Let's pray for God's blessing on our time in his word, please. Father, we thank you for breathing forth these words and preserving them for us through all the centuries and eons of time and for giving them to us here today. We thank you for the Savior who is revealed in the pages of your word. And we thank you for your law that shows us your holiness, that shows us our sinfulness, and points us to our Redeemer who kept these commandments for us and has satisfied justice against our having disobeyed them. But help us who truly know Christ in this time to understand the fifth commandment better and to seek to obey this. with more fervor and more zeal so that Christ is glorified by our sacrifice of thanksgiving in doing so. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 20, verse 12. It's our scripture reading and our sermon text for today. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12. Exodus 20, verse 12. This is God's word. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. May God bless the reading of his holy word. The first four commandments that we have covered are usually looked at as being our duty towards God. And the last six commandments, often referred to as the second table of the law, is our duty toward our fellow man. Thomas Watson, the great Puritan author, wrote a book on the Ten Commandments I've been reading. And at the beginning of his exposition of the last six commandments, our duty toward man, he wrote this. Having done with the first table of the law, I am next to speak of the duties of the second table. The Ten Commandments may be likened to Jacob's ladder. The first table respects God and is the top of the ladder which reaches to heaven. The second respects men and is the foot of the ladder that rests upon the earth. By the first table, we walk piously toward God. By the second, we walk religiously toward man. And listen, he cannot be good in the first table who is bad in the second. Our walk with God, our walk with Christ very much will be reflected in the way we treat other people, in the way we treat our fellow man. God the Holy Spirit uses the words father and mother here in the fifth commandment. And he uses them in a much broader way than we typically use these words in English. When we read this commandment in our English Bibles, we almost immediately and sometimes even exclusively think of our biological parents. And it certainly does include them, but it's much more than just them. It refers to anyone in our lives, anyone in our lives who is in any way a superior to us. And the commandment also includes our duties towards our equals and our duties towards our inferiors in rank or authority or age or whatever. In scripture, as we will see, there are several types of fathers and mothers, and they are, and I've got them listed for you in your outline, you see in your bulletin there, the outline, they are magistrates, elderly people, spiritual fathers and mothers, bosses, and then our biological fathers and mothers. And this commandment addresses every one of those, every one of those relationships. And we're going to look at each one of those types of fathers and mothers. But first I want to talk to you about the importance of having people as superiors, inferiors, and equals. God is a God of order and government. God is a God of order and government. All authorities are appointed and established by God. And there's a sense in which every human being is either our equal, our inferior, or our superior. And the next five commandments after the fifth commandment give us very specific and detailed instructions on the way that we're supposed to conduct ourselves towards our fellow image bearers, no matter what relation they are to us, whether they are our equals in rank, our superiors, or our inferiors. We are not supposed to murder people. Whether there are inferiors, superiors, or equals. We're not supposed to commit adultery with or against anyone. We're not supposed to steal from anyone. We're not supposed to lie to or about anyone. And we are not supposed to covet what anyone else has. But first and foremost, we are to honor our superiors, equals, and inferiors as this commandment requires us to. And that Hebrew verb that's translated in the imperative there, honor, it's a verbal form of the word that means weight, heaviness, or significance. The Hebrew word kaboth, kaboth. It means honor in the normal sense of the English word honor, but it's also used to speak about things that were heavy in the sense of having a lot of physical weight to them. If we honor someone, according to that Hebrew verb, we're supposed to honor our father and mother. We are giving them respect. making them honorable and glorifying them. The Hebrew word also refers to how literally heavy something can be in terms of the number of pounds it weighs. But when it's used of persons or situations, it means to give honor, respect, significance, glory to that person by treating them with reverence, as if they are important and significant to us. Even in English, we use the word weighty or heavy to refer to something serious. If you grew up in the 70s, you know what I'm talking about. Man, that's heavy, right? We still said that even in the 80s. What did we mean when we said that? This is heavy stuff. We're talking about something that's weighty, something that's significant, something that's important. You've heard me say many times, and I've gotten this from other theologians, that you all need to weigh this carefully in your mind. Meaning what I'm about to tell you is significant. It's something you should give significance to. If we say that a person is guilty of a serious sin, and when we talk to them about it, they made light of that sin. What do we mean by that? They