You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Almighty and gracious Father, Lord, we come before you tonight in this hour in reverence for you and you are a God. You're a God who given us your holy law. You've written with your own hand upon tablets of stone and pressed it upon our hearts. We thank you, especially for this fifth commandment that we'll be discussing tonight. It teaches us to honor father and mother and in doing so to honor you as well. Lord, we acknowledge that in the family, in the church, in our society, You have established good order for our blessing. That's why your word says for us to honor our father and mother that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land. Father, we also confess to our failure. Too often, we've despised authority rather than honored it. Too often, we've spoken in contempt instead of respect. And too often, whether as children, as citizens, as members of your church, we have sought our own way rather than submitting to those you have placed over us. For this, we humbly repent before you. We praise you that where we've fallen short, Christ has obeyed perfectly. As a child, he was submissive to Joseph and Mary, and as the son, he was always pleasing to his heavenly father. Even upon the cross, he honored his mother by entrusting her to John's care. And in his obedience, even unto death, he has become our righteousness. So Lord, as we open your word tonight, send your Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and soften our hearts. Help us to see not only the duty of this commandment, but also the beauty of Christ who has fulfilled it. Lord, teach us to honor our parents, to respect all authority, and ultimately to glorify you. Bless our time, study, and discussion, and may it stir up obedience and strengthen our faith and magnify Christ in our midst. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. One thing I want to point out, I passed out some little papers all around here. They just have the questions that I'm going to ask before class and then I'm going to cover them at the end. You should be able to pull the answers through the text but I'll spend some time right at the very end addressing each question. Instead of having you guys trying to write them all down as I said I'm slow I figured I'd just print them out and they're distributed around. Tonight we're going to deal with Deuteronomy 5 16. We have one entire verse to get through. And the aim of tonight really is to understand what God requires as well as what he forbids in the fifth commandment. And also to ground obedience in Christ as we apply it to family, church, and to society. Really the main point that we'll see tonight is that God mediates his covenant wisdom and order through parents and other lawful authorities. So honoring them safeguards covenant community and societal flourishing. Some of the, I wrote this down here just in case anyone cares, some of the things that I've used in this study, of course going through the London 1689, London Baptist Confession of Faith, really applies to tonight or chapters 19, chapters 22 through 24. Well, in 22 through 24. And you'll see something I added at the end through the Puritan influence of this in the Westminster larger catechism, 123 through 133, they address something that I didn't see anywhere else, which they have a category called superiors, inferiors, and equals. And it applies to this. But for now let's get into our verse, Deuteronomy 5.16. Honor your father and mother as the Lord your God commanded you that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. I also ask that God would richly bless the reading of his word. So the questions, the questions for tonight, questions for the class, I have, like I said, on the papers out there. I'm just going to go through them quick, but like I said, I thought it'd be better if I passed them out that way everybody wasn't trying to write them down as I read slow. So question one, why does the fifth commandment stand as a bridge between duties to God and duties to man? Question two, in what ways do modern culture and society openly rebel against this commandment? Question three, how can parents both require obedience and model godliness without provoking their children? And what are some practical ways we can honor aged parents today? Question five, when, if ever, is it right to disobey civil authority? And how does Acts 529 help us with that? And the last question, question six, how does Christ's obedience to his parents and to his father, his heavenly father, bring comfort to us who fail in this commandment? To start by way of introduction, of course, we're dealing right now in Deuteronomy with the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments form the moral core of God's covenant law. They were given not really as a ladder for Israel to climb to heaven, but as covenant words to a redeemed people. The Lord has already delivered them from Egypt. Now he's instructing them how to live as a holy nation. The fifth commandment then stands really at the very center of the Decalogue. It serves as a bridge between the first four commandments, which are our duty toward God, and the last five commandments, which are our duty toward our neighbor. I don't think it's by accident that God placed the family here as the hinge point, because we see that the home is where covenant faithfulness is nurtured. And we know that if Israel would fail here, they would fail everywhere. So tonight I want to consider this commandment in detail. We'll look at its meaning, we'll look at its covenantal weight, and then its duties and its promises. And those categories we'll try to see both for Israel and for us today. So the text once more, honor your father and mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. So we can start with the command, the command, honor your father and mother. The meaning of honor, kibbed. I think that's the right way to pronounce it, but kibbed