Episode Transcript
Well, we'll be in Proverbs 14 verse 7 tonight.
Proverbs 14 verse 7 Lord willing, we'll uh be studying this verse and the title of the message is The Company We Keep.
The company we keep, Proverbs 14, 7 says, go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Boy, that is a really good proverb.
Our proverb tonight is in keeping, in fact, with the words of Christ that he said in Matthew chapter 10, verses 34 through 36.
When he said, think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Boy, that's hard for the modern liberal so-called Christians to accept.
But that's what Jesus said.
I didn't come to bring peace.
I came to bring a sword.
I saw today where there was a group of Buddhist monks.
Did y'all see that on the news?
No one saw that on the news.
Oh, they were a sight.
They're a group of Buddhist monks that are walking from Fort Worth, Texas, all the way to Washington, D.
C.
They figure it's going to take them about 120 days to make that journey on foot.
And all I can think of, what good are they going to do and who in the world is feeding these people?
Because they're sure not earning a living doing that.
But they're doing it to raise awareness for world peace and loving kindness.
And uh, you know, y'all, when y'all get through, there won't be anything changed about this world one bit.
You're not gonna make anything any different World peace.
He said, Thank not that I come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance.
You know what variance is?
Put a difference between Set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
That's not very peaceable, is it?
False Christians and those who support them think Jesus preached a message of tolerance and inclusion.
Anytime you listen to these liberal, false Christian teachers, they love telling you what Jesus taught.
And he taught a message of tolerance and inclusion, they say.
I recently read an article on church inclusivity, in fact.
And it began like this.
It's quite touching.
Sister Becky got a clean excess for Brother Shepard, just in case he starts crying, you might want to have him on hand.
The Church of England takes seriously the challenge to be an inclusive church.
If God's invitation is open equally to all, That invitation should be extended equally to all.
Are there perhaps some sections of society more resistant to respond to the invitation?
Or is perhaps the church less well equipped to tune the invitation to their ears?
Do y'all see the problem with this?
First of all, the Church of Jesus Christ does not face a challenge to be inclusive.
We were never told to be inclusive, and therefore we don't tune God's invitation to people's ears.
We simply preach the word of God like it's written, and then we trust Jesus through the preaching of his word to bring his sheep into his fold.
It's as simple as that.
You just preach it, brother.
And if they if they're sheep, they're gonna bah and they're just gonna come right on running.
And if they're goats, they're gonna headbutt each other and they're gonna walk away.
Because that's what goats do.
Jesus said in Mark 4, 23, If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
Now Jesus didn't tell the church to tune his message to the people's ears.
He said to the people to hear his message.
And he told his church to preach it.
If someone doesn't like God's word the way it is, then we're not going to tune it to their liking.
So think not that Jesus came to send peace on earth.
He came not to send peace, but a sword.
His word is that sword.
His word divides believers from unbelievers, light from darkness, sinner from saint.
His word separates.
It creates a variance.
He came to bring this great division on the earth between those who hear his word. and those who don't to create a variance between the two.
So for this reason Solomon said in our proverb tonight, he said, look back in your in your proverb tonight.
He said, go from the presence of a foolish man.
Listen to those words.
God has called his church, God has called his people to go. from the presence of certain people.
Well, that doesn't sound right, does it?
I remember the Seeker-friendly church movement and how so put off I was with that, I couldn't believe what I was watching, but it's gotten worse since then.
But he's called us to go from the presence of certain people.
In other words, get away from them.
Separate from them.
Don't hang around or associate with these people.
And that does not sound like inclusion to me.
That sounds like God is creating a variance between people.
Now listen to how Jesus described His second coming in Matthew 24 verses 37 through 41.
While you're there flipping that there, I'm going to get my water.
Matthew 24, verses 37 through 41.
Jesus said, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark.
And knew not until the flood came and took them all away.
Now that's important.
Because Jesus is not just describing a flood coming and drowning people, but his judgment coming and taking those people away.
God separated those people from his people in the ark.
He goes on to say In uh verse.
Oh, excuse me Oh, the latter part of verse 39.
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
In other words, when the coming of the Son of Man happens, there will also be people who are taken away.
He says, Noah's Ark is very much like my second coming, is what he's saying.
There's going to be judgment.
That's what the flood was.
But that judgment is going to create a separation.
It's going to put people away.
When you look at the judgment at the end of the world, it's described as people being separated.
Jesus says, depart from me.
Go away from me, and they'll be separated from the presence of God for all eternity.
Jesus said in verse 40, then shall two be in the field.
