day no.17,394: education and transmission

“Education is only truth in a state of transmission.” — G.K. Chesterton

Education is the way truth is passed on from one generation to the next. Or, at least it should be. It is always performed under the auspices of doing so, even when the truth being transmitted is candy-coated lies. Education always presupposes itself to be leading its pupils toward some greater end. It assumes on the front end something the student needs and doesn't have as well as the teacher having both it and the ability to relay it. 

Education, then, is always, an attempt to communicate something that is received as the truth, even when that something is a lie. It may be known to be a lie or it may be believed to be true, but it is taught a though it were Gospel truth and required to be believed with as much passion as an altar call. Please come to the front of the class and testify to what you have seen and heard and now believe to be true. That is the nature of religion and education and that is because education is always religious and religion is always educational/covenantal. It always involves generations, information, transformation, justification, and sanctification. 

Schools and churches both concern themselves with feeding the sheep. The schools like to think of them as little lambs and the churches like to think of them as flocks of sheep, but both view their people as theirs and look to give them what they believe is best for them.

day no. 17,344: Christianity can be proven false

"George Washington crossed the Delaware at Trenton, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford Theater, and Jesus rose from the dead outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago. The question is whether that third item is true in the same way that the first two are . . . as an objective historical fact, seen by reliable witnesses who wrote it down, and then believed by sensible people." ― Douglas Wilson, Not the Trope, and Not the Houseplant

The Christian faith is objectively true. It is not a philosophical or religious approach to life that can be adopted regardless of its historical reality. If Jesus Christ did not live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death, rise triumphantly from the grave three days later, and ascend to Heaven forty days after that, the Christian faith is of no value.

1 Corinthians 15:14-19

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Christianity is not merely another option in the marketplace of ideas. It is the only one that banks its entire existence on an objective, historical reality. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is false. Christianity is the only religion that can be proven wrong. It depends on something tangible. Sure, some turn Christianity into a philosophy which does not depend on a literal anything. They say that Christ rose spiritually and that He reigns spiritually and that everything that embodies Christianity is body-less, ethereal, spiritual, and philosophical. But that is not the Christianity of the Bible. It does not offer spiritual truths or life hacks, it presents facts that demand a response. If Christ really died, you are really obligated to respond to it in a particular way. If He did not really rise, it does not really matter what you do with it.

Christianity could be proven false if Jesus Christ's body could be found here on earth. All the good things that Christianity has produced in light of that lie could still be, and certainly would be, justified by those who see it as a philosophy or as a spiritual option on the buffet of world religions. The Christianity of the Bible, however, would be done in by it all being based on a lie. No other religion can be proven false because none of them depend on anything objective actual happening. They make historical claims, of course, but the philosophy does not depend on those claims being true. If Mohammed or Buddha turned out to be fictional characters, Islam and Buddhism could continue to exist without interruption. Moses could be metaphorical and Talmudic Judaism could go on. Mormonism does not depend on Joseph Smith having actually met an angel in the woods. They will insist that he did, but even if he didn't, Mormonism could go on. But if Jesus Christ did not physically rise from the dead, Biblical Christianity would be entirely done for... and we would all still be in our sins and about to face the Father without a peace treaty.

day no. 17,335: kingdom building and culture shaping

"I desire my children to be educated south of the Mason Dixon line and always to retain right of domicile in the Confederate States." — J. E. B. Stuart

When you know what you want, you know what you want for your children. When you love your land, you want your children to love it and to inherit it.

"Men who raise families that remain in fidelity to tradition will end up with descendants ruling the world.” — E.H. Looney

Covenantal continuity is the key to kingdom building and culture shaping.

“People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Those who despise their parents will raise children who despise them. The first commandment with a promise is, "Honor your father and mother," and anyone who fails to do so, or goes as far as to despise their fathers and mothers, not only misses out on the promise to inherit the earth, but they incur upon themselves the curses of those who rail against their God-provided patriarchs.

Proverbs 30:17

The eye that mocketh at his father, 

and despiseth to obey his mother, 

the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 

and the young eagles shall eat it.

Those who flip off their fathers and mock their mothers end up flipping off their futures. They are the kind of people who end up being left for dead and devoured by wild animals instead of honored by their loved ones in burial. No one risks their lives to retrieve their bodies as men did for Jonathan. No one risks their heads to get a cup of cold water as men did for David. Those who disobey their parents dishonor the Lord and end up dying to the regret of no one.

day no. 17,328: education and the end of everything as we know it

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.” ― Robert E. Lee

Education is the nourishment and instruction of the Lord and its aim is to conform us to the image of Christ. As such, it is completed only when we become like Him in death. As long as we are alive, it continues. We are never done learning. We are always being conformed to the image of Christ. That is the end for which we were made and saved.

Romans 8:29-32

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

We get the English word “education” from the Latin “educere.” (eh-DOO-kay-ray) The etymology of this word is the Latin prefix “e” meaning “of” or “from,” and the word “ducere” meaning “to lead” or “to draw out.” So putting it all together, education is leading or drawing someone out of something. An education, therefore, always presupposes a start and a finish or to frame it in more theological terms, an origin and an eschatology. An education assumes certain things about where we came from as well as about where we should be going. So, where does a Christian education begin? With the end in mind.

Which is to say that education begins and ends with Christ. Anything less is not Christian. It is antichrist. We are being led somewhere by someone and the where and one are the same: Christ.

Q: What is the chief end of man?

A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

― Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1

We are being led to the right hand of the Father. That is where Christ is and that is where endless joy abounds.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: 

in Thy presence is fulness of joy; 

at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

This is the end. In Christ, our education is completed. We do not graduate beyond grace. We continue on to greater degrees as we become more like.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit.

Onward and upward, to Narnia and the North. Further up and further in forever and ever, world without end, and amen.

day no. 17,306: true israel is all the peoples and all the places where Christ is honored as Lord and Savior

Ephesians 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A true education is founded on the fact that true Israel is the Christian church. 

Galatians 6:14-16

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The promises of God apply to gentile children in Ephesus and the land of Canaan is now the entire earth. The Israel of God is the Christian church and includes all the nations, their peoples and their places.

Galatians 3:27-28

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Ephesian fathers are to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord because the promises of God now apply directly to them and all their neighbors.

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'" — Abraham Kuyper

Because of Christ, true Israel is no longer genetically or geographically limited.

