Temple Baptist Church - 6-24-2020
Proverbs 22:28
Introduction:
A. Happy Father’s Day! We sometimes make less of Father’s Day than we do of Mother’s Day, but both are equally important. How many times have you heard someone say, “If it had not been for Mother, I would not be here!”
B. I have got good news for you. “If it had not been for Father, you still would not be here!” I heard a woman once say, “If we women could have children without you men, YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE!” Enough of the foolishness!
C. I want you men to know just how important that you are this morning to the home, the church, the work force, and this great nation.
1. The home would be weakened without the father. The home needs the father’s steadfastness, wisdom, and strength to operate properly.
2. The church would be handicapped without the father. The church cannot be run by women, regardless of what the “new fangled religionists” say.
3. The workplace would be is crippled without the father. There are jobs that women just simply cannot do due to lack of physical strength and male drive.
4. The nation would be extinct without the father. I know that we have women in the military this day, but an army entirely made up of women would not go far in battle. Women are no physical match for men.
5. We, as fathers have a moral obligation to our wives and children that the Lord has given to us. Teaching them God’s holy Word.
6. I want to look at this verse this morning to get the meaning of it and then try to glean some truths from it. I will also make application to the Word of God, which is the landmark that our fathers have set. The Bible sets the boundaries within which we are to remain and distinctly marks the difference in things right and things wrong.
7. Fathers, our children need the Word of God more than anything else that we can give them! It is of the utmost importance that they not only know which Bible is God’s Word but also are taught the Scriptures that they might not “sin against God.”
8. Let us look at God’s Command to the fathers:
HOW IMPORTANT IS GOD’S WORD TO OUR HOMES? THIS ONE VERSE EXPLAINS IT.
1. “Remove not” – This is something that we refuse to do or this is something that we do.
a. The ONLY reason that we move the “landmarks” of our property which have been set by surveyors is when we either sell or give the land away. Then we have the land re-surveyed.
b. Too many in our day are willing to either sell our cheaply or just give our spiritual “land” away!
c. If the Word of God is removed from our homes, it will be the fault of us fathers.
d. If the Word of God is removed from our churches, it will be our fault, the fault of its pastor and its people.
e. “Remove not” is a commandment! “Remove not” is an “absolute negative,” meaning never for any reason! The Holy Spirit did not put this verse here just to take up space and, the verse stands alone which makes it self-explanatory.
f. Landmarks were anciently set to distinguish one man's land from another, to secure property, and preserve from encroachments; but some were so wicked as either secretly in the night to remove them, or openly to do it, having power on their side, pretending they were wrongly located.
g. To remove a landmark was not only prohibited by the law of God, but also pronounced an accursed thing.
Deuteronomy 19:14 Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.
Deuteronomy 27:17 Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.
2. “The” – the word the is a definite article!
a. Words are important in Scripture and need to be taken as such. To the new preachers, churches, and colleges of our day, the importance of singular words makes little or no difference. A definite article is used before either singular or plural nouns referring to a member of a group.
1) The word “the … landmark” refers to something singular in nature. We endure a war of attrition spiritually. The world and the liberal theologians do not try to remove every Old Path or Landmark of biblical Christianity at once as the God’s people would not stand for that. Over the years, they keep chiseling away at the Landmarks of Christianity a little at a time so as to get God’s people accustomed to the dark.
2) The Sanctity of the Scriptures. The verbal, plenary inspiration, and preservation of the Scriptures. To believe that God only gave perfection to the original manuscripts is to BELIEVE NOTHING! That means that in the beginning man had God’s Word but now only has a manmade replica of it.
a) Many replicas have been made of the Mona Lisa painting but are worthless compared to the original. We have THE “Mona Lisa” in our King James Bible! Bible believers are called cultic by the liberals. Book worshippers, worshippers of paper and ink. The liberal left is good at labeling the conservative right in everything from politics to the Bible!
b) The Word of God is not to be “tampered with” in any sense of the word. It is to remain in its position of final authority, otherwise, we have no authority and every man can do that which is right in his own eyes. We fathers have the responsibility of keeping God’s Word in our homes. The welfare of the home hinges upon God’s Word.
c) The King James Bible is not a bible. The King James Bible is the Bible! Liberals have tried to discount and defame this blessed Bible, but it still stands as the “benchmark” of all so-called bibles. We fathers have the responsibility of making sure that our children know which Bible is the right one. The King James Bible! The very Word of God!
