1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee;
2 And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.
4 Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.
5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties:
7 For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.
8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.
9 Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10 Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11 For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee.
12 Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from the child; For if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine:
16 Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.
17 Let not thy heart envy sinners; But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:
18 For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.
20 Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.
25 Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice.
26 My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways.
27 For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.
28 Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly:
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
You Must Hear the Gospel
Romans 10:17
You must hear the gospel and then understand and recognize that you are lost without Jesus Christ no matter who you are and no matter what your background is. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Before you can be saved, you must understand that you are lost and that the only way to be saved is by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:8) Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)
You Must Believe
Hebrews 11:6
You must believe and have faith in God because “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) But neither belief alone nor faith alone is sufficient to save. (James 2:19; James 2:24; Matthew 7:21)
You Must Repent
Acts 3:19
You must repent of your sins. (Acts 3:19) But repentance alone is not enough. The so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” that you hear so much about today from denominational preachers does not appear anywhere in the Bible. Indeed, nowhere in the Bible was anyone ever told to pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” to be saved. By contrast, there are numerous examples showing that prayer alone does not save. Saul, for example, prayed following his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:11), but Saul was still in his sins when Ananias met him three days later (Acts 22:16). Cornelius prayed to God always, and yet there was something else he needed to do to be saved (Acts 10:2, 6, 33, 48). If prayer alone did not save Saul or Cornelius, prayer alone will not save you. You must obey the gospel. (2 Thess. 1:8)
You Must Confess
Romans 10:9
You must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (Romans 10:9-10) Note that you do NOT need to make Jesus “Lord of your life.” Why? Because Jesus is already Lord of your life whether or not you have obeyed his gospel. Indeed, we obey him, not to make him Lord, but because he already is Lord. (Acts 2:36) Also, no one in the Bible was ever told to just “accept Jesus as your personal savior.” We must confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but, as with faith and repentance, confession alone does not save. (Matthew 7:21)
You Must Be Baptized
Acts 2:38
Having believed, repented, and confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, you must be baptized for the remission of your sins. (Acts 2:38) It is at this point (and not before) that your sins are forgiven. (Acts 22:16) It is impossible to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ without teaching the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation. (Acts 8:35-36; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21) Anyone who responds to the question in Acts 2:37 with an answer that contradicts Acts 2:38 is NOT proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ!
You Must Be Faithful Unto Death
Revelation 2:10
Once you are saved, God adds you to his church and writes your name in the Book of Life. (Acts 2:47; Philippians 4:3) To continue in God’s grace, you must continue to serve God faithfully until death. Unless they remain faithful, those who are in God’s grace will fall from grace, and those whose names are in the Book of Life will have their names blotted out of that book. (Revelation 2:10; Revelation 3:5; Galatians 5:4)