 Hey man, so you're going to keep your place in Proverbs chapter 6. We're not going to get there for a few minutes, but tonight we're going to talk about a very specific topic, a very specific problem. It's not, and just let me just start out by saying this. This is not something that, you know, is going on or that I know that's going on in this church. Think about this as a preventative maintenance sermon on your life, the church in general. We're going to talk about a very serious sin. The sin that we're going to talk about tonight is the sin of gossip. The sin of gossip. So we're going to talk about gossip this evening, and like I said, as far as I know, and many times I'm the last one to know anything, so maybe it is a problem, maybe it isn't. But as far as I know, this is not an issue here, but I can guarantee you that this will be an issue in the church. It's an issue that is very serious to a church if it's not handled properly. We're going to talk about this idea of gossip. So you're going to keep your place in Proverbs chapter 6 and flip over, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 16. So we're talking about gossip this evening. So the word gossip, let's first define it before we even get into the sermon this evening. The Bible calls it by a different word, but turn to Proverbs chapter 16 first, and let's get a definition of what gossip is, and then we'll look at what it looks like and give you some practical examples of what it looks like, and how you can keep yourself from it, and also how we can protect ourselves, our relationships, our families, our friends, and of course the church from it. Look down at Proverbs chapter 16, look at verse number 28. The Bible says in Proverbs 16, 28, a forward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separated chief friend. So we're going to go back to that verse in a few minutes, but the Bible here is saying that there is this type of man that soweth strife, so it's a forward man. That's forward means somebody who likes to be contrary to people. He doesn't like to get along, he doesn't like to go along with things, he's going to be contrary, he's going to be argumentative, he's going to be someone that is just close. He's basically a troublemaker. It's talking about a troublemaker here, and a troublemaker soweth strife, meaning what? They create trouble. They come out and they sow seeds of trouble. There is no trouble, but they start the trouble, they make the trouble. And how do they do it? It says a whisperer separated chief friends. So that's what we're going to really focus on at the beginning part of the sermon there is that word whisperer. Go to Proverbs chapter 11, Proverbs chapter 11 and look at verse number 13. So this forward man that soweth strife, the Bible says that he's going to be someone that is a whisperer. He's going to be a whisperer and it's pretty serious because he's going to be someone that tries to get in between people and separate even the closest of friends. The Bible here is saying in Proverbs 16. Look down at Proverbs chapter 11 and look at verse number 13. Looking at the definition, looking for the definition of gossip before we begin the sermon. The Bible says here, it says, a tail-bearer revealeth secrets. The he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. So here we see this proverb, you know, the two sides of the coin. We see the bad and we see the good in the same verse. So the bad is this person that is this tail-bearer that revealeth secrets. Now this isn't referring to secret sin or secret, you know, whatever, it's just talking about private information, something that is not supposed to be known, okay? But it says on the other side of that the good person would be a faithful person concealeth the matter. Meaning a faithful person, the good person, doesn't reveal things that are private, okay? So this defines, the Bible calls this person that reveals these secrets or this whisperer as a tail-bearer, alright? That's the word that the Bible uses here. Flip over to Proverbs chapter 18, Proverbs chapter 18 and look at verse number 8. So somebody that reveals secrets is a tail-bearer, is what the Bible is saying in Proverbs chapter 11 in verse number 13. And we know that there's this contrary man, this forward man that's so strife and he's also known as a whisperer. Also somebody that goes and tells secrets and tells things that are supposedly private. Alright, look at Proverbs chapter 18 in verse number 8. The Bible says this, it says, the words of a tail-bearer are as wounds. So this kind of gives us consequences here of somebody that is a tail-bearer, this person going around whispering, this person going around revealing secrets. The Bible says that, you know, not only is it going to separate chief friends, but it can wound people and it says they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. So this idea of these secrets and this tail-bearing is giving us a definition of gossip. So what is gossip? I mean, there's two things we're going to talk about tonight. We're going to talk about what gossip is and then we're going to talk about a gossip, like a person that does it. Okay, I'm going to give you many examples of people that gossip and what that will look like so you can identify that, look, you can identify it with yourself and you can identify it with other people. Okay, look, gossip is something people that are tail-bearing and doing this is something that unfortunately in society in the