Good Homes in a Wicked World

Introduction

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. There are a lot of things going on in the world tonight. A lot of meetings around the world. There are meetings in financial circles where decisions are going to be made that will affect the stock market and your portfolio and our economy in general. There are meetings that are being conducted tonight where plans are being made to disrupt society, to bring about chaos and to create confusion. There are meetings that are being made possible tonight by people who don’t want that sort of thing and who are trying to make things better for the world in which we live. There are meetings that are being conducted tonight where people are deciding on what kind of show to do, what kind of movie to produce, what kind of song to record.

There are all kinds of things that are going on tonight in the world. But I suggest to you with all candor that there is no meeting going on anywhere tonight that’s more important than this meeting. Because what we’re discussing here not only affects society, but it has eternal ramifications. It reaches off into the future and attaches itself onto something that is substantial, something that is lasting, something that is infinitely good. And so I’m glad you’re a part of this meeting tonight. I’m glad to be a part. We’ll not be teaching anything that is original, anything that is new. In fact, what we’re going to talk about is very old. In fact, it’s as old as mankind. But it has not lost its importance because of that.

It has not lost its splendor. It has not lost its necessity. And it will be important to you if you will listen to it carefully and be impressed with the goodness of the Word of God. Not because of who said it, but because of what is being said. Thank you for coming tonight. If you came at the behest or invitation of one of our members, please know of our satisfaction that having you present with us. We’re so pleased that you came. It indicates something about you. It says that you are interested in spiritual things. And if you would be interested in talking with us about spiritual things, we’d be happy to entertain your request. Thank you for coming. And thank you for being so good to me and my norma.

I must tell you that I’m going to leave here a bigger preacher than when I came. I’m about fed to death, actually. And did you notice I had a little barbecue sauce on my cheek there tonight? I should like to begin what I want to talk about tonight, how to have good homes in a wicked world, with two passages of scripture, the first of which is found in 2 Timothy chapter 3. This know also, says Paul to the young preacher, that in the last times perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truthbreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.

For of this sort are they which creep into houses, lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, never learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The other passage to which I call your attention is found in 2 Peter chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that made them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness, they with feigned words shall make merchandise of you, whose judgment now the long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

A house, ladies and gentlemen, is not a home. A home is a house with love in it, a place where domestic tranquility and family values exist, a place for growing, a place for learning. But we live in a society in a time where the home is being undermined. People are telling us that the traditional family units are antiquated. They’re old fashioned and outmoded and non-functional for society today. But God’s word, ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of all this confusion about what families need speaks to the issue with clarity and concern. I want us to examine tonight how we can have good homes in a wicked world. Now I’m not naive enough a Bible student to tell you that the passages which I read and you’re hearing from 2 Timothy chapter 3 and 2 Peter chapter 2 were written for our time specifically.

1. These Are the Days of Our Lives

But I must tell you that they are graphically descriptions of what has happened. They look exactly like us today. He said in 2 Timothy 3, men will be selfish. Men will be greedy. Men will be proud and unashamed in speech. And that certainly has happened. He speaks here of men who will have unnatural affection. We’re seeing that at every turn in our day and age. I have just noticed recently that it seems like every kind of the situation comedies which used to be so pure and so nice are now each one fraught with a token homosexual in them. Without natural affection, they’ll run after foolish things, he said. They’ll despise those who would dare call them back to God. I don’t know whether you know it or not, but people like me are looked on as nincompoops.

We’re looked on as having no value at all. We’re looked on as those who have no sense. We’re superstitious. We don’t have anything to say to anybody. I want to say to you, in the midst of all that confusion, I speak the word of God, and I want us to listen to it tonight. He said, men will distort the truth, even calling good evil and evil good, according to Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20. In the passage which we read from 2 Peter, it’s even more graphic. He said false religions will be proliferated. That certainly has taken place today. There are false religions at every turn. Everywhere you look, people are saying we do it our way, we do it subjectively, we’ll do it so it pleases you, we’ll entertain you, we’ll give you what you want in religion.

Just come be with us. The Bible has lost its fervor. The Bible has lost its glow. People don’t look at the Bible, they look at what they want, and religions are that way. He said, Many, most will be deceived. And he said, truth will have a bad name, and as I pointed out a while ago, you may not be realizing it, but the fact of the matter is that Christianity is on the chopping block in this day and age. These are the days of our lives, people. This is what we’re living in. He said religious leaders will make gain from the unsuspecting. Do you see that anywhere on television? People that don’t have any funds at all are sending off to some fellow who’s rich. They’re preaching a health and wealth doctrine.

