Episode Transcript
Alright, God willing we'll be expounding Proverbs chapter 12 verse 19 tonight.
The title of the message is "The Lip of Truth".
The Lip of Truth.
Just out of curiosity, how many people are using the sermon notes tonight?
You?
You?
Man, that is so neat.
That is so neat.
I need to ask that on Sunday morning.
I'd be curious.
Do you know roughly how many you hand out on Sunday morning?
About eight?
Eighteen to twenty?
Wow, that is so neat.
I absolutely love that.
It's a wonderful ministry.
Anyway, the title of the message tonight is "The Lip of Truth".
The Proverbs, you know, they started out, you know, we learned a lot about bad women and bad men and how wonderful wisdom is.
And if you haven't noticed, we've gotten into a field of truth here lately.
And the Proverbs have a lot to say about truth and lies.
And that's because man was created by the truth.
We're established by truth and because of that, lies bring us to destruction.
The Proverbs that we've been studying are premised on the fact that they are true.
I mean, if they weren't true, then we would be wasting our time by coming here on Wednesday night and reading them.
And not only that, but we would be basing our conduct on falsehoods when we followed them.
The difference between good advice and bad advice is really pretty simple.
The good advice is true.
The bad advice is not.
It's just not true.
And the Proverbs, thank God, they're good advice.
They're good instruction because the Proverbs are true.
And so we receive these Proverbs, look back in your text now, by the lip of truth.
The lip of truth.
Isn't that neat?
Now there's an old question that has been asked for many years, and I'm sure it's probably as a humorous thought more than anything else.
I hope it's not supposed to be actually thought provoking because if it was, it's not very deep.
But the question is, if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it still make a noise?
And of course, the answer to that question is yes, it does make a noise.
It does make sound regardless if we're there to hear it or not.
Just leave a recording on with no person there to hear it, and you go back and you'll hear all the noise you want to, and you play it back.
But sound is sound whether we hear it or not.
And in the same way, truth is truth whether we know it or not.
I'm going to say that again.
Truth is truth whether we know it or not.
Everything in the Bible is true, but I have not yet learned all the truth it contains.
The fact that microscopic organisms exist was true before microscopes were around to discover them.
I remember the first time I realized that Jesus was God.
It was quite a discovery to me.
I'm like, "Wow, where has this been all of my life?
And how did I go through church this long and not realize that Jesus was God?"
So it was a marvelous discovery to me, but it was true before I knew it.
And had I never discovered it, Jesus still would have been God.
It still would have been true.
Truth is truth whether it's known or not, but the beautiful part of truth is this.
I want you to notice tonight that truth has a lip.
Truth has a lip.
Solomon is talking to us tonight about the lip of truth.
Now all truth comes from God.
God is truth.
And all discoveries of truth come from God.
Every truth comes from God.
It originates with God.
And God gave men the lip so they could share His truth.
All truth originates with God, and God created the lip of man.
And truth can be communicated by that lip.
The lip of truth.
Man is uniquely gifted with the ability to communicate truth at the highest levels of knowledge.
And the fact that truth can be communicated by the lip reveals that God intended for truth to be told.
And as I pondered on this, I became so thankful.
And if God wants truth to be told, the lip of truth, it's only because of one thing.
God wants truth to be known.
He wants us to discover truth.
A lot of times when I'm listening to Brother Shepard's Sunday School, he'll say, "Last week we learned this marvelous truth about whatever."
And the last time I think I heard him say it was about the Hezekiah bringing the water in to the city and how it represented Christ supplying us water.
But God wants truth to be known.
Paul and Barnabas, they preached the gospel with the lip of truth.
We're learning the Proverbs tonight through the lip of truth.
And Paul and Barnabas, they go and they're preaching the gospel with the lip of truth in a place called Antioch.
And many of the Jews rejected that truth.
The truth came to them.
The truth was preached to them.
But they rejected that truth.
So in Acts chapter 13 verses 47 and 48, Acts 13, 47 and 48, Paul and Barnabas declared that they would preach the gospel to the Gentiles instead, explaining, "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, 'I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.'
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.
And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
I love this.
They said that God had commanded them to be a light to the Gentiles.
God gave them the lip of truth.
God commanded them to go share that light of truth to the nations around them.
Why?
Because God wants truth to be known.
God gave them truth.
God gave them lips.
And God commanded them to shine the light of the gospel truth to the Gentiles so they could know that truth and by knowing the truth, be saved by what they knew.
The devil tried to make Eve think that God wanted to keep the best truth to himself.
Well now he's told you about all these other trees in the garden, but what he's held back from you is this.
The day you eat thereof, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.
See he's kept that back from you.
But I am letting you in on that secret truth, that special truth that God did not tell you about.
And so he was trying to make Eve think that God didn't want her to know the truth.
And if you'll look at all the God deniers in this world, they always claim that we are ignorant.
We are the uneducated ones.
They are the ones with the vast superior knowledge.
All it is, they're following the lies of their father, the devil.
They have knowledge, but the knowledge they have is a lie.
