We'll turn to God's Word then together, and I'll ask you to stand in reverence for the written Word of God. We'll begin in the New Testament, 2 Timothy. We'll read the first seven verses. 2 Timothy 1, read verses one through seven, and then the first eight verses of Psalm 78. Taking the sermon text tonight from Psalm 78, verses five through eight will be what we're looking at. So first, then, hear God's word written, 2 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, a beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did. As without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Turn to Psalm 78. Psalm 78. Here again, God's word from the old covenant. This is a contemplation of Asaph. We'll read verses one through eight. Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel. which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The grass withers, the flower fades. God's Word endures forever. Amen. Our gracious and faithful God, even those last words we just sang, sober, sober reflection upon the faithlessness of Your people through the ages. And Lord, we know that we are weak. We know that we fail. We know that even as we come to the preaching of Your Word this evening, that the weakness of our flesh we feel keenly, that it will be easy for us to be encumbered with many cares of the week past or the week to come. And we ask You, O Lord, for a fresh portion of strength by Your Spirit, that You would give us ears to hear and that You would enable us to receive this Word as exhortation. Lord, we pray that we would do so remembering Your good intentions and Your kind and gracious character that You have shown to Your people in every age. We ask You for humility. We ask You for faith. We ask You to give us love and understanding and that You would strengthen our wills and affections that we might do these good things that you have commanded us to do, in loving union with your Son, enabled by your gracious and sovereign Spirit, that we would bear the fruits of righteousness by Jesus Christ to your glory and praise, O God our Father, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I greet you from Royston, Georgia. Paul said he was a citizen of no mean city. I am a citizen of a mean city, and I'm always grateful to be able to come back and to minister to you all here in Greenville, a place dear to my heart. Many of you, friends that I've known now for well over 10 years, thankful to you all for, and for the session opening the pulpit to me tonight. One of the things that our brother Elder Vernon Shoff prayed about was something that I was going to be talking about this evening in our introduction. There are many things that have been going on in the world, aren't there? Many troubling movements, many difficult political currents, cultural declines. They can often trouble the mind, can't they? We see problems external to us. We also have to deal and reckon with problems internal to us, our own weaknesses, our sins, and our failures. What I want to remind you is that there really is nothing new under the sun, and that the people of God, from the very beginning, ever since the sons of Seth began to call upon the name of the Lord and they engaged in that own warfare and battle that rages between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, it is the people of God who have always faced great adversity and tumult change, the rises and the fallings of nations. What has kept the church constant in old and new covenants? What has kept the church constant is the underlying faithfulness of God. We think of that great promise from Deuteronomy that beneath you lie the everlasting arms of that great God of heaven. You think of how in the old covenant They faced, especially when the nation was formed and brought together under Moses, and eventually under Joshua entered the promised land. They faced the incursions from the nations. They faced the partial and not quite total conquest of the land, their own failures. You think of the rise of David to the kingship through the midst of great struggle. You think of the decline, even a secession, if you will, or a separation of the nation. What kept the nation, the faithful people of God, constant? You think of the decline down into exile, and then the return from exile, and then they face the occupations of Greek and of Rome, and then as the church was constituted under its glorious head, the Lord Jesus Christ, the antipathy of Rome and the persecutions of the Jews. What has kept the church constant through the ages? It's the faithful worship of God on the one hand, upheld by the Spirit, looking unto the Son, in love to the Father. and the faithful covenant nurture that happens in the home day by day by day. This is a great encouragement to us as we see God sustaining His people, doing these things through the ages. And what I want to give you tonight is an exhortation, as you might have seen in the title for tonight, Covenantal Q&A, an exhortation to catechism. I do that for several reasons, and one I'll read to you from Samuel Miller, who, if you've not read the little tract he has written on the importance of catechism and Christian education in the church, I highly commend it to you. He wrote this, there can be no doubt that one great end for which the church was established by her infinitely wise and gracious head was that she might train up a godly seed, enlightened in the truth, imbued with the sentiments and habits adapted to the maintenance and spread of our holy religion in all its purity and power. A major driving theme tonight that I want you to consider from Psalm 78 is that God commands the diligent and heartfelt religious instruction of His covenant children. God commands the diligent and heartfelt religious instruction of His covenant children. This is admittedly a textual, topical sermon. When I get to go visit other people, I get to think, well, what is gonna be the most