We read the Word of God this morning in Proverbs 13. A wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Righteous man hateth lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame. Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way, but wickedness overthroweth the sinner. There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke. The light of the righteous rejoiceth, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. Only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard. Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool layeth open his folly. A wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador is health. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, but it is abomination to fools to depart for evil. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil pursueth sinners, but to the righteous good shall be repaid. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Much food is in the tillage of the poor, but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall That's the reading of the Holy Scripture this morning. The text is verse 22a. The first part of verse 22. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. A good man leaveth an inheritance for his children's children. Proverbs is for parenting. Not referring by that statement to that nice little book that includes many Proverbs under certain topics that parents may search out. That book might leave the impression that there are only certain Proverbs for parenting. But what I said this morning is that the book of Proverbs is for parenting. It's the manual that God gives to fathers and mothers with regard to child rearing. One of the recent times that I preached here, I preached from the book of Leviticus and pointed out that the book of Leviticus was the Old Testament catechetical manual. The children in the Old Testament didn't have catechism books like we did. They had the book of Leviticus and they were to memorize that book in order to know doctrine and worship, what they should believe and how they should conduct themselves in worship. The book of Proverbs is a manual for parenting and contains not only the content of the things that the parents ought to teach, but the method by which those things are taught. Not only is there in the book of Proverbs what ought to be taught, but how parents ought to teach also. A number of examples will make that clear. tender and personal. My son, give me your ear. It has commands. Heed my instruction. It gives warnings. Beware. And these are the consequences of disobedience. It contains promises. The book of Proverbs is rich and a manual for parents. It teaches that sometimes the briefest statement, memorable and pithy, a kind of aphorism is appropriate for children. A soft answer turns away wrath. Children ought to memorize those kinds of statements from the book of Proverbs. A man that has friends or wants to have friends must show himself friendly. He that's first in his cause seems just, but his neighbor comes and searches him as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout. So is a fair woman without discretion. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but He that deals truly is His delight. There are all kinds of short, memorable aphorisms in the book of Proverbs. Do you see a man hasty in his words? There's more hope of a fool than of him. How many of those ought our children to memorize word for word? And then there are times where the subject is weighty enough and difficult enough that it requires lengthy discussion, explanation and application. Like the kind of wife that a young man ought to look for, or the kind of woman a young lady ought to aspire to be, which comprises almost the entirety of the last chapter of the book. How many blocks are there in the book of Proverbs that deal with the importance of and the manner of getting wisdom? And when you read the first seven chapters of the book, 51 verses, I counted again last night, 51 verses are devoted to the strong warning to the young man about the strange woman who is going to lure him into her home and into her bedroom. Some, the briefest treatment. Others, lengthy, extended development. Proverbs is comprehensive. Nothing is off limits in this book. Money, sex, friends, eating, laziness, a temper, pride, fighting, spending, drinking, the misery of living with an ungodly woman, the dire consequences of living for fun and pleasure, the call to provide for the poor, and the warning, watch your tongue. If the Bible contains a manual for parenting, this is it. Now in this manual for parenting, there's even instruction, and that's our text, as to how to pass not only on to your children the truth, but on to their children, and says a good man provides not only for his immediate children, but even for their children. A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. We mustn't make the mistake this morning that most commentators make, supposing that this is simply practical advice with regard to the financial future for our generations. It teaches that. That's included there. But it certainly isn't simply the instruction that it would be good for grandparents to save up, perhaps, if they're able, for their grandchildren's college education. It doesn't have anything to do with that. Or maybe have something to pass on to the next generation by way of inheritance when that old man or old woman dies. That's not the teaching of the text here. Understood properly, this is Old Testament put in figure and type that has very, very important instruction for us spiritually in the New Testament. We are to provide for our grandchildren. We are to provide for our grandchildren spiritually. And we don't wait until we have grandchildren before we begin begin providing for their spiritual inheritance. That's the word I call your attention to this morning. Verse 22a of chapter 13, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. First of all, there are principles in the text. Then there's the practice that we must be engaged in. And then there is a perspective that we need to take. And all three, I trust