This adult Sunday school class
was held on January 8, 1984 at the Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. I'm sure that many of you are
aware of the fact that Pastor Nichols is away today with our
senior high young people. We have never before had a retreat
that has extended over into the Lord's Day, but this was an unusual
set of circumstances in your elders' felt that in the light
of considering all of the circumstances, we would make an exception to
our normal pattern. They are not being encouraged
to dishonor the Lord on his day. Pastor Nichols will be leading
a worship service this morning and bringing the word of God
to our young people. And of course, we want to be
upholding them in our prayers, and God willing, they will be
coming back this afternoon, hopefully to be with us in the evening
service. And as we've mapped out the subject
matter for the adult class over the next weeks, Pastor Nichols
is going to make a bona fide effort to conclude the series
on infant baptism by the end of February, which will be another
six or seven Lord's Day mornings in the adult class, in which
he'll take up the final two categories of the five that he has promised
to cover, namely, baptism in relationship to the biblical
doctrine of the church, and then baptism in relationship to the
biblical doctrine of the covenants. Now, both he and I and your fellow
elders are very much aware that some of this material has been
heavy going. It's been plodding. Some of it
perhaps you feel is not the most burningly relevant to your own
circumstances. However, we do believe that this
polemic, this opening up and defending of the biblical doctrine
of baptism is something that has been a long time coming and
is needed. and we trust that though it may
not appear on the surface of things to be the most relevant
of truths, if you are with us for any period of time to come,
you will see how again and again many of these truths have realms
of implication that you will see them tying together over
the months and years to come and I trust will come to an increasing
appreciation of the material that has been set before us.
Now, I had this one opportunity before he takes up the class
next Lord's Day morning and returns to the subject of infant baptism,
and as I prayerfully considered how best to use this time, I
felt what I would do is really give you what I hope will be
sort of a teaser, and I've got something that's sort of brewing
in the depths of my mind and spirit, and hopefully When it's
thoroughly cooked, it'll come out in the form of a series,
probably, of sermons. I'm not quite sure, but I want
to throw out the subject and get your minds working in this
direction, and then I would welcome any sort of unofficial input
from you, and that may further trigger the process, which is
often a complicated process by which series of sermons get born.
And what we're going to do this morning is to set before you
what I'm calling an Introduction and Overview of the Biblical
Doctrine of Verbal Communication. An Introduction and Overview
of the Biblical Doctrine of Verbal Communication. That is, the Biblical
doctrine of talking to human beings. Now, why in the world
would I ever choose such a strange subject? Well, my answer is very
straightforward and upfront. Recent pastoral experience combined
with recent concentrated parental guidance and with many strands
of general observation have convinced me that many of you have fundamental
problems in this whole area of verbal communication. And furthermore,
knowing something of my own heart and my own problems as a Christian,
I am convinced that no little part of growth in grace is growth
in the ability to communicate in a manner that reflects a sensitivity
to the standard of the Word of God. Now, lest any be tempted
to slough this off as one of Pastor Martin's exaggerated areas
of pastoral concern, may I remind you what the scripture says about
this little member called the tongue? Jesus said in Matthew
12, 36 and 37, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Therefore, by thy words thou
shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
In other words, your patterns and my patterns of verbal communication
are such a sure index of the true moral state of the soul
that they will become part of the basis of God's judgment in
the final day. Now that's pretty serious business.
By thy words thou shalt be justified, by thy words thou shalt be condemned. In other words, When God says
to a certain class of people, depart from me ye wicked, all
he'll need to do to demonstrate that that assessment of their
character as wicked is a valid assessment is to bring forward
their speech patterns. Now that's pretty serious business.
