He requested that the congregation go home and read Mark, chapter seventeen before the next Sunday.
When next Sunday came, before he started preaching, he asked, “How many of you read Mark, chapter seventeen this week?” About half of the congregation raised their hands to indicate they had.
Then the preacher announced, “The half of you who did not raise your hands may leave, but those of you who indicated that you read the seventeenth chapter of mark, please stay because this message is to you this morning, Because there is no Mark, chapter seventeen.”
When God endowed man with the gift of speech He gave us a gift that He gave no other creature.
In some ways we are similar to other creatures.
For example, animals and insects are similar to us in that they have wars, cities, governments, and even store up food.
They even have some kind of communication.
Illus: This reminds me of the story of the two dogs who were talking one day and one said to the other, I don't feel very well, I'm tired all the time. The other dog, trying to be helpful said, Have you ever thought of seeinly a psychiatrist? The sick dog said, Of course not! You know I am not allowed on couches.
The gift of speech that God gave us can be used for GOOD and BAD.
In James 3:10, We read, "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not so to be.”
Illus: The old Indians used to refer to this as a person speaking with a “forked tongue."
Sad to say, we have many today who speak with a “forked tongue.”
Some of these even attend our churches.
They will use their tongue to sing praises to God on Sunday and use the same tongue to curse men who are made in the image of God, on Monday.
I. SPEECH CAN BE USED OF THE DEVIL.
In John 8:44, We read, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do, He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Jesus told that crowd of Pharisees that the reason they lied against their neighbors was because they were of their “Father the devil”.
Anytime a person tells a lie, he can rest assured he is under the influence of Satan, himself.
Illus: If you remember, it was in the Garden of Eden that Satan first started using this powerful weapon of lying. In Genesis 3, in that conversation Satan persuaded Eve that God was a liar and was trying to keep man from finding real happiness.
The serpent actually told a lie on God and Eve believed it, and from that lie we have the fall of man.
Realizing that the tongue was the weapon that Satan used to bring about the fall of man, it does not strike us as unusual for God to place in the ten commandments, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
God shows His dislike for lying by including this in the list of seven things He dislikes.
Look at Proverbs 6:16-19, We read “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that devisseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischiaf. A false witness that seaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
God despises His gift of speech is used to destroy lives, and to hinder His program.
He commands us, “Thou shalt not bear false wintness against thy neighbor.”
We need to consider that word, “neighbor” before we go any further.
I am sure that some here today are thinking, “I love all my neighbors and I would never bear false witness against any of them.”
Who is our neighbor?
Illus: We generally think of our neighbors as those who live on each side of us, or in the front or back of us. Let me ask you a question?
• What about the fellow who lives ten houses down from you; is he in your neighbor? Yes!
• Is the fellow who lives twenty houses down, your neighbor? Yes!
• The fact is, so is the fellow 50 houses down, 100 houses down etc.
• The fellow who lives across town is your neighbor, and the people who live in China are also your neighbors.
Illus: A Sunday School teacher was telling her pupils of loving their neighbors and she asked her class who was their neighbors. One lad said, “I would consider anyone to be my neighbor whose property Joined mine.” The teacher said, “That is a very good answer and that means everyone is your neighbor.” The little boy raised his hand again and said, “Teacher, you misunderstood, my neighbors are those who live on both sides of me and those who live in front and back of me.” She said, “By your definition of a neighbor, you say that your land must meet and that is a good definition of a neighbor.” She said, “If you could go home today and dig a hole in the earth until it came out of the other side, where would you come out?” The little boy said, “Probably China.” She said, “You are probably right! In fact, in the center of the earth our property is Joined to everyone elses property on the face of this earth and that would make every living soul neighbors!'
Even though God commands us not to use our tongue as a weapon to destroy others, we find many today doing just that.
What are some of the ways we can lie and hurt others and the work of God?
1. We can lie through flattery.
To 'flatter' is 'to praise insincerely'.
Illus: Have you ever been talking with one person when a person he disliked walked up. He said, “Hey man! How are you feeling? You look greatl” But as soon as that person walked away this person then said, “He looks terrible.”
That person just lied. We can easily lie through flattery. Everyone loves a sincere compliment.
Illus: A preacher stated one day about a certain man that he liked. He was asked why he liked him. He said, “Every time I see him, he has nothing but nice thines to say to me, I know all the things he says about me are not true, but I feel flattered to think that perhaps at least half of them may be true.”
Yes, we can make someone's day just by paying him a sincere compliment, so it is easy to see how Satan would like to mimick this.
Someone said this about flattery, “Flattery is like chewing gum - enjoy it briefly, but don’t swallow it.”
Also, someone said, “Flattery is hearing from others the things you have already thought about yourslef.”
Some wise person said, “Criticism from a friend is better than flattery from an enemy.”
There are people who detest certain people. All week, behind their backs they never miss a chance to use their tongues God gave them in the wrong way as a weapon to destroy them by saying evil things about them. Then they turn around and say nice things to their faces, knowing all the time those things are not true but are merely to blow their egos out of proportion, and hide how they really feel about those people.
Illus: The way some people use flattery to blow people up out of proportion reminds me of the story of the grandfather who was a farmer who was showing his granddaughter the big sow on his farm that won a blue ribbon at the state fair for being the largest sow there. When the granddaughter arrived, the sow had been laying down feeding her eight babies. When she saw them coming she stood up. Just then the granddad said, “Honey, isn’t that a big sow?” The Little girl said, “She ought to be, I just saw eight baby pigs blowing her up!”
