Good morning. Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 70 from the hardback hymnal,
number 70. Holy, holy, holy. Let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. ? Holy, holy, holy ? Merciful
and mighty ? God in three persons ? Blessed Trinity ? Holy, holy,
holy ? All the saints adore thee ? Casting down their golden crowns
? Around the glassy sea ? Of cherubim and seraphim ? Falling
down before thee which were, and are, and evermore shall be
holy, holy, holy. Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 78, that's where we'll be first hour this morning. Let's
join our hearts together in asking the Lord's mercy and blessings
on our time together. Our merciful and glorious heavenly
father. We come before thy throne of
grace. Asking you for your mercy. For
the sake of thy dear son. Knowing that we have access only
in him. Lord, we come before you. As
centers. In need of grace. And how we
do pray that you would be pleased this hour and the next. To send
your spirit in power. To open the eyes of our understanding.
To enable us to set our affections on things above where Christ
is seated at the right hand. More that we would find our hope,
our comfort. All our peace and all thy salvation. Completed in him. We ask it in His name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 78. I've titled this message, The Next Generation. The Next Generation. The greatest responsibility and
the greatest blessing that we have is to raise our children
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I am certain that, humanly speaking,
there is no one that has a greater influence on society than mothers. This is not a Mother Day sermon,
but it's in the Lord's providence that He uh... has brought us
to this passage of scripture in psalm seventy-eight on uh... this day that the world celebrates
as mother's day no politician no policies that
they uh... that they pass no educator no one in this world not even
fathers I don't believe have the influence on children that
mothers have. And I want this to be an encouragement
because to some lesser degree we all have the responsibility
to pass the gospel on to our children. And that's what this
passage of scripture is about. We'll be in the first eight verses
of Psalm 78 the Lord has admonished us to train up our children in
the way that they should go and when they grow old they will
not depart from it we know that Christ is the way and the way
that they should go is to follow after him and if the Lord's pleased
to reveal himself to them then they will never ever depart from
that. In verse 1 of Psalm 78 we find
that all the blessings of God, all the blessings of God in salvation
begin with a call. a call. Look at verse
1 of Psalm 78. Give ear, O my people, to my
law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. The Lord is calling us to hear
him. He's calling us to himself. Now,
the scripture makes clear that there are two calls. There's the outward call and
there's the inward call. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. And yet, unless the Lord issues
forth that effectual call, men won't hear the inward call. But all the blessings of God
begin with that call. the encouragement for each of
us is what we often saying uh... while on others now are calling
do not pass me by lord call me speak to me cause me to come
onto the turn me shall be turned for there's no blessings to be
had from god apart from that being the first blessing that
effectual call, that ability that he gives us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and to come before him in faith. And he does it, notice, he does
it by his word, give ear, O my people, to my law. Now the word
law is often used in the scriptures not to refer to the Ten Commandments,
but to refer to the entire canon of scripture. And that's the
way it's being used here. And the Lord's telling us to
give ear to his law. Give ear to his word. We quote this passage often,
but you remember what the Lord said to those Pharisees. He said,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life. But these are they which testify of me. In the full canon
of scripture, in the volume of the book, The scripture says,
it is written of me. And so to give ear to the law
of God, to the word of God is to look for the living word in
the written word. And that's what we do. And that's
what the Lord's that's, that's the means by which the Lord enables
us to hear looking for the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ in
the written word. Um, Acts chapter 17 when Paul went
to Berea they had just run him off in Thessalonica and when
he got to Berea the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to pin in Acts
chapter 17 that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica
for they received the word with gladness And they search the
scriptures daily to see if what we said was true. And that's
the nobility of the call, to receive the word of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ with gladness and to search the scriptures
to see if these things be true. Because if they're true, they're
going to be confirmed by all the word of God. So Lord, call
me, call me, give me ears to hear. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one, Ephesians chapter one. Paul is praying for the church
at Ephesus and this is, Prayer that I'm often reminded of and
praying for you, and I hope that you will pray for one another
and pray for me. Look at Ephesians chapter one,
beginning of verse 17. He's praying that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of Him. There's
no wisdom, there's no understanding outside of the knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one, he is the wisdom
of God and there is no knowing God apart from knowing him. And
so, Lord give us the spirit of wisdom, give us the spirit of
understanding, give us knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ call
us the eye that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened
that you may know what is the hope of this call of his calling
and what the riches of the glory of the inheritance is in the
Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us
word who believe according to the working of his mighty power
which he wrought in us when he raised him from the dead and
set him at the right hand in heavenly places. Let's go back with me to Psalm
1. The Lord is calling on us to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if He's pleased to make His
Word alive, then That call will be effectual. It'll be effectual. Give ear, O my people, to my
law. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of
old. The longer I live and the more
I preach and the more I talk to people, the more sure I am that the truth of the gospel
can come to the heart only by a miracle of divine revelation. It is. I was talking to a man
recently. He told me he had read the Bible
seven times. And I began to ask him a few
questions. And he told me what he had learned
from the book of Revolution. And I thought, well, maybe he
just misspoke. I do that all the time. So we talked a little
bit further, and he said it again. Book of Revolution, tells me.
And I thought, and you've read the... And so I started trying
to talk to him about Christ. And he looked at me like I was
speaking a foreign language. He didn't have an idea what I
was talking about. If the Lord doesn't give us eyes
to see, I will not see. and we can be like those Pharisees
spending our lives searching the scriptures and not see Christ. Luke chapter 24 when the Lord
went back up to the upper room with those disciples where the
scripture says that he opened their understanding. He opened
their understanding that they might see and beginning with
Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them
those things concerning himself." So, what am I saying? When we teach the next generation,
we're mindful of the fact that the Lord has to do a work of
grace. He has to issue forth an effectual
call, which will keep all of us on our knees for ourselves
and for our children. Lord, call me and call them. and uh... open the eyes of their
understanding and reveal to them the mystery of the gospel they'll
not see it you can learn you can learn history you can learn
uh... theology you can learn doctrine
but to have christ revealed to the heart what paul say he said
when it please god who separated me from my mother's womb uh... and called me by his grace to
reveal christ in me Lord, that's the, the Lord's saying right
here, I will open my mouth in parables. You remember when the
Pharisee, when the disciples asked the Lord, Lord, why do
you speak to them in parables? What did the Lord say? Because
it's not for them to know the mystery of the gospel, the kingdom
of God. It's for you to know. And I'm
going to explain the parable to you. I'm going to explain
the parable. or don't don't leave me in the
dark uh... god speaks in mystery to the
natural man natural man is not capable of understanding the
parables of the gospel only the lord can make that now so as
we as we receive this admonition to train up our children in the
way that we they should go we're reminded uh... that the Lord
has to do the one he has to be the one to do the the calling
out and he has to he has to be the one to do the saving. Look
at verse 3, which we have heard and known and our fathers have
told us. Everything in this world is changing. Nations change, leaders change,
you change, I change, One thing that has never changed is the
gospel. We're teaching the same truth
to our children that generations 3,000 years ago taught to their
children. It hasn't changed not one bit. The Lord said, I am
the Lord and I change not. I change not. Religion is all
about trying to catch up with culture, isn't it? We're preaching
the same gospel that our fathers preached and that their fathers
preached and their fathers preached. Nothing's changed. We're not
trying to make it relevant to culture. We're not trying to
update it. We're just declaring it as the
Lord has revealed it in his word. So let's read these first three
verses together because this is the foundation of what we
are to show our children and why we are to teach our children. Give ear, O my people, to my
law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. The Lord uses
his word and he calls us out and all blessings begin there.
I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of
old. The gospel is a mystery to the natural man. He cannot
understand it. He cannot receive it. Lord, you're
going to have to open the eyes of my understanding. You're going
to have to give me wisdom and knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have to do that for my
children, which we have heard and known. These things haven't
changed. Our fathers of old believed these
things. Nothing has changed when it comes
to the gospel of God's grace. We will not hide them from their
children. We're going to make them clear.
We're not trying to keep our children away from these things. We're going to teach them to
our children every opportunity we have. We will not hide them
from their children, showing to the generation to come. That's
why I've titled this, A Generation to Come, as mentioned twice in
this passage of scripture. And that's why I've titled this
message, The Next Generation. The Next Generation. What a blessing,
what a responsibility we have, all of us, mothers, fathers,
pastor, friends, all of us as believers to teach these great,
glorious, saving truths of the Lord Jesus Christ to our children. We'll show to the generation
to come the praises of the Lord. We're gonna show them, first
of all, that he's the one to be praised. And we'll show them that in example. We join our hearts together in
praise, particularly when we come together for public worship.
And our children will see that this is our life. This is our life. I know parents are concerned
about the influence that the world has on their children,
but I do not believe that anybody has the influence on children
that parents have. And children that grow up seeing
their parents having a haphazard view of worship, they see that,
don't they? They see that. And here's here. Show your children what it is
to praise God. Do it yourself from your heart
and and they'll they'll they'll understand this is this is real. This is this is their life and
this is my life. Showing to the generation to
come the praises of the Lord and his strength. Showing them his strength. We all have weaknesses. We all have trials and troubles
in this life, and our children need to see that our strength
comes from Him. We have no children that will
glorify their parents, won't they, and think that their parents
are capable of anything. We need to be telling our children,
my strength comes from the Lord. I have the same fears you have.
