Condition and Promise

Proverbs 22:6
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, November 07, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Gregory Broderick

It is right and proper to dedicate our children to the Lord.  We dedicate them to the Lord for His glory.  These children do not belong to us.  They are not our chattel property to do with as we please.  Rather, our children are a gift from God, entrusted to us as parents for their good and for God’s purposes.   Psalm 127 teaches that children are a gift or a heritage or a reward from the Lord.  The same idea is echoed in Genesis 33, where Jacob describes his family as “the children God has graciously given your servant” (Gen. 33:5).  This idea is also present in Genesis 48 and Joshua 24.

We know from Genesis 1 and John 1 that God is the Creator of all things.  But God especially tells us that He personally knits children together within their mothers’ wombs (Ps. 139:13).  God has a special interest in our children.  Rightly viewed, then, our children are entrusted to us for God’s good purposes.  We are not free to do with them as we wish or to raise them up in the way that seems right to us.

Today, in dedicating these small children to the Lord, we are merely recognizing that reality and pledging to do our part.  Today represents our commitment to do what we are supposed to do.  It is good to commit.  That is why we do this ceremony.  That is why we do weddings in a similar fashion.  It is good to commit publicly.  But let us remember a few important things as we commit.

First, ceremonies are not magic.  People are baptized and then walk away.  People are married and then violate that marriage covenant commitment.  People dedicate their children to the Lord to raise them up in the fear and instruction of the Lord, and then they do not.  So ceremonies are not magic.

But let us also remember that ceremonies are not meaningless.  We make a solemn vow to God and to one another.  God remembers our vows and God expects us to fulfill our vows, and He helps us to fulfill those vows.  The public commitment strengthens our resolve to fulfill our vows, to fulfill our obligations.  There is a clear explanation of what we are going to do.  We impress the solemnity and seriousness of our commitment by doing a public ceremony.  And it gives us something to go back to when we feel like walking away or giving up.  We say, “I committed, and that commitment is going to carry me through those tough times.”

So while there is no magic in the ceremony, there is great meaning.  And there is a measure of power in it.  All that said, our dedication of children will only be effective for good if we do our part.  Our commitment is our first step, but it is not the final step.  Each of you as parents must do your job and keep your covenant.  If we do so, we will experience the covenant blessing.  If we do not, we will experience covenant curse.

I have three main points to make this morning from Proverbs 22:6 on this important occasion:  condition, promise, and proof.

1. The Condition

Proverbs 22:6a contains the condition:  “Train a child in the way he should go.”  The first thing we notice is that this is obviously the condition for the good promise that follows in the second half of Proverbs 22:6:  “that when he is old, he will not turn from it.”  We are familiar with such conditional promises.  In fact, this is the normal way that we live in life.  It is the normal way of human relations.  You may say, “If you mow my lawn, I will pay you ten dollars,” or whatever the going rate is.  In law, they call this a bilateral conditional contract:  my promise for your promise.  If I fulfill my promise, then you must fulfill your promise.

This is the structure of Proverbs 22:6.  If you train up your child in the way he should go, then, when he is old, I promise that he will not turn away from it.  We, of course, want to focus on God’s promise, the second half of that.  We want to make it unconditional.  But it is not unconditional.  Election may be unconditional, but most of God’s promises are not.

We are familiar with this in Scripture.  In 2 Chronicles 7:14 the Lord says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,” that is the condition, “then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin.”  That is the promise.  It is the same structure as Proverbs 22:6.  Look at Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,” that is the condition, “you will be saved.”  That is the promise.  And Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins shall never prosper, but he who confesses and renounces them” this is the condition, “finds mercy.”  That is the promise.  Condition and promise, condition and promise, condition and promise.

So if we want to experience the covenant blessing, if we want to benefit from the promise, then we must fulfill the covenant condition.  Here that means we as parents must train up our children in the way they should go.  That is the condition.

The second thing we notice about this condition is that it is a command.  It is not optional.  The word “if” is lacking from this sentence.  It does not say, “If you train up a child.”  It gives a positive command:  “Train up a child in the way he should go.”  The Hebrew word used for “train” (hanok) is in the imperative.  It is a must.  Note the absence of the word “if.”  So it is a mandatory condition.