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; 

the world, and they that dwell therein

day no. 17,268: the united apostates of america

“[Modern man] says, 'Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.' This, clearly expressed, means, 'We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.'" ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Modernity combines the modesty of open-mindedness with the hubris of heathenism. It wants everyone to disagree on the ultimate things and everyone to agree to avoid disagreeable subjects. In short, it wants a neutral space and it claims that secularism is the only thing that can provide that sanctuary. But neutrality is impossible and secularism cannot build anything. Antithesis is woven into the warp and woof of the world by God Himself (Gen. 3:15) and the United Apostates of America is living off of its inheritance from Christendom after it asked for it in advance and walked out of the house of God. But that capital will not last forever. It is being spent, not invested. It is being squandered away, not stored up. And so we are becoming increasingly morally and spiritually bankrupt and soon enough the depression is going to hit.

The prodigal sons of the republic are one step away from envying pig slop and some have already developed a taste for waste.

Luke 15:11-14

And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

America is like the prodigal son. She was born into a good home built upon Christian principles. And when she grew too big for her britches, she was given her portion of the fortune on demand. But the fortune was the Father's doing. She left the protection of her Father's house and began squandering her inheritance making friends with the world. But the riches, with no source now to replenish them, began to dwindle and the bank account evaporated.

This is our current cultural moment. All of our freedoms were inherited from the house in which America grew up, yet she has despised its foundation and abandoned them, wasting its riches on entertaining worldly friends. So America is poor and a famine of righteousness has begun to descend upon the land. America has not yet reached the point of want, however. She knows something is wrong and she can feel that she is broke, but hasn't hit rock bottom yet. She still refuses to turn her eyes back to her home. She still insists somehow that her upbringing is the reason she is going broke. So, rather than seeking to humbly return, she is conspiring with the world to make an assault on her former home to find more riches.

May America, like the prodigal son, find herself feeding the swine and wishing for something more, something that it used to possess, something that, Lord willing, could again be hers if she merely repented and returned in a spirit of submission.

And may the other America, the older sibling, back on the ranch, dutifully doing what has been required and enjoying the blessing of the Father's house, not resent the younger if and when she returns in humility -- for the riches she squandered, while lost opportunities, do not diminish the Father's ability to produce more.

day no. 17,267: an idiot's paradise

Then the idiot who praises,

with enthusiastic tone

All centuries but this, 

and every country but his own;

— Gilbert and Sullivan's "I've Got a Little List"

The idiot would be happy to live in any place but here at any other time. He lauds cultures of peoples he does not know and the times and places of lands he has never visited. But that is for fools. God has made each man for his own time.

Acts 17:26

God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.

God has called us to honor our fathers and mothers and the lands from which they came and He has called us to bless our sons and daughters by making it easy for them to honor us.

“People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay

The idiot ignores his present duties not only when he ignores his ancestors, but also when he obsesses over them. In the first instance, hes refuses to honor his fathers and mothers and in the second instance, he refuses to be where God has determined him to be. In his arrogance, he thinks there is another time or place that would have been better for him. He will not bloom where He has been planted.

"Men cannot give a meaning to history that they themselves lack, nor can they honor a past which indicts them for their present failures." — R.J. Rushdoony, The Biblical Philosophy of History

The idiot forsakes the present while praising the past. It is not that the past is not praiseworthy, but that he demonstrates his ignorance of their virtue by refusing to do what they did. They did not live in the past, they lived in their present and they did noble things worthy of being remembered and lauded. They did not sit around despising their circumstances. They got to work and did something worth remembering. The idiot remembers only the good that they did, but he forgets that they blessed him, their descendant, by honoring their own ancestors in working hard in their own time.

The present is always an idiot's paradise, not because there is anything particularly wrong about the present, but because the idiot thinks he can enjoy today by forsaking the past and ignoring the future.

day no. 17,224: modern cosmology

"The Christian faith flat contradicts the truncated cosmology of moderns. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." ― Douglas Wilson, A Star From Jacob

The Heavens declare the glory of God not the majesty of man. A telescope does not testify to the ingenuity of man as much as it does to the genius of God. There are things to see because He made and because He made eyes. The medieval cosmology is far more consistent with an appreciation for the handiwork of God than the modern void that we call "space." We imagine a cold, dark nothingness that is as expansive as it is empty. But that is the universe the Lord created. He did not whisper, "Let there be light!" He spoke into the formless, empty, void and brought forth light, life, form, and function. The earth is the Lord's the fullness thereof, but so is the universe and the fullness there as well. There is no emptiness anywhere. All matter is infused with meaning. All the molecules matter and none of them has been orphaned or quarantined to cold, forgotten obscurity. The spheres do not have value because we found them, they had value before we saw them, and they will have value when we can see them no more.

“'In our world,' said Eustace, 'a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.' 'Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.'” ― C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Heavens are full of life, not death punctuated by a fire ball here an there. The night sky is full of twinkling reminders that the light of the world sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty an that in Him all things hold together and shine at their assigned times and seasons.

day no. 17,187: when the joke isn't half bad

“To say that the moderns are half-educated may seem to be too complimentary by half.” — G. K. Chesterton

And to punctuate the point, most moderns won't get that joke. All they heard was, "oh man, I have to do fractions!"

“Now the public school system may not work satisfactorily, but it works; the public schools may not achieve what we want, but they achieve what they want.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World

Feducation is not meant to produce free people, it is meant to churn out wage slaves.

"Public education has not produced an educated public." — G.K. Chesterton

Nor has intended to. To repeat Chesterton's previous point, public education has not failed, it has succeeded. It has done the thing it set out to do. It both tricked most people into thinking it was doing something else and did the thing it was trying to do

“Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” — G.K. Chesterton

A feducation will never give a man the tools he needs to question his government. The state will never supply its citizenry with the ability to live without it. The state is not teaching you who our forefathers were, let alone what they were taught. If you forget that men like that existed in addition to ignoring what they knew, the state can reign supreme and run on unopposed.

day no. 17,129: rendering to everyone his due (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 141: Rendering to Everyone His Due

August 24, 2025

Rendering to Everyone His Due

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of Q141 of the WLC which asks, “What are the duties required in the Eighth Commandment?” The eighth commandment, as you recall, is “Thou shall not steal” and the duty associated with it that we will be focusing on this morning is “rendering to everyone his due.”

