Hear ye children the instruction
of a father, and attend to no understanding, for I give you
good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's
son, tender, and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He
taught me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my
words, keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding,
forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake
her not, and she shall preserve thee. Love her, and she shall
keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote
thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head
an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to
thee. You notice that David, or Solomon,
starts out here. He says, Hear ye children the
instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. Why
does he start out like this? Because he's saying down in verse
3 about his father. He taught me also. He said unto
me. Now Solomon's father was David. And he's talking about how his
father taught him. And all the things that he taught
him. And you know David was a man after God's own heart. So you
know this man David instructed his children, his sons. And especially
Solomon. Solomon said you know I'm I'm
the most beloved son of my mother. My mother had children. My mother had children. David and Bathsheba lost a child.
Do you remember when God dealt with him over his adultery and
killing Uriah? Then they had another son, and
that son was Solomon. And how they delighted in Solomon. Other men of David's sons wanted
to be king, but David said, this is the one. Solomon is the one.
And I want to show you something about Solomon. In 1 Kings chapter
4, I want you to see this. This is what God says about Solomon. And He says, you know, My children,
hear My words. Hear the instruction of a father.
He said, Oh, you know, it's a father's responsibility to take care of
the home, to take care of teaching the children, and teaching them
not just anything, teaching them the ways of God. You know, Paul
said it this way, Fathers, predict not your children to anger, but
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. and
to bring somebody up in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. And I
feel so inadequate here. None of my children are converted.
Neither one of them seem to have any interest. And I never get
another shot at it. I never get another shot at my
children unless God intervenes. And if you talk to them, they
keep saying, I'm going to come, I'm going to come, I'm going
to come. But they never come. But look what God said about
Solomon here in 1 Kings 29. 429, 1 Kings 429. Look what God said
about Solomon here, 1 Kings 429. And God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, now listen
to this, how God describes it, even as the sand that is on the
seashore. Now that's a lot of wisdom and
understanding and largeness of heart. God made his large, his
heart so full, made it so generous, made it so kind, and made it
so understanding that he said it's like the sand on the seashore.
Now you imagine, that's what God said about it. So here's
a man that he could have went much further in the Proverbs
and said many things that you and I could have never possibly
understood. In fact, the Queen of Sheba came
and after she sat and heard of his excellence and proved him
with our question, she said, the half ain't been told. The
half ain't been told. And so here is Solomon and he's
talking about what his father done. He says, now here are you
children, the instruction of a father. So what he said is,
you listen to your father. Your father, and the thing is,
and I want you to stress this, fathers need to instruct their
children. They need to instruct them in
the ways of Christ, in the ways of the Word. The thing that has
to be done is that God save you, and God help you, and God bring
you to the place that you'll train your children and teach
your children what God said. Not what the world is saying.
Not what the school's saying. Not what your peers are saying.
Not what they're teaching you in school. And oh, listen, he
said this, and he says, and attend to no understanding. And when
your father teaches, you attend so you have some understanding
here. And then he goes, and I give you good doctrine. Oh, listen,
good doctrine. There's a lot of places you go,
you can't get good doctrine. The word doctrine, and when it
comes to the Word of God, the things of God, it's always singular. The doctrine of Christ, the doctrine
of God, the doctrine of the Scriptures. So everything is singular, but
when you come to dealing about man and devils, you always find
the plural doctrines, the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of men.
So Solomon said, you know, I bring you good doctrine, good doctrine. You know, not this whole selfish,
self-righteous doctrine. This thing that all the thing
that's your interest is what you get from God and not have
any relationship with Him. Everybody wants something from
God, but oh listen, to have a right relationship with Him, that's
what a man's got to have. Man don't want to go to hell,
but he don't want to bow to God. Man don't want to perish, but
he don't want to come to God. Man don't, you know, he'll talk
about, I know I'm not a very good fella, but I'm telling you,
you've got to do something besides talk about, you've got to understand
this good doctrine. And all men, you know, talking
about man and how great he is, that's easy on the mind, easy
on the heart. But Solomon said, you listen
to the doctrine of free grace, to the doctrine of free sovereign
grace, the doctrine of what God teaches in his book, that salvation
is free. Salvation is of grace. I love
the word free grace instead of sovereign grace. I love free
grace because when you say that, you can say grace and about everybody
agree with you. But when you say free grace,
what do you mean by free grace? That means that salvation is
altogether free. Altogether free. And that's what
he says. Now, I give you good doctrine.
