The information I put in the bulletin is wrong. That's from last week. I forgot to put new information in. We're going to read this morning from Proverbs 17. And we'll be looking at verse 6. Proverbs 17. We'll read that. Better is a dry morsel in quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts. The wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and the liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince. A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separateth very friends. A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. An evil man seeketh only rebellion. Therefore, a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly, who so rewardeth evil for good. Evil shall not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is as one letteth out water. Therefore, leave off contention before it be meddled with. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Wherefore, is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it? A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. A man void of understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. He loveth transgression that loveth strife, and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction. He that hath a froward heart findeth no good, and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief. He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy. A merry heart doeth good like medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bear him. Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. As mentioned, we're going to examine this morning verse six from the Word of God. Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. As the title of the sermon indicates, the central thought of this wisdom from God is that the covenant home is glorious. It's about the glory of the covenant home. That should be evident when the word crown and the word glory are used in parable. That is, the glory that it speaks is the glory of a crown, and the crown is the glory. And furthermore, that the crown and the glory it's referring to has to do with children's children and children, And on the other hand, fathers and old men or grandfathers. And the reference there is to the covenant home. So that this passage teaches. that the covenant home is glorious. The purpose of this wisdom of God is, of course, to instruct us, but instruct us with regard to two distinct things. The first is to instruct us in giving God the glory, to exhort us to give glory to God in thanksgiving. That should be obvious, because we're talking about the covenant home. The covenant home is due to the covenant that God Himself makes. Without that covenant, there is no covenant home. Furthermore, this is a covenant that God establishes and God maintains. If God does not establish or maintain that covenant, there is no covenant. in the covenant home. Furthermore, this is a covenant that, as we read in the baptism form, is a covenant that God establishes not only with believers, but their seed, their children. Without that, there would be no glory either in the covenant home that extends to children and children's children. This is an exhortation to give glory to God inasmuch as the real glory of the covenant home is God. Children's children and children and fathers and grandfathers are glorious only because God is there in that covenant home. In the second place, the purpose of this wisdom from the Holy Spirit is that it is both a calling and an incentive to carry out that calling in the covenant home. It speaks of a crown. And the crown is that which is given to one who holds office. And with that office comes a calling. It is therefore both a calling and an incentive to carry out that calling of children, children's children, fathers and grandfathers in the covenant home. And there's a relationship between that also and the glory of the covenant home. Consider with me the glory of the covenant home. We consider in the first place the blessing, secondly the manner, and finally the calling. First, the blessing. The blessing is really that which is stated in the text. It is simply speaking of the great blessedness of the covenant home, namely that children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. This is a description of the covenant home as a glorious, glorious institution. It gives here not simply Solomon's opinion or our opinion, but God's own opinion of what the covenant home is. And that covenant home is glorious. Glorious in the eyes of the covenant people and also glorious in the eyes of God Himself. This glorious description of the covenant home is based entirely on the glory of God's covenant. Without the covenant, there is no covenant home. And without that covenant being a glorious covenant, there is no glory to the covenant home. The covenant is the relationship of friendship and fellowship that God establishes graciously with His chosen people in Jesus Christ. This is fitting because the covenant home is an outstanding picture in this world of that covenant. In the covenant. God comes to us as a bridegroom, to his wife, and he lives with the church, his wife, faithfully. Also, in that covenant of grace, God is a father to us. He is the father of the church. And in that church, he gives birth to many, many of his children. whom He gives as His children the entire world as their inheritance. That's the glory of the covenant. And the covenant home is glorious because that God has chosen to be an outstanding symbol of that covenant of grace that God establishes with His people. The relationship that God establishes and maintains, He also furthermore establishes and maintains with believers and their children. That is, not only with parents, But the children of those parents, that's emphasized repeatedly. Wherever you find the covenant, you will find God reminding us that He does not simply establish a covenant with certain individuals, But he especially establishes a covenant with married individuals, with parents, and then also with the children that are a result of that marriage. Even in the passage that we read, there is a reference to the inclusion into the covenant of the servants that would be a part of that household. But simply look at the passages that are found in our own baptism form that emphasize that. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations to be an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. That's Genesis 17, 7. And then the other part in Acts 2, 39, for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That belongs to that glory of the covenant. Implied also, then, is that covenant marriage also is glorious, for covenant marriage is the means by which God gives the children and grandchildren of the covenant home. From the beginning, it was God's will for mankind that he leave father and mother and cleave to his wife so that they become one flesh. And it is through that one flesh union that God grants such children and then grandchildren. That's implied when, in this passage, deliberately the Holy Spirit extends the glory of the covenant home, not simply to the procreation of children by a father and obviously a mother, but then children's children, and speaks of old men. The reference to them is of grandparents. We need to be reminded of this because we live in a day of selfishness and selfish thinking, and that too with regard to marriage and children and the covenant home. This has made its way into the church. And the result is that we can behave in marriage or toward marriage and children and grandchildren according to only what makes me happy, and what I want, and what another woman wants. But marriage is the means by which God establishes His covenant with many generations. Without marriage, there is no covenant being established with believers, nor covenant being established with children's children. This, in fact, helps explain the reference in the passage exclusively to males. In the original, it's not even a reference to children's children, but sons' sons, and a reference to men, and a reference to fathers. That doesn't mean, obviously, that the glory of the covenant home excludes the female. that daughters are not part of the glory of the covenant home, or the wife or the grandmother is not part of the glory of the covenant home. Of course not. You cannot have children and children's children without the woman or the female. that is being ignored in our day to the great peril even of nations and peoples. Because marriage, we need to be reminded of, is a creation ordinance of God, which is exactly why it is being changed, it is being turned into something that God did not make it. But the idea is that this is especially the responsibility and the work and the labor and the understanding that belongs to the men as the head of the covenant home, even as Christ the head takes full responsibility and has the full responsibility to carry out God's covenant faithfulness and love in the environs of the church with God's Bride. So also the Father and the Sons are responsible for the well-being and the care of the covenant home. There are exceptions, of course, to what the text is teaching here about the glory of the covenant home. There are, of course, even as in the days of Solomon, members of the covenant whom God denies the great gift of marriage. There may be a spouse who raises a family largely on her own, because the other spouse has died or has abandoned the covenant family. There are also marriages in which God doesn't give children or children's children. Nevertheless, the covenant home that the text speaks of is glorious. About the covenant family, the text says they are both a crown and a glory. Those are not really two different things, but being put in the Hebrew poetry in parallel, the idea is that they are one and the same. The idea is that the covenant home is a glorious crown. or a crown that is glorious. So that means to understand this blessing, we need to look at the biblical picture of a crown. In Scripture, the crown is an outstanding picture of God's gracious, beautiful, and plentiful blessings in the covenant. That's what the crown is, a picture of God's wonderful, gracious, beautiful, and bountiful blessing upon the people of His covenant. And if you look at that picture in Scripture, you will see that it's always given in two different senses. They are related. But together they provide a complete picture of the idea of the crown of glory, which is the covenant home. In the first place, the crown is that which God placed upon the head, especially of the office bearer known as the king. The king represents, or the crown represents, therefore, in office. The crown in Scripture represents the great glory and the beauty as well as the power that belongs to an individual that God makes king. It represents his calling, therefore, in that office. When the king wore the crown, it not only represented that God had appointed him, and God had given him power and authority to rule, and that the power and authority of his rule was the very authority and power of God's own sovereignty, that when he spoke, God spoke, but that crown also was a reminder to that king, every time he put it on, that as a representative now of Jesus Christ, he has a calling. And that calling is to love the people over which He rules. It was to rule with right judgment and good judgment, which is why in this very chapter that we read, there were numerous references to just judgment. is the symbol of a crown in