We're continuing in our study of the Fifth Commandment. We finished up the first two parts, and then Lord willing, today we'll finish up the third part, the duties and sins of superiors. And then we'll do part four, application to parents and children. So what are the things we can glean practically for those who are parents and those who are children? And then part five will be application to husbands and wives. And once we finish this, we may take a little break. And then I was thinking of moving into the sixth commandment. So we've done fifth commandment, moving into the sixth commandment, and then kind of go through little by little each of the second table of the law. Let me know if you would be interested in that kind of study. All right, so what is required of superiors toward their inferiors? Page one of your handout of part three, just to review what we've looked at so far. It is required of superiors according to the power they receive from God and that relation wherein they stand to love, pray for, and bless their inferiors. to instruct, counsel, and admonish them, countenancing, commending, and rewarding such as do well, and discountenancing, reproving, and chastising such as do ill, protecting and providing for them all things necessary for the soul and body, and by grave, wise, holy, and exemplary courage to procure glory to God and honor to themselves. All right. And then, so to preserve that authority which God hath put upon them. Then we looked at question 130. What are the sins of superiors? They're on page five of your handout. Where it begins, the sins of superiors are, beside the neglect of the duties required of them, an inordinate seeking of themselves. Let's see here, their own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure, commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of their inferiors to perform, counseling, encouraging, and favoring them in that which is evil. And then we'll pick up on page nine of part three there at the top. The sins of superiors are beside the neglect of the duties required of them, dissuading, discouraging, or discontencing them in that which is good, correcting them unduly. So we'll look at these two from the scriptures. First then is the dissuading. That means persuading is where you try to give a person reason to do a particular thing or think a particular way. Dissuading is the opposite. I don't want you to do a particular thing. I don't want you to think a particular way. So this is the idea of dissuading. Discouraging is where you take the heart out of a person. You take the wind out of their sails. So instead of being like a wind to push them in a certain direction, You become like a wind to go against them. If they're going to go in that direction, it's not going to be with your help. It's going to be against you. And then discontinuancing is what we talked about before, the countenance or the face, showing a face of approval or disapproval. Now, in this case, good is what your inferior is supposed to be doing. You're trying to give them reasons not to do good. That's dissuading. Discouraging is you taking the wind out of their sails to do that good thing. And discontencing means you show your disapproval for their good deeds. Now properly understood, this condemns us a lot, whoever has authority. Because sometimes without even realizing it, you can become a discouragement to people to do what is good. You can become a dissuading point. You're persuading, not necessarily even with your words, Sometimes with your actions you can discourage or dissuade people from doing what is good Okay, so let's talk about some of the passages John 7 46 through 49 the officers answered never man spake like this remember Jesus has been teaching preaching healing doing miracles and now the officers are sent from the Sanhedrin to arrest him, stop him. And they come back and say something that's very true. Nobody we've ever listened to speaks like this guy. That's what they're saying. Never man spake like this. Then answered them the Pharisees, are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed." Okay, so here notice. Rather than say, this is a good work to believe in him. This is a good work to hear his doctrine. This is a good work to have faith that this is the Messiah. What do they say? What in the world? Are you just totally blind and misled? So they're dissuading them from the good of believing in Jesus Christ. They're trying to remove from them what they have already received, which is the power of his doctrine. When this man speaks, his words are oracles. That's what they're implying. There is no other human we've ever heard speak like this. His deeds are miracles. His words are oracles. This is true, what he's saying. That's pretty much... They're not coming out and saying it. It seems like they're dissuaded even from confessing that much. But be that as it may, they say something that is true. You cannot compare his words to anyone else's. But the Pharisees will not admit that they should believe. They're seeking to bring them to hell with them. They're seeking to close the door of salvation on other people. They won't go in themselves, and they block up the door from others trying to go through. That is dissuading and discouraging. That is discontencing from what is good. Colossians 3.21. Fathers. Provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Now, the idea of discouragement, the core of a human is their heart. How do they think? What is their will? What are their affections? That's the core of who a person is. That's the heart. Principally, the thoughts. Secondarily, the will. And the third place, the affections. Discouragement means you take the mind off of thinking about something. You take the will off of its resolution to do something. And you seek to crush or corrupt the affections from being moved toward that object. In this case, what is good? So fathers are prohibited from provoking their children to anger. Now children are going to be angry in many instances because of their own sinfulness. And on a child's part, they have to learn not to be provoked, but that's not