Every purpose is established
by counsel, and with good advice, make war. Now the first part
of this proverb tells us that everybody listens to somebody.
Every purpose is established by counsel. That's not just important
people, that's as far as policy makers and leaders That's everybody. Everybody trusts somebody. Everybody
listens to somebody. And even if you don't ask advice
in every situation, it is somebody's counsel that guides you. You're
not born with it in your heart. We're born depraved. We're born
with an evil nature that's going to sin in everything. But we receive advice and counsel
very, very early. are gonna follow some counsel
or other. And if you receive counsel as
a child, it's gonna influence everything you do in some sense
or another. Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he's old, he won't depart from it. He'll
remember that counsel. Young people are often and usually,
I guess, pretty easily by their friends if they're left to themselves. And as we've said many times,
the worst thing you can do is follow your own heart. The heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. As a believer, you can follow
what's in your heart And what you know in your heart, as long
as what you know in your heart is what God said, because there's
other things in there too. But that's not following your
heart, that's following Christ. That's following the Lord. And
that's your only hope of a good outcome, is if you take your
counsel from the Lord. That's why Solomon in the book
of Proverbs says so earnestly, Take heed to my counsel And here's
why Proverbs 2 6 for the Lord giveth wisdom Out of his mouth
cometh knowledge and understanding The counsel of this world is
corrupt and evil the counsel of your own heart by nature which
you receive counsel again from your parents or influences your
peers and But you're always gonna use whatever it is you know for
evil. In some sense or another, whether
even if it's relative good, you have evil motives, we all. There's none that do us good,
no not one, by nature. So the counsel of the Lord can
come from a parent or a pastor. or some special person who truly
loves you and loves the Lord. But don't trust anyone without
knowing yourself what God said on any matter, because there's
a lot of people that presume to speak for God that do not. Now, what God said on every matter
is to look to his son. bow to his son to honor his son
in everything. Whatever the specifics may be,
that's the guiding counsel of the believer's heart. That's
the counsel of God in all things. This is my beloved son, hear
him, follow him, bow to him. And we go verse by verse through
this book for that reason, so that you're not trusting me.
You see it for yourself, that's what it is. And we compare scripture
with scripture to show that that's what it says, that I'm not twisting
it, that I'm not giving my opinions on it. This is what God said. It's undeniable, it's very clear.
It's very simple. If you find something complicated
in the word of God that's hard to understand, then God hasn't
revealed it to you. God reveals his son on every
page and he does so clearly. He does so in simplicity, the
all-inclusiveness that's in Christ. It's not complicated as we've
seen in the word of God. So I don't want you to trust
me in the sense of it being me. I want you to follow with me
in the word of God. Let's find out together. Let's
learn, let's look. And when I've been asked for
advice, which is not often, and I don't blame anybody for that,
but I'm careful to look with that person into what the word
of God says about that. It's not my opinion, it's not
even my experience necessarily. Let's find out what the counsel
of God says that pertains to your predicament, that pertains
to your situation. So I'm careful to do that. I
don't want to give people advice that's not God's advice. Because
if it's not God's advice, then there's no point to it. Our text
confirms that there is no situation that you're gonna face or I'm
gonna face that is foreign to the word of God. Every purpose is established
by counsel. And you're gonna find that counsel
in somebody that you trust, for better or for worse. And the
only one that can be trusted in reality is the Lord himself. Every purpose is established
by counsel and God Almighty will not, has not, did not leave his
people without counsel on any matter in this life. Not one. Not one. If ever you're not able to see
it, whatever that, if you're confused about it, I'll seek
it with you if you want me to. Or by grace, I'll show you what
the Lord has shown me from the scriptures. And we'll find the
counsel of God in it, because if you act on anything else,
you're a leaf in the wind. Now the second part of this proverb
takes the principle further. Every counsel, every purpose,
whatever it is, all of your purposes are established by counsel. You're
going to follow some counsel or other in the matter, in every
matter. But we're warned in the second
half of this that if your purpose or situation is one of life or
death, then you better make especially certain that it's good advice.
that what you follow is good. I don't want to make any decisions
without the counsel of God. I don't want to decide where
to live on this earth, in this country or whatever. I don't
want to decide what job I do. I don't want to decide what to
say in any situation, how to answer in any conversation. I
don't want to decide who I marry. who my friends are, how I spend
my time, or any other thing like that without and apart from the
counsel of the Lord. And you'd better not either. And there is clear counsel from
the Lord in all those matters, I want to stress that. But when
it comes to life and death, that's the thing about wars. It's not really a war unless
somebody dies and somebody wins. When it comes to matters of eternal
consequence, when your immortal soul hangs in the balance, be
dead sure you know the stakes and you follow a winner. Make sure you follow a captain
in that war that's a winner. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
two. Hebrews 2.10. Or it became him, it behooved
him, it was appropriate to him, for whom are all things. Think
about the magnitude of that. The one that all of this is about.
