All right. Thank you for that. Taylor? Appreciate that. I always stop and think when I got saved. We talked about a trembling soul. Just thought about that night. I was under conviction and the Lord was dealing with me about my sins and it was about salvation. And there is a sense of fear in your heart. especially if you know anything about I don't know about you, but the night I got saved, we gotta be careful in our preaching often. I don't know if I heard it preached. I don't know where it come into my mind, but I was afraid that night that that was gonna be the night that if I rejected Christ, that I'd go to hell on my way home and God kill me. The last time he ever dealt with me. Now that may or not may be true, but who knows that, you know? So I don't know who, but I'm telling you, there was some fear in my heart. God had dealt with me, and I had rebelled and rebelled and rebelled. And this much we do know, tomorrow is promised to nobody. So, I mean, in that sense, I guess it's true. But I thank the Lord for the numerous amounts of time, His long-suffering towards me that He dealt with me. I just wish I would have gotten saved sooner than I did and put down my rebellion a lot sooner than I did. But anyhow, I'm thankful to be saved tonight, thankful to be here with you. I've got something a little bit different tonight, just a little strange in the sense of how I normally like to do things. So you pray for me. We're going to turn to a lot of verses and I'll try to do it quickly as I can, as I promised to get you out of here. And I don't want to put anybody in jeopardy traveling home tonight. And of course it said nine o'clock and then somewhere around 6.30, the weather said by seven o'clock, it's going to start snowing. So I, you know, I did the best I could. But anyway, God will take care of us, right? And so I'll do my best to do that, you pray for me. But I want to look at something tonight, just a subject I generally like to go through one set of verses and do it that way. But I have something more topical tonight that I want to kind of look at what the Bible teaches on a matter and I'll read several verses to you so that you don't have to turn to all of these. But I want to start out on the outset and mention a verse that was on my heart. In Psalms 133 verse number one said, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And certainly we know that that's true. We are exhorted in the New Testament, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And so we know being taught in the scripture that the Lord is again here, it's just mentioned as the psalmist said, how pleasant and good that it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. And that's very important because as one man said, you know, a grain of sand by itself can do nothing. It's not a whole lot. But if it stands together with other grains of sand, it can hold back the oceans. And so that is a way of saying that we're stronger together, right? I believe the scriptures teach that out in the church age, even in the church dispensation, that the enemy is battling against the church, right? And that we are stronger together. And so he exhorts us to maintain unity. And of how many times in the New Testament does the Bible use one mind together? one accord. Those are all that same idea of unity. And so if unity is so valuable, if it's so pleasant, if it's so beautiful, if it's so wonderful to the Lord, where do you think the enemy might try to attack us at? Unity, right? People always say, we're always trying to warn off against adultery, or against fornication, or against these things, and that's good, but let us not forget that I think one way in for the enemy, if you've heard it said that a chain's only as strong as its weakest link, then it seems to me like the devil's gonna try to weaken one of the links, and thereby weakening the whole chain. And so he does that, and that's why the Bible says, your adversary is a roaring lion, roaring about, seeking whom he may devour. And you've already preached how vulnerable it is to be isolated and be brought apart. So you're stronger together. I think we can all come to that conclusion. That was an Old Testament verse. I'll be in the Old Testament some in the New. But that's pretty much maintained throughout Scripture, even under the nation of Israel. Under the law even, you know, that's maintained through Scripture. I'll read this verse to you. Most of us know this and can quote it. The book of Ecclesiastes says, And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. And so this is why unity is so important because the enemy is trying to break in. A house divided, Jesus said, against itself shall not stand. And so these are just a very few verses that we'll look at to take a look at the strength that's in the unity of the church. And that was one area that Paul, when he mentioned, a lot of people use this term, carnal Christians. And they'll use that to refer to somebody who's not living a holy life, let's say. But really, he called them carnal because there was divisions among them, right? He said, are you not carnal and walk as men? He wasn't calling them carnal because they were drinking beer on Friday night and Saturday night, right? He was calling them carnal, which is what we would do. That's the way we generally use the term. He was calling them carnal because there was strife and division among them. And he said, you're carnal and you walk as man. And so that is just something I wanna look at and we have to be careful of. So I wanna start in the book of Proverbs in chapter number six and just begin slowly looking through and getting as many of these verses