We read God's word this morning from Ephesians 5 and 6. We'll begin reading at Ephesians 5, verse 22, and we'll read through chapter 6, verse 9. The Word of God in Ephesians 5, verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. We read the word of God that far this morning. On the basis of that, and many other passages of God's word, is the instruction of the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 39. The Lord's Day 39 is found in the back of our Psalters on page 22. This is an explanation of the fifth commandment of God's law. And the fifth commandment of the law is this, honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Lord's Day 39, what does God require in the fifth commandment? That I show all honor, love, and fidelity to my father and mother and all in authority over me and submit myself to their good instruction and correction with due obedience and also patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities since it pleases God to govern us by their hand. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the fifth commandment is addressed specifically to covenant children and their responsibility to their parents. The application of the fifth commandment goes beyond that. It's not limited only to the calling of children. It applies more broadly to all the different spheres of earthly relationship and life in this world. There's application to our calling to submit to the authority of elders in the church, the authority of employers in the workplace, and the authority of the government in the midst of society. But on the occasion of the baptisms of three little children, we're going to focus specifically on what the commandment says about the Christian home and family. The calling of children in relationship to their parents and the calling of parents in relationship to their children. It's necessary and important for us to address the matter of the Christian home and family. The necessity of that is from a positive point of view due to the importance of home and family. The Christian home and family is the most basic unit of our life in the midst of this world. It's the very first. Unit of society that God established in the beginning and his creation of Adam and Eve and his bringing of them together in marriage. All of the other institutions of earthly life are built upon that flow out of that. In addition, it's in the home that children learn about authority, learn how to submit to authority, and learn then how to live in these other spheres of earthly life. They learn in the home how to live in the church and how to conduct themselves in the workplace and how to live in the midst of society. Not only is it important that we address the matter of the home and family from a positive point of view, it's also evident from a negative point of view. All around us, Western morality, so-called, is crumbling. Nor is that more evident than in the destruction of home and family, the all out assault that is being made spiritually upon marriage, home, family. through easy divorce and remarriage to follow, through feminism, through the support of the LGBTQ movement, through materialism, and in so many other ways, all of these different forces are at work to undermine and to destroy this most basic unit of society. Because of the importance and the significance of home and family, to tear down home and family is really to tear at all of these other institutions of earthly life. Because of the importance positively of home and family, because of the assault that's being made upon it, and the society in which we live, it's absolutely necessary that we hear and heed the command of God, both as parents and children, jealously to guard Christian home and family. Consider the Word of God this morning taking as our theme the question, what does God require of children? First of all, let's look at the command and secondly, the reason for it. And finally, the promise. The basic calling that God gives to children in the fifth commandment is the calling to honor their father and their mother. It's obviously the language of the fifth commandment itself that's repeated here in Ephesians 6 verse 2 by the Apostle Paul, honor thy father and mother. To honor another means to have an attitude of respect, an attitude of reverence for that other, to demonstrate a high esteem for them, to lift up their name, their reputation, their position. God calls children to honor their parents. to have an attitude of respect and reverence for their parents, to esteem them very highly, to hold them up in high regard with respect to their name, their position. The idea of honoring parents is closely related to a number of other important concepts. That's playing from the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 39 and its explanation of this commandment. It begins by speaking of honor, love, and fidelity that must be shown to father and to mother, and then goes on to speak of obedience and submission as well. The idea of honoring parents is closely related to love. That fits when we think of the position of the fifth commandment in the law of God. It's the beginning of the second table of the law, which addresses the responsibility that we have toward our neighbor. And God first addresses children in relationship to their parents. And in calling them to honor their parents, God is calling them to love their parents. This commandment, like all of the other commandments, gets beyond the outward and the external, and it drives at the heart. The requirement that God makes of children here is not only an outward and a superficial demonstration of honor and respect for parents, but God demands that from the heart, they love their parents. that from the heart they hold their parents in high esteem, they regard them as dear and precious, and that the way in which that love manifests itself is in an attitude of honor for father and mother. In addition, the idea of honoring parents is related to fidelity. To show fidelity means to demonstrate loyalty, to show faithfulness to another. The love and the honor that God requires of children, He calls them to fidelity toward their parents, to demonstrate loyalty, faithfulness toward their parents. That's demonstrated practically in the the respect and the protection that children give with respect to the name and the honor of their parents. And honor is related to submission. Submission refers to the attitude of the heart whereby a person willingly, gladly places themselves under the authority, the guidance, and the protection of another. One who submits says that I recognize the authority of this other, I'm glad for that authority, I willingly place myself under their authority, guidance, protection. Again, if children have an attitude of submission to the authority of their parents, it's going to be demonstrated in the honor that they show to their parents and the position that God has given to them. God calls children to honor, to love, to show fidelity to, and to submit to their parents. Children, young people, God calls you to honor father and mother. Or to show that honor for your parents in the attitude that you have toward them. Not harboring an attitude of disrespect and dishonor with a bad attitude that you demonstrate toward them, but an attitude of honor and an attitude of submission. You're to demonstrate that honor for your parents in your words. Not talking back to them. In a disrespectful way, not running them down when you're talking about them to others, but to speak about them highly when you talk to others and when you speak to them, to speak to them respectfully. You're to show your honor for your parents in your actions. How you interact with them. It means that you don't roll your eyes at them in disgust. Ignore them when we're trying to give you instruction. To respond in a bitter and an angry way when they correct and discipline you in your actions. Demonstrate honor, love, fidelity, submission. Children, honor father and mother. In addition to the calling to honor, God also calls children to obey their parents. Ephesians 6 verse 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. One of the ways in which the honor and the submission that children are to have in the way they view their parents One of the ways that shows itself is in their obedience to their parents, to obey another means to carry through with what they've instructed you to do. Submission and honor are matters especially of the heart. the way in which we're to view those in authority over us, the attitude that we adopt with respect to them. Obedience refers to the outward external expression of that. If in my heart I honor and submit to one in authority over me, that ought to show itself outwardly in my obedience to them and the callings and the instruction that they give to me. To obey another, truly, means to willingly carry out what they've called us to do. Without grumbling and complaining, without making excuses, but willingly. To truly obey another means that we do what we're called to do immediately to the best of our ability. Without trying to put it off. do something else that we're interested in doing, but obedience truly means that we're ready immediately to carry out what's required of us to the best of our ability. As we're well aware from the scriptures, there's one exception to that calling to obedience. That's when one in authority would require of us what is sinful. Parents require of children what's sinful. If parents are telling their children, for example, to lie or to engage in some other sinful activity, children, of course, may not follow through on that and obey their parents in that way. Then we know that we're to obey God rather than men, rather than father and mother in that instance. Apart from that, though, God calls children to obey. Children, young people, unless your parents are instructing you to do what's sinful, God calls you to obedience. When your parents tell you to clean your room, you clean your room. When your parents tell you to clean up after supper, you clean up after supper. Young people, when your parents tell you to be home at a certain time on a Friday night or a Saturday night, you're home on time. Your parents ask to look at your cell phone. Examine what kind of life you're living behind the screen. Show them that. God calls children to obedience. Obey father and mother for this is right. And then a third thing that's mentioned in the Heidelberg Catechism is that the honor, the submission, the love, the obedience of children for their parents comes to expression in this way as well, that they bear patiently with the weaknesses and the sins of their parents. Parents have plenty of weaknesses and many sins. As parents we might be very impatient with our children and their weaknesses and their sins. As parents, we might be over the top and heavy-handed in the requirements that we make of our children. As parents, we might not cultivate always a home that's filled with love and peace. As parents, we might sin against one another in our marriage and thus cause trouble in the home at large. As parents, we might be hypocritical, telling our children to live one way when we don't live that way, or putting on a show for other people when behind The closed doors of our home, when we are who we truly are, we don't live that way. That's not in any way to excuse the sins and the weaknesses of parents. This doesn't give them a free pass when it says to children, still bear patiently with them. As parents, we must reckon honestly with our own weaknesses and sins, confess them before God and to our children also when necessary, and certainly seek the grace of God to turn from them. Parents have their own responsibility with respect to their sins, but God also says to children, you're going to see the weaknesses and the sins of your parents. Now, how must you respond to that? The temptation may be to respond to that