Exodus chapter 20 verse 12. As you know, chapter 20 deals
with the Lord giving the Ten Commandments. And in verse 12
it says, honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may
be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Now,
the commandment that pertains to honoring our fathers and our
mothers is number five on the list of Ten Commandments. It
was given before the laws concerning murder, before the laws concerning
adultery, stealing, or theft, lying, false witness, covetousness,
and lust. The honoring of parents was number
five on the list of the ten. And then we see how very important
it is to God in chapter 21 where God in His law made a provision
to protect parents from their children who would in any way
mistreat them and do them harm. Look at chapter 21 verse 15. "'And he that smited his father
or his mother "'shall be surely put to death.'" Look down at
verse 17. "'And he that curseth,' and that word means despises,
"'he who despises his father or his mother "'shall surely
be put to death.'" Now this is one of two relationships that
God in the scriptures puts a great emphasis on. The other relationship
that's honored in such a way is that of marriage between husband
and wife. We know the importance that the
Lord puts on that. The marriage between husband
and wife is patterned after the marriage between Christ and his
bride, the church. And we also see and know that
Honoring our parents means much more than just obeying them.
You can obey outwardly while inwardly rebelling. You remember
the story Little Johnny. We've all got the Little Johnny
jokes. Little Johnny's jumping up and down on the furniture.
His mama tells him to stop and he stops and he sits down and
he's just smiling. And she said, what are you smiling
about? And he said, I'm still jumping up and down on the inside.
And that's how we are by nature. But honoring our parents is much
more than just obeying them. To honor your parents is to give
them the place of superiority and authority. It's to submit
unto your parents' authority and rule. Submit to God is one
of the first evidences of spiritual life. Let me use the illustration
of Lazarus again. I love this illustration because
I understand it. Lazarus was dead. He was four
days dead. Christ commanded him to come
forth. God gave Lazarus life and Lazarus came forth. The scripture
says that he that was dead came forth. His obedience to come
was the result of the life given to him. We're given life. We believe. Then we obey. Lazarus couldn't come forth until
he was given life, and neither can we. And the point that I'm
making here is that obedience doesn't bring faith. That's what
the world thinks. That's what religion thinks.
It's faith. It's believing that brings forth
obedience. I obeyed my earthly Father because
I loved Him. I trusted Him. I had faith in
Him. When He told me something, I
believed it. I knew He had my best interest at heart. I knew
He would do His best to keep me from harm. Never lost sleep
when my children were with my mom and dad. Not one time. How
much more confidence should we have? How much more assurance
should we have with God who loved us and gave himself for us? How
much more so should we desire to obey Him? It's not our obedience
that gives us faith in Christ. It's believing in and on Christ
that gives the child of God a nature to obey. The child of God wants
to obey God, dear Father. Don't you want to obey God? Yes,
you do. You want to be obedient to Him.
You want to be pleasing to Him. You know that He has your best
interest at heart. He's the head. We're the body.
He knows what's best. He's our eyes. He's our ears. He's our voice. He's our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. The Scripture
says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
Where's the mind? It's in the head. Christ is our
head. He's our wisdom. We're one with Him. The body
follows where the head leads it. Do you know why? Because
the body is attached to the head. It's one with the head. These
aren't trick questions. It's just so difficult for us.
Let's just be honest. It's just so difficult for us
to grasp and get a hold of our union with Christ because we
can't get ourselves out of the way. We know what we are. We
know what we deserve and we get in the way and it's just so hard
for us to think or imagine that God would or could save one like
us. Let me ask you this, would the
Lord bid all to come to Him for rest if He wasn't willing to
give it to those who came? No. Are we saying that God is
not able to save one like us? Paul said he came into the world
to save sinners, and then he added, I'm the chief. He can
save the worst of the worst. He can save you. He's able to
do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. If we could just see, if we could
just see that we're one with Christ. Everything He is, I am. Everything He did, I did. Everything
He has, I have. Everything He don't have, we
don't have. That's why we don't have any
sin. Christ doesn't have any. He took
mine and He put it away. He did the same for all His elect
people. He took the judgment that was
against you and I, and He fulfilled the sentence of my crimes and
my iniquities. We talk about it all the time.
