In the sermon 'Morality Matters to Nations,' Peter Allison explores the intricate relationship between morality, leadership, and national prosperity. Drawing from Proverbs 29, he emphasizes that the personal morality of leaders is crucial for effective governance and the well-being of a nation. The sermon highlights the literary structure of Proverbs to demonstrate how familial discipleship parallels the need for morality in civil society. Allison critiques the notion that leaders' personal lives are irrelevant to their public duties, arguing instead that a lack of moral integrity leads to societal decay. He warns against the dangers of partiality, lies, and flattery in governance, which can lead to a corrupt and unjust society. Education and its control through accreditation are also discussed as tools that shape the moral teachings of a generation. Self-government and individual morality are presented as essential components for a nation's prosperity, aligning with biblical principles that stress the importance of righteousness. The sermon concludes with a call to action for individuals to uphold truth and morality, trusting in Jesus Christ as the ultimate sovereign who reigns over nations.

Please turn to Proverbs chapter 29. And There is a, if it wasn't there when you came in, there is a little handout with the chiasm of our text today in the back. It may be a little bit of a help in following as we go through this passage. I'd like to begin reading at Proverbs 29 and verse 3. Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice, but a companion of harlots wastes his wealth.

The king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. By transgression an evil man is snared, but the righteous sings and rejoices. The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked does not understand such knowledge. Scoffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath.

If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace. The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, but the upright seek his well-being. A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked. The poor man and the oppressor have this in common.

The Lord gives light to the eyes of both. The king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever. The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. May we rejoice at this word as one who finds great treasure. Almighty Father, Your Word is true, refined seven times, purified.

Your Word is truth. Sanctify us this morning by your word and grant us faith that we might be obedient to it. I pray that you would sanctify my lips and drive away any dross or chaff this morning In Jesus name Amen Well, one prevailing notion in our nation is that the morality of the rulers there as it's sometimes called their personal life has no bearing on whether they will make a good leader or not, whether they should be elevated to office. That their moral character doesn't affect their charisma, their ability to relate to people, or their ability to represent us in the world stage, or nor does it affect their leadership ability, their ability to get legislation passed or to represent and relate to the people in this land. Some even go so far and many Christians have even expressed this sentiment that leaders should leave their religious convictions at home when they step into the public arena.

Step into the public arena. And this passage, this section, decidedly refutes and contradicts such nonsense. These verses that we read, verses 3 through verse 15, they form a second interlocking chiasm with the one that we looked at last week. As I mentioned, there are, I think, maybe three interlocking chiasms. But that chiasm was centered around verse 3.

This chiasm begins at verse 3 and centers at verses 8 and 9. So we see in this section that verses dealing with family matters and training children seem to be interspersed with verses speaking of kings and rulers and cities and populations and civil matters. And I think this is a literary device that serves to connect what has been taught earlier, because many of these verses, like Proverbs verse 15, the rod and the rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother." That was something very similar was said several chapters earlier in chapter 22. A very similar sentiment about the need to train children. And those that are not trained are a shame to their parents.

But it's being repeated here. And it's being interspersed with all these passages dealing with kings and rulers and so forth. And I think this is serving to simply make the connection that just as there is a need for discipleship within a family, There is also a need for morality in the broader culture and in the civil order. There's just as much of a need for obedience to the Word of God by a culture as there is in a family. It's not important just for a family.

It matters in the secular world as well, whether we are paying attention as a people, as a nation, to the law of God. And we recognize that any, as this is saying, if a family ignores the word of God, if the children are not trained with the rod and the reproof in the principles of Scripture, we recognize that that brings disaster on the family. In the same, this passage is saying the same is true about our nation As well. It does affect the peace and the prosperity of a land. Right?

Sin is a reproach to any people. But righteousness exalts a land. But sin is a reproach. And it brings a destruction. Sin brings a destruction of prosperity.

And so there are these sections then. The first, I won't review what a chiasm is. I think you remember. You can see in the outline I handed out, you can see the triangular shape there. But the verse 3 and 15 tell us that sin brings shame.

But wisdom learned through discipleship is cause for rejoicing. Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice, but a companion of harlot's wastes his wealth. The rod and the rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Children are not born with wisdom. Children that are not taught The wisdom of the scriptures grow up to be adults who bring shame to a nation.

