Here the Apostle Paul says, and God through him speaking, Obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Let's pray together. Father, we come before you in the name of your son to ask for your help. to confess, Lord, that we can't do anything good in this world without you, and we can't, therefore, do any good preaching or listening or studying the Bible without you. So we pray for all the children, Lord, and for all the parents and grandparents and anyone involved in a child's life that we would be listening to the Bible this morning and be reflecting within our hearts with You, where only You see each one's heart and mind. We would be reflecting with You, Lord, on how we ought to relate to children. And as children, we'd be reflecting on how we ought to live in this world as a child. And we pray, Lord, for your help that you might use your word in a way that, though it may seem small here today, this is your word. And it never returns void. It sometimes does great things, even when it seems not to. Sometimes your kingdom grows like a little seed that looked like nothing and then it produces something great. And in another place, how the man who sowed the seed even does not know. So I pray that you would do far more abundantly through this, Lord, what I'm even able to think or see or know and impact some of the children or an adult or somebody through the truth that would really do something throughout the rest of human history and on into eternity, even. Whether some of us know it or not, You know, Lord, and You have ordained all things for Your purpose. And so we just trust You and leave the results to You, and pray that You help us to know You this morning in every way that You intended to reveal Yourself through this text. And we thank you for this moment. Lord, we don't take them for granted. We know that they're all gifts and that we only have a limited amount of them for manifold different reasons. So Lord, for this moment, pray you help us to shut everything else out and be thankful for this wonderful moment you've given us and gifted us with of preaching and studying your word. In Jesus' name, amen. The 1940s classic, Pinocchio, has what is the classic scenario between parents and children captured in the Y scene. where Pinocchio gets in the bed for the first time. And Geppetto is a parent for the first time, let's say. And he gets in there and he tells Pinocchio he needs to go to sleep. He asked him why. And then he gives some explanation. And he messes up by saying, and besides, you have to go to school tomorrow. And he asked why. And then he explains to learn things and to get smart. And he asks, why? And then eventually he just says, because, and falls asleep. And so children have an interrogative nature from birth. Even a little child in a crib is putting things in their mouth, trying to understand their environment, how the world works. They eventually realize there's such thing as gravity. If I drop my pacifier, it doesn't come back. If I drop my cup off the table, it spills and I no longer have my chocolate milk. And they're just moving around trying to inquisitively figure out the world. And even as they grow up in adolescence, they're still interrogative in nature, always wanting to know, why should I think this way? Or why should I do this? You know, to tell a child to do something is not sufficient. They want to know why they should do it. And I thought about that because as we return to part 2 on how children change the world through their obedience and pick it back up in the second half of verse 1, essentially, we only covered the first half of verse 1, stopping at the word Lord. And when we pick it back up, Paul begins with 4, and then he goes on to giving reasons So you could say if the first part of this little mini text for the children was on what they should do, then the second part is on why they should do it. The second remainder of this paragraph is just an explanation on why. So the Bible addresses children that way. It doesn't want you children to just do something just because you're told to do it. Even at the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve a reason for the obedience. And so the Bible addresses children as people. It's an amazing thing. There's a lot of dishonor and disrespect that goes on the other way in culture sometimes. Adults toward children, abusing them. and denying their humanity in the sense of thinking that they shouldn't have reasons for what they do is one of the ways. And so Paul gives the children three reasons here to carry out this world-changing obedience that he talked about last time. And I'll just give them to you at the beginning. Kids, they are number one, because it's right. Number two, because it's required. And then number three, because of its results. So let's look together at these children. Paul tells you to obey your parents in the Lord. First of all, he says, because it's right. Notice after explaining the command, how Paul moves right into explaining the motives with this word, for. So children, many times when you're reading your Bible and you come across the word for, F-O-R, it is giving you a reason for something. It means the same as the word because. So do this because. Or the paraphrase, and this is why. So you could say Paul is telling you here, obey your parents in the Lord, and this is why you should obey your parents in the Lord. He says, for this is right. Now, immediately, we have application right out the gate. Parents and children should take note, and that includes me, that Paul does not quote any case studies. Paul does not quote any psychologist or any psychological theories. or any methods that people use, but he simply quotes what is right. So one of the reasons And it is a sufficient enough reason on its own. Though he's going to give you three, each one of these is sufficient on its own to motivate the command. So one of the reasons, which is reason enough, is simply he assumes that you ought to do right things. So if you accept that, that you ought to do things that are right, all he needs to tell you is that this is right, and therefore you conclude this is something you ought to do. This word right, you can think of the English word right, like we get rectus or rectangle from it, so you have a 90 degree, you have a shape, things fit, things line up or they don't. You think of someone laying tile and we need the pieces, you know, to be rect, to be right. We need 90 degree angles and you bring in something that's off and it just throws disorder into the system. Or you think a puzzle piece and something doesn't fit, tiles or puzzles. The idea is what is fitting and what is proper in society and just in reality in general. There are things that fit and things that don't fit. There are virtues and vices. There are things that lead to harmony and peace, and there are things that lead to grief and evil. And you can think of a similar use of this word by Paul in Philippians 4a, where he tells the Philippians, whatever is beautiful, whatever is right, whatever is true, whatever is lovely. If there's anything worthy of praise, think on these things. That same word, right, is used there. There's a story in the Old Testament that I think perfectly illustrates this idea of what is right. Because some commentators say what this means, what is fitting and proper is you can paraphrase as what ought to be done. or things as they should be is an idea. And you have this in you, you have this, if you were to be walking in the Kroger and there an elderly woman is walking, is coming out with her groceries and you saw a couple young men just just shove her over on her way in, you would be outraged inside, ethically and morally, that something occurred that ought not to occur. And you would want to do something about it. You would want to rectify it. And so in Genesis 34, there is this story about Dinah, one of Jacob's daughters. She is abused by this man from Shechem. And her brothers come in from the field And they hear this report, and it says they are grieved and angry about what has happened. And the text says in Genesis 34, 7, because they did a disgraceful thing, Such a thing ought not to be done, it says. And you know, they, in injustice, overreacted and slain many of the men in the city with their anger. But at the end, when Jacob was getting on to them, You know, this is another problem of Jacob. Jacob didn't rectify it. And so it was left up to them to rectify it. And of course they did it wrong. But they responded by saying, shall he treat our sister as a harlot? There was just this outrage in them. So something ought not to be done. And what Paul is appealing to here, this is amazing to me, How much studies are quoted today, this and that psychologist is referred to, this and that method is referred to, and we see from this text how worldly our thinking has become in our day when it comes to children and parent relations. Because Paul doesn't quote any of that, he just starts by saying it is wrong. It is outrageous. It is dislocated. And something major is off on par with harlotry. It is something that ought not to be done when a child disobeys their parents. And so just because we live in a culture that is like the proverbial frog that has slowly cooked because the heat is turned up slow, We hardly ever think in 500-year increments of history. We tend to think of just our generation. But all generations have basically had this sense that it is proper and right for children to submit and obey their parents. Even G.A. Henty, in his book The Dragon and the Raven on the Anglo-Saxon War, Quotes a time where this kid, Edmund, was grieving because his father was going to send him away and his father was about to die in this battle. And the text says that he wanted to say something to his dad, but he knew it was not proper. Now, this kid is overwhelmed with grief that his father is about to die. And he didn't agree with the decision. But war is upon him, and his father told him, hey, go here, do this. It was one of those times where, and we've instituted this, I guess, in our family. We got it from someone, but it seemed like a good idea, that obey first, ask questions later. And you need to do that because there's moments where like the tree branches fall and move. Well, why should I move? Okay, you die that way. You know, there are times, move, why should I? And then you get run over by the car. So, there needs to be this basic sense that it is outrageous when your parent gives you a command to not immediately follow through with it. And parents should allow questions later if it's something like that. But Paul tells us in Romans 12, 2, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by their new and wrong minds. So the world may think that it's cute, that we're called to think God's thoughts