We turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, where our focus will be on verse 21. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. It's good on Father's Day to review, not just on Father's Day, but to review our specific responsibilities as fathers.
And God willing, as we understand these things, we'll put them into practice so that we can inculcate the fear of the Lord in our homes. and seek to train up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I do want to begin reading by chapter 3, verse 1, as verse 21 is in a larger context, and it helps us to understand when we do this.
Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:1–4:1
If, then, you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wise, submit to your own husbands. as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
Amen.
Opening Prayer
Chapter 3, verse 21, we pray for the Spirit of God to be upon us. We pray that as fathers we would embrace our roles, our biblical responsibilities. We pray as well, Father, that our wives, our children, our homes would be marked by a genuine desire. to serve the Lord God Almighty. How we thank you for your grace, how we thank you for your mercy, how we thank you for redemption in Jesus Christ that makes these things possible.
We know and acknowledge the gospel comes first, the salvation of God precedes the responsibilities to live in a consistent life. We just thank you now and we pray that you would guide our thoughts and we ask through Christ the Lord, amen. Well,
Introduction
if you notice specifically in verse eleven, it says where there is neither Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. Some have taken this and tried to obliterate or tried to suggest that there are no more family and social distinctions, that because of Christ's redemptive work, We're all equal what were equal in terms of redemption were equal in terms of what we have in terms of an inheritance with God, but family and social distinctions remain. Verse eleven highlights redemptive solidarity enjoyed by the people of God. Far from eliminating these specific roles, it is rather the opposite.
The fact that we are new men and new women in Christ Jesus is the basis upon which we live the Christian life. So instead of us having no distinctions within our home, the Bible tells us that redemption provides the ability for us to engage in these distinctions in a manner that is consistent and in a manner that is glorifying to the Lord. One commentator says, this whole section shows that to pursue the realm above and to be preoccupied with its affairs does not promote an aesthetic otherworldliness, but rather a wholehearted commitment to the daily duties of this world for the sake of the Lord. In other words, if you look at how it begins, chapter three, verse one, if then you were raised with Christ If, then, you've been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus, since you have been redeemed by precious blood, he says, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. So we're to be focused upon Christ in our minds so that we can function appropriately here on earth as husbands, as fathers, as wives, as mothers, as children, all those things. And if we look at the broader context, we'll see that the Apostle tells us what we're to put off in chapter 3 verses 5 to 11. We're to put off sin.
We're to put to death the deeds of the body. We're to put to death sexual lusts. We're to put to death the kind of speech that is ungodly and wicked. He then tells us what work to put on in chapter three, verses twelve to seventeen, and then in our section, chapter three, eighteen, the chapter four, one is telling us we are to be subject to one another.
We have responsibilities. toward various people in this world. We are not islands unto ourselves. We are not autonomous. We are saved to serve in a certain capacity.
We see the new man's relationship to others in this section, specifically in three pairs. Wives and husbands, children and parents, and servants and masters. So that's the broad context that we find verse 21 in. And that's where it's found verse twenty one.
Three Considerations in the Text
I want to open it up under three considerations. First, we need to note the party address. Secondly, the prohibition of the text. And thirdly, the positive exhortation in the text.
The Party Addressed: Fathers
Notice the party address. Fathers do not provoke your children less. They become discouraged. The fathers are addressed specifically as heads of the household, both in the Christian home and in the Roman Empire.
Men who lived in homes in Rome were considered to be the head of the home. Paul develops this in more detail in Ephesians chapter 5. He says the husband is the head of the wife. The buck ultimately stops with him.
Whatever ultimately happens in somebody's house, barring the irregularities, barring those things that perhaps mental illness or some other thing that might contribute to it, the man is the one who controls or regulates the home. Not in an authoritarian or tyrannical way, but ultimately the responsibility lies with him. The training of children is the father's special function. This is John Eady.
He says, for the duty is devolved upon him to select and put into operation the best means and methods for the culture of his offspring. So, it's his primary responsibility. Of course, mothers engage in this task as well. The text is not giving you, ladies, license to provoke your children so that they can be discouraged.
