"Wisdom's Speech (Part 1)" Proverbs 17 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Recently there was a fire in California, the car fire, uh C A R R named after the area where it burned, burned 230,000 acres in Northern California.

Destroyed 1,600 homes, cost nearly$300 million to fight, and$1.5 billion insurance loss.

It started on July 23rd when a hubcap fell off of a car, rolled into the shoulder of the road, and the heat from the uh the brakes that had been overheating sparked the fire on the side of the road.

It was initially reported as a fire on the side of the road, but there was a hill there, like a big hill with basically nothing on it.

So the fire department was slow to respond.

Plus, it was kind of a rural area in Northern California, it's outside of Redding, California.

And, you know, it was a slow response because of a small fire on the side of the road, but of course, as I just mentioned, it burns half of Northern California.

By the end, 40,000 people were evacuated from Redding, California, which is a major city.

Just think of 40,000 people being evacuated there.

It's um uh insane.

It'd be like evacuating Burke.

Like it that's that kind of dynamic neighborhoods everywhere.

Uh eight people were killed by the fire, three firefighters died trying to rescue a family.

It's insane to think back about it that it's a hubcap off of a car on the five freeway that started it.

That of course is our speech.

Our tongue can give flippant words that are said here and there and that are forgotten to the speaker.

The speaker says it and the you know runs its course.

But it can start a wildfire causing harm in people's lives.

That's James's analogy.

What a massive blaze can be launched by such a small spark.

The first sin committed after the fall was with the tongue, when Adam blasphemed God and blamed him for his sin.

The tongue is in us in a unique way.

As soon as the heart is fallen, the tongue is fallen.

It's not coincidental, the design of God, just the physiological design.

Our tongues, they're in our heads, but they don't connect to our heads.

The tongues do not connect to the brain.

That's the way God made us.

The tongues go down to the heart.

Now I know they don't literally connect to the heart.

I understand that.

But your tongue goes down into you towards your heart.

It's a visual, physiological picture of the reality that your tongue, while it is near your brain, it is scarcely affected by your brain.

It cannot be controlled by your brain.

Your tongue does not make good decisions, it doesn't make its own decisions, it doesn't think at all.

It has no mental capacity whatsoever.

Your tongue does its own thing, but it is somewhat connected to your heart.

And this is why, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The tongue captures what's bubbling over in your heart and spews it out.

That's why your tongue can define you in a unique way.

I'm sure you've met people that get good grades at school and they don't strike you as a smart person.

I've met people like that.

I find out their grades, and I thought they were, I thought they were smart, and they're not smart at all.

They're like barely passing.

I've met other clowns that I think, man, these guys should be failing out of school, and they're, you know, getting straight A's and they're on the honor roll and all this stuff.

Your mind can be deceptive.

It's not written on you.

It's hard to tell how somebody how smart somebody is on the outside.

You can't really judge a person that way.

But you know what you can judge a person by is their speech.

Their speech, you can pretty much nail them all the time on their speech.

Their speech reflects who they are, it defines who they are, it reveals who they are.

Their speech is a window into their heart.

There's no limit to what you can say.

There's lots of limits to what you can do.

There are limits to the strength that you have.

You can't flip a car over.

You can't chop a tree down with your own two hands.

I mean, some of you can.

I couldn't.

You can't throw a football 50 yards against some of you.

Could.

I couldn't.

But there's nothing you can't say.

You can say whatever you want.

And that's why the tongue reveals your heart.

It shows what's in your heart.

It's disconnected entirely from your mental capacity, and it is disconnected entirely from your physical strength.

It is only connected to your heart, and it can say whatever it wants to say.

There's nothing you can restrain your tongue from, and there's nothing that you can't accomplish with the tongue.

It can do the worst and the best.

This is where Proverbs 17 picks up.

Better is a dry morsel in verse 1 than a house full of feasting with strife.

Better to have stale bread than arguments.

A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully.

He'll share in the inheritance of his brothers.

A servant who can control his speech will be elevated in the house, even at the expense of the children.

The crucibles for silver, the furnaces for gold, Yahweh tests the hearts.

