Verse 26, in Proverbs 19, and we usually take these, these
Proverbs one at a time, but we'll look at two together this morning,
and I believe you'll see why. He that wasteth his father and
chasteth away his mother is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth
reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction
that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. Now this,
of course, includes daughters as well, and it includes all
of God's authority. It's important that we see that
in these Proverbs, what this represents, what the core truths
Here, this has to do with authority. It has to do with God's authority.
It has to do with God's order. Somebody might say, well, you
know, I grew up and my dad was just a tyrant. He was a monster
and there was no way I could do anything. He said, all I did
was survive. And you say, well, so this scripture
doesn't apply to me. Oh yes, it does. This has to
do with bowing to God's authority, acknowledging it, respect, reverence,
And we'll see that the more we get into this. So it's maybe
you couldn't respect your father. That may very well be true, but
wherever God's authority is, this is a lesson to bow to God's
authority and not to deal violently. That's that word, wasteth there
in our verse, verse 26, to deal violently with your father and
to chase away your mother, and we understand what that is. It's
rebellion. It's rebellion against authority. And you might wonder
what that has to do with spiritual things. Well, Christ is all when
you're five, and Christ is all when you're 50. God uses means. He uses means,
and we'll see that as we get into this. There are really only
two or three things that are paramount in this lesson. Notice
that the stakes here are shame and reproach, and of course the
opposite of that, where this is true, where there's a violent
dealing with the father. And I'm familiar with that, and I
suspect y'all are too in one example or another throughout
your life where children have violently opposed their parents.
But notice what it is, it's shame and reproach, as opposed to what
are the opposites of shame and reproach in this context? Honor,
pride, respect, reverence. The pride, and when I say pride,
I'm not talking about evil pride, we're talking about the pride
of a father for his son. It's good pride to use the example
given in the text, the father and a son, and in the son himself,
a taking of pride in honoring God's authority. And what I mean
there by taking pride is that it's important to him. It means
something to him. Young people think that the object
of the game, and I wrote in my notes, young people seem to think,
and then I took the word seem out because I was a young people
and I known a lot of young people. I raised some young people. Young
people think that the object of the game is that whoever has
the most fun wins. This is a matter of honor. There
is such a thing as honor. That might be shocking to some
young people in this world these days. And don't get me wrong,
I'm all for fun. And when you're young, especially,
that's the time to do it. It never gets old, though. I
like to have fun just as much as anybody. A lot of people take
themselves way too seriously. They seem determined to be miserable.
That's not what we want either. They're just determined to be
miserable. No matter what you try to do about it, they're just
gonna be miserable. That's horrible. That's a terrible thing. That's
not Christian. That's not Christ-like. But what seems to be especially
lacking in young people is a sense of honor, a sense of respect. And I wanna use this word that
we don't hear a lot. conscientious, a conscientious
attitude. It's very rare these days, and
it means wishing to do what is right, especially to do one's
work and duty well and thoroughly. Isn't that such a rare thing
anymore? And let's face it, children are
taught not to be conscientious. They're taught not to be. in
this world. This is something I like to call
giving a hoot. For it to matter to you, whether
you do something well or not. I've told my children since they
were very young, if you wanna be successful in this life, just
do what you're supposed to. Because I guarantee you, most
people are not gonna do that. And you're gonna stand out. It's not always the pursuit of
fun and just levity and foolishness like that
in that sense that takes young people away from the counsel
of their parents. It's also something that this
world calls free will. You think about this for a minute.
Why is there violent opposition against God's authority in this
world? what they call free will, what's
mistaken for free will in people. You know what it really is? It's
the radical determination to sin in spite of God, in spite
of his clear word, his order in the family, in the home, in
business, in the world, and in his church. God has an order. And it's people's determination
to sin in spite of the clear truth of that. When people, you
know, people have their truth now. That's the problem. That's
the problem. Young people have their truth.
They're living their truth. There is no your truth. What
it is is your evil. That's what it is. There's the
truth and then there's your evil. That's a basic lesson that young
people have to learn these days. and in every age. Another thing,
and it's a truth that is somewhat
concealed in this text, is that it's the parent's fault pretty
much every time. In this sense only, not that
it's, you know, this should be an issue of who's, you know,
who's going to be, who's going to win, you know, in arguments
and stuff like that. And then when there's conflict,
in this sense only, it's the parent's fault most of the time. Train up a child in the way he
should go. You know how hard that is to do? Most people are
way too lazy to ever do that. Way too lazy. And they don't
give a hoot. They just don't love their children
that much to put in that much effort and time. They're not
going to do it. And it's obvious that they aren't
going to and that they haven't when they don't. And when he is old, he will not
depart from it. And of course, there's exceptions
to that. But you take a look at this world and the way young
people are being raised. And you tell me what the problem
is. If that ain't it, you tell me
what it is. No accountability. Notice especially, given that the right things are
being taught in the home, notice in our text that the problem
hinges upon what teaching is listened to and what is not,
verse 27. You see how clear that is? This
is it now. It's assumed that young people
are gonna hear the wrong thing. You notice that? It's not if,
it's not, you know. It's just assumed that they're gonna hear it, that
the bad teaching is there, that hatred of God and his authority
and rebellion is there, and that your children are gonna hear
it. You can protect them as long as you can, But it's there and they're gonna
get it. The exhortation is this though, don't listen to it. Don't
you listen to it. If you've heard the truth, if
you've heard what's real and what's important, what's vital,
don't you listen to anything contrary to that. And what is
the way that a child should go? You read this book and you tell
me, well, we don't want them to smoke or drink or cuss, you
know, we don't wanna. The way that you should go is
straight to Christ. And then you decide whether you
wanna smoke cigarettes or not. You go straight to Christ, that's
the way you should go. John said, behold, the Lamb of
God, he takes sin away. That's your real problem is your
sin. That's where rebellion against authority comes from. That's
where hatred of your parents comes. That's where the violence
comes from. It comes from your heart, your sinful, black, wretched,
depraved heart. You don't have to teach children
to be rebellious. They just are. We're born that way. We're born
being little gods. Just like Satan said in the garden,
you shall be his God. We like the sound of that. And
our children like the sound of that. They like that. They love
the idea of I get to do what I want to do. They've got to
be taught the truth. They've got to be taught right. And the scripture has a little
something to say about the method in which you teach them too.
