Sermon: The Tongue Of Those Who Are Taught

The Power of Words and the Image of God

Greetings. Good to be with you today, church. We're gonna be in Proverbs chapter 10. Proverbs chapter 10, the final verse of the chapter, verse 32.

This is the Word of the Lord.

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse. Thus far is the reading of God's Word. Will you pray with me? Lord God, open my lips, and my mouth will pour forth your praise.

Now, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One verse, really, to kind of surmise the basic idea, the subject that we're tackling today.

The tongue. Godly speech. Judicious speech. Speaking like kings and queens, like sons and daughters. The wisdom of godly speech. And the contrast here, in the verses throughout this chapter, there's actually several verses that address the tongue and their connection between speaking and the heart, which is very important for where we'll end up.

What I'd like to do today is talk about some ways that we misuse our mouths, how we can use our mouths for what they were created to do, and the only way possible to sound speech. And that's it. Ways that we misuse our mouths, how we can use our mouths for what they were created to do, and then, by grace, the only way that you and I, as God's people, can have sound speech, godly speech, wise tongues, the tongue of those who are taught.

It's interesting, as a theme, there are over a hundred references to this subject in the book of Proverbs. I think we understand that speaking, talking, the Bible has an awful lot to say about. The book of Proverbs itself has a lot to say about saying stuff.

And so, as we take up this topic today, we understand that speaking is an activity that dominates our daily lives. Just about 700 times a day, we open our mouths to speak, some of us more than others.

That's a conservative estimate. You're like, yeah, I caught the latest episode of Apology Radio, bro. You were over 700, for sure. But apparently, this is very interesting, we also speak, on average, 30 ,000 words per day.

Multiply that. Days, weeks, months, years. How many words by the end of our lives? The Bible says that we will actually give an account of every single one of them. Isn't that astounding? Jesus says, you will be held accountable for every careless word you have spoken.

He says that to his audience. The fact is, this is something that we do so much, and it emphasizes how central it is to who we are. We're communicators. We're speakers. That's who God made us to be. It's essential to what it means to be made in the image of God.

We are a people of words.

The written word.

The spoken word. This is what civilizations are built on. This is what wars are fought over, or not fought over, depending on the words that are used. They can make or break our marriages, our families, our churches.

We understand well that our words are powerful, don't we? Depending on which words we use and how, we can invite calamity. We can diffuse conflict, provoke a response, or silence strife. We can alleviate burdens with our words.

Or we can crush souls with our words. We can recall times in our lives where words were spoken that affected our emotions, changed our attitudes, and even fundamentally shaped our convictions.

Right?

They were so impactful to us that they completely overhauled our perspective, and even changed our eternal destiny. Think about when you heard the Gospel for the first time, and God actually took that truth that's in His Word and brought it home to your hearts.

It found the mark. It was an apt word. It was fit. It was appropriate. It was saturated in truth. And when God actually opened your eyes to see what was there all along, it changed you fundamentally. That's the power of the Word.

Pastor Jeff spoke for a little while on regeneration.

The power of the Word.

To actually bring life from death. The effectual nature of the Word and speech.

This is also,.

As we speak words, as we hear words, they can be very precious to us, or they can cause us to recoil in horror when we think about them. You think about that time in your life when you were given something, a bad word, bad news, calamity, disaster struck, something unexpected.

And that word was like a knife that went into you. It took your breath away. When you think about it, you remember. Words are powerful. It's why we send text messages, share podcasts, link to sermons, and songs.

It's why we write stories. It's why when you see your pastors and you go to them for counseling, and you say, Pastor, I'm having a problem in this area. I'm struggling greatly, mightily in this area. Of course, after ministering God's truth to you, after speaking to you from the Scriptures, after bringing it to bear on your situation and upon your heart, what happens?

Generally speaking, depending on the issue, depending on the subject, they'll recommend a book.

Here's a book. Why?

