Loving Biblically Framed Nurture

Introduction: The Privileges and Dangers of the Second Generation

0:09 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, February 10th, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:20 Now as a passage that reflects sensitivity to the theme that I have begun to address, not a passage that I plan to expound, will you follow as I read the opening verses of Psalm 78. Psalm 78, verses 1 through 4. Psalm 78, at verse 1. Give ear, O my people, to my law.

0:52 Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not.

1:09 We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

1:25 We come tonight to the second message in a series which I began this morning, entitled The Privileges and Blessings, Along with the Liabilities and Dangers of the Second Generation. And as I began the series of studies this morning, I gave a little snippet of the history of Trinity Church, dating back to our constituting as a church in 1967, underscoring that we are witnessing something in our present life together that we have never witnessed before.

2:04 We have seen a trickle of young men and women reared within the womb of the church, or developed within the womb of the church, who have come to profession of faith in Christ. Some continue to go on with Him, others have been disciplined, and others have obviously apostatized. But we have never seen the concentrated number of young men and women who are the sons and daughters of church members who have known in their experience that three-fold nurture,

2:41 of home, school, and church, now coming to fruition in their voluntary expression of desire to be openly identified as a disciple of Christ in the ordinance of baptism, and to become part of His visible community as members in this particular church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And many of us have rejoiced and rejoiced to this very hour, in that wonderful thing that we are seeing that we have never witnessed before. However, it is the responsibility of leadership to try to be far-sighted,

3:25 and to see if in the midst of these blessings there are potential dangers, and as I and others in leadership have reflected upon what we are seeing of God's gracious work among us, it is very clear to us that many of you who are part of that present group of young men and women declaring yourselves to be the disciples of Christ, that the things you believe and confess are things that were given to you with your skin and hair in the very shape of your face. But they are things for which many of your parents paid a dear price.

4:09 They did not have them, in that sense, as their birthright and as their birth accompaniments. You have. They did not. And with that, there are very real and manifold blessings, but also subtle, yet profound and real dangers.

4:32 And I stated this morning that in addressing both the blessings and the dangers, I would eventually flush out, or flesh out two major categories of the material. We would consider first of all the blessings and dangers of the second generation with reference to personal religious experience, and I'm adding another phrase, and general maturation. The blessings and dangers of the second generation with reference to personal religious experience and general maturation, and then secondly, the blessings and dangers of the second generation

5:14 with respect to ecclesiastical experience. And under that first major heading, the blessings and dangers as they relate to personal religious experience and maturation, I stated that both messages today would focus exclusively on the two major realities that constitute the dominant blessings and benefits of being part of the second generation. We took up the first of these this morning, and I stated it this way. You, referring to each of you in the second generation,

5:55 you have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded with the God-appointed means of saving grace. Through no choice of your own, God has graciously and sovereignly surrounded you. I almost chose the term, immersed you in, and perhaps it would have been a better term. I had it in parenthesis and was struggling with which words were best, but I have stuck with the terminology, you have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded with these God-appointed means of saving grace.

6:34 And I identified them, as four sovereignly chosen God-appointed means that, with His blessing, can be the means by which men and women are brought into the salvation of Christ. The knowledge of the Scriptures. Secondly, the example of those who manifest authentic Christian experience. The clear, earnest preaching of the Word of God by God-equipped, God-sent men of God, and the fervent and persistent prayers of your parents and the people of God.

7:13 And then we concluded our consideration of these things by pressing the question upon your conscience, you of the second generation, do you really appreciate what a favored bunch of people you are? Do you really, and have you really reflected on how gracious God has been in giving you this privilege of being surrounded with these God-appointed means of saving grace? And I concluded with the very sobering statement, they will either lift you to the highest heaven

The Second Blessing: Loving, Biblically Framed Nurture

7:55 or sink you to the lowest hell. Now tonight, I want to consider with you the second major great privilege and blessing of the second generation as it relates to your personal religious experience and your general maturation. Not only do you have this sovereign, gracious privilege of being surrounded with the God-appointed means of saving grace, but here's the second great blessing. You have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically framed

8:39 total character molding context. You have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically framed total character molding context. Now let me explain why I've chosen that combination of words. You have been nurtured.

9:04 And I choose that word because it is the key word in God's description of the task of fathers in the training of their children. The assumption, of course, that mothers, wives, are joined with one vision and one commitment with the fathers, but fathers are explicitly addressed in Ephesians 6 and verse 4. And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them. The whole task of fathers with respect to their children is that of nurturing them.

9:44 The them is the totality of what makes them them. Not just their souls, not just their minds, not just their psyches, not just their view of education or their view of social responsibility, but fathers are to nurture them. And what they are to do is to nurture them. And the best illustration I know of the significance of that word nurture is the way in which it is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures in the message of Nathan to David, the sinning man of God, in 2 Samuel chapter 12.

10:28 David is used in that parable to get inside the conscience or Nathan is using a parable to get inside the conscience of David. And in that parable he speaks of a certain man who had one little sheep. And here in 2 Samuel chapter 12 we have a use of the word nurture that really captures the richness and the significance of that word. Verse 3 of 2 Samuel chapter 12 But the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished up there's our word had nourished up and it grew up together with him

11:13 and with his children. It did eat of his own morsel, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. Were you to see this man in the parable caring for this one little ewe lamb he was nurturing it. And what was that nurture?

