Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious Word and turn to the book of Proverbs, please, Proverbs chapter 10, verse 18,
God willing, we'll be studying tonight, Proverbs 10.18.
The title of the message tonight is "Hateful Lips."
"Hateful Lips."
You have one time to turn there.
Tonight's Proverb teaches us about those who weaponize the mouth.
You know, God gave us our mouth as an instrument of praise and as an instrument of encouragement and edification, instruction.
Speaking of which, I really appreciate the note that was left up here for me from the Keaton's very precious.
Thank you so much.
And even though it was handwritten, that's still from the mouth.
You know, it's the same thing, it's still the Word, whether written or spoken.
And so it's in a sense, the lips.
And God's given us our mouths again to praise Him and to strengthen our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our bodies were created to be instruments of God's love.
We love God because He first loved us, the Bible says.
And with our mouth, we praise Him because we love Him.
And we love our fellow man with the love of God.
And with our mouth, we not only praise our God in love, but we strengthen with that same love our fellow man, our brethren.
We encourage them.
We pray with them.
I had a co-worker today that came up to me first thing this morning and he said, "I haven't slept the past few days.
The day before, if I understand the timing right, Monday his son's house burned to the ground.
Tuesday his daughter's boyfriend passed away and he was one after the other.
So I just, you know, I know I'm at work, but you know what?
I just felt like a Christian, you know?
And I said, "Do you mind if we just pray? Let's just pray."
And it was precious to be able to sit down and pray with a co-worker like that and us go to the Lord together.
And that's what our mouths are for.
But the devil will take what God meant to be instructive and encouraging and to be an instrument of love and grace.
He'll take that.
He'll pervert it and use it to do just the opposite of what God gave us to do.
The first time we see that happening was in the Garden of Eden, wasn't it?
"Oh, you'll not die." And the mouth was used to destroy.
God didn't design our mouth to be a weapon of warfare.
He designed our mouth to be an instrument of grace.
The grace of God builds us up in love.
The weapons of men destroy us in hate.
And boy, we get a lot of that today, don't we?
In 2 Samuel, chapter 23, verse 2, "The king David said, 'The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my tongue.'"
"The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my tongue."
Now, I know David was a prophet, but you know what?
When we say something to somebody, we should be able to say the same thing.
Because if we're walking in the Spirit, we're going to be talking in the Spirit.
And it won't be the fleshly words in our tongue, it'll be God's Spirit.
His words will be in our tongue, His comfort, His grace will be in our tongue.
The Bible says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for the use of edifying, building up,
that you may minister grace," who's grace? God's grace, "unto the hearers."
If you're about to say something to somebody, and you wonder if you should say it, ask yourself this question.
"Once I finish saying this, will I be able to say, 'The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my tongue?'"
If you can't say that, it's probably best not to say it at all.
"When David was filled with God's Spirit, God's Spirit spoke by Him, His Word was in His tongue."
We should never say anything that God does not approve of.
We should never say anything that does not represent the righteous character of God and exhibit His grace of love to others.
And if you're watching tonight, let me remind you, when you're making Facebook posts, or you're talking to folks,
and you're using the F word, and listen, if you say "F," but you leave out the other letters,
you're still putting the thought in the people's mind. You're still using that communication.
Can you say, when you say that, that the Spirit of the Lord spoke by you and His Word was in your tongue?
If not, you've got a potty mouth, and you need to cut it out. It's wrong. It's wrong.
It does not testify of the righteous character of our God whom you should be representing.
God made our tongues to convey His love and grace. Let me tell you something.
Words are very powerful. Very powerful. Someone can say something to you, it can make your day.
Or they can say something to you and it can ruin your day. And everybody in here knows that.
You can say, "Oh, I don't let white people say it bother me." Sure you do. It bothers everybody.
They have the power to build people up in love. They have the power to tear them down in hatred.
James chapter 3 verse 10 says, "Out of the same mouth proceedeth the blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not so to be." In other words, you shouldn't be cursing. You should be blessing.
Tonight Solomon is talking about people who use the tongue as an instrument of hate to destroy their neighbor.
