Second, let’s look at “a lying tongue”;

    The definition of “lie” – “marked by or containing falsehoods. To make an untrue statement intended to deceive. To create a false or misleading impression. To “equivocate” implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another. To “palter” implying making unreliable statements of fact or intention. To “fib” which applies to telling a trivial untruth.”

    Lying is mentioned twice. It gets top billing here in these things that God really hates. Why does he hate it so much? Because it is so directly opposite to his nature. If God hates lying, then so should we if we are becoming like Him as His people. We are not to be saying things that are untrue in order to get ahead; or to be seen as better than you are; or to cover up something; or to purposely appear smarter or more holy.  Let’s read this worst-case scenario from James chapter 3:1-14;

    “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

    When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

    With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

    Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.”

    Lies differ in type, incidence, magnitude, and consequence, with a great variation of severity from harmless exaggeration to intentional and habitual deceit. Four basic types of lies can be identified as;

·       Prosocial: Lying to protect someone.

· Self-enhancement: Lying to save face, avoid embarrassment, disapproval or punishment.

·       Selfish: Lying to protect self at the expense of another; or to conceal a misdeed.

·       Anti-social: Lying to hurt someone intentionally.

    Lying is considered by most child development specialists to be a natural developmental occurrence in childhood. Making up stories is part of a normal fantasy life for young children. Children from age five or six have learned the difference between lies and truth. School-age children experiment with selfish lies to avoid punishment or to gain advantage. By age seven or eight, children have developed the ability to convincingly sustain a lie. Adolescents may lie to cover up serious behavioral problems. The point is that children become more adept liars with practice. As they grow older, it may become more difficult to discern or detect dishonesty.

    Most children however, with the benefit of a loving family environment where honesty is valued and modeled and dishonesty is appropriately challenged, will quickly recognize that lying is not an acceptable behavior.

Proverbs 6:16-19  “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

    I want to look briefly at these seven things under principle #11. How would you explain the difference between things you don’t like, and things you hate?  Sometimes we use the word “hate” when we ought to say “dislike.” For instance: “I hate it when someone drives too slow on the freeway”…or do you “dislike” it?  Do you dislike adultery or do you hate it? Do you dislike child abuse, or do you hate it?  To dislike something means that you may not like it but you can tolerate it; however, to hate or detest something goes much deeper than that.

    Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us that these are not things God dislikes, but things He hates! He detests them. The list is not all inclusive. It is only a representative portion of the whole. We know that Solomon could have listed far more, but they would all probably fall under one of these categories.

First, let’s look at “Haughty eyes.”  From Proverbs 21:4 “Haughty eyes and proud heart—the unplowed field of the wicked produce sin.” From Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

    This is to say; looking from above down with disdain on those who are beneath you in value and significance. It indicates a swelling kind of pride that fills the heart and shows disdain for others, as if they were of less significance. Pride is the first thing God hates and it's listed first because it really is at the fountain of all kinds of sin. All kinds of sin, no matter what the sin, is reflected in pride; the attitude of disobedience and rebellion against God's Law. Everything else is sort of built on the basic iniquity of pride, or self-will. 

    Pride can be hidden in the heart as well as openly displayed. This is what causes racial, financial, and social prejudice. It is the Pharisee, who says, “Thank God that I am not like other men”…Over-valuing ourselves and under-valuing others is called “haughty eyes” and God hates it! Proverbs has a lot to say about eyes, and it links them here to a proud heart. “Haughty eyes,” says the writer, “produce sin.” So if you want wisdom, you don’t want haughty eyes.

    The word haughty comes from an old Anglo-French word, “haut”, which means “high,” and which comes from the Latin word altus, from which we get our word altitude. Putting all that together, we find that haughty eyes are the kind of eyes that look down at other people, as if the one looking down is “higher up” than or above others. At the heart of this again is the problem of comparing—we don’t just look down, we look down at other people as if they are lower or lesser than we are. Somehow we feel we need to prove that we are worth something, if for no other reason than to make sure we can identify someone who is worth less than we are. But, of course, that’s foolish. It leads to hurting others as well as ourselves.

