Now of course this chapter in James chapter 3 is about the tongue and it's about the words
that you use and the things that you say and how important it is and how powerful your
words and your tongue can be.
Now in verse number 1 it says, my brethren be not many masters knowing that we shall
receive the great condemnation for in many things we offend all.
It's not about being a preacher, somebody who's a leader.
You know, what do I do?
I stand up three times a week behind a pulpit and do nothing but just slap my tongue.
I mean I move my tongue and my mouth, I speak for an hour, hour and fifteen minutes, three
different times a week and so he's saying, boy there's a lot of room to offend with what
comes out of your mouth.
And we're not talking about, you know, you're offended because you don't like what the Bible
says.
We're talking about being offensive like saying something that's actually hurtful or wrong.
Now it's going to happen, nobody's perfect but God is saying here you need to bridle
your tongue.
He says, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their
whole body.
He's saying you need to, I'm thinking of Psalm 141 where David said, set a watch O Lord before
my mouth.
Keep the doors of my lips.
He's saying you need to control your mouth.
You need to bridle your tongue.
You ought not to say whatever comes to your mind is what I'm trying to say.
There are things that might come to your mind that doesn't mean that you should say them
out loud to somebody else.
You ought to control and decide what's going to come out of your mouth before you say it.
You got to think about is this what I want to be saying and then say what you planned
on saying.
It's something that's controlled, not just, you're just blurting out whatever comes.
That's what little kids do.
It can be embarrassing.
You know, you take them out in public and they'll say embarrassing things.
They'll point at other people, you know, there'll be a guy with long hair, look at that long
haired hippie.
They'll say something like that or just blow off their mouth in public and say things that
are rude and so forth.
We ought not to be like the little kid who just says whatever comes to our mind and blows
off our mouth.
He says in verse number six, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and set on fire the
course of nature and it is set on fire of hell and every kind of beast and of birds
and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind, verse
eight.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
Now let's turn to Ephesians chapter four.
I have several points this morning and I want to get right into it.
Let me tell you why I'm preaching on this because it's an important subject.
Listen to these scriptures from the book of Proverbs while you're turning to Ephesians
chapter four.
Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it
shall eat the fruit thereof.
Tongue is a powerful thing.
Proverbs 21, 23, who so keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.
Proverbs 6, 12, a naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth or a wicked
mouth.
Proverbs 17, 20, he that hath a froward heart findeth no good and he that hath a perverse
tongue falleth in the midst of the word perverse means crooked, twisted, wrong.
Now look down to Ephesians chapter four and look at verse number 29.
Bob reads let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to
the use of edifying.
So what does he mean by corrupt?
Well he's giving us a contrast here.
The opposite of saying something that's corrupt is saying something that's good to the use
of edifying.
Edifying is when you're building something like the Spanish word edificio means it's
a building.
It's something that's built and so he's saying you ought to speak words that build people
up, that are good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Now the word corrupt is something that's destructive, something that's evil, something that's hurtful
and so God's saying you ought not say hurtful, destructive things that are going to corrupt
other people but you ought to say things to people that are good to the use of edifying
that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Look at verse 30.
And read not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from
you with all malice.
Now understand something, when you're reading the King James Bible of course, the word you
is plural.
I'm talking about more than one person here.
The word thou is singular and so here God is talking to a group of people.
Who do you think he's talking to?
The church of Ephesus.
That's who this is written to.
The church of the Ephesians.
And so he's writing to a group here.
He's saying you need to get the bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
out of your church is what he's saying.
You see that?
Be put away from among you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted
forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
Now a lot of people might take the verse out of context like verse number 31 and they'll
say well anger is a sin.
Anger is not a sin because if anger is a sin then Jesus sinned because Jesus was angry
the Bible says when he was going to heal the man with the withered hand in the synagogue
and he told him to stretch out his hand he asked him he said is it lawful to heal on
the Sabbath day and he looked around on them with anger the Bible says.
The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day.
If you don't believe me go off a few verses to verse 26.
What do the first three words say?
Be ye angry.
Hey I like that.
Be ye angry and sin not.
Now if being angry is a sin that would be pretty hard to do to be angry and not sin.
No it's very possible to be angry and sin not.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
You see in Matthew 5 22 it says whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause.
That's the difference right there but the point is that Jesus is saying here in the
church you ought not have bitterness and anger in your heart toward other people in this
church and you ought not express negative things about other people in this church.
He said all the evil speaking needs to be gone.
Saying something negative about somebody else in church or saying something bad about somebody
behind their back or saying something straight to somebody's face that's corrupt or hurtful.
If I said hey brother Dave your song leading is tapes.
Okay that's not going to build him up.
That's not going to help him.
He says oh yeah well your piano playing is garbage.
I mean good.
That's not going to help anybody.
Now maybe my piano playing is garbage.
Maybe his song lead does stink but not so.
The point is saying something hurtful to somebody okay is not going to help anybody right.
Or if I say to somebody you know oh I can't believe you know the way you keep dressed
when you come to church.
You know I don't believe in pushing people around.
Has anybody ever known me in this church?
Put up your hand if you've ever known me push you around.
Does your hand go up and watch your movements?
There's a reason I say that okay.
I don't push people around.
I don't.
When have I ever come up to you and said you need to blah blah blah.
You know I'm not like that.
I don't know.
I believe in freedom.
I believe in liberty.
I don't believe in going around and pushing people around.
Coercing people and being a big bully behind the pulpit or anywhere else.
And don't you be a bully in this church.
Don't you bully people and tell them what they ought to do and what they ought to change.
Hey you ought to be building people up with what you say to them.
Now turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 15 verse 1.
God says we're to be kind of one to another.
Tender hearted.
Forgiving one another.
What does that mean?
If somebody does something wrong you forgive them.
You don't rip their face off.
He's saying be kind of one to another.
Tender hearted.
Forgiving one another.
Even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you.
Hey if God can forgive us of everything that we've done wrong.
Don't you think you can forgive somebody for their faults in this church?
Their imperfections.
I mean can't you forgive them for what they do wrong?
Jesus can forgive you for all the millions of things that you've done wrong.
Look at Proverbs 15.
We're talking more about the tongue here.
And God's saying that you ought not have evil speaking, corrupt communication.
A soft answer turneth away wrath verse 1.
But grievous words stir up anger.
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright.
But the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of light.
But perverse therein is a breach in the spirit.
Look at Proverbs 18 6.
Just one page over probably in your Bible page or two.
Proverbs 18 6.
A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calls for strokes.
A fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Now watch this verse.
The words of a tail bearer are as wounds.
And they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
A tail bearer.
That's somebody who says, oh man, you'll never believe what I heard about someone so.
I've seen people's lives heard and destroyed by a tail bearer.
I've seen it.
