We continue this Lord's Day in our study of the fruit of the Spirit, once again focusing our attention upon the fruit of faithfulness and applying that fruit of faithfulness within our own homes. A text from Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, first of all, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. And then in Ephesians 6-4, And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. A great enemy of the fruit of faithfulness within our homes is the absence, neglect, or refusal of fathers to love, lead, and train their children within the Christian family. Christian fathers who will love and lead their children in truth and by their own example are so often AWOL, absent without official leave, or MIA, missing in action. Dear men, if you are not training your children by scripture, by love, by prayer, And by your example of faithfulness to Jesus Christ, you are training them not to love scripture, not to trust and love Christ, not to love prayer. And you are doing so by your own example. Faithfulness to your children, dear fathers, is not only working hard to provide food and shelter and clothing for their outward bodies, but is also working hard to provide the atmosphere, the environment, the training and the education in which the grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ will fill their lives and hearts and lead them unto Jesus Christ, wherein their souls will be preserved forever. Dear Christian Fathers, I submit to you it is time for us to grab all excuses that proceed from our mouth for why we cannot be or for why we cannot become the faithful fathers that God has called us to be and to cast forth those excuses from us, to throw them forth from our mouths like contaminated food that's in our mouth. Making excuses for our failure will only prop up our failures to become faithful. not to become perfect, but become faithful fathers who lead our children to Christ by our words and by our deeds. And as I speak to fathers, I'm not only wanting to address, though the text specifically says fathers, but certainly many of these truths that we're talking about would apply to mothers. when applied to you who will yet become fathers, you who will yet become mothers. Learn these truths. Instill them into your hearts and into your minds, even now. God help us, gentlemen, to take our divine calling as fathers to be a calling of faithfulness to the Lord first and foremost. And then a divine calling to be faithful within our families. And then a divine calling to be faithful within the church. And then a divine calling to be faithful to all succeeding generations, those who will precede us as our descendants for what we do now, for what we do right now, the way we instruct and teach, love and discipline and correct our children, will either have in the future a great reward, a great blessing, or it will have very ill and damaging effects for generations to come. This Lord's Day we continue in our study of the fruit of the Spirit, considering the fruit of faithfulness and focusing upon the faithfulness in respect to the divine calling of fatherhood. From our text this Lord's Day we shall focus our attention upon the following two commands. First of all, a negative command. Provoke not your children to wrath. And then secondly, a positive command. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so the first main point. A negative command. Provoke not your children to wrath. As the Apostle Paul began in the previous chapter, in Ephesians chapter 5, to present to Christian families the duties of faithfulness, wives to husbands, husbands to wives, so he continues in Ephesians chapter 6 to summarize the duties of faithfulness on the part of children to parents. In Ephesians 6, verses 1 through 3, which we'll consider in a future sermon, and the duties of faithfulness on the part of fathers in particular, but parents in general, to their children in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4. The Holy Spirit directs this command specifically to fathers, though no doubt the duties of faithfulness that Paul mentions here would also apply to mothers as well. Fathers are particularly addressed here because it is the husband and the father that God has appointed to be the head of his household of faith. In Galatians chapter 6 verse 10 Christian families are called households of faith and there we read and we As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." Or literally, to them who are of the households, in the plural, households of faith. And so these households of faith, that we as husbands and as fathers are to guide and to lead. These households of faith include our wives. They include all of our children as well. As Joshua declared over his household of faith, so Christian husbands and fathers must likewise declare today. As for me and my house or my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24, verse 15. Let us now look more closely at the negative command God gives to us as fathers. Provoke not your children to wrath. Now, looking at this This is, as we note, a command that is in the present tense, indicating that this is a duty of faithfulness, not that we are to do once in a while, but because it's in the present tense, this is something that is to characterize our lives, men, not provoking our children to wrath. Essentially the same command is given in Colossians chapter 3 verse 21 where the Apostle Paul says, Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. So let us first consider what this command does not mean and then let us consider what it does mean. What this command does not mean, first of all, it does not mean that we as fathers or as parents should do whatever pleases our children and whatever complies with their wishes so that they do not become angry with us. This would completely contradict many other places in the scripture, which command us to discipline, which command us to chasten, which command us to reprove our children. And I'll guarantee you, our children