He's speaking to the head of the home. He's speaking to the head of the children, and he is addressing them accordingly. Now, throughout the Bible, we have some positive examples and some negative examples.
Positive and Negative Examples
Good examples of fatherhood and bad examples of fatherhood. We can turn back for just a moment to Genesis, chapter 18, Genesis, chapter 18, just a sketch, a couple of examples, things that we ought to set before our eyes as we strive to be godly fathers in the context of our Christian home.
Abraham: Commanding His Household
Genesis, chapter 18, you'll remember, it's the account of Abraham. Abraham Genesis, chapter eighteen, beginning in verse sixteen, we read that the men rose from there and look towards Sodom and Abraham went with them to send them on the way and the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham? What I am doing since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.
It's a good broad overview of our responsibilities as Christian fathers. We are to seek to encourage our families to keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice. Notice that first and foremost, it is a vertical commitment. We are to fear God, honor God, love God, and then rule accordingly.
Klaus Bachmull said this, he said the parents who reject the first commandment can expect their children to reject the fifth one. In other words, when your child is a wretch and rebellious and doesn't do a thing that you say, it could reflect on the fact that you don't fear God, that you have not sought to bring God's principles into your home and sought to brought them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. He goes on to say the parents who do not submit to God should not expect their children to submit to them.
Joshua: As for Me and My House
And then Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. Remember, it's a covenant ratification ceremony. In effect, this is what's going on.
They've gone in. They've begun the conquest of Canaan. They've begun to obey God in terms of dispossessing the land of the Canaanites. Chapter 24, as I said, is a ratification.
It is a recommitment. It is a reswearing or affirming their responsibility in terms of God's covenantal dealings. And then Joshua gets very practical and he says in chapter 24 verse will begin at verse 14. Now, therefore, he says, Fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.
Serve the Lord, and if it seems to you, if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, notice what he said. We will serve the Lord. That's a curious statement, not a curious.
It's a great statement. It's a beautiful statement. What was Joshua's job? Joshua was a military commander.
Sometimes I hear men say, oh, but I'm too busy. When have you ever had to go dispossess a nation of its inhabitants? When have you ever had to lead armies into battle? This man was able to do one of the most exceedingly difficult jobs in the world, and yet he maintained fidelity to his God.
Matthew Henry summarizes thus, he says Joshua was a ruler, a judge in Israel, yet he did not make his necessary application to public affairs an excuse for the neglect of family religion. As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh, he says. So in all of his busyness, in all of the day-to-day activities that his hand found to do, in all of the pressures and the trials and the real hardships that no doubt he encountered, Nevertheless, he was able to say, over the lifespan of his being, his general tenor, his general rule, again not perfectly, not absolutely without spot or blemish, but he says, as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh. That's what we ought to be striving for.
That's what we ought to be pursuing. That's what we ought to want for our homes and in our homes.
Eli: Failure to Restrain His Sons
For a negative example, you can turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2. You'll remember the man called Eli. Eli had a pair of sons that ministered as priests in the tabernacle. And they were wretched men.
They did horrible things. I think that as you read through this, you ought to read paying attention. Here's what the priesthood in Israel were doing at the time of the birth or the young age of Samuel. They stole sacrifices, according to 1 Samuel 2, verses 13 to 17.
Notice in 1 Samuel 2, verse 13, And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged flesh hook in his hand while the meat was boiling. Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, and the priest would take for himself all that the flesh hook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burn the fat, the priest service or servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed give me for roasting to the praise for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.
These men were prostituting the very sacrificial system that they were supposed to bring to pass and then notice in chapter two verse twenty two. It says, Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Absolutely shameful, isn't it? I don't know if you saw any of the footage on the riots that happened over the past week, but imagine if you saw your son standing there in London drugs, holding a fire extinguisher.
Would you just swell up with pride? Or you saw him trying to flip that truck over. Would you be going, there's my boy? So proud of him.
I think that's something of what we get with Eli. He knew that these boys were wretched. But when God comes to deal with him, Notice how the Lord phrases the accusation. Notice in first Samuel chapter three, beginning in verse eleven.
