In his sermon 'Covenant Children,' Carl Provost addresses the biblical teachings found in Ephesians 6, emphasizing the role and responsibilities of children within a Christian covenant. He critiques the modern cultural shift where the authority of parents over children has been undermined, leading to societal issues such as juvenile crime and the misuse of psychosomatic drugs. Provost explains the biblical concept of covenants as agreements with God, illustrated through various Old Testament examples like Noah and Abraham. These covenants highlight a relationship with God, leading to a life of obedience and honor. The sermon further connects the Old Testament covenants to New Testament teachings, emphasizing the symbolic transition from circumcision to baptism as signs of being in God's covenant. Provost stresses the importance of children obeying and honoring their parents as a reflection of their obedience to God. This obedience is not only a command but is accompanied by promises of blessings and rewards from God, both in this life and eternally. The sermon concludes with a call to adhere to God's order and commandments as a demonstration of love and faithfulness to Him.

Please take your copy of God's Word and turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Verse 1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and they may live long on the earth and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you, for we recognize, Father, that we are all children, that we are your children, and that you've given us the opportunity to raise children in your word, Father.

And I pray that as we look at this text today and as we look particularly at your command to children, that you would be working, your Holy Spirit would work in the hearts of the hearers today. And use Your Word, Father, for the transformation of hearts. We pray in Your Son Christ Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we live in a culture, as we've been talking about, where things are so anti-Christian and the order of things have been changed so much that even in the way that parents and children relate to one another, often times in our culture it's reversed. We hear stories of children who are taking their parents to court and judges that are hearing these cases because they want their rights.

As I mentioned in an illustration last week, a story of a court that allowed a young lady to be taken from custody of her parents so that she could pursue her own desires for gender reassessment. But we see this not only in these blatant examples, we also see this anytime we go out into public. In fact, I've noticed this, I'm sure we all have many years. Oftentimes, rather than children obeying parents, we see parents obeying children. I see this sometimes in homes.

Children who manipulate and control the home or parents that cater to their child's every want and need. The failure to apply these biblical principles to the home is one of the reasons we have so many cases of juvenile crime going on. It just seems like one school shooting after another, and we think, what's going wrong here? What's going wrong with these children? These children that do not recognize authority.

These children that do not recognize just biblical principles of life and the sanctity of life. The world has attacked these biblical principles of child training and instead they've given us psychosomatic drugs to control children. They tell us not to issue child training, not to issue spanking of children, but instead we give them drugs to control them. Children are not allowed to learn how to deal with self-control and instead they're given drugs for self-control And this usually ends up being resulting in very bad results. In fact, one of the connections that the media seems to always fail to list in these school shootings is the fact that most of these children or young adults are on some type of psychosomatic drug.

And so we see this, but we recognize that one of the reasons why we have this as a problem is because we have departed from God's order. We have departed from God's way of raising children and we have listened to the psychologist who have redefined how we are to raise children. But God's Word gives us clear instruction on this. It's interesting, just one of our elders from one of our sister churches posted a little video of Phil Robertson explaining the real problem. And in this video he has a picture of an assault rifle.

What the world is saying is the problem and why kids are killing one another. And he says the world is focusing on the wrong weapon. He said the weapon that can end all the murder in this world is not to get rid of guns. Because you can get rid of the guns and people will still murder one another. He said the answer is the weapon that God has given us.

And he holds up his Bible, the sword of the Spirit. And how true that is that we sometimes fail to recognize the power of God's Word to transform our families, to transform our lives, to transform our communities. And we must return to God's Word in order to teach our children. And so today's message, children, actually is a command to you. God through The writings of Paul speaks directly to you and gives you a command And we're going to look today at covenant children are in the kingdom Covenant children are commanded to obey and honor their parents, and covenant children in their reward.

Covenant children are in the Kingdom. Just to give a quick overview, children, of what your status is in the church. If you are sitting here today, it is because you are in Christian homes of families that are in covenant with God. So what does that mean, to be in covenant with God? One of the definitions of covenant is by old Palmer Robertson, it says, a bond in blood sovereignly administered.

Well for most of you, unless you've read his book, that probably doesn't help you much. And so I want to try to speak in terms to help you understand as children what it means to be in the covenant. What it means to be a member in the kingdom of Christ and in His church, and for God to speak commands directly to you. See, a covenant is an agreement between two parties. And so whenever somebody comes together and they agree to do something and they have a contract, and they both sign that contract, or in the time of Abraham, they would oftentimes have a bloody ritual that was called to cut a covenant.

And it was this process in which they would make an agreement with each other. And there would be benefits to this covenant, but there would also be sanctions against those who broke the covenant. And so a covenant with God is to have a relationship or agreement between God and us and how we are to relate to Him. And so what we see in this idea of a covenant is God speaks to us through covenants. He makes a covenant with us, and we are in a relationship with him because of this covenant, and it's how he interacts with us.