I struggle with the same things you struggle with. but god has
taught me to turn to him for my strength and so we're we're
we're training and teaching our children that we praise him and
that we depend upon him for all our strength and uh... his wonderful works
which he hath done Oh, the wonderful works, teach
them to our children. That's what we try to preach,
the wonderful works of God every time we come together. And what
a blessing it is for our children to be able to hear that God,
in his wonder, worked out. his purpose in salvation when
he chose his people in the covenant of grace. The wonderful works
of God extend to that covenant that Christ made with his father
as the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
The wonderful works of God when Christ was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth. The wonderful works of God when
Christ alone was faithful to keep all of God's law and be
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe us.
The wonderful works of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ bore
in his body all the sins of all of God's people and satisfied
God's divine justice once and for all, he made himself a sacrifice
for sin, offered up to the Father. These are the wonderful works
of God. When he was put into the tomb, and God by his power
raised him from the dead. We find that he was offered up
for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. He ascended back into glory and
took with him the names of those for whom he lived and died. He
ever lives to make intercession for us. These are the wonderful
works of God. The children are amazed by a
lot of things in this world and they see wonderful things happening
all the time and they're impressed. There's nothing to be impressed
with this world like the wonderful works of God. Oh, that the Lord
would enable us to teach our children through praise, through
praise, through precept, showing them where our strength
comes from and telling them about the wonderful works of God. look
at verse, look at verse 5. Why do we show these things to
our children? Verse 4 tells us what we show
our children. The first three verses tell us
who we're dependent upon for our children's salvation. And
verse 4, verse 5 begins to tell us why we do this. For He established a testimony
in Jacob. Now, the scripture says that
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So God established
a testimony. His testimony is about who He
is and what He's done to save sinners. And so we're telling
our children about the testimony of God fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus Christ. For He has established a testimony. This testimony is sure and steadfast. It's not something that's changing.
You know, it may be in a court of law that a person's testimony
gets twisted and turned by cross-examination, but this testimony is established. It's established. From everlasting
to everlasting, it is a testimony that's not going to change. It's
not going to change. And we say to our children, with
all the changes that are taking place in your body, all the changes
that are taking place in this world, there is one testimony
that is established. It's sure and it's steadfast
and it will not change. It will not change. For he has
established a testimony and this testimony is to be found in Jacob.
in Jacob. The world doesn't know anything
about this established testimony. This testimony that has been
rooted and grounded by God for the hope of our salvation and
for the establishment of our lives here in this world is only
to be found in Jacob. And he has appointed a law in
Israel. Here we are Called out ones, yeah, the Jacobs,
the supplanters, the deceivers, but the princes of God in Israel,
where God has established a law. It's not gonna change. The law
of the gospel does not change. It's sure, it is established,
which he has commanded our fathers that they should make them known
to their children. Why do we teach these things
to our children? Well, number one, it's the only foundation
that they're ever gonna have. And number two, we've been commanded
of God. We've been commanded of God.
Remember when the Lord established the Passover and he told the
children of Israel, he said, when your children ask, why do
you do these things? Here's what you tell them. Explain
to them the gospel in light of why you're doing what you're
doing. Verse 6, that the generation
to come might know them, even the children which should be
born, who should arise and declare them to their children. This is why we do it, isn't it? I was your pastor when a lot of our
young parents were born. And now they're having children,
and they're bringing them unto the sound of the gospel. What
a blessing. This is exactly what the Lord has called us to do,
to take the gospel, teach it to our children, who in turn
can teach it to their children. Why? Verse 7, that they might
set their hope in God. Oh, there's no hope outside of
Him, is there? You know, we have hopes for worldly
things and sometimes those hopes are fulfilled and sometimes they're
not, but even if they are, what hope is there in those things
to sustain the soul? There is none. Hope in God is
the only thing that will sustain the soul of a sinner. And that's
why we teach our children the gospel. That they might have hope in
God. Scripture speaks of those unbelievers
who knew not God and had no hope. No hope. Men of this world have
no hope. All they have is the temporal
hope of things that are going to pass. And not forget the works of God. We keep telling them about what
God has done and what He will continue to do. And how even
when we don't understand what He's doing, that He's doing it
for our good and for His glory. And forget not the works of God,
but keep his commandments, keep his word, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, follow after him. What Paul say, he said, he said,
follow me as I follow after Christ. And every one of us should be
able to say that to our parents, our children, follow me as I
follow after Christ. I love verse 8. And not only do we want them
to have hope in God, not only do we want them to not forget
the works of God, not only we want them to follow after the
Lord Jesus Christ, but we also don't want them to do what we
did. Look at verse 8. and might not
be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a
generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit
was not steadfast with God." Every parent wants to spare their
children from the heartaches of their own experiences, don't
they? And so we say to our children, I've been there. I've done some
things that I don't want you to have to go through that. And
pray the Lord will give our children an ear to incline to his word
and a call to follow after Christ. My God, enable us to be faithful,
to remember the next generation and the next generation. raise
our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord for his
glory and for their salvation. All right, let's take a break.