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I hope you're right there listening to my last of the Heart to Heart talk with you regarding the fifth commandment.

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In fact, I hope you've not missed a single one in a series of messages that I've been bringing to you on God's ten rules for living.

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Because that's exactly what they are.

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When God created man, when God made man in his own image and after his own likeness, when God put Adam and Eve here on this planet,

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He gave them and all of those who were to follow ten rules for living.

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Think what a mess the whole thing would have been if God had not laid down certain laws and certain rules.

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Oh, as it is.

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The whole thing is so complicated and we've gotten ourselves in such a mess.

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God knew human nature from the very beginning and He knew that He'd have to lay down certain laws, make certain rules,

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and that man would have to abide by those rules, live according to those laws, if he was going to live in harmony with God

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and be able to live with other human beings.

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That's why when we break any one of these ten rules that God has laid down, we suffer.

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That's right.

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That's why the world is in the mess that it is today.

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We've tried to take into our own hands the running of our lives, of other people's lives, and of the world,

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and we're trying to run these lives of ours and run the nations of the world contrary to God's ten rules for living.

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And we've gotten ourselves in a jam.

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You will remember a statement that I made over and over again when I brought you some prophetic messages.

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I said at that time that God will never destroy man, never.

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Don't ever have the idea that God is going to destroy man.

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Man will destroy himself.

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Man is destroying himself.

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And many a man has destroyed and is destroying himself gradually, slowly, but surely by trying to live contrary to God's rules for living.

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And in this generation, in this point in the century, we know all about life.

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There was never a time when teenagers, youngsters, for their age, knew more about life than they know today.

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Oh, they're smart little jiggers, let me tell you.

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But there are few youngsters and very few adults who know how to live.

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And what we need to do is to get back again to God's ten rules for living.

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That's right.

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Well, sir, I hope you have not missed any one of these heart-to-heart talks.

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And I'll feel very sorry if I'm listening to someone who did not get the heart-to-heart talk in my first message regarding this, the fifth commandment,

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because I feel that you will have missed everything that is so important to this commandment.

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Let me read it to you.

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It's the fifth and is found in the 20th chapter of Exodus, the 12th verse.

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Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

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Now, here is a commandment with a promise.

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If you keep this commandment, if you're obedient, if you're faithful in keeping it, God has given his promise.

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He has made an agreement with you that he'll bless you.

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Isn't that something?

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You read these commandments when you realize that this is one commandment, that with it there comes a promise,

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almost like an award that's given you for having kept this commandment.

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Therefore, I feel that the Lord feels that this is a very sacred, in his sight.

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This is not only a command.

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It is something that's sacred to him.

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That's something that's especially precious to him.

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And with it, he gives an award by saying, If you'll honor your father, if you'll honor your mother,

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thy days will be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

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In other words, he will bless you.

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He'll be with you.

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He'll prosper you.

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You know, it's too often taken for granted that this is a commandment addressed to just the children only.

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But nothing can be further from the truth.

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And those of you who heard my little heart-to-heart talk in a previous message regarding this fifth commandment

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saw that with this commandment there is a responsibility on the part of the parent that is so tremendous that it's almost overwhelming.

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What God is to the adult.

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Parents are to the child.

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Know that.

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There is a link between God and the baby, the little child, the youngster before he has reached the age of accountability.

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And that link is the parent.

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That's right.

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Here in this fifth commandment, the parent is viewed as being in the place of God to the child.

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The youngster cannot understand God or spiritual things.

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He asks 10,000 questions.

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Why, Daddy?

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Why, Mama?

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Why?

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Oh, sure.

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That little brain is going 90 miles an hour and sometimes faster than that.

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He's learning.

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He's just beginning to comprehend.

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Why?

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And of all things that he cannot comprehend would be God, spiritual things.

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There must be a link between that child and God.

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And God has so ordained and in his great blueprint, he has made the parent the link between that youngster before he reaches the age of accountability,

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before he can make his own decisions, before his little brain has completely unfolded to the thing spiritual.

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That child cannot understand God.

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He cannot become a Christian until he reaches the age of accountability, until he can make his own decisions.

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Therefore, the parent is viewed here as being in the place of God to the child.

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Isn't that a responsibility?

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And during that time of training, during that all-important time, what God is to the parent, what God is to the adult,

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the parents are to the child, the controller, the lawgiver, the lover, the one who provides.

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Oh, right.

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Therefore, we see that this commandment is not only addressed to just the children, the son, the daughter, but also to the parent.

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Now, watch this.

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Now we come to that word honor.

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What is involved in that word honor?

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The word honor has a much larger meaning than that of obedience.

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Very often I think that many a parent has gotten the idea that this word honor has but one meaning, obedience.

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Every parent should have the complete obedience of their youngster.

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But this word honor has a far deeper meaning than just obedience.

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I have seen some children who were obedient to their parent because they were scared stiff of them.

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They were scared to death of their parents.

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They were scared to death of what the result would be if they did not obey.

