life in the spirit

Ever considered the profound question - does God choose us, or do we choose God? Prepare to be enlightened as we venture into deep theological waters, exploring the fascinating concept of election, dissecting the enigmatic paradox of God's mercy and hardening, and bringing to light the comforting notion that all things work together for good for those who love God. We'll use the chapters of Romans as our guide, highlighting instances where God picks certain individuals for His purposes, like Moses and Abraham.

Buckle up as we transition into an intimate reading of Romans 8 and 9. Glean insights on the contrast between living in the flesh versus in the spirit, the joy, and trials that come with being a child of God, and the depth of Paul's sorrow for his fellow Israelites. We'll also unravel the complex concept of God's promise not being tied merely to physical lineage but fulfilled through the children of the promise. Perfect for those grappling with the concept of election, curious about the reading of Romans, or simply seeking to broaden their theological knowledge, this episode promises an invigorating journey through the Bible's rich tapestry.

Romans 8: This chapter is a powerful declaration of the life that comes through the Spirit of God. It emphasizes the freedom and victory believers have in Christ, highlighting the contrast between living by the flesh and living by the Spirit. It discusses the assurance and security found in the Holy Spirit, addressing suffering, hope, and the role of the Spirit in intercession. Paul also emphasizes the unbreakable love of God, expressing confidence that nothing can separate believers from His love.

Romans 9: In this chapter, Paul wrestles with the concept of God's sovereignty and the election of Israel. He passionately expresses his deep sorrow and anguish for his fellow Israelites who have not accepted Christ. Paul discusses how not all who are descended from Israel are part of the true Israel and emphasizes that God's choice and mercy are decisive in salvation. He speaks of God's right to show mercy and explores how Gentiles, through faith, have become part of God's chosen people.

Romans 10: Paul addresses the importance of faith and righteousness, explaining that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ. He stresses the need for preaching the Gospel to all, both Jews and Gentiles, emphasizing that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Paul contrasts the significance of faith with the futile pursuit of righteousness through the law, explaining that Christ is the fulfillment of the law for everyone who believes. He emphasizes that faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.

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Thanks so much for listening to the show. We'll See you tomorrow.
-Ryan and Jenny

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One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on 'The Daily Radio Bible' for a daily 20-minute spiritual journey. Engage with scripture readings, heartfelt devotionals, and collective prayers that draw you into the heart of God's love. Embark on this year-long voyage through the Bible, and let each day's passage uplift and inspire you.

TODAY'S EPISODE:

Immerse yourself in the transformative teachings of Romans 5-8 in today’s episode of the Daily Radio Bible. These chapters of Paul's epistle delve into the core of Christian theology, discussing grace, faith, and life in the Spirit. In Romans 5, explore the concept of peace with God through Jesus Christ. Romans 6 challenges us on living a life free from sin, while Romans 7 delves into the internal struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The climax in Romans 8 brings us to the heights of God's love and the life in the Spirit. This episode provides profound insights into how faith in Christ affects our inner and communal lives. As we continue our journey through the Bible in a year, let these chapters enrich your understanding and strengthen your walk with God.

TODAY'S PRAYERS:

Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose  through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.  

Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.  

And now Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope.  Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness,  Joy.  Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life.  Amen

And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray...

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, they kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world, and continue in the risen life of Christ.  Amen. 

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:

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Introduction

Jesus’ Parable of the Hidden Treasure

My sermon title is, “Joyful Perseverance in Trials Produces Spiritual Maturity.” Jesus told a parable saying, that, “the kingdom of Heaven is likened to treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy, sold everything he had and bought that field.” There is no more precious commodity in this world than salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the most precious thing that there is, and it is real. We, who are Christians, we know that that salvation is real because God is real. Though we cannot see Him, we know that He created the universe and by faith we understand that, and by faith we know that Heaven is real, and that salvation is real. But what if our claim to that treasure, what if our claim is counterfeit?

That man went out and sold everything he had and bought that field, but imagine he bought it from a fraudulent salesman and that the title deed he had to that field was fraudulent. What if it was a fake? Speaking more directly, how can we know that our faith in Christ is genuine? How can we know that we have the kind of faith that will save our souls? There are frauds. 

Fraudulent Faith

There are counterfeits in everything. You can think of fake rolexes. You can think of even fake hiking and mountaineering equipment. I saw in Nepal, there were name brands, and the name was spelled slightly differently than I'd seen before. They have WcDonalds in China where the M is upside down. And so there are fraudulent things. 

Probably the most lucrative fraudulent businesses is in art. I was reading recently of a painting that was sold supposedly from the 16th century, a painting of Saint Jerome, and it was so realistic looking at had actual cracks of age that followed a certain pattern that was characteristic of the 16th century, it was that accurate. But the painting sold for almost a million dollars contained some pigments, some chemicals that were impossible to be from the 16th century. In the end it was exposed as a fraud. 

Now, the art collector that bought that was out $860,000. We're talking about something infinitely more valuable than that. We're talking about your eternal soul. We're talking about, whether you'll spend eternity in Heaven or in Hell. And therefore it is vital for us to know whether our claim to Christ is fake or genuine. Some have told me before, and we're going through the Sermon on the Mount, in men's Bible study on Thursday. And one of the scariest passages in the Bible, is in Matthew 7 where Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But only those who do the will of my Father, who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles.' And then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.'" People tell me that's a scary verse for them because they are aware of the possibility of being self-deceived, they're aware of the possibility of a fraudulent faith, and I think that's a good thing. 

Be Willing to Evaluate Yourself

The New Testament encourages us to evaluate ourselves to test ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test." So we are told by 2 Corinthians 13, and many other passages to evaluate our faith, to test ourselves, to not make assumptions. Now, the consistent answer the New Testament gives to the question, “How can I know if my faith is genuine?”, is the issue of fruit, or works. There's different ways of saying it, but it's the same answer. If there is fruit, genuine fruit, then there is genuine life. If there is not genuine fruit, there is not genuine life. Then you may wonder "Well, what fruit, should I be looking for? What is the fruit that God wants to see in my life?" Again, the Lord has not left us as orphans on that question, He has told us what He wants us to be and do. The New Testament defines the healthy Christian life. But one book in particular, zeroes in on good works as proof positive of the kind of faith that saves and that is the book we're about to study the Book of James. 

The Practicality of James 

Now James is a book that's hard to synthesize into one overarching theme. It actually reads somewhat like a Christian book of Proverbs, taking on various topics and sometimes even it seems changing the subject, and now we're on to another topic and it's hard always to connect the dots. It's a very practical book. However, one could argue that the theological center of the book is in James 2. A James 2:14 says this, "What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such a faith save him?" It's an interesting phraseology in that translation, "Can such faith save him?" That kind of faith. “Can that faith save him?” So, what that raises is the question of, “What kind of faith is genuine, what kind of faith saves souls?” And James says there in that chapter, the faith that produces good works will save your soul, but the faith that does not produce good works is not a genuine faith. It is a dead faith, it's a demon faith, it's worthless. And he'll go through all that in Chapter 2. So it is a diabolical thing to be deceived by Satan, for Satan to lie to us about our true spiritual condition.

But to some degree, it's even more diabolical when he enlists us in that process where we deceive ourselves, where we lie to ourselves about what's really going on. And so, the whole Book of James is written, I think to help us not do that, to expose fraudulent faith while there's still time to do something about it, to show us what the kind of faith that saves our souls really looks like, and this first sermon will fit right into that as we look at joyful perseverance, in trials, and how that will prove faith to be genuine. 

I. An Introduction to James: The Man and His Letter (vs. 1)

Who is this James?

So let's begin with an introduction to James both the man and his letter. That would be the first heading in my outline and look at verse 1, "James a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings". So who is this James? Well, there are four James’ mentioned in the New Testament. Two of them we can remove right away, that leaves James, one of the 12 Apostles, the brother of John one of the three inner circle with Jesus. The problem is that he was the first martyred among the apostles. And so, would have died too, soon, I think, to write this letter. Most scholars zero in on James, the half-brother of Jesus. Now Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born, but she did not remain so. She and Joseph had a normal healthy married life, and so she gave birth to other children. And at one point, Jesus's enemies in Nazareth say of Jesus, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us?” So, there's clear textual proof that Mary had other children. Now they would have been half-brothers and sisters of Jesus because only Jesus had God as His true father while they all had Joseph as their father but the same mother. 

James’ Journey of Faith

Now this man, James, had a journey of faith. It's very plain in John Chapter 7, and 5 that Jesus brothers did not believe in Him while He was ministering, they did not believe in Him, John 7:5. However, after the resurrection of Jesus, James is there with his brothers, and Mary in the upper room, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. So what happened? What changed? Well, I believe 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 7 makes it plain, that Jesus, as Paul's going through the evidence of the resurrection on how Jesus appeared to Peter and then to the 12, and then to 500 people. It says after that, He appeared to James. So think about that, a private appearance by the Lord of the universe, to you. And at that point there's no doubt in James’ mind who Jesus was. And his role as biological brother Jesus just disappears is not important. It was a historical note of some interest, but what really mattered is that Jesus was James' savior, and James believed in Him, became a genuine follower of Christ, and became a leader in the church in Jerusalem, became what Paul calls in Galatians chapter 2, a pillar of that church, in Acts 15, he led the Jerusalem Council as they discussed the role of circumcision for the Gentile converts. James was a leader, a pillar of the church in Jerusalem. So that I believe is the author of this book, the half-brother of Jesus. 

Who is He Writing To?

Now, who is he writing to? Well, he's the leader of the Jewish church in Jerusalem. These were Jews who had come to a genuine faith in Christ, but he writes, he says to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Now the Jews were very aware of the scattering that went on after the exiles. They were the exiles by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and they were scattered throughout the Gentile world. So that would have been the Roman, the Greco-Roman world, and they could have just been in the diaspora, the scattering at that point, or there might have been a specific scattering that happened with Jewish Christians. As we learn in John Chapter 9, that the Jewish authorities had already decided while Jesus was still ministering that if you believe that Jesus was the Messiah promised by God, you would be kicked out of the synagogue as the blind man that was healed was. Kicked out of the synagogue, by believing in Jesus. And so what that would mean for you economically as you couldn't carry on a business if you're a tradesman or craftsman or a merchant. No one would buy your wares. They wouldn't sell to you, you'd be ostracized financially, and so you would become poor, poverty-stricken, and you might have had to flee from Palestine, from Jerusalem just for economic reasons. So we don't know for certain why they were scattered, but it might have been those reasons as well. 

II. Joyful Perseverance in All Trials (vs. 2-4)

The Suffering of Trials

Now, in verses 2-4, we get to the first urging the James gives. Joyful perseverance, in all trials, that's my heading of the second part. Joyful perseverance in all trials, verses 2-4. Look at the verses, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." So we come to the issue of the suffering of trials of afflictions. And so, the first test of the Christian faith is how you respond to trials. Remember the parable of the seed in soils and only the genuinely rooted, grounded in the true soil of a noble and right heart endures and perseveres and bears fruit. But there is that rocky soil that as soon as any trouble comes because of the Word they quickly fall away. So, falling away is a clear evidence that the faith is not genuine. So how do you behave in trials? 

Now James does not specify what sorts of trials he's talking about, he just says trials of any kind. Anything you find difficult anything that afflicts you, that crosses you, that you find challenging, we could, as Christians, put those into two categories. Those afflictions and trials that are common to the human race that we share with all human beings, and then those things that are specifically focused on our Christian testimony. So the first would be sickness, injury, pain, accidents, the death of loved ones, poverty, financial challenges, economic issues, natural disasters, troubles in the family, difficulties in the family, or conflicts at the workplace, or in the neighborhood where you live, these are common to all people. They just have to do with us living in a sin-cursed world. Everybody has to face those. And the world needs us Christians to be evidently, clearly filled with hope at times like that. When we get that diagnosis of cancer that we would have a radiant hope that we're going to live forever. And it's a hope that the other people with the exact same malady, the same diagnosis but not the same faith, not the same Lord have to go through alone stripped of any hope that they would see in you, a hope that they have no earthly answer for, they have no understanding of why, what's the root system of that hope. And they might ask you to give a reason for the hope that you have as 1 Peter 3:15, says. They need you to be evidently filled with joy and hope. 

But then there are also trials that come because of our Christian testimony as well. Afflictions and persecutions that come some more in other parts of the world than in this one, where there's religious freedom. Persecution, economic isolation as I mentioned already with the Jews there in Palestine, a boycotting confiscation of property, loss of personal freedom, incarceration, and perhaps even martyrdom in very rare cases. Jesus said these trials, must come really of both categories. They must come. John 16:33, Jesus said, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."

Trials Will Come

So it's a new year, 2020. Doesn't feel like a year name to me, I'm still not used to that, but it's a new year. And who knows what will come, but I can tell you this, congregation of 500 plus people, there's going to be a lot of suffering in this community over the next 12 months, but we don't know what it's going to be, but isn't it a beautiful thing to not have to go through that alone, to not have to go through that alone. The more faithful we are in our Christian witness, the bolder we are in our Christian testimony, the more trouble we're going to have in this world. It says in 2 Timothy 3:12, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And so the bolder we are in testimony, the more persecution. That's in our context.

In other contexts, like in North Korea, just to be a Christian, just to assemble together, you have to be watching at all times, for the governmental police, the authorities to come in, or in the controlling government of China, same kind of thing, where brothers and sisters are arrested frequently, or in the fundamentalist Islamic states like Iran and Saudi Arabia where our brothers and sisters live under the constant fear of persecution from Muslim family and friends and neighbors and the authorities, or the fiercely nationalistic situation among Hindus in India, persecution comes much more vigorously in those places.

Well, James is not specific about the trials. He speaks of trials of various kinds. Whatever they are, expect them, they will come. And he actually uses this language, "Whenever you fall into trials of various kinds." Sometimes it feels that way, doesn't it? You're just moving along in your life and then suddenly you're in a dark pit, metaphorically, you're in a dark pit. And how did I get here? And the light seems so distant, and you're injured by the fall, and you're there wondering, what to do, how to get out of it, what to do next, when ever you fall into trials of various kinds that are going to come. Now, we should understand that our heavenly Father's quick carefully orchestrating all of these things, isn’t that encouraging? You don't fall into anything. It's not an accident, it's not like you're going to God in prayer, and He's saying, "Wow that happened to you. Wow, I wasn't watching at the time." God actually carefully orchestrates our trials and temptations “lest we be tempted beyond what we can bear” as we've already learned, in 1 Corinthians 10. But God is orchestrating these things.

Our Response to the Trial is Everything 

The thing is you can't control it. You can't control your life's circumstances, the only thing you can control is your response, your attitude, your demeanor, and what James says is that you are to, “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Literally, “all joy.” Consider it all joy, or joy through and through, joy straight through. Now, we should not think that James is saying that we should minimize it like it's not happening. That would be weird, it would not be a good witness. It's like, "Do you not understand what's happening to your loved one, what the diagnosis is?" “Well, no. Now I am happy all the day!” No, it's a real rooted, grounded awareness like in Romans 4. Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a 100 years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead. They did not waver through unbelief. So you know what's going on, you're aware of it. And you take I think the eternal perspective. I think exactly like the attitude that Jesus had about the cross in Hebrews 12:2, "We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfect or of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God."

What was the joy that was set before Him? I'll tell you what it was. It was us, a multitude of the redeemed from every tribe and language and people and nation, won by His suffering, won by His blood to eternal joy and bliss in His presence. That was the joy that was set before Him. The cross was still physical and spiritual agony. But there was a joy beyond it. I think we're supposed to see it the same way. These trials that are coming are working in us and for us, “an eternal glory that far outweighs them all,” Paul tells us in Corinthians, that's the joy. So we have joyful faithful submission then to the trial. 

What Joyful, Faith-filled Submission to Trials Produces

What does that produce? Well everything starts with knowledge. Look at verse 3, "Knowing that the testing of your faith develops perseverance", or endurance. The testing of your faith, that's the testing, the trying, the assaying of it to separate out the true gold from the fool's gold. So there's assaying, but there's also a purifying of our faith. 

Now, the trial reveals our faith to be the true thing if we stand firm through it and are not cast away. So, if we stand firm. More than that, however, the actual process of the suffering of the trial produces a stronger faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen,” so what happens is we become more reliant on the invisible God, more aware of the presence of the invisible Christ, more mindful of the invisible death of Jesus centuries ago on the cross for us, more mindful of the invisible New Heaven and New Earth that are coming, more mindful of the glory that we will have in our resurrection bodies. All of these invisible realities become much more intense, stronger, if we walk well through the trial and the affliction. That's its purpose. 

Just like some of you have begun a time in the health center and the weight rooms, because it's January, after all. And so you're on the treadmill and you're working the weights, and you're working off whatever it is you may have eaten in the last part of last year. And you're working the muscles, and the weights oppose the motion, and cause the muscles to get stronger, and so these circumstances cross you and oppose you, and cause your faith to get stronger. Now, what is the end of a Christian endurance? It says in verse 4, "Let endurance have its full effect so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So as we stay steady, under God's working, steady under His hand. He will work on your souls. There's a clear grammatical insight here that some translations omit. “Let endurance have its full effect.” You're being told to allow endurance to work in you or even better, “Let God do His work in you.” Stay calm and steady under His surgical touch. 

Imagine a situation where someone has a serious gash somewhere in their body and they're away from medical treatment, but there happens to be a doctor, a skilled doctor there with the necessary tools to disinfect the cut and to sew it up. But imagine the person is skittish and flinches and twitches and yells at the doctor and pushes the doctor away. The doctor is like, looking around saying, "Someone strap him down. You got to hold your hand steady, so I can help you." And so, if we're like that spiritually, and you're going through the trial, it will not have the right effect in your soul. “Let God do His work in you.” That's what it's saying in Verse 4. 

And what does perseverance produce? Well, one translation says that you'll be “perfect.” I think a better translation is “mature.” We're not going to be perfect in this life, but the word is more Christ-like. That these trials will produce Christian virtues in you, the fruit of the Spirit, love. You'll be more loving if the trial does its work in you. More patient, more joyful, more hopeful, bolder, more compassionate to others that suffer like you are. It just makes you more like Christ. It conforms you, and these things do not happen automatically. They happen because God is working, and what happens is there's a feedback loop here, where you start to realize "I'm not going to fall away. I love Jesus more now than I did six months ago, I'm real, I'm a real Christian. And that proven character, Romans 5 says is the ground of my hope. I know I'm going to Heaven when I die, because of how I reacted how I responded. I'm actually more in love with Jesus, more strong in Him that I was before the trial. Praise God, I'm real, I'm genuine, I'm going to Heaven." And so, that's what happens with endurance, and you'll see it says “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” 

So my geeky engineering mind at one point turned that whole thing around. Well, I guess what that means is, without the trials we'll be immature, incomplete, and lack things. Exactly! And that's how we start in the Christian life. We're immature, we're incomplete, we lack some things that we need. Justified, yes, forgiven adopted. But you need to grow up. And the only way that's going to happen is with trials. 

III. Seeking Wisdom from a Generously Wise God (vs. 5-8)

Now in Verses 5 through 8, he turns to the topic of wisdom. Look at those verses, it says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man shall not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double-minded man unstable in all he does." So my third heading is, “Seeking Wisdom from a Generously Wise God.”

A Timeless and Universal Promise 

Now I think these verses, verses 5-8 give a timeless universal principle, that you can use at all times, whether you're suffering or not. But I also think it's helpful to see them in context too. So I think we'll do both. First, you just need to ask God for wisdom more than you do. You should not say, "Well, some days I like wisdom, but other days I'm perfectly fine when it comes to wisdom." You can imagine your Heavenly Father saying, "Are you sure there's nothing you might, no insights you might need from Me?" But that would just pose Him as a counselor, He's more than that. He's your king, and you're not your own you're bought at a price, and so you should, in your daily morning quiet time, be asking your king what He wants you to do today? You should go to Him for wisdom. God, what should I do today? What should I do next? You should have this incredible humility about you saying, "I lack wisdom, I lack wisdom, I lack wisdom and you're just going in God, the Ancient of Days, who knows you from your mother's womb, who knows everything that's going on, He will give you wisdom about anything. And so, we always need wisdom. But then there are those big moments in life. Should I marry this person? Should I take this job? Should we move to this city? Should I go on this mission trip? Should I contribute to this or that or the other Christian ministry, and how much? There's so many things. What are my spiritual gifts? What ministry should I do with my spiritual gift? There's a lot of those big moments. 

