We come again to another of one of the great fatherhood passages in the Bible. Passages like this are so great because they help us to mark our place on the roadmap of biblical fatherhood. I hope you've been marking your way as we've been walking through all these passages of Scripture. There's no better place to find out where you're at regarding fatherhood than to just go to the plain old passages of Scripture that God has given us. Psalm 127 verse 1, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children of one's youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate would you pray with me heavenly father we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds to understand these great words Oh Lord open our eyes that we might observe wondrous things from your law. Lord I pray help and forgiveness for any weaknesses in what I might say now in Jesus name amen. Well unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain is one of the hallmark passages of scripture for anything in life and it's in here it's connected with the with the role of fatherhood. This passage of Scripture helps us to trust in the sovereign hand of God and to keep our focus where it ought to be.

It helps us to understand that there are forces at work in our fatherhood that are far beyond our own and that we are truly dependent upon him for everything. I'm reminded of the statement that Benjamin Franklin made near the end of his life, it was an absolutely stunning statement of the providence of God. Here's what he said. In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, We had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, we heard and they were graciously answered.

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of Providence in our favor. He said to that kind of Providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting and peace on the means of establishing our future, national felicity. And we have now forgotten this and have we now forgotten this powerful friend or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? I've lived a long time 81 years and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?

We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall proceed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our prospects will become confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages and what is worse mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. And that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

This is Benjamin Franklin in a speech in the early organizational days of our Constitution and in the gatherings of our government. It's amazing that a deist could see God's intervention so perfectly clearly when probably you might expect even some of the believers might not have seen it as clearly as he did but he did see it and it was his explanation for what happened in the Revolutionary war. Well Psalm 27 makes it plain, Psalm 127 makes it plain that what was true for the Revolutionary War is also true for the building of our families and our communities. The Psalm was most likely written for Solomon as a reminder of the task before him as he was going to build the temple. It was for him to build the house of the Lord.

David had learned the hard way through some bad choices and bad results of laboring with his own ways that that the task would not be to Him. And the psalmist encourages us to do the most powerful thing we can do in any engagement in life, in all of our activities, that we would always be building with a God-ward focus that only God can make any of this work stand. Utter dependence upon God for anything good to come. It's a great impetus for us to cry out to God for help because only he can make anything good. Even our best efforts will fail, but his efforts will never fail.

Of course he does expect our efforts, but we need to understand our efforts in light of His great and His mighty hand. So Psalm 127 proclaims God's sovereignty in everyday life. And there are three spheres of life that are mentioned here in this passage. First there's building a house and that gives us understanding of God's sovereignty and family life and then he speaks of protecting a city which is God's sovereignty and civic life. And then lastly, earning a living.

God's sovereignty and economic life. It's an intensely practical passage of Scripture that brings up the full orbit of life for a man. So, it's why it's just such a precious passage, particularly for fathers. And it is true, don't you think, that these are the areas of the greatest concern among men at all times? Aren't these the places where men find their fears rising up deep within their hearts?

They fear for their families, they fear for security, they fear for accomplishment and their financial lives, and one of the one of the main principles of this psalm is that in all these areas of life God's sovereignty is the swing factor it's the most important factor in all the things that we do And so it's critical that we work hard for our families, but also that we trust in God with our work so that the pressures and the worries of life that come from the difficulties of business or family or church life, that they do not steal from our part of labor in building the house. Now who's the central character of this song? God. He is the central character. And he is saying, I will provide.

He's really reiterating the heartbeat of what Joshua said in Joshua chapter 23, not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you all are come to pass this is our God he will bring to pass absolutely everything he desires if you labor on your own then you'll just end up eating the bread of sorrows. If you think that it all depends on your efforts you'll just be lost in the depression and the discouragement and the frustration and the languishing of knowing that it all depends upon you. What a terrible way to have to live life. God is the deliverer of fathers from this kind of thinking about life. You know, you can see from scripture, even though God gives fathers much responsibility, He does desire to set them free.

He does desire to help to let them know that he is their helper in their great time of need. Well, the first thing we see here is useless labor is defined. Useless labor is defined. Verse one, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Well this is a really simple idea, okay?