And I tell you, the Word gives us good doctrine. That's why
Paul, you know, John says this, if any man bring any other doctrine
unto you other than Christ, The doctrine of Christ. Don't bid
him Godspeed. Don't say God bless you. Because
if you even say God bless you and go on about your way, you're
a partaker of him and his evil deeds. That's why I won't let
these fellas get out of the car when they come around me. I don't
want to hear anything they got to say. That's why I quit going
to funerals or somebody that preaches the gospel. Don't go.
I don't go. If it's somebody, I don't care. If it's somebody
that's not preaching the gospel over me, I'm not going to go.
I'm just not going to go. I'm not going to go hear somebody
extol a man, and extol a person, and brag on them, and tell them
how good they was, and how honest they were, and how well they
deserve to go to heaven, and that they're at peace now. I'm not going to go listen to
people lie on God anymore, if I can help it at all. The fellow
asked me the other day what I thought about contemporary singing. I
said, I tell you what, the only way you can tell anything's right
about anything that's dealt with is that this is good doctrine,
I'm telling you. He asked me what I thought about
contemporary singing. And I said, well, if the words
give Christ all the glory, And don't give man any glory and
put him in the dust, then it's a good song. If it gives man
any glory at all and don't give Christ all the glory, it ain't
fit to listen to. He said, well, I can understand
that. I can understand that. And that's right. Do you remember
the first time Henry came down here? The first time, back in
1980. One thing he said after about
the third night, he says, we're going to sing the old rugged
cross. And Henry started talking about, you know, we're going
to lay our trophies down. He said, what trophies have we
got to lay down? We ain't got no trophies. What
trophies have we got? We're trophies of his grace.
What are we going to give him? And he said it like this. He
got right down in front of the congregation and just as kind
and gentle and as gracious as he could be, he says, you've
got to have your methods and your music to go with your message. And if you're going to preach
the free sovereign grace of God, salvation of the Lord, then make
your songs to go with your message and have your methods to go with
your message. Don't be calling people to come
to the front. If you're preaching free grace and you're preaching
Christ's salvation in Him, you tell people to go to Christ.
And that's good doctrine, ain't it? That's good doctrine. That's what He said. It's good
doctrine. Now look what was said here.
And don't you forsake My law. Don't forsake My Word. Don't
forsake My Word. Don't do it. And then He says,
For I was My Father's Son. I was David's son. David's well-beloved
son. A son whom David delighted in.
A son whom David wanted to be on the throne. I was my father's son. And all beloved, great responsibilities
given to fathers to teach. And I tell you, the Word of God
ought to fill our households. And then he said, I was my father's
son. And you know what he did? He says, you know, when did his
father start teaching him? While he was tender, when he
was a little bitty fella. That's when, you know, again,
this goes back to, we don't only get one shot at this. Only one
shot with our children. You start with them when they're
little. You don't let them, if you let them get to their three
to four or five years old and start running the house, next
thing you know, they're going to be running you, They're going
to be running over you, and they're going to be running over everybody.
And so it's not being hard that you have to do that to teach
your children. You know, when you plant a tree, you stake that
tree so that tree, the wind won't blow it and make this way and
that way. And you stake that tree. And that tree, if it's
trained right and trimmed right, it'll grow up to be a fine tree.
And that's the way children are. If they're not planted right,
in the Scriptures and taught right, in the Scriptures and
taught the things of God and taught these kind of things and
taught right from wrong, taught to obey, taught to listen, taught
to, you know, make sure that when you're talking to them,
even with a little bit, did you understand what I said? Did you
get what I just said? And if they didn't, they ask
you, say, no, I didn't understand. Well, then go over it again and
try to get them to understand. And that's what he said here.
