Thursday, August 3, 2017

THE FAITHFUL, THE FALSE AND 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.

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




[1] Brown-Driver-Briggs

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