We know that if He didn't do it, that we'd still be guilty
before God. He paid the full penalty of his
people's sin and the justice of God was satisfied. So first
and foremost, we're to honor our natural fathers because it
pictures how God is father of his children. And we're to honor
our mothers because it's such a picture that through the church,
Christ's bride, the heavenly father gives spiritual birth
to his children through the preaching of the gospel. In that sense,
the characteristic of a mother very well pictures and typifies
the church of God. The church is the mother that
gives birth through the preaching of the gospel, the seed of life. And it's the mother, the church,
that nurtures God's sick children. It's the mother, the church,
that teaches the children to have confidence in their father's
ability and willingness to provide all the things that they need.
Isn't that what we do in preaching? Isn't that what the church does?
The church tells the children of God what Christ has done,
what Christ has provided for us. He's provided forgiveness
through a perfect righteousness that God has accepted. I believe
that's what Paul alluded to in Galatians chapter 4 verse 26
when he wrote, Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the
mother of us all. In Isaiah chapter 66, God through
the prophet Isaiah compares Israel and Zion to a mother in travail,
birthing children. He said rejoice ye with Jerusalem
and be glad for her. Friends, it's through the preaching
of the gospel done by the true church. Not everybody's preaching
the gospel. We've figured that out, haven't
we? And we're not patting ourselves on the back because we think
we're the only ones that are. It burdens my heart that there
are not more people preaching the truth. Doesn't it, jr.? Sure
it does. We want our friends and our family
to hear the truth about God. But it's through the preaching
of the Gospel done by the true church that the sheep of God
are brought into the fold. No other way that they are. It
pleased God by what? The foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. So in that sense, we honor the
Church of God as a spiritual mother, so to speak. Not in any
way to give the church preeminence or glory or recognition. Christ gets all of that. But
we do recognize the true Church of God to be an instrument used
of God to preach the truth of Christ and Him crucified, used
of God to point sinners to Him. That's what we do. Look to Him
and live. come to Him and have life. And
for a child to smite his father or mother is to show just the
ultimate betrayal and rebellion against God's principle of authority. This is talking about submitting
to God as God. That's the first thing we're
going to have to learn. This is talking about bowing to God's
way. The only way to be redeemed and
reconciled to God. There's only one way. It's to
honor Him as God. It's to honor Him as our Heavenly
Father. What did men do with God when
He came to earth? They hated Him without a cause.
They lied on Him. They hired false witnesses against
Him. They held mock trials of injustice. They smote Him. They bruised
Him. They beat Him. They whipped Him. They killed
Him. Being unkind, even hurtful to one's mother and father, it's
a cruelty that's hard for me to fathom. Having the parents
I had, I could never imagine hurting them. I know some of
your parents. Couldn't imagine being abusive
to them. And I know every case is different. Maybe some parents were abusive. It's hard for me to imagine that,
how that a parent could hurt a small child. I can't imagine. But I'll tell you something I
am aware of. I know that apart from God's mercy and grace, restraining
grace to me, I'm capable of doing all those things. And so are
you. But to me, with the parents I had, It seems that only a depraved
heart that God had just forsaken and left reprobate would raise
a hand to harm their own parents. I can't imagine how much more
so can it be said of those who with wicked hands have crucified
and killed the Lord of glory. In my heart, I've seen myself
there crying with the rest to crucify. But the scriptures reveal
that the only difference between those who wept for Christ and
those who cried, crucify Jesus and release unto us Barabbas,
the only difference is the difference that God made. Those who hate
God's Son will perish, and those who love God's Son shall live
forever. And the only difference between
those who love Christ and those that hate him is the difference
that God makes. I think it would be wise for
us to seek the Lord, wouldn't you? I think it would be wise
for sinners to seek God, begging for mercy and begging for grace.