He said, when I was tender, when I was tender, and the only beloved
in the sight of my mother. Oh, how my mother loved me. And
blessed are children that have mothers and fathers who love
their children and want to teach them. You know what happens to
fathers who accept their responsibility? Look what he said. He taught
me also, in verse 4 and 5, He taught me also and said unto
me, let thine heart retain my words. He taught me this, whatever
I say, lay it to heart. When I teach you, lay it to heart. Put it in your heart. You know,
a father's not going to tell his child wrong if he can help
it. He's not going to make him go the wrong way. He said, so
my son, keep it in your heart. retain it in your heart, put
it in your heart. And then look what he says, and
keep my commandments. Keep what I tell you, the things
that I've taught you right from wrong. How to be respectful,
how to work, how to be kind, how to be gentle, how to be gracious,
how to treat other people. And oh, listen, I'm telling you,
it's the husband, the father, and the mother's responsibility.
It's not given to the schools. It's not given to the churches.
These things are inadequate. You know, children need to be
started to be taught in the home, in the home. And you know what
will happen to people that don't, men that fail? I'm going to show
you what happens to men that fail. Look back over here at
1 Samuel. They fail to do what God teaches them to do. Look
over here at 1 Samuel 2. 1 Samuel 2. You know Eli was the priest. He was the high priest. And his
sons were priests. And his sons were wicked men,
evil men. 1 Samuel 2, 22. 1 Samuel 2.22. Now look what it says here. 1
Samuel 2.22. Now Eli was very old and heard
all that his sons did unto all Israel. Now back over in verse
12 it says the sons of Eli were sons of Belial, sons of low life,
low character. And oh, and I tell you what,
now Eli, back in verse 22, now Eli was very old, and he heard
all that his sons did unto Israel, and how they lay with the women
that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now that's a preacher running a woman,
a priest running women. And he said unto them, Why do
you such things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by all these people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good
report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to
transgress, and you ought to be teaching them not to transgress.
And he said in verse 25, If one man sin against another, the
judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the
Lord, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord will slay them. Now look over in chapter 3 in
verse 10. Look in chapter 3 in verse 10.
Now this is Samuel. Samuel's lying down. He's sleeping.
God's speaking to him. He's lying down. He doesn't get
up two or three times. And the LORD came and stood, and called
us at other times, Samuel, Samuel, did Samuel answer, Speak, for
thy servant heareth. And the LORD said to Samuel,
Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears
of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will
perform against Eli all things, all things, which I have spoken
concerning his house. When I began, I was also making
end. For I told him that I will judge
his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his
sons made themselves vile, and he didn't restrain them." If your children go wrong, don't
let it go wrong because you didn't teach them. Because you didn't
teach them. If they go haywire, Don't let
it be, because you had anything to do with it. Because it can
happen. Back over here now, Proverbs 4. And that's why Timothy, he
had a godly grandmother and a godly mother. His mother's name was
Lois and his grandmother was named Eunice. And the Scripture
says that they taught him the Scriptures from a child. And
taught him about how the salvation is through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They taught him from the time
he was a child. And also Solomon was taught by his father, and
he taught him when he was yet tender, while he was young enough
to be impressionable. And I tell you, you know, here's
what happens so often times. He taught me also, there in verse
4, he taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain
it. You know, you know what most
people do, and you know this as well as I do, most people
teaching happens after the child gets in trouble. then they want
to teach them. Don't do that again. After they
get in trouble, they want to start trying to teach them. Trying
to teach them. And you know, this is the way
things used to be. It's not this way now. Parents
get, somebody gets on their children, they're going to go get on the
teachers and the bus driver. But when my kids went to school,
if they got in trouble in school or got in trouble on the bus,
The school would tell you, and the bus driver, when you got
off the bus, he'd say, Donnie, you know what Lenny did or Doogie
did? And I mean the bus driver tell
you. Nowadays, if that happens to children now, the mom and
dad get mad. Who in the world do you think
you are, you know, to go stand up and defend a hellish child? And may go to jail for it if
you ain't care. That's how far gone we went in
just about 15, 18, 20 years. But I tell you, don't wait until
they get in trouble to start teaching. And before the old
child gets old enough to question everything the parent does. Back
when I was growing up, if they said, you know, why you want
that done? Because I said so. That's enough. You never said another word.
