Exodus 20 verses 1 through 12. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and to the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. This is God's word and we do pray that he would bless it to us. Please bow with me now as we seek our God's blessing on the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we do ask once more that you would be pleased to bless the preaching of your word tonight. That you would, through the power of your Holy Spirit, make it powerful and effective to the blessing of your people. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, if you've been here for the series that we've been doing on the Ten Commandments, you'll know that the last commandment on which I preached was the Third Commandment, and yet tonight we are looking at the Fifth. And I assure you that this is not simply because I'm from Alabama and math is not my strong suit. Math is not my strong suit, although that doesn't really have anything to do with me being from Alabama. But it's also not because we don't like the Fourth Commandment at Christ Church. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We love the Fourth Commandment. We think it's greatly neglected. And it's something that deserves a great deal of attention. And as such, we want Pastor John to spend some time preaching on this sometime in the future. So I'm going to skip it tonight so that he can come back to it later and take us through that as a congregation. So tonight, we do come to the Fifth Commandment. And as we do so, let me remind us very briefly of some of the truths that we have seen thus far in the Ten Commandments. And the first that we want to realize and that we never want to lose sight of is that the Lord gave the Ten Commandments to His people not as a means by which they should save themselves. The Lord gave the Ten Commandments to His people after He had already drawn them out of the land of Egypt, after He had already created them to be His special people, after He had already chosen them and put His love upon them. And as such, as His special people, He said, now here's how you love me, here's how you should obey me, here's how you should treat me. So the Ten Commandments were meant to be a a means of the people being able to show their love to God, to be able to emulate the righteousness that God requires. We know that the Ten Commandments are a summary of God's righteousness, of His moral law. And so, within the Ten Commandments, we see God's own righteousness, and we see His standards. And we see what He wants His people, how He wants His people to act. And as His people look at those commandments, and as they see God's righteous requirements, and they see their own failings, it also drives them to Christ. Because they see that they could never actually keep the law. They could never actually earn God's favor through this. And so they see that they need a Savior. And then also, finally, we know that with each of the commandments, They are, indeed, very sort of short, compact sayings that have a broad range of application. These are summary statements of God's law. And so as we investigate them, as we look into God's law, and as we investigate these statements from the rest of scripture, we see that, really, there's overarching principles with each one of these which touch far beyond the The initial look that we see, when we look and we see, for instance, tonight, honor your father and your mother. Yes, this is to children and it's to parents, but it goes even beyond that. And because these are simple summary statements. Well, tonight, the principle that the fifth commandment is communicating to us is that God has set up the authorities in our lives. All authority that surrounds us is a product of God's sovereign hand. And to honor God, we must honor that authority. And we want to investigate this claim. We want to see this for ourselves the rest of our time together tonight by, first of all, seeing the basis for that biblical principle and the overarching principle that the fifth commandment teaches us, and then seeing how it applies, how it applies to, first of all, those who are under authority, and then secondly, those who actually have authority. And then finally, we wanna look together at the incentive that God gives, the promise that He gives, along with the fifth commandment. So first of all, the overarching principle of the fifth commandment, what is the underlying biblical principle that the Lord is teaching us here? Well, as we have seen with all of the commandments, as our Lord Jesus taught us in Matthew 22, the Ten Commandments and all of God's law can be summarized with love for God and love for neighbor. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. Jesus said this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second commandment is like it, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself, the second greatest commandment. And tonight with the fifth commandment, we are transitioning from the part of the law, the Ten Commandments, that deals primarily with our love for God, and now shows us how to love our neighbors. And so we start with love for neighbors, those very, very close neighbors of parents, and beyond that, other authority figures. The original context here with the fifth commandment, we know, is the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. God has just recently brought them out of Egypt. And so the main authority figures in their lives, the main authority structure that surrounded them, was God himself at the