I'll show you, come from the text itself. There are three principles in the text that lay the groundwork for the practice that we are to engage in. The first principle is that God is a God who saves in generations. God is a God who gives the blessings of salvation by way of covenantal dealings with children's children. God isn't a God that's saved randomly, one here and another there. Although in the mercy of God, sometimes He saves what appears to us randomly. He plucks out of the fire, as it were, a bran. He snatches one from an unbelieving family or generation and brings them into the church, grafting them into this congregation perhaps so that then in their generations they become fruitful. That's a wonder work of God and we ought to be thankful for that. The normal way that God works salvation is in generations. Generations. The other way and thinking that that's the normal way that God deals one at a time here and there with no predictable pattern is Baptistic thinking. But Reformed thinking is Covenantal thinking with regard to generations. Generations. And isn't this congregation an example of that? You look over this congregation and how many children don't you see? And how many grandparents aren't there now that are looking at their children's children and have an interest in that generation to come? That's why we come to love so much the Psalms that speak of these things. Psalm 78 is one of the clearest testimonies of the truth that is found in our text when it says that we're going to open our mouths in parables and utter dark sayings which we have heard because our fathers told us. That's verse 3. And we're not going to hide them from the children showing the generation to come the praises and works of the Lord. And it continues all the way through verse 8. God established a testimony in Jacob. and appointed a law in Israel that He commanded our fathers to make the truth known to our children so that they may tell them to their children and the generations to come may never forget the wonders and works of God. That's why Psalm 89 says what it does, I'll sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth, I will make known thy faithfulness to all generations. And what was the call to worship this morning? But a reference that in the generations to come, there would be a people that are worshiping God. The promise of God is always to believers and their seed. That's the first thing he said to Abraham when he revealed the covenant to Abraham. And then all the way into the beginning of the New Testament when Peter picked that up in his sermon in Acts 2. He said it. For the promise is to you and to your seed after you. And then he qualified it as we need to qualify it. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call from among our children. But this is the way God works. The promise of the covenant and the blessings of salvation are in our generations. Our text says, children's children or sons of sons. Sons of sons. Let's not forget that qualification I just made. with regard to Peter's statement in Acts 2, that doesn't mean that all of the sons of our sons and daughters are heirs of the covenant, actual recipients of the blessings of salvation. Our own painful experience testifies to the contrary. Everyone knows that not every son of every believer is a believer, and every daughter of A believer's believing daughter is a believing daughter. We know that. The Word of God teaches us that. But this is the truth. The way the Lord is often pleased to work when the parents are faithful, the way the Lord is pleased to work often when the parents are faithful is to gather His children from our children. Our children are heirs. Heirs of God. This is the way we put it. Very simply. Kind of Proverbs-like. Pointedly. God the Father makes His promises to them. God the Son, in the flesh, died for them and loved them. God the Holy Spirit sanctifies them and preserves them. And that triune God says that the church of Christ is made up of them. Suffer the little children to come unto me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of them. That's why we have an interest in children. God has an interest in children. That's why we pursue generations to come. We're thinking ahead because God teaches us to think ahead. The second principle in the text is that God uses parents and grandparents to give the generations to come these blessings. The first principle, God saves in generation. The second principle, God is pleased to use instruments, young instruments of parents, to give the blessings to the children. That comes from the text when the Proverbs says, leaves and inheritance. A good man Leaves and inheritance. God doesn't merely pass on the spiritual gifts of Christ automatically. God doesn't pursue His friendship with our children without means. God uses means and instruments. And the means and instruments that He uses are us, parents, and we'll see in a moment too, grandparents. Grandparents. In fact, the text says literally, a good man causes an inheritance to be given to his son's sons. He gives an inheritance to them, but the form of the verb there is that he causes them to receive that inheritance. A strong form of the verb. Now, we can't actually cause our children to receive the spiritual inheritance. We'll come back to that in a moment too. We're painfully aware of that. The older we get, the more we know. We can't enter into their hearts. We'd love to. We want to. We pray that we can. But we're not even called to enter into their hearts. That's the domain of God. We're called to do what we're called to do in teaching them and governing them and disciplining them. And then we commit them to God, realizing that He has the power and only He has the power to penetrate their hearts. And yet, God says, a good man causes his children's children to receive an inheritance. I don't think that's ever shown more clearly in the Old Testament than in the example of the ungodly parents. Now, I don't mean ungodly in the sense of ungodly, basically ungodly, but I mean believing parents who lived in the relationship to