TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna – Nov 26, 2025 – Proverbs 17:3–4 – Refined by Fire, Guarded by Truth

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Proverbs 17:3–4 unveils two powerful spiritual realities: God refines His people like silver and gold, and the voices we listen to shape our character and destiny. Just as precious metals require intense heat to reveal purity, believers undergo trials designed by the Master Refiner to expose and remove spiritual impurities. And while God purifies the heart, Solomon warns that the wicked are drawn to lies because deception resonates with their inner desires. Today, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore the crucible and the furnace—how God uses different kinds of trials for different callings—and why guarding your ears from destructive voices is essential for spiritual maturity. This lesson calls believers to embrace God’s refining work and tune their hearts to truth. Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting FaithandValues.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning, Mata. We got a new scene today. All right, now we're outside. So we are experimenting with some new technology that we've acquired for the purpose of getting ready for our debut on Faith TV in early 2026. We're going to be on DirecTV and North America and Sky TV in Europe and DSTV in Africa. So over the coming weeks, we're going to be tweaking this software, so there may be some glitches, some bumps along the way. We appreciate your patience with us as we work it out. So our first day, we were in our virtual kitchens.

Today we're in our virtual patios outside. Okay. All right, let's begin. We're going to be studied Proverbs chapter 17, and we're going to pick up with verse three and four. We did one and two. Now we're going to move to three and four. These are really important proverbs, and that's why I'm not going to rush through them and try to do four, five, six proverbs in this lesson. I'm just going to focus on two proverbs. So let's pray, and then Doc will read these two verses. Father God, our Father in heaven. Father, we love you and praise you and glorify you. Father, you gave your word to us. Your word is Christ Himself. You gave us the word to teach us your way.

So Holy Spirit, come take charge of this morning man of class and illuminate our hearts and minds to understand your word that we would live better lives for you, be pleasing to you, be greater witnesses for you, in the name of Jesus Christ, our king. Amen. Amen. Praise God. And we are continuing our study here in Proverbs. We're in chapter 17. Yesterday we focus on the first two verses of chapter 17. We're going to pick back up on verse three today. I want to give a shout out to wherever you are in the world. today, tuning in from all across Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and, of course, all over the U.S. and Canada, welcome to this edition of Morning Manna, the day before Thanksgiving 2025. Verse 3 of Chapter 17 in Proverbs, the finding pot is for silver and the furnace for

gold, but the Lord tryeth the hearts. Verse four, a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, in a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. God bless the reading of his word today. Okay, the verse three, King James, the finding pot, is for silver and the furnace for gold. But the Lord tries the hearts. So Solomon, King Solomon, who wrote these proverbs, begins with a familiar image,

especially in those days. Precious metals have to be placed in intense heat. They never reach their full value, their full monetary value, until they pass through heat. That heat has to be intense. and raw silver or raw gold contain impurities. And the fire is used to do two things.

To want, number one, to expose the impurity and number two, to remove it. So that's the heart of this verse. What's called the finding part is the crucible. Other translations use the word crucible. The crucible is a heavy vessel designed to withstand extreme heat. It's the, you know, it's the pot that's inside the fire, that you put the silver in it, and it withstands the heat. now scripturally silver and gold always represent they symbolize purity glory value and yet we're also told they have to be refined yes

that the most the most precious things in the universe contain flaws and you and i the human race we we are the treasure in that parable of the hidden treasure the hidden treasure is not Jesus or the kingdom of God the hidden treasures us Christ was searching

for the treasure we are that treasure and yet even though we are valuable to him because we our souls are living in earthen vessels We have a fallen nature

because of those things we have flaws and we have to be purified. Now, Doc, one thing that I notice is this verse has two distinct places of testing.

The crucible and the furnace. Silver, it says, is placed in the crucible, but the gold is placed in furnace. None. They don't both go in the same holding area. Right. It require different methods of purification.

Right. So the crucible, like I said, it's the place that holds the precious metal. It's fire resistant. It's usually made of clay or ceramic or graphite. And it holds the metal as the impurities rise to, to the surface, what's called the dross, so they can be skimmed off and removed. But the furnace is not accrucible. The furnace is a structure, a chamber that produces intense heat.

Heat hot enough to melt the metal. Now, a furnace is usually made of stone. or brick or some type of earthen materials that has events for airflow that increase the heat. Now, why does this say God puts the silver in the crucible and the gold in the furnace? Well, first of all, God does not value his sons and daughters. differently? He doesn't say, well, you're only worth silver and you're worth gold. That's not what this means. Both precious metals are valuable, gold and silver. God views all his people as precious people. We view precious metals. God sees precious people. All of them are valuable to him.

