To say that it's a blessed honor
and privilege to be here is an understatement. I am so thankful
to the Lord for that which he's been pleased to do here. And
I can tell you from the congregation at Katy that we thank the Lord
for you all and pray God's blessing upon you as the Lord directs
and guides and we're with you. Believe me, we're with you. I'm
going to ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the
book of Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs 22, verse 6. Our passage today is one that
I'm sure every believing parent, every believing parent, one that's
concern for the eternal well-being of their children would desire
to hear. I want to hear this passage again. And I pray that the Lord give
us all an understanding of it. Every believing parent desires
to see the fruit of the Lord that's promised. Every believing
parent wants some comfort. concerning their children. This
scripture is one of great instruction. Here's what God's Word has to
say. Verse 6, Proverbs 22, Train up
a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will
not depart from it. Train up a child in the way he
should go. And when he's old, he will not
depart from it. Now, that passage of Scripture
is one that does absolutely give us great instruction. You train up a child in the way
he should go, and then it gives absolute future assurance and
comfort. Concerning that training, here
is an absolute promise of success, absolute. When he is old, he
will not depart from it. Doesn't say he might not, doesn't
say, it says he will not depart from it. Now, you know, Kind of a perplexing verse of
Scripture to many believing parents who have read it and long to
have a right understanding of it and did all they knew to do
to be obedient and honorable before God and raise up their
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They didn't leave
their kids to their own carnal thinking, but what they faithfully
did was they faithfully brought them to hear the Gospel and they
advised them in the ways of the Lord and they counseled them
according to the Scriptures just like Timothy's mama and grandma
did. They kept them under the sound
of the Gospel and they disciplined them when they were disobedient
and they prayed that God would bless His Word to their understanding
and call them out of darkness of sin and unbelief only often. Often. To see them get out of
the house. They got to be 18 years old.
So they went off to college and showed no interest whatsoever
in the gospel of God's grace. But for the grace of God, they
ended up dying in unbelief. And they left this world and
that parent was broken hearted. Because they knew. Every believing
parent knew. They left without a priest. An accepted priest before God. How many times have we seen that?
You've witnessed it. You've beheld it. Maybe personally.
And I look in the Old Testament, New Testament. I see that there
was, in Adam and Eve's family, there was a Cain and there was
an Abel. And in David's family, there
was a Solomon, but there was an Absalom. And then there was
Isaac, and he had a Jacob and an Esau. And these parents that
I just mentioned, no doubt they kept their kids unto the truth,
and they taught them. But the end between their children
was different. How many godly parents have felt
the sting of guilt and sorrow, feeling that somehow they've
done something wrong and they blame themselves? Maybe I should
have done it differently. Maybe I should have done this.
Well, knowing that God's Word is sure. I want us to consider
this passage of Scripture in light of the glory of Almighty
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that God,
the Holy Spirit, teach us what does this Scripture say? What's
it saying? Here's what God's Word has to
say. Train up a child. Scripture right there, train
up a child. You instruct him concerning the
way he should go. Train him concerning his conduct,
his conversation. Teach him his duty and responsibilities. That's all right. That's right.
But here's what the word train means. Actually, if you look
up the definition, it has to do with the mouth. That's what
it's a mouth. But actually, what it's actually
saying, give him a taste for. That's what it meant with the
mouth. Give him a taste for. But someone might say, well,
I've done that. I did that. I did everything I knew to do,
but I saw no result. I did that. No. No. No earthly parent has ever done
that because we can bring our kids to hear the truth of the
gospel. We can read God's word to them.
We can pray for them. We can instruct them concerning
following after the Lord. But let me tell you what we cannot
do. We can't give them a taste for
the glory of Almighty God. We can't give them a taste for
Christ. Here's the reason. We're dealing
with children before the Lord opens their heart that's dead
in trespasses and sins. We cannot train up a dead heart
There's just some things that's impossible. Listen, let me tell
you something. I don't care for boiled okra. You know what I'm saying? I don't
have a taste for it. When I taste it, Luke, it just... When I was growing up in Louisiana,
my dad loved boiled okra. And he'd tell me how good it
was, and he'd put it in peas, and he'd do whatever. He'd tell
me, he'd say, this is good, this is really good. Let me tell you,
I don't have a taste for it. I don't like it. I just didn't
want it, and I don't like it now. I just don't like boiled
okra. My dad didn't have the ability
to give me a taste for boiled okra. He liked it. He wanted me to like it, but
I just didn't care for it. What is required for anyone to
be trained up in the way that he should go? What is it going
to take? Let me tell you what it's going
to take. The Spirit of God is going to have to give him a new
heart. That's what's going to have to happen. God Almighty
is going to have to come in power and mercy and compassion and
He's going to have to stop our children on their road of rebellion
and arrest them like He did Saul of Tarsus. He's going to have
to stop them. What must happen for one of our
children? God's going to have to train
them and give them a taste. a saver of life for Christ. The Lord must love that child
and purpose to train him up. This is what it's going to take
for a child to be trained up. They're going to have to be accepted
of God in the Beloved. And all of their guilt is going
to have to be put away and atoned for by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they're going to have to
be made willing in the day of God's power They must be holy. The Lord's gonna have to robe
them in the righteousness of Christ, make them to be without
blame before Him in love, and they're gonna have to endure
to the end. So the bottom line is this. Who alone can train up a child?
