Calvary Road Baptist Church
“CONSEQUENCES”
Ephesians 6.1
My text is Ephesians 6.1. I’d like you to turn to that verse and stand, as we read God’s Word together:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”
Not complicated at all. Short. Brief. To the point. Let’s reread it, lest there be some misunderstanding:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”
Although this is an extremely simple and straightforward statement that we have here, let us approach this verse as carefully as we would approach any other portion of Scripture, by asking the necessary questions a good Bible student always seeks the answers to.
First, the question of who this is addressed to. “Children.” Paul is moving from the relationship that exists between the Christian wife and the Christian husband to the relationship that exists between the Christian kid and the Christian parents. But in this Christian family unit, Paul deals with, at this point, the children, not the parents.
How do we know Paul is addressing the Christian children of Christian parents? First, because this entire Ephesian letter is addressed to the members of a Church. Presumably, the members of that Ephesian Church were taken by Paul to be saved people. Second, because you have no expectation of an unsaved person, whether adult or child, to be one addressed by God’s Word, so, this passage is speaking, by application, to you kids who claim to be saved, who claim to trust Jesus as your Savior, who claim to be new creatures in Christ.
Those of you kids who are not saved, forget this portion of Scripture. You are not in the picture here. This is for the grade school kid, the high school kid, the college-age young person still living at home, who makes profession of faith in Jesus Christ. If that is not you, this passage is not for you.
Second question: “What?” What are these Christian kids in Christian homes called upon to do? You kids who claim to be saved kids in the homes of saved parents, who want to know God’s will for your life. Here it is. “Obey your parents.” The word “obey” is an imperative verb. That means it is a command. It is an ultimatum, it is a directive, it is an order, it is a prescription calling for you to submit your will to the will of God. And the will of God is clear. Obey your parents.
It is at this point in our study that a great divergence takes place, where the Christian kids stay on track and the unsaved kids who pretend to be Christians, or the unsaved kids who have quietly allowed their parents over the years to just assume they are saved, go South. Why do unsaved kids go South on this command to obey parents?
I’ll deal with the why later. But the fact is, the unsaved kid will scheme, will connive, will fret, will whine, will lie, will sneak, will exercise cunning, will devise ingenious schemes, will embark on campaigns requiring vast amounts of energy, will wilt and fall in a clump on the sofa or the bed or even on the floor, will hold his breath, will stomp, will sigh, will throw his arms, will huff, will posture, will roll his eyes, will wrinkle his forehead, will furrow his brow, will mumble, will gripe, will complain. And why will he do all of these things and more? So that he can get out of doing the one thing God wants him to do; obey his parents.
The Christian kid, on the other hand, and particularly the kid who wants God’s best for his life, who seeks to please God, who desires to serve God, who wishes to honor God, will obey his parents. And parents, it isn’t so much a matter of birth order, or environment, or disposition, or nutrition, or fatigue. Obedience is primarily a matter of the Spirit of God. You show me a Christian kid who is routinely disobedient to his Christian parents, and I will show you a Christian kid who is not saved, who is playing the part, who is faking it, who is pretending, or who is sincerely deceived into erroneously thinking he is saved.
Who? What? Now we ask, “Where?” Geography is vital in the Bible. It’s always good to know the terrain, the topography, the location of the subjects with rivers, mountains, cities, etc. In this verse, however, it’s spiritual geography that’s essential, not physical geography.
Years ago, when we began to study Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church, I pointed out to you the tendency Paul has in this book of the Bible to refer to what I call spheres of influence. And to show you how significant is this concept of spheres of influence in Ephesians, there are no less than 13 different references to being “in Christ,” or to be “in Him,” in the first chapter alone.
A sphere of influence, then, refers to territory, whether it be physical or spiritual, that is influenced or dominated or controlled by someone or by some thing. Of late, China is seeking to extend its sphere of influence in the South China Sea. In Ephesians, Paul locates the child of God in a spiritual sphere of influence that is dominated and controlled by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in our text for today, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for it is right,” we are again reminded where we are who are being addressed to by this portion of God’s Word.
Grade schooler, junior high schooler, high schooler. If you are a child of God, if you are saved, then whether you consciously realize it or not, you live in a universe that is under the direct supervision of the Son of God. He is in charge. He is the boss. He is the regent. He is the ruler. And the One He has designated to administer His rule, the Holy Spirit of God, doesn’t take kindly to sneaking around, doesn’t take kindly to disobedience, doesn’t appreciate self-willed and rebellious kids ... or adults. He wants in this realm, which belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, this universe, which is described as “in Christ” or “in the Lord,” is obedience. Obedience to your parents, in the case of youngsters living at home.
Why? Why should you obey your parents? My goodness, there are so many good reasons I could give. Obey your parents so you won’t get a swat. Obey your parents so you won’t get scolded. Obey your parents to keep them off your back. Obey your parents so they will be more prone to let you borrow the car. All kinds of reasons could be given to justify in your mind why you should obey your parents. But only one reason is needed. It’s right. It’s right.
