[00:00:05] Speaker A: The following is a legacy recording from the archives of the C.S. lewis Institute. While the audio quality of these recordings may vary, the content remains vital to the mission of the Institute to develop disciples who can articulate, defend and live faith in Christ through personal and public life.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Turn with me to Proverbs, chapter one and verse seven, and we'll conclude the introduction to the book.
We already commented on the address, the prose narrative which gives us the author.
And strangely enough, in comparison to the wisdom sapiential literature, the addressee is omitted.
And we said that that's because the book has been democratized to all of us who are kings and priests in Christ Jesus.
We notice then verses 2 through 6 stated the purpose of the book, namely for this moral acumen and this whole insight into the social world, along with the mental acumen that one has to grasp the words that give expression to that created order. As we looked at it before, we actually get into the iconiums to wisdom, these poems in praise of wisdom that prepare the heart to get into the wisdom literature.
There's this transitional verse in verse seven that actually these poems in praise of wisdom in chapter 1, verse 8 through chapter 9, verse 18, are also found in the Egyptian literature.
But again, what is unique to Proverbs is verse seven.
That motto, that key, that foundation.
Where we read the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, which is a synonym of wisdom. But fools despise wisdom and discipline.
One of the most difficult expressions for us is this sine qua non, this foundation of spiritual life, which is the faith of the Lord, which is found throughout the Old Testament, both in the Law, the Torah. It's found here, it's found in the Psalms, and so forth. And we're troubled by it because it seems to be psychologically antithetical to the love of the Lord, that when we love somebody, we want to be close to that person, we want to hug that person, we want to be with the person that we we love.
But when you fear someone psychologically, it creates distance, it alienates you. Draw away from that person, you're afraid of that person.
So it's very difficult for us to understand how can we both love God with the warmth of attraction to him and at the same time to fear God with the coldness of separation from Him. And I think that may help to articulate the problem that we feel spiritually and psychologically in our relationship with God.
So let me try to be helpful to us here to define the fear of the Lord. And there are three basic concepts to this term, and they have to be held all together at one and the same time.
The fear of the Lord is first of all an objective revelation from God. It's not merely an emotion or a sentiment or an attitude. It has objective, revelatory content to it.
There are several passages where we could do that. In fact, sometimes in the niv, we had to even translate it by religion or worship.
Because to make this point clear, I think you'll see it most quickly in the Psalm 19. If you turn with me to Psalm 19, you'll see that the fear of the Lord in this particular case is used as a synonym for the law of the Lord.
As you know, the psalm celebrates the Lord as creator who gave light in the world through the Son, and then he'll go on to celebrate the law, which gives moral light into the spiritually dark, chaotic world. And in fact, if I had time in this psalm, you would see the verbal links between how the sun gives light and salvation into the created order, and the Word of God gives light and salvation into the social order and into the spiritual order.
But you'll see him using these synonyms in verses 7 through 9. He almost exhausts the vocabulary for the law. You notice it's the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. In the B verse, set parallel to the law of the Lord, we have yet another synonym. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Yet a third synonym for the law, in addition to statutes, the precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The fourth, the commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The ninth, the fear, verse nine and the fifth parallel. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring, forever. And finally, the sixth synonym, the ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. I think there you can see very clearly that the fear of the Lord is a synonym for law. Statutes, precepts, judgments, ordinances.
It refers to the objective revelation of God.
We had time we could do a whole study on the distinctions between the fear of God and the fear of the Lord.
That is to quote from Wybre's book in the Way of Wisdom. I don't know if you knew him or not. Dr. Houston Wybre Oxford, Old Testament scholar. He says that the fear of God, it's a standard of moral conduct known and accepted by men in general, that Elohim refers to God and God refers to God and his transcendence. And there is a moral law written on the heart of every man. And so there is an objective standard in the conscience of every man that art is sharing with us.
And so it's a moral standard that's generally accepted. And you'll discover amongst even the pagans that Abraham, when he was in Abimelech's court, distrusted the moral atmosphere of that court. Because he said, I thought there was no fear of God in this place. Remember that story in Genesis 21, that he expected moral standard generally accepted, but he so distrusted that moral atmosphere that it was subhuman almost. And you almost feel in the world today that we're drifting so part that there isn't even a fear of God, that we're becoming so animalistic in our behavioral patterns that there is not even normally accepted standards of behavior as we lose our moorings in our society. Or you have the two midwives in Exodus chapter 21 who feared God and wouldn't.
Wouldn't kill the little babies that was so contrary to normally accepted standards. Infanticide was objectionable to these Egyptian midwives because they had the fear of God. The fear of the Lord moves beyond the fear of God, which is the generally accepted moral standard written in the heart until it's been eradicated by the mind, to the specific revelation of God in all of holy Scripture. So the entire canon of Scripture can be referred to as the fear of the Lord. That it moves beyond general revelation into specific revelation into the verbal revelation of Moses, law, or the wisdom literature, which is another form of revelation from God that the wise man under inspiration seeks out of the created order.
