Audio Download

“A false witness shall not be unpunished” Part 1

(Pro 19:1-10)

[Study Aired September 18, 2025]

Pro 19:1  Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Pro 19:2  Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.
Pro 19:3  The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
Pro 19:4  Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.
Pro 19:5  A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Pro 19:6  Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
Pro 19:7  All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
Pro 19:8  He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.
Pro 19:9  A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
Pro 19:10  Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

The main focus of this study will be on how God plans to burn up the false witness within each of us so that through Christ we can become “witnesses of these things” (Luk 24:48, Act 5:32), ‘these things’ being the things that pertain to life (1Co 6:3, 2Pe 1:3)

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.

Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Our first verses:

Pro 19:1  Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Pro 19:2  Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.

These first two proverbs have to do with our walk. One talks about walking with integrity and the other about sinning as we walk with haste with our feet. Whatever integrity we have is of the Lord, and when we are of a poor and contrite spirit which is a gift from God (Isa 66:2), the good fruit brought forth will be the result of God’s chastening and scourging of that fool within us so that we are no longer speaking with the perverse tongue and are now quick to hear and slow to speak, not hasting with our feet (Tit 2:12-13, Heb 12:6, Jas 1:19).

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Jas 1:19  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

We are called to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour (2Pe 3:18), and if we are blessed to do that in this age, to be given a hunger and thirst for His righteousness (Mat 5:6), then our conversation, our walk, or way of life will become less and less hasting to go in the way that seems right to us, that leads to leaning upon our own understanding, as opposed to the one who is blessed to learn to trust God with all their hearts (Pro 3:3-7, Psa 118:27) so that our paths can be directed by Him (Rom 8:14-16).

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:[God must accomplish this binding process as we are his workmanship to that end  Psa 118:27]
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: [Children who now have a broken and contrite heart, that is bound to the altar of God, the cross, and not bound by self-righteous iniquity and pride]

The natural inclination in our flesh to do what we want to do, must be put to death daily (1Co 9:27) in order for our lives to trust in God whole heartedly. This can only be accomplished by being tried and tested through much tribulation (Act 14:22),  so the life of Christ can be ruling and reigning in everything we set out to accomplish in His service (2Co 1:9, Rom 8:28, Isa 62:2, Isa 66:2, Psa 34:18, Psa 51:17)

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: [which represents our hearts and minds that God can and will rule over in this age if He has determined to do this (Joh 4:23, Luk 17:10, Php 2:12-13)] where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?[Joh 2:19, Psa 127:1, Psa 94:17]
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Pro 19:3  The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
Pro 19:4  Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.

Psalm 37:1-8 is the antidote for not fretting against God, which is the natural spiritual by product of one who foolishly stops trusting in Him and puts their trust in man. When we stop trusting in God we go back into the world, into keeping the law (our own righteousness of Php 3:9), the way Titus and Crescens did (2Ti 4:10, Gal 3:1-4).

Psa 37:1  A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Psa 37:2  For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Psa 37:4  Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psa 37:5  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Psa 37:6  And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Psa 37:7  Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Psa 37:8  Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Gal 3:4  Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

We are easily beset by sin (Heb 12:1), and when that law of sin in our members manifests the things that we don’t want to do and can no longer do the things that we want to do, it takes a miracle as we cry out to God to separate us from our first man Adam, typified by “his neighbour”: “but the poor is separated from his neighbour”

The “poor” in this proverb represent the elect who are separated from our rich Babylonian past where “Wealth maketh many friends”, when we thought we were rich and increased and had need of nothing, like the rich young ruler who typifies our time of being self-righteous in the churches of Babylon. The natural state of this religious beast must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ coming into our heavens (2Th 2:5-8). The reality is that judgement is on the very few elect in this age (1Pe 4:17, Mat 22:14) who are being brought to see God’s mercy and how He is-was-and-will-be faithful to deliver us from our wretchedness (Rom 7:14-25).

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Pro 19:5  A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Pro 19:6  Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
Pro 19:7  All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.

