A key text this morning is going
to be Proverbs chapter 10. If you'd like to turn there with
me. Proverbs 10 verse 11. That text says this, the mouth
of the righteous is a fountain of life. But the mouth of the wicked conceals
violence. As we look at the Proverbs and
as you've seen over the last six weeks or so, it is it is
it is full. I mean, we could take each sentence
and break it into two pieces and just deal with it. Unfortunately,
how we usually deal with Proverbs is that we look at them sort
of like we do a fortune cookie. We crack it open, we peel back
the paper, we enjoy the snack, and we throw the paper in the
trash. We find ourselves walking through these things very quickly
or using them as vitamins. Those of you who know my little
thing on vitamin pop in Christianity, it's when we come to the Word
of God and we say, God, I'm feeling a little down today, I want a
happy pill. And I open my Bible and I look and I find that verse
that makes me happy and I eat that verse and I go on to the
next portion of my day. And maybe I'm in a challenge
of my day that's causing me to be grief, you know, have grief
or cause me to be a little tired. And then I go to the Bible and
I seek after the word of God as a vitamin box. And I look
in there and I find where I might be able to find a little bit
of strength for this particular day or a little bit of strength
for this particular issue or a little bit of knowledge or
a little bit of wisdom. And we've got our bag of vitamins, our sack
of fortune cookies, and we walk around powerless because we're
not experiencing intimacy with God, but rather we're smelling
the aroma of his presence. The Proverbs are one of the easiest
places to do this. Partly because that's the way
they're written, little tiny fortune cookie style sentences.
But the Proverbs should be a thread that ties us to the rest of the
word. Oftentimes, the reason the Bible
is such a little pill type mindset in our lives and has that type
of effect on us or we approach it in that way is because we
don't have enough of the word in us to make any effect at all.
I would also suggest to you that when we go to the word of God
for those types of things as the mainstay of our diet, we
are actually playing. With our relationship with Jesus
Christ. Because we're not seeking him. We're not seeking to be
intimate with him, we're seeking to get what we can out of him.
And Jesus says in John, do not labor for the food that perishes.
I will suggest to you that the food that perishes is eating
the Bible like a chicken McNugget meal. But labor for the food that endures
to eternal life. And so today, as we approach
a specific issue that has been preached on 5000 million times,
probably. For as long as the scripture
has been around in writing, I'm sure that this text itself has
been spoken of. And that's how we use our language,
how we use our mouth, how we use our tongue. How we speak
to one another, because why speaking is one of the main ways, the
primary ways that we relate to each other. And it's one of the
ways that we rightly relate to one another in the power of the
gospel. I mean, a hug does wonderful things, a hand gesture, a smile,
all those things are well and good. However, it is our words
with one another that calls us to truly begin to grow in our
understanding of things. If I stood here and smiled and
pointed without ever saying a word and just said this, this focus
on that and let's stand and smile at one another. I mean, it may
be good for some of you, but for most of us, it would be an
absolute waste of an hour. Smiling and looking. So to downplay
the importance of what we say with our mouths is really at
best is ignorant. But none of us would do that.
And the reality of words is that they're everywhere. Words are
everywhere. Words are everywhere. You see them. You hear them.
You speak them. They're everywhere. I don't know what the count is
for a daily person to speak. I used to know this, but I haven't
looked it up lately. But, you know, the number of words that
we speak in a day and the number of words that we read in a day
and the number of words that we hear in a day, I'd love for
you to go and research that. I should have done that, but
I didn't spend the time to do it. But words come and they go
with no real thought. We don't recognize that they're
there. We think and speak and listen without giving much consideration
of what we are saying or hearing. Much less of what it can do to
those around us or to our own hearts. The eyes are the windows to the
soul. And yet we will put words in our eyes that actually bleed
into our soul. And then they form foundational
truths in our soul that relate to us in a negative way. and
put a barrier between our intimacy and God. The same thing with our ears.
It's the words. It's not music that makes a song
ungodly. It's the lyrics. Because you could take any good
hymn tune and put worldly song lyrics to it, and it would be
a godless song. People relate to each other in
many ways. People relate to each other in many levels, different
levels, but nothing molds a relationship like the words we speak and hear. Nothing. When it comes to speaking,
we really think of it as just some normal thing like breathing. However, speaking is a very intentional
thing. When we speak is a very intentional
thing. It is something that our minds
have decided that we want to portray with words and with language. And so we pull out of our head
and I will show you in a moment we pulled out of our hearts,
the very things that come out of our mouths. And really, our speaking comes
from the depths of our soul. As we consider this, We see that
the proverbs we see here, it says the mouth of the righteous
is the fountain of life. And the antithesis is, but the
mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Well, let me tell you
what that's saying, the mouth of the righteous gives life,
but the mouth of the wicked gives death. And not only is it death,
but it's a concealed death of concealed violence. You don't
see it coming. Now, Of course, because this
is a proverb, because there's few things to really deal with
right there. And if you look at the surrounding
verses before and after, we can look at some of those things
about the mouth, the mouth of the righteous is a fount of life.
