Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20000730.htm

PROVERBS: ALIGNING TO GOD'S FIXED MORAL ORDER
Part III: Displaying God's Fixed Moral Order
I. Viewing Specific Proverbs Of God's Fixed Moral Order
(Proverbs 18:1-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. After motivating a young man to heed an observed fixed moral order, the literary genre of the Egyptian sboyet that the Book of Proverbs uses works to supply actual proverbs to reveal that order, cf. Bruce Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," Bibliotheca Sacra, 136:543, p. 221-238.
    2. Solomon reveals that order to be God's order for his son to heed. We continue our study of that order:
  2. Viewing Specific Proverbs Of God's Fixed Moral Order From Proverbs 18:1-24.
    1. A son must learn that avoiding friendly relations with others due to selfish desires makes him an opponent to sound judgment: he hurts himself and stands outside of God's fixed moral order to his own harm, 18:1.
    2. A son must learn that ceasing to be teachable by delighting only in airing his own opinions stands opposed to God's fixed moral order to his own harm, Proverbs 18:2.
    3. A son must learn to avoid being sinful as it leads to being dishonored, then disgraced and scorned, 18:3.
    4. A son can learn to discern those who are aligned to God's moral order as those whose teachings help and encourage versus fail to help as do the ungodly, Proverbs 18:4.
    5. A son must learn he will shield himself from harm by administering right judgments on subordinates, 5.
    6. A son must learn to discern the ungodly by how badly their own speech breeds trouble against them, 18:6.
    7. A son must learn to discern the ungodly by how badly their speech ensnare trials for their inner man, 7.
    8. A son must seek to avoid spreading gossip, for negative news, even if false, tends to ruin reputations, 8.
    9. A son must learn to do his best in all endeavors, for poor workmanship is akin to destroying a work, 18:9.
    10. A son needs to learn the value of making the Lord and not money his ultimate Source of Security: making God one's security keeps him humble and free from a fall caused by pride where making money as security comes from having lots of it, and that easily leads to pride and a fall, Proverbs 18:10-12.
    11. A son must learn to heed another party's words before answering them if he would be respected, 18:13.
    12. A son needs to learn to protect his inner man as that is the basis of his capacity to function in life, 18:14.
    13. A son must see that aligning to God's fixed moral order produces a "learner's" attitude throughout life, 15
    14. A son should see that since giving a gift to an influential party is akin to bribery, and bribery distorts justice to the harm of others (cf. Proverbs 17:23), he will get much further in life by not trying to impress influential people, but just be himself, Proverbs 18:16.
    15. A son should learn to go slow on accepting initial claims by others on issues as the absolute truth: cross examination always modifies initial claims since all claims are affected by human motives, 18:17.
    16. A son must learn to seek God's intervention to settle a dispute (by way of casting lots in Old Testament days, cf. Prov. 16:33) as an effective way to end potentially destructive human conflicts, Prov. 18:18.
    17. A son must learn to avoid getting into intense disputes with people close to him: the closer the relation the more vulnerable one is in the inner man with one another, so such conflicts can leave deep scars, 18:19.
    18. A son must see that his words eventually affect his livelihood, so he must be careful how he speaks, 20.
    19. A son must see that his words eventually affect how long he lives, so he must be careful with them, 18:21.
    20. A son should learn that since marriage is desirable as God instituted it for man's welfare, God supplies a man special favor when he enters and then nourishes his marital relationship, Proverbs 18:22.
    21. A son should learn that since a lack of wealth often makes one the brunt of unjust social treatment, it is to his advantage in life to seek to be diligent and upright so as to gain some degree of wealth, Prov. 18:23.
    22. A son must learn to be discriminating in selecting upright friends: godly friends will edify our relationships where bad friends will do us more harm than good, Proverbs 18:24.
Lesson: From these proverbs, we learn that a youth is much better off learning from his parents that heeding God's ways is to his own distinct advantage in the adult world.

Application: (1) We parents must have the courage under God's leading to inform our maturing sons and daughters on the VALUE of heeding God's fixed moral order. (2) As maturing children or as adults ourselves, we can apply these truths to our own lives for eventual blessings.