All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of Proverbs, chapter 25. Proverbs 25. Today
I'd like to consider verses 18 through 20. Proverbs 25, 18 to
20. Let's just read these verses
and then we'll look at them. for a few minutes. A man that
beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a
sword and a sharp arrow. Confidence in an unfaithful man
in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. As he that taketh away a garment
in cold weather, and as vinegar upon niter, so is he that singeth
songs to a heavy heart. You know, there's nothing that
is more beautiful than the wisdom of God. And there's nothing that is more
impossible to understand to the natural man, to the natural mind
than the wisdom of God. Man's wisdom is that which man
by nature can understand. But God's wisdom, and this is
what this is, this is the wisdom of God that's being set forth
through a man named Solomon that God gave wisdom and taught God's
people. Now I want us to look for just
a few minutes at these three precious passages of scripture
of God's wisdom. Verse 18, a man that beareth
false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a sword and a sharp
arrow. Now you know there's nothing
more painful or dangerous than having one that you thought was
your friend and later discover that he lied on you. He lied
on you, lied to you. It's bad enough if the lie caused
a breakup of the friendship. That's bad enough. But if that
lie be found to have caused ruin to one's reputation, to have
been the reason for other friendships, to have been broken up, damaged,
Oh, how painful is that lie and the ruin that it's caused. The scripture declares that a
man that'll lie, bear false witness against his neighbor. He'd like
a mall, he'd like a sledgehammer, a club, that is used to beat
one's reputation in the ground, like a sword or a sharp arrow
to wound him near or far. But as horrible as it is to have
one that you thought was your friend or neighbor to bear false
witness against you in temporal things, Now look, we're in a
world just here for a little while in this world. And for
me to, you know, lie to you or lie against you, you know, do
something for your reputation or something like that, that's
bad enough. But let me ask you something. What about me bearing
false witness to you in things eternal? Now here we are, and we're all
sitting here this morning, and you know, it's Sunday, and this
is what, you know, we normally do. We come to church, and you're
sitting here listening to what I have to say. Now anything else that I would do
temporarily in lying, pales into nothingness when compared to
the eternal lie that I would tell a man or
woman that would be hell damning to his soul. To lie, you know, a man that
bears false witness against his neighbor, he's a hammer and a
sword and an arrow, but oh to lie to you about yourself or
myself or to lie to you about God? You talk about damage, a
maul, a sword, an arrow. I'm talking about the eternal
destruction of your soul. Just look at Proverbs 24, probably
on the same, where you got it open. Proverbs 24, 28. Be not a witness against thy
neighbor without cause, and deceive not with thy lips." Oh, listen. Bless the Lord. When Christ came
into this world, He came with a purpose. He didn't come to
be a false witness. He said, I am the truth. I quoted that just a few minutes
ago. I am the way, the truth, the life. He is the true witness
of God. And here's the truth. A man that bears false witness
against his neighbor. Let me tell you what I'm not
going to do this morning, by God's grace. I'm not going to
tell men that there's a little good in all of us. Because there
ain't. There's none good. There's none
good. Not one. Not me, not you. There's
only one that is good. And that's God. That rich young ruler came to
the Lord and he said, good master of the Lord, why do you call
me good? There's none good but God. You
call me good, then you're saying I'm God. So I want to be honest
with you. I want to be honest with you.
There's not one man, one woman born into this world sitting
in this congregation or any other place in this world that's ever
been in this world or ever will be born into this world through
Adam's loins that has any good in them. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's the truth of us. Now let
me tell you the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture
has declared, you call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Let me tell you the truth about
the Lord Jesus. Almighty God, before the foundation
of the world, This is in Ephesians 1, verse 4. We've read it so
many times. Has chosen a people in Him. God has an elect. He's chosen
a people. Ephesians 1, verse 4. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. We're bound to give thanks to
God all the way for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God, from the beginning, has chosen you to salvation. Let
me tell you the truth about God. God's got a people that he's
going to save. The Lord Jesus Christ said in John 10, 15, I
lay down my life for the sheep. I'm going to tell you the truth.
And let me tell you how many he's going to save. John 6, 37,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. You know how
many he's going to save? All of them. All of them. So
God forbid that I should lie to you. I'm not going to tell
you that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to make
salvation possible, because He didn't. He came into this world
to finish the work. To finish the work. John 6. This is the will of the Father
which is sent me, that of all that the Father has given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again the last day.
