I don't really have much by way of introduction. I would just say this, that in light of what Dad was saying, that we recognize something that stands out to me when you read the famous section at the end of Ephesians. In chapter 6 you see this language about putting on the whole armor of God and being prepared for spiritual warfare. People sometimes forget that that comes on the heels of chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. where you've got arguably two, three, and four of Ephesians focusing on relationships within the church, relationships with people that you see on a regular basis. And then chapter five really focuses a lot on the marriage relationship. And then end of six, you've got children, and then you've got your work environment. And then you have spiritual warfare. And people think the spiritual warfare is what Hollywood depicts, a demonic activity. I believe the Apostle Paul wants us to know the warfare that's most likely to trip us up and cause us problems is in everyday relationships with other people, with other Christians, with non-Christians, with our own flesh, and surely in our relationship with our children. And so with that short bit of introduction, I would like to ask you to stand once more with me to read from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. I don't plan to exposit this section entirely, as I might in a different context, but let it be a baseline for us and our thoughts in the battle for Christian fatherhood. Deuteronomy chapter six, begin reading with me at verse one. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord, your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord, your God. you and your son and your son's son by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be long here. Therefore, or Israel and be careful to do that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you and a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord, your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build. Excuse me, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build and houses full of all good things that you did not feel and cisterns that you did not dig and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, Then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Thank you. You may be seated. As you're being seated, I'll ask you to go with me once again to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, oh Lord, our God, I praise you. I thank you for the great privilege that we have in calling you our father. Oh God, I ask that you would meet with us in this time. that as we look into your word, we would see there is a rich benefit, a rich blessing and application to ourselves, even those things which were spoken so long ago by your servant. Oh, God, I ask that you would help us to see the eternal significance of these things, that you would bring conviction where it's needed, that those who have suffered at the hand of cruelty would see that your hand as father is one of mercy and compassion and goodness. Oh, Father, I pray that you would guard me from error, that you would stop my mouth if I would dare misspeak. But, oh, God, that you would grant liberty and boldness and authority to speak that which is true for your glory and the glory of your son. Oh, God, please meet with us now. I pray, oh, God, that the promised helper, the Holy Spirit, would be among us and that we would be aware of his presence as he opens up this word to us. Oh, God, I am cast upon you. I ask these things in Jesus' name. I'd like to start this, the title of this message which has been given to me is the battle for Christian fatherhood. And there is some irony in being asked by your father to preach on the battle for Christian fatherhood. And I'm going to let you know at the beginning, I don't suppose he was hoping that I would stand in front of you and tell you how perfectly he's done this. He knows that he hasn't. And yet there is a call set before us and there are things that I could say positively, wonderfully about the Lord's use of Him in influencing my life. But the focus of our thoughts today is going to really come down to two primary things. The battle for Christian fatherhood is nothing less than the battle for our children's souls. That's the first thing. That must be the first priority. Anything less than that is a failure of focus. It's looking for a less than the ultimate goal. And the second, and these two things are going to be so intimately related, the second is a battle for a true expression of who God is as Father. Those are our two points that I hope to open up through these texts before us here today. Before that, a little bit of statistics and reporting. I read that back in 2020 there was a survey taken that suggested that there were somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of children in the United States grew up without any kind of father figure. No dad, no stepdad. Now that seems impossible to me. Growing up where I did in the communities that I've lived in, and yet, I don't know where they get these numbers from, but we must all recognize there is a serious problem here. And even at that lower end, the 25 percent, One out of every four children grows up without a dad or father figure in their life. That's staggering, isn't it? Another report that I read suggested that the United States has a higher percentage of children that grow up in a single-parent home than any other nation in the world. That's insane, isn't it? Now, whether these statistics are accurate or not, I believe there must be an overwhelming sense of the devastation that has been caused and is being caused currently by fatherless. And if you want a practical explanation for the degradation of our society, you don't need to look any further than this issue right here. Fatherlessness is, it's the cancer that's eating away at any society. Now, of those children that do grow up with a father figure in their life, or even their own biological father, how many of those men do you suppose are faithfully raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord? How many