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Ephesians 6:1-3
Amen and amen.
If your Bible's like mine, it just naturally opens up to the book of Ephesians, right?
Here we are in Ephesians chapter 6.
We embark this morning upon the very final chapter of
Ephesians.
That means, I would imagine, within a year or so, we should be finished with this
wonderful book.
I think next we're going to look at 1 Samuel, but I don't know.
Pray for me in that.
I want to begin the message today by asking you to just imagine with me, consider, if you will, what it
would be like if in the center of the city of Perryville, there was a great
mound of, let's just say, gold, some sort of treasure, some sort of
valuable commodity.
Let's say in the middle of the city is this great mound of gold, and it really is
free for us to come and take and to use for the betterment of ourselves or for the betterment
of society even.
But let's say you go to the center of the city and you begin to notice after some years that people begin to take that
gold and they begin to abuse it, or they begin to mistreat it, or they begin to neglect it
altogether.
They look around and they have resources that they could go to and use, and yet there is the pile of
gold that they leave untapped, or they begin to use it for
strange things.
You go down to the baseball field, and what they're using for a baseball is now a chunk of gold.
And you think, don't you understand, sir, ma 'am, don't you understand what you're doing?
Little boy, don't you understand how wonderful a treasure it is that you hold in your hands, and
now you're just knocking it around as though it's valueless.
But what if I told you this morning that that is an analogy of an
infinitely greater commodity, an infinitely greater treasure,
an infinitely greater value in our society today?
There is a great value, a great gift, a great wonder given to us from our
high and holy God that society today has treated
as valueless, worthless, a burden.
Of course, I'm talking about the treasure of children.
Ephesians chapter 6, we talk today from the
text of children and the church.
Would you stand with me as we read this passage?
I'll just read the first three verses.
Providentially, that means next week, verse 4, on Father's Day, is fathers,
do not provoke your children to anger.
It's only appropriate if I preach on Mother's Day, wives submit to your husband, that I should have to preach on Father's Day to
fathers raising your children.
So now we come to honor the reading of God's word.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 1, children, obey your parents
in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor your father and mother.
This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the
land.
Let's pray.
Father, would you help us to understand the great treasure that is our children?
Help us to understand this text rightly.
Help us to understand the great weight that is upon this text and the great necessity of this text
in our society today.
Help us to understand also and chiefly how this text points us to Christ.
We pray your blessing over the preaching of the word and that we would respond in faith.
And we pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.
You can be seated.
I want to make a note for a moment here.
Considering the way that Paul uses the Ten Commandments in making an
application to a largely Gentile church.
Now, I may come back to this in a couple of weeks.
Actually, it will be after I return from Mexico.
I may come back to this and preach a whole sermon on how we ought to think through this.
But just notice here, to a largely Gentile church, Paul quotes the Ten Commandments.
In other words, he doesn't just say, well, that was just something for Israel.
He actually quotes to the church, honor your father and mother.
This is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land.
So, I want to encourage you with something.
As Christians, we do not do away with God's law.
Paul quotes what we call the moral law here, a summation of the moral law,
which is even further summarized by Christ when He says, love the Lord your God with everything and love your neighbor as
yourself.
Paul quotes this, and so we don't do away, or Paul didn't do away with God's moral law.
But now we understand that we're not justified by it, that we're not standing under its
condemnation.
But now as believers, the law of God is written on our hearts.
That's the promise of the New Covenant, right?
And even that's why Paul says, children, obey your parents in the Lord.
Let me read to you a quote from Kevin DeYoung.
He says, salvation is not the reward for obedience.
Salvation is the reason for obedience.
Jesus does not say, if you obey my commandments, I will love you.
Instead, He first washes the feet of His disciples and then says, if you love me,
you will keep my commandments.
All of our doing is only because of what He has
first done for us.
I want you to consider this as we examine the text today.
And let me exhort us that since we're talking about obedience, that
our salvation is procured only by perfect
obedience.
That is, Christ secured our salvation by His
perfect obedience.
And He purchased our pardon by His own blood, death, burial, and
bodily resurrection.
So let me encourage you, children, you need to hear this as we think about the text today.
And adults, by the way, you need this too, but you can't obey your way into the kingdom of God.
Right?
