My faith has found a resting
place Not in device nor creed I trust The ever-living one His
wounds for me shall plead I need no other argument I need no other
plea It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me, Enough for me. That Jesus saves their sins by
fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him. He'll never cast me out. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the word,
the written word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name. Salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. When I came over here to the
office this morning, sat down for a little while just
to read, meditate, try to seek a message from God for you. I realized, perhaps more fully
than I have up to now, that our daughter is now grown, and she's
pretty much pretty much going to make her way, for better or
for worse, from now on, on her own, without much instruction
from me, without much authority from me, without much leadership
from me, other than as a pastor and as she may be pleased to
listen. And you know how that goes. Generally, we're not too much
pleased to listen to mom and dad once we get out of the house. And I came across a text of scripture
that I want to, if God will enable me, preach to you from. I'm going
to come to it a little bit. It's in Genesis 18, if you want
to turn there. For better or for worse. What
I'm going to do for my daughter has been done as far as raising
her, training her, instructing her, teaching her as a father
to a child. But my subject tonight is you
and your family. Wes, if God will help me, I'm
going to show you from the scriptures some things that God teaches
about family government. Now, I realize some of you are
older and your families are grown and you may think to yourselves,
well, this message is not for me. You're mistaken. I found
it to be as beneficial today in preparing it as it would have
been had I prepared it 18 years ago. And indeed, I found some
things that I think I need to have reemphasized to me and I
believe to you. You see, we're all part of a
family. And God tells us plainly what
our responsibilities are in our families, even as we get older,
even as the children leave the nest, even as we begin to become
grandparents, Bob, and you start to have influence not just on
one generation, but another one, and later on, in God's good providence,
on another generation. Now, everything in our society
today, appears to be intentionally designed, satanically designed,
to destroy family government. I'm not a pessimist, you know
that. I'm not a doomsday prophet, but
I am a realist. And the reality is that everything
in our society appears to be intentionally designed to destroy
the family and family to talk these days of a husband being
the head of his house and of a wife being his help meat, to
talk of husbands loving their wives and wives obeying their
husbands, in our society sounds barbaric, archaic, sexist, and
discriminatory. To talk of disciplining children,
Insisting upon obedience is to be looked upon as one who is
little more than slightly deranged, if not positively abusive. Now,
I realize that families, your family, particularly you who
are raising young people today, are under pressure. Everything
your children are taught from kindergarten through college
is designed intentionally, I believe, designed to be in direct opposition
to everything you know to be right and everything you know
to be taught in the Word of God with regard to family government.
Everything that you ladies read in your women's magazines, Everything
you men read and hear in the media, all the results of surveys
and opinion polls, all the ideas of the philosophers and educators
is designed to undermine family values. In home economics these
days, young ladies are taught how to get along without a man.
Used to be they were taught how to be good homemakers. And these
days in social studies, children are taught how to insist upon
and get their rights. It used to be they were taught
how to practice and live by their responsibilities. In these days,
family counseling is basically instruction about the uselessness
of marriage vows and marriage responsibilities. It used to
be marriage counseling was an effort to persuade men and women
to honor vows they made before God. Our schools used to teach
children for better or for worse. They used to teach children moral
values. They used to teach them how to
become productive citizens and how to raise children themselves. Today, they teach our children
how to get by with being immoral and how to insist upon having
their rights and how to dispose of unwanted babies. And they
call it morality and they call it decency and they call it exercising
responsibility. In this society, the family's
in trouble. And I recognize that the counsel
that I hear and read from educators, psychologists, sociologists,
philosophers, the media, for the most part, is the counsel
of men and women who are perverted in judgment, blind and groping
about in the dark. And I say that from the highest
ranks of society and the intellectual world to just the ordinary fellow
on the street. Most people talk about family
and talk about values and talk about social responsibilities
in a manner that's obviously coming from a perverted sense
of judgment and a perverted sense of responsibility and a perverted
sense of morality. Now, I don't expect to change
the world. I'm not addressing them. I don't
even expect to be heard by men and women who have no regard
for God and His Word. But I'm talking to you. I'm speaking
to you who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, justified before
God, you who believe God, you who trust Jesus Christ as Savior
and Lord and have respect for God's Word. I'm speaking to you
who seek in your lives both to do the will of God and bring
honor to the name of God. And I do know what God teaches
in his word about family government. I want to share with you some
of those things this evening. Now, I make no promises. At the
outset, I want that to be clear. I cannot tell you that if you
will follow the counsel God gives in his word, your family will
be saved, that your family will honor God, and that you're going
to live happily all the days of your life. That depends entirely
upon God's blessing upon your obedience. It is my intention
simply to show you that which is right. Just to show you that
which according to the Word is honoring to God. That which is
best for you and for your wives and your husbands and your children.