The one before that, you know, it talks about whoever winks
the eye causes trouble, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. So there's
issues there, but specifically, I want to talk about the mouth. If you're in Proverbs, you can
see verse 14. The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a
fool brings ruin near. Verse 13, on the lips of him
who has understanding, wisdom is found. But a rod is for the
back of him who lacks sense. So as we look at the mouth, I
want to ask you to ask yourself what truly comes out of your
mouth every day. What kind of words do you speak? Who do you
talk to and how do you talk to them? You talk to yourself, you
talk to your family, talk to your friends, you talk to your
enemies. What do you talk about? Remember a few weeks back when
we looked at the intimacy of our heart, we looked at our idols,
we looked at the affections of our soul? Friends, I'll really
tell you that although there are some attitudes that respond
and flow out of those affections, there are some actions that flow
out of those affections. And I can prove to you that what
we say with our mouths are a clear indicator of what really lies
inside of us. From out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaks. You ever heard that? The mouth
tells much about who we are. It teaches the world around us
what is most important to us. It teaches everyone with an earshot
of our lives exactly what we love and hold dear. Put it to
a test. Who do you talk about the most
when you're near people that you love? You talk about your
children. You talk about your home, you talk about your spouse,
you talk about your job, you talk about your hobbies, you
talk about your entertainment. You talk about the weather, you talk
about politics. See, some people think that talking about the
weather is just something to kill time because you don't know what else
to talk about, but literally, I mean, there are people in my family
who are very concerned about the weather. I knew it was supposed to snow
somewhere around here before. I mean, but my family down south
knew it was going to snow around here before I did. They called. Did you know it was going to
freeze? No, I didn't realize that. How did you know? I'm watching
the weather. How are you watching the weather? I'm watching the
satellite, the West Coast side weather channel. Why? Just checking on
you. You know, if there's an earthquake
in Chile, they call. Did y'all feel that? Did you have aftershocks? Did
you have tremors? I'm like, we're not connected to every earthquake
in the world. But these are concerns. These are affections. These are
passions. We will talk about them. The price of gas. I have
spoken about that recently. Saturday morning, I was unbelievably
flabbergasted that gas had gone up almost 20 cents in 12 hours
in some places. So I called my father. Hey, Dad, how are you doing?
I'm fine, son. What's gas running? It's what we are concerned about.
We talk about the things we're concerned about. I'm not saying
we should. And I just want us to see that
it's there. We talk about things that we love. And what we love
and what we speak are precious to us, and they display, I like
to say, the exact center of our passions and our affections.
Our words display the center. And so at the present time, what
we speak of is the center of our thinking, which is the center
of our affection. That may not be our ultimate
effect. I pray it's not. I pray that the weather is not the thing
that you love the most. And so in balancing that sort
of as an end to the beginning of the sermon today, do you speak
of Christ most often? Does your talk about the weather
bring you to the gospel? Does your talk about the things
that you love to do bring you to your ultimate love, the lover
of your soul? So words are important because
from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, they display
the exact center of our passions and our affections, where we
spend our voices as a mirror to our hearts. And I'll tell you that it's also
important that we understand about words and how we speak to one
another, because every word is vital. Every Word is vital. And not only is it vital, there's
going to be a count of every word. Matthew 12, 36, I tell
you, on the Day of Judgment, people will give an account for
every careless word they speak. How many careless words have
we spoken just today? Friends, I think we ought to
just put that just for kicks, we ought to put that on a card
and carry it around with us. Let's see if we have a better
voice in a week. I don't know about you, the more
I talk, the worse my voice gets. And why is it so vital? Why is
what we speak so important? Why is it so important to Christ?
Why is it so important to God? Why is it so central around the
gospel? Well, because that's how we communicate who we really
are and what we say Words, honestly, are life. What is said to us
are life. Now, what I'm not saying, do
not hear what I'm not saying. What I'm not saying is that words
are powerful, and they hold things together, and they create reality.
I'm not a word of faith guy. But words are life. Don't believe
me? Matthew 4. What does Jesus quote
there? Man cannot live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Well,
that's talking about the Scripture. Yeah, but God is saying that. In Colossians, Jesus upholds
the universe by the power of His Word. Words are important. And so in the Imagio Dei, in
the image of God, we are made, and so I believe our words are
important. The difference in how we speak and how God speaks
is that God always speaks life and always speaks righteously.
Even when He speaks to condemn, it is right and loving. But we use our tongue for evil
and for good. So, if the mouth of the righteous
is a fountain of life, as we've seen here in Proverbs 10, verse
11, what are we to do with the fact that our mouths are used
for evil? I mean, I reflect on James chapter
3, one of the verses that nearly kept me out of the ministry for
years. James 3, 1. Not many of you should become
teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness. Friends, teaching is done primarily
with the words that we speak. And so those who teach with their
mouths will be held to a stricter standard before a holy God, especially
those who teach what God is saying. So for some of you who feel as
though you're called to be a teacher of the word of God, please tremble.
