Ephesians 6:1-4

you have your Bibles. Turn with me or you can

look upon the screen. Ephesians chapter number

six,

verse number one. If you can believe this, we

've actually come to the last chapter in Ephes

ians.

I don't know how long we've been in Ephesians,

but we've been here for a while and we've got

a little ways to go yet. It's been such a

great epistle. It's so rich with theology and

then

practical wisdom and we've been working our

way through God's ordained design for the

family

since verse 22 of chapter five. Do you

remember Paul started with the wives and then

he moved to

the husbands and we actually spent six sermons

in total covering that ground. And next here

in our

text, we move to the children and the parents.

Now, I'm kind of speeding it up a little. What

I

decided to do was condense this section down

into one sermon versus one to four, Lord

willing for

today. But before we begin, I will repeat the

phrase that I think in plain language summar

izes

all of Paul's writing in the area of Christian

living. And that is the phrase that I often

use,

the gold standard. And we all understand what

that means. And what we have once again before

us

today is the gold standard, biblically

speaking for both children and parents and how

they are to

behave. And also once again, I will start with

this disclaimer. No one will be more convicted

from what I present to you today than me. No

one as the God ordained spiritual leader of my

household

when when we were raising our children,

Christian, I can I have no problem telling you

that I fell

woefully short of this gold standard for the

family from the word of God on a regular basis

.

Oh, that I could go back with what I know now.

Things would be very different.

But I also think that if all parents are

honest, all parents, once their children

become adults,

most likely feel exactly the same way. And it

's not just because of the experience that

you gain over the years, you only get one

trial run at being a parent, right?

And just not because of the experience alone,

you obviously feel when you get to the end

that you

could go back and do a better job, but

particularly for Christians. It's your growth

spiritually

over the years, not only your increase in

spiritual knowledge, but also your growth

in sanctification over the years that really

convicts you when you look back at the job

that

you did and comparing with what we're going to

hear today. So parents, most of you in here,

all of you, I would say that our parents with

adult children get ready to be uncomfortable

today. And so we'll begin with chapter six and

verse one through four. I say that all the

time,

don't I? I mean, that's why we stay so small.

Let's read together our text for today.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for

this is right. Honor your father and mother,

which is the first commandment with a promise,

so that it may be well with you and that you

may

live long on the earth. Fathers, do not

provoke your children to anger, but bring them

up in the

discipline and instruction of the Lord." Now,

those verses are very succinct in their

content,

but at the same time, as often it happens in

the Word of God, they really cover everything

with this subject. And there are a lot of

places that you and I can go to get really bad

advice

about how to lead a family. But I submit to

you again that the best advice, the best

design and

instruction that exists for the family is

again right here in Ephesians chapter five and

six.

We all already know that for quite some time

in our culture, the family has been under

assault,

horrific assault. Man are labeled as having a

toxic masculinity and either we, as men, are

viewed

as a toxic patriarchy that has this

destructive impact upon society or so often in

our movies and

TV shows, the weak, shallow, doofus dad that

you see that nobody respects and is constantly

made fun

of in our movies and television shows. And of

course, that's on purpose in the framework of

this

continuous assault upon the family. And then

there's leftist feminism rooted, of course,

and Marxism has all leftist ideology is and it

cast women, all women as abused targets

of toxic masculinity and men are the oppress

ors of women and all the women are oppressed in

that

system. And we are as men are all holding

women back from their true fulfillment of

being the

girl boss in the corporate world. And because

we keep all the women barefoot and pregnant at

the

house. And of course, old slewfoot is always

at work in the unseen realm, influencing our

entertainment and these examples and a whole

lot of other examples that I could give you

here in

this in this relentless assault that is taking

place against the traditional family in our

society.

Today, it's commonly held. Nobody needs to get

married unless they want to be. I mean, you

can

live together. You can just be single without

any regard whatsoever for God's clear prohib

ition

against sex outside of marriage is clear

teaching that he wants young men and women to

be married

and not to live together. And a woman finds

herself pregnant today. The majority report

married or not. And the child is viewed as an

intrusion or hindrance to her personal freedom

.