And he first talks, he's talking about two different ways of using your tongue to destroy your neighbor.
And one is the technique that the person has of hiding hatred for another person.
They use their tongue to hide hatred for another person.
Proverbs 10, 18 says, "He that hideth hatred." That's who Solomon is first talking about.
He's talking about the person that hides hatred. Now this Hebrew word translated hide here.
Listen to how this is used in Genesis 37, 26. "And Judah said unto his brethren," speaking about Joseph,
"What prophet is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?"
So hiding hatred, we're talking about concealing hatred. Covering hatred up like with camouflage
so it cannot be seen. Not getting rid of hatred, not hiding sin in the sense of putting it away,
but covering hatred that exists. He that hides hatred is concealing hatred.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight. It is better to openly love than to secretly hate.
It is better to openly love than to secretly hate. You can be nice to someone all you want to
on the outside. You can be nice to them with your smile, your fake smile, your false words,
all you want to. But if you hate that person on the inside, you're just as evil and dirty.
In fact, I think you're worse. I'd rather have someone just go ahead and hate me out loud
than try to deceive me and make me think they like me and hate me on the inside.
And we've all seen those nasty nice kind of people, haven't we?
They have the, "Well, hello Ann. It's good to see you, honey." And you know,
she doesn't like Ann at all. Ann goofed her hair up years ago when she's cutting her hair, you know?
But that's the way some people do. And we shouldn't be the type of person that conceals
hatred. If you have a problem with someone, discuss it with that person. But don't be a hypocrite.
Don't be a hypocrite. It's better to love openly than to hate secretly.
Solomon is talking about people who secretly hate you, but they hide the hatred that they have for
you. And let me tell you, hidden hatred is a very dangerous thing. If I know someone hates me, I'm
going to keep my distance from that person. And I'm going to try to protect myself from that person,
from doing me any harm. But if I don't know someone hates me, then I may end up putting
my trust in that person. I may end up getting harmed in the end. Solomon said, "People will
hide their hatred against you." How? Look back in your text. "They'll hide it with lying lips."
Lying lips. Their lying lips cover up their hateful heart. With their lips, they speak
lovely words to you, but in their heart, they're thinking evil things about you.
Psalm 12, verse 2. Psalm 12, verse 2 speaks of these people, and here's how it describes them.
"They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart
do they speak." The word vanity means emptiness. When he says they speak vanity, every one with
their neighbor, again, it means emptiness. You know what that means? It means all the nice things
they're saying about you to your face are vain. It means those words mean absolutely nothing.
They mean nothing. They will speak to you, the Bible says, with flattering lips.
That basically means they're buttering you up. They're making you feel good about them
because they're making you feel good about you. They're speaking good to you,
making you feel good about them. But the psalmist says they're doing this with a double heart.
He says with a double heart, do they speak? What does it mean to have a double heart? Well,
here in Texas, we'd say they're two-faced. Whether two faces or two hearts, it's the same thing.
It's a double-sided face or a double-sided heart. It means that they're showing you the lovely side
of them that they want you to see, that side that showcases their false persona, that emanates love
and respect toward you, which is all false. But the side of their true heart is hidden by the
lies that they tell you as they flatter you with those empty words. And we have a very good example
of that. If you want to see it in action, 1 Samuel chapter 18 tonight. 1 Samuel chapter 18, we're
going to see an example of someone who hides hatred with lying lips, as it says here in the
book of Proverbs tonight. This is where King Saul and his hatred of David are seen, and King Saul
hides his hatred of David with lying lips, hoping to destroy David with his deception.
Saul wanted to give David his daughter as a wife, but not because he loved David. He knew his
daughter and he figured if he gave David his daughter, she'd be a snare to him. And in harming
David and bringing him down. 1 Samuel 18, 21 through 22. And Saul said, "I will give him her,
that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him."
