That's tomorrow night from 630 till 8 and that there is a nursery provided so ladies in your quest to become more like Christ God provides means to ends and so be faithful and come and learn and grow and encourage others. You know, the life of the local church is about give and take, isn't it? We come to be encouraged, but we also come that we might be an encouragement. It's a both-and, it's not an either-and-or. Our systematic theology class will be this Saturday from 7 to 10 in the morning. I will need some guys to come early and help me cook and set up. But we'll be back in the doctrine of God. That is this Saturday from 7 till 10 in the morning. And you'll be out a little after 10 until we get everything set back up and back for the rest of your day. So we start early so we can finish early. And so also we have James White will be here Thanksgiving weekend, a bit of shift in the dates. He's actually going to spend Thanksgiving with us in our home and probably in mom and dad's home. Surprise! And then Saturday evening, we'll be having a service at 6.30. And also Sunday morning, he'll be teaching on the atonement of Jesus Christ. And it'll be heavy-weighty doctrine, but glorious and encouraging. And so be praying for that, be thinking forward and making plans. And I believe the Lord will greatly bless that. Turn to the 78th Psalm, Psalm 78. We're continuing our verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter exposition of the Psalter. Josh, thank you for leading us in songs out of the inspired songbook today. It's wonderful to sing the words of God to God. These are all given by His Spirit. Psalm 78, this comes to another historical psalm. It's a Meschil of Asaph. It's a didactic psalm that means that it's for instruction and for teaching. But if you will look at it, it is 72 verses long. And so it's an important psalm. I don't want to, I told my wife, I don't want to just, skip like a rock and hit the high places. I wanna spend some time in this psalm. So tonight, we're gonna look at the first eight verses. This sermon title is, Recount the Wondrous Deeds of God, with a subtitle, To Your Children. Recount the wondrous deeds of God to your children. Let's start in verse one. This is the word of the Lord. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will pour forth dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have recounted to us. We will not conceal them from their children, but recount to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, and His strength, and His wondrous deeds that He has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and recount them to their children, that they should set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but observe his commandments, and not be like their fathers, stubborn, and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Lord, we just come to you and ask of the help of the Holy Spirit tonight. Lord, I am dependent upon you to preach these verses. Lord, I have no ability in my natural man to be able to preach or teach in any way that's useful or helpful, but Lord, you have called men and set them apart and endued them with power to proclaim the Word of God. Lord, I realize that in this moment my sufficiency is of God. Lord, that my help is from the Lord, the maker of heaven, the creator of all the earth. So, Lord, I submit myself to your rule, your reign, your sovereignty. I yield myself, Lord, and use me as a vessel. Fill me with your spirit anew and afresh to be able to proclaim these transcendent truths that we might walk them out in our lives. Give us attentiveness, even though we're weary. Lord, give us hunger and thirst, Lord, in our souls to know you and to know your ways. And we ask this in the wonderful saving name of Jesus. Amen. This is a great text of Scripture, isn't it? So much that's packed in these eight verses. But here, by and large, it's talking about recounting the wondrous deeds of the Lord to your children, to your children. Children love and pursue often what is set by the affection of their moms and their dads. Isn't that to be true? And little boys want to mimic their daddies, and little girls, their mothers. I was at Luke, my grandson's, little tag football game Saturday morning. I was getting the kick out of a couple little girls who looked like they was about three years old. And they had little babies, and they were back and forth acting like little mamas. And the little girl was trying to figure out how to have a baby, and the mom turned around and said, stop that. But little girls want to be like their moms. But what happens is that all too soon that the interests of the parents soon become the interests of the children. And because of this, it's of utmost importance for parents to both love and pursue eternal realities. Now I want you to stay with me tonight. The atmosphere of a Christian home is to be radically Christ-centered. radically Christ-centered. And I'm saying this not in a way that's legalistic, not in a way that's ball and chain, but in a way that's loving, it's a nurturing of the children in the things of God. We've all heard the phrase that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. That is that the habits of the parents soon become the habits of the children. that fathers like me that love to hunt will most generally raise their sons or little boys and sometimes their little girls to love to hunt. Fathers that love sports will raise their children to love sports. Fathers that love race cars will raise their sons to love racing. And it's in this way that God's hardwired our children, isn't it? that a parent's habits and that a parent's affections will soon become stamped upon their children. And what bothers me is that there are many in evangelicalism, or those that name the name of Christ, don't have enough passion for the name of Christ to leave much of a stamp on the lives of their sons and daughters. And that is because other passions and other pursuits are more deeply imprinted in their lives. That their favorite sports team has a deeper indentation in the heart of their child than that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the hammer strikes that team stamp often and more often with more force than that of Christ. So the imprint that is left in the