665. The Ten Commandments - #5 - Honor Your Father and Mother - October 18, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverb 18 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.

[00:00:57] When the wicked comes, contempt comes also, and with dishonor comes reproach.

[00:01:05] The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.

[00:01:13] It is not good to show partiality to the wicked, or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.

[00:01:21] A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calls for blows.

[00:01:28] A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

[00:01:35] The words of a tailbearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body.

[00:01:44] He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.

[00:01:51] The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe.

[00:01:58] The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own esteem.

[00:02:06] Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.

[00:02:14] He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.

[00:02:21] The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?

[00:02:30] The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

[00:02:37] A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

[00:02:45] The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him.

[00:02:54] Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.

[00:03:01] A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.

[00:03:11] A man's stomach shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth.

[00:03:17] From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.

[00:03:21] Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

[00:03:28] He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.

[00:03:36] The poor man uses entreaties, but the rich answers roughly.

[00:03:42] A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

[00:04:11] Now friends, we will come back and revisit that verse prior to closing today.

[00:04:18] But what I'd like to do is to continue in a series which I began on Friday.

[00:04:25] And the Lord told me several months ago to begin a study on the Ten Commandments.

[00:04:32] Now, there are ten commandments.

[00:04:35] The first five basically have to do with honoring God and honoring your parents.

[00:04:42] And the last five, six through ten, basically have to do with us as human beings a lot of times indulging and listening to our flesh.

[00:04:54] So if we can learn to do the first five of these commandments, we will probably have a pretty successful life.

[00:05:03] So what I'd like to do before we begin today's lesson is to review each of these ten commandments.

[00:05:11] And we will go to the book of Exodus chapter 20 and begin in verse 2.

[00:05:17] I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

[00:05:25] So in verse 3, we begin the Ten Commandments.

[00:05:29] You shall have no other gods before me.

[00:05:33] Commandment number 2 is verse 4.

[00:05:36] You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,

[00:05:44] or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

[00:05:50] You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them.

[00:05:55] For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children

[00:06:03] to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,

[00:06:08] but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

[00:06:17] Verse 7 is commandment number 3.

[00:06:20] You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,

[00:06:24] for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

[00:06:31] The fourth commandment is what we went over last Friday is found in verses 8 through 11.

[00:06:37] Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

[00:06:42] Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

[00:06:47] but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

[00:06:51] In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant,

[00:07:00] nor your cattle, nor your stranger, who is within your gates.

[00:07:06] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them,

[00:07:14] and rested the seventh day.

[00:07:17] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

[00:07:22] So today we will be going over the fifth commandment, and that is found in verse 12.

[00:07:31] Honor your father and your mother,

[00:07:33] that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

[00:07:39] Now the last five commandments begin in verse 13.

[00:07:45] And as I mentioned briefly just a moment ago,

[00:07:49] these have to do with indulging in what our flesh is telling us to do.

[00:07:57] The sixth commandment, verse 13 says,

[00:08:00] You shall not murder.

[00:08:02] The seventh commandment, verse 14 says,

[00:08:06] You shall not commit adultery.

[00:08:08] Number eight, verse 15,

[00:08:11] You shall not steal.

[00:08:13] Number nine, verse 16,

[00:08:16] You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:08:19] And the tenth commandment found in verse 17,

[00:08:23] You shall not covet your neighbor's house,

[00:08:26] you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,

[00:08:30] nor his male servant, nor his female servant,

[00:08:34] nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

[00:08:43] So as we begin today's lesson, the fifth commandment is found in verse 12.

[00:08:52] Let's review the fifth commandment.

[00:09:05] So friends, my first point of today's lesson is honor your father and your mother.

[00:09:14] Now friends, both of my parents are deceased.

[00:09:19] Now my dad died way back in 1990.

[00:09:23] That's a long time ago.

[00:09:26] That's 34 years ago.

[00:09:29] He was a young man.

[00:09:31] He was only 58.

[00:09:32] He died of leukemia.

[00:09:34] He drank a lot.

[00:09:36] He smoked a lot.

[00:09:37] I don't ever remember seeing him without a cigarette in his hand,

[00:09:41] without a beer in his hand.

[00:09:43] All the time.

[00:09:45] That is who I remember my dad being.

[00:09:49] Unfortunately, I did not have a good relationship with my earthly father.

[00:09:56] Now many people, when I have my testimonies on Tuesday,

[00:10:01] will come in and give their testimony that they had a godly father.

[00:10:08] And they had a wonderful upbringing.

[00:10:11] They were born and raised basically in the church.

[00:10:15] They were always a church.

[00:10:17] And they had a good history of familial godliness.

[00:10:24] And I think that's awesome.

[00:10:26] I had a little bit better relationship with my mother,

[00:10:30] but I still didn't really have all that good a relationship with her either.

[00:10:36] Now I'm going to be perfectly honest with you.

[00:10:39] I really did not like my mother.

[00:10:41] Now, I became a Christian in between 95 and 96.

[00:10:48] And I can't say exactly when it was.

[00:10:51] There was a couple things that happened in 95 that got me gravitating towards

[00:10:56] accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

[00:10:59] And I actually became a Christian probably in 1996.

[00:11:05] That is when my wife, Judy, and I got married in January of 96 on Inauguration Day, January 20th.

[00:11:14] And I made every effort to learn the Bible.

[00:11:19] And I understood what the Bible said is honor your father and your mother.

[00:11:25] Now at that time, my dad was deceased.

[00:11:27] He was gone.

[00:11:28] But I had to try to do everything within my power to love my mother.

[00:11:35] And I honored her by going to see her every Sunday if at all possible.

[00:11:41] But just because I loved my mother and honored her doesn't mean that I really enjoyed being in her company.

[00:11:52] She was a very negative person.

[00:11:54] When I'd go over there, we'd go and we'd talk.

[00:11:58] And I didn't stay long.

[00:11:59] I'd stay maybe an hour, maybe two hours.

[00:12:02] But she was very, very negative.

[00:12:04] And I didn't enjoy being around her because of her negativity.

[00:12:08] But friends, we cannot choose our parents.

[00:12:12] And that's basically what this commandment is telling us.

[00:12:16] So what I'd like to do is to go to the book of Ephesians.

[00:12:21] And Ephesians chapter 6, I'm going to begin in verse 1.

[00:12:25] It says,

[00:12:26] Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

[00:12:32] Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise.

[00:12:39] Now, as I read with promise, that takes us back to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 16.

[00:12:50] So I'm going to go back there and read that one verse.

[00:12:54] It says,

[00:12:56] Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you,

[00:13:02] that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

[00:13:13] Now, friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible,

[00:13:16] and I'd really like to go over the commentary for verse 16.

[00:13:21] It says,

[00:13:22] Honor your father and your mother.

[00:13:23] I think that's key.

[00:13:33] Strong, godly families in turn would teach children the ways of God,

[00:13:40] and the covenant community dedicated to serving and worshiping God would remain intact.

[00:13:48] The benefits of respecting one's parents would be long life and success.

[00:13:56] Friends, that sounds wonderful to me.

[00:13:59] Now, let's go back to the book of Ephesians chapter 6 and look at verse 3.

[00:14:05] That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

[00:14:12] Then we go to the instruction for fathers in verse 4.

[00:14:17] And you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath,

[00:14:23] but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

[00:14:30] Now, friends, I really want to go over the commentary for Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4.

[00:14:38] This paragraph has a beautiful balance we expect to find in God's Word.

[00:14:46] Children are to obey their parents,

[00:14:49] and parents are to treat their children in such a way that the children will want to obey.

[00:14:58] I think that's key.

[00:15:00] Children must obey their parents for Christ's sake,

[00:15:05] even if their parents are not believers.

[00:15:09] And I want to pause there for just a moment,

[00:15:11] because at the time when I became a Christian,

[00:15:17] my parents were never believers.

[00:15:19] I do not recall a single time in my entire life when my father stepped foot in a church.

[00:15:27] Now, I was saved in 95 and 96, and my mom was still around.

[00:15:33] To my knowledge, she never received the Lord and Savior.

[00:15:37] She never did.

[00:15:38] I do not know if she ever made it to that point or not.

[00:15:43] I prayed over her right before she died.

[00:15:49] And I don't know if it took or not she was in a coma.

[00:15:53] But I know that people that have been in comas have heard people,

[00:15:59] and I'm still holding out hope that she will be in heaven.

[00:16:05] This is supported by the only one of the Ten Commandments followed by a promise.

[00:16:12] And that was in Deuteronomy 5.16, which I just read to you.

[00:16:17] Of course, Christian children should not do anything sinful,

[00:16:23] even if their parents should command them to do so.

[00:16:28] In such a case, children must obey God rather than men.

[00:16:34] So before we close today's lesson,

[00:16:36] what I'd like to do is give an example in the Bible

[00:16:41] of someone who did not show respect for his father.

[00:16:49] And this, of course, is Ham, one of the sons of Noah.

[00:16:56] So what I'd like to do is go back to the book of Genesis

[00:16:59] and begin in verse 18.

[00:17:02] Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

[00:17:12] And Ham was the father of Canaan.

[00:17:15] These three were the sons of Noah.

[00:17:19] And from these, the whole earth was populated.

[00:17:22] And Noah began to be a farmer.

[00:17:26] Now this is after the great flood.

[00:17:29] The waters have receded.

[00:17:31] The ark is back on the Mount of Ararat.

[00:17:36] And the doors have been opened.

[00:17:39] All of the animals have been released.

[00:17:41] And Noah has to determine what he's going to do.

[00:17:45] And he made the decision that he's going to be a farmer.

[00:17:50] Then he drank of the wine and was drunk

[00:17:54] and became uncovered in his tent.

[00:17:59] And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father

[00:18:05] and told his two brothers outside.

[00:18:09] But Shem and Japheth took a garment,

[00:18:14] laid it on both their shoulders,

[00:18:16] and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father.

[00:18:22] Their faces were turned away.

[00:18:25] And they did not see their father's nakedness.

[00:18:30] So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him.

[00:18:38] Then he said,

[00:18:40] Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants.

[00:18:45] He shall be to his brethren.

[00:18:48] And he said,

[00:18:50] Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.

[00:18:53] And may Canaan be his servant.

[00:18:56] May God enlarge Japheth.

[00:19:00] And may he dwell in the tents of Shem.

[00:19:05] And may Canaan be his servant.

[00:19:08] And Noah lived after the flood 350 years.

[00:19:13] So all the days of Noah were 950 years.

[00:19:18] And he died.

[00:19:20] So friends, the only example in the Bible that I can show

[00:19:24] where someone did not show respect to his dad.

[00:19:28] It came back to bite him.

[00:19:32] Ham basically became the servant of his two brothers.

[00:19:40] That's really key.

[00:19:41] I don't know if that speaks to anyone or not.

[00:19:44] But I believe that if you honor your mother and your father,

[00:19:49] that you will be blessed.

[00:19:52] Before we close today's lesson,

[00:19:54] I would like to go back to our Proverb of the day today.

[00:19:57] And we are in Proverb 18.

[00:19:59] And the last verse, verse 24 says this.

[00:20:04] A man who has friends must himself be friendly.

[00:20:10] But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

[00:20:15] And friends, this verse is kind of isolated from our lesson today.

[00:20:20] Because our lesson today was basically honoring both mother and father.

[00:20:25] And there wasn't a single verse in Proverb 18 that talked about parents.

[00:20:30] So I selected this one.

[00:20:32] But I think it's a very good lesson to talk about.

[00:20:36] And verse 24, the commentary in my Bible says this.

[00:20:40] This is a difficult verse to translate because of confusion over an ambiguous Hebrew word translated here as to be friendly.

[00:20:52] This translation takes it to mean to make oneself pleasing.

[00:20:59] As in first Samuel chapter 29 verse 4.

[00:21:03] To have friends, one must be friendly.

[00:21:08] But the word could also mean to beat each other up as in Isaiah 24 19.

[00:21:15] Then the verse could be translated, sometimes even friends destroy each other.

[00:21:22] But there is a friend who loves more faithfully than a brother.

[00:21:27] Now friends, I am going to pick the first of those two definitions.

[00:21:32] So it says a man who has friends must himself be friendly.

[00:21:37] And that reminds me of Galatians chapter 6 verse 7.

[00:21:42] Which says,

[00:21:43] Be not deceived.

[00:21:45] God is not mocked.

[00:21:47] For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

[00:21:52] So friends, if you want to have friends, you need to show yourself friendly.

[00:22:00] That is the definition I am choosing to go with.

[00:22:03] And I believe that is a spiritual law.

[00:22:06] I believe it's good for us to be friendly, even to people we don't know.

[00:22:12] And I think that is one of the ways how we can stick out as Christians.

[00:22:20] So friends, a very simple question today.

[00:22:22] How do you communicate with people if you do not know them?

[00:22:31] Are you friendly?

[00:22:32] Do you say a greeting to people you don't know?

[00:22:35] Or are you kind of brash and arrogant, thinking that you somehow may be better than them?

[00:22:44] I don't want to think that people are like that.

[00:22:47] But I know that some people are.

[00:22:49] Something to think about.

[00:22:51] And friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:23:00] If there is anyone listening to today's podcast and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:23:37] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:23:39] My Lord and Savior.

[00:23:41] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:23:44] The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:23:49] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:23:54] Friends, this is the weekend.

[00:23:57] Go out with your spouse.

[00:23:58] Go out with your family.

[00:24:00] Take your kids along.

[00:24:01] Have a great time.

[00:24:03] Let them know how much God loves them and how much you love them.

[00:24:07] And I will see you back on Monday as we further explore wisdom today.