Let's turn to Proverbs chapter
6. Our subject tonight is for believers
and their children. Let's read verses Proverbs 6
verse 20 through 24. My son, keep thy father's commandment
and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually
upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest,
it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall
keep thee. And when thou wakest, it shall
talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp,
and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of
life to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the
tongue of a strange woman. Every believer is wise to heed
our everlasting father. He's our father. We're his children. We're wise to heed His command,
that command that He gives through the Mother. The church is called
the Mother in Scripture. He provides brethren to support
the preacher so he can labor in the Word and in prayer to
bring a message. And it's Christ who teaches us. Christ, our everlasting Father,
teaches us in our hearts. And so every believer would be
wise to heed the commandment of our Father. And every child
of believing mothers and fathers would be wise to heed the commandment
of their father and their mother. And we're talking about as they
teach you the gospel, as they teach you the truth of God. Since
my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I've been thinking a lot about
the time that I had under his roof. I've been thinking about the
things he taught me, the things my mother taught me. I still carry with me the things
that they taught me. Every day, something will happen,
and I'll think, my dad taught me that. And that time I had under their
roof was so short. God's able to use faithful fathers
and mothers to lead His children to hear the gospel. Our text says, My son, keep thy
father's commandment. Forsake not the law of thy mother.
King Solomon was the son of David who was a believer. King David was a believer. He
was God's king. He was God's prophet. He was
the priest over his house. He was a faithful father to his
children. He was a picture of Christ, David
was. And God used David to teach Solomon
the gospel. And by God's grace, he gave Solomon
a heart to hear the gospel and believe the gospel. And so it
led Solomon to ask God for wisdom, for understanding. Look at 1
Kings 3. To your left there, 1 Kings 3. Look at verse 5. The Lord said to Solomon, He
said, Ask what I shall give thee. And verse 6 says, And Solomon
said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great
mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in
righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee. and thou
hast kept for him this great kindness that thou hast given
him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. You see what
Solomon learned from David? God taught Solomon through his
father what great mercy he had shown to his father. Now look
at this, verse 7. And now, O Lord my God, thou
hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but a little child. I know not how to go out or come
in. And thy servant is in the midst
of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot
be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern
between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so
great a people?" And the speech pleased the Lord. It pleased
His heavenly Father. for him to come to him and ask
him for judgment and wisdom. Now watch this. Verse 11, And
God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast
not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for
thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked
for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have
done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise
and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And
I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches
and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like
unto thee all thy days. And so when Solomon speaks here
in our text and he says, My son, keep the commandments of your
father, Keep the law of your mother. He's a man speaking by
experience. He knows the value of heeding
the word of your father and your mother. Because he did so and
God gave him a heart. Now he's heeding the word of
his everlasting father. So he's speaking by experience.
So what would his children be wise to do? They'd be wise to
heed his word, wouldn't they? They'd be wise to heed that word
that's coming from Solomon. And believer, don't forget, Solomon
here is a believer, but he's also a picture of Christ the
King, Christ who is the wisdom of God, Christ who is our everlasting
Father. And Christ says to you and I
who believe, My son, keep the commandment of thy father, keep
the law of thy mother, keep this word you hear delivered through
the church, through the preaching of the gospel. And so we'd be
wise to hear, we'd be wise to understand, we'd be wise to heed
the gospel delivered to us, and we'd be wise to heed a mother
and a father who know the gospel in truth and in spirit. You just
think about what God's given us. Think about you who believe. Think what He's done. Our everlasting
Father has brought us into His church and established His gospel
here and given us a place where we can hear a word from Christ
through the gospel. That's a rich, rich blessing.
