Four God-Intended Purposes

Introduction: The Necessity of a Spiritual Family Climate and the Means of Nurture

0:04 How Not to Foul Up the Training of Your Children. This is cassette number 11 in a series given by Pastor Albert N. Martin in the adult Sunday school class of the Trinity Baptist Church on March 24, 1991. While we're waiting for others to be seated, let me again express my thanks to you for your prayers on my behalf.

0:29 And I do believe that finally this thing that came around and gave me a second installment is about 85% out of my system. I don't know that I've ever had so stubborn a bronchial infection. And it took a second regimen of a more potent antibiotic to attack it. And I believe God heard your prayers.

0:50 I was thinking again this morning of Psalm 103. Every single sickness has in it the seeds of death and could take us to the grave, no matter how light it may appear. We know how quickly. The body can degenerate.

1:06 And I was thinking of God's wonderful word that he is the God who heals all of our diseases. And whenever we are raised up from any affliction, regardless of how severe it may be classified by the medical profession, it's a reminder of the great goodness of God and a call to bless the Lord and to forget not all of his benefits. Now we continue this morning in our studies on this vital subject of how not to foul up the training of our children. And having spent a number of weeks addressing the vital place of the overall spiritual and emotional climate of our families,

1:49 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,

2:33 an understanding as to why he wrote it. The poem is entitled, My Dad Knows God. You can use almost any measure when you're talking of success. You can measure it in fancy home, expensive car, or stylish dress.

2:55 But the measure of your real success is one you cannot spend. It's the way your son describes you. When he's talking to a friend.

3:09 When my son was a small boy playing with his buddies in the backyard, I overheard him talking one day, and the conversation was, amusingly, one of those I-can-whip-your-dad routines. I heard one boy proudly say, My dad knows the mayor of our town. Then I heard another say, That's nothing. My dad knows the governor of our state.

3:34 One day, wondering what was coming next in the program of bragging, I heard the voice of my own son say, That's nothing. 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 be able to see, and say, My dad knows God. Now, when I talk about a climate of spiritual reality and transparency, that's what I'm talking about.

4:19 Not my dad talks about God. My dad goes to church and sings about God. My mom can tell me stories about God. But my mom and dad know God, other than by hearsay.

4:37 Is that what your kids would say, not knowing you were within earshot in the midst of a little bragging session with their friends? If not, you've got business to do with God, or you will surely foul up in the training of your children and make them cynics, make them sour on God and religion and truth, or make them mere formalists and hypocrites like yourself. And so we cannot emphasize enough as we move on into the air, the idea of the means ordained by God

5:15 within this climate of a family marked by spiritual reality and transparency, marked by an emotional climate. If we use these words to try to capture it, warmth, closeness, acceptance, and goodwill, it is only in that assumed framework that the use of these two means of chastening and admonition, only in that means, in that framework, do we have reason to expect that God will bless these means to the nurture of our children, and ultimately in the will and good blessing of God,

Review: The Necessity and God-like Character of Chastening

5:58 the salvation of their souls. Now what we did last week was simply to establish two things with regard to the biblical doctrine of this first means, chastening. I sought to establish with you from the scriptures the absolute necessity of physical chastening in the nurture of our children. And we did this by giving a little word study of the two words in Ephesians 6, 4, paideia and nuthesia.

6:29 And we saw that in that context, paideia, as in many other contexts, refers to physical chastening. And then we looked at five key points, five key texts in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 13, 24, 19, 18, 22, 15, 23, 14, and 13, and 14, and 29, 15. And we came to the conclusion, I trust, that if we profess any submission to the word of God, any confidence that it is indeed God's spirit-inspired revelation of his mind and will, there is an absolute necessity of physical chastening.

7:10 Of physical chastisement in the nurture of our children. And then we considered, secondly, the God-like character of physical chastening as a means to nurture our children, coming back to the fundamental premise that we've worked with all along, that God is the perfect Father, and the great model of what all of our fathering and parenting is to be. I have an unusual facility for Ms. Lane.

7:40 She's laying pieces of chalk, but that's all right too. Oh, no, we'll get on with that. Oh, there it is, all right. We have again and again considered the fact that God is the great pattern, and we established from the word of God that it is right that we should consider him in his pattern of fathering his children as the model for our parenting of our children.