All of our labors are in vain without the Lord. That's about as complex as it is. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, says the preacher. You know how discouraging it is to labor in vain and to see that all that we've worked for, all of our lives, to just go up and smoke. No, that's not what happens because unless the Lord builds a house they labor in vain.

Uselessness or vanity is not the kind of life that God provides for his children. He desires labor, not in vain, but for eternal profit. And that's the task of fatherhood, and really, honestly, everything else in life. And he reveals to us that there's only one way, one single way that we can keep from laboring in vain and that is to have him labor alongside of us. We are hopeless in our labors when we labor alone, When we do our own thing, when we follow our godless patterns, when we do not consult with Scripture for wisdom, when we do not cry out in prayer in humiliation for help, and if we and if we do not and we will we will labor in vain and this is the great potential tragedy for all men James says if any who lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like the wave of a sea driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord is there anyone here today who does not feel that they lack wisdom for their labors as fathers well if you if you feel that you're adequate then it's likely that you could be laboring in vain.

If you feel that you've arrived, if you feel self-satisfied that you're implementing all the right formulas and all the right theology, if that's what we think, then we're deceived. If we think that everything is okay because our children, because people compliment us for our behaved children, well-behaved children, and people, where we go, people say, Oh, you used to have such polite kids. They always say, Yes, ma'am. They always say, No, ma'am. Be warned.

Be warned that The outward behavior can deceive you into thinking that all is well. And it's time to cry out to the Lord for help. All of our righteousness, all of our performances are nothing but filthy rags. They're nothing. We have no reason to look at anyone and think that we have got any of our activities together.

Our hearts deceive us into thinking that all we have to do is implement some right pattern and everything will be well. Satan is no respecter of formulas by the way. You've probably discovered that. He can corrupt any part of any good formula or any technique that we might use for the raising of our children or conducting our churches or doing anything. He has a way of allowing men to continue in their formulas while the heart of God is somewhere else.

This is the great danger that we have as men. That we would begin to do the things that are right and then look up one day and find that the Lord is not even in it anymore because we have been trusting in our labor and not in the Lord. So it is a labor in vain because unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain. You know The building of the Tower of Babel is a great example of fruitless labor. Think of that magnificent ziggurat.

All the labor was useless. They raised it up and then it completely crumbled because the Lord was not in it. The men who built it were completely on their own. They were autonomous beings in opposition to God. Instead of consulting with God, they were consulting themselves.

Instead of desiring to glorify God, they said, let us make a name for ourselves. They were exactly the opposite of Noah who built the ark and used the architectural plans that God gave him. That's a completely different way to build. One is a labor in vain and the other is a labor for fruitfulness. You know, Jesus spoke about the man who built his house upon the sand.

He labored in vain. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock and the rain descended the floods came the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees.

Well, instead of building in the place where the Lord provided, He created his own alternative reality, the sand. Who knows why a man would want to build on the sand, but he wanted to. He was building in his own way. He's like Lot, who saw the plains and desired the best place. It wasn't the best, but he labored in vain.

He labored in Sodom and what did it get him? It lost him, his home, his wife, his sons-in-law, and finally his daughters. There's a high cost, terribly high cost, for laboring in vain. And when we charge ahead with our own plans and doing it our way, someday we will come to our senses And we'll say with the preacher, vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Spurgeon commenting on this passage said this, Men desiring to build know that they must labor, and accordingly they put forth all their skill and strength but let them remember that if Jehovah is not with them their designs prove failures.

So where are you in the roadmap of biblical fatherhood? Where are you in the area of labor and the potential of laboring in vain? Is there this labor that's continuing on in one's own strength? Is there a trust in the formulas and a forgetfulness of God Himself in the process? Could it be possible that we have continued in diligence in implementing the plans and the formulas, but that we've quit crying out to God, that we've quit getting on our knees begging for his mercy because we think we have all the activities lined up and right.

You know what is the most important thing that a father can give his children? It's the knowledge of a mighty wonderful God and that all is vanity without Him. You know, all earthly inheritance is meaningless without heavenly inheritance. And you know, we see pictures of this in Scripture we see it we see it in the lives of the Hebrews who they joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods because they looked to a city whose builder and maker was God. They loved that greater kingdom.

They could not wait for that new country that was waiting for them. And this is just all to say that this is the kind of father that we must be. That we understand that what we give spiritually to our children is the most important thing we can give. Not naturalistic fathers who think that all they have to do is to get everything right with their families into pictures of little polite perfection. No, we need fathers who see the sovereign grace of God as their only hope and this is the only way the children will ever have hope that can sustain them through the storms of life that are out ahead for them.

Next useless protection is illustrated. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Here again is an acknowledgement of dependence upon the Lord. That you're not safe at all unless the Lord guards the city that you live in. You know, men do have fears from time to time about the cities that they live in.

We've been planted in these cities that are filled with everything raised up against the knowledge of God. Who is adequate to protect us in our time here? Only God can protect us. Does that mean that we shouldn't labor to protect? No, it doesn't mean that at all.

But what it does mean is that a man needs to understand that even his earthly protections are nothing compared to his dependence upon God. And so that a father, even though he can arrange all the protections in a human way and set up whatever barriers and blessings that he might need to to protect his family. It's vain unless the Lord protects him. And this just drives a man to the place where he always needs to be, and that is crying out to God for help in all of his activities. And then, useless toiling is explained, verse 2.

It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep. Okay, this is a picture of men who are wearing themselves out because they think that it's their labors that is the key factor in their provision. And they're wearing themselves out to make a living because they're afraid. They cannot stop. You've known men like this.

They cannot even stop on a Sunday. They just keep going and going and going, and often it's because they just don't trust God to provide for them, and so that they just, they continue relentlessly, and they eat the bread of sorrows as a result. Now does this mean that we should not stay up late and labor? No. That's not what this is arguing for.

We have to understand what the meaning of this is. Are we going to find out the men that are staying up late and getting up early and have a little conversation with them about their, one time I got a note from someone in a conversation and he said, I got an email from you at four o'clock in the morning and I'm going to confront you about that. Well, that's really not what this verse means at all okay? You have to look at the content. It is vain for you to rise up early set up late to eat the bread of sorrows.

It's the trustless man. It's the man who's laboring out of fear, out of his own resources, and he's absolutely wearing himself out because of the fear that drives him. And It never occurs to that man that God has provided for him all the years of his life. You know, it was just maybe a month ago or so, I was standing right there, right there at that back door with three, with two other men. And one man was a door installer because we were talking about putting a door there to close it off.

And the other man was another friend. And the friend of mine had brought the door installer to give us a quote on the door. And the door installer, as we were standing right there, right outside that door, he said, you know, before today, I didn't have any work, but maybe God's going to provide some more work for me here today. And he said, isn't it amazing? No, I said, isn't it amazing that we ever, ever fear our provision because God has this way of continuing to sustain us.

And then he said, well, you know, God has even provided for me even in the days that I hated Him. And we're standing there and they're all guys about my age and I said, you know, here we are, we've got 150 years of cumulative experience right here in this little circle that God will provide every day of our lives. Why in the world would we ever think that he wouldn't provide for us tomorrow? And it was a time of just standing there praising God and you know we as men we so we so easily forget God's mercy towards us in His provision. And as a result, we forget and then we eat the bread of sorrows.

And that's what He's talking about here. The Puritan writer, Thomas Manton, expresses what I think really gets to the meaning of eating the bread of sorrows in this way. Living a life of misery and labors, fretting at their own disappointments, eaten up with envy at the advancement of others, afflicted over much with losses and wrongs. There is no end to all their labors. Some have died of it, others have been distracted and put out of their wits so that you are never like to see good days as long as you cherish the love of the world.

But will still lie under self tormenting care and trouble of mind by which a man grates on his own flesh." Now that's it I just think that's a great description of eating the bread of sorrows. But God is faithful and He will give us this day our daily bread. And He has given us a rhythmical pattern of life that I believe includes a Sabbath rest and a time of celebration, a hedge against unbelief, a hedge against a thinking that it's only our labors that keep sustaining us. You know, often in our community here, we have seminary students that come to our church and I'm regularly help encouraging them to refrain from study on Sunday to help them to make a good pattern in this way. I don't believe that we're necessarily required to observe the Sabbath in the exact same way that we did during the Old Covenant, but I believe that every one of the prescriptions of the Sabbath of the Old Testament are are relevant to us.