That's better than anything else. And He's given us an understanding
heart to know and understand Him. So what's the wise thing
for us? To heed His commandment, believe
on Him, do what He says. You know, the word commandments
and laws, not a bad word. It means the gospel. It contains the law. The old
covenant law and any complaint contains the gospel. It's the
word of God. Every word he speaks would be
wise to heed what he says. And so he says here too to every
child who has a believing mother and a father, the wise thing
to do would be to listen to them and heed their instruction and
do what they teach you. That's the wise thing. I want
you to think about this. Children that have believing
fathers and mothers, Think about the advantage that God's given
to you. There's so many millions of people
born into this world that do not have believing mothers and
fathers. In fact, they have fathers and
mothers who hate God and hate the gospel of Christ and teach
their children to hate God and to hate Christ. They have mothers
and fathers that don't even love them enough to correct them,
or give them a commandment, or give them any reproof whatsoever,
except it be for some vain reason and for their own vain pleasure.
And yet God's given you, here, believing mothers and fathers.
That's a great advantage. Here's why it's a great advantage.
They have been able to to be in the faith long enough to know
that the promises that God makes, every word God speaks in His
Word is yes and it is amen in Christ Jesus the Lord. A believer
knows that. This is not theory to a believer.
We know this is so. Before God made this world, He
ordered the salvation of every person He's going to save. And
He made it sure in Christ, in His eternal counsel and in His
everlasting covenant of grace. He made it ordered and sure in
Christ. And because He put the whole
work in the hand of Christ, there's no ifs, ands, or maybes about
it. It's yes and it's amen in Christ. And a believing mother and father
know that's a fact. They know it is. Because we came
into this world just like everybody else. We came into this world
dead in sin. We couldn't believe God's Word.
We had no heart to look into God's Word. All we could do was
hate God and want to run from God and rebel against God. That's
all we could do. And yet, God but God. who's rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, He quickened us together with Christ, and by grace we
were saved. And so, when a believing father
bears witness to his child about God's grace and being able to
quicken and call you out of darkness into His light, we're speaking
because we know it. We're speaking because we've
been right where you are. We know it by... And you have
the advantage of hearing from somebody that knows this by experience. So my son, keep thy father's
commandment and forsake not the law of your mother. Believing
father and mother, they remember what it's like to be where you
are. I know what it's like to think
I'm not... When I was in sin and unbelief,
to think I wasn't as sinful as God says I am in His Word. I
remember thinking that. Is that what some of you think?
You think, I don't think I'm that bad. I'm not as bad as that
person. I may not be quite as good as
that person, but I'm not as bad as that other one. But see, we
don't compare ourselves to one another. That's not the rule.
That's not the rule. The rule is God and His righteousness. You gotta be as righteous as
God. You gotta be as holy as God. There's the rule. Now you're
talking about being a sinner. Now we're talking about being
undone. Now we're talking about being unable to approach unto
God. But believing mothers and fathers
know what it's like to be there. We were once without Christ.
We were once without hope. We were once without God in this
world. But now, in Christ, we're made near by the blood of Christ. Not by us, by His blood. by what
He did. Christ is our peace who's made
us one with God and with our brethren. He came and broke down
that middle wall. There was a wall, a huge wall
between us and God, between us and our brethren. It's called
the law of commandments. And the law said this. The law
said that we were dead, we were guilty, and we couldn't approach
to God. But we took that law and tried to use it to say, well,
I keep this better than you do. And we try to exalt ourselves
over others using God's Word. You might not even know what
the law of God is or what it says and you do the same thing.
In the clothes you wear, in the crowd you hang out with, in the
car you drive, in what you know, and everything, every little
thing we use to try to make ourselves better than somebody else and
exalt ourselves over somebody else. That's the same thing.
But God came in person, in flesh, and He took that little wall
out of the way between us and God. The enmity that was there. And he did it by himself fulfilling
the law and making his people one with God. And then he came
and told it to us. He came and preached it to us
and taught it to us in our heart. And so when a believer tells
you something and they're trying to bear witness to you about
Christ, we're speaking as somebody who's been in the pit. We've
been in the darkness. We've been in that death. We've
been in that enmity. We know what we're talking about
when we tell you this is what Christ has done. This is what
he does for his people. That's a great advantage to a
child that has parents that can tell them this from experience.