And when he says, come ye blessed of my father, all he needs to
do to vindicate before the entire moral universe that they are
indeed righteous, not forgiven on the basis of their speech,
forgiven on the grounds of the righteousness of Christ, yes,
but that their character has indeed been made righteous, all
God will have to do to vindicate that designation of them as righteous
is to bring forward their speech patterns. Now that's pretty serious
business. And if you believe that, and
if I believe that, then surely we cannot be indifferent to the
biblical doctrine of verbal communication. Furthermore, I remind you of
James' words in James 1.26. He said, if any man among you
seems to be religious, look at a person, he seems to have devotions,
she seems to have devotions, goes to church, goes to prayer
meeting, has all the marks of what we would call an external
religious lifestyle. James says, if any man among
you seems to be religious, while he does not bridle his own tongue,
this man's religion is vain. It's a pop of nothing. Now that's
blunt, plain, straightforward, unambiguous language. So this
is a vital, vital subject. And in order to set this study
on a very sound, reinforced, concrete, biblical base, like
those pillars out there that are going to hold up the main
structural beams will be reinforced concrete, I want us to turn to
the book of Genesis and to consider first of all God himself as the
perfect model of a verbal communicator. God himself as the perfect model
of a verbal communicator. Genesis chapter 1. Now we read
in verse 26 of chapter 1 this summary statement of the creation
of man. And God said, let us make man
in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth. And God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created
he them. Now may I say reverently that
according to verse 26, God is a God who speaks to himself. God is a God who before man was
ever created is recorded as speaking to himself. It doesn't say and
God thought. or God considered, it says, and
God said, let us make man after our image and after our likeness,
speaking of inner Trinitarian communion, described to us in
the language of verbal communication. Now I'm not here to explain,
I'm just reading and highlighting what the passage says. And no
sooner does he create man, male and female, but the first thing
he does, verse 28, God bless them. Now whether that blessing
was in terms of a verbal conferral of his goodwill upon them, we
do not know. It simply says God blessed them.
But if we interpret the term blessed them by what's called
the analogy of scripture, that is, we go to other scriptures,
it could well be that God actually conferred some kind of a verbal
blessing upon the man and the woman when they came from his
created hand. But be that as it may, you'll
notice after blessing them, the first thing God did was to talk
to them. God blessed them and God said
unto them. So he obviously wove into the
very fabric of Adam and Eve, in the act of creation, the ability
to receive verbal signals upon the outer ear, to have those
vibrations go by the auditory nerve to the brain and there
to register intelligible concepts. Man was made with a capacity
to speak and to understand speech. Now what language did God speak?
I don't know. That's none of my business, none
of yours. The Bible says, God said unto
them, and this is what he said, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over every living
thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of
the earth. and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed, to you it shall be for food, and to every beast
of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, to everything
that creeps upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every
green herb for food, and it was so. So here we have the first
thing God does after he makes man and blesses him is to speak
to him. Then when we come to chapter
2, where we have this expanded account of the actual creation
of man and woman, we find again God speaking. We read verse 7,
the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Then we have this zooming in
upon the particular place prepared for Adam. Verse 9, and out of
the ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight, etc. Now having done this, we now
read verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God
commanded the man, he's speaking to him again, of every tree of
the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that
you eat thereof you shall surely die. Now, what are the characteristics
of God's communication verbally with man before sin ever entered? If ever man had a capacity to
hear whatever God is saying from the creation, that capacity was
at its heightened expression before sin entered. The heavens
declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and
night unto night shows forth knowledge. But it's interesting
that Adam, in an unfallen state, with 2015 vision to perceive
God's creation and with an ear that was perfectly attuned to
hear everything that God was saying through what we call general
revelation. That was not adequate for Adam
to know the will of God. God spoke to him. And the things
that characterize God's speech are these. Number one, it was
a prominent element of his interaction with Adam. God did not occasionally
grunt something out of the side of his mouth and have Adam standing
there scratching his head saying, I wonder what God really expects
of me, what in the world is... Excuse me God, what did you say?
