The Who, What & How of Education, Part 1

Introduction: The Profound Importance of Education

0:03 Now you need not turn to these texts, since I will not be expounding them, but I have a method in my madness for reading them. The first is Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, the last chapter of the Old Testament, in which God through the prophet says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Then in Luke chapter 1, in conjunction with the birth of John the Baptist, we read, And he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him. The date was October 8th. 1879.

1:28 The place was Danville, Virginia.

1:34 The congregation was composed of pastors and elders who constituted what is called the Synod of Virginia of the Southern Presbyterian Church. The preacher on that occasion was R.L. Dabney, the renowned theologian, seminary professor, and champion of what is called the Southern Presbyterian Church.

1:58 The Lecture jokes on gutenberg Based on the period in your hearing was parental responsibilities and after setting for a compelling biblical case for the responsibilities that God has laid upon responsibility particularly manifested in the issue of the education of their children the seas his message to a conclusion, what the rhetoricians would call his peroration, where he was seeking to bring home into the consciences of his hearers the moral and ethical demands of his exposition, Dabney spoke the following words, and I quote, Seeing the parental relation is what the Scriptures describe it, and seeing Satan has perverted it since the fall for the diffusion and multiplication of depravity and eternal death, the education of children for God is the most important business done on earth.

3:16 The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. Do it. All.

3:30 All politics, all war, all literature, all money-making ought to be subordinated, and that next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God. This is his task on earth. On the right, training of the generation now arising turns not only the individual salvation of each member in it. And not only.

4:00 religious hope of the age which is approaching, but the fate of all future generations in a large degree. Train up him who is now but a boy for Christ, and you not only sanctify that soul, but you set on foot the best earthly agencies to redeem the whole broadening stream of human beings which shall proceed from that boy down to the time when men cease to marry and are given in marriage. Until then, the work of education is never ending. The generation which is trained for heaven is the one that dies, and the one that is born in its place in enmity and under the curse. Thus the task of training is ever renewed. Until the final consummation shall make the race equal to the angels of heaven." This was Dabney's persuasion rooted in his exposition of the Word of God, that among all of the duties and all of the privileges laid upon us as the people of God, the education of children for God is the most important business done.

Trinity Christian School's Context and Support

5:25 Now, it was similar convictions that caused a number of like-minded fathers and mothers in this congregation a number of years ago to implement their biblical convictions concerning the education of their children by establishing in the fall of 1986 an educational enterprise called Trinity Church. The enterprise was built on the premises of this Church building, with some 40 children and a full-time staff of four . The enterprise is now an enterprise with approximately 20 staff members and a budget in the coming year for a total size of $650,000. Dabney's presentation was recorded in honor of the first Baptist Church establishment. The name of the university was T.A.E.

6:26 who, based in the early 1970's, was the original name of the church, but they were the first members of the church. The first members of the church were named as Reb. and the first name was Robot, and the name of the church was Reb. The name of the church was Robot, and the name of the church was Robot, and the name of the brother was Reb.

6:26 Now, while Trinity Christian School was from its inception and remains to this day an entity separate from the church, both administratively and financially, being governed by a board of directors, all of whom are members in good standing of this church, there is nonetheless, in the face of this separation, financially administratively, a multi-leveled, constant interaction between the school and the church. And there are two very tangible ways in which we as church demonstrate our corporate support of this educational enterprise called Trinity Christian School. Number one, by making a large proportion of our church facilities accessible. It's available to the school for its day-by-day operations throughout the school year. If you come here during the school year, you will find the place crawling with students. Almost all the parts of the building, one section down this end, is given to other things.

7:34 But during the school year, a good proportion, a large proportion of the church facilities are made available to the school. And secondly, we show our corporate commitment and sympathy with this endeavor by demonstrating our corporate commitment to the church. And secondly, we show our corporate commitment and sympathy with this endeavor by demonstrating our corporate commitment to the church. We are designating a special offering once a year to be given in its entirety to the Trinity Christian School, the purpose of which is to make this educational enterprise more accessible to others who would otherwise not be able to use it because of the financial burden that it would impose upon them.