11:37 What was involved in that nurture? Feeding it, protecting it, cherishing it, providing for it, giving it everything that it might come to its full development in a context of safety and ample provision for all of its needs as a little ewe lamb to become a grown-up ewe. That it might be the mother of other little ewe lambs and nurse them and care for them. To provide, to protect, to guide all that is bound up in the word to nourish, to nurture.

12:19 And I'm asserting that you of the second generation have been lovingly and carefully nurtured. You have had parents committed to this broad spectrum of activity bound up in the word nurturing. And I've said that the climate has been one of love and of carefulness. You have been lovingly and carefully nurtured.

12:47 Most of you kids of the second generation most of you young men who comprise the second generation you don't have a clue of the climate of if not the vast majority of many of the homes in which young men and women are born and reared and from which they are expected to go out and somehow make their way in life. Homes filled with constant tension and rivalry between husband and wife. Homes marked by indifference to many aspects of the training of the child.

13:31 The term latchkey kids is a relatively modern term where the idea has been bought by many families that either it is economically necessary to have two working members in the element or in the area of the parents where it is beneath perhaps the dignity of the woman to allow her career track to be interrupted and waylaid and turned aside through the disciplines of mothering. But you have not known that. You have not known what it is to be in that context. And furthermore there are many homes where the only communication is done in curse words

14:15 in bitterness. Confrontation is always explosive and filled with carnality. Many of you know absolutely nothing about that. I can remember one time when my wife and I determined that our children would know something of what it is like to be reared in a home like that.

14:36 Whether we were wise in doing it I don't know but we did it and I'm going to tell you about it. And we sat down and agreed that we would fake an intense argument where it appeared that we might be about to come to blows. And so we set the stage and I triggered it and we did it and I shall never forget the shriek of horror that came out of one or two of the children. I can't remember whether all three of them but one or two of them actually screamed with terror.

15:09 They had never seen anything like that in their home. Some kids every morning every night day in, day out week in, week out month in, month out until the thing ends up in the divorce court. And then there's haggling over visitation rights. And then the father plays off against the mother and the mother plays off against the father.

15:36 And there is this hellish cauldron of conflict and utter disregard for the true nurture of the children. You whom I'm describing as the second generation you know nothing of that as a pattern of life. You know nothing you have been blessed with the context of a loving careful nurture. And that in what I'm calling a framework where the context of that nurture is one framed not by your desires not by the latest pronouncements of sociologists and psychologists

16:19 and all of the experts but I've used this terminology you have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically framed context where your mother and your father have earnestly sought to frame all of the standards and all of the dynamics of family life by what the Bible says. Their expectations of you their discipline of you the standards they set for you the way they try to educate your conscience the way they try to instruct you concerning the broad spectrum of life's concerns

17:03 is a biblically framed context and it is also marked by that which I am calling a total character molding context. That's the extent of the nature. The content of the nature is that it is biblically framed. The extent of it is they are concerned for the totality of your character development.

17:32 All aspects of your God-given identity as image-bearer of God as image-bearer marred in Adam as image-bearer marred but restorable in Christ they seek by the grace of God to nurture you everything that makes you you. Your mind your interest your sensitivities your understanding of yourself your perspective on others on life on money on relationships there is this commitment to this total character development.

God's Ordinary Method: The Stalagmite and Stalactite Analogy

18:15 And this is the climate in which you've been reared. Now, you may ask why is this so great a burden? Why is this so great a blessing? And a privilege?

18:26 Why is it a blessing and privilege to be lovingly and carefully nurtured in the biblically framed total character molding context? Well, I answer because God's ordinary method of preparing little girls and little boys young men and young women to fulfill their adult roles to His glory and to their good is by means of loving careful nurture. A nurture framed by the Bible concerned for the total character development of the totality of the child.

19:10 In other words God's ordinary means of preparing boys and girls for their life's goal and responsibilities is like the construction or the building the... I can't find the right word of a stalagmite and a stalactite.

19:32 You walk in a cave and here you see this massive protrusion out of the floor of the cave. And you see this intimidating large icicle-like structure coming down from the ceiling of the cave. And the little mental crutch I use to keep them separated in my mind is the stalagmite comes out of the ground. And the stalactite comes out of the sea ceiling.

19:58 That's the only way I can keep them sorted out. Now how did they get there? They did not get there in an instant act of creative power. The water that is dripping down from the ceiling of the cave has unusually high dense deposits of limestone or some other mineral.

20:18 And as it drips and as the water evaporates and goes off into a stream somewhere else little by little over months and over many years there is a build up of the mineral substance until there is this massive intimidating stalactite or this very imposing stalagmite. Well in a very similar way God's ordinary way of building the kind of stable character that enables a man a young man or a young woman to enter into adult responsibilities equipped for those responsibilities

21:00 to live out those responsibilities nobly to the glory of God and to one's own good. Ordinarily such character is developed as the stalagmite and the stalactite. It is the daily, the hourly drip, drip, drip of faithful, loving, consistent biblically framed total character context of godly nurture. And this reality is wonderfully illustrated in the very experience of the development of our Lord and Savior

21:44 Jesus Christ. In my preparation for this message a thought has gripped me that I have never thought of before. And it's one of those that I say you dummy, you're almost 68 years old and you never thought this. It's so obvious.

