Now in Genesis chapter 4, the part that I wanted to focus on is down there in verse
number 19, which is the first example in the Bible of someone having more than one wife.
What we would commonly refer to as polygamy, or sometimes if it's only two they refer to
it as bigamy, but in Genesis 4 19 we find the very first instance of someone having
more than one wife.
It says in Lamech, took unto him two wives, the name of the one was Ada, and the name
of the other, Zilla, and that's what I want to preach about tonight, the subject of polygamy.
Now before we get into polygamy, let me show you the first mention in the Bible of monogamy,
or someone having one wife.
The word monogamy is broken down from mono, meaning one, gami, meaning wife, or polygamy,
many wives, bigamy, two wives, etc.
Go back to Genesis chapter 2, right at the beginning of the Bible there are so many subjects
that are introduced.
Maybe in Genesis God introduced a subject, and a lot of times if you look at the first
time something's mentioned, it really sheds a lot of light on that subject in the Bible.
It's always smart when you're learning about a certain subject in the Bible to go back
to the very first time God mentioned that subject, and start there, learn about it,
and then kind of follow that subject through the whole Bible, and it makes a lot of sense
when you look at things that way.
Now look at the first mention of monogamy in the Bible, Genesis 2 23 it says, and Adam
said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed.
Now flip over, keep your finger in Genesis, but go to Matthew 19.
Jesus quotes this scripture in Matthew 19, and when he does it's even more clear that
God's intention is for a man to be married to one wife, and there's a lot of scripture
throughout the Bible that teaches that, but yet there are religions out there that teach
that polygamy is okay, and even in very small numbers there are Christians who will try
to claim that polygamy was okay.
Believe it or not, we had a guy from Cox Cable come to our house, alright, and he was selling
Cox Cable door to door, and he saw something, I don't know if the church van was at our
house for some reason, or he saw something that told him that we were Baptists, and my
wife started talking to him about the Gospel or something, and somehow he got on the subject
of he said that he's Baptist, but that he believes in polygamy, he believes polygamy
is fine, and so that had gotten him kicked out of his Baptist church for having this
strange doctrine.
So he was telling us that, so believe it or not, there are people out there that are mixed
up on this subject, and there are definitely millions and millions of people that are mixed
up on this subject that are part of other religions like Mormonism and Islam, et cetera,
that teach polygamy, but what does the Bible say about polygamy?
I've had people ask me about certain scriptures in the Bible confused, saying, you know, does
the Bible teach polygamy?
But let me make it real clear tonight that the Bible teaches that we should only have
one wife, and that polygamy is a sin and has always been a sin, and always will be
a sin.
Now look if you would at Matthew 19 where Jesus quotes this in verse 4.
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother,
and shall cleave to his wife, singular, and they what?
Twain shall be one flesh.
So God's plan for marriage is that a man and wife, the two of them, the twain, would
become one flesh.
And then he says right after that, Wherefore they are no more twain.
They aren't two, he's saying.
But one flesh, what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Flip back to Genesis.
You could see the same thing in Mark 10, don't turn there for sake of time, but he says the
same thing.
And what God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
So that's the first mention of monogamy in the Bible.
Genesis chapter 2 teaches that two people, a man and a woman, come together and become
one flesh.
Now the first mention of polygamy is in Genesis chapter 4.
Now let me explain to you the context of who these people are and what the situation is.
Early in the chapter of Genesis 4, we have the story of Cain and Abel.
These are two sons of Adam and Eve and Cain murders his brother Abel because he's angry
about the fact that God accepted Abel's sacrifice and he did not accept Cain's sacrifice.
Cain therefore murders Abel and God's punishment for him is that he will be a fugitive and
a vagabond, but Cain is afraid that someone will take revenge on him.
Cain is afraid that because he has murdered his brother, someone will kill him.
And so therefore God puts a mark upon Cain and says that anyone who kills Cain will be
avenged sevenfold.
So God did not have the death penalty in place for murder in Genesis 4, did he?
No, the death penalty was not there for Cain when he killed his brother Abel.
Later on in the chapter, we have this man Lamech, the first man who has multiple wives.
Look at verse 19.
Lamech took unto him two wives.
The name of the one was Ada and the name of the other Zillah.
This is one of Cain's descendants, okay, and that genealogy there is given.
Jump down to verse 23.
And Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken
unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech, seventy and sevenfold.
So here's a guy who kills someone now and he points back to the story about Cain and
he's using that as a justification saying, well, nobody can take vengeance on me because,
I mean, if Cain was avenged sevenfold, I should be avenged seventy and sevenfold because he's
saying I was more justified in killing this guy than Cain was.
Then if we jump forward to chapter 6, flip over to chapter 6, it says in verse 11, the
earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence.
And then we look at verse 13, it says, and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has
come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy
them with the earth.
So why is God going to destroy the earth?
The earth is filled with violence.
Man has become completely corrupt.
That's why he's going to send the flood and Noah's going to build the ark and all that.
Two times he says it was because the earth is filled with violence.
So it starts out one murder, Cain kills Abel, then we follow the story and here's another
guy who says, well, I'm going to do the same thing, kill somebody, no consequence or less
of a consequence than what it should have been, and then what's the result?
The whole world's filled with violence because there's no death penalty on murderers.
Now after the flood, God changes that law.
Look at chapter 9, the Bible says in verse 6, who so shedeth man's blood, by man shall
his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.
That's no coincidence that God institutes the death penalty right when they get off
the ark.
Why?
So that the same thing doesn't happen again, where you have this escalation of violence.
God says we're going to stop the violence by putting to death murderers, that way the
whole earth isn't going to be filled with violence once again.
