Christian Rock Pioneer Larry Norman’s Songs Part 8 Album “Only Visiting This Planet”

I posted a lot in the past about my favorite Christian musicians such as Keith Green (I enjoyed reading Green’s monthly publications too), and 2nd Chapter of Acts and others. Today I wanted to talk about one of Larry Norman’s songs. David Rogers introduced me to Larry Norman’s music in the 1970’s and his album IN ANOTHER LAND came out in 1976 and sold an enormous amount of copies for a Christian record back then.

My Top 50 Larry Norman Songs

Larry Norman – Only Visiting This Planet – I’ve Got To Learn To Live Without You

Larry Norman – Only Visiting This Planet – The Outlaw

Larry Norman – Only Visiting This Planet – Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus

Larry Norman – Only Visiting This Planet – Righteous Rocker #1

Only Visiting This Planet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Only Visiting This Planet
Studio album by Larry Norman
Released	1972
Recorded	AIR Studios, London
Genre	Christian rock
Label	Verve
Producer	Rod Edwards, Roger Hand and Jon Miller
Larry Norman chronology
Bootleg (1972) Only Visiting This Planet (1972) So Long Ago the Garden (1973)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Only Visiting This Planet is an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1972. The album was selected as the second album in CCM Magazine‘s The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.^[2] In April 2014 the album was announced as one of 25 sound recordings inducted for 2013 into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, that preserves as “cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures, representing the richness and diversity of the American soundscape”,^[3] making it the first Christian rock album chosen for the registry.^[4]

Contents

• 1 History
• 2 Tracks
• 3 Personnel
• 4 See also
• 5 References

History

On 8 September 1972 Norman began recording his second studio album,^[5] Only Visiting This Planet,^[6] the first album in a projected trilogy,^[7][8] in AIR Studios in London.^[9] Only Visiting This Planet, often ranked as Norman’s best album,^[10] “mixed his Christian message with strong political themes”, and “was meant to reach the flower children disillusioned by the government and the church” with its “abrasive, urban reality of the gospel”.^[10] In a 1980 interview, Norman explained its purpose:

Only Visiting This Planet is the first part of the trilogy, and represents the present. On the front cover, I find myself standing in the middle of New York City, with buildings and traffic pressed around me and my hand on my head kind of saying, What is going on in this life? Is this really earth?, and the back cover is me visiting the site of a previous civilisation with its own monoliths, not skyscrapers, but amazing, architecturally sound structures just the same. The Druids apparently constructed Stonehenge to help them observe or worship the sun, and their civilisation is now as dead as will someday be New York. And I’m just standing there, looking around, wondering what happened to kill off this culture and reduce its entire recorded history to a few standing structures.^[11]

On 6 January 1973 Norman was one of three named as Best New Male Artist of the year by Cashbox.^[12] By February 1973 songs from Only Visiting This Planet had been recommended by Billboard for “heavy Top 40 airplay”,^[13] and were being played on WVVS-FM, KSHE-FM, and WKTK-FM.^[14] In 1990 CCM magazine voted Only Visiting This Planet as “the greatest Christian album ever recorded”.^[15] Only Visiting This Planet was one of 25 sound recordings inducted for 2013 into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, that preserves as “cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures, representing the richness and diversity of the American soundscape.”^[16] A statement by the Library of Congress called the album “the key work in the early history of Christian rock,” describing Norman as one who “commented on the world as he saw it from his position as a passionate, idiosyncratic outsider to mainstream churches.”^[17]

After a tour of South Africa in June and the UK in July,^[18] and the release in July of his “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?”, a songbook featuring some of Norman’s songs from both Upon This Rock and Only Visiting This Planet.^[19]

In the song “Reader’s Digest” Norman sings the following verse: “Dear John, who’s more popular now? I´ve been listening to some of Paul’s new records. Sometimes I think he really is dead.” (see Paul is dead) “Who’s more popular now?” makes reference to John Lennon’s famous claim that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The album features King Crimson prog-rock bassist and Asia frontman, John Wetton on bass guitar.

A three-LP boxed set containing the entire trilogy in their originally intended forms and titled The Compleat Trilogy (as mentioned on the insert of the Street Level reissue of Only Visiting This Planet) has never been released.

Tracks

All tracks composed by Larry Norman

Original LP release

Side 1

1. “I’ve Got to Learn to Live Without You”
2. “The Outlaw”
3. “Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus”
4. “Righteous Rocker #1”
5. “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”

Side 2

1. “I Am Six O’Clock News”
2. “The Great American Novel”
3. “Pardon Me”
4. “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music”
5. “Reader’s Digest”
6. “Oh, How I Love You” (not listed)

Additional tracks on subsequent releases

1. “PeacePollutionRevolution” (1971 single)
2. “Righteous Rocker” (rough mix) or (Hard Rock Version) or (Delta Swamp Version)
3. “The Outlaw” (demo) or (Rock Remake) or (Peace Mix Remake)
4. “Digest” (rock version) or “Reader’s Digest” (Hard Rock Remake) or (Solid Rock Studio Remake)

Maximum Planet (The Anthology Series)

1. I’ve Got To Learn To Live Without You – Basic Master Track
2. Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus – Master Track
3. I Wish We’d All Been Ready – Basic Master Track
4. I Am The Six O’Clock News – Basic Master Track
5. Six O’Clock News – Jet Fade-In with Stewardess
6. Six O’Clock News – Jet Fade-Out Jam
7. The Great American Novel – Demo #2 With Faint Vox
8. Pardon Me – With Vox & No Orchestra
9. Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music – Vox 2.0
10. Uncredited, Unidentified Song – Spiral Out-Groove
11. The Great American Novel – Warm-Up Demo
12. I-ve Got To Learn To Live Without You – Basic Track
13. The Outlaw – With Electric Guitars And Guide Vocal
14. I Am The Six O’Clock News – Basic Track With Guitars And Guide Vocal
15. I Wish We’d All Been Ready – With Orchestra & No vox
16. Why Should The Devil – With Guide Vocal
17. Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus – On Stage

Personnel

• Larry Norman – vocals, piano
• John Wetton – bass
• Keith Smart – drums
• Mickey Keen – guitar
• Rod Edwards – piano and backing vocals
• Roger Hand – backing vocals
• Gordon Giltrap – guitar
• Bob Brady – piano
• Bill Price – engineer

See also

• Larry Norman discography

References

1. Allender, Mark W. B. “(Review) Only Visiting This Planet“. Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
2. Granger, Thom (2001). The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music. Harvest House. ISBN 0-7369-0281-3.
3. “Hallelujah, the 2013 National Recording Registry Reaches 400”, “News from the Library of Congress” (April 2, 2014).
4. “U2, Linda Ronstadt among 25 albums to be preserved”, The Washington Post (April 2, 2014).
5. Michel Ruppli and Ed Novitsky, The MGM Labels: A Discography, 1961 – 1982 Vol. 2 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998):762.
6. For comments about each song, see “PLANET: SONG BY SONG”, http://www.onlyvisiting.com/music/discography/Only_Visiting/visiting.songs.html
7. Only Visiting This Planet, So Long Ago the Garden, and In Another Land are commonly referred to as “The Trilogy.”
8. Larry Norman – So Long Ago The Garden newmusicplease.com 2006-08-28 retrieved 2007-12-27
9. “Larry in the UK”, http://www.larrynorman.uk.com/inuk.html
10. CBNmusic, “Larry Norman”, http://www.cbn.com/cbnmusic/artists/norman_larry.aspx
11. Larry Norman, in “New Music Interview 1980 Part 3”, http://dagsrule.com/stuff/larry/intvw80c.html To see the cover and its various releases and versions, see Robert Termorshuizen (with updates by Jim Böthel), “Only Visiting This Planet (1972)”, http://www.meetjesushere.com/Only_Visiting_This_Planet.htm
12. Marc Eliot and Mike Appel, Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen (Simon & Schuster, 1993):101. The others were Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy.
13. “Special Merit Picks”, Billboard (10 February 1973):64.
14. “Billboard FM Action”, Billboard (17 February 1973):18.
15. Matthew Dickerson, “Home At Last”, in Larry Norman, “Blue Book”, (1989):16; Bob Gersztyn, “Jesus and Larry and Me”, The Wittenburg Door, http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/larry-norman
16. “Hallelujah, the 2013 National Recording Registry Reaches 400”, “News from the Library of Congress” (April 2, 2014).
17. “Christian rock pioneer’s album added to National Recording Registry”, The Washington post (April 2, 2014).
18. “Norman Tour of U.K., S. Africa”, Billboard (26 May 1973):22.
19. Larry Norman, Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music Songbook (Los Angeles, CA: One Way, 1972), http://www.meetjesushere.com/songbooks_&_sheet_musics.htm; The songbook was published by One Way Publications (see “Inside Track”, Billboard (7 July 1973):66) and released in 1972 (see Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music (1972?), http://www.meetjesushere.com/songbooks_&_sheet_musics.htm)

[hide] v t e Larry Norman Discography Songs Studio albums Upon This Rock (1969) Bootleg (1972) Something New Under the Son (1981) Home at Last (1989) Stranded in Babylon (1991) Tourniquet (2001) Live albums Street Level (1970) Trilogy Only Visiting This Planet (1972) So Long Ago the Garden (1973) In Another Land (1976) Record labels One Way Records Phydeaux Records Solid Rock Records Street Level Records Related topics Early life and career Later life and career Musicals List of Larry Norman songs People! Relationship with Randy Stonehill Category

Categories:

• 1972 albums
• Larry Norman albums
• Contemporary Christian music albums
• United States National Recording Registry recordings

—

Proverbs 24:33-34 teaches us that you can’t be lazy!!!