So, my son, keep thy father's commandment. Forsake not the
law of your mother. God's children are kept by the
power of God. Kept by the power of God. And
for the sake of your parents, for the sake of the believer,
for the sake of your believing parents, that child who lives
in a household that has believing parents, They get to see first-hand,
they get to watch God's preserving hand of grace upon His child. Upon your mothers and fathers,
you get to see it. You get to see it. I'm going
to use the D'Armentos as an example. When I got word that y'all were
going to move to South Jersey that time, that broke my heart. It broke my heart like it breaks
your heart when one of your children Go astray. And I didn't say anything
to Art because I wasn't going to say anything unless he asked
me. He didn't ask me. Cheryl did. I did. I told her,
but then I just asked God. Keep them. Just please keep them.
Keep them. And God shut up the way. And
God brought you back and kept you here under the sound of the
gospel. He did that. And every one of us here, we've
done things like that. We're sinners. Every believer's
a sinner. And we do things thinking we're
doing it for the good of our family. That's what Art was doing.
And that's what we've done, thinking we're doing it for the glory
of God. And it's just a mistake. And God keeps us by His preserving
grace. But what our children get to
see, what you children get to behold is this. You get to behold
that through tribulation, God works patience. He works endurance. At that time when y'all were
in that trial, all you could do was just trust God. All you
could do was just trust that God was going to provide for
you. And that trust in God, through that God-worked experience, He
proved to you He's faithful. And your children got to witness
that. And then through that experience of proving to you He was faithful,
your hope was grown by God. And that hope never makes you
ashamed because the love of God just overflows your heart when
you see what He's done and how He keeps you and preserves you.
And when you look back on those things, you say, I wouldn't change
a thing about it because God taught me by it. He showed me.
And the children are in the house and they think, you know, y'all
might have thought I would rather have lived down there in South
Jersey and had this or that or whatever. I'm telling you something,
God gave you something a thousand times more valuable than any
earthly thing He could have given you by showing you firsthand
God's preserving hand of grace. And children in a household with
believing mother and father get to witness that. That unbeliever,
it won't sink into their heart. But if God ever saves them, they'll
see it and they'll say, you know, that was God's preserving hand
of grace on us. That's a valuable thing for a
child to get to see. That's because you have parents
that are believers. That's why He did that. Otherwise,
He'd have let you go. Probably given you everything
your little worldly heart could desire. God's proven in our hearts
that all His promises are yes and amen in Christ. He shows
us over and over And so when we speak to you, we're telling
you by painful and joyful experience what we know, what we know for
a fact. My son, keep thy father's commandments
and forsake not the law of thy mother. And then listen to the
everyday things. and just everyday commandments
that your brother and father talk to you about and correct
you in and all those things. Those things are to teach you
what they've learned. Try to teach you what we've learned
and try to to try to keep you from that
woman that's spoken of in the text is the harlot of Babylon. That's falsehood. That's every
evil and false way and false religion in this world. That's
all a faithful father and mother is doing is trying to teach you
the way of life to keep you from that way. That's all they're
doing, and all these little everyday things, and ultimately, primarily,
to keep you under the sound of the gospel of Christ, because
we know this is how God saves sinners, and this is how He continues
to save us, is through this Word. When I was Will's age, I've been
thinking about this a lot lately, too. I've talked to Will about
this, I think this is what I had something else I was gonna preach
tonight. And this morning, I read this text, and it just grabbed
me. And I think this is what one of the things that did it
was, I've been talking to Will about when I was his age, my
dad and I had the best bond. I mean, it was like, it was it
was the greatest bond a son and a father could have. I'd listen
to him, whatever he said, I did it. I mean, I thought everything
that came out of his mouth was just drops of gold falling out
of his mouth. And I turned into a teenager. I'm just telling you, I'm being
honest with you. And I began to think I knew more than my
dad did. The devil has a way of making
every generation think, your parents don't know what you're
going through. They don't know what you've, they've never been
in this time. But let me tell you something,
there's nothing new, no new sin under the sun. It takes a little
different form and a little different disguise, but the principle of
it all is exactly the same. Exactly the same. Your parents
have been right where you've been, right where you are now.
