The sermon emphasizes the responsibility of parents in raising their children in the ways of God. It discusses the importance of teaching children about God's nature, theology, and the gospel. The sermon also highlights the significance of bringing children to church and prioritizing Sunday worship. Practical tips are given for family worship and disciplining children. The role of the church in partnering with parents is emphasized.

Good morning, sun is shining. I hope you're all excited to be here this morning praising our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ. Please turn with me to only four verses I'm going to read this morning. That is from Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 6. This is in the context of the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, and at the end of his letter he addresses various groups within the church, and in these four verses he addresses the parents and children.

So in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 we read children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and your mother this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This morning I'm going to give you several quotes because as I prepared I read a book called The Theology of the Family. I'll put the link to this book, it's available free on PDF format, I'll put it on our Facebook page for you to have a look at later, but I just couldn't help myself. These quotes are so good, I thought I cannot state it better.

I remember one of my favorite preachers, Stuart Olliot said, don't use quotes. Well, here I am, disobeying my great teacher, Stuart Olliot. But as I read these quotes, I'm sure that you will be, you will benefit from them tremendously. So just a reminder then, keep a lookout on our Facebook page, we will put these things on. If you don't know, we actually have a community Facebook page for the church family, where we put things up.

If you are on Facebook, please subscribe to that and you can get some information during the week. Children look at me, last week I left the children to last and some of them fell asleep So now I'm going to do it in the beginning so that they are not asleep. Alright. Children, turn to your mum and dad, look them in the eye and say to them this morning, thank you for bringing me to church. Can you do that?

Look at them. Thank you for bringing me to church. Come on, there you go, you can do it. Alright? Because you don't know what a great privilege it is for you to be here under the word of God being read, the word of God being preached, and the fellowship of the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Susie, did you thank your mum? Thank you. Aren't we so blessed to be under the Word of God this morning. Charles Hodge, my first quote, he wrote, he said, the character of the church and the state depends on the character of the family. If religion dies out in the family it cannot elsewhere be maintained.

Families are hugely important in the eyes of God. So children and parents this morning we're going to look at God's place for parents over their children, how God has designed the family. Then we're going to look at how the family and the church work together to raise children, but where the responsibility ultimately lies with the parents. So this series we've visited, Genesis 1 verse 1, that's the foundation, and that verse clearly states by now you know it by heart in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth we've looked at that this is God's world We are created by God to live in his world. We are designed according to God's wisdom.

We should therefore live according to God's revealed will and be joyfully submitting ourselves to God's divine rule. That's the principle that if you remember that through the series I'll be happy and you will benefit from it. We started off by looking at how this perfect creation is God's creation and yet after sin everything was marred. Man who was created, male and female, rejected God's Lordship. They rebelled against God and did not want to live according to God's revealed will.

So in instead of submitting themselves to God they willfully exchanged their devotion that was supposed to be their devotion to God. They exchanged that and they gave themselves over to Satan and became slaves of sin, slaves of their own flesh, and eventually death itself. So it makes sense therefore then, when you look at the worldview that exists in this world, that people will continue to reject God. Now by nature they are those who reject God. They are under slavery of sin.

It is as if they cannot help themselves but reject God. And the result of that is sin and death. As terrible as that is, we can then understand why sinful men, while those who do not know God and who not willingly submit to his will, who don't have the Holy Spirit of God, we can understand then, out of convenience they would choose to abort babies created in the image of God and still call it good. We can understand why sinful man reverses the natural design for men and women and live in utter confusion about their gender and sexuality. We can understand.

If you understand original sin and total depravity and the universal curse of sin, You can make sense of the chaos that is in this world. Sinners by nature find themselves living lives outside of the blessed harmony and the peace and the joy that God created for them. They are only living the lives that follow their worldview, a life without God. It is only when we live rightly in God's world that our true purpose and our deepest satisfaction in living could truly be enjoyed. But for this we need Christ Jesus.

