Archive for January, 1998

Let’s start with prayer. Lord we thank You for Your Word that You have given to us with Your absolute stamp of authority upon. We thank You Lord for the need that we have for Your authority in our lives and we ask even as pause for a moment this morning, that You would renew in us a holy and a singular determination to seek You and to walk by faith before You and reach out by faith Lord to those duties and obligations that You’ve laid upon us by the greatness of Your purpose in Jesus Christ. That the perfection of our faith and the increase of our holiness may it not be impeded Lord by the foolishness of our own understanding and the stubbornness of our own will. We ask this morning that as Your Word is opened to us that You would give us nurturement and life and stability and Lord that in all these things that You would be glorified in our midst. We ask in Christ’s name, Amen.

I don’t know if you all know what anniversary Sunday this is but this is the Sunday anniversary of last year when we announced that we were expecting Kathab and then we lost Kathab that week and he passed away on Roe v. Wade day which was January 22, last year. This is kind of an anniversary and I’ve, it struck me recently that someone said this is the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which means that my wife and I had just gotten married 25 years ago, we were in a really early stage of our marriage when this atrocity began to be upon us. I wasn’t sure what I was going to speak upon. I usually don’t like to do secondary themes unless they fit into the primary theme and as you know the primary theme that we are trying to finish wrapping up is Hebrews 13:4 and it just so happens that a secondary theme fits into the primary theme. There’s a section that I was debating whether I would get into or not just for sake of time. And I was listening to Elisabeth Elliot Friday. How many of you heard Elisabeth Elliot Friday on the radio? Well if you know anything about Elisabeth Elliot the last thing that she is is political in any way, shape or form. And her topic discussion all week long was anger and especially focusing on anger before God, our anger to God about our circumstances. And so I had heard her a couple days because I always enjoy listening to her grandmotherly wisdom, for me, motherly, but for some of you, grandmotherly. But Friday she kind of surprised me because she said well we’ve been talking about anger all week and the inappropriateness of human anger, but today we’re going to talk about the kind of anger that we should have and then she really never talked about it, she just was angry. And she was angry in an appropriate manner but she read a Washington Post editorial by George F. Will. Does anybody know or read George F. Will? He’s, I’ve been enjoying reading him since I was in high school before I was saved. I think he was in the back of Time or something or one of the magazines back years ago. But anyway, so she read an article he had written in the Washington Post I believe not too long ago relating to this incident where a girl was at her senior prom and the birth of her child interfered with the prom and she killed the baby in the bathroom and came back out and finished the prom. And he started the article with naming the song that she asked for which was, that itself was an incredible statement of our culture but he was basically writing in a public forum and introduced the concept of wickedness as a culture as it related to abortion. And I gave some reflection to, the article was really well written and it caused me to just reflect where are we? And real recently I’ve been feeling compelled by the Lord to speak in areas that I’m getting understanding in but to try and speak properly with the authority of God behind it. And as I gave some consideration to it, kind of framed the background for this morning’s discussion, and we’re going to be, let’s go ahead and open Hebrews real quickly, Hebrews 13:4, and we’re going to be talking about defiling the marriage bed. I guess we can just about quote the verse without turning to it huh? But the Scripture says, “Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. The whore mongers and adulterers God will judge.” Now it’s obvious that whore-mongering and adultery is that which defiles the marriage bed, it’s that which sets apart God’s divine and holy purpose in the union of marriage and uses it for purposes purely upon the invention of the individuals without any consideration or duty back to God in the process. And this issue of keeping the marriage bed undefiled and the relationship that God has to it, has led me to some consideration. And this morning I’ve titled my discussion, “Birth Control and the Defilement of the Marriage Bed.” And I’ve spoken indirectly frequently I guess in this form at least in this building on birth control and some issues relating to birth control, but as I really contemplated some of the challenge I got from Elisabeth Elliot’s talk, I feel compelled to perhaps make a very very very clear public statement concerning birth control and perhaps it’s for a little more deeply than I’ve ever done before in any public form. But in the context of our study, I would like to draw a connection between the defilement of the marriage bed and God’s determination to judge those who defile it. I’d like to draw a connection between that directly with birth control so as to include birth control in the context of that which defiles the marriage bed. And to not give any credence or excuse or excusability to the use of birth control in the context of those who wish to keep the marriage bed honored before God who is the Judge of these matters. Now, I think I may have more material than I can accomplish in this week which I feel is unfortunate because the message has two parts to it. The first part was meant to just be an orientation to our thinking process and I kind of got carried away in that section as I was identifying some thought patterns. And the second section was to take the Scripture and let the Scripture speak authoritatively on matters that surround and relate to the overall discussion. And I’m not certain how far we’ll get into Scriptures or how many Scriptures that we’ll get into this morning.

But let’s start with, I guess the first thing I’m going to say is I’ve never spoken this particularly, forthrightly on this topic ever because there’s always been just a little bit of reticent with the fact that it easily feels like, it easily seems like to speak in the way I’m going to speak this morning on the topic that that’s an invasion of one person into another person’s life and expecting others to live by standards that are my own interpretation or my understanding. And the compelling sense that we provide space for each other with respect to issues of our own walk and obedience before the Lord. And while I certainly would never want to be found in a position of dictating the duties and moralities of anyone on any premise, I do find that as the Lord is pressing in my heart, there’s a difference between dictating moralities and declaring that which God has declared as moral from His perspective and really listing to the hearing of others that they might give a consideration before God. And I think that really that tension between the possibility of some human invading your private space with their views, which is so akin to Americanism, I think that very issue itself you’ll find in our discussion is best protected by having a high view of God and His authority and that which He’s given over to us in our lives especially for our obedience and service to Him. So that’s just kind of a tiny overview and because of a potential sensitive nature of the discussion, I personally invite immediate exchange or give and take of questions or if anybody wants to explore a little bit better especially if it seems like I’m getting off base. I really feel adequately able to keep the topic on the right foundation which relates to God’s authority and I would prefer to hear criticism or questions in the context of the discussion so that the benefit’s not lost by someone’s dander getting up in the process of feeling offended. So I’d rather deal with the matter frankly and I think beneficially. Chuck – (You’ll probably share later that we’re going through a great deal of pain and I believe our pain is partially caused by our unwillingness to hear frankly … and yet we really aren’t being honest with ourselves and others. So I just wanted to share that to emphasize the Word that gets spoken.) And I think you know, I think of myself, I think part of my discussion along this line came, my 25th wedding anniversary has been very special to me and I hope to Sally, she has to put up with me whether she enjoys all the fuss or not, but I’ve thought about as Elisabeth Elliot was trying to speak on the topic and of course using the George Will article, that’s a public forum that you’re speaking on and raising the wickedness question, and I was just thinking just kind of like self evaluating, number one – what is the duty of man with respects to these kinds of things and more personally, what’s my duty and what has been my response, what has been my course? And I like to think that I’m willing to speak on topics that are pertinent and speak properly in the right setting and I also like to try and avoid the what I might feel or deem to be an inappropriate confusion of trying to address social ills or evils where the Gospel gets lost in the process because we look to social righteousness, social prosperity and we are defining those kinds of things in shallow and narrow terms that leave out the righteousness and the purposes of God. And so I really haven’t spoke out much as I said last year at this time usually my pro-life banner that I wave is the fact that I have lived obediently before God and that I have children that are little flags after me making my statement for me and I certainly would rather be doing things righteously than marching or trying to do some social engineering to get people to think differently. And I think there is some maturing that’s going on and perhaps there’s some maturing in my own life where I’m now feeling compelled in an area where I didn’t have that sense of compelling before.

