Ex 21:17, And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 
We are in the midst of our consideration of the Lord’s heart after how He views the members of the family unit which He knit together. As we saw last time, there is a very deep and serious manner in which God views the position and the reverence that parents are to receive. When children disrespect and curse their parentage, they are, in the eyes of God, cursing Him for His choice of putting that family unit together. It is as if the child, in his disrespect and vile attitudinal contempt for his parentage, is telling God that He made a terrible mistake. In essence, since these chosen parents are not worth the effort to love, so God is not worthy of love. 
To curse one’s parents is to swear at God and to defame Him and to condemn and disparage Him. It was on that basis that those children, who so dealt with their parents and refused to repent and to change their ways and their attitudes and their behavior, were put to death. This drastic response was in order that their cancerous and malevolent stubbornness would be cut out before it could spread and infect the rest of the community.   
	This is where we will pick up today as the Prophet Ezekiel declared the Word of the Lord against Jerusalem, because this infection of the hearts and minds of the people had not been cleansed away. Please open in your Bibles to Ezek 22:1-8. The Prophet voices what the Lord saw taking place, culminating in the very disregard for the most basic commandments that He had given for the sake of Israel’s health and well-being. What is described is that awful state of rampant disease and malignancy evidenced in the very heart of this death-riddled population. Ezek 22:1-8, Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. "And you shall say, 'Thus says the Lord God," A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come, and that makes idols, contrary to her interest, for defilement! "You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the lands. "Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you of ill repute, full of turmoil. "Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood. "They have treated father and mother lightly within you. The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you. "You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths. 
	Notice, that in the midst of the idolatry and murder and oppression, the statement of our concern glares forth, "They have treated father and mother lightly within you. There was disregard for the station and the reverence of the parents, those people who should have been honored and obeyed. And the Lord ends this proclamation of indignation with the true force of what all these elements had created within the society. "You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths. 
Because the people so lightly regarded the lives of others, leading to murder, and practiced idolatry, and belittled their parents, and abused the aliens and the widows, they then felt no compunction against profaning and despising the very One by Whom these commandments had been put into place. They had no reverence for God’s Word, for His law, for those whom He had established as parents. Thereby they had no regard for any of His holiness and His day of rest. Because He meant nothing to them, neither did anything that He established for their benefit and their security and their prosperity matter in the slightest. 
	This is the vivid picture of the disintegration and the rapid decomposition that takes place within a society that no longer values even the most basic element of the family structure. There is no regard for the parents and their place of responsibility and honor within the hearts of their children. When the parents are cursed and despised, the social structure crumbles and dissolves. In these cases, there is no respect for any human dignity or moral structure, let alone a regard for what is right in the eyes of the Lord. 
This was detailed by the Apostle Paul to Timothy in 1 Tim 1:8-11. 1 Tim 1:8-11, But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. Please note the extent to which the cursing of the parentage disintegrated to the point of their murder. Such is the outcome of this attitude and demeanor of vile contempt.
	In the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, He too, had to deal with this attitude in which the parents and their value within the social structure were belittled for the greedy manner of financial gain. Please turn to Chapter 15, verses 1-11 of the Gospel of Matthew, in which is detailed the discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes, the ones who were supposed to be the religious leaders and conscience of the people. Matt 15:1-11, Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.' "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to his father or mother," Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God," he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me 'But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' "And after He called the multitude to Him, He said to them, "Hear, and understand. "Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." 
	Just as in the situation which was prevalent in Jerusalem at the time of the Prophet Ezekiel, so Jesus addressed the same heart of disrespect and dishonoring of parents. He brought the absolute lack of regard for the parentage designed by God to the forefront of the discussion of how to honor God. If there is no honoring of the parents, there is no way that God will be honored. It all becomes a sham and a hypocritical teaching of tradition. It shows forth the vile seeking after those things of this age which will serve to further human lusts and desires over the adhering to and reverencing of the Word of God. 
 	This is further detailed, quite graphically by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the writing of the Apostle Paul. Please open to the first chapter of the letter to the Romans, verses 20-32. Remember that this is the inspired Word of God which we are reading and hearing. Rom 1:20-32, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
	This is a vivid catalogue of how mankind turns his back on God and chooses to worship the creation rather than the Creator. Humanity will practice all sorts of vile and disgusting things in every manner of defiling himself for the sake of not having to honor and obey God. In the midst of all this perversity and revulsion and awfulness is included the fact that these individuals, slaves to their culture, will practice disobedience to their parents. While we might think this to be rather mild mannered behavior, it is put, by God, into the center of the evil and malevolent atrocities so listed. 
	As if that were not sufficient, in the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy, 2 Tim 3:1-5, instructing his protégé on the proper manner in which to conduct his spiritual duties, there is a very precise and detailed summation of what will be in evidence in the last days. 2 Tim 3:1-5, But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these. It is evident that the death suffered by those who curse their parents is carried forward in the spiritual and eternal death that will envelop those who thus disregard God as evidenced in their vile attitude and behavior to His ordinance to honor their parents.  
	Lest we leave this with only a view toward those who so choose to degrade themselves in their disobedience to their parents and to God, let us return to Ex 20:12 in order to read the very commandment showing the expressed heart of God. Ex 20:12, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. We have concentrated on the awful consequences of cursing our parents, now let us finalize this with the promise of God for those who so choose to honor their father and mother.
	We again turn to the Lord’s inspiration as written by the Apostle Paul as he encourages us in Eph 6:1-4. Eph 6:1-4, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 
The Apostle reemphasizes the fact that God has given a promise to those who honor their father and mother. Their lives will be well ordered and lengthened on the earth. This is so because, when we honor our parents and listen to them and reverence them, we are the recipients of their sage and tested advice. As well, we bless God by showing Him that we feel His commandment is worthy of our obedience. We give Him honor for the choice that He made in providing His given parentage.
	We are directly told this by the Apostle Paul in Col 3:20. Col 3:20, Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. The Lord, Who so ordered that those children who curse their parents be put to death, is the One Who is well pleased in the obedience of the children to their parents. It directly reflects, as we have emphasized, a dutiful and reverent consideration for the Lord as the One Who has so blessed us with our parentage, even as imperfect as they may seem to us. They are still the specific parents so chosen for us by God. We do well to keep that in our heart and mind each time we begin to get frustrated and short tempered with them. 
	Finally, we are instructed by the Apostle Paul, again in the directives and guidelines given to Timothy, in 1 Tim 5:3+4. This is with regard to the proper functioning within the church body. 1 Tim 5:3+4, Honor widows who are widows indeed; but if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God. Children are to take care of their parents and grandparents in their time of need and want. There is to be reciprocation to the parentage for the manner in which they set aside themselves in their duties as parents and taught and fed and clothed and supported their children. So the children are to honor the parents accordingly in their later years, as honoring to the Lord and to the parents. 
	Thus we hearten ourselves and our young ones and promote the actions and the attitudes which serve to honor the command of the Lord. Surely we do not put those who are disobedient to death, but we do teach and we instruct and we pray for our young as they are daily bombarded with all the contrary methodology and indoctrinations of this present society. No matter what, we view the Lord and His Word as worthy of obedience and honor and that is to be reflected in the way in which we honor our fathers and mothers. Thus we mold the future generations in the goodness and the grace of the Lord. So be it!
And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 63:3-5. Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise Thee. So I will bless Thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. Amen.