Do Not Be Wise In Your Own Eyes

If we could find our way to our seats. It's good to see all of you here today. And I love the wind blown look. You guys, So what a crazy night it was last night.

And this morning, but we're here and we're safe. Just want to invite all of you to join us for our service tonight. we will be having our first information slash praying as we should night, for 2013, here in this room at 6 o'clock tonight. This will be happening in, in place of our care group.

meetings, and we would urge you, in the strongest terms to join us for, this night. We, we're going to be doing some worship. I'll be sharing some things. A member of our facility team will be sharing and providing an update on where we're at at this point in our journey.

We let you guys know, back in January that, the Lord is, is leading us to leave this particular, campus within the next 3 years. at the latest, and also to acquire some property or building that we can call our, our own. And there's a lot that needs to happen between now and something like that happening. A lot of work is being done.

I'm reminded of what James says in James chapter one, when he says the effective prayer of a righteous man, and for our purposes of a righteous congregation. accomplishes much and much needs to be accomplished, and it's not going to happen apart from us coming together as a body. Let me have you guys turn in your Bibles tonight to, Romans chapter 12 for time of study in the word, this morning. Romans chapter 12.

we are looking at this section of the book of Romans, where Paul, having given us the gospel in chapters 1 through 11, is now, telling us where to go with the gospel, what to do with the gospel, and in chapter 12, he's teaching us how to have a community, that is molded and shaped and informed and influenced by the gospel. And we come this morning again to Romans chapter 12, verse 16. We got to see part of that verse two weeks ago. But there was one final statement or instruction at the end of verse 16.

And we're going to spend all of our time this morning on that one instruction. As you look at verse 16, Paul says, be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind. But associate with the lowly.

We covered that 3 weeks or 2 weeks ago. And then today, here's where we're going to pick up. Paul says, do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

We're going to spend all of our message time this morning just pondering this instruction by Paul. Do not be wise in your own estimation. In other words, do not be wise in your own eyes. Now I've been doing a survey this week.

I've been asking people, what does it mean to you for a person to be wise in his own eyes? And so far everyone has given me a pretty accurate answer to what it means to be wise in one's own eyes. We know not to do it, so we know it's a bad thing, right? and we all just intuitively know, the gist of what it means to be wise in one's own eyes.

And just based on your understanding that you already have, of whatever it means to be wise in your own eyes, I want to ask you a question this morning. How many of you have a real problem with being wise in your own eyes? Just raise your hand. Pastormon, I got a real problem with being wise in my own eyes.

That's great. Well, the, the honesty, I appreciate. I got another question for you. how many of of someone else who has a real problem being wise in their own eyes?

OK, probably even more hands gone up. so, so listen to the message this morning, take good notes, because it'll help you with this problem in your own life, and it'll help you to bring help to those other people in your life who, who are struggling, with this. Let's go ahead and start with the definition, a working definition of what it means to be wise in your own eyes. Let's call this the YO syndrome.

Wise in your own eyes syndrome. you like that? Yeah, I thought of that myself. I'm just so wise.

But what is this syndrome when, when a person is wise in their own eyes, here's what, what you're doing, it's to, to view yourself as already sufficiently wise, and thus needing little or no additional wisdom from God, or from others. Does that seem pretty close to what you were thinking? it's to view yourself as already sufficiently wise and thus needing little or no additional wisdom from God. Or from others.

When someone is wise in their own eyes like this, they don't, they don't see the need for additional wisdom, so they don't seek it. they don't welcome it when someone tries to give them. Additional wisdom, they don't like it and it's an irritant to them or they will ignore it. So that's basically the core idea of what it means to be wise in your own eyes, and Paul says don't do this.