And so I wanna give a quick overview from the Bible of what the Bible says about covenant. The first sign of the covenant of grace we see the first promises in Genesis 3.15. What God said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. And what God is teaching here is that after the fall, and after the results of the fall, that God was promising them that one day He would send the seed. And that seed, as we're told later in Scripture, is Jesus Christ, who fulfilled that seed, who came and died for your sins, redeemed you from your sins, made reconciliation, and you now are children of God.

And He made covenant by the blood of Christ and His promise way back in Genesis 3.15. In Noah's day, the land had become very wicked. There were few men still following the commands of God. And God spoke to Noah and told him that because of the evil and wickedness of men's hearts, he was bringing judgment on the world, and he would destroy the world with a flood. And he instructed Noah to build an ark.

And Noah and his family, and a representation of all of the animals, to replenish the earth, were gathered together. And God sent them, and they filled the ark, and the ark was sealed. And at the end of that flood, when all men were destroyed but the eight that were on the ark and the animals, God reestablished and replenished creation with those eight that were of the holy seed. See, in order for God to send a seed that would redeem His people, He also needed people. And Noah and his family replenished the earth.

They were told to multiply and cover the earth. And he gave a sign in heaven, the rainbow. And that sign was given in order to remind the people that he would never destroy the earth again with a flood. And so whenever you see a rainbow in the sky, you remember that God is a God of promises, God is a God of a covenant and that he has a promise seed that he has sent and That we are his children because we identify with that promise We also come to There's multiple covenants or dispensations of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament, but we're going to skip some of them and we're going to come to the covenant of Abraham. See Abraham was promised that he would be a nation.

God called him out of paganism, and he sent him to a land that God promised that He would give to Him, and promised that He would be a great nation, and told them to look up to the heaven, and to count the stars, and that as the stars are in heaven, that would be the number of descendants of Abraham. And children sing a song, I'm sure many of you have sang it, called Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. And that is teaching the concept that by being in covenant with God, we are descendants of Abraham. And that's exactly what we see in His Word.

But see, God made a covenant with Abraham. And Abraham looked up at the stars, and it was hard for him to imagine that there would ever be so many descendants. And he asked God, How could he know this would come about? And in order to speak to Abraham in terms that he could understand, he told Abraham to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he cut these in half except for the birds, and they laid them out side by side.

And normally in this culture, both parties would have passed through between these animals. And in essence, what they were saying is, if I break this covenant, let me be as these animals that are cut asunder. But there's a uniqueness to this covenant in that a deep sleep came over Abraham and God appeared to him in a vision. And symbols representing God pass between these as a unilateral covenant. And what that means is God passed through saying that I will guarantee that this covenant comes through based upon me and me alone.

And God was saying that this covenant is based upon God and His promise and His holiness. It was an everlasting covenant. And so we are made a part of the family of God. We are made children of God. We are made children of Abraham because of this covenant that was made with Abraham.

But he also wants to raise up a nation. And he wants to identify that nation and separate them from the world. And in chapter 15, God told Abraham or chapter 17. I'm going to read that for its context in Genesis 17. And when Abraham was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly." And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make thee nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, and thy generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a god unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger and all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, I will be their God.

And God said unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou shalt Thou and I see it after thee in their generations this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and You and I see it after thee Every man child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generation, he that is born in the house or bought with money or any stranger which is not of thy seed, he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man, child, whose flesh of the foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant." And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarah but Sarah shall be her name. And what we see there is this institution of circumcision as a sign and seal of the covenant.

And he was instructed that all of the children that were born to him and born to his servants or any servant that was purchased, that Abraham was to place this mark of the covenant upon them in order to set them apart, in order to separate them. In a sense, this was cutting away of flesh as a representation of the circumcised heart, recognizing that they were set apart to be God's special people. And it was a sense in which it was a cutting of a covenant. To remind them to set them apart that they would stand out from the people around them. And God would raise them up, a mighty nation, just as he had promised.

So what is circumcision? Circumcision is an outward sign representing an inward reality. Romans 2, 28 and 29 says, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God." So circumcision was a display of an inward reality. It is a seal of a promise that if your children are raised in the Lord, the inward reality will come about.

We are promised, if we raise our children, that He raises up godly offspring through the parenting of children. And so children, you recognize that if you are in a church, and you are sitting here today and you are baptized, then you are in the covenant. You are in a covenant relationship with God, and that God speaks to you through His Word and through His Spirit. And we see this related in Colossians chapter 2. It says, In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye arisen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your sins and in the circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, having forgiven all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in it." See, what that verse tells us there is that Christ came and He fulfilled the bloody right of circumcision by a sacrifice upon the cross. And while you were yet uncircumcised of heart, He gave you a new heart. And He replaced that bloody rite of circumcision with a sign and seal that represents the cleansing of His blood. And that in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, the sign and seal of being in the covenant with God is our baptism.

