“Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old” (vs22).

Do not despise the gospel of God’s grace which birthed you. Spiritually, we are born of God by the Spirit through the new covenant promise. We are new creations, fathered by God, mothered by the gospel, and we are not to leave this message or let it grow old to us. We read, “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman (the law) but of the free (the gospel). Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised (under the law), Christ will profit you nothing” (Gal 4:21-5:4).

Likewise, we are to honor our natural mother and father, even taking care of widows, so that the gospel is BIFOCAL, meaning that it deals with the spiritual and the physical. He says, “But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God… But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim 5:3-8). Often, a child will think, “What good is my Mother now? I don’t need her”, but we are to honor her in old age and pay her back for serving us in our youth. Do not neglect the gospel or your Mother in her need. Someone said, “No acts of "piety" toward God will make up for impiety towards parents”. This is true. We have spiritual responsibilities to both God and man. Don’t let someone’s age or a familiarity with the gospel produce a neglectful and selfish life. Honor both God and your parents.

Secondly, rejoice the heart of God and godly parents by your obedience (vs23-25). We read, “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice”. Some say, because of sin, that we cannot please God, but this isn’t true. Faith pleases God, believing that what He’s promised, He’s also able to perform: faith relies upon God without any strength that we have to contribute (Rom 4:20-21). Keeping ourselves pure from sexual sins also pleases Him, as we resist the flesh and bring ourselves into submission. We read, “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess 4:1-3).

Pleasing God, eventually, will surely please you! God told Eli, “Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be despised” (1 Sam 2:30). Now, you know that the way of exaltation and eventual joy is doing God’s will from the heart. Do not be ashamed to live for SOMEONE ELSE, for in doing so, you will be rewarded. I saw a picture today on Facebook of a teenager kissing her father on the cheek, and she pleased and delighted him. How do you treat your sons and daughters when they please you? God will do abundantly more than we can ask or think, so long as we come to Him by Christ and continue. Faith will be rewarded, because it crowns Him Lord of all and submits willingly to His glory. The life of faith, despised by the world, is still pleasing to the only One who matters. Do it. Please God, and you invest in your own eternal bliss.

Finally, one great tragedy of spiritual drunkenness is not knowing that you’re destroying yourself and then being unable to keep yourself from such destruction (vs26-35). We read, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: ‘They have struck me, but I was not hurt; they have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?” The drunkard drinks in excess, and he pictures a person who lives for this present world, neglecting Christ for his wife, children, and job. Many things are not wrong, like family and hobbies, but when they are overindulged and given preeminence… when a person becomes ensnared by the world… then he doesn’t see the danger that he is in. He lives for something besides Christ, and loses his soul, because the Father’s love is not in him. We read, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all this is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).