do not like to be chastened, disciplined, or reproved. We didn't like it when we were young. That's just not a part of our natural makeup. We are given to, by nature, disapprove of those things. But just because a child disapproves of it and becomes angry over it, is no reason to discontinue it. In Proverbs chapter 19, verse 18, We read, Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Well, that certainly indicates he doesn't like it. Maybe he's crying about it. He might even become angry because he's crying about it. Likewise, we read in Proverbs 22, 15, Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Again, who likes to receive the rod of correction? Who rejoices and says, you know, that was a pleasant, pleasurable experience to receive the rod of discipline. In fact, in Hebrews 12, 11, the apostle says, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. There are also passages of scripture likewise which command us to teach and do train our children, which so often goes contrary to what direction they want to go. They want to do their own thing? We're called to train them. We're called to set them on a different path than perhaps they want to go, by nature. And that's why we read in Proverbs 22.6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. You see, this erroneous interpretation of what it means to provoke not your children to wrath is opposed to what Paul commands immediately following in the same verse where he says, but bring them up or train them, in other words, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The child's wishes and inclinations are not to overrule the command of the Lord or the duty of faithfulness given by God to us as fathers, to us as parents. Secondly, this command, provoke not your children to wrath, also does not necessarily mean that if our children become angry with us about being disciplined, reproved, corrected, or being trained and taught the right ways of the Lord, out of love for them, that we have erred, and therefore need to rethink what we are doing, simply because they become angry. Granted, thoughtful reflection and discussion between a father and a mother is a good sounding board to get the feedback that we all need in improving and growing in the way that is most effective with our children. One parent may know one of the children and have a closer relationship with that child and understand that child better than the other parent. Typically, mothers are going to spend a lot more time around the children than the fathers. They need, again, that interaction, one with another, about these types of issues. Moving on, then, what does this command mean? This command, provoke not your children to wrath, what does it mean? Well, it means that as fathers, and again more generally as parents, we should not provoke, we should not tempt, we should not lead our children to become angry with us because of our sinful behavior, conduct, speech, and treatment of them. Each of us, whether child or adult, is always responsible for our sinful and angry response to being treated in a harsh, angry, disrespectful, scornful, humiliating manner. We're responsible for the way in which we respond. We can't excuse our sin if we sinfully respond to the way we're treated, even if it's sinful. We're still responsible. The Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 through 45, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. We cannot blame our sinful response on the person who provoked us. with his or her ungodly behavior. But at the same time, when we as fathers, when we as parents, by our sinful words or deeds, provoke or tempt our children, or provoke and tempt our parents, or provoke or tempt our wife or our husband, or anyone else to sin. We have become at that point an accomplice and an aid to Satan who is called the tempter. The tempter in Matthew 4. We are tempting someone else. We are provoking someone else to sin. They're responsible for the way they respond, but we are responsible. And I would submit to you, the one who tempts and provokes has a far greater aggravation of sin than the one who merely responds. That child or anyone else may be responsible for his sinful outburst of anger or her sinful outburst of anger. but I as a father am even more responsible for provoking that child to wrath. You see, that is to set a stumbling block before a child. which Jesus declares to be a most heinous and grievous sin in Luke 17 verse 2 where he says, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Secondly, this command, provoke not your children to wrath, means that we as fathers and as parents in general will seek by God's grace and with God's help to avoid the following kinds of words and deeds because they tend to provoke and tempt our children to become angry with us. First of all, unreasonable Unrealistic or unclear commands or expectations will tend to provoke our children to wrath. Children should be given chores, responsibilities, and duties appropriate to their age from the very time that they have the mobility and the flexibility, the ability to pick things up, to train and to teach them, to pick up their toys, and throughout the time that they are in our homes. They should be taught these types of responsible actions within the home. However, our expectations should not be perfection, but rather a wholehearted effort and a reasonable degree of completing the tasks that they were assigned. This can only be accomplished, dear ones, when our children understand clearly what we're asking them to do in the first place. And therefore, we must explain it to them. We must, if necessary, show them what we are asking them to do, and then give them a reasonable amount of time to do it within. So much frustration and anger, I believe, comes at times from a child who does not understand what he or she is to do. Fathers and parents in general should ask the child after giving to them something to do, do you understand what I just said? They should ask the child, is it clear to