 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
³⁴ then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
    scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Proverbs 24 New Living Translation

Proverbs 24New Living Translation

24 Don’t envy evil people
    or desire their company.
² For their hearts plot violence,
    and their words always stir up trouble.

³ A house is built by wisdom
    and becomes strong through good sense.
⁴ Through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.

⁵ The wise are mightier than the strong,^[a]
    and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger.
⁶ So don’t go to war without wise guidance;
    victory depends on having many advisers.

⁷ Wisdom is too lofty for fools.
    Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say.

⁸ A person who plans evil
    will get a reputation as a troublemaker.
⁹ The schemes of a fool are sinful;
    everyone detests a mocker.

¹⁰ If you fail under pressure,
    your strength is too small.

¹¹ Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die;
    save them as they stagger to their death.
¹² Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.”
    For God understands all hearts, and he sees you.
He who guards your soul knows you knew.
    He will repay all people as their actions deserve.

¹³ My child,^[b] eat honey, for it is good,
    and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste.
¹⁴ In the same way, wisdom is sweet to your soul.
    If you find it, you will have a bright future,
    and your hopes will not be cut short.

¹⁵ Don’t wait in ambush at the home of the godly,
    and don’t raid the house where the godly live.
¹⁶ The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
    But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

¹⁷ Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
    don’t be happy when they stumble.
¹⁸ For the Lord will be displeased with you
    and will turn his anger away from them.

¹⁹ Don’t fret because of evildoers;
    don’t envy the wicked.
²⁰ For evil people have no future;
    the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.

²¹ My child, fear the Lord and the king.
Don’t associate with rebels,
²²     for disaster will hit them suddenly.
Who knows what punishment will come
    from the Lord and the king?

More Sayings of the Wise

²³ Here are some further sayings of the wise:

It is wrong to show favoritism when passing judgment.
²⁴ A judge who says to the wicked, “You are innocent,”
    will be cursed by many people and denounced by the nations.
²⁵ But it will go well for those who convict the guilty;
    rich blessings will be showered on them.

²⁶ An honest answer
    is like a kiss of friendship.

²⁷ Do your planning and prepare your fields
    before building your house.

²⁸ Don’t testify against your neighbors without cause;
    don’t lie about them.
²⁹ And don’t say, “Now I can pay them back for what they’ve done to me!
    I’ll get even with them!”

³⁰ I walked by the field of a lazy person,
    the vineyard of one with no common sense.
³¹ I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.
    It was covered with weeds,
    and its walls were broken down.
³² Then, as I looked and thought about it,
    I learned this lesson:
³³ A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
³⁴ then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
    scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

—-

How to Guard Your Heart

Adrian Rogers

| Love Worth Finding 

2021 

26 Apr 

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil (Proverbs 4:23-27).

How does God intend for us to live? The book of Proverbs beautifully takes practical matters, interweaves the spiritual, and makes life the beautiful thing God wants it to be. When a person knows God and is right with God, they will find they live a perfectly natural, intensely practical, and deeply spiritual life all at the same time. That’s what God intends. 

What Does it Mean to “Guard Your Heart”?

In the Old Testament the word “heart” is used more than 800 times, but more than 200 times it deals with one’s thought life, emotions, the wellsprings of life, those things that motivate and mold us. The Bible calls that the heart. I’m calling it the thought life. 

Why is the thought life so important? Why did Solomon tell his son, “above all else, guard your heart; for out of it are the issues of life?” Because the thought life controls the rest of your life. 

If you tell me what you think, I’ll tell you who you are and the life you live. What you think is what you are. The thought life controls you. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).  

Your thoughts—positive, negative, good, or bad—control your attitudes. Your attitudes are the sum total of your thoughts. Your attitudes lead to your actions.  

Your Thoughts Control Your Actions

All good psychologists will tell you that. Someone once said, “Sow a thought, reap a deed. Sow a deed, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” 

Before you can do a thing you have to think it. Your thoughts lead to attitudes; attitudes lead to actions; actions lead to those achievements. It all begins with the thought life. Your achievements will be the sum total of your thoughts. 

This is so fundamental that God destroyed an entire civilization because they had “heart trouble.” 

 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually before God” (Genesis 6:5).

God said, “The thoughts of their heart are so evil, I’m going to have to destroy them,” and He sent the floodbecause of the thoughts of men’s hearts. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.  We’re still having the same problem they had. Do the follow questions give you pause for the condition of the heart? 

• What lies do I believe about myself or the world around me, and how is that affecting my relationship with God?  
• What sins or bad habits in my life are weighing me down from a higher moral conduct?
• What behaviors or habits do I know to be right, and yet avoid or ignore?
• Am I selfishly trying to find physical or emotional fulfillment through my relationships?

How to Guard Your Heart 

“Be not conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

When God gets ready to change someone, how does He do it? By changing how they think. God changes the thought process.

What Solomon said to his son was, “Son, guard, protect, and be careful of your thought life. Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to present our bodies to Him, including our minds, that He might transform us. No wonder the devil battles for the mind. How important that we learn to keep our hearts, because a fierce battle is raging for the control of your mind.   

When God is in the heart, then we think right, live right, do right. When God is absent, we think wrong, do wrong, live wrong. 

Be careful what comes into your mind. You have to think pure thoughts. Now, a text without a context is a pretext, so context is important. In this passage Solomon is talking about the sexual affairs of a young man. Solomon is warning his son about having impure, immoral thoughts in his heart and life.  

Let me tell you something wonderful. God made you where you can’t think two things at one time. So how do you keep from thinking what’s wrong? Just think what’s right. And if you’re thinking what’s right, you cannot be thinking what’s wrong. 

It’s another way of saying, “Just load up on My Word. Get My Word into your heart.” 

• “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
• “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.”   
• “I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.” (Psalm 119:9-11) 

Store up the word of God.  

How are you going to think pure thoughts? By thinking positive thoughts. Not thinking about flowers and birds and trees, but the mighty Word of God. “The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). Get it in your heart. It has power to cleanse and keep you.    

From your thought life and through your thought life God wants to minister to you. A God-controlled thought life will—

• Govern your speech (v. 24)
• Guard your sight (v. 25)
• Guide your steps  (v. 27)

If you want to know what is in your heart, just listen to what escapes your mouth. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). As they say in the country, “What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.”  

When your mind is clear and right with God, when you think the thoughts of Christ after Him, when you have the mind of Christ, when you’re being transformed by the word of God and the power of God and the Spirit of God in your thought life, then you’re going to be doing the will of God.  

God has a plan for you, a wonderful plan. The book of Proverbs shows you His plan for having health, wealth, and wisdom. It begins in your thought life.

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Proverbs 6:16-19

Proverbs 6:16-17 says, “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood…” 

Every day in America, thousands of innocent babies will be slain as a result of the grizzly abortion industry. They will have no chance or trial; no jury or lawyer to argue their case, and they will be executed in a cruel and inhumane way. No matter the vocabulary social engineers use to soften it, abortion snuffs out innocent lives. A baby is not an extension of the mother’s body; this child is a new life, and the object of God’s love and affection.

God determines when life begins, not the Supreme Court. And in Jeremiah 1:5, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Abortion transgresses the Golden Rule, which is to do to others as you want others to do to you (Matthew 7:12). It also goes against our God-given natural instinct to protect the unborn. To destroy that instinct is to go against God. Abortion is also primarily rooted in selfishness and greed. 

No matter the explanations we receive from those who advocate for “choice,” we must stand our ground. We must speak up for the unborn child who cannot speak for himself. 

We must also forget our self-righteousness and have more compassion toward unwed mothers. We should so-cover them in grace and prayer that our judgment never chases them into the abortion clinics.

Finally, we must pray fervently that God will have mercy on us and give us time to repent.

Adrian Rogers says, “I’m living for that day when we have a revival of righteousness in America. I want to believe it’s coming—that God, not any preacher or president, will do something in America; God is our only hope!”

Apply it to your life

We must stay informed about the shedding of innocent blood in this nation. As we work for and pray for a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion, let us also see to it that sexual morality is being taught at home and in the church. Pray that God will have mercy upon us and give us space to repent.