But he loves us too much to allow us to go through life, blemished with impurities. And even though he equally loves all his children, their callings, their purposes in life, may have different values. As humans, as people, were in equal value, but our purpose, our calling for God's kingdom may have different values. And one person's calling may only require that they be placed in the crucible, but another person's calling requires that man or woman to go into the furnace. Doc, you have any thoughts about this? Well, you've got two different methods here. You've got the crucible and you've got the furnace and they're both tools of purification. What's their purpose

to bring the dross to life and have the dross removed and to have the metal refined. It's fire that works on both. Fire works on both the crucible and the furnace. And it's what separates the corruption away from the metal, from the true nature of the metal. And the more times that it's purified, the pure the metal becomes. So back in ancient days and even, to this day. I mean, it hasn't really, the basics are still the same. The drafts rises to the

surface only when there's intense heat supplied. And so that kind of gives us a picture that these trials that we go through in life, they reveal what lies hidden beneath the outward appearance. It only comes as heat is applied. So God is not just some, you know, passive observer in our life. He's actively involved as a refining. He is constantly shaping his people, but with intentional purpose. You don't accidentally put things in a crucible. You don't accidentally just put things in a furnace. Now, in scripture, heat often symbolizes pressure in life, trials, adversity, or situations and circumstances that God allows to test and strengthen his people. And what this says to me is that this encourages us as disciples that trials aren't random

and they're not meaningless. They exist for purification and not for destruction. And just as a refiner watches the metal until he sees his own reflection in, God watches over his disciples until his image is reflected back in the metal. Now, this refinement process is uncomfortable, but it's essential and preciousness is only revealed through purification and this imagery helps prepare to this up to understand the spiritual growth is required in an encounter with God's fire and I was thinking about the differences

between a crucible and a furnace and Rick I was remembering back to my childhood my dad the four number of years ran a plumbing business and there were times where he to cast his own lead fittings because a lot of the houses that he worked on and everything had still had old lead pipes lead sewer pipes and he would have to actually manufacture the fittings to go all the lead sewer pipes and but you couldn't just melt but using lead in this particular example it didn't just melt the lead you had to melt it get the draws off go do it again you had do that several times to get that level of lead that was available for casting. If there were any impurities in the casting of the fitting, it was worthless because it'd fall

apart. It'd be leaking in no time at all. And so I'm using that as an example. My dad used a crucible to purify lead. But when he wanted to apply a copper fitting to something, he applied direct heat to the copper and melted it directly. I got to thinking about this as we're preparing today. I think the crucible represents that those trials and tribulations that would go through internally, where that secondary heat is applied to our hearts and to our lives, whereas the furnace is that outward circumstances, the outward heat, if you will, trials and tribulations of life in general that we encounter.

So there's a reason why the Lord used a crucifle and a furnace. There are two different types of purification that take place in the believers. Like sometimes they're going on at the same time. Sometimes they happen at different stages of our life. But there's a refining that requires a crucifle at times internally and a furnace at times externally. I'm really fascinated by your, the example you gave of your dad, that there was a different process for lead and a different process for copper. Right.

Now, we didn't have silver and gold sitting around, so we couldn't do that. But I think the principle, it remains. Yes. So what's the purpose of the fire, all right? The fire does two things. It separates what belongs in the main. metal from what is corrupting the metal. That's the main purpose of the fire, the heat, to separate, to take out what doesn't belong

there and to only allow to remain what is supposed to be in the metal. So the fire reveals the true nature of the metal. I was listening to watching a podcast recently. just a few days ago, Doc, and it was a precious metals expert. And he was talking about how China is going into South America and just, you know, filling up giant cargo ships with just raw mining material. And they're hauling it back to China to refine it.

They're just trying to get it out as fast as they can. And so they know that there are precious metals and there are rare earth metals in that dirt. They're just hauling the dirt to China and say, we'll spend the time and money to get it to China and we'll extract the metals when we get there. Okay, so what that's saying is that China, the Chinese officials, they know that in that cargo ship

full of dirt, dirt. Right. There's something precious, something valuable. And they'd got to take it somewhere and separate the dirt from the metal. That's what God is doing with us when he puts us into crucible, when he puts us into the furnace. He's separating the dirt from what is valuable to him. So we've got to keep in mind that God, is in charge of the fire he's in control of the fire and when we are in these times of testing tribulation of affliction typically we're crying god where are you where did you go why did you leave me he didn't leave you he didn't go away he's the one applying the heat he's he's He's in charge of the intensity of that trial.

Why? Because he wants to separate the dirt. He wants to bring forth what is valuable inside of you. He knows the right way to handle. He's a craftsman. He's a skilled craftsman. And he applies the heat with precision. He knows if there's too little, it will allow impurities to remain.

If there's too much, he'll damage the metal. And so God's dealing with us is the same way as a skilled craftsman dealing with metal. He looks for the balance, the right amount of pressure, the right amount of heat to get the desired result. So silver requires fire to remove the dross. and God uses the fire of affliction to remove the dross of this world from our lines therefore we're put into the crucible

now gold which is more precious than silver gold must go into the furnace so God intensifies the trials for those who are destined for greater glory for his son. There are ministers. There are people called by God that have a, I don't want to say a higher purpose, but a calling, an assignment that is going to take enormous amount of discipline, get it done for the Lord. And at various stages through that person's life, God will

put them in the furnace in stages, not all one time, couldn't handle the one of them, but he does it in our lives in stages. So the furnace, the image of the furnace implies sustained heat, deeper trials, produce greater refinement. So adversity exposes, adversity exposes of what is false, what is weak, what is impure in our soul, in our mind, in our being. And that adversity causes it to rise to the top,

identifies it, identification first, then separation. Identification, then separation. So when God places you in the furnace, he is first identifying the impurities in your life and then he is separating the impurities from your life so that when you come out of that trial you're a better person you're not the same person who went into the trial

and people should be able to notice the difference DACA, you know, everything, anything is valuable is subject to some type of test. Right. Yes. And all valuable things are subject to testing, everything. Everything that's worth having is worth being tested, worth and refined, but walk hand in hand. And you were talking about the different. you know, the craftsman having the ability to determine the right temperature.