We won't get into that this morning, but it ain't unclear. So the bad teaching is there,
the exhortation is don't listen. The human's sinful tendency of
humanity is that when a young person gets a little older and
they become more independent and they begin to see or think
that the world is their oyster and they're confronted with a
kind of freedom, with independence, and they're confronted with with
disrespectful and shameful and evil and self-destructive behavior
in others, they're gonna be confronted with that. And their tendency
is to think that, boy, now we're free, we're free from the constraints
that our parents, you know, they held us down, they held us back,
and how wonderful it is that now I can express myself the
way I've always wanted to. That's the tendency. Does that
ring any bells, by the way? Is that what happened in the
Garden of Eden? God's holding you down. What do you mean you
can't? You're the one that should decide that. We don't have to
listen to God. You see what it is? God's authority
in the home. There's right, there's honor,
there's respect to be had. The Garden of Eden. where Adam
and Eve are enlightened, you know, enlightened that maybe
they don't need to be told what to do anymore. They can choose for themselves,
maybe. They can decide between good and evil, that God has been
withholding something from them that they should have. How many parents have been accused
of that? It's the same evil. It's the same truth. It's the
same need. We need the truth of God. We
need the authority of God when we're five, when we're 50, when
we're a hundred. We've got to bow to God. If you're his, he's going to
bow you sooner or later. Parents are well used by God
in that regard in a godly home. by godly parents. It's an ancient problem. Do you
think your parents haven't lived that? Do you think that when
they're trying with all their heart to guard you from that,
that they haven't lived it? Do you consider their tears that
shallow? Let me close with one simple
point. The stakes here in our experience are shame and reproach,
as opposed to honor, dignity, respect, reverence, a conscientious
attitude, given a hoot, it mattering to you. The fool hath said it, you know,
that Psalm, it says there in the, In the English, the fool hath
said in his heart, there is no God. But if you'll notice the
words there is are in italics, that means they're not there
in the original Hebrew, that that was added. And often the
added stuff in the scripture is helpful. There it's not. The fool doesn't say there's
no God. Let me tell you something. There
is no such thing as an atheist. There's no such thing. They claim
to be, they may even want to be, but you can't hate somebody
that doesn't exist. Atheists don't believe there's
not a God. They hate the God that that is. They hate him. That's our problem. That's scriptural
now. It doesn't say in Romans chapter
one that when God didn't make sense to them and they just didn't
believe there was a God, it says when they knew God, they refused
to glorify him as God. That's an atheist right there. When they knew God, you can't
look at this universe, what you can even see of it, and have
an excuse. There's no such thing as an atheist,
period. It don't exist in God's word
and it don't exist in this world. Sinners who don't know God, hate
God. But going back to that Psalm,
the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. What it actually
says is the fool has said in his heart, no God, no God for
me. He says no to God. Psalm two, we will cast their
bands from us. We've got no use for their restraints. We will cast them from us. And
what does it say God's response to that is? He laughs. You really think you're free?
It's just a question of whose puppet you are. That's all it
is. Are you held captive by Satan at his will? Does that sound
like a free will? When Satan's will is what you're
in captivity to? Or do you rejoice in the sovereign
God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will? Either way, your will doesn't
have a whole lot to do with it, does it? Except in this sense,
God's people shall be willing in the day of God's power. That's
what your will has to do with it. And that's it. But this simple point I want
to close with, the stakes in our experience are shame and
reproach as opposed to honor and respect for God's authority,
submission to God's authority. But the true stakes, the spiritual
stakes are life and death. They're life and death. Proverbs
23, 13, and 14, I'll remind you of, withhold not correction from
the child. For if thou beatest him with
the rod, he shall not die. That doesn't mean you're beating
him black and blue. It's just strike. There are a
lot of ways to do that. There's abuse and then there's
discipline. Not real hard to tell the difference.
Not real hard. If you need to have a fine point
put on that, then you just, then it would be a waste of time to
put it on there. If you beat him with the rod,
he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and thou
shalt deliver his soul from hell. What does this have to do with
spiritual things? Christ is all when you're five and Christ is
all when you're 50. And God uses means in this world.
Don't you neglect them. Don't you despise the means that
God uses? He has an order, he has authority
in this world for a reason. Colossians 3, 16, read this for
homework if you will, we're out of time. Colossians 3, 16 through
25. And let me just ask you this in close, what are you gonna
listen to? That's where it kind of hinges in this text, doesn't
it? Who are you gonna listen to? Young people, especially
now. Who are you gonna listen to? The instruction that causeth
to err, as our verse describes it, the instruction that causeth
to err. What's the opposite of that in
our text? The words of knowledge. If the Lord has given you a real
daddy and a real mama, that's what you're gonna hear. And look,
if they teach you not to smoke and to drink, I think that's
great. I'm for that. I think those are bad things
that can cause trouble. You know, that's fine. Don't
cuss. That's good parenting. But the
way you should go is to Christ. That's what a godly parent will
do. He will point you to Christ when you're five, And if he's still alive when
you're 50, he'll still be pointing you to Christ May God give us grace in this
as parents and as children To his glory and the good of his
sheep He gives these blessings these means in this world For
his sheep Who you gonna listen to Let's pray.