The Purpose of Wisdom in a Trial

But we also, I think, should see these verses in context. James said that, "If you stand firm and are steady you will be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Next verse, "If anyone lacks wisdom." So there seems to be a link between verse 4 and 5. So verses 2-4 is all about afflictions. I think that fits very, very well in terms of the afflictions. One of the number one questions that comes up when we're in afflictions, is, "Why is this happening to me?" Whenever you're facing pain and suffering, "I don't understand God why you're doing this to me?" "Why is God not hearing our prayer for the healing of our little girl? Why not?" Or even "Why did you take her from me,” if in the end she dies? "Why is this chronic ailment in my life not responding with the treatment when usually it responds well in other cases?" Or in persecuted countries, “Why do the wicked prosper? Why are the wicked in charge? And then our Godly pastor got arrested last month, and he's being tortured and we have to hide from the authorities. Why is this happening?" Or, "Why in a natural disaster did you allow our home to be destroyed and then those homes were spared?" It doesn't seem to make any sense. And so, if you are in affliction and trials of various kinds, you should bring your questions to God, you should ask Him for wisdom and He will give it to you. He'll tell you why you're going through this trial. 

Very clear example of this is Paul's thorn in the flesh. Remember in 2 Corinthians 12? Paul talks about some incredible vision he had, where he was caught up to the third heaven and he saw indescribable things. He saw heaven, he saw God on His throne. But then the next thing he says, "To keep me from being conceded because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I sought the Lord that it be removed from me, and He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness', therefore I will boast in my weaknesses." You see what's happened there? He didn't know why this thorn in the flesh, this messenger of Satan had come to him. He was told, "It's to keep you from being arrogant Paul, it's to keep you humble, to keep your feet nailed to the ground after you ascended to heaven and saw heavenly the things you're not allowed to talk about.”

And you're like, "Wow would Paul ever become prideful arrogant?" All of us are prideful. We all, we all could be conceded and Paul needed that help, he needed the pain, the suffering, that God did not heal. So, he's healing other people but he's not healing himself, but he had understanding. "Alright, I get it. My strength is made perfect in weakness. I'll keep praying I'll keep trusting, I'll walk in agony and in pain until God chooses to heal it, or until I die." But he got the insight, he got the wisdom of what the reason for it was. And God doesn't tell everything in this world, but He gives you enough wisdom. 

Seeking Guidance for Your Lives

Now you need to seek guidance in your life more than you do. I do too. We are so independent aren't we? We're like, "I know what to do, I got this one, God. I know exactly what to do." If any of you lacks wisdom, it's like, "Well that's not me, I'm on it, I know what I'm doing." But when big decisions come along many decisions we need some guidance don't we?

Now, I could give you the guidance of the famous philosopher, Yogi Berra, the catcher for the Yankees. He said, "Whenever you come to a fork in the road, take it." I don't find that incredibly helpful. I guess, at least I know I'm not turning back, so at least that. But I don't know, right or left, but God wants us to express our dependence on Him. He has searched us to know us. He knows all the days ordained for us, He knows exactly what way we should take and He wants us to ask Him. And then we hear in Isaiah 30, in verse 21, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” Don't you see the gift that is from God? You won't have no idea what to do in life. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God. But when you ask, you should believe and not doubt. You should believe that God will give you the wisdom. He'll tell you what to do, He will guide you.” So you're asking has to be in faith, because if not, then James says, you're a double-minded person, you're going back and forth. You believe, you don't believe. You believe, you don't believe. You're acting like a believer, then you're acting like God doesn't exist. James also, later in chapter 4, uses double-minded people to speak of those that are worldly. They're after the world's golds, the world's applause, the world's power and position. And so you're not getting wisdom because in James 4, "You're asking, but you're not receiving because you're asking wrongly. You're asking like a double-minded person." And so you have to go as a faith-filled disciple of Christ and He will give you the wisdom that you need. 

Seeking Wisdom by Faith

Now how does He do that? Well, He gives it through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God's direct minister to you, to guide you in your life. Now the Spirit speaks primarily through the scripture. The more you study the word of God, the more you memorize Scripture, the more tools the Holy Spirit will have to get specific in your life and guide you and you'll know what to do. You'll know the big picture of what God is doing in the world and you'll know details about spiritual gifts, or various ministries. You'll just know what to do more and more. Even then there's some things that are pertinent to you, and the Holy Spirit will guide you by counsel from friends, disciplers, men and women that speak wisdom into your lives, and you also have internal impressions. Be careful about those internal impressions. I've studied them for my entire Christian life. When I got down on my knees and asked the Lord in my PhD office at Southern Seminary, "Should I come to Durham as pastor, senior pastor of this church?" I felt that I needed an answer. I felt that the search committee needed an answer. It was only polite to give them an answer. “God I met the fork in the road, what do you want me to do?" And I had a strong impression to come here.

Now, here's the thing about impressions. They're from one of three sources. They're from God through the Holy Spirit, they are from the devil as he deceives us and they're from you as you talk to yourself. And some of the wisdom you give yourself is pretty good. And some of it isn't. I remember once seeing a man wearing this t-shirt saying, "I do whatever the voices in my head tell me to do." That's not the way to go. But we need to believe that God is able to guide us in those key moments well, without becoming erratic and strange following voices in our heads. 

IV. Temporary Wealth vs. Eternal Wealth (vs. 9-11)

Verses 9-11 in Connection with the Rest of the Chapter

Now in verses 9-11, James addresses temporary versus eternal wealth. To some degree, you could almost see a seam here, is there's a whole, new topic. James is like that. Sometimes we don't know, are we getting to a whole new issue now that he brings up? But I think it's possible even here to see some points of connection. Look at Verses 9-11, "The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position." By the way, that's not talking about Andy Winn preaching on the third floor. I told him that this morning. He said, "It's right in the text." I said, "Bad exegesis." So he's in the high position. We're in the low position. Tell him what I said about that whenever you see him. "The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position, but the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wild flower, for the sun rises with scorching heat, and whithers the plant its blossom falls, its beauty is destroyed in the same way the rich man will fade away, even while he goes about his business." So what is the connection? It could be that the connection is just economic suffering that the Jewish Christians are doing, that they're poor. They're poor. They can't make a living they've had to flee their homes in Palestine, and they're in new cities and people even then aren't really buying their wares and they're suffering, they're struggling, they're poor. And as with the advice he's going to give, I think this section is best to read it as rich and poor Christians except toward the end. Whereas in James Chapter 5, the rich are clearly oppressors who are murdering people, that's a different matter. So I think it's best to read this as rich Christians, and poor Christians except at the end, he changes just a little bit. 

Eternal vs. Temporal Wealth

In any case, we should all have an eternal perspective on physical, material wealth. Its advantages yes, but it's limitations. And so both poor and rich, Christians need to be very clear on the limitations of earthly wealth. Poor Christians need to realize that the money and the possessions that they lack in this life are actually a very limited value. The poor can be led by their circumstances, into bitter coveting, bitterness against God, tempted even toward crime, they can become materialistic, and this will only make their trial in poverty much worse.

James says that poor Christians should focus on their exalted position as adopted sons and daughters of the living God and heirs of Heaven. That's their true wealth. They're storing up there in Heaven, every day by their faithful service. Set their minds on things above and things to come, not on earthly wealth, because it's not going to help their lives as much as they think it is. They should boast. "Let the wise man, not boast in his wisdom, or the rich man boast in his wealth or the strong man boast in his strength, but let him who boast, boast in this, that He knows me." Jeremiah 9. And so, boast in God, boast in Christ, boast not in your material situation because it's nothing. It's dust in the wind. That's what he's saying. Conversely then, rich Christians should focus on their humiliation as Christians in this life. They serve a Lord who was rejected by society, who was cast out from Jewish society, who was crucified outside the city gates. And the author to Hebrews there invites us to stand under the bloody cross and join with Him in suffering the reproach of the name of Christ. So you can see how rich Christians, might have business connections which would be jeopardized if they're very honest about their Christian confession.

Rich Unbelievers Fade Away in the Midst of Business

Don't do that. Don't do that. Be humble in this world as a Christian. Be willing to be named by the name Christian, and take whatever comes. Now rich unbelievers, I think he shifts a little bit there. He says, "The rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business." It's like Isaiah 40 says, "All flesh is like grass and all their glory is like the flower of the field, the grass withers, and the flowers fall, when the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are like grass. “The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” And so, those rich people we know we hear stories, they're going about their business. They're just moving along and then suddenly they grab their chest and fall dead. Or suddenly there's a car accident, or suddenly some other malady, a sudden fever, something comes and then they're gone, even while they're going about their business, they're dead. Proverbs 11:4, says, "Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, the righteousness delivers from judgment." So wealth isn't going to help you spiritually, in this world and it's certainly not going to help you on Judgment Day because the Judge of all the earth cannot be bribed. He judges justly. He judges to the glory of God. 

Well, verse 12 wraps up this whole first section, "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because when he is to the test, he will see the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." So that goes back to the issue of perseverance under trial. Sums up this whole section. Speaks of blessing of eternity on you. If you persevere, look what you're going to get. You're going to get a crown of life, that God's going to hand you and that really is just eternal life, just being alive forever and ever, but also the rewards of your faithful labor. He will give it to you, if you love Him. And you love His appearing. 

Application

Get Prepared for Your Last Day on Earth

So, applications. First and foremost, just all I can say to you is come to Christ, come to Christ. This week some of you know my mother died. Don't have any clear assurance that she was a Christian. Had the opportunity, the responsibility of preaching the Gospel to my unsaved family. Many of you prayed for me in that regard. About two months ago, my mother asked me, "How can I prepare to die." Coming from a mother that had never made a testimony of faith in Christ, I looked on that as a golden opportunity. Probably the 100th time I could have shared the Gospel with her, but it was a gift to me, and I said, "Mom I want you to think about the thief on the cross, when Jesus died, he didn't die alone, but two other thieves were crucified with Him. And they began insulting and reviling Jesus, but at one point, one of them realized what was happening, and he stopped and he said, 'Don't you fear God?' He said that to his other thieves, 'Seeing we are into the same judgment. And we're only getting what we deserve, but this man here, Jesus has done nothing wrong.' And then he turned to Jesus and said, 'Remember me when you come in your kingdom.' To be able to see, in a crucified dying man, a coming King is a gift of faith. He already had faith. He hadn't done any good works. He couldn't. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. But by simple faith in Jesus, he was able to be saved to have all of his sins forgiven, and to spend eternity with God in paradise.” I said, "Mom. That's how you get ready to die." I said those exact same words at the grave site on Monday. 

Do Not Assume Your Soul is Secure

My desire is that any of you that came in here today, unsaved that you will hear the wise words that James is giving and understand what God is doing, and the ultimate gift of salvation, and trust in Christ. For those of you that are already Christians, just test your faith to see if it's genuine. Don't assume. Just say, "Lord, what is the fruit of my life? What's happening in my life. Is there fruit? Are there good works? Do I see that in my life?" Don't just assume. And especially zero on how you respond to trials and afflictions. Many of you have expressed a desire to be more evangelistic. It could be that God will make you more evangelistic by putting you into suffering on a platform of suffering, so that other people who have the exact same diagnosis as you can see how you behave and will ask you to give a reason for the hope that you have.

Suffer Well

Suffer well. Suffer well to the glory of God. And just generally, if I can urge you, in the year 2020, seek wisdom from God more than you've ever done it before. I would just say every day in your quiet time, just get up and say, "You're my King. I'm not my own, I'm bought at a price. What do you want me to do today?" And then listen, and let Him guide you by His Scripture, and by His word. And finally, to wealthy Christians, which is all of us who are Christians. We are amazingly wealthy. Let's realize the limits of our material wealth. Let's be generous, let's give to the needy. Let's give more than we've ever given before realizing our true wealth is Heaven. It is a benefit for us to have material blessings, but let's be generous and faith-filled with it and realize, either way, we're going to fade away, or pass away when the Lord says. Let's be ready for that by faith in Christ. 

Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to be here. I thank you for all of the gifts of the spiritual gifts of this church. I thank you for the love that me and my family  received from this church. I thank you for the gifts of those that like Wes and his team are so excellent leading worship, I thank you for those who are so good at logistics to be able to plan this whole double worship service with such skill. Lord, I pray that in 2020, we would more than ever before walk in wisdom asking you what to do and seeking Your guidance. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Introduction

Amen. Few things in military history, so aroused the passions of warriors, the imagination of warriors as does the sword. The long shiny, sharp, curved instrument of death. The sword devours life, it leaves death in its path. Technological advances of metallurgy, across the eras in which the sword was dominant. It was the seeking of a perfect blade that could endure anything that could happen on the battlefield. The dream of a perfect sword. Now, the merest mention of a sword if you know anything about military history, evokes images of legendary warriors, English knights like the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or perhaps earlier Roman gladiators or maybe the Japanese samurai, viking warriors. When I was a missionary in Japan I became fascinated with Japanese samurai swords, the katana, the legendary sword, and there are numbers of them, there's all this mythology that grew up in Japan around the samurai sword around the katana. I was looking at it from the perspective of a mechanical engineer. I was interested in the engineering of it. But also the history. I find it fascinating when you look at the edge of the blade of an exquisitely fashioned forged samurai blade, you can see ripples in the steel dark and light areas. Almost like there were somehow sandwiches or layers upon layers of different kinds of steel and that's actually what they are, layers upon layers of two different types of steel. There's high carbon steel, that's exceptionally hard and can be honed to a razor sharp edge, but it's also brittle and therefore not really well suited for the battlefield, for the sword to sword conflict that's going to happen. So then they use lower carbon steel, in layer upon layer, that's more malleable, a little more durable and so they get the best of both worlds with that, that they developed this over centuries. A combination of exquisite hardness honed to a razor-sharp edge, and then durability in the blade of the sword. 

Now, there are all kinds of mythological stories. I went to a military museum in Japan and learned this story years ago, about two actual historically true sword makers. Sadly for the legend, they lived at different times, but according to the legend they each made a sword to have a contest against each other, not that they would fight but that the virtues of their blades would be pitted against each other. The name of these experts were Masamune and Muramasa. These were two men, they lived at different times in each other, but there was some kind of a mythological contest, so Masamune’s swords were some of the most beautifully crafted katana ever made. And all of his surviving swords are priceless national heirlooms in Japan. By contrast in the mythology of it, Muramasa's sword, his student, were considered more brutish, and violent and ugly, but powerful. 

So in the legend Muramasa was Masamune's student and they were pitted against each other and to test the swords they were each held in a stream of perfectly pure mountain water. And so they put the student's sword in there, Muramasa's sword in there, and it was so sharp that the first leaf that came down just divided, just with the force of the trickling water, just split right in half. It's that sharp, but the Master, Masamune's sword did something very different. According to the legend when it was put in the water, the leaves came in and they avoided it like a magnetic force was on it because the blade somehow knew that there was no evil in the leaves, it would only cut that, which was evil. Now that's interesting, cool. I don't know how the blade knows that kind of thing. Looking at it from the materialistic, scientific point of view that I have, but I just read this story, this is what I do at museums. 

So, at any rate, in Ephesians 6:17, however we come to a sword that's described in the text as vastly more supernaturally powerful than anything in that legend. And actually, this sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is in some sense, spiritually told to be alive. It's actually a living and active blade. Even better than the samurai sword, this sword can cut in order to heal. But it also can measure out death to the enemies of God. So within this sword there is the power of both life and death within the same sword. It reminds me very much of the Apostle Paul, talking about the gospel ministry. "We are to those who are perishing, the aroma of or the stench of death, but to those who are being saved, we are the fragrance of life." The same message can be death, to some in life to others. But to the demonic enemies of God, it's nothing but death. It's a dreadful, terrifying, powerful sword, that measures out death to the spiritual enemies of God, Satan and his demons. This word of God, this sword of the Spirit. The author to Hebrews describes it in this way, Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So every time you pick up a Bible you're holding in your hands literally a miracle, by any definition you give a miracle, the Bible meets that qualification. It is a miraculous thing. Now, as we began this morning from my mind, I go right to the sword of the Spirit, but I'm not going to skip over a discussion of the helmet of salvation as well.

I. Our Spiritual Warfare: A Review

We're in the middle of this section talking about spiritual warfare. We have a struggle, we have a bitter conflict, we have a warfare put right at our feet spiritually if we're Christians. Look at verse 12 of Ephesians 6, 6:12, "For our struggle “ or “we wrestle not with flesh and blood." “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.” Now, as I've been saying for weeks, most Christians seem to be completely moment by moment, day-to-day, even week-to-week, unaware of this spiritual warfare. Unaware of it. They do not take adequate precautions, they do not follow the commands that are given here in Ephesians 6. And therefore they are constantly damaged in their souls in the spiritual realm by Satan's activities. They're hurt, they're wounded by what Satan is doing because they do not follow the prescriptions of Ephesians 6:10 and following. Now, by way of review, Paul gives us three basic commands for spiritual warfare here. 

Three Commands

First, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." What this means is, you cannot fight alone, you must draw near to Christ, have a sense of his omnipotent, a sense of his great power, immerse yourself in Jesus for apart from him, you will lose. So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty powers. Secondly, “put on the full armor of God.” And we've been going step by step through the six elements today, the last two elements of the full armor that God has provided. That's how I understand “of God.” This is the armor that God has crafted. This is the armor made for you in the heavenly realms, made by the power of God, and entrusted to you. But you have the responsibility, by faith and by the ministry of the word, to put it on to appropriate the truths in the armor of God. And then thirdly, he tells you to stand firm in the day of testing. Stand firm. Four times it tells you to take your stand, to stand your ground, to stand firm. 

Now, we've looked at the full armor of God. We've gone element by element, we began with the belt of truth and how the truth of the word of God is drawn into your inner being. God desires truth in the inner parts. You have a sense of the immutability and the perfection, the absoluteness of the truth of the Bible. And just knowing that there is truth in the Bible, that the Bible is truth, the word of God is truth, helps you fight Satan's kingdom of lies, especially for us in the 21st century in the West, this postmodern world that we live in, which we're told, there is no metaphysical truth we can ever know. Well, we reject that. We believe that we can know invisible spiritual realities, especially the truth of the Bible as it testifies to Jesus, Savior of the world. And we talked about the breastplate of righteousness, how beautiful that is, how radiant and shining it is. How it absolutely cannot be your own righteousness, which Satan wants shredded in an instant and you know it. But it actually is the imputed righteousness of Christ that you put on you appropriate by faith. And we talk, thirdly, about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.” And how there's that sense of preparedness. You're getting ready, you're getting ready to fight, ready to stand, ready to move. Stability and mobility and how the Gospel ministers peace to you, to your own heart, you're at peace, while you fight. And you know God's at peace with you, and you as a soldier, is a warrior of the Gospel, you're proclaiming a message that will bring peace to people who themselves were at war with God. So that's the feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. And then last week, we talked also about the “shield of faith with which you are able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” And how faith is the eyesight of the soul. You can see into the invisible spiritual realm, you can see these flaming arrows that they're coming at you, they come at you in major categories, temptations, alluring you towards sin, and wickedness, accusations, pointing out the sins you've committed, doubts, and false doctrines that come at us, and we're able to see these things for what they are and the shield of faith can block them. And having put all of these things on, we put on each part with prayer. We're not generalistic saying, "I know we have a struggle. I know we have a fight, so just pray about it." It's not like that we're going to get specifically ready in these six elements these six ways. Ready to fight Satan. We're going to fight, we're going to stand firm. And so, having put on the full armor of God, we stand our ground we stand firm. 

II. The Helmet of Salvation

Alright, now we've been through four of the elements now, we're looking at the last two this morning and first of those is the helmet of salvation. Look at verse 17, "Take the helmet of salvation." Now the helmet protects the head, the most important part of the body. Whenever I ride my bike, I wear a helmet. It doesn't protect however, the whole body I found last Sunday afternoon. Some of you may be wondering why I look like this. Your imaginations are running amuck right now, you're thinking of all the things. No, it was not a bar fight. And it was not a member of the family, none of that. It was the road, it was the asphalt. I went around a corner and I leaned too fast, I was riding really fast, and I forgot to stop pedaling and on the inside, when the pedal finishes it cycle the pedal on the low if you're leaning enough, will hit the ground. At that point, the bike stops moving forward. You, however, do not until you meet the ground, which a long time ago, wasn't moving forward and so in about 5 feet, I slid to a stop, and I was done moving. So that's what happened to me. I was wearing a helmet at the time. It was completely irrelevant for my crash. Didn't get scraped at all, did not protect me in the least. I landed right here on my cheek bone and on my ribs. So that's what happened to me. Someone said I should make some analogy with spiritual warfare. That's the closest I can come. There was nothing spiritual about it, it was purely physical, and it hurt a lot.