God has entrusted our children to us for His purposes, and so He tells us what to do with them.  As parents, we are like those servants in Luke 19 who were each given ten talents and told, “Put the money to work until I come back.”  They were given a trust that did not belong to them, and they were told what they must do with it.  They were required to put it to work.  There was surely great blessing to those who obeyed the conditions and who did well.  They received ten cities and five cities and so on.  But there was no legitimate “do nothing” option.  The man who did nothing out of fear and buried his talent in the ground did not just miss out on the blessing, but he was also called wicked.  Elsewhere he was called wicked, lazy, and worthless (Matt. 25).  And he was thrown out into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  So it is not just “train up your child in the way he should go, if you would like to, and experience some great blessing.”  It is a mandatory command from God that comes with a blessing.

We cannot disobey the command.  We must train them up in the way they should go, lest we be called wicked, lazy, and worthless, and be thrown out.  Just like those talents did not belong to the servants for them to decide whether to put them to work or not, these children do not belong to us.  They are not ours to waste.  They are not ours to spoil.  They are not ours to mold into what we want.  We are to mold them into what God wants.  We must do with them and for them what God commands, to train them up in the way they should go.

This brings us to our third observation about the condition.  It is a very specific condition.  It is not merely, “Train them up some way or the other.”  It is not even, “Train them up in a way that they should go.”  It is, “Train up the child in the way he should go.”  It is prescriptive, but it is also specific.  You must do it, and there is the way, one way, that he should go.

The primary meaning seems clear:  Train them to know God.  Train them to know Jesus Christ savingly, as far as that is within your power.  Train them to put their faith in Him alone for salvation.  We must teach our children about the gospel.  We must teach them and train them that they are all sinners, born in sin and practicing sin daily.  Maybe before your children were born, you could not imagine that they were sinners.  But I am confident that at least all the people in the first two rows know what I am talking about.

Our nature is corrupted by sin thanks to Adam, and it is from birth.  It is not that we are born innocent and become corrupted by this world.  We are born corrupted.  Our corrupt nature results in actual sin in our lives, and we must tell this to our children.  We must tell them, and we must teach them that there is a just punishment for sin:  eternal hell.  Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death, eternal death.  Ephesians 2:1 tells us who are saved that we were all dead in our transgressions and sins.  We are born dead in our transgressions and sins.  We dead sinners are also unable to please God or really to do anything good (Rom. 8).  The ransom for our lives, the penalty for this sin that we committed, is infinite and can never be paid (Ps. 49:8).  In other words, we are all sinners, and we all owe an infinite debt for our infinite sin against infinite God.  But as finite human beings, we cannot pay the infinite price.

We must teach our children this problem.  Our children, like us and like every sinner who has ever lived, need a Savior—a Savior who can pay that infinite cost.  Training them up in the way that they should go does not mean training them up to be good enough to earn God’s salvation.  It does not mean to train them up so that they never become sinners who deserve this eternal punishment.  They are born deserving eternal punishment due to their sin nature, and then they actually sin.   So it is impossible train them up to be good enough to go to heaven.  No, first and foremost, it means train them up to put their faith in Christ alone.  He and He alone is the way (John 14:6).  Early on, Christianity was called “the Way.”  We are to train them up in the way that they should go.

So train them.  Teach them that they are sinners, deserving an eternal punishment.  But, praise the Lord, Christ died for our sins.  He was the infinite God.  He became lowly man.  He obeyed God perfectly all of life, and He died on the cross as our substitute to pay the price for the sins of all who would truly put their faith in Him.  It took infinite God to pay the infinite price.   Romans 10:9 tells us that this is available to all.  This is another promise:  “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead”—this is speaking about regeneration—“you will be saved.”  We must teach this to our children as of first importance.

There is a way, the way, one way that you should go.  And there is a way we can go, praise the Lord.  God did not owe us a way.  He did not owe anyone a way.  Yet He made a way available, open to all, including the little children dedicated, as well as old people in the twilight of life; to those born in Christian homes or in mosques or any other place; to those rich or poor, born in palaces or gutters.  There is a way.  Romans 10:13 says, “All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved”

So there is a way, but there is only one way.  There is only one way they should go.  There is only one way you should go.  Jesus said, “I am the way.”  He also said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”  He is the only God-man, the only one who could represent us as a man, and yet still pay the infinite price because He is also infinite God.  This faith in Jesus Christ is the way they should go, the way to be saved.

