Well, good morning. My apologies for being a minute or two behind here. Every now and then I miscalculate the traffic patterns. If anyone lives up Reed School Road, every now and then that It hasn't happened this for years, but every now and then on a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning, it just backs up like it never used to before. I mean, I don't know how many curves, but they're building so much where I live, and more and more that's backing up, so I got a little couple minutes stuck in line there. I'm here. Let's pray together. Lord our God, we thank You for a new day which You have made. We praise and bless Your holy name. You are God, our God, triune and glorious. You're a God who's given us a new day. And as we wake on a new day, we are more conscious of the succession of the moments of time that bring us closer to that great reckoning, that great movement. That translation from this present world to heavenly glory. Lord, that reality was appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. And the moment when faith will become sight. When your word tells us that for those who love you to die is gain. And as we think of these things, we also think of the passing of the generations and the great duty that we have, that as those moments pass, to entrust the deposit of the faith to a rising generation, that there might be a worshipping people on the earth and that you might be glorified, even in our children and children's children. We long for this, we pray for this, we ask for this, and we lift up to you our cries, seeking your face for your divine help. We pray now that as we study your word concerning your dealings in covenant with your people, that we would be edified, reminded, and built up in the faith, and better equipped for that great work of transmitting this truth from generation to generation. And we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So, this class before us, I'm looking around and we have some parents, some grandparents, some of you married and unmarried, some of you with children, and some of you Perhaps have never had children or not yet. And so we have a little bit of everything here this morning. But that's okay because the class is for all of you. Maybe it's been called in past weeks in passing a parenting class. But I want to begin by setting forth what I hope to do in this class. And that is on your handout, I believe, on that top little paragraph. And it's more than just parenting, but I want to give you an outline before we get into today's lesson. The purpose of the class is to set forth a theology, a body of biblical truth concerning the most basic unit of human society, the household. and to understand how God deals with households, plural, in the covenant of grace. And then finally, to learn to take up our several places and roles in a Christian household under the rule of Jesus Christ. So again, three things. set forth a theology concerning the most basic unit of human society, the household. Second, to understand again how God deals with households in the covenant of grace. And third, to take up our several places and roles in a Christian household under the rule of Jesus Christ. This class here will be foundational, broad brush on this question. And then I'll tell you what I hope to do I hope to. Well, the plan for the structure of the class is to move through the stages of a Christian family with a particular view towards transmitting the truth of God's word to the next generation and the practical ways in which we do that. And that will begin with marriage. And then we'll talk a little bit about being fruitful and multiplying and the considerations that go into the biblical commands related to childbearing, which will include some discussion of the ethics, the medical ethics of childbearing, including things like birth control, for example, what God says about family planning in his word, a high view of the sanctity of life. What is life in the womb? We'll talk about childrearing from the very beginning, life in the womb. And we'll talk about the business of rearing children, And we'll do that in two categories, instructing and then disciplining. And we will look at the same time different categories of children, how we do that with very young children. and maybe how we do that with teenagers. And then we're gonna talk about what it means to be a faithful grandparent. The Bible actually says a good bit about grandparenting, actually. It talks about beginning this reality of family piety with a view towards your children's children. Peace be upon Israel from Psalm 128. So looking beyond the present generation to the next generation. And that'll be the general outline of the class. This will hopefully give you opportunities also to ask a lot of questions. Any questions you might have along the way about anything. Some of the classes will be more practical than others. This one again will be really the first purpose of the class we hope to cover. even the first two purposes of the class we hope to cover in this session, and then to learn to take up our several places and roles will be in the next sessions. So we will have a good bit. Again, I forgot to say this, I want to talk about things like teaching and training young children, teenagers, children getting married, all the way to grandchildren. So the whole run, for example, dating. How do we prepare our children for that? How do we prepare our children for vocation? A theology and a structure of the entire project from the time a household is formed until you, the Lord takes you home. So that's hopefully, it's a very big project. Hopefully, at least we'll trace some of that in the coming weeks. I'd also say that you can ask questions in class, you can ask me questions offline. I would also welcome questions. I should have put my email address on here to remind you. I'd welcome questions along the way that you have that are specific. Send them to peter at covenanttaylors.org. And maybe there's a question you have in a future class that you already know you would like answered. And you can give that to me early