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Tonight's sermon is probably on a subject that you don't hear a lot about, at least not from pulpits, but it is a subject that the Bible addresses and I think when we get into it a little bit we'll see why the Bible does deal with this and why it's important that we need to deal with it too. And the subject I want to preach to you tonight is about the sin of polygamy, the sin of polygamy. Now of course polygamy is classically defined as somebody who would, a person who would be married to more than one spouse at the same time, you know. Now within that you get into different things. There's, you know, if it's a woman with multiple husbands they call it another word and then if it's a man with multiple, you know, it gets into the gender specific because everything has to be gender specific today. But when I say the word polygamy, you know, probably everybody knows I'm talking about the fact that a man would have multiple wives, right? That's what the Bible would define. The Bible doesn't use the word polygamy but it refers to it when it says that a man would have multiple wives, okay? And what we're going to see is that there's actually quite a few people in the Bible that have had multiple wives and it's important that we understand this because again as I preached this morning, you know, the landmarks always being moved, the foundations are always being moved, people are always trying to push the limits to see what they can get away with. And polygamy is something that has already existed in society, it's gone on, you know, throughout all of mankind's existence, you know, but it's going to be one, it could possibly potentially be one of those things that we see come back as a resurgence and even in our own country potentially, you know, if things were to get weird enough. I mean are things not getting pretty weird already when it comes to the subject of marriage? I mean we've got men marrying men, women wearing women, pretty soon they're going to be wanting to marry animals and children and if they want to do group marriages. So it's important that we kind of shore ourselves up on these things and, you know, why preach it? Because I've actually even received emails from people saying, hey it's polygamy is sin. And I know other people that have run into people in their day-to-day lives and that have said, you know, hey I'm a polygamist, you know, it's out there, it happens. Even in some, to a very small degree, amongst Baptist people, there's people that would identify not necessarily that they're practicing polygamy, you know, because I'd imagine that's not always the easiest thing to convince a woman to be one of her many, one of a man's many wives, you know. So, you know, there might be somebody who in principle is a polygamist but not necessarily practically speaking. Thank you. And then so we see here in Genesis chapter 2 verse 21 where the Bible reads, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall clean unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. So here we see the first instance of a man and his wife and this is what the God-ordained example is. You know, we go back and we study the first examples of something in the Bible, we can generally get a very good idea of what we should think about that subject, whatever it might be. We just go back to where it's first mentioned in scripture and we study out throughout the Bible. We can come to a pretty good understanding of what we ought to think about that subject. In polygamy and marriage, you know, this is one of the passages we return to. One of the first instances where a man receives a wife. This is how God has ordained it, that a man should be married to one woman. You know, I won't take the time to turn us there but in Matthew chapter 19 we're all familiar with the fact that Jesus Christ repeats this. You know, when they're asking about divorce he said and he answered in Matthew 19 and said unto them have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. So when God looks at a man and a woman coming together in marriage he says that is one flesh. It's they twain becoming one flesh. It's two people becoming one. It's not a multitude of people, okay? It's not more than that. That's God's take on it. It's repeated here in Matthew. We see in Genesis chapter 2 the first example of it. And by the way, if you think about it, Genesis chapter 2 would probably be the most ideal place to have polygamy enacted. I mean, if it was something that God wanted man to do, is this not the situation that would probably make the most sense that to say multiple wives is appropriate? I mean there's only one man on the whole earth. There's only one woman, you know, he had like what 20 plus other ribs to go, you know? I mean he could have probably spared a few more and gotten a few more wives and get the whole, you know, replenish the earth thing going, right? I mean this would make the most sense. If anywhere in scripture you would expect it to be when there was one man, one woman, and the earth needed to be filled. You'd say, boy, you know, maybe if we gave Adam a few more wives, took a few more of those ribs, maybe we could, you know, kind of get this thing off to a quicker start, right? But God lays it down here. He says this is the example. One man, one woman. So the first example of God, of monogamy, is with God. This is the first example of monogamy is when God is showing us it's one man and one woman. It's godly. It's right. It's the way God designed it. Now the first example of polygamy, not so godly. You know, it's not coming out of a good situation or a good place. In fact, if you could turn over to Genesis chapter 4, we'll look at it. Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 23, the Bible reads, And Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, harken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. So here we have a guy, Lamech, he was a murderer. You know, he went out and he was, he went out and killed a young man, he says, you know, and if you recall, he is the son of, I want to say Seth, that's not right, he is the son of Bible trivia, Cain, right? Or, yeah, I think, uh, the brain's not working tonight. But he was the one, yeah, the son of Cain, who was sent out, what did Cain do? Murderer. You know, slew his brother. And then he has Lamech, and he, and Lamech here is, is saying, hey, I've slain a young man to my wounding. You know, he's a murderer. And if Cain shall be avenged seventyfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. So the first guy that's saying, and what, who is he talking to? His wives, multiple wives, right? So this is the first example of polygamy, and it involves a man who's not godly, a man who is not doing the right thing, and it's him, you know, talking to his multiple wives. So again, look at the first source and study it through, and we'll look at some other examples tonight. In Deuteronomy, turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 17, because I was asked recently, you know, what are some scriptures that would, that prove that polygamy is a sin, that polygamy is not right? You know, that it's wrong to have multiple wives. Deuteronomy 17 is probably a good place to turn. Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 17, the Bible says, neither shall he multiply wives to himself. This is talking about the kings of Israel. God was commanding and saying, look, the kings of Israel, this is what they're going to do, this is what they're not going to do. And one of the rules he lays down right here is, 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. Now what's interesting in that is that not only is that a clear command that these, and people could say, well that's just addressed to kings, you know, that doesn't necessarily apply to us. You know, we're not kings, you know, but here's the thing, kings serve an example, you know, and these exact, you know, this qualification into some, in a certain way, is repeated in the qualifications for a bishop. You know, a bishop is to be the husband of one wife. Of course that's referring to the fact that he is not to have been divorced, you know, but you can just as easily apply that to the fact that he is not to have multiple wives. You know, you can't be a polygamist and say I'm the husband of one wife, you know, so that would disqualify you. Why is it, why are there these examples for kings? Why are these, or excuse me, why are there requirements for kings and for bishops? Because they serve as examples. Because people follow the example that's put in front of them. And God doesn't want them to have multiple wives. That his heart turned out a way. And in that same sense, he says neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And you shouldn't just store up riches. And the fact that he combines these two things together kind of tells us that really oftentimes the reason people desire polygamy is because they're covetous. Because they just can't have enough. They just want things that don't belong to them. So here we see the first examples of monogamy. We see the first examples of polygamy. And really as we go through, we look at, you know, we don't take the time to look at them in depth, but if you were to go look at each and every single one of the examples of polygamy, it's never a good situation. Even when it takes, because here's the thing, people get confused and say well godly men did it. And it's true there were good men in the Bible that had multiple wives. But it just says that's what they did. It doesn't say that you'll go and do that likewise. It's just saying this is what they did. So here we see other examples. We can think about Abraham, right? Abraham had Sarah and he had Hagar. Now did that turn out well? Was that a good situation when Sarah is running Hagar out of the house to the point where Hagar is casting the child, you know, into the bush and lest you see his death, an angel has to come and rescue them? And it's not a good situation. And that wasn't God's will. God's will was that Isaac would be born through Sarah. He would be the son of the promise. We can think about Jacob. You know, so Jacob had, you know, 12 wives. Jacob had a multitude of wives. Yeah, but he was tricked into it. If you recall the story, you know, he goes and labors for Rachel and after the seven years, he loves Rachel. After seven years, his father-in-law tricks him and gives him Leah, you know, the firstborn and says hey that's our custom here. We don't give the younger before the elder. And he says, you know, so just labor for me seven more years, you know, and Laban. And really what it was is God kind of pained Jacob back a little bit. You know, what goes around comes around. You read what he saw. If you recall, Jacob, you know, he was one that tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright, you know, and out of the blessing. And then he finds himself somebody taking advantage of him and his situation, you know, doing the same thing. So it never stems from a good situation. It stems from a guy who's, you know, a known murderer, a self-confessed, you know, murderer. It comes out of somebody who, you know, he's being impatient, you know, Sarah giving Hagar unto Abraham. It's somebody tricking another person into taking on another wife and then them giving them their handmaids and things like that. You say about, well about Jacob's brother, you know, Esau. You know, Esau married multiple wives but he says that they were, they grieved his parents. They were, you know, they troubled his parents because he was marrying multiple wives and they were all heathen girls. You know, they weren't of the children of Israel. Well Gideon, Gideon had 70, 70 sons, actually 71, but, you know, 70 sons. Now let me tell you something. If you have not many kids, you're not having that with one woman. That's right. I have it. I was told that I have like a great, great, great, great grandparent somewhere down the line. One man, one woman, 21 children, you know. That's impressive, you know, and 19 of them survived. So that's a lot of kids for one family. I'm pretty sure they were married very young and they probably, who know, I don't know what the situation was, but that's, that's all, that in itself is an extreme example. Right. So to say this guy had 70 sons, he had multiple wives. In fact, we know that he had multiple wives. But what happened to all those sons? All but one of them died on natural deaths. All but one of them were slain. You know, so we never see polygamy in a good light. We never see it taking anything good coming out of it. It's never, it's never always, it's not always something that happens with good people. I mean, these were good godly men, but often we see it with, with wicked men even. You know, many of the kings of Israel who are wicked, a lot of them multiplied wives as well. Well, what about David? You say, well, David had multiple wives, right? You know, the second king of Israel, the man after God's own heart, King David. How can you say polygamy is a sin when David had multiple wives? But again, it's one of the first principles of Bible study. There's what the Bible commands us, and then there's when the Bible is just telling us what happened. And when the Bible just says that David had a multitude of wives, it's not saying that we should do that too. It's just telling us what happened. Because these are men of light passions, you know, that