Adrian Rogers - It Takes God to Make a Home
I want you to take God's Word today and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Now the Ten Commandments are given in two places. They're given in Exodus chapter 20 and in Deuteronomy chapter 5. I've chosen Deuteronomy chapter 5 today for a specific purpose, though we may spend the rest of our time and the rest of the Commandments in Exodus chapter 20. You'll find out why I've chosen Deuteronomy chapter 5 in just a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 6 through verse 21:
"I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the Earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labor, and do thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughters, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may be well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. Neither shalt thou steal. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife; neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's".
Now that's one listing of the Ten Commandments. You can find them again in slightly different wording, the same meaning, in Exodus chapter 20. And if you are an informed individual, you know that there is a culture war going on in America. It is the battle for the soul of America. The battle ground is the home, and the issue is truth. And Satan has aimed all of the artillery of Hell at the homes of America, and every shell in that artillery is a lie. Satan's chief weapon is deception. Now Satan had rather peddle a lie than peddle dope. Satan had rather get you to believe a wrong thing than to do a wrong thing. A lie is the most dangerous thing on the face of this Earth; it is antithetical to God, who is the Truth, who's Word is truth. And so Satan is a pusher of lies, because it is the thought that is the father of the deed. And if he can get a nation to move away from its truth, "If the foundations be destroyed then what can the righteous do?" Psalm 11:3
Now, Charles Colson quoted statistics that said that, "The majority of Americans today no longer believe in absolute truth". And here's the frightening thing, evangelicals, so-called Bible believers were surveyed and 62% of those who call themselves evangelicals and Bible believers said there was no such thing as absolute truth. Now we live in a generation that has lost its fixed standards. It's lost its moorings. It's lost its compass. It's lost its anchor. We now have morality by majority, and the result is chaos in society. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the left and the right; the religious right and the religious left. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not an issue of left or right; it is an issue of right or wrong. There is a God, there is a God, and that God has given us His Ten Commandments.
Now, our young people today, many of them, could not recite the Ten Commandments. Many of them who are members of churches, but most of their parents could not give you by memory the Ten Commandments. And these kids have those blue faced computers and televisions in their room, but they're becoming road kill on the information highway. They do not understand the Word of God and the truth of God. Put this down big and plain and straight, there is no goodness without God. The title of our message today as we deal with the first commandment, "It Takes God to Make a Hom". Something horrible is happening in America. As a matter of fact, I was in the Washington airport and I looked up and there was a Newsweek magazine. And there was the title of the lead story on the front of that magazine. I went up and bought it. It said this, "Shame; How do we bring back a sense of right or wrong"?
Now that's the secular press asking that question. And then here's what that article said, "Our country is about shamelessness. Here we have TV shows where people tell the world about bestiality inside their bedroom, and the world yawns". And this article goes on to quote Bob Woodward who said, "90% of Americans say they believe in God, yet the urgent sense of personal sin has all but disappeared in the current, upbeat style in America's religion. In early eras, ministers regularly exhorted congregations to humbly confess our sins. But the aging baby boomers who are rushing back to church do not want to hear sermons that might rattle their self-esteem. And many clergy who are competing in a buyer's market feel they cannot afford to alienate".
May God help us! And I want to say to any preacher who may be listening; be grateful if people come to hear you preach, but it is not your job to fill the auditorium, it's your job to fill the pulpit. Whether they will hear it, or whether they will not, and I'm sick and tired of marketing religion and pandering to people's desires. We have a nation today that needs to hear, "Thus saith the Lord". We need a sure Word from God. William Bennett, former Secretary of Education and drug czar says this, "There's a clear sense from the American people that this is a problem that has deep roots. It's a problem of social disintegration. It is a problem about values".
