Now one of the interesting things about being in America is over and over again I get told
that I look like a very famous president. You know what his name was? Abraham Lincoln,
that's right. In fact I was just in Washington DC and visited the Lincoln Memorial and people
wanted to get my picture standing beside Lincoln so we had a great time there. It even gets
embarrassing when children ask me if I'm a living fossil. So tonight to start off with
I should show you that I really am a fossil because there's been one named after me. It's
a petrified ham and this comes from New Zealand near a little town called Rotorua where a
volcanic eruption covered a village and a lot of objects were petrified. By the way
that shows you it doesn't take millions of years to petrify anything. What I thought
I would do to start off with, and it's really leading up to this whole issue of the family,
is to give you some test questions. I think I gave some of you in the church these questions
last time and some of you might have even heard them at the seminar but we'll see how
you do and see how some of the visitors do here and let's try it. Does anyone here believe
kangaroos once lived in the Middle East? Does anyone here believe kangaroos once lived in
the Middle East? Hmm, that's six or seven hands. Okay, put your hand up if you believe
that Noah's flood was a real event. Okay, put your hand up if you believe Noah's ark
was a real boat. Put your hand up if you believe two of every kind of land animal including
the kangaroos got on Noah's ark. I think they're beginning to get it. Put your hand up if you
believe Noah's ark landed in what we now call the Middle East. Okay, let's try the question
all over again. Is there anyone here believes that kangaroos once lived in the Middle East?
Very, very good. By the way, the way to get the answer to that, you notice what I did?
I started with the Bible as foundational to my thinking. I think that the reason that
most Christians when I go to churches and ask that question, most Christians sit there
and say no kangaroos didn't live in the Middle East, they live in Australia. But you see,
I think it's because we've been so influenced by evolution, that we tend to think they only
live in Australia. And secondly, because we don't have a Christian worldview that starts
from the Bible, we've been brought up in a society where we tend to start outside the
Bible and go to the Bible rather than starting with the Bible is foundational to our thinking
in every area. Let's try another one. What came first the chicken or the egg? This is
an easy one, isn't it? Who says chicken? Very, very good. Who says egg? I hope no one says
egg. You know, when I asked that question with children from Christian schools and home
schools when we have them in big auditoriums for our special school assembly, I sometimes
get 50% say egg and 50% say chicken. And then I asked, why chicken? And they say because
you got to have a chicken get an egg. And then I asked why egg because you got to have
an egg to get a chicken. You know what I very rarely hear chicken, sir. Why? Because God
made the birds on day five and said be fruitful and multiply. So they would have laid eggs.
The reason that that's the right answer is because they're starting from scripture from
the Bible. Well, let's try one more then. Where was the Garden of Eden located? Australia.
Who says Australia? Who says America? Who says in the area around the present tigers
and Euphrates rivers? Who says we can't know? Actually, the correct answer is we can't know.
You know why? Now think about this. If you read the description in Genesis in the Bible,
it says there was one river that broke into four heads. And if you go over and look at
the present tigers and Euphrates rivers today, and you impose a description from Genesis
and what you see today, it doesn't fit. So if you say this is where the Garden of Eden
was, you've effectively told me that you don't have to believe Genesis. Well, that's pretty
heavy, isn't it? Then the other thing is this. The tigers and Euphrates river area today,
that sits on thousands of feet of sediment with billions of dead things from the flood.
See Noah's flood destroyed the entire earth. In fact, we believe there was even probably
one continent before the flood, which split up during the flood. We wouldn't have a clue
where the Garden of Eden was. And then people said, well, how come they use the same names
as the tigers and Euphrates, for instance? Well, when the settlers came from England
to Australia, from the old world to the new world, what did they bring with them? Some
of the same names. In fact, you have many names in America too, similar to England,
because whether you like it or not, you had ancestors from England, right? Who came over
here. I know you've stuffed ice in their tea ever since and sort of ruined it, but I think
it's part of your rebellion against the British or something like that. But they use some
of the same names because they brought them with them. Don't you think Noah would have
brought some of the same names from before the flood to after the flood? And people say,
isn't this area the cradle of civilization? Well, it's the cradle of civilization after
the flood. That's the key. You see the difference? What I'm really saying to you is this, and
to start off with even talking about this whole issue of the family, if the Bible is
what it claims to be, the revealed word of God, who knows everything, who's always been
there, the God who's infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom. And this is a revelation
from Him to us, it's been written down for us, when through His Holy Spirit He moved
people to write His words. Then here we have a little bit of that infinite information,
if you like, which God has revealed to us to enable us to come to right conclusions.
In other words, what I'm trying to get across to us is this, the only way we could ever
come to the right conclusion about anything is if you knew someone who knew everything
and wants to know about everything. And the Bible claims that God is that one who knows
everything, who's always been there, which means all our thinking in every area, not
just some of our thinking, not just our thinking in areas of marriage or whatever, but our
thinking in areas of geology, biology, history, geography, in every area, all our thinking
must start with God's Word. Because God's Word also tells me that all people are fallen
beings. Our ancestor Adam sinned, he rebelled against God. And sin and the curse have affected
the world, they've affected our brain. The whole of creation groans and travaileth in
pain, there's something wrong with the creation. How can fallen men, independent of God's Word,
determine truth? See, the point is all of our thinking must start from Scripture. As
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8, any man that thinks he knoweth anything, knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know. Do you realize we could learn for eternity and there's always
going to be an infinite amount more to know? So how much do we know compared to what God
knows next door to nothing? You could have a hundred PhDs from the world's leading university,
but compared to what God knows, we know next door to nothing. And so what I'm trying to
get across to you is this, when you start with what God's Word says about creation,
about what's happened in the past, about where we came from and all the rest of it,
that when we use that as foundational to our thinking, we can come to right conclusions.
