The Next Generation - Who Is Accountable

Psalm 78:1-8

1 Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,

3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

4 We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should teach them to their children,

6 That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,

7 That they should put their confidence in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments,

8 And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart, And whose spirit was not faithful to God. (NAS)

I want to speak to you this morning about The Next Generation, that is, our children and specifically about our responsibility to them. However, before I do so, I feel that it is necessary to lay some ground work and thereby establish a foundation upon which to build.

So with that in mind, let me begin this morning by pointing out that there are those who believe that children are members of the “church” by virtue of being born into believing families. This is why for example, certain religious groups and denominations baptize infants.

But this practice stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of the Body of Christ. The Bible clearly teaches that membership in the Body of Christ is brought about by the second birth not the first birth. One must be born again.

John 3:3 Jesus answered [Nicodemus] and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.

Since it is the second birth that determines membership in Christ’s Body, it is clear that the ordinance of baptism is to be administered to those who are born of the Spirit into God’s spiritual family, not to those who are born of the flesh into a physical family.

Now let me pause here because I just used a word which may be unfamiliar to some of you, the word, ordinance. In its biblical or theological use, this word simply means – something ordained or decreed by God.

It is the biblical view and therefore the view of this church, that baptism is one of two ordinances given to us by the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 28:19, the Lord commanded:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…

The other ordinance is the Lord’s Supper. Both the Lord Jesus in Luke 22:19, and the Apostle Paul quoting Him in 1 Cor. 11:24, commanded that the Lord’s Supper was to be observed regularly, “In rememberance of Jesus.” I just wanted to make sue that I did not assume understanding before proceeding…

So, once again let me point out that the Body of Christ is not something you can be born into according to the flesh. It is something into which you are born by the Spirit, conditioned solely upon belief in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice.

This being the case, I want to pose a question to you, which is this, “How then do the unbelieving children of believers fit into the community of faith?” It is clear from scripture that that they are not yet members of the Body of Christ so in that sense, they are no different than the unbelieving children of unbelievers! As such, they are lost and without Christ.

I know that this is a hard word to hear. And I also know that no parent wants to believe that their little darling is lost, I know that I didn’t. But it is true none the less.

Now right now I know that every mother and even a few fathers are mentally preparing to stone me but before you do, I am going to ask right up front here, that you stick with me for the rest of the message. If you will, I trust that you will see that I am not a child-hater nor am I a doomsayer…

Again, let me reaffirm my previous comment: the Body of Christ is not something you can be born into according to the flesh. It is something you are born into by the Spirit, conditioned solely upon belief in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. So I ask the question again, “How do the unbelieving children of believers fit into the community of faith?”

May I suggest, AND PLEASE HEAR THIS, that unbelieving children of believing parents, (although indistinguishable spiritually from unbelieving children of unbelieving parents), are at the same time graciously privileged. Now Mom and Dad, that statement should go a long way in helping me get back into you good graces! In fact, it is my strong conviction they should be seen and treated as dearly loved and precious charges or wards of the Church!

Although they are not yet born again, they are none the less being kept as it were, under a spiritual guardianship awaiting the day of their personal awakening to faith in Christ!

What do I mean when I say, that they should be seen as dearly loved and precious charges or wards of the Church? Simply, that their attachment to a believing family at the natural level, obligates the entire Christian community and especially those of us who are members of the same local body, to see ourselves as foster care givers at the spiritual level.

Let me say that again: Their attachment to a believing family at the natural level, obligates the entire Christian community and especially those of us who are members of the same local body, to see ourselves as foster care givers at the spiritual level.”

There are very special, clear, biblical, commands which bind natural parents and the Christian community to children. Plainly, God has given us that is, natural parents and the Christian community, a special mandate to lead them to faith.

Now I want to be very clear. It is certainly and primarily the explicit God given responsibility of the natural parents to fulfill God’s mandate in the life of their children. However, this mandate is also given to each member of the Body of Christ, in general.

In fact, I would like to suggest that the relationship of the Body of Christ to children in general but especially to children within believing families, is one of spiritual guardian. If this is true, and I believe that it is, we must ask the obvious question, “What does God require of a spiritual guardian?” or in other words, “What is our calling as parents and as a community of Christians toward our children?”

I would like to answer that question using the passage we read initially. Look again with me at Psalm 78:4-7. I see here, six stages in our calling as parents and spiritual guardians.

1. First Our Calling Begins With God.

Notice in verse 4 that there is a commitment to, “…tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

As parents and spiritual guardians there must be an absolute commitment to the fact that all Christian parenting and all Christian education begins with God. He alone is the One Ultimate, Unchanging Reality. Everything in parenting and education comes from Him. But not only is He the source, He is also the goal.