God addressing Samuel, picking up at verse ten. Now, the Lord came and stood and called his eyes out. Other times, Samuel, Samuel and Samuel answered, speak for your servant. Here's the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle in that day.
I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows. He knew it wasn't foreign to him from beginning to end. I'm sorry, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity, which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile. Now notice, and he did not restrain them.
Yes, his sons did not know the Lord that precedes first Samuel two twelve. That was their issue. They didn't know Yahweh because they didn't know Yahweh. They stole me and they lie with women.
But Eli had a hand in this. He didn't restrain them. He didn't stop them. He didn't seek to hedge them in.
Proverbs talks about the man who spares his rod. What does he do? He hates his son. We have a distinct responsibility and a duty given to us by God to carry out discipline for their well-being.
So,
The Prohibition: Do Not Provoke
going back to Galatians, having looked at the party address, we now come to the prohibition. The Apostle says, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. This sin provoking the children, it means to excite, not in a good way. Hey, kids, we're going to go climb Mount Sham.
All right, Dad! That's not the kind of provocation that's in view. It means to irritate. John Eady says, Fathers are spoken to since training is their duty and because this peculiar sin which the apostle condemns is one to which they and not mothers are peculiarly liable.
And then Douglas Moo, a commentator, highlights a text that I don't know that we often think about in connection here, but I think he argues very forcefully and convincingly. He says the text most relevant to Colossians 3.21, however, and one that Paul may have had in mind, is Deuteronomy 21.20. You say, well, what's Deuteronomy 21.20? That's when parents had to take their adult rebel son to the elders and tell them that this son is a glutton and a drunkard.
They have to turn the adult rebel son over. I mention adult, because three-year-olds aren't drunkards. They turn this adult rebel son over to the elders. The elders hear the case, and ultimately the son is executed.
The incorrigible son is executed. Now, I've actually preached on that before. You say, why would you ever preach on that? If you have questions about that, we can talk about that later.
But Mu, I think, is right. He says, is Deuteronomy 21, 20, where parents are charged with bringing a disobedient son before the elders and proclaiming, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.
Now, Moose says Paul, in effect, is exhorting fathers to raise their children in such a way that they do their utmost to avoid provoking this kind of rebellious attitude in them. Do not provoke them. Do not produce that kind of a son in your child rearing, in your discipline, in your dealing with your sons. Don't raise them up to be profligate and to be drunkard.
Don't raise them up to be career criminals. Don't raise them up to be a hardened class of thug. Don't raise them up for prison life. Don't raise them up for the death penalty.
Seek by God's grace to not provoke them. Seek by God's grace to not exasperate them. The discouragement in view here means to be without courage or spirit, to lose heart or to become spiritless. It's a way, a means of breaking your children.
That's what's in view. I think the hardest thing in life is parenting. I mean, there's guys that have hard jobs. I'm imagining, you know, a bomb technician.
That's a tough job. You know, there's there's air traffic controllers. Tough job. I grant that.
But rearing children the way God says to do so probably is number one in terms of weight and responsibility. Do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. This discouragement promotes anger in the child. It excites their bad passions.
It is an evil influence on the child rather than a good one. That's what Paul is saying. Don't do this.
Specific Forms of Provocation
What are some ways Paul doesn't develop this? He doesn't get into it specifically here, but as we call through the Bible, our unrighteous anger. It's certainly a means to provoke them. Our unrighteous anger.
You know, the man that rules with an iron fist, that, you know, he's got the short fuse, he flips out all the time. Everything's just this monumental, massive thing, and he screams at the kid. That's not calculated to do him good over the long haul. When I say him, girls, I mean him and her.
I mean all kids, all children under the sway of a particular parent. under the sway of a particular father, unbiblical discipline. The Bible authorizes and mandates two specific means, rod and reproof. You say, well, I don't want to do that. Well, you need to obey God.
Right? Do we think we know better? Oh, well, you know, for this child, if I just take away his dessert, it makes him very pliable. Well, God says the rod and reproof are the means of impartation of wisdom.
Do not withhold the rod. The wise man says, although you beat him with the rod, you will not kill him, but you will save his soul from hell. Proverbs 20, 30, the blueness of the wound does what? Scours away evil.