they, they are just like you and me, these people in the Bible. And they have faults, and they have shortcomings, and they have sins, and they do things that they shouldn't do. So how did it turn out for David? Well, if you recall, my call was his first wife. And if you recall that story, that didn't go well either. He ends up just, you know, having nothing to do with her. He said, the Bible says that he put her away, and that he went on to her no more, and she bare no more children. It wasn't because she was barren. It's because he ceased to have a physical relationship with him, which is what was proper and right inside the bonds of marriage. And he went away from that, and he said, I'll make myself a base even more, you know, in the sight of, in her sight. And he went after all the young maidens of Israel. And he was, you know, and if you look at the end of David's life, when he's cold, you know, they don't fill a bladder with warm water, and put it in there with them. They don't heat up stones. They don't add more blankets. You know what they did? They went out and found one of the virgins of Israel that was fair, and put it, and put her in bed with them. Now it wasn't physical. They didn't lay in one of them. But you think about it. That's what they thought about David at the end of his life. That, they're like, yeah, just put one of these girls in there. That's what he was like. That's the kind of guy. I mean, he went after a multitude of wives. I mean, is there anything right? That's not a good thing. That's not the, you know, that was not what was supposed to take place, right? You know? But again, just another example, that's something that just happened, that these people did. And they certainly, you know, it's not telling us to do it as well. And you know, some people, they have, of course, a few verses that they'll turn to, because you can always turn to a verse in the Bible and try to make it say what you want it to say. But you always have to take any verse in the Bible in the context of the scripture itself, of the entire Bible. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. You should never just try to form your doctrine based on one or two verses. You should try, you should be able to prove that thing up, you know, up one side and down the other scripture. It should be very clear. Clear scripture is what you want. So there are some objections. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 21 and look at one of them. Deuteronomy chapter 21. And here's the thing. Does God approve of divorce? No. No. No. But did He not tell them that if you were going to get divorced, to give her a writing, a bill of divorcement? He did say that. He made provision for them. God makes a lot of provisions for men on how they're to do things, even when they're doing things that He does not approve of. Even when the things that are sinful. Because He knows man is going to do them. He says, look, I don't want you to do this, you know. If any man sin, you know, we have an advocate with the Father, you know. Does that mean God wants us to sin just because we have an advocate with the Father? No, but He knows we're going to sin. So He has made, you know, He has made provision for us. That if any man sin, we have an advocate. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So look there in Deuteronomy chapter 21 verse 15 and we'll see another example of this. The Bible says, if a man have two wives, okay, look at that first word. If. That's a pretty important word. Not when a man has two wives, or as is proper and fitting, and a man has two wives. You know, it says if. That doesn't mean that God is approving of it. He's just saying, look, I know man, I know they desire silver, I know that they get covetous, I know they will desire multiple wives. So if it happens, when it happens, because God is foreknowing, He knows what's going to take place. If a man have two wives, one beloved and the other hated, is that not the exact example of Jacob? You know, he loved Rachel and hated Leah. The Bible says that when God saw that Leah was hated, one beloved and the other hated, and they have born him children, 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 firstborn. Now if you recall, God's law was that the firstborn son would receive a double portion of the inheritance. So God is saying here, look, if a man has two wives, he can't, you know, go and if the firstborn son be of the one that he hated, if there's a wife that he despises, that he doesn't favor as much as the other, he can't show favoritism. He can't show respect of persons by making the firstborn of the loved wife, the one who would receive a double inheritance. Does that make sense? He has to give that as is fit in the scripture. He's saying, look, you still have to follow the law here. Even though if the firstborn is the son of the hated wife, you still have to give him the double inheritance. Verse 17, 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 and the right of the firstborn is his. So they'll say, well, see right there, God's saying, you know, he's making laws saying, look, when a man has two wives, yeah, that's his if. That's not saying that it's right and proper and we've looked at polygamy in the context of scripture already, you know, and seen God's example of marriage. That's when twain becomes one. That's between one man and one woman. So another place they'll turn is to Exodus chapter 21. If you would go there, Exodus chapter 21. Exodus chapter 21, beginning of verse 7, the bible says, and if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the other as men servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed to sell her unto a strange nation, he shall have no power, save he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, so if he, a man has a maidservant, because back then if a man got into a pinch financially, one of the things they would do, and this is illegal today, and it's an if a man has a maidservant, or if a man sell his daughter, one of the things they would do is sell their daughter to be a maidservant for somebody. They would work off that debt. And the bible is showing us that if that daughter became betrothed to the son of the man that she was working for, in verse 9, and if he hath betrothed her unto her sons, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. He was to treat her the same way as he would any of his daughters. And how was that to play out? Well in verse 10, if he take him another wife, talking about the son that this maidservant was betrothed to, if that son were to go out and take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall not diminish. So they'll say, see, right there, bam, gotcha, William, he's perfectly okay. Let's