21:59 But nonetheless I'm thinking it now and I'm thankful. How did Adam come forth from the hand of his Creator? Well he came forth from the hand of Creator as a fully developed adequately furnished man ready to undertake all of the adult responsibilities and privileges of the Garden of Eden including marriage and parenthood. Adam came forth with a mature psyche in terms of his consciousness of who he was.

22:35 Adam came forth with a mature, developed ability ready to relate to this woman that God would make for him who would be bone of his bone flesh of his flesh with whom he was to dwell in the intimacy of marital love and commitment. Adam would grow and further mature in every facet of his created manhood. But his manhood was created with the stalagmite and stalactites all ready in place. Are you following me?

23:16 Adam was not created with an adult body and with a child's soul wrestling with the issues of who am I? What is my particular temperament and how do I fit into God? No, no. All of that was con-created in Adam.

23:38 There was no need for Adam to grow into maturity in these areas. He was to grow from a created maturity but not into a cultivated maturity. Are you following me? You're with me.

Jesus Christ: The Paradigm of Biblical Nurture

23:57 But now when we turn to our blessed Lord Jesus, how does he come among us? He is conceived in Mary's womb. God himself implants life in Mary's womb and Jesus goes through every normal stage of prenatal development in Mary's womb. I said it shockingly at the beginning of Christmas time, incarnate deity became a zygote and split into two and four and eight and sixteen cells.

24:39 The little flippers appeared and all of the other organs that appear in the various stages in your wombs, mom and dad. All was true in Mary's womb. And what was true of his prenatal development is true of his development when he exits the womb. And I want us to turn to two pivotal passages that though they are succinct and brief and leave so many questions unanswered, they underscore in an indisputable way that our Lord Jesus Christ was prepared for his

25:22 manly responsibilities and functions in the will of God by a loving, caring, Bible-based, whole character development context under the guidance of two of his creatures called Mary and Joseph. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. Jesus is taken up to the temple and is circumcised

26:05 on the eighth day, Luke 2, 21. And then in verse 22, being a male child, after I think it was 30 days, Mary's purification was over. She is to go up and they are to make an offering and to go through the Levitical rituals in verses 22 and following tell us that they did that and Simeon, the man of God, prophesized concerning the Lord Jesus. And then this is the only description we have of Jesus from that period of just a couple of months after his birth up until an event when he was 12 years of age and it's all compressed into these words,

26:48 verse 40. And the child grew. The child was continually growing and waxed strong, filled with wisdom. And look at this statement.

27:03 And the grace of God was upon him. I thought the grace of God was in him. That he was the reservoir of God's grace. Yes, he was and is.

27:20 But here Luke is describing for us in most beautiful language that our Lord Jesus was passing through the ordinary stages of development and he was doing so under the influence of the grace and favor of God. And the child grew. That is, he was passing through the normal stages of development. He went from saying mama and daddy to more words in his vocabulary.

27:54 He began to observe that if I do this, I skin my knee and it gives me a boo-boo. If I don't do this, I don't skin my knee and I don't get a boo-boo. Everything packed in to you observing your child growing. Growing was true of Jesus.

28:15 Sin accepted. He didn't grow in being a schemer, in telling lies and manipulating and whining and trying to pressure Mary and Joseph to get his own way. Cut out all the things in growth and development that are the horrible growth of sin which is not essential to our humanness. But everything else that was left, the child grew.

28:41 And waxed strong. He became stronger and stronger being filled with wisdom. He is internalizing the things that he observes, the experiences that he has, the things that Joseph points out to him as his dad and Mary underscores for him as his mom and his other children came into the home. All that is involved in wisdom, understanding how wisely to relate to one's siblings in all the interaction of that poor family in what were very well perhaps very tight-knit quarters there in Nazareth.

29:23 Yet the child grew and waxed strong, filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon him in that whole process. That takes us up to his twelfth year. During that time most likely, we can't prove this from the Scripture, but from very reliable accounts of what would have happened in Palestine generically and up in Nazareth specifically, Jesus would have gone to the local synagogue school at age five or six.

29:53 There he would have learned his Hebrew grammar. There he would have learned where to sit and how not to feel insulted when you were sat in the back of the class and not to feel proud if you were up at the front of the class. Dear people, use your imagination. The child grew.

30:11 What happens when your kids grow? And they acquire motor skills and linguistic skills and social skills and personal awareness. All of this was true of Jesus. And we have the incident of him and his family going up to the temple at age twelve.

30:32 This strange event in which our Lord remains behind and is interacting with the professional church theologians, amazing them by his questions, etc. And then verse 52 carries us from age twelve up to age thirty. And it's all packed into this one statement. And Jesus advanced.

30:55 For you Greek students, an imperfect of the verb advance, grew, went on, which is past action continuous. Jesus was continually advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. And in what setting? Verse 51.

31:15 He went down with them and came to Nazareth and he was subject unto them. He was subject unto them. The Greek word hupotasso. He was raised under them as an obedient, pliant son prepared to be molded and shaped by the nurture of his father.

31:43 Prepared to be lovingly, carefully nurtured by this godly man and woman in a Bible based whole character concerned context of development and preparation for his life's work and calling as the messianic savior of sinners. So he goes back to Nazareth and in that context of voluntary subjection unto them. Perfect obedience to the fifth commandment. His mother Mary kept all these sayings in her heart.

32:25 I doubt Mary could have fulfilled her role if she fully understood all at once who her son was. It's a contemporary song. I forgot the woman who has composed it and sings it. My daughter Heidi made my wife and me aware of its beautiful.