But I thought I was smarter than my dad. And I, by a choice I
made, I spent my whole life away from
Him. And all I wanted to do was raise
my kids by their grandchildren, like I had. Just because I wouldn't listen. And then I see the wisdom of
my Heavenly Father. because He overruled my rebellion
and saved me and used me as a servant of His to come and minister to
you even. And now you know what? My earthly
father seems wiser and wiser to me. The words that my mother
taught me and the words that my dad taught me just seem wiser
and wiser to me. What I'm saying is you're going
to grow older, and you're going to have children, and you're
going to be looking at these things and look back on them.
And you're going to think, I wish I'd have listened. I wish I'd
have paid attention. I wish we could get that on the
front end. It'd save us a lot of pain. Well,
we learn it by experience, don't we? For us who are believers, forsake
not the commandment of Christ, our everlasting Father. You know,
every time I find myself having to chasten my child, discipline
my child, every single time I do it, it doesn't lift me up. If
I wait till the anger's over and do it then. If I do it when
I'm angry, I don't get a thing out of it. But if I wait till
the anger's over and I calmly correct them, discipline them,
and do it, teaching them the gospel as I do it. Everything
that burdens me about my child, when I'm speaking it to them,
I realize this is what is grieving my Heavenly Father with me. So when I'm speaking the Word,
the Word's coming out of my mouth to my child, I hear my Heavenly
Father speaking to me. Do you find that to be true?
That's true. So he says here, keep your father's
commandment. Now look here what we're told
to do with the command. He says, verse proverb 621, bind
them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck. First he says put them in your
heart. Bind them upon your heart. That's inwardly. That's where
this thing starts. God looks on the heart. Look
over at Matthew 15. I'm sorry, look at Matthew 23
verse 25. The Pharisees were the finest
folks you could see outward. But you know a person can be
looking like they're obeying outwardly when inside they're
just a rebel. And look what the Lord said,
Matthew 23, 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they're full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. You hear that? With God, when
the inside is clean, the outside will be clean also. The inside
has got to be clean. The heart has got to be clean.
So God our Father commands His child, bind the words, the words
of this gospel, the words of His law upon your heart continually. Upon your heart continually.
Look at Romans 3. First of all, bind the law on
your heart. Find the law of God on your heart.
Here's what the law of God says. Romans 3. Listen to this. This is the first thing we need
to be bound up in our heart. Romans 3.19. Now we know that
what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. God, find this in
our heart and stop our mouth. Just stop our mouth. Look at
this. And all the world may become
guilty before God. God, bind this in our heart and
make us guilty before You. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Bind it in our
heart, God, and make us to know that we cannot be justified before
God by our deeds. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Bind it in our heart, Lord, and
teach us the purpose of Your law, to give us a knowledge of
our sin. And Lord, give us a knowledge
of Your sin. Do you know what the law of God
is? Look at Exodus 20. This is the foundation. Hold
your place in Romans 3. I'm going to come right back
there. But look at Exodus 20. This is the Ten Commandments,
the foundation of the law. There's a whole lot more to it
than this, but just one of these commandments will do the trick.
It'll prove us guilty. Look at Exodus 20. And look at
verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. That means nothing else can come
before you, before God in your heart, nothing, nothing. None
of the sports and activities and games and pleasures and all
the things, none of that can come before God. God's got to
come first all the time, every day, all the time, continually.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness
of anything that's in heaven above, that's in the earth beneath,
that's in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, serve them, for I am the Lord thy God, a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless to take his name in
vain. That means calling yourself a Christian when you're not.
That means saying gosh, golly, Jesus, God, all those things
that men just love to say with every other breath now. Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Sabbath day is a picture
of Christ, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days
you'll labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. You should do no work then, nor
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, thy stranger that's within thy gates. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
is in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So any work done on a Saturday,
and broke the law. Any time we made somebody else
work under his unders, we broke it. Or even if we thought about
anything, broke it. Honor thy father and thy mother
that their days may be long upon the land which the Lord God giveth
thee. Any dishonorable thought we ever
had about mother and father, broke it. Thou shalt not kill. Christ said anger is murder.