in that we possibly can in talking about how important it is to maintain the unity And so rarely will the enemy come against the whole group. Generally, he'll try to get into your mind. And so he'll try to get to you privately. And if he can weaken you, then he can break the strength of the cord. Right? And so, but if you stand together as three, that's not easily broken. That's what Ecclesiastes was giving us a picture of, of that strength and unity. And so it is something we have to constantly endeavor and work at to maintain because the enemy's coming against us. And so no doubt we've declared that we're gonna have this time of revival coming up, let's see, the 15th of April. And so no doubt the enemy would like to do nothing more than to stir up some division and strife, wouldn't it? And some call some division. And it can happen to any of us. Say, uh-uh, not me, preacher. I would never do anything to be divisive or cause strife in the church. You're crazy to think that. Right, any of us can have that. How do you know that? Ecclesiastes again. It goes something of this, I won't quote it exactly. But it said, basically, don't hear all the words that are out there, lest you hear your servant curse you. I believe that's chapter seven. I can't remember it exactly. And he said, for you know in your own heart that you also have cursed others. So what's he saying there? He's saying there, really take heed. And when you, just like when we're exhorted to restore one another, we do it in a spirit of meanness, considering ourselves, because we could be the very same way, right? And so we have to be careful. Any of us could get to the place that the enemy gets in and causes division, and he uses us to do it. So we all have to be on guard against that. So in the book of Proverbs, in chapter number 6, we'll begin to look. I titled this, man, if you'll start with me, in, let's say, verse number 12. We'll start and look just slowly at this, and then we'll look at several other verses. But I entitled this man here a spiteful man. And that is a pretty accurate description of the person given to us in Proverbs chapter number six. And so we'll begin to just look carefully at the words that are used and start in verse number 12 of Proverbs chapter number six. and I'll go just as slow as possible, a naughty person. Now words change some in our English language and we know now if you use the word naughty person, generally you would be speaking about something else. But here that verse is meant a wicked man, an ungodly person. That's what is meant by that. It's a nice way that you would call a heathen little kid. They're a naughty little kid. No, they're little heathens, what they are. They need the devil beat out of them. Now, that's just the way I talk. But the Bible is a lot more or clear in what it's saying, and it says a naughty person. So that's representing here an evil person, a wicked person, an ungodly person, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh, and that used in parentheses there, almost like you would do if I was saying my wife, comma, amber, comma, comma, So a wicked person, and I believe it's defining itself there, but anyway, walketh with a froward mouth. So I want to look at this word froward here just for a moment and just quickly look at what the Bible says about this word froward. You'll see this word used several times in the New Testament. It's not used as much in the New Testament. It means torturous. A torturous person. And it's referencing your master. I believe it's talking about in that sense in which a servant is to obey his master, even to the fraud. Even to those that are just torturing you, you're supposed to humble yourself and obey them and be a good Christian and be a good worker, right? That's very hard to do. But that's really the only time it's used in the New Testament. It's used often in the Old Testament, this word, froward. So a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. So froward is the opposite of toward, T-O-W-A-R-D. Right? This is the opposite. Let me put it this way. This mouth is always going against the grain. This mouth is going in the wrong direction. This is not a mouth that's for things. This is a mouth that's against everything. It's froward. It's always finding some kind of fault and negativity and some kind of hurtful thing to say about something or somebody. They just can't help themselves. And that's what is being described here with this person. A wicked person walketh with a froward mouth. So instead of toward, this is the perverse. This is the froward. This is not someone who is speaking unto themselves in psalms and spiritual songs, admonishing one another. This would be somebody that's always trying to tear down everything as opposed to edifying everyone, right? So if the toward mouth, if the right way would be to have your speech be seated with grace and seasoned with salt and be speaking to the edification of the body, then the forward would be just the opposite. No grace, no salt, and no edifying. It's destructive. This person's mouth is destructive. And so we have to take it in its context now and remember that this is referencing a wicked man. And so all of us can do one of these things. All of us can get to a place where we spout off at the mouth and say something that we shouldn't say. Somebody better say amen to that. Don't leave me hanging up there. Everybody can have a sense in which sometimes they get, and that's why you have to watch yourself. Because that negativity, that thing that you get, that chip on your shoulder, can grow into bitterness. And then you can't open your mouth without talking about it. You