Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 to 4, the first four verses of Ephesians chapter 6. I should say, I think that is it this week these two teams go out? Bruce, your team leaves on Tuesday for Quebec. Is it this week your team leaves for Kenya? So please keep these folk in mind as they travel. to Quebec and the other team to Kenya to be witnessing and serving the Lord there. Pray for them that the Lord will greatly use their efforts and make them useful for the extension of the Lord's kingdom. Now, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Amen. The Lord will add his own blessing to the reading of his own precious words for His name's sake. Tonight, in our continuing study of God's law, we have had twelve studies in preparation for the Ten Commandments. And we have been going through these Ten Commandments. And we come tonight to the Fifth Commandment, given to us in Exodus 20. And in verse 12, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Repeated for us in Deuteronomy 5 and verse 16, Honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. At first sight, The fifth commandment is simply a commandment that speaks of how children should treat their parents. Very obviously it deals with that subject. And yet the great catechisms of the Protestant churches historically have seen in this commandment something very, very much more. They have treated it in a much wider fashion. Maybe I should have had Barbie recite for us what the fifth commandment teaches. But according to the shorter catechism, the fifth commandment requires the preserving the honor and performing the duties, belonging to everyone in their several places and relations as superiors, inferiors, or equals. In other words, they deal not only with how children should treat their parents, but how parents should treat each other, how parents should treat their children. how church members should relate to church authority, how citizens should relate to the state. All that they see as being expressed in the wording of the fifth commandment. Now to many it may seem to be a great stretch of the fifth commandment, far beyond its original and natural simplicity to interpret it in this way. And I must confess, as I have looked at this commandment over the years, I have often felt that when the children of Israel received it, they would have understood it purely and simply to refer to their domestic arrangements. However, when you look at the Bible a little more closely, you'll find this is one of those cases where first impressions are certainly not the best impressions or the truest impressions. Because when you look a little more carefully here, the Lord makes it very plain, very, very quickly, that He intended the children of Israel to apply the fifth commandment much more widely than merely the treatment of parents by children. Clearly, the Lord went on to set up the organization of church and state. While I am going to make this statement, I am not going to elaborate upon it, for it is a big area of discussion. But in the Bible, both church and state as organizations were originally set up as extensions of the domestic arrangements which God had set up in the home. In other words, the Lord never originally built in the friction and the antagonism that so often people import to the relations between the family and the church, or the family and the church and the state. These were natural extensions of the domestic arrangement. And thus, in the Scripture, the Lord uses the term father and the term mother to denote much more than mere biological parenthood. Then again consider that in the book of Leviticus, when the Lord expounded the moral law, He extended this duty of giving honor beyond our parents to many others. Now, let me note some Scriptures with you. Let me first of all note some Scriptures that will show how the Lord uses the terms father and mother. In Isaiah 49.23, He uses them of rulers when He says, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers. He uses the term father of prophets. We find, for example, that Elisha cried to Elijah in 2 Kings 2 verse 12, My Father, My Father. King Joram spoke of Elisha as My Father. The Apostle Paul claimed that as a relationship, not a priestly title, When the Lord Jesus says, call no man father, He is speaking of father and master in a priestly kind of relationship. But speaking of Himself as the sole winner, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.15, Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. He was their spiritual father. The Apostle John looked on his converts as his children. And he said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So the soul winner in Scripture is referred to as a father. We find that the female Judge Deborah was referred to as a mother. I, Deborah, we read in Judges 5 verse 7, I, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel. It's not saying I was a mother and I was made a judge. The truth of it goes beyond that. But as a judge, she arose a mother to the nation. So that the terms father and mother are employed in Scripture much more widely than merely of natural parents. Then think of how the Scripture tells us we are to pay honor. We are to honor our biological parents. But also in Leviticus 9.32 we read, Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man. Now here's a lesson in good manners. It's been largely lost nowadays in this slob society in which we live. But literally what the Scripture says is stand up before gray hairs. Young people. Stand up. Pay honor in the presence of those who are your elders. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. The elder women, as mothers, honor widows that are widows indeed. Later in chapter 5, verse 17, he says that the elders that rule well must be counted worthy of double honor. So the honor is to be paid to them in ruling the church. And of course, we have the statement or the command in 1 Peter 2.17, Honor the King. Now from all these, it will be very clear that the terms Father and Mother and the duty of honoring Father and Mother apply much more widely than simply to our parents. So our first impressions of the fifth commandment are not really all that accurate. The Shorter Catechism has it right that the fifth commandment in reality regulates our attitude and our behavior towards all authority, all legitimate authority. Now that includes the authority of the state. The Lord commands us to respect and to obey our rulers and the laws that they enact, insofar as they do not conflict with the laws of God. Romans 13, verse 1 says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, or the governing powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. So this honor must be extended to include the state and its authority. The fifth commandment also includes the authority of the church. I realize that nowadays churches are conveniences for most people. I realize that in most cases church authority doesn't exist. If there's one thing that's missing in the preaching and in the discipline of the Church of Christ, it is authority. Many people will not accept the right of elders to rule in a church or to get before God and show the congregation the result of their deliberations and say, this is what God has burdened us from His Word and prayer to do. They simply take over the traces, either ignore the ruling or say we'll go someplace else. But the fifth commandment in ordering honor includes the legitimate use of authority by the Church of Christ. In Galatians 4.26 we read that Jerusalem, which is above, is the mother of us all. The greatest commentator, I think, on the book of Galatians is probably John Brown. And Brown says the Jerusalem that is above is the true spiritual church. What we may call the gospel church, proclaiming the covenant of grace. Paul says that's our mother. And we must honor the church of Christ as we would honor our mother. Strong language. But that's the language of God's Word. Her authority is not to be despised. Hebrews 13, 17 says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves. Submit yourselves. Simple word. But my, what rebellion it stirs up in the hearts of so many Christians. Now, without giving away all that I'm going to be saying, I will be majoring tonight, and if I don't get far enough, next week as well. I will be majoring on the family unit and children and parents. But can I say that parents will never successfully inculcate into their children A true sense of biblical honor for them and their authority. If those same parents utterly despise the authority and the position of the church of Jesus Christ and its rulership, it's a contradiction in terms. Submit yourselves, for they watch for your soul. The fifth commandment then includes the authority of state, the authority of the church. But even that is not the whole story. I hadn't really found anybody paying much attention to this until on a totally different matter. Just before I came to church tonight, I checked up what the late Martin Lloyd-Jones had to say, as I say, on a different matter. And I found in a passing reference that He was looking at this exactly the same way as I was. And I said, well, thank the Lord I'm not completely out on a limb here. I think the fifth commandment, while we normally take it to be the first commandment of the second table of the law regulating our dealings with men and with authority on earth, nonetheless teaches us how we must react to God's authority. Because, you see, the term Father is the great term that's given to the Lord. Deuteronomy 14, verse 1, You are the children of the Lord your God. The Lord Jesus said, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Paul told the church at Rome in chapter 8, 15, and 16, Ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, And it's often been pointed out that the Abba part of that cry is the most intimate family expression. Without wanting to trivialize the Scripture, the nearest we can come to it in the vernacular today is not Father, but Daddy. It is not the word that the slave would use. It's the word that the child uses to its father. Abba, Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And so, when we read in the fifth commandment, Honor thy Father, if we are going to honor our earthly parents, if we are going to honor our rulers, if we are going to honor the rule of grace in the church, Then, first and foremost, we must honor our God. And while a man is living to despise his God, he cannot properly fulfill any other duty. He cannot discharge any other responsibility. He will be failing and contaminating every earthly relationship into which he enters so long as he is despising the Lord his God. Because while these are written to Christians, and in every case here, the Father speaks of the Lord as Savior. Paul spoke to heathens in Acts 17, and he spoke of the whole of humanity. And he said, we are God's offspring. And in Malachi 2.10, We have the question, have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? There is a sense in which this refers then to God the Creator. The fifth commandment then is teaching that all men should honor the Lord because He created them. But Christians especially should honor the Lord because He saved them. Now then, here is the full extent of the fifth commandment. God has ordered