Proverbs 11:9-14 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. 10 When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. 11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. 12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. 13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. 14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Religious Hypocrisy Destroys Communities

Proverbs 11:9 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.

God calls the Christian to be an encourager, with our words to sow the seed of the Gospel so that others might be saved. There are times when our words should rebuke or call out sin. But we need to always remember that Jesus, though He rebuked sin, more often called people to salvation through faith in Him. To the lost person, we are to remember that they abide in darkness and need the light that only God can bring. The Bible says:

Colossians 4:5-6 (NKJV) Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

As we have learned before, “Wisdom” is the very Word of God. Wisdom comes from God Himself, not from us. We have read:

James 1:5 (NKJV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

We should ask ourselves before talking to someone stumbling, “Are my words GRACIOUS? Is what I am saying POINTING THIS PERSON TO CHRIST? Is what I am saying truthful, according to the Scripture?” If not, perhaps I should hold my words. We are told “through knowledge shall the just be delivered”. It is the Word of God that directs the believer. Not opinion, not feelings or desires, but what God has said.

Jesus Called The Self Righteous Pharisees “Hypocrites”

The religious hypocrite is a person who puts on a mask, and pretends to be what he is NOT. The religious hypocrite speaks not to better to other, but to better themselves, to make themselves look better. The religious hypocrite is not directed by Scripture, but by Self, Self Love. Jesus chastised the religious hypocrites, because:

The hypocrite seeks glory for himself rather than God (Matthew 6:2)
The hypocrite pretends to pray so others think him great (Matthew 6:5)

The hypocrite judges others but is blind to his status (Matthew 7:5)

Hypocrites do not know the Lord, and prevent others from knowing Him (Matthew 23:13)

Religious hypocrites do not make the community better, but worsen it. Religious hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. They are not necessarily tied to a “church”, but can be tied to “social justice” or “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs. Just the other day I saw an interview where a newsman asked a lady,

“Should a ten year old child be allowed to buy guns, or tobacco, or alcohol?”

The woman replied, “No, they’re too young to have those things, too young to make those choices”. The newsman next asked,

“Should a ten year old child be allowed to choose his or her sex, and choose to go through a medical sexual change?”

The same woman then said, “Well, that’s a different question. It’s the child’s body, and the child should be able to make that choice”. This is a religious hypocrite, a liberal hypocrite. Choosing sexual change surgery is a permanent and irreversible course. It mutilates the child’s body, just as a mishandled firearm or use of tobacco would.

The Just – those who are not only born again through faith in Christ – but those who live by KNOWLEDGE, by God’s Word are DELIVERED from satanic darkness and destructive foolishness.

Christians live by the standard that our Lord Jesus set:

Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV) … You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

We are to live our lives for the Lord, and love others enough to tell them when they are departing from sanity and into foolishness. We live by Christ’s Word, and call others to His side through the glorious Gospel of Salvation. We seek to encourage the growth of His Kingdom on earth, knowing that as the righteous, God fearing base grows in a country, that nation becomes more stable and peaceful.

When Christ’s Kingdom Grows, The Nation Stabilizes

Proverbs 11:10 When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.

As the number of righteous people (saved by the grace of God, by faith in Christ, who LIVE following Jesus) grow in a nation, the better that nation will be. When Jesus was teaching one day, the religious leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, were listening. They got very offended! The Bible tells us that:

Matthew 15:12-13 … His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

The hypocrites like the Pharisees were not planted by the Heavenly Father, but by human tradition and human desire. Jesus’ advice to those who are resistant to the Word of God is “LET THEM ALONE”. If they will not hear the truth of God’s Word, and resist God’s Spirit, “LET THEM ALONE”. And yet, continue to preach the Gospel of Salvation.

The devil hates that!

God calls His people to STAND and BUILD HIS KINGDOM through proclamation of His Word.

When the Prophet Jeremiah spoke to Judah – a Judah that had departed from the Word of God – they would not listen. Jeremiah was ridiculed and mocked as he warned of God’s impending judgment on the nation. Jeremiah said “the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long” (Jeremiah 20:8). The Prophet wanted to quit – but God wouldn’t let him. Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV) … if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

When God sent Jonah to preach in the Capital City of Assyria, Nineveh, Jonah tried running away. God had a whale swallow him, and spit him out on the shores of Nineveh. God made Jonah preach the Gospel. After Nineveh repented and turned to Christ, a sullen Jonah asked God why he was made to preach to those people. God told Jonah:

Jonah 4:11 (NKJV) … should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left …

There were 120,000 children in Nineveh – young children – who could not tell their left from their right hand. Jesus loves the children! If Nineveh was destroyed in the judgment of God, those children would have died as well. Our God is not willing that any perish, but that all come to eternal life through Christ!

The devil hates that!

When the early Christian Church began witnessing and growing adherents, the Sanhedrin, the Ruling Council of 70 and the High Priest demanded they stop speaking of Jesus. Peter told them,

Acts 5:29 (NKJV) We ought to obey God rather than men.

