Open—Robert Boulard
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To hear we love to stay in this world.
It sounds like you're mistaken.
Just like to turn to an Old Testament passage as well, but we'll read in the New Testament as well. Doing Armani Deuteronomy chapter 6, please.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, and let's just read from verse four, says.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Let me read it in the new translation. Thou shalt impress them upon.
Thy sons and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.
And when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and thou shalt be, they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house.
And all thy gates it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy father, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou build us not, and houses full of all good things.
Which thou fillets not, and wells digged, which thou digest not vineyards and olive trees, which thou plan us not. When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of *******.
Let's read in Luke's Gospel chapter 10, right at the end. We can hold our place there in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Verse 38. Luke 10. Verse 38.
Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister had left me to serve alone?
Bitter, therefore, that she helped me.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part.
Which shall not be taken away from her then just in Luke's Gospel chapter 24.
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Luke 24 And let's read verse 29. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meet with them, he took bread.
And blessed it break, and gave to them. And their eyes were open, and they knew him. He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another. Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the Scriptures? They rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them.
Well, read these little passages of Scripture as an encouragement, you know.
To us, as I see these, you young families here, young men, young sisters that have been married perhaps recently, or you have young families, and trust me, it's an encouragement to your older brethren to see you here with your young ones. And the sound of little ones in the assembly is a sound of joy to those of us that are older. Don't ever think that your children, as they cry, make a disturbance and the older ones don't like it.
They.
Very, very thankful for that sound of young ones. I'm not talking about ones that are throwing a temper tantrum and that sort of thing. But you know, generally speaking, these young ones are a joy to our hearts.
But I feel the necessity to just encourage you to read the Word of God in your homes with your young ones. It's your responsibility as those of their parents to impress upon your little ones the reality of divine things. And and so it says, as I read here in verse seven of Deuteronomy chapter 6 in the Darby translation, thou shalt impress them.
Upon thy sons or on thy sons? I was recently in a home.
One of the young men that married one of my nieces.
And.
He is, you might say, pretty close to illiterate. Not quite. But he's a believer, a simple believer, not gathered to the Lord's name, but he seeks to raise his family for the Lord.
And so is there visiting my mother and we had a nice visit, had a nice meal. And then he pushes back his plate, went and got his Bible.
And he struggled to read a chapter of the Word of God.
He read it himself, and he read it with reverence. He tried to make a few comments on that little passage of Scripture.
But I had tears in my eyes at the end of that time that he read that passage of Scripture. He struggled to read it.
You know you don't have to have a gift a particular gift you just need to sense the responsibility and trust the Lord for grace to be able to read the word of God with your own family and to the Lord will honor that and you'll bless your home as a result. There's a brother in our home assembly won't say it is, but he.
Is perhaps just a little younger than I am, and very little. It takes very little part in the assembly meetings but has some young people in his home.
And.
He reads the word of God at night with them every night.
And sings a hymn.
And there's fruit in his home. There's the young ones that have a desire to go to the assembly meetings and to sit under the sound of the word of God. And so this is necessary. You know, it's speaks of how they were to use diligence to have the word of God before us in the family.
And we find that there's homes that we visit in different places, and the Word of God has very little place.
And it's a sorrow to the heart. Maybe you have the habit. I have the habit. Perhaps I go into a home. Sometimes it's not home on the Saints, but I still, I go into a home and I look for signs of life.
I look for gospel texts on the wall. I looked and I checked to see what's on the bookshelves and those sorts of things. Sometimes my heart leaps with joy.
Other times, there's deep sorrow in the heart.
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That's wonderful to be able to have passages of Scripture before our young ones, perhaps every night, every morning. It says, I shall teach them diligently unto thy children. But we won't do it unless we have a hearts affection in verse six for the things of God ourselves. So you and I need to read the word of God to feed ourselves and to feed ourselves on a regular basis to have the affection for the word of God, and then we'll be able to pass it on to the next generation.
Just the affection for the things of God and the principles of the Word of God. Desire to have our children know what those principles are. Read the Old Testament passages and they understand the principles and the stories and they'll learn those things from you and they'll remember. I just ask you, some of us grew up in Christian home. My father and his youth, the 1St 10 years of my life, read the word of God.
Home regularly and I still remember the stories that he read.
I still remember some of the comments that he made.
I still remember where those passages are in the Bible because my parents read the word of God.
