Thank you. Alright, turn with me if
you would to Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Last week, we looked at verses
18 and 19, which say, wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your
wives and be not bitter against them. We looked at those two
verses in light of as He said in verse 1, if you be risen with
Christ. Everything that He's saying here,
He prefaced with, if you be risen with Christ. And we looked at
those verses in light of what He said in verse 12, Colossians
3 verse 12. He said, put on therefore as
the elect of God. Everything that is instructed
to us is in light of Christ and the gospel of his salvation.
Everything he has to say to us, it's in light of Christ. It's
in light of the gospel of his salvation. If you look back just
a few pages at Ephesians 5, The Apostle Paul spent the second
half of this chapter talking about a relationship between
a husband and a wife. And he said though in verse 32,
he ended it by saying, this is a great mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the church. He had all of these verses, all
of everything he had to say about a husband and a wife, a husband
and a wife, and he said, this is what I'm talking about, Christ
and the church. Everything that pertains to the
physical relationship between a husband and a wife spiritually
illustrates Christ and the church. And that's how it is with the
entire Word of God. Everything that it has to say, everything
in the Scripture, period. All of the instruction, and this
is very important. All of the instruction, we read
all of this instruction. All of the correction, all of
the rebukes, everything is in light of And it illustrates Christ
and the gospel of His salvation. Now the same thing can be said
for the verses we're going to look at this morning. If you
go back with me to Colossians 3. Verse 20 says, Children, obey
your parents in all things. For this is well pleasing unto
the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children
to anger, lest they be discouraged. Now, before we talk about those
who are teenagers and younger, Let's acknowledge the fact that
the word children translates offspring. That's what the word
means, offspring. Although we have terms that generally
describe how old a person is. We talk about babies, we talk
about toddlers, we talk about kids, teenagers, young adults,
adults, elders. We have terms that generally
describe how old a person is, and we go from one stage to another. But we never stop being an offspring. Never. Even though we have that,
we never stop being an offspring. My father's about to turn 70
this year. But he still has four children.
I'm the oldest, I'm 42. But I'm still his child. I'll
never stop being his offspring. So what we just read applies
to me. All right, everything that we
just read in that verse, it applies to all of us. We are all the
children of somebody. And if our earthly parents are
gone, we're still the children of our heavenly father. All right, so let's look at this
first in light of ourselves. Over in 1 John chapter 3, if
you want to turn with me there, it says in 1 John 3, verse 1, Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. What a glorious thought that
is. Such a glorious thought. I want to be a child of the Father. I know you do too. We want to
be children of the Father. Joint heirs with Christ. That's the goal. That's the desire. Joint heirs with Christ. Well,
with that in mind, go back to our text in Colossians 3. And it says in verse 20, children. Obey your parents in all things,
for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. The attitude that this
verse is teaching and commanding is, not my will, but thine be
done. And where have we heard that?
Not my will, but thine be done. That is the heart and the attitude
of all of this instruction that he's given here. Putting on all
of this kindness and this mercy. When he says, wives, submit yourselves
to your own husband, what that means is not my will, but thine
be done. It's that attitude of humility
that he tells all of his people to put on. Kindness, meekness,
patience, forbearing. When he says, husbands, love
your wives, that is a willing heart that says, I care about
you. I care about your happiness.
