Family Foundation Amidst Cultural Rebellion - 2023 Ohio Grace Family Conference

[0:00] And I was reading the words of a Christian home, and I was reading as we're singing it, and it was like, it's almost a prayer of what we want our homes to be.

[0:12] And again, this is not a dig on anybody as much as, you know, looking at myself, looking inwardly, is that really what I want for my family? I don't want to sing those words if I really don't feel convicted that that's truly what I want.

[0:27] And so I was just, I found that very, I don't know that I'd ever heard that song before, but I found it very fitting and appropriate.

[0:38] So anyway, I want to share, before I get into the Word of God this morning, just some things. We purposely brought specific things with us from Bible doctrines that would equip families, equip homes to minister.

[0:54] And so I just want to go through some of those things. I mean, we have the catalog back there on our table. I'm not going to get into that right now. But if you have something you're interested in, pick up one of those catalogs.

[1:06] But we brought gospel tracts. I think one of the greatest things families can do is give out gospel tracts. You know, we have, these are seasonal. We have Halloween in here somewhere.

[1:18] We have Halloween tracts. You know, I always, Halloween is, you're never going to hear another pastor say this. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year.

[1:30] It really is. Buy yourself a case of Snickers bars and gospel tracts, and they come to your door. They come to your door for the gospel. What a great opportunity.

[1:41] And for you as a parent or a grandparent to stand there with your children or your grandchildren and hand out gospel tracts, what a lesson. Another favorite thing that I think families should be involved in, look for events like holiday parades, Christmas parades.

[2:00] Our church used to do it, but it doesn't have to be a church. I mean, some of our families are big enough. They could qualify as non-profits. They don't make much, and they got a lot of staff, right? But think about it.

[2:15] Our church used to give out between 5,000 and 10,000 Christmas tracts in 30 minutes or less. We would just, people would line up on the parade route.

[2:26] We'd just go along and just, what are they there for? They're there for the handouts, right? You just go along. They'll take whatever you put, walk right down the parade route. You don't have to have a float. Just walk along and hand them out.

[2:37] So we have those that are available back there. Where's my helpers? Get going. We're going to give you one of these, one per family.

[2:50] But these are just some Bible briefs that Bible Doctrines has. And we selected these for a reason. The first one is Repent or Believe. The whole packet is Repent or Believe.

[3:00] It begins with the gospel, but just some of the titles in here. Salvation Sure Foundation. Changing identities. And I think really that's part of what we're doing this weekend is the idea of understanding what our identity is.

[3:14] I know that was, the conference two weeks ago was identity. But even as a family, what is our identity? There's Under New Management. There is Successful Christian Living.

[3:30] Approving Things That Are Excellence. There's just a number of messages in there, notes in there that you can use. But other resources that we brought along that you can take advantage of.

[3:41] We have a ladies Bible study, Living Gracefully, a study of Romans chapter 12. She actually has a new one that's coming out. It's not in print yet. I think that one's on Ephesians chapter 5.

[3:52] But this is very popular. And this one is something that I ask to have printed to bring along. Commands of Christ for Christian Living. How many of you have ever heard somebody say, we're not under the law.

[4:07] We're under grace. That's a true statement, isn't it? I mean, it's a verse of Scripture. It's found in Paul's epistles. And absolutely, we are not under the law. We are under grace.

[4:19] What does that usually mean, though, when people say, I'm not under the law, I'm under grace? What do they mean by that? What did you say? We have license.

[4:29] We have liberty. We can go live however we want. Robert Brock, in that book, he goes through and systematically goes through Paul's epistles and looks at all the imperative statements, all the commands that are given.

[4:44] And there's a section in there on commands to the family. What is it that Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave imperative statements?

[4:54] Children, obey your parents if you want to, because it might help you in life. Is that what that verse says? No, I'm pretty sure it's an imperative. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

[5:06] Does that affect our salvation if we don't? No. But should that make a difference in whether we obey God or not? It shouldn't make a difference.

[5:18] We should live transformed lives. And part of that is obeying, as his servants, obeying the commands that he has given us. Just some other ones very quickly.

[5:29] Matt Ritchie wrote one, You are rich. Paul Baalbach has one, The Mountain Climber Living the Christian Life. Kind of going along with my message today.

[5:40] The Present Chaos and Approaching Crisis. Again, just talking about, what's the topic? What's my message again? Family Foundation Amits Cultural Crisis.

