Proverbs 1:8,9,  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Last Sunday we discussed Proverbs 1:7, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

We learned the knowledge that Solomon was referring to was the knowledge of God.

We learned that God only reveals himself to those who fear him, to those who are humble before him.

God resisteth the proud.

God does not allow the proud to know him.

The proud are equated to the fools of this proverb for they despise wisdom and instruction.

The fool of this proverb does not want knowledge of God and God will comply with his wants.

He says in his heart "No God for me" and fashions his life totally as if God did not exist.

His works declare what his heart said. No God for me!

Look at his works and you may read his heart!

God will let him despise wisdom and instruction as he takes his place with the children of wrath!

There is no hope for the fool, for knowledge of God only comes to those who fear the LORD.

You can't have one without the other!

That is why we are admonished to teach the fear of the Lord to our children.

There is no allowance in the economy of God for rearing (rear means to erect or to build up) up a fool.

It does not have to be.

God has given the formula for rearing up children who love the Lord and want to do his will.

He has laid the foundation for the knowledge of God, through the fear of the Lord and now introduces the curriculum for learning the fear of the Lord.

For the fear of the Lord is a thing taught.

David in the 34th Psalm invites the children to hearken unto him as he says:  I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Solomon, David's son, says the same thing in our proverb when he writes:  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Notice how the fear of the Lord is tied to honor of the parents by the son.

This is the primer, this is the rudiment of the fear of the Lord in the child.

This is the kindergarten, the children's garden, for learning the fear of the Lord.

This is where the fear of the Lord is born.

This command takes as a given the godly character of the father and the mother and involves both parents.

Each has a role in teaching the fear of the Lord to the child.

The son is told: hear the instruction of thy father.

What is the child to do?

He is to hear, which means to do the instruction of the father.

He is to obey the instruction of the father.

What is the father to do?

He is to see to it that his instruction is obeyed.

How? First of all he is to see that it is obeyed by enforcement of his instruction by the son's mother.

Our proverb includes the admonition to the son to forsake not the law of thy mother.

What is the law of his mother? It is the instruction of the father.

The Father is the law giver and the Mother is to see to it that the son obeys the law of the law giver.

This is the same pattern of how God the Father works his will.

Look at the trinity and see how its done.

How does the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit work the Father's will?

Remember that the Son is the Word of God.

The Son is the instruction of God the Father. The Son is God's word!

John talked about the function of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit was to teach the disciples all things.

Read John 14:26,  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

What was the Holy Spirit to teach?

He was to teach the word of God.

He was to teach the word of the Father.

He was to teach the instruction of the Father.

He has no instruction of his own. He has no agenda of his own.

John writes of this in: John 16:13-15,  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.

What does the Holy Spirit do?

He does not speak of himself but he guides you into all truth.

What truth? The truth that is given of the Father.

And so must the mother guide the child into all truth that is given by the father.

The mother's role is similar to that of the Holy Spirit.

Her law is built from the word of the father and the father alone.

She has no separate agenda for the child but reinforces the agenda of the father.

This is how it is to work in the home if the fear of the Lord is to be learned by the son.

Isn't this the same pattern of the home that Paul gave to the Ephesians in his epistle?

Eph 5:22-33,  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Here is the key to teaching the fear of the Lord to the son.

The husband is to love his wife and the wife is to reverence her husband.

The word love in this passage is the word for the highest love, godly sacrificing love.

Love that is given with no thought of return.

The same love as the love of Christ who loved the church and gave himself for it.

It is not moved by feelings or emotion.

It does not use itself up on those for whom it has some resemblance or affinity.

It is love that seeks the welfare of the wife and works no ill.

That is the standard of love called for in the husband and father.

The Bible is very careful to spell out each and everyone's responsibility.

The Husband is to love his wife.

And the wife is to reverence her husband.

The word reverence means to fear her husband.

This is the type of fear as in the fear of the Lord.

It is good fear, it is fear that produces in the wife veneration for her husband.

It produces a wholesome dread of displeasing him.

It is also the kind of fear that produces what the fear of the Lord produces.

This fear produces knowledge of her husband.

This fear is designed to bring them to be what they are declared to be, ONE FLESH.

From this reverence, from this fear, she knows her husband, she knows his instruction to the son and sees to it that it is carried out by the son.

The father instructs and the mother enforces that instruction.

Instruction in a household where the fear of the Lord is taught, is as though the instruction is law and law is not to be broken.

