could turn to Psalm 145. That's the portion I'll be preaching from today in our 42nd sermon in the Suggested Topics Sermon Series. So we keep moving along. We're gonna be at the end of this section actually next week, and then we have one more section after that. And it's going to be the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. Someone asked for that and I decided to do it. So, that's the end of the list. So what is that, 42 plus one more is 43, and then seven more, that's gonna be 50, 50 in this series. So today it is our 42nd in Christian Living in the Home, and the topic this time is the biblical importance of family worship. Both personal and family worship are sorely neglected in our day. even among churchgoers. In treating this subject then, I want to include, the request was about family worship, but I want to include personal worship with that or private worship. So we need to be serious about our walk with God And today, I want to show you that daily personal and family worship is expected of all people, that it's a basic duty of every human being. It should certainly be done by those that profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ. It's an elementary 101 kind of a matter for us as God's people. So the scripture passage I've chosen is Psalm 145. We'll be looking at many other passages, but here we as God's people sing of how we daily worship God. How it's not just a thing that we do on Sunday, but we daily come before Him with praises. And we come, we're going to see also another passage later, we come before Him, come to hear His Word. So again, Psalm 145. What we sing here, when we sing this psalm, ought to be true of us, that this is what we do. It's not just words, this is what we actually do as God's people. So here are God's word. A praise of David. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. So it's a resolution to do it always, forever. Every day I will bless you. and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. So from verse eight, it begins to talk about all the reasons that we should praise God. It says we will do it, and then it says the reasons that we'll do it. The Lord God is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of your glory and your kingdom and talk of your power. to make known to the sons of men his mighty axe and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name, forever and ever. And may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy and infallible word. Now, I want to begin with the assertion that daily, private, and family worship is the duty of every human being. And of course, I will clarify that when you have a duty, It doesn't mean that there are no times that the duty will be interrupted legitimately. Maybe you are being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and you're not able to set aside your time to come before God. but it is a duty that we have. And so our confession asserts that this is something that is known by the very light of nature. In other words, the daily worship of God is something that we ought to know and do apart from any special revelation of God. He doesn't need to come and tell us. This is something we just ought to know that because of the way things are. We are intelligent creatures. We were given an innate sense of deity. and only deny him by sinful suppression. So I'm not just talking about believers here. I'm talking about everybody needs to worship the living God as a regular daily thing. We know that our eternal creator ought to be worshiped by us as the creature, even though in our fallen sinful condition, we do not, as it says in the scriptures, want to acknowledge him. We don't want to think about God, we want to think about something else, idols or anything else. So we turn away or deny him altogether. But we're suppressing, we're pushing away from what we know to be true. The Westminster Confession speaks of this in chapter 21, paragraph one. It says, quote. You can find that in the back of the Trinity Hymnal if you have the Trinity Hymnal there, but chapter 21, paragraph 1. The light of nature showeth that there is a God who hath lordship and sovereignty over all. So not just any God, but God, he's Lord of all, he's sovereign over all, he's a personal divine being who made everything, who runs everything. is good and doeth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. That is what is known, not only by scripture, but by the very light of nature, by just being created in the image of God. So we're to worship God, and we're to do it only as He commands. And then chapter 21, paragraph six, still in chapter 21, but moving down to paragraph six, goes on to insist that God is to be worshiped everywhere in spirit and in truth, as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself, so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God by his providence called, calleth thereunto. And so it's interesting that the Westminster divines, who are very, very careful not to add or take away from the scriptures and all the things that they put together, would say that the very light of nature calls for this daily. And it's an assertion that I think a lot of people would want to challenge and deny today. But it should not be so because it is a valid one. The point is, again, that we really don't need to be told that we ought to worship the one who made us. That should come as a given matter. Nor should we need to be told that we are not to kill our neighbor in violent murder. You don't have to be told, oh, you really shouldn't do that. It should be known, or to steal, and that we shouldn't need to be told that we're