Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Fifth Commandment Pt.2

Amen! Aren’t you thankful for that rock this morning? I think it’s pretty obvious that everything else is sinking sand, isn’t it? There’s nothing else to build it on. All of the strength of the arm of the flesh—the right arm—it’s all vanity. The wise man said very clearly: it’s vexation. You can have all that the world offers and, not only does it not satisfy, it doesn’t work. It’s foolishness, the Scripture says. The wisdom of men is foolishness with God. Men have their own kingdom, they have their own ways and our ways aren’t theirs, our ways are God’s and far above anything that the world can pretend to offer us.

I want to take a few more minutes this morning and deal with the fifth commandment: thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. How many [of] you think that should be taught a little more in society today? It’s very interesting to see the rebellion and the disorder that’s in society. But you know, it’s not just in the secular world, it’s in the church; and the sad part is, it’s not only in our midst, we’re vexed; and many of us have their same philosophies. We would argue against it philosophically, our theology doesn’t agree, but our lifestyles do. We want to understand, then, what God was saying to us when these Ten Commandments were given. Now, we’ve all heard it said and I’ll say it again—it’s very obvious: these are not ten suggestions. The Ten Commandments—they are very much on the negatives: "thou shall not" begins to be the admonition of the Lord; and all of the commandments are really set upon the first commandment. The first and great commandment, as Jesus said, is this: "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with—[say it]—all our hearts." Well, that tells us, then, that there’s a people that draw nigh to God with their mouths, the Prophet said, but their—what?—hearts are far from HIM. Jesus said it another way: He said, Don’t come and say, "Lord, Lord," or "I love you" and not keep my commandments. John said it another way: if you love me, my commandments are not grievous; they’re not difficult; they make sense. We don’t whine over doing God’s will—it’s the wisdom of God—we delight in it. We’re going to see in Deuteronomy in just a moment: this is our wisdom; this is our strength. This is what makes us different than all the world—that gives us the hope to stand when they’re mightier than we are. They outnumber us [in] the world, and yet this is our hope, this is our wisdom, this is our strength, doing the commandment of God, doing things His way. He said, then, that He’ll watch over His Word and—what?—perform it. That’s what we want to look at.

As we were looking at the aspect of the fifth commandment, the honoring of father and mother—we had to go back, then, historically and say, "Who is God speaking to?" If we’re going to interpret the Bible correctly, you always have to go back and understand what is God saying, to whom is He saying it, and what’s the purpose, what are we trying to do here. Think with me for just a moment—let’s go all the way back in our minds—you don’t have to turn there, you can if you want—but back to Genesis 17:18. We begin to see the first great covenant that was made that we call the Abrahamic covenant. God beginning to make covenant with people. Covenants are not just contracts. Contracts can be broken; covenants can’t. The blood covenants that are cut are for life; they’re not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly. Does that sound familiar? Any of you ever heard that as it pertains to the marriage ceremony? When we make this covenant with God and marry Him, we then are recognizing His headship, His lordship in our lives. We have no say from that point on and we become slaves, as Paul said in his epistle. I’m a love slave, I’m bought with a price, I’m no longer my own, and yet so many of us say that Jesus is Lord but we think we can control our own lives, we can do what we want to do, and we no longer have those rights as covenant children.

Where did all of this begin? Back in Abraham’s day—now, we all remember that Adam, the son of God, was created in God’s image; he was created for fellowship, and what caused the breach between God and his man. And another term that we’re going to use as we’ve been in this study: God and his man, or the Creator and the… [creature]. Why should this lump of clay, this creature, say to his Creator, "Why has thou made me thus?" The creature doesn’t have any business questioning God. "Why have you made me a woman?" "Why have you made me a man?" "Why do I have to have all these?" "Why did you put me in this household? I didn’t ask to be born into this house." Nobody asked you: that’s the point. In the beginning, God. From before the foundations of the world, God had a plan and He’s going to carry it out and nothing is going to thwart His will, His eternal purposes. So I would encourage you: get with the program. Amen? You’re not going to change it; get with the program. "I don’t like it." Nobody asked you; get with the program. "I didn’t ask to be born into Christianity and into a Christian home." Get with the program; God didn’t ask you. He put you here and He expects you to fulfill His divine purpose.

Now, I want to put into you this morning, in a nutshell, the book of Deuteronomy, the covenant that God made with His people on Sinai, and can I put it for you in just one phrase: I’ve chosen you to do my purpose, and if you don’t, I’ll kill you. The end; we could go home, okay? See, we’ve created another God, a merciful God, who lets us do what we want and says, "Well, you know, you have free choice, therefore go ahead and do as you please, and I understand;" but in the end, it’s not going to be very nice, because you’re going to go to hell. How can we believe in an eternal hell when we don’t believe in a present God? How can we fear hell when we don’t fear the presence of God? See, that’s what’s wrong today in most of our churches; and in most of our lives, there’s a lack of the fear of God. That’s what all of these commandments are built upon that we’re going to see in just a moment in Deuteronomy four, five, six, seven this morning—we’re going to spend a little time.