Will just kill the baby. Just snuff out its

life in the womb. The overturning of Roe

versus Wade.

As you know, turn the issue of baby murder

back to the states and in 10 states,

including the District of Columbia, right now,

a woman can legally murder her baby right up

to the moment of natural birth. Now, all

abortion, when you really think of what takes

place in an

abortion, which they don't like to think about

on the other side over there at all, is just

absolutely

barbaric, right? And especially trying to

think about up to the moment of birth and in

our state,

while performing an abortion now is illegal,

which is great, except in the case where the

life of the mother is at risk. That's the law

in Louisiana. That law does not include

killing a mother killing her baby with an

abortion pill at home. That is not part of the

law. That

is legal. And as a result, that has made more

abortions occurring now in our state, in the

bathrooms and living rooms or wherever in the

home of women who are killing their baby more

than ever before. So you see the problem now

there, right? But in this morally upside down

society, while the the pro-choice crowd

actually views our pro-life position as being

immoral,

they say our position is immoral for pro-life.

If I were to set up and advertise a puppy

abortion

meal in this building right here on Hooper

Road, the leftist would be lined up outside to

riot

my place of business here in this building. No

question. So all of this, as well as other

issues,

like what children are being indoctrinated

into in our public school systems and

universities and

the whole demonic realm of transgenderism and

its continual desire to deceive our children,

make it clear that really and truly the only

real hope for the family in our society here

in America

is to return to the Word of God and His design

for this relationship between children and

parents.

Psalm 127 verse 3 says this, "Behold, children

are a gift from the Lord."

In Mark 10 you may remember when the disciples

were rebuking people who were trying to bring

their

children to Jesus. It says in verse 14, "But

when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said

to them,

'Permit the children to come to me. Do not h

inder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to

such

as these.'" So I quote those verses because

that's where we have to start. We have to

start in with

how God views children. They are gifts from

Him and parents are given this tremendous

responsibility

to be good stewards of God's gift that

children are. That's why it says toward the

end of verse

four here in our text, look at it at the end,

"Bring them up in the discipline and

instruction

of the Lord." So let's look first at the duty

of the children in verse one. Look again with

me,

verse one, "Children obey your parents in the

Lord for this is right." Now the Greek word

for

children here refers to children who are old

enough to understand obedience and acting in

an

obedient way in honor of their parents. Let's

not talk about little babies. There's a

different

Greek word for infants. This is small children

all the way up through teenage time before

they

start their adult life. That's who we're

talking about here. Then they have two

commands. Verse one,

"Obey your parents in the Lord." Verse two, "H

onor, honor your father and mother."

"Obey and honor those two go together." "Obed

ience is an action, honor is an attitude."

And this is a part of God's moral law in the

Ten Commandments. Look into Exodus 20 verse 12

.

"Honor your father and your mother." I mean

this is necessary even for societal stability.

I mean

God is so serious about this that later in the

book of Exodus he prescribes the death penalty

for disobedience to parents. Look with me in

Exodus 20 verses 15 and 17. Disrespect for

parents in

both a physical and verbal way was a capital

offense. Verse 15, "He who strikes his father

or mother

shall surely be put to death." Verse 17, "He

who curses his father or mother shall surely

be put

to death." And that's because God knows that

children like this are a devastation when they

get older to any society. Now the book of Pro

verbs gives us a lot of wisdom in this area.

Look at

Proverbs verse chapter 1 verse 8, "Hear my son

, your father's instruction, and do not forsake

your

mother's teaching." That's a command right

there. Proverbs chapter 4 verses 1 to 2, "Hear

, O sons,

the instruction of a father, and give

attention that you may give understanding."

Verse 2, "For I

give you sound teaching, do not abandon my

instruction." There are many more like that

in the Proverbs and in every one of them the

parent is in the position of commander.

