The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

My paternal grandmother, Gladys Peavler, was a throwback homemaker who kept a tidy home, did not tolerate foolishness, and always displayed the highest standards of modesty, with a gentle and quiet spirit. By worldly standards, my grandmother did not leave behind very much. I remember the day of her funeral, when my father and I went to her home to collect a few belongings, all we left with was an old blue oil lantern.
 
Years later however, a study bible that belonged to my grandmother was handed down to me from my parents, who had given the bible to her as a gift after her third marriage to my grandfather Mr. Nelson Peavler. An old 4 inch thick, large print, 15lb King James, this bible was designed for some serious thumping. Contained inside you can find a short family history, newspaper clippings, and several full color pictures chock full of second commandment violations.

One thing that I found interesting about this particular bible, was the fact that in many places all throughout are handwritten notes scribbled here and there which my grandmother transcribed as she read through the text. One phrase in particular can be found repeated dozens of times, and seems to have been a sort of prayer that grandma would utter as she read through the text: “Holy Spirit teach”. Now, my extended family is a very tight-lipped, closed, uncommunicative bunch. As a child growing up I knew grandma was a Christian, but never knew the extent of her faith. This bible has blessed me with not only another opportunity to read God’s Word and to share it with my family, but has given me a glimpse into the Christian heritage of my family that has been partially buried by the sands of time. Having sat in a box for a decade and a half, and winding up in my hands a few years after my own conversion, recovering this old bible has taught me among other things the value of leaving behind a tangible legacy for my children, and my children’s children.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
 
 If God blesses me with fifty more years I want those of my family who come after me to know whose disciple I was. If in His providence today is my last, I want those left behind to know that above all else, I depended upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His righteousness for my salvation. If my next breath is my final breath, I want my children’s children to hear of how all my hopes, trust, faith, and assurance was in the risen savior. I want the legacy I leave behind for my posterity to be a legacy which declares “Christ alone”.

Many, many in our land have fallen into a pattern of leaving behind a legacy for their children which can be eaten by moths, destroyed by rust, or stolen by thieves. Is this you, brother and sister? Have you fallen into the worldly trap which says “My goal in life is to ensure my children have a better life than I did”, so you toil, and labor, and strive for that which does not satisfy, nor has any eternal value?

Matthew Henry says this of Proverbs 13:22:
 See here how a good man's estate lasts: He leaves an inheritance to his children's children. It is part of his praise that he is thoughtful for posterity, that he does not lay all out upon himself, but is in care to do well for those that come after him, not by withholding more than is meet, but by a prudent and decent frugality. He trains up his children to this, that they may leave it to their children; and especially he is careful, both by justice and charity, to obtain the blessing of God upon what he has, and to entail that blessing upon his children, without which the greatest industry and frugality will be in vain: A good man, by being good and doing good, by honouring the Lord with his substance and spending it in his service, secures it to his posterity; or, if he should not leave them much of this world's goods, his prayers, his instructions, his good example, will be the best entail, and the promises of the covenant will be an inheritance to his children's children,

Ps. 103:17:
“But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness to His children’s children;”

Something both sad and frustrating which highlights in clear terms what legacy a person leaves behind can be seen in a person’s obituary. I have scrutinized the obituaries of distant relatives, family acquaintances, and strangers, and conclude that there is nowhere else you can observe what folks hold in high regard and dear to themselves, and the legacy that they leave behind.

“Member of the local VFW”
“Volunteered at the food bank”
“Lifetime member of the NRA”
“Coached basketball for 25 years”
“Family man”
“Always made people laugh”
 
 On and on the moth laden, rusty legacies can be seen on display. As a Christian, is there anything more disturbing in an obituary than a write up void of something to the effect of  “Brother or sister so and so, loved Jesus till their final breath. Trusted in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for their salvation. Leaves behind a family who loves Jesus Christ, having been blessed by years of faithful gospel proclamation.” Isn’t this the heritage that matters? Ought not the inheritance we leave our posterity be one which endures unto all generations?

What will be the inheritance you leave behind for your children’s children?

What will be your legacy?

Where has compromise, worldliness, or the troubles and cares of this world crept in to tarnish the gift you will leave your children’s children?

If you are able, please kneel as we confess our sins to God Almighty, knowing He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

O Sovereign Lord,
Thou art the Creator-Father of all men, for thou hast made and dost support them; Thou art the special Father of those who know, love and honour thee, who find thy yoke easy, and thy burden light, thy work honourable, thy commandments glorious. But how little thy undeserved goodness has affected me! how imperfectly have I improved my religious privileges! how negligent have I been in doing good to others!

I am before thee in my trespasses and sins, have mercy on me, and may thy goodness bring me to repentance. Help me to hate and forsake every false way, to be attentive to my condition and character, to bridle my tongue, to keep my heart with all diligence, to watch and pray against temptation, to mortify sin, to be concerned for the salvation of others.

O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction of my kindred. Let those that are united to me in tender ties be precious in thy sight and devoted to thy glory. Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion, instruction, discipline, example, that my house may be a nursery for heaven, my church the garden of the Lord, enriched with trees of righteousness of thy planting, for thy glory;

Let not those of my family who are amiable, moral, attractive, fall short of heaven at last; Grant that the promising appearances of a tender conscience, soft heart, the alarms and delights of thy Word, be not finally blotted out, but bring forth judgment unto victory in all whom I love. Amen
 
 Please join me in standing, and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe: 

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!