helpful thing? And just to blow his cover, I asked Jeremiah Mooney, your wise intern, what would be most helpful? I gave him a few options. I said, teach on that. It's summertime. There might be some lagging motivations in the congregation as we think about that great work of catechetical instruction. But I do it with this qualifier. First of all, I forbid any of you to receive this exhortation from me as an intended guilt trip for your failures of which you may be very conscious. I want you to think of this not as a bucket of water of guilt to be poured upon the embers of your soul, but as a gentle blowing wind that would fan it back into flame if indeed it's begun to flicker or fade. I don't want you to take this as a reminder of all the ways that you have fallen short, but of the many ways that God has promised to bless this work as we take it from the Word of God. Now, catechetical instruction is modeled. We don't have the particular model through the Scriptures, but there are several occasions where you see this dynamic introduced to the life of God's people. Especially in the book of Exodus, in the institution of the Passover, you will find that while the tables are reversed a little bit, you will find that part of the reason the Passover was established as a yearly reminder of the redeeming and delivering work of God was so that it would elicit questions and answers around the family table, around that place of worship in the Passover. The children were to ask as they were growing and watching these rites and these ceremonies, they'd say, what does this mean? And the father would be instructed to answer in this certain way. That God delivered us. God brought us up out of the land of Egypt. You can think of the concept more broadly when we get to Deuteronomy 6, when there's that great commandment that we are to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that our Lord is one. And these words, God says, shall be written upon your hearts. And then you shall teach them to your children. One of the most effective ways of teaching these things to our children is through that catechetical instruction, the question and answer. The questions themselves have a rhetorical value where they are drawing from the mind and from the heart those lessons that you are putting into the mind and into the heart. And they solidify the doctrine, the practice, the truths of the Word of God that have been handed down for us by our forefathers in the faith. Now, exegetically, from the Bible, obviously, this is clear that there's a pattern here. Historically, I think in the period of the 16th century, you were really no accomplished preacher unless it seems like you had written your own catechism. This is something that everybody was doing. Luther had a catechism. Calvin had a catechism. Many people wrote these things. And we have passed down to us, certainly in the standards of our church, the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What I want to look at with you tonight from Psalm 78 is four things all in the effort of encouraging you and or reminding you that God commands the diligent and heartfelt religious instruction of His covenant children. We're going to look at four things. First, the foundation for catechism. Secondly, the responsibility for catechism. Thirdly, the benefits of catechism. And then fourthly, the motivation. So four things, the foundation, the responsibility, the benefits, and the motivation for catechetical work. What is the foundation for catechism? Is this just a reformed version of Roman Catholic tradition? The answer is no. Because if you look in Psalm 78, verse five, a Psalm that is obviously given to be a reminder to the covenant people of what God has done, how the people have failed, how we ought to repent, how we ought to live in fidelity to the word of God. The foundation for catechism is given to us here throughout the beginning verses of this Psalm. I want you to look at verse one. Give ear, O my people, to my law. You look down at verse five, for he, that is the Lord, he established a covenant, or I'm sorry, a testimony in Jacob, and he appointed a law in Jacob. Your congregation, the foundation for catechism is God himself. It's God's character. What is God like? He's a God that's abounding in goodness. And it was in His kindness that He, as our confession teaches us, voluntarily condescended children. Oftentimes when we use the word condescending, it refers to someone talking down kind of disrespectfully or demeaningly to you. No, but when God comes down to talk to us, the God who humbles Himself, the Bible says, even to look upon the heavens and the earth, for God to draw near to creatures, And for God to draw near later to criminals, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, this is a great act which flows from His gracious and loving character. The character of God is one that is entirely and profoundly holy. that is inscrutably wise. And He would draw His people to Himself, and as He does so, He teaches us of Himself. This is why we have the Word of God. This is why we have the ministry of the Word. This is why Jesus poured the Spirit out upon the church, that in the fullness of His ascension glory, the church would come to understand the riches that they have from Him. God's character. is the cornerstone of the foundation of catechetical instruction. And if that's the cornerstone, then the boundaries or the walls is God's covenant. It's God's covenant. Again, look at verse 5. It says, He established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. And what we see here is God being the primary agent of activity with His covenant people, Jacob, with His nation here in parallel, explaining the same group of people, Israel, to our fathers what He has done. In this gracious institution or this form of administration which we call a covenant, He has graciously initiated a relationship