Turn your Bibles tonight to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. I want to begin reading at the sixth verse. Deuteronomy chapter six and verse six. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. Let's stop reading there and look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for this meeting tonight. We thank you for these who have come. We ask you to bless us as we consider your word for a few moments. And we pray that the desire of our hearts might be as we gather around your word each time, the desire might be, our desire might be reflected in what the choir is saying, that we purify our hearts, that we would allow you to examine our hearts before you. that we would be willing to turn over to you the very private corners that we control. We thank you tonight that we can stand on your promises firmly and securely in these days of chaos and confusion and turmoil. We pray now that you would help us as we look into your word. We do pray about the election on Tuesday. We pray that you might move and work and that there might be some changes made. What we're interested in is a continued window of opportunity, a continued space of time to Preach your word in freedom and to have this Christian school and to train these young people in the way that they should go. And we pray that you might put into office those who will not impede that freedom or attempt to take it away. And we pray these things in Jesus precious name. Amen. Tonight, for a few minutes, we want to think about these verses from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and their relation to education. Over the course of the last couple of months, we've heard about the education of children in political ad after political ad until we probably feel that if we hear the word education one more time, we'll scream. Those ads just seem to drone on and on and on. But thankfully, the day of deliverance is coming. When you listen to them, what you find or what you are given the impression of is that politicians seem to believe that the way to get elected is to promise to spend more and more of our money on education. When the truth is that what we need in education is not more money. What we need in education in this country is true wisdom and true knowledge being taught. And that can only be found in the word of God. And what we're reminded of here is that God has given the responsibility for training and educating children not to the state. He's not given that responsibility to the government. He's given that responsibility to parents. The government has taken that responsibility. And it's very sad that parents have gone along with Satan's program to train up their children in the way that he wants them to go. And that includes somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of those who named the name of Christ. When we were at the marriage rally at the end of September, And we were sitting there in Halifax Mall. There was a few minutes before the program actually got started. There was some singing going on, and so we were sitting there in our chairs. I was looking around, and as we were sitting facing toward the microphone and stage, Off to the right, there's this huge building. I don't know what's in there. Obviously, maybe something to do with education. But there's these different sayings. The wall of it is painted up, and there's these different sayings on the wall there. And one of them really caught my eye. And it struck me so much that I took out my phone and I typed a note of what it said on the phone, because I didn't want to forget it. I'm getting to that age where if you want to, you know, the old steel trap is not up here anymore. It's in your notes on your phone or somewhere. But I didn't want to forget what this little saying said, because it's very true. It says, learning in old age is riding on sand. But learning in youth is engraving on stone. Think about that. Learning in old age is writing on sand, but learning in youth is engraving on stone. And every day in this country, Satan is engraving on stone. He's engraving on the stone of the minds of 55 or so million young people in this country and what he is engraving there is the gospel of humanism. That's why the ministry of Calvary Christian School is so important. Because every day we have the opportunity to engrave on the stone of the minds of some 200 or so young people the gospel of Jesus Christ. and the truth of the word of God. And in an indirect way, we have the opportunity to engrave on the minds of parents that message of truth. It's one of the reasons the fall festival is so, it's a nice time for the children, and it is. They have a great time as they come. But it's also a night of ministry. As we're able to minister to, um, the, the parents of these children who come, please notice as we look at these verses that the responsibility for engraving on the stone of the minds of our children begins with us. Verse seven begins by telling us that we are to teach our children diligently. And this verse tells us two ways that we're to teach them diligently. First of all, we are to talk about the word of God. And thou shalt teach them diligently. These words that we read about in verse six, unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them. Thou shalt talk of them. One of the ways that we diligently teach our children is by talking, talking about these words, talking about the word of God. And this talking begins not in the church, not in the Christian school, but in thine house. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house. Are we doing that? What do we talk about at home? What is the focus of our conversation? What's the tone of it? We ought to think about that. And consider that diligent teaching begins in thine house, in our house. One of the great mistakes that Christian parents make is in delegating the spiritual training of their children to the Sunday school teacher, the preacher, the young people's, the people that work with the young people's meeting, the Christian school teacher. These people certainly contribute to the spiritual training of our children. That's why God has given them the gifts that he's given to them. And that's why he's placed them in the body of the local church to be teachers and instructors. But God gave you the children that you have. And you are to teach them diligently. Not just the Christian school, not just the church. You're to teach them diligently. And you're to talk of these words when thou sittest in thine house. What are we engraving? What are we engraving? on the stone of the minds of our children in our home. We don't leave here with anything else tonight. I hope that we'll leave here with that question on our minds. What are we engraving on the stone of the minds of our children in our homes? In our homes. But there's a second way that we teach, and we see it in the words of verse seven. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way. Teaching is not only talking. Teaching is not only talking. Teaching is walking. It's walking. It's not only saying, but it's also doing. The last half of this seventh verse is all doing, it's all action, it's walking, lying down, rising up. Diligent teaching consists of talking and walking. They're two sides of the educational coin, if you will. Two sides that make up a consistent and a faithful and an obedient Christian life. And what our children are looking for is a walk that is consistent with our talk. I know of no greater confusion than for parents to talk one way and walk another. So many times we teach our children that Christianity is just, it's a talk, it's a language that we speak. when what they need to see is that it is a life that we live. The children of Israel were not to talk occasionally about the law of the Lord, but constantly, sitting and walking, however they were engaged. Lying down, rising up. In other words, early in the morning, late at night, the word of God was to, was to control and to rule their conversation, their manner of life. They weren't just, um, we would refer to them as just tabernacle Christians when they gathered around the tabernacle. We're not to just be Sunday Christians. We're to be seven day a week Christians. Brother Kent used to say, you're a Christian 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or you're no Christian at all. We've talked many times about having our lives separated into the sacred on Sunday and the secular the other six days of the week. Verse seven, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. The next thing we want to notice is the word bind there in verse eight. And thou shalt bind them, these words, the word of God, thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand. The statutes of the Lord were to be bound on the hands of the Israelites. Why the hands? Because the hands speak to us of our actions. We're back to our actions again. In the Bible, we read of doing with our hands and working with our hands. And the great need of every believer tonight is to have the word of God govern and control our hands, our actions. It's interesting that another meaning of the word bind here is knit. Knit. In 1 Samuel 18, chapter 18, verse 1, we read how the soul of Jonathan was knit in love with the soul of David. The word knit in that verse and the word bind here in verse 8 are the same word. Here, the word is associated with our hand, our actions, there it's associated with love. And the two verses, the two thoughts are not unrelated. What is love? What is love? Is love what we say or is love what we do? In 1 John chapter 3 in verse 18, we read these words, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 14 in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. In verse 23 of that same chapter, he said, if a man loved me, he will keep my words. Notice that love and God's word are inseparably connected to each other. And the test of our love for the Lord is very simple. The test of our love for the Lord is very simple. It's nothing more, it's nothing less than obedience to the word of God. And that's why God says to his people here in verse 8 concerning his words, And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand. These words are to govern our hands. They're to be knit into our action until they become the very fabric of our life. That's how the word of God is to be to us. Have we bound these words for a sign upon our hands? Does the word of God rule our life? The next thing that we want to think about is found, uh, in the word frontlets. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. These words, these commandments, these statutes, these judgments, God judgments, God says there to be as frontlets between thine eyes. The thought that comes to mind here is that we are to look at life through the Word of God. We're to look at life through the Word of God. We're to look at the world through this book. In other words, this book is to shape our worldview. What shapes our worldview? Another way, we're trying to teach our young people. Here at Calvary Christian School, we're trying to teach them in every class, whether it's science or math or history or whatever it is, we're trying to teach them to have a biblical worldview, to look at this view, to look at this world, to view this world through the lens of the Word of God. Another way of expressing the thought is this, what we see and what we think Because our thoughts are triggered so many times by what we see, that is to be ruled by the truth of God. This book is the lens that we're to look through every day. And if we're saved, the question that we need to consider is this, what is it? What is it tonight that we have as frontlets between our eyes? What is it that we are looking through as we look out into this world? How are we looking at life? How are we looking at the world? What is ruling our eyes and therefore what is ruling our thoughts? The frontlet between the eyes of many believers today is not the word of God. For many believers, it's the television set or the internet. The way that many believers look at life in the world is through what they see on television. Last Sunday night we were studying in Romans chapter 16. And there's a verse there that I'd like for you to keep your place here in Deuteronomy chapter 6, but turn over for just a minute to Romans chapter 16. There's a verse there that I'd like for us to look at. Romans chapter 16 and The verse that we want to look at is verse 19. Paul says, for your obedience has come abroad unto all men. I'm glad, therefore, on your behalf. But notice this last part of this verse is what we want to look at. But yet I would have you