    God says, “Don’t look down, look up. You are so worthwhile to me that I gave my Son so that I could have you for my children.” God doesn’t do this with haughty eyes; he does it with eyes of love. Our desperate need became his loving opportunity. Wisdom means we want to do the same with others because we have seen that look of love from God in Christ.

    Proverbs 13:14 says, "The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life" (cf. 16:22). So, if the "teaching of the wise" is a fountain of life, and "the mouth of the righteous" is a fountain of life, then one element in this righteousness is true wisdom. Righteous people are people who live by the true wisdom of God’s Word. Then I remembered that the most crucial thing Proverbs says about wisdom is that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (9:10). So, you have to assume that "the fear of the Lord" is right at the heart of the wisdom which is the basis of the way righteous people live (fear of the Lord—wisdom—righteousness). The surprising thing was the way this was confirmed in Proverbs 14:27, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life."

    So, I conclude that the mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life (10:11) because righteousness is a life based on true wisdom which is a fountain of life (13:14), and true wisdom is a fountain of life because it begins with the fear of the Lord, which is a fountain of life (14:27). When you think about the fear of the Lord or when you look up Psalm 36:9. The fear of the Lord means at least two things:

1.    It means we stand in awe of the majesty and power and justice and holiness and grace of God. We tremble at his Word (Isaiah 66:2); and

2.    It means that we shudder with dread at the thought of how terrible it would be to forsake this great God. As Joseph said; “Why should I do such a thing and sin against my God!”

So those who fear the Lord stay with the Lord. They love the fellowship of God more than anything. And because they stay with the Lord and don't forsake him for broken cisterns in the world, their roots are in the eternal fountain of life, God himself. This is what Psalm 36:9 says: "You [God] give them to drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life."

    Now we are getting to the very bottom of things. Now we know why righteousness makes the mouth into a fountain of life. The reason is that righteousness is a life based on true wisdom, and true wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord roots people in God himself and keeps us close to him in personal fellowship, and God—and God alone—is the ultimate, self-replenishing, inexhaustible fountain of life. "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life" because GOD is a fountain of life and the righteous live on God.

    Why does this righteousness make FOUNTAINS out of our mouths and not factories? The answer is that righteousness means being rooted in God, not standing outside God trying to earn your way in with a list of behaviors. Biblical righteousness is not primarily a set of things that you do but rather it is whom you trust and whom you live with and whom you fear to forsake, and whom you learn from to be wise. Or to use the New Testament terminology, righteousness is “abiding in the vine” not working for the vine, but trusting the vine to work through you, and flow through you. Righteousness is being in Christ and living by faith in his power and grace and wisdom. That kind of relationship with God and his Son makes your mouth a fountain of LIFE. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," (Matthew 12:34).

I hope you didn't lose your way in all that, because there remains one question: How Does This Produce Life for Others?

But there remains one question: How Does This Produce Life for Others?

    Let me just give you three pointers for you to apply in your life. For life to be sustained—whether spiritual or physical (and I think both are in view here)—it needs to be fed when it's hungry and healed when it's sick and delivered when it's under attack. So, if the mouth is going to be a fountain of life, what comes out of it needs to feed and heal and deliver.

    I didn't choose those three things at random. I chose them because that's what I found in the book of Proverbs…

* Proverbs 10:21 says, "The lips of the righteous feed many."

* Proverbs 12:18 says, "The tongue of the wise brings healing." And

* Proverbs 12:6 says, "The mouth of the upright delivers men." So the mouth is a fountain of life for others because it brings forth words that feed and heal and protect.

    So, I close with these probing questions: Does your mouth usually feed people with the truth and substance of what you say, or does it starve people through silence or empty speech? Does your mouth usually heal people with words of grace and love and kindness, or does it wound people with insensitive, harsh, critical, words? And does your mouth usually deliver and protect people, or does it join the attack?

Part 10 – “The mouth of the righteous”

Proverbs 10:11 “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.”

    I want to point out four things from this verse, but I have to begin this one with a look at the word “life”. God is the giver of and a lover of life; he likes to promote life; His Word is all about life from beginning to end. I have come to believe that life is completely a gift of God - both this life and the life to come. And, like any gift, it is freely given out of love; but it must also be received, and opened, and experienced in order to become a true reality in our hearts, minds and souls.

