The Christian Family: God's Directives to Children

The point: Be open to your parents' directives, seek to understand them, and carry them out to the best of your ability with every degree of intent.

Martin uses the clear example of a master giving specific instructions to his servant to define what 'obey' means: receiving and fully carrying out a superior's command.

Now that kind of obedience is more clear to us. So let's move from that which is clear to that which is not as clear. When the master calls his servant in, calls him by name, Henry, George, Pete, Elijah, whatever his name may be, he says, Now here is my will for you. This morning I want you to do this, this, this, and this.

5:50 - 6:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn to obey your mom and daddy not because you understand every reason, but simply because God tells you to obey them, and it's right.

Martin recounts his own children asking 'why' when given a directive, and his response that 'daddy has required it' is reason enough, illustrating the principle of obedience based on authority, not full understanding.

So often when I've given a directive to my children, or not so often, they know better than that, but from time to time, they'll say, but daddy, why? And I say, you need have no other reason than that daddy has required it. That's all. Do you believe your daddy has your good at heart?

12:26 - 12:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Administer rules based upon God's holy word, not your own notions or whims, and make this known to your children.

Martin shares how his children, through training, understood and even 'invited' spankings for disobedience, recognizing it as God's discipline administered through their parents, demonstrating the concept of parental authority as God's representative.

To give directions to my children. And you make that known to your children as they grow up. Time after time, as we'll touch briefly tomorrow night in the discipline of children, my children have invited their own spankings. You say, are they crazy?

19:36 - 19:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Girls, dress modestly and avoid drawing second glances from men; if your parents haven't told you, dressing provocatively is sinning against God.

Martin uses the example of mothers teaching daughters about modest dress to prevent being a 'provocation of lust,' illustrating how parents give biblical directives to protect their children and honor God.

No, because he knows it's not his Daddy giving him a spanking because his Daddy's a bit bigger and a bit stronger, but because his Daddy is the representative of the God of Heaven to lay the rod upon his backside. So that's extreme. That's biblical. When you mothers sit down with your daughter when she comes to puberty, and you tell her what makes a woman tick and what makes a man tick, why she ought to be modest in her clothes, you tell her what makes a woman tick and what makes a man tick, why she ought to be modest in her clothes, you tell her what turns a man on.

20:43 - 21:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Realize that failure to obey your mom and dad is a great sin of wickedness.

Martin compares the sin of stealing from a neighbor to disobedience to parents, arguing that God regards parental disobedience as an even greater wickedness, to emphasize its severity.

Let me put it this way. How many of you kids would be tempted to break into your neighbor's house some night when they were away on vacation and steal something from their living room? How would you feel if you got caught in that sin? You'd say, oh, preacher, that was a grave wickedness.

23:36 - 23:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, turn away from your sins, and flee to Christ to receive a new heart and the desire and power to obey and honor your parents.

Martin tells the story of a Quaker girl who, though externally sitting, internally 'stood,' to illustrate that 'honor' goes beyond mere outward obedience to include the heart's disposition.

honor thy father and thy mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth now what does the word honor mean well you see the word honor goes beyond obedience let me give you a little illustration I think this is supposed to be true story you know the Quakers talked in the old English language old Elizabethan English and one time in a meeting you know Quaker meeting has begun and everything is to be silent and the little Quaker girl kept standing up in the pew and the mother pulled her down stand up and pull her down and fin...

30:17 - 31:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Unconverted men, allow the Holy Spirit to grip your conscience and give you no rest until you come to true repentance and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ.

Martin uses the metaphor of an eagle's talons sinking deeper into a struggling rodent to describe how the Holy Spirit's conviction, through God's Word, grips the conscience of the unconverted, giving no rest until repentance.

you're not going to be able to escape what you've heard because the Holy Ghost has taken the word and like those claws of an eagle he's put his talons in your conscience you know what happens to that little rat that little rodent when the eagle swoops down and puts his talons in it the more it struggles the deeper the talons sink into its flesh oh may the holy talons of God sink into the conscience of every unconverted man in this place give you no rest until you come out of the darkness of your sham and hypocrisy into the light of true repentance and embrace the Lord

34:35 - 35:20 Read in full sermon