world is becoming very common today. It is becoming actually socially accepted today, but we don't want that social acceptability of what we're going to talk about tonight in the house of God, all right? So first of all, I'm going to define gossip, like the words themselves with two characteristics. Very simple, okay? The first characteristic, you know, we just took from Proverbs, the Proverbs we just said, the first is it is information about someone that is secret or private. That's the first thing. Meaning it is gossip, you're like, is this information that I was just told by somebody, is it gossip? Well, you have to ask yourself, is it secret or private about this person that's not here with us and, you know, so it may be gossip. That's the first characteristic. It's information about someone that they don't want known. We're not talking about necessarily sinful information or things that are damaging. I'm going to tell you how to handle that if somebody would come to you with damaging information that could endanger the world or whatever, you know, and I'm going to tell you how to handle that in these cases. But the first characteristic that you need to, the first litmus test for is this information gossip, is it private information about someone that is not here that, you know, I shouldn't be, that they don't want me to know is the first thing that you need to put it up against. And the second one is this. Is it something that is, you know, scandalous or negative? Is it scandalous or negative information? Notice in Proverbs chapter 18 that the Bible says that these words, the words of a tale bearer are as what? They're as wounds, meaning these words, they hurt people. Okay, these are words that will hurt people if this secret is known, if this information is out. They will literally wound people. They go into the innermost, you know, parts of the belly. They'll do serious damage to people. They can separate chief friends. So that's the two tests right there. The two tests is, is it private information that you shouldn't know about someone and is it negative information? Is it negative information? Look, notice I didn't say, is it true or not? Because it doesn't really matter if it's true or not for it to be gossip. If someone proceeds to just reveal that type of information about someone, that information is gossip. That's what the definition of gossip is. Now someone that is a gossip is someone that is a tale bearer, someone that would take that information and pass it out to people. That is what a gossip is. Have you ever heard somebody say like, oh that person is a gossip, or you know, he's a gossip, or she's a gossip, or whatever. Turn to 1st Timothy chapter 5, you know the Bible kind of calls out young ladies on this one. I hate to, you know, blanket statement that one, but you know, this is something that, you know, idle young women are warned about in 1st Timothy chapter 5. If you turn to 1st Timothy chapter number 5, look at verse number 13. So somebody that would go and repeat information that is private and information that is negative about someone else is a gossip or a tale bearer. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 5, look at verse 13. Talking about young widows, but then it applies, it applies it to young women here. It says, and with all they learned to be idle, talking about these young ladies wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies speaking things which they ought not. What are they speaking? They're speaking private things. They're speaking negative things. They're doing what? They're spreading gossip. They're being tale bearers here. All right, it says I will therefore that the young women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion the adversary to speak reproachfully. So it's here, it's warning and saying hey, the young women shouldn't just be going around doing this. They should be busy. They should be getting married. They should be having children. They should be staying busy so they're not doing these things. Now look, anybody can be a gossip. Anybody can be spreading this type of information. So I'm going to give you some real scenarios now. And for these, they're not real scenarios. They're made up scenarios for an example of what gossip would be. And I use Bible names, OK? So there's no possibility that anybody could say, who's he talking about here? So I use straight up Bible names. And I'm just going to give some generic examples of what gossip would be and what agossip would look like. So let's say you have a brother in the church. You have one brother, David, like King David. Don't think of any David you've ever known. Everyone knows David's. You have one brother, David, that here's another brother, Isaac is having a certain sin problem, or say he's having marriage problems. So brother David finds out that brother Isaac is having trouble with his marriage. Now I haven't told you how he found that out yet, but he just finds out this information, OK? Maybe, so the question is, has brother Isaac done anything wrong? Or brother David is the one that heard it, sorry. Has brother David done anything wrong at this point? He just found out in some way that brother Isaac is having marriage problems. It is possible that he found that out in an innocent way. It is possible that he was walking by a room and he heard brother Isaac on the phone. And Isaac was the one that heard it, right? Who has the marriage problems again? Isaac, OK. So brother