Ephesians chapter 6. I wanted
our young people to be here. This is a word, the first word
is to children, that all of us are children. If we're God's
children, this will apply to all of us. Children. Our Lord
Jesus Christ called those grown men who followed Him, little
children, didn't He? All the time. Verse 1, Ephesians
6. Children. Obey your parents in
the Lord. For this is right. This is right. Obey your parents.
Sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, obey your parents. Sons and daughters. Sons of Stephen
and Hope Montgomery, obey your parents in the Lord. For this
is right. Daughters of Charles and Melanie,
Obey your parents, dear Lord. Daughters of Patrick and Jennifer,
obey your parents, dear Lord. Obey your parents. This is right. It's right. Why is it right? Because God said so. It doesn't
need another reason. It's right. It's right. It's right because God said so,
and it's right by them. I know these parents. They deserve
to be obeyed. They do. They deserve this honor.
It's right by them and it's right by you. It's the right thing
to do. Obey your parents. Our Lord,
now I'm going to say this one time, maybe I might repeat myself. For the sake of somebody listening
for the first time or whatever, this is not talking about earning
heaven by your works, by your obedience, okay? This is talking
to children of believers, all children, but I'm going to apply
it to God's people who are saved one way, by the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. His works, not ours. This is
not to earn heaven. If you be a good boy and a good
girl, you'll earn heaven. That's not what this is saying. But there's a scripture that
says, if you be willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. Meaning, you do what's right,
it'll go right by you. That's just the law that God
put in effect. You do right, things will go
right. You do wrong, you're going to have trouble. If you're willing, obedient,
if you're a servant and honor and respect and do what's right,
it'll go right by you. God will ensure that it does.
But if not, if you're a rebel, it's going to be a hard road. The way of the transgressor is
hard. Obedience is a whole lot easier. Boy, I learned that the hard
way. 1 Peter 3. Go over to 1 Peter 3 with me. 1 Peter chapter 3. These are
things that God has put into effect by His mercy and His grace. Look at 1 Peter 3 verse 10. You have it? And oh my, we could
go on up. He's dealing with husbands and
wives like Paul did. Wives, obey your husbands, and
husbands love your wives, and so forth. Verse 8, all of you
be of one mind, compassion one to another, not rendering evil
for evil. But verse 10, he that will love
life, see good days, refrain your tongue from evil. Lips, speak no guile. What a
vile mouthed, filthy mouthed generation we live in. You know, I was taught to say,
yes, sir, and yes, ma'am. I was taught that respect. And by God's grace, I learned
it and used it. You know, it benefited me greatly. Who are you going to give a job
to? Somebody comes applying for a job in your business or whatever,
and he's dressed like a slob, and he just acts like you owe
him a job. Or another young man who's dressed
respectfully and said, yes, sir, you want this job? Yes, sir,
I sure do. Who are you going to give the job to? I remember an advertisement for
a military school in Virginia, and it said, we teach a foreign
language. Yes, sir, and yes, ma'am. It's
a foreign language. Mindy, you remember we were touring
VMI one time, and we were walking down looking at everything at
VMI, and these cadets would go by and say, take your hat off.
Hello, ma'am. Yes, sir. So impressive. Those young men are going to
excel in this life. You can count on it. Am I going
to repeat myself? You're not going to go to heaven
for that. But this is the rule. This is what he's handed down.
Keep reading on. Verse 11. Let him eschew evil,
do good. What's that mean? Come on. Don't you know what's right or
wrong? Do good. Don't do evil. It's Stuart. Avoid
it. Seek peace. What's that mean?
Be a peacemaker. The eyes of the Lord, verse 12,
are over the righteous. His ears are open unto their
prayer. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. Who is he that will harm you
if you be followers of that which is good? If you do what's right.
Look at chapter 4. Look at 1 Peter 4, verse 14. Now it says, If you be reproached
for the name of Christ, happy are you. Happy are you. If you
suffer for righteousness' sake, for the truth's sake. He went
on to say, well, he says it here. Read on. But none of you, verse
15, suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, a busybody, and
other men of matter. But if you suffer as a Christian,
Don't be ashamed. And he said over in chapter 3,
if they speak evil of you as evildoers, maybe they'll be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation and conduct in Christ. So, you know, a Christian is
not just what you say. It's easy to say you're a Christian. Easy to say that. It's not just
what you say you believe, it's how you act. You say you believe
a sovereign God, do you act like it? Do you murmur? Do you complain? That brings great reproach on
our Lord. That makes a mockery of our religion. So, you know, walk upright, walk
honest, paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Ask Christ,
how did our Lord Act and live and walk and talk in this world.
