Now the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is really just one verse that I want to pull out of this, and it's a great chapter, but in verse number 12, the Bible says this,
Now the brothers shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son, and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
Now go back if you went to Matthew chapter 10. You'll find the same statement in Matthew chapter 10.
Of course, in Mark 13, Jesus Christ is talking about the tribulation, the time leading up to his second coming.
He's talking about how Christians will be hated and persecuted, and hated of all men, put to death, and so forth.
In Matthew chapter 10, he goes into the same subject, and let's look at verse number 21.
He pretty much says the same thing. He says,
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Here's the title of my sermon.
The children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Now, this is an interesting thought, and don't just read over it. Don't blow past it.
You see, I can understand a brother delivering up a brother to death. A brother betraying his brother.
Now, it's wicked. It's horrible.
And of course, the context here is Christians, people who are living for God, preaching the gospel, winning souls to Christ, being delivered unto death by their own brother.
Now, you can see that happening.
You've probably known a lot of people where the one brother was a godly Christian, the other brother hated God, or hated Christ, or didn't go to church, whatever.
You can see that happening. You can see winning someone to Christ, and maybe his family, none of his family are saved.
Maybe his parents aren't saved, his brother and sister aren't saved, and so you can understand the brother delivering up the brother to death, or the father, the child.
You know, parents turning against their children when they get saved.
But the part that I want to focus on, and the part that I think is shocking, is children rising up against their parents and causing them to be put to death.
That's a pretty shocking statement.
You see, this is a Christian parent, a godly, righteous parent, who's being persecuted for doing the right thing, and the one who betrays them unto death is their own child.
That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?
Look, if you would, at Romans chapter 1. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Look at Romans chapter 1.
And I'm going to explain to you this morning why is it that in the last days, many children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.
I don't think it happened one time. And of course, God knows the end from the beginning, so he speaks about the things that are not as though they were.
He talks about the future, and he says the children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. I don't think it's going to happen one time.
For him to bring it up as a characteristic of the last days, it's going to be something that happens en masse.
It's going to be something that happens many times, where many children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death during the tribulation.
Look at Romans chapter 1. Of course, Romans chapter 1 describes the degeneracy of a society.
And it really shows the degeneracy of America in the downward spiral, the process that we've gone through.
But when he gets to the end and he talks about how wicked people will be, he says in verse 29,
Be filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God,
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. And isn't this interesting, thrown into the list, disobedient to parents?
Look over, if you would, at 2 Timothy chapter 3, toward the end of the New Testament. I'm just kind of building the foundation here for the message.
2 Timothy chapter 3, toward the end of the New Testament.
Shortly before Philemon, Hebrews, Titus, those books, you'll find 2 Timothy chapter 3, and he talks about the last days.
He says, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents.
It almost seems out of place in the list, because you think, come on, every child disobeys their parents.
I mean, they're in the process of learning, they're in the process of growing and being disciplined.
Keep reading, it says, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
So we see here clearly that the children one day will rise up against their parents and cause to be put to death.
Let me ask you something. If I raise my children, and turn to Deuteronomy 6 while I ask you this question, the fifth book in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 6. If I raise my children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
If I train up a child in the way he should go, as the Bible said, when he's old, he'll not depart from it.
If I train and teach and admonish my children and bring them up and discipline them and love them and nurture them and train them,
do you think that they will rise up against me and put me to death?
Do you think that if my children are taught at home by their mother and taught by their father,
and go to work with dad and spend time with mom and do the errands with mom,
and she loves them and cares for them and teaches them the Bible,
that they're going to rise up and cause my wife and I to be put to death? I think not.
It's ludicrous. The thought is amazing, but let me ask you this question.
If you were to send your kids for eight hours a day to an institution that openly hates God,
maybe they might rise up against you one day and cause you to be put to death.
Stop and think about it. I mean, in order for a child to rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death,
they would have to have a completely different value system than their parents. Stop and think about it.
They would have to have a completely different ideology, a completely different mentality,
a completely different education, a completely different religion to be able to stand up and cause their parents to be put to death.
You see, they're sacrificing their parents on the altar of something else that they believe in.
That is not what their parents taught them. That is not the Christianity of mom and dad.
That is not the church that they were brought up in. You see, their parents believe one thing.
Their parents believe in the God of the Bible, or else they wouldn't even be mentioned in Mark 13 and Matthew 10.
Their parents are soul and godly righteous Christians, but the children have a completely different loyalty,
a completely different allegiance, and it's not mom and dad. It's something else.
What is it? Well, what's the context of the passage? We're talking about the last days. We're talking about the tribulation.