And so what we're going to try to do with the time that we have this morning is I, I want to give you 7 pieces of counsel to help you to steer clear of being wise in your own eyes. and the first counsel that I would give is this, realize that being wise in your own eyes is extremely dangerous to your spiritual health. It's extremely dangerous to your spiritual health. in Proverbs 26:12, Solomon says, Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. That's, that's a tough statement there because the Bible, talks about the fate of the fool, and that he will come to ruin a fool that remains a fool, a fool that persists in being a fool, will experience nothing in the end, but utter devastating ruin. OK? But Solomon says, do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There's actually more hope for the fool than for him. You read through the scripture and you see that the Bible gives hope to sinners. The Bible gives tremendous hope to really messed up sinners like you and, and I. But when it comes to someone who is wise in their own eyes, and who persist in being wise in their own eyes, the Bible offers no hope to that person.

in fact, in Isaiah 5:21, the prophet says, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. So what does the Bible do? It pronounces a whoa, pronounces ruin. upon those who are wise in their own eyes.

Even in the book of Romans in chapter one, as Paul is describing the downward spiral of people into spiritual and eternal ruin, He educates us to the fact that a critical step and that downward spiral to spiritual ruin is essentially being wise in one's own eyes. He speaks of those who suppress the knowledge of the truth so that they can live in a and righteousness. And he says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools.

So they became fools.

But they became fools who think they're wise. And they profess that they tell you, I am wise, and you're not. And what I believe is wisdom, when in fact, it is foolishness. How does God deal with those who are wise in their own eyes here in Romans 1, look at verse 24.

Therefore, God gave them over. in this downward spiral to ruin, God looks at someone who is wise in his own eyes, unrepentantly so, and God lifts his hands off that person and says, you go. You go with your wisdom and you take that for a spin. And he lets them go.

He gives them over to their wisdom, and to the lust of their heart, and downward it goes from there. So if we want to steer clear of being wise in our own eyes, then we do well, first of all, to just remind ourselves that Being wise in our own eyes is extremely dangerous to our spiritual health. There's a second piece of counsel that I would give to help you and I to steer clear of being wise in our own eyes, and that is to realize that being wise in your own eyes can manifest itself in a variety.

of ways.

We all, if we're really honest, have a problem with being wise in our own eyes. Even as believers, this problem will manifest itself. The truth is, we're all very good. I think even expert good at discerning when other people are being wise in their own eyes.

But we're not as good. At noticing when we ourselves are being wise in our own eyes. And so I want to help you. I want to serve you this morning by helping you to see different ways that you and I may be wise in our own eyes.

This week, I made a list of 22 different ways. and, because we don't have an infinite amount of time. this morning, I trimmed it down to 18 ways that I'll share with you this morning that, and as I read these, just ask yourself, do any of these describe me at any given moment? how about this?

You are so confident in your own wisdom that you see no need for counsel from others. And the multitude of counselors is safety is a proverb for lesser mortals who are not as wise as you are. how about this? When circumstances prove you right, you are quick to say, I told you so, or I knew it, just so others around you can make note of the fact that you had that wisdom a little bit before they did.

Or do you ever see this in yourself when you hear criticism about another person, you are quick to draw conclusions about that other person, apparently feeling that you have sufficient wisdom to draw those conclusions or tied to that. You are quick to form judgments of people and situations, placing a high trust in those judgments of yours, feeling little need for input from others in order to adjust or complete. Your perspective. How about this?

When experiencing disagreements with others, you believe that others should reexamine their thinking, while you don't need to. They should not trust their perceptions, because their abilities to perceive are not as advanced as yours, but it's OK for you to trust your perceptions. When someone is explaining to you their perceptions regarding a matter of disagreement, you really aren't interested in listening to them. Instead, you use the time they are talking to prepare what you will say to them as soon as they stop talking.

You guys know anyone like this? Any other people in your life that are like this? How about this, you assume that whatever you are thinking is wisdom. Though you would never admit it, practically speaking, you define wisdom as thinking the way I think.

How about this? You are proud of your gender, because people of your gender think in a way that is superior to the other gender. You are longing for the day when your spouse becomes more mature and begins to think the way you do. how about this, you feel superior to non-Christians who just don't get it.

When talking about the crazy things that non-Christians believe, you frequently roll your eyes at their foolishness. If only they were as wise as you, they would think that they would not think the way they do. And if they would just open their hearts to God, like you were wise enough to do, they just might become as wise as you are about things. How about this, you feel superior to people whose political viewpoints are different than yours.

