Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22. I've so enjoyed this book. Verse 15, Proverbs 22, 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. There's no caring, loving parent
that has not at some time suffered Not only hours, days, but weeks,
months, or years of anxiety and pain because of the way or the
ways of a rebellious child. And the problem is so great that
Well-meaning, I'm sure. It's a professional calling of many people to deal
with children, problem children. Institutions, people have written
books, spoken at seminars, one-on-one sessions. with parents that have
been brought to their wits end because of their inability to
deal with a child that will not submit to authority. A child that seems to thrive on
doing the very thing that just breaks a parent's heart, not
obey. And the problem It's not environment,
it's not social interactions or the lack of social interactions
or any other natural phenomenon. The problem is the nature of
every child that's been born into this world. Every child
that's ever come out of the loins of animals. Here's the problem. Foolishness, silliness, is bound
in the heart of a child. Now, as I've said many times
before, the book of Proverbs is written such that there is
a natural application to this. There's a spiritual application
which I'm going to, that's what I'm going to deal with. But I
want to say something before I get into the spiritual. I want
to say something about the natural problem of correcting children. That's what I've entitled this,
correcting a child. Naturally speaking, men think that they know better. on how to deal with correct,
train, or direct a child to a more acceptable way of obedience. Ways that have always proven
to be wrong and useless. I've heard people say, well,
I think that the best thing to do is just let them experiment
with whatever they would like to and let them try to learn
from their mistakes. Or threatening to remove privileges. That's a big one, you know. Or
time out. Or trying to be the child's best
friend. I'll just enter in there with
them and no child wants their parent to be their best friend.
I can tell you this right now. But the scripture deals with
the only remedy, the only foundation and instruction for lovingly
training and correcting our children. But the rod of correction shall
drive it far from him. Proverbs 29 15 says this, the
rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth
his mother to shame. I have seen situations where
parents would do just exactly what scriptures instructed them
to do. And apparently, there was no
fruit born of correction. It doesn't change the fact that
this is the only God-ordained means that God will bless. If the Lord leaves a child to
themselves, that was the Lord. But there's no other way. There's
no other man-made way. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. How often has the Spirit of God
been pleased to give us instruction concerning the correction of
our children? Proverbs 19.18, Chasten thy son
while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. That's the most understandable
statement, naturally speaking, that you can read. When a child
is caught, they're going to cry, and they're going to beg, but
let me say this to you. If you have told your child that
you're going to do something, if you've promised them, if you
do this again, I'm going to spank you. I'm going to do it. Let
me give you the best advice that I could possibly give you concerning
raising children. Do it. Do it. Because if you don't, they do
not believe you. The next time he comes up, they're
going to say he's not going to do it. Be truthful with them and be
consistent with them. One might say, well, I love my
child too much to spank him or to spank her. I just love them
too much. But the problem is our lack of
understanding concerning what true love for our children is. We say we love them too much
to spank them. I don't want to hurt them. I
don't want to do this. Listen, they need discipline. They need it. They need desperately
discipline. A child loves to know where the
lines are. You've heard me say that before.
They love to know, tell me where the lines are. Don't leave a
child to have to figure out for himself. They don't know. You've
learned something. Hopefully we've learned something.
Proverbs 13, 24, he that spareth his rod hateth his son. You say, well I... No, no, no. Yes. Let God be true and we're
liars. We love them so we're not going
to chasten them. I'm telling you, a child is so
settled and so secure when he knows that his parent loves him
enough to discipline him. Discipline them and then tell
them what you've done. He that spareth his rod, hateth
his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes. What does that mean? Early. Early. Early. I told you when Gabe called me,
I know I remember telling you this. He called me one time and
he said, Dad, Isabella, is a year old. Is she too old to spank?" I said, Gabe, you're probably
six months late. I'd use some discretion, but a little paddle,
you know, that baby knows. They know quickly. The scripture
says, when you discipline, do it early. By the time a child,
I'm not going to get into sociology tonight or anything, by the time
a child is six years old, they have established, that's the
pattern, six years old. True love for our children is
exhibited when we obey God and discipline them, and discipline
them lovingly. I'm not talking about child abuse,
I'm not. I'm not talking about ranting
and raving. There's been times that I've found myself so angry,
and at that moment, the best thing to do is not spank them
right then. I'm angry. Don't do it. Don't do it. Wait
a minute. Just calm down. But spank them
lovingly. And a refusal of scriptural discipline
is disobedience to God. Now there's the problem. Again,
Sarah was the one that told me. She said, Dad, I never understood.