If you heat silver too high at temperature, when it cools off, it's brittle, and you can't use it. And likewise, when, if you overheat gold, gold, rather than becoming softer and more malleable, actually becomes harder after it cools. But the master craftsman understands the right amount of heat to apply to silver and to gold, the perfect amount. And they never refined themselves, Rick. Remember, silver and gold just don't say, you know, I need to be pure. No, they have to have an outside force that has applied to them, where they require a heat that's applied with intention, with a specific duration and with precision. So the trials and tribulations and the suffering that we encounter in this life, Greg, it's not random. I don't believe in the randomness or seredipity of life.

I believe God has a purpose, and he has a purpose in these trials, these tribulations, and suffering. God's refining fire is at work. And what is it producing? It's producing usefulness for the kingdom, but it's also producing holiness for the kingdom as well. Like I said before, the purpose for the refiner is to be able to look into that crucible or to look into that pool of metal coming out of the furnace and for the craft the metal worker to see his reflection in the metal. If he can't see his reflection, there's still impurities in the world. Likewise, God is working in our hearts and lives and he's looking at the

silver in our lives, looking for his reflection, looking at the gold in our lives and looking for his reflection. He controls the furnace. He controls the temperature. He controls the duration. So why are we worried? Why are we fretting? Why are we even, you know, have a care about it? He is in control. And he hasn't abandoned us to the furnace. He hasn't just thrown us in and said, you know, I'll check on you later. No, he's regulating the temperature precisely, watching the whole time. The process is painful, but it is precise. God controls the temperature and duration.

And so this project is gradual. Sometimes you have to put that metal back in Cruciful several times and back in the furnace several times. In order to get 24-carat gold, guess what has to happen, Rick? he has to be purified 24 times. Yes. Most people don't know what 24-Karrit means. Yes, that means it's being gone through the refining process 24 times.

If you've got 18-care goal, it's 18 times. But 24-Kar, really, there's no reason to purify it beyond 24-Kar. That's as pure as you can possibly get in this world. and yet they still go through the process and nothing in the fire is wasted nothing every degree of heat has a purpose just like every step of a trial or tribulation

or suffering that we're going through God has precise purpose for it you want to know a sign that you are maturing in the Lord I'll tell you what it is the next time you are in the furnace and instead of you crying and wailing and oh god what's happened to me get me out of this mess where did you go why did you abandon me why are you doing this to me why are you letting the devil do this to me instead you sit in the furnace quietly and say lord have your way

get to the place where you can sit in the furnace and you might be gritting your teeth but you're saying, Lord, burn it out. Burn it out. Get it all out of me. Get it all out of me. When you come to that place, you will know that you have advanced mightily in your spiritual maturity. But you prepared because he'll take you up on it oh he will he will but i'm telling you once you get to that place where you can sit in that seat in the furnace and not scream but say i will be done lord refine me so that i'm pleasing to you right and that's what the second half and that's what the second half of this verse is pointing out too that it's the lord the trying the hearts. It's not just random circumstances or random things happening alive. The Lord

himself is trying the hearts of men. Yes, but the Lord tryeth the hearts. Right. So Solomon now elevates this analogy of, you know, precious metals in the fire. And he tells us that Lord himself is the refiner of his people. It's not the devil, it's the Lord. So we know, it says, he tries the heart, he tries the hearts. We've talked about this many times. The heart is the inner core, your being. It's the center of you, your soul, your emotions, your feelings, your desires, your hidden desire.

It's your true inner self. That's what the heart is. So we go into for a divine examination, and God begins reaching deeper and looking down deeper and deeper into our hearts to see what's there. And that's when he decides the intensity of the heat and the duration of the heat. He makes a decision. into your heart and then he makes a decision. He's like a doctor examining you

and then making a decision. This is what I have to do. Yes. Here's the surgery I have to do. Here's the procedures that we have to carry out. That comes after the examination. And believe me,

all of us will be examined not just once but multiple times in our lives. There'll be that moment. like you know what i just been examined and i'm going into the fire and i'm just folks i'm telling you once you get to the place where you just say lord i'm i'm going to take this i'm not going to scream not going to cry and i'm not going to question i'm going to sit here in the far and get the stuff out of me you know get it out of me and let me get out of this furnace i'm just thinking again about

my dad and him doing that lead casting when he would put those chunks of lead in there and they'd start melting they'd start making noises and whistling and screaming you know as a dad's it melted down as that impurity uh was being driven out of it he was making noise as it was being melted really it'd be interesting it whist it so yeah it was like here uh steam coming off of water would be in it, you know, and as some of the gases get released from the impurities that are in there, he would make popping sounds or whistling sandals until it was completely pure. And I would suspect that that's probably the same principle that applies to silver and gold, too, and to our hearts. Maybe in the beginning we're whistling a little bit,

popping, complaining a little bit along the way, but the righteous person understands at some point that the master crafts and is at work. So human refine precious vitals. God refines precious hearts.

