Proverbs 22, Proverbs 22. Tonight we have a contrast, two distinct differences, both about speaking the truth. You can speak truth without speaking the truth. You can speak truth without speaking the truth. People do it all the time. You can start in Genesis, and go all the way to Revelation and tell a story verbatim that's being told in the, even start with the garden. We can talk about how Adam took the fruit from Eve and they ate. I'm telling you truth. But the truth is a person. And to tell the truth To preach the truth, one must be declaring Him and Him alone. Otherwise, all we're doing is we're speaking truths that will do us no good.

A lot of people view the Bible as a storybook. And they say, you need to be, wish I had faith more like Moses. I wish I had faith more like Joshua, so many others. Those men had what they had because it was given by God by His grace alone. It wasn't something where they went to the spiritual gym and worked out their faith and it got strong and mighty, as some men sillily believe. I don't, I guess that's what they believe.

Exercise your faith, I've heard that many times. No faith is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. And tonight, as we're talking about speaking truth, it's very important that we understand that if we are not speaking the truth, we are not speaking the gospel. We're not speaking the truth, we're not speaking the gospel.

Preaching God's glorious gospel is preaching how he saved his people from their sin. It's how God could take a wretched, vile creature of dust and make them the very righteousness in Christ Jesus. The gospel is not, as men say, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's how, how that Christ died. according to the scriptures, how that Christ was buried according to the scriptures, and how he was raised again according to the scriptures. When men say the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, what they mean by that is, is he made a way for you to accept or reject what he did, but he is the way, the truth, and the life.

So to preach the truth, we have to preach him as the way, the only way, not a way, the way, his way. He said, no man come to the father, but by me, that is the truth. If we are to preach his gospel, we have to preach the fullness of his gospel. We can't preach partial gospel. You know, you tell a half truth, you're telling a lie. It's true, ain't it? A lot of people don't understand that. If I tell you half the truth on purpose, then I'm telling you a lie, because I didn't tell you the whole truth.

To preach the gospel is to preach salvation is of the Lord. Christ is all in salvation, and salvation's all of grace, freely given to the Lord's people, accomplished by God for his glory, freely bestowed upon his chosen people. Now I have a very interesting topic for us tonight. That's our intro. We're talking about speaking. But it relates specifically to verse six. So when we get there, pay close attention. We'll go back to that. I'll tell it to you what it is.

Train up a child in the way you should go. And when he is old, he'll not depart from it. I've heard that a million times in my life. Because that was the legalistic's way of saying, you need to be doing this, and you need to be doing that. And then later on, the child would become an adult, and the child would leave the parents, and leave the church, and go sow their wild oats. And the people would say, but you raised them, you raised them right. You trained them up in the right way. They won't be able to depart from that. They'll come back, they'll come back. And that was their hope, that was their righteousness.

I'm excited to tell you what this means tonight, because it doesn't mean what we think it means. It doesn't mean what men think it means. So let's read this together. I'm sorry, Proverbs 22, one through 14. A good name is rather to be chosen in great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

The rich and poor meet together. The Lord is the maker of them all. The rich are the ones that preach and hear the truth. The poor are the ones that cannot hear the truth. Prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.

Thorns and snares are in the way of the forward. He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child on the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Train up a child on the way she go. And when he is old, he shall not depart from it.

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.

The slothful man saith, there is a lion without. I shall be slain in the streets. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit. He that abhorreth of the Lord shall fall. therein. I want to look again at four verses that talk about speaking. Verse six, train up a child in the way it should go. And when he is old, he shall not depart from it.

That word, he that actually is just one word where it says he should go. It's the word p e h. That's how we would pronounce it pay. That's the word. And it means the mouth or speaks, it means how he talks. Train up a child on the way he should speak. Speak. Now he's not talking about profanity. He's not talking about, he's already mentioned perverse lips before. Though right here he's talking about what does he say about God? What does he say about himself? That responsibility falls upon the parent to teach the children. And I fear that we live in a time where that responsibility is taken way too lightly, because it's our job. It's our job. Look at verse 11 and 12.

He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve his knowledge and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. In verse 14, the mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit. He that abhors the Lord shall fall therein. Can we see the difference there, the contrast where he's talking about the pureness of heart for the grace of his lips, the King shall be his friend. And the Lord overthroweth the words of the transgressor. and the mouth of a strange woman's deep pit.

