If I do, you can ask me and we'll explain them. Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Malachi, the prophecy of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. As you turn there, let me thank the organizers very much for the privilege of being here with you with the word of God. Also with a brother from the seminary, Dr. Kelderman. It's a great joy to be here and to speak about this very important topic of the family from the scriptures also today. And the title of the conference, The Family in the Eyes of God, is most important. If we were to look at the family in the eyes of our world, we would find much disdain and much reason for sadness. But when we look to what the Lord says about the family in the word of God, then we have reason for hope and for expectation. We'll draw from many passages of the word of God tonight, but I would like to read at this time from Malachi chapter 1. Three readings from Malachi, chapter 1, 1-6a, chapter 2, 14-16, and then finally, chapter 4, 5, and 6. You'll pardon me just taking a few verses here or there. They all have to do all these verses with the family and important teachings that we'll cover this evening. Malachi 1, verse 1. to verse 6a, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, thus saith the Lord of hosts. They shall build, but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. A son honoreth his father. and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you?" That, first of all, and now chapter 2, 14 through 16. This first reading I just did speaks about the fatherhood of God. This now speaks about marriage, 2.14 through 16. Yet ye say, wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? that he might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away, for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. That was our second reading, and now finally two verses from the end of the prophecy. Malachi 4, verse 5 and 6. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Thus far the reading of God's holy law. Let us pray together for light. Gracious, good doing and almighty Lord God, as we have heard thy very voice, thy word of truth, we pray thee for understanding. We pray thee for the work of thy Holy Spirit upon our hearts, that as we touch upon this great topic of the family from out of the scriptures, in the eyes of the Lord that our eyes would be opened for a first time or in a fresh way to how thou dost see the family, how thou hast designed the family, how thou wilt aid and assist married persons and families in the midst of all their troubles and afflictions and confusion and difficulties with thy grace when we look to thee for help. Oh, Lord, then sanctify every single affliction to our heart and lives and bless thine own word and bless every single person who is here with us or joining with us through internet means. We ask you, Lord, for thy Holy Spirit and his glorious ministry, that the truths that we hear would be applied to our hearts and that they would sink down and our lives would be affected for good. We ask this all in the pardon of every sin. In Jesus' name alone, amen. I would like to read here as I begin a few lines from an excellent book on the family by John Angel James. It's called A Help to Domestic Happiness. A family, he writes, how delightful the associations we form with such a word, how pleasing the images with which it crowds the mind, and how tender the emotions which it awakens in the heart. Who can wonder that domestic happiness should be a theme dear to poetry and that should have called forth some of the sweetest strains of fancy and of feeling. Or who can be surprised that of all the objects which present themselves to the vista of futurity, to the eye of those who are setting out on the journey of life, This should excite the most ardent desires and engage the most active pursuits. But alas, of those who in the ardor of youth start for the possession of this dear prize, a family, how many fail. And why? Because their imagination alone is engaged on the subject. They have no definite ideas of what it means, nor of the way in which it is to be obtained. It is a mere lovely creation of a romantic mind, and oftentimes with such person, fades away so very quickly. The family is a divine institute. God formed it himself. We read in the scriptures, he taketh the solitary and setteth him in families. And like all the rest of his works, it is well and wisely done. It is a system of government quite unique. Neither below the heavens nor above them is there anything precisely like it. In some respects, it resembles the civil government of a state. In others, the ecclesiastical rule of a church. And it is there that the church and the state may be said to meet. This meeting, however, is only on a very small scale and under very peculiar circumstances. When directed as it should be, every family has a sacred character, inasmuch as the head of it acts the part of both the prophet and the priest of the household by instructing them in the knowledge and leading them in the worship of God. while at the same time he discharges the duties of a king by supporting a system of order and discipline. Conformably with its nature is its design beyond the benefit of the individuals which compose it and which is its first and immediate object. It is intended to promote the welfare of the whole society to which it belongs and of which it is a part. Hence, every nation has stamped a great value on the family compact and guarded it with the most powerful sanctions." Well, here we have an eloquent statement from a writer of a previous century who says something that we all can relate to. When we think of family, we think of something really so glorious and wonderful. And even if our experiences of our own family may have been less than what they should have been, yet the ideal of a family is something that can grip us, a place to feel at home, a place to be yourself, a place where there is familiarity, to which the