comes from the root word that literally means to be heavy or to give weight. So to honor someone is to treat them as weighty or as important or significant. It's the opposite of treating them lightly or with contempt. Honor is therefore both an attitude of the heart and an expression in action. It's not enough to just nod politely to somebody or just outwardly comply, but true honor really means esteeming parents as gifts of God and treating them with reverence. Thomas Watson said, honor carries in it reverence and obedience. We must give them reverence in heart, word and gesture, and obedience in all things lawful. See, to honor parents is to see them more as just biological givers of life. They are God's appointed representatives, and they're charged with instructing us in his covenant. To dishonor them, then, in a sense, is to dishonor God, who has placed us under their care. Now, in our text, Honor Your Father and Mother, we see equal honor to father and mother. Both are explicitly named, and it's not by accident. And if we would go into the ancient Near East culture, authority was typically patriarchal, and mothers were often considered secondary. But by including mother alongside father the Lord dignifies the role of mothers as equals in authority and worthy of the same honor. This reflects God's creation order both male and female were created in his image and together they form the covenant covenantal household. His command really demolishes cultural bias and elevates the mother to her rightful place in the covenant family. And really to apply this to us, children must not pick and choose whom to honor. The first thing I thought of was growing up and hearing, wait till your father gets home. And it's really common for children to respect one parent and totally disregard the other, especially if one's more lenient or one is more aligned to their personality. But God commands equal honor to both regardless of temperament or differences. We see the dimensions of honor. To honor in biblical terms is really multifaceted. It includes at least three dimensions. We have inward reverence, outward obedience, and really long term care. So the inward reverence to honor really begins in the heart. It means cultivating an attitude of esteem and respect toward our parents, not simply just obeying them and gritting our teeth. Proverbs 23, 22 says, listen to your father who gave you life and do not despise your mother when she is old. The opposite of honor is despising. Irreverence means seeing parents as God's instrument for our good, even when they're not perfect. So it's inward reverence, but then we also have outward obedience. Children are called to practical obedience in the Lord. This means obeying in all things that are lawful and consistent with God's word. Obedience is the test of inward honor. Words and gestures can flatter, but true honor really is submitting to authority. Even Jesus, the eternal son of God, The word says he was submissive to Mary and Joseph from Luke 2 51. We have to consider if the Lord of glory honored his earthly parents how much more should we. And lastly long term care you know honoring parents really does not end at adulthood. You know the form of obedience might change you know once a child establishes their own household. and moves on, gets married and moves on. But the duty to honor really continues. This includes caring for parents in their weakness and old age. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for neglecting their duty to support their parents financially. It was like under the guise of religious giving or Corbin from Mark 7. Paul states plainly in 1 Timothy 5.8 that failing to care for one's household, including aged parents, makes one worse than an unbeliever. Thus, honor extends across the entire lifespan, from respectful obedience in childhood, all the way to compassionate care for parents in their final days. So the dimensions of honor, inward reverence, outward obedience, and long-term care. We could also see counterfeit honor. Outward compliance without inward respect really is not true honor. A child may obey to avoid punishment, but at the same time he's harboring resentment in his heart. And this really falls short of God's standard. Conversely, inward affection without outward action is also deficient. A person may say I love you to their parents while ignoring their instruction or neglecting their care. But true honor requires both heart and hand, reverence and obedience, affection and action. The second part of our verse tonight holds the promise. We have the command and we have a promise. The promise that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land. This command is unique in that it comes with a blessing explicitly attached to it. God, he could have simply commanded honor without any incentive, but he condescends to encourage his people with a promise of reward. And this in a way shows us his fatherly heart. He delights to attach a blessing to obedience here. We see it's the first commandment with a promise. You know, Paul highlights this in Ephesians 6, 2, where he says, honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. You know, it's not saying that there aren't any other promises, no other commands that have promises in Scripture, but this is the first in the Decalogue itself to include a blessed explicitly tied to obedience. It teaches us that God is not only a lawgiver but a gracious father who delights to encourage his children with reward. God ties his promises to his precept that he may more win us to obedience. That wasn't me, that was Thomas Watson that said that. God doesn't need to incentivize us, yet he graciously stoops to strengthen our weak wills with a promise. But the Old Covenant context. So let's look at the promise in the Old Covenant context. We see land, longevity, and prosperity. So to Israel, this promise was very specific. A long life and a prosperous existence in the promised land. The