Now, the subject tonight is speaking. I've titled this message, How to Train Up a Child. And I hope by the time we leave here, that this doesn't just come across as a lecture on how to raise children, because that's certainly not my intention. I hope it comes across the way that the Lord feel intended for it to, which is a gospel message. That's my hope. The difference in the contrast here is that the Lord teaches his people his words of grace.

We no longer speak what we used to speak. We no longer just speak facts, do we? We no longer debate the facts of the scripture because we've seen the truth, the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been made to know the truth. We no longer dig throughout scripture and try to find something somebody else doesn't know that's a truth.

That way we have a new feather in our hat, so to speak. And I was just as guilty as anybody else that's done that in here. No, now we're looking to the truth, the truth. We speak exactly what he says. You remember back in false religion, We would make the scripture say what we wanted them to say. Looking back, you can see that now, but you couldn't see that back then. Can anybody relate to that? You made them say what you wanted them to say. You ignored this part or you ignored that part. You made them say what you wanted them to say.

Why? We were our own God at the time. That's why. And that's scary because we didn't speak as the Lord spoke then. We didn't speak the truth. We just spoke truths. And men applauded us because of our intelligence, or men applauded us because of our doings, or our lifestyle, or whatever it may be, the outward appearance. And yet we miss the truth back then.

Scripture says if you gain the whole world, a man gains the whole world and loses his own soul, what shall he give in exchange for his soul? I'm thankful our Lord's merciful, thankful our Lord's gracious unto his people. Now we speak the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ, the successful savior of his elected people.

But what does that have to do with train up a child? Train up everything, actually. Everything. And the way he should go, the word pay means mouth or speech. It's how he talks. Train up a child on how he should speak about himself before God's eyes. about God himself, who he is, what he accomplished, and about his glorious salvation. Train him in that. Tell the truth.

And I believe the Lord's people do. And I think that's why we can rejoice in this. It's not that it's something that we don't do. But our responsibility, and we have responsibilities, we can't just have children and not do anything with them and hope for the best, we gotta take care of them. Now, us training them, does that guarantee their salvation? Absolutely not, that's not why we're doing it. We're doing it because the Lord told us to. We're doing it because he commanded us to.

And don't think of children as it just being your children. Any child that you're dealing with, but more than that, Christ said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such as the kingdom of heaven. Does that not mean to you and to me that everyone that comes to Christ is a child? So how do we train up a child the way it should go?

Well, we preach the gospel to them. We tell them the truth of Christ. We tell them the truth of Christ and the Lord gives them the words upon their lips. Now that doesn't mean it's in their heart because you remember the Lord told the He told Israel, he said, your lips serve me, but your heart is far from me. Your lips honor me, but your heart is far from me. And that's the way that it is until the Lord comes and gives a new heart. And that's what we need is that new heart.

Every chance we get to teach them, we should take the opportunity. Somebody said, why, you can't change their heart? No, but maybe the Lord will be merciful in giving them eyes to see into the preaching of the gospel. Wouldn't that be glorious? Give them understanding. Every time the doors of the church are open, bring them. They said go into the highway and the hedges and compel them to come in. Whoever, bring them in. Maybe the Lord will be merciful and call a sheep. Now the Lord is our teacher, first and foremost, and that's very important because this is the teaching that we do By what? Pointing people to Christ, not to self. Well, let me tell you what I figured out. Let me tell you what I know. Let me tell you what I've learned. I wrote a book on it, if you want to read it. No, it's not like that at all.

As a matter of fact, it's the gospel is how we train our children, and it's how we are to be trained as his people. Never changes. Somebody said, well, that's the meat of the gospel. No, that's the milk of the gospel. That's the milk. How Christ saved his people from their sin, that's the simplicity. That Christ is all in salvation, that salvation's of the Lord, and it's all of grace, that's the milk. God elected a people, Christ redeemed a people, those people. The Spirit regenerates and keeps them, that's the milk.

That's not the meat. So how do we teach? How do we speak? Well, the first thing is we speak that God is holy. We have to start there. Start with the most glorious truth there is, the truth, the Lord. He's holy. He's holy. He deserves to be respected. He deserves all glory and honor. He deserves all glory and honor. He's higher than the heavens.

He is other than we are. If you look up the word holy, you'll see that that's the word set apart. Sanctified is in the same category, but holy means other because we can't give a definition to it. We don't understand it. We don't understand our Lord, but we know this he's higher than the heavens.