all human society on the basis of legitimate authority, which every one of us, saved and unsaved, should acknowledge and respect, because we acknowledge and respect the authority of God Himself. Now, that's what the fifth commandment is fully all about. But as soon as I say that, you'll recognize that's a huge subject. And it's much too big for me to get through in one message, or even two messages, or even three or four messages. Much too big. To do justice to the subject of the fifth commandment, as I have just set it forth, we would need to consider the biblical doctrine of legitimate authority, its proper exercise in the church and in the state. and then in the home. We would need to consider what the Bible teaches regarding the duties of citizens toward the state and the duties of the state towards its citizens. We would need to study the limits of state authority. As I mentioned this morning, to study the difference between authority and mere power. We would have to consider from Scripture the right of protest against the tyrannical abuse of power, and when and by whom a revolution against a government may be pursued. Some Christians believe it's never right to pursue a revolution against a government. In that case, every one of you should apply very quickly to the House of Parliament in England for citizenship once again, because you're all living in sin. However, if you understood Protestant theology, which is biblical theology, you would understand that there is a basis in Scripture, in the scriptural teaching of graves of magistrates. There is a basis in Scripture for a biblical Revolution against tyrannical abuse of power does not rest in the hand of the individual. The Bible does not allow anarchy, even as an excuse to overthrow tyranny. The Bible does not advocate anarchy. But there is a biblical doctrine of the right to overthrow a tyrannical government. We would need to look at that. Coming to the church, we would need to consider the nature and proper use of church power by the elders, the nature and the necessity of Christians joyfully submitting themselves to it. As I pointed out, that proud, selfish despising of legitimate authority, even in the church, will be a flagrant breach of the law of God, because it is despising God Himself. Now those are big matters. Undeniably, those are important matters. Maybe if I were giving a theological lecture, I would take time to go through those in detail. But the Bible has much to say on them. Let me sum it all up and say that the main thing to recognize is that the law of God forbids unbridled individualism. And it commands a true respect and honor. legitimate authority. Now that's as far as I can pursue those subjects because I want to confine the study to the primary reference of the commandment which is the proper attitude and actions of parents and children toward each other. Now I set out with the intention of doing it all tonight and I may yet do that but Dr. Barrett is running short of time he's to go and meet his wife and you know I can't put a stress upon that marriage relationship so I may not go too far time-wise or otherwise tonight may come as a shock when I include the duties of parents in it the subject when the text says it's addressed to children honor thy father and thy mother Well, think of the terms, Father and Mother. Those are terms that must be understood in the full sense of the Word. We read in Ephesians 6 tonight where the Apostle Paul was quoting, applying, and therefore expounding this fifth commandment. And he did speak to the children, but he also spoke to the parents. You can't divorce them. It's a little bit like when a husband comes and says, my wife's not in subjection. Well, she should be in subjection. He mightn't be all that he's supposed to be, but wife, you should be in subjection. And you should not be flaunting the legitimate desire and authority and instruction of your husband. You can't do that without flying in the face of God. But yet, so many times a husband comes and says, my wife's not in subjection. But what about the other part that says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. Very often those very husbands who are griping the loudest are the most self-centered creatures and they simply waft in and out of the home as if they were visitors from outer space. Now that does not in itself justify the wife's breach of the law of God, but it explains it in part. And similarly, parents who are always harping at their children, honor your father, honor your mother, while they themselves are not fulfilling the duties that the Bible sets down for fathers and mothers, will soon find that they are causing more harm than good. You see, Parents are to be fathers and mothers in the full sense of those terms. They are to fulfill the various functions which God in His Word ascribes to fatherhood and motherhood. I suppose the summary way in which to put that is that fathers are to reflect the fatherhood of God. Understand that. According to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 15, it is after God that every family in heaven and earth is named. The very idea of fatherhood comes from God. It's been the tragic experience of every pastor who has had much to do with people at all, to find that there are young people whose hearts are hardened toward God and their lives are twisted and tormented, where the very idea of the fatherhood of God is obnoxious to them, because their only contact with fatherhood has been a contact with a selfish, cruel tyranny. Didn't we look at this when we were studying about Martin Luther, talking about the Reformation? Martin Luther wanting to be saved, going