The reality is, we can teach them the way, we can train them up in the way, but they do not have to go in the way that they should go.  They can reject it if they are not God’s elect, if they are not born again by the Holy Spirit.  If you are worried about that, I say that you cannot control that.  But you can control what you do.  You can control what you say to them.  You can control how you train them.  So train them in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).  The King James Version renders that, “Nurture them in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

In the eternal view, it does not matter if we train our children to be good at sports and to run fast, or to make lots of money, or to be good at math, or to be polite, or to be doctors or lawyers or engineers, or to fold the laundry correctly, or to load the dishwasher in the only right way that there is.  None of that ultimately matters.  It is good to learn those things, but none of it ultimately matters.  What matters is whether we trained them in the way they should go—the way of faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The final observation about this condition, “Train them up in the way they should go,” is that it requires training—training in the gospel for sure.  We are all foolish and slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.  So it is not telling them the gospel once.  We are to tell them again and again and again.  We are to show them again and again and again.

We must train them because we are all slow to believe, we are all slow of heart.  Train them and tell them over and over in your morning and evening devotions, in the Sunday school classrooms and from the church pews, and as we sit at home and walk along the road (Deut. 6:7).  We must train them all the time.  We must teach them all the time.  All of life, we must impress the gospel upon our children.  It is, after all, the only thing needful, the one thing that they need in this life.  It is a pass/fail test for this life, before we go to face an eternity, one way or the other—an eternity of glory in worship of God, or an eternity of torment and agony of shame in hell.

But there is another element to this training also.  It is not just to train them to express faith in Jesus Christ with words.  It is not just to train them to believe a set of doctrines, or even to agree with them.  It is also to train them to prove their faith by their lives lived in obedience to God by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is called in Romans 1:5 “the obedience of faith.”  The same idea is expressed in Matthew 28:20.  Again, this obedience is not to earn or to merit their salvation, but we do it in thanksgiving to the God who saved us.  We must live a life of joyful obedience to God, a life that is pleasing to God.  We must live for Him who died for us, and we must train our children to do that.

Our salvation is free of cost.  It is by grace.  It is a product of God’s electing love.  It is free of cost, but it is not free of obligation.  Romans 8:12 tells us we have an obligation.  So we must now live for God, and this too takes training.  We must train them to know how God wants us to live.  This knowledge is primarily contained in the word of God, the Holy Scriptures.  Second Timothy 3:16 tells us, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

We must use the Holy Scriptures to train our children in righteousness.  This requires teaching, to tell them what the Bible requires, what God requires.  It requires rebuke and correction when they step out of line, when they do wrong.  But it also requires training.  This Hebrew word for “train” (hanok) implies a training from the beginning.  That is what is in view in this word.  And we know from our own experience that early training lasts a lifetime.  It sticks with you throughout life.

This word hanok is also reminiscent of military training or drills.  We must do things over and over and over again until those movements become second nature, until they become habit.  This also takes time and serious effort.  If you ever see the army soldiers, they are out drilling all the time so that they know exactly what they are supposed to do.  They can do it almost without thinking about it.  This takes time, and it takes serious effort both by the trainee (the person under the trainer) and also by the trainer—the person who is drilling them.  So it will take a lot of your effort and it will take a lot of your time.  But it also takes a lot of care and a lot of love to train another person.  It is not merely berating them or beating them or shouting at them.  In fact, one scholar noted that this word hanok and a closely related Arabic word has the picture of the midwife dipping her finger into a bowl of sweet dates and then massaging it onto the palate of the newborn baby to encourage the suckling instinct.  So we see the love and gentleness that is sometimes necessary.  We want to bring out those things that enable that child to grow and to thrive.  We want to encourage behavior that will benefit that child.

Sometimes we must use this gentle touch and sometimes we must use tough love.  But whatever the correct tool, the same object is always in view: to train them in the way that is best, in the way of faith, in the way of the life that is pleasing to God.

My counsel, young parents, is to put in the effort early to train them.  You may be tempted to put in the effort at work.  “I have to get my career going so that I can make some money so that I can pay for the college” and all of that.  You may be tempted to put in more effort on your home improvement or your yard or your cooking or your investment portfolio or your golf game.  But that is not what God says to do.  He says to put in the effort here.  His command, what He says, is to put in the effort here in these most critical matters of salvation and righteous living for our children.

