Children, Obey Your Parents

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. Good to be back in the studio today with another show. It�s good to be alive. I hate to say it, but I will admit it. After I got out of the hospital, I think I got out of the hospital in mid, no, no, late September of 2021 with COVID pneumonia, respiratory failure, I got home.

I mean, I was pining away those 16 days in the hospital every day thinking, �I just want to go home. I just want to go home. Can I just go home And eventually, when they said, �You�ve turned a corner and they took me off a high flow and 60 liters of oxygen, they said, �Once your off-the-wall oxygen gets down below five, you can go home because that�s what you�ve got to go home with.

You can�t have 15 liters flow at home. They don�t have that. I just would wait, wait, wait, and it seemed like it was just slowing down. But anyway, I got home, and then I would sit at home thinking, �While my wife Kim has always been beautiful, she�s even more beautiful now.

While coffee has always tasted good, it tastes even better now. Just looking outside, so thankful that I never want this to wear off. I want this feeling, this sensation, these thoughts never to go away.

And of course, if I sit and think, they don�t go away. But it was dramatic every day sitting there for month upon month upon month going out to the place in our sunroom and starting my day with the Lord and His Word.

But I think the last few days, I think I kind of forgot. I don�t want to forget. That�s not good. I don�t like forgetting. How soon do we forget? But the Lord teaches us many things, including much in the school of suffering.

The Ministry, the Projects, and the Show’s Running Themes

Well, my name is Mike Cavendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can go to YouTube. You can go to Patreon. You can go to the regular Internet. You can go to Spotify. You can go to iTunes, wherever you want to go, podcasts.

Make sure you tell your friends and I don�t know, do you give us ratings? Do you give us any good ratings? The church has been getting some ratings lately. I got called a serpent and something else, bad ratings by somebody I don�t even think who goes to this church.

So whatever. That�s the least of my problems. What do we do on No Compromise Radio? Well, for 24 and a half minutes, that�s the talk time because we�ve got 30-minute shows and used to be on a commercial radio station here locally.

The only two stations we�re on now is Pastor Brian in Wyoming and then we�re on up in Alaska. I think that was because of Evan and his influence there. But anyway, if you want to play us on your radio station for a fee, you can.

See, normally I have to pay to be on, but now we�ve switched it all around, have we not? Just kidding. But seriously, you want to play it? Feel free. Just don�t edit, right? We don�t want you to edit and cut and paste and stuff like that.

I just finished, speaking of editing, just finished the American Gospel 3 filming and I have a couple other projects with the American Gospel television. I did the five-part series on Law Gospel and we�re coming up and we�re going to do a series on sanctification.

What is biblical sanctification? What is it? What is it not? So that�ll be about a five-part series and also one on assurance and maybe one on Bible teaching, how to teach, how to preach, that kind of stuff.

Anyway, that�s not in the can, but it�s in my brain. I�m also writing an article for my friend Scott Clark for the Heidel blog. I think it�s called something new now, Heidelberg Reformation Society or something.

What is it actually called? I�ve forgotten. What are we talking about? We�re talking about practice. I could watch that Allen Iverson thing every single day. I�m just mad that Scott stole it before I did.

He came up with the idea before I did. Too bad. But my fellow Nebraska Cornhusker, I will let that happen. As you know, what we do on the show here is talk about a lot of things. You say, �Mike, what you talk about all the time

We talk about law gospel. We talk about duplex gratia. We talk about third use of the law. We talk about monergistic sanctification. What are we talking about? If I�m not careful, Clark�s going to play this on his Heidelcast.

I�ve been on a couple of times as a guest intro person, so we�re vying for another one. Children, I�m going to talk to you. Oops. What is that? Skinny popcorn. Pure popped perfection. I mean, I have to have stuff like that now because I have to do no GMO.

I�m supposed to do no sweetener, but I�m having this Celsius drink here. No gluten and no lactose, essentially no dairy. I didn�t know. No casin is different than no lactose, which is different than no dairy because if you�re no dairy, there�ll be no casin and there�ll be no lactose, but you could have lactose free and still have dairy in it.

Did you know that? This is what we have to do here at No Compromised Radio. We�ve taken so many probiotics and GI restores and who knows what, but anyway, we�re feeling better thanks to my friend Min.

Children, Obey Your Parents in the Lord

She really helped me. Well, children, today we�re going to talk to you from Ephesians chapter 6 and the passage says, �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. I know actually children who do listen to No Compromised Radio. Some listen and they don�t want to because their parents are playing it, but they have to listen.