The text provided by the Westminster divines regarding this duty is Romans 13:7 which says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

PAYING OUR DUES

We owe everyone something, but we do not owe everyone the same things. We owe certain things to certain people and we owe certain amounts of certain things to some that we do not owe to others. King Alfred the Great summarized it well this way, “Give not little to whom you should give much, nor much to whom little, nor nothing to whom something, nor something to whom nothing.” 

If we do not render a man what or how much he is due, we are stealing from him. Theft is not just taking what isn’t ours, it is withholding what ought to be given. In fact, our word “ought” comes to us from an Old English word “agan” (ah-gahn) which means “to owe,” the past tense of which is “ahte” (A-H-T-E). Thus, whenever you ought to do something, it is because you “owe it.” Moral obligation is a duty.

And we are, by God’s design, an indebted people. We are born with bills with pay. We owe our parents for bringing us into the world and we owe our God for life, breath, and everything else. And all of that before we even take our first steps.

So, if we are to “render to everyone his due,” we must consider the various duties and debts that God has placed in our accounts. Any one of these could warrant its own exhortation, but in the interest of time and in an effort to render unto you what you are owed, that is, an exhortation and NOT a second sermon, I will only briefly review but a few of our many dues and duties.

VARIOUS DUTIES AND DUES

Fathers, you owe your children provision. (2 Cor 12:14) If you do not provide for them, you are stealing from them and you are worse than an unbeliever. (1 Tim 5:8) You also owe them discipline, instruction, and a Christian education. (Eph 6:4) If you do not take the time to train them in the way they should go, you are a thief. If you do not give your children encouragement, you are robbing them. (Col 3:21) You owe them good language. Your sons need to know you’re proud of him. Your daughters need to know you think they are beautiful. They only have one dad. Do not deprive them of a father.

Mothers, you owe your children a well managed home. (1 Tim 5:14) If you are too busy with outside engagements to keep up with your domestic duties, you are robbing your people. (Titus 2:5) If you are short with your people because you are worn out from being kind to strangers, you are a domestic terrorist. (Pr 14:1) You cannot be everything to everyone, but you are everything to your littlest ones. You owe them the best of your good works. (Pr. 31:27-28) They only have one mom. Do not be the one who steals her from them.

Parents, you owe your children marital unity. (Eph 6:1) When a child hears, “Honor your father and mother,” he should not have to ask, “Which one?” You owe your children a united front. They deserve a stable home where mom and dad are on the same team. So, do what it takes to get on the same page and then stay on it. Do not let your selfishness steal your children’s sense of security. 

Children, you owe honor to your parents, (Eph 6:1) If you do not honor your parents, you are stealing from them. God picked them out for you. (Acts 17:26) When you honor your earthly father and mother, you honor your Father in Heaven. (Eph 3:14) If you withhold honor from them, you are stealing from them and you are robbing God. (Dt 27:16)

Husbands, you owe your wife love and attention. (Eph 5:33) If you do not take the time to love your wife, you are stealing from her. You owe her your affection. There is a kind of attention she can only lawfully get from you. Do not rob her of it. If you are giving that kind of affection or attention to other women, you are robbing your wife. You owe her love that takes the initiative, pursues, and lavishes. You owe her that kind of care and concern. (Eph 5:25) Just as you seek to meet your own needs, you must seek to meet hers (Eph 5:28) You must understand your wife. You owe her your ears. Hear her out or God will stop listening to you. (1 Peter 3:7)

Wives, you owe your husband respect. (Eph 5:33) If you do not honor him as your head, you are stealing from him. You owe him your loyalty. (Eph 5:22) There is a kind of help he can only get from you. Do not rob him of it. If you are too busy helping others to have time to ask him what he needs, you are robbing him. You owe him your allegiance. (1 Peter 3:1, 5) You owe him submission and obedience (Eph 5:24, Col 3:18) You owe him your affection. Do not withhold from him the comfort only you can provide. (Pr 5:19) You owe him a good reputation. (Pr 31:23) 

Promote him before others and God will promote you. (Pr 31:31)

Spouses, you owe each other your bodies. (1 Cor 7:3, Heb 13:4) Husbands, you owe your wife access to your muscles. If she is a godly woman, you are the only man whose strength she can look to. Wives, you owe your husband access to your body. If he is a godly man, you are the only woman for whom he has eyes. If he doesn’t get to see or hold you, he won’t get to see or hold anybody. Do not rob each other. Be generous. You owe each other regular intimacy. (1 Cor 7:5)

Young men, you owe everyone self-control. (1 Tim 5:1, Titus 2:6, 1 Peter 5:5) If you are spending your strength on self-interest, you are stealing from the rest of us. You are the strongest people in the world. Put it to use for the glory of God and the good of your neighbors. Be strong, but be under control. Be as strong on the inside as you are on the outside. You owe us that. You must not spend your strength on strange women or foolish pursuits. (Pr 7:26, Pr 31:3, 2 Tim 2:22) You owe older men humility, older women charity, younger women security, and younger men fraternity. (1 Tim 5:1)

Young ladies, you owe everyone modesty (1 Tim 2:9-10, Titus 2:5) If you are flaunting your beauty or using it for self-interest, you are robbing the rest of us. You are the most beautiful people in the world. Put it to use for the glory of God and the good of your neighbors. Be beautiful, but adorn it with good works. Be as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside. (1 Peter 3:3-4) You owe us that. Stay pure and do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. (Song of Solomon 2:7, 3:5, 8:4) Be as terrible as an army with banners, hard to catch, a wall, and not a door. Do not rob your parents of peace. (Song of Solomon 6:10, 8:10)

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of the duties of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, in-laws, elders, deacons, members, employers, employees, citizens, soldiers, governors, judges, juries, teachers, students, rich, poor, strong, weak, sick, healthy, loud, quiet, fast, slow, etc…

The point is this: regardless of who you are, you owe someone something and God calls you to pay your debts and leave no outstanding balances. Rom 13:8-9, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So, pay what you owe. You likely owe someone something. You have been stealing and now you feel the weight of it. Do not let it end with a vague sense of guilt. Make a plan to pay what you owe.  Do not withhold anything to whom you owe it. (Pr 3:27) Begin by confessing to God this morning and then make haste to make it right with the one you have been robbing. (Matt 5:25)