That which is right. And I want to persuade you if
God will speak by me to perform that which is right in your family. Now look here in Genesis 18 and
verse 17. The Lord was about to destroy
Sodom. And before he did so, this is
what he says. The Lord said, Shall I hide from
Abraham the thing which I do? Seeing Abraham shall surely become
a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him. And now he tells us by what means
Abraham would become a great and mighty nation, and by what
means all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. Now you say, is this important,
this thing of family government and family responsibility? How
important is it? You and I, now listen carefully,
I'm going to read this text in a minute, and you follow what
I'm saying. You and I have heard the gospel. and the blessing
of God through Abraham has come to us this day in great measure
because of what we read in this next verse. The Lord said, I
see that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation. That's us, a holy nation and
a peculiar people. Now look at verse 19, 4. Here's
the reason. For I know him that he will command
his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord and do justice and judgment, that the Lord may
bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Yes,
Abraham believed God, and because he believed God, he obeyed God,
and by his obedience to God, by his rule of his family, by
the manner in which he exercised the responsibilities God gave
him in his household, he gave the gospel to his son, and his
son to his son, generation after generation, after generation,
after generation, until at last you and I heard the word and
believed the gospel. And it began back here with Abraham
in his family government. Now that's how important it is.
God's blessing upon Abraham's household was in part the result
of Abraham's government of his family. His family became a great
and mighty nation because he commanded his children and his
household to keep the way of the Lord. But pastor, don't you
know that the result of the blessing of Abraham was the result of
God's covenant and God's decree? You know I know that. Of course
I realize that. God said to Abraham, I will make
of thee a great nation. That was God's decree, that was
God's purpose, that was God's covenant. But the means by which
God was pleased to build this great nation was Abraham exercising
godly rule in his household. Is that plain enough in the text,
Muriel? That's the means God used. used his God-given parental authority
for the government of his family, so that he commanded his family
to keep the way of the Lord, to do that which he knew by God's
instruction to be right. He prayed for them, he taught
them, he walked before them, he worshipped with them, but
he did more. The scripture text here says,
he commanded. He commanded his household to
worship the Lord God. He commanded his household to
obey God. He commanded his household to
do that which was right. He didn't sit back and debate
with them and ask them if they kind of wanted to go along or
if they understood things the way he did. He didn't say, now,
Sarah, honey, I want us to sit down and discuss this thing and
let's decide what we're going to do. When Isaac grew up, he
said, now Isaac, let's decide how things are going to go. Eleazar,
you bring all the servants in here. We're going to talk this
thing over and everybody get their input. No, sir. Abraham
was responsible to govern his family and he commanded his family
to walk before God. That's what the text says. Abraham's
care went beyond his wife and son. It was not only a matter
of Abraham governing his family, but Abraham lived a nomadic life,
and you'll read in Genesis 14 that this man Abraham had 318
servants, male servants, born in his household. And he commanded
those who were under him, those who were under his influence,
he commanded them and led them too in the worship of God. And
Abraham's family government was blessed and honored by God with
success. His boy Isaac was born of God
and reflected his father's character. Isaac's sons didn't so much reflect
his father's character, but Abraham's boy Isaac did. Isaac was a man
of faith. Isaac was a man who walked before
God with a broken heart, with humility and with faith. Isaac
worshiped the Lord God even as a young man, and as he grew older,
he worshiped him more fully. Grace was upon him. Not only
so, but Abraham's servant Eliezer. If you read Genesis 24, my soul,
what a servant. David, you can afford to turn
your store over to a fellow like Eliezer. This fellow Eliezer,
man, Abraham trusted him with everything. Abraham trusted him
with all of his goods, and he trusted him with getting a wife
for his son. He trusted Eliezer to go and
do exactly what he told him to do, and didn't have to send anybody
to check up. He just said, Eliezer, you take the money, and you take
the camels, and you go find my son a wife from among these people. And Eliezer went, believing God. And as he went, he prayed. And
as he prayed, he sought the mind of God. Eliezer honored his master's
God. And he honored his master because
his master showed him how to honor his God. Abraham, God said,
I know him. He will command his children
and his household to keep my ways. Now, like Abraham, you
and I must learn to rule our houses well for the glory of
God. I want to give you four or five
things here this evening that I believe will be beneficial.