word family is obviously connected. We want to, with the Lord's help in this time that is allotted to us, we want to just see in three respects how the family in the eyes of God is so very beautiful and meaningful. The family in the eyes of God is so very beautiful and meaningful. And the first way in which we want to see that is by way of defining family. defining family. What is a family? Well, here's a definition that I found and to which I can agree in a general sense. It is an institution of society ordained by God and constituted by the marriage of one man to one woman and then, as God sees fit, to join to it either by blood or marriage or another legal bond such as adoption, children, or others, who together form an indissoluble bond where there is care, familiarity, protection, and nurture of the young and respect of the old. So this is a common, ordinary definition of the family. that is God-focused. When I compare this with scripture, in many respects it is very wonderful and very full. And yet I would add to it that the biblical family is not only a unit of persons marked by this care and familiarity and protection, this bond, which indeed is formed by the relationship of a man and a woman and whomever the Lord brings into this family, usually children, or others as well, but it is not just with an aim for this life, but aimed at a better life. It is for time indeed, yes, but it ought also to be for eternity, because this whole world and our own life is to be a life in preparation for eternity. Now usually when we read of a family, which we can read already in Genesis 1, we see it indeed as something that is organized by the Lord. It is designed by the Lord in His favor. Even in common grace, by virtue of creation, He is designed there to be a father and a mother. And then according to His will and gift, children who follow. and others indeed may be joined to it. The Bible speaks of family sometimes in broader ways, extended family as we would say it, but also in smaller and more nuclear ways, the tight-knit family of father, mother, and any children whom the Lord gives. And the Lord has seen fit to take this picture of an earthly family in creation, And to use this also for his people, for the church of all times and places. You can read in Ephesians 3 verse 15 about the whole family of God. in which God is the father, Christ is the elder brother, and all the regenerated children of God are true sons and daughters of the Most High God. That is the family of God. And so what we see there is that God takes the earthly family as he designed it and created it, and he uses this as a picture of something that he works, that he is bringing about already in time, and that will be complete in eternity to come. Indeed, the Lord sets the solitary in families. When we ask, as we do here in our first session, about the family in the heart of God, we are speaking about what God thinks about the family, and specifically, how he looks upon the family. Well, he's designed the family. And his desire is that families would be governed and ordered as he has commanded. And his heart looks favorably upon families that order themselves by the word of God. As we read already from John Angel James, this is an institution in every society. And though we see it in very corrupted forms in pagan nations and the like, through polygamy and all sorts of things like that, yet we can, if we look in a fine way, in a fine-tuned way, we can see the fingerprints of creation, of the creator, who in his creation has impressed this necessary design and institution upon marriage and the family. In scriptures we read the first mention of the word family already in Genesis 10 when in the genealogy there the whole families of the earth descending from Noah are being portrayed. The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, all who had been on the ark. And then on the heels of that in Genesis 12 we read about the calling of Abraham. who was a worshipper of pagan gods in Ur of the Chaldees, and God called him effectually by his grace, and called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, out of his family connections there, his clan that he was to leave behind, and which he actually did at Heron, in order that he might go to the place that God had spoken to him of, and to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This already tells us what the Lord thinks about families. The Lord would have the families of this earth be blessed by His grace in accordance with His call of grace. Well then, when we read the Scriptures in terms of God's design and order, we see that the Lord would have the foundation of the family be his word, his bringing together of a man and a woman, a God-fearing man and a God-fearing woman who would raise any children whom the Lord would give them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. to this unit may be added others as well. You can read of that in the Bible. Servants were counted as part of the family. Children could be adopted and they would be part of the family. That is still done today and it's a wonderful thing when Christian families give place to those who do not have a family or who have lost a family, or even as widows and widowers are drawn into the family of others. The church should be a place in which the various families that constitute the church know it to be their calling and duty to draw those who are solitary in biblical terms, to give them also a place in their families. And so widows and widowers, orphans, singles, those who, in Providence, have lost loved ones, they might yet be knit together with other families and find a place with it. At the seminary, we're often privileged to receive people from other cultures. And in Asia, especially in Africa and other places as well, especially with the plagues that ravage these areas, There's often this, particularly in Africa, where children will lose their parents through dreaded diseases, and they will be orphaned at a very