Above reproach. He brought great honor. He wasn't
trying to earn heaven. Why was he doing it? Because
he's right. Because he was righteous. And that's what he was doing.
Oh, he brought great, and the Lord was well pleased for his
righteousness. God couldn't even contain himself. He hadn't spoken in 400 years. And when he saw his son, he said,
I'm well pleased with my son. Hear him. Follow him. Believe
him. Trust him. Do what he does. And be well with him. Be well
with him. Children of God now, obey your
parents, your Heavenly Father. You were once, Ephesians 2 says,
children of disobedience. Even as others, aren't you? Children
of wrath, even as others. But God, now you've been quickened,
created in the image of Jesus Christ, a new creature in you.
Obedient. Not perfectly settled. Oh my,
we grieve over that. But you sure want to be, don't you? You sure want to be. 1 Peter
1, you're still in 1 Peter, look at verse 14. You have it, 1 Peter
1, 14. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation. And I'm not going to repeat myself. Ephesians 5. Go back there. Ephesians
5. Remember we started this thing
in chapter 5 by submission. Remember that? The last lesson
in Ephesians 5, verse 21. Submit yourselves one to another
in the fear of the Lord. Submit to authority. Submit to
authority. Peter, he told us in 1 Peter
chapter 2, let me just read this to you again. He says, and Paul
wrote this in Romans, have your conversation honest among the
Gentiles that they speak evil of you as evildoers. They may
by your good works which they behold glorify God in the day
of visitation. Submit yourself to every ordinance
of man. For the Lord's sake, whether
it be king or supreme, under governors, those that are sent
by him, all authorities of the Lord. For the punishment of what? Evildoers. And he said, who will
harm you if you be followers of that which is good? And this
is the will of God. With well-doing you put to silence
the ignorance of foolish men. Show them. Okay? Now look at
our text in Ephesians. Six, obey your parents in the
Lord. In the Lord. This is the key. In the will of the Lord. In the
Word of the Lord. Whatever they say, obey them. If it's not against
the will of the Lord. The same goes true with all authority,
ordinances of man. If it's not in the Lord, against
the laws of the Lord. Oh no, what did Peter say who
wrote that? Ought we to obey God or man? Right? If a parent commands,
this doesn't happen very often, I have known children to be saved
and parents not saved. That's very rare. It doesn't
happen very often. But if a parent commands something
against the word of the Lord, Don't obey it. Okay? If a father or mother does not
come to worship the Lord, and a child does know the Lord, don't obey your parent. You obey
your Heavenly Father. Right? Right? No child has to
submit to, no child has to submit to a drunken, abusive, vile and
wicked parent. No sir. A wife does not have
to submit to an abusive husband. Leave him. Leave him. You don't have to submit to him. Don't divorce him. The Lord will
take care of that. Yes, he will. He'll take care
of it. He'll take care of it. The eyes of the Lord over all,
overseeing the good and evil, he will. Vengeance is mine, he
said. I'll take care of it. You just
wait on the Lord. But you do not have to submit
to an ungodly, abusive, vile person, parent, husband, wife. Don't do it. Don't do it. So, in the Lord. You see that? Obey them in the Lord. For this
is right. Verse 2. Honor thy father and
thy mother. Honor them. Honor them. Not only obey, but bring honor
to them. Bring honor to them. Speak to
them with respect. Speak to them with respect. You know, love will do that.
This is the fulfillment of everything. If you love someone, you'll treat
them respectfully. You'll honor them. If you don't,
you won't. That's the thing. And when God
does the work in his people, he makes them love the Father's
honor and glory. And they want to bring him honor
and glory. They don't want to disrespect
him. They don't want to bring reproach on him. They don't want
to. But honor them, speak to them with respect. Do not call
your parent the old man. You hear people all the time
talking about the old man upstairs. That person doesn't know God.
The fear of God makes you fear His name. honor his name, respect
his name. We say this a lot, don't we? Now more than ever, when his
name is just being dug in the dirt by everybody's filthy mouth,
we make mention his name is exalted. We don't even mention his name
unless it's in honor and respect. The old man? No, you don't love
that father, you call him that. You speak to him with respect,
you speak of him to others with honor and respect. Bring them
honor. Verse 2 says this is the first
command with promise. Here it is. Now, notice with
me, I'm not saying what God's Word does not say. This is from
Exodus 20. He said this is the first command
that God gives promise. Promise of eternal life? No.