and that would be helpful. I think you might get a sense of the scope of this class and the project that we are about to undertake. I believe, finally, that the last class will be June 16th. I think that's a Sunday, am I right? Yeah, June 16th. And just a heads up on May 26th, I will be away. So on that week, you'll have someone else. Mr. Mooney and I have a rare week where we've scheduled vacation at the same time. So we're going to have... Lord willing, Jeffrey Thomas preaching in the morning, a well-known Welsh Reformed Baptist pastor, and then Ryan McGraw in the evening. But pray about that. So Jeff Thomas and Ryan McGraw in a few weeks. Mr. Van Voorhis might know Jeff Thomas. Yes, very well. The Lord willing, he will be here. Okay, let's get into the basic first section here, Christian theology of the household. And the reason why I'm going to use the word household, because I think it is the best biblical term to describe something that the Bible talks about again and again and again. What would you call a household? It's kind of an interesting concept. I'm using the word household, not just family, but you'll see something in the scriptures called a household. What do you think a household is in the scriptures? Give maybe your Best, give me your best stab at, if you have any idea of this big principle, at a definition of a household in the scripture. Oh, I have it on the handout, don't guess, there we go. A gathering of individuals under the master of a house. So you don't even have to guess, you could have just read it to me, there we go. There is this unit of human society, which we could call a family or a household. You'll see in a moment why I call it a household. You could also call it a family. And it is all through the scriptures. There is something that God has designed to be under its own limited government, which God is pleased to work in, and often savingly for the glory of his kingdom, the good of his kingdom, and the good of general society. And there's examples all through the scriptures. The most basic one was the original creation pattern. Adam and Eve were brought together in marriage, and it's interesting in Genesis 2 and verse 28, Moses gives an editorial comment on marriage, which we have to know is for future generations because Adam and Eve obviously did not, sorry, Genesis 2.24, because there isn't a verse 28. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Well, obviously Adam and Eve didn't leave their father and their mother. But what scriptures teach us and what Moses does by this inspired editorial comment is to teach us something about the nature of marriage and that marriage has in it, in principle, not just a companionship between a man and a woman, but it is a signal that there has been the formation of what we would call a new household. And a man shall leave his father and his mother, cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And there's something distinct that is being formed here that's different than the father and mother household. It's a new household. And central to this, we learn that when Eve was brought to Adam, Adam was not good that he would be alone. God himself officiated at that first wedding in the garden. And when God gave Adam and Eve the command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, that we have the formation of the first household. This fruitful and multiply, It multiplies a strong term, which means that they were commanded to have. Now, in the providence of God, sometimes there's barrenness. Sometimes the Lord gives one child. But there is something here that there was supposed to be a fruitfulness that flowed from this household. A welcoming of multiple children. And this most basic natural category that we find in the scriptures in the first household is this, that there was a marriage. and there was multiplication of children, and that gives us perhaps the most basic definition of a household, but it's not the only definition. Because if we keep reading the scriptures, well, let's jump ahead to Noah. Noah had a household, and the Bible actually uses this term to describe the arrangement of Noah and his wife, his sons and his sons' wives, in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews 11. Noah prepared an ark, for the saving of his, what? Household. And there are two things come together in the scriptures, very plainly, where there is not only the household principle where you have a man and his sons and his sons' wives, so you're almost here at the second generation. You also have the idea of salvation in the flood. Salvation and household going together. That God has not only made this husband-wife multiplied with children pattern, but that he is pleased to work savingly in that pattern in some way. We'll see in more detail what that is. But we're gonna move ahead quickly then to a third person, and you won't be surprised at the third person that we're gonna move to in biblical history. And here we're gonna have maybe a more developed picture of the idea of a household because it'll be evident, and this will run all the way through the New Testament, that it's actually bigger in principle than even just husband and wife and natural children. His husband, wife, and natural children, and all that fall legally under their care and sphere. This is very interesting. Particularly developed theology of household in Abraham. The first thing we'll notice is that in Genesis 12 and verse 1, that we have a little bit of an echo of what we read in Genesis 2 and verse 24, in a sense. where we have a husband and a wife to form their own household. And this is very distinct here. Now, the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house. And here's a very strong distinction being made generationally between the formation of a new household in a similar way to Genesis 2 and verse 24. In chapter 12 and verse 15, well, we know that Abram already in his first pilgrim wanderings in the first chapter that we read about him, he came to Egypt, saw Egyptians, saw his wife, Sarah, that she was very beautiful. Princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. A