move up to northern Arizona and start a cult and start marrying a multitude of wives. Even though it's against the law in the United States. But here's the thing, that's an if. It's an if, because God knows these things are going to happen. God's making provision for when these things happen. He's not saying this is good, this is holy, this is just, this is right, this is how I want it to be. He just knows man, he knows what's coming. So the thing is about these verses, it's just showing us that God understands it will happen. It doesn't mean that God is approving of what's taking place. And as going back to the fact that, you know, the example of the kings and deuteronomy is that these rules, that rulers serve as an example. Why is it that we are not to multiply wives? Because rulers serve as an example. That's why it was wrong for a king to multiply wives, and that's why it's wrong for a bishop, you know, an elder, a pastor, to multiply wives. He's not to be, you know, if that's the example he's supposed to serve. So here's the thing, is it okay for, if it's not okay for the pastor to have a multitude of wives, I mean he says the husband of one wife, right, so that would include a divorce of course, but it also would include polygamy. If it's wrong for the pastor to do it, wouldn't it be wrong for the church member to do it? Yeah. How can you sit there and say, oh no, it'd be okay for the church member to do it? Because remember, where did the pastor come from? What was he before he was a pastor? He was a layman. He was sitting out there before he got up here. And so how could he be okay for him to be, you know, sitting in the pew to have a multitude of wives, you know, multiple wives? You know, it would disqualify him from the pastorate, you know, and it's just showing us, you know, again that polygamy just, it doesn't make any sense, and it's not approved by the Bible. It's something, and the examples we see of leadership are not to have a multitude of wives because of the fact that they are to serve as an example to others, to do the same. I mean Paul says that over and over to Timothy, you know, those things which you have seen and heard and learned of me, both have learned and heard of me do, you know, and he's told them for us to follow the examples of those that are over us, that we are to consider the end of their conversation. So, you know, not to mention the fact that we are kings and priests unto our God. I mean the Bible teaches us that, that we have been made kings and priests unto our God. So if it's not right for kings, you know, in the Old Testament to have a multitude of wives, it's not right for us. And look, I don't think anybody in this room is in danger of falling into this, you know, and the more I think about it, I would scratch my head and say, why would anybody want a multitude of wives? I mean, I have, I mean, no offense to my wife, I love her dearly, but you know, we've got, that's enough on our plate, just taking care of each other and our kids. Amen. Why would you want a multitude of wives, I mean look at what ended up happening to Jacob. He's got different tents, he's got, you know, different families with different children, he's trying to provide for all of them. And, you know, we're going to look here in a little bit about some statistics or something, some articles that talk about how polygamy is just detrimental to society. It never turns out well. And that's because it goes against the very laws of nature. It goes against God. It goes against the way God has set up things. So, go ahead and turn over to 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10. We'll look at another, I mean, we'll look at King Solomon. I mean, was King Solomon not a great godly man? He started out that way. I mean, he rolled, he had peace in his kingdom. I mean, Israel flourished like never before. It was like the pinnacle, it was the peak of their kingdom was under King Solomon. But King Solomon, he ended his life very badly. And one of the main things that ruined King Solomon at the end of his life was the fact that he had a multitude of wives. He disobeyed this commandment, that he was not to multiply wives, and he went ahead and did that and it ruined him. And it ended up costing him the kingdom. God even at the end says, I'm going to rend the kingdom in two and take it from you. In 1 Kings chapter 10, look at verse 1. But King Solomon loved many strange women. You know, when you read strange women, that doesn't mean the girl with funny looking hair and a ring in her nose. That woman is strange, as we understand it, right? Because she looks strange. When the Bible uses that word strange, it's talking about the fact that she's a foreigner to Israel, that she's outside of Israel. She's a heathen woman. King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughters of Pharaoh, women of Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall neither go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives. I mean, when is enough going to be enough, Solomon? Seven hundred. I mean, wow. Seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart, just like the Bible, just like God said it would. He said, look, if you take these women as your wives, they will turn away your heart from the Lord God. And that's exactly what happens. For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart from after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Let that sink in. Here you have King Solomon who built the temple, who prayed to God, and saw the glory of God come down in that temple. And at the end of his life, he's going after Ashtoreth, and he's going after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. He's worshiping false gods. And I don't know if he was doing that of sincerity. I don't think he really believed that they were gods. I think he always knew the true Lord God was. But he did that because of his wives, because he loved them, because he wanted to please them, because he wanted them to approve of him. And his heart was turned from the Lord his God by his love for having multiple wives. And these wives were strangers. It says in verse 6, And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build in high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and the hill before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strains rise, which burnt incense and sacrifice unto other gods. And the Lord God was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord God, and visited Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. I mean, unto whom much is given shall much also be required. I mean, when God is showing up and speaking to you twice, and you're seeing God, hearing God, and seeing the glory of God, you