Psalm 112:1-2 provides promises to parents raising children in the Babylon of this world. It seems clear its instructions and blessings apply to us as the New Israel. In this message, Sam Waldron will exposit this text, along with passages in Proverbs and 2 Corinthians 8-9 which regard this Psalm as applicable to New Covenant Christians. His goal—to encourage Christian parents as they raise their children in the Lord. 

I'm so grateful to Scott Brown for the opportunity that Church and Family Life have given me to preach to you this morning. I'm thankful to Pastor Jeff Johnson for already making my application to you. I mean it Seriously, that was good stuff. But I want to give you at least some more foundation for all the things that Jeff was saying. And let me ask you a question.

Are you familiar with the study done on the posterity of Jonathan Edwards? Here's one account of it. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan preacher in the 1700s. He was one of the most respected preachers in his day. You know that.

He married his wife Sarah in 1727, and they were blessed with 11 children. Every night when Mr. Edwards was home, he would spend an hour conversing with his family and then praying a blessing over each child. Jonathan and his wife Sarah passed on a great, godly legacy to their 11 children. A man by the name of A.E.

Winship decided to trace the descendants of Jonathan Edwards almost 150 years after his death. Jonathan Edwards' legacy includes one U.S. Vice president, one dean of a law school, one dean of a medical school, three U.S. Senators, three governors, three mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates. This is the modern fulfillment and vindication of the promise found in my text for this hour.

Please turn to Psalm 112 and look at verses one and two. It reads as follows, "'Praise the Lord! "'How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, "'who greatly delights in his commandments. "'His descendants will be mighty on earth. "'The generation of the upright will be blessed.

My appointed theme in this hour is Christ's promises to parents raising children in Babylon. I believe the passage just read in your hearing actually has that for its theme, as I hope to show you in the next few minutes. Its promises are not limited to God's people and the promised land, but stretch out through the whole earth and this whole age. The passage opens itself up very simply under this theme. We're going to look at it under the following outline, the backdrop of the promise, the beneficiary of the promise, and then the blessing of the promise.

First of all, the backdrop of the promise. Psalm 112 is one of three psalms in a row, all of which begin with the phrase, praise the Lord. They are literally, literally hallelujah psalms. These are the Hebrew words from which we get our English word, hallelujah. It would be easy to overlook this little phrase at the beginning of the Psalm and jump right into what seems to be more relevant to our subject of raising children for God in Babylon, but I think this would be a mistake.

Why? This little phrase reminds us that raising children for God is something for which we should feel the profoundest thanksgiving. Having and raising children is something about which we should think in the context of praising the Lord. The news has been full in recent months of the reality of falling birth rates in different countries around the world. The media seems to be finally waking up to the danger that birth rates falling off a cliff in many countries poses to the very future existence of those countries.

Here's a headline on BBC.com. Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century. And 23 nations, including Spain and Japan, are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. What is the reason for this? That in Spain, Japan, and other countries birth rates are dropping so drastically.

The reason is that having and raising children is not seen in the context of praising the Lord. Children are rather seen as an infringement on the prosperity and pleasure of their parents. They do not have children because they do not think of them as a blessing and they certainly don't praise the Lord for them. They think of them as a burden and even a curse. It's an amazing thing to see this, I think, in a way that is so contrary to the nature of women Do women love babies?

Of Course they do do even little girls Hardly more than babies love babies. Yes, they do. It's vivid in my memory. I did the calculation. I think our daughter, our only daughter, was about 15 months old.

And we were with a family that had a newborn. And you, it was incredible. My 15-month-old daughter was oooing and eyeing, cooing over that little baby. It's born in them. And I saw the same thing many times after that.

It's only the blasphemous lies of the feminist movement that it can explain why women, contrary to some of their deepest instincts and feelings, should cease to want and to have babies and prefer a profession that prevents having children. What a condemnation and expose of the evils of the feminist and egalitarian movements. Let us have nothing to do with such unnatural views. Let us always think of children in the context and against the backdrop of praising the Lord. Let us never indulge viewpoints which see children as a heavy burden and the source of distress.

