Proverbs 4, Wisdom VS Popular Immorality

The Setting:
[Pro 4:1 ESV] Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
[Pro 4:2 ESV] for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.
[Pro 4:3 ESV] When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
[Pro 4:4 ESV] he taught me and said to me,

"Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

[Pro 4:5 ESV] Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
[Pro 4:6 ESV] Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.

Do not turn away: Even in this town of limited choices, evil is the easiest choice.
As long as you avoid church, avoid fellowship, avoid the teaching of Bible and don’t study yourself; Evil wins in you.

[Pro 4:7 ESV] The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
[Pro 4:7 NASB] "The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
Acquire; buy, invest, collect.

Benefits of Wisdom
[Pro 4:8 ESV] Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
[Pro 4:9 ESV] She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."

Garland, crown. Wisdom becomes visible on you, it is personal but not private.
Wisdom adds to your self-worth. **carefully** Our self-worth comes from Christ alone, not apart from Christ. But that is the beginning of Wisdom.

Exhortation
[Pro 4:10 ESV] Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.
[Pro 4:11 ESV] I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

Benefit
[Pro 4:12 ESV] When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.

Exhortation;
[Pro 4:13 ESV] Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.





Remember how Wisdom is leveraging other people’s pain for your gain?

Wickedness is popular but it’s evil. Yes, everyone is doing it.
That is a really good indicator that something is evil.

[Pro 4:14 ESV] Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.
[Pro 4:15 ESV] Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
[Pro 4:16 ESV] For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

Concerning people who reject God
[Rom 1:32 ESV] Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Such Things. . . . .
[Rom 1:28 ESV] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
[Rom 1:29 ESV] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
[Rom 1:30 ESV] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
[Rom 1:31 ESV] foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

When you reject God & His Wisdom; He gives you just what you wanted, plus more!

[Rom 1:16 ESV] For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[Rom 1:17 ESV] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
[Rom 1:18 ESV] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
[Rom 1:19 ESV] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
[Rom 1:20 ESV] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
[Rom 1:21 ESV] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
[Rom 1:22 ESV] Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
[Rom 1:23 ESV] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[Rom 1:24 ESV] Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
[Rom 1:25 ESV] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[Rom 1:26 ESV] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
[Rom 1:27 ESV] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Repent means to turn away from and pursue a new way. The way of Jesus.
Jesus talks about our physical and spiritual death, without repentance.

[Luk 13:1 ESV] There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
[Luk 13:2 ESV] And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
[Luk 13:3 ESV] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
[Luk 13:4 ESV] Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
[Luk 13:5 ESV] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

The Unrepentant
[Pro 4:17 ESV] For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

Compare and Contrast. Righteous VS wicked.
The journey of the Bible is amazing! Miracles, Missions and life to the fullest.
[Pro 4:18 ESV] But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

[Pro 4:19 ESV] The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

Put your back into it.
[Pro 4:20 ESV] My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
[Pro 4:21 ESV] Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

Benefit
[Pro 4:22 ESV] For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

What to keep and what to throw out.
[Pro 4:23 ESV] Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
[Pro 4:24 ESV] Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

[Pro 4:25 ESV] Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
[Pro 4:26 ESV] Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
[Pro 4:27 ESV] Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

[Mat 7:13 ESV] "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
[Mat 7:14 ESV] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.