are without excuse. You can see why God is so upset with Solomon. I mean, Solomon started out great, but what ruined him? It was his wives. What if he just stuck with the one? What if he just did what God said and kept the one wife? Who knows what would have happened? And he commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, for which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. So God punishes him severely, and it's something that, you know, that punishment had just long lasting effects for generations to come. So, you know, as we look at scripture, nowhere do we read about God approving polygamy. You don't read anywhere where God says it's okay. Yes, you see places, a couple places where God's saying, if this happens, then do it, this is how it's supposed to be handled. You see God saying, this is how it's going to be taking place when you go ahead and do it anyway, even though I told you not to. I mean, if Solomon here, the guy who saw the Lord twice and saw all the glory of Israel, you know, and saw God come down in the temple and did all those things, if even he was led astray and had multiple, of course God knows even the common man is going to do it too. So we don't see God approving any polygamy anywhere or blessing those who have multiple wives. You really don't see God, you know, blessing them for that and saying, you know, he was so pleased with how they, his multiple wives, and he blessed them. In fact, we see bad people, you know, we see a lot of bad people doing it too. We see Lamech and others, they do it, and no matter good or bad person, it always leads to bad things. We always see a bad outcome. It's never a good thing. So, and that's why, you know, God has designed mankind so that society can provide spouses for everyone. I mean, think about this. The fact is, is that there's, the world is composed of men and women, you know. Sorry, University of Arizona. That's a fact. It's men and women. And that comes down to 50-50, basically. It's made up half and half. It's almost like God designed it that way. Like God made enough men and enough women so that everybody could have their own spouse. That every man could have his own wife and every wife could have her own husband. You know, and when we go against that, when society goes against that, and starts to practice polygamy, bad things happen. Terrible things take place. Polygamy, basically, you know, it disrupts the natural order and results in negative outcomes. And one of the major negative outcomes that results from a society that practices polygamy is violence. And mainly amongst single young men. Because single young men, you know, basically usually the way it happens is one guy starts snatching up all the wives. You know, and he gets older so he starts stashing up the younger wives. And then you have a bunch of guys standing around with no one to marry. And they might turn to, you know, fornication and they turn to violence and doing violent acts. And then they never, they don't have a spouse. Everyone's getting snatched up. And what happens is, you see, and this is a fact that you see single men committing violent crimes far more than any other demographic in a polygamous society where polygamy is being practiced. And I was reading an article and this article said, faced with high levels of competition and little chance of obtaining even one long life, long-term mate, unmarried low status men will heavily discount the future and be more readily engaged in risky status elevating and fleshly carnal, those are my words, behaviors. So they say, you know, what's the point? I can't find a spouse. I'm not going to be able to, you know, obtain the wealth that I need so that I myself can be a polygamist. And they just kind of throw their hands up and they're now they're ready to just engage in risky status elevating and carnal violent behaviors. This will result in higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping, especially of females, slavery, and prostitution. These are things that elevate and take and are escalated inside of a society that practice polygamy, which is something that has been practiced throughout societies, as I said earlier, throughout mankind's existence. And it even goes on today, even in the United States, and we'll talk about that in a minute. In a polygamous society, the age of marriage will be lower for females than a monogamous society. Okay, let me repeat that again. In a polygamous society, the marriage age of a woman will drop significantly than in a monogamous society. Being the woman, the age at which women will get married will become lower and lower and lower. Marriage at a young age to much older men is linked to lethal domestic violence. And so the younger they get, the more violence takes place within those marriages. Because here you have a much older man. In some cases, you know, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, sometimes 16, you know, 16 years older marrying a woman 16 years younger than himself is not unheard of. In fact, that's quite common in polygamous societies. You say, well, what's the big deal? Well, do the math, you know. I'm 38. If I married a woman 16 years younger, that means she'd be 22. You say, well, that's a little weird, maybe, maybe not. At least it's legal, right? But what if I was 32? That means I go marry a girl who probably couldn't even drive yet. And that's what takes place. And when do you think these polygamous men are getting married? Do you think they're waiting until they're much older? No. No. They're starting out. They're trying to get as many lives as they can. And the older they get, the younger the girls get. And it just gets perverted. And what happens is, it just, it leads to, it's linked to lethal domestic violence. Not just your, you know, your plate throwing, pants swinging, you know, knock down, drag out domestic violence that you see on cops. We're talking murder, right? And it goes both ways. The younger women killing the older man. The older man become enraged and envious that, you know, a younger woman, because she's more likely to be unfaithful to him, and suspect her of committing adultery and killing her. You know, these rates go up. You know, there's nothing good that comes from polygamy. I don't know why anybody would want to engage in it, you know, for the reasons I stated earlier, as well as these. You know, you can start engaging that and you might be putting your life on the line, literally. In the words of one study, the larger the age gap, the more likely it is that a husband will kill his wife, and vice versa. The one wife murders her husband. This suggests that polygamy is relatively, potentially much more dangerous than monogamous relations, because