Clean Transcript

Promises Of The Law - Part 14

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• Chapter 5, verse 16. And if you would please just go ahead and find Ephesians chapter 6, we will be not reading it right now, but we will be turning there just momentarily. And we're still on the series, The Promises of the Law. This is number 14. It happens to be part 2 of the 5th commandment that I began last week. So notice if you would please, Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 16, God says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." I pointed out last week that this promise actually occurs two other times in the Bible. The first time it's in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 12 where God says, "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." And the third time it occurs is in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1-3 where God says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

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• Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth." So I pointed out that this promise is what you and I would be calling a general promise in that it is not a promise to all without distinction. There have been many godly young people who died and did not live to a ripe old age. And there have been many wicked who did not die and did live to a ripe old age. So you have to understand that when God gives a general promise like this, it does not apply to all indiscriminately.

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• It always involves His will for each individual. I also pointed out the fact that no one can exceed the day of his death that has been set by God. God has given us the day of our death. It has been decreed just like the day of our birth. But on the other hand, humanly speaking, we can either increase our days or decrease our days depending upon our obedience or disobedience. But the answer to that is the fact that God has everything figured in.

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• He knows the end from the beginning. He knows whether or not we will be obedient or disobedient. And so He's designed the use of the means as well as the end. And so as we apply the means that God has ordained, then obviously our days will either be lengthened or our days will be shortened.

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• Now, I demonstrated from scripture a number of scriptures relating to this. One of them is Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 27 where the Bible says, "The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." And then I went ahead to demonstrate that although the Fifth Commandment gives us a promise of long life, there are two other passages of Scripture that also give us the same promise, and they are related to the Fifth Commandment. The first one, of course, was found in Deuteronomy 25, verses 13 through 16, where that speaks about honesty in economics. Having an honest weight and an honest measure, and God said if you are honest in your dealings with each other, then He said that there was a promise there of long life. And the second passage I dealt with was Deuteronomy 22, especially verses 6 and 7, where God is talking about the animals and the families of animals. And based upon how we treat animals, there is also the promise of long life. That is, if we honor their families.

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• So arguing from the lesser to the greater, if God commands us and demands that we honor the families of animals, how much more does He command and demand that we honor the families of humans? It is just simply that simple. Now, let me remind you also of the word for honor. I told you the Hebrew word for honor in the Old Testament was kabod, and it literally means honor, honorable, glory, and heavy. When you get to the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 2, it is the word timao, and it literally means to honor, to value, to revere, to venerate, and to hold in honor. So, I close with this statement that there was a passage that was related to the fifth commandment, and that passage not only demanded honor for our parents, but it also demanded honor and respect for what you and I would call old age, the elderly and the honorable. And that passage is found in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 32. God says, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord."

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• Now I want you to note very quickly how God says, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, thou shalt honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God." In other words, the outward respect for old age is here intimately connected with the fear of God. Old age is a singular blessing. And the very fact that God's providence and God's blessing has allowed someone to live to a ripe old age denotes God's blessings upon that individual. And that individual is to be honored in that sense of the word. Let me give you a quote from John Gill, which I found very interesting. John Gill, of course, was the great Baptist expositor. He said this, "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, or before old age, which may be discerned by the hoary or gray hairs upon the head. That is before a gray-headed man or an old man. And one was reckoned so when he was 70 years of age. For so it is said, one of 60 years is arrived to old age, and one of 70 to gray hairs."

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• Now, listen to this. One historian relates that according to the tradition of the Hebrews, a young man was obliged to rise up when an ancient man or an older man was at a distance of four cubits from him and to sit down again as soon as he had passed by, that it might appear that it was done in honor to the old man. And of course among the Hebrews as well as the heathen, it was reckoned to be an abominable wickedness and even in some places a capital crime if a young man did not rise up before an old man or a boy to a bearded person.

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• So arguing from the lesser to the greater again, if God requires us to respect and honor the elderly, whom many times we do not know or would not know, how much more does He require us to honor and respect the parents whom we do know and whom we profess to love? Now there's a passage, 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. Eli and his sons dishonored the Lord, and of course God cut off the line of Eli. But listen to what God said to Eli, 1 Samuel 2 and verse 30: "Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." So God says if we honor Him, if we submit to Him, if we obey Him, He is going to honor us. But if we dishonor God, He's going to dishonor us. If we fail to give Him the honor and the glory that's due in His name, He will hold us in a very light estimation. So God requires us to honor not only our parents, but also the elderly as well.