32:41 It's called Mary did you know. Some of you perhaps may have heard it profoundly theological. Mary did you know that your baby was incarnate deity. And there's a strong suggestion here that Mary does not come to that awareness all at once.

32:58 And you can see the wisdom of God in that. Can you imagine being a mother knowing you have incarnate deity as your son? Wouldn't you feel crippled? What can I teach him?

33:07 In him all the fullness of wisdom dwells. The wisdom that planned and schemed the whole creative order and brought it into being. Mary is growing in her awareness. She's reflective.

33:22 But she and Joseph are fulfilling their role in the nurture of this one entrusted to them. And in so doing, the nurture of Mary and Joseph within which Jesus was continually advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men under the canopy of the grace of God blessing that endeavor and that enterprise. This I say is the paradigm which we as parents must embrace for ourselves and which many of you in the second generation whether you've known it or not and whether your parents have been able to articulate it

34:06 within this structure or not. This has been in essence that which they have given you as the legacy of grace. They have sought to nurture you in dependence upon the grace of God so that you too would advance under their nurture in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Now let's analyze that fourfold structure.

Nurture in Wisdom: A Truth-Based, God-Centered View of Reality

34:37 As we come into the heart of the message. What did this nurture involve? Well, first of all Jesus was given a truth-based God-centered view of all of reality. Jesus was given or we might say Jesus was exposed to and acquired again I wrestled with the words we're in mysteries and it's so hard to choose any words that seem to satisfy.

35:10 But let me stick with these. Jesus was given a truth-based God-centered view of all of reality. He was advancing in wisdom. And at the end of the day wisdom is that acquisition of perception and understanding by which in relationship to truth in relationship to God and His relationship to all things and all things as they relate to Him.

35:43 Jesus is growing in the acquisition of wisdom. You've heard the verse many times in this place. Proverbs 1.7 The fear of the Lord is not just the beginning it is the chief part of wisdom.

35:59 That is until we see things in relationship to God and God's relationship to that thing and our relationship to God in that thing we have no wisdom. We may have knowledge and understanding of great penetrating mathematical and physical mysteries. Someone may be brilliant as a physiologist and brilliant as a botanist and as an astrophysicist and be able to put equations that run seventeen feet across the white board in a university classroom but until things are seen in their relationship to God

36:43 God's relationship to that thing and our relationship to God in that thing we have no wisdom. We are simply educated fools. And Jesus advanced in wisdom under the canopy of grace by means of the godly nurture of Joseph and Mary someone has said I think it's Edersheim he's persuaded that though that was a poor home they had somehow saved their shackles enough to have a complete scroll of the Old Testament. Our Lord's knowledge of the scriptures his ability to quote them freely and widely at age thirty is absolutely staggering

37:28 and overwhelming and this wisdom was not something that was inherent in Mary and Joseph. They did not say now Jesus we want to pass on our cultural traditions to you. It was Jesus we want to give you the wisdom of God. We want you to know how God relates to this reality.

37:49 How that reality relates to God and how you relate to God in it and in all facets of his life. They were seeking in the terms I used this morning quoting my own daughter giving Jesus a grid through which to pass all that his eyes observed all that his ears heard all that he himself experienced in interacting with others and others with him. Jesus was continually growing in wisdom. He was given a truth based God centered view of all of reality.

38:29 You of the second generation that's what your parents have been trying to give you. Those of us in this pulpit that's what we've been trying to give you. That's what your teachers whether it's been your parents or your teachers in the Trinity Christian School that's what they've been intending to impart to you. Wisdom.

38:48 They don't want you to base your life on folly. That is to relate to life in a way that life is really not. You see that's the curse of this thought that well to be reared in the context of wisdom defined like this everything viewed in the light of scripture isn't that restricting and constricting in terms of true and honest intellectual pursuit and development. Of course not.

39:16 Is it restricting for a bird to know instinctively it's a bird? When it's supposed to split the air with its wings and sing songs as it perches in a tree rather than have to experiment half its life? Am I a turtle? Do I belong in the mud?

39:31 Am I a fish? Do I belong in a pond? Am I a worm? Do I belong on the end of someone's hook to catch a fish?

39:37 Say to the bird that it's folly for him to be taught when he's just a little birdling? In his nest you're a bird. This is reality. This is who you are.

39:46 This is what God's made you. In his world here's how you fit in God's world. Here's how God relates to you in his world. It's the most liberating thing intellectually to deal really with reality.

40:01 It's the most liberating thing intellectually to deal really with reality. Reality's a very stubborn thing. I may sit here and say, well, I'm buying into the notion that what we see as substance really is more just empty space than substance and go into some view of molecular construction, et cetera, that this is not really substantial and then make a fist and say to prove it I'm going to put my fist through this old pulpit because it's more nothing than something. It'll be x-rayed by the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning.

40:40 Reality is this is hard oak and when I forget it occasionally I end up with bleeding knuckles not literally but even when I unconsciously get out of touch with reality and my fist hits this more than once I've had to take a handkerchief and now that's wisdom you see. Wisdom is the ability to see reality as reality is and all reality since it comes from God to be understood in relationship to God and God's relationship to that thing that person that relationship whatever it is Jesus was growing in this truth-based God-centered view of all reality. That's the blessing you've had in the second generation.