their children in an ungodly way. Eli stands as a sad monument to the church of Christ of a godly man who loved the Lord and devoted all his life to the church. but failed badly with regard to his children. God, that history teaches us, is pleased to use means, the means of faithful parents, to pass on to the children the inheritance. And third, the principle in the text is that a good man recognizes this. A good man sees those first two principles and acts accordingly. That's really the whole of the book of Proverbs, isn't it? The Proverbs is about wisdom. And wisdom is the practical application of truth. The putting into effect of reality. Reality is that God is pleased to save in generations. Reality is that God is pleased to use means. And third, Reality is that a good man sees that and does something about it. A good man. It's interesting that the text doesn't say a wise man. Now that man is wise, who lives that way. Passing on to his children and his children's children the truth. He's wise. But wisdom isn't the emphasis of this text. At least not in its particular detail. even though it is in its broadest context. And the text doesn't either say, holy, the holy man. Now the man that passes on to his children the inheritance that he received from his fathers is a holy man and holiness is going to be part of his life. The example that he gives to his children and his grandchildren. But the text doesn't say holy either. It says good. And it doesn't mean good in the moral sense of the word, but good in the very practical sense of the word. Beneficial and useful. This is the way we may paraphrase it. Accurately, the man who is going to be of some use to his children and his grandchildren, understands that he needs to get to work to pass on an inheritance to them. You ever hear somebody say about another, he was a good man? When he's gone, probably at his funeral, perhaps. That was a good man. You ever hear children talk about their parents that way? When the parents are gone, he was a good man. She was a good mother and grandmother. That's not a bad expression. And I pray that someday my descendants will be able to say that even a little bit. The man who has the welfare of his children in mind, their real welfare will leave an inheritance for them. This man understands what's profitable for his children and grandchildren. He's wise. And the opposite of that kind of man is not, first of all, foolish. and is not, first of all, unholy, but the opposite of a man who's good, in the sense of useful and beneficial, is useless. He's not providing for the generation to come. He's probably thinking only of himself. He's selfish. A selfish man doesn't think about the generations to come. The three principles are God deals in generations. Second, God uses means, the means of parents. And third, the man is good who understands that. Now, the practice that's built on that foundation is that the good man, and applied in the text obviously is the woman, But the Old Testament usually emphasizes the man because of his headship and leadership. That doesn't mean that the woman is left out of you at all. So let's think of that that way, even if I say only man. The good man and woman sees to it that their children and their grandchildren receive the inheritance. Now, for Israel, the inheritance was the land. The land. When Israel came into the land of Canaan, after God delivered them from the land of Egypt, brought them through the wilderness, then Joshua, and you may read about this in the book of Joshua and Numbers, Joshua by lot apportioned the whole land of Canaan to each tribe according to size. They didn't have their choice. They didn't say we would like this and they may have that. But God gave to each tribe his possession. And the emphasis needs to be on God gave that to them. God gave this gift to them. It was an inheritance. It wasn't earned. It wasn't deserved. It wasn't worked for. It was simply given to them freely, graciously. And that needs to be the controlling word here for us when we may make application to this too. Our inheritance is given to us freely. The people of Israel must have looked around when they came into that land flowing with milk and honey, and it was all theirs, and said to themselves, What a marvelous place God has given to us. What a beautiful land we have. How rich we are. And look at those nations that need to be driven out by us. We're no more deserving than they are. They're no less deserving than we are. What did they do? What have we done? God is good and is free grace to us. And then that possession that God gave them by inheritance needed to be used, worked. It wasn't to be kept like somebody buys a piece of property today hoping that in 20 years or so the value will increase and maybe then he can sell it and make some money off of it. But he took that piece of possession, the Israelite did, and worked it. Worked it so that it became fruitful, so that he could eat, his children could eat, and The land was developed in such a way that it was improved. It was better. The generation to come had more. And then he even worked that particular piece of land with a view to the whole of the nation of Israel. He wasn't thinking only of his family and his clan, his children and grandchildren, because they were all in this together. They worked the land for The church. And at the heart of that all, and that's what they often forgot, and that brings us to what's important for us, at the heart of it all, is that the land was the land in which God was pleased to dwell with them. That's why God said already to Abraham, I'm going to give you this land, all of it, and in this land, I, God, am going to dwell with you. And then how many generations later, wasn't it, that His descendants came back to possess that land at the heart of which land and at the center of all of the activity of the land was the tabernacle. God dwelling with them. The land meant nothing apart from that tabernacle. The activity and the busyness of that land meant nothing apart from the worship of God and the basis of the sacrifice where they all came