How to Bring our Children to Christ
By Pastor Matt Black
02 May 2007
Midweek
Bible Study
Joel 2
Introduction: Open your Bibles to Joel 2. The title of this evening’s message is: “How to Bring Our Children to Christ”.
We’ve been covering the theme in the last few weeks about how to play catch up. What if you have older children who are not walking with the Lord? What can you do? Well, as we talked about two weeks ago, ultimately, you have to trust in God completely to do the work in your children’s heart. As we come to this passage in Joel 2, let’s stand and read verses 12-13, “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”
Context
These verses were probably written just before Babylon sacked Jerusalem. The people were about to lose everything and they didn’t realize it. There was a real indifference among them. The purpose of Joel’s message was not that God’s people should look for a change in their circumstances, but they should look to God for a change of heart!
We as parents must not be so concerned about making our children successful in this world. Many parents only motive is to make sure their child does not have to suffer financial difficulty, or that they have a good education, or that they don’t embarrass me. All of these are deadly motives. They seem good, and that is why they are dangerous. You see your child can get a good education, live an upstanding moral life, and be financially set, and still be lost forever.
Our main concern cannot be our child’s comfort, but our child’s heart. There are certain steps that you can take as a parent whatever age your child is so that you can be a vessel of change for your children. What are those truths that we need to follow?
Here’s the outline
I. Root out Spiritual Indifference in your family!
The Jewish fathers and mothers needed to turn to God. They were upset about their circumstances, but not about their sin. In chapter 1 of the book of Joel, the prophet sought to jar a spiritually indifferent people who had received the most severe chastenings of God.
Ø A devastating plague,
Ø drought, and
Ø famine had descended upon them.
And Joel called them to consider God and their ways before Him.
These people were miserable in their life. They were miserable because of their empty stomachs and dry throats. But they did not have misery in their hearts over their sins. They were looking to change their circumstances, but God was looking to change their heart!
Spiritual indifference is deadly for several reasons. Joel says, “sound an alarm” (Joel 2:1)! Don’t be indifferent to spiritual realities. This earth is going to pass away! The spiritual lasts forever. The temporal world will very soon be gone!
1. Spiritual indifference is deadly because: Eternity is too long to risk hell even for one second. It is deadly to be indifferent to God’s justice. One of the greatest difficulties to communicate to our children is that our life is “a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Joel says it a different way. He says the “day of the Lord is at hand” (1:15). In fact he says in Joel 2:1, that we ought to blow a trumpet in our homes and all around and “sound an alarm ...” and “let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand”. Our time is coming sooner that any of us can ever realize! I was talking with Bro. Marion Willey this afternoon with Vincent as he was getting ready for surgery. Bro. Marion will be 67 in November.
Application: Are you spiritually indifferent about the shortness of time on earth? Are you always eternity focused? It is so important that your children see this in you. As a parent, you must be constantly picking up the trumpet of eternity and “sounding the alarm”. It is not my responsibility. Many parents think if they bring their children to church that this is enough! You must sound the alarm every day by reminding them that…
Ø Life is short
Ø The treasures of this world will very soon pass away
Ø Sinners always get justice
Ø Their only hope is the mercy of God
Ø Their only motive in life ought to be the worship of God
Now this kind of alarm is hard to sound. It has to be a lifestyle for you. Bringing them to church won’t do. If you don’t live it at home, the Gospel will not help them, but instead it will harden your children.
We often pray earnestly for our children, and that is absolutely primary. But if you want your prayers to prevail, you must stand with God’s justice against your children. You must see your child’s actions as a willful and wicked rebel against God. Your motive must be rooted in God. You should not simply want a fire escape from hell for your children. You should want them to be worshippers of God along with you.
That cannot be your motive for your children. Your child is a wicked sinner
a. Spiritual indifference is deadly because: the consequences for sin are swiftly coming upon us. In this chapter (2) in verses 1-11, Joel takes the trumpet in his hand and he blows an alarm in Zion, an alarm of the coming day of the Lord.
Illustration. Look at the illustration the Lord gives through the prophet Joel. It’s a living illustration of locusts, worms, and grasshoppers. He says it will be a dark day and a gloomy day because of all these strange insects coming. This is an illustration that Joel uses. He said it God’s judgment would be like the swarm of locusts that devastated the people’s land.
He says in chapter 2 and verse 3, “Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation” And he speaks of all of these different kinds of insects that would bring complete devastation. Verse 4, “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.” That’s how our sins are. We have so many sins, and different kinds of sins. We have enough to condemn us! But instead of seeing their heart, they are spiritually indifferent.