So that's the first idea of the fear of the Lord. It is an objective revelation from God. It isn't merely a subjective sentiment.
The second idea of the fear of the Lord is it means that one makes an unconditional surrender to that revealed will.
One waves a white flag of surrender and accepts that specific revelation of God. A synonym for the fear of the Lord is to be humble. Hebrew word anab, which, which means to be broken under that law, which means to accept it, to be humble and be broken, and to accept it, which is the sovereign grace of God. One verse of Scripture in each case that I have to do here that will show this, I think, is Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 32, or verse 33, rather Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 33.
The fear of the Lord teaches. You can see there's objective revelation there. The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom. And humility comes before honor. And you think there, you could see in the parallelism that humility is almost a Synonym of the fear of the Lord is that one is humble and childlike and bold, broken before that revelation and therefore accepts the revelation makes an unconditional surrender to God.
The third idea of the fear of the Lord is that one is broken because one believes or one takes God seriously. He believes the threat of God's Word or God's revelation, and it's because you actually take God seriously.
The general revelation gives us a sense of guilt. And we realize we're under condemnation. We realize we're under judgment apart from his grace. And one really fears before God. And so it is not. Some scholars try to get around this. I don't think you can. My own study of it is it's because you take God seriously or you take his threats seriously that you fear him. And therefore you accept His Word.
Foundational to both fearing God and to loving God is trusting God.
You believe he is and you take his revelation seriously.
And because you believe his threats, you fear him. And because you believe his promises, you love Him.
And so that they're really not antithetical. That the common spiritual factor that relates the fear of God with the love of God is the trust in God that He actually means what he says. He's not capricious, he's not fickle, he's not unknown. There's a real revelation here. There's a real standard that I can depend upon. And I take him seriously. And because of that I fear his threats. And at the same time I trust his promises and I love him. Because this is where what art was sharing with us so helpfully last night is that there is no condemnation to them. That is in Christ Jesus. We accept his promises that there is justification. There is no penalty for our sins. The price has been paid in Christ, and I've been exalted in the heavenlies with Him. And so the fear of the Lord is really founded in the trust in the Lord.
So you can see then how this all ties together, that if you have this heart of trust, and you'll find the word trust quite often in Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5, where you have a famous verse, you might want to just turn there. It's a famous verse, Proverbs 3. 5. It's very much founded in trust in this book.
Trust in the Lord, that is, in the God who has revealed Himself in this book.
And lean not on your own understanding so that you have to believe that God stands behind the book of Proverbs.
The book of Proverbs is only as good as God is good.
My Trust is not in Proverbs.
My trust is in God, who stands behind these proverbs.
These are the expressions of who he is and what he has promised. So that my trust is ultimately in God and not really in the Bible so much as in the God who stands behind this expression. I trust in him and I believe this is His Word, so that my trust is in him and in his character and in his promises and so forth. So you can see, therefore, that the fear, this objective revelation and a brokenness before it, because you really take God seriously, that is the spiritual attitude that is foundational to entering into the wisdom of this book. And when it says it is the beginning, it doesn't mean that it is a place where you start and you walk away from it. The word means this is the foundations upon which everything else is built. And without this foundation, we have not the spiritual key, the spiritual perspicacity to get into the proverbs.
As I said yesterday, it's what the Alphabet is to reading, what numerals are to mathematics, what notes are to music. The fear of the Lord, the spiritual attitude of believing a revelation from him is foundational for entering into the truth of this book. And that is foundational. Therefore, to all of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
I'll just take a moment here if you want to interact with that or ask any questions about it, because it's such an important concept and I handled it quite quickly, just giving you the stiletto strokes, but I think I hopefully comprehend in a way that's comprehensible as well.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: Yes, it came to me at the national prayer practice of the soloists, the singing Fear the Lord, yes, is a very powerful message.
And it came to me that we should fear only the Lord.
That within the realm of this.
Yes, that would appear. No one else, Nothing else.
Certainly not the fear of God, revelation, or of ourselves, our relationships. Fear other people.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: No, I think that this kind of fear delivers you from all other fears.
And it's basically a trust in Him.
I think that's true now. Today I want to move on into. We said that wisdom is the created order. It's the expression of this created order.
And basically it means the social order.
I may just comment here too. You may have noted yesterday that in connection with Solomon's naming the 3,000 proverbs, we're also told that he spoke of the cedar of Lebanon and the hyssop that grew out of the wall. And he named everything in his kingdom, all the flora and all the fauna. He was labeling everything that it's all part of the same attitude of having dominion over everything.
That as Adam brought everything under his dominion by labeling it.
And if you think about it, almost everything we do in education is jargonese. We are constantly labeling things. As we discover more and more about the creation, we are labeling the parts of the body, the parts of the I. And since the creation is infinite, there's no ends of new labels. And when you take a course, you basically are learning the jargon of that course, which is what Adam did in the beginning, that he was naming everything.