But we also looked at Genesis 1 verse 28 and it says, And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, subdue the earth, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and every living thing that moves on the earth. And there we found the two duties of man in creation. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, that's one duty. And then The second one is subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Now here we are today, a few thousand years after God created, and we have done not too bad in filling the earth.

When you look at that map there on the side, you can see that almost the whole planet is filled with people. Now a few spots open if you want to go to northern Siberia. But we've done a pretty good job in actually spreading man's existence here on earth, don't we? Your own house might actually be filled with with little boys and girls who look very much like you, so even personally you might have contributed to this command that Lord gives us. The question now is how should you as a parent being a steward of God's children Live in God's world in such a way that it would please God How should you as a parent live your life in such a way, raising your kids to the glory of God?

Well, we will do this under mainly two headings. One is God placed the owners of raising children on parents. Start there, and then we will also see how that relates to the church and the family. My first, my second quote, here we go, are you ready? Dr.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He said, the bringing up of children in the Nature and admonition of the Lord is something that is to be done in the home and by the parents. This is the emphasis throughout the Holy Scriptures. It is not something that is to be handed over to the school, however good the school may be. It is the duty of parents, their primary and most essential duty.

It is their responsibility and they are not to hand over the responsibility to another. A few years ago now we taught the principle of sphere sovereignty, you might remember that. There are these three spheres that God has created of authority over mankind. One is the state, the government. The second sphere is the sphere of the church, and the third is the family.

All of these spheres fall under the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We as Baptists, part of our Principle is that we believe in the separation of church and state have you heard that before? We believe in the separation of church and state but we cannot and we should not believe in the separation of the church and Christ or the state and Christ because the Lord Jesus is Lord over the state, the Lord is Lord over his church, and today you will see that the Lord Jesus is also Lord over your family. Who is accountable before God in the state? The government, maybe it's a king or a prime minister, president, the Parliament.

Who is accountable before God in the church? It's mainly the elders, but we share that responsibility within the membership of the church. Who's accountable before God when it comes to your family? It's you as parents. The Lord has placed fathers and mothers over their children to raise their children in a manner that glorifies the Lord of the family, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm reminding you of this because the obligation of raising children in the ways of God belongs to you as parents. It does not belong to the state as we've seen last week. The state will not care about the soul of your child, but you should. Children belong to God, and God then entrusts those children to godly parents, or should be godly parents, who must then raise them in the ways of the Lord. Here's another quote from a man called Edward Payson.

He lived in the 1700s, 1800s. He said to everyone on whom he bestows the blessing of children, he says in his word and by the voice of his providence, take this child and educate it for me and I will give thee thy wages. The first thing implied in educating children for God is a realizing, heartfelt conviction that they are His property, His children, rather than ours. He commits them for a time to your care, merely for the purpose of education. You and I know who are older parents with older children how quickly it goes by.

We only have them for a short time. It is sad then that so often parents, even Christian parents, have pretty much settled in their mind that it is their only duty to manage to keep that child alive. And sometimes you feel that's pretty much all you do. I want to feed them, I must make sure they've got food in the house, I must give them shelter, and then I must help them on, you know, get them in a good school, drive them to the sport field every weekend, help them out to study, get into a good university, get a job, and then I can sit back, my work is done. This is not the only stewardship required of us as parents.

If this alone is your measurement of success in parenting, then you are sadly failing in your main duty as a parent before the Lord. But also, let me add, then you are missing out on the blessings of parenthood, Where the Lord can use you as a father or a mother to actually invest in the spiritual wealth of your child. Your main duty before God, dear brothers and sisters, as it relates to your children, is to teach them the beauty and the glory of God. That's your main duty as a parent. You might find some pride in your son or your daughter becoming an all black or a silver fern.

Maybe they get a good, well-paying job. Who knows, some of them might go on and become Nobel Prize winners. And you know, can you imagine the pride of a father, seeing his son or his daughter becoming a Nobel Prize winner? They can accomplish great things. But you, as a Christian parent, your greatest joy and your deepest desire for them must be to see them having a true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's nothing and no one more worthy to know than our Lord Jesus. Again listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he says, In the forefront of the minds of Christian parents must ever be the thought that the children are to be brought up in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Lord. That is the peculiar task to which Christian parents alone are called. There is their supreme task. Their greatest desire and ambition for their children should be that they should come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and as their Lord.

It is their main ambition for their children, is it yours? Does that come first? That they may come to know him whom to know is eternal life. That they may know him as their Savior and that they may follow him as their Lord. Parents look again to the side on your left or on your right where your children are sitting.

Is that your greatest desire for your kids? How much do we invest in the sports that they do and the cultural events that they do? You know, music and arts and sport, academics. Now the question is how we then as parents, how are we to do this? Well turn with me to Psalm 78.

We'll read from verse 5 to verse 8. The Psalmist describes how the people of God, especially the parents in this case, relate to their children, one of their duties, And he gets this from Deuteronomy chapter 6 that we've already read. Psalm 78 verse 5 we read, he established a testimony in Jacob and he appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their father's stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. So we find in this passage two verbs that are being used to describe the role of parents. It says we must teach and we must tell.

Teach and tell. Teaching is more formal than telling, I imagine. We must teach our children positively what the Word of God says. We must set them down and teach them. And when we tell them, it relates more to how we live with our children.

So let's break these two apart and speak to this duty that we have as parents. Teach them. Teach them what? Are you ready for this? Teach them doctrine.

Teach them theology. What is theology other than the study of who God is? Open your Bibles with your children and teach them. Teach them about the nature of God. Teach them about the Trinity.

Teach them about the hypostatic union of the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach them about the doctrine of man. Teach them about election and justification. And you, as I name these things, must certainly be thinking, but I myself don't know those things. True?

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but maybe we should feel a little bit embarrassed this morning. Let me ask you, how many of you at home have a good systematic theology book on your shelves that you take out every now and then to teach your children theology? Yes, it is your duty before God to teach your children about who God is. The deeper things about God, the more difficult, more complicated things about God. How can you not know that the Lord God is worthy of all your time to invest in your children?

How can you not seek to get to know him who created you? How can you leave your children in the dark about this glorious God. Let me ask you, how many of you are doing that in your homes? We take much care to teach our children mathematics and science. Those are good subjects.

We start with the basics and then we build up, you know, one plus one is two. And then we build up and now we are in multiplication and we have to learn those horrible tables and we have to memorize that. Sorry Sharon. And then you have to apply those things and later you put brackets around things and then you have all kinds of roots and stuff and sin and coss and tan and there we go and we're in a world that is that is so complicated that I cannot help my kids with math anymore And yet we're happy to teach our children Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so work done. Brothers and sisters our children need to know the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They need to know how salvation comes together in a God who is holy and a human being who is sinful and need the grace of God. They need to understand justification. They need to understand election and predestination. They need to understand sanctification. They need to understand the hypostatic union of Christ.

What is that? It means that Jesus is completely man and completely God at the same time, holy, both of them together. Can you explain that? Our children need to learn those things. And don't think it is above them to learn these things.

Don't think it is above them to learn about the glories of Christ, because as you teach them, the Holy Spirit himself is involved in helping your children understand these things. But we should also tell. So that was the teaching part. Take that serious brothers and sisters. But we should also tell.

And you know that telling means a little bit more than only using your lips. It's quite telling when you look at people, is it not? It most certainly includes words. We must use our words to speak to our children. And the passage that we read in Deuteronomy chapter 6 says exactly this, as you wake up in the morning, tell them, talk to them.

As you walk down the street, talk to them. As you sit in your house, talk to them. As you go down to bed, to sleep, talk to them. The next morning when you wake up, talk to your children about what? About the glories of God in Jesus Christ.