8:08 And so we considered from the word of God that chastisement is a God-like activity. It is not devilish, it is not demonic, it is not sadistic, it is not abusive, but it is indeed God-like in its very character. And we established that by demonstrating from a number of scriptures that God chastened his children before the giving of the law, he chastened his children under the old covenant, and he chastens his children under the new covenant. Now, I had announced last week that today we would take up the seven most common failures

The God-Intended Function of Physical Chastisement: An Essential Yardstick

8:51 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

9:35 the section on the family in general and discipline in particular, so there's no new thing under the sun. Baxter writing in the middle of the 1600s came to the conviction that there were certain abuses of the rod in his day, and some of you who read the directory will think for sure I got all my thoughts from Baxter and just reworded them. But it was an encouragement to have that confirmation. But as I was working on that final preparation, I found myself increasingly filled with a sense of frustration, that I was trying to point out failures, but I had not focused in upon the specific intentions

10:18 and purposes of chastisement in the mind and will of God. And so as I wrestled with the matter, I came to the conviction that we had to add a fourth point, and that third point between two and what was to be number three, which will now be four, is the God-intended function of physical chastisement in the nurture of our children. For unless we understand what God himself intends as the function of chastisement, we will not have a yardstick by which to measure whether or not we are failing or succeeding in the application of physical chastisement.

11:03 And as I went to the word of God with the prayer, Lord, teach me, I don't have anything in front of me to guide me that speaks to this subject. I have nothing in my library that I know of that tries to give a comprehensive statement of the God-intended function of physical chastisement. I was not disappointed. I was filled again with the sense of gratitude to God for the sufficiency of Holy Scripture.

11:32 So we're going to address this morning why is physical chastisement so crucial? Now, God did not need to give us an answer to that question. As Bridges says on page 415 of his commentary on Proverbs, we have indeed no right to demand to see God's reasons for his ordinance. Yet we may be permitted, in part at least, to trace its workings.

12:01 And he said that with reference to the use of the rod. If God establishes that the rod is to be used, then if he gave us no reasons, we must use it, knowing God is wiser than we are. However, God has given to us, again, primarily in the pattern of his own chastisement of his children, some clear revelation of the God-intended function of chastisement in the nurture of our children. Now, remembering that we're speaking of chastisement administered in this climate and in this climate alone, and hopefully without these seven major mistakes

12:44 that are made in the administration of chastisement, this function of the rod can be seen in the Scriptures in terms of four words. And I hope you'll memorize the words and then be able from there to range far and wide to the various Scriptures which teach this doctrine. The words are submission, retribution, instruction, and prevention. S-R-I-P.

13:17 Srip. Alright? Submission, retribution, instruction, and prevention. Now, I am not saying that the Bible teaches that every time physical chastisement is administered, you must be able to isolate and identify whether it is primarily teaching submission or it is retribution, instruction, or prevention.

13:45 I am not saying that these functions can be isolated, but what I am saying is that though they interpenetrate one another, they are distinct functions of the rod which all together comprise the revealed purpose of God, the purpose of God in the institution of this means to nurture our children. And so it should be helpful to us then in understanding that, and it will also be helpful to us in seeking to avoid the most common errors in the application of physical chastisement

14:27 because that failure is often moving beyond the divine purpose. And if we understand the purpose, it will help give us those guidelines which we cannot find in any book, any class, any series of tapes that are going to give you all the answers, how much to spank for this kind of offense and what to do. No. We must be armed with the overall principles, filled with the Spirit and with heavenly wisdom and independence upon God, each parent administering the rod prayerfully before the eye of God.

Function 1: Submission to Constituted Authority

15:05 All right? Very quickly then, let's seek to work through these four aspects of the divinely intended function of the rod. First of all, submission. According to the Scriptures, one of the major purposes or functions of physical chastisement is that of teaching a child submission to constituted authority.

15:29 God has invested parents with a delegated authority and He calls children to submit to that authority. Ephesians 6 and verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. And why is it right?

15:50 Because God has ordained that it should be so. God has delegated to parents in virtue of their role as parents an authority to govern and to direct the child. Now, it is impossible to govern and direct the child without the conquering and the mastering of the child's will. Now, the child is called upon to obey his parents.

16:18 But the problem is that he's a sinful child. And because he is a sinful child, he has a prevailing disposition according to Romans 8, 7 that is at enmity with God's law. And perhaps nowhere does the child's innate enmity to the authority of God's law come to quicker and more aggravated expression than with respect to the fifth commandment. Because the parents are God's representative of authority.

