to be married, there ought to be limitations on it.

But there really aren't. Not as many as there used to be. But God provided this is

R .C. said God provided for the sacred union that we call marriage. And he gave a mandate to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.

And, you know, when we think about monogamy, well, we can go back to the Bible and we say, well, what about Jacob, that rascal

Jacob? He wants one woman. Rachel and who's he went up marrying first because of trickeration.

Right. But that doesn't stop him. Marries a second woman. Well, what about Abraham impregnating

Hagar? Because Sarah says, you know, when I'm not getting pregnant, why don't you try

Hagar? And we can go down the road of what about what about what about and who does that?

If you're engaging with an unbeliever, what do they do? Well, what about this? And what about that? And what about I was talking to an unbeliever this week.

What about the Nephilim? You want to talk about the Nephilim? Because it has nothing to do with anything.

It's a sideshow. Let's look at Genesis. I'm going to go somewhere you're probably not expecting.

Genesis chapter four. Genesis chapter four. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 15.

Then the Lord said to him, not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him because he killed his brother.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son,

Enoch. To Enoch was born Erad and Erad fathered

Mahujal. Or however you say that. Good luck with it. And Mahujal fathered

Methuselah. And Methuselah, I guess, would be the old King James pronunciation.

Methuselah fathered Lamech and Lamech took two wives. And that's why

I'm reading this, because Lamech took two wives. It's notable because the first time in the

Bible we read of such a thing. The name of one was Ada and the name of the other was

Zillah. Ada bore Jubal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who played the lyre and pipe.

Zillah also bore Jubal Cain. He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.

The sister of Jubal Cain was Nema. Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech.

Listen to what I say. Now, at that point, he sounds like a lot of husbands I've heard before. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77 fold.

The Lord promised that he would take revenge if anybody touched

Cain. But notice what Lamech does. He promises his own revenge.

I am Lamech, hear me roar. He took two wives, not authorized, not commanded.

But nothing negative is said. Therefore, God approved of Lamech taking two wives, right?

Yes. No. When we read something in the

Bible that's sinful, what do we think to ourselves? That's what God wants or that's what happened.

Right. Is this description or prescription? Description.

And description is not prescription. There's no command here. Lamech was a wicked man. As evidenced by his boasting, right?

I'm going to do more than God does. I'm going to give out greater vengeance than God does.

Polygamy was a result of his sin, not a result of God's command or even

God's approval. And no matter how we want to look at it, the

Bible clearly prohibits polygamy. No matter what the world says. My wife and I were talking about somebody this morning in the car who, you know, says the morality of the

Bible is old and we need to jenison that, and it's more loving to take on the world's morality because it's more loving to endorse sin than to confront it.

The New Testament, in talking about the qualifications for elders, says this, 1

Timothy 3, verse 2. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.

Sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. The consistent testimony of the

Bible is one man, one woman. That's what marriage is. It's not anything else, and it cannot be anything else.

Now, you know, did David sin?

Yes. Did Solomon have hundreds of wives? Yes.

Was that good? Were there consequences for their sins?

Yes. It was not good, and God punished them for it.

Nothing but the union of an unmarried man. Listen to how I have to frame things now. Nothing but the union of an unmarried man who is biologically male and an unmarried woman who is biologically female can possibly be called marriage.

No church and no Christian should be involved in anything called marriage that is not this.

So from time to time, somebody will say, you know, someone in my family is getting married. Great. Well, he's marrying another guy.

Not so great. I mean, what is that? I don't know what it is, but it's not a marriage.

And I'm sure pretty soon we'll be asked to go. You know, my sister is getting married. Awesome. Yeah, but she's getting married to her third husband, and she's still married to the other two.

Not so awesome. How can you go to that? Let's look at Ephesians five.

We often like to read this and work through it a little bit at weddings, but it's mostly to just watch the...

I mean, I can remember a few times where the unbelieving women were staring holes at me so bad that I thought they were going to rush me.