Protecting the Head Means Protecting the Mind

But the helmet represents a protection for the most important part of the body. The head, the mind. While I was sitting in the pew this morning, I was thinking a beautiful thought. I never had it before, right before I came up here. Isn't it marvelous that we have a helmet of salvation? What it means is we will live through all of this. Satan can't kill us. Isn't it just as beautiful that Satan had no such helmet and his head was crushed by Jesus at the cross. Isn't that beautiful? We have the helmet! Satan doesn't. He will die, he will be thrown in the Lake of Fire, he will be killed forever and ever by Christ and that's a beautiful thing. Remember how it says in Genesis 3, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers. He, the woman's seed, Jesus, will crush your head and you will strike his heel." So we in Christ cannot have our head crushed. So that's a simple way of understanding the human salvation. We cannot die, none of these fights are going to kill us. We can be damaged, we can be wounded, we can be hurt, we can have less fruit to show on Judgment Day. There's genuine hurt that can be done to us. We can suffer in ways we wouldn't have to if we didn't sin as we do in spiritual warfare, but Satan can't kill us. But Christ will kill him. And I think to me that's a marvelous thing. 

A Battle for the Mind

So this, I think, each of these kind of spiritual elements links to some part of the body in some way that's appropriate. The helmet of salvation, protects not just the head but what the head does, the mind, the thinking process. And so we have to be very aware of how important our thoughts are. Fundamentally, if you just keep it simple as you think, so you will live. If you're living wrongly you were thinking wrongly. And so, the helmet of salvation has to do with your thought process. The essence of Satan's attacks is his ability, mysteriously, to insinuate thoughts into your head. He has that power to do. We talked about Joseph's dreams, how the angel put information in Joseph's mind by his dreams about Mary and her virginity, and the baby and he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and then that he should flee to Egypt. And now, he should come back, an angel spoke those things to Joseph in a dream. Well, demons are just evil angels. They have the same ability, they can speak into our hearts and minds. They cannot flip the switch, pull the trigger on the decision that's something we have to make. But they can insinuate thoughts, dark thoughts. Temptations, accusations, depressions, those kinds of things. 

Remember, if you look back at Ephesians 4:17-18, there, Paul talks about the thinking process of the Christian. He says there in 4:17, "So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do,” listen “in the futility of their thinking. They're darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Thus, four different words about their thoughts. They think darkly that's why they live, darkly. But you Christians you're different. Now we're going to think like Christ, we're going to think thoughts of light and purity and truth whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Those things, that's what we're going to think about. 

The Hope of Salvation

Now there's an additional nuance in the helmet, given us from 1 Thessalonians 5:8, there the Apostle Paul says, "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith in love as a breastplate,” listen “and the hope of salvation, as a helmet." The hope of salvation as a helmet. Paul then goes on, in that same passage to say "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath [in the future] but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." So this idea that I think is very helpful. The helmet of salvation could be seen, especially as hope of salvation, hope of salvation. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, hope fundamentally is a conviction, a sense that the future is bright, based on the promises of God. And especially, hope of salvation is my future salvation is guaranteed, because of the blood of Jesus, and that hope is a powerful thing in this spiritual warfare. We're filled with hope, it's a beautiful thing. 

Now Satan, I believe, is actively engaged all the time on the Christians, to get us to be hopeless or another word for hopeless would be depressed, discouraged, down, sad, different levels of it, but Satan really wants to minister hopelessness to you. Depression. You know what I'm talking about, all of you struggle with it to certain degrees, spiritual depression. Now, if you wonder like, "How do I know when I'm in a battle, how do I know when I'm in spiritual warfare?" Well just assume every day, but especially when you see depression, or despair, coming on you, guaranteed it's Satanic. I'm not saying there's no physiological sides or even your own thoughts. They're involved. But you're under satanic attack. Same thing with anxiety or lust or covetousness, different things you just know Satan's working these things. That's how you can know. 

Now, why does Satan seek to minister hopelessness to us despair? Well, I've been over this before, but it's so helpful to know this. The reason is it's the only possible way he can win. If the people of God take Paul's command to heart, and if we stand up on our spiritual feet, and we put on this full armor of God, and we take up the weapon of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit in our hand, and we, with the Gospel footwear, march forward and if we swing this sword of the Gospel, he's going to lose. He cannot penetrate our breastplate of righteousness. He cannot penetrate the shield of faith, he cannot pierce the helmet, and he can't stop the sword. Well, what's he going to do? He's going to lie to you. He's going to whisper depression in your ears. Tell you, "Just give up. What's the point in fighting for holiness? You're just going to sin anyway, eventually. What's the point in sharing the Gospel? They're not going to believe it. What's the point in going as a missionary? We're not going to be able to plant churches." Depression, discouragement, lies, and so, you lay down listless, lifeless, weak and weary, and do nothing to threaten him. That's his strategy and it's very effective.

Hope is Powerful in Spiritual Warfare

So the alternative here is hope, and hope is a powerful thing. We have a feeling, a sense in our hearts, that we are going to win. We're going to be victorious in the end. I've often thought of it like a buoyant cork. I got that image from John Piper's biography of William Wilberforce, who fought slavery for 27 years. And how depressing that must have been. Setback after setback after setback, entrenched economic forces fighting him. He never gave up. And one of his enemies said, "You have to watch him because it seems like the harder you strike him, the more buoyant he gets, he's a dangerous guy." I want to be that kind of a dangerous warrior. The more we get struck the more buoyant we get. We're like a big chunk of cork, and you just can't keep us down, because we just know we're going to win, we're going to be saved in the end. There's nothing that can stop it. So just tell yourself what is true. You say, "How do I put on the helmet of salvation?" Tell yourself again and again, what's true of you and of the future, specifically what's true of the future. "Who hopes for what he already has" Romans 8 says. We're talking about things we don't have yet.

How to Put on the Helmet of Salvation

So look ahead. So when it comes to the future in this life, for the rest of my life, I will, number one, be most certainly protected and shielded by the power of God, the rest of my life. Secondly, God will therefore not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can bear, but he will filter every temptation the rest of my life. So I can bear up under all of them and he will provide with every one of them a way of escape, so I never need to sin again, ever. Thirdly, in the future, I know going forward Christ will never leave me, and he will never forsake me. Fourthly, all of the physical and emotional afflictions, and trials that will most certainly come into my life are meant for good for me by my Heavenly Father. He is meaning to prepare me for Heaven and he will use those trials and afflictions to do it. Fifthly, I know that if I do sin, God will lovingly discipline me and chastise me so I learn to hate sin the way he does. But he will also forgive my sins, because sixthly Christ is at the right hand of God and is interceding for me so I know my faith is never going to fail. Not because I'm such a great believer or so tenacious in my faith, but because Jesus is praying to the Gather, that my faith won't fail. So seventh I know that nothing in the present world or in the world to come will separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Nothing. And eighth, I know that when I die, I will still be in the faith, I'll still be in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, loving Jesus. I just know it, there's no doubt in my mind about it. And I know that ninth when I become absent from the body, I will immediately be in the presence of the Lord. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” That will happen if the Lord doesn't return in my lifetime. And I know that 10th on Judgment Day, I will not receive wrath, but I'll receive salvation. I will be welcomed into my Heavenly home and not sent to Hell like I deserve. And so 11th, all of my sins will be totally covered by the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, all of them. And 12th, I will receive, at the right time, a resurrection body that will be radiantly shining like the sun, and I'll be in that resurrection body forever I cannot die and I feel any death, or mourning, or crying, or pain there will be no bike accidents in Heaven, none. Thirteenth, all of the elect, the things I've been saying about me are true of all of the elect. And that means that a multitude greater than any one could count will be there from every tribe, language, people, and nation. So that means missions is going to work in their case. Absolutely guaranteed. And I will spend eternity, fourteenth, looking at the face of Christ forever and ever as he sits on his Father's throne. Now, those ideas fill me with hope. It fills me with hope. That's how you put the helmet of salvation on. Think about your future, put on the helmet of salvation. 

III. The Sword of the Spirit: The Word of God

A Powerful History of Famous Swords in Literature

Finally, the sword of the Spirit. Look at verse 17 again, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Now, there's such a powerful history of famous swords and literature, like I think about Excalibur, the sword that King Arthur drew out of the store, the sword in the stone. There are different legends and different stories, but sometimes it's Excalibur, sometimes that sword came out of a lake. It's just different things, but there's that. Lord of the Rings in literature has lots of named swords like the hobbit sword was “Sting” and they killed spiders with it or orcs. And “Glamdring” was Gandalf's sword, and the most famous named sword in The Lord of the Rings was “Anduril” and that belonged to Aragorn. That was the sword that was broken, and it was re-forged and that gave him the right to rule. Probably one of my favorite martial arts movies is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Some of you may have seen it. And the special sword and that one was the “Green Destiny.” It looked like a piece of Jade. I thought it wouldn't stand up well on the battlefield, but no it was a special magical powerful sword, the Green Destiny. And the thing with the Green Destiny, that I thought was really cool, it could slice right through bars of iron, they were butter. I was like, "Wow." You better not come up against the Green Destiny if you're holding a sword like that, it's going to slice right through it. Powerful. By the way, hold on to that image for later, we'll come back to it. 

Then, of course in Pilgrim's Progress, we've got this courageous warrior, this man named Valiant for Truth. And Valiant for Truth was a man who had long wielded the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to win battles for the Lord. And in the allegory, part two probably it's part two, the time had come for Valiant for Truth to die. He receives a summons from the King, the time has come. He is going to die, so he calls all of his friends to stand around him and basically, it reads at that point, like a bit like a last will and testament. That's what he says, "I am going to my Father's. And though with great difficulty, I have got hither, I do not repent me of all the troubles I have been at to arrive where I am.” I don't regret this hard journey I've had. Now, listen to this, "My sword I give to"him that shall follow me in my pilgrimage." That's all of us. Here's the sword. "And my courage and skill to him that can get it." Wow. Can you get his courage? Can you have his boldness with the sword of the Spirit? And his skill? Can you learn how to wield the sword of the Spirit, skillfully? We're going to talk about that in the moment. "My marks and my scars", he said, "I carry with me as a witness for me that I have fought his battles, who will be my rewarder." It's very powerful. And then, he crosses over the river and goes. So that's an image for me. I follow him in his pilgrimage. There's the sword waiting for me to pick it up and to wield it now. And it's your turn too, this is your time now. It's your time in the arena, it's your time to pick up the sword and fight. There'll be no fighting in Heaven, praise God, no fighting, no chance for valor in Heaven, no chance for boldness in Heaven, no wounds in Heaven, no pain, no suffering, no valor in Heaven. Just memories of valor, stories of valor. Now is the time for us to weave those stories of valor. This is our time to be warriors for Jesus. 

The Word of God as a Sword

Now, the sword of the Spirit in the text is called the word of God. Alright? The scripture, the word of God, this is the powerful weapon. Why is it called a sword? Well, it's called a sword because it's able to, I think, block and cut through all of Satan's lies. What sword does Satan have in his hand? It's a sword of lies. It's very effective against unarmed opposition. But it will never win against the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So sword battles I think you picture the clang of sword on sword. Right? Metal on metal. As your enemy swings as sore, he seeks to bring that sword down upon you to wound you or kill you. Well, you learn defense, you learn swordsmanship, how to move your feet, how to block how to move and get in and attack. There's a whole skill to it, of fencing. So, the sword is both an excellent defensive weapon and an excellent offensive weapon. Both. And we need to think of it that way. Not just the one or the other. So, to wield it, you have to know your sword, and you have to learn to wield it properly. You have to grow in your understanding of Biblical doctrine, line upon line, chapter upon chapter book upon book, get to know your sword. You have to be able to refute Satan's false arguments with specific clear texts of scripture. This is the sword of the Spirit, wielded in defense. I'm going to talk more about that in a moment. 

Secondly, this is a powerful offensive weapon for destroying Satan's empire, this sword of the Spirit. Many commentators have made it plain the sword is the only offensive weapon in this whole arsenal. Friends, it's enough, it's good enough. What a powerful weapon it is. Satan's kingdom, if you can picture it this way is made up of souls who are in some sense in chains by Satan's lies. Their minds, their hearts, their souls are chained. They're in dungeons, they need to be delivered, they cannot rescue themselves. So, chains of wickedness, chains of lies, chains of sins, chains of fear of death, chains of false religion, or false philosophies, they're enchained. We, under the power of God, we are their deliverer. We are their rescuers and what we have in our hand to deliver them from these invisible chains is the sword of the Spirit, so it's an offensive weapon. And like that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, like the Green destiny, even better than that. This has the power to just slice through chains that are holding God's elect in Satan's dark kingdom and set them free. That's evangelism. Your wielding scripture. But it's vital that your sword be hard and sharp. We'll talk about that in a moment. 

Why is it Called the Sword of the Spirit?

Why is it called the sword of the Spirit? Well, it's called the sword of the Spirit, because the Spirit gave it to us. The Spirit inspired every word in here. 2 Peter Chapter 1 says, "No temptation of Scripture ever came about by the prophets’ own interpretation for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's the doctrine of inspiration. Every word in every book of the Bible is inspired. All scriptures God breathed, breathed out by the Spirit. So that means no human author of Scripture ever took it upon himself to write scripture that day. "Oh, it's a good day, on Tuesday afternoon to write scripture." No one did that. Moses didn't do that. Samuel didn't do it. David didn't do it. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, none of them did it. Not Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John, or Peter or Paul, or James, none of the authors of scripture ever took it on themselves in their own initiative to write scripture. Rather the Spirit came upon them and navigated them using their minds, and their hearts, and their circumstances to write true words of God and give them to the human race. That's where we get this sword of the Spirit. So it's also called the sword of the Spirit because he's able to illuminate what's already written. There are no more books of the Bible, coming. It's complete, it's done, it's finished. Now we have the working of the Spirit to take what's already been written and illuminate it to our minds. It in John 16, "The Spirit of truth will come and he will guide you into all truth." And he also enables you to weld it, he can bring forth to your mind at key moments, the right scriptures that you've learned before. And Jesus said that also in John 14, "He will bring to you remembrance the things that I've said to you.” And so the Spirit is the active with the Word of God, it's the sword of the Spirit. 

Christ as Role Model in this Swordsmanship

Now, Jesus is by far the best role model of swordsmanship that you'll ever find. I mean, Jesus was the perfect wielder of the sword of the Spirit. There are so many examples I could give to you again and again, Jesus turned to scripture, turned to scripture, turned to scripture. But I think, for our purposes, the best way is to look at Jesus' use of scripture when he was being tempted. He was out in the desert, the Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the Devil, and He was there for 40 days. And he fasted, he ate no bread, drank no water, he's in the desert and the tempter came to him and the tempter said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." And so, he blocked Satan's temptation with the specific word of scripture from the Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6. It's powerful. And he also said at that point, Satan leads Him to the highest point of the temple, and it has them stand up in the pinnacle of the temple, "If you're the Son of God he said, throw yourself down from here." Then he quoted scripture. Oh, Satan can do that. He knows the Bible far better than any of us ever will. For it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you and they'll lift you up in their hands so that you'll not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus said, "It is also written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test", also from Deuteronomy. Once more the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. "All this has been given to me." Satan said, “and I can give it to anyone I want to. So it would all or if you'll just bow down and worship me." And Jesus said, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written worship the Lord your God and serve him only." 

Now, Jesus teaches us swordsmanship there. He could have pulled rank. He said, "I'm the Son of God. You can't tempt me." That would have been effective, but instead he teaches us how to fight Satan's temptations, by means of the Word of God. And in every case, he chooses exactly the right doctrine, and scripture to block Satan's attacks. Those scriptures are all God-centered. Basically in effect in the first one, he said, "I will eat, when God tells me to eat and not before. What's more important to me than bread is doing the will of My God and Father. That's the most important thing to me." The same thing with the pinnacle of the temple, "I will throw myself down from the temple, when God tells me to do it, and at that point if He wants to send His angels He can do it, but God has given me no such command, and I will not put the Lord to the test." And then the third one, "No for all the universe, I will not worship anyone but God. Worship him only.” See, he taught us how to be God-centered and how to know the scripture and how to wield it and fight Satan at every moment. He is a model of swordsmanship. 

Characteristics of the Sword

So what is this sword like? Well, I gave you a bunch of adjectives. I had a lot of fun with that. So 10 adjectives that are sword like. Oh they're plenty of other adjectives I could have used for the word of God, but I just pulled out sword like adjectives. Now let's go through them quickly. What kind of word, is it? Our word, the sword is perfect, it's perfect. Psalm 12:6 says, "The words of the Lord are flawless," listen to this, "like silver refined seven times in a furnace of clay." There's the picture of metallurgy, perfectly pure silver. Or you could think about the katana, the samurai, the blacksmiths back then, just perfectly folded. One layer upon. Now our word is an absolute perfect thing with no mixture of error at all, it's a perfect word. Secondly, it is powerful, it is a powerful thing, it achieves and accomplishes that purpose for which it is sent. That's Isaiah 55. And listen to this, Psalm 29:4-9, "The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert. The Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord, twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory.’"  It's powerful. Thirdly, it's hard. This is a hard sword but the best verse for that, how about this, John 10:35, Jesus said, "Scripture cannot be broken." Wow. That's powerful. Scripture cannot be broken. So, hand to hand combat, sword to sword clash. If either sword's going to break, it's not going to be the word of God, it's going to be Satan's lies that'll go shattered to the ground. Fourthly, it's unchanging. Luke 16:17, "Jesus said, 'It is easier for heaven and earth disappear than the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.'" It's still here. It'll be with us in a thousand years that the Lord doesn't return. Which I think He will within a 1000 years or less. Fifth, it is sharp and double-edged. We already saw that in Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." This is a powerful sharp sword. 

Do you remember on the day of Pentecost when Peter went out and preached the Gospel, and thousands were listening to him preach, and he was very bold and very clear about how Christ died for sins. And he was raised on the third day, and that through him, repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached. When the people of Jerusalem heard this, it says they were cut to the heart, pierced, and said, "Brothers what shall we do?" It gave them a heart wound that they needed. It was able to cut out the tumor of sin. And say, "What do I have to do to be saved?" The word of God has that effect. It is eternal. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," in the New Heaven, and New Earth will still have the word of God. It is bright. So, you know in the Lord of the Rings, whenever the Orcs are nearby, the sword shines and glows. Well, can I just tell you the demons are always around. This sword's always shining. "It is shining as a light in a dark place," it says in 2 Peter. This is a dark place. The word of God is a bright, radiant, shining blade. It is fiery. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't know, but this is what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like fire? And like a hammer that breaks rocks and pieces?” It's a fiery, powerful thing. And it is deadly to the enemies of God.

When I was writing my commentary in Isaiah, Isaiah 27:1, listen to this verse, this is a powerful verse, "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent. Leviathan the coiling serpent, he will punish the monster of the deep." I couldn't read that except thinking about how Jesus, with the sword that's coming out of his mouth, will slay Satan and all of his enemies. It deals death to the enemies of God. He will overcome the antichrist with the breath of his mouth, and slay him with the sword coming out of his mouth. And finally, it is living and active. It is living and active, what does that mean? Well, I can say some scripture to you, and it will stick with you a long time. It has an activity to it. Like the flaming arrow has a destructive activity sticks in you and burns long after the initial wound. This has a healing, living activity, it's very powerful.

I heard a story back in the Puritan era, where a man heard a very powerful, as a young man, heard a very powerful, convicting Gospel message, but he hardened his heart and wouldn't listen. Decades later, when he was in his 80s, that Puritan pastor long since gone on to be with the Lord, that man was still in an unconverted state, he was sitting under a tree, looking up, feeling awful about his life, feeling guilty, feeling that his death was near, didn't know what to do. Remembered the sermon he heard 60 years before that, was convicted and brought to faith in Christ, 60 years later. Couldn't shake it, it didn't stop working on him. So, when I'm witnessing to people on the plane, I say, "I'm going to pray that God will bring to your memory tonight the things we've talked about, especially the scriptures. And that you will be unable to sleep." I've said that to people I've been witnessing to. I never know if it's ever happened. They never called and say, "Hey, that very thing happened. I couldn't sleep," but I'm trusting that at least some of the times I've said that, it's occurred. And they can't shake it and that they are brought to faith in Christ.