We're talking about a society where there's an antichrist that people worship, a one-world government,
a one-world religion, a one-world system where the state and religion merge and persecute God's people.
You see, we're talking about a time that's probably not too distant from right now.
We're talking about the mystery of iniquity that does already work, the Bible says.
It's already happening. The devil is already at work, even though we're not in the tribulation proper.
It's already at work. It's already building up to it. And my friend, the way that children could become so alienated from their parents
that they would actually be so cold, that they would actually have their parents put to death,
is because of the fact that they have a completely different religion, ideology, set of value than their parents because they were raised somewhere else.
They weren't raised with mom and dad. If they were raised with mom and dad, they wouldn't cause mom and dad to be put to death.
They were raised by somebody else. They love somebody else more than mom and dad. They love something else more than mom and dad.
They believe something different than mom and dad because they were educated and trained somewhere else.
Look, if you would, at Deuteronomy chapter 6 and see the command of God.
Now before I explain this to you, I just want to give you a quick lesson in case you don't already know this.
In the Bible, the word you is always a plural word.
Whenever the word you is found and you see the word ye, you, your, yours, yourself, that's always plural every time.
Whenever you see the word the, thou, thy, thine, thyself, that is a singular word.
And that's why it's important that the Bible differentiates because in many cases that dramatically changes the meaning of the passage.
So the these and the thous are singular. The you and the your is a plural term.
Look, if you would, at Deuteronomy 6 verse 5. The Bible says, and thou, so is that singular or plural? Singular.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words, speaking of the Bible, which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.
Now here the parent is commanded to teach God's word to their child and it's in a very singular way. Not as a group.
But as an individual. To teach your individual child is what he's saying.
But then he says this, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house.
And when thou walkest by the way. And when thou liest down. And when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.
And I don't know, we'll read that in a moment, but wait a minute.
How can you speak about God's word to your child when you rise up if your child is not there when you rise up?
How can you speak God's word to your child when you sit at the table to eat if your child is not there with you to sit at the table to eat?
How can you speak of God's word when you go to bed at night if your child is not there when you go to bed at night?
If your child is not there walking with you in the way. Walking with you, eating with you, getting up in the morning with you, going to bed with you.
You can't obey this unless your child is with you.
And God commands us, not a little bit, but all day long to be speaking to our children, to be spending time with our children.
And to be teaching them, not about things that don't matter, but about things that do matter. Speaking God's word to them.
You say, oh, I want to spend a special family time. We're all going to plop down in front of the Super Bowl.
You know, why don't you plop down in front of the Bible? Why don't you sit down and talk about something that matters?
Instead of watching a bunch of men run around, throw a ball, is that today?
Yeah, you know, throw a ball around and, you know, wearing pants that are way too tight, you know what I mean?
Running around, playing a game. Now, but games are something that you play when you're a child for fun, okay?
And when you grow up, maybe you play a football game to get some exercise, to blow off a little steam, to have a little fun.
You're not getting any exercise in front of that stupid TV.
And watching a bunch of steroids-filled guys running around in tight pants, throwing a ball around, and then watching some rock concert at half time,
watching all the fun beer ads in between, you know, that's not what God wants you to be doing today.
God wants you out soul-witting today. You know, get out and knock some doors.
Read the Bible. Do something that matters. Don't sit there in front of the TV and, oh, we won. You didn't do anything. We won.
You know, I don't even know how to play football, hardly. We played a great football game at the church picnic.
You know, I didn't know what I was doing. Man, Victor surprised us all. He's from Australia. They don't even have football and he was tearing us all up.
But, you know, we played football. We had a good time. We were spending time with one another. We got some good exercise.
But, you know, sitting on the couch in front of the TV, the sad thing is that's what most people consider quality time with their children.
And if we were to look at the average home in America, even Christian home, the kids are gone from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. practically.
You know, by the time they get the ride to school, they get on the bus. I mean, I know that when I was going to school, when I was a teenager,
I literally left the house at about 6.30 even though school didn't start at 8 o'clock because I went to a Christian school.
So I had to carpool all the way across town, get there a half hour early, and I left the house at 6.30.
I literally got home at 5.30 every night. No joke. Because I couldn't get picked up until my parents or my carpool's parents finished work.
And then they picked me up. So I'm only spending a few hours at home.
You know, and then most people, that time in the evening is we sit out at dinner and turn on the TV.
And the TV is going and that's light. And then you wonder why one day children rise up against their parents and cause to be put to death.
Because they've been educated by school and TV, not by mom and dad.
You say, well that's why I bring my kids to church so that they'll be educated. That's not what this passage teaches.
