In his sermon titled 'Your Parents and Your Welfare,' Jason Dohm discusses the significance of the fifth commandment, which instructs us to honor our father and mother. The sermon highlights the transition from the first to the second table of the Ten Commandments, emphasizing the shift from commands focusing on our relationship with God to those concerning our interactions with others. Dohm defines 'honor' as acknowledging the weight and significance assigned by God to parents and acting accordingly. He outlines four ways to honor parents: with an appropriate disposition, fitting words, obedience when under their authority, and providing for them in times of need. The sermon stresses that honoring parents is like a gravitational law that brings the favor of God, while dishonor invites life-shortening and misery-inviting dynamics. Dohm also discusses how to deal with dishonorable parents, advocating for maintaining honor without dishonesty. The sermon concludes by highlighting that honoring parents prepares individuals for other life authorities and reflects God's care and structure for human relationships.

Good morning as it always is. I was up early this morning. In some ways early Sunday mornings is my favorite hours of the week. The house is really quiet. I'm up before everybody's up.

And I was just reflecting on our last few weeks and the promise in Isaiah 58 that if we give ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord's day, then we'll delight ourselves in the Lord and just asking the Lord for an increase in ability to delight in Him and increase satisfaction in him. So I hope our study of the fourth commandment lingers really forever in our households and our practices that we give ourselves more to the Lord's day and we find ourselves the recipients of that promise just delighting ourselves in the Lord more than we ever have, being more satisfied in the Lord than we've ever been before. The title of the sermon this morning is Your Parents and Your welfare. The fifth commandment is about your parents and your welfare and they're related, bad pun intended. Your parents and your welfare have an unbreakable relationship to each other that God gives to us in this commandment.

We're continuing, of course, our study of the Ten Commandments. The first three commandments were framed in the negative. They were thou shalt nots. It's God telling us what we shouldn't do. Now of course, the other side of that coin is what we should do, and that's part of those commandments.

But they're framed by God in the first three commandments as negatives. Don't do this. The fourth commandment, which we just finished studying, was a positive command. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's God telling us something to do and of course the other side of that coin is what we shouldn't do, what God would keep us from.

But it's framed by God in the positive. Now this week we have another positive command, honor your father and your mother. We're being told by God what to do and this is actually the the final command that is framed positively. Commands 6 through 10, the final five commands are framed in the negative. They tell us what not to do.

Today we're also making a significant transition. Theologians and commentators frequently speak in terms of the first table of the law and the second table of the law. Now what do theologians and commentators mean by that? They're acknowledging a very clear and distinct difference between the first four commandments, which are about our relationship with God. No other gods before Him, no images, no taking his name in vain, remembering his day.

Those are all fundamentally, commands 1, 2, 3, and 4 are fundamentally about our relationship with God. And then, the final six commandments are about our relationship with each other, with other human beings. And of course Jesus really sets the table for thinking of the Ten Commandments in terms of a first table and a second table, when he talks about the greatest commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second greatest commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So we are making a transition this week between the first table, or those commandments which have primarily to do with loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to the second table. We start the second table this week, which are fundamentally about loving our neighbor as I love myself.

So as we as we go to the text and the fifth commandment let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, our God in heaven, there's so much that we find in our hearts that pulls against honor. Honor of you, honor of our Father and Mother, honor of other people around us. We find so many natural inclinations which war against the honor that is due to you and to our fellow man. So now God I thank you that you brought us face to face with a commandment that helps us and that confronts us and that instructs us.

Let us be helped deeply. Let us be confronted deeply. Let us be instructed deeply so that we can become more like your son Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.

Okay, we're following, We're really returning to the pattern that we've marked out for the Ten Commandments. We'll be going through the first three of the five this week and then four and five next week. So Let's begin. One, what the fifth commandment requires as we work through the Ten Commandments commandment by commandment. We're always starting here.

What does the commandment require? It requires every person to honor his or her father and mother. No one is exempt. If you're alive you have a father and you have a mother so every person is required to honor his father and his mother or her father and mother. Leviticus 19 verse 3 says, every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, reversing the order.

