I forget the exact date, I'd have to check my calendar for it, but somewhere later this month I will celebrate, and I do mean that, the 30th anniversary of my ordination to the gospel ministry in a little place called McClellanville, South Carolina. And as I get older, I get a little bit more sentimental and reflective. and it has been a delight and still is a delight to reflect back on every aspect of what is the highest calling that God gives to any man and my great delight to be a shepherd of the flock of God. And perhaps the greatest part of that great delight is to spend time on a daily basis in the Word of God and to really have the freedom and the privilege and the training to be able to read the Word of God in the original languages and to meditate upon it. And over those years, I have been struck with the fact of the beauty of every phrase, every tense of the Word of God. I am still young enough and energetic enough that I can get excited about an aorist tense in the Greek and a perfect and what it means as coming from the Holy Spirit. And tonight it is one of those phrases that I want us to focus on. I think it's one of the phrases that we slide over very quickly and we should not. We have covered in Ephesians chapter six the meaning of fathers and where mom fits in. We've dealt with what provokes a child to wrath and we thought a little bit about what it is to bring up a child and what it is to bring up a child. We've dealt with the meaning of child discipline by correction, that word training. We dealt this morning with admonition. But then we have still in Ephesians chapter 6-4 that little prepositional phrase at the end, of the Lord. And I hope after the message tonight you will never just slide over this phrase that is pregnant with significance. If you still have your syllabus and you've not worn it out, you'll look at session number 10. We're dealing tonight with the Lord's families. And once again, I will try to enunciate the points that I have in the outline before me so you can fill in the blanks. We're going to do two things tonight. Number one, I want to give you the assumption and the meaning of the phrase. There is a lot in back of this prepositional phrase that is assumed in the theology of the Bible and that assumption has various aspects of meaning to it, the assumption and meaning of the praise. And then I want to do something that I simply love to do in various contexts and deal with the Lord in whom you bring your children up. Fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the child training and admonition of the Lord. We are to bring up our children in the Lord, and I want to deal with the Lord in whom you bring your children up. So in the first place tonight, as I once again bind myself to this microphone that is before me and restrain myself from walking around as I usually do, number one, the assumption and the meaning of the phrase, bring up your children in the Lord, in the child training and admonition of the Lord. And what is assumed here, here's that little circle under the assumption and meaning of the phrase in your syllabus, what is assumed is something called the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace. The covenant of grace means simply this, God in his work of grace claims and works with believers and their children. God in the covenant of work of grace works with families, believers, and their children. Even that name Lord is the covenant name of God, that name Jehovah, that name that is ascribed to Jesus as the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. In Exodus chapter 6 and verse 3, the Lord says to Moses in this rather mysterious statement, I appeared to Abraham as God Almighty, the all-powerful God. But by my name, Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, the covenant name, I was not known to them. Say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. What does that mean? I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment. Covenant name, I am the God who will, by my sovereign power, deliver my people. I am the God who will be faithful to all of my promises, and I have the power to fulfill my promises. So when you think of the name Lord, you think of power and promise to deliver. The Lord who is the Lord of households. Brothers and sisters, the independent individualism that marks American culture is not the pattern of the Bible. The Bible speaks consistently of households that are the basic unit of the church taken up into God's covenant and blessed accordingly. When Jesus sends out the disciples to lay the foundation of the ministry of the New Covenant in Matthew chapter 10, at that very point, if our dear Baptist friends were correct, our Lord could have the opportunity to change the nature of ministry so that it is only to believing individuals, Jesus says, you go to a household. And if the household is worthy, that is, it hears what you say, let your shalom, your peace be upon it. Jesus begins the foundation of New Covenant ministry by dealing with households. And in this text before us that uses the phrase, of the Lord, bring up your children in the child training and admonition of the Lord, What Paul is saying under the inspiration of God is that these means, bringing up your children in child training and admonition captive to the Lord, these means faithfully used to bring up children in God's covenant, actually the very means that God is using to bring His grace to them. That is the profound teaching of this text. In Psalm 77 and verse 20, Asaph writes and says, you led your people like a flock. You, Jehovah, who redeemed your people, fulfilled your promise given to Moses, the promise you just heard. You redeemed your people and led them like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. You