16:53 They're not yet too much concerned about the state. The state is God's representative of His authority. Romans 13. He is the minister of God.

17:02 Given authority to punish evil. But you see, it's a long while before the children are aware of the pressure of the state upon them. But in a well-ordered biblical home, they are very soon aware of the pressure of the authority of parents. And because they have a carnal mind that is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, they do not naturally comply with this primal law of the state.

17:33 And so, the state is the primary demand of the fifth commandment in infants and in children. Namely, honoring father and mother is primarily expressed in obeying them. This is the clear teaching of Ephesians 6, verses 1 and 2. So what has God done?

17:52 God has given us physical chastisement, what is called in the book of Proverbs, the rod of correction, which is to enforce submission in our children. Now one of the clearest texts that points in this direction is Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 18 and following. Children are not to be teased into submission, cajoled into submission, bribed into submission. Do what mommy tells you pop.

18:36 You do what mommy tells you because mommy's told you. Period. And if you don't, you'll be spanked for your willful disobedience. Don't touch that.

18:50 You don't tease them away from it. You teach them that certain objects are forbidden objects because you have expressed your will. And they're to be subject to your will when it is reasonably expressed. Deuteronomy 21, 18.

19:06 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son that will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and mother lay hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his place, and shall say to the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.

19:47 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.

20:16 He wasn't sent for medication or for psychoanalysis. He was taken again and again to the woodshed. And though this means to teach submission was faithfully applied, he was such an incorrigible and stubborn son that these parents had to bring him before the elders of Israel and he had to be stoned to death. Now that passage teaches at least two things very clearly.

20:48 God hates the rebellion of children to parental authority. So much so that God is the author of capital punishment for children. Now obviously someone who could get into this pattern would be, we would say, probably at least mid-late teens. But nonetheless it is evident that Almighty God, the God who is love, the God who is full of tender compassion and mercy, long-suffering and gentleness, this God says, so irregular and so antithetical to stability in Israel,

21:31 is a person who thinks he can with impunity turn away from the expressed will of his parents and incorrigibly stubborn son or daughter is to be put to death by capital punishment. Then the second thing that is clear in the text is that these parents recognize that the means ordained of God to attempt to subjugate the will of that child was chastening. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son that will not obey the voice of his father, the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not hearken unto them. In other words,

22:14 he is utterly impervious to the divinely intended function of the rod of correction, namely to subdue his will. So the passage clearly teaches that the first function of physical chastisement is to bring the will of the child into compliance with the will of his parents. There is to be one will in any Christian home. And that is the will of God mediated through the combined will of mother and father administering the principles of Holy Scripture in the totality of family life.

22:56 Not two wills. Not one will and ten whims. There is to be one will in the home. And you as a father, you as a mother, are responsible before God to teach that will and lesson to the children.

23:14 Now that's exactly what God has in mind when he chastises us. It is to bring us into sweet voluntary compliance with his will for us. Several texts that make this very clear. Psalm 119 and verse 67.

23:34 When God chastises us with specific afflictions, sometimes it is because our wills have not been subject to him. And in fair days, non-afflicted days, we didn't get the message. So the Psalmist says, Psalm 119 and verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I observe thy word. You mean God actually teaches us obedience through chastisement?

24:12 Yes. You mean the motive of love and the cross and the blood of Christ and the mercy of God in our positions as sons and daughters is not enough always to persuade our wills? No. We're so perverse with our remaining sin.

24:31 There are times when God must afflict us in order to bring us to a point of obedience where we've had a controversy with him. Revelation 3 and verse 19. Revelation 3 and verse 19. Jesus is speaking to a church that has allowed itself to drift into spiritual lukewarmness.

24:59 They are not reflecting his will to be zealous, to be full of holy zeal for himself and for holiness and for the advancement of his kingdom. And so he speaks very sternly and he says in Revelation 3, 19, as many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Change your mind and your ways in the areas of my controversy with you.

25:33 I love you too much to let you go on in this lukewarm state. And out of my love, I rebuke you verbally and I chastise you. I bring affliction upon you in order to bring your will into compliance with mine. But then the text that is most helpful because it brings into the closest proximity how this submission to our earthly parents through affliction or through chastisement and our submission to God are parallel in the mind of God.

26:08 Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. This moving from God's power and from God's patterns to our patterns is not arbitrary. It's forced upon us in passage after passage.

