They turn back in your Bibles to Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua, chapter 24, this morning we reviewed covenant history, verses 2 to 13. Remember that Joshua there at Shechem highlighted the grace of God, the way that the Lord called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans. It was not because Abraham was a godly man, a virtuous man, but it was because God is a gracious God.
He calls Abraham out and makes a promise to him. We then saw the pace of God. God doesn't operate according to our time schedule. It was 25 years after Abraham was called that the son of promise was given to him.
It was 430 years of bondage that they experienced in Egypt before they came to this particular place. He highlights the ways of God. And again, it's mystifying at times and mysterious to the people of God. Esau received his inheritance right away, the mountains of Seir.
But rather, Jacob or Israel went down to Egypt. And it wasn't to conquer. It wasn't for triumph. Rather, it was for bondage and slavery.
God's ways at times mystify his people. And then Joshua highlights the power of God displayed in the exodus, displayed in God's faithful protection and then display in God's continuous provision. And then we notice the demand for covenant commitment, verses 14 to 24. And it's to that section that we now turn.
And I'll read beginning in verse 14. Now, therefore, 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 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 in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land.
We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God. But Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. So Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses.
Now, therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, the Lord, our God, we will serve and his voice we will obey. Amen. Let us pray.
Thank You again, Father, for this written record of this covenant ceremony at Shechem. Thank You for its abiding practicality for our own day, for our own generation, for our own situation. We just pray now that You would guide us by Your Spirit. We pray that You would help us to have such resolve that we see demonstrated by Joshua in this scripture.
We thank You, Father, for Your loving kindness. We thank You for Your great grace. We pray that You would sustain us God, we confess at times it's very easy to consider these things when we're gathered together on the Lord's day. God, when the challenges and the temptations and the trials come in the rest of the week, we cry out to you, Father, that you would provide grace and help and strength to each and every one of us.
And we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
Well, in this latter half of the chapter, we saw the demand for covenant commitment. We noted that it is a logical commitment, verse 14. It logically follows. It follows of necessity that if God has done this for you in terms of His grace, in terms of His deliverance and His power in your life, then it follows that you ought to serve the Lord.
We saw that it was an exclusive commitment. Joshua doesn't want them just to be emotionally charged and make a decision for Jesus without counting the cost, without thinking through, without realizing that God demands whole soul commitment to him in this covenant life. And then we noted thirdly that it is a serious commitment. And so this evening, I want to just focus primarily on verse 15.
Joshua says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I doubt that you're going to learn anything new tonight. The material that I bring to you, I have brought before. I believe that reminder and repetition is a necessity in the Christian life.
We need to continually visit these particular sorts of themes for our well-being. It's easy to get into patterns. It is easy to get into ruts. It's easy to get into routines that do not reflect our covenant commitment to the Lord God Most High.
So Joshua makes this great statement that all of us ought to seek to emulate and imitate. And tonight I want to address primarily the men. He says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, ladies, please don't tune out.
Children, please don't tune out. Please pay attention, pray for your fathers, pray for your husbands, pray for the men in the church that they would indeed be this kind of a man with this sort of a resolve to lead their family according to God's holy word. I want to do four things this evening as we consider an emphasis on family religion. First, notice the husband's responsibility to his wife.
Secondly, the father's responsibility to his children. Thirdly, the subject matter that is to be taught. And fourthly, the disposition necessary in the man of God. Well, as we consider Joshua, just by way of introduction, I want to suggest that he was a very busy man.
I don't know anyone who has been tasked with the sort of job that Joshua was given here. Remember, you'll read through the Pentateuch and you'll sometimes sympathize with Moses. That was quite a calling and quite a task that he had as the leader in Israel. I mean, people were looking to him for answers.
People were looking to him for strategy. People were looking to him for just about everything. Such that in the book of Exodus, his father-in-law Jethro says, you need to delegate. If you don't appoint men to assist you in leading and in ruling and in governing over these people, basically and essentially, you're going to die.
It will bury you. It is a high calling and a high task. Well, the baton passes from Moses to Joshua. Still the same amount of people. still the same needs within the congregation or within the assembly, still the same sorts of issues that face Moses will face Joshua.