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• That is an extension of the fifth commandment. Now, you have to ask yourself, what does it literally mean to honor thy father and thy mother? There are numerous principles in the Bible, but today I want to just simply give you three. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, and look if you would please at the passage that I've already quoted. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning there with verse 1, where the Bible says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." He says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth."

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• Obviously the Apostle Paul did not believe that the law had been nullified or done away with. And obviously the Apostle Paul did not believe that this was limited to those Hebrews as they went into the Canaan land, for he took that very same promise and applied it to all believers and especially to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians chapter 6. Now note, if you would, what he says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

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• Honor thy father and thy mother." So it should be obvious in this text that obedience is necessarily and essentially a part of honor. We do honor our parents when we obey them. A disobedient child is a dishonorable child. He dishonors his parents by his disobedience and by his rebellion. We have to go just a little bit further with this thought. Let me just simply point out the fact that we honor our heavenly Father when we honor our earthly parents. We also dishonor our heavenly Father when we dishonor our earthly parents. Why? Because it is God who in His sovereign providence gave us our parents. And it's God who gave them authority over us. So if we want to honor our heavenly Father, we have to honor our parents. If we dishonor our parents, we dishonor our heavenly Father. Now, if you look in verse one, he says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." The word "right" is the Greek word dikaios, which literally means that which is righteous, that which is just, that which is right. In other words, when God says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right,"

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• He's saying that this is My will, this is what I approve of, this is how you live pleasing unto Me. You do that which is just and righteous in My sight. So we must understand then that part and parcel of a child's obedience to God is the obedience to his parents. So when you think about a little child, and when I say a little child, I'm not necessarily talking about someone just two, three, four, five. I'm talking about someone maybe 14 and under, 15 and under, whatever. When you think of a child, and you think about...

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• And you know when you and I are saved when we're adults, there are a lot of adults who said, "Well, I was a drunk and I quit drinking. I was a whoremonger and I quit running around," etc. But you look at a child and it's just as easy for God to save a child as it is to save an adult. But obviously when God saves a child, the child's not gonna quit drinking because he never started drinking. He's not gonna quit being a whoremonger because he never was one. He's a child. But when God saves a child, obviously you're going to see a difference in his life in reference, therefore, to obedience to his parents and to his attitude toward his parents, because that is one of the areas in which God demands that we obey Him. So therefore, if a child has been disobedient, he is going to have repentance in that area and become an obedient child as well. Now, let me point this out.

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• I want you to hold Ephesians 6 but turn back in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 2. As you turn there, let me just make a statement. It does not matter how smart a child is. It does not matter how brilliant. It does not matter how intelligent that child is. God still requires that child to be in subjection to his parents. I've had people tell me, "But that child knows more than I do." Well, that's immaterial. You remember when our Lord was 12 years old, He went with His family to the feast there in Jerusalem and they left and they just supposed that He was in the company.

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• But He wasn't. He was in the temple hearing and answering questions. And when Mary and Joseph discovered that He was not with them, they turned back sorrowing to find Him, and they found Him in the temple. So if you look in Luke chapter 2, beginning if you would please verse 48, when they saw Him they were amazed, and His mother said unto Him, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." And He said unto them, "How is it that ye sought Me?

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• Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. Watch the next verse. "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart." So here's the Lord Jesus Christ at 12 years of age, who is God incarnate, who is the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, sovereign God, and yet at 12 years of age, He went back and was in submission and subjection to His parents. So obviously intelligence has nothing to do with submission. God requires children to be in submission to their parents. Let me just quote 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 1. God says, "Let as many as servants that are under the yoke"—and by the way, the word "servants" there is actually the word "slaves"—so He says, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor." Listen carefully, "that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed." Now God says that a slave that is under the yoke, a servant that is under the yoke, has to count his master worthy of all honor. Why?

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• That the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. So if servants then honor their masters and in doing so honoring God, how much more then do children who honor their parents honor God as well? One way that a child worships and honors God is by being obedient in obedience to his parents. Now, let me hasten to say something else. While it is true that God demands that children be in subjection to their parents, that subjection is not what you and I would style absolute. For instance, no parent has the right or the authority to ask his child to do anything that is unbiblical, ungodly, and unlawful. Although the Bible says, "Children, obey your parents in everything," that does not mean that I have the right to say, "Look, sweetheart, I don't have enough money to pay my bills this month. Take this gun and go out and rob a bank and give me the money so I could pay my bills." I have no authority to command my child to do that which is unlawful to do.

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• I can't say to my child, "I'm upset with Francis. Take this gun and go over there and shoot him." No, I can't do that. If a parent does ask the child to do that which is unbiblical and ungodly, the child should respond the way the Apostles responded to those rulers in Acts 5 and verse 29 when they said, "We ought to obey God rather than man." So although God does require children to be in submission and subjection, He does not require that absolutely, that is in the sense that the parents have no authority to command the child to do that which is unbiblical.

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• Now, here's the thing I want to get into today. The question is not to what you and I would call little children for us. Here's the question: Does God demand that adult children continue to obey their parents?

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• Now stop and think about this. Now, I'm not talking about some child that happens to be 18 or 21 or 24 and still living at home. My philosophy is this: I believe it's biblical. If you are my child and you're in my home and you're eating my food and I'm protecting you, you're obligated to obey me regardless. I don't care if you're 25 or 14 or three. And that's just it. But now we're talking about someone who has left home, who is married, maybe even has children of his own. Now, let me just say, what is the answer? Are we required to obey or are we not required to obey as adult children? And here's my answer. Listen carefully. The answer is both yes and no. I will explain that answer. Because when we leave home and we marry, we now have begun a new home.

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• And the husband, therefore, is now the head of that house. And the husband and wife have authority over the children of that house. So in the strictest sense of the word, you could say, no, we're not required to obey our parents in the sense that we now have a separate home. We're parents ourselves. However, you have to learn this. Your parents are always your parents. Their home is always their home. And your father is still the head of that house. It would be wise, oftentimes, for an adult child, a married adult child, to listen to the counsel and advice and suggestions of his parents.

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• You have to remember, number one, they've lived longer than we have. Number two, they've been through a whole lot more than we have been through. So a wise child, even though he's an adult child, will always try to honor and obey his parents when he can. Let me explain this just a little bit better. My father was a farmer. He was also a Christian. He was also a deacon. He was also a Sunday school teacher. And my father was very authoritarian.

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• But when God saved me, I had a strong desire to really, really know the Word of God. And so I put myself on a reading schedule. I read through the Old Testament every month. I read through the New Testament every week. And I did it over and over and over and over until I had a really good grasp of the Scripture. My father would go off and he would tell all of his friends how well I knew the Bible and how well I could quote scriptures. And I would go home and I would sit there and my father would be in his chair and he'd ask me a question. I'd answer it.

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• And I would just keep going. And the next thing I know, he's getting a little huffy and he's getting upset. I thought, "What's going on?" And this happened two or three times. And it dawned on me one day. I'm in his home. He's still my father. He's the head. And he's supposed to know more than his son. You know what I started doing? When he asked me a question, I'd answer it and shut up.

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• I wouldn't say anything else. I mean, that didn't mean I wouldn't talk to him. It just means when he asked me a specific question, I'd give him a specific answer. And the next thing I know, he keeps asking questions and I keep giving answers. And we're having a wonderful time of fellowship. And his authority is not threatened. You understand what I'm saying? I'm still his son. I'm still in submission to him because I'm answering his questions and giving him what he wants. So all I'm trying to say is this: wise parents are not going to interfere with an adult child's headship in his home. A wise parent is not going to come around and say, "Now son, you do this with your family." No, no, no, they're just not going to do that. I will tell you this: I had one of the greatest fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law in the world, and my mother-in-law one time, just one time in all of our lives, tried to interfere with the discipline of my children. My children had done something and I'd already told them, "If you do this, I'm going

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• to whip you." And they did it. And so I told them, I said, "Go out and get a switch. I'm going to whip you." And my mother-in-law looked at me and said, "Son, you ought not to whip those sweet little girls like that." I looked at her and I said, "Granny, if I happen to be in a life when your children are being raised and I told you how to raise your children, you'd be very, very upset with me." I said, "These are my children. I told them they're going to be disciplined. They're going to be disciplined."

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• Thank you for your information. She never, ever said anything again. So I'm just simply saying there comes a time in one sense of the word when our obedience ceases in the sense that we have our own families and our own headship. But we have to remember when we go back to their house, they're still our parents. It is still their home. And our father is still the head of that house. It's just that simple. To give you one illustration, I went to see my father one time and my mother, of course. And I had—I don't remember what I had to do.