We are cleansed from all our trespasses and our sins by Christ Jesus and this is represented by the cleansing of baptism. It is a sign and a seal. It's a sign in the sense that it represents the inward reality. But what about those that haven't displayed that inward reality? It's also a seal of the promise of God that if we raise our children in the Lord, that we will see the fruit of regeneration in their life.

We see the connection between the covenant children of the Old Testament and the covenant children of the New Testament, combined in Peter's sermon after Pentecost. After preaching the gospel of good news of Jesus Christ coming to redeem his people, Peter said in Acts 22 through 39, then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Here we see Peter repeat the promise that was given to Abraham to the New Testament church. You see, the Old Testament church, the called out ones, those people that were called out and made a people, is the same word that's used for those who are called out to be the church in the New Testament. And the Gospel calls those out of the world to be cleansed in Christ Jesus, to be atoned for, and made children of Abraham, made children of God. And we know that the covenant, And the Old Covenant clearly included children.

But we also see that that's what's clearly taught in the New Covenant as well. For we see the promise is to them and to their children. And in Luke 18-16 in Jesus' words, he says, Let the little children come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." And the word that's used for children there in Luke 18-16 means a very small child. Of such is the kingdom of God. Now I want us to look back at our text today, establishing that we are, by virtue of baptism, identified and in the covenant relationship with God as members of the body of Christ.

First in Ephesians 1.1 in the greeting, Paul says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. He addresses this to those who are truly believers in Christ Jesus, to the saints which are in Ephesus. And now back to our text in chapter 6 verse 1. It says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

If you notice, children, Paul is addressing you directly. He didn't say, parents of little reprobates or parents of heathens. He said, children, those identified from the beginning, those saints. You are identified as being in the Kingdom of God, and He is addressing you directly and teaching you how you are to obey your parents and the Lord. For this is right.

So what does God require of you if you're in covenant with Him? If you're in a covenant relationship with God, what does He require of you? As a child it's fairly simple, but yet that doesn't mean it's easy. He doesn't give you a long list. You're told to obey and honor your parents.

That the way you are obedient to God in all of His commands at this stage of your life is to obey and honor your parents. That's the order in which He's given you. God in His wisdom has given you parents to raise you and train you in godliness. And at this point in your life, in order to be a covenant child, you must follow the instructions of your parents, the discipline of your parents. So what does it mean to obey your parents?

First I want you to see that the word here for obey is much stronger than the word that was given earlier in wives to submit. This word here does not leave an option. It's not an option to obey. This is required of all children. And this is based on Paul gives us two ways of looking at this.

First he said, for this is right. And this term meaning basically that even from the natural law, you can see that children should obey their parents. I'm sure all of you can think of a time when you've seen a child yelling or screaming at his parents, and you immediately think, This is not right. In fact, I can remember the first time that my children saw a child acting this way in public. And they were just looking with their mouths gaping in shock that a child would act in such a way.

Even children recognize that this type of behavior is wrong. It's written on their hearts. And so children, you are to obey your parents because you know that it is right. You know that God has given you parents to instruct you and teach you. You come in this world not knowing how to do anything.

Everything you learn in those early stages of life comes from your parents. We also see that honoring and obeying God comes from the commandments of God. We are told that you are to honor and obey your parents not only because you know that it is right in your heart, but because God has commanded it and you desire to please your heavenly Father." We see this in God's Word that He takes it very seriously that children are to honor their parents. In fact, Matthew 15, 4 says, For God commanded saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother Let him die the death And what that was saying was the seriousness of dishonoring parents Now this is speaking of its context of an older child that was rebellious, that was brought before the elders. He was bringing much harm to his family.

But in that illustration, we understand how serious it is with God that you honor and obey your parents. Think about this. Do you have to obey God? We're told in God's Word that you demonstrate your love for God by obeying your parents. And so if you want to be obedient to God, follow this command and be obedient to your parents.

This does not mean that it will be easy for you. Think about a time when your parents maybe tell you to clean your room, or to take out the trash, or something else, and you're in the middle of something that you want to do. Do you go willingly, joyfully, to obey your parents or do you go begrudgingly? For to be obedient is to do it willingly and joyfully. You need to examine your heart.

Is your obedience out of a covenant relationship with God and your desire to be obedient to your parents as your way of showing love to God the Father. We also notice the phrase here, in the Lord. It says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. This whole section that we've been reading is about serving God in the Lord. The relationship between husbands and wives was in the Lord.

And what this is recognizing is this is the Holy Spirit empowering you to do something that is not easy. For you still have fleshly desires. You still have the sin in you because you have not been fully sanctified. That sin that wants to serve self and it doesn't want to be obedient to your parents. This means that you have an advocate with the Father.