Nurture in Stature: A Truth-Based, God-Centered View of Physical Constitution

41:24 Secondly, Jesus was given a truth-based God-centered view of his physical constitution. Look at the text. It says that God was given a truth-based God-centered view of his physical constitution. He was given a truth-based God-centered view of his physical constitution.

41:49 Now, in the New Testament it says that Jesus was advancing in stature. The Greek word is helikia. Now, it can mean in several contexts in the New Testament age. But that would be a truism.

42:07 Jesus was advancing in age. Well, of course he was. Now, in Luke 19 3, when it speaks of Zacchaeus, famous for being the shorty of the Bible, if people don't know much about the Bible, if you say who in the New Testament could be nicknamed shorty, it would be Zacchaeus. For we read in Luke 19 3, and he, Zacchaeus, sought to see Jesus who he was, who he was with his physical constitution.

42:44 And here the Spirit of God describes the maturation of Jesus in terms of his physical constitution. And under the wise tutelage of Joseph and Mary, under the wider canopy of the grace of God, Jesus was given a truth-based, God-centered view of God's constitution. The three years of our Lord's adult ministry, approximately from age thirty to thirty-three, thirty-three and a half, were of the most arduous and physically demanding nature. Think with

43:28 me about a few incidents. He no sooner comes out of Jordan's water, but he is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. Forty days. And he fasts those entire forty days, and the Spirit of God is careful to record that the angel came and strengthened him, not during, but only after the forty days.

44:00 There appeared an angel strengthening him in Gethsemane. An angel appeared and strengthened him in the wilderness after, but no physical wimp undergoes forty days of fasting with nothing but the ordinary supply of human strength in the midst of great emotional and mental and spiritual conflict, and comes through it alive. Furthermore, for some of us who began preaching on the street corner, I know what it takes for an hour,

44:45 forty-five minutes, in open air preaching. I know what it takes out of me to preach for an hour in this very comfortable situation with the help of a voice assist system and a microphone. The exhausting nature of intense mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional activity is the most powerful and most powerful tool that can be used to make a person feel good

45:29 and feel good and feel good and feel good and feel good and feel good and feel good and feel healthy and feel good and feel happy and feel fresh with oneself and be free and can be so rational and realistic with one and all and all in every moment and every moment you are in the world and through the world and the world

46:13 Spirit of God gives us, that he was learning the trade of a carpenter, so that he is called in the Gospels not only the carpenter's son, but he is called the carpenter. Apparently he had begun to gain some reputation for his own skill in the handling of wood. Now remember, no skill saws, no DeWalt or Craftsman routers, no 12 or 14 volt micata cordless drills. You cut wood with the strength of your arm and a crude primitive saw. And you played and

46:55 you jointed with things that nowadays are done mechanically, done under the stored energy of battery operated tools or power driven tools. But here the power was in the arm, in the muscle, in the sinew. And the scriptures tell us that here in the context of Mary and Joseph's tutelage and oversight in submission to Him, Jesus was continually advancing in stature. He was given a truth-based, God centered view of his physical constitution. Mary and Joseph were not Platonists. They

47:37 did not teach in the heresy that your body is only this unwanted prison for the soul. Jesus grew up knowing that he was to do service as the servant of Jehovah in the body that was given him in Mary's womb. I love the Hebrews 10 quote from the Psalms. Wherefore he saith when he cometh into the world, a body thou hast prepared for me. Jesus' last words when he left heaven and came to Mary's

48:08 womb were, a body you've prepared for me. Lo, I come to do thy will. Where? In his body. In his

48:19 body. In that body that he knew he would be called upon to fulfill all of the messianic promises as Jesus grew in his understanding of his own identity. As the suffering servant, as the Messiah, he knew those suffering servant of the Lord or those servant of the Lord passages, including the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53. And he knew that Messiah would have this wonderful ministry of opening the prison to those that are bound. The spirit of the Lord would be upon him. He would be sent to preach. And our Lord

48:56 understood that part of the preparation for his calling. That sacred calling as God's messianic servant had to do with the body prepared for him in Mary's womb. The body in which he would accomplish these arduous labors concentrated into those brief three years. And that body that he would give up to be bruised and beaten and spat upon and ripped and torn and hung upon a cross. And it's clear that the body that he knew he would be called

49:33 upon. From the little bits and pieces of the Gospel record, but from this passage particularly, that our Lord Jesus had a view of the body that was God centered. He had a view of the place of the body in preparation for the service of his God. And again, many of you of the second generation, you've had this in great measure. You've had parents who are concerned not to rear you

50:03 on Twinkies and jelly beans. And much to your chagrin, they would not let you just feed on all of the junk food you wanted to eat. You've had moms and dads, I hope, I hope, who've at least read a little bit on nutrition and on the place of physical exercise. And I hope are aware with some sense of alarm at the growing measure of obesity as a national problem among people.

50:33 The American government is showing that the UN discipline efforts are not working. This is a reality at present. The 11th Amendment gives us the right to get lucky. All right. I want to thank Avila and Lisa. I'm going to die anyway and have another great Sunday at 12 upon ICD.

51:06 See you next time. Be Charlie.