When among those who disagree with you, you view yourself as the wise one, and those who differ from you are fools. that you're probably wise in your own eyes if the word idiot and stupid comes out of your mouth a lot in describing other people on the freeway or in political discussions or what have you. how about this, you don't see the need to make a priority out of reading and studying God's Word each day. God tells you to meditate on His word day and night and to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

But you don't really see the need to go to that extreme. By your actions, you indicate that you think you pretty much know what you need to know to get through each day, successfully. Basically, if you look back over this past week, and you really never opened your Bible to read God's wisdom in his word, then that basically tells you everything you need to know. You're obviously very content with your level of wisdom, you believe you have sufficient wisdom to negotiate your way through life quite well.

How about this? In an average week, you spend 20 hours playing computer games, or surfing the net, or on social media sites, and you spend almost no time reading God's word. Obviously, you're pretty comfortable with your present level of wisdom. If you're not pursuing wisdom.

In Proverbs 26:16, Solomon says the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discrete answer. The lazy person who is consuming his life and his time in the ways that on, on things that are of no consequence, and he's not pursuing wisdom, That sluggard views himself as being wiser than 7 actually wise persons actually are. He's wise in his own eyes. How about this?

You do not often pray for wisdom, because you don't feel like you lack it. You've got plenty of opinions about the stuff you are dealing with in your life, and you're pretty sure those opinions are wise. why else would you have those opinions if they weren't wise? See, one of the things, guys, that I think happens in our lives is like we read James one, if you lack wisdom, ask of God.

We sometimes tend to think that that's only for situations where we have no opinion on a particular matter. We're dealing with some issue, and we're like, man, frankly, I have no opinion about this matter. So I must pray and ask God for wisdom. But on matters that we're dealing with, where we do have very strong opinions that feel really right, if we already have an opinion, We don't think often in those situations to still ask God for wisdom in order to examine whether our strong opinion is actually a wise opinion.

I think James would say, especially in those situations where you have strong opinions that feel really right, those of all times are the times where you need to be crying out to God and asking him to give you wisdom in order to determine if that wisdom you have is from God, or if that's simply from yourself. How about this? The Bible tells you to abstain from evil and to fear sinning, yet you are not afraid of sinning. According to God's wisdom, sin is a big deal.

According to your own wisdom, sin is not a big deal. So this past week, you may have been looking at things and and doing things that, that God has told you not to do in His word. That's his wisdom as an expression of his love for you. And you have gone against that wisdom.

You're plunged into sin. You have done that because you have been wise in your own eyes. In Proverbs 3:7, Solomon says, do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. People that don't turn away from evil are people that are wise in their own eyes.

Tied to that would be this, you willfully disobey God, you do what God is prohibited by your actions, you demonstrate that you disagree with God's wisdom. And prefer to operate according to your own wisdom. I think we can actually say that any moment of willful conscious sin in our lives is a moment in which we are being wise in our own eyes, actually viewing ourselves as wiser than God and choosing to follow our own wisdom rather than God's wisdom. How about this manifestation of being wise in one's own eyes, you submit to the ministry of a counselor, only as long as it is consistent with what you are already thinking.

When a counselor criticizes you, or contradicts your thinking, you deem him an unwise counselor and begin searching for a new counselor who has the good sense to agree with your perspective. That's being wise in your own eyes. This is for our teenagers. You think that 17 years of living has provided you with a level of wisdom that surpasses what your 40-year-old parents have attained to.

Amazingly, you haven't even worked hard at pursuing wisdom, yet you just seem to have it. At 17 years of age, you now know enough to make life's most important choices without any input from your parents, whose wisdom is outdated anyway. That's being wise in your own eyes. Only 2 more guys.

Even when your poor choices have led to painful consequences, you still refuse to acknowledge that your unwise choices led to these consequences. Instead, you point the finger of blame at others. Amazingly, nothing is ever your fault. It's always the fault of the unwise people around you.