into a monastery, yet hated the very thought of the fatherhood of God. Why? Because the only father he had ever known was a harsh and brutal taskmaster. And to him, the word father meant such a thing. I tell you, every father here has got to remember that your fatherhood is to represent the fatherhood of God. And woe be to the man when his children stand before God the Judge on the Judgment Day. Woe be to that man whose representation has been such a caricature of God as to make his children even hate the very name of God the Father. Mothers must reflect the role of the church. The church is the mother of us all, we have read. And the mother must reflect that role of care, of rule, with all the love of God. So there are duties for parents. I can sum them up in three things. Parents are first to instruct their children. Teaching is the primary duty of parents. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 and 7. This is just one of many texts that you could cite from the Word. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently. unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Teach them diligently. You remember what the Lord said of Abraham? I would to God, He could say it of every father. In verse 19, it says, I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment." God looked down on Abraham and He says, I know that man. Of course, He knows every man. God's not fooled by the color of your skin or the smile on your face or the culture that you wrap yourself in. He's not fooled by that. God knows every man. I wonder tonight when He looks at you, can He say, I know that man, that He will command his home, his children, his household. He will teach them. He will instruct them. Parents are meant to spend time teaching their children. Not just the mothers. Somehow or other, we have reached this stage where we have almost got a matriarchal society. Somehow or other we've reached the stage where it's the mother who gathers the children around. It's the mother who prays with the children. It's the mother who teaches the children the Bible. It's the mother who teaches them anything. It's the mother who does the schooling at home. It's the mother who does everything in the rearing and the teaching of the child. And I'm not for a moment wishing to denigrate or undervalue the input of godly mothers. Having had a godly mother is the last thing in the world I would want to do. I want to tell you, it doesn't say mothers teach your children. It's not just the mothers. Oh, they're not out of the picture. They're a vital part of it. But I can tell you, it's especially the fathers. And if Your job makes it too difficult for you to spend time with your children. In God's name, change your job rather than damn your family. That's what it says. Teach your children. Spend time with them. You notice in this text there's a time when fathers and mothers and children can actually sit down and talk. Do you notice that? How many American homes is that true of? Let's not just talk about America, this is a huge place. How many homes in this congregation tonight is it true of? This is a school town. I came from a town in Northern Ireland that was known colloquially as Cow Town. So I've come from Cow Town to Culture Town. Shock was great, especially for you. You know, you can get so busy with the all-consuming demands of school, whether as a student or a teacher. that your family never sits down together, never has time together to talk about the Word of God and apply it to your lives. I'm going to tell you, my friend, I don't care if you tell me you're doing the work of God, I will tell you ultimately you will live to regret it. time for parents to teach their children. That instruction should be eminently biblical instruction. I think that it is not taught that the only thing God ever teaches or says is people should teach their children is the Bible. If that were so, then the Bible would never refer to subjects outside of itself as if people should know them. Every part of the teaching should be eminently biblical. That says that no parent should be content to see his children grow up, maybe with a PhD in whatever subject you want, but still to grow up to blaze a trail along the road to hell. Surely no wise parent could ever be satisfied with that. Remember what I read from 3 John verse 4? I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. That's true not only of spiritual children, but of natural children. Can any parent have a greater joy than to know my children are walking in the truth? We want our children to be educated. We want our children, and I'll have something to say about this even to become cultured, we want our children to be fitted for jobs. We want our children to be able to take a place that is viable in this economic age in which we're living. All those things are legitimate. But the most important thing is to know that our children are walking in the truth. I don't think it would give us, any one of us, any pleasure to stand over the coffin of one of our children and know that he had lived and died in sin and gone to hell and say, well, you know, he made a lot of money, he got a great job. So what? So what? teach your children biblically. Of course, that means you yourself have got to submit to the biblical gospel. That means you yourself have got to know what it is to believe and to repent and to receive Christ and walk accordingly. For if you despise the truth of the gospel yourself, you certainly can't influence your children to honor it and receive it. In other words, to be the best parent, you should be a Christian parent, thoroughly dedicated unto Christ. Now parents