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Ecclesiastes: Solomon with Life in the Fast Lane

June 3, 2013 – 1:19 am

Ecclesiastes 6-8 | Solomon Turns Over a New Leaf Published on Oct 2, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | September 30, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider _____________________ I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Ecclesiastes a scathing and self-deprecating attack on hedonism and secular humanism by Solomon

May 31, 2013 – 1:17 am

Ecclesiastes 4-6 | Solomon’s Dissatisfaction Published on Sep 24, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | September 23, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider ___________________ I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Solomon was right in his cynicism–unless……unless there is a God who created us and cares about us

May 22, 2013 – 1:34 am

Ecclesiastes 8-10 | Still Searching After All These Years Published on Oct 9, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | October 7, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider _______________________ Ecclesiastes 11-12 | Solomon Finds His Way Published on Oct 30, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | October 28, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

The Humanist takes on Solomon and the Book of Ecclesiastes

May 20, 2013 – 1:13 pm

Ecclesiastes 8-10 | Still Searching After All These Years Published on Oct 9, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | October 7, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider _______________________ Ecclesiastes 11-12 | Solomon Finds His Way Published on Oct 30, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | October 28, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Tom Brady , Coldplay, Kansas, Solomon and the search for satisfaction (part 3)

December 23, 2011 – 11:12 am

Tom Brady “More than this…” Uploaded by EdenWorshipCenter on Jan 22, 2008 EWC sermon illustration showing a clip from the 2005 Tom Brady 60 minutes interview. _______________________ Tom Brady ESPN Interview Tom Brady has famous wife earned over 76 million dollars last year. However, has Brady found lasting satifaction in his life? It does not […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Adrian Rogers on gambling

July 18, 2013 – 12:44 am

Adrian Rogers: How to Be a Child of a Happy Mother Published on Nov 13, 2012 Series: Fortifying Your Family (To read along turn on the annotations.) Adrian Rogers looks at the 5th commandment and the relationship of motherhood in the commandment to honor your father and mother, because the faith that doesn’t begin at home, […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Book of Ecclesiastes

July 17, 2013 – 1:40 am

Ecclesiastes 1 Published on Sep 4, 2012 Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | September 2, 2012 | Pastor Derek Neider _____________________ I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope to show how secular humanist man […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Adrian Rogers: Are fathers necessary?

July 16, 2013 – 12:43 am

Adrian Rogers – How to Cultivate a Marriage Another great article from Adrian Rogers. Are fathers necessary? “Artificial insemination is the ideal method of producing a pregnancy, and a lesbian partner should have the same parenting rights accorded historically to biological fathers.” Quoted from the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, summer of 1995. […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

Tom Brady, Coldplay, Kansas, Solomon and the search for satisfaction (part 2)

December 22, 2011 – 11:56 am

Tom Brady “More than this…” Uploaded by EdenWorshipCenter on Jan 22, 2008 EWC sermon illustration showing a clip from the 2005 Tom Brady 60 minutes interview. To Download this video copy the URL to http://www.vixy.net ________________ Obviously from the video clip above, Tom Brady has realized that even though he has won many Super Bowls […]

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Proverbs 23New Living Translation

23 While dining with a ruler,
    pay attention to what is put before you.
² If you are a big eater,
    put a knife to your throat;
³ don’t desire all the delicacies,
    for he might be trying to trick you.

⁴ Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.
    Be wise enough to know when to quit.
⁵ In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
    for it will sprout wings
    and fly away like an eagle.

⁶ Don’t eat with people who are stingy;
    don’t desire their delicacies.
⁷ They are always thinking about how much it costs.^[a]
    “Eat and drink,” they say, but they don’t mean it.
⁸ You will throw up what little you’ve eaten,
    and your compliments will be wasted.

⁹ Don’t waste your breath on fools,
    for they will despise the wisest advice.

¹⁰ Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving the ancient boundary markers;
    don’t take the land of defenseless orphans.
¹¹ For their Redeemer^[b] is strong;
    he himself will bring their charges against you.

¹² Commit yourself to instruction;
    listen carefully to words of knowledge.

¹³ Don’t fail to discipline your children.
    The rod of punishment won’t kill them.
¹⁴ Physical discipline
    may well save them from death.^[c]

¹⁵ My child,^[d] if your heart is wise,
    my own heart will rejoice!
¹⁶ Everything in me will celebrate
    when you speak what is right.

¹⁷ Don’t envy sinners,
    but always continue to fear the Lord.
¹⁸ You will be rewarded for this;
    your hope will not be disappointed.

¹⁹ My child, listen and be wise:
    Keep your heart on the right course.
²⁰ Do not carouse with drunkards
    or feast with gluttons,
²¹ for they are on their way to poverty,
    and too much sleep clothes them in rags.

²² Listen to your father, who gave you life,
    and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Get the truth and never sell it;
    also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.
²⁴ The father of godly children has cause for joy.
    What a pleasure to have children who are wise.^[e]
25 So give your father and mother joy!
    May she who gave you birth be happy.

²⁶ O my son, give me your heart.
    May your eyes take delight in following my ways.
²⁷ A prostitute is a dangerous trap;
    a promiscuous woman is as dangerous as falling into a narrow well.
²⁸ She hides and waits like a robber,
    eager to make more men unfaithful.

²⁹ Who has anguish? Who has sorrow?
    Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining?
    Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns,
    trying out new drinks.
³¹ Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,
    how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.
³² For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;
    it stings like a viper.
³³ You will see hallucinations,
    and you will say crazy things.
³⁴ You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea,
    clinging to a swaying mast.
³⁵ And you will say, “They hit me, but I didn’t feel it.
    I didn’t even know it when they beat me up.
When will I wake up
    so I can look for another drink?”

—

A Nation in Crisis By Adrian Rogers (Transcript)

 Truth2Freedom

1 year ago

Date Preached: August 30, 1998

Main Scripture Text: Isaiah 59:1–5, 12–15

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Isaiah 59:2

Outline

Introduction

1. They Had Bloody Hands
2. They Had Lying Lips
3. They Had Wicked Hearts
4. A Diet of Deception
5. A Web of Wickedness
6. The Web of Pornography
7. The Web of Drugs and Alcohol
8. The Web of Sexual Immorality

III.          A Trashing of Truth

Conclusion

Introduction

Be finding in your Bibles the book of Isaiah chapter 59; and when you’ve found it, would you look up here, and may I tell you as you’re finding it that our beloved United States of America is in a crisis. And the title of the message today: “A Nation in Crisis.” One by one, the lights of decency and the lights of hope are being blown out in America. And it seems that Americans are content to have scoundrels in leadership so long as they give us prosperity. But one day, calamity will come. One day, we will face perhaps international terrorism, perhaps unparalleled economic reversal, perhaps natural disasters over which we have no control whatsoever. And then we will fill our churches, and we will turn our eyes upward. And we will dial 911, but there will be no answer: the line will be dead. First Samuel chapter 8, verse 18, says, “And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:18) You’ll cry out; you’ll say, “O God, have mercy.” You’ll pray, and your prayers won’t be answered. Why is that?

Well, look in Isaiah chapter 59, verse 1: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:”—God is not palsied, and God is not deaf—“but”—verse 2—“your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.” (Isaiah 59:1–4) Now, what is Isaiah saying to a sinful nation of that day? God is well able to hear your prayers. It’s not that He cannot hear your prayers; it is that He will not hear your prayers because your sin has created a barrier between you and a holy God. And Isaiah tells us what the sin of that day was and how it tracks and parallels the sin of our day.

1. They Had Bloody Hands

First of all, look in verse 2. They had bloody hands. America is swimming in an ocean of blood. A modern holocaust has stained and flooded America. The blood of some thirty million preborn babies cries out from the ground against us since 1972, that horrendous Roe v. Wade ruling when nine men dressed in black robes said that a little preborn babies can be treated as a piece of protoplasm. And we in America are now killing babies at the rate of four thousand a day. Notice what Isaiah said: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.” (Isaiah 59:2) Verse 3: “Your hands are defiled with blood.” (Isaiah 59:3)

When you ask a politician about abortion, he’ll dodge the issue. He’ll tell you, “That’s a moral decision. It is a religious decision. That’s not a proper subject for politics, and that needs to be studied in the church between the priest, the rabbi, and the pastor. It is a personal decision, not a political decision.” But if the priest, the rabbi, or the pastor speaks about it, they’ll rise up and say, “Why doesn’t he stay out of politics?” And meanwhile, the babies die. And we are swimming in an ocean of blood, and the violence of our day has surpassed the days of Noah, the days of Lot. King Herod is in the background today. One man has wisely said, “Today we’re living in the day where twelve-year-olds are having babies, fifteen-year-olds are killing each other, seventeen-year-olds are dying of AIDS, and eighteen-year-olds are graduating from high school with a diploma they can’t read.” That’s where we are in America today: bloody hands.

1. They Had Lying Lips

But then he goes on to say not only bloody hands, but lying lips. Again, look, if you will, in verse 3: “Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.” (Isaiah 59:3) I’ve been watching the news programs lately, and we’ve been talking about lies in high places and low places. And the going merchandise among those news programs is, “Well, everybody lies. What’s so rare about lies? Everybody lies.” U. S. News & World Report in a report said this: “Governmental officials dissemble; scientists falsify research; workers alter career credentials to get jobs.” And then the magazine asks, “What’s going on here? The answer, a growing number of social critics fear, is an alarming decline in basic honesty.”