That's the truth. That's the truth. Man tell you
that God has sent the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to make
salvation possible and has left it up to men. God has voted for
you and the devil has voted against you and you got the deciding
vote. That's a lie. That's a lie. God forbid that
I should tell you that. That's a lie. A man that beareth
false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a sword and a sharp
arrow. Verse 19, confidence in an unfaithful
man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out
of joint. Solomon continues this same line
of thinking but he relates the pain that shall be experienced
fully by one that thought, that left this world and thought that
he had security or hope because of what he had done. Confidence in an unfaithful man. Now who's this unfaithful man?
I'll tell you who it is. It's that man in verse 18 that
lied to you. That lied to you. I don't want to be mean. I don't
want to be mean. I don't want to be arrogant.
I don't want to be disrespectful. I want to be truthful. I want
to be truthful. That's it. I want to tell you
what God has to say. And you put confidence in an
unfaithful man. A man that won't tell you the
truth about God and about himself. Confidence in a man in time of
trouble is like a broken tooth. Now, I tell you, there's nothing
hardly that hurts worse than a toothache, a broken tooth. You let a tooth break, especially
if it's got a root exposed. I'm telling you, you break your
foot and try to put some weight on it and see what happens. The
pain is excruciating. Confidence in an unfaithful man
is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. That shooting pain of agony and
disappointment, when we stand before God, and we're going to
stand before God. I had a man tell me the other day,
he said, I don't believe in hell. I said, that doesn't make it
not so. I said, the scripture declares
that there is. He said, I believe that what's
going to happen is God's going to come back and He's going to
burn up this world and that's going to be the end of it. That's
all. It's just going to happen in one moment. It'll be all. And
he said, then the rest of us will go to heaven. I said, well, that's not what
the Word of God says. The Word of God says we're going to stand
before God. And the books, the books are going to be open. And
a book, the book of life will be open. That Book of Life that
was written according to Revelation was written before the foundation
of the world. How many entries were made in the Book of Life
before the foundation of the world? How many entries were
made before the foundation of the world? All of them. All of
them. How many were made after? None
of them. Almighty God has got people He's
going to save. and He's going to come and He's
going to save them. And confidence in a man that tells you something
different than what God has to say is like that broken tooth
and that foot out of joint. An unfaithful man is one when
we need help will leave you high and dry. There will be nothing
to stand on. And what disappointment to be found in that day of judgment
when men stand before God having put their confidence in lies
spoken by unfaithful men against men and God and hear these words. Now let me tell you the most
painful words I can imagine. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Now
listen to this, I never knew you. Do you know what recourse
a man or a woman has? None. None. I pray. I want you to pray for
me. You know how the Apostle Paul
says, brethren, pray for me. Pray for us. I want you to pray
that God teach me these words. blesses these words and blesses
them to our understanding and gives us heart to cast ourselves
upon the mercy of God. Here's the horror that's going
to be realized. To stand before God and having
believed what an unfaithful man preached in the time of trouble.
You want to know when the time of trouble is? When I stand before
God, now there's trouble without Christ. I'm in trouble. The scripture declares, lo, this
is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in
the abundance of his riches, spiritual riches, strengthened
himself in his wickedness. The scripture declares that there's
one, though. There's a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. And this is a friend I need.
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness in the first begotten
of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. When
we by faith behold the Lord Jesus Christ as the faithful witness,
the prophet of God, he who truthfully, faithfully witnessed to men the
truth of God's sovereignty, Here's the problem. We think by nature
that we're dealing with someone who is less than God. God is God Almighty. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. Salvation is of the Lord. I've
said before, what does that mean? That means that it ain't a man.