We have a witness who was there, who knows everything, who you can trust, who doesn't
tell a lie, who recorded for us all that happened. That's the reason they have such problems
in murder trials and events that occurred in the past. They don't have the past, they
only have the present, which is why we just had an interesting trial that went on for
millions of years, because that's a limitation of us in the present. We weren't there in
the past, but the Bible says God knows everything. He's always been there. And so what I want
to get across to you is this, starting with the presupposition that the Bible is the Word
of God, it is what it claims to be. When I build all my thinking in science and history
and so on, my whole framework of thinking upon that, I can go out and look at the world
and I can consistently interpret the evidence and I can explain the evidence. So you see,
when I look at fossils, I'm thinking of, oh, the Bible teaches death after sin and the
Bible talks about a global flood, so I will look at the geology and the fossils and so
on in terms of my thinking based upon what's been revealed to me about what happened in
the past concerning death, concerning a global flood, when you'd have lots of erosion and
sedimentation and so on. When I go out and look at the plants and animals, I'm working
from the basis that God says that He created distinct kinds of animals and plants. He used
to reproduce after its own kinds. And when I start from that foundation and go out and
have a look, I say, you know what, we can make sense of the world. We see great variation
within a kind, but we see one kind doesn't change into another. This does fit with what
the Bible says. We can explain the evidence. And so there is a Christian worldview in geology,
in history, in art, in music, in every area that starts with God's Word. Now I want to
emphasize that to you because there is a different worldview, the secular worldview that starts
outside the Bible with man. You see, evolution, you know, a lot of people think of evolution
as apes to people or something like that, or chemicals to man, or it's to do with fossils
and the age of the earth and millions of years. Do you know how I define evolution? Evolution
is really a whole philosophy of life that says this, man can determine truth apart from
God. Man can decide truth for himself. That's what evolution is all about. It's not just
to do with ape men and fossils and things like that. Certainly, Darwin popularized a
particular view of evolution to try to explain life without God, but that's because the underlying
philosophy was he wanted to determine truth by himself. That's what it's all about. Now
you see, when people start off with that foundation or that presupposition, they build a whole
different model of thinking to explain the same world. You see, creationists and evolutionists
have the same world. We have the same facts. We have the same fossils. We have the same
plants, the same animals. We have the same universe. The fight's not about facts. It's
about how you interpret the facts, which depends upon what? The presuppositions that you have
to start with. So you see, because evolutionists have a presupposition that death has always
been here, as Carl Sagan says, time and death, time and death. That's the key to evolution.
So when you go out and you look at fossils and you think of dead things, you're thinking
in terms of millions of years. You're thinking in terms of slow processes. You're thinking
in terms that death has always been here, so they have a whole different way of explaining
fossils than I would because they have a different starting point. The fossils are the same.
The same is true of everything else. And you know, we've even been influenced by that way
of thinking. Many, many Christians, I find, have, because we've grown up in a secularized
society which has taught us that man can determine truth out here. And so you have the Bible
over here, but geology and biology and that are all over here. What we tend to do is we
tend to take the words of men who don't know everything, who weren't there, who are sinful
creatures, whose theories change all the time, and use that as a basis for interpreting God's
word. And we tend to do that over and over again. A man came up to me recently at a seminar
and he said to me, he said, Oh, look, he said, you know, Genesis was written in such simplistic
terms because way back then when it was written, you know, they wouldn't understand the technology
that we have today in the science, we have today in the DNA that we understand and all
of this. And so Genesis is not scientific. It was written, written for those people who
are very simplistic and so on. He was saying this to me in front of a lot of people at
a seminar. So I said to him, I said, Sir, you've actually started with an evolutionary
presupposition and asking your question. He said, what do you mean? I said, you've assumed
that people before us aren't as good as us. But I said, let's take the first man, Adam.
God gave him a language. So every word would have had meaning. He would have had perfect
knowledge, perfect understanding of all of those words so that he could talk to God.
God would have programmed him with that information to start with. In fact, you know what, when
you think about the curse and the effect on the world of the curse and on our brain, actually
we're nowhere near as good as what Adam was. Actually, the reason it's written in simple
terms is so we would understand it. And he looked at me and he said, huh? Now here's
the point. If you start with different presuppositions, you have different models of science or history,
you explain the same evidence in different ways. In other words, a Christian has a biblical
set of glasses on and he looks at the world through that, whereas an evolutionist has
put on the secular set of glasses. He looks at it through man's theories. We're looking
at the same world, but we're explaining the same facts differently. Now, this should help
us understand something else. Often when Christians and non-Christians argue, it sort of goes
like this. Can't you see what I'm talking about? No, you can't see what I'm talking
about. Surely you can see what I'm talking about. No, I can't. Why not? It's obvious.
No, it's not obvious. You know the problem? You're arguing at this level up here, looking
at the interpretation of facts, but because you've got different glasses on, you're seeing
the same evidence differently. Now I want to illustrate that a little later on in some
different ways, but the point is if you want this person here, the evolutionist, the person
who says man can determine truth by himself to look at the evidence the same way you are,
you've got to get him to put on a different set of glasses or he will not see the evidence
the way you do. And so really the battle is right down here at this presuppositional level,
where you start. Now I say that because this is where many people don't understand. In
public schools, for instance, public education. Now I'm going to say a lot of things that's
sort of a lead up to this because I don't want you to misquote me and I don't want you
to misunderstand me. We actually homeschool our children and no, there are other people
at homeschool. Some people send their children to Christian schools. I think 90% of people
in the church in America send their children to public school. What you do with your children
is between you and the Lord and I'm not here tonight to tell you what you should do. What
I want to talk about is what does the Bible say about how we're to train our children?
What are the principles from scripture and in the circumstances you're in that we should
try to attain to that as much as we are able. So I want us to consider that very, very carefully.
But I do also want us to understand this. If we are caught up in a public education system,
we have to recognize the realities of what we're caught up in. And I want to say this,
now by the way, teachers in such a system I see as missionaries in that system and we
need to pray for them because they're there to be sold and to influence students and other
teachers. But nonetheless, what we've got to understand is this, if the textbooks don't
start with the Bible is foundational to their thinking, then they are secular in philosophy.
And the Bible does not talk about neutrality, by the way, it says you're either for Christ
or what against you either gather or you scatter. You either walk in light or you walk in what?
Darkness. So if the textbooks are not for Christ, there's only one option. What are
they against? See, there's no such thing as neutrality. If they don't start from the scripture,
then they start with man's opinions. And one of the things that we have to recognize is
this and I want to show you biblically what the principles are in doing this. You can't
take a secular philosophy and try to change it from the top down. It does not work because
if your children are learning a secular philosophy and you think you can just add God in at home,
it's not going to work. You can't add God in up here when the whole foundation is wrong
to start with. And see, the other thing is we ought not to get the idea that, oh, in
this biology book, there's a chapter on evolution. So we'll talk about creation there that solves
that. Now we can read the rest of the book and that's okay. Not at all, because you see
creation evolution. That's part of the topic, but it's the whole philosophy that's either
for Christ or against Christ. So it's either Christian and a Christian worldview starting
from the Bible or it's a secular worldview founded in man. See, facts by themselves are
meaningless. Teachers don't teach facts. Teachers teach a philosophy into which you put the
facts. They teach a framework into which you put the facts. Many of us have not understood
this because we've grown up in an education system where we think we learn the facts of
geology, the facts of history, the facts of whatever, but in actual fact, if I can say
that, we are learning a framework into which you put the facts. You know, it's like the
time I was watching one of your presidents interviewed on television. He was asked some
questions. He gave answers. I thought that's fair enough. And then the interviewer got
up afterwards and he told the people what he really meant, which is not what I thought
he meant when he said what he did, because he gave it a whole nother meaning. Now we
need to understand that incidentally, I may stand on some toes in saying this, but I've
been known to do that before. So being an Australian, I can do it and get away with
it, of course, because we're such a great bunch of people in Australia. There are many
Christian schools that use secular textbooks. Let me say this, you can't Christianize a
philosophy from the top down. If it's wrong from the foundation up, it's the whole philosophy
that's wrong, which is why I get so upset at Christian schools that use secular textbooks.