with this particular people out of all the nations of the world. And as God has sovereignly and freely entered into this covenant bond with His people, He would teach them of Himself. The emphasis here is first God's character, the kindness from which He is seeking to instruct us, God's covenant, the bounds in which He would seek to instruct us. And more broadly, what this teaches us is this is the foundation for catechism. This is why I don't want you to take this as a guilt trip. The foundation of catechetical work is God's grace. It is God's kindness. that He would come to people who by nature are children of wrath, who by nature are alienated from Him, haters of God, haters of one another, ignorant of all truth, hating the light, and He would say, come, my children, listen to these things. Learn my ways. Learn my character. It was out of free and sovereign grace that He would draw people to Himself for His own possession. that He would then work to give the possession of the truth. I said earlier perhaps we don't have a very clear biblical model for catechetical work, but if you look at the Proverbs, to what or to whom are the Proverbs most frequently addressed? You see the Father saying, My son, my son, listen. Incline your ear. Give me your heart. Heed my words. This is what God is doing. He's drawing us and saying, my children, listen. Learn to speak my language. Listen and learn my truth. The foundation of catechism, God's character, God's covenant, God's grace. Well, we're quickly taught, secondly, the responsibility for catechism and there is a twofold responsibility. Let's think of it this way. If there is a coin of responsibility, there's a heads and a tails. And you don't have the same coin if you cut that coin in half. The two-fold responsibility for the catechetical work of God's covenant children lies with the parents on the one hand, and its parents informed and overseen by the church on the other. These two things must work not against one another, but in gracious conjunction with one another. Look again at verse five, it says, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known this law that he's appointed, this testimony that they should make them known to their children. This is specifically directly from this text addressed to the fathers who were given that solemn and noble task of passing on the knowledge and the experimental knowledge of God and His truth to their children. And I'd like to address you fathers in particular. You know the text, don't you? Ephesians chapter six. Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction and the admonishment and the covenant nurture of the Lord. Fathers, I speak to you as a fellow father, that both the content that you teach and the character of you as a man from which you teach are vital in the instruction of your children. I teach my congregation often, especially as I go and visit with them before any baptisms of covenant children, teaching them about the nature and privileges and responsibilities of the covenant of grace, that there is a three-fold dynamic to parenting, what we ought to be doing. We ought to be teaching. We ought to be modeling. We ought to be praying. If you teach and do not model, that's called hypocrisy. If you think you can model and not teach, you're a fool. If you think you can do either of those things without praying, you're self-righteous. And you think that by dint of force or by clarity or sharpness of logic that you can drag your children into the kingdom. No, no. We do these things in faith, seeking God's favor. And fathers, I would urge you graciously and kindly to oversee this work. Let the doctrine that you teach flow from a life increasingly reflecting the God of grace that you confess. Let the atmosphere of your home be one full of and diffused by that sweet fragrance of gospel grace. Truth, righteousness, discipline, yes, but those things coming just as Jesus Christ, truth incarnate came, clothed, as some have said, clothed in the gospel. Mothers, I want to speak to you now particularly. Well, ultimately, in terms of responsibility, it rests upon the shoulders of the father. There is a great responsibility for the bulk of the implementation that often falls on the mothers, and this is vital. And for all the necessary emphasis upon godly fathering, and we ought to have that because this is being stridently attacked in our age, There is also an equal, if not more insidious attack against the role of mothers. And I would want to encourage you. that godly mothering, especially if you read the 19th century Southern Presbyterians, I've not found any guild of people that speak more nobly of the role of maternal instruction. And while this one's not from the 19th century, it's actually from the 21st century. Let me read to you something that Bob Lethem, a systematic theologian, wrote. about the role of women in the instruction and covenant nurture of their children. Listen to what he says. It's rather long, but you can be okay with that. He wrote this, to women is entrusted the vital task of childbirth in the nurture of children, integral to the covenant of grace, but derided by much of today's Western culture. For Christians to belittle this great privilege is to assault God's covenant, which is advanced along household lines. The instruction of the very young in the rudiments of the faith when their minds are open, uncluttered, and receptive is vital for the good of the church and the future of the gospel. Now listen very carefully to this. He says, probably most teaching in the church is conducted by women. The office of Episcopos is the exception. And I want you to consider this by sheer volume in terms of hours spent, time spent in the nurture of children. This is a critical thing for mothers to remember. Now, this is not at all excusing or, and I'm going to get to the role of the elders, the role of the ministry of the word. We talked