So the proverbs are really very closely related to this Adam figure who's naming everything, almost king, like naming everything. And the sage here is naming social experiences, and he's coining it in these proverbs. And the difference from what Dr. Houston has been warning us against about power is that we live in a fallen world and we are manipulative and we are tarnished in our drives. But actually, Adam, before the Fall, was also labeling and bringing everything under his dominion, because God had given that command to us. Bring everything under your dominion. But the difference is that he's doing it in dependence upon before the Fall and redeemed from the Fall, we bring it under our dominion as we commit it over to Him. It's for his glory. It's for his honor. It's not that we can subordinate it to our own personal drives and our own personal ambitions.
Whereas the unregenerate heart supplants God, names everything after Himself, as we were saying in a little study group, even has the audacity to name the comets after Himself. He wants to put his name on everything, to exalt himself. So he has this kind of social immortality rather than seeing it is God's creation. And everything should be labeled to his glory and his honor and his praise.
And if you go to Philadelphia, you'll see the Quakers understood this. The oldest streets in Philadelphia are named after this, after the trees. We have Locust Street, Chestnut Street, Walnut Street, Spruce Street. Those are all from William Penn and the Quakers. Because they understood that this was God's creation and only God deserved praise and credit. And if you see man's names, that's later than the Quakers. They would not honor man. They would only honor God. So that in our labeling, we do not put our names up.
We put his name upon it. And we bring glory and honor to him as we use his creation and bring it under our dominion. So that we're now trying to bring speech under our dominion. We're trying to Label social relationships and speech, and we may do it. It will result in our good. But ultimately our motivation has to be for the glory of God throughout this whole book.
So let's now look at why speech as we try to label from the book this social coinage.
I'm going to divide the lecture from here on in to three parts.
Namely, the wise man knows the power of his words.
It's a fool who doesn't understand that the strongest member in one's body is one's tongue. The fool doesn't understand that the most important member in your body, the strongest member in your body is, is the tongue.
And it's there for all of us, and it's highly, highly effective. So the wise man knows the power and value of his tongue.
Secondly, the wise man knows the characteristics of wise speech.
And thirdly, the wise man knows the source for wise speech, if you want to alliterate it, which I'm not normally given to, but sitting there this morning meditating on it, I realized that what I'm talking about, the wise man knows the might, the power of good speech. He knows the marks of good speech, and he knows the making of good speech, which is a cheap alliteration. But at any rate, it might help us to guide our way through the lecture.
I have three thoughts that I've gleaned from the book about the power and the value of wise speech. Namely, our tongue has the power of life and death.
And a wise man knows that it is an instrument for life and death just as surely as the sword is an instrument for physical death.
The tongue is a sword for spiritual death. And through bad speech you can kill people eternally.
Think about that. And through wise people you can give them life eternally. Think about that. It's fantastic when you think about it. We have the power of life and death of other people in our tongue.
Some passages, proverbs that will deal with this. And I'm now jumping into the proverbs so you can orientate yourself a book. The first collection of Solomonic Proverbs is in chapter 10, verse 1 through 22 and verse 16.
While you're getting yourself orientated in that little collection, actually, the reason we have there are 375 proverbs here.
The reason there are 375 is that that is the numerical value of Solomon's name in Hebrew. The first letter is an S, which is a shin in Hebrew is equal to 300. The second letter is an L lamed, that's equal to 30. The third letter is a maim that's equal to 40. And the last letter is an H, which is equal to five. And you add it up, you'll have 375. And there are 375 proverbs. Now, that could be coincidental until you work with this kind of literature and you discover that that is probably deliberate as a way for the youth to memorize the material, because the first proverbs were intended to be memorized.
That's a way of having it. You've got 375. You have the first collection. The second collection of Solomon is in chapter 25, verse 1, through the end of chapter 29. That is the second collection of Solomon's Proverbs.
In between there we have other sayings of sages that are apart from Solomon. In chapter 22, verse 17 through chapter 24 and verse 22, and then 24, 23 through the end, we have another collection of material. So we're now dealing with these anthologies of aphorisms, these short, witty stains that expose the created order.
Proverbs, chapter 18 and verse 21 makes, I think, the point very clearly.
There are more, by the way, there are more proverbs about speech than any other subject. And that's why I chose it. It's the most important part in your social relationship is your speech, because, as I'm saying, it's the matter of life and death, eternal life and death, literally. Hence it's a very important topic in this book.
Proverbs, chapter 18 and verse 21. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. I'll comment more about eating its fruit, but there it's very clearly stated. It has the power of life and death.
We have tend, through our Proverbs, to depreciate the value of speech through such things. As we say, one picture is equal to 10,000 words or a thousand words.
Let me say this. No picture is equal to John 3:16.
John 3:16 is one verse, a few words, and it can give a person eternal life, which is greater than any picture at all.
Now, actually, what happens here is that the tongue is a tree of life. If you want to know where the tree of life is, in the midst of the fallen order, the tree that we lost from paradise. It is the, to use that metaphor, it is a tree of life that we can give to others so that they can, through the word, sacramentally participate in it and enter into eternal life. Proverbs, chapter 11. Well, Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 21, I have to limit myself to how many of these things I read. Proverbs 10, 21.
The lips, well, this is not where they have the tree of life. Let me give you the tree of life 1 first, since I mentioned that Proverbs 11:30.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
You can see what he's talking about there. That we have the opportunity of giving eternal life to other people by bearing a witness. And I think the reason that I don't witness more is that I'm self preserving. I'm afraid to risk myself. I'm not willing to make myself vulnerable. But if I really understand that by making myself vulnerable, and though they may want to cut down this tree and get rid of it, yet I am the tree of life in whatever community in which I find myself.
So that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. And he who wins souls through his speech, I take it, is wise.
Here is the fountain of life, of eternal life. Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 14.
The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life turning a man from the snares of death.
And the whole word of God is the Word of life. But the Word of God is mediated through us to other people, because how can they hear unless we in turn share the truths of this book with other people?
It is the way of chapter 10 and verse 21. It is the way of feeding the world spiritually. And we don't hear anything about this, of feeding the world spiritually. We understand about feeding the world materially, but it seems to me that far more important than feeding the world materially is feeding the world spiritually, which is dead and in chaos and starving for the word that we can give them. Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 21. The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.
And the reason that I think the world is in the chaos and death it is in, because the church has not been as faithful in its witness in being this nourishing food that the world so desperately needs.
I think we have to have clearly in mind what we said yesterday, that apart from, apart from this food, the world is dead and it's chaotic.
What you have in the beginning of the creation, as I understand Genesis chapter one, you start with chaos.
The world was chaotic. It was dark, it was an abyss. There was no light. There was no light. There was no order.
And into that lifeless, chaotic, dark situation came the Word of God.
And the Word of God transformed that dark chaos into an enlightened cosmos and everything became ordered. And in the Psalms particularly, that is a metaphor. That is a picture of the Word of God, the law of the Lord, the teachings of Scripture that change the dark, chaotic social order into a harmonious life order. But it demands a supernatural word from God. It demands a bara. It demands a creation of God through His Word.
And that's what we're involved in. So that we have the power of being in the image of God by speaking his words and transforming the darkness and the chaos all around us as we depend upon the Spirit of God that was present at the creation. Remember, it was the Spirit of God was hovering over that. He was there. And it just needed the Word of God with it. That as we create a spiritual climate in prayer and the Spirit of God is present and then you energize that with the electricity of God's Word. And the supernatural happens and the light of the glorious gospel shines in our hearts. And our lives were transformed by this Word. And we were saved out of our pagan darkness and lostness through this powerful word and spirit. And we became, by his grace, saints of all things.
That's the power of this word because somebody used his or her to tongue to speak to us.
So we have the power of life and death.
Secondly, we have the power to heal and to destroy.
And this is even the unofortiori if it's the power of life and death. Here is now, even on a lesser obviously, we have the power to either heal people socially and psychologically, or we can destroy them socially and psychologically proverbs 12, 18 reckless words, that is. And the fool just talks. We'll see this in a little bit as the marks of a wise man. A wise man always puts his. And I'll use man, you understand, it's generic man. And I don't know, wise. I guess I can say wise person, but in any case, a wise person. I'll try that out.
Now. I got lost in what I wanted to say here at any rate. But yeah, it is a wise person puts. And here you always get in trouble with these pronouns. Puts one's mind in gear before talking.
That's like really a tongue twister. But anyway, verse 12 and verse 18 reckless words just unthought out. Just speaking reckless words pierce like a sword.
But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
And here again we have depreciated speech through our proverb. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. But the truth of the matter is that what is done to you outwardly is of little account beside what is done to you inwardly.
And the words affect your heart. The words can be very cutting.
And all you have to do is read the book reviews in the learned journals. I remember one book review I read recently, and it went like this. This book is both good and original. Unfortunately, where it's good, it's not original, and where it's original, it's not good.
That sort of a.
This is. Now, other proverbs here that say this about the power to heal and to destroy is Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 9, and Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 11. I'll just take two here. To give it both negatively and to give it positively, Using figurative language that reckless words and foolish words are like a scorching fire. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 27, Proverbs 16:27.
A scoundrel plots evil and his speech is like a scorching fire. That through our speech we can just leave a total area decimated and it's just utterly destroyed. And if you want to see that, just look at history.
We were just commenting on Paul Johnson's books, Modern Times, and I had no idea of how bestial Hitler and so Stalin really were. And through their speech, they killed between them 50 million people because of two men who were speaking their false ideologies. And through their tongues they scorched the earth, literally, if you look at it through history.
Whereas Christ is a healing bomb in the world. Our speech is like a scorching fire.
My friend who teaches, supposed to be teaching homiletics, I kid him, is called hamiletics. But any case, that is the art of preaching. But in any case, He gives the illustration of a homiletics professor that was trying to teach the students the power of their preaching and the power of their speech. And so he had one student in the class as a decoy, or as a. I forget what you call it, but he would be the victim.