do you suppose are doing it? I'm sure at an event like this, here you are on a Saturday morning spending your time in a church, gathered with believing people, hearing the scriptures being preached. It's probably not likely that I'm addressing any deadbeat dad that's completely neglected and forsaken their children. However, on the off chance that there is anyone here who is in that situation, if you're guilty of this crime, I charge you to repent. with all haste and fly to Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and commit the rest of your life to taking care of your children in whatever ways left for you to do. But for those of us present who are in our children's lives, I ask what impact do you suppose you're having on them? Or if you don't have children, maybe you're younger and you hope to have children someday, what impact do you want to have on your children? But with that, we begin moving into our first verse of Deuteronomy 6, verse 1. We read, Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it. Now the first thing we see in this verse that we need to consider is that we must apply this truth to ourselves today. Why do I say that? I can imagine someone reading this or hearing me refer to Deuteronomy 6 He says, these things you're supposed to do when you enter, when you go to possess this land that you're going to possess. And you might hear that and think, well, I'm not an Israelite about to go and possess Canaan. I'm not going into this promised land. So does this apply to me today? Well, let me suggest to you that in light of the New Testament, we are meant to see this entrance into Canaan as a shadow of our entrance into the kingdom of God. that if you are a Christian you have entered God's promised land of rest in Christ. And so there is a fruitful and beneficial fulfillment and application of these words to us who are Christians. Let me read for you from Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 demonstrates this very clearly, unarguably I believe. Begin reading with me at verse 1. Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any one of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest. As he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again he appoints a certain day. saying through David so long afterward, and the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on, so that there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." Do you see the connection here? This word we're reading in Deuteronomy is looking forward to entering into this promised land. Joshua is the one who's going to take them there. And the author of the Hebrews is saying, whatever happened with Joshua on a physical, external level was pointing to something greater that's going to come. There's a rest coming. And the author of the Hebrews tells us, those who enter that rest, do so by faith, by believing in Christ, by resting from our labors, even as God rested from His. Not trying to be righteous in what we do. So I say, there is an application to us in our verses today. If you've entered God's promised rest by faith in Jesus Christ, then these things apply to you. The second verse we see is Deuteronomy 6 and verse 2. He says that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Here in verse 2 we notice the relationship in our text between God's commands and God's character which is revealed in His commands. Do you see this? That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son by keeping all His statutes and commandments. Here's God's commandments. And then He says, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be long. Have you ever thought about this when you look into God's Word, when you read God's law? If people look at the law of God as something that's restricting them from life, that's keeping them from goodness, from joy, They're not understanding God's law, what it says and what it means. God's commands have a purpose in them for your good. That's what we're hearing in this. That's what we're seeing demonstrated in this. The blessings that come to us from obedience to God, they're a reflection of God's good and perfect character. You can read from James 1.17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Here's my point. that when you see God commanding something, and there's a fruitful blessing and benefit to living according to that command, even externally, it's telling you something about God's character, His goodness, His good gift-giving as this unchanging perfect Father. That's what we're seeing. And if you see the commands of God as some rigid external standard which is separated from His love and His goodness, you're not seeing the character of God which is intended to be seen in His very Word. He says that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son. The second thing we notice in verse 2 is that it is assumed that fathers ought to desire prosperity and goodness for themselves, for their children, and even here is a reference to their grandchildren. In our text, a long life is set forth as a worthy desire and motivation, which men ought to desire for their children according to nature. We, and we'll consider this more later on, but aren't we very quick to mock and jeer the prosperity preachers when the truth of the Scriptures is it's very natural to desire good things and blessings in the life of your children. It's a good thing. It's not uniquely Christian to desire blessing and prosperity for your children. If you desire these things, it's according to nature, and it's unnatural, and it's a perversion. if you don't desire temporal blessings for your kids. If you don't want things to go well with them, it's an unnatural twisting of God's design. And it's poor reflection of God's character Himself, if you don't have that desire. Consider what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, verses 9 through 11. He says, Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? Do you see what's understood in this text? Jesus is saying, you who are evil, you know it's right to do good things for your children. And you ought to desire that. If you don't, if