1. They Had Wicked Hearts

Bloody hands. Lying lips. Number three: wicked hearts. Look, if you will, in verse 4: “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.” (Isaiah 59:4) It’s terrible to raise teenagers today, because we have a day of moral ambivalence; we have a day of ethical fogginess. What are we being told today? We’re being told that adultery is really no big deal: everybody does that. Friend, I want to tell you, if a man will not keep a sacred vow before Almighty God to his wife, I wouldn’t trust him to keep any promise anywhere anytime. We’re being told today that private morality can be disconnected from public service. That’s not what God’s Word says. Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 1 says this: “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.” (Ecclesiastes 10:1) Dead flies in the ointment, friend; something stinks in America.

Theodore Roosevelt, a man of yesteryear, won his first major election back in 1898. He was elected governor of New York. About that time, Theodore Roosevelt wrote something that’s so pertinent to our day and our age. I want you to listen to it. It sounds like it was written for today, but listen to it. He says, “No community is healthy where it is ever necessary to distinguish one politician among his fellows because ‘he is honest.’ Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest we have no right to keep him in public life, it matters not how brilliant his capacity, it hardly matters how great his powers of doing good service on certain lines may be.” Now what Teddy Roosevelt said was, “If he’s not honest, then he’s just simply disqualified.”

Again, Teddy Roosevelt said this: “If a man lies under oath or procures the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he is guilty under the statute law. Under the higher law, under the great law of morality and righteousness, he is precisely as guilty if, instead of lying in a court, he lies in a newspaper or on the stump; and in all probability the evil effects of his conduct are infinitely more wide-spread and more pernicious. The difference between perjury and mendacity is not in the least one of morals or ethics. It is simply one of legal forms.” Now what he is saying is the same thing that Jesus said when He said, “[When you speak] let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay.” (James 5:12) It doesn’t matter whether you’re under oath or whether you’re not under oath.

We’re being told today that somehow public approval validates wrong behavior. This same Isaiah, whose book we’re reading, said in Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”(Isaiah 5:20) We’re being told that if a man is approved by society, that that is good. It is not good, no matter how many times we take a poll. We’re being told that a lie about adultery is permissible and that a lie while under oath is not acceptable. And Jesus said, “Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay.” (James 5:12)

Now, what has brought about this condition? Why is it that Isaiah’s people came to a place where they would look up to God and say, “God have mercy on us,” and God said, “No, I’m not going to hear your prayer”? What brought about bloody hands, lying lips, and wicked hearts? Three things—I want you to see them right here in this text.

1. A Diet of Deception

Number one: The people had been feeding on a diet of deception. Look in verse 5: “They hatch [viper’s] eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.” (Isaiah 59:5) Now if you’ll look at verse 5, and link verse 5 to verse 4, you’re going to find out that those viper’s eggs, those snake eggs that he’s talking about that are hatched in hell’s incubators, they are devilish lies and philosophies that are being hatched—were hatched in Isaiah’s day and also being hatched in our day—lying, poisonous philosophies that are being swallowed down by adults and by youth alike. Our world, our nation, is on a snake egg diet—a diet of deception. The incubators that hatch those eggs are materialism, humanism, New Ageism, liberalism. They’ve hatched these out. The old granddaddy serpent who has spawned and fertilized these eggs is Satan himself because he is a liar, and the father of all lies. (John 8:44) There are certain philosophical underpinnings that are so incipient in American life today that are poisoning our educational, our philosophical, our religious, and political outlook.

And our young people are going to public schools, and each morning they’re served a snake egg omelet. They swallow these things down. You see, dramatic changes have taken place in America, and in twenty years—twenty years that most of us have lived through—there has been a complete reversal. From 1962 to 1982, let me tell you what has happened in twenty years. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that voluntary prayer in public schools is unconstitutional. Now they tell us that our children must be in the public schools, but they say, “You cannot have voluntary prayer. We’ll put you there, but you cannot pray.” That’s 1962. Then, in 1963, the same court dismantled classroom Bible reading: no room for the Bible in our halls of education. Then, in 1980, the posting of the Ten Commandments was declared unconstitutional. Now when kids are bringing guns to school, we cannot post on the walls of our schoolrooms, “Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17) In 1982, the court prohibited the teaching of biblical creation. In twenty years, God has been expelled from our public schools and been told not to return. Now abortion, infanticide, euthanasia all become possible in a world where you believe that man is the creation of some blind, evolutionary force; that he is not created in the image of God, but he has evolved from some primordial ooze.

So, what do we have today? What is it like? Well, today, children, if they go to school, must receive parental permission before a school-based clinic can prescribe an aspirin. But yet in America a little teenage girl can be given an abortion—abortion guidance counsel, and the abortion itself—without the parents even knowing that this is taking place. That is in America. School-based clinics dispense birth control devices and parental counseling without notification or approval. What is happening in America is that our kids are being served snake eggs everyday. Prayer is out; policemen are in. Bibles are out; values clarification is in. The Ten Commandments, yes, they’re out; but rape and armed robbery, gang warfare, murder, and cheating are in. Creation instruction is out; evolution and blind chance is in. Corporal punishment is out; disrespect and rebellion are in. Traditional values are out; unwed motherhood is in. Abstinence is out; condoms and abortion are in. Learning is out; social engineering is in. History is out; revisionism is in. Is it any wonder that the suicide rate of our teenagers is soaring, runaway statistics are soaring, promiscuity problems, violent crime? Our kids are not being raised in a society, in a school, that says that they have rights that are given to them, unalienable rights given by Almighty God, but they are told that the universe itself exists—not that it was created—and the wisdom that built this great nation is being laughed at.

But here’s the sad thing. Look, if you will, in verse 5: “They hatch [viper’s] eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth,”—now, watch that—“and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.” (Isaiah 59:5) When you come against these things and try to stamp them out, all you do is create more snakes. To stamp out these snake eggs is not the answer.

1. A Web of Wickedness

Now not only is there a diet of deception, but that is compounded by a second thing in America that makes our nation a nation in crisis: not only a diet of deception, but a web of wickedness. Look again in verse 5, if you will. He says here in verse 5, “They … weave the spider’s web.” I got down my encyclopedia and read something about spiders. I don’t know whether you have a love affair with spiders or not. I don’t. But spiders weave a web—almost invisible, very sticky. And the purpose of that web is to catch an unsuspecting insect who will fly into that web and become entangled in that web where the spider can come out and wrap him out in more strands of that web. Then the spider injects poison into the body of that insect, and the spider sucks that insect dry.

Now Satan has woven some webs, and he is poisoning and sucking dry the generation of young people today. Satan has a network—are you listening to me?—a web of evil that is absolutely terrifying, and our young people can hardly see the web. They don’t understand it.

1. The Web of Pornography

There’s pornography, for example: the web of pornography. “Pastor Rogers, does pornography lead to degeneracy?” Pornography is degeneracy. That’s what it is. Our kids today can get on the Internet and watch unspeakable, unmentionable things, even in school, as they can access these things. At home they can pick up the phone, dial-a-porn, and listen to lesbian sexual activities, sodomy, rape, incest, bestiality, or sex with other children. There are more adult bookstores in America today than there are McDonald’s restaurants. Pornography is a multibillion-dollar industry. That is a web, and so many kids and adults alike are being caught in it.

1. The Web of Drugs and Alcohol

Satan has his web of drugs and alcohol—a deadly trap. America is filled today with walking dead, whose lives have been sucked dry by the spiders of alcohol and drug abuse. I read recently where students spend 5.5 billion dollars on alcohol: more than they spend on nonalcoholic drinks like Pepsi or Coke or 7 Up and books put together—on alcoholic beverages! Now these Madison Avenue people come into the living room through their beer ads, and through their sports ads, and they’ll have these boys, as I’ve said before, out there on the bass boat somewhere hoisting a six-pack, and one of them smiles and says to the other one, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” Boy, they’re right: it always gets worse. “It doesn’t get any better than this.” And we have a generation of walking dead, who have been sucked dry, embalmed, by alcohol.

1. The Web of Sexual Immorality

There’s a sticky web of immorality. Young people are being told today there are no fixed standards of right or wrong, and the media, or entertainment, has created the myth that premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality are on the same level as chastity, monogamy, and heterosexuality. And in our so-called sex education classes in many of our schools they have a threefold goal—and that is to teach children how to fornicate without guilt, without catching a disease, and without conceiving a baby. That’s called “sex education” today.

How would you like your child to go to school and hear what some are being taught? Here’s what they’re being taught. Here’s the textbook. Quote: “Premarital sexual intercourse is both acceptable for men and women if they are involved in a stable, loving relationship. It has been suggested by some marriage counseling authorities that all couples should live together before they’re married.” How would you like that for education? Or listen to this: “Often, promiscuity is labeled as bad by persons who do not accept this type of behavior. As with other patterns of sexual behavior, one should not pin ‘good’ or ‘bad’ on a practice.” Here’s another: “Morality is individual; it’s what you think it is. Your conception of what is right or wrong morally is an individual decision.”

