Good morning, everyone. Let's take our Bibles this morning. We're going to be looking at several passages of scripture while in between books. I like to pick up certain subjects and passages to look at. And today I want to look at Acts 7, verse 37 and 38, along with other passages this morning. Before I read it, I just want to say that Stephen is actually preaching this message here in Acts 7. And in his preaching, he's giving really the history of what God has done with his people. And what's apparent in this passage is that it shows his audience all along that the forefathers have completely misunderstood their own history. They misunderstood the significance of Moses. They misunderstood the law. They misunderstood the temple. And because of their misunderstanding, they in turn committed the same sin that their forefathers committed. They rejected God's messengers and God's message. And as a result, they rejected the very Savior who had been prophesied by Moses. So this morning, I would really like to focus in on a phrase at the end of verse number 38, and bring to your attention the meaning and purpose of living oracles given to the children of God. For it says in Acts 7, and look at verse 37 and 38, it says, this is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and who was with our fathers and he received living oracles to pass on to you. Now, this is what we come up with, is that Moses received really life-giving words from the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. And here, these living words were to be passed on from one generation of God's people to the next. Even the psalmist brings up in Psalm 145, he says, one generation shall praise the works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. Men shall speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will tell of your greatness." So it's the job, really, of passing on the living oracles of God to the children, to the next generation. And that is the job of the church, and it is the job of parents to do that. Now, a question could be asked is, are you burdened for the children growing up in your home and growing up in the church to actually genuinely trust Christ, or at least know how to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior? And also, do you wonder if you are doing the right things to lead them to a true saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Now, notice here in these verses that these living oracles were heavenly in origin. They were received from God. Therefore, we must conclude that these living oracles had no human origin at all and therefore were perfect and without corruption or stain. Now we have to ask this question also, what in particular are these living oracles? Well, look where Moses got them from. He received them on Mount Sinai. So then what is scripture referring to here when it uses the phrase living oracles? Well, yes, that's right. It's talking about the Ten Commandments. It's talking about the law of God. It is saying that the law of God is living. Have you thought about the Ten Commandments as being living, being alive? If I can jog your memory for a moment concerning Exodus chapter 20, there in Scripture is found the Ten Commandments. You remember what they are, that you shall know other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven, above or on earth, beneath or in the waters under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day. and keep it holy, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And the tenth one, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. So all these, all the people needed to do is to listen to the positives and the negatives that these commands communicate and then obey them. Do you realize that if people kept the law of God and lived according to them, we would have peace on earth? But the truth is, the truth of the matter is, we cannot obey them. Can we? Have you ever asked yourself the question, why can't we keep the Ten Commandments and obey them completely, fully? Well, it's because the law was not given in an order that we might save ourselves by keeping it. No. The law of God was actually designed to expose us. It shows us that we cannot keep these living oracles. It shows us that we are lost and condemned in God's sight. It shows us in our weakness, we cannot do anything to save ourselves nor contribute anything to our salvation. Now, I'm saying this for this reason, that parents, if you're going to teach your children anything when they're starting out their life, is teach them the Ten Commandments. Because the Ten Commandments is going to cultivate their heart to not only be sensitive to the voice of God, but also to produce in their heart a guilt when they do commit sin. and then a desire to run to the one who actually can take care of that guilt, genuinely forgive them and give them a relationship with God. So living oracles are designed to penetrate into the soul, to expose the truth about ourselves. It is designed to convict and to cut away the dark layers of the heart. to unveil the whole truth about who we really are. Because, you know, readily, we're not ready to admit who we are. We're not ready to confess who we really are. What really goes on in the recesses, the inner recesses of our heart. See, the living word of God, the living oracles of God are like