Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 10:19 (Do You Foolishly Talk Too Much?) (Part 36)

This morning we're continuing our exposition of God's Word in the Book of Proverbs, chapter 10. If I could review for just a moment how we are going through the Book of Proverbs, you'll understand why we're only going to be reading one verse this morning. But looking at more than just one verse, the Book of Proverbs is organized in a way differently from just about any other book you'll find in the Bible. And as we have gone through it, the first nine chapters contain, as you are aware, for the most part, lengthy passages or at least a number of verses together on one particular theme. When you come to the tenth chapter of Proverbs, however, we now start getting Proverbs that are one or two verses long, and then a subject change, a subject change, a subject change. Many themes are repeated, slight alterations later in the book of something that was said earlier. And it's rather clear that the Book of Proverbs was, in its original setting, used as something not to be read in large portions. That's why I've encouraged you, as you've gone through the Book of Proverbs with me in your daily devotions, not to read paragraphs or pages at a time, but rather to take one proverb and just master it, meditate on it, pray about it, think about it all day long, then the next day, another proverb, and then you're going to find you're going to repeat some themes and so forth, and in this way God will do his medicinal work on your soul by repeating things, helping you to meditate on particular themes in the book of Proverbs 10. We have found a large number of themes that we've traced throughout the book. After we've begun with one verse there in the 10th chapter, we come this morning to the last of those verses that we're going to continue. We're going to take from the tenth chapter, and then we'll beginning Proverbs 11 next Lord's Day. This morning we're going to be looking at the 19th verse of chapter 10. So in Proverbs 10, 19 Hear God's word. In the multitude of words there wants not transgression, but he that refraineth his lips does wisely thus far the reading of God's Word. We have a number of common images of religious people in our culture. We think of a man at prayer. You see a picture of somebody who's bent over or kneeling down in prayer. You think of that as being a religious image. This man's engaged in some religious activity. He is a pious person. There are other pictures that we have of religious people as well. You might think of someone carrying a Bible or of a young woman with a cross around her neck. We have these things that we've come to associate with the bodily style of being a religious person. I want to suggest to you, however, that if we were to take seriously the word of God, we may not throw any of those away, but we would certainly add to those common images of religiosity, a closed mouth. You stop and think about it. That is the sign of a wise and a religious person. A person who has a closed mouth, lips that are shut. Or maybe we should put it a little more graphically and have a picture of a person with a tongue that has a bridle upon it. If you turn to the book of James, you'll see that James dwells on this throughout. More than half of the book, James talks about religiosity in terms of how we control our speech. To give you some examples, James 1:19. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. This is in the paragraph where James is going to tell us what it is to be truly religious and not to deceive your own heart. If you're someone who is always in there with an opinion, always having something to say, if you're not more readily inclined to be quiet and listen, then this is a real challenge to your religiosity. In verse 26 of this chapter, James says, if any man thinks himself to be religious while he bridles not his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. That's how serious a matter this is. A person who may say all the right things may make the proper profession theologically about Jesus Christ. A person who may go to church regularly and may do acts of kindness and mercy, but cannot bridle his tongue and thinks that he's religious. James says he's deceiving himself. Of course, I pay attention to verses like that because I did my doctoral dissertation on self deception, and it's interesting to me how often the Bible uses that kind of expression. Deceives his own heart. See, this is not a man who's led astray by some heretic somewhere. This is not a man led astray by. By Satan. This is not a man who's led astray because of some subtle theological point. This is a man who leads his own heart astray because he thinks he's just fine before God, but since he cannot bridle his tongue, his religion is vain. A Word that means empty, futile, it doesn't amount to anything at all. And then James 3, 5, 8, the third chapter of James, perhaps the most devastating chapter in the entire Bible, dealing with the sins of the tongue. In verses five to eight, we read, 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 and creeping things and things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. When I have Preached on James 3 in the past, I hope you'll remember I said the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body. Not because it can do things physically that the thigh muscle can't do, but the tongue has more destructive power than the thigh, than the arm, than anything. It's the