My wife just told me something
very wise. She said, would you set that
water down? She said, I know how you swing your arm. I don't know. I'd be in bad shape. Fred, I told Fred a few minutes
ago, we always want to come and thank and compliment messages
that I told him, son, buddy, I mean this. That blessed my
heart. Wasn't that good? I mean, that
was good. Good. I've heard men say we could go
home now. I mean that. We really could. Fred, it was
outstanding. I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the 22nd chapter of the book
of Proverbs. Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. I'd like to look
at verse 6. Proverbs 22.6. Train up a child
in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not
depart from it. Now this passage of Scripture
tonight, I'm sure, is one that every believing, concerned parent
with the eternal security of their children would desire to
hear. I want to know what this scripture
has to say. I've got some kids, and I truly
believe, by the grace of God, I believe I've got four kids.
Gabe, Sarah, Hannah, Becca. I've got four kids. And I truly,
if I didn't mean this, Mike, I wouldn't say it. I believe
God saved them. I believe He has. I'm so thankful
for that. But I've got some grandchildren,
one great. And I pray God save them. I pray
the Lord is pleased to save them. I want to know, I want to hear
what God has to say concerning this promise right here. Now
this scripture is one of great instruction. Now here's what
it says. Train up a child in the way he should go. Train up a child in the way he
should go. Now which direction do you think
a believing parent is going to try to direct a child to go? You look to the Lord. You seek
God. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. That's what you want. I looked up that word. Train
up. And here's what it means. Here's
that word. This is what that word means.
It has to do with the mouth. That's one of the words in the
definition. Mouth. Put it in the mouth. And
then here's the rest of it. Give it a taste for it. Put something in the mouth and
give it a taste for it. And this is a passage of Scripture
that gives some future assurance and comfort concerning that training. Listen to this. This is an absolute
promise of success. Now, this is absolute. And when
he is old, he will not depart from it. He won't leave it. He
won't leave it. It doesn't say he might not leave
it. It says he will not depart. That's a pretty definite. Now, I'm just going to be honest
with you tonight. Let's just all be honest about
it. This is a very perplexing passage of Scripture. Many believing
parents who've read it longed for a right understanding of
it. They did all they knew to do, being obedient, honorable
before God to raise up their children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Here's what they didn't do. They didn't just leave them to
themselves and say, well now, you kids need to find your own
way. Y'all, I want you to go out there
and kind of explore. See, no. I'll tell you what they
did. They brought them and they got them under the sound of the
Gospel. And they prayed for them. They taught them the Scriptures.
And we're going to read God's Word tonight. That's what we're going
to do. We're going to read the Word
of God. And they disciplined them when they were disobedient
and told them why they had to discipline them. When my kids
were growing up, I'm telling you, you ask Gabe how many whippings
he got a day. Gabe will tell you. He said my
dad whipped me every day. And he deserved it. But I'd tell
him, I'd tell him, this is what I'm going to do. Now Gabe, and
the other girls too, they weren't exempt. I said, now I'm not going
to whip you for a mistake, but for disobedience. He got one
shot at it. And when I told him, lay down,
face down on that bed. And he said, when I heard that
belt popping when it was coming off, he said, I knew. This is
not going to go well. And I'm telling you, I'd whip
him then. I'd put him in my lap, and I'd
hug him and kiss him. And I said, Gabe, I love you.
And you know that. But I'm not going to let you
be disobedient. I said, if I don't whip you now,
God's going to whip me later. I'll suffer later. And I'd teach
him. And I'd tell them, I'd say, listen,
I want you to know, I want you to understand, we're going to
sit, you're going to come, you're going to sit, you're going to
listen. But by the grace of God, the
Lord pleased to bless it. But then there's times when parents
have done that very same thing. They've done the same thing.
Raised them, brought them to church, Little kids. You know, they hear the gospel. You never know. Who knows? Peradventure. The Lord might be pleased. Might
be pleased to give them an ear to hear. And you want them to.
But, as often the case is. How many do all of us know? The kids, and then they got older
and they left. There's two boys that I know
of, Adam and Eve. There was a Cain and an Abel. Solomon. The Scripture says Solomon was
one son of David and David had another son, Absalom. And then you look and you hear
Isaac. He had a Jacob. in Adonisa. Let me ask you this, how many
of these dads do you think taught these kids the gospel? How many godly parents, I mean,
I'm not talking about parents that just decided, well, we're
going to just go to church somewhere, but I'm talking about parents
that sat under the gospel and heard a preacher of the gospel
of God's grace preach Christ and had their children sit there.