age gaps of 16 years are not uncommon when accumulating young wives. As bad as polygamy is for women, is perhaps even worse for the well-being of children. Because the polygamous wives tend to be younger and younger, and less well-educated, their children suffer not having more mature mothers, as would be more typical of their counterparts in a monogamous society. Their children, the children also suffer from having multiple stepmothers involved in ongoing struggles with each other. You thought the mother-in-law was bad, right? What about multiple stepmothers? I mean, that could be a difficult situation, right? Half siblings must compete for limited resources while having weaker genetic bonds to mitigate the conflict. I mean, your siblings, they're not full-blood siblings, and that could lead to even, that could lead to conflict. While these extended family relationships could, in theory, be a source of support, more often they endanger children. One study explained much empirical work in monogamous societies indicates that the higher degrees of relatedness among household members are associated with lower rates of abuse, neglect, and homicide. Living in the same household with genetically unrelated adults is the single biggest risk factor for abuse, neglect, and homicide of children. Stepmothers are 2.4 times more likely to kill their stepchildren than birth mothers. And children living with an unrelated parent are between 15 and 77 more times more likely to die, the article quotes, accidentally. So you say, boy, those are, how do you know, how do they know this? How do they, where do they get these numbers? Because it happens. Because they study it, and they see these things taking place. And, you know, so nothing comes from polygamy, nothing good comes from it, nothing bad things. You can see here how detrimental it is to a society, even to a household, even to the family that would practice polygamy, how they're just asking for trouble among the siblings that are half siblings, among the stepparents and stepchildren, among the husband who has younger wives, and the wives who are married to older men, or an older man, excuse me. So nothing happens, but, and that's the reason why it's illegal in the U.S., it's completely illegal. In fact, if you are an immigrant trying to come to the United States, and you practice polygamy, you will be denied, you know. So that will, maybe that's one thing that'll help keep the Muslim hordes from overrunning, you know, our country, you know. But it's illegal in the United States for now, okay. You know, there's probably going to be coming a day, I mean, because really, is it, as bad as polygamy is, is it as bad as some of the other things that are taking place in that country? I mean, I would rather have to deal with the polygamist, you know, and then some fag, you know. I mean, that is so far, I mean, most people would agree that polygamy is, you know, at least makes more sense than a dude trying to be with a dude. So it's illegal in the United States for now, but here's the thing, society and culture are making it more acceptable. You know, our society and our culture are making it more acceptable. And there was even a study done by the Gallup, you know, a Gallup poll that was taken as recently as 2017 that had some interesting findings. And that study reads, polygamy, a practice that President James Garfield once said that offends the moral sense, is now seen by 17% of Americans as morally acceptable. 17% of Americans, it's approximating, would say there's nothing wrong with polygamy. And that's up from 14% in 2016, so in one year it went up 3%. And that's the highest rate on record dating back to 2003. You know what it was in 2003? 7%. So in that short of time, it's double of people saying, yeah, polygamy's okay. And it's, so basically if you break that down, it's gone from one in ten in people in approving to one in five people approving of polygamy. And you say, well, why is that? Why are people accepting polygamy all of a sudden? The Gallup article literally states the reason why, and it says television. They say points, and it's, I'm not even kidding, you go read the article that says, we had a hard time explaining it, and the only thing we could come up with is television. And that makes a lot of sense, because when I was doing this, writing this, and I did a little bit of, you know, research on the web about polygamy, I, you know, I googled polygamy statistics or something. I couldn't believe it. All these shows popped up. Mainstream shows. Reality shows. Multiple reality shows that were just centered around polygamous individuals promoting polygamy, trying to cast it in a light. We're saying, you know, these reality shows. For example, you could go tonight, you could go home, and you can get on Netflix or HBO or Prime or wherever you watch this stuff, if you're watching it, and it says you could go home tonight and you can watch Sister's Wives. Sister's Wives. Now, first of all, you know, that's a, that title's a little weird, you know. It makes you wonder if it's about something else besides polygamy, you know. But you read about it, and it says, this is how it's decided. The really seen world of polygamous family is documented in Sister's Wives, which follows Cody Brown and his four wives and their combined 18 children trying to live a normal life in a society that shuns their lifestyle. Three of the wives, Mary, Janelle, and Christine, have worked for years with Cody to develop a cohesive loving unit, and their marriage has produced 13 kids. The wife of number four, the then wife number four, Robin, and her three children were added to the family much later, a development that produced mixed feelings, insecurities, and uncertainties. Will it disrupt the balance and change the Brown's lives for the worse? Well, they're already starting off on a bad foot, you know. When you've already got three wives, wife number four isn't gonna, you know, as bad as that is, you know, you've already got a big problem on your hand, right. The problem is you already got three other. You've got two wives too many to begin with, buddy. Or, you know, if Sister's Wives doesn't entertain you, if you don't think that's your kind of show, well, you want to get, you want to get more of a fictional take on polygamous societies in the United States, you could go home tonight, you could watch Big Love, right, Big Love. Bill Henriksen seems a typical suburban husband and father, except for the fact that he has three wives, and nine kids, and three homes to maintain. Now, first of all, you know, if you've got three wives, what are you doing with only nine kids? You know what I mean? I know people with one wife that got more kids than that. Come