to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Not a day should go by that we do not set aside some time to consider our God, to seek Him, to praise Him, to look to Him for mercy and wisdom. He is our maker. Our lives are completely in His hands. Of course we should worship Him. It only testifies to our sinful fallen condition that we were born speaking lies, that we have to be told these things. And told that we should not worship idols, but should only worship the true God who is sovereign and who rules over all things. As he is revealed to us, I'm not talking about scripture now per se, but in creation and providence. And he is also revealed through special revelation prophecy, which we have access to, but not everyone has access to in the world. Those who are privileged to receive that special revelation, that just adds all the more to the known duty of calling on the Lord daily. The scripture shows us that this assumption is valid. We just read Psalm 145, which is given to us by the Holy Spirit, is given to us as God's people from the Holy Spirit to sing before God. And in it, we declare that we will worship God. multi-generationally with our children. Look at the first seven verses again. I will extol you, my God, O King. I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness." That's a song for each one of us that we would be those who declare the glory of God. The psalm goes on to speak of all the reasons that we ought to worship him, as I mentioned. So verse 8 says, because he is gracious and full of compassion. Verse 9, because he is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. Verse 10 through 12, because we ought to talk about his great power and mighty works. Verse 13, because His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Verse 14, because He upholds us and raises us up when we're low. Verse 15 and 16, because He is the one who provides food and satisfies our desires. Verse 17, because He is righteous in all His ways. Verse 18, because he hears our prayers, is near to those who call on him. Verse 19, because he will answer us and help us. Verse 20, because he preserves those who love him and he destroys the wicked. And so the Psalm ends in verse 21 with the resolution that ought to be the resolution of every human being. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh shall bless his holy name forever and ever. From the very beginning, we see the Lord coming. As we look in the scriptures, we see the Lord revealed in the time of Adam and Eve, coming to walk with them. in the cool of the day to commune with them in the Garden of Eden. Morning and evening are the times later on in scripture when the law is given by Moses that are set aside for the morning and evening sacrifice. And the Jews made it their practice when those sacrifices were being offered to have their prayer times, their hours of prayer or whatever. And I don't mean necessarily that it was a whole hour, but it was the time in the morning and the evening. that they would look to the Lord. You remember Daniel, he kept those times when he was in exile, even though the temple was destroyed and there were no sacrifices going on, he still continued in seeking the Lord. There is abundant testimony that daily morning and evening worship was continued among those who received Christ. These Jews who had regularly prayed morning and evening, when they became believers in the early church, they continued morning and evening seeking the face of God and it went on into the first several centuries and of course in our day it's become something that has been very much disrupted by various things. But why would it not continue for the Christians all the more when now the ultimate sacrifice has been given the Lord Jesus Christ. They did it with their temporal sacrifices that only represented that. Now we come and give thanks to the Lord for what he has done. And not that we have to be tied to certain times as they were under the law, and I don't mean to say that, but that each day we should be God's worshipers. The first command tells us to have no other gods before his face, And when you think about that commandment, what does that suggest? We're taught this in our catechisms. What's the opposite of that? Have no other gods before my face? It means you need to have God. You need to have God as your God, instead of not having other gods as your God. You need to have him as your God. If you're not to have other ones, you're to have him. And if you have him as your God, What does one do if one has a God? He worships that God. And so there, you see, we're to worship the God who made us. Time should be set aside for worship. When He is our God, it means that we worship and serve Him every day in private, in our families. It says in the confession, and more solemnly on the day or days, now it's the first day of the week, that he has sanctified for our holy convocation, our holy gatherings that he has appointed. All the way back, again in the law, you have the weekly meeting in their local community that they were called to have a holy convocation. That later became the synagogue. They didn't really do that very often, but they were supposed to. It was appointed by Moses all the way back in Leviticus. So time should be set aside for that public worship, but also for daily private worship and family worship. If you do not worship Him, then the question would be, how is He your God? What you worship is your God. So if you don't bother to worship Him, how is He your God? Our Lord Jesus shows us that it is his expectation that we worship when he teaches us how to pray, when he taught his disciples how to pray. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. And he gave them the Lord's prayer. What do we find in that prayer? Well, he says in that prayer, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The words this day rather than this week show us that this is not thought to be something that we ask for weekly, but it's something we ask for daily. Give us this day our daily prayers, our daily bread, and forgive us this day for our debts that this day would carry over to that second phrase, you see. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So we seek his face for our provision every day, we ask forgiveness every day. If that part of the prayer belongs to our daily prayers, so does the rest of the prayers in the Lord's Prayer. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the prayer that we not be led into temptation. Those all belong to things that we regularly should bring before God. Not that we're necessarily tied to the words, but those are the kind of things that we bring before Him. Should a day go by that we do not praise our God and thank Him for His mercies, and that we do not plead for the things that are in the supplications that are given to us in the Lord's Prayer? Is there a day that we do not need His help? Is there a day when we have nothing to thank him for? The scripture shows us that even those families who are outside of his covenant, the Gentiles, okay, that they have this duty to worship him. It's interesting that the way the scriptures use the term Gentiles in the Old Testament, of course, you had the people of Israel, the nation of Israel, and Gentiles were the nations, other nations that were not of Israel, of God's people. In the New Testament, though, And Paul says to Ephesians and Corinthians and people like that, he talks about, or Galatians, I can't remember which book it is for sure, but when he says, when you were Gentiles, you did thus and thus and thus. In other words, you used to be Gentiles, but you're not anymore because now you're God's people. So even though we might say, well, we're Gentiles because we're the nations and we're not Jews, in another way, we're not Gentiles, but we're God's covenant people. So anyway, God expects, though, whether we are His people or whether we're Gentiles, not His people, we're still, it's our duty to worship Him. Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah 10, 24 and 25 says, O Lord, correct me, but with justice, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. Pour out your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know you and on the families who do not call on your name. What's one of the big things that the nations will be judged for? That their families do not call in the name of the Lord. Presumably the families of the Lord do call on the name of the Lord. But the ones who are outside do not call on the name of the Lord. Just because they do not have the true God as their God, because they've rejected him, as we all have until God redeems us, does not excuse them from the duty to call upon his name and their families. If you do not acknowledge the bank, to use an illustration, it doesn't exempt you from having to pay your loan. You take out a loan and then you say, oh, well, I don't believe in the bank. I don't acknowledge the bank anymore. You still have just as much duty to pay your loan as you did before you acknowledged the bank, or when you did acknowledge the bank before. You still have just as much duty. If a mother does not acknowledge her baby, it does not exempt her from the duty to feed her baby and to change its diapers, to take care of it. God's fury will be poured out on those families who do not do what every human being ought to do and call upon his name. So you see that every human being ought to worship God daily. Fathers are responsible to see that their families do it. Little children do not have the wherewithal to be able to come and worship the Lord and know what They can't even speak when they're little babies, but the head of the home leads his family as well as the individuals that are of age are able to do that themselves. He has created us and we ought to cheerfully and faithfully worship him. Okay, so that's how it is just from the light of nature, that everyone should do that. And we showed from scripture that it was something that the scripture recognizes as something that should be done by everyone. But now, how much more ought those who have the oracles of God to worship him every day? God has spoken into the world through his son, He has revealed things that could not be known apart from His revelation. We know that there is the great God who created us, His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through the things He's made, but His salvation in Christ Jesus is not seen through the light of nature and the things that He has made. It has to be told to you. It has to be made known by prophecy. God had to make it known in the world. And then it has to be heard or you don't know about it. You don't. It's not something you would expect. But you see, he has spoken into the world ultimately through his son. This is the great blessing that the church has, that we have the oracles of God. We have by oracles. I just simply mean his word. He has spoken. God has said stuff. And we have access to that. If somebody hears that there was an oracle, oh, what was it? They want to go, some guy in a cave, he received an oracle from some kind of divine prophecy. And what is the oracle? We have oracles from Genesis to Revelation. And we should have that kind of interest in the oracles of God. In Romans 2, Paul challenged his fellow Israelites about their