Now in math, of course, it's inherently Christian anyway, so you can sort of get away with it.
But when it comes to biology and geology and history and other scientific disciplines and
so on, people, if you don't start with that foundation in God's word, it's a secular philosophy.
It's not just the chapter on evolution, it is the whole philosophy. And I hope that we
can start to grasp that as we talk about this particular topic. Now, because I have the
presupposition starting from scripture, I have certain doctrines that come out of that
as well. For instance, the doctrine of marriage. In Matthew 19, when Jesus was asked about
divorce that concerned marriage, he immediately said, haven't you read and went back to the
book of Genesis and talked about Genesis as foundational to marriage. Interestingly enough,
in Genesis, we're told that God gave clothes because of sin. So we have the doctrine of
clothing. I notice you're all wearing clothes tonight. That's very good. You don't wear
clothes because of an opinion. I hope you understand you wear clothes because God gave
clothes because of sin back there in Genesis. The reason Jesus died on the cross. Why did
he die? Why death? Paul tells us he died for our sins. What is sin? Well, the origin of
death is in Genesis. Death is a penalty for sin. Sin is rebellion against God. We all
sin because our forefather a long time ago, Adam sinned. And so the whole reason that
Jesus died on the cross, Paul in the New Testament relates back to Genesis. And so the doctrine
of sin, the doctrine of death and so on go back to Genesis. Actually, did you know that
all of our biblical doctrines ultimately directly or indirectly are founded in which book? Genesis.
Think for a moment. Can you name one biblical doctrine that's not founded in the book of
Genesis? You see, there's not one ultimately directly or indirectly. And tonight we're
going to deal specifically with one of those doctrines, the doctrine of the family, marriage.
Did you know the family is the first and most fundamental of all human institutions which
God ordained in scripture? Think about that for a moment. The family is the first and
most fundamental of all human institutions which God ordained in scripture. And when
did God make the family? He made the first family when he took dust and made a man and
took his side and made a woman. You become one when you're married. Why? Because you
were one flesh originally. You were one flesh historically. And I want to talk about that
there because by the way, let me say that again. The family is the first and most fundamental
of all human institutions which God ordained in scripture. The first and most fundamental.
Doesn't that tell you something about its importance? Actually what I want to say to
you is this. The family is the backbone of the nation. The family is actually the educational
unit of the nation. And if you destroy the family, you'll destroy the nation. Now, let's
show you why that's so. Let me ask you this question. According to the Bible and not your
opinion, what's the primary importance of marriage? According to the Bible, what's the
primary importance of marriage? Have a think about that for a moment. And let's go to a
scripture Malachi 2.15. And Malachi 2.15, what do we find? We read there and did not God
make and did not he make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that
he might seek a godly seed. Why did God make two one? It's a direct reference back to Genesis.
Why did he make two one? Because he sought godly offspring. By the way, not just offspring,
what sort of offspring? Godly offspring. You see, you are to produce godly offspring that
will influence the world for Jesus Christ, who will produce godly offspring, and influence
the world for Jesus Christ, who will produce godly offspring, and influence the world for
Jesus Christ generation after generation after generation after generation. That's why I
said the family is the backbone of the nation and why I said it's the educational unit of
nation. See, let me ask you this, in doing that, how do you produce godly offspring?
Well, let me ask you this question. In the majority of homes, not all Christian homes,
but in the majority of Christian homes, who is it that trains a kid spiritually? Is it
usually mum or dad? You tell me. Across America, what would you say? Mum. And it's the same in
Australia. It's the same in the United Kingdom. In the majority of Christian homes, not all,
but the majority, it's mum. According to the Bible and not your opinion, who's to be the
spiritual head? Father. Dad. That's right. You've read some of the scriptures? Isaiah 38, 19.
The father to the children shall make known thy truth. You've read Ephesians 6, 4. And you
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord. You ever read Psalm 78? I think every father and mother should go home tonight, and
before you go to sleep, read Psalm 78 together. Which we have heard, and no one in our fathers
have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations to come the
praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he
established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children, that the generations to come might know
them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children,
that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,
and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation that set not
their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God, and forget his works and
his wonders that he had showed them. You are to train godly offspring, so they'll train godly
offspring, so they'll train godly offspring. Fathers are to be the spiritual head. You know,
I believe that one of the biggest problems we have in Christian homes today is that most fathers
do not carry out their God-commanded, God-given responsibility to be that spiritual head. They
are not a priest to their wife, they are not a priest to their family, they are not training
their children, they spend more time with their business, more time watching TV, they don't know
what their children are doing, they don't have devotions. You know, I can't believe the number
of Christian homes that I go to where you say, do you have devotions, or do you have an altar time,
a family altar time, and they say, what, what do you mean? One of the things we make sure we do every
morning, we have a family devotion time together as a family, and we read the Scriptures, and we
read a devotion, and we pray together, and pray for special things, and special people, and special
events, and at night time, our family altar time, our children know it as a story time, when we go
through various stories, we might, for instance, go through that book on the ice age, or something
like that, to teach our children how to think as a Christian about these things, or we might go
through a series of Bible stories, or might go through a book on dinosaurs, so they think Christian
about dinosaurs. I'm just absolutely shocked at the number of Christian homes where fathers are not
the spiritual head as the Bible commands, and I believe that's one of the biggest problems that
we have in our Christian homes today, and people, we've got to get back to what the Bible says about
training our children, and what the family is all about. You know, in the Bible, we read in Joshua 4
about the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan River, and they were told to take up 12 stones as
a memorial, so that these stones would be a memorial under the children of Israel forever,
and we're told there in Joshua that when the children asked, what mean these stones, what mean
these stones, that the fathers would not forget to tell them what God has done, because over and over
again, you notice with the Israelites, Moses said to them, here's God's law, here it is again, here
is it again, here it is again, and what happened? They kept forgetting, they kept forgetting, here it
is again, here it is again, and you know Joshua did the same, here it is again, let me tell you, don't
forget, don't forget, and here God is telling them through Joshua, now take up these 12 stones, build
a memorial, so when your children ask, what mean these stones, don't forget to tell them what God
has done, don't let the next generation forget, they need to be told, you need to tell them, so
they won't forget what God has done. You know one of the sad commentaries we read in Judges, we read
about the fact that Joshua died, and all the people, or that live with Joshua, the elders that live
with Joshua I should say, they also were gathered unto their fathers, it says in Judges 2 for instance,
10 and 11, that the generation were gathered unto their fathers, 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 Baal, in one generation they lost it, you
know why? I believe it's because the fathers did not train the next generation, I believe it's because
the fathers were rebellious, and did not spend the time with them, did not train them, did not give
that information that they needed to, and you know something people, we need to remind our children
over and over and over again. I was over in Albany, New York, and a teacher came to me and she said,
you know, she said my school, my Christian school said we don't need to go to your
program because we went two years ago, and what do you say to that? And I said well I think she's
right you know, because I think they're right you know, because let's face it we have Easter each
year, and I'm tired of Easter, aren't you tired of Easter? I'm tired, and Christmas the same old story
year after year, the babe in a manger, aren't you tired of that year after year? We need a new story,
I'm tired of that old story, aren't you tired of the old story? She looked at me and said I think
you're trying to tell me something, and I was trying to tell her something. Why do we have communion over
and over again? So we won't forget, you know, we celebrate Easter and Christmas and communion over
and over again, so we won't forget these great things. People we need to hear the message of
creation over and over again, the message of Genesis. If it's so foundational to the rest of the Bible,
I think we need a special creation week each year too, so we won't forget over and over again, and
you see that was the emphasis that Moses had to the people, the emphasis that Joshua had to the
people too. Don't forget, don't forget, don't forget fathers, don't forget fathers, tell your children.
