Open with me, if you would, if you need to, to the Book of Exodus, Chapter 20. You may not need to, again, as the last time we looked at one of the Ten Commandments. It's a rather short verse, and one that we are likely all very familiar with. We'll be looking this evening at the Fifth Commandment, which we read in Chapter 20, Verse 12 of the Book of Exodus, where God tells His people, Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. When you think of the decade of the 1960s and its effect upon culture in America, what comes to your mind? Hippies. There you go. And what were the hippies all about? It was a decade of rebellion. Rebellion against God, against the government, against police, against teachers, against parents, against any form of authority. Young people of that generation were against all forms of established authority, which is called anti-establishment, or disestablishmentarian philosophy, which is a pretty long word. But it's not quite the longest word in the English language, and no supercalifragilisticexpialidocious doesn't technically count. I learned what the longest word in the English language was from some trivia game when I was a kid, and I actually have an opportunity to use it in a sermon today. The longest word in the English language is anti-disestablishmentarianism, but it has a very short definition. The Fifth Commandment. That's what it means. It's opposition to rebellion against authority. It's opposed to the hippies of the 1960s who refused to submit to any authority over them. Because God instructs us to submit to authority, for there is no authority over us that does not come from Him. One of the 1960s hippies, who turned intellectual, writes that the 60s was a generation that destroyed the American family. We might not have been able to tear down the state, which was their goal, but the family was closer to us. We could get our hands on it. And we believed the family was the foundation of the state. as well as the collective state of mind. We truly believed that the family had to be torn apart in order to free love, which alone could heal the damage done when the atom was split to release energy. And the first step was to tear ourselves free from our parents. This is a respected intellectual today who grew up in the 60s. looking back on it and explaining what their goals and motives were. And as much as I disagree with the goals and desires of the young people, people's movement of the 60s, there was one thing that they were absolutely right about. The way to destroy a nation is to destroy the family. And the way children can destroy a family is to dishonor their parents. The Ten Commandments are divided into two tables, as I'm sure most of us are aware. The first table deals with how we are to relate to God, and it begins with the first commandment, which is foundational. You shall have no other gods before me. This commandment is not only foundational for the first table of the Ten Commandments, but the whole of the Ten Commandments, both the first and the second. Our relationship to God governs our relationship to our fellow man. The second table, or the last six commandments, which we are beginning this evening, deals with how we are to relate to our fellow man, one another. And it begins with the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother. And just as our relationship with God is the foundation and beginning of all religion, our relationship with our parents is the foundation and beginning of all of human society. Augustine once asked, if anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare? Normally, the first people in the world that a child knows are his or her parents. God structured the family with purpose and intention to introduce children into the whole of human society. Our parents are our first doctors. our first teachers, our first government, our first church. If we do not learn to respect the authority at home, we will not respect authority anywhere else as we grow up. When we approach the law of God, we should not simply learn to recite the Ten Commandments and say, yeah, I know them. That's a good start, but we ought to take the time to meditate upon it and to study it. When we think through this commandment, which is stated rather shortly, we can learn some instructive things when we take our time and look at each word. The first word in this commandment is the word honor. Honor. This is a heavy word. Literally. It's the Hebrew word kved, which literally means heavy. It's the word used to describe the glory of God. It's weighty. It conveys the weightiness of God's divine majesty. So, to honor one's parents means to give proper weight to their God-given position of authority over us. It's to respect, to cherish and value their authority over us. Not necessarily because they, as fallible human beings, deserve it. but because God placed them in this position. It's the same reason we submit to all authority. It's not necessarily because the person in the position deserves it, but it's because the office that they hold is worthy of respect and carries divine weight with it. On this last Wednesday night, as I was talking with the kids about what I've been preaching lately, We were going through all of the Ten Commandments and asked, what is the flip side of this commandment, and what is the flip side of that commandment? What about the next one? And with each of the commandments, we know that there are two sides, or the other side of the coin. One side is, you shall do this, and the other side is, you shall not do this. No matter which way the commandment