You would tell me that you had to spank us because if you didn't
spank us, then the Lord would spank you. She said, I thought,
how is God going to spank my dad? But she said, now I know. It would be later when disobedience
would manifest itself magnificently. in an undisciplined child. That's
when I would receive my weapon from the Lord. And to not discipline
our children is to place our children above God. Now I'm going
to make good on this one. Hold your place right there and
turn to 1 Samuel 2. 1 Samuel. To not discipline our
children is to place our children above God. 1 Samuel 2. Verse 22 to 34, 1 Samuel 2, verse 22. Now Eli was very old and heard
all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And he said unto them, Why do
ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by all this people. Nay, my sons, For it is no good
report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to
transgress. If one man sin against another,
the judge shall judge him. If a man sin against the Lord,
who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them."
Robert Hawker made a good statement on this scripture, on this passage
I just read. He said, Eli made a token effort. to tell his boys. Now these boys
were priests. And we just read what they were
doing. The disrespect that they were
showing to the Lord, to God's worship. Disrespectful. And it was basically what Eli
did was he told them, Sidney, y'all shouldn't have done that.
Now you shouldn't have done that. That was not right. Listen to
what God had to say. And Samuel verse 26 grew on and
was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. And there
came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him, Thus saith the
Lord. This man of God came and said, Eli, this is what God says. Did I plainly appear unto the
house of thy father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?
And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my
priest? offer upon mine altar to burn incense, to wear an ephod
before me? And did I give unto the house
of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children
of Israel? Wherefore, kick ye at my sacrifice
and mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and
honorest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the
chiefness of all the offerings of Israel, my people. Wherefore,
the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house
and the house of thy father should walk before me forever, but now
the Lord saith, be it far from me for them that honor me, I
will honor. They that despise me shall be
lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come. I will
cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there
shall not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt see an
enemy in my habitation, and all the wealth which God shall give
Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house forever.
And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar,
shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart, and
all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their
age. And this shall be a sign unto
thee, that shall come upon thy two sons on Hothni and Phinehas,
in one day they shall die, both of them." To place our children, and to
not discipline our children, is to put our children ahead
of God. And God killed his two boys because of it. It's a serious
thing concerning obedience to the Lord in all areas. The mercy of God teaches us as
believing parents the importance of discipline. This is the Lord's
way in dealing with us, His people. Now listen, this is what God
does. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Discipline
is right. It is the teaching of our children,
the discipline that the Lord gives unto us, His people, because
of His love for us. So parents, Proverbs 23, 13,
withhold not correction from the child. If thou beatest him
with a rod, he shall not die. No, he'll live. God will teach
him. Now, certainly, it shouldn't
surprise us, naturally speaking, I told you I wanted to deal with
that for a moment. It shouldn't surprise us that the world, by
and large, opposes God's word of instruction concerning physical
discipline of children. And as necessary as it is to
be taught the true and right way of naturally raising, disciplining
our kids, there's a greater need of discipline and correction.
And I'm still going to be talking about parents and their children
and their children's children. There's a rescue that Almighty
God must give a deliverance, that He must give if our children
are going to have any hope, any correction of their souls. It's going to take God's way. Naturally speaking, the correct
way of dealing with disobedience is a spanking. I know that's
not popular. I know they'll put me in jail. It doesn't change the fact that
this is the Word of God and we obey. We obey. But when it comes
to the correction of the heart, what does the Lord have to say?
