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Amen, so keep your place there in Romans chapter 2, so tonight we're going to conclude the Pride and Prejudice sermon series and tonight we're going to have kind of an interesting light sermon tonight and I want to explain to you why this book is liked by most people. Most people that like this book or most people that read this book like this book and this book was written in 1820, 1813 or whatever it was and it's still popular today. So hopefully I can explain to you from the Bible this evening and I believe it's pretty easy to see why the reasons that this is popular with most people and the reason that it resonates with people today. So in order to get to the points that I want to make tonight, we've got to do a short Bible study and we need to look down at Romans chapter 2. So in Romans chapter 2, just the beginning of Romans, you have to understand that Paul is kind of presenting this idea that's kind of wrapped up in verse number 11 of Romans chapter 2, just the context of what Paul's talking about. He's trying to, you know, kind of break down this barrier of, you know, these Gentiles are getting saved too. So anybody that believes the Gospel, that trusts in Jesus is saved and this is a new concept to the Jews at the time as the Gentiles are, they have all the access to salvation that any other person does. He says, you know, if you, you're going to perish without the law and you're going to perish with the law. And so everybody's going to, everybody's in danger of damnation is what he's explaining here. But then he points out something very specifically in verse number 14 and verse number 15 that is going to apply to us this evening. So remember, he's saying that everybody is the same as far as salvation goes. There's no respect of persons with God and he explains towards the end of the chapter and many other places in Romans that, you know, it doesn't matter who your parents were, it doesn't matter what your heritage was, what matters is whether or not you believed on Jesus. That's all that matters. All right? But he points out that there is a standard. There is a standard that God gives to everybody in Romans chapter 2 and, you know, which speaks to the sermon tonight because look, most people, most normal people, they like certain things. They like, they consider certain things good and they consider certain things bad. I mean, just think about it, for example. Just think about just the default amongst normal people even today. These are generally considered a good thing by normal people today. You'll even notice that if you have a family and you have children and you go, you know, or somebody calls a man, oh, he's a family man, what are they saying? He's a bad guy? No, they're saying like he's, that's a compliment. If somebody calls you, oh, you know, that guy, that guy, he's a family man. Even normal, unsaved, unchurched people, they consider that a good statement. Many people, most normal people, when they see a family with children, you know, I mean, well-behaved children, okay, you know, they think it's a good thing, right? Nobody likes bratty kids, all right? Even though you may think that, you know, it's cute, nobody thinks a brat is cute, okay? But most normal people think that a family is a good thing, that being called a family man or that you have a family is a good thing, all right? Here's another thing that most people think are good, weddings. Most people think weddings are good. I mean, do people go to weddings generally depressed and down and angry? No, people go to weddings, they're happy, they're excited, they're wearing all kinds of, people don't go to weddings all dressed in black, right? They go to weddings dressed in bright colors, they're looking, you know, to congratulate people because weddings are generally considered by the vast majority of normal people to be a good thing. People like these things, they're happy events, people are congratulating one, everyone's in a good mood. You say, why is this? Why are all these certain things considered good and certain things just generally universally considered bad? Not just by us, by just society, right? There's a good thing here, there's a good thing that we have working for us here. Look down at Romans chapter 2 in verse number 14. So who's Paul writing to? Obviously the whole Bible applies to everyone, but Paul is writing specifically to Gentiles. He's writing specifically to the Romans here and he's explaining this idea that the Romans, the Gentiles have access to salvation too. The Jews in verse number 3, or chapter number 3 verse number 2, he explains, well what advantage is it to be a Jew if everyone can get saved? And he says, you know, they had the oracles of God, they had the law, they had the Bible, you know, the Gentiles, they didn't have the word of God, they did not have the Bible. I would say that's a pretty serious disadvantage, even today. People that don't have a Bible don't have the word of God, they need somebody to go and tell them what the word of God says. Look, that's people today, that's people that you met out soul winning today. You have to go tell them the word of God. The Jews had it, that's an advantage. But look down at verse number 14. But the Gentiles, everybody had this. This is what Paul is saying. Everybody had this. So everybody starts, whether you were churched or not, you were Jew or Gentile, everybody starts with two things. In Romans chapter 1, Paul explains that everybody started with the evidence of creation. Everybody can look around them and see the world God created. Everyone today, everyone that has ever lived can see that. That's what everyone has. So everyone, you know, people that are like, oh, what about the person in, you know, the Amazonian jungle or whatever that's never heard of God or whatever. Everybody had their creation, number one, where they can look around and then