When God created man, first thing he said
was it's not good for man to be
alone.
He didn't want man to be alone and
he made a help meet for him.
This is way back in the beginning before
sin came into the world and we see
there God's perfect will for man that he
wanted man to be married.
The man could not accomplish all that God
wanted him to do without a help meet.
And then once he had created both of
them, he said something to both of them
together and that was he said in Genesis
1 and verse 28, be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth.
So that's the next thing where God wanted
man to be married and then he wanted
man to have children.
And when you come to the last, that's
the first book of the Old Testament, well
man did, men married for thousands of years
and they had children but they didn't accomplish
what God wanted.
And so when you come to the last
book of the Old Testament, it's the book
of Malachi.
He speaks about people who are unfaithful to
their wives who Malachi in chapter 2 and
verse 14, the Lord has been a witness
between you and the wife of your youth
whom you married when you were a young
man and you have dealt treacherously with her
even though I gave her to be your
companion by a covenant.
It's a very serious thing when a man
deals treacherously with his wife because she's a
weaker vessel and wherever that has happened, there's
a great need for repentance, repentance and turning
to God.
And then he goes on to say why
did God, but someone who, anyone who has
a little bit of the Holy Spirit, it
says in verse 15 doesn't do that.
And what was he doing when he united
you his husband and wife?
He was seeking a godly offspring, verse 15.
And there we read God doesn't want just
children, any idiot can produce children, but to
produce godly children that requires a lot of
the fear of God, a lot of humility
to get grace from God.
I mean there's no way to bring up
children in today's world, I'll tell you, in
a godly way without grace.
Number one statement.
There is absolutely no way in today's world
to bring up godly boys and girls without
grace from God.
That's statement number one.
And statement number two is there's absolutely no
way to get grace from God if you
are not a humble person.
Now all of us may think we are
pretty humble, but if you are, you'll bring
up godly children, which proves you're not humble.
If your children are not godly, whatever you
may think about yourself, you have not received
grace from God.
And the sooner you acknowledge that, instead of
saying well children are different and the world
is so bad, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It says where sin abounded, grace abounded even
more.
And it's because of our arrogance and pride
that we put the blame on so many
factors instead of ourselves.
I believe many, many children who have turned
away from the Lord would come to the
Lord if the parents will humble themselves and
take the blame themselves.
I said that to my boys when they
left home for college.
I said I've had you, each of my
boys left home for college when they were
18 years old.
And I said to them, I've had you
18 years in my home and I was
born again when you were born.
I was a child of God.
And if you go astray, I will not
blame you.
I will blame myself.
I said I failed God in the 18
years he gave them to me at home.
I just say that because I've discovered through
the years that there's far more arrogance and
pride in many believers than they realize.
That's the reason they don't have godly offspring
and that's the reason they don't overcome sin
in their personal life.
And that's why they spend so many years,
husband and wife, still getting angry with each
other.
Why would, why don't they humble themselves and
say, we have not getting grace in our
home.
Why always say it is because of this
circumstance, pressure of work and this thing and
that thing, that thing.
No, you are not humble.
The day you acknowledge that, I tell you
things will change in your home.
Your relationship with your wife, the way you
speak to your husband and wife will change.
Your children will change and it's a wonderful
thing to know that when your children are
babies, instead of discovering that after your children
have gone astray.
Isn't it good to know right from the
time they're babies how to bring them up?
Only by the grace of God and by
following the order God has placed in society.
God has placed a certain order in society
and that is the woman must be subject
to the man as the head of the
home.
Now I know that's not popular in the
world and unfortunately that's not popular in many
churches.
But we stick to the old-fashioned Christianity
that has come down from the first century.
And that's not Paul's idea.
It's the Holy Spirit teaching that a man
is the head of the home and he
must love his wife as Christ loved the
church.
And a woman must be subject to her
husband as the church is to Christ.
And where a woman tells her husband, you
don't love me like Christ loved the church,
why should I be subject to you like
the church is to Christ?
There you can see the spirit of Satan.
Rebellion.
It's like saying, if you don't obey God,
why should I obey God?
Imagine if we all said that.
We went around the world telling people, you
don't obey God, I'm not going to obey
God.
In other words, your neighbor, you tell your
neighbor, you're serving Satan, I'll serve Satan too.
Have you heard of anything so stupid to
tell your husband that you serve the devil,
I'll serve the devil too.
But if you follow God's order, then that
order will come down in the way your
children also grow up to respect God.
So let me show you 1 Timothy in
chapter 2 and verse 12.
I don't allow, and remember, this is the
Holy Spirit speaking.
If you believe the Bible is God's word
and not Paul's word.
I mean, those of you who believe the
Bible is Paul's word, you don't have to
listen, but those of you who believe this
is the Holy Spirit, it's God's word, listen.