Where's the promise of eternal life come from? Trust in Christ. But just look
at it, verse 3, that it may be well with thee and you may live
long on the earth. It may be well with you. Not
eternal life, but a natural life, 70 or 80 years, maybe. This is
a fact. As I've been saying, God is so
merciful and God is so gracious that His natural laws are in
effect. The way of obedience, it will
go well with you. The way of the transgression,
it's going to go hard on you. If you don't submit and obey
authority and humble yourself and be meek and hard work and
all that, if you don't do that, if you're a rebel You're out
for yourself, you'll probably destroy yourself. You'll destroy yourself. We've
got some horse people. Why are all the horse people
on row two? How'd that happen? Anyway, we've
got some horse people. We've had horses. Dog, we've
got a lot of dog owners. Cat lovers. I'm not ashamed. This is a fact, even in training
animals. A horse that won't obey, a horse
that won't be ridden, that won't drop that head, that won't submit
to the yoke or the bridle, a horse that kicks and bucks and bites,
what's going to happen to that horse? Whip. Or you're going to tie it down. You're going to hobble it. Right?
You're going to hobble it. It's going to take away its sweet
feed. That's the whole problem. Right? Isn't that right? Dogs. I'm not getting on dogs
because nobody in here knows how to train one. A dog that won't follow you,
a dog that won't sit, a dog that won't lie down, a dog that won't
come to you, it's going to kill itself. The same holds true even more
so with a human being. If you don't do what He says,
you're going to destroy yourself. If you follow the world who's
a rebel against God and against all authority, young people,
if you follow the world, you're going to go down with them. Because this world's going...
God has determined His purpose. He's going to bring this proud
world down that rejects Him and His Son. He's going to make an
end of it. You're going to be done with
it. And the only ones that are going
to live forever with Him are those who believe Him, and glorify
Him, and honor Him, and believe His Son, and trust His Son. See, honor will come to those
who honor and live honorably. Rebellion, a fool. Go back and
read the Proverbs for yourself. How many times it talks about
a rebellious son or a daughter that's just a grief to his father
and a grief to its mother and it's going to destroy himself.
A rebel. It's only trouble. You can only
look for trouble if you're a rebel. A note from experience. But God. Right, Kelly? But God. that he has a remnant, and he
does that for the vast majority of rebels out here. He had mercy on me. Fathers, verse 4, look at it. I meant to talk a little bit
about hard work. I'm running out of time. Let
me just say this, there's a proverb that says, train a child up in
the way it should go and when it's old it will not depart from
it. Meaning, the way it should go. You can't save your children,
only the Lord does it, but you can't train them up. the way they should act and live,
and it will go well with them, right? And that will not depart
from them. Even though I, you know, went out in the world as
a political son, I was still trained to respect people. I
was still trained to respect authority. I was trained to work
hard. I learned to work hard, and I
did. I put in hard work for everybody, and I called them, yes, sir,
and yes, I learned that. I learned that. I learned if
you treat your boss with respect, you'll go up. You'll go up the
ladder. It'll go well with you. And I
got job after job after job, raise after raise after raise,
whereas otherwise you'll get fired, right? So hard work is
rewarded. I commended Chance back there
and Emma. Emma worked at McDonald's and
Chance now works at Walmart. The world doesn't think too highly
of jobs like that. What do you do? I flip hamburgers,
really. Don't they? The world laughs at that,
scoffs at that. What does God say about that?
They're both service-oriented. They're servants. What does the
Scripture say about servants? Greatest in the kingdom of heaven
is a servant. And I commended them for working
that. He said he enjoyed it. Emma was employee of the month,
wasn't she? Right up there on the sign, wasn't it? That's a
reflection on you. That man works hard. I've seen
him work. Where'd she get that from? Her
grandmother, her father, her mother. That's right, her mother. It'll go well with you. It will
go well with you. Fathers, verse 4, provoke not
your children to riot. Now, brothers and sisters, you've
heard my story over and over again. I'm ashamed, but that's
past. Do you understand? My past life
is gone. The Lord is not holding me accountable
for that anymore. And the salvation of your children,
aren't you glad, is not in your hands. Because no matter how
you raise them, or how you don't raise them, salvation is of the
Lord. Now that's comforting. That's
comforting. But fathers, verse 4, provoke
not your children to wrath. Bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Don't be overbearing and hard. You know, too often a new It's
hard being a parent, especially the first child. You don't know
what you're doing. And too often a father wants
to be a father in authority, you know, and try to rule with
an iron hand, you know. I'm your father. You know, young
preachers tried to do it, pastors. I heard a young man one time
get up. I heard him on tape. He said
that he hadn't been preaching long, pastor. He said, when I
get up here, I'm not your pastor. I'm not your friend. I'm your
pastor. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
pastor. He's our Lord. He's our friend. Friend of sinners. That's how
he came the first way. Friend of sinners. That young
man is out of the ministry. The Lord removed him. But too
often fathers are overbearing and hard and don't rule with
an iron hand and a furrowed brow. Rule with a soft hand and a smile
on your face. It will accomplish a lot more.