what he's addressing. He's addressing fathers. The provocation of anger, which is a sinful passion, that ought not to be within what is done. Now, sometimes fathers want their children to do good, But they can actually dissuade them from doing good by discouraging them, by provoking them to anger. And that's a grievous sin. And it's one that's often committed by authorities, particularly fathers, which is why the Holy Spirit addresses fathers in this regard. And means and measures to do that, when we think about some of the other sins that we've talked about, the sins of superiors, requiring of doing what is not within the power of the inferior to perform or commanding them to do a thing unlawful or setting before them an unwise with carriage like the conduct lacks in gravity and sincerity or by hypocrisy or by commanding them to do things that you yourself will not lift your little finger to do These sorts of things provoke anger. And even though sometimes authorities are talking the talk of encouraging what is good, their actions discourage what is good. And that is a very grievous sin, because it takes away what it puts out. In fact, it usually takes away more than what it puts out. What it puts out is, I want you to do good. What it takes away is the encouragement to do good. So it's contradictory. It's hypocritical. And consequently, it's prohibited of fathers to do this. And actually of anyone who's in authority, husbands over their wives, parents, mothers and fathers over their children, pastors over their flock, magistrates over their citizens, anyone who has any kind of authority. You must not discourage them from doing what is good. Exodus 5.17. This is Pharaoh speaking. But he said, ye are idle. Ye are idle. Therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Now, Pharaoh knew that the Lord was the true God. By every evident token manifested to him, he knew Jehovah's God. He didn't want to. He didn't want to submit to him. But he knew he can control the water, he can control the flies, he can control the weather. But he says that the reason why they want to do this good thing of worship that the Lord commanded was because of idleness. So he completely shifts from talking about reality to his evil suspicions about the Israelites. And in so doing, he's trying to tell them, I disapprove of you going and doing this good work. I disapprove of you keeping the first and second commandments of the Ten Commandments, and that is to worship the one true God as he's commanded. I don't approve of that. So he is massively dissuading, discouraging, and discontinuancing the doing of what is good. And then the Catechism goes on and talks about correcting them unduly. Again, this is a sin of a superior, correcting them unduly. It doesn't refer to all corrections, it refers to the manner of corrections. So let's look at this. 1 Peter 2, 18 through 20, servants be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. Now, froward is when a person is filled with all kinds of evil that they do. That's the idea of the word froward. And the general duty of a slave, the word servant just means a bond slave, one who's purchased and owned by another, and he must do the will of his master. Okay, and it's because Cervantes means one who is preserved because in the ancient world you'd either kill all the people you conquered or you'd save some. Cervantes were the saved ones, the ones preserved from death. They were what we later call slaves. Okay, so the general duty is subjection to the master with an attitude of fear or reverence. And then it mentions an aggravation of the sins of masters. A master should be good and gentle. He should be humane. He should care about his slaves. He should use gentleness and forbear threatening. He should be good to his slaves. Sometimes masters aren't. What do we do? What is the duty of a slave? Well, here it says you're to be reverent and obedient, to be subject even to those who are filled with all kinds of wickedness. But by saying that, Peter is acknowledging that that's a sinful behavior on a master's part. For him not to be good and gentle means it requires extra grace to continue obediently toward him. It requires extra effort. It requires more conscientiousness on behalf of the slave to be subject to such a wicked master. And then he goes on. For this is thankworthy. if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if when you are buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if, when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." Okay, so here notice a couple of things. Peter is not talking to the master here. He's talking to the slave. And what he's talking about is when the slave is punished unduly. That's what the catechism is referring to. This is not an appropriate thing to be punishing someone for, and yet you're being punished for it. How should you respond? What is the duty of an inferior to a superior who doesn't correct them properly? Well, suffering wrongfully. following the example in context of 1 Peter 2, the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he did no evil, though he had no guile in his mouth, though he was reviled, he reviled not again. He is the example to follow. But still, with all of that, it's identifying specific sinful behaviors of masters. You are suffering wrongfully. He's froward. He's not good. He's not gentle. That is a wicked master. That's a wicked superior. And this is what the catechism is talking about, correcting them unduly. All right, Hebrews 12, 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness." Now here notice the Apostle Paul is contrasting divine chastisement with our fallible and sinful fathers. God's chastisement is always right, always measured out properly, always with the right end in view. And that is that we might be partakers of God's own holiness. That's always what he's shooting for when he chastises his people. Contrast that with our earthly fathers, fathers of our flesh. Did they always chastise us that we might become holy? Okay, let me give you an example of where fathers blow this. Kid sins. Dad does nothing. Kid sins again. Big