Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 10, God willing, we will be expounding verses 20 and 21 tonight.
The two verses go hand in hand quite well.
The title of the message tonight is "Poor, Empty and Dead."
The text is very rich that we are studying tonight.
And I pray by God's grace, He will help me to convey it as beautiful as the text is.
In Proverbs 10, 20 and 21, Solomon is continuing to give us much needed wisdom concerning the
spoken word, especially the spoken word of God.
And specifically, and when you first read the passage, you will not see this, I did
not see this.
But the more I pondered on it, the more I studied this, the more I realized this is
a very special passage of Scripture.
Because the passage tonight, even though you may not see it at first glance, you will hear
it a little bit, it is giving us wisdom about two different types of pastors.
Two different types of pastors, two different types of spiritual leaders.
Not necessarily Christian pastors, but spiritual leaders.
And there is only two types of spiritual leaders.
Those who lead according to the truth of God's word and those who lead according to something
other than God's word.
But no matter what they believe, no matter what religion or lack thereof they promote,
all spiritual leaders have one thing in common.
They all use the spoken word to convey their doctrine to those who follow them.
Spoken word is very powerful.
In verse 20 Solomon begins by teaching us about, if you look in verse 20, the tongue
of the just.
The tongue of the just.
Now remember this is a comparison between two different types of pastors, two different
types of spiritual advisors, life coaches, gurus, whatever you want to call them.
And to make this comparison, Solomon refers to the two different sources from which this
doctrine comes.
The tongue and the heart.
In verse 20 underscore the tongue of the just.
I'm sorry, the just, I got just in my mind from that ceiling.
The tongue of the just.
The tongue of the just.
Once you get that underscore, go down just a little bit and underscore the heart of the
wicked.
The heart of the wicked.
Solomon's not saying that there are two different ways of teaching here.
She's not saying, well, you've got the just and the just speak with their tongue and the
wicked speak with their heart.
Solomon's not saying that here.
When we're looking at the tongue of the just and the heart of the wicked, the just have
a heart and the wicked have a tongue.
This is just a matter of speaking where the Word of God reminds us that both the tongue
and the heart are utilized in the process of the spoken word.
Once again, if you think of the heart when we're going back to our teaching on the Epistle
of Jude a while back, when you think of the heart, you have to think of the heart like
a well, a well of water.
Think of the heart like a well where the water is stored.
You think of the tongue like a faucet from which the water is received.
If you have no well, then your faucet is worthless.
If you have no faucet, then your well is useless because you can't get to the water inside.
If you have, in the same way, no heart, then your tongue is worthless.
And if you have no tongue, then your heart and the wisdom therein is useless.
Solomon begins by speaking to us about the tongue of the just.
Now a just man is someone who has been made right with God in His law.
That's a just man.
The Bible says we are justified by faith.
And a just man has therefore been enlightened to the truth of God's Word, to the truth of
the gospel or else he could not be just.
Not only that, he is just in the sense that not only is he enlightened to the Word of
God, but he follows the Word of God.
He is someone who has been enlightened to the truth of God and His Word and the gospel
that it reveals.
That is the tongue of the just.
And the tongue of that just man, the Bible says, look back in your text, is as choice
silver.
Is as choice silver.
Now the word choice, in the Hebrew word that is translated choice, it means the exact same
thing as the word choice in English.
This means the words that are in the heart or the well of that just person are choice
words.
They are words that have been chosen by our sovereign God.
Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 11-13 says, "And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth."
So how were we chosen to salvation?
We were chosen through sanctification of the Spirit by believing the truth of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit separates us from this ungodly world, separates us from our former identity
in Adam, that's what the word sanctification means.
He separates us from it just like that circumcision we were talking about last week.
The man and the flesh are separated, they are sanctified, the man is sanctified from
that old identification and we have been sanctified, separated by the Holy Spirit through belief
of the truth.
That's how God chose us.
We are chosen by God by believing the words that God has chosen us to hear concerning
the Savior God chose to give us.
They are choice words.
The tongue of the just has the choice words of God in his heart.
So if you go to a Bible believing pastor, and they all claim to be Bible believing pastors
by the way, but if you go to the tongue of the just, you go to him for spiritual guidance,
his tongue is going to preach to you the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pure and simple.