And probably if it wasn't a wedding, they might have. Let's go get the pastor. I know, but it's

Mike, so that's okay. Ephesians five, verse 22.

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior.

And that's when, you know, the ladies are really getting mad. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

And then I go, wait a sec, because here we go. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Makes it a little bit easier if you have this sacrificing husband. Verse 26, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.

Husbands, are you nourishing and cherishing your wives just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

And here's the point of all this. This mystery is profound. And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

So the picture of a marriage is Jesus Christ and the church, the groom and the bride.

And when someone, the state, or someone else wants to redefine marriage, what are they really doing?

They're really looking at God, metaphorically speaking, and sticking a thumb right in his eye.

You say that marriage is to reflect the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church.

I say it can be whatever we say it is. Forget all that stuff.

If it wants to be two guys, three guys, four guys, and six women, what's it to you?

What's it to me? Jesus Christ and the church. That's what God said. One man, one woman.

That's what God said. It's the idea, who are you to tell us what to do?

And we say, who are you, old man, who answers back to God? All right?

What is going on today is nothing less than a revolt against God.

It used to be a little bit more covert. It used to be a little more subtle. But we now have a majority of the people in our culture raging against not just morality, but against the

God who established morality. Not against what's right and what's wrong, per se, but against the basic structure of culture.

I guess it's what's right and what's wrong. Against the basic building blocks that God established.

Against marriage, against family, against everything. Against even male and female.

Against having a little boy and a little girl. Nothing should be defined.

Everyone should define themselves. It is utter and absolute rebellion.

And really, when you think about it, what do they want? Kind of moral chaos. I mean, after all, is it really

God's world? Does he really get to set the parameters for things? Why should we go by what he said?

The confession says marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue and preventing of uncleanness.

Mutual help. The confession recognizes that there is to be a mutual concern, care, and responsibility between husband and wife.

I could put it this way. Marriage is a partnership. I don't know if you guys have ever worked in tandem with one person over an extended period of time.

I happen to have that opportunity in a radio car. And over time, you get to learn the other person's strengths and weaknesses, right?

And so if I'm working in a radio car with somebody who is not a good report writer, and we come across a complex situation,

I don't say, hey, pal, you write this report. I'm going to take it. Why?

Because I think I'm a better writer than he is or she is. If I'm working with somebody who's stronger than me and we run into some kind of brood out there, and it happened from time to time.

I remember one time, a guy, I think he was like 6 '6", and 250 or something like that.

And he had a worn out for his arrest, and he decided to turn around and take a swing on me. And I just like, my partner was on the other side of the vehicle.

We had three people. And I just sort of ducked out of the way. And the most amazing thing to me was he just kept going, and there was a cliff right there, and he went right over the cliff.

And by the way, that was the second guy in less than a month that went over the cliff on us. And so the next night, the next night, one of the guys who wound up retiring as a chief on the department, his name was

Buddy. Buddy was a friend of mine. And Buddy goes, he was originally from New York. And he goes, so? He looks at the two of us, and he goes, so?

Who are you guys going to throw over a cliff tonight? For the record, we never threw anybody over a cliff.

They went voluntarily. That's true.

But when we talk about marriage, it is a partnership, right? We have strengths.

We have weaknesses. There are things that we do well, and things that we don't do well. And I think there are times where, you know, husbands especially sort of struggle to let their helpers help them.

If you're not good at something, let your wife do it. If she's not good at it and you're not good at it, then you have a problem.

One of you needs to learn how to be good at it. And it has nothing to do with throwing people over cliffs.

But the wife is not accorded the role. This is R .C. saying, he says, he says the wife is not accorded the role of chattel.

In other words, she's not an animal or a slave, but she fully shares the image of God, and she should be treated that way with all respect.