top, and then his vice regent, as it were, Moses, and a few elders who were helping Moses. But then it was families. It was families, it was parents who were the authority figures within Israel. And there were really no other structures. Now, as biblical history progressed, and as history in general progressed, other authority figures came about and came to be. But as God tells his people, honor your father and your mother, he's saying, honor those authority figures that I have set up over you. So saying father and mother here, in a sense, is shorthand for saying all of those people that I have, sorry about that, let me try moving this up a little bit. All of those people that I have set up in your life to be over you, you need to honor them. We'll talk about why in a moment. But the authority for Israel, the authority that God set up in their lives individually, was represented by mothers and fathers. As the nation grew and progressed, those kings became those in authority, prophets became those in authority, even priests became those in authority. But the main principle here is that God, for Israel, gave them their leaders. He gave them the parents that they had, and then he gave them all the other leaders that they had. And they needed to recognize that it was his sovereign choice that set up those who were over them. starting from their parents and moving out from there. And so if they wanted to honor Him, they had to honor those leaders. If they wanted to obey Him, they had to obey those leaders. God is the one who institutes leadership, and it's the same for us. And so we need to recognize that to honor the Lord, we honor those leaders. We honor the authority that He has given them, because that authority comes from Him. And so all throughout the scriptures, we won't look at the particular examples, but all throughout the scriptures, there are times when the king of the people is called their father. And Paul writes to others and to the churches and refers to himself as a father, as a spiritual father. And so this principle of fatherhood and motherhood is extracted to touch all the other types of leadership that God gives to his people. Now, secondly, we know that with The principles that the fifth commandment is saying forth, there are those who are under authority, which is most directly on the surface here, speaking to children, but there are those who are in authority. And we want to talk about the implications of the fifth commandment for both. So what does the fifth commandment bid us to do and to think about and to recognize for those of us who are under authority? First of all, who is under authority? Well, really, if we are believers, we recognize that everyone is under authority, chiefly from God, and then it filters down from there. So the first thing we have to recognize is that we are not autonomous, that no person in this world is an authority fully and completely unto him or herself. that we are beholden to something higher than we are, something that determines truth, something that determines right and wrong, and has the right to tell us what to do and what not to do. Ultimately, that is God. But then God has set up those under him to rule his people. And so first and foremost, the fifth commandment, the command to honor father and mother, or honor those who are over us, is a command to have a humble heart, and to be humbly submissive. If we are not submissive, we, as we have seen in previous commandments, we are setting ourselves up as God, ultimately. And so, first and foremost, on the surface here, we see that children are under authority. And so, kids, I do want to talk to you tonight directly because This is a commandment which is very clearly for you. It's for all of us, but it's very clearly for you. God has given you your parents. You didn't choose your parents, but God chose your parents, and he gave them to you for a reason. He gave them to you because he loves you, and he is caring for you through your parents. To honor God, you must honor your parents. To obey God, you must obey your parents. And you have to realize that to disobey your parents is to directly disobey God. And to honor your parents is to directly honor God. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians, kids, again, he speaks directly to you. He says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. The Apostle Paul himself recognizes that the way the world is set up, it is right for you, kids, it's right for you to honor your mom and your dad. And it's wrong for you not to. The world wouldn't work as it's supposed to if all the kids in the world stopped honoring their parents and stopped obeying their parents. In fact, it would be mass chaos. Probably everything would just explode. You have to honor your parents. That's the way the world works. God set it up to be that way. And God loves it when you obey your dad and your mom. God loves it when you obey them, and not just outwardly, but from your heart. Because even when other people aren't looking, and even what other people can't see, God can see. And he sees when you are honoring God from your heart, when you're honoring your parents from your heart. He knows that, and he loves it when you do that. And so kids, you need to work hard at doing those things that please your parents. You need to work hard at stopping those things that displease your parents. When they ask you to obey, try to do so joyfully. Try not to roll your eyes. Try not to, when they turn their back, stick your tongue out. Try not to do those things that if they were watching, they wouldn't like. God sees these things, and God sees your heart, and He knows when you are loving your parents from your heart. And God loves that when you do that. So even when it's hard, ask the Lord Jesus to give you strength to obey your parents. It can be hard, and it can be hard because your parents aren't perfect. They're sinners too. They do things that hurt your feelings. They do things that they shouldn't. And yet God still tells you that you need to obey them and you need to honor them. So pray for them. Pray for your parents. That's one way you can honor your parents. Pray that God would bless them, that God would use them in your life to bless you. And listen to them. And listen to what they teach you from the Bible. Listen to when they tell you about the Lord and believe them because they're telling you the truth. And remember, again, most of all, that when you honor your parents, you honor God. And when you obey your parents, you obey God. Now, kids and everyone else, we know that children are not the only ones under authority. We are under authority. We ourselves have, many of us have parents who are alive and we need to honor them. That takes wisdom as far as how to do that, but even closer to home, oftentimes, is the authority that the government has over us, the authority that the church has over us, the authority that bosses have over us in the workplace. We don't have time to go into detail with all of those things, but we need to realize, as adults, that our Lord calls us to submissive, humble attitudes toward the authorities in our life. With the government, The Apostle Paul in Romans 13 writes, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. So we see very clearly that the governing authorities around us, God has sovereignly ordained and set up. We don't have to like it. I'm sure in Paul's day and those in the first century, they lived under oftentimes tyrannical rule. They did not like that. But Paul is saying here, you have to honor these authorities because God set them up. Unless the government directly tries to get you to sin, to deny God, to do something that is displeasing to Him, you need to obey and you need to submit. Even when it seems absolutely moronic to have to go 35 miles per hour in that zone, We need to try to go 35 miles per hour in that zone. Even when it seems like they are stealing to take our hard-earned money in a certain percentage in that tax bracket, we have to pay that. Jesus said, render to Caesar what is Caesar's. And the principle here is because God has set up Caesar, even when Caesar defies God, God is still sovereignly in control. So to be a good Christian, in a sense, we need to be a good citizen. And that doesn't mean we have to be super politically active. You can, but you certainly don't have to. But we have to have an attitude of honor and respect and submission for the offices that God has set up. We might even see certain rulers and leaders and have a great deal of disrespect for them because of their moral lives and their moral failings. But we still are commanded to honor the office and have a heart of respect for them. So when we disagree with policies and laws and things such as that, let us disagree and respect. And as we get involved in politics and the political process, let us do so knowing that those who are there are God's vice regents. We must treat them as such. Well, there's also government in the church that is over us. God has set up government in the world, and God has set up government in the church, and both are institutions that Christians are bound to submit to and bound to obey. The institution of the church is the only institution that Jesus set up. And Christians live within that institution. They live within the world. They have one foot in the kingdom of the world, as it were, and they have one foot in the kingdom of the church. And God expects us to honor the rulers in both. The apostle Paul, again, in Acts, he's speaking to the Ephesian elders, and he tells them, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God. which he obtained with his own blood. Paul is telling the Ephesian elders that God set them up to oversee the church, to take care of the church, in a sense to provide a fatherly type role. We know from the epistles in 1 Timothy and Titus in particular, that elders are to take care of their members, they're to watch over their souls. They're to be father figures in that they teach them and help guide them and protect them, to call them out of sin and to call them to righteousness, to give counsel, to give all sorts of guidance and spiritual protection. And so our Lord bids his people to honor those elders and to respect them as spiritual fathers, as fathers in the faith. So Paul tells Timothy, he says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. And Paul didn't say this to be self-serving. He's like, hey, I'm an elder and I preach and I teach, so I'm worthy of double honor. You need to honor me and you can put your $5 on the side on the way out of the church. That's my hot tub fund. This was not Paul's, this was not his reasoning. This was not what he was thinking or doing. He was saying, no, no, God has put these people in your life to bless you and to be a protection to you. And these are people who speak for God. And they should take that very seriously. They are to expound his word to you and they are to care for you. They are to lead you. And so view them as instruments in God's hand. View them as spiritual fathers and mothers. view them as for your good, and honor them as such." And so, as Christians, we need to have a humble, submissive attitude towards those who God has set up over us. Now, for those who are in authority, thirdly, the fifth commandment also has implications in All through Church history, the Fifth Commandment has been seen to apply in all of these areas. If you open any commentary, you're going to see that the things that I'm saying are not original at all. But the Church has always understood that the Fifth Commandment, by implication, speaks to those who have authority as well. So the principle that authority comes from God Those who are in authority have to take that into account as well. That what you have in your hand, whether the authority you have in your hand, whether it's in the government, whether it's in the home, whether it's in the church, whether it's in the workplace, any authority that has been bestowed upon you has been bestowed upon you by God. And it's to be used not for your own profit, not for your own self-aggrandizement, but for the glory of God and for the good of your neighbor. The whole point of God's law is that we would love Him and that we would love others. And so those in authority, even in the home, even parents, must see their authority as a type of stewardship. It's from God's hand. The children in your home, they do not belong to you ultimately. They belong to God. We see this even in our baptism vows. That now in baptism, you are publicly acknowledging that this child is the Lord's. This child belongs to God, and now you have been given a period of time to try to steward that child, and to teach him. I'm going to go ahead and turn that off. Can you guys still hear me okay? I'll try to be loud. But having children in the home, having authority in the home, is given us by God to bring about what He designs and what He desires, to bring about teaching for those children, to instruct them in the way of Christ, to bring about love for God, to protect those children. And that authority by parents must be wielded in a way that is pleasing to God. We must be patient and kind. We must remember that our children are not lesser subjects who we can be just snarky with, and we can pop off at them. We can't have a double standard. And so, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6, right after he speaks to children, he speaks to their parents. He says, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So Paul is saying, just as children must honor God by honoring their parents, parents must honor God by honoring their children. How do you do that? Well, first of all, you don't provoke them to anger. Certainly, children get angry. They will be angry. No, you cannot have another cookie. Boom. Anger. Yes, you have to go to bed right now. Boom. Anger. That's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about unnecessarily angering your children through your own sin. Through doing things that are hypocritical. Through having a double standard. Telling your child, you know, you have to be respectful. You have to treat others with kindness. And then yourself not being respectful to them and to others, not treating others with kindness, being chronically impatient or harsh, overindulging, not disciplining. All of these are ways that we can provoke children to anger. And God says, no, you must use your authority You must use the authority that I have given you to not do this, but to instead, as Paul says, bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. You must teach them the ways of Christ. Just as the parents of the Israelite children in Deuteronomy 6 were to have an answer ready when the children asked them, you know, why do we do these things? Who are we? What are these commandments all about? We as Christian parents are to have that same answer. We're to have the answer of the Gospel. And that answer is to go forth day in and day out to our children. They're to be saturated in the Word. And by example, we should be showing them what it is to seek the Lord. So parents, parents must use that authority that God has given them in the home for the good of their children. for the glory of God. So parents, those who want to be parents, those who have been parents, and everybody who is observed by children, which is everybody in this room, we need to examine our own lives even briefly this evening and think, you know, am I relating to the children in my life in a way that sets a good example that points them to Christ, that encourages them to patience and kindness and goodness. And if not, we need to repent and we need to strive to use the authority that God has invested us with for His glory. Well, there's many other types of authority that people in this room and other Christians have. We don't have time to delve into that. But we need to remember that we all are stewards. That you are a steward. Any authority that you have has been given you by God. And you need to examine, how am I using that? Whether it's in the office place and those who are under me, whether it's in the home with my children, whether it's in the church. Am I using that authority for the good of those people that I'm over? Am I using that authority in a way that is self-serving? or that is serving of others? Am I using that authority in a way that seeks to glorify and honor God? Or am I seeking to glorify and honor me? Well, finally, the fifth commandment does come with an incentive, a promise. We see in verse 12 of Exodus 20, once again, the Lord