It ain't wise because I said so. Parents don't have to explain
their actions to their children. You don't want anything wrong
to happen to your child. And if you sit down and start
explaining everything you tell your child to do, next thing
you know, you're going to have a child questioning everything
you do. Why did you make me do what you
know? But oh, listen, we got to, don't wait until they get
in trouble. And oh, listen, you've got to teach them long before
they get in school with other children. You've got to teach
them before they have peer pressure and poor behavior will encourage
them to disobey order. And I tell you, teachers now,
they don't care to tell children, you know, that they don't have
to obey their parents anymore. And that's why it's so important
that, he said, as my father taught me. This is what my father taught
me. And he says, lay to heart what
I'm going to teach you. lay to heart what I'm going to
teach you." And oh, look, this is what he said. Here's what
he's taught him. I mean, this father knew what
his children needed. David knew what he needed. He
said, get wisdom, get understanding. In all you're getting, get wisdom
and get understanding. And then he warned him at the
same time, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my
mouth. And you go back to when Solomon
was a young, young child, when he took over the kingdom, you
remember what he asked for? He said, Lord, as a child, I
can't go out and I can't come in. And you set me over Israel
and all your people. And I can't judge them. I can't
teach them. I can't lead them. I can't guide
them. So all I'd ask you is give me the wisdom. Give me the understanding
that I can teach you, that I can guide your people, Israel." That's
all he asked for. Why did he ask for that? Because
his daddy said, get wisdom. And in your getting wisdom, you
get some understanding. Get some understanding. And oh,
and listen, don't forsake her. Don't forget her. Don't forget
wisdom. Don't forget it. Neither decline
from the words of my mouth that I told you to let in your heart.
Don't go away. Don't, when you leave me, don't
go away and decline. Go down from the words that I've
taught you. And oh, and he goes on here to
say this. And oh, do not forsake her. Do
not forsake wisdom. Ain't that what he says? Don't,
in verse 6, forsake her not. Don't forsake wisdom. Don't turn
away. And oh, he was so interested
in his son's learning. And don't turn away. And I'm
telling you, with all that goes on in our world, in our society
right now, with all the lying, people don't think no more about
lying than they When the truth would help them, they'll stand
and lie until you flat put it. All the violence, and all the
sex, and all the drugs, and all the lies that goes on in this
world, and it goes on in schools, and what's happening in light
of our churches, all the apathy, and all the worldliness, and
the apostasy that's in the religious world today. Fathers need to
absolutely pay attention to where their kids are and what to do.
In this age, we need to be... I think we need to be anxious
about it. I think we need to be anxious. Oh, God, if He'd
give me another shot. But He ain't going to. He ain't
going to. And all my fathers need to take
time to teach their children. And then look what He says about
wisdom. I mean, you know, a father ought to even be willing to give
up his success and to give up his business time and give up
a lot of things, willing to sacrifice to teach his children. He ought
to be willing to do that. He ought to be willing to do
that. But look what he says. He is taught to value wisdom
and understanding. Get wisdom. Get understanding.
Forget it not. Don't decline. Don't go down
from the words of my mouth. And look what he says. Don't
forsake her. Why not? Because she shall preserve
you. Wisdom will preserve you when
you're in situations. When you're in places in this
world and you're dealing with things in this world, wisdom
will preserve you in those situations. Wisdom will preserve you while
you're in this. Love her. Love wisdom. And she'll keep
you. She will keep you. Wisdom will
keep you grounded, settled, solid, you won't be tossed here and
about. And of course, wisdom is Christ. And look what he says,
and of all he's getting, he said in verse 7, wisdom is the principal
thing. Wisdom is the principal thing. Of all you're getting, wisdom
is the principal thing. Get wisdom. Get wisdom. And He always said, get understanding
with it, get wisdom. And with all thy getting and
getting wisdom, get understanding. Get understanding how to... What
wisdom does is it takes what knowledge you have and make you
know how to use it. You know, a man can have a head
full of knowledge and not have any sense whatsoever. Wisdom
takes the knowledge that you have and makes you know how to
use it. Makes you know how to use it. And that's why they said
about our Lord, where did He get all this learning? Where
did He get this wisdom from? Because they understood it. And
then look what He said there about wisdom. Oh, the value. Oh, wisdom's the principal thing.
Exalt her, and she shall promote you. You exalt wisdom, you exalt
Christ, you exalt the things of God, and you exalt her, and
she'll promote you. She'll bring you up. She'll make,
you know, she'll promote you. You don't have to promote yourself.