[5:52] There you go. We have, I think this is the only one we have left in the office right now, but first things first, this is something when I was a kid, I still remember some of the stories and things out of this book.

[6:04] So, we don't print that, but we sell that. And then, just a couple other things here. We have curriculum.

[6:14] Bible Doctrines has an extensive curriculum that you can use for your family to teach your children systematically through Scripture. We brought some of these faithful studies. These are a lot of charts.

[6:25] Bible studies for faithful men. So, as men, if we want to be better fathers, better lead our homes, we need to understand, we need to know, we need to be grounded. This story, Twice Mine, is also back there.

[6:39] And then, we brought Truth Aflame. I started a series. This comes out quarterly. In the last quarter, I started a series in there.

[6:51] And the title of my message in there was, Whatever Happened to Godly Men? Where have all the godly men in our churches gone?

[7:02] Forget the culture. Where have all the godly men in our churches gone? Where have all the godly men in our homes gone? And then, in this, which is not out yet, it just went out to be shipped to your homes, what is a man?

[7:19] What is a man? I think we have such a loss, culturally, of manhood. Biblical manhood. I think sometimes we want to, we want to think that manhood is, you know, rugged.

[7:40] All of these cultural identifiers of what a man is. But according to the word of God, what is a man? And I think, and that's part one, part two will come out in three more months, but just, you know, there was that, what is a woman?

[7:59] But how important is it as men who are under assault? How can we lead our homes?

[8:10] How can we lead our churches? How can we lead our families? How can we make a difference right where we're planted if we as men have no idea what the Lord tells us is what we should be, how we should conduct our lives?

[8:28] So, please take advantage of those things. If you have questions about those, please come and see us this weekend. But, take your Bibles and open them to Romans chapter 1.

[8:43] Romans chapter 1. What time do I have to preach till? Okay. Yep, that'll be good. Romans chapter 1.

[8:58] And having found Romans chapter 1, let's open this time in a word of prayer.

[9:11] Father God, thank you for this morning. Lord, thank you for this weekend and for the vision to have an event such as this.

[9:21] and Lord, I am thankful for for the families, for the fathers, for the mothers who realize the value for the grandparents, who realize the value and importance of not just spending time in your word, but with a focus.

[9:50] Spending time in your word, Lord, with a focus on the home. With a focus on equipping the home to function and to push back against a culture.

[10:10] And Lord, I pray this morning that as we open the word of God together that we don't allow the world and life and responsibilities to distract us from our time together in the word of God.

[10:28] Lord, we thank you for the sweet fellowship that we can have this weekend. The new friends that have been made. The opportunity to get to know one another, to encourage one another.

[10:41] But Lord, all of that is for nothing if there is not the common bond in your son, Jesus Christ. And so we thank you for that.

[10:52] And it's in your son's name I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I have a mechanic. I know you're all on the edge of your seat now, right?

[11:05] I have a mechanic and he's very good at what he does. He's everybody in my town, I think everybody in town takes their cars to Jamie.

[11:22] Everybody. everybody. Because he's very good at what he does. He knows how to take a car apart. That's not what makes him a good mechanic.

[11:37] I can take a car apart. What makes him a good mechanic, what sets him apart is he can put it back together and make it run like it should.

[11:51] Like it was designed to function. Never has he returned my car to me in non-working order. Not once.

[12:03] Every time I take my vehicle to Jamie, it comes back. It is working better than I could possibly imagine. And I don't drive a new vehicle. It has 230,000 miles now.

[12:20] The last one had 230,000. But it was still running fine. He's very good at keeping old cars functioning as they intended, as they were designed by the manufacturer to function.

[12:34] He's amazing what he can do. He knows how to identify the problem. He knows the workarounds of the problem. He knows how to access and fix and repair.

[12:46] He's more than a parts changer. And I say that intentionally because a lot of mechanics today are nothing but parts changers. Something is wrong with your car.

[12:57] They don't know what it is, but they're going to buy this $1,000 part and take a guess that that's what it is and put that in. And if that isn't it, they're going to go over here and buy this other $300 part and put that in.

[13:08] And they're just going to keep doing that until it's like a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. And they eventually get your car back to you in mostly working order with a whole bunch of new parts because they're not mechanics, they're just parts changers.

[13:22] cars. But Jamie, he's different. He's different. It's interesting, he's probably my age and he still goes to ongoing education classes on car repair.

[13:40] A guy who has been working on vehicles his entire life still takes classes to better prepare himself, to better equip himself to fix whatever's wrong with my vehicle.

