This is Pastor Phil Layden from Gold Country Baptist Church and I have in front of me an article from September the 24th from WND.com. The title of the article is Spank a Kid, Get Hard Time. State Adopts Definition that Pain is Physical Injury. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who by the way is the son of Vice President Joe Biden, says it's paramount, the article says, to keep children safe, but a new law he spearheaded will prevent, under threat of jail time, parents from giving junior a swat on the bottom hard enough to help them remember it's not a good thing to poke a spoon handle into an electric outlet. That's because, the article says, Biden's new law, signed by Democrat Delaware Governor Jack Markell, September the 12th, defines any pain, even from a loving swat, as physical injury and threatens parents with up to two years in jail for disciplining their children. It goes on to say, by defining physical injury to include any pain a child reports feeling, spanking has become a crime in Delaware punishable by imprisonment. This is being fought by the HSLDA, their legal defense team. I bring this up because this past Sunday I preached a message defending and defining biblical loving discipline, and I want to play the introduction to that for you now. But we're going to see more and more of these sort of things in the media. And the clip that I want to play for you here, I'm talking about another article about the Presbyterian Church USA a little bit before this. where they are calling upon all of their churches, this is a liberal denomination, calling upon their churches to have a ban on spanking in all 50 states. Let's go to that clip right now. And by the way, to listen to the rest of this message, to learn more about our church, you can go to sermonaudio.com forward slash GCBC. Marks of a godly family that we'll be looking at today as we've been looking at a number of these is loving discipline. And this is one that I don't have to tell you has been something that our world. In our world, there's many voices who would be against loving discipline as the word of God would define it. In fact, something that caught my attention on the Sermon Audio News page a few weeks ago was this headline. Presbyterian Church USA passes resolution against spanking children. 220th General Assembly passed a resolution against using corporal punishment on children. Many Christians believe corporal punishment is a biblical practice. Proverbs 13.24 says, whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Still others believe, and they quote someone from this assembly of churches that says, quote, let us love them and not hit them, said Commissioner Susan Mara of New Hope Presbytery. Did you catch those two quotes and how they put them back to back? Susan defends their anti-spanking vote by saying let us love them. And God's Word, which the article quotes right before that, says a parent who loves their children is careful to discipline them. And that verse mentions the rod, which is the Hebrew term for corporal punishment or discipline. And the Old Testament context is clear that it is careful and loving discipline. And so we have Susan versus scripture, versus psychologists, versus secular studies. If you don't know, the PCUSA is the liberal wing of Presbyterians in the USA. There's a number of other conservative groups, PCA, OPC and others, but in some areas the PCUSA is actually more liberal than the USA's government or even some of the laws here in California. This is what their actual resolution, line two, calls for. Quote, calls upon all states to enact licensing laws prohibiting corporal punishment. You may remember California tried unsuccessfully to do that a while back to make a law banning spanking a few years ago in this liberal state, but this Church calls for a national ban on spanking, which studies still indicate 80% or more of even liberal Americans practice or have practiced spanking. The article goes on to say, a study published online by the journal Pediatrics in July of 2012 suggests there is a link between the harsh physical punishment of a child and mental disorders. Harsh physical punishment was defined by being at least sometimes physically punished through pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, or hitting. And then the article says, these punishments are generally considered more extreme than the conventional use of paddling. And I would add to that, current law and God's law both forbid abuse. So what's interesting about that statement there in that article is the study that they used to support anti-spanking initiatives, their study was focusing on punishments other than spanking, as it very clearly said. in that statement, things they call, quote, harsh, more extreme than paddling. And I've read all kinds of articles like that. You have to read a big sack of them if you want to adopt nowadays. And these studies never are covering non-harsh, non-abusive, non-angry, loving corporal discipline as the Bible would define it. In fact, a study not too long ago from UC Berkeley's research psychologist addressed the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association Association of San Francisco said this, quote, we found no evidence for unique detrimental effects of normative physical punishment. And this psychologist says, I'm not an advocate of spanking, but a blanket injunction against its use is not warranted by the evidence. And then she says this, what really matters is the child-rearing context. When parents are loving and firm and communicate well with the child, the children are exceptionally competent and well-adjusted. And that's coming from a very liberal psychologist who isn't pro-spanking, and one of the most liberal parts of this country. The article's title is, UC Berkeley Study Finds No Lasting Harm Among Adolescents from Moderate Spanking Early in Childhood. But the PCUSA, and this is, just read a little bit more and then we'll get to our study here. The General Assembly also affirmed and expanded the PCUSA's support of abortion. There was someone that same evening who wanted their health plan to only fund abortions if a mom's life was in danger, but not the majority of the Presbyterian Church USA. So if you didn't catch that, they didn't vote to end some abortion, but they did vote to end all spanking. So my cliff notes to the assembly are, no loving correction of kids, but if you don't love ones in the womb, you can kill them. Everyone see how messed up our culture is becoming. Discipline them after birth? No. Death penalty pre-birth? Yes, for those who have done nothing wrong. Let's make sure what scripture says is against the law, and let's ignore the law of God that treats killing the unborn as murder, Exodus 21, 22 through 23. No more corporal punishment if kids are guilty of rebellion and defiance, but capital punishment is okay on innocent, unborn kids. Educating children, as Scripture says? Nah. Executing babies? Sure. I mean, can you even fathom? This is not something you can make up. This is where our world is, even many who would be sitting in churches today, over two million of them, at least the majority of that denomination. The PCUSA did pass a resolution on protecting the environment of the planet. but did not pass a resolution to protect the unborn in the more fragile environment in the womb. And this, to me, sounds very much like Romans 1.25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator. That's where our world is. And I want us to see the truth of God today in Ephesians chapter 6. Verse 4, in exchange for the lies of the world and so-called churches that no longer preach the gospel.