Obeying your parents is the right thing to do. Many of your kids have come to me for counsel from time to time. And often, they are confused, troubled, beset with difficulties. When I see someone who is confused or who has an important decision to make in life I almost always make this statement somewhere in my remarks: “When you don’t know what to do, do right.” Christian kids of Christian parents, you who are the target audience of this verse in the Bible, it is right to obey your parents. Christian kids will never go wrong when you obey your Christian parents.
Obeying your parents is not restricted to doing what they tell you to do and not doing what they tell you not to do. Obeying your parents is doing what you know they want you to do and not doing what they don’t want you to do, even if they don’t tell you. For example, there will come a time in your life, if it hasn’t happened already when another kid will offer you a ride in his car. As far as God is concerned, when your mom finds out what you did later, the excuse, “Well, you never told me not to,” is no excuse at all. The Christian kid is commanded to obey, not just the words of his parents, but the will of his parents, as well.
Some time back, one of our Church members, I forget who it was, told me of witnessing a tragic event in a store. A young mother had a little boy in her arms, and it seems that he was angry about something and was smacking his mother in the face again and again and again. And what did she do? Nothing. Nothing at all. Thus begins the training of a little boy. Trained by his fool of a mother into believing that sin is without consequence. Trained to realize that he can strike his mother, or some other woman, and live another day.
You’ve all seen the displays on the evening news. A gang member is arrested for killing an innocent child in a cowardly drive-by shooting. And all through the legal proceedings, from the arraignment to the trial, to the conviction, the young, stupid thug is arrogant and smiling. Then, when he receives a life sentence from the judge, he jumps to his feet and begins shouting obscenities at the jurors and the judge.
You see, he’s shocked and surprised. From his earliest days, he’s always been taught that there were no consequences for what he did. His mother, the woman he slapped and threw temper tantrums to get his way, seemed always to defend him when his teachers accused him of wrongdoing in class. There are no consequences for sins.
Why do so many young women give themselves to some bum, who impregnates them? She tangles with some joker, knowing full well that after some ranting and raving from her parents, there won’t be any consequences. Not really. Why do kids think they are immortal? That they can do anything without adverse consequences? That they can steal, do drugs, cut classes, ignore their homework, and everything will turn out all right?
Friends, what in the world are we doing? We are raising our children to think that there are no consequences for the decisions they make and the actions they take. But there are, there are consequences. Why do you raise your kids to think there are no consequences? Is it because you believe there are no consequences? I beg of you to make yourself into a mother or a father who is determined to persuade your child that there are consequences for his obedience or disobedience.
And to convince you, let us consider four realities that will show you that obedience and disobedience have consequences. Perhaps not immediately, but eventually.
THE FIRST REALITY WE TAKE NOTE OF IS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF SINNERS
You are a sinner. I know that you are a sinner because you are a living, breathing, human being, and all human beings are, by nature, sinners. Interestingly, though you are a sinner, you did not become a sinner, as though there was ever a point in time in your life when you were not sinful. Instead, you were conceived a sinner, as Romans 5.12 and Psalm 51.5 so declare:
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
A sinner is someone whose very nature is contrary to God. That means it isn’t so much what you do that God objects to, though He does indeed hate sinful deeds, it’s the way you are that He hates. Example: In Leviticus 20.26, God commands His people, saying, “Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy.” Yet, in Jeremiah 17.9, we read that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Understand that God hates that in us.
God so hates the sinfulness of men that the Apostle Paul, who had been one of the most successful doers of good religious deeds who had ever lived, described himself and others who were unsaved in these terms in Romans 5.10:
“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.”
Recognize, then, that not so much because of what you do, but for what you are, you are God’s enemy.
Because you are God’s enemy, because you are sinful, you will commit specific acts and deeds of sin against Him. To a greater or lesser degree, depending on how you were raised, depending on how selfish and wicked you are personally, you will commit greater or lesser sins. Perhaps you will commit adultery or fornication. Perhaps you will lie or cheat or steal. Perhaps you will pout and feel sorry for yourself.
Regardless of the individual sins that characterize your personality, you are guilty of one sin that is characteristic of every sinful person who has ever lived. You are disobedient. Let me show you in Scripture. Luke 1.17:
“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Here we see that the disobedient are contrasted with the wisdom of the just, which would be the wisdom of those who are saved. Titus 1.16:
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”
Here those who claim to be saved but who are lost, who are described, among other things, as disobedient. If you are lost, if you are a sinner, you are, by definition, disobedient. If this is so, how dare you expect as one who is disobedient to raise children who obey you? You have no hope of that.