Because words are powerful. They can fundamentally alter your disposition, your expectation. They can shift your perspective, alter your attitude, change completely the way that you see things. Words are powerful.

But why are words powerful? Why does this little organ right here, connected to a couple air sacs in my body, how can that be so powerful for either good or ill, either blessing or cursing, which is fundamentally the theme that we always come back to, right?

If you've been with us in this series on Proverbs, then you understand that wisdom is covenantal. It is not a neutral thing, right? It doesn't come to you as neutral information. Here's some facts. No, there is a responsibility, there is an accountability for receiving that information and either acting in accordance with it or acting perversely.

And we see the antithesis all throughout the book of Proverbs here between the righteous and the wicked and the connection between the mouth and the heart. Why are words so powerful? Well, if you consider how everything that exists, and I do mean everything, everything in existence only does so, it only was brought into existence, it only continues to go along because it was spoken.

We live in a spoken world. Whether atoms or galaxies or hormones, the Bibles that you're holding or cell phones, cheaters, everything was made in a spoken world and that's because we worship a God who speaks.

He is the speaking God and we are his creatures. We are the imago dei and this is part and parcel to what it means to be a speaking creature. We are meant to be an icon of God which is really a small portrait in some way of what he is like.

We are to point to him, we are to reflect him to the world with our speech.

In the way that we use our words and every word that you utter,.

Again, because this is not a neutral endeavor, every word that you speak is either working to create heaven on earth or it's working to create a little hell around you. A world of heaven.

Or a world of hell.

Proverbs does not allow for neutral speech.

God brought all of creation.

Into being through his word. Of course, Genesis chapter 1, but even more so, we understand that that speech of God, the word of the living God, is wholly effectual.

Right?

A passage we know very well in Isaiah 55, what does it say about God's word? It does not return to him void.

Right?

It goes out. It doesn't fail to accomplish its purposes. It succeeds in the reason for which it was sent out. It is effectual. Consider Psalm 19, verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

So here's how it works.

Ready?

God speaks to his world and his world speaks back to him. And we're wrapped up in that as his speaking creatures.

Using words.

That will actually build or destroy. Because God either builds or destroys. He creates and he decreates. It says in scripture that the words of the Lord are powerful. The voice of the Lord shatters the cedars.

It goes out into the earth and it accomplishes things. It does judgments. It brings about God's purposes in the world. And in this sense, in a small sense like this, that's what's meant by we are in the Imago Dei.

Which is not, by the way, some kind of word of faith. Name it and claim it. Make sure you don't hear me referencing or saying that as I'm saying that in our speech we image God. This is not yes, that Ferrari, I believe it's in my ambitions to have it and I'm claiming it.

It's mine. I believe that God will give it to me and he'll give it to me. This is not what modern secular psychology is putting out into the world saying all the answers are inside of you. There's something called the law of attraction.

Whatever you want, a certain thing, whatever the object of your desire, whether a person or an outcome, an object, if you throw your voice out into the cosmos and you visualize this in your mind and in your heart, then your desires will just magically materialize.

You will manifest this reality that you speak out into the universe. That is not sound godly speech. And that's not what we're talking about. However, that does not mean that our words are not powerful.

What does the book of Proverbs tell us? Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And it's easier for us to believe, if we're honest, that death is in the power of the tongue.

But sometimes we struggle to remember that life is as well and our words are constantly working for us. They're working to either create or decreate the world around us. The way that we speak to one another, the way that we speak in our marriages, the way that we speak to our children, the way that we speak to our leadership, the way that we speak to our enemies, it's doing something.

It's not neutral. God made the world in a certain way and his word is clear that we're either using our mouths in an attempt to undo that or to be a faithful picture of him. What describes your mouth?

Does your mouth promote what is acceptable to God? Or what is perverse? Does your mouth promote what is acceptable to God, wise speech, or what is perverse? And we talked about that a few weeks ago, what perversion actually is.