after Him. And that kind of takes us to the second reason, the intolerableness of it, that view that we should have. But be sure before we go there that you download first just a recovery, let's say, of the sense of the scandal of it. It should be scandalous. We can add a study, put it this way, you can add a study on top of this if it squares with it. You can add a psychologist view on top of what Paul says if it squares with it. But no study or any psychologist or any amount of schooling or any degree or any train of PhDs can eliminate the fact of this God-ordained revelation and the truth that is just there, that it is right. This is a reason to do it, because it is right. And anyone who will not address a child squarely as Paul does and saying, one of the reasons, child, that you should do it, and it should be reason enough for you to do it, is it is disturbing for you not to. It is outrageous for you not to. You are sick not to. There is something deeply, the matter with you, to be OK with it. It is something that ought not to be done. And disturbing things really need no other explanation, do they? Isn't it enough that something is disturbing? And so this is just one thing to get down that Paul instructs children to obey their parents. First reason, it's right. And that's reason enough. But the second reason he goes on to is it's required. It's required. Not only is it right, but it's required. And we get a sense of this in verse 2 where he makes further progress by quoting the Ten Commandments. He quotes the fifth one. which is the very first on human relationships. It is a bridge in the Ten Commandments between what they call the first table and the second table of the law. First table, dealing with man's relationship to God. Second, with our relationship to other men. And I just want to observe with you the interesting fact, which many Puritans and people have written on the Ten Commandments have, that it is foundational for human-to-human relationships. That it is the first of the human-to-human commands. In other words, if a child cannot respect this relationship, that child goes out into society as a chaotic member of it. and spreads dishonor to teachers, to coaches, to civil authorities, to police officers, and smarts off to adults or ignores adults and just spreads chaos in the world. Just observe here that being part of the Ten Commandments that it is a command God sends people to hell for not obeying their parents. It is a sin that gets final judgment in the end, if never repented of. Do you see? It's not God's advice. You see, we know this, but just recover it with me this morning. Realize, remind yourself it's a command. And it's a command from God. So children should not be obeying their parents because mommy and daddy said so. That should not be the dominant theme in the home. The dominant idea should be. is that you, son, you, daughter, should do this not because of my greatness, but because of the greatness of God, and He is the one who told you to do it. So let me remind you that the law of God in the Old Testament is called holy and just and good in Romans 7-12 by the Apostle Paul. The precepts of the Lord, Psalm 19, are right. Right? Rejoicing the heart, right? Do what's right. Well, let me ask you this in all honesty, and you test your perception of the scandal of children's disobedient appearance. In the law, God regarded it as so serious and so foundational to all human society that if a child cursed or struck their parent, He prescribed the death penalty for it. Do you think in your heart that a child who curses their parent, or who strikes their parent physically, deserves immediate death penalty and final judgment? That is a good test to see where our heart is at. Do we view God's law as mean? You see, it will always be either God is good and man is evil. Or God is evil and man is good. One of the two. You see, if we think, what an evil law. That's because you have a good view of this child who's being disobedient. But if you think, yeah, that is just, and I know it's hard, but I confess the justice of it, then in order to say that, you also will be viewing this as intolerable and unacceptable and needs to be corrected. Why is it so serious in ancient Israel? Because it destroys human society, as I already said. For example, in the United States, this was amazing to me, there are approximately 8 million assaults every year from children to parents. Stats amazingly show a rise in the, how can this even be a thing? The murder rate of parents by children. How can that even be a thing upon the earth? Isn't that outrageous? But there is a rise in the murder rate. And you see, we think like Cain, like, oh, well, they will never do that. Because the heart is not dealt with. The foolishness is bound up in the heart. As is always said, you know, Adolf Hitler was once, look, just like one of these little children here, running around playing with his things. So as I said, disrespectful children become disrespectful employees. They become disrespectful to the police officer. They get themselves shot. They become disrespectful to the president. They just become disrespectful, grievous people in society as a whole. toward the elderly, etc. I mean, it says in the law, you shall rise up before the gray-headed. I am the Lord. What a command! Do you hear that? It's like, you shall rise up before the great headed. I am the Lord. I mean, just think