young age. And they'll go around and look for a family to adopt them. And many of them will come to the homes and the doors of ministers of the gospel and say, can I be your child? They have no other place to go. There's no social system that will take them in. So we've had students who When I ask them, are you married? Do you have children? How many children? They'll say, well, I have four of my own children, but I have 13 adopted children. They're just bringing in these children and training them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And that is something that the Bible certainly sets forth and applauds as able, as people are able. And so here we see at the level of definitions already, what the Lord believes concerning families. He smiles upon families who are ordered in accordance with his will and way. He has designed it. No matter how man militates against the family, it is God's design. And God must be obeyed rather than men. The second thing that I'd like to consider with you is a biblical theology of family. And by that, I mean simply going over the whole of the Bible just briefly and focusing upon the Old Testament here. We'll come to some New Testament themes tomorrow. But a biblical theology of family, what does the Bible say as a whole about family? As I studied this matter, I was struck how the book of Genesis deals in every chapter with issues of family. Read sometime the book of Genesis, either in one sitting or fairly rapidly, and see all the themes concerning family that come up in the very first book of the Bible. Of course, the first chapter shows us the very design of the family, where God creates man and woman, and he brings them together, and chapter 2 elaborates on this. and commissions marriage, one flesh union, and also a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife, and they being one flesh, they being a new unit, they being united, no longer one, no longer two, but one. And of course, even in the animal world, there are faint representations, aren't there, of that family unit. God has so marked his creation that we can see faint reflections of it even in animal families. How a father duck or goose or mother duck or goose, they will care for their little ones. And there are certain species of animals that are known to be monogamous animals. And these things are just faint reflections of what God has designed in His very creation. And so Genesis 1 and 2 set the foundation for marriage. When in Genesis 3, we meet the first family in sin, we see how sin disrupts the family at a deep level. It shows itself immediately in the fissures and fractures that take place between Adam and Eve, the blaming, the one of the other. And chapter 4 shows it only worse, where son rises up against brother. And enmity prevails within the very ranks of the family. How sin devastates families. And you can continue reading in the book of Genesis and you see so many other things regarding the family. A lot of brokenness. A lot of jealousy, for example, in the Jacob narratives. regarding the various wives, which of course he should never have had, but the jealousy there between the wives and the sibling rivalry in the family of Jacob, even to the point of selling Joseph into slavery. And what a difference Genesis 50 is compared to Genesis 1. Genesis 50 shows Joseph's brothers finally coming to ask for forgiveness. And they do so with great trepidation. And we know all that has happened between Joseph and his brothers. And yet we have that wonderful thing that Joseph says as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis 50 verse 21. He says to his brothers who have sinned against him, he says, I will nourish you. and your little ones. I will nourish you and your little ones. Doesn't that speak of the grace of God which conquers sin and brokenness? And though man's sin abounds, yet God's grace can all the more abound. How we see God's design in the family and with the family by His grace. So when we compare the end of Genesis with the beginning of Genesis, indeed how broken families can be, and yet how God and His good pleasure can work even in the midst of great brokenness, brokenness of which we would say, this is hopeless. Can anything good come out of this? And yet the Lord can even have types of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he can paint his son's portrait even in the pages of that first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, the relationship of Joseph to his brothers. Then you come to the book of Exodus, and you have there at the very beginning, you have families under threat. What we're dealing with today, and we hope to hear more about it later, I trust this evening and throughout this conference, families under threat. That's nothing new. Families have been under threat from Genesis 3 on, and you can see it very vividly in the book of Exodus. In the very first pages, the order of Pharaoh to have all the male children thrown into the Nile, destroyed. And of course, the whole slavery that Israel was put under, was destructive of the family. And yet, in the book of Exodus, as you turn the pages, you realize that God's design in the family and through the family is still ongoing and prevails. And we're given a window into this in the life of Jacobet and Amram. One family, out of all these many, many families. We know the children, Moses and Aaron and Miriam. And we trace their story throughout the books of Moses. And how a godly mother and a godly father, even in the most wicked of ages, and under the tyranny of an evil king, how the Lord could accomplish a design of mercy and of grace that we are still speaking about. The redemption. from Egypt, of Israel, by the Lord. By faith, Moses was hid by his parents until he could be hid no longer. And he was trained in the fear and admonition of the Lord, nursed by his mother, until he was handed over to Pharaoh's daughter. And yet, through all of this, the Lord was bringing about his purposes. even in