There's every indication that when God spoke, he spoke as a
prominent element of his interaction with Adam. Second thing is, everything
he said was true. God didn't deceive Adam about
a thing. Everything he said was clear. There was no ambiguity. He said, I want you to exercise
dominion over the earth. I want you to be fruitful and
to multiply, subdue the creation. He went on further to tell him
that he was to dress the garden, to keep it. And then he marked
out the boundaries of Adam's free choice of all the trees
you may freely eat, but of that particular tree in the midst
of the garden, you shall not eat of it. In the day you eat,
you'll die. Verbal communication was prominent. It was true. It was clear. It was comprehensive. All Adam needed to know in order
to honor God and glorify God that could only be conveyed by
verbal communication. God's communication was comprehensive. It was sincere. God meant everything
he said. And we have to assume that it
was loving. It can only cause a jarring of
all of our innate senses to think that God said, now Adam, submit
to the earth. That's your job, you're my creature,
now get on with it. I'm calling the shots, I'm the
boss, get with it. It's incongruous, isn't it? We
snicker so we can assume that through all of this there was
an expression of the loving heart of God. Now, had sin not entered,
man who was made in the image of God would have in the development
of humanity reflected perfectly not only God in what we would
call his moral likeness, loving only truth and righteousness
and holiness, but think of it, man would have been a perfect
image bearer of God as a verbal communicator and the world would
have been full of people who in all of their interaction with
one another there would be the prominence of verbal communication. You wouldn't have people standing
off at a distance trying to pick up an inarticulate grunt and
wonder what someone is saying or mumbling. Everything spoken would be true,
clear, comprehensive, sincere and loving. Can you imagine what
a world would be like in which all verbal communication was
like God's verbal communication? That's one of the implications
of what mankind would have been if it had been perpetuated as
mankind made in the image of God. But now you know the tragedy. Genesis chapter 3 tells us the
terrible tragedy of man's defection. The fall of man. And the fall
has brought nothing less than cosmic disruptions into God's
order of things. It's brought major alterations
in God's relationship to man, man's relationship to God. But,
very interestingly, the Fall does not alter the basic characteristics
of God's communication with man, the creature. The substance of
it is altered, but not the major characteristics. In other words,
when man sinned, did he offend God? Yes or no? Was God angry? Was God disturbed? Did God go
off and sulk? I need to talk to you. You do
that to me? I need to talk to you. God didn't
go off and have a sulk. In fact, it's an amazing thing
and it struck me with tremendous freshness in preparing these
notes yesterday. Man runs from God. But God comes
seeking man, and what's the first thing with which he seeks? Verbal
communication. Verbal communication. Look at
it in chapter 3. Adam and Eve are hiding, attempting
to hide from the presence of the Lord amidst the trees of
the garden, verse 9, and the Lord God He didn't say he went
and wrenched him from behind the bush and stood him there
and glowered at him. He could have done that, but
he didn't. The text says, the Lord God called unto the man
and said unto him, where are you? And he said, I heard your
voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and
I hid myself. And he said, who told you you
were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which
I commanded you you should not eat? Have you disobeyed me?"
And already we begin to see the waffling. You see, the speech
of man now, his verbal communication is not utterly and totally honest.
It's a mingling of fact with accusation, with subtle innuendo
of blaming God, instead of saying, yes, I have disobeyed you, God. The man said, The woman whom
you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and on the tail
end of it my culpability, and I did eat. And the Lord said
unto the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman
said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God
said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are
you above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon
your belly you shall go, and dust shall you eat all the days
of your life. And I will put enmity between
you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise
your head, thou shalt bruise his heel. And God goes on then
to speak in great detail. of some of the major dimensions
of the results of man's defection from himself. God speaks of man
having to bring forth, now in the sweat of his brow, and the
woman bringing forth her children with pain and the multiplication
of her childbirth. All of this, you see, is God
continuing to communicate clearly, comprehensively, sincerely and
even in the midst of this lovingly because he announces his own
intention to do something about this defection. And here we have
what's called the first gospel promise this first seed of declaration
that God's going to do something in establishing enmity between
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and that
ultimately the seed of the woman would come forth to crush the
serpent's head. But the point that I want us
to see is that the fall, with all of the disruptions that it
brought in God's relationship to man, did not change God as
the ideal verbal communicator. Man hides, God comes and calls
to him, speaks to him, pronounces judgment upon him, intimates
mercy that will be opened before him, honestly sets forth what
some of the fruits of the fall will be. But now the tragedy
is that man in sin is no longer like God in many ways, not the
least of which is in his verbal communication. Now there are
some things that could be drawn out of the speech of Adam and
Eve, but if we look at the record concerning the first child born
of fallen man and woman, this son called Cain, it's very, very
interesting that he shows a perfect likeness, not to God, but to
his spiritual father, the devil. What does Jesus say in John 8?