you're not intentionally invested in the future and well-being of your children, even physically, it's a denial of what it means to be made in the image of God. It's a denial of your role as a father in their life, or a mother as well for that matter. And that's a direct assault upon the goodness of God's character. We're not seeing God's character in these things if we don't see the relationship between His commands and the goodness that flows from them. Verse 3 says, Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, and a land flowing with milk and honey." Here again, verse 3 is reiterating this motivation. Do you see how this is laid out for us? It's not God just saying, here's this standard of how I want you to live, go and do that. But He's actually motivating and inspiring us and drawing, wooing us even. Here's a good benefit if you do what I'm telling you. There's something for your good in this. That's encouraging to see, but notice how the promise of this blessing of milk and honey is not merely a self-centered motivation. When it says that it will go well with you, in verse 3, in light of verse 2, in this reference to sons and sons, sons, it seems to be right that we understand that in the plural. And also, even in this verse 3, we see this reference to being multiplied greatly, which means this milk and honey is a sweet promise to you and your offspring. That's what God is setting forward before us and wanting us to see. Now I mentioned before we are very quick to challenge prosperity preaching and rightly so. Those who are always promoting temporal blessing and only that. And yet God himself has ordained a general measure of temporal goodness to those who live according to his work. There is a fruitful benefit in biblical sowing. And it's important that we understand this and instill these ideas in our children. That when you do that which is good, there is generally a good benefit to it. Which is reflecting God's character. Now, it's not a perfect rule. Yes, we live in a fallen world full of wicked people. And you can do all the right things according to the Word of God and you're probably at a number of points going to suffer for it. But there is this general principle of sowing and reaping. And one of the reasons that prosperity preachers gain so much attention is because every single person wants to be blessed temporally. Is there anybody here who would raise your hand and say, I really don't want temporal blessing. I really don't want to have things go well for me. No. You raise your hand, repent, you're lying. We all want this kind of blessing and that's why these charlatans gain so much of a foothold. And the Scriptures, and they can back it up it looks like, because the Scriptures are so full of God's promises to His people being fulfilled in physical provision. The problem is, that so many see the physical blessings of God's provision as an end in themselves, rather than something, a shadow of something greater and a revelation of God's character. And I'm suggesting to you, even at this point, when we see God and His gracious character and His provision through temporal things, it's meant to direct our gaze to Him. to his character, to his goodness. And I'm going to argue the same thing is going to be true as we work through our thoughts today. There's something shadow. And see, here's the funny thing about a shadow. Whenever you look at the shadow, if you jump past the shadow to the fulfillment, you know there's a chance you're going to miss out on something you're meant to see in the shadow. There's something your eyes are being directed towards if you bypass that. An example I've heard before is if you go and read the book of Hebrews as a Christian, a new Christian, you're going to love the language that's used there about Jesus Christ as our High Priest. But you go read these first five books, particularly Leviticus, and then you go read Hebrews, all of a sudden it opens up. The shadows are informing what you're coming to see in the New Testament. And so it's important that we have a right understanding and see these are but shadows of something greater. The person, the prosperity preacher, who ignores the shadows and focuses primarily on temporal blessing. You see, the problem with that is that these physical blessings are not an end in themselves, and they're meant to reveal God's character. Consider from Romans 1, 24 and 25. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Now most of the time we apply that uniquely to atheists, do we not? That's the context, right? Well, the broader context there in Romans 1 is God is creator. God is the one who's made everything and provided everything. And in that same context, there's this charge that they knew God, but they weren't thankful for God's provision. And so we see even in a text like this, if you look at God's provision and you take your eyes off of God himself, which the provision is meant to lift your gaze upward to, you're not seeing the purpose. That's the charge we're seeing here, and the carnality of the prosperity gospel is revealed when they stop short of God. And yet, we, more conservative-minded people, we miss something of God's character if we ignore His provision altogether in fear of being accused of bad teaching and bad preaching. In a sense, the feeling that you have of always having to qualify every good gift that God gives and seeing God's glory in a sunrise or even a hurricane. You see God's greatness in the world and feeling like you almost have to apologize for the blessings that God gives you. That's not the case. There's a sweet unity in God's character that's revealed in His providence and what He does for us and gives us and those eternal and everlasting promises. So, where does Moses start? Where does he start? After laying this foundation, where must we start for ourselves and for our children? Verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You see, he's already laid a foundation of God's character and gracious provision. Moses calls our attention to God himself. Any attempted obedience which is separated from God himself, as he's been pleased to reveal to us in his word, is empty religion. We must see the commands of God connected to God Himself. That's where we're starting with. The Lord, there is one Lord, one God. That's what we're being told. The sinful truth here condemns any supposed ideas about a pantheon of gods. Do you want to know something? Your children, as well as yourself, are constantly bombarded and tempted and summoned forth to worship other gods. Every day, every day, they come in different forms and they don't maybe walk around saying, I'm a god. But nevertheless, they're vying for your attention and for your children's attention. And here we're being reminded, don't have your gaze taken away by these other false gods, these idols around you in life. There is one God. He is to be the center of your gaze. That's what this text is drawing our attention to. Our entire lives and the lives of our children are to be lived in the light of this one supreme being. He is above all, He is over all, and there are no competing powers which can challenge the one true God. In the context, there's no source of light, of love, satisfaction, joy, life, provision. There's nothing outside of the Lord our God. And He's not one that we merely pay homage to with regard to our religious observances and then forget when we go about the rest of our lives. That's going to be relevant in the coming verses, isn't it? When we see this reference to every aspect of your life is consumed by a knowledge and pursuit of God and His Word. You see, God, He is revealed in the Scriptures to be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and He must be the starting point, the ending point, and the supreme point. of every aspect of our lives. So I ask, what ought to be our response? How do we respond to this Supreme Being, this One who is above all and over all, the provider of every good thing? How are we to respond? Verse 5 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. The only appropriate response to the character and person of God, as He's been revealed, is to love Him. If you are not compelled to love the God you've been told about, that you're being told of now, you're not understanding who He is. Everything that's true about God is meant to produce an overwhelming love out of you. If you're not seeing that, you're not... Even the hard truths of His justice and His wrath are meant to compel us to love. To love the Lord our God. That's the starting point. It's the only appropriate response. And it's also, it's not only the greatest commandment and the foundation of every other commandment, but it's the only way we're going to be able to obey any other commandment. Because if you love the Lord your God, any other pursuit of commandment keeping without this one is nothing. It's worth nothing. You love the Lord your God. Jesus said as much in Matthew 22, Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40, if you'll read with me. 34 through 40, excuse me. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now is Jesus saying all the rest of the Law and the Prophets is irrelevant? That it doesn't matter? No. But He's saying apart from this one, the rest of them are irrelevant apart from this one. You cannot hope to obey any other command without this foundational one. And the truth is, any obedience that is genuine obedience to God's Law is an overflow of this one. If you're not loving God as you're doing whatever you're doing, what is it? We know the Scripture says faith, anything done apart from faith, is sin. And I would argue anything done apart from love for God is likewise sin. To love God, the reason that all the law and the prophets find their ultimate fulfillment in this particular command is because it is impossible to keep a single commandment without this one. Loving God is the starting point. And Moses has demonstrated we must know God if we're to love Him. Notice the theological mind of Moses. The Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God. This isn't some relative thinking where we're just going to feel our way towards loving some unknown God. This is God as He's revealed Himself. Love Him as He's revealed Himself. That's the point in this. And there should be no crevice in your heart. No corridor of your entire existence that is not consumed by an all-controlling adoration for the living God. And yet, we all look around and look at ourselves and we know there are many things. within us that compete against our love for God. Things that draw us and our gaze away from God. And maybe you're sitting there thinking, why are you carrying on in this way? Oh, this is supposed to be about fatherhood and parenting. And my charge is, if we don't get this right as parents, what are we going to have to communicate to our kids? This is the center of what we're telling them. This is the heart behind it. And it would do us no good to tell them all the right things. Charles Spurgeon said, turn up a child in the way it should go. And be sure to go that way yourself. You see, our children, they're much like us. They're constantly being summoned to love other things. They're bombarded by temptations to have greater affections for other things than they do God. What remedy is offered in our text? Deuteronomy 6 and verse 6, he says, In these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. If God is to be our supreme love, We must have a knowledge of Him in our hearts. If we have no experiential knowledge of God within us, we can have no genuine love for Him. You follow me? If you don't have individually a personal and experiential knowledge of God within you, you cannot love Him. These things shall be on your heart. The charge in this is to subject all that you are, your thoughts, your desires, even your failures and your burdens, even the right feelings that you have and your wrong feelings that you have, to God. To submit all of yourself to God and to consider all that you are in light of who He is. Look with me for just a moment at Psalm number 119. I've got to be honest with you, I, in studying, found it hard to leave the entirety of Psalm 19, but I'm not going to read it right now. But you could, and I challenge you to go and read this and see the constant repetition of theme throughout all of this Psalm, gloriously so. Just for our purposes, let's look at the first eight verses. and think about the relationship between the love that we are to have for God and His Word as it's expressed here. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me. Does this sound like a man who's desperately seeking to be accepted before God by what he does in keeping law, or one who has been so consumed by the goodness of that very law that he loves the God who gave it? He genuinely loves God, and it's overflowing in his heart. The testimonies of God are meant to produce this in us. And if they stop short of this, if they stop at a mere external morality, we're missing it entirely. That's not the point in these things. Now, if we took the time to read all of Psalm 119 or even through all of the Psalms or all of Scripture, You're going to find there is an inseparable relationship between the commands, the statutes, the rules, the ordinances, the law or the word of God and his people's love for God himself. The end of commandments can never be limited to external observance. We must desire that His commands be upon our hearts in order that we might know and love Him. And if this is to be the end for us, what should be our goal with our children? In a society that's increasingly rejecting any notion of God or authority or objective truth, how can you hope to compete with these things in your child's life? What is it that's for you to do? What charge is for me to do with my own children? Verse 7, He says, You shall teach them. diligently to your children, and 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." Now, do you suppose if the end of everything that Moses is saying up until this point is that we would love God and that His word, His law would be on our hearts, that God would be on our hearts, if that's what's meant for us, is He all of a sudden changing His direction and saying, that's what I want for you, but for your kids, I just want them to look good so that you can be proud of them in public. So they can walk a certain way and people say, you really got that parenting thing figured out. No, there's the same end, the same goal involved in this. That's what we're seeing in these things. And having come to see this eternal value and significance of God's commands for ourselves, are we prepared to rightly communicate them with our children? Should there be any inclination within you at all to present God's law to your kids, as a useful tool for producing morality in them. That's a hard one, especially for us good religious folks, isn't it? We want our kids to act right, to sit up straight. And even in the scriptures, there's a charge to the reflection of the parents that's seen in the child. And yet I argue we must have a deeper, more abiding hope and goal for them. Not to merely conform them to an image, but we must long for them to know and love the living God. Now, as we've considered, there is certainly great benefit in temporal blessings. There are temporal blessings from God that come to us as we live according to God's Word. But as we seek to demonstrate that to our children, are we engaging, are we actively connecting those temporal blessings to the goodness and glory of God's character, which is revealed in them? It's so easy. How many of you can testify to having prayed about a thing, desperately and earnestly praying about a thing, and then God grants your request, and it's almost like you can be so consumed and enjoying the answered prayer that you forget about God. May it not be. And similarly, as we seek to strive to conform our children's understanding to the Word of God, that we not stop short in just only being excited about the fact that they're looking a certain way. but rejoicing in what God may perhaps be doing in them. God is not merely a means to a life of bliss and ease, of comfort and prosperity. He says, You shall teach them diligently to your children and 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. Here again, we're seeing a reference to the nature of Christian fatherhood. and far from being absent from your kids' lives. You can't do this if you're not in their life, but even if you are around, this is much more than simply providing for them physically. We see a charge for regular and intentional relationship. Do you see that? The list that's described here is everything you do in life in the context of being with these children is meant to be constantly impacting and influencing them towards God, towards a right understanding of God. That is to be our aim and goal. And the level of fatherly investment into the lives of your children described here can only be understood in the context of an everyday, moment-by-moment relationship. There's a very organic aspect to this. I believe there perhaps was a reference last night to this text with regard to the value of catechizing, which I wholeheartedly agree with. And yet, I would also suggest to you that what's described here is not only a specialized, focused time of intentional Bible study with your kids, but that it's all of life. There's something of a bridge between the idea of the sacred and the secular. It's not just, we're going to have this time, this quiet time with my child, and then it not affect every other aspect of your life. You shall teach them diligently to your children. Talk of them when you're sitting in the house, when you're walking by the way, when you're laying down, when you rise. There should not be a realm of your life that this is not being applied to, that you're not seeking to do this in, whatever the context or conversation may happen to be. You see, the primary charge is that we live alongside our children in every arena of life with them. to see that we have been given opportunities to make God known to them. And let me suggest to you this. You catechize all that you want, but if you don't have a character that's consistent with what you're telling your kids, the way you live in front of them is going to have a horrifying impact on all the truth you may be teaching. This is a lived-out faith that's lived out in front of them, and that's going to have a far greater impact on them than the truth that you tell them. It's the consistent character of a life lent unto God which speaks the loudest. And as we live consistently before them in this day-by-day, moment-by-moment situation, that is going to confirm all the diligent study and teaching that we do in those specialized times. You know, I talked with a man just this last week, and he was going on and on with me. Imagine this, we're in Florida and somebody's talking to me about paying a bunch of money for vacations. And he keeps talking about vacations and how if you really care about your kids, you need to go on vacations. Well, vacations are nice, but I just told him, I said, if you think that every once in a while having an expensive materialistic trip is going to make up for not a regular investment in a kid's life, you're out of your mind. That's the point. Verse 8 tells us you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." Here's a continuation of the thought. As you're talking with them, when you sit in your house and walking by the way, lying down, rising up, and here is a sign on your hand. You see, the thought expressed here is it's not just in what you say. It's on your hand. It's everything that your hand finds to do has a connection and relationship back to God. That they see that. That they see my pursuits and my aim and my goal is reflecting an attitude that I have towards God. If you live every day, every weekend, chasing a ball tournament somewhere, you're reflecting something to your kids about a priority. I love sports. My dad mentioned in the beginning. I played and loved it and still enjoy them. But what is the priority? Because the kids see that. Whatever you're pursuing, they see whether or not what you're telling them is consistent with that. 1 Corinthians 10.31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do our children see the connection between our labors? Regardless of how mundane they may be, do they see the connection between our labors and the knowledge and love for God that we're pursuing? Second half of verse 8, similarly, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You see, in keeping with that last thought, the word and commands of God are to be ever set before our gaze, in the center. Not something we only see peripherally. Not something we can kind of associate what we're doing with God a little bit. But the focus, what's in front of us, the primary gaze and focus centrally on God. And not only that, not only in ourselves, but think of this in connection with our parenting. Do our children, do they see the pursuits that we set in front of them as being centered? upon God, His Word, and His glory. Ask yourself this, why do you want your children to succeed? Why do you want them to prosper in all that they do? Why encourage hard work and diligence? And you could say, well, you told me a while ago that we're supposed to pursue obedience for the good benefit that God gives us. Yes, but why? Is there something more than that? Is there a goal, a central focus that goes beyond those things? I heard, I believe, Paul Washerson one time ask this question about children and how we raise our kids and the education we want them to have. Why do you want your kids to get good grades? Well, so that they can do well in school. Why? Well, so they can get a scholarship and go to college. Why? So they can get a college degree. Why? So they can get a good job. Why? So they can make lots of money. Why? Well, they can live a comfortable life. You see the point? All of those things I just described can be wonderful things. But what do they have to do with God? What do they have to do with a glory of God and a knowledge of God? And not just something you sprinkle on at the end, but actually what's driving those pursuits, not just a justification for it. You see, we go astray in our understanding of the purpose of God's commands for ourselves. And if we do that, we're bound to be wrong. and the goals we set for our children. Verse 9 says, You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. I suppose there's probably a very special charge for any of you with children that are preparing to leave the home soon in this. If ever there was a need for this charge, it is today. The context here, when is it that you're likely to read a sign on the doorpost or on a gate? As you're coming and going, is it not? This is surely a need to be reminded of God's word as you come and as you go. But in light of the previous focus we were seeing on this godly influence within the home on a daily basis, let me suggest that we emphasize our need for this when you're leaving, when you're leaving. When you venture out into a world which remains in opposition to God, full of all manner of temptations and vice, we are in great need of being reminded of God as we go, that you can't leave the door without seeing and being reminded of what you're going into and who you're going to try to honor and live unto and glorify as you go. When we leave the safety and comfort of our sheltered homes and are forced to face the world's opposition, we are in desperate need of being reminded to set our affections upon God and His Word. And if this is true for ourselves, it must also be true for our children. Are we preparing them with the knowledge of God that will continue to draw their gaze and their affections as they go out into the world, as they leave the house, as they go out? Is there something that they're going to see on their way out to remind them? And every time they look back at where they've come from, they see it at the entrance of that place. Is there a reminder for them as they venture out the door? Verse 10 says, And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build. At this point, I want to consider with you the very term that's used here. Father, what's the significance of this word? It's in the plural in our text, fathers. And in the context, it's