I've seen a marriage destroyed because of a tail bearer.
And there is more to it than that obviously.
But I watched somebody spread lies and tell stories to one person's spouse.
And ended up just breaking apart that marriage and hurting that marriage.
Because when you're a tail bearer, you're wounding people.
Is what it says.
It's a wound that goes down into the innermost parts of the belly.
Throughout my life, I've seen this in churches.
And we haven't had a problem with it in our church, thank God.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I've watched people that I love be slandered in church.
And I've even had myself be slandered in church.
People will tell a lie about you.
They'll tell stories about you.
And you know what?
Whenever you're doing right and whenever you're trying to do a righteous and good thing with
your life, people are going to lie about you and try to hurt you.
I mean the devil's out to get you.
And so you ought not be the one that participates in bearing a tail that you've heard or something.
You know, sometimes we hear things, there's no evidence.
I mean it's just something that we've heard.
And then we just start spreading it around.
You know, you don't have to spread things around.
And when people tell me things, I say, well, you know, I don't know that that's true.
But so and so said.
You know, it's like, well, no, I don't know that that's true.
I'm not just going to bear a tail.
Because a tail, a tail doesn't sound like history, does it?
I mean, when you think of the word tail, like t-a-l-e, does it sound like a historical fact?
No, it sounds like just a story that you heard somewhere.
And you have that repeat stories that you hear as if they're fact.
You know, have you ever heard of rumors getting started?
They're totally false because somebody hears something and they just tell it as a fact.
So I want to talk about several different sins that we can commit with our tongue.
And turn to Proverbs 25 while you're there and look at verse 23.
This is how to handle somebody who is a tail bearer.
This is somebody who's, you know, trying to lie about or even
even just criticize or say negative things to you about somebody else in church.
This is how you handle it.
It says in Proverbs 25, 23, the north wind driveth away rain.
So does an angry countenance of backbiting come.
So when the backbiting comes to you with their tales and stories
and negative things to say about everybody else in church, what do you do?
You give them a dirty look.
That's what the Bible says.
It says, give them that angry countenance.
Face countenance be face.
Give them an angry countenance.
And they'll say, oh man, I better not tell them any more stories.
And then at least you're not participating in the sin.
That's the truth.
Now, we're not talking about, you know, exposing error.
We're not talking about when Pastor Anderson gets up and says,
Billy Graham is a false prophet.
Okay.
That's the truth.
And that happens all throughout the Bible.
You'll see Paul name names like Alexander, Hymenaeus,
Hermogenes, Philetus, Alexander, Diotrophes.
They list off all the false preachers of their day
and expose them and name them and point them out.
That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about you criticizing someone else in church.
We're talking about you in the church here
saying negative things about somebody else or spreading rumors about somebody else.
You say, we have a problem with this?
No, we're going to stop the problem before it even starts.
Why don't we just learn what the Bible said
and then we'll never even have a problem with it.
Why would we always be trying to correct the problem?
Let's prevent a problem here.
And let's realize that it's not our place to go around and spread stories.
And you know what?
If there's a problem where somebody is actually guilty of something,
maybe you know what you're going to do?
You're to have two or three witnesses and you're to go to the pastor
and you're to go to them and you're to take it to the church and deal with it.
But not you just going around spreading rumors and talking to people.
Now, again, we've never had a problem with this at all.
And I promise you we've never had a problem with it.
But we're not going to have a problem with it either
because we're going to learn what the Bible says here
that it's not for you to spread these around.
The Bible says if you have a fault between you and your brother,
you take it to him alone.
And if he'll listen to you, then you gain your brother.
Otherwise, you take two or three witnesses.
Otherwise, you take it to the church.
Okay.
And that's the way things are supposed to work.
So the first sin that you commit with your mouth
is when you participate in evil speaking, corrupt communication,
hurting other people, dragging down other people.
And you know why some people like to drag down other people
is to make themselves look better.
They're not looking so hot themselves sometimes.
They're not living so righteous themselves.
So they're ready to jump all over you
when they can find something wrong with you.
You know, and yet if you want to try to find something wrong with Steven Anderson,
you're going to find it.
I mean, I'm a human.
I'm not perfect.
If you want to find something wrong with brother Dave,
you know, you're going to have a field day.
But anyway, you want to try to find something wrong with anybody in this church,
you don't want to find it.
But what's the point?
Who does it edify?
What does it accomplish?
And so you ought not be trying to police everybody in the church.
You know, and I think sometimes, you know, our corrupt government in America
is rubbing off on us in churches.
I mean, our government is turning into a police state
and you're seeing churches turn into little police states.
I'm serious.
I mean, you got a dictator behind the pulpit
and you got a bunch of little police running around patrolling, you know.
Hey, mind your own business.
Mind your own business.
Do your own thing.
Do your own work with quietness, your own business, your own work.
God says that in the Bible.
And we ought not think that we have to police everybody in this building right here.
You know, the United States government think they have to police everybody all the time.
They got to watch you all the time and, you know, and not give you any freedom.
You know, church is not going to be like that.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And we may live in a country that's going that way into a police state,
but this church, as long as I'm the pastor, is never going to be a police state.
And it's going to be a place of freedom and liberty and wholesome speaking
and not this evil, backbiting, corrupt tongue.
That's point number one.
Point number two, turn to Colossians chapter three, verse eight.
In the New Testament, Colossians chapter three.
Colossians chapter number three, now, in Ephesians chapter four, don't turn back there, but
we saw a list of different sins that people commit with their mouth, with evil speaking, clamor.
We saw corrupt communication and all these other things.
In Colossians three, we have a similar list.
It's kind of a parallel passage.
If you've ever studied the book of Colossians and Ephesians,
if you put them side by side, all the same subject matters,
you really learn a lot if you compare those two books, Ephesians and Colossians.
But look at Colossians three, eight, he says, but now also put off all these anger, wrath,
see the same list, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Now, wait a minute.
Let's talk about this one, blasphemy.
Okay, so number one, we said, let's get rid of the evil speaking and the corrupt communication.
That's hurting other people with your tongue.
That's what James chapter three was about.
Okay.
But number two, how about blasphemy?
Let's get rid of the blasphemy.
Let's put off blasphemy.
You say, what is blasphemy?
Well, if you would turn to Exodus chapter 20, verse number seven.
And I've studied the word blasphemy.
I looked up every time, blasphemy, blaspheme,
all these different words were used in the Bible.
I looked it up in a dictionary.
I mean, I've studied the word blaspheme and basically the word blaspheme or being blasphemous
is when you are irreverent or disrespectful to God with what comes out of your mouth.
I mean, it's a lack of respect for God, is blasphemy.
Now there's several different ways you can be blasphemous.
And I'm going to talk about some of those right now.
Here's the first most obvious way to be blasphemous.
