Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 11:14 (The Value of Advice) (Part 41)

You need to analyze your audience, know to whom you are speaking, what their needs are, where they're coming from, maybe what their vocabulary is, what their background might be, what's worrying them, what kind of problems are out there. Obviously, you preach a sermon differently to a group of people who are unbelievers for the most part, than to a group of people who are believers. You preach a sermon differently to those who are believers, who have very little doctrinal training than those who have had that doctrinal training, and on and on and on. I could go in terms of the illustration of what audience analysis entails. However, there's a real irony, I think, in analyzing the audience this morning for this sermon, a real irony. And it's not just because of who you are. I think any audience, this would be true, any Christian audience, certainly. For you see, a sermon is a form of public counseling. A sermon is a form of public advice. It is not the one on one kind of counseling that we usually think of when we talk about counseling. It's not the kind of advice you might get in secret from a friend. It's very open and it's directed to a wide body of people, to be sure. But when you think about it, sermons are a way of counseling you and forming your lives and, and giving you advice, hopefully wise advice and faithful advice from God's Word. And the point of this morning's sermon is to encourage you to be willing to take advice. The point of this morning's sermon is to open you up, make you more willing to receive the counsel of others. And thus, among other things, the point of this morning's sermon is to make you someone who heeds the pastor's sermons. Now, it turns out, if you think about it, that those in the audience who have the least tendency to be open to advice will be the ones who are most in need of this morning's considerations then. However, just because they are not very open to advice, they will not likely be open to the advice of this morning's sermon either. On the other hand, those believers who are most teachable, those who are most open to correction, will for that reason be most inclined to hear and to heed the words that I'm about to present to you. And so, who's willing to hear this morning's sermon? The irony is, those who need it least will be the most willing to hear it. Those who are most open to advice and to counsel will be the ones who are hearing my words about being more open to advice and counsel. The righteous will become more righteous and those who are more closed minded, those who are more self consumed, those who are more foolish will likely become more foolish because of this morning's sermon too. So you see the irony clearly. We all need to examine our hearts. We all need to pray this morning for a more willing spirit, a spirit that is dynamically opened, powerfully opened by the Holy Spirit of God to receive God's holy Word and to change us and to mold us and make us the kind of people we should be. We need to make ourselves more mindful of our closed mindedness. But if we are closed minded people, how will we see our close mindedness? Well, only the Holy Spirit can overcome that irony. Only the Holy Spirit can break through that paradox. Only the Holy Spirit can make us people who will hear his own words and the text of God's Word, so that we will become people who are less needful of them, so that we'll be people who are corrected and therefore less in need of correction. The Value of Advice that's what I want to talk to you about. The value of advice. Turn to Proverbs 11:14, where we read this morning, where no wise guidance is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors there is safety. I enjoy this verse in the Hebrew in particular because there's an idiom there that is worth picking up on the word for guidance where no wise guidance is. That word guidance in the Hebrew is literally a reference to knowing the ropes. The word pertains to the tackle of a ship that must be managed and mastered in order to steer the ship. So quite literally, if you want to know the ropes, the godly man, according to the book of Proverbs is the man who takes the trouble to know his way around. It's the man who has discernment, the man who sees things clearly, who is shrewd, the man who can plan his course realistically. There is nothing godly and nothing commendable about being someone who just fumbles around and just can't get life organized, can't make good plans, can't get things accomplished. The wise man knows the ropes. If we use the Hebrew here, he plans realistically. For instance, in Proverbs 22:3 we read that a prudent man sees the evil and hides himself, but the simpleton passes on and suffers for it. See, the wise man, he sees the pitfall, he sees the evil and he gets out of the way. He knows to move. He knows that it's going to be foolish to proceed down this path, whereas the simpleton, the foolish man, he sees the evil as well. He just passes right on. And the Bible says he suffers for it because he doesn't think things through. He's not realistic. He doesn't know the ropes. Indeed, the whole book of Proverbs is calculated to teach us the ropes of life, to know how to manage the ship of state, if you will, Actually, the ship of our lives as we go through our lives. If you look at Proverbs 1, 4:5, you'll notice that the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion, that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels. The man of understanding is the man who attains unto sound counsels, who receives advice. And so if you would know the ropes of life, to put it very simply, if you would have sound counsel in this life, the particular instruction that Proverbs 11:14 gives us is to get all the advice you can. Be someone who wants to