We often miss this means to actually also live the Christian life in such a manner that our lives would speak to the glory of Christ. Of course we need to talk to our children whenever and wherever we are, and I've always enjoyed that part probably of my parenting most. When you walk out and you're in the bush or in the nature and you can refer to the glories of God that you can see in the ocean or in the stars, you know, point them and show. I always remember as a younger man thinking about the wife that I'm going to marry and I can speak about you, I can speak about this to you because you're also southern hemisphere people. When you look up at the Southern Cross, you know, how do you know where the Southern Cross is?

There are these two stars pointing towards the cross, you know, you know, you should know if you haven't, Get to know this, otherwise you'll get lost. But those two stars, I remember how I had conversations with my dad, and he taught me how to find the Southern Cross. Look at those two bright stars. And later on, just as I pondered, I thought, I want to be one of those stars pointing people to Christ. And I want my wife to be the second star right there next to me pointing people to Christ.

We can learn so much in just walking and looking up into the sky. Teach your children about the wonders of God, but it also carries that meaning, this talking and telling about our examples that we leave to our children. Do your children see you pray? Do they hear you repent of your sins? Sometimes when you have to discipline your children, maybe you've disciplined them in anger and they've seen that anger.

Do you then go to your children and say to them, you know, I had to discipline you because this is the will of God but you know I myself have sinned and I ask you for forgiveness. Do they see that in you? Do they see what you do when you are in the company of people who curse God? How you respond? What do they see when you sit down and when you rest?

What do they observe in the morning when you rise up? Do they see you first on your mobile phone or do they see you reading the Holy Scriptures? Martin Lloyd-Jones again, listen to him, he says the parents should be living in such a way that the children should always have a feeling that they themselves, the parents, are under Christ, that Christ is their head. The fact should be obvious in their conduct and in their behavior. Above all, there should be an atmosphere of love.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, and if the home is filled with an atmosphere of the love produced by the Spirit, most of its problems are solved. That is what does the work. Not the direct pressures and appeals, but an atmosphere of love. We love Proverbs 22 verse 6 that says, train up a child in the way you should go and even when they grow old they will not depart from it. Training is an extra step after teaching.

Training is living out that example of a faithful husband and a faithful wife, faithful father and a faithful mother, even a faithful daughter or a faithful son. That training is not only what we teach. Now we have established that the duty of raising children falls on the parents. But if the content and the ultimate goal in our teaching is to bring our children to a knowledge of God, let me ask you this question. Where, in the way in which God has formulated his world and structured his world, where does God dispense the means of grace most clearly?

Anyone answer that question? Where is the means of grace received? It's in the church, is it not? It's in the church. So as you then have this responsibility to train up your child in the ways of God, you must surely understand that part of that duty is to bring your children to church and prepare them for the worship service.

Bring them in here so that they can enjoy worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. That passage that we've read in Ephesians, let me just read it again. And I want you to answer this question, who is Paul addressing in these verses? Simple question, it starts in verse 1 of chapter 6, he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother, that it will go well with you and that you will live long in the word and then verse 4 fathers do not provoke your children to anger but let them but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

This letter was a physical letter received by the people in the church in Ephesus, church just like this, gathering together, went to the mailbox, found this letter, he is actually tikikas most probably delivered it by hand, but anyway there we go, he got the letter, opened the letter, and they are reading this letter to a congregation just like this. And As he reads the letter, the pastor in Ephesus, he addresses the children, looks them in the eye and he says to them, Children, what does that mean? It means that children were present in the worship service. Children weren't left at home or put in a different room somewhere else to have their own separate little whatever that is being called, they were worshiping together with the adults. Raising children in the way of the Lord must include bringing them under the means of grace and make them excited about worshipping.

I know it's difficult, you know, sometimes we expect fun in church, where that idea comes from. Fun is a different thing from joy. But we have created in the modern church a place where everyone should just enjoy being here, meaning there should be flags waved and there should be lights and smoke coming out of the stage and that's the kind of church that children love going to because it entertains them until they end up in hell without Christ. Let me tell you this, teach your children to love the Word of God. Teach your children to love listening to prayers.

