How to Be the Father of a Wise Child | Part 1

What could be the source of our children's rebellion?

Listen closely to Adrian Rogers. Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents. And the problem primarily, believe it or not, is with fathers, arrogant fathers who fail to accept their responsibility. Now, 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. Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truth simply stated by pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers. These days, our nation is in troubled waters, and the problem is rooted in parents who fail to impart wisdom in their children's lives, and teach them spiritual understanding. In today's message, Pastor Rogers offers insight on how we can raise our children to be wise in a foolish world.

If you have your Bible, turn to Proverbs chapter one, we'll begin with verse 20. With part one of how to be the father of a wise child, here's Adrian Rogers. 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. "'Twas the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintry 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 hawthorn buds that opened in the month of May. The 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 winded 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 bounder to the mass. Oh father, I hear the church bells ring, oh say what may it be, to the fog bell on a rock bound coast, and he steered for the open sea. Oh father, I hear the sound of guns, oh say what may it be, some ship in distress that cannot live in such an angry sea. Oh father, I see a gleaming light, oh 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 to the skies.

The lantern shone through the gleaming snow and its fixed and glassy eyes. The maiden then bowed her head and prayed that save she might be. And she thought of the Christ that stilled 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 them, 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 carted 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 stoved 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 mass, salt sea frozen on her breast.

Salt tears in her eyes and he watched her hair like the brown seaweed on the billows fall in her eyes. Such was the wreck of the prosperous 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. 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 under wise counsel. And then begin to read with me in verse 20. 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 city she uttereth her words saying, how long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in the scorning and fools hate knowledge. 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 or a fool for a son. Children begin as simple. The word simple simply means open.

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. It means naive, plastic mentality. So just write the word naive by the word simple. And then the next word he mentions is the scorner. The scorner is different from the simple.

The simple is more or less innocent. But the scorner today just write the word smart aleck. Or in business write the word cynic. Or in the university you might write the word sophisticate.

These are 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 preborn 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 school child would 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. 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. 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. Grandfathers 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, 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 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 this 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. We 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 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. 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.

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, 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, trying to sell it for five dollars. And a grown man said, son, the reason you can't sell that puppy is you didn't put a high enough price on him and people don't think he's worth much.

He came back the next day. The boy said, well, sir, I have decided that I'm going to sell this puppy for 100 dollars. Well, the man said, son, I didn't mean that much, but see if you can do it.

Later on he saw the man. He said, sir, I want you to know I sold my puppy. He said, did you get 100 dollars? He said, indeed I did. He said, well, not exactly. He said, I took two 50 dollar cats.

That's the simple child. He just, he's easily led into error. You can trick him.

You can flimflam 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 and verse 3. A prudent man foreseeeth 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. Madison Avenue knows this. The brewers know it.

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 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 the business. He's the mocker at the university. Now what are his marks? We'll 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, 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, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

Boy, underscore that, dads, you need to learn this. A wise son 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 ugly. 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 a 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.

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. He will fire back at you.

You cannot tell him anything. He will shoot off the lip at you. 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 is 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 it 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 knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. They love foolishness.

They literally feed on foolishness. And then he ridicules righteousness. Look in 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. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear the conclusion of this powerful message. I hope you can join us then. But as you've listened today, maybe something has surfaced in your own life or in your family and you'd like someone to pray with you for that situation. If you can, go to our website, lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to find our prayer wall. There you'll find the option to either submit a prayer request or pray for others. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs.

Let us hear from you today. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call 1-877-LIVE-GOD to order How to Be the Father of a Wise Child. This message is also part of the insightful Fortifying Your Family series. For the complete collection, all six powerful messages, call 877-LIVE-GOD or go online to lwf.org slash radio or write us to order at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. I want to remind you that you can receive daily devotions and links to our daily message program straight to your inbox when you sign up for our daily heartbeat emails. Go to lwf.org slash radio and join us tomorrow for part two of How to Be the Father of a Wise Child, right here on Love Worth Finding. A young seminary student wrote recently with a quick word of encouragement, Adrian Rogers is one of the greatest preachers of all time.

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