Now, tell that to people today who think that the death penalty is cruel or inhumane.
In reality, God put it in place for our protection.
Because he didn't want us to be in a situation where people are committing murder, getting
away with it, or being punished lightly, and then we live in a dangerous place where violence
abounds.
So let me ask you this, is the first man in the Bible who practiced polygamy, was he a
good guy or a bad guy?
You know, everything points to him being a bad guy.
First of all, he was a descendant of Cain, and the descendants of Cain were wicked, alright?
Whereas the descendants of Seth on the other side, you know, they began to call upon the
name of the Lord and so on and so forth.
They were children of God, Cain's descendants were a lot like dad, you know, the children
of the wicked one.
And so this guy was a bad guy.
Now, what does the Bible teach about polygamy in the Mosaic law?
Okay, and when we say the Mosaic law, we're talking about the first five books of the
Bible.
Genesis to Deuteronomy.
Well, first of all, we do have a few stories that involve polygamy, don't we?
Not only this guy that committed polygamy, but another story that would involve a good
guy committing polygamy would be Abraham.
Now Abraham was married unto Sarah, his wife.
But then if you remember, he was promised a son, and he got so old that he started to
lose faith in having that son.
His wife began to lose faith, and so his wife said, here's my maid Hagar, go in unto her
and have a child with her, and then I'll adopt that child or raise that child, and that'll
be a way for you to have a son, Abraham.
Now let me ask you this, was that God's will or God's plan?
Clearly not the case.
And a lot of people would try to justify polygamy just by saying, well people in the Bible did
it.
But just because someone in the Bible did something doesn't make it right.
Even if they're a good person, good people sometimes do bad things.
Bad people sometimes do good things.
Just because a good person did something in the Bible doesn't make it right.
Abraham was a good guy, but he was wrong when he went in unto Hagar and that child Ishmael
was produced.
You say, well prove that that was wrong, prove that was a bad situation.
God made it clear to Abraham that the promise involved Isaac.
He said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And he tells Abraham, and I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time, in Galatians
4, this is quoted again, and in Genesis, cast out the bond woman and her son for the children
of the bond woman shall not inherit with the children of the free.
So when Abraham goes in unto Hagar and the Bible says that Sarah gave her to him to be
his wife, it's a union that is not blessed by God, it was not in the plan of God, it
had nothing to do with the promises of God, and it produced this child Ishmael who was
a wild man and who was a man that later his descendants would persecute the Israelites.
It says Ishmael even persecuted Isaac when he was a little kid, when he was first weaned.
Ishmael is making fun of him and persecuting him, but then when they grow up and they have
all kinds of children, the Ishmaelites would sometimes persecute the Israelites.
One example that I just happened to be reading was in Judges chapter 8 with Gideon.
The Midianites, the Bible says that also in that group were the Ishmaelites, and talk
about how they all had earrings in their ears because they were Ishmaelites.
So we see that that was not blessed and Hagar and Ishmael end up being thrown out of the
house.
So this is not a harmonious, wonderful example of a man with two wives, Sarah and Hagar.
They hated each other.
Sarah and Hagar fought, hated each other, and one of them ended up leaving.
And then he's just there with Sarah once again.
Bad example.
Okay, another example is Jacob.
Now if you would, look at Genesis chapter 29.
Let's look at the example of Jacob.
And when we look at the example of Jacob, we will see that he should not have had more
than one wife and the circumstances by which he ended up with more than one wife were bad
circumstances that were a retribution to him for a lot of sin and deception that he had
committed in his life.
Now first of all, Jacob had a brother named what?
Esau.
Now Esau was a bad guy in a lot of ways.
He wasn't as bad as some people make him out to be, but he did marry some heathen women
and he married multiple wives.
Another problem with Esau.
He also despised his birthright.
That was a bad thing that he did.
But he married a couple of heathen wives of the Hittites, then he married a third wife
of the Ishmaelites.
Now Jacob, when he sets out, there's no indication in the Bible that he's setting out to marry
multiple wives.
The Bible teaches that he's going out to marry a wife, singular.
He's going to marry a wife.
But what happens is when he gets there, he's deceived by his uncle Laban because he wants
to marry Rachel.
He loves Rachel and he says, I'll serve with you for seven years for your daughter Rachel.
And the Bible says he was so happy and he loved Rachel so much that he basically just
went by really quick for him, the seven years.
And at the end of the seven years, he goes to Laban and says, okay, I've done my duty,
give me my wife now.
And of course Laban deceives him and tricks him by switching Rachel for Leah, and by the
time he realizes that it was Leah that he has married, it's too late.
So then Laban suggests to him, well, in our country we give the older daughter first,
but it's no problem because you can just have both.
This is what Laban explains to him.
And he says, you're going to serve me seven more years and then you'll have two of my
daughters.
Really Laban just wanted to get 14 years of work out of this guy.
I mean, that's what it comes down to.
He just wanted a free worker for 14 years instead of seven, so he switched out with
a wife that he did not want.
Now look, if you would, at Genesis 29 verse 30.
It says, and he went in also unto Rachel.
That was the one that he wanted to marry in the first place.
And he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Now you can see right away that the reason why Rachel is barren, according to this passage,
and the reason why the one has the womb opened and the other has the womb closed is because
God sees that Rachel is loved and that Leah is hated.
Now this is not a good situation where he's married to two wives through deception, and
the reason that God allowed this to happen to him is because he deceived his father.
And he stole his brother's birthright by deceiving his father and lying to his father and saying
that he's Esau.
Guess what?
When you deceive people, you're going to be deceived.
Because what goes around comes around.
You reap what you sow.
