Proverbs 23:1-7 “. . . cease from thine own wisdom.”

v. 23 “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.”

Proverbs 3:11-12 “For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. . . .”

QUESTION: What is the purpose of a chastening?

ANSWER: To get a person’s attention sufficiently so that he will RECEIVE an instruction.

Proverbs 25:12 “As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.”

1st Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

QUESTION: (People who like to argue might ask, Should husbands receive instructions from their wives, then?)

[This is a loaded question, and volumes could be written on it.]

ANSWER: Exodus 4:21-27 (24) “. . . the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.”

[It is observed that Zipporah was not properly instructed of Moses, as she should have been; but the real “problem” here is that Moses was not in subjection to the Lord, while he submitted to his wife’s wishes.]

Proverbs 28:26 “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. . . .”

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. . . .”

Ecclesiastes 9:13-16 “. . . the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.”

Ecclesiastes 10:10 “If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.”

Ecclesiastes 4:13 “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.”

Proverbs 26:12 “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.”

Proverbs 27:5 “Open rebuke is better than secret love.”

Genesis 4:3-7 [A rejected correction, and Cain is out of the picture.]

1st Samuel 15:22-23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”

Psalm 101:4 “A froward heart shall depart from me. . . .”

Proverbs 3:32 “For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous.”

1:5-7 “A wise man will hear . . . but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Matthew 7:24-26 “. . . whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. . . .”

QUESTION: Do you think this wisdom just pertains to God’s words?

Matthew 10:14-15 “And whosoever shall not . . . hear your words . . . .”

John 15:20 “. . . if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”

Ezekiel 3:4-7 “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me. . . .”

(Matthew 13:53-57 “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.”)

Proverbs 8:13 “. . . pride, and arrogancy . . . and the froward mouth, do I hate.”

v. 33 “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.”

9:9 “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. . . .”

12:1 “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.”

v. 15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”

19:20 “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.”

v. 27 “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.”

[This didn’t just tell you not to obey it, but not to even listen to it.]

QUESTION: What are you doing when you send your children to Harvard or Yale?

ANSWER: You’re putting your dear children, over whom you have Godly authority, in exactly that circumstance that the Lord told you not to allow for yourself.

Ecclesiastes 7:5 “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.”

Romans 1:21-22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. . . .”

Matthew 13:13-15 “For this people’s heart is waxed gross. . . .” (It was always a heart problem!)

James 1:1-24 “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. . . .”

[When you’re “slow to speak” you’ll have something better to say.]