It's living not in terms of the version, but distorting and perverting it.

Right?

Twisting it. Corrupting it. Do you speak like that? Do you speak in such a way as to distort, corrupt, and attempt to undo God's world? That's how the world speaks out there. Yes and amen? We are constantly trying to subvert God's created reality by prostituting his words.

By making these words that God gave us to express him work on our behalf in a self-serving way to alienate his creation from him. That's what those who don't know Christ are doing every day of their lives.

So how about you? James has a lot to say about this, doesn't he? Turn with me to James chapter 3. James chapter 3. I'm not going to read the whole thing, I just want to emphasize a point here. James chapter 3, verse 5.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. Listen to this. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. That's power. 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. And then he goes on to say, no human being can tame the tongue.

You can tame a wild beast, you can bring it under your dominion, you can subdue that creature, but you can't subdue this. And you might think, well, wait a minute, what hope does that leave us? Well, here's the hope.

Ready?

With God, all things are possible. That's the hope that we have. And it's only by grace that we find that. It's only by grace that we can spare the forest of life around us from being set ablaze by the wildfire caused by the sparks that we generate from our own mouths.

And how do we do that? Well, here's a couple ways. Proverbs has a lot to say about this. First, the unbridled tongue. The unbridled tongue. This is the tongue that lives in a perpetually open mouth.

Got it?

A tongue that lives in a perpetually open mouth. That tongue tends towards deconstructing the world that God made around us. Proverbs 10, verse 19, it's right here in this chapter.

When words are many,.

Transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. So, in general, the more you speak, the greater likelihood there is to tend and trend towards transgressing with your words. Proverbs 13, 3.

Whoever guards his mouth, think about that imagery, right? There's a soldier in front of your mouth. Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. So here's what we do.

We tend to use our words to not only destroy and abuse and conduct violence against others, the way that we use our mouths often brings calamity back upon us. You remember the proverb that talks about that fool whose mouth invites a beating?

Right?

He gets embroiled in conflicts not his own, and his mouth actually invites a beating, right? It leads to his own turmoil and self-destruction, ultimately. So, what does this tell us here? The danger of an unbridled tongue.

Well, for starters, we should assume something. We should assume that as human beings, as creatures, we are naturally selfish, prideful people who think who we are and what we have to say is more important than what our neighbor has to say.

That should be our assumption. Going into conversations, going into interactions, right? There's been a lot of talk the last several messages on teachability, on correctability, upon receiving correction, receiving wisdom.

Why won't the fool do that? Because he loves to hear the sound of his own voice. Do you know someone like that? Are you someone like that? Where you don't want to hear wisdom, and so you treasure up pride and vainglory in your own heart because you think that your words are more important than your neighbor's.

Have you ever spoken with a person who wasn't listening because it just seemed like they were waiting on their turn to talk? Is that you? This is what this sin tends towards when we don't place a soldier over our mouths, when our words are profuse.

Do perpetually open mouths describe the state of the speech in your home? Is your home filled with unbridled tongues using words that often come across like sword thrusts against your husband, against your wife, against your children?

Forget off the top of my head, I think it's Proverbs 19, the words of the rash are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Our mouths, our tongues, can be like getting run through on a serrated sword.

That's the kind of damage that they can inflict, is being pierced. Have you noticed that once you indulge a sinful heart and start speaking impure words, you let your tongue go? It becomes hard to stop, doesn't it?

And this is true whether we're talking about cursing, profanity, bitterness, resentment, harsh speech in our homes, in our families, in our churches. Right, there's another proverb that says that venting out quarrel is like the letting out of water.

So quit before it breaks out. Stop. Stop before the quarrel breaks out. What's another way that we misuse our tongues? The unfaithful tongue. That is the tongue that lies. Proverbs 12, 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are His delight.

God hates lying lips. He says it's disgusting, it's detestable, it's loathsome. He despises lying lips. Proverbs 19, 9. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.