inheritance, and that's the inheritance that God had sworn to their fathers. So it had land attached to it. It had longevity. Honoring parents would promote stability in life. The rebellious child, by contrast, was cut off. Thus here, obedience preserved life. And then we see prosperity. A society where children honored parents would enjoy social stability, family strength, and covenant continuity, and material well-being. This was not merely individual blessing, but corporate blessing. The nation as a whole would flourish when family honor was upheld. The covenant people could not expect to remain in the land if they despised authority, and this is beginning with parental authority. Rebellion at home would soon lead to rebellion against God, and rebellion against God led to exile. So that's the application in the old covenant context, but if we now move to the new covenant, We see Paul in Ephesians 6, 1 through 3, says, So Paul here universalizes the promise. He removes it from the narrow confines of the land of Canaan and applies it to Gentile believers. But here the principle still remains. God blesses obedience to authority, especially when honoring one's parents. This blessing is now broader. It's not merely tied to Canaan, but it's applicable to all believers, wherever they live, really as a general truth. But note here Paul does not promise that every obedient child will live to old age or that even an honoring Christian will experience prosperity. We live in a fallen world where godly people sometimes suffer and die young. Rather the principle here is general. When God's order is respected life flourishes and when it's rejected life deteriorates. Here we have two levels of promise. We have temporal blessing and we have spiritual blessing. This temporal blessing we can say it's general equity. Societies where families are strong and authority is respected, they tend to prosper. There's greater order, greater stability, greater peace. Individuals who honor parents tend to avoid destructive paths. You know, the drunkenness, rebellion, lawlessness. And these things shorten one's life. Thus honoring parents, in a way, contributes to a longer, healthier life in that respect. Even unbelievers can observe this principle. Family order preserves life. I mean, we can even take this and just look at what's going on around us today. Everything we see on the news or in the cities or when we have families without parents. It's disorder. But the spiritual blessing we find in the Christological fulfillment, for the Christian, the promise is much deeper. In Christ, the blessing extends beyond earthly life to eternal life. Where Canaan pointed forward to the new heavens and the new earth, the promise of long life in the land really foreshadows the everlasting inheritance of God's children. Thus honoring parents is an expression of living faithfully as God's covenant child. And in Christ it anticipates the eternal reward of the obedience son's righteousness that's imputed to us. We have a warning that's implied in the promise. Every promise really carries a corresponding warning. So if honoring parents leads to life and blessing then dishonor leads to loss and curse. The Old Testament testifies to this really repeatedly. Rebellious children were cut off. Whole generations suffered exile because they despised the covenant taught by their fathers. In modern terms, a culture, see that a culture that mocks authority, that undermines parents, that despises age, will not long endure. You know, it'll reap instability, division, judgment. And I believe we're witnessing this in our present culture. For children, remember that obedience is not just about avoiding punishment, but about God's promise of blessing. And for adults, continuing to honor parents through care, respect, and gratitude, this too is part of receiving God's promise. For society families really are the foundation of public order and to undermine the family or family honor you really undermines social prosperity. And then for the church as a covenant family the promise reminds us of intergenerational continuity. The health of the church depends on children honoring parents and parents faithfully teaching them of Christ. So the promise. Let's look at this commandment and where it falls. So we talked about the placement, about it being the hinge of the law. I think it's one of the most fascinating features of this commandment is really just where God has placed it within the Decalogue. It stands right in the middle, after the commandments about loving God, before the commandments about loving your neighbor. The placement itself is really instructive. We can see that God teaches us that the family is the bridge between devotion to him and our duty to others. So we see the two tables of the law, the first table, Commandments 1 through 4. These govern our relationship with God. They tell us who to worship, how to worship, when to worship, and with what reverence to worship. In short, they really protect God's honor. The second table, commandments six through 10, these govern our relationships with other people. They tell us how to treat life, how to treat marriage, property, truth, even our desires. In short, they protect our neighbor's honor. The law then is summed up in Jesus' words in Matthew, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And here we see the family as being a bridge. The fifth commandment falls between these two tablets. It's really like a hinge. It addresses the family, really the most intimate human relationship and the first community that God ordains. So why here? Because it's in the home, really, that children first learn what it means to love God and to love their neighbor. Parents teach children how to worship God, how to pray, how to be reverent to his word. And at the same time, the family is the training ground for learning things such as patience and kindness and forgiveness and respect toward others. In other words, the family is really the covenant classroom. If children don't learn honor at home, they're not gonna live honorably before God or before a neighbor. So, cultural application. With all that, how do we apply this? I said that we'll look at Israel and we'll look at our modern time, but we'll start with ancient Israel. We see the family was the central unit of covenant faithfulness. Your parents were told to diligently teach their children the covenant. We've Read this many times, we'll be teaching it in probably the months to come, but Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 9. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates. And then children, in turn, were to honor and receive this instruction. To dishonor parents was covenant rebellion. In some cases, persistent dishonor really carried the death penalty. We see that in Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, And though they discipline him, will not listen to them, that his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city at the gate of the place where he lives. And they shall say to the elders of the city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey your voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear and fear. So why, why is this so harsh a judgment? Because rebellion against parents was rebellion against God. The promise of long life and prosperity was directly tied to generational covenant fidelity. So for today's culture, really nothing has changed. We don't stone our kids, but the principles are all still there. Dishonor in the home really equals dishonor in the nation. The placement of this commandment implies a warning. Neglect this hinge and really both tables collapse. When children dishonor their parents, they soon despise God's authority from the first table. They abused their neighbor's dignity from the second table. History really proves this. When Israel abandoned covenant instruction at home, idolatry spread, injustice really flourished, and exile followed. The same is true today. Cultures that undermine family authority soon unravel morally and spiritually. You guys can all attest to this, we live in an age that really despises authority. You know, children from the time they're little are often encouraged to be autonomous, to be independent, even dismissive of their parents. And we see the result of this, broken homes, fractured churches, unstable societies. But this commandment still calls us to honor parents and youth through obedience, to honor parents in adulthood through respect, gratitude, even counsel-seeking, and to honor parents in old age through care and provision. And as we're talking about all of this with authority structures, by extension we must really honor all God-ordained authority. We see in Romans 13 about civil rulers. Romans 13 1 and 2, let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. Then we see the elders in the church from Hebrews 13, 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. And even vocational leaders from Ephesians 6, 5 through 9. Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ. Not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. And masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. So where do we see dishonor most clearly in modern culture? And really, how has it affected family, church, and society? From a reform perspective, dishonor is most clearly seen in the widespread rejection of authority in modern culture. Again, our age really prizes individual autonomy and self-expression far above obedience, respect, and submission. The cry of our generation comes from, we could see from scripture in Luke 19, I will not have anyone rule over me. So in the family, we see children often portrayed in the media and in entertainment as wiser than their parents. And a lot of times in the same context, we see parents that are being mocked as foolish, irrelevant, or oppressive. Many young people openly defy parental instruction, and adults frequently neglect or abandon their responsibility for caring for their aged parents. Scripture warns of such times. See 2nd Timothy 3.2, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy. How many times have you read that verse in 2nd Timothy and the disobedient of parents to parents didn't quite fit in with all those but now in what we're studying tonight it fits so perfectly. The result here has been a breakdown of the family unit. We see rising fatherlessness. We see generations growing up without respect to authority or to order. We can see this spill into the church as well. Dishonor appears when church members treat Christ's undershepherds with contempt by resisting sound teaching and pursuing teachers to suit their own passions. The same time dishonor also appears when leaders abuse their authority for gain or for dominion or domination rather than humble service. This has produced instability, it's produced division, distrust within the congregations, and it really weakens the church's witness before a watching world. And then society. Civil dishonor is evident in the mocking of rulers, disregard for law, resistance to all forms of order. And while governments may indeed be corrupt, the cultural posture of rebellion really undermines respect for the God-given institute of civil authority. Romans 13, one again, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. The fruit of such dishonor is disorder, it's violence, it's societal collapse. We see in Proverbs 14, 34, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. So dishonor in our culture is really a symptom of deeper rebellion against God. When parents are despised, and pastors are rejected, and rulers are mocked, society just unravels. We see the fifth commandment. The fifth commandment shows us that God's blessing is tied to honoring authority rightly. Its neglect really explains much of the decay that we see in family, in church, in society today. So what are the covenantal aspects of the fifth commandment? Once