This infuriated the Council, who decided to kill Peter and the other Apostles. When the Council was debating this, Rabbi Gamaliel stood up and said:

Acts 5:38-39 (NKJV) … keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God

If God is in it, and the righteous grow, the city grows and rejoices. But if God is NOT in it, then the wicked grow, the darkness grows, and the city begins to stumble and fall.

If there are no justified people living and speaking out for Christ and righteousness, then as the wicked perish, there is shouting. There is anarchy – and we have seen it in America many, many times.

In our country the First Amendment to our Constitution states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In America our Constitution allows the people to speak out, and to speak freely. And yet, as we get farther and farther from God, we are seeing more and more restriction of free speech, or illegal expansion of free speech.

Illustrate: When a young black man named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a white man, George Zimmerman. Though Zimmerman was tried and acquitted for murder and manslaughter, and investigated for three years by the Department of Justice which found no evidence for further prosecution, the aftermath sparked riots and destruction throughout the nation. Rather than peaceful protest, groups of protesters vandalized and burned private and public property. The later unjust deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd again set off another wave of vandalism and destruction. Public statues and commemorative plaques were torn down and destroyed while law enforcement was commanded to look the other way. “As the wicked perish there is shouting” A nation without God is a nation soon to lose all its freedoms and prosperity. We have seen anarchy. We will see more if the Gospel is not proclaimed.

Without God’s Word As A Moral Compass,
We Mistreat Others

Proverbs 11:12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

The lost person has no genuine love for his or her neighbor. TheEvolutionist that teaches that humanity is no more than an animal, derived from lower animals, rejects any concept of God or Divine Design. Thus morality is a social construct. Man is a “primate” much like the Ape (Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan, Gibbon). Darwinism teaches “survival of the fittest”, and that man outgrew the ape to compete with and control the environment. If children are taught that all humans are animals, then why shouldn’t we indiscriminately enjoy sex, bully, attack the weaker, fight to the top, and do whatever we feel is best to enjoy our own life? Though 70 different people suggested human evolution between 1748 and 1859, Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species and popularized the Theory of Evolution. It was Darwin himself who suggested that – if evolution were true – then human morality also evolves. He wrote:

“With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?” (The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1:285)

Biblical Apologist Frank Turek noted:

“If evolution is the source of morality, then what’s to stop morals from evolving (changing) to the point that one day rape, theft, and murder are considered moral?” (Frank Turek, “Evolution Cannot Explain Morality,” Cross Examined Blog, July 1, 2008)

When we teach in school that we evolved from lower primates and are in fact primates, animals, and allow our children to play video games where people are killed by their hand, then why is it a surprise when there are school shootings and other atrocities against humanity?

When you take God and the Ten Commandments out of society and promote the concept that we are only evolved animals, then life becomes cheap.

Why not eat humans without guilt if they are only animals – wolves will eat other wolves, Polar Bears eat each other when seals are hard to find. Tiger sharks, hamsters, rats, hippos – in fact 1500 species of animals practice cannibalism. If we are only animals, why bury our dead? If you are outraged, you should be.

We are not animals.
We are created in God’s image.
We are given dominance by God over His planet.

Genesis 1:27-28 (NKJV) God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

If we are mere animals, then “He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor”. But to the Christian we know that humans are not animals, but are made in God’s Image. So we respect life. We love others, as we want to be loved.

People Need The Lord Jesus

Proverbs 11:13-14 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. 14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

People need someone to confide in, someone who will listen to them as they share their troubles – and yet will NOT broadcast their troubles. There is nothing worse than sharing a hurt or a need with someone, and then have them carry your secret to others.

This is the gossip, the TALEBEARER.

The gossip or the talebearer causes division in the community in order to themselves feel superior to their victim. God commanded Israel:

Leviticus 19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the LORD.

To “stand against the blood of thy neighbor” or more literally “take a stand against the life of your neighbor” (NKJV) means to tell a lie about someone that can ruin their life, either literally or figuratively. You may not actually have someone killed, but by spreading falsehoods about someone you can destroy their reputation. This was done to Jesus by the Pharisees when He stood trial before the High Priest.

Matthew 26:59-60 (ESV) … the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward…

The talebearer does Satan’s work, and hinders the Gospel of Christ. People need the Lord. They need a faithful Counselor Who will never leave them nor forsake them. When we read “in the multitude of counselors there is safety”, this is another way of saying “two heads are better than one”. But the best Head is Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is called:

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV) … Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus listens to His people. He “never leaves nor forsakes us” (Hebrews 13:5), and promises to stay with His sheep “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Every person needs the Lord. The gods the world follows will eventually consume them, but those who follow Christ find His promise to be true:

John 10:9-11 (ESV) I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

May God bless you richly through His Word, Jesus Christ. Amen.