But Joshua has this additional element that he has to go into the land and dispossess it of the Canaanites. So he's a military leader. He is a general. His primary calling is to engage in holy war and to go into the land and basically and essentially to kill people and to get rid of them from the land.
God used Israel as a means of judgment and chastisement upon the Canaanites. So all that to say that he was a busy man when he says in verse 15 of Joshua 24, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It wasn't as if he had all kinds of time on his hands. He didn't just sit in his easy chair and plot the day's events with reference to his family.
He wasn't freed up from all of the demands of civil life, military life. He wasn't freed up from all of the demands and the pressures that are upon all men. In fact, Matthew Henry describes him this way. It says, for his house, that is, his family. his children and servants, such as were immediately under his eye and care, his inspection and influence." 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.
Just read that last portion. Joshua was a ruler, a judge in Israel, yet he did not make his necessary application to public affairs. He didn't make his busy wife, his busy job, the demands upon him. He did not make this an excuse for the neglect of family religion, but rather he engaged in family religion.
He engaged in leading his family. He engaged in loving his wife and bringing up his children in the training and admonition of the Lord. So all that to say that if a busy military general who is in the business of going into Canaan to kill people and root them out of the land of Canaan, if he has the time in his busy day to fit in family religion, then certainly we in the 21st century with all of the modern helps that we have ought to be able to do likewise. Well,
Husband's Responsibility to His Wife
let's look first at the husband's responsibility to his wife. You may turn to Ephesians 5. Nothing wrong with looking at later revelation, later epistles to get some informed answers in terms of how we are to engage our responsibility to our wives with reference to family religion. First,
Lead and Love His Wife
the husband is to lead his wife. This is what we find in Ephesians 5 verse 23. For the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church and he is the savior of the body. The man of God, the husband in his home, is to be conspicuously the leader in his home.
He doesn't get voted into office. He doesn't do it by default. He doesn't do it because he's the best at it, but rather God has structured his universe in such a way. We considered when we looked at 1 Corinthians 11 many, many years ago, I kept using the illustration that in God's world, birds fly and fish swim.
And God made men to lead in their homes and in the church. But that's not our focus here this evening. Notice the husband is head of the wife. That is an indicative verb.
It is what is true. He may be a bad head. He may be a good head. But a head, he nevertheless is.
Husbands, take responsibility for what happens in your home. Lead your wives. Lead your children. This is God's Word.
We must accept this responsibility. We mustn't deflect it. Now, in the application of biblical ethics in the family, I think there's one of two abuses that men make. They become tyrants or dictators.
They become the Idi Amin within their own living room. Or they become the Joseph Stalin or the Adolf Hitler. They bang their fist and they demand obedience and they demand submission and they demand all sorts of various things. That's a real temptation for husbands.
A man who is a fool, who abuses power, who takes that leadership responsibility and he grinds his family down with it. In fact, there was a man by the name of Nabal that seemed to function this way. He was married to a lady named Abigail that ultimately became wife to King David of Israel. So that's an extreme position that we must avoid.
But what happens today, more often than the tyrant, is the abdicator. The one who is passive. The one who does not lead. The one who says, honey, you make all the decisions.
The one that does not take responsibility for his own, but rather he seeks to shift blame. If there's a problem in the house, it's because of his wife, or it's because of his children, or it might be because of God, just like Adam did in the garden. The woman whom you gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat. What's the implication in Adam's statement?
God, if you hadn't created her, we wouldn't be in this mess. And God, if you hadn't created her the way that she is, we wouldn't be in this mess. Blame shifting has a long history and pedigree in the lives of the people of God. We cannot do that.
We must leave. Secondly, the husband is to love his wife sacrificially. Loving leadership is what Paul calls for in the Scripture. Notice in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.
You must love as Christ loves. This is a blessed safeguard. This is a blessed protector. This is a blessed hedge around the tyranny, around the pounding of the fists. around the Idi Amin type of leadership.
It occurs to me some of you may not even know who Idi Amin is. Well, you should know that. I don't know how you're going to get into that. You should just know that.
Go look it up. Google it. You should learn that. You should know who Pol Pot was.
