Prov 11 Seeking Wisdom

We're continuing our study of the book of Proverbs, and remember, we're working our way systematically through it.

And what we've been doing is every time we come to a new theme, we pause and we expand on that particular theme with all the other verses in Proverbs that apply to it.

So the opening text for this morning is Proverbs 11 -14, where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.

So after my son, my oldest son, had moved to Florida, we had started taking a bunch of trips there.

And this is a while ago, before we had GPS technology. Didn't have all of that, the newfangled stuff, you know, telling us which routes to go.

So what we had to do was, we were members of AAA, and I see some of you smiling.

You recognize that there was a service called the Triptych. And so we were members of AAA, and the

Triptych suggested what was the best route, taking into consideration construction delays, traffic patterns.

It was pretty good, and these guys were pretty good at what they did.

It also highlighted areas of police activity. And they issued a caution that when driving through certain areas, that be aware.

And to my surprise, they were right on the money. We were going through, and I was younger and had a heavier foot back in those days.

And the Triptychs warned us, and we slowed down, and sure enough, this little drink water town, and there was like about six cars pulled over on the side of the road.

So I was very pleased that I had heeded the cautions of these traffic consultants.

But not everybody takes advice well. I could have very easily said, oh, I don't need that, you know.

And could have wound up with a nice little citation. And sometimes failing to do so can have serious consequences.

There's a story that I may have told some of you privately, but I was a detective sergeant before I went to homicide.

And we had what we called a detour. I was a regular rotating detective sergeant.

And the day sergeant was off on vacation, and two of his men were working a case, and they came to a place that they needed some advice.

They wanted to know if they had enough to make an arrest. So they came to me, because I was the only sergeant in the office at the time, and they laid out their case for me, and I told them, no,

I think you're premature, don't make the arrest. Investigate a little bit more, it's prudent to do so.

Well, they failed to heed my advice, because that's not what they wanted to hear. Bottom line, they arrested the wrong guy.

If they had listened to me, they would have investigated further, and they would have found out that the circumstances weren't what they appeared to be.

And now they had all the unarrest procedures that they had to go through as well, and besides, they opened themselves up for a lawsuit.

Guidance. Proverbs 11, 14, where there is no guidance, the people fail.

People fall, I'm sorry. But in abundance of counselors, there is victory. Notice the word for guidance.

In the Hebrew, it comes from a nautical term meaning to know the ropes, which is very interesting.

It refers to knowing the tackle and the rigging of a ship. And that's a very, if you think about it, that's a very appropriate analogy for receiving wise counsel.

We even talk about it in our society, oh, there's a guy who really knows the ropes, and this is the source of that.

On a sailing ship, it's extremely important to know which rope to pull.

All right? You pull the right rope, and the wind fills the sails, and you're sailing effortlessly across the seas.

Pull the wrong rope, and you just might wind up in the drink with one of the swinging booms.

So in life, it's important that you know the ropes, you know how to navigate through the circumstances of life.

And one way, now Proverbs, believe it or not, this is our 36th session on the

Book of Proverbs, so it's probably at least three years that we've been in, probably a little bit longer.

Proverbs gives us all kinds of ways to seek wisdom, and today's lesson in looking at these

Proverbs, one way to learn the ropes is through wise counsel, OK?

So the poster child, biblically speaking, for not seeking wise counsel is

Rehoboam. Everybody familiar with Rehoboam? OK. Solomon's son, he becomes the king upon the death of Solomon, and he's put to the test almost immediately, remember?

There's a... People are complaining to him that his father was too strict with us and, you know, we want you to ease up.

So he seeks counsel from his father's advisers, and when he seeks the advice, they tell him, yeah, you know, it would be a good thing for you to ease up a little bit.

But he doesn't like their counsel, so what does he do? He seeks counsel from his buddies.

He goes to the young men, the men he grew up with, and they tell him exactly what he wants to hear, that you think

Solomon was tough? Well, just wait. And what's the result?

Kingdom is divided. It was the wrong counsel that he listened to. Scripture tells us there is wisdom in seeking counsel, and remember the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to get wisdom.

In Chapter 1, we went through these verses. The purpose of the book is to give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion, and a wise man will hear an increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.

So right in the very beginning, we see that wise counsel is part and parcel of living a godly, wise life.

And the text for today introduces another way of being wise, and that is through wise counseling.