In your minds, go back with me to the garden of Eden and to the commandment that God put in the authority of man all of His creation and He said, "This is all yours and I want you to lord over it; and one thing you can’t have," He said, "you can’t eat of the tree that’s in the midst of the garden, because the moment that you eat thereof you shall surely—[say it]—die." What is that fruit? It’s the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge that makes us feel we can live independently from God, the world’s wisdom. He said that the moment that you eat and you gain this knowledge, you’ll think you don’t need me anymore and you’ll die. We all know the story, and Satan comes and he tempts Eve and he said, "Has God said?" I know that—questioning with the commandments, questioning what God has said. "Has God said? You won’t surely die. Your eyes will be opened and you will become as God Himself. See, the reason God doesn’t want you to do this is: He won’t be able to control your life anymore, He wants to hold you down. The Man wants to hold you down, wants to suppress you. You have rights, you deserve independence. You can become a god to yourself, a separate entity of free will, and purpose, pursuit. The liberty to pursue peace, prosperity, and happiness, independence, independence, independence."

So, as we being to look at this from the beginning, her eyes are opened. She usurps the authority by going to that tree over her husband Adam. She is deceived, the usurper, and seduces her man, and the man abdicates his authority, and now the original sin or the consequence of the original sin (pride) becomes—and we’ve taught on this before—the consequence is broken order, broken order. God never intended it and His judgment on the broken order—He then says, I want to tell you something from this purpose because you guys have broken order; the woman is now going to be under the man, the man is now going to live by the sweat of his brow, and our fellowship that we had—the order with God—has been severed. There’s now a lack of absolute and total dependence upon God, that serenity of walking with Him in the garden is gone. Adam, where are you? I hid myself. Why? Because I was naked. The awareness of his sinful nature now and his awareness of the holy God, and that uncomfortableness of coming into His presence, just wanting to be separate now. Have you noticed that in your life when you’re not walking right with God, you just kind of want to hang out and you’re not looking forward to worship and prayer, and the Word of God, devotions, and the people of God? We’re now comforted by our business pursuits, our vocation, our recreation. I’m just setting all of that to try to show you the consequences of sin in our [lives] and what the real core issue to obedience is, because that’s basically all we’re talking about in the fifth commandment order, the lordship of Jesus, the Creator who ordered you into an environment of covenant people and said, "I’ve chosen you to myself; you can’t live like the rest of the world. You’re special to me." In the Abrahamic covenant, the Bible makes it very clear—"I didn’t choose you because you were better than everybody else, I didn’t choose you because you’re greater in number; in fact, I chose you because you were the least." Think about that. Here we are—the least, and God made us the greatest. Amen? The most precious thing in His sight. We are the apple of His eye, praise God! You’re not here this morning in this service because you chose to be here; God chose you. "Well, I have the right to come and go as I please." No, God chose you. Now, can you leave? Of course, you can, but you can’t leave happily. You can’t leave and be at peace. You can’t leave and be in fellowship with God. You can’t leave and be a friend of God. The moment you leave, you’re an enemy of God. I’m not talking about Calvary Temple; I’m talking about the body of Christ. You don’t have the right to walk away from God and demand relationship with Him and to claim independent living separate from the consequences of your rebellion, your defection; you’re becoming a traitor.

I think it’s interesting that as a people, our own nationalism—let me ask you ask you a question. Just recently we had in the last couple of decades—we found this guy who was a spy—right?—and so what normally happened to spies? But not anymore—right?—we kind of just pat them on the head and put them in prison and say, you can’t be "free" anymore. When you’re in the army—in the military, and people around you are being killed and are fighting for this country, and you turn around and you run, and you leave your comrades and they’re killed, and you run and save your own life, you’re called a what? How many of you were in the military? Let me see your hands. What did they teach you, what happened to traitors, originally, initially? Hmm? Yeah, shot. In fact, actually, it was lawful for your own comrades to shoot you in the back while you were running away. Yet people defect on God, become traitors to the covenant of God, and everybody goes, "Well, that’s their right; it’s their choice." God chose you; He separated you to Himself; you didn’t do it. Who do you think you are to demand independence from God?

That’s what we begin to ask as we look at this, and we have misapplied biblical principles because of this. One of the most misapplied biblical principles is this fifth commandment: honor your father and mother. In Ephesians Chapter 6, it’s referenced by the Apostle Paul and it says this is the first commandment with what? Promise (verse 2). What is the promise?—that you might live long upon the Earth. And we go, "Oh, well, good. If I honor mom and dad, bring them breakfast in bed and I don’t ever curse them, and I obey all of their commandments—like I cut the lawn when they tell me—then I’m going to live to be like 180, and I’m going to be happy all the days of my life, and I’m going to be rich and prosperous." Now, longevity can be consequence of obedience to this commandment, but that’s not the first implication. Because the implication is this: there’s a promise involved. Obedience will bring benefits, but disobedience will guarantee the lack of long life because the disobedient child was taken to the gates and killed. Hmm, how’s that for dealing with long life? Obey your parents and you’ll live long, don’t and you’ll live short. That’s what he’s saying.

