The Christian life - The..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I will take family worship as a means that we have as Christian families to raise our children, right? So an activity that we conduct, that we perform as Christian families to raise our children.

And the Bible calls us, the fathers are to raise up or bring up their children in the training and the admonition of the Lord. It says, Paul in Ephesians chapter six, right? That we are to bring up our children in that, the training and in the admonition of the Lord. That is the commandment that we have been given, fathers and, of course, to the Christian family. And my desire is that I will be able to speak to you, perhaps, about the most important principle for every single type of relationship, not only in the context of the family, but also the most important principle for the relationships within the context of the Church, so that we will understand how we are to raise our children.

And from there, perhaps, I might be able to speak about family worship. Let's see how the Lord leads us and the Spirit guides us through all of these things. So I'm inviting you to read, brothers and sisters, Colossians chapter 1. And let us read together, please. The first eight verses.

Okay, so Colossians chapter 1. And what I'm trying to do here is just to point you to the praise of the Apostle to this church at Colossae, that is found in verse 3, 4, and 5. But let's just read from chapter 1, verse 1 to verse 8. It says, Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this hope you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world and is bearing fruit and increasing. as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us Your love in the Spirit.

Amen. Pay attention to those verses there. As I said, this is the main thing that I want to call your attention to in verse 3 to 5, when it says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Why? Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of these you have heard before in the words of the truth, the gospel. Brothers and sisters, when we are addressing such a complicated topic, I was asking myself and speaking to myself before the Lord, what is it more fearful for me? To be a father, to be a parent, a father, a husband, or to be a person that preaches the words of God in the congregation? Any of those three roles that the Lord has given me and has given fathers here in the congregation, is equally fearful before the Lord. The level of responsibility for the husband that is supposed to be the head of the wife, for the father that is supposed to bring up their children in the training and the admonition of the Lord, and for the one who says that he is a teacher in the context of the congregation of the saints and speaks and preaches the words of God, I truly do not know which one of those is more fearful and of greater responsibility.

And if it was not because of the Lord Jesus Christ and the promises that He gives us in the Scripture, that He says that He has given us everything that we need for life of godliness through His divine power, through the knowledge of Him, then the only thing that there will be is despair. Either despair by seeing yourself in the Scriptures, and how you fall short from the standard of what the Bible calls us to be as fathers, as husbands, and also as shepherds or preachers in the congregation of the Church, or that you simply take the words of God and put it on one side, and then you try to do things according to your own wisdom. That is basically the only path, or the only two options, let's say, at least those two options, if you do it in the flesh. You see, this is standard of what Jesus Christ says, that we are to be as fathers, husbands, and shepherds of the flock, and that you just simply fall in despair, trying to do it in your own strength. All that, you simply just put this book aside, and then you try to do it according to your own wisdom and your understanding.

Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ indeed rescued a church and when He rescued a church, He also equipped that church so that she will grow in Christ-likeness and that she will be holy and blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this Lord has equipped us all with everything that we need. And this is something that we are to believe and something that we are to trust, not to see our lives as parents or shepherds of the flock or as husbands and wives. We are not to see our lives, brothers and sisters, as just something that we have to do and improve in our own strength. horrible burden we place on our shoulders, if we try to improve our role as husbands, our role as wives, our role as children, our role as shepherds, as brothers and sisters, if we put that on our shoulders, in the flesh, it becomes a burden, that it is just so not nice or good for the taste of the Spirit, that you will just simply run away from it.

The Lord has promised and given us His Holy Spirit so that His burden will be light and His yoke will be easy, right? So that we can come and be in Him and rest. That is the call for the congregation. All of these things that we have said, practical matters for the husband, for the wife, for the single, for the children, now for the church, I have this level of, I will say, just frustration. In the sense that there are so many things that are spoken and so many things that are preached and so many things that we say, but the Lord will grant us just only a little portion of His power to live at any degree of the many things that we say from this table or from the pulpit.

that will take us to a greater manifestation of the Spirit in us, and greater manifestations of unity. And my desire, as I have spoken to you in the last few weeks, is that we will grow in unity, in the Spirit, as a congregation and as a church. And in order for us to grow in that level of unity in the heart, and in honesty, and in transparency, and in truth, as a congregation, We are to understand, brothers and sisters, the spiritual progression of responsibility of the Church. For a Church to be walking in the Spirit, as a congregation all together, to be worthy of being praised, in this case by Paul, like the Church of Colossae, each one of the individuals of the Church is to have an individual responsibility before the Lord, and to walk in the Spirit. In the same way, for a family to operate according to what is written, that family, each one of the members, those who by grace through faith have been saved, is to do things before the Lord and for the Lord.