a spiritual MRI. a magnetic renaissance imaging device, primarily used in medical imaging to visualize the structure and function of the body. It provides detailed images of the body in any plane. And then what it does is it builds up all the information and then it reconstructs the image of something going on inside your body. It's a powerful tool that is used today to find out things that can't be seen or discovered by other tests. The powerful computers used in the MRI imaging can convert the three-dimensional energy maps into topographical images or it slices through the anatomy being evaluated so a doctor can actually see what's going on there inside the nooks and crannies of the body in order to set a clear picture of what is going on and of course it has a lot to do with diagnosing neurological things, muscular things, cardiovascular things and on diseases, very powerful. And by comparison, the law is especially useful in diagnosing the inner heart of man, slicing through all the layers, searching the depths of sin, and then exposing all the hidden things of the heart. The New Testament is Book of Hebrews says the Word of God is living. It is active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him whom we have to do. So let me ask you again, why did God call Moses onto Mount Sinai and give him the living oracles? Well, here it is, the real problem of humanity. So that the real problem of humanity may be revealed and made plain. So that humans will not be able to get away with it. And just consider some other passage of scriptures that actually reinforce the point of the real purpose of the law. Like Galatians 3, 19, why the law then? There's the question. It was added because of transgressions. Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. In other words, the law was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised, we know that as Jesus Christ. And then Paul again brings it up in Romans 520. The law came so that the transgression would increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Again, using other words, God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more and more abundant. The favor of God is seen most clearly in the sending of Jesus Christ as the solution for man's Now just quickly take your Bibles and turn over to Romans 7 verse number 13. The scripture here puts it quite plain. In verse 7, in verse number 13, it says, therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me. That which is good is referring to the law. In other words, the Bible is saying the law is good. There's nothing wrong with the law. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather, it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good. so that through the commandments, sin would become utterly sinful. So ladies and gentlemen, God gave the law to act like a mirror that he places right in front of every one of us. And it shows us who we really are. And yes, how we really look to a holy and a just God And God tells us the Word of God is like a mirror. Word tells us in James, but prove yourselves to be doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away He has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. So if I leave the breakfast table with egg on my face, Other people may laugh when they see me, but I will not realize anything's wrong. When I finally look in the mirror and I see egg and am embarrassed that it was there all the time and I didn't know it until I looked in the mirror. So when we look in the mirror of the Word of God, specifically here at the Ten Commandments, we are going to see something about ourselves that we cannot readily diagnose immediately. In fact, in Romans 7 verse 13, what does it say there? How do we actually look? It says, so that through the commandments, sin would become utterly sinful. Have you ever considered yourself to be utterly sinful? Well, that's how God sees us. Romans 320 tells us for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So the law actually exposes us as sinners. It exposes the depth of sin. It is deeply rooted in all of our hearts. It's deeply rooted in the hearts of our children also. The law exposes the nature of sin. It's enslaving. The law exposes the power of sin. It is so enslaving, it reveals to us our complete helplessness to satisfy God by our own efforts. But this morning, I want to look at the very point in the Ten Commandments which really arrested the Apostle Paul. and gives no wiggle room at all to get out of this particular sin. It is the living oracle that exposes hidden sin. And that is found in the last commandment of Exodus 20 in verse 17. That sin is deeply rooted in the heart, in your heart, in all of our hearts. And so you see, the law does not allow you to say that I have never done this or that before. It does not allow us to say that we are good enough, that we are all right and we need no help. No, the law says, let me examine your heart. Let me examine your thoughts. Let me examine your desires. Let me examine your imaginations. Let me see what lurks within you that no one else could see. That is in your heart. For it was Jesus who said, out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and slanders and onward. So you see, if you say to your conscience, I'm a pretty good person. I've never really killed anyone. I never actually