Yes. Okay. His the furnace the fire of the furnace reaches places in our hearts where the fire of the crucible cannot go. That's why sometimes we're in the crucible, sometimes.

we're in the furtice. It says that he trieth the hearts. Test. He proves. He examines. He's looking at our motives. He's testing our faith and our loyalty.

But remember, the heart, our heart, your heart, is the treasure. Yes. He's not trying to cause pain. He's trying to produce Christ-likeness. He's getting us

ready for eternity right so you know just using the you know the hospital medical analogy surgery what is god doing he's removing sin and he's implanting grace have you ever told the lord hey i need a grace implant i mean what did the lord say to you hey i got to take you in my room you need a grace implant i mean a doctor says you got to have an implant oh okay doc i'll do it right but what if god says you need an implant are we just as ready to submit to him remember god's testing his pressure is always redemptive he's never seeking to condemn us he's always seeking to perfect us, to improve us for his glory, for the glory of his son. Amen. And the Lord knows exactly what temperature each heart needs. His furnace is hotter and wiser than a fiery furnace

here on earth because it's trying hearts. And hearts can be sometimes a lot harder than metal. So this heart testing is personal, Rick. I mean, it's right. It's just not a general call. It is personal for each one of us. David cried out in Psalm 139. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. This is him crying out.

Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. It'd be as if gold or silver cried out, make me pure. Make me pure. Search me. stir me up inside find those impurities and drive them out imagine if gold or silver was crying

him make me pure and yet that should be the cry of our heart lord make us pure so each heart that goes through this trial and tribulation and each level of testing that we go through becomes part of our testimony a proven faith shines brighter than than gold brick What the Lord is trying to do is he's trying to put love into action in our life and burn away those things that would kill us. So, Doc, what was going on in King David's life that drove him to cry out, search me, oh God, know my heart, try me, know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked thing in me, lead me in the way of it. It's like he was saying, put me in your furnace. I'm asking you, put me in your furnace, as if he knew his heart was wicked. Yes.

Yes. And there was something happening in his life at that time that he was under conviction saying, put me in the furnace, search me, get rid of this. Are we willing to say those words to the Lord? Did you write up? He will take us up on the offer. I mean, he will do it. But how much do we desire to be pure in his eyes?

Because that's what this is all about. Yes. It's about purity to be pleasing to him. And, you know, again, don't be judging somebody else saying, oh, I see the impurities in you. Now, you worry about the impurities in you. Amen. Okay.

You're not responsible for that other person's impurity. and they're not responsible for yours. And so don't be judging. Don't be pointing because, you know what? When you are judging somebody else, you're getting moved to the front of the line to get in the furnace. That's exactly what's going to happen.

If you are a judgmental person who's always pointing out somebody else's weaknesses and sit, you're going to get moved to the front of the line to go into the furnace. God's going to say, well, let's see what you got. Let's put some heat on you and see what comes to the top. Amen. So, Doc, let's go down to the commentators and see, let's see what they had to say about it.

And then we'll move to verse four. Okay. Well, I've got a quote here from Matthew Henry, Rick. It says, the finding clara pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tripped are, it's quoting the scripture here. And his comment, he tries them by afflictions as the refiner tries his gold. And we've got to keep in mind that these trials and tribulations and suffering that we go through in life, they're not punishment. They're not meant to punish us. They're meant to refine us. purifies yes Baptist John Gill said God tries the hearts of his people

to prove their faith patience and obedience Adam Clark said all the trials of life are the instruments

by which God assays the virtue or vice of us told and And yeah, go ahead. I know you want to quote Charles Bridges.

Yes. Charles Bridges said that the heart is the Lord's grand object of trial. He puts it into his furnace, not to consume, but to refine, not to destroy, but to purify. Once again, bringing us back to that truth of that idea. These are not punishments that we're going through. These are trials and tribulations that are meant to make us pure. and to refine us like gold. He reminds us because he values us.

Yes. For God so loved the world that he gave his only god's son. Look, if he loves enough to sacrifice his son on the cross, can we not sit still in the furnace long enough? to be worthy of being saved. I like the picture that Alexander McLaren painted with his words. The great refiner sits by the furnace,

tempering the heat and watching till he sees his own face reflected in the molten metal. I love that. So the next time you're in a trial, tribulation, just think about it. God who's sitting there, he's the metal refiner. He's controlling the heat. He's controlling the temperature.