David heard that brother Isaac is having marriage problems. Maybe he heard it in an innocent way. Maybe he overheard a conversation that he wasn't like, you know, eavesdropping on. And maybe brother Isaac told brother David. Maybe he confided that secret in brother David. Brother David has done nothing wrong at this point, just by knowing that information. As long as he hasn't extracted that information from somebody else or gotten that information in an ill-gotten way, as long as he either accidentally heard it or brother Isaac told him there is no fault on brother David's. There's no fault with brother David at all, all right? The problem becomes, if brother David goes and tells brother Jake that brother Isaac is having marriage problems, now we have a problem. Now we have gossip being spread. See how simple that is? See how simple that is? Here we have private secret information, and he goes and he does what he whispers it to someone else. And it's usually something that it's not good, OK? It's not good. It's the, did you hear? Did you hear about brother Isaac? Did you hear what happened to so-and-so? And then it's something private and it's something bad. And you're going and you're telling that to other people. Now let me say this. It's not like you can't talk about people if they're not there. Something private and something bad, OK? It's not like you can't talk about somebody when they're not there. It's not like you can't be, you know, you can't, a bunch of guys can't be in a barbecue. And, you know, people are like, where's brother Adam? See, more Bible names. Where's brother Adam at? And you're like, well, he told me earlier today he's got to work late. He's going to be about 45 minutes late. That's not gossip. That's not something that's negative. That's just something, that's not something that's a secret. You know, that's not something that, you know, hey, did you hear, did you hear brother Joseph? Did you hear brother Joseph? He got that, he got that promotion. And brother Joseph isn't there. That's not gossip, OK? Look, as long as, and let me just say this. Many times if somebody tells me something that is seemingly good news, this is something that's just wise for your relationships and your friendships. If somebody tells me something that is seemingly good news, many times I will ask them, is it OK if I tell others this? Just because I don't want to accidentally go out and tell somebody that, oh, you know, so-and-so's wife is pregnant, or so-and-so has, you know, got that job, or whatever, when they were like, oh, I wasn't telling anybody yet. I just, you know, it wouldn't be gossip, but that you could just accidentally offend somebody by mistake. So it's just a wise thing to do, you know, in your friendships, in your relationships, in your life. But first of all, gossip is private and it's negative, OK? That's the two tests right there, all right? And if you're not sure, if somebody told you something and you're not sure, you know, I mean, it's pretty easy to know if something's private that somebody tells you. But if you're not sure, just ask your friend. Ask that person, is this something that you don't want to be out or whatever? You kind of can default sometimes to just like not saying anything unless they tell you it's OK to. But, you know, you can just ask people. That will keep your relationships safe, all right? So tail-bearing, secrets, you know, implying something negative, all right? So now let's talk about people that do gossip. And I want to give you some patterns to look for for people that do gossip and also how to handle those situations from the Bible, all right? So I'm going to give you three sources of gossip that you're going to run into, I've kind of categorized it into three different areas tonight for you. And in our example, in our example, it was an innocent way that the first person found out the secret. But that is not always the case, OK? That is not always the case. Many times, and we're going to start out with the worst one and we'll go through the list and we'll go, you know, from worst to, you know, most innocent, you know, if there is innocent parties in this. But turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 12. We're going to start out with the worst one and then we're going to go to the least bad of the three. But the first one, the first source of gossip is the malicious gossip. Meaning the person that is, you know, spreading gossip for a malicious intent. Like, they're literally, we're talking about here, we're talking Proverbs 16 right here, we're talking about the forward man here. We're talking about the person that is out there to make trouble. You're saying, what in the world? This is going to happen here. This will happen here. OK, look, there's no forward man here. And I'm happy for that, but this is going to happen. OK, this is kind of a preventative maintenance here. Let's tighten up the bolts and, you know, get everything torqued down this evening. All right, the malicious gossip. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and look at verse number 20. Now, the malicious gossip, this forward man that is out there to so strife to cause trouble, he is going to use people that spread information that they shouldn't spread. He's going to use them, you know, to accomplish his task or her task. OK, I don't want to just narrow it down to just one. It could be a man or a woman. It doesn't matter. But that's one very bad pattern that has been consistent that I have seen throughout churches is that very bad people, the forward man, so to speak, they very rarely do their own bidding. They use people, they use other people to do their bidding for them. And you just want to make sure that you're not one of those people that is used by this forward man. All right, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12, look at verse 20. Paul says, for I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you, such as I would, that I shall be found unto you, such as you would not. He's saying, I want you to be right when I get there, lest there be any debates, envies, wraths. And here we go, strifes. That's what that forward man is sowing. He's out there and he's trying to create these strifes. And then look at this word. Backbidings, whisperings, swellings, tumults. So those strifes, backbidings, whispering. We're talking about somebody that's a backbiter here. Somebody that is literally out spreading gossip and creating gossip to just sow strife and to just hurt people. Okay, turn to Romans chapter 16. Turn to Romans chapter 16. The Bible tells us that we will run into these people, like amongst the brethren, folks. I mean, you're like, yeah, that's kind of scary, but you're gonna run into, we're gonna run into these people amongst the brethren. And we need to know the process and the knowledge and the wisdom of the Bible that we're gonna talk about tonight so when this person does come in, man or woman, we know exactly how to handle it. Look, if you listen to what is preached tonight and this forward man comes into this church next week and starts trying to sow strife in three months from now and trying to start trouble from three, it will get nowhere. It will be like, it will just be like a dud. It will, nothing will happen because everyone will handle it correctly. Look at Romans chapter 16, verse number 17. The Bible says, we're talking about the first worst source of gossip here, which is the malicious gossip, the person that is the forward man, sowing strife, the backbiter. Now I beseech you, verse 17. Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. For they are such that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly. And by good words and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the simple. This is the backbiter here. This is the person that's going to spread malicious words and malicious gossip and they are going to use people that they think are simple. People that they think don't understand doctrine and don't understand the things that we're gonna talk about tonight because we're gonna talk about doctrine tonight. We're gonna talk about what the Bible says you should do. What is doctrine? Doctrine is, here's a process, here's a methodology on how you should handle this when you meet this person. This person that's gonna cause divisions is assuming that you're simple and you don't know doctrine, that you don't know the Bible because they need you to do their bidding for them. So they're looking for the simpleton. They're looking for the person that doesn't know anything to come and give their gossip to so that person can go and just keep spreading that gossip like a cancer. All right, now look. How does it say they're gonna do it? Romans chapter 16 here. Is it say they're gonna go up to you and say, you know, brother Seth, he's an act murderer. You know, and just give you some straight up, just like false statement about somebody and try to slander someone in some just obvious way. No, it says they're gonna do it through what? They're gonna do it through good words and fair speeches. The things that they say are gonna sound good. The things that they say are gonna sound right. This is a person who is gonna come to you like they have just been wronged. I've just been wronged in this situation and they're gonna come to you and maybe they're just gonna express deep concern over something. They're gonna come to you and say, you know, brother, I was praying and I'm praying and I'm just really deeply concerned about the church and I'm concerned about this situation and maybe they'll even ask, you know, get you to ask them. Tell me, tell me, what is, why are you so concerned? And then they'll start spilling this maliciousness to you. They're very good at this. The people that are really into this are very good at gathering up people to go and spread this gossip as well. They make it sound good and they make it very subtle. They don't come out and just punch you in the face with it. They cast subtle doubts about people. They cast subtle doubts in their gossip. Gossip to this person is a subtle accusation. Really is what it becomes. And this person will have no interest. We're gonna talk about Matthew 18 and what you should do when you meet this person in just a few minutes, but this person will have no interest in Matthew 18. And they will have no interest in Matthew 18 because their interest is not to solve the situation. It is not to make the conflict better or go away. Their interest is to damage. That's it. This is the worst type of gossip right here. They are simply trying to destroy someone and they are covering it with concern for other people, concern for the church, concern for whatever. The answer is Matthew 18. The answer is, you know, tell the... I mean, if somebody, first of all, if anybody ever comes to you and says they're concerned about the church, just grab them and come talk to the pastor. It's very simple. Nobody's