hypocrisy. And he said, you guys think that because you have the oracles of God, because you have the word that you're going to be like you're OK, even though you don't do what the oracles say, you don't you don't practice them. Then we got to Romans three. He said, but You know, okay, so all these things I've said to you as God's people, like, are you any better than the others? Like, do you have stuff that they don't have? Romans 3, 1, he says, what advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision, much in every way? Chiefly, what's the main thing? Chiefly, because to them were committed the oracles of God. The church is the depository of God's word. He has committed and given to us his word. We're the custodian of God's word and we're to take it and we're to dispense it and we're to spread it and propagate it and carry it to the nations and proclaim to them the good news that we have heard. God spoke into the world through prophets sent to the people of Israel. They spoke by the Spirit of Christ, which was in them. And at last, he spoke through Christ himself, bringing forth and declaring God's way of salvation through faith in him. Now, if we do not speak those oracles into our own children and within our own household, Then what are we doing? This is God's word. It was a tremendous, precious blessing. It is a tremendous blessing to have God's word. The word was, though, in the Old Testament, speaking in the past tense, it was near to them. He told them that Moses said it's in your heart and it's in your mouth that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever responds to to the oracles of God, Our Lord sent his apostles to proclaim his oracles to the nations. In Ephesians, Paul addresses the Ephesians, who are Greeks, who had never met Christ in person. He says, well, maybe one or two of them, it's possible, they were traveling, they may have seen him in person. But as a people, they had not met Christ when he walked upon the earth. And to these people, these Ephesians, Paul declares, you have heard him. In Ephesians 4.21, he addresses them as those who, if they believe, have, and I quote, heard him, talking about Christ, and have been taught by him. They have been taught by God. Like it says in the scripture that we will be taught of God. God the Son, through the apostles. The apostles bring the word of God, the word of God's Son. So they have God's oracles, his prophetic word, declaring Christ and his salvation to them, and are therefore taught of God. And of course, God works by his spirit so that we receive those oracles with faith. And so that we practice what is said. So if you're a Christian today, you have this great benefit. Paul says, what do you have different than the people over there? You've got the word of God. You've got the oracles of God. They have the revelation of God's true nature and all these things in Providence that they ought to be worshiping God every day. But you've also got the oracles of God. that are given to you. So you have this this extra privilege. God has graciously spoken into this rebellious world. He is saving gospel. And we, the church, have the oracles of God. So this is all the more reason that we ought to worship him every day, both privately and in families. And what is one of the major components of our worship is those who have the oracles of God is the church. It is to spend time in the Word. That's what we do because we have this. Something that they don't have. So we read the Word, we expound the Word, we talk about it. We have a glorious Gospel that brings salvation and that sustains us in hope. We have all kinds of promises about growth and holiness, about daily protection, about a glorious future inheritance. We have instructions about how we're to worship. We are given a book of songs to sing. We have instruction about how to deal with our sin, how to live in harmony with other people, with our God. how to live in this sinful world in a way that would please God, how to serve one another, how to live in our homes. In the New Testament, most of our time in worship then, in New Testament worship, is spent how? In God's Word. Because in the New Testament, we have good news to proclaim in place of ceremonies to perform. When the church goes backwards, It reverses those things and it has ceremonies to perform rather than a word to proclaim. And some of you have testified that you were in churches before where they began to get more and more about praises and praising songs and things like that and that that part became bigger and bigger and the Word of God went Got smaller and smaller. It's the opposite in the New Testament. That we have, we do sing and give thanks to God for the things that he has given us. We bring the word in song, but we're not performing a bunch of ceremonies in our worship. Proverbs 8 speaks of God's wisdom, which is personified by Christ, who is revealed to us in God's Word. Christ is the Word, and He's revealed in the written scriptures. It is His Word, it is the Word of Christ, it is about Him. And Proverbs 8 says, Wisdom speaks God's oracles. Wisdom speaks, God's oracles speak, Christ speaks. Those are all the same thing. Wisdom speaks, God's word speaks, Christ speaks. They're all one. Okay, and so Proverbs 8, 32 through 33 says, now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Who's speaking here? It's wisdom. What is wisdom? It is Christ. It is God's word. Okay, so God's word says, blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain instruction. Don't resist hearing the word of Christ. Don't resist hearing Christ. And then in verse 34, it declares a blessing upon who? Those who