Anyway, what�s fascinating to me here is the circular letter that went to Ephesus and other places was to be read, of course, you�d read it to the church, and here Paul directly talks to the children.

�Children, obey your parents in the Lord. It�s like he�s preaching to the entire congregation and then he looks at the children and says, �Children, I�m going to address you. And what does that tell us?

That tells us that children were there. They weren�t in junior church. They weren�t in whatever else. I mean, if you can have a nursery, right, and kids are crying, I get that, or some type of preschool.

But as soon as children are able to sit there, and of course, even if they�re not able to sit and they want to be with their parents, that�s fine, I mean, I�m not against any of that, but I�m just saying I�m not scolding you, dear parents, if you put your kid in the nursery.

I wouldn�t do that. But as kids get older, and they need to learn how to sit still, and they need to be with their parents, I mean, they need to be hearing the Word of God. And most of you that listen probably have this at church, where the children have fifth graders there, and five-year-olds, and other things, and twelfth graders.

Twelfth graders aren�t so small, but still, technically, they�re parents� children. They are their parents� children. What have you seen done in the past? Well, what you�ve seen done in the past is, well, kids don�t want to sit through this long 45-minute boring sermon, and older music, and hymns and stuff, and singing psalms.

So let�s send them to a junior church, and it�s rock bands and dumbed-down messages, and then they go to junior high church, and they�re not in the worship service with the adults on Lord�s Day. They have their own service, and it�s even rockier bands, and even dumbed-down messages even more.

Then they graduate to high school, and then they have a high school group during worship services. I�m not saying you can�t have a high school group separate from. It�s even louder rock band, even dumber messages.

Then they go to college groups, and then they�re like, that�s what they expect the Lord�s Day worship to be. What are you going to do? Dumb, dumb, dumb, and dumber? And then all of a sudden, then you�re an adult, and you get a job and have kids, and then you go, oh yeah, but I want this other stuff.

Well, if God�s intervening, that would happen, because you want the pure milk of the Word. But if not, no wonder why we have these churches that are essentially put together and put on for the carnal levels of a fifth grader.

Right? There�s this kind of music, and I don�t know what it is with all the blue lights. I mean, that�s the hipster thing. You hold your microphone. Now if you�re a hipster pastor, you have a table, and you sit or you stand there, and you�ve got the screen with all the PowerPoint verses, you don�t even have to have a Bible, and you just kind of talk, and you just converse, and there�s nothing too monological there.

There�s nothing too didactic. There�s nothing too, you know, you�re not a Kerouch, you�re not a proclaimer, you�re not a preacher. I mean, who wants to be preached at? Preaching�s negative. And you just kind of talk.

Well, Paul here in Ephesians chapter 6, �Children will be your parents in the Lord. He has wanted those children to be listened to the entire time. I mean, he�s not saying, �Well, everybody tune out.

Now I�ll talk to the children. No. He also is, when he�s talking to the husbands and wives, he wants the children to be listening to that. This is what a marriage is like, and this is what a marriage is based upon, Christ loving the Church.

And he also wanted the children to hear about election, unconditional election in chapter one, forgiveness of sins, redemption in Christ Jesus alone, singular solitary purpose for what the world was, how Jews and Gentiles can be together in one body because of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

He wants everybody to know all that, including children. They need to know. I sometimes have joked around a little bit that, you know, my children were unregenerate five-point Calvinists. That's nothing to be joking about, necessarily, but we're teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching, and then if the Lord decides to graciously, as he often does, save people, well, then they'll just fit right in to the structure, to the format, to everything else.

And this is not a big Baptist, Paedo-Baptist, Credo-Baptist deal or anything like that. This is simply children, obey your parents. They're being addressed. Slaves were addressed. Slaves obey your earthly masters in verse five.

Not only are they there, but that they're even addressed is huge. The elevation of children that Christianity did, their worth, their importance, their dignity. I mean, this is not, well, you know, the baby's born.

You put the baby at the foot of the father and either says, you know what, leave it to die or I'll pick it up and we'll raise it. No. Oh, and if it's a girl, you know, I don't want anything to do with it.

Forget children being second-class citizens. They weren't even citizens. And of course, we know God loves children. Jesus loves children. Remember they brought children to Jesus that he might lay hands on them and pray and disciples are like, no, no, too busy.