And at times they'd leave and felt the sting, sorrow, feeling
somehow I've done something wrong, I don't know what I did. But
my kids, well knowing that God's Word is sure. Let's consider
just for a few minutes. This is the Word of God. And it's not maybe. It's yay
and amen. I know that. So let's just look
just for a minute and see what does the Lord have to say. Train
up a child. It does mean teach him. Catechize
him. It does mean that. And I said
before, put in his mouth. This is the heart of that train
up. Put in his mouth. and give him
a taste for it. Now think about what's being
said. Put something in his mouth spiritually and give him a taste
for it. Somebody said, I've done that. And I see no result. It just
doesn't seem as though, well, obviously there's something that
we've missed here. A child that does not bow to
this Word right here. Now here is the truth. A child that does not bow to
this Word right here has never been trained. Train up a child in the way he
should go. And let me tell you what we can
do. We can bring them to hear the truth. We can read God's
Word to them. We can pray for them. We can
instruct them. Follow after Christ. Walk after
Him. Exhort them to seek the Lord. But let me tell you what we can't
do. We can't train them. We can't train them. We can't
train them. We can't give them a taste for
Christ. You can't do. You can do all
that you can. Let me ask you this. Scripturally
speaking, what is required for anyone? Now let's just not talk
about just kids. Let's talk about all of us here.
Youngest to the oldest. What does it take to train up
any of us? Not just a child, but us. What's
it going to take to train me up? I'll tell you what it's going
to take for me to be trained. Almighty God is going to have
to give me a new heart. This is what it's going to take
for me to have a taste for Christ. A hunger and a thirsting after
righteousness. This is what it's going to take.
God's going to have to do something for me that I can't do for myself
and I can't do for my kids. I want God to save my grandchildren,
my kids. But I can't train them. I can't
give them a taste for it. I can't give them a taste. Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. I wish I could put that
in my kids and grandkids. Don't you? I wish I could put
that there. But you know what, Mikey, if
I could, I'd brag on it. I did that. I did that. What's it gonna take for a child
to be trained up? What is it gonna take? Let me
tell you what it's gonna take. First of all, God is gonna have
to love him with an everlasting love. God's gonna have to love
him. That's what's gonna happen. Almighty God, is going to have
to love that child, that sinner, your little granddaughter. That's
what it's going to take. For a child to be trained up,
God's going to have to love them. God's going to have to, the Father
is going to have to put them in Christ, secure, kept. That's what it's going to take.
For a child to be trained up, God's going to have to set His
affection on that child from before the foundation of the
world. Love that child and accept Him in the Beloved. This is what
it's going to take. All of that child's guilt, from
the oldest of us children to the youngest of us children,
all of us now. Almighty God is going to have to make His blessed
Son sin for that child and put away that guilt, put it away
in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is going
to have to love him, elect him and choose him, put him in Christ
for safe keeping and the surety is going to have to come into
this world. and bear His guilt in His own body and put it away
under the judgment, that's what you said Fred, under the justice
and judgment of Almighty God. The law is going to have to be
honored, honored for that child. In time, the Spirit of God is
going to have to cross His path with the Gospel and that faithful
parrot that brought Him under the sound of the Gospel and put
Him there. I prayed, Almighty God, have mercy on my children. And if it pleases God, God's
gonna cross His path and give that child a new heart. And teach
Him. And train Him. And give Him a
taste for it. There's a remnant. I can tell
you this according to the election of grace. and they are objects
of God's mercy. And I can tell you this, the
Lord is going to save His people. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. These are fallen sons of Adam,
predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself. Sheep, that's who they are. They
come into this world lost sheep, but their sheep are the sheep
I have. They are not of this fold. Them
I must bring. And these sheep, these sons,
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son. And these that the Lord has everlastingly
loved. He gonna fetch him, just like
he did Mephibosheth. I love that story. Is there any
of the house of Saul that I can show mercy to? For Jonathan's
sake. Well, there's this one boy. He
lame on both of his feet. He's over in Lodebar. Well, you
go fetch him. That's what we'd say to him.
Go fetch him. You bring him to me. He gonna
sit at my table. Whenever it pleases the Lord, God goes and
gets them. That's what He's going to do.