did your sovereign redeeming work through using the instrumentality of Moses and Aaron. Here, Paul says, in essence, you train and admonish your children by the hands of fathers and mothers. What a glorious, glorious teaching. Now let's open up something of the meaning, and you'll see that in your syllabus 1, 2, and 3. What again is the meaning? What's involved in this phrase? Number one, our children, the children of believers, are numbered as the Lord's children. They are marked out as the Lord's children. Ephesians 1 and verse 1, to the saints who are in Ephesus. And right through to the middle of chapter 5, Paul writes to those saints as a body forming this church. Then Paul does what we call discriminating preaching. He says, now you wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. And you husbands, love your wives. And while he speaks to the wives first, he spends more time dealing with the husbands. Then he says, you children, this is what you are to do. And notice the language that he uses in chapter three. Chapter six, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Obey your parents as those who have a relationship to the Lord. Then he speaks to fathers, bring up your children in the Lord. He speaks to masters and to servants. Why does Paul here, and in other books of the Bible, speak discriminatingly of husbands, wives, children, fathers, servants, and masters? That's because that's the basic unit of the first century, basic family unit of the first century. Households were composed of husbands, wives, children, parents, and servants, and masters, indicating that it is the household that is the basic unit of the Church of the New Testament. In baptism, God puts his name on our children. By water, he does not magically change their hearts, but by water he gives a sign and seal, I claim you children of believers to be mine. And just parenthetically at this point, our dear Calvinistic Baptist brothers and sisters say, ah, but this is the new covenant. And in the new covenant, God deals with adults who have believed in the Lord only. There's one problem with that view. The Bible doesn't teach it. It's interesting that in the Old Testament, in all of the major explicit prophecies, all of them, of a new covenant to come, God repeats this household principle, I will deal with you and your children. Let me just give you an example, Isaiah 54 and verses 10 through 13. Isaiah 54 and verses 10 through 13. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed." In other words, this is how strong my covenant promise is. Before my promises will be removed, mountains will depart, hills will be removed, but my kindness, my covenant faithfulness will not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has mercy on you. A covenant of shalom, a covenant that brings everlasting blessing, Oh, you afflicted one tossed with tempest and not comforted. Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, all your walls of precious stones. I will build a new temple, my new covenant temple made, as Peter says, of living stones. how will those living stones be depicted in the world? All your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children. That covenant of peace is a covenant of peace that comes not only to you but it comes to your children as well. Similarly in Isaiah chapter 61 and verses 8 and 9 I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth and will make with them an everlasting covenant. This, Jesus says, is the blood of the everlasting covenant, the new covenant. What is inherent in the everlasting covenant? Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them. that they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed. Inherent in New Covenant is not, I'm just going to work with individual adult believers, households in You, Abram, all the households of the nations will be blessed. And so in Ephesians, Paul is just building on that, dealing with the whole house, and the means to that end, humanly speaking, is you bring up your children in the Lord. And that's the second point of meaning. They are to be brought up on the Lord's child training and admonition. Now this is not exactly what would Jesus do, but it's kind of similar to it. How would my Lord, instructing me by his word, have me correct my children? How would Jesus do it if he was here in the flesh? That is the child training of the Lord. How would Jehovah speak to the mind of my children and seek to change their consciences? I am to do it as a father, but I am an instrument of the Lord." That is amazing. That is sobering. that is humbling, that's a thrilling reality, I am the instrument of Jehovah God, Jehovah Jesus, to take these children whom He has claimed and see them surrounded by, formed by the child training and admonition of the Lord. They're to be brought up on the Lord's child training and admonition. And number three, they are to be brought up as Christians. That's not saying the Lord regenerated them from baptism. We don't know in many cases when God regenerates our children, but how do you bring them up? You bring them up to think as Christians. You bring them up to respond as Christians. You bring them up to have the hearts of Christians. Peter Eldersveld was the founder of the first radio minister of the Back to God. Our successor was Joel Niederhood. And as wonderful as Joel Niederhood was in that work, those who knew, heard the wonderful voice of Peter Eldersveld said, it was amazing in that day of just radio. to hear the Word of God ministered through him. And Peter Eldersveld, many, many years ago, in his radio program, was commenting on Acts 16.31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your house, as Paul said to the jailer. And this is what Eldersveld said in what I'm reading. There