Walden, John: The John Walden Bible Classes 29 ~ Christian Home and Children

We're going to study the Christian home and children. Number one, the divine origin of the home. One, at the creation of the first man. Genesis two, eighteen to twenty four. Plainly tells us that God intended the setting up of a home. God set them in families according to Psalm sixty eight in verse six and D at the Jubilee all returned to their families and C marriage is honorable in all things in the bed undefiled Hebrews thirteen four says so this was God's plan for the human race number two It was patterned after spiritual relationships. A. The eternal Father and Son. John one, verses one to three, he plainly tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was eternally co-existent with the Father. You'll find this denied on every hand. There are organizations who have gone to all the trouble to go back and change the original language, the Greek language. They've gotten out a Unitarian-inspired New Testament that even changes the first few verses of the Gospel of John in the Greek language, but without any scholarship backing at all. It's very plain that the Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. and be God is father to born again believers John twenty verse seventeen the Lord Jesus said to my disciples I ascend to my father and your father now this is not universal fatherhood universal brotherhood this is the fatherhood of God to born again believers and see every family in heaven and earth is named for him. Ephesians three, fourteen and fifteen. Now this could include the families of other beings, created beings, the angelic hosts as well. But anyway, he tells us that every family in heaven and earth is named for him. And three, this is the basic unit of the nation according to genesis ten verse five the gentiles were divided after their families so it is the basic unit of the nation a before moses there were the patriarchs Now Abraham in Hebrews seven and four is called the patriarch Abraham. Patriarch means the head father, the oldest one of a family. And the youth note the division of the book of judges. call your attention to this that you might notice that the first sixteen chapters of judges describe what went on in the family, in the nation. And the last five chapters describe what went on in the home. The first sixteen chapters describe the sad conditions in the nation. And the last five chapters describe the conditions in the home. What happens in the home, soon happens in the nation. This is one of the sad things for our Western civilization right now. The home unit is being destroyed and the nation cannot possibly prosper under conditions like that. Now section number two, children are a heritage. entrusted to parents. Psalm hundred twenty-seven, three and five. In that section he says, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. And then he says that they are like arrows, and happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. According to the Jews, a quiver full of arrows is seven. And for the Jew this was the ideal family. all of the birth control propaganda to the negatives notwithstanding. Now A, they are to be taught the word of God. Deuteronomy four nine says, teach them to thy sons and thy sons, sons. And Proverbs twenty two six says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. There's a great deal said today about allowing children to make their own choices, but I notice that they don't do this about brushing their teeth or taking baths. It's only whether they want to go to Sunday school or not. This is perfectly ridiculous. Your children are always going to choose what's wrong if you don't teach them to choose what's right. The perverted, fallen human nature will always go wrong. God has given us the responsibility of children, and they are to be taught the Word of God. And B, they are to be loved and provided for. In Mark ten, our Lord Jesus himself set the example, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and then he took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them. It's wonderful when you can see the Lord Jesus carrying this way for children, certainly parents, ought to do the same for their own. And in First Timothy five and eight he says that if a person does not provide for his own household he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So it's a big responsibility. And see these children are to care for their parents in old age. First Timothy five and verse four. There he speaks about widows And he says if they have children or nephews, let them learn to show piety at home. That's subdivision number two. Illegitimacy was punished. In the twentieth of Leviticus, the Lord said that adultery was to be punished by death. And Deuteronomy chapter twenty-three and verse two, he tells us that an illegitimate child was to be shot out of the congregation of Israel and that this was to continue with their descendants for ten generations. Now remember this is under the law. And the very next verse says that the same thing was to be done for descendants of the Moabites and the Ammonites, which were a bastard race, the descendants of Lot. But now here's a remarkable little sideline on this. David was the ninth generation in a line from the bastard sons of Judah. So David was actually shut out of the congregation by law. but by grace he was taken in. And he was only the fourth generation as a descendant of Amalibus. Root was his great-great-grandmother. So on two counts David should have been shut out of the congregation of Israel, and yet he was the beloved king and enjoyed a nearness to God. So that shows that even under the law, which was very strict in this matter of illegitimacy, In spite of the law, grace came in and reached them and saved them and blessed them. I wanted to point this out because a child is not responsible. Someone who said there are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents. But this is how severely it was punished. Now number three, the great potentials of children. A, to perpetuate the race. Genesis one, thought said to the first parents, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Oh yes, I missed A in under number two. Grace was shown to such children. I mentioned David. Another one was Jethba. and you'll find several like this who are blessed in the Old Testament. Now under number three, great potentials of children, A, to perpetuate the race, B, to be led to Christ for eternal good. Isaiah fifty-four, thirteen says, All my children shall be thought of the Lord. This is a blessing