Well let’s plunge in. Why is birth control wicked? Yes I said birth control is wicked. Why is birth control wicked? Well let’s discuss it from several points. First let’s talk about what is birth control. This is really hard for me to define something in simple terms and lead in the simple expression the magnitude of significance that lies with the issue that we’re discussing. So here’s a couple cracks at a definition of birth control. Birth control is the intentional or artificial, and I mean or because it really doesn’t have to be artificial but it’s the intentional or artificial prevention of a living child from eventually resulting from intimate relationships. Birth control is the intentional or artificial prevention of a living child from eventually resulting from intimate relationships. In it’s simplest term, in it’s simplest expression, that’s what birth control is. We could talk about all the different methods or theories or possibilities of how that might occur, but every form of birth control has that fundamental premise and I think it’s important for us to look at the premise if we’re going to get at the heart of the matter and discover our sin and find a course of recovery and repentance from our sin. But fundamentally I am trying to intentionally, when I use the word intentional I’m referring back to the purpose and will of man. Ok that’s the intention. Intentionally, and in some cases artificially, I’m contriving means with my own power, with my own intellect, what God’s given me to promote that which is my will and my intent. I’m intentionally, my own mind and will, trying to control, I’m inflicting or putting my will by mechanically or artificially or somehow preventing a living child. Now I didn’t say prevent a pregnancy because the important thing that we need to understand is people don’t mind pregnancies per se. In fact there’s a whole movement today among Americans, perhaps around the world, where women get pregnant just for the medical benefits of being pregnant and the youthfulness that it generates within them and then they abort their children before they have to deal with a living child. But we’re talking about preventing living children from arriving. And the main problem with living children is like this child abuse poster that I saw in a social services building that said, it showed this forlorn 18 year old girl holding a baby and it said, dolefully on the bottom, “It’s like being sentenced to 18 years.” And that was supposed to be a poster that would encourage our young people to at least use contraceptives. Gary, Yes – (I don’t know if anybody else has heard of this but in Montgomery county the school system there’s a class that gives young girls a baby, a mechanical gizmo, that does a lot of things, mostly the bad things that babies do, drool and mess and all that stuff, to bring home and have at their home to see what a troublesome experience having a baby is. Anybody else heard of that? Our neighbor across the street brought one their child was sent home with one.) Danae brought nine here yesterday and we had to take them apart mechanically and scrub them and put them back together and we were up all night. (That’s where their getting them.) I’ve not heard of that although back in the 70s I heard of the little similar model but it was a little bit lighter level, but children somewhere in the fifth grade level or something, when they came to class, they were given a raw egg and they were required to keep that raw egg with them 24 hours a day for a month and then they were introducing them to sex education courses and this was happening in Fairfax county. There was different counties around the area, but that was actually that was a big national rage for that same kind of purpose. So let me pause a moment. Why am I saying this to you? Well there’s two reasons I can think of immediately why I’m saying it to you. Number one, you’re the first audience I have a chance to speak to. If I was speaking somewhere else this morning I’d be saying it there. So you might say that the sense of duty and pressure of the message has been put on my heart and I’m speaking where God gives me the privilege of speaking and that happens to be here. So please do not consider me as personally attacking anyone here, that’s not my intention. But this is a need to speak, this is my first chance of speaking perhaps you could say. And secondly, why am I speaking here? Yes the world is completely perverted. To me it’s almost as if the harvest has completely left and all that’s left is the ripening hand of God to judge and reap the judgment. I mean, we’re, our culture is that far gone and that which can be brought out by redemption is that should be our concern. And God permitting a grand, incredible revival that’s wonderful, but I tell you one thing, if there’s a revival it’s going to happen. If God’s Word is true it’s not going to be a sugar coated revival of superficialism. God has to be through with that because the root of the decadence and the turning away from the Person and the authority of God is too far and it’s too sweeping and it’s time for God to bring to finish that which needs to be judged by His righteousness and by His purpose in Christ. But the church, we’re the ones. You know judgment always begins at the house of God. And I frankly think that the American Christian experience is the only one I know of, I’m not from other countries so I can’t tell you about theirs per se, but the American Christian experience is incredibly penetrated with a misunderstanding of authority from the Word of God and how to go about it and we just don’t understand what it means to walk in authority. And American Christians are quickly offended when they are faced with simple facts of Biblical authority and what it means. Now so that’s why I’m speaking. And I want to say there’s a real delicate line that’s here. And I’m going to express it from Scriptural terms. In the epistle of first John, the apostle says to the Christians, to the believers, he says in chapter two, “You don’t have a need that any man teach you but the Anointing that you have received,” the Holy Spirit, “He will teach you all things and if you abide in Him, then you will continue in the faith.” That last part is a little bit of a paraphrase. But it’s important for us to understand something about authority and the role of believers in speaking on behalf of God in His name. Peter said, concerning our spiritual gifts, he said that we’re to, when we speak we’re to speak as if the oracles of God. What he’s trying to say is, in other words, say something with such clarity that the authority of God breaks through upon it. And when we look at what the apostle John was trying to really say with his warning that we didn’t have need that any man teach us, John warns us about false teachers and tells us to test every spirit and he’s got a significant antenna up warning us concerning that need to decipher what we’re hearing with our ears when somebody stands in front of us purporting to speak on behalf of God. And if you remember the person of Christ when He was on the earth and preaching, and I think it was at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where this phrase came up, I think it’s chapter eight, but it speaks about the people’s reaction to Christ and it says that they were astonished at His doctrine because He spoke to them as one having authority, possessing authority, and not like the Scribes and the Pharisees. Now that’s an interesting picture of the fundamental issue that’s at stake here. And I really hope that that which I speak falls within the parameter properly of spiritual authority and there’s nothing personally intended here. But considering what’s taking place, a couple things to think about, when authority exists in God, it’s strength is immutable and it illicits from me a response of obedience. That’s the nature of authority from God. When authority comes from man, it’s error, it’s falseness lies in the fact that it’s finding it’s limitations in that man. That’s where false authority is all about and that’s the description, that’s the definition of a false teacher. Acts 20, Paul clearly describes a false teacher, their human motivation is to gather around themselves disciples. The gathering unto myself a disciple a following of disciples. So in that fundamental parameter, the man is looking to be in the limelight. And there was that distinct difference between Christ and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were obviously trying to use their projections of understanding about the Law in order to further their position of authority and their sense of authenticity really lay in that sense of authority that they possessed. Whereas Christ came in the lowest possible manner with respects to human position and He did not speak out of a picture of human authority like the Scribes and the Pharisees, rather He spoke from the essence of true authority. And the amazing thing about you and I as believers is that when we attach ourselves by faith to the authority of God in a proper manner, there’s a liberation of our soul that occurs that’s substantive so that who we are begins to emanate God’s authority not as resting in us or residing in us as if in origin from us, but flowing through us so that the heart of that person we’re speaking to turns to God and responds to God. That’s what Christ meant when He said, “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works,” the works of obedience under authority to God, “and they glorify your Father in Heaven,” because that clarity of authority traces back to God. And I think the singular issue of this whole discussion centers around that one question – can you sort through the issues and trace back the line of authority to God that exists? Because there’s one thing about God’s authority that whether you like the discussion or not or even agree with the conclusion you will be subject finally to God’s authority without escape. There’s no way out. You will have to answer these questions and you will be faced before God and then it will be forced upon you and the Scripture says plainly that the forcing upon you is the forcing of submission, “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” So that there’s no escape from this reality and so the compelling of the brothers and sisters who know Christ, the compelling is not that we get people following us, but that we wake them to their need to follow after God. And the freedom and the delight of our fellowship is that we learn how to walk in harmony together, encouraging one another and indeed provoking one another to love and good works. So that is I hope the tenor and the reality of the message that I share and the content.