The one shall be taken and the other left.
That's a variance, you see.
He says in verse 41, two women shall be grinding at the mill.
One shall be taken and the other left.
That's not inclusivity.
That's division.
That's the sword Jesus is talking about.
The key words in that passage are these, taken and left.
Some will be taken, others will be left.
When Jesus comes, he's going to take some people.
He's going to leave the other.
He's going to take the believers from the presence of the unbelievers.
Why?
Because in the beginning of the world, God divided the light from the darkness.
When you look at the creation of the world, You'll see that it is after he after he creates the heavens and the earth, you'll see the earth is without form, void, and there's darkness.
And then from that point, God makes light.
And the light is without form and void as well.
So you got an earth without form, you got light without form.
Because the light after it was created, it took a while before God made it into stars and sun, right?
And then a reflective moon.
And so what God did, he kept doing a series of division, separating one thing from the other.
He starts off by doing what?
He divides light from darkness.
Then what does he do?
He divides water from water.
And then what does he do?
He divides land from water.
And and and he he creates this division.
And then you get into the uh uh Old Testament.
And he divides clean from unclean.
He says, you need to know this because I put a difference between these things.
And so Jesus, when he comes again, he's going to create a difference again.
He's going to create a great division again.
God divided light from the darkness in the beginning because light has no fellowship with darkness.
And in the same way, the children of the day, who are the believers, that's us, they have no fellowship with the children of the night.
That's the unbelievers.
When Jesus comes again, he will cause believers to go from the presence of unbelievers for all eternity.
We won't be with them.
We don't want to be with them.
We want them to be with us if they'll repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But if they don't, we don't want them with us Because all it would do is defile the world all over again.
And that's got to be stopped.
That's got to be fixed.
So based upon that God-ordained principle, the people of God today should go from the presence of foolish people.
You see how that works?
We're going to go from the presence of foolish people for all eternity.
And knowing that that is God's will, we should go from the presence of foolish people today.
And that's a beautiful, simple, two-letter commandment.
You can't foul this up.
Go.
Just go.
In the Hebrew translated, go here, it literally means walk.
You know what some of the one of the best things you can possibly do in life is?
I'll give you some really good advice right here from God's Word.
One of the best things you can do in life is this.
Just walk away.
Just walk away.
That's what this word says.
Says, go, walk away from the presence of foolish people.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is to simply walk away and notice that Solomon didn't say Explain yourself to the foolish man.
He said, go from him.
You're not required to give foolish people an explanation of why you're not keeping company with them.
You're simply required to leave.
You don't have to explain.
You don't have to argue with them.
You don't have to point things out And the reason is just as simple as well.
And it's this, if you're not walking away from foolish people, then you're walking with foolish people.
And we've learned a lot about our Christian walk in the book of Proverbs.
We're on a journey, each and every day of our lives brings us closer and closer and closer to the time that we go on to be with God.
We're on a journey through this world.
We're not parked here forever.
We're on our way out of here.
And so we are either leaving the company of foolish people or we are keeping the company of foolish people.
When my dad was a young man, he was making a good living working for Phillips Petroleum Company.
And my dad enjoyed his job.
But the men he worked with, they enjoyed drinking together.
And that created an environment that my dad didn't want to be in.
They were foolish people.
They may have been good at their jobs, but they were foolish people.
And so my my dad, if he kept working there, then he knew one of two things would have to happen.
It's the same with you.
If you keep company with foolish people, one of two things as a child of God has got to happen.
One of two.
My dad knew number one, he would either remain comfortable around those men the entire time that he had his career there, or number two, he would run the risk of being like them.
And which one of those is good?
Either being uncomfortable in an environment that does not conform to your Christian walk Or becoming comfortable in an environment that does not conform to your Christian walk.
Neither option seemed good to my dad, so as Solomon said, he decided it was best for him to go.
And I'm so glad he did.
I'm glad he didn't stay around those men and then eventually become like those men, and then next thing you know, I follow in his footsteps because he followed them.
I'm thankful for that.
Now you can't always tell a fool by looking at them.
Some people can appear to be quite wise. even though they they may be hypocritical fools.
They can carry themselves well, dress the part of being a man or woman of God.
I saw this morning on the news these so-called ministers.
And they were all dressed up in their religious robes and their little collars and stuff.
And they were out singing, I shall not be moved.
Do you see that?
Wasn't that a blessing?
Standing up for justice, I shall not be moved.
Out there, they got their little old rainbow stoles on and all this stuff.
And and uh all these these homosexual women out there, these preachers.
And uh You can't always tell a fool by looking at them.
So Solomon told us to depart from the presence of a foolish man.
Look back in your text. when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
That's very important.
When you perceive that the lips of knowledge are not in a person, that's when it's time for you to go.
It's time for you to go.
So underscore the word perceivest.
Perceivest.
To know when to depart from people, you must exercise perception You've got to exercise perception.
You not only need to watch your language and your behavior And by the way, I want to remind our members, especially our younger believers who haven't been believers very long.
I want to remind you, watch your behavior, watch your language.
Let the words that come out of your mouth, let them represent the God you profess before the world to believe in.
Remember, when you claim to be a Christian, your speech and your conduct is a reflection of the testimony of the people of God.
Do God well.
Represent Him well.
Represent Him well.
Don't be using foul language.
Just because the world uses it.
Just because people accept it.
Don't let dirty words come out of your mouth.
Sometimes I'll see people on social media say things and I'm like, oh God help them, you know, help them, help them, help them to grow out of that.
But you have to exercise perception, not only watching your language and behavior, but you need to watch the language and the behavior of the people that you keep company with.
And a lot of times the reason Christians are using foul language like that is because they are not exercising perception with the people they're keeping company with.
They're hanging out with the same people.
That they were hanging out with before they were believers.
And those people are rubbing off on them rather than the Christian rubbing off on those foolish people.
It's the way it works most of the time.
And when you perceive that your company, that you're keeping does not have the lips of knowledge, then it's time for you to go.
We need to keep company with people who hold to the word of God.
I'm grateful I'll work around.
Some people at work not all of them are really strong Christians.
I'm sure some of them probably aren't.
But they all profess to be, and they all handle themselves well And I can go to work and be around all these people and never have to worry about one bad word when I'm at work.
It's a wonderful thing.
Or unkindness.
And the other day a man came in, he's filing bankruptcy, and he's got some mental handicaps.
And he took a pocket New Testament and he wanted to donate it to the bankruptcy court and keep it in the lobby.
So he put it on the table in the lobby.
And I thought to myself, now the federal government could not put a Bible in that lobby But the people here profess to be Christians, and it's my guess that Bible is going to stay there until someone comes in from out of town and tells them they got to get rid of it.
That Bible's still there?
Still there on that table?
We talked to them about it and they said, we're not going to move it.
Not unless someone from out of town, higher up, comes in, tells them to move it.
So it's still sitting there And that's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
But when someone doesn't have the lips of knowledge, When someone is talking contrary to God's word, giving you recommendations that are contrary to God's word.
Talking about subjects that conflict with God's Word, then it's time to go.
We need to keep company with people that hold the Word of God.
A person who doesn't have the lips of knowledge is someone whose heart pours out foolish words that are contrary to God's words.
What they say, the way they think, it conflicts with what God says. and how God thinks and what's true.
And when you hang around people like that, their thoughts, their actions, and their words will eventually have an impact on you.
It's just going to.
They're not going to help you walk with Christ.
They will encourage you through their walk to walk contrary to him.
The very first time we see this word knowledge in the Bible, lips of knowledge, the very first time we see this word knowledge in the Bible, can you guess where it is?
Genesis chapter 2, verse 9, where it says, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil Same word.
So when Adam and Eve heard God's word, they heard the lips of good.
Good knowledge.
The knowledge of good.
We could word it that way.
When Adam and Eve heard God's word, the commandments that he gave them.
They heard the lips of knowledge, of good That's what Proverbs is speaking about, the lips of knowledge, and the Course that knowledge is the knowledge of good Now, when Adam and Eve heard Satan's words, they heard the lips of the knowledge of what?
Evil.
That was evil words.
They were evil.
They conflicted and they denied God's word.
And when Adam and Eve heard whether it was Eve listening to the devil or whether it was Adam listening to Eve who listened to the devil.
When they heard Satan's words, they heard the lips of evil, and Adam and Eve should have separated themselves from the serpent, but they did not.
It was time for them to go from the serpent's presence, and the best way to do that would be to drive that serpent out of the garden.
And had Adam and Eve followed this principle in the proverb, then they never would have followed the serpent into death.
It's hard when you have company that you like to be around.
But listen, I my my uh We my wife and I, we had company come over our house.
One one died and spend the night with us.
And listen, this person is a nice person.
He was a very nice person, a very likable person.
But I had never heard a bad word in my house before.
Ever.
Never heard a bad word in my house.
My house is sacred to me, you know.