So we begin to realize the consequence of honoring father and mother. Let’s first of all go back and study what the word "honor" means. It means to esteem highly, to give reverence to. Now, why would that be? Well, I mean, it’s obvious why that is: we give honor to mom and dad because if it wasn’t for mom and dad, I wouldn’t be here. Well, what about the guy that says, "I don’t want to be here, anyway; I didn’t ask to be born." You ever heard that snide little smart-aleck, selfish, adolescent statement, "I didn’t ask to be born." Tell me about it. Gift to the world. Dear God, what would we ever do without you? "I didn’t ask to be born." God ordained your birth, and those of us who are the chosen of God—God-ordained—to represent Him as a people, and that’s what we’re going to see in just a moment.

The honor of father and mother—listen, get this very clearly—to honor father and mother means nothing less than this: to honor their God, because that’s why they are alive. The whole purpose of man—chosen man, covenant man—is to do what? Fear God and… Say it again—to fear God and… [keep the commandments]. So why do the covenant people exist—what’s our purpose? To do what?—say it again. Okay, that’s why we’re here, that’s who we are. That’s who mom and dad are. That’s why you were born into their house, for them to train you up to do what? If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing our jobs; and if we don’t do that, there’s no purpose for our being. If we’re not going to do that, there’s no reason for us to exist. If we’re not going to do that, why don’t we just go to the gates and get it over with; you have no purpose. We’ve misunderstood the eternal purposes of God, and what this covenant is all about.

So we go back to the Abrahamic covenant and in all of the Earth, Almighty sovereign God looks down, and not because they were the greatest [but] because they were the least, and He sees one guy and He grabs him and He says, "Come here, I want to make a covenant with you," and then He tells him why He chose him and He tells the other people, I chose you because you would—what? Teach your… [children] and your… [children’s children]. Teach them what? That they’re independent? "You can serve God if you want—as long as you live in my house, don’t do drugs, and have sex on the living room floor, it’s okay." That sounds kind of crude, but Eli was letting his kids do it in the temple of God. "Nay, nay, my sons. As long as you don’t defy me, it’s acceptable. Oh, you can slap God in the face, you can defy God. You can mock His commandments. You can serve other gods, but you will obey me." Anybody see something wrong here? Would you call this broken? It’s not about your little family unit, it’s about the kingdom of God; it’s about the glory of God, it’s about the holiness of God, it’s about realizing who we are as a people. We are not of the nations; we don’t live like the nations do. The nations live for nationalism. They live for the paternal, maternal, the family. We don’t live for the family, and we don’t live for the nation, we live for our God; that’s who we are. To do anything else is to be a traitor, a defector. The Bible calls it many different things. We talk about—if it has to do with doctrine, we call it apostasy. We use terms like backslide. How about words like pride, independence, a God-hater?—what it really is.

So, Abraham’s chosen and he’s chosen for a real specific purpose that we were all able to quote, because he would see to it that his children and his children’s children kept the commandments of God. That’s who we are, that’s why we’re called. Now, we know, following the Abrahamic covenant, what took place. Now, something was very interesting in the covenant of Abraham. It was a little distinct from the next great covenant as you study the covenants of the Bible: you’ve got the Abrahamic covenant, and then following that you had the next great covenant [which] was what?—the Mosaic covenant. In the Mosaic covenant, we’ve got more definition of what God expected out of us. The Abrahamic covenant was pretty generic. The Abrahamic covenant was: I’ll bless those that bless you; I’ll curse those that curse you. Hmm. The focal point was not the nations, it was the covenant people; and God said I’ll bless those that recognize my presence in your life and I’ll be against those that are opposing you as my representative. Hmm. I will curse those that—what?—[curse]. Does that go for our children?―that turn their back on the covenant and curse our God and choose other gods, and choose to live separate from our God? See, we seem to think that just independent living that somehow, there’s a neutral ground. See, “they’re not that bad.” We’re talking about our children, primarily, and what our responsibility is to raise our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But I want to tell you something—that we have to see very clearly [that] there is no neutral; you are for me or you are not-that-bad-of-a-guy-living-in-limbo, -in-neutral. You are for me or you are... [against me]. Moses came down from the mountain, everybody’s partying, and he makes this statement: "We’re going to have to make a choice here: everybody that’s on the Lord’s side: come over here; everybody that wants to worship the golden calf: go over there; and everybody who just wants to be moral, and have fun, and not oppose anybody: get in the middle." Have any of you ever found a "middle" in the Bible? Is there a "middle ground"?