May God have mercy upon us when these tell us we cannot pray, we cannot read God’s Word, we cannot post the Ten Commandments, but we can denigrate God’s Word and God’s law. And kids today talk about “going all the way.” My God, that’s the one thing they don’t do. They haven’t gone all the way. They go a little further when they catch a disease along the way; a little further when a baby is conceived and they have to tell their father or mother; a little further if they decide to murder that baby. But they really haven’t gone all the way until they stand before a holy God who says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; (Exodus 20:14) a holy God who says, “Flee fornication.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)

III.       A Trashing of Truth

Friend, we are in a terrible situation. What has brought about this crisis in America? Number one: a diet of deception. Number two: a web of wickedness. Number three: the trashing of truth. Fast-forward to verse 12: “For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.” Now, watch this: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off:”—why has judgment been turned away backward? Why does justice wait in the wings? Here it is—“for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” (Isaiah 59:12–15) That is, when you stand up and speak against it, you become the bad guy.

Listen. I have been preaching too many years for me not to know that I am the heavy today; I am the bad guy today; I’m making myself a prey when I say “This is wrong” when I speak against these things. When you call for justice, when you call for truth, you become the guy in the black hat. That’s the state to which we have come today. But notice what he says. He says there’s a traffic jam. Justice, equity, cannot come through the streets, because “truth is fallen.”And all of the traffic is backed up, because “truth is fallen in the street.” (Isaiah 59:14)

Well, what caused truth to fall? Notice truth is not dead. There is a traffic jam. Judgment, justice, and equity cannot enter. It’s not that truth is nonexistent. You can’t ever murder truth. It is not that truth is dead. Truth will not die. But truth has stumbled. Truth is lying prostrate on the ground. Why? Well, she has been knocked down in America by doctors of philosophy. She has been tripped up in America by dishonest politicians. And she has been chloroformed by liberal preachers. And she’s lying there in the street. May I say with all of the unction, function, and emotion of my soul; God help me to say it: The job in America today is to put truth back on her feet. That is the job in America: to put truth back on her feet. And I really believe there is not a lot wrong in America that could not be put right quickly, dramatically, if across America, in the pulpits of America, from sea to shining sea, this Sunday and every Sunday, a generation of preachers would open the book of truth and preach “Thus saith the Lord God Almighty” without fear or failure.

We’re in a situation today that’s in a crisis. Why did God write a Bible? He calls that Bible “the Word of truth.” Why did God send the Holy Spirit? He calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth.” How does God describe Himself? He describes Himself as “the Truth.” Who is Jesus? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) What is the church? The church is called “the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15) The Apostle John said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 1:4) We can get facts from the Internet. There’s a difference between facts and truth. Knowledge may double; truth will never double. There is eternal truth. Truth is what food is to your body, light is to your eyes, and melody is to your ears.

Now, do you know what most of us want to do? Most of us want to be stamping out snake eggs. Most of us want to be sweeping down spider’s webs. But, friend, you stamp out a snake egg: just more snakes. You sweep down a spider’s web—you’ve done it before: it’s back the next morning, is it not? We need something that will slay the snake and destroy the spider—and that is truth. Only truth can keep this daddy serpent from spawning those eggs. Only truth can keep that spider from weaving those sticky webs. We need to lift up truth in America today, to put truth on her feet. And I want to call upon you and every believer to rededicate himself to the truth. Parents, teach your children to live the truth, to love the truth, to tell the truth, to know the truth, and to believe the truth. Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Conclusion

Let me give you a proverb here, and I’m almost finished—Proverbs 23, verse 23: “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” (Proverbs 23:23) There is a prize to possess: it is truth. There is a price to pay: you must buy the truth. You must study it, pore over it, live it, know it. And you must preserve the truth. Don’t let anybody take the truth from you. That truth is in God’s Word. The early Christians did not argue over the Bible. They loved it. They believed it. They expounded it. They poured it forth as white-hot lava.

Now, one by one, person by person, family by family, city by city, church by church, we’ve go to take America back. My heart is broken over snake eggs, spider webs, and traffic jams. What about you? I’m not talking about the person sitting next to you. What about you? Are you right with God? Do you think it’s somebody else’s problem? What about your home? What about your business relationships? Have you been feeding on snake eggs? Some right now are wrapped up in spider’s webs. There’s only one thing that will set you free. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

I want to tell you, the truth is today that God loves you. The truth is today that Jesus Christ died for you. He carried your sins to the cross, and with His blood, He paid your sin debt. The truth is that He walked out of that grave, and He has ascended to high hills of glory. The truth is that one day—soon and very soon, I hope—He’s coming again. And the truth is, if you will believe on Him and trust Him, He will save you. I promise you on the authority of the Word of God not only will have save you, but—praise His holy name—He will satisfy you. What you’re longing for, you’ll never find, until you find it in the Lord Jesus. And not only will He save you, and satisfy you; He will sanctify you. He’ll begin to make you more and more and more and more and more like Him. Now when you come to Jesus, you’re not going to sprout wings and get a halo right away; you’ll have to grow. But this saving Jesus is the satisfying, sanctifying Jesus. And I’ll tell you something else: He will secure you. He will keep you. It’s not a matter of your holding on to Him; He’ll hold you—if you truly give Him your heart and your life.•^[1]

^[1] Rogers, A. (2017). A Nation in Crisis. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Is 59:1–15). Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.

–

Proverbs 22New Living Translation

22 Choose a good reputation over great riches;
    being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.

² The rich and poor have this in common:
    The Lord made them both.

³ A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
    The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

⁴ True humility and fear of the Lord
    lead to riches, honor, and long life.

⁵ Corrupt people walk a thorny, treacherous road;
    whoever values life will avoid it.

⁶ Direct your children onto the right path,
    and when they are older, they will not leave it.

⁷ Just as the rich rule the poor,
    so the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸ Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster,
    and their reign of terror will come to an end.^[a]

⁹ Blessed are those who are generous,
    because they feed the poor.

¹⁰ Throw out the mocker, and fighting goes, too.
    Quarrels and insults will disappear.

¹¹ Whoever loves a pure heart and gracious speech
    will have the king as a friend.

¹² The Lord preserves those with knowledge,
    but he ruins the plans of the treacherous.

¹³ The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there!
    If I go outside, I might be killed!”

¹⁴ The mouth of an immoral woman is a dangerous trap;
    those who make the Lord angry will fall into it.

¹⁵ A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness,
    but physical discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶ A person who gets ahead by oppressing the poor
    or by showering gifts on the rich will end in poverty.

Sayings of the Wise

¹⁷ Listen to the words of the wise;
    apply your heart to my instruction.
¹⁸ For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart
    and always ready on your lips.
¹⁹ I am teaching you today—yes, you—
    so you will trust in the Lord.
²⁰ I have written thirty sayings^[b] for you,
    filled with advice and knowledge.
²¹ In this way, you may know the truth
    and take an accurate report to those who sent you.

²² Don’t rob the poor just because you can,
    or exploit the needy in court.
²³ For the Lord is their defender.
    He will ruin anyone who ruins them.

²⁴ Don’t befriend angry people
    or associate with hot-tempered people,
²⁵ or you will learn to be like them
    and endanger your soul.

²⁶ Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt
    or put up security for someone else.
²⁷ If you can’t pay it,
    even your bed will be snatched from under you.

²⁸ Don’t cheat your neighbor by moving the ancient boundary markers
    set up by previous generations.

²⁹ Do you see any truly competent workers?
    They will serve kings
    rather than working for ordinary people.

How to Be the Father of a Wise Child Proverbs 1:1-5, 20-22

1932

We are grateful for the opportunity to provide this transcript produced from a live sermon preached by Adrian Rogers while serving as pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
This transcript is intended for your personal, non-commercial use.
Note: Though it has been transcribed from a version used for broadcast, it may contain stutters, stammers, and other authentic remarks
as would be common in a live setting.
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Copyright ©2021 Love Worth Finding Ministries, Inc. Transcripts are used by permission of the Rogers Family Trust.

HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
Take your Bibles and turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 1. Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents. And more than often it’s the pride and the arrogance of the father.
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‘Twas the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintery sea.
The skipper had taken his little daughter to bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, her cheeks like the dawn of day.
Her bosom white as the Hawthorne buds that op’ in the month of May.
A skipper stood upon the helm, his pipe was in his mouth.
He watched how the veering flaw did blow the wind now west, now south. Then up spake an old sailor, had sailed the Spanish Main,
“I pray thee, put into yonder port, for I fear a hurricane.
Last night the moon had a golden ring, tonight no moon we see.”
But the skipper blew a whiff from his pipe, and a scornful laugh laughed he. Colder and louder grew the wind, a gale from the northeast.
The snow fell hissing on the brine, and the billows frothed like yeast. “Come hither! Come hither, my little daughter, and do not tremble so,
for I can weather the roughest storm that ever wind did blow.”
And he wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coat against the stinging blast And he cut a rope from a fallen spar and bound her to the mast.
“O father! I hear the church bells ring, O say, what may it be?”
“’Tis a fog bell on a rock-bound coast,” and he steered for the open sea.
“O Father! I hear the sound of guns, O say, what, what may it be?”
“Some ship in distress that cannot live in such an angry sea.”
“O Father! I see a gleaming light, O say, what may it be?”
But the father answered never a word, for a frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm all stiff and stark with his face turned toward the skies. The lantern shown through the gleaming snow on his fixed and glassy eyes. The maiden then bowed her head and prayed that saved she might be;
Copyright ©2021 Love Worth Finding Ministries, Inc. Transcripts are used by permission of the Rogers Family Trust.

HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
And she thought of the Christ that still the waves on the lake of Galilee.
And on through the midnight dark and drear, through the whistling sleet and snow,
The vessel swept like a sheeted ghost toward the reef of Norman’s Woe. And ever the fitful gust between, a sound came from the land.
Was the sound of the trampling surf, on the rocks and the hard sea sand. The billows were right beneath her bow, she drifted a dreary wreck,
A whooping billow swept the crew like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves looked soft as carded wool. But the cruel rocks, they gored her side like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds all sheathed in ice with a mast went by the board.
She stove and sank like a vessel of glass. “Ho! Ho!” the breakers roared.
At daybreak on the bleak sea-beach, a fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair lashed close to a drifting mast.
Salt sea frozen on her breast, salt tears in her eyes,
And he watched her hair like the brown seaweed on the billows fall and rise. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, in the midnight and the snow.
Christ save us all from a death like this on the reef of Norman’s Woe.
There are many children who are going to be shipwrecked because of the pride and the arrogance of their fathers who will not do what they ought to do to guide those children into a safe and secure haven. And they make shipwreck not only of their own lives, but the lives of their children, bound to the mast of their own ignorance.
Listen to God’s Word here, Proverbs chapter 1 verse 1 through 5, “The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel; to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding; to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment and equity.” Now watch specially verse 4, “To give subtlety to the simple and to the young man, knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel.” And then begin to read with me in verse 20 through 22, “Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of the concourse in the opening of the gates. In the
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
city she uttereth her words saying, ‘How long ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?’ And the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge?”
Now if you don’t mind marking your Bible, I want you to take your Bible and I want you to underscore three words in that passage. I want you to underscore in verse 22 the word, simple. And then I want you to underscore the word, scorners, and then I want you to underscore the word, fools. I want to talk to you today about how to be the father of a wise child.
And what you have here in this one verse in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 22 is what I want to call the evolution of a fool. And God have mercy upon the man, the woman, who has a fool for a daughter, a fool for a son.
Children begin as simple. The word simple simply means open. It means naive. The Hebrew word is the word open. It has nothing to do with intellectual ability. We’re not talking about a simpleton. We’re not talking about a person who does not have gray matter. As a matter of fact, a simple child may grow up to be a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, a politician, may even grow up to be a minister; simple, simple. Just simply means plastic mentality, open, naive. So just write the word naive by the word simple.
And then the next word he mentions is the scorner. Now, the scorner’s different from the simple. The simple is more or less innocent. But the scorner, today just write the word smart aleck, smart aleck, or in business write the word cynic. Or in the university you might write the word sophisticate. These are the scornful; the scornful.
But then the next step is the fool, the fool. Now write by the word fool, the word rebel, arrogant, wicked. Again the word fool does not have the idea that a person is lacking in mental ability. He may be very wise to do evil. The word has a moral base. It means without any ability to discern.
Now we are in serious trouble in America. And I’ll tell you what happened in America. In 1962, prayer in public schools was declared unconstitutional. In 1963 in America, Bible reading in the public school was declared unconstitutional. In 1973, the killing of pre-born children was declared to be a right guaranteed by the Constitution. In 1980, the Ten Commandments were deemed to be illegal to be posted on school walls. And one of the reasons why they said so, if a child read those commandments, they said, “He might be tempted to emulate them.” And so, they’re taken down. You see, the secular humanists have proven to be great strategists. They tried to find one segment of life that almost every American child will pass through, that is, education. So they targeted public education to be the Sunday schools for their humanistic philosophy. And in order to do that, they wanted to purge out any vestige of Christian influence.
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So what has happened in the last years? Well, prayer is out, policemen are in. Bibles are out, values clarification is in. The Ten Commandments are out, rape and armed robbery, gang warfare, murder and cheating are in. Instruction that tells us that we were created in the image of God is out, evolution is in. Corporal punishment is out, disrespect and rebellion is in. Traditional values are out and unwed motherhood is in. Abstinence is out and condoms and abortion are in. Learning is out and social engineering is in. History is out and revisionism is in.
And the problem primarily, believe it or not, is with fathers. Arrogant fathers who fail to accept their responsibility. I want to talk to dads today, and I want to tell you how not to be the father of a fool. How to be the father of a wise child.
Now go back to these three categories of persons that we looked at here in verse 22, and let me describe them more carefully and I think you’ll recognize some children that you know. First of all, let’s think of the ignorance of the simple. How is he described? Look if you will in Romans 1 verse 22, “How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity?” That’s his first mark. He loves his simplicity. He enjoys being a child. He enjoys the carefree life. He doesn’t like any serious thoughts. One teenager said, “I am worried. My Dad slaves away at his job so I won’t have to need for a thing and so I can have a college education. My mom spends every day washing and ironing and picking up my things and looking after me. And she takes care of me when I’m sick.” His friend said, “You’re worried? What are you worried about?” He said, “I’m afraid they might try to escape.” The children just love having everything done for them, the carefree simple life. That’s the life of the simple.