So in the commandment here in Exodus 20, it's honor your father and your mother, beginning with father, then going to mother. But it's exactly the opposite of that in Leviticus 19. Every one of you shall revere his mother, starting with mother, and his father. So the order does not reflect priority. I think it's greatly on purpose that God reverses the order in Leviticus 19 to tell us that There's not a two-tier system here that both father and mother are to receive honor equally.

What exactly is honor? Well the Hebrew literally means to be weighty. Think about that, to be weighty. So the sense of the Hebrew word is this, to acknowledge the significance assigned by God and then act accordingly. That's what it means to have your, to hold your father and your mother as weighty.

I'm acknowledging the significance that God has assigned to my father and mother. They are there to be held as weighty and significant and then as I hold them in that position in my heart I act accordingly. God has assigned weight to fathers and mothers. They are tremendously significant because God says they are tremendously significant. They have been assigned weight by God and we are to give them the significance that God has given them Because he's our Maker.

And of course this simply puts in writing, literally in stone, God inscribed this with his own finger on stone, what creation declares. It is the union of these two people that results in you being born. Are they significant? Yes, you wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the union between your father and your mother. And when you are born, you are completely and utterly dependent on father and mother.

Are they important? Yes. Nature, what we hold as nature, is declaring what God has put in writing, that fathers and mothers are to be honored. We are to acknowledge the weight that God has given to them in all of our lives and then to act accordingly. How do I actually honor my father and my mother?

Let me give you four ways in which we honor our father and honor our mother. Number one, with a disposition that gives them the weight that God has assigned to them. A disposition. With a disposition that gives them the weight that God has assigned to them. A disposition, with a disposition that gives them the weight that God has assigned to them.

We don't give them the weight, God has given them the weight, And so our disposition is what God would have our disposition to be. Honor becomes external at some point, but it is fundamentally a function of the heart. It works its way out, it displays itself, but it begins as a position in the heart. They have, your father has a position in the heart that then works its way out into externals, But it begins in the heart. My mother holds a place in my heart and that works its way out into words and actions but is fundamentally a position in the heart.

And what is that position? It is a position, It is to be a position of love and reverence. What's the second greatest commandment that the second table of the law is all about? Love your neighbor As you love yourself. Your father and your mother are your first and your nearest neighbors.

So God starts the second table of the law with your first and nearest neighbors. Honor your father and your mother. Love them. Remember this is about loving your neighbor as yourself. Love.

It is a position of love in the heart and a position of reverence, honor or reverence, esteem. You must have heard the story about the little boy who was made to to sit and he says to his father, I'm sitting on the outside but I'm standing on the inside." It's a well-trod sermon story, so I'll use it in my sermon. It is possible to externally obey to be made to sit while you're standing on the inside. That is a failure to honor. That is a parent not holding the position in the heart, in the insides that God would have a parent to own, a father or a mother, to have that position and then to work its way out into obedience, not disobedience.

So what God wants is for father and mother to hold this position of love and reverence and then for that position held in the heart to work its way out in external obedience to commands, to mindfulness, to rebukes and instructions. So that's number one, with a disposition that gives them the weight that God has assigned to them. Number two, with words that are fitting for their position. God has given them this position of honor. Now do your words reflect that?

Do your words line up with that? Proverbs 31 says that the children of the Proverbs 31 woman rise up and call her blessed, saying many daughters have done well but you excel them all. This is Proverbs 31 verses 28 and 29. They are not silent about the position that their mother is holding in their heart. They rise up and call her blessed.

There is an expression of words that is fitting for her position of honor in their heart. And of course in Proverbs 31 we have seen that that position of honor is well deserved. We'll get back to that topic in a minute. But for now, we have an example of children who rise up and call their mother blessed. They speak honoring words.

Their words are fitting for her position as an honored mother. Here's a rule of thumb for you. I love rules of thumb. You are honoring when you are speaking to them and of them with respect. You're honoring your father or your mother when you are speaking to them, addressing them with your words, or of them, speaking about them to other people with respect.

If you're not lining up with the rule of thumb when you're speaking to them or you're speaking of them is not with respect, then you've crossed over out of honor into dishonor. That's number two with words that are fitting for their position. How do you speak to your father and mother? How do you speak of your father and mother? Number three, by obeying them when under their authority.

By obeying them when under their authority. Why do I say when under their authority? Because you're not under the authority of your parents all your life long. There is this truth that we leave and cleave to another and start another household and then you are not at the command of your parents. Must they still be honored?