51:09 God, many of you of the second generation have had parents willing to stand against that increasingly unbiblical, hedonistic view. On the other hand, you've had parents that have not allowed you to go into the Barbie doll body worship as though the thing that mattered most is whether your measurements will fit in a beauty contest. They've reared you girls with the view that you want to be a Proverbs 31 woman who's got strong arms to do her tasks and to lead in her family, who has skills not to turn men's eyes in the

51:51 but to elicit and earn the praise of her children of being a worthy woman. You've had fathers who set an example of physical discipline and physical conditioning and who have been able to teach you to be a woman. There are tremendous those of you who have been a part of the quebec who die of heartache, tell their children their bodies are for God's service. They are not to be just a pleasure ground by which to serve their lust, whether the lust for food or drink or sex or fun and games, whatever it is. You ought to bless God in an age that doesn't think biblically

52:29 about the body, that you have been blessed with a context of nurture in which, like our Lord Jesus, you have been given a truth-based, God-centered view of your physical constitution. But then thirdly, we are told Jesus was given a truth-based, God-centered view of a God-pleasing lifestyle. He was given a truth-based, God-centered view of a God-pleasing lifestyle. Look at the text. And Jesus was advancing not only in wisdom and in stature, but in

Nurture in Favor with God: A Truth-Based, God-Centered View of Lifestyle

53:12 favor with God. In favor with God. Now in one sense, as to his divine nature, it was impossible for him to grow in the favor of God. God is always pleased with himself. God

53:30 cannot increase his favor. He cannot increase his favor with himself, for there is nothing favorable in himself to increase and therefore to elicit growing favor. But this is speaking of Jesus with respect to his manhood, to his human nature. And as the Father saw ever-increasing conformity to his will, with the growing capacities of the developing Jesus, his delight with Jesus was continually increased.

54:03 As Jesus understood more life's responsibilities as a teenager, and responded with alacrity

54:14 and whole-souled obedience to the expanded disciplines and responsibilities of a teenager, his obedience elicited the favor of his Father. And as he came into young manhood and had to bear more responsibilities and most common data, he was able to do more. And this is why the haters are inclined to believe that from certain inferences in the gospels that Mary probably became a widow, and that Jesus would have had the burden as the firstborn Son of great responsibility in that home. And if this were so , and Jesus stepped in and took the role of the man of the house, and the Father saw him

54:59 forgetting what might be legitimate and sinless avocation, the right or wrong choice to have been made for him by the Father, then they would have long been uplifted from theirüonger and can be called a righteous, right-minded man that was not giudictively included in the endless avocations as he was willing to step in and bear some of those manly burdens that Joseph had left with his demise. The father would see him and be pleased and say, I see what my son is doing and I am pleased. He was given a truth-based, God-centered view of a God-pleasing life. And again, that was more and more rooted in the scriptures so that when he is confronted with the options of something that is other than a God-pleasing life, a truth-based, God-pleasing

55:40 life in the temptation of the wilderness, how does he answer the devil in every case by the scriptures? He says, devil, you're trying to define what is right for me, but my father has already defined it in his will. And it is this definition of my life which I am committed to follow. It is written. It wasn't like

56:04 quoting the Bible would scare the devil off. The devil himself quotes the Bible and doesn't scare himself off. What Jesus is doing when he quotes the scriptures is saying, I have fixed categories of my understanding of a God-centered, God-pleasing lifestyle. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the

56:27 Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the

56:28 Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the

56:29 Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the

56:30 Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the Bible. And it is here defined in the to get me to do. And many of you, the second generation, have had that privilege. You have

56:40 not been bamboozled and seduced by this voice and that voice saying, this is the kind of lifestyle that is pleasing to God. You've had the scriptures and categories of ethical and moral sensitivity have been woven into the very texture of your soul. What a blessing to have that as your legacy. Speaking to a man before the evening service who had almost none of that. And after this morning's

57:14 message, he said, in the light of what I've got to pass on to my children, so much of that is yet to be a part of me. I never had it growing up. You're a blessed people, you of the second generation, where you've had parents who were persnickety about interpreting the issues of right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, favorable, unfavorable choices in the light of holy scripture. You have been given a truth-based, God-centered view of a God-pleasing lifestyle, and you are blessed. And then fourthly, it says

Nurture in Favor with Men: A Truth-Based, God-Centered View of Social Grace and Decorum

57:53 Jesus was given a truth-based, God-centered view of social grace and decorum. He was given a truth-based, God-centered view of social grace and decorum. Look at the text. Jesus was continually advancing.

58:10 In wisdom, and stature, and in favor with God, and notice, and men. And there you have the plural use of anthropos, which is a generic sense of men. That is, of men and women, of all kinds, all shapes, all sizes, in all situations. The more they were exposed to Jesus in any social situation, the more he elicited favor. Now granted, this was before the offense.

58:40 This was before the offense of his exposure of shallow religion, his exposure of the religious leaders who plotted his murder and were filled with hatred. This is in the period of his developing maturation, and it highlights the fact that Jesus was given, under the tutelage of Mary and Joseph, under the canopy of the influence of the grace of God, a truth-based, God-centered view of social grace and decorum. When we turn to the Gospel records, it is amazing to me to see how Jesus moves so comfortably

59:21 into any social setting. He can be in the presence of unclean outcasts, such as lepers, and he feels comfortable with them and they with him. A woman who has an issue of blood, she's ceremonial and unclean. She's known what it is for kosher Jewish men for all those years.