8:07 And ever since the elders instituted this annual benevolence offering for the school, I have sought to prepare the congregation, in mind and heart, for that offering by preaching one or two messages on the Lord's Day prior to the offering, focusing either on biblical principles of benevolence, how our consciences should be guided with respect to giving to specific needs, or I have sought to address from the Scriptures aspects of this great task that Dabney identifies as the most important business done on earth. The education of children for God. Now when I do this each year, and that includes this year, I do not do this as a PR man for Trinity Christian School seeking to advance the cause. And I don't do it as a high-pressure fundraiser seeking to fill up the coffers. I gladly do this as a pastor committed to preaching the whole counsel of God and welcoming this opportunity to the church. I do this as a pastor committed to preaching the whole counsel of God and welcoming this opportunity at least once a year to identify some biblical aspects of this doctrine of benevolence and to underscore the tremendously important issue of educating the rising generation for God.

9:33 And all of this is with an end that when we gather, God willing, next Lord's Day, and if we enter in and partake of this benevolence offering, the spirit of 2 Corinthians 9-7, will be true of each of us. Let each man do as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly nor of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And this is why we announce him in advance. We state as I did this morning, if you cannot with joy enter in with no sense of coercion, withhold your gifts, give them in the regular offering on the subsequent Lord's Day, and they will go to the general support and operation of the ministries of the church.

Defining 'What' Education Is: Dabney's Framework

10:15 Well, that's a little bit of history that takes us back 106 years to Mr. Dabney, and a little bit of history that takes us back some 16 years when this school began. And what I want to do this morning is to preach to you this morning and this evening on this subject, the what, the who, and the how of educating the rising generation. The what, the who, and the how of educating the rising generation.

10:45 educating the rising generation. If Dabney's words are even half true, that the education of children for God is the most important business done on earth, then surely to ask the question, what is education? Who is responsible to impart that education? And how should that education be administered?

11:12 Are vital and crucial questions that each of us ought to ask whether or not we are presently a parent, whether we ever hope to be parents, in terms of the great concern of the kingdom of God, if there is no more important business on earth, then surely each of us, in his or her respective sphere of other stewardships, ought to be intelligently informed, informed with respect to the what, the who, and the how of educating the rising generation. So we begin this morning with what is the task of educating the rising generation.

11:56 We're going to deal, first of all, with the what of educating the rising generation. Now the term education is one of the buzzwords of our generation. The words, you must get a good education, and become a college student, is a kind of a national mantra. And I did look it up in the dictionary.

12:16 Some people sound more sophisticated and say mantra, the A with the two dubs, like father. But it's listed second, so I'm going to sound rather unsophisticated and call it a mantra. It's become a kind of national mantra, all the way from the president and his wife, down to some mega-buck, spoiled brat, self-centered athlete, you've got to get you a good education. That's the national mantra.

12:42 Or mantra, if you want to sound more sophisticated. You must get a good education. But nobody seems to be asking the question, what is this education that I ought to get? What is this education that I ought to pursue?

13:00 What is education? More particularly, what ought we as Christians to think in answer to the question, what is the educational mandate, mandate for the rising generation? Well, in a masterful essay entitled Secularized Education, this same R.L. Datney, in volume three of his discussions, argues that we will not think correctly concerning the task of education until we first of all define what education is or ought to be. What is this thing that you ought to get? If you tell me, pastor, you ought to go down to ShopRite and get you a good beef roast. Well, I go and I look down, well, I want a round roast, do I want a tip roast, what kind of roast?

13:54 I know what I'm looking for. Well, we ought to get you a good education. Well, what is this thing I'm supposed to get? What's it look like?

14:00 How will I know if I've got it? How will I know to educate, to instruct people as to what this thing is? Well, in that profound essay, Datney gives a very simple but profound definition of what education is when we're thinking biblically. And this is his simple yet profound definition.

14:24 Education, here I quote him, is the nurture and development of the whole man for his proper end. Now, if he were writing that in our day, he'd have to be a little more politically correct and write it this way. Education is the nurture and development of the whole person for his proper end. For his or her proper end.

14:48 Now, think for a minute. What is education? Datney answers and says this. Education is the nurture and development of the whole boy or girl, the whole person, for his or her proper end.

