I invite you to open your Bible with me to the
book of Colossians and the third chapter. Dave
Bly and I were blessed this last week to attend
a briefing in Washington DC that was sponsored
by the National Association of Evangelicals.
As we were there, it was very encouraging to
hear some of the freshman representatives. who
were elected two years ago to go to Washington
and make a difference and to see the courage
as they have tried to do that with a lot of obstacles
being thrown in their way. I want you to know
today that though there are great concerns in
Washington and though we have a lot of prayer
that needs to be offered up on behalf of our
leaders, God is doing a work there. About a third
of the Senate attends weekly Bible studies. And
there are scores and scores who are members of
the House of Representatives who are doing the
same thing. And they are praying for each other,
they are praying for the work that God has called
them to do. Many of them know Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior and are seeking to honor Him.
And so as we think about our responsibility to
pray, We think about the fall elections. We need
to be in prayer. We need to be working for those
who will go on and make a difference in Washington
DC. The United States has become the most wealthy
and powerful nation in the history of the world
because it was founded upon biblical principles.
We were reminded of that this past week. that
many of the principles that our Founding Fathers
drew upon were derived from scriptures, not the
least of which was the belief in a sovereign
God who created us and who rules over the affairs
of men. Let me just remind you of what our Declaration
of Independence says. When in the course of human
events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers
of the earth a separate and equal station to
which the laws of nature and of nature's god
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions
of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.
It goes on to say, we hold these truths to be
self -evident that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain
unalienable rights. In other words, our founding
fathers did not see the government as the source
of the rights of the people of this nation. They
saw the creator as the source of those rights.
And yet, in our government school system today,
children are not allowed to pray, and the Bible
is not read. The Ten Commandments cannot even
be put in the school rooms of our country. They
conclude the Declaration of Independence by saying,
and for the support of this declaration, we,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine
providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes, in our sacred honor.
My point is simply this. The founding fathers
of this nation had a deep and abiding faith in
God. They were not all Christians, but they believed
in God. And this nation was founded upon principles
that require a belief in God to work. What we
observe, I think, in the history of America is
that obedience to biblical principles makes a
society strong. Not only a society, but a family
and an individual. Obedience brings blessing,
but disobedience to biblical principles brings
decay and destruction. Now today's text in Colossians
chapter 3 lays down some foundational principles.
Foundational principles for society, and for
the home, and for individuals. Where these foundational
principles are followed, there will be strength.
And where these principles are neglected or forsaken,
there will be grief and decay. Verse 18 of Colossians
3. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as
is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives
and do not be embittered against them. Children,
be obedient to your parents in all things where
this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do
not exasperate your children that they may not
lose heart. Slaves in all things obey those who
are your masters on earth, not with external
service, as those who merely please men, but
with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever
you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord
rather than for men. Knowing that from the Lord
you will receive the reward of the inheritance,
it is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he
who does wrong will receive the consequences
of the wrong which he has done, and that without
partiality. Masters grant to your slaves justice
and fairness, knowing that you too have a master
in heaven." The apostle addresses the household
as it was in the days of Rome. Slaves were common
in many families and were considered to be part
of the family. And so he addresses the household
in Rome. Now, of course, we today do not have
slaves. Some of you wives may feel like it, but
I hope before the morning's over you won't. We
don't have slaves, but the principles that are
laid down here apply to us in the home and in
the workplace. And what we learn here is that
we who name the name of Jesus Christ, who have
been raised from the dead and are risen with
Christ, we who are called chosen and holy and
beloved. We who are commanded to do all things
in the name of the Lord Jesus, verse 17, we have
certain responsibilities at home and in the workplace.
The principles that are laid down here, which
if followed will strengthen our homes and as
a result of that strengthen society. And if we
neglect these principles, our homes and our society
will suffer as a result of it. The Apostle first
addresses wives, and he says to them, be subject.
The Greek word here means, place yourself under
another in an orderly fashion. This verb does
not mean that a wife can be coerced into doing
this. The very idea in which he, the way in which
he expresses this means that it is to be done
voluntarily. It is her choice to defer to her
husband. And yet the subjection is viewed as
fitting. as a duty and as an obligation under
the lordship of Jesus Christ. Why, if he says,
be subject to your husband? Now in Ephesians
chapter 5, we have a parallel text to this that
elaborates upon it. I don't have time this morning
to read it, but let me just draw a couple of
things out from that text that will help undergird
this point a bit. It is clear in Ephesians chapter
5 that a mutual submission within the church
fellowship is evidence of the Holy Spirit's control
in their lives. In verse 18 he says, be filled
with the Holy Spirit, and then he begins to list
the results of that, and one of them is that
we within the church, men and women, will have
a mutual deference. to one another. We will subject
ourselves to one another. And in that context,
and in that spirit, he goes on to say, and wives,
you specifically be subject to your husbands.