He's controlling the time that you're in the furnace. Why? Because he loves you. Isn't that because he's sadistic? He loves you. He's really. refining you. I mean, that's

what G. Campbell Morgan said. Yes, he refines us because he values us. He loves us so much, refines us. Charles Spurgeon said, Affliction is the fire that brings

out the gold of grace. The gold of grace. And William Arnaut said, the furnace is hot, but the refiner is wise so yes i know the situation you may be going through might be intense it might be painful it it could be all those things but understand yes it may be hot fire may be hot but the refiner is wise amen well doc we get about 20 minutes remaining for verse four, we

think 40 about what, no, yeah, we spent 40 minutes on, on verse three. That's a good verse. We don't even have 20 minutes remaining.

But let's go to verse four. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. The Aramaic pashita version says A wicked man gives ears to the lips of the transgressor

And a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue Right And I'll use the subtergant A wicked man harkens to the tongue of transgressors But a righteous man attends not to false lips Okay so let's jump into this see what this proverb means I hope our class I hope you really

I hope this is enriching to you because usually I think with proverb people just kind of open up the Bible hey I'll look at a proverb right now I'll read two or three proverbs and we move on right

but do we ever do we ever drill down deep into each proverb do we ever mine the gold and the somewhere that's in each proverb you know do we seek the Lord what does this mean from my life so a wicked doer gives heed to false lips Solomon is identifying a very important spiritual principle a person's ears always moves toward the voice that matches his or her heart did you hear what I said your ears automatically move towards the voice that match your heart think about that

that's a sobering thought so in this case he says the wicked doer gives heed two false lips to a liar yes the wicked the doer a wickedness a wicked doer somebody who does wicked things reveals his or her character not by their actions but by who they listen to yes

doc i'm really who you're listening to right i've never ever seen this before in this light that you can have discernment about other people by observing what they are listening to and who they're listening to.

It's teaching you that evil inclines a person's soul towards voices that justify excuse, strengthen, build more evil. Yes. It's the old in a proverb birds of a feather flocked together.

So it's telling us that a wicked man or woman doesn't stumble into deception accidentally. He or she is drawn to it because it feeds his heart. It's what that man or woman needs. A wicked person feeds on deception. That's their food. They have to have deception to exist. They get their energy from deception. And so they automatically, their ears are searching for deception.

Right. They don't find it accidentally, do they? Doc, I mean, I think about it. They're wicked, which means they're deceived. But they become more wicked because they hunger to hear more deception. Yes. And so they're trapped in the cycle. So the attention,

the attention that a person gives to something is the evidence of that person's, the condition of that person's heart. Pay attention to what people are listening to all day long. Oh, I could start meddling now, Doc. I can start meddling. I can start meddling. I'm not trying to get people upset. What are you listening to all day long?

What you're listening to all day long is what your soul is craving. Yes. People that are listening to podcasters who promote rebellion, have rebellious hearts. I think you just... Whatever people are listening to. With that statement, Rick. I think you just challenge some people with that state.

Yes. There are people who are podcasting today that Christians have no business listening to. None, none whatsoever. Right. so appetite determines intake what the heart craved the ear will chase your ears will chase your ears will chase what your heart is craving you're here in morning matter obviously there's a craving for the word of god there's a craving for wisdom. Right. So the person's favored voices, the voices that they listen to consistently day after day after day,

it reveals, it pulls the comfort back and reveals the loyalties of their inner life. What are they loyal to? What are they committed to? so wickedness is not only expressed through spoken words but it's also received through spoken word right wicked people consume wickedness

evil people consume evil deceived people crave and listen to deception right So the doorway, the ear, your ear becomes the doorway through which corruption enters your soul. You're listening, you're hearing, and your choice of who you want to listen to all day long and what you want to listen to all day long is a conscious decision that expresses

the desires of your heart. Yes. Go ahead, Doc. I said, well, you know, the whole idea here is that it's not just a matter of the words we speak, but the words that we listen to. And this verse here, it says,

the wicked doer, give us heed to false lips. In other words, that phrase, give us heed there, they're not just casually listening or just happen to overhear it. No, they're, leaning in. They're listening eagerly. They're inclining their ears. Could you say that again?

They want to hear that lie one more time. They want to hear it one more time. And so when we're talking about false slips, you can have false information. It could be flattery, slander, could be gossip, could be heresy. There are believers, Rick, that listen to podcasts that teach outright heresy. And you try to tell them otherwise, and they'll just say, oh, I just listen for, you know, for the information. No, you're picking up other information too along the way. My friend, wickedness loves company. Evil hearts are drawn to evil words like moths to a flame.

And this listening to lies constantly, it feeds the flesh, it justifies sin, and hardens the conscience. So it's not just a casual hearing, it's a deliberate choice to entertain deception. So this phrase exposes that there's a spiritual connection, a spiritual kinship. Like you said earlier, birds of a feather flock together. False lips find fertile soil only in wicked hearts, and righteous ears are deaf to them. So the wicked doer is an accomplice in this. Listing makes him or her a partner in life. There's only one thing that's an antidote to it, Rick, and that's the Word of God.

Fill your ear with truth. You've got to starve the line. And, you know, not to be too negative on people, but when we made the transition away from news, Rick, there were quite a few people who had a hard time with that because they fed on the news and information of the day. so much so that they had a hard time letting go of it. In fact, they would rather abandon the Word of God than abandon the news. But we did have a lot of people who abandoned us as a ministry.