On a basic level, these verses point to human nature’s tendency to ignore the poor, the ‘nobodies’ of the world, and woo the rich or those with influence etc. As the ERV puts it, “That poor person can beg them for help. But they will not go near him”.

On a higher spiritual level these verses are speaking about Babylon again, whose gifts to one another are predicated on the lie that they are one in the Lord (Rev 11:9-10) with an ecumenical spirit which is a “false witness”, and represents our time in the harlot churches of this world (Pro 29:3) that God says won’t go unpunished. Each man, in their appointed time, will give an accounting for every idle word that God has caused us to bring forth “and he that speaketh lies shall not escape” (Mat 12:36). The more united the churches of this world become, the more hated we, ‘the poor’  will be by the many who “will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler”  [Babylon and the kings of the earth of  Rev 18:3-5], “and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give”(BBE). (Luk 23:10-12, Rev 17:14, Rev 11:9-10). As “the poor” of this proverb with “the brethren [that] do hate him”, Babylon whom we come out of, our words are not heard if God is not dragging these our Babylonian brothers and sisters to Christ. “He is pursuing words–they are not!”(YLT) They cannot hear us. (Mat 10:22, Joh 8:43, 1Jn 4:6)

Luk 23:12  And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.

Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Mat 23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

1Jn 4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hearby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Pro 19:8  He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.
Pro 19:8 The one who acquires good sense loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success. (NWT)

He that gets Christ, who is our wisdom (1Co 1:30), “loveth his own soul”. Christ our pearl of great price (Mat 13:45-46) is being nurtured in each other as a pearl that must increase as we decrease (Joh 3:30). Christ in us grows and matures through the irritations of this life that parallel with the grain of sand that gets into an oyster, who then covers that sand with nacre, over and over, the sand being symbolic of the much tribulation (Act 14:22) that is needed to see Christ the pearl of great price increase and be formed within each of us.

No man ever hated his own flesh, and we are the flesh and bones of Christ that we love (Eph 5:29-30). We safeguard the understanding that we have found by the grace and faith of Christ (Eph 2:8), and in doing this we find good, that good being a relationship with our Father in heaven who alone gives us the increase of His sons life within us, and through his goodness we “shall find good” that leads us unto repentance (Joh 14:21, Joh 14:6, 1Co 3:6, Rom 2:4) which leads to Life, true “success” (Mat 7:14).

Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.[Joh 15:15]

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Pro 19:9  A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
Pro 19:10  Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

A false witness is someone who adds to, or takes away from God’s word which we have all done in our own appointed time, and now we see and believe the admonition that anyone who does that is going to perish, “he that speaketh lies shall perish”, meaning spiritually not go unto maturity and be in that blessed and holy first resurrection (Rev 22:19).

Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

We delight in God’s word and do not want to think above what is written (1Co 4:6), being ever vigilant to keep a sound pattern of words (2Ti 1:13) that glorify God and keep us united in faith (Php 2:2), with the same mind and the same spirit, which God’s word is (Joh 6:63).

Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

This spiritual “delight” that we have in God’s word “is not seemly for a fool” and the fool is the Nicolaitan spirit of a “servant” who wants to “rule over princes”, controlling the laity with false doctrines, great swelling of vanity (2Pe 2:18-22).

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.(1Jn 2:19, Heb 6:4-6)

1Jn 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

The gates of hell (Mat 16:18) that won’t prevail against the church are likened unto “the bars of a castle” spoken of in (Pro 18:19) that contain all the thousand thousand lies of Babylon (Rev 9:3, Rev 9:16) that make up this strong city of Babylon.

Pro 18:19  A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Twice in these proverbs we’ve covered today are we told that “A false witness shall not be unpunished”, along with the dire consequence for doing that which is to not escape, and to perish.

Thanks be to God we are in a process of being redeemed, and Christ alone is the faithful witness within us who is the author and finisher of this process that can only be accomplished with His faith (Rev 3:11, Rev 17:14, Rev 3:14, 1Jn 5:4).

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1Jn 5:5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?