responsible for this church under the Lord Jesus Christ except me. So if somebody's concerned about the church and they're not telling the pastor, there's a major problem there. So I mean, that's just a huge red flag right there. And we're gonna look at Matthew 18 here in just a minute. Why don't you go ahead and turn there? But the first one, I just wanted to point out the first one, is a malicious gossiper. All right, a malicious gossiper. They have no interest in resolving anything. They have no interest in resolving relationships. They have no interest in conflict resolution. They're simply out to damage and destroy. It's that simple. You say, that sounds like a terrible person. They will come here for sure. The second one is this. The second one is not as bad, but it's still sinful, okay? The second one is, and this one is super common today. If you have a job, if you work in the outside, if you work out in the world, you deal with this. You will see this guaranteed. This one is what I call the campaigner. The campaigner. And it's super common. It pains me to say it, but it's almost normal. It's almost normal to expect people to do this today. The campaigner is somebody that has, you know, they may be legitimately or maybe not legitimately. They feel they've been wronged by someone. They feel that, you know, they feel that someone wronged them, or someone cheated them, or someone, you know, swindled them, or someone said something that offended them. It might be legit. Maybe they were offended. Maybe they were swindled. Maybe they were wronged in some way. But then what they do is they make themselves, and this is the stupid thing about this person. For a Christian, you should never do this. Like, say, you know, we're in a group and somebody says something to me that's just super offensive to me. Or say I have a business deal with somebody in the church and I tell them, hey, you know, I'll give you $100 to do this, and then they just don't do it, and they just take my money, and they just go. And I'm offended. I mean, I've been swindled, and I've been ripped off, or whatever. And then I go around. I've done nothing wrong at this point. I've only been offended. I've only been swindled. But then I go around and I start telling everybody else about what happened. Do you know that, you know, I was gonna say Brother Luke just because I thought of a gospel character, but I can't use that. So, did you know that, you know, Brother Mark, you know, Brother Mark, he cheated me out of this money? Right there, I've done nothing wrong if I've been truly cheated, and I make myself a sinner. I make myself wrong. Because what am I doing, but what I'm doing is, I'm campaigning. Because I've been wronged and I wanna get a bunch of people on my side. Look at Matthew chapter 18. That's wrong, I'm spreading gossip at that point. What does the Bible say that we should do? The Bible says in Matthew chapter 18 and verse number 15, there's a huge process here, and I'm not gonna go through this whole process tonight. I'm really just gonna focus on the first one because the truth of the matter is, if you have a conflict with a brother or sister in the church or even a conflict out in the world, and look, I will tell people out in the world to do this. And they got a problem. Do this. I don't say go to the Bible. I just tell them what this says, because this is right. And it's the right thing to do. And it's the right thing to do whether or not you're a saved Bible-believing Christian or not. If there's two heathen men out in the world, or two Muslims or two Hindus or whatever, and they're doing business with each other, and they get in a conflict, the right thing for them to do is this. Look at Matthew chapter 18 and verse number 15. I told you, the Bible is the only book that's ever been written that applies to every single person that's ever lived. And this is a perfect example of this. Look at verse 15. It says, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee. It doesn't say if you think he did. If he did, like, you were legitimately wronged, man. Hey, we're with you. The Bible's like you were legitimately ripped off. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. So you know what? The Bible here is saying, first of all, the first thing you should do, if you can, is just suffer yourself to be defrauded in the church. If somebody steals 20 bucks from you, or they do something, where they owe you 20 bucks or $100 or whatever it is, they borrow a tool and they wreck it. The best thing to do is just suffer yourself to be defrauded. But if you can't do that, you don't go out and start campaigning to the other people in the church because then you make yourself at fault. What you're supposed to do is say, hey brother or hey sister, I borrowed that thing to you and you never gave it back. Or you gave it back and it was broken. Or you gave it back and it was destroyed. 