days when the family was severely threatened. And it's in the book of Exodus 2 where we have the moral law of God where right at the center of the Ten Commandments we have this fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. There we see the family in the heart of God. He writes it with his own finger. He puts it upon the tables of stone. The family is my ordinance. I want it kept sacred. And that honor that children should render to their parents is something that also calls parents to train their children up in the fear of the Lord, that indeed they may live long upon the earth." It's Ephesians 6, and I think we'll hear more about that. Speaking about the fifth commandment, this glorious center commandment, you could say, right there on the bridge of the first table of the law and the second table of the law, shows God's glorious endorsement and love for family. the family ordinance, and yes, there's a legal side to it, and how short we come when it comes to what God has commanded in families, parents. I trust, I hope we all know our shortcomings with regard to the fifth commandment and all that it implies for us, and children, and all of us are children, our own shortcomings. with respect to the law of God, this shining, this outshining of God's own character, that in the law shines upon our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our actions, and finds all of us guilty, all of us, no matter how upright and good our family is. Yet there's sin, and sin must be atoned. And yet through this all, the Fifth Commandment is not just law, It's a law which calls for the gospel and for him who would fulfill perfectly the law, in whom there was no sin ever found, not sin against any commandment, also not the fifth commandment. In thought, word, and deed, the Lord Jesus Christ kept the law of God. He was the only perfect Son that ever walked this earth. He was the only law-abiding son, both of his earthly mother and his earthly father, Joseph, his stepfather, and, of course, of his heavenly father. I must be about my father's business, he proclaimed, loud and clear, even to his own earthly parents. And yet he submitted himself. to his earthly parents in accordance with the law of God. And on the cross, when he was about his father's business in the most intense of all ways, securing people of God, your salvation, he had an eye for his earthly mother, calling her woman as he did, saying, woman, behold thy son, and son, behold thy mother. He fulfilled the law in that instant, not leaving his mother over into the hands of an unbelieving son like his half-brothers were. He gave her into the hand of the disciple John, caring for his earthly mother. providing for her, fulfilling the law of God in the process, and thereby accomplishing a righteousness which stands throughout the ages and on which sinners like you and me can fall and find all that we need to obey the law of God. In fact, we want to obey the law of God through His strength, by His grace, through that new life that He gives from out of His Spirit. And so, dear friends, we see in biblical theology, we see a wonderful confirmation that the family is gloriously in the heart of God. God has ordained it. God has instituted it. And God has inscribed the institution of the family into the very fabric of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. We'll see more of that in our time to come. And as the Lord inscribes all these things into the fabric of the Scriptures, He does so in order to show His design by creation, our destruction of it in the fall. and God's restoration of it through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that families today, by God's grace, might be places in which the fear of the Lord is nurtured and known, and in which that entire family of God, which will one day be on the new heavens and the new earth, may be formed, yes, also through earthly families as the Lord blesses the labors of God-fearing parents. What a wonderful thing this is. I know Abraham that he shall command his children after him, that they might keep my ways. This is the great and rich blessing of covenant. and the calling that the Lord lays upon Christian parents. Indeed, grace is not automatic. The Bible makes that clear in every page. Even in Malachi, we read about how the Lord loved Jacob and hated Esau. And yet, who can deny that the Lord is pleased to work in the line of the generations and through families that humbly, dependently, prayerfully, Seek the Lord's mercy and grace. Live transparently and vulnerably before the face of the Lord, beseeching the Lord to do what he alone can do. What we cannot do. We give life to our children that are born from us. Of course, God working through that. We cannot give them spiritual life, and yet we cry to God. And we instruct, we seek to be faithful not only to their bodies but also to their souls. And we look for the Lord who formed Adam from the dust of the earth to also form new life in our children by His grace. We do not let the Lord go except he bless us. And this can be long and this can be hard. There may be many signs that are against us, but oh, to take hold of the Lord for a blessing which he has promised. I will yet be inquired of the house of Israel to do it for them. May that be our watchword. May that encourage us no matter where we find ourselves or our children or other family members to be. Let us take hold of the God whose design family. And seek for him. In his time, in his way to work through the brokenness of our families and to weave that wonderful strand of grace. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to wash away sin, to renew, to sanctify all for his grace, all for his glory and by his grace. Well, we have seen how the family has the favor of God in his very heart from the definitions of family. Secondly, from the biblical theology of family. And thirdly, here, and lastly, a few brief moments from the book of Malachi. Maybe you wonder why I've chosen Malachi. Yes, indeed, maybe in some way it is a strange choice, and yet I hope that as we trace these few little snippets in the book of Malachi, we could see just a little bit of how God's heart is for the family. The first is in the first few verses, the opening verses of Malachi. I read that whole section, but I want to zero in on verse 2 and on verse 6, where the Lord brings together the picture of a loving father and a son who does not feel love and who does not honor his father. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us? And then verse six, a son honoreth his father and a servant his master. If I then be your father, where is mine honor? And I would to God that these verses would rest upon our hearts as the Lord searches us with respect to these things. Do you ever find yourself complaining? Even you, child of God. Does the Lord really love me? And if He does, then why are things so hard? Why are things so difficult? Why are things so dark? We gauge the Lord's love so often from an earthly point of view, from our own limited and sinful point of view. in which we seek to read his love off of what we wish for in terms of prosperity. When adversity comes our way, our eyes are blind to the fact that the Lord whom he loves, he chastens. And he has designs of mercy, even in darkness and in difficulties. But isn't this often? the root of sin in our lives, people of God, that we doubt the Lord's character, that we doubt his intent, that we question what is in his heart. Someone has said that all sin can be traced back to an insensitivity to the character of God. All sin can be traced back to an insensitivity to the character of God. Think about that. If we knew who God is, the merciful, the gracious, the long-suffering, the patient, the just, the faithful, the covenant-keeping God, as He has revealed Himself to be in the Scriptures, if we truly had eyes for that, It is our sin. We do not see Him for who He is. And to not see Him for who He is yields a whole harvest of sin. That's why a people who know their God, Daniel says, shall be strong and shall do exploits. We need to know our God. When we question his character, and especially his designs of love. And we can do that in very subtle and very pious ways even. But let us hear the voice of God who comes in His Word even to sinners, to sinners far and wide, no matter who you are, no matter how far you've strayed, no matter how vile you find yourself to be. The Lord in the Scriptures He makes His will known, and His will is this, that you turn from your wicked ways that you may live. I do not have pleasure in the death of the wicked, but herein have I pleasure, the Lord says. Let the wicked turn from his evil ways and live. That's the expression of the Lord's heart, which is a heart. that is moved with compassion even for sinners. If you're here today and you're unreconciled to God, oh, my friend, hear His voice today. He speaks even here. Do not question His designs. Do not question his heart. Do not question the overtures of his love. Yes, you have sinned. Yes, you have provoked the Lord to wrath against you. But hear what he says. He says, "'Herein have I pleasure, that the wicked turn from his wicked way and live.'" But then the next thing that comes to us, dear friends, is do we honor the Lord? If he truly is this father, do we honor him? And the Lord has to lament in verse 6 and say, a son honors his father and a servant his master. This is what you see out there. True, you can see much of its opposite. But there is something even in the natural heart of a young boy here, for example, who looks up to his father, who looks into the eyes of his father, who wants to please his father. who does something and after he does it, his eyes turn to his father and he looks for that approval. There's something inbred in us like that. Girls with their mother and with their father and vice versa. It's bred into us at a deep level. No matter where you go all over the world, yes, all things can be corrupted, but you know what I mean. And the Lord is saying, If little children do that to their father, then why do my people not do that to me? Why do they turn away from me? Why do they honor me so little? What place do they have in their hearts for me? You see, dear friends, as we put these two verses together, we see that the Lord's heart is towards His people, but their heart is so much and so often not towards Him. And let that be a lesson here, first of all. The Lord's design in the family is for good. May we not question that. May we see behind it also this love, this gospel love, this gracious love whereby the Lord beckons us to really know, to come to know, and enjoy, and submit to this love of God in Jesus Christ, which he has for sinners. But then secondly, here in Malachi, we must hasten on. In chapter 2, we move out of the sphere as father, son, and we move into marriage, which is indeed foundational to marriage. This belongs to the days after the return from exile where the people had come back into the land. And you can read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah. The people go astray, and they show their sin in various ways. And one of the ways in which they do this is, very sadly, many Israelites divorce the wife of their youth, their Israelite wives, and they go after wives from the pagan nations, round about them. This became even a trend. And Ezra was greatly grieved. You can read of it in Ezra 9 and 10. And Nehemiah had to deal with this as well, Nehemiah 13. What is this? The Lord has to come to them and say, you have dealt treacherously against the wife of your youth. And in the process, the Lord makes clear that his design in marriage is for there to be a covenant union between one man and one woman. And part of the reason for this is that there might be a godly seed, verse 15. And did he not make one that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Dear friends, these words face us. married or unmarried, whatever state we find