I recommend that you jot down some notes. I think this will
be helpful. First, if we would govern our families well, we
must be properly motivated. So let me begin by giving you
the inspiration. for a well-governed family. I'm
just going to be brief on these four or five points, but I think
they're so very important. A lot of things could be said.
Let me just say two things. If we love the souls of those
trusted to our care, if we love their souls, we must govern them
well. Rex Bartley, let me talk to you.
God has entrusted to your care five immortal souls. That woman, those four kids.
Now as we love their souls, we're responsible to govern them well.
That's what I'm talking about. As long as a man has no regard
for his own soul, he'll have no regard for the souls of others.
He can watch his wife and children and neighbors run headlong into
hell with little concern and little care. But as soon as a
man is converted, as soon as he sees the value of his own
soul, he begins to care for the souls of others. He becomes a
missionary. He begins to seek ways of ministering
to his family. That Philippian jailer, immediately
when he heard the way of life, Paul said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The very next words we
read, the jailer brought Paul and Silas up into his house and
he washed them and he fed them and he called all of his family
in. He said, now men, I don't know a whole lot. But I've heard
from you the way of life and God has by you brought me salvation
and eternal life. Will you please tell my wife
and my sons and my daughters what you just told me? Maybe
they'll believe too. And in the middle of the night,
he woke up his wife and he woke up his children and he gathered
them all around the table and Paul and Silas preached the gospel
to them and they believed and were baptized and the Lord saved
that household. Immediately. That was the result
of a man who had begun for the first time in his life to value
his own soul. Now he values the souls of his
family. That man who values his own soul
and sees the glory of Christ seeks to bring people to hear
the gospel and tries to find a way to take the gospel to those
who will not come and hear it. He becomes a man who's interested
in the calls of Christ in the souls of men. He begins to set
aside a portion of his income for the furtherance of the gospel,
both at home and abroad. You see, that man or woman who
knows the value of his soul and the preciousness of Christ in
his blood and the joy of his saving grace seeks the grace
of God for others. Read Joshua, the second chapter. The spies came in to Jericho
and Rahab hid them. The spies said to Rahab, they
said, now, I tell you what, you take and tie a scarlet cord,
drop it from your window. You know what that is, don't
you? You take and give us a picture,
a symbol of blood atonement, drop it from your window. And
when judgment comes to this town, not one person in your household
will perish, not one. And Rahab said, now, fellas,
you promised me, you promised me that not only will you preserve
me alive, but my father and my mother and my brothers and my
sisters, I'll bring them all into my house. And they said,
you get them in the house and we'll preserve them alive. That's
what I'm saying. Those who have heard and experienced
God's free grace, seek God's grace for those about whom they
care. And that begins, that begins,
whether it's selfish or not, that begins most naturally in
our households. But again, we desire not only
good for the souls of those that we love, But we desire to use
all our talents for Christ. If you're redeemed, if you know
the pardon of sin, if you've experienced grace by Christ's
precious blood and mercy, if you trust the Son of God, you
know that you're not your own. You're bought with a price. In West, we belong to Christ.