didn't treat it as serious. They didn't treat it as if it was something important. They made light of it. There will always be people, images of God in our lives that we are required by God to have a particular honor for. to treat with specific significance and weight and honor and glory because they occupy a position over us. And there are people that we have to treat in certain ways because they are our equals. And there are people that we have to treat in certain ways because we are the one over them and they are beneath us. There are specific duties required of all three positions, superiors, inferiors, and equals. And what's remarkable to me is the Westminster Larger Catechism has 11 questions about commandment number five. Way more than any other commandment. Because there's so many ways to disobey the commandment. So many ways to get it wrong. And question 124 asks, who are meant by fathers and mothers in the fifth commandment? Honor your father and mother. Who are they talking about? By father and mother in the fifth commandment are meant not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts, and especially such as by God's ordinance are over us in place of authority. whether in family, church, or commonwealth. So let's walk through each of these categories now. We're gonna look first at magistrates, and then we'll look at the elderly in general, and then spiritual fathers and mothers, bosses and employers, and then moms and dads. So the first one, magistrates. Romans 13 verse one says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Magistrates, political rulers, the police, people like that, they are fathers of the nations that they govern in that sense. They are duty bound before God to encourage godliness and to punish true wickedness. King David, King Hezekiah, King Josiah, they were really good kings when it came to those things. When it comes to all political and state authorities, we are required to respect their offices. And it's always easy for us, isn't it, to sit around and complain about our politicians and to complain about political leaders. And yes, I do that myself. And some of those complaints, if not most, if not maybe all of them, are justified. However, we need to remember a refrain that occurs many times in the Old Testament. Remember the refrain, in those days, there was no king in Israel. There wasn't even a bad king in Israel. And what happened when there was no king in Israel? Everybody did what was right in their own eyes. Everyone did. And it was a terrible situation. A government with warts is usually better than no government at all. Okay, when there are no rulers at all for people to fear, if people have no fear of punishment, no fear of retribution from the state at all, people become very emboldened in their evil. If there's no government in place willing to punish anything, that's a very dangerous situation. So we are to honor our magistrates. We ought to be thankful that we have a government that at least upholds some things that are right and punishes some things that are wrong. Now, each of the various spheres of biblical government has laws and has a tool. Everywhere that you find superiors, inferiors, or equals, there are laws governing that sphere of jurisdiction, and there's a tool for enforcing those laws. With magistrates, their laws are supposed to be God's laws. And what's the tool that God gave the magistrate to enforce them? The sword, the sword. In the family, there are laws that govern in the family. And those laws are supposed to be the laws of God and the wisdom applying those laws of the parents. So what is the tool for enforcing God's laws in the house? The rod of correction, right? I've had people tell me, we don't spank, it doesn't work. And my response is, then you ain't doing it right. The church has laws which are also God's laws. The tool for enforcing those laws is church discipline. We don't have a sword, okay? We don't have the rod of correction. We have church discipline. And because each of these spheres of government is created by God, he's given us clear directions on how we are to function in each one. And in each one of those spheres of jurisdiction, you exist either as an equal, as an inferior, or as a superior in the church, the family, the state. You know, my kids have asked me for years, which one of them are my inferiors and which one are my superiors? And it's like, you're all equals, end of discussion. You can only be a superior for a few hours if we leave and then we revoke your superiorship when we're back. So each government has a tool for enforcing its laws and each one has laws given by God. Now listen to the rest of that passage in Romans 13. I know it's a familiar text, but just listen carefully to this. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you'll have praise from the same." That's usually true, not always true. But he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil." So there you have the primary duty of government, of the magistrate, as a father. What's his primary duty? To be an avenger of God upon the person who practices evil. So it's not the government's job to give us healthcare. No. Is it the government's job to educate us? No. It's his job to be an avenger on the one who practices evil. Is it the government's job to feed us? No. He's supposed to bring vengeance on the one who does evil. God gave him a sword to do it. He's not supposed to bring vengeance on the ones who do good. Now magistrates should have their fingers on the pulse of the realms of their jurisdiction so they understand what's going on that's good, what's going on that is evil. And listen, the only standard by which a magistrate can know what is good or evil is the law of God. Magistrates are not supposed to be the source of law or the source of what is right and wrong. God is, his word is. Those under the authority of magistrates and government are commanded by God to honor them, to treat them with respect, to treat them with weight and significance. 