woman was taken to Pharaoh's house, Pharaoh's household. And then when Sarah had been taken by Pharaoh, what happened to Pharaoh? What happened to Pharaoh, anyone know? Story of Abram and Pharaoh. What happens? He takes Sarah. And the Lord does what? He sends to Pharaoh's house plagues. It's interesting. The reason why I bring this up is because Abram was supposed to have a distinct household. He's failing here to keep and protect his wife and trust God that God would be with him. And in fear, he said, Sarah was his sister. And so he almost loses his wife. And interestingly, we already see that God's intending to deal savingly with Abram's house. And he deals in discipline with Pharaoh's, what? House in plagues. And now we see, we're gonna start, we're trying to build a picture. How does God view humanity? There are covenantal and generational principles here at work, where he is savingly interested in Abraham's house here. And he is also dealing with Pharaoh's house. And the reason I bring this up is because the Bible writers, we're going to see, can't help but think in terms of households, because the Lord deals with households. He does it with Abram and he does it with Pharaoh. The Lord thinks in households. Secondly, what did his household consist of? Abram's household is an interesting case study. What did it consist of? Anybody know? Yeah, blood family and servants or slaves. Those who were his natural descendants and those who were legally belonging to him. It's very interesting. Natural descendants and those who were legally under his protection and care. How many people do you think he was or under his protection and care? How big of a household do you think Abraham had? I always like bringing this up. How many people do you think this might have been? How big could a household be? Pretty well, he probably had a number of Anyone want to give me a number of guess? Little over 300. Genesis 14 and verse 14. And when Abram heard that his brother Lot was taken captive, he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house and who went in pursuit as far as Dan. And the way the Lord looks at Abram is to include a very large household. Matter of fact, when the Lord goes to deal covenantally with Abram, little aside here, how many of these 318 men were Gentiles? Trick question. All of them. This is one of my favorite discussions I have with my Baptist brothers and sisters. They say, Abram's household was this believing line. I'm like, 319? If we add Ishmael to the story, 320, how many of the 320 were of the believing line, the line of promise? One. One. It's very interesting that the way God looks at this house is he looks at the house legally. And when he makes his covenant, Genesis 17, When he says, the covenant of circumcision, my covenant was with you and you should be a father of many nations. Verse seven, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God to you and your descendants after you. There's a strong theme of a natural lineage attached to this covenant. And again, that's what some people only see, but in Genesis 17, verses 12 and 13, he who is eight days among you shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generations, Every male child in your generations who is born in your house or, listen to this phrase, bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. Interesting. This is why, for example, in our congregation, we baptize, for example, an adopted child. He's legally part of a household. God's covenant dealings extend beyond natural descendants here to all those who are under the care of the house. And he was born with your house and he was bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. God thinks in households. These two are in, listen to this language, the everlasting covenant. God's having saving dealings with the household. It's quite remarkable. Only later yet would Isaac be born in a physical seed. But to sum these things up under Abraham, Abraham's Sarah, marriage, then servants next, legally part of the house, under God's economy, and also physical descendants, a divinely ordained and recognized social unit under a single master, Abraham, a single lord. So profound was this principle among the ancients that before Isaac was born, what was Eliezer, I already just gave it away, what was Abraham going to do with that household? He was going to bequeath it to, he was going to give it to Eliezer of Damascus. One of those servants in his house would be the heir of his household. That's what he thought would be the solution to the covenant problem. He didn't have a son. The thing the entity called his house, Abraham understood to be a thing God had ordained and he was to maintain, keep and hand down to another generation. And this idea of the household runs all through the old covenant. Let me give you some examples in the law. When God gives his commandments, he's thinking about households and Covenant principles that run generationally, for example, already in the second commandment. If someone breaks the second commandment, for I the Lord your God, I'm a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Embedded in God's dealings in covenant with Israel is a household and generational principle. How about this one? Remember the Sabbath day? to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God." Who is God talking to there? Who's the recipient of the speech? Well, if you look at the internal logic of this command, if you keep reading, in it you should do no manner of work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, the stranger within your gate. How is God thinking about Israel? Households, same principle. When he gives the law, he's looking at a family unit, and he's actually addressing the duty to the heads of households, which is what our larger catechism picks up. Why is this command given to heads of households? It's the way even the law comes. How about this one? You shall not covet your neighbors, House. You think that just meant his well-crafted paneled cedar house like Haggai was worried about? No, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. You