So you see, this command to wives has a context.
And it is the deference that we believers are
to show to one another anyway. within the fellowship
of the Church. Secondly, God has appointed order
in the home, an order that places the husband
as the head or the authority in the home. That
is clearly stated in Ephesians chapter 5. And
that corresponds to the relationship between
Jesus Christ and the Church. It is a reflection.
of the order that God has established where Christ
is the head of the Church, and we submit ourselves
to Him. This command, and it is a command to
wives, does not mean that the husband is the
dictator and the master of the home who lords
it over his wife. It does not mean that. A husband
leads by serving his wife. It does not mean that
the husband is to demand or to force subjection
from his wife, for he truly cannot do that. No
one can force another person into subjection.
Rather, the husband's character and his service
to his wife ought to make submission from her
a willing response, because subjection, you see,
comes out of respect for the leader. This command
does not mean that wives are exempted if their
husbands are not Christians. 1 Peter chapter
3, verses 1 through 6 makes it clear. that even
when a Christian woman is married to a non -Christian
man, there is to be an element of subjection
in her home relationship with him. Wives be subject
to your husband. After that succinct statement,
the apostle moves on to husbands and he says,
husbands love your wives. This was a revolutionary
statement in the Roman world because in that
world wives were often viewed as possessions.
Wives were viewed as something that one possessed
for his own benefit. They were not respected.
There was not understanding really between husbands
and wives. And so while Paul doesn't undermine
the authority, of the husband, he mitigates that
authority. He says that authority is to be carried
out with love. Love your wife. This word love
is the word for God's love. It means that the
husband is to continually seek the welfare of
his wife. This is an act of the will, not of
the affection. This love is an act of the will
to choose, to seek the welfare of another, whether
or not the feelings are there at the moment.
It's like faith in that regard. Faith is not
a feeling. Faith is a choice that we make to
believe God, to trust in Jesus Christ, and not
in ourselves or whatever else we're trusting
in. To love our wives means to choose to act
in a way that ministers to her needs. One commentator
says, Christian love is not an impulse of the
feelings. It does not always run with natural
inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon
those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love
seeks the welfare of all, and works no ill to
any. And to husbands, the apostle says, do not
be embittered with your wife. Do not be irritated.
Do not be harsh or surly. We might put it in
the colloquial of our day, don't be cross with
your wife, but love your wife. Now in Ephesians
5, again, there's a parallel text, and from it
we gain insight. The love of one's wife is a
self -sacrificing choice. Just as Christ has
loved us and given himself up for us, we husbands
are to lay aside our rights and to give ourselves
up for our wives. But Paul also says it's a self
-nurturing choice. for us to make. Because, he
says, if we love our wives, in essence, we're
loving ourselves because we're one flesh. There
is great benefit to the husband who practices
love for his wife. The benefits and the rewards
that come back to him multi -fold. And so it
is, in a sense, a self -nurturing choice. And
again. It illustrates Christ's care and union
with the Church. And then within the household,
he writes to children, and he says, to children,
be obedient. Humorous Ogden Nash observed, parents
were invented to make children happy by giving
them something to ignore. Not in the Christian
home. The word obedience means to listen to and
to attend to the words of your parents. Literally
it says to hear under them. And so it means to
hear what they say and then be ready to carry
them out, those words of instruction. It is wise
for a child to do this for a number of reasons,
including the fact that when a child does this,
he is under the umbrella of protection of his
parents. There is a safety for the child who
obeys his parents. There is safety in obedience.
And a child is to obey, it says, in all things.
We must note, however, that that does not include
abuse. That does not include being told to do
what is wrong and having to do that. It does
not mean that. But as a general principle, in
a healthy way, a child is to obey his parents
in all things. And he says this is God's will,
and God recognizes this response as something
that is pleasing to him. In fact, it well pleases
God when a child obeys. And then to parents.
or to fathers. Do not exasperate, he says, your
children. Now it's not easy to discipline children,
is it? That's a tough thing to learn to do. About
the time you've learned to do it with some success,
they're grown. All parents are a learning curve.
Lord Rochester gives some... found advice when
he says, before I got married, I had six theories
about bringing up children. Now I have six children
and no theories. He tells us here, parents, do
not provoke your children to frustration. Do
not make them angry and discouraged pointlessly.
Now, some parents have so reacted To that that
they have failed to discipline their children
and discipline is important Some author who I
do not know Wrote these words. I loved you enough.
It's entitled Someday when my children are old
enough to understand the logic that motivates
the mother I will tell them I loved you enough
to ask you about where you were going with whom
and what time you would get home I loved you
enough to insist that you buy a bike that we
could afford to give you with your own money.
I loved you enough to make you return a Milky
Way with a bite out of it to a drug store and
to confess I stole this. I loved you enough to
stand over you for two hours while you cleaned
your room, a job that would have taken me only
15 minutes. I loved you enough to let you see
anger, disappointment, disgust, and tears in
my eyes. I loved you enough to admit I was wrong
to ask for your forgiveness. I loved you enough
to let you stumble, fall, and hurt. I loved you
enough to let you assume the responsibility for
your actions when you were six and ten and sixteen.
But most of all, I loved you enough to say no
when you hated me for it. That was the hardest
part of all. It is important to discipline our
children. And in our society today, there is
such a deification of children. that it's an
evidence of the convoluted thinking of our culture
regarding discipline. It is difficult for me
to understand how a six -year -old can fly an
airplane across the United States. It's not a
problem. Et cetera, et cetera. We have a deification
of children and children's thinking in our culture.
John Rosemond, who is a licensed psychologist,
in North Carolina who occasionally has a column
in our St. Paul paper, wrote several years ago
these words. After a recent presentation, he
says, I found myself talking with a couple of
parents who wanted to know how to set limits
without spicing their children's energy. No sooner
had they asked the question than up walks a girl
of seven or eight. Without missing a beat, she
proceeds to address her parents as if I'm not
even there. When are we leaving? She asks. I'm
bored. Immediately breaking off our conversation,
the father says, now, Haroldine. That surely
wasn't her name. Now, Haroldine, what have we
told you about interrupting? What are you supposed
to say? Excuse me, she says mechanically. That's
better, he says. Now, what is it you want to
tell her? And right there, to my amazement and
amusement, this family demonstrates the degree
to which Haroldine's energies are in desperate
need of stifling. But I pick on Haroldine's parents
when, in truth, they are every parent and Haroldine
is every child. This generation of American children
has, as a group, no respect for adult conversation.
Which simply means they have no respect for adults.
Which simply means their parents as a group have
failed to communicate the single most important
of all distinctions That adults are not children
and children are not adults Because I'm to say
now we're being told That we are good parents
only to the degree we become involved with our
children The more we do with them the better
parents we are Involvement he says the Emperor's
new clothes The latest spin on the same old child
as center of the family universe, professional
drumbeat we've been marching to for 40 years.
You'd think we would have learned by now. You've
got some important things there to say for us
folks. But in the midst of our discipline, we
must not frustrate our children. And how is it
that children are frustrated? Let me just suggest
some ways in which we can exasperate our children
as adults. One is by never giving them any physical
affection, or taking them for granted, or making
them feel unwanted. We can exasperate our children
by embarrassing them in front of others, by criticizing
them unjustly, by putting down their opinions.
By bringing up the old mistakes again and again,
children are exasperated when they see their
father continually putting down their mother.
They're exasperated by inconsistent discipline,
by our not showing approval of them, by our having
too high of expectations for their attitudes
and behaviors. by our failure to acknowledge
our own mistakes as parents. These are the kinds
of things that can exasperate our children resulting
in their losing heart or being broken in spirit.
So he says, fathers, especially fathers, but
parents in general, do not exasperate your children.
And then to slaves or to employees, as we would
apply it in our culture, he says several important
things. First, we who are working for others
must obey our supervisors, our masters. We must
see them, whether they are just or Christian
or kind or any of the good things, we must see
them nonetheless as God's authority over us.
And so we are expected to obey them. Secondly,
we are to do our work with a God -fearing attitude.
Not just to please men, as important as that
may be, we are to do our work fearing God, doing
it in the sight of God. Third, We're to do our
work with a Christ -honoring diligence. We're
to do it heartfully. Literally, we're to do it
from the soul, with all of our hearts. We're
to do our work for the Lord, realizing that ultimately
our reward is not the paycheck every two weeks.
It's the reward we will receive from Jesus Christ
on that day that we see Him face to face. This,
by the way, gives tremendous dignity to all work.