strongest muscle. In fact, it's such a small thing. But the book of James tells us it can set on fire all of nature because it is set on fire by hell. The tongue is just such a little thing, and yet it defiles the whole body. This is not a very flattering image. It's full of deadly poison. It's a restless evil, this tongue. And so James says, if any man thinks that he's religious, but he hasn't got control of his tongue, this man is deceiving his own heart. This man's religion is vain. He is, in fact, still in the grip of an unrighteous fallen nature. He is still being led astray through the paths of unrighteousness by Satan. So the book of Proverbs, it shouldn't surprise us, the book of Proverbs has a great deal to say about talk and the tongue, how we use our mouths, how we communicate with people. Someone in my family mentioned when it became apparent that I was going to be preaching on the tongue again this morning, well, it seems like we've had a lot of sermons out of Proverbs on the tongue. And all I can say is that's because there's a lot in Proverbs about the tongue. And you'll recall, I hope, that when I've preached in the past about this theme, we have taken a large number of verses together, and yet we're back on the subject again, taking a large number of verses together, other now, that in itself should say something to us. If God over and over and over again comes back to this and trying to teach us wisdom, perhaps we'd better start taking this seriously. Or perhaps my answer should be not just that the Book of Proverbs has a lot to say about it, and that's why I have a lot to say. Maybe I should say this to you. Maybe I should say I'm going to keep preaching on the tongue until you start doing something about it. See, when our congregation starts learning this lesson, the then we'll move on to other things. Well, of course there are other things we need to learn about as well. And so that's not really or solely my motivation, but we do need to take this seriously. Our religion is challenged by whether we talk too much. That question, do you talk too much? Is a question about your religiosity. And we need to change our categories. We need to change our way of evaluation. Because when that question arises, or if you hear somebody who talks too much, we tend to think of that as a social problem, interpersonal problem. We would categorize that as learning to get along smoothly in society, that you don't talk too much. The Book of Proverbs says it's a matter of learning to show that your heart has been tamed by God. Do you talk too much? Proverbs 10:19 suggests that you must use your words sparingly, because given man's fallen nature, if there's an abundance of words in your life, they're bound to include some sinful utterances. Look at Proverbs 10:19 again. In the multitude of words, there wants not transgression. You're not going to fail to find transgression if you find a lot of words, because that's just the nature of human life in this fallen world. That's the nature of the unregenerate man. If you speak a lot, you're going to find a lot of sinful expression there. And that's why the one who is wise, or who would do wisely, refrains his lips. The wise course is to hold back from speaking. You should note there's a continuation of the theme of speech in verses 20 and 21. The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver. The heart of the wicked is little worth. Now, I've taught you how to read Proverbs in terms of the parallelisms that are found there. What is tongue put in parallel with, in the next expression, the heart? Because from a biblical standpoint, the tongue reflects the heart of the person who is Speaking or the lips reflect the heart. The way we use our mouths, our words come from our hearts. And that's why Jesus in the New Testament explains that it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but it's what comes out of him. Because out of the heart comes forth lies and slanders and evil speaking and reviling. And so verse 20 points that out to us as well, by paralleling tongue and heart. Then 21. The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding. It's clear that when we speak, we are to speak in a way that is edifying to people. But we've already preached about those two verses and so our focus is on the 19th verse, specifically the question of whether we talk too much. We talk too much. It's likely that we're going to be led to speak ill of others. That's just the nature of sin. It leads us to attack others and to leave out our own sins and not to deal with them. Turn to Proverbs 11, 12, 13. We there read, he that despises his neighbor is void of wisdom, actually void of heart. But a man of understanding holds his peace. He that goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals un matter. The talebearer despises his neighbor by revealing things about him which should be concealed. Notice that the talebearer is not necessarily a liar. The condemnation is not that he's going around telling things that are not true. They may very well be true, but they're untoward. They're things which are inappropriate. They're things which bring down your neighbor. They're things which reflect poorly upon him, and, and therefore they ought to be concealed. But the talebearer loves to dish these things up. And why does he do this? He simply lacks the heart. And he lacks the faithfulness to keep from speaking negatively when it's not necessary to do so. Do you have that kind of self