you? what you're to do. They should even ask the child to repeat back to the parent, what did I just ask you to do? Make sure that there's no miscommunication as to what was just asked to be done. Yelling from one end of the house to the other end of the house, unless it's an emergency, so as to have the child hear you from a distance rather than asking the child to come to you so that you can look them eye to eye, in the face. That's the way that I would submit one will more effectively communicate to the child what you would have the child to do. And then, thereby, I would submit to you, more likely avoid frustration and anger because It's not done in the way that the parent said it should be, was not understood. At least we can eliminate some of the issues if it is clearly communicated. The child still may not want to do it. There may be other issues that arise, but at least they'll understand if we follow these types of principles. Secondly, speaking to our covenant children in an angry outburst, calling them foul names, humiliating them in front of their friends, or speaking to them in general with a harsh, loud voice. Doing these things, we will provoke them to anger, to bitterness. Now, there is a time to be firm. There is a time to raise the volume, not an outburst of anger, but to raise the volume, especially where there is obstinacy, but not in a fit of rage, but under control to show that this is serious business that is being addressed at that point. Thirdly, when we punish our children rather than disciplining our children, we will provoke them to anger. You see, punishment is getting even with our children. It is retributive justice, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Discipline, on the other hand, is training and teaching our children to love truth and righteousness and to hate error and wickedness. Fourthly, when our children do not know that we love them when we discipline them, we will provoke them to wrath. they will, at that point, see discipline only in a negative light. Whereas the Lord tells us that His discipline is a token of His great love for us. In Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 6, where we read, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you, as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. You see, dear fathers, parents, we must seek by love to win the hearts of our children and to lead them to obey us rather than simply standing on a soapbox and authoritatively demanding that they obey us. We need to win their hearts. We need to lead them by way of winning their hearts. And that only comes when they know we love them. even when they are disciplined, even when the discipline must be more severe. They know we don't do so out of anger to get even, but because we love them. That will obviously not be only expressed, that love only expressed when we discipline them, that it will be expressed throughout their life. In other words, if all we say, we use the term, I discipline you because I love you, and that's the only time they hear us say we love them, they're going to not have probably the right perspective with regard to the idea and concept of love. They have to know that we love them throughout their walk, throughout their life. Fifthly, when we as fathers or parents in general do not set an example of faithfulness to Christ in submitting to His commands, to God's commands, to Christ's commands, we will provoke our children more likely to anger, to resentment, to bitterness. How can we, without contradiction and hypocrisy, call our children to submit to our commands when they see that we do not submit to the commands that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us. Dear ones, this is a recipe for the growth, whether inward or outward, a recipe for the growth of anger and bitterness within our children. Sixthly, when we do not pray with our children, confess our own faults and sins to our children when we have sinned against them, walk them through the gospel each time discipline is necessary. We provoke them to frustration and anger by teaching them that they are only acceptable before God and before us. if they meet certain standards and expectations, rather than that they can only be acceptable before God, not because of standards that parents set, not because of standards they set, not even because of standards God sets. They can only be acceptable before God because Christ has kept perfectly those holy standards. Christ has obeyed without flaw, without sin, the law of God. That we must teach them. We must teach them that they are acceptable before God on the basis of Christ's righteousness. Certainly disobedience affects our fellowship. It hinders our fellowship. But our acceptance before God and our children's acceptance before us is not based upon some standard. Once we pray with our children when they have disobeyed and they seek God's forgiveness, they seek the forgiveness of others that they have offended, We can then tell them as we walk them through the gospel when they are disciplined, we can then tell them that the matter is behind us. Let's move on rather than dwelling on that any longer. Let's move on. Our children must know that God removes their sins as far as the east is from the west and remembers their sins against them no more as they trust Christ alone for their forgiveness. Dear fathers, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that leads our children away from wrath, away from bitterness, and rather leads our children to willingly submit their hearts in love to the Lord Jesus Christ and to us as fathers and to us as parents in general. To simply demand obedience of our children is as if we were instituting a covenant of works in our family, within our households of faith, where acceptance is based upon perfect obedience rather than a covenant of grace, where acceptance is based upon Christ's perfect obedience. This will only lead I submit you to frustration, anger and bitterness in provoking our children to wrath. We move on to the second main point at this time. And this is our second main point. A positive command. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Here the Holy Spirit commands us as fathers not only to abstain from doing that which is sinful and provoking our children to wrath, but also commands us as fathers to replace that sinful behavior on our parts that provokes our children to wrath. He commands us now to do something positive by way of replacing that which is negative, replace it, replace it with that which is positive and that which pleases Him. Namely, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Quite literally, this portion of the verse reads from the original language, but nurture them in the training and admonition of the Lord. But nurture them in the training and admonition of the Lord. Here, once again, the main verb of this second part of the verse, nurture, is a command in the present tense, emphasizing that this is what is to characterize our lives in relationship to our children. what is to characterize our lives is nurturing them, nourishing them. We are not to starve our children either physically or spiritually, but to nourish them that they might grow in both respects. Dear Fathers, we can either stunt the growth of our children physically or spiritually by the way we treat them, or we can nourish their growth, encourage their growth. You see, our children are like plants, which if they are given the nurture and nourishment needed, they will, by God's grace, grow. But if we do not nurture them and protect them from worldly enemies that would attack them either bodily or spiritually, it will be allowing, it will be as if we allowed weeds to grow and to take over these precious little plants that God has given to us and choke out the life within them. You see, doing nothing to nourish your children, even though you're not intentionally seeking to provoke them to wrath, but doing nothing to nourish them is doing something to destroy your children in the Lord. Because then the enemy can simply come in, in various forms. You see, there is no neutrality. We can't simply say, well, I'm not going to provoke them the wrath, and I'm not going, on the other hand, I'm not going to be nourishing them spiritually. There's no neutrality if you don't nourish them spiritually. You are destroying them spiritually. As fathers, we are commanded to nurture our children in the following two ways. which are not entirely distinct one from the other, but are rather complementary one to the other. First, we are commanded to nurture our children in training them. We're to nurture our children in training them. The word used here for training or discipline is derived actually from the word for child. in the Greek language. And so what this actually refers to is child training. So we are to nurture our children in child training. Dear fathers, we are to nurture our children by training them, not allowing the world to train them, not allowing television to train them, not allowing computers to train them, not allowing music to train them, not allowing their friends to train them, but rather it is our duty of faithfulness as fathers before God to train them, together with mothers, to train them in our own households of faith. Yes, children may be trained outside the home, but I submit to you that they should only be trained outside the home under the ultimate oversight of fathers. They shouldn't just be going here and there without any knowledge as to who is training their children, because training is going on one way or the other. We should care as fathers and so that we have that type of oversight. We know who is training our children. The idea of training that is conveyed in the Greek word used here involves hard work. It involves planning. It involves thinking. It involves reading the scripture. It involves praying. It involves our total dependency in training our children, our total dependency upon God for His grace. For we can do nothing apart from God's grace in training our children in an effectual manner that brings forth the fruit of everlasting life. Those fathers who are not nurturing their children by training them to walk in the paths of righteousness and truth are indeed teaching them. They're teaching them that their dreams, that is the children's dreams, their thoughts and their ways are more important than God's ways, God's thoughts. Our children will be taught, dear ones, and they will be instructed. Their heads aren't going to remain empty. Their heads are going to be filled with something. Their lives are going to be filled with something. The only question is, by whom and in whose ways will they be taught and trained? God's ways or man's ways? If we profess to be Christian fathers, We cannot take a backseat to our children's training. I submit to you that is to provoke God to wrath. When we as fathers take a backseat to the training of our children, it is to provoke God to wrath. For the children of Christian parents, God says, through the Apostle Paul, are holy. The children of Christian parents are holy in 1 Corinthians 7.14, which does not necessarily mean that they are inwardly holy, though many are, but rather that our children are separated from the world and are members of the visible church. We therefore, we therefore provoke God, who has extended his promises to these dear children in our households of faith whom he calls holy. And he has extended his promises to them in Acts chapter 2 verse 39. The promises are to you, you who profess faith and to your children. Let us train our children Dear ones, according to some of the following stepping stones, we can either put stepping stones in front of our children or stumbling blocks. We can either give them the stones upon which they will step and progress. to higher and higher levels and degrees of Christian growth and sanctification, or we can set stumbling blocks before them by the way we treat them. And so I give to you these just, again, to consider. First