Dr Greg Bahnsen - Mouth Control: Empty Boasts, Baseless Curses, Weasel Words (Part 7)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. A reading of God's Word this morning begins in the Old Testament in the book of Proverbs at chapter 25, verse 14, Proverbs 25. The 14th verse. Hear God's word to you. As clouds and wind without rain, so is he that boasteth himself of his gifts falsely. And then Proverbs 26:2. As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, so is the curse that is causeless, alighteth not. And verses 18 and 19 of this same chapter. As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour. But then said, wasn't I just joking? And our reading of God's holy word from the New Testament this morning is in Matthew's gospel, the 12th chapter, Matthew 12, beginning at the 33rd verse. Again, hear God's word. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things, and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. And I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. And thus far, the reading of God's word. Speech therapy. So much of wisdom is just that, speech therapy. Now, I'm not talking about the kind of speech therapy that concentrates on how we pronounce our words, as though we need to learn to say speech. They're a P very clearly and crisply and with just the right kind of accent for the area of the country that you come from. The kind of speech therapy that the word of God directs us to be interested in is a therapy having to do with the use of our mouths and the way that we speak and how we control or do not control our tongues. Now, those of you who have been with the congregation for some time and have heard the series on proverbs, which I guess has gone for a few years, will say what? Another message about speech therapy, Pastor Bonson? Yes. Another message about speech therapy. There have been a number of them, I hope, maybe as a result of today's message, that Some of you will want to go to our tape library and find some of those and review some of them. One of those messages was printed up in the form of a little pamphlet, a moral checkup for your mouth. This is not the only one. There have been other messages too. But in this pamphlet I tried to go through a number of the passages in Proverbs and throughout God's Word that deal with how we use our mouths. I try to point out that if we want to do a checkup on the spiritual quality of our lives, we can begin. And the Bible would tell us to begin with looking first at our mouths in James the third chapter. James is a book dealing with wisdom. I remind you it's not at all accidental that James puts this much emphasis upon doing good works and especially doing good works in terms of how we use our mouths. James chapter three says that if we could learn to control our mouths, we could learn to control our entire bodies. The speech therapist of course, in the biblical sense of doing moral therapy on the use of the mouth, the speech therapist is the one who can heal the entire body. Spiritually. James says we put bits in horses mouths and when we do that we do it because we know that if we can control the mouth of the horse, we can direct wherever it goes. And so it is if a bit could be put into our mouths, spiritually speaking, we could be controlled. Wherever we would go, we could be controlled in terms of the types of people we would become in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kind of development we would see in our lives spiritually and morally. There have been a number of messages on speech therapy, oral checkup on your mouth, but we need to drill deeper. I have had the experience in the past of when I've preached on the use of the mouth, not only feeling that I was unworthy to be in the pulpit to deliver those messages, but to have many of you say that those messages were excruciating for you. Because if you are listening and being honest before God, we know that the minute we look at the way we talk we fall so short of the glory of God it is painful. But friends, I have to drill deeper than I have in the past. And this morning I want to look at three forms of verbal foolishness that the book of Proverbs brings to our attention and just want to praise God as I begin again because the book of Proverbs is so detailed, so down to earth, so in a sense mundane. It catches us in our day to day practical ungodliness. If we were to Talk about the sins of the mouth. I think all of us could begin thinking about, if you will, rather broad and obvious and recurring categories of sin having to do with not telling the truth, perhaps, or gossip, or whatever it may be. But the Book of Proverbs does not leave things at that general and categorical level. It goes very, very, very deep in pursuing the foolishness of our lives and directing us to the proper paths of wisdom. And in these particular verses that we have read this morning, from God's Word, in the Book of Proverbs, we see how deep that drill must go in finding out the deep recesses of foolishness and sin in us, in our mouths. In Proverbs 25:14, we are given a picture of clouds that do not carry rain. In Proverbs 26:2, we are given the picture of the random flight of a flitting sparrow, and in Proverbs 26:18 and 19, the picture of a lunatic with a loaded weapon. And the Book of Proverbs says, are you perhaps like these three pictures? Do you see yourself here? Let's go back and look at each one of them. First of all, Proverbs 25:14. As clouds and wind without rain, so is he that boasts himself of his gifts falsely. The picture is that of clouds that turn out to disappoint the