In our last two programs, we were considering
the Christian home, the place which Satan has
attacked from the days of Adam and Eve
and which is under tremendous attack today.
In our last two programs, we considered the
relationship between husband and wife.
Today, we want to continue and consider God's
plan for bringing up children.
Children were part of God's perfect will from
the time He created man and woman.
When He created Adam and Eve, the very
first words that He spoke to Adam and
Eve, mentioned in Genesis 1.28, were these,
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
and subdue it.
They were to have a physical relationship with
each other and produce children.
That was God's will.
And in the last book of the Old
Testament, in the last page of the Old
Testament, we see an emphasis on that.
Why did God tell Adam and Eve to
be fruitful?
Their children were to reflect God's image, just
like Adam and Eve were to reflect God's
image.
God created Adam and Eve that they might
reflect His image.
Adam could not do it alone, Eve could
not do it alone.
Together, they were to show the character and
the nature of God.
There are things a man can show of
God's nature, there are things a woman can
show.
Together, there would be a balance.
And their children were to carry on fulfilling
that ministry in the next generation.
In Malachi chapter 3, we read, there are
two things that the Lord mentions in verse
14 and 15.
Malachi chapter 2, sorry chapter 2 verse 14
and 15, in the middle of verse 14
it says, The Lord has been a witness
between you and the wife of your youth,
that you have dealt treacherously, though she is
your companion and your wife by covenant.
First thing He speaks to them in the
last page of the Old Testament is your
relationship with your wife.
The wife of your youth, why does He
emphasize that?
Maybe you are both fifty, sixty years old
today.
But when you chose her, she was a
young, attractive person in your eyes.
And your husband was a young, attractive man
in your eyes.
But you have dealt treacherously with each other.
You have not been faithful, even though she
is your companion and your wife by covenant.
Do you know that marriage is a covenant?
And you promise to be faithful to her?
And she is meant to be your companion,
your friend.
How many of you husbands can honestly say
that your wife is your best friend?
She should be.
That's what God says in the last page
of the Old Testament.
And how many of you can say, I
have not dealt treacherously with her?
Or if you have, that you have repented.
And you seek to be faithful to her
now.
This is God's will.
And then He goes on in the next
verse, Malachi 2.15, to say, And what
was God seeking in uniting you as husband
and wife?
I am paraphrasing the words.
What was God seeking in uniting you as
husband and wife?
He was seeking a godly offspring.
He was seeking godly children, that in the
next generation.
And they would transmit it to the next
generation.
Godly offspring.
Not just offspring.
It's easy to have children.
But to bring up children in a godly
way, that's a task of a lifetime.
It requires sacrifice.
It requires sincerity, wholeheartedness in our life to
God.
Just like God is the binding force that
holds husband and wife together.
It is only with God's power that we
will be able to bring up our children
in a godly way in this evil generation.
The way your children have turned out is
an indication of whether you have lived in
a godly way in your own home.
Do you know what the Bible says about
the way children turn out later on in
life?
It says in Proverbs, chapter 22, verse 6.
Train up a child in the way he
should go.
Even when he is old, he will not
depart from it.
Now, either that is the stupid opinion of
a man, or it is the inspired word
of God.
What do you think it is?
If you accept this as the inspired word
of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, then
listen to it.
If you do the first part of that
verse, the second part will be automatic.
What is that?
If you train up your child or children
in the way you want them to go,
He doesn't say a spiritual way.
No.
He doesn't say if you train up a
child in a godly way.
No.
Maybe you want your children to make money
in the world.
Okay.
Fine.
Train up a child in the way you
want him to go.
When he is old, he will not depart
from it.
Why are your children running after money today?
Because you trained them up in that way.
When they are old, they will not depart
from it.
Why are your children seeking for greatness in
the world?
Because that is what you wanted for them.
You may speak high-sounding spiritual language and
be an elder in a church and many
many things like that.
But if your children are worldly and wayward
and unconverted, Dear parents, I don't want to
condemn you, but I would encourage you to
take the blame instead of blaming circumstances, people,
etc.
Humble yourself and say, Lord, it's my fault
that my children are not converted.
It's my fault that my children are not
following the Lord.
When you take the blame, then God can
help you even if you have been a
failure.
Do you know that God can help you
even if your children have left your home?
They have gone away and you recognize today
that you are a miserable failure in the
way you brought them up.
That today they are unconverted.
Now when I say they should be living
for God, I don't mean they should become
full-time workers or preachers or evangelists or
pastors.
No.
That's a matter of calling.
God doesn't call everybody to full-time Christian
work.
But they should be born again.
They should be disciples of Jesus.
99.9% of people are called to
work for the Lord in a secular job.
But they should all be disciples of Jesus.
Every single one of them.
So we are not to train up our
children to become full-time workers or pastors
or preachers or evangelists or missionaries.
No, that's not primary.
We train them up to do the will
of God, to be disciples of Jesus in
whatever God calls them to do.
If God calls them to be evangelists, that's
fine.
But they must be disciples.
Whether they are nurses or teachers or engineers
or missionaries or evangelists or pastors or whatever
it is, they must be wholehearted disciples of
Jesus.
Whether they are teachers or clerks or peons
doesn't make a difference.
They must be wholehearted disciples of Jesus.
And that's what we are to train them
up in from earliest childhood.
To show them that the only thing worth
living for in this world is the kingdom
of God and His righteousness.
And the children must see it in their
parents.
They must see the way their parents live.
They must see what their parents live for.
And if children see that you as parents
have lived for money, even though you go
to some church and speak high-sounding spiritual
things over there, don't blame your children if
they grew up doing what they saw you
doing at home.
If they saw that even though you preached
wonderful things in the church on Sundays, you
lived as hypocrites at home with other standards,
you can't blame your children for going astray.
Train up a child in the way he
should go.
When he is old, he will not depart
from it.
I believe that is the word of God.
It can work for the good of the
children or the bad of the children, depending
on how you bring them up.
Why do you think Judas Iscariot went astray?
Was it because he was not dedicated to
the Lord as a little baby?
He probably was.
He was probably taken to the temple exactly
like Jesus was taken to the temple and
dedicated to the Lord.
But it's quite likely that after dedicating him
to the Lord, his parents brought him up
for the world.
Maybe when Judas Iscariot did little wrong things
as a child, maybe bringing back from school
somebody else's pencil or rubber or something like
that, his parents ignored it.
When you ignore the little thefts and the
little lies that your children do, you are
training them to be thieves and liars when
they grow up.
Even a small thing.
Supposing you see your child has come home
in the kindergarten class with a pencil that
you never gave him, and you ask him,
how did you get this pencil?
And he says, well, somebody stole my pencil,
I don't know who it was.
So I found somebody else's and I took
it.
And you give him the impression that he
is a smart boy.
You have trained him to be a Judas
Iscariot when he grows up.
It starts with a small pencil.
It may end with robbing a bank.
What do you need to tell that child
at that time?
You need to tell that child, if somebody
else robs your pencil, it doesn't mean you
can rob somebody else's.
Go tomorrow and give it back to the
teacher, or to the person who it belongs
to, and say, I am sorry I took
this.
My dear friends, very many times, parents are
responsible for the godless way in which children
grow up.
Do you realize that God wants you to
bring up godly offspring?
And the responsibility primarily comes upon fathers.
We read in Ephesians 6, and verse 4,
Fathers, bring up your children in the discipline
and instruction of the Lord.
There are two things we need to give
to our children, instruction and discipline.
Instruction in the Lord means not just the
stories of Joseph and David and Moses, that's
all good, but also principles of righteousness, of
honoring parents, honoring, speaking respectfully to older people.
Who is going to teach children all this?
Who is going to teach little girls modesty
of dress and behavior?
Parents!
If you don't teach your little girls principles
of modesty and behavior, they are going to
pick up practices from the television screen, and
from the pictures of the film stars they
see.
Take this responsibility seriously from today.
If you have failed and your children are
grown up, repent, take the blame, and ask
the Lord to change them even today.
If fortunately your children are still with you
at home, then say, Lord, give me grace
to bring them up in a godly way.