And in the same way, a church that is going to operate and act biblically is a church that is comprised by people who are walking in the Spirit individually before the Lord, not before men, and families that are trying to please the Lord before everyone else. And then the community of the saints are worthy to be praised. That is what we have here at Colossae. It is a church. You know, as I was telling Brother Bernie the other day, there's always this dichotomy in my mind that there's these churches in the New Testament that are accused of the many sins, and the different things that they do wrong, and their backsliding ways, and backslidden ways, and the crooked ways, and the things that they do wrong.

But also there are churches in the New Testament that are praised by the apostles, and their faith and their love is recognized by the apostles. And we are to take that example of those who are walking by the Spirit, not so much because we have the same ability that they have, but because we have the same promise of the same Spirit that was operating like in this church at Colossae. Listen to the words and to the praise of the Apostle Paul to this church at Colossae, brothers. It says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Two reasons why this church was praised by the Apostle.

Their faith in Christ Jesus and the love that they have for the saints. And this is not something that the apostle only knew, it was reported to the apostle. He heard, we heard, he says, of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the love that you have for one another. That is that someone, at least one person or a group of people, came to that church and when they entered into that church, they saw the faith that the people had in the Lord Jesus Christ and the love that they have for one another, that that was worthy not only to be in their minds, But when they departed and they gave this report to the apostle, they reported that. And of course, the apostle believed the report that he had received from these people about this church at Colossae.

They have faith in Jesus Christ and they have love for one another. And that is what the New Testament calls us to be, brothers. If someone comes into a church, that they will not be so amazed by the type of preaching or the type of ceremonies that we have. Of course, it's important that there will be truth and that truth will be preached. But the day that comes, they say, wow, I want to be seated under this church or be in the congregation of Cornerstone because of the faith that they have, which is seen individually and in the families, but also for the love that the saints have one for the other.

That is what impacts, that is what convicts, that is what transforms, and that is what is really manifested when the Holy Spirit is working in the life of the individual, in the life of the family, and in the life of the congregation. This is this progression of spiritual responsibility. We will never have a congregation of saints, independently of the number of people that we have, that is congregationally and collectively walking in the Lord and manifesting all of this love and this faith and the gifts of the Spirit and the coming together and the preaching with power and salvation, if... There is not an individual commitment to pleasing the Lord, each one of us. That is the very important responsibility of the heart of the individual, and that is now transformed and passed on to the congregation and also to the family, of course.

But now I want you to see here the reason why this church was rich in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and why this church was rich in love for one another. It's given to us there in verse 5, it says, let's just read from verse 4, it says, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, Because of the hope that was laid out for you, in this case, for the Colossians in heaven, they presently manifest as a church faith in Jesus Christ and love for one another. They have this powerful and this mighty confidence on the hope that was laid out for them in heaven. And that is what moved them in the present time to walk in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to love one another collectively. Now, they would have not reported the faith and the love of this church if half of the congregation was not walking in love and faith.

This was something that was clear for the whole congregation, that when someone walked into the congregation, there was faith and there was love. And the reason of that present manifestation of the Spirit was because of the certainty of the hope that each one of them, individually, as families and collectively, had laid up in heaven. One will have to ask, what is that hope that is so powerful, that is so mighty, that once a person, by faith, captures and apprehends that future hope that is laid out for them in heaven, can transform the life of that person in such a way that there is a faith in Christ that is visible, and that there is a necessary organic Spirit-given love for the brethren. Something that cannot be disguised, manipulated, or produced in the flesh. What is that hope?

Then the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1 speaks about that hope and he says that it's a living hope, that does not fade, that does not disappear, that is kept for us in heaven, that was given to us through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is for a salvation that is ready to be revealed, this glorious living hope that we're going to be with Jesus Christ in eternity that is to come. The sin will be no more. as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8, that the sufferings of this present time do not compare with the glory that is to come, that even creation is groaning and is supplicating for the manifestation of the revealing of the sons of God, that at the coming of the Son, there will be restitution or the rebuilding or the remaking of everything. Everything that was under sin, now righteousness will dwell in that.