That is to say that everything is for Him. He must be the first, the last, and the focal point of Christian parenting and Christian education. God must be the main focus in how children are reared, in how children are taught, and in how children are disciplined. It all begins with God and it all is built on God and it all is to be shaped by God.

Brothers and Sisters, if you leave here this morning having heard nothing else I say, I want to burn into your conscientiousness, into your very spirit, the following point.

If there is one memory that our children should have of our families and of Sugar Land Bible Church it is this; they should remember God. They should remember that God was first. They should remember that God was central, and they should remember that there was a true passion for the supremacy of God in all things.

2. The Second Stage In Our Calling As Parents And As Spiritual Guardians Is The Understanding That There Is A Fixed Deposit Of God's Truth, In The World.

Verse 5 declares that, “[God] established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel.” God has testified and God has taught.

The Hebrew word translated "law" is the familiar word, (tôrâ תּוֹרָה). It is used 221 times in the Old Testament and literally means “teaching or instruction.” The root of this word however, signifies, "to throw" or "to cast" with the strong sense of control by the subject.

Picture with me an ornamental rug dealer who has a one of a kind rug. It is rolled up and safely stored, because it is greatly valued by the owner. When a potential buyer comes into the store to buy it, what does the owner do? He takes that beautiful ornamental rug and he throws it out so it can be seen, admired and examined.

God has similarly thrown out His law or teaching or instruction for all those interested in learning about Him. And He has done so by giving us the Word of God. Consider how blessed and special we are in that we have that testimony and that teaching in a book, the Bible, which reveals not only the way to God, but God Himself!

Through the Bible, and only through the Bible, does the ultimate and all-important Reality, reveal himself to us. And this is done with absolute clarity and supreme authority.

You will recall that my point in stage one was that God is the most important thing…but if this is true, then certainly the Bible, which is the God given revelation of Himself to man, is more important than anything else but God. And the implications of this fact for parenting and spiritual guardianship are tremendous. As one speaker has stated,

This means that the Bible will be the sun in the solar system of all that we teach our children. It will not be one among many books. It will be the central book, the all-permeating Book. "The other books are dark planets; the Bible is the light-giving sun. All other books will be read in the light of this book. All books will be judged by this book. All books will find meaning in the world view built by this book. Which means that this book must be known first and known better than all the other books.

This also means that in the Bible, God has provided for us a fixed deposit of truth which is to be passed on to each succeeding generation. You may recall that the Apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy 1:14, told young Timothy,

“Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you”.

Paul was declaring that the fixed deposit of truth with which he had been entrusted, had now been passed along into the hands of Timothy, and Timothy was to pass it on yet again to other faithful Christians, who were to pass it on to still others.

The English word, “guard” is the Greek word, φυλάσσω (phulasso) and means, “to guard as a sentinel.” This is the task of parents as well as the task of the Christian community as a whole. We are to guard as sentinels, this sacred deposit. We are to preserve it and transmit it to the next generation.

3. The Third Stage In Our Calling As Parents And As Spiritual Guardians Is Teaching.

Notice the second half of verse 5. “…He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children.” Brothers and Sisters, I thank God that we have this fixed and sacred deposit of truth, but it is not enough to preserve the deposit of truth in a book, and tell our children it is there. No!, we are commanded to teach the testimony of God to our children. Ephesians 6:4 says,

Fathers…, (ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ) bring up or nourish [your children] in the discipline and (παιδεία) instruction of the Lord.

Nourishment and nurturing are fundamental components of normal growth. Anyone who has ever had a baby knows this is true. I remember when our youngest daughter Rachael, was transitioning from milk to baby food. That baby loved eating and she always ate as if she were starving. You could not get the food to her mouth fast enough. In fact, she would start crying in between the time you put the food in her mouth and went for another spoonful! She was hungry and she wanted to be fed.

That’s a great metaphor for spiritual growth. In fact the Scriptures make it clear that there is a time for spiritual milk and there is a time for spiritual meat. The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:2,

Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, (NAS)

But at the same time, you don’t give a rib eye no matter how well cooked, to an infant; and you don’t expect an adolescent or an adult to live on milk. The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote,

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14, NAS)

The point is that the proper nourishment must be given at the proper time. This proper nourishment will include the discipline and (παιδεία) instruction of the Lord.” The Greek word (παιδεία) refers to, “the act of providing guidance for responsible living.” Parents and spiritual guardians alike are to provide children with “guidance for responsible living” and this will be accomplished by instructing them in the testimony and teaching of God.