Perhaps you were reminded of something this morning that someone owes you. You’ve been neglected, underpaid, cheated, or undervalued. If that is the case, they may owe you, but you owe them something – forgiveness, and perhaps a direct conversation (Matt 18:15, 22) If someone has withheld what they owe from you, you will not balance the accounts by withholding forgiveness from them. So, if that is you this morning, confess your bitterness and be forgiven by God of your debts and then go out and extend that forgiveness to your debtors.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Since we so often withhold what we owe or pay less than we should, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these duties or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Gracious Father, if You were to mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared. Called by You to the throne of grace, and confident in our great High Priest, we bow before You and confess that we have sinned against You and been unfaithful to Your holy covenant. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick, so that we often do what we hate, and neglect what we love. Out of our mouths we both praise You and curse our fellow men. You promised mercy to our fathers through the seed of the woman. Turn our hearts again, Father, to consider Jesus, who crushed the serpent’s head, and saved His people from their sins. Forgive, cleanse, and restore us for His sake. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from Php 3, which says, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

The only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. We bring our baggage and Christ gives us His blessing. We bring Him our unpaid dues and fines and He says, “It is finished!” Those were the last words He said on the Cross before He died. In Greek it is just one word, tetelestai and it means, “paid in full.” In other words, Christian, all of your debts have been satisfied in Christ and in Him, God is satisfied with you. In Jesus Christ, your sins are forever, fully, and completely forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,114: the postmodern punchline

“I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially to the extent to which it has been applied, will be one of the greatest jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity it has.” — Malcolm Muggeridge

There are two ways something can be become above reproach. Either it is so strong that no one dares to confront it or it is so weak that no one is allowed to question it. Either it is so exalted that no one can reach it or it is so vulnerable that no one is permitted to touch it. The theory of evolution is of the second variety. It is weak and vulnerable. Thus it is considered beyond reproach to keep it from being exposed. It is the great and powerful Oz putting on a show. Darwin is the man behind the curtain. Honest questions cannot be asked of it. Sincere criticisms cannot be levied against it. Serious inquiries cannot be made into it. It has hardened into a creed. It is cold and calloused.

"Materialism is really our established Church; for the Government will really help it to persecute its heretics." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Evolution is the confession of the modern world. If you do not recite it, you are excommunicated from academia. If you deny it, you are anathema. You are barred from the intellectual table and forced to wear the scarlet letter, which in this case ironically means not being allowed or permitted to have their letters of recommendation behind your name on your business cards. You cannot be accredited without committing to the creed of blind chance over time being our faithful guide.

"The special mark of the modern world is not that it is sceptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it." — G.K. Chesterton

People are not too quick to throw shade as they are too quick to adopt liturgies. The modern world is chock full of catechisms, creeds, blasphemy laws, sacraments, tithes, and sermons. They persist in ignorance to this even while wearing the priestly garments.

“What is Darwinism? It is atheism.” — Charles Hodge

Evolution is a religion. It is the god of chance going to war with the God of order. It is, as we have noted many times before, Christ or chaos.

"Reform implies form. It implies that we are trying to shape the world in a particular image; to make it something that we see already in our minds. Evolution is a metaphor from mere automatic unrolling. Progress is a metaphor from merely walking along a road -- very likely the wrong road. But reform is a metaphor for reasonable and determined men: it means that we see a certain thing out of shape and we mean to put it into shape. And we know what shape." — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Uninterrupted progress is the punchline of apostasy. It claims that everything always accidentally goes the right direction unaided and unguided by anything other than its impeccable timing. The joke is on it though as its Maker and Sustainer looks down and laughs (Ps 2:4)

day no. 17,071: diligent labors in our callings (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 138: Diligent Labor in Our Callings

June 22, 2025

Diligent Labor in Our Callings

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of the ten commandments by returning to Q:138 of the WLC which asks, “What are the duties required in the Seventh Commandment?” Last week, Dr. Bray discussed the duty of “cohabitation.” This week, we will look at the next duty listed, which is “diligent labor in our callings.” Putting those two duties together, we see that married couples must live and work together in harmony. Harmony requires distinct roles and a common goal. If you both sing the same note, you won’t have harmony. If you sing different notes, but you’re singing separate songs, you won’t have harmony either. So, in order to have marital harmony, each spouse must work hard in their callings for a common goal.

THE TEXT

Proverbs 31:11, 27-28

The heart of her husband trusts in her, 

and he will have no lack of gain.

She looks well to the ways of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her.

The excellent wife King Lemuel’s mother famously describes in Proverbs 31 looks well to the way of her own household. Her husband trusts her and her home prospers. She is not overly interested in the homes of others. She may, from time to time, ask others for advice, of course, but that is because she is interested in taking care of her own people, not because she’s trying to get the scoop on someone else’s. She knows that the gold medals of marriage and motherhood are not other people’s likes online, but the praises of her own people back at home.

So, the excellent wife is busy with her own beeswax. This means cooking in her own kitchen instead of stirring up trouble in someone else’s. She also avoids the trap of staying up late on her phone envying the productivity of others. Instead, she gets up early to get things done in her own house… and her children grow up noticing: they watch her fold their laundry, make their meals, and clean up their messes. They are the ones being blessed, and yet according to the text, she is the one they called blessed. Why is that? She is blessed because she is doing what she was made to do; and everyone can see it. She is working hard where she was made to work. Her kids see that and think, “She is happy here. I want that.” Her husband sees it as well. He praises her for all her hard work and makes sure that the kids can hear him. How does all this combat adultery? Well, as Dr. Bill said last week, “a contented spouse is not looking for another spouse.” And now perhaps we begin to see the wisdom of the Westminster divines in commending this duty.

Titus 2:5 tells older women “to train the younger women to work at home so that the Word of God may not be reviled.” It is easy to assume that women in the workplace is a modern problem, but there it is, being addressed in the 1st century by the Apostle Paul. The stakes are the same today as well. The Word of God is reviled when we are wise in our modern eyes. Diligent labor is not enough. It must be “diligent labor in your calling.” If you only work hard outside of your calling, you may make adultery more likely, not less. Boss babes , no doubt, get up early and work hard all day, but they spend their energy helping other people’s husbands reach their goals instead of helping their own obtain his. Many ambitious women begin by wanting a career, a marriage, and a couple of kids, but end up with a mid-level management position, a divorce, and a couple of cats. They worked hard for the wrong people in the wrong place. And that was a recipe for adultery.