And so this bad situation ends up with him having a wife that he loves and a wife that
he hates, and God causes the one to have her womb opened and the other to have the womb
closed.
Now ideally, in a perfect world, Jacob would have married one wife, the one that he actually
wanted to marry, Rachel, and her womb would have been opened and he would have had a bunch
of kids with Rachel and lived happily ever after.
But because he was a deceiver, he ended up being deceived.
This is, again, not a good example of polygamy in the Bible.
The two wives hated each other, and they're at each other's throats and so on and so forth.
He doesn't even love the one, at this time anyway, he only loves the first wife or the
second wife, however you want to look at it.
But anyway, bad example.
Not only that, but Jacob, and go ahead and turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 17.
Not only that, but because he has these two wives, his two wives later will talk him into
taking their handmaids as additional wives just so that they can end up with more kids.
Now again, we see another principle in the Bible, that when the parents do something,
a lot of times the children will follow in the footsteps and commit those same sins.
And often what the parents will do in moderation, the children will do in excess.
So because Abraham had done this thing of taking the handmaid as an additional wife,
that precedent had already been set, he set that bad example for his grandson Jacob, who
basically then takes the two handmaids and ends up with four wives.
Not a good example.
Not right, just because he did.
In between that you have Isaac, who was a godly man who only had one wife, Rebekah.
So let's look at some laws now.
So we saw some stories from the books of Moses that involved polygamy, and they all were
stories that went bad.
Not a harmonious happy family whatsoever.
But now let's look at some commandments that God gives in the Mosaic law that involved
multiple wives.
Look at Deuteronomy 17 first of all, it says, verse 15, thou shalt in any wise set him king
over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother.
So like if he's born in Kenya or something, you know, you're not supposed to choose him.
He has to be locally born.
But then it says in verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause
the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
Verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away, neither
shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
So here God is saying of the king, he shall not multiply wives.
Now if we look at all the kings of Israel and Judah, guess what every single one of
them did?
Every single one of them did what?
They multiplied wives.
That's probably why God said he shall not multiply wives because he knew that they were
going to have a tendency to do that because all that wealth and power would give them
the ability to easily do that.
So there's no command in the Bible or no teaching in the Bible that says hey it's okay to have
two wives.
Hey, have three wives.
Go ahead and take a second wife.
But yet we do have this verse that's saying that the king shall not multiply wives.
Now go if you would to chapter 21.
I'm going to show you a couple of scriptures that confuse people.
These are the two scriptures that people would point to to say that God is okay with
polygamy or that the Bible teaches polygamy.
I'm going to show you the two passages that people would use to teach that.
First of all, Deuteronomy 21 verse 15.
Deuteronomy 21 verse 15, look what it says in the first words there.
If a man have two wives.
Now stop right there.
Does this say hey go out and marry two wives?
It's great to have two wives.
It's perfectly fine to have two wives.
Is that what the Bible is saying here?
No.
The Bible is simply saying if a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and
they have born him children, now doesn't that sound like a familiar situation?
Both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated, then
it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the
son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn.
But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion
of all that he hath, for he is the beginning of his strength, the right of the firstborn.
So this law is dealing with inheritance, and it's saying that the firstborn son will receive
a double inheritance, and that if a man has two wives, and he prefers the one over the
other, he cannot say, well, you're the firstborn son of the wife that I prefer, so I'm going
to give you the double portion, legally when his goods are divided, when he dies, the firstborn
son's getting double, it doesn't matter which wife the firstborn son came from.
Now people will take this passage and say, see, God's fine with polygamy, right there,
he shows it.
No, in reality what this passage shows us is that people at that time were practicing
polygamy.
Now we already knew that because it was happening all the way back in Genesis 4, and we see
examples of people doing it throughout the Bible.
God has put laws in place that are there to deal with the reality of polygamy.
He's not condoning it, he's not telling them to do it, but it's just a reality, because
think about it.
Once a person has married two wives, they've married two wives.
Let's say for example you're a missionary, right, and you go in as a missionary, and
you're preaching the Gospel to some kind of a tribe somewhere, or some kind of a really
strange culture, maybe you're in Africa or India or someplace like that, and what if
you came upon people that some of them had two wives, and they don't know any better,
they're part of some false religion that tells them that's fine, and then you preach the
Gospel to them and you win them to Christ, and you're teaching them, okay, here's how
you're going to live your life now, here are the rules to follow, what are they supposed
to do with those wives, what are they supposed to do with that second wife, what does the
Bible teach?
And in reality, if they've made a vow and sworn and married these wives, they're stuck
with these wives, is what I believe the Bible would teach.
Not that it was right to marry those wives in the first place, but they have married
them, they are married to them.
It's that simple.
So God is just recognizing the reality, and let me give you a perfect parallel just to
prove that this verse is not condoning of polygamy, because it says, if a man have two
wives, how about this verse from 1 John 2, 1, if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Is that condoning sin?
No, if a man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
If a man have two wives, here's how you deal with the legalities when he dies.
That's all it's saying.
Because polygamy was a reality at that time, God is just providing laws that have to do
with polygamy.
Go to Exodus 21, we'll see a similar teaching where God gives a law that has to do with
people who are practicing polygamy and what to do in that situation.
Because see, marriage is permanent, biblically speaking.
Marriage is a permanent relationship, okay?
It's supposed to be till death do us part.
Now a lot of people prematurely end that relationship through divorce, what the Bible
calls divorce or putting away, but the Bible says that the Lord hates putting away.
And so God has taught what God has joined together, let not man put asunder, once somebody
is married, they're married.
So that's why God has these laws that involve people who have two wives, because even though
it's not an issue in the United States in most places, it could be an issue in other
parts of the world or in other time periods.
