February 12 Sermon: Honor

So, as Caty and I were having a discussion a few weeks back to figure out where the Ten Commandments were going to fall each week as we were going through this series, we discovered that the Sunday that we had planned for Youth Sunday ended up being the Sunday that we were going to be doing Honor Your Father and Your Mother. Now, initially we laughed about that. We thought that was good. It was good. What a great opportunity for us to discuss this commandment as we are thinking about our young people and as we are thinking about their role in these commands and where we sit as adults in that role. Wonderful opportunity. But at the same time, one of the things that came to mind for me during this is that what we might have a problem with is that we automatically think and we assume that this command is about the kids, that this is primarily for them. And we can use this to say, Honor your father and your mother. 

I'm not going to lie, I repeat that command many times, perhaps in a vain way when my kids are being maybe a little not snarky in a bad way, but we're being sarcastic with each other. We direct this towards kids automatically. But while this commandment is first and foremost pointed to our covenant children to remind them to honor their parents, the commandment here isn't just for kids. This commandment is, in fact, for each and every one of us. Now, as we've seen, the Ten Commandments give us these specific moral imperatives that we are called to follow. But as we've been seeing, as we have gone through the commandments, we also see that these commandments are doing more than just giving us this list. They're doing more than just giving us these imperatives to do. They're also teaching us about the nature of God. They're also showing us these things that He is, in fact, doing in us, how He is shaping us through these commands. The Ten Commandments are more than just a checklist of things that we do or don't do. The Ten Commandments are a complete and comprehensive way in which we are to understand who God is and who we are. 

This is important for us to remember. As we saw when we started out with the Ten Commandments, I made a big point about the fact that in our modern day, we struggle to understand who we are. I made the case that the reason we struggle with that so much is because we don't know who God is. We are seeing here in the Ten Commandments this guide for us to show us how to live, yes, but also to shape how we view God, how we view ourselves, and how we see each other. Well, so far, we've been focusing in on the first four Commandments. You remember that these four commandments, I've been driving home the point that these make up what we call the first table of the law. We divide them into the two tablets. We have first table commands and we have second table commands. We do this because we can see in commands one through four how these commandments, 1 through 4, are pointed towards our duty to God, and Commandments 5 through 10 show our duty to man. We see this and it's important for us to separate these because we are getting the flow of what's happening. 

We're feeling who God is and then how we should respond to the nature of God, what we have learned about who He is. What we've been seeing is that this has been shaping how we think, how we act as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've also seen that the first four commandments have a deep connection to how we worship God. Have no other gods before me. He is the only one that we worship. You should not make any idol s. He tells us how we should worship. We see that we're not to take God's name in a useless or vain way, and so we make sure that we revere His name. We make sure that we speak correctly about God. We speak correctly about Him, particularly when we worship. Then last week, we saw, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, telling us that we need to rest, that we need to worship God when He has ordained for us to do so. And we have also seen an important thing that I want to point out one more time for us. We've seen in these first four commandments that God is different than the God of the pagan neighbors of the Israelites. 

He is different. He is other. In paganism, whether it's in 2023 or whether it's in the ancient world, in paganism, everything is one. There is no distinction between the creator and the creation. But we see in these commands that there is a distinction between the creator and the creation. God is other and therefore, he is holy. He is different. He is outside of our creation. And so we revere him. We honor him. We understand this about his nature. And so we come to understand God differently because of this. As I said, he's holy. He's not a part of everything like the pagan gods because he's outside of creation. He is the Almighty One who is worthy of worship. And so we offer to Him our reverence. We offer to Him our respect. We honor Him and we worship Him because He has called us to do so. And we do this, most of all, because of the good work, the things that He has done for us to save us for Himself, to set us apart as His people, as the people of God. We've seen these things in the first table. That's what we get to know about who God is. 

