The father of the family was a great sinner. He had set up gods of gold and said, "These are your gods, O Israel." And yet God's Sovereign, electing Love was bestowed upon a child of this wicked and rebellious Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin! But indulge no idea, parents, that your child is born with a perfectly balanced mind! Many young people do not speak to their parents about their soul's deepest feelings and desires. They can sooner speak to strangers. But it is a very solemn thing when young people are taken out of the family by death. It is something like clearing a ship because she is going down.
Therefore come forth, O least of all the brotherhood, for without your presence the Father's family is not complete! All voices are needed! No child of God may be silent! "I have yet to speak on God's behalf as the master of a family to my children and to my servants, as a mistress to my domestics, as a servant by my life, as a merchant in my trade. I have so to speak on God's behalf that those about me may see what religion is by watching my life. Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" Mary, Hannah, do you, indeed, love your Lord? Then what manner of persons ought we to be? What lives should love prompt us to lead? Come, let us gird our garments about us and give ourselves up, once again, to His service, by whom we are brought near unto God.
Another class says, "We are too bad to be saved. The Gospel cries, 'Believe in Jesus Christ and live,' but it cannot mean me. I have been too gross an offender. When I was but young I went into evil and since then I have gone from bad to worse. O Sir, I have cursed God to His face! I have laughed at the very name of His Son Jesus Christ! I am too evil to be saved." Here is another bad excuse. You know, Sinner, if you have been a hearer of the Gospel, that this is not true! For bad as you are, no man is excluded from Christ on account of his vileness. "He that believes not," says John, "has made God a liar, because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son." O, think of this and never make that excuse again! My Hearer, I give you now in God's name this invitation, this command, trust your soul to Jesus, the Son of God, who suffered for sin, and you shall be saved!
Now, once in the history of the world has the Son of God appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself, poor guilty one, if you believe your guilt was put away by His atoning death! He looks upon His Son, Jesus, bearing our sin. Did you ever think of what God the Father sees in Jesus on the Cross? Why you and I have seen enough to make us break our hearts, but when the Father saw His only-begotten Son suffering, even to death, it made such an infinite impression upon His great soul that He forgot the sins for which His Son gave His life!
Bad lodgers! Some people have admitted bad lodgers into their chambers. I have known a good many people troubled with them and there is no use in keeping them, they must be sent adrift. So the text says, "How long shall vain thoughts lodge within you?" Bad lodgers will break your windows, burn your shutters, pull down your wainscots and do a thousand spiteful things. When they will neither pay nor go, they will do all the mischief they can! There may be a long process by which he comes up to it and there may be a long succession of the breaking Light of God before he gets clear about it, but there is a turning point.
"My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother: bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you. You have here, before you, the advice of King Solomon, rightly reckoned to be one of the wisest of men, and verily he must be wise, indeed, who could excel in wisdom the son of David, the King of Israel. in my ear, "My son, I have misled you. My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother." I hope that I am not weak in wishing that some here may be touched by affection to their parents. I have had very sorrowful sights, sometimes, in the course of my ministry.
We are not to think He does this by Inspiration, or of dreams and visions, for if none were sons of God but those who receive these, surely many of the very best of the Divine Family would lose their title to sonship! God grant that Prayer Meetings may begin to be better attended, that family prayer may be more regarded and that private prayer may be more diligently and more spiritually maintained.
Now, beloved parents, it is a very great joy to us if our children learn the Truth of God. Is one son in the family converted to God? In that fact we rejoice. But we cannot linger over joy for one, we are compelled to think of the others. Even David's bitter lamentation, "O Absalom, my son, my son, would God I had died for you! O Absalom, my son, my son!" is not censured by the Lord. Neither do we find Him rebuking Abraham for saying, "O that Ishmael might live before You!" Between you and your parents there must come an eternal parting! Can you endure the thought of it? Perhaps your parents will first leave this world, oh, that their departure might touch your consciences and lead you to follow them to Heaven!
But that He should have a word for our wife, a word for our son and a word for our daughter, this is overflowing mercy! O son of Noah, go into the ark with your father! O child of a godly parent, follow your father to Christ, that you may follow him to Heaven! Let Abraham's son be an Isaac and Isaac's son be a Jacob, and Jacob's son be a Joseph, and so may it go on from generation to generation! Oh, beloved woman, advancing into years, with a grown family about you, if you have not come to Christ, I trust you may, that in your family the saved ones may be as Noah and his sons and his wife. Last came the son's wives and what a happy circumstance for them!
"Is not this the carpenter's son?" Yes, it is, but there is a Divine splendor concealed beneath that lowly form! Some of the early fathers and old writers used to delight in expressing strange ideas concerning "the carpenter's son." Even if the occupation of a carpenter had been a degrading one, which it certainly was not, yet, if his son has something to say that is worth hearing, is he not a fool who will not listen to it because it is uttered by the carpenter's son?
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