Now we’ve given part A of the definition of birth control. I have another definition which is maybe a little bit more mechanical. But the first definition for your memory is the intentional or artificial prevention of a living child from eventually resulting from intimate relationships, focusing on the will of man of course and the power of man. Secondly, the second definition says blocking or removing the Creator’s natural and moral design and intent of marital relations. And that is, that lends itself more to my way of thinking but the other is probably more articulate with respects to a definition of birth control. Now establishing, if that’s the fact, if that’s fact of the matter of birth control is man making judgment and decision and carrying out his will with respects to bringing a living child into the world, I’d like to throw in a phrase here. We’re talking about men determining the existence of men. That’s what birth control is all about. It’s determining the existence of other people. And birth control the taking upon myself, a human being, that determinative power to decide whether another human being is going to leave under the sphere and realm of my say so, my power, and my authority falsely perceived. And so the second point I want to bring up, point B, is this: what is birth control’s premise? What is the premise for birth control? I want to pause here for a second and I want to say something. These are the kind of questions most Christians never bother asking. You’re not even led into a discussion let alone a temporary thought process. I remember when Sally and I got married this is what happened. Well we’re going to get married. Ok well you better see the doctor and get some prescription so we can take care of that you now. And it came upon us, that’s the way it is, you just do it. It’s part of don’t forget to buy a pair of shoes, we need an airplane ticket, we need, it’s just a little check off list in the cosmetic bag. Now that perhaps lends a small amount of mercy as God looks upon it and He sees that somebody’s really ignorant. They don’t even have the first thought and the first acknowledgment of God and the Scripture says that a servant that doesn’t know will be beaten with fewer stripes and the servant that knows will be beaten with many stripes, but you’re going to get a beating. In other words, the accountability factor is not eliminated because you’re stupid. Do you understand what I’m saying? And if you’re going to be punished for being stupid, it might be better to reduce your stupidity and increase your obedience. That’s really at the crux of it, what God is doing. And this issue of birth control’s premise is fundamentally an issue of authority. Now what is the banner word that the abortionist wave, the moral banner that they wave? And by the wave it’s a significant, I didn’t understand until this morning how significant that banner is and how right it is with respects to the perversion that’s been propagated upon us. What’s the big banner that they wave? I don’t know it’s a six letter word. Choice. Choice. Now when you bring up the word “choice” you’ve introduced an entire foundational understanding of who man is and why we exist and what is within the means of our existence and the purpose of our existence. Yes sir – ( ? ) Well I’m not done yet. ( They are convinced that they have a right. And a lot of them feel like that right is God given.) And a lot of them are us and a lot of that mentality is us and in fact that’s really what I want to drive after. In other words, the banner is choice because choice gives us this sense of the autonomy of the individual and their need for capacity for liberty and the use of it. But what I really want to drive at if you’ll let me, this issue of choice has a root to it and what’s the root? (Independence.) Independence, but what’s the root of independence, in this case (authority) Authority, it’s authority, it’s an authority issue. It’s an authority issue because if I say I have independence in an area, I’m saying that I have the authority. Now what we don’t understand in America, we don’t understand authority very well. Now when we experience authority, we run into people and people are sinful and they fall short of being perfect models of authority as God might be if He were our only parent so to speak. But the problem with authority is that we tend to see authority stopping at people and we fail to see the origin and the continuum of authority in all things. And you have to realize that God has a continuum of authority that exists found in Romans 13. It said there is no authority that exists that didn’t spring forth from the authority that’s in God. And with that He does two things to authority: He establishes the fact that He Himself is the only authority that there is. And with the establishing of that fact, the two things that spring forth are number one, those He puts in authority represent Him to those they’re over and so my obedience to a fellow man is motivated because I’m obligated to obey God and it’s my desire to obey God that motivates me to obey my parent or whomever else and that’s what makes me purest in terms of obedience, I’m pursuing obedience to God. And as long as you will pursue obedience to God, you’ll never go astray in any area of life. The second thing of it is though, the authority has to answer to God with respects to how they use that authority. And it’s not authority deriving from them or for them, it’s deriving from God for God’s purposes. And so authority when it’s given to man is a representational authority and that representational or federal authority from God is authority that must always answer to God’s authority Book and the Person of God and the purpose of God. So authority when it’s properly understood, brings purity and life and liberty in the most ultimate sense of God’s intention. But authority misunderstood, it’s a slight missing step. Here’s the key: if I don’t perceive authority as coming from God and going back to God and if I don’t perceive that my obedience to man is an obedience to man qualified by my desire to obey God, if I don’t have that understanding I get perversion. Because see if I am always obeying God as the premise for all my obedience, then what happens? There comes the day when some authority pretending to stand in the place of God attempts to wield over me authority that doesn’t come from God and how am I to be preserved on that occasion? I’m preserved on that occasion by one thing: I’m preserved by my continuing obedience to God that never wavers. And at that moment, I find the authority I’m under to be reprobate authority and I speak as Peter spoke plainly, “You figure it our for yourselves, we must obey God rather than man.” And I am never obligated to obey man for the sake of obeying man. That’s why the Holy Spirit said through the apostle John that, “You have no need that any man teach you.” That is, you do not need to look to the institution of man as a source of reason or authority on any matter of life. That’s an area of destruction and Christ Himself is going to destroy it, read first Corinthians chapter two.