The godly father instructs, the godly mother, carries out those instructions as they are the law of the household.

The child will have a healthy fear of the father and of the mother which is the first fruits of the fear of the Lord.

Is it possible to fear that which the child cannot see if he is not taught to fear that which he can see?

And he observes this fear in his own household as he sees his own father fear the Lord and his own mother fear her husband and his father.

This is the practical teaching of the word of God.

There are no shortcuts. There are no easy ways around it.

God knows our heart and he knows our frame but he also shows us the way.

He does not tell us to fear the Lord without telling us how to teach the fear of the Lord.

So what does our passage tell us as to what hearing the instruction of thy father and forsaking not the law of thy father will bring?

What is the blessing promised for this obedience?

Hearing instruction and forsaking not the law will be: an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

This is the right priority young man; this is the right priority young woman!

These are the ornaments that ought to be sought.

As these ornaments are rejected the desire for the ornaments of the body increase.

Man craves ornaments.

If they are God's ornaments of the heart the desire for the ornaments of the body decreases.

God desires the ornament of grace unto thy head.

God desires the ornament of obedience which will make the face to shine.

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:3,4, when he instructed wives, cautioned that they not seek the outward adorning.

Oh, how people desire to ornament their bodies but God looks for the ornament of grace which comes from hearing the instruction of the father and forsaking not the law of the mother.

God looks for the ornament of the spirit, God looks on the heart!

Proverbs 1:8,9,  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Related Verse: Proverbs 6:20,  My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

We read in Genesis 1:27,  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And in Genesis 2:24,  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

So man is male and female.

The image of God is to be most clearly displayed in a man and a woman who become one flesh in marriage.

That is why when a man and woman marry they become one as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One.

The father and the mother and the word of the father is the image of God on this earth.

The father and the mother and the word of the father most clearly display the Triune God.

God the father, God the Son, who is the word of God, and God the Holy Spirit.

The home therefore is the one place where the image of God is to be most clearly demonstrated.

And it is most clearly demonstrated in a godly home where the husband loves his wife and the wife reverences her husband.

She will show that reverence most, by obedience to his word.

Proverbs 1:8,9,  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

The instruction of these proverbs is the standard of the word of God.

We may find ourselves in situations that compromise conformance with this standard.

Many of us do not measure up and for many of us it is too late to affect our lives but each of us has a testimony and each of us can affect those around us.

I am not teaching this to disjointed families somewhere out there.

I am teaching this to you in this Sunday School class and in particular to those young families in which this instruction can make a real difference.

There are young fathers and mothers in our class who, upon taking hold of this instruction will make a difference in the devotion and the service to God of themselves and their children.

This is why God has a standard and not varieties of standards that are to fit every existing situation.

That is the world's way of situation ethics and psychology and that is why the world is in confusion.

We are so quick to condemn the alternate life style perversions of today such as man with man, woman with woman.

And we ought to condemn that as the scripture condemns that but what about the alternate life styles we practice in the home when we do not obey the word of God as far as the role of the father and the role of the mother.

What about the alternate life style of equality in the home where the clarity of the role of the man and of the woman is lost?

What about the alternate life style where the wife does not recognize the authority and responsibility of the husband.

What about the alternate life style of a husband who does not love his wife as Christ loved the church?

What about those perversions?

Are they too near to our own homes to consider?

But Jesus Christ is THE WAY.

As a teacher of the scriptures I am to point you to that way.

The direction that God leads you is toward conformance to that way regardless of where you enter that way.

We are to aim to be in the way regardless of what our situation.

Single mothers are to know this instruction should the LORD bring into their lives a husband. It Happens!

If they seek a husband they should seek one who will live out this instruction.

Single mothers are to be the law in the household and are to receive that law from the word of God.

Those that are married to a partner who cares little for the word of God are to obey the word of God at all costs.

If the cost of that obedience is the loss of that partner, so must it be.

We all have to stand before God!

Young men must seek a women who will yield to the LORDs will in this instruction.

The marriage vow of obedience to her husband is a real vow and not to be taken lightly as it is so much of the time.

If you want to hear two people lie to each other you can probably hear it at most weddings.

Young men must know that they are to love their wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

The aged women are to know this instruction so that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Fathers and mothers who band together as one and believe Gods word have the Holy Spirit to bring them into conformance with the word presented here.

Is the Lord's arm shortened that he cannot bring this about in your life?

