Sometimes you're blessed by the
prayer of the saints. That blessed my heart. Thank
you. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Let's read verse 4 together. Ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Now, this exhortation is so easy
to misunderstand, so easy to misunderstand. I would venture
to say everybody here thinks they know what this means, every
believer. I thought I did, but I had to
look the words up, and I didn't know what it meant. I did not
know what it meant. When chastening, it's dealing
with discipline, it's dealing with chastening. and teaching
and correcting a child. And it says, whenever chastening,
he says, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. Now,
it does mean not to be unreasonable, not to be overly severe with
your child, because that will provoke a child to wrath, to
anger. That will make him want to cast
off the yoke. He said in Colossians it will
discourage the child. But there's something more to
it than it just being a warning about not being severe with a
child. There's more to it than that.
He says there, but bring them up. Bring them up. In the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. There are three words here. Three
words here that we need to understand. Bring up. This word bring up,
it means nourish them. It's what we think of when we
hear the word nurture. But right here, bring up means
nourish them. It means rather than being severe
and hard and punishing on the child, nurture and cherish and
love the child to obedience. It says then, and you do that
of the Lord, the bringing them up of the Lord. All of these
apply to of the Lord, as the Lord brings us up, as He nourishes
and cherishes and loves us, His children. And then the next word
is in the nurture of the Lord. Now this word nurture is translated
in Hebrews 12, chastening, chastening. That is discipline, spanking,
that's what scourging, spanking, that's what the word is, chastening.
So you love them and you cherish them to obedience in the nourishment
and cherishing of the Lord and you do it in the chastening of
the Lord. The same way that the Lord chastens
His child, chastens us. And then He says, and in the
admonition of the Lord. Do you know what this word means?
It means calling their attention to and fixing their minds on
the Word of the Lord, on the Lord Himself. When the Lord loves
and cherishes, brings up His child, He chastens His child
to turn us from error. And as He chastens His child
turning us from error, He teaches us the Word of God. and brings
our heart to be set on Christ. That's what he's talking about.
So we're going to look at these three words. The nurture, chastening,
and admonition of the Lord. How does the Lord nurture? How
does the Lord chasten? How does the Lord admonish His
children? That's what we're going to look
at. Here's what I want you to see. The Lord brings the child
that He loves to obedience. Not by merely giving us His law
and then punishing us when we break it. No, but the Lord loves
and cherishes His child as He chastens us from our error and
our false way, as He teaches us the Word of the truth, the
Word of the Lord, and brings us to Christ. That's how He nourishes
us, that's how He chastens us, and that's how He admonishes
us. Those would be our divisions, and if we have time, we'll look
at this exhortation again. The nurture of the Lord toward
his children. How does the Lord nurture his
children? He says, verse 4, You fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath, but bring them up, nourish them, nurture them, love
them to obedience. The exhortation is addressed
to ye fathers. Now it applies to mothers and
fathers. But the reason it's addressed
to you fathers is because the father's the head of the house.
And that's patterned after God, our Father, and Christ, who's
our everlasting Father, who's the head of His house, and the
head over His children, the ones to whom His children are brought
into submission. Now, when God, our Savior, is
our husband, He's a good husband. He's better than any other husband.
We saw that. He laid down His life for the
church. And whenever God our Savior is
our friend, He's a better friend than any other friend. He's a
friend that sticks closer than a brother. And the same is true
when He's our Father. He's better than any other father.
Better than any other father. God the Father loved His children
in eternity when there was no cause in us. The cause was not
in us. But He brought us up. He nourished
and He cherished us. You know how? By entrusting us
to His Son. By loving us in His Son. That's how He nourished and cherished
us from the beginning. He loved and cherished His only
begotten Son. He nurtured and cherished His
only begotten Son. And the way He nurtured and cherished
His people is choosing us in His only begotten Son, entrusting
us to His only begotten Son. Brethren, the best way that we
can love and cherish and nurture our children is doing what God
the Father did in eternity. giving them over to the hand
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not telling you a lie here.
When my children were born, both of them were born, I went to
the Lord and said, Lord, they're yours. They're yours. Do with them as you please. If you're pleased to save them,
I pray, Lord, you'll save them by your grace. They're yours.
There could be no greater way for a parent to nurture his children. That's what the Father did with
us. Hebrews 1.12 says that we should be to the praise of God
the Father's glory who first trusted in Christ. Now, the Lord
Jesus, our everlasting Father, nurtured us too. How did He nurture
His children? Well, He was merciful and gracious
to us when we were in our unrighteousness. Since Adam sinned in the garden,
we deserve for Him to provoke us to wrath. We deserve for Him
to come and show us His law and then cast us off into hell and
punish us for all eternity. That's what we deserve. But because
God was nurturing us in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ was merciful. He was merciful to us. He was
gracious to us. All the days of our lives, He
reserves mercy for His children. Remember that whenever we're
chastening our children. To reserve mercy for them. To
be gracious to them. And teach them what that is.
Teach them what that is. Our everlasting Father nurtured
us by being long-suffering toward His children. He was long-suffering
toward His children. He saw our rebellion. He heard our words. He saw our
thoughts. He saw all our deeds. And yet,
toward His child, God is long-suffering. You know what the long-suffering
of God is? It's that which always ends in God saving the one He's
long-suffering to. It always ends in Him saving
the one He's long-suffering to. He's long suffered. He suffered
with our manners. So, children, you might not realize
this, but your parents know more about your sin than you think
they know. We know more about your sin than you think we know.
A preacher knows more about it than you think he knows. I hear... People can't keep their mouth
shut. I hear things all the time. But I'm going to tell you this. Why is it your parent doesn't
kick you out of the house? Why is it he doesn't bring you
to the law of God and stone you like the law of God says? Punish
you like the law of God says demands? Because they know something
about the long suffering of Christ toward them, of their heavenly
Father toward them. And then our everlasting Father
nurtured us by being abundant in goodness to us. You know what
He did all the days of our rebellion? He clothed us. He fed us. He gave us shelter. He protected
us from death after death after death after death. And you know
what we did? We praised ourselves, gloried
in ourselves for our wisdom and our work and being wise. That's what we did. The whole
time He was the one doing it. He did it. Parents, when our
children complain about the food we give them, don't they? Complain
about the shelter. Complain about the clothing.
Instead of provoking them to anger, instead of being severe
and punishing the child, remember this. Remember how often we murmured
against what God provided for us and still do. Still do. And yet He just keeps on being
abundant in goodness to His child. Just keeps doing it. Our everlasting
Father finally came to where we are and He laid down His life
for us. He had heard all our rebellion,
seen all our rebellion. He had heard our vain talk. We
were that proud, arrogant child who thought he knew more than
Christ's preacher, who thought he knew more than the believing
fathers and mothers. We wouldn't listen to nobody.
And even after all of that, Christ came to where we are and laid
down His life for His people. Listen to this. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us. In this was manifested His nurture
and His cherishing and His loving and His bringing us up because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world. God laid
down His life. He sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him, through Him
laying down His life. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. If God so loved us, we ought
to also love one another. Our fathers, there are big times
when our children act like they don't love us. And we'll lose
our temper, we'll get angry with them, and we're going to do just
the opposite of what God says do right here. Because we're
sinners. Children, you remember that.
I dealt with children last week. I showed you who the obedient
son is, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to disobey your
parents. You're not going to do what a child is told to do.
Wives are not going to do what a wife is told to do. The husband
is not going to do what the husband is told to do. And the father
is going to fail at this. And the mother is going to fail
at this. But brethren, listen to this. There are going to be
times when they act like they don't love us. But listen. Remember
this. here in His love. Not that we
love God. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. He loved us. We were rebellious,
prodigal sons living in riotous living. After everything God
gave to us, we said this in our hearts, He's not my Father. I'm
going to take everything He gives me, and I'm going to use everything
He gives me, and I'm going to abuse everything He gives me,
but I'm not calling Him my Father. And so we went on being fornicators
and idolaters and adulterers and effeminate abusers of ourselves
with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners,
all of which God says shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to save us from our sins. And He did. He put away our sins. He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. He interceded with God for us
and presented us holy and without blame before God when He sat
down at God's right hand. And He's going to come again
and do it again. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to
love one another. I told you when I came here,
Brother Henry's advice to me was this. He said, they have
been punished enough. They've been provoked to anger
enough. He said, love them to Christ. That's what he's saying here.
Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but love them to Christ. Alright, here's the second thing.
The chastening of the Lord. Ephesians 6, verse 4. You fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture of the
Lord. Now this word is chastening.