What's he trying to do? He wants to destroy David. He wants to take God's plans for David
and bury them, destroy them, ruin that man. "Wherefore, Saul said to David,
thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the one of the twain." Isn't that sweet? Be my son-in-law,
son. 22. And Saul commanded his servant, saying, "Commune with David secretly, pull him off the
side and say, 'Behold, the king hath delight in thee.'" Oh, the king really likes you, David.
"And all his servants love thee. Now therefore be the king's son-in-law." Well, you can't turn that
down. Everybody likes you, David. He's going to give you his own daughter. What is that? Flattering
lips. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. You can put no stock in anything that Saul said
whatsoever. Saul wanted to destroy David. That was the true heart, but with a double heart he spoke
these flattering words and concealed with lying lips his hatred for David. Saul buttered David up,
but it was all a lie. And I believe most of us have met people before who would hardly see if
this has happened to you. If you haven't lived long yet, you may not have experienced it, but you will.
How many of y'all have had people before that would hardly give you the time of day? Maybe they
wouldn't even speak to you at all. But when they needed something, they'd act like your best friend.
Yeah, that's a lot of folks in here. People are so foolish they will even flatter the Lord like that.
Did you know that? They flatter the Lord like that. They think they can pull the wool over your eyes
and they do the Lord the same way. They get in trouble. They need something. "Boy, they're just
Lord, you know, Lord, I need this and Lord, I thank you and I'm going to serve you." And it's
all lying lips. They don't love the Lord. And they flatter the Lord with lying lips even to conceal
their hatred toward Him. Isaiah 29 verse 13. Isaiah 29 verse 13. "Wherefore the Lord said,
'For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me,
but have removed their heart far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.'"
What does that mean? That was a Pharisees for one. The fear, he said, their fear toward me,
in other words, their reverence toward me is taught by the precept of men. In other words,
they don't teach my commandments to teach people. And this goes right along with your Sunday school,
Brother Shepherd, last week and the week before. They're not teaching God's law to teach the fear
of the Lord. That was a good Sunday school teaching too. I enjoyed that. They're teaching their own
commandments, as Brother Shepherd said last week. They had their own custom tailored
law rules and everything. And that's how they're teaching you to respect God. How am I going to
respect God the way I want to? And God's just going to have to take that. That's the way they
were with God. Their heart was far from God, but with that double false heart, they were drawing
nigh to God with their lips. I watched a video the other day, I don't know who all has seen it,
of a prostitute talking about how she was a child of God and a woman of God and loved the Lord
and wasn't ashamed of what she did because God accepts her like she is. Do you know what that was?
That she hates God. Man, if she were to get a dose of what God really feels about her,
she would hate him. She loves the God she created in her own imagination. That's what it is.
Their lips flatter God. I'm a woman of God, but their hearts are not faithful to God.
Faithfulness reveals a person's love. Flattery hides a person's hate. That'd be a good kingdom
truth, wouldn't it? Faithfulness reveals a person's love. Flattery hides a person's hate.
How do you know one from the other? Here's another kingdom truth for you tonight.
If a person compliments you who is unfaithful to you, then they are flattering you.
Repeat that again because sometimes we don't know if someone's flattering.
If a person compliments you who is unfaithful to you, then they are flattering you. Remember the
illustration we gave? People won't give you the time of the day. The next thing you know,
they need something or you're in a position where you can heard or help them. The next thing you
know, they're just so sweet to you and talking you up. They're complimenting you, but they're not
faithful to you. Therefore, they're merely flattering you. And if they have flattering lips,
they're concealing hate in their heart towards you. Be careful for those people. Do not let them
draw you in. Do not think, "Well, maybe this is my chance to get close to them and win them over."