It is the heart and core of what is called the
Protestant work ethic that for centuries made
America great. And then finally, we're to realize
that working in a poor way will bring due consequences.
God does not promise us divine protection for
lousy work, for sloppy management. There's no
favoritism, because one is a Christian. We're
rewarded for work well done, we suffer consequences
when we fail to do our work well. But then he
closes with a word to those who are the supervisors
or the masters. Those who are in charge, are
responsible to supply two important attributes
to the workplace, justice and fairness. Justice
means to do the right thing. We are to do the
right thing for our employees, not the most economical
thing necessarily for the company. Were to do
the right thing, there's to be justice. Roman
slaves had no rights at all, period. And so the
apostle says to masters, give them rights, and
do what is right before God. Secondly, he says,
treat them fairly, let there be an equality.
Treat them as human beings. Do not treat them
with partiality, but with equality. And the motive
for doing so is that those who are masters have
themselves a heavenly master, the Lord, who witnesses
the way that we treat others, and who will, it
implies, compensate us in a similar fashion that
we treat others. Now I began this message this
morning. by saying that there are certain foundational
principles which, if followed, will make a country,
a home, and a person successful. There are certain
foundational principles given in God's Word which,
if followed, will help us make our homes and
our lives filled with joy and satisfaction. Not
that there won't be problems, there are problems
in every home because a home is a collection
of sinners. But when we follow the principles
that God gives us, there will be strength in
our home and in our country. I think you can
see by the contrast in our country today where
we're at. And very sadly, surveys show that there
is very, very little difference. I mean within
the... a fraction of a percentage point in the
attitudes between Christians and non -Christians
in America when it comes to the kinds of things
we're talking about today. The apostle says that
we are to be distinct, and we are to devote ourselves
to the principles of God's Word, make them the
foundational principles of our lives. Ladies
and gentlemen, these are the true family values.
We hear a lot about that term, and it's been
twisted by some to mean what they want it to
mean. But here are the true family values. These
things make a family work. And because of that,
they make a society work. For a society is a
collection of families. If there is going to
be hope for America, the America of your children
and your grandchildren. There must be another
American revolution. Not one of guns, but one
of morals. And yes, it begins at the ballot box.
And every one of you had better be at the ballot
box next fall and know what you're doing there.
And you'd better work for the candidates that
are committed to foundational biblical principles.
and give them money to work with. I'm sorely
tempted, but I rest and I will not. Except to
say that we give our, we expect so much from
our representatives and give them so little to
work with. We heard from one man who went through
hell on earth to be elected from Omaha, Nebraska.
By 1 ,700 votes, about one percentage, he won
over his liberal counterparts. And the AFL -CIO
has committed hundreds of thousands of dollars
to his deceit this fall. They have committed
$35 million to deceit those who were committed
to righteousness in the last election and who
won. They're determined to take over Congress
again. So what I'm saying is that you and I need
to be deeply involved in the grassroots. We need
another American Revolution. But listen, it's
not going to happen at the ballot box alone.
It has to begin in the choices that you make
and that I make in our homes. That's where the
revolution has to start, and let it start today.
and then let it spread. Not just for the sake
of America. America is a nation that God has
raised up and He can put it down whenever He
wishes. He is the sovereign of the universe.
But let us do it. Let us put these foundational
principles in place in our lives for the glory
of God. For whatever we do, in everything, let
us do it for the glory of God. and know that
as that happens, it will bring blessing to us
as well. Husband, does your wife know that you
love her? Wife, are you in submission to your
husband? Children, do you obey your parents?
Do you respect them? And parents, are you disciplining
your children, being careful not to cross the
line to exasperate them? What kind of an employee
are you as a Christian? Are you living out your
faith in the workplace? And if you're a supervisor,
do those under you know that something is different
about you because of the way that you treat those
that you supervise? Let's hear what God's Word
says, folks. Let's put it into place and live
out our faith in this world. And in doing that,
make a difference. Let's pray. This text makes
demands upon all of us. Would you sing with me
if it is a prayer from your heart? These words.
All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely
give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence.
Let's stand together. I surrender all. I surrender
all. All to thee, my blessed Savior. Lord, we
surrender to you our rights. We lay on the altar
our cultural deviations from these principles.
And we choose to live daily in your presence,
in the face of God. And we do this by faith.
not only desiring to obey these principles, but
believing that you are the rewarder of those
who do. In Jesus' name, Amen.