You cannot obey your way into God's kingdom.
Rather, Jesus says, you must be born again.
Those who are born again desire to live now under the righteous rule
of Christ as King.
But that's perhaps for a couple of weeks.
We'll address that a little bit later in the sermon.
Today's sermon is Children and the Church.
So I just want to make some observations from the text concerning children and the church.
Some of these observations will be slightly more topical, and it'll take a few points to get warmed up before we dive
directly into what the text is saying.
But the first observation is this.
Number one, children are a blessing.
Okay?
Observation number one I want to make here is that children are a blessing.
Now, I understand that the text does not say that to us.
It doesn't say children are a blessing.
However, it is given within a whole Bible context that portrays
children not as a burden, not as a killjoy, not as a menace,
but as a blessing.
Psalm 127 .3 that was read earlier in the service.
Behold, children are a heritage from Yahweh.
The fruit of the womb, a reward.
Friends, if you get nothing else out of this first point, get this.
Children are a gift of God.
They are, whether they're in your family by natural birth, whether they're in your family by
adoption, children are very high on, of all the good gifts that God gives to the
children of men, to the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, of all the great gifts that God gives,
children are very, very high on that list.
I preached a few weeks ago about the household.
And I preached about how the home is under attack today.
I want to encourage you with something, church.
We may not understand the full ramifications of the attack on the home today, if we do not
understand the attack that is being made, the war that is being waged today
on our children.
Children are under attack in our society.
They are a despised treasure.
Let me give you some stats.
The CDC, which if you're, you know, completely trusting the CDC today,
I don't know what to tell you, but I wouldn't.
But their numbers tend to be on the low side.
The CDC reported in 2020 that there were
600 ,000 abortions in the United States.
They're probably on the low side.
Other sites report closer to one million.
Okay, if you sort of split the difference between those numbers, then what you come
up with is appalling.
Every day, statistically speaking, every
day, statistically today,
2 ,000 children will be murdered in the
womb of their mothers.
You understand that the safest place on earth for a child is the womb of its mother.
And our godless society has taken the war not just into the home, but into the
very womb, killing children.
It goes further than that, though.
In the U .S., the fertility rate, that is, how many children are being born per woman,
is dropping significantly.
200 years ago, per woman, the number was six and a half.
That is, if you look around to a family with, say, four, five, six, seven kids, it wasn't odd.
It was normal.
You think, no big deal, that's average, 200 years ago.
A hundred years ago, it was just over three.
So again, you look around, you say, okay, family with three, four, five kids, okay, no big deal, that's average.
In 1960, it went up a little bit to over three and a half.
So again, big families in the 60s and 70s, not that odd.
But in 2020, that number, the fertility rate, that is, the average number of children
per woman in the United States, 1 .7.
Now, that's very significant.
Do you understand that statisticians say, if the birth rate falls under 2 .1,
you no longer have an increasing population.
That just makes sense, right?
You understand there needs to be two children per woman to replace mother and father.
So anytime a society, that number falls below 2 .1, that speaks volumes to the
society, and it means that the society itself, by population, is decreasing.
So it is at 1 .7.
We are in decline.
So even today, in conservative circles, having one kid, you're called responsible.
Having two, okay, that's acceptable.
But having more than that, people start making jokes about it, or they give you weird looks in Walmart or whatever.
Our society and the cost of things and events, all of that is geared toward small families.
Families with maybe one child, maybe two at the most, because children are a pain.
Now, listen to me.
I'm not up here preaching.
The Bible does not say that you have to have a specific number of children, right?
And I disagree that you physically have to have as many children as you can physically possibly
have, right?
I don't think that's what the Bible is teaching us either.
However, we cannot get past this concept that children in the
Bible are a blessing of God.
And if children in the Bible, and this is true, they are a blessing of God, then surely the church today must push back
on the accepted norms that exist in our society that call children a burden
to endure, or even parasites to eliminate.
Let me give you one more example.
States today, this just happened this week.
The one was a few weeks ago, Washington.
But following suit was California, and we probably can assume there'll be more liberal states
do this.
But they're scrambling to pass laws to make it easier for children,
right?
Children who are too young to drive, too young to smoke a cigarette, too young to buy
alcoholic beverages, too young to vote on who's president, too young to fight in the army.