99% of the time, if the person that is going to the person that has offended them has a good heart and the other person has a good heart, well 100% of the time then. If the hearts are right, it will just be fixed right there. Because 95% of the time is gonna be like, oh, I didn't even know you were offended. Or I didn't even know I broke the tool. Or I didn't realize that it was that big of a deal and I'm sorry I'll replace it or whatever and it's just fixed right there. All right. The next step in the process is if the argument continues at that point, you can't let it go and you can't come to agreement is you go to two or three others and at that point if it's in the church, the pastor should be one of those people. But 99% of the time, step one is gonna fix the problem. But back to the point of gossip, what you can't do is go around campaigning. Go around trying to get people on your side. Because if you have a church that is not full of simple people, every single person in that church is gonna know that you're wrong. That's the kind of church we would love to have right there. It's just the kind of people that are like, whoa, what you're telling me is gossip right now. You just have people just like, you need to go to Matthew 18 with that person. You know, to catch that campaigner, to catch that campaigner and just say, hey, Matthew 18. So really the answer for both number one, the malicious backbiter and number two, the campaigner, is just to refer them to Matthew 18. If somebody comes to you and starts telling you information that is private, that has nothing to do with you and that is negative about somebody else, you need to stop them in their tracks and tell them, hey, Matthew 18. You need to go to that person if they've offended you. You need to go to that or you just need to not be telling people this. It's private information, okay? I don't wanna hear gossip. The third one is this. The third one is this, just the regular gossip foot soldier. That's what I call this one. Now, what do I mean by that? Just the regular, I mean, I'm talking the regular gossip infantry right here. They're not the malicious backbiter. They're not the person that's out campaigning because they were wronged. This is the person that just loves to hear information about people. And they just love to have goods and to give goods. Because look, none of these two serious people that we talked about in number one and number two would even be possible if it wasn't for the regular gossip infantry. It wouldn't even be possible because where's the backbiter gonna go if nobody wants to hear gossip? You know, the gossip would literally starve. It would just starve itself out, right? But look, people, and this isn't everyone's flesh. This isn't everyone's flesh. People like to be included on things. People kinda like to hear exclusive information or whatever, you know what I mean? People like to hear that. I don't know if it makes them feel special or what it is. Maybe it gives them one of those dopamine hits like we talked about this morning when you win something. You know, you win $20 and you're like, ah, you hear some goods on people and you get a good feeling or something. I don't know what it is. But people just, it's bad. You just have to check things that come into your inbox, folks. Is it private and is it bad? If it is, stay far away from it. And certainly don't be spreading it around. None of the first two tail-bearers could exist at all in a church if the regular infantry didn't exist. That's why this sermon is so important. Even when there's no trouble, and that's why sermons like this should be preached when there's no trouble in the church. Just so like everybody's right and nothing like this can, I mean, the seeds they sow and they just fall on stony ground. The seeds of strife, they just never sprout, they never grow at all. And that's the case with the regular gossip foot soldier. Turn to Proverbs chapter six now. I told you we'd get back there. Now let's look at Proverbs chapter six. Proverbs chapter six. This is such a big deal. I mean, it's nice to preach about something like this when there's no issues, but I never wanna forget how big of a deal it could become in our lives, in our relationships, in our church. Look at Proverbs chapter six in verse number 16. It's interesting here. We're looking at seven things here. Seven abominations. Seven things that God literally hates right here. Let's read these things off. It says, these six things dot the Lord yet hate. Yay, seven. He's like, well, I changed my mind. It's seven and God hates them. They're abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, he that soweth discord among the brethren. It's interesting that five out of these seven things could be applied to the person that is spreading malicious information. Think about this. A lying tongue, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift running to mischief, a false witness speaking lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Five of the things listed can be applied to somebody who is maliciously spreading gossip about people. This is how serious this is. I mean, this is, I think it's Matthew 15, Matthew 15 where the Bible says that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, comes forth from the heart. And what? It defileeth the whole body. James 3.6 says the tongue is a fire. I mean, the tongue is a fire and it's seteth on fire of hell, it says. I mean, it can do serious damage the things that are said, the things that are said. Gossip is used as a tool of Satan. It is used to spread false information about people. It is used to destroy relationship. Remember, it's separated chief friends. What? What's separated chief friends? Laws and imprisonments? No, words, words separate chief friends. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter five in verse number 19. It's used to try. I don't know that it's ever, I don't know that I know an example where it's worked but it's used to try to destroy pastors of churches. Look at 1 Timothy chapter five in verse number 19. You say, what if somebody comes up to you and says something negative about the pastor? What should I do? Look at 1 Timothy chapter five in verse number 19. The Bible even details that. It says against an elder, an elder, bishop, pastor, those are all synonyms in the New Testament. It says against an elder in verse number 19 of 1 Timothy chapter five, receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses. So it's saying that if there's some kind of a crime or something that a pastor has done and there's two or three witnesses, like no problem, it's like if somebody comes up to you and just like, hey, I heard this and whisper something about the pastor, it's like you're not even supposed to receive it unless there's two or three witnesses. The Bible says, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19. So that begs the question, what is a witness? And the only reason I bring up what is a witness in this case is because this is very biblical from Leviticus to Deuteronomy, all the way to the New Testament that no matter what, if anybody accuses anybody that you know about anything, it must be between two or three witnesses. You say why? Because it's biblical, even our own justice system. Today, it backs that up, it's biblical in that sense. So the question is what is a witness because I heard it preached from, I don't know, a year or so ago, I heard it preached that a witness could be, like if you see something, just go tell a couple of your friends and then you got two or three witnesses. No, I'm just like, I've heard that preached before. Like just go tell two or three other people in the church and then you got two or three witnesses. No, a witness is someone that is an organic, genuine witness. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 19. The Bible tells us what a witness is. And this is for everybody. This is for any accusation. I mean, just because it says, against an elder received non-accusation, you shouldn't receive an accusation against anybody unless there's two or three witnesses because it's just biblical. Look at verse 15, it says one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity. So this is talking about just civil law right here. It's talking about civil law. It's like one guy can't come and accuse another guy of murder. So a witness is what? One witness cannot rise up against a man for iniquity. First of all, a witness is someone that saw iniquity. That witnessed iniquity. It's not someone that think they might heard something or interpreted something that they heard in some way or whatever and then goes and tells a bunch of other people and they all think that they heard the same thing and they all take the same interpretation. That's ridiculous. A witness is someone that saw iniquity. That witnessed iniquity. For any sin, in any sin that he sinned, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established exactly as the New Testament states. Two or three people that actually saw transgression. Look at verse 16, I love 16 through 19. We need to bring 16 through 19, Deuteronomy 19, 16 through 19. We need to bring this back to America today right here. If we bring this back, so many problems would be solved in our country today. If a false witness, so what if somebody comes and just starts spreading a bunch of lies about somebody? Because look, I mean couldn't you spread lies about people that are pretty serious? I mean couldn't you, I mean look at, just look out in the world. There's accusations that are out there that just destroy people. Maybe they're true, maybe they're not, but they destroy people whether they're true or not. Nobody even knows if they're true or not. Maybe there's no way to know but the Bible says if a false witness, this is how the Bible does it. If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him, that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and judges, which shall be in those days, and the judges shall make diligent inquisition and behold if the witness be a false witness and a testified falsely against his brother, then he shall do unto him as he had thought he had done unto his brother and shall put out the evil from away from among you. That means if I go and I accuse brother Jacob, well there's another Bible name in this in the church, but anyway, if I accuse brother Jacob of murder and it turns out that I was just trying to get him executed and that's found out, I get executed. That means, I mean just apply this to all the law and just imagine, I mean you'd have all these frivolous lawsuits that would go away, like people would be afraid. People would be afraid to falsely accuse people. Isn't that what we want? Isn't that what you want? But there's just no consequences. There's no consequence. We live in a civil society today where anybody can sue anybody for anything and there's no consequences as long as your brother-in-law's a lawyer or whatever. And even if the person's innocent, they have to spend tens of thousands, yeah maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend themselves against a false witness and there's no consequences. It's absolutely unjust, but back to the sermon. Back to the sermon. Everything in the Bible is right folks. I mean in Deuteronomy chapter 17 and in Matthew chapter 18, step two of the process, you say what if, so what if we end up with a situation where just one person in iniquity or one person, it's one person's word against another. Deuteronomy 