WWUTT 1484 The Faithful Do Not Lie, the Wicked Breathe Out Lies (Proverbs 14:5-15)

There are many ways this world and the people of this world will pass off a lie as truth.

There are ways your own heart will deceive you into believing lies. We must fix ourselves on Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the book of Proverbs today.

I appreciate some of the comments that I received after last week's study, where we talked a little bit about spanking, and that subject will come up again because it's still talked about here as we go through Proverbs.

But if you want to hear what we read out of Proverbs 13, then go to last week's study.

This week, we're picking up where we left off. So, I'm in chapter 14, starting in verse 5, and we'll read through verse 15.

This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding.

Leave the presence of a fool, as you have not known lips of knowledge there. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.

Ignorant fools scoff at guilt, but among the upright there is favor.

The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its gladness.

The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief.

The one who turns back in his heart will be satisfied with his ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.

The simple believes everything, but the prudent one discerns his steps.

We come back to verse 5, a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

Think about the ninth commandment. What is the ninth commandment? We might reply, thou shalt not lie.

It's a little more precise than that. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

That's in Exodus 20 verse 16 and in Deuteronomy 5 20 where the 10 commandments are repeated.

Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. That might be in court, that might be don't slander your neighbor, don't say anything malicious, don't spread gossip.

All of that would fall under do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

So consider in light of that what is said here in Proverbs 14 5, a faithful witness will not lie.

Someone who is faithful to the truth, committed to objective truth outside of themselves, not about how they feel, but they are committed to speaking what is true.

A false witness breathes out lies. They are not committed to the truth.

So much so that lying is like breathing for them. Even what comes out of their mouths may sound true.

But if it does not come from a heart that is committed to the truth, how can you truly believe it? If it comes from a heart that is not grounded in something that is outside of itself, namely

God and his truth, then even though they may say something that's true every once in a while, it's unreliable.

You can't rely on that person as a witness to be consistent in their testimony because if they are not committed to truth, eventually what's going to come from them, it will be a lie.

So we must be persons who are committed not just to saying what is true in the moment.

We must desire what is true and always be committed to the truth that we may be faithful witnesses to what is true, not just to our neighbors, but to the truth itself.

People will know that what we say is true. I can rely on that person because they are committed to truth.

Whereas a person who's not committed to truth, lying is like breathing to them. And how can you really trust anything they say?

This is an important proverb that kind of sets up everything else that we're reading here today for, you know, consider even what we have at the very end of the section that I read, verse 15, the simple believes everything, but the prudent one discerns his steps.

So we don't just believe everything we hear. We are careful to weigh what it is we hear against what we know is true.

And the truth is given to us in God's word, the Bible. So store up these scriptures in your heart.

May your conscience be shaped by them so that you are committed to the truth, specifically

God's truth. And when people know that what comes from you is true, you become a reliable, faithful witness to the truth.

Verse six, a scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none. But knowledge is easy to one who has understanding.

Now, a scoffer here might be somebody we might characterize today as a skeptic, someone who mocks.

In this case, it's someone who scoffs at the truth. So you see this theme that's continuing on in these proverbs we're reading here today.

So a scoffer scoffs at the truth. And why does he scoff at the truth? Because he hates it.

He hates the truth. He wants the lies. The lies give him whatever he wants. His wicked desires that are in his heart going after his own flesh, trying to appease his own fleshly desires.

So he's going to believe the lies because that gives him what he wants to have. And he'll spread lies because the more people who believe these lies, the more

I'm able to get what it is that I want. And he also wants to justify himself.

He wants to believe that he's right, which is why the scoffer seeks wisdom.

But he finds none because what it is that he's going after is not really the truth.

He's after the wicked desires of his own heart, appeasing himself. So he does not find wisdom because, as we've talked about before, all sin is stupid.

All sin goes against God, who is truth, who is light, who is goodness and purity and holiness.

When we scoff at that and we go after the ways of our own flesh, we might seek after wisdom, but we won't find any.

But then consider the one who is wise. In the second half of the proverb, knowledge is easy to one who has understanding.

How do we acquire that understanding? We acquire it through the word of God. So when God's word has changed our minds, our hearts, our conscience, when our conscience has been shaped by God's word, knowledge is easy to find.

We're able to find it everywhere in the world. We can even see knowledge. We can gain understanding from lies.

Now, how is that? We're not supposed to go after the lies, right? Yeah, we're not.

But you understand the lies because you have a conscience that has been shaped by the word of God.