with an attitude of rebellion. If this is the way my parents are going to act, if they're going to sin and they're going to demonstrate all of these weaknesses, well, I don't have to listen to them. I don't have to show honor and respect for them any longer. They've lost all of my respect. But the honor and love and fidelity that God requires of children and young people Is to be demonstrated in this way when they see the weaknesses and the sins of their parents that they bear patiently with them. Means that children overlook the small weaknesses and sins of their parents. They forgive their parents when their parents confess their sins to them. They pray for their parents in their weakness. And without excusing sin, They don't rise up in rebellion against their parents when their parents show their failures. Children, honor father and mother. Obey them in those things that are right. Bear patiently with them in their weaknesses and in their shortcomings. That calling that God gives to children is based upon the God-given authority that has been entrusted to parents. The whole matter of submission and honor and obedience in any sphere of earthly life that we owe to those in authority over us is based upon the fact that God has given to those in authority that position. And therefore our honor and submission is unto God ultimately. Authority refers to the right that a person has to rule within a certain sphere. It's different from power and might and strength which is the ability actually to exercise that and to carry that out. Authority refers to the right one has to rule within a certain sphere of life. Within that sphere of life, that person has the authority to make decisions that affect others. They have the right to establish certain rules and laws that govern life within that sphere. They have the authority to demand obedience to that and the authority to punish or to correct where there is the failure to carry out those responsibilities. Again, the basic truth with respect to authority is that all authority comes from God. God is the authority. God is God alone. God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. So that the one true God who has made all things rules sovereignly over all of the works of His hands. All things are under Him and under His sovereign rule. God is pleased as the authority over all things to entrust authority to some within certain spheres. There's the sphere of the church where God has given authority to elders. There's the sphere of the workplace where God has given authority to the employer. There's the authority of the state and society where God has given authority to those in positions of government. But as we noted already in the introduction of the sermon this morning, the most The basic sphere of earthly life is that of the marriage, the home, and the family. Within home and family, God has entrusted authority to father and mother. They have the right to rule within the sphere of this home and the life of this home. They have the authority to guide and direct, to set the boundaries and the rules, to require obedience, and to discipline where there is disobedience. The authority of parents is not based upon the fact that they're simply bigger and stronger than the children. So that gives them the right to rule as if might makes right. That's not the explanation. In fact, it can happen that as our children get older, they're bigger and stronger than we are. It's not a matter of might and strength and how impressive we are in our size and ability. It's the simple fact God has entrusted to parents the authority with respect to their children. So that a mother who's very small with a teenager who towers over her still has authority with respect to her teenager. And it's for this reason, children, young people, that God requires of you honor, obedience to your parents because God has given them authority. He's made them the authority in your life. He's given them the right to rule over you. And therefore, you're to obey and to submit and to honor them as unto God Himself. That language is used throughout Ephesians 5 and 6. As it talks to wives and the honor that they're to show to their husbands. They're to do that as unto God. And later when it talks about the honor that employees are to show to their employer. That obedience and that honor is as unto God. And the same thing is true of children. The honor that you show to your parents is a reflection of your honor to God. Your obedience to your parents and what's right is a reflection of your obedience unto God. Your love for your parents is a reflection of the love that you have for your Heavenly Father as unto God your Heavenly Father. Honor, submit, obey, love. Father and mother. There's important truths here also for parents. This matter of God-given authority as the explanation for this commandment has important implications for parents, those in authority. God calls children to honor their parents. even if their parents don't always show themselves to be honorable. That's the calling of children, those under authority, but there's something to be said here to parents as well, that in that position of authority, they rule in such a way that they are honorable and worthy of honor and respect. The Word of God in Ephesians 6 warns parents against great danger in the rearing of their children. Verse 4, ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath. And in the parallel in Colossians 3 it talks about the effect of this being the discouragement of our children. When the Word of God says that we're not as parents to provoke our children to wrath, it's not intending to say there that as parents we never do anything that upsets our children and that's contrary to what they want. It's not saying that we indulge them. There are going to be times where we make decisions as parents which is not what our children want to happen. What the Word of God is saying there is that we're not by our sins as