That's the fate of the liar. Why do we not lie? Right, is it just something that we were taught growing up that this is just, morally speaking, something that you ought not to do? It tends to hurt people's feelings.

It tends to make you a little less reliable. No, God is truth.

Amen?

We serve the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. And if we are claiming to be His people and to image Him faithfully, and we lie, then we're actually saying that He's a liar. And we're not being an accurate portrait of who He is.

And make no mistake, brothers and sisters, we are very sophisticated in our lying. We are very good at it. Anybody that has children understands this, right? Sinners. Very, very good at lying. Very, very creative.

Very constructive in devising schemes and actually bringing them about, and even in such a way as to make themselves look incredibly righteous and blameless in the process. But either our mouths are a fountain of life or we have hearts that conceal violence.

That's what's at the base of deception, is a heart that conceals violence, right? It's a self-serving heart. And we lie in many ways. We lie when we lie.

Okay?

That's one way to lie. We lie when we don't tell the truth. We lie when we know the truth and we don't speak up.

Right?

So think about this also in terms of commission and omission. Not just what you do overtly, but what you fail to do that you know you ought to. We lie when we know the truth and we don't speak up. We lie when we don't know the truth, but put on a front like we do.

Okay?

You hear someone babbling on, going on and on, droning on about someone in a situation that they have absolutely no idea about. They are just speculating.

Right?

They're doing what we call colloquially as BS. They are claiming to have authority about something that they know absolutely nothing about or very little about. They don't have the facts, but they're leading on like they do.

That's a form of lying. It's like, brother, you don't know.

You weren't there.

You didn't hear what was said.

You didn't even see who was there.

You don't know what the nature of the conflict is. So why are you speculating on it and acting like you're the authority on the situation.

When you weren't even there?

You don't have the facts. It's a form of lying. We lie. We lie when we're not up front about our actual convictions, but we lead others into thinking we agree with them when we don't. Let me say that again.

We lie when we're not up front about our actual convictions, but we lead others into thinking we agree with them when we actually don't. That's a form of lying. When you are silently going along pretending like you're on the same page with someone.

Right? Right? Right, brother? Right, brother? Right, brother? And then, meanwhile, you go home later and have a talk about it, and then you come back a little bit later and you say, you know what? We have a different perspective on that.

When, all the while, you had a different perspective on it, but you didn't say so. That's lying. We lie when we speak well of someone so that we can advance our own agenda, aka, what's that called?

Flattery.

Right? When you're speaking to someone. Oh, man. You're awesome. Brother, you're awesome. I love the way that you do this. And really, the desire of your heart is inordinate. Right? You have a plan. You have a scheme.

You have an agenda that you're looking to act upon. And your speech is just a cover for that. That's all it is. You're looking to build up a person, but you're not actually looking to build them up. You're looking to build yourself up at their expense and find out how you can manipulate them to get what you want.

That's a form of lying. We lie when we distort or exaggerate the facts. You ever done that? Just me. Okay. So we lie when we have the facts, but we really emphasize this point over here, and we don't so much emphasize our part in it, which was actually as bad or worse.

We want to paint ourselves in the best possible light there is. That's a form of lying.

Next.

Another way that we misuse our tongues. The tail-bearing tongue.

Gossip.

You know, what's interesting about this is Proverbs chapter 6, where it talks about there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him. Gossip. Those who sow discord. Those who slander.

That really makes up about over 50 of the things that the Lord hates in that passage. That's how detestable it is to Him. Proverbs 10, 18. Proverbs 18, 8. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels.

They go down into the inner parts of the body. So the picture that you should be getting there of a whisperer,.

Someone who's whispering,.

Did you hear about this? Did you hear about them? Did you hear about the sin they had? Did you hear about their kids and how they messed this up? But not like me. No, not like me. They're not wise like me.

They're not well put together spiritually like me.