These states are saying these children, though, are old enough to decide which gender
they want to be.
And this is in California and Washington already.
And if you push back as a parent, there is a possibility, if not a probability,
that you could be counted as abusing your child.
And you could lose custody of your children, because you disagree
with the world today that says children can choose whatever gender they want to choose.
Now you take an honest assessment of all these things I've just said, and I could say so many more, and
you come to a different conclusion other than the reality that our society hates
children.
There is no other conclusion.
Now why is that?
That goes all the way back to Genesis 3, right?
The seed of the woman.
You understand the reason that the devil is overthrown is because of a child, right?
The promised one, Christ, born of the Virgin Mary.
We see a war on children in the Scriptures and throughout the history of the world, and we see it again today.
So understand today that children are a blessing.
Do not miss the point that the Bible teaches that children are a gift from God, and our society seeks to murder them.
And if it can't murder them, they will minimize them, and they will mutilate them.
Secondly, children ought to be addressed from the pulpit.
So just some observations first, and then I'm going to get to the point of the text in just a moment.
But secondly, children ought to be addressed from the pulpit.
Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.
Now, it's an amazing thing here, what I'm trying to say, it's an amazing thing of what Paul does.
He doesn't tell parents what the children should do.
You may almost expect Paul to say, dads, moms, teach your children to be obedient.
But he doesn't do that.
Look at the text.
He doesn't say, teach your children to be obedient.
What does he say?
He addresses children.
Children, think about this.
The Apostle Paul is writing not just to mommy and daddy, he's writing to you.
Paul is writing this letter even to the children in our congregation.
And so the idea is that this letter would be read by the church.
And so Paul shows that he believes children are fellow image bearers of God.
They're not subclass humans.
The ones who are saved are not subclass Christians.
Further, children, you are accountable before God.
You listening to this?
What Paul says here, he holds you accountable to.
So this is just a reminder when we preach, when we teach, we need to remember that we're preaching to children as
well.
This should help the way that we think about our sermon structure.
I understand it doesn't mean that every child is going to remember, you know, or understand even all the big words.
But it does mean that we should preach with the understanding that children are going to be in the worship
service.
That leads me to my third observation, and that is children should be in the main gathering of the church.
Children should be in the main gathering of the church.
Why don't we have children's church?
Wouldn't that be easier?
Y 'all, this is a mild Sunday, isn't it?
Like all the children, I don't know what happened this morning, but they're all in unison in their
quietness.
But that hasn't been every Sunday, has it?
Some Sundays, they have all eaten cinnamon rolls or something, and they're
all making noises, right?
And you think for a moment, wouldn't it be easier so the adults can worship?
Wouldn't it be easier to get these rugrats out of here and teach them on their own level?
Well, Paul says here in verse 1, children, obey your parents.
He's addressing children in this letter.
In other words, I think that if Paul were to walk into a service today, and if he were to see the
children dismissed to another room, I think that he would be simply dumbfounded, if
not irritated, if not angry.
By Paul addressing children in this letter, he lets us know that the truth contained
in this letter is not just meant for the adults.
You understand?
But by writing to the children, in other words, he's writing through this, and he says husbands, he says
wives, he says masters, he says servants, slaves.
He also says children.
In other words, all this truth in the Scripture, all these things in this letter, they're not just for
one class of Christian.
They're for everyone, including the children.
Now, I think that we've been conditioned by the education system in America to believe in the test
analysis.
That is, if a child can't give you back the three points from the sermon, then he or
she isn't learning anything.
Which, I might make this comment, a preacher better be careful asking the adults
what the points of the sermon were, right?
Because he might be disappointed.
But what we have to know is this.
As children are in the service, they are learning.
We must take a holistic approach, not this narrow, do the test approach, right?
Week in and week out, they're looking at mommy and daddy, they're looking at the adults, they're seeing the
servants of the church, they're seeing the elders, they're looking, they're seeing the singing, they're seeing the giving, they're seeing
the preaching, they're doing all of these things, they're praying, they're fellowshipping, and they're learning.
Now, someone says, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, we let children participate in all that, but right before the sermon,
we send them out to something that they can understand better.
But I would say this.