No, don't, don't, don't bug the master. You know, his handlers didn't want the children to come anywhere near Jesus. Let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

After laying his hands on them, he departed from there. The elevation and the status, the image bearing children that Christianity had the great influence upon is spectacular. He gives them a command.

Does he not? If you're listening today, here's your command, children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Obey. Well, the word child just means child really of any age. I'm a child of my mother, even though I'm 61 years old.

The Greek word technon, I'm technically a child. Uh, if you have a parent and you're 15 years old or six years old or three years old, you children are to obey your parents and the Lord for this is right.

This is in the context of not only your parents love and nurture and protection and provision and taking you on vacations and to doctors and changing your diapers and feeding you and nourishing you and cherishing you and loving you and, and praising God for you and praying for you.

Of course that's all true, but even the heavenly father, what he's done children for you, maybe you're not even a believer yet, but he has given you parents, uh, that are Christians and that's why you're sitting in this Christian assembly.

Even today, he has given you parents, uh, that have cared for you and provided for you. He has provided salvation for you and has called you to look to the savior with saving with, with faith and believe that Jesus died for you and was raised for you and ascended for you and is praying for you.

You're to believe in this great God, man, Jesus Christ. These children are addressed and they're responsible to obey and it is a present imperative. They're supposed to obey. And the word obey is interesting.

It just means to hear under, it means you hear, and instead of going in one ear and out the other, it means to listen and to hear under and to, and to listen so that you might obey. It means to hear with submission and then you yield to your parents and, and you obey them.

This is, this is God's structure. Some children, it's like with fingers in their ears, they won't hear, they shut down, shut off headphones on literally or figuratively or both, and they won't obey. If you think about the Lord Jesus' children, what did they, what did he do?

Did he obey his parents? Joseph wasn't even his dad and he obeyed his dad, his stepdad, Joseph. He obeyed his mother, Mary, right? He was submissive to them. What they told him to do, he did. The only time he never obeyed them is if they asked him to do something sinful.

He heard them and he obeyed them. And you say, well, I, I'm a child, I, I love Jesus, I believe in Jesus, and I don't really know what to do with my spiritual gifts and I'm not really old enough to do much and can't really be a member of the church yet or anything like that.

I wonder what I could do. Well, you know, one of the things you could do for the Lord, as unto the Lord, in the Lord, is to obey your parents. That'd be a good way of serving God by doing what he says.

And if they tell you something that's sinful, you just say, I love you, but I can't do that. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Why do I have to obey? Well, there are lots of reasons you have to obey.

Here's one, I'm bigger than you children, my children. But he says, no, because it's right. It's the righteous thing to do. This is what we're supposed to do. Every society knows this. And by the way, we in a Western society don't get this as well as people in an Eastern society, in, in, in Asia, for instance, even though we're 2000 years removed from New Testament times, they, in the East, today even, understand what parents are like and grandparents and, and how they're to revere them and to honor them and, and to look up to them and to obey them.

But if they tell you to disobey, they tell you, maybe you have parents that aren't believers. They say, you can't go to church and worship on the Lord's day. If they say, you know, you have to say Jesus is in God or something like that, well, then you don't.

I remember one time I, my children were going to a King James only fundamentalist school and we were driving up there and we'd always drive past on the way to school, a place called a, it was a Catholic church called Our Lady of the Lake, and there's a little lake nearby.

And guess who Our Lady was? Mary. So this is Mary, Our Mary of the Lake. And I guess she guarded the lake and protected the lake and maybe she prayed for the lake. I don't know what she did, but there was a statue of Mary and of course, you know, Mary statues a lot bigger than the little Jesus one.

But so one day I was driving up there, we were a little early, so I pulled over and we actually had some other children in the car cause I was, we were carpooling and it was my turn to drive. And I think I had a wind star, a wind bag.

And so I pulled up to the church, drove over to the statue and I said, everybody out. Really? Yeah, everybody, let's get out of the car. I want to show you something. Let's get out of the van. And so we got out of the van and I said, there's, there's Mary.

She's the Lady of the Lake. It's supposed to be the Virgin Mary there. And I want all you kids just to run over, you can do it real fast by the way, just run over and you know that song, he is exalted, the King is exalted and I will praise Him.

Something like that. How does that song go? He is exalted, the King is exalted and I will praise His name. He is the Lord, forever His truth shall reign. Something like that. Maybe we can do auto-tune for me.