desperate expectation of the farmer. Palestinian farmers were desperate to see the bulging black clouds that would bring in rain to save their crops, to make them grow, to be productive, as a farmer called for such clouds and rain. But you can imagine then how infuriating it was, and how disappointing it was, and sometimes how devastating it was when the clouds that would roll in proved to be without moisture, when the clouds would roll in and the winds would just drive them right away. And so clouds showing an expectation of something good, but nothing comes of it. The Book of Proverbs says, we are so much like that, aren't we, when we boast of our gifts falsely, when we give all of the outward indication of something good, some promise, and yet there's no substance there. There's nothing productive in us. There is no moisture to these clouds. When the Book of Proverbs here speaks of boasting of gifts falsely, the application to our ability. This is not inappropriate, but you need to know that the word in Hebrew talks about a man who boasts of his presence, something that he's going to give to someone else, but boasts falsely of that. You have here the big talker, a person who boasts of a present that he doesn't give. After all, he's nothing but a windbag. People boast and they brag, people promise and they predict, then they don't produce. They offer what can be called an inflated picture of themselves making a pretense of being more than they really are. When you speak to other people about yourself, do you perhaps just push a little bit on the accomplishment side and intend to pull back a bit from the humiliating side of your life? Well, I know you do. It's a natural human tendency. We want to put, as we might say in justifying this our best foot forward. We want people to see the good side of us. Well, there's a place for that. I don't think we should go about bad mouthing ourselves all the time just so we can have a sense of humility which will prove to be a form of pride because I'm so humble about the way I tell people about my sins. That's not the point here. But you see, in the legitimate effort to be good and to show the best side to people, do we, with our mouths perhaps make more of ourselves than we should? Do we magnify our abilities? Do we magnify our contributions that have been made to some cause? Do we magnify the part that we've played in some project? Do we magnify our gift to a friend or to an agency, or maybe even our tithing to the church? Do we magnify our past history? Do we magnify our accomplishments in life? Do we magnify our plans for the future? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We do all of those things, and all of us do all of those things. And Proverbs says we're windbags. Actually, we're clouds that don't even bring forth the rain that was promised in the initial appearance of the cloud. You'll find an interesting use of this proverb if you'll turn in your New Testament to the Book of Jude, verse 12. Jude 12 applies this figure of moistureless clouds or waterless clouds to the false teachers within the Christian church, which come in for very strong excoriation in the Epistle of Jude. Jude 12. These are they who are hidden rocks in your love. Feast when they feast with you. Shepherds that without fear feed themselves. Clouds without water, carried along by winds, Autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I'm amazed the way the New Testament writers, by the way, can so quickly reach back and take an illusion from the Old Testament, take an illusion from the book of Proverbs in that way, and work it right into they are saying our knowledge of scripture is such that when we do use an illusion, we tend to pick it up and then dwell on it and so forth. The book of Jude has these sorts of things from the Old Testament, and they just run on and on and on. It's like we take it for granted. You're familiar with this? It's a familiar image. The idea of clouds without water. The clouds that don't bring forth the rain, the moisture that is needed. And false teachers are like that in the church. False teachers who stand up and make promises and predictions and then cannot follow through on them. Do we have any rainless clouds around in our day in the professing Christian church? Any false teachers that make quiet an open and public display of their prophecies and of their promises of what can be delivered if you're part of their ministry? People who can claim to do healings, people who will claim on the TV that if you send in a certain donation that you'll be prayed for, that you'll be put in the book, that the televangelist will place his hands upon your prayer request. Do we have such things in our day? Is it even possible that we could have rainless clouds in the midst of the Christian church? Of course we do. We have those who will tell you that you're little gods. We have those who will tell you that you can name it and claim it. We'll have those who will tell you that God doesn't want you to suffer. And if you are, it's because there's something wrong with your faith. There are those who will tell you that God will deliver anything you want. And of course, people love to hear that kind of preaching. Their ears are tickled by that. Their desires are inflamed by that. They want to hear, that they can have anything they want and that God will be some kind of a cosmic servant to them. And as the Book of Jude says, false teachers like this are like clouds without water. Plenty of promise and no deliverance. Rising expectations, but no productive crime. We find it easy when we look at people