Such attitudes, I fear, are a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. If you see children in that light, if you see your children in that light, If you think of your children in that light, you may create the very thing you fear. The great backdrop of the promise of this psalm regarding children is, praise the Lord, it is hallelujah. This is the mentality with which the psalmist approaches the subject and it is the hallelujah spirit with which we must approach the subject of children and It's against this backdrop that we come to our second point The beneficiary of the promise Look at the second half of verse 1 then. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments.

I want to see two things about this beneficiary, his careful description, and his blessed condition. His careful description. He is, first of all, the man who fears the Lord. Fearing the Lord is the heart, sum, and substance of true godliness in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 10-12, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?

But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And it is the fear of the Lord that is the heart of godliness in the new covenant, the great language and promises of Jeremiah 32. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always. For their own good and for the good of their children after them, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me.

I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul." But to inherit the promise of which the psalmist is speaking, It is not enough to fear the Lord just a little or for a little while. And I say this because the psalmist goes on to say that the recipient of the promise is the man who greatly delights in his commandments. Now the emphatic character of this statement is clear and unavoidable. There's no getting rid of it. This almost uses a word that everywhere is emphatic in the Old Testament, Genesis 1.31.

God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was not just good. It was very good. Genesis 4.5 also shows the emphasis here of the same Hebrew word, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain became very angry, angry enough to kill his brother. Throughout the Psalms the word is used synthetically.

Psalm 6-3, my soul is greatly dismayed. Psalm 38-6, I am greatly bowed down. I go mourning all day long. Psalm 47-9, the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted.

Psalm 93-5, your testimonies are fully confirmed. Throughout these passages, and many like them, it is clear that this word emphasizes a high degree of something. It's the word very that's important, or greatly. The psalmist is not a little dismayed or bowed down He is greatly dismayed and bowed down the god of Abraham is not a little exalted. He is highly exalted God's testimonies are not slightly confirmed.

They are fully confirmed. Even so then, the beneficiary of the promise given in verse 2 is not someone who fears the Lord a little, but someone who fears the Lord greatly. A little godliness, a half-hearted fear of the Lord will not bring down these promises on you and your children, my friend. It's only greatly delighting in his commandments that inherits these promises. And the focus of this fear of the Lord is clear, it's his commandments.

The emphatic fear of the Lord has its focus in greatly delighting in God's commandments. I take this as a reference not just to the law, but also to the gospel. God's authoritative revelation, his commandments involved not just the law, but also the gospel. The word commandments is used in the second half of Psalm 19 Where in the context it is Yahweh as rock and Redeemer. We've sung that that is being Spoken of the precepts of the Lord.

I write Rejoicing the heart The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. It is the man who has a great delight in the word of God, in divine revelation, in the law and the gospel that may expect to find fulfilled to him the promises of verse two. We read of great delight in Jonathan, who greatly delighted in David because he loved him as himself. And as Jonathan loved David, so we must love the word of God and greatly delight in his commandments. But the entailments of such great delight in the word are also plain.

What does such delight involve or entail? When the psalmist speaks of delighting in God's Word, what does this look like? Well, we can only review it briefly, but it looks, first of all, like meditating on the word day and night, Psalm 1 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night.

It looks like delighting to do God's will, Psalm 48. I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law is within my heart. It looks like studying the word of God. Psalm 111 verse two, great are the works of the Lord.

They are studied by all who delight in them. It looks like praying to walk in God's commandments. Psalm 119, 35, make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it." This is what it looks like to fear the Lord and greatly delight in his commandment. And the man who is like this, we learn, is in a blessed condition. So notice his blessed condition.

How blessed, says the psalmist, is such a man. Now, there are two things about this exclamation that I think must be noticed and that I want to point out to you. There is the reality that such a man is blessed. We must not listen to the world that says that the man who greatly delights in studying and enduring the word of God will be miserable. No, the Bible says he will be blessed, he will be happy.