For it is not a gain. Nor is it something that you
can take lightly. But we all stumble in many ways,
James says, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says,
he is a perfect man. Also able to bridle his whole
body. Amazing. James says if a man
can bridle his tongue, he is perfect in every way for he is
able to bridle his body. If we put bits in the mouth of
horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as
well. Look at the ships. They are so large and are driven
by strong winds. They are guided by very small
rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also, James
says, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the
tongue is a fire. A world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members,
staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of
life and set on fire by hell sounds like Edwards, doesn't
it? For every kind of beast and bird
and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed
by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a
restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our
Lord Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness
of God. From the same mouth come blessing
and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be. Does
the spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt
water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce
figs? Neither can a salt pond yield
fresh water. The mouth of the righteous is
the fountain of life, but the mouth of the unrighteous is death."
That's how I want you to paraphrase that. The mouth of the wicked
conceals violence. And I'll tell you, Sometimes
our feelings are out of our control, aren't they? But you know what
I've come to realize that our mouths are under our control,
but yet James says no one contained the tongue. But through the Holy Spirit of
God, we can bite our tongue. We might not be able to control
it, at least what it wants to say. But we can bite it. We can bite it. And there's more
demonic speech and satanic talk And I'm not talking about just,
I'm not talking about demonic things and satanic things. I'm
talking about the heart from which the mouth flows. It's absolutely
demonic in some of our lives. My own, at times. Because we
speak out of the heart of wickedness and we're not being controlled
by the Spirit of God. The Word of God is not dwelling
in us so richly today that our mercies are new that we might
not sin against Him. We are just walking in the flesh
and allowing the words of our mouths just to flow out like
a pariah. All over everyone. See, we use
words for many different things, we use words to teach, we teach
whether we're trying to teach or not, when we speak something
into someone else's ears, we we talk into their lives, we
are speaking some teaching. We are instructing them. We are
teaching. If we come to someone and we
just go off and explode about an issue, we are teaching them
who we really are and where our affections lie. We are also teaching
them the power of the gospel in our lives. And if they're
a brother or sister, they will see the weakness. If they're
a lost person, they will see no hope. We teach. We teach with our mouths. We also tell with our mouths.
We tell stories. We entertain, we enjoy telling
things. And so we share our lives together
with our mouths, and it's not just our mouths, our emails.
When I'm talking about our words, it's our words, anything we communicate
in words, our words. Whether we write it or speak
it or type it or think it, and they're coming up with that probably
one day, we think about it and it types it out. I hope not. We talk to each other. We just
relate to one another in a general sense, in a superficial level.
You know, you're at the gas pump. Hey, how you doing? Good. Have
a good day. God bless you. Can you believe gas has gotten
so high? Now, I tell you what, then you're
three hours later. I mean, we tattle on each other with
our mouths. We tell each other we like to
tattle. Children tattle as a natural thing, and it grows up in the
adults, and we call it gossip. We're not trying to get people
in trouble, we're just trying to feel better about ourselves. We tattle,
we toil, we work with our mouths. Some people make a living with
their mouths. Some people make life miserable
with their mouths. I mean, it's one thing to be
offended, it's another thing to keep digging a grave. A fool's lips walks into a fight. And his mouth invites a beating.
That's Proverbs 18, 6. My dad used to say it this way.
Don't let your mouth write a check that your butt can't cash. Don't go NSF with your mouth,
boy. A fool's mouth is his ruin and
his lips are a snare to his soul. The one who conceals hatred has
lying lips. And whoever utters slander is
a fool. When the words are many, transgression is not lacking.
The proverb says. But whoever restrains his lips
is prudent. Did you hear that? That's Proverbs 18, 19, by the
way, when his words are many, transgression is not lacking.
You know what that means? The more you talk, the more you sin. The more you talk, the more you
sin. I'll be straight with you. I have to agree with that 200
percent. The more we speak, the easier it is to fall into sin
because we speak. Ultimately, we begin to speak
and we're not listening to the word of God. We're not listening
to the spirit of God. We're not teachable. We just want to get
our point across. We want to tell people what they're doing
is wrong. We want to explain ourselves. We want to defend
ourselves. We want to be the one that's in charge. We want to
have the esteem. We want the applause of man. We just keep
on talking. We keep on talking. We keep on
talking. And look at the world that we're in today. How many
wars have been fought over a poor feeling? How many wars is America actually
engaged in because of a because of an issue of politics? I would
say zero. Something happens in the political
scheme, someone gets shot, someone threatens another nation. What
do we do? We threaten. Don't you do stop it. And then
the other person comes back. Don't you threaten me. What are
you going to do about it? I'll show you what I'm going
to do. I got the button. I got the phone. I'll put out
the middle. It's the talking that causes
it to be. That's the whole thing. I used to always think it would
be better for have the leaders of those governments to play
a game of chess and whoever lost just went home and hushed. I'm not downplaying the necessity
of war, I'm just saying. What a pun. We use our words to teach, to
tell, to talk, to tattle, to toil. We use our words for good
and for evil. We use our words, hopefully for
the glory of God. But oftentimes we use our words
for our own glory. We can use our words for building
up, we can use our words for encouragement, we can use our
words to bring life into someone's someone's heart to encourage
them, not flattery, not lying, but true encouragement, true
building. Even if what we have to say is
not pleasant, it can be said in a pleasant way. Bad news is
often better said kindly and gently. In fact, the scripture
even talks about that, and I'll get into this in a moment, but
the scripture talks about those who are spiritual should go in
gentleness, humility. Everything we speak, we ought
to speak in humility. We can use our words for building, we
can use our words for killing. Out of all the fights I've been
in in my entire life, they've all started because somebody
said something to somebody else. And usually it was because some
dude of mine was jealous of a girl that he was going out with, and
you know how that goes. So-and-so's trying to take my
girlfriend. Well, she left you for him. He's not taking anybody.