Adultery is a luxury. People engaged in productive work for the right people do not have time for it. Sexual temptation is the friend of slackers. This is particularly true for young men. There are few things more dangerous than a young man with too much time on his hands. A young man with nothing better to do often finds something worse to do. The glory of young men may be their strength, but when they get restless or bored, that strength often leads them astray. 

Before King Lemuel’s mother described the godly wife, she gave him some advice: “Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.” (v3) Young man, you were made to chase God, not girls. Do not waste your God-given strength on strange women. Chase God and a good woman will want to come along for the ride. Chase girls and only the bad ones will let you catch them.

Lamentations 3:27 says it this way, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” So, young, single men. Get to work and wear yourself out. Give your strength to productivity and study. Do hard things and know that the reward for hard work is harder, better work. Convincing the father of a good woman to give you his daughter will be hard work and you won’t be able to do that if it’s the first hard thing you’ve ever tried to do. If you cannot carry your own load, you should not be offering to carry the loads of others. But, if you have a Bible that you read and a job that you go to, you are well on your way to earning the respect of respectable men. Not to mention, you will attract the attention of the kind of woman your parents want for a daughter-in-law. In addition, working hard will help you sleep well at night instead of being awake and bored with nothing but bad things to think about or do. A busy man has no time for fooling around, so, if you are tempted to whine and groan about how hard things are, that just means you need more weight in your wagon, not less. A heavier load will help you ride more smoothly and keep you from veering off the path of sexual purity.

Married men, the work, as you well know, does not stop once you get the girl. Marriage is not a mission accomplished, it is merely part of the ongoing mission. Your wife is not your mission. She is your helper. So help her help you by staying on mission. She was made to help you do what you were called to do. She is not your calling. In her weaker moments, she might wish that she was your mission, but in the end, she does not want a man who can be worked over by a woman, even if she is the one doing it. She will find herself thinking, “If he cannot protect himself from me, how could he protect me from something else?” So, husbands, serve your wives by leading them and protect your marriage by staying on mission.

God made man to tend to the garden and He made woman to tend to the gardener. The more each of them diligently works in their respective callings, the more sure they are to keep their covenant vows. So, work hard where God has placed you. Drink from your own fountain and plow in your own field and you will avoid the pitfall of adultery and protect your spouse from falling into it as well.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we often stumble in our own callings and cause others to stumble in theirs, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Cleanse me, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Saints, arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from 1 Corinthians 6:11. I’ve included part of verse 9 in order to put it in context. “The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God… And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Christian, whatever dirt the devil may have on you, it has been washed clean by the blood of Christ. So, lay aside every weight and every sin which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is set before you, and look to Jesus, because in Him your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now, let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,058: Christian education is the end of the world (sermon outline)

The following was originally preached on Trinity Sunday, June 15 2025 as part of a series of sermons titled "Building a Christian Culture." It was Father's Day to boot.

Christ Church Leavenworth

Ephesians 6:1-4

June 15, 2025

…

OT READING: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

NT READING: Matthew 28:18-20

"Christian Education is the End of the World"

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Ephesians 6:1-4, these are the words of God:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Teach us how to obey Your commands that we might teach others to do the same. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Ideas have consequences. Christian ideas will have Christian consequences and secular ideas will have secular consequences. This is why education is so important and why it is often so hotly contested. Education is not neutral. The ideas that sown will have to be reaped and if those ideas are bad seeds they will produce bad fruit.

R.L. Dabney, that great southern gentleman, once put it this way, "The training which does not base duty on Christianity is, for us, practically immoral." In other words, no matter how good the education is, it is bad if it does not begin and end with the Lord, Jesus Christ. If a curriculum assumes that Jesus can be set aside for an hour or two each day, the biggest lesson, regardless of the subject being taught, is that Christ can be set aside sometimes. And that is unregenerate nonsense. Your virtue needs a vacation like your heart needs a break from beating. You cannot take a moral holiday and remain moral. And teaching that it can is immoral.

So, education has consequences. And this is why it has been such a battleground. Education is warfare. But didn’t Dr. Bray just say last week that worship was warfare? Does everything have to be a fight with you guys? Yes. Yes, it does. Welcome to CCL. Education really is a battle. This is not hyperbole. Education is boot camp for the brain. It trains the mind to defend certain ideas and to attack others. It introduces you to and trains you with certain weapons and tactics. It inspires loyalty to a particular flag and assigns you a particular uniform. It runs drills and prepares you for live fire. State schools, therefore, are a sort of secular boot camp. The good news, however, is that Christian education always has the home field advantage. This is our Father’s world, not satans’. “No weapon that is fashioned against us shall succeed and we shall refute every tongue that rises up against us. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.” That’s Isaiah 54:17. “God has given us divine power to destroy every secular stronghold, to dismantle every antiChristian argument, and to strike down every high-minded opinion that might raise itself up against the knowledge of God.” That’s 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. Christian education will take every thought captive. But more on that later.

All things either hold together in Christ or they don’t. You cannot split the difference. Jesus is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. If He only rules over some standards, He is not the ruler or rulers. If He is not the authority on certain subjects, He is not the Headmaster. If He is not destroying all of His enemies, He is being defeated by some of them. It is Christ or chaos? Few things bring this reality into sharper focus than that of education.

That brings us to today’s text. Turn with me to Ephesians 6:1-4

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Children, the Bible is talking to you this morning. Listen: you must obey your parents. You must not listen to every adult in the world, but you must listen to the adults you call “Mom” and “Dad.” Do this “in the Lord.” When your parents say, “because I said so,” you should do it because God says so. Honoring your father and mother is one of God’s favorite things for you to do. Top Ten, easy. This is the first commandment with a promise. So, kids, obey God by honoring your parents and you will have a good, long life, and you will live in the land of your fathers. Worship your father’s God and you will inherit your father’s world. Now, let me speak to your parents.

Fathers and mothers, the Bible is speaking to you this morning. Christendom is more than just your sons and daughters turning back to you, it is also you turning back to them. The weight of this falls first and foremost on you, dads.. So fathers, pay attention. You are the federal head of your family unit. As such, God has singled you out. You have a particular responsibility for and duty to your children. Your children are to follow you; you are to lead. Your children are to listen; you are to teach. Your children are to respect you; you are to be respectable. 

