Proverbs 18 21 death and life
are in the power of the tongue And they that love it Shall eat
the fruit thereof And we can easily see that this
is true the power of the tongue the The many cases in which life
and death hang upon what is said, judgments made or spoken, and depending on the word handed
down, people live or die. Judges are certainly in that
category, kings, dictators, because There's a lot more dictators
nowadays than there are kings. Whatever they say goes, and sometimes
they say death or life. People on the jury, I was very
impressed one time when I was involved just as a witness in a case against
somebody that I knew very well. It hit me pretty hard to look
at the jurors and realize that this man's life hangs on what
they decide. He wouldn't have been killed,
but his life would have been ruined if they had decided against
him. Even criminal bosses anyone who
has the influence to say the word. Or if any of those spoke life
for somebody, they would be protected because of the authority of their
word on it. It's also true in cases that
aren't so apparent, so evident. Senator or representative in
Congress in our country can say I or may And the consequences
of that vote can result in the death of thousands If not millions of people Not only voting for war or involvement
in war but Decisions, foolish or otherwise,
can result in much death. Voting to legalize the killing
of babies. It's not a time to mince words,
is it? Now there are those who love
that power. and those who don't. God gives that authority to some
that don't love it. They respect it, they're in awe
of what God does and who he uses to do that. They don't love the
fact that they have that power. We see that in natural things
too, a general an army, somebody who makes a decision based on
strategy and facts of the situation in the army or the armed forces.
They may give an order that results in many casualties, but take no pleasure at all in
that. His decision His order, grave
consequences, but he don't love it. But of course also there are
power crazy fools in this world, many everywhere, that very much
take pleasure in the havoc that they cause. If you love it, our scripture
says, if you love that power, if you delight in the power itself that is given you by God, then
you'll reap what you sow. It says you'll eat the fruit
of it. So that's fruit results in sowing. So you will reap according to
the Lord. You will reap what you sow if
you delight in that power. If you sow death with your words,
again, so many ways to do that, not so obvious ones. Then you'll reap that if life,
then that's the other side of it.
Some people with whatever authority they have, they want to do good
by the grace of God. They want that to result in the
betterment and improvement of life or the saving of life. And never is all of this any
more true than in spiritual things, in the power of the tongue. is death and life, and God has
ordained it so, that words are the manner in which he bestows
life on dead sinners. In Ezekiel 16,
six, the Lord speaking of that baby in a field, he says, when
I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
I said unto thee, This is significant because the Lord passes by, this
is an allegory, this is a picture. And the Lord passes by this dead
baby covered in blood. All he had to do was will it.
All he had to do was pass by, but he spoke. That teaches us
something. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live, yea, I sinned to thee. He repeats it, when
thou wast in thy blood, live. And of course, that's a picture
of the gospel and how God gives life to dead sinners. It's the
regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that God gives to give
life and faith in his son. John 6, 66, from that time, many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him when
he taught them of his sovereignty and saving sinners. And then
said Jesus under the 12, will you also go away? And this is
so interesting. I want to preach again on this
sometimes, because I believe the Lord has has given some light
on this when he says, will you also go away? That's interesting, isn't it?
He didn't say thank you for not going away. When God gives faith
and commitment in him, he tests it, doesn't he? He tests it.
And this wasn't a strong test of that, but it's a principle
that we see in this. Will you also go away? You got
other things to do, other places to be? Are you offended by the
fact that unless my father brings you to me, you're not coming
to me? Does that offend you? Will you leave too? He tests
it. He forces them to either commit
or walk away. And then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? The Lord gave him a good answer,
didn't he? We're shut up to you, in other words. That's what it
means to be shut up to Christ, to have nowhere else to go, no
other hope. Spend all we had and worse. And here's his reasoning in that. You have the words of eternal
life. Life and death are in the power
of the tongue. That's where God has put it.
1 Corinthians 1.17. Remember, you'll remember when
Paul said this, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God, the preaching, the tongue, telling forth the
glories of Christ, telling sinners how they can be saved by looking
to Him who successfully redeems sinners on Calvary, by looking
to Him who is the very righteousness of God in which a sinner can
stand, accepted in His sight. By that means, By the tongue,
the power of God goes forth to save. That's our text. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
2, please. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12. And I started early in this text
to show what's happening here. 2 Corinthians 2, 12, furthermore,
when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, to preach his
gospel. Paul called it my gospel at times,
But my gospel has got to be his gospel. It can't just be what
I think about it or my opinions on it or the deductions that
I've come to based upon it. My gospel is Christ's gospel. And we're talking about preaching.