Practical Aspects of Wielding the Sword of the Spirit

Now, a couple of more words and we'll be done. How do we learn to wield this skillfully? Well, you have to learn the word of God. You have to get specific about what's in scripture. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this, "Christians tend to be vague, generalistic, unable to cite chapter and verse about the Bible. They say things like this, "I think there's something in the Bible about holiness, or something in the Bible about materialism, or something. I know it's in there somewhere." Friends, that's not going to do it in the day of battle. You need to learn what's in the word of God, you need to learn. When we do ordination councils, the elders do, we bring in these students that want to be ordained. And we ask them many questions. They expected that. What they didn't expect was that they would have to root right doctrines in the best scriptures to support them, chapter and verse. Wow. Well, I say it this way: Look, do you want a surgeon who knows generally where your pancreas is? “I think that's probably your liver, but I'm not 100% sure," it's like, "Do not touch me." But very soon after they're in ministry, some people struggling with sin, are going to say, "What are the best scriptures for me for fighting lust?” “My marriage is struggling. What should I do?" Well, I think the Bible says some things about marriage." That's just not going to cut it. "How can I best refute the temptations I'm feeling toward anxiety over money? Do you have any verses on that? Do you know where they are? Do you know what they are?" So, fighting specific temptations. 

Scripture Memory

I remember when I was a young man, just out of MIT, I've been a Christian, three or four years. I remember I was in an office and I wanted to be pure. I wanted pure eyes. I wanted to be pure in my heart. And there were opportunities for visual temptations in the office, based on what people were wearing, and I remember memorizing Psalm 141, verses 8:10, "But my eyes are fixed on you, oh, Sovereign Lord. And you, I take refuge. Do not give me over to death. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evil doers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by in safety." So just guard my eyes, oh, Lord, to look at only those things that are pure. How about temptations? Struggling with temptations, how do you resist them? A temptation toward depression and discouragement. How about Psalm 42:5-6, "Why are you downcast, oh, my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise my savior and my God." What about anxiety? How about Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How about accusations? Romans 8, "Who will lay any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died more than that is at the right hand of God, is interceding," or, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful, and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John 1:9. So, I would commend memorization of scripture to you. Hugely beneficial. Out in the North Tower Resource Center, we got from Bethlehem Baptist packets of scripture verses that they call “fighter verses,” it's coming right from this Ephesians 6 image. Those are topical verses that you can use to learn specific ways to fight certain temptations. I think it's a good combination between that and memorizing whole books of the Bible for a general knowledge of all that Scripture says. So, this is the way you can wield the sword. 

IV. Wielding the Sword in the Internal and External Journeys

One final word and then we'll go to the Lord's supper. You need to learn how to wield the sword both in the internal journey and the external. Internally, you have to block all of these things that I've been talking about. Satan's temptations, accusations, false doctrines. So, that you can grow in holiness. But externally, don't you want to set some prisoners free? They're in their chains, they can't get out. Think of what Charles Wesley did in, “And Can It Be”. How he wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray," who's the thine? It's Jesus. But he does it through messengers. He does it through evangelists that go into the dungeon and say, "Let me sit with you and talk to you about truth." And you wield that sword better than the Green Destiny and the chains just get sliced and fall from their wrists and their ankles. "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee." Alright. Close with me in prayer then we'll go to a Lord's supper. 

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the power of the Gospel. We thank you for all that it teaches us in the way it instructs us. And thank you, oh Lord, for the way we're told to fight, to put on the helmet of salvation and to wield the sword of the Spirit. And now, as we go to a time for the Lord's supper and for the ordinance, I pray that you would take the words that I've just preached, and press them into our hearts so that we are ready to fight for purity and for souls. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Introduction

Amen. Well, for me, as a pastor, as a student of the Word of God, I find that some of the most powerful insights, in the Christian life come from facing hard questions, confident that God's Word has the right answer. For us to face hard issues, hard questions knowing that the Word of God will not let us down, that God has not left us as orphans, he is going to sustain us and help us. So for us to face squarely as we look at Ephesians 6:5-9, second sermon that I preached, last week was the easy one. Preaching on employer-employee relationships, and work and all that, but it didn't seem appropriate for me to stop short of asking hard questions, this week and next week. So this week, I want to look at the issue of slavery just simply as it's written, "Masters and slaves."

And for me, as a preacher, also, we're always striving to be relevant, we don't want to preach sermons and have services that are just irrelevant to our lives and chattel slavery is illegal all over the world. So one is in a simple way, you could say Ephesians 6, 5-9 is obsolete. There really is nothing more that we can get out of it. And so there's nothing for us to look at. And I set that aside last week. I don't think it's obsolete. They're abiding principles even though slavery is obsolete, we would have to say now, in that slavery is obsolete the law of the land everywhere is simply this, "Masters emancipate your slaves." That would be what the text would say to us.

So the question that has pressed itself on my mind is, why doesn't the Bible specifically the New Testament clearly teach abolition? Why doesn't the Bible just clearly say,"Set your slaves free." Why does it instead seem to manage the institution of slavery rather than just simply abolish it? So that's been on my mind and my purpose today, I have two purposes, one first and foremost, above all things, I want all of us to understand the theme of slavery in the New Testament. How rich and powerful a theme it is for your relationship with God and of Christ and with other people. And to embrace the term “slave of Christ,” like Paul did as he wrote and began the book of Romans. “Paul a bond slave or a servant, a doulos, a slave of Christ,” right away, identified himself that way, he was proud to present himself that way and wanted to say that I want us to just swim in that and embrace it and see the richness of that theme. 

And how powerful it'll be for us to understand those aspects, how slavery has been transformed by the Gospel and how slavery will be eternal, an eternal theme of our relationship with our creator, God, it's not going to go away. And then secondly, to defend this book against modern critics who used the fact that slavery is so clearly immoral and obsolete and all that to somewhat take, they think the higher moral ground over the Bible, and make the Bible obsolete and then extend it to other very hot issues. Like the LGBT questions and other things. And say the Bible is obsolete, it's commanding things that none of us does anymore. And so, we've moved on from it, to defend the Bible against that. Even if our defense, our apologetic isn't convincing to them, we need to be convinced the Bible is not obsolete, that the Bible's a living word, that it's an inerrant Word, and that we can have confidence in it. So that's what's on my mind today. 

I. The Heroic Fight Against Slavery’s Wicked Abuse

Two Hundredth Anniversary of Wilberforce’s Triumph

Well, you just heard the text, read for us. I won't read it again. I want to begin by just talking about the amazing history of Christian leadership in abolition. Really the abolition of slavery around the world is an achievement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the most part, at least in the early stages, it was Christians that led out and seeing the need to abolish slavery and there's some heroes in that story like in 2007, mark the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce's successful ending of the slave trade in the British empire. Thomas Jefferson wrote a similar law in the United States the next year 1808, but it was Wilberforce and his group that led out. He was an evangelical Christian in England, a member of parliament. He led a successful 18-year fight against the British slave trade, he was struck down again and again, he was vilified, he was opposed, he was shouted down, he was hated and mocked and threatened, but he tirelessly persevered until at last, success was his in 1807. He reminds me of a huge block of cork, and you just kept pushing him down and he just kept popping up again and again. And I just think there's so many good lessons from church history, and I just want to be like that. I don't know what issues and what ministry God's called me too, but just in my life, I want to be so filled with hope like he was that I'm just buoyant and you just don't give up. Eighteen years of losing until he finally won. And it wasn't just him. There were many others that worked together to abolish the slave trade. 

History of Abolition

By this, we mean the abolition of the infamous Middle Passage, the Atlantic slave trade in which people were taken from the African continent and brought over to the New World. Maybe 15 million Africans were eventually snatched from their homes and transported across the Atlantic Ocean, to be enslaved in the Western atmosphere. African kings, warlords, private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans, who held several coastal forts as staging grounds for this middle passage. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase to the European or American slave traders. Ships contained up to 300 slaves aboard one slave ship with a crew of about 30 people, the male captives were normally chained together in pairs to save room while the women and children generally had a little more freedom. The captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, but if food was scarce then slaveholders would get priority, concerning meals. 

It is a matter of record that in 1781, the captain of the slave ship Zong, threw overboard 130 living slaves chained together because he had run out of provisions, and he was going to claim them as lost cargo and get insurance money. Now Wilberforce spared nothing in making the horrors, the specific, the detailed horrors of the slave trade widely known, the inhuman conditions on-board, the over-packed slaves slave ships and in 1807, he was successful at that first leg of abolition, just the first leg, and that's the abolition of the slave trade. That was just the first step of the fight, for the next 26 years, Wilberforce also participated in the next phase and that is the fight to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire, and that was successful finally in 1833, just days before he died. 

Now, that passion for abolition continued not just in Wilberforce's heart and throughout the British Empire, but in the hearts of many here in America, and indeed around the world, as I said, abolition as a product in their hearts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the excesses of American slavery were extreme after that barbaric Middle Passage. Once they arrived, they were auctioned off like animals, completely dehumanized. They were kept literally in chains, often being branded with the owner’s mark to prevent them from being stolen. They could not form families because at any moment husbands and wives could be sold away from each other, parents and children sold away from each other, never to see each other again. Slaves were consistently beaten as a matter of principle, even for tiny infractions to assert the master's authority over their wills. More willful slaves, more determined slaves were forced to submit by iron bits and other iron implements that brought pain into their lives that reminded me of medieval torture devices. If slaves ran away seeking freedom, they were hunted down by professional slave-catchers and by dogs, and when they were recaptured they're often severely lashed with whips. If they persisted in running away in some cases, they would have their feet amputated.

Questions Linger About the Bible

Now we're aware that slavery was defended by people who claimed to be Christian, maybe even people who were Christians and defended it biblically. That's part of the problem we have in the apologetic to our present age. People made a defense for this, but you must see how, what I've just described, does not line up with what Paul commanded in Ephesians 6:9. I hope you see it. There's no defense for that. Look again at the text, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way." is one translation. The idea is go back and look at what Paul just said to the slaves and they're supposed to do their service in a certain way with a heart full of faith, seeing an invisible master, an invisible savior who sees everything they do and they're doing their service as unto, as unto him. The invisible master and king. Okay, “Now masters, you do your mastering in the same way. Seeing an invisible master who watches everything you do.” And then, the command "Do not threaten them." A prohibition against threatening. Friends, can we just have a how much more argument? If it's not okay to threaten them, how could it possibly be okay to beat them or whip them? So we must say that with the excess is that all those things are just completely biblically indefensible. The masters were not obeying the New Testament. They were not obeying what Paul commanded.

Now, I've talked about the first two phases of the fight against legal slavery, the abolition of the slave trade and then phase two, the abolition of slavery itself. Now that went on for a long time after the American Civil War worldwide. Abolitionists in this country continued their fight right up until obviously, 1861 when the war basically took over on the issue of abolition. And the United States passed the 13th Amendment, ratified by the states at the end of 1865. It was passed by Congress January 31st, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States, and then ratified by the states on December 6, that same year, 1865, but then illegal slavery began in earnest in the United States. I didn't know this, but following the Civil War hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were re-enslaved in an abusive manipulation of the legal system called peonage. Across the deep South, African-American men and women, were falsely arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted of those crimes and then leased to coal and iron mines, brick factories and plantations and other dangerous workplaces. The system slowed down after World War One, but didn't fully end until the 1940s. So that's the third phase of the battle against slavery, and that is the fight against illegal slavery.

Now worldwide as I said, long after the American Civil War and the 13th and 14th Amendment, ended that in our country. Other nations stubbornly resisted abolition, stubbornly resisted it, especially Islamic nations. And finally in 1980, the last nation Mauritania abolished legal slavery, and that meant that every political nation on earth in every nation on earth, slavery is illegal. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including an article stating, "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Now we're in that third phase which is the battle against human trafficking, and it's a problem that we only are beginning to understand the magnitude of. There's a lot of information here I'm going to spare you from. You can come and ask me later. But one organization connected with the United Nations estimates as many as close to 21 million people are in forced servitude right now. 21 million worldwide.

There is a plan one ministry has a plan for ending slavery, worldwide. How to free today's slaves. And the cost, the estimated cost of worldwide abolition is close to $11 billion over 25 years. The United Nation International Labor Organization estimates that the annual profits from human trafficking could be as high as $150 billion. $150 billion every year. So clearly, the worldwide fight against slavery is not over, but in this case it's just that final phase against illegal slavery. But questions linger about the Bible. How can we read the Bible’s passages on slavery? Look especially at the Old Testament in which slavery is just clearly even not just permitted, but encouraged with the Jewish nation concerning the nations that they conquered etcetera. It's just managed. How do we do that? And then the New Testament, "How do we understand that?" And how do we defend this book against those who would seek to go out into other moral issues like the LGBT issue and all that? And say, "You have no standing, you're being selective, you're being hypocritical, you're only applying some aspects and not the others." How do we respond to that? Especially beginning in our own hearts. 

Well, let's begin with a definition of slavery. What do we mean by slavery? It's the social sanction that permits one person or group to compel the involuntary labor of another person or group in conditions that usually make them socially inferior and are restrictive of their freedom. So, that's what slavery is. Now, the key issues then are compulsion of labor or involuntary labor. Conditions that make the individual inferior subhuman, and then the lack of personal freedom, the Gospel transforms each of those three elements. Just completely transformed it. So the eternal aspect of slavery that I'm going to advocate from the Book of Revelation, is radically different than the things that we've seen on Earth because sin nature will be gone forever. So, let's begin by looking at slavery in the Old Testament. 

II. Slavery in the Old Testament

Overview of Old Testament History

The first mention of slavery was in the curse on Noah's son, Ham, for his treatment of Noah when Noah fell drunk and the curse went on Ham's son Canaan, cursed to be Canaan the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Abraham had male and female slaves like Hagar, when Hagar was abused by Sara, she ran away and God told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, and then he threatened his brothers when they didn't know who he was threatened his brothers with slavery for stealing his cup. Then eventually, once Joseph died and the next Pharaoh came along who knew nothing about Joseph, the entire nation fell into bondage in slavery. It's a big part of the Jewish heritage because in the Exodus, they were brought out with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm and through the Red Sea into freedom. 

The Puzzling Laws of Moses

Then the laws of Moses come along and they seem, at least to our perspective, a little puzzling a little challenging. Moses consistently reminded the Jews, that they had been slaves in Egypt. He commanded them to be mindful of treating aliens and strangers with that kind of kindness saying, "Do not oppress an alien. You yourself know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt", but yet slavery was as I said, permitted in the Laws of Moses, especially in times of war, where captives were brought in and they were made to be slaves and that's how it was managed.

Key Text: A Voluntary Slave Who Delights in their Master

You could even have a fellow Hebrew as a slave, but it was managed very carefully. And Deuteronomy 15 is one of the key texts that kind of brings us into the New Testament themes, and even into the eternal theme of slavery as a beneficial relationship. Deuteronomy 15 it says, "If a fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free, and when you release him, don't send him away empty-handed, supply him liberally from your flock, and your threshing floor and your wine press, give to him as the Lord, your God has blessed you. Remember that you also were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. And that's why I give you this command today. But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you’ because he loves you and your family, and is well-off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life, do the same for your maid servant."

So the idea of piercing the earlobe for somebody that just was so delighted to stay with the family and submit to that master because it was such a good life and so richly blessed, then is brought over first and foremost, with Jesus Christ. In the prophecy in Psalm 40, it says, "Sacrifice and offering. You did not desire. But my ear, you have pierced. Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God." That's taken over in the Book of Hebrews, and ascribed directly to Jesus and in fact, Jesus said, "Alright Father pierce my earlobe. I am yours to command. I will do everything you command me to do. Whatever you command me to do, I will do. That's Jesus leading out on this and Jesus himself said, “I've come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.”

III. Christ a Perfect Slave, Christ a Perfect Master

Christ the “Very Nature of a Slave”

So, Philippians 2 as we come to Christ, the perfect slave and perfect master, Philippians 2, it says of Jesus Christ, “who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being found in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” What's interesting to me about Philippians 2:5-8, is that it uses this “very nature language.” Jesus was as much slave, as he was God. And the clause it follows, being found in human appearance, is kind of like, you need to realize we were made to be douloi, we were made to be servants. That's what we were made for. We are so deceived about this. And so, the nature of being human is to be a servant, that's what we're made for. Jesus led the way in that. He was the most servant of us all. He was the perfect slave, he went as low as a slave could possibly go. And he carried himself like a servant to everyone around him, that was just his nature. Anyone and everyone who came to him for a need, he got up and met it. And think of the healings. He has got to be the most incredibly interruptible and yet efficient leader in history. I can't match his interruptibility. People just came, and he got up and went and served them. Didn't matter what the need was.

Christ’s Slave-like Demeanor to Others

The Roman Centurion came and his servant was suffering and Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." And then the woman with the issue of blood, and then Jairus's daughter, and all this, whoever had a need, huge crowds came and he healed them all. But the ultimate servanthood is displayed in his death on the cross, and he foretold it and showed it in John 13 with the foot washing. You remember how he took off his, symbolically his robes, royal robes, picture the incarnation. Put, covers himself with a towel, and then washes his disciples feet, drying them with the towel around his waist. Just such a picture of servanthood. And you remember how Peter said, I love that moment. He's like, "Lord are you going to wash my feet?" I figure his like the seventh or eighth of the 12. He's like, "Yes." I don't want you to wash my feet. I remember how he says, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." That's one of Peter's never statements, four never statements. Another topic, another sermon, but four times he says, “Never," he said, "you'll never wash my feet." Jesus says, "Unless I wash you, have no part with me. I have to serve you, or you can't go to Heaven." And so, the ultimate servitude was Jesus's death on the cross. That downward path of slave-like obedience led him to the cross, that led him to his death on the cross. 

Christ’s Ultimate “Bondage”: The Cross

Jesus in another place used I think slavery language to talk about this feeling he had about his crucifixion. In Luke 12:50, he said, "I have a baptism down to go." In context, he's talking about his crucifixion. I have a baptism down to go and I am as if in a straight jacket until it is accomplished. I'm bound in, I'm roped in until I go die on the cross. So as a slave, Jesus drank the cup of Hell and condemnation for me and for you, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So he's a perfect slave. He is also the perfect Master. We see in our text in Ephesians, we see it in Colossians 4:1, "Masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know you also have a master in Heaven." So he's a perfect master.

IV. Slavery in the New Testament: Some Observations

Spiritual Slavery: Every Human Being a Slave

So let me talk about slavery in the New Testament. Just make some observations. I just handed it out at a moment ago. Every single human being is a servant or a slave. All of us. Not some of us, all of us. We're going to serve some master. It's inevitable. Now, Satan is a liar about this, right?  He's going to come and he's going to lie to us and he's going to offer us freedom, as he defines it. Freedom, freedom from all submission, freedom from all authority. You can do whatever you want with your time, with your money, with your energy, you can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. You can choose, and no one has the right to tell you what to do, you can eat whatever food you want, you can spend your money however you want, you can go where you want, etcetera. But Satan omits in all of that, the message of freedom that you owe complete obedience to your creator and lawgiver, to your God. He leaves that out. And at the core, Satan's deceiving us into a different kind of bondage, into slavery to him and to sin. He knows very well what he's doing. He wants you to serve him, remember how he tempted Jesus, saying, "If you'll fall down and worship me," why the physical falling down? “I want to dominate you.” That's what Satan's like, that's what sin is like. So every non-Christian, is already a slave. A slave of sin. Jesus said this in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin," Romans 6:17, "you used to be slaves to sin." 