Now that authority issue then fundamentally speaks to this particular issue because we have to ask a question: well what is birth control? Birth control is a decision over another’s life. That’s what it is. Birth control is a decision over another’s life. Now none of us perhaps in this room today would have a problem if we put a person in a chair and identified that person as a self-contained individual, none of us would have a problem at agreeing that my personhood as a man does not constitute authority that extends to the determining of that personhood. And I am not the one given the responsibility of overseeing that person’s life. It’s not my role. And therefore, any attempt by me to decide whether that person should live or not would be seen as immoral. And generally speaking, in the middle section of our laws still, our laws and our practices and our general social morality agree to that point. But what we have to transfer here is a fundamental understanding of what life is. Now I don’t know if you remember last year, but the week after this week I came back and shared with you the loss of our child and I also shared Psalm 139 again from a little bit more personal understanding. But the thing that so struck me in Psalm 139, the thing that so liberated me from the sorrow and the trauma of our loss, knowing that we lost our child on the Roe v. Wade anniversary, was the Scripture that spoke so plainly that it was God who counted me a person before the first smallest member was even shaped. And my completeness as a person was found in the determination of God to make me a person. And in that determination of God to make me a person I existed and before they ever were established, I was fully there. I was complete. And all that lacked was the process of bringing forth the fullness of the bloom. And that’s the trauma that we have with this issue of birth control. What we are saying is we want to prevent the possibility of another person existing under the responsibility and duty of my household. That is what birth control says. Now society uses it for many other perversions of course, why not? But the reality is the question must be a question of authority. Do you have the authority to determine another person’s life. And my statement this morning is no, there’s no authority. There’s absolutely no authority that man has been given ever to determine someone else’s life. It’s not been given into our hand. It’s an expression of false authority. It’s a kind of authority deriving from man that must be rebelled against and spoken of it as evil and wicked. It’s not something that we can sit idly by and give a proving sayance no matter how foolish perhaps even we ourselves have been.

By what premise should one approach the decision making process? I must approach the decision making process if I am to walk before God in a holy manner, I must approach the decision making process by placing decisions under their proper jurisdiction of authority. That’s my need, that’s my responsibility. I’ve placed the decision under the proper jurisdiction of authority and if you do that first and immediately and foundational if you return that decision to it’s proper authority of premise, then guess what you’re going to do? You’re going to find early if this is even a matter that you have right to discern or discover. And the fundamental question is if I have no authority in this area, then it is not a question that even bears my consideration or articulation or refinement of process. And in the American culture today, we who claim to be Christ’s, have been led many of us, most of us, we’ve been led as a culture down this path of reasoning where we find ourselves attempting to engage in all kinds of understanding and let me say one thing: you cannot defend this premise of birth control being wicked on any foundation except that if it’s wicked before God because God has declared it to be so. And so we have to ask a pretty important question, has God given this to our hands? Is it an area of authority that He’s entrusted to us? Now I don’t think I’m going to get a chance to go through Scripture today but we’ll go through that Lord-willing next week in a little more depth. But we’re going to see that God has demonstrated in Scripture that He’s reserved this for Himself and Himself alone. And He’s put precautions and into society protections by which man gets that lesson learned, almost all of which we have broken down.

Second point I want to ask then is, on what basis? Where does man get the idea that he has been given the authority to be the determiner of life? And I guess that’s the followup question because for me to first say that you don’t have that right is offensive potentially to the human heart – “What do you mean? It’s my life, it’s my body. Get your laws off my body?” Have you ever heard that one before? So let’s look at it from the other angle. Where does man get the authority? Where does he get the idea that he has the authority to be the determiner of life? I mean on what premise? On what basis? I’ll ask some questions in a few minutes that kind of illustrate that. Well maybe I’ll ask them now. Maybe they should have been here. For example, does, I’m calling this determinative authority now, this issue of birth control is determinative authority. That’s what I’ve labeled it. Birth control is man taking determinative authority over the existence of another person, that’s the issue we’re speaking on. I have six questions. Does determinative authority exist because man has the power…(tape turned here)… power and the means to destroy your goods does that make it right? Does that give me the authority to do it? No it doesn’t. And so what I want to say is we’re so careless we think just because I have the ability to use birth control, just because birth control is a means that’s there, we feel like it’s just one of those little options like do I want chocolate milk this morning or do I want to have white milk? You know it’s just a choice of my own preference and desire. And the point of it is, you don’t have the right to make a decision when you don’t have the authority to make a decision even though you have the power to make the decision. That’s where fundamental, immorality breaks forth is when I decide that I have because I can and because I want and so I do and that’s my own morality.