So, children, you must respect your dad. You owe him that. And fathers, you must be respectable. You owe your children that. When a father fails in this, it often provokes his children to anger. Dads, do not make it harder for your children to honor you than it already is. As hard as it is to honor others, it is even harder to honor them if they are hypocrites. 

Scripture gives the command first negatively and then restates it positively. Do NOT provoke your children to anger. DO provide for them. Do NOT give them frustration. DO give them a Christian education. You cannot expect them to behave like Christians if you’re not giving them Christian instruction. And that begins with you obeying. Do you want your kids to honor you? Show them how. Honor God. Do you want them to obey you? Show them how. Obey God.

Fathers, another way you can provoke your children to anger is by allowing your house to be divided. God has commanded your child to honor his father and mother. Do not force them to ask, “Which one?” When mom and dad give different orders, it makes it impossible for the child to obey both. 

So, fathers, you are going to have to lead your wives; and mothers, you are going to have to get on the same page as your husband. If you can’t or you won’t, your children will be angry and it will be your fault. You must teach your children that you and your spouse are on the same team. Children, this means if mom says, “No” the answer is no. Do not go ask dad. If dad says “No” the answer is no, Do not go looking for mom. If you play your parents against each other, it is a sin. Let no man separate what God has joined together. Especially you.

Fathers, the words “bring them up” in verse 4 of our passage is a translation of a Greek word that can also be translated as “nourish.” One of those places is back in 5:29 where it says, “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” So, bring up, or nourish your children and take good care of them. What constitutes “good care” in this case is not left up to you to decide for yourself. Paul goes on to define it as “the discipline and instruction of the Lord”. House rules may determine what methods work best for your home, but your mission must be the same as every other Christian father. The method may change from household to household or even from kid to kid within the same household, but the mission must not: our children must be given the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

“Discipline” comes from the Greek word paideia (pie-day-uh). This is a word that is pregnant with meaning. And not just early pregnant, but BIG pregnant. Paideia is the kind of word you can write a book about. It is not just learning multiplication tables or music or manners, it’s all of it. It’s learning your culture. That includes things like knowing which side of the plate the fork goes on, which side of the equation you solve for x, which side of the parenthesis the period goes on, and which side of the road you drive on, but it’s more than that: it is what you believe and why you believe it.

The word “instruction” comes from the Greek word nouthesia (new-thes-ee-uh). It can also be translated as “admonition.” It means “to call attention to” and has the weight of a mild rebuke. It is the hard work of giving the lesson before the test. It is easier to let experience do the teaching, but experience is a harsh instructor.

It gives the test first and then the lesson, if you’re lucky. Instruction is the hard work of preparing for life’s tests in order to pass them on the first try. A good dad doesn’t withhold tests from his kids, he helps them study and hopes they pass.

So, all things taken together, “the discipline and instruction of the Lord” requires a Christian dad to give his children a Christian world. That will include a life full of Christian history and culture and, of course, all that Christ commanded. Lest you be discouraged by the weight of such a task, consider that the men who first read this  letter had nothing to work with. They were commanded to give their children a Christian culture that did not exist. All they had was the book of Ephesians and their orders. They were like Adam. He had a garden to study, a word from God to go out, and a whole world to tame. The early church rose to the challenge and got to work. As a result, you now have nearly 2,000 years of Christian creativity at your disposal in addition to that same letter from Paul that they preserved for us. That is a lot of homework.

SO, HOW SHOULD WE THEN STUDY?

With so much to know, shouldn’t we spend every free minute studying? No. No one is going to Heaven because he earned a degree in righteousness. You do not have to be “smart” to be a Christian per se. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Even if that sacrifice is a giant head crammed full of knowledge. That said, there really are good and glorious things you should know and many others that you could benefit from knowing. The scope of this sermon series is building a Christian culture and we will not be able to do that if we are stupid. I use the word “stupid” here not just to get the kids attention, but to make a point. Stupidity is not ignorance. It is disobedience. A stupid person is not the one who did not know, but the one who knew better. Forrest Gump’s mom had it wrong. “Stupid is as stupid doesn’t.” Consider Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.” It is better to be corrected and feel stupid than it is to feel correct and be stupid. The more intelligent you are, the more accountable you are. So, if you don’t want to be a dummy, you don’t necessarily need to read another book as much as you need to do the things you’ve already learned about. Jesus said, “Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:17)

That said, we know quite a bit. We stand on the shoulders of 6,000 years of dominion and discovery. There is so much you could know. Too much, in fact, for any one of us. We are going to have to miss out on some things. We are finite in a world of infinite interest. 

Acknowledging this is not anti-intellectual, it is creational. We are creatures. We are not omniscient. So, we love knowledge, but we do not worship it. Knowledge is a fellow creature. We worship God. That is why we have no interest in competing with the world according to their standards of intelligence. Their degrees do not mean what they say they do. No one is a “master of science” whatever the paper on their wall says. Again, I repeat, this is not a call to put the “dumb” in Christendom. Far from it. God has called us to be wise enough to outmaneuver serpents… all without surrendering our innocence.

If we are going to build Christendom, we are going to have to be teachable and we are going to have to teach. Education is generational. It is something you learn and something you pass along. You cannot build a culture in a single generation. One generation’s trends do not a culture make. Thanks be to God! I mean, can you imagine a world where the 80’s weren’t merely a decade of bad hair days, but a way of life? One generation can produce a trend, but it cannot produce a culture unless it can convince its kids to keep the bandwagon running. A trend is like a trinket that can be bought at the mall; a culture is like an heirloom that must be inherited and then passed down. Rome was not built in a day, but neither was Moscow, Idaho.

Cultures are built by honoring its ancestors and teaching its descendants to do the same. You cannot teach your kids to honor you by throwing their grandparents under the bus. Their grandparents may have made mistakes, but you will not fix those by adding your own to them. So, honor your fathers. If you cannot or will not do this, you will not have a culture. You may think that you are passing down wisdom and discernment, but what you are actually passing down disobedience. You are teaching them how to turn on you someday. T.B. Macaulay said it this way, “People who take no pride in the noble achievements of their remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by their remote descendants.” When this happens, each generation is left on its own to indulge in its own blind spots and to complain about the blind spots of the others. In short, you’ll only have pop culture, which, strictly speaking, is not a culture at all. Pop culture is to culture what bubble gum is to food. It is meant to be discarded when you are done with it. It is not the kind of thing you leave in your last will and testament. None of your great grandchildren will want your used bubble gum… or your old Spice Girls cds.