You should know who these famous dictators were. So that when we use them as sermon illustration, I'm kidding, you should know them because you should know them. But loving as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church?
He gave Himself for her. He sacrificed for her. He put her well-being, He put her benefit, He put her happiness before His own. You see, in a godly home where a man takes seriously his responsibility, he engages in what's been called servant leadership.
It's probably an overworked term, but it certainly describes the kind of leadership that Jesus Christ engaged in. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. In the parallel passage in Colossians, Paul says, do not be embittered against them. Do not blame everything on them.
Do not get upset with them, but rather love them. Provide an environment of protection. Provide an environment of care. Provide an environment of safety so that your wife can flourish and be all that God has made her to be.
Thirdly,
Disciple and Sanctify His Wife
the husband is to disciple his wife. 526, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. This is what Jesus does with reference to the church. He disciples us through the preaching of the word, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, through worship, through fellowship, through the means that he has given to the church for her well-being and good. What's he doing?
He's discipling us. He's maturing us. He's causing us to grow. He's causing us to be more like himself.
This is the grand design of God's predestinating plan. For whom he foreknew, these he also predestined. The ones he predestined was to be conformed to the image of his son, according to Romans 8. Well, Jesus does that with his church.
There ought to be growth. There ought to be maturation. Turn back for just a moment to Ephesians 4. Where we see something of Christ's plan or Christ's mind with reference to discipleship of his church.
Notice in verse 11 of chapter 4, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Talking about Jesus giving gifts to the church. It's a beautiful image back in verse 8, quote from Psalm 68. When Jesus ascended on high, he led captivity captive and he gave gifts to men.
This was very typical in this particular realm. When a king went in and conquered a people, he would divide up the spoil and he would give gifts to his subjects. It was great, right? It's like a little boot or a little bit of booty or a little bit of an incentive with reference to battle.
The king would give gifts to men, would disperse these winnings, would disperse the blessed spoils of war. Well, this is what Paul is saying that Jesus does. He ascends on high. He leads captivity captive and he gives gifts to men.
The gifts specifically are men. who are called to preach and teach His word. That's what we find there in verse 11. He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Now notice, a three-fold purpose for this.
For, verse 12, the equipping of the saints. Second, for the work of ministry. Third, for the edifying of the body of Christ. You see, Jesus knows what he's doing.
This is why he's given gifts to the church. And then notice the purpose of verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Isn't that a beautiful process?
Isn't that a beautiful plan? Isn't it glorious the way Jesus works in and among his church? He's not absentee. He's present by his word, by his spirit, by the gifts that he has given to the church.
There is this purpose in view, that the church marches forward, that the church goes forward, that the church grows in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and achieves some degree of maturation. Well, she's stable and strong and not subject to every wind of doctrine, not subject to the to the false ideas that circulate among the people of God. That is how Christ disciples. That is what a husband is to do with his wife.
Verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. The way Jesus does that with his church is the way a husband is to do that with his wife. He is to lead her, He is to love her, and He is to disciple her. Fourthly, the husband is to help his wife in her sanctification.
Verse 27, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Again, Christ and his church. But parallel to that is the husband's responsibility with his wife. He wants to see her sanctified.
He wants to see her growing in grace. He's not a fly in her ointment. He's not a pebble in her shoe. He's not a hardship to her growth in the things of God.
He makes sure that she gets time with God alone. He makes sure that she gets to church where she can hear the preaching of the gospel. Her sanctification is important to him. He wants her to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then fifthly,
Nourish and Cherish His Wife
The husband is to do this by nourishing her. Notice in 529, we'll go back to 28. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
You see, he's speaking about Christ, but he's making this analogy. He's making this parallel. He's making this application to husbands toward their wives. Verse 29, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.
Just as the Lord does the church, that's the way men are supposed to exercise their responsibility. You remember this morning when I said that Mount Shechem is sort of like the Sermon on the Mount, sort of like hymns that we sing that probably are out of our reach. What's it do? Cast us back on the mercy and the grace of God.
Husbands, if you understand your responsibility, as Paul outlines here, you will be a debtor to grace. You will stand in dependence upon God most high. I don't care how holy you think you are. I don't care how accomplished you think you are.
