Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Honoring Parents, Honoring God (Part 1) The Bible shifts gears between
Commandments Four and Five, and we notice that now the Laws are about people. Not only
about people, but how and why God expects us to honor Him through specially placed people,
like our parents, in response to His authority. Background and authority Once again the Commandment, taken at
face value, may seem to be simple enough and in principle it is, but there is more to this
than may appear at first blush so we will take two Sundays to talk about the Fifth
Commandment --Honor your father and your mother. I’ll just trust that the Lord will
impress each of us with His truth in what seems to be a most simplistic Commandment, but
is a loaded one. Exodus
20:12 I want to start this morning by
talking about the brothers Grimm, reflecting on the story of Hansel and Gretel. Here you
have these two kids and they are living, presumably, in the dark forest of Germany. They
have a father and mother and the mother dies, so they end up with a wicked stepmother. She
is so bad that in the story the father has to send them away. They go away, leaving the
wicked stepmother, on into the forest. They wonder how they are going to find their way
home so Gretel drops bread crumbs. The sparrows ate the crumbs and they found themselves
in the darkest of the forest at this gingerbread house with all kinds of tasty trim. Then
they meet a second bad lady when the wicked witch comes out and says, “Come on in. I’ve
got a cage and an oven for you.” She didn’t say it just like that, but that’s
what she had in mind. As a kid, reading and reflecting on
that particular story, thinking there has to be something about stepmothers, and then a
wicked witch. We have a pair of female villains in this story. Not really. Let me tell you
where the problem in the story lies and it is not with the women. It’s with the
spineless dad. What in the world was this guy thinking? He is the problem in the story. I
think there is a sense in which in that fairy tale, the true villain is the father. It
should not surprise us because it seems as if for years societies, particularly in our own
world, have been confused about parental roles despite what the Bible says. So many books have been written and
seminars conducted and experts have taken the stage trying to fix this confusion with
regard to fathers and mothers and situations in the home. Yet even in Scripture I have yet
to find one good example of a mom and dad and a family that worked biblically. Not one
that I can think of. You may have a good king somewhere
along the line, but that did not mean he had good kids. In some cases he might have had a
good wife or a bad wife, or wives. Scripture does not give us a lot by way of example and
certainly contemporary society continues to reflect its confusion, what with the higher
percentage of our children in our society being reared in single parent homes. Broken
homes any more are commonplace. We seem to have lost sight of something and it makes me
wonder, did we ever truly have that something? Where do we go? We can only go to the
Bible. I think it is as profound as it is deliberate that this commandment comes across to
us in such clear-cut terms. It does not say children, honor your parents. It speaks to the
society at large. It says honor your father and your mother, putting both parents on equal
footing and commanding that there be honor. I will say this probably in different
ways and repeatedly, father and mother, parents, are God’s building blocks for
society and His first line in representing His own authority on earth. Today we are going
talk about some background material that will help us understand that. This business of
the fallenness of the human race, the scrambling of the family beginning with our first
parents and their children who did not do all that well, reminds us that our race is
fallen and that we desperately need order and we need authority. That is where this
commandment goes. It reflects the character of God as do all of them. The character of God is a God of order
and a God of ordained authority. That is who He is and because that is who He is, because
that is what He is like, because that is His character, this Commandment takes the place
that it does. Parents are foundational in the
authority structure of God. As God’s people, we need to understand this business of
honoring them. In this commandment, God is expressing for His people the sanctity of
authority and the fact that that is what He is like. Remember the Commandments are not
only what God wants. Do not have idols, keep the Sabbath, honor your parents. They are
what God wants based upon who God is, a God of authority. Notice too that this is the fifth
Commandment. It is a transitional one. The first four have to do with you shall have no
other gods, graven images, taking of the Lord’s name in vain and remembering the
Sabbath. Those are all what we would call vertical Commandments; in other words they are
designed to address us to God. This one is a transitional one, because following this one
is thou shall not kill, commit adultery, steal, and so forth. They are how people should
treat people. The Commandment between is because God is communicating a transfer of
authority from on high to a horizontal level beginning with the parents, beginning in the
home and going out from there. The other Commandments, then, are people on people, how we
treat one another. Background I call this the orderliness of God.