The Gospel, Jesus comes along, and there we are in chains to sin, and to Satan and death and he sets us free, sets us free. But it's not freedom in the way Satan defines it. That doesn't exist, that freedom doesn't exist. He says, "I want you to serve me." And so he comes with this beautiful offer, one of the most beautiful in the New Testament, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." What's the next thing he says? "Take my yoke upon you". “Take that stiff neck of yours and put it under my kingly yoke. Stop rebelling against me, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So trade the one heavy, crushing yoke of sin and death, and Satan, for a light one in which you find out that all of my commands are morally beautiful. And they're delightful, and they result in a beautiful world, in a peaceful life and all that. “Take my yoke upon you. Let me be your king, your master,” that's what he's saying. Paul uses this kind of slave language quite boldly, in 1 Corinthians 6, talking about sexual morality, sexual purity, he says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price." Wow, that's strong. I was bought, a price was paid for me and I don't own myself. Somebody else paid for me. “Therefore glorify God with your body.” So that's clear servitude language, you are a servant, a slave, of crisis like I am, Paul is saying. You were bought at a price, and that price was infinite. So the bottom line, every human being on the face of the Earth will either serve God through Christ, or serve Satan, sin, death and Hell. Those are the choices. There's no third option. You're going to serve someone.

Freedom and Slavery Both Redefined by Christ

So if you ever talking to somebody and they say, effectively, "I'm free! No one tells me what to do, I can do whatever I want with my life, my money, my time, my relationships, my interest and my hobbies, I am master of my own fate, I am captain of my own soul." Be assured they are slaves of Satan, and it's somehow your job by the ministry of the Law and the Word to show them that and to show them a better freedom that comes from serving Christ. That's the reality. So therefore, freedom and slavery are both redefined by the Gospel and by Christ. Freedom is redefined. It's a whole different view of freedom now. I think the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32, had it, "I run in the path of Your commands, for you have set my heart free." So my pathway is bounded by the laws of God, and when I run in there I feel free. That's the freedom for me. Outside of the laws of God is corruption and wickedness, and bondage to sin. And I will not run there, but this path is a free path. My heart is free. Or Jesus said in John 8:31-32 to the Jews who had believed him. "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 

Paul teaches this kind of freedom as well, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness," that's the same thing as the pathway of God's laws, slaves to God, slaves to righteousness. Now that's what you have, it's a different kind of freedom. Therefore slavery has been redefined by Christ. We are all slaves now to Christ and also we are told to other people. We're actually slaves to everybody, anybody and everybody. That's pretty powerful. We are free now, to serve other Christians, we are free to wash their feet. Jesus said, "I give you an example, now, as I've washed your feet, so you must wash each other's feet. Be servants to each other.” Galatians 5:13, "You my brothers were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another in love." There's freedom for service, that's what it is, serve one another in love. So we're free to wash the feet of other Christians, we're actually free to serve non-Christians too, to become slaves to non-Christians.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and following, he says, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I become all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I may save some." Now I have a powerful illustration of this by a friend of mine who's the Vice President with the International Mission Board. He went to serve at a refugee camp in Greece, was made up of people that had fled from ISIS. The Muslim families for the most part, fled from ISIS, the camp was managed by the United Nations. Bunch of tents. The United Nations doesn't get into actually managing what the tents are like for the families that come. There's a high turnover rate, and the people that are there don't want to be there and have very little respect for the camp or miserable and sad and leave the tents in horrific conditions. I can't even describe what it's like. He showed his photos, but he and his team would go in and clean excrement, and urine, and rotting garbage from out of those tents, getting them ready for Muslim families to move in while the missionaries were sharing the Gospel with those Muslim families, with a clear display of servanthood right in front of them, that's I think what Paul means when he says, "I can be a slave to a non-Christian in the hope that I might, somehow lead them to Christ." So that's all spiritual.

Physical Slavery: Not Overthrown but Subverted

What about physical slavery? What about that? Now, masters and slaves, it's right there. It's not talking about some spiritual thing. It's talking about actual chattel slavery. Why aren't there abolitionist verses? Well, there aren't abolitionist verses, but there are subversive forces unleashed by the New Covenant, that destroyed slavery. It was not the purpose of the Gospel during that era of Roman history to overturn the entire socioeconomic system of the Roman world, the estimates up to half of all the people in territories dominated by Rome were slaves. It was woven in the economic system. It was not God's purpose to just overturn all of that. Instead, there's this management of it, but then there are these subversive themes. In a very good way. I'm using the word subversive in a good way. They were subversive to destroying chattel slavery, and they worked. For example, the Golden Rule, very effective, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Right? 

It's a simple logic. “Would you like to be a slave?” “No.” “Then don't enslave someone else.” It really just works, it's very, very powerful. As a matter of fact, Abraham Booth, an English Calvinist Baptist, preached basically, that sermon. I'm thinking if that's the sermon I think it's a real short sermon, but very effective. A minute and a half long. But his title was longer than that. “Commerce in the human species and the enslaving of Innocent Persons Inimical,” I guess, “Hostile to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ.” That's the sermon title. They had more words back then. But he said this, one of his application point is, "How would you like it if some foreign slave traders came to Liverpool, here in Liverpool, and took your wives and children right from you, and enslave them, how would you like that?" That's subversive and attacks and destroys slavery, it's a very effective argument.

Jesus himself gave this hierarchical sense, in John 15, he says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you, I no longer call you slaves because the slave doesn't know what his master is doing." That's very interesting. Now later, Paul would call himself a slave of Christ, what he's saying is, I have a higher role. And later in that same Gospel, he says, "I'm going to call you brothers and sisters. I'm going to make you co-heirs with me, you're going to rule with me on the throne of the universe." So, we are slaves and sons and daughters and co-rulers with Christ, all of the above, all of those themes are valid and powerful, not just some of them. The common brotherhood of master-slave in the Gospel is a subversive force. Galatians 3 "you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." 

Then in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul gives a command to slaves, that if they can get their freedom, they ought to do it, 1 Corinthians 7:21. "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you." Interesting statement. You know what he's saying by that, he's saying, “You can actually live a flourishing, fruitful Christian life as a slave. And God will reward you richly on Judgment Day for your faith-filled obedience. So don't let it trouble if you can't get your freedom, but if you can get your freedom, do it.” The whole ethos of 1 Corinthian 7 is the less things that tie you down there, the more free you'll be to serve Christ, in this world. That's what he's saying. 1 Corinthians 7:22, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord, is the Lord's freed man." You're actually free in the Lord's eyes. But similarly, who is a free man is called Christ's slave. So you think you're free, but you're actually Christ's slave. So that's what he's saying.

There's a clear condemnation both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament of slave traders. There's no doubt about that. They were condemned to death in the Law of Moses, so the laying weight in the jungle with the net and a club for somebody that goes to get river water, and then you jump up on him and knock him over the head and drag him away in a net, you're guilty and deserve death in the Law of Moses for that. And in 1 Timothy 1:9-11, “We also know that the law was not made for the righteous, but for law breakers and rebels for the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, adulterers, perverts, for slave traders, and liars, and perjurers.” So they're listed as wicked people. 

And then finally, there's the Book of Philemon, which I think is marvelous. You remember the story in Philemon? It's just a little book. But Paul writes and apparently the story is the slave Onesimus, had run away from his master Philemon and had stolen from him apparently. Runs away in the Roman Empire, ends up meeting the Apostle Paul. Now it turns out, Paul had led Philemon to Christ. So they were good friends. What are the odds? Oh, what a lucky day. You know, that kind of thing, not the whole thing was orchestrated. Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, to faith in Christ, then writes the letter that's now in our New Testament, gives it to the slave and sends them back to his master. Think about the faith it would take to obey Paul, and go back. But in the content of the letter, he says this, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good." Key verse, "No longer as a slave," that's key, “no longer as a slave.” What's he telling him to do? "No longer as a slave, but better than a slave: Now, a dear brother. He is very dear to me and even dear to you. Both as a man and a brother in the Lord. So, I know you're going to obey me because I want to just, I'm not going to remind you, this is pure rhetoric. I'm not going to remind you, you owe me your very soul.” But I know you'll do the right thing. Oh, come on, that's very subversive. What is he telling him to do? Set him free? Set him free. So all of those forces over 18 centuries, were subversive and destroyed chattel slavery. Now you might say, "Well why didn't God do it faster? God has his own ways. God's ways are not our ways. But in the end, it was the Gospel and Christians that destroyed it, and it is gone. Now, what's the future of all for slavery? 

V. Service in Heaven: Redeemed from the Curse

Eternal Rewards Based on Becoming Slaves

Well, in Heaven, in Heaven slavery will be 100% redeemed from the curse. We will get rewards on Judgment Day based on how much we acted and felt and truly acted out as slaves in this world. Jesus defined true greatness this way. "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." In other words, our rewards on Judgment Day will be based on how well you live like a slave.

The Angel's Perfect Obedience

And then, when we get into Heaven, we're going to see a throne, surrounded by 100 million angels that live every moment to do the perfect will of God. They're delighted to do anything he says to do and actually one of those angels called himself to John, "A fellow slave with you of the Lord." A fellow slave. Angels and humans both of us, fellow slaves. Now, those angels are delighted to do anything God says. John Newton, made this observation he said, "If two angels were sent to the Earth, on a mission from God. And one of them was sent to run an empire and the other was sent to sweep the streets of the city, neither one of them would seek a different job, but would do it gladly, for the glory of the one that sent them." I love that. No matter what the Lord assigns you to do, just do it as unto him. It's a beautiful picture, isn't it? But, in that same chapter, Revelation 22:3 it says, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will serve him." So there it is, in the New Heaven, New Earth we will be sons and daughters, we will be co-heirs, but we also be his servants. And so what's the essence of that? 

What It Means to be a Slave

We'll think it, think it through. What's the difference between being an employee and being a slave? Well, an employee can say, "I'm not working here anymore." Right? "I'm quitting today. Famously, I've seen some pretty dramatic quittings in my professional life. Oh, there's  one story I'll tell another time but it was dramatic. What was cool is the guy came back a week later and asked for his job back. Didn't get it, they were still repairing the wall, and some other things that had been broken on that day, so. But that was humorous to say the least. But you can quit and you can demand wages. Okay? When we're in the New Heaven, New Earth will we be able to quit? No, that's already been tried. That's what redemptive history was all about. And will we be able to go to God and demand wages for our labor for him? No, we can't do that. We will be forever his slaves, but we're going to be delighted, and we're going to reign with him forever and ever. And you know what's going to happen?  It says in Luke 12:37, "It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, the Master," listen to this, "will dress himself to serve, and have them recline a table, and he will come and wait on them in Heaven." So you're going to be at the wedding banquet of the lamb and the bridegroom is going to come up and ask if you like, a refill. He's going to serve you up in Heaven while being the King of glory. So servanthood, itself, has been totally redeemed, and made perfect, and it is eternal, so that's why the Bible doesn't totally abolish or destroy slavery because there are aspects of it we need to embrace for the rest of our lives. Jesus himself embraces it. 

VI. Application

Alright, so what applications can we take from that, well, let's just begin with this, submit willingly to Christ the King. Perhaps for the first time. You may be an unbeliever, maybe God brought you here, I'm calling on you to submit to Christ, come to him. All you who are weary and burdened, and let him give you rest. Take your neck and submit it to Christ's kingly yoke and let him forgive you, let him wash your, wash our soul with his redeeming blood. Start there. But then secondly, for you Christians, realize that you are the slave to the one whom you obey. Whether to sin, which leads to death, or to Christ, which leads to eternal life and righteousness. So who are you obeying? Are you fighting the good fight of holiness? Are you submitting to God's laws? Are you living like a slave of sin, or a slave of righteousness? What is actually happening in your life? You have been set free. Roman 6:18, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Are you living that out? 

Thirdly, seek to obey Christ, every moment, just present yourself to him as your Master, and you the slave. Be proud to say I'm a doulos. I'm a slave of Christ. What do you want me to do? Command me, and I'll obey. Fourthly, serve other people, be a servant to all, find ways to wash feet, and not expect to be thanked or noticed. I think much about that IMB Vice President. I want to do that ministry. I actually sought an opportunity to go in September, but the IMB has been separated from that ministry right now by political forces unfortunately, but I would love to take a team to go wash tents. "Well now that you described it like that. Pastor, I'm not so excited, if that was a different kind of mission trip," but I'm thinking this is a great opportunity for us who don't know the language and don't know the culture, to serve those who are trained and can. So stay tuned. I'm still looking for a chance to go do that, to be a servant, but find ways to serve non-Christians and lead them to Christ. Fifthly, defend the Bible. Defend it against people who think that they know better about the Bible. And it's like, "Well the Bible teaches slavery," it's like, does it? Let's talk about that. Defend the Bible, be honest about the past. The excesses of chattel slavery, but to say, "Look, those folks were disobeying God's Word." Clearly. And look forward to the future when we will spend eternity serving God. I'm yearning to look forward to that. 

In the meantime it may be that some of you may be called on to give your lives, a focus of your lives to the third phase of this abolitionist battle and that is battling illegal slavery. I know at least a few of us have been involved in sex trafficking and some other things. There's child slavery, going on. There's other issues and some of you may be called on to be influential, like William Wilberforce in greatly reducing illegal slavery in our world. Close with me in prayer if you would. 

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. I pray that you would press these lessons to our hearts. Help us to delight in serving you Lord help us to embrace it, help us, O Lord, to look for opportunities to serve others, and not ask to be thanked or paid or in some way receive anything back, help us, O Lord, to be effective in becoming servants to all people so that by all possible means, we might save some. And thank you, Lord Jesus especially for serving us when we were so filthy and covered with sin, you became our slave and you washed our whole souls in your cleansing blood. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Introduction

Amen. Well, it's my joy to be back preaching with you again. I wasn't sure whether I could keep doing that or start doing it again. We'll find out, won't we? We'll find out whether I still know how to preach but thank you Tom for praying for me. It's kind of interesting for me to come back in the midst of a verse. Some of you may remember, we are right in the middle of Ephesians 6:4. So, this morning you're going to get Ephesians 6:4b. And it's been like two months since we had Ephesians 6:4a. It reminds me of a really powerful moment in Church history.

I did my doctoral dissertation on John Calvin, and for me, he's just one of the greatest examples of a verse by verse expository there's ever been in Church history, tremendous unfolder of the Word of God, but the city of Geneva wasn't ready to hear the word from Calvin, and they evicted him and William Ferrell, his co-worker in reform there. And they left, they had to leave, they were thrown out of the city for preaching the word. They were gone for a number of years. And finally, Geneva, the leaders knew they needed the ministry of the Word of God, and they wanted Calvin back, and they persuaded him to come back, and he came back, and as he began his first Sunday back preaching, he started right where he had been many, many years before that and resumed. And I think if you just know the big picture, you know what's being said there, it's like, “We could have had years of ministry of the Word so, but let's pick up where we were and start. “

Now, I've not had such a negative relationship at all. I've been working on an Isaiah commentary, and I was not evicted from this pulpit, but I'm glad to come back and, as it were, parachute into the middle of Ephesians 6:4 and talking about Christian parenting. But in doing so, I want to begin just by getting some perspective, to try to understand where we're at in Ephesians to understand how parenting, how Christian parenting fits into everything.

“Zoom” Back to Gain Perspective

Zoom

Some time ago I heard about a children's book, richly illustrated. You can picture it in your mind's eye, and the book is called Zoom. It was conceived and written illustrated by Istvan Banyai. I don't know anything about the individual, but I think it’s a very clever concept. And the first page in the book starts out with this kind of interesting diagram of triangles, red triangles with dots all over them. As you turn the page, you zoom back and you find out that you're looking at the comb of a rooster. And you can see the rooster, and you can get a little bit more perspective. So we started looking at the details of a rooster's comb, and now we've stepped further back. And then the next page you zoom further back. And there are two children standing on a bench looking at the rooster in some kind of a cottage, I guess. You zoom further back, now you're out the door of the cottage and you can see the cottage, and in fact, the whole barnyard because you're up a little higher and there's a pickup truck and all that.

And so the next page, you zoom back a little bit further, and the whole scene it turns out, is just a brochure, I guess, for a set of toys, and you see someone holding the brochure, and it's a little bit jarring because there is this big hand grabbing the whole thing. And then the next page, you zoom back further and the person's in a magazine, and then you zoom back further and the magazine is on the lap of a sleeping teenage boy on the deck of a boat. I'm like “Where are we heading?” And then you zoom back further back and it turns out this whole thing is an advertisement for a cruise on the side of a bus in a city. And after a while you start getting bewildered. I have no idea where this journey is going to take us. Now I'm not going to keep going on this Zoom thing, you'll have to get the book and find out the rest. I'm not going to give you the plot spoiler. I've already kind of ruined the first few pages.

I think as you gain perspective on Christian truth, Biblical truth. The further back you step, the more you can see the big picture of what's going on in your life, and you can gain needed perspective. And I want to do that kind of context here. I want to take the Book of Ephesians right here at Ephesians 6:4b and kind of step back more and more to give eternal meaning to Christian parenting, to give you a sense of context of what you're doing as Christian parents. And this stepping back further and further will give an eternal perspective and a radically new view of a series of mundane encounters, and honestly, most of parenting is a series of very menial mundane encounters. And friends, brothers and sisters, we don't have much time. Our life is a mist, as you heard earlier. It's just here, we're here for a little while, and then it vanishes.

A Brief, Yet Urgent Time

In Job 7:6, Job said, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." So you can imagine just how a tapestry or how cloth is made and the weaver's got a spool of thread on the shuttle and he just shoots it across and it's gone, it's just gone. And I never really realized how quickly life goes until I had children. And then you start seeing them grow up and go through stages and you just blow through those stages so quickly. And you just don't have a lot of time when your children are young and their hearts are tender and they are eager to learn from you. You don't have much time. And then as they grow older, they're still in the home, but they're a little more set in their ways, and that's a different phase of parenting. And it just goes, it goes fast. And so, my desire is that you would make the most of the brief time that you have.

These series of mundane encounters that just seem like they're not significant, but they really are. I think about like a mother humming while giving her newborn just home from the hospital its first bath. Just that little moment there, or a father gathering three preschool kids on the couch for a family devotion and opening the Bible up like he does every evening, or a mother caring gently and lovingly for a sick child at 3:00 in the morning. There is not going to be an infinite number of times of doing that, at a certain number and pouring out love on that child, or a father driving his family to church week after week after week. Just habitually not forsaking the assembling of themselves together with other Christians. Or parents hugging their kids or talking to their kids or disciplining them when they sin. And in the matrix of an ordinary everyday life, these children grow up, and pretty soon they're gone. And we have to make the most of these days, the time that we have, and I just believe God's Word is sufficient. It's enough. What we have in the word of God is sufficient for us to do a good job as parents, as fathers and mothers.

The Context of Christian Parenting

Now, for us, I want to just zoom back further and further so we can see where we're at in Christian parenting. You heard what Tom read, the whole context here is of the father-child or the parent-child relationship is set in the larger context of Ephesians 6:1-4, "Children obey your parents in the Lord," as it says there. And you heard the text. And, "Fathers do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training instruction of the Lord." But these commands, if you zoom back a little bit further, you go back in Ephesians, are set in the context of the Christian family. And the most important human relationship in the Christian family is the husband-wife relationship. So it comes on the heels of wives being told to submit to their husbands as to the Lord and the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the Church. So the context of healthy Christian parenting is a strong, stable Christian marriage.

Then you zoom back even further and you find out that the Christian marriage is a subset of the Spirit-filled life. In Ephesians 5:18 we're commanded, "Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be being filled with the Spirit." So there's this ongoing renewing and refreshing that the Spirit does, and the Spirit-filled life then is lived out in a number of significant ways. But the Christian family, the Christian marriage, and then parenting is a subset of that Spirit-filled life. Then if you zoom back even further, going back in Ephesians to Ephesians 4:1, we find out that the Spirit-filled life is a subset of what Paul calls, “living a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Just the entire pattern of our lives that we are to live up to the calling that we have received, and the Spirit is given to enable us to do that.

Then if you zoom back even further, we find out in the first three chapters of Ephesians that God is about some vast amazing glorious building project. He's building a dwelling, a spiritual temple. Reaching for an image from 1 Peter, “made out of living stones.” And this spiritual temple is rising in every generation and becoming a glorious dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And in that structure, that spiritual structure, we will spend all eternity in fellowship with God and with each other. And that gives an incredible context to Christian parenting.

Now we find out, zooming back further, that the building materials for this rising temple are quarried, they're excavated from Satan's dark kingdom. We were at one point, “dead in our transgressions and sins, we were enslaved to Satan in all kinds of lusts and evil desires. Just like the rest of the world, like everyone, we were by nature objects of wrath.” That's what we were. That's where the building materials come from this, and our children come into the world lost, they don't come into the world as believers, they come into the world unregenerate or not having yet been regenerated. And we ourselves the same.