Two things he says about the devil. He is a what? A murderer
and a? Remember that from John 8? Ye
are of your father the devil, in the lust of your father you
will do. He is a murderer and he is a liar. Now those two qualities
are the two prominent qualities that are undistorted about Cain.
The first full-blown son of the devil, who had never like Adam
known perfect innocence. He was conceived in sin, born
in sin, and when he comes to age, he becomes the murder of
his brother, like his father the devil, a destroyer of life,
and no sooner does God come and speak to him, verse 6, the Lord
said unto Cain, Genesis 4, 6, Why are you angry? Why is your
confidence fallen? If you've done well, this is
after the rejection of his sacrifice and before the murder. And we
find that Cain is wroth, and then we read verse 8, he told
Abel his brother, it came to pass when we were in the field,
Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Now God
comes speaking to Cain, and the Lord said unto Cain, where is
Abel your brother? And his answer should have been,
right where he lay when I saw him in the twitches of death
and where he expired. But now he just outright lies
and says, I know not. And then he tries to bring forth
his self-justification. Am I my brother's keeper? When
did you ever tell me, God, that I was to be my little brother's
constant babysitter? He lies. And then he adds, as
it were, almost an insult to his lie. And I think it's very
interesting that the first son of fallen mankind manifests the
two great qualities of his spiritual father. And then as we see the
scriptures unfold, it's very interesting again to note that
as fallen man gets, as it were, locked into the patterns of his
fallen-ness in the concrete details of life, how prominent the sins
of verbal communication are brought forward again and again and again
in the scriptures. Now if I were to ask you what
chapters in the New Testament contain the most detailed description
of human sinfulness, what would you answer? What chapters in
the New Testament contain the most detailed description of
human sinfulness? Anyone want to venture a guess?
George? Romans 1.18 through Romans 3.20,
right? Was someone else thinking of
another passage? No. How many of you were thinking
of that passage? Good. Very good. Well, it's very interesting.
When we turn to that passage, and Paul comes to his summary
statement, he is demonstrating the universality of sin, amongst
those who have only general revelation, among those who have special
revelation, and now he's going to summarize, beginning with
verse 9 of Romans 3. What then? Are we better than
they? No, in no wise, for we before
laid to the charge, both the Jews and Greeks, that they are
all under sin. Now he's going to bring together
from the Psalms and from a reference from Isaiah, this collage of
divine description of human sin in the concrete. He's not dealing
in the abstract now. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after
God. They have all turned aside. They
are together become unprofitable. There's none that does good,
no, not so much as one. There's what we might call the
generic description of the universality of man's defection from God. None comes up to the standard
of God's law. None thinks God's thoughts after
him. The affections are perverted.