[14:01] I think he can see in his mind the entire workings of my vehicle. And he knows when he sets his hands to working, he knows how can accomplish accomplish what he sets out to do.

[14:20] And I've been there at times and sat and stood and listened to him and watched him. And it's amazing how he just does it. It's a skill, it's an art.

[14:36] He takes the applied, he takes the knowledge that he knows, the things that he has up here, and he applies it to what he's doing. And it makes all the difference.

[14:50] He's also very efficient at what he does. If I take my vehicle in there and it has a transmission problem, he doesn't start working on the exhaust.

[15:03] He doesn't, if it's an electrical problem, he doesn't start fiddling with my fuel system trying to find the problem to my electrical problem. You know why that is?

[15:15] Because he knows how to rightly divide my vehicle. He knows it all works together. He does! He knows it all works together. He knows it all goes together. The electrical system is just as important as the fuel system, just as important as the exhaust system.

[15:32] But he understands the uniqueness of each separate part. And he can see each separate part completely on its own and how it functions from beginning to end. But then he also understands how it all goes together.

[15:45] together. And that's what makes him a good mechanic. Because he literally can rightly divide my vehicle. All the vehicles in my town that he works on are in working order.

[16:07] Not because he has a knowledge of vehicles. because he knows how to take that knowledge and apply it to the work that he has, to his livelihood.

[16:22] It's not just head knowledge, is it, when it comes to rightly dividing? Do you ever meet people who claim to have an understanding of the Word of God rightly divided, but have never thought or considered the idea of applying it to their lives?

[16:41] They can cross every theological T, dot every theological I. They know the difference between the rapture and the second coming. They know the difference between Israel and the body of Christ.

[16:52] They know all those differences. And a lot of times they'll argue gladly, they'll argue all of those differences. But unlike my mechanic, they've never decided to apply it to their lives.

[17:09] And it makes a difference, doesn't it? Doesn't it? That was not a rhetorical question.

[17:20] It makes a difference. If we're not applying it, it doesn't make it. But if we apply it to our lives, applying the Word of God rightly divided to our lives, does make a difference.

[17:35] Isn't that what God desires for us? It's not just head knowledge. It's applied truth. It's taking what we know and understanding it and applying it to our personal lives.

[17:53] applying it to the life of the church. The older I get, the more there's a thought that keeps crossing my mind.

[18:05] And that is, I'm not sure how much we really believe sometimes what the Word of God says.

[18:21] I know that sounds very critical, but I say this as being critical of myself as well.

[18:32] How often do we know something from Scripture and we believe, we say we believe something from Scripture, but sometimes it's not applied, it's not applied completely in our lives.

[18:54] We mostly believe it, we partially believe it. But do we truly, completely trust the principles that are spelled out in this book?

[19:09] And again, I'm not pointing my fingers at anybody. because there's plenty of times when I'll be reading or studying and you see something different, you see something in a new light and you think, I need to surrender that to the Lord.

[19:26] But isn't that really kind of the design? We spend time in God's Word, we read, we study, and the Holy Spirit through the Word of God transforms our lives, changes us from the inside out, changes our home from the inside out.

[19:54] Let's, let's, let me super simplify rightly dividing for just a minute. What is, when we talk about 2 Timothy 2.15, we talk about rightly dividing, what is it?

[20:08] what is rightly dividing when you boil it all down? And you start looking at Scripture, if you look at Scripture, Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.21, you have this timeline from eternity past to eternity future.

[20:29] Everything in this book, everything fits somewhere on that timeline. timeline. Everything. So what is rightly dividing then?

[20:42] Rightly dividing is, first of all, it's taking all of the things from Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.21 and figuring out from study where everything fits on that timeline.

[20:56] Okay? You have to see the timeline, you have to understand that there is this timeline of events from eternity past to eternity future, and that everything fits somewhere on that timeline.

[21:08] And then rightly dividing is really understanding, I mean, if we're making this very basic and very simple, and listen, I don't think rightly dividing is something that's that hard of a concept to grasp.

[21:23] It's just figuring out where do, first, you know, where am I on this timeline? And that's huge. Because if you think you're back here under the law, you're not rightly dividing, and then you start to apply that to your life, you're going to have problems.

[21:44] Do you know how many people my wife and I through the years have sat down with because they're struggling? And so often it comes back to, you know, we're trying to raise our children.

[21:54] But you're applying things that are under the law. We live over here in the dispensation of grace. That's going to make a difference.