But not only that, he lacks understanding. Go to Proverbs chapter 9. And by the way, we’re going to stay in Proverbs, and so get your Bibles open and keep them in your lap. Proverbs chapter 9 verses 1 through 4, “Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens. She crieth upon the highest places of the city.” That is, wisdom has prepared a banquet of learning knowledge and truth. And notice to whom the invitation goes, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth or needeth understanding.”
Now, a simple person loves his simplicity, he lacks understanding. As I say, one day he may be a lawyer, a banker, or a surgeon, but he lacks spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. He just doesn’t know.
Now, because he’s carefree, and because he lacks understanding, he is easily led into error. Turn to Proverbs 14 and look in verse 15. Here’s a key verse about the simple, “The simple believeth every word.” Now just put that down. “The simple believeth every word.” Remember I told you that the Hebrew word for simple means open? He believes every word. That is, he’s easily led. “But the prudent man looketh well to his going.” And so a simple child is easily led.
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Now listen, let me tell you something. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe something. He will believe something! He’ll believe anything! He’s an easy target for Madison Avenue. He’s an easy target for MTV, for false religions, for sinful friends. He’s like a sponge. He believes everything. He’s easily led into error because he’s so open.
I heard about a young, simple boy who had some puppies and his mama said, “You have to get rid of all of them but one.” So he was trying to sell the last puppy and he was trying to sell it for $5 and a grown man said, “Son, the reason you can’t sell that puppy is that you didn’t put a high enough price for him and people don’t think he’s worth much.” And so he came back the next day the boy said, “Well sir, I have decided that I am going to sell this puppy for $100.” “Well,” the man said, “Son, I didn’t mean that much. But see if you can do it.” Later on, he saw the man and said, “Sir, I want you to know I sold my puppy.” He said, “Did you get a hundred dollars?” He said, “Indeed I did.” He said, “Well, not exactly.” Said, “I took two $50 cats.”
Now, that’s the simple child. He’s easily led into error. You can trick him. You can flim-flam him. But, he’s living in constant danger. Look at that verse again, chapter 14 verse 15, “The simple believeth every word, but a prudent man looketh well to his going.” Now a child doesn’t do that. He doesn’t look forward; he doesn’t plan for the future. And therefore he’s living in danger.
Look in chapter 22 in verse 3, “A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on and are punished.” What does that mean? That means that if a person were wise and prudent, he would see danger. But the simple child thinks he’s indestructible. They never think about the future. And therefore your child is like a pig being led to the slaughter.
Now that’s the simple for you. He’s careless, he’s carefree, he’s easily led, he thinks he’s indestructible. He has no idea about danger. He just passes on and is punished.
Now, let’s move on and think not only about the simple but think about the scorner. You see, the next step after a person is naive, he becomes, if he’s not led by his dad and his mom, he becomes a smart aleck in school, he’s the cynic in business; he’s the mocker at the university. Now what are his marks? Well, go back again to chapter 1, Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 22 and look at it, “How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity,” now watch this, “and the scorners,” now watch this, “delight in their scorning?” He delights in his scorning. He gets his jollies out of being a smart aleck. And what a terrible condition this is. It breaks my heart to say it, but most teenagers, older teenagers in America are now scorners. We’ve lost a generation. They are now scorners. They have the devil’s initials carved in their hearts. They have his slimy fingerprints on their minds.
And because he delights in scorning, he defies instruction. Turn to Proverbs chapter 13 and look if you will in verse 1, “A wise son heareth his father’s instruction,
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
but a scorner heareth not rebuke.” Boy, underscore that. Dads you need to learn this. “A wise son heareth, hears his father’s instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.” You can always tell a scorner, but you can’t tell him much. He won’t listen. He’ll tune you out. He has ears but he will not hear. And when you talk to him, it’s like pouring water on a rock. It’s like talking to a brick wall.
But not only does he delight in his scorning, not only does he defy instruction, but he literally despises the good and the godly. Look in chapter 15 verse 12, “A scorner loveth not the one that reproveth him; neither will he go unto the wise.” A scorner will never come to his dad and say, “Dad, I need help. Will you help me out?” He’ll never go to his teacher, his pastor, his youth pastor and say, “Will you help me?” Oh no. As a matter of fact, when you try to correct the scorner what’s going to happen is, he is going to look at you and he’s going to say with his eyes, “I hate your guts.” Rebuke a scorner and he will insult you.
Turn to Proverbs chapter 9 and verses 7 and 8. I told you that you were going to be turning a lot, so just do it. Listen to it, “He that reproveth a scorner getteth himself shame and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee.” And so, you just rebuke a scorner and he will fire back at you. You cannot tell him anything. He will shoot off the lip at you.
Now, I pray God that you’ll not raise a scorner. This message may be too late for some people already today.
Now a scorner was once simple, but he became a scorner. And what is going to happen to him is; he’s destined for destruction. Look in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 1, “A wise son heareth his father’s instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.” We’ve already read that, but now I want you to skip on down to verse 13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed.” He won’t listen. And God says he’s destined for destruction. He laughs at you, but he’ll laugh his way right into Hell, and once he’s there he can’t laugh his way out. But there is some hope for the scorner. The scorner’s very hard to reach. But the scorner can be reclaimed.
But now I want you to think about the third category. First we said there was the simple, the naive, the open, the carefree. He becomes then the smart aleck, the scorner if he’s not taught. But then the scorner becomes a fool. Now go back to the text again in Proverbs chapter 1 and look at in verse 22, “How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity?” The simple one loves his carefree life. And the scorners delight in their scorning. The smart aleck gets his jollies out of his scorning. But now notice, “And fools hate knowledge.” Now here’s the difference. The scorner is insolent, but the fool is immovable.
Now notice what he does. The fool rejects wisdom. He hates wisdom. Look in Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 14, “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” Now, they love foolishness. They literally feed on foolishness.
He literally rejects wisdom and then he ridicules righteousness. Look in Proverbs 14 verse 9, “Fools make a mock at sin.” “Fools make a mock at sin.” That’s the reason that you have these situational comedies that laugh at drunkenness; that laugh at adultery, that mock homosexuality and perversion. They mock at sin. Do you know who does that? Fools. Fools make a mock at sin. That’s what the Bible says. He rejects wisdom, he ridicules righteousness, but he’s not finished yet.
He literally rejoices in iniquity. Proverbs 15 verses 20 and 21, look at that, “A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother. Folly is a joy to him that is destitute of wisdom.” He, he just actually rejoices in this, this wickedness. His moral sense has been so perverted that he thinks good is evil and evil is good.
You might want to put down on your notes Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Now, what’s going to happen to the fool? The fool’s going to die and go to Hell. Turn to Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 10, “A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool.” You cannot beat the foolishness out of a child. Don’t even try it. Don’t even try it. Can’t be done. He won’t hear you. He is intransigent. He is fixed. His heart is hardened. His conscience is seared. His mind is defiled. Now if he were wise he could still go wrong. But if he went wrong and God chastised him, then he would repent. Hebrews 12:6, “Whom the Father loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receiveth.”
King David sinned terribly, but King David was a wise man in spite of his sin. And when God chastised King David, King David repented, and he cried out to God for mercy. Pharaoh was a fool. And when God judged Pharaoh, Pharaoh just hardened his heart more and more and more. And if you have a child and you have raised a fool, and then you think when he’s 18 and 185 pounds that you’re going to give him a whipping, just forget it! All you’re going to do is to make him hate you all the more. A hundred stripes on the back of a fool is not going to do any good. Putting him in prison is not. He needs to be in prison if he commits a crime, but it’s not going to change him. And by the way, the purpose of prisons is not reformation, it’s punishment. But it’s not going to change him. It’s going to make society a little safer.
But you see, God gives us little children, and they’re what we call simple. But if you’re not careful, we have a society that’s going to turn him into a smart aleck. And if he does, if he’s not rescued when he’s become a scorner and a smart aleck, he’s going to become a fool and he’s going to end up in Hell. He won’t even know the difference between right and wrong.
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
Well, let’s go back in the few moments that we have left and look at the simple, the naive, the carefree child. What can you do, dads, what can you do, moms, so as not to raise a fool? I want to mention four things.
Number one, you need to expound truth. Go back to Proverbs chapter 1 and look in verses 1 through 4, “The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtly to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion.” That’s why God gave you the Proverbs. I have four good and godly children, but if I could start over with my children again, I would saturate them in the Proverbs. We read the Proverbs, but I believe I would saturate them in the Proverbs. I would! I would emblazon the Ten Commandments into their consciousness. I would teach them the Beatitudes, that they might learn these simple, basic truths! Expound truth! The battle is for the mind. As the child thinks, so is he.
And who is the major teacher? The major teacher is the father. You read in Deuteronomy chapter 5 where God gave the Ten Commandments, and then in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 2, God says to fathers, “Teach these commandments to your sons and to your grandsons that your family will survive and that your home will endure.”
So you’re going to have to fill in the outline, I’m just going to give you the main points. Number one, expound truth.
Number two, expose sin, expose sin. The simple will learn by example. Turn to Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 15, please. This is a key verse. Now watch this, “Smite a scorner and the simple will beware.” Underscore that. “Smite a scorner and the simple will beware. And reprove one that hath understanding and he will understand knowledge.” Now what does that mean? It means that a child who is carefree and careless, who is simple, needs to see the scorner smitten. He needs to see sin exposed and the fruit of sin, because often he does not see it. Look in Proverbs 21 verse 11, the same thing is taught, “When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise.” “When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise.” Now what does that mean? Do you know the worst thing that could happen to your child? Would be for your child to live in such a sinful society as we have and yet for your child not to see the repercussions of sin.
For example, he watches on television and he sees people sleeping together. But he never sees anybody get pregnant. He never sees an abortion. He never sees venereal disease. He never sees the breakup of a home. He doesn’t see that. He doesn’t see the scorner being smitten. He sees the guys in the bass boat hoisting a big can of beer and smacking their lips and slapping each other and hugging each other and giving each other high fives and saying, “It never gets any better than this.” That’s right. It doesn’t even get that good as a matter of fact. It always gets worse
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
than that. But, Madison Avenue never shows him a drunkard in the gutter covered with vomit and flies. He doesn’t show the alcoholic with delirium tremens. He doesn’t show a man, a beered-up dad coming home and beating up his kids. Madison Avenue doesn’t do that. You see, they don’t get to see the scorner smitten. Our children today are insulated. They don’t know. That’s the reason that you need to help them to understand. You need to expose sin. Not only expound truth, but expose sin.
If you’re a dad and you’ve got a, a 9, 10, 12, 14 year old, you need to go some Friday and Saturday nights to the emergency room in the hospital about between 11 and 1:00. And let them see these people coming in after having gone through the windshield of an automobile, after having been beered-up. Let them see these people all sliced up and mangled. Take him down to skid row. Take him to the prisons. Let him see this. “Smite the scorner and the simple will learn.” He thinks he’s indestructible. He does not know. You need to pull back the veil.
You know, we have a society today that shrinks from punishing criminals, and that’s the reason why we’re producing more. Let me give you a verse of Scripture. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11, listen to it, this is a key verse, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore, the heart of the sons of men,” that is, your sons, “is fully set in them to do evil.” Let me give it to you again, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily.” There’s one appeal and then another appeal, and then another appeal and then another appeal.
A boy in the ghetto can see his friends standing on the street comer selling dope. He can see the undercover agent come and arrest him. He’s carried off. He’s kind of smiling as they carry him off. He’s kind of a hero. Two or three days, he’s right back on the same comer selling dope again. Now what does that say in the hearts and minds of others? They say there’s no connection between crime and punishment. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” What you need to do is expound truth and expose error! Pull away the veil.
Now here’s the third thing, and I’ll get some disagreement about this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Expel scorners. Expound truth. Expose error. And expel scorners. Turn if you will to Proverbs chapter 13 and look with me in verse 20, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Moms and dads, underscore that. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Turn to Proverbs 22 and verse 10, “Cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease.” Cast out the scorner!
Now every so often we hear that this disruptive child, for his sake, needs to be able to stay there and disrupt everybody else. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. You’re not doing him any good. You’re only feeding his ego and depravity, and you are definitely corrupting those that he is around. The Bible says, “Cast him out.”
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
Now listen, do not let your children hang around with scorners and fools. Just don’t do it. You help him select his friends. And that means you may have to be firm and cast out the scorner. Why? Because your child, if your child is naive, if your child is simple, they are going to be susceptible to peer pressure. And as somebody said, “It’s hard to fly with eagles when you’re surrounded with turkeys.” You just let your kids run with turkeys and the Bible says, “A companion of fools will be destroyed.”
Now peer pressure is not bad. It is good if the peers are good. So that’s all the more reason that you need to get the right kids in your home. And that’s all the more reason that you need to make your home the headquarters for happiness. You need to say, “Come in Mary, Susie, Bill, John, Martha, whomever, Michelle, come on into our house. You can have the house. You want to have a party? Have it over here. Boys, you want to raid the refrigerator, go ahead and do it. You want to break down the couch, that’s okay. You want to track the carpet, that’s okay.” Friend, those things are small compared to your children. Let you home be the happiest place on earth. And by the way, boy, when you have them there, you can monitor those friends. And when there’s a scorner, a smart aleck, or a fool, you say, “Son, there’s the sidewalk. Get on it.” That’s right. The Bible says, “Cast out the scorner and contention will cease!”
Joyce and I have always tried to have the right guests in our home and make certain when the guests are there that the children are there. If we’re having important people in our home, what I consider to be important, I don’t mean the high muckety mucks, the rich, the wealthy, and the famous. I’m talking about people who know God and love God and people of character. We want our children at the dinner table to listen to the conversation and enjoy the conversation and participate in the conversation. And friend, the Bible says that, “A companion of fools will be destroyed, but those who are around wise people will be made wise.”
Here’s the last thing, and you’re going to have to fill in the last point. But you need to expound truth. You need to expose sin. You need to expel scorners and you need to express love. You need to express love. Look in Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 12. The Bible says here, “For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Love your children! Delight in them. Be positive! Don’t ever be negative. Words can hurt your children more than an open hand and a slap in the face. Learn to listen to them. Try to see life from their point of view. They’re facing things you never faced.
Be gentle. I have observed dads. I say, why is it that some children just adore and worship their dads almost, and others hate their dads? What is the difference in dads? And there’s one characteristic that I’ve almost found in all true dads whose children love and follow them; those dads are gentle, they’re gentle. And it starts when they’re children.
Can you image what a big, harsh, overbearing dad would do to a little guy? I mean, just imagine walking out of this building this morning, just imagine walking out
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HOW TO BE THE FATHER OF A WISE CHILD | PROVERBS 1:1-5, 20-22 | #1932
there, out there on the front porch is a guy 17 feet tall. You’re looking in his knee caps. And let’s say he has a voice like thunder. And he begins to talk to you and tell you what to do. My soul! Well, if he’s that big and sounds like that, one thing you sure do hope is that he’s gentle, don’t you? That’s what the children want out of their dad; somebody who’s gentle. Oh, they want a dad they can look up to. They want a dad who’s the strongest, wisest, smartest, fastest, richest, goodest dad. I know goodest is not a word. The best dad in all the world! But they want him to be gentle! Touch them, hug them, show other non-verbal language.
Be transparent. Let them know of your fears, and your joys, and your disappointments, your failures, and your goals. They already know you’re not perfect; they just don’t want you to be a phony.
And then, be available to them. Oh, l wish l had more time for that, but just take it as a priority that you’re going to be available to your child.
You say, “Pastor Rogers, very frankly I’m not adequate for what you’ve just described.” I know you’re not. I’m not adequate. Listen to me, none of us has what it takes to be this kind of a dad or mom. That’s the reason we need Jesus isn’t it? That’s the reason we need the Lord. That’s the reason we’ve got to have Christ in our hearts! Because the Christian life is not difficult, it is impossible. So there’s only one who can do it and that’s Jesus. But He will do it in us and through us if we’ll let Him. So the best thing you can do for your children is to love God will all of your heart. Give your heart to Jesus.
Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. If you would like to be saved today, to be a child of God, if you’d like to know that your sin is forgiven, if you would like to know that Heaven is your home, if you would like to have the power and wisdom that Jesus alone can give, I want to help you to invite Christ into your heart and trust Him. Would you pray like this? “Dear Lord, I need You. I need to be saved. I’m a sinner. My sin deserves judgment. But l need mercy, not judgment. I want You to forgive me, God. I want You to cleanse me. I want You to save me. Lord Jesus, You said if I would trust You, You would save me. I trust You right now, right this moment. I don’t ask for a sign. I don’t look for a feeling. I just stand on Your Word, and I receive You now as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, save me Jesus.” Pray that prayer. Pray it. Pray it from your heart. “Save me, Jesus.” Pray it. Ask Him to save you. “Save me, Jesus.” Did you ask Him? By faith, pray this way, “Thank You for saving me, Lord Jesus. I receive it by faith, like a little child. You’re now my Lord and Savior. Give me the courage to make it public. In Your name I pray, Amen.”