26:25 Here we see it again in this whole classic section on divine chastisement. Notice verses 9 and 10. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us and we gave them reverence. And involved in that word reverence is the matter of submission.

26:46 We gave to our parents a disposition of heart commensurate with their divinely appointed place over us. They were given to guide us to direct us to mold our character and our earthly fathers who chastened us not who physically abused us and psychologically pummeled us. You don't reverence people like that. No child can respect and reverence a brutalizing mother or father.

27:18 The assumption is mothers and fathers who in special grace or under the dynamics of common grace chastened within the framework of the biblical concept of chastening. Chastening that was deserved and reasonable was given in the context of emotional health, etc. And he says, shall we not much rather be what? In subjection unto the father of spirits and live.

27:53 What is the doctrine of chastisement? That we should be brought into subjection to God at the point of his controversy that has elicited his chastening hand. We have the fathers of our flesh who chastened us. We gave them reverence.

28:16 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.

28:46 Just this section for your edification. Having given a large long quote out of Owen. He says, Now if it was reasonable and right in us to submit to the chastisement of our earthly parents, must it be much more obviously reasonable and right to submit to the chastisement of the father of our spirits? And what does this mean?

29:13 In one word, a lying, passive in his hand, having no will but his. This is to be subject to the father of our spirits. And surely if our natural relation to our earthly parents and the favors they are the instruments of conferring on us, make it fitting that we should submit to them. Surely the spiritual relation in which we stand to our heavenly father and the infinitely more valuable and numerous blessings of which he is the author, make it proper that we should be subject to him.

29:49 So I believe from the scriptures the point is clearly established that the purpose of chastisement, both divine chastisement of God's spiritual children and the chastisement of our earthly children is to teach submission to constituted authority. The child's will must be conquered not obliterated by unprincipled abusive physical and emotional pummeling, but by firm, patient, consistent correction. The will of the child must be submissive to the word of its parents based upon their God-given authority.

30:34 Now that's it, plain and simple. And that's why physical chastisement can and most ordinarily must begin long before you can give a biblical explanation to the child of what you're doing. You have a child that begins to stand and walk before he's a year old. You can't give him a big explanation out of Proverbs about the doctrine of the rod.

30:59 But when he reaches out to touch something on the coffee table, you can say, no. And if he looks you straight in the eye and reaches and touches it, you take his hand and say, no. And what are you doing? You are teaching that child that the word no, if disobeyed, will bring the infliction of pain.

31:18 You are teaching that child submission to your will long before he knows what's wrong with breaking something that cost you maybe only five bucks, but you waited five years to find just that right thing to fit there. And there's no reason under the sun why every time that child is in the living room, you've got to clear everything from three feet and upward and downward, I mean. Or why when coming into other people's homes, they have to chew their nails off, wondering what kind of terror he's going to wreak in the home. That's ludicrous.

31:51 And some of you have got a terribly naive notion. Well, the child's just being a child. Yes, yes, that's right. But he can't live in this world thinking he can touch everything he wants to touch and go anywhere he wants to go.

Function 2: Retribution for Evil Done

32:09 And the sooner you begin to teach him that, the better. And your will is to be his guide, submission, then, is to be taught by the rod. Secondly, retribution. Now, what is retribution?

32:22 Well, retribution is defined in the dictionary, rightly so, as deserved punishment for evil done. Retribution is deserved punishment for evil done. And once again, according to the word of God, when God chastises, it is sometimes parental punishment for evil done. Now, listen very carefully.

32:47 It is not judicial punishment. That was borne every last gram of it in the death of Christ. All judicial punishment, that is, all of the punishment connected with the threats of the law, this do and thou shalt live, the soul that sinneth it shall die, judicial punishment for sin was borne by Christ. We do not have a Protestant doctrine of penance, where God's chastisement is somehow making up in my troubles something lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

33:27 No. Parental chastisement is parental chastisement, but it is often retribution for evil done. And I want to demonstrate it from the word of God. We go back to the Davidic covenant in Psalm 89.

33:45 Psalm 89. Psalm 89. And here we read in verses 30 to 33, If his children forsake my law and walk not in mine ordinances, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Now, what is he doing here?

34:15 He says, I am visiting their transgressions and their iniquities. That is, I am expressing retribution, deserved punishment for the evil done. But, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him or suffer my faithfulness to fail. And in the parallel passage where this is repeated in its specific application to Solomon, as we saw last week, let's look at it again, 2 Samuel 7 and verses 14 and 15.