together and said, praise to God, our God is good. That's why they sang Psalm 27. Psalter 27, Psalm 16 that we sang, they weren't unaware of this. Already in the Old Testament they knew that God was at the heart of it and the connection between the land and the God that dwelt in the land was inseparable. The Lord is my inheritance. The Lord alone remains the portion of my cup of bliss. The Lord my lot maintains. The lines are fallen unto me in places large and fair, a goodly heritage is mine, marked out with gracious care. The Lord was the inheritance of the people of God. Not even then was it merely a little piece or a big piece of land. And that that inheritance that they received from God needed to be passed on to the next generation. Each family had a father, a head, And that father was responsible to see to it that the next generation received what he received. And when he died, the heirs would receive that land so that five hundred years later, or a thousand years later, the children could say, this is the piece of land that God gave to us. This is our inheritance. But to do that, they had a number of things they had to accomplish in the first place. They needed to know where it was. And so they marked it out with care, according as God marked it out with gracious care. They had boundaries. And they were called landmarks. And that's why in the book of Proverbs that we read this morning, there are warnings repeated. Don't remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set. They're there for a purpose. You need to know where your possession is. You may let some unscrupulous neighbor try to take possession of it. And if you're on the border of the Philistines, you need to know how far your boundary goes. And you especially ought not let some leader, like King Ahab, Say, I'll exchange your possession for my possession. Give me your inheritance. And you understand then why Naboth said to him what he did. The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. They needed to know where it was. They needed to protect and defend it. And then they needed to instill in that next generation the sense, this is ours. This belongs to us. Not this over against that family. That's not in view here. But this land of Canaan is ours. God gave it to us. And so, the parents had to tell the children. And the grandparents, their grandchildren, were heirs were heirs of the most precious possession a man could ever receive. We have the inheritance. Reminds you, I think, sometimes of the aristocracy, the kind of aristocrats that even came to this land where there's no question in their mind they're going to keep their old money. They're going to keep this Martha's Vineyard kind of possession. It's going to stay in the family. And we're going to do whatever it takes to keep it in the family. In the right way, the church of Christ sees that and says that very same thing about what God gave to us. A possession that must be passed on. The possession that we have is not land but what that land typified. The possession we have is not the fruit of milk and honey, but the fruit of what that land possession produces now spiritually. We have been heirs of the most precious possession that a man ever could receive. And you can't say that with enough emotion. You can't think about that without choking if you think about that properly. We have God. We have God and His Son, Jesus Christ. He's befriended us. He loves us. He takes possession of us. He does us good. He did what it took to give us everything that He has. He gave us His own Son. And you could go on and on about that beautiful truth. We have the most precious possession that anyone ever could have. It's gracious. God didn't give it to us because we earned it. We didn't work for it. We don't deserve it. And you and I need to be thinking about the neighbors. What they don't have. The close neighbors and the far neighbors. And then humble ourselves by saying God is pleased to give it to us. And we're not deserving of it. We have it. We're thankful to God for it. But we must never imagine for an instant that we deserve it. We have that precious possession, people of God, recorded in the Scripture, embodied in the Reformed confessions, defended in a very real way in the Reformed statements of faith. We have that possession preached from the pulpit. Thank God for faithful pastors and your faithful pastor. That's the God-ordained way that this possession comes to us. We're going to see that too in a second. And we have that possession maintained in our homes, by our parents, and in the good Christian schools that God gave to us. We're rich. We're rich. And every time I read about Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg, or whatever the next billionaire is going to be, I say they don't have any idea what it means to be rich. We are rich. We're billionaires. We're multi-multi-multi-billionaires. And we have that possession to give to our children and to our grandchildren. Pass it on, people of God. A good man does that. A good man knows what that possession is. He knows very carefully what the boundaries are. What's the land of the Philistines and the possession of the unbeliever? And what's his land and his possession? Buy the truth and sell it not. Get wisdom. And with that wisdom, get understanding. And that's all the instruction of the book of Proverbs, not only for children, but for parents. Parents, get that wisdom and pass it on to your children. And in that wisdom, get and pass on to your children understanding. Only one reason that the next generation doesn't have the inheritance if they don't have it. And that is that the parents don't have it themselves. They don't know those boundaries. They don't know what God has given them. They're ignorant of these things. Don't let anyone take it from you. No pagan neighbor who comes by war and tries to take it from you. And no unscrupulous leader either who might try to pass off something else to you. than what God gave to you. Like Ahab did to Naboth. He was a leader in the church of Christ. And said to Naboth, there's no reason that