Apart from that you cannot be chosen.
You can't have choice people without choice words for them to believe.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
A pastor without Jesus on his tongue is a well without water.
A pastor without Jesus on his tongue is a well without water.
And when I say Jesus on his tongue I mean Jesus Christ and him crucified, buried and
risen again for the atonement of our sin.
The Jesus of the Bible.
The Bible says the tongue of the righteous is like choice what?
Silver.
You know what that means?
That word silver?
It means treasure.
It means money.
We're not talking about a piece of jewelry here.
We're talking about wealth.
We're talking about riches.
That means the gospel of Jesus Christ being choice silver.
It is worth more than all the treasure in the world.
What we hear from the tongue of a Bible teaching pastor is worth more than anything else in
the world.
I tell you what.
To this day there is a book called All of Grace written by Charles Haddon Spurgeon that
I read that was the first time someone communicated the gospel to me where I could understand.
To this day, listen, I wouldn't trade all the money in the world for the words that
I heard that man share with me.
Not all the money in the world.
If you have Jesus Christ as your savior, then you are a very wealthy person.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and your home is in heaven, you've been sanctified
from that old identity in Adam through belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ, don't ever
bellyache about your financial woes.
Because they'll only last for a few years.
This world is coming to an end.
If you have Jesus, you are a wealthy person.
The tongue of the gospel preacher can never write you a hot check.
Because if it is preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that will cash at heaven's
bank every time.
It pays its hearers an eternal wealth.
Now compare this on the other hand, look back in your text to the heart of the wicked.
We looked at the tongue of the righteous or the tongue of the just.
Now let's look at the heart of the wicked.
This is fascinating to me.
Again the Hebrew word heart here, it speaks about a pastors understanding.
The pastors understanding.
Especially in the context here.
The understanding of the wicked therefore is speaking about a pastor who was leading
his followers based on the understanding of his natural, unconverted, unbelieving heart.
You see?
And there's plenty of leaders out there, spiritual advisors out there, who are very comfortable
teaching you and leading you according to how they view life.
And it's just nothing but the conjuring up of ideas from their unbelieving, unregenerate
heart.
Their eyes have never been enlightened to the truth of Jesus Christ.
They never been enlightened by the Holy Spirit to God's eternal purpose for you.
God's purpose in the gospel for the redemption of this world.
They have no knowledge like that.
So if you go to a spiritual leader who does not understand God's purpose for you in the
gospel then you are going to a well without water.
Those who follow a man who isn't following Christ or are as Christ said, the blind following
the blind.
You have one unregenerate, unbelieving man following another unregenerate, unbelieving
man with a degree on the wall.
That's all you've got, if he's got a degree.
Those without the Lord Jesus Christ, not having that choice silver, they're the poorest people
on this earth.
You say, well they have cars and yachts and big houses and lands and lakes.
They're billionaires and millionaires.
And for a few years, just like the rich man in Lazarus, in the end the first will be last
and the last will be first and who cares?
Hey, that man, that rich man that died in hell, he lifted up his eyes.
Do you think he cares anything about that money he once had?
No, that meant nothing to him the moment he lifted up his eyes in hell.
Those who don't understand the hope that we have in the death and resurrection of our
Savior drinking from a well, look back in your text, that is little worth.
Is little worth?
Underscore the word worth.
You see how there's this comparison here?
Little worth versus choice silver.
Little worth versus choice silver.
The doctrine of Christ makes you rich.
The doctrine of men brings you into poverty.
Now the doctrine of men, the rich people here, they have their riches now, they get their
poverty later.
They have temporary riches, they end up inheriting eternal poverty.
We have temporary poverty and we end up inheriting eternal riches.
So I'll be glad to get mine last, thank you very much.
The Bible doesn't say that the understanding of the wicked is of no worth.
It says it's of little worth.
Why does it say that?
Because it does have value in the here and now.
Esau's pottage had value for the time being.
It just didn't last long.
The Bible also speaks about bodily exercise.
The Bible doesn't say bodily exercise profit of nothing.
It says bodily exercise profit of what?