God is a God of order. Paul says that in I Corinthians. That is a principle that
accurately reflects the character of God from one end of the Bible to the other. So we are going to start there and we are going to
build a case for orderliness and authority on the part of God and how it is that God
expresses that in His own character, in His creation, and to His people. From there we go
into the text of Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy in a week, and apply it directly to
that Fifth Commandment. Today is a bit of background. First of all, chaos is frightening at
any level. The ancients, that is to say, those of antiquity, Abraham and onward, up until
the time when people began exploring and understanding the great deep oceans of the world,
particularly the Mediterranean Sea, suggested chaos. After all, to the observer along the
shore, there seemed to be no pattern, no predictability to the rise and fall of the waves
and who even knew what might lurk beneath? The sea was a frightening place to people of
that day. When we do not know what is coming and
we do not know from where, it is an unnerving and an unsettling sensation. Chaos leads to
fear and uncertainty and insecurity. Our friend, the chaplain, at the prison reminded me
of an event back in the early fall of 1991. We took a group of students through the
Montana State Prison on a tour. The atmosphere was electrically charged. As we were leading these young,
college-aged students through the various facilities in the prison there were inmates, of
course, and our guide and after it was finished the chaplain said, “The guys are
nervous.” That was a Wednesday. It was the following Sunday morning that the
maximum-security prison was overcome by inmates. The guards fled and the inmates ran the
institution. Five men were killed in hideous fashion and there was no one in charge. Those
who were there reported the most frightening event was when the inmates ran the
institution. There was no control. There were no parameters. There are no boundaries.
Anything goes. The strongest and the smartest are truly the ones who survived. I think about the words of Dickens.
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” We think of that in terms
of the French Revolution. What an irony in those words. The best of times, in that this
marked in the minds of many people of that day, the late 1700’s, humankind reaching
the apex of existence. We have come through the Renaissance and are into the
Enlightenment. Art was huge. Logic was big and man was everything. It was also the worst of times because
man was everything. It was that very notion that man is the measure of all things that
prompted such influential people, as Robespierre to say what we need, then, is everybody
to be the same. No authority necessary. The guillotine was invented just about then and
40,000 heads rolled in France. They were the heads of the clergy, the religious officials.
They were the heads of the civil servants, including the king and queen. It was total
upheaval in that culture. Why? It was because the inmates were running the institution.
Authority was done away with and orderliness was cast out. It was complete disaster for
the culture, leading to the reign of terror where man is exalted and God is ignored.
Contrast that with the orderliness of God. The French Revolution is a perfect example of
what happens when people take over with no restraints. Orderliness of God
We are going to come at this from
three different directions. I want to mention a few points regarding the orderliness of
God. First of all, the orderliness of His character, the fact that God’s character is
a character that is orderly. Because His character is such, we have in a spiritual sense,
security and safety in a God who is like this. I remember being a Bible college
student with more questions than answers. I remember asking the philosophy professor,
“What if we get to the end of it all and we find that God was just kidding. What if
He wasn’t serious? What if He really said one thing but actually was going to do
another?” I remember struggling with the concept, thinking, “Oh, my,”
because if He is God, I can’t help it. I can’t change it. I can only hope it is
not true. The answer, I think, was a wise one. “All evidence, in Scripture and
outside Scripture, points to a God who is utterly orderly, who means exactly what He says
and does as He says He will do. God is an orderly God.” Back in the days of the Bible
characters, when Moses was leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, he led
the Israelites among various peoples who had gods of their own making who were not
orderly. Along come the Israelites and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They bring
with them a God who is absolutely trustworthy and utterly constant in His will and in His
behavior. This was a contrast to the various pantheons of the day when this god wanted
this thing and that god or goddess may want that thing and those two may clash with one
another. We can only hope the one who likes us is the one who wins. So fertility rites and
child sacrifice and all kinds of things were done in order to gets these gods who were
capricious and fickle and unpredictable somehow to agree with me. When I say the Person of God, I am
talking about the triune Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are one in nature, one in essence. They are
essentially one, but three in person. That is obviously a mystery that I will not even
attempt to dissect. We need to understand that within the workings of the Person of God or
the character of God there is absolute orderliness. When Jesus said, “I and the
Father are one,” He was expressing their identity in character with one another. In
John 1:18, when the apostle said no one has visibly seen God, but He who is in the bosom