So therefore, you know that's a lie. You know that's wrong and you should not go after it. Furthermore, you know why that person is committed to lies because their heart is dark.

They're still going after the things that are part of their human nature that they've inherited from Adam.

We're all sinful creatures by our own nature, descended from Adam to pursue our own fleshly desires.

As our fallen nature dictates, we receive a new nature when we hear the gospel and we go after the truth rather than after those lies that we were previously living in and perfectly comfortable with a comfortable in.

We loved our lies. We loved the false world that had been built up around us.

But Ephesians 4 .15 says that we need to be speaking the truth in love. And in so doing, we, the church, all of us

Christians together, we are growing up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.

A few verses later in Ephesians 4 .25, it says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Do not repeat the lies to one another, speak truth to each other. But when we see lies in the world, we have understanding to recognize that those are lies.

And we even know why people go after those lies, because they are still in their fallen nature, so that we may speak the gospel to them.

We may show them the lies that they are believing, shining the light of the gospel into their world, that they may be aware of the darkness and come to the light, who is

Jesus Christ, our savior. And now those of us who are in the light must walk in the light as he is in the light.

That's talked about in 1 John 2. Okay, so once again, a scoffer will seek wisdom and finds none.

He's stumbling around in darkness, but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding, because we have the light of God, who is

Christ. Going on to verse 7, leave the presence of a fool, as you have not known lips of knowledge there.

The fool, the foolish one who is committed to lies, who lives in lies, he does not speak knowledge, he speaks deception.

So leave the presence of a fool, you've not known the lips of knowledge there.

When I was in college, I had a lot more friends who were unbelievers than I had friends who were believers, and they led me astray, even when

I knew they were leading me astray, but it was the company that I was keeping. I was keeping the company of fools, so therefore

I did foolish things. Leave their presence, they have no knowledge for you there. True knowledge, true wisdom comes only from Christ.

As we read at the very beginning of Proverbs, Proverbs 1 7, it is the fear of God, who is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

Verse 8, the wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.

Remember, we've talked about prudence as being foresight, a person who gives thought to their actions and what the consequences of those actions will be.

Sometimes when we say consequences, we might think of like wrong consequences or bad consequences, but there can even be good consequences for good decisions, correct?

So a person who is mindful of the decisions that they make and they are aware of the consequences of their decisions, they're somebody who is prudent.

A fool doesn't really think about what the consequences of his actions are going to be, so the wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way.

He knows the right way he should go and what the consequences of this will be.

For those of us who walk in Christ, what are our consequences going to be? Everlasting life, forevermore, with God in glory.

But the folly of fools is deceit. He is walking in lies.

He is unaware of his future, the consequences that will result from the actions that he is choosing.

So it's just nothing but deception. He's continuing in this way because he does not know where this way is going.

And that's going to lead us to another proverb coming up here in just a moment. There is a way which seems right to a man, but in its end is the way of death.

That's verse 12. But before we get there, verse nine, ignorant fools scoff at guilt, but among the upright there is favor.

This goes back to the scoffing we had talked about earlier in verse six. A scoffer seeks wisdom but finds none.

So ignorant fools scoff at guilt. Still talking here about the prudent, even the prudent who give thought to their ways, to what the consequences of their actions will be.

But ignorant fools, they don't understand a guilty conscience. They even scoff at their guilty conscience that they may consider in the same idiocy that they had been walking in prior to the consequences that they fall into.

But among the upright, there is favor. A person who walks in rightness, a person who walks in truth and is not surrounded by lies, there's favor with that person.

Others will look at him and see a person of integrity, but most especially

God looks at him with favor. That's really what's being talked about here. Among the upright, one who walks in a right way, who considers his steps, who walks in the way that God has prepared for those who love him, he receives favor.

He receives favor from God. Verse 10, the heart knows its own bitterness and a stranger does not share its gladness.

There's not really a contrast going on here. What's being expressed in this proverb is that when it comes to the struggles of the heart or the rejoicings of the heart, no one can really know what that feels like and what it's like in the heart of a person, except that person who is experiencing those things.

Now, this is incredibly important for us in our world today because what we're seeing even in our culture and in our society, even in the

Western culture in which we live, I am an American, so I live in an American context.

Even what we're seeing here in our culture, we're seeing people being pigeonholed or lumped together as entire monolithic groups.

For example, you see critical race theory that's going on in our world. All white people are in this camp and all of their experiences are the same.

They are likewise all guilty or they're all blessed with privilege. We've heard that one.

