26-0802p Transcript

(0:04) Good evening everyone. Those who are physically here and those that are on the phone that cannot be here, (0:16) we pray that we can say things tonight that will be edifying to you. (0:24) It is my duty to have the scripture reading taken from James 3, 3-6. (0:38) Indeed, we put bids in horses' mouths, that they may obey us. (0:46) And we turned our whole body, and we turned our whole body. (0:54) Look also at ships, though they are large and are driven by fierce winds, (1:03) they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. (1:12) Even so, the tongue is a little member of most great things. (1:22) See how great a force a little fire candles. (1:28) And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. (1:35) And the tongue is so set among the members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. (1:48) And it is set on fire by hell. (1:53)

(1:58) Now I’m going to try something I haven’t seen anyone else do. (2:05) But I’m going to be in Proverbs, the 10th chapter, and going to look at verses 6 through 21. (2:25) But now, what I’m going to try, and I haven’t seen anyone try this before, (2:38) but you notice that each verse has a first and second part, (2:49) such as verse 1 of chapter 10, which reads, (3:00) A wise son makes a glad father. (3:05) That’s the first part of that verse.

(3:09) The second part says that a foolish son is the greed of his mother. (3:20) That’s how the Proverbs and the verses go. (3:29) Now, I’m going to first take the first part of the verses that I’m going to cover.

(3:44) It’s going to be between verses 6 and 21. (3:49) But not all these verses. (3:52) There’s going to be a few that I won’t touch.

(3:58) But the main ones that I wish to deal with. (4:06) In other words, I will take the first part of the verses and discuss them. (4:14) And then, after discussing the first part of the verses, (4:19) I will go back to those verses and take care of the second part.

(4:29) And the title of my lesson is, The Sayings of the Mouth Matter. (4:38) We’re going to see what’s involved here. (4:44) Now, I’m going to start with the first part of verse 6, (4:53) which says, (4:55) Blessings are on the head of the righteous.

(5:04) And we’re going to see that God deals with those who are righteous before him. (5:18) He blesses them. (5:20) Why? Because the righteous are obedient to him.

(5:27) They obey his voice. (5:35) And then, in verse 7, (5:43) Certainly, we like to remember the righteous people. (5:55) For instance, do we like to remember Abraham? (6:04) That we read, and we can read his fathers, (6:13) but then we can read how his faith grew as he went along his life.

(6:22) And it grew to the point when God asked him to sacrifice his son. (6:29) He was willing to do that. (6:31) And he was ready to bring his knife down and slay his son as a sacrifice.

(6:42) And before he could bring the knife down, (6:47) he was stopped by the angel of the Lord, or the Lord. (6:55) He was stopped. (6:57) And he was told, (6:59) Now I see that you are willing to sacrifice your son.

(7:07) And just as Abraham told his son Isaac as they were traveling themselves to the place where he was to offer his son, (7:28) he wanted to know where the sacrifice was. (7:34) And Abraham told him, (7:35) God will provide. (7:38) And God did provide.

(7:40) For there was a ram that was caught in the thicket, (7:44) and Abraham offered that ram as a sacrifice instead of his son. (7:52) But there is Abraham whose faith was strong enough for him to sacrifice his son. (8:06) Then there was Moses.

(8:10) Yes, when God told him to go, (8:14) God had chosen him to go into Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let his people go. (8:27) And at first Moses gave excuses. (8:36) And God finally had to tell him, (8:42) You are to go.

(8:45) And at the last, he said, (8:49) Your brother can act as your mouthpiece. (8:55) For one of his excuses was, (8:58) I’m not eloquent in speech. (9:03) And certainly we remember Jesus, (9:10) his life, the life that he led.

(9:16) He’s the only one whose life was perfect. (9:23) And he kept the law perfectly. (9:29) And he did what his father told him to do.

(9:37) And then in verse 11, (9:44) the first part of that verse, (9:48) says the mouth of the righteous is a well of life. (9:58) Because as in Proverbs 12 and verse 17, (10:10) we have this, (10:18) He who speaks truth declares righteousness. (10:24) The mouth of the righteous declares righteousness.

(10:31) And speaks the truth. (10:38) Now in verse 20, (10:44) the first part of that verse says, (10:48) the tongue of the righteous is choice silver. (10:58) And then verse 21, (11:02) the lips of the righteous feed many.

(11:07) Now you see why blessings come upon the head of the righteous. (11:18) Because the righteous are those who do right, (11:24) who obey God, (11:26) who at start may fumble, (11:34) but as they grow enough, (11:37) then the righteous are blessed because they do the right things. (11:49) Now I’m going to take the second part of verse 6. (12:05) In verse 6, the second part of that says, (12:08) that violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

(12:14) And also, the second part of verse 11, (12:19) says that violence covers the mouth of the wicked. (12:26) I want to go back to James, the third chapter. (12:34) I want to read that and just briefly talk about that.