It's not the lip, it's not from the lip of truth.
So they have knowledge, but they're deceived by the knowledge they have.
And the truth is God doesn't hold back the best truth from his people.
He gives it to his people.
Remember when God said, how can I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?
God gives his truth.
He commands truth to be known.
He has given us his word and he has given us so much truth that in a lifetime, a pastor that has studied God's word for a lifetime will confess at the end, they haven't even touched exhausting the truth inside.
I'm sometimes overwhelmed with joy when I think of the incredible privilege that I have to bear God's truth with my lips.
And that we have as children of God, all of us, to be able to communicate the gospel.
Every one of us have the privilege and the responsibility of communicating the gospel with those in our circles of influence, with the people that we come in contact with.
And that's because God has given us the lip of truth.
He has allowed his heavenly truth to be placed on our earthly lips.
And then we can bestow that truth to our fellow man and bear that wonderful life.
To share the truth of God with another person is the greatest act of kindness that a person can bestow.
Hands down.
Oddly enough, however, there's a large percentage of people like the people of Antioch who do not take kindly to hearing the truth.
They get very offended at hearing the truth.
I've told people the truth before about things.
I mean just the truth and they've gotten so angry at me.
And I start thinking, well now, are they angry because what I said is true or because I told it to them?
You know, what are they angry about?
This week Tammy and I have been absolutely amazed at the outrage that people have at Elon Musk right now, exposing the billions of dollars of fraud and theft in our government.
Brother Shepard and I spoke just a little bit before church and he said every time he learns what they find, he gets more excited.
I do too.
And find it all, you know.
And I love stuff like that.
And he said on the news this week that the fraud and the waste is so enormous that we could easily cut our national debt in half.
In half.
Not by sacrificing.
Not by tightening our belts and doing without.
He said simply by having people who are competent in government that actually care.
That simple.
He said once the fraud and waste is stopped, we could literally experience no inflation for an entire year.
None.
And people are furious about that.
And it just, I can't wrap my mind around it, but they're not angry at the people who are stealing the money.
They're angry at the people who are trying to keep them from stealing it.
And it doesn't make any sense to us at all.
But the fact is, any time truth is being exposed, then corrupt people are going to hate that exposure of the truth.
Because corruption can only exist in an atmosphere of lies.
The reason these politicians are so angry is because they're so evil.
They're corrupt people who don't want their wickedness to be exposed.
There was a pastor, I don't know if y'all saw the video this week, but there was a pastor this, I believe this past Sunday, who was encouraging violence against Elon Musk from his pulpit in his sermon using scripture to condone it.
The scripture he used was, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force."
Now let's go get 'em.
You know what I mean?
It doesn't even make sense.
It's wicked.
And this kind of wickedness in men that hates truth being exposed is what caused them to reject Jesus when he came.
Because Jesus is the truth.
And Jesus as the truth bears light.
And light reveals lies and corruption.
When Jesus came, he exposed the corruption of the religious and political institutions.
And he told the world the truth that they really needed to hear.
And they hated him for it.
They didn't want the truth, so they crucified the truth because they were evil.
John chapter 3, verse 19.
John chapter 3, verse 19.
Jesus said, "And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."
Now how do people reject the truth?
How do they reject the lip of truth?
How do they reject the truth that Paul and Barnabas preached in Antioch?
They reject the truth by replacing it with a lie.
Which is where the latter part of this verse takes us to eventually.
The tongue that speaks lies.
The lying tongue.
So people reject the truth by replacing that truth with a lie.
They deny the truth by replacing the truth.
Colossians chapter 2, verse 8.
Colossians chapter 2, verse 8.
The apostle Paul warns us, "Beware lest any man spoil you."
Now when he says spoil you, he's talking a lot about the spoils of war.
He's talking about when Babylon came in, as Brother Shepard's been teaching about.
And God said through Isaiah, Hezekiah, "They're going to take everything you showed them."
That was the spoil of war.
When they took those treasures, they were spoiling the land.
Spoiling that kingdom.
And so he says, "Don't you let anyone spoil you.
Don't let someone take your heavenly treasures away from you."
And how could they take it away?
He said, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit."
That means empty deception.
After the tradition of men.
After the rudiments or the fundamental teachings and beliefs of the world.
And not after what?
Christ.
So where do we get our treasures from?
From Christ.
All of the treasures of the kingdom, all of the treasures that God has for every one of us are given to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Those are our treasures.
How do we receive those treasures?
By the truth of Christ.
How are we spoiled of those treasures?
By the truth of Christ, the doctrines of Christ being rejected and then being replaced through philosophy, vain deceit, man-made traditions, and worldly concepts, the rudiments of this world.
So Paul says, "Be careful because the world will deny Christ and they will replace him with philosophy."
They'll replace him with this vain deceit.
They'll replace him with tradition.
They'll replace the teachings of Christ with the fundamental teachings of this world.
The lost world denies the word of God, but the Bible says the lip of truth, look back in your text now, "shall be established forever."
The lip of truth, it's saying, "shall be like an immovable rock, settled forever."