do that every day. What does it say? Okay, it says, Proverbs 8, 34, blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, this is still wisdom speaking, still Christ speaking, waiting at the post of my doors, for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. Notice the word daily. watching daily at my gates. When we have the oracles of God, we're expected and encouraged to daily receive them. Not just that we receive them in the back of our mind that, yeah, I think I was thinking about it some today, but to actually have a deliberateness that we are setting aside deliberately time to come before God, to receive, to sit at the gate and hear the word of God, sitting at those gates to hear, setting aside time to listen to Christ, speaking in his word privately and in families. Notice the blessing again that's promised to those who daily hear the word, we will find life and obtain favor from the Lord. This is parallel, totally parallel with what Paul told Timothy when he was urging him to be diligent in the Word, in the New Testament. So Proverbs 8 says that we receive the life and so on, but Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.15 to Timothy, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. See, that's just the same as blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors, for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. And to Timothy, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. John speaks of his and his fellow apostles' writings as published in order that we might have fellowship with God and with God's Son. Why are we given the word? So that we can hear Christ and have communion and fellowship with Him and with His Father. John tells us how he and his fellow apostles saw Christ They heard Christ when he was on earth. They handled him. He was here among them and how they touched him. Think of it. The son of God was here in human flesh where they could hear him and see him and touch him. And they did. But then he says what pertains to our subject today. First, John one, three, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you may have fellowship with us. Okay, have fellowship with the apostles, that's nice. He says, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we, what? Write to you that your joy may be full. I'm giving you, John says, we are giving you, we apostles are giving you scripture, writings, graphe, we're giving you written oracles of God so that, as Peter put it later on, when I'm gone, you'll remember. I'm making provision for you to remember the things that I kept saying to you while I was here. So there you have it. You see, it's brought to us as a blessing so that we can have fellowship with God. What a blessing. Brothers and sisters, we have the word of God. Paul recognized that he also, as an apostle, spoke and wrote the very oracles of God that bring life to those who hear. So not only was he talking about the Old Testament scriptures, but also the scriptures that he himself was giving to the people. Just like John, we write these things to you so that you may have fellowship communion with the living God, with the Father and the Son. So, to the Thessalonian church, Paul says, 1 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, for this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, the oracles of God, the words of Christ, which also effectively works in who believe. It brings blessing. It brings life. It brings salvation. It makes you wise to salvation. Are we not also told in Acts 2 that as soon as the people received the gospel, that they were added to the church and then continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine? The apostles who are teaching their doctrine was teaching of the oracles of God. And it says in the Apostles' Doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of the bread, the Lord's Supper and prayers. That speaks especially of public worship rather than daily and private worship. But to continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine surely means that they spoke of what they heard in their homes and in their family and also meditated on the Word in private. If you go and get an oracle from God, Then you go and talk about it. And if you have it written down, you bring it with you and you read it again and you say, look, this is God's word. This is to tell us how to live and how to to prosper, how to be saved, how to honor him. So you meditate on it. You think about it. You read it. You look at it. You assimilate it. You memorize it. They did not look to each one in the church to have private revelation, you see. But they continued in the Apostles' doctrine. So it wasn't that each one got a word from God, one over here, one over there, and another over here in their private times. But the Apostles' doctrine, the prophets were set apart by God. all got their doctrine, and then they came, and it was written down, like John says, like Paul says, and then they took that scripture, that word, had the oracles of God, and continued in it steadfastly. So that's how the oracles are delivered to God's people. We miss out if we just hear the oracle and walk away and forget it. In John 17, when our Lord prayed for our sanctification, he said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So since we have the oracles of God, let us set aside time to hear them each day. to hear Christ by reading his word and expounding it every day, eagerly listening to receive what God has for us. The Lord tells us that this is what is expected, what he expected Abraham to do, and by implication, of course, Abraham's posterity in spiritual posterity. Everyone that