Same thing, little.
So what good is it to have big muscles and go to hell, right?
The bodily exercise, it profits you for a little time, but it won't endure.
That profit is only in this earth and this body only.
In the same way, the wealth, the advice that you get from the heart of the wicked, it can
only give you little worth, little value.
It can only give you something that may advance you in this world alone.
So the gospel of Jesus Christ, it makes us rich.
But not only does the gospel of Jesus Christ make us rich, the gospel of Jesus Christ makes
us full.
Look now in verse 21.
Solomon said, "The lips of the righteous feed many."
Isn't that good?
Well, I've been meditating on this scripture today, Brother Shepherd.
The lips of the righteous feed many.
Oh wow, this is good.
Now the word "feed" here in the Hebrew is talking about a shepherd feeding his sheep.
It's not talking about sitting down and having a meal, having a good feed as some of these
Texans may put it, it's talking about a shepherd feeding his flock.
Jesus told Peter, "If you love me, then what?
Feed my sheep."
Speaking about you and me.
We see then that the gospel is not only silver for the spiritually poor.
And I could not help but think of the Beatitudes when Jesus was teaching the Sermon on the
Mount.
"Blessed are those that hunger now, for they shall be filled."
Blessed are the poor too.
They're going to be made rich.
So it's not only the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only silver for the spiritually poor,
but it's also food for the spiritually hungry.
The wisdom of Jesus Christ is food for the consumption of the soul, the human soul.
So the tongue of the righteous therefore not only makes people rich, but it makes people
full.
I remember when I was pondering my life as a young man and I remember thinking, comparing
my life to the life of others around me, because I was raised up in church, and as I was looking
upon my own life and I was comparing it to the life of my unbelieving co-workers, I remember
thinking other than claiming to be a Christian and going to church, I can't really see any
difference between their life and my life.
And I felt that my life did not, that I was not accomplishing anything, that I really
didn't have any true purpose and if I were to have to point out the difference between
my life and theirs, I would not be able to do so.
And thank God, after I understood the gospel and understood God's eternal purpose for me,
my life is no longer empty.
It is filled with the love, the grace, the purpose and the power of God.
It's filled with the presence of God in the gospel truth that I believe.
I wake up every morning with purpose.
Before my feet hit the floor, I begin thinking, before I ever get up on my feet, I begin thinking
about what God is going to do for me that day and how I'm going to live for Him and
try to live for Him and serve Him and make use of the time that God has given me.
The lips of the righteous feed, the Bible says.
You know what that means?
The lips of the righteous feed?
It means that a gospel pastor has sheep food on his tongue.
That's it.
Gospel pastor has sheep food on his tongue.
The tongue feeds.
You see what God's telling us here?
If the lips of the righteous person feeds many, if the tongue feeds, this means that
God is telling us right here in the Old Testament that He has food for us to eat.
But that food is not fleshly food of this earth.
Because if it was, it wouldn't come from my lips.
You see what's being communicated here?
The food is the words that you hear.
Now if the food comes from my lips to you, what is the avenue, what is the gate to get
that food into you?
It's the ear.
The hearing of faith is what the Bible calls it.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.
The Word of God comes by the tongue of the righteous, the lips of the righteous that
feed many.
And so the lips produce the food and the ear now becomes the mouth that takes that spiritual
food in.
This is not physical food for the body, this is spiritual food for the soul and spirit.
The mouth produces or rather presents the food, the food is taken into the person through
the ear just like a mouth would take food in.
And then what happens?
You can't chew with your ear.
Oh yes you can.
When I put food in my mouth, I don't just swallow that food, I have to chew it and then
I have to swallow it.
Now you can put something in your mouth.
You can taste of it and you can spit it out and refuse to swallow it.
Have you ever told somebody something that wasn't true and they believed you and someone
said hey did they fall for it?
You'd say they swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Well they didn't swallow it with their mouth did they?
But by their faith, believing the words you told them even though they weren't true, their
faith swallowed it down.
It went into their ear like a mouth and when they believed it what happened?
They consumed it.
They swallowed it down in their soul and believed you.
So when the lips of the just preach God's word, your ear hears it and then your mind
or your heart, however you want to put it, it's the same thing.