[22:07] Or a church, the church is struggling. Well, they're applying things from over here and dragging them over here, and they're mixing law and grace.

[22:17] So it's important that we understand here's this timeline from eternity past to eternity future, and there's all kinds of things taking place on that timeline. But I need to understand where I am on that timeline.

[22:30] And then I need to go to Scripture and see what is it that is dealing with where I am in that timeline. And we know Romans to Philemon, Paul's epistles, that's the books of the Bible that are written directly to the body of Christ.

[22:49] When it comes to our homes, how important is it? That we, that our homes function according to that principle of the Word of God rightly divided.

[23:09] I had you open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. How many of you pastors, when you preach sermons, you always end up in one of two places?

[23:22] Genesis or Romans? Did you ever notice that as pastors? I can hardly preach a sermon without going to Genesis or Romans. Somebody needs to start a ministry called Answers in Romans.

[23:35] Answers in Genesis was already taken, but Answers in Romans need to exist, Christ, alright? Because there are so many answers to so many things in the book of Romans. Anyway, Romans chapter 1.

[23:46] I had you turn there because not only do we need to realize that we are living in the dispensation of grace, but I think we need to understand where we are in that dispensation of grace. Now the comment was made last night and I completely agree.

[23:58] Christ could return tomorrow. Or Christ could return in a thousand years. We have no idea. But I do know this. When I look at the two passages of Scripture that we're about to look at, both of them point me to a very simple truth.

[24:19] We are much nearer the end now than we were when Paul wrote these things. Right? Romans chapter 1 verse 21 says this, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

[24:37] Now I understand there is a there is an aspect of this in history that we can go back to the beginning and look at the dispensational aspect of this passage. I always look at Romans chapter 1.

[24:49] I always refer to it as the incremental decline of man. When I look at Romans chapter 1 verses, what verse were we in? 21 to 32. I see this as the incremental decline of man.

[24:59] You just see the decision, the choice that was made in Romans 1 and 21, and forever society has been impacted that you have this slide. You have open rebellion against God.

[25:12] And you come to verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.

[25:37] Anybody want to argue that that doesn't sound like the culture today? I mean, that's the world in which we live. Verse 32, though, is the cake topper, 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.

[26:02] The society, the culture, the world has pleasure in those things. They find delight in those things. They find entertaining value in those things.

[26:19] Anybody ever turn on the television? And see the entertaining value? Maybe you don't see the entertaining value, but you see where the entertainment industry makes bazillions, that's a technical term, bazillions of dollars on the entertainment value of things that the Word of God stands directly against.

[26:45] That's Romans chapter 1, verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, not only do them, but they have pleasure.

[26:56] They applaud them. They celebrate those things. We live in a world that if it's something that goes against God and His Word, it is celebrated today. What are we talking about this morning?

[27:10] The family foundation against cultural rebellion. But let me add one element to that. Turn over with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3.

[27:23] 2 Timothy chapter 3, and I have you turn here for a very specific reason. I have heard, I have heard in my travels, I have heard it said many, many times.

[27:40] Churches, I've heard pastors say it, I've heard brothers and sisters in Christ, you just say the same thing, that they point to the culture and how people are not interested.

[27:58] Our church isn't growing because the culture is just not interested in the things of the Lord. I don't think that's a false statement.

[28:10] But I have a problem with that statement. And the problem I have is this. As soon as we turn around and point our finger at the culture, we, the Christian, we, the church, we, the believer, become victims of that.

[28:28] We can't do anything about it. It's the culture. It's just what it is. Except, Scripture tells me that we are more than conquerors. Christians. I don't want, I'm not the victim of the culture.

[28:41] The culture has always been wicked. Go back, go back to Genesis and start reading. The culture has always been wicked. When the Apostle Paul wrote Romans to Philemon, I mean, they were burning Christians.

[28:53] You know, Nero was burning Christians. And, you know, we point to the culture today and how wicked the culture is today. The culture has always been wicked. So, let me, let me point my bony finger somewhere else for just a minute.

[29:11] 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1. This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Now, I don't know what your thoughts are on 2 Timothy chapter 3, but I've always believed, I don't think he's talking about the last days.

[29:29] I don't think in this passage, I don't think he's talking about the world. I think he's talking about what it's going to be like in the church in the last days. Because you read the description of 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 2 through however far we read, verse 10 maybe.