And they read them in the home. So they taught me themselves. So it says when I sit us in thine house. When's that? Well, we sit at meal time and it's a good time to read the word of God, push back and perhaps, you know, just discuss things.
As they went along during the day and so on. But bring the word of God into it. And when you go and visit your brethren, bring your Bible and just sit down after a meal or even before a meal and.
Sit and visit in the sofa in the living room and whatever. Sometimes in the kitchen you'll see sisters visiting and they have the word of God open and it's a refreshment will remember those times. But this is really written in chapter 6 and particularly in connection with young ones in the home. When thou walkest, by the way, you know the Lord Jesus. We didn't read it in Luke 24, but he was walking by the way, what?
Conversation, that was.
It says that he.
Spoke.
It says.
Let me see here chapter 24 of Luke.
Verse 27 Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
And so we can, as we go in our journey, we can listen to recorded ministry, we can listen to the word of God. You know, I'm not a good example and I'm not saying I am. And, but oftentimes when I'm traveling, I'd like to listen to one book of the Bible and you get more different, different perspective. Perhaps you get different, the Spirit of God can use that in a different way if you're listening to the word.
And you listen to the whole book.
And you get something. The Spirit of God gives a little portion. And so we can do that as we're traveling. When thou lie us down. Bedtime is a good time. I like to read in bed. I read the word in bed. I read different material in bed. But you know, our young ones, when they were young, used to come to bed with us in the evening. Sometimes they would come in the morning and we would read to them in the morning.
And it was. Those were happy times to read something of the word of God or read Christian stories, read Bible stories.
With them in bed. Well, it says that they were to bind them upon the sign upon the hand in verse eight. This front lifts between nine eyes. They were to have everything that was done with the hand was to be guided by the principles of the Word of God. And then they were to have the word of God and see things from his perspective and use the word of God to show your children what's right according to the principles of the Word of God.
Well, in chapter 10 of Luke I just read this in connection with the Lord Jesus being in this home.
What a blessed thing it must have been to have the Lord Jesus in the home in Bethany and open up just what He had on His heart and to instruct.
God is no man's debtor and if you have the word of God and you have the desire to have fellowship with the people of God in your home and have the word of God open, there's going to be a blessing. They're going to be fruit for him. And what the Lord Jesus says here, I'm not going to expound this, but it says in verse 42, one thing is needful, there's different.
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Passage of Scripture in the New Testament that speak of the one thing. You might want to search those things out. It's instructive, but one thing is needful.
Mary hath chosen that good part.
So there was a time for service, there was a time, there was a meal, there was an opportunity for Mary I. It doesn't say that she didn't serve. She probably was serving before. And then she saw an opportunity to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus and the opportunity was going to pass. And she took that opportunity. She stopped what she was doing. She sat in the presence of the Lord.
It says.
That good part which shall not be taken away from her.
What did she get? Her capacity to understand and enjoy divine things was expanded. She got more capacity, spiritual capacity, to enjoy Christ and enjoy divine things.
And your capacity to enjoy the Lord, your capacity to enjoy divine things and divine persons and fellowship. But the divine persons is being formed now your capacity to enjoy the Lord.
Is being formed now and what you enjoy now, what capacity you have.
Will not be taken away from you. Isn't that wonderful? You're going to be in heaven with the Lord Jesus. You're going to be in the presence of the Lord. He will have.
Ministered to you personally with the Word, you perhaps have helped your children, I hope you do, to understand something of the Word of God and they'll develop a little capacity to enjoy the Savior.
They'll run around the house singing little children's songs like we sang here this morning. They'll rejoice your heart.
But be sure to take that responsibility seriously.
In the home, I just want to encourage you in this way. And so we have this little instruction that's given to us in the Word of God. I'd give one more little bit of advice and you'll forgive me, I'm an older individual, but I'm going to give you some advice in connection with.
Those you might send them out of the home. I think it's First Corinthians, First Samuel. I'm sorry, chapter 13.
You're going to have your children will grow a little bit older and then you're going to have to send them to school. Perhaps you didn't lead to some sort of an education as part of the legal system in North America is they have to be educated.
So.
You're going to need to send them somewhere. You know when I'm just going to give you a little bit of an indication as to how things have slid. You know what drift is. We have drift in the manufacturing process. You set the standards and the quality specifications and then start up the factory. And then pretty soon somebody decides that they're going to change the process or not use this part or change the part and pretty soon the quality slides and then you have what we call an automotive recall.
Somebody didn't do something right.