I don't care what kind of a man or manner or nature that you have. You need grace. I need grace to be able to do this. Often said, one of the biggest challenges about marriage is that God takes two sinners and puts them in the same house.
That's tough. We have a tough time on our own, brethren. It's tough to manage ourselves. But then God in marriage knits us together with someone.
And yes, we love them. And yes, we esteem them. And yes, we prize them. And yes, they're the delight of our eyes and our joy and our happiness.
But we have remaining corruption. There is sin in our hearts. That's why Paul has to write Ephesians five and Colossians three, because men in Christ don't just naturally do this. We have to be told again and again and again, what is our responsibility?
What is our duty? And what it looks like to be like Joshua and say, but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh. It's not up to us. It's not how we define it.
It's not how we feel about it. It's how God himself defines this particular task and responsibility. You are called to nourish your wife, to nourish children to maturity is the idea. The whole process leading to an attained goal.
This doesn't happen overnight. Don't yell at your wife because she's not as holy as you are. Don't yell at your wife or compare her to other women that she should be as holy as. That's not nourishing.
That's not caring. That's not cherishing, as Paul goes on to say, which means to show tender affection and love. It's interesting that Paul himself applies such language to himself in his pastoral ministry. In First Thessalonians, chapter two, he says, We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother, here it is, cherishes her own children so affectionately longing for you.
We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you would become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and our toil, laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe.
As you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children. He's talking to a church and he says, as a mother, we cherish you as a mother. We loved you as a mother. We were affectionate towards you.
And as a father, we tended to your good and your well-being and we protected you. If Paul can say that about the apostolic ministry, if Paul can say that about church shepherding, about church leadership, certainly as men, brethren, we ought to say with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh, and that means I'm going to love my wife. I'm going to protect her. I'm going to provide for her.
I'm going to defend her. I'm going to be like God for her. I'm going to be jealous for her honor. And I'm going to seek by my or by God's good grace and by my labor and effort to bring her to a place of Christian maturity so that she walks with Jesus Christ.
Paul sets a great example there in his pastoral ministry. So the husband's responsibility to his wife. He leads, he loves, he disciples, he provides her, promotes sanctification, nourishes and cherishes. It's an amazing analogy.
Again, what's the church supposed to do under Christ's tutelage, under Christ's leadership? She's supposed to get to the place where she is without blemish, where she is without spot. Now, brothers, you can't stop that from happening in the physical realm. My wife and I were just musing the other day on more wrinkles on our faces.
It's weird. I don't remember this ever. Wrinkles. She told me, you've got a lot of wrinkles.
Thanks, honey. Always there for a boost. Just kidding. You can't stop that process.
You cannot stop the blemishes. Sorry to get it. You know, it sounds crass and vicious and mean and all that. As men, we cannot stop that natural process in the physical realm that happens to our wives.
Spiritually, she should be growing. Spiritually, she should be glowing. Spiritually, she should be without blemish. Spiritually, she should be shining.
Spiritually, she should be more like Jesus Christ. Spiritually, she should be beautiful and excelling in beauty. You can't stop it in the physical realm. But with reference to the spiritual realm, with God's grace and the Spirit of God by His grace, we can engage. in promotion of these things in our lives.
And again, ladies, there's a lot to be said to you as well. We're just picking on the men tonight under Joshua 24, 15.
Father's Responsibility to His Children
Now, secondly, the father's responsibility to his child or children. Father's responsibility to his children. Again, Ephesians 5 or Ephesians 6, rather, provides some good material for us.
Do Not Provoke Your Children
First, the father is not to provoke his children. Robert, Ephesians 6, 4. You fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. Do not provoke your children to wrath.
Do not anger them. This involves avoiding attitudes, words and actions which would drive a child to angry exasperation or resentment. A man must avoid tyranny, harsh demands, constant nagging, humiliation. That's not Jim Butler's lexicon.
That's a pretty standard definition of the term that is used here by the apostle. Let me just read this again. To anger, to provoke to anger. This involves avoiding attitudes, words, and actions which would drive a child to angry exasperation or resentment.
