Deuteronomy chapter 11. This is going to be our last
night in this chapter. We've been in it now for quite
some time in our studies, but we're not finished with it. We just have to go on to chapter
12. That's all there is to it. Let's read beginning
in verse 18 through down through verse 21. And let's concentrate
on these verses tonight, some things that they teach us. Deuteronomy
chapter 11 and verse 18. Therefore shall you lay up these
my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for
a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your
eyes. And you shall teach them, your
children, speaking of them when you set in your house, when you
walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You
shall write them upon the doorpost of your house and upon your gates,
that your days may be multiplied in the days of your children
in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them,
as the days of heaven upon the earth." Now, there were three
things that Moses is concerned about. And really, up until the
11th chapter, he's been concerned about these three things. We've
seen this time and time again in this book. One was for the
children of Israel to go in and possess the land of Canaan. To
be strong and go in and possess the land. You can find that here
again in verse 9 and verse 8 of chapter 11. Look back in this.
He was concerned about this. He keeps mentioning this in his
writings. In verse 8 there in chapter 11,
Therefore ye shall keep all the commandments which I command
you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess
the land, whether ye go to possess it. Now, they were going to have
to be strong. to go in and possess this land.
And he was concerned about that. Be strong in faith. You're not
going to go over the Jordan River and it flooding its banks without
faith. Now, that's all there is to it.
When the Lord told the priest to step out in the waters that
had overflowed their banks and that Jordan is going to part,
it's going to take some faith to do that. And when they get
across that parted river and go over to the city of Jericho,
and he tells them to march around that city and the walls would
fall, they did that by faith. So he tells them to be strong
in faith. Take the Lord at His word. Be
obedient to Him. Follow Him. Go in and take this
land. It's not going to be easy, but
you can do it. You're going to do it through
your own strength, your own abilities, your own wisdom. But if you'll
believe Him, and you'll follow Him, and you'll obey what He
tells you to do, you'll go in and you'll possess this land.
But something else He was concerned about, and you'll find it there
in verse 9. Look on in verse 9. That ye may prolong your days
in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, to give unto
them, to their children, a land that floweth with milk and honey. See, he was concerned not only
to possess this land, but to keep it. To prolong your days
there. To stay there. Boy, this was
a good land. And we looked at some of the
things about this land. It wasn't like the land of Egypt.
Boy, it had wells. Cold wells of water. Had huge
orchards. Fruit trees. Great vineyards. Houses. Beautiful houses. They'd been living in tents in
the wilderness. Now there's going into the land that had houses,
mountains, and pastors for their cattle. Rain from heaven. They didn't have to irrigate
this land. But he said to keep this land, once you've got it,
you've got to be sober. You've got to be careful. I'm
concerned that when you get it, you keep it. You keep it. You enjoy it and you stay in
it. That's the second thing. But
the third thing he shows us here in verse 21 of chapter 11. Look in verse 21. No, it's not 21. It must be... Well, it's here. I'll find it. If I get in the right chapter,
I know where it is. It's verse 21 of chapter 11,
not chapter 12. Look at it here in verse 20.