You are all young, but think about this:  As you get older and older, especially at the end of your life, will you care about your golf handicap or your 401(k) balance or some case you won, or some deal you made at work?  Will you care about those things, or will you care more—much more—about whether your children are in Christ, whether your children are walking in the light?  This is what will matter in your old age.  And as someone who is not quite there yet, I can say that it will be the thing that matters before that too.  As your children grow, as your children develop, the focus comes clear: This is the thing that matters.  No success in the workplace or any other place will make up for failure in the home.  So let us put in the time to teach but also to train in everyday life, as we sit at home, as we walk along the road, as our children grow up around us and watch how we are living.

Train them to put their faith in Jesus Christ.  Train them to seek first the kingdom of God by doing so yourself.  Train them to study the word and to obey it.  Train them to honor you as father and mother, and to honor God’s delegated authorities put over them.  Train them to obey their leaders and submit to their authority, to honor the godly pastors, the godly elders, the godly teachers, the godly youth group leaders that God has placed over them.  Train them to work six days and to honor God on the Sabbath.  Train them to be faithful stewards over all that God has given them.  (GTB) Train them to pay tribute to God in tithes and offerings.  Train them to help those who are in need.  Train them to serve sacrificially and train them to receive help in times of need.

Train them in family order, where the husband serves as the head, the wife as the helpmeet, and the children obey immediately, exactly, and with joy as they are being trained up.  Train them to take an interest in other people, especially to love the lost people of this world and to share the gospel with them.  Train them to love one another just as Christ loved the church and, indeed, as Christ loved the Father and the Father loved Christ.

Train them to forgive others and to teach forgiveness.  Train them to be thankful for all that God has given them.  Train them to rejoice in the Lord always, and in persecutions also.

All of that and more.  It will take a lot of time.  It will take a lot of effort.  It will have successes and forward movement.  It will have failures and backward movement.  It will take a lot of frustration.  It will take a lot of fear.  It will even take some tears, especially in those teenage years.  And it will take a lot of grace.

But I have good news: He gives us more grace (James 4:6).  And His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9).  In fact, He gives us exceedingly abundantly more than anything we can ask or imagine.  God gives us grace to raise up our children in the way they should go because He is the one who gave us the assignment.  He gives the tools that we need for the job He assigns.  Paraphrasing John Calvin, “What God commands us to do by His word He enables us to do by His Spirit.”  So He gives the command, but He also gives the grace to do it.

He gives us grace to raise up our children in the way they should go also because He loves us as parents.  And he gives us grace to train up the children in the way they should go because they are not just our children; they are His children, children of the promise.  So He loves them too.  That is why He tells us to train them up in the way they should go.

2. The Promise

The end of verse 22 tells us, “When he is old, he will not turn from it.”  This is God’s covenant promise to us.  It is an amazing promise.  It is the hope of each of us as parents that our children will confess Christ and will prove to be faithful, fourth-soil Christians.

Notice the implication that our training must start at an early age.  This Hebrew word that I have been discussing, hanok, includes the idea of “start” or “begin.”  In fact, some translate it as “start” or “begin.”  This idea of training them early also comes from the contrast “when he is old.”  We cannot wait until the child is old to start the training.  We must start the training when he is young.

But this is a wonderful promise, that “when he is old, he will not turn from it.”  Children, especially children of Christian parents, are not like everyone else.  They are special people and the objects of God’s special attention.  Remember, it is God who tells Christian parents to produce godly issue, to be fruitful and multiply.  He tells us not to murder our own children in abortion.  He cares that they live.  He tells us not to neglect our children but to feed and to care for them.  God tells us not to disregard our children but to teach them and to train them.  He even tells us not to oppress or exasperate our children, but to use methods designed for their good to achieve a good outcome, especially in faith and in life.