that God has promised. And in the Emmanuel Psalm, he says, Let thy glory appear unto thy children. See, they are to grow into usefulness. You have a wonderful example of this in Timothy. Second Timothy three, fourteen to seventeen, begins by saying, Continue thou in the things that thou hast heard. And then he says, From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. And he finally finishes the chapter by saying that the word of God is given so that the man of God may be perfect, surely furnished to good works. So there you have the continuation from childhood to manhood in the growing in usefulness. Now this is what God intends. for our children. And finally, D, to become leaders. You have the example of Samuel. Samuel was given to the Lord in infancy, and he became the great leader, the last of the judges, and the first of the great prophets, in leading the people of God back into fellowship with himself. Now, if you think of children in this way, their great potential you'll see what a marvelous trust is given to parents and I would say especially to mothers it's a great mistake that that Christian mothers should think of themselves as only housewives as they sometimes say this is a great privilege the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world somebody said now the third section Parental responsibility. One physical care. This includes a daily provision. First Timothy, five, eight, again, we referred to it earlier. If any, provide not for his own. Especially they have his own household. He has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Now, providing for your own does not mean laying up money so that you can leave them rich. It's daily provision. You're not doing your child any favor at all by making him rich. And B, the responsibility of providing clothing. Even this is taken up in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs. The ideal mother is one who sees to it that her family is properly clothed. And C, shelter. First Corinthians eleven, verse twenty-two, said, What, have ye not houses in which to eat and to drink? So they have a responsibility to see that there is a place that they can call home. And D, education. Proverbs one and eight, he says, My son, hear thou the instruction. And then he speaks of a father's instruction and a mother's instruction and so on. The education of children should begin in the home, and it should never be left to the state. Totally. Under our culture, children must either be sent to public schools or to a private school, but their responsibility for their education should never be passed on to someone else. Guidance. Parents have responsibility to furnish guidance for their children. A. By example. In Hosea chapter eleven, the Lord says, I taught Ephraim to go, taking him by the arms. To go means to walk. I taught him to walk. He's my child. I'm responsible for him. I care about it. And we have a big responsibility to live before our children in such a way that our example will guide them aright. And then be by the word of God. In Deuteronomy six, verses six and seven, he says, these words that I have spoken unto you, ye shall teach unto your children. In fact, this is often mentioned in the Scripture. and then see by family prayer. One of my happiest memories is my family, my parents, with all the children kneeling down to pray together before we went to bed at night. Of course, there wasn't any TV program that anybody wanted to see. It was much easier then than it is now, but it's more important now than it was then, because you've got more difficulties. a wonderful thing to pray together as a family. And D, to admonish them, Ephesians six and four, says to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. To admonish is to teach and correct and to tell them what the Lord wants them to do. And this brings us to section three or subdivision three of the section. correction. Now right away Dr. Spock and all of his followers are going to get aggravated with me, for which I don't care a fig. I still believe it's right. I'm going to go by what the Word of God teaches, and I think the book of Proverbs beats anything that's ever been written on the rearing of children. A. This is a God-given responsibility. Proverbs twenty nine and verse seventeen is a command. And it says, Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest. And you see, the reason people don't correct their children today is because they have accepted this fallacy, this fallacious argument that there's no such thing as right and wrong. Of course there is. There's still blacks and whites. And we have the standard in the scriptures, and we must correct the children according to those standards. B, it is expected of all fathers. In Hebrews twelve, he said, we have had fathers, according to the flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Now, they weren't always wise. They didn't always make right decisions. But we reverence them, we respect them because they try to guide us in the right way. And we have that responsibility to pass on to our children. And see, it is a proof of love and delight. In Proverbs three, he says whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, and then he says, as a father, the son, in whom he delighteth. So if you really love and delight in your children, you'll want to see them correct it. It doesn't cause any kind of emotional trauma for a teacher to correct a child's English. Why should it cause any great damage for parents to correct their children for any disobedience or anything that they're doing wrong? The way they do it, of course, would have a great deal to do with it. Now, section four, the obedience of children. One, it is commanded by God. A, Ephesians six and one, says, it is right. Now, if it's right, it's right. And anything else is wrong. And B, it pleases the Lord. Colossians three twenty says if you don't know what else pleases the Lord you know that it pleases the Lord for your children to be obedient you can see to that and maybe you can do some other things after that and see it carries a promise of long life now while this is attached to one of the ten commandments it is reiterated here in Ephesians six in the New Testament that those who honor their parents shall live long upon the earth which the Lord our God has given them. And D, it is the opposite of ignorance and lust. First Peter one, verse fourteen, as obedient children, he says, not acting according to the former lusts in your ignorance. So obedience is the very opposite of ignorance and lust. And E, God recorded and commended