The Sins of Speech

So James chapter 3, and I believe that I said verses 1 to 12 to the crew at the back,

James 3 · chapter mention

but I'm going to read verses 1 to 14, just a touch longer.

Let's read God's Word together.

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers,

because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

We all stumble in many ways.

If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

Or take ships as an example.

Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds,

they are steered by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants to go.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.

It corrupts the whole person.

It sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, and reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man.

But no man can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness.

Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing.

My brothers, this should not be.

Can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring?

My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs?

Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done and the humility that comes from wisdom.

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.

This is God's holy word.

Before we come and think about it together, we're going to sing one more time to prepare our hearts.

A classic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

So let's sing to the Holy God together.

Let's stand and we'll sing.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

Early in the morning, a song I'll rise to you.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty.

God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, all the saints adore you.

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before you.

Holy, Holy, holy, holy, holy.

Glide by sin your glory may not see.

You alone are holy.

There is none beside you.

Perfect in power, in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy, holy.

merciful and mighty.

God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Please be seated.

Tonight, we're looking at texts that are all about the life of wisdom.

And that's specific to one area in the text that we read.

And that's the wisdom surrounding the way that we speak our tongues.

And the reason, one of the reasons for looking at a subject like this is because we believe that the gospel changes all of who we are.

And so it first changes our relationship with God.

But then the gospel makes a claim on our lives that we're to actually bow the knee, bow the heart in every aspect of who we are, including our speech and all other things.

And so we read from the actual list of the seven deadly sins from the book of Proverbs.

From Proverbs chapter six.

And this is seven areas of life that we're called to put away, to be new selves in.

Just a reminder.

This is what we read, that there are seven things the Lord hates.

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue.

Hands that shed innocent blood.

Devising wicked plans.

Feet that run to evil.

A false witness that breathes out lies.

And a one who says discord among brothers.

Now you can take those seven sins and you can translate them, whittle them down if you will, into five.

And they are pride, anger, unnecessary violence, quarreling.

But then the fifth, and I don't know if you caught it when we read it, but out of the seven things that the Lord hates, according to Proverbs six.

Two of them appear to be the exact same.

And two of them are the lying tongue and a false witness that breathes lies.

And that means that at least God is very serious about the sins of speech.

He mentions it twice in the seven deadly sins here in Proverbs six.

And the reason he mentions it twice is because one of those refers to false witness.

Breathing lies in the midst of the courtroom.

That's a judicial term in Hebrew.

So it's saying that God hates it when people lie in the court.

But then also the second time is just normal life.

So whether you're in the courtroom or whether you're living life, he addresses here the sin of lying.

Now, in Proverbs, the word that gets used, a Hebrew word, a distinct Hebrew word that gets used to describe the sins of speech is the word deceit.

It's the word that shows up four or five times across the book of Proverbs and a few times in the New Testament.

And it's correspondent to refer to the sins, all the different ways that we can be sinful with the way we speak.

But more precisely, deceit is the word that speaks of the condition of the human heart that stands underneath sinful speech.

So deceit, when Jesus says out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The mouth speaks sinful speech whenever the heart is full of deceit.

Deceit's the term that describes the condition of the heart that produces sinful speech.

And so let's think together this evening from Proverbs and James three about this problem and how to deal with it.

So we're going to see first the power of deceit.

Secondly, the origin of speech.

And finally, the wise tongue.

So first, the power of deceit.

Proverbs 12, 17 says that when people speak rashly to one another, that it's like a sword thrust to the gut.

So it literally says that rash words, words that are spoken improperly to each other, are like taking a sword and jabbing it right in the gut of the next person.

It's a mortal wound.

And then vice versa or reciprocally speaking truth in love is like medicine.

It's like putting a balm on a person's soul.

And so when you look across the book of Proverbs, one of the things you see very quickly is that the main idea is that deceitful speech can kill.

It can wound.