[29:48] If this were a description of the world, this would not be a newsflash to Timothy. I think he's writing to Timothy and telling Timothy, Timothy, in the last days, this is what it's going to be like in the church.

[30:01] Now, as we read this, ask yourself the question, does this not sound like the culture of the church today? Men shall be lovers of their own selves.

[30:15] Is the church today filled with men who are consumed with themselves, their own desires, their own wants?

[30:26] Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't Christianity in many ways just become an entertainment industry? It's become a multi, probably billion dollar industry.

[30:41] I'm not saying Grace Bible Church here is like that. But when you look at Christianity at large, there is, the church has gone to playing church rather than standing for what the word of God says.

[30:55] And so I read this. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.

[31:20] I want to stop at that one for a minute. Despisers of those that are good. I think what he's saying with that statement is there will come a time in the church where those who are seeking to live according to what the word of God says will be despised by those in the church because when you choose to live your life according to the word of God, whether you open your mouth and say anything or just sometimes, I remember hearing Joel Fink say that one time.

[32:02] Yeah, it's your fault. People would get upset. Like, you just show up and they get, they're upset with you.

[32:12] They're mad at you. And you think, I didn't say anything, but they're convicted just by your presence. I had that experience one time. I had somebody get hopping mad at me.

[32:27] We just showed up. We didn't do anything. We didn't say anything. I had never said anything. I had never questioned them. I had never done anything.

[32:39] Absolutely hopping mad at me. Because we were living our lives differently than they were living. And I wasn't standing there in judgment of them. I wasn't even, it wasn't even on my radar.

[32:53] I was focused on raising my family, teaching my family and doing those things. And just stopping in because we cared.

[33:06] Because we loved them. I wasn't standing there. That's not how I even live my life. I don't sit and, trust me, I don't sit around when I'm not, I don't sit around when I'm with you and judge anybody.

[33:19] I don't sit around when I'm not with you and judge anybody. That's not how I live my life. But they were feeling conviction about something because we came.

[33:43] Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Verse 4. Doesn't that sound like the church today? Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.

[33:57] For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers' lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[34:11] Does that not sound like a description of the church today? People can spend their entire lives in the church and never hear a whisper of the truth of the Word of God.

[34:26] I was at a Good Friday service one time. I always participated in the Good Friday service. It was a community Good Friday service. And we can have a discussion about Good Wednesday or all of that.

[34:39] But they always had a Good Friday service and I always participated seven pastors at this Good Friday service every year. Seven pastors from the community. I attended for one reason.

[34:53] Because if I didn't, most likely the gospel would not be given. I went to give the gospel. And on that ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, I watched a pastor go up there one time.

[35:08] Nice guy. I enjoyed him. He was a wonderful man. He goes up on Good Friday to speak. There's four or five hundred people there, maybe three or four hundred people there.

[35:20] There was a bunch of people there from the community that had come to this Good Friday service. He never once mentioned anything from the Word of God.

[35:31] He went up there with a book from a popular Christian author. And that's what he spoke from. And you wonder, how can people be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth?

[35:45] Because the truth is abandoned. The church, by and large, is abandoning the truth. The church, by and large, is not that much different than the world.

[35:59] The title of my message this morning was the family foundation amidst cultural rebellion. And we need to expand that. It's really, we need to examine the family foundation in light not just of cultural rebellion, but the open rebellion that's taking place in the church.

[36:19] In what is Christianity at large today? today. To quote theologians, you know, when we, when we choose, when the world chooses to rebel against God, there are consequences to choices, right?

[36:55] We all agree with that? There's, when we choose to rebel against God, there's consequences. My mother always said, you made your bed, you lie in it.

[37:10] That's what she always told me. Well, that's what she always told my sister. I was a good kid. But, you know, to say it another way, you know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes, right?

[37:27] You know, if you choose, if the world chooses to go against the Word of God, there will be natural consequences. And sometimes there are unintended consequences that they didn't want.

[37:40] But, but, but the world makes a choice. And, and when, and when the, the church makes a choice, intentionally or not, when the church chooses to do things that go directly against the Word of God, are there consequences to that?

[37:57] Sometimes I don't even think we realize the long-term, multi-generational consequences of, of one simple choice to go against one simple thing in the Word of God.

[38:08] churches that, that are forever destroyed. Churches that are, for generations, struggling and broken.

[38:20] Because, a generation ago, or two generations ago, there was this, there was something that happened where they, they went against the Word of God and there were unintended consequences to that.