As we move on to the second table of the law, this shows us our duty to man. I want to be clear that suddenly because we're moving on towards our commands that are directed towards our fellow humans, we're not going to lose sight of the fact that these commands are also telling us something about the nature of who God is. We're still going to be seeing that in these commandments. These commandments that make up the second table of law still show us how they reflect the nature of God. We arrive at the fifth commandment, and we can see the text here in Acts 20, verses 12, Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord is giving you. Now, like we've seen with all of the commandments here, the instructions put before us are very, very clear. This is a really simple sentence. But I think that in our modern, individualistic, individually obsessed culture, we think very little about honor and respect of others. Our individualistic culture, we want that stuff for ourselves, right? We understand honor and respect very well because we want it, but we're not very good at giving it to someone other than ourselves. 

We know what it is. And so with that cultural difficulty in mind, I think it's important that we take a minute and we think about what honor means. It means to hold someone in reverence and respect. And these ideas are something that has fallen out of common expectation. But at the same time, like I said, we know what this means. We know what honor and respect and reverence mean. We know what it looks like when someone shows us reverence, when someone shows us respect. I think we can come to a good understanding of what's expected in this commandment if we call ourselves back to the first table. I'm going to go back to the first four commandments because they set the foundations here. Because built into the commands in the first table, what do we have? We see that we are to have reverence and respect towards God. This is a model here for us here. We honor God when we worship Him alone. We honor God when we worship Him as He commanded us to worship, when we don't use images, etc. We honor God when we don't speak incorrectly about Him or use His name in a vain way. 

And we honor God when we worship and we rest as He has commanded us to do. This good God has given us these first four commands that are directed towards Him. And now the next commandment serves as a transition, doesn't it? Because it calls us to honor those that He has sovereignly placed over us, these people that He has put over us. God has ordained that fathers and mothers are an authority in the family. That's the ideal family structure, isn't it? God provides this gift for us. It comes to us naturally in the natural order of procreation. We have mothers, we have fathers. That structure is a gift from God. We're called to honor our parents, the ones that God has sovereignly given to us. Now, before we dig into this idea of honor and respect and what's expected in the fifth commandment, there's something important that we have to say because we're called here to honor our father and our mother and all those in positions of authority, right? But there are times where those people that we're called to honor, let's be honest, aren't doing things that are easy to honor. Honor. There's parents who struggle and fail. 

I fail and I struggle as a parent. You do. People in positions of authority over us, whether it's employers, elders, politicians, they all fail. This doesn't mean that we don't do our best to try and right those situations. It's not honor to let somebody to continue to fail and to just let it slide because they're in a position over us. That's not what this is saying. We don't let abuse happen and we don't let disrespect towards us. We don't just take it because, Oh, we have to honor. We have to honor. We have to find that way to walk that difficult line. It's a tough one. I tried to come up with a good example, and it was so difficult because that's hard when God is calling us to honor someone, but they don't act in an honorable way. That is hard. It is difficult. But yet we're still called to do this. We're called to walk that hard line. And as I've mentioned, this call isn't just on kids in their situation with parents. I've alluded to it a little bit already. This command is about honoring all those who are in positions of authority. 

And it's particularly hard when it's somebody you and I don't agree with. It's hard to honor that government official that you didn't vote for and is doing something differently than you wanted them to do. I think this is really difficult in our digital age because we can, in a moment, show our dishonor and our disrespect with a social media post or by sharing a meme. This happens really easily, but yet we are called to honor and respect the people in the positions that God has ordained for people to be over us. One of the good things about the second table of the law, and we're going to see this, is that they're pretty cut and dry. As I've said, all the commandments are in fact very clear. But the second table is really cut and dry. We can say we are either doing these things or we're not. Real simple. But I want to remind us, and you're going to get sick of me doing this over the course of the second table, but I want to remind us what Jesus has to say about the Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember what Jesus had to say about the sixth and the seventh Commandment. 

