Honoring Motherhood

And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

Now for Romans 12:2:

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Introduction: Distinguishing Between the Holy and Unholy

As we just heard from both our Scripture lessons this morning, one of the more important purposes of the Law is to teach God’s people to distinguish between what it holy and unholy; and as Paul stresses this includes the ideas that are in our mind. When Paul speaks of “this world” in our passage, he is referring to the world system that is opposed to God. You will notice that the footnote in our pew Bibles tell us that the literal translation of this phrase is “this age”. It is this same Greek word that we find in Galatians 1:4:

Galatians 1:4 ESV

who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

There are ideas out in our world that are opposed to God, and we as Christian are called to purge them from our minds.

This brings us to Mother’s Day. There has never been a time in world history that motherhood is more under attack, and this is not just about motherhood, it is about God. What we are seeing today with calls to change “Mother’s Day” into “Birthing Person Day”, pregnant men emoji’s and the protests being held outside many churches today by abortionists is not just an attack on motherhood, but on God!

This morning I am going to show you from Scripture that by honoring motherhood we are...

Honoring Our Creator

Honoring His Creation Mandate

Honoring His Promises

Honoring Motherhood Honors the Creator

The foundation of all good thinking begins with distinguishing between the Creator and His creation. This truth is found in Romans 1:21-23:

Romans 1:21–23 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

What is at the heart of idolatry?

At the heart of idolatry is a failure to make a proper distinction between the Creator and creation. Wherever you find people elevating created things above God you find idolatry. The idol of our “age” is humanity itself! It is what is called secular humanism. It is secular because it claims to be non-religious, and it is humanism because humanity becomes the measure of all things.

These claims, however, are lies, as are all ideas that have their origin from the Devil. God claims Lordship over all things, even our ideas. Earlier in Romans 1, Paul writes this:

Romans 1:18–20 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

I know people claim to be atheists, but according to this passage they are liars! Everyone in their heart knows there is a God and any claim contrary to the one true God, is an idol!

So, what happens when we fail to make a distinction between the Creator and creation? We fail to make proper distinctions within creation itself. Paul continues:

Romans 1:26–27 ESV

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Transgenderism and homosexuality are but the tip of the iceberg, now people are claiming there is no distinction between good and evil, truth and error!

So, let us go back to the beginning and ground ourselves in reality:

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

When we honor motherhood we are honoring God as our Creator, we are also honoring His plan for us:

Honoring Motherhood Honors the Creation Mandate

We find this mandate in the very next verse of Genesis one:

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

This mandate has three parts:

First, it commands us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. This does not mean that we must have as many children as humanly possible, but rather it means we should have as many children as our heart’s desire, and as we will learn in the next point, children are a blessing.

Second, it commands us to “subdue the earth”. Contrary to the evolutionary narrative, humanity did not have its origins in the wilderness, but a Garden. The mandate given to us by God was to expand the Garden over the whole earth. In other words, we are called to be conservationist, not environmentalists. The goal is not to have zero human footprints on the environment, but rather carefully placed footprints! The reason human beings have harmed the environment is not because we are human beings, but because we are sinners. As we will see in Deuteronomy, God has a lot to say about creation care.

Third, it commands us to “have dominion” over all the other creatures. Again, this points to our managing creation for our benefit and enjoyment.Bearing and raising children is instrumental to fulfilling this mandate. I began this sermon by saying God calls us to make distinctions. Notice how God call Adam to do this in the creation story::

Genesis 2:18–24 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Do you see how motherhood is foundational for humanity to fulfill its mandate? There was no other helper suitable for Adam. Honoring motherhood honors God’s Creation Mandate.

Not only this, it honors God’s promises:

Honoring Motherhood Honors the Promises of God

I want you to look at Genesis 1:28 again:

Genesis 1:28 ESV

Notice how it begins, it begins with God blessing humanity, in order that they might fulfill God’s mandate.

Our society views having children at best as a burden and at worse as immoral. Many refuse to have child today out of fear; they fear “overpopulation”.

“Sustainability” is the new standard of virtue. The idea is that the earth has limited resources and if we use them up, “the planet is going to die”.

The problem with this type of thinking is they do not take into account God and His promise to bless us. The psalmist writes:

Psalm 34:8–10 ESV

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Obeying God’s Creation Mandate is a step of faith. The world says being fruitful and multiplying will impoverish us, God says it will enrich us:

Psalm 127:3–5 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

To celebrate Mother’s Day is to celebrate children. Without children, there would be no mothers. Every one of us had a mother and every one of us was once a child. Do you realize how counter-cultural Mother’s Day has become? Be a rebel with a cause!

· Honor God as our Creator by honoring motherhood.

· Honor God’s Creation Mandate by honoring motherhood.

· Honor God’s promises by honoring motherhood.

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