Fathers forgot to tell their children, and we wonder why we have such problems in our homes.
Now let me just deal with the fathers here, let me talk about the mothers here for a moment too,
and the wives. You know, one of the, I don't know how to say this, but I think there's a big problem
even in our church today. I think Rush, whatever his name is, summed it up this way. He said there
are feminazis out there. I believe the feminist movement has affected women in our churches in a
big way, and sometimes because of that the women don't want even, want to even let their husbands
be the head of the house. They want to run things the way that they want, and they want their own
way. You know, I've heard when I was a teacher in school actually, I remember one of the female
teachers saying, remember when you get your, get married, you have your rights, you're an individual.
Well I would tell my students, when you get married, you're one with each other. A husband
is one with their wife, and a wife is one with their husband, and God has total right over your
life. It's not a matter of what you think you should do, it's a matter of God sets the rules,
let's obey his rules for our life. By the way, in 1 Peter 2, talking about Christ, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live under righteousness
by whose stripes ye are healed, Christ was submissive to the point of death on the cross.
Wouldn't you call that submission? You know it says in 1 Peter 3, likewise, just like this,
wives be in subjection to your own husbands. Boy that's what I call submission, wouldn't you?
But then it goes on, likewise husbands dwell with your wives. And it also says in Ephesians 5,
husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. You know,
maybe if husbands love their wives like that, boy that's what I call sacrificial love, don't you?
Be prepared to die for your wife. Maybe if husbands loved their wives like that, they wouldn't have a
problem with submission. Maybe if wives were submissive like that, they wouldn't have a
problem with love. Maybe if we obeyed God's roles for marriage, we wouldn't have those problems
that we sometimes have. You see, it's not a matter of our opinion. If God is creator,
if his word is true, then it's a matter of what does God say, not our opinions. And are we prepared
to obey his roles? And that goes for a father, for a mother, husband, wife. Also goes for a young
person too. What does God say about children? Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this
is right. You know, one of the sad things that I see today, I believe for instance in America,
that as a nation it's becoming very, very anti-family. That's why I call this talk
getting back to the family, because that's what we need to do. I even believe the church in some
instances is anti-family. I've been to some churches where there are signs on the door that
say children not allowed in the sanctuary. I noticed that many churches today don't have
programs for men. They have a lot of programs for women, but no programs for men. They're not
training men to be spiritual leaders, to be the head of their home. I noticed a lot of families
today that don't eat together. They don't pray together. They don't have devotions together.
A lot of husbands and wives today don't want children. There's this emphasis we need our big
home and boat and everything else, but we don't want children. Yet one of the primary importances
of marriage is to produce godly offspring, who will influence the world for Jesus Christ,
who produce godly offspring, generation after generation. And sometimes I get a little concerned
because sometimes I think that maybe we split up the family too much. One of the things in Australia
we do as a family in our churches, we worship together as a family. But what happens today,
we become so program oriented in our churches that families tend to split up. We never do anything
together as a family. We even have those instances where sometimes all the young people tend to sit
down together on the left-hand side and don't worship with their family. And many of them aren't
listening to what the preacher is saying. And I see that sort of thing over and over and over again.
People, I believe we've got to look at our own families and decide, are we worshiping as a family?
Are we doing things as a family? Are we getting back to the family? Are we building the foundation
of the family in what we're doing? And so here's my questions to start off. That's all just the
introduction. Now we're getting into the nitty-gritty of what this is all about.
So let me ask you this question. Do you understand the primary importance of marriage to produce
godly offspring? Where to obey the roles God has given to us in marriage to make our family work?
And incidentally, if you obey God's roles, you shouldn't be worried about your marriage.
If you're prepared to be submissive to God's word. I had somebody who said to me once, in fact I've
had this a number of times when I'm thinking of this young man in particular, you know, I'm scared
to get married because even in my church, divorce is rampant and people aren't getting on with each
other and there's all sorts of problems and you know, I'm scared that that's going to happen to me.
If you build your family, your marriage, your roles on the Bible back to Genesis and be obedient
to God's word, if husband and wife do that, you're not going to have those problems. That doesn't
mean to say everything's going to be rosy because we're sinful creatures, but it means you've got
the right foundation. But here's my question, understanding that all our thinking in every area
must start with what God's word says. I want to put the heavy on you. If I asked you tonight,
take out a piece of paper and a pencil and write down the answers to these questions.
I want you to ask yourself whether you could do this and here are the questions. What does God's
word say? Not your opinion, not necessarily what the psychologists have told you, not necessarily
what your parents even told you, not necessarily what somebody else has told you. What does God's
word say about how to train children, what the priorities are, what the methods are, the nature
of children, how to educate them, how to communicate information, what's the priority for education,
how to discipline them. What does the Bible say, how to train Godly offspring, not your opinions,
not what somebody else says, but what does the Bible say? And now let me really get heavy. If
you can't answer that question right now, if you can't write down what the Bible says about how to
train children, what God's methods are, what education is all about, the priority for education,
how to communicate information, if you can't write that down right now, then let me ask you this
question, why on earth did you have kids? And whose methods are you using? Are you using God's methods
or somebody else's methods? If they're not God's methods, then how do you know they're going to work
and why should they? You know, that's pretty heavy stuff when you think about it. But I've asked that
question, well, that series of questions over and over again in big Christian school conferences,
in churches, and in other conferences that I've been at. And over and over again, I find most
Christians admit we can't answer those questions. And yet they have children or they're contemplating
marriage. Then whose methods are you using to bring up children? I had a Christian teacher come to me
at a big Christian school conference. I asked those questions. She said, I've been a teacher
for 40 years and I couldn't answer those questions. I said, well, whose methods have you been using to
train children? She said, I don't know. What is a Christian philosophy education based upon the Bible?