Everyone who is white experiences white privilege and everyone who is white should also have white guilt for sins that white people in the past have inflicted upon people of color.

OK, so in this way, we're seeing these monolithic groups created. All white people are like this.

All black people are like this. All blacks have been oppressed. All blacks do not experience the privilege that whites have received.

All blacks, whenever something happens to another black member in society, all black people mourn with them or experience grief because of something that happens to one black person.

And that's not true. I mean, it's not true of anybody of any culture, and it's certainly not true of America.

You cannot know a person by looking at their skin color. You don't know how privileged they've been. You don't know how underprivileged they've been or how oppressed they've been based on the color of their skin.

That is judging by appearances. You really know nothing about that person based on their skin color.

What we experience as far as grief or what we experience as far as joy, bitterness in the heart, whatever it might happen to be, grudges that someone would feel toward somebody else or love and affection that someone might feel.

You cannot know that except the person who experiences those things. Empathy is simply impossible.

Empathy is the ability to feel what another person feels. We can't do that.

You can have some idea. Maybe you've shared experiences that another person has shared before so you can sympathize with them, but you can't empathize.

Empathy is a myth. It's not shared between any two people.

Not even identical twins can exactly know what their identical twin is feeling or experiencing.

The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its gladness. Strangers cannot share gladness that is experienced in the heart.

Only the heart of that person truly knows what that person has gone through and experienced. So be kind to one another.

And when we read in Romans 12 to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, that's going to require hearing a person and knowing exactly what it is that they're going through based on what they have said, not because you've experienced it or because of the color of their skin.

We continue on with this next proverb, verse 11. The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

Those who do wickedly, those who go after the passions of their heart that are wicked, they will come into destruction.

Those who do as the Lord has told us to do, according to his word, who follow Christ and keep his ways, they will flourish.

And it may not be in this lifetime, but most especially, we will inherit everything as fellow heirs with Christ.

As Jesus said in the Beatitudes, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Verse 12.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. We talked about that a moment ago.

That one goes with the previous proverb too, because the way which seems right to a man is the way of the wicked.

It is the way of the upright, which leads to flourishing, leads to life forever more with God and glory.

Verse 13. Even in laughter, the heart may be in pain and the end of joy may be grief.

That goes well with what we read in verse 10. So even in laughter, heart may experience pain.

How do you really know what that person is going through? You really can't tell on the outside.

And the end of joy may be grief, is to say that, hey, this person may be experiencing joy in the moment, but when they go home and they are by themselves, what are they experiencing?

Is it joy? Or are they dealing with a lot of heartache in a particular moment or circumstance that is going through their life?

How we communicate to a person's heart is to share the gospel with them, that they may know

Jesus Christ and the comfort of his love in any and all moments. So even when we go through grief, we are comforted for we know that Christ has the final say in all things, and we will be delivered from this life into the next, where he will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more sorrow, no more pain anymore.

May the heart rejoice in Christ, who gives us his good love and purpose.

Verse 14, the one who turns back in his heart will be satisfied with his ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.

I'm going to read this to you in the ESV because I think it makes a little more sense or there's a little more clarity there.

So Proverbs 14, 14, the backslider in his heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

I think that wording helps us understand that proverb a little bit more. The person who goes after himself, who goes after what he wants, he's going to be filled with the fruit of his ways and it's going to be bad fruit.

He's going to have to face the consequences of his own actions, but a good man is filled with the fruit of his ways.

He receives good things because he went after that which God has said is good. Verse 15, and we'll close with this one.

The simple believes everything, but the prudent one discerns his steps.

So let me go back to an example I gave to you earlier concerning critical race theory. All white people are this way and experience all of this.

All black people are this way and they all have the same shared experiences. All Asians, all

Hispanics, all men experience this, all women experience this, so on and so forth. You get what I'm saying?

Now, if you are simple, you're going to believe that. You're going to believe that narrative that the world pushes before you, but the prudent one is discerning of his steps.

They're not going to believe everything that the world says is true or these worldly philosophies that don't line up with what scripture tells us.

Rather, the prudent is going to consider what God has said in his word and dictate his steps according to what

God has laid out before us, not according to what the world says. So don't believe everything the world says.

Don't believe everything your own heart tells you. Trust God's word and follow that.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good counsel that you have given us in your word and may we walk according to this which is laid out for us in your word, the

Bible. What a good and gracious and loving God you are to give us such careful proverbs and guidance for our lives.

May we walk according to these things in the joy of Christ. It's in his name that we pray.

Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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