are friends of mine who often open a discussion by saying to me, would you like to hear my personal testimony? And of course, I always tell them I certainly would like to hear it. And they tell me some wonderful stories of the grace of God and how they were rescued spectacularly and dramatically out of a life of sin, maybe in the middle of their years or maybe after a wasted youth. But you know, there's always one thing about it that bothers me. I get an uncomfortable feeling that somehow they think that I'm a kind of second-rate Christian because I can't tell a story like that. I never had that kind of an experience and I don't feel like a second-rate Christian and that's why I want to tell my personal testimony to them and to you. It goes like this. I can put it in one sentence. I've never known a day in all my life when I could not believe that I was a child of God. Now, don't misunderstand. That doesn't mean that I haven't been a great sinner. I've been as great as any and worse than many. We won't go into that. But I just want you to know that no matter how great the sins, there's never been a night in my life when I could not lay down my head and believe that God forgives my sins. My parents brought me up that way from the very earliest moments of my life. They brought me up to believe a promise, a covenant promise. They promised me that their God would be my God, even if it cost him the blood of his son. And that promise has been fulfilled in spectacular ways. Now maybe that isn't a spectacular story, but I think it's the most spectacular thing in the world. Not that a man in the middle of his years could suddenly come to this discovery. but that a man who is conceived and born in sin from the moment he draws his first breath can be a child of God, that he can be the child of Christian parents, that they can bring him to the church and have him baptized as a child of the covenant. You know anything better than that? I wouldn't change places with the Philippian jailer who had to come to that later in his life. I'd rather have been one of his children. And brothers and sisters, that sounds so odd in our culture, but it's so beautifully biblical. These children marked out by baptism in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit are to be brought up on the child training and admonition of the Lord. Let me ask you parents, how else do you bring up your children? You bring them up as pagans? You bring them up to be indifferent? Of course not. You bring them up in the environment of the things of the Christian faith. Now that raises two questions. Here again you have them in your syllabus. Won't that result in mere formalism or dead orthodoxy? Yeah, possibly. It did with Israel. It did with the church of Sardis. You have a name, but you are dead. But there's a remedy to that. It begins with vital piety in you. You are richly blessed to have as your pastor, Pastor Peter van Doodewaard. I don't know his family as well as I know the pastor of his dear friend, Ari van Eyck, but I know enough about those families and the Dutch Reformed tradition to know But one of the reasons, humanly speaking, why there is vital piety and life in this man's ministry, in Ari Van Eyck's ministry, is not simply because they were brought up in the covenant. They were blessed with parents who loved God with all their heart, strength, soul, and mind. And while God does not work by osmosis, that life in the parents communicated as much if not more to those children in whom the Lord Jesus sovereignly worked life. Christ gives life to his children because he lives. And there's an analogy. Christ uses living godly parents as a means to raise living godly children. Although at every point It's all the work of grace. You've got to use means, bring your children up in the child training and admonition of the Lord. And you've got to claim promises and you don't trust in your parenting. We don't believe in the trust in any kind of works righteousness, including trusting in our parenting. What we do with our children is not unlike what Ezekiel was called to do with the bones that were before him. Ezekiel was first to preach to the bones. He was to bring the word of the Lord to that which was dead. We are to bring the word of the Lord to our children. And that brought a certain amount of activity in those bones as sinew and muscle came together and the bones moved. But there was no life in the bones. Ezekiel was called to preach to the spirit, to take the word of God that gave promises of the spirit and have the spirit, ask that the spirit come and make the bones live. And I don't know any simpler picture of what it is to be a real Christian parent. You by day bring the Word of God in child training and admonition and all these things we've learned about to your children. But at least at the end of the day, if not many times through the day, you say, oh God, send the Spirit upon my own child and make that child live. And the result, and this is number two, Not only are they brought up or does it not result only in mere formalism, but you say then, isn't there the need of commitment by the child? And the answer is absolutely. And here is where we have to separate ourselves or distinguish ourselves from those who simply say covenant nurture is enough. We presume regeneration unless they show the contrary, they're fine. No. When God works by His Spirit in His children, they say, I want to follow the Lord. And there is a true biblical individualism. Two texts, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verses 14 and 15 This, I believe, is the inspired model of what we ought to be looking for in our children as we raise them. Instead of all of our silly speculation about what we should expect in covenant nurture, let the Word of God