must take this task of educating their children seriously. That's not to say for one moment that education is exclusively the role of parents. There are some people who have taken the home school idea to a great extreme as to say that the only people who have a right to teach are parents. Well, I think that's stretching the Scripture way beyond anything that it was intended to teach. For instance, we find in the Old Testament, not only parents, but the Levites had a God-given teaching role. So, that instruction was not left only to parents. We find in the church, God has not left teaching and instruction only to parents. He has actually called pastor-teachers to the place of instruction. Not only so, we find the Bible speaking of the schools of the prophets. So there were actual, if we could call them colleges or seminaries. We read of Paul that as Saul of Tarsus, he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. So very clearly in the Scriptures, there is a place for schools. And there's a place for what we might even call Sunday schools. And there's a place for seminaries, as long as they don't become spiritual cemeteries. There is a place for them all. But parents are never to be mere onlookers. Nowadays, it's the state that claims the role of being the primary educator of children. And the results of that decision have been disastrous. As churches and parents, Remember, it used to be that it was the church that was the center of the local school. It was the church that set up the school. It was the church that set the curriculum. It was the church that administered the discipline. And family and church worked together. But somehow or other, with increasing socialization, church and family gave over the responsibility to the state. And the results have been disastrous. Because as churches and parents have abdicated responsibility to be fully involved in the development of their children, and have handed that task over to the state, what has happened? Families have disintegrated. And the state itself is suffering the consequences. Because no matter who's in government, and this is the grieving thing, when Christians get carried away with some political party or some political philosophy, it doesn't matter who's in government, Why the families of America are falling apart. America's falling apart. Nothing can change that. Can't be done. God starts with the home. Remember what I said? Church and state were God-given extensions of the domestic arrangement. Not the other way around. The results of the state as the primary educator have certainly been a tragedy. Parents to instruct their children. Parents are to provide for their children. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 14 says, Children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. So, it's the parents' role to provide for the children. Not only physically, they must provide physically. It's their duty. I don't want to get off. If I were in another part of the world, I may have to do this. It's not the state's responsibility. And I'm not saying for a moment that a state should be careless and make no provision for children in great need. I'm not saying there should be no safety net. I'm not getting into that argument even. But I am saying this, that it is not the role of the state to rear your children. That's your role. And rearing them, as we read in Ephesians 6, means nurturing them, feeding them, caring for them. There is provision physically. But that's not all it's talking about. the extension of this to emotionally and morally and spiritually providing for them. Now that is the calling of parents. The calling of parents is to provide the best possible home for their children. And providing the best possible home for children, you know, has very little to do with wealth and luxury. Some of the worst homes you could ever be in are some of the most wealthy. And some of the best homes you could ever be in are some that have very little of this world's goods. Providing the best possible home for children has little to do with wealth and luxury. All too often, especially in this society in which we live, there's such an emphasis on providing for the physical, providing financially, that these other areas are either overlooked or at least downgraded and that's absolute and abject folly. We should do all in our power to ensure that we cater for every aspect of the need of a child. That's the calling of parents to provide physically, financially, morally, spiritually. That's the calling of a parent, to provide. Now listen very carefully. I wish I didn't even have to mention this, and I'm going to be very careful what I say. If that's the role of a parent, then no parent has the right to abuse or ruin a child. I realize that this word abuse is a buzzword among secular socialists, but don't let that blind you. We all know that it is also a tragic reality. Many parents, and I have known some of them, look on their children as mere chattels and they treat them as slaves. In many homes, sadly some of them supposed to be Christian homes, sadly again many of them even preacher's homes. In many homes, mental and physical cruelty are meted out at the whim of a foul-tempered father or mother. In many homes, This is something that the lid is only getting lifted off. Many homes are dens of incest and of iniquity. I could name you preachers. I dare not call them Christians. I could name you preachers who have stood for years behind the desk. Who have gained eminence as defenders of this Bible. Who ripped every daughter in their home. Then they wonder why those children grew up broken. It's a reckoning day. I wouldn't