get a lot of advice. Be open to it, seek it, heed it, listen. Because, you see, it can be fatal to shut out of your consideration when you're getting ready to make decisions, say, about where to work or who you should marry, or where you should live, or what kind of ministry you should pursue as a Christian, whether you're going into pastoral ministry or not, how you should handle a delicate family problem, what kind of financial decisions you should make, and on and on and on. If you want to know the ropes when it comes to these things, don't shut out of your consideration voices that are disquieting to you, or voices that run contrary to your preconceived desires. One of the biggest foolish mistakes we all make, and I count myself right along with you here, is that we make up our minds. And then when good advice comes to us and new information is presented and factors that we haven't seen are laid before us, we say, yeah, but I've already got my heart set on this. I'm going in this direction already. It's too late to back out. No, it's not. It never is too late to make a wise rather than a foolish decision. I remember that refrain in the song by Simon Garfunkel entitled the Boxer, a song about a man who, both literally and, I think, symbolically in his life, has been beat up and beat up and beat up. And the boxer keeps saying he's going to leave, he's going to give this up. But the boxer still Remains. Well, the line that I remember, however, is the one that says a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. All lies and jest. A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. And that is true of the human condition. That is a very accurate portrayal of what we are in our sinful, self centered character. It should not be true, however, of the believer. So often it is, sadly, so often it is true. We seek advice seldom. And when we do seek it, we listen to what we want to hear. This is what's called window shopping for counsel. Window shopping for counsel refers to the person who wants to get advice. But you see, they're going to go out there and look at all the different kinds of advice that are available. Then they're going to seek that advice that fits their preconceived ideas. They're going to buy into that advice, if you will, that suits their taste. In the same way that you go into the store, that when you see in the window the kind of things you like, then you go in. A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. And the book of Proverbs says, you are a fool if you live that way. A wise man does not close his ears to what is disquieting to him or runs counter to his preconceived desires. In fact, this verse tells us that a corporate disaster awaits a people. Notice that where no wise guidance is, the people fall. And that people, the corporate entity, could be a nation, a nation full of fools, will be a nation that is wayward, will go the wrong way, will not heed correction, and will suffer for it. It could be a family. So often I'm afraid we see families where the whole family is characterized by this self willed inability to hear counsel, where everyone makes up their own mind and it's just a matter of seeing if you can get your point of view sold to the other people in the family, if you can somehow cope with it when your desires are not met. Family life shouldn't be like that though. This tug and pull and competition. Family life, a people and a family, if you will, should be characterized by wise guidance and open mindedness and pliable and teachableness too. It also applies to a people, a corporate entity, like a congregation, a congregation that displays an inability to receive counsel. That is, here's the pastor's sermons every week and many walk out and say, boy, we really needed that, I needed that. Thank you very much pastor. But then we don't see any changes, or a congregation that's unwilling to hear pastoral counsel or won't listen to their shepherds. That congregation's due for a fall, the book of Proverbs tells us. In fact, as a small aside, I'd like to point out that the wisdom of the Presbyterian form of government incorporates the insight of this verse. For, you know, the genius of Presbyterianism is that you never have one man. You never have one man who makes the rules and makes the decisions. Because you see, all of us are prone to be people with narrow or tunneled vision. All of us are prone to overlook factors that are important. All of us prone to be self seeking and self deceiving people. And so it's not wise to have just one man be the charismatic leader of a congregation. The pastor is not the Pope. We need to learn that the pastor rules in joint authority with the other elders. And you know, no one set of elders rules all by themselves either. Because even if you were to get in a congregation that had three, four, five elders, you know, these elders, all of one mind, that's mistaken. We have the comfort of knowing that there's the regional church, the presbytery that shares its wisdom. Sometimes it's correction, sometimes it's encouragement. And even beyond the presbytery, we don't have one presbytery that rules on its own. You have the entire church, what we call the General assembly of the elders, the that meets to correct, encourage and to oversee the affairs of presbyteries too. And so what Proverbs says here gets worked out in the New Testament in church government in the form of Presbyterianism. Never one man rule, always jointly with other elders. And those elders always have a broader context to look to to help them and correct them when they need it. Well, what is seen in Presbyterianism, we need to see in all walks of life. Maybe not that structure. You may not have a, a board of appeals in your family, but you do need a family that is open to listening to just every individual's own chosen point of view. And the same in a nation. Turn to Proverbs 12:15. Let's pursue this theme further in God's Word. Proverbs 12:15 is one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture, I suppose, and it's one that needs very little exposition because we know exactly what it's getting at. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But he that is wise hearkens unto counsel. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The man who is genuinely a man of reason. The genuinely reasonable man, if you will, is one who is willing to test himself for prejudice. Now all of us need to test ourselves for error. All of us need to test ourselves for having overlooked factors that we should have taken into account in making a decision, making an evaluation. But the one who is truly mature, who is really walking in terms of the spirit of God, the man who is wise, is going to test himself particularly for prejudice. So the person who's going to look very hard and long at himself or herself and say, I know I have a tendency to move in this direction. I know I have a tendency to be blind to these sorts of things. I know I have a tendency to be self serving about this kind of question or issue. Do you know yourselves that well? Can you do that? The sad thing is again, if you cannot do that, then how will you ever escape the condemnation of this? That the way of a fool is right in his own eyes? You come to a conclusion. You say, well, I think this is right. The question is, are you being right in your own eyes or is there some kind of public, objective, rational truth to what you're saying so that other believers, if they knew what you knew, would be able to draw that conclusion as well. And that's one of the reasons we don't like people to scrutinize what we're doing. Because you see, as long as we make the decision and no one knows how we got to that decision, then it can appear justifiable. You can say, well, I took everything into account that I thought I should. But you see, that becomes something like a black box. You know how you learn to do analysis and in technical fields, sometimes you don't understand how you get from point A to point B to draw a conclusion. And so what you do is you call that like a black box. Just for the time being, don't learn how you get from A to B, but what are you going to do with B when you get it? Then we go back and we learn more about that. Well, as long as we keep all of our decision making processes in a black box where no one else can look at them, then no one can criticize them. No one can say we drew the wrong conclusion. And we like that. We like the comfort of not having to change course, not having to say we were wrong, not having to be corrected. But if you don't examine yourself and don't allow others to examine yourself, and how do you know you're not a fool who's just right in his own eyes rather than Right. A man who behaves in a manner which suggests that he is never wrong. I want you to notice how I constructed that sentence. A man who behaves in a manner that suggests this, as I don't know anybody who would say, hey, I'm never wrong. So it won't do any good to say, hey, hey, don't ever think you're never wrong. It'd be much more probing, I think, much more helpful to you to say, look at your behavior. Does it suggest that you are never wrong, that you need not listen to advice, that you always know what is best without consulting others? A person who behaves in that manner is not at all as wise as he imagines. God's word says in reality is a fool. It's extremely frustrating to this pastor and I think to all pastors who are trying to do a biblical job. It's extremely frustrating to counsel someone who has his or her mind made up in advance. I have a friend, I don't agree with this friend, but I have a friend who does a lot of counseling. And his attitude is when someone comes and gives all the evidence that they have their mind set on taking care of their problem this way or that, he says, I don't try to get involved in that. I don't try to get in there and to redirect it, because it's just going to be frustrating. It's just going to be argumentative at worst or a waste of my time at best. I don't bother to start giving real directive counseling until someone opens themselves up and humbles themselves and shows they really don't know what to do and they're willing to do whatever they're told. Well, the difficulty I have with that is that Christian counseling has to assume the power of God's word to break through even the obstinate of our hearers. So I believe we have to be directive at all times when people come. But I do agree with my friend to this degree. It is really frustrating for someone to come and take an hour or two of your time when the whole time it's obvious that you get nothing but your advice parried back to you, always volleyed back, always something to say. So we don't have to do that. We don't have to do that. We. We don't have to do that. And you get done with the time and you say, why did we bother to have this discussion? You knew what you were going to do anyway. I was just here as a convenient. Well, you probably would have been happier had you come in and the pastor would have given his religious imprimatur to your decision. If you had come and gone through all this, and then I would have said, ah, God bless you, that's probably a good decision, then you would have felt better about it. But when you come for counsel and the pastor says, well, have you considered this? Are you really thinking this through? How about this? How about that? I really think God's word would call for a greater faithfulness in this area. And the person's always got an answer for that. It's just really frustrating. Appears to be a waste of time. I know in the providence of God it isn't always a waste, but it can appear that way. It can be very, very frustrating, as