So it says in Exodus 21, 7, if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall
not go out as the maidservants do.
Now this is not something that we do today in America either, this is not legal.
You can't sell your daughter in the United States of America to be a maidservant in 2014,
can you?
But back in these Bible days, what would happen is if people would get themselves into a financial
situation where they couldn't pay their debts, they couldn't just bankrupt it, back then
I mean you had to pay your debts.
So when people would get into a situation where they could not pay, then they would
have to be forced to work it off.
Sort of like, you know, you go to a restaurant and you don't have the money to pay, oh my
wallet's gone.
You don't have the money to pay the bills, what do you have to do?
Yeah, has anybody ever actually done that in real life?
No, that's only on TV, alright.
But anyway, you know, it's the proverbial washing of the dishes because you don't have
your wallet to pay the bill.
That's kind of how this is, you know, you have to work it off.
If you haven't been able to pay the money that you owe, you have to be put in a position
of servitude to work off your debt.
And it's a temporary situation, okay.
So if you're a man and you would be in debt and so forth, then you would basically indenture
yourself to go work for somebody for a period of three years or a maximum that the Bible
would allow is six years.
Six years was the maximum that God put on it and he said after six years they have to
let you go free and they have to also give you liberally of their goods and out of the
wine press and so forth so that you could, you know, go out with some money in your pocket
after six years.
So in this situation, this is a man selling his daughter basically to be someone's wife,
okay.
Again, not saying, hey, this is a great way to live your life, alright.
This is just saying it's what people do, alright.
If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the men servants do.
Basically meaning it's not a three year or a six year thing because they're going to
buy her to be a maidservant, usually to be his wife.
Because it says in verse 8, if she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself,
okay.
Betrothed her to himself referring to obviously marriage.
Then shall he let her be redeemed to sell her unto a strange nation.
He shall have no power seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her.
And if he betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
Now this is saying, now verse 9 is kind of a parenthetical here because verse 9 is talking
about a different situation.
Verse 8 is really connected to verse 10, okay.
Verse 9 is just throwing out a different scenario about the son.
But it says, if he take him another wife, and this could go for either verse 8 or 9.
If this woman who is a bondmaid is purchased as a wife, then it says in verse 10, if he
take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish.
And if he do not these three under her, then she shall go out free without money.
So what is the Bible saying here?
That if he takes on the second wife, he still has to feed her the same way, clothe her the
same way, and also the duty of marriage would refer to obviously he has to have that physical
relationship with her, okay, in the same way.
Now again, these are the two passages that people would use, Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy
21, to teach that hey, God is for polygamy.
God's okay with polygamy, it's fine, it's condoned in scripture.
But if we take all of scripture as a whole, it's pretty easy to show that that's not the
case.
You'd never want to let your doctrine just rest on one or two passages, especially when
those two passages do not come out and say what you're saying.
They don't come right out and say polygamy is permissible, it's okay, go ahead and do
it.
And in fact, we can show you other passages, especially in the New Testament, that condemn
it.
Even in the Old Testament we saw the admonition not to multiply wives.
Before we get into the New Testament, let's think of some other examples of people in
the Old Testament who practiced polygamy, okay, of good guys.
We saw Abraham, we saw Jacob, also Gideon.
Now you say, well how do we know Gideon practiced polygamy?
Because Gideon had 70 sons.
Now if you have 70 sons, you did not have those all with one woman.
That's not going to happen.
Now let's see if God blessed what Gideon did.
Go to Judges chapter 9, let's see, look, we've seen all the examples of polygamy.
The first one was a murderer, the man who murdered someone and was trying to get away
with it, okay.
Then we saw good guys who committed polygamy, Abraham, did that situation work out well?
Worked out horribly.
She ends up leaving and almost dying and her and her son are just forsaken and they hate
each other and there's all this strife.
Look at the situation with Jacob.
There's all kinds of hatred.
Finally you know what Jacob ended up doing, I mean he has them living in separate tents.
He's got this wife over here, this wife over here, this wife, I mean he has to maintain
all these different separate households and families.
Bad examples, no good came of it, okay.
Then we see Gideon, let's see how Gideon worked out.
He had 70 sons, now I'm sure that he was proud of the fact that he had 70 sons.
Because men like to have children and have sons, especially to carry on their name, and
obviously he had 70 sons because he wanted to have a lot of sons, because he's taken
a lot of wives and producing a lot of children, and he wanted his heritage to be great after
him.
But look what happened to Gideon, look at Judges 9 verse 5.
This is after Gideon died, it says in Judges 9 and 5, and he went into his father's house
at Ophrah and slew his brother, and this is Abimelech, the son of Gideon, slew his brother
and the sons of Jerubel, being three score and ten persons upon one stone, notwithstanding
yet Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubel, was left, for he hid himself.
Jerubel is another name for Gideon, if you read the story.
So out of Jerubel's 70 sons, how many of them survived?
Abimelech, and then this other one son.
So how many sons ended up surviving?
Two.
Now how would you like to have 70 sons plus one, because he has 71, how would you like
to have 71 sons and two of them survive?
I mean that's not God, is that the blessing of God on your heritage?
Is that God blessing, your legacy, when you produce 71 sons and 69 of them are killed?
And then how about this, just within a few years Abimelech is going to be killed also.
So really only one is going to end up surviving, which is Jotham.
That's the only one that makes it.
So bad example, isn't it?
Then the next example of good guys who practice polygamy that we could show would be the kings
of Israel, and pretty much all of them did it, or at least most of them did it, starting
with King Saul.
Not exactly a great example of a godly king.