again, we read, honor your father. It's nice having one verse because I can do like our entire text for the night over and over and over again. Honor your father and your mother and that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You know, we must not miss out on this covenantal setting here. This is not simply family advice or social wisdom. It's really rooted in the covenant that God has made with his people. God ties the command to a promise, and this promise is covenantal. It's that it may go well with you in the land. This land here is not incidental. It's the covenant inheritance promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The enjoyment of that land was not automatic either. It depended on the covenant's fidelity. Israel could not expect to keep the land if they rejected God's law. Covenant's fidelity, in turn, really begins in the home, or began in the home. Parents were to teach God's law diligently to their children, and then the children were to honor and receive that teaching. And if this cycle of teaching and honoring broke down, the covenant community would collapse. No family honor meant no covenant faithfulness. No covenant faithfulness meant no lasting inheritance in the land. This covenant then hinges on general transmission. The fifth commandment highlights the generational nature of God's covenant. And it was not given to isolated individuals, but it was given to families to be passed down from fathers and mothers to their children. If we look at Psalm 78, five through seven, We see that God established a testimony and he commanded fathers to teach their children. God's word says, he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn. and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." But see, if children dishonored their parents, they would despise the covenant instruction and they would forget the Lord. So if we continue on in chapter 78, Verse 8 then says, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God. And what was the result? The result was apostasy and exile. Richard Baxter to quote Baxter, he says, the devil's first design is to corrupt the family government, knowing that if the root be poisoned, the fruit will be bitter. So the covenant community thrives or withers based on family faithfulness. See, the family is really a microcosm of the covenant. Scripture explicitly compared the father-child relationship to God's relationship with his people. See in Deuteronomy 131, the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son. To honor earthly parents is therefore a type of honoring our Heavenly Father. The home is a covenant mirror. See, authority, instruction, provision, and discipline in the family points to God's covenant dealings with his people. If Israel's children rejected their parents' authority, they would naturally reject God's authority. The family rebellion was covenantal rebellion. This really explains why dishonoring parents was treated so seriously in the law when we saw in Deuteronomy 21. It's not just disobedience to mom and dad. It was despising the covenant Lord who stood before them. In the land promise, we see that as a shadow of a greater inheritance. For Israel, the blessing of honoring parents was long life and prosperity in the promised land. But Hebrews 4 makes it clear that Canaan was a shadow of a greater reality. It's a shadow of the eternal rest of God. In Christ the land promise is transformed into the promise of the new heavens and the new earth. The inheritance is no longer geographical but it's eschatological. The honoring of parents then becomes part of our covenant pilgrimage toward that eternal rest. Faithful covenant families prepare us for our eternal home. Application for today could see that when we honor parents, we participate in covenant faithfulness that points beyond earthly prosperity to everlasting blessings in Christ. We see Christ, Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant family. You know, Israel failed to keep the covenant and thus they lost the land, but Christ came as the true son who honored perfectly. He honored his earthly parents. We saw that in Luke 2. He honored his heavenly father, John 8, even unto death on a cross. In him the covenant promises find fulfillment for he secures the eternal inheritance and makes us members of the household of God. So our obedience to the fifth commandment really ultimately flows out of our union with Christ. So the fifth commandment. The fifth commandment is covenantal at its core. For Israel, the promise of long life in the land depended on family honor, which really preserved covenant fidelity. And the family was a microcosm of the covenant community. Rebellion in the home meant rebellion against God. But for us, the land then points forward to our eternal inheritance in Christ. that he's the true son who honored perfectly. We affirm this commandment really remains binding today as part of the moral law. Thus the fifth commandment really stands at the heart of covenant life, past, present, and future. I talked about the Puritans at the beginning with the category that they had in the Westminster larger catechism. I think it was 122 to 132, I think, whatever I said at the beginning. But if you want to know, see me afterwards. But it spoke on superiors, inferiors, and equals. And it was a category that was tied directly to this commandment. We see toward parents, our superiors. We owe reverence, respect, and gratitude. And that's really ultimately obedience in the Lord. See Ephesians 6, 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. We're to care and provide care in their weakness and old age. 1 Timothy 5, 3, and 4 honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of God. or 1 Timothy 5.8, but if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So if we're toward our parents, we're to defend their honor. Toward church leaders, to esteem them and to submit toward them. First Timothy 5, 17, and 18 speaks of providing material support. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Then we can look toward civil leaders. As we saw in Romans 13, we're to obey lawful commands. Also to pay taxes, or to pray for our rulers, or to promote civic peace. 1 Timothy 2, 1 and 2. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. and then toward equals, mutual honor and respect. Romans 12, 10, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Or Philippians 2, 3, and 4, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. And then we see the duties of superiors, the duties we have as parents, as elders, as magistrates, called to govern with justice, gentleness, and wisdom, and told to teach faithfully, to protect diligently, and ultimately to model godliness in our lives. And lastly, then, the promises attached. We see temporal promises. We see spiritual promises. For Israel, once again, long life and prosperity in the land. For us, general blessings of stability, order, and flourishing when family and authority structures are respected. Spiritual promises, they point to eternal inheritance. Paul applies the Fifth Commandment again in Ephesians 6, promising well-being to those in Christ. We have to remember that Christ is the true obedient son and by his righteousness we inherit eternal life. So honoring parents is not just a moral duty, it's gospel shaped obedience that reflects Christ's submission to the Father. I don't want to run out of time to hit the questions. But real quick with some key takeaways, I'm going to say the family is God's training ground for covenant faithfulness. Parents must see themselves as spiritual stewards and children must see obedience to parents as part of discipleship to Christ. To honor parents is to honor God's authority and covenant order. The promise of blessing reminds us that God delights to reward obedience. Christians should not be ashamed to speak of reward though. God is a father who delights in blessing his children. And Christ is the true and perfect son who fulfilled this commandment for us. Our obedience to this commandment must really flow out of our union with Christ. It's not by human willpower. We really are able to honor because he first honored. Honoring parents is really the seed of honoring future generations. Families today must see obedience not as old fashioned but as God ordained means by which truth and blessing extend to the next generation. And honoring parents and we'll say honoring all authority is counter cultural. in our day and age but it's desperately needed. We live in an age that prizes independence that mocks age and wisdom and views all authority with suspicion. The Fifth Commandment calls us to live differently. We're to show gratitude and respect and humble submission In doing so, Christians bear witness to a greater reality, the eternal family of God, where honor flows upward to the father and downward to his children. When believers honor parents and leaders in a world of dishonor, they display the beauty of God's order and point unbelievers to Christ. So the fifth commandment teaches us that God's covenant thrives when families are faithful, that his authority is honored through earthly parents, and that he blesses obedience with life and flourishing, and that Christ, the true son, fulfills and empowers our obedience. To honor parents then is not merely a social duty, it's a gospel reality shaping covenant life for today and for generations to come. So the questions then, the questions that I passed out, those questions, I hope everybody read them beforehand. Well, I guess I read them before we started, too. But they were meant really to spark, kind of be thought provoking throughout the teaching. And hopefully I did address each one, but I wanted to spend the remainder of the time just going through them, not asking for answers, but just providing answers for them if anyone has any questions. can address that as well. But the first question, why does the fifth commandment stand as a bridge between duties to God and duties to man? Hopefully I answered that well in the teaching but we see the fifth commandment standing as a bridge because it connects the two tables of the law, our duty to God and our duty to man. You know really by honoring our parents and all in authority we show that we recognize God as the ultimate source of authority. The family is the first institution that God has established back in Genesis 2, and it becomes the training ground for how we are to relate to him and to others. Quote John Calvin, he says, the honor due to parents is the foundation of all authority. Thus, learning to submit to our parents really prepares us to submit to God, to the church leaders, and to all our civil leaders. Question number two, in what ways do modern culture and society openly rebel against this commandment? We all know our culture often views authority as oppressive, a lot of times unnecessary. Many children despise parental instruction. Families dishonor the elderly and society mocks and rejects all lawful authority as a whole. Again, the entertainment industry portrays parents as foolish and authority figures as corrupt. And this really feeds a spirit of rebellion. Civil disobedience, lawlessness, and disrespect for elders is rampant. Again, Second Timothy 3.2, for people will be lovers of self, you see disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy. So rebellion against parents is really a symptom of a deeper rebellion against God. Question three, how can parents both require obedience and model godliness without provoking their children? Now, in this question, I in no way mean that requiring obedience and modeling godliness provokes children, you know, and so that we have to watch. But, you know, parents really must, it's really about parents here, about combining firm discipline, but with gentle instruction. We all know from Ephesians 6, 4, where it commands, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This