Even your lack of wisdom is the result of other people's failure to give you. The wisdom that you need. And this last one might describe a nonbeliever. The Bible says that you cannot save yourself or even make one iota of a contribution to your salvation, and that the only way of salvation is through the bloody death of Jesus Christ.

Yet you think that is moronic foolishness. You believe that if you are good enough, and wise enough and righteous enough, God will be impressed with you enough to want you in heaven with him forever. These are just 18 different ways that this syndrome of being wise in our own eyes may manifest itself. Maybe it's triggered.

Other ways in your own mind, or maybe you found yourself in some of these. I find myself in most of these that I have, have just read. We just need to be aware, guys, that this, this syndrome of being wise in our own eyes, is at work. In our own hearts, and it will surface in a variety of situations if we're not aware of it and deliberately choosing to renounce it and to steer our path clear of being wise in our own eyes.

So this is dangerous to our spiritual health. It'll manifest itself in a variety of ways that we need to be aware of, both in others and also in ourselves. A third piece of counsel to help you to steer clear of being wise in your own eyes is to realize that being wise in your own eyes is contrary to the gospel of grace, is contrary. to the gospel.

it's interesting that the apostle Paul, spins chapters 1 through 11. 300 plus verses, giving us the glories of God's grace that is contained inside the gospel. And then he comes into chapter 12, he turns a corner, and basically then says, I urge you, therefore, because of all of this grace that I've just been talking about, by the mercies of God, that I've just been unfolding for you. And then he begins to give a series of instructions, among which is the instruction, do not be wise in your own estimation.

I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, do not be wise in your own. Eyes and understanding of the gospel should rescue us from this syndrome of being wise in our own eyes. In fact, think about it, sin came into the world when Adam and Eve made the choice that they made. We're told that Eve was actually looking at this forbidden tree, the fruit, and one of the thoughts in her mind was that she saw that this was desirable to make one.

Wise. And so she chose to partake for that reason, perhaps Adam in a similar motivation, but that plunged the human race into sin. And we as a race gained a wisdom, we gained the knowledge of evil, but we lost the knowledge of God. And as a result of that, Paul unfolds for us our problem.

He says back in chapter 3, there is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together, they have become useless. There is none who does good.

There's not even one. All have sinned and fallen short of giving God the glory that he deserves from our lives. And we have fallen short of living up. to his glorious intentions for us.

This is where our wisdom has led us away from God, into bondage and into spiritual ruin. And yet Paul begins to unfold for us, beginning in the middle of chapter 3, the glories of God's grace and what God has done for us through Jesus, and sending Christ into the world to live the life that we failed to live. To die the death that we deserve to die. So that when we believe in Jesus, who is now at the right hand of the Father, that Christ will give us forgiveness and redemption and relationship and love and freedom.

For free. That he purchased for us. This guys, is the wisdom of God contained in the gospel. Our own wisdom has taken us away from God.

It seems so right in the moment, and we've made so many choices in our life that in the moment seems so right. But now with hindsight, we look back and see how wrong those choices were. Paul also explains to us in chapter 11 of the book of Romans that even our believing in Jesus was something that we can't take pride in. See, a part of what it means to be wise in our own eyes is not just to think you're wiser than you really are, but actually to see the genuinely godly wisdom you have, but to view that as some credit to you, as if you got that because you're better than other people.

Paul is actually concerned about this in Romans chapter 11. And we don't have time to fully develop this, but Paul, in chapter 11 is concerned, he grows concerned that the Gentiles and the Roman Church would become arrogant against the Jews, and that these Gentile Christians would be rolling their eyes and thinking, those Jews that rejected Christ, shame on them. And, we had the wisdom to see Christ for who he really was. We accepted Christ and believed in him.

And they rejected him, which makes us better than they are. But Paul says to them, do not be arrogant toward the Jews who have rejected Christ. Do not be conceited in the fact that you yourself have believed in Jesus. He then says, I do not want you brethren to be uninformed of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own estimation.

Guys, do not look down on nonbelievers. Don't look at them and just say, man, if they could just be wise like I am, as if it's some credit to you that you put your trust in Christ and saw him for the treasure that he is. No, even your wisdom to embrace Christ is totally a gift of God's grace. You can't take any credit for that at all.

And Paul, after unfolding these glories of the gospel, And how that even the ability to believe in Christ is a gift of his amazing grace. He then turns to us and he says, I, I urge you, therefore, brothers, by, by the mercy of God, Do not be wise in your own eyes. If you really understand what I've been talking about, giving you these gospel truths, you would be profoundly humbled and would not be wise in your own estimation. There's a 4th piece of counsel that I would give.

To help you to steer clear and me to steer clear of being wise in our own eyes, and that is realize that being wise in your own eyes is contrary to true community. It's contrary to true community. Understand what Paul is doing in chapter 12 as he's telling us, he's giving us instructions on how to be a wholesome, God glorifying community that is shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he's telling us what God wants us to be doing and thinking.

As members of this community. And here is Paul trying to describe for us what true community looks like. And amongst the things that he says is, and by the way, don't be wise in your own eyes. That's a community killer.

And I don't think we have to think long and hard to figure out why being wise in our own eyes is bad for community. Imagine Cornerstone being a congregation full of people who all of us are wise in our own eyes. We'd be a mess. Someone who is wise in their own eyes doesn't see their deficits.

They don't see their need for other people. They already think they're sufficiently wise. So why do I need input from other people? I don't need anyone to rebuke me, to admonish me, to speak into my life.

I don't need anyone's input. I don't need anyone's counsel regarding decisions that I am making. Someone who's wise in their own eyes tends to view themselves as the wisest person in any group that they find themselves in, and So they look down on other people, and such people are quick to speak and slow to hear. If I were wise in my own eyes, why would I really want to listen to anything that you have to say?

I'm wiser than you are. The important thing is for you to listen to the wisdom that I have. Someone who is wise in their own eyes. Who believes they have sufficient wisdom is really quick to make judgments about people and about situations, and they have this unbelievable trust in their own judgments that they arrive at.

And someone may come up to a person like this and just whisper some gossip or some criticism of another person in the church body, and they just automatically assume just based on what I've heard, I have sufficient wisdom to render a judgment about this other person in the church. I think we can see with a little bit of thought how us being wise in our own eyes can be destructive. To true community that Paul is being an advocate for here in Romans chapter 12. You say, well, I'm not supposed to think, I'm not supposed to be wise in my own eyes.

Well, what should I be in my own eyes? So let me turn a corner in the next 3 pieces of counsel and be positive here. my counsel would be choose instead to be not yet sufficiently wise in your own eyes. When you look at yourself in the mirror, as it were, just view yourself as I'm not yet sufficiently wise.

That's what Paul would encourage of us. I am not yet wise. I am not yet completely as wise as I ought to be. In other words, at the very least, it means that you need to always believe that you have a lot to learn.

Never allow yourself to think you have arrived at a complete understanding of anything to where you have nothing more to learn, no more growing to do. Even regarding theology, we need to always be doing theology, always growing. In our understanding of even theological doctrines that we are confident about. Don't allow yourself to think that you've arrived at a complete understanding of some doctrine to where you never need to learn anything else.

When we're discussing theology with one another, we should discuss theology as fellow travelers on an unfinished journey rather than from positions of final arrival. You ever talked to somebody regarding a theological issue and, and they were speaking to you from a position of final arrival? I've arrived at a full and complete understanding. And the only reason I'm talking to you is to bring you into my full understanding of this.

I've arrived and you haven't, and you need me, and there's really nothing for me to gain from this conversation other than to minister to you by bringing you to this place of arrival that I have arrived at. That type of attitude really shouldn't fit well at Cornerstone. We need to be confident. In our beliefs, confident in our theology, and at the same time, always maintaining the posture of a learner.

not too long ago, just the doctrine of the ascension of Christ. it's a doctrine I've always believed in, have no doubts about. Someone handed me a book, and the whole book was on the ascension of Christ. And And as I read it, I could not believe all that is embodied just in that one doctrine, and the ongoing ministry of the ascended Christ.

It took something that, that I was very confident about, and blew it wide open and showed me there's a whole landscape here, Milton, for you to enjoy and come to know and savor. We need to always be learners because there's always more to learn of the glories of the cross, the glories of the gospel. I would also encourage you guys in a conflict situation, let's say a conflict arises between you and your spouse, and you immediately arrive at some very solid opinions and conclusions about the situation and about your spouse.

Paul would say, in such a moment, you should view yourself as not yet sufficiently wise to arrive at such conclusions.

and to trust those conclusions so implicitly. What you need to think instead is in this conflict situation, I need to sit down and yeah, I've got some things that I want to say, but I want to be quicker to hear than I am to speak. I want to hear from my spouse. I want to hear from this other person.

I want to draw out of them what their perspective is. In order for me to have a more complete wisdom on this situation where there is conflict. this is very important in conflict situations. It's so easy, guys, when a conflict arises between brothers and sisters in the church or in our homes to arrive at perspectives and conclusions and to just have this blind trust in our own conclusions, our own perceptions.

And we don't even really need to hear from anybody else anymore. I know what I think and I know why I think it, and now it's time for everyone to listen to me and my perspective. Let me enlighten the rest of you. I don't really need to hear from you.

We need to avoid that. We need to renounce that. We need to view ourselves in such moments as not yet sufficiently wise and having much to learn in this conflict situation. If I could say a word to our young people, especially our teenagers, but this would apply to all of our, our young people in our church family.

I want, I want to challenge you to, to not be wise in your own eyes. To view yourself as not yet sufficiently wise, to hear the counsel of Solomon to his sons when he says to them, and I love this in Proverbs 4:7. He says the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. And with your getting acquire understanding.

what he's saying there, the beginning of wisdom is realize that you lack it and then go get it. If somebody already thinks they're sufficiently wise, this instruction will mean nothing to them. They would say, get wisdom. I don't need to get wisdom.

I already got wisdom. There's nothing to pursue anymore. And Solomon is speaking to his son saying the beginning of wisdom is to realize that you need to go get wisdom. And with all of your getting acquire understanding, and you need to be passionate about this.

He says in chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, cry out for discernment, lift your voice for understanding, seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures. Just to our young people, I, I know life seems complicated right now, but it is so not complicated compared to what it's going to be in your later years, this is the time for you to be a wisdom chaser, to be, seeing your need for wisdom, crying out to God for wisdom, going to his word for wisdom, and acquiring as much understanding as you possibly can.

And yet, even though this is the great need for our young people, the sad truth is that one of the notable Characteristics of most teenagers. is an utter lack of interest and wisdom.

A belief that I don't need additional wisdom. Paul Tripp in his book Age of Opportunity says it this way Most teenagers simply don't have a hunger for wisdom. In fact, most think they are much wiser than they actually are, and they mistakenly believe that their parents have little practical insight to offer. They tend to think that their parents don't really understand.

Or are pretty much out of it. He goes on to say this, most teenagers don't walk into the family room and say, Dad, I was just thinking about how wise you are. And what a good thing it is that God put you in my life so that I could gain wisdom too. I just thought I'd come in and talk with you for a while and soak up some of the wisdom that you and I both know I desperately need.

No, Paul Tripp says it doesn't happen that way. Teenagers don't tend to beg for wisdom, and yet you should. You should, and if you do, That's very remarkable and a wonderful evidence of God's grace, and you have a bright future ahead of you. In fact, if I could just say a word to our teens, if, if you want to be wiser than your parents were at your age, I'll tell you how, OK.

And I know I would say this to my kids, and I'm probably speaking for most of our parents when I say this, if you want to be wiser, right now than your parents were when they were your age, here's, here's how, be humble. Be humble. Realize how little of all that you need to know. And then pursue wisdom as if it were gold.

As if it were the most valuable thing that you could pursue. Be a chaser of wisdom. My daughter, my oldest daughter Brooke is 23 years old and she's not here today so I can talk about her. when she was in junior high and high school, she had, a document, attached to the wall of her bedroom that had 5 reminders that she looked at every morning.