And he knows I'm a pastor, and he was there staying the night with us.
And uh My goodness.
He started cursing and all this stuff and and uh when he left the next morning I told my wife never again He's not welcome back.
And if he calls and wants to come back again, then then I'll just have to talk to him.
Explain to them why and say, no, I'm sorry, we just can't do that.
Time to go.
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but let me tell you how it works.
If you don't hang around and listen to garbage, you won't think garbage.
If you hang around the lips of knowledge, which is God's Word, And God's people who are communicating God's word.
That's what we're doing here tonight.
We're here to hang around the lips of knowledge, to listen to God's word being put out so we can feed our souls.
And when you hear that, you start thinking like God's word.
You listen to Christian radio instead of country radio.
It's a whole lot cleaner and a whole lot better for you.
You think on God's word during the day.
You get up and you pray and you visit with the Lord.
And you do that and you start thinking like the Lord.
But if you hang around, The trash and the filthiness and the dirty stuff.
People talking dirty.
Do you know what happens?
When you go home or when you're in your prayer life or when you're out somewhere else, that stuff will pop in your head.
The devil makes sure of it.
It'll pop in your head And God doesn't want that in there.
And so when you perceive, hey, this person here, they're a foolish person.
They don't have the lips of knowledge.
They're speaking contrary to God.
It's time to go.
I was listening to a man preaching tonight and it it was it was sad but it was really what I expected i i've met this man before And uh I heard him preach for the first time and uh on the internet And he preached about like what I expected him to.
And he said some things.
And I guess it was his pastor.
Sitting over in the in the you know seat up on the platform, amen and him while he's preaching.
And this man's preaching to a congregation and feeding them and trying to teach them.
And he's saying some of the most ridiculous things He starts talking about the parable of the sower and trying to explain it And Brother Shepherd, he said, when there's only one seed that went into the ground and bore roots down into the earth and then bore fruit.
And he said, and that's when we really learn about life is when we get down into the ground and we get dirty.
Get down on the ground and we get our hands dirty.
That has nothing to do with that parable.
I mean, not anywhere close to what that parable is talking about.
And then he goes on, people are amenning him.
Do you know why?
He's saying it passionately.
Passionately.
Walking around and waving his arms and and gesturing and and uh Speaking loudly and looking at people and they're amening and shouting.
And he makes a reference to Psalm 119.
He said, Psalm 119 is in the middle of the Bible, and I think if something's in the middle of the Bible, we ought to pay attention to it.
It didn't matter if it was the beginning of the Bible, the middle of the Bible, the end of the Bible.
It has nothing to do with it.
And then he said this.
He said Psalm 119 was was said long before Jesus was alive to hear it.
I thought, oh my goodness.
Jesus wrote Psalm 119.
That's the He's the Word.
In the beginning was the Word.
And the word was with God, and the word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
You say, Brother Richard, what does that have to do with their proverb tonight?
I perceived the lips of knowledge was not in that person And it and when when that comes about, we don't sit there and amen.
We let the person know where they were wrong and we don't invite them to preach again But this person preaches there routinely, locally.
And I thought, these poor people sitting here and listening to this, but do you know why?
He continues to preach there.
It is not the lack of knowledge on his part, it is the lack of perception on the people's part.
If I was in a church like that and I was hearing stuff like that that was clearly contrary to God's word, There's a two-letter commandment that I'm supposed to follow.
You know what that is?
Go.
Time for me to go.
And get somewhere where I can hear the lips of knowledge And by God's grace, I pray that we will put this into practice not only in the churches we attend, but the people we hang around. in the media that we listen to, on the radio and the television, in the literature we read.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, that there's some wonderful company, Lord, that you have given us to keep.
You've given us the ability to read.
All who are here, Lord, have the ability to read and to understand your word, at least in part And if they can't read so well, such as precious Hannah, Lord, she has a beautiful ability to comprehend such wonderful spiritual truths.
And we're grateful for that.
And I pray, dear Lord God, that we will take advantage, Father, of the lips of knowledge that you've given us. from our teachers, pastors, the brethren that we keep company with, our fellowship with our brethren.
The people who you've laid on their hearts to broadcast on Christian radio stations, we're so thankful for them.
In the books, Lord, that pastors and teachers have written over the years.
Lord, we're grateful for all of them.
And we pray that we'll keep company with the lips of knowledge, most especially the Bible, because there's no lips purer than yours And when it's time to go, Lord, when we perceive that those lips of knowledge are not around the people that in the literature and the medium that we're around. that we'll obey your commandment and just go.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