They do not seek him. The entire lifestyle is one of
turning aside from the ways of God. Now he's going to move from
generic to specific descriptions, and you notice where his first
focal point of concentration is. Look at it. Their throat
is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Throat,
tongues, lips, and mouth. A fourfold concentration upon
the organs of verbal communication. Isn't that interesting? Paul
is absolutely certain. that whatever peculiar sins may
be found in the Jewish community, found in the Gentile community,
whatever particular sins may be more aggravated in various
societies, like Paul says in Titus 1, the Cretans were gluttons,
idle people, He has no fear of contradiction
when he says among Jew and Gentile, in all societies, in all circumstances,
these are the crowning expressions of man's state of entire simpleness. Lips, throat, mouth, and tongues. Very interesting, isn't it? So
you see, this is not something that is a little hobby of mine,
but for weeks and months now, growing out of pastoral counseling,
parental observation and input, general observation, I'm convinced
more and more that we need to begin to take with renewed seriousness
this emphasis of the Word of God. Man's sin is a creature who's
become fouled up in the whole area of verbal communication. Now along with these gross positive
sins of verbal communication such as deceit, that which is
like the venom of a snake, cursing and bitterness, there are the
more subtle sins such as the torture of no communication. Do you know that one of the most
cruel forms of torture between one human being and another is
a shot knock? I have had to try to patch up
people who were as battered psychologically and emotionally as the typical
battered wife who has bruises on her face and on her back from
the cruel profusions of the angry spirit of her husband. The tyranny
of being a clan. That's a form of cruelty. You
need to shut your mouth and sing. when they're people who desperately
need to know what's going on inside. They need the affirmation
of your love. They need your wise counsel.
They may need for you to just get your gripe out to where they
can relate to it and do something to alter their behavior that's
causing your gripe. But what do you do? Go into your
cursed clan shadow and torture your wife Torture your husband. Torture your children. Torture
your overseers. Torture anybody. And God is made
a communicating being. And through your cursing, wicked
silence, You won't be like God and be
clear, truthful, comprehensive, loving in your speech. Would
you say, but I can't. Go to an eye, ear, nose and throat
man, an ENT man and have him give you a slip saying you have
something wrong with the physical mechanism of your tongue and
your lungs and your lips and then I'll believe you can't.
What you mean is I won't. I don't want to and I won't.
because you see giving due allowance for the full spectrum of diversity
of personality giving due allowance for the full spectrum of the
diversity of temperaments often flowing along genetic lines and
I'm not insensitive to those things some people are more naturally
loquacious others are more reserved I'm fully aware of all of that
but was God aware of that when he made man in his image and
said we are to be like him So you see this whole subject is
not one that we can swap aside because when we turn to the word
of God we see the prominence of it in the original creation,
the tragic defection of man from God and the results of this in
the area of verbal communication that bless God when the reign
of grace comes. So you see what the threefold
foundation is, creation, fall and redemption. We always start
every subject with those great realities. God is not at all
reluctant to let us know that when the dynamics of grace touch
the heart and life of a man, they radically alter this topic. Remember Paul's teaching in Romans
6? In the days of your sinful submission to the Lord and Master
called sin and evil and unrighteousness, instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin. But he said now, through union
with Christ you have died. The old man is dead and buried
and you are new men and women in Christ. As you presented your
members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, so now present yourselves
unto God and your members, including your tongue, as instruments of
righteousness unto God. And we turn then to the New Testament
and see this tremendous emphasis upon the sanctifying grace of
God as it touches the tongue. Let's just look at a couple of
chapters. And as I said, this is just a broad overview and
general introduction that I hope will get us all thinking
along these lines. In Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul is calling the saints
of God to a radically different lifestyle from that of the Gentiles,
verse 17, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that
you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk. That's the great theme
of this section. Don't walk like the unconverted
hordes of the nations. And then he describes what lies
at the root of that lifestyle, the darkness of the understanding,
alienation from the life of God, the giving over of themselves
to sensuality, but he says, you did not so learn Christ, if so
be that you heard him and were taught of him. What you heard
and learned of Christ was to put off the old man, to put on
the new, that is being renewed, notice verse 24, and put on the
new man that after God, that is after the pattern of God himself,
has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. We've
been made new men and new women in order to be like God in the
realm of righteousness and truth. And what's the next thing that
comes within the orbit of his specific exhortation? Wherefore,
putting away falsehood, speak truth, each one with his name. He moves immediately from this
concept of being renewed unto the image-bearing capacity of
God to our speech. Very interesting, isn't it? This verse has just been working
through my mind in recent days. Putting away falsehood, speak
with your neighbor. That's the first. Speak. He assumes
you're going to speak. Now he says, speak truth. So
if you're not speaking, start speaking. Repent of that subtle
form of vicious cruelty of just not speaking. Sometimes it's a form of pride.