We have five children, four Australians and one American. So it's a multicultural family.
So we understand Americans. We had one born over here. But anyway, one of the things my wife and I
realized was this, God is giving these children to us to train for Him. We better make sure we do it
His way. What does His word say? And so I want to go through and I want to show you what we found
out from scripture that God has told us in regard to training our children. As I do this, I want to
do it in a particular way. This is where I don't want you to misunderstand me or misquote me here.
We homeschool our children, as I said to you, we get a lot of opposition for homeschooling our
children, not from the non-Christians. Actually, most of them in our street tell us we wish we
could do what you're doing. We wish our children would do that. Actually, most of our opposition
for homeschooling our children comes from Christians and they use particular arguments.
What I want to do is to show you that the arguments they use are fallacious. And if you use
those same arguments, it means if your children are in a public school system, for instance,
and you don't understand what's happening, then you might not be doing what's right at home.
So we need to get rid of the wrong arguments. And that's what I want to do. I want to show you
what I believe scripture teaches in regard to these matters and to deal with what I call those
fallacious arguments. Now, as I said, I'm not telling you what you should or shouldn't do.
There are all sorts of problems out there. There are single parent families. There are people with
all sorts of financial restrictions. There are all sorts of problems. And some of us are trapped in
some terrible situations. What I'm saying is this, in the situation that you're in, nonetheless,
we need to know the principles of scripture and understand these things and understand these
foundational issues. And then we should try to apply that as much as we are able in our situation.
Okay, let's go through and have a look at some of these.
Deuteronomy six, and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy might. These words, God's words, which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart.
And thou, particularly the fathers, shall teach them diligently, which means with perseverance
and carefulness, not quick, dear, give the kids a story while the ads are on TV, unto thy children
and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when they walk us by the way,
when they lie us down and when they rise us up. Any other options? That seems like 100% of the time,
doesn't it? Some people say, but I can't read the Bible and pray with my children 24 hours a day.
You know what? It's not saying that, but you know what I believe it is saying? That in everything
we do, we are to teach our children the principles of God's word in everything, 100% of what we do.
During the heat, our bunny died. Sad event. Dead bunny. If there had been a cat, I wouldn't have
been as upset, but bunny. But anyway, our children were real upset because the bunny died. By the way,
it gave us a great opportunity to talk again about the origin of death and sin and the curse placed
upon the world. When we go to the zoo and we see a lion eating meat, we can talk about, hey,
do you realize originally they were vegetarian? When somebody blows a building up in Oklahoma
and you hear on television, how could somebody do this? And people say, I don't understand. How
could people do this? Sit down with my children and say, it's quite easy to understand how someone
could do it when you understand the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. And so on,
as the scripture says, it's not that hard to understand how somebody could do it. When you
understand sin, you see in a hundred percent of what you do, you teach your children, you teach
them honesty, you teach them all sorts of things. 100% of the time, they look at you and they become
like you, but they should be looking at you and seeing Jesus Christ. Isn't that what 2 Corinthians
3, 18 says? We look and we become, we look at Christ and become like him, our children look at us
and to become like us. Now, how do we train them? Well, one of my favorite verses is Proverbs 22,
6, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Or some translations say, or some commentators say, it will not depart from them. You know,
the word train here is an interesting word. It's related to the word for palette. You can actually
use it this way in this context. How did a Hebrew mother, for instance, get their children to eat
some different food? Well, how do we do it really? It's the same way you mash up food. You know,
when a baby is starting to eat some different foods, you mash it up, put it in their mouth,
touch the palette, gives them no option but to swallow. Right? You force them to eat.
That's what my mother did with me. You will eat it and you will like it.
And I had to obey, except when it came to spinach, which came after the curse, not before. So see,
the word train here, touch the palette, giving them no option. You make them acquire a taste for it.
Let me give you a good illustration here. In Australia, we eat a substance called
Vegemite. You ever heard of Vegemite? Vegemite is an exotic black paste.
Who's snickering out there? It's an exotic black paste that we put on toast and we love it. You
give it to an American. I've seen them jump 40 feet across a room to get a drink. They don't like
it at all. In fact, if you give Vegemite to an American, you get a totally different reaction
than giving Vegemite to an Australian. Now, Vegemite is sort of, it's basically the leftover
sludge from the breweries, I guess. And you know, it's yeast and salt. Dr. Duane Gish called it yeast
done or something like that. But actually it's a beautiful paste. We love it. Now Americans hate it.
Now why is that? Well, when we're born, our mothers get a little Vegemite on a teaspoon
or on their finger, put it in their mouth and they force us in a sense, they make us acquire a taste
for it. So we grow up loving Vegemite. Now you people grow up loving pickles. To be honest,
I can't stand pickles. You give pickles to an Australian. I remember when McDonald's first
came to Australia, first thing you saw when the Australians bought their hamburger was to open
it up, take off the pickles and throw it in the trash can and then out they go eating their
hamburger. We can't stand pickles. Actually, you know, when the Bible says thorns and thistles came
after the curse, that's a mistranslation. Thorns and pickles came after the curse.
See, you grow up on pickles and olives. Listen, any fruit you have to soak for millions of years
before you can eat it. There's something wrong with it. They're just pastoral. But I want you
to understand we do acquire a different taste, don't we? Because of the way we're brought up.
Now do you realize that word in Proverbs 22.6 really means much the same there? Train up a
child. In other words, make sure they acquire a taste right from when they're born. Because if
you make them acquire a taste, and it involves doing something active, by the way, dad, making
them acquire a taste so that they will grow up liking it. And the earlier you start the better.
In fact, with our children, you know, we read books to them right from when they're born,
show them pictures, people think we're crazy, pray with them, but they grow up loving books.
We show them the pictures. And as they get older, they love to look at the pictures, then we tell
the story to them. And then eventually we can read the story to them. And then eventually they can
read the story and they become their favorite books. They grow up being hooked on books instead
of hooked on television. Because if you make them acquire a taste right from when they're born. Now
Vegemite has salt in it. You know, one of the accusations leveled with us, because we homeschool
is this. You've taken your children out of the public school. Your children are in the public
school to witness to the other children because the Bible says that we're the salt of the earth.
That's one of the major accusations I get leveled against us as a family. Well, let's have a look
at that for a moment. Matthew 5 13. You are the salt of the earth. That's true. But read the rest
of the verse. If the salt has lost its savor, if it's lost its saltiness, how does it do that? Well,
by contamination, like the Jewish traders used to some of them mix gypsum with their salt to make
it go further, but then it's no good. They get more money for it, but it's no good. Well, the rock
salt, when you chip away and you get to the stage where there's too many impurities, then it's no
good. And you say, you have to throw the rest away. But the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall
it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and be trodden underfoot of
men. See if the salt loses its saltiness, it's no longer any good if it's contaminated. And something
else that we need to understand Mark 9 50. Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its saltiness,
wherewith shall you season it? Have salt in yourself. See that little phrase there? Have salt
in yourselves. The point is you can't be the salt of the earth till you've got salt in yourselves.
And one of the things that I believe that we need to recognize, mum and dad, is this, that when our
children are born, they're like empty vessels into which we are to pour in the biblical salt, the
biblical truth. We are there as parents to fill up that child, if you like, with that salt so that
they can be salt. You can't be salt till you've got salt in you. And the salt to go in there is
to be uncontaminated salt, because if it's contaminated, it's no longer any good. Now,
keep that at the back of your mind as we go on and look at a few aspects in relation to that.
First of all, let's consider what the Bible says about children. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. What can we say about children? They are sinful little creatures.
I remember the first time I visited my sister in hospital and she had a baby and they're all
looking through the glass case and saying, you know, nose like its great grandmother and
ears like its grandfather and lovely, beautiful creature and all the rest of it. I looked at it
and said, what a sinful little creature. My sister was angry at me. She threw me out of the hospital.
When she got home, she found out I was right. And it didn't take that long either. You know,
the Bible tells us that when our children are born, they're biased against God. Do you realize that?
By the way, dad, do you realize that if you're going to train and make them acquire a taste,
remember they don't want to taste what you're to give them because their taste buds have been
changed because of sin. And so they would rather taste that which is wrong than that which is right.
So you've got to work against a real negative there. That means it's going to be extra, extra,
extra, extra hard work. It means you're going to have to devote a lot more time than what you
realize because if you leave them by themselves, they're going to go in the direction opposite to
scripture because they're already that way to start with. Now, something else I've learned from
scripture, 1 Corinthians 15 33, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners.
You know how that can be translated? Bad company corrupts good character. You know,
one of the biggest problems with our children are the children. Hear pressure. Let's be honest about
this. When our children are in public schools, for instance, did the other kids take on the swear
words? I mean, the Bible verses, the other kids take on the Bible verses or our kids bring home
the swear words and the dirty jokes. Who is more likely to influence who we know the bad is more
likely to influence the good. Think about a lot. He pitched his tent towards Sodom before long.
He was at the gates of Sodom. Who influenced who did not influence the city or the city influenced
lot and his wife and his family. The battle influenced the good more than the good, the bad, because
we're sinful to start with. You know something? I think that's one of the big issues that's missing
from Christians thinking today. Sin, the heart of man is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things
and so on. Understanding the sin nature biased against God. There's no such thing as neutrality.
You're either for Christ or what? Against Christ. You know, one of the things that we do as a family,
we choose the children that our children mix with. For some people say, but then they're not
associating with all those other kids. Boy, am I glad about that because I know even from my own
experience, you know what, Nellie, even with even with a father and mother who are so godly to train
us foundationally from scripture. Do you know what Nellie dragged me down and I just praise the Lord
that he kept me from that with the other children at school, the peer pressure, the peer pressure
from the others. Something else that I've learned about children. 1 Corinthians 13 11, when I was a
child I spake as a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put
away childish things says Paul. See Paul says children are not like adults. Children are different.
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. You see,
children are easily tossed to and fro. You imagine a child here and coming at him from all directions,
creation, evolution, absolutes, no absolutes, humanism, premarital sex, marriage and so on,
false religions. How does he know what to do or she? How do they know what to do? They're tossed to
and fro every wind of doctrine. See we need to understand that children are not miniature adults.
Children are children. They're sinful creatures, they're biased against God, but we need to make
them acquire a taste for that which is right and we need to be able to train them to be able to
distinguish good from evil, but that takes some work. That takes some training and it means you've
got to put that salt in there. In fact, we need to understand that we need to pour the salt in, but
all the rest of the picture here. The salt pours out the bottom as quickly as we pour it in too,
doesn't it? Because of their sinful nature. That's what they're like and so our responsibility as
a parent is to try to clog up these holes and to try to fill them up with this salt so that as they
mature as adults, they will be able to be the salt of the earth because they will be filled with salt.
They'll be able to dish out the salt so that Christians will love it. Non-Christians will be
challenged by it. They'll have a continual input of biblical salt and they'll want that continual
input because we have trained them to acquire a taste for that spiritual food. Isn't that what
it's all about in training our children? And see in doing that, I want us to understand this as well.
I want to train my children foundationally. I want them to understand that all of their thinking
must start with the Bible. I want them to understand why there's right and wrong, why marriage is one
man for one woman. I want to train them foundationally, why they wear clothes. I'm not just going to
impose Christianity legalistically upon them as unfortunately many Christians do. I want to build
it foundationally and I want them to know all about the humanist. I want them to know about that
foundation of evolution. I want them to know why they believe what they do so that when this
Christian here worldview meets this humanist worldview, this person here will be able to say
I know why you think the way you do. You've got the wrong presupposition here. I know why I think
the way I do. I've got this presupposition here. I can defend my faith and I can attack your faith
because I can attack down here and I can defend here. You see when we've trained them foundationally
like that as they mature as adults and are filled with that salt, they will be able to go out there
defend their faith and they'll be able to dish out that salt and have an effect on the world as a
world as they're supposed to. And that's what I believe training children is all about. Children
are not miniature adults. By the way, let me ask you this question. Where in the Bible does God ever
give the state the right for education? It doesn't. We have to be honest. The responsibility for
education is not given to the state. It's given to who? The parents and particularly the father.
The father. You know sadly for many of us what's happening we're letting our children be
contaminated by liberal theology and humanism and the TV and the kids down the street and the
others that they mix with that we haven't bothered to even check out. And what's going to happen?
We're going to produce people as they mature as adults who will be dishing out contaminated salt,
choking Christians. It won't have an effect on non-Christians at all. They'll just love it.
And unfortunately they will have acquired a taste for contaminated salt and so they'll continue to
want an input of contaminated salt because that's the taste we let them acquire. And so you see
people what is even happening in our church. Sadly we see young people getting to college age,
rejecting Christianity. In fact probably more than 50 percent are according to some of the statistics
I've read. More than 50 percent of children from Christian homes when they reach college age
rebelling against Christianity. We see the Christian framework collapsing. Why? Because we
haven't put that foundation in there. We've allowed them to have this foundation and this structure.
And you see mom and dad we have to be honest in a public education system. Now don't get me wrong
here. I'm saying teachers are missionaries in such a system but understand our children are being
conformed to a particular way of thinking and in most instances it's this particular structure here
and we come in and we try to Christianize it from this down but it doesn't work. You've got to rebuild
from the foundation up and so if you're trapped in that system what you have to understand dad is
you're going to have a whole big job at home where you've got to try your best to take this foundation
out, put in the right one, rebuild the right way of thinking but you're not even going to know half
of what they're being taught or how they're being taught if we're really honest. You see that's why
I like this little cartoon here. Train up a child the way he should go and when he is old he'll not
depart from it. Do you suppose the same is true for a child trained up in the way he should not go
and here's a father with their child but here they are watching television and millions of years coming
out of the tv and my point is this. How many of you went and saw Jurassic Park? You saw that
evolutionary new age humanistic atheistic movie. I always tell people I saw it for research purposes
by the way mom and dad if you let your children see Jurassic Park did you then bring them home
using some of our dinosaur books sit down with them and tell them the truth about dinosaurs
and tell them about the new age influence of Jurassic Park and tell them about the humanistic
emphasis there so that they would understand the real nature of Jurassic Park
because that's what we need to do and you know we just let them watch anything on tv we let them go
to any sort of movie we don't even know what they see half the time so how can you dad effectively
teach them a Christian worldview when you just let all those influences there be on our children
and we haven't done much about even finding out about those. You know something else that I read
in the scripture Jeremiah 10 2 thus saith the Lord learn not the way of the heathen.
See one of the emphases of Jeremiah was this hey listen the heathen are not there to influence you
to the Israelites you are there to influence them. One of the problems we have today is we let the
world come between the church and God because we listen to the world and we let the world influence
us instead of us influencing the world. Where to be salt out there? One of the reasons we can't be
where to be salt out there? One of the reasons we can't be salt is because sadly a lot of times the salt
unfortunately is contaminated. You see I see this all the time you know we're here to influence them
and yet they do influence us because the majority of Christians have been influenced to believe in
millions of years influenced to believe in evolution in some sort of way. We've let the
world influence us. In fact I like to summarize it this way I would say probably the majority
of Christian leaders have compromised with evolution in one way or another. He is a minister in church
and so the Israelites adopted the pagan religion of the day into their culture this destroyed them.
How terrible that God's people could be so blind. Be sure to join us next week for my sermon how
Christians can believe in evolution and add it to the Bible and I see that over and over and over
and over again. By the way you might like me asking this or saying this but you know the Israelites
never sent their children to the Philistines to be trained because if they did they would be
trained by the enemy to think like the enemy. They were there to influence the Philistines
because they wanted them to become like them that's what should have happened. In fact I like the
story of Ruth don't you like the story of Ruth? I want your God to be my God and that's what it's
all about. We don't adopt their gods into our culture. We are out there to influence them so
that they will say like Ruth I want your God the real God the God of the Bible to be my God.
That's what it's all about. You know some people say oh if you do that with your children you're
isolating them. You home school your children or send them to a Christian school or you take
them out of a system the public school system you're isolating your children. Actually wherever
you have your children they're isolated. It's a matter of what they're isolated from and be
honest in a public school system they are isolated from a Christian worldview primarily. Isolated
from prayer and Bible reading and so on and by the way please please don't get this wrong
because they they have a Bible reading maybe at a school we think oh well that makes a Christian.
No I hope you understand there is a whole Christian worldview that starts from scripture.
A whole Christian way of thinking. Actually you know how I look on it with my children.
See Ephesians 6 says this put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the
wilds of the devil above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. When I was over in England and touring some of the castles and
looking at some of the the information about the knights and the armor and they talk about how they
had to practice putting the armor on and practice with the armor so they could use it. Well people
we have to do the same with our children. We shouldn't think that they can immediately go
out there and they've already got the armor and and they can do it. We have to train them so that
they know how to use the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit
and so they know how to be able to fight the fiery darts here of the wicked one. No absolutes,
evolution, no god and so on. We have got to train them up. We have got to mature them. We've got to
build them foundation. We've got to put that salt in them. We've got to put that armor on them.
You know one of the other things that we need to remember as we're doing this you know what the
Bible says children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. In other
words children are a gift from God to us. You ever thought about this? Every child that's conceived
is a gift from the God of creation given to us as parents to train for him. Sadly many people
throw that gift out the window but are we going to be able to present that gift back to him?
The gift that he's entrusted us with. Incidentally another aspect of all of this is knowing how to
train children using discipline. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child and the right of
correction shall drive it far from him. There are many passages in Proverbs that talk about
corporal punishment. Remember one church I was at after speaking about this a man walked out and
he said that was great I've always believed in capital punishment for kids.
Well I had to explain the difference between capital punishment and corporal punishment.
You know today there's an emphasis in our world that you shouldn't use corporal punishment.
Even many Christians now say that oh I don't use corporal punishment with my kids because
I want them to grow up and and and be mature and all the rest. Wait a minute what does God
say? Not your opinion what does God say? He says that you shouldn't use corporal punishment
not your opinion what does God say? You know I've had other parents say to me well I'm going to
throw my children out there to the public school they've got to learn to survive. I'm sorry but
the Bible doesn't say that the Bible says you as parents train them to survive. That's different.
You know it also hit me I think of our son Nathan our firstborn who he chooses to marry and by the
way there's another aspect by the way dad I can't believe the number of Christian homes in America
where girls for instance allowed to date just anybody and the same for the fellas just date
anybody and I've often been the situation I said oh you're dating you know is Bill a Christian?
What's that got to do with it? We're just dating it's got everything to do with it and if you're
dating a non-Christian you're playing with fire you get your fingers burnt you are not being obedient
to God's word. It's as simple as that. What is marriage all about? To become one to produce
godly offspring. That's what it's all about. But you see many parents many fathers haven't trained
their daughters haven't trained their sons haven't trained in accordance to marriage and I can't
believe the emphasis on dating. Why is there such an emphasis on dating? My daughter's 13 and she's
dating isn't that great? No I think it's terrible. Is she mature enough yet to handle it? You know
what it's all about and why why the emphasis on chasing after boys anyway or chasing after girls?
We've told our children we tried to train them that when the right person comes along God will
make it obvious to you and make sure that number one you you always as you're looking at girls or
boys you look at the worldview that they have and whether they built their thinking upon scripture.
That's the most important thing whether they're a Bible believing Christian because you know who my
son chooses to marry when they have children and who they choose to marry and they have children
and they have children who they choose to marry actually you could be looking at millions to come.
