Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter
22. I'd like for us to consider verse
6. Proverbs 22 6. is what the Word of God declares. Train up a child in the way he
should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Now our passage today is one
that I'm sure every concerned, especially every believing parent
is concerned, for the eternal well-being of their children. There's not a believing parent
in this congregation or in this world, not a believing parent,
that's not concerned with the eternal well-being of their child. And I'll tell you what they want
to know. They want to know what God has to say about their children. They want to know, they want
to understand. They would desire to behold the
fruit of this promise right here. They want some comfort. They
want some comfort. Now this scripture is one that
is of great instruction. Now I want us to consider for
just a few minutes what God has to say about this. The Lord God
says train up a child in the way he should go. My marginal reading says train
up, categoize that child in the way that he should go. Now that word train, train up,
actually what it means is, the first word of its meaning is
the mouth is what it means. But actually what it's saying
is, or meaning is, according to the commandment of, out of
the mouth. Train up a child. Now this passage
of scripture gives some absolute future assurance and therefore
comfort concerning that training. Now listen, listen to what it
says. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he
is old, it doesn't say he might not depart. It says he will not
depart from it. So there's an absolute promise. That's absolute. You just try
to read it any other way. than what it says. Now for sure, this verse of scripture
has been very perplexing to many believing parents who have read
it. They've longed for a right understanding of it. There's
not a believing parent that doesn't want to know what that passage
of scripture means. They can read it. We all can
read it. I got kids just like you do.
They've longed for an understanding of it. They've done all they can. They did what they did in obedience
to the Lord, being honorable to the Lord to raise up their
children in the way that they should go. Here's what they've
done. I'm talking about believing parents. They brought them up in the nurture
and the admonition of the Lord. That's what they've done. They didn't bring them, you know,
and then just leave them to their own carnal thinking. What they
did, they faithfully trained them and admonished them according
to the Scriptures. Just like Timothy's mama and
his grandma did. That's what Timothy's mother
and his grandmother did. Children need to be taught. Here's what a believing parent
will do. They will keep them under the
sound of the gospel. And they will discipline them
when they're disobedient. I've told you before, I tell
my kids when they were growing up, you got one shot at this. You got one shot. If you disobey me, I'm taking
you out. And I'm going to wear you out. I'll tell you who got the most
of them. Gabe. Gabe will tell you right now.
Ask him, how many weapons today did you get? He said, at least
one. I'm telling you, scripture declares You spare the rod, you'll
spoil that child. You hate that child. That's what
he said. You keep them under the sound of the gospel. You
discipline them when they're disobedient. And you pray that
God would bless His word to their understanding and call them out
of darkness, sin, and unbelief. But how many times have we done
just exactly that? We've done that. Kept them under the gospel. We
prayed for them. Prayed for the preacher. God,
bless this word. Bless this word to my heart.
Bless it to my kid's heart. Lord, please don't let my children
perish. Lord, according to your mercy,
according to your grace, have mercy only to see those children
reject the truth of the gospel. and but for the grace of God
leave this world in the darkness of sin and unbelief and having
now to meet God without a priest, without Christ, without hope. Now, you know just exactly what
I'm saying so. How many times have you seen
parents bring children up consistently, brought them to hear the gospel,
told them the right thing, told them what was right, taught them
God's Word, prayed for them, prayed with them. They got up
old enough and they left. And they're not here. How many we find in God's Word
just like this? Adam and Eve had, I know at least,
two boys. One of them was Cain and one
of them was Abel. One of them obviously knew God. The other one didn't. David had, I know he had two
boys, he had more than that, but he had two boys. One of them
was named Solomon. The wisest man born in Adam. God gave that man wisdom. Taught him, taught him. The other's
name was Absalom. Rebelled against his daddy, tried
to kill, wanted to kill his daddy. Isaac had two boys. One of them's name was Jacob,
the other was Esau. And for most parents, I don't
doubt for one second They didn't teach those kids the gospel. But the end was so different. How many godly parents have felt
the sting of guilt, sorrow, feeling that somehow they've done something
wrong? What did I do? What happened?
What about this passage of scripture right here? And they feel the
blame for their children's unbelief after they did just exactly what
they were told to do. Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. Train him up. Instruct him. One might say, I've done that.