that make such an open display of their empty boast. We find it easy to identify that. Do we find it as easy to identify it when we're looking in the mirror? What sorts of things do we lead people to believe about ourselves through what we say and the way we use our mouths? Things which we know in the privacy of our prayer closet are not true about us. Satan himself is great at making promises that he can't deliver false gifts. Do you remember in the Garden of Eden, how Satan offered to Eve and to Adam with her certain promises which he could not at all deliver upon. Well, if you'll but follow my advice, go ahead and eat this fruit. You'll become like gods. No, they wouldn't. And Satan could not have made them like gods if he had wanted to. So audacious is the biggest boaster of all, that Satan on the mountaintop promised to the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, the kingdoms of this world, if Jesus would but bow down to him. Satan is full of big words that have no substance. It's a shame we haven't learned that about the Evil one, so that when he lures us into some of these promises of what he might do, if we'll but compromise, we'd realize that he's a rainless cloud. But again, I want to bring it back to you. You too have that satanic characteristic in your mouth that you say things about your gifts, about your presence, about your contributions, about your accomplishments, about yourself that you can't deliver on. In Proverbs 26:2, we see another form of verbal foolishness. Now the picture is that of the random flight of the flitting sparrow. By the way, Solomon himself was intrigued with the zoological realm. The Bible tells us that if you want to turn quickly in your Bibles to 1 Kings 4:33, the author of so many of these psalms is described here as being quite interested in the animal realm. 1 Kings 4:33 tells us, and he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. And he spake also of animals and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fishes. Solomon took an interest in the natural world. And just here, in the 26th chapter of Proverbs, notice the way in which so many animals are referred to. In verse two, of course we have the spirit, sparrow and the swallow, verse three, the horse and the ass, in verse 11 the dog, in verse 13 the lion. And in verse 17 again the dog taken by the ears. Repeatedly. Solomon likened the moral instruction of wisdom that God had given him to things we see in the natural world. And in verse two of this particular chapter, he talks about how birds seem to fly about randomly and never alight, never come down. As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, so is the curse that is causeless alighteth not. When we utter the curse and the evil word against someone that has not been deserved, it does not come to rest. There is some very important instruction about the nature of the world in which we live, the nature of reality, what we philosophers call metaphysical instruction to be learned from this very interesting proverb, and that very simply put, is this, that we do not live in a magic universe. We do not live in a universe devoid of of personal justice, as though some kind of angry or superstitious curse could be uttered that will automatically become effective, even though God's displeasure does not rest on the object of our curse. You remember the story of Balaam. You'll turn in your Bibles to numbers, the 23rd chapter. Balaam was reputed to be a prophet. The people of Moab hired Balaam to curse the Israelites in Numbers 23:8. Balaam's response is worth noting. He says, how shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy whom God hath not defied? Balaam realized that he could not utter some kind of magical curse and that the evil eye, the hex, would be upon them. Regardless of the question of personal justice in the universe, Balaam realized that his curse meant nothing if it was not the expression of God's curse against these people. We do not live in a universe where Satan even is able to carry a curse that has no worth to to it to its destined conclusion. The undeserved curse does not come about. Proverbs tells us there are no evil eyes and hexes in this world that will work. In 2 Samuel 16, I'd like to remind you of the story of Shimei, how he cursed David, and note especially how David responded to that. In 2 Samuel 16 we pick up the story at the fifth verse. And when King David came to Beroam, behold, there came out thence a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Garob. He came out, and he cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, begone, begone. Thou man of blood and base fellow. Jehovah hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned. And Jehovah hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art taken in thine own mischief, because thou art a man of blood. And there's a lot of drama to this story. This Shimei, I don't know, may have been a little mentally defective, but you know he put on a pretty good show, because with all of David's men surrounding him, here's the guy casting dust in the air and throwing rocks at everybody and at the king himself, and cursing him in the name of God. Then said Habishai, the son of Zeriah, unto the king, why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. And the king said, what have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeriah? Because he curseth, and because Jehovah hath said unto him, curse David. Who then shall say, wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, behold, my son who came forth from my bowels, seeketh my life. How much