    There are only three things that I find in the Bible concerning death; One is found in the Book of Genesis 2:6 where it says “And the Lord God commanded the man; ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but, you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you shall surely die”… Man of course, disobeyed God, which was sin, and the result of sin is the curse of death. “The wages of sin is death”.

    The second thing the Bible says about death is that “it is the destiny of every man to die once, and after that to face the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)  Let me emphasize something here; Man is destined to die ONCE. This becomes important because of the third thing God’s Word says about death; it is rather interesting - and probably most important - from the Book of Revelation 20:12-15 - “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So I must say it again; we can be born once and die twice…or we can be born twice (natural birth and “born again”) and die once…unless the Lord comes.

    That’s basically all the Bible has to say about death; Death is the result of sin. It’s man’s destiny to die once…But, if our name is not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, we face what is called the “second death”.  Basically, that’s it. Because that’s all we need to know about death! You see, the truth is God’s Word is concerned from beginning to end about LIFE.  Not just eternal, spiritual things as some would believe, but even more so with this life, right here right now.

"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of LIFE."

    Second, this verse says that life comes from the MOUTH of the righteous. That may not be the only source of life, but the text is clear that it is one source. The mouth can be life-giving.

    The third thing is that a life-giving mouth is like a FOUNTAIN not a factory. The image is not of labor and sweat and weariness that somehow produces the product of life. The image is restful and clean and cool and refreshing; life bubbles up and overflows from somewhere deep in the earth with scarcely any effort. "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life."

     The fourth and the last thing that is obvious from the text is that what makes a mouth into a fountain of life is RIGHTEOUSNESS. "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life."

    That being said, there are also some things that we need to dig for in these words as well. For example,

1.    What is this RIGHTEOUSNESS that makes a mouth into a fountain of life?

2.    And, why does this righteousness make FOUNTAINS and not factories?

3.    And, how does LIFE for others come out of this fountain-like mouth?

    Before we tackle those three questions, let me make sure something else is obvious. God cares about our mouth. God cares about our lips and our tongue. He cares about what goes in, but he cares a lot more about what comes out.

(Matthew 15:11) – "Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them."

    So, I think what God means to do through the message in this simple Proverb is to help us become the kind of person whose mouth will freely, refreshingly bring forth more and more life for other people. So, our first question has to be: What is this righteousness that makes mouths into fountains of life? How do you become the kind of person whose mouth freely brings forth life?

    I tried to answer this question by looking at other places in Proverbs where it says something is a “fountain of life.” I thought this would show me just what it is that turns mouths into fountains of life. It is amazing what I found.

(More next week)

Let’s look at the two contrasts and the consequences;

    Scripture tells us that the wicked man, or the fool is "unteachable." He will not listen to reason. I would say it is all about control. He will not listen to the Lord. If you try to show him his waywardness he will continually resist and deny the truth. "Wise men change their minds; fools never. A wise man thinks all he says; a fool says all he thinks."

    Too often we change jobs, friends, or even spouses instead of changing ourselves. The person who chooses human foolishness over divine truth is a person determined to live his life on his own terms and is constantly dissatisfied!

    While the fool persists in his foolishness, the wise man will listen when he is confronted with the truth and he will adjust his life accordingly. He has a "teachable" spirit! Proverbs 1:7-9 - “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” The wise man realizes his own limitations and shortcoming and grasps every opportunity to develop his life into one that is more pleasing to the Lord. The neat thing is that he also finds favor with others.

    These two kinds of people are all around us! There are those who are unteachable. They are rebels. They think they know what is best for their lives and you cannot tell them any different. They are fools! Then, there are those people who know they aren't perfect. They know they need instruction and they receive the truth of God with joy knowing it will change their life for the better. These folks are wise! Who best describes you?

Proverbs 9:6-12

⁶“Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of insight.”

⁷ Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;
whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
⁸ Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
rebuke the wise and they will love you.
⁹ Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
¹¹ For through wisdom your days will be many,
and years will be added to your life.
¹² If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you;
if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.”

If you want to do a good study, find a concordance and look up all the scriptures concerning “fools” and “wise.” The Word of God is always spot on!

Enough said!