Here's the problem. All mankind is born in a very
desperate situation. We're born with a spiritually
dead heart. A heart that is revealed to be
foolish. Foolish. It's silly. Perverse. Perverse. Let me tell
you what that word means. Perverse. To behave in a way
that is unreasonable or unacceptable in spite of the consequences. to behave in a way that is unacceptable
and unreasonable in spite of the consequences. How many people
do we all know that are going about their business tonight,
right now, today and if the Lord allows tomorrow to get here tomorrow,
going about their business doing what they want to do with no
concern whatsoever. Now here's a book. Here's a book,
the most sold book in all the world. The Bible. By and large
everybody's got at least one. Probably more. This is God's revelation to mankind. This is God's promise of mercy
to a people that's everlastingly been loved in Christ, and God's
promise of wrath and judgment to all that's found without Christ. Here it is, in black and white,
all languages, God's Word. Same, hadn't changed. That's
God's Word. And men go about and women go
about this world. with God's revelation sitting
on their bookshelf or desk or whatever. God's Word and they're
going about with this attitude to behave in a way that is unreasonable
and unacceptable in spite of the consequences. You know why
it doesn't matter? They're dead. They're spiritually
dead. Fred, they don't know. They don't
know. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. And the problem is that this
foolishness, this silliness, this perverseness against God
is bound in the heart. It's bound in that dead heart.
That's the birthright of everybody born in this world through the
loins of Adam. That's the common denominator. We're all like that. There's no difference in any
of us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. By
one man's disobedience, all mankind have been made Sinners. Sinners. What does that mean? We cannot do anything but sin.
That's all we do. We don't do anything but sin. Our entire nature poisoned at
the spring. At the fountain. A sinner can
only beget a sinner, another sinner. The Lord said in John
3, 6 to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all it is. It's just that
old nature. It's just that old man. So we
would desire to know, you know, if we would desire to know who
has been affected, we'll just look around. Here we all are. All of us like this. We're all
born with the same problem, from the youngest child in this room
to the eldest. We're all the same. Foolishness
is bound in the heart. It's not a garment that can be
removed like childhood. You know, you've got a bad habit,
you know. He likes to do something, you know. Stop that. OK. Stop it. OK. Maybe I can train
him to stop that. but not foolishness. I can't
train him to get rid of foolishness. It's not in the surface. It's bound into the very nature. It's joined in agreement with
the man's being. It's woven into his fiber. You
could dissect him and open him up and you can't find it. It's just woven into him. Foolishness
is bound in the heart, it's held there by chains that are invincible
to human power. You can't do anything. You can't do it, I can't do anything
to change it. Jeremiah 13.23, Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then
may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. I looked up that
word accustomed. Accustomed. You know what it
means? Expert. Expert. Taught. Trained. You that are accustomed
to do evil. What do we do? We're good at
it. What can we do? Walk down the
aisle? Step into a baptismal pool? Turn
over a new leaf? Join a local assembly? That's
not the problem. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child. And when it comes to doing something
for himself, here's what Job asked, Job 14.4. Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Who can do anything? Why? Because man is totally depraved. He's totally, that means there's
no part of his being that is unaffected by sin. He cannot deliver himself. The
whole head is sick. The whole heart faint. That's
what Isaiah 1.5. David said, when the Lord taught him of himself,
behold, I was shapen in iniquity. As soon as the soul and body
is united in conception, David said, I was shapen right then,
right then. When conception takes place,
iniquity is there. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. But thanks being to God, there's
a remedy from heaven. And I want to hear what I'm about
to say. I need to hear this. You need
to hear this. A lot of us here, our children are grown, but we
got grandchildren. And we have children that don't
know the Lord. We got grandkids that don't know God. I'm going
to tell you something. Here's God's word on this. just
like naturally speaking, the rod of correction. I know what
that says. I pray that God bless it. That's
only the Lord can. If he doesn't, it doesn't remove
the responsibility that I have to do it. But if God doesn't
bless it and correct them, they don't have any hope. But if I
try any other way, then I'm disobedient to God. But now here is the same
thing. There's not another way. There's
no other rod of correction. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction. The God-given means of correcting
a child, whether it's a young child or old child. We're all
children. I'm a child, you're a child.
We're all children. But the God-given means is said to be a rod. And I looked it up again. A stick. A stick. A stick for ruling,
a stick for punishing, a stick for correction and directing. A rod of correction. And what
is the only revealed rod of correction that is blessed by the Spirit
of God that can remove, drive out that heart of rebellion.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction
drives it far from him. What is the only rod of correction
that Almighty God has revealed that He blesses to remove that
heart of stone, death? That old heart that has dominion
over a child. What's the only rod of correction? The preaching of the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel. This is it. This is it. Paul
said, Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Jew
first and also to the Greek. It is the only rod of correction
that God has revealed that He will bless to the driving out
of the foolishness that is bound within the heart of any sinner. It's the only rod of correction
that keeps us in the way. It was the rod of correction
that first called us. It's the rod of correction that
keeps us. This is it. This is why. It's
so necessary. You realize, you've heard me
preach this before. You've heard me preach this.