We belong to Him. Everything we are and everything
we possess belongs to Him. I call on you, yes, and myself. I beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly
acceptable unto God. That's just your reasonable service.
But brother, we belong to Him. Yeah, give yourself to Him, but
we belong to Him lock, stock and barrel. He bought us. He
redeemed us. He called us. He delivered us.
We're His. Now see to it that you glorify
God in your body and in your spirits and in your families,
which are God's. Those who are born of God desire
just what I'm talking about. I don't have any question about
that. You men and women here desire to glorify God. You want
to honor Christ. I don't have any question about
that. You want to use everything God's given you for Christ's
glory, don't you? If God gives you wealth, use
it like Gaius did for Christ's cause. If He gives you learning
and gifts and abilities of ministering the gospel, spend it like Paul
did, making Christ known to others. If God gives you a table, a house
and food, use them like Mary and Martha did for the comfort
and entertainment of the Savior. And if God gives you a family,
as he has, see that you both rule your family and use your
family for Christ's sake." Twenty years ago, God gave me
a talent, as she says. As much a talent as the ability
to preach, as much a talent as anything he's ever put in my
hand, he gave me a talent. to use for His glory, our family. Nearly 19 years ago, He gave
me another one. And it's my responsibility, has
been for these 20 years now, to use these talents, my household,
for God's glory. If I understand the Word of God
aright, that's the most important part of my life in this world,
is how in my house I serve and worship God. Most important part. What about your preaching? The
preaching is a sham, a show, and a pretense. If over there
in the house, we don't glorify God. The preaching's useless
if over there in the house, we don't serve God. The preaching's
useless if over there in the house, when nobody else is around,
it's just the three of us, we don't honor Christ. This is the
talent God's given me. to use for Christ's sake. And this talent God's given you,
Mark and David and Bob and Merle and Hubert, Nancy, Rex, Wes,
you ladies, this is what God's given us. Now, it's our responsibility
to get honored to God by that which He has loathed us. And
Wes, he just loaned you those two boys in that moment. Shirley,
he just loaned you those two boys in that man. That's our
responsibility to you. There he is. It's our responsibility
to use him for his glory in all things. Secondly, you've got
the inspiration. Now let me show you from the
word of God, three ingredients for a well-governed family. I'm
not going to read all these verses, but turn over to Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5. I wrote down that statement there, the ingredients
of a well-governed family. And I thought, Don, I don't like
that. And I don't. I don't like how-to books. Most
of them don't know how. I don't like formulas and telling
folks you do this, do that, or do the other. But I am going
to tell you this. These three things are necessary. I say dogmatically without apology
that these three things are essential to a family that honors God and
is obedient to Christ. If these three things characterize
your family and mine, then our families are well governed. If
these three things do not characterize our households, then there is
much lacking and much that needs to be done. First, Every family
needs a loving, firm head to lead it, provide for it, protect
it, and govern it for the glory of God. Look in chapter five
of Ephesians, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. Love your wives. as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it." Now, brother, that's a big command. Give yourselves in unreserved
commitment to your wives, just like Christ gave himself in unreserved
commitment to his church. That's what the text says. He
did it that He might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men
also to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves not
his wife loves not himself. In verse 23, He tells us that
the husband is the head of the wife. even as Christ is the head
of the church. Now, men, I'm telling you one
more thing. We've got company here. The Lord's
come to visit us. And he brought two of his servants
with him. Baked some cakes for them. And he sent one of his
young men and fetched a cab. He said, go get it. We're going
to have a feast here tonight. The Lord's come to visit us.
And he governed his house properly. Now, this matter of being head
of the house, It simply means that the husband is to lovingly,
firmly, thoughtfully, under God, for the glory of God, rule his
home. That's what it means. That's
what it means. A man is responsible under God,
lovingly, firmly, thoughtfully for the glory of God under the
command of God to rule his house. It's not bullish tyranny. It's
not a man saying, I'm going to be boss. Now you listen to me.