Of course they must still be honored. Should their counsels to you still have weight and significance? Of course, that is hand in hand, part in parcel with honor, but you are not in the position of being under their authority where you must obey their commands when you leave and cleave and form a new household. Turn to Ephesians 6. In Ephesians 6, Paul quotes the fifth commandment, the commandment that we're studying today, And he says a number of things around his quoting of it.

So this is what we'll be looking at in Ephesians 6 verses 1 through 4. Please follow along as I read. Ephesians 6, 1 through 4. Paul writes, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

New fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." These are some of the most well-worn words of Scripture, some of the most famous best-known words of Scripture. And here Paul links obeying with the fifth commandment to honor. Look again at the beginning of this. Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother.

And why should children obey their parents? Because it is right, it is right, that's what Paul says, it is right to display honor through obedience. Obedience is the display of the honor that is in the heart, this disposition of love and reverence, giving the weight that God has given, acknowledging the weight that God has given, giving a parent, a father or mother, his or her due, by obeying. Colossians 3 has many of the same words as Ephesians chapter 6, of course both written by Paul to two different churches. Listen to Colossians 3 verse 20.

Colossians 3 verse 20, children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord." Again here in Colossians 3, Paul gives the reason behind the command to obey children, for children to obey parents and it's that it pleases the Lord. The Lord loves it when children obey their parents. He has commanded us to honor our fathers and our mothers, and he's pleased when we heed his command and obey him. It says, children obey your parents in all things. This is what is well pleasing to the Lord.

It sounds very, very extensive. It is. The command to honor father and mother and to display that honor through external obedience is very, very extensive. Then are there any limitations? Yes, we get the limitations right here in Ephesians chapter 6.

Children obey your parents in the LORD. That is a limitation on the obedience to parents. In what way? The obedience is in the Lord. Children are not to disobey the Lord in order to obey parents.

The obedience to our parents can never be in disobedience to God or that obedience to parents becomes sin. To dishonor a parent is always to dishonor the Lord. So it is important to make a distinction between honor, which is a position in the heart of love and reverence, giving the weight that God has assigned to a parent, and obedience, which is an external manifestation to that, to say that those things are exactly equal is to deny the truth that to dishonor a parent is always to dishonor the Lord. We may never dishonor our parents, but we may sometimes disobey our parents if it means obeying the Lord instead. Because God is ultimate.

God is ultimate. Obedience to parents is important and commanded but it is not ultimate. Obedience to God is ultimate. So if a parent were to give an instruction or a command and obeying that command would mean to disobey God, you are not even at liberty to obey your parents. And yet, you must maintain honor even in disobedience.

More on that in a minute. Question for parents. Parents, I have a question for you. Does either honor or obedience come naturally since Genesis 3 and sin coming into the world and the warping of human nature? Does either honor or obedience come naturally?

Flow just easily from human nature? No! You know the answer to that question. Then we must always be aware of our duty to secure honor and obedience." Here, hopefully you're still in Ephesians chapter 6. This is what that second part of verse 4, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4 is all about.

Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. This is about securing obedience to God and part of that is securing Their obedience to you, which does not flow naturally from their human nature since Genesis 3 and the coming of sin into the world and the warping of our natures. It is incumbent upon, it is the duty of parents to secure, to labor to secure honor and obedience for themselves because it is really honor and obedience to God that is ultimate. When we are walking in the ways of the Lord as parents and teaching the ways of the Lord as parents, we are bringing our children into honoring the Lord through honoring us. Make sense?

We are bringing our children into honoring the Lord through honoring to us. Learning to honor me is elementary school for learning to honor God. Listen to Malachi 1 verse 6. Malachi 1 verse 6, a son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor?

This is God speaking. And if I am a master, where is my reverence, says the Lord of hosts, to you priests who despise my name? God is rebuking the priests here in this early verses of Malachi chapter 1. He says, A son honors his father and a servant his master, if then I am THE Father. God is the ultimate Father.

Fathers in homes are underfathers in the same way that shepherds in a church are undershepherds. God is the ultimate Father. To learn to honor a father is the beginning points of learning to honor the father. Does that make sense? Learning to honor a father, a human father, is the elementary school for learning to honor the Father God.