can't open your mouth without talking about somebody. They're just, but this person is a person that is not just one time they get upset and they say something they shouldn't and they repent of it and they're, Lord, help me, I shouldn't have done that. This is a person whose mouth is frozen. They are constantly going around bashing and being negative and talking against everything. They can find nothing good to say. They're not preferring one another above themselves. They're not going around saying, boy, Tyler, you should have heard that little lesson he gave this morning. Boy, it was good. What they're going to do is just find the one thing they could have said, yeah, but his shirt tail wasn't tucked in. Now, I'm just using examples. Nobody in here did that. I'm just using example. Instead of saying anything positive, they just always got something negative to say. This is a froward mouth. This is a person that is just, and none of us need to get to that. All of us could get there if we're not careful. Don't let yourself get to the place where your mouth just gets full of bitterness and strife and contention and negativity. I mean, there is some people, honestly, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When they come around, you hate to see them coming because you know they're going to say something to tear somebody else down. And you really don't know how to deal with it. Because you know in some ways you don't want to hurt them. I find it very difficult sometimes, especially if they're older than me, because I'm a young man and I don't want to rebuke an older person. And it makes you feel funny and you don't know what to do. But yet you don't want to listen to it too. And it's just like, man, if I could just avoid them, that would be a whole lot easier. But this person, this wicked person is being referenced here, they have a froward mouth. They are, and so let me, let's say for instance, if the Bible's talking about us needing to come together in unity and being of one mind and of one accord, and we need to sow those cords of unity. If we need to, if you think about a rope being sewn together and you take one strand by itself, right? I'm just, this is very simple. It couldn't hold that much weight. You tie two together, it can hold quite a bit. You hold three together, you can tow a pickup. it. So, when those Fords get stuck out there and you're in a Chevrolet, you've got you a three-fold cord, you can pull them up out of the ditch. Come on, that's got to be funny to some of you. Unless you like Fords, I guess you're mad now. Right? You know what I'm talking about. And so what is picturing here in the church when he wants us to be in unity, it's like he wants us to be woven together that way. And so that the enemy can't come across, can't get a stronghold in and find a way in. And we'll get into some verses, but there's some verses that use the word breach. And we'll look at some of these verses, but there's verses that talk about the enemy's looking for a way to get in to Herman Baptist Tabernacle or Calvary Baptist Church or Faith Baptist. He's trying to get into churches any way that he can. And if we're all in unity, standing together of one mind and one accord, he finds it very difficult to get in. But if we begin, and that verse began, I don't wanna get to it too quickly, beginning with strife and contention, it opens up a breach there. And it allows the enemy now a place to gain a foothold in, and so you're upset. And so you find a person to vent to, and you don't get the reaction you wanted out of them. So you find somebody else, and you feel their ear full, and you don't like the reaction you got out of them. And the next thing you know, you're walking with a froward mouth. Everywhere you go, you've got something negative to say, and usually it's about somebody. Right? Usually it's against something or somebody. Usually it heads up in one point that it just seems like that person, they just can't let it go. Everywhere they go, they have to say something negative about it. And that happens and that's where it begins to defile many. And so we have to be careful using that verse in Ecclesiastes. I am not promoting or approving of anybody venting. But I think what he's saying there is all of us have a problem and it's right here. Everybody in here has a problem with their mouth to one degree or another. And so that doesn't make it right. That doesn't excuse any of our behavior, but it does help us to understand human nature and it helps us to understand our vulnerabilities. And so where your eyes may be a problem, you may think, well, I'm not lusting after anybody. Well, you better watch your mouth because your mouth could do more damage than your eyes can. Right? And so some people, they get everything else took care of, and then the last thing they try to work on is their mouth. I think we ought to start there, don't you? If that's the most destructive, I think we need to be careful with our mouth. And so what can happen to tear down that unity? This forward person, if the proper way is to sew together unity of a threefold cord, this person is sewing in the wrong direction. of discord, they're going the wrong way. They're unraveling the cord. So what they're doing is, and I'll read you some definitions that men a lot smarter than me gave, but they're planting seeds of discord. And you don't know what that's gonna grow into. When you plant a tree, you know generally what it's going to be, but you don't know how big it's gonna get. You don't know just how much fruit it's going to bear. And when you sow a little discord, it may tear down the whole shooting match. You