He's concerned about this, that your days may be multiplied and
the days of your children in the land which the Lord swore
unto your fathers to give unto them as the days of heaven upon
this earth. He was concerned that their children
be able to possess and keep the land. They go into it themselves. And they live a long, prosperous
life in it. But when they get old and die,
He said, I want your children to take possession. And then
prosper in the land. And then enjoy this life. So it's not just about us, is
it? It's about our children. About our children. that your
children, that they may multiply and prosper and enjoy the land. I tell you, it's a heart-searching
thing to think that when we bring a child into this world, that
we're responsible to raise that child as God has gave us commandment
to do. Do you ever feel the weight of
that? Do you ever feel the weight of that? Boy, you that have raised
children, you that are raising them now, you sometimes feel
the weight of that, don't you? responsibility for your children. We want our
children to be concerned about their education. We want them
to be good citizens. We want them to be honest. We
want them to have some character and integrity about them. But
we want them to be saved, don't we? We want our children to know
the Lord. And what an awesome responsibility
they must have felt when Moses said, this is not just about
you and you enjoying this promised land, but it's about your children
keeping it once you're gone and once you're dead. Let me quote
some Scripture to you. Train up a child in the way he
should go. Remember that Scripture? You've
got a baby now and you're rejoicing and the baby's growing up. What's
your obligation? What's your responsibility? up
that child. Not in the way he wants to go,
but in the way he should go. Train him. Raise him up. Listen
to this in Ephesians 6, verse 4. You fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up. Raise them in the nurture. That means the education, the
training, the discipline, and the admonition. Sometimes you've
got to warn Often you have to remind them in the fear and admonition
of the Lord. Listen to what the Lord said
about Abraham and his family and his household. He said, I
know Abraham. I know Abraham. I know what kind
of fellow he is. I know what kind of father he
is going to be. I know what kind of uncle he is. I know what kind
of householder he is. I know Abraham. He will command
his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord,
to do justice and judgment. I know Abraham. I know how he's
going to raise his children. You may be a Christian. You may
be a Christian yourself. You may be a lover of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and your child grow up not to be immoral at
all, not to be saved at all, but to be a scoundrel. There
are certain religious groups, and this bothers me. I don't
know. Maybe I'm just jealous. I don't
know. Sometimes you hear these religious, mainly preachers,
and they've got some kind of a formula.
I've never been able to figure it out. All of their children are saved.
And they're usually saved at an early age. You hear them on
radio bragging about this. Well, that's all right. I hope
they are saved. God bless them if they are saved.
But I begin to wonder sometimes when they begin to brag and take
credit for it all. It's almost reached the point,
and I don't know this for sure, but I've got my suspicions that
in some large congregation, one of the criterias for being their
pastor is if you have any children, all of them have to be saved.
Can you imagine the pressure that must put on the pastors
to get their children on the profession of faith? You may
be a man of God. You may be a lover of the Lord,
but you cannot save your children. You cannot regenerate your children. You may raise them and raise
them the best you can, but for some reason or another, they'll
turn out to be scoundrels. Now I'm going to show you that,
okay? I want to show you that. I want to give you some examples.
Maybe we can learn some things for them before we come back
to our text. The household, the family, and
the children. The first one is this. Did you
know there's going to be whole families? There is now. And there's
going to be whole families that live and die lost. Dad's lost. Mom's lost. All the children are lost. Then
the grandson and the granddaughter are lost. All the great-grandchildren
are lost. The whole family lives and dies,
and not any of them call upon the name of the Lord. In their
families, you never hear anyone singing the sweet name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You never hear Him upon their
lips unless it be in some vulgar, derogatory manner. They don't
love Him. They don't know Him. They don't
call upon His name. Listen to what Jeremiah said
in 10.25. Pour out your fury upon the heathen
that know thee not. And listen. Upon the families
that call not on your name. Oh, families that never pray. that never seek the Lord, that
don't believe Him. And they live that way, and they
die that way, and they perish together. Now, that happens. That happens. Secondly is this. You may be
a lover of God. You may be a true child of God,
and your child turn out wicked. Now, I want you to hold you around
me, chapter 11, and look in 1 Samuel, just over to your right. Here's
one of the best examples, if you want to call it a best example. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 8. I think
probably Samuel was one of the greatest prophets Israel ever
had. He loved the Lord, didn't he? He rode the circuit, walked the
circuit, took turns going and preaching to these places. Boy,
they feared him too. You have to be careful around
this fellow. He hacked a man to pieces one time. Yeah, he
hacked a man to pieces. The enemy of the Lord. Just took
a sword and hacked him to pieces. But look here about this man's
kids. If you would think a man like that, man, I'd love to know
his kids. Boy, if anybody ever had their
children say, it was that man. It was that man. But look at
him. Look at his children. 1 Samuel chapter 8, look here
in verse 1. And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made
his sons judges over Israel. Now, I don't blame him, do you?
If I was a prophet, a man of God, and I had my sons, I'd do
the same thing. I've trained them up. I've raised
them. And even though I've traveled the circuit a lot, I've had my
wife home teaching them. And I'm going to make them judges.