more may this Benjamite now do it. Let him alone, and let him curse, for Jehovah hath bidden him. Now listen to verse 12. And it may be that Jehovah will look on the wrong done unto me, and that Jehovah will requite me good for his cursing of me this day. So David and his men went by the way, and Shimei went along on the hillside over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him and cast dust. And the king and all the people that were with him came weary, and he refreshed himself there. David said, ignore him. Of course, David had other things that were breaking his heart. He said, my own son wants to kill me. Why should I worry about this Benjamin cursing me? But notice his view of the universe, his view of how things happen in history. He said, it may just be, you see, that because Jehovah is the sovereign, that if I respond in faith to this person cursing me, that Jehovah will turn it into a blessing for me. In Psalm 109:28 you'll see a reflection of that faith of David. Psalm 109:28. Let them curse, but bless thou. When they arise, they shall be put to shame, but thy servant shall rejoice. David could write, let them curse. But God you bless in this universe. When people utter a curse, that does not mean that it's going to come to bear, that it's going to be brought about, the undeserved, the baseless, the causeless curse does not alight any more than the flittering of the sparrows over our heads. Curses should then not fly out of our mouths undeserved and unprovoked should they, I think, in our own culture of the easy and the very idle use of expressions like damn it or God damn it, which even God's people have been known to use, perhaps is not your particular designer curse to use. Perhaps your curses are more sophisticated, perhaps they are more well covered. But you know that the curse comes from the intention of the heart and uttered from the mouth. You need to remember how idle it is to curse when you're cursing for the sake of your own feelings and your own desires and your own personality. Before you curse anyone, ask yourself if Jehovah God, the sovereign of this universe, has commissioned you to utter his curse in his name, and if he has, then by all means pronounce it. If God's given you that word of curse, then you need to give it. But of course I'm pushing that so that you'll understand, by way of contrast, how little you have the right to be cursing anyone. It isn't the place of God's people to say damn it about anything God pronounces. Curse not us. How often do those unprovoked, causeless words come out of our mouths, the undeserved negative remark, and put down as though we could play gods of this universe, as though we could for a moment take it into our own hand to pronounce who should be judged in whatever way we have pronounced. Our speech therapy goes even further in Proverbs 26 at the 18th verse, as a madman who cast firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceives his neighbor but says, wasn't I just joking? There's the picture of that hyperactive lunatic who's got a loaded weapon and he's just shooting it at random. The word of God will teach us that there are no escape clauses that will be acknowledged by God to rid us of our responsibility for the things we have said. When we say evil things and cutting things and hurtful things, when we say wicked things to people that have a terrible effect on them and then say, oh, I didn't mean it. God will not accept that excuse. You might. You do. Often I do, but God doesn't ever accept those excuses. I want to say before I do apply this particular proverb. This is not a proverb, as I'm afraid some of the commentators and even some of my Puritan friends have said. This is not a proverb about joking around. Some people reading this say, well, there should be a continual somberness and seriousness about the Christian. Christians should never be lighthearted, should never be able to tease or have fun. It's not true. This is not a proverb that says it is wrong to joke around. It is a proverb about weaseling out of responsibility when our cutting words prove to be painful, saying it was only a joke when it was not a joke at all. Now, scripture does emphasize the need for thinking ahead about the consequences of our words and the likely effect they will have when we think about what we say to people, when we say it, how we say it, how they will receive it. I don't know how often I have heard from children, from myself, from you all, how often have I heard people say, well, but what I said was true. Maybe it wasn't at the best time, maybe I didn't say it in a way that they take it right, but it was true, as though that's all there is to it. God says we are to think ahead, that if we want to communicate the truth for the edification, for the constructive good of our brother or sister, then we say it in a way that edifies, that doesn't tear them down while we say, oh, but it is an edifice of truth. No, we must think about the consequences of our words. And consequently, the insensitive prankster who laughs at another person's discomfort or another person's embarrassment is not at all funny any more than there's humor in an innocent child being killed while a playmate fools around with a loaded gun. That's what Proverbs is telling you here. And we hear stories of that, tragic stories of that. Within this last year, I know a story of a child that was killed because a playmate was goofing around with a gun. Didn't mean it, didn't think about the consequences either, and the life is taken. And so we should think of ourselves when we just insensitively walk