And so, well, Rick, I've been watching you for years, but you've quit what you're supposed to be doing and now I'm going to go watch some other podcast. No, I didn't quit doing what I was supposed to be doing. God said, focus on the word. That's the Lord's instruction to me this year. Focus on the word of God. You've given the people enough news. Focus on the word. And that's what we're doing. And so we lost a lot of people. They walked away. But they didn't walk away from me. They walked away from the word of God. What they said is my heart has no appetite for the word of God. Yes. I crave news and

information. I hear people, including Christians, say, oh, the news channel is on my TV all day long. Really? All day long? Well, I don't always watching it, but it's on in the background. It's on all the time. Well, let me tell you, your ears are on all the time. Yes. And the lies are being spoken into your head, into your heart all day long. CNN has a deceptive narrative to tell you, and Fox News has a deceptive narrative to tell you. Doesn't matter which one you're watching. Both are deceiving you. Okay. So watch this stuff, hours after hours, after hours, you're letting this stuff come into you to deceive you, you know,

and then to go to a podcaster that's using vulgar language and then trying to make you believe that he or she is safe. Right. You've got to turn this stuff off. So, and this is where we get to the next part. And a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue, a mischievous tongue. Okay, so now the parallel, this parallel line is showing the liar's eager reception of destructive speech. Yes.

So that liar is not right. Go ahead. Yeah, it's not just one who speaks of falsehood, but one who loves. lies. They love it. And it's interesting that that phrase naughty tongue is used there. You know, it kind of softens it a little bit. But what it really is saying is a perverse tone. It's destructive. It's malicious. Words that are meant to wound and to ruin. And the liar listens to them because it reinforces his own agenda. That chaos that comes about because of the wicked tongue serves to provide that deception.

So it's a vicious cycle that's taking place. A lie makes baby lies, begets lies. And then those lies beget destruction. And that destruction breeds other destruction. And so in the end, lies end up in destruction. And so this second part of this verse here is a warning that the ear here, as we stressed in the first part, is a gateway. If you open up your ear to evil, guess what's going to enter in?

Evil's going to enter in. So gossip, slander, mockery, find an audience in the ear of a liar. So liar's ear is tuned to a specific frequency, maliciousness, mischief. Because if they're faced with truth, Rick, truth convicts and exposes. So they don't want to hear a truth. So as disciples, though, as followers of Jesus Christ, we're challenged to, first of all, silence naughty tongues. Don't listen to them. Don't get place to the wicked tongue in your life. Refuse to listen to them. And especially refuse to repeat what they say. And the righteous here should be closed off to destructive words and open only to edification.

Jesus himself silenced the wicked tongue and his words he always spoke like Jesus always spoke life never done even when he spoke about his death and resurrection he was speaking about life and so we should follow the Savior's exam and speak life in our own world

if that sounds Pollyanna if that sounds like pie in the skyish then I'm guilty I want life to come out of my lips no lies life that's why I desire in Rick but what we're learning here today

is that our ears have to be set to receive truth not lies yes there has to be the right frequency while you were talking I thought about the irony of you know we have

in today's political environment here at the United States a lot of people say I'm a truth seeker I'm part of the truth movement I'm seeking truth and yet they spend all day listening listening to liars it hit me dog while you were talking and you know why they say they're seeking truth their heart is gravitated to these liars their heart actually desires the lies yes and this sounds really convoluted they desire to hear lies about the truth do you love me well sure i do that makes sense their heart yearns to hear lies about the truth you can have people endorses something yes yes you can have podcasters saying i'm a truth

seeker we're here for the truth and then spend one to two hours lying about the truth and the audience soaking it up because their ears their heart their heart is hungry for lies and you try to tell them the truth i don't want to hear that here's the truth no what that what that person just told you is a lie you can't reach them because they believe that A lie is truth. Everything's upside down. Everything's inside out, backwards. So you just have to walk away from them.

Say, you know what? Morally, spiritually, they can't see the truth. They can't discern it. So, listen, at the heart of this, there's a covenant, okay? What you listen to reveals the one you will serve. politically in this country we have people that are almost over into a cult okay

I'm not going to say anything else their leader can say anything their leader can do anything you can't tell them anything different who they listen to reveals the one they serve. They're unwilling to serve Christ, but they'll serve a political leader.

Right. All right. So you can't, obviously, the leader can move from one lie to another. And take the people with them. And take the people with them. And you can, that's both on the left and the right folks. So it happens on both sides. One day, one day you can call. a newly elected mayor, a communist, and the next day you can have him in your office and say he's your friend. Which one's truth and which one's a lie? The wicked can't be blamed,

or let me say like this, the wicked can't blame deceivers because they willingly choose the voices that echo their own heart. Right. So a wicked person can't point their finger at a deceiver or a liar and say, hey, you deceive me.

No, your heart desired to be deceived. Right. What, Doc, what did God say about? They chose to believe a lie. Yes. And so? And what did he sin? A delusion.

