So as you're being seated, as I mentioned just a moment ago, we'll really be focusing upon the 28th verse. Not about the particulars of how one is to be fruitful and multiply. I think that that's best suited in your homes. I think that's best suited for fathers, to your children. But really the emphasis here is the why. That's the question that I primarily want to address here, and that is, How do we glorify God? Well, the first time that we are instructed in Scripture on how to glorify God comes in Genesis 1, verse 28, when God speaks to man, gives instructions to man. So when we ask that question, what is the chief end of man? And the boys and girls answered appropriately and correctly. that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So whenever we begin to ask these questions of how do we do this or why should we do this, the hows and the whys come from and they must come from Scripture. So the first thing that is noted in the Scripture that God says to man and woman And let's make certain that what we're reading here is that God is saying this to both man and woman. Now we'll learn in chapter two that God creates man first and then he creates woman. We'll understand that there are things that God instructs man to do that he's not spoken directly to the woman to do, but let's be clear about this. The context of Genesis chapter 1, 26 through 31, the emphasis is upon what God said to mankind, what he said to them. The pronouns are always important, aren't they? God created man in his own image in verse 27. In the image of God, God created him, male and female. He created Them. Notice the pronoun usage is consistent in the 28th verse. God blessed them. Male and female. He blessed mankind. And He said to them, man and woman. So this isn't God speaking exclusively to man. Man comes back and says, oh, listen to this woman of mine. God has told me some really beautiful things. And we should do these things. No, this is God speaking to them. So they're both hearing God. They're both in fellowship with God. They're both given the instructions from God and what they are to do. So verse 28 tells us the beautiful thing about what God's doing in speaking these things to them, male and female, is it begins with an idea that's going to follow us through the book of Genesis. Many of the things here in chapter 1 are going to follow us through the entirety of the book of Genesis. But this one will show up frequently, especially in the establishment of the nation of Israel, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that is this idea of blessing. God blessed man. And we'll learn throughout the unfolding of the pages of scripture that there is a instruction that God gives that man ought to bless his family, that men ought to bless their households. So we see this in verse 28, God blessed them. So we should receive what's going to come out of verse 28 as God saying, do this. You have full permission, you have full instruction. You have all of my blessing to do this. God blessed them. And He did so by speaking to them, and He did so by instructing them. So notice this, or I should say re-notice this, that what God is saying is He's saying this to them, male and female. and woman, Adam and Eve. It's God directly speaking to them. So God has the authority to say these things. And we've spent 19 weeks building a case that God has the authority to do these things because He is the Creator, because He is the Almighty. because there is none higher than Him. There's nowhere else to look for another God. There's no other God above this Almighty God. And so He comes with us on a 19-week built case that God has the authority to say what He's saying to Adam and Eve. What is this authority? Well, He's the Creator of all things. Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He's the creator of all things. That's as much of a summarized statement as you can find in scripture, that God created everything. He is Lord of everything. He has the supreme and the superior authority over all of His creation. And worth noting here, God is not looking for help. God is not saying, well, I don't know what else to do now that I've done all this. I wonder what man would tell me. God is going to instruct man, and by man here I'm meaning man and woman, male and female, mankind, humanity. He's going to instruct them because they are totally dependent upon Him. Now He's created them as rational beings, beings that have the capacity to think and to consider and to weigh out all of the circumstances of their situation. But nonetheless, God will bless them with very specific instructions. We've previously looked in the 27th verse that man is created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, is in the image of God, God created him. So God has the authority to say what he's about to say in verse 28. He doesn't usurp authority. He doesn't take authority that's not his. He has authority. And he has this authority because of who he is and what he's created. He has created a being in His own image. He's not created man to be God's, to be independent of Him. He's created man in His image that man might glorify Him, that man might worship Him in all that He does. And so that there will be no mistaking, the first thing that God tells them to do that they can glorify Him in is by being fruitful and multiplying. filling the earth. So again, to point you back to a previous message here on the Imago Dei, just to say here that in order to build off of things, we have to come here with some assumed positions. And so if you were not here last week, I would just direct you to our church's website and go find that archived sermon from last Sunday and see at least how how broad and how big and how glorious and beautiful this God created man in His own image. In a summed up way, He's created him a rational being. He's created man to create, to order, to organize, to build, to work, to craft, to cultivate, to plant, to harvest, to socialize, to civilize, and to commune with each other, and to commune with God. And we can say, this, and do all of this for the glory of God. This is man's chief end after all, isn't it? That he would glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Man is made after God's image and in His likeness. So it would be understood that we would see man with the capacity to do a lot of things, but what man cannot do is what only God can do, and that is to create out of nothing everything that is into existence. So again, in the Imago Dei, man being created not in his own image, God's not creating a prototype, He's not creating an experiment, He's creating man, mankind, in his own image. Man is altogether different than all of the other elements of creation. Just as the Almighty God is altogether different than us, man is altogether different than the animal kingdom. Man is altogether different than the birds and the fish the beast of the fields. Man is altogether different than the creeping crawlers who creep upon the earth. Man is altogether different. This would be because he's created in the image of the altogether different being, God. So in this created status that man has placed man in, he's given him some specific instructions. Now we'll handle them in the order in which they come to us in the text. That's how I've decided to journey through this section because otherwise we would spend time here and then a little bit out of chapter 2. And basically what's going to happen when we get to chapter 2 is I'm going to refer back to chapter 1. Here's the framework. Here's the foundation of why God's saying this here and now. But what I want to do today is just look at the first portion of verse 28, and that is the blessing, the first of the blessing that God gives to mankind, and that is to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth. We'll look at subduing it and ruling over the creatures that God has created in the coming weeks. But here today, this morning, let's look at this. God has blessed man to fill the earth. Fill the earth with what? Obviously it is with offspring to be fruitful and to multiply. How can man glorify God? What is the chief end of man again? It's to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. How can man glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Well, one way This is not intended to be an exclusive or an altogether exhaustive sermon on everything that you can do to glorify man, to glorify God, that man can glorify God. It is intended for us to focus upon this one thing this morning, and that is to be fruitful and multiply. Oh boy, you didn't know you were coming to that kind of a sermon today, did you? But indeed you have. Well, first, let's deal with a little bit of language out of verse 28. As you know, I read and study and preach from the New American Standard translation. So let me reread it in the New American Standard, and then let me make note of probably the most glaring difference in various translations that this has. And let's deal then with the controversy that this verse brings forward and then let's get to the chase and let's get to the how does man glorify God by being fruitful and multiplying. So let me read the text again, verse 28. God blessed them, that's man and woman, and he said to them, that's man and woman, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now there's the controversial piece. Your translation may be reading replenish or refill the earth. So let's just deal with the elephant in the room. Again, the contrast, this is not the main point of this morning's message is to bear this out and to bring it out, but let's at least handle it and let's think about it for a moment and then let's move along from it and be happy that the way that all English readers in ages past would hear the word replenish they would hear that word and think, fill. Never in the early days of the translating of the Bible did the English reader think, oh, wait a minute, replenish means to redo or refill. Then you can begin to wonder, and perhaps even in some of your own journeys of life, you've seen this verse as one of those problematic verses of what do we do with and did God create man prior to this? And then he comes along and because that didn't really work out really well. And then we come along and God said, well, let's try it like this. And then he instructs him to replenish the earth as though there were there was a population that had already increased. And and then God dealt with him. But but listen, we're just going to we're going to read this at face value. So for us coming to this as English readers, let's be historically accurate English readers at least. And that is to understand that, get yourself one of those old dictionaries. By old, I mean old. I don't mean when you were in college, old. I don't mean when you were in grade school, old. However, for some of you, that was a long time ago. Well, I'm talking about one of those kind of English dictionaries that none of us were alive when it was published. Get you one of those dictionaries and look up the word replenish. And you'll come to understand that the English reader in that day had no problem with this instruction. And they would have heard the preacher say, replenish the earth. And they'd have said, well, I guess that's our instruction is to fill the earth. They weren't thinking, at least there's no historic record in the English language