I care about your wellbeing. I willingly say, a husband will
willingly say, not my will, thine be done. Spiritually speaking concerning
Christ, our husband and God, our father, only his will is
going to be done. Only his will is going to be
done, but he makes himself so lovely to his people. He makes Himself so lovely to
His bride. He makes Himself so lovely to
His child, His will becomes their will. That Spirit of Christ is in the
bride. That Spirit of Christ is in the
child. And of that same Spirit, they
say the same thing to each other. One Spirit. one mind. They willingly submit to the
desire and the needs of the other, having no difference in their
own desire. The example and the proof of that is Christ and His
Father. The Lord Jesus Christ and the
Father. God the Father and God the Son. If you look with me
at John chapter 5, John 5 verse 19, Then answered Jesus, and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. He said in
verse 30, I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge
and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but
the will of the father which hath sent me. If you look at
John six, verse 38, he said, I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And what
was the father's will? What was the father's will when
he sent his son? Verse 39, this is the father's
will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. It was His will that that cup
of suffering that Christ would drink for His people on the cross,
it was His will that that cup not pass from Him. All that the
Father gave to Him, He would lose nothing and would raise
them all up in the last day. Does this mean that the Father's
will was different from the Son's will? One had to give up their
will for the other one. Absolutely not. Christ said,
for this cause came I into the world. That's the whole reason
I came. He said, I and my father are one, one mind, one will,
one purpose. But in acknowledging each other,
Christ acknowledged his father and the father acknowledged the
son. And in doing that, it reveals this mutual love that they have
for each other, this love and this respect and this submission. that they have to each other.
The father said concerning Christ, his son, he said, this is my
beloved. I want you to hear him, hear
him. The father said, every knee is
going to bow to him. The father said, whoever does
not honor him does not honor me and cannot honor me. The Father
said to the Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. It's your throne. It is your
word. It's your authority. It's your
judgment. And in that, we see this mutual
love, this mutual desire that the Father and the Son have for
each other. If they have that in glory, and if we are going
to have that with them in glory, then may we strive to have that
here right now. Go with me back to Colossians
3. Concerning us toward our heavenly
Father, what he commands of us. Verse 20 says, children, obey
your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the
Lord. Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. These things that he has to say
to us, he said in this very chapter, he said, don't commit fornication.
Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. You know, we can
argue, well, I'll never get it out of my mind. I'll do it in
my mind. I'll do it in my heart. Yeah,
that's true, but that's no excuse to physically commit it in the
body, just because it will never leave what is in us by nature.
That's no excuse. He said in this very chapter,
don't be angry. Don't be angry. Put off anger.
He said, don't speak blasphemy. Don't use the Lord's name in
a vain way. He said, don't have filthy communication. Don't have a filthy mouth. He
said it in verse 12, be kind, be forgiving, be merciful toward
people. This is a direct commandment
to us. Children, obey your parent. Obey your parents. Strive and
try to obey everything that our Heavenly Father has to say to
us. Now, concerning us to our earthly parents in the flesh.
Our God says, children, obey your parents in all things. But he gives one stipulation
to that in Ephesians chapter six. If you look back at Ephesians
chapter six. Ephesians 6 verse 1 says, children,
obey your parents in the Lord. In the Lord. Obey your earthly father
as long as he is in agreement with your heavenly father. In chapter 4, he said, there's
one God and one father of us all. There's only one father
that we ultimately bow to. And if our earthly father is
not in agreement with our heavenly father, then there's no decision
that needs to be made. There's no fork in the road on
who we're going to obey, who we're going to bow to. Peter
said, we ought to obey God rather than men. But if our earthly father does
not command something that is contrary to the heavenly father,
then he said right here in verse one, children, obey your parents
in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother,
which is the first commandment with promise. that it may be
well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth."
Honoring our parents is something that's very well pleasing to
the Lord. That's what he said about it, no matter what age
we are. Okay, go with me back to Colossians 3. Now, concerning our young children,
we know that they are not prone to obeying their parents. I'm
very thankful for the fact we have a lot of young children
in this congregation. We have a lot of young children,
and me included, we have a lot of, and you may not agree, but
young parents. We have a lot of young parents,
I say me included. They are not prone to obeying
us. They are not prone to obeying
their parents. We will all find that out. We
can tell them that they should. If they did not have sin for
a nature. All right, if they weren't completely
eaten up with sin. then it might set in with them,
and they might actually, if they didn't have sin for nature, they
would. We would say, you need to obey me, and they would. They
didn't have sin for nature. The fact is though, just like
us, just like me, and just like you, sin and rebellion is what
they are. I know they're pretty. But sin and rebellion is what
they are. It's what they were conceived
in. That's what David said in Psalm
51. As soon as they can start talking, they will speak lies. They come forth from their mother's
womb, speaking lies. There is no reasoning with sin
and rebellion. There's no reasoning at all.
