The Satan Controlled Tongue - Part 5

First sin mentioned in the Bible is a lie. Satan told a lie to Eve, saying no, you will not die even if you eat. What is the last sin mentioned in the Bible? Chapter 22, Revelation and verse 15. Outside the city are all those dogs, sorcerers, immoral persons, murderers, idolaters, and all those who love and practice telling lies. It's the last sin mentioned in the Bible and the first sin mentioned in the Bible. Now we go to number four. Now think of these verses. I mean I'm sort of going through them quickly because I leave it to you to meditate on them. Number four is flattering words. The Bible speaks a lot about flattery. Chapter 26 of Proverbs and verse 24 to 26. It speaks about people who hate you in their heart but disguise it to their lips. Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend, but all the while he's scheming against you. And when he speaks warmly to you, verse 25, don't believe him for a minute because he's just waiting for a chance to rip you off. And no matter how cunningly he conceals his malice, eventually his evil will be exposed in public. People who flatter, say nice things to you, be careful about them. It says here in chapter 27 verse 6, Fateful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. A true friend will speak the truth to you even if it hurts. He will never flatter you. The false prophets in the Old Testament flattered the people and said peace, peace, and there was no peace. They flattered kings because they wanted to get their salary. The kings paid the salary of the prophets. True prophets never got any salary. Jeremiah, Isaiah, they never got salaried by the king. But the false prophets, they had come out of the Bible schools called the school of the prophets in the Old Testament and they got their degree certificates and the king appointed them as prophets and they'd get their salary. And they would always say things that pleased the people. Multitudes of pastors and preachers like that. The same footsteps of those false prophets will just say things that will please their people because they've got to get their salary. How can you get the salary if you don't please the people, especially the rich people? Because they are the ones who determine your salary. They are the ones who sit on the board of churches. And they are the ones who need correction the most. But those preachers can't correct them because the rich men have stuffed money into their mouth. How can you speak with so much money in your mouth? Difficult. Impossible. So that's how it is. By the wounds of a friend are faithful. And the other verse I'd like you to turn to is chapter 28 and verse 23. He who rebukes a man will afterwards find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue. One who you see something wrong. Now flattery is different from encouragement and appreciation. That's different. Flattery is saying something which is not true. You know, praising a person with some motive of benefit for yourself. It's not really true. You know it's not true. But you say it. Jesus appreciated. He used to appreciate people. He never flattered people. Never. He never said anything which was beyond what was absolutely true. He who rebukes a man will afterwards find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue. And chapter 29 and verse 5. A flattering neighbor is up to no good. He's probably planning to take advantage of you. He's preparing a net for you to be caught in. You know like trappers put a net to catch. They use a net in the sea to catch fish. They use a net to catch animals and birds and so many things. And a flatterer is like that. It's a net. Flattery is a net it says to catch people. So that's something we must avoid. Ask yourself are you flattering somebody to get an advantage for yourself? Do you flatter people? I mean it's better to say nothing. Limit yourself to what you can appreciate. But once it goes beyond that to flattering, it's invariably goes into the wrong direction. We're talking about a tongue controlled by the devil. Okay, number 5 is backbiting words. Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 18 we read in the last part. He who spreads slander is a fool. Anyone who goes around speaking evil about others, he's a fool. Think of this, just think of this. I mean in the new covenant before we, I mean we've gone way beyond Proverbs. This is old covenant stuff. We should be way above that. You know the Bible says that when the Lord forgives us, he doesn't even remember our sins anymore. Isn't that wonderful? And if you look at your past life, particularly your young teenage years, can you think of the evil filthy things that you did? Which nobody knows. Your parents don't know. Your friends don't know. All the secret evil things that you did, which you confessed to the Lord, and the Lord forgave you. And not only forgave you, he was so good to you, that he never revealed your sin to anybody in this church or in the world. Why can't you treat other people the way God has treated you? God covered up everything you did. Why do you have to go around exposing what other people did, which you happened to find out? Can't you conceal it? You know, I'll tell you something. God treats us as we treat other people. I've discovered that through many years. If I'm kind to those who are beneath me in the social level, God will be very good to me. If I'm kind to those who I've got authority over, God will be good to me. And if you reveal the evil that you know about others, you just be careful that God doesn't somehow or the other one day reveal to people some of the things you did. You say there's no way people can discover it. Really? You don't know God. We reap what we sow. So, don't go around backbiting. Chapter 11, Verse 12. He who despises his neighbor lacks sense. Or as the Message Bible says, mean-spirited slander is heartless. It's because you have no love that in a mean spirit you go around speaking evil about others, forgetting how much God has hidden of your own failures. Chapter 16, Verse 28. A slanderer separates intimate friends. Chapter 18, Verse 8. The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels. They go down into the innermost parts of the body. They talk about juicy gossip. Why is it people come to you and tell you all that gossip? It's because they see that you love it. You like those laddus and sweets that they give, right? They're so tasty. And you want them to come some more. I'll tell you what I did to get them.