in the 1600s, in the 1700s, in the 1800s. It's not until we move into the late 1800s and into the 1900s that we begin to have a problem with the English reader. The English reader reads the word replenish, and he always wants to start thinking, why is he questioning his language? because some professor somewhere told him that this is proof of evolution. Well, too bad English readers for centuries didn't think like that, for the evolutionists. The good thing for you is that English readers never had a problem with this word replenish until man began to question God and God's creation. That's all I have to say about that. You've studied this perhaps yourself. You'll understand there is no shortage of information in the world over the word fill and replenish. I'm satisfied with this. To the old English reader who read the word replenish, he's hearing the modern preacher say fill the earth when he heard his preacher say replenish the earth. And so we can talk about that more if you like, and I like to. But for the sake of this morning, I want to get to the question at hand, and how do we glorify God? What is the chief end of man? And so we begin building a worldview that can answer that question, how do we glorify God? We glorify God by obeying Him, by glorifying Him, by obeying His instructions to us, and to enjoy Him forever. in the like. And so let's understand this as we move now over or into the more application piece of the text answering the question, what is the chief end of man here? So let's build this worldview together. God says, so God specifically says to them, this is no longer God just speaking things into existence. This is no longer God speaking to himself. As we saw in verse 26 and 27, this is now God speaking to man, and that man being male and female. God created them for this purpose, to this end, that they might glorify God, being fit and suited to obey him in this instruction, to be fruitful and to multiply. So a couple of quick observations. None of this is original to your preacher. All of this is ancient preacher preaching information. To be fruitful, you have an entire created world that already has the language of reproducing. The plant life reproduces. The animal kind reproduces. The birds of the air reproduce. The creeping crawlers on the earth reproduce. All of life reproduces. And God creates this rational higher created being and he has to be instructed to reproduce. This is quite fascinating and actually quite beautiful as well. Which is telling us that in the natural world, the reproduction is natural. It's instinctively natural. There's something that God is doing here and what He instructs man to do is to be creators of other humans. Creators of others who are created in the image of God. We should understand this at a high level of instruction. This isn't just instinctual, animalistic behavior. This is specific in this instruction. Be fruitful and multiply. Create other image-bearers of God. This is God telling mankind, only you can do this. So you should do this. And you should do this for the glory of God. Be fruitful. and multiply, be fruitful in the sense remembering we're created in the image of God who's behaving fruitful in creation. So God instructs man to practice in his own image, in his own likeness. Which means that this institution of humanity, which will become and we'll learn when we get to the end of chapter Two, that this institution of man and woman being fruitful and multiplying is the institution of marriage. We'll see that there. Here, we should understand this, that there is going to be a blessed product or byproduct of God's instruction to man and woman to be fruitful and multiply. And that blessed creation is children. I just listened in the background of this room. It was the sound of children. As though I instructed that little one to make a little bit of noise. God blessed them, man and woman, and He said to them, be fruitful and multiply. God's instructing man and woman to do something that had never happened in all of creation, that a man and a woman would come together and create another human. That's enough to stop me in my tracks and just say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Man and wife, husband and wife are being instructed. Here's how you glorify God, husband and wife. Be fruitful and multiply. Not just be instinctual in your behavior, in your mannerisms, but very intentionally to be fruitful and to multiply. Now, just as we see the English reader of ages past would read the word replenish the earth as fill the earth, So too must we understand that husbands and wives of ages past, prior to, in everyone's lifetime in this room, this didn't happen in everyone's lifetime, but everyone in this room is living in a time of humanity where never before had man actually participated in the intentional planning or unplanning of their households. To be respectful of the household, I don't want to get into the greater details of this, but do you understand of the wickedness that has crept in to humanity in our lifetime? The idea that man can be the god of his own destiny. It's not new with man, but it has advanced scientifically to perhaps into the most wicked era of all of humanity. Now, I understand we'll have a lot of controversy around this matter. Is it proper? Is it right for man to utilize birth control apparatuses? your preacher needs to say, and the preacher's tipping the fathers off, you know when and how and how about you're going to have these conversations with your children. But know this, what God's instructing man in Genesis 1, verse 28, is to be fruitful and multiply. Rational man hears the instruction of God, And he looks at the garden and