on the feelings of others thinking we're being funny and we aren't. Our mouths are weapons of destruction. God's word condemns cruel jest. God's word condemns laughing at putting people down. Whom you are speaking get as much fun out of your humorous remark as the others who are laughing at this person. And if the answer is yes, then I'd say you need not worry that you're violating God's word. If this is meant for the fun of all, including the person you're speaking of, then fine, then that truly is something that is just entertainment for all. It's not cutting, not putting someone down. But the second rule of thumb is even tougher. Are you sure? Are you sure that the person that you've spoken of is not laughing out of social awkwardness and Embarrassment and will not go home later and be wounded because of what you said. You need to know people pretty well, don't you, before you start messing around with their reputations and their feelings in a laughing way. Matthew Henry wrote excellent words. He who sins in jest must repent in earnest. And we can sin against other people when we think we're only jesting. And so the word of God would make us cautious about the way we speak to others and about others. But even more, and this is where the drill goes so much deeper. Scripture here is saying more than what I have just taught you. Scripture at this place is condemning the person who is aware of the potentially hurtful character of what he says. But then he weasels out of it by claiming that he didn't really mean it, that he was only kidding. He never thought it would be taken that way. He didn't mean any harm. He is only being playful. I was only joking. But in his heart of hearts, he knows that's just his escape from responsibility. Here, the book of Proverbs is not simply condemning the unthoughtful cutting remark. It's condemning the weasel who makes the cutting remark, knowing that that if he says it just right, then the person will not show that they are hurt, but you will have stabbed them. But if he does show it and complain, you can say, oh, I didn't mean that. What, you took it that way? Oh, no, of course not. Now, of course I'm being dramatic. I'm overdoing it for you. But I'll bet you that what you see taking place in the pulpit right now, you know, in your heart of hearts is true of you too. Did you have those times where you use your words in just the most subtle way so you can pull it back and say, oh, yeah, just kidding. Oh, I see you're bleeding from what I've done. Oh, I was just kidding. Like a madman who cast about arrows and firebrands and then says, I was just joking. The book of Proverbs says that's how sinful we are in our use of our words. What lessons do we learn from these proverbs this morning? These three pictures? The pictures of the rainless cloud and the flittering sparrow and the lunatic with a loaded gun. First of all, we learned a lesson about the unruliness of our mouths. Nowhere does our lack of self control come to more obvious expression than in our loose verbal habits. I wouldn't say that verbal sins are everything that is sinful about us, but I would say our verbal Sins are the most obvious indicator of the unruliness of our lives. Secondly, we learn of the deceitful and the dreadful nature of our sin. God made mouths for us so that we would be able to glorify him, so that we would be able to communicate faithfully with one another and accomplish his bidding in this world. Satan led us into sin verbally. Adam, when he made excuses for himself, did it verbally. When fallen mankind wanted to rebel against God. God judged mankind at Babel verbally. And when God sent the Savior into this world, he sent the Savior into this world as the Word of God. We need to think very seriously about the importance of our mouths. God made our mouths to glorify God, to communicate faithfully with one another. And we use our mouths often, not even to speak of God. And when we do, we take his name in vain. And when we speak to one another, we deceive. And when we speak of ourselves, we boast. Look at the deceitful and the dreadful nature of our sin as our mouths make so very clear. Thirdly, look at the scope of God's judgment on the day of judgment. The Bible tells us God will not simply look at what we have done. God is going to look very specifically at what we have said and even further, what we have thought and sometimes not uttered. The total scope of God's judgment is seen in the Book of Proverbs, as it so often looks at the foolishness and the sinfulness and unrighteousness of our mouths. And then look at the thorough extent of our verbal responsibility. Fourthly, Jesus understood the Book of Proverbs. He understood, of course, all of God's word and the very mind of God. And In Matthew, the 12th chapter, remember in our reading of God's word this morning, how Jesus said in verse 34, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And in verse 36, and I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account of in the day of judgment. Sinners, are you listening to this? Do you understand what Jesus said about your mouth? Every idle word in the day of judgment. Jesus says that every word you have ever spoken at any time, every single one, not a sentence will be missed, not a phrase will be overlooked. Every word is going to be brought out in the day of judgment. But it's more than that. It's not just every word Jesus says. Every idle word. Every word that you said. I didn't mean it. Every word you said. I didn't think about it. Every word. Where you thought, well, I was just goofing around. Jesus says, God's going