the first place. It is God teaching and saying that one thing, one important thing that makes the covenant home a glorious place is that kings and queens of Jesus Christ are found there. There are in the covenant home those whom God has anointed with His Spirit And by that anointing of His Spirit, they are prophets, priests, and kings. And as kings especially of Jesus Christ, they are given power and authority to rule over sin. It is the part of the baptism form that is being spoken of when it talks about manfully fighting against sin, having dominion over sin, and living unto God. That is in the first place the symbol of the crown. But in Scripture the crown is also a reference to a likewise glorious object a precious object that is placed on the head of one who wins a race or a contest, who completes a task, who completes a calling, who in a marathon has endured the hardships and the troubles, and at the end of their hardships and their troubles are crowned with glory and honor. The crown, therefore, is especially a symbol of God's grace. It is a symbol of God's grace in as much as it is an ornament of beauty. It is not an essential article of clothing, like pants or a dress, but it is adornment. It adds to the beauty and the grace of the wearer Also, a crown is always given by another. There are no, or should be no, self-appointed kings. The king was always someone that God anointed. And the runner, at the end of the race, never placed the crown on their own head. It is, therefore, a symbol that the wearer of that crown is the object of special favor. The special favor of the one who gave it. That's why even in this very book, wisdom is called a crown. The New Testament repeats that in the book of James, chapter 1. It's why we read, when the chief shepherd shall appear, we shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. It is the outstanding picture of the beauty and the loveliness and the glory of God's grace. When we look further at the glory of the covenant home, and the crown and the glory, we discover in the light of Scripture that that crown actually is God Himself. That's the real glory. That's the crown that one finds in the covenant home. God Himself. When we read, every man strives for the mastery to obtain a crown. And we read, there is laid up a crown of righteousness that the Lord our God shall give in that day. It's referring to the very same crown that, for example, Psalm 62, verse 7 says, is God. God is my salvation and my glory. Joseph testified, by the God thy father and almighty who shall bless thee with the blessings of the breasts and the womb, they shall be as the crown upon thy head. Speaking there about God and his precepts. But amazingly, strikingly, that is not what the text says. The text says, grandchildren, and fathers are glorious. The question, of course, is why and how can the text say that? The answer, of course, is because God is in them and God is with them. They cannot possibly be glorious in and of themselves. Godly covenant parents are what they are, and govenorly covenant children is what they are. and godly covenant parents and godly covenant children know one thing about themselves, that they are of themselves rather the exact opposite. Ugly. Not beautiful, but ugly. Not glorious, but lowly. Ugly and lowly with sin and death that carries one down into the depths of hell. Glory and ugly and dark vanity with selfishness, with pride, and with sin. It's exactly, therefore, because of that that we need to be reminded that in spite of that, the covenant home is glorious. We need to be reminded of the gracious blessing of God. in covenant children and grandchildren and upon fathers and grandfathers in the covenant home. Not only do we face the reality of our own sin and iniquity, which is otherwise inglorious, vain, empty, and worthless. But we live in a society and we live among people that mock the institution of marriage, that mock the calling of mothers and grandmothers, that mock the biblical teaching of children and grandchildren, and tear down the home, that find it likewise inglorious, opposed to the ambitions and self-glorification of man. And the fact is, it is a gift of God It is the gift of God that glorifies His own name, the gift of God that God uses to establish His own covenant, to establish His very promise to believers and their seed and to children's children. We need to be reminded. that God accomplishes that through the glory of marriage, and the glory of faithful parents, and through the glory of children and grandchildren. It's exactly because of sin that we need to be reminded that this also is God's gracious blessing. The covenant home, even marriage itself, apart from the covenant, is not of your making. That's the great sin of man. That's his rebellion. Marriage is God's institution. The joining of husband and wife in the bond of love, the procreation, the conception, and the birth of children, that's not of your doing, it's God's doing. Then there is the whole other matter of them taking children, sinful children, rebellious children, and sinful, rebellious parents, and making them now God's children. God does that, and we need to be reminded of the glory of that work of God in the covenant home. We look next at the manner or how does God do this. And we understand this and we come to an understanding of this when we take note that this doesn't just happen. And I want to emphasize that. The great sin of mankind is that he imagines that even with regard to the physical, it just happens. That marriage is simply that which just results from, just happens, because I happen to leave my father and mother, and I happen to find a woman who pleases me, and we happen to join And we happen to live in such a way