Then what does that make those that are not serving God with all of their hearts? The enemies of God. "Yeah, but they’re nice people." Yeah, they’re nice enemies of God. My grandma’s a nice little old ninety-eight-year-old God-hater and she’s going to a devil’s hell, and I’ve shared the gospel with her many times, and she’s still not bowed her knee. What an exciting thing after forty years of living the kingdom in the presence of my family. What an exciting thing after forty years to finally have my mother accept Jesus as her personal savior. That was exciting and to ask for her eighty-second birthday to come out and be baptized. But see, nowhere along the line did we ever compromise the gospel with them, and that in and of itself is distinct from what we’re talking about. See, there are people [who] we have relationships with and influence with the gospel, and those are different than those who have been in the covenant and defected from it. There’s a big difference and many of us fail to make that kind of a distinction. It’s one thing to have not known, never accepted and it’s another thing to have embraced, and then tread the blood of Jesus beneath our feet willfully. The response[s] to these two different groups are distinctly different in the Scriptures.

Let me show you what we’re talking about. We now get into that Mosaic covenant—Moses comes down with the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and all of us who are Cecil B. DeMille fans—right?—and we see Moses throw the tablets [down], the golden calf blows up—pretty dramatic. I think that probably was a very dramatic scene. Now, wait a minute, stop and think—what’s going on here? Moses is going to come down and he’s going to give these guys a lot of rules. When Moses was on the mountain, the people said, "We don’t want to go up there, we’re afraid. You go up there, hear what God says, come down, tell us and we’ll do it, okay?" (Deuteronomy 5:27) They were serious: "We’ll do whatever God says." Now, what was going on here—you remember the story very clearly. The cloud came upon the mountain, the presence of God—the thing was shaking, they could hear. Can you imagine? They described it like trumpet blasts—just this sound when God would speak that would just pierce your ears and your heart—and the presence—and probably with such awesome power that it would cause your insides to shake, and God’s there in the present and people are like, "Whoa!"

So Moses is up there and he’s getting these commandments, and he comes down, he had a lot of things to tell them. He got dimensions and different things of the tabernacle that he would share with them—he [has] got a couple of rules. But there’s something unique about those tablets and the Bible says, written by the… [finger of God]. Think there’s something special about these ten rules? By the hand of God Himself, and God’s first commandment is: "Thou shalt have no other gods…" (Deuteronomy 5:7). We’re going to read here, in just a moment, Deuteronomy 4 through 11, and the whole thing is about "Don’t serve other gods." Don’t serve other gods. I’m going to bless you; I’m going to give you a land that flows with milk and honey, you’re going to drink from wells you didn’t dig, live in houses you didn’t build; don’t serve other gods. You’re going to be tempted to go, and the nations are going to try to amalgamate you into themselves; they’re going to seduce you; don’t let your sons marry their daughters; don’t serve other gods; they’re going to bring idols in; they’re going to distract you—why? Because you are evil by nature. It is built into your flesh to forsake God. You were born in the natural to be a God-hater, a self-lover, independent rebel. That’s who we are. What’s the parent’s job, then? To break that, to drive that out. To teach them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, brainwash them. There’s no other way to think. There are no other gods. "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is…" say it—[one Lord]. That’s not a teaching on the trinity. Can I give you a better rendering of the Hebrew there? It is not "The Lord your God is one," it’s "The Lord your God is the only." There’s only one God is what that’s saying. It’s not just the monotheistic revelation opposing polytheism. There are no other gods. There’s only one Creator of Heaven and Earth; everything else is created by Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made, the Scripture says. There’s only one choice: Jehovah, Yahweh; anything else is an idol, including self, self-ambition, self-will, independent living; if you love mother or father or wife or children, you are not worthy of me—if you love them more than me—first commandment. We all know that, don’t we? How about applying—this is where it gets tough. It’s easy to go through the Scriptures and then we go, "Yeah, I understand, but." You ever talk to people? "Amen, I agree, but." "Yeah, that’s what the Word says..." In this fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, when Moses is bringing the law and presenting it to the people of Israel, the one thing he says is: you cannot add to it, and you cannot diminish from it (Deuteronomy 4:2).

Let’s go over to Deuteronomy for just a moment. What I want to try to do in the next couple of sessions as we’re looking at this—I have one goal over the next sessions, and that’s to make God as big as we can in your eyes, to give God his rightful place. Because, you know, many of us have sold Him out for family, for self-comfort and ease, "we don’t want the flack." "I just don’t want the personal grief of having my children upset with me, my wife upset with me, my boss upset with me, grandma upset with me." Jesus said, "…yea, and [your] own life also…" (Luke 14:26). You see, to sign this covenant—to join up and cut a covenant with the blood of Jesus, we relinquish all rights to our lives.