A delusion. Because they chose. chose to believe a lie. Okay. So you mentioned this earlier, listening becomes complicity

because the person who's hearing shares the guilt with the speaker who's lying. If you know somebody, I mean, when somebody is a

false teacher, a liar, a deceiver, and you sit there, knowing that person has lied. And I'm telling you right now, you've got politicians in this country that you know have lied to you

and you still vote for them. You still vote for. You knew I was a snake when you let me in. Okay. So it's evidence of your heart that you actually desire. desire to be lied to. And people do desire that, right?

They absolutely desire it. Doc, the Bible repeatedly calls links spiritual corruption with corrupted listening.

You've got spiritual corruption, but you've got corrupted listening. And they feed on each other, too. God calls his people to be swift to hear. Swift to hear what? Swift to hear truth, not to hear lies. And we're to close ourselves off to those seductive whispers of evil. Zechariah chapter 7 verse 11 says, but they refuse to harken, pulled away the shoulder,

and stopped their ears that they should not hear. But a better one over in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 3 in fall. And this is a pulse, speaking to his young mentee, Pastor Timothy, saying this, Timothy, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables. And so this proverb here, Rick, in verse four,

therefore becomes both a warning but it's also a diagnostic tool what voices are you tolerating in your life what voices are you allowing to speak into your life the righteous should be tuning their ears to god's word and rejecting those wicked words and those wicked tongues as foreign and as dangerous and as a fire which is what they are um I'm going to say something that gets pretty deep and we don't have the time to go down and mine it before everything it's worth. But in your personal relationships,

family, friends, coworkers, who are you listening to every day who is lying about you? Okay. Who is cursing you? Who's condemning you? Who is shaming you? Who is shaming you? Who is making you feel belittled and making you feel like you're worthless,

your trash? Who in your life is speaking these lies to you? Why are you listening to them? Right. Why? Why are you listening to them? He said, well, they're family, their friends. Cut them off. Yes.

Does that sound first, Rick? It's very hard. Yes, it's very harsh. But what they're doing you is that they're damning you, okay? If they were threatening you with a knife, if every day you came home and somebody threatened you with a knife, just a sharp butcher knife as soon as you walked in the door, what would you eventually do?

He'd quit showing up. Move, get out. You wouldn't come back. And yet words have done more damage than any knife. done. There's a lot of Christians, God's people, you need to toughen up and you need to have the courage and the strength to say to these bullies in our lives. I'm not going to allow you to say those things to me anymore. Doesn't mean you raise your voice. Doesn't mean you threaten. No, you stay calm, but you say to these people, I am not going to permit you to talk to me

that way. You have to give me dignity, respect, and civility. And if you're unwillingly to give me those three, then I have to separate from you until you learn how to speak. If you can bless them with your presence, then bless them with your absence. Yes, because their words are going into your head and getting down in your heart, and it's their words of condemnation slowly are changing you. They're changing you.

and you're becoming something you don't desire to be because they're planting they're planting thoughts from hell inside your head right and you've got to reject it you've got to get the courage to say I'm not going to listen to it anymore you you cannot speak this way into into my life and it hurts sometimes when it's a relative or a close friend or co-worker or somebody in church

but you have to have boundaries and say, you know, words, you have to have word boundaries. You have to say, my ears have boundaries. Your deceptive lying, condemning words cannot cross the boundary into my ear. Let this, as we go into 2026, let the Holy Spirit strengthen you to stand up to these verbal bullies. and refuse to listen to their lies about you because they're lying about you. You are made in the likeness and image of God. And if they are calling you names, if they're saying you are this, this, and this,

and you are no good, and you're, well, they're lying. They're lying because God says you're made in the likeness and image of him. Yes. And you've got to start standing up for yourself. close your ears to what they say. Buck, let's, I'm looking at my time. Let's go down and let's see what the commentator said. We'll start with Matthew Henry.

Right. Matthew Andrew said that a wicked doer give us heed to false lips. He loves to hear that which will justify his own wickedness or gratify his malice. It's the same thing we were talking about earlier, as we gravitate toward the voices that reinforce the beliefs of our heard. Yes. Adam Clark said, a wicked doer gives heat to false lips.

He encourages the slander. When you listen to a slanderer, a gossiper, you are encouraging that person to continue to lie. Albert Barnes, Presbyterian pastor of Philadelphia back in the 1800s, I'll give you two of his quotes. She said, evil communicates with evil. And he said, there is a moral affinity between the liar and the liar. Light seeks light. Yes. You, you go ahead.

I was just going to see Alexander McLaren echoed that same sentiment when he said, sin loves the company of sin. Have birds of a feather flocked together. G. Campbell Morgan, evil ears for evil tongues. Oh, that one stings, doesn't it? And Charles Spurgeon, some men are born troublemakers. They love to hear lies because they live lies. Yes.

They live lies. William R.Nott said that evil men feed on evil speech. It's reinforcing, Rick. It continues until that cycle is broken by the word of God. God, what they hunger for. Some people hunger for truth, other people hunger for lies. But we have people today who say they are truth seekers who actually listen to lies. They listen to people lying, saying it's the truth.