That's the parent's responsibility and the

children are in the position of obedience. Now

as everybody here well knows, that is a very

challenging reality for everyone involved,

both the children and the parents. Luke

chapter 2 verse 52 is always very fascinating

to think about

how it actually worked out with Jesus because

we don't get really any detail and what I'm

talking

about here. Look there in verse 52 of Luke 2,

"And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and st

ature

in favor with God and men." And I want to tell

Luke, can you give me a little more detail

there

buddy on what all that worked right? But we

don't get that just because God only wants you

to know

that right there. But that was without sin,

perfectly righteous as a man, a God man, but

still clear

that he needed to increase in wisdom, increase

in stature, increase in favor with God and men

. Now

I won't go all into all the speculations and

different theories on all of that, but I give

you

that verse to show you that that is a great

guideline right there as four categories in

which

children develop. Think about it, wisdom is

mental, stature is physical, favor with men is

social,

and favor with God is spiritual. Now of course

our children are not like Jesus, the sinless

Son

of God. We have to take on into our homes

these little fallen reprobates that first come

to us

disguised as cute little babies. That's the

disguise, and they have to grow.

They have to grow mentally, physically,

socially, and spiritually, and we have to care

for them

and develop them in all four of those primary

categories. We have to teach them how to think

,

we have to teach them how to work, we have to

teach them how to relate and interact with

other

people, and we have to teach them how to

relate to God. We prepare them and we work

hard to make

a place for them in this world, in this

instruction that we give in this area. This is

our responsibility

with these good gifts from God that children

are, and as Christians we have a

responsibility to our

children to see them for exactly what they are

, just like us. Naturally simple, in need of

the

gospel, as well as in need of the kind of

development that biblical parenting is

designed by God right

here in these verses to provide. Parents have

a responsibility to teach their children to be

obedient. Look at Colossians 3 verse 20 says

this, "Children, be obedient to your parents

in all things, for this is well pleasing to

the Lord." Now to be obedient, that's what we

call a

present imperative. What that means is this,

keep on doing this, keep on obeying. The hard

part is

it's the parent's job to teach the children to

listen and not only to listen but to submit

to what you say, and that's not easy because

they are all naturally wired as a result of

the fall,

natural condition to do what? The opposite of

listening and submitting to what we say, just

as we were when we were children to varying

degrees and levels. It's really a whole lot

easier

to just let the kids run wild, and

unfortunately that's what a lot of parents,

especially here in

our day, do, and the results later are the

results of the adults that we see in our

society that now

today are causing so much trouble. But most of

all, why? Why do we do this? We'll go back to

Ephesians

6-1. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord,

for this is right." Do you know that that's

the best

answer that you can ever give your child or

your grandchild when your child says, or your

grandchild

says for most of us in here, why do I have to

do that? Why do I have to do this? Because it

's right,

huh? In every case, it's either right or it's

wrong, full stop. Pretty simple. When you do

that,

you are teaching them that there are absolutes

in this world. You don't need to give a

philosophical defense of any behavior that you

require if it's consistent with the word of

God. Let the liberals and the leftists give

all those reasons. And having your children

obey those

things is consistent with the word of God.

Most of our culture, as you well know, doesn't

believe

in absolutes. And that's what's being fed to

our kids continuously in media, online, public

school

system, universities all across our country.

What are they teaching? You can believe

anything you

want. You can believe any religion you want.

You don't even have to believe in God. It

doesn't

matter. That is your truth and you're entitled

to it. You can define right and wrong in a way

that

you want to. And that's how you get so many

people now in our day who say, hey, Christians

,

if you oppose homosexual marriage, transgender

ism and the murder of the unborn, you're imm

oral.

It's immoral to think that way, those thoughts

and those positions that you have. To say that

,

they say that because why? They have created

their own definition of what morality is.

And it's not according to what the word of God

says. When people come at me, let's say, look,

I'm not judging you. I don't have any right to

judge you. I'm giving you what the word of God

says.

God is judging you from his word. I'm simply

telling you that I believe this book is his

word

and I'm simply telling you what he says. You

say to your kid, you're doing this

because it's right. God said this is right

because God is the one who defines morality

and because God is the one who decides what is

right and wrong and not you and not me.

Psalm 119.75 says this, I know, oh, Lord, that

your judgments are what? Righteous.

Why are they righteous? They're righteous

because they come from him

because he is perfectly righteous. So children

are to obey righteous commands from God that

are passed on through their parents. Now, is

there ever a time when they are not to obey

their parents?