If we relegate them to children's church right before the sermon, then they miss
what it looks like for a congregation to sit under the preaching of the Word of God.
Our children should look at us and they should see we're not on our phones, we're not worried about the
newspaper or eating or whatever, we're sitting under the Word of God, we're eyes
ahead, we're looking at the pastor, we're looking at our Bible, we're taking notes, our children are learning
through all of these things.
I get that children can be fussy, especially young children, especially babies, fussy, messy, noisy,
but I'm telling you, I have personally preached in places where the only children
were my own, and the sound of silence in those places was deafening.
Don't despise the treasure of children.
Paul expected that our children would be in the main gathering.
Why would we not want to replicate that in our churches today?
Fourthly, children should be exhorted to believe on
Christ.
Paul says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
So here's just a logical conclusion from these other points.
If children are to be preached to, and if children are to be in the main gathering of the church, it
also follows that children should be exhorted to believe on
Children are not automatically members of the new covenant community.
I'm going to use a verse that's often used to say contrary to this, but I'm going to use it to prove my position.
And that is, Jesus says to the children, or to his disciples, let the little children,
what?
Come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.
That is, the children are not already in Christ, they need to come to Christ, and they ought to be exhorted
to come to Christ, and to trust Christ in saving faith and in repentance, knowing that it is his good
will to bestow the kingdom only upon those who repent and believe the gospel.
The kingdom of heaven is only for those who are born again.
You are not in the kingdom of heaven by virtue of being a child, even if you're a child of believing parents or
grandparents.
You're not in the covenant because of that.
It belongs, rather, the new covenant belongs to children and adults who
come to Christ, trusting his promises.
So I'm going to contradict myself for a moment, right?
If you've been ever waiting for me to make a contradiction of myself, here it is.
Earlier, I told you that the Bible has a very high view of children.
Here's the contradiction.
The Bible has a very low view of children as well.
Now, what do I mean by that?
The Bible understands children as sinners.
Psalm 51 .5, for example, says, David writes, Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
That is, the Bible understands from the moment of our conception that we have inherited the guilt and sin
nature of our father, Adam.
And we're born fallen in Adam.
This is one reason, by the way, that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
And there are many examples in the Scriptures, but we're going to do a little test today.
Many examples in the Scriptures of children.
I shouldn't say test, examination, really.
Many examples in the Bible of children as sinners.
But let me give you one.
Turn to 2 Kings.
2 Kings 2.
We'll come right back.
But the Bible understands children as a gift, as a treasure, but
it also sees children as sinners.
And so, I want to read a passage you may or may not be familiar with, but this is 2 Kings
2.
In 2 Kings 2, verse 23, this is talking
about the prophet Elisha.
Elisha.
He went up from there to Bethel.
That is, Elisha.
And while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered
at him,.
Saying,.
Go up, you bald head!
Just something like little boys would do, right?
Come out and make fun of the prophet.
But before you're ready to say something to Pastor Jacob, you need to think
about this next verse.
And he turned around and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh.
And two she -bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys.
This is the Bible.
This is the Word of God.
It teaches us in this passage, I'll just make two comments for our purposes.
First, it teaches us the
responsibility that children have for their sins.
And it teaches us also that God does not take lightly
little boys despising His prophet, Elisha,
but by implication, His Word.
By jeering at Elisha, they were jeering at the Word of God.
And God does not take lightly these little boys doing that.
Two bears?
42 of them?
What I'm saying to you, friends, is that we must understand that the Bible sees children as
responsible before God for their sin.
So where am I getting with all that?
Simply that we should exhort children just like we exhort adults to
turn from their sin, right?
And to find the mercy and peace and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who is only
available to sinners.
I'm trying to tell you that children this morning do not need a gospel life.
They do not just need veggie -tale moralism.
They do not need Bible -story crafts that miss the hero of the Scriptures, namely
Jesus.
We are being quite wicked.
To our children.
If we withhold from them, if we pretend that they have a different way to God than we
do.
That if them just being children by virtue of their childhood they're right with God.
Friends, our children need Jesus.
Christ is not just our Christ available to us, He is our children's Christ available to them.