4. The Fourth Stage In Our Calling As Parents And As Spiritual Guardians Is That Our Children Are To Know The Testimony And Teaching Of God Well Enough To Tell It To The Next Generation. In Other Words, From Our Teaching Comes Their Knowing.

Verse 6 states the reason for teaching and instruction, namely that, “the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children.” Or as the Psalmist has said in another place,

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary (Psalm 107:2)

You might think that this point is virtually the same as the one before. But they aren't the same. Teaching is not the same as learning and knowing. And this distinction is important for at least two reasons.

One is that we cannot make children learn. We can make ourselves teach, but we cannot make them know. Knowing is a precious thing and the kind of knowing God has in mind here is more than mere memory or raw mental awareness. Knowing in this context is seeing into the real beauty of truth and embracing it for the treasure that it is.

Neither parents nor Christian communities can make that happen. In fact, there is a chasm between teaching and knowing that only God can carry our children across. But although we cannot make them know, we can and must let our children see that God is the center of our lives. We can and must do our best to love them, to pray for them, and to teach them.

The other reason for stressing the difference between our task of teaching and their responsibility of knowing is that the rest of God's purposes for our children grow out of this knowing. No matter how great our teaching, God must impart the knowing so the final two stages of our calling deal with the fruit of knowing.

5. The Fifth Stage In Our Calling Is That Our Children Might Put Their Confidence In God.

Verse 7 clearly points this out, “That they should put their confidence in God.” God has testified and taught that there might be a deposit of reliable truth that we might teach it to our children that they might know it and embrace it – why? So that they might put their confidence in God.

The aim of all true education is to deepen and broaden confidence in God. This is what keeps learning from leading to pride – or at least it should! All true learning, all true knowledge reveals that we are dependent upon God and must depend on him or perish. One author has expressed it this way,

Knowledge that leads to self-sufficiency rather than dependence on God is not true knowledge but false knowledge. It is like an archeologist who finds a beautiful ancient painting, but hides it in a locked case and travels around giving lectures on how clever he was to discover it, but never bringing it out for all to admire, lest the beauty of the original treasure detract from his own achievement in finding it.

The aim of all knowledge is confidence in God. Hope in God. Trust in God. God is the beginning and the goal of all education. But there is one final stage in our calling as parents and spiritual guardians toward our children.

6. Our Confidence In God, Rooted In Knowledge Of God's Testimony And Teaching Must Lead To A Life Of Obedience.

Verse 7 begins by stating that they should put their confidence in God, but concludes by stating that they, “should not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.”

When our children are confident in God they will follow the commandments of God. Outward obedience will not be legalistic conformity to external pressures and expectations. It will be the fruit of internal confidence – not self-confidence, but God-confidence.

The reason outward obedience to God is the final goal of parenting and spiritual guardianship is because it externalizes the glory of God – and that is why the universe was created.

Internal states of mind, no matter how good, do not manifest or reveal or externalize the worth of God. But when we and our children are so confident in God that we gladly obey God's demands for love and justice, then the beauty and worth and wisdom and love and justice of God will shine forth in the world. And that is why the world was created – that the knowledge of the glory of God might fill the earth the way the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

In Conclusion:

I close with a challenge for Sugar Land Bible Church. The challenge I put to you this morning is to fully realize and commit to your calling both as parents and as spiritual guardians. This will require a renewed commitment from both parties to partner together to see God’s great purposes fulfilled in our children. If we will commit to this endeavor, we can be certain that our succeeding generations will certainly know God and will carry forth the truth to a lost and dying world.

HAVE CHILDREN COME IN AND LINE UP IN THE FRONT OF THE AUDITORIUM

As our children gather before us, let me read Psalm 127:3-5.

3 Behold, children are a gift [inheritance] of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.

5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They shall not be ashamed, When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

PRAYER

It has been said that Christian education can be defined as, “a life-long, Bible-based, Christ-centered process of leading a child to Christ, building a child up in Christ, and equipping a child to serve Christ.”[1] So the question that each of us must answer is contained in the title of this message, “The Next Generation – Who Is Accountable?”

I trust that we will all leave here with the correct answer to that question, namely, that we are each accountable for the next generation. This personal accountability extends not only to our immediate families, but to our Sugar Land Bible Church family, and the Body of Christ in general.

By way of application, my prayer is that this week we will contemplate our role as parent and or spiritual guardian and that we will respond to the calling of God for the children in our immediate families but also for the children in our church family.

May God be with us all as we seek to be faithful to this calling and this responsibility.

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