committed adultery with anyone. But the law says, let me examine your imaginations. And I find that you are often angry with people. You hold people in contempt. You keep secret bitterness in your heart and resentment towards others. Also, your thoughts have revealed your amusing and inappropriate sexual fantasies and encounters in your mind. Oh yes, people conclude that they are not as good as they ought to be, but they also close with They are not as evil as they could be. See, these kind of statements show us how much we need the law to expose us for who we are so that we can see our need of salvation and call out to Jesus for deliverance. So in other words, parents, use the law as a mirror before your child to show them what sin is and how God sees it, and then also to show them the things that are hiding from you. What God sees and God knows, and that's what the law will aid you to do. The only place you and me can find out about the depth our sin or the hidden sin is in the Word of God. The law of God then defines and reveals sin and shows us how dirty we are. For example, again in Romans 7, if you're there, verse number 7 says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be, on the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. For I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, you shall not covet. So it is this last commandment in the word of God that everyone has broken. and we have broken it many times over. So why did Paul use coveting? Well, because covening is really not an action. Covetousness is an inward attitude. It is an inward desire, a desire to have what is not yours to have. Before Paul became Paul, he was Saul. And Saul thought and has convinced himself he was keeping the commandments. In fact, he was. If anybody kept the commandments, the apostle Paul or Saul did, right? Until he came to this 10th commandment. because this 10th commandment just gets down deep into the heart. People often think that they are law keepers because they have never done anything that would send them to jail. They are not criminals, so they must be somewhat good people as compared to other people. Well, that's not how God sees it. God sees it as us being utterly sinful. No wiggle room to get out of it. It's, for example, some Old Testament examples. We find King Ahab who wanted Naboth's vineyard. He went to Naboth and he asked him, I want your vineyard. I'll give you this. I'll give you that for it. I'll trade for it. I'll do whatever you want. I want to. And then Naboth said to him, listen, this is the Lord's. I can't give it to you no matter what. I can't give it to you." So what does he do? The Bible says this, he goes home into his house sullen and vexed because of the word which Naboth, the Jezreelite, had spoken to him. So he goes and he's laying down on his bed and turned his face away and ate no food. His wife, of course, Jezebel, comes in and says, why are you spirit so sullen? Why are you so cast down? Because Naboth, he wouldn't give me the vineyard. Of course, Ahab, being the weak king he was, a pathetic king, if that, his wife says, listen, if you can't get it, I'll get it for you, right? And what happens, Naboth ends up getting killed by her, right? But that sin of coveting, led to murder. It is a sin of desire. And don't be too quick to judge and condemn Ahab. All of us have been unhappy because we did not have something we wanted at some time in our life. We felt jealous because of what someone else had or what someone else accomplished. and we wish we accomplished it. Of all the commandments, this is one that we have all broken. So we would be justly guilty as if we had broken every law there is. That's why when James writes For whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles in one point, I believe he's talking about the 10th commandment, he has become guilty of it all. So to break this commandment, which we all have done, puts us all under the judgment of God. So if I ask you, did you ever steal something? You may say, yes, I have, or no, I haven't because I know stealing is clearly wrong, so I didn't. If you say, well, I like to illegally download songs from the Internet so I can play them, is that stealing? Yes, it is, and hopefully you'll see that it's wrong and sin and repent of it and avoid the practice. But see, it's really... Now, suppose I were to ask you, have you ever desired to download songs from the Internet because you wanted a song so bad, but did not have the means to pay for it, but did not download it? You would say, that's not sin. See, usually people would think that these desires are not sin because you did not act upon them. But see, this Tenth Commandment is actually saying, the sin happens in the desire, whether you act on it or not. Having something that would be wrong to have, It's sin and the desire. That's what got Paul, the Apostle Paul, so riled up about this commandment. That's why he has it here in Romans chapter 7, because he could not get out of this one. He examined his own desires and the law examined his own desires and he says, yes, I've had desires. What could have been the desire of Paul? To kill God's people, to annihilate the people of the way. That could have been part of it. So the law of God would say that the very desire to have what you cannot have is sin. And if you never act upon it, even if you never act upon it, because you have committed coveting in your heart. So that's what it is saying in the 10th commandment. It says you must not covet or desire in your heart your neighbor's house or your neighbor's wife or his male servant or female servant or his possessions or anything he has, even if you desire to have it and never act upon it, that's sin. Who can get away with that? Who has never done that? We have all committed the sin at some point or another. In other words, the 10th commandment shows that the law makes demands upon our thoughts. It makes demands upon the intents of our heart. When we stop and think about this, this commandment not to covet, We realize that even our wrong thoughts are sin. We see how many wrong thoughts we have had. And we become ashamed of how sinful we were all along without even knowing it, unless the commandment rose up to kill us, like Paul says in the Word of God. Who can rescue us from that? Only Christ can. So this commandment shows us that sin is not just how we act on the outside. Wrong thoughts and feelings in our hearts are sin just as well. No one can honestly say, I have not committed the sin of desire. We also remember the Old Testament example of Joshua in Joshua chapter 7, Achan. Remember Achan where God says, listen, go and destroy the city, but don't take anything for spoil from the war. That will ultimately come and I will give it to you. But Achan, it says in Joshua 721, when I saw among the spoil, Beautiful mantle from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold 50 shekels in weight Then I coveted them Now if he stopped there would he have sinned yes Because see the sins started in the desire That is the root core of sin. That was the thing hidden deep in his heart But then it says this When he coveted them, first he saw them and then he desired them and note the next thing he did, he took them. So see, this downward spiral of how we are tempted, we see, we desire, we take. That's how it is for all of us. But have you considered that In the desire is where we actually sinned. We are under the judgment of God in a desire to have something which is not ours. So the look of desire is also expressed by the Lord in Matthew chapter 5 where he says, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has what? Has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So the sin there being exposed by the Lord is the looking, and that's of course the looking of desire, of wanting to have something that is not yours. And then again in Matthew 5 he talks about You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable of the court. And then he says, but I said to you that everyone who's angry with his brother is someone who is liable for it. So how many people have ever been angry with their brother, or sister, or neighbor, or co-worker? We all have. We all committed it. But see, what we didn't realize is that we think that, hey, if I look, it doesn't hurt anything. If I look for desire, of course, that's coveting. See, that's where God looks at sin, and that's where we ought to look at sin. And parents, when we are training our kids, we have to dig down deep into the heart to expose the hidden things going on there, the things that possibly the aggressive child could expose to you, but the passive aggressive child will hide from you, and that we have to bring those out. You know, if we just take a simple search of this topic of covetousness. In scripture, you would find that it comes from the heart. It actually engrosses the heart. It is idolatry. It's the root of evil. It is never satisfied. It leads to injustice and oppression, to foolishness and hurtful lust. It's a departure from the truth. It leads to lying, murder, theft. poverty, misery, domestic affliction. In scripture, it's abhorred by God. It's to be forbidden in the commandments. It is the characteristic of the wicked. It is the characteristic of the slothful. It's commended by the wicked. As the Bible says, the wicked boast in his heart's desires or in his coveting. If I want it, I'm going to go get it, and I'm going to take it. That is a wicked thought, and that thought comes under the judgment of God. It is this sin from Corinthians that excludes someone from the kingdom of God. In the last days, the Bible says people will be lovers of money, and that includes coveting. Wanting this wanting money in place of God Now again, I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 19 because here's the case of the rich young ruler That comes to Jesus, you know it well if you've been a believer for a while that he comes to Jesus But what does Jesus do he applies the law to him? I? That's what he does. This is a case study in applying the law of God. So Jesus applied the law in such a way to expose this person's sin that was not visible by human examination. And that's what the law does. Look at verse number 16 of Matthew 19. And someone came to him and said, What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? And he said to him, why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. Then he said to him, which ones? And Jesus says, you shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man says, all these things I have kept, what am I still lacking? And now, if you notice, Jesus did not say, thou shalt not covet, because