“ Every Christian Parent must hear this!! ”
In support of this sermon I append a chapter of a handbook that I compiled for the Christian Watch organisation in the United Kingdom. Chapter Four
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
You might wonder why this subject has been brought up. I shall answer thus. The current slide into apostasy and Babylonish, Romeward ecumenism of the church in Britain and indeed in staunchly free Christian nations - along with the decline in moral social rectitude and government in such nations - is simply commensurate with the spiritual decline.
The spiritual decline is purely because Christian parents have abdicated their responsibility of training their children in the ways of the Lord, and the churches have turned their backs on the holy scriptures and tickle the ears of the wayward congregations with words that they wish to hear.
Harsh words, you might say - but look at the Sunday school system. It is noble in idea but it has caused many a parent to absolve themselves of responsibility in training their children. They now can blame someone else when their children go astray.
Let us simply look at what the Lord God says on these issues.
Deuteronomy 6:1-7 'Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded them to teach you, that ye might do them in the land wither ye go to possess it:
That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.'
So, we are all to teach our children the laws and the word of God. In fact it is not a 'maybe you could do this' but a command resting in the word 'shalt'. As if to emphasise this the word goes on to tell us how to teach them - not five minutes a day, not in Sunday school, not in the corrupt RE of the education system - by 'thou shalt teach them diligently'. The word diligently implies great and thorough effort. An athlete who prepares for an event is diligent in preparation if he/she wants to compete well and even win. The athlete will train sometimes many hours per day, be disciplined in diet and rest and will ensure that the most suitable equipment is procured.
Thus the Lord emphasises the word diligently by saying where and when this teaching should take place - essentially saying that it is to be the major occupation within that family.
There are numerous warnings of what happens when this is neglected and we look at the evidence in the history of Israel with its national collapses when turning away from the Lord.
We can compare that with what we see today in our modern society.
Some more messages, which support this, come from Proverbs. Proverbs contains many words of instruction from father to son. A wayward or foolish son is likened many times to being a grief or calamity to his father and bitterness to her that bore him.
So serious was false teaching taken that Solomon even said Prov 19: 27 'Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from words of knowledge.' Yet today we see Christian parents gladly sending their children to be educated in institutions where vile falsehoods of evolution and humanism are taught and the general school atmosphere being always corrupted by the will of the morally debased who also attend. That children spend more time in this environment than under godly instruction of their parents, is it no wonder that society is so awful today.
Until finally we see Proverbs 22:6 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'
Some words from more modern teachers (articles kindly supplied by a member of Worcester Contact Group- Christian Watch).
"Keep them as much as may be from ill-company, especially of ungodly playfellows. It is one of the greatest dangers for the undoing of children in the world; especially when they are sent to common schools: for there is scarce any of those schools so good, but hath many rude and ungodly ill-taught children in it; that will speak profanely and filthily, and make their ribald and railing speeches a matter of boasting; besides fighting, and gaming, and scorning, and neglecting their lessons; and they will make a scorn of him that will not do as they, if not beat and abuse him. And there is such tinder in nature for these sparks to catch upon, that there are very few children, but when they hear others take God's name in vain, or sing wanton songs, or talk filthy words, or all one another by reproachful names, do quickly imitate them: and when you have watched over them at home as narrowly as you can, they are infected abroad with such beastly vices, as they are hardly ever after cured of.
Therefore let those that are able, either educate their children most at home, or in private and well-ordered schools; and those that cannot do so, must be the more exceeding watchful over them, and charge them to associate with the best; and speak very disgracefully of such ungodly children: and when all is done, it is a great mercy of God, if they be not undone by the force of contagion, notwithstanding your antidotes.
Those therefore that venture their children into the rudest schools and company, and after that to Rome, and other profane or popish countries, to learn the fashions and customs of the world, upon pretence, that else they will be ignorant of the course of the world, and ill-bred, and not like others of their rank, may think of themselves and their own reasoning as well as they please: for my part I had rather make a chimney sweep of my son, (if I had any) than be guilty of doing so much to sell or betray him to the devil."
Richard Baxter "The Christian Directory" (1615-1691)
Of course in his time the worst one could suffer for following Christ was imprisonment, death or destitution. Today our stressful lives include maintaining our facades of being 'well-to-do' gathering items of 'value' such as cars, houses, home-improvements, holidays and our desires to be perceived as 'with-it and modern' parents.
And of course we would do well to turn to C.H Spurgeon whose article Come Ye Children bears two messages well worth repeating here.
" Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that the Sunday-school is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let holy grandmothers and gracious mothers, with their husbands, see to it that their own boys and girls are well taught in the Book of the Lord. Where there are no such Christian parents it is well and wisely done for godly people to intervene."
And
"Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship; but dream not that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord. Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple."
Let not your hearts be swayed by what the majority do, remember what we read in the words of J.C Ryle. It is a fact that the majority will be wrong. 12 spies were sent into the promised land. In their reports the majority were completely wrong - and Israel hearkened unto them and were thus sentenced to forty years in the wilderness.
Elijah - one against all the priests of Baal. Who did God show to be correct - he who worshipped and trusted in the one and only living God.
The majority today rush for modern interpretations of the scriptures which water down or even, subvert the word of God - and we see a church in massive and rapid decline.
Never trust the decision of the majority if their faith is not founded on the solid foundations of scriptures.
__________oooOOOooo_________ |
2/27/04 2:49 PM