should not covet your neighbor's house. Matter of fact, the Lord can't but think and deal with these people with this principle in mind. Again, the fourth commandment. The fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother. There the Lord is speaking to children in a house. They're all filled with the language of the household. The law was given to believing households amongst the children of Israel. There's another intimation. David, God promises to make him a house. It's a little bit different, but there's a principle here in mind. What was that house? It wasn't a physical house. It was a royal dynasty, a generational reality. Something here in God's saving purposes in the Davidic covenant again, which is linked to this. You get a husband and a wife, and you have children, and then those who gather under the protection of that roof. that God is pleased in his mercy to have dealings with that household. It was something in God's saving purposes that would affect David, his children, and grandchildren. The Bible recognizes this fundamental building block of human society as a creation ordinance but also as something in and through which God is pleased to dispense saving mercies. We'll see more about that later. Okay, let's talk about the New Testament because some of you might realize that I have only been in the shadow lands of the Old Covenant. So let's think about how our Savior thinks about salvation. Luke, Gospel of Luke chapter 19. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich. You remember he sought to see Jesus and he couldn't because he was kind of short. And so he found, you know, the children's song, the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. So he climbs that tree, and the Lord finds him, and he came to the place, he looks up into the tree, and what does he say? What does he say? Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house. And you might think, oh, he's just going to Zacchaeus. Bricks and mortar, a boat. So he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. People complained, he's gonna be a guest with a sinner. Later Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house. Why? Because he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost. What was lost? What is the grammatical object? What is the referent to lostness here? His soul, but also his house. The Lord has come to this house. And the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. The Lord thinks of lostness also not only in categories of individuals, ultimately that's the important category, but he also thinks of lostness in terms of houses, a lost family. Christ thinks like this, Paul thinks like this, and we're gonna go to Acts chapter 16, no surprise perhaps to you. When Lydia came to Christ in Acts chapter 14, 16 rather, verses 14 and 15, a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul, and when she, and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. And you would find, the important thing about this text is, some people say, Peter, is this a proof for infant baptism? No, it's not. We don't know if she had small children. But, The question you need to ask yourself is, does it cohere with everything you've just heard in the scriptures about how God deals with households? And the answer ought to be yes. How about the Philippian jailer? I know a lot of people quote verse 31. Well, verse 30, when he brought him out of the jail and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Here's a very interesting principle in this text. What must I do to be saved? And there's a lot of people that would write this on a text to put on their refrigerator or something. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. My old business card, which I don't print anymore because no one uses business cards. Everyone just uses phones. I had the whole thing on there, which is, what's the rest of that verse? You and your household. Wow, there's, it's like Philippian Jailer, if you come to Christ, you believe there will be blessings beyond only you believing. And who is baptized? And when he brought them into his house and set food before them, he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. My Baptist friends would say, see, they all believe that's why they were baptized. They may have all been adults and believed that that's why they were baptized. However, what I want to ask you the question is the following. Does this cohere with the principle that we've seen in the Old Testament? Now let's go ahead a little bit more. And some of these are going to be familiar to you, but we are laying a theological foundation of how the Bible deals with households, Ephesians chapter five. And here we have everything come together in one. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, Ephesians 5, 22. The husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church. Verse 31, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ and the church. And then what's in chapter six in verse one? Children. Oh, we have exact echo of Genesis two and Noah and his family. And I want you to understand the heading of this book is to the saints who are at Ephesus. And Paul, this is a letter for the church, and he's preaching to the children under the heading of saints. There's something here about God's saving dealings that are bigger than just the individual. It's for the house. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. And then fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admission of the Lord. And then what's the third category in Ephesians 6? Anyone remember? What comes next? Bondservants. I will be a God to you, Abraham, you and your children after you. He who is born in your house or bought with your money from a foreign land. This is the identical pattern of God's old covenant dealings with the household. And it is repeated in Colossians chapter 3 by the Apostle Paul. And in case you're looking for more evidence, it's repeated by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2, 18 to 3, 7. Where Paul says, servants, if your masters are harsh, still obey them because you're in Christ. And then he goes on to talk about, to wives and then to husbands. And you cannot, the apostles can't teach on this topic without thinking about this creation ordinance of the household. The question you need to ask yourself here is how does God think about humanity? What does the lens of scripture teach us about the way, about God's own viewpoint of the importance of the household, even when God deals with the individual, Abram's call, for example, it is never, ever, ever, ever, ever, without saving designs beyond the individual. God does not think this way. He thinks according to the creation ordinance, the pattern. What were Adam and Eve to do? What was the purpose of having children? Multiply and fill the earth with what? Those who created in the image of God would be worshipers to reflect His glory. And here we have two things we need to keep in mind, which is nature and grace. And grace and nature are not divorced from each other in God's economy. They are not divorced from each other. When God calls Abraham, it is with saving designs for Abraham himself that he might believe God, which was accounted to him for righteousness, personal saving faith in a coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, Genesis 15, 6. which is requisite for all those in every generation that they might be saved. There's nothing automatic or passive about the covenant of grace and salvation. However, God has a design for this pattern. Okay, what forms a particular household? Seems to be one of two things in the scriptures. Most fundamentally, a marriage forms a new household. We saw that in Genesis 2.28, in which the marriage covenant, which is a clearly distinct act of God, in which a divinely ordained and blessed marriage covenant creates a new and distinct family unit. And this is why marriage is so important to human thriving. It's also why when a marriage breaks down, the household fractures in ways that are unavoidable, even if that divorce is warranted under the scriptures. It's a breaking of a household and it has implications, painful ones, very sad ones often. This is actually also why, and I'll say something else, why divorce is different than even bereavement. It has far more painful after effects, not in terms of the sorrow of grief of loss, but because it represents a very different kind of breaking of a household. When there is a bereavement, the thing at the center was not ruptured by the sin of one or both parties, This highlights the importance of marriage and also a blessed and happy marriage. And I'm gonna talk about this in the next class, that the number one thing that parents can do for the next generation is husbands and wives can love one another. Even if you got a lot of downstream things wrong, Your children long for a home at the center of which is love and peace. They long for it. And it's probably the number one duty of Christian parents. Before instruction, we have to think careful, the word is always primary in Christian nurture. But there is something about the core or center of a Christian home, which is formed by a marriage, that the marriage is going to reflect gospel truth in a profound way. This is why one of the central relations we will study, not in detail, will be marriage. And some of you wanted a parenting class. Again, happiness and the stability of your marriage is the number one precondition to gospel parenting. Although marriage forms a new and distinct house, Genesis 2.24, the Bible also connects the believing generations that flow from that house. And here we're going to see that the Bible has designed savingly that are beyond even one generation. Even though there's a new household that's formed every generation, there's blessings that are designed to overflow multi-generationally. And we see that in Psalm 128 in verse six. Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. The trajectory of the household is that there would be more households that follow the pattern that this stamped pattern of God's saving mercies on one particular house would flow to the following generations. And this again was God's original design with Adam and Eve. And when Jacob blesses Joseph's sons, in Genesis 48, we read this principle. Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see in your face, but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring. So when Jacob and Joseph were reunited, Jacob takes a particular joy in seeing his children's children. We see the same thing. I said the Bible talks about grandparents. It talks about this in a number of places. The same is found in Job, Job 42, verse 16, when the Lord blesses Job again. Job lived after this 140 years, and he saw his children and grandchildren. This was a sign of God's blessing for four generations. He was seeing multi-generational household blessing. Psalm 103. has this idea of a line of blessing and mercy and salvation that runs generationally in Psalm 103. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting in His righteousness on those who fear Him. Sorry, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children's children. Again, I'm trying to form in your mind the way God looks at humanity. Proverbs 17 and verse six has the same principle, that there is this, blessing that runs through households. Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their father. It appears that I am, from this text as I was thinking about it this week, I'm about to become an old man. Already am, but I've got a little baby on the way, but Lord willing next week I must do. It makes me think a lot more about this. I think I was talking to Jim a few weeks ago, we were talking about first grandchild, and what did you say about the sensation of seeing a first grandchild? Like when I went to the Grand Canyon. Yeah. Grand Canyon experience. Grand Canyon experience. Something about this passing on to another generation and all the prayers that are there for God to show mercy. According to his, to nature and the promises of his grace and the covenant of grace. It's profound. And grandparenting is deeply linked to this idea. And we can already see here that one household is the conduit of blessing to many more. And this is at the heart of the Abrahamic covenant. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed. That families bless success of families. There's a second thing alternately in the scriptures. We do see that there is a principle that there can be Christian households with only single believers. And I'll give you some examples of that. Acts chapter 6, we have the widow households. 1 Timothy 6, we have the idea of a widow being a Christian household. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says you could have one believing parent and an unbelieving parent, and there would still be God's mercy on that house. As a matter of fact, Paul says, even with one believing parent, here's a powerful statement, your children are still holy. What does that mean? Any ideas? Set apart. It's powerful language. There's something here in the language of the covenant of grace. No other way to interpret it. What does it mean? You're a believer so your children are holy. It means they're set apart by God. His special mercies under the dispensation of the covenant of grace. Again, we'll get into that, what that means in the next week. You could have a Christian household even where one spouse has deserted the marriage and left the marriage, there would still be a Christian household, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7. Lydia, the seller of purple, go back to her. We don't have any indication from the text at least that she was married or her husband was a believer, but she has a household and there's blessings on her household. This principle is, that she was apparently the householder. She's the one who invited Paul and his companions to stay. Maybe she was single, it's hard to know, but clearly she was the householder, and all under her care were blessed of God. This helps us think about human life and society. What is happening in our culture right now is that the basic categories of nature are being undermined. And these basic ideas of how God works in history for blessing humanity are being undermined. And we should be encouraging our children, for example, to pray for and find godly spouses. Anyone who tells you that marriage and children are not the good gifts of God are living in dangerous unbelief. And we live this not by experience, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, including the reality of broken families. God knows about this. He promises special mercies to those who fear him. But it doesn't mean that the thing itself is bad. God's word says it's good. And no nation, culture, or church can survive without the strength of this basic institution. There's no future. Okay, second part, God's dealings with the household, saving dealings. We're not doing so well, are we? Central study is that of Abraham. He's going to leave his father's house, he's going to form his own house, and God's going to give blessing to his household. A promised seed, Isaac, special promise, but there's also a general promise, Genesis 17, 7, for his whole house, everyone under his care. That God has them all in mind when God comes to Abram. There's so many other Old Testament and New Testament texts where God blesses households. We saw one, Psalm 103. God's righteousness is to children's children. Let's look at Psalm 107 and verse 41. Yet he sets the poor on high and makes their families like a flock. He looks at their families and he sees little flocks of sheep under his care, his covenant care. Families are to worship the Lord together. Psalm 96 in verse seven, let all the families of the earth worship the Lord. Again, Psalm 96, seven, give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. And the word used there is the word for, it can be translated a subunit of a tribe. a small household. Let every household worship the Lord. The new covenant is not different. As a matter of fact, again, my Baptist friends, who I disagree with on this point, Here's something very interesting. They often go to the New Covenant passages in Jeremiah 31 and onwards. Even within this part of the New Covenant revelation of God, we have this. God says, at the same time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel. The New Covenant section opens with God saying, I'm gonna have saving dealings with families. And it's within that, chapter 32, 33, where we have the specific language of, I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts, I will be their people, their God, and they shall be my people. And there is a strong emphasis on individual confession, salvation, and forgiveness, but that's within the context of chapter 31 of families. Jeremiah sees family units as conduits of blessing. Psalm 22, the psalm of Christ's great suffering. Centrally there is the person and work of Jesus Christ. The fruit of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. is that all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nation shall worship before you. There's covenantal blessing that flows from the cross of Jesus Christ, Psalm 22. It's new covenant language. And again, I don't have time to get into this, but Cornelius' house, Lydia's house, the Philippian jailer's house, the houses of mentioned, Stephanus' house, and so many other houses mentioned in Romans and Corinthians. If you read, there's just house, house, house, house, house. Family after family after family. And Paul is thinking and praying and ministering to families all through his ministry all the way to the very end. His last letter, look what he says, the Lord grant mercy to the house of Anesiphorus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. What is he praying for? He's praying that the Lord would bless his house. Not just one person, his house. And Paul, throughout his ministry, Peter throughout his ministry, the whole book of Acts is household blessings. This fundamental unit of human society is the conduit of either blessing or curse to humanity. Genesis 12 and 17, we already looked at, or curses. Second Commandment, if you break it, there's curses on family