ourselves. Whoever we are and wherever we find ourselves, may the will and word of God be our requirement through and through. May treachery have no place in marriage or family. And there where it is, May it be repented of and put aside ruthlessly. The Lord has made two one. The Lord has called to covenant faithfulness. The Lord is seeking a godly seed. Let us guard the bond of marriage very much and very rigorously, each one. in the married state or outside the married state. May not only the fifth commandment, but the seventh commandment be very dear unto us. May we repent of all our breaches, even in mind, in heart, in words, against the seventh commandment. May we seek help and grace from the Holy Spirit for Christ's sake. that the brokenness in our own hearts and lives and marriages would be reversed and set right by the grace of God. But then thirdly and lastly, and with this, I near the end of our time just now. And these are the majestic words with which the Old Testament falls silent. Malachi chapter four. As I said, the first page of the Old Testament deals with the family, and the last page of the Old Testament deals with the family. Verse 5 and 6, Behold, I send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Dear friends, here's the burden of what I want to say to you in this first speech. If we want to know what the heart of God is regarding the family, it's right here that God says before he leaves the Old Testament, he says, I will turn the heart of fathers to their children, the heart of children to their fathers. Because if it's not so, then curse, curse, curse. The Lord's design is for a tight-knit, close family. And fathers, your name is mentioned here. Indeed, mothers, you have a place. And I think the Lord includes mothers here as he speaks to fathers. But fathers, know it to be your solemn duty before God. Your hearts are turned towards any children the Lord has given to you, and to your wife, of course. Not away. You see, sin, we turn away from God, and we turn away from one another. And it can happen in any marriage, the hearts of this couple that meet together at the altar and are wedded and speak so wonderfully to each other that give it a year, give it 10 years, give it 50 years and the heart can be turned away, can be gradual, can be slow. Things happen, turned away. A father's heart turned away from his children. What happens then? Well, the children's heart is turned away from the father's. That's what happens many times. We see it. But here is the promise of God in grace. He says, I will take these fathers and children, these families that are ruptured, that are broken, where people's hearts are turned away from each other. and I will turn them back to each other. The hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. And then instead of curse, there's blessing. And this was fulfilled. In principle, in John the Baptist, you can read of this in Luke chapter one. The angel Gabriel comes to Zechariah, and he prophesies the birth of John the Baptist. And he says he will come in the spirit of Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. And how did John the Baptist do that? He did that by going into the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and telling the people to repent. Repent ye. Repent ye. The axe is laid at the root of the tree. And people came to him confessing their sins. These people came, these people came, they all confessed their sins. And the Lord sprinkled clean water over them, and they were made clean. How does the Lord turn hearts of broken families back together? Through repentance, through cleansing. through an honest facing of God and facing of one another, confessing sins. You know, when you're turned away from each other and you have to face each other, that means you honestly confess sin as sin and you seek for forgiveness and you cry that God would forgive and then the blessing comes down. Dear friends, in our day, when the family out there is by and large in shambles and our world is working overtime to make it even worse. Let us not pretend that we are immune to this problem of having our hearts turned away from one another. The solution is God, His grace, His mercy, His promise. And this gives hope because He says, I will do it. So shall we not take this promise to the Lord and say, Lord, turn our hearts back to Thee, turn our hearts back to each other. Lest this curse come, instead give blessing all to Thy praise and to Thy glory. Well, I open with a reading of John Angel James. I'll just have two or three sentences here once again, and with this I close. Precious indeed are the joys of a happy family. But oh how fleet, how soon must the circle be broken up, how suddenly may it be what scenes of delight resembling happy visions of fairy bliss have all been unexpectedly wrapped in shadow and gloom by misfortune, by sickness, by death. The last enemy enters paradise. and expels one of its tenants and embitters the scene to the rest. The ravages of death have been in some cases followed by the desolations of poverty. And they who once dwelled together in the happy enclosure of the family have been separated and scattered to meet no more. But religion, true religion, if it is possessed, will gather them together again. after this destruction of their earthly ties and conduct them to another paradise into which no calamity shall ever enter and from which no joy shall ever depart. May the Lord give that by his grace and for his glory. Let's pray together. Lord, we confess our sins in our families. And we plead for grace and for mercy that thou wouldst turn us back to thee and to one another by thy grace for blessing and not curse. Go with us and we pray. And may we meet, Lord, when the time comes. And could it be that our families would be undivided? Oh, what a blessing that would be. to be undivided at the throne of judgment, wilt thou give that by thy grace and to thy glory. And we ask this all in the pardon of every sin in Jesus' name, amen.