says, honor your father and your mother, Why? That your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. That your days may be long. You might have a long and blessed life in the promised land, is what he's telling the Israelites here. We have to step back and say, well, what does that mean for us now? We're no longer at the foot of Mount Sinai. We're no longer heading towards promised land in the Middle East. So does this still apply? Well, yes. we have to realize that even two things. First of all, we have to realize that even with the original context here, God was giving a general principle of blessing for obedience. And that's always the general principle. We know from scripture, the way of the transgressor is hard. Those who disobey, those who rebel against parents and rebel against authority, they're going to have trouble. And oftentimes, they'll die young deaths. Why? Because they do foolish things. They get themselves into certain troubles and sins. And the world takes over and the world kills them. But it's not an absolute principle. We need to take note of that. We need to know that with God and with general principles such as this, there's still mystery involved with his people. And that the righteous still suffer and the righteous still die young. That was true in the Israelites, the Jewish time here, and it's true for us today. Now, Paul does reiterate this promise in Ephesians 6 where he's talking to children. And so there is an application for us. That application is that, yes, obedience is still blessed. As a general rule, when you obey, there's good things that happen. Children, when you obey your parents, there's good things that happen. When we disobey, there's bad things that happen. That might be death, it might be something else. But as we step back from this, and we think about the commandments, and we think about this promise filtered through the New Covenant, we realize that there's actually even a little more going on here. That all through the Scriptures and all through the Old Testament, the Promised Land was a picture, and it was a type of God's blessing for His people. And it was a picture of the new heavens and the new earth, the ultimate Promised Land that His people were heading towards. And for us it's the same. So the promise that's held out here is a promise not ultimately of earthly blessing and earthly life, but of eternal heavenly blessing and eternal heavenly life. The promise that's held out for obedience, for all of the commandments really, is dwelling with God in righteousness. And yet, once again, we come to this, and if we're honest, there should be a little despair that creeps in when we think about this. Because none of us, none of us, if we're honest, even begin to measure up to any of the commandments. Everything that we have said tonight to be meritorious before God, to earn any sort of position before Him, would have to be perfect. It would have to be from the heart. It would have to be perpetual. It would have to be ongoing, always. And so we step back and we say, well, if the command has a reward of heaven, and if I break that command on a regular basis, where does that leave me? And the answer is, it leaves us in a bad place if ultimately we are judged on our own obedience. And yet, once again, that's where we see the gospel enter so clearly with the law. Is that we do not obey it, we cannot obey it, we will not obey it perfectly, we should strive to, but we will not. And yet, there was one who did. And of course, that is Christ. And He kept the fifth commandment and all other nine commandments perfectly. He honored His Father. If you remember the High Priestly Prayer, that beautiful, intimate look in the relationship of the Son to the Father, you see that Jesus loved His Father perfectly. He submitted to Him perfectly, continually. He gave up the riches of heaven To make Himself a servant. To put Himself under authority, even on the earth. And to obey that authority perfectly. And He did so, so that the righteousness which He earned might come to us. Our Lord Jesus merited that promised land for us. We are covenant breakers. We are fifth commandment breakers. None of us could stand here tonight and say, yes, you know, I've never popped off at my children. I've always had a perfectly good attitude towards all the authority over me. I've never abused any of my authority. I've always loved those under me and those over me with perfect selfless love. None of us can say that. But Christ can. And in Christ we are handed that righteousness. And we are shown a heavenly inheritance and a heavenly promised land that we are given because of Christ. And so tonight, As we examine our own lives, let us examine whether or not we are submitting to and honoring those authorities that God has put in our life, and whether we are using our authority correctly. And where we are not, because certainly we are not, where we are not, let us repent. And let us use as motivation the love that the Lord God has for us. Let us use as motivation the righteousness that Christ has already given us to strive for obedience and to strive to keep this command as well as all the others. Let us pray. Our Father, we do confess that we are sinners. We have not kept your word as we ought. And so we pray that you would forgive us and also that you would strengthen us by your grace and through your Spirit to honor you to love you more by submitting and by using the authority you have given us for your glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.