dictate to us what we are to look for. 2 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, Paul writing to Timothy says, but you must continue in, abide in, remain in the things which you have learned and been assured of in your inmost being by a work of grace. You become convinced these are things that are true. And there may have been struggles in Timothy. as there are in my children, as they wrestle with issues about the faith. And there probably will be in your children. But you've become convinced of these things. You must continue in the things that you've learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from brephos, from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. The wisdom, that fear of God that you are to have, that wisdom that is the atmosphere of a saved life comes through faith which is in Christ Jesus and nobody could believe for Timothy. He had learned these things and been convinced of these things and he believed in these things and hence was a true Christian. Or if you want an Old Testament text that depicts it in a very vivid way, Isaiah 44 and verses 1 through 5. And parents, one of you asked about things that we can pray for as we ask for the Lord's work in our children. That's why I can't stand the language of presumption. I hate it. Throw it out. Do you presume your children are regenerate? No, I don't presume my children are regenerate. Well, then you presume they're unregenerate. No, I don't presume they're unregenerate either. I don't live out of presumption. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The secret things belong to the Lord when he regenerates how he does it. the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children that we might keep the commandments of the Lord God ah this is something God has revealed about my children and we use this to pray over yet here now Isaiah 44 verse 1 Oh Jacob my servant and Israel whom I've chosen here Israel here Church of the Old Covenant thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and you Jeshurun, which probably means upright one or one who enjoys, whom I've chosen. Here's my promise. I will pour water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. That's why on the day of Pentecost, Peter could very naturally say, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a people, the promise, the promise of the Spirit is to you. and it's only you now because it's the new covenant and it's only you adults. Well, you'd think Peter would say that if there was that dramatic change. The promise of the spirit is to you and to your children and to as many you and your children as the Lord our God will call. Where'd Peter get this idea from Isaiah 44? I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. Ah, but when God sends water upon seeds, there is very definite fruit. What do you look for? They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. I pity you if you have a willow that is near your house. They are so strong their roots will go into the basement of a house to get water. They are that strong. I will raise up strong willows And the effect is they will say, not begrudgingly, oh, well, if I've got to profess my faith like everybody else is doing, I guess I'll do it. When the Spirit works, one says, I am the Lord's, and another says, I will call myself by the name of Jacob. God called me and put his name upon me, and I say, I am, we would say, a Christian. Another will write with his hand, the Lord's. In his official compositions, he says, whatever else I say, I am the Lord's, and will name himself by the name of Israel. That's the kind of commitment we look for and we pray for and expect to see. The baptismal covenant drawn up by Philip Henry for his children so beautifully captured that, the father of Matthew Henry. I take God to be my chiefest good and my highest end. I take God the Son to be my Prince and Savior. I take the Holy Ghost to be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and comforter. I take the Word of God to be my rule in all my actions. I take the people of God to be my people in all conditions. I do likewise devote and dedicate unto the Lord my whole self, all I am, all I have, and all I can do, and this I do deliberately, sincerely, freely, and forever." Some Puritan thing? No, this is built right on the language. One will say, I'm the Lord's, and I name myself by the name of Israel. I want to speak to the young people. Is that your commitment? That you can say this God that I've known from my youth this church of which I've been privileged to be a part. I want that God to be mine. And that church of which I'm a part by baptism, I want to serve it. I want to be part of it all my days because my greatest blessedness is here. Well, that's the assumption and meaning of the phrase. It is the Lord in back of my bringing up. It is the Lord in back of my child training. It's the Lord in back of my admonition. And all of that is there because God says to these children, you children, I've claimed you from infancy to be mine. And fathers, you are my human instruments to raise them as I would raise them myself if I were here. the power of a prepositional phrase. But I don't want to stop there. Bring them up in the child training and admonition of the Lord. I want you to think with me for a few minutes about the Lord in whom you bring your children up. I'm afraid that we are so familiar with these things We've lost the thrill of this and the significance of it in our world. Our children are brought up to know the one that created them and formed them. Isn't that amazing? They are brought up to know not just that God created the heavens and the earth and all that's in it in the space of six days, but this world is their father's world, and they themselves are