Men angry without a cause were murdered. Thou shalt not commit
adultery. looked upon somebody, adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Have you
ever thought about it? Ever thought about it? Sometimes
you see something and you think, man, that'd be easy to steal.
You stole it before God in the heart. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house. Oh, I wish I had that car. Oh, I wish I had that house.
Oh, I wish I had that coveting what belongs to your neighbor.
And look, soon as he gave this law, all the people saw the thunderings
and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountains
smoking. And the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar
off and said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear,
but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto
the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, that his
fear may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people
stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was. That's what God's got to do.
He's got to make us guilty. Show us the thundering and the
lightnings of His law in our heart to make us desire to have
a mediator to go between us and God. And that's the next thing. Find the gospel on our heart.
Look back at Romans 3, 21. Now, the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God. Everybody thinks the righteousness
of God comes by going to that law right there and keeping that
law. We just saw we can't keep that law. It wasn't given for
that purpose. It was given to declare us guilty.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Without your deeds to it, my
deeds to it. Without the law. It's witnessed
by the law and the prophets. This is what the law and the
prophets declare. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ. It's by what Christ did. He said
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Here's
what His righteousness declared. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Lord,
bind it in our heart and teach us that to be justified before
God, if we're going to be justified, God's going to justify us freely.
Without us doing a thing or earning it, He's going to do it freely.
And He's going to do it through the redemption from that curse. And that redemption from that
curse is in Christ only. Look here. Whom God has set forth
a propitiation through faith in His blood. God showed us a
mercy seat, a meeting place. And that meeting place is Christ
Jesus. He set Him forth and said, now,
here's the one in whom I'll meet with you. And the only way I'm
going to meet with you in Him is through you believing on Him.
Through faith. And look here, what's that for? To declare His righteousness
for the remission of sin, for the forgiveness of sins. Look
at verse 26. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that God might be just. He sent Christ to establish
a law that God might be just and that God might be the justifier
of him which believes in Jesus. You see, if God saves us, what
we're going to do is, we're going to praise God, because He sent
His Son, and God justified us in His Son. And we're going to
give Him all the honor and all the praise. We're going to stop
talking about our deeds and our doings, and we're going to praise
Him. We're going to praise Him. I find myself praying, God, keep
my heart. I don't want to be a hypocrite.
I don't want to be a pretender. I want to believe on him. I want
to trust him. I want to glory in him in my
heart. And then look in our text, he
said, and you and tie them about your neck. The first was on the
inside. The next on the outside. But
you know what happens? Listen to this. Every child here
that doesn't believe on Christ, let me tell you something. This gospel is a heavy burden
to you. It's a heavy burden for you to come here and hear it.
It's a heavy burden for you to hear God declare you guilty. It's a burden you don't want
on your neck to hear Christ works and His person preached all the
time without something being given to you to do. It's a burden
to hear anything concerning God's gospel. You don't have a heart
to read His word. You don't have a heart to hear the gospel. It's
a burden to you. That's the reason the commandments
of your father and your mother are a burden to you. Did you hear what I just said?
That's the reason you don't want to obey mama and daddy. Listen to this. When a sinner
despises God's authority, he despises everybody's authority
that God has put in authority. whether it's civil, religious
or household. Despise it because you won't
have Christ reign over you. And so you hate authority everywhere
it is, wherever it's at. You don't like being told what
to do. That's me and you by nature. And your mother and father know
it because that's in them still. That's the problem with the heart
that hadn't been broken and made contrite by the grace of God.
Look at Acts 26.14. I want you to see this. Acts
26.14. Saul of Tarsus was the Apostle
Paul. That was his name before God
saved him, before Christ saved him. But look what Christ said
when He saved him. Look here. Verse 14. Acts 26, verse 14. He says, We
were fallen to the earth, and I heard a voice speaking unto
me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? You know who Saul was persecuting?