It's a man simply seeking God's will and God's glory and serving
God's cause. And he takes his family. He says,
now this way we're going. This is the way we're going.
And the wife may understand it, and she may not. But it's not
her responsibility. She may say, well, I see that. She may say, well, now, I don't
know about that. The man seeks God's will and God's glory, not
his self-interest, not his selfish desire, God's will and God's
glory. And he said, now, honey, this
is the way we're going. This is the way we're going. and he
leads his family in the worship of God. Secondly, no family can
be well ordered for the glory of God without a submissive,
obedient wife to manage the affairs of the house according to the
will of her husband. I want you to read verse 22 with
me of Ephesians 5. Now, ladies, listen to your pastor. Listen to me. I don't claim to
be an authority, but I do know what God says. If you want a
happy home, no, more importantly, if you want to glorify God in
your home, obey your husbands in all things. Look in verse
22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands. How much? Now, Carla, you heard me preach
like this when you were just a kid. Pay attention now. As unto the Lord. That's what
the text says. Is that what it says? As unto
the Lord. Next time you think about disputing
and fussing with your husband, seeking to glorify God and honor
God and serve God, remember, you're talking to the man who
represents God to you in your household. That's what the text
says. Is there any question? Do any
of you ladies have any question but that's what this text says?
That's what it says. For the husband is the head of
the wife, in exactly the same way as Christ is the head of
the church and he's the Savior of the body. That's what the
text says. What I'm suggesting is nothing
less and nothing more than a woman occupying the place of highest
honor and highest privilege and highest responsibility known
to women in this world. And that's serving God with a
man and under a man, for Christ's sake, in this world. My daughter is getting marrying
age. And I keep telling her, I hope
she'll do it. I hope she'll do it. My soul, it will hurt to
give her up to somebody else. But I hope she'll do it. I hope
she'll do what I'm telling her. Faith, don't even think about
marrying a man until you can give yourself an unreserved submission
and obedience to that man. Don't even think about it. Don't
dishonor yourself and don't dishonor God and don't create misery for
anybody else. If you don't find a man whom
you can reverence and honor in unreserved submission and follow
him, don't marry him. Don't do it. That means, honey,
the day comes when you quit obeying dad. The day comes when you cease
looking to me as the number one figure of authority in your life.
There's another man who comes and takes over. Now ladies, you
know God commands it. You know it's right. You can't
have peace without it. So just do it. Just do it. That's plainness, Sally. That's
what the book teaches. That's what the book teaches.
That's not hard or unreasonable. That's just what the book teaches.
And thirdly, God requires parents to train their children in obedience,
in respect for authority, and in the fear of God. Look at verse
1 of chapter 6. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord, for this is right. This is right. Now, Ryan and
Chris, I'm talking to you. Nathan, I'm talking to you. Terry,
Jenny, I'm talking to y'all now. Pay attention. No, I'm not talking
to you, God is. God says obey. Jenny, honey,
obey your mom and dad because God says that's right. That's
right. And God can't be wrong. Whatever
He says is right. Just obey Him. But I don't understand
why mom and dad won't let me do this, won't let me go there,
won't let me have this, won't let me say that. Just obey them. It's right. You understand that,
don't you? Just obey them. They won't lead you wrong. They
won't do it. They seek your welfare. So obey
them. And you fathers, verse 4, provoke
not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Teach them to honor you and teach
them to honor God. It's the responsibility of parents,
particularly, primarily, the responsibility of fathers to
make their children obey them, to make their children honor
them, to make their children give reverence to God. I'll come back to that in a minute,
maybe. But in the third place, let me
show you some examples. Some examples of well-governed
families. We won't turn to them, but you
jot them down. There was a day when the whole
world despised God and walked in lasciviousness and lived in
perversion. The whole world worshipped self
and lust and pleasure. The whole world. God said the
imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil
and that continually. It says in the Scripture, it
repented the Lord. He had made man. He looked down
and saw society a whole lot like ours and he said, I'm going to
kill this race. I'm going to destroy this world.