you can't. To which we must always respond, God forbid it that I ever give my inheritance, the inheritance of my fathers, to someone else. This is serious business. We need to be very careful to guard what God gave to us in the Holy Scripture and the embodiment of that gift to us in the Reformed creeds. Defend them with our lives. We're serious about that. And then we're going to see to it that the next generation has it all. This is the tool by which the spiritual possession of God's friendship to us comes to us. In the hands of parents and grandparents, in the hands of preachers and elders and deacons, and in the hands of school teachers who stand in the place of parents, these are the instruments that God uses to pass on to the generation. Teach. It comes out in Psalm 78, doesn't it? A beautiful psalm that begins with the verses with which we're familiar and then continues for 40, 50, 60 verses. How far does it go? Recounting the history that the children needed to learn about God's works and ways. We mustn't, ourselves, just think about the generation to come and the father's passing to the children. without realizing that there's something that's to come. History needs to be learned. The possession of God for His people is given by teaching history, Bible history, by parents reading that history in their homes, and school teachers teaching history in the schools, ministers for the first six or seven years of catechism, making sure that the children learn that history. We teach. We teach. And you see, you don't start doing that when you're grandparents. You might be inclined to think that the Word of God in our text is a word to grandparents. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Now, there's a special application to grandparents That we'll see too. But if a man waits until he becomes a grandparent before he sees to it that his grandchildren have something, he's not going to succeed. You begin when you're parents. When your first child is born and even before that child is born, you realize that if the Lord tarries, that little baby is going to grow up and marry and have children. And you want to provide this little baby yet to be born with the equipment to pass on to His children the spiritual possession that you got from yours. A good man in that way sees to it that his grandchildren has and inheritance. You do that by telling them early on, you are an heir of God. The children of the church are heirs. Now, there's a careful way that that needs to be done with the important qualifications that we pointed out from Peter's sermon in Acts 2. Those qualifications now aside, we say to the children of the church, you're heirs. We don't do as the Armenians do and say, we don't know if you're an heir. You have to make a decision to make yourself an heir. We don't do as the Amish do, trusting statistics that only 10% of the children leave if you just leave them alone and do nothing. They'll come back, allowing them at age 16 perhaps to live the kind of life that they want. Watch what they do and trust that they'll come back. That's not the way of the Lord for us. We tell them, you're an heir. Now, you must embrace the promises. You need to receive Jesus Christ by faith. You need to obey His commandments. You need to live like an heir. But how good is God to us in the land? That's the word that we teach to our children. And then we give them the inheritance. We give it to them. There's an important difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament in that regard. It isn't there. In the Old Testament, the man simply had to die. And the paperwork was there that the land was passed on to his children. But the Old Testament type doesn't always match the reality. It's not that easy today. You can't get the spiritual inheritance to your children by visiting the lawyer, signing some document, and having it go into effect automatically the day you die. It doesn't work that way. Give them the inheritance. Teach them the truth. Do that in devotion. Send them to catechism. See to it that there are good Christian schools where the children of the covenant can be trained. Give it to them. And when you do, tell them to be fruitful in it. We have this possession. Not to be stored away in a glass case to be shown our children, this was our success in years past. but to be used, to be fruitful, to bring forth much fruit in their own lives and the lives of their children and for the welfare of the whole covenant community. Be fruitful. Work the land. Don't ever allow the possession to be locked up in a sink. Develop it. Spread it. And by it, bless others. What a beautiful thing we have in the Church of Christ. There is a special application here to grandparents. There are particular instructions to those who have grandchildren. A good man remains a good man even when he sees those grandchildren born and grow up and maybe have their own children if the Lord blesses him with that. Regarding the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. Regarding the church where the truth of the covenant is preserved and protected with regard to the church and the truth. Love the truth with all your heart and love the church. And let your grandchildren see that. Show the children where your heart is. not in money, not in constant work in the house, being obsessed by updates and the rest, not in vacations, not in all kinds of pleasures, but in Christ and the truth and the church. Show your children and grandchildren. Have a good attitude toward the church. Speak well of her. If you're in a breed, a brood of critics, then be a critic of the church. Always let them hear you say, after church, during coffee, this criticism of the minister, elders, seminary, standard-bearer, schools, or whatever it may be. Then that's what they'll be. They won't treasure what is treasured in the church of Christ. Have a good attitude toward the church. There's an old Dutch proverb that I probably can't say it, but it's something like, So sing unto youngen. As the old ones peep little, the young ones sing loud. You criticize a little bit, but often your