on. Anyway, the Salt Lake City of polygamous has to juggle his family's needs while overseeing his casino business, fulfilling his political interests, and attempting to reconnect with his fundamentalist relatives. That sounds like just quality programming. Come on, kids, gather around the television, you know, pop some popcorn, honey. Let's take this one in. You know, if Sister's Wives ain't gonna do it for you, and if you get bored of Big Love, well, tonight you could also just go home and watch My Five Wives. Wow. That's kind of a tongue twister. My Five Wives. The network that introduced viewers to the polygamous lifestyle of the Browns and Sister's Wives goes to the same docu-reality series, well, for My Five Wives, which features Brady Williams, his five spouses, and their combined 24 children, experiencing a life free of fundamentalist Mormon teachings in Salt Lake City. Well, apparently they haven't gotten that free, because they're still polygamists, which is what the Mormons teach up there, these fundamentalists in Salt Lake City. The family calls its belief system progressive polygamy. They're advocates, like I was reading on some Wikipedia, and these guys have like gone to Congress and tried to get laws repealed, because what they're doing is illegal. The family calls its belief systems progressive polygamy, and they say, which they say stresses love, commitment, and happiness as a family, rather than a specific religious doctrine. The Williams have been shunned by community members and estranged from relatives because of their core beliefs and storylines in their series touch and how they deal with such adversity. So they're trying to make them out of these victims, these poor people. They're just trying to live their polygamous lifestyle in a society that shuns them, and they're just trying to, they're just so committed. They have such happiness. There's so much love there. They're just trying to make it, they're just trying to stick together and make sacrifices for one another. I mean, doesn't that just, they're just trying to make them into these poor polygamists. Seeking sister wife is another one. So you can watch My Five Wives. You can watch Big Love. You can watch Sister's Wives, but I'm not done yet. No, there's more folks. You can binge watch polygamist shows today. You can just go on, you know, probably just days of watching these films or these programs about polygamy. You know, none of those, you can go Seeking Sister Wife. Again, very strange title. Seeking Sister Wife capitalizing on the success of its hit series, Sister's Wives. So Sister's Wives was a smash hit. You know why they keep making these things? Because people are just eating it up. They just love it. Capitalized. Now, I will say this. There was one series, one film show that I saw advertised when I googled it, about polygamy, that I found interesting. And it was called Escaping Polygamy. And it was about these young women trying to get out of that Mormon cult. And it was people, it was a reality show of them going and taking them out. I watched like two five-minute clips. I was like, well, at least they're at least they're trying to get them out of it. They're not trying to just make them into like, oh, these poor people, you know, whatever. Just glorifying them like they do in Big Love. Seeking Sister Wife capitalizing on the success of its hit series, Sister's Wives. TLC. We got to come up with a good acronym for that. TLC, right? The Learning Channel. Yeah, that's what it is. But we got to, we got to outdo it. What does it really mean when they're following this kind of stuff, right? I'm not sharp enough tonight to come up with something that quick. Focuses on the journeys of three unique families in various phases of polygamous relationships. Cameras capture the intimate process of men seeking and dating or incorporating a new life into their, new wife into their family structure and the myriad triumphs, frustrations, and heartaches associated with the emotional changes. It's just, look at the way they're trying to make it sound. You know, they're trying to incorporate their new wife and the myriad triumphs. Like it's this noble thing that they're doing. They're just saying, oh, they're just, they're just striving for a noble cause. You know, polygamy, multiple wives, the frustrations, the heartaches associated with the emotional changes. Yeah, I'd say. Of course, with multiple husbands, wives, and 20 plus children residing between the households, drama filled days are inevitable. I mean, we get enough drama just with us. You know, there's enough drama in one household with one husband and one wife. And why would you want drama filled days, right? But these families are determined to open their hearts and homes to new wives. Oh, so noble. They're just determined to open their hearts, open their homes to these new wives. Well, just, man, everybody does applaud these people. Even if a few growing pains are felt along the way. Yeah, hopefully nobody gets murdered. Right. I mean, as we read earlier, the chances of that going up, oh, that's just a growing pain of being a polygamist. You know, step on, kill the stepchild, you know, just part of the struggle, you know. You think I'm done? I got one more for you. Sisters, wives, big love, my five wives, seeking sister, wife, three wives, one husband, right? At least we know what we're getting. At least we don't have to wonder with a title like that. We can go, okay, this is, you know, sisters seeking sister, wife. You know, let me read the description before you watch that. But at least with this one, it sounds more normal, I guess would be the way to put it. Three wives, one husband, the documentary series where it offers rare access to a community of 15 Mormon families that live in the desert of Utah. These families are unusual in that they are polygamists, I'd say. The practice of marriage to multiple people at once, in addition to particularly unusual, the families live, lives are sometimes difficult, partly because in the state of Utah, polygamy is a third degree felony. And because it carries the risk of escommunication in the mainstream Mormon church. This series examines the personal politics of courtship, how to behave correctly in front of sister wives, the complicated sleeping arrangements. Yeah, I really want to know about that. And also acts as a catalyst to wider reflections of relationships, love, family, and faith in the contemporary United States. So we're supposed to look at these Mormons and these polygamists and allow it to kind of help us to reflect on our own relationships, and our own love, and our own family. Well, you know, I'm reflecting a little bit tonight and I'm feeling pretty blessed that I'm