Well, sure. Can you imagine? I never thought

about this until I did this study. Can you

imagine,

especially in the early church days, how many

Jewish children were absolutely forbidden by

their

parents to believe in Jesus as the church was

getting started? Just forbidden. Even if they

saw him do miracles, it still happens today.

How about Muslim children? Absolutely

forbidden

to believe in Christ according to Scripture

alone by their parents.

That's where the break has to come in

obedience, right? In fact, Jesus said in

Matthew 10.37,

"He who loves father or mother more than me is

not worthy of me." At what point do you make

the

break when your father and mother forbid you

to do what God commands, when your father and

mother

forbid you to come to Christ on his terms of

repentance and faith? Notice again, verse one,

children obey your parents in the Lord.

Children who obey their parents in the Lord

because

they are in the Lord. Just like with the

government, children are not to obey parents

when they are

directly defying the commandments of Scripture

. And then look at verse two. It starts out,

honor your father and mother. That is the

attitude that corresponds to the act of

obedience. It's

not reluctant. It's not rebellious. It's not

unwilling. It is with honor. The Greek word

actually there can be used of awe and respect.

And then next, look in verse two, Paul says,

"Which is the first commandment with a promise

." This is the fifth of the Ten Commandments.

The

first four, as you know, have to do with our

relationship to God. The last six have to do

with our relationship to each other. And this

fifth one is unique because he says,

"It's the first one with a promise." And what

's the promise? Look next in verse three,

"So that it may be well with you children, and

that you may live long on the earth."

Look, this is in the Ten Commandments that God

wrote in stone on Mount Sinai. So do you think

that God is serious about this? Of course,

this obedience is not natural. As I said, all

people

are born reprobates, rebellious towards God

with a fallen nature. So how do we then get

these little

reprobates to honor their father and their

mother? Well, that's the hard part. You have

to develop

that. Look at Proverbs three, verse 11 and 12.

It says, "My son, do not reject the discipline

of the Lord, or loathe his reproof, for whom

the Lord loves, he reproves, even as a father

corrects the son in whom he delights." Now,

big picture, that verse there for all

believers,

when we get out of line in the Christian life,

God disciplines us. He reproves us,

and he does it, listen carefully, not out of

wrath against us, because Jesus took upon

himself

every ounce of wrath that we deserve as a

substitute on the cross. So keep your thinking

straight. No, when God disciplines believers,

it's not because of wrath, it's because he

loves us.

That's what this verse says. Just like the

same reason for why we discipline our kids,

because we love them. The proper motive for

discipline is love, because you want what's

best for them. And what's best for them is to

act right, according to God's word, just like

for us

as Christians. God knows what's best for me

and you, Christian. He knows what's best for

us

is when we are living life at a spiritually

high level. He knows that what is best for us

is when

we are walking after the Spirit, in the Spirit

, and not after the flesh. And when we are not

living

that way, and we get out of line with that, he

knows that is not what is best for us in the

Christian

life. And because he loves us, he wants what's

best for us and he disciplines us. We're going

to read that later. They were getting so out

of line in the church at Corinth, we read at

every

Lord's Supper that the Bible was clear.

Because of your craziness in the Lord's Supper

and how

you're acting so disobediently, many of you

are sick. That's the chastening. They were

physically

ill and some of you died. He just took you

right out. Just took you right out because you

couldn't

handle it. You just couldn't handle it anymore

. Proverbs 10, 13 gets real specific. "On the

lips

of the discerning wisdom is found, but a rod

is for the back of him who lacks understanding

."

What is that? Corporal punishment. And back is

literally the backside. Now,

just as an aside, that needs to be rightly

done. You never whip a kid in anger,

in the heat of the moment, and just jerk them

up and whip them. No, you have to be wise

about how

you do it if you want the best result of the

pain that the whipping calls for. Take them to

the side,

explain to them, this is what you did. This is

why you're getting this punishment of the

whipping.

We used to use the wood spoon, the flat wood

spoon. And there was a saying, my kids will

tell you

right now, they remember today, wood to skin.

Wood to skin. If I said, hey, there's going to

be some

wood to skin here, if you all don't settle

down. Hey, they knew. Shoe, shoe works.