15:07 And in that definition, you see, Datney is assuming that there must be a distinct goal in view. That which he calls the proper end, the right end. And without thinking through what the end product is, what is it we are seeking to form and to develop by this thing we call education, we don't have a grasp on the whole issue of education. Furthermore, he asserts in that definition that we must be concerned with the nurture and development of every facet of the child's being, which, when nurtured and developed, will lead to the realization of the proper end for which that child exists. Education is the nurture and development of the whole person for his or her proper end. It is far more than giving a skill with some utility in this area or that area. It is far more than the acquisition of some unrelated facts, that will help a person to cope in the real world.

The Christian Parent's Educational Goal: A Holistic Vision

16:17 Education is the nurture and development of the whole man, the whole boy, the whole girl, the whole person, for his or her proper end. Now, with Datney's definition as the framework, when a Christian parent ponders his child, and what he sees in his Bible as his parental duty, and he's wrestling with the question, what is my son's proper end? What is my daughter's proper end? And when he ponders further the question, what in that son or daughter needs to be nurtured and developed that he or she might fill his or her proper end? I suggest that any parent thinking biblically will come up with something like the following as his understanding of the scriptural mandate for the education of his child. Here it is. I claim no inspiration, but I do believe I can demonstrate a sensitivity to the scriptures as I give you an expanded definition of education.

17:36 The educational enterprise of the Christian parent is this, that the child may come to responsible, independent adulthood, regenerated by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, united to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, love, and obedience, and equipped physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually to take his or her place in Christ's church and in God's world, with a passion to live to God's glory and for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the full exercise of every God-given gift and capacity. That's his proper end. Hey kids, listen to me. That's what you're in this world for.

18:40 That's the vision that will grip the heart of a biblically informed parent who wants to educate his child, who wants to nourish and develop that child to his proper end. What is the end product? What does it look like? What is all of the effort and endeavor and all of the money and time and cooperation without?

19:08 What's it all leading to? Here is the vision, the burden, the goal, that that child, when coming to what I'm calling responsible, independent adulthood, whether married or unmarried, still living under the roof or not, responsible, independent adulthood, able to function on his or her own. Now then, here's the goal. That the child may come to responsible, independent adulthood, regenerated by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, united to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, love, and obedience.

19:47 That's the first passion of the educational goal. Surely, this is the most fundamental part of the educational goal. That this child will, by the sovereign work of God, be regenerated without which he or she cannot see, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. No Christian parent prays to be a parent to populate hell.

20:13 But that's what we'll do if our children are not regenerated. We'll populate hell. To put it bluntly, we'll populate hell. And no Christian parent prays for a fruitful womb to populate hell.

20:30 And while it is God's sovereign work to regenerate and unite our children to Christ, it is nonetheless the goal of the whole educational framework and endeavor, which begins when that little one is on your breast. And even before it exits the womb. When you're conscious that life has been implanted in the womb, Christian parents begin already to pray, O God, whatever you are giving, grant that your Spirit may sovereignly work in this little one. That he or she may come to know you, and love your son, and serve your son.

21:11 Above all else, the passion of a Christian parent, informed by the Scriptures, is that that child may come to responsible, independent adulthood as one regenerated by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, united to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, love, and obedience. And long before there is any formal structure of the school, whether it's homeschooling, long before you send off for your first batch of homeschooling curriculum, long before you enroll them in Trinity School preschool program, this is part of the educational goal and passion to this end. You instruct that little one by example and precept in all the elementary realities of biblical perspective, that they are God's creature, made to know God, made to glorify God, made to obey God, made to pray to God. You teach them the elements of repentance and faith, as you put the words of repentance and confession for sin in their mouths, and you teach them to say, I was wrong, will you forgive me? And the whole context of the home is a nurturing context with explicit and inferential instruction,

22:35 all calculated to what end? That they might be the subjects of God's sovereign work of regeneration, uniting them to Christ in faith, love and obedience. And that passion that fills the heart of the well-instructed, spiritually healthy parent is the passion that is shared and must continue to be shared. Listen to me, board members and teachers in Trinity Christian School, that passion must be fundamental to all others.