[38:34] And, and generations are reaping the benefit, the whirlwind of the benefit of what took place back here. If the world is in rebellion, and the church is filled with Christians who are oftentimes also living in rebellion, what does that leave?

[39:02] leaves the individual, leaves the family. You see, as an individual, and as a family, we can't blame the culture.

[39:24] I, Paul Turner, husband of Rebecca Turner, father of Elise, Ethan, Elizabeth, Lydia, Molly, Evelyn, Joseph, and Poppy. I, I, you want birthdays too?

[39:38] I, I cannot blame the culture for the choices I make in my marriage and in my family.

[39:52] But I also cannot blame the church for the choices I make as a father and as a husband.

[40:09] In Ephesians chapter 5, you know what, you know what God's Word calls, calls me and every other married man? The head.

[40:22] I'm the head. The buck stops here. You know what that means? It means whether I live like it or not, I am responsible.

[40:35] And lots of men are guilty of ceding that ground, of giving up, giving up territory to the culture and sadly, you hate to say giving up ground to the church, but if the church is in rebellion, if the church is not living according to the principles of the Word of God laid out for the church, I'm still responsible for my house.

[41:01] I'm still responsible for my children. I'm still responsible for my marriage. Now, let me put a disclaimer on this. I am not standing before you this morning saying that I've got it all figured out, I do it perfectly and I do it well.

[41:16] Because I don't. I'm not going to have public confession up here this morning, but I can just tell you, I am not perfect. My wife knew that going in and she married me anyways, alright?

[41:28] I am not. I am not about to stand up here and point my finger at everybody and say, you all need to get in line like I am. Because I am not the standard, okay? But it is the principle of Joshua 24, 15.

[41:45] As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Why did Joshua say that? He was drawing the line in the sand. It doesn't matter what anybody else is doing. I don't care what every other family in Israel is doing.

[41:58] That's what he was saying. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You can go worship the gods that they worshipped on the other side of the flood.

[42:11] You can go do all that. You can live, you set your own, you can set, live according to whatever standard you so choose. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

[42:27] How does a family in the midst of cultural rebellion and a family in the midst of church rebellion, rebellion?

[42:38] How does a family withstand the cultural onslaught and open rebellion of the church? How do we do it? Turn with me to John chapter 14.

[42:51] Did you say 10-15? Please tell me you said 10-30. 10-15? 10-30. Okay.

[43:02] Alright. I will hurry. John chapter 14, verse 6. We all should know this verse, right?

[43:13] Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. How many of you know that verse? How many of you have thought about the full implications of that verse?

[43:24] I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. What does that look like applied to our lives? I realize this is Jesus. This is in the Gospels. This is in John.

[43:35] This is in Jesus' earthly ministry. But is there application of that verse in our lives in the dispensation of grace? Turn with me to Psalm chapter 1. I want to show you the way the truth and the life applied.

[43:48] Psalm chapter 1. Psalm 1, 1-3.

[44:01] Here is a principle to be applied in our lives. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

[44:13] That's the way. That's the way. Right there. That's the way. How is it that we should live our lives? The man is blessed that does what?

[44:26] That walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. How often do we, as families, as men, as parents, allow ourselves or our children to do that very thing?

[44:49] How often do we do that? Do we allow our children to sit or to walk in the counsel of the ungodly?

[45:08] Far more often than we should. How often do we allow our children to be taught by ungodly sinners who are scornful?

[45:33] Now, before anybody gets all worked up, please understand, I am not talking just about, I am not talking about education systems, public school, Christian school, home school.

[45:50] It is the movies we watch. It is the songs we listen to. It is the news that we watch. Do you ever watch the news and hear them openly mocking things that you know are biblical?

[46:11] And what do we do? I will pick on the more experienced people in the room because usually it is the more experienced people in the room, the older people who sit and watch the news.

[46:26] And we sit and watch Fox News. And the things they are saying are literally scorning biblical truth.

[46:42] And we fill our minds with that. You know, we allow ourselves to be influenced by the ungodly sinners and scornful.

[46:53] Those who scorn the Word of God, we allow that influence in our lives. But he says, the way, blessed is the man that doesn't do those things. The truth, verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

[47:06] That's the truth. His delight is in that. And in his law doth he meditate day and night. That should be our focus. This book should be our focus. The truth of God's Word. And then we come down to verse 3.

[47:18] The life. If we stay away from the things described in verse 1 and if we apply ourselves to the things of verse 2, the way and the truth, the life that follows.