So what does it mean, then, to seek wise counsel? It means to seek out advice from a source that is true and correct, not just any counsel, but to go to those counselors that we would trust.

In Rahab Om's day, it meant seeking the advice from the elders of the city, which he did to start with, but he just rejected it.

In today's society, in today's church, the first place that we should seek wise counsel is the

Scriptures. Why would we seek the Scriptures first as wise counsel? Because we have an infallible authority right at our fingertips.

You realize how much more availability we have to wise counsel than even someone like Rahab Om, with all the resources at his disposal from the kingdom of Israel.

We have the infallible source right at our fingertips. And it's the

Bible alone that can give true and accurate advice to all matters concerned with life and godliness.

Secondarily, after you go to the Scriptures, you can go to wise men of God. And notice the qualifications, wise men of God.

So you're seeking counsel from the elders and more mature men of God, not doing what

Rahab Om did. But there's still a proviso there, because in the church today, if you've been following our sessions on Wednesday night about biblical counselling, you realize how often those men who are, quote, the elders of churches are not giving wise counsel.

And the reason for it is because they've abandoned biblical counselling and they've adopted the secular humanistic methodology.

So the proviso of seeking counsel is that you're looking for men who will give biblical counsel.

These are, in other words, the men who know the ropes. They've been around and they've weathered the storm, so to speak.

They should be men who know how to take the word of God and apply it to the circumstances of life.

One of the things, if you ever go to a counsellor and he begins by saying, well, you know, in my opinion, thank him very much, you know, pay him whatever you're paying him, and say,

I think I'll seek counsel someplace else. Because you know what they say about belly buttons, right?

Everybody know about belly buttons? We've all got them and they're all absolutely useless. And that's what opinions are.

So what does it mean, what's the opposite mean then, not seeking wise counsel?

Not seeking wise counsel is to follow in the footsteps of Rehoboam, to do exactly what he did.

Rehoboam didn't seek wise counsel. He sought counsel that he wanted to hear. He gave lip service to listening to the elders, but he had no intention of listening to them or heeding what they had to say.

So the wise counsellors gave him advice contrary to what he wanted.

And there's a good test for you. How do you accept counsel that's not what you want to hear?

And we call this today, in today's parlance, we call it counsel shopping. And you'll see people who will continue to go to one person after another, waiting to be affirmed, not waiting to be advised.

And that's not what the text means when it refers to many counsellors. Many counsellors has a whole different meaning than just the number of counsellors.

Many people say they want counsel, but in reality what they're looking for is affirmation.

And that's a dangerous position to be if you're just looking for affirmation. In fact, if somebody comes to me and says, you know,

Pest, I'm looking, I'm making a decision, I'd like to confirm that with you. No.

No, we need to talk. Because if you look long enough and hard enough, you eventually will find someone to agree with you.

You can always find somebody who's willing to say, oh, yes. And my favorite scene in Fiddler on the

Roof, which is one of my favorite musicals of all time, I love that play. But if you're familiar with the scene where the crowd comes to Tevye, there's two men having a dispute.

And the first man pleads his case. And Tevye says, ah, yes, you're right.

The second man pleads the case, says exactly the opposite of what the first man did. And Tevye looks at him and says, ah, you're right.

The third man pops up and says, well, wait a minute. How can he be right and he be right at the same time?

And you're right, too. You can always find somebody who's willing to give you affirmation, but they're not always willing to give you wise counsel.

But just seeking wise counsel, even seeking wise counsel is not enough. You must heed wise counsel.

In fact, Proverbs says that there are consequences for not heeding wise counsel. If you go and you get wise counsel and then disregard it, you're worse off than you were before you sought that counsel.

So to heed or not to heed? That is the question. Heeding wise counsel makes one prudent.

Not heeding, the scripture says, is naive. Proverbs 22 .3.

The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on and are punished for it.

However, the consequences may be more widespread than just personal harm or personal consequences.

Proverbs 11 .14. Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counsel there is victory.

Now, that's our text. Notice the word people is plural.

There may be corporate disaster. The consequences may be more widespread than just personal injury or personal consequences.

A group of people may suffer the consequences of the foolishness of their leaders.

I don't think we have to look any further than our own political situation right at the moment to know that that is true.

Nations can suffer consequences because of the decisions of the leaders. Families can.

Congregations can suffer because of the avoidance of seeking wise counsel.