Holistic Development Modeled by Christ

23:11 And while the school is not primarily an extended evangelistic campaign, children must never, never, never assume that all is well, because they can spout the words, and because they feel comfortable with the restraints that are strangers to a new birth, and to a saving sight of Christ that is so ravished them, that they can say that Paul, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But that's not enough. I go on to say, that the child may come to responsible, independent adulthood, regenerated by the sovereign work of the Spirit, united to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, love and obedience, and equipped physically, mentally, socially and spiritually, to take his or her place in Christ's church and in God's world. You see, with new birth and union with Christ in faith, love and obedience, mental, social, physical maturity do not automatically come. Nor do those aspects of development need to wait

24:33 until we have truth positive that there is a regenerating work of the Spirit and vital union with Christ. You see, our Lord Jesus needed no regenerating work of the Spirit. He needed to be empowered by the Spirit, for his messianic task. That's why he's called the Anointed One.

24:55 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach, etc. Isaiah 61. But you see, our Lord Jesus did not come automatically to his independent, responsible adulthood, fully furnished physically, mentally, socially and spiritually, by an external, divine, divine deposit upon him, or by giving himself over to the internal capacities that were his as the Son of God. You follow me?

25:33 My Bible says in Luke 2 and verse 52 concerning my Lord, that as a young man going back down to the city of Nazareth, Luke chapter 2 and verse 52, and Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Verse 51, He went down with them, came to Nazareth, was subject unto them. His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Jesus advanced in wisdom.

26:10 He grew in all that the Bible means by the word wisdom. In intellectual acumen, in the acquisition of knowledge, by observation of human nature, and human interaction, by the acquisition of facts that are necessary to go into the hopper, if one is to draw right conclusions. All that is involved in growing in wisdom, Jesus advanced in wisdom. He advanced in stature.

26:42 He was out in the carpenter shop with his father, his earthly father, Joseph. He was out developing himself. He wasn't sitting in front of the TV, pushing buttons, and eating McDonald's Big Macs, and joining the growing epidemic of childhood obesity and cardiovascular problems. He grew in stature.

27:11 Read the physical exertions of our Lord, preaching day and night, week in, week out. I know what I feel like at the end of one day after preaching two hours in this place. And I'm on the treadmill, 20 times a week, pumping iron a couple times a week. He grew in stature.

27:33 He came to his task physically fit, not by divine deposit dropped out of heaven, but by the disciplines of his education. He grew socially, favored with God and men. He acquired the skills to move in one setting to another with ease. He could make religious fakes squirm with his penetrating insight.

28:04 He could make outcast lepers and harlots feel comfortable with his gracious inviting grace. He didn't get that all at once when the Spirit came upon him in Jordan's waters. He got that in the period of his education, acquiring social skills. And he grew in favor, with God.

28:28 How can God grow in God's favor? I can't explain it, but I can read it. My Bible says he advanced in favor with God. There was spiritual development.

28:44 There was spiritual maturation. And that without sin. How much more then in our children, who have in virtue of what we've passed on to them in our solidarity with Adam, propensities to social boorishness, and selfishness, and crass insensitivity to others? How much more when we have passed on a sinful nature that has a twisted mind, and has inherent in the very texture of its gray matter tendencies to extremes and to laziness?

29:20 How much more is there needed mental discipline if there's to be true education, social training and discipline, physical discipline, and training? And so I say, if we have a biblically framed goal of the proper end of the child, it is that that child may not only come to responsible, independent adulthood, regenerated by the sovereign work of the Spirit, united to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, love and obedience, but equipped physically, mentally, socially and spiritually, to do what? To take his or her place, first of all, in Christ's church. To take his or her place in Christ's church. We do not believe that any child has a birthright into the church. Here we part with many of our esteemed Presbyterian brethren who say that a child's right of inclusion in the covenant community, i.e. the church,

30:25 is rooted in his bloodlines. We say, no! It is rooted only in God's grace and in personal attachment to Jesus Christ in faith, in love and in obedience. And the goal of the education process is that as God is pleased so to work in them and as pleased to bless our efforts in their broad spectrum maturation and development, that they will eventually, by their own voluntary confession of Christ, in the ordinance of baptism, then come into the fellowship of His church, recognizing whatever their calling in life may be, it is in the church that God's ordained to take them safely to heaven and to make them useful along the way. They will see the church as that divinely ordained framework within which they are to glorify God and to fulfill His will, but to take their place not only in Christ's church but in God's world, not forming some kind of a Christian ghetto, insulate themselves from that dirty world and those out there, but recognizing all that they've received is to the end, that they as debtors to Jew and Greek, to rich and poor,

31:53 bond and free, that they might be instruments as light and salt in a crooked and perverse generation, that they may be used for what? To live to God's glory and for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the full exercise of every God-given gift and capacity. Now I ask you, my parents, which one of those strands would you cut out and still be able to hold your Bible and say, I have biblically framed educational goals for my children? Which one would you cut out?