1 Peter 2.17, honor the king, Peter said there. See, there were a lot of Christians who thought, well, we're free in Christ. We've been liberated by the work of Jesus. We don't have to obey anybody. And Paul addressed it, Peter addressed it. No, you need to be the best citizens there are. You need to be respectful to those authorities. God established those authorities and you need to obey their lawful commands. But if they require you to sin, yes, that's when you resist and say no. Remember when Peter and the apostles were before the Sanhedrin and they were prohibited from preaching in the name of Jesus in Acts 5.29. They said, we ought to obey God rather than men. It's only if they require us to sin that we are allowed to resist them. Okay, so there's magistrates. We are to obey them, respect them, and honor them as an authority that's put over us by God. Okay, the second group of fathers and mothers, old people in general, the elderly in general. These are our fathers and mothers by their seniority and their age. We are duty bound to honor the elderly. Leviticus 19.32, it is part of God's law. Listen. You shall rise before the presence of the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man and fear your God. You hear what they're tying together there? If you don't show respect and reverence toward the old people in your life, you don't fear God. Disrespect to the elderly means you have no fear of God in your heart. We are especially to honor the elderly who are godly, consistent, church-loving, Bible-loving, kind-hearted, merciful Christian people. There are few things that are more blessed in a believer's life than to have the privilege of knowing people intimately who have walked with Jesus for a very long time. The elderly are worthy of honor, but those who are elderly and also godly and pious, who loved you throughout your life, if you grew up in a church and you knew those people and saw those people, they're worthy of even more honor. There's something so wonderful about an elderly person upon whom their trials have not been wasted. And you need to know this. The older someone is, congregation, the older someone is, the more that they have lost and suffered. That's just a fact. And I was thinking about as I was writing this section of my sermon, growing up in that same church, my parents have been members of the same church for 41 years now. And there were people that I saw every Sunday as a child. And there were certain ones that would smile at me. And there's so many faces I remember. And there was one guy in particular, and he always smiled at me. And he always would take me by the hand and close his other hand on my hand and look me right in the eye and had this eye popping smile. And he was just such a gracious and loving person. He was always there for everything. And I always, something about knowing that he existed and those other people existed, that kept me from acting like a fool when I was a teenager. I can't let those people down. Those people have been in my life forever. And that one guy, I remember 15 years ago, my mother called me and she said, you need to know that Mr. Michelson died. I said, what, what happened? She said, well, he was mowing his grass, he went over a hornet nest and they came out and stung him and he was running to the garage to get his EpiPen and he didn't make it. And I just, I sat there and cried like a little kid. And I didn't really even know the guy that well, but he was a man that was a part of my church family my whole life. And he was a guy that always smiled at me and he was always there for everything. And it just shattered my heart. And I was thinking about, I knew him when he was kind of a middle-aged man and an older man. And what a blessing to see someone who was consistent in their walk and someone that loved the Lord all the years that he was there at that church. The trials will refine their faith like gold. The people that are older that you know in the church, they grow more sweet, they grow more calm in their heart. Really, no matter what they go through, if they're walking intimately with God, the trials they go through, they're not wasted on them. They become more assured of their salvation. They become more concerned with their fellow believers more and more in this world. Sanctification is about us abounding more and more in the direction of righteousness and godliness. And the elderly who are in the church, who love the Lord and have walked with Him and have been through hard things and big losses, and yet they persevere and they're there and they still love their church and they love the people and they walk intimately with God. The Word of God tells us this. Listen, please, 2 Corinthians 4, 15. Listen to God's Word. This is God's manifesto about aging. Make sure that this ends up being true about you. There are so many young people in this church that are looking to us. They need to see us when we're old and gray-headed, if we have hair. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing. even though we're getting older, even though we're breaking down more and more, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. What a blessing it is to know the elderly who have been being renewed day by day, even though the outward man is perishing. Honor your fathers and mothers in that way in the church. And Paul says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, like your trials, like the heartache. But the things which are not seen are eternal. And the longer you live in the world, the more you learn to see things that way. And that's why as we grow older, as we become more seasoned and aged in our Christian lives, the sweetness of resignation to God's will and His love and understanding His grace, one day closer to going on to glory, everything kind of pales in comparison. We need to honor people like that that we know. And I'll tell you, I don't think we've ever lived in a season in this country where people my age and younger need people like that to look up to. We really do. Okay, thirdly, spiritual fathers and mothers. Spiritual fathers and mothers. 1 Corinthians 4, 15, Paul said, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. That's true of all of us, isn't it? I mean, all of us have lots of teachers. We've all read books by some of the great theologians and great authors and speakers of our time, but we don't have very many spiritual fathers. Everyone in this room, I would love to hear your story. Who did God bring into your life as a spiritual father and mother? Who did he raise up for you to point you to the Lord Jesus, to pray for you, to have concern for you? How important have spiritual fathers and mothers been to you? If you've been a Christian for a while, there is no doubt whatsoever, God has used many Christian people to help you, to disciple you, to rebuke you, to correct you, and to teach you. Paul describes himself to the Corinthian church as an ambassador for Christ. I'm an ambassador for Christ. Those that labor in your midst, those who are your spiritual fathers and mothers, 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 says, we urge and exhort you, brethren, recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Pastors, elders, deacons, other believers who have taken an interest in us, who have helped us, who have prayed for us, checked on us, We are to honor them. We treat them with weight and significance for their work's sake and for their love's sake. If someone labors for your soul and works to teach you sound biblical doctrine and prays for you, for your life, your marriage, your job, your health, your walk with Christ, your children, that person must be held in honor and respect by you. And while we're thankful for all vocations and we're thankful for all jobs, that was one of the great things the Reformation recovered. All callings and vocations are sacred if they serve your fellow man. Spiritual fathers and mothers work for our eternal good. And so we give them honor for that. Our spiritual fathers and mothers have worked not just to make us shoes or clothes or bring about justice or engineering or whatever, but they work for our eternal happiness. If you're a Christian, how thankful ought you to be for the people who in faithfulness to Jesus Christ labored to turn you from the power of Satan to God, who were patient with you, who refused to give up on you, who kept praying for you, to turn you from darkness to light, to bring you to salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5.13 says, esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. I wanna tell you about my friend Rich. I knew him when I was in college. He was a couple of years older than me. He was very well respected in Christian circles for being very biblically knowledgeable and humble. He was very godly. And toward the end of my freshman year, Rich, who was a student leader with Campus Crusade for Christ, he put together what he was simply calling a men's event, a men's event. And I didn't know Rich very well, but he made a point to invite me to this men's event every time I bumped into him. And I tried my best to give him the run around because frankly, I did not want to go to this. I did not want to go to it. I wasn't very involved with Campus Crusade. I was more involved with the church I went to. And I really didn't want to go. But Rich kept after me. And in God's providence, I kept bumping into him. I never bumped into the guy on campus until the month before that men's event. And every time I saw him, Every time I saw him, he'd be all bouncing around and bright eyed and smiling and had this goofy smile. And he would look at me, so Patrick, you're coming to this, right, aren't you? You're coming, aren't you? And I said, Rich, I'm gonna really try if at all possible. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you gotta come, you gotta come. God's been laying this talk on my heart for months, and I really believe God's gonna do some great things in people's lives through this. You've gotta come, you've gotta come. Please come, please promise me you'll come. So I finally agreed to come. And I still really didn't want to. So I ended up in the bleachers around a campfire in the woods on a Friday night with about 90 other guys listening to Rich. My life was never the same. And it was a plea from scripture to be serious about your walk with God, following Christ, and to be serious about sexual purity. And this guy laid it all on the line and he held nothing back. And I've never heard anything like it. And I wrote him a long letter after that for his persistence and thanked him. And I asked him to forgive me for being lackadaisical in my attitude toward what he was so excited about. And his labor in the Lord, once I benefited from it, it was something that I learned to highly esteem him for. And I met with Rich every week the entire next school year. My sophomore year, I met with him every week. And he decided to turn this into an annual event And then he decided I was going to do the talk the next time. Which I also really did not want to do, but I knew it was an exercise in futility trying to tell him no. So I did. I want to encourage you all, reach out to your spiritual fathers and mothers. Go