Look at Exodus 20, verse seven.
Thou shalt not, this is from the 10 commandments, commandment number three.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
So number one, taking God's name in vain is blasphemy.
I mean, using God's name in, what does the word vain mean?
Vain means just pointless, worthless, there's no meaning.
Throwing God's name around when you're not talking about God.
That's what taking, that's how we define taking God's name in vain.
Using God's name when you're not talking to God and you're not talking about God,
you're just using his name in your conversation.
Okay, we're talking about this.
And I'm going to prove to you right now,
because I like to prove everything that I preach from the Bible.
Turn to Exodus chapter six, verse three, you're in Exodus 20.
I'm going to prove to you right now that this statement
that we hear people say all the time,
and I hope I never hear it around here, this statement,
oh my God, that is blasphemous, my friend.
And I'm going to prove it to you right now.
That is taking God's name in vain.
Now, I knocked on the door about a week ago, I knocked on the door,
I was soul winning, I knocked on the door of Jehovah's Witness.
And they said, what's God's name?
You know, that's all they ever want to talk about.
You know, I'm trying to talk about the gospel and Jesus,
and they just interrupt, what's God's name?
I said, you know what?
God has many different names.
I said, but there's one name that's above all other names,
because the Bible says that he has given him a name
that is above all other names, that is the name of Jesus.
Every knee should bow, things in heaven, things in earth,
and then every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
I said, his name is Jesus.
And he has all different other names.
I said, his name is Jehovah.
That's for you seven times, the King James Bible, Jehovah.
But he has many other names.
And I said, you know what one of his names is?
God.
And he said, that's not a name.
He said, that's a title.
He said, the word God's a title, it's not a name.
And I said, well, wait a minute.
I said, is the word title ever found in the Bible?
No.
So how can you prove to me from the Bible that God is a title
if the word title is not even in the Bible?
You know, he didn't know what to say.
He didn't, he couldn't answer that.
But let me prove to you right now that the word God,
G-O-V, is a name.
Can I prove that to you?
Look down at your Bible at Exodus, verse number six,
or chapter number six, verse three.
And let's tell this to your Jehovah's Witness friend
that thinks that God only has one name.
It says, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty.
Do you see that name?
God Almighty is a name.
But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.
Hey, Abraham didn't even know the word Jehovah.
Do you see that?
Isaac had never even heard the name Jehovah.
Jacob did not even know that the name Jehovah existed.
I mean, God didn't even reveal that name.
I tell you, it was with Moses at the burning bush.
He said, my name is Jehovah.
Okay.
But before that, he said, I have another name.
It's God Almighty.
God's name is God.
Okay.
Not only that, but I'll prove it to you further.
Look, if you would, at Genesis 15, two.
You're in Exodus six, three.
Just go back one book in the Bible.
Look at Genesis 15, two.
And let's see another of God's names.
And this is a name, boy, this name is used a lot
throughout the Bible.
Okay.
Now, you probably noticed in your Bible that sometimes
the word Lord is in all capital letters, capital L,
capital L, capital R, capital E, the Old Testament.
That's the Hebrew word Jehovah.
And the Jehovah's Witnesses think that the King James
Bible is wrong to translate it as Lord.
But you know what I find funny about that is that when
the authors of the New Testament in the Greek language,
when they were quoting Old Testament passages that said
the word Jehovah, they translated into the Greek word for Lord.
Okay.
And when the King James Bible translated, I guess they
just didn't think that they knew more than the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ who translated it as Lord.
So they translated as Lord.
But here's another name.
It's not the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.
Look at verse two of Genesis 15.
And you've probably seen this.
This is hundreds of times throughout the Bible.
And Abraham said, Lord God.
Do you see God with all capitals?
That's kind of rare in the Bible, but it's used several
hundred times, but it's still comparatively rare compared
to the other names of God.
And Abraham said, Lord God, what will God give me seeing
I go childless and steward my house in this Eliezer basket.
Do you see how that's a name?
God is a name again.
And all throughout the book of Ezekiel.
Okay.
And you don't have to turn there.
217 times in Ezekiel, you'll find that God in all capitals.
That's a name.
And when you say, Oh, my God, you are taking God's name in
vain. The word God should not be thrown around because it's
his name.
And you know what?
And also, if you want to be really, really blessed with
this, just start using Jesus name as a cuss word, because
that's the name that's above every name.
And the Bible says in first Corinthians 12 three, wherefore
I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit
of God called Jesus Christ accursed, called Jesus accursed.
And then no man could say that Jesus is the Lord by the
Holy Ghost.
People use Jesus as a cuss word.
They'll say, Oh, Jesus this and Jesus that.
Hey, that's blasphemy, my friend.
The word Jesus should never come out of your mouth unless
you're talking to Jesus or talking about Jesus.
Not just vain lightly.
Just Jesus this, Jesus that.
And you don't even say Jeez.
Oh, Jeez.
Oh, Jee whiz.
It's short for Jesus.
You have not even tread on this ground of blaspheming God's
name.
I don't even say, Oh, my gosh, what does it even mean?
You know, I mean, I don't say and, you know, I'd appreciate
it if you didn't say it, because I think God's name should
be held in reverence.
Like, how about this?
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
We have to hold God's name in reverence.
You better be careful what comes out of our mouth.
You say, Well, it's a habit.
You know, maybe you have a habit from before you were saved
or something like that, or maybe you just got around people
who were saying it and you start rubbing off on you.
I'm going to tell you something.
This is where the bridle comes in, and you got to control
what comes out of your mouth and not say God's name or
Jesus name in vain.
Not to speak evil of other people in church and spreading
lies and spreading stories, even if they're true, just
negative stories that don't help anybody.
You're not trying to protect anybody.
You're just trying to tear somebody down.
There's no point.
And so blasphemy is the second thing.
But number three, turn back with you with the Colossians
three where we were, and we're going to see the third thing.
Number one, evil speaking.
Put it off.
Cut it out.
Number two, blasphemy.
Get rid of it.
Hold God's name in reverence.
And you know, by the way, this is also blasphemous.
When you talk about God and Jesus and you drag them down
to human level.
I've heard creatures get up and they have all these cute
little things.
Oh, I think Jesus was spanked when he was a kid.
You know, you don't know it.
You don't know that.
You can't just make statements like that.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
His parents knew he was the son of God.
His parents knew he was God in the flesh.
Why would they spank him?
Okay, but people just say these blasphemous things,
just dumb things.
Oh, yeah, Jesus probably had a crush on the girls when he
was in school.
Blasphemy.
Blasphemous.
It's wrong.
Just blowing off your mouth and saying things like that.
And by the person who said all those things,
named Jack Scott in Indiana.
You know, he's always been blowing off his mouth.
Oh, Jesus says, Jesus said.