of the Father, that is Jesus, has thoroughly explained Him. “You have seen Me,
Thomas. You have seen the Father.” They are one in character. The book of Hebrews is all about the
complete superiority of Jesus to all rivals. It starts right out of the block that way
with these words. In Hebrews 1:3, the Bible says that Jesus is the radiance of God’s
glory and the exact representation of His nature. The two are identical in character and
in essence. Recall from John 17 in Jesus’ prayer as a high priest, how His prayer to
the Father was that His people, you and me, if we have trusted Him, will be where Jesus is
with the Father because the two of them are one and He wants us, His people, to share in
and appreciate that essential unity. Secondly, they are eternally united in
plan and providence. God has a plan that He has worked out since before time began and He
has that plan in all its detail, precisely on schedule being worked out to a very definite
and clear end and to which He is responsible to bring it. In other words, God is sovereign
and God is in control. I find it somewhat encouraging to know that when Jesus came to
earth He did not present Plan B. He did not suggest an alternative. Jesus mentioned in
John 5:17, “The Father is working until now and so am I.” We are embarked on a
course and We are following it. Our plan is united in one another -- our plan and our
providence. There was further a scene in Mark 9,
the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus takes three of His closest disciples up
on top of the mountain. All kinds of things happen there. It would have been one of the
most fascinating places to be. Here are Jesus and the disciples and suddenly Jesus turns
totally white before them, whiter than anything that humanly could be accomplished. Then
there appear Moses and Elijah. They are talking with Jesus. The picture is one we get of
harmony among the three of them. There is Moses, Elijah, Law, prophets, Jesus. There they
are together. Peter says, “This is great!”
Then the heavens open and a voice is heard from heaven, the voice of the Father. He speaks
to these disciples as Jesus the Son is conversing with Moses and Elijah. The Father says,
“This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.” We are together! What He is telling you
represents my perfect plan and providence. Believe Him. God is essentially identical in
character, eternally united in plan and providence. Not only so, but as He works it out,
we see orderliness among the members of the godhead. Jesus, when He was dialoguing with
the Pharisees in the 8th chapter of John, a very emotionally heated exchange.
Jesus said to the Pharisees with regard to His relationship with the Father said, “I
always do what pleases the Father.” The Father has this plan and Jesus is His number
one instrument in carrying it out. Jesus is saying I am in complete harmony with it and I
am doing the job perfectly. I always do what pleases the Father. Honor your father and
mother? Jesus said, “Not a problem. I always do what pleases My Father.” In John 15, the Holy Spirit is
mentioned. The Holy Spirit is the active agent of God among people. There is perfect
harmony and perfect unity in what is being carried out. 26"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about
Me, This is an interesting perspective of
the Holy Spirit. The Father is the originator. The Son is like the dispatcher and the
Spirit is the one who in harmony with the two goes out and actually does the work among
people. The three of them are essential in their character. There is not one more
important or more valuable than the other, but their roles are different. We have a
problem in our world of confusing the role of a person with the value of the person. The
Bible decries that. That’s our problem, not the Scriptures. God is orderly. Think back to the
first chapter or two of the book of Genesis. It says in Genesis 1:2, that the earth was
formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. It’s an interesting
picture in our minds. You might even say it is a picture suggesting aimlessness, perhaps
even chaos, but the Spirit was moving over the surface of the waters and God said, “Let
us make.” God steps into the arena as He begins His creative work and says we are
going to make what we are going to make and it is going to be orderly and it is going to
be right. Let’s think for a second about
the orderliness of God in His creation. This is absolutely huge. That lends also to this
notion of safety and security for God’s people. God takes responsibility for the
creation and the sustenance of all that we know to be real out there. It helps us be
assured that regardless of what people may do, God ultimately will bring even the created
order to His desired end. It is His to do. It is His to make. It is His to sustain, and
certainly it is His to end. It is all His. The orderliness of God in creation If God is left out or distant from
creation and from nature, what have we? Then we are left with something impersonal and we
are left with tons and tons and tons of time. The more time the better because then maybe
something will happen; that is, the impersonal plus time plus chance. Just pure chance,
leaving God out of the equation, what do we have? We have some proteins and they found one
another and then got hit by lightening or something and a molecule was formed and life. Do you and I sit here today as just a
consequence of the impersonal, plus time plus chance with no sense of purpose, with no
real value and no meaning? Is that a secure and safe way to be? No. The Bible says God
steps in and what He does in His creation is deliberate, it is designed, it is perfect and
He makes it happen. There is the orderliness of God in
creation. Noticing certainly in the first chapter of Genesis, God puts first things first.