In 1 John 2, 1 it says, My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So children, when you mess up, when you find yourself not having a joyful attitude, when your parents tell you to do something, remember you have an advocate with the Father. And that means that you can pray to Him and ask Him to change your attitude, to help you to be obedient and honor your parents, so that you can do it in the Lord. That also speaks to the fact that the power of the Holy Spirit is available to you as covenant children to keep His commandments.

And just as each of us, just as your parents, as your mom must submit to your dad, as and to the Lord, And as your dad must love your mom, as Christ loved the church, they must do this by the power of the Holy Spirit. You as children must obey your parents by the power of the Holy Spirit. The phrase, in the Lord, also means that your parents should never tell you to do something that is wrong or sinful. To do something that is sinful is to dishonor God and you cannot honor your parents while dishonoring God. The two are connected.

But because God requires us to honor our parents, even if we have unbelieving parents, that means that there is a way to disobey a sinful command without dishonoring our parents. And we were given examples of this, not directly with children, but we're given examples of this in Scripture. And we can see that one can make an appeal to the Word of God. That you must obey God rather than man. And so if a parent was to ask a child To do something that is sin, a child could disobey their parents and the Lord.

According to God's Word, with an appeal from God's Word. I think of a story that was told to me many years ago. I was on a mission trip in Thailand. And I was speaking with missionaries and they were telling us the story of a young Buddhist girl. I think around age 13.

And she had made a profession of faith in Christ. She converted from Buddhism to Christianity. And her parents kicked her out of the house. Not having anywhere to go, she actually was sleeping on the ground outside of her parents' house. But she continued to honor them and continued to be kind to them.

And she confessed all of her former sins that she committed against them. And through a process of seeing the change that was in this young girl's life, the parents eventually recognized the gospel and the way that their young daughter was living. And they also converted to Christianity. And the family was restored. And so we see that even in this concept that we see in marriage where a woman who is married to an unbelieving husband can lead her husband to Christ.

In this story that was told to me, we see that this can also be used by a child that by a child that continues to honor her parents even when they are sinful towards her. So what do you get for your obedience? I mean this is difficult. It's a simple principle but because of the sin in our hearts it's not always easy to be obedient. We also see in this text that covenant children are rewarded.

For see, God rewards those who are obedient to Him. He rewards those who are in covenant with Him. It says, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. First of all, the obvious is we learn from God's word that God is pleased with those that are obedient to his law. And so when you're obedient to your parents, you're pleasing God the Father.

We are also told that we show our love for Christ when we keep His commandments. And so we show that we love Jesus when we obey our parents. So what does it mean that things may go well with you and your days will be long on the earth? There is a sense in which God has given you parents who have experienced things in life and are wise and they protect you from harm. And your days are lengthened or not shortened by bad choices if you follow instruction of your parents.

They will lead you away from harm. They will lead you away from things that lead to early death. And in fact, you see this quite often with rebellious children. They end up in situations or lifestyles that result in an early death. And so there's a sense in which your parents protect you in lengthening your life.

But it's not just bad decisions that can kill you or shorten your life. This is also a real promise that God lengthens the days of those who are obedient and honor their parents. Now we know that there are some children that God takes home at an early age, and this is not a universal principle in the sense that all children who are obedient will live long lives. But it is universal in the sense that God blesses those not only spiritually but physically who are obedient and live their lives according to the order and principles that he's given us in his Word. And it means that you will prosper, things will be well with you, you will have better relationships and your days will be lengthened.

But honoring your parents does not stop when you're no longer children. So even though we don't obey them in the same way when we become adults, in fact we are told to leave, a young man is to leave and cleave into his wife. And it becomes his own family unit. And a young woman leaves to protection of her father and she submits to her husband they may become one flesh and they're their own family unit but honoring our parents does not stop there. In fact we are to continue to honor our parents all the days of their life.

Honoring them as they enter a stage of life where we need to care for them and love them. And that we are blessed when we have covenant families that are multi-generational, where children continue to honor their parents even in old age. We're also told that there were rewards in heaven. We're told to be glad for the great is a reward being stored up in heaven for those. And that was speaking particularly to those who were being persecuted.

We are to store treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrode and no thief can steal. We're told that Jesus is going to build a house for us in heaven, that there's a place for us, and that we will spend eternity in heaven with Him. We are told that He will return and bring a reward one day when he establishes eternity. And so we recognize that we are children. All of us are children of the covenant.

And as those who are children in families and as those who are children in this church, Remember that you are to obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Let's go again to the Lord in prayer. Father we come before you and we thank you that you've given us this word that is rich in mercy and grace. And Father we pray that you would help apply this word to our hearts. And Father, that all of us as children of the King, children of God the Father, that we will be obedient to your word, showing our love for Christ by keeping his commandments.

And Father we pray in your son Christ Jesus name. Amen.