Pop culture isn’t meant to nourish, it is meant to entertain and amuse. It is meant to distract you. Amusement, after all, is literally “the state of not thinking.” Muse means “to think,” ment means “the state of,” and the a at the beginning is a negation. A-muse-ment then is the state of not thinking. That is why pop culture is often equated with bubble gum, as in “bubble gum pop.” It is something you can do without thinking much about it and toss aside when you’re done without regret. Gum doesn’t build up the person who puts it in his mouth, it merely keeps his teeth busy for a while. Real, solid, Christian culture is not like that, it is more like a thick, juicy slow-cooked steak seasoned and grilled to perfection by your father. It is rich and fat and full of protein. It sticks to your bones, builds up your muscle, and nourishes your body. You cannot get that kind of thing in a drive thru. There is no microwavable version of that. “You cannot just order Rivendell from IKEA.” (Douglas Wilson) No, you can only get that kind of thing by going back home. So, like the prodigal in the pig sty, we too need to go back home to where the fattened calves are kept. And that means a return to Christian education. 

SO, WHAT MAKES A CHRISTIAN EDUCATION “CHRISTIAN”?

Is it simply “school” plus Jesus? If the state schools put prayer back into the classroom, would that make it Christian education? What if they replaced the Black Lives Matter posters with the Ten Commandments? Or what if they went so far as to put the Bible back into the curriculum? Would that make it a Christian Education? While all of these would be welcomed signs of societal pressure coming from the right direction, it would not be a reason to leave that lump in charge of our littlest leavens. Voddie Baucham put it this way, “The government school system is a foe to be defeated, not a friend to be reformed.” In other words, Christian education is not about getting the government schools to do what we should be doing. God did not tell the state to educate our kids, He told the dads to do it. Education belongs to the family, not to the feds.

A Christian Education is nurturing your children in the culture and the commands of Christ. This includes knowing shapes, colors, letters, and numbers; how to read, how to count, how to tell time, and more, but those are tools for understanding the story you’re in, not the story itself. This is not a story about numbers, but it is a story with lots of numbers in it. This is not a story about words, but it is a story with a lot of words in it. 

So, our mission in educating our children is not merely to give them a bunch of information, but to give them the world. And that means seeking Christ’s Kingdom and His righteousness before we get to anything else. We do get to everything else, or at least as much of it as we can, but we must not begin it. Forgive me for being overly simplistic, but a Christian education must begin with Christ. The worldly approach is a photo negative of this approach. It begins with the information and then, maybe, maybe, considers speculating about the nature and existence of God. For centuries people searched for the one thing that made sense of everything. The first universities were created for this very purpose. Their purpose was to discuss the one thing that held everything else together: that is why they were called “uni-versities.” They were created to discover the unity of the diversity. Other cultures acknowledged the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water, but they longed for a fifth element that would bind the others together - that is to say, something quintessential. And though they searched, many died never knowing if it even existed, let alone much, if anything, about it.

What they worshiped as unknown, I proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything else. He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined the allotted periods and boundaries of their respective dwelling places. Why? That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. Those times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising that Man from the dead.” That is the sermon Paul preached to the philosophy department of Athens in Acts 17. Christ or confusion. Christian, you know something Socrates only sought. And not only do you know it, you know His Name.

Colossians 1:15-17, “Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus is the university. He is the one thing that ties all other things together. As Dr. Bray pointed out last week, the Trinity is the unity of diversity. Christ is also the quintessential. He is not one of the elements, He is the Creator and Sustainer of them. That being the case, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:8)

Our goal in educating our kids then is not just to cram as much info into their heads as possible, but to give them as large of a glimpse of the glory of God as we possibly can. A Christian education is not less than academia, but it is certainly more than that. Understanding a few things and how they connect to Christ is better than understanding all the things and not knowing who God is. “If you understand all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, you are nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2).

So, knowing how things connect to Christ is more important than the number of things you know, but better yet is understanding as much as you can and how that all connects to Christ. It would be better to know nothing but Christ than to know everything but Christ, but best of all is knowing Christ and growing in knowledge. So, let us learn a lot, yes, and amen, but always “in the Lord.” That is what makes a Christian Education “Christian.”

BUT WHAT MAKES A CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AN “EDUCATION”?

We get the English word “education” from the Latin “educere.” (eh-DOO-kay-ray) The etymology of this word is the Latin prefix “e” meaning “of” or “from,” and the word “ducere” meaning “to lead” or “to draw out.” So putting it all together, education is leading or drawing someone out of something. An education, therefore, always presupposes a start and a finish or to frame it in more theological terms, an origin and an eschatology. An education assumes certain things about where we came from as well as about where we should be going. So, where does a Christian education begin?

Take a look at our OT reading: turn with me to Deuteronomy 6:1-9

EDUCATION AS AN ORIGIN STORY (DEUTERONOMY 6:1-9)

God commanded Moses to teach the commands of God to the people of God. Included in these was the duty of each father to teach his own sons. People need instruction because left to their own devices, they live according to their vices. People are not blank slate. In the land to which they were going over, they would need to establish a culture and possess it, but not before they possessed themselves. A culture is you, your son, and your son’s sons all worshipping the same God the same way for centuries. That kind of continuity creates a good and godly land in which you ong to live as long as you can. So, be careful and keep God’s word and you will be fruitful in God’s world. Goodness and mercy follow the faithful wherever they go and make them fruitful where they grow. This is the promise of God: the leaven will spread through the rest of the lump and the meek shall inherit the earth. Christendom is the land of milk and honey surrounded by the sweetness of God.

Note that these promises from Deuteronomy 6 are the same ones Paul referred to back in Ephesians 6. Here, in Deut, they are being applied to a particular people and a particular plot of land, but Paul applies them to all peoples and all places, including children and gentiles like the ones living in Ephesus.