Look over to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. He doesn't say just love them and
cherish them. He's saying love them and cherish
them in disciplining them, in chastening them. Alright, look
at this. Hebrews 12, 5. You've forgotten
the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. That's
what we are, believer, we're children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked
of him, for whom the Lord loveth. For whom the Lord loveth. He
doesn't say he does this to everybody. He says, for whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. That's the word nurture in our
text. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
You know what the word scourgeth means? Spiritually, it means
he spanks him. He spanks him. That's what the
word means. To whip. To whip. Look here. God dealeth, if you endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all God's children are partakers, that if you are without
it, then are you bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we've
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. That means
according to their limited understanding and what they perceive to be
as right. And it says, but he for our prophet. That means he's going to bring
an effectual end to his chastening. Let's look at this. Now know
that we might be partakers of His holiness. That's how He's
going to profit us. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, after it yields
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby, whereby He says, wherefore, you're sitting here with your
hands hanging down and you're feeble in your knees because
God's chasing you, his child. You ever seen your child do that
when you're chasing them? They're just feeble. They can't.
Before they were just strong as an ox sitting against you. And then when you go to chase
them, they can't even stand up. I'm just so weak. I just can't
have it. He says, pick up your hands, that's hanging down, and
stand up on your feet and understand this, make straight paths for
your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way,
but let it rather be healed, let it be turned into the way.
That's what He's chasing us for. While we were dead in sins, you
know what we were doing? We were walking in our ways,
and in our will, and in our wisdom. That's what we were doing. And
we were out of God's way. We were out of Christ's way.
And we were not partakers of God's holiness. That means we
didn't have that holiness without which no man will see the Lord.
We were not partakers of the divine nature. God hadn't created
us anew yet and we didn't have that holiness. We didn't have
Christ formed in us and you've got to have that. We saw it this
morning. That blood's got to be sprinkled in our conscience.
We've got to be created anew. That covenant's got to be made
in our heart to enter into God's presence. We didn't have that.
We were without life. We were without Christ to life.
And therefore, when the time of love came that He's going
to give you a holy nature and bring His child into Christ the
way and make you to follow Him, He began to chasten us. He began
to rebuke us. He began to scourge us. Spiritually,
He started to whip us. That's what God did. That's what
we experienced. That's right. He did it for our
profit. You know, there are some children
who are not, they're illegitimate children. And they harden their
hearts against God and they say, I'm not going to read the word
of God. I'm not going to hear what your God says to me. I'm
not his child. So you know what God does? He
provokes them to anger. And they throw off the yoke and
they harden their heart more. That's how, that's God hardening
a man's heart. He punishes them. Have you ever
seen a man go through some severe providence of God in his life
and he gets just so hard when it's over with and his heart's
hard against God and he hates God for it? God's provoked him
to anger. That wasn't chastening, that
was punishment. God did it on purpose. He did
it on purpose. But when God chastens his child,
it's not punishment. It's for a profit. It's to come
bring him to a determined end. It's to make him a new creature.
It's to form Christ in his heart. It's to bring him into Christ
the way and out of that false way. And so, no chasing is going
to be pleasurable when it's going on. It's not meant to be. And
you know why it's not pleasurable? When the Lord began to correct
you and me, chasing us, and scourge us, and strip us, you know why
it wasn't pleasurable to us? Because God crossed our will. That's why. Men will say, oh,
God wouldn't save a man against his will. If he don't, you're
going to die. Listen to the scripture. The
carnal mind is enmity against God. Why? Because it's not subject
to the law of God and can't be. The law of God is the will of
God. Your will is not subject to God's will. And my will by
nature is not subject to God's will. And so for God to give
us a new will and a new nature and bring us into subjection
to His will, He's got to cross our will. And that's why the
child stiffens his neck and gets upset when you chase them, you
cross their will. And that's why it's not pleasurable
to us. He crossed our will. Our will was for salvation to
be by us from election from God's choosing to the new birth, to
righteousness of the law, to faith and repentance, to sanctification,
to perseverance, to good works. We wanted everything to be by
our will. Oh, Christ could help us out
a little bit, but we wanted some glory along the way for doing
it ourselves. A man will say, I don't believe
in God. You're lying. You just don't want your will
to be violated. That's all. That's all. And so, whenever He began...
That's why the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing,
foolishness. Because we're declaring God's
will. And man hates for God to have His will. And therefore,
God our Father had to chasten us to bring us into subjection
to His will. And God used a rod to do it.
He used the rod of the law. He did. He used the rod of the
law. Proverbs 22, 15 says, Foolishness
is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall
drive it far from him. And God used the rod of the law
to show us we are sinners against God. To drive that foolishness
from us. To make us see, I really do need
God. I need God. We were grieved because
God loved and cherished His child and wouldn't let our crying stop
Him from chasing us. We cried when God started chasing
us. We rejected it. We stiffened
up and we tried to get away from Him. But He wouldn't let our
grief and our sorrow and our crying stop Him from chasing
us. You ever go to chasing your child
and they start to cry and they look so sad that it just stops
you from chasing them? Listen to the Scripture. Chasten
thy son while there's hope. Let not thy soul spare for his
crime. Brethren, when we're children,
when our children cry out, when we're correcting them, it's because
our will crosses their will. But true love won't allow their
crying to stop us from chastening them. Listen to this. Whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth. and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth." Now, this world hates God's order. This world
is upside down in their thinking. Depraved sinners think they're
smarter than holy God. That's true. Here's an example.
Here's what God says. Withhold not correction from
the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not
die. It's not saying, if you abuse
a child with a rod, he won't die if you do that to him. That's
not what it's saying, brethren. It's saying, if you correct your
child, as God's saying, correct them here, in loving, nurture,
chastening that child, it'll prevent him from dying. Listen
to the next word. Thou shalt beat him with the
rod, it shall deliver his soul from hell. That's what it means. You see that? It's not speaking
of abusing a child. Our text is telling us not to
do that. It said don't provoke your child to wrath. That's what
He's talking about. Don't be severe and hard and
punish your child. That's what He's saying. God
never punishes His child. Do you hear me? God never punishes
His child. He chastens His child. God punished
His child when He made His Son to be sent for us and He poured
out the fierce anger of His wrath upon His Son on Calvary's tree.
There's where God punished His children. There's where He satisfied
His justice. And now the justice of God, nor
the love of God can possibly punish His child. It will not.
We're never brought before God as a judge. Never. God chastens
us as a father lovingly chastens his child. There's a huge difference. A huge difference. Again and
again, here's what I'm trying to show you. Again and again,
God shows us that this world's idea that you shouldn't chasten
a child, you shouldn't make a child, God shows me and you who believe
over and over that that's just a bald-faced lie. You know how
he does it? I'll tell you how he does it.
God chastens His child, but it doesn't harm the child. God scourges
every son He receives, but it doesn't harm us. But if our Heavenly
Father spared the rod, He says, we would have been spoiled by
our sins, and we would have died, and we would have went to hell.
But because He doesn't spare the rod, He actually, effectually
saves His children from hell. And that to me, I look at that
and say, God's right. God's right. This world's wrong.
This world's wrong. This world can train you up in
how to produce a sodomite. They can train you up in how
to produce a God-hating rebel, but they can't train you up and
teach you how to produce a God-loving, God-fearing, God-reverencing
child of God. No, sir. Now, you listen closely. God calls believing parents to
correct, not to punish our children, to correct our children. The
parent who punishes his child exercises revenge. And usually
it's because we've waited to the second or third or fourth
time and we lose our temper. But the parent who corrects his
child in the chastening that the Lord teaches us and admonishes
the child as the Lord teaches us to do, that parent's exercising
love and affection. Love and affection. Nurture.
It's not pleasant at the time. It's not supposed to be. It's
not pleasant to the child or to us. The Scripture says He
doesn't chasten willingly. God the Father don't take pleasure
in chastening His child. And you don't take pleasure in
chastening your child. But when God blesses his chastening,
it's going to produce fruits of righteousness. It's going
to make man be partaker of a new nature, a divine nature. And
whenever He blesses the parents' chastening of our children, He's
going to bring that child to be reverent to the Father and
to be obedient to the Father. And I'll tell you something else
that happens too. While we're chastening our children, loving
and nourishing them and teaching them what we're going to see
here in a minute. As we're doing that in our own hearts, in the
heart of the parent, we're corrected and we're nurtured and we're
admonished sometimes more than the child is. Because we see
it spiritually. Is that not true? Do you not
find that to be the case? All right, now there's something
else though that's involved here that's critical to this fruit
producing. It's critical now. Lastly, the
admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6, 4. This is where
you and I as parents usually stop short before we get to this
right here. Now look at this, Ephesians 6,
4. You fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but nurture,
love, and cherish them. in the chastening of the Lord,
as the Lord does to you, His child, and in the admonition
of the Lord. The Lord didn't merely chasten
us. He didn't merely chasten us. He didn't merely love us
and cherish us. He didn't merely chasten us and
correct us from our will and our way. If He'd have done that,
it'd have just been long. But what did He do? As He did
that, He fixed our hearts and our minds on the Word of God
and taught us the gospel. So as the Lord chastens us from
our sin, He teaches the truth concerning our sin. He taught us not only our acts
of rebellion were sin, but our works of righteousness were sin.