Teach your children to love singing hymns and spiritual songs and psalms that sing about the glory of Christ. And don't fall for the lie that that is not exciting, that that's not fun. True joy comes to a human soul when they are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. True joy comes to your family when you are worshipping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords together with a congregation like this. We are not going to go that route in making this place a place of entertainment.

This is a place of worship. And if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you will enjoy, truly enjoy, worshiping him. And maybe it will be difficult for a child to sit still for an hour and a half, two hours, we'll get to that in a moment, but have you prepared them at home? Have you made them excited? Have you taught them that hey it is Sunday morning get up it is Sunday this is a different day from all the other days this is the day when we are going to be together with God's people and we're gonna worship him instead of the alternative oh it's Sunday oh preaching is too long by the way who who moved that clock to that side Now the congregation sees how long I preach instead of me seeing what time it is.

Anyway, beyond the point, enjoy being here, enjoy the singing, enjoy the fellowship. In Romans chapter 10 verse 14 onwards we read, How then will they call, and think of your children, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? And how are they to year without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, Who has believed what he has heard from us? And then that verse of faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ that has to be present in our homes, but it is always present in church. Teach your children where they can find the nourishment they need for their souls, and show in your example and in your telling how you yourself go to the fountain of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, I'm going to close with some practical hints and helps maybe, some examples of how you could faithfully teach your children to set their hope in God.

Are you ready for this? This is not an extensive list but might be helpful to some and I would advise you to think about how you can make some of these things practical in your life. And let me just preamble, say this, If there's one, well I've got many regrets in my life, if there's one regret in my life, it is I wish I have done more of this, more faithfully and more consistently in my own family. But God is gracious. God is gracious.

But whatever stage of life you are in, even if you're single and not married yet, or maybe you are a family who now have children about 9, 10 years old, you think, oh, it's too late. It's never too late. Start today. All right? Here's some of the things you must do pray for your children pray for your children I daily pray for my kids and My prayer is not that they will get the best jobs in the world.

I pray for that as well. But that's not my greatest desire. My greatest desire is that my children would know the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot for the life of me think that I would be in the presence of the Lord Jesus and one of my kids will be on the other side under the torments of hell for all eternity. I pray for them.

Pray for your children. And then secondly, establish family worship. That means gather your children around the table, read the scriptures, pray with them, sing. Maybe someone in the family plays the guitar, take out a few hymns, sing together the praises of God, and then have time to discuss, discuss how that looks like in your family. Thirdly, prioritize your Sunday worship.

This is, this is, this for the Christian is the highlight of the week. Being together with God's people. And by the way, if you look in our newsletter, we have a whole section that we help parents now to prepare for this Sunday. Instead of going back and saying, well what have we spoke about last week, we actually do it now in advance so that you can go through the passage with your children so that when they sit in church they hear things that they've heard at home being taught. Please make use of that.

If you don't get the newsletter, please go and speak to Colleen. She will help you. Family worship is so important. Prioritize your Sunday worship. It's the means of grace.

Number four, read and make them love reading the Bible. One of the most beautiful sights as a father has been especially when my wife would take the Bibles and sit with our kids when they were smaller and read with them. Now when I go into the only child left in my house, Anya's room at night, the light is still on and I say Why are you not sleeping? And then I see that she's having her Bible open and reading it, so okay, keep the light on a little bit longer, it's fine. Teach them to love the Word of God.

Let them read it and love it. I've got another quote here from Ryle, I'll skip this one. Number five, use catechisms. What is a catechism? A catechism is a question and an answer.

Who is God? This is God. What is sin? This is sin. Examples of catechisms, we have the Westminster Shorter Catechism, well known.