stand. I would rather die an atheist. I would rather die a heathen. I would rather die a sodomite than to die a preacher who had ruined the very children God gave me. Very often parents try to justify the most wicked behavior. They seek to silence their children by telling them, you have to honor your father and your mother. I want to tell you, my friend, it is not honor for a father and a mother that does not turn such a monster as I have described over to the police. It is not obedience on the part of a wife. It is not submission on the part of a wife that allows that to happen without putting that reprobate behind bars. But they silence people by telling them all too often, look what I provide for you. These very same people will lavish gifts, they will give money, they will do this, they will do the other thing. But that's hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy. They're not providing anything. They're robbing those children of the most precious things of all. Parents are to instruct. Parents are to provide. And indeed, parents are to discipline their children. They must set up biblical standards and sanctions. I realize that we live in a day when both in church and in family the whole idea of standards is frowned upon. There is such a notion of Christian liberty that you don't have any standards at all and if you have standards you are a legalist. Let me tell you that is so far from the truth it would be laughable if it weren't so serious. Legalism is the doctrine of obtaining righteous acceptance with God by the works of your own obedience, either in whole or in part. That's legalism. But it is not legalism to seek to conform your life in obedience to the law of God. That's sanctification. It's a world of difference. There should be standards in our homes. And there should be sanctions to impose those standards. And parents are called upon by God to be parents. They are not buddy-buddy, brother or sister to the children, however close. And I would want them to have the closest and most loving possible relationship, and the most open possible relationship. But they must be there to represent God and God's Word and God's Law and God's Standard. And parents must have the spiritual courage and faith to impose the sanctions of those standards. It's vital. You mustn't be like Eli. Eli had sons that he raised to be damned. He saw them become priests. But He still saw them damned. And the Lord put His finger on what was wrong with Eli. When his sons were going into sin, He didn't restrain them. Now, when you read the record, you find that He did speak to them about their sin. He did speak to them, which is more than many Christian parents would do. He spoke to them. You would say He remonstrated with them about their sin. He pleaded with them not to go on in their sin. But the one thing He wouldn't do was set up the standard of God's holiness and apply the sanction of God's law. In other words, when they trampled what He said beneath their feet, He just threw up His hands and said, what can you do? Do you see a picture of many parents there? Oh, Johnny, don't do that. And Johnny goes and does it. What can you do? What can you do? Well, you can start by catching yourself on. That's what you can do. Christian parents must have the guts, the courage, and the faith to take God at His word, to set up the standards of not only law, but of grace. not only of law, but of gospel. And they must impose them, not like Eli, but they must rule by the Word of God, not by the opinions and the philosophies and the psychologies of the world. In all this, they must be teaching these children to respect authority, divine and human. They must teach them God's Word. They must teach them What it is to respect this book, to respect God's house, to respect God's day. Those are very simple things that even a small child, little time out of babyhood can grasp. Teach them these things. And then teach them God's Word. And then teach them God's grace, God's Gospel. Teach them submission to divine authority. and then submission to human authority, first their own, and then that of rulers in state and in church. Now, parents must not set out to squelch self-expression and the development of the individual personality in a child, but they must regulate those things by the Word of God. Let me touch on something that is very down to earth. This commandment means that parents are called upon to teach their children how to behave in relation to others. They must teach the child that he cannot always have his own way and he can't always indulge his own pleasures. They must teach him respect for authority and how to live in relation to the authority and the rights of others. In Bible times, children called their father Lord. They bowed down, even when Solomon was king he did this, bowed down before his mother. They stood, as we have read in God's Word tonight, they stood when an older person would enter into their presence. Now the customs have changed, but the principle remains the same. You know what we're talking about there, of course, is what we nowadays call good manners. And good manners should not be corrupted. Someone has well said that manners are the brakes which conscience puts on the expression of the lusts of the flesh. Good manners will be like disc brakes on a vehicle that otherwise would run out of control. They teach children to have respect for and regard for the effect of their behavior on other people. Now let me deal with a very particular part of this. It's a very important thing that parents must teach their children by their discipline. And it's the need to take a long view of things. Children live