I'm going to let them take my place when I die. Now the name
of the first was Joel, the name of the second Abiah. They were
judges in Bathsheba. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after lucre, money, filthy lucre, and
took bribes and perverted judgment. Samuel's children did that? What
happened? I don't know. I don't know. But doesn't that sort of kill
this theory that if you're a pastor, your children are going to be
saved? If you're a child of God, surely you're going to have good
children? It sort of kills that theory, doesn't it? I bet you
this man's heart was broken about this. But something happened. I don't know what it was, but
something happened. I'll give you another example. There
was another great man, a lover of the Lord. His name was Eli.
You can find this if you want to read it sometime in 1 Samuel
1 and 2 and those chapters follow. Remember Eli the priest? He had two sons. They served
in the priest's office with him. And the Lord appeared to little
Samuel and told Samuel he was going to bring judgment on Levi's
sons. And in a sense on Levi too. Eli
the priest. And the Lord killed his two sons. Sent them off to war and got
them killed. But you know what he said to Eli? You know one
of the reasons his sons did what they did? They were called sons
of the liable. They did sort of like Samuel's
sons. They took bribes. They corrupted the services of
the Lord. But he said, because you have
not restrained your children. He could have, and he should
have, but he didn't. Maybe he was responsible for
them doing what they did. I don't know. But if we've got
power over our children, and we do when they're little, don't
we? Use that influence. Use that authority to restrain
them. Even when they're adults. Do
what you can to restrain them from evil. Eli. Another example I can give
you is King David. You'll have to read this in 1
and 2 Samuel. And I think one of the things
that was wrong with David's children is he neglected. I think David
neglected his children. And I'll tell you the reason
I think that. David had some children. He had some half-brothers,
half-sisters in his children. Almon, most of us remember Almon. He raped his half-sister, Tamar. Remember that? He tossed her down to his little
hideout, raped her, and then put her out. And you know what
David said about that? Nothing. You know what David
did about that? Nothing. Doesn't that teach us
he was neglectful in his family? Absalom was Tamar's brother. His anger boiled in him because
his dad wouldn't correct his half-brother. And he said, I'm
going to kill him. I'm going to kill my brother.
And buddy, he said today, and he killed his brother. Killed
his half-brother because he raped his sister. He fled into his
grandma and grandpa's house, hid out away from his dad. Finally,
David fell into that awful sin with Bathsheba. And the Lord
told him, David, I'm going to raise up your son in your house. And he's going to cause you more
heartache and more trouble. And the sword is never going
to part from your house for what you've done. Absalom came against
his own dad and tried to take his own kingdom. They killed
Absalom. And poor David was there over
his grave saying, oh, I wish it had been me. I wish it had
been me. And then when David died, remember
the last words of David in 2 Samuel 23. The last words of David,
he had this on his mind when he was talking about what a king
should be and how he should rule in the fear of the Lord and how
the house should be right with the Lord. And he said, it's not
so with my house. My house is not like I wish it.
was with the Lord. My house, my children. Look what
a mess my family is in. But he said, I'll tell you this
much, even though I'm here with a heavy conscience about this,
my neglect, my slothfulness in teaching my children. But he
said, that's got nothing to do with my eternal salvation. Boy,
I've failed as a dad. I've failed to discipline and
teach and raise them. But he said, nevertheless, the
Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant Ordered in all things
and sure, this is all my salvation and all my desire. You may be
a good man, you may be a child of God, a good woman, a godly
woman, and, boy, your children, for some reason or another, either
out of your ignorance or out of your neglect, or maybe you
had nothing to do with it, but they may turn out bad. They may
turn out bad. Consider another one. You remember
Hannah, 1 Samuel chapter 1? Remember her? She prayed to the
Lord for a child. Lived years in grief and prayed
to the Lord, please give me a child. And the Lord granted her her
request. And you know the first thing she did? She thanked Him. And then she gave Him right back
to the Lord. Raised Him up until she weaned
Him. Made him a nice little jacket and said, Lord, I'm loaning him
back to You. Took him up to the temple and left him there to
be raised in the temple in the house of the Lord. You know who
that little fellow was? The great prophet Samuel. That's
who he was. Let me give you another one.
You remember a woman by the name of Eunice and her mother Lois? Eunice was married to a Greek.