Anything that can

be used on the backside. But kids need weapons

. They do. That's exactly what this means. They

need

weapons. Looking at, I love Proverbs 19, 18.

Look what it says. Discipline your son while

there is

still hope, while there is hope, and do not

desire his death. So there's a choice.

You can discipline your son or desire his

death. If you don't discipline your son,

I'm telling you he is headed for disaster as

an adult and eventually death, of course.

While there is still hope, wow, what a phrase.

You know what that means?

That refers to the short window of time that

you have with that child. I think back to my

children's

kindergarten to 12th grade now. And it just

went by in a flash. You don't get them for

very long.

But the reason for this discipline is Proverbs

22, 15.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a

child. Now, we have to admit sometimes that

foolishness

is funny, right? And we laugh. I'm telling you

, there's a never-ending source of comedy and

entertainment at my home when my grandchildren

are at my home. And we laugh because it is

funny.

But sometimes it's not, right? And that's why

it says next in this verse,

the rod of discipline will remove it far from

him, that foolishness. It'll get that foolish

ness out.

But let's be real. For most of us, I would,

dare I say, all of us in this room who have

had

children, that time period has passed for us.

I mean, we've all, all of our children have

run

into adulthood. But what you can do with the

information you're getting today

is pass down the biblical reality for your

kids who have kids, your grandkids or friends

of yours

who have kids, that the rod, the rod will

remove that natural foolishness from a child.

That's God's

word. That's God's instruction. They need to

associate pain with misbehavior. That's God's

way.

I'm not making this up. This is what the word

of God is saying over and over. Look at Pro

verbs 23,

13. This is the one I really like. I wasn't

referring to that one. This is the one I

really like.

So do not hold back discipline from the child.

Although you strike him with the rod, he will

not die. This is for weak parents who are

worried about being too vis, physically

violent with their

kid. They bought into this therapist,

therapeutic leftist mode. Oh, let's go talk

about your feelings,

little Johnny, instead of getting a weapon,

which is what you need, right? God's word says

, spank him.

That's what it says. They won't die from it

when you spank him. If you do it rightly, you

know,

it's best on the backside. Plenty of cushion

there, right? For that and a spoon or whatever

shoe.

Because look next. Look next in verse 14 and

then it gets real serious.

You shall strike him with the rod and rescue

his soul from shield. Wow. That's hell.

That's serious, right? If you don't use the

rod to discipline your child. Proverbs 29, 15.

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child

who gets his own way brings shame to his

mother.

Are you getting what the Bible is putting down

here? You don't give their kids their own way.

You

spank them when they get out of line. Verse 17

, correct your son and he will give you comfort

.

He will also delight your soul. This is a

simple principle. So how, how do you train a

child to

obey and honor with discipline? By telling

them what's right and training them with

discipline

to conform to what is right, both in action

and in attitude. Now, why do you do this?

Again,

back to Ephesians 6, 3. So that it may be well

with you, meaning them, the children in the

context

when you read the whole thing there, because

it's talking about honor your father and

mother,

so that it may be well with you when you do

that. And living long on the earth. Now,

let me remind you, this is a general principle

here, okay? This is not an absolute reality in

every single case, but it is indeed a general

principle. Children who have been biblically

raised,

who have been biblically disciplined, who

become godly adults will be living a blessed

life,

and it will be well with them. That's the

quality part. And then also a long life, the

Bible says

here. That's the quantity. And what do we want

? I mean, we all want this for our children,

right?

Full, rich, joyous, happy, peaceful, rewarding

lives. And the key to that, this text is

saying,

is to discipline the children with obedience,

discipline them to obedience and honor

when they're young. And then next, the how-to.

Verse four, fathers, do not provoke your

children to

anger, but bring them up in the discipline and

instruction of the Lord. That's the duty of

the

parents. Children are to be raised primarily

with two things. It's pretty simple, truth and

discipline.