A plague of grasshoppers, climbing up over walls and through windows, would teach the people that God's judgments against sin can never be shut out, they can never be escaped.
So we need to
II. Stop Giving False Comfort.
Look at verse 5, “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.”
God says—we need to sober up and take responsibility for our lives and our families.
Application: Parents, there was perhaps a time when you didn’t take your children’s eternal soul seriously. But now is the time for all of us to awake. Waking up and sobering up means we need to look at reality.
A. We need to stop giving assurance to our children if they do not show fruit of salvation.
B. We need to stop being selfish with our children and give them to God. Sometimes we don’t want them to be punished forever, so we convince ourselves that our children are saved. We need to apply the Lord’s tests of salvation.
Ø Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
Ø James said, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).
Ø John the Apostle wrote an entire letter on how to know if you are a Christian. He said you can know for sure. This is what he said were the signs of a true Christian.
· 1 John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
· 1 John 3:3 speaks of everyone that has the hope of the Second Coming of Christ and says, “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”.
· 1 John 3:6 says, “Whosoever abideth [practices] in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him”.
· Verses 7-9, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
· Verses 9-10, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother”.
Unless your son or daughter has a holy life, you must not give them any assurance that they are a Christian. Unless they are characterized by a life of “doing righteousness” as John says, then by giving them assurance, you are sealing their destruction.
They also must not have any bitterness toward anyone. He says in verse 10, “the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother”. If your child can be characterized as an unforgiving person, then you cannot give them any assurance. Love toward all people is the sign that God’s love has entered the heart. If bitterness can be left in the heart of your child, there is little hope that he or she is saved. If the Spirit of God is in the heart, bitterness, or any sin, cannot abide for very long.
C. Only God can give a soul assurance of salvation to your children.
So, we as parents need to stop giving false comfort to our children. If we do that we will be like the false prophets of old that always said, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).
Your son and your daughter, as all humanity, will have an accounting day with God. We must leave them in their misery until they themselves reach out to God for mercy. God has given them the Word of God. Because of their stubborn persistence in wickedness, God is obliged to send them to hell unless they will simply, but strongly cry out to Him for mercy. Comforting them actually hinders the work of God in their hearts.
III. Lovingly and gently Call for Repentance. I say lovingly and gently because that is how God demonstrated his love for sinners. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Look at verses 12-13. Joel says, “Therefore… turn…to me with all your heart…rend your heart, and … turn unto the LORD your God”. There are some action words here: “turn” and “rend”.
A. Definition of Repentance. “Rend” has the idea of repentance. He says “rend your heart, and not your garments”.
In the Old Testament, if we are going to understand this rightly, the outward signs of a heavy heart were unmistakable. The Jews of the Old Testament showed their grief in very visible ways. They were not stuffy. They were not reserved. They were not a stiff-upper-lipped people. They would rend their garments, they would tear their clothes. They would put on sackcloth—this sticky, rough garment; they would cover their head with ashes, they would pull out their hair, they would beat on their thigh and on their chest.
It was supposed to be a picture of the brokenness of the heart. The problem was, these people were upset with their circumstances, and God says—don’t just show you are unhappy on the outside—it’s fine to show outward sorrow, but what you really need is to open your heart and turn to God. Soften your heart. Cut it open. Repent!
B. Demonstration of Repentance. What does repentance look like?
“Rend your heart, and not your garments” (verse 13).
True repentance is a rending of the heart, not merely of the garments. God tears the heart in grief and sorrow over sin found within it. He exposes that sin to our eyes so that our heart is broken up in sorrow.
God cannot give any one the comfort of forgiveness until a person sees their sin like a cancer, and like blood on his hands like a murder. Have mercy on me a sinner! Is the only cry God responds to for sin.
1. Repentance is not, first of all, or merely, an outward change or improvement of one's actions, words, and attitudes, but it is primarily an inward change of one's heart toward sin.
2. Repentance is a grace—a work of God through the Word of God and by the Spirit of God. Repentance proceeds from the power of God (found in both the Word and Spirit) when God himself comes to touch the heart and to humble the heart before Him.
3. Repentance is not only an outward change of your behavior, but an inward change of the heart. It is not merely that you quit doing this or that because
· others know and
· it has brought you lots of misery.
You can clean up your act while your heart remains the same.
4. Repentance is inward—it is a heart-work, so that the direction and the impulse of your heart is changed toward sin. Sin which you really cherished now becomes like a cancer. And God (whom you really resented and hated, now becomes the One you want to worship with all your heart.