17 details that situation where they just bring that to the priest. They bring that situation to the priest. And it's the same thing in Matthew chapter 18. Basically if there's two people in the church, then have a conflict and they can't work it out between them, it's just one word against another. Like you wrecked my tool. No I didn't, it was like that. You just bring it to the pastor. That's it. Same as the Old Testament is exactly the same in the New Testament, very simple, okay? You don't go and just start maliciously gossiping about it, okay? Back to the point. Gossip is private information. It doesn't pertain to you. It's information, look it's easy to tell that type of information. It has nothing to do with me. It's obvious information that I shouldn't know, red flag and it's negative information. Stop it in its tracks. And look if you do refer the people to Matthew chapter 18, if we don't have a gossip infantry in our church and instead we have a church full of people that know the doctrines of the Bible, that will simply refer people to Matthew 18 every time they hear private information, somebody campaigning that they were wrong, they're just like hey, you should go talk to that person. Two things are gonna happen, first of all. If you find somebody that comes to you with information like that and you refer them, this is kind of a neat thing about the Bible but if you refer them to Matthew 18, you're gonna figure out their motives real fast. Think about that for a second. Because what you're gonna find out is the malicious backbiter, the malicious backbiter in gossip number one that we talked about when you refer them to Matthew 18, they're just gonna not wanna have anything to do with that. Oh yeah, I just, I don't know, I don't know. Maybe they'll lie, maybe they'll say oh I already tried that and lie or whatever. But they don't wanna have anything to do with Matthew 18 because it's their intent to destroy, not to reconcile. The second one, you know the second one, they'll just, usually they'll just, and you know, both cases, they will stop coming to you in the future. Guaranteed. Because what they did was they miscalculated. They came to you and they're like, he said you can get him on my side and it's always the simple ones. And I don't, you know, it makes me sad to a degree because I've seen this happen several times to several people. And many of you that have been with this ministry for four years have seen this happen to several people. You know what, I feel bad for the simple ones. I mean they still did wrong. But I feel sympathy towards them because they've got, they fell in to this froward man and this froward person that was just out on this agenda to divide and to destroy. And they fell along with it. But look, if you just stop people in their tracks with Matthew 18, very simply, they will never come to you again. And look, if there's no one for them to go to, they're gonna go somewhere else. And that's what we want. We don't want any froward men here. We don't want anybody sowing strife. We don't want anybody, look, what do we want? We want she, friends. Amen. That's the whole point. The whole point of coming here is so we can all live together and we can serve the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives in this sick twisted world together as chief friends that are friends not because we're in some stupid motorcycle club or because our kids are in some sports team together or whatever, but because we have every single item of our being in common, which is the Bible. That's what chief friends are. No chief friends out in the world. There's only chief friends in the Word of God. So somebody comes in and tries to separate chief friends. No, this is not hard doctrine. We're just, just get out of here with that stuff. You know, we shouldn't have an infantry of gossip. Chief friends is the point. And you know what? Pastors, I've seen this and I've dealt with this. Pastors are kind of fighting with one arm behind their back on this one. You know, many times because backbiders and people that's so strife, they don't have any rules. You know, they don't have any honor. But you know what? I refuse to get down the mud with these people. And quite frankly, there's just things. I refuse to get down in the mud with these types of people, but you just kind of have to remember that, that there's things that I will always know that I cannot tell you. Because I'm not gonna get down in the mud with the pigs. The pigs can stay down in the mud. I don't want any part of it. So just step back and think. You know, just step back and think when people come to you with that type of information. Who, just forget the information for five seconds and just think who is this person and why are they telling me this? You know, it could be, look it literally could be a deciding point for your Christian life. If you choose the wrong road on situations like this. And if you have a weakness here, the devil's gonna exploit it for sure. We just need to get these things straight. They're not complicated, but it's very simple. It's very, very simple to stop, but it can do a lot of damage if it runs rampant. Gossip. The Bible is very clear about it. It's something that is private, something that is negative. Make sure that we just follow the biblical process and look, it won't be a problem. It won't be a problem when these people show up. It just won't be an issue. All right, let's bow our heads and have a word of...