back over your life and think about who God has put in your life, who came after you, and who was persistent in praying for you, being burdened for you. Let them know how much God used them in your life. People need encouragement. There was a young person in our church who told me recently, he said this to me, a young person, 11 year old, John's sermon really helped me understand that justification is a one-time act that's completed and finished while sanctification lasts the rest of our lives. And that was so helpful. And after I did a cartwheel, I said, please tell him that. Tell him that. He needs encouragement. We all need encouragement. There are always so many key important people, spiritual fathers and mothers. Someone at some point had to take some interest in you spiritually. Somebody loved your soul. Someone did, mom or dad or an elder or a friend or somebody. Someone gave with the expectation of nothing in return. Someone wanted you to go to heaven. Someone loved you in the same way the Lord Jesus did. Someone had compassion on you and thought of you and prayed for you. You were a burden on someone's heart and mind and soul when they were praying. Do you see how precious that is? There are so many people in this world, so many people that have nobody that loves them. Nobody cares about them. Those faces, those people, those Christian people who wanted to see you turn your back on sin, honor them. Remember them, honor your spiritual fathers and mothers. The fifth commandment requires us to do that. Honor your father and your mother. And remember, just as there are people that you looked up to who have been there for you, you're doing the same thing for others now, hopefully. There are people that look up to you. Honor your spiritual fathers and mothers. Give them respect, knowing that Romans 10, 14 says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And how shall they hear without a preacher? Honor them by being advocates of your spiritual fathers and mothers, of your elders, of your deacons, of your ministers. Be their advocates when they're treated with malice or slander. Thomas Watson says, surely if they labor to preserve you from hell, you should preserve them from slander, end quote. Honor them by being teachable and conforming to their doctrines. Pastors and teachers and spiritual fathers and mothers, they're gifts of the Lord Jesus to his church. They read, they study, they write, they work, they pray to bring the people under their shepherding care to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Being a divisive, unteachable person is not conducive to that. Fewer things are more heartbreaking to pastors and elders than to work so hard to bring about unity only to see continued division. Honor your spiritual leaders by listening to them, hearing their doctrines, and believing what they show you from the Word of God. Paul calls the people of the congregation in Thessalonica, in 1 Thessalonians 2.19, he says about those people there, you are my crown of rejoicing. But if people don't listen, if people don't follow scripture when you teach it to them, how can they be your crown of rejoicing? Watson said, you cannot honor your spiritual fathers more than by thriving under their ministry and living upon the sermons which they preach. And that was a dagger to my soul since most of my pastor's labors were wasted on me when I was a teenager, when I was younger. They did all this work, I didn't benefit from it. I didn't care, I didn't value that. Don't be like that. Okay, next, bosses and employers. 1 Peter 2.18, servants, be submissive to your masters, to your bosses, with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. Most people who have lived for any significant period of time in this world have had good bosses and bad bosses, right? I mean, almost all of us have been in situations that were good, situations that were bad. Difficult people to work with and for, et cetera. In God's providence, sometimes he will let us languish under hard people to teach us to be thankful for the good ones that he might bring us to later. What God commands us to do is simply obey his laws. Whether your bosses are good or harsh, you're simply to be submissive to them. Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. Anyone here have or had a harsh boss at some point? We're supposed to be submissive to them. No matter who we are, how good we are at something, or if our boss is a believer or not, we must be submissive to them, whether they're good and gentle or harsh with us. For most of us today, at least, thankfully, we have the option. We can quit. We can resign and go work for someone else. and do something else if things are to our disliking, if people are constantly abusing us or putting us in dangerous or difficult situations. But until we resign, until we sever that relationship, we're still obligated to obey and be submissive to them. We honor our fathers and mothers as bosses and employers by working hard at our jobs. I know you've heard the expression, the Protestant work ethic. the Protestant work ethic. That's because, historically, we were the best employees that bosses could ever hope for. We were all like Joseph. No matter what we were doing, we were great at it. If we're cleaning the bosses' toilets, it was gonna shine when we were done. We honor our fathers and mothers by working hard, our bosses by being great employees, by being on time, having a good attitude, not arguing, not talking back. Paul said to the church in Colossians 3.22, bond servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye services, men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. See, to disrespect your boss is to show no fear of God, is to distrust God, because where does that authority come from? It comes from God. Colossians 3.23, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. In the ultimate sense, you're not really working for that boss. In one sense, yes, you obey him or her and you do your work and you do it with integrity and you do it with all your might, but you're serving the Lord Jesus ultimately. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. So I want to encourage you. You honor your fathers and mothers as bosses, as employers, by working hard, by being busy. Laziness is a terrible vice. And Paul told the church in Thessalonica, there are no free rides for anybody. A man who will not work does not get to eat. There are 15 distinct passages in the book of Proverbs decrying laziness and sloth. I just love that word sloth. You know, the animal, the sloth. Watch a documentary about sloths. It's the most boring documentary you could ever watch. We don't want to be sloths. We don't want to be lazy. Proverbs 12, 27, the lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting. What an image. He takes the time to go out and he hunts and he shoots and kills some animal, but he just lets it rot and goes home. He's too lazy to even take it home and prepare it to eat. And what is one of those other proverbs? A lazy man puts his hand down the bowl, he's too lazy to even raise the food to his mouth to eat it. What an image of someone who is just lazy, a sloth, someone who is a loser. 15 passages on it. Even in our Lord's parable of the talents. Remember what the master comes back and says to the man that hid his one talent, you wicked and lazy servant. You didn't think you had very much. You had one talent. I gave you this. You should have invested it for me. You lazy servant. Paul told the church at Ephesus after he goes through the gospel and goes through God's unconditional electing grace. And we're saved by grace and not by works. And we're supposed to walk in good works and so on. He then tells them to put off the old man and put on the new man. And he tells that congregation there had to be people that had a problem with this. Let him who stole steal no longer, but let him labor. working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give him who has need. So he's saying, not only is this guy that's constantly stealing, he is not allowed to steal any longer, but he's supposed to work, not just to provide for himself, but so he can give to people, so he can share with people. Do your work without arguing, without talking back. Titus 2 verse 9, exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back. Isn't it amazing? So many letters, the pastoral letters. He tells Pastor Titus, tell the people to be good employees. Paul tells the church at Ephesus, be good employees. The church at Colossae, work hard at what you do. Be a good employee, be on time, work hard. You're glorifying Christ when you do that and you're dishonoring him when you don't. So important, we should have the best reputations as workers, as employees. Bosses are required by God to be gracious, to be fair to their inferiors, to their employees. Ephesians 6, 9 addresses them. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening. knowing that your own master also is in heaven and there is no partiality with him. Inferiors need to be praised. If you're a boss, if you have people that work for you, if people are your inferiors in any way, praise everything that you can find to praise. Encourage whatever possible, any good that you ever see. If you ever had someone in your life, they never do that. They notice only what you do wrong. They're only critics. Is it nice being around people like that? Be an encourager. Employers must not overburden or take advantage of the good nature of their employees and their workers. Employers are to seek the spiritual wellbeing of the people that work for them, and they should give them their Sundays off, unless their works of necessity and mercy. If you're an employer, be mild, be gentle. Don't be someone who threatens. Giving up threatening, it says. Don't be someone who needs to threaten in order to get a job finished. Don't be someone that your boss has got to come down on you like a ton of bricks to get you to work. Be on time. Keep your word. Tell the truth. Work honestly. Don't waste time. Watch out for the health and safety of your employees. Okay, finally, dads and moms. Dads and moms. Leviticus 19.3. says, every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Isn't it interesting that that iteration of the commandment, it puts mother before father, but the commandment in the Decalogue puts father and mother, puts them in reverse order. Thomas Watson said, he thinks this is partly to put honor upon the mother because by reason of many weaknesses incident to her gender, she is apt to be more slighted by her children. and partly because the mother endures more for the child. Can all the mothers say amen for that? Many children in society today, they don't have loving or concerned parents. Many people don't have parents that care about them. But parents who do love their children and desire their spiritual good are especially vulnerable to being sinned against by children who find little value in what they're doing to try to bring them to Christ and to teach them God's ways. They're especially vulnerable to being sinned against if they have ungrateful children. You know, we used to do those good news clubs, you know, for all the years we did them in Ohio before I got here at Bluff City Elementary. One of the most potent ways to get across the concept of sin to elementary age kids is to talk to them about disobedience to parents. And I remember the first time I ever said to a group of third, fourth, and fifth