He started out good for a very short time, and then he was an ungodly king in many ways.
Bad example of a guy.
Then we have David, who has more than one wife.
Of course one of his wives hated him, basically mouthed off to him, and he basically told
her what was the deal, and he says he never went on into her again for the rest of their
marriage.
Does that sound like a good marriage?
The original wife, Michal, David's original wife, he became so estranged from his original
wife that he never had any marital relationship with her ever again, and therefore she was
childless, and he's just on to wife number two, three, four, five, whatever.
Does that sound like a good situation?
Are these good advertisements for polygamy?
Or how about Solomon, who took polygamy to a whole new level, who took it to its complete
extreme by having 700 wives and 300 concubines, taking it to just a complete extreme, and
the Bible teaches that even though he was a godly, wise, righteous man, these wives
turned away his heart from serving the Lord, and his strange wives caused him to get so
backslidden and get so far away from the Lord, and the Bible blames the fact that he married
these wives.
That he actually built temples to the false gods that these heathen wives worshiped.
They worshiped a false god, he actually built temples unto their god.
That's pretty bad.
When you're building temples unto a false religion, you're pretty bad.
And the whole kingdom ends up getting divided because of that, and there's all kinds of
bloodshed because of that, and just really bad example.
Now let's go to the New Testament.
So we've seen what the Old Testament teaches.
There's nothing in the Bible, in the Old Testament, that tells us that it's okay to have two wives,
or three or four or whatever.
Everybody who did it, it was a bad example.
There aren't examples of a harmonious situation or a good example of just a really happy family
with multiple wives.
Because you say, well, you know, what about, you know, Elimelech, or not Elimelech, what's
his name, what's the guy that was married to Hannah and Peninnah, Elkanen, yeah.
You know, you say, what about Elkanen?
You know, he was married to the two wives, you know, Hannah and Peninnah.
The Bible talks about how the one provoked her adversary.
It calls them adversaries.
The two wives are known as enemies, adversaries, provoking each other, fighting with each other.
That's a bad situation.
Every example is a bad example.
Nowhere does the Old Testament teach it.
God's original intent is laid out in Genesis 2, right out of the gate.
Second chapter.
They too shall be one flesh, a man and his wife.
They join together.
And every example after that, starting with Cain's descendant, are just examples of polygamy
gone wrong.
And yeah, there are a couple of laws that basically say, okay, in a case of polygamy,
here's how the legalities work, but that's not saying that that's an ideal situation
or the best situation or a right situation.
Let's look at some scriptures in the New Testament.
We already saw where Jesus said, they too shall be one flesh, where Jesus taught that
marriage is a man and a woman.
You say, Pastor Anderson, why are you even wasting your time preaching about polygamy?
Why don't you cover the real issue that everybody cares about, gay marriage?
That's the big issue right now in our nation, why don't you cover that for a while, you
know?
Why are you covering polygamy?
Here's why I'm covering polygamy, because the Bible covers polygamy.
And you know what the Bible does not cover?
Gay marriage, quote unquote.
And you know why?
Because the Bible says that homosexuals should be executed.
So whether they're married or not kind of becomes a moot point.
You know, when Leviticus 20, 13 says that if a man lied with mankind as he lies with
a woman, they have both committed abomination, their blood shall be upon them.
That kind of makes marriage an afterthought.
You know, and I often say to people, I have no problem with gay marriage, as long as they're
executed, I mean, you know, I don't mind if they get married.
But again, it's just the world wants you to think a certain way, so they get you brainwashed
and they get you thinking a certain way, and they get you all into this queer marriage
debate.
Like there's even a debate.
Like any sane, normal person thinks that a man being with another man is normal in any
way, shape, or form.
I mean, like it's even a question.
We as God's people shouldn't even, it shouldn't even be something that we would even think
about, think, oh, is this okay, or what do we, I mean, if you have to ask yourself questions
about queer marriage, you know, you are light years away from, you know, understanding the
Bible.
You know, if you're like, oh man, marriage, you know, should we recognize this?
I don't even recognize homos.
Forget recognizing their marital status.
I won't even recognize them, okay?
So again, the devil wants to get us arguing about the wrong thing.
The reason I'm talking about polygamy is because it's something the Bible actually addresses,
and here's what's funny about it too.
The people out there that are for queers and queer marriage, they actually think polygamy
is horrible.
Now here's the thing, I'm preaching a whole sermon about how polygamy is a sin, and I'm
showing scripture to prove to you that polygamy is sinful, and that God condemns polygamy
and that it's not the will of God, but let me tell you something.
Polygamy is about five million times more normal than being a homo.
Did you hear me?
Polygamy is about five billion times more normal than being a homo.
I mean, but yeah, oh man, you know, be careful not to accept homos getting married because
you're opening the door to polygamy.
Say it isn't so.
Good night.
I mean, being a homo is so much weirder.
I mean, good night.
But anyway, I don't want to get off on that, I just threw that out there, that was just
a little commercial break.
But anyway, go to 1 Timothy 3, let's look at the New Testament teaching.
We've already seen that Jesus clearly said that at the beginning, you know, God made
them male and female, and that it was a two becoming one flesh, but look at this scripture
right here in 1 Timothy 3, it says in verse 2, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.
Come down to verse 12.
It says, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own
house as well.
Now the Bible's very clearly commanding here that a pastor, bishop is another word for
pastor, that a pastor or a deacon must be the husband of one wife.
Now let me ask you this, if it were okay to have multiple wives, why is it not okay for
the pastor?
And why is it not okay for the deacon?
Do you see what I'm saying?
So what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
I mean if something is sin, it's sin.
If it's right, it's right.
