Proverbs Chapters 5 – 8

Proverbs 5:1-14 ~ The Instruction Concerning the Persuasiveness of Seduction

He is saying, "Do not yoke yourself with somebody who is different than you." Different how? Different spirit. I cannot emphasize this enough. He is not talking about if a person believes Christian things and proclaims to be a Christian. He is talking about someone who is different in spirit. They have a different spiritual influence. It is not the Spirit of Christ.

There are many many people who profess to be religious Christians, but they are strangers to the things of the Lord. They are not under His influence. They are not governed by the Spirit of Christ. Do not become differently yoked. If you want to follow the Lord and follow the right path, and they have no desire for that whatsoever, how is that going to work? We are not talking about religion here. We are talking about spiritual forces. We are talking about somebody who has the Spirit of Christ in them yoking themselves together with somebody who is under the influence of the spirit of Satan.

Proverbs 5:15-23 ~ The Instruction Concerning the Persuasiveness of Seduction continued

Solomon says, "A person’s iniquities will capture him, and in the cords, or ropes, of sin he will be held." It is built into life. He is saying, "Do you really think that you are going to get away with disobedience to the Lord and not suffer the consequences?" It is built into life because we do not obey just because the Bible expresses God’s command to us. Our natural way is to learn things the hard way. We learn because of the consequences, and we realize that God has made life to be this way. We reap what we have sown so that the message gets through to us. In some cases, it takes years of recovery from the consequences of our sins. But we live under those consequences as a reminder to us that what God says is true.

Proverbs 6:1-19 ~ The Instruction Concerning the Principles of Responsibility

You need to choose whether you are going to be the lazy guy who is going to come to poverty. Or are you going to be like that ant on the anthill? Unsupervised, self-motivated, self-disciplined, knows what he has to do and gets up and does it. You can choose which way to go. You can either wind up in poverty because you signed for the debts of your friend. Or you can wind up in poverty just because you do not like to go to work; you do not like to do what is necessary. What is your motive for what you are doing?

Proverbs 8:1-21 ~ The Instruction of Wisdom

"It is personal. Wisdom is not just something that appears in someone's mind. Wisdom is Jesus Christ Himself, His teachings, His influence. Some people think it is just the Bible, but it is the Bible energized by and personified in the person of Jesus Christ. You develop a personal relationship with Him personally and His wisdom guides us through life itself."