I want you to just bow down real quick and just sing, sing, she is exalted, the Queen is exalted on high and I will praise her. That's all you have to do. It's easy. Just switch it around from he to she, from God to Mary and get back in the car.

And they're like, what? They're looking at me like, dad, what's going on? They're looking at each other like, well, has dad lost his mind? And I said, children, obey your parents. And then one of my kids said, in the Lord for this is right.

I said, good job. Get in the car. The people's children who were with me that day, they're no longer attending the church. It's not because they moved either. In the Lord, in accordance with the Lord and as to the Lord, as you would the Lord, children are to be obedient as to the Lord, as to Christ.

Same thing, wise, be subject to your own husband as to the Lord. You hear under, you hear to obey. Proverbs 1 .8, hear my son, your father's instructions and do not forsake your mother's teachings. You want to do that.

There's a kind of man who curses his father and does not bless his mother. Proverbs 30 verse 11. Our day, it's lawless freedom. No authority over me. My parents don't need to know. I can decide whether to take birth control pills, to be transgendered or whatever.

I don't need my parents to rule over me. That's not what's going on here. This is not for you to say, children, don't tell me what to do. Who are you to order me? Can you say that to your parents in light of this verse?

Should you say that to your parents in light of this verse? No, no. To disobey your parents is to disobey the Lord. Did you know in the last days, one of the things that will typify end times is people who are disobedient to parents.

In the last days, this is what's going to happen, 2 Timothy chapter 3. God loves you, children, and God's tender care over you shows that he gives you a mom and a dad, and he gives you authority. You're immature.

You're not as smart as you think. It's hard to have wisdom when you're young. You'll get wisdom as you grow, but right now you're not that wise and you need a parent. God loves order. He loves order in the church and in government and at home too.

It's for your good. Your welfare depends on it, children. Did you know God even gave your parents an extra special love for you and you only? Your parents love other children. Your parents love other people, but they love you like they don't love anybody else.

I didn't say that right. They love you in a way that makes it seem like they don't love anybody else. Maybe I could try to rescue it that way. A special, special love. If you're a parent, you know what that love's like.

If you've got a brother and sister, they are loved by your parents like that too. You need to hear under. You need to not forget this, children. That's why Proverbs 3 says, my son, do not forget my teaching.

It's important. Even if your parents aren't godly and perfect, remember Lord Jesus. Joseph sinned, Mary sinned, and Jesus still obeyed them. Yes, there's a time to disobey, but that says be obedient to your parents, Colossians 3, in all things, because this is right.

John Bunyan, for the pains that they have taken with you to raise you, until you have children of your own, you will not be aware of the pains, fears, sorrows, and hardships that they have undergone to raise you.

And when you do discover it, you will realize that you have not even come close to repay them for their love and support for you. How often have they fed you when you were hungry and clothed your nakedness?

What care have they taken that you might have resources to live and do well when they are dead and gone? They possibly have given up their own food and needed clothes for themselves, for you, and have also made themselves poor that you might live like a man.

For what is the child but a piece of the parents wrapped up in another's skin? All these things ought to be carefully considered by you, and you ought to take special care of your parents to repay them.

The Scripture says so, reason says so, and only those who think like dogs and beasts will deny it. It is the duty of parents to sacrifice for their children, and the duty of children to repay their parents.

And while they're alive now and you're at home, you repay them with obedience, for this is right. Not because your dad deserves it and your mom deserves it, but this is right because God has appointed it.

He's commanded it. And you don't have to question God, this great God. Even unbelievers. I mean, the children of cannibals are supposed to obey their parents. Romans expected their children to obey. You need to obey your parents.

What if you're more righteous than your parents? Well, you still need to obey. What if your parents are unbelievers? You still need to obey. What if I am old enough to make my own decisions? Well, you still need to obey.

What if they tell me when I can go on a date, when I can't date, who my friends are, where to go to church, when can I drive, who can I drive? They control all that. Do you know I need to obey them? Children, obey your parents, for this is right.

Well, we haven't even got to the attitude section. I guess maybe I get to that next time, but I'm addressing children today, and we're thankful that even though, children, you don't obey perfectly your parents, the Lord Jesus did, and so you can have Him as a great representative.

And He can be the one who takes away all your sins of disobeying your parents, gives you perfect obedience to parents by credit, and He has been raised from the dead. Do you believe that?

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.