Why would God sit there and say, hey, if you're choosing someone to be a pastor, because if
we go to Titus, go to Titus chapter 1, in 1 Timothy 3, it's from a perspective of if
any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth the good work, a bishop that must
be blameless, the husband of one wife.
So in 1 Timothy chapter 3, it's talking to you saying hey, if you want to be a pastor,
here are the qualifications that you need to live up to.
In Titus chapter 1, he's telling Titus that he needs to ordain elders in every city of
Crete as Paul had appointed him.
And he says in chapter 1 verse number 6, well let's start reading in verse 5, for this cause
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest said in order the things that are wanting,
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee, if any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly.
Now stop and think about this.
You say, well that's different, it's a different rule for the pastor.
Some people will say this, it's a different rule for the pastor than the guy in the pew.
It's a different rule for the bishop or the deacon than the guy in the pew.
And some people will say this, well he's being held to a higher standard.
Okay, well then that means that one's better than the other, at least.
But stop and think about how ridiculous it is to say, well it's a different standard
for the pastor and the deacon than everybody else.
Here's why that's a ridiculous statement.
Because guess what every pastor was before they were the pastor?
A church member, right?
So before you can ever be the pastor, you're just Joe church member.
Now think about this, all these people in Crete, before Paul got there, before Titus
got there, all these people in Crete are living their lives.
And what if there was just a great, godly, righteous man who just marries a second wife
because he has no idea that he's going to need to pastor a church someday.
So he just marries multiple wives and it's like, well sorry, you can't be a pastor.
You have two wives.
What in the world?
But the reason why he can't be a pastor is because it's wrong to have two wives.
He's not blameless.
He's taken two wives.
He's made that mistake.
And that is a bad example to the congregation.
Why does God not want the pastor to have two wives?
Because it's a bad example in the congregation because then they'll go out and get two wives.
And if every pastor was once a church member, the Bible is saying they should already not
be given to wine.
I've heard people say this, well it's okay for church members to drink just not the pastor.
Except to be chosen to be the pastor, you already have to be someone who's not given
to wine.
I mean, does everybody see what I'm saying?
How every pastor used to be a church member, every deacon used to be a church member.
So it's not like it's a different set of rules because people have to be found already
following these rules to be eligible for those positions.
They have to be a non-pastor who follows these rules, a non-deacon that follows these rules.
The Bible says that let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a
deacon being found blameless.
So that right there proves that not only did Jesus say, hey it's the will of God that two
become one, but now also we have scriptures flat out saying, look you cannot be a pastor
or a deacon if you practice polygamy, or if you're given to wine, or if you're given to
much wine.
So that puts it in the same category of just wrong things, just things that are wrong with
you that would be so wrong with you that they would stop you from holding that position.
Now what are some religions that teach polygamy, and then I'm going to get into a last biblical
reason why polygamy doesn't make sense and why it's not biblical, but what are some religions
that teach polygamy?
Well first of all, Islam teaches polygamy.
Islam teaches that it's okay for you to have up to four wives.
They put that ceiling on it right there of four wives.
Now Mohammed on the other hand, he had more than that.
So I've often asked Muslims, well what's the deal with Mohammed?
They said, well God made an exception for Mohammed.
And by the way, Mohammed was a completely perverted man.
He actually married a six year old, and consummated that marriage with a nine year old, that is
pedophilia, he's rotting in hell, he's a wicked false prophet.
And every Muslim I've ever spoken to confirmed that.
They'll even admit that, they don't even hide that, this is what they say, oh back then
it was normal.
On what planet?
That's never been normal.
By the way, the Bible condemns it in 1 Corinthians 7.
So that's never been normal, to marry a child.
But you know what?
Polygamy always leads to child marriage.
And let me explain to you why.
Because when you look at Mormonism, and you look at Islam, and those are the two big religions
that we think, there are other religions out there and other cultures in India and other
places where they do practice polygamy.
But the two that kind of come to mind in the United States are what?
Islam and Mormonism.
Those are the two you're going to think of the most.
But have you noticed how these Mormons, these fundamentalist Mormons that are up in northern
Arizona, have you noticed that they're always marrying such young women and such young girls?
Have you noticed that?
Why?
Why does it lead to that?
I'll tell you exactly why.
It's a very simple reason.
Simply brace yourselves, okay?
There are the same amount of men and women in this world.
This world is made up of 50-50 men and women.
So does polygamy even make sense?
I mean, why would God have His will be that a man have multiple wives, there wouldn't
be enough wives to go around.
Because half the people in this world are men, and half the people in this world are
women.
If the men are practicing polygamy, somebody's going without.
Somebody's got zero.
So it doesn't make any sense numerically.
So here's what happens, you get these communities of polygamy and what happens is they start
marrying 17 year olds, 16 year olds, 15 year olds, it just keeps getting younger because
they have a shortage of women to go around to fulfill all these polygamists that want
to have multiple wives.
Because numerically polygamy doesn't work.
And then that cult up in Northern Arizona of the fundamental Mormons, you know what
I like to call them?
The real Mormons.
Not like the fake Mormons that don't even practice what their founders gave them and
what Brigham Young and Joseph Smith gave them.
That's what it says in their scriptures.
But the real Mormons, the FLDS, you know what, they even go even further than just taking
younger and younger wives.
Here's the next thing it leads to.
The next thing it leads to is they start taking wives away from one to give to another.
And their cult leader, Warren Jeffs, actually had the power to reward people, whoever were
the most faithful cult members, he'd reward them with more wives and the ones who were
disobedient he'd take away their wives and give them to somebody, I mean isn't that just
bizarre and sick?