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• I was either going somewhere to preach or something because I had on a suit and a shirt and tie and brand new wingtip shoes. And dad said, "Son, come with me." He said, "I want to show you the new hog pen that I built." I said, "Sure." And I really didn't have any interest in a new hog pen, but he wanted to show it to me and I wanted to see it.

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• So I jumped in the truck and we rode across the pond dam and we got across the pond dam. Here's a hole already in the fence and about 15 or 20 little pigs had gotten out and more were coming out. My dad said as he turned that truck off and jumped out, he hollered, he said, "Son, get in that hog pen and stop those hogs from getting out!" And you know what? I said, "Yes, sir." I jumped in that hog pen with new wingtip shoes and a suit on and I stopped those hogs from getting out. Now wingtip shoes can be cleaned, so can a suit. You understand what I'm saying? But dad was, you know, he was barking an order and here I am, a grown child, married with children of my own and a preacher. But I obeyed. So I'm thankful I did.

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• So there are times then that you can say, well, obedience ceases, but then on the other hand, a wise child is going to do what he can to obey. Now, let me mention this. I understand also, because I've been hit with this question a number of times, what do you do with dishonorable parents? It's true to honor someone in one sense of the word, they need to be honorable. But God says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord," and He says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise." There are mothers and fathers that are dishonorable. There are mothers and fathers that are sinful, wicked, wrong, and vile. But that does not alleviate you of your responsibility to obey God. God still requires you to honor your father and your mother. And let me give you one example. I know of one man. I never met him, but I did know the daughter. But I know of one man who became a drunk and deserted his family, never provided for them, never took care of them, never communicated with them.

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• He just deserted them and lived the life of a drunkard. One of those young women grew up, got married, had children of her own. And that father who deserted her and refused to support her came down with cancer. He had no one to take care of him. She took him into her home and she nursed him and took care of him until he died. And thankfully, there was indeed a very glorious reconciliation much before he died. And after he was dead and buried, she could say, "I honored my father," even though he was dishonorable in one sense of the word. So I'm just simply pointing out that does not mean that we cannot honor our parents, even though they are dishonorable. We have to do what's right, even if they do that which is wrong.

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• Secondly, obedience is not only connected with honor. We must understand that honoring our parents not only requires obedience, but it also requires attitudes and dispositions that would promote and lead to obedience. When someone has a defiant, rebellious attitude, obviously, that is not going to lead to obedience. I remember reading years ago about a little girl who was standing up in the car seat. And her mother kept telling her to sit down, sit down. This was well before the age of seat belts. And the little girl didn't want to sit down. She continued to stand. And finally the mother reached over and took the little girl's arm and snatched her down in the seat and said, "You sit there." And the little girl looked at her mother. She said, "I might be sitting down on the outside, but I'm standing up on the inside." That's a disposition of rebellion. In other words, we've got to understand that our attitudes do indeed affect our lives.

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• Let me show you. Do you realize such attitudes lead individuals to curse and smite and treat their parents with contempt? I want you to follow me. Look in your Bibles if you would to the book of Exodus chapter 21 and verse 15. Exodus 21 and verse 15. Look at what the Scripture says. Exodus 21 and verse 15, God says, "And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death." He that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.

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• Now, the Hebrew word for "smite" here is nakah. And it means to smite, to hit, to strike, to wound, to beat, to scourge, to slay, and to kill.

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• Now, it's just merely striking a parent. Wounding a parent merits the death penalty. How much more would murdering a parent demand the death penalty? Skip down to verse 17 of Exodus 21: "And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." Now the word "curse" here literally refers to despise and to treat lightly and to hold in contempt and to slight and to count them as mere trifling. In other words, it is to treat your parents as being despicable. Look, if you would please, in the book of Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 9. Leviticus 20 and verse 9. Leviticus 20 and verse 9, God says, "For everyone that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother;

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• his blood shall be upon him." Now the word "curse" there is the same as in Exodus 21 and verse 17. Look if you would in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 27 and verse 16. Deuteronomy 27 and verse 16. Deuteronomy 27 and verse 16. Look what God says, Deuteronomy 27 verse 16: "Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen." Now in this instance, the Hebrew word means to curse, to set light by, to undervalue, and despise. It speaks rather of an unspoken loathing or disdaining or an attitude of contempt toward the father and the mother. John Gill said this upon this verse, listen carefully.