lines. In Titus 1 and verse 11, we see that error can propagate through households as well as blessing. This is the great principle of old and new covenant without difference. The household is the fundamental human of human society, and it's the conduit of either blessing or curse on humanity. And this language is used through the New Testament. I'm on 2C. This language is used through the New Testament, a language of family. is used to describe ultimately a higher thing, which is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said that his brothers and sisters in the kingdom, father, mother, brothers and sisters, were those who did his, obeyed his word, did his will. Matthew 12, 50. Paul can call the church, listen to this, the household of faith. And so now what he's doing is he's using nature to describe what grace does to build the family of God. He talks about the whole family in heaven and earth that is named under Christ, Ephesians 3.15. We have the language of brother and sister in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ taken from the natural family. We have Jesus, who's not ashamed to call us brethren, taken from the natural family. We have marriage, which is a picture of Christ in the church, taken from the natural family. And so we see that's what's embedded into nature. is ultimately realized in grace in God's ultimate saving purposes in the family of God. But some people say that means, this is kind of, it's a very bad argument, but some people say, so that's the only thing that exists. But no, no, no, you don't destroy the one by the other. As a matter of fact, the idea that the church is the family of God should exalt the idea of our view of what the household should be, the Christian household. It should be a picture of the church. The lesser natural household, which is the conduit of covenant blessing throughout human history, is the precursor and picture of the greater. Some implications of this. And we'll go through this quickly. Family piety, number one. I want you to listen to this carefully. Nature has not been replaced by grace. Does that follow? It's not like In the new covenant, we leave nature behind and we only have grace, spiritual salvation. No, grace restores nature and God has always and will work through these natural connections. He doesn't work against nature. He works in his natural channels in the Christian household. Now, does that mean he doesn't work outside of them? Yes, he does. We'll get into that in a moment. And this is why, I'll give you three ways this affects, particularly what we do at this church, baptism. This is why we baptize babies. It's this principle, like Genesis 17. This is why we teach our children to be worshipers. That's why we bring them to church. They're to be taught to be worshipers. Part of faith in Jesus Christ is worshiping Jesus Christ, and we're teaching them to look to Him, and to give Him honor and glory and praise. It doesn't mean that they don't need to be converted. They need to be converted. You must be born again. But it does mean that there is an administration of the covenant of grace, and that grace and nature work together, and we believe that, and we trust God in that. There's something in nature that teaches about grace. We give food and clothing and shelter to our children. They shelter under us what we receive, we give to them, and that includes not only Miriam's Cheerios, half of which every morning are now on the floor, and the other half which she eats, but it also includes the fact that we're reading the Word with Miriam. Now, she doesn't understand it yet, but the point is everything that God has given us, Food for body and food for soul. We give to our children naturally. Praying that the Lord would bless it like we ask the Lord to bless their daily bread. This is why in Deuteronomy 6, Israel's duty was to teach their children the word. To learn, to digest, to pray over, consume the word, to teach it. Later classes we'll talk to how to, but principles today. This is why we bring our family to worship like in Nehemiah chapter 10 or Ephesians or Colossians. Family piety is rooted in the household principle. Number two, expect that Satan will always try to dismantle nature and grace. So if this is great household principle, what is Satan trying to do? He's trying to dismantle all of it. That's why he always seeks to deconstruct the household. in every generation, every place, which is at the end of the day, what's behind the whole upheaval in our nation right now about what marriage is and all of transgenderism and all of homosexuality and all of the culture of rampant and multiple divorce. All of this is because Satan is an enemy of nature and grace. He hates all of God's works and he will cut down the tree wherever he can. Which is why he's tempting young men to look at porn and young women. Why it's hard right now for a young man and young woman to get married and raise a family because he doesn't want you to be able to. It's why homosexuality and the aversion to having children in our culture is so great. It's why marriage is being delayed so long. It's why there's internal strife and conflict within homes and families because Satan is trying to blow the thing up. In every way he can. He hates nature. You need to understand this. He hates masculinity, femininity, marriage, children, and child rearing. He's a liar about it all. All day, every day, without ceasing, he's got a jackhammer to this fundamental unit through which God is pleased to work savingly. He's also undermining the distribution of grace. Correct. That's right. Huge consequences of our fault. Yes, to destroy the fabric of all that God made good. Satan, however, we have to understand in spiritual warfare is seeking to destroy everything that God has done and how he works, including the channels through which he ordinarily works. Where the rivers of grace were designed to flow, he wants to block the channels. This is why any family division, disquiet, or conflict is a spiritual emergency that requires spiritual emergency medicine. Again, our age is clear with this. Finally, our