We know that he's the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Scripture says, which was, which is, and which is to come. Said Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, so he doesn't change. He's absolutely sovereign over the inhabitants of earth, over the inhabitants of hell, and over the inhabitants of heaven.

None can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? This is how you train. This is how you train. God is God, and I am not. He's holy, I'm a sinner. He's righteous, I need a savior. He's other than we are. Psalm 50 verse 25 says, These things hast thou done, and I kept silence, that thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. Now you thought that I was lacking to you, but I'll fix that. I'll reprove you. I'll fix you, I love that. Lord, fix me, I'm broken.

He requires, he demands absolute perfection. He requires absolute faultlessness, no mistakes, no accidents. Now in this salvation, if it was up to you and I, and we made an accident, then it's over. That's how serious God is about his salvation. But here's the thing. It's not up to us. We get to salvation here in a minute, but his salvation, He had to secure it. He had to do it all because we're not capable of doing it. He had, cause he's God and I'm not. Flesh cannot please God. The flesh cannot do anything to get to God or to cause him to do anything because he is God.

Isaiah saw him high and lifted up and seated and his train filled the temple. John gives a great description over in Revelation chapter one, whenever he's seen him. He's other than we are. He's other than we are. He does not bend to the will of man. He cannot be constrained. He cannot be restrained.

Don't you love that about our Lord? This is what we teach. We teach what the Lord has taught us about who he is. He's God. He's God. And besides him, there is none other. He's immutable. I've already said partly this, but I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere all the time. He's omnipotent. He knows everything all the time. His ways are past finding out. They're higher than our ways.

Most teach their children God can be controlled by their decision. That is a lie. God cannot be controlled. Someone said, well, you have to let Jesus be Lord of your life. He already is Lord of your life. We don't let him do anything. Most go to churches that tell the children, Jesus loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. All you have to do is let him into your heart. He doesn't want to be in our heart and we can't let him do anything.

No, he has to take the old heart of stone out and give us a heart of flesh. He's Lord of Lords. He's King of Kings. He's the alpha and omega of salvation. He's the beginning and the end. He's the author and finisher of faith. This is who he is. This is what we tell and teach. This is what we teach. What he has taught us. He's the author and finisher of faith. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. That brings us to the second point. Teach our children.

And Lord teach me about how you see me and about how God sees them. What do I mean by that? God does not see innocent little children telling lies. Do you understand that? A sin is a sin. And that's what children are going to do. David said, I come forth from the womb speaking lies. Now, I am thankful for our Lord's grace and our Lord's mercy, but that doesn't mean that that child's not a sinner whenever it's little. There is no, somebody said, well, you have to reach the age of accountability. You heard of that before? You won't find that in the Bible.

I do rest in our Lord's grace and mercy. I do, because I'm not exactly sure how all that works, and so I keep my mouth shut about it. That's God's to deal with. But I will say this, the Lord doeth all things well. The Lord doeth all things well. And little Timmy that just told a lie, he sinned. That's just truth of it. And God's gonna hold him responsible for it. They need to know that. The children need to know that. They don't need to know, no, you're good until a certain point. You can do whatever you want. That's crazy. No, that's not what we tell them.

We tell them the truth, the truth. He sees them. as He sees us. Did you know that? Because we're the problem. They're our offspring. They're our kids and our grandkids. I mean, that's why they are the way they are. We made them that way. I mean, the Lord made them that way, but you understand what I'm saying?

They had inherited our genes, our thoughts, our bad habits, our health problems, everything else. I mean, and that's just how God designed it, all the way back to Adam. And they inherited our sin and our sinful nature. Not necessarily our sin, but our sinful nature. Tell them that. We got to tell them that because the world's not going to tell them that. The world's not going to tell our children that. The world's not going to tell our church that. Satan certainly is not. It's our responsibility to tell them.

We passed on a curse, the curse unto them. We're born in sin, shaping an iniquity with no hope of fixing it whatsoever. It's so important that we teach responsibility to our children, responsibility for sin. We teach consequence because there is consequence. We teach responsibility. Did you know people don't take responsibility anymore? Is that a shocker to anybody in here? People are becoming worse and worse and taking responsibility. Everybody's entitled. There is no responsibility.

No, I deserve this. I don't have to do that to get this. I deserve it. No, we don't. No, we need to tell, we need to declare that we deserve hell. That's what we deserve. Everything we receive is by grace and mercy alone. That's what we tell. Most raise entitled narcissistic children because that's who they are by nature, and that's who we were by nature before God came to us, and that's still how we are by nature, but he gave us a new nature. one that the old one has to serve. So we're kept by his power. So we can rest knowing that we're being kept from our nature, ourself. He's not going to leave us to ourself.