He taught us it wasn't only our words and our deeds that were
sin. He taught us it was our thoughts that were sin. Our nature
was sin. He taught us that we weren't
just sinning against our fellow man. We were sinning against
God. And He convinced us of our sin. He taught us that our chief
sin was we were calling God a liar. by not believing on His Son.
That was our chief sin. He taught us that. He didn't
just chasten us. He taught us this gospel as He
chastened us. He admonished us as He chastened
us. And so, in our text, He's saying, don't simply punish your
child. He said, don't punish the child.
Don't provoke them to anger. But He's saying, don't even simply
chasten your child. He's saying, when a child needs
correction, and you think about this, when a child has broken
your law, Isn't that a perfect time to take God's Word and teach
them about what sin is? Teach them how we've broken God's
law? That's a perfect time to do it. You've got a, what do
they call that, a picture lesson there. It's right there before
them. That's what He's saying, do. Take them and fix their mind
on the Word of the Lord and teach them. When our Heavenly Father
loved and cherished us and chastened us, He admonished us with His
Word, teaching us about righteousness. about righteousness. He taught
us that the works that we thought was righteousness, they were
not righteousness because it's not just the outward work that
makes it righteous. It's got to be a heart. It's
got to be holy too. And so our righteousness fell
short of the glory of God. And he taught us that we're not
going to be made righteous by obedience to the law. He taught
us that the righteousness of God is the Lord Jesus Christ.
the Lord Jesus Christ, and He set our hearts and our affections
on Him, and He convinced us that Christ is the righteousness of
God, because God's accepted Him. You're not in a grave. God's
accepted Him and received Him as He sat down, because He satisfied
God. And so He tells you and me, when
you're correcting your child, you're chastening your child,
He says, now, teach them about righteousness, too. He's saying,
show them that Christ is the righteousness. Teach them righteousness.
That's a great time to teach them about what, you know, and
we tend to teach them what's wrong. That's to teach them about
sin. And we show them what's right.
And that's teaching them what's righteous. But it's usually just
what's wrong that we said not to do and what's right that we
said to do. Go higher than that. Show them
what God says is sin and what God says is righteousness. That's
admonishing in the Lord. And our Heavenly Father didn't
just chasten us. He fixed our hearts on Christ,
convincing us that the judgment's accomplished. He showed us that
Christ took away all the sin of His people, that He settled
judgment before God, and by doing that, that's how He cast out
the prince of this world. Because all that the devil had
to accuse us to God with was our sin. And now there is none
to use for that. So the devil's got no ammunition.
His head's crushed. His power's gone. He got nothing
to condemn us with. God says, I don't condemn you.
You see that? And so he's saying to you, when
we correct the child, show the child how God did that for his
people and settled judgment. It settled. It settled. It's
settled. Show them how that Christ had
to satisfy justice. Show them how that He had to
make mercy and truth kiss each other. He had to make justice
and mercy and grace come together in harmony. The only way he could
do that was him coming himself, bearing our sin, satisfying that
justice, and himself justifying it. That's the only way. But
that's what he's done for his people. Now let's go back and
let's look at the exhortation one more time. We'll be done. He says, ye fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath. Now, of course, brethren, if
we're hard and we're severe, that's going to provoke our children
to wrath and discouragement. That's how some people feel about
God. They think he's hard and he's
severe and he allows all kind of evil in the world and they
just throw off the yoke. That's not by accident. I'm telling
you, that's not by accident. That's exactly according to the
will and purpose of God. God did it. God did it. God provoked
them. Because they wouldn't bow. They
had sinned against God. They rebelled against God. They
hated God. They wouldn't... God's always just to turn us
over to reprobation. He's just to do it. He doesn't
elect some people to salvation and predestinate men to hell
just arbitrarily. Now, He elects us to salvation
by his grace in Christ. But as far as our reprobation,
we earned that, brethren, because God's a just God. He's a just
God. We earned it. We were appointed
to it from old when we sinned in Adam, when we came forth speaking
lies, when we rebelled against God, and all of us earned that,
but the only reason he saves us who are saved is because he's
gracious to save whom he will. That's it. You see? And the rest
are justly turned over to reprobation because they sinned against God.