to ask you about that. He's going to bring it into judgment. And Jesus says, and those words on the day of judgment will show the treasure of your heart, whether it's good or evil. Because out of the treasure of a man's heart, so he speaks. And a good man, out of the good treasure of a very good heart speaks good words. And evil men out of the evil treasure of their wicked hearts speak wicked words. Have you asked God to forgive you for your idle words? You see how deep the drill goes? I should be so condemned. If God would only look at the words that I would say I meant, how much more will I be condemned? For the words I'd say I didn't even think about was just an idle remark. God says, by your words you shall be justified. And by your words you shall be condemned. That's the fifth lesson of our sermon this morning. In Matthew 12:37. We can't miss it. That justification has a lot to do with our works. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. In James, the second chapter, James tells us that a man is not justified without works, because faith without works is dead. And we need to be aware of that, that our mouths are going to be a focus of God's judgment. Will we stand justified on the day of judgment? Then we shall by our mouths be justified. And will we be condemned and rejected by God and told that we are not part of his family and will have nothing to do with him for eternity? Then it will be by our mouths that we are convicted, and so learn from the Book of Proverbs the wisdom of seeing the condemning or the saving instrumentality of your mouth. For some people, their mouths will prove their very undoing. They will, as we might say, condemn themselves out of their own mouths, not because they utter their own judgment, but because what comes out of their mouths will be an evidence of what's in their hearts. And God will say, I have nothing to do with you. I don't know how I can be saved with my mouth. I'm so ashamed of the things I've said. I'm not just ashamed of the big categorical sins, the gossip and the lies of which I'm quite capable. I'm condemned by my idle words, too. The words that I would have said. I was just kidding. How will I stand on the day of judgment and be justified by my words? Maybe you're facing that problem too. I thank God for a passage like Romans 10, 9, 10. That tells me the only way in which the confession of my mouth is going to save me. If you'll confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you shall be saved. For with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If you're like me and you've been misusing your mouth and this morning you need to learn to confess, Jesus is Lord, to make confession with your mouth unto salvation. The only hope for sinners who will be justified on the basis of what their mouths have done is to make sure that our mouths now turn to the praise of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who, by the way, never spoke an evil word, never pronounced a curse that was not deserved, never made a promise that he will not keep. And when he was reviled, reviled not again, but stood before his shearers as a sheep is dumb. He's our only hope, isn't he, for us verbal sinners that Jesus, the word of God would show us how to use our mouths, but even more lay down his life to pay the price for the sin that we have committed with our mouths. And if we believe that in our hearts, and if we believe that God has justified and vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead, then our mouths need to make that clear. We need to confess that. And I'd suggest we need to confess that with our mouths, not just here on Sunday mornings. We need to make that the character of our lives. We need to make our mouths glorify the Savior because our mouths are going to let us down. We are sinful, though we must try to rid ourselves and ask God to cleanse our mouths, that we would not sin in these foolish ways with our mouths. We know that in the end we are going to do that in our only hope is that when we have sinned, what will come out of our mouth is the confession of our sin and that we are relying upon Christ and Him alone for our salvation. Let's pray. Lord, we're ashamed of ourselves for our weaseling words and our empty boast and for the curses that we pronounce. We're ashamed of our mouths and we would not believe you to be unjust if you should strike us dumb because we have so abused the gift of speech that you have given us. We pray rather that you would forgive us, though. Forgive us for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who came into this world and was not found guilty of any verbal sin of any offense, but rather kept the very promises of God to lay down his life for his people. Lord, we do confess that you are a mighty God, that you did raise him from the dead to be Savior and Lord. And we do confess that he is our Lord and Savior. We ask that you would not close our mouths, that you would rather open them wide to praise Jesus, to make him the theme of our lives, to make him, by His Spirit, control our tongues, that when people hear us, they would hear the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our mouths would truly confess him and confess him consistently and purely. We pray that you would receive our praise this morning, weak and as inconsistent as it has been. We ask that you would receive it not because of its purity or its grandeur, but that you would receive our praise simply because it comes through the mediation of Christ our Savior. It's in his name we pray. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.