Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 07 – November 1978

God's Word And Children

Sermon by Rev. K. V. Warren, B.A., B.D., M.Th. on Ephesians 6:1-3, Colossians 3:20

Scripture reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 20-25

Psalter Hymnal: 121; 308; 26:1-2, 4-5; 414:1, 3, 4; 299:1-5

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

When I was a teenager it happened several times in our home during our family Bible reading, that my father read Ephesians 6. And after he read the FIRST verse: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right," he always paused and looked at his sons. But then of course he had TO GO ON reading and when he came to verse 4: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger," WE would dare to interrupt and say: "Dad, would you read that again please?"

At least it brings home the truth that EVERYONE stands under the Word of God. Before I can say: "Well, that was a good sermon for so-and-so, just the thing HE needed, I hope he listened well", the Word of God says: what about YOU? What about YOU!

If the husband says to his wife: "Hey, you better take note of what it says here in the Bible, this is for you", in the next line it's for HIM! A little 5 year old finds that God has a word for him. A TEENAGER cannot turn his back on the Word. And just the same: MUM AND DAD are facing the Word of God for THEIR life.

Now shouldn't that bring a BEAUTIFUL TOGETHERNESS in a family? We're now talking about a Christian family. We are not saying that OTHER families are of necessity awful families, but this here is a CHRISTIAN family! Where GROWN-UPS and TEENAGERS and the SMALL ONES may be together under God's Word. Now that ought to be a privilege, to be guided in your family life by GOD HIMSELF. In this society, where things ARE deteriorating, where VALUES ARE disappearing, where people say: "WHAT DO WE DO NOW?” Divorce rate up, drug addiction increasing, generation gap wider, rejection of authority, so many things disappearing down the drain of time!"

Do you understand that, young people? See, in the PAST (and we don't want to talk about the good old times, don't get it wrong), but in the not so distant past there were still many good TRADITIONS and FINE VALUES held by a great number of people, yes, also by those who were not Christians. But much of that has gone, or at least is disappearing fast. That's the time in which WE live; fast, changing, faster still; said someone: "The time span of a generation today is ONLY 3 YEARS!" It looks as though he is right!

Alright, so WHERE are your standards, WHERE are your rules, WHAT is your platform, see them quickly being swept away by the winds of time? And you stand there empty-handed. How do I LIVE? HOW DO I live?

The Christian family has a standard which will never be swept away, THE WORD OF GOD. One of these standards: (vs.1, chapter 6 in Ephesians): "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." The twin text in Colossians reads: "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

To obey or disobey, THAT is the question.

Tell us something, boys and girls, young people; something about yourself, something what YOU think about obedience; most of you, but very likely ALL of you, think that DISOBEDIENCE IS NOT THAT BAD! Isn't that what you're thinking? Oh, it's NOT GOOD, disobedience is not good, of course you know THAT. But it's not all that terribly wicked either, is it?

That's how CHILDREN think and they SHOW that by disobeying without blinking an eyelid. And maybe PARENTS think like that too! For don't we at times let the children GET AWAY with straight-out disobedience!?! Some of us could tell you some stories about what we have seen in Christian homes, where even 3 or 4 year-olds openly defy their parents, AND are getting away with it. With MUM or DAD or BOTH being pathetic figures of powerlessness.

Now are we not, by such an attitude, saying: "Disobedience is not all that terribly bad!"? For we allow it, and in more than one situation, even in Christian homes, by the time a child is 5 or 6, disobedience has become a way of life for the child.

But congregation, young people, parents, disobedience IS terribly wicked! The Bible makes that clear! It's not just that disobedience is not the acceptable thing, no, it DISPLEASES the Lord, that's Colossians 3:20: "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this PLEASES the Lord.” And anything in which the Lord has no pleasure, is BAD, MUST BE BAD, very bad. Anything in which the Lord has no pleasure, must give much pleasure TO WHOM? You've said it: the DEVIL!

Let us read a terrible story in Deuteronomy 21:18-21: (ask congregation to look it up and read it) “....so you shall purge the evil from your midst." Do we see how wrong it is: disobedience? What an awful punishment! Why was that, why so severe? Because the people of Israel in the Old Testament were to be a HOLY people! They had to learn how to live before the face of God in righteousness and truth.

But are things today any different? Are God's claims on the Christian community, the Christian family, any less?

Of course not, nothing has been changed there. There is no longer such a severe punishment for disobedience, but God's claim is very clear: "You shall be holy, like I the Lord your God am holy."

And we must reflect God's holiness in FAMILY LIFE ALSO. Maybe THERE first of all: "Christianity begins AT HOME.”

Disobedience is very, very wrong; for it pleases the DEVIL; it is wicked. In Romans 1 at the end of the chapter, there is a situation where people are GIVEN UP by God. They don't want to have anything to do with God, so God gives them up.

Romans 1:28: "Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct."