But this message of the glorious gospel, the declaration of God's
will and God's purpose to save a people according to His everlasting
covenant of grace, God's purpose to do that, that's the only hope
that any man, any woman has. 2 Timothy 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable. What does that mean? This is
the only thing that has any profit to it, any goodness, any good
in it. This is it. The Scripture is
given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for doctrine. If you want to know concerning
God, who God is, who man is, concerning what God has to say
about redemption and life eternal, where are you going to learn
that? In scripture. That's the only place you're
going to know it. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof from error, from
the error of heresies and false teaching. Do you know the only
way that we ever knew when we were in false religion? Or if
you were, or if you did, or if you didn't, or anybody else that
you know, do you know the only way you ever knew that? Right
here. What else you got? We don't have
anything else. This is it. This is the rod of
correction. It's profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction. Correction in attitude, in spirit,
and practice. And for instruction in righteousness. Brother Henry said, the scriptures
are our rule of faith and practice. How do I know, truly, how do
I know how to act towards you? Is it left up to me? The Scriptures. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
God has a people, a people that He's going to deliver. He's going
to deliver them from the power of sin, death, Satan, and the
world. And He causes those that He's everlastingly loved, those
that He's chosen from the beginning unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to come unto the sound
of the gospel. This would be our encouragement
to each other. Pray for our children, our families. Pray for those you work with.
Pray for those that God causes you to cross paths. The gospel,
I know, is nonsense to many people. I know that. I know that it's
a stumbling block to others. I know that. But it doesn't change
the fact that 1 Corinthians 1.24 says, but unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. This is the only hope that anyone
has. Pray for them. Encourage them.
When I said I'm talking to me, I think to myself all the time.
You need to invite that person to come. Why don't you just come?
Who knows? They might. God might give them
a heart to come. It's a marvelous display of God's
mercy when the gospel is preached and that rod of correction and
the Spirit of God moves in power upon the vessels of His mercy.
and compassion, and He calls one of His own out of darkness.
He keeps them. And that rod of correction, you
know what the evidence is when God has corrected one of His
own, one of His children? They're willing in the day of
His power. They're willing to cast themselves
upon God for mercy. Willing to come, willing to hear,
willing to obey, willing to leave. They'll come out from among them.
It's a miracle of God's grace. And that old heart that was stony,
said to be stony, hardened by sin, revealed by the foolishness
and stubbornness that was there. God said, I'm going to remove
it. I'm going to take it out of the flesh. away from you. I know the effects of sin are
still there, but I'm telling you, every believer has a new
heart, has a heart of submission. He had a heart that loves these
scriptures, loves the God of this Bible, loves God's people,
and wants to be with them. I'm just so glad I can be here
with you tonight. There's a new heart and a new life, given a
life in Christ and a new affection. Then Almighty God, as I said,
not only does He call them the first time by this gospel, it
is the same gospel every time that instructs them every time
and corrects them every time. How many times have we found
ourselves with a bad attitude? And what convicts us? What shows
us the fallacy of our way? The Word of God, blessed by the
Spirit of God. I pray that the Lord bless this
to our hearts. Encourage your children. I'm
telling you, encourage them. You say, well, they won't come.
You don't know that. You don't know that. I heard
Brother Scott say, as long as they got breath in their lungs,
there's still hope. There's still hope. I'd rather
ask one of my kids and them get mad at me and just say, you know
what, I don't ever want to hear that again. Please, I'd rather
hear that than me let them leave this world. I know that the Lord's
going to save who He's going to save. I know that. I know
that. I don't know who they are. But He's commissioned me to go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Preach it to all of them. Tell them all. Tell them all.
Come to Christ. And God may be pleased to give
him a heart to do so. I pray that he will tonight for
Christ's sake. Amen.