So that's number three, by obeying them when under their authority. Number four, by providing for them if they need it or when they need it by providing for them I turn to Matthew 15 Matthew 15 Jesus now quotes the fifth commandment which we're studying in this discourse in Matthew 15. I'll actually be reading verses 1 through 9, so I hope you're there so you can follow along since it's a little extended. Matthew 15, 1 through 9. Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. He answered and said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions? God commanded saying, Honor your father and your mother. He's quoting the fifth commandment and he who curses father or mother let him be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother.

Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Jesus here in Matthew 15 gives both sides of the coin. He gives the positive side of the coin, quoting our commandment, honor your father and your mother, and he gives the negative side of the coin quoting Exodus 21 verse 17 where he says, he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. So do honor your father and mother and don't curse your father and mother or your deserving of death.

Jesus links that to financial support of father or mother. And he's contradicting the Jewish tradition that you could divert financial support from father or mother and make it a gift to God, give it to the temple, instead and that would not be sinful. Jesus says that tradition is setting aside the command of God to honor father or mother through financial support. He links it directly to financial support for father or mother. And then in verses 8 and 9, Jesus follows this to the real roots, fake honor of God.

To not honor father and mother, to dishonor them by diverting financial support that could have and should have gone to them, but say it's dedicated to God, instead is to say with your lips, I'm honoring God while you actually dishonor Him. So you're giving more to the temple and yet that is dishonor to God Because what God wanted was you to financially support your parents, to display honor for your parents through supporting them in their old age. Failure to honor parents is failure to honor God who commanded you to honor them. That makes sense. When you won't obey God to honor your parents, you dishonor Him through that disobedience.

Failure to honor parents is failure to honor God. So you can't talk a good game about honoring parents when you, excuse me, you can't talk a good game about honoring God while you're dishonoring your parents. That's just hypocrisy. Jesus makes that so clear here in Matthew 15. Just listen to this one.

This is Paul writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5. Paul is really making the same point. 1 Timothy 5, 3 through 5. Honor widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents for this is good and acceptable before God." Paul is doing the same thing that Jesus is doing.

He's linking honor to the financial support of a parent in need. He actually says, let them repay. This is good and acceptable to God. Let them repay. Repay what?

Well, when you were first born, you were totally dependent. They served you in a thousand ways, including financial ways. And now, your turn comes to render honor in a financial way. Now what do I do about a dishonorable father and or mother? Have all fathers secured honor through their conduct?

Have all mothers secured honor through their conduct? You know the answer. The answer to that is no. Some of them have acted persistently dishonorably. What do you do about that?

You honor. You honor. This is not a call to dishonesty. You don't have to make up stuff, but it is a warning not to dishonor. So not a call to dishonesty, but a warning not to dishonor, even in the face of dishonorable conduct, even if it's persistent.

I want you to consider Genesis 9. Feel free to turn there or just to listen either way, but it's going to be a bit of an extended reading so you might want to turn there, Genesis 9. This is Noah after the coming to rest of the ark and after them disembarking from the ark. This is right following on that. They sacrifice to the Lord in thanksgiving And then this in Genesis 9, 18-27.

Follow along. Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from these the whole earth was populated.

And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine, and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away and they did not see their father's nakedness.

So Noah awoke from his wine and knew that his younger son had done, what his younger son had done to him. Then he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. And as you trace out Old Testament history, you find out that that's exactly how it played out.

The blessing of Noah upon Shem and Japheth came to rest and was walked out through generations and the curse of Canaan, Ham's son, came to rest and was walked out. God blessed the descendants of his honoring two sons and God cursed and brought judgment on the descendants of his dishonoring son. This is very much like our commandment, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. It really plays out in a very literal way in this family. Was Noah in this instance deserving of honor?

No. He drank, he got drunk, he became naked in his tent. This is dishonorable conduct. Now this is Noah who was a righteous, a blameless man in his generation, so overall you would say his conduct wasn't dishonorable, but in this instant it was dishonorable and yet his two sons treated him honorably and one son treated him dishonorably, coming outside to scoff at the drunkenness and nakedness of his father, but the two honoring sons because their father owned a position of love and reverence in their heart that worked its way out into them backing into the tent with a blanket, turning their eyes away and covering their father. They're not dishonest, they're not making up lies, but they are covering the dishonorable conduct by not exposing, by covering their father.