But they must be exhorted, they must understand that they have offended a holy God, justly deserve the
death and hell and wrath of God, but that in Christ God has made a way of atonement for
their sins by punishing His Son for the ungodly and if they will repent
and believe the gospel, trusting Christ alone as their only suitable and all -sufficient Savior
they can have a right relationship with God and full pardon for their sins.
Summertime is VBS.
Let us do away with any sort of vacation Bible school that would teach our
children only this.
God loves you.
And wants you to have a happy life.
Friends,.
That's not the gospel and our children need the gospel.
Fifthly,.
Children should be taught the Ten Commandments and just an observation here, children obey your parents
and the Lord for this is right.
Honor your father and mother, this is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may
live long in the land.
In other words, Paul is teaching the children here the Fifth Commandment and again, this is a
largely Gentile church and yet Paul ties his instructions to the moral law of God to
the Ten Commandments so Paul takes a command from a specific context given to Israel but
adapts the promise and attaches the promise attached and he shows that the
application of the Ten Commandments goes much broader than physical Israel.
So for those who say there's no application or no necessity of the Ten Commandments in the church today I would say you misunderstand
what Paul understood.
You misunderstand what Paul does here with this instruction.
And so my point here is if the Apostle Paul thought it was prudent to teach the children the commandments
and the right application then why wouldn't parents do that?
For more on that read chapter 19 of the 1689.
Okay, now can we get to the purpose of the text?
Yes, preacher.
Point six.
Children.
Should be taught.
Obedience.
We come to the point in one sense of the text not that everything else that I said this morning didn't have to do with the text but we
explicitly see that Paul commands this is an imperative.
Children imperative means a command.
He's not suggesting this to you.
He's not saying.
It would be a good idea if when you think about it to maybe you know do what your mama says.
No he says.
And by the way children obey your parents.
It's not just about fathers dads and moms.
Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
This is right this is God's design.
We've talked about hierarchy and structure in the family.
Well this applies not just with husbands and wives but it also applies with our children and
this is good.
Do you think.
That our society erasing these distinctions between men and women erasing
these distinctions between authority.
And and.
Oughtness.
Morality do you think.
Our society.
Is better off by doing these things?
I am convinced that our nation is under.
The judgment.
Of God.
This morning in Philadelphia a truck blew up.
I think it was an accident but it destroyed the northbound lane.
Of.
Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that's one of the main interstates in the United States.
That is a terrible tragedy for the city of Philadelphia but not just the city of
Philadelphia even the entire eastern coast.
In a sense they're going to have some major problems with that.
I don't think it's coincidence that stuff like that happens in the very month that we stand.
Before God.
And shake our fist at Him abuse His rainbow and say we're going to do what we want.
Friends.
Our nation is under judgment and we have to understand.
That part of the reason.
Is because.
Not just in 2023 but in 1993 in 1973.
And.
Maybe even back to 1953 families begin.
To lose the order.
And structure.
That God has given us in the home.
We must recover this.
This is.
God's.
Good.
Design.
Think about the reality of what happens when children are not reared in homes.
Where they're.
Expected to obey.
I've seen it.
I've worked.
In secular counseling before and the response of secular counseling is what this kid needs.
Is.
A pill when really what they need is a disciplining.
Father.
Who's absent from the home.
When children are not taught to obey in the home it affects society.
They grew up they hate authority they don't care they have a poor work ethic.
If you remember from Romans 1 when we think about Romans 1 we think about the sexual sins.
But did you know that one of the judgments of God upon a society it says later in Romans 1.
Children are disobedient to parents.
They have no respect.
They have no respect for adults.
They they.
Call adults by their first name.
Like.
Like it's nothing.
They.
Don't say yes sir or yes ma 'am or things like that you know.
Obvious.
Obvious words of submission and understanding Paul expects.
Here though.
That children.
Would obey.
Their parents in fact.
He requires.
Right.
And let me just make this note here children obey your parents.
So so the idea.
Children are not the state's children.
So if you.
Hear.
A state.
Official.
Talk about.
Our children.
He's full of.
Nonsense.
The children are not the state's.
And even they're not the church's.
Children are under God the parents.
In these verses God connects a specific duty.
Of children.
To parents and of course by implication parents to children.
Because this is.
A special relationship that God has ordained between the family and the home.
So children.
Listen up I'm going to talk to you for a moment.