married to one woman, that I'm not a polygamist, that I'm not dealing with all this garbage that comes with it. And here's what boggles the mind about all this. You know, why is it that people are becoming more acceptable of polygamy? It's because of shows like this. It's called television programming for a reason. It's working. People are watching this and just being dumbed down. They're not going to the Bible to see what it says about polygamy. They're not coming to the preacher and saying, hey, what does the Bible say about polygamy? Can you tell me about polygamy? They're going to TLC. I wish I would have thought one for that because that was such a chance to just burn them, right? They're going to TLC. They're going to HBO. They're going to all these other trash sources to learn about polygamy just being brainwashed. To think that polygamy is this noble thing. What's brave people to just take a stand for their polygamist lifestyle? Yeah, I know you guys are working on it. Total level liberal comments. There you go. Yeah, we could do better. Yeah. Think about it. Get back to me the next time TLC comes up in a sermon. But here's what really boggles the mind. Not that people are being brainwashed by this stuff. That's not surprising. I mean, how do you think we got to where we are in so many other areas in our society? We all understand, or at least we showed that television brainwashes people into thinking stupid things, anti-biblical things. What's really mind-boggling is that this is illegal in the United States. Why are these people not in jail? Why are we watching them week in and week out on television? Where's the episode where the local authorities show up and book them? Let's take the camera and follow them down to the jail and watch them get fingerprinted. Where's that episode? It's illegal in the United States. It said right there in Utah it's a third degree felony. Why are they not in jail? Well, it's on television, so they're stars. They're above the law. Where were these people when I was considering bank heists? If all it takes is a camera to follow me around, let's go crack some safes. Let's follow Corbin as he goes home to home at night. I mean, don't you think I'd look good in a ski mask? Pull black at home. Bring a drill rig. Yeah, this is how we drill safes open, people. This is the struggle of being a burglar. But I overcome it. I overcome these obstacles. I look to bring in new goods into my life all the time. I'm always looking for the next pearl necklace to take from somebody else's safe. The rare antique firearm. I have a difficulty incorporating into my own personal belongings. It's so noble, but I overcome these struggles. In society, people, I'm an outcast as a burglar and a thief, breaking into your home and drilling. People just shun me in my society. But as long as I got a camera on me, I'm going to stay out of jail. It makes as much sense as that. Of course, I'm playing around with the point up here, but why aren't these people in jail? It's illegal. Instead, they're being promoted. Instead, they're being glorified. Instead, they're making out like what they're going through is just some, you know, like they're going to construct a bronze statue of these people in their hometown at some point. They're going to go down in history as these, you know, civil rights warriors or something. So, you know, we look at all this about polygamy tonight. We see that God does not approve of polygamy, that God blesses monogamy. We see from these studies that polygamy is a detrimental society. It's detrimental to the individuals practicing it. It's terrible for women. It's terrible for children. And we wonder, and we scratch our heads, how can this be possible? Why is this society accepting this, you know? And why are people so caught up in wanting to wash this garbage? And most of all, why would anybody want to be a polygamist? When we consider all these things, why would anybody want to be a polygamist? One word, covetousness. Yeah, now we see examples in the Bible, of course, where good men of God are being tricked into it, or they're being impatient. You know, there's other sins, but I believe that one major sin is covetousness. The Bible says that, as we read earlier, they were not to multiply wives or silver and gold. And what, you know, notice how wives and silver and gold, you know, it's possession. Yeah. It's them treating it as all possessions. They're covetousness of these things. They covet these things. I mean, that's why God said in the Ten Commandments, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife. Yeah. You know, it's covetousness. That's why people want this. And here's the thing. These guys that get into this polygamy, you know, two wives is never enough. And they want three. And they want four. Hey, if you've already got four, why not five? And if you've already got five, you might as well make it six. You know, and if six, why not a baker's dozen? All right. You know, why not just see how many I can get? In fact, let's turn it into a competition and see who can get the most wives. Eventually what ends up happening or has in the past is they end up going and stealing wives from other men. That's happened. I mean, that's why the Mormons got into some hot water. You know, Brigham Young and those guys almost got killed. You know, they were in jail and people were coming storming the jailhouse ready to just hang those guys from a tree because they're going around stealing men's wives. Why would anybody want to do that? Because of covetousness. But here's the thing. I don't care how many wives you get. If you're into this, it's never going to be enough. The Bible says he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase, this also is abandoned. You're never going to be satisfied with those things. You know what's going to satisfy you is when you seek the Lord and you do things His way and you have a satisfying relationship with the spouse God has given you. One man, one woman. That's the most satisfying relationship that you can have. It's not going to be polygamy. That's never going to satisfy you. And in fact it's quite the opposite. It's going to bring you heartaches, headaches, and you know hopefully it's going to bring down the hammer of the law as it should and it's going to be dealt with. So I know it's kind of a different subject but it's something you can see it's taking place in our society and it's something that's being promoted even on televisions and it's something quite frankly the Bible addresses and it's something that people have questions about so if you've ever wondered about what does the Bible have to say about polygamy it condemned it does not condone of it and condemns it. So go ahead and pray.