God goes right down to the heart.

An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ears to a mischievous tongue.

Evil people have evil tongues that do evil things.

They lie about the truth.

And we looked at contentment and truth in lying a few weeks ago.

But here that theme resurfaces again.

Evil people lie about the truth because they don't like the truth.

They don't like the reality.

They feel like if they could manipulate the reality, something would be better for them.

This is why liars generally reject the providence of God.

They think if I could just make this story change in the story or that change in the story, then my life would be better.

They failed to submit their life to the providence of God and the trust of God.

And so they lie.

Those lies then cause harm.

If wisdom is the ability to operate in the world in the way the stream is flowing, so to speak.

The river's flowing this way.

Wisdom is the ability to be able to swim in the world the way God made it, at peace and harmony, delighting in God who's the fountain in the wisdom.

Lying is going upstream.

Lying is rejecting the way the river goes and trying to go upstream.

And to get other people to go upstream, people who believe the lies, it affects them.

That's the fallout in verse 4.

A liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

That phrase that a liar gives ear to it, a liar will accumulate other liars around himself.

People who believe the lie, so to speak.

This gives way to mockery in verse 5.

Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker.

He who's glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

We looked at that verse last week.

From there we learned that God is the maker of both the poor and the rich.

He's sovereign over calamity.

Remember, we talked about God being sovereign over calamity.

Doesn't mean he's morally responsible for sin.

It doesn't mean that he delights in suffering.

Of course not.

He redeems suffering through the cross.

He's sovereign over sin, but in a way where the agent of sin is the one who's morally accountable.

God decrees all things and is sovereign over all things, but is never morally responsible for sin.

The same is true with calamity.

God decrees calamity in a sense.

He is sovereign over calamity in every sense, and he redeems people through it.

And yet the liar mocks it.

And God will judge them.

Verse 7, fine speech is not becoming to a fool.

Still less is false speech to a prince.

Fine speech is like a thousand dollar suit on a high school kid for homecoming.

I like that one of you thought that was funny.

It is very much out of place.

It doesn't look good on him.

It looks slightly odd.

Yeah, he spent money on it, but it doesn't quite fit him right.

It doesn't seem quite right.

That's fine speech on a fool.

You look at it and it doesn't quite match what you see there.

Verse 9, whoever covers an offense seeks level.

Look at that verse later.

But notice the discretion here is not drawing attention to things that are true.

Oftentimes people will gossip and slander other people by saying, I'm just saying what's true.

That person did such and such that was bad, and everybody needs to know about it.

That's such folly.

The wise person covers sin, covers offenses.

Like Noah's son who walked backwards and covered him.

That's wisdom.

That's restrained speech.

An evil man in verse 11 is only after rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

Again, liars will lie against other liars in order to bring about their purposes.

The Lord has no delight in any of that.

No delight in any of that.

Verse 13: whoever returns evil for good, evil won't depart from his house.

The beginning of strife is like letting out water.

So quit before the quarrel breaks out.

Don't get engaged in the argument, forcing whoever's right or who started it, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Just stop.

Let the person argue with themself.

This is the nature of speech.

You can build up with it or you can tear down with it.

And that's probably the driving point of this whole chapter that speech can be used to build up or to tear down.

With your speech, you can cover a transgression.

With your speech, you can shield people's eyes from something that's impure.

With your speech, you can redirect.

With your speech, you can encourage.

You can teach, you can instruct.

And of course, with your speech, you can tear down.

You can bring calamity.

You can, as verse 20 says, a man of crooked heart does not discover good.

And one with the dishonest tongue falls into calamity.

Your tongue can dig a pit for you.

That'll be another proverb we'll look at the end of, either tonight or next time we're back with speech.

But the foolish tongue is like the guy who digs a pit and forgets where he left it.

He tells a lie and then is walking through his yard one day and falls right into it.

The tongue can build a pit for others and for itself, but can also build a fence around your life.

It can protect you.

It's not just combined to Proverbs 17.

As I mentioned, there's more in the book of Proverbs about speech than any other topic, so we'll split it up over a couple weeks, but it started back in Proverbs.

