The Christian Home - Part 1 of 1

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the worries of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

This is LeSare Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. Today we're going to bring a portion of a message from our series, The Christian Home. I preached that series over 20 years ago, but the challenge to the family has become even greater.

Changing ideas and opinions in the culture in which we live, many circumstances that affect the family, and yet the family is an institution established by God. We need the instruction from his Word concerning marriage, family, husbands, wives, children. We cover all of this in our series, The Christian Home.

At this time, we are offering the complete series at a very special price. You can get that information by going to our website, baptistbiblehour.org, and then go to the store and you'll find that information. Today we return to our studies in the book of Colossians. We're in chapter 3. We turn to Colossians chapter 3. We're ready for the 18th verse. We'll read verses 18 through 21. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. We have before us here, The Christian Home. Surely no subject could be of greater importance in the time in which we're living, when so many marriages are falling apart, when so many homes are in a terrible state of disarray. Even if people continue to live under the same roof, there's often constant bickering.

There is a terrible misunderstanding about the appropriate role for the husband and the wife. And so we need to have answers, valid answers. Answers from the Word of God.

Answers that will make a difference in our homes. Answers that will enable us to bring honor and praise to our Savior Jesus Christ by the way that we live. Now we have previously pointed out here an interesting comparison that I think needs to be considered once more as we lead in to this section of scripture. Back in the 16th verse of Colossians 3, it says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. We're told here that the Word of Christ, God's truth, God's Word, is to be at home in us, to dwell in us richly, to be an integral part of our daily life, to control and influence our thinking. And the three things that follow here as being evidence of being filled with the Word of God, having it dwell in us richly, is first of all joy, because we are to sing, making melody in our hearts unto the Lord, sing with grace in your hearts.

So you're praising God, you're joyfully singing. The second thing is the giving of thanks in verse 17, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And the third thing is submission. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. Children are to submit themselves to their parents.

Servants are to submit themselves to their masters. These are evidences of having the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. Now let's look at the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Many people are confused on that point. They think of a person as filled with the Spirit, that it is some sort of an experience that just wafts them away to the clouds above, as far as their feeling and response and joy is concerned, that it's a great outburst of emotionalism or some other form that confirms that a person is filled with the Spirit. Now let's see what the Scripture says. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. What do we find here? Joy. Secondly, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What's the second thing? Giving thanks. Verse 21, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. What's the third thing?

Submission. Now you see these same three things in each of these portions. One of them is talking about the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly, meaning that you're going to be influenced by the Word. Your life is going to be controlled by it. If you are filled with the Spirit, it means you're being controlled by the Spirit. You're being guided by the Spirit.

What is the evidence of all this? Some emotional uplift, feeling where you can go away saying, Oh, I'm just on top of the world. This is just great.

I feel marvelous. No, it comes back as most other evidences of God's work in our life to have something to do with how we live, how we conduct ourselves. So that there is joy, genuine joy in the Lord that evokes praise. And that there is a thankful heart, the continuous giving thanks to God. And thirdly, submission.

Now the area of submission is the portion where so many people have great difficulty. A person might say, I don't mind being joyful and I certainly would like to be thankful, but I don't know about being submissive. I'm my own person. I feel like I'm entitled to make my choices in life, live life as I please.

Just to be very honest about it, I don't want anybody telling me what to do. Now we have a society full of people with that Spirit and attitude today. At every level of life there is a sense of rebellion. You see it with little children. They don't want to be told what to do. They do not appreciate the word no. And parents are sometimes intimidated and think that little two-letter word is too complex for children to learn at an early age.

But it's amazing how well they get the point. They still might not like it, but they can be taught it. And then we find teenagers rebelling against the rules that parents have established, feeling that they're being restricted.

They're not having the freedoms that their friends and peers are enjoying, and it's just not fair. Mom, my friend doesn't have to be home to such and such a time. Mom, why do I have to be in two hours earlier?

My friends all have a car, why haven't you given me one? You know, this idea of being submissive is not real popular. And then it comes into adulthood and servants, those who are serving others in the workplace. A little new philosophy of management has been brought in in our land in recent years. I'm not saying that all of it is flawed, but I'm saying there is a general attitude that prevails that I don't want anybody telling me what to do, even the person who's in charge in the workplace. There's a general attitude of resistance against civil authority.