You know, I wish I knew as a father what I know now as a grandfather.
Don't you? Don't you, Ron? I wish I knew
now, as a grandfather, as a father then, as I know as a grandfather.
There's some things that you let slide. Because it's going
to pass so fast and you're going to miss it. And you're going
to have a lot of regrets. My father has regrets concerning When my oldest brother died,
he withdrew. And he didn't give me and my
brother the time. And he regretted it for years.
I'm not blaming him. I'm not blaming him. He immersed
himself in the ministry in the neglect of two sons. And
I'm not saying that to dishonor him. He literally gave up his
family for the gospel. But if you have children, they
need fathers and mothers. You have a responsibility to
them. Don't rule with an iron hand. Let them do things, fathers.
So if you're a perfectionist, It's so hard to watch your child
do something and just mess it up. You know what I'm saying? Let them do it. And thank them. Reward them, whatever. And then
when they're gone, fix it. That's the way it is. Sophie and Isabella, man, they
wanted to help me so much. And I tried with Hannah, I really
did. I did, didn't I? I let her do things. I had her,
fathers, make your daughters change a tire on the car. I'm
telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. Well,
this was before, Kelly, this was before we had cell phones.
And they're going to need to know how to change a tire. You
can't just call daddy. But anyway, I had Hannah changing
a tire on the car. Her boyfriends didn't know how. We let them do things. Teach
them to do things. We're raising up a generation.
Not you, but me. We're raising up a generation
that can't do anything except work on a computer. What good is that? How does our Heavenly Father
treat us? Does He rule us with an iron
hand a frown on his face? He ought to, shouldn't he? No,
he didn't. He's kind. Look at verse 4. Bring them up in the nurture.
Nurture. What do you think of nurturing?
Take tender care. Not nurture. The nurture. The tender care. Like a little
plant. You take care of it like a little
baby. Admonition, though. Admonition
is needed in it. Admonition of the Lord. Loving,
correct. Admonition and chastening of
the Lord is not punishment. It's correction. There's a difference. Chastens, that means He lovingly
corrects us. We don't get punished for our
sins. He hadn't dealt with us after
our sin, has He, John? No. He did deal with someone
after our sin. He dealt with Christ. No mercy. Christ received no mercy. A rod
of wrath on His back that we should have had, that Christ
took. And He deals with us in mercy. So look at verse 4. It says, Bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, fathers, not for authority's sake, but
love's sake. Do it in love to them. Now verse
5. Servants, employees. And I've
got everybody up here so I'm going to take a little more time.
This is employing. Be obedient to them that are
your masters according to flesh. With fear and trembling and singleness
of your heart as unto Christ. And in another place it says,
not only to the good, but the evil. Man, I have worked for
some tyrants. I mean to tell you, I've worked
for some mean bosses. Does that make any difference? You got a job to do. You do what
they tell you to do. They say jump, you jump. Right? They gave you the job. They gave
you the job. Employees be obedient. Do what
you're told. Do what you're paid to do with
fear and trembling. That's not fear of man. Not to
fear man. Not to tremble before any son
of Adam. Oh no. No, I love the thought of our
Lord Jesus Christ before Pilate. Who was trembling? Who was afraid? It wasn't our Lord. It was Pilate. Even his wife called him and
said, honey, I don't want anything to do with this man. I couldn't
sleep all night. No, no, we're not to fear and
tremble before man, but we do what we do in fear and trembling
before the Lord. Fear not doing what the Lord
told us to do. Tremble at the thoughts. Tremble
at the thought of bringing him dishonor. Listen to this. I've told this before, but you
know all a preacher is is a fellow that repeats what God says over
and over and over and over again. It was a man that called a friend
of mine, a pastor of a church, he called him, and he said, I
want to know what you preach down there. Because there's a
man that works for me, he's a member of your church. He said, whatever
it is you preach down there that produces a man like this, I want
to know what it is. Wow. I'd like that to be said of me,
wouldn't you? Where do you go to church? I want to know. It
produces people like that. Employees be obedient. Singleness
of heart. That is, heart, love and thanks
to our Lord. Who really gave you that job?