graders, if you disobey your mom and dad even one time or lie to them, that's enough to send you to hell forever. The look of terror and almost hysteria on their faces. And it was always a good segue to speak about the gospel, the death of Christ on the cross, the need for forgiveness and mercy from God who is ready to give it to you if you will reach out to the Lord Jesus and repent. But it was even more effective on numerous occasions when there would be kids that are siblings sitting by each other. And one of them would inform me, I've never disobeyed my parents or lied to them. And the younger sibling sitting right next to him would go, yeah, you did when you did this and this and this and this and this and this. And we can chuckle a little bit about that. But disobedience to parents and scorning your parents is a very serious issue. And in fact, in the Old Testament, it was a capital crime You could be put to death by cursing your father and mother. It's a very serious thing. Today, it's just par for the course. Everybody's disrespectful to their parents today. The sort of cursing of father and mother and treating elderly and older people in general with contempt or disrespect, you know, that doesn't happen with every generation. Previous generations didn't do that. My generation and the generation rising seems to be special in that way, in this bad way. Proverbs 30 verse 11, listen. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There's a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There's a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There's a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose fangs are like knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. You think we're in a generation like that now? I ask you. You think a generation that has murdered, what, 120 million babies is going to care about the elderly when they're old and dying? Probably not. The generation that's like that is itself accursed. The generation that curses its parents is cursed of God. The Proverbs have some pretty vivid graphic descriptions of such people. Proverbs 30, verse 7. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it. That's a horrific image, isn't it? The Scripture says in Ephesians 6, Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. There he cites the fifth commandment, which is the first commandment with a promise. It's the first commandment with a promise attached to it if you obey it, that it may be well with you and you may live long upon the earth. That's God's promise. If you honor father and mother, if you respect the authorities in your life that God has put there, whether it's your magistrates, your elders, your spiritual fathers and mothers, your bosses, or your parents, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees very sharply for their Corban rule. Remember that? In Matthew 15 and Mark 7, the Pharisees had come up with a rule. Well, whatever we were gonna use to take care of mom and dad, we're gonna give a donation to the temple and therefore we're released from having to take care of our mom and dad. Here's how Jesus reacted to that. He says, all too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and mother, and he who curses his father and mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is korban, that is a gift devoted to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father and mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do. Is it a big deal that we take care of our parents when they're older? You bet it is. 1 Timothy 5.4, listen to this passage, 1 Timothy 5.4. If any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents. Repay them how? With love, with kindness, with money, finances, physical care, whatever it is that they need. The family is the first line of defense, not the church. That's what Paul tells Timothy. When someone comes, if someone's a widow and they're in distress, the first thing you gotta find out, do they have kids or grandkids? They're obligated by God to take care of them. Only if they won't do it, do you then have the church take care of them. But that line from the Holy Spirit there, show piety at home and repay your parents, for this is good and acceptable before God. Make sure in your heart that you're ready and willing to repay your parents, to take care of them. Just as parents hopefully took their time, energy, and resources, both physically, financially, to bless, to help, to love, to provide mercy for us growing up, in their old age, children have to repay their parents for these things. And children must obey their parents' lawful orders and commands right away, all the way, with a cheerful heart. Just like we obey God, right away, all the way, with a cheerful heart. So I want to encourage you all. Honor your father and mother so that God will not cut you off from the world. So you'll live long in the world. Remember Joseph? Joseph arises because God blesses him and protects him and his godliness just shined everywhere he went. Joseph, even though he was the second most powerful man in Egypt, when his poor elderly father came into his presence toward the end of his life, Joseph arose from his position and bowed to his father. Why? Because he's his dad. I'm here because of him. King Solomon, most powerful man in Israel, when his mother came into the room, he got up from his throne and bowed to her because that's his mother. Children, honor your parents by obeying them, by submitting to them. Don't talk back to them. Don't argue with them. Meet their needs and help around the house. Don't be one of these me-centered young people. Notice that your parents actually count as human beings that you should care about, who need help, who have feelings. Don't argue, don't