He's never turned one down who did. This is serious business
with God. And he that smiteth his father
or his mother shall be surely put to death. The word smite
here means to strike, lightly or severely. It means to beat,
to punish, even to go as far as to slay. Anyone who struck
their father and mother with fist, with stick, with a chain,
anyone who would cause so much as a bruise on their parents,
they shall surely be put to death. This dishonor and this abuse
carried the same penalty that murder did, the sentence of death. You see, this Godly principle,
that's what this is. This is a godly principle of
honoring your parents. It entails so much more than
what first meets the eye. It applies to everyone that God
puts in authority over us. It applies to all the powers
to be. From a supervisor at work to
the President of the United States. Because it was God that put them
there. Now listen, we either believe God is sovereign, or
we don't believe He's sovereign at all. We believe that God is
in control of all things, or we believe that God controls
nothing. There's no in-between. It's one or the other. The Bible's
very clear on the matter. Unbelieving men ask David, they
say, where's your God? How would you answer that? If
someone asked you, where is your God? What would you say? David
answered this way. He said, our God's in the heavens,
and he's done whatsoever he's pleased. And this book says in
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, that this God who's in the heavens,
this God who has done whatsoever He has pleased, that He is predestinated. That means that He is predetermined
before the foundation of the world. He predetermined and He
worked all things. all things, not some things,
not most things, all things, the scripture says, after the
counsel of His own will, according to His own will and purpose. In other words, everything that
comes to pass, everything, everything, everything that comes to pass,
it comes to pass exactly as God willed and purposed it to. Now,
do you believe that? I do believe that. But this goes
when our political candidate wins, and this goes when they
lose. God says, out of honor for me, you honor those who I
put in power. That's exactly what Paul was
saying in Romans chapter 13 verse 1. It says, let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Let me give you an example. Pilate
said to the Lord Jesus, he said, don't you know that I've got
power to spare you or to condemn you? And you remember what the
Lord said? He said, you don't have any power
at all. The only power that you have, you have no power except
the power that was given you from above. The only power you
have is the power that God gives you. Friends, if God is working
all things together for the believer's good, and He is, then He has
to be the one who's in control of all things in order to make
all things do as He so desires. And the truth of how we feel
about that is often where the rubber meets the road. And that's
when God's way turns out not to be the way that we had hoped
it'd be. How do we respond to that? It's
a telltale sign. Do we bow to it? Do we accept
it? Or do we murmur and complain
and grumble? Well, anyone who dishonors those
that God has put in authority are dishonoring God. They are
powers that are ordained of God and to resist them is to resist
God. There's just no other way to
put it. We're talking about what God
says concerning those who are in authority. We need to leave
and keep politics at home. There's no place for it here.
I'm not preaching politics. I'm telling you about how God
does things and how God orders things. And by God's grace, I'm
going to honor and respect and do the best I can to submit to
those that God's put in authority over me. Unless, of course, they
would require me and expect me to do something unethical or
unscriptural or ungodly. That's exactly what Paul said
in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 2. Would you turn there with
me? You can let your place go here in Exodus. I want you to
see this. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1. It says, Children, obey your
parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and
mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be
well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth. Now there are a lot of things
in the scripture that I don't understand. I know that men and
women's days cannot be lengthened beyond that which God has purposed
and decreed. The book of Job tells us very
plainly that seeing man's days are determined, the number of
His months are with thee. Thou, God, has appointed man's
and men and women's bounds that He cannot pass. And I also understand
that all children, even obedient children, do not always live
long on the earth. So to say that I understand what
this verse means would be overstating the truth, because I don't. I
know that in the original promise, following the commandment back
in Exodus chapter 20, God makes reference to living long in the
land which the Lord giveth thee, referring to the land of Canaan.
And as you know, Canaan represents very often and typifies very
often in scripture, heaven. It was the land of promise that
God promised Abraham and he gave Canaan to elect Israel and it
pictures and represents heaven, that promised place where God's
elect children will spend eternity. Now, I believe the promise of
long days here in Exodus 20 speaks of eternity and heaven's glory. But I don't know. So much I don't
know. Did you notice the comments that
Paul makes here concerning the children's obedience and respect
to parents, the commands made to them? Children, obey your
parents in the Lord. What does that mean? What does
it mean in the Lord? To obey your parents in the Lord
mean? Well, I know this, it means no limitation of obedience. It
means whatever God says goes. It means whatever God says do,
you do it because God said it. I know that. It's the command
of the Lord to obey your parents and the Lord is to first and
foremost be obedient unto Him. Do what He says to do. It should
be done for His sake, and it's right to do it. Why should children
obey their parents? First and foremost, God says
for it's right. There's a natural equity in it. There's something here for the
children to reap. There's a promise attached to
this command. God says that it may be well
with thee. Do you want it to be well with
you? God says that thou mayest live long on the earth. And I'm
not sure what it shall be well with thee means. I really am
not. But I don't think it means that
things will necessarily be well with your bank account. I don't
think that necessarily means that, or believe that it means.