The only way that a sinful child is going to be taught to obey
is he or she must be disciplined into it. Must be. Our Lord disciplines His children. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Who He loves, He chastens. And according to the commandment
of God, We must do the same thing to our children and for our children. This is where applying this to
us first comes into play. This is the whole reason we apply
it to ourselves first as children of the heavenly father. If we
are going to be obedient children of the heavenly father, then
we must discipline and we must instruct our children as He has
commanded us to do so. This is, this starts with us. We must be obedient. It starts
with our obedience to Him. Now, how has He commanded us
to discipline our children? He said in verse 21, fathers,
provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. God's recorded method of discipline. And I want to be very clear here.
I want to be very deliberate in what I say. I want to be very
true to God's word. And you'll see why I'm saying
this here in just, just a second. The recorded method of God's
discipline is in his exact wording. It's the rod. That's what he
calls it. The rod. We today call it spanking. That is not socially acceptable
anymore. You're not going to hear hardly
anybody say that. People are afraid to say that. It's considered cruel. Nowadays
it is. It wasn't back when. You know,
up through, for every generation, up to, honestly, the 70s or the
80s, it wasn't. But today, many people believe
that it's going to cause harm to a child. They believe that
it's going to cause psychological harm, damage, you know. And many consider it to be abuse. And it's commonly talked about
in that way. It's commonly taught that that's
what it is. The reason it's taught that way
is because man is so sinful, and man is so wicked, and man
is so hard, and man is so rebellious, man abused the authority God
gave to him. And he made an excuse out of
it to take his anger out on his child. That is not why God gave
us this commandment. Not at all. That is not God's
instruction. And the man who does that, God
will deal with that man. God will. He said, vengeance
is mine. He will deal with it. But just because man has abused
God's instruction, that does not mean we as his children can
throw it out. We cannot throw it out. For our
children's sake, we ought to and we must obey God rather than
men. We cannot listen to, we cannot
follow the contradictory instruction. Contradictory to the Word of
God instruction of man. It's exactly like man's false
religion. There's so much false religion
out there. It's being taught. It's being
commonly known as correct. The mindset of man's error concerning
everything about God. If we listen to the mindset of
the world, and if we believe and follow the mindset of the
world, we will fall into the ditch with those who are set
on being contrary to the Word of God. Our Lord said those who
are contrary to His Word are blind leaders of the blind. Let's not be blind. Let's not
fall into their error. The world is raising children
and they are dealing with their children like they want God to
deal with them. And I want to repeat that the
world is dealing with their children like they want God to deal with
them. Well, why don't we just put the
decision in the child's hands? Why don't we just let the child
make up his own mind? Is that not free will religion? Father, you just let me run the
show. They say God wouldn't chasten
his children and you shouldn't either. That's what man's religion
believes. God won't punish sin and you
shouldn't either. The only people that God does
not bring the rod of his correction to is those, the scripture says,
that he hates. Those that he hates. Concerning
those blind leaders and concerning the blind, this is what he said,
leave them all alone. They're all going to fall into
the ditch. Parents, if you love your children, if you really
love your children, don't leave them alone. Don't let them fall
into the ditch. Don't leave things into their
decision and their will. Don't let them follow what they
want. We're dealing with sinful natures. That means they can only make
sinful decisions. Well, let's let them decide.
They can only make sinful, rebellious decisions. It's coming from a
sinful will. The only reason we have any correct
instruction is because we are looking into the Word of God.
That's the only reason. People say, yeah, but I don't
want to stifle them. Whatever it is they're going
to turn out to be, I don't want to stifle their will. I don't want to break their spirit. All of God's children, every
single one of God's children will forever in glory cry, thank
God He did not leave me to my decision and my will. Thank God
we're thanking Him now and we will thank Him for all eternity. Thank God He stopped me from
becoming what I was so rebelliously trying to be. Thank God He broke my will and
broke my spirit. And thank God He calls me in
the end to say, not my will, thine be done. Thank God. When we do not discipline, and
I want to stress these two words, in love, in love. When we do not discipline and
teach our children in love, To obey our word and obey our authority,
this is what it produces. And we will see it in them. This
is what it produces. No fear. That's what it produces. That's
probably the most dangerous thing we can produce in our children.