I feel sorry for today's young people. I was in an airport in Orlando. I saw a young man. I suppose he was about 18 years of age. He had an earring in one ear. He had a lot of facial hair and he was wearing a T-shirt. And on this T-shirt, I picked out my pen and wrote down what it said on the back. Here's what it said on the back of his T-shirt. He said, "I am not scared. I am not afraid. I am an animal. I will eat you alive if I have to. No fear". That's what he said on the back of his T-shirt. Now indeed we're raising a generation of youngsters who feel like animals. And why shouldn't they feel like animals? They've been taught they've come from animals. They've been taught that they were not created in the image of God, but they are an accident of nature. This young man wearing a T-shirt that say he's not afraid. I think he was very much afraid. We used to have a cat. When a dog would come in she'd puff up like that. You ever seen a cat do that?
Just puff up real big, that's what he was doing. He was just puffing up, because he was so afraid. And I think one of the reasons that he was so afraid that he had to advertise that he was not afraid was that he did not know what we are trying to teach our young people today when we're teaching them God's Ten Commandments, beginning with the first one in Deuteronomy 5 verses 6 and 7 which says, "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before Me". Now the commandments are found in Deuteronomy chapter 5, but I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and understand here that God is telling us how we are to keep these commandments and to teach these commandments.
Look if you will in chapter 6 and verses 1 and 2, "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I commanded thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; that thy days may be prolonged". God says, "If you want your home and your nation to last, then take these commandments and hand them down from father to son". Now James Madison is called the father of the American Constitution. I want you to listen to this, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God".
That's what James Madison said. He said, "We staked everything on the ability of the American populous to govern themselves and control themselves according to the Ten Commandments". Now that's not a Baptist preacher who said that; that's the father of the Constitution. Now those same Ten Commandments have been removed from the classrooms in America's schools. Now the father of the Constitution said, "You cannot govern yourselves apart from the Ten Commandments". Now who are we listening to today? Not James Madison, but Ted Turner. Ted Turner, the television mogul who has proclaimed himself news king. Ted Turner has said that, "The Ten Commandments are obsolete". As a matter, you know the TNN, Turner News Network, he told national newspaper association members in Atlanta that, "The Ten Commandments don't relate today with today's problems".
And I want to quote him unless you think I'm being unfair to him. Here's what he said, here's a quotation; "We are living with outmoded rules. The rules we are living under are the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody here even pays much attention to them; because they are too old. When Moses went upon the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons. There was no poverty. Today's commandments wouldn't go over. Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out". Well if that was some yo-yo from the back woods, that'd be one thing; but this is a very powerful man. What he is doing is, he is disseminating information not only here but around the world. He says that the Ten Commandments need to have a substitute. What he would call ten voluntary initiatives. That's Ted Turner for you.
Well I want to say, dear friend, they are not obsolete, they're absolute. And America cannot survive apart from a moral base. And your home cannot survive apart from a moral base. Now read with me if you will as to what God says that fathers are to do and mothers are to do in their home. I'm going to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4 through verse 12, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord". Now He's restating again the commandment that I just gave to you, "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me".
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells digged, which thou diggest not, and vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then," then Israel, listen, then America listen, "then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which bought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage".
Now this passage that I've read to you, the Jews consider to be the most important passage in the book of Deuteronomy, if not in the entire Bible. It's called the Shema. Orthodox Jews would repeat this at least twice a day. They repeat it in the congregation, Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 through 7, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And teach this, fathers, to your children".
Now we complain that the Ten Commandments are not posted in public places today. But the question is how many parents here today know the Ten Commandments? The question is how many of us have the Ten Commandments posted in our home. God told Moses, "Moses, tell them to put these laws upon the door posts of their house". And God said, "Fathers, it is your responsibility, not the government's nor the school teachers' to teach these commandments to your children". That's a good place for an Amen. Fathers, it is your responsibility. It is not the responsibility of the school. It is not the responsibility of the government. It is the responsibility of dads to see that these commandments are handed down. This is God's priority plan. God says that the home is to be so super charged with spiritual truth and godliness. That these things will go from one generation to another.