The Greek word there for fathers, peter, can

also be translated parents. It can also mean

parents. So really, its parents do not provoke

your children to anger. Don't make them angry,

mad

in the wrong kind of way. That's abuse. Excuse

me, but what does that mean? Don't provoke

them

to anger. Well, first, there were a lot of

angry children during Paul's day, just like

there are

today. For example, there was a Roman law

called patria potestis. And what that meant

was legally,

the father had absolute, total sovereign rule

over the right of life and death of the

children.

He could sell them into slavery if he wanted

to legally. He could force them to work in the

fields

legally. Excuse me, he could punish them any

way that he wanted to. And guess what? He

could even

kill his own child legally if he wanted to.

When a baby was born in the Roman world,

the custom was to put the baby at the father's

feet. If he lifted the child up, that meant he

wanted to keep that child. If he turned and

walked away, most times the child was killed

on the spot.

Or unwanted children were also, they just left

them out there in the Roman

form out in the town square. And they became

brutal slaves, prostitutes, just left to the

world.

A philosopher at the time was named Seneca. He

wrote this, "We slaughter a fierce ox,

a mad dog. We plunge the knife into the sick

cattle. Children who are born weakened,

deformed. We drown." That's what they did.

Children were horrifically abused in Roman

culture.

And that's why, again, understand, read these

words that Paul is writing to the church in

this

culture. What he's saying here is absolutely

revolutionary. Now, there are four factors.

I want you, if you're writing this down, this

is a good thing to write down. If you're

writing notes

down, there are four factors in biblical

parenting. And I won't unpack all of this. I'm

just going to

give them to you. Number one, the father's

leading and discipline. He has to be the

spiritual leader

of the household that God calls him to be.

Number two, the mother's love and care and

nurturing

of the children. Number three, very important,

the father and mother's visible affection for

one

another that the children see. And number four

, the closeness of the family. Be surprised.

Now,

the very few things that Christy and I did

right, we made sure, because Christy always is

just a

champion in the homemaking, always come home

from eight hours of work and cook a meal. And

we sat

down together at the table every night and ate

a meal. Very important. How was your day? What

's

going on? Very, so many families don't do that

anymore. And again, I look, I'm not saying

that

you can achieve all that perfectly. Don't get

me wrong. I'm not because there's nothing that

we

do perfectly for that matter. But what I'm

giving you is the gold standard that you are

to strive for.

You understand? And this can be achieved in

the power of the Holy Spirit. Now let's go

back to the

start of verse four. "Fathers, parents, do not

provoke your children to anger." Now, we got a

lot

of angry children in this culture, don't we?

Man, get online. They're angry with their

parents.

They're angry with society. They're angry with

everything, and they don't have it nowhere

near

as hard as the Roman kids did, right? I mean,

not even close. But let's ask this question.

How do you make your child angry? Let me give

you a little list. Number one,

overprotection. Pensing them in too much, conf

ining them to a small little world,

distrusting them, never allowing them any

freedom. Now, there's a fine line which I

often fail that

between freedom and protection, right? You

have to be discerning in how you do this. But

overprotection

becomes a bondage. I know kids who were way

too strictly raised in the moment they got to

get

out of the house. They went hog wild. But on

the other hand, too much freedom can have as

just as

disastrous results and just let them run wild.

Secondly, don't compare them with others like

siblings or friends. Like, why don't you act

like Billy over here? Don't do that. He's a

good boy.

Be like him. That's not good. Thirdly, you can

make them angry with unrealistic expectations.

This is a big one. You can crush a kid under

the weight of your own pride and ambition

because

you want somebody to know you have a road

scholar for a child. And that's really what it

's all about.

Also, you can set standards so high that the

kids feel like they can never attain them. And

that,

right there, can turn into deep bitterness and

feelings of failure and rejection. And there

is

a long history of kids that have committed

suicide over that very issue where the

standards are set

too high. You can cause your child to be angry

by discouragement, constant negative

reinforcement,

no thanks, no rewards, no approval, no honor

whatsoever. That destroys motivation in a kid.

If they feel like they have to earn your love,

I'm telling you that is a disaster in your

home.

We're called to love the kids with grace, same

way God loves us, same exact way, right?