parents to do anything that provokes our children to wrath and that discourages them. There's a multitude of ways in which we can be guilty of that as parents. By our own sinful wrath. By our own impatience. By our own. Over the top demands upon our children expectations that we place upon them that are unrealistic. Constant criticism of them. Instilling them in them the idea that they've got to be good enough to meet up to our lofty standards or make themselves worthy of our love. By our own hypocrisy and in a hundred other ways we can be guilty as parents by our own sins of discouraging our children. God has given us authority, we must exercise that authority. Faithful service to God. We are not the authority as parents. We are under authority ourselves under the authority of our Lord and our master, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the way in which we exercise this authority must be a reflection. Of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's authority that's exercised in patience. And in love. As children are called to love their parents, parents are called to love their children. And to love them with more than just a natural affection that we have for our own flesh and blood. But to love them with a Christ-like love. To hold them in high regard even when we see their weaknesses and sins. And to give of ourselves for their sake. That love will be demonstrated in patience with them. We want our children to be patient with us and our weaknesses and shortcomings. We want to show patience to them and all of their childlike weaknesses and shortcomings. And our home is to be a home that's characterized by true godliness, spiritual health, peace, Because our calling positively, as verse 4 goes on to say, to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. We're to bring up our children. And the idea there is to nurture them, to lead them forward in growth, in maturity. The goal of our parenting is not to hold on to our children forever and ever, afraid ever to let them go, but we're to nurture them, to help them grow in maturity so that they can stand on their own two feet by the grace of God and they can serve Him in the midst of this world. Obviously, spiritual maturity at the heart and center of it all, in addition to physical, emotional, mental maturity. The way in which we're to bring them up so that they grow spiritually in maturity is, first of all, by nurture. The word is especially emphasizing negative, corrective discipline. It's the same word that's used in Hebrews 12 for chastening. The nurture of our children is not only the positive, but necessarily also the negative. Our children are going to sin. They need to be corrected. They need wise parents to help guide and direct them so that they see their sin, hate their sin, turn from their sin, and learn to live and walk in godliness. And admonition. An admonition is a reference, especially to the positive. Positive instruction and encouragement and guidance that we give to our children. It's not all negative. It's not only correction. It's not just criticism of them and all their faults, but it's the positive instruction, guidance and encouragement that our children stand in need of. This bringing up by nurture and admonition is to be the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. That is, of the Lord Jesus Christ. This nurture and admonition is to be that which Christ has given us in His Word. And it's where Jesus Christ is the focal point, the content, the substance of all of that discipline and instruction. The parenting of our children is to be infused throughout with the truth of the Gospel. It's to be Christian in every way. So that our instruction of our children is not just about how they can succeed in earthly life and learn the necessary life skills to get along as they get older. It's instruction where the gospel is at the heart and the center of that. Where they're taught salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ and the wonder of the cross of the Savior. And our discipline of our children is not just don't do this and be sure next time that you do this. But it's leading our children to the cross of the Savior. You've failed. Where is their forgiveness? It's found at the foot of the cross of the Savior. So that our children in their sins aren't merely taught do better next time, but they're led to see the wonder of the forgiving grace of God in Jesus Christ. All of our home is to breathe this spirit of the gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not put on a front for everyone else so that we say and do the right things when no one else is around and we're all alone and we are who we truly are. It's an entirely different story. The life we live in the home with our children is to be Christian in every way. It's to have Jesus Christ at the heart and the center. It's to have the focus of our own life as parents and that of our children with us. The truth of the Gospel of our Savior. Parents, you've been given authority. Use it well in reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring up your children to maturity, spiritual maturity, with the discipline and the instruction of the Lord Jesus. The command that God gives in the fifth commandment comes with a promise. As Ephesians 6 indicates, it's the first commandment with promise. And there's two aspects to that promise. First of all, in the beginning of verse 3, it says that it may be well with thee. That's easy enough to understand from a very earthly point of view. What happens when there's disobedience? Where there's rebellion? It doesn't go well. There's not peace. There's not harmony in the midst of that relationship. Whatever that might be, there's chaos. promise of the fifth commandment is that it may go well with thee, go well in the home or in any of these other earthly spheres of society where those in authority exercise that authority faithfully, those under authority honor and obey