The path pointed out by love for the word is the path of blessing and happiness. Proverbs 317 remains true today. Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace. There's also the reason that such a man is blessed. Neither his own happiness nor the prosperity of his posterity, which is promised in verse 2.

I want to say it carefully. Jeff said it as well in the last message. Neither the prosperity of his posterity or his own blessedness are the merited result, nor the necessary product of his fearing the Lord or greatly delighting in his commandments. Now I'm not saying that God's promises here in Psalm 112 are doubtful. They are not doubtful.

They are true. But these promises are not the inevitable or necessary product of the life and child rearing of the righteous man described here. Neither are they the merited reward of the conduct of the godly man. Why not? Well, first of all, the fear of the Lord that leads this man to greatly delight in his commandments is worked by God in him by his sovereign and irresistible grace.

So he gets no credit for it. Piper writes, all sovereign grace saved us in Christ. Before our birth, pure grace suffice, not from our deeds that man enthralls, nor from our faith, but him who calls. As we have seen, it is a sovereign God that plants and nurtures the saving fear of God in our hearts. That's the promise of the new covenant.

He does not produce in himself, the righteous man, the graces to which these promises are made. But I'm saying something else as well. The godliness and grace of the conduct of the godly man cannot and does not automatically produce the results promised in verse two. There is nothing automatic about it. Jeremiah 13, 23 applies here.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil If God say if you are given grace to fear the Lord and greatly delight in his commandments and you raise your children that way, thank God. And when you've done all of that and your children are saved, you know who gets all the glory for it? You know who did it? God did, not you. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

Can a godly parent save his children? No. No more than can we change our children by the best child-rearing change those wicked hearts such as the wickedness and folly bound up in the heart of our children, such as the awful power of original sin, that nothing can overcome that waywardness and wickedness except the sovereign grace of God. Nothing could do that in our hearts and nothing can do it in their hearts. Piper was right when he wrote again, Oh, be not proud of ethnic roots or set your hope on human fruits.

Let no one boast in flesh and bones. God makes his offspring out of stones. This is the first thing that must be said about our children. This is the first thing that must be said. We cannot save our children.

We do not control the salvation of our children. That is the first thing that must be said. It is not the only thing. It is not everything. It's not the last thing.

But it is the first thing that must be said. Only a sovereign God can cure the corruption with which our children are born. It is this promise, pardon me, it is this premise, this truth with which we must approach the almost incredible promise of verse 2. So come with me in the third place to the blessing of the promise. Look at verse 2 again.

His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. This is such a wonderful promise. It's a magnificent promise, but it's almost too hard to believe. So I think the first thing I have to do is clear away a possible objection to it.

So think with me first of all under this last setting of the objection cleared. Look, I'm a Baptist. I know some of you may not be, I'm not putting you down for not being. I bring it up only to say that as a Baptist, I believe there is a great and significant difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and between the Old Israel and the New Israel. And because I believe in that contrast, there is a question that I cannot avoid.

The question is this, is it possible that promises like this one in Psalm 112 are only valid during the time of the Old Covenant and in the theocratic kingdom of Israel? May we be misapplying the text if we apply its promises to ourselves and to our physical children. I think those are legitimate questions which especially Baptists have to answer. But I think there is a good answer. It is clear that the promises of this Psalm do have an application to us.

Why do I say that? I say it because the Apostle Paul says it, that's why. I say it because the New Testament teaches that promises like these we have here remain in effect for Christians today. One great example, common example is found in Ephesians 6, 1-4. The Apostle Paul does not hesitate to apply the Fifth Commandment and its promise to new covenant Christians.

Listen to it again. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Here's an Old Testament promise found in the 10 Commandments, and Paul simply assumes that it applies to new covenant parents and their children.

But even closer to home and even more relevant is 2nd Corinthians 9, 7 to 11. There the apostle makes clear that he regarded the promises of Psalm 112 as continuing to be true for the Christian today. I think it's crucial to look at that passage. I hope you will with me. Please turn to 2 Corinthians 9 and look at verses 7 to 11.

Paul is speaking about the blessing of being generous and giving to the poor. Each one must do as he is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything You may have an abundance for every good deed and here it comes As it is written He scattered abroad He gave to the poor His righteousness endures forever. What's Paul quoting? He's quoting the 112th Psalm to Corinthians as applicable to them about their giving.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower And bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You'll be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. Paul is in this passage encouraging the Corinthian Church to generosity in their giving to the poor Jerusalem Church. And in the process, he cites Psalm 112 as proof of the benefit of faithful giving to the Lord. He cites verse nine, that he is scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

He tells them that they must trust God also, like that psalmist, to take care of their physical needs if they are generous and he cites Psalm 112 verse 9 to prove it. Now if Paul cites Psalm 112 verse 9 as relevant to the saints at Corinth, we can scarcely deny that the promise of verse 2 would also be relevant to them and to us. Yes, whatever the psalm promises, it promises to us as well. Oh but that's the very question isn't it? What does the psalm promise?

What is the meaning of its promise? That brings me to its meaning clarified. There is the promise, his descendants will be mighty on earth, the generation of the upright will be blessed. There is the promise, but what does it mean? If we are to appreciate this promise we must understand its biblical background Because there are many places in the Old Testament where others are spoke about spoken about who are mighty Genesis 10 8 contains the exact phrase used in Psalm 112 verse 2, Nimrod became mighty on the earth.

But the following context makes clear that he was a mighty conqueror and empire builder. Ruth 2.1 speaks of Boaz literally as a mighty man of wealth. 2 Kings 5.1 tells us that Naaman through whom was the one through whom the Lord had given victory to Syria and he was a mighty man of valor. And how often we read of Israel's mighty men of valor, those valiant soldiers marked by unusual might and bravery in their defense of Israel. Psalm 19-5 likens the sun to a mighty man setting out to run its course.

The analogy is that of a champion runner. When a godly Jew knew his Old Testament, read the words mighty in the land, he would naturally begin to click through his mind Nimrod and Boaz and Naaman and the champion runner. But let me state the obvious. Something more than such worldly greatness must be met by this promise. Why?

These promises were given to encourage godly parents. It would clearly be of little encouragement to the godly to tell them their offspring would be like Nimrod. According to verse 2, this promise is a divine blessing. To have a literal Nimrod for a son would be a very questionable blessing indeed, especially to a godly man. Clearly what is promised is that the seed of the godly would be spiritual Nimrods, champions for God on earth.

And this must be nothing else then than a promise that the seed of the godly would be mighty in spirit like John the Baptist who were told grew strong in spirit. All of this implies of course that there is in this promise a blessing and a promise of something more than temporal, something more than physical prosperity for the seed of the righteous. There is here a promise of the salvation of the seed of the righteous. The salvation of the seed of the godly is implied here and promised in not a few passages of the Bible. Psalm 102, 27, 28.

But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end. The children of your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before you." Psalm 103, 17 and 18. But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his precepts to do them. And we have the many promises made to faithful child rearing in Proverbs, one of them very familiar. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.

The rod of discipline will remove it from him. Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom. Proverbs 29, 17, correct your son and he will give you comfort. He will also delight your soul. But this is a problem, isn't it?

Experience proves that not all the children of the godly are mighty men of God or even men of God at all. What of Samuel's sons or David's sons? How are these facts to be reconciled with the promises of Psalm 112 verse 2 and the other passages we just looked at? How should we process this problem? Well, I think a critical biblical distinction must be understood.

All biblical promises, which have to do with the present physical or temporal blessings, are general promises, not absolute promises. Such general promises only state the general tendencies and broad directions of God's providential rule of the world. They are not intended to state absolute and universal truths and rules. Spurgeon understood this and this is what he said, If the promise must be understood of the natural seed, it must be understood as a general statement, rather than a promise made to every individual. For children of the godly are not all prosperous or famous.