a reminder that the God with whom we have to do has entreated with others before us. God's interactions with his people did not begin today, or yesterday, or a hundred years ago. This thing goes back 6,000 years, roughly. I'm sure Paul could give me the exact math on that, maybe. But here's the point. It's a call to look to the God who's chosen for all time and creation. to demonstrate Himself and entreat with others, and His faithfulness, His goodness, His grace and mercy have been demonstrated from the creation of the world until now. But there's something even more important about this term, Father, which we need to consider for our purposes today. And full disclosure, this, what I'm about to tell you, is not primarily Moses' point here. And yet, the term is significant, and it does draw our attention to something very, very important. All our attempts to set commands, the commands of God before our Children are in order that they might know and love God Himself. And even the fruitful and temporal benefits that obedience might produce is meant to show forth the gracious provision of God. But I ask, what about you? What about your interaction with your child? What does it mean that you go by the term father to your child? What relationship is there in this? What impact are we having upon how our children relate with this term? For all eternity, there has been a relationship between a father and a son. Always. There's always been a Trinitarian relationship between a father and son. And you know, even in times past, I've shared with people this. If you have children, have you ever struggled to love your child in your home? Have you ever come to the point because of their behavior where it's like, it's just so hard to love them right now? Well, maybe, maybe not. But at the end of the day, most parents that I know, they may be disappointed, but there's just this feeling that you have, this natural affection that no one could take from you. I love this child. But now, if we flip that and ask, have you ever been challenged by the behavior of your spouse? Oh, I've just got to love them even though they're not doing what I want right now. Well, I was a little bit convicted and probably rightly so by that thought. But here's the point. There is something very godly and good about the nature of the affection between a parent and child. Something eternally true about a father's love for their son. And that's something that we must be aware of in light of our role, not only as those who give to and proclaim the truth of God's word and his commands to our children, but as we demonstrate the character of a father. That's what our calling is. You see one way, one way or another. Every father is shaping the way that his children will view God. For many people, this has had a devastating impact. Devastating people who their understanding of God is just shattered because of a horrible, horrible dad. There are those who have a tendency to view God in a wrong way. If their father's been absent their entire life, maybe they're inclined to fear God's going to leave me someday, too. Well, my dad's not here. How do I know this one I'm calling father's not leaving either? You see the impact that this has for others. Maybe you've had an abusive father. And you're constantly living in fear that God is going to deal harshly with you and unjustly with you as your earthly dad has. And still others have had, perhaps your dad was in your life. Wasn't very involved with anything you ever did. Just negligent, uninvolved. And today you fear that God doesn't really have an interest in you. How can He? Why would He? This one, they never had an interest in me. Why would God have an interest in me? You see, we have such a high responsibility and calling and communicating to our children the character of God as a father that they know when they see us, not perfection, but they see at least some semblance of the character of God that's revealed as father. I ask, how has God been pleased to reveal himself as father in the scriptures? What does it mean that God is father? I want to read with you from John chapter 14. John chapter 14, this actually comes as a promise from Jesus, but we also know Jesus was constantly saying He's come to tell us not His own word, but the words which have been given to Him from the Father. He's communicating the words of the Father, and I believe we're meant to understand something about the character of God as Father in this text. John chapter 14, look with me beginning at verse 18. Jesus says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live. You also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me." Interesting. Pause. Do you see that? Even Jesus in our text right here. All that we're saying from Deuteronomy 6. If there's no love within you for God, pursuit of obedience is vain. But He says, whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and manifest Myself to him. Just a few observations about the character of God as Father revealed in those verses. The character of God is revealed as nothing less than perfect communion, love, and fellowship. If we went on into John 15, we'd see where Jesus is saying to the disciples and to us that even as the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. The love that we enter into is a Trinitarian love. It's an everlasting, endless love that we are brought into. And the love between a Father and a Son And Jesus is telling us. Jesus is telling us this is the character of God as father. Now, in one sense, some have said that every person who's born is a child of God. And there is a sense in which you can say God is father of all the scriptures make a reference as such, but as a creator. But this sense, this fatherly connection to God that Jesus is describing is special and unique. It's special and unique that we get to call God Father as Christians. Everyone who is not united to Christ by faith in light of what Jesus is saying is left as an orphan in the world, separating, separated from God the Father. He says, I'll not leave you as orphans. And those who are not in Christ in the same