that children are conceived, and they're born, and they're cared for, and all of it just happens. And the Bible, we even recognize, points out the utter wickedness of that. That is the great wickedness of the human race. And even furthermore, wicked because God or man knows better than that. And man shows he knows otherwise when he deliberately tries to destroy the institution of marriage, redefining it, destroy families and homes, and even his own children in abortion or abandonment, and does so knowing it's rebellion against God. That's why it's going on. But we can make the same mistake. We can make the same mistake and simply look at the covenant home and think this just happens. It just happens. This just happens to be the way it is. Well, it doesn't. And the text isn't teaching, it does. That becomes clear when you recognize that the text is not giving a universal truth here. The text is not saying all children's children, the children's children of all people and all grandchildren are the crown of old men, and all old men, all grandparents. And it's not teaching the glory of children. All children are the glory. The glory of them are their fathers, all fathers. That's not true. It's not true that all children and grandchildren are the crown to parents and grandparents, even those baptized in the church. That's not true. Simply read the passage again. The proverb is found in a chapter that speaks of wicked doers and fools who are liars, verse 4, who mock the poor, verse 5, who gossip about the sins of others, verse 9, who seek rebellion, verse 11, who reward good with evil, verse 13, who are contentious, verse 14, who justify the wicked and condemn the righteous, verse 15, those who love strife and are proud, verse 19, who have a perverse tongue, verse 20. He speaks of a father that begets him who is only sorrow and no joy, verse 21, and who are grief to their father and bitterness to their mother, verse 25. Such individuals, whether they be children and grandchildren, or whether they be fathers and grandfathers, are not a crown of glory, are not being referred to in this text. There's many examples of that from Scripture itself. Think of Rehoboam, the son of the very man who wrote these words. He was not a glory to his father, but a shame. There was Hophni and Phinehas, the son of Eli, and Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebekah. It's not true that all parents and grandparents also are a crown of glory to their children. and grandchildren, even parents who present their children for baptism. Even as there's foolish children who grow up in homes, there's foolish and wicked parents who do not consider Their children, to be the glory of God, are embarrassed, embarrassed even by godly children, if God is pleased to give them. There's many examples of that, too. Read the Scriptures. There was Saul. What an embarrassment he was to that godly man, his son, Jonathan. Nor is it true. that children are just naturally a crown of glory to their parents and grandparents, and fathers are just naturally a crown of glory to their children. This crown of glory has nothing to do with natural abilities, has nothing to do with the natural accomplishments of children, has nothing to do with the fact that children have a great intellect and achieve great things in the schools of this world, become a doctor, or become a great athlete. It's not referring to that kind of glory at all. It's not referring to children who can look up to their parents and say they're a crown of glory because the great men of renown and earn lots of money. The understanding of the text is that this is true of only godly children. and godly parents. Now that should be obvious to us. It should make sense also. If the glory of the covenant home is God Himself, then how will that glory be visible? How will you see it? How will you identify it? How will you be able to look at that covenant home, those covenant children, and that covenant parents, and say, there's a crowd of glory? And the answer is, in their godliness. How does God become manifest? The glory of God and the grace of God manifest, visible? And the answer is, in the godliness of that covenant home. It's only godly parents and grandparents who are a glory of their children and grandchildren. It's only godly parents that is to put some meat on the bones, those who have faith in their God as the God of the covenant, as the God who has established that covenant with them and their children. who have faith in God as this great God of glory, who sovereignly accomplishes his own purposes in the world. The man who understands by faith it is the grace of God that makes him glorious and wonderful, who believes in that God who knows him, trusts in him, seeks him for forgiveness, seeks him for the grace to live a new and holy life. and lives that way. The man or the woman that says they believe in God, that they have God as their God but does not live godly, is lying. There is no faith in God. There is no believing in God without godliness. Otherwise, the God you believe in is simply an idol, a mirage, another one of those gods who does nothing and says nothing, who doesn't actually save his hearers and his followers and his worshipers. We reject that. The God whom we serve and worship is the God of order and of life, of love. When God lives in a home, when God lives with covenant parents, fathers and mothers, and then in turn children, it will always be manifest as godliness. How God manifests His glory how God shows the glory of the covenant home, where you see this crowd, is where a parent, father, and a grandfather, in the words of the text, order their homes then by the word of God. The father who patterns his marriage, to be more