David could have done a lot worse than what he did. I realize adultery's not good, murder's not good. He stole, he lied, all the stuff that he did. But he could have done a lot more than what he did. The Lord restrained him. The Lord restrained me. The Lord restrained us. Keep me from myself. That's what we teach our children. That's what we declare in the church. Lord, keep us from ourself. I'm my own worst enemy.

Tell them the truth, what the Lord Jesus Christ hath declared. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We speak the truth in love, declaring what God has said, not our opinions, but his truth. Tell them what Isaiah said.

Do you ever get a chance to talk to someone? And it could be an adult. You can be an adult. I don't think this is just for us to, it is for parents, but a lot of us, a lot of you all have kids are out of the house. You might be dealing with grandkids now or something, but it might have opportunity. But the point I'm making is, we interact with people all the time and they're dead in trespasses and sins. So even if they were, if the Lord causes them to be brought out of darkness into his light, they're babes, they're children at that point. Do we see that? Tell them like you would a child, go as simple as you can. What did Isaiah say?

All flesh is grass. The flower, all the goodness thereof is of the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.

We need to tell our children that life's a vapor that appeareth for a little time to vanisheth away. We're not going to be here forever. We're not invincible. There's a God with which we have to do. We declare that the Lord does not want their works or our works. He looks to the finished work of Christ alone. If they are to be saved, it has nothing to do with them and has nothing to do with us.

It has everything to do with God's amazing grace. And lastly, train them in the knowledge of God's gospel. I don't know which is, I'm not gonna pick a most important one here, because they're all equally important. But teach every opportunity that you have with someone, the salvations of the Lord. Tell them our only hope. Tell them your only hope. You know, when you talk about the gospel of somebody, Don't ever get nervous, because that's your hope. That's the only hope that you got.

I say that. I'm hypocritical. I get nervous every time I stand up here. But seriously, you don't have to feel that, because that's just the adversary. Well, what if they get a feeling, sir? What if I have a break relationship with my friend, my family? The gospel's going to divide. The Lord said that. The Lord said, I didn't. He said, I come to set at variance.

But we know he mends his people's heart, knits his people's heart together as well. The point I'm making is, it's our only hope of salvation. And it's a good hope. Scripture calls it a blessed hope. Tell him salvation is of the Lord, Christ is all in salvation, and salvation's all of grace.

His grace alone. God's gospel is the most important thing that has ever been given, ever been given, because the sum and substance of it is Jesus Christ, that's why. That's why, it's his story. It's his story. It's how he saved his people from their sin, all by himself. Matter of fact, he emphasized the importance of the gospel and the New Testament so much, he exalted it greater than anything else. Not to say he's put the gospel above Christ, that would be silly, but Christ is the gospel. He is salvation, so he's exalting one, he's exalting the other. It doesn't detract from anything.

Emphasize the severity and importance of the gospel to our family. That's so important. Cause now we live in a society that we moved up here and it was a little different because they play ball on Sundays and Wednesdays. So my kid couldn't play ball. That's just how it is.

And, uh, now I'm not picking on anybody that plays ball, whatever. Do you, that's when you and God, you know, good and well, I've never got up here one time and said, I'd never do that. But it was shocker because nobody values the gospel. Um, The Lord told us it'd be a falling away, but it's the best thing I've ever heard. I've got to be here. I have to be here. I have to hear it again and again. I can't not hear it. I got to hear it. It's my only hope that he saved a wretch like me all by his grace. That's my only hope.

That's what we tell. That's what we declare to our family. That's what we declare to those who we're engaging in conversation. There's plenty of worldly distractions that we don't need to add more for our kids. They need less than that because they're going to be plenty without us, plenty without us. They need our help for us to teach them about his glorious truth. That's what they need. That's what they need. They need Christ. They need Christ. We have to tell how God doesn't love everybody. He loved those who he chose in election, predestinated them into eternal life.

Boy, that makes people mad, you know that. It makes our flesh mad if you don't know the truth about it. But it's the truth. And the scripture says clearly, he shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And if the spirit hath made you free, you're free indeed. The only thing gonna set people free is the truth. It's the truth.