Adrian Rogers on Proverbs “How To Be The Father Of A Wise Child”

Picture of Adrian Rogers above from 1970’s while pastor of Bellevue Baptist of Memphis, and president of Southern Baptist Convention. (Little known fact, Rogers was the starting quarterback his senior year of the Palm Beach High School football team that won the state title and a hero to a 7th grader at the same school named Burt Reynolds.)

Proverbs 21 New Living Translation

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Proverbs 21New Living Translation

21 The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord;
    he guides it wherever he pleases.

² People may be right in their own eyes,
    but the Lord examines their heart.

³ The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just
    than when we offer him sacrifices.

⁴ Haughty eyes, a proud heart,
    and evil actions are all sin.

⁵ Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity,
    but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

⁶ Wealth created by a lying tongue
    is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.^[a]

⁷ The violence of the wicked sweeps them away,
    because they refuse to do what is just.

⁸ The guilty walk a crooked path;
    the innocent travel a straight road.

⁹ It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic
    than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.

¹⁰ Evil people desire evil;
    their neighbors get no mercy from them.

¹¹ If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded become wise;
    if you instruct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

¹² The Righteous One^[b] knows what is going on in the homes of the wicked;
    he will bring disaster on them.

¹³ Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor
    will be ignored in their own time of need.

¹⁴ A secret gift calms anger;
    a bribe under the table pacifies fury.

¹⁵ Justice is a joy to the godly,
    but it terrifies evildoers.

¹⁶ The person who strays from common sense
    will end up in the company of the dead.

¹⁷ Those who love pleasure become poor;
    those who love wine and luxury will never be rich.

¹⁸ The wicked are punished in place of the godly,
    and traitors in place of the honest.

¹⁹ It’s better to live alone in the desert
    than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.

²⁰ The wise have wealth and luxury,
    but fools spend whatever they get.

²¹ Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love
    will find life, righteousness, and honor.

²² The wise conquer the city of the strong
    and level the fortress in which they trust.

²³ Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut,
    and you will stay out of trouble.

²⁴ Mockers are proud and haughty;
    they act with boundless arrogance.

²⁵ Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin,
    for their hands refuse to work.

²⁶ Some people are always greedy for more,
    but the godly love to give!

²⁷ The sacrifice of an evil person is detestable,
    especially when it is offered with wrong motives.

²⁸ A false witness will be cut off,
    but a credible witness will be allowed to speak.

²⁹ The wicked bluff their way through,
    but the virtuous think before they act.

³⁰ No human wisdom or understanding or plan
    can stand against the Lord.

³¹ The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
    but the victory belongs to the Lord.

I have been reading Proverbs almost every day for many years with my family in the evening and there is lots of wisdom in it.

Another great sermon outline from Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers

How To Be The Father Of A Wise Child

Proverbs 1:20-22 (Program 1932, Air dates 08.12.2012 and 08.19.2012)

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IV.

• WHAT PARENTS CAN DO TO NOT RAISE A FOOL
  1. Expound truth.
     1. Proverbs 1:1-4
     2. Deuteronomy 6:2-24
  2. Expose sin.
     1. Proverbs 19:15
     2. Proverbs 21:11
     3. Ecclesiastes 8:11
  3. Expel scorners.
     1. Proverbs 13:20
     2. Proverbs 22:10
  4. Express love. (Proverbs 3:12)
     1. Be gentle.
     2. Be transparent.
     3. Be available.

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Adrian Rogers: ” I have four great kids but if I had to do it over I would teach them the Proverbs over and over and over.”

Proverbs 1;1-6

^1-6 These are the wise sayings of Solomon,
David’s son, Israel’s king—
Written down so we’ll know how to live well and right,
to understand what life means and where it’s going;
A manual for living,
for learning what’s right and just and fair;
To teach the inexperienced the ropes
and give our young people a grasp on reality.
There’s something here also for seasoned men and women,
still a thing or two for the experienced to learn—
Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate,
the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.

Deuteronomy 6:2-24

The Message (MSG)

6 ^1-2 This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

³ Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.

⁴ Attention, Israel!

God, our God! God the one and only!

⁵ Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!

^6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

^10-12 When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

^13-19 Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God’s sight so you’ll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said.

^20-24 The next time your child asks you, “What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?” tell your child, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That’s why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.

Proverbs 19:15

Life collapses on loafers;
lazybones go hungry.

Proverbs 21:11

Simpletons only learn the hard way,
but the wise learn by listening.

Ecclesiastes 8:11

The Message (MSG)

¹¹ Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder.

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The best thing for a young person is to see what the consequences of his actions are. It is good to take a child down to the courts to see punishments being given to those who were drunk driving. Also going down to the jails and seeing people who have broken the law being put behind bars, or going down to the hospital and seeing those who have overdosed on drugs could be helpful for the simpleton to see.

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Proverbs 13:20

Become wise by walking with the wise;
hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.

Proverbs 22:10

Kick out the troublemakers and things will quiet down;
you need a break from bickering and griping!

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Bring in your children’s friends into your house so you can observe them and then tell the scorner to hit the road. Your children can not fly like an eagle if he is surrounded by turkeys!!!! If your child is naive then will be influenced by peer pressure. Peer pressure is good if your kid is surrounded by good kids.

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Proverbs 3:12

But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this

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IF I HAD TO PICK ONE KEY VERSE THEN IT WOULD BE THIS:

Proverbs 13:20

Become wise by walking with the wise;
hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.