And the whole class was in on the secret that they would see the student and they would tell the student he wasn't looking very well, and one after another would say, you know, are you feeling all right? You don't look so well today. Is this a good day? And so they tried it out, and it actually did happen that by noon the student went home and went to bed sick. That they really saw the power of this speech just through doing that. And you can actually put a person in bed through bad speech, literally. I think if you could see that everybody came up to you. Today you're not looking so well. After a while, you'd be like the elephant, I think that art was talking about would be no reality to it, because you had been propagandized with a lie and you would actually act upon it and you'd die as a result.
By contrast, it can be like a honeycomb that enlightens the eye. It's sweet, it's reviving, and it's refreshing.
Proverbs, chapter 16 and verse 24. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 24.
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
I may just comment here. I think it's to the great grace of the Southerns culture that they know pretty much how to speak.
I think that Southerners know a lot better how to speak than Northerners, to tell you the truth. And I think one reason I like to be in the south is that people talk graciously to one another, whereas in the north you're more likely to get cut down in the process.
But it is a honeycomb, and it's the way that we can heal.
One of my colleagues when I was at Dallas for a while, was president of Moody Bible Institute, well, at least the night school.
And he shared with me he thought the most effective thing he had done as principal of that night school was that when he had taken over the school, it was lethargic. There was no light, there was no spirit. The students were tired, having worked all day, the teachers were tired. They were mostly moonlighting in order to supplement their income. And so there wasn't the whole right spirit about the place. And he said that one of the things, most important thing he did is that when somebody had been helped in that course, somebody wrote in expressing appreciation, he would pass on that word of good news to the teacher. And that just helped the teacher and encouraged the teacher. And we can do a lot of good, I think, by encouraging one another. But one of the marks of good speech is truthfulness and not flattery, because you can also use speech as a bribe so somebody likes you, and that's distasteful, and that's not right. You can bribe people with your speech. You could say, I'm going to speak nice, and then it's a bribe, so they give you back something for it. That's not the point. It's all because it's for the glory of God. And we're trying to be a saving instrument. We're trying to be the honeycomb on the earth and always with truth, it's always truth with grace. And I think sometimes there's flattery in the south too, and that's not so good.
Other proverbs that should be included here would be Proverbs chapter 12, verse 25, and Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 30. But I'm just going to have to make those throwaways at this point and you can look them up on your own.
Finally, Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 25 and Proverbs 15:30.
Thirdly, we have I said so far that the tongue has the power of life and death. It has the power to heal or to destroy, and finally it has the power to reward or damage oneself.
13, 3 says it, and then I'll develop that both positively and negatively.
He who guards, guards his lips, guards his soul.
But he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
Because your speech can be either your making or your undoing in life.
And you must understand its great, great power as it can affect you, first of all, positively, it is able to put food upon your table. Good speech.
Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 14, if you can speak well, it's part of the created order whereby one can accumulate the good things of life. That's the way God's designed it. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 14.
From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things, as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.
I remember one time when this thing hit me and we were eating dinner together as a family. Maybe you don't like this illustration, but it's true. I looked at the table and it was a very wonderful thing. And I said, do you realize that all of this is because I talk?
I never thought of that before, but actually if you talk properly, it helps out a bit. You can fill it full of robbing things by talking.
But I think that it's a very literal thing. When you're in teaching, all I have is words. And when you talk, you are rewarded, is what the proverb is talking about. I think that was a foolish comment, but in any case, it really drives home the point is. The point I'm trying to make here is that it does reward you when you speak. Well, negatively, on the other hand, it can utterly destroy you. It can wreck a career. Proverbs 18, 6, 7. If you want to see how damaging it can be.
A fool's lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.
A fool's mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snail to his soul.
And I think that there's something diabolical in Washington. But you can't live in Washington and not be aware that that one bad comment can ruin a politician. And it's tragic in my judgment. That one bad comment by James Watt that I thought had so many good qualities, just that one comment destroyed his career as the minister of the interior.
Or you take Romney for example, that one bad comment, that he had been brainwashed, just that was the end of his political career. Or take Campagnas recently, the head of the Dodgers. That one bad comment, that racial comment just undid his entire career pretty near and brought shame upon him. And you think about it to understand that one bad comment. That's how powerful words can be. Of course a lot depends upon your position but you can see it here in very prominent positions where the newspapers will distort it and make a megaphone out of it, which is the unfortunate aspect. But you still see the point trying to make so that your words I'm trying to establish are extremely important. Yes. Judge how quickly the fall is like with Jerry Part and some of the other ethical kind of things, it takes sort of a long time for that to play out. But when you pick the wrong word, you're gone.
Right, Good point.
A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.
All right, now I want to come to the marks of good speech, the characteristics.
You know, I will just share this with you something I didn't see before.
I didn't realize that why Dr. Houston was such a good theologian and Frank Sinatra was such a bad theologian.
