I don’t even know how to pronounce the kind of karate, kung-fu, whatever it was that he knew how to do, but I do know that he was very good at it. Not only was he very good at it; he wouldn’t hurt a flea unless he had to. He was a kind, beautiful Christian man and he didn’t like… people hardly didn’t even know that he knew how to do this. But it was unfortunate for a certain thief that he had to use it one day. He came out of the building, I’m not sure if it was a store or his office, but somewhere right here in Chattanooga, I believe. He is walking out to his car, the sun is going down, the shadows are going, and he’s just about to reach his car and he’s attacked. And a man says a few unkind things to him and is about to lunge, and our hero, very quickly, knocks him out. Cold. And then, being the gentle, kind, Christian man that he is, he rushes around and he catches him, and he slowly lowers him to the ground to make sure he won’t get hurt. Don’t you wish you could do that? I confess that I do. I wish that I had that kind of power.
You know, kung-fu or karate or judo, all those different martial arts can be used for good or for bad. And it’s the same with the topic of our sermon today. The tongue. Now the tongue can be very cute, too. It can be cute like this little girl’s. It can be long. It can be gentle. And ugly. Silly. Gross. Scary.
But the tongue, it seems like, has mostly been used for evil. Or at least, in the battle between evil and good. If you go back, all the way back to the beginning, you’ll find that the tongue was there playing a key role. That’s why I’ve entitled my sermon “Tongue Fu”, because the tongue can be used for evil or for good, and in both cases it’s very powerful, like the martial arts Kung Fu. Satan, at the beginning, used his tongue to deceive a third of the angels. Actually more. It was just a third that ended up going with him, in the end. Satan used it to tempt Eve, through the serpents tongue. Eve used her tongue to tempt Adam. They both used their tongues to blame each other, and we’ve been doing it ever since. Cain used his tongue to deny his guilt, his responsibility. Sarah used her tongue to convince Abraham to marry Hagar. Jacob used his tongue to lie to his father Isaac. People of Israel used their tongues to worship the golden calf, and on and on, down through the ages. Then down into the New Testament. Herod used his tongue to cause the demise, the beheading of John the Baptist. And Satan, very craftily, used his tongue against Jesus in the desert.
We’re talking about Solomon and his wise words the past few weeks in this series. And we find that Solomon has a lot to say about the tongue, about what we say. The tongue, I’m using the tongue as a symbol of what we say. He doesn’t always use the exact words, tongue. And I found that in all the different tips that he has about our, what to say, and how to use our tongue, there’s a text that summarizes it. And he makes two general points that all the different tips kind of fall under.
The first comes in Proverbs 15, verse 2. “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” We should use our tongue to say wise things. We should use our tongue wisely. The second is Proverbs 15, verse 4. “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” We should use our tongues kindly. We should use our tongues in a kind way. I think if I were to boil both of those ideas down into one sentence, I would say, “Your tongue is powerful. Use it right.” Ok? Our tongues are powerful. Let’s use them right.
Again, Solomon’s advice. User your tongue in a wise way. Use it in a kind way.
Let’s look at the first, the first command. Use your tongue in a wise way. The first thing that Solomon says under this topic is, speak with knowledge. If you’re going to use your tongue in a wise way, you need to speak with knowledge. “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” You know, I could tell a lot of stories about myself, in this area, but I’m not going to, because I often tell stories about where I’ve made dumb mistakes. So today I’m going to talk about somebody else.
Recently, actually about a year ago, I was preparing to go on my first mission trip to Belize, and this was when I was a pastor in Hagerstown, Maryland. I was unable to go on the pre-trip for it, and so I was kind of lost, not knowing exactly what I was doing. And so we brought in some people who had been to Belize, had been on the pre-trip to answer questions from those who were going. And as they were answering questions, one of the men said, “Oh, don’t worry. The sun, it’s going to be summer time and the sun’s going to be going down very late. Probably around 9 o’clock, or something like that.” And alarm bells went off in my head. And I said, “No. wait, wait, wait a second. I used to live near the equator, and as far as I can remember, near the equator, the sun goes down close to 6 all year round.” And so I confronted him. I said, “Wait a second. You know, I’m not sure if that’s right.” And he says, “No David, you’re wrong. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve been to Belize. You know. And you haven’t really been there.” And then somebody else who was in the room, who was a conference official, confirmed what he said. And I went home, and “no, this can’t be right.” So I got on the internet, and I checked, and sure enough, the sun goes down near 6 o’clock all year round in Belize. And I felt very smug. And justified. And my estimation for their knowledge dropped just a bit. Now, people who went to Belize with me know that I made a number of similar statements that didn’t prove to be true. But that’s beside the point. If you speak without knowledge, peoples respect for you is going to drop a little bit. And it’s not just about you or me, gaining respect. It’s about glorifying God. As Christians, we should always be seeking to earn people’s respect, not for our own sake, but for God’s sake, so that we can be a witness. And so, cross my heart, hope to die, I’m going to try to speak things that I understand, and not about things that I don’t totally understand.