life of the child is deeper and more permanent in the secular and the temporal. In so many Christian homes, the buzzword in the home is usually a sports icon. It's in that sphere that that icon is exalted. It's in that sphere that that sports icon is anticipated. It's their pictures that's on the walls. It's their names that are discussed at the family meal. It's their pictures that are on the clothing articles that the children wear. Their videos are oftentimes recorded and anticipated. And what I'm meaning is that the affections of the child become won by a sports icon. And with so many people that call themselves Christians, we talk about the importance of the gospel, we talk about the importance and the centrality of Jesus Christ. Now listen to me, but our lives are preaching and proclaiming a different love and a different pursuit. We wonder then why our children grow up and leave the church in their adulthood. Sadly, and it's so true, that they leave oftentimes because they begin to pursue the seeds that were sown in their hearts much earlier on in their lives. The Bible clearly and repeatedly addresses the Christian home. It gives copious instruction upon how, as Christian parents, we're to raise our children and that God, above all else, knows how our children are to be raised. In fact, they are from Him as gifts, as arrows. God gives us in Scripture the patterns that we, as Christian parents, are to follow. And let me just clarify that our homes are not unbiblical because God's been silent. They're unbiblical because we've closed our ears and we've closed our eyes to the truth of God. We become like what we find in this text in verse eight, where we see that they were stubborn and rebellious and they did not prepare their hearts and their spirits were not faithful to God. I'm gonna clarify something. It's not wrong to watch sports. It's not wrong to have those that we look to and enjoy watching, to be fans of them. But here's the issue. Let me just ask this question. I'll just throw it out to you. Shouldn't sports or any other interest be in the peripheral of our lives? Shouldn't the gospel, the glory of God, the sweetness of Jesus Christ be front and center to us as a Christian? Shouldn't Jesus have preeminence? in His church? Shouldn't we as Christians seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Shouldn't we, as it says in Colossians 118, that Christ Himself will come to have first place in everything? Shouldn't He be the preeminent one in our lives? Let me ask this question, if Jesus isn't first place in His church, where is He supposed to be first place? Is He supposed to be first place in the underworld or the world? No, that is not where He's going to have first place. Is it going to be on the campus of the university? No, it's not going to be the campus of the secular university. So is He to have preeminence in His church? And the answer to that question is yes. that Jesus is first place in the hearts and lives of His people. And we are the church. We are members of His body. Now, our text here, the first eight verses of Psalm 78, are a remembrance of the great exploits of God and how they are to be recounted, how they are to be remembered. They are to be recounted and taught to our children. Now, listen. It's important that we get this, that before Scripture was Scripture, before Scripture was put into print, that the truth of God and the triumphs of God were passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition. That's to say that the great feats of God were remembered and rehearsed within the context of the home. They were taught by fathers to their children from generation to generation. We see that in verse 3 and 4. I mentioned already that in the superscription, this is a maskill of Asaph, Asaph being the author, Maskill being a teaching psalm. The purpose is didactic. The overall point is for us to read and to remember the faithfulness of God and to pass that on down to our children, that they may pass it down to their children. But also to remember the errors of those that have gone on before us, the errors of Israel, so that we do not pass down their errors. And by the way, it's easier to pass down errors than it is to pass down truth because of the fallen propensity of our souls. Verses 1 through 8 is really a preface for the entire 78th. He'll catalog all the great things that God has done. He'll catalog all of the failures of the nation of Israel and how that we are as God's people to train up and to teach our children the great feats of our God. There's a powerful truth I see in this text that's embedded in the 78th of the Christ-centeredness of teaching His wondrous, glorious deeds in the context of our homes. A father is the chief theologian of the home, a father. A father is the head of the home. Now, I know that there are single parent families represented. If there's not a father in the picture, then a mother then takes up that mantle and by the power and grace of God is to teach and train her children in the ways of the Lord. So if you're a single mom that's here tonight, know that I'm talking, including you in this, that you fathers and you single moms are the priest of that little flock that God calls a family. And that a father is to be the exegete of the home. And it's an entrustment that God gives to a father that has a mighty responsibility. It says in Luke 12, 48, to whom much is given, much more also shall be required of him. and that a faithful parent, according to Proverbs 13 22, leaves a heritage of godliness and instruction for his children. I cannot be convinced that Proverbs 13, 22, when it's talking about the godly parent, the godly man leaving a heritage for his children, it's talking about a 401K. I believe that it's a godly heritage. I believe that it is the teaching of the Lord. I believe that it's spiritual truth and precept line up on line that's been taught his children over the course of a lifetime and even grandchildren. First of all, my first point tonight is in verses 1 through 3, and we notice here the call to incline, the call to incline. This is the opening stanza, and it's a call for the people of God to give their ear to this Torah, is the Hebrew word there, the Torah, the law, as some translations will put it. The Torah would be considered the first five books of the Old Testament. But here is with a broader application to all divine truths and it's a call for the people of God to give their ear, to give their attention to the instruction or to the law of God. And we understand as Christians that truth must be met with a certain kind of receptivity. It's not like a man giving us information. This is God giving us divine truth. It's not like American history class that we took in high school or algebra. This is transcendent divine truth that comes from the living God that rules the cosmos, and that there is an appropriate way, and then there's an inappropriate way to listen, and God tells us how His Word is to be listened to. First of all, we see in verse 1, to hear the Word of God, there must be preparation. Look at it with me. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. It's talking about preparation for the listening to and the hearing of the Word of God. There are two statements in this opening verse that call us to make ready to hear the Word of God. Here we see that we're to give our ear, to the instruction of the Lord, and were to incline our ears to the words of God's mouth." I remember back in ninth grade in Adar High School, we had Oklahoma history class with Mr. Powell, and he'd be lecturing. He would write everything down on the chalkboard. For those of you that went to Adar, you will remember Mr. Powell. And he would say, you will see this again. And whenever Mr. Powell said something like that, we knew that that statement or that particular fact was going to be on the test that he gave every Friday. And so it was important that we remember, powerfully remember, and let that seep into our memory what he said when he said, you will see this again, gentlemen and ladies. It was a call for the students to incline their ears to his instruction. That's the idea here. The Hebrew idea behind the words give ear literally means to take heed. It means pay attention or prepare yourself to receive what is being said. Give ear, pay attention, prepare. Make ready because the God of the universe, the God that made you and all other things is going to speak, and He speaks powerfully. The word incline here in the second part of verse 1 literally means to spread out, it can mean to extend, or it can mean to bend, or to turn aside. I will turn aside and see this thing as Moses said with the burning bush, but it has to do with receiving. I remember back in the 1970s, some of you old enough to remember those fantastic years, there was a commercial that would always come on the TV, it would say something like this, promoting a financial investment firm, and a man that headed that up by the name of E.F. Hutton. And the coin phrase was, when E.F. Hutton talks, Oh, you're telling your age. People listen, right? When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. How many of y'all have never heard that in your life? You don't have a clue who E.F. Hutton is. Well, y'all are the young bucks in the church and the rest of us with this blonde hair, we've been around a while, we know. But here it is, it's a call for preparation to hear the word of the Lord. This is a very sad but missing element into the church today. that when the sovereign God of heaven speaks, we're often unprepared to listen to Him. We're oftentimes, like what we see in the 8th verse, we have not prepared our hearts and our spirits have not been faithful to God. Now listen, wouldn't it be advantageous for us as God's people to spend time in prayer before the preaching of His Word, before His Word is being expounded? Wouldn't it be advantageous for us as God's people to spend time in the confession of our sins and repentance towards God? Wouldn't it be advantageous for each one of us to go to the Lord and to ask the Lord to give us a repentant heart and plea for the Spirit's help in the receiving of the Word of God? Even in the context of family worship, which I believe wholeheartedly is biblical both in the Old and New Testaments, to stress the sacredness of the Word of God, that it's a transcendent word, that it's not like the words of man, that these words are beyond the worth of gold and silver, and that we must prepare. Listen, fathers, we must prepare to lead our families. We must be prepared. We must search our hearts. We must petition the Lord for our wives and for our children as we're leading them. Listen, the words of life cannot be underestimated. Jesus said, the words that I speak are spirit and they are life. So there must be preparation. Secondly, there must be interpretation. Look at verse two. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will pour forth dark sayings of old. The Hebrew word behind this English word parable is the Hebrew word masal. It literally means a similitude or a riddle, a parable. And these riddles from the past and the tangle of events of the past need to be interpreted. The point is they serve as examples for the future. The Hebrew definition and the strictness of it is the placing of one incident or one story alongside something else so that we can learn by comparison. For example, in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 5 and 6, nevertheless, with most of them is talking about the plight of Israel during the wilderness of Sinai after God has delivered them from Egypt. It says that God was not pleased with the most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things happened as an example for us so that we would not crave the things they also craved. That's the idea, this parable, these riddles, setting something side by side. We see the life of the of the nation of Israel, and their plight in the wilderness, and their rebellion against God, and their distrust of the Lord, and their complaining with the sustenance that God gave. God says, look, compare yourself alongside by side, and look over at them so that you don't duplicate it, because I was not pleased with them. So Asaph has been teaching here that Issues and circumstances from the past need to be understood in the light of current events and problems. This is a very important point. It makes the point that the historical books in the Bible have a higher purpose. They must be read and taught in relation to present situations. And that doesn't mean that we press our modern interpretation upon the text, that's not what we're saying, but we read them in light of their historical situation and learn principles and truths that guide us and direct us now so that we don't fall into the same snares that they did. These things are written that we might not walk a mile in their moccasins, as it's been said. Now listen, this is a father's duty, the leader of the home, to rightly divide the word of truth. That you are the teacher of your family, you are the priest of your home. It's your duty, it's your call from the Lord to properly, rightly divide the Bible and to teach it faithfully to your wife and your children. The Bible is a spiritual book, it is to be discerned spiritually. It tells us in 1 Corinthians 2.14 is to be spiritually discerned and appraised, and this takes preparation. It takes time. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, 15, that a workman needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, that it takes work, that it's sweat, that it's time, it's investment, and that we must labor to rightly interpret the Bible to teach to our family. And here's why we put in the hard work. God's glory is worth it, and the souls of your children are worth it. It's rare. Listen, it is rare for a child to rise above the watermark of a parent's nurture and a parent's instruction. It's rare. The third feature in verse three is to hear God's word, there must be participation. It says in verse three, which we have heard and known and our fathers have recounted to us. I mentioned previously that in the Old Testament, the truth of God was passed down through what's called oral tradition. that they spoke the truth and they passed it down from generation to generation. They didn't have a Bible on their shelf, so the truth about the great exploits of God was transmitted from generation to generation by oral instruction. that parents, fathers namely, were faithful to God, and they taught the truth of God, that the Holy Spirit illumined their mind, gave them these truths, and that they taught them faithfully to their children, and their children would teach them faithfully to their children. So it was passed down. from parents to children. And in this way, God preserved the truth until it was written, until it was compiled, and later was canonized. But the Holy Spirit oversaw the preservation of divine truth. But listen, it was passed down that fathers were entrusted. Not only that, commanded, we'll see in verse 5, that it was a law that was set by God that a father would instruct his children in the great exploits of Yahweh. We see this clearly in Deuteronomy. Chapter 6, verse 6 and 7, listen to the text. The words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. Make it very clear. Remember what God has done. teach it, line up online to your children, rehearse it over and again. It's talking about whenever you walk in the way, the ordinary course of life, whenever you lie down, in the night watch that you teach these truths to your children, when you rise up again. So it's talking about day in, day out, faithfully expounding the works of Almighty God, that we talk about Him, that we bring honor and glory to Him, that we put that mark of Jesus Christ, and we keep driving it, and we keep driving it, and we keep driving it, and we keep driving it, faithfully, because this is God's way of children being brought up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, that they have the imprint in their own hearts by a faithful, godly father, or a faithful, godly mother, if you're a single mom here today. God bound fathers with a law, we'll look at it again, but it's in verse five, to teach this to their children, to rehearse the great acts of God. Then in the mornings, they woke up to the truth of God. Then at night, they fell asleep to the truth of God. At their meals that they were taking, they were recounting God's great wondrous exploits. They were walking in the common duties along the way, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and in the enjoyments of life and in the difficult moments of life, talking about the Lord. It's not hard to see family participation in this. And all this, I can't emphasize this enough, all of this is in a spirit of humility. All this is in genuinity, not an ironclad law where we're thrashing the children with the truth, but in a loving, kind presentation of the wonders of the Lord that we love and serve in our hearts that our children see an example in our lives, in our devotion time, that we're sharing this, that we're teaching, and that we're carrying it on. And I know it's hard, I know that the world is busy, I know that there's other things that try to creep in, but we have to set fences for this glorious truth that our children might know God. It's not hard to read these verses and understand the interactive communication of the truth of God within the context of family. within the context of family, that there's participation. And this pattern, beloved, must be duplicated in our homes. This is a law that has not been retracted, by the way, Ephesians 6, 4. Fathers, here we are, head of the family. It's already been said in Ephesians chapter 5, the father is the head of the wife, he's the head of the home. Do not provoke your children to anger, but fathers, listen, fathers, bring them up in the nurture and in the instruction, the teaching of the Lord. You're a priest in your home, you're to teach, you're to expound, you're to unravel the mysteries of the Word of God. You don't have to have a PhD from a solid reform university to do that. Brother David Miller, my friend that went to be with the Lord a few weeks ago, would say, brothers, it's not rocket science. The second truth is found in verse 4 and 5, and that's the command to instruct. The command to instruct we see here, this comes from the Lord, that the previous generations have followed the commands of the Lord. Now it's our duty as God's people, as fathers, to teach about the Lord to our children. And again, I want to reiterate, I want this to be driven home that it is a father's responsibility primarily to teach truth to his children. God doesn't bypass the authority of a father. Listen, the classes that we have in the local church