about the role of fathers. It's very important that mothers, you remember, this is a vital task. Now, let me encourage those of you who might not fall into either of those categories, fathers, mothers, maybe your grandchildren, maybe your grandparents, maybe you're single, maybe you don't have children in the home, maybe you don't have any children yet at all. This is where you can also encourage one another. You can encourage and help in the ministry of the church. You can build up your brothers. You can pray that the work that's being done is done effectually and for the good of God's people. The responsibility for catechism first falls upon parents, but it's not parents working in independency of the church, but under the oversight of God's people. The responsibility for catechism also falls under the category of being informed by the church. The reading and the preaching of the Word of God is the central work of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the first task. It is the vital, vital commitment that the church must maintain, especially in an age of erosions of an understanding of what the truth is and commitment thereto. I read an article some years ago, interesting. It was entitled something like The Effect of a Thousand Sermons. I want you to think about this. In a church like this one, and like the ones our presbytery seeks to plant where we have morning and evening worship, dying practice sadly, but reviving, I think, at least in our presbytery, over the course of 10 years, if you come to worship morning and evening over 10 years, maybe you're sick one or two Sundays a year, you're going to hear 1,000 sermons. That cannot but have an immense influence on your soul. and on your mind. I know the quality of man that generally speaks to you from this pulpit. And this is a good influence that you want to place yourself under. I want you to remember that as that work continues under the oversight of elders, that the elders also can latch onto these things and they work in tandem. The shepherding of God's people by the elders, the preaching of the Word by those called for it, the instruction of parents. This is a great and powerful forward push by the church. Let me encourage you in this way as well. that you parents who have had covenant children baptized in this church, you took vows, if you use the same vows I do, and I think you do, you took vows that you would teach the holy principles of the Reformed faith as summarized in the Westminster Confession and catechisms. And so it fits, doesn't it? It fits very, very closely, hand in glove, to the work that we do as a church. the foundation of catechism, God Himself, His character, His covenant, His grace, the responsibility for catechism falling particularly on the parents, but informed by the ministry of the Word, overseen by shepherds, by elders in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, the benefits of catechism. Now, I didn't tell you at the beginning that our first three points are gonna be on verse five, and our last one we'll be covering verses six through eight, but this is the last part of verse five. If you look there at the bottom part, it says, the father said they should make them known to their children. Making these great truths, making these great principles known, what are the benefits of catechetical instruction? Well, it's as beneficial to the children of God's covenant as fortification is to an outpost in a place surrounded by enemies. In fact, the consistent, diligent, even sometimes faltering work of parents to catechize their children is the great work of fortifying the hearts and minds of your children positively that they might know their God. Now, I have a question for you all, true or false, is indoctrination bad? That's not a true or false question. Well, I meant to say it this way, true or false, indoctrination is bad. It depends, doesn't it? It depends on the quality of what is being indoctrinated. And we ought to be those who are actually very much in favor of biblical quality, Christ exalting, indoctrination of our covenant children. And let me speak to two different categories of benefits that catechetical work does as fathers, mothers, elders seek to make things known to their children. There are intellectual benefits and there are great spiritual benefits. Let me speak to the intellectual benefits. And this is not the great and ultimate motive, but this is actually a great blessing. There is in fact, and if you have never read it, John Murray has a little tract on this, I'll quote from this later on, but he is a great encouragement to this work. There is in the work of memorizing and rehearsing and learning these things a mental discipline that is instilled in your children, and this can be begun at an early stage. There is in fact an enhancement and strengthening of the memory. through working especially in the shorter catechism of our church, what you will find is that as you learn those principles, as you learn that logic, there is a power and a precision of thought taught simply by exposure to the principles that are contained in it. If those aren't enough benefits for you, there's also a broadening and expanding vocabulary that is given to you through this learning. And this is important because you can start learning basic principles. And Samuel Miller will write that one of the great ways, parents and elders, that you can teach your children to profit from the word of God is by teaching them catechism. So that when your preacher is up here speaking to you of things like justification, redemption, election, eternal decrees, God being a spirit, you have a working reservoir from which you are drawing those truths that make you more open and understanding of what is being taught from the pulpit. I teach my young men and young ladies in different classes in my congregation different things. I teach my children. And I've