grandchildren are going to magnify that. And that's not what the church of Christ needs. Live in the church. Even when you're retired, Let the time you spend be here. Here. There's no law about how many weeks away a man or a woman may be in the winter. The classes even considered that a decade ago and judged that there's no rule to be made and no discipline to be applied when it's a reasonable amount of time. There's no law there. But this is the law for me. The spiritual principle that I am going to devote myself, not to my comfort, but the law I am going to apply to myself is that I devote myself to the church. I want my children to see that devotion. I want my grandchildren to see that devotion. The church is the most important thing for me in all my life. And I am going to do whatever I need to do, even if I'm very uncomfortable. I am. That's the rule for myself. with a view to the generations to come. The church is to be commended for having the kind of Bible study I think you still have where you don't segregate the young couples from the middle-aged couples from the old couples. You put them all together. There's something strange about it that the young couples don't hear anything from the grandparents and the great-grandparents. Now again, there's no rule there either, but there's something to be commended about the mixing of the congregation so that you young people see your grandparents and hear them speak about the Bible and give you their testimony about what God did for them when they were young and how much they loved the truth. Something to be said about the Church of Christ that has activities, all kinds of activities, for the young and the old. Grandparents, do what you need to do to see to it that your grandchildren inherit the inheritance regarding the schools, You have opportunity to provide for those schools financially. Don't wash your hands of that responsibility when that last tuition check is made. Just get in your mind now early on that there's going to be continued rich support of the schools. Be involved in the government of it. Don't say we're finished. Love the truth. Show your children and your grandchildren. So that when it comes to your funeral, and they're all standing around in the funeral home, maybe with a lull in the visits, 3.30 in the afternoon, grandchildren all took off work. Your children and their spouses are standing here. Your grandchildren are clustered here. What are they talking about? If they think to say something about you, what do they say about you? And I pray to God that I live my life in such a way that they say, it was a good man. She was a good mother. A good grandmother. She loved God. She loved the Lord. She loved the church. And we saw it all the time. That was their life. And then your children go back to school with the only important thing you could have passed on to them. A value of the inheritance that God gave to you. A good man, a good man provides an inheritance. The perspective we take in all this, first, children, honor your grandparents. Respect them. See them. Visit them. Comfort them. Do good to them. Look what they gave you. Maybe grandpa and grandma will even say to you, like Peter said to the beggar at the temple, silver and gold, I have none, but what I have I give to you. Then treasure that statement. Treasure what they gave you. Don't be thinking about your rich grandparents now dying, wondering what you're going to get from them. But honor them and respect them. Grandparents and great-grandparents, even when they become weak and feeble, and almost useless in an earthly sense. And you're embarrassed about them because they're old and feeble and can't think very well and maybe do some foolish things. Respect them. God used them. Second, grandparents, also unlike the Old Testament bequest which was given once, This bequest is given continually. That comes out also in the tense of the verb. Leaving is something that goes on and on and on. Until the day your children and grandchildren visit you for the last time and say to you, Dad, I might not see you again. Until that day when they don't see you again. You are passing on to your children and your grandchildren the inheritance. And last, the perspective is the important difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. As I said earlier, now I come back to the reality that in the Old Testament it was mechanical. It was automatic. It could be done physically. In the New Testament, God needs to be pleased to use you. He might not. We're humbled by that. We weep on account of that. He might not. He might be pleased not to give the possession to one or another. You're only an instrument. You submit to the mercy, to the grace, but especially to the sovereignty of God and whether He's pleased to use you. You're terrified of the reality of Eli and David and even Samuel. Read about them and their relationship to their children. You don't want to be that. And so you're busy praying, pleading with God, use me. Use me. I can't get into their heart. I can't penetrate spiritually. That's the domain of your Holy Spirit. Use me though. Overrule my weaknesses and faults. There are many. Save them, we sometimes pray, in spite of me. In spite of me. That's how sinful we are. That's the kind of bad example we often lead. The perspective we take with regard to this passing on of the inheritance to the generation to come ends there. We commit our children and our grandchildren to God, the sovereign God, the good God, the merciful God, who is pleased. He is. Look. Look at the children. He's pleased. Give the inheritance. blind generations. Be good, parents, grandparents, and trust God. Amen. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, use the efforts that we parents exert. Overrule the faults that we are guilty of. Continue to use the work that we do as grandparents so that when we see our children's children, we may say there is peace upon Israel. Bless us now in this day. Give us a good day. May this word be applied by us all day and in all of the rest of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.