in Matthew chapter 7, God says, everyone starts with two things. One is the creation around you. Two, I'm going to show you. But then God promises in Matthew 7 that if you seek the truth, you will find it. What more do you need? That's a complete solution right there. But the second thing that everybody has is right here. Look at Romans chapter 2. Matthew verse number 14. The Bible says, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, they didn't have the Bible, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. So Paul is saying that the Gentiles, people that have never read the Bible, what Paul is saying is that people that have never heard of the word of God, never read a word of it, they will just by nature do the things that are in it. They will know that it's wrong to murder. They will know that, you know, certain things are good and certain things are bad. He even gets very specific in verse 15. Look at this. It says, which show, you say, how could they know this? Which show the work of the law written in their hearts because God put it in their heart. God gives it to them in their heart. Their what? This is where this term, your conscience. Their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts, the meanwhile. Look at this. Accusing or else excusing one another. In verse 15 where it says accusing and excusing, what that means is that they will know what's good and they will know what's bad. Just by the law that God put in their hearts. They don't have the Bible but they will just inherently by nature know that. What the Bible is saying here, what Paul is saying is everyone is born with this feature. This conscience inside them saying, that will tell them, this is good, this is bad. This is why you see these general things that I just went through, how people just think these things are good and these things are bad. By the way, this is proof that no one is born a degenerate pervert from the Bible. Period. But that's not what the TV said. Well, we're talking about the Bible tonight. You listen to everything on TV, I mean, my goodness, you're a mess. You're going to be a mess. But this is the biggest challenge of clown world right here, what I just read for you. The biggest challenge of this degenerate culture today by teaching everyone that evil is good and good is evil, the biggest challenge is to get past people's conscience because we have an advantage from the beginning. They have to train. This is why Satan's biggest attacks, where's Satan attacking today? Where's Satan going and attacking and bringing confusion today? Where's he going? To the children, to the schools. You say why? Because he has to sear that conscience, that's why. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, the Bible clearly says that it is possible to damage this conscience, to sear it. What happens when you sear something? When you sear something, you can't feel anymore. You can't feel it anymore. So it's possible to damage this, but the point is the good news is everyone starts with this law written in their hearts. It's something that Satan has to undo. He has to work against it. This is why people will always like this book is what I'm going to show you in a couple things here. I'm going to give you three points tonight. But the first one is this. So now that we know that everybody has a conscience, everybody has this law written in their heart, I'm not talking about saved Bible believing Christians. I'm talking about everybody. People just have this conscience, this heart within them that sees something and if their conscience has not been damaged or skewed or seared as the Bible would say, they will look at that and they will say, that's good, I like that. And other things they will look at and they will say, that's vile. Satan has to undo all that. Satan has to flip all of that on its head. So the first reason, now that we know this from the Bible, now that we did our little basis Bible study, the first reason that people will like this book, even though it was written hundreds of years ago, is that it's not woke. To be quite frank, it's not woke, it's a traditional story. And these, unfortunately, are rare today. Traditional stories. You say, what do you mean? It's a traditional story where marriage is the ultimate goal. Here you have a story with a bunch of young people and what do they do? What do they do? You have a bunch of young people and what are they doing throughout the whole book? They're trying to get married. They're trying to find somebody who's decent to get married. And as we talked about last week, some succeed and some do not. Some find good marriages and some do not. But here's the thing, folks, normal people can identify with this goal. Normal young people, because guess what? Even today, in the culture that we have today, the vast majority of young people want to get married. It is just overwhelming. It's like 85%, so 15% the culture has ruined. But 85%, regardless of what they're into or what they're doing, they have the desire to be married. Because that part of their conscience has not been seared. So when they read something like this or they watch the movie or whatever, they're going to like it. Because it's traditional and it matches what they like. And here's another one. More on that line. More of the lines of that it's anti-woke, it's anti-fornication. It's anti-fornication because it is for marriage. Because it is for marriage. Just turn to Matthew, chapter number 5, turn to Matthew, chapter number 5. It is for marriage so seriously that when fornication was entered into in this book. This is one of my favorite things about the book. When fornication was entered into in this book, it was considered a danger to all those connected with that person. It was considered a danger to anyone that was even related to that person that went into fornication. Oh, how far we've come. This transformation about fornication and people don't connect it because what people will do is they will say, I'm for marriage, I want to be married, but then they will be in fornication. It's like, no, one destroys the other. And that's what young people need to realize today. No matter what modern societies tell you or what our culture today tells you, one destroys the other. It's only for marriage and for fornication. The two are diametrically opposed to each other. As a matter of fact, look down at Matthew, chapter 5 and verse number 32. One interesting thing about fornication is it's considered such a detriment to marriage. I was trying to think, you know, fornication, I could read you fornication verses in the Bible on how it's a terrible sin. It's a sin against your own body, flee fornication. I could read you all these verses all day long. But the verse that shows that fornication is against marriage is probably, this is probably the best one. Because fornication is actually the only reason given for the dissolution of a marriage in the Bible. In the King James Bible, by the way. Look down at Matthew, chapter 5 and verse number 32. Fornication is given as the only permissible reason for divorce in the Bible. And I'm going to explain to you here in just a few minutes how this, it doesn't even apply today. But look at verse number 32. It says, but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, talking about divorcing his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery. So the Bible here is teaching that if you get divorced, first of all, you stay single or you commit adultery. So if you get divorced, you stay single. But the only reason for divorce that is allowed in the Bible is fornication. You're like, what? What does that mean? This only really applies to the biblical tradition of marriage, the way they had it. So if you think about Joseph and Mary, you know, when, you know, we're coming up on Christmas here. So Joseph found his wife with child and they were in this betrothal period. They were in this betrothal period before they actually got, you know, married. So a lot of people call that the engagement, but that's not what it was. Because the betrothal was considered marriage. But it's just they hadn't consummated, they hadn't come together physically yet. Then they get married and then they have. So there's kind of this double stage to the marriages in the Bible. That does not apply today. There's no betrothal period today. Today there's this engagement where people get engaged and they're engaged for like eight years or something. It just means nothing. You're in our culture today. All right? I'm not playing down if someone's engaged, okay? The point is, is engagement has turned into some big nothing burger that doesn't even, it's something that, you know, okay, let's get, you know, somebody's living with his girlfriend for eight years and they get engaged for another eight years and it just makes no sense. Right? It's just backwards, you know, culture. But the Bible explains that, you know, in Deuteronomy chapter 22, and I'm not going to do an in-depth study on this, but Deuteronomy chapter 22, Deuteronomy chapter 24, if someone gets betrothed to a wife and then they find out that she is not pure or she has been in fornication in the past, at that point before they've even consummated the marriage, it is okay to put her away. And there's a whole process in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and Deuteronomy chapter 24. But the point is, that's the only reason and that reason doesn't even apply today. Many modern Bibles, you say, is it important that we have a King James Bible? Let me read you from the NIV, what Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 32 says. One of the problems with the modern Bibles is they justify divorce because what the King James Bible is basically telling us in our modern society is there is no reason for divorce. People will just change it to adultery. Fornication and adultery are two different things. Adultery is wicked as hell. It is punished by capital punishment in the Old Testament. I'm not downplaying that. But God is just saying that fornication in the King James Bible is why you can put away your wife. That's what the Bible is saying. Look at the NIV, what it says in verse number 32. Don't look at it because hopefully you don't pull out your NIV right now. But look at verse 32 or I'll read you verse 32. It says, but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality makes her the victim of adultery and then he goes into the same type of thing. But the Bible is basically saying like, hey, whatever, you want to get divorced, get divorced. Because Jesus later says that if a man looks upon a woman, he's committed adultery with her in his heart. So you go to a grocery store and you look too long at the magazine on the rack and your wife can divorce you. That's what the NIV says because that is immorality. Doing that, lusting after a woman, looking at something you shouldn't be looking at, I'm not justifying that either but the Bible, the NIV is saying that justifies divorce. It's a big deal. It's a big deal when we change these words and make these false Bible versions because people use these and people use these to justify leaving their husbands, leaving their wives. People use these wicked verses because guess what? When somebody wants to check out of their marriage, they're going to look for any reason to do it. They're going to look for any justification to do it. And it's pretty nice when you've got a Bible that says you can. I mean it's convenient. So I don't even know where I was going with that but don't get an NIV, all right? I mean I try to show you these things as we go along, why we're King James only. But the point is, it's not woke. It's anti-fornication. It is made such a big deal when Lydia is taken off with this wicked man, by the way. This wicked man, and we'll get to that a little bit