But I suddenly with some help of others, I got a profound instinct insight into why Frank Sinatra is not the theologian I want to follow. And I'm going to follow Dr. Houston because Frank Sinatra sings do be do be do be do and Dr. Houston sings be do be do be do.
Now, now I want to move.
Now I want to move into the marks of a good speech and I'm going to. So you can memorize it. I'm going to put this under the marks of good speech is gentle breath.
Alright. And if you can get that down, gentle breath. You'll have everything I want to say here about the seven marks of good speech. I didn't come up with the number seven deliberately. It just happened that that's how many I found here.
The gentle is one. And then I'll use breath as an acronym. The B R, E A T H will help to summarize the six other marks of good speech. That's what I'm doing here. Alright.
First of all, then Good speech is gentle, and it is not harsh.
Proverbs 15:1.
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. And I must say, by God's grace that has stood me in good stead in life. And when I'm tempted to strike back in anger, this proverb holds me in check. And I know I'll do more good unto God and heal a situation, rather than to exacerbate a divisive situation by a gentle tongue rather than a harsh tongue. And I have to look to God to give me this gentle tongue. Proverbs 25:15. Again, we through a patience, a ruler can be persuaded and a gentle tongue in this paradox, a gentle tongue can break.
And that is how we were brought to Christ. We were wooed through the loveliness and the humility and the lowliness of Christ. The gentleness of Christ attracted us to him and broke our hard hearts. The Japanese have a saying that soft drives out hard.
And many a politician has found that oil is more effective than vinegar and bringing peace.
I frankly feel that to a large extent here, a solution for gentleness is that we have to have faith. I think we can be gentle when we understand that's how God's work and we can turn all the wrongs that are being done over to God.
I think one of the most instructive stories in the Old Testament of gentleness is the story of Sarah. She's held up, as you know, in first corner, Peter, chapter three, as the exemplary wife of having a gentle and quiet spirit. Yet she doesn't quite fit my model of gentleness.
When you actually read the life of Sarah, I discover she's a very outspoken woman.
Joy in it just a little bit, that sort of a thing, you know.
But in any case, what does Sarah do? Sarah says to him, she tells the wrong. And then she says, may the Lord judge between you and me. And unlike a modern woman would say, either she goes or I go. That would be the harsh. She turned it over to God, and no harshness there. The Lord will be the judge. And she had a life of faith and could depend upon God to do what was right and could turn it over to him. And I think that our ability to turn it over to him may be helpful for us to be gentle, to be his ways and trust his spirit, and to trust his justice and his judgment. And I do not have to be powerful and harsh, trying to project myself onto somebody else and to destroy that person to get my way.
Secondly, a wise person, the marks of a good Speech is that it doesn't boast. That would cut out a lot of conversation. And one of the things that I felt a little awkward in is that I think that just being here, I find a lot of wise speech going on in our conference. But Proverbs, chapter 27:2, it doesn't boast.
Let another praise you and not your own mouth, someone else and not your own lips.
Resist the urge, in other words, to speak well of yourself, and keep that in mind.
The solution here, I believe, is that I find is helping me to grow in grace. Here is knowing myself and knowing God. Remember Socrates said, know yourself.
But as Art said again last night, you cannot know that finite point without having the infinite point of reference. You cannot know yourself until you know God and you get the frame of reference. If all you look at is yourself, you might think you're pretty good if you begin comparing yourself relatively with other people.
You have to have that infinite frame of reference to really see who you are. And remember what Calvin did. There is, he said, to know yourself, you have to know God. And what happens in Calvin as he opens up the Institutes, there's a dynamic interplay between as you know God, you know yourself, and you see his righteousness, and you see your natural depravity, and you see your sinfulness. And as you begin to see your sinfulness, you begin to see his greatness. And as you see his greatness, you see even more of his sinfulness. And as you see your deeper sinfulness, you see even more of his greatness. So that your knowledge is going out like a funnel almost, that as you see God, you see yourself. Then as you see yourself, you see God, and there's an interplay between them. It's a growing concept. And the greater your vision of God, the more the glory belongs to Him. And then there is no place of boasting. Or as the property it says, let him that boasts boasts in this that he knows the Lord, and that's in whom we make our boast. So that the proverb is, I think, a little. It's true, but I don't think it's nearly the greatness of the prophet who said, let your boast be in the Lord, because all praise, glory belongs to Him. Every good and every perfect gift comes from him ultimately.
Third, the marks of wise speech is that they are restrained.
One doesn't talk a great deal. That will come up to this again as being thoughtful. But I took so far, gentle breath. The B I said was boast, not the R is to be restrained.
Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 23, that the wise man doesn't just gush forth his knowledge, he uses it sparingly. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 23. A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself. He doesn't just blurt it out, he's restrained in his speech. But the heart of fools blurts out folly. As Cheryl Matthews said, when your money is in copper, you may afford to throw it away, but when it is in gold, you have to be cautious.
And if you're. You are cautious with your speech and it's gold and you're restrained in the use of it.