And He saves them by grace and He trains them. I tell you, they
hear that message and the Spirit of God blesses it to their heart
and they have a taste for Christ. Why? Because God's given them
life. We do all we can. We can do all we can do. But
I can tell you it's going to have to be like when Lydia was
sitting there listening to Paul. And what happened? The Lord opened
her heart. And God trained her. And she
attended. She attended to the Word. Isn't
that right? She attended to the words spoken by Paul. I've always heard people say
this. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him
drink. You can bring a child to hear the gospel, but you can't
make him be trained. What does it say? John 6, 45. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Everyone therefore that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. I need God to train my kids. The Lord spoke of Abraham and
his children, Genesis 18-19, for I know him. that He will
command His children and His household after Him. They shall
keep the way of the Lord, do justice and judgment that the
Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken. There were
some Jews that started claiming, you know, well, we're sons of
Abraham. That's Scripture right there.
It says Genesis. It says, I know Him, talking about Abraham. He
will command His children, His household after Him. shall keep
the way of the Lord. That's what some of those Jews
told the Lord. We're Abraham's children. The
Lord said in John 8, 39. The Lord said, if you were Abraham. I know you can trace your lineage
back to Abraham. I know that. But spiritually,
if you were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham.
So now, knowing that God's going to have to train up a child.
I can give him some instruction. I can tell him. I can pray for
him. But I can't give him a new heart. I can't give him a taste
for it. I can't. That's what it means. You train
him up. You give him a taste for it. Y'all know why you're
here tonight? You know why? You got a taste
for this. When you hear the gospel. When
you hear Christ exalted. I hear what you just preached.
I think, oh that tastes good. That tasted good. Train up a
child in the way he should go. Now obviously, what's the way
he should go? Well, the Lord answered that
in John 14, 6, didn't He? He said, I am the way. I am the
way. You train up a child in the way
he should go. Go in His way, following after
Him. He is the truth and the life.
And when he is old, Now here's what it means. If God trains
up a child, if God trains up a child in the way he should
go, when he is old, when he is old in years, now what does it
say? He will not depart from it. He won't turn aside. He won't
reject what God's taught him. Why? Because he's kept by the
power of God. through faith. If someone appears
as though that they are here, and they leave, you have had
them leave, we have too. Walter, Mike, you have too. Why
did they leave? They went out from us, but they
were not of us. For 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. But if God trains up a man, God
trains up a child, when he's old, he will not depart from
it. Why? Because God says, I give
them eternal life. They will never perish. Never. But in closing, I'm going to
leave you with something else here that's very, very precious.
There's something especially precious in this last promise.
Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old,
he will not depart from it. Now, you're just going to have
to just, until you can get to a concordance and look up what
I'm about to say, because believe me, I try to make sure I look
up these words and make sure I know what I'm talking about
because somebody is going to check it. You can write this
one down. He will not depart from it. Now this book that I'm preaching
out of is the book of Proverbs. It's an Old Testament book and
it's written in Hebrew. It's Hebrew. So what I do, I
don't speak Hebrew. So I just get me a lexicon and
a concordance and I start looking the words up. All of these words
in that passage of Scripture right there. Train up a child
in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart
from. Every one of those words are written in Hebrew. But the
last word, it. It. When you go to look up that
word, Fred, there is no Hebrew word for it. You try to look
it up and it immediately refers you to Greek. It's a Greek word. And the Greek word, as soon as
you look it up, here's the Greek word. Alpha. Here's the Word. Revelation 1.8 says, I am the
Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come,
the Almighty. Here is the One who is eternity. The One who cannot lie, He that
declares the end from the beginning, the beginning and ending of all
things, God who is in the heavens and He's doing that which He
pleases to do whatsoever. He's been pleased. He's the Alpha. He's the beginning and ending
of creation, providence, salvation, and here's what the Holy Spirit
has said. That's who wrote this. Solomon
just penned it. The Spirit of God wrote this.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old
he will not depart from Christ. That's what it said. That's what
it said. We can bring our kids to hear
the gospel. We can train them, we can discipline
them when we They're disobedient, they're not listening. Take them
out when you need to and spank them. Say, now listen, you're
going to have to sit still. You're going to want to listen to this. You
pray for them, read them the scriptures. But Mike, I can't
give them a taste for it. But I can tell you this, on the
authority of this Word, if God trains them, when they're old, they're going
to still be trained and they're going to still be taught And
they're going to still be kept. And on the authority of the Word
of God, they will never depart from Christ. Because there He
is. This is some encouragement to
me. I pray God bless this to our hearts for Christ's sake.
Amen.