And that's just sort of animosity. Well, when they see each other,
then they start talking. And then the talking turns into fighting.
A fool's lips walks into a fight, Proverbs 18, 6. And his mouth
invites a beating. You see, if I didn't know any
better, I think that Solomon spent some time in South Georgia
before he wrote that one. That's sort of a code of honor
down there. Killing, we use our words for killing, we use our
words for loving, we share affections with our words, we thank someone,
we share intimacy with each other, with our words. Oh, I love you,
you're precious to me, you're beautiful. See, women like to
hear that if it's sincere. How do we say you're beautiful
and I love you and I lay my life down for you and then the next
day we turn around and tell them that they're ugly and they annoy
us? Because we're angry. So we're building and loving
and then we're killing and destroying. We use words for laughing. We
use words to express joy. When's the last time you had
a good laugh anyway? And we should most of all use
our words to exhibit grace. To exhibit grace, when, how,
who do we speak to? Really, I ask this question in
the very beginning of this message. Who do you talk to on a regular
basis? You speak to yourself, you should.
You should be causal in that, and I think you should turn those
thoughts more to prayers than just thinking. But if you don't
speak to yourself intentionally, then your mind will speak to
yourself unintentionally. But we speak to our children.
How do we speak to our children? How do our children speak to each
other? Probably the way that we speak to them. So at times when I've actually
said these words in my home, why do you talk to each other
like you're animals? Chances are I probably modeled
that in some way. Harshness. We speak to our parents,
even if we're grown men. We speak to our parents. Do we
speak to our parents with humility? We speak to each other. We speak
to people who are older than us with some kind of respect.
Not always. And we should. Even if what we have to say is
a little bit pointed and a little bit a little bit hard to swallow
for some, we ought to do that with humility and respect. We
speak to our friends. You know what's really amazing?
Those people that we're just relationally friends with. Don't
we treat them a lot better than we do the people in our own homes
sometimes? Well, it used to irritate me
when I was a little kid growing up. And it'd be a big... You
ever had a blow-up in your house? Just raise your hand. Oh, you're
a bunch of liars. No, I'm playing. I mean, you
know, a big blow-up, a fight, things go bad. If you're... Like,
you know, I got younger brothers. I got four younger brothers.
I mean, we had problems. I mean, it would go from yelling,
screaming, kicking, knocking. And when we got a little older,
it went to arm-breaking. I mean, you know, it's good stuff. Always
got a little redneck sprawl going on in the living room. Breaking
arms, breaking noses, breaking doors. I mean, just crazy stuff.
Like, good candidate for Jerry Springer show. Just satanic, demonic, fleshly
garbage. Or your mom and your dad are
getting to... And, you know, and everybody just had these
nerves. And everybody sits down, going to have a family meeting.
And everybody's emotional. And everybody's got something
to say. Family... I hated family meetings. I'd
rather go to the dentist. And so everybody's got something
to say, and we're just all sharing our hearts, and we're just talking,
and we're digging a deeper hole, because nobody's being forgiving,
and nobody's being humble. Everybody's wants their point
to be heard. You know, and as children, that's sort of what
we do. And I remember being young, and everybody's upset, and then
mom and dad are fussing, because the kids have started an argument,
and then it's our fault. See what you've done? Now me
and your mom are fighting. You know? Well, if you were as
smart as I was, you wouldn't see that, you wouldn't have to,
you know. And then, and just one thing, and then the phone rings. You know what I'm about to say,
don't you? And it's like 30 seconds before, it's like, hey, how's
it going? Oh, the world's good. Life's
great. Woo! Because your friend's on
the phone. Don't call me right now. I'm
in the middle of something. You would never say that. Some of us might.
But as a whole, we turn it around. You know what that shows? We
choose. How we use our mouths, most of
the time. We choose how we use our mouths.
And we use our mouths. And we speak to our coworkers,
we speak to our enemies, we speak to our God. And we ought to be very careful
how we use our words. All of them think critically.
Walk through a conversation in your head and not how you think
they're going to respond, but how you think it's going to sound.
And it's the gospel of Jesus Christ going to be evident, and
is it the motivator? In your heart, because we speak
to other and we use our words in a relational way, our tongue
as Christians should be life giving words always, always. And thankfully, God is a God
of grace. But I'm going to tell you something, friends. I think
this is one of the most practical things that I've dealt with in
my own life throughout the years, especially in ministry, is learning
how to communicate as a person who's going to give grace to
someone else. The old golden rule, as we like to call it,
do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Speak to others
as you would have them speak to you. And see, some of us right now
would say in our hearts, we'd be thinking, we're thinking that
way and we go, yeah, but I'm the one in charge. That's what
we're thinking about ourselves. Or the worst, I'm the dad around
here. I'm the head of this house and
I'll talk to you however I want. That is godless. All right, kids,
quit looking at your dads. Because whether he's godless
or not, you've got to submit to him. But our tongue should be life.