You like to think you're some kind of an unknowable creature,
and you pride yourself on living behind your wall of science.
Sometimes it is cruelty. There can be any number of motives.
Mingled with it can be innocent temperamental characteristics.
I'm fully aware of all that. He says, speak truth, each one
with his neighbor. Be angry and do not sin. When you are angry, the sin usually
comes with your speech. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Verse 29, let no corrupt speech
proceed out of your mouth. But such as is good for edifying
as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto
the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath,
and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you with all
malice. Be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving each other, as God in Christ forgave you." Notice
how many of these things find an outlet through speech. Bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, clamor, railing literally means abusive
speech. You see how much of the emphasis
upon reflecting the image of God falls upon this matter of
verbal communication that is like God, loving, forgiving,
gracious, fair, sensitive. Then, of course, when we come
to the epistle of James, the first twelve verses of the third
chapter zero in upon this whole matter of the tongue And I will read without comment,
because I just want to have an overview and then turn to a large
segment in the Old Testament that I trust will be the focal
point of much of our independent study in days to come. James
3. Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we
shall receive heavier judgment. For in many things we all stumble. If any man stumbles not in word,
the same is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body also. Now if we put the horse's bridles
into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their
whole body also. Control a horse's mouth, you've
got all twelve or fourteen hundred pounds of the horse under control,
that's what he's saying. Behold, the ships also, though
they are so great and driven by rough winds, are turned about
by a very small rudder. He who holds the rudder guides
the ship. He who has the horse's mouth
has the hold of the horse. He who has his hand on the rudder
of the ship controls the ship. He's showing the analogy. So
the tongue also is a little member and boasts great things. Behold
how much wood is kindled by how small a fire, and the tongue
is a fire. The world of iniquity among our
members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body and sets
on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell, for
every kind of beast and birds Creeping things and things in
the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but the tongue
can no man tame. It is a restless evil, it is
full of deadly poison. Therewith, bless we the Lord
and Father, sing his praises on the Lord's day. Speak his
name at family worship. And then what else happens? Therewith
bless we the Lord and Father, and therewith curse we men. Bitter,
angry, ungodly speech. And notice, when we do, what
are we doing? We're slapping at God's image
bearers, who are made after the likeness of God. You see how
the image bearing theme comes in the most unlikely places?
When you speak abusively of a fellow creature, he's an image bearer
of God. who may be slapping at God in
whose image he has been made. Out of the same mouth cometh
forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. Does the fountain send forth
from the same opening sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my
brethren, yield olives or vines? Neither can salt water yield
sweet. I let Jane's words stand. Now
I shall turn back to the book of Proverbs. Most of you know that Proverbs
is a very unique deposit of the mind of God in Scripture, in
that we are given in the book of Proverbs these pithy little
statements that embody great principles of what it is to live
in the fear of God, what it is to live a righteous life, not
to attain eternal life, but having received the gift of life, what
it is to live a life that is honoring to God. And if you're
familiar with the book of Proverbs at all, you know that from chapter
10 onward, with but few exceptions toward the end of the book, you
don't have any major themes that are opened up even in paragraph
form. A couple of exceptions. The first
nine chapters you do have some large themes. that are opened
up and expanded. But beginning with chapter 10,
you have what we might call a miscellaneous collection of odds and ends of
Solomon's proverbs. The Proverbs of Solomon, chapter
10, verse 1. And then you have all of these
different proverbs and any attempt to classify them and organize
them and to outline them is really futile. You just have a lovely
little miscellaneous collection under the guidance of the spirit
of the Proverbs of Solomon. So what I did in my preparation
yesterday, I said I'm going to do something at random. I'm convinced
that if the thesis I'm sending forth is an accurate one, that
one place you'll find that underscore will be the book of Proverbs.
So at random, I picked three chapters from ten onward, and
I read them through, and I circled every verse that spoke about
the tongue. And you know what I discovered?