He speaks in terms of creation days. He says this is what we do first. These are the
basics: light, ground and water. These are the fundamentals. He builds from these with
increasing sophistication until the sixth day when He creates people as the capstone of
His work, people in His own image and in His own likeness in order that people may do what
God wants them to do in a very sophisticated fashion. He places people with authority in
His creation. From orderliness to the authority of people in His creation, and said, now
here is your mandate: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. You are the
managers. God did not just throw a bunch of
elements in the air to see what happened. No, His created work is absolutely orderly,
absolutely under His authority, and led to the authority of people whom He had put in
charge. This is how God works. This is how He does things -- in order. Think of His order in vastness. God is
so vast, all we can do is reduce Him to mathematics and abstract concepts. In the winter, I think late January
1979, we experienced a total solar eclipse. It was widely broadcast that the very best
place in all planet earth from which to view the eclipse was Lewistown, Montana. There in
Lewistown, Mary and I were students at what was then the Montana Institute of the Bible.
It was a big deal because Lewistown was now on the map. There were astronomers and science
types with tons of gear, and media from all over the place converging on Lewistown on that
particular winter day. I made my way to some county property
where some people were gathering to watch the eclipse. You have to have some special glass
to look through, and I had some. They knew exactly where and exactly when. I was awestruck
as I was standing there in the middle of the day and suddenly it started to get dark. It
did not get pitch dark, but got dusky dark. Through my glass I saw the moon coming between
the earth and the sun. It didn’t last long. It got a little bit darker and there it
was -- totally blacked out. I am looking through my safety lens, and then the moon kept
going and it started to get light, just like a quick day. It was fascinating. There I was, minding my own business,
when here came somebody with a camera and a microphone. I had about 14 seconds of fame
because some news reporter said, “What are your impressions?” All I could say
was, “I think it is amazing that we have a God of order who so sets things up that we
can know right where to be and when to be and when the next one is.” I didn’t
say it like that. I am so impressed with God and His
vastness that He put it all together like that. We could be here all day sharing what we
know of the vastness of God, but it is all orderly, isn’t it? Even a tsunami follows
the laws of physics as does a hurricane, things that we call natural disasters. It strikes
me as just a little odd that these are the acts of God when truly it is the act of God in
establishing laws and orderliness and predictability that we can see and measure. That is
the act of God and these others are certainly in step with that, but there are laws that
affect all that happens and He is the one who has put them into place. It is God’s order and vastness
and God’s order in minutia. One hundred years ago in forensic science they were all
excited about fingerprints because it helped narrow the number of viable culprits. Today
they go with DNA. They don’t speak in terms of fingerprints anymore they speak in
terms of blueprints of DNA. Amazing what God does in the tiny as well as in vast and all
of it marked by His order, all of it pointing to security, safety, certainty. That’s
where God is. Third, this is God’s expression
also, with His people. The same God of order, the same God who establishes authority, is
the God who places boundaries and injunctions upon people for the same reason, safety and
security in Him. I have listed in order several groups
of people God ordained. They are the family, the church, and government. Think of this.
God is a God of order as His orderliness touches the family. I Corinthians 11:3, has given
people heartburn but ought not to. Paul is writing to a church. The church in Corinth was
disorderly. There were a lot of problems, a lot going on. So Paul wrote to them in order
to help them set things right. One thing he says in verse 3 is I want you to understand
that Christ is head of every man and man is the head of the woman and God is the head of
Christ. Paul is saying this is how God sets it up. Further, in Ephesians 5 that is
elaborated a bit. He says: husbands, love your wives. Wives, submit to your husbands.
Children, obey your parents. That is orderly and it is in keeping with God’s
established authority. But here is how that touches down in the way God works in His
society. Let’s remind ourselves that this
is background concerned with the orderliness of God. Look at I Timothy 3, as God connects
family with church. I Timothy 3:4, talking about an overseer (overseer, elder, pastor, all
interchangeable terms): 4He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his
children under control with all dignity Orderliness in the family means
something to God. This is an elaboration of what He says of honor your father and your
mother. That is just the beginning. But He says this in partial explanation. Speaking of
deacons: 12Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of
their children and their own households. Why? Because orderliness is important
to God and authority means something to God because it is who God is and what He is like
and you and I are created in His image. He is saying look like it and this is one way for
us to look like it. Domestic situations do matter to God.