It's Proverbs 11, verse 9.

Proverbs 11:9

With a mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.

That's a very clear dichotomy right there.

The godless man would use his mouth to bring down his neighbor.

Why?

He benefits nothing from it except his own pride and arrogance.

He slanders his neighbor, and that in some twisted way makes himself feel better about himself, or he knows what he has to gain from it.

The point is that he's godless and he's harming other people.

But by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.

A wise person, a knowledgeable person, and Proverbs is about wisdom here, so the wise person is able to use what they know to rescue people rather than harm them.

Pretend your neighbor is a loser and a villain and all of this and deserves to be, have everybody, you know, his deeds exposed, everybody know what a sucker he is.

Pretend that's true.

It's the godless person who does it.

It's the wise person who helps him, helps his foolish neighbor get wisdom.

Deliver his foolish neighbor.

It's so sinful to magnify that.

So sinful.

And the wise person refuses to do it.

If he's gonna speak about it, it'll be to rescue the person, to deliver him, not to destroy him.

This reminds me how many times, how many times people use the logic of love for neighbor in order to harm their neighbor.

It's an epidemic in our American post-Christian society.

It seems like that's the one ethic that is is still in the water in our American civic society is love your neighbor.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

That's the thing that triumphs over every other ethic, love your neighbor of yourself.

And people will often claim that in order to justify harming their neighbor.

I love my neighbor so much I have to burn his house down, kind of logic.

Haman would have destroyed all the Jews.

In the book of Esther, Haman would have destroyed the whole nation of Jews that have supposed love for his own neighbor.

Proverbs 12, verse 18.

Proverbs 12:18

There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

That's another very clear example of how you can use your tongue to just punch somebody in the gut repeatedly, and punch, I mean to jab them, to slice and dice them.

Sword thrust is the language.

Your words can penetrate their gut over and over and over and over again.

Not the wise person.

The wise person stitches up the wounds.

The wise person brings healing.

The wise person brings healing.

This is why Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 21, you've heard that it was said of those who old don't murder, and whoever murders will be held to judgment.

Matthew 5:21

But I tell you, everyone who's angry at his brother will be liable to the same judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel of the Sanhedrin.

Whoever says you fool will be liable to hell of fire.

So Jesus compares calling your brother a fool and slandering him to murdering him, and you think, well, that's an overstatement.

But then you think of Proverbs 12, 18, you use your rash words, it's like sword thrust right in the gut.

It's the same heart.

You know, the the murderer has the strength and the courage to follow through with his convictions.

The slanderer, he just thrusts through the sword into the gut over and over and over again and moves on.

Jesus knows the heart though.

And he'll judge the heart.

Proverbs 14, verse 3 says that the mouth of the fool comes as a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will preserve them.

Proverbs 14:3

The foolish person, his own words will be a rod on his own back.

What does that mean?

Well, Jesus and James both talk about how you'll be judged for every passive word you say.

Every small comment you throw away, you'll be judged for that.

And by the measure you judge others, it'll be measured back against you.

And so in that way, I think is what Solomon has in mind here that the foolish person, his words will become the rod for his own back.

He will be condemned by just his own words.

You won't even need witnesses.

His own words will judge him.

Wise speech can build up and wise speech can tear down, and it does it to you personally.

Wise speech can rescue your neighbor or burn his house down, and the fool will end up burning his own life down with his impure speech.

So I want to help you tonight.

I want to help you from the book of Proverbs to have better speech.

And I have one, the number one top secret way.

Experts don't want you to know this, it's such a good trick.

This one trick makes experts about speech mad.

Because it's so easy.

The number one way to improve your speech, are you ready for it?

Stay quiet.

You want to be known as a wise person who is a master of your speech?

Stop talking.

That will help you and everybody else so much.

You ever found yourself in an argument and you don't remember what you're actually arguing about, and you're pretty sure you and the other person both switched sides a few times in the argument?

You think, how do I wrap this up?

You know how you wrap that up?

Stop talking.

You're in a meeting that seems like it's going forever.

You know what you do to end it?

Stop talking.

You're in conflict with your neighbors or your teammates or friends, stop talking.

And that's because it's the nature of the tongue.

The tongue does not think or make its own decisions.

That's precisely the tongue's weakest point, it doesn't have a brain.

So if you find yourself loving gossip and unable to control your speech, stop talking.

You find yourself lying, close your mouth.

Obviously, you'll need to get to the heart work and that'll come later, but you start with closing your mouth.

Like step one to controlling your speech is just stop talking.

If your tongue is revealing heart disease, the immediate thing is to close your mouth.

Then you can deal with the heart later.

Then you can deal with the heart.

It's the fire department that shows up to the house that's on fire.

Step one, is anyone in it?

Step two, see if you can get water on the door so you can get access.

You can worry about putting the fire out at step three.

You find the source of the fire later.

You just have to deal with the door first.

You have to find a point of entry.

That's it.

That's the way your speech is.

I know your speech reveals a problem in your heart.

That's true.

We can worry about the heart later.

Step one is find the point of access and fix it.

Close your mouth.

Proverbs has more to say about that point of speech than any other.

It says more about that than even about gossip.

Proverbs 17, verse 7.

Proverbs 17:7

Oh, it's uh actually you have it open probably in front of you.

Proverbs 17, verse 7.

Proverbs 17:7

Find speech is not becoming a fool.

Still less is false speech to a prince.

The prince can just close his mouth.

He doesn't need to say anything false.

He's the prince, for goodness sake.

Proverbs 17, 27, out the end of the chapter.

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge.

That's as simple as that.

Can you control your speech?

Like just don't talk.

Restrain means hold them back.

It doesn't mean change them, it doesn't mean alter them.

It means don't forget to close the barn door after you put the horse back.

That's what it's talking about.

Close the door, and you'll be considered wise.

He who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

I like the ESP right there.

You have a cool spirit, you're wise.

I don't think it means it like the lucky strike cigarette kind of commercial, cool spirit.

I think it means just it seems almost tepid, like you're not talking a lot.

People will think you're wise.

You can get away with that for a long time.

Not forever.

Like eventually you gotta go to step two and learn to speak, but that's that's step two.

First, you gotta master step one.

Get your mouth under control.

Look at verse 28.

Verse 28 is hilarious to me.

I laugh every time I read it.

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise.

When he closes his lips, he's deemed intelligent.

You're having a conversation, everybody's arguing back and forth, and there's the one guy in the corner who is who is thinking about why didn't the US national team fire their coach earlier?

That's what he's thinking about.

And you guys are having some passion discussion, and you look at him, and he's just quiet and pensive.

You think, oh man, he is so wise.

So wise, that guy.

He's not even listening.

But he's considered wise because people don't know the heart, but they do respect someone who can keep their tongue in their mouth.

Proverbs 11, verse 12 says something similar.

Proverbs 11:12

Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense.

But a man of understanding, listen to this, remains silent.

You're in a group of people, they're all talking about your neighbor on your street who is, you know, a crazy lunatic.

You all know that.

They're all talking about it.

But you just stay quiet.

They're gonna assume you know something they don't.

They're gonna assume that you have a relationship with him, that they don't, that you have, you know, watered his plants or walked his dog or whatever.

Just because you're staying quiet, so they're gonna assume that you're thoughtful and charitable.

They all everybody knows the guy is is a kook, they all know that, but you because you're staying quiet, are deemed more insightful than everybody else.

You might not even know what they're talking about.

Well, you're staying quiet.

Proverbs 13, verse 3.

Proverbs 13:3

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life.

He who opens wide his lips will come to ruin.

Guard your mouth, close the door, and you will spare your life.

You will never be held accountable for a word you didn't say.

Proverbs 29, verse 20.

Proverbs 29:20

Do you see a man who's hasty in his words?

There's more hope for a fool than for him.

And that's at the end of Proverbs.

That's at the very end of the book.

You see someone who's running their mouth, by this point of Proverbs, by Proverbs 29, if you see a dude who's still yapping, he is a lost cause.

More luck will be on the side of a fool than for a guy who finishes the book of Proverbs and thinks he's supposed to yap on about it.

I recognize the self-indicting nature of this whole thing.

Proverbs 29, 20.

That was the one we just said, Proverbs 26, 18.

Like a madman who throws firebrands and arrows.

And death is the man who receives his neighbor and says, I'm only joking.

The guy who makes jokes on his neighbors, calls fire when there's no fire, makes everybody run, and thinks it's funny.

It's like death.

You know how you don't make a bad joke?

Don't make a joke.

Keep your mouth quiet.

That's wisdom.

That's the number one way to improve your speech.

But again, you can't stay there.

You have to eventually learn positive action.

And you can learn positive action.

You can learn to speak well.

2 Corinthians 6, verse 7 says the tongue is a weapon that you can use for righteousness' sake when presented to God.

2 Corinthians 6:7

The tongue is an important weapon in your arsenal.

All of your members, to use language of Romans 12 and Romans 6, all of your members are supposed to be presented to God for service.

Your mind, your tongue, your heart, your hands, your feet.

All of that is supposed to be used by God for a service.

They all belong to God.

He's ransomed and redeemed, all of them.

You present your members to God as a living sacrifice.

It's your act of worship.

You're supposed to use your speech to honor God.

Of course you are, including the tongue.

So it's not enough that there can't be poison in the tongue.

It's not enough that you can keep it behind your mouth.

There has to be an active cultivation of goodness and godliness in your heart.

You open Proverbs 17.

You can keep looking at Proverbs 18.

Look at the very end of the section on speech, Proverbs 18, verse 20.

Proverbs 18:20

This carries on all through 18.

Again, we'll look at 18 next time, but look at 18 verse 20 real quick.

From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach is satisfied.

He's satisfied by the yield of his lips.

The end of this two-chapter section on speech here, it ends with the guy who is actually cultivating godliness in his speech and in his life, so much so that his positive speech is like feeding his belly.

He's getting paid by it somehow.

He's getting, he's feeding himself.

His words are his work.

The righteous person can make money with his speech.

He can live with his speech.

That's the language there.

Verse 21 of Proverbs 18 death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Those who love it will eat its fruits.

That's the positive side.

Death and life are in the power of tongue, and there are those who burn their house down with it, but there are also those who through good speech make friends for themselves, make food for themselves, and they'll be satisfied.

I think there is a contextual connection to verse 22, by the way.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from Yahweh.

Learn your speech.

Control your speech.

Control your tongue.

Control your tongue, and single people sometimes can wonder why they're trapped in that situation, and oftentimes it's because their speech is burning down their house.

But he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from Yahweh.

Those who can control their speech will eat the fruits of the blessing and be satisfied by the yield of their lips.

You can learn to speak well.

Better is a poor person, chapter 19, verse 1, who walks in integrity than one who's crooked in speech and is a fool.

Poverty is never a disgrace unless you're an impoverished because you ran your mouth.

You lost your job because you wouldn't keep your mouth shut, that's a disgrace.

That's the only time poverty is a disgrace in Proverbs 19.

I mean in Proverbs at all.

Poverty is not a disgrace.

Remember, whoever insults the poor is insulting his maker.

That's how this whole section began in chapter 17, but it ends.

Well, the person who is poor because he ran his mouth, he's a fool.

Was Ahab on the throne better than Job on the dung heap?

King Ahab, wicked King Ahab?

Was he in a better position than Job on the pile of his destroyed house?

Of course not.

It's okay to be poor if you control your speech.

Here's some ways to control your speech.

First of all, speak graciously.

Speak graciously.

Proverbs 16, 24.

Gracious words, this should be open rate around.

I think you're at 18, you can skip back over to 16, verse 24.

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Honeycomb is honey is cool.

It's like sugar and medicine.

It's both in the Old Testament.

It's like candy and it's good for you.

That's great.

Just like fruit loops.

That's what gracious words are like.

There's a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.

It combines things that are delightful and things that are good for you.

That's honey.

That's what gracious words are like.

Gracious words speak the truth and they taste sweet to you.

You like the way it sounds when you say gracious things to people.

They like the way that it sounds, and it's actually good for your relationship.

It helps both of you out.

That's gracious speech.

So the progress here is you get yourself to be quiet, and then when you open your mouth, you say gracious things.

Proverbs 22, verse 11.

Proverbs 22:11

He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king as a friend.

You have a regenerated heart.

Your speech is gracious, there's no limits.

There's no limits.

It's not that complex.

It's just that there's so few people in the world that have a pure heart and his speech is gracious.

When you find one, you befriend him.

Jesus makes that same point.

A good man brings forth good fruit from his good heart.

An evil man wicked fruit from his wicked heart.

Speak graciously.

You cultivate friends.

You're known as wise for silencing yourself.

When you open your mouth, you say gracious things.

You have friends.

Secondly, speak encouragement.

Speak encouragingly.

You're gracious, and then encouragement.

Gracious is just being kind and showing grace to somebody, not holding their sins against them.

Somebody apologizes to you, just gracious to them.

Okay, thank you.

I forgive you.

You're just gracious.

You're not holding account on them.

It's just gracious speech.

That's fine.

Encouragement is has more positive looking.

That's the difference in the two.

Gracious is just covering offenses, being kind to people.

Encouragement is now provoking in a forward fashion.

Proverbs 12, 25.

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down.

An anxious person is weighed down.

But a good word makes him so glad.

A good word liberates him, cuts the chains of the anxiety, carries the load.

You see someone weighed down by sin, weighed down by discouragement, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness and meekness, kindness.

That's what the wise person does.

You use your speech to make somebody who's anxious glad.

This is such an easy way to make yourself useful.

Such an easy way.

You wonder how can I use my time?

How can I use my speech?

How can I be useful in the church or useful with my friends?

Say encouraging things that are true.

Don't flatter, we'll get flatteried next time.

Flattery is the whole section in Proverbs.

Don't flatter, but say encouraging, gracious things that are true.

It's such an easy way to help, an easy way to serve.

Proverbs 15, verse 4.

Proverbs 15:4

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Notice the gentle tongue here, borrowing the language from Psalm 1.

The godly man is like the tree, deeply rooted.

When your speech is gentle, you are connected to the tree of life.

Perverseness just breaks the person.

Saying something mean to someone can break them.

People are bruised reeds.

You know, they're battered, they're wounded, they're hurt.

A perverse word breaks them, snaps them.

Jesus is so kind.

Even after the passage we looked at this morning where he, you know, goes to war against the Pharisees, the very next verse we'll look at in two weeks is that he doesn't break a bruised reed.

He's gentle and lowly in heart.

Even when his heart is angry, like we saw in Matthew 12 this morning, he won't break a bruised reed.

The gentle tongue is a tree of life, but the perverse man breaks the person's spirit.

That anxious person we saw in Proverbs 12, that anxious person, you can be gentle to him and bring him joy, or you can be perverse to him and crush him.

When there's grace in the heart, there's healing in the conversation.

Proverbs 24, 26 is an odd proverb for much of the world, but not for Israelites, not for Middle Easterners.

Whoever gives an honest answer kisses the lips.

I read a bunch of commentaries in this, trying to find a way out of it.

Bottom line in that world, it was gracious to kiss someone on the lips, a friend.

Men kissed each other on the lips.

If you're excited what your friend did, you'd grab his face and you'd kiss him on the lips.

Some things I'm, they have run their course in life.

That's fine.

We've moved on.

We have stoplights and cars and airplanes, and we don't kiss other men on the lips.

That's progress.

But the proverb remains the same.

Somebody gives you an honest answer about something, don't you just want to grab them and kiss them on the lips?

That's encouragement.

You're not going to get a more encouraging response than that.

I'm not saying we act this out.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

That was such an early church time.

That's like the sign gifts right there: prophecy, knowledge, tongues, interpretation, and kissing the elders in the lips.

That ran its course.

Ran its course.

Now we long for the perfect to appear.

One way you can use your speech is to be gracious.

Another way is to be encouraging.

A third way is for instruction.

You can see the forward element of this.

Graciousness is just covering.

Graciousness is putting the blanket on the fire.

Encouragement is, you know, helping somebody get the weight off, you know, putting the fire out, help them look up with a smile on their face and look forward.

And now instruction is more even positive than that.

It's telling them how to live when they walk forward.

Proverbs 15, verse 7.

Proverbs 15:7

The lips of the wise spread knowledge, not so the lips of fools.

And that word spread there.

It's an agrarian term for all the seed that's put into the storehouse.

All the crops, you know, the seed is grown and all the crops are put there.

They've threshed out the wheat on the threshing floor and it's stored belowhand.

And this is a very specific Hebrew word for the person that takes that out and spreads it around.

That's the lips of the wise.

Take the knowledge that are in the storehouse of God and spreads it to other people.

Takes it to the market and spreads it.

Crops are stored like the word of God is given to you.

The wise person can instruct others in how to live.

Proverbs 16, 23.

The heart of the wise makes the speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

See how there's an instruction element?

Now you're thinking, okay, I have a goal in my speech.

See the progress here?

You've got yourself to be quiet.

Step one.

Step two, you're like, okay, now I'm going to be gracious when I talk.

Good job.

Step three, now I'm going to encourage people.

Step four, now I'm instructing them because I want them to act a certain way.

So you're judicious.

There's thoughtfulness with this now.

You think, I want this outcome.

How do I bring through my speech this outcome in a way that honors the Lord?

You're judicious.

And you're adding persuasiveness to your speech.

That's wise to do that.

To know what outcome is you're after and to speak accordingly.

Now saving faith is, of course, required here because the heart has to be changed.

You're not persuading people to evil.

The heart is changed, and the heart then teaches the mouth.

The head informs the heart, the heart speaks to the mouth.

When that happens, you can be persuasive in your construction instruction.

Proverbs 25, verse 15.

Proverbs 25:15

With patience, a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone at the right time when you need a bone broken.

With patience, a ruler can be persuaded.

You bust into the ruler's house and arguing with him.

How's it gonna go?

Not well.

You've all had the experience, I'm sure some more than others, of getting stopped by the police officer who asks you what in the name of all that is holy is wrong with you.

And you have a little moment there and you think, can I be wise and gracious?

Can I have persuasive speech to produce the end of me not getting a ticket?

Or can I tell him, because of the First Amendment, I have the right to associate with whoever I want to, and I'm gonna drive as fast as I want.

How's that gonna go for you?

Not well.

The wise person can persuade even the rulers above him by how he speaks.

My favorite example, this is David with Saul in the cave.

Saul is hounding David, and do you remember David cuts his cloak and then calls down to him?

1 Samuel 24, my Lord, and remember what David says, why do you listen to those that are telling you to kill me?

That's David's question.

And then he, because David is framing Saul in this window of you're just listening to bad advice.

So David is the underling here, David is on the run, he's the outlaw, there's a bounty on his head, but he's able to persuade the king Saul by being judicious, gracious, encouraging, self-depreciating.

He even tells Saul, remember, he says, You're out here with your whole army, I'm a flea, I'm a dog.

Why do you have the army after a flea?

Almost like, don't you have better things to do?

But he says it in a way that brings himself down, not Saul.

Do you remember how that speech ends?

How Saul responds?

Saul says, I'm wrong.

I was wrong, David.

May Yahweh reward you for what you have done to me this day.

Only promise me you'll always leave one of my descendants on the throne.

This is the promise David keeps with he keeps that promise to him.

But that's because of David's wise speech, and Saul returns it.

That's instruction.

Speak discerningly.

Speak discerningly.

If wisdom is the guiding principle, then you enact it in your speech in certain ways to bring about your response.

Wisdom is the wise person isn't just loose with the lips and loquaceous.

You know, you go, remember, we're talking about maturity here.

The beginning of wisdom is to be quiet.

Now you're training yourself to speak and engage in instruction and engage in encouragement and all that.

But just running your mouth.

You don't go back to where you started.

You're not just running your mouth.

You have to have tactful discretion in your speech.

If wisdom is the guiding principle, remembering to restrain your lips is important.

This is Proverbs 15, 1 through 2.

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Someone's angry at you and upset with you, and they just unload on you, and how do you respond?

Sorry.

Is there anything else I can help you with?

Just as a way of diffusing the situation.

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

The wise person is going to use his speech to turn away anger to shield, and then to promote what is true, to instruct.

Meanwhile, the mouth of the fool just pours out anger, just pours out bitterness, just pours out blah, blah, blah, blah.

Anger, bitterness, resentment, all of that.

The mouth of the fool blasphemes their parents, the mouth of the fool speaks back against their parents.

We'll look at those proverbs next week.

The mouth of the fool keeps the record of wrongs, the mouth of the fool keeps a ledger of all that is wrong in his life, and everybody who is upset about them.

And when that fool opens his mouth to you, the person with a soft answer deflects it like a shield.

The foreshield is up and it bounces away.

That allows the wise person then to use instruction.

I think of Jesus with this one.

The last week of his life, they tried to trip him up in every way imaginable.

That last few days of his life, asking him all the questions, trying to corner him and capture him, and he diffused every situation with wisdom.

That's such an economy of words, too.

Finally, Proverbs 26, 23.

Do I have that one on the screen?

Yes.

Like glaze covering an earthen vessel, our fervent lips with an evil heart.

Like a thousand dollar suit on a high school kid.

A glaze covering an earthen vessel.

That's a vessel made of dirt.

And it's for sale in the store.

It's for sale in the marketplace in Mexico or wherever.

And it's like, you know, it's clay.

It was made in an urn by a kindergartner a second ago.

Like$500.

You're like, it's made of clay.

Okay, let me put another coat of glaze on it.

It comes out nice and shiny.

Laminate.

You remember the old peas in here, about like five or six years ago?

They were falling apart.

And so what's the solution?

Put another coat of whatever that laminate is across the top of it.

That'll last another year.

That doesn't change the structure of the thing.

That cheap ashtray that they're charging 500 bucks for it, put another coat of glaze on it, and then a tourist will buy it.

That's how Proverbs wraps this thing up about speech.

An evil-hearted person can learn to speak well, I guess.

It's like the ashtray, though.

It's not actually worth anything.

It's just glaze on it.

So, how do you take this together?

Solomon is talking specifically to the high school kids, right?

That's who he's after.

What is he telling the high school kids?

Obviously, it applies to us as adults, but some of us are setting our patterns in our ways, and it's hard to work with it.

What is he telling the high school kids?

He's telling high school kids, first of all, learn to close your mouth.

It will solve 95% of your problems.

Now, when you start growing up more and your heart is changed and your mind is receiving the word of God, now open your mouth, but only say things that are gracious, that are actually encouraging.

Then go from that to help carry each other's burdens with your words, to be useful with your words, to encourage your friends with your words, to point them back to the scripture.

That's your end goal here.

Hard for 15, 16-year-olds to point each other back to the Word of God.

I understand that.

That's why there's a trajectory.

You start with the kind of friendships where you're closing your mouth, you build the kind of friendships where you're encouraging each other.

Your aim is to have the kind of friendships where you're using your speech to remind each other of God's words.

And that's the bridge that you cross.

When you're at that point in your friendships with people where you're actually talking about the scripture and instructing each other with the word of God, that's where you've reached a godly, wise friendship.

And not until then.

Any friendship before that is just spinning the wheels.

And again, it's not easy to cultivate.

It takes years of cultivating godliness in your own heart to make the kind of friendship where your words encourage and instruct each other in the way of God.

But that's the path of the wise person.

Lord, we're thankful for your word.

We know your word above all is wise.

It makes the naive person wise.

It strengthens the weak.

It gives encouragement to the frail.

Your word is health to our bones.

Wisdom gets us out of trouble.

But wisdom also helps others get out of trouble.

It helps others avoid judgment.

We're thankful for Jesus, who was the ultimate wordsmith.

With such an economy of words, the red letters jump off the pages of the Bible at us.

We want to be like him.

We want our speech to mean something.

Lord, give us pure hearts and discerning minds so that we can be useful by you for your kingdom.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.