Nevertheless, he who fears God leads a holy life is, as a rule, doing the best for the future advancement of his house, taking matters for all in all. The children of the righteous man commence life with greater advantages than others and are more likely to succeed in it in the best and highest sense. One can easily see the truth of this distinction by noticing the difference between absolute promises and general promises elsewhere in the Bible. Romans 10-13 is, of course, an absolute spiritual promise. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

No exceptions. Proverbs 10-4 is, like many other promises and proverbs, an example of a general promise of earthly blessing. It's not intended or stated in the same absolute way. Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Doesn't say that they'll always be rich, it just states a general tendency.

So, we must understand Psalm 112, too, as a general promise. It means that generally and collectively, the seed of the godly will be mighty spiritually on the earth. Such a general promise is not fulfilled, irrespective of parental faithfulness. It is no pillow for parental laziness. Such a general promise is not fulfilled irrespective of the repentance of the child himself.

It is no warrant for a presumption in young people from Christian homes, but such a general promise is guaranteed to be fulfilled generally by the almighty hand and sovereign grace of God, giving parents faithfulness and children repentance. And that brings me to my last point under my last head, the response crystallized. How should we respond to all of this? Go listen to Jeff Sermon. But let me try myself to tell you, in light of what this passage in his Palmas says about parenting and child rearing, how should we respond?

Well, the first thing we must say is that we are in the hands of a sovereign God when it comes to the results of our child rearing. I've already said that this is the first thing that we must premise about our parenting. We do not control the salvation of our children. And humility about that is our first lesson. God is sovereign, and He is the ultimate giver or withholder of sovereign grace.

His grace and His grace alone can break the stubborn and worldly wills of our children and bring them to Christ. Yes, promises are made to faithful child-rearing in passages like this one, but these promises do not supply us with a lever that controls the hand of God. In this matter, we must prostrate ourselves in deep humility and resignation before the mysterious providence of God. The second thing we must say is however equally important. It is that we are not in the hands of the sovereign free will of our children.

This is of course the immediate and logical consequence of what I've just said, But it's not something well understood by this current generation of evangelicals. Some years back in a very popular Christian radio program, a respected Christian leader, who I want to say has done much for God's kingdom, was trying to encourage the parents of children who had gone wrong. And the thrust of what he said was that a parent could be a godly parent, pray faithfully, yet despite all that the child, all that he has done, the child, by his sovereign free will, could throw it all over. Nothing the parent could do or even God could do would stop that child or make any difference. What a terrible and discouraging outlook.

What a terrible doctrine. I'm here to tell you that it's not true. Psalm 112 to Stupefruze is not true. God promises the godly what God can accomplish And that is that their seed will be mighty in the land. He can promise that because he is sovereign in salvation and not our children.

The third thing we must say is that we are in the hands of the God who has ordained both the means and the ends in our world. Here's something that I think needs to be said and we need to get hold of. Our belief in a sovereign God does not reduce us to passive fatalism. Calvinism is not and it never was fatalism. Here's what our Calvinism and our reformed faith actually says God hath decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass Yet So as thereby is God neither the author of sin Nor a fellowship with any therein Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

What's that saying? It's saying that God is a God of means. He is not tied to them, but he has appointed them, and he calls us to use and honor them. Furthermore, he often blesses them with their power and effect that they do not possess in themselves. And that is what our passage is about.

And that is how we should understand its promises. The fourth thing we must say then is that our sovereign God tells us to use the means, He tells us to use the means while depending totally on Him for their blessing. I think that needs to be said again. We must say that our sovereign God tells us to use the means while depending totally on Him for their blessing. God is honored when we use the means.

He promises to bless the means. He has appointed in the way we have described in this message. Thus, if you love your children, if you love your children, man, then be a godly man. If you love your children, fear the Lord and greatly delight in his commandments. If you love your children, be a godly man and a godly woman and a godly parent like that of which our passage speaks.