expectations for evangelism. Expect and pray that God will bring families to faith in Jesus Christ. This is the way in which the Christian church grows. There's individual conversions and sometimes, 1 Peter 3, a husband believes and a wife doesn't. A wife believes, a husband doesn't. But very often, Philippians 6, Acts 16, Philippian jailer, the whole house comes to Christ. And it's interesting in Titus 1, 5 to 9, when Paul says to Titus, appoint elders in every city. It's so amazing that Paul expects there to be spirit-empowered fruit on families very early in Christian experience. The mission has just come to Crete. And Paul says already, look for families where there are obedient children. It's quite remarkable. that we should have a bigger view of the gospel and its effect. It doesn't mean there won't be just individual conversions, but we should pray for more. Lord, bring whole households to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe through one first, maybe it's a child, maybe it's one parent. But Lord, we are praying that your grace would work according to the channels of nature that there might be an overflow, an abundance of saving mercy. This doesn't lessen our evangelism, it should increase it. G.K. Moole commenting on Colossians 3 says the Christian family is the masterpiece of the gospel. I would say the church is, but what he was saying was the apostles expected marriage, children, and servants by gospel preaching to come under the power and saving influence of Jesus Christ. And they couldn't help but see the mission of the church as being bigger than just a collection of individuals, but a collection of households under Christ. So we witness to individuals who have families. We pray we'll receive the word together that we might see something like Acts chapter 16 again. where Lydia in her household, the jailer in his household would come to Christ, be baptized, and the Lord would work with saving power according to the channels of nature in which he dispenses grace. I'll say one more thing about evangelism. Grace is primary. He doesn't need these natural channels to dispense His grace. According to election, where He wills, how He wills, whom He wills. But He also doesn't work against them or without them. Because the moment somebody comes to Christ, this overflow of divine goodness is designed to affect others, beginning at home. So pray for these things. Here are the fundamental principles, God's household dealings in the covenant of grace that affect our own families, the great warfare of the ages, and the mission of the church in every age. Questions? I know I've burned up all the time, but questions? Clay? That's a good question. And I'd be happy to, that'd be a great one to pick up on the grandparents section. question is related to that. The whole time here, I'm thinking about Jacob and his sons. And there's something we've lost, I think, in the nuclear family versus the biblical concept of household. And maybe you could present something about that ongoing relationship. Because they're grown men. And Jacob says, go to Egypt. And they go to Egypt to get food. They come back, and they're pleading with their father. There's still something happening. We've lost a lot about generational honor, a tremendous amount. Though we also have the age-old history of the overbearing parent who can burn up generational honor as fast as it should be given. It's a two-way street. If this works well multi-generationally, there should be great freedom, Genesis 2.24, we send, they leave. There should also be the Lord willing. a desire to come back or pick up the phone and say, Dad, what might you do in this hard situation? If it's working well, there should be a strong multigenerational tie. Yes, may you see your children's children, but not one of overbearing meddling, also not one of disrespect. Mr. Ellis. Did you have something, Mr. Ellis? Well, it seems to me that the scriptures teach, and I think you've been alluding to this, the whole unity of the human race. And we lost it in the fall. And we will regain it, I think, in heaven. Correct. Yeah. There's something of the whole race, every nation, every nation, tribe, and tongue. And that is captured in this principle, which is why we alluded to it in the household of faith. That's the end. Yeah. Yeah. Seems to me, I'm not sure. Perfect about that. Jeff, and then we'll have to pray. I hear the hordes of the next generation. We talked about Abraham's household and 300 some odd servants, right? If I'm not mistaken, that would have been his male servants. The women of that group were not counted nor the children, so it would have actually been a lot more than 300. Very big. I didn't mention Yeah, if they were really multiplying it could have been a lot bigger than that. Yeah, very quick. Genesis 18-19, I have chosen him in order that he might instruct his children and his household after him to keep covenant and righteousness. God actually chose him to teach the family. Very interesting. We'll get to that in the coming weeks. Okay, send in your questions, and Clay, if you can text me that one, or send it to me in an email, bring them, send them, I will collate them, and then we'll deal with them under later headings. Jim, same with yours, under that idea of generational connection. Let's see here. Jeremiah, would you be willing to close us in prayer for a moment? Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we are thankful to you for your dealings with us as households. Thank you for your covenant promises of grace and salvation to be God's blessing to our children and our household. We want to be asking you to bless the things that we've heard this day and that we've considered. We ask you to be advancing your kingdom in our families, for those of us who are parents, Grandparents, that we would pray as well for your honor, Lord, and give the many ways in which we have failed, and give us the grace of Christ. Bless the rising generation, that they would all, with one heart and soul and voice, profess your name, and follow you, Lord Jesus. And so we pray, your name. Amen.