later, but George Wickham in this book is considered a wicked piece of trash. Maybe we start looking at people that are in fornication a little bit differently today. But this is just the culture of that day. But it matches the culture of the Bible. I'll show you that. Here's another reason it's anti-woke. It's anti-woke because it features, it has as its main protagonist, I guess you could say or antagonist depending on what part of the book you're reading, a strong male character. A strong masculine lead character. Where are you going to find that today? What kind of book or story are you going to find with that today? People, people don't, but you know what? That matches people's conscience and they like to see that. They like to see that because it's normal. People don't want to see some strong female character that comes in and beats up a hundred guys. I mean, what in the world? I remember when this started in like the 90s and it was just the oddest thing in the world. People want to see, people want to see a story like, you know, I used to have all these old comic books from my, from my uncle and like they were like the comic book, the Superman comic books from like the 50s and 60s and Superman was like this big, I mean, he could just like pull down buildings and pick up airliners and all this kind of stuff and it was like truth, justice, and the American way. Superman like saves the day all the time, but look, this is what, now, now I looked it up, DC Comics, Superman saying now is truth, justice, and a better tomorrow. He's like an environmentalist now or something like that. But the point is it's all gone woke and then all the characters and all these, I guess all these latest, you know, superhero movies or all these female characters are just, you know, beating up everybody. It makes no sense. You're being asked today to deny reality is what you're being asked. Oh, but then they'll put the female superhero in an inappropriate outfit, so then it makes it okay. How are the feminists okay with that? It's all backwards, folks. It's all backwards. This is a traditional story with a strong male character that takes care of business and gets the girl, gets the bride even better. It matches what people want to see. We're being asked to simply deny what our eyes can see and what we know to be true today. There was a story yesterday that I read about a moving company in Fresno. I won't mention the name of the company, but there's a moving company and this moving company, they advertise the fact that if you go read their reviews, I went and I read the reviews after I read this article. If you read their reviews, they advertise the fact that they can move you so quickly because the people that work for them run to the house and they get the furniture and they run to the truck and they just run back for more and they're just constantly just going back and forth and back and forth. The federal government is after them for age discrimination because you're not going to hire a 70-year-old to do that. The owner of the company was just like, what in the world? You have to be able to run and carry a couch and then run and get another couch. I think they advertise that they have a lot of student athletes that work for them. It makes sense. It makes sense that they would have a lot of strong, young men that work for them. They probably have women, I don't know, but I'm sure they have to. But the point is, it's ridiculous. Everything is just, it's upside down, up is down, down is up. The story of Pride and Prejudice is featuring the strong male character that while he's not perfect by any means, he kind of saves the day. He kind of saves the day. He goes and he fixes things that need to be fixed and then he gets the bride and there's a happy ending. People like to see that because it matches what they know to be true and what they know they want for themselves and their conscience tells them, this is good. This is normal. Everything that we see today, I recently overheard people talking about a movie that they went to see. I overheard people, and I haven't been to a movie forever in a day, thank goodness, but they were talking about this movie that they had gone to see and I won't mention the name of it, but I was overhearing this conversation and the one thing that I kept hearing from them was how disturbing this movie was, disturbing, disturbing. They went out and they went to this movie and it was just so disturbing. They're talking about it the next day, how disturbing. Who would go and pay money to be disturbed? A lot of people, apparently. It's crazy, they're trying to break down the culture today. They're trying to break down the conscience today. They're trying to break down the Christian culture, they're trying to break down the Bible. Look, the family is power. They're trying to break that. The family is power. If you have a strong family and you're following the Bible, that's power, that's strength. That can't be broken down if you don't allow it to be broken down. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1, or 50, I think it's, yeah, Jeremiah chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 1. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 1, look at verse number 10. So it's not woke, it's not a woke story, it's a traditional, normal story and it matches people's conscience and people like that. Look at what the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number 10, where it says, See, See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant. Notice what God says here. Notice what God says to Jeremiah that, look, you gotta go and he's telling him, you gotta break it all down before you can build it back up. That's what he's telling him. And that's Satan's exact plan with our culture today. He's gotta take everything in the conscience. He's gotta take everything in the Bible, everything in the law that's written in people's hearts and he's gotta bust it all down. He's gotta bust it all down so he can build it back up the way he wants it to be. That's exactly why you're seeing opposite world, clown world out there today. You're just like, everything's exactly the opposite of the truth. That's Satan trying to break it all down so he can build it back up the way he wants. So he can build the building upside down. He can't leave what God put there by default intact. He's gotta tear it down. Satan never does anything his own way. He never has his own ideas. He just takes what God does and he just twists it just a little bit. That's why you see so many Christian religions out there that sound like they're true except he just twists it a little bit. Oh yeah, you gotta believe in Jesus. Oh yeah, you know, but if you don't have the works, you know, it's not salvation. I mean, look at all of the works-based versions of salvation out there. We're just talking about this, you know, I don't know, a few days ago when we talk about stuff all the time. I can't even remember what day it was. We're talking about all these different versions of works. It's just like another cousin lordship salvation, another cousin repent of your sins to be saved. I mean, look, Ray Comfort sounds pretty good. You listen to his gospel presentation and you're like, yeah, he's preaching Jesus and he's preaching, you know, that you gotta be saved and all this kind of stuff and then at the end he's like, you gotta turn from your sins. You're like, whoa, that's not Jesus. But you see, it's all these different things. Satan just takes what God had and he just twists it just a little bit. But he's gotta tear down the conscience first. He's gotta break down everything that God put in place so he can build up what he wants to be there. So the first thing is it's not woke. It matches our conscience. It matches a conscience that is intact. Let's put it that way. That's why kids, by the way, this is why kids are much easier to get saved than, look, I'm not being age discriminatory here, but it's true. A trend is that it is much easier to get a 12-year-old saved than it would be to get somebody who is 70 saved. Because somebody that is 12, their conscience, hopefully, most of the time, is largely intact. When you read them the gospel, when you read them the Bible, tell them about Jesus and how to be saved, when you tell them the simplicity which is in Christ, it just matches that conscience. Their conscience is intact and the gospel is like a perfect key that will fit right into an intact conscience. And they would just be like, that makes so much sense. And it's so simple that a child can understand it. And I tell people all the time, would it be fair, would it be just, if the gospel was so complicated? Like some of these Pentecostal works-based gospels out there, you're just like, what in the world? They're doing backflips and you have to do this and you can't do this and you have to do all of that. I mean, it's just whatever the pastor makes up is salvation. But would it be fair if only the smartest people could understand the gospel and go to heaven? No. It's simple. It's so simple that a child can understand it and that's why children are so easy to get saved. That's why children that are in a family-integrated church, you say, why are we family-integrated? Because that's what the Bible says. That's why kids that are in this church that grow up hearing the word of God preached and grow up flipping to Bible verses and as soon as they can read, they're going to the same Bible verses that their parents are going to, they'll get saved like super young. I'm talking, I don't even want to name ages, but like four, five, six, seven years old. They're going to get saved. Because pretty soon they're just going to be like, they're going to go out soloing with their parents, they're going to hear the gospel over and over and over again, they'll be like, Dad, am I going to go to heaven? And you're like, then you sit down with them and be like, well, the gospel applies to you too. You give them the gospel, just bam, easy. No problem. You know, a kid that's never been in church before, they'll have to hear the whole gospel, we have some things explained to them, but still, it's simple, it's simple. So thank God for our conscience, thank God that we all start with that, but that's the first reason that people will generally like this book, that it will generally resonate with even Gentiles. There is no Jew nor Greek, okay? But it will just resonate with people because it matches, it's traditional, it matches people's conscience. Here's the second reason. Here's the second reason that people like this book. Every guy wants to be a Darcy. You say, what do you mean? What do you mean by that? Every guy, every young man, every man wants to be a Mr. Darcy to some degree. Here he is, here's this man, he's this strong character. Every – you know, look, he's not the most polite or socially refined person. He offends many people, but you know what he is? You know what he is from the beginning of the book to the end of the book? He is respected. He is respected by his friends, he is respected by his family. Everybody respects him. He's kind of – he's the alpha male that, you know, that gets the job done in the book. Every guy wants that. Every guy can connect with that. See, look, men want respect like women want love and affection. And many men in their life will search for respect and they will search for it and search for it and desire it and they will never get it. And they will never figure out why. But Darcy explains, I mean, he explains at the beginning of the book why he has it. Every man wants to be respected. But look at Psalm chapter 37 and verse number 23. The Bible actually says that you will get respect, you know, it kind of matches the answer that Darcy gave that I talked about two sermons ago. But look at Psalm chapter 37, look at verse number 23 because many men will chase this goal their whole lives and they will never achieve it. They will not get it. Look at Psalm chapter 37, look at verse number 23. The Bible says this. It says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not utterly be cast down for the Lord uphold him with his hand. You see, what the Bible here is saying is that if you want to have respect, if you want to be someone who is honorable, as I will use that word, and it's a good Bible word from Hebrews. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But if you want to be someone who is considered a man with honor and have respect, have that good name, have that good opinion, you will be disciplined in your steps. And this is what Darcy said that he was. And we talked about this two sermons ago, but he said he's very disciplined in what he does say and what he doesn't say, which is why he didn't say much. And people just assumed he was rude or whatever, but he didn't so much care about that. He just wanted to be disciplined and it was the study of his life to live this disciplined life to not make missteps. But the Bible is saying that exact same thing. If your steps, and of course the Bible is talking about following the Bible. The Bible is saying if your steps are ordered by the Bible, if you are disciplined enough to follow the Bible in your life, you will have respect. Many men want respect, but they just can't order their steps. This is the problem. So what they do is this. They look at people that have respect. They can't order their steps. They can't control themselves. They can't control their members. They can't control their body. As Paul said, you know, I keep under my body. They have no self-control. They do what they want to do. They say what they want to say and then no one respects them. But the man that wants respect will order his steps according to the word of God. Like I said, it's not easy, but it's not complicated to figure these things out from the Bible. So what people will do is they will not be able to order their steps and they will look at men that have respect and they will try to emulate everything else about that person. What they will do is they will say, you know, I can't, you know, I'm an idiot and I say idiotic things and I do idiotic things and I, you know, I'm selfish and I'm vain and all these different things, but I see that guy over there. He has respect. If I just had his job, people would respect me too. If I just had that position that he's in, if I could just get that manager position, then people would have respect for me. And you know what? Because they even do get that manager position. But then no one respects them still and they're like, what? What must I do? They're like, hey, if I can just get the money, Darcy was rich. Like if I could just be rich like him, then I'd have respect. It reminds me of the Bitcoin guy. Remember the Bitcoin guy? Bitcoin guy that was like a Bitcoin billionaire because he stole that Bitcoin and he used to carry around a briefcase full of a million dollars. Cash. And when the investigators asked him, why do you carry around a million dollars in cash, and he's like, because I want to get, you know, girls to respect me. It never worked. They asked him, did it ever work? No. It never worked. They get the money and they still can't get respect because respect is about ordering your steps. Respect is about discipline on how you live your life. From those ordered steps from the Lord. It takes discipline and consistency. The Bible would call that diligence. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 51. But many men will still like the story because they want to identify with Darcy. And look, here's the thing, folks. Every man is not an alpha male. All right? Turn to Jeremiah chapter 51. And while this comes natural to some men, you know, just to have this strong, you know, leadership personality, and look, many times this trait needs to be controlled too if it does come naturally to men. If you have this alpha personality, if you don't want to just irritate everybody and have everybody angry with you all the time, you need to control that alpha personality. But the point is, it may not come supernatural to some men, but men are supposed to be manly. Men are supposed to be leaders. Men are supposed to have that ability. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that when men lose that, that's the judgment of a nation. It says when all the men of a nation lose the ability to be strong leaders and strong men, it's like that is judgment upon that nation. Look at Jeremiah 51, verse number 30, talking about the coming judgment of Babylon. Remember Jeremiah was a prophet during the Babylonian captivity, but Babylon was going to be judged too. God's judgment is complete. God never leaves anybody behind. Look at verse number 30. It says the mighty men of Babylon have foreborn to fight. They've remained in their holds. Their might have failed. They were no longer strong anymore. They became a bunch of weaklings and wimps. They remained in their holds. Their might have failed. They became as women. They have burned her dwelling places. Her bars are broken. And I understand that you could like literally apply that to our nation today, literally. But what it's saying is the men became weak is what it's saying. They wouldn't fight. They wouldn't be men. They wouldn't stand up. This is what men are supposed to be. So when men see a strong male character, something inside them says, I want to be that way. This is why men like this story. Every man should have drive. And if you don't have drive and you're a man listening to this and you don't have drive, you need to teach yourself to get some drive. You need to learn to get drive. You need to learn to be driven. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse number 18. I feel sorry for the woman that hitches her wagon to the young man with no drive. Ladies if you don't find someone to marry with drive, look this is another, this is what the feminists will tell the young ladies today to find a man that they can pull around on a leash. Find a weak man. That's what feminism will tell women today. Women are taught today, young ladies, these poor young ladies are being taught this wicked philosophy that they need to be in competition with men. You need to compete with men for a job. You need to compete with men in the relationship. You need to compete with men for the control of the household. You need to compete with men for how the children are going to be parented and it's co-parenting and all these things. You need to be in competition with men. So what will they do? They will find a weak man. Because if I got to compete with somebody, I want a weakling. I remember wrestling matches, we used to call them fish. You'd look at the brackets and everybody kind of knew who everybody was in the state. You look at the bracket and you got some guy in the first match, his record is like two and thirty or something like that, right? And you're like, yeah, I got a fish. They just flop right on their back and the match is over right away. It's not hard. Right? This is the problem today. Young ladies are being taught to marry a fish. But guess what? They marry a fish. So look, ladies, appreciate the leadership of your husband. Appreciate it. Men should lead with compassion. They should lead with love. They should lead in a loving, Christ-like way, but they should lead. They should be strong and they should handle difficult situations. But see, a woman that marries a fish, she marries a fish and then she has children. And then problems start coming in to the household and she can't, the household isn't provided for. And she has to go out in the world. She starts to resent the fish who's sitting on the couch eating Cheetos off his chest. But you know what? Hey, that's what you bought into. That's what you purchased. Ladies you've got to marry somebody with drive. I'd rather have a lady marry a young man that would, you know, every now and then say the wrong thing and every now and then step on some toes and, you know, have to learn some etiquette and have to be kind of, have the chips knocked off the sides of the block a little bit and kind of refined a little bit than have some man, some young man with no drive. That's a curse. And if you are a young man and you just don't have, you better get some drive. You better figure it out. You're going to curse some young lady. So every man, every man with an intact conscience looks at Darcy and says, there's something about that because that is, you know, God wants you to be a strong leader. And that's what he was. And look, I mean just to flip that around with the ladies, every girl wants to be pursued by an honorable man. To just flip that around. So look, it's a traditional story. It's a traditional story that appeals to men and women even in a day when tradition is being destroyed. There's an agenda in our culture today to destroy the conscience and destroy the good. And it's to destroy the truth. To destroy the idea that a strong man of character would pursue a decent young lady with the goal of marrying her. That whole idea is being attacked today. And look, turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. I like the story because it's a good perspective. It's a good perspective on what a culture should see. Look, and here's the thing, it's a secular story. This is what's messed up about it. It's a secular story where they had more right in the way they viewed things than our current culture today. These weren't religious people in this story. It was just a secular story. But look at Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 4. Let me give you a good perspective here. Let's give you a good perspective of shining the Bible upon our culture today and then kind of superimposing this story over the top of it. So I hope you all read the story. If you just watched the movie, okay, whatever. But the story really goes into how wicked and degenerate and bad George Wickham was. It really goes into a lot of detail on how he had this fornication culture in him and he wanted to just steal money from people, use young ladies for money and fornication and he didn't care who he destroyed. He just had to move from place to place to place. He ran up all kinds of debts everywhere. He was just a terrible person. I mean the Bible really, I mean the book really puts him across as a real scumbag. But the Bible has, you know, a word for this. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse number 4. The Bible says marriage is honorable in all. So somebody that is pursuing a young lady without fornication in a proper biblical way, this is an honorable thing. What Darcy did was an honorable thing and the bed undefiled. But look at this. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. All these young men today are George Wickham, you know what he was, you know what the Bible would call George Wickham? A whoremonger. What does that say about the young girls that were fooled into going with him? Well I guess if he's a whoremonger, I mean he chases whores. That's what it says. See that's offensive. That's the Bible. That's what the Bible is saying. So why are young ladies allowing themselves to be treated that way today? Why are they taking this lie that is taught to them saying this is normal, this is okay? Wickham did not force Lydia to go with him. He was a whoremonger and she played the part willingly. What are we seeing today? The point is an honorable man is what Hebrews chapter 13 is. George Wickham was not an honorable man. The Bible would call him a whoremonger. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23. Let me give you some other words the Bible uses that people would just be like this is so offensive. But this is what's happening today. This is what people are accepting today. This is what young women are accepting today. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse number 2. It's talking about who would not be allowed into the tabernacle. Who would not be allowed to go in there. This is what the Bible thinks about this. Now the definition of a bastard is a child that is born out of wedlock. It is two people that are in fornication that would have a child. That is the definition of a bastard. But look what the Bible says. A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. You say that's mean. That's the Bible. Even to his 10th generation he shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. That is unbelievable right there. That is what God thinks about fornication. That is what God thinks about two people that would get together. Look at you say it's harsh. Look, women should be disgusted by a man. Women should be absolutely disgusted by a man that would want to have a physical relationship with them and not be interested in marriage. It should disgust them. They should say, what do you think I am, a prostitute? That's what women should say. Why are they not saying that? Feminism hates women. It hates these young ladies today. Everyone will say, oh this is misogynistic. No, we love young ladies. The Bible is here to protect young ladies. And then, you know, not only will they enter, you know, would you like to enter into fornication with me? And they're like, well, sure. And then they'll have children. Well, would you like to have some bastard children with me and I can treat you like a prostitute? That's what they're saying. I mean, this is the Bible. These young ladies today should be super offended. I mean the idea that a lady would get married and be taken care of by her husband, it's terrible. With a godly, wonderful, spirit-filled life, raising her children in the Lord, it's crazy. They call us crazy. Look, don't congratulate the fornication culture today. Two people are in fornication, they start having children, don't congratulate that. I had that happen to me years ago at work. There was this guy who lived with his girlfriend, they just had all these kids and everyone was like, oh, congratulations. And I'm like the jerk in the room, I'm just like, I'm not going to congratulate that. Look, I'm glad there's a child and I'm glad the child's healthy and that's not what I'm saying. But this, what are you trying to do to that kid? Become a man. That's what I wanted to tell this guy. He was like, oh, he's a nice guy, he's funny and all this. No. He's a whoremonger. He has no respect for that young lady. And you know what that young lady wanted? You know what she wanted? She wanted to be married. Because they all do. They're just being taken advantage of by these George Wickhams. That's all they are. These dishonorable young men. There's no honor in it. And they're being fooled and they're going along with it. So look, it's a secular story, I get it. But it's a traditional, I mean, it shows how far we have fallen as a culture today. And like I said this morning, when you look at these stories and you look at these things in the world through the lens of the Bible, so many things are opened up to you. See, these goals, these milestones in our lives, they're written in our hearts. You know, these goals to be married and to have children and to raise our children, you know, I mean, it's all written in our hearts. We just have to follow the Bible, order our steps according to the Bible, and everything's going to work out. You know what it also shows you? You know another thing it shows you? It shows you the spiritual battle today. Because this is a very popular story. And if people would write books like this, and even, look, God forbid, I mean, if they would even make movies like this, they would do very well. But see, Satan, it shows you the spiritual battle of Satan because he's not necessarily in it for the money. He's in it to crush the culture. He's in it to destroy because Hollywood could make more money by making movies like this. I mean, there's the saying, haven't you heard the saying, go woke, go broke? Because nobody wants to see this garbage. You know, they'll still go to a movie because that's what they do and they're like, oh, that was disturbing, I'm never going to another movie again. But you know, they will go to another movie. But the point is, they're going woke and they're going broke, but Satan doesn't care. It shows you that there's a spiritual aspect to it. It makes, if you don't see the spiritual, you will never understand why a corporation would do things. Look, a corporation's existence is only there to make money for its shareholders. That's the only reason it's there, to turn a profit. But you see these corporations willingly shooting themselves. But they're doing it because Satan is in control and he's there to destroy the culture. He's there to tear down and sear, you see, because guess what? When the conscience, when Satan sears the conscience of somebody who's not saved, when he sears the conscience of a 19 or 20 or 21 year old and they've been watching filth and garbage for 10, 15 years and then we knock on their door, they're going to be like, get out of here. They're not going to want to hear it. I mean, you could be a hater of God by that time, easily. That's what Satan's trying to do. He's not in it for the money. He's in it for the destruction so he can rebuild. Look, I hate to say it, but it's working. It's working. He's searing the conscience of people out there. So look, as long as men have conscience, this story will be well liked. I hope you enjoyed it. I mean, I think it was a good study by shining the light of the Bible onto this neat little story, but that's why it's popular and it always will be unless we're an entirely reprobate society and hopefully we never see that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.