All you have to do is accept Jesus into your heart and give willingly, and everything will be fine. The fact of the matter is that these two passages of Scripture are dangerously close to where we live today. These are our times, and they’ve had an effect on the faithful. They’ve had an effect on churches. They have fragmented, for one thing, the family. They fragmented, I said to you, the family. Husbands have lost their way. Their role is ambiguous and ill-defined. Wives have left the home, thereby distorting the biblical view of the wife and mother. Young people, rather than being students, have become administrators. They tell us where to go, how to spend our time, what we’re going to wear. They’re controllers of the home, not only dictating styles and acceptability, but telling us when and how we’re to use our times.

We have to run them to the little practice. We have to buy them the uniform. We have to get this all together. Homes are getting ambiguous, ladies and gentlemen. There’s trouble. Right here in River City is the song and the music man says. Fear runs rampant at every age. The Center for Disease Control once reported not too long ago that in any given month, as many as one in five high school students will be carrying some sort of weapon. They’re scared to go to school. What has happened to us? These are the days of our lives that I’m describing for you. Living, especially for young people, has become a harsh and troublesome endeavor. The National Youth Violence Resource Center, in a very recent report, said that almost one in five teens have seriously contemplated committing suicide.

More than one in six had actually made plans to commit suicide, and one in twelve had actually made an attempt at the dastardly deed. Dissatisfaction. People are just upset. They’re dissettled. They’re exasperated. They don’t know where to turn. All the while not realizing that what we need to do is to turn back to God. We have all kinds of indications that things are troublesome. Dissatisfaction comes of aggrandizing the human form. I want to give you a statistic that absolutely astounds me.

Now you know what’s astounding to me about that? It’s not the fact that those percentages are there. It’s the fact that we have the percentages in the first place. We have so aggrandized the human form that we have percentages about who’s satisfied with how he looks and who is not. The fact of the matter is that that’s a problem. It just shows that these are the days of our lives. And there’s a growing evil in our literature, ladies and gentlemen. Almost 20% of the magazines begun since 1989 have been devoted to some form of pornography. Television is filled with suggestive language, pornographic scenes and inferences. Did you know that pornography in this country generates $57 billion a year in revenues? That’s pornography I’m talking about. That, ladies and gentlemen, is more money than the combined revenue of professional football, professional baseball, and professional basketball combined.

Not only is it that, but the money spent on pornography is more than ABC and CBS and NBC in their combined revenues put together. It’s just shocking. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites on the internet. There are 40 million people who visit a pornographic website each day. 72% of them are male, 28% of them are female. Shockingly, 47 of the people interviewed said, I’m a Christian, that went to those internet places. I was preaching meetings, Arkansas, talking about pornography. Lady said to me, an elderly lady, said, Brother Bowman said, we’re not going to have any of that pornography at my house. Said, we ain’t even got a pornograph to play it on. I made that up, but it sure does work good, doesn’t it?

I’ll tell you another staggering figure. Listen to this. There were 1,370,000 abortions performed in America last year. Forty-five million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973. There are 126,000 abortions performed worldwide every day of every year. It’s astounding. These are the days of our lives. Our prisons are full of those who consider themselves to be normal, no different than you and me, except they got caught. In 1978, there were 277,000 plus inmates in federal prisons. By 1988, the number had risen to 577,000 plus, and last year there were 2,135, 901 persons in federal and state prisons in the United States of America. What have we come to? These are the days of our lives. This is where we live. This is what we see.

2. Return to the Basics

This is what we are part of. What shall we do? Do we need more and more laws? Maybe. Should we make the punishment for crime stiffer? Perhaps. What can we do about gangs and drive-by shootings and lewd bookstores and licentious music and chronic lying and all the other immoral problems of today? Can we elect better officials? Perhaps that’s the way to be. Good B. The answer is not simple. And it may well include all of the aforementioned items. But one thing, hear me carefully, ladies and gentlemen, one thing is sure. Good homes are a vital part of the answer. That’s where it starts. What are the requirements of a good family? Well, first, you have to return to the basics. It’s never out of order to get back to the original plan.

In Genesis chapter 2 and verse twenty four, we read about the original plan. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. That, ladies and gentlemen, is from the beginning language. That is a vital, basic fundamental fact. A family is formed once a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. In Matthew chapter nineteen, verses eight and nine, Jesus said, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart suffered you to put away or divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and whoso marrieth her that is put away doth commit adultery.