fearfully and wonderfully made. I have a three-point sermon for modern man, the kind of modern man that I have to deal with day in and day out in New York. Here's my three-point sermon for modern man. Number one, I have no real idea where I came from. Point number two, I have no real idea why I'm even here or what I am. Point number three, I have no real idea of where I'm going. I'm thankful nobody laughs. We should weep. That's the sermon for modern man. and the cemetery where my mother is buried in Northeastern Connecticut. And we're up in that area and I'll go out early in the morning. And I'm one of these, I guess, perverse guys that enjoys walking in cemeteries and reading epitaphs. And I'm thankful there are many epitaphs of many godly people, probably descendants of the pilgrims who were in that area. But there's one massive monument with the figure of the head of the man I assume is buried there. And in letters that themselves speak pathos, there are these words, gone, I know not where. Our children aren't born into that environment. They're born to know the God who made them. They are born to know the God who formed their fingers and who gives strength and life and breath to them. And it was in back of the beauty of each piece of food on their table and who's given the beauty of the foliage around. Isn't that glorious? You not only say, that's, you know, the God who made that, but you say to your child, that's your God. He claimed you. He put his name on you in baptism. And what a wonderful history you have to tell to your children as they begin to deal with, in their own little ways, what it is to do wrong things. You can say to your children, let me tell you our story. Let me tell you our family's story. Children love stories. We can tell it to them. Say, our family's story is, yes, a story of our first parents, Adam and Eve. But it's a sad story. It's a story of how our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents, Adam and Eve, really listened to a real devil and really fell. And my son, my daughter, that's why this world is such a mess. And we can be honest about that with our children. But we don't wallow in that mess. Here's our story too. You had another great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather and his name was Noah. And that great, great, great, great grandfather Noah built a ship. Our God who speaks, and we know our God speaks because we're made in his image and we speak, told him to build an ark because God was going to show the world and all human history following what a judgment would be on the whole earth for its wickedness. But God saved that great great great great grandfather Noah and his wife and three sons and their wives and preserved them through the flood. And that's part of your history. That's part of your story. And that's one of the reasons my child why there's a rainbow in the cloud. God says that rainbow reminds me I'm not going to destroy the world by water ever again. And that's your God. And that story of our story continues with another great great great great great great grandfather and his name is Abraham, Abram and his wife. And God spoke to Abram. And God told Abram that in his seed, his children, all the nations would be blessed. God had already said to our first parents that he would crush the head of the devil through the seed of the woman and now that seed would come into the world. And my child, your family history goes back to the family of Abram in which God gave his basic promise, I'm going to be a God to you and to your children. And that made our family history right from that point to be very different. And then later we had another great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. And his name was Moses. And Moses was a leader of a lot of families. God now would not just save families like ours, he was going to form a nation. That nation would be called at that time Israel. And God would graciously do what he said he would do as Jehovah, a covenant God, he would deliver them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And he would graciously bring them into the land of promise and give them his law, the boundary sign, so that they know when to stop and when to be careful and so on. That's our family history. And then, because nations and families need a king, God promised he would give a king, and he did in David in the Old Testament, another one of our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents. But my child, it's a sad story in the Old Testament. Israel not only could not keep the law, but Israel twisted the law. They tried to make it a set of stepping stones by which they could get to heaven, and we can't do that. Because you know and your mommy and daddy know that we need to have a sacrifice for sins and cattle and pigeons and doves. That can't do it. Your own little heart knows that there must be a human being who pays the punishment for the sins of human beings. But our sin is against God. and it demands an infinite punishment. Now let me tell you another great person in our history. He is one unique, only one like him. Man, but also God, born of another one in our family history. Her name is Mary. And in real history, born into the world is God and man. two distinct natures, one person forever, my child. You want to know about God? Yes, read the Bible. It's the Word of our God. But learn about Jesus. Learn about His obedience as a child. Learn how He ministered to people. Learn how He brought into history these little pictures of the work that He's doing for all eternity. One day, my son, my daughter, there won't be any more disease. Jesus gave a little picture of it by healing lepers. And one day my son, my daughter, there won't be any more birth defects. Jesus brought a little bit