Hey, hold God and Jesus and respect and reverence.
And don't call him.
Don't make his little abbreviate JC.
Oh, yeah, JC.
I believe in JC.
Don't talk that way.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not JC.
And it's not the old man upstairs.
It's God Almighty.
You better use the words that God said to use.
And we ought to be blasphemous because not only is it
blasphemous to take God's name in vain, whether that name
be God or Jesus or Jehovah or Lord.
The Lord is his name also.
Oh, Lord, this and that.
That's God's name in vain.
OK.
But not only that, hold God and the things of God in
reverence.
For example, it'd be blasphemous for you to walk into
this church.
What if you walked into this church and committed some
awful sin in this church?
That would be blasphemous.
I mean, you're degrading the things of God.
You're dragging them down.
And so you ought to have respect for God, for Jesus, for
the Bible, for church, for all the things of God.
But number three, are you in Colossians chapter three?
Let's go back to that list again.
But now you also put off all these.
Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy.
OK, now the anger, wrath, malice, that was the evil
speaking, you know, where you're mad at somebody, so
you're going to drag their name in the mud and say bad
things about them and hurt them.
Blasphemy, we talked about that.
How about this one?
Filthy communication.
You say, now, what does filthy mean?
What do you think it means?
I mean, dirty.
OK, that's what filthy means.
I mean, filthy is like you picture a pig wallowing in the
mud, you know, and I studied filthy all throughout the
Bible, and I was looking at it and it was just talking about
things that were dirty, things that were disgusting or vile
or gross or whatever you want to call it.
But I noticed an interesting parallel.
You're in Colossians, turn toward the end of your Bible,
just a little bit to 2 Peter chapter two.
And let's see some examples that God uses of filthy
communication.
He says, get rid of your filthy communication out of your mouth.
2 Peter chapter number two, verse six.
The Bible says this, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them
an example unto those that after should live ungodly and
deliver just law.
Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
Do you see that?
For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and
hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds.
And then if you would flip over to Jude, just a few pages
to the right in your Bible, right before Revelation, Jude
one, Jude verse seven, same exact subject matter, even
as Sodom and Gomorrah, Jude seven.
And the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange means queer,
queer flesh, going after strange flesh are set forth for
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise, also these filthy, notice the word, filthy dreamers.
They dream up filthy things, despise dominion and speak
evil of dignities.
You see, when you're at work and you're at the water cooler,
sometimes what could be going on is filthy communication.
That's what it said.
Don't let it be in your mouth.
Filthy communication.
Hey, let me tell you a joke.
And it's a dirty joke.
It's a joke involving subject matter about homosexuality,
about adultery, about now I only have one homosexual joke
that I tell because it's a completely clean joke.
How do you, it's a good one.
I heard this one.
I learned this one from brother Chitty up in water.
How do you wink at a queer?
It's like, all right, we were taking aim with your rifle
like that, but you know, that's the only kind of joke
I'll tell because that's a clean joke.
But you know what?
These jokes about gays and haha, there's nothing funny
about being a pervert.
You know, jokes that are about adultery, jokes about
child molesters, jokes about adultery, fornication.
It's just not funny.
Okay.
You ought not joke about things and communicate about
things that are filthy.
You know, I don't have conversations with people about
what goes on in their bedroom.
God help us when that's acceptable.
And I don't care if it's with your pastor.
I don't care if it's with your counselor and you go
into some counseling session.
Hey, nobody's ever going to come into my counseling session,
which I don't have, which doesn't exist.
Nobody's ever going to come into me and tell me about
their bedroom.
Hey, you keep that to yourself.
That's filthy communication.
You say, well, there's nothing filthy about it.
Yeah, there's nothing filthy when you keep it to yourself.
But as soon as you start involving a third party,
that's filthy.
That's vile.
That's wrong.
That's between a man and a woman.
The Bible says marriage is honorable and all and the
bed undefiled.
You take it out of that bedroom and you bring it to church
and bring it to me and bring it to your buddy and you
bring it to your girlfriends and everything.
Hey, that's filthy communication because now you're
involving a third person in what's between you and your
husband or your wife.
Amen.
That's good.
Because you know what?
We got too many women who are sitting around with other
women talking about things that they ought not be talking
about.
I'm not talking about this or I'm talking about the world
out there.
So don't you get sucked into it because women will sit there
and say, what?
I mean, I went to the airport and I was at the airport.
When was it?
Friday.
I'm sitting at the airport.
There was a teenage girl sitting two seats down for me in
the airport.
She had a magazine in her hand that was geared toward
teenagers and every single article on the front page of
that magazine was about the same thing.
Every single one.
I thought to myself, help us.
This girl's a teenager and she's reading porno.
Everything's about the same thing.
And that's the way these teen magazines are.
If you're letting your kids read them, you have a hole in
your head.
You ought to get that thing and throw it out.
I mean, you ought to let them read that trash.
They don't need to be reading about that stuff.
But you know what?
You ought not be letting people tell you about that
subject or talk to you about that subject.
You ought not to share that subject with your best friend
or your sister or your girlfriend at work.
Hey, you keep your mouth shut and you keep that to yourself.
You're communicating is filthy when you talk about things
that belong in the bedroom and not in the water cooler, not
in the break room, not on the telephone, not in the email.
Now, I realize that's not a popular subject, but I don't
really care.
That is something that needs to stop.
And I'm saying that as loud as I can so that the world can
hear that I'm against it.
And we don't need to be, oh, come on, just relax.
Just get all open up about it.
No, I'm not going to open up about it.
No, I'm not going to just let my hair down and just talk
about whatever.
I'm going to brag on my phone.
I'm going to be careful what I talk about.
I'm going to be careful what I bring up.
I'm going to be careful when I let people talk to me, because
you see, Lot's sin wasn't so much that he was saying it.
He was listening to it.
He was seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds.
And I just find it hard to believe that if God doesn't
want it to be in your mouth, he probably doesn't want to
be in your television.
He probably doesn't want to be in your headphones.
He probably doesn't want to be in your ears or your eyes
either. Well, if you've got your mouth, but it's in your
ears, your eyes, your nose, it's all right.
Just don't let it travel in your mouth.
You know, we cannot help but speak the things that we've
seen and heard.
This is why we're talking about controlling your tongue.
You want to have a surefire way to not control your tongue?
Just buy a television and turn it on and watch it.
You'll never be able to control your tongue like that, my
friend, because Peter said we cannot help but speak the
things we've seen and heard.
So when you see it and hear it all day long, pretty soon,
it's going to start coming out of your mouth.
You're just constantly listening to it, constantly feeding
it. You will begin to speak things that you never thought
that you would speak.
It's the truth.
And so you ought to stay away from filthy communication,
dirty, things that are dirty, things that are unclean,
things that are unrighteous.