He was persecuting Christ's people. When you rebel against mother
or father who belongs to Christ, a believer of Christ, you are
persecuting Christ. Rebel against authority that Christ has put
in an office. Rebel against Christ. Rebel against
the authority at school. Rebel against Christ. Because
Christ put them there. Anytime we were rebelling against
authority, especially against His people, we were rebelling
against Christ. And look what He said about it. It's hard for
you to kick against the pricks. Imagine this, you get mad because
you, somebody, mother, father, principal, teacher, pastor, somebody
tells you something to do, you get angry about it. So you, in
your anger about it, you wear it back as hard as you can, you
just kick a cactus with your bare feet. You think that's stupid,
because that's going to hurt. He said, that's exactly what
you're doing when you're rebelling against my people and against
me. You're kicking a cactus and it's
hurting you because God made it hurt. It produces sin and
envy and strife and bitterness and hurt and sorrow and that's
all that comes out of it. That's all that comes out of
it. And this is a principle Christ taught on His Sermon on the Mount,
and it holds true in every aspect of your life. With the same judgment,
the same condemnation that you judge, the same harshness that
you rear back and kick, you're going to be kicked right back
with the same. And you've proven it so. You get upset with your
brother, your sister, and you yell at them loud. Did they yell
back softly? They yelled back louder. didn't
they? Well, God's going to do it even
louder. He's going to do it even harder.
And we're either going to bow to Him by His grace or we're
going to end up that ultimate cactus that's going to be held
in the end. But let me tell you this, after He binds His Word
in your heart and He makes you to take them upon your neck,
Christ said, come to Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Where
does that go? On your neck. You put His yoke
on you, on your neck. That means you're under His authority,
under His Lordship, under His dominion. He's your master. You're
going to obey and do what He says. And He says, learn of Me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart. And here's what this bound upon
your neck does. I'll give you rest. Rest. You mean I can find rest? I'll
give you something to try. You just try this with your mother
and father and then you'll find out if this is true of God. Next
time mother and father says do something, do it. See if you
don't find rest. I guarantee you, you'll find
rest. Whereas if you disobey, it's
going to be like kicking a cactus with your bare foot. Well, God says, you keep kicking
against Me, it's going to be hard. But He says, you take My
yoke upon you and submit to Me, and you're going to find rest
for your soul. Rest for your soul. And He said, for My yoke
is easy and My burden is light. Here's what it is. If you read
over in Galatians, He said, the works of the flesh are are just
all this mean stuff, just all this sin and rebellion and all
this. Here's what the fruit of the Spirit is. This is what the
Holy Spirit works in the heart. This is that ornament that's
on the neck that adorns the believer outwardly towards fellow believers
and towards everybody we come in contact with. The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, and against such there is no
law. That's why it's a gentle and
easy yoke. He says, now you bind this on
your neck. I'll tell you this, when a child's
being chastened, they don't do this anymore, but fathers used
to do this. You've been driving down the
road and you're cutting up in the back and your father say,
don't make me stop this car and cut a switch. My father, I've
heard it, you've heard it, And they'll stop and get out and
get out there on the side of the road and cut a switch. And
we're such a refined people now. We can't do this sort of thing.
The parents need to have a switch cut on them. But they would,
the parent would cut a switch and they would switch you and
whip you with a switch. And you know what you do when
you're being switched? The only way to get rid of that switch
is when your father's switching you. The only way to get out
from under it is to get up and hug up on your father as close
as you can get because he can't hit you like this. When God's chasing you, the only
thing for you to do is hug up on Christ. Hug up as close to
Him as you can get. Bow to Him. And He said, you'll
find rest for your soul. Rest for your soul. Afterward,
this is what the effect will be. Go back to our text. Proverbs
6.22. This is what the effect will
be. Proverbs 6.22. When thou goest, it will lead
thee When thou sleepest, His Word will keep thee. When thou
wakest, His Word will talk with thee. You know what the purpose
of life is, the reason we're here? You know what the purpose
of every trial, every sorrow and every joy is? The purpose
of it is to show us God's wisdom, God's grace, God's mercy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In some way or another, that's
the purpose of it. And if you don't know Christ,
you don't know the purpose of these things. You know what?
