Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn our attention now to Ephesians
chapter six. Here Paul continues and gives
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us instructions on how our households ought
to be ordered. This is the second
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of three instructions regarding a submission within
the family. Particular instructions this evening given
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to children. I'll read verses one
through four, but one through three are
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the particular focus tonight. So effesian
six versus one through four. Children,
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Obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right. Honor Your father
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and mother. This is the first
commandment, with a promise that it may
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go well with you and that you
may live long in the land. Fathers,
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do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the
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discipline and instruction of the Lord.
You may be seated. Well, seeing
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a some children here, but knowing
that many are missing. I may preach
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us in the morning next time.
Well, I'll think about that and here
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your advice on that. Perhaps later. But I want to begin by letting
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you write the beginning of my sermon. I asked you last week to think
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about how we might and why we
might pay attention to passages that may not
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directly apply to us. Now this
one's a little different, because all of
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us are children in some sense or
another. Even if you are very old,
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do you have father and mother?
And so we never stopped in some
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ways thinking about ourselves as children of
someone Um. But nevertheless, the question
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I asked you last week it was
how do we apply a passage that of
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which we don't particularly belong to the
group which is directed at or, perhaps
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more clearly, why should someone who's
not directly addressed by a command of God
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care about that command? And I
want to share with you some of the
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answers I received on this last week. I'm one is that it helps us
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grasp the whole counsel of God.
It allows us to be better equipped to
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read and talk about our bibles right. We take the parts and we hear
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them in part light of the whole. That makes every part important. I'm
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another comes from second tim if four
team through seventeen, where we are reminded
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that all scripture is breathed out by
God and profitable for teaching, for a
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proof for correction and for training in
righteousness that the man of God may be
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complete equipped for every good work.
As we approach the scripture, then we
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approach it with a certain expectation,
a certain promise, even that it all
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is useful to us, and so
we ought to think how and why.
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Some of you suggested ways in which
why is, in which it does apply,
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why and how it might apply,
and one reason is that was that
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said that stay of this way.
We should know what God commands, even
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if it doesn't directly to apply to
us, so we can encourage others and
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reprove those who are not following God's
laws. A few others of you mentioned
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this as well. The knowing the
duties that are are particularly to other people,
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helps us know to how to encourage
them and walk with them in their
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walk. Of course I'm paying attention
to these human relationships. Also helps us
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pay attention to our relationship with God, which mirrors these is Paul has been
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I'm saying, for example, the
relationships between husbands and Wives Mirror relationship between
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Christ and the church. And so
one person wrote, I pay attention because
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I'm a child of God in relation
to him. I pay attention because I'm
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the bride. I am the bride
of Christ, and Christ is the head
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of the church. This wonderful quote
was from Isaiah, fifty four, five
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through six. Was Given for your
maker is your husband, the Lord of
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hosts is his name, and the
holy one of Israel is your redeemer,
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the God of the whole Earth.
He is called for the Lord has caused
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to called you like a wife deserted
and grieved in spirit, like a wife
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of youth when she has cast off, says your God. We might remember
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to that the scriptures are given to
us and that we might grow in them.
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Second Timothy, three we read.
But as for you, Paul writes
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to Timothy. Continue and what you
have learned and firmly believed, knowing from
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whom you learned it and how,
from childhood, you have been acquainted with
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the sacred writings which are able to
make you wise for salvation through Christ Jesus.
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Deuteronomy two thousand nine hundred and twenty
nine tells us that these things are
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given to us, they are our
possession, all of them. The secret
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things belong to the Lord, our
God, but the things that are revealed
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up along to us. There are
a few others that were mentioned, but
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I'll stop there. I'm so all
great reasons something and thank you for sending
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those to me. I want to
continue to encourage you to think about these
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kinds of things, especially tonight as
we come and think about these instructions that
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are given a particularly to children,
particularly to children. Paul addresses children tonight,
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and this is a significant thing.
I'm Steve Baugh and who, I've
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pointed out, I've been leaning heavily
and learning a lot from his commentary on
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Ephesians. I'm he points out,
as a scholar who understands the ancient world
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very well. There are a couple
things things that make this passage really remarkable
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that we might not notice. The
first is that typically in the ancient world,
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when the morality of children is addressed, it is usually only addressed to
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the parents, fathers in particular.
In other words, it's very remarkable thing
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that children are addressed directly here.
It's not a section about the obedience of
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children and is directed to the fathers. But Paul speaks to you, kids
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and he says children, Obey your
parents in the Lord. This is,
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of course, is because Christians who
belong to the household of God understand that
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their children belong to that household.