There are people who will use flattery to blow people minds out of proportion. We can use flattery to hide how we really feel about someone.
2. We can lie through silence.
Sometimes people remain silent when they should speak out.
For example, suppose someone tells a lie on someone and you know what they are saying is not true. If we know what they are saying is not true and we do not speak out, our silence makes us as much a liar as the person who is telling the lie.
Illus: How would you feel if someone was telling lies about you and your very best friend was there, listening to it all, and never spoke a word to defend you, knowing what was being said was a lie? You would go to that so-called friend and say, “With fiends like you, who needs enemies!” If the shoe was on the other foot and you did not speak out in defense of a friend, then that friend could come and say that same thing to you.
Have you noticed that some people have strange moral standards. As long as the lies are on someone else, they do not feel compelled to speak out, but yet they expect you to speak out in their defense if you hear lies about them.
Illus: These remind me of the story of the dad who was teaching his son a lesson on ethics. He said, “For example, today an old friend paid me back a loan with a brand new hundred-dollar bill. As he, was leaving I discovered he had given me two bills stuck together, Immediately a question of ethics arose, Should I tell your mother...”
To many today will not stand for the right. They can hear a lie being told and never feel any responsibility to speak out against the lie.
3. We can lie through Insinuation.
To “insinuate” is to: “hint or suggest indirectly.”
Illus: Suppose you come up to me and say, “Old Joe is a fine fellow.” And I say, “Well, I don’t know. I know things about Joe that you do not know.” You say, What do you know about him” But I say, “I have always been told if you can not say something good about someone, you shouldn’t say anything.”
Now I did not say anything bad about old Joe, but I certainly implied something was wrong with him.
How often we break this commandment, not by what we say directly, but by what we imply.
4. We can lie through false-testimonies.
Illus: This can happen in our courts of law across the land. I am sure many are behind prison walls because someone who stood in the courtroom under oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; told one lie after another. Many have paid out thousands of dollars in fines because someone lied under oath. Many have walked out of courtrooms thinking they have gotten by with a lying testimony. They have killed, raped, stolen, etc., but, the case is not closed. They have yet to stand before a Holy God Who says in Rev. 21:8, We read, “…and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
5. We can lie through singing.
We encourage people to sing, but we must be careful! Christianity is more than mere words, it is a reality. We have people who sing every verse in our hymnbook, but much of what they sing is a lie as far as they are concerned.
WE CAN SING A LIE AS WELL AS TELL ONE.
For example: Many would sing, “Wonderful Words of Life,” as if every word were true, but they are not letting God's Word teach them faith and duty, etc.
In fact, many do not even open God's Word and read it during the week, how can His word be teaching them anything They won't even get up in time for Sunday School Sunday morning to learn something from God's Word.
Also, what about the lovely song, "I Know Whom I Have Believed.”
Many who sing this in church live as if they do not even believe there is a God when things get tough out in the world. Any time we sing some thing we do not believe, we are singing a lie.
6. We can lie through gossip.
Someone has said that, “Lying and gossip are first cousins.”
I believe that, Show me a person who will gossip and I will show you a person who will lie. Not only that, but usually the gossip is full of hate. The gossip will pretend to like a person when face to face with him, but degrade him as soon as he is gone.
lllus: A man said one day, “If he had his way the slanderer would be hung by his tongue and those who listened to him would be hung by his ears.”
It is up to each of us whether or not we will use the gift of speech God gave us to advance His kingdom, or to destroy lives and His kingdom.
Illus: We are told that Elvis Pressley often sang in church when he was young. All across this world you will find people who agree that God gave him a special voice to sing with. However, he made a choice to use it for the devil. We can not begin to imagine how horrible he will feel as he gives account to God for taking that gift and using it to exalt flesh instead of exalting the Savior.
The same goes for millions of others. They will stand before the Lord and give account of every idle word they have spoken. Yes, SPEECH CAN BE USED OF THE DEVIL.
II. SPEECH CAN BE USED OF GOD.
In John 14:6, We read, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the …truth…”
John 8 tells us that the devil is a liar.
Jesus is the TRUTH and the devil is a LIAR!
You will not read any where in scripture where the Lord ever lied. THE TRUTH can not lie.
WE CAN USE OUR TONGUE FOR THE LORD.
Proverb 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tonuge…”
Notice, DEATH and LIFE is in the power of the tongue.
What is God saying?
God is saying that some will use their tongue to destroy and others will use it to bring life.
Jeremiah 9:3, “And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies...”
The tongue is to be used for good. People like this are like a fresh summer breeze everywhere they go.
Illus: We see an excellent example of this in I Samuel 23. David and Johathan were best friends. Jonathan's father, King Saul, was out to kill David. It must have been very discouraging for David to have to flee from one of the most powerful men on earth at that time. As a fugitive David was constantly hiding. Jonathan found out where David was and he went to him and encouraged him and told him not to be afraid, that God was going to take care of him. I can imagine that that left David with a whole new outlook on life.
Isn't it wonderful how some people go around spreading life with this gift of speech God has given them.
Before I close, I want to talk to you about the best way we can use our tongues. Tere is no greater way than to tell someone. how they can have eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Conclusion/Summary:
I. SPEECH CAN BE USED OF THE DEVIL.
A. We can lie through flattery.
B. We can lie through silence.
C. We can lie through insinuations.
D. We can lie through false testimonies.
E. We can lie through singing.
F. We can lie through gossip.
II. SPEECH CAN BE USED OF GOD.