You can make your child angry with selfishness

, failing to sacrifice for them. Let me tell

you,

that's a plague with young parents today. Kids

can become bitter and they feel it. If they

feel

like they're an intrusion upon your life, that

's bitterness comes quick. You can make your

kid

angry through impatient. You have to allow

kids to be a kid at a certain level, right? I

mean,

they're going to break things. Come over to my

house, take a look. They're going to spill

things,

right? They're going to do really dumb things,

right? As their kids. So you have to be

patient

in all of that. There's this line that you

have to work with being patient and discipl

ining and

all the rest. And you can make your children

angry, of course, with neglect. And let me

tell you,

there are some kids that are neglected even

when the parents are physically in the home.

Man, they're not engaged with their children

at all, even though they're physically there.

That's another plague with young parents in

our day. Also, verbal abuse, man. You can

unleash

your mature vocabulary and crush a kid with

sarcasm and ridicule. And you can just

cut them to shreds verbally because you have a

much bigger vocabulary. Lots of ways to do

that.

You know what the answer is? Don't. Don't do

that. And we all know Proverbs 226,

train up a child in the way he should go. Even

when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Again,

that's a general principle, not absolute in

every case, but a good one to follow.

Basically, this is saying this. You train the

child, you get the product. Listen to what

John

MacArthur wrote. "If a child lives with

criticism, he learns to condemn. If a child

lives with hostility,

he learns to fight. If a child lives with

ridicule, he learns to be shy. If a child

lives with shame,

he learns to be guilty. If a child lives with

tolerance, he learns to feel

be patient. If a child lives with

encouragement, he learns to have confidence.

If a child lives

with praise, he learns to appreciate. If a

child lives with fairness, he learns justice.

If a child

lives with security, he learns to trust. And

if a child lives with acceptance and

friendship,

he learns to love. So, this is the challenge.

And it's a big one that all parents have.

Don't make your children angry in these ways

and more. And lastly, let me give you the

positive side.

Look next. But bring them up, verse 4, bring

them up in the discipline and instruction of

the Lord. And there it is again. It keeps

giving us this discipline, instruction, truth,

and discipline.

And also built into instruction is the idea of

warning, verbal instruction with a view to

consequences if you don't obey is built into

this. Now, there's a lot to be said here, but

our time is getting short. So, let me give you

just, just a couple of quick thoughts.

And there's many more to this. I condensed

this because it's just so practical.

Number one, teach your children to fear the

Lord. That's top of the list.

Healthy, biblical, reverential awe. Proverbs 9

-10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning

of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is

understanding." This is huge. Teach them about

God from the Bible. That's why Christie's back

there on Sundays with kids teaching them from

the Catechism, which is truths from the Bible.

Who made you? Who is God? All the rest.

Teach your children the gospel. All the

aspects of the gospel, whatever they are able

to

grasp, give it to them. Even if they can't

grasp it at first, give it to them straight.

Teach them to fear God. Teach them to speak

the truth.

Psalm 58-3, "The wicked are estranged from the

womb. These who speak lies go astray from

birth."

Understand, you have a born liar in your child

. God hates lying. Have you read about how God

feels

about lying in the Bible? And if you're a good

liar, you will commit crime.

I speak from experience on that one. So

children have to be disciplined not to lie. It

's very big.

There's more of it. Hopefully I've given you

enough to give you some practical

help. Again, even though most of us, like I

said, we've already been through this

process. We have grown kids. Some of us have

grandkids and some of you have friends who can

benefit here from the Bible's example for the

gold standard of Christian living for both

children

and parents. But now if you're like me and you

think back to your time when you raised your

kids,

you've been thoroughly convicted by this gold

standard. If you haven't, please come talk to

me. I'd like to hear your story. Okay? I'd be

real interested to hear all about how great

you did.

But for the rest of us, we are convicted and

rightly so. But right now, at this point in

the

service is our chance to sprint to the gospel

in the Lord's Supper. And we run fast, right?

After hearing this, the person in work of

Christ on our behalf symbolized by the bread

in the cup.

Christianity is great. Is there anything

better than being a Christian? No. No, there

is not.

So let's turn over as we always do. There's my

glasses down there. Wait. Okay. How about that

?

Okay. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians.

And again, why do I do this? Well, I said it

earlier. These people were out of order.