of all, a stepping stone, train your children with much love and affection, touching holding their fathers. It's not a sissy to hold, to hug your son. They must know you love them by your words and by your deeds. A second stepping stone, train your children knowing their natural bent toward evil. You see, just like us, as parents, we have a natural bent toward evil, our children have a natural bent toward evil. That's why, again, it says in Proverbs 22, 15, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And therefore, we need the grace of God. We need the grace of God in order to love In order to correct, in order to train them, we need the grace of God, just as they need the grace of God to receive the correction, the love, the instruction, the training that we give to them. God's grace, because of the natural bent in our own hearts toward evil, God's grace is necessary in our children's hearts and in our own hearts and lives. And so don't be surprised and act astonished when your children sin. It's going to happen. Just as our children ought not to be astonished when we as parents sin because it's going to happen. There are no perfect parents. There are no perfect children. We all need the grace of God. In fact, their sin The sin of our children should not amaze us, but what should amaze us, dear ones, and always amazes, is the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. The third stepping stone. Train them in the atmosphere of the gospel. Even when issuing commands and discipline, train them in the atmosphere of the gospel of Jesus Christ. True obedience begins with a changed heart through the power of the Spirit of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Train them in that atmosphere, always in your time of worship with your children, and in times of discipline, walking them through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are living it out as you teach them. You send You need to seek the forgiveness of God. You need to seek the forgiveness of those you've offended. And then to endeavor new obedience once they have sought God's forgiveness, turned from their sin. They're living out the Gospel. They're seeing the Gospel daily in the way that we train them. It's within that atmosphere of the Gospel. Fourthly, the fourth stepping stone, train them to submit to those who have lawful authority over them. They will not learn to submit with joy to you, dear ones, if they do not learn to submit with joy to Jesus Christ. Again, the necessity of the gospel. Submission, as we've said in previous sermons, submission is the way of life. Rebellion is the way of death. Teach your children submission. Teach them submission by your own submission, fathers, to Jesus Christ, to those who have lawful authority over you. Let them see your submission. Teach them, likewise, in this regard, talking about submission, teach them that the world does not revolve around them. that they do not exist to be served, but to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to serve others. A fifth stepping stone, train them to love the truth and righteousness of Christ. Never respond to serious questions that your children ask you about the Bible by saying, I don't know, we've just always done it that way. If you can't provide a biblical answer, dear fathers, to a child's question, don't be embarrassed. Simply tell that child, I don't know the answer to that question right now, but by God's grace, I'm going to find the answer to that question. always seek to use the scripture, and along with the scripture, scripture first and foremost, but along with the scripture, the confession of faith, when answering your children's questions, or the larger, the shorter catechism to answer your children's questions, so that they learn that God's word first and foremost is relevant to all areas of life. And it is also in God's Word that we profess our faith in the form of this confession of faith, in the form of this larger and in the form of this shorter catechism. This is our faith, our biblical faith that is professed. The sixth stepping stone, train your children to work hard. Don't let them spend their whole day playing In recreation, obviously, this is going to be tailored to the age of the child to some degree, but nevertheless, train your children to work hard. Recreation is important to break up the day, but recreation ought not to consume the day. Otherwise, all we're doing is preparing children to seek that which is fun and pleasurable in life. not teaching them that God gives them a calling. God gives them a calling to work. And the greatest joy and satisfaction in our hearts arises when we have worked hard, not when we have just wasted our day with games and recreations and things like that. Again, there's a time for games, there's a time for recreation, but not to consume our day, nor the day for our children. Plan your children's days with chores, with schoolwork, with works of mercy to others in the church, in writing letters to pen pals, in reading good literature, as well as with time to run and play. Much idleness and pleasure-seeking will only breed discontentment and discouragement when God brings afflictions and trials into their lives later on. They will not know how to handle it because trials and tribulations aren't fun. They're not pleasurable or be filled with discontentment if they have not learned the lessons of hard work. Seventh. The seventh stepping stone in training Train your children by your own example, fathers. Your children, especially while they are young, are more prone to learn by what they see than what they hear. Don't just tell your children to walk the narrow path of righteousness and truth. Show them how to walk it and then invite them to follow you. the eighth stepping stone, train your children by giving them a solid Christian education. More important in a solid Christian education than simply filling their minds with facts, or only filling their minds with facts, is building character within