he wanted him to at least see what he was lacking. In verse number 21, and Jesus said to him, if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions. and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." See, in other words, give up what you really desire. Give up what you really desire. Jesus was really not telling him, ultimately, to go sell everything and come follow him. He was saying to them, exposing to him what he really loved. Because covening has to do with what you really love. And then in verse 22, he says, but when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving. That's a classic example of same thing happened to King Ahab. He went away, and what was he doing? He was vexed. He was grieved. Why? For he was one who owned much property. How can I give up all the stuff I have? I can't just do that. This demand is too heavy for me. I cannot do that. And that's usually where sin brings us. We're cornered. There's no way out. There's no way I can undo this. And Leviticus says in verse number 23, and Jesus said to his disciples, truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Because a rich man has certain loves and certain desires, and that's to keep his wealth and not give it away. So Jesus used the Tenth Commandment as a practical test by demanding that he abandon his riches. The youth loved his riches more than he loved God. And he turned away. He had a clear consciousness. that he was a covetous sinner that day. He was deficient in his love for God because he loved money more. He loved possessions more. So he went away unconverted. You said, we look at this, this is the great evangelistic opportunity. Hey, what must I do to be saved, right? And then he walks away unconverted. didn't go running after him. See, until he recognized that coveting was sin and that he loved his possessions more than God, he could not be saved. But if he came and repented, and he says, you're right, this is the things I've been loving, then, of course, Jesus would have been giving him open arms to come. So the young man did not realize his own inward sinfulness. And it is true that he never committed adultery or robbed or given a false witness or dishonored his parents, but he never faced his sin of covetousness within his heart. It was Walter Chantry who said, God's pure law makes strict demands upon the motives, the desires, the feelings, and the attitudes of the soul. that Christ wielded the sword of God's law until it made deep and painful gashes in the ruler's conscience. And that's exactly what the law does. It will make deep gashes in our heart. It will corner us where we cannot get away and wiggle out of it. But it will also cause us to do one or two things. Either we will go and enjoy our desire to sin, or we will run to the solution, right? And that's what the law does. The law points us to the solution. So really, parents, this message is kind of introductory in order to get you to think about the discipleship of your children. It's not enough for your children just to know what the Bible says and teaches. critical for the fruitful discipleship of the next generation is the opportunity not just to instruct their mind. It's your job to do that. And this, of course, means that by God's design, biblical instruction begins by addressing the mind. Children must have Bibles. They must read it. They must come to church with it. They must learn how to use it and then learn to interpret and then engage with it. But see, that's not enough. You have to go from the mind to the heart. It's got to penetrate deep in there. It's got to engage the heart. So children with Christian parents can grow up in church be familiar with the Bible, have all the right answers, and yet be in spiritual danger because they have never loved the truth and never loved the author of the truth. So parents need to ask questions. in order to help their child understand the true condition of their own inner heart. Now, parents, it is our job to find out what the bents are to our children, which way are they bent, especially bents to sin. All children are different. Four children in one household, everyone has a different bent to sin, right? And parents, if you are observing, if you are recognizing their actions and their attitudes, then you can get down deep in what their real motive is. So you're getting to the heart. But to do that, sometimes you have to be very creative in asking questions. It is not simple. Matter of fact, it's a difficult task. But parents need to ask questions in order to help the child understand the true condition of their inner heart. For example, take for example Romans chapter 3 verse 23. That's a great discipleship verse, evangelistic verse. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now you're reading that with your child. What kind of questions could you ask your child about that passage? Being intentional to engage the heart is very fundamental, both before and after conversion. Well, you can ask them this, is this also true of you? I'll have sin to come short of the glory of God. Of course, you explain what all that means. Is that true of you? Do you fall under the standard of what God wants for your life? Perfection is the standard. And then you're asking also, what have you noticed, asking the child, in your thoughts, in your feelings, in your words, in your actions, that is true of you according to this verse? How would God look at you if he were to ask you these things? What's going on in your mind? How do you feel about certain things? You know, when your sister has a toy and you want it and you go and take it? How did that all happen? What's going on there? You may ask the question, too, according to this passage, what would be the consequence of your personal sin? Because you did that, and if you're getting to that this is sin, then what are the consequences? What should we do as parents because you did this? Now, people don't want to talk about it today, but you have to drive rebellion and disobedience away from a child's heart when they're young by applying a certain knowledge to the back end of their body. to drive it away. And then you can also ask them, according to this passage, can you fix this? Can you fix your bad attitude? Can you fix your feelings that you're having? Can you fix the words you just said to your sister or your brother? Can you fix them? And, of course, the honest answer would be no. And then, of course, you say, well, Who alone can help you? And they may say, well, you can help me. But ultimately, that's the perfect place to bring in the gospel, right? Saying to them, listen, but God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us. And the wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So in other words, you're getting at the heart And if you've been teaching the Ten Commandments, that heart is being cultivated. That soil is being soft. So when you plop in the seed of the Word of God, it starts taking root. And yes, they start developing genuine guilt for their sin, for their actions, for their words. But of course, you cannot end there. end just training the mind, you cannot end just training or showing them their sin in their heart. You have to bring them to move their will to do something, right? So it's got to be the moving of the will. When the will is influenced by the Word of God, by the oracles of God, the evidence will show up in a child's desire to walk in obedience to Christ. If you love me, You will keep my commandments, and he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me." So this is it, the mind, the heart, the will. It's like the proverbial three-legged stool. If any one of these legs is missing, the stool collapses. So the task before parents is great today, and life is short. So we have no time to sit back on our laurels, no time to be lazy, So if parents are going to develop habits of Christian thought, senses that are based upon biblical truth, and lives that are faithful to all that Christ teaches, then the parents, yes, and the church go together, must develop the believer's intellectual capacities, and engage their heart, and then influence the believer's will so they would actually do something about it. reading a story about a young boy. He was in a Sunday school class, and the teacher was teaching on Psalm 32, which really had to do with not hiding your sin. And the teacher asked them, you know, taught the lessons, you know, brought out the words, and was instructing the mind. And then she asked for a raise of hand of anybody who wanted to give a story about possibly something happened to them. A boy raises his hands, and he says, I went fishing one day, entered a fishing contest, and I saw this beautiful trophy. And so when I got to the thing, they said, well, how many fish? You had to catch three fish, and then you get the trophy. And he went up there. He says, yes, I caught three fish. And, you know, I guess he proved it somehow, but he only caught two. He's telling this before the class, and the class is like, you know, their mouths are open. Like, this kid's confessing his sin, you know? And so he goes, and the teacher's, like, a little baffled herself, because this doesn't happen on a normal basis, that someone confesses openly in the classroom. And she says, well, what's the result of you hiding your sin? You know that was wrong. He says, I know it's wrong. I was sinned. I sinned. And she says, what's the result? He says, every time I look at that trophy, I feel guilt. She said to him, well, that's what you're supposed to feel. Because see, what you did and you hid, God knows about. And the reason why you feel guilt is because the truth is causing you to feel guilt and therefore putting this particular thought in your mind that maybe I'm under God's judgment. And she says, well, what are you going to do about it? And he says, well, According to scripture, I need to confess my sin and repent of it. So she says that this was an example of hitting the mind with the instruction of the word of God. He was convicted in his heart. But just because he was convicted, that wasn't the end. Just because he felt guilt, that wasn't the end. You have to do something about it. So he confessed it, said it was wrong, confessed it before his parents, confessed it before the people he had to, confessed it before God. asking for forgiveness. And she said, that is the only way you can be released from your guilt is if you confess it. And he did. And he was released from his guilt. And he says, I feel free. The burden is gone. See, that's what it is. The law brings us to the place. Where does the law bring us? It brings us to the place because the law