That's God's Word. We're not to call it into question. Now, I think there's more reproved verbal than there is raw. If we are faithful, we are prayerful, we are going about our task biblically, hopefully the racial will be a lot more verbal reproved than corrective discipline in terms of raw.
But we must not shrink back. We must not neglect. We must not believe that we have it all figured out. Edie again says, the paternal reign is not to be one of terror and stern authority, but of love.
See, that's the idea. That's the wrong thinking out there, that the rod or spanking or whatever you want to call it, is somehow harsh and vicious and wicked and it's unloving. No, it's loving. You're to soak it and bathe it in prayer and love.
That's how you approach these things. He goes on to say, the rod may be employed, but in harsh and unreasonable. I'm sorry, he says the rod may be employed, but in reason and moderation and never from momentary impulse and anger. You know, I've illustrated this before.
The fondest, not the fondest. One of the only memories I have of my mother disappointing me was running through the house, chasing me with a yardstick, you know, swinging it at me. That wasn't the norm. That wasn't typical.
That was a unique event in the life of the Butler home. That's not biblical discipline. You don't run through the house, or at least here in Canada, with a meter stick chasing your kid, you know. You're not swiping them with the whip.
No, it is controlled, it is moderate, it is biblical. Never from momentary impulse and anger. You know, I'm going to count to three. One, two, two and a half, two and three quarters.
Ah, three! Well, that's not biblical. These are caricatures, these are misrepresentations. A godly man, a godly woman, searches the book, prayerfully approaches the subject, seeks counsel from godly men, reads good books, reads Bridges on Proverbs, read Bruce Ray's book, Withhold Not Correction, read some good literature on that, ask questions of older men and older women that have gone in the way, and ask how to engage in this.
Because this is what God has called us to. He says, children are not to be moved to wrath by harsh and unreasonable treatment or by undue partiality and favoritism. That's another thing. Undue partiality or favoritism.
Oh, well, that's this one. That's not typical of him. So what? You're going to favor one over the other.
Now, each kid is different and individual. You deal with them and all that sort of thing. But undue partiality and favoritism is wrong. Bridges describes the use of the rod.
He says the rod without affection is revolting tyranny. Never forget that the rod without affection is revolting tyranny. That's abuse. That's ungodly.
I'll stand right up and condemn that with whoever wants to do that. That's wicked. If you as a man, you as a woman, you as a Christian, engage in that sort of conduct, you have stepped into ungodly, unlawful grounds. You search it out.
You search the scriptures. You seek counsel. Bridges again says, Satan begins with the infant in arms. The cry of passion is his first stir of the native corruption.
Do we begin as early? Every vice commences in the nursery. Now, sometimes we say, oh, these older brothers, they went too far. I don't think they did.
At all. He says, the great secret is to establish authority in the dawn of life, to bend the tender twig before the knotty oak is beyond our power. That's wise counsel. For all of you who do not know, there's a good bookstore on Reeves Road.
There's a book by Charles Bridges called Proverbs. You take that book, and you read every passage that deals with child rearing, and you'll be the happier parent for it. Mark my words. It's a money-back guarantee.
You go buy the book, you read those passages, and you say, I'm worse for wear. I'll pay for the book. I'll give you the money. That's my guarantee to you.
Mr. Gallagher is going to be saying, how is he guaranteeing our books? Unbiblical demands is a means of provocation. Unbiblical demands.
You know, you might have one child that strives and is excellent in this particular way. The other child might have some deficiency, not in mental status or whatnot, but you compare him to him. He's not him. She's not her.
Leave him alone. Leave her alone. Don't put unbiblical demands on your children. Ungodly inconsistency.
Any parent worth his salt realizes that consistency is the battleground. You know, you hear a sermon like this, you go home, all right kids, there's a new sheriff in town. We're going to get serious about this in three days from now. We're back to ourselves.
That's why we need sermons like this. That's why God made Father's Day. Just kidding. Inconsistency.
You spank for this offense on one occasion and you don't spank for that offense on another occasion. What are you teaching the child? You're teaching that law is arbitrary. Obedience really doesn't matter.