Unbelievers, in the Scripture, you know what? Unbelievers, they
serve one purpose. You know what that purpose was
for? That purpose was to show believers the way of destruction
and death. That's the only reason they existed,
was to show me and you who believe the way of destruction and death. Do you want that to be the purpose
of your life and why end up that's just the only thing you're here
for? If you go through this world in unbelief and pass through
this world in unbelief, that will be the only thing your legacy
will be. We got to see the way of destruction
and death. Life is hard. Very hard. And trials are hard. And then
you face eternity. And the preparation for both
is obeying the Word of Christ our Heavenly Father. That's the
preparation for both. Obeying His Word. Bowing to Him,
resting in Him, trusting Him, and doing everything He says
to do. And then this will be the effect. When you go, wherever
you go, it will lead you. His Word. Christ our Shepherd
and His Word will lead you. I don't have time right now,
but go home tonight and read Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd.
I shall not want. He leads me. He leads me. He's my lead and He's my rearward. It goes through telling about
Him leading me and it ends up with mercy and truth of following
me. He's my God. When thou sleepest,
it'll keep you. He said in Isaiah 28, you that
have made a covenant with death and hell, you can't stretch out
on that bed. The bed's too short and the covers
are too narrow. But the best bed, and I mean
literally you can stretch out at night and sleep, it's the
best lock on the door, it's the most peaceful pillow that you'll
ever sleep on, is knowing God chose me. God redeemed me, God
called me, God's keeping me, and I have eternal salvation
in my Lord. The worst anybody on this earth
can do to me is just open up the door to usher me in to my
eternal inheritance. That's the worst. When you got
that, when you sleep, His Word will keep you. It'll keep you.
And when you awake, it'll talk with you. You wake up and you
got a thousand burdens on your heart, you got to face today,
you wake up, What helps make that burden lighter is having
Christ communion with you in your heart. That makes the burden
lighter. I don't know what folks do go
through this life that don't have Christ. I don't know what
they do. And I don't know how in the world they face death
without Christ. I don't know how. So here's what,
here's the end. For us parents who believe, I
pray Christ will use these burdens we have for our children. to
teach us more and more to obey our Heavenly Father. Every time
you think, I wish that child would listen to me, hear God
say it, I wish you'd listen to me. And for children of believers,
know that peace in believing on the Lord Jesus is the only
thing your mother and father want for you. That's the chief
thing above everything else that they want for you. That's the
purpose of every little mundane commandment they give you and
the reason they try to teach you this gospel. They just want
you to know the peace of God that passes understanding. That's
it. I want you to intend to preach
another gospel. I'm going to give you one more
thing that I think is important. This is a recommendation. It's a recommendation, but I'm
really telling you to do this. Get you a Bible. Get a real Bible.
I know you're using these electronic things. Get you a real Bible.
Get you a King James translation. A Cambridge publisher is a good
one because the marginal references are so good. I've preached the
gospel to y'all just using marginal references out of it before.
It's that good. Get you a Bible. You'll learn
the books of the Bible. When you turn, you'll even learn
where passages are on the page. And you'll turn and you'll know
right where they are on the page. Get you a Bible. I'm not saying
that's going to make you be saved. I'm just saying get you a Bible.
It'll help you. And read the thing and heed what it says.
Read it trying to believe God. Don't read it trying to find
ways, reasons to doubt Him. Read it trying to find reasons
to believe Him. And here's why. Look back at
our text. Proverbs 6.23, For the commandment, the gospel,
is a lamp, and the word of God is a light, and reproofs of instruction
are the way of life to keep thee from the harlot of false religion
and the flattery that this world will give you and try to lead
you away from God. I pray God will bless you. Amen. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. We pray, Lord, that You'd plant
it in our hearts, make us take this adorning gospel yoke upon
our neck, and obey You, trust You. And let us hear those that
You've given to instruct us, to teach us the way, the truth. Let us hear them, Lord. as it
is that you're speaking through them and teaching us through
them. Make us know that, understand it, and heed it. Lord, your way
is the way of life that saves from the evil destruction of
death and sin and misery and hell. We pray now you make that
word effectual in our heart. For Christ's sake, in his honor
and glory we pray, amen.