Unless it is of the heart, it is not God’s work of repentance. It is behavior modification. It is merely putting a bandaid over your belly to heal a bleeding ulcer.
5. Repentance many times is expressed outwardly, but it is not only outward.
Now Joel does not mean to forbid the outward expressions of true repentance. When he says, Rend your hearts, not your garments, he does not outlaw outward expressions of the grief of heart. In fact, he says in the verse, Turn with fasting and weeping and mourning. God has made a very close relationship of your soul and heart and body. Very often we wear our heart in our very outward, physical demeanor. Often our heart can be seen in our eyes and in our face. The eye is created to weep. The face and cheek muscles are created to reveal a downcast or happy heart. Shoulders can stoop or stand erect. When your heart is broken in sorrow over sin, then, also in your outward bearing, you will be stripped of pride. The most important thing for you as you come to church or come to the Word of God is not that there is no wrinkle in your dress and no hair out of place. God did not make us stones or blocks of wood. That means that a broken heart will be revealed in our posture and in our conduct. And it also means that our heart can be reflected in our very face and eyes.
Application: God is not fooled by drama, by playacting. Crying does not save a person. Repentance begins in the motives of the heart.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that repentance is simply that you feel bad and can weep floods of tears over what has happened to you and over what you have done.
Illustration: Esau repented with strong tears, but it was because he was sorry he lost his privileges, not because he offended God.
Judas Iscariot was so distraught it says he repented by hanging himself. He did not make things right with God or ask God for mercy, but just took out his sin on himself.
6. Repentance is not simply learning that sin is very painful and enslaving. True repentance includes that, yes. But it is something more. It is the rending of heart before God. If the knowledge that sin is painful, then hell would be filled with repentant sinners, for there the regret of sin is stronger than anywhere.
7. Repentance is not simply seeing the errors of your big sins and holding on to what you consider your little ones. That’s bartering with God! It is not simply, "Well, I'll give in on my curfew with my parents. I'll be home on time. But I'm going to hold on to my lying to them where I have been." It is not simply "Well, I'll turn the TV off when it shows filth, but I will keep the lewd magazines under my bed." That is bartering with God. That is coming to God with one hand washed and the other hand clutching a clinched fist of evil behind your back. This is not repentance.
8. dNor is repentance the same as a resolution built upon the strength of your own will. Repentance is much more than simply saying that you are resolved to put this out of your life because you see what it is doing to you. "I am resolved to quit drinking, it is out of hand." "I am resolved to quit running with a bad crowd." "I'm resolved to quit beating my wife." "I'm resolved to break with my bad habits." Even if these resolutions stick (and seldom do they when they are built on our own strength), but even when by force of will and character a man changes, that is not necessarily repentance towards God. Once again, if it is centered in yourself, in self-love and in self-preservation and in your pride, then all it is is a channeling of sin into areas which are more acceptable to society, less dishonoring to yourself and your public appearance.
And this the devil enjoys because he knows that our worst sin is always pride. He enjoys it when a man says, "I am going to turn from this outwardly evil and wicked way. I am resolved to turn." The devil enjoys it when one's pride is wounded when others look down upon him, and he changes in order to save his own face before men. Oh the devil enjoys that! The devil considers it the crowning achievement of his work when he has Pharisees who come to the temple and pray, "God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are."
Repentance is the rending of the heart. It is God tearing your heart open. It is to be given a sight of your sin, not sin as it is far off in the world, not sin simply accepted in society today. Yes, that is shameful and God will judge that. Not simply to spy out the faults that you see in others, but it is God opening your eyes to see the sin within you and to know the plague of your own heart and to say with David, "I am evil, born in sin. Thou desirest truth within."
Conclusion: To rend your heart is to be filled with grief over sin as it is an offense to God. "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." "God be merciful to me, the sinner." There was a torn heart in the publican who came to the temple. "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." He saw God, who God was. And he saw himself as the sinner. That is where true repentance begins.
It is not simply the admission, "I have sinned." Pharaoh used those words to Moses. Nebuchadnezzar used those words to Daniel. Judas Iscariot used those words. With a little honesty all must admit that they have sinned. "Yes, I've messed up - not always done things correctly." No, that is not true repentance.
Repentance is to admit that I am by nature, of myself, a sinful person. When God rends the heart, He does two things. He gives you to see your sin as against God. Secondly, He gives you to see that your sin is not only in what you have done but in what you are of yourself.
He rends the heart to expose the evil, in order that the precious balm of Gilead, the blood of Jesus Christ, might cleanse us of all our sins, renew us in the assurance of forgiveness, and give us to serve our God.
Closing Hymn: