A DISOBEDIENT CHILD IS WORTHY OF DEATH.
FIRST BIBLE LESSON: MATTHEW 19:19
"HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER: and, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF."
SECOND BIBLE LESSON: LUKE 2:51
"And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart."
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 15:4
"For God commanded, saying, HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER: and, HE THAT CURSETH FATHER OR MOTHER, LET HIM DIE THE DEATH."
Brethren, that is our revelation this morning. Everybody should listen attentively, most especially children. Last Sunday, you were given a sermon concerning parents. You realized what actually causes problems for parents. Today, you are going to learn what causes trouble for you children. The three lesson will tell you what I have for you today.
There are complaints that children die, or that they are not prosperous, or that they are sick and poor. It is because of what you will hear this morning. This will show you that any person who rejects Our Lord Jesus Christ and refuses to abide by His instructions has no life. All the sufferings of children, death, sickness, wretchedness, ill-luck, arise not from parents but from the children themselves.
Many children complain that their parents do not maintain them, educate them, feed and clothe them. They should not blame their parents but they should blame themselves for their failure to abide by the words of Christ which says children should obey their parents. The injunction to honor parents is not a man-made law or regulation made by parents but the law of God. From the lesson, you will notice that God says honor your father and mother. It does not say Moses says, BUT GOD SAYS. The law states that any person who does not honor his father and his mother should die. Have children kept this injunction and lived according to the instruction?
That is the problem affecting the whole world. The number of years you spend in a university learning, cannot save you; your position in life cannot save you either. You may be rich or poor, sick or healthy, you may be a stranger, none of these will help you. The only salvation is for a child to honor his father and mother. No matter how great or small you may be, if you do not honor your parents, you should pray fervently for yourself. The first duty that small children should perform is to honor their parents. What does it mean to honor your parents? It is to obey them and abide by their instructions and pieces of advice. As a child, you have to do whatever your father tells you to do. You have no right to add or subtract.
You can remember the story of Abraham and his son Isaac. God directed Abraham to give Isaac as a sacrifice. God instructed Abraham to go to a place he named and to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. The journey to the place of sacrifice took three days and three nights. Abraham instructed his son Isaac to gather materials for the sacrifice and he travelled with him. Isaac obeyed his father and he did not ask him where they were going to. He followed his father to where the sacrifice was to take place. After the alter had been set up, Isaac asked his father where the sacrificial lamb was after Isaac had set the alter and ignited the sacrificial flame. Abraham answered: "God Himself will provide the sacrificial lamb." Abraham then pounced on Isaac, held him by the neck, with the intent of cutting off his head. Isaac on his part, did not resist. It was because of this obedience that God provided Abraham with a sacrificial lamb. When the angel of God called unto him out of heaven: "Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou feareth God seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thy only son from me."
I have never heard of any child who disobeyed his parents and was blessed by God or by his parents. There is no excuse or exemption from this law; if in the past you were disobedient to your parents, you have to take stock of your life and make amends by honoring and obeying your parents, and accepting their instructions implicitly. No child has any right to do what he likes because if you do what you like, you have disobeyed your parents and you are worthy of death. Two cocks cannot crow on the same roof.
From the beginning of the world, this law was in existence: that children should be obedient to their parents. If you fail to abide by your father's instructions, even if you are angry with him, you are worthy of death. Children are tools for their parents and for the services of God, whether they gain or lose. Your duty as a child is to obey your parents, and submit to them. It is because of the disobedience of children that many parents suffer, thereby inflicting double suffering on their parents. Parents are not mad, they are only offended by the insubordination of their children, their anger is therefore not from the parents but from God.
Reuben, the first son of Jacob became intimate with his father's wife and so he defiled his father's bed. Is that what a child should do to his father? For that reason Jacob cursed him that he would never prosper. Why was he cursed? It was because he did not honor his parents. If he had honored his father, he would not have been cursed. Jacob again cursed Simeon and Levite for their disobedience to him. This was so because Jacob had made peace with the man who committed fornication with his daughter and he had pardoned him. But Simeon and Levite went behind and surreptitiously killed the man involved. For that reason, Jacob cursed them that the sword will never depart from their houses. He vowed saying, "my soul will have nothing to do with these persons because they have disobeyed me."
There is no young person who wants God's blessing but disobeys parents. You have to obey your father implicitly, even if he tells you to put your hand into the fire, you have to obey him. Whatever your father commands you to do, do it so that you will receive blessing from God. Now you want your father to bless you, have you obeyed his instructions? No matter how you have been loved by your parents, unless you are obedient to them, they cannot bestow any blessings on you. Today it is a common saying by the children that they are not under anyone and that they are of age since they are twenty-one. Brethren, this is the cause of trouble in the world today. Nowadays, no child obeys his parents. You should realize that until you obey your parents, you cannot obey God. All disobedient children abide in death, in wretchedness, and destruction. If you do not honor your parents, it does not matter whether you wail, fast or pray, you cannot be saved. All children who joke with their parents do not love their lives.
WRITE UP AND SPREAD THIS GOSPEL ALL OVER THE WORLD, TELLING THEM THAT THE CAUSE OF TROUBLES, SICKNESS, AND DEATH, POVERTY, AND ILL- LUCK IS THE RESULT OF THE DISOBEDIENCE OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS. You complain that you are worried by mermaid, ghost, witchcraft, these things are not in existence. Your trouble is that you do not obey your parents. You do not want to submit to them. An adage says, the water yam is never greater than the knife. Have you ever seen a servant greater than the master? No matter what you are in the world, your parents are greater than you before God. Have you ever heard that it is the least who should bless the great or it is the great who should bless the least. All that you do to your father is what reflects on you. If you incur the displeasure of your parents, you cannot receive any blessing from them. If you come across any person so blessed, such a person is known to have been very obedient to his parents and for that reason they blessed him. Now, when you are attending church service, your children go to play football or visit cinema houses or hotel or disco theater.
The most prevalent complaint of parents for the suffering of their children is said to be witchcraft. This is not true. The children suffer because they do not obey their parents. Conduct investigation to find out how many disobedient children receive blessing from God. If you want God's blessing you should not fail to honor your parents and walk according to their instructions. Many people say they fear God but they do not fear anybody else. This is a very wrong assumption. You have to obey your parents whether they are poor or incapacitated.
Any person who obeys his parents cannot ask them any questions. Who are you to ask your father any questions when he instructs you to do anything? If you should do that, then of course, you must die. Who are you to murmur against your father for giving you instructions? Who are you to be annoyed against your father for advising you? If you should ask any questions, you are inviting death. Whatever your parents ask you to do, you should obey them implicitly in order to receive God's blessings.
You complain that your children do not obey you, did you obey your parents? When you complain that your children do not look after you or carry out your instructions did you obey your parents and carry out their instructions? Did you receive their blessings? Brethren, have you realized why the whole world is cursed? It is because of the disobedience of the children. The whole land is accursed. Do not begin to say no matter how disobedient my children are, provided they live for me, I am happy. God does not accept such a plea. Prayer and fasting cannot set it aside. A child who is disobedient to his parents cannot be submissive to his teacher, a disobedient child can never be submissive to the church nor to the government. Notice that a disobedient child is not only a nuisance but, he is also useless. That is why you find that the whole world is filled with prostitutes, vagabonds, bastards, and all other undesirable people.
You complain that you suffer, you have to suffer, because you disobey your parents. If you want blessings from your father, you have to obey him whether he is right or wrong, wherever he may be, so that in the end you will be blessed by God. Brethren, I make this revelation to you with tears in my eyes because the whole world has gone astray from the path of rectitude, and this is leading to destruction. The disobedience of the children disturbs the parents' mind. Who says that when he has a child and the child is not obedient to him, such a parent will be happy and peaceful? Which child says if he disobeys his parents he can have peace? Till doomsday, such a child can never have peace. Money is nothing. Children are of no value, what is important is blessing and everlasting life. Your father advises you but you reject his advice, in the course of time, when you begin to suffer, then you seek help from necromancers. Any child who does anything without the approval of his parents has not only abused his parents, but he has also incurred upon himself the anger of God. You complain that wherever you go to, you meet with no success, search yourself, if you have not disobeyed your parents.
FIRST BIBLE LESSON: MATTHEW 19:19
"HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER: and, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF."
Brethren, have you heard that: the law which says honor your father and your mother was not given by man but by God your creator. It is also your duty to your father and to your mother.
Remember the first son of Noah who was cursed by the father for laughing at the father's nakedness after Noah got drunk and striped himself naked. The second son, upon seeing his father naked, covered him up and carried him to a place of rest, and when the incident was reported to Noah, he cursed the first son.
That curse passed on from one generation to another of the descendants of Noah's first son. Sodom and Gomorrah: the direct descendants of the first son of Noah were the inhabitants of the two cursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which in the end was consumed with fire. You say you do not joke with God, but you joke with your parents. But for your father, would you have known your mother and but for your mother, would you have known the world?
The anger of God is upon the children of disobedience. Who are you to argue with your father, and who are you to do something without the approval of your father? You are advised by your father and that advise you reject outright. The trouble in the world stems from the children's disobedience. If you do not honor your father and your mother, there is no luck for you. No person should joke with his parents' advice whether that advice was given in their presence or absence. Since God has vowed by His name He will never regret. Remember the incident in which Abraham went with some people to the land of his birth to get a wife for his son Isaac. Isaac did not know about the arrangement and when he got to know, he did not object to the proposal. When his wife was brought to him he accepted without question. It was because Jacob obeyed his mother, that he was blessed. When Esau wanted to kill him, his mother advised him to run to her country and he obeyed without argument.
We always profess to obey God, when in actuality we disobey our parents. There are many incidents in the Bible, enough incidents to serve as deterrents to any one who is still disobedient to his father and mother because all disobedient children are worthy of death. If we were to be obedient to our Fathers and mothers, the world would have been better than what we see today. Has Our Lord Jesus Christ not taught us a lesson on obedience?
The first duty of a child is to obey his father and mother. He was the Son of man, Son of God and God Himself. In spite of this, He did not do anything to disgrace His earthly parents just to show you that this is the first commandment with a promise. Remember when He followed His parents to the feast of Passover in Jerusalem, when He was twelve years old. He was in the temple, arguing with lawyers, when His parents went away without His notice. For three days, His parents did not see him and so they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him. When they met him engaged in hot argument with the lawyers, they asked Him why He did not go back with them and He told them: "Must I not do the work of my father?"
Since He knew the first commandment was that children should honor their parents, He did not argue with them, He withdrew from the temple and followed His parents home. Have you read anywhere that Our Lord Jesus Christ was disobedient to his parents? If you can substantiate, I shall also quote many more passages to prove to you that Our Lord Jesus Christ was very obedient to his parents. When the second lesson is read, it will prove to you beyond every reasonable doubt that Our Lord Jesus Christ whom you say you know so well, never rebelled against His parents.
SECOND BIBLE LESSON: LUKE 2:51
"And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart."
Have you heard that brethren? Our Lord Jesus Christ submitted to His earthly parents, whereas He had God as His Father in heaven. That Father in heaven had given a law: Honor your mother and father; and it was for this reason that he submitted to His parents in order to obey the instructions of the Father who is in heaven. Of all the men born of women, in the whole world, who is greater than Our Lord Jesus Christ? Apart from Our Lord Jesus Christ, which other person, in the whole world has been so blessed? Was Our Lord Jesus Christ blessed because He disobeyed His parents or because He obeyed them and submitted to their will? Have you been told that when He was questioned by His parents He retorted? He did not argue or question their authority but he quietly followed them when they called His attention to the fact that they were worried because he was missing. The first and the most important duty you have to perform is to obey your father and mother. Do not disobey them for reasons of poverty or deficiency in education. Obey them and carry out their instructions. The first request of parents to God is children. It is not true that children are bewitched by their parents who requested for them. Rather it is the disobedience of children which brings them problems. The usefulness of the children consists in their obedience. It is the disobedience of children that has caused the parents not to enjoy their children as they should.
Parents suffer because of the insubordination of their children. The result is that the punishments of the children are placed on the children. Notice that when Christ went to the wedding feast at Canaan, He extended his obedience to the mother there. When the people ran short of wine, the mother approached Christ, knowing fully well what He is capable of doing, and told Him they had run out of wine. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the mother: "Woman what have I to do with you, my time is not yet up." Indeed His time was not yet up to wrought that miracle, yet because he wanted to obey the law which says honor your mother and your father, He had to do it. She instructed the people to do whatsoever He would direct them to do. Since it was not yet His time, He did it and no person took cognisance of the miracle. He only did it in obedience to His mother. However today children reject the advice of their parents with the excuse that they are directed by the Holy Spirit. If they were directed by the Holy Spirit, and God dwells in them, they would not have disobeyed their parents because the same spirit which directs them, also directs that children should obey their parents.
Therefore brethren, it is never too late to make amends. We should repent and retrace out steps to where we had fallen. If we had been in the habit of disobeying our parents, we should turn a new leaf and begin to obey their instructions no matter what their status is in life.
Brethren, see the source of trouble in the world. The same factor is responsible for trouble and confusion in government, in the company, in your village, or town or city as well as in your family and within your immediate household.
The resultant effect is that we cannot have children of promise and that is why we cannot have children of God. Any child who does not honor his father and his mother is not a child of God because this promise was not only for Abraham but for all his children. EACH AND EVERYONE OF US SHOULD BE REPENTANT OF OUR DISOBEDIENCE TO OUR PARENTS. GOD HAS NEVER DISGRACED HIMSELF AND TILL ETERNITY, HIS LAWS ARE EVERLASTING INSTRUCTIONS.
I only read this lesson from a book for you because you are doubting Thomases, but I started, even before the age of five, to be acquainted with this law, that a child should honor his parents. It is the first commandment. No child has any right to disobey, to disgrace and to question his father. If you do it, you will have to be punished. Even if he is a criminal, a drunkard, a rogue, you have to love, respect, support and co-operate with him for a purpose. That is for you to love and obey him. He did not say we should quarrel and fight with him. He has the right to beat you up or to discipline you as he likes whenever you default.
Parents of obedient children are very proud people. When children are obedient there is happiness in the family between the parents and children. There is peace and there is love, whether they eat or not. Nowadays, you hardly can find a family with happiness. Every family groans because no child is prepared to obey his parents. Education does not cure this sickness, wealth cannot do it either. For the world to be good you have to spread this gospel to all the nooks and crannies of the world. Send it especially to those who claim to be learned and tell them that as long as they continue to disobey their parents, there will continue to be calamities in the world.
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 15:4
"For God commanded, saying, HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER: and, HE THAT CURSETH FATHER OR MOTHER, LET HIM DIE THE DEATH."
Brethren, do you understand the lesson? That is the source of your problem and trouble. A curse from any parent on his child or children is the beginning of punishment. Disgrace from the parents is enough punishment to the children; the groaning in pain of children is also a punishment. Tell the world that God has instructed all mankind to honor their fathers and their mothers. If you do not honor your parents you will not fail to die. After insulting your parents, if death comes to you, you should not run away from it. Upon the number of hospitals, and the doctors, consultants and nurses working in them; upon all the prayer houses; and upon all the high strides in medical sciences to prevent death, it still comes because we have rejected one of our primary duties, that of obeying our parents, for that reason the wrath of God is upon the children of disobedience.
We always pray to God to give us children, when they come they do not give us the least respect; they jump on our heads, do things which are disgraceful to us. What is the use of having children? Before a child is bad outside the home, he was already a bad child in the house. Hence the adage which says that charity begins at home. Respect, obedience, humility, love, self control, each of these virtues begins at home. Whatever you are in your family you will exhibit it outside. A child who steals, fornicates, fights, has disobeyed his parents and so he is worthy of death.
There is nothing as precious as a child. You request God for him, take time to nurture him, give him the necessary education and give him living pieces of advice in order to bring him up as an upright and great child. If this child does not live up to the expectation of the father, he must die.
Most people suffer because of their children's recalcitrance. I have you told you the story of Eli who suffered because of his children's disobedience. Perhaps if I were to mention all those who suffered because of their children's waywardness, you would be convinced that God does not spare disobedient children. Job suffered also because of the insubordination of his children. They did not obey their father, and neither did they abide by his instructions and they equally rejected the word of God. It was because of this that they suffered and the father also suffered. God handed over Job and all he had to Satan to do unto them as he liked. Since his children were wayward he had to suffer from the hands of Satan.
You pray that God should help your children because of you; why did God not use the obedience of Job to save his children? Now you instruct your children not to indulge in any vices, but they do not heed your advice. When they begin to suffer, you go on ministry work, fast, and make a feast to help your children live; if at the end of your struggles they still die, it is a loss to you. Any person who encourages or abets the commission of any sin, is an accomplice, he must therefore suffer as a sinner.
You always complain that people do not live long when they do not submit to their parents. They insult, abuse, disgrace, and hurt their parents and such children must not fail to die. All of you are parents, if there is any person who says his children are obedient to him, he should confirm. The fact that God says love your children and you pray for them and you act accordingly, does not mean that when they disobey you, they should not suffer and die. Afterwards Our Lord Jesus Christ, when on the cross prayed to God to forgive the people because they did not know what they were doing. Has his prayers prevented the Jews from suffering until today? Many people say they do not know what to do to receive the blessing of God: well, you obey your father and mother, God will bless you.
The Roman Catholic Mission when they pray, they call on the Virgin Mary to pray for them. This they do, not because they cannot pray but they believe that since they show respect to the Holy Mother of Jesus, she will in turn put their supplication before God through the Son. *They always have at the back of their minds the incident at Canaan and they know that since Our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed his mother to perform the miracle even when His time was not yet up, and so they believe that whatever request they place before the Son through the mother will be granted. And so it is not morally safe to condemn the action of any person without first investigating it. It would be like the six blind men who went to learn about an elephant and at the end they all had six different notions of what the elephant looks like. WHENEVER YOU FIND PEOPLE WHOSE LIFE GO SMOOTHLY, AFTER INVESTIGATION, YOU WILL FIND THAT THEY WERE NEVER DISOBEDIENT TO THEIR PARENTS.
Do not do anything that will bring disrespect to your parents. There is an adage which says a child dances to unearth the debt of his father. If you misbehave, people will normally make reference to your family: "leave him alone, he is behaving like his father, he cannot behave better." When you find a person who finds it difficult to progress in life, if you investigate, it will be revealed that he did not obey his parents.
The church has contributed in no small way to the disobedience of children to their parents. This is so because the church urges it members to give to God what is due to God and to the parents what they are worth. God has never told you to disobey your parents. Hitherto you have disobeyed your parents through ignorance. You call them witches, wizards and you allege that they want to kill your children. How do they want to kill your children when they had suffered so much in bringing you up? It is indeed your disobedience to parents that has brought upon you the wrath of God.
You respect and obey millionaires, professors, presidents, governors, but you disobey your parents who brought you into this world; and you think that you will not die. It is evident that all the respect you pay to people are mere flattery, because if you were to be serious the first person you would have respected would have been your parents. This instruction is however not for everybody because there are certain people who never disobeyed their parents, they are born so and the spirit of obedience is inborn in them.
Any person who does not obey his parents cannot obey God. If you come across any person who says, "even my parents do not do that to me and they cannot speak to me anyhow," you should be very careful with such a person. If he offends you and you go to report to the parents they will also tell you, we cannot speak to him because he appears to be greater than us.
It is a common experience to find a boy taking a girl from the street as a wife without the consent of the parents. If the parents object to his choice there is trouble. He will disown the mother and father, where as in the past it was the duty of parents to look for wives for their children. But now it is the girl who brings a boy to introduce to her father as her husband. If there is any objection from the parents, she tells them they should accept her friend because nothing would prevent her from marrying a person of her choice. The boy behaves very much in the same way. If however in the end trouble erupts and the husband and wife do not get along, wizards and mermaid would be blamed for the discord. Most of the sufferings of parents result from their children's recalcitrance. Sometimes you do not drink, but your son steals a bottle of whisky and for that disgrace to you and your family you collapse and die.
Disobedience of children is the order of the day in every family, but that does not prevent God from doing His work. Can you say that any child who does not allow the mother to rest can also rest?
Any child who does not obey his parents is already judged and he must not fail to die the prescribed death. There are many cases nowadays of children taking up matchets against their parents, for allegation that their parents want to kill them. The Bible says: "AND WITH ALL DECEIT OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN THEM THAT PERISH BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH THAT THEY MAY BE SAVED AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSIONS THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE." Your mother has not done anything to you; your problem is yourself. You claim to be educated, a rich man, for that reason you suffer and die. Confusion is noticed everywhere, in the universities, in colleges of education, secondary schools, even in elementary schools because of the disrespect of children to adults. How then can they have life?
One stroke of the cane is sufficient to the wise. Those who have ears, let them hear. May God bless His Holy words. Amen.
THANK YOU HOLY FATHER.