These people had Moses. They had a great pastor. You say that wasn't church. The Bible calls it the church in the wilderness, 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Moses was the pastor of that church in the wilderness. They had the tabernacle of the congregation.
But that wasn't enough. You say you in your own home are going to need to put God's word on the wall in your house, talk about it, teach them, train them.
And let me tell you something, I can honestly stand here and say that the most important things I learned about the Bible I learned from my mom and dad.
Not from church, not from Christian school, not from Bible college.
And I wasn't even home schooled. I was only home schooled for one year when I was growing up. I went to school the whole time.
You know, and was exposed to every filthy thing under the sun.
But let me tell you something, I learned the most important Bible doctrines that I live or die by from mom and dad.
Honestly, I can tell you, if you who've been in church for a long time, you know me well, who've been at Faithful Word for years,
were to make a list of what do you think are Pastor Anderson's most important doctrines that he preaches?
What do you think are the most crucial, critical things that he believes?
If you were to bring that list to me, more than half the things on the list that you made, I could say this is where my mom or dad taught me that.
Not church. Honestly.
You see, parents need to take responsibility and teach their own children and not ship them off to some institution that's run by Satan himself to educate their children.
And yes, the public school is run by Satan. I'm not going to lie to you. It's godless. They openly are against God.
They openly say God is not allowed. The Holy Bible is not allowed.
I mean, every book under the sun is allowed in that library.
And people get upset when they want to censor a book out of the library. Why are you censoring? Why are you censoring the Holy Bible?
You see, the Bible is the one book that they're afraid of. They're not afraid of all these other phony books in that library.
I mean, who's ever been inside a school library? It's usually a pretty serious library.
I mean, usually it's two stories. I mean, there's books everywhere. And then every classroom has its own individual library.
But this is the book that you won't find.
You're not going to find a King James Bible on that shelf in that school room or in that library.
You'll find everything else. Every other religion.
You might even find some watered-down version or some kind of a book about Christianity, tearing it apart or giving you a phony version of Christianity.
But this is the one book you won't find.
And this is a book that's been banned from the public schools.
The Bible has been kicked out of the public schools for what, 30-some years now or so? Long before I was born, I know that much.
And I'll tell you why. Because this is the book that they're afraid of.
Because the Bible says you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
And they don't want your child to be free. They want to control the mind of your child.
They don't want it to have the freedom to decide.
I mean, hey, if the Bible's just a fairy tale, then put it in the fairy tale section and let them read it.
But they won't because they know the power of God's Word.
They know the power of God's Word that will change their life, that will show them that they're not an animal like they were taught in the science class.
That they are not an evolved creature from a monkey or an ape or whatever it is.
And they'll not act like an animal.
And they'll be told that there's rules to live by that are right and wrong and good and evil and the forces of truth and the forces of darkness and absolute, right and wrong.
And when they read it, they will not be the same. And they're afraid of it. They don't want them to hear about it.
I used to teach a Sunday school class when I was much younger.
And I taught this Sunday school class and I used to tell the kids that rode the bus to church from the ghettos of South Chicago.
I said, you better listen in Sunday school to what I'm preaching to you from God's Word because I said you're not going to hear this in school.
You're not going to hear it anywhere else. In fact, they don't want you to hear it.
This is the only place that you're going to hear it. So you better listen up and listen good.
And it's the truth. Because you're not going to hear that in school. You're going to be taught everything that's contrary to the Bible.
Just talk to kids today. Talk to kids who don't go to church and who just go to public school and ask them what they believe about basic issues.
It's interesting. I mean, it's amazing. You'll be shocked what they believe. You'll be shocked what they're being taught.
And you say, well, but my children, they go to church on Sunday, but wait a minute. They're only spending about three, four hours a week in church.
How many hours are they spending in that brainwashing institution called school?
And it's not an educational institution. I've known kids that came out of that thing that didn't even hardly know how to read and write when they came out of high school.
It was known to people like that. I mean, I've seen it. They couldn't even hardly read and write.
They don't know anything about science. They don't know anything about history. They learn more about science from some sci-fi movie that they watch and they think it's real.
It's true. It's not about education. It's about indoctrination. And if we would obey God's command for thou to educate thy children, we wouldn't have this problem.
But you see, when did God's people in the Bible... Show me one place in the whole Bible where God's people were told to drop their child off for someone else to educate.
Drop them off and have the world... In fact, take them to the Philistines. Take them to the Hittites and have the Philistines educate your child.
And they could bust them over from Gaza to Judea or whatever. You're never going to find that in the Bible.
But let's keep reading in Deuteronomy 6. He said in verse 10,
And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of good things which thou filest not, and wells digged which thou digest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not.