The word of a man's mouth are deep, deep waters, and the fountain
of wisdom is a bubbling brook. The waters, the living waters
of the words that come out of our mouths, they can breathe
life. Now, I'm not saying they're magic
words, but you know what I'm talking about. You know what
the difference is in speaking into someone's life as a person
who exhibits grace and wants to build, versus speaking into
someone's life as someone who wants to tear down to prove a
point. And oftentimes, when we use our
words in a negative way, we use our words in a sinful way, we
are leading others into sin. And the Scripture, and this isn't
even what I'm talking about today, but it's foundational. See how
last week's a primer? Because I keep wanting to go
back to last week. If you didn't listen to last week's sermon,
it's bad on the audio, but if you weren't here, please listen
to it. It sounds like I'm in an auditorium with a lunchroom. Please listen to it because it's
found as primer for this. And next week, as we get into
some relational things, husband's wife, parents, children, the
body of Christ, and we move into the Easter, it's going to be
it's going to be essential for you to understand. But we should
not lead others into sin when we exasperate our children, we
get in, we get into the discussion of our children, they get angry,
not because they're just sinful, that that happens, but they get
angry because you keep pushing them. And we keep pushing them
and keep pushing. We can put it because we want
a response to our authority in such a way that we're going to
drive our mouths to push in our children a sinful response. And
we are accountable for causing them to sin. It causes others to send sometimes
when we just continually with our mouths, get the last word,
say snide remarks. We speak the wrong things. We
call them. What if we're just sharing a
story? Well, what is the story about? What's the central theme
of the story? Are we making much of sin? Are
we laughing at our sinfulness sometimes? I mean, we tell stories
about things that we've done in our past and we just think
it's hilarious. I don't think we should ever laugh at sin.
Any sin. Especially in front of young
people and young Christians. Because the devil is laughing
at sin already. And when we laugh at it, we should use our tongues in
a relational way and they should be life by displaying the grace
of God and by teaching wisdom. We display the grace of God and
we teach wisdom. There is one whose rash words
are like sword thrusts. But the tongue of the wise brings
healing, Proverbs 12, 18. See, there's so many verses in
Proverbs about how we speak to one another, and all of them
either say one of two things. They either say how we're building
and causing someone to live, or how we're destroying and causing
someone to die. There's one whose rash words
are like sword thrusts. I've never been stabbed with
a sword. I don't want to be stabbed. But you know what it feels like
to have words that stab like swords. And by speaking grace, by preaching
grace, by vocalizing grace, our words become three things that
we'll see in the Proverbs. And then I'm going to move into
the New Testament and sort of solidify this and bring it home. Our words
become a treasure for people. Our words become food, sustenance
for people. Our words become freedom for
people. Proverbs 1820, I think most of these are in your bulletin.
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. I almost used
this text today as the primary. The tongue of the righteous is
choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of
little worth. So the tongue of the righteous
is choice silver. In other words, it's a treasure. It has value. It is worth something. And it
is something to be revered and treasured and is precious because
it gives life. The words of the righteous should
be impressively, now that's a bad word, let's just use a different
word, let's just change that. The words of the righteous should
be absolutely valuable to everyone who hears them. It's also food, verse 21 of 18. The lips of the righteous feed
many, but fools die for lack of sense. Is what you say, is
what we talk about, is how we relate and communicate to each
other, is it feeding the soul of the hearer? Or is it causing
malnutrition? Do you understand the premise
of all this? The one thing that Christ has
commanded that we do is what? Make disciples. In the sense
of the context of being people of God. And yet so often we believe
that that's a corporate issue. That's not a corporate issue.
This isn't disciple making, although you can be discipled through
preaching. This is preparation for disciple making. Maturing
in Christ. Learning what it takes and why
the gospel is the power of God to teach you how to eat and then
feed others so that they may feed others so that they may
feed others. And I've said it and I'll say it until I die.
If you aren't making a disciple, you are living in direct disobedience
to the command of Christ. He did not say serve and do and
this. He didn't say that. It's not
wrong to do that. But He said to make disciples. Teach others. How do we teach others? That
doesn't mean everybody's going to be a teacher. It doesn't mean
everybody's going to be a Sunday school director. It doesn't mean
everybody's going to be a pastor and evangelist. But it does mean that in your
life, as you sit at breakfast, or as you sit in your living
room, or as you talk on the phone with your family, or as you're
walking down the street, or as you're at Starbucks, or if you're
at the coffee shop, or wherever you might be, you are to be thinking
and praying for God to use your words and use your life so that
the gospel may be clear. Because Christ is your highest
treasure, and therefore what your job is and what your goal
is in life is that when you hear someone talk about how bad the
economy is, that you talk about how awesome the cross is. It doesn't matter. You know,
the greatest riches in the world is the fact that God has saved
me from my grievous and wretched sinfulness. And on the back of
His Son, He put my sin. And I am alive in Christ. Now,
if you say that when somebody says, hey, how's the economy?
They're probably going to run. But the message needs to be there.