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• He said, "This, that secretly despises them in his heart and by looks, gestures, mocks them in a private manner, unseen by others. For if he publicly cursed them, that was cognizable by the civil magistrate, and he was to be put to death. This follows next, as in order of the Ten Commands, to that which respects the fear and worship of God, honoring parents being next to the glorifying of God, the Father of all, and the people shall say, Amen, and applaud the righteous sentence."

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• Saying, "So let it be, so be it." The word "Amen" means verily, verily, truly, truly, so be it, so be it. So God says that we are not to lightly despise our parents. We're not to treat them with contempt. Look in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs 20 and verse 20. Proverbs 20 and verse 20. In this passage, Proverbs 20 and verse 20, the Bible says this: "Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness." Whoso curseth his father and his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Obviously bad attitudes are condemned by God. If you will look in Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 11, Proverbs 30 and verse 11, the Bible says, "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother." There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. Now, let me just give you something else to think about in light of cursing our parents. If we fail to bless them, we're cursing them.

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• Cursing and blessing are opposites. So he who is not grateful and he who is not thankful and who is not willing to bless his parents is in essence cursing his parents. So obviously, any attitude that would bring us to loathing or contempt of our parents is condemned in Scripture. It's impossible to honor your father and your mother with an attitude that leads to contempt and despising them and treating them lightly.

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• Now, this brings me to the third point today, and I want to spend the rest of my time on this. Wow. It's not just obedience that is implied in honor, and it's not just being or having what you and I would call an attitude that leads to submissiveness and obedience. In order to understand really and truly what it means to honor our parents, we have to also understand that God requires us to provide for them in their old age when they're unable to provide for themselves. I want you to turn to two passages, Matthew 15 and Mark chapter 7. In order to understand everything that we have just read from the Old Testament, I want you to see how our Lord applies this in the New Testament. We'll read Matthew 15 first, and then we'll turn right over to Mark chapter 7. So look if you would please at Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15 and let's begin reading at verse one. I will explain the passage but look at it. Matthew 15 verse 1: "Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

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• For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death." So our Lord is actually reinforcing everything that we just read in the Old Testament. "But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Now you want to know what He's talking about? Turn over

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• to the book of Mark chapter 7 and let's begin reading there with verse 5 and we'll read through verse 13. Mark 7, verse 5: "Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, Why walk not Thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

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• Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And He said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye."

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• Now the point being in both passages: failure to honor your parents is essentially cursing them and not only merits the death penalty, but He is also pointing out that failing to take care of them and help them is the same as cursing them. Now according to the tradition of the Jews, here is a young man who's quite wealthy, quite well off. But he has elderly parents. Maybe they're sickly. Maybe they're unable to work and they're without—they need food. They need clothing. They need help. And here he is with a lot of wealth and a lot of money. All he has to do is say the word "Corban." "Corban." The word "Corban" means a gift or dedicated. So he is saying now that he's taken his wealth, he's taken his money, and he has dedicated it to God. And so the question would be in his mind, "How then could I use something that has been dedicated to God for such a mundane purpose as feeding my elderly parents or buying them medicine or helping them with their clothes or helping them

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• in any way because this has been dedicated to God?" Now, that did not stop him from using it for other purposes or for himself. He just could not use it for his parents because toward them, it's been dedicated toward God. Let me give you a quote just so you can see that what I just told you is in line with what history has been saying. This is one of the eclectic notes. It says this: "The meaning is that a man had only to pronounce this word over anything, setting it aside to a divine use in order to escape the obligation of giving it for the relief or comfort of his parents. Even when said in good faith, this contravenes the divine law since the duty to the parent takes precedence over the obligation to make offerings. The choice in such cases is not between God and man, but between two ways of serving God, the one formal and the other real." Listen now, "Offerings belong to the formal side of worship, whereas God is really served and worshiped in our human duties and affections."

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• Wow. So, it's not the fact that you could say, "Well, this is dedicated to God, I'm going to give this as an offering." No, that may be a formal act of worship but God is more honored when we in reality and truth do that which He commands us to do. So, the importance of both passages here indicate that honoring our parents means more than saying, "Yes, ma'am," and "No, ma'am," "No, sir," and "Yes, sir." It means that we help them in their old age, we support them, we take care of them when they are unable to take care of themselves.

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• Now, when you stop and think about this, you have to look at other scriptures as well. For instance, if you will turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter 5, and I want you to look at verses 3 and 4. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and look if you would please at verses 3 and 4. 1 Timothy 5, look at verse 3: God says, "Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God." Now, let's look at this just for a moment. He said that we need to learn to show piety at home. The word "piety" actually means godliness. So we need to learn to show godliness at home. Piety begins in the home. Godliness begins in the home. Godliness does something. It requites parents. Look at it: "But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents."

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• Let me tell you what the word "requite" means. It means to pay back. Godliness at home means that you learn to pay back your parents. Now, what does that mean? It means that your parents fed you when you could not feed yourself. They clothed you when you could not clothe yourself. They doctored you when you could not doctor yourself. They educated you when you could not educate yourself. In fact, the truth of the matter is if it had not been for your parents, you would have died. You could do nothing by yourself as a little baby. Now, God says, when it comes to pass that your parents are unable to take care of themselves, now you can requite them. You can pay them back.

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• You can do for them what they did for you. They fed you. They clothed you. They took care of you. Now, you take care of them. It's just that simple.

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• Now, look if you would please at verse 3 again. He said, "Honor widows that are widows indeed. If any widow have children," what's the next phrase? "Or nephews." What God is saying is when it comes to family, it is not just the immediate family that is responsible for the elderly. It is even the extended family—nephews. I had an uncle that was elderly, he and his wife, and he loved horses. He had two horses and he would always call me.

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• He would say, "Son, my fence is down." I'd say, "Well, I'll be up and I'll fix the fence." Now he lived over an hour away, but Alice and I would go up and fix the fence. He'd call me and say, "Well, I've got a leak in my water line." "Well, I'll come up and take care of it for you." And I would. And when my aunt died and he was a widower, Alice and I took care of him, whatever he needed.

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• I helped him do legal work. I helped him do housework. I helped him do all kinds of work. And when he finally moved closer to us, he also moved where my daughter and son-in-law were about 100 yards from him. I looked at my daughter and son-in-law. I said, "Well, now Uncle Frank is your responsibility. You're close. You take care of him." And they did. They took care of him until he died. Of course, I still helped, but I would still go see him. But they took care of him until he died.

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• This is why I said, "If any have children or nephews." Now, look, if you would, in verse 16 of 1 Timothy chapter 5, because he repeats this again. He said, "If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them." That is, you take care of them, "and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed." Wow. You know, my mother died at 90. When my father died unexpectedly and suddenly, Alice and I had driven 12 hours one way for me to get to a preaching engagement.

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• And we did not have a cell phone at the time. And when I got there, the pastor said, "Your father has died. You need to go back home." I turned right around, drove 12 hours all the way back home again. Took care of my father, buried him. After that, I got a cell phone. My mother lived—I don't know how many years after my father died, nearly 20. But I called her every day. Every day and told her that I loved her. There may have been one or two days when I did not call her only because I had no cell phone reception when we were out west.

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• Those would have been the exception and not the rule. But every day, whether I was home or whether I was away, I would always call my mother. And when my father died, my sister, Alice, and I took care of my mother. When Alice's father died, then we took her mother and took care of her. She was with us 17 years. 14 of those years she lived right beside us. The last three of those years, she lived in our home. Now I'm going to show you a verse. I'm gonna let you know that God has some strong words for those who will not help their parents. Look in verse 8, he said, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he

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• hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." God says, if we will not take care of our own, we've denied the faith and we're worse than an infidel.

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• Now, let me make a statement. I want you to think about this. One of the problems that we have in this country is the fact that our states and the federal government have stolen God's honor and God's glory. Because it is not the state's responsibility to take care of the elderly, it's our responsibility. It's not the Fed's responsibility, it's our responsibility. And what has happened in this country is since the government has taken over the welfare of the elderly, the families are dissipating and dividing. When you stop and think that most people even 50 to 75, a hundred years ago, were born, lived, and died in the same house on the same property. And when someone got sickly or elderly and could not take care of themselves, they just moved in with a family member and the family took

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• care of them. That was the normal standard procedure up until probably the early 1900s. So I'm just simply saying, oftentimes we lose a blessing because we do not really apply the fifth commandment. Now honor is more than saying, "Yes, ma'am" and "No, ma'am" and "Yes, sir" and "No, sir." It not only involves obedience, it involves an attitude and a disposition of submission and a desire to honor. And it also involves taking care of our parents when they cannot take care of themselves.