That's why one of the reasons that in our church here, the polity of the church is we believe in a plurality of elders.

It's not just one person. No one man makes all the decisions in the church.

There needs to be a plurality of the eldership, all right? And then you see the wisdom of Scripture as it authorizes the

Board of Deacons to run the daily affairs of the church, freeing up the elders for specific tasks, all right?

So even in the polity of our church, you can see the importance of seeking wise counsel.

It's built right into the structure of our church. And the

Board of Deacons are there to run the daily affairs, freeing up the elders for the ministry of the word and for prayer.

Those become the priorities. You can see how this all works together.

And here's a question for you. Are you closed -minded? A closed -minded person doesn't seek counsel.

He doesn't feel that he needs. He knows what the situation is, and he knows exactly what to do in his mind.

Proverbs 12, 15. The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

We had a saying for guys like this in the police department. He said he's one of those people who has started to believe his own press releases.

You can make yourself sound good. Here's a quick test for wisdom. Think about this one.

Would you allow your decisions to be tested by others to see if they would come to the same conclusion?

If not, that's being closed -minded. Do you behave as though you were never wrong?

Now, notice the question isn't, do you think you're never wrong? Because none of us would ever dare say that we think that we're never wrong.

The question is, do you behave as though you were never wrong? And that means you're not interested in hearing what other people have to say, especially about your important decisions.

Do you seek counsel and evaluate the quality of your decisions? Greg Bonson said a man who behaves like he is never wrong is a fool.

Closed -mindedness is an element of pride. Proverbs 13, 10.

Through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom.

Notice in all the verses that we've pulled out so far there's a direct correlation between pride, presumption, and what the consequences are, as opposed to wisdom, and wisdom is equated with receiving counsel.

If you're a person who has not... who is not... who doesn't like to hear what somebody else has to say about your decision,

Proverbs puts you in the category of a fool. The contrast is striking.

A proud man, a presumptuous man, what does that lead to?

Strife, contention. The opposite is a wise man who is described in this verse as the one who receives counsel.

Notice how often it's... you can almost put it in the form of an equation. You know what?

You want to be wise? Be ready to receive counsel. Or even better than that, be one who seeks counsel for major decisions.

Proverbs also says success is dependent upon wisdom. Proverbs 15, 22.

Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors, they succeed.

Once again, the contrast is striking. The successful man is one who doesn't just seek counsel, but who heeds counsel.

It's interesting. A proud man may have a measure of success, but in the end, his plans will be frustrated, sooner or later.

Notice the emphasis on many counselors. Implied in the word many is the reality that not all your counselors will agree with each other.

And in fact, if you have all your counselors agreeing with one another, you may be limiting your counseling pool to just people that you know are going to agree with you.

And that's something you have to be careful about. Have to be willing to listen to even opposing views, even if you don't follow those, but listen and give them some sort of weight.

Because even conflicting advice is helpful. Wisdom comes when you evaluate the pros and cons of the counsel given.

Like I say, Proverbs does not say that you have to listen to the counselors. I mean, do what they tell you, but you at least have to listen and evaluate what they have to say.

Because even wise counselors can have certain prejudices, and so you have to weigh that into it as well.

The wise man who heeds counsel, he learns discernment, which is something that's very important.

Sometimes, I mentioned this earlier, sometimes it appears that the proud man succeeds, but remember that wisdom is not short -sighted.

If you ever get to that point where you start to get frustrated, you look around at the world situation and you say, you know, wickedness is winning.

Go to Psalm 73, the Psalm of Asaph. Read Psalm 73, where he talks about, he says,

In other words, he says, I was looking around at the ungodliness, and boy,

I thought that they're winning, all right, until he enters the sanctuary and he perceives their end.

Wisdom always looks long -term. Foolishness seems at times that it can be prospering, but it's only short -sighted.

Proverbs 19, 20, That verse literally says, where it says the rest of your days, literally it means your latter days.

In other words, wisdom looks long -term. Wisdom always has the big picture in mind.

Deuteronomy 32, verses 28 to 29. Sometimes, I don't think we read those last few chapters of Deuteronomy often enough, because these are in the words of Moses to the nation of Israel prior to entering the promised land.

And look at what he said. Look at his description. Wisdom looks long -term.

It doesn't just look at the short -term success. And again, those are the words, some of the last words of Moses.

And the principle holds true for individuals as well. Proverbs 19, 27,

That was Rehoboam's era.