34:51 I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before thee. So there are times when God's chastisement is not so much to teach submission at a point of controversy as it is to bring deserved punishment for evil done.

35:28 Now in the same way, God has put you there in that home to teach your children this vital reality of God's moral universe that the way of a transgressor is hard. The way of a transgressor is hard. That sin brings pain. Sin may bring temporary pleasure rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, but sin will ultimately bring punishment.

36:02 And they must learn that in God's moral universe that's the way it is. And the lie that the devil perpetrated on our first parents he tries to perpetrate into the spirit of our children. Eve, you can take that tree. You can disobey, Daddy.

36:23 You can disobey God, your father, and you shall not surely die. There will not be the promised retribution. And it's only when she believed that lie that she would have dared to partake of the fruit. And he breathes that lie into our children that they will not really suffer for their sins.

36:45 And God's put you there, parents, to let them know that ain't so. If they sin, there will be deserved punishment for the evil done. And if there is not, what happens? Well, look at Ecclesiastes 8 in verse 11.

37:03 And alas, this is the record of some of you. And bless God, he arrested you in spite of it. But in Ecclesiastes 8 in verse 11, we read this most telling observation. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore, the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

37:37 What is the explanation for the evil course of some people in their adult life? There was not swift execution of judicious, reasonable, parental chastisement when the child's moral consciousness was being developed in the home, so he could break the law of God as expressed in the law of mother and father and not receive just retribution. God have mercy again on a child who is reared in a home where the whole climate of that home is teaching him you can sin and get away with it.

38:19 I bless God I was reared in a home where one thing I knew, be sure your sin will find you out and be sure your sin will end up on your backside. Time after time my parents would sit me down and say son God has a way of letting praying parents know what's going on. This is what you did? Yes.

38:43 Well this is what you're getting. It wasn't difficult for me to believe that almighty God had every right to cast me into hell and into everlasting burnings and to give me my deserved punishment for the evil of my life. Why? Because I was reared in a home where my conscience was honed by consistent retribution for wrong done.

39:11 Will your children be able to rise up and make that testimony of you? I hope they will. But then thirdly, the word instruction and it's interesting as we saw last week the word paideia is sometimes translated instruction as it is in 2 Timothy 3.16 the word of God which is instructed inspired of God is profitable for teaching reproof, correction instruction paideia instruction in righteousness other times it means chastisement.

Function 3: Instruction and the Cultivation of Conscience

39:44 You see the word so incorporates the concept of instruction that the one word can be used for chastisement in some contexts and for instruction in others. Now again we go back to God when he chastises us why does he do it? Well it is often to bring home vital lessons to us that otherwise we would not learn. That's why you as a Christian must never think that you're under some set of afflicted circumstances physically, financially in terms of relationships that God is necessarily bringing retribution for some wrong done.

40:24 No, no. There are times when he chastises us to teach us lessons that otherwise we would not learn. And this is clearly brought out in two texts of scripture we'll look at one with reference to God and then one with reference to the human chastisement. Psalm 94 and verse 12 one of the texts we looked at last week but we looked at it in another light now we turn it around and look at it in a different light today.

40:53 Psalm 94 and verse 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Jehovah and teachest out of thy law. And with Hebrew parallelism we see that in this particular setting the chastening has as its primary intention to teach some new lesson out of the law of God. Not as the Psalmist said in another place that his affliction was used to bring him into a new level of obedience before I was afflicted I went astray but now I observe thy word that was a matter of affliction that was teaching submission.

41:38 Here is affliction that is primarily focused upon instruction. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest out of thy law. And this is very clearly taught in Proverbs 29 and verse 15 where we are told the rod and reproof give wisdom. They impart a dimension of instruction and knowledge that cannot be imparted any other way.

42:16 Not the rod apart from correction or reproof not reproof apart from the rod but properly administered in their joint impact upon the child they impart wisdom. And so with us chastisement is a vital instrument particularly of moral instruction to our children. It helps for example to educate their consciences. It's a horrible thing for a person to come to adulthood with a conscience that's not been educated by reproof and by the rod.

42:57 If the rod and reproof give wisdom what is that conscience that has not had half of its teacher resident all of its formative years? The reason some of you struggled with the lack of practical wisdom is because you were not taught in the classroom of the rod. And here you are full grown adults and you feel very keenly your ignorance your inability to apply the much biblical knowledge you have in the practical circumstances of life. Why?