When Adam saw Eve, you know, what do you think? I mean, if we just go back without even turning the pages, if we think about the process by which

Adam came to Eve, you know, learned or was granted

Eve, all these different possible companions were brought to him, right?

All these different animals. And he named them, right? But he had no affinity for any of them, not in particular.

I'm sure he was really smitten by dogs, but that's another story. I think man's best friend.

I think it goes all the way back to there. But God puts him to sleep, creates this perfect partner for him,

Eve. And then here comes Eve, right? Adam sees her.

What do you think? I think R .C. has it right. He says, when Adam saw

Eve, he was filled with delight because God had made the perfect help mate.

God then made Adam and Eve vice regents over the entire creation. She was subordinate to her husband.

That doesn't mean that she was inferior. She was equal in dignity, value and honor with her husband, but was still expected to be submissive to him.

And this is where women like choke. They hate this. Why? Because some men have taken their position of authority in marriage to mean that if God placed me in a position of leadership in the household, it must be because I'm a superior person.

I'm more important. R .C. says no more than the father is superior to the son or the son is superior to the spirit.

We see the principle of submission among equals in our concept of God in three persons.

Three persons equal having all the same essence, same attributes, and there is no inferiority among them.

They just have different roles. And it's the same in a marriage between a husband and wife.

Questions, comments, concerns. We really, we have to hire a maintenance crew to get that clock back up there clearly.

So, okay. Children, because the confession does talk about children here.

And you wouldn't really know it unless you kind of thought about what this means. For the increase of mankind, children, with a legitimate issue.

And we go, legitimate issue? Like they're outraged about, you know, equity or lack of raising at work or something?

No, no, no. Legitimate issue just means legitimacy with regard to being born in a marriage.

But we'll get there. The numbers on children born out of wedlock is really amazing.

I was looking this up in 2016. 2016, and these things are only getting worse.

Non -Hispanic black and American Indian slash Alaska Native women had the highest proportion of births to unmarried women at 70 and 66%.

In other words, that's the number of children born out of wedlock within those ethnic groups.

Among Hispanic women in 2016, 53%. And among white women, it was 29%.

The overall out of wedlock birth rate is 40 % in our population.

Now, why is it so high? Okay, because the state has devalued marriage.

I think that's the, you know, $1 ,000 answer after taxes. Yeah. The role of the father has been devalued, but it gets back to what, you know, they've devalued marriage.

Why? Because if you're single and you're a mother, then the state is going to help take care of your child.

So, you know, having the baby daddy in the picture isn't that important. I think they kind of go hand in hand, though, right?

Because the more, the longer this has gone on, in other words, the longer the state has supported single moms, the worse the percentages have gotten, right?

Because you're going to be okay without me anyway. It doesn't really matter, Charlie. Okay. Fathers not being around is a consequence of divorce being more commonplace.

I mean, it used to be really difficult to get a divorce. Now all you have to do is just say you want one and you get a divorce.

Right. Yeah, the fact that there are so many women who have been divorced and have kids and managed to, you know, make their way through life, basically demonstrated the fact that men are superfluous.

You don't need a father to raise a child, theoretically. Yeah, and that's exactly right.

Pastor Rob says there was a study that showed, and I think it was out of Harvard, that if you want to not be poor, here's how you do it.

Finish high school. Get married. Wait to have children until you get married.

Now those things are like, they sound perfectly reasonable to us, right? And they were perfectly reasonable for a long period of time, but they've fallen out of fashion.

Really not seen as that important, as evidenced by the fact that 40 % of kids are born out of wedlock.

I mean, there used to be a certain amount of stigma or shame attached to having a child out of wedlock.

Well, no more. In fact, when we talk about marriage, you know,

I mean, things have changed a lot since I was a kid. You know, hooking up was not really seen as normal.

It's interesting to me now, you know, that people think that moving in together is some kind of like big romantic step.

I don't know why, you know. Both our names are on the lease or something. I don't know. But that's not

God's design. He ordained children to be raised in a two -parent married home.