We good.
The Lord.
Says that you ought to obey your parents
and the scriptures teach us that to obey is better than sacrifice.
So listen.
Here.
If you come to.
Sunday school and you're a good little.
Boy.
A good little.
Girl.
You memorize your Psalm 96 like you're supposed to.
You.
Know.
The songs that we sing on Wednesday.
Nights.
And you know the songs that we sing on Sunday morning.
You do all of.
These things.
But yet.
At home you don't.
Obey.
And honor your parents.
Are not.
Pleasing.
To God.
Colossians 320 says it this way.
Obey your parents and everything for this pleases.
So children let me ask you this morning do you trust Christ.
It pleases.
God.
That as you.
Put your faith in Christ.
As you seek.
To follow Christ then you seek.
To obey.
And honor.
Your parents.
This brings pleasure to God it pleases.
You are to.
The text says.
Your parents in the Lord.
It's right.
For you to obey them as offspring.
That's just.
Natural.
The wolf pup ought to obey the wolf mom.
A natural.
Thing.
But no.
It's beyond.
Just natural.
It's obedience in the Lord.
Obey them.
As servants.
Of Christ let me tell.
You this.
Obedience is blessed.
Verse 3.
That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that it may go well.
With you.
You may live.
Long.
In the land.
This is a.
General principle that you need to believe.
It's not an iron clad promise but I'm.
Just going.
To tell.
You something.
I know.
This as.
A parent it doesn't take children to get 16 years of.
Age.
Before they think they're smarter.
Than you.
It takes them.
Maybe.
To about 18 months.
Or something.
Right but children God has given you wise
and all the children I'm looking at.
In here.
Godly parents.
You should.
Listen to your parents because when they tell you don't do that don't hang out
with that person don't put this in your body.
You should think about this in your work.
Ethic.
You should watch this when you're driving.
It's for.
Your good.
It doesn't.
Mean that.
If you.
Obey your.
Parents.
You're.
Guaranteed.
To live.
100 years that's not what Paul means but there's a general practical
truth here.
That if you.
Listen to your parents.
Honor your.
Then you.
Will be.
Kept.
From.
Some of.
The most.
Vile.
Wicked evil sinful.
Things.
In.
This.
World.
Now they can't protect you from everything.
But let me.
Just say this.
You ought to protect your.
Like you hear Christian.
Parents today say things like this.
Well I.
Don't want.
To shelter my kids.
Why.
Why don't.
You want.
To shelter.
Your kids.
Right I want.
To shelter I want.
To feed my kids.
I want.
To clothe my kids.
To teach my kids.
And I want to.
Shelter.
My kids.
I understand I can't take them.
To a little hole.
And like.
Pretend.
There's.
Going.
To be no influence from the.
We live in the.
But I do.
All that I can.
As I.
Can.
To shield my children from the.
Filth.
And the.
Vileness.
Wickedness.
That is.
In the.
Today.
Because I.
That they're.
Too young to understand.
It.
And so I shield them from.
That.
I see these things I read the word of.
And then I.
Come to.
My children and I say.
Children you should do this you should do this you should do this you shouldn't do this you should.
Refrain from.
This and you should.
Think.
About.
And when my children listen to.
Me.
God says.
It will go.
Well with them and they'll live long.
Again not an ironclad promise doesn't guarantee.
You're going to.
Live to be 97 but it does.
Mean.
Generally speaking your life.
Some of the evils.
Of this.
Now let me tell you something some of.
Have.
Already.
Graduated.
Your.
Kids you're.
On the grand.
Parenting.
Stage.
Is not.
Hard I just.
Give the.
Kid.
Whatever they want.
Have to.
Deal with.
Well maybe.
We envy.
You a.
Bit.
But.
Is hard.
But it.
Is a non -negotiable.
It is.
A.
Non -negotiable.
For our.
Need.
To be.
Taught.
Must.
Be.
Them to.
Us as.
Their.
We.
Should.
Use.
Words.
Our.
Language.
To.
Disobey.
Really.
Hard.
Work.
Sometimes and especially with younger.
I'm just.
Going to tell.
The older your kids.
Get.
Get easier.
It's.
With.
Young.
Eliminate.
Some.
Are.