are supplementary instruction. They are not meant to be the church's soul or the child's soul illumination of spiritual truth. It's to be supplementary. Our teachers that are up teaching, my wife is up there teaching your children right now the truth, that supplements what you are driving home day in and day out in your house. Charles Adams Spurgeon wrote on this, the more of parental teaching, the better. Ministers and Sabbath school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for a mother's tears and a father's prayers. And I would add to that, and a father's instruction. Bring them up and nurture and admonition of the Lord Fathers. This is a statement I want you to hold on to. The womb may be the incubator for a child's spiritual life, but a biblical home is to be the incubator for the child's spiritual life. A womb may be the incubator for the physical life of a baby, but a biblical home is the incubator for a child's spiritual life. There's no replacement. for a biblical home. There's no replacement for a faithful parent that's faithful to the word of the Lord. A home where truth is central and where that truth is shared with a tender loving heart. the things that I'm speaking. I can't emphasize enough, it's not ball and chain legalism, but it is to be the driving force of a humble, nurturing father's heart to nurture his own sons and daughters in the truth that glorify and magnify the King of glory. A couple of features about this command to instruct, it must be faithful. Verse 4, we will not conceal them from their children, but recount them to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh and his strength and his wondrous deeds that he has done. Spurgeon went on to say that our negligent silence shall not deprive our own and our father's offspring of the precious truth of God. He says, it would be shameful indeed if we did so. Christians are fastidious about educating the minds of their children to prepare them for life, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I say, more power to you, and we must do that. It's only right and it's biblical. But listen, we are to be fastidious about educating the hearts of our children to prepare them for maternity. And we think, start a college fund whenever they're two years old to prepare them for life, but then are we delinquent in preparing their hearts for eternity? Now listen, I understand that God must act upon a child's heart, but God brings into play the means that God has ordained in parenting and instruction and faithfulness and the teaching of children, the eternal truths of God is all brought into that. We can't throw that out. God has means unto ends. So we need to be faithful about educating their hearts, teaching them the precepts of God that they might be prepared for eternity. Listen, let me ask this question. Are we helping our children gain the world while they lose their souls? It's an important question. It's painful, but it's important. Asaph here, who is the author of this psalm, used of the Holy Spirit to write, declares the faithfulness in teaching of the children. He says, we will not conceal from their children, but we will recount, right? We will teach. The Hebrew word here behind this English word recount, it literally means to declare. It can mean to write down on a document, but the idea is that a truth will not be withheld, a truth will be disclosed, this truth will be faithfully declared. It's so true oftentimes in all of our lives, including mine, that our good intentions are conquered by present distractions. We intend to do family worship, we intend to teach our children the ways and works of God, but then that text message comes through of our friend that wants to meet us for golf and he's paying, or whatever else might tempt us at the moment. that that hunting lease that we've been drooling over for the last 20 years, now all of a sudden some buddy has it and he's invited us to go out there and that's where all the big bucks roam. Then the next day some other issue arises, the next day something else comes up, and then before long we realize that months have passed and years have passed and all of those good intentions have been drowned out by the cares of this life, as we see in Matthew 13, 22. And here's my challenge for each of you fathers, develop non-negotiables. Set times, schedule moments to where you will not allow distractions to circumvent your time in teaching the truth of God to your children. This is something that you have to battle through and purpose in your heart. This is a willing, overt rejection of any distractions, as many or as varied as they may be, that would impair your godly parenting. That you've got to discipline yourself unto godliness, being the godliness of biblical parenthood. that we've got to set up fences to guard our time, fences to guard our godly disciplines, and that we have to come to an agreement with God and even our wives that we will not allow this moment to pass or this moment to be stolen by some trivial thing in this life. A couple of features here, we're talking about Faithful instruction. Here in verse 4 and 5, we see a command to instruct and the instruction must be faithful. A couple of features about faithful instruction. Faithful instruction is a truth that has to be declared. Verse 4, look at it with me. They recount to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh and His strength and His wondrous deeds that He has done. You can go on and read the rest of the 78. Asaph is going to take us back to the Exodus. He's going to narrate the powerful demonstrations of the Lord that were carried out in open sight of the people of God. He mentions the Red Sea as God has split it. He mentions the people of God crossing in the hand of Yahweh, verse 13, holding back the waters. He mentions the presence of God that led the children of Israel in a cloud by day and a fire by night." In verse 14 we see that. Verse 14 to 16 he mentions the provision of the Lord in the barren regions of Sinai's wilderness. And here we see that he calls for faithful proclamation of this truth. to teach and instruct the children, your family, in the great exploits of God. Show the spiritual significance. Be a faithful expounder of the Word of God, you priestly family men. and