Now, some of us—see—I think back on young Timothy’s life as a third-generation believer—his mother and his grandmother, and here’s this young man as a believer raised up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I think back about different families and—I’ve shared with you before—Janet’s family, and her grandmother, and her mother, herself, and her daughter, and her daughter’s daughters—that’s cool. Stop and think with me for just a moment. Five generations the devil didn’t touch! How cool is that? Don’t know anything else. Can’t think any other way. Brainwashed. There’s only one way to live and that’s to honor God, to choose Him first. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. How jealous are we for that? I talked about the misapplication, especially that many traditional Pentecostals have. I’ve been around this thing for a pretty good period of time now and I want to tell you that I have seen—this is my observation, but in many of the charismatic fundamentalists churches—a misapplication of this Scripture: "train them up in the way that they should go, and when they’re old, they will not depart from it" has been interpreted [into] "train them up in the way they should go, they’ll become teenagers, they’ll backslide, they’ll do drugs, they’ll have sex, they’ll go out and sow their oats, and then they’ll come back." That’s not what that verse says. It says if you train them up properly, they’ll make it clear through old age and never depart, never serve the devil a day of their lives, never partake of sin, praise God! Because "you are a peculiar people, a holy nation called to show forth the praises of Him that called you out of darkness into His marvelous light," [First] Peter 2:9 says. What are we going to settle for? What are we battling for? I’ll tell you where it starts: it starts right up there in that nursery, and it starts by not letting your child manipulate you when they’re crying. It starts by you taking your child—and we’ve shared this with you before—and we’ve got all these books out that talk about the child’s routine, and so now the child rules the home, and so we stay home from church because it’s the child’s nursing time, it’s the child’s sleep time, it’s the child’s potty time. Your child is not the center of the universe; your child is an addendum to the kingdom. Your child fits into your schedule; he doesn’t demand a schedule to himself. He is an addendum, he is part of. This whole world—this whole natural process has been the consequence of this broken order. It becomes the idol and it’s totally contrary. We realize that that child—listen—"Oh, look at them, they’re so innocent!" They’re in innocence until whatever the age of accountability might be—don’t know what it is—and they are saved by God’s grace and mercy and universal redemptive work until they become God-haters, rejecters of the covenant [—a reference to Roman 7:7-9]. But as they come into our presence up here in the nursery, the one thing we know that in them, that is, in their flesh dwells—what? [no good thing]. Okay, so right now, from day one, we have a war with [the] flesh, and the law is for the—lawless. We set up laws and we set up rules and we break self-will and we cause them to conform, and realize why they’re on the planet. They are not on the planet to be worshipped; they’re on the planet to worship, to be a contribution to the glory of God, called as priests. See, we love to quote that Scripture in Peter when it applies to us getting a blessing, don’t we? "Oh, we are a chosen generation."

When the bird plague and flu comes, we’re going to [want] to be claiming rights, aren’t we? "We’re chosen, praise God. Lord, where’s our protection?" Where’s your worship? Where is the blood upon your doorposts? Where are those Scriptures over your doorposts that we teach to our children when they rise up and when they lie down and when they walk in the way? Where is the brainwashing? Where is the true knowledge in ourselves and in them that we are covenant people—we are special, we deserve to be protected because of God’s covenant with us. So in all of these things, we’ve lived dualistic lives. "We are American Christians!" I want to tell you what—we talked about this before—many of us are more concerned about our children’s morality than we are their salvation. We live in that kind of an environment.

So in Deuteronomy, let’s go over to Chapter 4—we’ll pick up a few things, we’ll be a little bit of time in here. But Chapter 4 of Deuteronomy—you remember, we’re getting ready to check out the Ten Commandments, but I love what he says here in the opening part of these chapters. "Listen, Israel," he says, Chapter 4, verse 1, "to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you." Get it down in your thinking, in your notes. "Do them." Do them that you might—what?—live. Don’t do them and… Hmm? "Do them that you might live." Now, here’s why I’m going to let you live and here’s what your purpose of living is: "that you may go in and possess the land which the Lord God has given to you." For Abraham and the covenant people, it was literally the land of promise. For us, it’s another land—it’s a land of kingdom living, and in that kingdom life, we have privileges, we have responsibilities to honor God, to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to be epistles read of men, to be the light of the world, to be the salt of the earth, to allow the Holy Spirit to gift each of us, and place us in the community as [He] pleases. There’s nothing independent about our service; we’re part of a whole, no man lives to himself.

So, as the Spirit of God’s speaking here, he says, do the Word so that you could live and go in and fulfill your calling, your purpose, and possess this land. Now, watch verse 2: "And you shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall you diminish, so that you can keep His commandments, those that the Lord has commanded you." See, we want to find loopholes, we want to add postscripts—and the safest thing for you and me to do is to literally take the Word of God, apply it our lives, do it, and not be hearers so that we become self-deceived. For if our light is darkness, how great is that darkness. Self-imposed deception. He says in verse 6, "keep and do." Now, this is what I talked about earlier—I like this: "keep them and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations." See, it doesn’t say that they’re going to agree with us, it says that they’re going to acknowledge that we do it differently. The nations are going to go, "Well, look, here’s what they understand. Here are the rules by which they govern themselves."