of that. The authority of that. God saying your life is for me. I am your creator. I am your owner. I am the one who makes the rules here. And this is how you are to behave. I mean, we're so far away from that. Susanna Wesley actually did that. And she had many children. And her husband's working off time. And her children, it is said, she had them trained such that whenever an adult walked in the room, if they're on the floor playing, they were to stand up and turn and look at the adult to see if they needed anything. And if not, then they sit back down and continue playing. Think how far we are away from that. Think how used to it we are of children just ignoring a question from an adult. Just smarting off to an adult. We need to recover a sense of the seriousness of it. And so often being rude and disrespectful with no correction at all from the parent, which means obviously it's the parent's fault also, or it can be. So the idea is, With this being a command of God, laid upon the children and parents, and the stress and the seriousness of it with the death penalty, is this idea that the sinfulness in the heart of a child, children, is like the drone on Raya and the last dragon. It's this thing that is going to spread and ruin the world. And God has given you first a conscience to push it back. And since all men blow through that to some degree, then phase two is parents to push it back and keep it in check. And then if you don't have parents that love you enough to do that, eventually the police officer will push it back. And if He doesn't have to kill you to push it back, you'll wind up in prison, and it'll just be locked there while you complain about your lot, until in the end, God pushes it out of the holy city into the lake of fire. So, you live in a universe where this foolishness bound up in the heart, as I said last time, quoting Johnny Cash, sooner or later is cut down. And parents who love their children should want to fix it at phase two before they get out into society. And so we don't want to be in the position of like the man in Old Testament that had an ox that was goring everyone and then we didn't take care of it and now we're responsible for what they do. So here again, let me just observe with you, children and parents, that this second motive, which is sufficient on its own, is that God has commanded it. Once again, no study is quoted, no psychologist is quoted, no article is quoted. What is quoted is that God requires it. There's a story in the Old Testament of Laban where he answered famously, The matter is from the Lord. We cannot speak to it, good or evil. I want you to think about this. The matter is from the Lord. Think about how many Christians delve into psychologists and methods and articles that don't speak this way. People who are wise, giving advice on how you should raise your children, that would never address your children and say, child, you should obey mommy and daddy because God commands you to. Why? Because, well, we don't talk about religion here. We don't talk about God here. I mean, we could still do good, right, without that? No. No. Psalm 1 says, those who do not prescribe and meditate on the law of God are the counsel of the wicked. If someone will not say to your child, you should obey your parent, because God commanded them, that mouth is from Satan. It's not a neutral mouth. And if they won't tell your child that because it is right, and they won't tell your child that that first motive and that second motive is enough to drive you to obey, then that is not good counsel. That is wicked counsel. So that's the second reason. The first is it's right. The second is it's required by God. And the final is an appeal to your own self-interest because of its results. In verse 2 and 3. Notice that in the beginning of verse 2, He then says this commandment, which is the first with a promise. And then the two, so that statements in verse 3 are defining what the promise is in a synonymous way, that it may be well with you and that you may live long in the land. In saying disobedience has a promise attached to it, Paul is saying it's conditional. We're dealing with an if-then type statement. In other words, an implication. There are different kinds of implication statements in the world when we say if then. Sometimes we may say, if you drink this substance, then you'll be poisoned. And that's causal implication. This condition is sufficient to produce this result. Or if you eat this sucker, then your mouth will turn blue. That's causal. But sometimes it's decisional. My dad told me one time, if you make straight A's, then I will buy you a four-wheeler. Well, there's no reason that the fact of making straight A's and the fact of buying someone a four-wheeler should go together like the sucker and the mouth turning blue. They're held together by a decision on the benefactor. who decided to hold them together. And similarly with God saying, if you believe in My Son, then I will give you eternal life and raise you from the dead. Those two facts are held together by the character of the One who promised it. And similarly here, God is saying, if you obey your parents in the Lord, children, then things will go well with you. Those two facts are held together by the way the Lord has decided to run the world. So he appeals to your own self-interest here, in the same way that your mother says, you know, don't touch the