specific, patterns his love for his wife after the love of Jesus Christ for his church. and says, that is the way I must live. It is the father who orders his life toward his children as God deals with his own children. It is the mother, therefore, also, not to use the words of the text, but obviously implied, who raises her children, who deals with her husband even as the church serves Jesus Christ. It is only godly children and grandchildren who are the glory of their parents and grandparents. It is, of course, a crown of glory that God is pleased to work through parents. God is pleased by his covered grace to impart his spirit and work the work of the Holy Spirit through the very rearing and education and labor of his own godly parents in that home. But is this not the word of God that we read, and is this not your own experience as parents? I ask you that question. what is the one thing. And by one thing I mean that if your children would lack everything else, that if your children only lived for a few years, or if your children never, never achieved any earthly success, The job was simply a servile job with no earthly glory to it, never held office, never had good health. What is the one thing that you would desire and pray to God, of course, and be most thankful to God for with regard to your children? If you're godly parents who are a crown of glory to your children, you're going to give the same answer, which is godly children. Because if I have godly children, I know they have faith. And if they have faith, they have Jesus Christ. If they have Jesus Christ, they have everything they need. It doesn't matter. Nothing else matters. It's not simply that we want children, and it's not simply that we want children who are doctors and lawyers and such, is it? All that stuff means nothing. The glory of parents is godly children. There's a reason why the Bible speaks of that. Why, for example, you have even the Apostle John say that about his own spiritual children. I have no greater desire, no greater glory, no greater thing that I think about than that my children walk in the truth. Not simply know the truth, but walk in the truth. What a crown of glory this is in the church. What a tarnishing. What darkness and blackness. What a shame, what a disgrace when the church is filled with ungodly parents and ungodly rebellious children. A shame not only to the godly parents and children, but to the glory of God's name. You see, the glory of God is His righteousness, and His holiness, and His goodness, and His love, and His grace. And that's the way it is also then in His children, in His children and grandchildren, in His fathers and mothers, and in the covenant homes that he is pleased to have as a symbol of his great covenant. I trust that you see the calling then. I trust that you see how the calling follows right from this. It's an incentive too, but look at the calling when God places a crown upon you. when God gives to that little child in your arms a crown and says, this is a king. This is a prince in the making. And you are to treat that child as a prince. That's the calling, you see? Raise that child not as your own child. Raise that child not like the world raises its children. No, raise that child with your own pride and vanity. Raise that child as my child. as a king and a prince in my kingdom. You can see the calling, can you not? God coming to the parent, to the mother, says, you're kings and queens. Oh, not of this earth. They won't recognize any crown of glory in you. They'll mock you and ridicule you, say you're wasting your time. What good is it to be a mother? What good is it to be a godly child in this world? But don't you listen? You say, I believe God has made me a king through faith in Jesus Christ, the King. And therefore, I see I have a calling. And my calling is to represent Him. My calling is to be a king, to fight against sin. And it hosts all the days of my life. There's a king then, too, who can humble himself when he fails and falls short, who quickly falls on his knees in prayer and goes to God for grace, when despite the efforts and work and labor in teaching children the fear of God's name, there's only blank stares and rebellion and unbelief. You see the calling, do you not? And it's a hard calling, a difficult one. There's a reason why this comes up again and again in the baptism form, why it speaks of this. It's difficult. It's hard. There's no earthly glory in it whatsoever. And so God again comes to remind us of the glory of it. reminds us that a crown is also given as a gracious reward of God in perseverance, in patience, continuance, as the Bible puts it. And that, too, is glorious. It shows forth again the power and the beauty and the loveliness of God's own grace. in God's own presence in a covenant home. And in this way too, this is how we glorify God. Do you see how it all fits? The godly life is glorifying to God because it's His life, it's His power, it's His grace. Let that glory shine forth in your home, in you as parents and grandparents, and in you as children and grandchildren. Amen. O Lord, our God and Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the covenant home. Whether we ourselves belong to one or not, we are nevertheless members of Thy covenant. and we glory in the covenant home because this is the means that thou art pleased to establish thy covenant to believers and their seed and children's children. because thy covenant is an everlasting covenant. We thank thee, O Lord, that in thy covenant thou hast made thy home with us, so thy presence is known, it is seen, it is visible, and that we by faith can see it, see the glory of it, and marvel in the beauty of thy grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.