that you bring out the spiritual type, that the exodus of the children of God out of the land of Egypt is a type of God bringing us out of the dearth of sin and the tyranny of Satan, that God brings us out miraculously, that we cross through, and it's by the blood of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit that we're birthed into a new kingdom, and that God protects and that He's with us. He promises to never leave or forsake us. Listen, fathers, open your Bible and expound these truths to your children. I think wisdom needs to be used and we don't wanna spend an hour every night, but take 10 minutes to go to God and pray with them and to open your Bible and expound their need of a savior to reveal what God says about their sin-bound heart and the folly of a child that's bound up inwardly and his need of a deliverer to come. Like God sent a deliverer to Egypt, his name was Moses, that we have a true and better Moses. His name is Jesus Christ and he leads us out of the tyranny the prison of sin and brings us into this goodly land that we call salvation, where the great shepherd shepherds the sheep, and that fathers expound this to your children, to the praises of our triune God. Magnify the great, wonderful strength and deeds of God and show how all of redemptive history climaxes in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Fathers, be faithful. The second portion of faithful instruction is to understand that it's a command to be obeyed. Look at verse 5. Now I want you fathers especially, or you single moms, all of us together, look at this. For he established a testimony in Jacob and set a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children. As we've already covered, that the transmission of divine truth was a command that God imposed upon the fathers in the home. It was not a suggestion to them, it was a command given to them. That the authority of the father is not bypassed by God, because headship is the design of God. That the husband is the head of the wife, that he is the priest, the head of the home. He's the primary custodian of The children. There's something to be said about God-ordained responsibility that God's given to a father. A mother's nurture is critical. Can a mother teach the children? Absolutely. But look at me, she's secondary to the husband. He is to be the primary teacher of the children of the Word of God. We've seen such a sad tendency over the last 100 years that usually the spiritual leader in the home is the wife. And it's such a reversal of God's protocol, it's a reversal of God's wisdom, that God has given authority to the father to lead the family, to the father to teach his children, to the father, to grandfathers to teach children. so that we have a mandate, fathers, to teach the Bible to our children and to shoot it straight, to cut it straight, to rightly divide it, as it says in Timothy. You have a biblical mandate to be faithful in the bringing of your family to church, and to be faithful in church attendance where the Word of God is preached and taught. You have a biblical mandate to oversee the behaviors and the attitudes of your children, the alertness of your children while they are in church. Do not let your children sit with other children. You don't want two children bound up with foolishness in their heart to sit and for that to catch a flame and to burn to where both of them burn and burn in their sin in the church. Have them sit with you. And fathers, be attentive. Pay attention to them. Pay attention. See if they are listening. If they are not, it's your responsibility, because of the gravity of the moment, because of the seriousness of the word preached, because of the way that God uses divine truth preached in the power of the Spirit, it's your responsibility to make sure your children are listening and alert. I don't understand if they're six months old. It's a different story. There's not an opt-out of this, is there? Brothers, I want you to hear me. You must man up. You must man up and be biblical. You must man up and be the theologian of the home. You must man up and recount the wondrous deeds of the Lord to your children and be faithful when they get up in the morning, when they go to bed in the evening, when you're walking with them in the ordinary corridors of life. Teach them. Listen, Ephesians 6-4, or says, do not provoke them to wrath, but bring them up, fathers, in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. That is not a misprint. That is not a scribal error. That's the wisdom of God in the midst of a generation that is contrary to God. It's the duty of a father, a Christian man, to lead the family in the spiritual truths of God. to be an example, to be the primary teacher, to be the spiritual leader, to be exemplary to where the children, when they look at you, they see a man faithfully serving God, that you're the family priest, you're the family minister, and I want you to get what verse five says. This is a command from God. Reread verse five. God commands the fathers to diligently teach God's truth to their children. Secondly, and I'll just be quick on this, and I'm gonna go and we'll be done. This biblical instruction must be faithful, but it must also be factual. Verse four says, we will not conceal them from their children. We will account to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh and his strength and his wondrous deeds that he has done. Biblical instruction must be biblical. I'm not saying that tongue in cheek. I know we've already talked about this, but we must teach the whole counsel of God and the Bible is not about you and me, it's about God. His wondrous deeds, recount what He's done. That every filament from Genesis all the way to Revelation find their climactic point in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Use opportunity to show the glories of Christ. Use those moments to show and to use the Old Testament to show how they make a beeline to the cross and glorify the Lord of glory. Recount his wondrous deeds. Talk about the demonstration of the strength of God because that will garner praises for God. Be dogmatically biblical, my brothers, when you're teaching the Bible to your children. Be dogmatically biblical. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 2, you're very familiar, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Let that be your motif. Let that be what drives you, that you're teaching Christ and Christ crucified, because the whole climactic point of the Bible is that sentence of statement. It's all about Christ. It's all about what He's done. Let me close in verse 6 to 8 with a critical intent. Why should we teach? Why should we have spiritual leadership in our fathers in Christendom? Why should we catechize our children? Why should we faithfully gather them for family worship? Why should we assert godliness in our headship as fathers? Because listen, it's radically counter-cultural. It's even a rare jewel in the context of the broader evangelical church. But you've got to hear the truth. God's design is not faulty. God's design is not faulty, it's fruitful. And here, Asaph gives four powerful motivations for us to obey God in the faithful teaching of our children. Number one, we see that he does this so that they might know. We teach so that they might know. Look at verse six. So that the generation to come, and you might underscore this, that they might know, even children yet to be born, that they might arise and recount them to their children, that they might know. Biblically informed children are not born, they're taught. They're faithfully taught. That each generation of faithful men has a responsibility to teach children so that the next generation might know. And I don't think I'd be in error to suggest that the children of our generation have less biblical knowledge than any generation that's preceded ours. Less biblical knowledge. So brothers, listen to me, now's the time to respond. Now's the time to repent. Now's the time to return to the Scriptures. Now's the time to recognize the authority that God's given to us as fathers and to teach the children the Word of God. Note the word know here literally means to acquire knowledge, that they might know, that they might acquire knowledge. Knowledge, by the way, is the forerunner to faith. Faith must have knowledge to latch on to. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the words of Christ. We go back to the prophet Hosea's day. He taught that my people, God's people, are destroyed for their lack of knowledge, Hosea 4, 6 tells us, and that it's the knowledge of Christ that solicits personal faith. The knowledge of Christ solicits personal faith. It's the facts about the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus that arrests our confidence and our trust in Him. And that it's a father's responsibility to share the gospel faithfully so that the children might have this truth implanted, this indentation in their heart that they might call upon the Lord, that they might put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. that they hear the glories of Christ, the wonders of his accomplishments over and over, that the recounting of the wondrous deeds of the Lord are taught again and again and again, and that this will lead to our children having trust in this Messiah. Fathers, listen, use your moments with your children for instruction. Use your mornings for the truth of Christ. Use your evenings for gospel conversations. Recount the truth to your children repetitively. Listen, you have 18 years, plus or minus, to repeat this truth, that it might be deeply seeded in their minds, that it might, by God's grace, take hold of their hearts. Listen, God uses the knowledge of His Son to rescue sinners. That's why Pastor Jason is over there thundering the gospel. proclaiming the facts, the truths about Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection, that they might be saved, that they might be rescued. And in the context of the home, this is your high call, fathers, or single mothers. This is your explicit duty. Don't default on what you've been commissioned by God to carry out. Secondly, the truth is critical that they might believe, verse 7, that they should set their confidence in God, Note that, that they might set their confidence in God, who? The children, and not forget the deeds of God, but observe His commandments. No sinner has ever been converted apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is no teacher like that of a father or a mother, especially a father. The family is a nursery where gospel seeds are sown and gospel seeds are nurtured. The family is a tutor where Christ is exampled, albeit imperfectly, but yet truly, where we example Christ. The family is an environment of love where gospel seeds become incubated. We have seven days a week to teach, to nurture our children with gospel seeds, that God's ordained means of grace for all of our children. And foremost, I repeat again, it is a father's instruction and a father's headship and a father's responsibility. You read the first seven chapters of the book of Proverbs, the great wisdom of the Lord, and we see there again and again the Father's instruction is mentioned. We see in chapter 3 starting in verse 1, "'My son,' he says, "'do not forget my law, but let your heart guard my commandments. For the length of days and the years of life and peace they will add to you, but do not let loving kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so that you will find favor and good insight in the eyes of God and He's saying, listen, what I've been teaching you since you was a little bitty boy or since you was a little bitty girl, bind them around your heart. Remember the instruction from your childhood that I have recounted the great exploits of God and the faithfulness of Yahweh. Never forget this. Always bind this to your heart. And what do we have there? We have included in this a father's faithful declaration for his sons and his daughters to recount the ways of God that he has taught over a lifetime. A father's impact on his children is immeasurable. Immeasurable. The value cannot be calculated. And why do we continue? In the day in and day out, it seems like it's going nowhere. It seems we're not seeing any fruit yet, but we are faithfully instructing, number one, because God's commanded, and number two, it's the only means that God used that they hear the truth that they might respond in faith. Listen, how many are in Christ because of a parent's faithful teaching? How many