I’ll never forget—I was in a child custody case—I was called as witness. I was not only the witness—I was the bad guy. They took one segment of one my teaching tapes and they played it over and over. "Beat them, they won’t die." "Beat them, they won’t die." "Beat them, they won’t die." I can remember this attorney came up and he asked me some questions, and every question they asked me, I quoted Scripture to answer them. The guy started getting ticked—the attorney got ticked. He looked to me, he looked at the judge and he said, "Your honor, tell this man to answer me straight! Every time I ask him a question, he just quotes Scripture." He looked back at me and I just kind of grinned. He said, "Your honor, he’s laughing at me." I like what the judge said. Listen to what the judge said. "This is how they govern themselves; you need to understand what he’s saying to you." That was pretty wise. That didn’t mean the judge agreed with it, it meant that he recognized [that] we live by different rules than they do. Do we? Who are you? How do the nations recognize us? Are we so distinctly different that it’s not only recognized by the world, but they’ll mock us, they’ll want to destroy us? Hey, if God’s for us, nobody can be against us.

I’ve had people say over the years different things about ourselves, "It’s so arrogant." There’s no arrogance; I’m weak. There’s no way that I could stand—there’s nothing in me, but I know in whom I’ve believed. Amen? I believe the Word of God. If God’s for us, nobody can be against us. Nobody can take me out until God’s ready to have me removed. I believe that with all of my heart. So I just say, hit me with your best shot.

What do you believe? When it comes to making these decisions of applying the wisdom of God or Dr. Spock, what are you going to do? Are you going to apply timeout or are you going to apply the rod? Which wisdom? It’s the rod and reproof—we understand that, you don’t just smack your kid. We’re not going to get into correction in this teaching necessarily. But it’s the reproof, it’s the bringing the Word of God. Look, you’re rebelling against God’s Word—we can’t have that. It’s going to cause you to die and go to a devil’s hell. You’ve been called to eternal life. You’ve been called to a life of productivity, and peace, and joy, and community and serving the holy sovereign God of the universe! You’re a priest of God, you’ve been called from before you were born to be a believer, and you’re not going to defect on that as long as I’m around! I will not let it happen to you as long as there’s breath in me. The moment you make the decision, I’m going to be the first guy to take up a stone and kill you. Have your kids grown up with that knowledge? I’ve shared with you my children growing up all along—I’ve told them since they were old enough to understand: do not make me choose between you and God, because I want you to know, right now, very clearly: I choose God. If your children don’t know that and if your wives don’t know that, you have made them weak, you’ve given place to the devil in their lives to come in and bring them destruction. As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. Why? Because that’s what I’ve been called to do; that’s who I am. I have no purpose. There’s no reason for me to be alive if I’m not serving God. This isn’t what I do; this is who I am—a peculiar people, a holy nation called to show forth the—say it—praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. You, who were no people, God has made the people of God. Is that a treasure to us? Do we sell that to our kids? This isn’t something we have to do; this is something we get to do. We are the privileged. "Oh, we don’t get to go to the dance. We don’t get to dance." Yes, you do, you get to dance in the spirit. Amen? We don’t get to go rub up against everybody that’s not our wives, and fornicate, and call it dancing. We’re not of the world. "Yeah, well, you know, our kids have to sacrifice and they don’t get to play Little League," and so what do we do—we build big, superchurches that have Little Leagues—leagues whom we built—and we do everything the world does so that are kids are not deprived from the world.

In the literal sense, those of us that are called into fivefold ministry—they go back to the Old Testament. The nations―these were covenant people; they knew God. I’m just trying to speak to this thing to show you a type. But the one thing we know is this: the priests’ inheritance was who? See, the nations—the other tribes got to have lands and they owned their homes―Levites got to own some homes, too, but―they got to own their land, and they owned homes, and they had businesses, and all these different things, and the priests got stuck with—what?—God. They got stuck with God. All they got was God. So the priest tells his kids, "I’m sorry you were born into this household, you got stuck with God." "But, Dad, all the other kids are out playing and I got to cut up this lamb! Bummer." "Yeah, it would be nice to be out there playing soccer, but go and take those entrails and throw them on the fire; all we have is God." [Laughter] What do your kids feel like?

What does it mean to be separate, set apart, holy for God? What’s the attitude of our hearts? Is it a drudgery? Is it a constraint? Or is it willingly and cheerfully that we give ourselves holy to the Lord? Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God which is his reasonable service, and being not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds that we might prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, the Scripture says. How do we look at this thing? This is our wisdom, this is who we are, verse 6 says, so that the nations which shall hear these statutes shall say, "Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people." You want to know what? Whether they like to admit it or not, the world steps back, they look at us and they say, "This works." You want to know why? Because our kids are obedient—they’re diligent. They should be. We provoke them to jealousy.