But one man, one man in all that race of millions, I mean there were
millions of them. People say to me, Pastor, don't
you think it's a little bit arrogant that you should stand in opposition
to the philosophies and the trends and the teachings of the whole
world? No, it's not arrogant. It's arrogant
to stand in opposition to God. There was one man, one man in
the world who knew God. His name was Noah. And that man,
Noah, by the grace of God, in the most crooked and perverse
generation in which any human being has ever lived, ruled his
house for the glory of God. Rex, if he could do it then,
we can do it now. That's right. He led his family into the ark
of salvation. He led his family in the worship
of God. He led his family in the obedience
to Christ. The whole world stood back and
laughed and mocked and said, Noah, you're crazy. What are
you doing building an ark? It's never rained before. Noah's
sons, though there is no indication at the time that they knew their
father's God, Noah's sons were mature, grown men with wives
of their own. It's just like Herm talking to
you. It's the same thing. They didn't hear a word from
God. They didn't know God. They didn't worship God. They
didn't know the meaning of the ark. They didn't know what on
earth Noah was doing. But they knew that if Noah said,
God said, get in the ark, Noah would have been with God. Because
they knew their daddy. They knew, Merle, that's the
kind of daddy I want to be. They knew that if Noah said,
now boys, God said it's fixing to rain. And God said the only
way for us to be saved is get in that ark. Now, boy, today
we get in the ark. They packed up everything, got
in the ark. Because Noah led his family in
the ways of God. Abraham, the father of all believers,
led his family in the path of obedience. Wherever he went,
he built an altar and worshiped God. Job. Job. He takes a hard time from
a lot of fellas. But Job celebrated the birthdays
of his children. You know how he did it? I'm not suggesting that any of
you become super pious and start offering sacrifices. But Job
didn't throw a party. His kids threw the party. Job
offered a sacrifice. My boy's 15 today. My son's 35
today. My boy's 50 years old today. Oh, I'm going to worship God.
I'm going to worship God. He sacrificed to the Lord. Joshua. Oh, what a man Joshua was. He
stood before the nation of Israel and he said, you can't worship
God. You can't serve God. You're stiff-necked and rebellious
people. You choose between the gods of Baal and the gods on
this side of the river or gods on that side of the river. But
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's all there
is to it. No more debate. No more discussion.
We're going to serve God. We're going to serve God. But
Joshua, you don't know how bad times are going to get. It don't
matter. We're going to serve God. But Joshua, you don't know. You don't know what's going to
come up. We're going to serve God. But Joshua, you don't know
the kids have got so many activities at school and there's so much
pressure at work and there's so much pressure all around.
We're going to serve God, he said. We're going to serve God. That's all there is to it. And
he did. He did. All of these households were
led by men. And I can hear some of the ladies
who get our tapes saying, but Brother Don, my husband doesn't
have any interest. My husband has no interest in
Christ or the gospel. Or my husband has left me. Or
my husband is dead and I'm alone. left to raise my children without
a man, what can I do? Well, I say your role is difficult,
and I sympathize with it. But there have been other women
in the same boat who still honor God. I read in the scripture
of a lady by the name of Eunice, who had a little boy. And apparently,
one of two things is so. Either Eunice was a widow, or
a woman forsaken by her husband, or a woman whose husband had
no interest in the gospel. One of those three things. And
apparently, her mother was in the same boat. Either a widow,
or a woman forsaken by her husband, or a woman whose husband had
no interest in the gospel. You read 2 Timothy. Eunice learned
the scriptures from her mama, Lois. And then God gave Eunice
a little boy and she'd set him on her knee at night and read
the Scriptures to him and teach him to memorize the Word, teach
him the meaning of the Scriptures. And Paul wrote, he said, now
Timothy, the faith that's in you is the result of the faith
that was in your mother Eunice and in your grandmother Lois.
It comes directly, not by their power, and not because you're
related to them, but by their faithfulness to me. And they're
teaching you the Word of God, which is able to make you wise
unto salvation. And I say, if these men and women
could govern their families for the glory of God in their days,
you and I are without excuse if we fail to do so in our day.