And they had a son, and his name was Timothy. And when he was
a baby, Lois and Eunice read the Holy Scriptures to that little
baby. And when he was old enough to
begin to read themselves, they put a Bible in his hands and
before his eyes. And he began to read the Scriptures
for himself, and you know what happened to him? He was brought
to faith in Jesus Christ. And he became a helper, the chief
helper, of the great apostle Paul, this young man. And Paul
wrote to him and said, from a child you have known the Holy Scripture,
which are able to make you wise unto salvation. Now he didn't
say your grandmother, Lois, made you wise. He didn't say Eunice
made you wise. You know, those women may have
been uneducated. They may have been very simple
women. But I tell you what they did. I tell you what they did. They gave Him what would make
Him wise. They gave Him the Holy Scriptures.
And He read what made Him wise. The Word of God made Him wise
unto salvation. One more. Let me give you one
more. Some mothers one time brought their little children to the
Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples said, don't bring those children
to him. We don't have time. We're too busy to fool with them.
And the Lord heard them over there talking. He said, what
are they talking about? He said, well, they're bringing these children over
here. We know you don't have time for them. He said, you suffer
the little children to come unto me. And don't you forbid them,
for such is the kingdom of heaven. And then he did an amazing thing.
He took those children up in his arms. I don't know how old
they were. But he took them up in his arms and he blessed them. I've often thought this. Wouldn't
you have liked to have followed those children into their teenage
years and adulthood? Because you know they're going
to be blessed. You don't know how many of them are going to
be preachers. You don't know how many of them are going to
be deacons, how many are going to be godly women. But I'm telling you, everyone
He laid His hands on and said, You're blessed, they were blessed. When Isaac said of Jacob, I blessed
him and he shall be blessed. I don't think that would come
to pass and the Lord Jesus blessed somebody and them not be blessed,
would you? They're blessed. They were blessed. Well, there's
these examples. And you can glean from them whatever
you can glean from. Don't carry the guilt. Don't
carry the burden. If you have raised your child
and they've turned out like devils, like Samuel's children and like
Eli's children, If you've got some guilt, if you've been neglectful
like David was, and you feel that you've let your children
down, then go tell the Lord about it and repent of it in the blood
of Jesus Christ. God's Son cleanses us from all
sin. Glean from these whatever you
can, whatever help that you can glean from. But there are a lot
of good parents that have raised bad children. There are a lot
of parents that have loved the Lord Jesus, and through their
ignorance, or through their neglect, or no fault of their own, their
children have turned out bad. There are others that their children
turned out wonderful. But you know what I've noticed
about those people? They don't take credit for it.
I was talking with a man who lives over in eastern Kentucky.
I don't know how many kids he's got. He's got his quiver full
of them. And they're all married. As far
as I know, every one of them is saved. They're really saved. They've got a good testimony.
They all attend worship together. They all live in the same valley.
All in the same little hall. They call it Simpson Hall. Because
everybody that lives there is a Simpson. And they all get ready
and they all go to church together. I preached to them several times.
And I asked Dale one day, I said, Dale, I need some advice from
you. He said, what? I said, tell me
how to raise kids. And you know what he told me?
He said, I don't know the first thing about raising kids. That's
what he said. He said, the Lord, all I can
say, the Lord raised my children and the Lord saved them. To Him
be the glory. That's what those people usually
say that some of the best parents. Let's turn back over quickly
at our text and look at it right quickly. And see some things
right quickly in our text. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Look here at the first thing
in verse 19 that we're told about raising our children. It has
to do, this whole thing has to do, all these verses that I read
to you, has to do with raising our children and teaching them
the Scriptures. The most important thing you
and I can do to our children is teach them the Word of God.
Over and above everything else, It's more important than a secular
education. It's more important than getting
the skill to make a good living. Being taught the Word of God
is the single most important thing that you can do with your
child. Look what he said in verse 19. You shall teach them your
children. You shall teach them to your
children. That's what we do here in this
room on Sunday morning. The children are gathered here
and they are taught about God. Who is God? Who is the Son of
God? What has He accomplished? What
has He done? Who are we? What are we? What do we need more than anything
else? A new birth, to be made a new
creature, to have a new heart and a new spirit, to be born
again. We bring our children in this room and we teach them
from the Word of God. That's all you use, ain't it? The Word of God. The Bibles.