Another example of this authority residing in man, does such determinative authority exist because man has the common sense and reasoning ability to make proper judgments over his affairs as to which children can properly be determined to fit into? There’s a great one. How many times do people say, “Well we’re not going to have children yet because,” and then they have their little logical plan and reasoning and their logical plan and reasoning is completely based upon their idea of common sense and sound reason. “It just doesn’t make sense to have a child right now. There are too many things,” you can fill it in and I could weary myself filling in all the hogwash that’s been filtered through this excuse for sin. But we pride ourselves in being planners and carrier outers of our planners. We’re the great pioneers who accomplish our goals, but I just want to say one thing that just because you know that common sense is important, just because you think you have common sense the need for common sense does not give you authority over a matter of determining another person’s life.

The third illustration here, does determinative authority exist because man has the duty to manage his own life of which children affect and change? Ok in some respects you can say that we’re going to be held accountable for how we lived our life. We’re going to stand before the judgment seat and give an account for the things we did in the body. But there’s an accounting obligation that I have before God and so there are those who piously consider, “Well on the large scheme of things, my necessity to obey God and to carry out my needs, I need to provide for my family and you know years ago maybe you could afford kids but I just can’t do my duty today and afford them.” And people think in terms like, “Well you know I don’t think I can afford more than one college education or two college education,” or I have some other preposterous, incredible perspective on their duty. And again what we do is, here is the character quality of rebellion, it will always be this way and never change, here’s the character quality of rebellion: when I want to rebel, I need to make my rebellion holy and righteous. How do you make your rebellion holy and righteous? By deferring focus to a lesser moral good and holding it up as the center stage of spotlight and understanding. How many people stopped thinking at the moment somebody brings up a lesser argument that has a moral fiber in it and you say, “Well I guess you’re right, you can’t do that and do this so I guess you’ve got to use your good judgment.” But see there’s where we get corrupted by Satan every time because I don’t have good judgment if I don’t have authority in my life. I don’t have judgment at all, I have perversion. I have a reprobate mind and the sum total of my capacity to reason is lost entirely. And I’m left to myself to a Godless worldview that is foolish in it’s entirety.

Another question here, does determinative authority exist because man has the ownership of the children? “Their my kids, I’m the one responsible for them; this is my house.” A sense of authority. I have ownership so I have authority. Well there’s some semblance to truth that if you have ownership, you have authority. That’s why God so frequently makes it clear in the Scriptures that we’re His. Now for the believer, we’re really His because we’re bought with a price. We’re purchased back from the grave and so His initial authority and ownership at creation is doubled in it’s force as He buys us back for His exclusive purposes in Christ Jesus. Ownership does not give you authority. Number one and number two, well I guess you might be able to construct that true ownership gives you authority but I guess with that in mind the second point is necessary to emphasize, you don’t own your kids. Your kids aren’t yours. They’re not your possession. They’re your opportunity, they’re your inheritance, but they’re not your possession; they’re not yours to possess, they’re yours to pass on. And so I’ve heard a smart alec answer before that said that, “Well I just don’t need any more inheritance, I’ve got enough, thank you.” As if to say possession wise, “I am happy to be humble and a poverty sort. I’ve got enough.”

Sufficiency is another one. The real spiritual ones get this one out you know. Does determinative authority exist because man has the sufficiency mentally or physically to raise and care for children. Now this is really incredible because piously cloaked, “I’m just not able to properly raise children for God. I just committed before the Lord that I’d rather raise one kid well for God than to have a dozen messes to mar His name. I’m just not able to raise a large family. I’m just not able to.” Well, first of all, if you have one child at all, shame on you because that means you’re relying on your own self sufficiency with that that you already have and that’s a sin in itself because you’ve trusted yourself to do that which God has desired to entrust to you. In fact, there may be more that God wants to do to you because of your insufficiency by giving your children than you can ever do for them by your sufficiency. I think that’s more true than words could color. I love Paul’s perspective in 2 Corinthians. It’s a beautiful picture of obedience to the God of all authority when he said, “I stand before God on His behalf speaking to you but our sufficiency is not of ourselves.” He actually says, “And who is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is not of ourselves but of God and of Christ.” And so that which God calls us to do is of such a magnitude that it is beyond our resources to begin. And it is not what we have to contribute to children that makes a difference, it’s what God desires to contribute to us all by us submitting to His purpose and authority and delighting in that which is eternal before man.

Then the last point here about this determinative authority, number six, does determinative authority exist because man has this sense of moral value by which children will contribute or detract from the world from which they live? This is fast becoming the bane. Not only perverted morals sufficiently, people want to be moral again to continue promulgating their immorality, there’s, we think it’s so funny but it’s not funny and it is not a bit surprising but there are now people who are feeling sorry for blades of grass. Did you hear about the dairy cow that was shot? A guy driving down shot a dairy cow and when we found out why he shot it because he was killing the grass by eating it and the grass has a right to live too. That is so insane but it’s true because this perversion of understanding is centered upon the self-contained existence which is impossible but we try and determine who has the right to determine to be determined. But I mean, our world system, especially in our country, has a mentality that basically says, I don’t know if you realize it but the world thinkers have determined that the world population needs to be at around one billion people max. Or is it just 900 million? It’s just a really small, there’s a whole lot of people that need to be removed off the earth. The fellow that Clinton appointed to help develop our land use, he wrote a book years ago, not too many years ago, but his idea was, “Hey you guys if you’re dying of AIDS, don’t despair and kill yourself and don’t die alone, but strap a bomb on your back and jump into a stadium and take a whole bunch of people with you because we need to reduce the excess population of the earth.” That’s his moral pinning. But those moral pennings are based upon this sense of my capacity to perceive someone’s contribution before they exist or that there is not the, now it’s coming down, now there’s not the capacity to perceive a contribution. Human beings are now being seen as primarily consumers and destroyers of the habitat and we’re taking up all the space away from others. Of course one of the humorous things is the deer population problems on the east coast. The deer population is the highest it’s ever been in the history of our country. The Indians would have loved this many deer, they never would have gotten hungry. But why is there such a great deer population? Because there’s such an increase in food sources. Why is there an increase in food sources? Because man has cultivated land and cultivation represents that which is God’s gift and decree to man by his subduing and overseeing the earth.