But that's what happens with polygamy simply because if you have a community with 500 people
in it, 250 of them are men, 250 of them are women, all of a sudden you introduce polygamy,
the math isn't going to add up folks.
And then it leads to all this other stuff that was never God's will.
There are all kinds of unintended consequences whenever you step outside of God's will and
God's plan.
You say, well I don't see a verse that just flat out condemns polygamy, but you know what,
the thought of foolishness is sin.
If God's telling you it's my will that you have a wife and that you cleave onto that
wife and that you too become one flesh, why are you looking for something different than
that?
Why do you desire something beyond that and want to have this lifestyle that the Bible
never puts its stamp of approval on and forbids to the pastor and forbids to the king and
forbids to the bishop and forbids to the deacon and guess what, we're all priests and kings
in the New Testament and God said don't multiply wives.
But we see these kind of consequences of polygamy amongst Muslims.
You always hear about Muslims marrying these really young girls and then you see the same
thing amongst the fundamentalist Mormons.
But you say, what about the Latter Day Saints?
Do they teach polygamy?
Well if you talk to the modern day Mormons, the modern day Latter Day Saints, the main
organization of which they claim that they have supposedly 14 million members, if you
talk to them, here's what they'll say.
They'll say, well we don't practice polygamy anymore and they'll tell you the reason we
don't is because we believe in obeying the law of the land.
Now stop and think about what they just said.
Here's what they're saying, if it were legal, we'd do it.
I mean that's what the Mormons are saying, if it were legal, we would do it.
We just don't do it because it's not legal.
So they're just as morally guilty of wanting to do it and they believe that they will do
it in eternity.
But let me just give you some facts on Mormonism.
Joseph Smith had, give or take, 28 wives that he married.
But he did it all secretly because Joseph Smith actually introduced the practice of
polygamy in 1843 just to a small group of leaders of the church.
So he didn't teach this openly to the rank and file, but rather just to the leadership
of the church he introduced the doctrine of polygamy, he got a revelation from God about
how they needed to practice polygamy in 1843.
Well he died shortly thereafter.
So in his lifetime the Mormons did not openly publicly teach polygamy, but then Brigham
Young was the guy who took over after him.
He began to openly teach polygamy and he began to just openly have multiple wives.
Brigham Young had 55 wives.
This guy's no Muslim.
This guy would make Mohammed blush.
I mean he had 55 wives.
In fact, there's a Wikipedia entry, Wives of Brigham Young, and it lists them all and
pictures and their names and a little bit about them.
I mean there's a whole just listing of all his 55 wives.
Some of his wives are pretty homely.
I'd rather just have one that I like to look at than 55 that add up to one pretty face.
Just kidding.
But anyway, he's got 55 wives.
But Smith secretly in 1843, he defined it as a new and everlasting covenant including
the eternity of the marriage covenant as also the plurality of wives.
Now let me ask you something.
Is the marriage covenant eternal?
No, because the Bible says in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.
It's till death us do part and then we part.
It's not an eternal marriage.
We're not married to each other for all eternity.
That is a false doctrine.
The Bible's clear on that.
But he also taught, besides the eternity of marriage covenant, also the plurality of wives.
Now the Book of Mormon, which you've got to remember, the Book of Mormon came out in,
I want to say 1830 is when the Book of Mormon came out.
So when Joseph Smith came out with the Book of Mormon in 1830, he didn't come out with
polygamy until 1843, secretly.
So that's why the Book of Mormon actually condemns polygamy, because that's his earliest
teaching.
So here's what the Book of Mormon says.
The Book of Mormon in the Book of Jacob, chapter 2 verse 24 says, Behold David and Solomon
truly had many wives and concubines.
Which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord?
So the Book of Mormon says it was abominable that David and Solomon had all his wives.
And then it says this also in verse 27 of the Book of Mormon, Wherefore, my brethren,
hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord.
For there shall not any man among you have, save it be one wife, and concubines he shall
have none.
So there's the Book of Mormon right there stating one wife.
Don't have multiple wives.
But then later in their book, Doctrines and Covenants, which is where all the really weird
stuff is, Doctrine and Covenants chapter 132 verses 61 and 62, it says, If any man espouse
a virgin and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse
the second and their virgins have vowed to no other man, then he is justified.
He cannot commit adultery, for they are given unto him.
And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, they
belong to him.
They're given unto him, therefore is he justified.
So I mean right there, and by the way, Doctrine and Covenants is holy scripture to the Mormons.
Up there with the Bible.
I mean their holy scriptures are the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants,
Pearl of Great Price, and Journal of Discourses, and so in their holy book it just says, hey,
marry ten wives.
It's fine.
Go ahead and do it.
The only reason that they quit is because the federal government came down on them and
threatened to come in and seize all their property, and they would not allow Utah to
become a state unless they stopped practicing polygamy, there was a lawsuit, and everything.
Finally, and turn to 1 Corinthians 7, I'll close with this, but finally they had to abandon
polygamy just because the feds were coming down on them.
So they had to get rid of it.
Not because they realized that it was wrong, not because they believed it was wrong, and
they still believe that in heaven they're going to have all these multiple wives.
The Muslims believe that in heaven they're going to have all these multiple wives.
But here's what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7, and you know what?
For this point in the sermon, I'm just turning to one place, but I could really turn to a
lot of places that talk about your wife singular.
We could just go to every scripture that just talks to you about having a wife.
So yeah, okay, there are two places that talk about having multiples.
What about all the hundreds of scriptures that just talk about you just having one and
how that works?
But look at 1 Corinthians 7 verse 1, now concerning the things wherever you wrote unto me, it
is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his
own wife singular, and let every woman have her own husband singular.