What is that hope? Is the hope, brothers and sisters only, that we were going to be made anew? Is the hope that sin will be no more? Is the hope that there will not be sin among us and that we will be able to love one another as we have been called to love one another? Is the hope that we will not walk by faith, that we will walk by sight?

All of that is true, and all of that adds to that glorious hope. But the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 1 gives us the summary of that hope, if you go there in 1 Timothy. Just in verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus, of Christ Jesus, by command of God, our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus, our hope. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ, our hope. We delight in the fact that we have the promise that we are going to come to a consummation and we are going to be fully partakers of the divine nature.

We rejoice in the fact that there is going to be new heavens and new earth. We rejoice in the fact that sin will be no more. We rejoice in the fact that whatever illness or whatever ailment or whatever difficulty we have in our flesh or in our body will be no more because of the promises that we have. We rejoice in the fact that there is a hope that time is going to pass and then we're going to be partakers of eternity. But brothers and sisters, all of those things that are given to us, as I promised in the Scriptures, only have substance and power when we take and apprehend them in the person of Jesus Christ.

All things have been given to us from His divine power for godliness and for our life, everything that we need. But this is given to us through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. It is the person of Jesus Christ, the one that is the substance of our faith and the one that is able to move us to all the manifestations of the Spirit in the present time, either faith in Him or love for one another. and brothers and sisters, we have been given a standard to which we are to obey. It's not that the Lord has called us to love one another, and to bear with one another, and to forgive one another, and to walk with one another, and to nourish, and to exhort one another, and to help one another.

And just for us to do that, partially not designed to continue to abide in those practices, but rather the Holy Spirit expects that the Christian will walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit continually, naturally, and ongoingly, loving one another, walking in faith, proclaiming the gospel with power, with boldness, not being taken captive by the distractions of this world, but rather setting our mind on things that are above and not on the things of the earth. And all of that is not only romantic language, It's not only religious language that we just simply read and say, this is going to happen at some point in my life, but rather, this is meant to be the desire, the present desire of our heart and the manifestation of it, not only individually, but in the context of our families and also in the context of the local church. Always is an invitation to each one of us to have an ongoing, a genuine encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. not something that is mediated through religion, not something that is mediated through the traditions of the things that we do, but rather a genuine encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. And if I was going to summarize what I wanted to share with you, that of raising up our children, raising up our children, and of that family worship, and family worship just as a means for us to contribute to raising up our children, I would just simply say that the life of the family is meant to be alive in the Scriptures, but alive in those Scriptures as they point to the person of Jesus Christ.

Just as the life of the individual is meant to be alive in the Scriptures, through the words of God, as the Scriptures point this person, him or her, to the person of Jesus Christ, in the same way the life that should characterize the families of Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church is a life that is given to the Scriptures, as the Scriptures point this family to the person of Jesus Christ. This is a line that is very thin and that if we break that line, then we can fall into very complicated matters of the flesh. We can have the Scriptures in our hands and we can have doctrine in our hands. We can have access to truth in our resources and the different things that we have in front of us. But many times there might be a disconnect between the truth that we have in front of us and the access that we have to all of that truth and the person of Jesus Christ.

The only way that we can know the Savior and experience the Savior and have greater manifestations of the glory of Christ in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds, is by knowing Him through the Scriptures. But there is a way in which the saints, in which the family, in which the church can have the truth in their hands, can have the Word in their hands, can preach the truth, can speak of great doctrines and lofty things, yet not know the Savior. and then just simply point the scriptures to self, point the scriptures to the church, point the scriptures to the world and point the scripture to moralistic ways of being better and better and better and not pointing those scriptures to the person of Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, as families, we can very easily make that mistake, in which we think that because we have the Scriptures, because we have the truth, or because we have access to many resources and truth, that that is going to be sufficient for us to raise our children, to bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord, and also even to do family worship. This is a very important matter.

The way that we are supposed to lead our wives, the way that we are supposed to lead our families, and the way that we are supposed to lead the church is through the truths of the scripture, but always pointing to the person of Jesus Christ. It's very easy to have religion that does not have the Savior. It's only a list of different commandments, a list of different precepts, and a list of different truths, not connected to the person of Jesus Christ. How is this, brother and sister, manifested? It's a little bit hot, right?