(12:47) What James says here. (12:54) He says, (12:56) Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. (13:06) Oh, how some people can tell you what they did.

(13:16) I did such and such. (13:18) I did that over there. (13:23) Sounds like, you know, all the boasting.

(13:28) And then again, this little member sets afire things that shouldn’t be set afire. (13:43) He says, See how great a force a little fire candles. (13:48) You know, they’re having trouble with wildfires in Spokane, Washington.

(13:58) Sent a little bit of it this afternoon. (14:05) Watching it. (14:06) That fire is responsible for destroying more than 600 structures.

(14:20) Now, that says structures. (14:22) That doesn’t say 600 homes. (14:25) But there are homes that have been burnt in the wildfires.

(14:33) There are three sections that they have shown in Spokane where there are fires. (14:51) And he says, The tongue is a fire. (14:55) A world of inequity.

(14:58) Think about that. (14:59) Now, over here it says, Violence covers the mouth of the wicked. (15:06) Well, here’s this tongue that is used, and it is a world of inequity.

(15:15) The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. (15:26) And it is set on fire by hell. (15:33) There are animals that are tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.

(15:45) It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison, verse 8 of James 3. (15:55) With it we bless God and Father. (16:00) And with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. (16:08) That shouldn’t be.

(16:10) It shouldn’t be that we curse what God has created. (16:19) We bless him and bless man who was made in his image. (16:29) And then he ends the discussion about the tongue.

(16:38) If it does any strange, send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening. (16:46) Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? (16:52) Or a grapevine bear figs? (16:56) Thus no spring gives both salt water and fresh. (17:07) Now, our sayings of the mouth do matter.

(17:16) But for the wicked…​ (17:20) Now, this is in James talking to Christians. (17:26) We should be careful because we could let our mouth tear out what’s supposed to be unified, what’s supposed to be there. (17:43) Or we could use our mouth to bring about the unity that is needed.

(17:53) But let’s go on. (17:56) The second part of verse 7. (18:05) But the name of the wicked will rise. (18:11) Think about that.

(18:13) The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rise. (18:21) Who wants to remember wicked people? (18:27) There was a couple of guys from Cleveland. (18:37) The first one, he supposedly had these women at his place.

(18:48) And he allegedly killed them and buried them. (18:56) Buried them in his yard. (19:00) Never sung, never in his house.

(19:06) When I was hearing that, it was like I was hearing something about a movie. (19:14) But this really happened, and it happened in Cleveland. (19:21) And the other kidnapped three women.

(19:28) And they were locked up in his basement. (19:34) And he raped them. (19:37) He had a child by one of them.

(19:40) But everybody kept wondering, whatever happened to them? (19:48) Where did these women end up? (19:56) My late wife, she was saying maybe they were taken somewhere as sex slaves. (20:08) Well, in a way, they were, but they were right there in, here in Cleveland. (20:17) Until they were able to escape.

(20:26) But who wants to remember them? (20:31) Let me say that their houses were torn down. (20:37) The second one’s house, I watched as the machine tore apart and tore down the second one’s house. (20:59) I watched that, and that took, what took years to be born, (21:05) took about a half hour to destroy.

(21:11) And then to keep someone from somehow taking something from that debris, (21:25) as some weird people might want to do, (21:31) as one is about the first one. (21:35) He wanted to get the dirt out of that man’s jar. (21:40) I said, why? (21:43) You mean you can’t, you don’t have dirt around you, around you now, (21:49) that you could go and put it in a jar or something and keep it? (21:57) He wanted that maybe to, as a reminder, I don’t know.

(22:08) But nobody wanted to remember them, so they tore their places down. (22:17) The second one died at his own hands while he was incarcerated. (22:24) I do not know too much about the first one.

(22:31) He’s currently serving time. (22:35) But people, the name of the wicked will rise. (22:41) We want to forget them.

(22:42) We don’t want to remember them. (22:47) And so, now, in verse 20, (22:53) the second part of that says, (22:56) the heart of the wicked is worth little. (23:06) The first part of that is that the tongue of the righteous is choice filler.

(23:12) But the heart of the wicked is worth little. (23:20) And then, verse 21, it says, (23:26) the lips of the righteous feed many. (23:29) But the second part says, (23:33) but fools die for a lack of wisdom.

(23:40) So we have the righteous and the wicked, (23:48) especially the mouth, what the mouth says. (23:54) But we need to be careful of what we say (24:00) and what we have our mouths say. (24:05) Do we speak the truth? (24:08) Do we speak the right things? (24:11) It’s something for us to consider.