So number one we saw was what?
We saw evil speaking.
Number two, blasphemy.
Number three, filthy communication.
But number four, look at verse nine.
You're there in Colossians three.
Look at verse nine.
Lie not one to another.
Seeing that you put off the old man, how about lying?
That's a major problem with your tongue, right?
Lying.
Let me read you these scriptures about lying.
You don't have to turn there, but Proverbs 6 16.
These six things that the Lord hates.
He hates seven are an abomination unto him.
A proud look, a lying tongue is the second thing that God hates.
And hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that divides
the wicked imaginations, feet that be swift and run to mischief,
a false witness that speak of lies.
So two of the seven things that God's hate involve lying.
A false witness that speak of lies and he that soweth discord
among brethren.
Now I know that every church I've ever been in says they
that sow this court among the brethren.
Now you're lying.
The pastor said that's a liar because there's no the there.
Okay.
He that soweth discord among brethren, not among the brethren.
Like they say, like, well, if you preach against some phony
liberal preacher, you're sowing discord among the brethren.
You lying right now, buddy, because that's not what it says.
I hate it when people just purposely misquote the word
of God for their agenda.
It says, so it discord among brethren.
And it says in verse 22 chapter 12, you don't turn there.
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord.
That's pretty strong language.
He hates lying.
But they the deal truly are his delight.
Proverbs 26, 28, a lying tongue hated those that are afflicted
by it and a flatter in the mouth.
He said, if you lie to somebody, I love them.
That's hate.
That's you acting hateful toward them.
When you're going to tell somebody lies, he ever get around
somebody who's a pathological liar.
Who's that?
You know what that term means?
A pathological liar is somebody who lies so much that they
start to believe their own lies.
I mean, they'll lie to you and they actually think they're
telling the truth.
They'll lie to you every time they talk to you.
I mean, I've known people.
I've seen them.
They'll lie on like an hourly basis.
I mean, just everything they say.
And they'll get to the point where they won't just lie when
they're in a jam.
They'll get the point where they just lie just for no reason.
I mean, there's not even a reason to lie.
You know, sometimes people get in a jam and you're scared
and so you lie, you know, but people get to the point where
they just lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
That's not love.
If you love your wife, tell me the truth.
You love your husband, tell him the truth.
You love your parents, tell your parents the truth.
You love your children, tell your children the truth.
And you know, sometimes we lie.
We don't even think about it.
Like, here's a good example.
You know, tell them I'm not home, right?
You know, somebody calls.
You know, I mean, that's a lie.
Now, I'm not saying you have to answer the phone to everybody
who calls because good night.
I get a lot of phone calls every day and I don't answer
and I don't call back.
I mean, there's a lot of phone calls.
I mean, if I called back every person who called me,
if I answered everybody who emailed me, it'd just be like
a full-time job.
I might as well sit in a call center with a headset in front
of a keyboard all day.
You know, you get all these calls and everything.
And you know, I end up screaming a lot of calls and everything
like that, but I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to sit there and lie or tell my son, like my son,
who's six years old, if you think he's going to answer
the phone, I'm going to tell him, lie and say I'm not here.
What am I teaching my son?
Or how about this?
Now we're getting right down where we live.
Let's bring it even further home.
Hey, if you're 12 and under, it's half price.
Tell them you're 12.
You know, you're actually 13 in there.
Tell them you're 10.
You're 10 years old, kids.
All right.
You know, they're actually like 15.
You know what I'm talking about?
You know, saying you're 55, you're only 54.
You're trying to get that senior discount or something.
It's lying.
I mean, it's wrong.
You should not lie.
You shouldn't be.
And the problem with telling, you say, well,
that's just a little lie.
It's a white lie.
Here's the problem with telling a white lie.
You're going to get in the habit of lying, and you're
going to start telling big lies before you know it.
Because pretty soon, you'll start out with the white lie.
Pretty soon, it's like a light gray.
OK, then it's going to be like a heather gray.
Then it's going to be like dark gray.
Pretty soon, it's going to be an ugly black lie.
And so you ought to keep it truthful, all the way truthful,
100% truthful 100% of the time.
There's never an excuse to be lying.
And so it says in verse number Proverbs 17,
for a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips,
and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.
Did you hear that?
Person who's a liar also listens to lies.
It's the same person.
You start listening to people lie all the time,
pretty soon you're going to start lying.
And it says in Proverbs 17 7, excellent speech
becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince.
Proverbs 21 6, the getting of treasures by a lying tongue.
This is lying in business, lying for financial aid.
The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.
And so there's four great sins that you
can commit with your tongue.
Number one, evil speaking.
Number two, blasphemy against God.
Number three, filthy communication.
Number four, lying.
But turn if you went to Genesis chapter 26, Genesis 26.
And we're talking about your tongue.
We're talking about the things that you say.
You see, sometimes you can identify people
by the way they talk.
Do you remember how they said to Peter
when he was denying the Lord Jesus?
They said, thy speech betrayed me,
for thou art a Galilean.
You remember that?
They said, look, we know what you are.
We know who you are.
We know you've been hanging around.
Your speech betrayeth you.
We heard the things that you've said,
and that helps us identify you.
Now, I will sometimes hear somebody talk,
and they'll speak with a foreign accent.
That can help you identify them.
I mean, I went to a job not that long ago,
and the lady spoke with a German accent.
So I said to her, Qunen Sie Deutsch?
And I started talking to her in German,
because I knew she was German by her accent,
by the way she talked.
You can tell a lot about people by the way that they talk,
and by the terms that they use.
Look down, if you would, at Genesis 26, verse 15.
The Bible says, for all the wells
which his father's servants had digged
in the days of Abraham his father,
the Philistines had stopped them
and filled them with earth.
And Abimelech said unto Isaac,
go from us, for thou art much mindier than we.
And Isaac departed thence,
and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar,
and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water,
which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father,
for the Philistines had stopped them
after the death of Abraham,
and he called their names after the names
by which his father had called them.
Now you have to understand in this story,
Abraham had digged many wells in the promised land.
The Philistines had taken over this area,
had taken away the well,
they stopped up their wells of water,
and if you study the whole chapter,
they were calling them by a different name.
You know, it was the same place, same town, same well,
and the Philistines called it by a different name.
And when Isaac came and reclaimed this land,
this promised land,
he said, I'm going to re-dig the wells that my dad dug,
the same well, the same place, the same way.
And he said, not only that,
I'm going to call it by the same name.
Now the Bible says that we're to look to the old paths
where it is the good way and to walk therein.
We're not trying to have some newfangled religion around here,
some newfangled Christianity,
some Bible that just came off the printing press last week,
some new church growth method,
some new method for music,
some new this, new that.
Hey, the old paths is what we're about around here,
old-fashioned.