The summary in Romans 3 that the Apostle Paul gave concerning
wicked, rebellious sin, the sin of mankind is, he said, there
is no fear of God before their eyes. No fear of his authority,
no fear of his holy word. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And that fear starts with his
command of disciplining our children. Now, let me show you this in
the Word. I'm done. I'm going to be very brief. But
to prove all of this, let me show you that this is what God
has to say about it. Turn with me to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13, the Lord used Solomon
to pen this, who he called the wisest man on this earth. Proverbs
13, 24, he that spareth his rod, hateth
his son. The flesh, I'm speaking from
personal experience, the flesh truly does love the child. And
something in the flesh says, well, I'd rather just spare the
rod right now. This is what God says. He that
spareth his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth
him betimes. Betimes means over and over again,
as many times as it takes. Parents, I'm saying this from experience.
You're going to think spanking doesn't work. They just keep
doing it. I'm telling you, you're going
to think, well, they just go deeper into rebellion. Stay with God's way. Just stay
with God's way bid times as many times as it takes and God will
bless it. That hard rebellious will that
was right inside here. I am the man. God will bless it. Some are more
strong willed than others. And they take a little firmer
discipline. Look at Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23 verse 13 says, withhold
not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with
the rod, he shall not die. If you are disciplining in love,
in love, truly from love in your heart, there are going to be
times that you're going to feel so guilty. You are going to think, all I
ever do is spank them. All I ever do is discipline.
All I do is fuss and get on to them. That's all I do. That's
all I do, over and over. And you're going to think, am
I being too cruel? Am I going to turn them from
me? Are they going to hate me because of this? Look at verse
14. Thou shalt beat him with the
rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Do God's children, do they see
His saving correction as being cruel? We, His children, do we
see His saving correction as being cruel to us? God breaking
the will of His people, stopping them in their tracks, turning
them from their wicked ways. Not only do we not see that as
being cruel, we see that as the greatest kindness He could ever
show to us. It is so the opposite of, do
God's people hate him for this? Oh, they love him. They love
him for this. They love him for this. It'll
be the same for you. It'll be the same for your home
if you will follow the instruction of the Lord. Let me close with a few things
on actual discipline. Okay, here's just a couple of
things. Number one, don't ever do it in anger. Don't ever do
it in anger. If you're mad, settle down first. Wait until you have a clear mind
and then discipline them in love. Love, love, love. Don't be cruel
in your discipline. That's the second thing, don't
be cruel. We don't need to use guilt trips. We don't ever need
to make our children feel like we're just so mad at them right
now we don't even love them. Never, never. It should be cut
and dry, plain and simple. You did wrong, now you have to
be disciplined for it. And then the third thing is,
once it's over, it's over. Once it's over, it's over. If
spanking is the punishment, once it's over, it's over. Once it's
finished, it's finished. That's it, it's finished. Honey,
learn from this. Don't do this again or this will
be the punishment you will have again. But tell them you love
them. It's over. It's over. And the reason I say that is
because that's what God has done for us. You read all through
the scripture, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all through the word
where he says, this is what you did. And now this is the punishment
that's coming to you. I will scatter you, I will this,
I will that. And he said, once it's done,
I will draw you to myself. I'll draw you with cords of love.
I will comfort you. Tell them you love them. Tell
them you love them. One more thing. When you discipline,
take that opportunity to teach them that this is what God has
commanded you to do. God says that this is how we
are to discipline our children. And ultimately, all discipline
comes from Him. Tell our children that. We all
obey Him. In doing this, we're just bowing
to Him. As He has disciplined us in love, through that discipline,
He has provoked us to love. Let's do the same thing. Fathers,
provoke not your children to anger. Do it, but do it in love,
lest they be discouraged. And children, obey your parents
in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. All right,
you're dismissed.