43:36 That's what wisdom is. The ability to take the knowledge of things and to apply it to the practical circumstances of life. Well you weren't taught in the school of rod and reproof. You were taught in the school of moral relativism.

43:53 In your public school in your home you were left to do as you pleased when you didn't like something go sulk in your room go plunk in front of your TV go raid the refrigerator do anything other than confront the issue concerning which you desperately needed to be instructed. But the rod is intended to give instruction to educate the conscience to fix patterns of character. How do you learn to do things you don't want to do? Well when you know that if I don't do them simply because I don't feel like doing them I'll be spanked as much as if I rose up and told my mother Father I'm not going to do what you tell me to do

44:38 who in the world are you? You wouldn't dare do that. But you simply didn't do what you were told. You didn't openly defy verbally but you defied by your actions and now as a grown up human being you struggle with a hundred different things you know you ought to do and you just somehow can't bring yourself to do it.

44:55 Why? You weren't taught the wisdom at the end of the rod that would have prepared you for whole segments of life that are nothing more than the slog of doing things you don't like to do because they're your duty to do. Don't send your kids out cut off at the knees that way oh the instruction of the wise prayerful spirit filled application of the rod that is given to educate the conscience to fix patterns of character. Let me hear a quote from Bridges where he speaks of this very issue most eloquently

45:37 Habits are of immense value as wrought into the character by the Holy Spirit but there must be a beginning and the use of means to fix them. This is the principle. If a child be punished for falsehood to avoid future punishment he abstains and speaks the truth. As he advances he finds the blessing and comfort of the right path.

45:58 He learns gradually to speak truth from a higher motive. Insensibly his conscience acquires tenderness respecting it and it becomes a principle in his character. The rod of correction thus performs its work with permanent benefit.

Function 4: Prevention of Greater Evils

46:18 You see God did not arbitrarily say nurture them in the chastening of the Lord because the rod is his instrument to teach submission retribution instruction and finally prevention. Prevention. God chastises those whom he loves sometimes in order to prevent greater evils. Now where do you find that in the Bible?

46:45 Alright First Corinthians Chapter 11 Now do you see why I say that he was encouraging to me? Having no books in front of me where this was laid out it put me into direct contact with the word of God and prayerfully meditating upon the text that deal with chastisement. And here the concept of prevention is clearly taught in First Corinthians 11 and verse 32 But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord Why? In order that we may know the truth of the word and not be condemned with the world.

47:29 God's chastening of some of those believers at Corinth was a divinely appointed means to prevent their damnation. It was stiff preventive medicine. Do you see that in the text? Yea, nay Do you see that in the text?

47:52 Anyone here this morning? I want you to be convinced of it that when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord. When we fail to judge ourselves and deal with our sin God passes judgment and says you've not scrutinized yourself and set that issue right. Continuing in that course would lead you clean away from any hope of being in a state of grace.

48:27 Therefore I might not have to damn you with the world. That's prevention. Chastening is the prevention of sins that would lead to apostasy. So likewise in our chastisement of our children and I want you to look at several texts where the preventive element is so clearly emphasized in the scriptures.

48:52 Proverbs 22 and verse 15 You want to prevent your children from manifesting the potential of sinful folly? How are you going to do it? Well I'm going to pray that they be saved. Good.

49:12 I'm going to pray that God will hedge them up. Good. I'm going to watch their friends. Good.

49:22 I'm going to watch what they look on television and what they read. Good. And I'm going to do what the Lord said. I'm not going to do that for my children.

49:43 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

50:13 it was all out war. And that father one time in frustration called me and said he got so frustrated on one of these things. I don't know how many times he'd spanked the kid. He said, I finally threw him in the shower, put it in and turned on the cold water. I wondered if maybe that would work.

50:30 There were times. It's laughable now, but thank God the child has turned out to be a godly young man. All of the last reports I've heard. But one of the things I said to him is saying, he said to me, brother, he said, I'm doing all of this. Look how he is. I said, brother,

50:43 if he's that bad, with all of the rod driving foolishness out of him, think what he'd be like if he didn't.