And not only are we old-fashioned,
not only do we want to dig the same well that dad dug,
and grandpa dug,
and our great-grandparents dug,
we don't only want to dig the same well,
we're going to call it the same name.
Here's one for you, Baptist.
That's what this well is, is a Baptist well.
You better know.
This is a Baptist church.
We're not going to change our church town.
I talked to a really nice lady the other day on the plane,
and she was going to a Baptist church,
and it was one of these contemporary Baptist.
They just took Baptist out of the name.
They just changed the name of the church to Journey of Faith.
Now, I reckon that that's not the same well that dad dug.
You say, well, how do you know that?
This is a different name, you know.
It's not even called church, let alone Baptist.
Now it's just Journey of Faith.
I don't like these new names.
I like to stick with the old names.
The Bible says which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teaches,
but which the Holy Ghost teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
We don't use the words which man's wisdom teaches around here.
We use the words which the Holy Ghost teaches.
And so we call things by the name that God calls them.
Like, how about this name?
I love this word, saved.
Saved.
Hey, I got saved.
You guys love that word?
Hey, somebody got saved.
Hey, I went out soul winning.
Hey, I like that word too.
The fruit of the rites is a tree of life,
and he that winneth souls is wise, p. 11-30.
Hey, I went out soul winning, and somebody got saved.
Or we could say the exact same statement.
I went out on visitation, and somebody gave their life to Christ.
No.
You don't give God anything.
He gives you something.
It's called the gift of God is eternal life,
and Jesus Christ is all.
He said, well, what's the difference?
I gave my life to Christ.
Did you?
Is that salvation?
You give God your life?
Is this like a deal?
Is this like a trade or something?
Like, I'll give you my life.
I'll live for you, and then you'll receive me in the fold of being saved.
That's wrong.
In fact, it's the exact opposite.
Remember we talked about on Wednesday night in Isaiah chapter 2,
how God created man.
In his own image.
But then we talk about how we twist that.
Man creates God in his own image.
That's idolatry.
Man creating God.
Carving it out on a stone or whatever.
Instead of God created man, we twist that and say, no, man creates God.
And then we twist it and say, instead of God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his son Jesus.
Now it's, I gave my life to Christ.
Instead of Christ gave his life for me.
Hey, that's the opposite.
That's pretty bad.
I mean, that's pretty false doctrine.
But most people wouldn't even think anything of it.
They just kind of hear it and think, oh, they just use a little different of a term.
Yeah, you're using the wrong term, all right.
Wow, but they're talking about the same thing.
It's been called by the same name.
In fact, called by the Bible name.
Saved.
You know what I love about the word saved?
It has a V in the end.
Because it's past tense.
Because I've already been saved.
I'm not being saved.
I'm not trying to get saved.
Or God's not in the process of saving me.
Hey, I've done been saved.
And so it's a D at the end because it's past tense.
And so I like the word saved.
I like the word soul winning.
You say, what's wrong with visitation?
Because, you know, people tend to go out on visitation.
I'm not saying that these are like, oh man, it's like a cuss word.
It's like the B word.
I'm not saying that at all.
People tend to go out on visitation.
They just visit people.
Doesn't necessarily mean that they're preaching in the gospel.
You know, there are a lot of churches you go to where the door knocking program is nothing
more than just a visit.
How are you doing?
Let me invite you to church.
Nice flowers.
Nice dog.
Nice boat.
Nice car.
Nice house.
See you later.
Not me, man.
I walk up there.
I don't care about your boat.
I don't care about your house.
I don't care about your dog.
I don't care about your plants.
I don't care about your kids.
Hey, do you know for sure if you died today that you'd go to heaven?
I'm not one of these people that goes up and starts to strike up some conversation and
people are like, can I help you?
You know, oh, nice dog.
Can I do something for you?
Oh, I love your boat.
Is there a reason why you're here?
You know, hey, I just walk up and say, I'm Steve Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist
Church and go from there.
So I like the word.
I like these words.
You saw my favorite word, Baptist, Saint, born again.
Not I invited Christ into my life.
It's not a Bible term.
I mean, I'm just going to use the Bible term.
Born again, saved, soul in him.
How about this?
Preaching.
I like that word.
Preaching.
We were, remember that crazy story I told about when we were in Hungary and we had that
real bad experience?
You remember that?
And we went to that church and it was a real bad experience.
My wife said to him, oh, are you preaching today?
And he said, oh, well, I mean, I'm going to be sharing.
That's what he said.
He didn't even want.
And you know, I wouldn't call it preaching either.
I kind of see where he's coming from.
Okay.
And so we don't say, let me get up and share with you.
Let me just share.
Let's have Pastor Barney and friends share time.
Carry me sharing at Faithful Word Baptist Ministries.
At Faithful Word Community Outreach, we believe that caring means sharing.
And so we don't do preaching.
You know, preaching kind of like, I mean, it doesn't always just hurt me.
Doesn't that word just hurt you?
It's like, ouch, I'm sensitive.
Preaching!
You know, like, oh, you're hurting me.
I'm sensitive.
Be a man.
Preaching.
Or how about this word?
Here's a good Bible word.
That is, if you have a King James Bible.
The only Bible there is.
Sodomites.
That's a Bible word.
Sodomites.
Not Alternative Lifestyle.
Not GLTB.
Not MSM.
Not gay.
You know what gay means?
Happy.
It means you're happy.
It means you're in a good mood.
It means you're cheerful.
Okay.
There's nothing happy and cheerful and lively about somebody who's a hater of God.
Somebody who's perverted.
How about these Bible words?
Like sodomite.
And then the Bible says to speak in words that are easy to be understood.
So I use the word queer.
Because a lot of people don't know what sodomite means.
You know, like, I mean, modern day, you average Joe on the street.
You say to him, sodomite.
He doesn't know what that means.
But if I say to him, these bunch of queers.
They know what you're talking about.
So I like to use words that are easy to be understood.
You say, wait a minute Pastor Anderson.
Is queer a Bible word?
Yes, it is.
Because we read it before.
It says that they go after strange flesh in Sodom and Gomorrah.
And the word strange is an exact synonym of the word queer.
So I like to use Bible terms.
But look at Judges chapter 12.
The words that you use are so important.
Yes, we don't want to have evil speaking around here.
Saying bad things about other people.
Hurting people with your tongue.
Using your tongue to destroy and tear down instead of build up.
Yes, we don't want you to be blasphemous and blaspheme God
and break the third commandment.
Take the name of the Lord my God in vain.
Of course, we don't want you to use filthy communication.
Telling dirty jokes and dirty stories and dirty subject matter.
Of course, we ought not tell a lie, but you ought to speak the truth.
But not only that, why don't you carefully choose the words that you use?
Because your words will identify you.
