An ungodly witness scorneth judgment,
and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. An ungodly witness,
somebody who is testifying to something that has no sense of
justice, he scorneth judgment. He's not interested in that,
he has other motives for saying what he does. There's
a famous trial taking place right now. And whatever you think about
that is immaterial. It's interesting though that
a witness in this trial just got caught lying about lying
about his lies. And that's not a matter of opinion,
that's just the truth. Now he's done prison time for
lying, for perjury. He's confessed to lying to Congress
in various courts, the press, his wife, his boss. He's admitted to pretty much being a habitual
liar. He's an ungodly witness. And
why does he lie? For his personal gain. It's to
get out of trouble or to gain financially. He scorneth judgment,
or the word here, judgment is justice. He's just an example,
just happens to be in the news right now. His lies have consequences,
but he doesn't care about that. That's the scorning of justice.
He doesn't care anything about that. Justice being done means
absolutely nothing to him as long as he profits personally
from his lies. And why do we care about that?
Because this is the spiritual message of our text. A preacher
especially, but all believers in Christ are witnesses of Christ. We have something to tell. We're
witnesses. We're character witnesses of
his person because he's revealed himself to us. We're witnesses
of his grace because we've experienced it firsthand. We're firsthand
witnesses. We're expert witnesses because,
as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, I guess it is, He's revealed
himself to his truth to us. We have the wisdom of God. We
have the mind of Christ. We have been taught the things
of God. With this spiritual witnessing,
there are also ungodly witnesses in that sense. Those who claim
to know the Savior, who claim to have experienced things, but
what they've experienced are fleshly experiences. They claim to know Him. They
claim to represent the truth. That's what a witness does. I
swear to tell the truth. And they do. They take an oath
much more solemn than that of any courtroom on earth. They
promise to tell the truth of God's Son. They promise to tell
the whole truth. and nothing but the truth, but
these ungodly witnesses, false preachers and false witnesses
who learn from them are not telling the whole truth. And so what
they convey is a complete lie. It's a whole lie is what it is.
In an earthly courts, labs are at stake. I was in court. I don't
remember if it's been more than once, but I remember one time
and I was a witness, and I remember it being impressed upon me that
the people in that jury box, fallible, normal-looking everyday
folks, were fixing to determine somebody's life. But in spiritual matters, souls are
at stake, eternity. is at stake. The difference between
free grace and free will may to some just be a difference
of opinion, but the difference is eternal life and eternal death. The difference between the sovereign
God and a want-to God is heaven and hell. And notice in the text that it's
not a deceived witness or an innocently ignorant witness,
it's an ungodly witness. Those who tell lies about God
know exactly what they're doing. I used to think, not all that long ago, that many
false preachers who preach the will of man, the works of man,
the ways of man, I used to think that some of
them, at least, were just deceived. They didn't realize what they
were doing. They just didn't know any better.
Some obviously do, openly do. They'll take a scripture and
just twist it every which way but loose until it brags on man
instead of exalting God. But I thought some, you know,
they don't know any better. Show me that in the scriptures,
and I'll change my mind again about that. Show it to me in
the word of God. Show me one like that in there.
Though they know God, Paul said in Romans one, though they knew
God, they know who he is, they understand who they're dealing
with to an extent, not a saving knowledge of him, but knowing him In so much as
they have no excuse whatsoever for their lies, they refuse to
glorify him as God. That's the problem with religion
today. They refuse to glorify him as God. God don't try, God
don't want to. God doesn't woo people, he saves
people. And so they're ungodly witnesses. And they're witnesses. They are
witnesses. They're not content to just be
anonymously ungodly. You know, let's just go in our
house and sing about man and worship man. No, they can't shut
up about it. They're open witnesses. They
go door to door. They'll chase you down to tell
their lies about God. They circled the whole blasted
earth. Listen to Matthew 23, 15. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass sea and land to make
one proselyte. A proselyte is somebody that
you win over to your way of thinking. You compass sea and land to make
one proselyte, and when he's made, you make him twofold more
the child of hell than yourselves. That's the missionary programs
of our day. And they try to hide the Satanism with, you know, feeding
people and doing good for the poor and things like that. But
they tell exactly the same lie that Satan did in the garden.
It's your choice. It's all up to you. Here's what
God said, but did God say that? This thing's up to you. That's still what they're saying.
They glorify him not as God. And look at the last
phrase in our text. Those who listen to these false
witnesses, they eat it up. They eat it up. They love it. They love the lies because the
lies defame and deny and denounce the Christ whom they despise.
It all comes down to that, doesn't it? They hate the Son of God. Look what happened when God submitted
himself into the hands of wicked men. He was in control of it
all. He said, nobody takes my life, I lay it down to myself.
But as it says, In the scriptures, Pilate released Christ under
the will of the people. And what was their will? They
spit on him. They beat him. They railed curses
at him. They ridiculed and mocked him.
They whipped him. They pulled his beard out. They
made him bleed in every way they could think of. And they nailed
him to a cross and laughed at him while he died. That's what
they do, that's the will of man. You want to be left to your free
will? It's not free anyway, in any sense. You're either Satan's
puppet or God is in control. The people of God don't say,
Lord, set me free to do what I want to do. They say, Lord,
you direct my steps. You keep the door of my lips.