50:52 If he's that bad with that much rod driving foolishness out of him, just think how much more there would be. Don't say he's not doing any good. He better believe that it's driving foolishness out of him and preventing sinful folly from being manifested. But not only will it drive folly, prevent it, but Proverbs 23, 13 and 14 tells us that the rod under the blessing of God can be a powerful instrument in the salvation of the soul of your child.

51:28 Withhold not correction from the child, Proverbs 23, 13, for if thou beat him with the rod, if thou spank him with the stick, he will not die. You shall spank him with the stick and shall deliver his soul from Sheol, from hell. Sometimes Sheol simply means the grave, but in this context obviously it's speaking of his soul, and it's speaking of an effect of the rod that will not neutralize death, for we will all die. But it's speaking here of Sheol as the place where the wicked

52:12 dead will go until the resurrection. And he says you want a preventive instrument that your child not go to hell? Then faithfully apply the rod of correction. And then it will prevent you, mother and father, from much needless shame. For Proverbs

52:33 29, 15 says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself, and in the context, what's that mean? A child who does not have the faithful application of rod and reproof, though you may fill his belly and clothe his back and educate him and even send him to Trinity Christian school.

52:54 A child left to himself, that is, who is not hedged up with rod and reproof, properly duly, prayerfully, wisely administered, will cause shame to his mother. And any father and mother who have a biblical relationship, you can't isolate the shame just to his mother. The father will bear it as well. You want to prevent the shame that comes from an incorrigible child?

53:21 Then make sure that child is molded by rod and reproof. So, what have we established from the scriptures this morning? Well, in addition to what we established last week, the absolute necessity of physical chastisement is a means to nurture our children. The godlike character of physical chastisement and the nurture of our children, the god intended function of physical chastisement in the nurture of our children.

53:51 Submission, retribution, instruction, and prevention.

Conclusion: Solemn Responsibility and Societal Impact

53:58 Now, dear people, unless you're prepared to show that I've mishandled the word of God this morning, the onus is on you. No longer is it on me. I've delivered my soul on this matter. You have a solemn responsibility to do so.

54:15 You have a solemn responsibility to do so. You have a solemn responsibility to take this awesome stewardship of the rod of correction and plead with God that he will make it effectual to teach the submission of your children's will to your wills, to bring proper retribution, deserved punishment for evils done, instruction in the cultivation of conscience and character, and for the prevention of shame to yourself, hell and folly to your own children. What an awesome responsibility. And God have mercy on the so-called experts who tell us

54:59 that the rod is the father of all of the ills of our society. No, no, my friends. In great measure, our society is presently the manifestation of several generations that have not known the rod of correction. And I think it's very, very interesting that the generation that is being astounded at the horrible brutality that is being perpetrated in child abuse and child molestation, I wonder if it isn't part of God's judgment for the lack of the proper use of the rod. For it's

55:41 when the little temper tantrum of the 18-month-old is corrected by the rod, that you have a full-grown man or woman who is able to control his spirit in a situation that otherwise might lead to physical abuse of the child when that person is an adult. And the unbridled, uncontrolled spirit of adults that leads to child abuse and to child molestation, what are those things but the aggravated expressions of a spirit that is out of control, of a spirit that follows native impulses, even to the point of contravening natural affection. That's

56:25 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

57:00 away, dear people. But under God, give to this next generation a host of men and women who have known this four-fold imprint of physical chastisement upon their characters of submission, retribution, instruction, and prevention. Well, God willing, next week, we'll take up unless I can consolidate some of them. As I've gone over them, I'm still convinced there are seven distinct and identifiable major failures in the use of the rod.

57:37 Maybe you'll want to think about the matter this week, and as always, I wouldn't be surprised if you came up with some that I overlook and that even Baxter overlooked, and you may help us. So let us pray together that God will teach us. Let us pray.

57:59 We're given to be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We're thankful that in this very crucial matter of the rearing of our children we need not be at the mercy of the so-called expert. Blind leaders of the blind who call light darkness and darkness light and good evil and evil good. O Lord, we pray that you would help us to be well grounded in the very things we have contemplated today and that by the enablement of the Holy Spirit, we would have a generation reared by this four-fold function of the sanctified use

58:44 of physical chastisement. O Lord, hear our prayer and answer the cry of our hearts for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Closing and Contact Information

59:00 You have been listening to How Not to Foul Up the Training of Your Children by Pastor Albert N. Martin. These cassettes are distributed by the Trinity Book Service. If you would like a free listing of other audio cassettes and books, please call us at 1-800-722-3584.

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