I mean, if somebody walked up to me talking about asking Jesus into your life
and outreach and journey of faith is where I go to church.
I mean, look, I want to put them in a certain category in my mind.
But if somebody said, man, I go to a Baptist church.
We go soul winning.
We have people saved and baptized.
You'd be like, oh man, this guy's like me.
This guy sounds like I'm talking to the Bible here.
And so there's an importance in using the proper terminology.
Here's a funny story.
Are you in Judges 12?
This is kind of a funny story in the Bible in verse five.
Just bring it up to speed quickly in Judges 11.
We have Jephthah doing battle with the enemies of Israel.
The Ephraimites are angry that he didn't bring them with him.
Of course, he invited them to come with him and to fight with the Gileadites.
He goes, they whipped out.
They didn't fight the battle.
And now they're just picking a fight with Jephthah for no reason.
Okay, they're like, why didn't you bring us with you?
He said, I asked you to help me.
You did it.
And so I took my life in my hands.
I did it myself.
And so there's a civil war here between the children of Joseph.
You have the Gileadites, which are the children of Manasseh versus the Ephraimites.
There's a civil war going on in Israel.
Watch what happens.
This is within the same nation.
In verse five, it says, and the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites.
They're controlling this waterway.
And it was so that when those Ephraimites, which were escaped, said, let me go over.
Like they're pretending to be just like them.
They're pretending to be on their side.
They're on the same team.
They said, let me go over.
That the men of Gilead said to them, aren't thou an Ephraimite?
If he said, nay, no, no, I'm not an Ephraimite.
I'm one of you.
I'm just like you.
Then said they unto him in verse six, say now, shibboleth.
Okay.
And he said, sibboleth.
For he could not frame to pronounce it right.
Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan.
And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites, forty and two thousand.
So here's the thing.
These guys are pretending to be somebody that they're not.
Okay.
So they start to come across the river.
Wait a minute.
Aren't you an Ephraimite?
No, no, no, not me.
Okay.
Say shibboleth.
And they're like, they couldn't make that sound.
So just like some of you can't pronounce my wife's name.
They couldn't say shibboleth.
Now we don't have a problem saying it.
But they said, shibboleth.
You know, they are like, shibboleth.
And so you see here how the way that you talk can give you away.
It can say a lot about who you are.
It can identify who you are.
You pretend to be one thing.
But if we listen to the way you talk and the terms that you use and the words you use and
the way you say things, hey, it can really be very revealing about who you are.
And so, you know, think about words.
And I love words.
You know, I study a lot of foreign languages.
And so words are something that I love.
And I'm kind of an etymologist.
You know, I like to go in and look at the meanings of words and root words and everything
like that.
But me and my mother, you know, we were always learning new words when I was growing up,
me and my mom.
And to this day, every time I see my mom, I try to stump her with a new word.
And she'll try to stump me with a word.
You know, I mean, just really advanced.
She'll throw a word at me, I bet you don't know what this means.
You know, and I'll say, oh, what about this one?
You know, and we've been doing that since I was a young teenager.
And we've been going back and forth like that.
We love words.
But when I see certain words, sometimes a red flag pops up.
You know, or sometimes it could be a word that's good.
Like I see that word and I'm like, great.
I mean, I remember when I'd be in a foreign town and I'd be looking for a church to go
to on a Wednesday night, I'd call out the phone book.
And all you got is just some very basic ads.
And I would look at those ads and I would just analyze every word of that ad, just with
a fine-tooth comb.
You know, if one of them, I said the word preaching, it's like, okay, there's a point.
And then here's a word that would be a negative, relevant.
Whenever I saw the word relevant, I was like, whoa, I want to go there.
You say, why not?
Because this is the new buzzword of the liberals.
Relevant teaching from the Bible.
Relevant Bible preaching.
Now, wait a minute.
In order for one thing to be relevant, something has to be irrelevant.
Does everybody know what relevant means?
It means that it matters to us.
Okay.
Like if it's irrelevant, it doesn't matter to us, right?
It has nothing to do with our lives.
We don't need it.
That's what irrelevant means.
And so when they say relevant Bible teaching, they're saying that some things that you teach
out of the Bible are irrelevant.
We're going to focus on the ones that are relevant to your daily life.
You know, some of the sermons that I preach are not relevant.
Now, this morning's sermon is very relevant, quote unquote.
Because, you know, obviously the whole Bible is relevant.
Okay.
Don't get me wrong.
But I'm saying in the world's eyes, this morning's sermon is a very relevant sermon
because it's something that you can walk out the door and put into practice right now.
Right?
I mean, you can walk out this morning and say, I'm going to use the right words.
I'm not going to have an evil speaking, all these different things.
But some sermons that I preach are not necessarily relevant.
I might preach a whole sermon on the deity of Jesus Christ.
Everybody in the room's already saved, already believes that.
But it's still important for me to teach everything that the Bible has to say, whether or not
it's relevant to you now or not.
For example, somebody might be sitting in the auditorium who doesn't have any children.
And I preach on childbirth.
That may not be relevant to him now.
But someday that may be relevant.
My sermon last Sunday night about, you know, the tribulation and about the rapture and
about the end time, not relevant to me today, but someday it's going to be very relevant.
And in fact, there's going to come a day when everything in the Bible is going to be important
and needed and relevant.
So to sit there and say, well, I'm only going to preach relevant sermons.
Hey, that's saying that something in the Bible is irrelevant.
I find that a little bit blasphemous to sit there and say that there's something in the
Bible that I don't need or that's not for me today or that's not going to help me.
Hey, everything in the Bible is relevant.
But this is what I'm saying about, you know, you can see words and they can tell you a
lot about who you're dealing with, about what kind of a church you're dealing with, about
what kind of person you're dealing with.
But quickly, I'm almost done.
But look at Romans chapter 10.
Romans chapter number 10.
And now we're looking at the power of your words, your tongue.
Quick review.
Number one, don't speak evil of other people in church.
Don't, don't let corrupt things come out of your mouth.
Tail bearing.
Number two, don't take God's name in vain.
Oh my God and Jesus this and all this blaspheming of God's name.
Number three, filthy communication.
Talking about dirty things and dirty jokes and everything like that.
Number four, lying is wrong.
Number, and then number five, we saw that the importance of using biblical terminology
in the way that you talk and not, we don't need a new name for the old well.
I want the old well with the old name, is what we saw on Genesis 26 with Isaac.
But look at this.
In Romans 10, 9, the Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
You see, the Bible says in Matthew 12, and you don't have to turn there for the same
time, but it says for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned.
Hey, how do you prove?
Now, what does it take to go to heaven?
Faith alone.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
No works, not baptism, not live a good life, not turn away from your old ungodly ways,
but faith, grace, that's it.
It's all Jesus, not of works, lest any man should boast.