I discovered when I started with chapter twelve, that of the twenty-eight
verses in chapter twelve, do you know how many? make reference
to the tongue and to speech, 8 of the 28. Verse 6, the words of the wicked
are of lying in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright
shall deliver them. Verse 13, in the transgression
of the lips is a snare to the evil man, but the righteous shall
come out of trouble. Verse 14, a man shall be satisfied
with good by the fruit of his mouth. Verse 17, he that utters
truth shows forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit. Verse
18, there is that speaks rashly like the piercings of a sword,
but the tongue of the wise is held. Ever been around someone
whose speech is like a sword constantly pricking, pricking,
pricking, pricking? If a thing can be said graciously
and gently, or harshly, insensitively, you can always comment. They'll
say it in the latter way. Their speech is like the piercing
of a sword. Solomon observed that. But the
tongue of the wise is healthy. The lip of truth shall be established
forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Verse 19. Verse
22. Lying lips are an abomination
to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. Verse
25. Heaviness in the heart of a man
makes it stoop, but a good word makes it glad. Eight references
in the 28 verses. Now do a little math and you'll
figure out that that's somewhere between a fourth and third. That's
pretty strong emphasis, isn't it? Then we turn to chapter 15,
and I just picked it out at random. And you'll notice there are 33
verses in chapter 15, and no fewer than 9 of the 33. 9 of
the 33 make reference to the tongue. Verse 1, a soft answer
turns away wrath. But a grievous word stirs up
anger. The tongue of the wise, verse
2, utters knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pours out
folly. Verse 4. A gentle tongue is a
tree of life, but perverseness therein, that is, in the tongue,
is a breaking of the spirit. And oh, how many broken spirits
we as pastors have to try to patch up. I've never yet had to deal with
someone in my own pastoral counseling who came into my study with bruises
and welts all over his body from a parent who had, in uncontrollable
fits of rage, taken a broom and beat on a child. But I tell you
I spend hours trying to patch up the bruised and broken spirit
of young people whose fathers whipped them with their demeaning
speech. You dummy! You can't do this! You stupid! You can't do that! It's enough to make angels weep. No wonder those kids want nothing
to do with the Christian faith when they see that same father
sitting in a church like Trinity Church singing the praises of
God. the very mouth with which that
father or that mother creates a club and whips and beats and
pummels the tender spirit of that precious young wife. Perverseness
therein is a breaking of the spirit. Verse 7, lips of the
wise disperse knowledge But the heart of the foolish does not
so. Verse 14, The heart of him that
has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds
on folly. Verse 18, It is questionable
the wrathful man stirs up contention, and usually does it by his speech.
It's not that there's a communication of his spirit. He stirs up contention
with his speech. When he's full of wrath, his
speech becomes the outlet of his wrath to stir up contention. But he that is slow to anger
appeases strife, and how do you appease strife? Verbally communicating,
trying to sort out the parties that are at odds with one another,
being conciliatory and gracious, and seeking to get them to be
understanding. Verse 23, A man has joy in the
answer of his mouth, and a word in due season, how good it is! Verse 26, evil devices are an
abomination to the Lord, but pleasant words are pure. Verse
28, the heart of the righteous studies to answer, swift to hear,
slow to speak, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil
things. Nine verses of the 33. Then I
picked out chapter 17 at random, and I found there 28 verses,
and how many in there speak of the tongue? Ten. ten of the twenty
years. Are you beginning to feel the
cumulative weight of this as I felt it sitting in my study?
If you don't know what it is to have the use of your tongue
a matter of constant prayerfulness, constant watchfulness, and hear
me now, constant repentance, you know little of using your
tongue in the fear of God. And I want to press that in these
three remaining minutes. I've chosen my words carefully.
If you do not know what it is to have the use of your tongue,
the constant concern leading to prayer, to watchfulness, and
to penance, you know little of what it is to exercise that stewardship
of verbal communication. in the future. And to the extent
that your professed relationship to Jesus Christ does not regulate
your tongue, God says your religion is vain. I didn't say it. God said it. Now let me ask you.