Modern.
Practices today.
Little.
Johnny.
Let go of that.
Toy.
Right now.
Drop.
I'm.
I am.
Serious.
One.
Now.
I.
Am.
Serious drop.
Am serious whether or not they obey you when God says
there's a connection between their understanding of submission to you as their parent and their Welfare and
well -being in the world.
So so let me just say something.
We cannot we cannot do.
It's not right for children to obey on three when they disobeyed on one delayed.
Obedience is disobedience.
And so by parents God commands us to hold our children to this.
We shouldn't laugh at Disobedience, right?
Isn't that so funny little Johnny just spit in my eye.
That's not funny and you can pull away later and you and mom and or you and dad maybe you can laugh about
it.
But when children.
Disobey a command.
It's not funny that they should be taught to obey.
Expect it to obey immediately and and.
Without whining, right?
So like not go into your room and clean your room while you're whining.
No.
You are expected to obey without whining and when a command is disobeyed or when it's done in a
rebellious spirit.
There must be appropriate discipline for the consequences of disobedience.
Otherwise, it doesn't make sense, right?
Now each family each home has to decide these things together and what those things will look like.
But I can tell you from personal experience It seems like all I did certain days sometimes was just discipline my
children, right?
What'd you do today?
Well, I try to read my Bible a little bit and then I discipline my children right like all day.
Yeah.
Well, it was hard.
Now sometimes kids do things that kids do.
Look sometimes the kids spills a drink not because they meant to but because why.
Because they're a child a Glass is broken or something else is broken.
It doesn't happen out of defiance.
It happens because they're kids and Sometimes kids act like what?
Kids.
So we have to have patience.
We have to have love.
We have to have mercy.
We have to have kindness.
We have to have compassion and even in these situations you get you just got a laugh.
Right when they didn't mean to wasn't, you know, and the milk spills and it gets all over your pants.
You know, you're about to go out somewhere and it's like, oh, I didn't mean they're kids.
And let's be honest you make mistakes too sometimes.
But there's a difference isn't there between a true childlike accident and then disobedience.
So parents we need wisdom pray for that.
We need wisdom to understand the difference and we must remember that we are Modeling before our children what it
looks like to obey God.
So twofold here when we don't take seriously the discipline and obedience of our children we're
telling them that God doesn't care about obedience, right.
Then the other thing is when we tell our children to be obedient and we're disobedient to God.
We're telling them that we're hypocrites if we tell them you better clean your room.
We neglect What the Bible commands us to do then we're only modeling
Hypocrisy.
The answer of course is not to stop telling your child to obey.
The answer is for you to repent.
Humble yourself before the Lord so that you can help show your children what obedience to a higher authority
looks like.
Let me ask you this before we move on.
Is there anything that God is calling you to do?
That you've delayed, right.
This is not to be irreverent.
But let me use there the analogy because God doesn't do this, but I'll use it as an analogy.
Is there anything that God is standing over you today saying I've told you to do this.
Two and you're just waiting on him to get serious, right?
Friends if there's anything in your life that you're not being obedient to God about quit
delaying And submit your life to the word this brings me to the last point today.
We've talked a lot about obedience.
Obedience is in the text children.
We've talked about commandments all these things but this last Point was going to carry us into the Lord's Supper and it's quite
important for us to grasp and that is only Christ is our hope of saving obedience.
Only Christ is our hope of saving obedience children.
Obey your parents honor your father and mother.
And yet you've already failed at this.
Hey, I've seen you fail at it, right?
You've crossed your arms.
You've rolled your eyes.
You've argued you've talked back.
You've lied you've delayed obedience.
You flat -out disobeyed you were disrespectful.
I've seen it every child in this room.
I've seen it parents.
The truth is the same for us too, isn't it?
In some ways our children's disobedience.
Just models our own when we were growing up, right.
And and or even perhaps in some ways models our Failures and sins to God's
Word even today and James says something very important.
He says whoever keeps the law the whole law, but fails in one point.
Has become guilty of all of it guilty of all of it.
You understand if you have rolled your eyes children you listening if you've rolled your eyes one time.
Stamped your foot one time wind to your parents one time.
You are guilty of the whole law and you stand under condemnation
of it and.