stove, it'll burn your hand, you'll get your little hand burnt one time and you no longer want to touch the stove. Why? So that it will go well with you. It's the same meaning here. Let me put it this way. What Paul has in mind here is parents relate to children and it going well if you obey your parents. One of my favorite quotes is from Sir Kierkegaard, where he says, life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. And children have this struggle that all humans do. I still have it. There are people in this room this morning that, so you think of going down, you think forward and backward, think going down a road, and you go down this road of life, you know where the turns are? You know where the bumps are? You know where you messed up and ran off the road? You know where you got to slow down a little bit, because if you don't slow down enough, you're going to skid off. You've beat and banged yourself up. That's the idea of wisdom. You've collected it over time. And of course, the irony is, now you know. And so you can tell, you know, who's the guy on cars? You can tell Lightning McLean what he needs to do. But the irony is, You never understand that you needed to follow that word of wisdom until you banged your car up. And so then you tell the next guy, and he's arrogant, and the cycle, and it's like, will anyone actually profit from the collected wisdom? And that's why the Proverbs are nearly screaming at children, saying, my son, my daughter, listen to this wisdom. It will save you grief and toil and sorrow in life. And so the idea is your parents are ahead of the road they've been on the street that you're currently on. And nobody loves you as much as your parents. That's the whole idea of consent medically and everything. You can just have this idea that of all the people that say, oh, I'm concerned for this child and I love him, nobody is more concerned for them than the parent. And so we give the decision to them. Well, similarly, children, hopefully you know that your parent loves you. And sometimes this is all a parent can say, right? Maybe a child's too young to understand a certain thing, or it's an awkward conversation. And the parent just has to rely on the fact to say, son, daughter, you know that daddy loves you. You know that. Everything I ever say to you is for your good and I'm looking out for you. Yes, yes. So just rely on that right now and do what I'm asking you to do. And later we can talk about it. And a kid needs to be able to do that. They need to be able to have this idea that of all the people in the world, the world is this dark place, but of all the people in the world, these people for me, and they have wisdom, and they're instructing me, and I can trust them and go the direction they're telling me, and it will be well for me. Of course, there are exceptions. Some children may have a parent that gives them bad advice, or even a command to deny Christ. Paul is here speaking generally, just as a general rule, and especially if you have Christian parents. So, he quotes this promise, and people want to know, what about this promise? Well, I take this going well for you as referring to both time and eternity. Similar to Leviticus 18.5, where it says, if you keep the commandments, you will live. Well, I think when that was first said to an Israelite, it did refer to living in the land. And there's a sense in which that still is true. It's kind of the language of Proverbs. If you do this, then this will happen. If you do this, then this will happen. And so when you read the Old Testament, it's called the wisdom literature. You've got Proverbs, Psalms, Job, Esther. You've got Song of Solomon. You've got a few clusters there called the wisdom books. And you really need both, right? Because Proverbs just gives you like a slot machine view of reality. Like, put this in, get this out. Put this in. And that kind of a simplistic mindset is what would cause you to say, Lord, who sinned? That He was born blind. Right? Or would cause you to come to Job and be like, you sinned. Else this wouldn't be happening. Because the universe is running like a machine. And of course, Ecclesiastes in the book of Job is there to tell us, hey, God reserves His freedom to sometimes mysterious sin things that we don't understand and that are not related to our behavior at all. So something grievous could come into your life that does not automatically mean you sinned. Something good could come into your life. It does not automatically mean that your business people do this all the time. They just assume if someone's a billionaire or a multi-millionaire that they're wise. It just blows my mind. Just automatically. Because they think in a Proverbs way. Well, they must be wise. No, I mean, God can raise men up. And they've made a hundred terrible decisions where they should have been bankrupt 50 times. And they're still at this point. Why? Providence. So there's always a mysterious side to life. Like all men, businessmen are given over to pride and so they want to say like Nebuchadnezzar, right? My hands have done this and that feels better on the ego rather than say, well, I'm thankful to the Lord. I could have been here and he worked it out. Maybe he allowed me to learn a few things that helped along the way, but ultimately it's from the Lord. They don't want to talk that way. So anyway, back to Leviticus 18.5, in Proverbs, the idea is yes, and generally, like