59:42 The moment they saw her coming to make sure that she didn't touch them, make them unclean, why did she feel free to come and touch the hem of Jesus' garment? That woman who was a sinner, why did she feel free to crash the party and come to Jesus' feet and weep and wash them with her tears and her hair? Why could he be invited into a wealthy publican's banquet hall? After he calls Matthew, he says he made a feast for him. I mean, this was of mine course. Sure enough, five-star

60:25 restaurant type thing and Jesus is perfectly at ease in a high class social setting. He knows what piece of silver to pick up when so that no one rubs it. Where was he raised? Didn't Mama teach him no manners?

60:43 He can move to the upper class. He can move to the outcasts. He can make women who are oppressed, and treated with score and feel at ease with him and he with them he can call rugged fishermen and they follow him men do not follow as a leader a man who is not dominantly masculine and yet sensitive in his masculinity where'd he get all of that I emphasize it didn't drop down on him when the spirit came

61:20 upon him in the Jordan River it came to him drip by drip drop by drop there in that humble house where he was subject to Mary and to Joseph and I like to think in my mind's eye the many times that Mary would not have had to correct him for stubbornness and rebuke him for boorishness but instruct his maturing mind and his maturing social contacts and awareness it was not sin for Jesus to act like a perfect socially adjusted

61:59 seven-year-old when he was seven though he would have acted differently when he was 12 in the same situation it was not sinful otherwise this text has no meaning he was advancing in his social graces and decorum and many of you of the second generation had that benefit you've had parents who have come to see that one of the horrible fruits of the moral and spiritual decline in this nation is our

62:35 social boorishness our coarseness gruffness and bluntness and the lack of even attempting at making social relationships smooth and delightful and non irritating you've had the benefit I trust of a father who still says thank you to your mother at the end of the meal I trust though I have to say this is the area where I have the least amount of confidence that you and the second generation have learned an awful lot from some of them in the first

63:19 generation I've seen men downstairs fellowshipping while their wives are struggling with a baby on one arm a six-month baby in the cooking some of whom are willing to develop boundaries room except their own beauty but I know that people will work hard to spread love to others and it's not her and a diaper bag on the other arm trying to struggle off with their overcoats while her husband's are fellowshipping and I've walked in and hope they were ashamed when I've offered to take her diaper bag and take her coat and put it on I've told more than one of you girls you see any of the young men here within four feet of you and your peripheral vision and you're coming to a door stand still with your arms at your side and if they come on to wait wait and for say I'm waiting for a gentleman to open the door for me

64:00 Jesus would never have stood in that fire and let a pregnant woman with one kid on one hip in a diaper bag on the other he would never stood there having fellowship if he saw her in need of having someone to take her coat off he grew in favor with men in social grace and decorum and it wasn't that he came out of a finishing school you know some highfalutin element of society was there in the humble home of Nazareth but it doesn't need high structure of social class to learn these

64:42 issues and here I'm going to leave from saying you were blessed to say to you parents I think you need to get your act together you ought to be ashamed to allow your children to answer the phone the way many of them do I've called many of you how and I said this is Pastor Martin to whom am I speaking I can't even recognize the voice that's unconscionable if we're seeking to train a generation to be like Jesus you're never going to offend

65:21 anyone by having an element of social grace on the telephone hello this is John Smith who is speaking how may I help you some of you parents are doing a job that is not only commendable it's exemplary and I've commended you and I commend your kids when they do it I can't carry on a one-man campaign in this folks we ought to be as men the most gentlemanly men on the face of the earth because we are like the Lord Jesus social customs and decorum are not matters of indifference they are the symbols of unselfishness now you

66:05 think about that they are the symbols of unselfishness

66:14 your need right now to have a door opened is more important than what I'm doing your need to be honored as a woman and have a man help you with your coat it's more important than what I'm doing thank you yes ma'am thank you sir hello this is so-and-so what is that saying it's saying that you're important enough that what you want to know about who's on the other end is now important to me I'll identify myself

66:46 don't you put this is some little hobby that I'm writing it is embedded in scripture and you see it in our Lord Jesus remember what he did when he went into the house of that man that didn't anoint his head with oil didn't wash his feet he rebuked him he said Simon I came into your house no oil on my head and no water from my feet this woman did not cease to wash my feet with her tears the Lord Jesus knew what a socially sentirable action I could deliver a man into the inevitably problem that is why we're in it for Jesus that's why I'm in a deep I do not need to I'm in it for Jesus and I've been a believer in Jesus Christ I'm not in it to support a man'sい I God that has come into me for which by the grace of Jesus I'm not in it for sensitive man would have done, and he was offended when it wasn't done to him, and he pointed out to

67:23 the offender. And there are many incidents, often tucked away in little segments of the Gospels, that our Lord has set before us as the perfect gentleman. Where did he get all of that? He got it in the context of godly nurture, and that's where it needs to be imparted as well. Well,

Exhortation to the Second Generation: Be Thankful and Don't Squander It

67:47 as I conclude, let me speak to you of the second generation. Do you see what a privilege you have in being given parents committed to a loving, careful nurture, a nurture that is Bible-based with a total character vision? I know at times it's irritating. They seem like they're on your case for everything. Well, if they're doing it lovingly and patiently and not nitpickingly,

68:20 there'll come a day when you'll bless them and say, thank you for all the drip, drip, drip on the stalagmite and the stalactite. The drips were a pain in the neck, but now they are the substance of what I am as a man and a woman. I still kid my mother. I say, you're still in your 67-year-old son's ear many a time on a Saturday night, telling him doing what you don't like to do develops character. The job worth,