one this time. Dad does nothing. Kid sins, very small sin, but dad is so sick and tired of his wickedness that he blows his stack. That's chastising unduly. And it's very self-centered. The whole point of the chastisement is because you're bugging me. Now, that's one factor. It's not the major factor. That is a legitimate consideration. Kids shouldn't bug their parents. Fine. But the small infraction should be punished less severely. Those big infractions, they didn't get any punishment. Now you blow your stack over a little thing, you see. They chastened us after their own pleasure. The dads do this all the time. Moms do too. I'm not going to deal with the issue. Not going to deal with the issue. Not going to deal with the issue. I'm really not going to deal with this issue. And then Mount Vesuvius explodes. rather than deal with each one according to its weight. It's not that a parent can't forgive and overlook the sin of their child. There are times parents can do that and say, I'm not going to deal with this. Or I might just say something and then give a warning. But whatever the punishment is, it should match the crime. It should fit. But if it's after my pleasure, then I'm only going to punish when it bugs me. And this happens in a lot of circumstances. But the contrast here is between correcting unduly for self-seeking reasons by earthly fathers and God's corrections, which are always due, which are always leading to our holiness. Then Deuteronomy 25, verse 3. This is directed towards civil magistrates. forty stripes he may give him and not exceed lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then my brother should seem vile unto thee now this is dealing not necessarily with the timing or the offense this is dealing with the measure of the punishment Punishment can be wrong for the motive that comes forth. It can be in the manner of the punishment, it might be excessive, or in the wrong spirited way, or it can be in the measure, far beyond what is deserved. Now, Scripture gives specific penalties for magistrates for various types of crimes. Then it has a category of crimes where there's no specific punishment meted out. There's no appointed, like murder is death, for example, that's the punishment. Adultery is death. Blasphemy is death. Striking your father and mother, that's death. You know, these sorts of things. God gives very clear directives. Some crimes, some evil deeds, there is no appointed punishment. But there's an appointed maximum, and that's what this is. Some sins don't have restitution of money or goods. They don't have death. They don't have some stipulated thing. So the magistrate has discretion in those things. I'm going to whoop this person. stripes what are stripes well it's when they would take a leather device with several pieces of leather and whip the back and what would that leave on the back stripes all the way across the back that's what it's talking about so these stripes have a maximum but no appointed i mean i guess one is the minimum But somewhere between 1 and 40, and you can't go over. Because if the measure of the punishment goes beyond 40, the brother seems like a beast to you. He seems vile. He's less than human. So here's the appointed maximum for these kinds of crimes. So God says the measure must be measured. It can't go beyond what is reasonable, or you're correcting them unduly. Alright, page 10. The sins of superiors are beside the neglect of the duties required of them, careless, exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation, and danger, provoking them to wrath, or any way dishonoring themselves, or lessening their authority by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior. And we'll talk about these terms. OK. the careless exposure or leaving them to wrong temptation and danger genesis thirty eight so you have the situation where Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, marries one son, he dies, marries the next son, that son's so wicked that he dies, and then Judah says, you're gonna have to wait till my son grows up, my third son. But his intention is, I'm never going to give this boy to you because you're the obvious problem. Everyone dies who gets married to you, you're the problem. That's what he's thinking in his mind. Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown. For he said, lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. Okay, so there's his evil suspicion. She's the black widow. She kills all the males. So it's not that my sons were so wicked that God hated them and killed them. That's the fact. But Judah's not living in the real world. He makes his own little version of reality in which Tamar is 100% to blame. Very easy to do, because parents tend to favor their children. One son's dead, two son's dead. Who's the common denominator? She is. So he blames her. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. Now, this is after the trial of Tamar, where she's found to be with child by Hordim. And Judah acknowledged them. She brings his ring and his staff and says, whoever these are, whoever owns these, he's the guy I'm pregnant with his child. So Judah acknowledged them and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he knew her again no more. So here Judah is recognizing, if anybody's going to be condemned in this case, who's the more righteous one? She is. Why is that? Because Judah, carelessly exposed, left her to wrong, temptation, and danger. Was she wrong to seduce Judah as a harlot? Yes. But Judah says he was more wicked than she was, you see. It's a very serious offense that he committed against her by exposing her in this way. Acts 18, 17. We just read this in family worship, I think today or yesterday. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Galio cared for none of those things. Now, the Jews kind of deserved this, by the way. They brought Paul before Galio, and they wanted him to punish Paul. And Galio just says, well, look. Well, you're arguing about words and names. I don't really care about this. There's no wicked lewdness that you're accusing this man of. It's just a disputation among you Jews. I'm not going to handle this. So in some ways, they brought it on themselves. But notice, they took a man who had not been condemned, the chief ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes, and he's being violently misused in the presence of a magistrate by the Greeks. Presumably his servants. Maybe his henchmen. What does he do about it? Nothing. Just sits there. So he leaves this danger to Sosthenes. And again, in God's providence, we could say Sosthenes deserved it, but the duty of the magistrate still remains. Protect the innocent life. Stop the beating of this man. There's no crime outstanding and proven against him. He should not be beaten in your presence, much less by your Greeks, which presumably are his servants. Gallio cared for none of those things. Alright, so, provoking them to wrath. Ephesians 6-4, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Now, it's interesting, typically in Ephesians, as you look through the ethical portion of the book, most of the apostle Paul's writings and other apostles, you can generally divide between doctrinal and practical. But in the epistles of Paul that God inspired through him, there's a very clear pattern. Doctrine first, duty second. Lay the groundwork in truth, Ephesians 1 through 3. Show them the practical implications of those doctrines, Ephesians 4 through 6. Very clear, same in Romans 1-11 doctrinal, 12-16 practical. You can almost see it as a very clear watershed when he gets to 12-1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, what? That you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Everything before that is doctrine after doctrine after doctrine with occasional practical implications. From 12 on, it's practice, practice, practice with occasional doctrinal teaching. Same idea. Now here, in Ephesians, he's been dealing with putting off and putting on. This is the sin of the old man that you need to crucify and put off. These are the deeds of the new man created after God and knowledge, righteousness and holiness that you need to put on. Let him who stole steal no more, but rather what? Let him work with his hands the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that hath need. OK, so don't steal. That's that's in the law of God. The eighth commandment thou shalt not steal. But there's a duty required of you. Diligent labor in your calling saving and giving that's what's required of you Okay, so here notice Put off put on you fathers Provoke not your children to wrath. That's the sin that you're tempted to commit What is the new man to do instead of provocation of his children to wrath? Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And this idea of bringing up carries this notion of feeding, of instructing. Admonition means warning. Monere is to warn, and it's the same in Greek as in Latin. Admonere is to put a warning in the mind. Danger, danger. If you don't start saving up, you'll have no money to buy what you would like in the future. You want to get married? You better have a job. If you want to care for the poor, you better have a job. You better learn to work well. You better be smart. Don't do stupid things. Don't steal things. Don't break relationships. Don't flirt. Don't fornicate. Don't do this. Don't do that. Why? Because if you want to lead a godly and pleasant life, you're going to have to have these virtues, and you're going to have to avoid these vices. That's admonition. So the nurture and admonition, if you do not feed with knowledge and you do not warn of the dangers and you do not prepare for those dangers for your sons, you're provoking them to wrath. They're opposites. You don't give him a trade. You don't give him the faith. You don't give him the necessary skills to interact with other human beings. You're preparing a child of wrath. You're preparing and provoking him to be angry at you because you never cared a rat's behind about him, and you left him to himself. That's why I'm saying, put off, put on. Put off the provocation of wrath. Put on what is the opposite virtue of provoking to wrath, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Now, it's important to understand many Christians read the New Testament as if the Old Testament weren't there. And then they come to conclusions about the New Testament that are pretty far-fetched when you actually read the text of the New Testament. Here's one that's pretty far-fetched. My children are heathens, and I need to bring them into the kingdom of God. Paul says, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Not into. It's not like they're outsiders who need to be brought in the church. They're insiders who need to be brought up in the church. So the notion of a child as a viper in diapers who's brought up by Christian parents reading the book of Ephesians is totally alien. It's totally foreign. There's nothing about that in the New Testament. There are no instances of an infant born in the church, raised in the church, baptized at the age of 18. There are none. Period. Zip. Zilch. Nothing. What you find is, Paul goes and preaches the gospel and he baptizes this household. And then he preaches to this and this household. And then there's this household and there's this household. the Philippian jailer, and the woman Lydia, the seller of purple. Same idea. The household of Stephanus, the household of Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue. You always find this. They and their household believe together, they're baptized together, they join the church together. So here you have it. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Which Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ. It is a provocation to a child who's born in a Christian family to treat them as an outsider. You're unclean. You're outside of this deal. No provisions for you, no blessings, no promises for you. Stay away. No, that's provocation. And there are many other ways, which we talked about previously, of provoking to wrath. And then it talks about anyway dishonoring themselves or lessening their authority by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior. And we'll look at more on the next page. But just here on page 10, Genesis 9, 21. And he drank, that is Noah, drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. God curses Specifically, the grandchild of Ham, or I think it's his son or his grandson, it curses him for the sin of his father, because the son and grandson, they all practice the same kind of wickedness. And it boils down to this. Noah was wrong in what he did. And Ham was wrong to uncover it. Both are true. And the Bible ethic is not 50-50. If you do your half, I'll do my half. If dad's perfect, then I'll respect him. If my husband's perfect, then I'll obey him. If my pastor's perfect, then I'll listen to him. No. Pastor's supposed to do his job. 100% responsible to do his job and to be respectable. Congregant's job is to respect his pastor, even if his pastor sins and is less than respectable. Same thing with husbands and wives. Same with parents and children. Same thing. It goes to all these authority structures. But That said, Noah dishonored himself. Noah lessened his authority. Noah was not being just. He was not being discreet. He was remiss in his behavior. He wasn't keeping up with the duties that God required of him. He was neglecting the duties that God required of him. Live soberly. Live justly. Be a man of self-government. Those who are possessed by wine do not govern themselves. God made us rational and moral beings. What are the two things that go away when people get drunk? Rationality and morality. They go out the window. And because of that, God forbids us from being drunk with wine. He requires us to be filled with the Spirit, which leads to what? Higher degree of rationality, higher degree of morality. That's what the Spirit of God does. So the two go in the opposite direction. Drunkenness goes down toward hell. The Spirit goes up toward heaven, the Spirit of God. So here you see this kind of indiscreet, unjust, and remiss behavior. All right, next page. 1 Kings 1 verse 6, this is concerning David. It's a black mark in scripture against David, both with respect to Absalom, Amnon, and also Adonijah. And his father, that is David, had not displeased him at any time, saying, Why hast thou done so? And he also was a very goodly man, and his mother bear him after Absalom. This is remiss behavior. David was not on the ball with his sons, many of them. I don't think with all of his sons. He seems to have taken particular care with Solomon. But with some of his sons, he was remiss. He did not chasten. He did not correct. He did not warn. He did not admonish. He did not bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He cut them wild and loose. And how did they turn out? Wild and loose, because human nature is not basically good. So if you're a free-range parent, you have wicked children, because their depravity informs them. God is supposed to speak to them through you, and you say nothing. So who's going to speak to them? The devil, their own wicked desires, their evil friends. So here, David is remiss in his behavior. 1 Samuel 2 29-31 Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honorest thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, be it far from me. For them that honor me, I will honor. And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there should not be an old man in thine house. Now this is to Eli, because of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who are so evil, and he's done nothing to correct them. Now notice here. God had promised great things to this house through Phinehas. Remember, Phinehas, during Baal Peor, after the whole of Israel is mourning at the tabernacle, over this judgment that God brought, you have a prince and a Midianite's daughter come and fornicate in the tabernacle. And Phinehas goes in and stabs through both of them and ends the plague. And then the priesthood is guaranteed to pass down through his line. Eli is from that line. Eli is from the line of Phinehas, if I remember correctly. So what God is saying is, if I said that your house would be here, I said that. But you know, if you don't live as I require, you think I'm gonna let you stay there? No. He's taking away the authority that he granted to that family and he's setting them aside. I'm done with your house. And this eventually is fulfilled in David's days, maybe actually in Solomon's days, when finally the last of that line is set aside. But here notice, They lessened their authority by unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, remiss behavior. They dishonored themselves. Now their rigor was they made everybody give them the best of the meat, not according to God's law, but according to their desire. They made everybody hate the sacrifices. And as far as being remiss, indiscreet, and unjust, well it's obvious what they did. Fornicating at the door of the tabernacle, not correcting his sons, all the sins of father and sons, combine those all together, that means you no longer have this authority is what God is saying. I'm going to take it away. Not immediately, but there will be a time when your arm will be cut off. your whole house, and there'll be no old men left. I'll kill you all young, because if you don't honor me, I will not honor you. If you don't respect my authority, I won't respect yours." And that is a hard lesson to learn, a very hard lesson to learn. Because wouldn't it be nice if we could just go on in our wicked ways, and God would just prop us up in our wickedness? Well, God is not pleased with that sort of thing. And so here we see him making it abundantly clear in his justice, them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me, as Eli and his sons did, they shall be lightly esteemed. Their authority will be lessened, as it says in the Catechism. All right, so much for part three. That completes this section, the first part of our study, the Fifth Commandment in general. The second part was the duties and sins of inferiors. The third part, the duties and sins of superiors. And now, God willing, next week, we'll pick up application to parents and children. And then in the fifth part, we'll do application to husbands and wives.