He's the point of it. For whom are all, it's for him.
All things were created by him and for him. They are and were
created. for his purpose, for his glory,
and by whom are all things. Think of the magnitude of that.
This all happens at his will, at his purpose. In bringing many sons unto glory. That's the one that's gonna do
things in such a way that he is most benefited and glorified. And who has no limits in what
he is able to do and has the authority to do to that end. So what is it that that person
is gonna do? He's gonna save sinners like
you. That's what God, the one who
does everything and does it for himself. What does he do? He saves wretches. He brings, he turns rebels into
sons and brings them to his glory. And to make the captain of their
salvation, the one that wins the victory in this matter. Because
there's a problem. God's glory is at stake in your
sinful, wretched nature and person. You are who you are by nature
is contrary to that It could not be more contrary to that
so there's got to be a captain And so that he might be perfect
through sufferings It behooved him it It's going to redound
to that glory It's going to be for him that this takes place
and that the captain of their salvation is made perfect through
sufferings for both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one. He didn't suffer as an example. He didn't suffer so people would
say, oh, poor Jesus, look what he did for me. No, he suffered
to sanctify, to make holy wretched sinners like you and me, to wash
us with his precious blood. Who are these who are arrayed
in white? Their robes are washed in the blood of the lamb. That's
why he suffered, to sanctify, not to make anything possible.
For which cause? He's not ashamed to call them
brethren in that cause. He did it for us because we're
his brethren, because he made us his brethren. Here's what
he says. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church While I sing praise unto
thee and again, I will put my trust in him and again behold
I and the children which God has given me as he went to the
cross To sanctify us with that precious blood he thanked God
over and over for those that you've given me those that you've
given me For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death. In a war, somebody dies and somebody
wins. And to save them. Look at verse
15, to save them and save them. Through fear of death were all
their lifetimes subject To bondage the power of his blood vanquished
the power of the devil of sin of the grave Satan himself And
saved us There's your captain there's your captain The Lord's
advice as the captain of our salvation. I want to close with
this most important point as The captain of our salvation
as the one Who wins the war for us? Good advice now there's good
invites involved in winning this war If you're going to be the
winner The victory's gonna be given to you. It's gonna be given
to you. You're not gonna fight for it
in the sense that you're able to accomplish anything to that
end. It's gonna be given to you. His advice, the mighty conqueror
in this warfare as our victorious savior of our souls is very simple. Follow me. Look to me. The Lord doesn't teach us to
be righteous in the sense of, being victorious with God, he
is our righteousness. See the difference? He doesn't
say, now you go and be righteous in this fight, you win the victory. No, he already won it. His advice
in this matter is just follow me. If I have to fight anything,
spiritual or earthly, I want to be right behind him, whatever
that means spiritually. I want to be right behind him. If we fight to be righteous in
ourselves, we will lose and Christ will profit us nothing. This
is the good advice now that is of eternal life and death consequence. Don't miss this simple truth.
The Lord doesn't teach us to win. He gives us the victory. He shows us that he is the winner. He shows us that he is victorious. And he gives us the victory.
God giveth us the victory, how? Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I'm not saying that we don't
fight. We do. The believer is in a warfare.
But we win that warfare the same way the Israelites won the victory
over the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Stand still and look. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. That's how we win. That's the
fight we're in. The hardest fight that this flesh
will ever face is just to rest in Christ. The scripture tells
us in Hebrews 4 11 to labor to enter into that rest. That is
our savior, the rest of Christ our Lord. Salvation is pictured
in David's words as he faced Goliath in 1st Samuel 17 47 and
all this assembly shall know that the Lord doesn't save with
sword and spear For the battle is the Lord's and he will give
you into our hands It's a gift The good advice of our captain
in this war is not due The good advice is done, look and live. The good advice is not go and
fight. The good advice is come unto me and rest. And it's advice in that which
simply matters the most. Amen, let's pray.