he says, there are no other humans here. There are no other image bearers of God here. And we've just been instructed, blessed by God, to be fruitful and to multiply. And so they look at each other and they say, we should obey our God. What has become of us that we think we should stop obeying God now? Well, Let's hear what the Word of God in its broader spectrum has to say about this blessed, fruitful, and multiplying byproduct, this child, this image-bearer of God. Let me just read through and make my way through several scripture verses in relationship to this. In Psalm 127, verses 3 through 5, instructs us that children are a blessing. They're a gift from the Lord. They are a reward from Him. Children are a reward for what? For being fruitful and multiplying. Children are a blessing from God. The psalmist goes on and says and instructs us that these children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The church needs to recapture. And by the way, church, I want you to know, I love the fact that you are as long-suffering and enduring of this practice here, that you love to have the children in the room with you. That's actually the sound of the blessing of God. Now I know, we have a long way to go, don't we? And this morning's message is not how to instruct parents on how to help your children sit quietly while we're in a room together. Parents, you're doing a good job, by the way. Yeah, I know there's times you feel like, oh my goodness, everybody's looking at us. Probably. My guess is every parent in this room has thought that. Oh, everyone's looking and wondering why I'm not doing anything to stop this noise. Well, you've been in and out of the room three or four times already, haven't you? And so now you're beginning to wonder, oh, maybe it'd be better if we didn't come. So you begin to listen to the temptations that the enemy would say. But contrary to what the enemy wants to say, God has said, blessed are you. Blessed. Be blessed. Be encouraged. Listen, you can go to some church houses in this city today and not hear the sound of any child at all. And that by design, by the way, I'll visit with some of my pastor friends. And listen, quite frankly, if you're looking at me 15, 20 years ago, I would be under the same spell as they currently are. And that is that this service is for the adults. And we've got to provide something else for the children so that the children are not a distraction for the adults. Well, who came along and told us that that was the way we ought to do this? I know some might say, listen, Richard, I think there's a pretty good argument for this. But we can have that conversation, and it's a good conversation to have, a good articulated out measure of what is the benefit, what is the blessedness of having children with this? First, it's because God said they're blessed. God's the one who gave children to parents. God's the one who gave children image-bearers of the Almighty God, and God's the one who says they are a blessing from the Lord. So, adults in the room, when you hear children, and sometimes no one's denying the fact that sometimes they're more distraction than other times, but know this, they are a blessing from the Lord. So receive that as a blessing. Don't receive it as a distraction from God. Receive it as a blessing from God. That's going to mean you're going to have to think differently. We're going to have to believe differently and act differently in relationship to this. And then we'll trust parents are doing all of, they're working hard at this. And quite frankly, they've learned a lot along the way of how to do this. Let me say this and then I should move along because that's not the primary point of this message. But parents, you know this, that the best benefit you can be to your children is to bring them into this room with you. When they are disruptive, feel free to remove them. Look them in the eye and say, listen, we're going to go back in there and we're going to try this again. And then you come back in and you try it again. And if it doesn't work out, what do you do? You exit the room with them. You give them a little bit of time. So that's where the rest of us are staying. They're working on it. They're going to hammer this thing out eventually. Mom or dad, and I always love it when dads are the ones who are doing the initiative of this. You get out there and you're not exiting the room so you can let your kids play and be noisy. You're getting their attention and you're bringing them back in so they too can hear the word of God. So a lot more can be said of that and will be said of that and such, but this I want us to make certain we understand this, that children are a blessing from the Lord. How do we know that? Because God told us they are. If God told us they're a blessing, what is the chief end of man but to glorify God? And so we count and we receive children as a blessing from God. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 6 says, children's children are a crown to the aged and parents are the pride of their children. That's such a beautiful statement that is in Proverbs 17 6. Children's children are a crown of the aged. 3 John chapter 1 verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." Now we'll understand that what John's referring to is the converts, those who are followers of God. He's saying he refers to them in a very intimate language as the little children. He could be speaking about a 50-year-old convert. And the apostle John is referring to him as a little child. So the language in which God speaks about the truth and those who are walking the truth, it's spoken of the way in which generations of households would understand that children are. Again, back to Psalm 127. That they're like an arrow in the hand of a warrior. John says, there is no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. He's using the language of Genesis 1.28. Be fruitful and multiply. Produce children. Image bearers of God. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 29. Oh, that their hearts, speaking of children, would be inclined to fear me. Speaking of, in the bigger context, the children of Israel. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me. and to keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their offspring, their children, because they've been fruitful and have multiplied, so that it might go well with the multiplication. Ephesians chapter six, verse four, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them, but rather bring them up in the discipline and the instruction that comes from the Lord. Genesis 1.28, God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Fill the earth with what? Fill the earth with children? More specifically, fill the earth with children as you raise them, as you bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. The Apostle Paul said it in Colossians 3 verse 2 in a similar way when he said, Fathers, do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with what? With children that love God. Fill the earth with what? With children that fear God. Fill them with what? Be fruitful and multiply them with what? Children that are being instructed in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Fill the earth with those who are not discouraged in the home in which they belong to. A great tragedy would be for any child to think, oh, if I could just have any other parents but my parents. That would be, which, by the way, probably every American born in the last 100 years has probably said some kind of a similar phrase at one time or another. Oh, if only so-and-so were my dad. That would be better. If only so-and-so were my mom. Children as much as parents need to understand what God has brought together here, what God has done. So the ownership is upon the parents, no doubt. And dads in particular, raising them up in a manner in which they do not become embittered against God, because your job is not to create them to be haters of God. Your job is to fill the earth with worshipers of God. Your duty is to put such an emphasis upon the glory of God and glorifying God that your children would not be embittered and they would not become discouraged. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 6 through 7 gives us four very specific ways in which a parent can help to get to this end. These commands I give to you, Moses said, in Deuteronomy 6, I give these to you today. They are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk to them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you get up. Proverbs 29, verse 17. Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad. I want to encourage your household to be expectant of God blessing it with children? It is well that you would understand that part of this specific instruction, and we'll know it's specific by the way the rest of the Pentateuch unfolds. The specific instructions that God gives to Moses and Moses gives to the fathers, and fathers are then to pass on to their children, and their children are to pass on to their children. And that is that they would teach them to discipline, that they would teach them to be disciplined children, not running around undisciplined, not running around without control. This will give the parent peace of mind and a glad heart that they look and they say, well, there, that's my son over there. Or, no, that's not my son over there doing that thing that I told him not to do. That's because they, too, have a sin nature, indeed. But this should not and does not take the responsibility off of us as parents to discipline our children. So they will be at peace. You will be you will have peace of mind and your heart will be glad. Mark, Chapter 10, the Lord Jesus himself had a lot to say about children. In this particular encounter in verses 15 and 16 of Mark, Chapter 10, he says, I tell you the truth. Anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God, like a child, will never enter it. Then He, Jesus, He took the children into His arms, and He placed His hands on their heads, and He blessed them. Our Lord and Savior Himself, who was this One who created them, in the first place. And then gave them instructions to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Again, we're not filling the earth with rebels. We're not filling the earth with God-haters. We're filling the earth with worshippers of the Almighty. So, parents, listen to this. Your duty never ends in doing this, by the way. Your chief goal in life is not to just get them out of your home. Your chief end in parenting them is for the glory of God. And what brings glory to God than for you to raise children who glorify God? Your job's not over yet. You've not finished the race. I tell you the truth, Jesus says, unless you come to My Father's kingdom like a child, you will never enter it. And then as He takes those children into His arms, He places His hands on their heads, and He blesses them. He gives instruction to them. He says to them, here is how you glorify Me. Here's how you glorify the Father. So, of Genesis 1, verse 28, we see, first, they're being told to be fruitful and to multiply. And then, secondly, and we'll look at the others in the coming weeks, but secondly, it is to fill the earth. We must answer, we must be satisfied with what that means, what the implications of that are. What kind of image-bearers of God are we filling the