are in sin today because of the lack of it? Listen, the clock of opportunity is ticking. The moments of opportunity that are missed can be forevermore lost. So, fathers, take advantage of your moments. A Christ-centered home is irreplaceable. Listen, a biblical church cannot replace what God's commanded to take place in the home. We cannot bypass God's structure and God's wisdom for the home, we cannot. Gospel-driven, instructional time, faithful gospel time in the home, and I'm a big proponent of family worship, not legal, but yet nurturing, Purpose-driven, worship of the Lord, teaching of the children faithfully is biblical and it's God-ordained. It's God's truth. This truth is critical so that our children might teach, look at verse 6, that they should teach them to their children and that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born. Again, we've already talked about the Old Testament. Our truth was given from generation to generation and the family was the first line of instruction in the economy of God, the family, the family. And if we want our children to be faithful as parents, we must be faithful to them as parents. The best parents are those that have been best parented, parented by godly people. And again, I know that that's, I'm just talking, that's norm, it's normatively, I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but let me exhort you as parents, be the parent that you want your sons and your daughters to example to their children. Let them see your faithful instruction, let them feel your nurture, your love, And we're going to do this with the right spirit. We're going to do this with tenderness and love and nurturing. If we do this with law, we'll drive them away. But if we do them with grace, they will be wooed by Christ. And we all know this, that children oftentimes example their parents, whether it would be for the good or for the bad. So it's our responsibility to set that standard, to raise that standard. And there is time. Make your home a gospel incubator. Teach the children, remind the children, example before the children. Teach the children, instruct them, example before them. It says over and over again, make the center of your home life Jesus Christ. Faithful instruction and truth is of immeasurable value for your children. Finally, this truth is critical so that they might persevere. Verse 8, look at it with me and we'll be done. And not be like their fathers, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Spoken here in the negative to give a warning to the disaster and wait if we fail to teach and instruct our children God-centered truth. That's what's going to happen if we don't teach. The previous generation was not faithful to the Lord. Their hearts were not right. They did not teach their children. The children grew up in stubbornness and rebellion. They grew harder day by day. They were calloused. This is such a warning to us. I don't want my children or my grandchildren to grow up as rebels and enemies of God. I want them to hear that they might know and to know that they might trust and to trust that they might train. And let me exhort you tonight, parents that are here, grandparents, be faithful to God in your home. Be faithful to God in family worship. It's that important. I thank God for our homeschool families. I thank God for our Christian school parents, but that is not enough. We cannot cast the responsibility that God gave to us upon other people and expect a good outcome. The influence of godly teachers is secondary to ours. God's entrusted your children to you. And the instruction is bound upon a father, it's the responsibility of a father. Yes, keep them in good Christian curriculum, keep them in a good Christian school, in a homeschool where Christ is being adored and loved. But fathers, you lead your family biblically, you lead your family faithfully and teach. Fathers, look at me, you only get one shot at this. And it goes so quick. Lead your family according to the scriptures. Follow the wisdom of God. Be the Bible teacher in your home. So thankful for the guidance the Holy Spirit gives us through Asaph, that we can incline our ears to the words of the Lord, amending our ways to glorify Christ, teaching our children the gospel over and over. Listen, fathers, there's not a replacement for you. There's not a replacement for you. Be found faithful. Let me end with a word of exhortation to fathers that have messed up. There's mercy for you. Not all of us had this teaching as young men, did we? Not all of us saw this or understood this as young men, and we did not act as we should have or teach as we should have. We're not faithful to the Lord as we should have been. Don't throw condemnation upon yourself. Remember that the cross is both deep and wide and that there's mercy in the Lord. There's forgiveness in Christ. I've missed the boat so many times parenting, but I don't want to go back and repeat it with my grandkids. So no matter where you're at, lay hold of God now and began to make him known in your home faithfully from this moment on. So my kids are grown and out of the home, but you still have them over. Talk with them about Jesus. You have a wife that you can share the gospel about with and see that she is sanctified through the word of truth. Take the moments that you have, make Christ central to your home. And for those of you that it may have not been biblical, run to Christ for mercy because He is merciful. Amen. Lord, we're so thankful for what we've received in this psalm where all of us feel like we fall short of this mark. But Lord, fill us with your spirit that we might be strong in the Lord. Help us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Help us to look away from ourself and to look to Him. And help us to be bold and help us to be biblical. that our children and our grandchildren and the generation not yet born will know the great exploits of our God and the faithfulness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in His cross work. Lord be with us tonight. We're so thankful for those that have come out on this Wednesday night. Lord this instruction is so critically important. It's your way. It's your wisdom. Help us to apply it in our lives. And we ask all this in the wonderful name of Christ.