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That's right.

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Those same children had absolutely no honor, no respect for the parent.

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It was fear.

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Now, I have never been a mother.

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I have never been a parent.

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But I would feel as though I had been unsuccessful.

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I would have been a failure as a mother if I had a child who only obeyed me because they were scared to death of me.

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I mean that.

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If that child had no respect for me, did not honor me, did not love me enough to obey me,

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I would feel as though I had been a failure as a mother.

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And yet I have never been a mother, but I know my own feeling when it came to Papa and Mama.

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Do you want to know something?

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Papa never laid a hand on me.

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Oh, not because I didn't need it.

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Mama made up for it.

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But let's talk about Papa.

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Papa never as much as slapped me.

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He never touched me as a rebuke.

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I cannot ever remember Papa ever rebuking me.

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He didn't have to.

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I had such respect for Papa.

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I had such high regard for him.

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I had almost as a reverence for him that I didn't want to disobey him.

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Believe me, I would just look at his face.

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He didn't have to say anything.

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If that look was on his face that I learned to know so well, I knew that he was displeased,

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and I would not have displeased him for anything in the world.

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In other words, it isn't a matter of how much you beat your youngster.

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You can whip the daylights out of that youngster, and yet, my friend,

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believe in confide the word of God.

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That's right.

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And as a youngster, you may be absolutely obedient to the last word to your parent,

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and yet be breaking this commandment.

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It's something that's thought deeper than that.

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The word honor has a much larger meaning than just that of obedience.

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Now, the thought of obedience is necessarily included.

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In the process of the years, however, all human beings,

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for the development of their own possibilities, come to the place of personal responsibility

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where they have to choose for themselves in the great crisis and the minor matters of life.

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A boy will never be a man if he always must obey his parents.

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Nothing is more disgusting than an adult, a man, still being a little boy in the presence of his mother.

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There's nothing more disgusting than a full grown man who is still a mama's boy.

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Nothing more disgusting except a mother who never acknowledges that her son has become an adult

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and still has him tied to her apron strings.

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It's like that.

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A boy will never be a man if he always must obey his parents.

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The training of the years of obedience will affect all the choice of subsequent years,

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but beyond the period of control, there must come that of individual responsibility.

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It is at once evident that this command includes the whole life of a child,

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for all men and women are still the children of their parents.

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I don't care how old you may be this hour.

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You may be 40, you may be 50, you may be 60,

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but God still demands that you honor, that you respect your parents.

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And even though the days have passed when it is necessary or right that they should obey,

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the days are never passed when it is necessary and right that they should honor their parents.

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The command then has a two-fold application.

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First, to the period of childhood.

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Secondly, to the period of adult life.

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The meaning of the word honor is to attach weight to,

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to put in the place of superiority, to hold in high opinion,

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to reverence in the best sense of that word,

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to the child who is not yet of age, to think, to plan, to will.

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The honoring of parents consists in subjection,

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in obedience that is gladly rendered because of the respect that that child has for the parent.

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This, like every law of God, is for the child a gracious and yet an imperative requirement.

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It is gracious in that it frees the child from responsibility and care

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until character is formed and the mind is trained to the possibilities of correct judgment.

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A little child has not matured to the place where it has judgment, where it can think for itself.

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Oh, sure, every kid thinks that it has far better judgment than its parent,

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that it is in a position to make far greater, better decisions.

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No, uh-uh.

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The parent has charge of that child, complete charge, until character is formed

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and the mind is trained to the possibilities of correct judgment on the part of that child.

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The divine thought for the child is ever that it should play.

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The tides of young life are full of hope, movement, development,

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and that these should not be hindered in their development.

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God has said over the life those who are in the very nature of the relationship

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that they bear to the child to give them the best thoughts,

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to plan the best programs for them.

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And the little one is free from these cares for which it is not prepared,

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and they can grow and develop.

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Honor, oh my friend, that wonderful honor.

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Honor, which also includes obedience.

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Obedience to father and mother is God's safeguard and law of development for child life.

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That's right.

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The moment comes when for the perfect development of character,

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the child must act apart from control.

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But to cease to honor your parent never comes in the life of any individual, never.

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There's a great responsibility, parent.

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Are you the kind of parent that your child can honor?

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You can demand his obedience with a whip,

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but no whip in the world will ever force that child to honor you.

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To feel his little hand in mine, so clinging and so warm,

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to know he thinks me strong enough to keep him from harm,

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to see his simple faith in all that I can say or do,

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it sort of shames a fella, but it makes him better too.

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And I'm trying hard to be the man he fancies me to be,

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because I have this little chap at home who thinks the world of me.

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I would not disappoint his trust for anything on earth,

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nor let him know how little I just naturally am worth.

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But after all, it's easier, that brighter road to climb,

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with the little hands behind me to push me all the time.

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And I reckon I'm a better man than what I used to be,

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because I have this precious little chap at home

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who thinks the whole world of me.

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Amen.