When God speaks to us as a church,
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he's not just addressing the grownups of
the church, with kids who may
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happen to be there or not,
but he addresses the whole household of which
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you kids belong. Sometimes you go
to places throughout the day which aren't particularly
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for you. You're there because your
parents have to be there and they have
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to watch and care for you,
and so you're there. Church is a
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little different. You come to church
not just because your parents come to church,
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but because you belong here. It's
not their church, it's your church
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as well. This is why you
were baptized as infants. It's why you
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kids are considered members of the church. The Bible tells us that even if
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one parent is a believer, the
children are considered holy. In First Corinthian
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seven, your baptized because you belong
to the Lord, because God's Covenant Promises
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Belong To you, and that's why
Paul speaks in this very unique way.
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Oh, you would make way.
You don't really find the ancient world when
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he talks to you directly, not
just through your parents. Professor Bob points
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out a particular verse in I've not
considered before. In light of this,
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and this will perhaps surprise you,
I'm as ECIL. Sixteen, Twenty through
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twenty one is a condemnation on Israel
and says this. And you took your
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sons and your daughters, whom you
had borne to me, and these,
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namely sons and daughters, you sacrificed
to them to be devoured. Where your
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horring so small a matter that you
slaughtered my children and delivered them up as
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an offering by fire to them.
You See, kids, to put it
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in a very dramatic way, there's
another way that you could be treated,
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and in fact some parents have treated
their children instead of offering up to the
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Lord, their God, and seeing
you baptized into his church. God here
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is condemning certain people, people that
claim to belong to the Lord, people
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that did belong to the Lord,
for offering their children not for baptism but
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to be killed, to be sacrificed
to gods that are not their gods.
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Perhaps you can be grateful, then, the God that your parents have not
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sacrificed you to foreign idols, but, if said, have instead given you
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to the one true and living God. Sin Goes very deep. A lot
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of things are possible in the depravity
of man. It is a blessing to
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belong to God and his church.
So it is a significant thing that you
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are addressed. You are called children
and addressed as those who belong to the
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Lord. A second remarkable thing that
is easy to pass over is when Paul's
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mentions children. Here, both boys
and girls are included here. Often girls
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in the ancient world were kept away
from the public until they were around fourteen
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years old, but Paul assumes here
that they are a part of the covenant
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community as well. GLACIANS, he
says. In glacians three, he says
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that neither male or there's neither male
or female in Christ. All or one
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to him, and we're all equal
in this way, boys and girls,
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men and women. When we belong
to Christ, we all have the same
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share in him. One not more
than another. And so when Paul speaks
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to you as children, he is
not just talking to one gender or to
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the other, but to both,
and this is, of course, a
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great blessing. It reminds us that, even from when we're very young,
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all have access to Christ. All
have access to Christ through faith in him.
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One other final thing we might remember
as we think about this command to
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children, and I'm talking to you
now, adults, is that even as
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adults, as we grow older,
there are still responsibilities and obligations that are
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due to our parents. You are
all might remember that Paul are a,
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rather Jesus, condemned the Pharisees,
I'm, grown men who were giving lip
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service to honoring their parents while not
really honoring them at all. We all
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have an obligation, I'm to think
about our parents and to honor them.
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So then, what does it mean
to honor them or, more particularly,
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a to obey, as as Paul
says? Here? Let's first talk about
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what it doesn't mean. I'm just
as I did when we talked about the
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submission that wives owe their husband's as
I said regarding wives, the honor that
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is due your parents does not give
your parents right to abuse you. This
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is not what is commanded or allowed
by God. And if they do abuse
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you, kids, you should tell
someone that you trust. No adult has
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the right to abuse you. God
does not command this as a part of
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the scriptures or demand that you suffer
under that. You have a right,
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and ob may even an obligation,
to tell someone you trust to find safety.
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And so this is what it does
not mean. But what does it
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mean? What kind of obedience ought
we to give? As we discussed with
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the commandments, that were given to
wives. I'll mentioned three or four things
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here. First thing it means,
kids, is that your obedience is a
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service to God. What you do
for your parents, in obeying and honoring
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them, you are ultimately doing for
the Lord. Remember what the verse says.
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It says children, Obey your parents
in the Lord, for this is
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right. The service that you give
to them a service that you are giving
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to God, and that means that
that honor and respect that you give to
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them is a very power, a
weighty thing you are giving. Even as
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you give honor and respect and obedience
to your parents, you are giving honor
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and obedience and respect to God.
That's no small thing and there's several implications
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of that. One is that it
means you can't shrug off their honor just
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because you don't feel like it.
This is true even when they're not good
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parents, because God is always good. You can't shrug off his honor,
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which means that even when your parents
aren't so great, they still owe your
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you still owe them your honor and
obedience because you owe it in the Lord
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and honor to God. But it
also means that you may not honor your
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parents or obey them more than you
honor or fear God. There may be
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cases we are disobedience is required so
that you might be obedient to God.
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The point is simply this. God
is above everything. As you give your
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obedience to your parents, you do
it because God is above them. And
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in choices and in very difficult and
hopefully very rare situations where disobedience is required,
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again it's done in obedience to God. Everything that we do is Christians
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is in for is always a first
and foremost in relationship to him. One
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last thing, I think this is
the last thing, or close to it,
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that I want to mention. When
we talking about what does this mean?
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To obey, is as we talk
about to whom that obedience is given.
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I'm one thing we might mention is
that Paul doesn't say submit only to
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your father's but he says to your
parents. It is true that the wife
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is in submission to her husband,
but the children are in submission to both
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and are called to obey both.
Because the wife is submits to her husband,
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this doesn't remove the child's obligation to
obey both father and mother. We
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might ask another question. What about
step parents? About adoptive parents or other
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parental relationships where there is not,
where they're not your biological parents. Well,
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the answer is yes, we're called
to obey them as well. You
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might remember what I said a few
weeks ago that in the ancient world death
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was a very common thing and it
was not uncut. It was not uncommon
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for a man to have multiple wives
over the court of his even his short
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life, because his wives would often
die in childbirth and another situations. Malnutrition
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was often a big problem, which
meant that when Paul speaks to the children
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here, he's talking to children who
very likely have stepmothers and perhaps other sort
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of situations as well, because this
was very, very common. We can
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assume that whatever parent is properly called
your parent, through marriage, even a
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stepparent, they are to be treated
with honor, with respect and obedience.
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Now you might feel that this is
unfair because of diff if of its difficulty,
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you may think that it's not as
easy perhaps as the natural bond that
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you might have with a biological parent, where their attachments and closeness and connections
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built from birth. But I'll remind
you that not all biological parents are easy
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to love either. Sometimes people much
prefer other step parents to their biological parents.
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We are all put in difficult and
challenging situations in our lives. We
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all have to find ways to fulfill
the Lord's commands, even in complex and
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challenging situations. So it may be
hard to hear these commands sometimes, but
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I want to remember this. What
does Paul Base these obligations on? Does
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he base them on how we feel
or what we prefer, or what a
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parent has earned or not earned?
He doesn't, does he? What does
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he base the obligations on? Children, to that you owe your parents?
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Simply on God's will, not ours. He says, children, Obey your
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parents, for it is right,
it's simply is. This obedience that we
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give is not to be a lip
service and it is to be true,
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because that is what how the Lord
commanded it, this is how he has
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ordered the world and his household.
And so that brings me the final section
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of my sermon this evening, which
is, if we've talked about the WHO
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and the how, or on the
how we should obey, what about the
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why? Well, the first one
I've mentioned already, because you belong to
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the Lord, you are his child
and he is commanding this to you as
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your father. Are you going to
look God in the eye, your heavenly
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father, and say no? I
hope not. That would be way more
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dangerous than it would even your earthly
parents if you would hesitate and be a
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little bit afraid of of saying no
and stamping your foot to your earthly parents.
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Certainly none of us as should do
that with our heavenly father. We
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belong to the Lord and he loves
US and he takes care of us,
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and everything that he commands for you
is good. It's for your benefit,
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it's for your blessing, it's according
to his most holy, imperfect will.
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If you doubt what the command is, remember who the commander is, remember
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the one who gives you the rule. It's God. He is not fallible.
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He always has your best interest at
heart, and not to that this
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command that he gives is so clear. It's a command that he has revealed
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through general revelation to all people everywhere. Paul mentions it in Romans one.
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Is One of the many ways in
which people know the law, know the
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law even though they've never come into
contact with scripture. They know the law
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and yet are, he says in
Romans one, disobedient to parents. If
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you turn there. I'm going to
just to read you some of the other
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things that he mentions, these things
which people just ought to know by virtue
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of being made in the image of
God, through their knowledge of him in
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creation and in their consciences, and
being made in his image, he says,
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in these things they are without excuse
and he describes us some of the
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things that they do. He says
they are filled, or were filled with,
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speaking of gentiles, with all manner
of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness,
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malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness,
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their gossipers or gossips, slanders,
haters of God, insolent, haughty,
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boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents, foolish, faithless,
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heartless, ruthless. If you fave
ever are tempted to think that disobedience to
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parents is a light thing or not
a big deal, remember how God includes
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it here in this list, a
list that includes murder and strife and deceit
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and hating God in Romans too.
Fourteen, he'll go on to say that
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for when gentiles, who do not
have the law, meaning the Law of
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Moses, by nature, do what
the law requires. They are a law
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to themselves, even though they don't
have the law. They show that the
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work of the law is written on
their hearts, while their conscience also bears
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witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse
or even excuse them. What's full saying
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here in Romans, when he's sang
you? You all know that this is
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true, even if you've never heard
the law of Moses. You know this.