has the oracles of God, what are they to do in their home? what God expected Abraham to do. Genesis 18, 19. For I have known him, God says. I have, you could say, chosen him. I have come and made myself known to him and I have come to commune with him, to make him my own and I am his, he is mine kind of thing. For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. What would have happened if Abraham got the word of God and never communicated those oracles to his family? It would have ended with Abraham. But he did go on, notice how the Lord says that he had known Abraham in order that he would command his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord. In other words, he gave Abraham the oracles that Abraham might speak them into the lives of his household, speak them to keep them, to observe them, to believe them. You don't have oracles of God for yourself alone. And why is this speaking to be done? He goes on and says that too. It was done so that, in order that the Lord might bring to Abraham what he had spoken to him or what he had promised him. God had promised that he would bless him and that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed, that his people would be blessed and all people, the church would be blessed and other people outside would be brought in, blessed by the oracles that were given to him. Blessing of salvation, of eternal life and communion with God. This would be experienced throughout the world. So Moses likewise commanded to speak God's oracles in our home. We looked at one example of this recently in Deuteronomy 6. We speak God's word into our families that they might love the Lord. Remember, we just looked at it recently. Of course, it's something we sometimes say at church, too. Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And these things, these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. That's family worship. Teach them diligently to your children and she'll talk of them when you sit in your house. That's the time you have set aside, you're sitting down. When you walk by the ways, you're just going about business. When you lie down in the evening, when you rise up in the morning. The purpose is given in verses 1 through 3, that they teach their children and their grandchildren that they might keep the way of the Lord and be blessed. So in Deuteronomy 6, 1 through 3, it shows the reason for it, so that you can be blessed of the Lord. Again, what did Timothy say? What did Paul say to Timothy? That you have made wise to salvation. In Proverbs 8, that you would have the blessing of life. So Paul told men to do this with their wives and their children. when we have the New Testament. So Abraham was expected to do it, and Paul shows we're still expected to do it now in the New Testament. Concerning their wives, he said to men, Ephesians 5, 25, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. that he might present her to himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies." So the goal is for the bride to be pure without spot or blemish. We're all the bride of Christ. But then how does that work out for us? We take that word that he uses to cleanse those that he brings to himself, to even bring us to him, the word is used for that. And we speak that word for cleansing and purification. Husbands are expected to do that with their wives. And then also concerning children, a little further down in the passage in Ephesians 6, 4, the next chapter, he says, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. You're gonna frustrate your children if you give them your own stuff, but if you bring the word of God to them and disciple them in the word and the promises of God and the blessings that are there, then that's what is needed. So to fail to do so, the scripture tells us, is to hide the life-giving oracles of God from our children. How else can they learn them? Again, I say, if Abraham hadn't told his family, they wouldn't have known. If a father who came to believe in Jesus Christ in the New Testament didn't go and tell his children, and when they were born he didn't tell his children the word of God, how would they know? Psalm 78 is a resolution of fathers that we will bring God's oracles to our families because this is not always done. It says, Psalm 78, 2, The Gospel, in other words. For he established a testimony in Jacob. The word of God was given to Jacob testifying of what God has done. It's God's oracle, God's testimony. He established it. Like I said, he gave it to the church. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. We see in Judges there was a time when a generation grew up that didn't know the Lord. How could they know? They weren't there to see all the things that their fathers had seen, unless they were told. They had to be told the record that God had given concerning His work and His promises. So, He commanded, He pointed a law in Israel which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. That the generation to come might know them. The children who would be born. That they may arise and declare them to their children. It's supposed to go from generation to generation like it says in Psalm 145. that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. So set their hope in God, believe the gospel of salvation, and believe that God is there to help them in that salvation, to save them, and then not forget what God has done, and to keep his commandments. And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. So what have we seen today? First, that the light of nature teaches us that we ought to worship God daily, praising Him, praying to Him, thanking Him for His mercy, confessing