The commands, do not murder, do not commit adultery. What did Jesus have to say? That when we have anger in our hearts towards our brother, we violate the sixth Commandment. When we lust, we violate the seventh Commandment to not commit adultery. It's about the position of our hearts just as much as it is about the actions of our bodies. We see that in the swimmer in the mountain, we know it, we're convicted by it. But I think we struggle to remember that that principle applies to the rest of the commandments. The position of our heart is what matters. It is really easy for me to publicly say yes, sir, and yes, ma'am to somebody who is in a position of authority over me and have nastiness in my heart. It's really easy for me to violate this commandment with my thoughts and with my heart and to not have my heart be in the right place. But the principle that Jesus gives us in the Sermur on the Mount holds true, regardless. We can honor these positions of authority very easily outwardly, as I've said, but if our hearts are in the wrong place, we are still not following this command. 

The goal here is to sincerely have a heart and a mind that desires to please God and to keep his law and to be holy. That's the end goal. We should be mindful not only of how we act towards those in positions of authority, but we are called also to be mindful to consider these things in how we think because that leads to how we behave ultimately. And again, because this command is very cut and dry, we can come to this commandment and very easily see the application. So we're going to spend a lot of time on application as we finish up here. And because it's cut and dry, because this is an easy one, it's easy to see how these applications all fall into the three uses of the law that we've looked at. I see a lot of unfamiliar faces, so I'm going to very quickly remind us of the three uses of the law. The first use of the law, the picture that we have is a curb. The law curves the behavior of society. It keeps us on the road. It helps us to see where we're to go. The second use of the law is a mirror. 

We look at ourselves in that mirror and we see that we're dirty. We see that we need forgiveness. We see that we have not kept the law. The second use of the law shows us our sin, but more importantly shows us our need for Christ. T hat's the second use of the law. The third use of the law is a map. It's a guide for holy living. It shows us how to live as people who have been redeemed by the Grace of our amazing God. So for our first use of the law, a curve for social order, we see that honoring our parents and all those in its position of authority causes there to be order in society. Because if we are living in a state of dishonor and disrespect, we can have a continual state of upheival, a continual state of discontent, and that is not good for the culture at large. Now, while we want to stand up to oppression, we want to stand up to mistreatment if it occurs in the culture at large. We still need to remember that we are called to honor those that God puts in positions of authority over us because that reminds us that God is the one who is ultimately in control. 

He is sovereignly in charge and we need to trust that God puts people in positions of authority for a reason. That's really hard when that reason might be judgment because we deserve it, because we have forsaken him. That's what happened in the Old Testament. God would raise up these ungodly people to judge his people. But that's still his plan. He is sovereign. He is doing his work. But we're called to trust this. There's another thing about the first use of the law, a curb for society. In this commandment, there's a natural respect for those who have wisdom that's been gained by time, right? By those who are older than us. But in our culture, we've lost that. In a consumerist society, we push forward youth. We push forward new things. Why? Because we want to sell something. Young people have disposable income. I can prove that this is true, that we have this distaste for the wisdom of elders. Now, some of you young people are going to have no idea what I'm talking about. Actually, even some of you millennials are going to have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm really going to date myself here. 

How many of you remember the TV ad from 1989, This is not your father's Oldsmobile. What does that show us? Thank you for raising your hand back there. That's good stuff. This is not your father's Oldsmobile. What's built into that marketing campaign? A distaste, a distrust, a trust of that which has wisdom over time, a distaste for anything that is classic, anything that has proven itself. This is not your father's Oldsmobile. But in honoring those in positions of authority of us, what do we do? We slow down and we say, You know what? Maybe this person who has this wisdom, who has gained this wisdom, can give something to us as a culture. That's really hard in Western culture because we are so busy with what is new, what is next, because we're trying to sell stuff. But yet we see in this command as a good for the culture at large, this idea of respecting and honoring those who have gained wisdom over time. Now, with the second use of the law, the mirror that shows us our sin, this is a commandment that we might just pass over. Again, because it's easy for us to consider that we have been keeping this externally. 