I think I should make the clarification here that if you have a parent that is engaged in illegal, harmful activities, this does not say cover it up. So I'm not saying that. And I think exactly the opposite of that is true. If you have a parent engaged in illegal, harmful, and or harmful conduct, it is not dishonoring to address that in appropriate ways, which might be including involving law enforcement. But in this case, there were two honoring sons and they were blessed for it.

There was one dishonoring son and he was brought into judgment for it. Several years ago, a man I knew asked me about his parents' upcoming 50th and he wanted counsel because their marriage wasn't an honorable marriage. It seemed so to people on the outside but to the children who had grown up in that home, they knew it wasn't. And he wanted to know what I thought the children in that home should do to celebrate or not celebrate a marriage that hadn't been particularly honorable. And I told him, I thought, I actually took him to this passage of scripture and I said you should celebrate, you should celebrate all that you can celebrate.

You don't need to make stuff up. This is not a call to dishonesty, but you should in a spirit of honor, in a disposition of honor, you should celebrate all that you can. Is your disposition towards your father and mother, does it give the weight that God has assigned to them? That can be true even when you know their faults better than many because you live in their home. Are your words to them and of them fitting of the position that God has given them?

That can be true even of dishonorable parents. So that was major point number one, what the fifth commandment requires. Now two, what the fifth commandment forbids. What the fifth commandment forbids. Well, we can start by just reversing the four ways to honor.

Let's just reverse those. One, my disposition doesn't give them the weight assigned to them by God. God forbids that. This commandment forbids that. God has given them the weight.

Your disposition doesn't give them the weight. God forbids that. Two, my words are not fitting for their position when I speak to them, when I speak of them, my words are not fitting for the position that God has assigned to them. Three, disobeying them when I am under their authority. God forbids that.

God wants our honor to work its way out into obedience. So God forbids disobedience for failing to provide for them. And by the way, you know this is not just financial. We're in the nursing home until recently, every Tuesday night. And there are some parents who are very much forsaken of their children, and there are other parents who we see their children every week in the nursing home.

This is a reflection of honor and of provision in old age of children for their parents. Either a failure of it or a demonstration of it. So God forbids us to fail to provide for our parents in their years of need and old age. So each of those four things is forbidden by the fifth commandment. Honor your father and your mother.

Don't dishonor your father and your mother. Now listen to these. I'm just going to give them to you in succession probably without any comment at all if I can resist. Exodus 21, 15, and 17. He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death, and he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." Leviticus 20 verse 9.

Leviticus 29, for everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, his blood shall be upon him." Deuteronomy 21, 18 and 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 18 and 21. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and who when they have chastened him will not heed them." Now I'm fast forwarding to verse 21. I'm just leaving out legal steps here.

Verse 21, then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones So you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." Deuteronomy 27 verse 16. Deuteronomy 27 is a scene where the Levites are calling out something that is to be cursed. They're calling out conduct that deserves the curse of God And then all the people are to shout back to the Levites in one accord, Amen. They're to Amen the curse of God on a different, on a set of conduct that deserves the curse of God. Deuteronomy 27, 16.

The Levites would say this, cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt and all the people shall say Amen. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 20. Proverbs 20 20. Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness. Proverbs 30 verse 17.

Proverbs 30 verse 17. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother the ravens of the valley will pick it out And the young eagles will eat it. The young eagles will eat your eye if you mock your father and score an obedience to your mother. What do you learn from this sequence of verses through the Old Testament? This is a really big deal to God.

In most cases, and one I just read, dishonor expressing itself externally to father and mother even through Just things like contempt or scorn or mockery are to be punished by death and sometimes God will do it Now listen to Paul in Romans 1 28 Through 31 Romans 1 28 through 31 Listen to this. He's speaking of unbelievers. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiders, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil thing, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

This is not a list you would make. This is not a list I would make. It's all the things that we consider as serious and bad and then disobedience with parents. What is that doing there? It belongs there.

God thinks it belongs there. Brothers and sisters, I submit to you that these two propositions are true. We do not think about the careful honor of parents like God does. And he begins the second table of the law, a reflection of, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He begins it with honor to father and mother.