You can't win them over people like that. You can't win them over. That's the person who hides
their hatred with lying lips. But there's also the person who does the opposite and that is they
reveal their hatred with lying lips. And Solomon's going to talk about that person now. Solomon spoke
of the person who hides their hatred with lying lips, but look back in your text, "And he that
uttereth a slander." He that uttereth a slander. These people do the opposite of concealing
inward hatred. They don't use their lips to hide their hatred. They use their lips to reveal and
spread their hatred of others, two others. Now I said this was lying lips. One uses lying lips to
conceal hatred. The other uses lying lips to spread hatred. Why is that? Because he's uttering a
slander. Watch the slander. A slander is a lie. It's a lie. The person who hides hatred,
they will destroy you with a friendly smile. The person who reveals hatred, they'll destroy you
with an angry face. And they're both dangerous. Like I said, a slander is a lie. When we slander
someone, we're telling a lie to attack that person's character. And by attacking their character,
we're harming that person. Add someone who hated me once. And that person uttered a slander
against my character in sought to harm my ministry. Speaking of my ministry, I'll know I'msaved.com,
which is the most precious, the most precious thing that God's ever given me outside of my
salvation. And if you understand, you understand. If you don't, you don't. But I love serving the
Lord. And in Him giving me that opportunity to serve Him in that way, it's very, very precious to me.
And one person one time told another person, "There's no telling what Richard's saying to
those women when he talks to them on that know I'm saved.com. No telling what he's saying to those
women when he talks to them." You know what that was? It was a clever lie. It was a clever lie.
You see, by saying that, they suggested the idea without ever actually saying it,
that I very probably am speaking inappropriately to women who contact me about their salvation.
Didn't actually come out and say it. Just said, "No telling what he's saying to those women."
See, it's still a lie, a clever lie, a slander to attack someone and harm them. That's open hatred.
He that utterth a slander. That's what the Bible's talking about tonight. By the grace of God,
by God's grace alone, He's allowed me to share the gospel with many people through that ministry
of both genders. And as they all can testify, and there's lots of them listening tonight,
they could get on there and call me a liar if they want to and do the Me Too movement,
Central Baptist style if they wanted to. But as they will all testify, the only thing
I've ever talked to them about was the Lord Jesus Christ. But whether a person tries to
destroy someone secretly or openly with lying lips, the Bible says that person, back in your text,
is a fool. Is a fool. Why are they a fool? It's really pretty simple. What is the greatest
commandment of all to love, isn't it? To love the Lord your God with all of your heart,
and to love your neighbor as yourself. Now God is wisdom. Christ is wisdom. God is love.
Christ is love. You see where the Bible's going with this. One conceals the hatred with lying lips.
The other reveals the hatred with lying lips. And both of them are fools. Why? Because it is foolish
to hate. It is wise to love. You see how that works? A wise person is going to love.
Hatred is the essence of rebelling against a loving God. Think about it. Hatred is the essence
of rebellion against a loving God. If you love God, you're going to love the brethren.
Scriptures tell us that. If you hate God, you're going to hate the brethren. Why does the devil
hate us? He hates God. So he hates what God loves. Hatred is the essence of rebellion against a loving
God. Love is the result of being filled with a loving God. If you're filled with the spirit of
a loving God, you can't help but have God love through you. I'm going to read just a little
excerpt out of here. I'm not going to read much. I'm going to read just a little excerpt. Now this
note that was left up here for me tonight. "We love you." There's a little note that the Keaton's left me.
"We love you." Why? "If you're filled with a loving God, you can't help but have God love through you."
Wisdom loves. Foolishness hates. Fools hate God and hate God's people. Wise people love God
and love their enemies. What a difference. With that, we'll go ahead and stop tonight.
I hope you've learned the difference between a compliment and a slander.
And I hope you've learned to engage your tongue in that which the Spirit of God
puts on your mouth and everything else leave it out of your mouth. All right?
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word. We thank you, Father, for
being so clear and constructive to us, Father, in your Word, giving us the Proverbs, giving us
the examples, Father, that you do in the historical books of the Old Testament, giving us, Father,
the great insight that you do in the book of Psalms as you did tonight, and Father, just giving us a
well-rounded foundation to stand upon, Lord, in your Word, to stand upon wisdom, to act upon love,
and to avoid hate in lying lips. Lord, we pray for our neighbors tonight. We pray for enemies,
as you've told us to. We pray for those that hate us, that they will come to know your love.
And we ask it in Jesus' precious name. Glorify your name. Thank you again for your Word. We
give you thanks for the truths that you teach as only you can teach them. In Jesus' name, amen.