I know I'm throwing in a lot of aints there, sorry. We're not the authors and finishers
of our faith. The Lord Jesus Christ faithfully
declared Himself to be the only way of salvation. He is truly the faithful servant
of God who obediently died before God, being made sin. 2 Corinthians
5.21. He hath made Him to be sin for
us. What does that mean? That means that Christ bore all
of the guilt of all of His people. He said, again, I said, I know,
John, write these scriptures down, if you want to, can't remember
them. John 10, 15. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. You remember when, this is in
Luke, John 10. But someone says, yes, but aren't
all people sheep? No, no. John 10, 24, then came
the Jews round about him, saith unto him, how long dost thou
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Now be plain with me. All right,
now listen, I'm gonna try to be plain. I wanna be plain, right
here. All right, now listen, I'm gonna
tell you about who are the sheep. Who are the sheep? Jesus answered. When they said, now you tell
us plain, Jesus answered them, and you believe not, the works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but
ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto
you." Now let me ask you this, I'll try to be plain. Did the
Lord just say that there are some people in this world that
are not His sheep? Did He just say that? You believe
not because you're not of my sheep. Did he say that? You might say, well Marvin said.
No, Marvin didn't say anything. Marvin repeated what the Lord
said. Then he said, verse 27, John,
he said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my Father's hand." Now here's what I'm going to tell
you. Confidence in an unfaithful man
in time of trouble. I'm going to tell you what God
said. God said he's got a sheep. He's
got a sheep and he's going to save them. He died for them.
John 17, 9 says, I pray for them. He said, I pray not for the world.
This is John 17, 9. I pray for them. I pray not for the world.
But I pray for those that you've given me out of the world. Did
the Lord say that he prays only for his elect? Yes. You say, well that flies in the
face of everything I've ever heard. I understand. It did me
too, believe me. I sat under false religion for
so long and I've knocked on so many doors and led so-called
led people and got them down on their knees and went through
the Roman road with them. Listen, let me tell you something.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I
want to be truthful. Confidence in an unfaithful man
in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. And then thirdly, verse 20. He that taketh away a garment
in cold weather, and as vinegar upon niter, so is he that singeth
songs to a heavy heart. Turn with me to Deuteronomy. This gives us the heart. Deuteronomy
24 and I'll close. Deuteronomy 24 verse 10 to 13
gives us the heart of what he's saying in Proverbs 20. He that
taketh away a garment in cold weather and as vinegar upon niter,
so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart, he that taketh
away a garment in cold weather. Deuteronomy 24, verse 10 to 13
says this. When thou dost lend thy brother
anything, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.
Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend
shall bring out pledge abroad unto thee. And if the man be
poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge. In any case, thou
shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down,
that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee. And it
shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." Now
let me tell you what he just said, because you're like me,
I'm sure. When I first read that, I thought,
I don't know what that means. Well, I looked it up, and here's
what it is. is the case of a poor man that
has pledged his cloak to a man of means for something. I'm hungry. Do you have any bread? Do you
have any money? All I got is this cloak. right
here, this is all I got, I'll give it, surety, I'll give it
to you for surety. You know what, I mean, I don't
want to, I'm not, I'm not trying to just get charity out of you,
I just, but this is all I got. This is all I got is this coat,
this cloak. A poor man pledges his cloak
to a man of means for something that the poor man desperately
needs. The law says that the cloak was
to be restored before the night. because the poor usually had
no other covering to wrap themselves when they go to sleep. I just
read what it meant. I wrote it down. All they had was that garment
that they wore during the day. So these, back in Proverbs 25
20, these false witnesses and these unfaithful men in time
of trouble, they're revealed thirdly in verse 20 to be cruel
and unkind breakers of God's law. Here's what it says, as
he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, as he that taketh
away a garment in cold weather, the law says if a poor man pledged
it, then you give his coat back to him at night, let him sleep
in it. You get it back in the morning,
that's fine. But don't let him sleep. So it's talking about
the cruelty and the unkindness of these unfaithful men, these
bearers of false witnesses. Can you imagine anything that
is more unkind and more unfaithful and more disrespectful to God
and men than somebody that will tell you something and it has
to deal with your eternal soul? He says vinegar upon niter. Now, look this up. Niter in our passage is spoken
of as a substance that was said to be a carbonate of soda or
some other mixture and it was used extensively for cleansing,
washing, cooking and bread making. Now if something like an acid,
is what he's saying. Vinegar poured on something that's
mixed with niter, it changes its character and it becomes
salt. It becomes, it's useless. It's nothing but an alkaline