is written, we know the flip side is also true. What is the flip side of the command, honor your father, and your mother. You shall honor your father and your mother. The flip side is you shall not dishonor your father and your mother. To dishonor one's parents is to treat them lightly, not giving much weight to their instruction, to their discipline, to their teaching, to the wisdom that they share with us, taking for granted the love that they give us. while treating it as common and expected and disposable. Sadly, in our today and age, rebelling against one's parents has become a rather common sin and almost expected, especially amongst teenagers. How often have you heard a teenager, either in person or on TV or in magazines or online, say something like, I mean like, who doesn't hate their parents? It's so commonplace. There are articles in teenage magazines that are titled, how to deal with your reprehensible parents. God detests this type of attitude. Leviticus 20 verse 9 says, anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother and his blood is on him. Deuteronomy 21. 18 to 21 says, If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives. All the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear and fear. To dishonor one's parents may be commonplace among teenagers today and expected and considered normal. It's a transition into becoming your own autonomous individual. That's not how God views it. Many teenagers in our culture today think it's part of their job description. to break the fifth commandment. It's not that big of a deal, right? God thinks it's a big deal. God gave men ten commandments, and he assigned the death penalty to the sins of murder, some forms of adultery, some forms of idolatry, and also to dishonoring your parents. God puts this sin in the same category as murder, only some forms of adultery, and only some forms of idolatry. Think about that. Why should children honor and respect their parents? Well, there are many reasons. Parents deserve to be honored for the many sacrifices that they make for their children. They deserve to be honored because of their own life experience, which they want to speak into the lives of their kids. Parents have learned many lessons that their children have not learned yet through their own successes and their own failures. And as a parent myself, I desperately don't want to see my children make some of the same mistakes I've made. I want them to learn from my mistakes. Wise people learn from other people's mistakes, rather than having to learn from their own. One very obvious reason children should respect their parents is because God commands us to. And obeying God is glorifying to Him. If you were to ask Jonathan or Caitlin, What is your dad's favorite verse? They would say Colossians 3 20 children obey your parents in Everything for this pleases the Lord we talk about this quite often It comes up quite often because our children disobey quite often And I asked them children obey your parents in everything except when you don't want to go to bed No, it's not right except when you want to do this. No except this and No, children obey their parents in everything. And why? Because I said so? No, because it pleases the Lord. These are just some of the many reasons why children should honor their parents. And they are all good reasons. But here, in Exodus 20, God teaches us a different reason. He says, honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. That's the reason God affixes to it, back on Mount Sinai. This is a promise that should be very encouraging to children. God knows that it's often difficult for children to obey their parents. And He also knows that it's easier for children to do the right thing when they know that they will be rewarded for it. So God attached a promise to this command, a promise that if you obey your parents, you will live long and prosper. This promise is a general principle of a promise. that should not be taken as a guarantee to each and every individual person, but is spoken collectively to all of God's people. It's not to be taken by every individual that if we obey our parents, we will certainly live to a ripe old age. Sometimes God allows people who do truly honor their parents to die young. We all know this is true. And there are many factors which influence God's hand of providence, which work for the sake of His own glory and oftentimes we simply do not understand why some people die young, but this promise still stands as a general principle. The text states that we should honor our parents so that you may live long in the land, which is a phrase that's used in Hebrew as an idiom that means much more than just living to an old age. It's speaking of receiving the fullness of the Lord's blessing and to have life abundance. There's another reason children should obey their parents that is connected to this promise. God has given parents the responsibility to teach their children to know and serve the Lord. But children will not learn these lessons if they do not respect their parents. So the fifth commandment is a critical part of God's plan for continuing the family of faith within human society. Of all the ways that children honor their parents listening to their instruction in the things of the Lord is most important. And that works if your parents are believers, doesn't it? But it doesn't work so well if they're not. But this is God's ideal, this is God's plan, this is His purpose for His people, that you teach these things to your children in order to make the fullest use of this commandment. And let me just say, as I was preparing for this message tonight, I recognized I could do a series of sermons on this one commandment. because the implications of it are so reaching. I could four or five sermons easy, and they wouldn't be repetitive at all. But in order to make the fullest use of this commandment, as we do this brief flyover of the whole thing, we need to realize that this commandment does not apply to children only in their relationship with their own biological parents, but it applies to everyone. It doesn't simply relate to our relationships to our parents, but to every form of God-given authority within society as a whole. Annie Gottlieb, who is the lady I quoted earlier in the sermon, was right that the family is the most basic fundamental building block of all society. It truly is. Our parents are our first government, our first school, our first church and hospital, etc. And we are to learn to honour them as they represent all authority on earth that is over us within society, so that when we grow up, we will continue to honour those in authority over us. And it's here that we need to remember one of those rules of interpretation that I gave in one of my introductory sermons to the Decalogue, which is the rule of categories, which teaches that every one of the Ten Commandments Though it may forbid one particular sin, it stands for an entire category of sins that we are to avoid, or an entire category of duties that we are to perform in our service to God. The Fifth Commandment then rules our relationship to the government, to our bosses at work, to our teachers at school, and the authority of the Church. 1 Peter 2 tells us, be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors, for this is the will of God. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. He was talking about Nero. So we don't say, I will honor the president when we get a good one. I try to think of the worst president in human history and I'm not going to tell you who I think it is. I'd rather have him than Nero. We are commanded to honor the emperor because it pleases the Lord. Notice how it says that Christians are to live as people who are free when we do these things. Live as people who are free because we have been set free from the bondage of sin and guilt as Christians. We are free. But Biblical freedom means that we are now free to live our lives the way that God has commanded us to do and the way that God created us to do. Not free to pursue our own sinful desires of autonomy. This is exactly where our culture in the 1960s went wrong. They thought freedom was freedom to engage in any form of sinful behavior that we desire. That's real freedom. I can do whatever I want. But when men live this way and dishonor and throw off all forms of authority, the promise of living long in the fullness of God's blessing in our life is removed. Think of people who engage in every sin that they desire. Are they living the full blessing of life? Do they typically live long lives? When we give ourselves over to sin, we submit ourselves to the ultimate purpose of sin. And what is the ultimate purpose of sin? To destroy us and to bring death and chaos. Submitting to these things is the opposite of freedom. Submitting to the freedom of doing whatever we want is submitting ourselves to bondage leading to death. and destruction. But when we submit to those that God has placed in authority over us, we are submitting to the ultimate purpose of the law of God, which is to give God glory, to accept God's blessing of love and peace and harmony and long life and blessing. These things are, or should be, the goal of our pursuit of freedom. True freedom results in life and life abundant and joy and bringing honor to God. That's what freedom is. Freedom to be who we were created to be before the fall. That's freedom. When we give honor and respect to authority, it is to also give honor and respect to God, because He is the one who set up authority over our lives. There is no authority over us. apart from his hand of providence. There's another side of this commandment as well, as we continue our very brief 30,000 foot flyover, that governs the way in which we are to exercise authority when we are placed in positions of authority over our children or over others whom God has entrusted to us to govern. Parents are to bear patiently with our children in their own failures with the goal of teaching, leading and instructing them ultimately to learn the blessings of submitting to other forms of authority and ultimately to God Himself. There's a reason why we've been given authority over our children. We need to think about that. And everything that we do in parenting them should be towards that goal. The goal of Christian authority is not to wield power over others, to make ourselves great, to be like God, that ultimate temptation back at the fall, but rather to provide those under our care with the fullness of blessing as they honour us so that they learn the blessings of submitting to God and His purpose for mankind. When parents, teachers, pastors and governors place unreasonable demands upon those under them, and when they correct disobedience and anger rather than in love, or when they stunt their growth by stifling their freedom, they abuse their authority. And they actually teach others that authority is not to be trusted, honored, or respected. That affects the way they view other forms of authority as well, including the way they view God. Do we want to teach our children that they can't trust authority? The authority of the Lord? When we are in authority