Are You Walking the Walk or Talking the Walk - Part 4 — Will Graham

True Biblical Faith Goes Beyond Intellectual Understanding

And still be a foreigner to grace. You see, true biblical faith is more than intellectual. It's more than mental. It's more than what's in your mouth. A fool uses his mouth to draw attention to himself.

The Mouth Reveals the Heart

By your mouth you reveal what's in your heart, and fools use their mouths to utter forth all the foolishness that they've got within. The mouth of the fool, the mouth of the carnal, only says what the people want to hear to get popular applause.

It would be very easy for me to come in this pulpit and tell you all how wonderful you are, and just to tell you all wonderful things, and tell you jokes for an hour, and tell you all about how wonderfully God was gonna use you, and how much he loved you.

Preaching God's Word Without Seeking Human Applause

But the word of God burdens, the word of God lays strong upon me, and says that I must talk clearly, that I can't be preaching to get applause from men. We must give the word of God, just as it is fine.

And if they want to chop your head off, John the Baptist, keep preaching, thus saith the Lord. If they're gonna stone you to death, Brother Stephen, keep preaching, thus saith the Lord. I'd rather have God for me, and all the world against me, than all the world for me, and God against me.

Rejecting the Religion of Popular Opinion

What does God say? What is his message? Moses was up the mountain top with God, and he descended because God told him to, because down at the bottom of the hill, there's Aaron, and the people in a bunch of debauchery, immorality, a man-made religion, worshiping a golden calf.

Moses says to Aaron, what on earth's going on? And Aaron says, well, we put gold into this furnace, and out came this golden calf. But the people said unto me, Aaron, make gods for us to follow. The people said, the people said.

And the same waste of an excuse was used by Saul when Samuel came to him and said, why didn't you destroy all of the Amalekites? Because the people said, the people said, thus saith the people, thus saith the people.

Speaking Forth God's Oracles

The fool that has a mouth says, thus saith the people, thus saith the people. A mouth religion says, thus saith the people. But the man, or the woman of God, has been up in the holy place of Almighty God.

40 days and 40 nights was Moses, and descends. Samuel, who dwells in the shadow under the wings of Almighty God, they don't come down the mountain saying, thus saith the people, thus saith the people.

Theirs is another cry. They say, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. And to hell with any other voice that dares to contradict it. The mouth of the man of God, the mouth of the woman of God, is to speak forth God's oracles, to bring reconciliation between God and man.

Do you preach Christ crucified? Do you share by the Savior wherever you go? Does your mouth reveal your foolishness? Or does your mouth reveal that your heart has been captivated for Jesus Christ? Do you speak to make people laugh, and get applause, and be popular?

Or do you speak what God tells you is the truth? The mouth of fools. The mouth of fools. They say what they say, they do what they do, they think what they think, because they are what they are. They are fools.

The Moral Meaning of Foolishness in Proverbs

They have a petty show of religion on display, like an iceberg that looks nice on the surface, but under the water it's deep, it's deadly, and it destroys. But this word fool in our text, in Proverbs 15, 14, but the mouth of fools feedeth of foolishness.

That word fool is used in a very sobering way. You see, us in the 21st century, here in March 2010, we've toned down that word, and a fool for us is someone who's stupid in the academic sense of the term.

But the word fool is used in a very different way in the Scriptures. It has a moral tone to it. It's a perverted person. It's a damned soul. It's a child of the devil. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 5, 22, don't you ever dare think of calling your brother or sister a fool.

A fool was a horrible word for anyone to be called. A fool is perverted. A fool is wicked. Potiphar's wife was a fool. We heard about Joseph this morning in an exposition of the Scripture that caused me to rejoice.

Joseph's Holiness Under Temptation

But praise God, Potiphar's wife was a fool, but Joseph was a man of God. There's Potiphar's away on foreign affairs business for a couple of weeks, and his wife is burning for young Joseph, the man of God.

She says, come on, Joseph. My husband won't be back for a fortnight. Come on, sleep with me. What do you got to lose? Let me tell you something. Potiphar was one of the most important men on the face of Egypt.

He wouldn't have married any other woman. He would have been with the best that there was on display. I can guarantee you that that woman had tan skin. She was soaked in pearls and perfume. Come on, Joseph.

Come on, Joseph. If it's anyone else, they would do it. Any other man with half a brain cell would do it. He sleeps with her, has his half an hour of pleasure, has his little, washes his hands afterward.

It's all forgotten about. Just one problem. Joseph is a man of God. Joseph is a man of God. You see, it's awful easy to be holy in public. Awful easy to be holy in the pulpit. Awful easy to be holy sitting in the pew.

It's another thing to be holy in your house and no one's watching you and no one's looking at you. Do you live in holiness 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Do you keep yourself clean for God? Potiphar's wife was a rotten hound of hell.

I live in the countryside there in Spain in the south and there's nothing worse than the smell of a dog. The people would throw their dead dogs beside the roads in the country and leave the carcass there just until it rots and it turns putrid.

And there's nothing worse than the stench of a dead dog. Potiphar's wife was a hound from hell. She covered herself up with perfume and charisma and charm. But Joseph was a man that abode in the presence of God and he saw that witch for what she was.

He wouldn't touch her. If you're a man of God, you've got to keep yourself clean for your wife. Any type of sexual conduct outside of marriage is completely forbidden by the Bible. Young woman, keep yourself clean for your husband.

Purity and Obedience in Relationships

Keep yourself clean for the Lord. I read an article back in summer 2008. An evangelical youth leader said, I teach the kids in my church, sleep about, see if they're sexually compatible and then they get married.

The only thing compatible with sex outside or sex before marriage is compatible with is the lake of fire and brimstone. There's nothing holy about sex outside of marriage. Keep your eyes clean. Keep your hands clean.

Keep yourself in purity. And young man, if you're going out with a girl and she doesn't know Christ and she's not saved, let me save you a lot of time and effort. It's time for you to get out your mobile phone and tell her it's over.

Young girl, if you're going out with a man that doesn't know God, it's time to get on Facebook, send him a message, say it's finished. If you don't want to go to heaven with me, I don't want to go to hell with you, I will walk in holiness.

I will go the way of the Lord. I will be a soldier of the cross. Keep yourself clean. Keep yourself holy. Keep yourself pure in the love of God. And the people of God said, amen, amen. This is very serious.

I talk to young people about this all the time. Keep yourself clean for marriage and sometimes a smile and have smirks on their faces. There's nothing funny about this. This is the gospel. This is the Bible.

This is serious. You see, fools have no depth in spiritual matters. Fools laugh off the word of God. Fools in our pulpits have led the people to hunger for God. And so the people of God, fed up with all the gimmicks, say where is that life-giving word from heaven?

Where are the God-inspired young men and young women that aren't afraid to shed their blood for the gospel of Christ? 1 Samuel 3 tells us that the light of the temple went out, that the vision had disappeared from Israel.

Why? Because the preachers were corrupt at the core. The people in the church lived in sin. You can only give what you've got. And if all you've got is nonsense, all you can give is nonsense. Is your heart one that seeks understanding?

Or are you a fool in God's eyes? And to finish off on the last point, the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. Feedeth on foolishness.