When you comprehend and you believe it, you believe that truth, that faith, that believing
that truth is swallowing it down.
And what happens when we swallow physical food into our belly?
It gives us, it sustains our physical life.
What happens when we swallow the spiritual food of the gospel?
It gives us spiritual life.
The physical food gives us temporary life, the spiritual food of God's word, the gospel
of Jesus Christ, when we swallow it by believing it, it gives us everlasting life.
It's bread that does not perish.
That's why Jesus said he was the bread of life, if you eat him you'll never hunger.
How do you eat?
By faith.
You don't go up to Jesus and bite his arm, that's what the Pharisees or that's what those
people thought he was trying to say.
You're listening to the words of Jesus and you're swallowing it hook, line and sinker.
So the tongue feeds us and this means God is telling us here in the Old Testament he
has food for us to eat, not fleshly food of this earth which we consume with our mouth,
but spiritual food of heaven that we consume with our ears.
We take the food in by hearing it, we swallow it by believing it.
Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my
word."
So the tongue of the just, the lips of the righteous feed many.
He that heareth my word, how do you hear his word?
Through the lips of the righteous pastor, the lips of the righteous preacher of the
gospel.
It doesn't have to be a pastor, but whoever is preaching that gospel you then hear his
word.
He said, "He that heareth my word," that's taking the word into your ear, "and believeth
on him that sent me," that's swallowing it.
I heard the word of the gospel and I believe that indeed he is the one God sent to save
the world.
He says, "Hath everlasting life," why?
You just took the food in.
You just took the food in.
You just ate the bread of life because you believed the word concerning Jesus Christ.
"Hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death
unto life."
Which means until you hear the words from the lips of that righteous preacher who is
preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
Then when you hear the gospel from that preacher and you swallow it down, you are then passed
from death unto life because you can't die believing on Jesus.
So we see now the words that come from the tongue of the just pastor, they number one,
they make us rich.
Number two, they make us full.
Number three, they make us live.
Solomus of the lips of the righteous feed many.
Look back in your text, but fools die for want of wisdom.
Now everybody dies, right?
Everybody dies physically, but remember we are not talking about physical food here.
The lips of the righteous feed many and they don't feed steak and potatoes and vegetables,
they feed the word of God.
So when we are talking about death here, because I am going to die physically, just like a
fool is going to die physically, but I am going to live spiritually, unlike a fool is
going to live spiritually because they are going to die forever spiritually.
Fools die for what?
Want of food?
Want of physical food?
No.
Want of medical care?
No.
For want of wisdom, want meaning lack.
A fool dies for a lack of wisdom.
The food we need to live is the wisdom of God concerning Christ.
Fools don't believe the gospel, so fools don't preach the gospel, so their sheep, the sheep
that follow that unjust, wicked, unregenerate spiritual leader, their sheep are poor, empty
and dead because they lack the wisdom from their pastor's tongue.
He never gives them the food they need to live and that is the bread of Christ.
The food that drops from the lips of a righteous pastor gives life, not the pastor's lips,
they have no ability to give life.
But the words of God that are communicated by those lips do.
But the Bible says people will die without that food.
You see that?
You see we all die physically.
Jesus says, "He that lives and believes in me shall never die."
Again, Jesus is talking about spiritual death.
You see when you get to the book of the Revelation you realize there is actually two ways to
die, right?
If you are born once, you die twice.
If you are born twice, you die once.
The Bible talks about the second death in the book of the Revelation.
So a fool like me and you, we will all die physically once.
But those who are not born again by believing the truth of Jesus Christ, they will die twice.
They will die once in their body, they will stand before God, they will die twice in their
spirit and their soul forever.
That's why the fools die.
Their sheep are poor, empty and dying for lack of wisdom.
The Bible says people die without this food.
You show me a church with the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't preached and I will show you
a church that is filled with people who are poor, empty and dead.
They may be wearing a coat and tie.
Boy, I listened to a snippet of a sermon today.
It was a humdinger I was telling my mom and dad about this afternoon.
Had this bald headed preacher up.
He had him a coat and tie on.
He's up here preaching.
He says I want you all to turn.