And a door was opened unto me of the Lord. I had no rest in
my spirit because I found not, Titus, and my brother, but taking
my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia." Now,
he's talking about preaching the gospel. So I went to Macedonia, for what
reason? To preach the gospel, to preach Christ's gospel. And
then he says this, now, thanks be unto God, which always causes
us to triumph in Christ, not in ourselves, and maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place." That's by the preaching
of his gospel. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. So there's
three characters in this story. There's God, well four, God,
his son, those that perish, and those that don't perish. We're
a sweet saver of Christ to God every time, no matter what happens. Because it's God's will happening,
whether sinners live or whether they die. It's God's good purpose
being played out. We are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ if we preach Christ's gospel. in them that are saved and in
them that perish. Now, here's the other two characters,
though. To the one, we are the saver
of death unto death. Still a sweet saver of Christ
unto God, but to some, to many, it's the saver of death. And
to the other, the saver of life unto life. And look at Paul's reaction.
He didn't delight in the fact that God made him instrumental. He didn't go around thinking,
look how powerful I am, I can make sinners live or die. No,
he said, I'm not sufficient for this. God's using me anyway. But I'm not even sufficient for
this. Who is, for we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God. In the sight of God speak we
in Christ. God has ordained it so that life
and death are in the power of the tongue. In the greatest sense
of those words, life and death. Paul's response to that, again,
was not to delight in the fact that he had such power, that
such a weighty thing was laid upon him. His response was, I'm not enough. It's okay though, because it's
the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. We're not indifferent about that.
We don't preach either with the attitude that here's the gospel,
take it or leave it. Either way is fine, no? We beseech
you. We beseech you, be you reconciled
to God. Be you reconciled to God. Of course, there are those who
claim to speak for God, who speak nothing but death, nothing but
death. And it's a terrible, it weighs
on the heart of a believer, I think, to hear it. I wanna read you
something that I saw this week that just weighed heavily on
my heart, just to hear this. This is the way, this is the
way this religious world, much of it, reasons. Listen to this statement. Repentance
washes you free of sin. Repentance is something that
we do. God doesn't repent. That's plainly stated. He is
the Lord. He's not like us that He should
repent. That's something we do. Repentance washes you free from
sin. And listen to the reasoning.
Believe it or not, which is an interesting way to proceed with
that. Believe it or not, when you repent,
you take on the burden of your own sin. You don't wanna do that. You
don't wanna take upon yourself the burden of your sin. It will
sweep you into hell. And it transformed, let me read
it, I keep stopping, so let me read it from the beginning again.
Repentance washes you free of sin. Believe it or not, when
you repent, you take on the burden of your own sin, and it transforms
into merit. We're doing it, where's chapter
and verse, where's the word of God in that? And he said, this
is according to Talmudic reasoning. That's according to Talmudic
reasoning. Jewish religion. When you repent, you're taking
on the burden of your own sin and it transforms into merit.
Because you do that, because you're sorry that you did some
bad stuff, God counts you righteous in his sight. That's just depressing, isn't
it? It's depressing, that's death. Every phrase of that is death
for a sinner. In the power of the tongue that
teaches thousands of people, millions of people, entire country,
that horrible falsehood, in the power of their tongue, by God's
design, is spiritual death. People are gonna die and go to
hell because somebody's teaching that nonsense. Of course it's not unchecked
death. God ultimately controls and determines
who lives and who dies spiritually. But woe unto that man, don't
you think? Woe unto that man by whom the
son of man is betrayed because that's what that is. That's a
betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ is what that is. His blood washes you free of
sin. And he took on himself the burden
of our sins. So all the merit was his. His righteousness is perfect.
His sin offering is satisfactory. According to the Word of God,
not our reasoning, not anybody's reasoning, according to what
God said, we're righteous in the sight
of God by His blood, by His righteousness. That's life. The tongue that speaks the power
of God Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the
power of God and the salvation. The tongue that speaks that power,
the authority and the ability of God to save, speaks life. The tongue that speaks of the
successful almighty savior and his sufficient satisfactory atonement
speaks life. That's the way God's ordained
it. That's life to say that. The tongue that speaks of the
Son of God being all of the sinner's righteousness and all of the
sinner's sin offerings and all of the sinner's acceptance with
God speaks life to dead sinners. And may God keep the door of
our lips and make it so of us. Colossians
4.3, with all praying also for us, pray for us that God would
open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ,
for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as
I ought to speak, to speak the mystery plainly. Isn't that a beautiful play on
words? To speak the mystery of Christ, but to speak it in such
a way that it's evident, manifest, as I ought to. Walk in wisdom
toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your
speech be all way with grace. He's not saying just talk, just
say nice words. He's talking about let your speech
be according to the grace of God in Christ. Seasoned with salt that you may
know how you ought to answer every man. May God make it so.