We always want to have somebody to blame. We're resistant to the idea of authority. But my friends, the principle of submission to authority is one that permeates the Word of God. Because ultimately the whole question is submission to God. God is the final authority. God is the supreme authority. And in man's depraved, rebellious nature, he doesn't want to be submissive to God. He says, if I could just get God out of the way, I could live as a please. Romans chapter 1 reveals that there are those who deny the existence of God, in spite of the fact that they have adequate evidence because they are suppressing the truth.

They're holding down the truth. They don't want to believe in God because God is a problem as far as they're concerned. God's laws are too restrictive. God is too demanding.

So they hold the idea, at least as they declare to others, that they do not believe in God. Well, not only do we find these comparisons between the passage in the book of Colossians and the passage in the book of Ephesians, but we see also in the 17th verse of Colossians chapter 3, in the portion that we have looked at in great detail, that it says, And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. This portion we entitled the Christian Rule. In contrast to all of the rules that were being imposed upon people in this time by the legalists, Paul summarizes it all here and says that we should do all things, everything that we do, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus. That is, to His honor, to His glory, all things coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now I say it's important for us to review these verses that immediately precede the portion we're reading for our text today.

Because if you understand first of all what it means to be filled with the Spirit, and to have the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly so that you're being controlled by it, and secondly you understand the Christian rule that in all things, in word or deed, you are to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, then what follows cannot possibly be viewed as inappropriate, out of date, or distasteful. It's a part of what the Word of God clearly teaches. Back in the Ephesian passage which we looked at a moment ago, the 21st verse of chapter 5 in the book of Ephesians, it says submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. The whole issue of submission and authority is continually emphasized throughout Scripture. In fact, without that concept, society cannot survive.

If no one is in charge, if there is no authority, and if no one will submit, then you have total anarchy, absolute and total chaos. So God has structured things in this format, not because He is overbearing, but because He's loving and gracious and a God of great wisdom. Now some immediately in an attempt to challenge all that follows here, take this 21st verse of Ephesians 5 in an attempt to discount the rest. It says here it's plain, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So it doesn't mean that wives are really just to be submissive to their husbands. It also means that husbands are to be submissive to their wives. Well, does that also mean then that not only should children be submissive to their parents, but parents ought to be submissive and obedient to their children. Is that what that means? Does it mean that not only should servants be obedient to their masters, but masters ought to be obedient to their servants.

You see, that doesn't make sense. Verse 21 is not put in there to counteract all that follows. It's simply establishing the principle that in God's Word, the thought of being submissive to authority is very clear. And therefore we are to be submissive one to another in the manner in which it is here described.

Wives being submissive to their husbands. Husbands are to be submissive to their head, Jesus Christ. Children are to be submissive to their parents and servants submissive to their masters. And so the principle of submission and authority is made clear in the Scriptures.

In our text of Colossians 3.18, it is said wives are to submit to their husbands. Verse 20 says children obey your parents. It didn't say children obey your parents if you have parents who never make a mistake.

Parents who are always kind, gracious and considerate. It says children obey your parents. In Romans chapter 13 verse 1, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

That's pretty plain language, isn't it? He's obviously talking about civil authority. The powers that be are ordained of God.

There is no such power apart from God's order and sovereignty. Now, when you resist that power, you are not resisting man, you're resisting God. You say, I don't like the law of the land. I'm not going to live by it. You're resisting God. Obviously there is an exception if we should be denied the privilege of worshiping God. If we should be told we could no longer preach his gospel, then we must obey God rather than man. But when civil laws do not contradict the law of God, we are to be submissive. So the principle is there.

Now, with those introductory remarks, we look at the text. The first word is wives. What comes to your mind? Well, if there is a wife, there must be a husband. If there is a wife and a husband, there is marriage. So that brings up an interesting topic, marriage. That obviously is what connects the Christian home.

That's what brings it together. And yet there is much misunderstanding on the whole subject of marriage. So I believe that in order to correctly understand our text and to proceed with it appropriately, we've got to make a few remarks about marriage itself. In the society in which we're living, we'll hear a lot of disparaging comments about marriage. I guess that the famous quote of Dagwood Bumstead from the comic strips that husbands are a sorry lot has been one that has been passed around for generations and we get our chuckle from it. But it helps to establish a certain thought about marriage. That it must not be a very enjoyable experience. It must not be very desirable if husbands, one part of that marital union, are looked on as being a sorry lot. Or someone will make comment to a young person who is about to be married and say, Oh my, you're about to lose your freedom.

Well, you poor thing. You know it's all about over. You'll soon be wearing that ball and chain.

You're going to be in prison from here on out. Well, you can see the negative attitude that exists. A little seven year old girl had been to see the movie Cinderella. And she was relating her experience to a neighbor lady and asking the lady how much she knew about the story. And so the neighbor lady wanted to impress the little girl. While she couldn't remember all the details, she did at least know the outcome. And she said, Well, I can tell you the end. They lived happily ever after.

And the little girl said, Oh no, no they didn't. They got married. Now, sad to say, a little seven year old girl had picked up from the comments she had heard around her in life, that if you get married, you're not going to live happily ever after. You see, when we're picking up the points of view that are constantly vocalized around us in the world today, or we read after certain sociologists who tell us that the family as it has been known, marriage as it has been a part of our life in years gone by, has really served its purpose. We're living in a new day and the idea of marrying someone with the intent of making that a lifetime agreement is just no longer practical.

That with the constant changing of jobs, being in a mobile society where people are on the move, the fact that you go through growth processes yourself, you may well leave your mate behind and you're no longer compatible. And who could be expected to stay in a marriage when times, circumstances and conditions have changed? So the sooner we give up this antiquated process of trying to tie people down with a marriage vow, the happier everybody's going to be.

Well, as appealing as that may sound to some people in our time, our purpose here today is to understand what God says on the subject. So when we're talking about various points of view, I want to give you a dictionary definition of marriage. First of all, one from a modern dictionary, the act of living together as husband and wife, the relation between husband and wife, married life.

Well, certainly can't find any fault with that definition, but when we go to a dictionary of a little older vintage, it's interesting to see how many additional comments are used to define the term. The act of uniting a man and woman for life, wedlock, the legal union of a man and woman for life. Marriage is a contract, both civil and religious, by which the parties engage to live together in mutual affection and fidelity till death shall part them. I think we can accept that definition of marriage as being very adequate and very biblical in its scope. So there are all the point of views that can be heard and read around us in the world, but the primary concern we have is what does God say about marriage? Well, let's turn to the book of Genesis chapter 2.

The book of Genesis is the beginning, the book of beginnings, and so many fundamental principles and doctrines are here in the first few chapters of the book of Genesis. We look at verse 18 of Genesis chapter 2. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.

As you know, God had created Adam from the dust of the earth and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul. And now he says, It's not good that he should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. We learn some important things about marriage in that one verse. God said it was not good for man to be alone. He needed a helper.

Now, I cannot possibly cover all of the questions and issues that relate to this whole theme, or we'll be on it for quite some time and may be for a while anyway, but we would have to extend it considerably if we dealt with every side issue. Let me just comment here that certainly the Scripture does make allowance for the fact that there are some that are chosen of God for special service and that marriage is not going to be a part of their life. That one can be more dedicated and committed to serving God if they are not married because their whole focus is on the Lord.

So, in no sense should an unmarried person be discredited nor should people constantly be trying to put pressure on them as though it is absolutely mandatory that they marry. God's Word certainly makes it clear that there is a place for singleness for a true dedicated Christian. At the same time, the reason as to why God gives to Adam a wife is because it was not good that he should be alone.

And so that establishes the whole thought of companionship and that's what marriage is about. I will make and help meet for him and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof. And then it comes on down to the 21st verse and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. So, God could have created Eve just exactly like he created Adam.

Created her directly from the dust of the earth but he didn't choose to do that. He took a rib from Adam's side and created woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. That's why the female is called woman because she was taken out of man.

This certainly indicates an extremely close relationship. Adam is saying, she is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. That in the very initial stages of this study should reveal the fact that man is not to be abusive. He is to love his wife even as he would love and cherish his own flesh. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. If you'd be interested in getting this complete series on the Christian home, go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org and go to the store. And you'll find that this complete series of messages covering marriage, the responsibility of husbands and wives to each other, the responsibility of parents to children and children to parents, along with a study guide. So go to our website BaptistBibleHour.org and go to the store.

And the whole series is available at a very special price. And now until we greet you next time, this is LaSara Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.