Desire & Heed Correction & Counsel

The point: Actively resist influences like TV obsession, music obsession, and video game addiction that would negate or weaken your children's pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

A school teacher's observation of marked differences in pupils due to video game addiction illustrates how this pastime can negate the pursuit of knowledge and mental skills, leading to a fantasy world and hindering verbal development.

And we considered TV obsession, obsession with music, and I don't know how I forgot the third one, but I had a school teacher come up to me prayer meeting night and say, video games. I said, I just plumb forgot. And even secular educators and psychologists are appalled and some of them alarmed at the horrible influence of addiction to TV or video games. And this teacher said she noticed a marked difference in certain pupils that she was teaching between certain grades and as she investigated she found when she got into the homes that here was the culprit, locked in front of images passing by a...

8:15 - 9:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But because of the adversity of the heart we must train them to love reproofs. Pride is so ingrained and the love of sin that there's nothing of natural self-love to rise above it and we must admonish our children to lea…

A commanding officer who loves his troops will drill them rigorously and reprove anything that leaves them vulnerable, just as a father who delights in his son will reprove folly to prepare him for life.

Chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. My son, despise not the chastening or the instruction of Jehovah, neither be weary of his reproof for whom the Lord loveth, he reproveth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Now, as he's exhorting his son to be receptive to divine instruction or chastisement and reproof, he says you should do so because as in the earthly realm, a son who is rightly related to his father and a father to his son knows that the reproofs of his father are not expressions of trying to get on his case, to bug him, to make life miserable. They are manifestations of his delight...

17:33 - 18:51 Read in full sermon

The point: In matters where great issues are at stake or you are going down new paths, remember that in the collected insight and experience of others there will be sufficient wisdom to help you make a safe choice.

A lengthy quote from Charles Bridges' commentary on Proverbs 12:1 describes hating reproof as brutish folly, akin to a horse kicking its healer or a man refusing life-saving medicine because of pride, emphasizing the irrationality of rejecting necessary correction.

collected insight and experience of others there will be sufficient wisdom to help him to make a safe choice. Alright, then chapter 12 verses 1 and 15. Whoso loveth correction, ah you see, loves correction, loveth knowledge, but he that hates reproof is brutish. Now, here's where I want to read from Bridges. To whet your appetite to get Bridges if you haven't yet. I'm doing a sales job on Bridges and some of you are tough nuts to crack. You walk out of the showroom three times before you buy. And so we've been emphasizing how good it would be to have a copy of Bridges in every home and I hope ...

26:18 - 27:11 Read in full sermon

The point: In matters where great issues are at stake or you are going down new paths, remember that in the collected insight and experience of others there will be sufficient wisdom to help you make a safe choice.

The analogy of a man who thinks he drank lemonade but actually drank poison, refusing help due to pride, illustrates the foolishness of rejecting reproof that could save one from self-inflicted harm.

He is surely a brute and not a rational creature who has swallowed poison and would rather suffer it to take its course than admit the necessary relief of medicine, lest he should be obliged to confess his folly in exposing himself to the need of it. Oh for a teachable spirit to sit at the feet of our divine master and learn of him. Here's the man that thought he was drinking lemonade and someone else who knows better says you drank poison man let's get your pumped stomach pumped out. He said no, no, no, no I drank lemonade, I know it was lemonade you can't tell me. And he goes into convulsion...

27:41 - 28:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Convey enough facts in an accurate, unbiased way when seeking counsel so that wiser, more experienced minds can evaluate them and give the counsel you need.

The example of individuals selectively conveying facts to elders to manipulate a desired response, rather than genuinely seeking counsel, illustrates the cunning but ultimately foolish nature of those who lack true wisdom.

He thinks the thing through, he makes his decision and he goes and he does it. Why? Because down underneath he doesn't really have the confidence that it's truly wise. If he did, he knows that wise men would confirm in that decision and he wouldn't load the facts to precondition their response. Some of you are very clever at that. But the problem is your elders act like a team of doctors and unless we've sworn to secrecy on an issue we compare notes as we deal with the sheep. And very interesting how sometimes one person goes with the same situation to one elder and here's the picture and goes...

29:00 - 29:46 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a young couple, set strict guidelines for physical intimacy before marriage, nothing beyond holding hands and a quick, close-mouthed kiss after commitment, to avoid a bloodied conscience or addiction.

A story of counseling young, romantically attached couples about setting strict physical boundaries to avoid illicit steps, bloodied consciences, or addiction, illustrates the practical shame that comes from refusing godly correction in matters of sexual purity.

And the end result is shame. Someone counsels a father, a godly brother, an elder, a young couple very much attached to one another romantically. And they sit them down and say look grace doesn't neuter hormones. You've been going together. You've expressed your love to one another. I want to tell you something. The temptation to take illicit steps physically are stronger as a Christian than as a non-Christian. Because if you're true Christians you're bonded in the deepest things of life that will go through the grave when marriage and romance as we know them now are no more. And because you'r...

31:58 - 33:12 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are reproved, listen to the substance of the reproof, even if the delivery is not perfectly tactful, to avoid showing yourself to be a scoffer.

A personal anecdote about reproving a pastor from another assembly who humbly received correction, wept, confessed, and implemented the counsel, illustrates the rare and godly response of one who truly loves reproof.

and you swallow it down like bitter medicine do you love it that she loves you enough to look at you objectively in the light of the word of God and zap you when you need it now maybe she needs to learn to be a little more tactful zapper it does talk about a wise reprover upon an obedient ear but whether she's wise or not if she she's right listen to a man otherwise you show yourself to be a scoffer if you don't love reproof and I'm thankful to God for the many in this church that I know love reproof I never have to pray about Lord give me wisdom to know how and when and then with knots in the...

36:16 - 37:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be an 'unexploded bomb' waiting for anyone to dare reprove you; instead, cultivate a love for reproof, making it plain to your spouse, children, elders, and fellow believers.

The metaphor of an 'unexploded bomb' in London, waiting for anyone to dare touch its fuse, describes individuals who are so sensitive and prideful that any attempt to reprove them results in an explosive reaction.

to reprove me confessed his sins before God and the presence of his wife and when we stood on the curb before he left I said so and so I said why is it so rare I said I took the initiative I called you upon report of these concerns you didn't fight me you didn't get your back up and say well who are you to probe into my life you came we put the date on the appointment your face was open to me when we sat you heard me when I opened the word of God you listened to your wife then you wept and thanked me and I checked up a week later and all the counsels been implemented it was scripture and I sai...

37:43 - 39:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be an 'unexploded bomb' waiting for anyone to dare reprove you; instead, cultivate a love for reproof, making it plain to your spouse, children, elders, and fellow believers.

The image of a fool receiving a hundred stripes on his back, yet remaining unchanged in heart, illustrates the futility of external punishment without an internal willingness to receive correction, contrasting it with the deep impact of one rebuke on a wise man.

the father is placing upon these things as he speaks to his son again and again and again and again and again and then even pulls together the two qualities that must be active and powerfully at work in the soul if we are to welcome reproofs of instruction that is the fear of God and humanity cease to live in the fear of God and become proud and no question what you'll do if somebody tries to reprove you all right chapter 17 verse 10 a rebuke enters deeper into one that hath understanding and who says there's no humor in the Bible than a hundred stripes into a fool here's a guy he's got his ba...

40:37 - 42:06 Read in full sermon