A man must avoid tyranny, harsh demands, constant nagging, and humiliation. Jim Butler lexicon would say, lighten up a little bit, brothers. Lighten up. They're sinners.
Image bearer sinners. They need your love. They need your care. They need your concern.
They need not to be provoked or exasperated or have their wills broken or their hearts broken. Break that sinful disposition, that sinful bent in the will. We don't want to break them. That's what I think the apostle is getting at here.
Do not provoke your children to wrath. That's the negative. Don't exasperate them. Don't make them want to leave home.
Don't push them out. Don't make them want to run away. Don't make them want to avoid you. It should be the case that when the car drives up in the driveway, the kids are happy to see you, not run the other way.
As a general rule, if you only see the back of your kids like this, something's wrong. Unless you're playing hide-and-go-seek. That's legit. That's cool.
That's a great expression of family bonding and union and love and all those sorts of things. Don't provoke them. And again, I'm not up here as the Joshua leader. Hey, Brethren, watch me.
No, this is tough stuff. What is the natural tendency and pressure in our hearts, but to provoke them, but to strike out, but to lash out? We have seen this in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus teaches us we need to turn the other cheek.
Why? Because when we're wrong, we want to punch people, not turn the other cheek. Jesus says, when we're sued for our tunic, we ought to give them the outer garment as well. Why?
Because we'll say, see you in court. When we are told to go one mile, we naturally and by nature gravitate towards saying, there's no way I'm walking with you one mile. Jesus says, walk within two miles. The natural tendency and disposition is to provoke children as unconverted people, so that when we're saved, we're born again, the Spirit of God takes up residence in our heart.
Paul's admonition to his people, or to the fathers in his congregation, do not provoke your children to wrath. You don't win battles that way. You don't win their hearts that way. You don't win them to your side that way.
You don't make them want to listen to you when you open the Bible and teach them about the fatherhood of God. In other words, Paul is saying, don't be or be like God. Doesn't provoke his children to wrath. What does Psalm 103 say?
It says he pities us. He knows our frame. He knows that we're but dust. That's the way we approach our children.
We know their frame. We know they're but dust. We realize that they are in Adam and that they need God's grace and they need our love and they need our molding and influence in their lives. Do not provoke them.
Secondly,
Train and Admonish Your Children
he says, bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. The training of the Lord provides specifically or promotes specifically actions. It probably has in view something of discipline. It probably has in view the rod and reproof.
Realizing that your child has a sinful bent, you don't just say, well, you just do whatever you want. That provokes them to wrath. Hedges, parameters, restriction, guides, that is what a child desperately needs. J.
Adams uses a great illustration. He says, what happens if there's a train and there's no tracks? Is that freedom? If you happen to see a train in a field without tracks, do you think, That's a free train.
No, you drive far away from it. It's when the train is on the tracks that it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Bring them up in the training of the Lord. Discipline them.
The rod and the reproof give wisdom, the scripture says. The scripture says that foolishness is bound up in the hearts of children. The rod will drive it far from them. Loving, gracious, kind, firm discipline is what Paul enjoys upon the fathers in Ephesus.
Bring them up in the training of the Lord. Be involved, be active, be the man that actually takes to task or takes to heart this responsibility. But it's not just the actions. It's also the word.
The father is to bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. This refers to education, child training. Discipline has to do with our instruction given to them, which we'll see in just a moment. You see, Paul does not leave these things to just be however you want to approach it.
No, he guides us. He directs us. He gives us mandates. He gives us the train tracks.
He calls us to blessed Christian liberty, which finds its way according to God's holy law. That's what the apostle enjoins upon us as fathers. Do you see when Joshua stands there at Shechem and says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He's making a bold statement.
He's calling for covenantal commitment. He's calling for you to stop following Baal, stop following Mastress, stop following the pagan deities. They're not going to promote health, happiness, joy and love in your home. Only God will.
You take responsibility to step out in faith. You need to take the book of God. You need to study it. You need to come to grips with what the Lord would have you to do.
I mean, I remember when we first got converted, one of the first things we got was a little door thing that said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Right? One of those little dik, dik, dik, dik. It's got the little thing on it, right?
You put that on your door. That's a nice little sentiment for on your door, but it's much better to be right in here. Joshua's not engaged in sloganizing. The Apostle Paul isn't engaged in mottos.
The Apostle Paul is telling us how we are to pursue this high calling, which is called being a husband and being a father. We are to do it self-sacrificially. We are to put our wives and our children first. We'll often say, oh, I'll defend my wife.
If some home invasion robber comes, I'm going to stand there and I'm going to defend them and I'm going to beat them up. We need to do that spiritually. Actively and purposely lead your families in the things of God. The father is not to provoke.
He is to bring them up in the training of the Lord. He is to bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. And
Love Your Children
the father is to, get this, love his children. He is to love them, care for them, tend to them. Love is a powerful ingredient in this whole situation. You can't not provoke.
You can't train. You can't bring them up in the admonition of the Lord without love. Love is the context. Love is the environment.
Love is the orbit in which these things are to be put into practice. You have to love them. You have to value them. You have to prize them.
You have to care for them. You have to pray for them at a bare minimum. Brethren, pray for your sons and your daughters. Pray for your wives.
Again, wives, pray for your husband. Children, pray for your fathers, to be sure. This is a reciprocal responsibility that ought to find its mark in all of our homes, for sure. A husband ought to pray.
We see in the first chapter of Job, he's praying. He's a priest on behalf of his family, and if perhaps they go out and sin, he's praying for them. They're in his mind. They're in his heart.
He can't but pray for them. You see, when we love them, when we love our wives, when we love our children, we will sacrifice for them. We will deny ourself for them. We will put them first.
There's this greedy, selfish mindset where some men think that they ought to have everything in the home. No. There's an interesting passage in the book of Exodus. I'm not going to get into the specifics.
It talks about taking a second wife. Again, I'm not here to get into polygamy and all the detailed legislation ruling on that issue. You know, it's very instructive. If a man were to take an additional wife, you know what his responsibility is?
Just make her happy. Make sure wife number one has full cupboards, has a full closet, and is tended to in the marriage bed. Now, again, that rubs us a little bit odd and wrong because we're not Mormons and we don't live in Utah and we don't have a doctrine of polygamy and all that sort of thing. I kind of put polygamy in the same place as divorce, slavery, things that would not be in an unfallen world.
But since they did come to pass, God legislates, God rules, God orders, God puts laws into place to protect the innocent. Just imagine that for a moment. You take an additional wife. And again, don't go from here saying, Pastor Butler said I can find another wife.
One, I would say you're a fool to think you can handle it. And two, I'm not saying that, please. Sorry, but imagine that. Wife number two is on the scene.
Here's your duty. Here's your responsibility. Make sure wife number one has food in her cupboards. has clothes in her closet and is taken care of in the marriage bed. Now, just bring that application out for a moment.
Shouldn't that mean at a minimum a Christian husband, one who has the Holy Spirit, one who knows Ephesians five should provide for his wife to make sure she has food in her cupboards? She has clothes in her closet and she is tended to in the marriage bed. And that's bare minimum requirements. And yet there's some very selfish men out there, some very greedy men, some very godless men that always insist upon themselves first.
Christ loved the church and he gave himself for her. If that is a responsibility you're not comfortable with, you need to repent. You need to forsake. You need to confess it to God, seek fresh mercy, seek forgiveness, seek cleansing, and pray, God, help me to sacrifice for the one you gave me.
So if the bare minimum are those three things, brethren, as Christian men living on this side of the book of Ephesians, Certainly, those are given. 1 Timothy 5, 8. If a man does not provide for his own, he's worse than an infidel. He's worse than an unbeliever. He will go out and he will pound the pavement.
He will do everything lawfully. He will pursue every means so that his wife will have food in her cupboards, have clothes in her closet, and he will tend to her needs merrily. God isn't playing games. husband's responsibility to his wife, father's responsibilities to his children.
The Subject Matter to Be Taught
Thirdly, the subject matter to be taught. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Deuteronomy: Teach Your Children
Turn back to Deuteronomy 4 for just a moment. We saw this in our Wednesday night study. Not too long ago. Repetitious theme in the book of Deuteronomy.
See, God's about covenantal succession. God is about us instructing our children and our grandchildren. God is about us evangelizing, yes, out in the marketplace, but in our living rooms. God is about us promoting the gospel of free and sovereign grace to those under our care.
Notice in Deuteronomy 4, this is the danger of idolatry and the consequences associated with it. Verse 7, For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him? This is an exhortation, or this is what they are supposed to be as Israel. When they go into the land, the pagans around them ought to see them, ought to see their light shining, and then scratch their heads and say, what kind of a nation is this?
It's amazing what kind of laws they have, and a God who is there for them. Notice in verse 8, And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Now, here is the warning. Here is the prohibition.
Here is the dangers and consequences of idolatry. Only, verse 9, take heed to yourself. Diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Notice, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb.
That's Sinai. That's Exodus 19. That's when God, in a theophany, that means a visible presence of God, came on Sinai in thunder, in lightning, in cloud, in pomp, in glory, and in majesty. You see, one of the means, one of the helps for a father to maintain covenantal faithfulness to his God and to avoid the danger of idolatry is to instruct his children, to teach them about the things of God, to point them to Yahweh, to point them to the cross, to point them to the gospel, to urge upon them faith in him and repentance unto life.
You see, Moses says one of the means by which you will not fall into idolatry is family religion. Family alters. Praying together, reading the scriptures, rehearsing the things of God, keeping it in the forefront. Specifically, the event at Horeb, specifically what happened at Sinai, you teach your children about the covenant, you teach your children about the law, you teach your children what God spoke at Sinai.
It's not rocket science. It's not, I have to teach them how to do calculus and all those other things. No, you teach them the fear of the Lord. You teach them about Sinai, specifically here.
It says, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children, that they may learn to fear God. That's the subject matter. That's what we are to bring them up. That is what they need to know.
Deuteronomy 6: Diligent Instruction
Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four here. Oh, Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children and 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, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontless between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Primary responsibility for child instruction, father, dad, you. Church is supposed to supplement that.
The church is supposed to preach. Church is supposed to educate you. The primary responsibility for the religious instruction of children is dad. Daddy, teach me the Bible.
That's what Moses is saying to the people of God here. This is what Joshua is saying when he's calling for covenantal faithfulness. Bring your children to church, most certainly, to hear the gospel, to hear the preaching of the word, to hear the exposition of God's holy truth. You need to be teaching them.
When you rise up, you walk by the way, when you lie down, it's not just seasons after supper, after supper, get the Bible up, get the hymn books out. Let's sing a couple of hymns. Let's read scripture. That's great.
But you're walking at the zoo. Look at what God made. Look at that big giraffe. God made that.
It's amazing, isn't it? Look at that big elephant. Who made that? Well, God made that, didn't he?
You see, when you walk by the way, You're supposed to instruct, you're supposed to teach, you're supposed to inculcate a Christian worldview, a biblical worldview. That doesn't mean, OK, children, sit at your desk because I'm going to give you 15 points on what a biblical worldview looks like. Well, there might be time for that formal instruction, but a lot can be done walking in the zoo. A lot can be done walking in Stanley Park.
A lot can be done walking down your street. A lot can be done in the daily pressures of life. A lot can be done when you have siblings. You teach, you instruct, you tell them what God's Word says.
Six twenty, when your son asks you in time to come say, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with the mighty hand and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes. Great and great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household. Then he brought us out from there that he might bring us in to give us the land of which we swore to our fathers.
And I think there's something of that urgency when he teaches that. The son asks you, what does this mean, father? Well, you know, God brought us out of the land of Egypt. God brought us out of Egypt.
We were slaves there. Pharaoh made us make bricks with no supplies. I saw my brother get wet. I saw them beaten.
We were in oppression. We were in hard labor. And God brought us out. It was amazing, son.
It was amazing, daughter. You should have seen. We came up to the Red Sea. We didn't think there was a way across.
And all of a sudden, it opened up. Son, you know what it was like to walk through that? and to see the fish in the water and to have dry feet, then to get over to the other side and get into a position where we could watch the river. God poised us. God positioned us.