When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of God.
He's saying, look, when things start going good, beware that you don't forget the Lord.
Now turn over just a few pages of the writing of your Bible. You'll see Joshua, the next book is Judges. Go to Judges chapter 2.
You see, all throughout the book of Joshua, the children of Israel were fighting the battles and taking over the Promised Land and setting up their inheritance and so forth.
But in the book of Judges, all the conquests end and they have peace throughout the land.
They've finished all the warfare. They're just settled in. Peace, prosperity, everything's going great.
The exact time that God mentioned in Deuteronomy 6, when they inherited the land and everything was great.
Look at verse 8 of Judges chapter 2. It says, And Joshua the son of Nun, that was the man who led them in, the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres in the mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill Gaiash.
And also all that generation were gathered under their fathers. So basically Joshua dies and everybody that was his age, everybody that was in the generation that had fought the battles.
He said, And there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim. Isn't that amazing?
That the children that grew up in the next generation did not even know the works of the Lord.
They didn't know what had been done for them. They did not know the Bible. They had not been taught by their parents.
The parents became lazy and did not teach the children and therefore they did evil in the sight of the Lord.
They turned away from God completely and served Baalim, which is just a multiplicity of false gods.
Look if you would at Psalm 71. Go to the book of Psalms. Right in the very dead center of your Bible.
Psalm 71. You see it's important that we take the initiative to teach our children.
Number one, I'm not going to drop my children off in some god hating, godless institution and say, well they'll be alright, God will protect them.
Yeah, they'll be alright, God will protect them by giving them parents that teach them and train them and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
I mean there's so many reasons why I don't drop my children off at that hell hole called public school.
And you say, oh you're being a little too hard on it. Really? Is that why one out of four girls when they graduate from high school will admit and say, I've been molested?
And you think I'm using too strong of a condemnation by saying that it's a hell hole? It's horrible.
Molestation abounds. Perverts abound. The love of many has waxed cold because of the wickedness of our society.
And there are a lot of evil, bad, wicked people seeking whom they may devour, not to mention the indoctrination.
I mean let's face it. You say, well they're not being taught anything against Jesus. In fact, they're teachers of Christians.
Wait a minute. Stop and think about this. Everywhere you go now, Scott was with me. We're in Chili's.
And there's this little kid's coloring sheet in Chili's. You know what I'm talking about. The kid's menu, but it's more like a coloring book and it has the menu on the back.
And they gave them four little non-toxic crayons and a little coloring sheet. The whole thing. The whole color sheet in Chili's was just all about the environment.
That was the whole thing? I mean come on. It's Chili's. Give the kid a hamburger. Let him color a clown or a race car or something.
But no. The whole thing. Am I telling the truth, Scott? It was just promoting environmentalism. Just telling you about how we can't cut down any trees.
We got to preserve the environment. I mean just a brainwashing session in the coloring sheet at Chili's in the kid's menu.
And you know as well as I do, that is what you find everywhere you go nowadays. I mean it's everywhere. It's a religion.
Just like Buddhism, environmentalism, it's a religion. It's a worship of the earth. It's worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
And so this religion of environmentalism, which is what is going to be used to enslave in the coming days and years and months.
God said it would happen. God said that would be the mechanism. We see it happening, that it's used to draw the whole world together.
Because we all have to save the planet, save the earth. Have fun saving it when God's raining fire and brimstone on it.
Have fun saving it when God turns the seas into blood and kills one third of the fish.
But you see, this is being pumped into us everywhere. I got on the airplane. The in-flight magazine, the whole magazine was environmental.
It was Delta or US Airways or whatever it was. Just environment, environment, interviews on environment, environment, environment, environment, environment.
Our children are being brainwashed from a young age in school. Everything is about the environment. Everything.
My little niece had to take a stand in public school recently because she was told to do an aerobics video.
And this was something that they do when it's a rainy day because they're usually outside playing on the playground for PE.
Well they said, well it's a rainy day, aerobics video. The guy doing it, what do you think he was? A guy doing an aerobics video?
The guy was just the most flaming homosexual you can imagine. And my niece is like, how old is she? Isaac's age, right? Seven.
So she's just standing in the corner and the teacher gave her a thumbs down or a smiley down or whatever you get when you're back in school.
I don't know, a demerit, a red card. I think it was like in soccer they gave her some kind of a red card or something.
She got some kind of a negative and she gets home and mom says, why did you get a down turned fist or whatever it is?
And she said that she refused to do this aerobics video and she told them, my mom doesn't.
So the teacher wrote a big letter home saying, I don't know why your daughter is refusing to participate in this activity, but she said you said it was okay, that she disobeyed and blah blah blah.
So then my sister wrote a letter back and said hey. And I told her she should have given me a copy of the letter because I wanted to post it to the internet.
She wrote this letter saying, I don't want my child having to do aerobics with this flaming queer.
She wrote this big thing about how it was disgusting. She wrote this big thing and turned it in and they're just in shock.
And they said if you get a straight man or a woman leading the aerobics, then she will participate.
But that's just one little example of just the kind of influence. Now look, you're not going to turn on some queer aerobics video for your kid.
But who knows what they're going to turn on for them down there at the public school or wherever you drop them off.
Do you see what I'm saying? You don't have the control. You don't have the guidance to say, hey wait a minute, let me shield a young mind from influences that are creeping in and turning them into a person that I don't want them to be.
That one day can grow up and be completely alienated from me and estranged from me to the point that they rise up and put me to death because they don't believe what I believe.
They don't understand why I don't worship the environment. They don't understand why I'm against homosexuality.
They don't understand why we believe that God created the heaven and the earth.
They don't understand why it's so important that our nation be a separate nation because that's what the Bible said and not a one world government.
They don't understand why I don't need to get the mark of the beast to get my school lunch.
They don't understand why. Because they weren't taught by you, they were taught by them and they're going to grow up and be like them.
Why do you think they're going to grow up and be like you when they spend ten hours a week with you and forty hours a week with them?
And then they come home and spend another two hours a week with them. You say, who's the them? The world.
Love not the world. Neither are the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in it.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.
And it's in the iPod, it's on the TV, it's on the internet, it's in school, it's everywhere.
Keep your child safe from these harmful, wicked influences. You say my child can tell the good for that. No they can't.
Your little five year old, your ten year old, does not know the difference between right and wrong, does not know good from evil, does not know the right way to live their life, does not know what is true and what is false.
I talk to these kids all the time about school winning. I win them to Christ and I say, I try to talk to them about how God created the earth and Jesus Christ is the savior of the world.
And they look at me and say, well no, in school we learn this and that. I say, school's lying to you.
I asked them, I literally said to a kid the other day, I said, do you believe that everything that your teacher in school says is true?
They said, of course. I said, no it's not, you're being lied to.
You see, let God be true but every man a liar. That's what the Bible says.
But you see, children today are not raised by their parents and that's why one day they'll be risen up against by their children.
The parents will be risen up against by their children because they're not raised by their parents. They're raised by somebody else.
And then the Christians have basically decided to copy the world only in the last 30, 40 years by saying, well, you know, we don't want our kids to be in the godless public school.
And this was back in the 1960s. They've cleaned it up since then, right?
The public school is a lot better influenced now than it was in the 60s, right? I mean, come on.
But anyway, the Christians came along and said, well, you know, we got to pull our kids out of school now that they're being taught evolution,
now that they're being taught all these other lifestyles, they're getting all this sex education and all this stuff.
We need to pull them out. And so they pull them out and then they build their own school that's copied and patterned after the public school system.
And they build their own Christian school that's patterned after the public school system.
Why not just go with the method? You say, what do you believe is the right method for education? Thou. That's what it, thou.
You say home schooling? Thou schooling. That's a new term I just invented.
Hey, home schooling. Because you know what? My wife, and we'll get to, let's skip some stuff in Psalms. We might get back there.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5. We get enough Psalms on Wednesday night anyway, right?
We're going to be in it for the next two and a half years, so better save a little bit of Psalms.
Anyway, we're only in chapter 23, so we don't want to use up all the preaching, although the Bible's infinite.
But look at 1 Timothy chapter 5, and you tell me, my friend, what this means. Can you interpret this for me?
It says in verse number 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give on occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan.
Now, I don't know who's turned aside after Satan. Is it mom? Is it the kids? If somebody's turned aside after Satan, I don't know who it is.
But it's somebody because of the fact that women are staying home and raising their children, having children and then raising them.
Look at Titus chapter 1, actually Titus chapter 2. A couple of pages around your Bible, you should probably just turn the page twice and be in Titus.
Look at Titus chapter 2. The Bible says in verse number 4 that they may teach the young women to be sober. That's a good place to start.
Get off. Quit drinking. Quit taking drugs. Get off all your prescription pills to control your mood that you're on.
Your anti-depressants or tranquilizers or uppers, downers, whatever they are.
Start by being sober. Step 1. Step 2, love your husband. To be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet.
That means you don't dress like a hoochie mama. That you dress discreetly. That you don't talk about the bedroom outside of the bedroom.
That's a great passage. To be discreet, chase. That means you're pure. That means that you don't commit adultery.
You're only with your man that you married to have and to hold till death do you part.
And then it says here, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands. Imagine that.
That the word of God be not blasphemed. You see, keepers at home. It doesn't mean that they never leave the house, my friend.
It means that they keep the house. Have you ever heard of this term, a homemaker?
Have you ever heard of this magazine that I don't think anyone should read? Good Housekeeping? A wicked magazine?
But it has a very benign name. You see, keeping the home, keeping at home, is a full-time job.
In fact, it's an over-time job. I mean, my wife, caring for the five children, cooking the meals, keeping it clean, educating them,
taking them on outings, taking them on field trips to museums and the science center and teaching them, playing with them, guiding them, teaching them to read.
That's a full-time job. It's more than a full-time job. I remember my boss used to say,
Oh, have your wife do this and that paperwork for you. And I told my boss, I said, Look, she is busy enough.
I'm not going to give her more work to do. She's already got her hands full. I mean, she's got five children. She's raising the family.
You see, it starts with bearing children. Then you won't be bored and say, Oh, I need to go out and get a new career or something.
If you have enough children, you'll stop being bored. It's true. Get off all the birth control pills that are making you grow facial hair.
You know what I mean? Maybe you'll start being a little more feminine, too, when you get off the birth control pills that make you grow facial hair and hair on your chest.
Maybe you should stop taking that stuff. Stop going to the drug store and finding something that falls under the other passage of Romans 1 that we just read, Inventors of Evil Things.
Quit buying all this weirdo stuff from Walgreens and why don't you just do what God told you to do and marry, bear children, and guide the house.
Now you say, Oh, man, I can't believe you're saved. I can't believe that every other Baptist in America is not saved.
You can't believe I'm saved? I can't believe that nobody else is saved.
Now I can understand why atheists or unbelievers or agnostics or Buddhists or Catholics or whatever who don't believe the Bible aren't saying it.
I can understand why they don't say it at the public school, but I can't understand why they don't say it at church when it's just as plain in the Bible as the nose on my face and you just read it yourself right now.
You ought to be surprised that you don't hear it at every Baptist church you go.
And that's why one day a whole lot of Baptists are going to be put to death by their godless, wicked children because they didn't hear this kind of preaching.
It's true. It's going to happen. Jesus Christ said that the children will rise against their parents and put them to death.
It's going to happen, but it's not going to happen in my house, my friend.
And it won't happen to you either if you raise your own children.
Start by having children, then raise them. Any questions? It's a pretty simple process.
People come up to you and criticize you today when you have a lot of children. It's only just because it's just like Cain got mad at Abel.
You know what I mean? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous.
That's why people get mad at you for having too many kids because they don't like the fact that you're doing the right thing and they're not.
So it makes them mad. That's why Ishmael persecuted Isaac. That's the way it's always been.
The evil persecute the righteous. That's life.
And they want to come up to you and intimidate you and make fun of you or criticize you.
And you hear it over and over again. Don't you know what causes that?
Yeah, I'm not going to stop doing it. You say, oh, you guys need to get a television.
How many times have you ever heard that one? Hey, get a TV.
And you know what? It's amazing how they know I don't have TV.
Because you know what? TV is the one that's going to brainwash you into not wanting to have kids.
That's why. Even though the Bible told you that children are a heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward, that children are a blessing.
Now, I guarantee you that if you talk to anyone who's elderly, they'll never say, I wish I would have had less kids.
What do you regret? Let's go to the nursing home. What do you regret most of the time?
I wish I would have had more TV, less children.
But I guarantee you, there's a lot of people sitting in that nursing home wishing that they would have had more than the one kid that they had who doesn't want anything to do with them because they didn't even raise it.
It's true. I've seen a lot of righteous, godly people. You say, I can't understand that passage.
I've seen a lot of righteous, godly people whose kids went bad.
People say, how could the child go bad when that guy is so righteous? She is so nice and a wonderful person. How could the child go bad?
I said, the child wouldn't have gone bad. Because they said, how did they raise such a child? I said, they didn't.
The child wouldn't have gone bad if they would have raised it. But it was raised by someone else. That's why it went bad.
But you see, look at Daniel 1. I'll close with this. Daniel 1. While you're turning there, I'll read some of those verses and psalms.
O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Here's a great verse in verse 18.
Now also, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come.
That's a great verse for those that are older, by the way. Because a lot of times people get older and they get into this mode of like, I'm retired.
It's like they retire from God. They retire from the Bible, from preaching, from winning souls.
Look, some of the men in the Bible did their greatest works when they were older. I mean, they were in their prime when they were 80.
That's when Moses said, let my people go. Caleb, when he was 85 years old, said, as my strength was then, when I was 45, when we were here last time around,
he said, as my strength was then, so is my strength now to go out and come in.
He picked the hardest battle, the most difficult place to fight, Mount Hebron. He said, I want that mountain. He said, don't stop me just because I'm 85. I can do it.
He went there, he defeated them, and won the battle because he didn't have this attitude that said, oh, I'm too old. It's too late for me.
So many churches, and many times elderly people have not stayed in our church long because many elderly people in Arizona have this mentality,
like the snowbird type people, they have this mentality that they just want to come and sit in church and just do their time.
They don't want to be convicted. They don't want to be motivated. They don't want to do any work. They don't want to go out and get anybody saved.
They just are kind of putting in their time, you know, just so that they went to church all the way up to the end.
If you are still alive on this earth and breathing air, God has something for you. And I love what the psalmist said here when he said,
hey, I'm old and gray-headed, but he said, oh, God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation.
You see, I wish that we had some elderly people today that were old-fashioned, Bible-believing fundamentalists that would be able to teach this young generation what's right and wrong so they wouldn't be brainwashed.
Many of the elderly have gone like Solomon in their old age, though, and have watered down. They don't want to fight anymore. They want to get along with everybody.
He wanted to get along with all his false teaching wives and they brought in all his false doctrine and false God-worship. He just didn't want to fight with anybody.
But we need some older men that will stand up and say, I want to show this generation before I go on to be with the Lord. I want to preach God's word.
Not, well, I've already done, you know, don't tell me about the glory days. We're living in the glory days, my friend. If people were Baptist church, we don't have to live in the past, some past time.
Where did I return? Daniel 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, verse 1, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God.
And the king spake unto Ashpina as the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes.
Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
Now, here we have the children of Israel gone into captivity into Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar Adan, the captain of his host, have taken them captive, relocated them to Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar gives a commandment, and he says, here's what we're going to do.
He said, we're going to take out of these children that have been taken captive. Not the adults, they've already been set in their ways.
Let's take the children, and let's take the best ones, the smartest ones, the best looking, let's train them in all of our ways, our language, our education system, our science, we will teach them to be like us.
Now, let me ask you this. Do you think that these were babies? No, because they already understood some science. They had already proven themselves academically to a certain point.
So they're children, but they've already had a lot of education because they already understand science. It says that they already had ability in them to stand in the king's palace. They could carry themselves in such a way where they would fit in in a king's palace.
They had ability to learn the tongue of the Chaldeans. They were already cunning in knowledge. They were already skillful in wisdom. So these children have already had the basics. I mean, they've grown up a little bit.
Look what he says in verse 5, and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
Now, among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So there's a great large group of children. We don't know how many, but it was a great large group.
Out of these, only four of them are going to stand up for what's right. Watch what happens.
...under whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Why would he be defiling himself? Well, the Bible talks a lot about not eating meat sacrificed unto idols.
It also talks a lot about not drinking alcoholic beverages, and I believe that was the combination here. There was some kind of alcohol content in the wine. There was meat that had been sacrificed unto idols. He said, I don't want to defile myself with it.
Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now, God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat in your drink. For why should he see your face as worse liking than the children which are of your sort?
Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. He's saying, look, Daniel, I like you. We're friends. But he said, I don't want to get in trouble with the king. You've got to eat this meat. You've got to diswine.
Because he said, I don't want the king to look at you and you're not as healthy and fat-fleshed. You just don't look as good. You're skinny because you're not getting the right food.
He said, I want you guys all to be top notch because that's my job and you're going to endanger my head to the king. I don't want it to come off of my body.
So he says here, then said Daniel, verse 11, to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had said over Daniel, him and I am Ishmael and Azariah, prove thy servants, that means test.
We use the word prove a different way today. Proving means to test them. Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.
Now pulse is basically beans, lentils, legumes, which are very healthy. And he said, give us pulse to eat and water to drink.
Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenances of the children that eat the portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
So basically the master of the eunuch says, that's fair, we'll test you out for ten days, we'll let you eat this beans and lentils and so forth, and then stand before the king, water only, and we'll see how you look.
And it says in verse 14, so he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days.
And it says in verse 15, and at the end of ten days, their countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.
So I don't know, maybe it was just really great lentil soup, or else maybe God just performed a miracle here.
You know, and was just basically allowing them to be even healthier and so forth because they had taken the stand to do the right thing.
Whether it was a miracle or whether these people just didn't understand the benefits of lentils and beans, either way, you know, they did the right thing.
They stood up and stood on their principles and said, we will not defile ourselves.
Now let me ask you this, what about all the other kids?
I mean, what about all the other children who just went along with it, they drank Budweiser, they ate the meat sacrificed on the idols, they did whatever they were told, they just went with the flow.
Because let me tell you something, that's human nature, to go with the flow.
Human nature, at a young age.
Now, I hope that my children one day grow up to be great leaders.
I hope that they swim upstream and go the way that God wants them to go, no matter what people are doing around them.
But, do you really think that my children, at ages 8, 7, 5, 3, do you really think that they're ready to be that great leader today?
And to just walk into that public school and just stand up and say, you know, that everything that's being taught is wicked, it's a lie, you know?
No, they're not. The truth of the matter is, I hope they would, but the truth of the matter is that the average child at that age is going to go with the flow to a great degree.
Maybe they'll stand up at a few things, but in the vast majority they're just going to go with the flow.
And you know what, I was in public school, I was in Christian school, Christian school was worse. That was my experience, you had a different experience, well praise God.
But I was exposed to more filth in Christian school, that's a whole other sermon. In fact, I already preached it. It's called the Christian Fool Movement.
But anyway, what I'm saying is that the average child is going to pick up a lot of garbage, they're going to go along with the flow, it's going to be more important to them to be accepted with their friends than to be accepted with mom and dad.
It's true. There are bad influences. Now, you know, praise God, if you bring your child to church and read the Bible to them, you say, are you saying that my child goes to public school and one day they're going to put me to death?
That's not what I'm saying. Why are you nodding your head? That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that if you put your child in public school, they're going to rise up against you and cause you to be put to death.
In fact, I'm not even saying that if you put your child in public school, they're going to turn out wrong. Because there were a few kids who turned out right.
Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael turned out right. There were a couple that turned out right. You know, you can turn out right in the public school, but you know what? You'll be in the minority if you do.
And is that the gamble that you want to take? And by the way, Daniel turned out right. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego turned out right. But you know what? They also had their manhood removed from them.
Is that the faith that you want your children to have? You see, there was a permanent scarring that took place. There was a permanent name, and no matter how righteous Daniel was, hey, he had to suffer.
He had to lose a part of being a man and become a eunuch, okay? Now, you know, maybe your child will turn out right. Maybe they'll come out unscathed or just a little scathed.
But why not just obey God and not throw your children... I mean, think about it. If we threw all our children out in the baking Arizona sun for a whole day, some of them would survive and most of them would die.
You know, and you just throw your children to the wolves at the public school or wherever. You're dropping them off instead of raising them yourself.
Yeah, you know what? You might be the lucky one that your child turns out okay or halfway decent, but I don't want my children to be halfway decent anyway.
I want my children to grow up and be righteous and godly, and so I will take it upon myself personally. I'm not going to leave it in somebody else's hands.
I'm not going to put my fate in someone else's hands and just hope for the best. My wife and I will make it our personal responsibility to teach and to educate our children, and if they eat at Chili's, which I'm not going back to Chili's anymore anyway, and it's not even because of that coloring sheet.
That's a whole other sermon. But if we go to Chili's, they're going to be sitting next to me. In fact, we did go to Chili's, and in fact, they were sitting next to me.
And you know what I did with that coloring sheet with the kids? I defaced it in front of them. I drew all kinds of stuff on it, making a mockery of it.
There was this little smiling environmental kid with a little suit on, and he's smiling and talking about saving the earth. I drew like a little 666 on his forehead and put an earring in his septum and made him look real gnarly, and I said, this is what he's going to look like when he grows up, kids.
Did you hear them laugh? They thought it was great. But you see, that's not what the Christian school teacher is going to do for them, or the public school teacher. Only dad will give you that kind of education.
Only mom and dad will do it. And by the way, I believe in spanking young children. That's what the Bible says. Do they spank your child in public school? Do they spank your child in Christmas school? No.
We can go on and on. I don't want to go on and on. But I want to say this. Take heed to the warning. Let these words sink down into your ears. The children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. Just as sure as I'm standing here, it will happen.
So let me ask you this. Is it going to happen to you? Is it going to happen to the members of this church? I pray to God not. God gives us the formula for raising our children. If we'll follow God's formula, we'll get God's resultless power.
Father, we love you and thank you for our church, dear God. God, I thank you that we have a church where the Bible is preached, our children can hear the word preached.
But God, thank you even more for parents who will take the Bible themselves and teach their children at home and read the Bible daily with their children at home and teach them and talk about things that matter.
Not about things that don't matter, but to actually spend the time talking about important issues and educating their children, not just leading it up to chance and praying to God and hoping for the best.
But praying to God and then obeying God's commandments to see him bless us. We love you and thank you for everything you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.