Four God-Intended Purposes

Driving home: My dad knows God. I swiftly slipped away from my place of eavesdropping, and with tears running down my cheeks, I dropped on my knees in my room and prayed earnestly and gratefully, Oh God, I pray that my boy will always…

Martin reads a poem and its accompanying anecdote about a son bragging that 'My dad knows God,' illustrating what a real, transparent spiritual climate in a home looks like, beyond mere talk or church attendance.

we began last week to consider the first of the two major means ordained of God for the nurture of our children, namely chastening and admonition. And just recently, just by way of a little buttressing of the emphasis given on this matter of the overall climate of our homes, I thought I would read to you something that was put in my letter file, unsigned, I believe. I don't think I know who sent it to me. But when we talk about a spiritual climate in our home that's real, we're talking about something expressed by the author of this poem and then the comments which give us,

1:49 - 2:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains his decision to add a new point on the God-intended function of chastisement before discussing common failures. He emphasizes that understanding God's purposes…

Martin mentions finding confirmation for his thoughts on common failures in chastisement in Richard Baxter's 'A Christian Directory,' showing that these issues are not new.

in the use of physical chastisement. Having established the absolute necessity of chastisement, the God-like character of chastisement, we were then to consider the common failures in the use of physical chastisement. And as I said, when I began my final preparation for that study yesterday afternoon, I found myself again and again, as I was flowering out the various seven common failures, which, by the way, I found most of them confirmed in Baxter's directory as I was home last Lord's Day evening, not able to be with you, and was reading in Baxter's directory

8:51 - 9:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach children that certain objects are forbidden because you have expressed your will, and they are to be subject to it, with spanking for willful disobedience.

He uses the example of the stubborn and rebellious son in Deuteronomy 21 to illustrate that even a 'strong-willed child' was not sent to a psychiatrist but was subjected to chastening, highlighting the severity of God's view on rebellion.

So shall you put away the evil from the midst of thee, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Aren't you thankful we don't live under the old covenant? Some of us would have been dead. But now the point for our study this morning is that in this passage it is very clear that in what would be called today in the experts' books a strong-willed child, he wasn't sent to a psychiatrist.

19:47 - 20:16 Read in full sermon

The point: The child's will must be conquered, not obliterated, by firm, patient, consistent correction, making it submissive to the parents' word based on God-given authority.

Martin reads a quote from John Brown's commentary on Hebrews 12, which eloquently explains that submission to God's chastisement means having 'no will but his,' drawing a parallel with submission to earthly parents.

We gave them that proper response of submission by means of chastening. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? There is a marvelous commentary on this passage in John Brown's commentary on Hebrews. And I want to read just this passage.

28:16 - 28:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Faithfully apply the rod of correction to prevent your children from manifesting sinful folly and to be a powerful instrument in the salvation of their souls.

Martin recounts a story of a frustrated father who, after repeated spankings for a child's willful defiance, resorted to putting the child in a cold shower, illustrating the intensity of the battle for submission and the father's desperate attempt to drive out foolishness.

I'm going to do what God has told me to do. So I'm going to glad to see God once again in our hearts and compliance. It would be over the most piddling little issue where that kid would plant his flag and say, I will not allow one will in this home. There's going to be two. And I mean

49:43 - 50:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Under God, give to the next generation men and women who have known the four-fold imprint of physical chastisement upon their characters.

Martin expresses anger at a Rutgers professor who wrote a book claiming the rod is the 'father of all ills of our society,' using this as an example of the 'so-called experts' who contradict biblical truth.

the fruit of the lack of the rod. And it makes me angry, and I've been able to say in praying through Psalm 139 recently, do not I hate them that hate thee, O Lord, with perfect hatred. I have, I trust, a godly hatred for the likes of that professor at Rutgers who's written his book that I found out from one of our gals is a textbook in a class. He is having at the college graduate level right now. Don't be swept

56:25 - 57:00 Read in full sermon