Alright let’s go back, next point then, if authority resides with man, such authority this determinative authority, if such authority resides with man, then laws against such matters, birth control, are easily perceived as mankind ruling over a private issue. Now you need to understand I guess simply a legal premise. If the authority resides with man, then the corporate laws of a society must preserve the capacity of the individual man to make those decisions. Now that’s the simple, legal parameter that is necessary based upon the source of authority. Now when we explore this further, you’ll understand the beauty of America’s foundation and why the perversion is so sweeping today in our culture. But simply put this is what’s going on: authority either resides in God and so I answer back to God or it resides in man and answers back to man. In America, the liberty and the libertarian mindset had eventually eroded that man’s ability to pursue his individual freedom has been elevated as the source of all fundamental law and so the Constitution without being rewritten has been perverted because this fundamental need of the individual to be preserved in his capacity to make a personal and private decision. Now when you’re trying to have a society that’s equal based upon that kind of a legal premise, you have a pretty difficult task. And we’re going to get into that in detail a little bit, but the difficult task superficially at least is that you must find a means by which everyone is given the opportunity to make their own decisions as much as possible and then find the balancing means by which those who can’t make those decisions have those decisions made for them. So if all morality’s based upon not intrusion then you automatically have to have an intrusion clause because there are some not capable. In other words, basically here’s what I’m trying to say, if the quality of man is based upon man’s capacity to make proper judgments, we suddenly find ourselves in a culture where all men are not created equal because all men have different stature just by reason of strength of life to death processes. And so all of a sudden we have to stop limiting the parameter of that definition of vitality or viability within the capacity to make those decisions. And so a true person is one who has the capacity to carry out that which is his desire and those outside of that have others making those decisions for them. And so you end up with a completely different social structure where we are today. And contrasting that though to legal structure where an authority breaks from God, you have true equality because when you have the foundations of the value and purpose of life proceeding from God, God implements that universally and equitably upon all men and upon all life period. The fundamental issue of birth control is this: Christians mindlessly have tried to fake themselves out into thinking that the little decision about whether I use birth control to prevent a living child from coming into my home yet, that that is an isolated personal decision that’s not affecting the moral underpinnings of my own life or the culture I live in and that’s a lie. It’s not without it’s direct intrusion into the whole moral fiber of our society because it does two things categorically: it elevates a person’s judgment against the judgment of God in an area where God reserved the judgment for Himself. It’s man using some form of reason, logic, to say, “I can and indeed I must make this decision,” and so I pass judgement on the work and the value of another person. Now because that person doesn’t exist yet, I think that I’m just managing my life. But I’m not managing my life, I’m controlling the lives of others. Now you say, “How do you know that?” Well here’s how I know that: families that choose not to choose usually end up with large families, not all the time, some don’t have any. But it’s evident that if you may have a large family by not interfering, it’s evident then on the social average that those who are choosing not to get pregnant are eliminating children from their domicile care. And so though they’re in personally not existent, they are fundamentally, culturally annihilated. They are annihilated on the premise of false authority taken upon man to determine over man the value and worth and prospect of their existence. It is that first step that destroyed the culture of America, not the last step, the first step. And see, how can we moral Christians ever hope to turn back the blood tide from homosexuality and euthanasia and the abortion industry, partial-birth abortion, infanticide, whatever, if we don’t correct the fundamental premise of authority that opened the door and floodgates and eroded out all authority all together because the question is, “Where do you draw the line?” And you have to understand one thing, OK, as soon as the society through the decision of Roe v. Wade made an intellectual choice to set the private rights of women above the general protection of mankind, which is what they did – the individual was preferred above the possibility of other individuals, so one individual was preferred above another under the guise of freedom. Once that happened culturally our Constitution slipped from the authority that derived from God and it slipped to authority that was derived from man. See the transition came. And as soon as you have that authority switching to man, then all we have left in the discussion is your opinion versus mine and your argument versus mine and your ability to use reason and manipulations and emotional tugs or whatever but it’s just me against you and my statement of such things is categorized simply as what’s your opinion and I don’t agree with you and I think something else. Dan- (I was just wondering if you knew that the Roe v. Wade decision, the legal reason of privacy based upon striking down a Connecticut law that outlawed birth control. I didn’t know if you knew that.) Actually I didn’t know that although you told me last week, I didn’t remember that. But, right, and I’m not the least bit surprised because again it’s the fundamental foundational aspect of authority. See this thing gets back to authority and it really has nothing to do with me and you, personally or our opinions or our viewpoints or our strengths and weaknesses. What it has to do with, a fundamental question, “Is God God and is He for me to obey or is He not and am I to do my own pleasure according to that which I can best perceive for my own condition?” (What’s the reason that you’re probably [?] what is the reason that … believe that a society that thinks everyone has a right to share .. position, what makes them think that that kind of a society can survive? Isn’t it obvious, logically, that it’s futile to think that all of us in this room could have our own, each one of us, is going to have our own way of dealing with everything that there is about us. Where do you think they’ve gotten that from?) (For us to be able to maintain any kind of order, to me, I don’t know if I’m making .. but to me if we’re all so smart, it defies logic … somehow order and orderliness are so important to .. and that orderliness is from God. For people to think that they can continue to have a society that’s all melted together and everybody seems to be happy, it doesn’t make any sense.)Well it doesn’t make any sense, but there’s absolute, complete evidence that that’s the way it’s going to be. Because in Romans chapter 1, the Lord said, fundamentally, that those who forget God are delegated to a social structure based upon foolish thinking and their foolish minds are darkened and they have to construct an entire world view without the knowledge of God or set apart from the knowledge of God and so what they do is they have a naturalist view. But the problem with the naturalist view is that actually the naturalist view is not disconnected from the spiritual view because the Spiritual and the Eternal constructed the natural. And so it’s inseparably connected. However, not to natural man because when natural man has been severed from his divine connection so that that perception of the eternal and the glory of God is fully evident and experienced with glory and thanksgiving being given to God in the process, what man does instead is reduce life to a natural experience. And I’ll tell you what, it’s not hard to understand then once you remove the knowledge of God how you get here and it’s inescapable and you can’t break out of it without a revival because the process is this: I naturally may choose to drink a glass of water or I can choose to drink a Coke. And the choices are physically before me within my power and grasp and the consideration is left entirely to me and I make my judgment and decision and I think that actually weighing this and that I’m going to have the water this time and I make my choice, I make my decision. But what we have is the fundamental misunderstanding of perverted authority so that we keep extending that capacity to choose as if that’s the moral purifier of all decisions. In other words, the most ultimate authority of man is that he can make some kind of a decision and the only thing that perverts that is that which would pervert it from someone else. And so we have a different construct of law based upon libertarian license really what it amounts to. But it’s not unforeseeable that man can’t see that because every stage of decadence is incremental. No one jumps from the idea that “Let’s get rid of birth control,” and then immediately the whole society began killing off all their unwanted children and all the old folks that they didn’t want around. It didn’t happen like you choose this glass of water versus that Coke. See, those are immediate consequences and the natural man is measuring on immediacy which is the arena of natural. But he can’t see the connectiveness to the eternal so he can’t connect the longer range and it’s impossible. But the reality is it’s connected and it’s there and we’re getting there but God says it’s a sentence, it’s a sentence of His wrath. Revelation of His righteous judgment on the earth is accounted because we have turned aside and set God out of our knowledge base and that’s the essence of our destruction.