don't know how big that thing's gonna get. You just plant a little bit of seed of doubt and the character of somebody else into the ear of someone else, and then the devil takes that, and the next time that person does something and they get mad at them, you fill their ear full of negative things about that person, and then they react and get mad at them, and you cause them to leave the church, because you run your mouth. Doesn't that happen? We've all seen that kind of stuff go on. Or how about this? Or how about wanting to sow discord to the degree that a person trying to get right with God, that you'll tell lies and you'll sow lies and deceitful mischief, and then you misrepresent. Misrepresentation is the parent of all of this problem. A lot of times when people sow discord, they misrepresent something that was said in order to hurt somebody else. So they'll take even a truth, it's not always lies, they'll take a truth and misrepresent it out of context in order to make that person look bad who said it. And it hurts everybody involved. So they'll take something that was said and it was said in a good light, it was said in a positive light, it was said in a way to try to encourage, in a way to try to help. And they'll take it and run to that person and tell them something that was said and all that it did was hurt them. Hey, this is important folks, souls are on the line. And so we gotta be careful what we say. And this person that is going on to be described here is so evil, their feet, they run to this kind of mischief. I'm appalled that people just run around. I have never seen such, I guess I didn't pay attention to it when I was younger and I see it more now, but I'm almost appalled that people can't send a text message or call somebody on the phone or talk without causing some kind of division. They gotta bring up some kind of something that, well, you know she didn't talk to me when I went in there and I don't like her, I never have liked her, can you believe that? And everybody, even visitors come in and they'll run to them and fill their ear full of negative stuff about other people just to stir up strife. That is so wicked. I don't even, my brain can't even wrap around that kind of wickedness. When you just purposely, you live your life to just sow discord. That's what's being said. This person soweth discord. They're sowing in the wrong direction. They're not courting, they're discording. They're unraveling the cord. They take pleasure. They purposely plant these seeds into the mind of people in order to hurt others. I'm not gonna get into the intent or why that they do it or the problems in their own character or their pride or anything else. I'm just gonna say that kind of thing is wicked. And God said he hates them that sow discord. Now let's read it and just exactly the way that it says it. And so Lord help us not to ever be guilty of sowing discord. You know, I think most people, I'm convinced of this. I know my own self. And generally when I hear somebody say something, I'm in a conversation and they'll say, boy, I just, I generally know what that is. They're just venting, they're just mad, and they just say something. And generally, they'll come back around and say, you know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'll find, you know, generally, if you'll just go back around and say, hey, look, I'm sorry, I should have never said that. Most people understand it very good, because they have the same tendencies, and they'll have no problem forgiving you for that. Just own up to it and be honest and be, hey, you know what, I shouldn't have said that. The Bible doesn't want me to do that. God doesn't, that doesn't please the Lord for me to do that kind of thing. And you young people really got to watch it. You really gotta watch it. Now, it happens in older people. Unfortunately, our nature is so vile, our flesh is so weak that it still happens after years of being saved. But especially watch it in young people, because we've got this youth group. The Lord is really helping you young people, and he's moving in this youth group. And you know what the devil is gonna try to do? If he can do it in the youth, he's gonna try to sow discord among you. And if he can get you mad at your brother, and get you mad at him, and get you mad at him, and then, man, he can just kill the whole thing. And so how does he sow discord? Well, the devil doesn't do it, he uses people to do it. Right? So what do we have to do? Well, there's lots of things we can do. But let's read, let's continue to read. We're in Proverbs chapter number six, and we're looking at verse number 12. A naughty, pretty wicked man, he walketh with a froward mouth. So can I tell you something that would serve you well? Bible talks about marking them and avoiding them which cause divisions contrary to sound doctrine which you have received. Now, in that context it's talking about false doctrine. But if that's true with that, can I say something about a person that's walking with a froward mouth? If you know somebody that is just all they can do, they can't open their mouth without tearing someone else down, mark them and avoid them. They will get you in a world of trouble. You'll get drug in to what is being said. Because when somebody overhears you talking bad about everybody else, cause that's all you, you can't open your mouth without running it about somebody. So you, you, you can't keep that kind of thing hidden for long. And somebody undoubtedly overhears your conversation with somebody else. When that third party hears it and they go to report it to the person you've been bad mouthing, they're not going to