given my children and these other young people a five-part pedagogical philosophy that is a philosophy of what I'm doing, what I'm seeking to do. And I would at least offer it to you as something that you can remember as an educational philosophy in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything I seek to do in instruction in the home, in the church, is geared toward this. I want my people, and you should want your children, to be able, one, to read well. Second, to think well. Thirdly, to communicate well. Fourth, to love well. And fifth, to serve well. We need to teach our children to read well. That is, they might be able to look at things to assimilate the information given to us. They need to think well so they can sift through, analyze, criticize, remember, and then communicate well, whether in written or in oral fashion, that they might serve Christ in love, and in faithfulness. Parents, let me give you one last encouragement here. Of course, there's a great benefit of teaching the catechism to your children. But if I can turn the phrase on its head, if it's good for the goslings, it's good for the geese. I'd encourage you to do the work along with your children. you will find a great blessing to you as well, even on a sheer intellectual level. But if you approach the doctrines taught, especially in this great blessing that we have had passed down to us in the catechism, And if you come to them with your heart open and your heart motivated and inflamed by the grace of God and a love to Jesus Christ, what you will find is it's not cold scholasticism. It's not cold and distant logic. This is the great piety and truth of the Christian faith. There are great spiritual benefits. Reading the Word, studying doctrine, It's part of the means of grace. What are means of grace? Means are ways that God uses to communicate to us the treasures of Christ Jesus. He doesn't zap us. He doesn't just infuse us with knowledge, but He uses means. He uses the Word. He uses preaching. He uses prayer. He uses the exhortation of one another to build one another up. He uses the work of catechetical instruction There is a great benefit in the means of grace to the immersion of the soul in truth and a growing acquaintance with the depth, profundity, and glory of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot, it is physically, intellectually, and spiritually impossible to work through the catechism that we have without being encountered with the great truths of the Gospel. What is your great problem? Your great problem is that you're guilty and adamant. that you've received a corruption in nature from Him, that you, by nature, are guilty, that you, by action, are guilty before the law of God, before the holiness of God. That is true of each one of you here. Now, you might have some pangs of conscience that teach you that. You might be wondering, how can I give articulation to that? Well, go and read. Now, certainly, the Scriptures teach this. Catechism summarizes it for us very well. You cannot read, though, very long, if you've come to some conviction, understanding what is the misery of that estate, what is the guilt of your sin and misery, without then asking the question, and it's asked for you, well, who is this Redeemer of God's elect? Well, you were taught the glorious truths, hammered out by councils, purchased by the blood of martyrs, that Jesus Christ He is the glorious Redeemer of God's elect. He who is eternally God, becoming man for the sake of his people. You see, the catechism teaches for us the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and does not by any means replace the scriptures, but it becomes a great help for you as you read the scriptures. Let me give you three illustrations of what the catechism does for you and for your children as you teach it to them. One of them is unique to me, or two of them are, rather, and one of them I was taught by someone else who, incidentally, is no great fan of the shorter catechism. The catechism functions as a fence. Spiritually speaking, it functions as a fence. That is, it keeps bad doctrine out and good doctrine in. It teaches you that I can go this far and no further. Catechism also functions as firewood. Now, in a few weeks, some of you might be going up to Lake Jocassee for that yearly covenant slash heritage bonanza at the Mediterranean of the South. I don't know if you knew that. That's what Jocassee is referred to. The Caribbean, rather, of the South. And you know that as you try to build your fires that while you could just throw a pile of sticks together and light it on fire, it doesn't work that well. But some work of structure, some work of formulating a bit of a shape by which when the flames are applied, it is actually conducive to fuller burning and to hot flames reaching through the extent of that structure. It's much more successful, isn't it? This is what catechism does in the minds of our children. It structures their thought. It structures their doctrine. It lays the wood of doctrine and principle just so, so that by God's grace, when the Spirit of Christ comes into their hearts and into their minds and opens their eyes to the truth, there's a great structure there already. Now it doesn't mean God can't work without it being there previously, but certainly, certainly it's a great blessing when it is there early. But it's also a foundation, isn't it? It lays the foundation so much better than the sifting sands of subjectivity and folly that we see all around us. Teaching your children to reject the spirit of the age and hold fast to that faith in the doctrines once and for all delivered to the saints. And may I also add this, for those of you who might think, you're just teaching me traditionalism. No, no, learning the catechism acquaints you with the scriptures. It teaches you also, it opens your mind that you might memorize the scriptures better. And it also