them. So many can have the knowledge in their head, but they do not have The outworking of that knowledge and wisdom, they don't know how to apply the knowledge because they have not been taught the importance of character, integrity, faithfulness to God, to their family, to the church, to succeeding generations. And so, give them a Christian education, whether in school, homeschooling, in secret worship, training and teaching them to have secret worship as they grow up, their own personal worship each and every day, teaching and training in family worship, and in corporate worship, and in life in general. Making all of life the school of Jesus Christ, where we teach and we train our children about the Lord. Ninth, and lastly, train your children that this life is passing away and that they must prepare themselves to meet their God. In Ecclesiastes 12.1 we read, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Times are going to get hard and harder and harder. Not just because we get older, but as we look about us, the world is in downward spiral into wickedness and every form of ungodliness. God's judgment is falling by the laws, by the leaders that we have. We can just see it all about us. Train your children that there is something beyond this world. Train your children, dear ones, they cannot put their hopes in this life. They cannot put their hopes in people. They cannot put their hopes ultimately in circumstances that they hope are favorable to them. For this world is fading away, as is our very life is fading away. Our children must have a much, much more firm foundation than what is perishing and fading away. They must have a hope in the living God who created them and in the eternal glories that will never perish, that will never fade away. We're not only to nurture our children by training them, but very quickly we are also to nurture our children by admonishing them. In the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This admonition of the Lord means literally to put them in mind. Admonition is to put them in mind of the Lord in all that they do. to put them in mind of the Lord, admonition of the Lord. We admonish our children by teaching them, from the time they're very small, what their baptism means, their need of Christ, that's what their baptism points to, their need of Jesus Christ due to their sin, and the promises that God has made to them in the gospel and in their baptism, for the baptism is a visible gospel. To admonish our children is to warn them where rebellion will lead, and to encourage them where loving obedience will lead. To admonish our children is to comfort them when they fall with the comfort of God's promises, those very same promises of the Gospel that likewise comfort our hearts when we fall. Dear Fathers, if we take these matters seriously, and mothers as well, we will no doubt feel overwhelmed. We will feel the heavy burden that weighs upon our shoulders to be faithful in these regards. But if we're not careful, and we should feel the weight of them, there should not be light and ephemeral. This is important business. But if we are not careful, we will be overwhelmed and crushed. Beneath this burden, if we carry this around upon our shoulders as a covenant of works, we must remember that Jesus Christ has fulfilled all righteousness for us and he supplies all grace necessary and all fruit of the spirit necessary is freely given to us in Christ Jesus. Yes, we should feel the weight but We don't bear that burden by ourself. Lord Jesus Christ is the one who bears that burden with us, dear fathers and dear mothers. You see, there will only be joy in endeavoring faithfulness to Jesus Christ, faithfulness to our children, faithfulness to our family. Faithfulness to our church and faithfulness to succeeding generations if we live and breathe and consciously live under the covenant of grace, under the covenant of grace where Christ has already fulfilled all righteousness and obedience for us and supplies all grace and fruit that we need to be faithful to him. You see, a verse like this in Ephesians 6, 4, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is intended to drive us outside of ourselves in utter humiliation, so that we cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The duties even within the gospel, the commandments even within the gospel should be driving us outside of ourselves and seeing that only Jesus Christ, only Jesus Christ can work within us both the will and to do His good pleasure. There is no hope for any of us as fathers apart from the mercy and the promise of Jesus Christ. Without Christ We can do nothing, absolutely nothing, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Praise be to His most glorious name. Let us stand in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, We praise Thee and thank Thee for Thy Word, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the challenge of Thy Spirit to fall upon Thee, that we might be the fathers, that we might be the parents that we ought to be, and not provoking our children to wrath, but bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We pray, Father, that Thou would make Lord our endeavoring faithfulness, that Thou would make it effectual, O Lord, by Thy grace in the lives of our children, that Thou would work within them both to do Thy good pleasure. We pray, Father, bring them and draw them unto Jesus Christ. Give to them a faith and a hope in Jesus Christ, not a hope in this world, but a hope forevermore that never fades and passes away. We ask our Lord that Thou would have mercy upon us for all of our many failures, and Lord, that we would cast our failures upon Thee, that we would, Lord, realize there is mercy with God. Salvation is of the Lord. We ask, Lord, that Thou would hear our prayers in Jesus' name. Amen. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide, online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, MP3s, and videos. 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