Is the grace of God only limited to salvation and has no power to change you into what God wills?

This instruction is for those who care about the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that.

This is not for those who selfishly use up their lives on themselves but for those who want the children who come after, to also fear and therefore love and serve the LORD.

Instruction from the word of God is designed for generation building and not just for you in the now and now.

We’ve lost that idea in the church.

We are so "today" oriented and most times we think not of those who are to come after.

We learned last week that the fear of the LORD is tied to honor of the father and the mother by the son.

The father is to be the law giver and the mother is to see to it that the son obeys the law of the law giver.

We compared the work of the mother to the work of the Holy Spirit.

As the Holy Spirit teaches the word of our Heavenly Father so does the mother teach the word of the father on earth.

As the Holy Spirit does not speak of himself but only speaks that which he was given of the Father so does the mother speak to the son that which the father on earth speaks.

Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would take of mine and show it unto his disciples.

So as the Holy Spirit has no agenda of his own neither should the mother have an agenda of her own for the son.

Her law is built from the word of the father and the father alone.

She reinforces and amplifies (to present the subject in every view and in the strongest lights) the agenda of the father.

She is not to alter or change the law or soften the law or ridicule the law.

If she is one with the father then there can be no manipulation of the law.

This is how it is to work in the home if the fear of the Lord is to be learned by the son.

Isn't this the same pattern of the home that Paul gave to the Ephesians in his epistle?

Ephesians 5:22-33,  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Here is the key to teaching the fear of the Lord to the son.

The husband is to love his wife and the wife is to reverence her husband.

This is the standard and any deviation or weakness in that standard is going to tend toward a lessening or compromise of the son's fear of the LORD.

The word love in this passage is the word for the highest love, godly sacrificing love.

Love that is given with no thought of return.

This is the same love as the love of Christ who loved the church and gave himself for it.

It is not moved by feelings or emotion.

It does not use itself up on those for whom it has some resemblance or similarity.

It is not the "I only love those who love me" kind of love.

It is love that seeks the welfare of the wife and works no ill.

That is the standard of love called for in the husband and father.

The Bible is very careful to spell out each and everyone's responsibility.

A letdown by one will weaken the process.

The Husband is to love his wife.

And the wife is to reverence her husband.

The word reverence means to fear her husband.

This is the type of fear as in the fear of the Lord.

It is good fear, it is fear that produces in the wife veneration or respect for her husband.

It produces a wholesome dread of displeasing him.

It is also the kind of fear that produces what the fear of the Lord produces.

This fear produces knowledge of her husband.

She studies him that she may know his word.

This fear is designed to bring them to be what they are declared to be, ONE FLESH.

They are declared to be one flesh at marriage but it takes a lifetime to became one.

From this reverence, from this fear, she knows her husband, she knows his instruction to the son, she is obedient to her husband and sees to it that it is carried out by the son.

The father instructs and the mother enforces that instruction.

Instruction in a household where the fear of the Lord is taught, is as though the instruction is law and law is not to be broken.

The godly father instructs, the godly mother, carries out those instructions as they are the law of the household.

The child will have a healthy fear of the father and of the mother which is the first fruits of the fear of the Lord.

Is it possible to fear that which the child cannot see if he is not taught to fear that which he can see?

And he observes this fear in his own household as he sees his own father fear the Lord and his own mother fear her husband and his father.

This is the practical teaching of the word of God.

There are no shortcuts. There are no easy ways around it.

God knows our heart and he knows our frame but he also shows us the way.

He does not tell us to fear the Lord without telling us how to teach the fear of the Lord.

So what does our passage tell us as to what hearing the instruction of thy father and forsaking not the law of thy mother will bring?

What is the blessing promised for this obedience?

Hearing instruction and forsaking not the law will be: an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

This is the right priority young man; this is the right priority young woman!

These are the ornaments that ought to be sought.

As these ornaments are rejected the desire for the ornaments of the body increase. Ornament substitution!

Man craves ornaments.

If they are God's ornaments of the heart the desire for the ornaments of the body decreases.

God desires the ornament of grace unto thy head.

God desires the ornament of obedience which will make the face to shine.

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:3,4, when he instructed wives, cautioned that they not seek the outward adorning.

Oh, how people desire to ornament their bodies but God looks for the ornament of grace which comes from hearing the instruction of the father and forsaking not the law of the mother.

God looks for the ornament of the spirit, God looks on the heart!