Reclaiming Traditional Values
Keeping Families Pure in an Impure World Weds. series is completed.
A. Thanks to Bruce for the planning&
B. Why did we need such a series?
1. Political conventions applauded the condition of our country&
2. Things have never been better! (What is all the doom & gloom about?)
3. Have you noticed the stock market? Crime figures are down! The weather in some places has been good.
4. & Look at America. If things were as bad as some say, would people still be flocking to penetrate our borders. Would eager immigrants be lining up to get visas?
5. We need to just relax & enjoy the prosperity.
C. What s the answer to that?
1. Saying, Well, it s still terrible, makes us sound grumpy. And grumpy people are seldom invited to the party.
2. Take a snapshot of America today & it does look fine! & it is wonderful! God has blessed us mightily in this land!
3. But don t rely on snapshots! Use a videotape.
4. A video of the last 50 years will show a nation that has become increasing & more furiously hostile to the family.
a. We've been steadily sliding down the slippery slope of calamity.
b. & a slippery slope that began harmlessly enough but has moved ever more aggressively to make America less hospitable to the biblical concept of a man and woman raising their children within the covenant of marriage.
D. In What Way Have Things Become More Hostile?
1. There are 3 beliefs that both sustain the family & are sustained by the family & thereby sustain the entire culture & all of society.
2. All 3 are relentlessly attacked. & the walls are crumbling.
a. The 1st: Sex belongs only within marriage. That is a belief over which America is now at war.
Heb. 13:4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, & the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators & adulterers God will judge.
b. 2nd: The family is the basic unit of society. We re being told it is now the individual, & not the family.
Gen. 2:24 ...and they shall become one flesh.
c. 3rd: A faithful, fervent, flourishing Christianity is good for America.
2 Chr. 7:14 If My people who are called by My name humble themselves & pray & seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin & will heal their land.
I. The Very Concept of Family is Under Assault
A . The 3 beliefs are under assault & the word family doesn t even mean family anymore.
1. What does family mean today? Hard to tell.
a. Short form 2000 census doesn t even ask if person #1 is married (does ask how others are related to #1)
b. We're more interested in race & ethnic origin&than marital status
2. Family is hardly a consideration in official circles because it is hard to define
a. Is it a man married to a woman? A group of roommates? Is it a transsexual male (now a woman) married to another woman?
b. Do you feel as if we ve wandered onto the pages of Alice in Wonderland? (or the sequel: Through the Looking Glass)
[1] Humpty Dumpty said in a scornful tone (as those who try to redefine the family today) in chap. 6 to Alice: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.
[2] Alice replied, The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.
[3] H.D. replied: The question is who is to be master! that s all.
[4] He who has the gold makes the rules. & he who defines the words wins the debate.
c. If there is no tradition of biblical authenticity taking us back to our spiritual origins, then there is no master. & if no Master, then words can mean precisely what you want them to mean.
3. It is no wonder that the meaning of family is up for grabs.
a. Once we have lost the concept of Master (capital M), then we remain the only alternative master.
b. &, like H.D., if we are master we will determine definitions&
c. & indeed, the word family no longer means what we thought it meant.
d. Little by little, it has become trivialized into meaninglessness!
4. What do we do about it?
a. Looking for light-hearted relief from Lewis Carroll again. Back in chap. 4 Tweedledum & Tweedledee are constantly embattled with each other over trivial matters.
b. They relate a poem to Alice that includes the verse:
The time has come, the Walrus said, To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot And whether pigs have wings.
c. And Alice was befuddled. When you talk about too many things you talk about nothing. It happens in business meetings & elders meetings, and etc.
d. That s why the church has to be focused on one thing: glorifying God in all we do. Always do the right thing!
II. We must always maintain that sex is only within marriage!
A. & that's the canyon that cuts thru our culture. The big disagreement!
B. Proof #1: sexual indoctrination is imposed on young people that strips them of their natural modesty under the guise of giving them Sex-Ed.
1. Harsh? What s the harm in imparting knowledge?
2. Ans. It is impossible to impart knowledge w/o imparting values.
a. The wise men who drew up the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 laid the foundation for education in America, knew that education cannot be separated from its underlying values.
b. SexEd most definitely.
3. Remember when it was introduced?
a. We didn t fight it much& Knew it was too early&
b. The argument was: Kids are going to do it anyway. They may as well understand what they are doing & know what is safe.
c. We swallowed the bait. And we still struggle just to get them to acknowledge the value of abstinence in solving the problems.
d. But if they were honest and consistent, shouldn't there be GUN-ED in every school? After all, children are going to do it . After all, it s only about education. We're only giving them information! Let' s teach them the safe way to use fire arms.
[1] You'll never get that in schools. Why? Because they re not morons. They know that teaching children gun-ed is a tacit signal that we expect you to use this knowledge. & they don t want kids interested in guns.
[2] Despite the fact that kids used to bring guns to school all the time so they could go hunting after school. Nothing went awry. It is not the guns that have changed. It's the people.
[3] Gun-Ed would make people feel comfortable around guns.
e. That's what Sex-Ed does. The point is, that was the agenda in Sex-ED& & it does it well.
f. Promiscuous behavior, disease and pregnancy have skyrocketed in every district that has Sex-Ed.
g. Dan, are you accusing everyone of having a malevolent purpose?
Didn't they have good reasons?
[1] They didn t want to see disease, pregnancy, shattered lives, & agonies that followed&
[2] But what they did want was to shut out any notion of a God-given morality.
4. For apart from a God-given morality there is no reason to prevent school children from rutting like barnyard animals.
a. E.g. give me a good reason why incest should not be practiced?
b. What are you going to say when your son & daughter tell you they are going to live together at college next year?
c. That's good. It ll save money& No dad, you don t understand. We ll be living together!
d. Choke! That s terrible! Why?
e. In fact, they re even thinking of marriage. Why not? It solves the In-law problem!
f. Ans. genetic problems? No! Haven t you heard of birth control, no plans for kids...We re just going to live together.
g. The only reasons are those given by Joseph to Potiphar s wife:
[1] Didn' t say, Potiphar's my boss, not you. (I m your boss, too.)
[2] What ll people say? (If you do, I ll tell them you didn' t, & if you don t, I ll tell them you did.)
[3] But it ll wreck your marriage. (Oh, it's been over for years. No big deal.)
[4] What else could he say? The only real answer: How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? (Gen. 39:9)
h. Don't waste time with sociological answers. The only reason for any morality is God. Everything else has an answer.
[1] It's illegal? Fine. So was homosexuality a few years ago.
[2] We live in a land that is progressing toward greater liberty for the individual!
[3] But incest is still a sin against God. So is homosexuality.
j. The debate is whether something as powerful as sex belongs exclusively in marriage or not.
[1] Why? Simply because the good Lord says so. And if I disagree with Him I'll stand in judgment for it.
[2] Any other argument will be like nailing jello to the wall, boxing at shadows&
k. And if people typecast you as a religious fanatic, GREAT! They ll stop arguing with you& & life is too short to spend it in endless arguments with secularists. We just don't agree!
III. Family is the Building Block of Society: Not the Individual.
A. That s why last names are important.
1. I'm Dan, an individual. I'm also Lightfoot. Someone s son.
2. & when we speak of morality it is not just refraining from activities that would hurt someone right now. It is refraining from hurting anyone in the past or in the future my family!
a. An individual can focus on the present. Family brings in the dimension of time. Not a photo, but a video.
b. Time matters. Family matters. I have a heritage & I have a legacy. & that s where we disagree.
B. Our culture focuses on the individual& & on the now!
1. Snapshots don t show us the whole picture. Sure, things are good now. But not as good socially & morally as they were 30 years ago or 50 years ago.
2. One of Newton s laws of motion is that anything in motion tends to continue doing what it is doing.
C. As we slide down the slippery slope of social decline passing thru affluence; &thru decadence & heading for depravity, what is going to stop us from sliding right off the stage of world history like countless other cultures have done?
1. Only one other nation has escaped that fate. Blueprint is in the OT. 2. Nations grow to prominence. To decadence. To depravity. Then to Oblivion.
3. But at critical moments Israel restored itself by recovering its covenant with God attaching itself to God
4. And God still blesses nations.
He still brings judgments of natural disasters and military disasters&
& He still blesses us with rains & crops & children & sufficiency&
D. But God has a law of action and consequence. If we leave Him & the covenant we leave His blessings & inherit His judgment.
1. But that is being undermined in the subtlest ways&
2. Cf. the Little Mermaid. dif. from Disney s version.
a. Hans C. Andersen s book teaches of choices and consequences.
Disney's has no consequences. (Do as you want. All is fine&.)
b. In a nutshell: L.M. surfaced & saw a magnificent world & & a handsome prince & & she liked it.
[1] She went to the witch of the sea. I can prepare a potion that will replace your tail with a beautiful pair of legs. BUT, there is a price to pay, as there is with everything in life. Here s the price: those legs will be tormenting & painful. You will yearn to have your tail back. Secondly, if the prince does not fall in love with you, you will lose your voice.
[2] & you will die, never being able to return to your home & family beneath the waves.
c. What did Disney do with the story?
[1] Removed the consequences. She got beautiful legs, except there was no pain.
[2] She didn t lose her voice. Could straddle two cultures, be human and mermaid both. Could talk & the prince fell in love with her. (In Hans story he did not fall in love because you can' t fall in love with someone you can' t communicate with.)
[3] But Disney s version has no obstacles to true love. What s more, her family came to the wedding. No problems.
3. The real message: You are trying to rear your daughter in a certain way, with certain beliefs. Tell her she is who she is and that we cannot have the God and the world, both. Can t do as we please and still be blessed. There are consequences to our choices.
4. But America is saying, Do as you please. Forget family and do your own thing. They ll all come around to your way of thinking and everything will be O.K.
5. America' s message is: Sex isn t just for marriage.
: Family? NO! The individual is important. Don't think about obligations or responsibilities or service to others. Just think about self-fulfillment. Escape the idea of service that is part of a family and do whatever you feel like doing.
6. Faith & family go together.
a. Most still want to be married in a church or religious institution.
b. Why? A bond between a man & a woman that is based solely on mutual attraction is very fragile.
c. But one that is based on an eternal & non-compromising love for an eternal Creator gives marriage a bond that will not be broken.
E. Christianity is at the core of families.
1. And family is the foundation of nations.
2. Those of us who remain committed to faith must be the army of God in fighting for the values that make us who we are: God's Family.
3. And the battle is between faith and secularism. Between us and those who would strip faith and Christianity out of American life.
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