It can be a mortal wound on somebody's soul.

It can destroy.

And that speech that is full of love and righteousness brings life.

It's like medicine to a person.

Now, it's not difficult to imagine why this is the case.

Imagine.

You don't even have to imagine because you've seen it play out.

In real life, imagine that you see a witness in the courtroom and that witness breathes out lies like we read about in Proverbs 6 towards another person.

And they breathe out so much corruption.

They breathe out so many false statements that the guilty one goes free or that the innocent one gets put into prison for life.

And that's a grave injustice.

It's evil.

It's wicked.

And Proverbs is a text that was originally written to young men, actually, to royal boys that were being trained to rule the land.

And so Proverbs over and over again is saying young men, but it's, of course, for everybody.

It's God's word.

Everybody never lie.

Never lie.

Why?

Because when we lie and we lie and we let little lies carry on and carry on, little lies become big lies and big lies become courtroom lies.

And courtroom lies produce immense injustices in the land.

And so the writer says that a harsh lie, a harsh word, a rash word has the power of death.

It wields the power for grave injustice.

It can kill.

But on the opposite side, words can also at the same time give life.

Now, the New Testament has a chapter devoted to this.

And we read it.

James chapter 3.

James 3 · chapter mention

Very famous.

And in James chapter 3, James gives us three illustrations, verse 3 to 5, for how powerful our speech really is.

James 3 · chapter mention

It's always wonderful when the Bible gives the preacher the illustration.

So that means there's ten minutes saved.

I don't have to think of an illustration.

It's right here.

There's three of them.

Verses 3 to 5, James 3.

Did you see them?

He says the tongue is small, but it can do great things.

It's very powerful.

And here's how he explains it the first way.

It's like the rudder of a ship.

You know, you think about the great ocean liners that park out in the Firth of Forth.

Some of those things are absolutely massive.

And they have very, relative to their size, they have very small rudders.

And the rudder can, of course, steer the entire thing.

And what it's hinting at there is that your speech, the way you speak, is so powerful to you

that it has the power actually to reshape your own heart.

That when you speak lies all the time, you become a liar.

That speech actually shapes our plastic hearts.

We are moldable.

It changes the soul.

The second illustration is that our speech, our tongues, are like a bit in the mouth of a horse.

You know, bits are little metal poles that you stick in the mouth of a horse.

And you can control a horse of 20 hands, which is horse talk for a very big horse,

with just a tiny little piece of metal.

And that's what your tongue can do to your own soul.

But thirdly and finally, this is the most important.

He says that, verse 5, that the tongue has the power of a fire, that it begins like a spark.

I think he's thinking of there in this first century culture of a simple campfire,

you know, casting a little flint and building a small fire.

Now, my family and I went camping two Fridays ago.

This is our first.

I have four small children.

This is our first ever family camping outing.

I've always been a big camper.

Going with children is a different thing, I learned.

And we went two Fridays ago, and I bought a flat pack little grill slash campfire set.

You can put charcoal in it.

You can put wood in it.

And if you've ever done this, you have done this.

Of course you've done this.

You've gone camping.

You've been out in the woods.

And you've built a little fire somewhere.

And you know that when you're in a public place, it's not private land.

It's not your land.

What do you do with it?

You know, you're vigilant.

You watch it closely.

You clear the brush.

You know that you do not want what could happen happen.

And you know what James says.

He says a small campfire can all of a sudden, it can get out of control.

And it can become what?

A forest fire.

And a forest fire can become a city fire.

And a city fire can mean the nation burns.

And he says that's the power of speech.

In other words, you see what he's saying?

He's saying that when a fire is treated appropriately, it's light in the midst of darkness.

You know, it's warmth in the midst of Scottish cold winters.

It's food when you need it, right?

But when you let it get to the wrong place, when it goes too far, it burns down the nation.

And that's the power of human speech.

It's the instrument of death and life at the same time.

It has immense potential all in one.