Robert Boyer and Edmund Addio in Eagle's Speech why no one is listening to you went to the trouble. These two psychiatrists went to the trouble of marking out average conversations. They drew the conclusion that the average American speaks the equivalent of a novel daily and yet reads three books a year when nobody's listening to you.
They don't understand this is foolishness.
Proverbs 17, 27 and 28.
A man of knowledge uses words with restraint.
And a man of understanding is even tempered very much. James 1:19, isn't it? Be quick to hear and slow to anger and slow to speak.
Be restrained in your speech.
I think the solution here I've talked about, the solution of being gentle, I think, is faith. I would say the solution to boast not is to see the greatness of God. And I would suggest that the solution to being restrained is to know your depravity.
That Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 19, as I said yesterday, you cannot speak for any extended period without sin being present. And to understand that Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 19, when words are many, sin is not absent. But he who holds his tongue is wise, and so be very. And I think when you understand the power of speech, these things naturally go together.
The E in breath stands for. And this is the one that's gimmicky, I know, but anyway, eavesdrops. Not, doesn't eavesdrop. What I mean by that is he doesn't slander, even if it's the truth. He doesn't slander people and he doesn't fabricate falsehoods, which is equal to gossip. That is a wise man does not have a tremendous sense of rumor.
Proverbs chapter 11 and verses 12 and 13 make my point.
A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue.
And don't use your tongue to put people down to slander and to gossip about Them as I understand the Ten Commandments, every image of God, every person has four fundamental rights.
The right to life, the right to home, the right to property, and the right to reputation.
The right to life, you shall not take innocent life, which includes both murder and manslaughter.
The right to life, the right to home, you shall not commit adultery.
The right to property, you shall not steal. And the right to reputation, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
And I think that in the church all too often we do not take that fourth fundamental right seriously enough.
And I observe all too often that we hold court about another person, a legal court, kangaroo courts, if you please, in our living rooms over a cup of coffee.
And when the other person is not there to defend himself or herself, and without needing to prove what we're saying very casually, we can destroy the other person over a cup of tea or over a cup of coffee in our living rooms.
This is very strong to my thinking. And I remember one time I was on a board of education and a principal was being maligned and being accused.
And the board was ready to fire this principle. And because I knew this basic truth, it would not be right to fire that discipline, that principle unless his accusers were present and he was there to defend himself. And so I made the motion that we not act until those who have seen him do what he had been alleged to do, they would step forward and they would make accusal to him to his face. And he would be able to. To be there to defend himself and give an answer. And do you know that was the end of that? Nobody ever stepped forward.
And he is still in that position today.
And there's a lot of that going on where we're holding court without due process of law in the church. We're worse than the world, I think, so that we do not have this sense of rumor, as I like to think of it. The solution here is love.
And it all has to come from God. The one verse of Scripture that would be here would probably be Proverbs 10:12.
Proverbs 10:12.
Hatred stirs up dissension.
And if you find somebody stirring up dissension, mark it down that emotionally they are opposed to you.
They don't like you. Just know that hatred will stir it up.
But 12B. But love covers all wrongs. You may be interested that the original translation of Proverbs for the NIV was done by Derek Kidner, for whom I have a great deal of respect, and his original translation that never made it through all the way to the end of the translation was love draws a veil over all wrongs. I thought that was absolutely lovely. I voted for that every time. But I was outvoted. It was a little bit too cutesy, I guess, for the translation. Translation. But that's what it means.
Love draws a veil. And what we tend to do is if somebody did something wrong is to put them on stage and draw the curtain wide apart so everybody can see it. And what love does, it draws the curtain and lets that take place without public audience. It draws a veil over all wrongs. It's love.
Fifth, the A in breath stands for apt.
Proverbs, chapter 15 and verse 2.
That wise speech is apt.
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
We really didn't know how to translate this. Tell you the truth, the word translated commends is. The Hebrew word is arak.
It's the word used in First Kings, chapter 19, where Jezebel arranges her hair.
And what it means is that a wise man arranges his speech before he speaks. He just doesn't get up and talk.
He thinks through the phraseology most effective. I haven't come to this point, the most effective communicator I know. So let's put it another way. When I was at Dallas, I was talking to the professors of homiletics, and I said to one professor, what makes this man such an effective communicator? He says, because he thinks his way through to every word.
And I realized that was the truth of it. He had the discipline to think his way through to every word that he's going to use, whereas I tend to be more spontaneous in speaking. But that carries it through that. You get the point.
The phrase a wise man talks sense in well phrased language.
Yeah. David.
[00:57:02] Speaker C: The end. Ecclesiastes. As the preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. And then it be like prodding Goldstein.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: Great, great. Thank you. Good. Cross reference. We want to give us that cross reference again, David. Ecclesiastes 12, 12, 10 and 11. Good. Great. Thank you very much.
Or to put it another way, it seems to me that if you have a great idea. I've seen this proverb elsewhere. It's like having a bell without a clapper.