(24:18) Now, I’m going to conclude by reading Matthew 7, 21 through 27. (24:41) Now, Jesus there is talking. (24:45) It is about to end what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

(24:51) And he says, (24:53) Not everyone who says to me, (24:57) Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, (25:02) but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. (25:07) Many will say to me in that day, (25:13) Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, (25:21) cast out demons in your name, (25:25) and done many wonders in your name? (25:28) And then I will declare to them, (25:32) I never knew you. (25:35) Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

(25:42) Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, (25:56) and I believe that that would include (25:59) all of the Sermon on the Mount (26:02) that starts in Matthew the 5th chapter (26:07) and goes through the 7th chapter (26:14) and does them, (26:17) I will liken him to a wise man (26:20) who built his house on the rock, (26:24) and the rain descended, (26:26) and the floods came, (26:28) and the winds blew, (26:30) and beat on that house, (26:33) and it did not fall, (26:35) for it was founded on the rock. (26:41) But everyone who hears these sayings of mine (26:46) and does not do them (26:49) will be like a foolish man (26:52) who built his house on the sand. (26:57) The rains descended, (26:59) the floods came, (27:01) and the winds blew, (27:03) and beat on that house, (27:05) and it fell, (27:06) and great was its fall.

(27:12) Now let’s look at these things. (27:17) Now Jesus is saying, (27:21) you know, (27:22) he’s talking about the Day of Judgment, (27:27) and they’re going to say to him, (27:32) many will say to me in that day, (27:35) Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, (27:38) cast out demons in your name, (27:40) done many wonders in your name? (27:44) Then will I declare to them, (27:47) I never knew you, (27:49) depart from me, (27:51) you who practice lawlessness. (27:56) It means some people who think (28:00) that they’re on their way (28:03) will be surprised, (28:06) because he knows, (28:09) he knows whether we’ve done what God says (28:16) or whether we aren’t doing what he says.

(28:22) And then likening two men, (28:28) one wise who listens to his words (28:32) and does them, (28:36) and is like a wise man (28:38) that built his house on the rock, (28:43) and opposite that is the foolish man (28:47) that built his house on sand. (28:50) So here comes the rain (28:53) that descends and the floods came (28:56) and the winds blew (28:58) and beat on that house (29:00) and it did not fall, (29:02) for it was founded on the rock, (29:06) that house, (29:07) because he was wise enough (29:09) to build his house on a rock, (29:12) on a good foundation, (29:18) but the foolish man, (29:20) his house fell, (29:23) because he built it on a sandy place. (29:29) He didn’t look for a solid foundation.

(29:34) And so when the storms came, (29:40) the house fell, (29:42) and great was the fall of it. (29:48) Now, the question is, (29:54) how are we building our spiritual house? (30:00) Are we building it firmly on the rock, (30:07) or are we building our house (30:10) on sandy ground, (30:13) shallow ground, (30:15) ground that has no solid foundation? (30:22) What do we want to hear? (30:27) Would we want to hear, (30:31) depart from you who practice lawlessness, (30:37) or would we want to hear, (30:39) well done, good and faithful servant, (30:43) enter into the joys of life? (30:47) I believe the second one would be (30:49) the one that we would want to hear. (30:56) Now, notice that Jesus was righteous.

(31:02) He led a perfect life. (31:05) And when he died, he didn’t die (31:08) because he committed some evil. (31:12) He died so that we who do sin (31:19) could have our sins blotted out (31:24) through his shed blood.

(31:28) The suffering, the agony that he suffered, (31:32) the bleeding that he went through, (31:35) when the spear pierced his side after he died, (31:40) and the blood flowed forth, (31:45) blood and water. (31:47) It’s that blood that washes and cleanses us (31:51) from all sin. (31:54) Now, will we not let the sayings of the mouth (32:00) that others know the truth, (32:06) will our mouth cause them to want (32:12) to come to Christ? (32:17) We should take note the sayings of the mouth matter.

(32:24) And that old saying, (32:27) sticks and stones may break my bones, (32:30) but words will never hurt me, (32:34) is not right. (32:36) That’s false. (32:39) We can say words that can cut to the heart, (32:45) that can make a person really feel bad.

(32:53) Like I said, we can say words that will build one up, (32:58) encourage someone. (33:01) And that’s what we need to know. (33:04) The righteous will speak the truth.

(33:07) The righteous will speak words that is right (33:14) and encouraging. (33:16) So let’s take care of the sayings of our mouth (33:22) and let them build people up (33:30) rather than tearing them down. (33:34) So if anyone is subject to the gospel invitation in any way, (33:39) why not respond while we stand and while we sing? (33:45)