Now, fourthly, Here are the requirements for a well-governed family. I'm not speculating. I'm not
giving you my opinion or my philosophy. I had got one. I'm telling you
what God requires in His Word. If you choose to despise God's
Word and decide that you're wiser than God in this matter, You
do so not only to the peril of your own soul, but to the destruction
of the souls of your children as well. Now listen to me. These three things. These three
things. Lead your family in the worship
of God. Lead your family in the worship
of God. Bob, it's not too late with your
boys and your daughters. Not too late. As God gives you
opportunity, still lead them in the worship of God. Lead them. But you fellows with younger
children, see to it you lead them in the worship of God. Turn over to Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy
chapter 6. I'm there, let me read it to
you. Beginning with verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. And these
words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt
talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou
risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou
shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on the gates."
In other words, Throughout your household, throughout your days,
from morning to night, day in and day out, lead your family
in the worship of God. Lead them. Lead them by personal
instruction. Lead them in public worship. Lead them by earnest prayer. All the teaching and all the
preaching in the world is of less value than taking
that little one by the hand. Come on, son. This is the way
you do it. And you lead them. You lead them. Lead them in the worship of God. See to it that your children
are both respectful and obedient. Abraham, we are told, commanded
his children to keep the ways of the Lord. That means he exercised
the authority God gave him and held him responsible to exercise. And God honored it. I read of
another man. He was a believer. He was a child
of God. He worshiped God. He taught his
children the ways of God. He prayed with them and prayed
for them. He brought them up in the house of God. He was a
prophet of God. His name was Eli. And having said all those things
about Eli, godly Eli, Eli was a terribly poor father. He was a disgrace as a father.
He was a failure as a father. For you see, Eli restrained not
his sons. When Hophni and Phinehas made
themselves vile, Eli said, Now boys, don't y'all do that. He said, now boys, you know better
than that. He said, now boys, you know Daddy
wouldn't want you to do that. He said, now son, now son, I've
taught you better than that. But he gave nothing to restrain
them. Nothing. Eli had a different philosophy
about raising children. And for the sake of Eli's philosophy,
God killed his sons. And they perished. Now, mom and
dad, it's your responsibility to make your children obey you. Let me give you some Scripture
references. I'm not going to read them. I want you to read
them at home. Proverbs 13, verse 24. Proverbs 19, verse 18. Proverbs 22 verse 15. Proverbs
23 verses 13 and 14. Proverbs 29 verses 15 and 17.
God holds you responsible for making your children obey you. So quit finding excuses for pouting,
ill-tempered, ill-mannered, rowdy, spoiled babies. Just quit finding
excuses for it. If your children embarrass you
and sash you and disobey you and disrespect you, I get kind of upset with the kid,
but it's your fault. That's right, it's your fault.
Nobody else is yours. You know all the excuses. Some
kid whining and carrying on, pitching a fit. Well, he hadn't
had his nap today. He hadn't had his busting today
is what he hadn't had. He'd pout and get his way about
something. Well, he's just not feeling good,
got a little cold, didn't get enough sleep last night. He's
got a rotten mama and a rotten daddy letting him get by with
it. That's just fact. That's just fact. You can't talk that way. I've
got to, Wes, I've got to tell you that. I've got to. I've got to give you plain instruction. If you don't govern the boys,
my soul, you leave them to grow up according to the foolishnesses
in their hearts. And God won't have that. I said,
well, how on earth do you discipline children? You begin early, you
exercise it firmly and consistently, and you do it with evident love.
That's right. That's right. Folks say, well, I love my little
girl too much to paddle them. No, you love yourself too much.