wise, I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. That word wise means learned. It means skilled. It means expert. And so Paul says, I would have you wise. I want you to be learned. I want you to be skilled. I want you to be expert in that which is good. But I want you to be simple. that is harmless, innocent, concerning evil. Television has taken away the innocence of entire generations of people in this country. It has desensitized this nation concerning sin and evil and wickedness in every form. Television has made this generation and actually the last two or three generations wise and skilled and expert about that which is evil and simple concerning that which is good. Let's go back again to Deuteronomy chapter 6 because we're thinking about The frontlets, what are we looking, what lens are we looking at this world through? What is shaping our worldview? What a difference it would make in the life of every child of God if the word of God dwelt in us richly, if the word was as frontlets between our eyes. In verse nine, We're told, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house. These words that we're reading about in verse six, the words that God commanded his people, this book. Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. The word of God was to be written first upon the post of their house and then on their gates. The posts of the house are the door posts, the side posts. They surround and they guard the entrance to where we live. And where we live is that private personal place where we dwell. And God said to his people there on those posts, I want you to write my word in that preeminent place there in your house. I want you to write my word. And there's something interesting. There's something instructive about the word posts here in verse nine. This isn't the first place that we read about the posts in the Bible. The life force looked the first place that we read about it. Uh, just turn back a few pages to Exodus chapter 12 for just a minute. Exodus chapter 12. In Exodus chapter 12, we're reading about the Passover and the Passover lamb. And for the sake of time, let's read verse five of Exodus chapter 12, where God's giving his instructions to Moses and he says, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it." Look at verse 22. of this chapter. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lentil in the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the lentil and on the two side posts, The Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. Here's the first mention of the posts that we just read about in Deuteronomy chapter six. And isn't it interesting that before God told the children of Israel to write upon the posts of their house in Deuteronomy chapter six, he first told them to apply the blood of the lamb to those posts. And it's that way because before you can write the word, before you can apply the word to your life, you first have to apply the blood to your life. You first have to be saved. You can't live the life until you first have life. It's amazing the number of people, perhaps even some people in this meeting tonight, who do not understand that. And they're trying to live the Christian life, and they've never been saved. They're trying to live the life of God, and they don't know Him. You see, there's a very definite order here. First, by faith, the blood of the Lamb is applied to the post of the house. Then we go to Deuteronomy chapter 6. And here the Word is written and applied to the post of the house, and then When it's put on the post, the next place that it's to be put is on the gates. The gates are the outer doors, the doors that face the world. The gates are the outward exterior of the house that everybody sees. And it's only when the blood is first applied to the doorpost, and then the word is written and applied to the life, that we can have a testimony to those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only then that we can have a testimony to them that are without the gate. God's order is very plain. It's very simple. God always works from the inside out. He always works from the inside out. Man always begins and wants to work from the outside in. Man wants to clean up the outside. God looks on the heart. God looks beyond the exterior. The Lord deals with the heart. I would ask you this evening, if the order's right in your life, have you applied the blood of the Lamb to your heart? Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? If you're saved tonight, are you obedient? Are you writing the word, applying the word to your heart and life? Do you have a testimony to those who are outside the gates? All of these things that we've talked about tonight fit together so perfectly. The Word of God observed, written in the heart, flowing out of the heart in instruction to our children, to our family, shining out in all of the activities of our daily life so that all who pass by our gates, so that all who come in contact with us or enter into our house might see that the Word of God is the standard that we have in our life, the standard that we have in everything. How is it in our life tonight? What are we teaching people with our life? What are we writing? What are we writing? What are we engraving on the stone of the minds of the hearts of our children? May the Lord help us to think about that question tonight. Father, we thank you for these moments together around your word. And we pray that you would take them and use them to speak to our hearts, to cause us to see the value of this book, the need that we have to read it, to meditate upon it, the need that we have every day to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord, the need that we have to train up our children in the way that they should go. We thank you so much. for this church, we thank you so much for Calvary Christian School. And we marvel every year at the young people that you bring to this place. We marvel over the years as we think about young people who have come and gone from this place. And yet you brought them here and you confronted them with the word of God. You engraved on their minds, the stone of their minds, you engraved your word there. You've sowed that precious seed. And we pray that you would just help us to continue to do that until you come. Faithfully every day. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.