So God has a lot to say about children, especially the children of Christian parents.  He has a special interest in them.  It is true that we have often heard it said that God has no grandchildren, and that each person must make his own confession and commitment to Christ.  This passage is not a guarantee that every child dedicated here today, or every child of every true Christian is going to be saved.  We cannot inherit our salvation.  We cannot inherit our faith.  God’s election ultimately decides.  And we see examples of those who did not share the parents’ faith:  Absalom, Samuel’s sons, Ishmael, Esau and others.  So it is not a guarantee.  But what an opportunity these small babies have.  What a godly heritage these small babies have.  What an inheritance you parents are giving them (and for most of you was given to you by your parents).  What hope these children will know from early on.  What a chance they will have.  They will grow up hearing the truth and seeing it lived out.

From an early age in your home, they will hear the word of God read, the word of God spoken, and the word of God practiced, even if imperfectly.  From an early age, they will learn the word of God through songs, through Scripture, through memory verses and fun activities in the nursery and Sunday school.  From early on, they will hear the word preached with clarity, with power, with boldness, and with Holy-Spirit unction from this pulpit.

From early on, they will be able to learn and grow.  They will have the opportunity to be in a school, not where they are taught wickedness, but where God’s children learn about God’s creation and God’s history from God’s brigade of excellent teachers and their principal; a group committed to teaching not just about science and math and history, but about the Creator of science and the Lord of history.  They will know about Jesus.  They will know about God the Father.  They will know about the Holy Spirit from day one.

They will not be confused by the lies of the world around us, but they will know the truth from infancy.  “That they will know that I am the Lord.”  They will know that there is one way to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ.  They will not grow up confused about these fundamental matters.  They will grow up seeing a community of people who struggle with all their might and with all God’s grace to live according to the Scriptures, and to love God and to love one another with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Precious few children have had such opportunities.

You see, God is interested in His children, and God is interested in their children too.  He has a plan for us as His people, to prosper and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future, including our children’s future.  God’s promise is not simply for me; it is for us.  God’s promise is not simply for one generation, but for all generations until he comes again in glory.

God has always operated this way, in this multi-generational view.  He created Adam and Eve, but then he told them, “Be fruitful and multiply.”  He was interested in the future.  He was not merely interested in them, but also in Abel, in Seth, and even in Cain, to whom He went and told, “Do what is right, and your face will be lifted up.”

God provided godly offspring for Abraham and Sarah even in their old age.  He led their descendants out of Egypt after a long time and settled them in a good land, and He preserved those people for hundreds of years.  In due time, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to be raised for our justification.  Consider that.  God has such an interest in us and in our children that His Son died so that our sons and daughters may live forever.

God has always shown love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands (Exod.20:6; Deut. 5:10).  As Acts 2:39 tells us, “This promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  This is no guarantee that all of our children will be saved, or that all who are dedicated today will be saved.  There is still mystery in election.  Also, there is a condition to the promise, and we must meet that condition, and we may not meet that condition.  In fact, if we are honest, we will all likely fail to meet that condition; at least we will not keep it perfectly.

But if you are worried about election, if you are worried if your child might be lost in the mystery of election, I would say this:  Don’t worry.  You cannot control that anyway.  You can control what you do today, what you teach today, what you train today, and the example that you give your children by your life today.  So give your best effort today, and tomorrow, and every other day, by God’s Holy Spirit, to train up that child in the way he should go.  Give your best effort, and then rest in God’s promises.  Trust God in His good promises that when he is old, he will not turn away from it.  God is good, and God is faithful, and God keeps His promises.  Let us trust in Him to do so.

Let us trust God so much to keep His promise that we will make the maximum effort to fulfill the conditions.  Let us trust God when the times are tough:  when the teenage boy seems destined to rebel or when the middle-school girl seems incorrigible.  At such times, you must trust God’s promise by not giving up, but by continuing to teach and to train, by digging around the tree for another year, by repeating to yourself, “My job is to train, and God says when the child is old, he will not turn from it.”

Let us trust God when times are tough, but let us also trust Him when times are good—not thinking that we have made it, not thinking that we can slack off and say, “I don’t need to teach and to train anymore.  My kid is a good kid.”  No, trust God enough to keep on fulfilling the conditions, to keep training up the child in the way he should go, to keep trusting in God’s promise, not in our child’s goodness or our great parenting skills.

Let us trust God even when our children walk away and become prodigals.  Trust God’s promise by praying and praying and praying:  “Lord, despite whatever failings I have had as a parent, have mercy.  Glorify yourself and save those prodigal children.”