He loves those who he chose to elect into eternal life. Then in the fullness of time, he sent forth his son born of a woman in order to redeem his elected people. He lived a perfect life before his father, honoring the law and everything that he did, making certain that every I was dotted, every T was crossed, never making a mistake. He's never made a mistake. He never had an accident. He can't, he's God. There's no such thing as accidents with God. Am I saying he never skint his knee? Well, it would seem that way. Somebody could have pushed him, I suppose. I don't know. But he didn't trip over his own feet like I used to do as a kid. He is God. He's perfect.

And he did everything perfect before his father. The best part about it is is because his people were given to him before the foundation of the world. Every move he made, we were making that move with him. Every bit of words that he speak was going to our account, going to our account. The perfect words of Christ are the words that his people spoke. The life that he lived is our life, and our life is hid with him, with Christ in God. He lived perfectly before the Father.

Then he went to the cross that was due us, and he died in our room instead. And we're still in him. We're still in him there on the cross as he's hanging. We're dying in him, dying to self, dying to sin, dying to Satan. Death, hell, and the grave no longer has a claim on the child of God because the Lord, you can say it this way, it kind of sounds funny, but death had to die. He's the end of death. That's a death. So that's what he did on the cross. That's what he did on the cross.

And as he's enduring the full wrath of God, don't you think that we were not on his mind and on his heart? Every one of us, even though he knew our sin, yet that didn't mean that he just never stopped loving us because he had everlasting love. That is so precious. That's what we need to declare and tell. that God loved his people so much that he went to the cross and died for them, shedding his blood, putting away their sin, establishing justice before the throne of God for his people, silencing the laws demands because he fulfilled it before the father, making certain that every one of his people were made the righteousness of God in Christ. That's what we need to tell. That's what we need to teach.

He died the death owed us and we were in him when he was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He said, it is finished declaration that we hold to so dearly knowing that it was accomplished. And we have evidence of that because when he was buried, we were buried in him and wherever he was risen, we were risen in him as well. That's why we're baptized to confess that. confess his life is my life, his death is my death, his burial is my burial, and his resurrection is my only hope. His resurrection is my resurrection. His resurrection signifies that we've been justified, and then he ascended to glory and is seated as our intercessor, as our prophet, priest, and king, a successful redeemer of every person that he died for, every person that he loves. They've been saved. They've been washed in the blood. This is what we teach. This is how we train up a child. I want to say this is very important.

We don't do this as any part of our salvation. Don't make a work out of it. Because some people, they would begin to, I even, at one time, after hearing the truth, I'm going to confess something to you, I would have my children maybe start memorizing Bible verses. Well, that's not necessarily a bad idea, but I was making a work out of it. They got a reward if they did it. Well, that's a work. Do we see that?

And then I would be driving home and I would say, did you hear anything at church today? I was making sure they were listening and they had to tell me one thing while I was making them listening a work. And one day the Lord revealed that to me and I said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm like Job, I'm gonna put my hand over my mouth and not talk anymore. Lord ever do that to you? If you're his, he does. Does it to me all the time.

We do it knowing that we cannot save them. We do it because the Lord said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven. If you want to come to Christ, it doesn't matter if you're 150 years old. There's nobody alive that's that old. That's why I use that number. So I wouldn't offend and actually hit a certain number. If you're that old and you want to come to Christ, you have to come as a child. You have to come as a dependent babe, an infant. You have to come as a nothing, a nobody, a dead dog sinner. That's the only way. That's the only thing that he accepts. And the good news is, is if you do come to him, that way he's the doer of it. He's the one that made you that way. And he gets all the glory.

Bring the children to his gospel. Every time the doors open, Every time the doors open, we should never miss an opportunity to have our children here. Do you know God only saves children? That's true. I'm not talking about physical. When you are born again, you're born a child, a babe in Christ. He only saves children, that's it. That's how we must come to him, the weak and powerless, the hopeless. Are you a hopeless sheep needing a shepherd?

Yes. I need to hear his voice. Good news is, he said, my sheep hear my voice. They already do. And I know them and they follow me. Teach them that he's the good shepherd, that he saved his sheep from their sin, that he keeps and protects them, that he loves them. And he's not gonna lose one. Not gonna lose one.

How to train up a child, teach them that salvation's of the Lord, that God is holy. Salvation's of the Lord. Number two, Jesus Christ is all in salvation. And number three, salvation is all by grace and mercy alone. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your glory. Lord, cause us to never deviate from teaching Our children, your glorious gospel calls us to make it our number one priority all the time, we pray. In Christ's name, amen. Closing, let's turn to number four.