I say, when someone has their mind made up in advance. And even worse when a person is just deaf to the many considerations that indicate that he's made a dangerous or maybe a foolish choice. The effort to persuade this person is just futile. And the Bible tells us why. Because he's a fool. He's right in his own eyes, and he can't see beyond his own feelings. I really, really respect the commentator Charles Bridges. In his commentary on the Book of Proverbs, after he explains what this verse is all about in the commentary, he just has this exclamation. He says, oh my God, save me from myself. Save me from my own self deceitfulness. Of course, self deceitfulness is just an archaic way of saying self deception. And Bridges, after looking at this very rightly, goes immediately to his knees before God and says, God, save me from me. Save me from the self deception. That I fall into the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Turn to Proverbs 13:10. We read, thereby pride cometh only contention. But with the well advised is wisdom. This is an antithetical proverb. It's a parallel construction where line A stands in antithesis to line B. There's a contrast intended, and I want you to notice because we learned something very important to notice the nature of this contrast. By pride comes only contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. What is the contrast between here, between the man who is proud and the man who is well advised? Does that tell you something? One of the ways in which you can measure pride in your life is by asking, how open am I to advice? How much do I seek it? How much does counsel have an effect upon me when I receive it? In the clash of unyielding personalities, pride is always a key ingredient. That's what it says. By pride comes only Contention. But by contrast, the text mentions those who take advice, those who are well advised. Because you see, one of the main elements of pride is a closed mind. One of the main elements of pride is a closed mind. An inflated view of your own opinions cannot but bring you trouble in this life, especially when you run into other people who have equally inflated opinions of their own self. Then what happens when two close minded people start dealing with each other? Contention, but with the well advised is wisdom the very opposite. Wise men show themselves prepared to change their minds when they have to in light of new information. To change their minds when better reasoning than their own has been presented to them. And then Proverbs 15:22, where there is no counsel purposes, are disappointed. But in the multitude of counselors they are established. Successful plans, we learn now, successful plans call for openness to counseling and openness to counseling for many people. To put it in the idiom that we know in English, two heads are better than one and three heads are better than two and four are better than three. And if you haven't got the point by now, I will stop anyway, because you're not going to get it. In a multitude of counselors your purposes are established. But when you don't have a lot of advice, when you don't consider all the factors, when you're blind to the things you should hear and the correction you should receive, then your plans are frustrated. That's what the Bible says. And I think every one of you could stand up and say, here's the testimony and illustration from my life of what this verse is saying. I had a plan once to do such and such, and I didn't listen to anybody. In fact, I thought I didn't need to listen to anybody. I mean, it was so clear in my own mind, because the way of a fool's right in his own eyes. It was so clear to me. I didn't even seek counsel or advice from anybody. And you know, it didn't work out what I thought I was going to get at the end of this course. This project, this way of handling this affair, whatever it may be, isn't what I got at all. I'll bet each and every one of you. In fact, I don't think that if we were to stay around long enough today that we could exhaust all of the illustrations of this. This happens repeatedly, from the most minor to the major decisions we make. We don't seek counsel and we find out our plans are thwarted. But in the council of many people, plans are established. Now at this point you may be asking, or if you're not at this point, eventually I think you're going to say, but now wait a minute, Dr. Bonson, not all the counsel I received is harmonious. Not everything that people tell me agrees with what other people say. So now what do I do when there's conflicts? Can you really say plans are established when you hear all these opinions and all the opinions are going different ways and pulling you different directions? I want to suggest to you you're better off even with that. You know why you're better off even with conflicting counsel from many counselors? Because at least you've opened up your mind to a far broader range of considerations than you would have on your own. At least, to put it again in our idiom, you see the pros and the cons more clearly for making a certain decision. Now, I grant you, not everyone, not even all Christians are going to agree when you come and ask their advice. And there are reasons for that. There is better and there's worse familiarity with the Word of God. There's greater and there's less maturity in the Holy Spirit. There is sometimes less information available. You tell the story slightly different to someone else. I mean, there are reasons why Christians disagree in council. I'm sorry that they do. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the day came where every Christian always saw every issue exactly the same way and it was faithful to God's word? God be praised. That day is on the horizon. When Jesus returns, we'll be like that. But right now we aren't. But I want to suggest that even when we disagree, you're better off to hear three or four Christian friends disagree on the decision you should make than to just think in your own mind what you should do. Because again, you open up yourself to at least reckon with something you would not have otherwise reckoned with. At Proverbs 15:22, the new English Bible translates nicely. It says, schemes lightly made come to nothing. Schemes lightly made, with little thought, little consideration. Okay, let's turn to Proverbs 19:20, 27, see if we can reinforce this message further. Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. Verse 27 Cease, my son, to hear instruction, only to err from the words of knowledge. To put it simply, true wisdom is not short sighted. That's the problem with all of us. We're shortsighted. When we want to make a decision, we tend to look at only the most immediate factors and the immediate consequences of our decision. Proverbs 19:20 tells us to consider our latter end. However, hear counsel, receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. There are a lot of us who can appear wise right now. The question is, will you be wise when the game of life is up and when all the tally is taken, and when there's an evaluation of the things you've done and the consequences, the ongoing ones in your life, in your family, upon others, and so forth. When all of that is taken into account in thy latter end, will you appear wise? Don't be short sighted. True wisdom looks ahead. True wisdom considers one's long term investment. That's why true wisdom is so rare today. Because our culture encourages the very opposite of that long term investment attitude. Our culture looks for the easy fix. Our culture looks for the quick laugh, the immediate gratification. Our culture says, enjoy now, pay later. God's word says pay now, enjoy later. We are at direct odds, you see, with the mindset of this age, with the spirit of our culture. But listen to God's lament In Deuteronomy, chapter 32, the Song of Moses, at verse 29, God says, oh, that they were wise, that they would consider their latter end. God is predicting a day when Israel, you see, will make covenant with false gods. Because it will appear to be in their immediate interest. It will give them what they think is immediate satisfaction, gratification of what they need. But God says owes it. They were considered their latter end because what happens when they tie themselves to a false God is that that rock deceives them and lets them down. And they must come under finally the judgment of the true rock, the only support and foundation that they have, the only refuge that they should have in Jehovah. But notice, if they were wise, they'd take the long term vision. They would look down the road and consider consequences that that are not immediately at hand, but are very important. So those who wish to wind up with wisdom's rewards at the end of their lives, at the end of their particular course, should hearken to the counsel and instruction that is available to them now. Hear counsel, receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. But verse 27 shows us the opposite. Those who trifle with the truth by being unteachable in their spirit. And what we learn there is that they're going to fall into error and they're going to put up a barricade to knowledge. Cease, my son, to hear instruction, only to err from the words of knowledge. On this mother's day, it's a good day to Draw some application to you who are younger, who are still living with your parents, and actually to those of you who are not living with your parents too, especially if you have Christian parents to listen to. It says here, cease my son to hear instruction. And what will happen? You're going to fall away from the words of knowledge. Children in our congregation, don't just give a gift to your mother today and say, you know, Mom, I appreciate it when you kissed me when I was hurt and put a bandage on my wound. Children, listen to your parents not because they're like God and never make mistakes, but because they've had a lot more experience at making mistakes than you and that's helped them to some degree to help you not to make so many children listen to your parents. Don't cease to be knowledgeable, don't be proud, don't be close minded. And I want to say that especially to teenagers, not because I have anything against teenagers. I love teenagers. Teenage years were a great time in my life and many times I nostalgically wish I could go back. So I'm not against you teenagers, but I have seen this to be the case both in my experience and what I saw in the teenagers around me. And now as I teach teenagers, and I have to put up with some too in my own family, I just know that it becomes an occupational hazard to be a teenager, that because you're beginning to feel your your own grown upness, you tend to think you don't need to listen to people. The book of Proverbs says that's a very foolish way to conduct yourself. Cease, my son, to hear instruction and you're going to err. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. Teenagers in particular. Ask God to give you wisdom and an open mind. Ask God to give you a love and affection for your parents so you'll listen to them and try to do what they say. I know they're going to let you down, but my guess is you're going to let yourself down a lot more. So listen, on this Mother's Day, that'd be a much better gift, I think, than all the little things that were unwrapped this morning anyway. Proverbs 20:18. Every purpose is established by counsel and by wise guidance. Make thou war. If there are any pacifists among us, you're going to have real trouble with this verse. That's not the main point of it, however, about making war. What it does say is every purpose is established by council, especially the most consequential of Choices that are made whether you go to war or not. If you want your plan to be established, if you want to be successful, it's going to require counseling, it's going to require advice. And so by wise guidance, make war. These are words that are alluded to by Jesus himself in the New Testament. You may Remember in Luke 14, verse 31, where Jesus is talking about the necessity of foresight, especially in deciding to follow him. He uses as an illustration these words, or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel, whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20,000? Jesus knows the words of Proverbs. The illustration is quite correct. My guess is when it gets to the point that you have to make the decision to go to war for a whole nation, it's at that point, if at any point you're going to feel humility and the need to get some advice from people. And why is that? Because you know the consequences are so dreadful. Because you know that so much is at stake in that decision. But what does Proverbs say? Every purpose is established by counsel, not just the big decisions. Not just whether you're a national leader and whether you're going to go to war or not, but every purpose and every choice you make could be helped and established by having advice. And there's one more verse in Proverbs that we need to look at this morning in chapter 24, verse 6. For by wise guidance thou shalt make thy war. And in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. That word safety is sometimes translated victory, sometimes translated strength, and really all of them fit equally well here. Strength, safety, or victory are gained by what a multitude of counselors, gaining as many perspectives as you can, overriding hidden or maybe purposeful prejudices that you have, or testing your own opinions against as much information as you can gather. There's safety, there's victory in a multitude of counselors. So before we end this morning with some applications, ask yourself, how many counselors do you have in your life? Count them up. If you're like most people, I don't think you can get past four or five. You're doing well. If you can get to four or five, relatively well. I don't think you're doing biblically well, but I mean, who do you really talk to about your decisions? We would hope that if you're married, your husband or your wife, I mean, and of course it's tragic, it's sad, but that's not Always the case. But I mean, let's begin counting our counselors. Husband or wife, you talk to a lot about the decisions you make. Christian friends, employer, you talk to the pastor or the elders. I mean, who on a regular basis do you consult for help? And my guess is if you can't number three or four, which I think is relatively low. But if you can't even number three or four that you regularly talk to and get help from, counsel, exhortation, correction, and you are a sitting duck for the foolish consequences that we've been studying this morning. In a multitude of counselors there is safety. Well, then you'd better have a multitude if you want to be safe. Well, how can we apply this passage today? I see really seven ways in which this can be applied. But I've already talked about one that has to do with children. Children, hear your parents. Very important. As you grow up, learn that virtue. But I want to back up and actually talk about something else first this morning. And that's the grave danger of those who turn away from the soundest advice you can receive. And that's in the Gospel itself. Turn to 2 Peter 2:21 2 Peter 2:21, a verse that is devastating. For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them. Peter says it would be better for people who hear the gospel and then turn away from it to have not heard it in the first place. Because those who hear the gospel, those who have received the divine advice and that they need for the salvation of their souls, the stabilizing of their lives and their eternal well being, those who hear the good news and turn back from it are in a far worse condition of judgment from God than those who never heard it in the first place. This is one of the verses that establishes by the way, there will be degrees of punishment on the day of judgment. There are going to be those who, whether they be in deepest Africa or wherever, who have never heard the gospel, who will go to hell. There's no doubt about that. No one will be saved by ignorance. According to, according to the Bible, they will go to hell, but their punishment in hell will not be nearly as bad as those who live under the preaching of the gospel week in and week out, have it right at their disposal. Here in America, let's say, have heard it and just don't care a bit about it. There are those who started to go to church and believe these things and then just turned their backs on It. And Peter says, those who have heard the Holy Commandment and then turn back from it, it's far worse than for them. And my heart goes out to some of you this morning because I am afraid that you may be in this category, that you have heard the gospel, you know what God requires of you. You know the best advice that's available for human beings, and you're turning your back on it. And the Bible says you are a fool if you think God's going to honor the fact that you sat in church all these years and just heard it. I want to call upon those of you who have not given your lives to Jesus Christ this morning to stop being so foolish. You know better. Yes, you do. In your heart of hearts, you know what you need to do. You know that God is not going to overlook your sin, that God is not going to treat you even as someone who is ignorant of these things. God's going to say, you've been privileged. You're a baptized member of the church, maybe. But you don't make profession of faith in Jesus Christ. You will not stand