means parents must avoid harshness, favoritism, One of the things unreasonable demands, you know, they must discipline consistently, but always with love and always pointing children to Christ. I think that's the worst thing is the inconsistent discipline. You know, one day you want things all right a little bit, the other day when you had a bad day, it's the end of the world. That surely provokes children to anger the inconsistency there. Thomas Boston said parents should be living sermons before their children. So by living holy lives showing repentance when we fail and teaching the gospel faithfully we as parents foster an environment where obedience really flows from love and respect rather than from fear. Question four, what are some practical ways we can honor aged parents today? Well, honoring parents really continues into adulthood. We saw there where Jesus condemned the Pharisees for refusing to care for their parents. but some practical ways, providing financial and physical care in their old age, showing respect in speech, you know, not dismissing them, speaking harshly or, you know, dealing with, you know, them being just, you know, seen as a burden to us where we don't have time for their foolishness. You can also spend time with them, listening to their wisdom, valuing their presence. One of the greatest things I miss in my life is my grandparents and just while no one else wanted to listen to their World War II stories I thought it was like the greatest thing in the world and things that are lost and you know and all of our parents have those things that wisdom that he's just going to go to the grave with them. So spend time listening to their wisdom and really valuing the time we have with them. One of the biggest things we can do though for our parents is to pray for them and pointing them to Christ. Paul said in 1 Timothy 5.4, if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents, but to show that godliness. Question five, when, if ever, is it right to disobey civil authority and how does Acts 5.29 help us? Well, civil disobedience is only warranted when rulers command what God forbids or forbid what God commands. You know, Acts 5.29 is really the guiding principle. We must obey God rather than men. We saw Daniel is a great example, Daniel 6, disobeying King Darius when prayer was outlawed. Or we see with the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1, when they were commanded to kill the Hebrew boys. In both cases, obedience to God really took precedence. You know, however, really outside of such circumstances, Christians are commanded to submit to rulers, and even when rulers are harsh. And lastly, question six, how does Christ's obedience to his parents and his father bring comfort to us who fail in this commandment? Well, Christ obeyed his earthly parents perfectly. Luke 2.51 says, and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And more importantly, he obeyed his Heavenly Father without sin, even unto death. In Philippians 2.80, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So this perfect obedience is credited to believers by faith. Though we fail in honoring parents and rulers and other authorities, Christ's righteousness covers us. His obedience comforts us because he fulfilled the law in our place. And now his spirit enables us to walk in new obedience. So in closing, we see the fifth commandment's not really a relic of ancient Israel, but it's a perpetual moral law. And it's the backbone of a family, of church, and society. To honor those who are in authority is to honor God himself, for he's the fountain of all authority. The promise of blessing encourages us that God's ways are always good. And when we fail, Christ's perfect obedience and sacrificial love covers us, pointing us back to grace. Because Christ honored the Father for us and in us, let us strive by his spirit then to cultivate families, churches, and societies where honor is given, where honor is due. and where the covenant promises of God really shine forth in every generation. And may we be able, may we be a people who joyfully honor all whom God has placed over us for the sake of Christ who perfectly honored his father. Well next week, Lord willing, Deuteronomy 5, 17. I'm going to hit one more verse. So we're getting there. It's the sixth word. Who knows what that is? Are you teaching? You're not even teaching. You shall not murder. So let us pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you for the riches of your word that we've studied together this evening. We bless you for giving us your holy law and especially for reminding us through the fifth commandment that you call us to honor father and mother and by extension all whom you've placed in authority over us. We confess that your word is good and true. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Oh Lord, help us not only to hear these truths but to put them into practice. Father, give us grace to honor our parents with love, respect and care and help us to speak with gentleness and patience even when it's difficult. Strengthen us, O Lord, to pray for and obey our leaders in the church and in the civic realm, remembering that there is no authority except from you. Father, keep us from the spirit of rebellion and instead clothe us with humility. For you give grace to the humble. Father we rejoice that Christ himself fulfilled this commandment perfectly and we rest not in our obedience but in his. Yet we also ask that by your spirit you would conform us to his image more and more that we may walk in joyful submission and bring glory to your name. Father as we go from this place may your word dwell richly in us. Grant us opportunities this week to honor our parents to encourage our children to respect authority and in all these things to show forth the obedience of Christ our Savior and Lord. We ask this with confidence through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit. One God forevermore. Amen.