The Lord. Only the Lord. And by the grace
of God, there's a remnant. According to the election of
grace, it's been everlastingly loved. their objects of God's
mercy chosen and accepted in the Beloved, fallen sons of Adam,
predestinated unto the adoption of children, sheep, for whom
Christ was made sin, that they might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And in the day of God's power,
Almighty God is going to stop them. He's gonna bless. He put it on their parents' hearts
to bring them. Or, maybe later in life, God
moved on them and maybe they thought they started coming to
the services just because they wanted to date somebody. There
was some reason in their mind, you know. But Almighty God, who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, put
them under the sound of the gospel, and when it pleased God, God
trained them, taught them. I can tell you this, only the
Lord can train up a child, and He surely is going to train all
of His children. Because ye are sons, God Almighty
shall train them. We can do all that we're instructed
to do, but it's like when the Lord opened up Lydia's heart.
She was listening to what Paul was saying. I mean, she heard
him. But when it pleased God, God
opened her heart and trained her, and she attended to the
words that were spoken. Listen to this passage of Scripture.
John 6, 45, it's written in the prophets, and they shall be all
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Why? Well, those they, they shall
all be taught of God, that was God's children. Abraham's spiritual
seed, the Lord spoke to Abraham and said in Genesis 18, 19, he
said, for I know him. talking about Abraham, that he
will command his children and his household after him. They
shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that
the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. Does that mean all of Abraham's
natural seed, natural lineage? You know, there were some Pharisees
that boasted and bragged in themselves being Abraham's children. John
8, 39, they answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus said unto them, if
ye were Abraham's children, spiritual children. They're bragging because
they could trace the lineage back to Abraham. But if you would,
if you were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. Why? Because the Lord trained
them. God trained them. You train up
a child in the way he should go. Now let me ask you this,
what is the way that Abraham's spiritual seed, what is the way
that the Lord's people, the chosen, what is the way they should go?
Well they should go after Christ. They should follow the Lord.
He is the way. You train them up in the way
they should go. That's the way. I'm the way,
I'm the truth, I'm the life. And here's the promise, you train
up a child in a way he should go. Now listen to this, and when
he's old, what does that mean? That means when he's old, when
he's old in years, he will not depart from it. He will not turn aside, he will
not reject that which he's been taught. Why? Because God taught him. God sealed
him by the Spirit of God. Well, what if someone makes a
profession? What if they're baptized, they
get in the water, and then later they leave? What does that mean? Well, it means 1 John 2.29, they
went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
That's what it means. Because I'm going to tell you
something, the Lord's Word is sure. When Almighty God promises, it's
done. His counsel stands. And all that's
been everlastingly loved and redeemed by Christ and regenerated
and sealed and taught by God's Spirit, they're kept. They're
kept by the power of God through faith under salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last time. They're the Lord's. They've been
given life. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. But in closing, I want you to
look at something. Proverbs 22, verse 6 says, Train up a child, give him a
taste for her. You give him a taste for her,
that which is the way he should go. You train up a child in the
way he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from
it. Now, I'm gonna tell you something,
and I want you to check me out on this. because it's so precious
when you check it out. It's just, this is just the way
it is. He will not depart from it. Now, I like to look these words
up because I want to know just exactly, Obie, what they mean.
I want to know, I want to know what train up a child. I'm thankful
I've got four kids, but I've got six, I've got really six.
And the Lord's been pleased, I'm convinced, to save four of
them. I believe he has. And we got
two children that we pray God has mercy and trains them up. But the scripture declares that
you train up a child in the way he should go and he will not
depart from it. Now when I was looking up all
these words, Now that, this Proverbs in the Old Testament, that's
an Old Testament book. And this is an amazing and precious
truth that's taught right here. You look all those words up,
train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from, all those are Hebrew words. Proverbs
is an Old Testament book, it's written in Hebrew. All the definitions
are written in Hebrew. until the word it. And as soon
as you look up, it's in the Old Testament. But something happens
when you're looking up those words. When you come to the word
it, it's a New Testament, it's a Greek word. It's not Hebrew,
it's Greek. And you know what the word is?
Alpha. Alpha. Alpha. Revelation 1.8, I am the alpha.
the Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come. Now here's the proof,
absolute proof of our Lord's eternality. Almighty God, who
cannot lie, declares that there's none before Him. There's none
after Him. Christ is the beginning and the
ending of all things. He's eternal. And He assures
us. David said, our God's in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever he hath
pleased. He's the beginning and the ending
of creation, providence, salvation. Oh, tried and weary pilgrim,
parent, may we be taught afresh this morning the truth of the
faithfulness of our Lord's word. You train up a child in the way
he should go. And when he is old, he will not
depart from Christ. You know what that verse of scripture
means? Salvation is of the Lord. If we were able to take our children
and train them up, the way they should go, had the ability to
do it, we'd boast in it. We would say,
I was the one. But you know what this passage
of scripture does? It causes us to set our face
toward the Lord and say, Lord, I can't, but you can. If you will, Lord, you can. If
you will, you can save my kids. Lord, I admit I'm totally unable. Lord, would you have mercy and
save my children for your glory and for their eternal good? Amen. You're dismissed.