What children are taught and by whom they are taught, matters a great deal to the health and the prosperity of a nation. It's very significant. The Carnegie Foundation for International Peace recognized this and they discussed this very question. Who's going to teach our children in our land and what are they going to be taught? What are we going to teach them?

They discussed this question shortly after 1900. Back in the day when many people today would look back and say, well, those were the good days. That's when we were a Christian nation. We had an organization that was plotting how to destroy that. And they recognized that the key to doing that was controlling the education of the children.

And they made plans, deliberate plans, to be able to control the education of children. One of the ways that control is exercised today is through the process of accreditation. Accreditation is how that control is maintained over what gets taught and who gets to teach. So they don't really care about, if you open a school, they don't care too much about the books you use necessarily. What they really care about, if you want accreditation, is Where did your teachers go to school?

Have they been taught in the halls of Egypt? Have they learned that they've been instructed in the learning of Egypt? That's the key. You can use whatever textbook you want as long as your teachers have been trained in Babylon. And if you...

I know this sort of firsthand because my wife went through this process in her college training. She went through the process of being trained as a teacher. And they were required to study all of these philosophers who denied all these truths of scripture, Who said that parents are teaching our children, and Sunday school teachers and ministers are teaching our children poisonous certainties and they're crippling them. Who said that The rod will destroy a child, not teach them wisdom, and rod and reproof. If you said the scriptures need to be removed and thrown away, That's what teachers have to learn.

And you don't rebuke a child by pointing out to them what the scriptures, what God commands them to do and to say and how to treat each other. You manipulate their character. To manipulate the situation to get what they want. So how many Christian schools today will crawl on their knees begging to be recognized as academic, seeking the accreditation of a pagan institution, seeking their approval for how they're going to teach their children. See, that's why I consider it to be a great blessing that in the latter half of the 20th century, the church began to realize, began to wake up to this.

It's too bad it took them 80 years or more. But they did begin to wake up to this and said, no, this isn't right. This is not what the Bible says about how we educate our children. And they began to take that responsibility seriously and today we see something called homeschooling which is parents simply teaching their children the word of God. That's a great blessing and it's a sign of God's blessing in the land that this happened.

Because when I was young and growing up, the best churches that I was aware of never heard of homeschooling. The churches I grew up in never heard of that. They would have thought you were crazy. And I'm not talking about nominal Christians, I'm talking about congregations like this. Never heard of it.

Today we do. And I think we can thank the Lord for that mercy. Now discipline is essential also to learning wisdom. It's not just that we are born ignorant, we are born willfully ignorant. And there's a difference.

So without the rod and reproof we would never willingly learn wisdom. We wouldn't learn self-control. Now, does it mean if you didn't grow up with parents who had the wisdom of the rod and the reproof that you can never learn. No, there are... The Lord is gracious and we can learn these things later that we didn't learn when we were younger, but it's so much easier.

It's so much easier to learn these matters in our youth when we're little so that we can grow up never remembering a day outside of God's church, never having to overcome the problems that come from rebellion against God. Now it says a companion to prostitutes will destroy the family wealth. Somebody that's a companion to prostitutes can't be trusted with that wealth. And when these companions are, to prostitutes, are civil rulers, they will waste the wealth of the nation. They can't be trusted with civil office.

You wonder why we have a congress that's trying to pass trillion dollar budgets with money that we don't have. It's because these are companions to harlots who can't be trusted, who are wasting the wealth and stealing the wealth of our land. Now the next principle that is addressed here is that of partiality. Partiality destroys nations. The king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it The poor man and the oppressor have this in common the Lord gives light to the eyes of both The king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever.

Partiality is destructive. Just like the partiality of a father to his children destroys a family, partiality in how different groups in a nation are treated divides and destroys a nation just as readily. Jacob's partiality to Joseph, you remember, led to Joseph's brothers kidnapping him and selling him their own brother as a slave into Egypt. And likewise, partiality in the culture creates angry people and divisions. And partiality in a culture begins with us.

Begins with you and me. It begins with the people. The laws simply reflect the way the people live. Partiality is a sin of the heart. Partiality is not caused by external differences.