We did too, but grace saved us. Do you understand? And so if
we merely correct without teaching God's Word, If we merely correct
without teaching God's Word, without teaching about sin, righteousness,
judgment, these things, there's no spiritual purpose to it. There's
no spiritual lesson in it. You know what I'm saying? It's
just law. That's all it is. You broke my
rule. You shouldn't have done it. I'm
going to punish you for it. And so, you know, how would we
feel if God dealt with us that way? We'd cast off the yoke. We'd say, you can't please God.
I look at the law and I can't satisfy it. I can't please Him.
And He'd cast it off. And though we're right as parents
to command a child to submit to us, we're right as parents
to do it. But if we're not teaching them the grace of God and what
He's done for us as we're doing it, it's just one sinner trying
to make another sinner submit. How do you do? How do you handle
that in life? I don't handle it very well.
It makes me want to throw off their yoke. Some other sinner
just tries to make me submit to him. But you see, God is not,
he's not trying to make his child be cast out and be throwing the
yoke off. He's chasing us in love and cherishing
us and teaching us the gospel so that he's bringing us into
Christ and drawing us to Christ and making us see our need of
Christ. You see what I'm saying? And that's what he's teaching
us to do as we chase him. Bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. How does Christ make His child
willing in the day of His power? Willing to obey Him? Willing
to submit to Him? Willing to reverence Him? How
does He make us willing? It's not just simply by His sheer
sovereign power and right. It's not simply how He does it.
Christ the Lord brings us up. He makes us know His love for
us is from everlasting. And Christ the Lord chastens
us from our vain way. He shows us we simply can't earn
a righteousness by our doing. And at the same time, He admonishes
us. He fixes our hearts on Him and
shows us He's done it all for His people. That's how He melts
us into His will. That's how He makes us lovingly
want to obey Him and say, I've got to have Him. That's how He
does that. You think about this. Let's do
what God said of Abraham. I know him that he will command
his children and his household after him. And listen to this.
And they shall keep the way of the Lord. That's what Abraham
he said. I know this what Abraham's going
to teach his children the way of the Lord. And he says to do
justice and judgment. Remember equity and that which
is just. He says that the Lord may bring
upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. You remember what
the Lord said he was going to give to Abraham. He will give
him spiritual children. What he said he's going to give
him. You know what Abraham Abraham. taught the gospel to his children. He taught them Christ is the
way. He taught them the only way you can do judgment and justice
is believing on Christ. And those children that God saved,
they taught it to their children. And we were taught by one of
Abraham's children. Do you realize that? Everybody
that's been taught the truth of the gospel was taught by one
of Abraham's children. And so, through the gospel, God
brought upon Abraham exactly what he promised Abraham would.
A whole house full of spiritual children. You see that? This
is what he's teaching us. Teach them the way. Teach them
Christ. And you think about it. You say,
well, that's going to take a lot of time. You know, it's going
to be a lot harder than just getting upset with them and spanking
them or yelling at them or taking something away from them. I mean,
I'm upset now and it's going to take some time to teach them
about the gospel. Listen to what the Lord said.
Thou shalt teach them diligently. He says, talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by thy way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. In other words,
He's always teaching them this. That's what He's saying. You
know what Solomon's Proverbs were to teach us? They were to
teach his child to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice,
judgment, and equity. That's what Proverbs 1.3 said.
That's what Proverbs is about. To teach us wisdom, justice,
judgment, and equity. And our Lord Jesus Christ, by
faithfully loving and cherishing us, he chastened us from that
which was unwise, and that which was unjust, and that which was
not equitable, and he turned us to him to show us that he's
our wisdom, and our justice, and our judgment, and our equity,
and he did all this for us. That's what he's saying to each
of us. I pray God will give us grace to do this. I do. I prepared this and worked on
it. We got in the car this morning running late. The first thing
I did was just to yell at the kids. And
I thought, here I am. I just studied this and here
I am already doing it. Doing the opposite of what He
said to do. Try to teach them something true, spiritual. Amen. Lord, thank you for your grace.
Thank you for being a faithful father. Thank you for sending
Christ our everlasting father. Thank you for loving us and cherishing
us, nurturing us. Thank you for chasing us, for
turning us from our vain way, our vain will and our vain wisdom.
Thank you, Lord, for admonishing us and teaching us the gospel
and fixing our hearts and our affections on the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Thank you for continuing to do
this. and bringing us up to bring us home. Lord, we pray that you'll
do this to one of your children now, and that you'll make us,
as your children, to be faithful mothers and fathers to our children.
Teach them this gospel. We pray, Lord, in Christ's name.
Amen.