Proverbs 14:5-7 (KJV)
A faithful witness will
not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
A scorner seeketh
wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.
Go from the presence of
a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
Number nine of the Ten
Commandments is,
Exodus 20:16 (KJV)
Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbour.
The old timers used to
say that there were two sorts of people they could not tolerate:
· The thief and
· The liar
They found both of them
in the Ten Commandments and they considered them the worst offences because:
· The thief has no respect for others and
· The Liar has no respect for himself
My outline tonight is
very simple.
I want to speak to you
first of all about:
· The faithful witness, then
· The false witness and final
· The foolish man
I. THE
FAITHFUL WITNESS
Proverbs 14:5-7 (KJV)
A faithful witness will
not lie….
A. The word faithful means established and firm.
The faithful man is
trustworthy because you know he isn’t going anywhere.
He has roots planted
deeply.
His character is set, and
you know what he is going to do.
We have a number of
faithful people in this church and it is the reason the church can thrive.
Yesterday we had a prayer breakfast before we went out to
invite people to VBR.
I had no question, when
I arrived at the church sometime after 9:00 at the Polings would be here and
that they would have breakfast fixed.
I was gone all week long
and had no way to check on things – I wouldn’t have even if I had been in town.
The Polings are
established.
They are not up and down
and tossed around by their emotions or their circumstances.
They said years ago that
they would be here to fix the prayer breakfasts and, they are either here, or
else they have told me enough in advance that I can make other arrangements.
They are faithful.
Whenever we do weddings here at the church I always make the
request that, whoever is getting married, they have Bro Pickens get the
building ready for church.
I have learned that I
can trust him.
· I don’t have to check on him
· I don’t have to question him
· I don’t have to fret that I will come to church the day
after a wedding to find the auditorium in such a state that I stress before
church.
He is faithful.
B. The Bible says that the faithful witness
will not lie
The Hebrew word
translated will not means simply, “No.”[1]
The idea is positively
negative.
The faithful witness absolutely will not lie.
I can trust a faithful
witness to tell me the truth as much:
· As I can trust that the Polings would have breakfast ready
at 9:30 yesterday and
· As much as I can trust the Bro Pickens will have the church
ready for Sunday services after a wedding and
· As much as I can trust that the Kings will have cinnamon
rolls and coffee cooking at 8:30 Sunday AM and
· As much as I could trust that Mrs Nicholas would have
everything ready for VBR when we start tomorrow
You know why?
Because it is an
established part of his character.
The faithful witness
will not, under any circumstances, lie.
Be a faithful witness.
Young people,
Your reputation will
depend as much as anything else, on developing that character of being a
faithful witness.
Train yourself right now
not to lie.
Just don’t do it.
There is in the passage
secondly,
II. THE FALSE
WITNESS
Proverbs 14:5-7 (KJV)
A faithful witness will
not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
Because of the sin
nature living in us, as sure as there is a faithful witness who will not lie,
there are five or ten who will utter lies.
A. One of the definitions of false is “a disappointment.”
We have children in the room tonight.
Kids, there is not much
that will disappoint your parents as much as you lying.
One of the most
cherished qualities in a person is that they are honest.
· For a child to lie to his or her parents
· For that child to get a reputation of telling lies
It is a heartbreak for
mom and dad.
B. The word utter means, “to puff, snort or inflame.”
1. I am reminded of a fire-breathing dragon.
In the days of the
knights, a dragon was just about the most fearsome thing imaginable.
Most people don’t
believe they really existed.
I do.
There are just:
· too many tales of dragons from
· too many different places that are
· described way too similarly
for them to be fairy
tales.
Has anyone ever heard the Indian legend about Mt. St.
Helens?[2]
According to the
Indians, Mt St Helens was once a beautiful Indian maiden named Loowit.
There were two Indian
braves Wyeast and Klikitat, brothers of the Great Spirit
“Sahale” who loved her but she could
not choose between them and they got into a huge fight over her.
As they fought, they
threw huge rocks that buried whole villages and forests.
Sahale was so angry that
he killed the three lovers and buried them under three huge mounds of dirt.
· Loowit the maiden’s mound (Mt St Helens) was beautiful and
symmetrically shaped.
· Wyeast (Mt Hood) stood tall and proud, defiantly gazing at
Loowit but
· Klikitat, (Mt Adams) bows his head weeping, as he looks over
the body of his beloved
Everyone here listens to
that and thinks,
· “Fairy tale.
· Not true!
· Total nonsense!”
But May 18, 1980, Mt. St.
Helens erupted killing 57 people.
There might be a whole
lot of folklore in the Indian version of the three mountains, but there is one
thing that is true – those mountains hurl rocks over villages and forests.
There might be a whole lot of fairy tales in the stories of the
knights and the fire-breathing dragons.
That does not mean there
isn’t some truth in there too.
Whenever I think of fire
breathing dragons
2. I think of the devil
Revelation 12:3-4 (KJV)
And there appeared
another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the
third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour
her child as soon as it was born.
Revelation 20:2 (KJV)
And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years,
Jesus said in John 8:44
(KJV)
Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of
it.
Jesus said that lying
comes from the devil.
When we lie, we are
obeying the devil and not God.
It’s serious!
Lying is not a little
thing, it’s terrible!
Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
says,
But the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
That doesn’t mean that
if you tell a lie you can’t go to heaven; if you have asked Jesus to forgive
you and to save you, he has forgiven and saved you from your lies too.
But it does mean that
lying is a terrible sin.
You need to quit it.
· You need to ask God to forgive you and
· You need to choose that you will not, for any reason, lie.
There is finally tonight
III. THE
FOOLISH MAN
Proverbs 14:5-7 (KJV)
A faithful witness will
not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
A scorner seeketh
wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.
Go from the presence of
a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
This man ties in with
the other two because it has to do with his lips or the things he says.
The Bible says, “Go
from the presence of a foolish man…”
Will you allow me to
call the false witness a foolish man tonight?
I want to tell you that,
whenever you discover that someone tells lies that the best thing to do is to
get away from them.
· You don’t want to learn to lie like they do
· You don’t want to get caught in one of their lies and
· You cannot trust a liar when you need to trust him most
Conclusion
The faithful witness will not lie – you can trust him
The false witness is a disappointment – and a follower of the
devil
The foolish man – you should get away from him as soon as you
learn he is a liar
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