Proverbs 5:12 (Mini Sermon)

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1.      Pro 5:12 – “And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;”

1. And say, How have I hated instruction,
   1. Instruction – 1. The action of instructing or teaching; the imparting of knowledge or skill; education; information. 2. The knowledge or teaching imparted. With an and pl. An item of knowledge imparted; an instructive rule, a precept, a lesson.
   2. A wise man hears his father’s instruction (Pro 13:1), receives it (Pro 19:20), and loves it (Pro 12:1); but a stupid fool hates it and refuses it (Pro 1:7; Pro 12:1; Pro 15:5).

• The man who hates instruction hates himself (Pro 15:32).

1. The man who keeps instruction is in the way of life (Pro 10:17; Pro 8:33-35).
   1. But he who hates it and thus disregards it is in the way of death (Pro 8:36).
   2. This is precisely the condition the fornicator is in when his flesh and his body are being consumed because he rejected the instruction of his father and his God (Pro 5:11).
2. The man now laments a bitter lamentation because he not only is suffering physical pain because of his sin, but he is also suffering the regret, embarrassment, and shame that accompanies rejecting wise instruction (Pro 13:18).
3. “Those who don’t listen have to feel.” (Leon Wagner)

• How many sons have refused their father’s instruction only to later bitterly lament their foolishness when they are suffering with an STD or a bastard they have to pay child support for for the next 18 years!
• But by the time the regret comes it’s too late, and God will not undue their punishment (Pro 1:24-32).

1. and my heart despised reproof;
   1. Despise – 1. trans. To look down upon; to view with contempt; to think scornfully or slightingly of.
   2. Reproof n. – 1. Shame, disgrace, ignominy or reproach, adhering or resulting to a person in consequence or by reason of some fact, event, conduct, etc. (last usage in 1567) Censure, rebuke, reprimand, reprehension.

• He who looked down upon reproof now looks down upon himself (Pro 15:32).
  1. Remember this the next time you scoff at a warning from the word of God or a man of God.
  2. You may come to bitterly regret it.

1. The man that hates reproof could pay for it with his life (Pro 15:10).

Such is the case with the man who disregards the warnings about going into the strange woman (Pro 5:11 c/w Pro 5:23).