It's not caused because people have different skin colors or because people have different religions or because people are wealthy or poor. Partiality begins in our heart. Begins in our heart. It's a form of pride that looks down upon other people and thinks that we are better than they are. And it really comes from failing to see people as made in the image of God.

The poor man and the oppressor, Both have this in common, that God gives light to the eyes of both. Partiality destroys, Partiality destroys and people that promote this kind of partiality and promote this kind of division are destroying the land that we live in. Now the third principle here is that lies are a cultural cancer that destroy the nation. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked.

See flattery is a form of lying. It's telling a falsehood about someone that appears to make them better than what they really are, better than what we really believe about them. That's a lie. It's a lie that's told for personal gain. It's a lie that looks nice.

It looks like it's building somebody up and praising somebody, but it's not true. It's not coming from a sincere heart. So it becomes a lie. It's a deception. And rulers that pay attention to this kind of flattery will attract wicked people to their own governments and administrations.

Rulers pay attention to those who flatter them. They will find themselves surrounded by those who flatter them. And in the process they are then surrounded by liars. Our whole election process begins and ends with flattery. That's really what most campaigning comes down to.

It's a form of flattery. Sophisticated flattery. Promoting other people. Right? How many times do you not hear about how this is the best candidate?

This is the best person? The people are saying that, do they really believe that? A lot of times they don't. They don't. They are saying it because that is how the process works, they have been told.

And as a result we have a nation that is surrounded by wicked people. If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked. How can we expect to have a righteous government when the very process of choosing these rulers is a process that is founded on flattery and the communication of lies. We end up, the Bible says, with a wicked administration. All his servants, all the king's servants become wicked.

We have a nation of wicked courts and institutions. One lawyer with extensive courtroom experience wrote a book about federal prosecutors. You know what she called it? License to lie. Maybe you've heard of Sidney Powell.

Maybe you've read the book. If you doubt what I'm saying here, that we have a nation of wicked courts and institutions, a nation of lying courts, where the truth is suppressed, where evidence is suppressed to create false convictions, where witnesses lie, where prosecutors lie, where judges lie. Read her book. She documents it. She's practiced law at all levels, all the way up to the Supreme Court.

And there was a shock to her to discover just how extensive, This license to lie, apparent license to lie. They don't really. How extensive it is, how pervasive it is. Just look, recently we've seen court after court reject any attempt whatsoever to adjudicate the massive election fraud last year and don't get me wrong it's not just the Democrats that do it the Republicans do it just as much just depends on who's getting elected that year there are many many people have been destroyed by the lies of federal prosecutors and judges fabricating evidence. In fact, I have a recording of oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit.

It's out in California, I believe, where a lawyer for the child protective services was telling the court that her client, Child Protective Services, had a right to lie, that it was okay, that was part of their job and it was necessary. Even that court was shocked at her brazen statement that her client could lie and fabricate evidence in order to get children away from their parents. In the winter of 1983, an archivist expert by the name of David Dodge and a Baltimore police investigator by the name of Ton Dunn, were searching for evidence of government corruption in public records stored in the Belfast Library in Maine. And maybe you know what they discovered. They discovered in this library the library's oldest authentic copy of the Constitution of the United States printed in 1825.

And they were stunned to find out that the 13th amendment in this copy of the constitution was not the same as the 13th amendment in every other constitution that they had ever seen. They found a copy of the 13th amendment to our constitution that has been forgotten, erased. And they realized in studying that this amendment, that the intent of this amendment was to prohibit lawyers from serving in government. Think about that. We have a constitutional amendment that prohibits lawyers from serving in government.

Why? Why would we need a constitutional amendment? Why did our nation pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting lawyers from serving in government? And just think about the change that that would make if we followed that today. Well since 1983 they've uncovered a number of additional copies of the Constitution with this missing 13th Amendment.

At least 18 separate publications by 10 different states and territories over four decades between the 1820s and 1860s. And they even uncovered a decade later evidence that this missing amendment had been lawfully ratified by the state of Virginia, making it an authentic amendment to the US Constitution. So if their research is correct and no logical errors have been made, there is an amendment restricting lawyers from serving that was in our government that was ratified in 1819 and removed from the Constitution in the tumult around the Civil War. So since that amendment was never been repealed it stands as the law today even if no books publish it. Now why is this significant?