Would you like to go to judgment in the next half hour and have
the Lord Jesus vindicate before angels and all intelligent creatures
the true state of your character simply on the basis of how you
used your tongue last week. How you used your tongue last
week? If you liked the Lord Jesus,
how much fuel would he have? How much material have you given
the Lord Jesus? To say to all intelligent creatures,
this is indeed one who is the object of my transforming grace,
one over whom I have cast the canopy of my perfect righteousness,
in whom I have done my work of the new creation. Evidence, please,
judge of the universe." And he says, yes, I have enough evidence.
This past week, this person's eyes have been made salty with
the tears of repentance over acaustic words spoken to wife
or husband or child. I can gather this person's sons
and daughters to witness that when he has spoken angrily, he
has confessed those sins to them, if necessary, a dozen times in
the past week. I can bring the people with whom
he or she works, who will acknowledge that he or she has come and said,
look, I wasn't perfectly truthful about that, will you forgive
me? and there will be no lack of witnesses that sins of the
tongue have been thoroughly repented of and dealt with vertically
and horizontally. Furthermore, this person's mouth
used to pour out invective, lies, innuendo, filth, double talk,
all the rest. But this person's lips now speak
truth and uprightness. This person used to be a clam
who punished everyone around him by refusing to communicate.
But he now makes a conscious, prayerful, diligent effort not
to punish people, for he's learned that as you would that others
do unto you, even so do we also unto them. Could the Lord Jesus
say any of those things about you? It's a serious business, isn't
it? Serious business. And I pray God that this introductory
study this morning has not been a model of homiletical order.
I know that. I'm fully conscious of that.
And it won't be the last thing you're going to hear, God willing,
but I hope you've heard enough that it will drive us all to
our knees to cry to God, Lord, teach. how to communicate in
a way that reflects true likeness to you. Lord, make me like you,
sir. Then as you read through the
Gospels, what a beautiful thing it is to behold the Lord Jesus
as our perfect model, how he spoke comfortingly, pointedly
where necessary, patiently explaining to these thick-headed disciples.
They were a bunch of thugs when it came to grasping certain things.
And there were times when it grieved him and he said, oh,
faithless and unbelieving generation. But how patiently he kept telling
him over and over again, I've got to go to Jerusalem. I'm going
to have to die. You see, he's the great model
for us as parents. You say, how many times do I
have to tell my kids this thing? Do you want to batter them? Just say, you dummy, how many
times? No, no, don't say, you dummy. and pray for the patience
and the gentleness and the meekness of Christ to keep telling them
and keep telling them and keep telling them and lo and behold
one day you know what will happen? you'll turn around and laugh
you'll hear them telling it to someone else and then you'll
say thank you Lord it got in there somehow it got in there
somehow and your kids are going to be like you and your speech
patterns You men, listen to me. Your sons will probably end up
treating their wives just like you treat yours. You treat her
as a creature of honor. Ridiculous. You mock her. You treat her like she's half
a human being? In your speech patterns? Don't
be surprised. When your boy gets to be a teenager,
he starts talking to your wife that way, and you're not going
to have much clout to say you're going to spank him. He'll turn right
around and say, Dad, I learned to do that from you. May God write upon our hearts
this very weighty consent of our verbal communication, a notable
part of true Godliness. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, We understand
a little more why the prophet Isaiah cried out, I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for my eyes have seen Jehovah of hosts. And as we have gazed
upon you as the great and model and righteous communicator, We
confess, O Lord, that we see our duplicity and our deceit,
our lies, the way we have turned words into swords and clubs,
the way we have refused to speak as a form of punishment at times
to those we most deeply love. And we can only cry this morning,
God have mercy upon us. for the sins of omission and
commission with respect to our tongues. Oh, teach us, teach
us, teach us, Lord, take us in hand and teach us, and give us
willing hearts that we may learn more and more to be like you
as we communicate with one another. Seal the word to our hearts,
we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.