we were telling the children this morning, if you tell the truth, your life will have less tears in it than any lie. If you obey authority, yeah, you'll live longer. If you go out there right now and get on the road and just, you know, just blow through everything, you'll probably die before you get home. I mean, it won't go well for you. So there is this idea of kind of that general sense, and that's all Paul is talking about. That's all Leviticus 18.5 is talking about. But Paul is viewing it from the New Testament, looking back now, and it's kind of like there's an initial fulfillment and a final fulfillment. And Jesus quotes Leviticus 18.5 as referring to eternal life. So the idea that you can obey the law and it go well for you in the land ultimately has to do with obeying the law and you can get eternal life. So here, think of, for the kids, think of a balloon where you have a balloon or sometimes teachers will do this thing where you draw a picture. on a balloon, and then you let out the air, and then you give it to the kid, and it's like you can see something on here initially. And then the more air you blow into it, it expands, and you see something that wasn't there before, and then yet it was there before. That's kind of the view of the Old and New Testament in the Bible, when we talk about a fulfillment of what was earlier there. So the initial, you know, it will go well with you and you'll live long on the land, ultimately has to do with a new heaven and a new earth. But you can see the continuity. So, in general, your life goes better both now and ultimately for sure in eternity, if you obey your parents in the Lord. For after all, what is the foremost thing your parents are telling you, if you have Christian parents? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It will go well with you. And you will live long on the earth if you obey that command. Well, in conclusion, I remember one time early or about midway through the life of this church. I don't know if it was due to our failure or just a thought in the kid's mind. But at one point, we were trying to pull some kids in here and for church. And one of them said, when asked, hey, why weren't y'all in here? And they said, oh, we thought that was just for the adults. And churches can operate in such a way to give children that impression. And maybe we do, early on. But I hope you see here that it's not just for the adults. That the Apostle Paul takes the time to address the children specifically. And what he tells us that we've seen is the way a child changes the world, is by their obedience. All your favorite shows, you know, Mr. Incredibles, he had his superpower. Rapunzel, she had her superpower hair. Paul's view is that a child's superpower is their obedience to their parents, especially if you're an older firstborn child. I mean, you want to bless your siblings You want to do good to your mother and father. You have this ability. It's like kids playing in the bathtub. Every kid has watched the drain. Everything's being sucked. I mean, this obedience, you have the ability to kind of pull your family in that direction. And so it's a tremendous power that you have to pull things toward the Lord rather than away. So remember, I thought of people in Scripture, kids, here at the conclusion that impacted things that the Lord used. Samuel was a small child. The Lord used him incredibly. David was still small when the Lord began to use him. Josiah, they say the king was literally still a teenager. John the Baptist from an early age. Esther was rather young. John the Apostle, some think, may have been a teenager at the beginning. So, don't underestimate what you can do. You're not a nobody. You're not less powerful in the Lord's hands than an adult. And your particular power, your particular way to change the world is in your obedience to your parents. And so parents should think, you know, the application for us is On the motive that it's right, do we give this as a reason for their obedience and disobedience? When we're talking amongst parents, grandparents, do we emphasize this, that it's just right and that's a reason enough? For it being required, is our home God-centered? Or are we talking in such a way that everything's... Now you know mom likes this and dad, and because mom said so, and you know mom will slap you upside the head if you don't. Like all of this humanism. Or is the flavor of the home. No, the reason for this order is God. And then thirdly, on the result. As I said, do the children know that you love them? Do they know that You love them more than anyone? And that when you are speaking to them about salvation, they know that you mean it, and they know they feel more love by you than anyone, that you are so concerned that they come to Christ. Like Spurgeon said, the parent ought to be one that if their children goes to hell, at least let them swim through the river of your tears to get there. I remember I sat down by Evangeline Jennings one time at a camp talking to her. She so felt that her father, Bob, was woven into Jesus Christ, that to reject Christ was to reject her own father. And that is an amazing thing. And so, as parents, you should have this kind of relationship with your children that they know you're for their good. and that if they obey You, it is going to go well for them, because You love them, and ultimately because of the Gospel. Amen. Let's pray.