For the most part, a juvenile delinquent is a child trying to act like his parents. And the great problem today is not drop out kids, but drop out dads and misguided mothers who have failed to hand down these truths from one generation to another. Now before time gets away, I want us to look very carefully at verses 4 and following. Listen, this is Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord". Now, that I call; the great revelation; one Lord. If you make notes that's the point I want you to write down; the great revelation; one Lord. Now not just one God; one Jehovah; one Lord. You know everybody's going to believe something and in some kind of a god. But we're not just talking about the god of your choice. Somebody gave me this a while back. It's called the "Mush God," M-U-S-H, mush. Did you ever eat mush for breakfast?
The "The mush god has been known to appear to millionaires on golf courses. He appears to politicians at ribbon cutting ceremonies, and to clergymen speaking the invocation on national television at either Democratic or Republican conventions. The mush god has no theology to speak of, being a 'Cream of Wheat' divinity. The mush god has no particular credo, no tenants of faith, nothing that would make it difficult for believer and nonbeliever alike to lower one's head when the temporary chairman tells us that reverend, rabbi, father, mufti, or so-and-so will lead us in an innocuous, harmless prayer. For this god of public occasions is not a jealous god. You can even invoke him to start a hooker's convention, and he, slash, she or it won't be offended. Protector of the buddy system, the mush god is the lord of secular ritual of the necessary, but hypocritical forms and formalities that hush the divisive and the derisive. The mush god is a serviceable god whose laws are chiseled not on tablets, but written on sand, open to amendment, qualification, and erasure. This is a god that will compromise with you, make allowances, and declare all wars holy, and all peaces hallowed".
The mush god; you ever met him? He's all around. That's the god that Americans want to believe in, the mush god. But we're not talking about the mush god. We're talking about Jehovah God. We're talking about the One who made it all, who said in Deuteronomy 5:6 and 7, "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall have no other gods before Me". The great revelation is one Lord. "How do you know, Pastor Rogers"? Well number one, Scripture declares the fact of God. You might think the first commandment would say thou shalt not be an atheist, and thou shall not believe in atheism, but it doesn't do that. The Bible never even argues the fact of atheism.
The Bible just begins. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God". Sweetly, sublimely, surely, "In the beginning, God". God only gives one half of one verse to atheism. Psalm 14 verse 1, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I'm not here today to try to prove God to you. I'm not here to argue with you about it. I've learned never argue with a fool in public. Somebody standing around won't be able to tell who's who. The Bible says, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God". The Bible simply states God. A man who denies facts is a fool, and a man denies the supreme fact is the supreme fool. The Scriptures declare the fact of God.
Have you ever noticed when you try to teach a little child about God how simple it is? When you try to teach a child there is no God how convoluted the arguments become. One atheistic father was trying to teach his child there is no God. And after he had gotten finished with his long drawn out explanation of how everything just happened, the little child looked at the daddy and said, "Daddy, do you think God knows we don't believe in Him"?
You see that is innate in the human heart. The Scriptures declare the fact of God, and creation displays the hand of God. We talk about the laws of science. They're not the laws of science. You look at creation. These are the laws of God that science has discovered, and the scientists are no more capable of creating those laws than Columbus was capable of creating North America. He simply discovered what was already there. But yet your children, your children are taught in school that they evolved, that they came out of primordial ooze and you cannot teach creation. And yet the Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights".
Something is wrong here folks when our nation was built on the fact that God who made us gave us those rights. And now we cannot teach that in public schools. You know what they're taught? They're taught that billions and billions of years and time plus chance will bring life out of inorganic matter; which they can't explain where it came from, that inorganic matter. And then given billions and billions more years, time will turn frogs into princes. Now if you tell that in the nursery school, it's called a fairy tale; tell it in the classroom, it's called science. When frogs become princes, but that's the monkey mythology. And we have a generation that's being taught that. No how do we know that there is one Lord. The Scripture declares it, friend. Creation displays it, and faith discovers it. Nobody's ever argued into believing in God. People accuse us of being believers. Oh, they say, "You're a believer".