[47:30] Again, if there's consequences to rebellion, aren't there also its cause and effect? If we live our lives according to the way and the truth, won't there also be natural, a natural effect to choosing to live your life according to this Word?

[47:52] Shouldn't there be? And that's not a prosperity gospel message. It's just natural cause and effect. If you go against the Word of God, there are consequences.

[48:02] If you obey the Word of God, there is a natural effect to that. So if Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, then coming back to the verse that I was given, Psalm 127, verse 1, don't turn there, but if the Lord build the house.

[48:29] And the title of my message was The Family Foundation Amidst Cultural Rebellion. And I want to say this very clearly and very specifically. We need to realize that the family is not the foundation amidst cultural rebellion.

[48:45] It's not. And there are Christians who have really, who really zero in on the family and the family being the foundation.

[48:57] Listen, if the family is the foundation, you are headed for trouble. It's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ must be the foundation of the family. The verse is very clear.

[49:09] Unless the Lord build the house. The family is the house. The family is the home. All the children in the home. The mother, the father, the children.

[49:20] Yes. But if that family foundation is not Jesus Christ, that family will be swept up in the cultural destruction. Now let me give you an example of this.

[49:32] Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1.

[49:45] 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus to Timothy my dearly beloved son.

[49:59] Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of thy tears filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I am persuaded that in thee also wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

[50:38] How many of you show of hands I want to see it how many of you have heard this as a Mother's Day message? How many of you pastors have preached this as a Mother's Day message?

[50:57] How many of you have how many of you hate preaching Mother's Day messages? I hated Mother's Day messages.

[51:07] It was always the conundrum. Do you preach on the greatest example of motherhood in the Bible and make every woman in the church feel insufficient? I mean what do you do?

[51:18] Do you preach on the worst and then there's the poor mother in the church who identifies with the worst? I mean you're in a catch-22 you're done either way. But how many have preached or heard a message preached on this verse and just think Lois and Eunice must have been the greatest mothers.

[51:36] I mean look at Timothy. Look at how he turned out. what a great mother and grandmother and it makes for a wonderful Mother's Day message if it were true.

[51:50] If it were true. But it's not. They were not the greatest mother and grandmother duo to ever walk the face of the earth. In fact I would argue that they were in some ways they were a terrible mother and grandmother.

[52:06] mother. Terrible. Terrible. Now let me just explain some things to you here because I do need to land the plane but let me explain something to you here that's very critical.

[52:22] Lois and Eunice were not born in the dispensation of the grace of God. Okay? The apostle Paul had this message revealed to him and he began to proclaim this message but Lois and Eunice and I could go back and prove this to you in Acts chapter 14 and so on but they were and just by comments that we'll look at here in Acts I think it's Acts 16 in Acts 16 we'll get to that.

[52:48] Lois and Eunice were born under the law. Okay? They were born in a different dispensation. Now we know that Lois and Eunice were Israelites.

[53:01] We know that they were Jewish. They were under the law. Under the law guess what they had to keep or guess what they were supposed to keep? The law. What do we see and know about living under the law?

[53:18] First of all let's start with circumcision. Under the law the sign of the covenant was circumcision and the male child is supposed to be circumcised on the eighth day.

[53:30] Right? Right? Okay. Alright. I know we're not under the law we're under grace but need to understand that. Alright? So circumcised the eighth day.

[53:41] Also we could go back to the book of Numbers and see that under the law no it's not in Numbers. Where was it? Anyway it's I wrote it down. Oh yeah it was Numbers.

[53:52] Numbers 36. It was they were they were to when they married who were they to marry? More specific within their tribe.

[54:05] Within they were to marry I think it says in the tribe of their father. So they were to marry within their tribe and it was absolutely essential that they be circumcised the eighth day.

[54:17] That was what was required of them. Alright turn with me to Acts chapter 16. We'll do this very quickly. Acts chapter 16.

[54:32] Acts chapter 16 verse 1. What do we know about Grandma Lois and Mom Eunice? Acts 16.1 Then came he to Derbe and Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timotheus the son of a certain Jewess certain woman which was a Jewess and believed but his father was a Greek.

[54:59] Uh oh. That's a problem. That's a problem. They were to be married within the tribe. Not only did grandma and grandpa allow Eunice to marry outside of the tribe she also allowed her to be married to a Gentile.

[55:20] That was a no-no. No. So we see that the Timothy family was in rebellion against the commands that God had given them to live and order their life by.