When she would begin her day. And I don't remember what the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th were on that list of reminders, but I do remember what number 1 was on that document that she looked at every morning. And here's, here's what it said. I M Ignorant I am ignorant.

And you may say that's a terrible way for Terrible thing for teenager to be looking at themselves. what, I didn't view that as a bad thing at all. In fact, when I would walk in the room and look at that list, my thought was that's one smart girl, and I wish I would have thought that way. I wish I would have thought that way.

That's wisdom. That's the beginning of wisdom. And if you think that's a bad thing for a teenager to be putting on their wall, imagine the opposite. Imagine coming into your child's room and there's this self-affirmation statement on the wall that says, I am already sufficiently wise.

Imagine that's what they reminded themselves of every morning. You, they would be impossible to live with. You couldn't speak in to a child like that. You couldn't challenge them.

You could not admonish them. You could not give them insight and wisdom because it's not necessary. I've already attained. To sufficient wisdom.

And so I think Paul would say rather than being wise in your own eyes, choose instead to be not yet sufficiently wise in your own eyes and be pursuing wisdom. There's a 6th piece of counsel that I would put before you this morning to help you to steer clear of being wise in your own eyes, and that is Deem God to be ultimately wise in your own eyes. Rather than you being wise in your own eyes, look at God and deem him to be ultimately wise in your eyes. It's interesting that Paul at the very end of this section where he is laying out for us, the grace of the gospel, Paul is moved at the end of all of that to worship God and praise him for his wisdom.

He says at the end of Romans 11, 0, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom. And the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable his ways? Who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor?

This is a God who is wise all by Himself. He needs no counselors, no advisors. He needs no one to speak into him to complete his understanding. God is wise all by Himself.

And there is a depth of riches to his wisdom and knowledge. And Paul is saying, what I've been doing up to this point of Romans is just unfolding for you, some of these riches of the wisdom of God. What is the gospel, but the wisdom of God and engineering and providing for us a way of salvation. And it's in this context of amazement at the wisdom of God that Paul turns to us and says, Don't you be wise.

In your own eyes. Part of the cure for that is turn to God and admire his wisdom, and worship Him for the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, and deem him to be the ultimately wise one in your eyes. If you really view God as the ultimately wise one, in your eyes, then you will, you will love reading His word, you will chase wisdom, and you will be like, the wisdom of God is contained right here. And I want to be in this book and reading God's word, not because I have to, but because I want wisdom from this ultimately wise one.

Who has given me this wisdom in His word. When you're facing an issue, some ethical dilemma in your life, some crisis in your life, you go to God's word with that issue, and you're asking, what does God say about this particular issue? I want God's wisdom to be brought to bear upon this issue that I'm dealing with in my life. And then if you really view God as the ultimately wise one, then you'll do more than just you select the issues, you select the topics.

And you come to God and you set the agenda with the issues that you're dealing with. Paul would say, yeah, definitely do that. But if God is really the ultimately wise one, then you ought to just come to him on many occasions and say, God, I don't even know what all my issues should be. so what, I'm just going to come to you and ask you to just speak into me and tell me what my issues ought to be.

Set the agenda for me. Speak into me anything that you deem needful to me as I read your word. If you're here this morning, and you want to know how to gain favor with God, you want to know how to have a home in heaven forever. You want to know how to deal with your sin problem, you want to know how to get your sins forgiven and be right with God.

The apostle Paul would say, God is the one who has that wisdom. Go to him and hear what he tells you to do about how to gain favor with him and receive his grace and be able to live with him forever in heaven. Amazingly, what people do is they're like, Man, I want to be right with God. I want to have favor with God.

I want to live with God forever in heaven. And then they don't even ask God how to do that. They turn around and just make up their own way to enter into a relationship with God forever. And Paul would say, the gospel that I've given to you in Romans chapters 1 through 11, that is the wisdom of God.

That's wisdom from the ultimately wise one. And if we see the beauty of His wisdom, the grace of His wisdom, As he has executed that and, and faithfully carried that out and providing for us a way of salvation that will profoundly leave us humbled. We will not be wise in our own eyes, but we'll see where our wisdom led and we'll see where God's wisdom has led. And we will worship Him for his wisdom and come to him to hear from him.