So the lady at the museum used to say, people

were acting up in the museum,

you all out of order, she would say. These

Corinthians, some of them were all out of

order.

It got wild there in the Lord's Supper. I mean

, they were just up to all kind of bad stuff.

So look there in 1 Corinthians 11, starting in

verse 27, "Therefore, whoever eats the bread

or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy

manner shall be guilty of the body and the

blood of the

Lord. But a man must examine himself and in so

doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of

the cup,

for he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks

judgment to himself if he does not judge the

body

rightly. For this reason, many among you are

weak and sick and a number sleep." So there's

the

chastening of God, what I talked about earlier

. And so we have come to a place, I hope, now

in

our churches, we've gone through this exercise

together many times, where you're able to put

all this together in one line of thinking, but

delineate the different aspects of why we're

quoting this and what it is that we're doing

here. Number one, we want to indicate the

seriousness

of what it is to obey this command in having

the Lord suffer. Number two, we want to

realize that

we're all battling our flesh every day as

Roman seven flesh-struggling creatures. And so

there's

this need, as I tell you all the time, for a

daily asking of forgiveness, which as I always

tell you

is rooted and grounded in the judicial

positional forgiveness of Christ. All sins

paid for,

all wrath taken. We understand that, but while

we're living, we're sinning. So we're being

honest

with God. We're saying, "Man, this flesh

struggle that you have ordained is tough.

Forgive me."

And this is an opportunity that we take that

moment of silence for you to do that and to

understand that the Lord loves you and that

that's why He chastens you. That's why He did

this here

in the Corinthian church. That's why we do it

with our children because we love them,

because we want them to act right. Well, God

wants us to act right. Why? Because He knows

us what's best for us. As I tell you all the

time, when do you feel your best? It's when

you're

walking in the Spirit and you're reading the

Word and you're doing your Bible study and you

're

fellowshiping with other Christians and you're

going to church and you're worshiping with a

real motive to bring glory to God. And only

you and He knows that. You know that

internally and

He knows you better than you know yourself,

right? And so all of those aspects come into

play and when

we think about this Romans 7 struggle that God

has ordained, not only Romans 8/28 for our

good

and His glory, all things, but also just keep

going into verse 29 in order to be conformed

to the image of Christ is the purpose for this

struggle that we have. So we deal with the

struggle.

We deal with the realities. We don't pretend

as if we walk around floating on seven inches

above

the ground because we're so holy. No, we're

being honest here. This is a war that we're in

with our own flesh, right? In which dwells no

good thing, right? The Apostle Paul said,

but our inner redeemed spirit is always des

iring to do that which is right and good and

there's

the fight. So we're just, we're coming to this

table and we're being honest about that, but

not

only are we doing that with great joy, unspeak

able. Once we do that, then we consider Christ.

Then

we consider that it's not our performance as

Christians that gets us right with God or

keeps

us right with God, but it's Christ's

performance on our behalf. It's all about Him.

It's all about

His glory. It's all about the fact that He

suffered and bled and died and rose on the

third day in

fulfillment of the Scriptures for our

justification to make us right with God, to

keep us right with

God and what glory there is. And the realities

that all we have is Christ. At the end of the

day,

I read that quote from Paul Washer the other

day. At the end of the day, I've come to

realize all I

have is Christ. It's all I have is Christ. And

guess what? He is all that we need, right? Now

,

what we're going to do now, bow your hands and

close your eyes. I want you to consider

all those realities. Man, we are very capable

of keeping all that together in one line of

thought.

And I want you to remember that what our

church confession makes clear is that we

believe

that the only people who are able to come to

the Lord's Supper and partake are those who

have

repented of their sins and placed their saving

faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and been

baptized

as an expression of that faith. We want this

table and want to make clear that this table

is for

believers. Now, we call it an open table, as

if somebody comes in off the street and they

're not

a member of our church, they're certainly

welcome if they're a believer to participate.

But this is

for God's people. And that's what you're

standing up to come down here is saying. It's

saying,

I am a believer. I am in the family of God and

I am participating in this command that Jesus

gave us. So, I want you to take just a few

moments and go to the Lord. Go to the Lord