But then we see so beautifully in Ephesians 2:4-5, "But God, because of His great love with which He loved us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved." So this awesome work of salvation through faith in Christ is the point of every moment of Christian parenting. That's the ultimate end of Christian parenting. The top priority for every Christian father and mother is the salvation of your children, that they will spend eternity in Heaven, not in Hell, that they will be in that eternal temple, that eternal dwelling with God, that they will be there. That's top priority. It's not the only priority, but it's absolutely top priority. To that end, we find out, zooming further back, in Ephesians 1:13, that everyone who was ever included in Christ is included in Christ when they “heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation. Having believed, they were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” So the children have to hear the Gospel, and only by hearing and believing the Gospel will they be included in this vast glorious work that God is doing.

The Two-Fold Purpose of Christian Parenting

And once they've come to genuine faith in Christ, we must prepare them to do a pattern of good works that God has laid out before them even before they were born. There's a specific pattern of good works, unique to them different from yours, but unique to them, and in those good works they are called on to walk for the rest of their lives. Having come to faith in Christ, they can do good works. They can't do any as unbelievers. But as a believer in Christ, we are, all of us, “Christ's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.”

And so, therefore, Christian parenting has two great priorities or two-fold purpose: Evangelism and discipleship. That we would evangelize our children, bring them to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, by the ministry of the Gospel. And then secondly, discipleship that we should teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded, and get them ready to fulfill their unique purpose in God's redemptive plan. And you don't know exactly what that is, but it's exciting, it really is a thrill. And so you have to get them ready, you have to get them prepared.

Zoom back with me one final time to see the purpose of all of this. And what is the purpose of all this? Ephesians 1:4-6, "[God] chose us in Christ before the creation of the world that we should be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will, " listen, "to the praise of His glorious grace." That's the final step in this step-back journey, this zoom-back journey. Christian parenting is done that your children might live eternally for the praise of God's glorious grace. That's the point of it all. Now, as our days are swifter than weaver's shuttles, it's a good image for me because I'm leaving behind a string of thread, and part of that are my children, and every day we're weaving a tapestry to some degree, threads of different colors, but there's this beautiful thing being woven in their lives. And the ultimate end of this, Ephesians 1:10, is that “all things in Heaven and earth would be unified or brought together under one head, even Christ” for the praise of His glory. That's the big picture for me.

And it's wonderful to know that for us as Christian parents, it's no accident that we are parents, we're not accidental parents. And it's not any accident that you're specifically parents to the kids you have. I know you may think that it's all an accident. I've actually heard, I'm not going to say much about this, that my kids were adopted. My kids were not adopted. Alright, I have a photographic record of every step of the journey. I watched them grow up. Adoption is a delightful thing, and many of you have adopted kids, but my kids, I watched them get born. And it's no accident that I have the specific kids I have. It's no accident that you have the specific kids you have. It says in Ephesians 1:11, "In Him, we're also chosen, having been predestined," listen to this, "according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Every detail has been figured out. So you have been given these children as a gift of God and they belong to God, not to you, ultimately. And that's the biblical context.

Parenting in this Era

Now let's talk about our own context. Let's talk about the era in which we live, what's going on in the world today in reference to Christian parenting, in reference to what we're facing. What is our context in our society, in our culture, in our nation? What's going on? Well, honestly, in one sense, what's happening right now is the same thing that's been happening in every generation. In every generation, our enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion seeking to devour our children, spiritually. He's coming after our children as he does in every generation. He didn't take any generations off. He's coming hard after our children, and he wants to destroy them spiritually. Our children already are, to some degree, but will be increasingly under constant, daily assault from the world, the flesh and the devil and we have to protect them and get them ready and prepare them for that battle.

One leader in the SBC said this, we are losing our children. Research indicates that 70% of teens who are involved in a church youth group will stop attending church within two years of their high school graduation, 70%. So the world is relentlessly pulling our kids away from Christ, away from the Gospel, pulling them into worldliness and rebellion and unbelief. So Ephesians 6:4 speaks especially to fathers, because they have a primary role in training the parents, but also to mothers as I argued two sermons ago, and really to the entire church as we care about Christian parenting and care that it'd be richly blessed and ultimately the entire society.

Now, last time in Ephesians 6:4a, I talked about the negative or aspect or the prohibition in this verse. "Fathers, do not," there's something they should not do. “Do not provoke your children to anger [or wrath.]” We talked about the significance of that prohibition that it shows that God has authority over your children. He's limited your authority, He's limited over what you can do to your children, and you ought not, must not provoke them to wrath. And I gave a careful list of various things that parents can do to exasperate or provoke their children to wrath. Ultimately, the idea is that parents would in some sad, strange way actually be serving the devil to pull them away through discontent away from the Church and away from Christ, because of sins of bad parenting that they're doing.

So we listed things like hypocrisy, not living up to standards that you preach. Harsh parenting, being too disciplinarian. Lax parenting, not disciplining faithfully or biblically enough. Unreasonable expectations, inconsistency, lack of biblical input, just a lack of loving affection for children. There's a variety of things last time. Now this time, we're turning around and we're speaking more positively there, “Do not do this, but rather Christian fathers do this.” So that's what we're looking at right now.

Parenting “In the Lord”

Instead, he says, “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” or do your parenting in the Lord, that's what he's saying. All Christian parenting must be done in the Lord, the Lord being the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christian parenting is done in Christ. Or as a subset or part of our walk with Christ as Christians. It's done for the glory of Christ, it's done by people redeemed by the blood of Christ, father and mother, it's done by the living, indwelling power of the Spirit of Christ within the father and mother. That's what Christian that's how Christian parenting is done and it's done by the Word of Christ, theScripture, the Bible. We do Christian parenting, I'm preaching about Christian parenting. Now, every nation acknowledges the importance of pouring into and shaping the minds of children. Everyone is aware of that, everyone is aware of the importance of catching children young while they're moldable, malleable, shapeable.

Teach the Children While They Are Young

Some time ago, I heard a story about a man who lived out in a rural part a mountainous area, and this man, this elderly man was a wise Christian man, had a lot of kids, had a strong ministry. He also had an object of interest on his mantelpiece. It was a bottle with a full shiny red apple inside, with a cork in it. So there's this bottle. And the guests in his home would inevitably notice it and go over and pick it up and try to figure out how he got the apple in there. And they're looking for like the trap door at the bottom or some secret thing on the side, but it's just a simple glass bottle looking like any other glass bottle.

How in the world did you get that fully grown apple in there? He said, "Well I'll show you. And he brought them out to his little orchard he had outside the door. And on one particular tree, there were five or six glass bottles and blossoms growing up into the narrow neck of the bottle. That's how it's done. So if any of you have apple trees or pear trees and all that, you can do that and it's kind of exciting and you can amaze and mystify your friends, how in the world did that fully grown apple get inside that narrow neck of the bottle? But you just get it young, while it's still young, and the mind is tender of the child. Everyone all over the world knows that, and I'm going to say that for good or ill. People understand the importance of indoctrinating the next generation in their own worldview.

So their own world philosophy, they want to impart on the next generation, they might raise them as they are perhaps as moral philosophers, or as atheists, or as Muslims of various patterns, or Nazis in the '1930s in Nazi Germany, strong emphasis by the government in raising the next generation of Nazis. Hitler boasted. He said, "You can fight me, but I already have your children." And it was true. Many of them turned in their parents to the Gestapo. Or communists, a whole generation of Chinese kids growing up with Mao's red book and being indoctrinated at a very early age. Everyone knows this, the importance of getting children early. So it is in our country, there are people with strong ideological bents and convictions that are not ours, that very much want to train the next generation to follow after their same pattern. But we Christians, we are seeking to do it in the Lord. By the pattern of the Lord's book, the Bible, for the glory of Christ. Now there are three keywords here: nourish, train, and admonish. Let's look at each of them in turn.

Key Words: Nourish, Train, Admonish

Key Word #1: Nourish

First “nourish,” or bring them up, rear them. The word nourish is kind of home base for this Greek word. Paul used it in Ephesians 5:29 when he was talking about the husband-wife relationship, the husband. Said, “the husband should love his wife as his own body. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds it, [same Greek word,] or nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church.” So there's a sense of feeding, there's a sense of nourishment, of feeding. So, the idea here in Christian parenting is fathers and mothers, you should feed your children as they grow up. Nourish them. Now obviously, for us, we know that the food of their lives is not just physical food, we know a good father is going to be a faithful provider for his family. “I was young, and now I am old. I've never seen the righteous begging bread, or their children begging bread, out in the streets, never.” So the idea is that a godly man will be faithful to provide physical food for his family. But this goes far beyond that.

I think I'm going to go to Matthew 4:4 where Jesus said, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So I think the nourishing from father to children, from mother to children here is a feeding of their growing souls on the word of God. They're going to grow up in the Scripture. And the ultimate and the ultimate food of their faith is Christ Himself. In John 6:35, Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will never go hungry.” So we just want to feed our kids on Scripture, as it points ultimately to Christ, the food of their souls.

So just let's get real practical. Fathers, you just need to sit down with your kids every day, and open the Bible and read them the scripture and teach them. Every day. Fathers especially, mothers too, but fathers lead out here. And so, here we're talking as we have many times before about the daily devotion, the family altar, family devotions, and the importance of gathering the family around the word of God. It doesn't need to be complicated, doesn't need to be, it doesn't need to be in-depth. Actually as they're little, it ought not to be too long, don't go on and on. Remember what happened to poor Eutychus and how he fell asleep and fell out. I'm not saying Paul talked too long but maybe someone needed to look after poor Eutychus. Alright. Thank God, Paul raised him from the dead. But at any rate, we're not looking to go on and on and on. So the idea, especially when they're young, it's more times per week than minutes for time.

So just be consistent, and feed them the word and spend time in worship, get a little song you guys sing together and “sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs” together as a family, and then spend time praying. Pray for each other, pray for missions, pray for anything that you're facing teach them to pray. Daily time. So you, fathers, as you're evaluating your performance right now, you're thinking about how you're doing. This may be an opportunity for you to repent, an opportunity for you to say, You know, it's been a good idea, I've known of it but we're not doing it and I need to lead my family better in doing this. But beyond the daily devotional time, there's so many things that fathers and mothers can and should be doing nourishing their children's souls with the Word of God.

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:7 it said, “talk about the Law of Moses, talk about these things, the Laws of Moses. When you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.” I'm just using a how much more argument. We're in the New Covenant now. We've got better things to say, better promises it says in the Book of Hebrews. We've got a better story to tell. So let's talk about Christ and the Gospel, and the Word of God. When they sit at home and walk along the road, when they lie down, when they get up, just supersaturated, bring them up, nourish them in the Word.

Key Word #2: Nurture

Second word here is train or nurture. It's a very important word in the Greek. Paideia is the word, it's a word that the Ephesians would definitely have known about. Generally, the word had to do aristocratic families, high-born families, noble families. The father, especially toward the heir, he would hire well-known Greek philosophers or send his son, an heir to a school of key philosophers and he would be mentored and tutored. The word would be paideia, he would receive his paideia and his training to come up into his inheritance, so he could take his father's place. We are heirs of the Kingdom of God and we need to receive this paideia, this training, the children need it. As sons of the king, they need to be trained. Sons and daughters prepared for the full inheritance.

And this word paideia has a full range of meaning, everything to do with education. It's impartation of information, but it's also a training of morals. It involves discipline, involves some of the harder aspects of education but it involves generally education in all of its respects, shaping the mind of the child to think and the life, the heart to love what's right and to hate what's wrong.

That's what we're talking about here. So it means an education. Fundamentally fathers are ultimately responsible for the education of their children. Now, this is more radical today than it may seem. And we have to be careful to not cede, not give up our role as Christian parents, to other forces to educate our children. Government can be a usurper in this role. Government schools can take a role sometimes high-handedly over the children that Christians need to be aware of and say, “This is not biblically true.”

I was reading one document by the government agency of the US Federal Government and this document said it was "inviting families to be equal partners with them in the education of their children." I'm like, "How generous of them. How sweet." I mean, it just melted my heart that they were willing to invite me to be an equal partner with them in the education of my kids. I added for now, for now.

I don't know if they're still going to be making that gracious invitation in 20 years. We've seen some rather shocking behavior from the federal government about some controversial issues in which funding was threatened to be removed from schools that didn't see it the president's way or the government's way, and you lose your funding. So, that's a scary harbinger for the future on what it's going to be like in government schools.

Now we understand many families are unable to homeschool their kids they're unable to do that. We understand there are some Christian moms that are struggling, they don't have a husband, a father to their kids. And they're battling just to make it, and we understand that the government school is all that they have and it gets their kids ready with mathematics and other things, etcetera, but there's stuff lacking, and that's where the church can step up. It can be a father to the fatherless. We can be involved. We also know that many of our brothers and sisters are actively involved in public education, they're seeking to be salt and light in a very dark place, and we support that, and we're glad for it.

But I'm more troubled by parents that send their kids to school, the government schools, as missionaries. At young ages, sending them to be salt and light themselves surrounded by so much darkness. Just understand what's going to happen. They'll be there six hours a day, five days a week, totally indoctrinated not just by the curriculum, but by the other kids and the comments that are made. And if you're going to do that, you will need to work doubly and triply hard in the evenings and the weekends to counteract any false teaching they may have had, or false influences. Sometimes they might not even tell. It could be mockery or shame or ridicule in the cafeteria and they're made to feel ashamed about a biblical view, and they'll never tell you about it, but you as fathers are responsible to ferret it out.

Many Christians feel it's just better to homeschool and many more and more are homeschooling. I think there's going to be some more creative hybrids of co-ops and other things in the future where we can step up and educate those that there's no way for those parents to do homeschooling, but the Church can do the full education of those children. It's going to be an interesting road, a steep uphill battle.

Al Mohler, at Together for the Gospel this year, spoke of a Christian family he knew who was sending their kids to school, a government school, as witnesses and missionaries. But one day, at dinner father was just talking about homosexuality is a sin, and his teenage son spoke up and said, "Dad. That's hate speech, you need to stop doing that." Well, that's obviously a difficult moment. Those are the kind of things that we're facing. For me, overall, if you were to ask me why we personally have chosen to homeschool our kids, the biggest danger for us, for me, I'll just speak for myself. The biggest danger is secularism. The idea that God is irrelevant to mathematics, God is irrelevant to science, God is irrelevant to literature, God is irrelevant to American history, God is irrelevant to European history. I disagree from the core of my being, God is relevant to everything in the universe He made by the word of His power. It's His universe, He's relevant to everything.

 So, if some of my students didn't like math, I won't say much more about it, but just didn't like it, I would say Math reflects the character of God, God is an orderly being. He counts a lot of things, He's a counter. It didn't win the day, but I tried. Tried, alright? But I want to teach every subject that way with God at the center. You don't get to do that in the government school. Actually, it's illegal. So I worry about that.

So, we're responsible to raise our kids to raise them up. And I love Luke 2:52, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” That's a great parenting verse. Growing up in wisdom like the Book of Proverbs, rubber meets the road. How to handle your speech patterns, and what to do with your money, and what to do with your friendships and what to do concerning sexual purity and relationships, and all of these things. But it all starts with Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” And so, I want to teach wisdom, I want to see my kids growing in that kind of wisdom. And it also says in stature, there's this physical maturing that goes on. Good parenting, you want to see your kids growing bigger and stronger and more able. So that means, just physical health, physical fitness. Also sports maybe some dexterity skills like musical instruments, different things. You want to see them grow in their physical stature, and in favor with God, that's just religion, piety, the patterns of religion, of prayer and Bible intake, and church involvement. And favor with God. And then in favor with men, that's that socializing aspect, where good manners, how to eat it at the dinner table, and how to hold the door for somebody or see somebody who's weak and you help them, you love your neighbor as yourself. That's a great pattern. So that's word number two training or nurture. And the third word is admonish.

Key Word #3: Admonish

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The word, admonish or admonition is rather negative, it has to do with correcting someone in reference to sin. An admonishment is a warning in reference to sin. And I think of it in terms of the rebuke, the verbal aspect of correcting, a warning, because sin is dangerous. And so, godly parenting involves those kinds of admonishments. I need to warn you about dangers you're going to face in life. I want to warn you. I love what Paul said to the Ephesian elders, he said in Acts 20:31. “So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Well, I'm just going to say, how much more than does a father do that and a mother do that with their children? It's a dangerous world. And I want you to be ready, I want you to be prepared to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now, one of the hard aspects of parenting is that there is a Christian parenting, in particular, there is a mysterious and difficult complex blending of Old Covenant and New Covenant style persuasions. Basically, your children are going to be born under the Law, it says in Galatians, and you're going to need blessings and curses for simple acts of obedience or disobedience. One happens, and you're just going to discipline them. So there's going to be an Old Covenant field of Christian parenting, but always over that is the New Covenant of grace and mercy and forgiveness when they have come to faith in Christ, and their sins are forgiven, and they know they're not justified by works but by faith in Christ alone. And so we have to blend those two together.

As Christian fathers, we can say, like Joshua does. As for me and my house, we're going to do X. So we don't practice religious freedom in our home, our kids are not free in that area, and there's going to be disciplines in others, but we want to bring them into the New Covenant, a transformation by the Spirit that only God can do where they love the Law of God, they love Christ and they're following. That's the mystery. Now, when they sin, like in the Old Covenant, we're going to discipline them. There's going to be the rod of various types, both physical and metaphorical. We believe in that, think it's biblical. It says in Hebrews 12:6: "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son." But as the children grow older, there's going to be more and more counseling, more and more words spoken. More and more entreaties and persuasion and reasoning that happens as it should.

The Word Fully Equips Parents

Well, obviously there's a lot more we can say about Christian parenting but this is what the verse says. “Do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ultimate goal, saturating them with the Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:15, “How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Top priority is saturating them with the Gospel, but then the Word of God takes them beyond their conversion. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Sounds like parenting to me, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. They're ready for their career to provide for families to raise their children themselves, they're ready, also, for any good works they would do in the church with their spiritual gifts, they're just made ready. And the Word of God can do that.

The Goal: Marks of Regeneration

Now, with the remaining time that I have, I want to talk about marks of regeneration. How can you know that your child is born again? What are we praying toward, what do we want to see? They come in illiterate and un-lingual, or whatever that word is, from the hospital. Cute except at 3:00 in the morning, not so cute, but they're cute. And then they start growing, and you've got this incredible dimmer switch going on, from darkness to full light of day. And this dimmer switch just keeps getting brighter and brighter. If we're talking about spiritual things, hopefully, that's what we want to see, but how do we know, how can we tell if our children are born again? Now, this list of marks of regeneration, which I've given you in your bulletin, are good for adults too. You want to see these things in adults. If you don't see these things in yourself, you're not born again.

Signs of True Regeneration

But in terms of applying it to the children, first we want to see in our children love for God and for Christ, a heart attraction toward God, they love God and Christ. How do you know? Well, you can never know what their heart is, but you see their actions and you hear their words. And the Bible says, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," so they're going to speak words of love toward God and toward Christ.

Secondly, love for other Christians, 1 John, is big on this. We love the brothers and sisters in Christ, so we want to see in our children are developing love for the Church, and for other Christians, and they love Christian fellowship. They love being with other boys and girls who love Jesus. They love being with older people in the church who love Jesus, they just enjoy fellowship, they enjoy church.

Thirdly, growth and obedience to God. They are obeying the Law, not to earn their forgiveness, but because the Word of God is right and they want to see this pattern of obedience. They're obeying God and His commandments. They love God. This is love for God, that we obey His commands. And so, there's a sense of love for the commands of God.

And fourthly, love for God's Word, they delight in God's Word. So, practically, you're going to come in and you're going to see your kids, you come in the door, in their bedroom and you find them reading the Bible, just because they want to. And when you have family devotions, they're eager, they're leaning in, their faces are lit up, they ask questions, they answer questions, they're into it. Not detached, not distant, not bored, but they're into it. They love God's Word, and so they read it.