Whatever you feel like doing is OK. That's not biblical. Ungodly motivation. ungodly imbalance. Be very careful, my brothers and sisters, about too much law to the neglect of gospel.
You know me, I love the law. I love the Ten Commandments. I love the ethical demands of Scripture. But if our children are not hearing of a bleeding, resurrected Christ, then our attempts are in vain.
The parent, according to the gospel, We need to encourage our children to flee to the cross. We need to tell them about the great redemptive work at Calvary. Yes, enforce the law's demands. Yes, put parameters in place.
Yes, establish an ethical code to be sure, but never, ever cease reminding them that they cannot meet that law perfectly. And that's why Jesus came to obey the law, to fulfill the law, to die as a sacrifice and to rise again. Look to him and you will be saved. We don't want to be imbalanced here.
Same with church life. Yes, we need to preach the law. But yes, we need to preach the gospel. We need to preach the gospel and we need to preach the law.
We need to make sure that we're holding forth the whole council of God most high. And as parents, this is imperative. Do not engage in gospel, less child rearing.
The Positive Exhortation: Ephesians 6:4
And then thirdly, The positive exhortation actually have to turn to Ephesians for this. Colossians doesn't have the positive exhortation. If you go to Ephesians chapter six, the parallel passage, we read verse one, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath.
Here's the positive, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Bring them up means to nourish them, to provide for them with tender care. We need to cultivate. We need to educate.
We need to train, discipline and love. There's two specific aspects in view in the positive exhortation. Training here speaks of activity. It speaks of the rod and the reproof.
It speaks of the day in enforcement of God's law. It speaks of the discipline involved. The admonition is the word. That is our speech.
That is our instruction. That is our education. That is our taking the Scriptures and teaching them what it says. It is consistent with Deuteronomy six.
When you rise up, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, you're to set before your children the commands, the demands, and the gospel of Yahweh Most High. You shall teach them diligently, he says, to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. When you go to the zoo, you tell your little child, God made that giraffe, God made that elephant.
When you go to the aquarium, you say, God made those belugas. When you have a specific trial in your life, you say, God sent this for our good. You say, God is chasing us. God is bringing us through this.
You educate, you discipline, you tell them, you talk to them. And it's all to be of the Lord. It is the training and admonition of the Lord. That's the sphere or the orientation where to have God saturated homes.
And we're supposed to promote this sort of a consciousness to our young ones, to our children. So there's a party address. There's a prohibition. There's a positive exhortation.
Application: Five Duties of the Christian Father
And I actually have five P's in conclusion. I don't normally alliterate this much. Kind of shocked when I pulled this out. First, presents.
I don't mean give your kids lots of presents. The kids are going, oh, come on. I won't be provoked then. I won't be angry then.
You just bring me presents and I'll be the best little child you ever saw. You know, it doesn't work that way. We could give you presents all the time. It's not going to make you a better person.
The hearts need to be changed. You need to be born again. You need to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus. You know what happens if you get lots of presents?
You become like one of the leeches' daughters. You just say, give, give, give me more. It's never enough, right? By presents, I mean you need to be present in order to fulfill your responsibility as a Christian father.
You need to be with your children. Now, I'm not advocating be a stay-at-home dad. I'm not advocating lay on the couch and watch Oprah and tell your kid to bring you a pop. But men, in your busy lives and your busy schedules, make sure you carve out time for those things which are most important.
Your children. You know, you hear about quality time. It's about quality time. You don't get quality time without some quantity, too.
I mean, the basic cleaning the garage, or painting the wall, or doing whatever. Be with your kids. Presence. You must be present in order to fulfill your responsibility as a Christian father.
That is the best gift you can give to your children, is to be with them. Be in their lives. Go to their games. See their activity.
Be a part of their lives. Secondly, provision. That means you provide for them. First Timothy five, eight ought to weigh heavy on every man's heart.
The man does not provide for his own. He's what he's worse than an infidel, worse than an unbeliever. He's worse than an atheist. He's denied the faith.
He's not going to feed his children. It's not going to feed his wife. It's not going to feed and tend to his family. There must be provision.