of that into history by healing the blind and by healing those who could not hear and who could not walk. And one day there'll be a time there won't be any more sin. And Jesus brought into history a little taste of that when he pronounced forgiveness of sins. He could do it because he's God. And he's our God. But he was crucified. In the great mystery of God, for various reasons, Jesus was put to death. What a wicked act that was. to take the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and crucify Him. But our God, my son, my daughter, is so powerful He could take even the death of His Son and use it for His purposes. Because in the hand of God, while man was fully guilty for crucifying Jesus, Jesus in that act bore hell for his people and was obedient unto death. God took a very real hell and brought it into history. We could see and put it on his son and all the punishment for all the sins of his people, Jesus took in history. That's the Jesus who claimed you from your infancy. And on the third day, God brought into history the greatest holiday ever. He brought into history the resurrection of the son from death as the first of all he represented who will be raised from the dead at the last day. And my dear son, my daughter, isn't it a privilege? We're part of a family that honors that day every week. The world has its Halloween. The world has its April Fool's Day. The world has its Thanksgiving. The world has its Mother's Day. We have 52 holidays every week, every year, sometimes 53 and sometimes 51. But on all of those Sundays, my son, my daughter, we come to church to celebrate the greatest events in the world. One, our God made the world on the first day of the week. Number two, Our God in Jesus Christ conquered our greatest enemy, sin and death. And that conquest was shown on the first day of the week. And number three, we celebrate God sending the Holy Spirit to now make a people of every tongue and tribe and nation, a people to himself. And my son, my daughter, God in his sovereign grace, reached to your mommy and your daddy and in his own way and in his own time, he claimed us and he said, you are to be part of this glorious, glorious family. And I'm claiming your children to be part of it as well. And that's why we're different. That's our story. And it's the greatest story in the universe. It's a story of power. It's a story of love. It's a story of truth. It's a story of hope. It's a story of grace. And that's why you are in a Christian home. And it's a story of victory. Because my child, even though it looks kind of bleak in the world, You are part of God's great kingdom in which, as you've learned from the book of Daniel, God is going to take a little stone, this Jesus, and by Him, He is going to crush all of the kingdoms of all history and replace it with His church. And you want the proof of it, my child? Let's take out Operation World. And let's learn of how God now has so worked that well over a third of this world is more or less influenced by the kingdom of God of which you're a part. Isn't it great? And we tell our children, my child, you do need to realize there is a very real hell. There's a very real punishment for those who've never learned the gospel. and for those who are disobedient to it. And you've been given much, far more than mommy and daddy and all of their admonition and teaching can ever tell you. Much is required of you. If you would be one who enjoys eternity, you need to believe this Jesus and you need to follow Him. Because if you don't, hell is worse for you. And we need to say that. Jesus spoke to covenant people as Paul spoke to covenant people, as the writer of Hebrews spoke to covenant people, saying, in the Old Testament, under Moses' law, on the witness of two or three witnesses, there was punishment. Of how much worse punishment Do you suppose you will receive if you have trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant with which you were sanctified and taken these holy things and counted them unholy? My dear child, you're different than a pagan. Pagans may go to a portion of hell for those who are ignorant and it's miserable. But if you disobey the gospel, hell will be far, far worse for you. We need to say that. But my child, Jesus has brought in a new heavens and a new earth. And in that new heavens and new earth, there's only perfect righteousness. No more struggling with sin. No more struggling with disobedience. No more struggling with a world that's full of unfairness and injustice because Jesus is going to come back. And there'll be a judgment of the just and the unjust. But Jesus will herald in a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells. and you're surrounded by first fruits of that here. My dear child, my greatest desire for you is that that's where you be forever and ever. What a wonderful thing to tell our children. And it's joyous. As we sing, we sing the praises of a people redeemed by God As we go through the darkness of life, we say to our children, even though there have been these accidents or illness or things are bleak, my dear children, in the covenant of grace, God says, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And in all these things, we're more than counselors through him who loved, we're more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And the reason, my dear children, we experience these sorrows is because we are in union with Christ and we're dealing with part of His sufferings. But we live as those raised from the dead. And that's why there are these joys that make our home a little foretaste of heaven, that make you want to be here, even though at this point you're not quite sure if you want that God to be yours. You want that God to be yours because we have in our home, with all of its