Fifthly, there's a sense of conviction of and the hatred for personal sin. They feel that they are sinners. And not only horizontally like they're grieving over getting caught and having to do the punishments, that's normal. But there is a vertical aspect in which they are grieved at hurting Jesus for their sins. They're sad about that. And it bothers them to sin against such a loving God, and they see the sin in their lives as the problem between them and God, and they know that.

Sixthly, they are able to actually refuse some temptations. They're starting to fight sin. They're starting to fight temptations, and to kill them and put them to death. They're able to overcome patterns of laziness, or sassiness, or disobedience, and they're starting to grow in those areas. And along with that, seventh, sacrificial good works, they're able to find ways to serve other people. You're seeing those patterns of good works in your kid's lives. And number eight, they're able to explain the Gospel.

We can sit down, and they can talk to you, and they can tell you, God, man, Christ, response. That God created the world and gave us laws by which we are to live. Secondly, we are as humans created in the image of God for a relationship with God but we've sinned and we've broken God's laws. And that thirdly, God sent Jesus into the world. Son of God, Son of Man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross in our place, so that we might receive a gift of righteousness. And that He was raised from the dead, and that we believe that the death and the resurrection of Jesus is enough to forgive our sins. And that we don't have to do any good works, but simply by faith in Christ, we can have the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Then you'd be able to explain that. Now, I know it's going to be children language, but it's just like the dimmer switch. It goes brighter and brighter, and they get sharper and sharper in their understanding and they're able to explain it. And then finally, internal conviction that they actually are God's children. They have a sense, they just know that they're born again. They have a joy from that and a sense of hope. So, there's a lot of things more I could say about that.

A Word About Child Baptism

I want to finish my sermon today by a few words about child baptism. This is a very interesting and passionate topic for many, many in the church and our own church has been through a long journey on this. We've been thinking about child baptism for a long time. Now, I want to begin by saying I'm not talking about infant baptism, I hope you know that. We Baptists don't believe in infant baptism. I was raised Roman Catholic. I was baptized, I don't remember it at all as an infant. And many churches after the Reformation, did not thoroughly break with some of those aspects, etcetera, that the Roman Catholic Church and Greek orthodox did. And many others have followed the same paedobaptist approach, baptizing infants, Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians but we Baptists are what we call, credobaptists. We will only baptize people who give a credible profession of faith in Christ.

So, we believe in water baptism's command as part of the Great Commission. We don't think you have to be water baptized to go to Heaven. If you should come to a genuine, saving faith in Christ and later that afternoon or the next day, get in a tragic accident and die, you're not going to be at any disadvantage. You don't have to be water baptized to be saved, but you have to be water baptized to be obedient. And somewhere in there, everyone who is born again, as they have opportunity should be water baptized and should not refuse water baptism.

Is the Child Ready for Baptism?

Now, we need, as we come to the question of child baptism to realize the particular difficulties of the issue, and the difficulty comes from standing on the outside looking in, to try to discern what's actually happening in the heart of a child. How do we know? Now, especially if they're growing in a good, godly, Christian home, they're going to be super saturated with the Gospel from childhood, infancy. They're going to learn the language of the Gospel, they're going to speak it, they're going to be set as they should be. This is what fathers and mothers should be doing. Children learn language by parading back expressions they don't even understand. Somewhere along the line after that, they learn what the expression means, and come to a sharper understanding.

Like when a child says to me, that Jesus died to save our sins. Well, my little meticulous engineering mind says, "That's not true. Our sins were doing just fine. They didn't need any saving. He died to save us from our sins, and from the condemnation that comes," Now, you're saying, "Are you being too precise?" It's like, that's not the issue. The issue is, what does the child understand? And so, it's right for them to learn phrases and parrot them back, and then come into a fuller understanding across the years. That's right. That's what child education is all about. That's what our church wants to see happen in our Sunday School Program, Bible For Life. We want to see it happening in every Christian home but the problem is standing from the outside in, we don't know what's generally going on. Now, let's talk about the Sinner's Prayer. The standard, Baptist approach and decades before and recently, I would say this way, is that you would basically lead your child to pray as soon as possible, a Sinner's Prayer, "Jesus forgive me for my sins. Thank you, you died on the cross, etcetera." And then, relatively soon after that, to bring them for water baptism, and then teach them, "Once saved, always saved."

That combination has been devastating to many Baptist churches. You end up with lots of baptized church members who never come to church and who thinks they're saved. That's a problem, but I want toddlers and 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds to learn the Sinner's Prayer because they're going to sin. And I want them to be brought to Jesus when they sin. I'm not going to say, "Well, we get to Jesus by and by." I want them to know right away that sinners should go to Jesus when they sin. So, they're going to be praying, "Jesus forgive me. I'm sorry. Will you please accept me?" Etcetera.

Where does water baptism fit into that? When does that happen? I would say, every Baptist family waits at some point. It’s not as soon as they pray their first Sinner's Prayer, they're going to be water baptized. Everyone waits. Question is, how long? We also know that children, biblically, are immature in their thinking. It's not an insult, it's just true. “When I was a child, I thought like a child, talked like a child, reason for it like a child. When I became a man and put childish ways behind me.” Also, 1 Corinthians 14:20, Paul says, "Brothers, stop thinking like children." He's not trying to insult children, he's saying, "Grow up and be mature in the way you think" So, children think immaturely. There's no harm in it.

We believe, the elders believe, that children can come to a genuine faith in Christ, at a very early age. A genuine faith in Christ. Can I say that again? Because it just keeps coming up again, and again. As we struggle on to child baptism, I just keep hearing this. I want to say again, "We believe, with all of our hearts that children, boys and girls, can come to a genuine saving faith in Christ at a very early age." But I'm going to add this statement, "It's just very hard to tell for sure from the outside looking in." It's real. God knows it. He knows that He sent the Holy Spirit into that child, He knows it, but we don't know. What we've got are their words and their actions looking on the outside. So, when we come to that dimmer switch, as we're cranking that dimmer switch and it's getting brighter, and brighter, somewhere in there, they should be water baptized. Somewhere in there. When should that be?

Now, some Christian parents are readier at an earlier age to see their children baptized than others. Some may become even emotional or indignant if the elders want to wait a little longer as a matter of policy. Sadly, some in some churches on this issue have left because they've disagreed so vigorously over this with the leadership of the church. And that's sad. I don't think anyone should ever leave a church over child baptism, ever. My personal conviction. Others are more peaceful about it, understanding the elders' desire to see all children water baptized at some point, and are just seeking to be wise. We have a feeling we're going to err somewhere. We're going to err on this side or that side. because we don't know exactly when they're generally born again. So, there's going to be danger. If we have very little filtering and just instantly baptize kids as soon as they make some profession of faith in Christ, you're going to have the problem that I described earlier.

A lot of times the kids don't even remember their baptism at all. It's too young. There's going to be a downward spiral, if you go from twelve, accept baptism at twelve then goes to eleven then ten, nine, eight, seven, six and it just keeps going lower. Some state conventions have baptismal statistics, Southern Baptist churches, from zero to five years. Five years old or younger? Hard for me to accept that. So, there's going to be danger in that side, but then the other side, there's going to be a danger if you wait too long. The kids aren't going to want to be baptized. They get older and older, going through the youth group. They don't get baptized, they're not interested in it at that point, they haven't really been encouraged. There can be a bit of a works thing happening in the family where, "We'll wait to see how many good works you can do, and then we'll know whether you're born again," that can be dangerous. So, there's danger all around.

FBC’s Stance on Child Baptism

Now, let's talk, finally, about the FBC elders' approach in policy, and what we're trying to do. Until a few years ago, the feel in the church here, I guess, was to just not bring kids around for baptism at all. And now, I think there were cases from time to time, but in general, people just didn't bring kids for baptism. We didn't have any overt policy, but handled more shepherding, that there tended to be a waiting. From my personal development, Mark Dever has been a big influence on me at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, they basically exhort kids to be out of the family, out of the home, on their own, like in college to be water baptized. That's far to one side of this equation. I don't hold those convictions, but what we found was in the general field of, don't bring the kids for baptism, then none of the youth were getting baptized. Kids were going right straight through until they were 18 and never really being challenged with water baptism. We didn't feel comfortable with that. We want to make a change.

We were concerned about the downward spiral, so we wanted to set a guideline. So, the elder is, about two years ago, I think, said that, "We wouldn't consider water baptism for children under the age of twelve." Where did the number twelve come from? I don't know. Jesus was twelve when He was in the temple. I don't really know. And therein lies the problem, there was no biblical support for the standard. Now, we weren't claiming there was a Biblical support for the standard, but it became a lightning rod of controversy. When actually, we're trying to encourage youth baptism. It's ironic the way that thing goes. The elders, recently have pulled the twelve off the table. We don't see Biblical support for that. So, what's left? You know what's left? The marks of regeneration. That's what's left. So, I taught them carefully to you today. I can say more, but I'm running out of time, almost out of time.

I want you parents, to train your kids toward those marks of regeneration, saturate them. In this case, unlike the SAT or other standardized exams, we want you to teach to the test, say, "Alright kids, this is it." Where's my bulletin? Alright. This is what we're looking for in you. Please do these things, they're all in the Bible. And then you're going to teach toward them, and train toward them, and get them ready to articulate God, man, Christ, response and get them ready. And when they're able to come, and sit with an elder, and give a credible defense of their faith in Christ and they'll be ready for water baptism. We're not going to say an age. We think it's not likely to be much before 12. There could be exceptions but my feeling is, there's no rush here, there's no rush to wait. We're not discouraging anyone, we're encouraging kids to come to faith in Christ. We want parents to saturate their kids with these things and teach them about water baptism. Tell them that we want them to be water baptized when they're ready, we want them to the members of the church. And then Kevin's done some great work with our youth ministry, in really urging youth to be baptized, and we've seen more, and more youth baptisms recently, which we think is really fantastic. If on some point you might think differently, the elders are happy to talk to you about it. We basically don't have an age below which. But it would have to be a really rare kid and the circumstances, just for us, it's hard for us to see a child baptism. We're really pointing more towards youth baptism. We want to see young people baptized.

Another issue with children is that they can't count the cost, it's hard for them to know what it's going to cost to be a Christian, but teenagers have no problem with that, they know very well, it's going to be costly to be a Christian. I think that's pretty vital. We also want to see the kids fully understand symbolism, that they understand the symbolism of water baptism, and how it symbolizes what's happened in their heart, inside. So anyway, like I said, the elders are happy to talk to any of you folks on these things. You bring your kids and we'll talk to them, but parent and prepare them toward the marks of regeneration.

Prayer

Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've had to look at parenting it's just so much we can talk about. I Thank you, oh, Lord, for the grace that you've given us in Christ. And I ask, oh, Lord that you'd strengthen each of us, who are Christian parents to be faithful, to prepare our kids for eternity and for life. Life in this world and for eternal life beyond. Lord, give us strength in this high calling. Help us to be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen.

Introduction

So just a couple of things before I get into the sermon. This will be the last time that I preach to you for a while. I'm going to be taking a writing sabbatical this summer for six or seven weeks. I have a five-year deadline on my Isaiah commentary, and I've been endlessly ribbed by others that have written in that series, saying I'm bringing up the rear, so it's due in August, and I'm grateful to the elders for an opportunity to concentrate and work on it and also looking forward to hearing the ministry of the Word from the elders. So I'll be here, our family will be here those weeks and we'll be ministering in all other ways but just I won't be preaching. So pray for me that I would be able to just have the gift of brevity. The commentary is done. It's just 30% too long and well, you know that problem, you have to endure it just about every week, but that's what I'm doing. Also, I'm delighted to see our China team back. I'm looking especially at the team that came back at 4:45 this morning. You guys are still awake. I'm going to be looking at you throughout the sermon and seeing if those eyes are open. I see that you've got your coffee there, so keep going but we're glad to have all of you here.

This morning, I get to preach on parenting. And so, you know how in Ephesians 5 for a section of the time, the husbands get to elbow the wives, and then the next week the wives get to elbow the husband. So I guess this morning, I suppose the children get to elbow the parents. Mom and dad, pay attention now, listen carefully. But I want you to know, I'm not sure who exasperates who more, in parenting, the parent-child relationship because I have been thoroughly exasperated by my children from time to time. And I know that I have also exasperated them, but we turn to the word of God this morning to be blessed, and we really yearn to hear from Scripture what Godly parenting is all about. And I want to resume a theme that I began last week, because it's been much on my mind, especially with the China team coming back and with the heart that all of us should have for the global expanse of the Gospel.

A Vision of the Future

A Glorious Assembly of the Redeemed

I often think in my mind that the vision that the Apostle John had, of the finish line, of this election that we have talked about in Ephesians Chapter 1 before the foundation of the world, God chose His children, His people that He would adopt them at the right time and he had all of human history in his mind, Ephesians 1, teaches this very plainly.

But then you get in Revelation 7:9-10, it says, "After that I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language." “Nation, tribe, people and language. Standing before the throne and in front of the lamb, and they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’” These are the redeemed. Now, what a sight that's going to be. They were elect from before the foundation of the world, they were chosen in Christ and they will be there in Heaven with clear emblems of their purity, clothed in white, holding palm branches of victory, and they're waving and they're giving all credit and glory to Jesus, the Lamb who died for them.

How Did They Get There?

But then in the text, in Revelation 7:13, it says, "One of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from?" And as I did last week, I want to upload in your mind again, another question, how did they get there? What is the story that will be told in Heaven of how those elect actually came to saving faith in Christ? Now, I love thrilling conversion stories. Of course, we all love the story of Saul of Tarsus, and how breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, the very morning of the day he was converted gives us incredible courage and boldness in evangelism, thinking if that man in that mental state can be converted on that day, anyone can. When I think about all others that have been converted, we're going to have the chance to hear their stories and to rejoice in them.

I read a story, a book once called Death of a Guru and it was an extended testimony of a Brahmin caste Hindu. He comes from a long line of Brahmin priests, his name was Rabi Maharaj. He was trained as a yogi, and he meditated for many hours each day, but he became disillusioned and depressed by Hinduism, heard the Gospel and was radically, permanently transformed by it, and became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. I look forward to meeting him and hearing his testimony. I love those kind of testimonies.

Or you know Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Easter, The Case for Christ and a number of other books, he was Yale educated in law, he was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, he was an avowed Atheist but he was converted to Christ when he began investigating Christianity to debunk it. You know how many people there will be like that in Heaven? I think Josh McDowell was the same way. These apologists, they go after Christianity to debunk it, and the more they get into it, the more powerful and compelling it seems, and they end up being converted.

CS Lewis was similar. He was an Atheist, an intellectual enemy of the Gospel, he eventually became what he called, "The most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."He'd been fighting Christ and the overwhelming truth of the scripture until he could fight no longer and was saved, wonderfully.

And so I want to hear all of those stories or I think about bold missionary endeavors and these courageous missionaries like William Carey, and Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, John Paton, Elisabeth Elliot and all of these great brothers and sisters in Christ and I was reading the story about the first convert in India under William Carey, he was a man named Krishna Pal. He came to faith in Christ when he slipped on a river bed, a muddy river bed and dislocated his shoulder. He had already become disillusioned with Hinduism and was starting to focus on Theism through Islam, but he heard about this, this missionary compound, this community, and they had some medical knowledge there, his shoulder was dislocated, and he was brought to the missionary compound and a doctor there working with William Carey named John Thomas took care of his shoulder and spoke to this man Krishna about Christ. And he began coming regularly and hearing the gospels, this was after Carey had been there for seven years with no fruit, and Carey and his team led him to Christ, and when this news emerged, all of this man's Indian friends began to mock him and attack him, and persecute him, but he eventually ended up leading dozens and dozens of them to Christ. And in Heaven, we're going to hear stories about brothers and sisters like this.

Or I think about heroic traveling Evangelists like George Whitefield or Billy Graham that have led so many people to Christ. I love reading the stories of Arnold Dallimore wrote a biography of Whitefield and how he crossed the Atlantic Ocean 13 times and all of the detailed stories of people up and down the colonies, the coasts before the American Revolution, just clamoring to hear the Gospel through George Whitefield and being converted. Or in 1957, I read the story of Billy Graham's New York City crusade and you really should Google the photo of Billy Graham preaching in Times Square in New York. I think that will never be repeated again.

Several hundred thousand people crammed in to Time Square, black and white photo, and Billy Graham about to preach the Gospel, and the fruit of that 110-day crusade there, 2 million people heard the gospel and over 50,000 claimed to have come to faith in Christ. And we're going to want to hear all of those stories. But as I said last week, by far the most productive means by which the elect are converted, soundly converted is Christian parenting.

The Great Commission Starts at Home

Now, I don't know the percentages, I guessed it, 60%, 55%, 60%, 70% who knows who can tell? But I want to focus all of you parents on the incredibly high calling that the Lord gives you when he brings a baby into your life. When he brings a child into your home. The high calling that you have to bring those children to a saving faith in Christ. I believe that God uses the Christian family generations down the line from when William Carey or Adoniram Judson or John Paton come to an area, to establish a multi-generational testimony to Christ and bring many, many to faith in Christ. Missionaries in that case, build the bridge, but the parents are the key to that multi-generational structure that gets built-up. Everyone that I've talked to has said that this is true. By far the most effective kind of evangelism there is in the world is parent-child evangelism, nothing is even close. Far more effective than workplace evangelism, contact evangelism or anything else. And so, we want to embrace this concept that the Great Commission starts at home.

The Great Commission that Jesus gave to us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” the most effective disciple-making all around the world is done at home, making disciples of your own children, and teaching them to obey everything, that comprehensive obedience that parents get to teach their children.

So this morning, as I did last week, I'm advocating that you embrace, you who are parents of growing children, embrace this pattern that's given us in 2 Timothy 3:14-15. “As for you,” Paul says to Timothy, “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it.” You hear that? The people who taught it to you and how from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You see the beautiful combination of the in-depth close relationship of the evangelizers and this word that you've known from infancy how beautifully that comes together in Christian parenting.

Understanding the Role of Home Evangelism

Now I need to give a few caveats. I was talking to a dear brother, this week and I want to say a few things what I do not mean in saying all of this. First of all, I do not mean that we don't need evangelism and missions outside the home. I do hope you know that. When I say 55% to 60% maybe get converted at home, you know that leaves 40% to 45% that don't, if those numbers are true. They need Evangelists and missionaries. So we absolutely have to be faithful. I was not brought to an evangelical understanding of the Gospel by my parents. I was led to faith in Christ by a fraternity brother at age 19 in Boston, at Sigma Chi at MIT. That's who led me to Christ. And so I absolutely believe in evangelism and I believe in missions.

So we're not saying that, nor do we say that every child who is raised in a godly Christian home will themselves become godly followers of Christ. We know the heartbreaking reality of how many break away from what their parents taught and exemplified and do not walk with Christ. We know that that's true, and Jesus Himself said it was going to happen. In Matthew 10:34-37, he said these words, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household," and then he said this, "anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me. And anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me." So our top loyalty is always going to be to Christ.

We know sadly, that many children do rebel and do not follow their Godly parents. That's how whole movements like the Moravians and the Puritans, the New England Puritans, fall apart after a few generations, because the children don't follow in the godly footsteps of their parents. That's how in a country like the Czech Republic and all that is 99% Atheist. Whereas in generations before there were far more Christians because the younger generations did not follow in the Gospel. So we know that. But there are many, many things that we parents can and should be doing to enrich our children's lives with the Gospel and that's what I'm going to preach about today.

The Eternal Accountability of Parenting

Primary Responsibility Goes to Fathers

So we've got before us, in this text, I'm zeroing in on verse 4 alone, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." So here we have the eternal accountability of parents. Now, the word, the text says, “fathers,” we stick with that word, it's a good translation. And so the primary responsibility for bringing up the children goes to the fathers. But we know that the Greek word used here can be extended to include mothers as well. So we can think of this in terms of parents, but we continue to embrace the headship and submission pattern of marriage in Ephesians 5 and say that the father is the one primarily responsible for this ministry in the home. But mothers are in view, are too, definitely biblically. Think about the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 6:20-21, says, "My son, keep your Father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching." So you got the Father's command, the Mother's teaching they're working together, the father and the mother, in the godly nurturing of the children. “Bind them upon your heart,” he says, “forever and fasten them around your neck.”