make a distinction between you two. They're going to say, I overheard so and so saying this and that person was standing there and they were talking, they were talking about this. Now you may have been on the verge of turning them around and kicking them to see the britches, but nobody will ever know. So the best thing you can do is just mark them and avoid them. And when they start going into that stuff, try to just change the subject, try to talk about something positive, try to say something good about the Lord and avoid them. If you can't do nothing else, just stay away from them. They'll get you in trouble. I've just seen stuff constantly, just all the time. Every time they come in, they're gonna text this person, oh, can you believe what this person did? And they're telling this person about all the sins that this one's guilty of. It's funny, they don't ever run and tell everybody all the stuff they do wrong. I find that so funny. I find it sad, I guess would be the better word. If you're gonna bad mouth and talk about people's problems, why don't you just go tell everybody yours? Leave mine out of it, right? And so mark those people and avoid them. And so if we're gonna have good fellowship, and we're gonna have good fellowship, I'm gonna say it like, and I'm not gonna do like Brother Sammy, I'm gonna say what Brother Sammy says, study to be quiet. Wouldn't that be a good thing to do? You'd be served well, and you'd maybe quit talking bad about people if you just study your Bible, and you'd pray more for them. It'll keep you from doing that. Study to be quiet. That's what Brother Sammy would say, and he's right. And so this person that's got a froward mouth, and it goes on to talk more about them. They're a naughty person. You can tell, can I say something? This person, they don't have anything hidden. Do you all know what I'm talking about? Look at verse number 13. They've got a froward mouth, but now look at where it shows up in their person. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teacheth with his fingers. When a person gets like this, it's not hard to spot them. I'll give you a good example. You're standing there talking to somebody, and this one person comes up who person A doesn't like, and that person will walk up and they'll look at you and go, do we need the camera to zoom in on that? And they'll roll their eyes at them. How childish is some of this stuff? We need to grow up, don't we? Or how about this? See, it shows up on their person. When they've been bad-mouthing somebody to you, you may not know exactly, they'll look over at you and they'll go, I told you, see? Am I telling it right? You say, that stuff don't go on Baptist churches. Oh, you are naive as they come. Sure it does. They'll look across three aisles at the other person and look at each other and make faces. Sure they do it. Or when that person comes up, let's use this for example. Look, this is biblical, I'm preaching the Bible to you. They do it with their fingers, and then they do it with their feet. Look at what they do with their feet. When that person comes, look at the kind of disrespect they have. When that person comes up who they hate for whatever reason, unbiblically, that they hate this person, they're mad at this person, their feet tell everything they need to. They'll turn their back on them, or they'll walk away from them. See, their actions are all over them. They're disrespectful. When that person's speaking, they'll stare at the ground and won't even give them the common courtesy of looking at them. How disrespectful can somebody be? Does anybody enjoy talking to somebody who is texting on their phone while you're talking to them? Does anybody else want to take that phone and smash it over their head? Please don't do that, kids. That is a total joke. I think, look, I could have saved my breath instead of wasting my time talking to you. They don't have a clue what you're saying, they're just... That's disrespectful, isn't it? You kind of would get the idea if a person does you that way, they had no respect for you whatsoever. If somebody else is talking and they give them full on attention, well that pretty much is starting to tell a story, isn't it? Their respect for a person. And so this person not only has a froward mouth, that every time they speak, they have to say something evil. They can't find, they can't muster up a good word to say about anything. And I'm gonna be honest with you, those kind of people bother me in churches. I would more welcome somebody with open arms and a pair of swords or a pair of britches than I would somebody with a long tongue and a forward mouth that's got nothing good to say about nobody. You can trot on down the road, you and your beautiful dress, and trot on down the road and trip over it for all I care. Is that too mean? that's how Jesus treated these Pharisees. Listen to what they did to them, Brother Tony. This is what Jesus did. This is what they did to them. When they brought that woman committed adultery and they were caught in the very act, all they were trying to do was to find something they could get Jesus on and go run and tell everybody else about it. What were they doing? They were sowing discord. Come on now, just lighten up here a little bit. If you ain't guilty about it, shout me on. Right? Am I telling it right, Brother Oliver? That's what they were doing. They wanted to catch Jesus doing something. Nobody else. But they could catch Him doing it and then they could go, Brother Tony, I've seen Him do it. Brother Tony, I've seen Him do it. You know what? Don't believe that Jesus. You know what He did with the Law of Moses? You