Because see we have a nation where judges and those admitted to the practice of law have to hold a title of nobility, an Esquire. You ever see lawyers write that behind their name? Esquire. That originates from the English International Bar Association, chartered by the King of England, headquartered in London and associated with the banking system. And so lawyers admitted to this bar of international law received the rank of Esquire.

It's a title of nobility. And esquire was, you remember in the days of, in the middle ages, you had a, sir, what do you, I forget what you called that. You had, you had knights, You had knights. That was the title of nobility, to be a knight. And if you were under the servant of a knight, then you were a squire.

So this is a title of nobility. These are the servants of the bankers that have established this bar association. And, you know, originally, to practice law, to be a judge in our land, to hold civil office, you didn't have to be a member of a Bar Association. You didn't have to be a lawyer, you simply had to be a man of good character. But today we have a requirement that you have to be a noble, a title of nobility, you have to be an esquire to hold these offices.

You see with that we have, and why do you think they had this, passed this amendment? It wasn't part of the original constitution. And our constitution actually forbid titles of nobility. The problem was it was being ignored. And people realized that these people who held these titles of nobility were detrimental to our country, to our nation, because they didn't uphold the truth.

They didn't represent the people. They represented, they basically were those that were getting bribes to represent the people that they were being paid by. And so this amendment was, there were apparently several attempts to pass this amendment. It finally was passed to simply reinforce what the Constitution already said. But of course if they weren't paying attention to the words of the original Constitution, this added words isn't going to change anything and it certainly hasn't.

It continued to be ignored to the detriment of our society. So how do we respond? Well, we respond by being willing to tell the truth. We should be willing to speak the truth in every area where the truth is being suppressed. We should be willing to expose the evil deeds of darkness wherever we find them, Ephesians tells us.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful to even speak of those things which are done by them in secret. It's shameful. The things that are done in secret by our government, you can read about them. I wouldn't even begin to mention them. They are so shameful, so grossly immoral, so perverted, I can't even begin to describe them.

By our own government officials, by people whose names you would know. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever the light makes manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Next principle to a prosperous nation is self-government. Self-government is essential to civil order. By transgression an evil man is snared, but the righteous sings and rejoices.

A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. We can never make enough laws on the books to govern every single situation that people find themselves in. If people, if we as the citizens don't have self-government, nothing. Nothing will work. We can never hire enough policemen to stand on every corner to ensure that the laws that we do have are enforced.

You see, the prosperity of a nation, the peace of a nation. And I say prosperity because Deuteronomy 28 ties morality and obedience to the law of God directly to the economic prosperity of the nation. We can never have a prosperous nation without self-government, without each of us being governed by the law of God. Without somebody forcing us to do it. But when people are no longer governed themselves, and their families no longer govern them, then the only thing left, and the church doesn't govern them, then the only thing left is the civil government.

And when they try to govern people, they become tyrants. And there's no end to the laws that have to be passed in order to seek to cover every single situation that anybody could ever find themselves in and what to do about it. And of course, no law can adequately cover every situation because every situation is different. It takes somebody who has been born from above, who has the Holy Spirit as their guide to apply the law of God in each situation that we find ourselves. Now, verses seven and 10 give us the next principle in that in a prosperous culture, people look out for the interest of others.

People look out for the interest of others. People look out for the interest of others. I get a news magazine periodically, and a while ago, a number of years ago, they started putting a page in there to report on good things that people do. All too often, news simply reports on all the wrong things people do. And so they rightfully wanted to start looking at good that's done.

And so they, there are a lot of things that people do looking out for the interests of others. And I'm sure you've done that the same yourself. Well, that is foundational to a prosperous culture. It's not just for you personally and for your family, but that obedience, that looking out for the interest of others bears fruit in our nation. Capitalism is not Christian when it ignores the needs of people.

The righteous considers the cause of the poor but the wicked does not understand such knowledge. The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, but the upright seek his well-being. The bloodthirsty hate the righteous, But the upright seek the well-being of those righteous people. That's a call to action. That's a call that says, you know, when you cease a crime being committed, that you're willing to be a witness against the perpetrator.