Quality drifts, but there's been a drift in the Christian world.
When I was going, when I first went to school in the part of Ontario that I lived in, the French schools were Roman Catholic.
And my father was saved out of Roman Catholicism and he wasn't going to send us to the Roman Catholic school. The English schools were technically Protestant schools.
And part of curriculum was that they were to. I'll give you an example.
Eight what? 5th grade?
Had a fifth grade teacher, I don't know her name.
Came into the classroom and we were in a portable. The school was growing, the neighborhood was growing. So we are in portable classroom. Young teacher, she just graduated probably from teachers college not too long ago. And as the children filed into that classroom, she handed them a little children's hymn book. Every child got a little children's hymn book.
And so we sat down and we sang some children's hymns for the 1St 10 or 15 minutes.
Than that young teacher, that young sister and the Lord open up her Bible, and she read the word of God and passage of Scripture, and she just expounded a little bit upon that little passage of Scripture.
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And she prayed for those students every day, cried to the Lord that they might be saved by the grace of God, they might have useful lives not wasted in this world, that they might be preserved.
Then we had to stand up, sing Oh Canada, God Save the Queen, and say the Lord's Prayer, so to speak.
Then we could start our day.
It's not like that, is it today.
You and I need to be careful to bring the word of God before our children in our homes to teach them the truth, the principles of the word of God. They're not going to get it in a in a school system. I'm not saying that I I got much out of the school system religiously, but I'm thankful even in high school, my last year of high school teacher, we stood up.
The whole school.
The principal had a teacher read a passage of scripture, a chapter of the Word of God.
Over the intercom system while we were standing the.
He read that chapter.
Then there was the Lord's Prayer.
And whatever else that the teacher in that particular homeroom desired to do.
Then we could start our studies, we could sit down after the Scriptures were read and after there was a prayer offered for the day. This was in the mid 1970s, but it's not like that anymore. Let me just read this in verse. First Samuel, chapter 13, verse 19. There was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistine said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or Spears.
But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man, his share and his Coulter, his axe and his matic.
Yet they had a file for the Maddox and for the coulters, and for the forks and for the axes to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and with Jonathan. But with Saul and Jonathan his son, there was found. Well, I just read this passage of Scripture because, you know, we need to teach our children the truth of what it is to be gathered to the Lord.
Name and what it is to the Christian values and the fundamental principles of Christianity. We need to teach them ourselves.
They're not going to get it in the school system and.
We need to teach them ourselves. You see the Philistines, they just, they said, you know, these Hebrews, we, we kind of have to keep them. It's, it's unpopular. I don't know, in the school system today, you don't even have Bibles in the American schools, right? No Bibles.
Well, I went to school. There were Bibles in the school.
There's been drift. And so there's a suppression of the truth of the word of God in the world that we live in. So I just want to say this, that our young ones, let's encourage one another to read the word, to have the Word of God open in our homes, and to feel the responsibility of bringing the truth of God before our children, before our young people. And I would say this, I'm not going to.
Forgive my boldness to say it, but I would rather not see you send your children to Christian School.
And I'm going to tell you why. It's because it's sending them back into the camp.
It's sending them to it says in Hebrews 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. It's better to teach your children yourself in the home. I'll say this as a bit of a warning is those generally that have gone among the gathered Saints and have gone into the religious school system the.
Christian School system often times.
Will despise the truth, will despise the word of God, will despise the principles of what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name. And so we have a family. I know there's an assembly. They have all of the children go to a Christian School. And some of those children, young people coming to the meeting and you can tell that they don't want to be there. They don't want to hear this, they don't want to be there.
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I just wanted to encourage you to.
Teach your children in the home the principles of those, the word of God, and homeschool them if you need to and that sort of thing. But it's better. I don't believe it's appropriate. It's better not to send them into the camp to get their education. Obviously, our time is up. Perhaps we would close in prayer. Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for thy precious word. We thank Thee for the privileges that are ours and the day that we live in.
To be in the very last hours of the day of grace. We know that we live in historically significant times, that thou art working in this world to prepare things for the time after the Rapture. And so we ask you for grace and for strength, courage, to go on in a faithful way and with a delight in the Word of God, and to bring it before our little ones and our young people as well.
That we might train our young ones and read the scriptures ourselves.
And that we might have a capacity expanded to enjoy the things of God, and that thou is to be delighted to bless us, We ask thee to bless our time together. We thank Thee for thy precious word. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.