THE SECOND REALITY WE TAKE NOTE OF IS THE CONDEMNATION OF SINNERS
Sinful men stand under the condemnation of God. Condemnation refers to someone being balanced in the scales of justice and found wanting. Being found wanting, the condemned person can only expect the fearful punishment of God’s never-ending rage and unleashed fury in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, where all sinful men are cast to spend their eternity in ceaseless and agonizing torment.
Sinner? You stand condemned because you are contrary to God by nature. How can this be so? Ephesians 2.3, in which Paul describes the situation of unsaved people, declares that lost people, sinners like you, are “by nature the children of wrath.” That means the wrath of God fills the vial of God, ready to be poured upon you, held back only by God’s long-suffering and patience, for no other reason than because your sinful nature is abhorrent to Him. That is, when you die, you will go to Hell for what you are, even if it were hypothetically possible for you to never do anything wrong.
But that’s not all of it. You also stand condemned because you are contrary to God by deeds. Condemned in the sight of God for what you are, even if you never do anything wrong, you are also condemned in the sight of God for what you have done wrong, even if your nature was not contrary to God, which it, of course, is. Romans 1.29-32. As I read, consider the judgment that awaits those for the specific sins they commit against God:
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
There’s one more reason you stand condemned in the sight of God. You are contrary to God by decision. You did not choose to become a sinful person. You were born that way. And oftentimes, people do not choose to commit sins. You simply have such a propensity, such a tendency to do wrong, that you automatically do things offensive to God. And though you will be judged for your sinfulness and for your sometimes unconscious sins, there is one particular conscious decision that you may very well make today that you will also be condemned to Hellfire for. That is the decision not to trust Jesus to be your Savior. Second Thessalonians 1.8. What will it be like when Jesus comes again? This verse tells us that Jesus will use flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, flaming fire on everyone who is not saved, but particularly on those who do not obey the Gospel. The Gospel is what you are hearing right now. It’s the good news that Jesus saves sinners from their sins.
THE THIRD REALITY THAT WE TAKE NOTE OF IS THE COMMAND TO SINNERS
The observation of God. God is not some disinterested figure Who looks over the affairs of a man with a dispassionate eye. God is a holy and a righteous God Who is keenly interested in His creation, not the least of which are men and women like you and me. He is aware of the sinfulness of man, the sins that men commit, and the utterly inane decisions that sinful men make to the destruction of their souls.
The motivation of God. God is not only holy. Neither is God only righteous and just. The Creator of all things is also love and long-suffering and merciful and gracious. And as John 3.16 so wonderfully declares,
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
When God sent Jesus from heaven to earth to become a man, He sent Him to suffer and bleed and die on the cross for your sins and mine. And the Lord Jesus did die and shed His blood for the remission of our sins, and was buried. But He also rose again the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father on high where He is right now.
The declaration of God. God has declared, in His Word and through the preaching of His servants, that Jesus is the savior of sinful men’s souls, that sinful men must turn to Christ in faith believing, and that sinful men will be saved by Him should they but trust Him for the forgiveness of their sins and cleansing through His precious blood. This opportunity is not an option. God commands men everywhere to repent, to turn to Jesus Christ and trust Him for salvation. Those who do are described as being obedient to the faith, as obeying the Gospel. Those who do not are disobedient to the faith.
THE FINAL REALITY THAT WE TAKE NOTE OF IS THE CONSEQUENCE FOR SINNERS
Perhaps you grew up in a home that did not demonstrate immediate consequences for obedience and disobedience. Maybe you acted snotty and got away with it. Perhaps you were mommy’s pretty little girl, and she overlooked every wicked and deceitful little prank you pulled. Or maybe your mom or dad didn’t care enough about you to pay much attention to you, and the result is that you have only a passing realization that there are consequences for decisions you make.
That’s too bad. Ecclesiastes 8.11 declares that
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
That is, when sinful people are not shown immediate consequences for their sinful decisions they think there are no consequences for their sinful decisions, and they decide all the more to do wrong.
That’s what sinful men think. But they are wrong. Just because you have not been shown that there are immediate consequences for decisions doesn’t mean there are no consequences for decisions. There are consequences for the decisions you make. And the consequences of the decision before you now, either to trust Jesus Christ and live or not to trust Him and suffer the torments of Hellfire forever, are real.
Romans 5.19:
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
Do nothing, and you will go to Hell, suffering the consequences of Adam’s disobedience. Trust the Lord Jesus, and you can enjoy the benefit of His obedience and live.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Life is full of decisions. But few decisions are as important as the one that I’m calling upon you to consider.
On one occasion, the children of Israel were challenged with these words:
“Choose you this day who ye will serve.”
On another occasion, they heard these words:
“How long halt ye between two opinions?”
Sometimes, my friends, you just have to decide. And if you decide not to decide, you have made the wrong decision.
Decide now to obey the Gospel, to be obedient to the faith, to trust Jesus to be your Savior. To not decide is the wrong decision.
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church