God put us in such a place that when Pharaoh gave pursuit into that same pathway, God brings the water upon them. Sounds great. Amazing.
Calvary as the New-Covenant Sinai
If the event at Sinai must be proclaimed to our children, then as Christians in the New Covenant, the event at Calvary must be proclaimed. Son, I was dead in trespasses and sins. I was in bondage. I worshipped the crack pipe, or I worshipped sex, or I worshipped whatever.
Now, be obviously mindful of what you tell your four-year-old. But children, this is where I was, and God reached out and saved me. That's who the Lord is. The gospel is amazing.
Christ came into this world, sinners to save. He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Son, look at Christ. Daughter, look at Christ.
See what he does at Calvary. He's not there as an example. He's not there just to melt your heart. He's not there just to sway your emotions.
He's there dying for your sins. He's there being raised for your justification. He's enthroned with the right hand of the majesty on high to aid you in your times of temptation. Teach them the events connected with Calvary.
If old covenant children were to be taught about Sinai, certainly new covenant children are taught about Sinai and Calvary. You see, that's the subject matter. That's how we serve the Lord. That's what differentiates us from the moralists, from the humanists, from the Mormon, from the Jehovah's Witness, from anybody that does good things.
We're not simply trying to modify behavior. We are urging our children to flee to Christ for salvation. That's what differentiates Christians. It's the gospel of free and sovereign grace.
It is the new birth. It is regeneration. It is the power of God.
The Necessary Disposition
And then the disposition necessary, finally, is what we found already in Joshua chapter 24. He says it in verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth.
Serve him in sincerity and in truth. Bring up your children in this disposition. You see, Joshua, when he said, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He didn't just gather them together and just sort of go through rote lessons.
He did it in sincerity before God. He did it in truth. He was committed to the long haul. He was committed to their well-being.
There's something, dear brothers and sisters, that is infectious about a living faith. We can't create that faith in them to be sure, but we can certainly, by God's grace, promote and provoke a jealousy in them to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is legit. Paul in Romans chapter 11 says that this partial hardening of the Jews, this calling of the Gentiles was to provoke Israel to jealousy.
Do that. You know what it's like to be saved, to have your sins forgiven, to be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb? Never let the events of Sinai and Calvary go undealt with in your homes. Teach them law.
Teach them gospel. Teach them gospel. Teach them gospel. Teach them gospel.
Teach them law. Teach them about the cross of Christ. Teach them all that God has commanded us. And again, not so they can be little, arrogant, proud theologians.
Mommy taught me what supralaxarianism is. Get out of here. Keep your kids that way, praise God. That's great.
So that's not what Moses says, that he's enjoying the teach. Teach them the events associated with Sinai. As New Covenant believers, teach them the events associated with Calvary. Now, therefore, he said, verse 23, put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.
Incline your heart. It's not just the External, it's not just outward, it's not just what we do out there, but it is a heart, it is a whole soul commitment to the God of heaven and earth. Well, those are some thoughts with reference to Joshua 24, 15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
It's a great resolution for us as men to renew as we enter into a new year. It's a great resolution for you ladies to renew as you enter into a new year. It's a great resolution for you children to consider. Who will you serve?
Is it going to be the gods of Egypt, the gods of Canaan, or is it going to be Jehovah? It's going to be the Lord God Almighty, the one who made you, the one who sustains you, the one who feeds you, the one who gives you water, the one who gives you all things necessary for life. and health and happiness. Is it that God, if ye then come to Christ, believe on him and you will be saved. That is a promise from the scripture.
That is a promise from God himself. All those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will have everlasting life. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your word and thank you for the example of Joshua in this chapter, and we pray that you would Forgive us, Lord, forgive me for my sins, and I pray that you would cleanse each of us in the blood of the land. Help us to take these things to heart. Help us to pray them in. Help us to think in terms of your law, in terms of your gospel.
We pray that you would just cause us to rejoice in the blessings that you have poured out upon us. Help us, Lord God, in our homes and our families to truly reflect the love of Christ and to truly demonstrate what Christianity looks like. We just ask that you would go with us now. We pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit.
Watch over us in this coming week. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.