The decision to be obedient needs to be there. And our words ought
to be food. They ought to feed. The grace
of God feeds the people of the world. It feeds the church. And
what's crazy, if we just practiced this in the confines of the body
of Christ, we'd be 500% more effective in our faith. We'd
understand all good things that we have in our faith in Jesus
Christ, as Philemon 6 says, because we're sharing our faith with
each other. Sharing our faith, just like this coming Sunday
we have a meal together. That's not sharing our faith.
Sharing our faith is as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens
another. That happens through the words
of our mouth. Not the gentleness of our hands. And honestly, Proverbs 12, 6
says, The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the
mouth of the upright delivers them. Freedom comes through grace. So every aspect of our lives
ought to exude that grace. Grace of God is that He, with
His own pleasure, in His own will, in His own way, in His
own decision, has given grace to the lost people of the world
that they might be called the righteousness of God because
Christ has paid for their sin. And our words ought to reflect that. Because that's freedom. When
the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. You are free indeed. The mouth of the righteous is
a fountain of life. There's so many places in the
scripture we could go, but I want you to turn to Ephesians 4. There's two verses there, Ephesians
4, verses 29 and 30. This will give us some of you. I don't know. This is sort of
the sermon feels weird to me today. I don't know why. I think it's I think it's unfinished. Ephesians 4, 29 and 30 says,
let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth. But only the talk such as is
good for building up as fits the occasion. That it may give
grace to those who hear. That's the only way your words
are life, friends. Our words will not be life unless they
give grace, because only through grace do we have life. And that's
an oppositional thing, that's a theological thing, the doctrine
that we learn, we are rightly condemned without grace. And
no righteousness, no kindness, no gentleness, no benevolence,
no long-suffering, no praying, no nothing can put you in right
standing. And that's bad English. But nothing
can put you in the right standing with God. It is just by grace
along through faith that you can be saved. There is no work
that can please God, for God does not reward those who do
what they've been told to do. And that's out of the mouth of
Jesus Himself. I am just an unworthy servant. Look at verse 30. Do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Friends, the gospel is there, and I'll be straight.
I believe that how we speak oftentimes is probably one of the greatest
indictments against us as professing Christians. In essence, we can
see the brief outline. In reality, the importance of
words in the Proverbs. As we glean from the New Testament
apostles, we can discover the essence of the power of the cross
and the gospel of Christ in our words with and toward each other. Because verse 29, let's look
at this in the time we have remaining. Let no corrupt thought come out
of our mouths. Why is that? Look at verse 30,
because we grieve the Holy Spirit when we do. I know that's not
a causal thing there, and it doesn't say, it's just saying,
let no corrupt talk and do not grieve. But I will tell you,
if you corruptly talk, if you talk which is not grace, if words
come out of your mouth which do not give grace and do not
give life, you're grieving the Holy Spirit. How do I know that?
Because the Spirit, when it's grieved, is not controlling what's
coming out of your mouth. So when we allow our tongue to
run wild, when we allow our the world to just be the meter of
our tongue, of our words, then the Spirit of God is not there.
Not in tune with him, but we're marching to the drum of the world.
How do we do that? The Spirit of God is not controlling
our tongue that speaks ill and destroys. God's not behind the
mouth that talks down, that talks haughty. I actually call it demonic speak.
I call it Satanic speech. And I call it demonic speak because
it is Antichrist that believes not on the sun. Just like our
sin in times of sin and rebellion, in times of moral failure, in
times of doubt and different things that we deal with and
we fall into sin, that sin is a season, is a moment, is a second,
is a nanosecond of unbelief in Jesus Christ. It is what we fight
against. And we don't fight against that we might be stronger believers.
We fight against it with the power of God's grace, that we
fall into that grace knowing that it's going to take God's
grace tomorrow to save us. Not on our willingness and ability
to grab hold of that grace. But it's by grace alone. And
faith means that we lay our trust in that grace. There is nothing
that we can do but hope in God. It's not wishing, it's hoping,
confident assurance. Hold fast to the confession of
your hope. That's what Hebrews says. So when we speak to build
like healing, protecting, free feeding, delivering that we see
in the Proverbs, the treasure, the food, the freedom, when we
when we speak to build the purpose of our speech, should be lifting up and building
up and growing up into maturity in Christ. Now, sometimes some
of us, and I'm going to have a little caveat here, some of
us think, well, see, that's what I do. That's what I'm good at.
I'm good at telling everybody what they've done wrong. And let me go ahead and tell
you. There's a reason that the Scripture
teaches that we ought to look at the log in our eyes before
we take the speck out of our brothers. It's not that we should
not ever judge a man's heart. For Jesus Himself, you'd know
a tree bites fruit. But we better be very careful
before we come offering rebuke. You know what I believe? I believe
the Bible ought to rebuke. So someone starts talking, and
I hear some talk, and it's not life-giving. If that
moment the Holy Spirit of God acts, Presses me to say something. Why don't I just quote Proverbs
10? Why don't I just say? The mouth
of the righteous is the fountain of life, brother. And when I do it, my heart better
be pure before God. But what do we want to do? What
do we usually do? Well, we are. The scripture says those who
are spiritual go and correct each other and do it with what? Humility. Do it with humility. Always humility. So the question
is, are we correcting the Spirit of God? And are we also correcting
in the timing of God? Are we speaking as it fits the
occasion? Now, why am I holding on this?