[55:39] Verse so what happens? She marries a Gentile and which was against what the law said and she and her husband they begin this marriage together and they welcome this new baby boy into the house.

[55:58] What happens? Verse 3 Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him. Trust me when I say Paul wasn't taking a seven day old with him.

[56:15] Right? I mean we're long past the eighth day. What is my point in this? You see this family was under the law when they started.

[56:29] They're under the law but they're not obeying the law. They're not obeying the commands that God gave them to obey. Their family was in rebellion against the Word of God.

[56:40] There was a cultural slide taking place. And listen as for me and my house it doesn't matter what the rest of the Israelite culture was doing. What was Lois and Eunice's household doing?

[56:52] They were doing everything just like them. They were allowing their children to marry outside of their tribe and outside of Judaism.

[57:04] And then mom comes along and says you know what? What's the big deal? What's the big deal? You know does he really need to be circumcised? I mean I know it's the sign of the covenant but come on.

[57:15] You know this is the first century come on. So what happens for us?

[57:29] I can promise you there's not a person in this room who has done it perfectly or will do it perfectly. every one of us will see areas in our life at some point if we spend enough time in that book.

[57:47] We'll see areas in our lives where the world is in cultural rebellion, the church is playing church, and as for me in my house, we thought we were serving the Lord but there's some blind spots obviously that are pointed out in our lives.

[58:06] What happens in those situations? You know what the beauty of the story of Lois and Eunice is? It's not that they were faithful from the very beginning.

[58:19] It was that when they heard the gospel of the grace of God, and what did Paul say? I preached Christ and Him crucified. When they heard the truth, it transformed their lives.

[58:37] Isn't that what Acts 16.1 says? She was a Jewess and believed. You know what made the difference? The gospel.

[58:51] The gospel and the Christ of the gospel transformed their lives so that Paul could write to Timothy when I call to remembrance, verse 5, the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice.

[59:14] What happened? Paul was out traveling and preaching. He goes to Iconium. He goes to Lystra. Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 16.

[59:25] He's on his journeys. He's out there preaching the gospel, the glorious gospel, the grace of God to anybody and everybody. He will listen. And here's this family in cultural rebellion going the way of all of Israel in unbelief because I promise you if they weren't doing the things of the law, there was not a chance they were believing that Jesus Christ was the Messiah.

[59:51] They were unbelieving Jews. And yet they come and they hear the gospel preached. Paul goes to the synagogue, preaches the gospel. wherever it was that they heard it.

[60:01] They believe the gospel. Lois and Eunice get saved. And they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Christ comes in and takes up residence in their life.

[60:15] And their lives are transformed by the grace of God. Jesus Christ becomes the foundation of their family.

[60:26] family. And as the foundation of their family, Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, He becomes that foundation of their family. And Paul writes to Timothy in later years of his life and he says, I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith, the unwavering faith.

[60:47] When they got saved, they never looked back. And it transformed not just Lois' life and not just Eunice's life, but Timothy's life.

[61:05] So much, they went from cultural rebellion to grounded in the biblical truth of the word of God rightly divided, understanding their identity in Christ.

[61:21] And Timothy, where would we be today in the dispensation of grace without Timothy? And his faithfulness. And his obedience. See, so we can look back at this passage, at this idea of the family foundation amidst cultural rebellion and we can think, well, it's too late.

[61:44] It's too late, nothing I can do, it's a lost cause. Lois and Eunice were not perfect. But the gospel of the grace of God and the Christ of the gospel changed the trajectory of their family going forward.

[62:06] And isn't that really what Titus 2, 11 and 12 teaches? Titus 2, 11 and 12 says, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

[62:17] what's the next word in verse, the first words of verse 12? Teaching us, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and something else in this present world.

[62:31] The grace of God teaches us how to live. And when it comes to that family foundation amidst cultural crisis, listen, it is the grace of God that takes us from wherever we are right now.

[62:43] not based on our history, not based on what we've done, not on our past failures, but the grace of God can take us from where we are right now and change the trajectory of our life and our home and our family from here forward.

[62:59] Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Lord, thank you for the time that we could spend in the word of God. And Lord, I pray that we realize the importance of God's grace.

[63:13] I pray that we realize that we don't have to be perfect parents. We don't have to be a perfect home. But it is important that we surrender to the gospel of the grace of God, that we surrender to Jesus Christ, that we surrender to you, Lord, to guide and direct our lives, our thinking, our homes, and ultimately, Lord, our future.

[63:56] It's in your son's name I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.