and submit. And then secondly, verse 3 goes on to say, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And that's simply a restatement of what's found in the fifth commandment itself. We have to understand that in its Old Testament context when that promise was first given in the Old Testament as a promise of long life It belongs to the promises of the Old Testament, all of which spoke in terms of earthly life in the land of Canaan and a long life there. But we know the reality to which that points is spiritual in nature. The promise of Canaan in the Old Testament is really a promise of heavenly glory and a long life in that land in the Old Testament. We can't interpret that literally. As if one's obedience is a guarantee of a long earthly life. We know from experience that's not always the case. It's the promise ultimately of life everlasting in the new heavens and the new earth. Hearing that promise, What kind of effect does that have upon us? The effect of that ought to be this. That we are so humbled that we realize that there is absolutely no way that we can receive that promise An account of our own obedience. Which one of us can stand before the requirement of God in the Fifth Commandment, which is? As in all of the commandments, perfect obedience. Which one of us can stand up and say I've kept this commandment perfectly? And having kept the commandment perfectly, then I can be assured of this. This promise that's going to come to me. By nature, we are all Rebels. We demonstrated that already in the very beginning in Father Adam and Mother Eve and the rebellion there in paradise. And that's evident in our own sinful natures and in our own life. There's not a one of us who loves to submit to authority. In the heart of every one of us is a desire to be independent, to rule ourselves, to be the authority of our life and have no one else tell us what we're to do and how we're to live. As parents, when we look at our children and we see at times in them a disrespectful attitude and a failure to submit, Rather than throwing up our hands and saying, how could this possibly be what we say as parents is, I recognize that. Because I know the struggle of my children is the exact same struggle that I have. I gave them that nature. I don't want to submit. The promise of the fifth commandment, ought to humble, drive us to the end of ourselves and lead us to see that there's no hope in our own keeping of this law. And our hope then is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth commandment points us outside of ourselves and to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Great need for us and for our children is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in all of his life on earth demonstrated perfect obedience to this fifth commandment. He honored all in authority and in all of his life honored his heavenly father, submitted to the will of his father, obeyed him perfectly in all things so that even when he's in the garden and he's looking at the cross and it presses out of him this bloody sweat. As the faithful son, he still submits, not my will, but thy will be done. In perfect submission and obedience to his heavenly Father, he allowed himself to be arrested, put on trial, condemned, crucified, killed. That as a rebel, condemned by the leaders of the church and by the wicked world as A rebel, a revolutionary, one trying to overthrow every institution of authority and power so that he could come to earthly power and authority. The Lord Jesus Christ gave up His life for our rebellion and the rebellion of our covenant children. By His perfect life of obedience has merited for us righteousness, perfect righteousness which is counted as our own. Our sins forgiven in His blood are standing before God, one of righteousness in Jesus Christ as if we have perfectly kept this commandment and all of the others and submitting to those in authority. And Jesus Christ by his perfect life of obedience and by his death has merited for us a long life, everlasting life in the new creation. Jesus Christ also by the power of his cross renews us to a new life so that already now We begin to live according to all the commandments of God, this fifth commandment as well. Our hope is found alone in Jesus Christ for us and for our children in the forgiveness that's ours in Him and in the power of His cross and His spirit to sanctify us, to cleanse us, to renew us to a new life of godliness. And it's with the certainty of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ in view. That we then. Live in thanksgiving to God as parents. The blessed comfort of the salvation that's ours in the forgiveness of our sins as parents. We strive to. Nurture our children and bring them up in the fear of the Lord and as children and young people. Knowing the truth of salvation in the Lord Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, honor and obey Father and Mother. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, our hearts by nature are so rebellious, disobedient, And we acknowledge as parents that we've given that nature to our children. And so Father, we plead by mercy in the cross of our Savior and pray that Thou wilt forgive and blot out. And also renew right spirit within us by Thy Holy Spirit. Cleanse us from all iniquity and lead us on in the way of thankful obedience to Thee. Bless our homes and families, Father. Grant peace and love and trust and patience into the midst of our homes and families so that these homes are a good, healthy environment in which covenant children can be reared up and directed in faith to Thee and to Thy Son. We pray, Father, for thy blessing upon our worship here this morning. Forgive what we've done in sin. For Jesus' sake, amen. We pray that you were edified by the preaching of the gospel today. Please join us for worship if you are ever in the area. For more information about our church, beliefs, or worship times, please visit our website at prccrete.org.