They open their Bibles and they study from the Word of God. We
don't teach them how to draw pictures. We don't teach them
how to make toys. We don't play games with them.
We teach them from the Word of God. Why? That's what He tells
us to do. He tells us to do that. It's
important. But you know, it's not enough
just to say, well, I send my children to Sunday school. They
sit on the preaching. That's not enough, is it? That's
wonderful, but that's not what these verses are about. These
verses are about teaching your child in your home. When you
get home, teaching them in your home. If you've got a set time that
you open your Bible and read some verses to your children
from the Bible, you tell them a story from the Bible, that's
good, that's wonderful. That's wonderful to do that.
But you know, that's not enough. This verse here goes even farther
than that. And look how he puts it in verse
19. You shall teach them, your children, speaking of them, look
at this, when you sat in your house, When you're sitting around
on the couch and you're talking, you're talking about the weather,
you're talking about the job, suddenly the conversation goes
towards the Lord and spiritual things. When you sit in your
house, and look at this, when you walk by the way, when you're
out for a little jog, or you're walking a trail, or you're back
in the field, or you're in the woods, the conversation goes
towards the Scriptures. the things of the Lord. When
you're sitting down, when you're walking by the way, when you're
lying down, and when you raise up. See the gist of that. It's
not just that we have a set time to read and pray. That's wonderful. That's wonderful.
But it's when the Word of God saturates our daily lives and
our families. When it has something to do with
almost every hour of every day in our family. That we find illustrations,
we find examples to teach our children in our family. You know children are smart.
Well, you can't pull the wool over their eyes like you can
adults sometimes. They have a certain instinct
about them, don't they? And they can pick up things.
And if they come to discern, to believe that the Word of God
is not all that important in your life, that only 15 minutes before bedtime,
that's the only time that they ever hear anything about the
Lord or anything about the Holy Word, you know what they'll come
to discern and believe? The Word ain't that important
in Dad's life. The Word's not that important in my grandparents'
life. We've went all day and we've not heard it. Why do we
have to hear it now? And if they perceive it's not that important
in your life, it's not going to be that important in their
life either. What he's teaching us here is this. It's not just
a time. Not just a set time. That's fine.
That's wonderful. That should be a necessity. But
boy, it's when he becomes a way of life. A way of life. See what he's saying? It's a
way of life. The scribes and the pharisees,
remember them? Boy, they misunderstood these
verses. They took this verse here that I read to you, that
you bind the word on your hand, and you put it between your eyes. And they had, what's that word
I'm looking for? Phylacteries. Phylacteries. They had these
words, the Scriptures wrote in them, and rolled them up in skins,
and put them here on the front of their eyes. They just took
it literally. They didn't have the Word in
their heart. The Lord Jesus rebuked them for that, didn't He? All
this become to them was just a formality. It was almost a
ritual to them. You go into their houses and
on the post of the doors there, man, Scriptures hung all over
the place. But here was the problem. They
didn't have the Word in their heart. And that's what he said
there in verse 18. Lay up these words in your heart
and in your soul. In your heart and in your soul. Why bind them on their hands?
What in the world does that mean anyway? Why bind them on their
hands? Did you ever tie anything around
your finger? What did you do that for? Did you ever tie a
little ribbon around your finger? You ever do that, Sue? I have. My wife, she has to put,
I get in her Jeep sometimes, she's got a big note there. Do
this, do that, do this. I was reading John Gill the other
day. He's an old man that lived back in the 1700s. And he was
talking about tying to tie things around his finger so he could
remember stuff. They did it back then. They did
it back in this time. Why tie these Scriptures on your
hands? Remember. Remember. Remember. That's what this picture
does. That's what this represents to
us. Not literally running around with Scripture tied on your hand,
is to teach us to remember what the Lord teaches us in His Word.