functions as an instructor. What does it do? It reveals the sin, but it can't remove it. The law pronounces guilt, but it cannot provide grace. The law causes the curse of death. There's the guilt, but it cannot provide the cure. The law does have a certain design to it, and the design is this. It has a design, but the design of the law is not to save. The design of the law is to point in a certain direction Direction The point in a certain direction Toward a certain person who can save that's what it does So in Galatians the Apostle Paul explains something exciting and he says therefore the law has become our tutor To lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor that, of course, is for believers. So a person is made right with God and comes into the family of God only through faith in Christ. It's Christ that can forgive the sin. It is Christ that can forgive the guilt. It is Christ that can make us free. So we're not under that guilt. So God gave us a clear definition of sin in the Ten Commandments. Without this, people can't recognize their pitiful condition and their need for a Savior. So God is giving, really, parents a smoking gun. And the smoking gun is this, conscience. And how's conscience developed? With the Word of God and with the Ten Commandments. That's where you start. So they have a conviction of sin when it comes, in their words, in their thoughts, in their deeds, in all those things. And they have clear in their mind, and that their mind would lead to their conviction where their heart is engaged. And then their will would be moved to call out to the one who can save them, who can forgive them, who can make them right with God. So we as parents, are really trying to avoid unfavorable results in our kids. David Michael's writing on the importance of teaching the mind, heart, and will warns of avoiding three detrimental results. That if we just stress instructing the mind, but give little attention to how God's word is to be responded to, acted upon, and lived out, we are risking giving children the impression that God and his word are irrelevant. They're not relevant to their lives. If we emphasize the heart by neglecting instruction to the mind, we can actually fuel feelings that are not in conformity to God's nature and will. And then if we concentrate on conforming the will to God standard of behavior without paying attention to the heart beneath the behavior, children will tend to toward really a faithless self-righteousness or a pharisaical type of behavior. They know the right things to say. They know when to say them. They know who to say them to, but in their heart, nothing's going on. See, we want to try to avoid that. So we want our kids to depend on Christ's righteousness like we do as believers. When we sin, do I depend on my right behavior even though we ought to have right behavior, holiness and godliness? No, I depend on Christ's righteousness. every day of my life for salvation. And so should you. And praise to the glory of God that our children would, too. That when they get up and they leave the home, they know exactly who they are, what Christ has done, what you taught them, and what they're supposed to do once they're gone. And I think one of the greatest things for parents is to see their kids, even inklings of things coming back to them saying they're living for the Lord. They're serving God. They're doing what we taught them. And then you have to admit as parents that 99% of that was God and maybe 1% was you, right? But what a blessing it is when your kids walk with the Lord. There's no greater gift that a parent could have. to see their kids, their grandkids walking with Christ, loving Christ, loving His church, loving His people, serving, using their gifts. So the living oracles of God are to be passed down to our children to prepare the soil of their hearts for the seed of the gospel to fall into it and then pray that the Spirit of God would use that to bring them to a real, genuine, saving knowledge of Christ. Right? Parents, you can't save them, but you've got work to do that Christ will save them. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, thank you again. Thank you, Lord, for the Word of God. Lord, none of us would know who we really are if it was not for thy Word. And I just pray, Lord, give wisdom to parents. Give them the zeal to be able to take time every day to be able to cultivate, instruct the mind of their child, get down by questioning to the intents and desires of a child's heart, and then, Lord, help a child understand how to move their will. to do the right thing. And Holy Spirit, we know you're the one who convicts of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. You're the one who brings people to a genuine faith, and I pray that you would do that. And Lord, raise another generation of Christians in this world that we live in that know the oracles of God. And we'll go out into the world and tell the world of your mighty deeds and of the great things you have done. And I pray, Lord, that you would continually save children, bring them to yourself, protect them, Lord, put in their heart all that is needed for them to stand strong in these days. And I pray you would give all the wisdom needed to parents to do so and teach them. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together.