32:37 I ask you, which one would you cut out? I hope you're saying none of them. None of them. And I answer, I don't see how you can, if you're thinking biblically.

The Comprehensive Nature of the Task and Cosmic Warfare

32:48 Now if this is so, and I want to say this by way of application before we move on to the who, do you see how comprehensive is the proper end? If education is the nurture and development of the whole person for his proper end, do you see? Why, as Christian parents, we live with Paul's consciousness, who is sufficient for these things? We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves.

33:26 There will be a deep sense, who is sufficient for these things? Furthermore, we will not only see our utter insufficiency for the task, but it will then drive us to seek the blessing of Almighty God upon that task. There will be no sense that if I catechize them, and if I have family worship, and if I put them in Christian school, or if I homeschool them, the end product must come to pass. No matter.

33:58 For in this enterprise, to which we have committed ourselves, we are engaged in cosmic warfare. They are born by nature children of the devil. And Ephesians 2 is true of our children. They are dead.

34:15 Born dead. Lest to themselves they will walk according to the course of this age, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now is at work in the sons of disobedience. They are born with a carnal mind. It is enmity against God.

34:32 It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. You want living proof of that? Some of you kids sitting here, you'd love it if the parents, God has given you, had no higher ambition than to see you develop physically, mentally, and socially to make it big in this world.

34:54 And it's a burr in your saddle that they want to see you born of the Spirit and enamored with Jesus Christ. It calls you no end. Why are they everlastingly praying for me at family worship? God, work in John.

35:14 Work in Mary. Lord, bring them to Yourself. Lord, it irritates you no end that your parents want to see you born of the Spirit of God. It irritates you no end that this old man stands in the pulpit and gets in your kitchen and into your conscience and presses you with the fact that, as I said this morning, some of you are bored stiff in this place.

35:41 Why? Because you want to go to hell so bad. You hate anybody that stands in your way. And that's all we're doing.

35:48 Standing in your way, pleading with you, intriguing you to recognize that with your parents in yearning for your salvation, we love you more than anyone out there that's enticing you to go lockstep with them down into the pit. Children, we can't have any less vision of what it means to educate you. And I say to you parents, you don't hold back on any facet of this because God alone can regenerate them. The Spirit of God alone can savingly reveal Christ.

36:28 I'm so thankful that long before Christ became the pearl of great price to me, I had a mother who followed me into the corner when I was scrubbing the floor saying, son, wrap the cloth around your finger and dig the dirt out of the corner of the Lord. She sees the corner as well as the middle of the floor. So glad I had a mother and a father dealing with my consciousness of right and wrong and duty and responsibility and the honor and dignity of human relationships. And I had a Miss Reynolds pounding into me English grammar long before those were matters of conviction before the face of God. So then, when God was pleased to regenerate me and make Christ precious to me, a lot of that scaffolding was already in place and how I thank God for it. My mother tells me, son, it used to grieve me when I knew that football was your God. You got excited about football.

37:35 You talked about football. You spent your energy in football. And I didn't see you excited about the Lord Jesus. And it grieved me.

37:42 I wanted to see you excited about Jesus. But I knew I was going to be excited about something. And a boy's heart is going to be excited about something. Far better to be excited about football than standing down at the corner with the guys telling the latest dirty jokes.

37:56 So she encouraged me in my football. Knowing that the discipline of being out there in the August sun in the hot, humid weather in Connecticut was teaching me disciplines that later on would help me when God got hold of me and when Christ became more precious than four pieces of leather sewed together. You see, parents, you don't opt out and say, well, until the Lord saves them. No, no, no.

38:21 Your task is this holistic task. And you're working at it on all fronts all the time until such time as they leave the roof. That's the what of education. Now, let me ask you.

Defining 'Who' Is Responsible: Family, State, or Church?

38:36 You think that's in the mind when they say, well, you've got to get you an education. That is far removed from the American cultural mantra, mantra, mantra, both. That's night from day. But that ought to be the vision that grips our hearts.