That things will be well with your soul. I don't know how long
you may live on the earth. I really don't. I don't know
how long I may live. I may not be here in the morning.
But God does, and He promises to work all things together for
our good. Now you think about this. We
say it all the time, but you think about this. He promises
to work all things together for our good to those who love Him.
to those who are thee called according to His purpose. To
serve Him one day longer is a good thing. And to die is gain even
better. Maybe Paul means that to live
here in this world on this earth in this life another day is too
long. I don't know. You'll live long
on the earth too long when you see that to die is gain and to
be present, to be absent from this body is to be present with
the Lord. Maybe life becomes too long. I think sometimes we
hang on too hard to this life. I know that it's a natural thing
to do. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be taking
blood pressure medicine. I still think about Betty, Betty
Cavanaugh. She was ready to go home. She
longed to die. She looked forward to dying.
She's the only person I ever had in my life that asked me
to pray and ask the Lord to take her so she'd die. That's not
the norm, is it? I've seen it many times now.
I've watched several men and women die. Every single one struggles
to take even their last breath. Every one of them seems like
trying to hang on to just another minute. Sometimes a long life
here is too long. It really is. Well, let me say
this in dealing with the law of God and the problem with the
Ten Commandments. The problem lies with us. We've
said that many times. The law can't save us because
it's weak through the flesh. But it's our flesh. We can't
keep the Ten Commandments. And to those who think they can,
you try to keep them perfectly because that's how you have to
keep them in order to be accepted of God. And be sure that you
understand this, you and I have broken God's law, especially
this one. We have not honored our father
and our mother as we ought to, and we have not honored God as
we should. And the scripture's clear, for
whosoever keepeth the whole law and yet offend in one point is
guilty of all. So we're guilty of the whole
law. And if we're left in that state, God will not and cannot
accept us. By nature, we're rebellious,
we're dishonorable sons and daughters, and God, our Father, is holy. Therefore, God's law demands
that for God to be honored in the upholding of his law, we
must all die under the wrath of God. That's what the law demands,
death. The wages of sin is death, we
know that. But the gospel is this, there's
one who did keep God's law perfectly. There's one who did perfectly
honor God His Father. And if I may go back to talk
to you again a moment about that union that we have with Christ,
that oneness that we have with Christ. God declares that what
Christ did concerning the law, all His elect did in Him. That
means that God the Son not only obeyed in the precept of the
law of God, but He also put Himself in the place of His guilty people
by being made sin for them. He paid the penalty that God's
elect sons and daughters owed. And our text says, He that smiteth
his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. And verse
17 said, he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely
be put to death. Christ never cursed his father
nor would he. But the elect children of God
have. And there are going to be some
that say, well I've never cursed God. Every single time. We grumble and we complain about
anything. In our hearts, we're shaking
our fist at God and we're saying, God, I don't like the way you
do things. That's exactly right. That's cursing God and we're
all guilty of it. But listen. When the Lord laid
on Christ, I'll finish with this. When the Lord laid on Christ
the iniquity of His people, in the eyes of the law, Christ became
the one person guilty. He became the one person responsible
to pay by bearing the punishment of the law that the law demanded. But by bearing our offenses,
Then by bearing the punishment that the law demanded, which
was eternal death, Christ had justified all for whom he died,
so that the law has nothing else to say to it. That's why Paul
wrote in Romans 8, that's why he asked this question, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? There's none who
can. Why? Because it's God that justifies. Who is it that can condemn it? Who is it that can? It's Christ
that died, yea rather, that's risen again, who's even at the
right hand of God making intercession for it. Only by the faithfulness
of Christ dwelling in us, it's only as He gives us life and
enables us to believe. Oh, let's honor God, friends.
Let's praise Him for the great things that He's done. Let's
continue to faithfully serve in the cause of Christ as God's
Church, Christ's Bride. May God continue to make us willing,
submissive, humble children for Christ's sake.