Remember what happened with Rehoboam. He started well, seeking counsel from the elders.

But he didn't like it, so what does he do? He rejects it. He sought counsel from those who thought just like him.

And his decision, serious consequences. The kingdom was split, and there was suffering for years as a divided kingdom.

So, major decisions. Wise counsel is especially needed in major decisions of life.

Proverbs 20, 18. Can there be anything more serious than planning for a war?

And Proverbs says, prepare plans, consultation, seek wise counsel.

Proverbs 24, verse 6. In the presence of counselors, there is victory.

So, the question is, do you want to be successful? Seek wise counsel.

That's one of the key ingredients. Now, there's some applications for this as we begin to wrap this up.

First, applications for the nation. This nation's prosperity and greatness is tied specifically to its godly ethic.

It has ceased listening to wise counsel and now listens to those who tell the nation what they want to hear.

And the long -term effects, this is just my opinion. I don't think we've begun yet to feel the long -term consequences for the thinking, if there's no change.

The nation needs to repent, return to the words of the wise. The business community, evaluate your business practices by the only true standards.

Of course, that's the word of God. Establish a reputation for the long -term.

Seek godly, wise counselors. For families, same thing.

There's only one true standard. It's the word of God. Seek counsel from more mature believers rooted in the word.

Husbands and wives should counsel each other. As we go through the scriptures, we see the specific role of husband and wife.

And those are biblical roles. And children, don't make the error of Rehoboam.

Seek counsel from your parents first. For the church, make use of your elders for counseling situations.

Be immersed in the word of God. Recognize and avoid humanistic philosophies.

Strive to always give wise counsel based upon the word. And this one is so, so important.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Avoid mystical ideas and practices for guidance. The church is riddled with mysticism and, you know, mystical ways of discerning the will of God.

I'm waiting for inner peace. I prayed about it, and I'm looking for a sign.

And, I mean, you can go on and on. That's mysticism, and it has no place in the church.

So, in conclusion, how do you go about making a wise choice? If you're not looking for inner peace, if you're not looking for that still, small voice, which

I hope nobody here is doing, how do you make wise decisions based upon the book of Proverbs?

First, gather your facts. You've got to know what you're talking about and know what the situation is.

Second, study the problem or the situation. Thirdly, study the relevant portions of Scripture.

We have the promise that the Bible contains everything we need for life in godliness. That means making major decisions.

Seek godly counsel. If you've got a major decision and you're not seeking advice from some more mature believers, you're not availing yourself of what the

Bible says we need to. Remember, this is a biblical concept.

Seek godly counsel. Then, apply the biblical principles to the situation.

That means knowing how to... That's presuming that you know how to do that, which is why we taught hermeneutics and a number of other concepts in our

Wednesday evenings Bible studies. Then, pray for guidance and wisdom.

Prayer certainly has a place, but that's praying for guidance and wisdom, not praying for a sign.

And then, the conclusion. Make an informed, rational, and wise decision using the mind

God has given you for that purpose. He gave his mind to be reasoning, and that's what he expects.

He doesn't expect us to be seeking for supernatural signs. He expects us to take the word of God that he has given to us, and using the mind he has given to us, and make wise decisions.

Any questions? Yes. You know, we just started a series on the book of Job, and the whole book is to how to address the problem of what it's about.

Job has 42 chapters. It's a huge book to answer one question.

And as you go through the book, each one of Job's friends gives answers to him that have a little bit of truth, but also their perspective.

And to your point about wisdom being for the long term, I tried to explain that we live in light of eternity.

If we live 100 years, that's still a grain of sand. So, how much less wisdom do we have than God?

And how much less time are we focused on in this huge panoply of eternity?

We're trying to address those specific questions with a tiny, tiny bit of knowledge in the tiny, tiny sliver of time that we're alive.

We have to resort to God's wisdom and say that God has a reason and a plan for this.

We know that God is good based on the scriptures, so that we know all things work together for those who love

God. So, what I'm hearing in this particular lesson is we have to rely on God, we have to rely on his word, and not always what we see in our own perspective in the situation.

Yeah, excellent point. Yeah? I have more of a comment, but as you're going through this,

I see the way the church board is structured, how it works so perfectly.

You know, people can express their views, and ultimately, with the

Lord's help, we always come to the right decision, I believe. Amen. John, would you close us in a word of prayer?