Noah was, Adam was and what do you do with one child and who they marry and how they train that
generation and how they've been trained. Think about the Israelites fathers train your children
so they'll train their children and train their children and train their children don't forget
don't forget don't forget they forget. You know how long it takes to produce a so-called primitive
culture? One generation. You take a generation of hippies in Australia they go into the jungles and
have children and don't train them in in the Bible or medicine or technology you produce a primitive
culture in one generation. Do you know how long it takes to produce a pagan culture? One generation.
All it takes is a generation of fathers who don't train their children don't train them foundationally
let them get filled with contaminated salt and that's it you've got a pagan culture right there
and that can lead to the next generation and the next and the next and the next.
I've got a couple of tough questions for you here's a picture boat car money house stereo cat poodle
a couple of degenerate animals down here and a little child. Which one of these will last forever?
Have a guess. There's only one the child. You know what really hit me when I looked at my children
I realized something. Every child conceived is a soul that's going to live forever and ever and ever
and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. What a responsibility as a father. What a responsibility.
Let me ask you these questions too mom and dad as we sort of wind all this up now. I know it seems
like I've gone on for millions of years doesn't it but this to me is one of the most important
talks that I give. Let me ask you this. According to the Bible what's the priority for education?
According to the Bible what's the priority for education? Here it is. Philippians 3 7 8.
Philippians 3 7 8. Paul says but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ yea
doubtless and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of my Lord for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things and to count them but dung that I may win Christ. What does Paul
say? Nothing else matters but that I know Christ. That's the most important thing. You know what
Paul said to Timothy. Continue Timothy. Thou on the things which thou hast learned and has been
assured of knowing of whom there has learned them and that from a child there has known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise under salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Timothy the most important thing is that you know the Lord and you know the scriptures. Young person
you know what the most important thing the priority in your life is that you know the Lord and you
know His word. That's the priority. You know what it says in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 9 23 to 24.
Thus saith the Lord let not the wise men glory in his wisdom let not the mighty man glory in his
might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glory of glory in this that he
understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgment and
righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight says the Lord. Don't glory in your boat
don't glory in your home don't glory in your tv set don't glory in your bank account glory in this
that you know the Lord that your children know the Lord. You see let's put that picture back up again
and ask a different question. Which one can you take to heaven? And then my next question. Are you
taking your children to heaven with you? Because you can't take anything else but you can take your
children because they are going to live forever and ever and ever and ever. Mom and dad if I can
really appeal to you often we want to send our children to a famous college because it's our
alma mater or whatever. You know the most important thing actually I like to put it this way.
I would rather my children were ditch diggers and go to heaven than some famous academic
and go to hell because they reject the Lord. In fact I got this little cartoon here a proud
parents convention. My son's a doctor my daughter's a movie star my kids are real rich all my children
love the Lord. You see to me that's the priority. Now don't get me wrong I have a son who's studying
computer science I want him to be the best computer scientist in the world but above all that
the most important thing is that he knows the Lord and he knows his word. That's the most important
thing and you know sadly we send our children to all sorts of colleges and we haven't looked at what
their priorities we choose it because of its academics or because of sports program. People
the priority is that we know the Lord that's the priority and I want to say this to you.
You know when we grew up in Australia I grew up in a Christian home and my father was a person who
would never compromise and he taught us solidly from the foundation of scripture over and over
again. People often say to me how did you get to think the way you did I believe it was at the
feet of my father and mother who trained us in the word and because in Australia there's so few
Christians we often got transferred to little towns where we were taught to read the Bible and
got transferred to little towns where there's one church maybe two but invariably the minister was
liberal to the hilt and he would get up and preach a little boy took out his loaves and fishes and
everybody else did the same it was a great example you know things like this you know my father
used to do in front of us he would go up to the minister take out God's word open it up and say
have you not read it is written you know I think that affected me
because I grew up with that and when I came home from school and said dad what do I do with evolution
you know my father said son if you believe in evolution you may as well throw the Bible away
if Genesis is not true if death didn't come because of sin if it wasn't the first man made from dust
who rebelled in a literal garden you may as well throw the Bible away he said I don't have the
answers but I know this it has to be wrong he said I don't know what I'm talking about
but I know this it has to be wrong he said we need to wait for answers you know what the minister of
the local church told me oh you can believe in evolution add it to the Bible that's no problem
but I'd seen my father go up to him and say have you not read so I knew not to believe him I knew
to trust my father and then later on along came some books like the Genesis flood the Genesis
record read them dad look there are answers and then as became a school teacher like my father
like his father before him and like his father before him like his father before him
we started a creation organization in our home in Australia which is now one of the largest
conservative Christian ministries in Australia we came over to to the states as missionaries to
America to call the church back to its foundation and now we have a ministry in northern Kentucky
answers and Genesis which is influencing around the world it's a sister organization of organization
in Australia which has offices also in the United Kingdom and New Zealand books translated into
many languages videos going all around the world I praise the Lord for a godly father
and a godly mother who trained me the foundations of scripture you know we often talk about well
you know at one particular church I was at a lady came up to me and she said you can't blame me
I said what do you mean she said all my children have grown up to be doctors lawyers making a lot
of money they've all rebelled against the Lord you can't blame me she said I take no responsibility
I did the best I could and I said well look let me ask you this question I said if all your children
were Bible believing Christians a missionary famous preacher would you stand there and say
I take no responsibility it had nothing to do with me you know you can't have it both ways now I know
I've seen a home a totally atheistic home where God has reached down and touched a life and brought
him to himself and I've seen a home of godly parents who train their children and one of them
he has to answer for his own sins because he has chosen a particular way but nonetheless
the principles of scripture are there and you know that the way we train our children is going
to influence them and affect them forever and ever and ever and ever and ever we talk about
you know physical abuse and sexual abuse and what that does to people and I was at a luncheon
recently where a lady was giving her testimony of the abuse that she had and and how all the
counseling and that that's for her to come out of that and how hard it's been and all the rest of
it what about the spiritual abuse that many children are receiving because their fathers
are not training them and their husbands and wives are not being obedient to scripture what
about the spiritual abuse because people just as physical and sexual abuse can so on can affect
people so negatively so does the spiritual abuse and sadly we see it in so many children today
you know many people say to me oh wait till your children get to be teenagers later they get to
those rebellious teenage years to be honest I think in many instances maybe the majority of
instances what people call rebellious teenage years not in all instances but I think in the
majority is nothing less than a lack of training in the early years and so therefore I want to
leave you with this challenge mom and dad are you training godly offspring are you being obedient
to God's word you know what God says about training children where are your children now
how are they being trained who is influencing them who has the most influence how much influence do
you have as a parent is there some change that you could make is there some change that you could
make to try to overcome some of the problems that are there what changes need to be made
I believe that all of us before the Lord need to ask ourselves those questions tonight
and think about the answers very very carefully
so
You