fuss, don't fight with them. If you have Christian parents, listen, don't marry anyone without their approval. Listen to them. You know what, to my utter astonishment, When I was a teenager, my early 20s, what my father told me, what he warned me about, what he advised me to do was pretty much always right, and I was always wrong. And I could not believe that as I got older. Man, the guy actually is not stupid. That's why he wrote me. He wrote me a long paper when I was about 19 called, Lessons I've Learned in 52 Years on Planet Earth. Kind of emphasizing, I've been here a lot longer than you. You know what, when I obeyed him, things went well. And when I didn't, I teetered on disaster. Same with my mom. And I know it may seem hard at times. Children, young people, your parents actually don't sit around discussing how they can make your life terrible. They don't conspire to think, how can we make sure they never enjoy anything in life? That's actually not what they do. Your Christian parents know the only way that you can thrive and prosper and be productive and be happy and have joy is if you know Christ and walk in His ways. That's what motivates them. It may seem like they won't let me do anything. Well, maybe everything you want to do is bad. Parents, bring up your children in the fear and nurture of the Lord, Ephesians 6.4. This is our duty as their superiors. They must be, parents need to be in agreement, how we discipline, what we discipline for, the way we instruct them, and we need to model piety and godliness to our kids. We have to communicate well in our marriages and show our children what a godly, Christ-like, gospel-centered marriage and home looks like. And we're also supposed to show them, here is how a godly man, here's how a godly husband reacts when something awful happens in our family. Here's the way a godly person responds to it. Here's the way a godly mother responds to it. Parents, we gotta be patient, we gotta be kind, we have to never be harsh. This is difficult stuff, isn't it? We've gotta encourage every good thing that we see and not be excessively critical of. We're just constantly nitpicking and critics against our kids. We're disobeying the command to honor father and mother. We're sinning against our duties as superiors if we do that. And I wanna say, J.C. Ryle wrote this in his book, The Duties of Parents long ago, children are much better led than they are driven. The thing is, we may be tempted to come from behind with the whip, and I'm gonna drive and push. It's better if we lead. We'll follow if we lead, and do so with gentleness. That's what we have to labor for. So to summarize for you this really important commandment, this commandment, look at the larger catechism, if you have the Westminster larger catechism, 11 questions and answers on this one commandment. We looked at the importance of government in the form of people in our lives. We looked at how God uses the word father and mother in a much broader way than we typically do. He includes magistrates, older people, spiritual fathers and mothers, bosses, employers, and biological fathers and mothers. They're all included in the commandment, honor your father and your mother. Now question 126 of the larger catechism summarizing asks this question, what is the general scope of the fifth commandment? So here it is. The general scope of it is the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several relations as inferiors, superiors, or equals. And the rest of the commandments, the rest of the commandments, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, don't covet, are really applications of the fifth. Here is how you function as an equal, as a superior, as an inferior. Don't murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet what anyone has, no matter what your relation is to them. Remember all those commandments, they all overlap with each other. Murder, adultery, stealing, they're all forms of dishonoring our superiors. They're all forms of dishonoring our inferiors or our equals. Aren't you thankful Jesus bore the guilt of our disobedience to the fifth commandment? And just in closing, to reassure us of this, remember one of the final acts that our Lord did before his death? He made sure what? His mother was provided for. Listen, John 19, 26, hanging on the cross, he's still obeying God's commandments. He's still producing the righteousness that will get us into heaven. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son, speaking of the apostle John there. And then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home. Jesus kept the fifth commandment and did so perfectly. And that's why we call him the Lord, our righteousness, the Lord, our righteousness. And thankfully for those who repent and who trust in Jesus alone, his righteous obedience to the fifth commandment of honoring father and mother in all respects is accepted in our stead and place before the throne of God on the day of judgment. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for this commandment. What an important commandment, as all 10 of them are so important to the way we live our lives. Help us remember father and mother is a very broad, expansive term. We have duties as superiors and equals and inferiors. Help us in our offices as superiors to do them well and godly. Help us as equals to respect and honor one another. Help us as inferiors to those that are our superiors to show them proper respect and honor in whatever capacity we need to. May we glorify you in keeping this commandment as best we can with the help of your grace and spirit, knowing, however, that only Christ ever did so perfectly. And therefore, it's only in him that we trust for our salvation. In his name I pray, amen.