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You're made in the image of God. You know that you are to
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be obedient to your parents. Well, if that isn't enough, of course
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it is written in the law of
Moses. God Not only reveals his this
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command in general revelation, which is
accessible to all people, but he underscores
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it and makes it perfectly clear and
special revelation as well. And that's what
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Paul points to hear when he quotes
it in verse two, Honor Your Father
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and mother, and then he continues
the quote in verse three, that it
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may go well with you that and
that you may live long in the land.
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A parenthetical comment. This is the
first commandment with a promise. What's
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Paul doing here? He's saying this
is right. Everyone knows it. Moreover,
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this is commanded in the law of
God as he gave it to as
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he gave it to Israel. And
not only was it commanded in the Law
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of God, The v of the
Ten Commandments, Paul points out it even
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has this special weight to it and
that it is the first commandment given that
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has a promised attached to it.
What was that promise? That you may
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live long in the land. And
if you read the commandment there and in
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Deuteronomy five or exodus twenty, it
says that the light the land that the
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Lord your God is giving you.
Well, so, no, it's not
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to confuse us or make us think
that if you are obedient, you will
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be able to live long in Israel. Paul cuts off the command and expands
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it and simply says that you may
live long in the land or in the
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earth. But Paul is pointing out
here is that, as the command was
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given to God's people in the theocracy, it had a very special place,
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but it wasn't just for them.
It wasn't just at that time, though,
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there was a special promise attached to
it. It has a general equity
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in it, a thing, a
a principle which is for all people and
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at all times. This is one
of what Paul's way of telling us.
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This is important, this is very
important and it is revealed by God.
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This is why we obey the commandment, because it's not an arbitrary thing or
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a foolish thing that your parents make
up and decide to just put upon you.
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No, it's a relationship that you
are born into, an honor that
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you owe by virtue of your relationship
with your parents and even more so by
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your relationship with God. Well,
kids, I won't ask you to raise
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your hands, but how many of
you have disobeyed this command? Of course
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all of you. I'm seeing the
parents raise their hands right. All of
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us have been disobedient to the fifth
commandment and the fourth and the third,
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the second, the first, the
sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and
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ten. There's not a single point
in the law of God where we can
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point to we say, well,
wow, I'm really glad I obeyed that
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one. When we hear God's commands, and we hear them in all their
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goodness and all their weight, we
are reminded as well that we fail.
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Kids, we know and you know
that you fail it obeying God's command every
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day. There's not a day that
goes by where you have perfectly done exactly
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as God has commanded, even on
your best days, even on the days
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in which you get the highest rankings
and your parents are so pleased, there
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are still things that you could think, can point to and say, well,
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I could have done that better,
I could have done that with a
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more willing heart, or done it
quicker or done it happier or whatever.
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Why do I say this? Well, one, to just be honest.
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We can't approach God's law and Pat
Ourselves on the back and walk away and
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go home and say, well,
that was great, because it's just not
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true. Who We all disobey God's
commands. And so then the question is,
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well now, what? Now?
What do we do? Well,
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Jesus tells us in John Chapter Five
that when we believe on him and when
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we trust in him for the forgiveness
of our sins, for life and his
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name, something really remarkable happens.
He says that God honors us. Why
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is that remarkable? Because the kids
are supposed to honor the parents. And
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yet the Bible says that when we
put our faith in Jesus and when he
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asked him to forgive us our sins
and to make us holy and to change
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US and recreate us into his image, and image which is obedient to the
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father. That God in some way
then honors us. He treats us in
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a way that is like he treats
his son. How does he how does
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the Father Treat the son? Well, the Bible tells us that he glorifies
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the son because of his obedience.
If you want peace with God, if
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you want to honor God, you
cannot do it by simply obeying his command.
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It's impossible. You try it for
a while, see how it works
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out. Not Don't do that.
Just skip that step and trust me.
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The way that you honor God is
through faith in Jesus, by trusting in
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him and the honor that he gave
a to the father on your behalf.
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You trust in him, you rest
in him, you find your forgiveness and
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to him and you give yourselves fully
over to him, and he promises that
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when you do that, he not
only gives you on the faith and the
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repentance through the spirit to do that, but he also begins to work in
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you new life and new obedience so
that you can obey an even very difficult
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situations, so that you can honor
God even with imperfect obedience, because God,
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it is God who is working in
you and through you to glorify himself.
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How do you honor God? Well, of course we honor God by
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obeying Him, but we honor God
by obeying him in faith, by resting
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in him, by trusting in him
in his obedience on our behalf. Let's
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end it there and pray