up and be counted. Or those of you who are just on the fringes of the church, who, though you've had some active involvement, are in and out. Maybe you really wouldn't care if you turned your back and didn't live the Christian life. I want to warn you that you're not taking God's advice. And the book of Second Peter tells you your judgment will be the worst of all. Heed the Lord and heed him now. Secondly, I think all this which we found in the Book of Proverbs this morning teaches us a lot about mystical conceptions of divine guidance. Oh, it's a sad distraction in the Christian church when people are taught and when they have to make a tough decision about what job to take or where to live or who to marry or how to handle a particular problem. What they say is, well, I'm just going to pray and hope God will guide me. God's going to give me this impulse. God's going to give me this little nudge. God's going to give me this feeling that I need. And my friends, I'm sorry for all the piety with which that may ring. That is not biblical. That is not God's idea of guidance. To have you just close your mind to studying an issue and learning His Word and growing up in the Holy Spirit and gaining the wisdom to make good decisions and just ask God to somehow push you in the right direction. Show me what mission field I should go to God. That is not God pleasing. All my life I've known people who thought that was the most tremendous thing they could say is that basically I turned off my reasoning ability and I just had God put me in the right path. But God doesn't offer that kind of. He saves us sometimes from our foolishness and praise God for that. But that is not the normal way in which we should make decisions. That's not a God honoring way to make decisions. How should we make decisions? Gather facts, put down the pros and cons, think about the worst scenario, the best scenario that you have. Know more about the situation, and even better, know more about the Word of God. Guidance comes by the rational application of God's teaching to the objective facts of our situation. Guidance comes when we learn biblical principles and then get wisdom and maturity and expertise in applying them to the details of life. So if you come to me and you want advice as to what you should do in terms of a job, you have two or three open to you, don't expect me to say, well, let's just spend our whole time praying about that. And then maybe we'll have kind of a, a strange inner feeling at the end of that that'll tell us what you should do. That is not what to do. We should pray that God will forgive us and open our minds and give us maturity and wisdom from the Spirit. Yes, we need prayer, but beyond prayer, we need to open our eyes and start saying, well, here are the facts as we know them. Do our best to understand the situation. Do our best to take everything God's word says that's relevant to that into account and then draw a conclusion at the end, which if we were to write it out, if we were to go through a complete flowchart of how I got from here to there, I could give to another Christian believer and say, does this look right to you? In the vast majority of cases you'd have people say, yes, that's biblical guidance, not mystical guidance. Learn to make rational decisions in a multitude of counselors. Thirdly, this passage should teach us that sheep all the more need to heed the voice of their shepherds. It is not a good quality. It is not a commendable trait in sheep to ignore the shepherds. Now, I'm not into what's called shepherding. Some of you may have heard that. This idea that every decision you make you call your shepherd, you know, and if the shepherd doesn't see that way, then of course you automatically turn off your brain and let the Shepherd's brain take over. I'm not talking about that. I've already told you about the wonders of Presbyterianism. You're never stuck with one little pope who can make mistakes and lord it over your life. You've got many shepherds in this congregation and elsewhere. But my point is, as sheep, you need to realize that you have a tendency to wander. You have a tendency to do very stupid things. You say, but, Pastor, aren't you stupid, too? And I have to confess I am. But you see, the only way a person should get ordained in a church, the way it's supposed to work, is that there are some people who have left off a certain measure of stupidity so they can be better in a position to help others who are not yet at that position. Now, you've voted for the elders and the pastor of your congregation, and there have been others who are supposed to be wise and discerning who have condoned those votes and so forth and so on. So I'm not appealing to the infallibility of the shepherds, but I am appealing to their greater spiritual maturity. Hopefully, that's true. It's supposed to be true. And if it is true, then heed what Hebrews 13:17 tells you. Hebrews 13: at the 17th verse says very unequivocally, obey them that have the rule over you and submit. For they watch in behalf of your souls. As they that shall give account, that they may do this with joy, so. And not with grief, for that would be unprofitable. For you listen to your shepherds. If they're good shepherds, if they're anything like the good shepherd Jesus Christ, when they give you advice, they're doing it not because they have something in store for themselves, not because they have some hidden agenda. But it should be advice they give, knowing that on the day of judgment, not only will you be investigated about that decision, but your shepherd will be as well. They look out for your souls, they care for you. They want to help you. Where you need greater ability to apply God's word to the facts of the situation. If they're further down the line in terms of spiritual maturity, they want to help you. Because of that