He said, "but be careful," verse 9, "take heed to yourselves, and keep your soul diligently lest thou forget the things which your eyes have seen, and they depart from your heart" (emphasis added). What have you seen God do? You know how bad we have it: "Oh, things are so bad [moaning] the young people [desperate moaning]." What have you seen? Have you seen your dad love your mom as Christ loved the church? Have you seen your mom lovingly support your father and live in submission to him, and pour their lives out to love you, and to teach you, and your dad to train you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? What have your eyes seen? Have you seen the presence of God in worship and in praise? Have you known the rapture of your own soul at moments of prayer and intercession when God—the living God—has touched you, and in a moment you were changed, you were brought to peace, you were raptured into His presence? Do you remember those moments? How about the moments of your dad busting your mom’s face, coming in drunk and holding a gun to your head, molesting you, burning you with their cigarette lighter, losing everything you own at the race track, stupid on drugs and alcohol, watching your mom weep as your dad’s committing adultery? That’s what you want? What have you seen? What have we forgotten God has done for us?

He goes on in these passages and he says, when your children come to you and say, "Dad, what are these monuments?" Remind them: we were a people in Egypt. Thank God that generations are going to come when there has been no sin in our camp—but I want to tell you something―there’s still enough of us here that have been in Egypt that still have the scars, that still have lived that life that I just talked to you about—of drunkenness, drugs and everything else, and we remember what that was like and I want to tell you, son, that’s what we were, but God has brought us out. We, who were not a people, have become the people of God, and we’re not living any other life. Then they want to start moving that way and we go, [nonchalantly] "Well, okay, that’s your right." God didn’t deliver us and make us this people for me to turn you lose. You are not going to despise the God that bought me with His blood. You are not going to spit in His face in my presence. When you spit in my God’s face, you, my son, become my enemy. Where is that jealousy? Who’s going to take up the javelins in our day? "Well, you know, that sounds harsh." Well, it seems to me that as we’re reading along here, we come into verse 24 that says, "The Lord your God is a consuming fire and a jealous God." Maybe we have the wrong picture of God. Maybe we’re not afraid enough of this holy God. Maybe some of us—maybe it’s been too long since some of us—because we’ve been too busy on our jobs, and too busy entertaining ourselves, and too busy in the temporal—maybe it’s been too long since any of us have spent sufficient time at the foot of Mount Sinai and seen that cloud of smoke, and seen that mountain rumble, and been terrorized in our hearts at the awesomeness of our God. Let me ask you another question: how long is eternity? And you’re not willing to take a few moments of discomfort or allow someone to go through a few moments of discomfort for the purpose of saving their souls from eternity and damnation? You know what I think? I think you don’t believe in eternity. I think you don’t believe in hell. I don’t think you could make that kind of decision if you truly believed. But grasping at natural humanistic straws for momentary consequences when the Scripture says, when you turn them over for the destruction, it’s for the saving of the soul. There’s nothing easy about this—don’t think for a moment that I stand here and think—and I can make the statement to you that I sat there and told my children this—don’t you think that for a moment when my son packed up and left that it didn’t break my heart. Any of you that know me clearly, you know I’m a softie. Anybody that knows me well knows that I am a very soft, compassionate person. But what I said was true: I love God more. I’m not saying this is easy. I’m saying we have no choice; we’re not our own. I’m saying that if we love God more than we love our families, then it’s not a decision that’s made at that moment; it was a decision that I made when Jesus became my Lord. I’ve already made these decisions. I don’t have to make this choice when my child is in this situation. I don’t have to make this choice when my wife responds in a certain way. I’ve made these choices. You see, many of us wait for the circumstances. When Jesus becomes Lord, my choices are made. I just go to this book and I have all the rules. Okay, what do I do; here’s the situation, what’s He say? Oh-kaay, that’s what we’re going to do. Callously? No. Weeping, broken, but joy comes in the morning, praise God!

By the way, Star called me Friday and he’s coming home. He’ll be here in the next couple of weeks. He said, "Father’s spoken to me and I need to come home," and I said, "Come home," praise God. I’m looking forward to seeing what Father might have done and will do in his life. I don’t have a clue. All I know is, nothing’s changed; we’re just going this direction; you want to go, jump on board, praise God. What do you do with this consuming fire, this jealous God? We’ll finish with this for this morning: verse 29. The only way you’re going to know God’s presence is—verse 29—to seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. He said you need to be obedient to His voice. This is the fruit of repentance. True godly sorrow—true repentance is seen in the fruit of obedience. God is desiring to make of us a nation who were no people.