I want you all to turn.
Let me get my Bible up here on my phone.
Let me pull it up.
Oh, this is a good one.
He said I want you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Psalm chapter 16 verse
11.
Psalm chapter 16 verse 11.
It says, "Thou wilt show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore."
He says, you realize what this is saying here?
He told them it ringed his bell.
He says, you see the word evermore in here.
Evermore.
And he said, this is Psalm 16 11.
And that's telling us that the King James 16 11 Bible is preserved forevermore.
My goodness.
That's a whole new level of stupidity, Brother Shepherd.
I mean that is not biblical.
It's not logical.
It's way out there.
And I can almost promise you there's people up here thinking, "Amen, Brother."
One preacher got up to preach.
He said, "The Lord told me the other day that I was His representative.
And when He told me I represented Him, I told God right then, 'Lord, I will never enter
into the house of God without a coat and tie on again.'"
Listen, clothing doesn't represent God.
Not the threads of the righteous.
The threads of the righteous don't feed anybody.
Not some kind of esoteric interpretation of the Bible where you have a 16 11 and since
the King James was written in 16 11, the word for evermore is in that verse.
That's God secretly, mysteriously telling.
That's crazy stuff.
But there are churches like that all over the world that push this kind of stuff while
thumping on a Bible.
And while they're thumping on the Bible, they're not telling you and giving you the food that's
in the Bible.
And people are dying and perishing for want of wisdom from it.
Man, I tell you what, you take a godly pastor, you take a godly Bible teacher, godly Sunday
school teacher, I don't care if it's a man, woman, I don't care who, you get a godly teacher
in front of some little children in Sunday school, if they squeeze on that Bible, you
know what's going to happen?
The cross of Jesus Christ is going to ooze out of it.
And if that's not happening, you don't have Bible teaching going on in your church.
You don't have that food that feeds and people can live and pass from death unto life.
Bible says people die without that food.
A false teacher peddles tasty consumption without life giving nutrition.
And I want to close with some poetry.
Hey, here we go.
Here you go.
You don't have a tune with yours, do you?
Well I don't either.
All right, that's good then.
If you did, then maybe sing harmony.
Choose your leaders wisely.
Be careful what you hear.
For wise men are hard to find, but fools are everywhere.
You can be rich, full, and living from the words our Savior said.
Or you can listen to a fool and be poor, empty, and dead.
All right, Brother Shepherd, I want to get you back on and we'll listen to yours.
Brother Gabriel, you got a poem after him?
Okay.
You do most of yours on the road, don't you, brother?
Yes.
The choicest of silver comes forth from the tongue as words of salvation, though spoken
or sung.
Redeeming the ones who hear them and trust, they only proceed from the tongue of the just.
Beware of the wicked with hearts full of dross whose gainsaying brings you destruction and
loss.
Their promise of riches are fleeting and vain, worth nothing but sorrow and weeping and pain.
So listen to lips of the righteous who feed your souls with the gospel, the food that
you need.
Amen.
Well, we'll close with a word of prayer and, Lord willing, be dismissed.
And it's good to see everyone here tonight.
There's a good healthy crowd for Wednesday night and a good crowd online as well.
We love you both here and abroad.
And, Lord willing, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone here Sunday, having a great
meal, a great service, baptism, and communion with you.
I mean, when we take communion now, that communion is going to be a physical representation of
the words that we hear and swallow down and live.
Isn't that good?
It'll just be, it'll be Proverbs, New Testament style.
Okay?
Father, thank you so much for this amazing passage of Scripture tonight.
You let us know in the Old Testament that there was food, spiritual food, that we had
to partake of or we would perish without it.
And then Jesus came and said that you gave him to the world so that whoever believed
in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
And you told us in the first chapter of John that he was the Word that became flesh.
And now the lips of the righteous speak that very Word to others.
We preach Christ and Him crucified.
Thank you, Father, so much for those who were here tonight.
Thank you for your precious Word.
Thank you for putting it on our lips, in our ears, and in our hearts.
And I pray, Father, Lord, the rest of this week it will be in our feet as well.
And we'll walk in the joy of Jesus Christ.
In His precious name we pray.
Amen