Friend, everybody is a believer. The atheist is a believer. He says to me, "Prove there's a God". I say, "I can't". He just laughs. I say, "Prove there is no God". He can't either. He says, "Well, I don't believe there's a God". I say, "That makes you a believer. You believe there is no God, and you believe by faith there is no God. I believe there is a God. I believe by faith there is a God, but I believe with evidence. I have the external evidence. I have the internal evidence. I have the creation, and I have the witness of God in my heart. And if you want to believe in God, you can believe in God". The matter is not in your head. It is in your heart.
Psalm 14 verse 1, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" He doesn't have intellectual problems. He has moral problems, because he does not want this God to rule over him. You see, friend, God so wired you, God so made you, God so created you that when your heart is right, your heart will respond to the fact of God like my eye responds to light when my eye is right, like my ear responds to sound when my ear is right. Your heart will respond to God when your heart is right. The great revelation is this, Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, there is one God, the Lord our God is one Lord". Now here's the second thing I want you to see. Not only the great revelation, but the great response. What is the response to that revelation? "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord".
Now here is the great response. Verse 5, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might". That, my friend, is the great response. The great revelation; one Lord. The great response; one love. You are to love Him supremely. Now you're to love Him with a sincere love, with all of your heart. Jesus spoke of people who honored the Lord with their words, but He said in Matthew 15:8, "Their heart is far from Me". Do you know what your children need to see in your home? They need to see a sincere love. They need to see in you a burning, passionate, emotional, sincerity when it comes to the things of God. Kids can spot a phony a mile away, and they know whether or not you love God with all of your heart. And it is the phoniness of parents, by and large, that turn kids off to things of God.
There was a young Jewish boy; he and his father lived in Germany. His father was a successful merchant. And they were practicing their Jewish faith, and they moved from Germany to England. And the boy was surprised to see that his father joined a Lutheran church. That boy said, "Dad, why did you join a Lutheran church"? And the father said something like this, "Well son we live in a different place now and there's so many Lutherans here in this particular place in this particular town. It would be good for business, be good for business". That boy, who had a deep interest in religion, lost it all. His name, Karl Marx, who wrote, The Communist Manifesto, in which he said, "Religion is the opiate of the people".
Kids can spot a phony. You're to love God with a sincere love. I'll tell you something else. Not only are you to love Him with a sincere love, but folks you're to love Him with a selfless love. Because the next word in Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "With all of your soul, with all of your soul". Your soul is your self. And what's He saying? The whole self, the total self needs to be given over to God. There needs to be no area in your life that is off limits to God. How are you going to teach your children there is one Lord? They are to see in you that one love. They are to see in you a sincere love and a selfless love for our Lord.
Do you know how I can measure any man, woman, boy or girl in this church pretty well? Just look at two books that are in your home, and I'm not talking about this book. I'm talking about your check book and your date book; your calendar and bank account. Where are you putting your time? Where are you putting your money? You're to love God selflessly. There is to be a sincere love, a selfless love, and there is to be a strong love. Because you're to love God with all of your might, every inch, every ounce, every nerve, every sinew. He's not just talking here about physical strength. He's talking about whatever strength you have; emotional strength, financial strength, intellectual strength.
Now there is one Lord and one love. Now here's the third thing, watch it very carefully. Because there is one Lord, that's the great revelation; one love, that's the great response. Then friend, there is the great responsibility; one law. Now follow: one Lord, one love, and one law. Look now if you will in Deuteronomy 6 verses 6 and 7, "And these words, which I command thee this day," these are not ten suggestions or voluntary initiatives, "These words, which I command this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up". One law.
Now, your home is to be a law school. You're to teach the law of God. The professors in that home are to be mom and dad, but primarily dad. Go back up to Deuteronomy 6 verse 2. He says that, "Thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes, and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son". The emphasis is upon the father. The great problem today frankly is fathers have abandoned their role; drop out dads. A leading psychiatrist said and I quote, "If the husband or father is not the head of the family, there can be nothing but chaos". The father is God's person to lend stability and character and strength to the home.
We have dads today that are interested in sports and business and sex. They've forgotten their God-given assignments to teach the Ten Commandments. The National Fatherhood Initiative has come out with a statement called Father Facts, showing the effect of the absentee father in America. In juvenile delinquency, an absent father is the common denominator. When kids are involved in rape, school drop-out, child abuse, welfare dependency, all these other things. "Fatherlessness is the engine that is driving our social problem," said David Blankenhorn NFI Chairman and author of a book Fatherless America, which book I bought. The sum conclusion is this and I quote, "The data shows beyond any doubt that fatherlessness is the crisis of our day".
The number of children living with only their mother grew from 5.1 million in 1960 to 15.6 million in 1993. Folks about 40% of children who live in fatherless homes see their father less than once a year. This book points out that adolescent girls reared without fathers are much more likely to be sexually active than girls reared in two parent families. 80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes. You say, "Well, it's really just a problem of low income". It is not a problem of low income. "Children from low income, two parent families outperform students from high income, single parent homes. From 1982 to 1991 the arrest rates for juveniles increased 93% for murder". Hello. Listen, "From 82 to 91 the arrest rates for juveniles increased 93%. 72% for aggravated assault, 24% percent for forcible rape, and 97% for car theft. Of all adolescent murderers, 72% grew up without fathers".
Now if you are from a broken home, and if you are a precious, precious single woman trying to raise your children; I am not here to discourage you. Because in this series of messages, we are going to show you what you can do to make up for and to help and to undergird. And we're here as a church to help you, but I'm telling you that something has to be done. There are powerful forces today that are trying to shape and mold the mentality of today's youth. Many of them come home, shut the door, go to the bedroom, and turn on a moral sewer called MTV. They watch it. Somebody says, "Well what they see does not affect them". If you believe what they see doesn't affect them, you've got rooms to rent upstairs unfurnished.
Let me ask you a question; why would any company pay one million dollars for thirty seconds time at the Super Bowl if what people see doesn't affect them? I mean, smell the coffee folks. They cannot sit there and watch that without it affecting them. And our children are being systematically seduced. I'm telling you that the professors in this law school are the dads. The students are the children. Look if you will in Deuteronomy 6 verse 7, "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children". And the children need to be enrolled early. Francis Xavier, Roman Catholic leader said this, quote, "Give me the children until they're seven, and anyone can have them afterward". Begin early.
Isaiah 28 verses 9 and 10, "Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little". Now the professor is the father, the students the children. The curriculum is God's Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 6 verse 6, "And these words which I command thee this day". He's talking about the Ten Commandments; that is the curriculum in the school. Now how do you teach the Ten Commandments? Why are we having this series? To teach dads to teach the Ten Commandments, not that Adrian is going to do it from the pulpit. Oh, would to God that I can show you your responsibility. How do you teach the commandments in the home? Number one, convincingly.
Look if you will in Deuteronomy 6 verse 6, "They shall be in thine heart". Folks if you don't believe it, if you don't practice it, just hang it up you'll never teach it. Don't send them down here to Sunday school. Don't send them to the public school. Don't send them to the Christian school and think you have done your duty. It must be in your heart. You teach it convincingly, because you're convinced. Teach it creatively. Deuteronomy 6 verse 7 says, "Thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children and shall take of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way".
We have four grown children; all of them love God. They're teaching their children to love God. How did Joyce teach these children? How did we teach them? How did I teach them? Bible reading, Bible stories, Bible games, Bible memory, Christian books. Charlie Jones, the great motivator, had a boy who was fourteen going to be sixteen before long. He said, "Son when you get to sixteen you're going to want a car, and I am going to help you buy a car". And he said, "There are some books that I want you to read and give me a report on. I'll select the books. You read the books. Write me a report and for every book you read that I assign to you, you'll get ten dollars for your car fund". And then he said, "If you read like a bum you'll drive like a bum".
That's good. Put some, put some incentive in this thing. You say, "I don't believe in bribing kids". It's not a bribe. It's a reward. Do you know the difference between a bribe and a reward? A bribe is an inducement to do evil. A reward is recognition for doing good. God rewards. Parents should reward. Christian magazines, Christian music, albums and tapes; out goes that filth, in comes the Word of God. It should be taught convincingly. It should be taught creatively. It should be taught consistently or diligently. Look if you will in Deuteronomy 6 verse 7, "Thou shalt teach them diligently, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little," over and over and over again. Don't think, "Well I told them that, now what's next"? It should be taught conversationally.
Look if you will in verse 7, "Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up". Look in Deuteronomy 6 verse 20, "And when thy son asketh thee from time to time saying, 'What mean these testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you?' Then shalt thou say". When, listen, when the curiosity factor is high, answer. It doesn't have to be dull. It's caught as well as taught. Now here's the final thing and I must close. Not only should to be taught conversationally, but it needs to be taught conspicuously.
Look if you will in Deuteronomy 6 verse 8, "And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine head and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes". What does that mean? Well the Jews took this so literally that they built little boxes they called phylacteries and put the Scripture in, and would take a ribbon, a piece of leather and with the Scripture in that little box, they would tie it around their head. I was on an airplane and I watched a Jewish orthodox man. I was blessed watching him. It was time for him to have his quiet time with God. He got out his Scripture and he began to read and to bow his head. But before he had done that he took out of his little box, his phylactery, put it around his head and tied it on. Then he took the rest of the Scripture and wrapped it around his forearm there on his right hand. And then he, not caring what I thought or anybody else thought, and frankly I was very blessed, very blessed as I watched that man. He didn't care what anybody thought. There was the Word of God. There was the Word of God.
Now, did God mean to do it that way literally? Perhaps He did. But what I think He meant was between your eyes to show that all that you think is controlled by the Word of God. On your right hand to show all that you do is controlled by the Word of God. And then He said in Deuteronomy 6:9, "You take this Scripture and you put it on the door post of your house". They call that a mezuzah, and put that phylactery there and that Scripture there on the door post. What is He saying? He is saying, ladies and gentlemen, teach the Word of God not only conversationally but teach it conspicuously. We're to teach the Word of God consistently. We're to teach the Word of God creatively. We're to teach the Word of God compellingly. We're to teach the Word of God so that our boys and girls will know that we believe what we believe.
Let's bow our heads together in prayer. Heads are bowed; eyes are closed, no one moving. God says, "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods". That means there is no rival. That means there is no rebuttal. That means there is no refusal. Did you hear that? No rival; no other god. No rebuttal; no argument. No refusal; whatever He says I'll do. Now friend don't say it won't work if you haven't tried it. These are God's laws for living and God's laws are not for our punishment, but for our welfare. He loves us, and every time God says, "Thou shalt," He's saying, "Help yourself to happiness". And every time He says, "Thou shalt not," He's saying, "Don't harm yourself".
I wonder how many today could say, "Pastor Rogers, I know that I know that I know if I died today I would go straight to Heaven because I have repented of my sin. I have received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I'm not trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. I'm saved by trusting the Lord Jesus and I know that He has saved me". While heads are bowed and eyes, just, "I know that I'm saved". Praise God. Now if you couldn't say that, today would be a wonderful day for you to give your heart to Jesus. You could pray like this:
God, I'm a sinner and I'm lost and I need to be saved and I want to be saved. Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sin and save me. Save me, Lord Jesus.
And He'll do it.
Father, I pray that many today will say yes to Christ. And these who could not say that they already know you, I pray, O God, I pray, dear God, that even right now they might say, "Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, I need You, I want You. Come into my heart and save me". In His wonderful name I pray, Amen.