gives you handholds so that as you work through the word of God, you can understand those things being taught better. The benefits of catechism, intellectual, spiritual, they are manifest. I could speak much more, but I'll hasten to our last point. Lastly, the motivation for catechism. Why should we want to do this? If you look at verse 6, you have that little word, that. It's where we get to our purpose clauses, where there's this transition away from what God has done, what parents and the fathers of the covenant are encouraged or required to do, why? Why? That the generation to come might know them. What is them? That is the mighty works of the Lord, what He has done. The first motivation that you ought to have for the catechism over all things first is love to the Lord Jesus Christ. You want His knowledge passed on, you want His glory passed along, and you ought to seek that earnestly. But for the sake of the covenant children, the great goal is to pass along the knowledge of God's covenant. You want children to be born into this realm of God's covenant. And you, as you look at children in the church, and some of you I've seen grow up now over the years, and you've seen my own children grow up, you want to see development, you want to see maturity, you want to see rising and purifying of affections. You teach them, though, from their earliest days, don't you? You teach them from their earliest days. I want to know, did any of you, did any of you wait to teach your children to call you mom or dad? until they had, by their own free will, decided that you're my mom or you're my dad. No, you teach them from their earliest days. These are the principles of our holy faith. These are the truths of our great and holy God. Is God any different? He would teach us to know him, to love him. He would teach us about what he has done in the past, teach us about the heritage that we have passed down before us, teach us his words. Teach us His laws that we might walk in the ways of righteousness. Teach us His promises that we might live by faith and in hope. Teach us His acts that we might stand and know that this is a God who has worked in and through history and shall continue until this age comes to an end. We are called to pass along the knowledge of the covenant that the children who would be born, verse 6 says, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that the knowledge be passed down. Another motivation for teaching the catechism is salvation within the confines of the covenant. It's not the only way God saves people, but it is in fact one of the most numerous ways God saves his people. that they, verse 7, may set their hope in God. Who? The children. The children being born within that environment where this instruction is going on, so that they might not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. They might set their hope in God, that they might learn to cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible, dear congregation, abounds with promises. They're not mechanistic. It's not do this, then this. It's do this, trust me for the work that I'm going to do. And so parents earnestly looking to Christ must teach their children that the work of God might continue and that their children's hearts might be set aflame by the work that's going on. Covenant children, I've actually been speaking to your parents a lot tonight, but I want to address you. You are not saved by your parents' faith. You are not saved by sitting in this room listening to the preaching of the Word. As you sit here tonight, as you are brought Lord's Day by Lord's Day by your parents, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly, sometimes things have gone perfectly, sometimes you're running out of your house and things are an utter disaster. I know, I've been there a lot of times. But here's the call to each one of you. You, you must set your hope in God. You must trust the Lord Jesus for yourself. You must lay hold of Christ that you might know Him and that you might be saved by Him. Covenant children, do not be an obstacle, an impediment to your parents teaching you the principles of our holy faith so that that salvation might be continued in the confines and those blessed boundaries of the covenant. Motivations for catechism, first love to Christ, then a desire to pass on the knowledge of the covenant to see the salvation happen within the covenant. And then thirdly, or fourthly, and finally, the continuation of that covenant. Verse eight, there's a negative example here, a negative contrast. The goal here is that you might not be like their fathers, stubborn and rebellious, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God. You know, in Judges chapter 2, there's a text that's always been one of the most sobering texts for me as I read through the Bible. You know what it says? It says Joshua died. Joshua died. And there arose a generation who did not know the Lord or the works that He had done. How is it possible that a generation would arise in relatively close proximity to the great commander of God's people, who saw God on the mountain, who heard God's voice, who was one of the two faithful spies who entered into the land, who saw the walls of Jericho come down, who saw the destruction of the nations happening. How could a generation arise that did not know the Lord? It's because Father's mouths remained shut. Parents' prayers, mother's prayers did not ascend to heaven. The nation lived in unbelief. Now, God is faithful. God will work. God restored them, but there was much grief, many tears. Dear congregation, learn from the negative examples of scripture as well. Yes, Jesus will build his church. Yes, the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. But far be it from you and woe to you if you fail or refuse to pass along these gracious, glorious doctrines to your children that God has entrusted to you. A few closing thoughts