That's what the Bible teaches, just a singular husband and wife, polygamy makes no sense.
50% of people are men, 50% of people are women.
As the saying goes, there's a lid for every pot.
But there's not enough wives to go around for everybody to have four, especially not
a Faithful Word Baptist Church for these single guys.
But I'll tell you right now, it just doesn't make sense, and when you look at it in a microcosm,
when you look at it in a small community like Northern Arizona, the cult members up there
with Warren Jeffs, you can see how it just creates all kinds of problems because numerically
it just doesn't work.
And everywhere in the world that polygamy is practiced, these issues come up because
numerically it just does not work.
Financially it doesn't work.
I mean, who can afford to have two separate houses, oh, put them in the same house, that's
going to be great.
I mean, two separate houses, Jacob had them in separate tents and everything, who can
pay for all that?
Who can afford all that?
And there's some TV show right now that promotes polygamy.
It's a real famous, you say, oh, Pastor Anderson, you're preaching on crazy stuff that nobody
cares about.
There's a show on TV right now.
There's a reality show that's called Sister Wives, and it's about a man in Utah who's
a Mormon who has four wives.
I mean, it's a super popular show right now.
Why?
Because we're just fascinated by that which is ungodly.
And we ought not, you ought never pull up this show and just say, well, I just want
to see what it's like.
You don't need to know.
Be simple concerning that which is evil, be wise concerning that which is good.
You don't need to just figure out what it's like, how do you do that?
It's some long-haired geek, is the guy, by the way, the Bible says men should have short
hair and women should have long hair, but you know, this long-haired geek, he's got
four wives, they go to work.
I mean, that's my understanding of the show.
That's what I've heard is that I guess they go to work and I don't even know, does he
even have a job?
Does anybody know?
What worldly, sinful person watches this filth?
I'm going to expose you right now, no, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, this guy, and maybe I'm wrong, and you know what, if I'm wrong, so what?
I don't want to know all the ins and outs of this weirdo.
But the bottom line is that, you know, what I've heard is that this guy sends them to
work.
They go to work and pay for him.
That's backwards.
Okay, so what I'm saying, I mean, I guess that's how you're going to make polygamy work
for the average man in 2014, you're going to have to send them to work.
That's not biblical.
You know, the man is supposed to be the provider, the breadwinner, and you know, the woman is
supposed to marry, bear children, and guide the house.
Okay, not just, well hey, I'm just going to have four wives, send them all to work,
and just sit back and let the four paychecks come in, you know, and just be the boss.
That's bizarre.
I mean it works on TV, you know why?
Because everything on TV is fake.
Now look, I've been on TV a few times, and every time I was on TV, it's been fake.
I mean this Christian TV show came out and interviewed me about memorizing the Bible,
because I had memorized a lot of the Bible, and they came out and they said we want to
get a video of you driving down the road, you know, quoting the Bible, you know, like
working on your Bible verse as you drive down the road, just kind of reciting the Bible,
and they put me in my car, set up a camera and lights, and one of them shook the car,
and another guy waved tree branches in front of a light bulb to make it look like I'm driving.
It was totally fake, I wasn't really driving, and I'm thinking like man, everything on TV
is so fake.
And then I just did an interview, a TV interview like a week ago, and I did this interview
with a guy, and he calls me up, and basically he's acting like he knows nothing about me,
he doesn't know who I am, like I contacted him.
They're like well we're going to do it as if you contacted us, because they're contacting
me saying hey we want you on the show, we want to interview you or whatever, so they're
like but we're going to make it to where it's like you contacted us, and then at the end
of this interview, I did the interview with the guy, at the end of the interview the guy's
like oh sorry I had to pretend like I don't know anything about you, I already know who
you are, I appreciate what you do, I know everything about you, I was just pretending.
It just shows you everything on TV is all fake.
Anything you see on TV is fake.
Just understand that.
And even reality shows, here's reality, you're living reality.
Everything other than what you're living right now is not reality.
And just because you see something on a reality show doesn't make it the case.
You know you see some reality show and you see these people and their kids are well behaved
and good kids and they're all this Christian family and the kids are all good and everything,
and you never see them take the kid over the knee and spank them.
But you know it's happening if the kids are good.
It has to be.
But why don't you see it?
So then the TV is giving you, you know, not a realistic view.
Because if you came to my house you'll see good kids getting spanked.
You know, I mean that's what you're going to see because it's real.
It's real life.
Oh your kids are so happy, they're always smiling, they're so good.
Right, because they're disciplined.
That's part of the formula.
But you're not going to see that on TV.
So what I'm trying to say is that everything on TV is fake.
So your little idyllic polygamy show that you have the VCR set recording right now,
no I'm just kidding, I hope not, good night.
You know, it's not real and every story in the Bible they're at each other's throats
and I don't know, maybe in the show they're at each other's throats too and maybe that's
how they get the ratings, I don't know.
But anyway, I just wanted to go through and show you everything in the Bible.
You know, I mean we pretty much looked at everything, right?
We looked at the stuff that the polygamous side would use.
We looked at all the teachings that condemn it.
And you know, I think it's pretty much clear to everybody, you know, don't make me do like
that church did to that Cox guy if you don't agree with the sermon.
I'm just kidding, but anyway, you know, the Bible's clear folks.
One man, one woman, married for life, that's God's plan.
Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the things that
we can learn from it.
And there are things in the Bible that are taken out of context and misused, Lord.
Help us to study the whole Bible.
Help us to study everything in the Bible so that we don't just take one passage and run
with it and start teaching false doctrine, Lord.
Help us to just stick with your plan of just marriage being between one man and one woman
and that we would stay married until death do us part.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.