38:55 But now we come, secondly, to the who. Who is responsible for the education of the rising generation? And again, it's an issue. It's not being talked about in the public theater, and it must be.

39:09 And you as a Christian parent must think this issue through. And I predict if the Lord delays His coming and doesn't visit our nation with a sweeping revival, this issue will be forced upon unthinking evangelical Christians in the not too distant future. According to the Scriptures, God has established three major spheres or institutions to which He has committed delegated authority. You know what those spheres are?

39:40 The family, parental authority. The state, civil authority. And the church, ecclesiastical authority. Those are three institutions establishments, three spheres to which God has given delegated authority.

40:01 Family, state, church. Each of them is directly accountable to Christ who possesses all authority in heaven and upon earth. None of them is to intrude upon the authority of the others. What some call sphere sovereignty.

40:20 The state is not to usurp the authority Christ has given to the church. The church is not to intrude into the authority Christ has given to the state. Now the church can take its documents and say to the state, this is what you ought to do and ought to be in answer to God. The church can call the state to face its sins.

40:45 But the church has no authority to step into the realm of the state's authority and make rules that the state is then forced to implement in obedience to the church. And likewise with the family, these are three separate sphere sovereign institutions that God has established. Now then, when we ask the question, to which of these has God given or assigned the task of educating the rising generation? Now what's the answer of the average American if he's even thought about it at all?

The State's Lack of Mandate for Education

41:25 His answer is, oh, obviously, that's given to the state. And I answer a resounding no! God has not given to the state the responsibility nor the right to educate the rising generation. Contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy in our country, the federal, state, and local government has no divine mandate for the general order of the education of the children of its citizenry.

41:58 In spite of the constantly repeated words, the federal government ought to! The state government ought to! And then some educational writer comes along. In spite of the money extorted from me by my local property taxes, about half of which supports the local public schools, they have no right to do that.

42:22 I have no right not to withhold the taxes, you give taxes to whom it is due. But they have no moral right to extort that money from me, to pay for an educational system that is antithetical to everything I'd die for. I'm supporting little girls being told that there's no essential difference between them and boys but primary biological differences. Multicultural textbooks, evolution taught as fact.

42:54 Twenty-eight hundred dollars a year supporting that stuff. And eventually it's your money because I get paid and my salary comes out of what you put in the plate. I hope you feel robbed. It's extortion.

43:10 It's extortion. It's a form of extortion. I've got no problem calling it that. It's a form of extortion.

43:16 And the whole idea, well we need more federal funding for this, all of this assumes that the state has a divine mandate for the education of the rising generation. And I say no. The primary function of the state is to secure secular justice and social stability. The safety of its citizenry.

43:37 Read Romans 13 verses 1 to 7. The powers that be are ordained of God. And what are the powers there for? To reward the good and to punish the evil.

43:48 To maintain social justice and stability. What we are to pray for. 1 Timothy 2, 1 and following. We're to pray for kings, rulers, those in authority.

43:58 To what end? That they may become the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow out of which all of our needs are met, including the education of our children. No. We're to pray that God would so order their decisions and their actions that there will be a climate of tranquility and peace with a view to the progress of the gospel.

44:22 That's the responsibility and the obligation of the state. It is not. The education of the children. Listen to Dabney in another very profoundly insightful series of essays called State Free School System.

44:38 Dabney was debating in his own day. This is in volume 3 of his discussions with people that were trying to impose on the state of Virginia what we would call a public school system. And Dabney was arguing very perceptively and feverishly and passionately against it. He says it is the teaching of the Bible and of sound political ethics that the education of children belongs to the sphere of the family and is the duty of the parents.

45:03 The theory that the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of the Commonwealth is a pagan one derived from heathen Sparta and Plato's heathen republic and connected by regular logical sequence with legalized prostitution and the dissolution of the marriage relationship. It's a pagan concept. It's derived from the scriptures. Well then someone says let's move a step away.

The Church's Indirect Role in Education

45:29 Is it the church? Is it the church that has the primary responsibility for the education of the rising generation? Contrary to the thinking of some the church does not have a direct responsibility for the general education of the rising generation. Rather according to Matthew 28, 18 and 19 the church has an obligation in these four areas.