Unless you can say it well. There's no clapper. To strike the bell and make the thing ring so that a wise man knows how to have a clapper with his good idea and make it effective and ring the bell.
I think it's to know the power of words. Sixth. The T, of course, stands for being thoughtful and not rash.
A wise speech is thoughtful and not rash. Proverbs, chapter 15 and verse 28.
My time is gone. Proverbs 15 and verse 28.
The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.
And Proverbs, chapter 18 and verse 13.
He who answers before listening, that is his folly and his shame.
Do any of you know John Perkins?
I think he's a tremendous person. And as you know, he was on Reagan's economic council. And I asked Perkins, I said, well, what impresses you most about Reagan and what impressed him most on the cabinet meetings was that Reagan really, really listens is the way he understood the relationship. He was very much impressed. But a wise man is thoughtful and not rash.
And the other proverb here, and I can't develop this is Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 13.
I already quoted that seventh. They are honest. The H stands for they are honest and not false. They are always truthful, and they are not half truths.
I heard one time about the first mate who wrote in the log that the captain was drunk today.
The captain looking through the log, seeing that he had been said to be drunk, he was furious. He said, you didn't have to put that in there.
And the first mate said, the truth is the truth.
So the next day, the captain put in the log. The first mate was sober today.
The truth is the truth.
Proverbs 12:22. Why speech is delightful to the Lord. Proverbs, chapter 22. As the delightful to the Lord. The Lord detests lying lips.
Proverbs 22:12.
Proverbs 12:22. The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. I can just give you other verses here, because time is gone. It's delightful to the king. Proverbs, chapter 16 and verse 13 that the king has to hear the truth. I understand that the reason we had the fiasco in the Bay of Pigs is that no one wanted to offend Kennedy, but he desperately had to hear the truth.
I think one reason. If I may just share. I hope I don't embarrass Dr. Houston here, but I think one reason I value his friendship is he speaks the truth to me. He's spoken more truth to me than any other friend I've ever had. And I value that friendship very highly, that somebody can speak the truth and it's a better friendship for the truth.
Finally, and I'll just give you the verses Here, the source of good speech. And I'll get to this tomorrow, I would suggest four things.
Fundamentally, it's the heart itself that determines good speech. It's Matthew, chapter 13, verses 33, 36, where Jesus likens it to a tree that a good tree produces good fruit. And he's talking about good speech. It really is a matter of your heart. You can make your New Year's resolutions, as I said, to do all these marks, but unless it's in the heart, we're not going to do it.
Proverbs that say, this is Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 17.
It seems trite, but it's profound.
A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false witness tells lies.
It's your character that decides whether you're truthful or you're false. Ultimately, it's profound. It seems vain or it seems trite to reflect upon it. And it's saying the character is decided. You have to look at the character of a person, same thing as in Proverbs 10:32 and 16:23. I would suggest, secondly, that the source of good speech is good companions.
Proverbs 13:20 associate with good company.
13:20. He who talks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
And I think one reason we come together to church, we come to retreats, is that we learn and we're encouraged by one another.
I was interested that I spoke in New Orleans about two weeks ago to the National Convention of the Christian Medical Society, and one of the doctors there from Toronto was my classmate in college.
He called up the director of the Christian Medical Society and says, I can't believe how much that guy has learned in 35 years.
You see what I'm saying? It's because I was under good teaching, I was good associations, and I've been uniquely privileged to be with, I think, good people and through their influences, that we grow together. And good companionship enables us to grow in the grace of Jesus Christ.
Stop listening and you will die.
One of the big problems we have with Proverbs, if Solomon was so smart, how come he died such a fool?
That's a big problem. And the reason is he gives his own proverb 19:27. Stop listening to instruction, my friend, and you will quickly stray from the words of wisdom. Your depravity will overtake you. And because you're wise today is no guarantee for tomorrow. It's a constant walk. And Solomon fell on his very old proverb and neglected the spiritual life.
Thirdly, sound doctrine, sound doctrine.
Proverbs, chapter 22 and verse 17 through 19 where he introduces the 30 sayings of the wise.
Here, how he introduces himself, he says, pay attention. Proverbs 22, 17, 19 Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise. Apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your tongue, so that your trust may be in the Lord. I teach you today, even you. Have I not written 30 sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, teaching you true and reliable words so that you can give sound answers to him who sent you, so that the ability to give good speech and sound answers is that you have been in sound doctrine and in truth?
And I'll just conclude here, I think it's prayer Proverbs chapter 15, verse 8 and Proverbs 15 and verse 29 that God desires us to speak as he spoke. God desires us to be Christlike and therefore we can pray and count on God to give us good speech speech with us. The verse Proverbs 15 and verse 8 the Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: The proceeding was a presentation of the C.S. lewis Institute. In the legacy of C.S. lewis, the institute endeavors to develop disciples who can articulate, defend and live faith in Christ through personal and public life. For more information, please visit our
[email protected].
[01:05:25] Speaker B: thank.
You.