You must work hard. You must make sure that they have those material things that they need to live and thrive. Thirdly, protection. You are to protect your children from all enemies, domestic and abroad.
You need to be there to fight their battles. You need to watch over them. You need to guard them. Children should be the safest with their parents.
Unfortunately, we even have to look at such a thing. There's so many tragedies out there in the world today. Parents abusing children. Parents using children.
Parents hurting children. No, your children should be safest with you. Fourthly, prayer. Being a godly father requires prayer.
Bridges on Proverbs 13, 22, where it says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Bridges says this, and if there is no earthly substance to leave, yet a church in the house, a family altar, the record of holy example and instruction, and above all, a store of believing prayer laid up for accomplishment. When we shall be silent in the grave will be an inheritance to our children of inestimable value. You may not be sitting on a gold pile.
You may not be able to leave your children some great portfolio, but leave them a godly heritage should the Lord take you from this world. Some of us have read the autobiography of John G. Peyton. He was a missionary to the New Hebrides.
This is what he reported of his father when he was a young man, just recounting his history, recounting his early childhood prior to receiving the call to go to the New Hebrides. He says, How much my father's prayers at this time impressed me. I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in family worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the heathen world to the service of Jesus and for every personal and domestic need.
We all felt as if in the presence of the living Savior and learn to know and love him as our divine friend. As we rose from our knees, I used to look at the light on my father's face and wish I were like him in spirit, hoping that in answer to his prayers, I might be privileged and prepared to carry the blessed gospel to some portion of the heathen world." I suspect that book is at Valley Gospel Mission as well. The part where they separate, the part where he ultimately leaves and he looks back at his father. Ah, it's amazing.
The influence of a godly man upon his son. Presence, provision, protection, prayer, and preaching. Preaching. You are charged with instructing your children.
Teach them sound doctrine. You learn chapter 11 in the London Baptist Confession of Faith. You teach them what acceptance with God means. You teach them what is false.
I read an account recently of a man, a minister, who was reflecting upon his career or his ministry, if you will. Reflecting upon the fact that his church wasn't as solid after he departed. And he said something to this effect. He said, I spent the most part of my ministry telling them what to believe.
I never told them what not to believe. I never told them what not to believe. That's important. There's a lot of garbage out there.
There's a lot of heresy out there. There's a lot of doctrinal error out there. We seek to provide instruction in the church so that the men of God in this local body will be armed and equipped with the truth so that, in turn, they can make sure they are leading their families in a true knowledge of God Most High. Learn that confession of faith.
It's not just some antiquated document we read because we think we're neopuritans. or we want to be against the man and we want to be countercultural in an age of of whatever. No, it is historic Christian orthodoxy banged out on the anvil of hard theological contemplation. These men studied these men knew these men encapsulated in a summary fashion of good statement of God's doctrine. Fathers preach, fathers teach.
Teach them the Bible. Teach them about inspiration and fallibility and inerrancy of the Bible. Teach them the incarnation. Teach them the atonement.
Teach them justification by faith alone. Teach them about the active and passive obedience of Christ. Teach them the law of God. Teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't know if it's apocryphal, but I have heard or read that if a Jewish boy was asked to recite the law and he was not able, it was the father who was held responsible. If a young boy couldn't recite the Ten Commandments, daddy was in trouble. May it be the case that if we say, what is justification, and one of our children doesn't rattle it off, we get the man and we say, no, I'm kidding. Cam will be like, justification, I'm kidding.
Please don't go from here. He wants to beat us up. I don't. Just trying to highlight how important it is.
Presence, provision, protection, prayer, preaching, teach the children, bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Well, may God indeed bless us in our local body with the commitment to take his word seriously. not only in church life, but in family life and in individual life, seeking to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its sufficiency for our lives, and we pray now that you would go with us. We pray that you would bless us. We pray that you would help us internalize these things and be doers of your word.
Do forgive us, Lord God, for inconsistency. Do forgive us, Lord God, for at times being lazy and at times perhaps erring the other way and being authoritarian. Give us the grace to strike the biblical balance and to pursue these things with a genuine desire to do good to our little ones. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.