Godly Mothers in Church History

So we think about godly mothers in the Bible, and godly mothers throughout church history. You think of Timothy with his mother, Eunice and how she, with her mother Lois brought Timothy up in the faith. We think about heroic mothers in church history like Felicitas in Ancient Rome, who had seven sons, who with her, all of them on the same day were martyred by Marcus Aurelius. And how she had raised them up to be Christians and they all maintained their Christian confession even at the price of their own lives. Or Monica, you know the story of Monica with her son Augustine, one of the most famous conversion stories in all of church history, but it was his godly mother who wept and prayed for him as he was wandering so badly in paganism and philosophy and sexual immorality, and she was just heart broken and would continue to pray and he mentions her quite prominently in his Confessions.

When I think about Susanna Wesley, and her children John and Charles Wesley the most famous of her children, she gave birth, I think, 19 times the records are a little sketchy, 10 of them survived into childhood, think about that, nine not surviving into childhood but that's just how it was back then. With infant mortality and other things that would take children. But Susanna Wesley was a beautiful mixture of piety and practical godliness in her home. I picture a home of high energy, high-powered, intelligent kids. And it said that she would sit in the center of the living room on a chair with her apron over her head that was her prayer closet, kids were to leave her alone for that time while she was praying. I don't know how well that worked, but at any rate, that's what she did. But she made it a point to spend one hour a week evangelizing and discipling each of her children pouring into each one as they were growing.

And then there's Charles Spurgeon with his mother. Spurgeon gives this testimony, he said, "I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. I remember on one occasion her praying thus, now Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the Day of Judgment if they lay not hold of Christ." She was praying that out loud. Spurgeon said “That thought of my mother's bearing a swift witness against me pierced my conscience. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck prayed these words, ‘Oh, that my son might live before thee, Oh Lord.’”

So we have in view I think godly parenting both fathers and mothers, but we're going to zero in, especially in the responsibility of the fathers to evangelize and disciple their own children. And we start in this text, in verse 4 with the negative. There's a prohibition here. “It says Fathers do not provoke your children to anger,” and then the positive, “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” We've seen this throughout this practical section of Ephesians from Ephesians 4 through 5 and now into 6. The negatives do not do this, “do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But only what is helpful for building others up.” We get the same pattern here.

The Negative: Do Not Provoke Your Children to Anger

Limitations to Parental Authority

So we have this prohibition. “Do not provoke your children to anger.” So what this means is that fathers are limited in their authority over their children, they're limited by the word of God. The Father is the highest human authority over the child, with the mother second in command. But parental authority is not absolute. There are limits to parental authority, and there are also limits of parental responsibility. So fundamentally, we just need to get across, your children are not yours, ultimately. They belong to God, they belong to God. For He alone made them, He alone sustains them, He alone can save them and He alone will judge them. They belong to God.

I think about what Job said in Job 10:10-12, he said, "Did... ", speaking to God, "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence you watched over my spirit." So he's saying God you knit me together in my mother's womb. So, fathers are restrained in their authority by the higher authority of God, our children belong to God.

God’s Ownership Even During Tragedy

Now, let me say a tender word to any of you who might have the extreme tragedy of burying a child, if that should ever happen. It's been a time of tremendous temptation to parents, grieving parents to find fault with God at times like that. To rage in accusation against God, for “taking my child from me." This is where I want to say to you again what I've been saying to you. They are not yours, they belong to God. They belong to God. And we can never rail against God if you should choose in His providence to take one. I don't think there are any trials that we could face in life, that is poignant and wrenching as burying a child. I think that's one of the hardest things that can ever happen. So, I'm not minimizing the pain that one feels, but if you're not in any way helped by yielding to Satan at that moment and turning away from the God who alone can minister to you, and bring you comfort, and sustaining grace at that time. And Job knew this. Job lost 10 children in one day. Think about it. It's just staggering to me. Seven sons and three daughters in one day, and he said about that, “the Lord gave and the Lord took away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” And in all this, he did not find any fault with God or charge God with wrongdoing. So all of our parenting should be done in light of God's greater ownership and greater responsibility over our children. That's vital, they belong to God.

The Prohibition: Do Not Provoke Your Children to Anger

So what is the prohibition. Let's look at it. It says, "Do not provoke your children to anger," The NIV has “Do not exasperate your children.” I know well when some of my children learned the word exasperate because then I heard it often. We'll get to all that, because I'm going to couch the terms here so that parents are not hindered by the sermon I'm preaching today I'm hoping to help. Alright, but exasperate, I think it's a potent word, but more literally, “provoke your children to wrath.” Don't give them a reason for reasonable anger. There is righteous indignation don't give them a reason for that. And don't tempt them to unrighteous anger either. That's what we're looking at here. Don't be a cause for your children to rebel and run from Christ and from the Gospel because of your bad example and your bad parenting.

So the focus here is the tender hearts of your children. Children can become discouraged, they can become dismayed, they can become beaten down, repressed and ultimately enraged by bad parenting. We desire instead to cherish and nurture and love our children. The child must be brought to broken-hearted repentance over sin, to faith in Christ to a deep love for God and for the Word of God in a pattern of obedience to it. That's what we're trying to do.

Now, let me say a cautionary word here. Just because a child is angry at his parents, especially at moments of discipline, doesn't mean their parents are to blame. You know that, don't you? Parents You definitely know that. Kids tend to get provoked to anger easily whenever any consequences of a sin are brought to them. So it's not necessarily the case that when your kids are angry that you've sinned or done anything wrong. They may just need to get quiet and go pray and see that they are the ones that have sinned and their parents are just trying to be faithful parents. But we need to look at what Paul is prohibiting because there is something that he is prohibiting here. So, I want to get into specifics, What provokes children to wrath? What exasperates children?

13 Points: What Provokes Children to Wrath?

Well, number one, I'm going to go kind of the opposite direction cause all the rest are going to lean on the other side, but number one, just lack of discipline at all. Lack of discipline at all, just letting them roam free and never challenging or crossing their wills that, ironically, in the end will provoke them to wrath. Most of the injunctions I'm about to give seek to restrain from doing discipline too harshly or too abundantly or in a way that will provoke them to wrath, but it's ironically true that no discipline at all will end up feeding their fleshly nature, their fleshly pride, and their rebellious hearts and make them children of wrath, serving the devil.

So you definitely want to cross their sinful wills, and discipline them when they sin, you definitely want to do that. As it says in Proverbs 13:24, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." As a matter of fact, the author of the Hebrews picks up various Proverbs on discipline. In Hebrews 12 when he says that's how our Heavenly Father treats us, he disciplines us when we need it for our sins. And as a matter of fact, if He doesn't discipline you, you're an illegitimate child, you're not a true son or daughter of God. He will not allow you to just go off into sin, He's going to pull you back, and as someone called it, take you to the divine woodshed. He will do hard things in your life. Hebrews 12. And in that he's quoting the book of Proverbs. So to not discipline at all is to provoke them to wrath. However, beyond this, there's an array of wrong ways to discipline and train a child, ways that will provoke them to anger.

Secondly, on the other hand, excessive strictness will provoke a child to wrath. Some parents see the overall laxness of parental discipline in our culture and they overreact in the opposite direction. They feel the more strictness the better. I don't know why, but I was reminded of the old woman and the shoe. You remember her? Mother goose? I read this with new eyes this week. “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread, whipped them all soundly, and sent them to bed.” I'm thinking that's not good parenting. And it says right in the rhyme she doesn't know what to do. So, be saturated in the Word of God, you will know what to do, and it's not that.

So excessive strictness, the great danger here, of course, all humor aside, is abuse. That can become abusive, even corporal punishment and we know can become abusive because there have been those extremes, some would seek to eliminate corporal punishment as even being legal at all. Some nations have done that. Made it illegal. I think that's obviously going too far, but it is possible that some of it can become abusive.

Thirdly, a lack of love for the children provokes them to wrath. A cold, emotionally, distant, loveless parent never holding the children never cherishing them, never telling them how much you love them. Or perhaps, let's just say not enough. So stern, so angry with them, failing to find your joy in their blessing. Just like I asked between husbands and wives, I said husbands ask your wives, “Do you feel loved by me like Christ loved the Church?” Well, maybe you need to do that with your children. “Do you feel that I delight in you, that I'm glad that you're in our home. I'm glad you're in my life. Do you feel that?” Sorry, there was a wedding yesterday, I get like this, anyway. Do you tell them regularly, how much you love them? You know time goes by like the wind, the days just go by and you won't have that chance anymore to hold them and to tell them. So, loveless parenting.

Fourthly, hypocrisy in the parents can provoke them to wrath. Christianity, not being genuinely lived out before them in the home. Children are observing you constantly, no matter what you're doing, good or ill They see it all, they are astute observers, and imitators. That's how they grow. They can smell out the inconsistencies. “If you say you love God,” quoting 1 John, "If you say you love God and do not keep His commandments, you're a liar," your children will see that lie. So it provokes them to wrath when you are hypocritical when you're acting pious, and godly at church, and then at home you're not living it out, that will provoke them to wrath.

Fifthly, parenting in anger, sinful anger. Remember I spoke a number of weeks ago about carnal anger? “Be angry but do not sin.” So I made a distinction between righteous anger and unrighteous anger. I said that unrighteous anger is frequently motivated by pride or inconvenience, by pride or inconvenience. That really comes to roost in parenting. Your kid embarrasses you out in public, and they get it at home. Why? Because you have their best interest at heart, you're trying to train their character, shape their souls? No, you were ashamed, you were embarrassed. That's why. So you parent at that moment in anger or discipline in anger.

I believe that parents, especially if you're administering the rod, you're administering corporal punishment, you must make certain you're not angry at all. You go get yourself under control, you go be Spirit-filled, you make sure you remember what this is all about. It's their souls you're trying to see them come to faith in Christ. They're not yours, they're going to stand before God, and not you on judgment day. And so, you're not their Savior, you're not their king, you're their parent. And so calm yourself down. The thing they broke through childishness is not worth all of that. And so calm yourself down and then go back and do the discipline as needed and do it wisely and consistently.

Sixth, injustice. Injustice. Injustice provokes a child to wrath. Sometimes the parental discipline, the parents discipline mechanically with no opportunity for the child to be heard. No opportunity to express his or her side of the story, the parent may feel that the child has no right to speech. Children should be seen and not heard that kind of thing, especially at moments like that. “All they must do is listen and submit.” However, we celebrate in our legal system, the writ of habeas corpus, and the fact that no one accused of a crime and can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. What that means is that their case has to be heard. And we celebrate that out in public. And so I would just urge parents to give your child an opportunity to make his or her case, within reason, I've noticed they'll make it as long as it takes. They'll filibuster. I've seen all kinds of things going on. Alright, but if they have never had a chance to tell their side of the story, that is frustrating. It can provoke a child to wrath. Now again, a child may feel that any discipline is unjust. We hear often about our injustices at home. Alright, but some of it can be. And if you are parenting or disciplining unjustly, it can provoke a child to wrath.

Seventh, excessive protection. Excessive protection. It is a dangerous world you brought children into. It's physically dangerous and it's spiritually dangerous and you know it. And it's right for you to want to protect your children, but there is a pattern of excessive protection. Some parents seek to remove their children in every way from all the dangers of the world. They're extremely protective they keep them close at all times and so the operative word is, “No.” No to everything. So as they grow and develop and they experience things in life, they're going to get hurt, and we want to protect them, but ultimately only God can do that.

Number eight, excessive control. Some parents expect absolute obedience to parental commands throughout every moment of the child's life at home. Well, this is in one sense a biblical standard as we said “all the way, right away, with a happy spirit, that is the biblical standard.” The problem comes when the parent covers the growing child's life thick with commands and it's inevitable that almost anything that happens at that point is going to be some pattern of disobedience. And so that's difficult. That's a challenge. Parents have to be sure not to become control freaks, especially as the child grows and rightly needs to make more and more decisions for him or herself. There's like, as I've said, a dimmer switch. And so more and more they're going to need to be able to make their own decisions, then they're going to need to be able to fail, to make bad decisions, they need to be permitted to mess up and still be loved.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was speaking in his context in England of adult men and women that he knew never got married because it would displease their parents. I mean, that's unbelievably selfish on the part of the parents as though the children were born exclusively for them. You can, especially think of women growing and the father keeps them close and they just, dad just never lets go. And so, she misses her opportunity, and goes on through and never gets married. But there are actually just many examples of the temptation we parents have to become control freaks. And just absolutely down to the smallest detail, controlling things of our children's lives.

Nine, failure of parents to encourage children. If the parents hardly ever encourage, but instead always pointing out failures, ways it could have been done better, the child's going to feel about his father or mother, “I just can never make him happy. It's never enough. No matter how well I do every day, it's just never enough to make him happy or her happy.”

Number 10, Unreasonable expectations of achievement. Some parents put extreme pressure on their children to achieve. They're really, in some ways, just living out their ego through their children, pushing them to excel. This could be in academics, it could be in athletics, music, could be in Christianity and just living out the Christian faith, pushing hard. The children then become little performing monkeys and often the last issue comes up as well. The parents rarely encourage the child because they're pushing them on to even higher and higher levels of achievement. And so, that can be very provoking to wrath.

Eleventh, inconsistency in discipline. Sometimes the parent is strict, sometimes they're lenient. Sometimes they espouse a family value, and other times they ignore it, back and forth. The standards become murky. The child really doesn't know what the parents want or expect, and so it's hard to know. Now, if you can just pause and see now the incredible difficulty and humbling of parenting. Alright, so which is it? Alright, are we supposed to be extremely consistent but not overly strict in discipline? Pastor, how do you put it all together? My answer, I don't know. I know this, it says, "Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best." So I say, frequently, my kids, they know that I'm saying “I'm doing as I think best. God is better than me. Okay, trust in your father. But this is what I think right now, I am not lowering the standard on that thing that you've done, but I'm giving you grace right now.” Oh they get, they love grace, that kind of grace. Alright, give me grace, I want grace. Yeah, I understand, well, there's other kinds of grace, there's the grace that teaches you to say no to ungodliness. We're going to work on that one today. That's the grace you'll get today. But it's hard, this is humbling. Come to God and bring him this list and say, Oh God, teach me to parent because I don't know what to do and I need your help.

Twelve, favoritism. Favoritism, showing preference to one child over the rest or over others. Clear example of this in the Bible, Jacob with Joseph. It says it straight in the text. Genesis 37:3. Look it up, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons.” Your eyebrows go up at that point. He's setting Joseph up to be murdered. Now, I'm not in anyway condoning the murderous jealousy that was in the hearts of his brothers, but I think the pattern of the royal, the rich coat.

Do you remember when Esau showed up with 400 armed men to greet his brother after he'd been away for a long time? Remember that? Hey we're going to have a family reunion. I just happened to bring along 400 soldiers to help us celebrate. It was a very tough night. And Jacob, spent the night wrestling with an angel, and then the next night, next day he got ready to meet Esau and he put his children in concentric circles almost of preference. The slave women and their children were outer circle, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph on the inner circle. What does that say to you if you're one of the other kids? Favoritism can be provocative to children.

And finally, failure of parents to sacrifice cheerfully for their children. “Oh, what a burden you are to me.” That's the message. It's like, no, that's not the message. The message is what a blessing you are. Do you know how blessed I am to have you in my life? And so, there's a Bible verse in the 2 Corinthians 12:14-15, “Children should not have to save up for parents, but parents for their children. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.” Now that's Paul the apostle speaking to the Corinthian church, but He's speaking in the idea of parenting. I am very gladly spending everything that I have to give it to you. Alright, so that's the negative. This is a good time, I think for fathers and mothers to just reflect, and as needed repent and ask God to forgive you, and if you feel like you've been parenting in a way that's not been helpful, then just ask God to give you grace.

The Positives: Nourish, Train, Admonish

Now, in the short time I have left, now I'm going to resume preaching on parenting when I get back. I did not want to do this, but there are lots of things I want to say about marks of regeneration, how to parent your children toward conversion and how to know they are converted. I want to talk about child baptism and all that. That will be after I return to the pulpit. But let me talk about the positives here briefly. And we'll get into them a little more next time.

All Parenting to Be Done “In the Lord”

The positives, the three words given us here are “nourish, train and admonish,” all in the Lord. “But instead nourish them or bring them up in the nurture [or training] and admonition, [I think is the best translation of that word] in the Lord.” Alright, so first of all, all parenting is to be done in the Lord, as a subset of the Spirit-filled life, as a subset, it's done as Christians. “As a prisoner for the Lord,” he said, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received." So your parenting should be worthy of your calling. You should be Christian parents and then again, Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." So, Spirit-filled parenting that's what we're looking for. Spirit-filled parenting. So we're not looking for just mere morality. We're bringing them up in the Lord. We know there are all kinds of moral instructions we can give them.

Have you ever looked online George Washington's rules of civility? Okay, look that up. He teaches you not to spit into the fire. Okay, I guess that's really important. It was important back then. Don't spit in the fire. Or all kinds of things, how to eat in a mannerly way. How to not turn your back on someone speaking to you, how to deal with bodily fluids, frankly, George Washington was very detailed about these rules of civility.

Well, look, we Christian parents, we're going to embrace that basic level of philosophical morality too. We're going to teach people how to be good citizens, good students, good people, holding the doors for people, mannered at the table, we're going to teach them all that, but this goes so far beyond that. We're going to bring them up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” So all things pointed toward the Lord Jesus Christ focused on Jesus with a constant reference to Christ and his shed blood. And we're going to nourish them.

Nourish Your Children

It says "nourish your children", it's translated “bring them up,” but rear them raise them. But it's that feeding image here. Ephesians 5:29 speaks about what the husband does, or what Christ does for the Church. No one ever hated his own flesh but He nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the Church, same word. So there's the sense of nourishing your children, feeding them.

Now, of course, a godly father will see to it that his children don't go to bed hungry. So, you're going to physically feed them. But especially, you're going to feed them in the word. Jesus said “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” You're going to feed them the Word of God, and fundamentally you're going to feed them the bread of life who is Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." You're going to feed them. So nourish them, feed their souls. We're going to talk more about this next time, but I'm just giving you an overview. Nourish them.

Train Your Children

Secondly, train them, train them. The Greek word here is “paideía.” It's a concept of systematic preparation of the child for adult life. Shape their minds, get them ready for everything they're going to do in life, especially spiritually. Begins with language, the mother tongue, this is where the invaluable assistance of a godly mother who teaches the mother tongue comes in. The infant learns how to speak and then beyond that, full education. Just getting them ready. Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature and favor with God and man, Luke 2:52. You're getting them ready for every phase of their lives.

Now, next time I'm going to say some things about education, there's a lot to be said about education. We homeschool our kids. I think the divide between government school and homeschool has never been wider. I think it's getting even wider. There's also private school. Those are the three basic options. There's a hybrid as well, but you're going to have some weighty decisions to make, especially as government gets more and more aggressive in its worldview, you're going to have some weighty decisions to make. There's some godly brothers and sisters in public school, some of our own church members have given their lives to pouring out good education in the government school setting, but things are getting harder and harder for them to do what they would really like to do and for parents to make wise decisions. So we'll talk more about that next time, but we're going to discuss the “paideía,” the training of a child, and then finally the instruction of the child will talk more about this again. But the idea here is, correction in the face of sin.

Admonish Your Children

You're going to be admonishing them, showing them their sins, and especially what will happen if they continue in patterns of sin. So, Fathers raising their teenage sons, mothers raising the daughters. Parents raising their children getting ready for the heavy things that they're going to face in life and dealing all along with their sins. So as I said, we're going to stop there. I'm going to talk next time more about these three words. I'm going to talk more about marks of regeneration, and we'll talk also about child baptism and just the difficulties, challenges, and interesting aspects of that for a church, but be praying for us as we do that. So that'll be about in, maybe about seven weeks after my writing sabbatical is done. So, let's close in prayer.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for all the things that we have been learning through Ephesians. We thank you for these very clear instructions that come from your Word, and Lord I pray that You would be strengthening right now fathers and mothers in the sometimes seemingly overwhelming challenges of parenting. I pray that you would be raising up before our very eyes, a generation of godly children, of sons and daughters who will embrace Christ at a very early age and begin living out patterns of obedience in their lives because their parents are raising them up in obeying this pattern. Father, I pray right now for any that are here that do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Maybe they didn't have a godly mother and father to teach them the Gospel, or maybe they did and they've been straying. Thank you for bringing them here today. I pray that you would reach out to them now through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might know the salvation that He alone can work. Father, we thank you for this time to assemble, to worship, and for the ministry of the word, in Jesus's name, amen.