Now, if you’ll permit me, I need to finish the content that I have here because I can’t come back to this next week; it would just be reworking a dead horse. Let me move along here. I have one two three four, four points about how this man based authority perverts. Number one, such a perception of man based authority makes it seem moral to be the moral high ground to forbid laws relating to these or other matters. Moral laws will focus on preserving the rights of the individual from the control of the state. So there’s your new foundation of law. The moral law is to provide individuals with the capacity to make choices and to keep them from bondage to the state. That’s the perversion, ok. And so it’s inescapable that it’s the moral high ground, “You get your laws off my body,” that’s a moral high thing. And people aren’t saying that thinking that it’s going to dupe somebody, they believe it; it’s the fundamental foundation of truth and order in their heart, “I am fundamentally me and what I want to be.” And if you are that’s the conclusion that you come to, then “You leave me alone.”

Number two, such laws will focus on the resident authority within the individual and struggle to draw boundaries between the personhood of one but the fully perceived nature is evidenced by the capacity to carry out life’s decisions and the one under the care of another person, another perceived as fully a person. Summarizing that in a nutshell, what I was trying to say in a few words was all of the sudden society is now faced with a new kinds of moral dilemma. and that is if choice, if individual choice, is the premiere moral foundation of truth and justice, there are people who fall out of the range of choice by several means and when they fall out of that range of choice they become dependent on those who have choice. And so here’s where the moral dilemma is and of course birth control introduces moral dilemma because to the natural mind this child didn’t exist and so I’m not really harming anyone because they don’t exist, I’m just preventing them from coming and I just said, “No I don’t want you to visit me, I don’t have time for that.” And we just see it as a practical arranging of my affairs. But what we did in that process was establish within my own perception that determinative process over someone less capable. Now who’s less capable than a non-existing infant to decide that they want to exist? Because there’s no way that you decide to come into the world; it’s not of your own making. BUt we treat it as, that’s true, and we treat the happenstance evidence as it’s only mechanical, it’s only a husband and wife having a baby, it doesn’t have anything to do with God. So that three-fold cord is broken and it’s left on a secondary plain and that capacity to change and rule. So what happens is all the sudden I start deciding well this isn’t a person, that’s where the line grayed to abortion, “Well it’s only a few weeks old, it’s not really a person it’s just a blob of tissue.” And the whole question of personhood keeps moving. And you know one of the things that abortionists say is, “Every child a wanted child.” If every child was a wanted child based upon that model, then you’d only have complete perversion in society because you’ve reduced everybody’s value to the dependency of someone else wanting you. And if my existence and my worth for existence is based upon you wanting me, I’m at serious risk. I’ve not been too many wanted, I’ve not been wanted in too many circles, even in my own home. But, so all the sudden you’re quickly redefining the whole moral fiber of society and you have and somebody has to carry out this authority and if I begin carrying it out here, where do I draw the line? So society is struggling with drawing the line. And we saw this last year in the newspapers incredible illustrations of the confusion of society to draw the line because I’m fundamentally confused about what really is life and what really is not life. (It comes out of an evolutionary theory which is totally inconsistent with our human being because we have these character qualities of love and mercy which opposite of evolution which says might makes right, survival of the fittest, so if I can overpower somebody else then I should grow in my ability to live which comes to these incredibly stupid decisions that the baby as soon as it’s born is a human being but 10 minutes before it’s born … I can destroy. It’s completely inconsistent because of the evolutionary theory.) But the thing you need to understand is as relating to the evolutionary theory, the first thing that evolution does is remove God from the picture by declaring that He isn’t and that this is by accident. And so I establish the authority of might makes right and then the process of decision comes under that philosophical mooring that something is right because I can perceive and make a judgment towards that end. And so your carefully constructed social world order is what comes out of that and of course Hitler is the best modern illustration of that on a large scale which will be repeated more grand in the future. But the fundamental issue is that separation of God. But here’s my complaint: that’s absolutely true, absolutely in terms of how it’s worked out in society, but what irritates me to the bone is those who call themselves Christians and pretend to be under the authority of God and pretend that God is the Creator and yet they still are blinded to take up the evolutionary mindset of authority that there is no God that rules in this affair and so I don’t have to give an answer to it and that’s the part of the first address. It’s the fundamental Christian that needs to consider his own rebellion against God who he has pretended to say, “I obey and I follow.”

Third point, such person will increasingly thrust the personhood of a weaker member upon the perception of those who are not weak. In other words what I’m saying there is you’re not a person because you decided to be a person, you’re a person because in my convenience of defining my person, I granted you personhood. And so we have reduced the personhood of man to the perception of a peer. And what I want to point out by this incredible atrocity is that in the end, the authority to determine life rests in man and man is no longer equal nor is he capable as being treated as equal because all of the sudden, it’s those who are more equal than the others who have the power to make decisions concerning those who are powerless. And all of the sudden we have the complete perversion of modern society that there’s no such thing as freedom and if you look carefully at the rest of society, you’ll see that rapidly that’s what’s happening. As we increase in liberty, we’re decreasing in liberty because liberty is being prescribed in larger arenas of decision to a narrowing group of people. Whereas, if you start out with authority as being foundational in God, then all men equally are subject equally to the same fundamental focus and the balance floods through society laterally, quickly and deeply because all men are subject to the singular authority that exists in God. Now what’s the ultimate, this process ultimately leads to a permanent state where you have an elite, dictating rulership. That’s where this leads to because no one else is capable of making decisions. And be real careful as you listen to our president’s discussion about things and the agenda from our government because increasingly what they’re doing is they’re taking over the care of private issues, you know, the privatizing of the health care problem, excuse me, the public health care policy, day care is another big thing that’s coming up. They’re increasingly encroaching upon arenas where man’s not capable of making those kinds of judgments and decisions and you’re ending up with totalitarian state. And see you have to realize one thing: you get that magnifying glass out and look at it and all the sudden you realize, “Ah, this is nothing but a scam. It was Satan and his satanic desire to rule instead of God that led us down this path and we’re in the end going to be under a singular head,” which is the anti-Christ, “and all will be without liberty at all under the pursuit of liberty.” And it is the most incredible scam that you ever see. And when you compare the fundamental stability of society with those who fear God and obey God’s authority and the breadth of preservation that that brings and the uniqueness that it brings to all men and the worth it brings to all men instantly, whereas this other treadmill, all we’ve been on is a changing treadmill but it’s a treadmill to bring Satan his dominion that he desires and it will end up with nobody having the capacity by the obvious ignorance. And nobody will be able to resist it either because it’s true when you really look at it, who is sufficient to make these decisions? And people are readily going to let go of them, but they’re going to let go of them to a different authority. It’s absolutely incredible. So man’s authority will reside only in his power and faculties of perception and every decision will be made without any reference to the knowledge of God. And, number two, men deemed incapable of such powers and faculties will have their own determination made by others charged with their care. And that is the state that we’re moving to and it’s not called communism, it’s not called socialism, it’s not called democracy, it’s not called Marxism, Leninism or Fascism, it’s called reprobate government that comes out of a society that has removed God from the core. It is inescapable and the Bible calls it the government and the reign of anti-Christ. And that’s why John said even anti-Christs[?] existed at that day.

Let me wrap it up. I guess to kind of get a perspective, if this authority does reside in God alone, then all men are universally together restricted from transgressing the boundary of such power and it makes things really simple because we’re all restricted. We just don’t have the right. If this authority resides with God alone then all men are universally altogether restricted from transgressing the boundary of the use of such power ever though the strength be in their hand. Three subpoints. Number one, laws will center around the transgressions of such authority. That’s the nature of true law, transgressing God-centered authority. All law stems from that. In fact our legal system is the most incredible in the whole world because it’s the only one except for the Old Testament law that is incredibly founded upon those simple principles that God ordained. B, the rights of every man will be established equally before such a bar that forbids every man from such determination. In other words, who I am isn’t restricted to who you think I should be, but rather it’s forded over to God who Himself alone has that authority and right to make me as a jar of clay as He wishes. And thirdly, justice will focus on penalties established by God for transgressing against His determinative authority. In other words, law will focus on penalties for those who transgress taking authority that’s not theirs and that’s the law of the Old Testament, penalties for those taking God’s authority upon themselves. Now you ask, well what’s the penalty for birth control? I ask you, “What’s the penalty for murder? What’s the penalty for murder?” To have you life taken. What’s the penalty for birth control? To have your life taken. Is there any instant in Scripture where that’s true? Yes there is. There’s only one case of birth control in Scripture and the man engaged in it died. The Lord judged him for his wickedness. Something to think about. We pride ourselves in our moral excellencies because we’re ten feet behind the wicked on their slide to the pit. And our righteousness is simply more righteous than them. But God asks us to have a righteousness that exceeds that kind of righteousness, instead a righteousness that is fundamentally found in the person of God. And listen, brothers and sisters, we have the capacity through simple obedience to the Holy Spirit to take on a new way of thinking and new kind of authority, authority that’s God’s and we leave to God that which is His. And you can raise ten thousand questions and wish you would but if you maintain the fundamental question of who’s got the decision-making power, if you maintain that to it’s right source, you will find a proper answer for every quibble and comment and criticism. And anything that falls out of this range will fundamentally lead us to the worship of Satan on the throne of human government in time and space and it’s coming.

Let me just conclude by reading these final statements and then I’ll pray. These were just thoughts, summary thoughts. How does birth control defile the marriage bed? To change, distort, pervert or prevent the Creator’s objective in marriage, in the marriage union, by any means, is to defile the marriage bed for such efforts stain the bed by soiling its holy and divine purpose leaving its holy use and exchanging it for another suited only to the limited and reprobate thinking and desire of man whom it was created to form. All defilement of every type of sexual sin and perversion springs forth from such defilement of which homosexuality is the crown in perversion.

Why the church is being destroyed by a lack of faith because of birth control – three points. To err in the least obedience of faith and duty before God, listen carefully this is a little bit heavy but it’s significant, to err in the least obedience of faith in my duty before God disconnects me, disconnects my soul from its anchor upon God. I don’t know if you realize that. That little point at which you break faith with God, it disconnects you from Him and it sends you adrift to a world devised by your own understanding. You are no longer connected and it prevents any increment of growth afterword beyond that point. In other words, until you repent of that first breach of faith, that breach of faith will continue to bear an increasingly wicked outlook in your life. Now I’m not saying that one breach affects all areas of your life, I’m saying that there springs forth from that one point many many many realities and all of such realities are cut off from the vitality of God through faith.

Second point, such detachment leaves a person destitute of external wisdom and instruction, God’s. Think about that. You cut yourself out from God and then you pinch off from His wisdom. I’m left with only myself, instead, dependent upon natural reason, foolish in perception, reprobate in judgment, and every area affected by the consequence of faith. With everything you set aside by faith is going to be affected and you’re going to have perverse judgment. And I don’t care if you’re a Christian or not. The just shall live by faith. Righteousness is manifest from faith to faith.

Thirdly, who can fully perceive the labyrinth of social and moral decadence affected by even the slightest disobedience of unbelief. Illustrate birth control which leads to euthanasia and infanticide and individual liberty as our forefathers opposed it to a state who’s own self interest determined the value of every person’s life.

Final question, are you really sure that God permits no birth control at all? God permits two types of birth control. First Corinthians chapter 7, don’t marry. That’s God’s first approved method of birth control. Obviously in the don’t marry clause lies all of the forbiddings of any form of fornication or sexual indulgence. God’s second approved method of birth control is also found in I Corinthians 7 and that is you may refrain from normal marital union while fasting and praying and immediately once you stop fasting and praying, you are obligated to resume normal, marital relations. So you may never get married or you may fast and pray your way through your life. Both of which don’t have any negative affects on the cultural authority where God is lost. Let’s pray.

Lord may Your authority be real to us. May we live it, may it be the light of other people’s lives, may it satisfy us richly, and You be glorified and Lord may we be quickened even in this dark hour if we confess and repent Lord that even as Your people we have foolishly, yes even stupidly, engaged in mindless social mimicry having not cared to first inquire of You whether or no…(tape ended here)