So though the world mocks the people and seeks to destroy the people who speak truth, those who embrace the truth and speak the truth of God shall be established forever.
Speaking prophetically through the prophet David, now notice where it says, "The lip of truth shall be established forever."
Through the prophet David, the Holy Spirit told David concerning Jesus Christ.
So when the Holy Spirit is speaking to David, he's actually speaking to Jesus too.
Make sense?
He's speaking to David in the here and now.
He's speaking to Jesus in the greater spiritual and eternal prophecy that's being given here.
Listen to what the Holy Spirit tells Jesus, "Thy seed will I establish forever."
So the lip of truth shall be established forever.
And then he tells Jesus, "Your seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations."
Now he told this to Jesus, but he told it to David.
See Jesus descended from David.
So he inherits David's throne.
And so Jesus being the seed of David, the Holy Spirit tells Jesus, "I am going to establish your throne, Jesus.
I'm sorry, your seed, Jesus, forever."
Now who are the seed of Jesus?
That's us.
When we read what the Holy Spirit told the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm 89, 4, we are reading the Holy Spirit speaking about us.
You know what the Bible says about us?
God has made us kings and priests unto our God.
We are priests.
We are those who sit on the throne with Jesus.
The Bible says we are seated together in heavenly places right now in Jesus Christ.
So we are the seed of David, not according to the flesh, but according to the faith.
And God says we will be established by him forever.
Why?
Because Christ is established forever.
And the truth of Christ is established forever.
And we have embraced that eternal truth and have therefore become eternal people.
The truth of God is on our lips.
The truth of God is in our heart.
And the promise of God is established forever.
We who believe and speak the truth are established forever because God's truth is established forever.
Now, I'm checking your text, "But a lying tongue is but for a moment."
And that's refreshing to me to hear.
A lying tongue is but for a moment.
I hate lies.
Now notice it says a lying tongue, if you'll just look over the word "but," a lying tongue is for a moment.
It's but for a moment, but it is for a moment.
A lying tongue has its moment.
A lying tongue has its time in the sun.
The lies of this world, they enjoy their moment of glory, their moment of power.
Do you remember when we were told that COVID was supposed to have started in a wet market in China?
I remember watching a news footage on it and they were explaining how the virus could have came from this and then this food here, this wet market, then finally get over to a person and then get spread around the world like that.
And all the experts trying to sell us on it and now the whole thing apparently was just a one big cover up.
One big lie.
But it had its time.
Listen, this world has been covering up the truth ever since Adam and Eve covered themselves up with fig leaves.
The world has been covering up the truth ever since Cain looked at God and said, "Well, how should I know where my brother Abel is?"
The lying tongue of atheism has had its time of glory in our nation.
Even as if it was historical fact, we've all heard it.
The lying tongue of Islam has had its time of glory in the Middle East and spread around the world.
The lying tongue of Buddhism and Hinduism and Sikhism and tribalistic religions, they've all had their time of glory in the world.
But those lying tongues are but for a moment.
But for a moment.
Literally in the Hebrew, it's saying that that word moment, it has the idea of a wave of a sea.
You know how the wave of the sea, and you've all seen them like when you've got these surfers up there and you see that wave of the sea coming up, coming up, coming up, this big swell of wave and that wave looks so high.
But you know what happens to that wave eventually?
It all comes crashing down.
And the wave's gone.
There may be another wave come after it, but that wave is gone.
And that in the Hebrew is what that word moment is talking about.
It has the idea of a lying tongue being like the wave of a sea.
A lie rises like a wave, but all waves and all lies eventually come crashing down.
And every lie that exalts itself against the knowledge of God will one day come crashing down.
Oh, what a day that will be when only the truth remains standing.
A lying tongue holds the power of public opinion right now.
It has its sway on unbelievers.
But the lying tongue, that time, that moment that it has will come to an end.
Every lie that's told will eventually be found out.
And God's truth will forever be established in those who speak it and those who believe it will forever be established.
The lip of truth will be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
So speak the truth boldly.
I believe over the past 10 or 20 years, I've seen Christianity shriek back a little bit in its boldness, where people have been afraid to speak the truth because they didn't want negativity or they didn't want to be attacked or they didn't want to be seen as being anti-this or anti-that or hateful or whatever.
And so they just kind of kept it to themselves.
But no, God gave us the lip of truth because he wants truth to be sent out by our lips.
And God is encouraging us here to speak the truth boldly because when lying tongues come crashing down, your lips will be established forever.
No matter what the lying tongues say about you, stand on the truth, speak the truth and take courage in the truth.
Father we thank you so much for your precious word, which is true.
Thank you, Father, for emboldening our hearts.
Thank you for commanding Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas, excuse me.
Thank you for commanding them.
And not only did you command them, but Lord, in the Great Commission, you've commanded us all to preach the gospel to every creature.
You've given us the lip of truth because truth was meant to be told, because truth was meant to be known.
And God, I pray that you'll help us, Lord, to let that truth be known in our lips.
Give us a holy boldness and a great encouragement.
We ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