If you love the kid, you take the trouble to paddle them and
let them know why. They're going through the terrible
twos. They're going through the fours, you know. Well, he started
school this year. Well, he's having such a bad
time. Well, my soul, so what? Everybody goes through it. And
the best way for them to get through it is for you to discipline
them with love and care and by the hand to take them through
it. Take them through it, teaching
them responsibility every step of the way. There's absolutely
no reason on this earth why any child that's sane should not
be able to respect his parents and do what he's told to do first
time he's told to do it, keep his mouth shut when he's told
to keep his mouth shut, be pleasant with folks and respectful with
folks. There is absolutely no reason for it. Now, I want to
commend you folks. I have folks tell me frequently,
of the young people in this congregation. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. What
you've been doing, keep doing it. Keep doing it. Don't give
up. It gets a little... Rex, as they
get a little older, we get a little more relaxed. And we have a tendency
to, well, you know, I seem like I'm on them all the time. No.
Keep loving them. And keep directing them. And
thirdly, keep leading them by example. We're more likely to fail here
than anywhere else. McShane said, if all your religion
is on your tongue, your children will soon find out that you're
a hypocrite. In particular, exemplify faith
in Christ, patience before God. Exemplify faithfulness to the
gospel, brotherly love, commitment to the glory of God. I made a decision a long, long
time ago before I started pastoring. I made a decision that I was
going to have my daughter all the days of her life under my
rule, under the sound of the Gospel, every time it was possible
for me to do so. Sometimes that meant she couldn't
function in things of school. And sometimes that meant She
couldn't work, David. And sometimes that meant that
she had to stay up late and do her lessons. And sometimes that
meant that she couldn't go out when she wanted to go out. And
sometimes that means she couldn't travel with the clubs or couldn't
be involved with the activities. I don't regret it. I don't regret
it. Had it do over again, I'd do
the same thing. I'd do the same thing. Last night,
we left over to Lexington. Faith started to drive home.
I stopped her. She probably would have gone
anyway, but I stopped and rolled down the window. She started
by me. I said, now, honey, you get your lessons before and after,
but you'll be here tomorrow night to hear the gospel and Wednesday
night and Thursday night. I'm not here to look over you.
This is important. This is important, more important
than anything else in this world. Is that so, Wes? Yeah, that's
so. Nothing this important. Now lastly, let me show you the goals of
a well-governed family. What are we aiming at? Particularly, I'll just mention
it, primarily we're seeking the glory of God in our homes. My Lord and my God, in my house, I want your glory. I have to rule my family according
to the will of God in love if I'd honor Him. And, honey, you've
got to obey. That's all. That's all. And that's
not too much to require. Hell, I'm not going to obey any
man. I promise. I promise. Me and I ask you to do the same
thing. I make a promise to that woman, my wife. Same promise
I made a long time ago. I'm going to seek the glory of
God and the will of God. And I may fall on my face a thousand
times, but that's what I'm seeking. With that as the promise, I ask
you to obey. Just follow along. Well, I believe I will. I believe I
will. That's not too much to ask. And
I must insist that my daughter obey me and honor me. And God help him, that's what
I'm going to insist on. Otherwise, I can't glorify God in my house.
And secondly, primarily we seek the glory of God, but secondly,
we do seek the salvation of our children. I said in the beginning I make
no promises. Abraham had one son who believed
God, He had one son, Ishmael, for whom he prayed, O that Ishmael
might live before thee, and I don't know whether he did or not. David
had one son who loved God and a house full who didn't. I don't
make any promises. I don't suggest that we can save
our children, but there are some things we can do, and what we
can do we're responsible to do. We can raise our children under
the sound of the gospel. We can do that. We can teach
it to them ourselves, tell them what it is to believe Christ
and how God saves sinners by His grace through Christ Jesus,
and persuade them, earnestly press them to commit their hearts
and lives to Christ as Lord, to trust Him, to believe the
Gospel. And bring them to hear the Word.
Bring them to hear it. I don't know whether I can do
that or not. You can if you want to. You can if you will. You can if you care for them.
We can pray for them. We can make them obedient. We can show them by example the
way of faith. My faith has found a resting
place Not in device nor creep I trust
the ever-living one His wounds for me shall plead I need no
other I need no other plea It is enough
that Jesus died And that he died for me Enough for me That Jesus saves their sins by
fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to heal. He'll never cast me out I need
no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus
died and that he died for me. My heart is thee on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other No other argument,
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and then he died for me. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me.