our sin, asking Him for forgiveness, looking to Him for blessing. Light of nature teaches us that. Scripture confirms that the light of nature teaches us that. Then we saw is those who have been blessed with the oracles of God. We are to daily meditate upon them and instruct our families out of them. What blessings come to us when we come to worship our God each day? As we praise him, we see his glory. When we praise him, if we do it with a heart at all, then we enliven our affections for him. We stir up our sluggish souls. Now you can just sing like a robot, but if you sing meaningfully thinking about what you're saying, then you stir up your sluggish soul, you know, rise my soul and sing, you know. We come to know him better with our children as we do that. We give him the honor and praise that is due to him, which is right and good. As we give thanks to him for his mercy, and especially for his salvation, then we recount the blessings that he has given us. Like Jacob, we saw him looking back at what God had done, what things he was thankful for. And it encourages us that we see God's hand, we say, Lord, thank you for giving us our food today. Thank you for providing what you have provided for us today. We give thanks to him and we express our love and appreciation to him. We stir up our joy in his many mercies that are bound to us. Sometimes we don't acknowledge the mercies of God. We otherwise fail to see them if we don't do that. And then as we look to his word, his oracles, which is the other thing that we do, we remember his promise salvation and we strengthen our trust in him. We increase our hope in his promises of forgiveness, sanctification, eternal life. growth and grace. We learn of him as he is gloriously revealed in the gospel. We learn his commandments that exposes our sins, but it also enables us to look to the spirit that we may walk in his ways, that we put off what is unpleasing and put on what is pleasing. We're also warned about going astray in his word, what will happen to us if we do. As we call upon him in prayer, so that's as we come to the oracles. Different parts of family worship I'm talking about. That's the oracles, as we come to him in prayer, we confess our sin and we look to him for forgiveness. We pray for him to be honored through us and others and to be known in the world. We seek his blessing upon us, our families, and our church, and our nation. We look to him to make us faithful in our service and obedience. and to help us in our worship. And of course, he answers our prayers. Our prayers are not offered up to him in vain. Family worship has other secondary benefits as well. It strengthens our family unity and fellowship, a bonding occurs. It prepares us for public worship. As we engage in regular family worship and private worship, it sets our hearts to receive more the public worship of God and to engage in it better. It equips us for ministry to others. Many times, even in thinking about our prayers that we have, we pray for our neighbors and family members and people that we're acquainted with. And we begin to look for how we can minister and serve others. And we ask God to help us, and we see ways that we can serve. Like we saw this morning, what do I have? I talked to Katie going to see her brother. What do you have to give to your brother? You have this blessing that comes from God, that you can tell him of this blessing and present it to him who does not have that blessing. It enlarges our hearts and our minds and increases our joy and hope. We have very, very narrow, constricted hearts. And when we come regularly before God, our heart begins to enlarge. We have greater and deeper and fuller joys and affections and praises and thanksgiving. I think I must have the narrowest heart of anyone. When I was a child, I didn't even cry at my father's funeral. I was just so dry. And over the years as a Christian, God has began to enlarge my heart so that there is more room for responding and things like that. It alleviates depression and anxiety as we turn over things to our Lord. We cast all of our care upon Him. These are all benefits that we have from doing this. It resets our focus on what matters most. What we talked about this morning. What we're here for. What is really important here? Is it my school? Is it my business? Is it our estate? Is it that we have good weather? What is it? No, no, it's the kingdom of God. It's the eternal life that he has promised us. We're here for God and we're here as his worshipers. So I hope you can see from this the importance of daily family worship. Just as we depend on God to use our labor to support our family, so we look to him to make our worship a blessing to us in our household. It's not automatically a blessing anymore than our labor is. God has to bless it. You can work all day and still be impoverished. But you pray that as you sow your seed, if you're a farmer, that it will grow, that God will give the increase. Same thing with family worship. Sometimes, though, we're like a starving man, that God gives that man food, like a stupid starving man. God gives him food, but instead of eating it, he cries out to God to resolve his hunger. I'm hungry. God, fill me, fill me, fill me. He gives us His oracles. We don't use the oracle. Fill me, fill me, fill me. What are you doing? He gave you food. He gave you His oracles. And you're asking Him to fill you without the oracles that He gave you to fill you? That's just like the guy that is starving. God gives him a big old plate of food and he says, satisfy my hunger. And he pushes the food away. That doesn't make any sense, does it? This is how God fills us, how he feeds us. Make sure then that you're not like that. Unless there is repentance, then you'll be destroyed. You know, we want God to bless us with spiritual health. We need to feed on the food that he has given us. the oracles of God. So let's remember, I'll read them again, the resolutions that we make in the Psalms when we sing the Psalms. Psalm 145 and Psalm 78. Just read part of it. Psalm 145, one and two. I will extol you, my God, O King. This is a resolution that we should all make and keep. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. Psalm 78, two through four, I'll open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. And I encourage those who are not heads of household, wives and children, that you support the head of your household and encourage that one as you lead your family in family worship. Let's ask God to help us. Please stand. Oh Lord, our God, We want to thank you and praise you. First of all, we praise you that you are the creator of heaven and earth. You are the creator of us and everything that is in the world. You are the one who has given us all that we have. There is no one like you, oh Lord. You are sovereign in power. You are almighty. You are the God who spoke and brought into being all that is. You're the one who also orders all things. Your sovereign hand governs and rules, and you bring about your purposes in all the earth. We praise you, O Lord, and we honor you as the one God, the true God, the only God. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to bring our adorations to you, not only in the public assembly, but also in private. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to do this in a way that is heart, heart-engaged. We can do it in a mechanical way, and it is nothing. We pray that we would do it as those who love you with all of our being, our heart, soul, mind, and strength, our spirit and our body, all that we are, that we love you, O Lord, as our God, that you are God and our God. We have no other God before you. And then, Father, we also want to thank you and praise you that you have given us your oracles. What a privilege it is to have the Word of God, to have promises that are given to us from our God about salvation, and about testimonies about what you have done for our salvation, and what it means, the things that you have done, your mighty acts, what they represent and what they show us about you, and what we should take away from them. and commandments that instruct us how we can live, how we can please you, and what means we can use to know you and to serve you and how we can worship you. Lord, you have given us divine oracles that are precious. You've also told us things about the future as well as the past. And we thank you, Lord, that your testimonies stand. We see that the things that were spoken long ago were fulfilled later. Some of them we have seen the whole cycle. We have seen the prophecy and we have seen the fulfillment. Others, we yet wait to see the fulfillment. We yet wait to see the glorious things that you have promised to those who love you. The eternal inheritance that you have given to us. The place where we will be holy and without spot and blemish. that bride that Christ is preparing to live with him in his house forever and ever. We pray, Lord, that we would set our hope in the word of God, that we would find life and salvation through trusting in the salvation that you have provided for us. Father, that we would look to you and your hand, that we would encourage one another, that we would refresh one another, that we would keep in the way and that fathers would obey your expectation to command their households, their children and their wives after them to keep the way of the Lord, that you may bring to them what you have promised. We pray that we would not hide them from our children. Oh, Lord, we thank you for your mercy and grace to us. Father, help us then to carry out these things, for they have often been neglected. They have often been neglected by us. They have been neglected in the world. They are neglected grossly in our day among unbeliever as well as believer, especially among those believers who have also the oracles. Father, have mercy on us and help us to cherish the word of God, to say, look, God has spoken. and to take hold of that and to cherish it, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God that effectively works in those that believe to bring them blessing and salvation. Thank you that it is Christ who speaks to us, that he is the wisdom of God, that his apostles have given us his word so that he speaks. We hear him when we hear them, when we read this holy scripture. We thank you that it has been translated into our language. so that we can have access to these oracles. It is a worthwhile endeavor to translate it. We pray for those who do that work, too, to spread the word into the earth. We pray, Father, that many people would come and embrace these oracles, they and their households, and that they would rejoice in them. For it is your word, O Lord, and it brings glory to your name. It is in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen. Now let's sing Psalm 145. It's a great phrase, isn't it? The utter shall abundantly. The memory of thy goodness, great. But it's a great phrase when you think about it. Utter abundantly, to speak profusely, to speak ardently, abundantly with a fullness of the things of God. That is our desire. May our gracious Lord turn the hearts of you fathers to your children and the hearts of your children to your fathers, lest he come and strike the earth with a curse. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.