Posted on 08/02/2021 12:25:58 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words" (Proverbs 2:16).
Today we are going to use our verse as a jumping off board to consider an application of its truth, not so much of the strange lady, but the strange(r). There are lots of those critters abounding across our nation, and they have much to tell us . . . but should we listen to them?
“When he speaketh fair, believe him not,” what does that means in verse 25? Everybody that speaks fair can’t be wrong. Bible-believing preachers and teachers stand up in their pulpits and speak right things, and pure things and hopefully, fair things. Right? So what does that mean? That means that before somebody gets up to speak, or at least while they're speaking, we have to discern something. To discern whether we should listen to his fair words or not. Now, what do we have to discern? Look at verse 24. “He that hateth dissembled with his lips.” We have to get to where we can discern when somebody has a burr under his saddle. He hates, and he's dissembling with his lips. He's pretending.
Once in a while, we have to go to a funeral at another kind of church or a wedding at another kind of church, and you sit back there the entire time fighting off the urge to jump up and yell, “You’re wrong!” Why? Because we've been exposed to the real thing. I recall the time at my grandmother’s funeral when the speaker prayed for Mary to comfort her with her tears in the flames of purgatory. I was clinching the back of the pew in front of me. My grandmother was safely resting in the arms of Jesus! I led her to the Lord a few months previous. Thank God she was not in any kind of flames!
We need to discern the counterfeits out there, and hopefully, help others to see them as well. For while the strange woman is often an evil woman, it is also to be understood as the false religious system that is entrapping the souls of men in darkness. She is the mistress of the “god of this world” (II Corinthians 4:4).
We are supposed to be able to decide right away whether we're going to listen to some guy even though what he's speaking fair words. Just because a man goes to a church does not mean that he will escape judgment in the end. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Saviour, be wary of who you are listening to. Many that are banking on the message of Joel Osteen will discover this in the end . . .
"“This is Hell, and I am here! I often heard of this place and tried to believe there was none, but I am here at last. Oh, that I had life to live over!
“See this smoky, dark, dingy world! Where is the purgatory I was told about? I have been deceived all these long years. Oh, that I had the false teachers who taught me there was no Hell! They have caused me to lose my soul! If I had only believed the Bible and not listened to man!
“I am in Hell! In Hell! In Hell!! These dark caverns of despair are to be my home forever! This is Hell! This is Hell! I am in Hell!"
The ultimate "fair words" are: "There is no hell!" "God is love and would never send anyone to hell!"
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