advantageous position that they have, they're looking out for you. And so, people, I beg you, go to your elders, seek their advice and listen to them. If you think someone's made a mistake, check with another elder. If you get two opinions going against your preconceived ideas, all the more you better reconsider. But in the end, I'm not saying that your shepherds can't make a mistake. I'm just saying that you are a foolish sheep. If when the shepherd speaks, you just say, I don't have to hear that, you'd better take it into account. You must as well. I want you to learn this morning from our study in Proverbs that all of us as believers should be offering counsel to one another. I think sometimes we're afraid to do that. We're afraid we're going to make a mistake. And so why say anything to someone else and have them bear the consequences of your mistake? Romans 15:14. Paul assures the congregation in Rome. He says, I am persuaded of you that you are full of all goodness and all knowledge, and you are able to admonish one another. You are able to do so. After all, each and every one of us as a believer is filled with the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit was given to the world to convict of sin. Often counseling cases call for that. The Holy Spirit was given to the world so that there might be comfort after all, Jesus says, I'll give you another comforter. You may be used by the Spirit to comfort those who are hurting and need your advice and counsel. The Holy Spirit was given to the world to guide us into the right paths, and that Spirit is in us. All of us, therefore, are able to help each other. All of us are able to admonish, and we must be engaging in that. And then that leads me to another application. If we should be doing that, if we should be counseling each other, exhorting one another, talking to each other about our life's decisions, then we should all be sure that our counsel is biblically oriented, pointing to the need for greater study of the Scripture on the part of all of us. One of the reasons you are hesitant to offer counsel is because you're not sure where all the solid spots in God's Word are. You don't know where you stand on this, that, and the other issue. If you're biblically ignorant, you're not going to be real bold to be telling people what to do. Or if you are real bold and you're biblically ignorant, you're probably an unbeliever because you think you're just all right in yourself. But if you're a true Christian, then you know you need help. But if you haven't studied the one source of help God has given us objectively, then you're going to be less inclined to offer it to others. And so we need to become students of the Bible. I'VE been saying that a lot lately. It seems like that application keeps showing up. Maybe I'm prejudicial about that. Okay, so I'll hear your counsel about it. My guess is, though, you can see that if you are to counsel people, you need to get closer to the counselor's manual. What did Jesus say in Matthew 15:14 if the blind guide the blind, both shall end up where? In the pit. Don't be a blind guide. Be a biblically instructed guide. And then finally, and obviously the application of these passages is that we must all pray for greater receptivity to counsel, greater receptivity to advice from others. I want you to heed the Words of James 3:17, where James says, very interestingly, the wisdom that is from above. That's what the Book of Proverbs is all about, wisdom, isn't it? Divinely given wisdom. James says, the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. And he goes on to give a cantata of characteristics of the person who has divine wisdom. The one I want you to focus on as we end this morning, though, is this one. The wisdom that is from above is easy to be entreated, easy to be entreated, perhaps more up to date. Translation Open to Persuasion the wisdom that is from above is open to persuasion. Don't be closed minded people. Don't be fools. Write in your own eyes, but seek the counsel of others because in a multitude of counselors, their safety. Let's pray. God, we ask you to forgive us for our closed minds this morning. We ask you to forgive us for being closed in to ourselves as well. That we don't seek nor do we heed the advice that others have for us. And yet you are such a good God and so gracious. You have provided Christian friends and counselors, pastors, elders. You've provided people in our lives that we should listen to who could help us and who, because they love us, want to help us. We do ask that you would give us a wisdom that is truly from above this morning that makes us open to persuasion. That we would receive the correction we need and be able to say thank you for that correction. Not to feel that somehow our reputations are at stake. Not to feel that our pride has to be diminished or walked upon when someone disagrees with us and shows us a safer way to go, a wiser decision to make. Help us to look to a multitude of counselors with an open mind, trusting that thereby you will honor our decisions, that you will give us success in our projects and will avoid the pitfalls of the fools that are all about us in this world. Lord, we pray that you would also help us as a congregation to help each other. We know we can't do that if we don't know each other, if we don't talk to each other. We know we can't do that if we don't pray for each other and show genuine concern for each other. So we ask for a greater measure of love and brotherly concern, a greater measure of involvement in the lives of each other, that we might be there to encourage and to comfort, to correct and exhort, to do all those things that we need as we enjoy the life of your body, the body of Jesus Christ, his church. We pray in the name of the head of the church, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.