And we do not think about the dishonor of parents like God does. When we see the dishonor of parents visited with capital punishment, we say, what's that all about? That's about the righteousness of God. That's about how God views the honor of parents and the dishonor of parents. It is time to align ourselves with God, to agree that God is right and wise, and we've thought too little of the honor of parents and we've thought too little of the dishonor of parents.

God thinks it very, it is very serious. We should align ourselves with Him and His thinking. So that was major heading Number two, what the fifth commandment forbids. Our final one. Three.

Major heading number three, what the fifth commandment teaches about God. Remember, the ten commandments are a reflection of the perfections of God. What does this teach us about the perfections of God? First, and I'm going to give you three. First, God is especially predisposed to bless obedience to this command.

We know that God blesses obedience generally and brings judgment on disobedience generally, but we learn here in this command that God is especially predisposed to bless obedience to this command. We have our commandment. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." Then We have it re-given in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Now turn there. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5.

This will be our last stop. Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 16. This is the second giving of the law. The first giving is at Mount Sinai before the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the second giving of the law, right as the people are about to be brought into the promised land.

And there are a few differences, a couple of added phrases in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 16, also the fifth commandment. Follow along. Deuteronomy 5 16. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you." So that's an added phrase in this second giving. So it's a reminder within the commandment that this is commanded.

It's God putting emphasis on his own commandment. It's a reminder within the commandment that God is commanding it. Honor your father and your mother He commanded you as the Lord your God has commanded you for emphasis. That your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you." You have this added phrase, that it may, and that it may be well with you. So length in the land is the same as Exodus 20, but we have an added phrase as an explanation that it may be well with you as you live longer in the land.

In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul calls this the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. He's actually quoting the Deuteronomy 5 giving of the fifth commandment. So Paul points out in Ephesians 6, this is the first commandment that comes with a specific promise of blessing for obedience. Is God bound to do that?

No God is not bound to do that. And yet, he addens, he sweetens the commandment with an enticement to obey, with a promise of favor and blessing. If you follow this through the Old Testament, this clearly has national implications. Who's going to live long upon the land which the Lord has given you? This is a nationalistic promise to Israel and you follow this through the Old Testament and find that it's true.

In fact in Ezekiel when God through Ezekiel gives the reasons why he's sending his people into captivity one of the reasons given is that they've taken mother and father lightly. They disobeyed this command. So they don't get to live long in the land anymore. They're sent into captivity. So I would say this is a national and nationalistic promise with individual applications.

In other words, Paul correctly, of course, applies it personally and individually. So it is a promised Israel that if they will honor father and mother in the Lord, they'll get to stay in this land and enjoy the favor of God. And when they cease to do that, God sends them into captivity, but it has personal, individual application as well. And in applying this personally, the promise of a long life in which it is well with you is shorthand for enjoying the favor of God, of having the favor of God." Let me just summarize that because I don't want to be misunderstood or for it to be confusing. In this commandment is the first commandment with promise.

What kind of promise? It's a nationalistic promise to Israel that if they honor their fathers and mothers in the Lord, they'll live in the land, the physical land that God has given them a long time enjoying the blessing of God, but it also has personal individual applications. Paul brings that out in Ephesians 6. And in applying it personally, the promise of a long life in which it is well with you is shorthand for enjoying the favor of God. God will bless you.

You'll have the favor of God in your life. Is it an absolute declaration that any Individual who honors father and mother will never have life cut off in youth? No Is it An absolute declaration that any individual who honors father and mother will never have anything unpleasant happen to them so that they'll say, it didn't go well with me. No. But it is certainly true that dishonor of parents is one of the fastest ways to bring life-shortening and misery-inviting dynamics into your life.

Let me say that again. Dishonor of parents is one of the fastest ways to bring life shortening, misery inviting dynamics into your life. Want to bring life shortening dynamics into your life? Dishonor your father and your mother. You want to bring misery, inviting dynamics into your life?

Misery come to me! Dishonor your father and your mother. Children, I want to say this so forcefully, children. It's been a long sermon so far. We're 53 minutes in.

If you've tuned out, tune back in for this. This is like Gravity. There is no fighting gravity. There is no arguing with gravity. There is no contradicting gravity.

This is an inescapable law. Honoring parents in the Lord. There is no true honor of parents outside of the Lord. So honoring parents in the Lord brings blessing and the favor of God into your life, period. Like gravity makes things fall to the earth, honoring father and mother brings blessing and the favor of God into your life.

And dishonoring parents brings life shortening and misery inviting dynamics into your life. Fight gravity, fight the inescapable laws if you will. You will find that God is right. You will learn by bitter experience or blessed experience that God is right and he's true and he always keeps his great and precious promises. Adults.

You still have parents. You might not be under their authority for the under their command to obey, there are many ways, even when you're out from under their roof and under their particular authority in which parents are neglected and dishonored, and it is possible that you have brought life shortening and misery inviting dynamics into your life through the dishonor of your father or your mother. It's like gravity. It's an inescapable law. If you desire to live under the favor of God, who doesn't want to live under the favor of God?

You must honor your father and your mother. If you want to keep out life-shortening and misery-inviting dynamics out of your life, You must honor your father and your mother. If you want to keep out life shortening and misery inviting dynamics out of your life, you must honor your father and your mother. It's like gravity. It's an inescapable law.

How many people are miserable and they don't know why they're miserable, but it's because they won't honor their father and their mother. That's the first thing we learn about God. God is especially predisposed to bless obedience to his people. He's telling you how to live in his blessing. He's telling you how to live under your favor.

What a kindness of God to tell us, to promise us His favor. Second thing it teaches us about God, God cares tenderly for people. God cares tenderly for people. Think of the blessings that flow through parents to children. Think of all the blessings that flow through parents to children.

Children get the blessings and they come to the children through the parents. God did that. God designed a world where when a child is born to a home there's a natural and immediate and often unbreakable affection for that child. God did that. God gave parents to children as a conduit, as a channel for blessing.

And so often blessings flow in abundance to children through their parents. God did that. He made the world that way. Think of the blessings that flow through children to parents. We were sitting around last night looking through an old scrapbook and I know I was thinking what Janet was thinking.

So many blessings have flown, have flown, have flown, yes. So many blessings flow to us through our children. Makes it sound like we were flying and I didn't want it to sound like that but I wasn't sure what to say. Think of the blessings that flow through children to their parents. Many blessings.

God did that. God wants that. God gives parents to be honored, but parents who care for their children And then children who care for their parents in a different season of life. God is caring tenderly for people through the way He made the world. He wants it to function rightly.

That's why He commands us, honor your father and your mother. You'll live under the favor of God. A third thing teaches us about God, and finally, God appoints authorities and requires them to be honored. God appoints authorities and requires them to be honored. Parents are most fundamental and first in line of the authorities.

They're the first authorities you get. Later, you'll get government authorities, you'll get church authorities, you'll get work authorities, but now you're in the elementary school of learning to honor authorities and its parents. It starts with parents. They're most fundamental and first in line. They're not the only authorities.

Think of this, honoring father and mother, think of it as an essential training grounds for the authorities that are yet to come in life or that you're just beginning to experience. It trains us to honor God. Yes, the honoring of God is ultimate. We learn to honor our parents so that more than anything else we'll learn to honor God, but also government authorities and church leaders and your manager at work. We learn through honoring our parents to honor them as well.

Paul in Ephesians 5 starts with husbands and wives. The husband having a position of authority, then he goes to children, then he goes to masters and slaves, then he goes to our disposition towards the king. So it's honor a husband, honor parents, Honor a master, honor the king. Colossians 3 says many of the same things. Peter says much of the same in 1 Peter chapter 2.

Honor the authorities that God puts in your life. You start by honoring father and mother. If you miss honoring father and mother, the chances that you'll honor the king, that you'll honor your work authorities, that you'll honor your church authorities is slim to none. The fifth commandment prepares us for those other authorities in our lives. God appoints authorities and requires them to be honored.

Next week we apply this very specifically to ourselves and then we'll revel in Jesus' perfect obedience to this commandment. We'll be glad that He obeyed where we haven't. God I thank you for this commandment and God I pray that you would drive the truth of it deep into our hearts. Pray that we would be a people that give a place of love and reverence in our hearts to our each of our fathers and mothers. We would live in your favor.

We would display an honor for you through it. Please help us. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.