obedience. And he gives us a very interesting story in Jeremiah chapter thirty-five about the reach of heights. This was a group of people and their father, John Adab, had given them a commandment. And although this was several generations on down the line from Jonadab, the Ritavites were still doing what their father had expressly taught them to do. Now people today would say they hadn't made much progress, but progress in what direction? They were still obedient. And this is God's way. And God commended it. Now number two, under the law disobedience was severely punished. In the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, God pronounced the death penalty under the law. He pronounced the death penalty for a rebellious son, a son who cursed his parents. a son who fought against his parents, and he was a grown man, God pronounced the death penalty on him. I can just imagine how some people are going to react to that, let me hear it. But that was what was commanded under the law. And then in Proverbs chapter thirty, the Lord said, The ravens shall pick out the eyes of the disobedient, and the eagle shall eat them. That's horrible, isn't it? Well, that's what it's intended to be. God wanted to shock us by saying how serious it is for children to rebel against parental authority. And number three, their obedience did not cease with adolescence. And here you have the story in Genesis twenty-eight of Jacob, who was still obedient to his parents as long as he stayed at home. Now let me say this to young people. If you feel that you can no longer obey your parents, be gracious and curious and honest enough to stop eating their beans. As long as you stay under their roof and eat their food, you do what your parents tell you to do. I know this is old-fashioned. I know there are many people today who think that No child should ever be corrected after he reaches early adolescence. But this doesn't make sense. As long as you live at home, do what your parents tell you to do. Now number five, the discipline of children. One, it must be in love. Whom the Lord loves, he chases us. And incidentally, the word chastening doesn't mean whipping. It means child training. You begin training a child by talking. And then if you have to do something else later on, you do so. But it must be done in love. And two, it must be enforced if necessary. I've given you two references in Proverbs, and there are many more that speak about the rod of corrections. Our rod, of course, is not a half inch bar of steel. That's a switch in modern parlance. And my father used to have me go out and cut my own switches. That is, ones he was going to use on me. And I learned just where that fine line was, not to get too small one because he'd go out and get a bigger one and not to get too big one because that would hurt too much. I'm very thankful that he gave me that responsibility. It gave me time to think about this. By the time I got to switch back into the house, I was pretty sure that I was not going to make that mistake again. Before you think it won't work, you try it. And three, it must not discourage the child. Ephesians six and four says, fathers, and the same word is translated, parents, elsewhere. Well, it's true for both fathers and mothers. Provoke not your children to wrath. less they be discouraged. Don't forget to treat them humanely and kindly and kiss away the tears afterwards. And four, discipline should be progressive. I'd like to make a suggestion here that when they're young, you give orders and enforce them and explain nothing. That's the way you begin to train children. When they're small, you tell them what you want done, and you enforce it, and there are no explanations given whatever. Then, B, you gradually explain your reasons, but still enforce the orders. And C, if things go as they should, ultimately the reasons will be enough. I've seen this tried many, many times with parents. You begin by telling them what to do and see that they'll do it. No discussion, no explanation. When they're small, they don't need explanations. They only need to know that dad or mother says to do it. Gradually, as they grow older, you add explanations. Finally, the explanation will be enough. And last of all, Praise should be given for obedience. It isn't enough that you correct a child for disobedience, but you must take notice of what he does that is right, that is good. If you do so, you'll find that the child is greatly encouraged, and this is part of discipline. The word discipline comes from the same words as the word disciple, and it means training, teaching. And you can teach your children to do things because they love to be praised. They love to be noticed for what they do that's right. Some children misbehave just to get attention because it's the only way in their family that they can get attention. The parents have not paid any attention as long as they're doing well. A mother said to her daughter, go find out what Johnny's doing and tell him to quit. It's assumed that everything he does is wrong. But this isn't true. She should be looking for some things that are right and see that these are commended. If we learn to do this, I'm sure that the discipline of children will be a pleasure and not a painful thing. And children who have grown up under proper scriptural discipline in a proper Christian home are happy children. Recently, A survey was taken in the United States of well-adjusted children. And this was a wide enough sampling in enough schools from enough different teachers that they were pretty sure that they had arrived at a fair conclusion. And they found, they asked the teachers to tell what they knew about the best adjusted children in their classroom. They found that this had nothing whatever to do with economics. Some of them were very poor and some were very rich. It had nothing whatever to do with the way they had been disciplined. They had all been disciplined. But some were very severe and some not so severe. It had nothing to do with the area in which they lived, either slums or suburbs or or mansions. But there was one thing that ran through this, and they did this by punching them in IBM cards, and they found no pattern at all until it came to one thing. And that was, does your parent, do your parents love you? Does this child have loving parents? And when they ran this through the computer, every card flopped out. The one thing that made this a pattern. The one thing that seemed to be prevalent was these children all knew that they were loved. When a child has this kind of a home, you can be sure