is what it said. So he that pours vinegar on niter
is doing a foolish thing. He's spoiling a highly useful
article and produces an article that has no service to him whatsoever. It's useless. He's unfaithful,
taking away a garment when a man is cold, when the law said don't
do it. And what he's doing as far as
this vinegar and niter, it's just he's producing something
that's useless. He's just unfaithful men. They are useless. There's no
use. And then thirdly, so is he that
singeth songs to a heavy heart. One that is foolishly trying
to make a man that is truly burdened down in his sin, to make him
think he's happy. Trying to cheer him up. It's
absurd. Ezekiel chapter 13. Ezekiel 13. Listen to what the Lord has to
say. I know I've been so many times that the scripture has
dealt with false prophets. It deals with them. Ezekiel 13,
I want to read verses 1 to 17. And the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, now listen, I make much of these false preachers
because the scriptures do. Son of man, prophesy against
the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy
out of their own hearts, you hear the word of the Lord. Thus
saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow
their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel, thy prophets
are like the foxes in the deserts. You have not gone up into the
gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand
in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity,
lying divination, saying the Lord saith, and the Lord hath
not sent them. They have made others to hope
that they would confirm the word. Have you not seen a vain vision? Have you not spoken a lying divination? Whereas you say, the Lord saith
it, albeit I have not spoken. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, because you have spoken vanity and seen lies, Therefore,
behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God, and mine hand shall
be upon the prophets that see vanity, that divine lies. They
shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they
be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither
shall they enter into the land of Israel. And you shall know
that I am the Lord God, even because they have seduced my
people, saying, Peace. And there was no peace, and one
built up a wall, and others daubed it with untempered mortar, saying
to them which daubed it with untempered mortar, that it shall
fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great hailstorm,
shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it low when the wall
is fallen. Shall it not be saying unto you,
where's the daubing, wherewith you daubed it? Therefore, thus
saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in
my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger
and great hailstorms in my fury to consume it. So will I break
down the wall that you've daubed with untempered mortar and bring
it down to the ground so that the foundation thereof shall
be discovered. It shall fall. You shall be consumed in the
midst thereof. You shall know that I'm the Lord. Thus will
I accomplish my wrath upon the wall. upon them that have daubed
it with untempered mortar, and say unto you, the wall is no
more, neither they that daubed it. To wit, the prophets of Israel
shall prophesy concerning Israel, and which see visions of peace
for her, and there's no peace, saith the Lord God. Likewise
thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy
people, which prophesy out of their own heart, and prophesy
thou against them. And that's what I'm doing. I'm
gonna take what God has to say, and I'm gonna say, thus saith
the Lord. Don't put confidence, don't put
confidence in anybody until you take this book. I'm gonna give
you a challenge. I want you to take this book,
and whatever you hear, You look and you'd be like those in Berea
in the book of Acts. They were more noble than those
in Thessalonica. What did they do? They searched
the scriptures daily to see if those things were so. So here's
what I'm going to tell you. If somebody is saying something,
me or anybody else, now I'm just, I want to be fair. You take what
I just said, get this CD, go back and look at the scriptures.
and find out if what I'm saying is not so. If man has a free
will, if the Spirit of God has revealed in this book right here
that all men are the sheep of God and He just, you know, He
wants to save everybody if they'll let Him, you show me in that
book where it says that. But if you can't find it in this
book, then don't you believe it. What you're doing is you're
having confidence in a man that's unfaithful. I'm telling you,
God Almighty has chosen a people in His Son. Ephesians 1-4. He's chosen them
that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Ephesians 1-4. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save his people from their sins. He lived for them before
God and established their righteousness. He laid down his life for the
sheep and told those Jews that didn't believe him, he said,
why don't you be playing with us? He said, I told you. But
he said, you don't believe because you're not my sheep. I got a
sheep. And I know them, and they hear
my voice, and they will follow me. And I'm telling you, John
6, 37, all that the Father has given Christ, He's going to save
them. They're all going to be saved.
Check it out. And if you can't find what I'm
saying in this book, come show me, and I'll stand up here and
I'll apologize. But as the Lord is my witness,
I'm going to stand before God because of this calling right
here, and I want to be truthful with you. And a man tells you
something different, don't you believe him? I'm telling you,
there's coming a time. I pray that God bless this, to
God's glory and our good. Amen. All right, Pat.