3) The Sanctity of Marriage. Marriage is honorable in all according to the Bible. It was the first institution that God created and the most important as it typifies our relationship with Christ, which cannot be broken.
4) The Sanctity of the Believer. God’s people have slowly conformed to the image of the world instead of to the image of Christ. Without holiness, no man will see the Lord!
5) The Sanctity of the Local Church. What does “not forsaking” mean? There has been a movement away from the local church in our nation. God said “not,” an absolute negative. Only being providentially hindered (God allowed something to stop you from attending) is permitted by the Lord.
6) The Sanctity of Life. Our nation is a Baby Killer! God gives life at conception and pro-choice is before conception, not afterwards.
7) The list could go on and one!
b. One Landmark at a time eventually leads to the destruction of all Landmarks.
Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (God is not going to deliver the embodiment of Truth again!)
3. “Ancient” – refers to something of antiquity or of ancient history.
a. This is something that is known and has been known for a long period of time. This does not refer to anything new or recent.
2 Peter 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
b. The Word of God has been preserved by God from the original autographs to the Bible that we now hold in our hand. The right Bible off of the right line of text!
c. I have a Bible as old as eternity past because “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.” The Word is still God! That statement will make the liberal cringe!
d. This old King James Bible was good enough for our fathers, it is good enough for you and me, and it is good for our children. It was before all things and will continue to be when time is no more.
4. “Landmark” – landmark is singular in number.
a. LAND'MARK, n. [land and mark.] 1828 Webster's Dictionary
A mark to designate the boundary of land; any mark or fixed object; as a marked tree, a stone, a ditch, or a heap of stones, by which the limits of a farm, a town or other portion of territory may be known and preserved.
b. An indelible Mark by which something may be known. We have surveyors place stakes and ribbons in strategic places for reference. By this, we know the boundaries of our land. By the Word of God, we know our spiritual boundaries. It is of no wonder that this new generation do not want the standards set by our Bible.
c. By which something may be preserved. Surveyor’s stakes are left there to preserve the boundaries and they are to be left alone. This speaks of a specific boundary, not just any boundary.
d. As a norm, we at least mark the four corners of our land, but this refers to only one landmark. Surveyors place their secondary markers about one specific marker from which they take measurement.
e. Our children deserve a benchmark that is both settled and unmovable. Everything is shifting today: morals, mentors, as well as “churches” and “Christians.” They need the stability of God’s Word! They need an unmovable anchor!
5. “Which our fathers” – this lets us know who set the landmark.
a. This is just not any landmark that we come upon, but it is one set by those who we know, love, and respect.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
b. “Fathers” – this is a plural word! Not a landmark set by one father, for this may or may not be a right one, but a landmark set by our fathers who agreed with one another! Separated by thousands of years, they were in perfect agreement.
c. “Our fathers” – this is in reference to specific fathers. Not just fathers in general. There have possibly been billions of fathers since the beginning of time with not all fathers either spiritual or ours. This blessed Book was written to Israel and by application to the child of God. These are our fathers!
2 Timothy 3:13-15 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
d. As Isaac re-dug the wells that Abraham dug previously, we are also “digging where our fathers dug!” These are our Christian forefathers who stood for these precious truths and passed them down to us. By “digging where our fathers dug” and calling these “wells of truth” by the same names, we can give them to the generations to follow. The Bible worked for them, it works for us, and it will work for them.
6. “Set” – to place in a permanent position.
SET, v.t. pret. pp. set. 1828 Webster's Dictionary to compose, as a book, to dispose or put in order, to establish, found or institute, to possess, to cease; To put or place; to fix or cause to rest in a standing posture. We set a house on a wass of stone; we set a book on a shelf. In this use, set differs from lay; we set a thing on its end or basis; we lay it on its side. To put or place in its proper or natural posture. We set a chest or trunk on its bottom, not its end; we set a bedstead or a table on its feet or legs. To put, place or fix in any situation. God set the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Hebrews 6:17-19 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; (The Word of God still has the power to convert the sinner, comfort the saint, and convey our children in the right way.)
Conclusion: Fathers, let us stand in such a way in front of our wives and children as to lead them in the way of righteousness. If they wander, we must give to them a place to return to that has not moved! A place where they can find the Lord and the help that they need. God bless each of you this Father’s Day!
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