breath, he's telling them, if you love me, my father will love you. If you don't know and love Christ, you're going to be left as an orphan. What does that mean? Well, If God is not your father, you'll have no sense of his fatherly provision. You'll have no sense if he's not your father, no sense of God's loving correction and moral guidance. That's God's disciplining work of pruning his own. You won't have that if God's not your father. You have no sense of his fatherly affection and love. But if if you've come to know God as father, you will be filled with rejoicing and thanksgiving at his provision for you. If you know God as Father in this way, if He is your Father, you'll know His loving guidance and pruning hand correcting you when you fail. If He's your Father, you will know unending affection and love as a child. This is the promise of God. I see nowhere in the Scriptures where God, He's not seen to take someone who He calls a child in His Son, in Christ, and turn them away. It can't be. It can't happen. His love endures. And a lot of these things, if you've come to know God as Father, you're going to be rejoicing at this. And it is the role of every single Christian father to communicate this unending fatherly affection and love to their children. That our interactions with our children would condition them to believe God when He tells them that He loves them as their father. Do you hear that? God is sovereign and apart from a supernatural work of regeneration, no one's going to be saved. And yet we have the task set before us of making sure that our children have no reason not to believe God whenever they hear his words saying, I love you. I mentioned before that not everyone knows God as father in this way. The Scriptures describe people at different times as being either a child of the devil or a child of wrath. How is it that a person, you can't communicate the love of God as father to your children if you have not come to know this yourself? That's the point. That's what we're driving at here. How is it that you can come to know God as father if you do not? Verse 11 of Deuteronomy 6, and it continues the thought from back in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 10, it continues this thought. It says, "...and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards, and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat, and are full." How do you know God as Father? The end of verse 10, end of this verse 11, give us a foreshadowing of God's saving provision for His people. You see this? The promise of God in this text is that He would bless His people, not according to the labors of their hands. You see the irony in this? Moses is telling them, here's God's commandments. Set them before you. Let them grab hold of your heart. Oh, and by the way, all these blessings you're going to get, they're not because of anything you've done. Grace alone. Grace alone. The relationship between these things is significant. You see, the promise of God, He blesses His people according to His promise and His character. Ephesians 2, 8-9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The rest, the glorious rest and salvation in the land of promise is a gift of grace. And the way to know God as Father can never be earned. It can never be bought by you. Just as any parent here knows that your child could never buy your love. Verse 12, he says, Then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. To move towards a close, in light of this reference here, don't forget it was God who brought you out of Egypt. God delivered you out of slavery. In light of that, in relationship to our parenting and our knowledge of God individually as Father, look with me briefly at Romans chapter 8. What does this mean? What does it mean that we've come to be delivered out of this slavery? And what impact should that have on the way we view God and how we're striving for our children to see God? Begin reading Romans 8. Begin with me in verse 12. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him. You've been delivered out of slavery. You've been delivered. We who've come to know the love of God as Father, by the Spirit's witness to our souls, do so on the basis of His Son's finished work on the cross for us. And if we've been set free from slavery to sin and the condemnation that it deserves, it's only on the basis of what a son has done. We're adopted. How can it be that God can look at those who are formerly known as children of the devil and say, my children? that His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, died under the wrath of His Father in order to save a people, that God the Father, the Sovereign, the only God, the Lord our God is one, that one, that He might call us children through His Son. The battle for Christian fatherhood is the battle for our children to know the same glorious salvation and adoption. And that they would know and love the living God as Father. And that we would strive, though we fail, to set before them an understanding of Father that reflects God and reflects His Word. If you don't know Jesus Christ in a saving way, if you cannot say in your soul, God is my Father, Look to this Jesus. Look to Christ. Look to the One who came to die in order that we be reconciled to Him. Look to this Jesus and ask yourself this question. If you're one asking, how can God love me as Father? Here's the question. If you're trusting in His Son, do you believe the Father loves His Son? Do you believe God the Father loves His Son? I say to you that He does. And if you're in Christ, if you've been united to Christ by faith, you share in that same love from God as Father. And if you don't, repent and believe in this Jesus. Believe in the gracious character of God and the compassion of God and the mercy of God and the wrath of God and the love of God. I pray that every Christian parent here would see, be delivered from chasing after morality apart from a real knowledge of God for our children and for ourselves. And these things would go with us as we leave. So with that, I'll ask you now to bow with me and we'll close in prayer.