imperfections, a foretaste of heaven. Religion, my dear child, is the greatest of all blessings when it's religion focused on Jesus. And my child, whatever else you learn from mommy and daddy, you learn this. What does it profit if you, with your fine covenant nurture, gain the whole world? You know, our covenant children I am convinced just by common blessings, if you want to use that term, they're going to be tremendously influential in this world. God has ordained that. He has ordained to raise Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel to be in the Babylon of this world. In fact, it's frankly because of Christian parents and Christian children this world isn't incinerated. It's not for Christians. really committed to Christ, there's no salt to keep our culture from being more rotten than it is. But my child, what if you gain the world? What if you become a senator, a governor, a representative? You make your millions living on the capital of the Christian faith, and you lose your soul. That's part of our admonition of our children. It sounds very much like what Jesus would say if He were in person dealing with our children. He's not in person dealing with our children, but He sends the Spirit in parents that they might minister like that because that's part of the child training and admonition and teaching of the Lord. That's what Paul says in Ephesians 6, 4. And in all that you do, parents, as you deal with your children, as you pray for them, as you plead with them, and it's biblical to plead for souls, I beg you As an ambassador of God, I beg you in the name of Christ, be reconciled to God through Jesus. Your goal with your children is to say, my dear children and children's children, your mommy and daddy by grace are going to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's as real as any meal we've had in our home. And we want you to be there. And we want you to be there. And we want you to be there. And we want you to be there. That's our greatest desire. I hope it's yours. That's what it is to bring up your children in the trial training and admonition of the Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to minister to you in these days. I trust that you will pray for safety for me as I begin tomorrow morning. I've got meetings on the way home as well. Pray that the Lord make his strength perfect in my weakness because their servant feels very, very weak. But brothers and sisters, two things as we close. Delight yourselves in the Lord. Delight yourselves in the wonderful things of this covenant God that He's given us. It's glorious. My heart overflows with a good theme. My cup overflows. Goodness and mercy will pursue us all of our days. And then out of that overflow of delight in God, take your children to yourself, fathers and mothers. Don't provoke your children to wrath. Think of the long-suffering and goodness and kindness of God. But out of your own delight in God that just comes out of you, Provide a wonderful diet for your children of the child training and admonition of the Lord God through Jesus Christ. And then pray and you watch how God will fulfill his promises in his own time and in his own way, maybe after in glory, but he'll do exceedingly abundantly above anything you can ask or think. because he undertakes this battle and he always gets the victory. Let's stand please. I want to use the prayer from Valley of Vision, one of my favorites. Let's stand as I lead us in prayer using the prayer of the family for the close of our conference. Oh sovereign Lord, you are the creator father of all men, for you have made and support them. But you are the special father of those who know, love, and honor you, who find your yoke easy and your burden light, who find your work honorable and your commandments glorious. But how little your undeserved goodness has affected us, how imperfectly we have improved our religious privileges, how negligent we have been in doing good to others, and so often, how negligent we have been in doing good to our own children. We are before you now in our trespasses and sins. Have mercy on us, and may your goodness bring us to repentance. Help us to hate and forsake every false way. Grant us grace to be attentive to our condition and character. Grant us your power to bridle our tongues. Grant us your strength to keep our hearts with all diligence. Grant us work from above that we might watch and pray against temptation. Grant us the spirit to mortify sin. Grant us your own heart. that we might be concerned for the salvation of others. O God, we cannot endure to see the destruction of our children. Let those who are united to us in tender ties be precious in your sight and be devoted to your glory. Sanctify and prosper our domestic worship, our parental instruction and discipline and example, that each of our houses may be nothing less than nurseries for heaven. May this church be a garden of the Lord, enriched with trees of righteousness, of your planting for your glory. Please, O God, Do not let those of our family who are likable, moral, attractive, fall short of heaven at last. Grant that the promising appearances of tender consciences, soft hearts, the alarms and delights of your word be not finally blotted out, but bring forth judgment unto victory in all whom we love. Granted, O God, not for our sakes, but for your sake, as the covenant God who really means it when you say, I will be a God to you and to your children and to your children's children. Granted, for Jesus' sake, by his power and to his glory. Amen. Please turn in your hymnals and remain standing as we sing hymn number 717, Psalm 128. What a wonderful way to end a parenting conference. Blessed the man that fears Jehovah walking ever in his ways, our parental example. By your toil