45:56 Listen to the Lord's commission. Make disciples of all the nations baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Now according to that passage and it is just a seminal passage the rest of the New Testament it flowers out and is full blown. The church is to teach parents how to fulfill their God given obligation as parents.

46:27 You follow me? From this pulpit you are to be instructed as to how to be good parents. I'm to try to persuade your judgment that you as a parent have an obligation to have an educational goal that lines up with what I've described under the first heading. The what is education.

46:47 It has that holistic biblical perspective that which God alone can do that which we must do and that which is the great end in all that we do in the education of the rising generation. The church has a responsibility to teach parents how to fulfill their God given obligations. Secondly the church is to exert its influence in making disciples of the children of the parents. Parents who feel a parental obligation not only to have family worship not only to bring the word of God to bear on every facet of the life and development and thinking of the child from the time it's nursing on its mother's breast and burping on its pappy shoulder but they bring them under the sound of the word of God. Why? That in the context where Christ is preached and where the offer of the gospel is made the church would make a concerted specific focused earnest endeavor to make disciples of those children. That's why in application often I'll say now children listen this is for you and I apply the word of God to your conscience with a view that you might see your sin and might embrace the savior and if you've embraced the savior that you might know how better to please him.

48:08 You see the church does have this indirect influence on the rising generation as it seeks to make disciples of that rising generation and then of course the church has a responsibility to cry to God and to plead with God that in this spiritual warfare for the souls of the rising generation God will bless those who are parents and bless every effort made in home and school and in the church that this generation will indeed become those who are sovereignly wrought upon by the spirit, savingly united to Christ furnished mentally, physically, spiritually and socially to take their place in Christ's church and in God's world with a passion to God's glory and to advance his kingdom. Well if the primary responsibility then is not with the church and certainly not with the state then the only one left is the family and I want to give you a brief overview of the biblical indication that God has laid upon the family the responsibility to educate the rising generation. Start in the Garden of Eden God made a man and a woman and he said to them be fruitful and multiply and plenish the earth and subdue it. There was a man and there was a woman.

The Family's Primary Responsibility for Education

49:32 There was no state, there was no church there was only a family. The assumption is that Adam and Eve would educate their children in the wonderful innocence of Edenic sinlessness and would be the instrument to impart to their children all that they needed to live to the glory of God in the fulfilling of the mandate of their creator to further replenish and subdue the earth. So embedded in the very structure of creation God is saying the education of the rising generation is a parental responsibility. Alright? Then we move all the way forward in redemptive history to the place where God takes a whole mass of slaves out of Egypt brings them into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea and is going to constitute them a nation and this will be the only theocratic nation in human history the only nation in which God will be king and which God will have state and church as one entity. God gives laws about how they are to approach Him in worship.

50:51 God gives laws as to how they are to deal with one another in civil matters. And so you have a theocracy where God rules over the nation. God imposes both civil and religious directives yet even in that setting and I don't have time for us to look in detail but I commend you Deuteronomy 4 and Deuteronomy 6. In that setting God does not lead to the state even though He rules over the state and governs the state.

51:21 He lays upon parents the burden of passing on the knowledge of God and the ways of God and the word of God to the rising generation. And then when we come into the New Covenant and Paul is writing to a congregation or congregations of God's people in Asia Minor in what we now know as the letter of the Ephesians he comes in chapter 6 and begins with the children obey your parents this is right honor your father and your mother your days may be long upon the earth and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but you nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. You fathers! Nurture them! There in that pagan city fathers were to feel the burden that the nurture of their children was their divinely assigned responsibility. It might be shared voluntarily with others it might seek to take within its orbit the insights the skills, the services of others, but the ultimate responsibility for the nurture of them rests upon the fathers. And in the light of his previous

52:42 teaching in which husband and wife are one flesh, obviously it is not fathers separated from the mothers, but father and mother as one flesh sharing in this burden. And in this great enterprise. So, we come to the question then, who? And I answer, the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of the parents. Now you say, pastor have you said anything about Trinity Christian School? No, I haven't yet. Give you a little history. Because if there's one burden that I want to pass on this morning, it's this.

53:17 Hear me carefully, parents. And non-parents. And anything in between. If we think of any school setting as the primary deposit of the divine mandate for education, we're thinking unbiblically.