Study the word, meditate on the word, practice the word, Teach the law and the gospel with love, patience, faithfulness to your children. You may not expect your labors to convert your children, but you may expect God to honor your labors. The fifth thing we must say is that we must use the greatest means that the God of means has appointed. It's what Pastor Jeff was talking about last hour. Isn't that an incredible passage?

He saw that it was predicted that Israel would be delivered after 70 years. And so what did he do? He prayed Incredible marvelous Neither the sovereignty of God Nor our faithfulness and the use of the means should cause us to lose our confidence in prayer. Usually where God appoints a blessing, like the conversion of our children, he first appoints and causes people like us to pray for them. Prayer is a link in the chain of sovereign purpose.

What then? Then pray! The truth is, the truth is that God can save your children. He is the sovereign Savior. He is full of mercy.

He certainly commands you to pray for the salvation of your children. Even if you feel that you have not feared and followed God as you should have for many years. He still calls upon you to pray for your children. Look, I love what I think is the proper translation of Isaiah 45, 19 in the old authorized version. I think it brings out the true and blessed meaning of the verse.

Here it is. I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. I, Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.

What is that verse saying? I've never said to the seed of Jacob, that's all we are, the seed of Jacob, the deceitful, twisted guy. I've never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. God calls you to pray for your children's salvation. And he has never said, I want you to pray and it won't do any good.

He never said that. He said, seek me. He's never said, seek me in vain. He has never said, I want you to pray, but I want you to know it won't do any good. He never said that.

He has said, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you." That's what he has said. And that brings us to the sixth thing that we must say, is that as a result of all we have said, we should have high aspirations for our children. Now, how can I preach this text and not say that?

We must not be minimalist parents. Let us be maximalist parents. Let us aim high for our children. What should we pray for our children? What should we aim at in our parenting?

What is it? It is that our children would be mighty in the land for God. I believe that Christ is gonna build a global church. I believe that nothing Satan can do will stop that from happening. I believe that in the last day there will be a worldwide church.

I believe that the scriptures promise that there will be a great multitude whom no man can number. Where will the people come from who will complete that mighty work of building a global church. Where will those men and women come from who under the hand of God will gather a great multitude whom no man can number from every kindred tribe and nation. Who will these mighty soldiers of Christ be? Who will be spiritually mighty in the earth to do these things?

The answer is found in our passage. Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments, his descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. I have one last thing to say.

It's my last word. Is it possible, Really, to fear the Lord greatly in Babylon? Yes, it is. And I have a biblical example to prove it. You may not remember the ordinary, in some respects, man, Obadiah.

Not the one who wrote the prophecy. No, I'm thinking about the Obadiah in 1 Kings 18. Obadiah was a very high-level servant of Ahab. He was over his house. Huh.

So Obadiah lived and labored in his own Babylon. Of course, that's what the court of Ahab and his consort Jezebel, the Baal worshiper, That's what that court was like. He was living and laboring, dear brothers and sisters, in his own personal Babylon. Yet we are told in 1 Kings 18, 3 and 4 that he was able to fear the Lord greatly in that situation and that he was able to serve God effectively in it. Listen to scripture.

Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. For when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and provided them with bread and water. Well my brothers and sisters, if Obadiah and the Old Testament could fear the Lord greatly in the very court of Ahab and Jezebel, then it seems to me that we, under the expanded blessing of the new covenant, can raise children from the glory of God in our modern Babylon. Assuredly, it will take time, and it will take effort, and it will take focus, and it will take commitment, and it will take toil.

But the promises are great, not only for this life, but for the life to come. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you'd help us to understand your word of right. I've labored to the best of my ability to explain it in this hour, but I'm sure that falls far short of what should have been said.

So Lord, we do come to you to ask your people to have understanding. We ask that you would encourage them, inspire them, support them, lift them up by the promises of your word. We ask that their children might be mighty in the land, and that their children might be the generation of the upright who will be blessed. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.