Because I really think this is a real big deal. As fits the
occasion. Only such as is good for building
up, as fits the occasion. That means you might need to
say something, but now is not the time. Because first and foremost,
we ought to go to the woodshed of prayer and we ought to deal
with our own hearts. We ought to deal with our lives
in such a way that we make sure that when we go and we try to
build and speak grace into the life of another, that we're going
as a recipient of that same grace. Because oftentimes when we speak,
we feel like we're God. And we're speaking power into
their lives because they're going to obey God through us. Friends,
the day of the prophets are over. Now we're in the economy of grace.
We've always been. But the closest thing to a prophet
you got is what you're hearing today if I stand up here and read the
Word of God. That's the closest thing. You read the Word of God. So does our rebuke, sometimes
does our speech, when we go to someone, does it come in humility?
Does it come with an earnest desire to see the other person
grow? We talked about that this morning
in Sunday school. about the chastisement of the Lord, the discipline of
the Lord. Sometimes it's not even something we've done. It's
just the fact that God is putting us through something to grow
us. But we think our words are going to be what grows. They
will if they're spirit led. If they're gracious, if they're
humble. But sometimes we come to a person
and instead of seeing the person grow, we come like a tabloid.
And we want to put a headline in their face that wrecks someone
else so that we feel good about ourselves. As fits the occasion,
that's what it means. As fits the occasion, we have
to be discerning. Saying the right thing at the wrong time
is the wrong thing to say. And if we say the wrong thing,
it's a sin. Our words are the fountain of
life when they come with the right spirit. when they come
at the right timing for the right reason, which is to build up
and to reflect and empower the hearer. It's about empowering
the hearer to know and to receive grace. One good thing that I
reflect on every day about my childhood is that I was never
told very often or very seldom was I ever told, you cannot do
that. I think about my mother and my
grandmother. I never I was never told, no, you cannot do that.
Very seldom. But I was told often, daily,
you don't have to do that. You see the difference? One is
an obligation to obey because of an authoritative discipline
or punishment that might come in my disobedience, which is
not an affection. Which is not the power of God. I can get people to do what I
want them to do if you put the pressure on enough. It doesn't
make them godly. But I was taught the theology
that I was free because I was a slave to righteousness. So can you speak that into someone's
life? You don't have to do that. Not, you know what, a Christian
don't do that. And I've had some people say that to me, and it
was the right timing and God really used it. But it was done in a way that
they weren't expecting me to transform in front of their eyes, they
just wanted to let it be said and it was over. For the most part, we're
free. I'm free. I don't have to sin.
I don't have to sin anymore. I don't have to be angry. Christians
don't have to do that. And that's what we ought to be
teaching, especially our children, you are free from that. In Christ. And that what Paul says, even
some of the harshest rebukes that we see in the text, they're
surrounded with growth and edification. But what do we do? We like to
pick out the smallest little things. Instead of coming to
the brother and saying, hey, the mouth of the righteous is
a fountain of life, we say, oh, the mouth of the wicked conceals
violence. Well, you just called your brother in the Lord wicked. So our words are supposed to
be vehicles or, if you will, little containers of grace. They
ought to be giving grace. Now, where do you get that? That
sounds like some kind of a mojo garbage that you'd see on late-night
television. Well, I get it straight from
the Word of God in 2 Timothy 2.1. Paul says this, Then you
then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. How is that grace given to His
people? Through His Word. And how is
that Word given if it's not in front of us or if we're so mired
in our lives that we're just not in the mood or have the will
to be in the Word? When we as brothers and sisters
speak grace into their lives, we speak through the power of
the Gospel, we speak the Word of God, we teach them these things
with our mouths, with our words. Some of the worst advice that
I've been given in my life have been from mentors. And people
who ought to be spiritual leaders in my life, they give me horrible
advice because it's not grounded in the word of God and it's not
grace. It's Babel, crazy Babylonian psychology. This grace comes through the
written word of God, so our words should be bathed in the word.
I started with that because really, we're not going to be able to
speak correctly. in the Spirit of God if the Word
of God is not in us. And I'm not talking about memorizing
Bible verses, though it's essential. You should. And I'm praying about,
even as a church, maybe we go through and do one a month. A
section of a text. I'd like to do one a week, but
I think that'd probably be even strenuous on me. One a month. Do something. Put the Word of
God in our hearts. What I'm saying, bathing in it, battling with
it, and breathing it out. Remember that? January of 2009?
That's going to stay. That's our challenge to you,
church, is to bathe in the Word of God, submerge yourself in
it in such a way that the grace of God through Christ comes alive
in you and you strengthen yourself with it. Or not yourself, but
God strengthens you. And you battle with it and you
struggle with it and you come out. And then when the people
in your life are around you, you breathe out that grace with
what you say and how you relate to them. Grace should be the
outcome of everything that we say, because our grace, I mean,
only grace builds and disciplines. Nothing else does. Otherwise
we make a mockery of the gospel. We make a mockery of the gospel,
which is the grace of God. Do not grieve him by whom you were
sealed for redemption. See, it's very clear there. He
brings that back into the reality is that we ought to not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption, reminding us that God's own words are grace. So like forgiveness. How dare
we not forgive when God has forgiven us? We are an offense to God, but
yet God, in His mercy and His affection for us, gives us grace. And His words are gracious. I
got in the van this week, and I look in the back, and there's
a bag of trash and a cup that I had asked one of my children
to get out. And I'm by myself in the van, but I audibly said,
didn't I make myself clear to get this trash out of the van?