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• Now, I want you to look back in your Bibles in Ephesians 6 and verse 1. I want you to see this. I want to emphasize something right here. Look in Ephesians 6 and verse 1. Ephesians 6 and verse 1: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." We've got that—that's righteous, that's just. But look in verse 2: "Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise." Here it is: "That it may be well with thee, that thou mayest live long upon the earth." So honoring our parents, it's not just a promise of long life. It is the promise of a blessed life—that it may be well with thee.

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• That is, things will be easy for you. Things will be light for you. Things will go well for you. Wow. Have you ever wondered why we have so many problems and we live such short lives? And the answer could be simply because we really and truly do not understand, do not apply, and do not obey the fifth commandment. We are in trouble in this country in

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• our families. The Marxists know, the socialists know, the fascists know, the liberals know, the leftists know: if you destroy the family, you've destroyed the country. The family is the basic unit, and when the family is destroyed, so is everything else. Now, let me make a couple of applications. The first one is this: those that truly honor their parents when they are young benefit greatly by listening, learning, and being taught as well as being guided by their parents. Do you remember that old adage we used to say, that "Children should be seen and not heard"? What does that mean? It means that children would sit in and listen to the conversations of the adults and their parents and were seen but they were not heard; they were there listening and learning.

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• Albert Barnes said this: "Obedience to parents is connected with virtuous habits that are conducive to long life. It will make a child industrious, temperate, sober. It will lead him to restrain and govern his wild passions. It will lead him to form habits of self-government which will in future life save him from the snares of vice and temptations." Here's a second one. One of the greatest heartaches of parents

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• is children that will not listen and will not obey. Most parents have a strong desire to save their children from the sins and failures and temptations that they endured. But unhappily, sometimes children will not listen. And you've probably heard me say this because I've said it hundreds of times. The two hardest lessons I ever learned in 54 years of preaching are these: number one, you can't help everybody. And number two, sometimes those you can't help are your own family and your own friends. So children could be blessed by listening and obeying. And of course, the heartache of parents is when children will not listen and obey. Obedient children that honor their parents not only extend their lives, but also I think make the lives of their parents more enjoyable as well, because it is a joy to a parent to have an obedient child and a child that honors them as well.

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• When our Lord says in Ephesians 6 and verse 3, "that it may be well with thee," He's teaching us that this present life is not to be overlooked in the gifts of God. The very fact that God enables us to enjoy life is His gift and it's from His grace and His mercy. Now let me tell you something. I realize probably most in here, our parents are dead. One or two may not be, but most of all they are. But I would say this: if your parents are still alive, and even one of them, tell that parent how much you love them and appreciate them and how you're thankful for your life and training and everything else that they gave you and taught you.

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• And I'll be honest with you. I don't care if your parent is deaf or in a coma or has dementia or has Alzheimer's. Doesn't matter. Tell them anyhow. I have done studies and read: when a person is dying, they say the last thing to go is the hearing. They may not be able to respond, but they hear. And I have read of individuals who have been in comas for years and they come out of the coma and they say

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• that they heard everything that was going on. They were just unable to respond. And I would just simply tell you, I don't care the state of my parent. I would tell them how much I love them and appreciate them. And I would make sure that they knew, whether they understand or not, you would know that you told them that. My sister had my mother at her house when she was dying. And Barbara called me and said, "I don't think mother has too much longer to live." Now, my sister is a retired registered nurse. So I figured she pretty well knew what she was talking about. And so I called my girls and we got all the girls together and we went over to see mother.

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• And helped her sit up on the side of the bed and she was able to talk to us. She knew who I was, she knew who Alice was, she knew all the girls were. And after we visited for a little while, she looked at me and she said, "I'm tired." And I said, "Well, let me help you lie down." And so I caught her by the shoulders and I moved her legs back up on the bed and I gently laid her back on her pillow. And as I did, I looked her in the eyes and I said, "I love you, mother." And she responded, "I love you, son."

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• And then she went to sleep and never woke up. And it's always been a real blessing to me that the last words I said to my mother was, "I love you." The last word she said to me was, "I love you." So all I'm trying to say is this: I don't care what condition the parent is in, if they're alive, tell them you love them. Tell them that you appreciate all that they've done for you all of your life. Honor thy father and thy mother,

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• which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And we ask that You help us, Lord, to obey Thee and honor Thee and honor our parents and do that which is right. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T23:43:05Z