The principles and the values that are there they must guide our thinking about a day of rest. Says here, so for he so gives his beloved sleep. Now, that means that believers get what they have by the grace of God while the unbelievers get what they have by their own labors at least by their own perception even the unbelievers get everything they have from the grace of God but they don't know it They think it was from their own wise labors. You know, we've, you've seen Jason and I bounce back and forth here in this conference. And We've worked together for many, many years.

And back when we were in industry, and I was within industry with him, we had the distinct impression that we always had the unfair advantage. This is Jason's line. Scott, we had the unfair advantage. And what that means is that unless the Lord builds the house they labor and man it means that God protects you from your enemies it means that God makes a way doesn't mean it's always easy but but Jason always believed and So did I that with the Lord you have the unfair advantage. You have God Almighty working behind the scenes all over the place.

You have no fear. He is responsible for every synapse of every thought of every man around you. If you believe that, believe me, it changes the way that you look at all situations. And men can be armed at the teeth, war can be rising against you. You know, you know that there's nothing, there's no, there's not a hand that can be raised up against the Lord.

Nothing will be victorious over him and that's one of the principles that here is that God's people have an unfair advantage. That's why the Old Testament writer says, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee David cried out and he said oh I lied I lay down and I slept for the Lord sustained me. God has promised good sleep. When you lie down you will not be afraid. When you lie down Your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 3, 24. Well, then we see the blessing of children is promoted. And of course, we see this all over scripture. This is another one of those culturally contrary ideas. The blessing of children is promoted in verses 3 through 5.

Behold children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed but shall speak with their enemies in the gate." So let's think rightly about children.

Let's think biblically about children. How should we view children? How does God view children? It's always our duty to understand the heart of God toward anything. And children is one of those subjects in which we need to acquire wisdom, have our minds renewed by the washing of the water of the word.

Here's Spurgeon on children. He gives children not as a penalty nor as a burden but as a favor. They are a token of for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are quote doubtful blessings only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered children are regarded not as an encumbrance but as an inheritance and they are received not with regret but as a reward.

If we are overcrowded in England and so seem to be embarrassed with too large an increase, we must remember that the Lord does not order us to remain in this narrow island, but would have us fill those boundless regions which wait for the ax and the plow. Yet even here, with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring for whom we bless God every day. Don't you wish that writers like this would come on back? There are a few of them. Here's Adam Clarke and he who gave them will feed them no I'm sorry this is this is this is still Spurgeon and I don't know I don't know how Adam Clark's name got on there and he who gave them will feed them for it is a fact and the maxim formed on it has never failed wherever God sends mouths he sends meat Is this proven to be true with you?

Where God sends mouths, he sends meat. What an encouraging, wonderful thing. I just believe that's true. So consider that he makes them he makes them a heritage for us and he sends us children so that we would contribute far beyond our own lifespan you want to make an impact in the world Train children who love and trust God, who will fan out in faith, who will be those happy olive plants springing up all over the world. What a blessing it is to send out these children who do trust in God.

There's nothing better for the world than to have a child who grows up and to find their trust in God alone. They are a sacred trust. They are a form of riches. You remember the parable of the talents? One man hid his in the ground and the other multiplied them.

I think there's a principle there for children. You look at the biblical language and terminology regarding children. They are something that multiplies and they are something that are a reward and a heritage. And that's what we should do with the trust given to us with children. We should work hard and multiply the blessing of their lives.

And that's why we train them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. And that's why we must all often always consult God concerning them. So Where are you in the roadmap of biblical fatherhood? Are you marking your place there regarding your thoughts, regarding your children? Are you thinking about your children rightly?

Do you see them as a heritage? Do you see them as a reward? Is this a way that you relate to them when you look at them? Well there are three images that are given to explain a godly heart toward them. First of all, they are a heritage and that means that they are something that you invest in carefully.