Back to Deuteronomy 6, picking up in vs. 7, we see that a godly education is not confined to a classroom. It takes place all day long and everywhere. It takes place on the road, in the kitchen, on the phone, in the garage, at church, at the store, in the morning, at night, around the table, over cigars, under the sink, on the computer, in your bed, on the couch, and anytime or anywhere in between. All of Christ for all of life. Memories are the only way to take time with you. 

So, go and make some good ones, but know that a good memory cannot be scheduled for a Tuesday night. Quality time is the product of quantity time. If you want to bank some good times, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time together. You cannot schedule a “you-just-had-to-be-there.”, but you can make it more likely simply by being there. A child brought up in that kind of consistency will grow up well watered in the covenant. He will grow in that same garden, plant himself not far from your tree, and someday plant seeds of his own. And when that happens, the entire landscape begins to change. The garden begins to take over the world. So, keep the covenant, keep your kids, and keep the world.

You cannot, like God, build something out of nothing. You cannot build a Christian culture out of thin air. This is why we must give our children a Christian education. That is why we must look to what God has done and to what He has promised to do. Christ has called us to conquer the world and we cannot fulfill this great commission if we do not make disciples of our own children.

That brings us to Matthew 28:18-20, which was our NT reading .

EDUCATION AS AN ESCHATOLOGY (MATTHEW 28:18-20)

Jesus taught the disciples that all authority in Heaven and on earth was His and that it was their job to get the word out. The message was simple: “Christ is King, so come along quietly.” The disciples were not charged to ask the world what it wanted, but to tell it what Christ had commanded. Making disciples meant a Trinitarian baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for every nation and a Christian education oriented around the commandments of Christ for every person. Lastly, Jesus promised His disciples that He would be with them when they did this. He was not sending them out on a suicide mission, He was letting them walk along on His victory lap.

Many Christians in their zeal to participate in this Great Commission have set their sights on unreached peoples in foreign lands. So far, so good. May their tribe increase as they reach every last tribe. One group, however, routinely overlooked in all the excitement is Christian children. Let us call it the Great Omission. Below the four foot level, there is a people group that literally flies under most people’s radars. And sometimes that isn’t by accident. In many churches this morning, Christian children are segregated to “kids’s church” so that the adults and visitors can worship God without distraction. Many mission-minded and seeker-sensitive Christian ventures have inadvertently done the exact opposite of what Christ commanded: they have left the 1 in order to seek out the 99. They have flipped the script and provided for other people’s children without looking to their own. They have funded Christian schools overseas in order to reach lost kids and then lost their own by sending them to secular schools down the street. They have sent shepherds out to seek and save the goats and sent their lambs off to be shepherded by wolves.

When we omit our children from our mission, we leave them vulnerable to the missions of others. Someone will want our children, even if we don't. Especially, if we don’t. Someone will set their sights on our kids. Someone will take an interest in them. Why not us? What does it profit a man if should reach the nations, but lose his own son? We cannot send our kids to the enemies’ boot camps and expect them to come back and fight in our battles. Might I submit that Christian kids in pagan classrooms is not the highwater mark of Christendom, whatever David French might say. If that is the fruit of Christendom, it is rotten fruit and rhymes with the kind that killed our first parents.

While many Christians have failed to realize the importance of education, our enemies have not. Ben Merkle stated it this way: “You may not be paedobaptist or postmill, but the left is and that's why they're winning.” He said this back in 2021 during the height of COVID times. All of those crazy people doing crazy things back then went to school somewhere. Education is warfare and the progressives are focusing all of their energy on recruitment. They believe that your kids and our future belong to them. You may not baptize your kids and invite them into the covenant, but the secular state is ready to welcome them into its daycares as soon as you’re willing to part with them. They have preschools, elementary schools, after school programs, high schools, and universities ready to convert your kids. You may not hold to a postmillennial eschatology and a never ending increase of your God’s governance, but the Left does. They hold an optimistic view that someday everything will be under their control. We have the promises of God. They have the communist manifesto. Why are they so bold? Why are we so timid?

Children are the missionaries of the future. They are sent out to rule and subdue the world of tomorrow. Because the Left wants to populate the future with their ideas, they are working hard to disciple your children. They don't have kids of their own to raise, so they must groom yours. They don’t make disciples at home, so they must poach them from yours. The Left does not act like a defeated people. No, they are aggressively optimistic in their eschatology. And all that on spec. We have the Word of God. Why are we so pessimistic? Someone will lay claim to the kids and to the future. Christ made His claim on BOTH over 2,000 years ago on a mountainside near Galilee. His disciples faithfully got that Word out, but many modern evangelicals, who should know better, have flat out ignored it. The Left wants your kids and the world to come. Why don’t we?. Their eschatology comes out their fingertips. Why doesn’t ours?

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IS, AFTER ALL, THE END OF THE WORLD

Steve Wilkins said it this way, “Whoever trains the children controls the future.” Education does not merely make graduates, it makes disciples. If that education is Christian, the disciples will be Christian. If that education is secular, the disciples will be godless. You cannot build a Christian culture out of a people who aren’t Christian. If our kids don’t know who they are, what they believe, or why they believe it, the culture that results will not be a Christian one. Rest assured, somebody’s kids will someday see it, for all of God’s promises in Christ are “Yes” and “Amen,” but ours won’t, not unless we bring them up in the culture and commands of Christ. Christian education is not simply filling a child’s head with facts, it is filling his heart with the belief that Christ fills everything. Christian education is the end of the world. By that I mean it is both the reason the world exists and the conclusion of all history when the knowledge of the Lord finally covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Consider these words from C.S. Lewis, “If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead. Those are hard words to take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women or patriotism, cocaine or art, whisky or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies.” 

Good grades do not matter if Christ is not the curriculum. There are people with doctorates who do not know God and there are people who did not graduate from high school who are going to Heaven. Do not miss the main thing. Education is important, but only because knowing God is important. And being a Christian is a better education than graduating summa cum laude from sodom state university. Listen to Lewis one more time: “Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself.”

An unbeliever can be smarter than a Christian, but there is no unbeliever, no matter how smart he currently is, who would not be made smarter by becoming a Christian. In a few minutes, Christian, you will confess something that Nietzsche never knew. C.R. Wiley said it this way, “Worship is the highest form of liberal arts.” So, whether you eat or drink, or read or write or add or subtract, whatever you do, do it all, in the Lord.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, as we reflect on these things, may the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who taught us to pray…