It's interesting at the end of chapter 11, That first section of the book, Paul ends by proclaiming the wisdom of God. And then, guys, if you go to the very last verse of the book of Romans, Paul is speaking of the only wise God. One way of understanding that is he's the, he's the wise alone God. He's wise all by himself.

In other words, he doesn't need counselors. He doesn't need anyone to speak into him. We need people to speak into us. None of us are wise alone.

We need community. We need God. God, though, is alone, wise, all by Himself, and He is the only one of whom that can be said. And so Paul on these two occasions is pointing to the wisdom of God.

He is the source of wisdom. And if we're not going to be wise in our own eyes, one of the ways that we can steer clear of that is looking to God and having Him be the ultimately wise one in our own eyes. And then in closing, guys, just a 7th piece of counsel to help you steer clear of being wise in your own eyes. When you look at your fellow Christians, deem your fellow Christians to be wise enough in your eyes to have a perspective that's valuable and worth hearing.

Yours is not the only perspective that is worth hearing. In a conflict situation, yours is not the only perspective that has some wisdom in it that everyone else needs to hear. Value your fellow Christians enough to, be wise enough to see them as wise enough to have input into your life that is valuable and worth hearing. Paul later in Romans looks at all of the Christians in the Church of Rome, and he says, concerning you, my brethren, I myself am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and are able to admonish one another.

You're able to counsel one another. You're able to speak into one another. And if Paul would stand before us and speak this way with this confidence about every person in the cornerstone family that has been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and as the Spirit of God inside of them, then certainly we can turn to one another and say to each other, I can look at you, and I can say, I am convinced that you have the goodness of Christ within you. You have the knowledge of Christ within you.

And you have something to say to me that is valuable and worth my hearing. In a conflict situation, look across the table at your wife, at your husband, and especially if they know the Lord and say, you have something to say to me. Something to say to me that is valuable and worth my hearing. Proverbs 11:14, and the abundance of counselors, there's victory.

Proverbs 24:6, and the abundance of counselors, there's victory. Proverbs 15:22, without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors, with many people speaking into your life, they succeed. Listen to counsel, Solomon says, and accept discipline. That you may be wise for the rest of your days.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. Paul is wanting us to be truly wise, and in order to be truly wise. Paul knows that at the root of true wisdom is a refusal to be wise in our own eyes. And I just pray that God would give us A discernment.

To see This prideful, wise in our own eyes syndrome at work in us that we would recognize that I've just been this past week feeling a weight, a heaviness of Thinking through all the ways that I even to this day. And wise in my own eyes and how that will express itself. And I just pray that God would give me and would give to you just an ability to see and recognize. The sin in ourselves and it's OK to see it and recognize it because we know we're loved by God and so we're safe in his embrace and love.

So, Yeah, we have this problem, and that's why Christ came. That's why Christ died. He died for this sin, and He died to deliver us from it. There's no telling what God can do with this church if we are a people who are humble.

who worship God for His wisdom. who view ourselves as not yet sufficiently wise, and we have much to learn. And who look at one another and say, There is the goodness of Christ and the knowledge of Christ at work in you. And you have something to say to me.

That can help. Complete my understanding and make me more wise. God, we just come to you this morning and ask that You would help us to comprehend these things. To grow and these things.

Make us a humble people. who are humbled by the gospel. Thank you for the wisdom of the gospel. for making this wisdom available to us.

Knock us off of our pedestals, Lord. that we might bow before you. And stand in awe of your wisdom. And appreciate your wisdom as it comes from others, including our brothers and sisters and especially from your word, and that we would be a church of wisdom chasers.

May the days of this coming week, starting today and tomorrow, may we be chasing after wisdom. Save us. From the sin of being wise in our own eyes. Thank you, Lord, for your word and teaching us.

By your grace, we thank you for this opportunity also that you give to us to give of our offerings to you. Receive these funds, Lord, and do much with them. For the glory of Jesus and the building up of your church. We ask these things in Christ's name, and all God's people say.