control? I mean, I'm afraid that in my own life. And if I know you at all as your shepherd in your lives too. The problem is that when the door is flung open, giving us an opportunity to say something about someone else, that is true, you see, and that's how we justify ourselves. We think we're being very pious because after all, what we're saying is true. When the door is open for us to say something about someone else, even though it's not necessary, we grab that opportunity. He that is of a Faithful spirit conceals the matter. Now, the Bible, of course, speaks in generalizations. Not all the qualifications are to be found in these proverbs. This is not to suggest that when you're called upon in a public judicatory to give testimony that you're to conceal the matter. This is talking about our informal and interpersonal affairs. When I'm talking to someone else, I don't need to dig up all the dirt on my neighbor that I could. But if I go about as a talebearer, I'll reveal secrets. All those things that could be kept in the dark and kept from public sight, I'm going to dig them up and reveal them. Your mother taught you, didn't she? If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all. That's one of those few examples where we have a proverbial expression in our language which parallels pretty well the word of God. That is true. Your mother was right. Whether she was a believer or not, she taught you correctly when she said, if you can't speak well of someone, don't speak. Just hold your peace. Conceal the matter, don't bring it up. And why is it that we put others down? What leads us to do that? I mean, we could be quiet. In fact, it would be a lot easier. We could be lazy. It takes some effort to think, to put the tongue in motion, to speak. We could just sit back and when the opportunity is there, not say anything at all. What is it that gets us up and going? Why do we put other people down when the opportunity arises? The book of Proverbs says it's because we despise opportunity, our neighbor. We despise them. The word there suggests belittling the other person so that you can feel superior. And don't you? I mean, even if you wouldn't admit it, if you wouldn't come right out and say that's what is motivating you, don't you have to admit, when you think about it just in the privacy of your own mind, isn't it true that when you put someone else down, you feel just a little bit taller, a little bit better about yourself? You despise your neighbor, you belittle your neighbor. But tale bearing of this sort is explicitly forbidden in the word of God. In Leviticus 19:16, Moses says, you shall not go up and down among God's people. As a tale bearer, lying is also condemned in the word of God. But this has to do with telling stories about people. This has to do with gossiping, and it is explicitly forbidden to not just so that you'll be a nicer person, not just so that you'll have smoother social concourse with people, but because you offend God when you tell stories about people. It's in Proverbs. Excuse me. It's in Leviticus 19, that very context, that we also find the concluding summary remark, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, which Jesus quotes as the second Great Commandment summarizing all of God's requirements. If you would love your neighbor as you would have your neighbor love you, you won't go up and down as a talebearer revealing secrets. You'll conceal a matter. Turn to Proverbs 12:23. Now we read further. A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims foolishness. The basic contrast is obviously between the ability or the inability to keep quiet. A prudent man conceals knowledge. Man with some prudence and wisdom, even though he has his knowledge, holds it back. He's not always talking. He knows how to hold his peace. But the heart of fools proclaims foolishness. There's something more here, though, than just this contrast between the ability or inability to keep quiet. We also see here that the fool gives himself away, for what is at the heart of the fool proclaims foolishness. And so you let a fool run on and on and on at the mouth, and what he does is he proves his own character. He lays out all the evidence on the table for people to see. I am a fool. Just look at the way I talk. Well, that's a devastating proverb. Try memorizing that, reciting it to yourself 30 or 40 times during the day. I'll bet you that'll be a day you learn to keep quiet. It Proverbs 15:2. The tongue of the wise utters knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pours out folly. Again, it's not simply the volume of talk that is at stake here, although that is indicated, but also how much consideration goes into what you say. The tongue of the wise utters knowledge aright. It's difficult to translate that, because the Hebrew term that gives the commendation as well as the verb, is one word to do something. Well, the tongue of the wise does well with knowledge. It utters it correctly. It speaks well. On the other hand, the mouth of fools just vomits out folly, just pours it out, just comes gushing out of fools. Well, the volume, as I say, is indicated. But again, more importantly, do you think about what you say? Do you utter knowledge aright? Do you give Consideration and reflection before you open your mouth. Verse 28 of that chapter suggests the same thing. The heart of the righteous studies to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. Righteous people stop and think about what they're