If you have your copy of God's word, turn with me to Exodus. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 12. Exodus 20 and verse 12. Hear now the word of the living God. Honor your father and your mother. that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Let's pray together. Almighty God, we pray now that you would teach us, guide us, exhort us, convict us, encourage us, and we ask for your blessing by the Spirit upon the preaching and the hearing of the word of Christ this evening. In Jesus' name, amen. We have spoken of this commandment before. It is our understanding that the law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments, taught on in the Sermon on the Mount. And to rightly understand the Ten Commandments, we need to understand that the commandments themselves are fleshed out throughout the pages of Scripture. And it's these commandments which now as fallen individuals we rub up against. As unsaved persons, people refuse to obey God, to honor Him. As saved individuals, even with the work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives, we must grow in being conformed to the law of God. And it's this law of God in the fifth commandment which rubs up against so much of our day. Listen to some of the phrases that we often hear. We don't often hear, now in our day, honor father and mother. We don't often hear, see authority as a good thing. What we hear are statements like, I am my own man. I am my own woman. Don't tell me what to do. To thine own self be true, or perhaps a related kind of phrase, I have my rights. And we live in a time in which we desire autonomy, we desire freedom from any kind of authority, and we live in a day in which respect for authority is increasingly called into question. Now one of the things that we need to understand is that in the Ten Commandments, there are two tables. The first four commandments speak to how it is that we honor God, that we revere God, that we fear God. And Commandments 5-10 really speak to how we treat and respect others, those that are image bearers. The fifth commandment really speaks to the honoring of authority. The 6th commandment, the honoring of life. The 7th commandment, the honoring of family and marriage. The 8th commandment, the honoring of property. The 9th commandment, the honoring and keeping of truth. And the 10th commandment, contentment and trust in God when we see the other's blessings around us. The blessing of others around us. So this commandment, the fifth commandment, speaks to God's upholding of authority. And He uses the most basic relationship, that of a parent to a child, to do that. So on the surface, it says, honor your father and your mother. The most basic form of authority is that of a child to his or her father and mother. But the law of God takes this most basic of relationship and throughout the pages of Scripture, fleshes this out into other kinds of authority. Let's say this now before we jump into a few points regarding authority. Authority is a gift that God gives to the world. Authority is a gift that God gives to the world. And Jesus himself upholds the fifth commandment. Turn over to Mark's gospel. Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7 verses 1 through 3. Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is with unwashed hands, they found fault. The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, in a special way holding the tradition of the elders. It's verses one through three. That's the back story to what's happening in this text. Listen to what happens next. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things you do. He said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother. and he who curses father or mother let him be put to death but you say if a man says to his father or mother whatever profit you might have received from me as Corbin, that is a gift to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do." Jesus teaches and upholds this commandment. But what He's saying to the religious leaders of the day is, you would rather people hold to the tradition of the religious leaders of this day than to really honor the law of God deep in their hearts. And what's happening here is a loosening of the fifth commandment. Context. Whatever prophet you might have received from me is Corbin. That is a gift to God. Then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother. A sneaky way of kind of getting out of truly honoring Father, and mother. It's one such place where we see the New Testament pointing back to this commandment. Now boys and girls, this commandment is for you. Honoring, obeying, respecting, revering, that means treating with respect, your father and your mother are things that God likes. He delights in this. He's called you to this. But let me let you in on a little bit of an open secret. The fifth commandment is not just for you. The fifth commandment is for all of us. We all have fathers and mothers or those who have acted as fathers and mothers, but we also have bosses. and civil authorities. In fact, in the New Testament, Christians are told to honor the emperor. And the emperor isn't always a good guy. There is a weight here in this text, friends. Honor. Literally, the root here is there's a heaviness or a weightiness to this kind of respect. So what I want to do is I want to walk through the fifth commandment tonight and just note five things. And I've structured these points in such a way that they are for all of us, but I'm going to say them in two different ways, boys and girls and all of us. So we'll have five points. But notice, it's not just for the little ones. Well, let's notice some things about authority. God honors authority. He holds it up. He gives it as a gift. So number one, authority ultimately centers on God. Authority ultimately centers on God. Said another way, Boys and girls, obeying your father and your mother is ultimately about God. So let's look at this. Exodus 20 verse 12. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Ultimately, submission to God-given authorities is submission unto God. There are certainly times when we have to disobey authorities, when they tell us to break God's law. We cannot follow that authority. There are times when authority, because of the fall, is broken and is sinful. And we cannot just blindly follow authority when it hurts, harms, or abuses others. But, ultimately, submission to God given authorities is submission unto God. And authority is God-given. It's not self-appointed. Boys and girls, God gave you your parents. And they are not perfect. But one of the ways that you glorify God is by honoring your father and your mother. Just like your parents honor the fifth commandment by honoring their parents and the other authorities or bosses in their lives. Similar to the fourth commandment with the Sabbath, the authority structure that we see in this text is a rhythm under which God has made the world and shows forth the reality that God is the ultimate authority. So, said another way, if you have an authority problem, you struggle with obeying authorities that are God-given, that are not causing you to sin. If you just are the kind of person that regularly pushes back against authority, But then there's an element of that that is at odds with what God has called you to do, to obey authority. Authority ultimately centers on God. Boys and girls, obeying your mother and father is ultimately about obeying God. But secondly, And related, authority is God-given. Authority is God-given. This means that authority is about God and not about us. It's about God and not about us. Listen to Colossians 3, verses 20 and 21. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Now notice this, authority is God given. Boys and girls, your parents and their authority is God given. But notice in Colossians 3 verse 20 and 21, there's a instructive note for children, but also in this case for fathers. Children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord period new sentence fathers do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. You see parents the fifth commandment is just as much for us as it is for our kids. A lot of times we think about the law of God, we hear it read regularly here, we try to regularly say the law is not what saves us, but God gives it again to believers as a rule of how to glorify God. Not to earn salvation, but because of who we are. And sometimes we take the fifth commandment and we think, well, now that I'm not at home under my parents anymore, that one's not as much of a problem. I may wrestle with keeping the Lord's Day or stealing or lying. Hopefully none of you wrestle with literal murder, but we wrestle with murder in our hearts as Jesus teaches. But we might be thinking to ourselves, the fifth commandment, that doesn't really apply to me as much. But Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, upholds the fifth commandment and then he gives it to fathers in this case. Fathers, We have a connection to the fifth commandment. They obey us, but we have a responsibility not to provoke them, not to be harsh and demanding in a way that they might become discouraged. And a related implication for us might be this. Parents, if we do not respect each other, If we do not respect the authority that we are under, why would we expect our children to learn to accept our authority? If our children see that we have no regard for the authority figures over us, what causes us to think that when they regularly see that, that there's not a lesson that they're learning? My brothers, a question for you tonight. in your guiding and leading and shepherding of your family? Is there a tenderness? A humility? Is there a setting of an example in your leadership? Or, is the fifth commandment upheld in your house by children who are provoked to discouragement? You see, boys and girls, honoring your father and your mother is ultimately about God. And number two, honoring your father and mother is God-given. Authority is God-given. Well, thirdly, as we look at this text tonight and how it's worked out throughout the pages of Scripture, authority is ultimately to point to Jesus. Boys and girls, honoring your father and your mother is ultimately about Jesus. Let's look over in the book of Ephesians. Turn there with me. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Paul quotes from the fifth commandment. Notice what he says. Ephesians chapter 6. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right." Then he quotes the fifth commandment. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Verse 4, and you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Notice that last phrase there. Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Our main point here is that authority ultimately points to Jesus. Honoring your father and mother, boys and girls, points to Jesus. It's about Jesus. And here's how. Paul, in the book of Ephesians, speaks to Christ Jesus and his role and his work. And then he pictures in chapter 5 how mommies and daddies and their relationship really is a picture of Jesus and his relationship to his bride, the church, the people of God. And then in chapter 6, Paul quotes the fifth commandment and he tells once again fathers that this whole thing is about raising children in the training and admonition of the Lord. Now what's interesting, and I've said this to you before in similar discussions on this passage, this phrase, bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord, is Holy Scripture. Ephesians is a book of the Bible. It is rightly recognized by the church as canonical, part of the Word of God. But there were many writings in the 1st and 2nd century that dealt with family. And guess what? In multiple instances, almost word for word, the same phrase is used. In fact, in multiple places by non-biblical writers who are Christians, parents are told to do two things. Raise their children in the fear of the Lord and to train them in a way that causes their children to have a fear of the Lord. Our instruction should be heart focused, not just behavior focused. You see parents, a lot of times our desire is to get our children to obey. Just do what I say. And as an impatient father, sometimes it's just obey. But Paul takes the fifth commandment and he says something that we need to hear. And again, it's for us just as much as it is for our wee ones. Our goal as parents, yes, fathers most literally quoted here, but as fathers and mothers, our goal is that our children grow up in the training, the fear and admonition of the Lord. If all of our instruction to our children and all of our desire to get them to obey is just so that their behavior changes, then we're not really honoring the law of God. Because authority is ultimately to point people to the Lord, to Christ, So consider when you take hold of the fifth commandment, fathers and mothers, that yes, there are days where you just want your children practically to do what you say. The ultimate goal is that your children are trained in the ways of Christ. So thirdly, authority is ultimately to point to Christ. Boys and girls, honoring your father and mother is ultimately about honoring and pointing to Jesus. Let's look at a fourth point. A fourth point, and this is one that in our culture and in our society is oftentimes pushed back on. Authority figures are ultimately a blessing. Boys and girls, your parents are ultimately a blessing. Now, I have to caveat here with this statement. This is not to say that every father and mother parented rightly. This is not to say that in your particular situation, if you suffered at the hands of a parent, that you are to overlook that and just consider it all blessing. But what it is to say is that generally the authority that God upholds to include mothers and fathers is a blessing. Let's continue in Ephesians 6 for a moment. Look what he says there. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment, with a promise. What's the promise? That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. In the giving of the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments, as part of that law, spoke to certain elements within the Old Covenant. So we see, for instance, in the Fourth Commandment, that even land animals are to rest on the Sabbath. Well, that may not literally apply to us today. Similarly, in the Fifth Commandment, there is a promise that if you obey the law, there will be life in the land. If you disobey the law, there will be land taken away. So now that we are in Christ and we're not focused on a literal land, there's still a promise here. Not to a literal land, but Paul's use of the moral law speaks even to Gentiles. This is the book of Ephesians. It's written largely to Gentiles. Notice what Paul does with land here. There's still a blessing that comes from honoring fathers and mothers. Honoring authority figures. Benefit comes when we honor God-given authority. This is not just about parents in the Scripture. We see instances of this in a variety of places. Let's look for instance at Hebrews. Turn over to Hebrews 13. The fifth commandment is not quoted, but honoring authority and receiving a blessing because of it is. Look what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 13, 17. Speaking of elders and pastors, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. As an elder, that's a shuddering passage regularly to consider. But notice the next sentence. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. Why? For that would be unprofitable for you. Do you see what the writer of Hebrews is doing? He's not saying, hey, every elder, every pastor is going to always get it right. But generally, the principle is, honor those who rule over you. In this case, not mother and father, but if you will, leaders in the faith. Because they have a job to do, and if you do it, there's a blessing. It's not going to be profitable for you if you make it so that their work is not full of joy and that it's full of grief. See, benefit comes when we honor God-given authority. Turn over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. Just to kind of give you an example of how these principles of God's moral law work their way out throughout the pages of Scripture beyond just the literal Ten Commandments themselves in Exodus or Deuteronomy 5. 1 Timothy 5.4. 1st Timothy 5, 4. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents. For this is good and acceptable before God." Now this comes in the description of the church caring for widows and how the first responsibility for widows, and I think we could extend that to widowers as well, but most literally widows is the family. And even though The fifth commandment is not quoted here. There's still a principle. Hey, there's a responsibility that a person has to care for his or her elderly family members. Authority that is given is a blessing. Boys and girls, listen to Pastor Ryan for a minute. Your mommies and daddies are not, they're not perfect. They're not going to get things right every time. And sometimes they're going to frustrate you. And you're not going to always understand why they say what they say. Hopefully, you have a mommy and a daddy that apologize to you and model that to you. But you need to understand that as you grow up, a blessing of God to you is a mommy and a daddy. Unfortunately, I say that in a day in which many in the world around us would hear that and say, but you don't understand. My mommy and my daddy, one or both, was not a blessing. And yet, in those cases, if we dig deep down into their heart and soul, there's a longing for what should have been. the blessing of God-given, well-distributed authority. Well, lastly, authority-breaking is only forgivable in Christ. Boys and girls, when we disobey mommy and daddy, ultimately, in God's eyes, we can only be forgiven because of what Jesus has done. Let's say this up front. We are all fifth commandment breakers. We don't perfectly honor our fathers and mothers, the authority figures over us, bosses. Sometimes we kind of cheat, if you will. Well, I don't have to obey the government because I don't agree with having to pay this tax. I don't have to obey my boss in this because he or she is a jerk. And yet, we are called to obey God-given authority unless that God-given authority calls us to disobey God's law. In which case, we say, we must obey God rather than men. But we're all fifth commandment breakers. Boys and girls, all of you at some point have disobeyed your mother or your father. And the Bible says that What that deserves is punishment from God that lasts forever. But the Bible also says, boys and girls, that God forgives people who don't perfectly honor their mothers and fathers because Jesus was punished in their place. You see, of all of the Ten Commandments, right now, boys and girls, this is probably the one that is the most easy for you to take in and understand. You don't perfectly obey mommy and daddy. And God calls that sin. And the Bible says God will punish all sin. And because not obeying mommy and daddy is a sin against the God of the universe, the punishment that is deserved lasts forever. But the Bible says that God forgives those who break the fifth commandment. This is good news, boys and girls. God says to you, if you will hear Him, that He will forgive you because Jesus was punished for you. And you receive what He has done by faith. Yes, you apologize to mommy and daddy. Yes, you try to do better. But God doesn't forgive you for breaking the fifth commandment because you try to do better. No. God forgives fifth commandment breakers. Disobedient little boys and girls. The same way that He forgives big boys and girls like mommies and daddies who break the fifth commandment. They realize that Jesus will save them if they trust in Him. So, sometimes boys and girls, when you have to say sorry to mommy and daddy, A good practice to get into is to also repent to the Lord and say, Lord, I've broken your fifth commandment. I was disobedient to mommy or to daddy. And you say to me in your scriptures that the way that I can be forgiven for that is only by what Jesus has done, not what I continue to do or don't do. So would you forgive me because of Jesus? And to all of us, when we see our own failures to obey authority, government, bosses, parents, grandparents, whoever they may be, when you see with bitter tears the rejection of God-given authority and the mess that this has caused, remember, there is an authority that speaks louder than any other authority. And that is the authority that Christ has been granted to forgive sins. Why do we hate and despise authority? Because at our core, we think we know better. You see, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, was yes, eating of a tree that God said don't eat of, but it was a rejection of God's authority. It was, among other things, a breaking of the fifth commandment. God, you are our father, but we know better. We disobey. And this has been our problem down through the ages. We think that we know better. Of course, when authority asks us to do something unbiblical, we should not obey it. We must obey God. Yet most of the time, if we are honest, when we disobey God-given authority, it's placing ourselves in the garden again. And taking authority into our own hands. God's upholding of authority is good for us. It's good for society. It's good for the world. Will there be authority figures who get it wrong, horribly wrong? Yes. But God gives authority as a gift. Boys and girls, the scriptures tell you to honor your mother and your father. And they also tell you that when you fail to do it, Jesus will forgive you. Because he died for sinners like you. So you look to him. And when he says to you through the Bible, come to me. And I will forgive. I will not push you away. You believe him. You repent of your sin. And you move forward. Honor your father and mother that your days. They live long in the land, let's pray. Almighty God. Help us to take a passage which we often equate to children alone. And use it by your spirit to search our own hearts to see where we might be rebellious in spirit against God given authority. Help us to repent quickly, to rest and trust in Christ. We pray also for the boys and girls in the room tonight that you would cause them to hear this word and that they might understand what you expect of them. But even that when they fail at it, which they will, that you also tell them that you will forgive them if they're trusting and resting in Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. to be all that is needed to save them from that sin among all their other sins. Lord, we pray tonight that as we think about your law, we might see it as a means that you've given us to be examined as we walk with you and to seek to glorify you. All because of what Christ has done in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.