And do you know that the Westminster Catechism was designed for children? They had the longer catechism, and then the divines who studied, and who set up the Westminster Confession, they decided, well, we want a shorter version so that we can actually bring that to our children. And when you read the Shorter Catechism, many of us modern-day Christians will be ashamed of how little we ourselves know. The shorter catechism is beautiful. Take it, read it, work through it with your children.

If you want to memorize it, that's good. But even just ask the question and read the answer. That's already a start. And then be consistent. That's probably what I found the most difficult as a parent.

Be consistent in your family devotions. Be consistent in your reading with your children. Be consistent in teaching them theology. And then number seven, this is a difficult one, don't shy away from discipline. I think we are being taught in the world that disciplining your children is a bad thing.

Well, Proverbs 29 15 says, The rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. True discipline, godly, kind, loving, gracious discipline, equals love. Those two things are not separated. If you do not discipline your children, the Bible tells you you probably don't love them properly. And then number eight, partner with others.

As a pastor who'd been preaching for many many years, it's interesting for me, you know, standing here in front and I have my kids and when they were smaller, they weren't as well behaved as now, sorry, but I would always stand in front here and I had to make eyes to my wife and to my kids from the front, you know, hope the congregation don't see. But you are, and I love what Fred said this morning, we are together as the church family wanting to see all children in this church grow up in the knowledge of God. If you see that one parent is struggling and he's got five other kids sitting in the row, get to know that family and maybe you can be the one who sit next to that struggling family and help them with their kids in church. Look after them. Be of assistance.

Partner with them. How many of you are struggling to do family worship? Come along. Speak to families in the church who've been doing that for years and are now reaping the benefits of that. I'm going to ask Fred just to come and just shortly share on that in a few moments.

Just the benefits of family worship. What about handling your teenagers changing emotions? It's difficult. Have you spoken to another family who's gone through the same? How many of you are wrestling with getting your three or ten year old to actually engage in Sunday worship.

I don't want to use the falconess, but I am. I mean, even today Nancy's not here, and there they are, you know. Praise God for faithfully teaching that family to sit and listen to the Word of God being preached. But many of the families in our church can do that. Easy solution.

Speak to others. And then, number nine, make the gospel principles of love and forgiveness always looking to the Lord Jesus Christ the essence in your home how do you view your children you view your children as those who are lost without Christ and You want to preach to them the gospel, you want to teach them, and you want to bring them to a full understanding of God. The last thing that I'm going to say before I hand over to Fred is this. Even after you've done everything in your power, guess what? Salvation still belongs to the Lord Jesus.

Your faithful parenting is not a guarantee that your children will come to faith in Christ. It is your prayer on your knees daily, your wish for them, your hopes for them, but you cannot save your children. But as parents you and I still have the duty to teach them and to make the gospel available to them every day of their lives, so that they might have all the privileges there are given to us by God, so that they can come to faith. But at the end, their rejection or their acceptance of the Lord Jesus and the gospel, it's on them. Let me read to you one last and final quote, Philip Dodrich, 1702, well that was when he was born, he said, I very readily allow that no human endeavors either of ministers or of parents can ever be effectual to bring one soul to the saving knowledge of God in Christ, without the cooperating and transforming influences of the blessed Holy Spirit.

Yet you well know, and I hope you seriously consider, that this does not in the least weaken our obligation to the most diligent use of the proper means. The great God has stated rules of operation in the world of grace as well as of nature. Though he is not limited to these means, it is arrogant and maybe destructive to expect that he should deviate from them in favor of ours. And what he's saying is God has given us the Word, He's given us prayer, he's given us the church, he's given us all these means to bring to our children a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So why don't we as brothers and sisters use it for his glory?

Hey listen I'm sure there are many parents who have enjoyed the benefits of family worship, but if you haven't, may I encourage you to start, you know, start tonight. Take your children, read the Bible. By the way, you can teach them at home how to sit still around the table and listen to the Word of God. You train them to be worshippers who are attentive and reverent to the Word and to the preaching of the Word. It's such a blessing.

So may the Lord richly bless you in that.