Let me read some passages to you. Listen to this. Psalms 103,
verse 17. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness
unto their children's children, to such as keep His covenant,
and listen, to those that remember His commandments. They remember
His commandments. They've got them tied around
their hand. Oh, there it is. Now remember. Now remember. But it's not on their hand, is
it? Where is it? In their heart. It's in their heart. Listen to
this. Remember His marvelous works of old. What He has done. His wonders and the judgments
of His mouth. What is His mouth? How's your
English? Remember. Remember. How in the world is
David going to remember his works of old? He didn't live back there.
But he's got them recorded. Remember. Remember. He is not here. He is risen. Remember that? That's what the
angels said to those ladies. Remember how He spake unto you? Remember? The angels call us
to remember His Word. Remember the Word that I said
unto you? The servant is not greater than
his Lord. These things have I told you
that when the time is come you may remember that I said these
things unto you." That's what the Word of God does. It jogs
our memory to the truth of the Lord's Word and what a gift this
is. You know it's a good evidence
that we got the Holy Spirit when we're always remembering His
Word. I'll give you another comforter. And He's going to guide you into
all truth. And He's going to bring these
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Tie it. Tie it on your hands. Tie it
in your heart. And frontlets, verse 18, and
frontlets between your eyes. What was that all about? Frontlets
between your eyes. Tie it right here. Right here
between your eyes. Put it right there. Now what
could that do? Well, it wouldn't do you a bit of good literally
to do that. Just show off. Make people think
you were holier than everybody else. But what could that mean? Well, David tells us, doesn't
he? Listen to what he says. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet. It's a light upon my pathway. I see by Your Word. It guides
me. It's a light to me. The entrance
of Thy Word gives Light. Light to what? It opens the eyes
of our understanding, doesn't it? It gives us light in our
minds, in our hearts. He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scripture. Let the Word be in
your heart, brothers and sisters. Lay it up in your heart and in
your soul. It will guide you. It will lead you. It will make
you wise. And I tell you this, you're not
going to teach your children very well. if you don't have
the Word in your own heart. Ain't that part of our problem
now? Huh? Before He ever said, teach your
children, He said, you lay it up in your heart. You lay it
up in your soul. What's verse 20 about? I wonder
what He meant by this. Look in verse 20. Thou shalt
write them upon the doorpost of thine house and upon thy gates."
Now, what in the world could that mean, you reckon? Well,
when they come upon their porch to go into the house, what did
they see? They saw the Scriptures. I wonder
what they said. They could have said this, as
for me and my house, We, by the grace of God, will serve the
Lord. By His mercy, we're going to
honor Him. We're going to love Him in this
house. Could have said that, couldn't
it? Every time you go in your house, wouldn't it be wonderful
if all of us as children of God, when we went home tonight and
opened our door, the thought would come to us, God, you gave
me this house. And it's His house. And everything in this house
is going to honor Him. It's going to be for His glory.
Oh, wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't that be something? I'm going to reverence my husband. I'm going to love my wife. I'm
going to love my children. I'm going to teach them nothing
coming in this house that's going to dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they hung it there
on the doorpost. and they hung it on the gate. When they were
leaving their house and going out their gate, the last thing
they saw was the Word of God. I wonder what that said. Do you
have any idea what some of that could have said? Well, we're
going on vacation. That's good, but what does that
verse of Scripture right there say? I'm going to work today. That's good, but what does the
Word say? We're going shopping. They've
got a sale on. We're going around to get some
stuff. That's good. That's fine. What's the Bible
say? You've got it right there on
your doorpost. What's it say? Be thou in the fear of the Lord
all the day long. That's what it says. That's what
it says. But all of these things are in
our hearts. They're in our minds. Not on
our heads. Not on our hands. Not on our
literal doors and our gates, but in our hearts. In our hearts. And it must become, and it will
become, it will become then a way of life for us. I don't have a formula on raising
children, and nobody else does either. But I will imagine this,
if we as parents, if all Christian parents, I'm talking about true
believers, would get a deeper love and reverence in their hearts
for God's Word. As we've studied it here in these
verses. I bet you it would have a positive
effect upon our children and upon our families. And then,
They still turned out to be ungodly? At least we wouldn't have to
carry the burden and the guilt around that it was my fault,
would we? Lord bless you.