for the moment. We all know that time means nothing to a child. Joan and I used to laugh when Frank was coming in from Bob Jones when he was knee-high to a grasshopper. Of course, he was knee-high to a grasshopper until he was 16. But, I mean, when he was very young, he'd come in and we'd say, well, how long did that go on for? This is all about Eleven minutes? Of course he hadn't a clue what if it was eleven minutes or eleven hours. He hadn't a clue about time. Maybe a little bit like myself when I come to preach. I haven't a clue about time either. But we all know that children live for the moment. To be denied something in this moment to a child can be excruciating. That's why parents find it so difficult to deny a child. I'm sure you've seen them in Kmart or Walmart or whatever other mart you go to, and there they're screaming, I want that! Oh, there it is, take it. They're only down the next, I want that! Well, give it to them. You know, you can't say no. You can't. I'll give you a dictionary. It has big letters in my dictionary. But the agony for the child is real. It's real. It's not just simulated, though it can become simulated if it's indulged too often. But the trouble is the child lives just for the moment. He must be taught what it is to wait and to labor and even to suffer for the moment in order to achieve long-term benefit. Those old hands here from The days of Bob Jones Senior will remember one of his famous recorded sermons on sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the immediate. We must teach children not to sacrifice permanent good for immediate pleasure or immediate indulgence. That's what a parent has got to train a child to do. Now let me be very frank with you. Parents will find that It's very difficult. If they themselves are living a life, for instance, where they're crushed by debt, because they could not discipline themselves to wait and see if they had an attack of the gimmicks, I must have, I must have, I must have, and they can't pay. How can those parents teach children what it is patiently to endure? There's nobody in this world who will tell the difference between walking the walk and talking the talk than a child. He knows. Again, if parents are playing fast and loose with their marriage vows, or they're giving themselves up to the indulgence of some of the other lusts of the flesh, they haven't a hope in the world of teaching their children the benefits of patient self-control. Those parents particularly who are sacrificing the eternal welfare of their souls because of momentary pleasure will communicate that disdain for heaven to their children. Jesus asked, what will it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? There are parents who are not gaining the world they're gaining just a little piece of the world and they're willing to risk the damnation of their soul for all eternity for that little piece of the world but yet at the same time they want to be able to rear their children and teach their children what it is to live with the long-term view I tell you it can't be done for usually the child will not only listen to what you say far more importantly he'll do what you do. Remember the old story? The man who came home, dead of winter, looked in at home, saw the children, gave his little boy a lecture, told him what to do, said goodnight, stepped outside and started to walk through the snow. on his way to the bar. You've all had that sense of someone following you. He had that and he turned around and he saw a sight that changed his life. He saw a little boy walking through snow that was too deep for him and lifting up his legs and putting his feet in the very hole that his father had made in the snow. Now, Father, that night recognized, my son does not only hear what I say, but he's putting his feet in the very prince that I have made. If he follows me where I'm going, he'll follow me to hell. the duties of parents. I'll come back, God willing, next week to deal with the duties of children. But I want you to understand me tonight that this domestic relationship, this domestic arrangement this domestic happiness, this commitment of your whole self, this investment of your whole being, is next to your conversion to Christ the most important thing you're ever going to do in this life. If you have children, They are your most precious possessions. They are your most important possessions. Remember, they are immortal possessions. The duties of parents are great. How can we do it? How can anybody live up to this? The duties are there. I think there's not a parent here but is bound to feel, Lord, I am such a failure. And yet the duties are given to instruct us, to encourage us, and to enable us. They're not given to depress us and defeat us and put us on a guilt trip. They are meant to be fruitful in our lives. When you consider these duties, how can you fulfill them? First, make sure you're saved. Second, make sure you yourself are walking with God. Understand the Gospel. Understand how God the Father has treated you and you as His representative will know how you should be a father. Understand the gospel. Understand grace. Let it fill your heart what God in grace has done for your soul. And I tell you, the greatest equipment that any parent can have to do right in the home is to be living in the full experience of the gospel. You can express God's grace when you're experiencing God's grace. When you're living in the enjoyment of Christ, then you will be able to communicate that enjoyment in all your domestic relationships. The law tells us what to do. The gospel gives us the power. May God teach us and then enable us to obey His Word.