know what He did? Man, He had nothing for the Sabbath. You wouldn't believe what I caught Him doing on a Saturday. They were trying to just sow discord. Because then what they would do see, when that person, when Jesus would start to teach them things, and would stand up and teach and preach to them, they're sitting back there having a lot of doubt in their mind, and they have no respect for what the man's saying, because he's been, his character's been attacked unjustly. That's somebody that just sows discord. Right? That's not a good thing, is it? Now to tell the truth and to be honest about things, you all know how I feel about that. I'm not talking about that. You know it when you hear it. People are just fault finding and they're running to somebody, everybody that they can find to try to bad mouth somebody and say something negative and how unhappy they are. And I mean, it's just over and over and over. It tells up on their person. They're disrespectful in how they treat you. They're disrespectful from their mouth. They're just, they cannot help themselves It has so gotten deep into their heart. Now here's what I do believe. I don't believe a person like this has to stay this way. Because Proverbs 4, it will talk about in a way, when he tells that young man to bind him about his heart, and then he'll say, put away from you the forward lips. So you can do it, you don't have to be that way. Right? You're not doomed. And so this person, we gotta go quickly. Now look, a naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teaches with his fingers. Frowardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. So again, we're not talking about a one-time deal here. This is somebody that continually, this is continual action here. They devise of mischief. I mean, I can't imagine just sitting at home and thinking about something that I can text somebody else to tell them to make someone else look bad. That's about as sorry as I know you can be. What happened to love? What happened to wanting to edify people and build them up? What happened to wanting to help people? Hey, there is something bad, it don't take you all five, we ain't been here hardly 45 minutes, and you could find five things probably bad to say about me. If we were all looking for something negative to say about each other, right? That's not very hard. You know what's difficult though, is going against that and making yourself, you know what, I'm gonna speak good. I'm gonna say good things. I'm gonna try to encourage. I'm gonna try to be a help to keep the unity. I'm gonna try to bind those cords back up. I'm not gonna let them unravel these cords of unity. I'm gonna do all that I can to build it all back up. And when I say something about somebody, especially a brother, Bless your good and all men, especially in the household of faith. Now, I don't think y'all do it about anybody, but there's some march here where he uses some words about the brethren. And I think it's especially important we shouldn't do it amongst one another, right? Hey, the world's already trying to tear us down. They don't, the devil's trying to tear you down. Certainly, I don't need you trying to tear me down in the process, right? Nor do you need me doing that to you. And so we gotta be extremely careful because the enemy, you'll look up one day and this will be you if you're not careful. This happens little by little. You don't just wake up overnight and all of a sudden you're this type of person. This just happens little by little and then before you know it, the thing's gotten bigger than you are. And so frowardness is in his heart. He divides his mischief continually. He soweth discord. And I've got several other things that I wanted to talk about, but I wanna just give you this couple of things and I'll let you go, cause it's time. Sowing is defined as planting seeds on or in the earth. The word discord means a lack of agreement or harmony between persons, things, or ideas. It represents something out of balance. When put together, the two words mean to initiate ill or corrupt thoughts in the mind of someone. that can later develop in one's heart. They mean to create ungodly negative thoughts about someone else. To sow discord is to say and do things which cause as a group as a whole to distrust one another and begin to argue and then to fight. Sowing discord is often done in secret and by deceit. It means to foster and promote or create disagreement and bad feelings between people. And the origin of the word itself is found in music where it describes a lack of harmony. So a lack of things working together, planning ideas with a person or a group to cause conflict. That's the end of verse number 14, he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, and suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. And I believe that's because it suddenly comes upon the person that he's been tearing down. And so I think God suddenly will let his calamity come upon him. And you think, well, I'm getting by with it. Can I say you might be getting by with it now, but if you're this type of person, that is disrespectful and froward and devising mischief continually and you walk with a froward mouth and if this is you, I believe the Bible and your calamity will come suddenly and you will be broken without remedy. Now does that mean you'll go to hell? We're in the Old Testament here and we're talking New Testament Christian. So I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about down here. I believe calamity will come upon you. I've seen people do that kind of thing, and before you know it, things come upon them. God is not letting anybody by with that kind of thing. We need to be careful. Jesus said, every idle word that men speak, they will stand in the judgment and take account for. Every idle word spoken. Boy, I'd hate to meet God having a froward mouth about people, would you? I know I'm going slow, but I mean to. And so I'm gonna give you, read with me the rest of this part, and I got four minutes and I'm gonna let you go. So then look at what he turns to in verse number 16. He said, these six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination. Most of us know what that means. It's detestable, it's disgusting, would be another word to God. unto him a proud look, a lying tongue. When you tell something and you're gonna repeat a matter, the very least you could do is make sure it's true. Don't you think? I think if you're gonna be held accountable for your words that you ought to at the very least do your due diligence to make sure they're true. you think? I think all of us would appreciate that if the Bible said we would do to others what we want to do to ourselves. I would appreciate it. There's a lot that's true you're welcome to talk about, I guess if that's the kind of thing you want to do. But goodness gracious we've got enough true we don't have to start making stuff up. Right? Some of you need to smile a little bit. This ain't that painful. It's a little slow, but I want us to think through this. This is so important. I can't think of anything more important in our church than trying to maintain unity. And we have to work at it. So when somebody's getting that way, you take that verse in Ecclesiastes, you don't consider them a heathen person, but you consider them a brother. And if you really love them, don't let them buy with it. Say, hey, brother, you know, I've been noticing that here lately. And while I understand, you know, let's start to think about the good things. Think about the good things. And let's talk about the good things. It's not doing anybody any good to just talk about it with me and you. You know a good response to somebody who is going to bad mouth somebody else, I'll give you the best response. Have you talked to them about this? That will usually just stop it all. Because in independent Baptist churches that answer is usually no. They haven't. How many years you got in this thing? Brother Reid again, tell me again. You've been 42 years, is that about right? So if somebody does that to you, you know the best thing you can do is just assume and just say, you know what, I tell you what, have you talked to them about this? And they'll usually just leave you alone. You won't get in on the gossip anymore. But now we gotta continue to go on because I could stay there a while on people just devising up evil things to hurt others and making up lies. I mean, they'll flat out lie on you. I cannot imagine just coming up with some random lie just to hurt somebody else, especially when people's souls are on the line. Hands that shed innocent blood. He's given the picture of a person. If you look at it, he's talking about his look, his tongue, his hands, his heart that devises wicked imaginations, his feet that be swift running into mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. So let's read that again. These things doth the Lord hate, seven are an abomination unto him. that soweth discord among brethren." I don't see sodomites in there, and that's wicked. I don't see adultery, and that's wicked. I don't see drunkenness, and that's wicked. But evidently God has some detestable language to speak about somebody that will sow discord among brethren. So, let's just look at a couple of more verses here quickly. I'll read them to you. We won't be able to turn to them tonight. We'll finish this up because, and why are you saying this, brother? Because we have to be so careful. If we're going to have revival and we're going, this is going to happen for, I mean, there's no telling how many times in a year we all need to be reminded of these kinds of things. Because we need to look forward in each other. If I love you, I don't want to see you get bitter at somebody. Right? And I want to help you. And I love the other person you're talking about. I don't want to hear that either. So in both ways, I want to reconcile. I want to make things right. And so we all need to be careful also to examine ourselves and say, hey, am I this type of person? When I get on the phone with people or when I talk to people or when I see people, am I just always saying something negative about everybody? Just ask yourself that. And if you are, stop it. Right? But I can't stop it. Don't you lie to me. You can stop it if you want to stop it, right? There's a lot you can stop. It's amazing how much you can stop if you want to. Now I'm talking to saved people tonight, right? Let me read these to you and we'll go. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. An ungodly man diggeth up evil. See, somebody that's ungodly is looking for gossip and bad they can bring up about people. They dig it up. And in his lips there's a burning fire, a froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends. Hey, if we have to do one of these CIA covert operations about it, and we have to stand up, we have to get over in the foyer, and we have to go over here privately away from everybody, and we have to talk about, you know what, I doubt it's of God. Wouldn't you say that's about right? If it was godly, why can't you just say it out in front of everybody? Right? That's a good test, young people. If your music you're listening to, if you wouldn't listen to it in front of the church, in front of me, then it's probably not godly. If you can't watch that movie in front of everybody, it's probably not godly. And if you can't say it in front of everybody, it's probably not godly. Now, you know the limits in which that has to go. But for the most part, that's true. A whisperer separateth chief friends. A violent man entitheth his neighbor and leadeth him into the way that is not good. Boy, I'd hate to be a stumbling block like that to somebody, wouldn't you? A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor, but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. That word wholesome means healing. A healing tongue is like a tree of life. We talked about J.C. not long ago, and you've heard me, Brother Jones, and many others mention, boy, what a blessing that he was, because he would always say something kind to you. I want to have that testimony, don't you? I'd hate for God to take me out of this world, and most of the people around me, all they remember is all the bad that I had to say about everybody. Wouldn't that be awful? So you know what, you can change that right now. You can stop doing that right now, and you can just be that wholesome tongue, and be a tree of life to people. Be an encourager, a healer, a helper. But perverseness, the out of the way, is a breach in the spirit. So if you're not speaking to edify and to heal, then this gives way to an infection into your spirit. You ever seen somebody who's got a bad spirit? You ever use that word about somebody? They just got a bad spirit. Every time they get around, there's negative about everything. They got a bad spirit. That's what that's all about. It opened a breach in their spirit. Well, I've done too much now. For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. Grudge not against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. This word grudge here means to sigh, to groan, to grief, to murmur and complain against one another. And it said, brethren, don't do that against each other, lest you be condemned. The judge is standing before the door. Do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless to sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crook and perverse nation. Whoso privately slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not suffer. And I think we've got to end tonight, because I made a promise to you. But there's on the positive side, and I'll come back to this. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. Therefore, leave off contention before it be meddled with." So, what can we do about all this? The first thing we can do is the old Barney Fife nippet. I shut my Bible. I'm going to open it back up to remind you of that. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. That's when it starts. Therefore, leave off contention. And I thought about this. It's Proverbs 17, 14. You look at it tonight. But if you look at it, it uses the two words differently, strife and contention. So I think of what it's saying here is it's the beginning of strife. Once you have sown strife between two people, it's as one let us out water. So therefore, what he says here, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. So when there's contention there, cut it off quick. Don't let it build to strife. What it's saying. There's so many things. What can we do about all that? Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another. Wouldn't that be good to do? Are you preferring one another by bad mouthing somebody else in the church and tearing them down? Obviously you're not preferring them above yourself. Well, I think that'll be it. There's so much to do there and I'll give you my word and I'm not gonna do that. Maybe we'll come back to it. Maybe we don't need to. But I just think that's just some good warning. It helped me to study through all of those verses I had to cut out. I don't know how many verses to get them on two pages that the Bible talks about contention and strife and so on, discord. And any of us, don't be fooled, stand to your feet, can be used to do that. So when we see it begin to build, let's cut it off and let's be a help. I want my tongue to be a tree of life. Don't you? I want to use my speech. I want to be grace, salt, and I want my words to be healing to people. Don't you? I think that's a good thing to aim at. Lord, we love you tonight. I don't know anybody that's mastered what I'm preaching. Certainly, I feel unworthy to even preach the matter. I've been guilty myself, Lord, of letting my mouth run out in front of my head. And Lord, I'm sorry tonight for words that I've spoken against others. And sometimes often, Lord, we don't even mean to do it. Somehow our mouth is just set on fire of hell. And so Lord, please forgive all of us. I think everyone in this church has a desire to wanna maintain unity. And it won't be easy, but it can be done. So help us to be Not forgetful hearers tonight, but doers of the Word of God, put it into practice. Help us to repent if we are guilty. Lord, help us to do better where, Lord, we need strength and death. I thank you for these visitors that are with us tonight. Lord, you've blessed our church with so many faithful members and visitors, Lord, that are encouraging our hearts. Thank you for them. We love you in Jesus' name, amen. We'll have a verse. That'll be all right, Brother Reed, and then we'll let you go. Just give you one verse. We won't drag it out tonight. If you need to come, we'll give you an opportunity to come, okay? Bow your head just a moment, if you would. What are you singing, Brother Reed? Number 290, each step I take. Number 290, if you need to. Come, you come. Sing along with Brother Reed if you want to. We'll sing one verse.