It's the most important heritage that we have from an earthly standpoint and this heritage should be carefully weighed and carefully considered. When one has a valuable investment then one should carefully consider how to use that investment. And children are, we are told, are like an investment. They are a reward as well. That means that they are a gift of blessing for us for a lot of different reasons.

You know children have a way of well not only is there's there's so much joy in the having of children but there's there's there's also much to learn You know what man ever had a child and from whom he did not learn something Man learns about his sins from his children man learns about his impatience The man learns about all kinds of things that are in his heart that need to be changed. A man learns to repent when he has children. And if he doesn't repent, then he'll have bitter children. But these children, they are a reward. And they are arrows in the hands of a warrior and that means that they are something not to be kept but they're something to send out at the proper time.

My belief is that men send their daughters out before the proper time, mostly in our culture. The pattern in our culture is normally to take daughters out from under the protection and the care and the authority of their fathers before their time. And from all I can gather from Scripture is their time is the time of their marriage. Because God designs daughters to be constantly under the protective care of a man. And her father would protect her and help her all her days in her days of singleness.

And then he would give her to a husband. And she would immediately be transferred under his protection and care. There's a seamless, seamless protection of daughters that's argued for in the Bible. And this is something that we should encourage with our own daughters and with our own brothers that we should reverse this terrible this terrible pattern that has come upon our culture where we send our daughters away to act as independent agents vulnerable to every every person that might come upon them and when in fact they need they need the protections of their fathers. So they are arrows.

I'm just going to give you some more spurge and I almost skipped this slide but let me I'm going to give it to you again. You know, some of the great leaders, Christian leaders, really understood the principles that are here. Unfortunately, most of the ones who really understood them you know are a couple hundred years old at least and here we have Charles Spurgeon. Make arrows of them in their youth lest they should prove crooked and unserviceable in their life. Let the Lord favor us with loyal, obedient, affectionate offspring, and we shall find in them our best helpers.

We shall see them shot forth into life to our comfort and delight if we take care from the very beginning that they are directed to the right point. Children of the youth, this is Matthew Henry, children of the youth are arrows in the hand which with prudence may be directed a right to the mark, God's glory and the service in their generation. But afterwards when they are gone abroad in the world they are arrows out of the hand. It's too late to bend them then but these arrows in the hand too often prove arrows in the heart a constant grief to their godly parents whose gray hairs they bring with sorrow to the grave Here Matthew Henry is just encouraging for early early nurturing and loving kindness to get the arrows so that they're not bent by sin in the wrong direction. You know unless You know, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain.

And this is both our great criticism and our great blessing. Criticism in the sense that it's so easy for us to begin to rely on naturalistic methods and then to forget the heart of crying out to God, to forget the true pathos of spiritual life in the home, which its only expressions visible are the joy of the Lord, the beauty of his qualities working themselves out in the home. These are the evidences of all these things, but these evidences cannot come unless the hearts are first won by the Lord. And it all starts with a father and in whom he has placed his trust. That's the beginning of it.

So where are you and the roadmap of biblical fatherhood regarding your trust? Is it a trust in the Lord or have you trusted in all these new techniques that you've learned in the last five years or something like that? We would be bankrupt and we would be bankrupted if we would trust in our own methods now this is not an argument against methods God has given us many methods and we should pay heed to them. Proverbs 24 says, by wisdom a house is built and that means there are techniques here, okay. We're not throwing out the techniques but we are also not naturalistically wedded to techniques without the heart.

You know my experience is that often where fathers fall off the horse in fatherhood is when there's no joy in the home. When there's no joy in the Lord in the home. Where all the mechanical duties are impressed upon the family. Yes, you are having family worship and would you please sit down and shut up because we have got to get to the next thing. The technique is there, the time was allocated, but the heart was lost and I think that's the core of this passage of scripture here.

Well it is for us that while we're on the road map for biblical fatherhood, that we do build wisely and that we understand first of all how we should work but also the fact that unless the Lord builds the house They labor in vain who build it. Let's pray. Oh Lord we pray now for Thank you.