I don't allow, imagine God telling you, God
says, I don't allow a woman to teach
a man or to exercise authority over a
man.
You won't hear that in many churches nowadays,
but we preach it here.
The old-fashioned Christianity of the first century.
But to remain quiet, that means submissive.
There's a reason given to it.
Normally, God doesn't have to give any reasons.
When you tell your three-year-old child
to obey, you don't give 10 reasons why
he should obey.
You say, daddy said it, that's enough.
But God treats us in the new covenant
as mature people.
You know, you're older children, you give a
reason, son, this is why I'm telling you
to do this, because there's a reason.
So he gives us a reason.
The reason is Adam was created first and
where a woman becomes the head of the
home, she's reversing the Bible and saying Eve
was created first and Adam was created to
be her helper.
That's a lie.
It's a lie of the devil.
Adam was created first and God did not
make a mistake.
Then he created Eve.
This is God's word.
And it was not Adam who was deceived,
but the woman was deceived first.
So two reasons why a woman cannot teach,
because she can be easily deceived and because
she was created second.
And therefore, it's a man who's called to
have the teaching ministry in the church, then
a woman says, what am I supposed to
do?
A very important ministry.
He tells us the woman's ministry next.
The woman will be preserved through bearing children,
bringing them up.
You think that's not an important ministry?
Sometimes it can be more important than a
teaching ministry.
If those mothers will continue in faith and
love and holiness with self-control.
So those are qualities for a mother.
The reason a mother is mentioned because she
spends a lot more time with the children
at home than the father.
The father is away nowadays.
Many working men are away from the home
for 10-11 hours of the day.
Who's with the children those 10-11 hours?
The mother.
The world has become so busy.
The father spends so little time now because
of work.
They have to earn their living.
And that's why when the fathers do come
home, they need to have quality time with
their children and not bury themselves in a
lot of other work.
Many children go astray because the fathers don't
have quality time with their children when they
come home from work.
But the mothers must remember their primary responsibility
is to bring up children at home.
There's no verse in the Bible that says
a woman should not go to work.
And I'll tell you why there's no such
verse.
Because there could be situations where a woman
has to go to work.
If the husband dies and she's a widow
or the husband is paralyzed and sick at
home and can't work, she has to work.
So if there was a command saying women
should not work, what could she do?
But God is wise.
He's never put a verse like that in
the Bible.
And when there's no verse like that in
the Bible, we don't teach it either in
this church.
We have never taught it.
Even though people who come to CFC and
don't care to listen carefully think we teach
it.
A lot of people think we teach a
lot of things which we have never taught.
That's because they have a problem between their
ears and their mind.
Some disconnect.
They don't exactly understand what they hear.
But what we do say is this, that
a woman's primary ministry, even if she does
go to work, is her home.
And God will give grace to widows.
And God will give grace to women whose
husbands are unable to work.
But where God sees that a woman is
just interested in living in a higher standard
of living or to make more money, you
won't get that grace.
There's a difference.
It all depends on motive.
God sees the motive.
In everything, God sees the motive.
So I want to say to you, my
dear brothers and sisters, it's a great responsibility
to have children.
To have children is easy.
To bring them up to be godly requires
number one, like you've often heard me say,
three secrets of Christian life.
Humility, humility, humility.
By the way, I decided to expand it
to ten secrets of the Christian life.
And you know what they are.
One to ten, humility.
I'm absolutely convinced about this.
That's why I emphasize it.
Because there's nothing we can accomplish for God
without grace.
That's why we put up that verse over
there.
God gives his grace only to the humble.
And if you didn't get it, you know
the reason.
And you find somebody else got it, you
know the reason.
It's one thing to be humble for a
certain period of time, but to preserve yourself.
And I want to say one more thing.
There is one secret of remaining humble continuously.
And I'll tell you also how to become
proud.
The way to become humble is to always
look at Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus, we run this race.
In other words, you don't take your eyes
off him.
You know what happened to Peter when he
was walking on the water.
He took his eyes off Jesus.
And that moment he sank.
And that's when we sink into pride and
sin and 101 other things.
You've all woken up?
Okay.
Humility.
It is impossible not to get grace from
God if you are humble.
You don't even have to ask for it.
God gives it.
It's like water flows to the lowest place
first.
And if there is a low place there,
you don't have to invite the water to
come down.
It'll come down straight away.
So let me urge you, parents, pursue the
path of humility to get grace from God
so that in this evil world you can
bring up your children aright so that there
will be another generation that is carrying on
the witness which I hope you are faithfully
fulfilling in your generation.
It's so important.
If you continue, mothers, in faith and love
and holiness and self-control, you'll be able
to have a great ministry just like a
man who has a teaching ministry.
There are examples of that.
In the Bible itself, you read about Timothy
who had a wonderful mother, Eunice, whose husband
was obviously not much interested in spiritual things
because he was a Greek.
I don't know whether he even read the
Bible.
I don't think they had family prayer and
things like that at home.
But this mother, imagine if this mother had
gone around teaching, studying the Bible and saying,
I want to be a teacher in the
church.
She would not have accomplished one percent of
what she accomplished by bringing up her child.
Then by the time that boy was 20
years old, the Apostle Paul looked at him
and said, I want him on my team.
If you bring up a son and at
the age of 20, the Apostle Paul says,
I want him on my team, boy.
You've done a great job.
Or a daughter.
Paul had sisters also who served in the
churches.
We read of one like that called Phoebe
in Romans 16.
So brothers and sisters, young men and young
women, we have to raise them up in
our home.
It's not so much by Bible knowledge.
Don't think that the more Bible knowledge you
have, the more godly you are.
It's not exactly true.
More Bible knowledge, more godliness.
No.
And the greatest proof of that is Satan,
who's got more Bible knowledge than all of
us sitting here, more than me.
But he's not the most godly.
He's the most ungodly.
Maximum Bible knowledge, maximum ungodliness.
That's Satan.
At the same time, Jesus knew the Bible
thoroughly and he was godly.
But Bible knowledge by itself will not make
your home a godly home.
So don't, we need to teach the Bible
to our children.
I did that with all my four boys.
But along with that, we need to teach
the principles which are in the Bible.
The wise man is the man who heard
and obeyed.
When we sit around our dinner table, very
often that's about the only meal the whole
family can sit together with nowadays, the last
meal of the day.
What do you talk to your children about?
I hope it's not the latest gossip.
You know, there are principles that we can
teach our children when we sit around the
table.
Things like being truthful.
Why you, my girl, why should you dress
so modestly compared to the other girls in
the world?
Why don't we allow you to dress like
them?
Why should we not cheat in school?
Even if you can get more marks, better
to fail than to cheat.
These are principles we have to teach our
children.
If somebody fights with you, don't go back
for a fight with them.
Just avoid that person.
Go somewhere else.
Principles of teaching our children.
Principles of God's word.
And when they are young, if we can
put these principles into their mind, how it'll
go very well with them if they obey
their parents.
Put it into their head.
Don't get so busy with your work and
all that, that you don't have time to
put these things into those little minds of
those children.
You will not regret it when they grow
up.
Train up a child in the way he
should go.
When he is old, he will not depart
from it.
All the pulls of the world will not
allow him to depart from those values that
you put into that little child's head when
he was small.
I mean even Moses' mother is a great
example in the Old Testament.
She had him only for a few years
at home.
Where was the father?
Twelve hours at work as a slave.
He probably went at six o'clock in
the morning or seven o'clock in the
morning, came back at seven o'clock at
night.
Hardly had any time with little Moses.
But the mother had him the whole time.
And she knew by the time this boy
is seven or eight years old or maybe
ten, I have to send him to Pharaoh's
palace, the most wicked place on the face
of the earth.
Imagine if you had a boy, you think
of it, you fathers and mothers.
You have a little boy and you know
that by the time that boy is ten,
you got to send him into the most
wicked home, the wealthiest, the most immoral home
in the whole world.
What would you do in those ten years?
That's what Moses' mother knew.
Not going to have this boy forever with
me.
Please remember parents, you're not going to have
that little boy and girl in your home
forever.
You have them for a few years.
Spend those years putting some godly values into
their mind.
Show them the values of the world are
wrong and you've done a great job.
Even if you couldn't buy so many clothes
for them, even if you couldn't give them
the most expensive education, you put godly values
in them.
That'll hold them, that'll hold them in better
stead than all the other things you give
them of this earth.
And so Moses spent 30 years out there
in the palace and at the end of
30 years he stood by what he had
heard from his mother.
I don't want the riches of Egypt.
I don't want the pleasures of sin.
I don't want the honor of being a
next pharaoh.
What a man.
Says that in Hebrews 11.
The three things that comprise the world he
rejected.
The honor of the world, the pleasures of
sin, and the wealth of the world.
30 years in Pharaoh's palace did not erase
the values his godly mother had put into
his head in the first 10 years.
And that's in the Old Testament.
She didn't even have the Holy Spirit.
Imagine what we can accomplish today.
And when I look around the children of
believers in so many places and I see
their worldliness and some who are not worldly,
their arrogance, their pride, I feel so sad.
I say, what are these parents doing all
these years?
Sitting in a wonderful church and not caring
for their children at home, just sending them
to Sunday school.
Sunday school will teach them.
No.
There was no Sunday school in the early
days.
It was parents who taught.
So my dear brothers, all of you who
are parents, who are lucky enough to hear
these things when your children are still small,
take heed to these words.
We pray for these two children.