And so I think James here is working from a very important proverb that we read that says it all.

Proverbs 18, 21.

Proverbs 18, 21 says,

In the tongue is the power of life and of death.

Now let me ask you tonight.

Did you know that your speech can minister life or death to other human beings?

That in your tongue, in the gift of speech that God has given you,

that you have such immense power to give a mortal wound or to be a balm that heals the soul?

And so the second question then, the diagnostic we have to have tonight is,

What are you doing with your speech?

What are you doing with this gift that God has given you,

that he's given you to wield in a very specific way?

Now, oh boy, the Gospels is very clear.

Jesus spoke about this very clearly.

He gave us the final word about our words.

Matthew 12, 36,

I tell you, on the day of judgment,

every person will give an account for every careless word that they've spoken.

For by your words you will be justified,

and by your words you will be condemned.

Oh, careless speakers,

what are we to do with ourselves?

Now, secondly,

secondly, the origin of speech.

We've seen already that our words are very powerful,

that they can minister death,

they can minister life,

but the question underneath that is why.

In other words,

what is it about human speech that makes speech so powerful?

Why is it that this is the case,

that our words are ministers of death and of life?

What is it that makes our speech so powerful?

And I think James hints at it for us here,

in chapter 3, verse 9.

In chapter 3, verse 9,

he says,

we use our mouths to,

on the one hand,

bless God.

He's talking about hypocrisy here.

We bless God on the one hand,

but then he says,

we turn the next day,

and we curse our neighbor.

We speak ill of our neighbor.

We gossip.

Who has been made,

and here it is,

he says,

we curse our neighbor who has been made in the image of God.

Now, immediately,

we know what James is thinking about.

You know,

where is James taking us?

Where is James reading?

What is James reading as he writes this?

He's thinking about Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

He's taking us back to the very beginning,

to the first page.

And he, in other words,

is trying to help us to think about our speech

in the light of creation.

Because he tells us,

the issue in our speech

is that we curse people made

in the image of God.

And do you see what he's doing?

He's asking you the question,

well,

what is the image of God?

Why is it so serious

to talk poorly of others,

to gossip,

to slander,

to speak with spite,

or flattery,

to lie to your neighbor?

Why is it so serious?

And he says,

it's serious because

they are in the image of God.

So he's connecting speech,

our words,

directly to the image of God.

What's the connection?

Here it is.

The first thing we read about God

in the Bible,

on page one,

is that God is the great speaker.

He creates the world by word.

He opens his mouth.

The very first thing that he does

is he speaks word,

and out of nothing comes something.

Creation ex nihilo.

Creation from nothing.

There is something by speech.

And so when you get to Genesis 1, 26 to 28,

you've got to say,

well, what does it mean then for me

to be the image of God?

You are the image of God.

What does it mean?

It means so much.

But one of the things it must mean

is that I am distinguished

from the animal kingdom

because God has made me a speaker

like he is.

God speaks,

and from nothing there comes something.

And then he turns and says,

and I give to you, humanity,

the gift of words,

the gift of speech.

Why do you think God has decided

to communicate his revelation to us

by way of word and not image?

Because words, speech,

it's so critical from the beginning.

He is the divine speaker,

and we're like him in that we speak.

And so,

that means that we image God

as the image of God

when we speak words that give life,

and we desecrate and sin

against the very image of God

and fail to image God

when we speak words

that minister death to other people.

That's why our words are so serious,

because we have been made to speak

like God speaks.

It's who God is,

a great speaker.

Now,

there's, again,

an illustration of this in the Bible.

I don't have to come up with an illustration.

There's a perfect illustration

in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament,

the Hebrew Bible,

the Bible that Jesus Christ read from,

has a name in Hebrew

that in English is called the Tanakh.

And it had three parts to it.

It's our Old Testament as we have it.

But in it,

the writings were a section,

and they were a group of books

grouped together,

like the Psalms,

Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes,

these books of wisdom.

You know,

we know these books

as books of wisdom.

But there were also

four other books

in that section

of the Old Testament.

And those books

were meant

and given to us

as illustrations

of what it means

to live the wise life.

There were two

about men

and two about women.

So when you read

through Proverbs,

you read through

Ecclesiastes

and books like it,

the Psalms,

what it means

to live the wise life,

the life of worship,

and you say,

well,

I need to see

that lived out.

The Old Testament

gives you that.

Who are they?

Two female,

Ruth and Esther.

Two male,

Daniel and Job.

And in each of those,

there's also

an anti-wisdom character,

or many.

Now,

the greatest,

or the worst,

you should say,

of the anti-wisdom characters

in all of the Old Testament,

I think,

is the great king,

Nebuchadnezzar.

The king of the world.

You know,

the most powerful man

who ever lived

in some senses.

And at the height

of his power,

Daniel chapter 4,

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

he goes out to his balcony

and he opens his mouth.

He speaks.

And remember what he said?

He says,

Is this not Babylon the great,

which I myself

have built

as a royal residence

by the might of my power

and because of the glory

of my majesty?

And the text tells us

that by the words

of his mouth,

he was driven away

from humankind

to dwell with the beast,

to eat grass

like the cattle,

to grow hair

like a bird,

to grow nails

as long as birds' claws.

Now look,

what's going on?

James chapter 3,

James 3:7

verse 7,

is he wrestling

with that Old Testament text?

When in James 3,

James 3:7

verse 7,

he says,

Every animal,

bird,

reptile,

creature of the sea,

we've tamed him.

We've put him in pens.

We can tame any beast,

even lions,

but we cannot tame

the beast of the tongue.

And you see,

Nebuchadnezzar,

he spoke,

he spoke lies

and deceit

and pride

and he flattered himself

full of selfish ambition,

exactly what James

refers to in James 3,

14,

and immediately God said,

I will give you

what you are.

And he sent him away

to be like a beast.

You see what he's saying?

If the image of God

is to speak words

that are instruments of life,

then it's opposite.

You know,

when we speak words of death,

like Nebuchadnezzar,

we become beastly.

Our beastly speech,

it dehumanizes.

It dehumanizes the speaker.

It dehumanizes the receiver.

Just think about it.

When you,

a situation we've all been in,

how many of us

have been in here this week,

in this situation,

we've turned to a friend

to talk about another friend.

And we did it behind their back

and we spoke accurately of them.

You know,

it's not that we told lies.

We said things that were true,

but we did it

with the worst motivations,

selfish ambitions.

What do we call that?

We call that gossip.

And in that moment,

what we're doing is we're saying

that person is less

the image of God than I am.

We're cutting them down.

And the Bible

subtly,

theologically hints

over and over again

that our sinful speech

is dehumanizing

because it desecrates

the image of God,

which is to be

a life-giving speaker

because God

is life-giving speaker.

Now,

back to Matthew 12, 36.

Jesus Christ again says,

anybody who has ever spoken

a careless word

will be judged

for every careless word

on the day of judgment.

And maybe there are

a few of you

who have not spoken

a careless word

in the last 12 hours.

Maybe you're like me.

And even this afternoon,

you struggled.

You struggled

with careless speech.

What are we to do?

And it's no coincidence

at all

that when you open up

the Gospel of John,

John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

the first three words

are,

in the beginning,

Genesis 1,

and the next is,

the Word.

The Word.

You see that

John's connecting us

also back to Genesis 1

and saying,

what do you do

with your sinful speech?

You see that God

has spoken.

that the Word

has gone forth,

that the Word,

the Logos Himself,

the very speech

of God

is God the Son

made incarnate.

And that means

that if He is

the Logos of God,

the speech of God,

the Word of God

into this world,

this broken world,

broken by our nasty words,

He must be

the instrument of life.

He must create life.

He has to.

He's the Word Himself.

And how does He do it?

How does He do it?

How does He create life

for us that have,

for those of us

who have wielded

our mouths unto death,

what does Jesus Christ

do for us?

And here it is.

You can go to one place.

Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 says that

when the Messiah comes,

when the very speech of God,

the Creator Himself,

comes to the world,

He will be,

in our eyes,

so dehumanized.

It's said that

He would be

so disfigured

by suffering

that we would see Him

like an animal.

That He would be

like a sheep,

a lamb,

led to the slaughter

for us.

That the very speech of God,

the communication of God,

the Creator Himself,

would go all the way

to dehumanizing death

for us,

that at the cross,

at the cross,

the very word of God

heard nothing

but divine silence

from His Father.

He was forsaken.

And you see,

that means that

at the cross,

oh boy,

Jesus' words,

Matthew 12, 36,

come true,

that every word

will be judged.

It was,

it was,

tonight.

It was judged.

In other words,

have your,

you can ask this question,

James says

that our words

have the power

to set a hellfire.

He uses the word

Gehenna

from the Gospels,

Jesus' word for hell.

Have your words

ever set

not just a fire

but a hellfire?

Look,

if you are in

Christ Jesus tonight,

then the answer is yes.

you set

the hellfire

by which

He was burned.

And here in that,

not only the pronouncement

of judgment

over our sinful speech

but the fact that

Jesus Christ says,

this is how much

I love you.

This is how much

I love you.

This is how much

I want you.

This is how much

I want to give you

the balm

that ultimately

will heal you.

That will change

the heart of deceit

into the heart of flesh.

Jesus Christ

at the cross says,

your speech

is that serious

and my love

for you

is this big.

That I would go

all the way

to the point of death.

Dehumanizing death

like a lamb

led to the slaughter

to deal with

this great problem

that we have,

our sinful speech.

And so,

tonight,

what are you to do

with yourself?

The first thing

Jesus says is

do nothing.

Do nothing.

Receive.

Receive

the work

of Christ

for every careless

word that you've

ever spoken.

And that you,

tonight,

by faith,

believe tonight

you're forgiven.

You're forgiven

for every word.

Every word that you

spoke in the past.

Every word that's

dehumanizing and harmful

that you will speak

in the future.

It's glory.

It's glory.

It's beauty.

It's the message

of hope.

It's the message

of the gospel.

Now, thirdly and finally,

how then should we live?

We've got to say

something then

about growing

in this area

of our lives

because that's exactly

what God calls us

to here in James 3.

And so,

lastly,

let's consider

the wise tongue

very briefly.

There is a matrix

for righteous speech

across the Old

and New Testament,

a framework

for how to think

about it.

What does it look like

to be a holy speaker,

to be a good speaker,

to be a person

who speaks words

of life?

And the framework

that we get

all the time

over and over again,

it's in Ephesians 4.15,

verse 25,

1 John 1,

John 14 to 17,

and right here

in James 3.14,

he says that

the key ingredients

are that we always

combine truth

with love,

never one without the other.

And that's,

it's critical.

You know,

you can say,

what does it mean

to not lie

and it's a little

too simplistic

in the eyes

of Scripture

to say,

well,

it just means

to tell the truth.

Actually,

righteous speech

is more than that.

Righteous speech

is more than that.

Righteous speech

is not just the way

you would speak

in the courtroom

as if you were saying,

look,

I'm going to tell you

exactly as it was recorded

on my iPhone.

No,

it's more than that.

And I can show you this

by a simple question.

Let me ask you,

those of you

who are married,

but this works for anybody,

husbands and wives,

have you ever spoke

accurately

the truth

to your spouse

at the wrong time

and in the wrong way?

Oh boy,

you have.

Friends,

have you ever spoken

to your friend

the truth

in the wrong time,

at the wrong time

and the wrong way

with the wrong motivation

and then later

you defend yourself

and say,

I was just telling you

the truth.

It was just the truth.

No,

God says,

no,

that is not

righteous speech.

And James makes

very clear here

in James 3,

12 to 14

that truth

is not enough,

but actually

the greatest question

is why am I saying

the things that I'm saying?

And he says,

so if you say anything

that's motivated

by selfish ambition,

then it becomes untruth.

In other words,

it's not God glorifying,

it's not righteous,

it might be accurate,

but it's not the truth

with a capital T,

it's not righteousness,

it's not the way of Christ,

it's not true truth,

if you will.

Let me give you

just a couple examples

and we'll close.

Have you ever

spoken accurately

to a friend

about another friend,

but you did it

for selfish ambitions?

That's gossip.

You know,

have you ever spoken

accurately

directly to a person

and said exactly

what you think

their problem is,

but you did it

for selfish ambition?

That's spite.

It's a wound.

It's a word that kills.

Have you ever

spoken about yourself

to other people

accurately,

but with the motivation

of selfish ambition?

That's boasting.

That's pride.

You say we can speak

true words

that are at the same time

sinful words.

But the matrix

always across the Bible

is that truth

be unified

to love.

One last example,

a striking example

from Proverbs 27,

Proverbs 27:6

verse 6.

It's one of my favorites.

Wounds from a friend

are faithful,

but an enemy

multiplies kisses.

Wounds from a friend

are faithful,

but an enemy

multiplies kisses.

You see what it's saying?

That when you have

a friend,

a true friend,

they will speak

words to you,

truth,

in love,

that wounds you.

You know,

it's not the sword,

the dagger that kills

by the way of a mortal wound.

It's the surgeon's scalpel.

A true friend will cut you

with the surgeon's scalpel.

We'll say,

look,

this is what I think

is going on in your life

and I love you enough

to tell you

so that you might be healed

and grow.

But an enemy,

the enemy comes up

and kisses you

on the cheek all the time.

What's it talking about?

The sin of flattery.

Flattery is a form

of deceitful lying.

It comes and praises

a person all the time.

But look,

none of you are that great.

I'm not that great.

We're not that great.

We can't be flattered.

It's not true.

It's a lie.

We're not that great.

An enemy multiplies

kisses on our cheek,

but a true friend

tells the truth in love.

You see,

truth without love

is spite,

but love without truth

is flattery.

And neither of them

are really love.

Now, lastly,

let me leave you

with three thoughts.

And I'll rattle these off

in 30 seconds each.

Three thoughts

to walk away with.

One,

remember,

your speech

can be forgiven.

If you are a believer

in Jesus Christ tonight,

it has been.

Jesus Christ went to hellfire

for your speech.

And that's an invitation.

But look,

that means,

that means then

that you've got to be willing

to turn around

and forgive the speech

of others.

And so,

the Christian life

cannot be one marked

by harboring speech wounds.

Wounds from the past

or the way people

have spoken to us.

We've got to be,

Christ says,

take this gospel of grace

and then go

and live like it too.

And so,

we've got to be people

that are so motivated

by Jesus

that we forgive

sinful speech.

Number one.

Number two.

Number two is,

at the same time,

at the same time,

it's very important

that we go forth

from here

remembering how serious

our words are.

John Webster,

one of the great

British theologians

of the past generation.

Many of you

will know

of John Webster.

John died

just a few years ago.

He was a theologian

at St. Andrews.

He wrote a wonderful essay

about speech

in the Bible

and in theology.

And this is what

he says about it.

He says that

what is said

may not be unsaid.

Speech sets up meaning

in this world

which may never

be retracted.

Our words can be

recanted,

withdrawn,

renounced,

forgiven,

but they cannot

be unsaid.

Because that which

has been said

is irreversible.

If I am called

a fool by someone,

I am now the one

who has once

been called a fool.

And the someone

who called me a fool

is now the person

who once called me a fool.

And the world

is now a place

in which that someone

once called me a fool.

And so a fool

I will be.

And you see

what he's saying?

He's saying that

yes, your words

can be forgiven,

but the Christian

has to be more serious

about our speech

than anybody else.

Because words

can have serious

consequences

for all of life.

They're very serious

because we're

made to speak

like God speaks.

Lastly,

walking in step

with the Spirit

here

creates a real paradox.

It's the last thing.

Maybe you caught it.

It comes up

all across the Old

and New Testament

when the Bible

talks about speech.

It's one of the

difficult things

to know what to do with.

Jesus says,

out of the heart

the mouth speaks.

In other words,

Jesus says

ever and ever again

like Proverbs

and like James

that you're going

to speak

in accordance

with the condition

of your heart.

But then at the same time

the Bible comes

and says

stop speaking

like that.

You see the paradox?

It says

you can't help

but speak

according to the condition

of your heart

and stop doing it.

And there's a paradox

a relationship there

and it's because

the Bible understands

number one

that when you're in Christ

you have the Holy Spirit

you have the X factor there.

You know,

you have the Holy Spirit

who can do the work.

But at the same time

there's work for us

to do here.

We're called to grow.

And here it is.

When we decide

to be conscious

of our particular

sin patterns

when it comes

to our words

you know,

what do you struggle

with particularly?

Is it gossip?

Is it slander?

Is it slanting?

Is it exaggeration?

Is it lies?

Is it small lies

or big lies?

Whatever it may be

are you conscious

of it?

Of your sinful

speech patterns?

And then the Bible

comes and says

look,

here's why you've

got to put it away.

Because it's true

that our souls

are what we call

plastic.

Not in a material sense

but in the sense

that they're malleable.

That we can change.

That the more

we speak truth

the more we become

truth speakers.

And when you speak lies

you become a liar

more and more.

You see,

out of the heart

the mouth speaks

but also whatever

the mouth speaks

the heart becomes.

And so it works

both ways.

And so in the power

of the Holy Spirit

the Bible says

how do you grow?

Well,

in prayer

you stop lying.

You say

I'm going to fight this

nail and tooth.

I'm going to put away

the little lies

that I'm addicted to.

And then all of a sudden

your soul changes.

And all of a sudden

you love the truth

and desire changes

and you're reshaped.

And that's how it works.

That's how growth works

in the Christian life.

And so I can

leave you with this

last word

and it's this.

We need

counter habits

to our sinful speech

our sinful patterns.

And here's the greatest

counter habit

you can take away.

Swim in the river

bathe in the waters

of the speech himself.

How do you grow?

Bathe yourself

in the word.

The speech of God.

Jesus.

Meditate on him

and his very speech

we have here.

And in it

your soul

will be transformed.

You'll learn

the habits

of righteous speech.

Let's pray together

and ask God

to give us these hearts.

Father,

we pray now

that you would change us

as speakers.

We give thanks

that you've given us

the power of speech.

We give thanks

that we have been

differentiated from the

animal kingdom

in this way.

and we pray now,

Lord,

that you would forgive

and forget

the many sins

that we have spoken

through which we have spoken.

And we give thanks

that you have

in Jesus.

We give thanks

that it is true

that our sins

are cast away

as far as the east

is from the west

because hellfire

was set to Christ

at the cross

and he did not

stay dead.

And so in the power

of Jesus

we rest

in the forgiveness

for our sins

and now send us

from this place

as new selves,

new speakers,

speakers that are

birthed by Jesus,

regenerated by the Spirit,

given life

to speak words

of life.

So help us

in this battle,

Lord,

we pray and we ask

in Christ's name.

Amen.

Let's respond

to God's word

by singing together.

We're going

to sing the hymn,

I heard the voice

of Jesus say,

let's hear the voice

of Christ

in prayer

as we sing this,

the words of this hymn

to God.

So let's stand together

and we'll sing.