Did you get that job because you were more qualified than
somebody else? Did you get that job because
of who you knew and your contacts and you had an insight? You got
that job because who knew you? Because who gave you favor in
the sight of the Egyptians? Children of Israel all had favor
in the sight of the Egyptians. Why? Because they were favorable
people? Because God favored them. They
were His favorites. And He gave them favor. They
went out of there. People were giving them money.
Knowing they weren't coming back. Here, take this. Take it. Who did that? So who gave you
the job? Who are you really working for?
No. Alright, verse 6. Don't do it
with eye service, as men pleasers. In the service of Christ, doing
the will of God from the heart. Not, you know, to be well thought
of of men. out of a heart of love and gratitude
to the Lord. Not for praise and honor and
glory. Oh, no. As unto the Lord. Not for promotion,
but as unto the Lord. With good will, verse 5. Good
will, doing service as to the Lord, not to men. I remember
working, you know, I worked non-union jobs and I worked union jobs.
And it was good and bad points in both. Right to work law, you
know. I remember working non-union
jobs under tyrants. They were just tyrants. They just exacted too much out
of it, like slave labor. That's not good. And then I started
working for union construction in the railroad union. Ooh, powerful. And you've got men that the union
protects them. They won't hit a lick with it. It's bad in it. And I remember
men doing things that were detrimental to the well-being of the company,
didn't care the union would take care of them. And I'd say to
them, fellas, this is our company. It'd go well with us if this
company goes well, it'd go well with us. We have a right to do
well by this company because we'll lose our jobs if the company
doesn't prosper. Be a company man. Stephen, they
couldn't understand that. And no unbeliever can. We do. We do. Not the praise of men. I was taught well. I'm thankful
I was taught well from the pulpit. I heard these things from the
pulpit. You're not going to hear this in school. And I was taught
well at home. Knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free. Is that what that said? Is that
what that said? What does it mean? It means exactly
what it said. Why would we turn that around? That's what he's talking about. He's talking to children. He's
talking to employees and employers and fathers and so on. You masters
now employ employers. business owners, verse 9, do
the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing your master
is in heaven. You still have a boss, don't
you, Lord? Neither is there respect of persons
with him. What does that mean? Exactly
what it says. God is no respecter of persons. Do well by them. Whatever is
good, whatever is right, as unto the Lord. Employers. Let me close with this illustration. There was back years ago, sailing
ships. And boy, that was a hard, hard
life. I used to read those books all
the time. Loved them. In wartime, they would go out and press men
into service. Means they would take people
by force and make them literal slaves in a ship. They had to
work. The government, it was okay, the government said,
do this. You're property of us now. Didn't ask you to. And they
would, well, it was hard life on that ship. The fact of the
matter is, If that ship goes well, everybody on it goes well,
no matter how they got there, your life is in that ship. I
said, no, that's a good spiritual application. But anyway, it behooves
the sailors to serve the ship, the well-being of the ship. It
behooves the masters and the captains and lieutenants and
all that to run a taut ship, a tight ship, and to treat their
sailors well and feed them right. Doesn't it? The ship will go
well. Well, on one of these old sailing ships, there was a crew
like Captain Bly, you know, a crew old taskmaster. Now, mutiny will
happen if you don't. A cruel taskmaster. And one time
he was beating one of those savers unmercifully. Tied him over the
yardarm, they call it, and taken a cat-of-nine-tails. And most
of those savers did not live through that. And after they
got through beating, they'd take salt water and throw it all over
them. Anyway, there was a preacher
on board that ship. And he was watching this man
beat this other fellow unmercifully. And he went up to him and said,
Captain, Captain, please, please, would you show some mercy? And
the captain said, I never show mercy. And the preacher said,
you better hope you're not a sinner or you'll not find mercy from
God. Show mercy. So that's the rule,
isn't it? Love and obedience. It will go
well with you. Merciful, kindness, graciousness,
treating as unto the Lord, as unto the Lord. His honor, His
glory.