As you prepare for this evening’s service, read Chapters 5 and 6 this afternoon. I’m going to be leaving here and heading directly to Baltimore for Jim’s—if you can believe this—tenth anniversary as pastor and we’re going to be going up and just celebrating with them. What an exciting time that is, to see the fruit of God’s Spirit. But I hope you can see the jealousy of our heart of Moses, of Paul, for the glory of God. We’ve been teaching now for over a year, trying to help us as a people [to] see that we’re not what we think we are. I know the majority of your hearts and I know we’re a people that love God, and you know what? We’re not doing a bad job, and we look around and see other people, and compared to them we think, "Yeah, we’re doing really good," but the Bible says don’t compare ourselves by ourselves. What we’ve been doing for a year now is to ask ourselves to be honest with our own hearts: "Are we as free from the world as we think we are, or have we—because of our Bible knowledge, what we know—convinced ourselves that we’re spiritual because we know stuff?" It’s by our fruit that we’re known, the Scripture says. It’s not by hearing, but doing. What do you do when you’re pushed into the corner and have to make a decision for God or yourself or your family, or your—who do you choose? Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. These are all very simple principles.

So the commandment then—the fifth commandment—when it says honor your father and your mother—I’ve seen Christians apply this this way: "Well, the Bible says [to] honor your father and your mother and so, therefore, I’m going to dishonor God; I’m going to not keep the Word of God because, you know, the Bible says honor your father and your mother, and they don’t want me to." We’ve seen people misapply this commandment: Thou shalt not kill. I’ve seen people put it to where "I won’t step on a bug. The Bible says thou shalt not kill." Hey, if it’s a spider, it’s going down. That’s why God made so many of them; we can kill as many as we want and there will still be enough to do the job. Spider of the Bible says even in the king’s palace, right? You can’t get rid of all of them. It’s a total misapplication of that verse. It’s a total misapplication of this.

These commandments are not for the nations; they’re for the covenant people. This is not speaking about mother-father generically; it’s talking about mother-father covenant people. Children, obey your parents. You know, as a non-Christian when I was growing up, I didn’t honor my father and my mother. I obeyed them to the degree that I didn’t want to suffer the consequences. You all know what I’m talking about? I was serving one person, I was honoring one person—you know who it was? Because that’s what sinners do. I was a good disciple of the devil. I represented him well. I made no pretense. All the devil wants you to do—he doesn’t want you to get Ouija boards and bat wings and eyes of newt—that’s not what the devil’s all about. The devil’s all about you just serving yourself. If he’s got you serving you, that’s all the worship he needs out of you.

Honor your father and your mother who are in the covenant, who are training you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; do what they tell you, be what they are, follow their steps, become that godly seed, be the generation that brings up another generation—that’s why I’ve chosen you. That’s why before the foundations of the world, before you were born, God caused you to be born into a Christian home—so you would be a Christian. Old covenant, so that you would be a covenant child, and we’ll see it tonight very clearly, and if you choose not to be—[nonchalantly] "okay." No, listen to what God says. He said, I say this so that you would hear and fear. How many of you read the chapters that I gave you as homework last? How many of you saw that: so you would hear and fear, hear and fear, hear and fear. There’s no fear of God today. God didn’t say, "Well—and if you don’t want to, go away." [God said,] "And if you don’t do what I called you to do, I’ll kill you." Build a superchurch off that. Hmm? Build a socially communitywide service built on that, or choose to honor God. As for me and my house, we’re serving God—that’s what we’re called to do. There’s no reason for me to be alive if I don’t serve Him. Why would I want my children to go back to what I came out of? I am so thankful that He chose me.

Father, we thank you for your Word for this morning. In an hour when your people have been more vexed with the world than they think—not only with the god of this world, Satan, but also with the world’s America—independence, freedom, and in your kingdom there is no independence, and there is no freedom, we are slaves. Paul said a love slave. The awl was taken and our earlobes were pierced on the doorposts that when anybody would look at us they would see by the hole in our ears that we belong to Jesus. "Oh, you’re one of them?" "Yep, and proud of it." How much has the world, psychology, sociology, humanism crept in—politics, rights, freedoms, individuality? In the Bible, we shared with you last session, fathers—fathers could sell their children to pay debts. Fathers determine who their children marry. Fathers. Now, remember, when I say fathers, I’m not speaking of an individual, two becomes one. I’m talking about fathers and mothers with the father, the man, ultimately being the head. But this is done in community. This is done corporately. This is done with husbands and wives; the wife is the helpmeet providing wisdom, the feminine perspective input. We’ve done enough teaching on that for you to know what I’m talking about. But ultimately, men, you make final decisions. "Yeah, but this is American and in America children have rights." Are you an American or are you a Christian? "Well, I’m an Afro-American Christian." "I’m a Caublanasian" [that] they got all mad at Tiger Woods [about] and all that because he didn’t say he was an Afro-American? He said, "But my mom’s a…" whatever, I can’t remember what she is—some oriental. So I’m an oriental African-American golfer, rich. What are you? In Jesus, there’s not male or female, there’s not black, white, there’s not Jew or Gentile, there’s no allegiance to culture, there’s no allegiance to gender, there’s no allegiance to nationalism. We are bought with a price; we’re not our own. Father, make it real, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand together. We’ve gone late, I’ve got go. Turn to somebody next to you and say, "We’ve gotta put up with more of this tonight." Praise God! Amen, go in peace; God go with you.

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