Yeah, please. How are we? Thank you so much. Thank you, brother. Brother, sister, let me just make this clear, perhaps with better words.

It's very, very easy. for us to live our lives as individuals, and even in the context of our families, just simply reading through the Scriptures, just simply going through the Scriptures, just simply speaking of religious stuff and religious doctrines and religious truths, and having a disconnect from that to the person of Jesus Christ. It can happen very easily in the private life. It can happen very easily in the life of the congregation. Pay attention back in Colossians to what he said about the truth or the hope that they had received.

Perhaps this will help me to illustrate what I'm just trying to say here. The Apostle Paul was praising this church at Colossae because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and also because the love that they had for one another. And he says that this is because of the hope that was laid up for them in heaven, the hope of what is to come, Jesus Christ himself. But he says that of this hope you have heard before in the words of the truth, the gospel. The gospel, brothers and sisters, is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

And it's in the gospel where we have the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Savior and as the one who gives sense to everything that has been written in the Word of God. When we live lives in the Scriptures and even in the truths of theology and whatever theological camp we belong to, and we disconnect that from the person of Jesus Christ, we're disconnecting the application of the power of the gospel. I'm telling you this because it's very simple for us just to come as a family, even with our children and with our wives, and to be so concerned about teaching our kids and teaching our wives the stories of the old covenant or the Old Testament. and teach them to remember the story of Jonah, and to teach them to remember the story of David and Goliath, and to teach them to remember the story of Adam and Eve, and to teach them to remember all of those stories, and to fill into their heads concepts and knowledge of the Scriptures, while we cowardly fail to apply the Scriptures to the soul of those who we say that we love. The reason why we come to the Bible and why we come to the church to understand the scriptures is so that the truth that is contained in this book will be applied to our hearts.

There's absolutely no point in understanding, in memorizing, and in accumulating knowledge of something, even if it's truth, if that is not directly applied to the hearts of those who listen. So it is the necessity of the individual, when we come to the Scriptures, to apply what is written to my heart, so that it will not be something that bites in the head alone. It is the necessity also of the family, that when they come to the Scriptures, as they are supposed to do it on a daily basis, when they come to the Scriptures, not only to gain knowledge and to obtain information of what is written, but it is the due diligence of the brothers to apply the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ, as it has been revealed in the Gospel. This requires, brothers and sisters, that everything that we read and everything that we study points to the person of Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the gospel. Because we can speak about Jesus Christ as a historical figure and teach them about who He is and the things that He had done, but we are to reveal Christ to our families as He is revealed in the gospel.

Sin, death, eternal life. sin, the presence, the power, the penalty of sin. These are things that our families, the individual and the family, they need to know, apply from the scriptures, that we will not find ourselves, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the gospel with boldness and with clarity to those who are outside of our family and being quite bold in calling sin for what it is and the consequences and the penalty and the power of sin and the manifestations of it. But when we come to our houses, we are just simply providing to our families, Bible stories or Bible knowledge, or just simple information that is not applied in the person of Jesus Christ, according to the gospel. I don't know what is, as I said to you in the very beginning, what is more fearful, to be the person that speaks or that says, that teaches in the context of the Church, or to be a husband that is supposed to lead and to be the head of the wife, to present this wife before the Lord Jesus Christ without blemish, without spot, washing them through the water of the Word, or if it's more fearful to be a father who has been entrusted not the body, not the flesh, not the beautiful flesh of our kids, but their souls, their souls.

And if we are so diligent sometimes to provide for them that which their bodies need, how are we going to be negligent in providing to them that which their soul needs? And brothers and sisters, what their soul needs is not only Bible stories and not only information, not only doctrine, is the application of truth to the person of Jesus Christ. in the old times, in the 16th and 17th century, this was such a crucial thing for the life of the church, that families will enter it in church discipline if they were found neglecting, not only the coming together of the family in family worship and praising together the Lord that they claim to worship and teaching the scriptures, but also if the brother was found just not pointing people to the person of Jesus Christ. if he was found to be negligent in pointing the family, the wife and the children, applying the gospel to the heart. And even though that this was among people who believe that their children were born into their covenant.