68:51 beginning is worth completing. The job worth doing is worth doing well. I said, mom, many a Saturday night, I wish I could get you out of my ear. I'm not satisfied with this word, that word, but there is the massive structure inlaid in the soul, not deposited when God saved me and united me to Christ, but built up by faithful nurture. For many of your parents, you are the second

69:22 generation. It has cost them dearly to try to provide this context of nurture. It has meant they've had to raise the eyebrow and elicit the frown of the extended family. When their parents and friends have seen how they sought to discipline and train you, they were thought extreme and harsh and old-fashioned. They paid a

69:46 price to seek to nurture you by biblical principles in all of these areas. And when they were willing to spend a figure of money, they were willing to spend a figure of money, and they were willing to spend a figure of money, figured out here a couple of months ago what some of your parents will spend to take you from kindergarten to through high school at the present rate of tuition in Trinity Christian School. I mean, what a nice retirement nest egg. If their attitude was, ah, well, they're under the word and we have family worship, then they'll filter out the garbage. Why be so fastidious about providing a

70:20 Bible-based, God-centered view of the totality of the world? They've been willing to pay the price in dollars and cents, in accumulated tens of thousands of dollars. Are you thankful? When's the last time you got in your pappy's face and said, Dad, thank you for busting your hump. Give me this. Remember in Romans 1,

70:50 amidst all those wretched sins, it says, neither were they thankful. Be thankful and bless God. Why? Because this perspective alone fits you for the real world. It's only a Bible-based, God-centered view of the totality of life that is

71:10 reality, and we can only function as image-bearers of God in the context of reality. To do anything other is to ruin ourselves and those around us. Be thankful. Accept it as God's gift. Don't feel guilty.

71:31 It's only a gift that God's given to us because with it will come a lot of perks. You will come out of the blocks running and outstripping many others in many areas of life because of that nurture. Some will try to put you on a guilt trip. Don't feel guilty. It's a great privilege. You didn't choose it. God has

71:52 given it to you graciously. Don't resent it, and don't squander it. Don't be a fool. My son, hearken to the Lord.

72:02 of thy father and listen to the law of your mother. It should be like chains about your neck. It will be a beautiful adornment. Don't resent it. Don't squander it. And you dear parents,

Exhortation to Parents: Don't Grow Weary in Well-Doing

72:20 I've had to exhort you at some places. I hope you're not mad at me. I hope you'll suffer the word of exhortation. This is your task. We who are grandparents who have a responsibility not

72:34 so directly with our grandchildren, but nonetheless we have a secondary responsibility. And those of us who are older believers with younger believers, we have all of us together this responsibility. Let's not shirk it. Don't grow weary in it. Let us not grow weary in well-doing. Let us not quit

72:57 because the outcome is uncertain. The outcome is uncertain. We may give ourselves to providing this. This Bible-based, God-centered nurture in the area of wisdom and stature, seeking to produce a lifestyle well-pleasing to God and in favor with men and our children may prove to be fools. They'll answer to God, but our hands will be clean. We will have done what

73:34 God called us to do. And one of the commentators, I close with this. It was again one of those statements. You read it and it's just a rescue. Jesus entered life as a divine infant. He began it as a human

73:53 child, subject to all its conditions of growth and development. He entered life as a divine infant. That which is conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit. He shall be called Son of God. Though he

74:13 entered life as a divine infant, he shall be called Son of God. He shall be called Son of God. And he also entered as a divine infant in Mary's womb. He began it outside the womb as a human child, subject to all its conditions of growth and development. Now, granted, there was no sin in Jesus pulling

74:33 him in an opposite direction. Granted, that's a factor that must constantly be remembered. But his grace to sinners is in us and available to us. That is a great strength. And there's

74:47 to us and is promised as we seek to give ourselves to this noble task of seeking by the grace of God to provide this careful, loving nurture of our children in a context that is Bible-based and concerned with the total character of that child to be nourished. And if the Lord tarries, I pray there will be another generation that will rise up and call mom and dad blessed because they have become modern-day Josephs and Marys.

75:29 In submission to such parents, they too, under the canopy of the operations of God's grace, will continue to grow in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and with men. Let's pray.

Closing Prayer

75:51 Father, we stand amazed again when we think of our Lord Jesus, He who made the worlds, upholds them by the word of His power, humbling Himself to become one of us, willing to go to the local synagogue school and learn His Hebrew alphabet, willing to learn from Mary how to cut His meat and how to fold His napkin.

76:22 O Lord, we pray that You would deliver, deliver us from all unbiblical views of our Lord Jesus and His development under the nurture of Mary and Joseph, and above all, under the canopy and influence of Your grace upon Him. And we ask that that grace will be operative in the second generation, that they will take these benefits that they have and welcome them, be thankful for them, yield to their influence, and outstrip, outstrip many of us in usefulness, in godliness. O Lord, we pray for those who are stubbornly resisting this nurture, for those who may

77:05 not be resisting it but who have squandered it, Lord, arrest them, deal with hearts in ways that only You can do. We commit to You, Your word, and the things we've wrestled with today. Thank You for Your presence. Thank You for Your help.

77:23 I thank You for the grace. Thank You for the privilege of ministering Your word to a people who come to hear Your truth, willing to be instructed, rebuked, exhorted. Father, You have been good to us. Accept our praise and dismiss us with Your blessing.

77:40 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.