And then follows a long list of all kinds of wickedness and evil which these ungodly people are busy with, murder, haters of God, inventors of evil, ruthless, heartless. And in this list of terrible things we also read: DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS. That is one of the results of God giving up people, God saying: "If you do not want Me; if you keep on turning away from Me, I am going to give you up. I am removing the brakes and you can hurtle headlong into all kinds of wickedness." DISOBEDIENCE TO PARENTS is one of these wickednesses!

Let's turn to 2Timothy 3:1-4: (ask congregation to look it up and read it) ".......lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Isn't that a picture of OUR generation too! And did you see it, right in the middle of that catalogue of evil: DISOBEDIENT TO THEIR PARENTS. Do you all have the picture now, young people? This is serious business, alright, VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS. Parents are to be obeyed not because they are NICE, not because they are LOVABLE, or because they ask EASY THINGS of you anyway. No, first of all: it pleases the Lord, it makes the Lord GLAD, when I OBEY my parents, I make the Lord HAPPY, when I DISOBEY my parents, I make the Lord UNHAPPY, I grieve Him, I make Him sad.

That's an interesting word, the word 'obey' as used by the apostle Paul, of course he didn't write it in English, but the Greek word Paul uses has quite a close link with our English word ACOUSTICS, you know: HEARING WELL. When there are good acoustics in a building, you can HEAR well. OBEYING AND HEARING, two words very close together: LISTENING, OBEYING, TAKING NOTE OF.

There was a missionary who was translating part of the Bible for a tribe of native people, who didn't have a word for obedience, for the children didn't have to obey, they could do what they liked. They were pampered and spoiled and the Bible translators just didn't know how to deal with that problem, to find a word to translate 'obedience'. Then, one day, when one of the missionaries went home from the village, his dog stayed behind, so he whistled and the dog came straightaway at top speed. An old native man who was sitting by the roadside, said with much admiration: "MUI ADEM DELEGAU GE." And that meant in English: "Your dog is all ears. Straightaway that missionary had a beautiful word for 'obedience': ALL EARS! LISTENING, careful listening, paying attention, not thinking: Oh, it's only Mum. No, it's never only Mum.. The LORD is there too!

The Lord even asks obedience IN EVERYTHING' (Col.3:20).

In ALL things! Not just in the things where you don't mind showing obedience. Not just in the things which are somewhat easy. No, the Lord God gives you no opportunity for PICKING AND CHOOSING. Obedience in EVERYTHING!

Sometimes children react very piously: "Yes, but what if my parents would ask me to do things which would be against God's will?" Well, Paul is not talking about that kind of situation at all!. He has a CHRISTIAN family in mind and here he doesn't even think of a situation where parents would ask of their children something against the law of God. No, obedience IN ALL THINGS.

And there are also two different ways of obeying. You know that too, young people. How many times have you obeyed, while within you were SO ANGRY, SO IRRITATED, muttering away and looking so annoyed that your face even frightened the dog. Would that be. pleasing GOD? Would that be pleasing YOUR PARENTS?

Ephesians 6 goes back to the O.T. commandment even and says that your attitude must be an attitude of HONOURING your parents: "Honour your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise) that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." (vs.2-3).

Teenager, what is your relationship with your father, your mother? What is your INNER ATTITUDE towards them? Do you love them? Yes, that stands to reason, but that's not the word! Do you HONOUR them? That is, do you respect them, treating them as of great value, great worth? Holding them in high esteem? Don't think: Yes, if my father would give a number of good reasons FOR ME TO HONOUR HIM, yes, then I would! Hey, that's not what it says here in the Bible, you can't put those conditions!

You go and tell GOD THAT, would you be game to do that? And what about your mother? You love her, of course; who wouldn't love his mother. But do you HONOUR her? Do you hold her in very high esteem, is she of very great worth and value to you and does that show in the way you treat her? And obey her! Even Christian young people run the danger of at times considering mother as the unpaid slave in the home; someone who can be reasonably ignored, but to take her for granted is definitely NOT to honour her.

Do you think you have some repenting to do here? Are you communicating? Are you caring? Are you pulling your weight? That's part of HONOURING too! Oh, if only my parents were different, it would be so much easier! Maybe if YOU were different, it would be a LOT EASIER TOO! You cannot come with CONDITIONS! This is what the LORD WANTS! It pleases Him immensely, it is right, it is proper, in His sight.

Of course you must not apply vs.3 literally to yourself: when I obey, I'll live till the age of 100. But to walk in the Lord's ways; THAT brings blessings! All different shapes and sizes, blessings galore!

Isn't it great, all you younger ones, that the Lord is so very interested in you, that in the Bible you get a very special mention, even more than one? HONOUR AND OBEY. Yes, you might say, but my friend at school, she is not really a Christian I think, but her parents want HER TO OBEY TOO, so what's the difference? The difference? GOD wants you to obey! Because you're in the COVENANT. You were baptised. That's why it doesn't say: CHILDREN, OBEY YOUR PARENTS. No, it says more than that: Children, obey your parents IN THE LORD.

You belong to a very special people. That's a great privilege. A great responsibility too! Do you see God's claim on your life? Isn't it marvellous that God is SO VERY MUCH INTERESTED IN YOU?

AMEN.