Our children are born in Adam. They're dead in their trespasses. And apart from the Holy intervention of the Holy Spirit, then they're going to remain dead in their trespasses. And this is the call, even for everyone, the children here and the children who are not here, that the fact that a person is born into a Christian family does not make him a Christian, as we've said before. A Christian is a person who generally by grace through faith has been inserted into the person of Jesus Christ and hence that soul is in the urgent necessity that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be continually applied to that person.

Let me now invite you please to Ephesians chapter 6 for us to see the dynamics of how that takes place. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. It's efficient, right? Efficiency. Now, we're going to read verse four.

But brothers and sisters, what I am trying to point to you, I don't know if you are seeing it, is the distinction between religion, even if it's Reformed Baptist religion, and the power of the Holy Spirit in our families. We can be very easily content and happy and satisfied in teaching moral principles of behavior that are taken from the Scriptures, pointing our children and our wife to behave in a particular way, even if those principles have been taken from the Scriptures. That is religion. There is another thing to point the soul of our wives and to point the soul of our children to the person of Jesus Christ as we preach and as we teach to them the scriptures that are given to us. So the Apostle is going to give us a little bit of insight of how this is manifested, especially when it comes to the raising of our children in verse 4 in Ephesians chapter 6.

It's going to call to Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. And then he says, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Once again, fathers, no mothers in this case, even though it is, of course, understood that there is a responsibility that passes onto the mother, parents, but here the emphasis is on the fathers. Fathers, those are the ones who are in requirement, they are expected to bring the words of God, to bring Jesus Christ to their families. The fathers are the ones who are supposed to bring them up in the discipline and in the instruction of the Lord.

I want you to see the authority that we can see here, that is the instruction or the discipline and the instruction, or you may have the training and the admonition of the Lord. Brother is not your discipline, is not your instruction, is not your training, is not your admonition, but brother is the instruction and the admonition of the Lord. Authority is clearly given here. If a Christian family is going to decide to honor and to worship the Lord, then this starts by the submission of the father to that which God has spoken. And this requires that this man will surrender his ability to train.

His ability to teach, His ability to instruct and to say, Lord Jesus, I come and submit before you, acknowledging that is your instruction and that is your admonition, that is your training, that is your commandments, the ones that are beneficial for the soul of my children. My children are going to be nourished. My children are going to be raised up. My children are going to grow up only through your admonition and commandments and instructions. and giving up entirely to this natural desire in which we are always right and our opinion is the one that needs to be followed.

But rather, if we are going to make a favor to the soul of our children, then it requires that the men of the house surrender everything before the Lord and says, Lord, it is you, the one that is supposed to rule in this house. I'm just simply an instrument in your hands to bring my children, not to myself. But to point them with my example, to follow you, the person of Jesus Christ, brothers, it is so easy that we will just simply want them to be as we want them to be. according to our precepts, according to our own imaginations, according to our own even interpretations, but rather this requires that we will point them to the person of Jesus Christ. When we come to the Scriptures, and if we do not genuinely have an individual experience of finding Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, and we ourselves are walking in the flesh and just simply having thoughts in our minds of theology and abstract, quoting different ideas in our heads, what is going to be the result other than pointing our children to a set of principles that, even though they might be correct, are just simply pointing them to empty and cold religion, that it has no substance in the person of Jesus Christ?

Gospel, not applied. Jesus Christ, not exalted. The cross, not exalted. The need of the Savior, not exalted. The reality of eternity, unknown in the household.

The concept of sin and the concept of hell, unknown in the household. Because of fear of many times being cowards. The Spirit of God is the one that gives us the grace and gives us the love to point, of course, according to wisdom, each one of our children to that. But brothers and sisters, this also requires faith. This is what brother said a couple of weeks ago.

It requires faith that these scriptures are sufficient, not only for our soul, but also for the bringing up of our children. that we are not going to be tempted by the schemes and by the systems of this world and by the techniques of raising up our children that we see in other families and in other parents, that we see in TV and how we see that they do with their children and their system, that we trust the old way. that we give ourselves entirely just to ask this person, God Himself, written here His Word for us, that we are going to ask Him how we are to bring up our children and how we are to raise our children. What is this instruction? What is this admonition?