Right?

Did you hear that? Whisperer. Right? The imagery that you're supposed to conjure up in your mind is the slimy, serpent-like whisperer.

The hisser.

Right?

We refer to people that are like this, don't we? We call them snakes.

Don't we?

See, that person's a snake. Don't listen to them. They're a tailbearer.

Right?

And we tolerate that and we put up with it. Right? Which is another way that we lie.

We don't say anything.

We know the truth and we actually don't speak up. And so we lie and we actually become a participant in it.

Right?

We actually feed into it. And what does James say? That little spark will burn the whole forest down. That's the power of words. Concealing hatred with lying lips. Why do we do that, though? Like, why do we do it?

Why, instead of, okay, there's an issue with this person, I'm gonna go to them directly and talk about it. No, I'm not gonna do that, actually. I'm gonna go over here and talk to this person about it.

Right?

And I'm gonna take all of that person's faults, the one I could have gone to and talked about this, and I'm gonna treasure up all those faults at their expense to make myself look better. And we need to be a community that despises it.

We need to be a community that hates it. That puts it down quickly. And praise God, I think that we are. But it's still an issue. It's still an issue. Why use such strong language about this sin? Because God says it's one of the things that he hates, and we should hate it, too.

It ruins reputations, and it ruins communities.

Next.

First of all, aren't you happy that God isn't like that? Aren't you happy that God is not a gossip? I wanted to move on, but it's almost like I can't leave that alone. Aren't you ecstatic that God is not like you and not like me?

He's not a gossip. Right? He's not airing our grievances out for everyone to see, even though he has your number. He knows you much better than you do, and he knows the most wicked thing about you. I promise.

He knows the most wicked thing about me. I promise. And he doesn't air out those grievances. He comes gently, and he restores, and he corrects.

Next.

The venting tongue. The venting tongue. Proverbs 29, 11. A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. Proverbs 16, 32. And this really has to do with the subject of self-control.

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes his city. You understand that? If you can control your mouth, if you can close your mouth, be slow to speak, then you're actually better than the conqueror on the horse with the shield and the sword and the armor laying out the battle cry.

Like, Robo-Victor!

You're better than that. If you can control your mouth.

Sorry.

You thought that venting was just an innocent activity, didn't you? You thought that you'd come home, and you drone on and on about your co-worker or about a brother or sister, and you say at the very end of it, you get through all that, I can't believe what they did, I can't believe what they said, and then you get to the end of it, and you're just like, okay, I'm sorry, I was just venting.

You know what else vents? A volcano. And it leaves a lot of destruction in its path, doesn't it? We can leave a wake of destruction amongst our people and amongst our enemies without self-control all because we indulge ourselves in the sinful desires of our hearts through our words.

That's what venting is. Once again, we just need to have the assumption that we're really harsh with our speech generally when it's left to itself, right? We're bitter, we're petty, we're resentful, we're envious of our brothers and sisters.

And that's why James says, be slow to speak. Be quiet first. Don't rush into talking. Slow to speak. How about this one? The grumbling tongue. The muttering tongue. The complaining tongue. Proverbs 19, 3, When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, so this is your fault,.

My fault, our fault,.

His heart rages against the Lord. That's what grumbling is, by the way. That's what complaining is. Really being unthankful, uncharitable to God, right? Blaming Him for your woes, for your circumstances, for your situation.

It's another way that we sin with our mouths because we're discontent. We're discontent with our circumstances.

We don't like it,.

And so we take it out on God. And instead of using our words to give life and bring hope to those around us about it, we want our circumstances to be different, so we complain. That's what we do. That's what you and I do.

We grumble. And in doing so, we suck everyone else into our little vortex of misery.

Right?

We want to bring everybody into it. That's another thing about words. They have weight, don't they? Right? The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. You remember when Pastor Jeff brought the silver bar up here and he couldn't lift it up, right?