earth with? This will become a major focus of the book of Genesis. The covenant of God that he makes with man. We're looking at a covenant right here. God is cutting a covenant with man and God's instructing man, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. You can take that instruction one of two ways. You've done your job by filling the earth with whatever comes of that child. Or you can glorify God and fill the earth with children who worship God. This is God-blessed man to fill the earth with this kind of children. The old Christmas carol, O Holy Night. I went to the Magic Valley Chorale Christmas program last night, like many of you did, and many of you performed in. And I say, blessed be the living God, the sound of the Messiah was heard for nearly two hours last night at the College of Southern Idaho. The music, deep, rich music, isn't it? That's one thing, I don't remember who I was visiting with this morning even, but just thinking, there's one, it was Steve, as soon as I looked at you, I remember, Steve, you remember this conversation we had just an hour ago? You don't have to, I'll test you on what I preached about later, but this idea of the richness, the deep theological richness of the old Christmas hymns. Now, I'm not saying this is a blanket across the board of all Christmas hymns, because there are some of them that I kind of cringe at. But I think, you know what, we're going to sing it anyway. But I don't know. What does that phrase mean? What did that say? What did that mean? But one thing that was of really interest over this last week, I've been reading some of the history behind some of the Christmas carols that we sing. And there's certainly some that I really like and some that I would be, you know, it's OK My Christmas will not be incomplete if we didn't sing that song. But I definitely want us to sing that song. One of those is that hymn, the Christmas hymn, O Holy Night. It's definitely a well-known, it's among the most well-known of the Christmas carols. O Holy Night. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Even the sound of the Christmas carols are fulfilling the blessed instruction that God gave to mankind of birth. Now, this is a miraculous birth. This is an altogether different kind of birth Long lay the world, the hymn goes along, long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. Now obviously the hymn writer is talking about a post-fallen world condition of man. And we'll get there eventually of that. and see that the relationship between God and man is different, but yet none of the instructions are different. So as the hymns of old would go, the appealing to the old richness of this particular hymn, the second verse he goes on and says, a thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees and hear the angels' voices. O night divine, O night when Christ was born. O night divine, O night, O night divine. shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy and grateful God has arise, we with all within let's praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord. His name forever praise we. O holy night, The duty of man is to glorify God. And the first thing that God instructs man to do is to be fruitful and to multiply. Now let's be certain of this before we wrap this up. It is God's to determine how many of these arrows He will place in your arrow bag. Your job is the shaping and the sharpening and the placing of the feathers at the end and the straightening of the shaft. Your job is the placing of that arrow on the string of the bow. And your job is not to wait until they flee from your home, but your job is to actually shoot them into the world and to land as worshipers of the Almighty. singing with the ancients of old, O praise ye the Lord, O holy night when Christ was born. C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia. Those of you who are experts in the Chronicles of Narnia, you'll laugh at me on the inside. Is this Repetee? Somebody said his name, trying to help correct me. What is it? Oh yeah, Repetee. Repetee. You remember when Repetee, when Lewis records these words, he says to them, he's talking about the enemy to come. And Repetee stands up and he instructs them, let them come. All I ask is that the king put me and my people in front. Saints of the living God, have we raised an army that we could say to the king, let the enemy come, but let our children be in the front? I don't think we raise children like this anymore. I don't think we raise children with this mindset anymore. But parents, Would you not heed the Word of the Almighty when He blessed you and He said to you, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth? Whether it's with one offspring or with a dozen offspring or as many in between or more or less than, whatever God would do, would you not be found a craftsman of the Almighty to obey Him to fill the earth? with worshipers who would have the boldness to say to the king, my children are ready. Put my children in front. Saints, I know you understand the seriousness of the day we live in now. This is no reason to pull back and to not be fruitful and multiply. This is a day to spend long hours in the craftsman's shop, shaping an arrow that will go into the world and worship God. This is in high order command of God. Be fruitful and multiply. and fill the earth. Now I know some will say, well listen preacher, you're reading into it too much. It doesn't say fill the earth with worshipers of God. No, we don't disagree. But I have a Pentateuch and I have an Old Testament and I have a New Testament that tells me that's exactly the kinds of children we need to fill the earth with. Children who fear God and worship Him.