You're willing to get involved to rescue those who are perishing because you're looking out for the interest of others. The bloodthirsty hate the blameless. That we know. Those who hate God hate the people of God. Because the Bible also says that those who love God hate those who hate God.

I think Psalm 15 is one of several places that addresses that. It says, Who may ascend to God's tabernacle, His holy hill? Somebody that walks uprightly, works righteousness, speaks the truth in his heart, in whose eyes a vile person is despised. But He honors those who fear the Lord. That's what this verse is saying.

The blunt thirsty hate the blameless. But those who are upright, they help them. They seek their well-being. Lastly, is the center part of this chiasm that individual morality matters for national prosperity. Matters for national prosperity.

Scaffers set a city aflame, but wise men turn away wrath. If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace, there is no settlement. Psalm 1 tells us that we are not to be associated with scoffers. Scoffers set a city aflame. Scoffers corrupt the innocent.

Scoffers destroy the foundation. The scoffer you might say is the worst, the most insidious form of wickedness. Because scoffers are those who promote their atheism and their agnosticism and their cynicism and their skepticism. They are ones who are vocal in their rejection of Christ as the king, in mocking those who are upright. And so they are very destructive to a culture, but wise men turn away wrath.

Like we saw that example from second King six of how through Elisha's counsel the wrath of an even a pagan nation was turned away and averted. And we can point to many examples where wisdom has preserved a nation. Wisdom has preserved a city. You remember in the days following Jephthah, how they came after a city, and a wise woman through her counsel was able to save that city and turn away wrath. In World War I, a hundred years after the war, a lot of things are being discovered that had been long suppressed.

And one of the things that was then discovered is how long the nation of Germany was able to avert war by wisdom and wisely turning away wrath. There was a group of people who were trying to create a war And it kept failing for a number of years because a wise kin was turning away wrath and preserving peace. Now the second part of this is that courts can't change people's hearts. If a wise person contends with a foolish man, whether he rages or mocks, scorns, is a sense of that word, there is no settlement, There's no resolution. In other words, a court ruling is not going to change somebody.

And that's why I think it's very dangerous to trust in courts today, to rein in the wickedness around us or to save us. We can't expect that we can go to court and get a judge to rule in our favor, even to put it more properly, to rule in accordance with righteousness. We can't expect that to change the hearts of the fools that are ruling, and the fools and the scoffers who are having their day. We can't expect the courts to be our savior. Wise man contends, and that has a legal connotation.

So if it's basically bringing that person to court. If a wise person brings... Legally contends with a fool, doesn't matter what that fool does. Whether they rage or whether they scoff, there is no peace. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is our King.

He is truth, and He is reigning in the midst of His enemies. In Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of his strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. Yes, we may look around and it seems like our courts are licensed to lie, but Christ is reigning. He is reigning in the midst of his enemies.

He is reigning despite his enemies, And he is our only hope. Our trust needs to be in him, not in our courts, not in getting some good president elected, not in the next person that we can get on the Supreme Court. Our hope is not in any of these things. Our hope has to be in Jesus Christ and him alone. And in his righteous reign.

I don't know what we'll be called to do. I don't know what the Lord will call us to do as his witnesses, as his servants. It might be to seek the well-being of the upright. It might be to speak the truth to scoffers, to kings, to those who are in authority. And it might be that we suffer for that.

Jesus' words are, Blessed are you when they persecute you for righteousness' sake. Blessed are you. Jesus Christ is our hope. And He is reigning. And He will continue to reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

And that this morning is our hope. And in Him is our confidence. And in Him is our salvation. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your commandments and for your words. We thank you that we can stake our life upon the truth of your word, that you have preserved every word of it to us without error, without flaw, and that it is dependable, that it is truth.

We ask that you would help us to live by it. We ask that you would calm our fears, that you would overcome our doubts, And that you would give us courage, that we might meditate upon your law day and night, that the book of your law should not depart from our mouth, that we would meditate in it to practice it to do it, that for then Lord you have promised that we would have success and that you would make our way prosperous. You, Lord, have promised also to be with us wherever we go. We claim that promise right now Father. That wherever we go, you are with us, your angels are with us.

And that greater are those who are with us than those who are with them. Oh Lord, open our eyes that we may see this reality. Through Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.