So that we have a clear mind, like we are like the horses that they put these things on their side so that they will just only see one way. And that way is the way that is written in the scriptures. requires an acknowledgment of authority, that is the Lord, but also brother, primarily brother, and also sister, it requires faith in what you are supposed to bring to your children. How is there going to be power in the admonition and in the training of your children if you do not believe what you have in front of you? If there is any level of doubt, of uncertainty in the things that the Lord has said that are sufficient not only for our lives, but also for the lives of our children, it requires faith.

Each one of our children is going to spend eternity either in hell or in heaven. Every one of them, they may be with us, if we are in Jesus Christ, and if they are not, they're going to spend the eternity in hell. their looks, the beauty of their flesh, and the appearance that takes us so easily in the flesh, and that captures us, that is going to grow old. And as they grow, it's going to pass, and it's going to disappear, and then they will leave us, and we will separate, and time will go and pass, and we have them for years, years with us, for us to pour into their souls. not only truths, not only words, not only doctrines, but point them to the person that is the only one that can save them, is the only hope that they have.

It is the only one that is able to rescue them. It is the only one that can instruct them in the true way, is the only one that can make of them a good child, is the only one who can make of them good children. None of our efforts in the flesh will accomplish nothing compared to what the Spirit of God can do in our children. How are we going to be negligent brothers? in bringing the Word of God to our households, to our wives and to our children, bringing them in the admonition of the Lord, in the instruction of the Lord, recognition of the authority, but also faith.

But also, brother, my dear brother, this requires that you are able to discern that instruction and that admonition of the Lord. That requires that you will know what you are talking about. That will require that you understand how to train the child, how to admonish the child, how to instruct the child, not according to the way that your father did to you and that you received and was a good example and you want to pass that on to your son. If that is the case and it was biblical, it's good, but it's according to what it was written. It requires that you discern.

It requires that you know the ways of the Lord. If the soul of our children are so precious, not only to us because they are our children, but because there's going to be an eternity, I don't understand how we can give ourselves sometimes to build empires and to accumulate wealth and to accumulate this and that, and then to neglect the soul of our children, to neglect the soul of our wives, How are we going to give ourselves, you know, to give them when we inheritance of a big house and many cars and properties and all of those things, when we do not make any effort to leave them prayers on our knees and many tears before the throne of God for their salvation. Many times pointing them to Christ and to the gospel and to the cross. supplicating with them before the Lord for their salvation and for the transformation of their souls, brothers and sisters, the soul of a person. is of incredible value.

That's why the judgment for those who profess to be teachers is greater and more strict than for the others. Because when we come and preach and teach and we say, this is what the scripture says, there's something that is residing in your mind and in your soul that shapes you spiritually and that makes you who you are spiritually. if it's truth for the edification and confirmation to the Lord Jesus Christ, but if it's not truth and if it's an error, it makes you deviate. That responsibility we have all parents and especially fathers in the context of our household. How are we going to love more their flesh and to love their souls?

That requires then, brothers and sisters, that we will know the Scriptures, that we will give ourselves to understand the Scriptures. You don't need to be a pastor, you don't need to be a shepherd, you don't need to be a teacher in order for you to be able to bring the Word of God to your children. to explain to them the ways of the Lord. You are simply to give yourself to the Scriptures according to the gifts that the Lord has given you and to seek Him primarily. No seeking to pass on to your children just empty truths that do not have any weight or any water, but rather pass on to them that which you have seen with your eyes in the Scriptures.

so that you are able not only to speak to them with words that correspond to truth, but also you are to exemplify the words that you say that you have in your mouth with your life. Because brothers and sisters, that we will not find ourselves, especially brothers and also, of course, sisters, receiving the words of the Lord Jesus Christ saying, you know, do as they say, but don't do as they do. that we will find just simply neglecting and going against everything that we say and everything that we hear with our behavior, that we will find ourselves just being hypocrites. Because brothers, I can speak to you with certain way and I can pretend to be something before you, but it's my wife and it's my children and those who live with me, the ones who generally know if there's alignment between the things that I say and the life that I live. And this is a reality for all of us, that we are to instruct and to teach our children, not only with the words of the scripture, but also with that scripture being powerfully manifested in the life of those who proclaim.

and sisters, this is not only a mission of the brothers, this is also something that is for you. It is a requirement also of the sisters, that the sisters will be the ones that are instructing the children in the words of God. This is what Proverbs says, I think, go to Proverbs. 6. Proverbs chapter 1.

Proverbs chapter 1, it says in verse 8, Hear my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. For they are a grateful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. Come to chapter 6, parallel verse. This is, of course, pointing to you, sisters. Chapter 6, verse 20, it says, My son, keep your father's commandment and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Even though, sisters and brothers, this is ultimately your responsibility, brothers, to give ourselves to the Word of God, to understand the ways of the Lord and to bring every day, just as we strive in our flesh, some of us work with our hands or with our minds, with our heads, to bring food to the table and to provide for the nourishment of the bodies of our children, that in the same way we will be diligent in knowing and knowing where to dig and where to find the truths of the scripture to point to Christ and to bring them on a daily basis, bringing the family together to exhort, to teach, to sing, to pray, coming together to worship this Lord who has saved us and pointing our children, those who are in Christ, to be like the Lord Jesus Christ and those who are not in Christ, to be in the Lord Jesus Christ and explaining to them sin and everything that I have just said, even though that is the ultimate mission and responsibility of the father, sisters, you are the ones that have also a huge responsibility for the children. that the father will be, or the spouse, or the husband will be so concerned for the sake of the souls of the children that he will be concerned for the soul of the wife. Pouring unto her, you don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be a theologian, but just pouring unto her the love of Jesus Christ that is contained in the Scriptures, the truths of the Scriptures always pointing to Christ and pointing her to Christ not pointing here to have a certain behavior so that we can have the trust and also rest in that our wives know the Savior. No, that they have been genuinely saved and that they have experienced the Savior, that they understand the Scriptures, that they have read the Scriptures and they know the Scriptures so that they will also bring the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to our children. I don't know any other greatest joy for a family.

I sometimes think how boring our family life would be if we were not Christians. Knowing the Lord is the most glorious thing that can happen ever to a soul. And to have a Christian family, brothers, is the greatest blessing that we could ever have. To have a wife that is a Christian, to have children who have been saved, to have brothers and sisters who are genuinely saved and that we can come together, the greatest blessing that we can have. People cry tears on their knees, asking the Lord for the Lord to give them a spouse that is in the Lord, to have a family that is in the Lord.

And most of our families, by the grace of the Lord, are comprised by fathers who have been saved and sisters who have been saved. And we have this glorious blessing of being able to point our children to Jesus Christ, arrows, our children, right? Into the world, arrows. for the battle, for the war, and we are not equipping them just with moralistic principles, and with wealth, and with power, and with reputation, or with knowledge. We're to equip them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

that there will be a revival through our children, that there will be power and people being saved through our children. That is to be, brothers and sisters, the concern of our hearts that in the midst of a wicked world that is just walking towards darkness, not so much afraid that something may happen to our children, but that the Lord might keep them and protect them and use them to be light in this world of darkness. that He may use them, our boys and our girls, to be examples, not only of behavior to others, but also to be carriers of the light. As the Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter five, that is through the manifestation of the good works that the light and the glory of the Father is given to others, that this may be that which is deposited in the heart of our children. This requires diligence.

Diligence of the Father in giving Himself to seek the Lord in the private place and to come to the Scriptures and to be diligent in teaching the wife and the children the things of the Scriptures consecutively, progressively, every day, coming together, praying together, singing together and understanding the Scriptures together as a family, praying together and supplicating together, doing to the wife and the wife doing to the children and then this is the way. A cornerstone reformed Baptist church becomes a church that is worthy to be praised. This is just simply what is called discipleship, discipleship, right? Discipleship. Paul says to Timothy, pass on to others those things that you have received and you have seen in me.

Pass on to others. Not much wealth, not much power, not much reputation, but my son, follow my God, follow the God of your father. Follow the God of your mother. Follow the one who brings your father to his knees. Follow the one who brings your mother to her knees.

Follow the God of your father, because if you follow the God of your father, then you're going to have certainty and security for your soul. That is everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did, brothers. That's exactly what he did. He called disciples to go and proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Judea, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the outermost parts of the earth. The Son of God came from heaven to deposit into the soul of those who were around Him the greatest riches, not only of the truth of God, but also of the love of God, so that these feeble men, despised, weak, that the society did not want and rejected, will become powerful, not by the things that they knew, but by the Spirit of God that was poured into them and the love of Jesus Christ, so that they will be disciples and they will be the proclaimers of the truth that they have And brothers and sisters, we have this opportunity as Christian families to do exactly that for our children, to bring them in that admonition, in that instruction of the Lord, something that can only happen through the Word of God.