You overrule my thinking, my ways and my works. that I might
honor you. You hide your word in my heart,
that I might honor you. They love their rebellious free
will. They love their mutinous power of choice. They love their
filthy rags works. And so they're hungry for anything
that exalts them and does to Christ what we did to him on
Calvary. That's what Paul said, you crucify the Son of God afresh
and put him to an open shame. And it doesn't matter what it
is, have you ever noticed that? It doesn't matter what it is
as long as it's not Christ. As long as it's not the sovereign
son of God who said, as the father quickeneth whom he will, gives
life to whom he will, so he has given power, authority to the
son to give life to whomsoever he will. He passed up hundreds if not
thousands at the pool of Bethesda and said, how about you? Would
you be made whole? And the man didn't even say yes.
He made excuses. But the Lord said, take up your
bed and walk. Because he came there to have
mercy on somebody. And so what did he do? He had
mercy on somebody. That's what happened on Calvary. It doesn't matter what it is
though. You know, here's some stuff that a 24 year old guy
named Joe Smith wrote. Took him a couple of months to
write it back in 1829. Oh, how wonderful. Tell us about that, Joe Smith. You can't make that up. You can't
even make that up. It sounds like somebody signing
into a one hour motel. And yet people flock to hear
about what he wrote. People who hate God are hungry
for that stuff. Catholicism is more elaborately
ridiculous than that. Here's the question we have though.
Is anybody thirsty for the water of life? Is anybody hungry and
thirsty after Christ, the righteousness of God in him? Our Lord said
this in John 7 37 in the last day that great day of the feast
Jesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst Let him come
unto me you think about the occasion now the last great day of the
feast the religious Jews had all these holy days and feasts
and Paul in his Letters told him don't you trust in a holy
day? We don't we don't Our hope is not days and rituals and ceremonies. It's a person And that person
stood up and these people had been to these religious Meetings
and ceremonies the great day of the feast And the Lord Jesus
stood and said Is anybody still thirsty? Is there anybody here
that didn't get what they came for? Is there anybody here? that
religion is not enough for them? Is anybody still thirsty? Does
anybody have a desire for true fulfillment and knowledge and
acceptance with God? Does anybody realize that their
works and their observances of days, holy days and feasts is
not gonna cut it before God? Let him come unto me. Not here's what you should be
thinking. Here's what you should believe. Come to me. Salvation is somebody. I pray
God I'll preach that till the day I die because we're not gonna
fully learn it until we die. We're not gonna ever fully learn
that. Salvation is a person. Let him come unto me and drink. Take in the water of life. There's
a river that flows from the throne of God, clear as crystal. And that river is his son, the
water of life. He said, you drink of this water
and you'll never thirst again. You'll always be thirsty for
Christ, but you'll always be filled. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. And we are his witnesses, his
witnesses. As Philip, you think about Philip,
he sat down, this Ethiopian eunuch was in his chariot. And the Lord
said, you go join yourself to that chariot. One person. Did
you ever notice how the Lord directed? He went across a sea
to meet one man that was possessed with demons. And he sent Philip
to one man. He didn't say go up on the mountaintop
and speak to this huge crowd and save all of them. Wherever
his sheep were, wherever his people were, he added daily to
the church such as should be saved. Those that were ordained
to eternal life believed on him. Philip sat down in that Ethiopian's
chariot, and that man was reading Isaiah 53, and beginning in the same scripture,
he preached unto him Jesus. Can we do that? Can we witness
like that? As Paul and Silas said to the
Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe
on the Lord. You look that word up again, if you
ever forget what it means. The one who owns you and who
has the power of deciding. You tell me that what's preached
in most churches today is not anti-Christ. It's just the opposite
of who he is. Look up that word, Lord, in the
concordance one day. In anti-Christ religion, they
say, you have the power of deciding. No, that's what Lord means, and
it ain't you. It ain't you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. As the woman at the well said
to those townspeople, come see a man who told me all things
ever I did is not this, the Christ. Those friends that lowered their
loved one down through somebody's roof, they broke somebody's roof
and lowered him down so that he could be in the presence of
the Savior. And when he saw their faith, he did something for that man. As the Gadarene Demoniac went
home and told his friends and family what great things the
Lord hath done for him and hath had compassion on him. Can we
do that? Philip findeth Nathanael and
saith unto him, we have found him. There used to be a bumper sticker
that said, I found it. Poor, poor sinner. Poor sinner. You don't need to find it. By
God's grace, may we find him. May we find him. I found him.
Nathaniel, I found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph. What's he doing? He's specifically
identifying a person. That's what we do when we preach.
It's this one, not the one that waiting on sinners to do something. And Nathanael said unto him,
can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said
unto him, Come and see. Come and see. You're going to
have to see him for yourself, aren't you? You're going to have
to see him for yourself. Philip could have told him about
him. He could have told him what he knew about him. He did identify
him specifically, the person, but he could have sat there and
described him and explained why he thought this is the crime. And we do that. But you're gonna have to come
see. The Lord's gonna have to show himself to you. As Paul, when he entered into
the synagogue, as his manner was, opening and alleging that
Christ must needs have suffered. You know, maybe we have a little
while. Maybe we have a little while
on this earth, maybe. The Lord says, walk in wisdom
toward them that are without redeeming the time. And let your speech be always
with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought
to answer every man. Redeeming the time, your speech
always with grace. May God be pleased.