And I laughed. Because I'm talking to myself,
one, out loud. Nobody's in the car. And two,
it's like God said, have I ever said that to you? Have I ever said that to you? Didn't I make myself clear, James?
And he does make himself clear. But yet it wasn't the words that
I said, it was the heart from which it came. How dare my children
not listen to what I said? And he's like, don't remember
who you're talking. Remember from what mouth it's
coming. Because if I got you every time
you didn't obey me, buddy. There'd be nothing but a J left
in you. I'd be ground you down to nothing.
And so our idle talk, we need to be careful with our idle talk,
we need to be careful with the talk that's foolishness and and
the talk that doesn't build the corruption I'm not even going
to get into the obvious things, the foulness, the worldly discussions,
the things that are just godless. I feel like sometimes I shouldn't
even talk about those things. It ought to be obvious, but you
know they're there. Because when we are reviled even, and where does
this really come in? It comes in on our idle talk,
what we really spend our time talking about, and it comes in
when somebody offends us when we start talking about them or
to them. That's really how it works. It works in that in that
way. And so what we see. It's example of Christ, who was
perfect, sinless, who became sin so that we might become the
righteousness of God. Not because of our own merits,
but because of the unmerited favor of God, that's called grace. And Peter says that Jesus, who
when he was reviled, did not return revile. He remained silent. I was sharing with a brother
yesterday, and he shared with a group that he remained silent
on a very volatile issue with a son. And it just sort of flopped. Wow. Didn't expect that. Well, normally
it would have been a fight. So many times we want to speak
to each other like Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. But friends,
look around. How many Pharisees are here? I don't know that I've ever met
one. Christ paid the debt of our sin
for the glory of God's righteousness, who enables us to become the
righteousness of God and be forgiven and made whole by grace through
faith. And so I think we should speak
in that way to each other, we should use our words, our emails, our
letters, our thoughts, our heart should be so tuned to the gospel.
That our words give life. That our words give grace, that
our words build each other up into maturity, into He who is
the head, who is Christ. And friends, it's something that
only God can do. Because the reality of this is
that the question I want to close with is this, is God growing
your heart? And is your mouth reflecting
that growth? Is God growing your heart and
is your mouth reflecting that growth? John 6, a lot of people left. Do not labor for the food that
perishes, but labor for the food that endures to eternal life.
Eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. And most of his disciples
left that day. And Jesus turns to the twelve
and says, Do you want to leave? And Peter, responding as a spokesman,
To whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal
life. Friends, none of us are Jesus,
but do we carry Jesus' words in our hearts? Do we carry the
words of eternal life toward each other? Is that how we relate to our
wives and to our children and to our church family? We spend
our time building each other up. And friends, if you haven't
trusted in faith in Christ, you're not going to have the power to
even consider this, much less. Be successful. Because it's only
by the grace of God in his word that it gives you the privilege
and the opportunity to be the person who can who can speak
correctly to one another. That's between you and God. Pray with me, Father. I do not know why, but God, in
my heart, there's just there's something that I feel like. That
I need to say or that needs to be clearer. And at the same time,
Lord, I feel like I'm belaboring the principle. So that I'm thankful
that your spirit is the teacher here, not me. So father, put in. Put in all. That needs to be where it needs
to be in each of our hearts and minds. And by your grace, Lord,
would you be. If it be your will, Lord, would
you make alive those who are dead this morning? That they
might come to faith in Christ. And father, for us all, can we
really reflect on how we speak, what we spend our time talking
about, How we talk to each other and Lord, this is it. This is
the thing, God. Sometimes we should speak when
we remain silent. That was the point, that's the
missing thing. So God help us to know. And have
the boldness sometimes to speak life. So like Brother Ted already
shared this morning, even when he's in a slump or I can't remember
exactly how he said it, God used him anyway. And he became a mouth
house, he became a voice. To preach the gospel to a cult
member. Would help us to not be silent
when it's time for us to speak and help us to be silent when
we should. Would flavor our tongues. That they may be seasoning things,
preserving things that they may be, that words may flow out of
our heart that just produces a clear image of the cross and
of Christ. Lord, empower us to really be
aware of our sin, empower us to really be aware of your holiness.
And Lord, as we move over the next few weeks into dealing with
specific relational things in the Proverbs, God, would you
give me the grace to be able to see clearly? And give this body what it needs
to become more relationally intimate with you and then in return with
each other. Father, it's hard to change gears,
it's hard to become an integrated church all of a sudden. And Lord,
so I just pray you just continue to work in us the gospel of Christ. Which is your power. Father,
save your people, bring your sheep into the fold. And strengthen
us that we may go out into the world and be like with our lives
and with our mouths. In Jesus name, amen.