Just think about what the Apostle Paul says there in Ephesians chapter six. It says, bring them up in the training and in the admonition of the Lord. Where have you heard those words before? Training, an admonition, a training, an instruction. Those are not things that we are able to do, those are characteristics and attributes of the Word of God.

The Word of God, all the Word of God is profitable, is given by inspiration of God, is God-brief and is profitable for teaching, for correction, for reproof and for training in righteousness, that the man of God might be fully equipped for every good work. We vessels that were sinners and righteous, dead in our trespasses, we have been given the light of Jesus Christ. And now we don't only have the Spirit in us, but we have the privilege of being able to minister to our children these words of God and to bring them up in that teaching of the words of God constantly and ongoingly. so that they indeed will be not only generally saved, but brothers and sisters also, they will become light and salt unto the world, unto the nations. Our church may indeed be characterized for that, that the power of the Spirit of God might only be in the congregation as we come together on a particular day, but also brothers, that it will be manifested in each one of you.

Many times, the backsliding of the universal church starts in the hearts of backslidden men who neglect the things of Jesus Christ to give themselves unto the things of this world and to the pleasures of this world. And by doing so, they neglect the spiritual condition of their families. And then their families just simply become religious participants in a religious event And then the church as a whole is just simply turned into something that has no power anymore. That is the power of the individual. Remember what Paul says to Timothy, I think in 1st and 2nd Timothy, that in the last days they will accumulate unto themselves teachers that speak according to their own passions, according to their itching ears.

That is the power that the congregation has on those who preach and those who are supposed to speak. That people can come together with the each in ears and according to the passions accumulated unto themselves, preachers and teachers that will teach them according to their ways. Rather, the congregation, brothers and sisters, from the very individual, from the very heart of the person that is seated in the chair, is to be so concerned with holiness and walking in the Spirit of God, for the sake not only of the soul of that person, but also for the sake of the souls of the family, father, wife and children, and also for the sake of the souls of the congregation, because we are a body and we are all together. and we are supposed to minister to one another and to encourage one another in those good works that can only be produced by the Word of God, which was given to us in Jesus Christ Jesus for works that were prepared beforehand, created in Christ Jesus for us, brothers and sisters. as we are about to conclude now this section of these Bible studies on the Christian family, and as we have concluded the section on the individual life, and as we are going to start speaking about the life of the church and the life of the congregation, there is absolutely no point When we finish this series of studies, there's no unity in the heart of the believers that belong to Cornerstone when it comes to these very practical matters.

unity at that level, in the individual, and in the family, and in the church level, is what is going to empower and is that which is going to strengthen Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church? Is that which is going to prepare us to face the difficulties? Is that which is going to prepare us to see the darkness that is to come? But this only happens when the saints come together in unity and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, brothers and sisters, let me just finish with this.

Let me please encourage you, practically speaking, to seek the Lord, especially brothers, to seek the Lord and give yourself to be diligent. in bringing the Word of God on a daily basis to your wife and to your children. There's going to be times in which providentially you're not going to be able to do it. But please, brothers, give yourself and ask the Lord and seek the Lord so that you will have this desire to give yourself to the Scriptures. to understand the Scriptures and to bring the Scriptures to your families, to your wife and to your children, to pray together, to study together and to sing together and to point them to the person of Jesus Christ for the sake of your soul and for the sake of our soul.

Please, brothers, seek the Lord for this particular matter. Wives and sisters, seek the Lord for this particular matter, and that you may be vessels that you're bringing the truth of the gospel to our children, and that we might be known as a church that holds these scriptures as something that is serious, and something that is reverent, and something that is mighty, and something that is powerful, not only during the Bible study or on Sundays, but that each one of the saints of Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church and each one of the families of this church holds to these scriptures as they say that they hold and they believe in the power that is found in here, calling our children to the person and pointing them to the person of Jesus Christ and that He may have, and He has given us a promise that He will save our children and that He will use them for the glory of His name. Amen.