That's normal. But again, we're told today that family is a malleable term.

Family can be defined however we want to define it. Now, historically, one of the issues of the

Reformation was the Roman Catholic view of celibacy as being superior to marriage.

If you were celibate, that is to say you were non -sexual, you were a priest or a nun or something like that.

I say something like that because they have, you know, different offices that are neither one of those things.

But you were a higher spiritual plane, right? And one of the things that they did, they even said that within the

Roman Catholic state, even within a marriage, there was only one justification to have sexual relations, which was to have children.

And that's why they came out so strongly against birth control.

But the Reformers insisted that the mutual joy and pleasure of the marriage bed is undefiled even if children are not the result.

I mean, when Paul's talking and when the writer of Hebrews is talking about sex within marriage, he never says the only purpose for it is to have children.

But the common view among people today about children is what?

Children are burdens. Children are expensive. I mean, you see these studies that between birth and college, you know, a child will cost you,

I don't know, what is it? 14, 15 million dollars. I mean, it's no wonder.

I mean, when you read these studies, I don't know what it is. But I mean, even if you just, if you say to yourself, if we're going to have any kids, we have to pay for college.

Forget about it. You won't have any kids, right? And if you read these studies that just say from zero to 18, you know, that child is going to cost you $250 ,000.

Well, you start calculating how many kids you can afford, right? You what?

You get dogs. Yeah, and you put them in baby carriages and you treat them like, I mean, that's what people do, right?

I mean, listen. And you, I've already sort of given that away. I like dogs.

Dogs are wonderful. But they're not kids. You're not raising them up to be mature adults so that they can function in the world.

I mean, sometimes I wonder about these people. If they talk to their dogs and go, where are you going to go to college? You can really lose your mind.

Kind of like Tom Hanks in that volleyball. You know, I mean, you can sort of really personalize it.

But people, society in general, a lot of times they see children as burdens. And if you want proof of that, all you have to do is go around the world, just travel the world.

No, no. I mean, if you look at the birth rate in different countries, what do you see it?

Or where is it? Even in the United States, where is our birth rate? What is it?

It's about, I mean, it's under two. And the replacement birth rate to just stay, keep the population where it is, is 2 .2.

We're just not having that many kids, Erickson. Erickson's doing his part. It's true. It's mostly religious families doing that.

And, you know, part of it is, well, I think it could be explained this way, and we probably need to close, but it could be explained this way.

If you think of children as a burden, you won't have them. If you think of them as a blessing, you will have them.

If the state tells you, basically, your way of life is going to be severely impacted if you have a lot of children, because we're going to tax you no matter how many kids you have, you're going to have fewer of them.

In fact, one of the reasons why people have zero kids is because they're told that, guess what's destroying the planet?

Yeah, it's you. So how dare you replace you? Stop that. Have a dog, because at least that dog will die off and not reproduce.

On the other hand, even better, have a robot dog, because that robot dog doesn't breathe, therefore, it doesn't put out any

CO2, and therefore, it's not destroying the planet. When you worship the creation and not the creator, when you worship the planet and not the creator, you're going to come out with some warped outcomes.

You're going to devalue marriage. You're going to devalue the roles of husband and wife.

You're going to devalue children. This is the world that we live in, but it's not the world that we are...

Well, let's put it this way. It's not the worldview that we are called to adapt or to adopt. We're called to view things the way that God does.

And in this world, with all the pressure that we're on, we need to think a lot about that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time of looking at your word, discussing the world that we live in, and applying your word to the world's situation.

Understanding how our culture tells us that marriage is backward.

Biblical moors and biblical marriage and biblical view of children, biblical view of even marital roles are old -fashioned, out -of -date, need -updating, are just wrong.

But Lord, we know that you define what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what is helpful and what is deleterious to this world.

Lord, I pray that we would take care of our own souls, that we would shun what is evil and love what is good, worshiping you all the time.