over others, we are to be bearing the image of God in the way that we deal with them, and in the way that we govern them, which is a heavy responsibility. It's an honorable responsibility. This is the same word and concept in the Hebrew. It's good for us to reflect on the Fifth Commandment and to ask ourselves, am I truly honoring my father or my mother and all who are in authority over me? Or for parents, teachers, pastors, governors to ask, am I ruling in such a way that leaves those whom God has placed under me into a position of learning to honor and respect God and enjoy the fullness of God's blessing? Or am I simply trying to bend them to my will? Of course, none of us obeyed this commandment perfectly. And it is good to be reminded of the Gospel. That Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty that we deserve for breaking the fifth commandment. There is a death penalty attached to this commandment. But Christ took that death penalty for us. And He also kept the fifth commandment on our behalf. In fact, He submitted Himself to the will of His Father in heaven to the point of dying on the cross, even when He didn't deserve it. I think back of the many times I told my parents, I don't deserve this. That's unjust. That's not right. I don't deserve a full week of grounding. I deserve maybe a day or two to complain and whine. Jesus didn't deserve the cross. but he honored his father in heaven, submitted himself unto the point of death. From the manger to the cross, Jesus always obeyed his parents, his earthly parents and his heavenly father. He obeyed the government and he obeyed God. But he's more than our example. He's our substitute when we fail. His obedience is substituted for our failures if we have faith in him. The gospel is is not the law. It's the motivation that we need to be able to keep the law. And we are to teach this to our children as well. And not to simply pull out the law and say, there was a death penalty attached to this back in the day, you're lucky you didn't live back then. But teach the Gospel to your kids as you teach them to obey and as you image God himself in the way that you lead them and wield authority over them. Consider a parent who tells his son, go clean your room, but the son does not obey. Instead he goes to his room and he plays and he makes a bigger mess. What should we parents do? We need to discipline them, to be sure, but our goal is to teach the gospel to our children, not just the law. We need to teach them that even though they may think that they are good, that look at what you've done. You are not good. You're bad. You're sinful. You deserve punishment. And we need to tell our children that God wants them to obey their parents in everything, not just in what they feel like. And that when they disobey us, they are disobeying God. And if you can't submit to the authority of your parents, how can you possibly submit to God's authority? Which is so much greater. The demands that I place on my kids are not perfection. the demands that God places upon us are perfection. Ask them, how can God possibly accept you if you do not obey Him by honoring your father and your mother? How can He accept you? Well, the answer to that question, of course, is the Gospel. It's Jesus Christ. We have a substitute who obeyed on your behalf. When our children disobey, call it what it is. It's sin. It's displeasing to God. Teach them what sin is. disobedience against God that is worthy of death. Teach them that in order for them to receive abundant and full life and long life from God as a sinner, that they need the perfect obedience of Jesus to be given to them, which only comes through faith and repentance. Don't just focus on what they've done wrong, but use that as an opportunity to teach your children what Jesus Christ has done right. Do you want your children to live long and receive the fullness of God's blessing? Yes, we all do. Amen to that. Teach them to understand their sin and their need for Christ. Your children are not perfect, just as you are not perfect. And neither you nor they deserve the blessing of abundant life that God promises here. But Jesus Christ does. He's the perfect child who truly honored his Father in heaven. and we can receive the fullness of the blessing that He earned when we live in faith and are united to Him through faith. Let's bow together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do come before You again on this Lord's Day and we contemplate the law that You have given to us. Father, You have set up authority within society for purposes of revealing Yourself to us. Yet we often, Father, look down upon authority and despise it because we love to have our own way, because we love to be more like God in the way in which we live our lives than like creatures created to worship God. Father, teach us to learn to give due weight to the authority that you have placed over us. Teach us to look upon you as our ultimate authority in all things and teach us to Learn the joy of the freedom that we have when we submit to Your authority. Teach us to appreciate, Father, the gift of the grace that we've been given in Christ, and not just try to follow His example, but to claim His own life as ours, and His obedience as ours in every place where we've failed. Conform us more and more into His image, Father. to honor you, to honor those in authority over us, to honor our parents. Teach us these things that we might have a better understanding of our relationship to our Creator God and Father in Heaven. We ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.