It's 100% what he did on the cross, the death, burial, and resurrection, the blood of Jesus,
period.
End of story.
But how do you prove?
How do you know that that's what you believe?
Because you confessed it with your mouth.
That's why.
Because, you know, you'll talk to somebody, and if you've been out soul winning a lot,
and you'll knock on the door, and you'll go through the gospel,
and when you first get there, you ask them, do you know for sure if you died, you go to
heaven?
They say, I don't know.
Or they say, you know, I hope so.
And you say, well, what do you think it takes?
And they say, well, I live a pretty good life.
Of course, you know, they're not saved.
You know, they're not trusted.
They think it's a good life.
They don't know that it's believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, now shall we say.
They don't know this is by faith.
And so they don't believe right.
Okay.
Then you go through the whole gospel with them.
You know, you're showing them the verses for all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God.
We've all sinned.
We all deserve going to hell, but God loves us.
And Jesus died on the cross for us.
We go through the whole thing.
He rose again from the dead.
And if you believe on him and it's a gift, the gift of God's eternal life for Jesus
Christ, you look at that whole thing with them.
And then it comes a point.
You don't just say, all right, now I've told you everything.
You got all the information.
You know what it takes.
All right, buddy, see you later.
And then just take off.
No, you want them to confess that with your mouth.
Okay.
Because that's where they have a decision to make.
Okay.
They've heard it all preached to them.
Now they got a choice.
Am I going to believe this or am I going to reject it or ignore it or whatever?
Well, how do you bring them to a point to make a decision?
You ask them a question.
You say, do you believe this?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven?
Do you believe this?
And you get them to a point where they'll say that with their mouth.
And then you say, let me help you pray and tell God that that's what you believe.
And you can lead them in a prayer where they say, dear God, I'm only trusting you.
You know, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my salvation and rose again.
Please save me and give me eternal life.
Amen.
And one day at the judgment, there's going to be the names that are written in the book of life.
And there are going to be names that are not written in the book of life.
Okay.
And people will, God is going to have a testimony of those who were saved by the words that came
out of their mouth.
Like when Philip was with the Ethiopian eunuch and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God.
Okay.
It's going to be based on what you've said.
Now look at Revelation 22 conversely.
The Bible says conversely in Revelation 22.
So what do we see?
We see that what you say can get you saved if you believe in your heart.
The Bible says, you know, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
So you got to have the faith to believe is what is with the heart man believeth under
the righteousness and with the mouth confession is made on the salvation.
And so what you say will send you to heaven if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ
is the only savior.
But what you say could also send you to hell.
Keep your finger in Revelation 22.
You're there.
Turn back to Matthew 12.
This will be the final place we'll turn your fingers in Revelation 22.
Look back to Matthew chapter 12.
Now, obviously, we know that a person who's saved cannot lose their salvation.
God, Jesus said, I give him the eternal life and no man shall come out of my hand.
The Bible says they shall never perish.
They're passed from death unto life.
He said, Jesus said, I'll never leave thee nor for safety.
And of course, we know that it's everlasting.
Like eternal life, you can't lose it.
But for an unsaved person, there are some things that an unsaved person could say that
could eternally damn their soul to hell and take away any hope of them ever being saved.
You say, whoa, man, I don't believe that.
Well, let's look down at the Bible.
Matthew chapter 12 verse 31.
Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men,
but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
And whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him.
But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come.
You see that?
Now flip over to Revelation 12.
Flip over to Revelation 12.
We'll see it even clearer.
Well, Revelation is a clear book.
That's why it's called Revelation, because he's revealing to us many mysteries that have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Look at Revelation 22.
Let's see if this will help you understand.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book.
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which
are written in this book.
So let's say you have an unsaved man, an unbeliever, and there are plenty of them out there.
Most of the people in this world are unsaved, unfortunately.
Narrow is the way that leads them to life if you dare be to find it.
You have an unsaved man, and he decides he's going to speak against what the Bible says.
He's going to say, you know what?
The Bible doesn't actually say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son.
The Bible's lying to you.
The Bible actually says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
Okay, that person, if they said that, of course I would never say that because the Bible never
lied to you.
It is the only begotten son.
But let's say a man got up and said, no, no, no, no, the Bible's wrong here.
It actually says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
Or what if they said, well, you know, in Mark chapter 16 verses 9 through 20, take those
out.
Those don't belong in the Bible.
Okay, as soon as a person starts to knowingly pervert and speak against what the Bible says
and take things out and add things in, God says, if you take something out of my word,
I'll take away your part out of the book of life.
That place where your name would have been, gone.
I'll take away your part of the book of life.
He said, I'll take away your part out of the holy city.
You could have been saved.
You could have believed on me in God to heaven.
You could have had a mass in heaven, gone.
I'll take away your part out of every good thing in this book.
And he says, you add something to my word.
He said, I'll add unto you all the plates that are in this book, which is obviously
talking about all the hell and damnation and torment that's described up in Revelation.
You see how a person can speak a word to their own damnation.
These, well, you better be careful.
These phony pastors, these liberals, these people who don't believe the Bible, these
Christ rejectors, they better get saved before it's too late.
Because when they start giving up and changing what the Bible says and twisting it and willfully
perverting the Bible and, you know, these people who come out with these versions and
purposely leave things out, you better know they do it on purpose.
And they add things in and take things out.
Hey, God did some adding and subtracting himself.
And they'll be damned because of what they said God said.
Because they bore, you know, it's one thing to bear false witness.
On another man.
But when you bear false witness about what God has said in his word and you purposely
lie and say, this is not what God said, God actually said, doesn't show.
And you start changing the Bible.
God says, you crossed the line and you have spoken that word to your own damnation.
So the tongue is a powerful thing, folks.
That's the sermon.
You could say something to somebody in this room that was hurtful and mean, and you could
maybe never even gain that person back as a friend ever.
I mean, it's true.
I mean, if you could say something and it would be that powerful.
You blaspheme God.
Boy, God's not going to be pleased with you.
God's not going to bless you like that.
Filthy communication.
It's going to hurt you.
It's going to hurt other people.
Lying.
You're spreading hatred.
You're hurting other people.
You're an abomination to God when you start lying.
But I'm going to tell you something.
You can speak a word to your own salvation and say, I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
Jesus is the only way to heaven.
I'm only trusting you for my salvation, Jesus, by faith.
I'm receiving Christ as my personal Savior.
Or you can speak a word to your damnation by perverting.
This is talking about the unsafe crowd.
They could pervert the word of God and they could be damned forever.
Or they could confess Christ and believe in their heart and be saved forever.
So your words, you'll be justified.
Your words will be condemned.
Truly, as the Bible said, the first verse that I read here at the beginning, one of
the first verses that I read, and I'll close on this.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit
thereof.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.