There's a lot of that out there on social media, YouTube, and TikTok. You've got people claiming to be truth seekers. And yet they're lying about the truth. Yes. They have an agenda to the truth. They'll tell you the truth that they want you to know. And so there are extremes on both sides is the political spectrum on that. Oh, yes.

And it's also in the church, too. There's a lot of deception in the church. People are listening to lies. They won't endure sound doctrine, Rick. That's one of the earmarks of today. They will not endure sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine, coming in. Because what did Paul say that they craved for their itchy ears? Their ears were itching to be deceived.

Yes. They wanted to be deceived. Because there's a treat that's too tough to deal with. And that's one of the signs of the last days. Yes. So, you know, the positive way to look at it is, hey, this is evidence to Christ is coming back soon. Okay, well, that's our lesson for today. Thank you so much.

It's tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. So it's a holiday. And in America, we usually do several days together as a holiday. You know, we're not satisfied with just one day. We will turn three or four days into a holiday. And so which means America is basically shut. down on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as people go shopping, all right? So I do have a special treat for the next couple days.

So I went back in our archives, Rick, and I found a two-day study that we did on the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the Pearl of Great Price. We covered those in two days. And so those are the rebroadcast, the Morning Manor that we'll be sharing on Thanksgiving day and on Thanksgiving Friday as well. And so these are from about the year or so back. And their message is just as pertinent today as they were as they were when we first taught them.

And so that's going to be. Will they go out live at 8 a.m.? Or are they just going to be posted? As far as I know, they'll be going out live. I may be corrected on that here. Okay. Good. Okay.

Anyway, they'll be available Thursday and Friday of this week, so we will have some teaching available, and we encourage you to tune in. Maybe over the Thanksgiving holiday, play it while you're getting the turkey ready. Or play it while everybody else is watching football, whatever it might be. So get it in you, get the word in you, watch your lips, watch your lips, okay? And more than anything else, I think what I've taken away from this lesson today, Rick, is, you know, I feel like I have a pretty good command on my lips, and I make mistakes, okay?

But the ears sometimes, sometimes they gravitate toward things, you don't, should be listening to. Voices, they're telling you you can't do it, that you can't make it, that you're short. I remember back, sorry I'm rambling here, remember when I went to boot camp, when I joined the Army. One of the things in boot camp that they do to you is you are basically separated from everything else in the world for eight weeks.

They allow you a full call to mom and dad about three days in the boot camp. That's it. That's the last time you're going to communicate with them, unless you write them a letter or something. You're not going to talk. to him again. So for eight weeks, all you're hearing for eight weeks is the word of a drill sergeant saying, you're a soldier, you're a soldier, you're a soldier, you're a soldier,

and every day you have to do soldier things to put on a soldier's uniform. You are expected to meet the requirements of being a soldier. You're taking classes on how to be a good soldier. you're reciting the uniform code of military justice and all these different things but in order for that teaching to take hold you have to be separated from anything else you can't be having your mom and daddy said oh you poor baby are they treating you okay

are you doing all right or say you'll never make it you'll never make it through boot camp you'll never be a soldier no you've got there are times you have to be segregated from all these other voices and only hear the voice of your commander and allow

him to instruct you. Because these other voices, some are going to feel sorry for you. Some are going to try to pull you down. You can't allow those voices into your life. Listen to what the Lord is saying. You're a soldier. You're a soldier. You're a soldier.

Learn my ways. Put on my uniform. Put on my righteous robes. And so I'm just encouraged by this message today that you've got to listen carefully to the voices in your life. I just remember this. Somebody has your ear.

All right. Somebody in your life has your ear. Who is? That's what I desire you to take away from this lesson. Think about it, ponder. Who has your ear? Who has your ear? Who has a heart?

access to your life? Who has access to your inner being? Who's speaking into your life? And are they speaking life or are they speaking death? What are they speaking into you? Are they condemning you or are they encouraging you? If they're not speaking right words, you've got to cut off their voices. Yes. If you're going to grow in the Lord. Well, listen, that's it again. I encourage you to pray for Doc. He's going to be flying out to California to meet his wife, Mia, who's coming home from a visit in the Philippines. She was with her mother and she's coming home. And you're going to be having Thanksgiving with your daughter, right? That's right. So me and I will be out there, but we'll be back here Sunday. And so Monday,

we'll be back here again for more morning manor. All right. All right. Well, everybody have a Have a great Thanksgiving. We want to remind you, Rick, before we go, we need to remind folks about the special on American Reserves this weekend. Yes, so American Reserves will have a, you know, a Thanksgiving Day sale here in the United States. I think it's buy one, get one free on all the food products. Now, there's a discount on the non-food products. And there's a promo code, prepare 2026th. Starts Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, and it ends Monday night.

Monday is, so that's the Thanksgiving, Black Friday sale that goes from Thursday to Monday night. And it's a very, very good sale. Buy one, get one free, Americanreserves.com. Yes, amen. All right. God bless everyone. We love you very much. On behalf of everyone here at the ministry,

we want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving to those here in the U.S. And no matter where you are in the world, a very happy and blessed day as you listen to the right voice. Amen. And God bless you. We'll see you next time.