Because he does martial arts and doesn't lift weights. It's heavy, right? Your words have weight, right? Or at least they should, right? But the words of the wicked are worthless, right? They don't have any weight to them.

But our words are meant to have gravitas. They're meant to pull everybody into something good, right? But a complainer, a grumbler, sucks everyone else into a vortex of misery. And of course, it never ends well.

Read the book of Numbers if you want to see how. Every time I'm tempted to complain and grumble, I just read the book of Numbers. And I think about the earth opening up and swallowing wide an entire people.

That's how seriously God takes it, right? The complaining, the fussing, the whining. I wish it was just different. If I could just have this, if I could just have this, if it was just this way. Of course, there's coarse joking, boasting, cussing, profanity, blasphemy, some other ways.

So what are some ways that we can use our tongues rightly according to Proverbs? You're like, thank God, because I was getting a little beat down. We can confess. We can confess our sins. Proverbs 28, 13.

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. When you are demonstrably wrong, right? When it can be shown without a shadow of a doubt that you're wrong, you need to confess.

Amen?

You need to confess and be reconciled, right? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is beauty, there is peace in that reconciliation that exists between God and us and between us and one another, right, in our community.

There is that sweetness of restored fellowship that gets destroyed by our words, and the way to turn that on its head is to stop and say, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I was wrong. How sweet is that joy.

One thing we need to do more of is repenting. We can use our tongues to confess. We can use our tongues to encourage. Proverbs 12, 25. Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Feel that? Anxiety keeping you up at night. You have so many things on your mind, so many concerns, so many things that you're wrestling with, so many responsibilities, and a brother or sister comes along and speaks that word to you.

It's that word that is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. It is timely.

It is apt.

You know that encouraging word I'm talking about? It could be one word. It could be three words. It could be two sentences. It could be one verse, and you get that word, and all of a sudden there's this weight that just lifts right off your shoulders, right?

You experience that? A brother or sister comes and speaks that word to you. It's apt. It's timely, right? They have a gentle tongue, and they speak that word to you, and it completely changes your whole perspective.

It pulls you out of that pit that you're wallowing in, right? Proverbs 15, 23. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, right? That's, by the way, one of the qualifications of an elder. He must be apt to teach, right?

His words have to be timely. They have to be appropriate. They have to be in accordance with the word, the scriptures. He has to be apt to teach, right? His words have to be apples of gold in a setting of silver.

They have to be valuable. They have to have weight, and the only way that we can do that is if we're tied to the word, right? If we're anchored in the scriptures. We need to encourage one another. Next, we need to become better at correcting each other.

Proverbs 27, 5. You know this well. This is actually the very first verse I learned out at the abortion mill, the very first time I went out there to minister. It was a godly sister by the name of Sherry Pierce.

Proverbs 27, 5. 27, 6. Let's start there. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. We need to be the kind of people that when a brother or sister is caught in an offense that we do what Galatians 6, 1 tells us to do.

You who are spiritual, restore your brother and sister in a spirit of humility, keeping a watch on your own heart. Brother, I noticed that, you know, when you were speaking to your wife last night, it came across kind of harshly.

Do you always speak to your wife that way?

Right?

Or sister, I noticed that you tend to nag your husband an awful lot. You're always chirping in his ear, telling him to do something. You kind of won't let him have a minute to his own thoughts, and you certainly won't trust him, right, to do what's right for you and right for your people, right for your family.

Have you always done that?

Right?

This is how we need to be. This is how we need to act. This is how we need to speak.

Right?

We need to make sure that we're spiritual, of course, before we correct, before we instruct, but we need to use our tongues in the way that they were meant to be used, because, guess what? Just like you owe your children, when they're running through the house acting crazy, acting a fool, breaking stuff, hurting each other, twisting each other's necks and jumping on each other and doing all these crazy things that you told them not to do, right, and they're disobeying, what do you owe them in that moment?