I did that. But I see no result of life. Well, here's what we know. If that is the case, let me just
be honest with all of us. Obviously, the child has not
been taught. He's not been trained. Now listen,
I'm going to give you some comfort. Me too, I need it. We can bring them to hear the
truth of the gospel, as we have. We can bring them,
read God's word to them. We can pray for them. We can
exhort them, instruct them to follow after Christ. But we cannot
train or categoize a dead heart. as hard as you want to. We don't
have the power to do that. Now the scripture says you train
up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he won't
depart from it. But here's the first thing I
know. I don't have the power to train their heart. If all I'm trying to do is work
on the old man and instruct the old man and get the old man to
be obedient, the old man's never going to do that. That which
is flesh is flesh. Only the Lord can train up a
child. Only God can do that. And I know
for a fact He's going to train His children. I know that. We
can do all that we've been instructed to do, but God must open the
heart as He did for Lydia. Lydia listened. Lydia listened. She heard what Paul was preaching. She heard what he was saying.
She was standing there just like everybody else. But all of a
sudden, something happened. The Lord opened her heart. And
God trained her. And God taught her. And you know
what she did? She attended to the words spoken
by the apostle. I've heard it said you can bring
a horse to water, you can't make him drink. You can bring a child
to hear the gospel. You can talk to them and instruct
them and pray for them, but you can't train them up. This is
where men have tried to set this forth and lay the guilt on parents. It's done all they can do. How
many of you here brought your children? How many here brought
their children to hear the gospel? You sat under one of the most
faithful men you've ever heard in your life. And your kids was
raised up under Brother Scott. A faithful, faithful preacher
of the gospel. What must happen? God's going
to have to give them a new heart. That's what's going to have to
happen. Paul said, I can plant, and Apollos
can water, but God's going to have to give
the increase. It's written in the Prophets, John 6, 45, and
they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Who are the they? It's written, all they, I'll
tell you who they are, they're God's people. All they shall
be taught. God spoke of Abraham and his
children, Genesis 18, 19. Here's what the Lord said about
Abraham and his children, his spiritual children. For I know
him, I know Abraham. I know Him in mercy, I know Him
in grace, I know Him in Christ. And He will command His children
and His household after Him. And they shall keep the way of
the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which He has spoken of Him. Now let me ask you this,
does that mean that all of Abraham's natural, physical, natural lineage
children. Does that mean that all of them
were converted? No. No. Oh, there were some Jews. They started talking about being
Abraham's children. Now the Lord says, I know Abraham,
he'll command his children. Whenever these Pharisees, Jews,
started justifying themselves and telling the Lord why we know,
we know we're of God, John 8.39, they answered and said unto him,
unto the Lord, Abraham is our father. And Jesus saith unto
them, if you were Abraham's children. You go back through the 1st and
2nd Chronicles, Ezra and all of them, and start trying to
read all those names of all the lineage, all the people Trace
them all the way back, you know. Abraham. We know, we know, Abraham
is our father. Jesus saith in him, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. What
is that? You'd believe me, you'd walk
by faith. So the spiritual truth of this passage concerning a
child being trained up is that that child that is trained up,
that will not depart in the way that he should go, God's children. Remember, only the Lord. They shall all be taught of God.
If I could train my children to walk after God, Chuck, if
I had the ability to walk after God, and I could teach my children,
and I instructed them, and I gave them an understanding, you know
what I would do? I'd boast in it. It would be
of me. And I'm telling you, I'm not
going to receive any honor, any glory, any praise in the calling
out, in the teaching of God's people. I preach the gospel. I plant. One waters. But God must give the increase. Train up a child in the way he
should go. Now what way should he go? Well, the way should go
is after Christ, who is the way. He's the way, He's the way of
salvation, the way of righteousness, the truth, the life. If God trains
Him by giving Him a new heart, and that's the only way. You take a dead man, you take
a spiritually dead man, What are you going to do as far as
training a physical dead man? I can talk to a corpse all day
long. Ben, what's it going to do? Nothing. He's just going to lay there.
Why? He don't hear. He don't hear. He's dead. You try to train up a spiritually
dead child. born in trespasses and sins. You can instruct him and teach
him the law, the way of the law, and dogmatic and just, you know,
you know what that's going to do? He's going to rebel against
you. That's all, that's all that, when you try to impose law on
somebody, they will resist you. They'll resist it. Thou shalt
not, carnal heart says, oh yes I will. God Almighty must give them a
new heart. Give them faith to believe Christ. Teach them. The Spirit of God's
got to teach them. As John the Baptist, he made
this declaration, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. You know what the Spirit of God
does? It teaches God's children, Behold the Lamb of God. And that's
when they learn. That's when they're taught. That's
when they're instructed. You teach them. But what? We can't do anything? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Again, we can
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Bring
them up. Let them hear the Gospel. Teach them. Teach them the Scriptures. Who knows? Peradventure. the Lord might be pleased to
bless it. One thing I do know, I don't have the ability to do
it. I don't have the, I don't have the wherewithal. Listen
to this, you train up a child in the way she'd go. When he's old, what does that
mean? It means exactly what it says.