That is speaking of the family. Secondly, what about the church and orderliness in the
church? There was all kinds of interesting phenomena in the church of Corinth. That is the
place where Paul said I want things done decently and in order. Why? Because that is how
God is. Verse 15 - Paul is writing to Timothy: 15but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one
ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and support of the truth. So many in our world consider church,
if not a building or denomination, as kind of a religious Rotary club or something. We
just kind of go there and of course if you go to a club you should at least have some of
parliamentary procedure and organization. Paul is saying this goes way beyond that.
When we are talking about orderliness in the home, which lends to orderliness in the
church, which by the way, contributes to orderliness in society. He is saying this is the
assembly of the living God. This is the body of Christ. He is here. It is specific to Him.
It is the pillar and support of the truth. If the truth is not in the church, wherever
will we find it? He is saying hold onto it and live it out. I would reference the 13th
chapter of Romans. 1Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities
For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of
God; Orderliness and authority extend from
God as a Person to the family, to the church, to society. He does not leave it alone.
Rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, he says, but for evil. Do you want to
have no fear of authority? How often do you check your speedometer or the rear view
mirror? 3For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for
evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise
from the same; 7Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to
whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. I Timothy
2 Security and safety are important for
the people of God. Much is there to be said. In any of these institutions of family,
church, or government, the standing rule, according to the Scripture, is that these are
God’s ordained instruments to affect your life and mine until such time when if they
might take a position clearly contrary to Scripture. Then the Bible says, we must obey God
rather than man. Moses and the children of Israel have
come out of Egypt to the Promised Land. They have been saved. They have been redeemed.
They have been to Mt Sinai. They are receiving God’s Law. This is what it is supposed
to look like for those who have agreed to live in right relationship with God. It is an
interesting place to be. God is ruling the people directly -- there is a sense in which
family and church and government are all kind of blended together in the nation of Israel.
Nonetheless, Israel as a nation,
having come out of Egypt, having been led by God through His servant Moses, needed
orderliness and authority to reflect the living God. Again, that nation, as they received
the Ten Commandments, needed orderliness and authority to reflect the living God because
that’s the kind of God He is. He is bringing them in among a bunch of people whose
god is not that way. He wants them to stand out so He gives them civil regulations, like
geographical boundaries. They are there today. You can find them today. They are very
clearly listed -- this tribe lives here and this tribe lives here -- and lines them all
out that way, specifically, in an orderly fashion. He gives them very clear instructions
for how they are to live, in their behavior, in their economics. He says you have to have
standard weights and measures so that somebody does not cheat somebody and no one has to
wonder is this an honest deal. He wants His people to know safety and security in the way
they behave and in their economics and in their laws and all these things. He wanted them
to know they were safe and secure. He gives them ceremonial boundaries.
He gives them priests and He gives them feasts. He gives them a sacrificial system and He
tells them this is what you do in order to maintain a right relationship with Me. He gives
them rules and He expects them to start with the sure knowledge that the God who gives the
rules is a God of authority and a God of orderliness. Today is a broad picture day. In a
week we will home in on that verse specifically. Keep this in mind: even in our day a U.S.
embassy in a foreign country represents the presence and the interests of the United
States of America. That embassy is the United States in miniature on foreign soil. If
someone in some foreign country is mad at the U.S., they go throw eggs at the embassy. How
the embassy is treated is how the U.S. is regarded. So when God says you shall honor your father and your mother and He has placed those individuals there representing Himself and His interests, He is offering considerably more than domestic advice. He is the God of final authority and He commands us to honor that authority which most basically and fundamentally represents His own. To honor parents in light of Scripture is to honor God. Where that leaves us today, I think, is simply with a heart check. Parents are the foundational authority placed by God. He has also placed other authorities and we need to look within and say, “How do I regard the authorities God has placed in my life?” These are not accidents or happenstance. They are God’s placement. How do I regard them? That is an accurate reflection of how I regard God Himself. Perhaps that is where we need to go. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |