Have you ever thought about the incredible potential of the tongue? How such a small thing can wield, as the Bible says, the power of death and life. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah shares from Proverbs about the way in which our words can be a dangerous and destructive force. Listen as David introduces today's message, Power Up Your Words, the Power of the Tongue.
And thank you for joining us. We're studying the book of Proverbs together. I hope you've been with us during this series because we've been dealing with some very interesting subjects. And today we're going to talk about something. We don't really like to talk about this because we all hold our hands up and say guilty.
We all have used our tongue in ways that has not been pleasing to the Lord. But that doesn't mean we should give up on making use of our tongue proper. And that's what Proverbs will help us to do. It will give us clues and help us to understand how powerful the tongue is. And we'll get to that study in just a moment.
Before we do that, let me just remind you again that. God has a plan for the nation of Israel. No matter what you've been hearing or watching on television, what people are saying, Some people in powerful positions doing things that are very foolish. I want you to know God has a plan, and I've written about that in this book called God's Heart for Israel and Why It Should Have a Place in Your Heart, too. How you should feel about Israel.
As Christians, you don't just get to take your signal from the people who are speaking the loudest in the world. And they will do everything they can to destroy Israel. But as Christians, we have a better way. And God has laid this out for us. And in the Bible, there are many passages that tell us what our attitude should be toward our Jewish friends.
And I'm going to ask you to read this book and become strong in your support of what God says is high on his list. We will make this book available to you when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of August. The month is getting away from us, so don't wait too much longer before you write that letter and send your gift and just say, Please send me the book on Israel, and it'll be on its way before you know it. It's our joy to do this because it will add value to your life as a Christian and give you perspective and direction right straight from God's Word. Here is Power up your words, power of the tongue.
You hear from Proverbs. Bell Data ran an ad in the Financial Times of Canada. that said, listen carefully. This is a full-blown, state-of-the-art, fully integrated, user-friendly. Multifunctional, omnilingual, multitasking word and data processing system.
with advanced graphic generation capabilities. You'll never guess what they were talking about. A pencil. That's right, they used all those words to describe a pencil. We live in a world of words.
A New York plumber didn't know whether he could use hydrochloric acid to unclog drains he was working on. And he wanted to be assured that it was safe, so he wrote the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. And this was the answer they gave. The efficacy of hydrochloric acid is indisputable. but the corrosive residue is incompatible with metallic substances.
Well the plumber read the note. and wrote back to them and thanked them for the okay to use the acid.
So the Bureau panicked and they tried again with this note. We cannot assume responsibility for the production of toxic and noxious residue, which hydrochloric acid can produce. We suggest you use an alternate procedure.
Well, he was flattered again that they would write him the second time to tell him it was okay. He was still a little confused about it, and finally, one of the Bureau's top commissioners grabbed the communication and wrote these lines. Don't use the acid, it'll eat the pipes. Ha ha ha ha ha. And he couldn't help but wonder why they didn't write that to him the first time.
Who would have thought that so much would be wrapped up in words.
So much could be made of them. I was astounded to discover. That the words lips and mouth and tongue and speaking and tail-bearer and answerer. Are referenced some ninety times in the book of Proverbs.
Solomon says more about this subject in his book of wise sayings than any of the topics that we have already studied. It may be the most often mentioned subject in the entire book. In fact, Solomon goes as far as to say. In Proverbs 18, 21, That death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it.
will eat its fruit. In what some have called God's hate list, We read in Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 through 19, these words. These six things the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood.
A heart that devises wicked plans. feet that are swift in running to evil. A false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. And if you go down through those seven things, three of them have to do with the tongue. Three of them are sins that we commit with our tongue, and they made God's hate list.
Of the seven things on the list of things God says He hates and that are an abomination to Him. We have a lying tongue, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. If that doesn't get our attention, I don't know what will. God cares about what we do with the instrument that He has put in our mouth. And the book of James tells us.
That it's easier to bridle a wild stallion than it is to control our tongue. How many of us have learned the hard way? That just when we think we have this mastered, All of a sudden, we discover that it is an unruly evil, able to do great damage if we are not careful.
Now I want to talk with you about two things the tongue can do. and they are opposites of each other. A tongue can break something down or it can build something up. Your tongue has the capacity to tear something apart. or to strengthen and put something back together.
And I want to talk with you first of all about A tongue that breaks down. And in the book of Proverbs, there are many things said about the evil, and difficult to describe. use of the tongue. I want to go through just a few of these categories and I want you to see all these things, and I'm not even going to touch on them. There's some 90 of them.
I don't have time to do all of them. But I want you to see the accumulative impact of the book of Proverbs when it comes. to the tongue.
Now, one of the words that I noticed as I first began to read this book was that there was a great deal of discussion about the perverse tongue. The perverse tongue. And that is a word which means all that you can think of in the ugliest use of the tongue, deception and deceit. And it's kind of a cover word for all of the other things we're going to talk about. the perverse use of the tongue.
It carries along with it Sorted kinds of things that we say to one another. I was at a football game and I was standing in line waiting to get something to eat at halftime, and it was a long line, and there were three co-eds in front of me. They looked like maybe they were juniors or sophomores. And I actually had to leave the line and walk away because their language was so filthy. I didn't want my ears to hear any more of it.
It was so absolutely filthy with golf all laughs and. kinds of jokes and you hear that kind of awfulness coming out of their mouth. you realize the perverseness of language today. And the perversity of it. Listen to what the Word of God has to say.
And I'm going to give you the Proverb, and I'm going to read it. We're going to go through them as quickly as we can. The perverse tongue. Chapter 2, verse 12 says, To deliver you from the man who speaks perverse things. Chapter 4, verse 24 says, Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.
Chapter 6 and verse 12 says, A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth. Chapter 8, verse 13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate. Chapter 10, verse 31 says, The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut out. Chapter 10, verse 32: The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. Chapter 16, verse 28: A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.
Chapter 17, verse 20, He who has a deceitful heart finds no good. And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil. Chapter 19, verse 1, Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Chapter 12 and verse 18, There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword. But the tongue of the wise promotes health.
Did you hear the last one? There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword. Your tongue has that capability. My tongue has that capability. The perverseness, the wickedness of our tongue can sometimes be overwhelming.
And sometimes I'm sure you have been surprised at things that have come out of your mouth, and you've thought, how could I ever have said that? the piercings of a sword. Roxanne Lulus. labels the undisciplined talker as harm. H-A-R-M.
It's an acrostic. And it means the hit and run mouth. And she describes it like this: a person who, for whatever reason, feels compelled to tell you just what he thinks of you and your actions, regardless of how well he knows you. His desire is to be heard without hearing, to be known without knowing. He doesn't care about getting the facts straight, he wants attention.
So he's a hit-and-run mouth. How many of you know some hit-and-run mouths? Every time you get around them, you get soiled by them. Debris all over you because they're just unrestrained, perverse tongues. That's one kind of tongue that will tear people down, a perverse tongue.
But it shouldn't surprise you to discover that in the book of Proverbs, there's a great deal of information about a lying tongue. A little boy was once asked. What the Bible says about lying. And he said that the Bible says that lying is a very present help in the time of trouble. And that's not what the Bible says about lying, I want you to know.
That's the way some people apply it. But in the book of Proverbs, there's just one after another of references to lying tongues. Chapter 6, we've already read and talked about the lying tongue on the list of God's seven abominations. But in 12:19 we read: The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue, watch this, is but for a moment. Isn't that something?
Truth goes on, but somebody who lies. They're not around very long. Chapter 12, verse 22: Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight. Chapter 13, verse 5. A righteous man hates lying.
But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame. Chapter 14, verse 5. A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. And chapter 21, verse 6 says, Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fancy of those who seek death. Lying.
We could almost do a whole lesson just on the lying tongue because there's so much information in Proverbs and in other parts, in the Psalms, in some of the other wisdom literature, and in many places in the New Testament. We have made lying the favorite indoor sport in our culture. We even have words for it in the political jargon. We call it spin. And spin is nothing more than a way to describe A lie because it's an attempt to make people think about something in a way different from the reality that's behind it.
So lying is a part of our culture, and the Bible says that lying. is a part of the tearing down of people with our tongues. When you lie about something, you put into a process destruction that will ultimately have its impact on someone somewhere. And then the third kind of tongue that breaks down is what we might call a slandering tongue. In the book of Proverbs, you will find much information about this.
Chapter 12, verse 17 says, He who speaks the truth declares righteousness. But a false witness Deceit. The words false witness are the words in the Old Testament that talk about. Being a slanderer, making a false witness against somebody is to slander them. Chapter 19, verse 5 says, A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape.
Chapter 19 and verse 9 says, A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish. Chapter 25, verse 18 says, The man who bears false witness against his neighbor, now watch this, is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. And chapter 26, 18 and 19 says, like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death. Is the man who deceives his neighbor and then says, I was only joking. Does that sound contemporary or what?
He does his neighbor in, and then, in order to make himself look good, says, Oh, I was just kidding. I was just joking. A lot of harm has been done under the cloak of, I was just joking. When it was an intended hurt in the beginning. I know this is getting personal, but it's going to get more personal before it gets better.
So just hang in there and we'll get through this because this is powerful stuff from the book of Proverbs. Here's another kind of tongue that will break down, a gossiping tongue. Key word in the book of Proverbs is the word tailbearer. Isn't that interesting? Listen to these words.
Chapter 11, verse 9. The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous shall be delivered. Chapter 11 and verse 13. A tale-bearer reveals secrets. But he who is faithful conceals a matter.
Chapter 16, verse 27: An ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire. He digs around and he gets it and then he just uses his mouth to spread it. Chapter 16, verse 28: A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends. Chapter 17, verse 9: He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends. Chapter 18, verse 8: The words of a tale-bearer are like tasty trifles, they go down into the inmost body.
Actually, the Hebrew says, down into the rooms of the belly. And literally, what that says is that a person who listens to gossip and gets in the habit of listening to it, it's like tasty trifles that go down into the inmost part of his being. We can get on the phone, and we can't wait to get on the phone to hear this nasty little bit of rumor that's been spread, and it's just like a tasty little trifle. And we eat it, and it goes down into our belly, and we love the joy of a little tasty morsel of gossip. Isn't that what happens?
We don't realize that it's destructive. In fact, it's interesting to me, and you might want to just make this note in your notes: that chapter 18 and verse 8 is repeated almost word for word in chapter 26, verse 22. Two Proverbs exactly alike. Chapter 20, verse 19 says, He who goes about as a tailbearer reveals secrets, so don't associate with one who flatters with his lips. On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab gray slate tombstone.
And the etchings on the tombstone read like this. Beneath this stone a lump of clay lies Arabella Young. Who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue. There are many people who have never set fire to a man burned at the stake, who have never clapped their hands at the shrieks of those who, in agony, are being torn apart by.
some lion in the Colosseum. There are people who have never beat the drums to drown out the agonizing cry of those who were offered to the fiery god of Molech. But there are people without number who assassinate friends and neighbors and acquaintances by untrue tale bearing. Vicious and evil words, I don't think there's any one of us who has been free of feeling the sting of unkind words. Winston Churchill was attending an official ceremony in London.
And there were two men behind him who recognized him and began to whisper behind his back. One of them said, They say Churchill's quite senile now. Yes, they say he's doing England more harm than good. They say he should step aside and leave the running of this government to younger and more dynamic people. Churchill turned around and with a loud voice said, They also say he's quite deaf.
You just never know who's listening. When you're talking. A gossiping tongue. Let me give you one last one. A flattering tongue.
Listen carefully to the difference between flattering and gossiping. If gossip is saying behind a person's back what you would never say to his face. Flattery is saying to his face what you would never say behind his back. And there is in the book of Proverbs a number of warnings about flattering. When we talked about morality back at the beginning of this series, remember one of the tools that a seductress uses is flattery in chapter 6, verse 24, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress.
Chapter 7, verse 21, with her enticing speech, she caused him to yield, and with her flattering lips, she seduced him. Chapter 26, verses 24 and 25 says, He who hates disguises it with his lips, and lays up deceit within himself. When he speaks kindly, watch this, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Isn't that interesting? When a person is a flatterer, and I talked about this earlier, a stroker.
Who cannot ever be around you that they're not stroking you about something? And after a while, it's like it doesn't mean anything anymore because it's so consistent. I'm not trying to tell you, don't say good things to people. We're gonna talk about that in a moment. But sometimes what you see on the outside is not what's going on on the inside.
In this particular situation, this person is speaking sweet words, and there are seven abominations in his heart. Flattery is a tool that can be used to manipulate people. And it doesn't come from a foundation of reality. This whole business of Passing around information. and slander and gossip.
And repeating things that ought not to be repeated can be the destruction of any organization. And it seems to me that in a church where we want to really have closeness in our groups and all of that, we always need to be on guard. I have a little thing that I use that's very helpful to me when people call me and they tell me something about somebody. I said, you know what? Before you tell me that, let me just help you with it.
I want you to know that as soon as you get done with this, I'm going to call that person up and tell them exactly what you said.
So, if you want to go ahead and tell me, I'll be happy to pass it on to them, although it might be best if you do it. I have never had a conversation continue after I've made that statement, ever. We have to be careful that we don't become repositories. Of evil speech. We have to be on guard to keep that away from us because once we hear it, we can't unhear it.
May God give us discipline to do that because.
So often things Can get so twisted once the story gets started. There was a cartoon in Leadership Magazine that showed.
Something being passed verbally from one pew to the next, like a person would turn around and pass it to the next pew. And this is what they did to show how. This can get out of hand. The first pew. The person says, my ear kind of hurts.
The second pew said, the pastor has an earache. The third pew said, the pastor got a hearing aid. And the fourth pew heard the pastor is having trouble hearing. And the fifth pew said, the pastor got a double earring. And the sixth pew, an old lady with a cane is walking out and she says, That's it, I'm out of here.
The pastor's got a double earring. That was in Leadership Magazine. Just to show how things deteriorate once they get out of hand. Oh, how careful we should be that our tongues are not tools to tear down and break down. I wish I had more time, but I've got to move on to the positive part of this.
Let's talk about the tongue that builds up. Once again, from the book of Proverbs. And the first thing you notice when you start looking for it is that there's a number of references to a righteous tongue. Did you know that God can give your tongue? The characteristic that is described as righteous, that means good and holy and helpful.
A righteous tongue is referenced in chapter 10, verse 11. The mouth of the righteous is a well of life. But violence covers the mouth of the wicked. 10.20 says, the tongue of the righteous is choice silver. 1021 says, The lips of the righteous feed many.
Chapter 10, verse 31 says, The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom. Chapter 10, verse 32 says, The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. Isn't that a great thought there?
Somebody says, How do you know what you should say or what you shouldn't say? The Bible says that the lips of the righteous person know what is acceptable. And how many of you know that when you are walking with the Lord and the Holy Spirit's in control of your life, you can almost sometimes feel words get caught in your throat as the Spirit of God says, don't say that. Keep that in your spirit. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.
Amen. Mm. Just one of the things we are learning from the book of Proverbs. And friends, we are so happy to be able to bring this truth to you every day. It's because of your support and your help, and we're so grateful for that.
And especially during the month of August when everybody's traveling and our schedules are not very secure, your help during this month is most meaningful, and your support is so wonderfully received, and we thank you for it. We can't do this thing that we do without you. We know that. This is not a one-man operation. This is God's people coming together and pooling resources so that the Word of God can be taught all over the world and all over this country.
And that's exactly what's happening. And because of you, we can continue planning and preparing for the things that are out there challenging us today. Be reminded of our love for you and our gratitude for your support. And thank you for being a part of the Turning Point family. We'll see you next time right here on this Good Station.
The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's inspiring new book, God's Heart for Israel. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard New International and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. If God is using this ministry in your life, tell us how by writing to TurningPoint, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue Powerful Principles from Proverbs on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