That's the truth of parents, too children.
Grandparents we stand.
Everyone in here dreadful word for us.
We're guilty before a holy God, but consider this.
Consider this.
In fact, let's look at it real quick.
Luke chapter 2.
Luke chapter 2, you know, your pastor is going to turn to a Christmas text any chance
he can.
But this really isn't a Christmas text, but it is a glorious hope for us this morning.
Luke chapter 2 and verse 51.
Luke chapter 2 verse 51.
And he went down with them that is his parents and came to Nazareth and was
submissive to them and His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Listen to me.
Listen to me we have hope today because our Lord Jesus as a child Submitted to his earthly
parents.
He obeyed his earthly parents perfectly and this is just Emblematic of
our Lord's righteous obedience to every command of God.
He obeyed the fifth commandment and he obeyed all ten commandments and Beyond and his
obedience was to the point of death the scriptures say even death on a cross.
He was righteous in it all and Pilate looked at our Lord and said I find no guilt in this man, which is
true.
But it's more than what Pilate was bargaining for or even understood that he was speaking.
There was no guilt in the Lord Jesus.
No guilt before Pilate.
No guilt before the Pharisees.
No guilt before God.
He never offended the least jock or tittle of the law.
He obeyed it to righteous perfection and then Christ the obedient one took our obedience
to Calvary our Rebellion our defiance was imputed to Christ and he bore our sins
In his body on the tree.
There Christ was punished not for his disobedience, but for ours.
He died.
And he rose again the third day.
Why did he do this?
Because our obedience will never get us to heaven.
Our only hope is the obedience of Christ and his death and his resurrection as our substitute.
We must rest ourselves this morning in all that God has done for us in Christ and everything that Christ has done for us
in Our place.
Paul wrote Ephesians to Christians even yes.
Unbelieving children, of course are to be taught obedience, too but ultimately believing parents believing
children should obey their parents in the Lord and Believing parents should parent their children
in the Lord.
Because it's only in Christ that all of these things have been fully and perfectly and finally accomplished and it's only in
Christ that We find the motivation and the power and the desire to live out these realities before a righteous
and holy God.
So parents and children must see their own obedience fall so short of God's standard.
That our only hope remains in the finished work of Christ.
On our behalf and think about that for just a moment.
What a freeing gospel.
The gospel is not a new law hanging above us saying if you don't measure up you ain't getting in.
No, the gospel comes in and says the law says that you don't measure up and here is the way and
It frees us now enjoy and in hope.
To live out.
What God has worked in through the Spirit.
So what I say go to him.
Go to Christ.
What a precious gospel we have.
Believe on Christ find in Christ every solace Necessary for your burdened soul
every balm to heal every wound and then see the joy and freedom.
We have in the Lord to actually do what Paul says here in Ephesians 6 and to carry out these things that Paul
teaches us in this letter.
For the glory of God in Christ.
The law is no longer our enemy.
It comes alongside us now as our friend in the sense that we use it To not to gain favor with God
and not to stand under the judgment of God.
But rather we use it now to walk in the ways that we that God wants us to.
We don't have to guess What is it that God wants us to do?
We know now and now we it's our delight to do this.
And when we fail and we will fail you'll fail today.
We rest again in Jesus.
Again.
Jesus that's why when you're confronted about sin your first response shouldn't be to
double down but take it again to Christ.
As we think about the Lord's Supper again reflect on these truths and prepare your hearts.
Listen, the Lord's Supper is only for like there's only only one class of people invited.
That's sinners saved by grace.
What I mean is this not to Distinguish out between sinners and saints, but what I mean is just this
You say this morning.
I haven't been a perfect parent or Children.
I'm trying to think of those in here who are Invited to the table.
I think they're just one.
You say well, I haven't obeyed perfectly my parents.
Well, what do I do friends right now?
You take it to Christ.
You repent.
You repent you come to the table, but you don't dare come to the table by harboring
rebellion in.
Disobedience.
You deal with that now and be reminded.
This table reminds us that only Christ is the way.
It's only by his broken body and shed blood for our sins.
Because he was the obedient one that we stand rightly before a holy and good God.
Consider these things as we sing.
Gonna you come and lead us in a song.
After that song, I'll pray and we'll enter into.