We've honored our parents. Maybe we've moved on to the next phase of life. We're the ones who are to be honored, right? We don't have to do that anymore. But yet in this commandment, as we think about how we struggle with the idea of honoring others, this commandment really shows that in our sin, we struggle so, so hard to honor people in positions of authority. Ultimately, we fail to honor God as we ought. When we sin, we are saying that we want to be in charge, we want to be autonomous, we want to be the ones who make the rules instead of honoring those that God has put over us. We see this. We know that this is a struggle for each and every one of us, and that shows us our sin. It is that showing us that problem that we all struggle with that drives us to repentance, that drives us to the third use of the law, this map for a holy life. Our seeing this area of sin in our lives causes us to realize how we need to amend our lives. And this begins not with the outward appearances, not with saying yes, sir, and yet, ma'am. 

Now, that's a bad thing, but it's about changing our hearts. What I really want to provide here as the map for holy living, the best place that we can go if you're struggling with honoring those in positions of authority, whether young people, whether it's your parents or whether it is your employer or someone else, government officials, the best place to begin to change our hearts, to change our attitudes, to change our minds is to pray for them. Kids, pray for your parents. It's hard, really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Carly is sitting right here and she's like, Yeah, you stink. I know. Sorry, I try not to single my kids out, but you're so close. But pray for your parents. Continue to pray for your parents as you get older. Pray for those in positions of authority and pray that your heart and your mind would be transformed, that you would honor those who are in authority over you. Pray for them because this is a struggle. This is something that Paul tells us to do. I want to point out this verse as we close up here. First of all, that I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 

This really echoes back to the fourth commandment, doesn't it? The scope with which what we see here, we are called to pray for those who are in positions of authority. Now, that doesn't mean that we let them run over us. I've said that already. But we need to have a heart of prayer. That is what is going to change us. We pray that God would change their hearts as well. I'm going to jump to the end here because I'm talking way longer than I planned. But the main application I want us to have right here where I want us to walk away, where I was really struck with this week. As we think about this command, we all want honor. We all want to be in that position. Like I've said multiple times. We've lost this in our culture, but we all know what it looks like because we want it. But we need to be a people who, if we want to be honored, whether that's as parents, as children, as employers, elders, whatever it is. We need to see this commandment as an opportunity for us to live a holy life, to live in obedience to God in such a way that we are honored by people because they see that in us. 

That they see that we are desiring to be honoring towards them, that we're desiring to keep God's command and following them. That is something that is to be honored. T he greatest thing that we can remember here is that this happens when we emulate the one that we are called the honor in those first four commandments. We're emulating the Lord Jesus Christ. We're emulating the character of God. And the greatest place to go with that is to the mercy and the grace that He has shown us in Christ. Because every one of us has failed to honor as we ought. Every one of us. We need mercy and we need grace. And the greatest way that we can earn the honor of those who are supposed to show us this respect is by loving them, showing them forgiveness, showing them mercy as God has first shown mercy to us. Because we deserved his rath for our sin. But yet what happened? God, in his love, poured out that wrath that we deserve on Christ. And so we desire to honor that sacrifice, to honor that love. And so may we do that for others, that God might be glorified, that we might not do it for our honor, but do it for the honor of the one who has rescued us from sin, death and hell. 

Amen. Let us pray. Almighty and ever lasting God, we are blessed to be your people. We pray, oh Lord, that our lives would honor you because you alone are worthy of honor above all things because you have done great things for your people. And so as we leave from here today, may we honor those in positions of authority over us, but may we remember that you are the one who is ultimately in authority over all things. And may that direct our lives to your glory. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, Amen.

This message was delivered on February 12, 2023 by Pastor Mark Groen at First Reformed Church in Edgerton, MN. First Reformed is a congregation in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.