saying and the way they are saying it. I want to stress that the way they are saying it. Because even if you could go back and throw up some kind of defense, some kind of technical defense for everything that you've said being accurate, in the job of communication, we're also responsible to try to get that message across to people in a way that communicates the truth. And so if I say something which has a little slight qualifier in there that you're not likely to pick up on, you're likely to hear just the slam and the slander against you. And then I go back and I just pick up on that little qualifier. Well, I said, it's as though you did this. I have not communicated in a righteous fashion. I have not studied to answer, or maybe more wickedly. I have studied to be very subtle in the way I put it. So I'd have my defense if you came back to me, but I could still say what I wanted against you. A mouth of fools pours out folly. If we would think more, we would engage our mouths less. And so resist the temptation to always have something to say in a conversation. If you're standing around with a number of God's people and there's a conversation going on, don't think that you always have to have some contribution to make to that conversation. Don't feel compelled to offer your opinion on everything. That's something that really aggravates us, isn't it? When we have someone around who's so opinionated and they've always got something they've got to add. And it's not as though we wouldn't ever want to hear from that person. It's just we get so tired of hearing from that person. Or perhaps we all know in ourselves or see in others the tendency to bring up an illustration about yourself or the people you know or your own family. Every time there's some conversation. We may be talking about somebody else doing something, and then there'll be somebody saying, oh, yeah, well, you know, when I. Or when I resist that, think study to speak. And then you won't pour for folly. You won't be drawing attention to yourself as a fool. Proverbs 17:27 28 teaches us this as well by telling us, he that spares his words hath knowledge. He that is of a cool spirit, is a man of understanding. Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is esteemed as prudent. See, this demonstrates understanding. It demonstrates knowledge. When you stay cool, when you are sparse in your words. I think verse 28 should be understood not simply as a piece of dry humor. When a fool holds his peace, he's counted wise. You know, you've heard the statement, blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of it. Blessed is that man who shows people that he had nothing to say by how much he actually expresses. Well, you see, a fool, when he holds his peace, might be confused for a wise man. You might take the proverb in that way, and there may be something of that in it. But I think it's saying something more importantly. When a fool learns to hold his peace. When a fool finally closes his mouth, shuts his lips, then you see, at that point, prudence is gaining the upper hand in his life. Even a fool, a person who has a reputation for being a fool, even a fool, when he starts holding his peace, will be counted wise. And so, if you would be properly interpreted, if you would like to change your reputation, learn to close your mouth in Proverbs 18:8, which by the way, is repeated verbatim in Proverbs 26, 22. But we'll take Proverbs 18:8. Here we read the words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts. That's a killer. The things that are whispered about others behind their backs are delicious morsels to sinners, aren't they? We swallow them greedily, take them down into our innermost parts. I think it's interesting that cannibalism may very well be on the decrease among uncivilized tribes around the world. But cannibalism has always been a prevalent practice among civilized people. You see, if we proposed inviting our friends over to dinner where we're going to serve up a well roasted neighbor, you'd all be horrified, you'd shudder at the prospect. But you see, we roast our neighbor's character. We roast our neighbor's reputation and serve it up at social gatherings all the time. And people eat it gladly. We talk about people, we just eat them alive, as the idiom puts it in English. And so though we may not be fleshly cannibals, we certainly are spiritual cannibals. We love to destroy people's reputations. It's like dainty morsels that go down into our innermost soul. We just love to hear some dirt on somebody, don't we? Proverbs 20:19. He that goeth about as a talebearer reveals secrets. Therefore accompany not with him that opens wide his lips. Remember what I said at the beginning of this morning's message. If you want a picture of a religious person, you have a picture with a closed mouth. Because the person who opens wide his lips, that's the person you better avoid. There's a double danger if you associate with the babbler. The danger is first of all that your faults may be the next to be circulated. You better be very careful you hang around somebody who loves to spread dirt about people. He may very well spread your dirt next. I remember now I'm going to do the very thing I'm not supposed to do, right? I remember a preacher who used to tell all these terrible stories about people in his former congregation. Well, the fear was, you see, that when he would go on to another congregation, then it would be my sins he was telling everybody about. Watch out for people who open wide their lips, because you don't know you may be next. But more importantly, I think the danger is not just that your secrets will be revealed, but that you yourself will pick up the verbal habits of the fool. Don't associate with people who talk this way. For you see, if you don't think it's right to talk like this and you spend a lot of time with someone who does talk like that, what kind of conversations you going to have? Well, they're going to be, if they're righteous conversations, they're going to be one sided. That person's going to go on and on. You're not going to engage in that sort of thing. But then you're not going to want to be around a person like that or that person's not going to want you around. So as long as you do hang around, there's going to be a great pressure upon you to what? To commiserate with that person? To engage in the same kind of talk with that person. And so Proverbs warns you, don't associate with a man who opens wide his lips. If a person goes around revealing secrets, stay clear of that person. In Proverbs 25:23 tells us that we should not only stay clear of that person, but we had better use whatever is at our disposal to put a curb on such a person. We read, the north wind brings forth rain. So doth a backbiting tongue, an angry countenance at least it should. In the same way that the north wind brings rain. An indication, by the way, that probably this proverb comes from outside of Israel, because the north wind in Israel doesn't bring forth rain. That's the dry area. But nevertheless, as you know, that there are certain winds that bring rain. So a backbiting tongue should bring something with it too. And what it should bring is an angry countenance. We're under obligation to discourage backbiters, even with as subtle a response as a troubled look. Maybe you ought to go home and practice that. You know, look at yourself in the mirror. Now, the next time I hear someone begin to speak evil of another person, I'm going to give them this look. I don't know whether that's the look or something else, but there ought to be something in your body language, if not your actual verbal expression, that indicates you don't approve of that and you don't want to participate in it. When someone starts spreading dirt about someone else, you need to show that you don't want them to do that. And so an angry look, a troubled countenance. More often than not, though, I'm afraid our look is an eager one. Tell me more, what is this? If it's not an eager one, it's at least a non committal one. It's kind of like, oh yeah, well, it really is pretty bad about that person. What we should be saying is it's pretty bad about you. If I'm not part of the problem or I'm not part of the solution to the problem, I don't want to hear about it. Well, if we started saying that to people, I guess a lot of people start talking to us. But that might be a blessing. After all, an angry countenance is what should be brought forth when you have a backbiter around. Then look at Proverbs 26, 20. For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention ceases. Verse 22 we've already seen in chapter 18, the words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts. But go back to verse 20. For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisper, contention ceases. If gossip would cease, contention would die out. Just like a fire dies out that doesn't have fuel. Take wood from the fire, nothing there to burn. Get a whisperer out of the situation. The contention that exists among your friends in your society and your church, wherever it may be, is going to cease that's where contention comes from. Contention does not come from having legitimate grievances that are put out on the table and publicly are dealt with. Contention arises when we are secretive, when we keep things from the view of others, when we want to talk behind their backs. Because then we don't have to answer for our mistakes or for our harshness or for our treating them in an unloving and abusive fashion. But you get a whisperer out of your midst and you won't have contention in your society. And one more Proverbs 29:11 on the same theme of not talking too much and not being a whisperer or a gossip. A fool utters all his spirit, but a wise man keeps it back and stills it. It's a fool who thinks he must speak his mind, especially when he's angry. That's why some of your translations will have A fool utters all his anger. When a fool has been crossed, he's going to speak up about it. It's not like a fool to say, I'm going to be quiet, let it go. A fool's got to speak his mind, and especially when he thinks he has a righteous cause. Well, you better know you're going to hear from the fool. But the man who acts wisely shows self control. He stills the storm. He's learned to keep his mouth closed. Well, we've heard an awful lot of moral exhortation that hurts this morning. Because you see, the problem is we haven't tamed our tongues, have we? If someone were to take a picture of us that was supposed to be a picture of religiosity, it would have to be of us on our knees or carrying our Bibles. We probably wouldn't have a closed mouth. We haven't learned the message of Proverbs about being sparse in our words and careful of what we say about others. Where do we find someone who has tamed his tongue in that marvelous fashion that the book of Proverbs has been laying out before us? Where is someone who has learned to be quiet even when an injustice is being perpetrated against him? Can you think of anybody in the Bible like that? I hope you can. You think of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first place. In John 12:49, Jesus said that everything he spoke, he spoke at the command of God the Father. Jesus was not self willed in his language. Jesus didn't consult himself about what he would say or what the circumstance might require. He spoke what God wanted him to say. No less than that, but no more than that. What a model that would be for us if we'd learn to speak what is pleasing to God, what is according to his command and according to his will, so that we don't consult our own hearts and say, well, what's inside me that needs to be said? We should consult God's word and say, what would the Bible have me to say? The Lord Jesus Christ is the model of a person who spoke what God wanted him to say. And remember that at his trial, at a trial where he was so poorly treated, so unjustly treated, at his trial where he was accused falsely, was not given the due process that even the Jewish law would have granted him, at his trial, he nevertheless displayed majestic silence. Repeatedly, the Gospel writers tell us, he answered not a thing in the face of the most outlandish accusations. He stood there as a sheep before his shearers is dumb. You know what dumb means here. It has nothing to do with ignorance. It has to do with not speaking the same way that a sheep is silent before those who are going to shear him. So Jesus stood before his shearers and said not a word. Majestic silence. He set an example for us in acting this way, according to 1 Peter 2:21, 23, which it would do well for you to look at this. Morning. Morning. First Peter 2:21. There Peter says, for hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, threatened not, but. But committed himself to him that judges righteously. Where is the person who keeps the exhortation of Proverbs? It's in our Lord Jesus Christ, and only in our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one who was so dedicated to the will of his Father, and spoke only what the Father would have him to say, that he knew when to keep quiet. Even when he was unjustly treated, he knew to speak not a word, to stand dumb before his shearers. Now, those of us who wish to have our tongues tamed had better come to the one whose tongue indeed didn't need taming. We'd better come to the one who suffered in our place, who suffered for our verbal transgressions as well as for all the other kinds of sins that we commit. If we've been redeemed by the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and if we have his Spirit directing our lives, and if we have put on the new man in Christ according to Ephesians 4, then we're going to be able to keep the exhortation to silence ourselves when we're supposed to. In Ephesians 4, 23, 24, Paul says that you are renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. And then verse 29 following tells us, let no corrupt spirit 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 and 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. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. How do you do that? Well, look at the context. You're only going to be able to do that if first of all you've put on the new man who's been created in Christ Jesus. You're only going to be able to do that if you understand God's forgiveness in your life. And if you really do understand that you are forgiven for all of your sins and you've been made new by the power of the Holy Spirit, then in that context you can learn not to grieve the Holy Spirit and have corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth. As long as you try to do this just by moral rearmament, as long as you just try to tame your tongue as some kind of social advantage, you'll never gain the victory. Because as James tells us, you cannot tame your tongue, but God can. Let's ask him to do that. Father, we come to you this morning as a very unholy lot of people. We know that so often our religious utterances and our religious postures and all of our testimony can be so vain because we haven't yet bridled our tongues. So we come to youo and confess our sin and confess our inability. We are not a self controlled people, naturally. So we pray that yout would control us, that yout would take our lives and redeem us and wash us clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ, that you might fill us with His Spirit and teach us to manifest the fruit of that Spirit in our lives. We pray that we might be made new today, that we might put on the new man created in Christ Jesus. Not simply that so many sins of the body might be put away, but more particularly that the sins of our tongues might be tamed. We do thank you for being a forgiving God, for showing a willingness to be merciful and gracious to your people. We do ask that you would give us a greater gratitude to you for that. So that we would learn to speak more abundantly. Not in the ways that we've preached against today. We'd learn to speak more abundantly. Your praise that we might focus upon your character. That your word might be upon our lips even. Even as it's established in our hearts. Indeed, we pray that we might store up your word in our hearts. That we would learn not to sin against you. We pray in the name of our Savior, who did no sin, the one who had no guile in his mouth and who now promises to control ours. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.