that I'd like to leave with you. Lest I be misunderstood, I want you to understand this. No, Westminster Shorter Catechism is not inspired, but neither is it equaled. You will not find, as John Murray says, a compendium of holy truths so compactly put together, so memorable, and so helpful in learning these doctrines. Murray says the primary reason is to learn it for the purpose of having in your mind a comprehensive compendium of Christian truth. But even apart from that, there are 100 byproducts. It will be invaluable to you through your whole life, and not only in this life, but in the life to come. I would urge you in love to Christ, faithfulness to your vows, looking unto Him to learn these things, to encourage it in your children, teens, I would encourage you. There is no passage in scripture that says when you become 13 to 18 or so, you have this card to rebel for free. There's no rebellious season that's authorized in the word of God. Actually, it's soundly warned against. Do not follow the spirit of the age where it's cool to rebel against your parents. Parents, make it easy for them to submit to you and to listen. Learn these things in gratitude. More broadly, let me encourage you that Christian education is a great necessity in our day. And you must work, you must work hard to secure this for your children. You know why? Because Satan is a covenant theologian. He knows. He knows. And J.C. Ryle says that Satan's great tactic is to go after the generation of young men, because if you destroy a generation of young men, you've effectively destroyed the next generation of officers in the church. What is the great remedy here? Not fear, but family worship, faithfulness in public worship. I mentioned earlier that article that I read, if a thousand sermons are effective over the course of 10 years, how much more? our 15, 16, 18, 20 years, 20 years of having mom and dad open up the word of God, praying for me, teaching for me, instructing me, teaching me that Jesus Christ reigns in this home, that God's truth abides in this home, that we look expectantly by faith for the blessings of God in this home. I told you earlier, I don't want you to take this sermon as a guilt trip. Because if you're honest with yourself, you can think about the many failures that you have committed in your years. I know I have. You can feel burdened. You might have children even now wandering, living in open rebellion against God. You might think I am incapable, inadequate, inept, I cannot do these things very well, I don't have an MDiv, I don't have a seminary degree, whatever it is. Here's what I wanna encourage you with. One, if you're a Christian, you have the spirit of a living God dwelling in you. You have the mind of Christ. And you are called, though your efforts may be meager. And our confession teaches us that in good works, though they are mingled with many weaknesses and imperfections, God is pleased to accept them in his son, and he will bless them. He will bless them. You might think of your years of failure. You might be encumbered with guilt. And this is where you need to turn to the God who says, I can restore the years to the locusts of your inactivity, your abdication, your sin. I can restore those years that the locust has eaten, and he will. as you look to Him and ask Him for grace. One final application as we close. Yes, things are somewhat troubling in our society, but I wonder if they're any more troubling than they were in first century Rome, or when the vandals were invading, or when you had any number of threats facing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ through history. You can worry about your children. Sometimes we often do. This is the great motivation to bring our children and our own souls to this God, remembering that you and your children belong to God, that your children are not yours, but they are stewards from Him to you. And listen to this promise from the Word of God, as you would seek diligently by God's command in union with Christ, looking unto Him for the blessing of your work to teach your children the doctrines of Christ's covenant. Here's what a prophet said to a nation that was looking at impending exile. Here's what a prophet said to a nation that had very recently been delivered from a siege by the most powerful and wicked nation that was in the lands in those days, the nation of Assyria. Listen to what God tells these people who probably, probably spent a minute or two wondering what was gonna happen to their children. Isaiah 44 says, I will pour water on him who is thirsty. and floods on the dry ground, I will pour my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. One will say, children now, one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand, the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. Your congregation, this is a great promise. And it is never presumption to believe God's promises. God commands a diligent and heartfelt religious instruction of his children. Do it by faith, looking unto him who will bless our meager efforts for his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given us such a heritage. You've given us the word of God. You've had us born even in a society where we have so many of these blessings written in our language Lord, we pray for the many here that you would bless our work, that you would bless our instruction of our children, Lord, that you would cover over and forgive our many failures, and that despite our many faults, despite our many weaknesses, that you would raise up the next generation that they too may know the Lord, that they would set their hope in you, our great God, that they would live glorifying and enjoying you both now and forever. Lord, how we pray that you would do this for this congregation, for all those who call upon the name of the Lord in faith and in sincerity. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.