Wisdom will promote you. Huh? And I'll tell you something
else wisdom will do. She'll bring you to honor when
you embrace her. She'll make you an honorable
person. She'll make people see that you're an honorable person
and then exalt you and lift you up. And people see that you've
got some sense, that you're not a fool. Oh, exalt her. Love her and she'll keep you.
That's what he said. Love her and she shall keep you.
Oh, and look what He says. This sheet goes on to say, Lord,
she'll promote you. She'll bring you to honor when
you embrace her. You take wisdom and you embrace
her. And see, look what He said she'll
do for you. She'll give to thine hand an ornament of grace. She'll
place on your head an ornament of grace. She'll make your... You all know people that's like
this. I mean, they just They've just got honor. They've got grace. They've got, you know, they've
got some wisdom and they've got some ways of dealing with things
and they, and the Lord has exalted them. And they got this crown
of grace about their head. And he said, he said, an ornament
of grace. You'll have this ornament. And
oh, what an ornament to have grace. You know, women put them things
on their heads, you know, when they come into the... What about
grace on top of your head? Being ornamented with grace.
Grace ornaments your brow, and your brain, and your eyes, and
your understanding. And look what else she says.
And then what else she's going to do? Oh, she's going to give
you a crown of glory. And she'll deliver you. She's
going to put a crown of glory on your head. That's what our
Lord is going to do to us. Of all that David wanted for
Solomon. And now look at how he was exalted. And look how he was honored.
And look how he was crowned with glory. Because he made his sole
purpose in life to get wisdom. And it's sad to say, if any man
spends any time with their children, it's generally over two things. They spend time with them over
sports. And that's a sad, sad day whenever people forsake the
gospel over taking their children to sports all the time. That's a sad day. You're not
teaching your children the right thing. If you'd rather be with
them at a ball game and put all your energies on their sports,
then you're not teaching them anything at all about God, about
Christ and the need of Christ and the gospel. You're taking
them in the wrong direction. And listen, another thing they
teach them is mechanics, how to work on things, which ain't
nothing. And I tell you, most fathers,
what they want for their children is to go to college and get you
a degree so you can get you a real, real high-paying job. That's
what you need. You need you a high-paying job. You need to make lots of money. I tell you what, a lot of those
stuff is really harmful. A man starts making a lot of
money. One thing he don't need, he don't
need God. The more worldly success you
get, the more temptations you got. And how many children have been
destroyed, being encouraged by their parents to get into a certain
field. I remember when Doogie was just
a boy, and he was going off to college. He'd done been in college
a year or so, I think. And he was home one time, we
was getting wood up for the winter. And I told him, me and his mother
both told him, said, son, we would rather you be out here
working for somebody digging ditches And no Christ has to make all
the money in the world and never know Christ. And of course it never come out
that way. Maybe you will one of these days. But what would
you rather have your child to be? To know Christ or make half
a million dollars a year? and work for $30,000 a year or
$40,000 a year or $50,000 a year and know Christ. Because when you get up in that
kind of money, you start running around with people and the last
thing in the world they got on their mind is coming. People
like that ain't going to come and be in a congregation like
this. If they're going to go to a congregation, they're going
to go where the building's big and full, where they can be recognized, But it's, oh listen, oh God give
me another shot at him. I don't have another shot. I've
got three great-grandchildren and I can hopefully teach a little
something every once in a while. Our Father, oh our Father, how
inadequate I am to be teaching how to teach children. But it's
not me, it's what your Word says. Lord, it's what your Word says,
and I know it's true, I know it's so. So Lord, if most of our children
are grown, and those that are, I'd ask that you teach them,
instruct them, give them mothers and fathers that love them and
care for them and teach them in the ways and things wisdom and understanding. Teach them what love is and what
work is. That if they have anything, they
have to do something to get it. Oh Lord, there's so much to be
learned, so much to be taught. And Lord, we don't want to fail
you. Don't want to fail you. We thank you and ask you to bless
these dear saints of God. in these families, in these homes,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. And Obi, Obi's a
wonderful illustration of that. He brings his children to the
services and he takes them all back there and teaches them every
Sunday morning. He gets down on their level to take, you know,
it takes somebody special to get down to 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8 year old kids and to teach them. It takes something special
to do that. Everybody wants to teach adults,
but boy, they get down on the children and try to teach them
the things of the word.