One man for one woman for life is what God had in mind from the beginning. Not, mind you, one man for one man or one woman for one woman, but one man for one woman for life. The arrangement is for all men for all ages, no matter the generations. In first Corinthians chapter six and verse nine, Paul describes some of the works of the flesh that the Gentiles engaged themselves in, and he named fornication, and he said, Some of you were that. Such were some of you. These were considered fornicators who disregarded God’s marriage laws before they were Christians. Conclusion. Those qualified for marriage according to the basic fundamental facts are these. Those who have never before been married. Those who have been married but have lost a mate to death.

3. Return to God’s Law of Order

Those who have been married but put away an unfaithful mate. If you can find one other, I shall happily entertain your passage of scripture. That’s from the beginning language. We have a kind of a disregard for God’s order in society. We must return to God’s order in society. Look with me to 2 Corinthians, the 11th chapter. The Apostle Paul here enumerates exactly what God’s order is. I mean 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3. He says, This is the order. This is the way things are supposed to be. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you. These are ordinances now. That’s beginning.

That’s fundamental. That’s basic. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. That, ladies and gentlemen, is God’s law of order. That is God’s law of order. God is always first in order, no matter the relationship. Christ is next in order, without whom we would not have any example for marriage or society. He is the ruler. He is the one who is the Lord over every moral endeavor. Then man comes next. He is responsible for his headship, just as Christ was responsible for his. Woman is next. Subjection to the man, please hear me carefully. Subjection to the man no more indicates weakness in the woman when she submits to the headship of the man than it does in Christ when he submits to the headship of the father.

It’s just God’s law of order. Everybody has a role, and he must fit in that role, and when that role is distorted or becomes ambiguous, you’re going to have problems. And that’s what we’re so that is what we’re reaping from what we have sown. And remember, just because there’s no immediate punishment for disregarding God’s law of order does not mean it’s not going to come. When you go out here and jump off a building, you disobey, disobey the law of gravity, you can rest assured you’re going to be punished immediately. The same is going to be true if you ingest something that your system is not accustomed to. If you drink gasoline, you’re going to pay for it right away. The fact of the matter is that the law of gravity is the same way.

4. What It Takes to Be a Good Husband

The law of combustion is the same way. If you take the gasoline, strike a match to it, you’re going to pay for it right now. But the fact of the matter is you’re going to pay when you disrupt God’s law of order. It just does not come right away. It will come, however, because whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians chapter 6 at verse 9. What then does it take to have a good family? Well, it takes a good husband and a good wife and good kids, shall we stand and sing? That’s all there is to it. I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that. But what does it take to be a good husband, a good father, a good mother, a good wife?

There is where the problem is. There’s where we have the difficulty in our day and age. A husband must begin by grasping tenaciously his role of spiritual headship. He must honor his wife. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verses 6 and 7, the scripture says, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as you do well are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, now listen, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Listen to me, husbands. If you don’t honor your wife, if you don’t pedestalize her, you’re not going to have the kind of home you ought to have.

You must honor your wife and treat her as the weaker vessel. That does not mean she’s weaker intellectually. It does not mean that she’s weaker emotionally. It means that she is physically weaker than you are, and that you are to honor her because her role is distinctive from your role. Her role is one of spiritual submission to you. Yours is of spiritual headship. You are to love your wife. Husbands love your wives. Ephesians 5 25 says, right? Wrong. It does not say husbands love your wives. It says, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for him. Would you die for your wife? That’s how you’re to love her. Christ died for the church. He gave it his all.

Do you give your all to your wife? That’s how you love your wife, even as Christ also loved the church. You must appreciate your wife. In Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 22, the wise man said, Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. You must also be satisfied with your wife sexually. Proverbs chapter 15, or chapter 5, verses 15 through 18 says, Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad in rivers of water in the streets, let them be only thine own, and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of thy youth. Now I don’t have to explain that to you, do I?

It says, Satisfy your sexual needs with the one that God gave you. Can you imagine, ladies and gentlemen, how many problems would be solved in the world today, and how many divorces never would have taken place, and how many problems would have never arisen in homes if that simple little enjoyer by God had been followed. If men would just restrict themselves to their own wives, you’re to rejoice with her. Live joyfully with the wife of thy youth, whom thou lovest all the days of thy vanity, and whom he hath given thee under the sun all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life and that labor which thou takest under the sun. It’s just absolutely necessary that you love your wife.

It is interesting to me that the Bible says in the beginning that God saw that it was not good that man should live alone. And he said, I will make a help meet or suitable for him. We look at that passage in all my preaching brethren and say, Well, that passage of scripture, what it really says is that he created a help suitable. That word meet means help suitable, and that’s right. But I’ll tell you what the passage means. The passage says that the man needed help. That’s what it says. He needed help. And because he needed help, God made a help suitable for him. And she is in every sense of the word suitable to his needs. You have to pedestalize your wife. How long has it been since you came in?