As I said, we do not know the mystery of election.  We do not understand how it works.  So we cannot guarantee that all dedicated children will be saved, even if we do our best.  But we do know God’s good promises, and we know that God fulfills His promises.  So though we cannot guarantee that each of your children will be saved, we can guarantee that God is good, and God is sovereign.  So let us endeavor to keep His conditions, and let God worry about how He will fulfill the promise.

3. The Proof

External proof that God will keep His word, His good promise, is, of course, unnecessary.  His word is sufficient proof that He will do it.  In fact, it is the best proof that there is.  But God in His graciousness provides us proof anyway.  I think He knows that we are wobbly.

Look at Jacob. He was shady at times, even shaky, and always scheming.  But what do we see at the end of his days?  We see him full of faith, worshiping as he leaned on his staff and giving direction about how to bury his bones in the land God had promised.  He knew it would not occur for hundreds of years until after he died, and yet he was giving directions in faith, saying that God would fulfill His promises.  When he got old, he did not turn away from what he learned.  And look at Samuel. He was raised from infancy at God’s temple and a faithful shepherd over God’s flock to the end of his long life.

The clearest proof set forth in our Scripture is young Timothy.  He was Paul’s right-hand man.  He was a workman approved by God.  His father was a Gentile, and his mother was a Jew.  But Timothy was first and foremost a true son of the faith.  He, like these children dedicated today, was a child of God’s promise.  He was blessed to grow up in a home surrounded by the sincere faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  And they trained little Timothy up in the way that he should go, and when he grew old, he did not turn from it.  In fact, he became a great evangelist and a great man of God.

Second Timothy 3:15 proves the work done by Lois and Eunice, and it proves God’s promise: “How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures.”  These women taught young Timothy from an early age.  This must have been very difficult.  He had a Greek father who, at worst, would be opposed to this teaching or, at best, would be unmotivated and uninvolved.  Timothy was surrounded by a worldly culture and had all the opportunity to walk away.  We are also told that he was naturally timid and probably sickly, and he was certainly opposed by the enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  We read of the persecution Paul suffered in 2 Corinthians 11, and Timothy probably suffered some of those with him.  But we know at least from Hebrews 13:23 that Timothy had probably gone to jail for the gospel.

Despite all these obstacles, Timothy stood firm.  He did not fall away due to the persecution.  He was not lured away by the temporary pleasures of sin.  Instead, he stood firm, continuing in what he had learned and become convinced of—the gospel—all based on the solid foundation of the Holy Scriptures laid in infancy by Lois and Eunice.  It was God’s work to regenerate him, but his mother and grandmother laid that foundation.  They believed God’s promise.  They trained him in the way he should go from infancy, and he did not turn away from it.

Let us look to young Timothy and draw encouragement.  He is proof of God’s promise in Proverbs 22:6.  His mother and grandmother trained him, he became convinced of it himself, and so he did not turn away from it when he became old.

If you need something a little more recent, a little more hands-on, you can simply look at your Pastor.  From an early age, he and his siblings were schooled in the word of God by his godly father and his godly mother.  He was trained in faith, in prayer, and in the power and the reality of the Holy Spirit, and so also was his godly wife.  And he tells about it all the time.  And having been trained up in the way that he should go, he never turned away from it.  Even now in his old age, he sails the same course:  the course of the Scriptures, the course of faith in Christ, set for them so many years ago—across oceans and continents, thousands of miles from any kind of oversight or any kind of consequences, whether rich or poor, in joy or in sorrow, they have remained faithful to their scriptural and godly upbringing, and they serve as a shining example to us.  And he did the same for his godly children, who are walking in faith and in holiness with us and before us today.

So we do not have to wonder, “Will God keep his promises?”  He is faithful, and he always does, and we have seen the proof with our own eyes.  Not one of God’s good promises has failed.  So let us look to these proofs and be inspired to keep the condition, to train up our children in the way that they should go.  Let each of us strive to be like a Lois or a Eunice, an Aleyamma Varghese or a T. K. Thomas, a Pastor or a Gladys Mathew.  Let us make every effort, and let us keep our end of the bargain, and let us give God all the glory when He keeps His promises that they will not turn from it when they are old, but they will go to Him in glory.  Amen.