From the 2/16/2020 liturgy of Sovereign King Church written by Aaron Sabie.

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Being a man who must frequently repent of being prideful, believing that the warnings of disobedience we see in scripture must surely be meant for someone else, my first inclination when reading verse 1 of Proverbs 13 was to immediately focus upon the disobedient, stubborn, impenitent son, the scoffer, who would reject the rebuke of his father. How dare he dishonor his father? Secondarily, my thoughts turned to another obvious application: that we ourselves, as sons of God, His children, ought not despise the discipline of the Lord. Jesus asks “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I command?”. But after a few minutes of mulling over this verse, an application sprung from the text which impacts each and every one of us, and if you are prideful, as am I, you may miss it.

A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

The glaring assumption in this verse that we likely pass over because we are very quick to recognize the sins of others, yet are very slow to realize our own, is that a father must discipline and rebuke his son. The principle of “There was no king, so the people did what was right in their own eyes” applies here, in that, as a father whose calling is to rule your home well, it falls squarely upon your shoulders to discipline your sons and daughters from the Word of God. This responsibility cannot fall first to sunday school teachers, daycare workers, public school teachers, the government, or sesame street. The burden of this responsibility falls first upon you fathers.
 
Just yesterday I saw a meme on the always truthful, light-filled, glorious social media platform facebook which stated: 25,000,000 children live in homes with absentee fathers, and most crimes committed in America are committed by people who grew up in single parent homes. Now, it is a fact that anyone can stand here and spew out a long list of statistics to support an argument on any number of positions where crime, delinquency, and fatherlessness are concerned, so I am not going to give you tons of data to sift through. What I will tell you is this: the link between fatherlessness and crime is growing more and more clear. The government, culture, media, feminists, and society at large turn a blind eye to the dangers of fatherless homes, promoting lifestyles which directly destroy families. Generations of children are growing up in homes led by deceived, bitter women, with weak men hanging out in basements content to let mom, her boyfriend, and her girlfriends raise little Johnny, so long as he gets to keep his boat, play x-box on weekends, and can afford season tickets to the local basketball teams home games.

A wise son accepts his father’s discipline. The implication is that you are disciplining your son in the first place. Men, do you often wonder why your sons do not respond as wise sons? Are you left scratching your heads as to why your children can’t seem to do the right thing before God? Maybe a big part of the problem, is you.

You see, being an absent father isn’t simply one who does not live in the same home as his children. It isn’t just the men we see murdering their children at the abortion clinic who are absent from their childrens lives. Absentee fathers aren’t just the men we see walking around like dogs having been whipped by the big mean feminist machine, chewed up and spit out by the #METOO movement.   No. You can be at home 24/7, always physically around, present for the family photos 1x/year, and yet be totally checked out and absent from your child’s life. You can have more children than the Duggar’s, rake in money from your employment which allows all the desires of your family’s collective heart be satisfied, and still be an absent father. You can be the loudest mouthpiece for the patriarchy, and tradition, yet if your days are spent in frivolous pursuits, mindless endeavors, and worldly distractions, to the neglect of disciplining your children, you are essentially an absentee father, who will reap what he has sown: undisciplined children who reject your teachings, have no stomach for your hypocritical rebukes. Children who hate God. You sons will grow up to be unwise, and unwilling to hear a rebuke.

May our Heavenly Father have mercy upon us men who shirk our responsibilities before God in disciplining our sons and daughters. Gentlemen, disciplining your son in not an easy endeavor. It is not for the faint of heart. It is tiring, frustrating, dirty work which demands consistency, repetition, firmness. The discipline of your son demands that you gird up your loins for battle, against the world, the flesh, the devil, the culture, and sometimes your own father, mother, and wife. None of the battling, none of the striving, can be done by the weak arm of flesh, but must instead be waged by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering that His promises are to you and your offspring.

Please kneel as we confess our sin to our Heavenly Father, who disciplines the son whom He loves.
O GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, That which I know not, teach thou me, Keep me a humble disciple in the school of Christ, learning daily there what I am in myself, a fallen sinful creature, justly deserving everlasting destruction; O let me never lose sight of my need of a Saviour, or forget that apart from him I am nothing, and can do nothing. Open my understanding to know the Holy Scriptures; Reveal to my soul the counsels and works of the blessed Trinity; Instill into my dark mind the saving knowledge of Jesus; Make me acquainted with his covenant undertakings and his perfect fulfillment of them, that by resting on his finished work I may find the Father’s love in the Son, his Father, my Father, and may be brought through thy influence to have fellowship with the Three in One.

O lead me into all truth, thou Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that I may know the things that belong unto my peace, and through thee be made anew. Make practical upon my heart the Father’s love as thou hast revealed it in the Scriptures; Apply to my soul the blood of Christ, effectually,  continually, and help me to believe, with conscience comforted, that it cleanseth from all sin;

Lead me from faith to faith, that I may at all times have freedom to come to a reconciled Father, and may be able to maintain peace with him against doubts, fears, corruptions, temptations. Thy office is to teach me to draw near to Christ with a pure heart, steadfastly persuaded of his love, in the full assurance of faith.  Let me never falter in this way.  Amen
 
Please stand and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to all that believe:

 To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!


(From the 02/03/2020 liturgy of Sovereign King Church written by Aaron Sabie.)