53:37 The primary deposit of responsibility is you and me. It lies with us. And it's only when we see this is our task and this is the vision we have for the finished product that we can properly secure the help of others. Without relinquishing the personal burden of the entire enterprise.

54:07 The whole idea, I can enroll in the school now, I can breathe easily. No, no. That's not to be the mentality. The mentality is to be here is the structure that shares my basic convictions about God and man and truth and right and wrong and personal identity and responsibility and the whole gamut of what scripture addresses as a total biblical world and life view.

54:35 And here are some men and women whose lives embody those realities. Who reflect the climate of the home in which I'm seeking to impart them to my child. And whom I can trust will in the day by day interaction with this child will seek to bring to bear upon him or her precisely the perspectives that I would bring in the home and therefore I can with good conscience voluntarily share with this other group, individual, group of individuals certain facets of the task while not for a moment relinquishing the sense of primary responsibility that God has laid upon me as a parent. And here I will say that is the vision of the school. Listen to their official statement. Trinity Christian School operates on the premise that the word of God holds parents responsible for the totality of their children's education and accepts the privilege of working with Christian parents as partners in this responsibility.

Trinity Christian School as a Partner, Not a Replacement

55:51 The school works with parents to shepherd the heart to develop disciplined growth of intellect, character and to encourage Christ like growth in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men. Well, that's what I wanted to say to you this morning. What is the educational endeavor? It is nothing less than the nurture and the development of the whole person for its proper end.

Application: Children, Do Not Rob Your Parents

56:26 And its proper end is nothing less than what I've given you in this collage of the basic lines of biblical truth as to what we as Christian parents ought to have as our goal for our children. And I want to say in closing to you children whose parents have this goal and who because they have a lot of money extorted from them in their property taxes, it costs them to put you in Trinity Christian School. And every day you go on in your resistance inwardly to the instruction that points you to Christ and presses you to find in Christ your all in all. For some of you who've gone through that and are now done, you're in advanced schooling. Do you know in a sense you're robbing your parents by refusing the very end for which they are educating you? They're not educating you to become successful fools. They're not educating

57:36 you to go to hell wealthy with prestigious degrees. From impressive schools. I want you to feel the gift of your impenitence and your unbelief. The Bible, the Bible lays that upon you.

57:54 Read the book of Proverbs. My son, give me your heart. Your parent has a right to ask for your heart. And to ask for your heart for God.

58:06 Don't go on in your thievery. You could have parents that just gave you to the dogs while they pursued their goals of money and stuff and things and vacations in the Alps. They paid a price to pursue this kind of educational goal. Stop being a thief.

58:35 Stop breaking their hearts. Get right with God. Go to Christ. That you might by the grace of God then be able to profit in the maximum way from all that your godly parents are seeking to impart to you.

58:54 I stand before you this morning Father, with a heavy heart, two children for whom I have these goals and sought to pursue them albeit imperfectly but really and truly. And at this juncture it's come to naught. If they don't repent, they'll answer to God. For the spiritual monetary thievery and so will you.

59:38 Thank God, one of my three is the joy of our hearts. Because the end for which we sought to educate her has been realized by the grace of God. Give your parents that joy, kids. Give them that joy!

59:59 That's biblical! That's biblical! Make the heart of her that bore you glad is what the Bible says. It's right to want to make your mom and your daddy glad by embracing from the heart that education that has as its great goal that you will live to the glory and to the praise of God.

60:22 Let's pray. Oh, our Father, what can we say in the face of the awesome, crushing responsibility you've laid upon us as parents? Many of us look back and mourn our failures, our sins, our shortcomings, our lack of prayer. But our Father, we thank you that in your mercy and grace you have written upon our hearts these concerns and this vision and burden and pray that you would help us as we seek by your grace to pursue it. Help your people that they will not be bullied into the current patterns of thought that are not rooted in the Scriptures. Give us as a church a renewed commitment to encourage in every way every parent seeking to do his or her task according to the Scriptures. Oh, Father, may we be their encouragers.

61:34 May we validate all that they do by our lives and our influence with their children. Seal then your word and have mercy upon the children among us. Our Father, break down every barrier of unbelief and impenitence and gather a host of these precious children unto yourself. Hear then our prayers and seal your word to all