When he becomes old in years, that's what it means. He will
not depart from it. He will not turn aside. He will
not reject that which has been taught. If one leaves, what does that
mean? He was never taught of God. That's
what it means. Scripture says in verse John
2, 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. If they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us,
but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. This glorious promise can only
be given to God's elect. That's the only ones to those
who have been everlastingly loved, redeemed, regenerated, sealed,
taught, kept by God, trained up and instructed by God, by
His Spirit, through His Scriptures. No, we can't train them. I cannot train the heart of one of my children. God's
got to train them. God's got to teach them. The
Lord said, without me you can do nothing. Nothing! Again, I'll
say this, do you think training up a child would fall under that
category? Well, if it falls under the category of nothing, then
yeah, that means I can do that. I cannot do that either. I cannot
do that. God's people, those loved, placed
in Christ before the foundation of the world, regenerated, God
will keep them. Train up a child in the way that
he should go. And when he is old, he will not. He will not depart. Why? Because he is kept by the
power of God through faith. You see, this scripture declares
an absolute truth. Now this is true. There is no
doubt about it. Train up a child in the way he
should go. When he's old, he will not depart from it. Now
that's absolute. There's no doubt about it. Here's
the only problem. Just like the law. There's nothing
wrong with the law. The law is good. It's just I
can't do it. That's my problem. This is what
God's going to have to do. So we do all we can. We do as
the scripture declares us to do. But in closing, there's something
really precious here I want to look at. This last word, it,
it. When I was going over these words
and trying to get the heart of this message, the mind of the
Lord on it, and I came to that word, it, right there. Now, this
is in the book of Proverbs. This is in the Old Testament.
So all of these words are Hebrew, Hebrew words, except the word
it. It is an Old Testament word,
and when I looked it up, it had no Old Testament meaning. It had only a New Testament meaning. It was very strange. I looked
at it, and you look for the meaning of it
in Hebrew, and there is none. But the word is there. But it's
got the New Testament meaning. You go and you look at this,
and here's what the word it means. Alpha. It means alpha. Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from alpha. Who is the alpha? The Lord Himself,
says Revelation 1A. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Here is the proof,
the setting forth of our Lord's eternality. God Almighty, who
cannot lie, He declares that there's none before Him, there's
none after Him. Christ is the beginning, the
ending of all things. He is the Eternal One. God Almighty. Where's your God,
David? Our God's in the heavens. And
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He's the beginning and
end of creation, providence, salvation, He's the author and
finisher of our faith, old, tried, and weary pilgrim. Let's learn
the truth of this faithfulness, this scripture here today. Train
up a child. Teach him. Teach him in the way
he should go. Teach him to walk after Christ,
to hunger after Christ, long after Christ, to seek after Christ. You teach Him. You teach Him
in the way He should go. Teach Him to endure to the end.
You think, I can't, I can't do that. I can't, I can't. That's not something that I can
do. But God's, God can. God can. You train Him up, and
when He is old, He will not depart from Christ. like ourselves. We need to be taught afresh. I need to be kept. I need for
God Almighty to teach me afresh from His Word today. Instruct
me today. Parents, grandparents, all of
us, stay under the sound of the gospel. Stay under the sound
of the Gospel. Stay under the sound of the Gospel.
Teach your children the truth of this Word. Don't forsake the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Read
God's Word. Enter into your closet. Pray
to the Father in secret. The father which heareth in secret
will reward thee openly. Ask him, Lord, would you train
my kids? Would you train my mother? Would you train my dad? Would
you train my brother, my sister, my wife, my husband? Lord, would you have mercy upon
my grandchildren? Only you can train them. Only
you can keep them in the way they should go. after Christ,
it's gonna take a new heart. Lord, but if you train them,
when they're old, they won't depart from it. Why? Because
you're gonna keep them through faith by the power of God until
the day of redemption. I pray God bless this word, our
heart, for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's take a break.