Another way to use your tongue wisely is not to speak hastily. Proverbs 29:20. “You see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”
Have you ever heard of Benjamin Disraeli? How many have? Benjamin Disraeli. A couple, few people. Benjamin Disraeli, that’s interesting. His last name totally describes his nationality. ‘D’ Israeli. Ok? He was Jewish. You haven’t heard of Benjamin Disraeli, but you’ve probably heard of Queen Victoria. Am I right? You’ve heard of Queen Victoria? You’ve heard of the Victorian Age? Yes? What we know about the Victorian Age is largely responsible to a man by the name of Benjamin Disraeli. This man started off in obscurity, and quickly rose to power and became an elected member of parliament, in England. And Benjamin Disraeli, before he was headed to parliament, a friend of his came to him and said, “Now listen. If you want to be a success, don’t speak unless you have something powerful to say. Don’t say anything. Don’t stand up and make a speech. Just wait. Hold your tongue. Wait until you have something very knowledgeable and very powerful to say.” And so he followed that advice and he quickly, I mean he just shot right up through the ranks and in popularity, and soon found himself prime minister of England, working directly with Queen Victoria. And Jan Haluska, professor at Southern, tells a story that one time he was talking with her and she was mourning the death of her husband, and was discouraged and sad, and she says, “I just wish that I could go to a little cabin somewhere, and take my children, and gather them under my arms like a chicken with her chicks and just totally forget about the rest of the world.” And he looked at her and he said, “Madam, England is your child. Please, gather her under your wings.” And I’m paraphrasing, quite a bit. I took this class, you know, 15 years ago. And she took his advice, she turned around and she became the Queen Victoria that we know. Benjamin Disraeli learned the power of choosing your words wisely. Of waiting to say the right thing. Benjamin Disraeli, it’s interesting. I looked up on the internet, I was trying to find more information about him. And I discovered a whole page full of wise sayings from Benjamin Disraeli. You know, because of his waiting, I guess, to say them, they became well known. “As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information”. Common sense. Kind of goes along with our topic. Here’s one of his that I think is funny: “The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.” I would agree, wouldn’t you? This man learned the power of choosing your words carefully and waiting 'til the last moment, waiting until you have something powerful to say. So Solomon advises us. Use our tongue in a wise way. Also says, use our tongue in a kind way. Again, your tongue is powerful. Use it right.
One of the ways that he recommends to use our tongue in a kind way is to speak softly. Proverbs 15:1. Part of our key text for today. “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Has this ever happened to you? You ever started off to church, and everybody in the car is mad, because you’ve been rushing around, trying to get ready, trying to get there on time. And you’re fighting with your husband or your wife, and you’re yelling at the kids. You get in the car and you arrive at church, and as soon as you get there… smiles, and deep down you just kind of feel eeewww. Right? Well, I want you to know that didn’t happen this morning in the Cook home. I knew what I was going to be preaching about. But I struggle with using a kind and a soft tone. I don’t do it at church, very often. I don’t, you know, use a harsh tone in church. But with my family, you think the people that I love the most, I’d speak the softest to. You’d think, right? But no.
Well, I’ve been preparing this sermon, and wanting to practice what I preach, and so I’ve really been trying. I want you to know this. And Kristin can attest to this, I think. Ok? Yes? Ok. And especially with my children, my way of dealing with, when kids are bad, is to say, “NICKOLAS COOK. STOP HITTING YOUR SISTER OVER THE HEAD WITH THE FRYING PAN!!!” You know? And now, I’m trying to say, “NICKolas. Stop hitting your sister over the head with the frying pan.” And it so happened, that one day I was mowing the lawn or just about to mow the lawn, and I was alone with the kids, and they were on the porch, and Emily starts to cry, and (I’ve asked her permission to tell this story, by the way). Emily starts to cry, and she has a little purple bottle of bubbles that she loves so much, and Nickolas had taken it our of her hands. And she’s crying, “Daddy, he took my bubbles.” And I can’t believe have to deal with this again. I want to get mowing the lawn. And so I say, “NICKOLAS! Nickolas.” And I decided to try an experiment, and I said, “Nickolas. Don’t you want to give those bubbles to your sister? Give them back to her?” And I swear, this was the most amazing thing. He stood up and he got the most contrite look on his face, and he picked up the bubbles, and he said, “Bubbles. Emmy, bubbles.” And he handed them to her. I said, “Man, I’m going to go for broke. This is amazing.” I said, “Nickolas. Look at her. She’s still crying. Can’t you give her a hug?” And he wrapped his arms around her. And again, he got this most, you know, concerned look on his face, and he wrapped his arms around her. And he doesn’t hug. And he says, “Emmy. Hug.” And since then, I’ve tried it some more, and it’s amazing. He’s done it. Doesn’t always work. But often it does. And of course, there’s the parent that’s sitting out there, like me, if I was sitting out there, that’s saying, “Wait a second. Sometimes, it’s important. We have to use a harsh tone, or at least raise our voice in order for our kids to understand.” It’s true. And I believe there are cases, for instance, when your child is riding their tricycle down the hill and out into the road, you’re probably going to yell. “STOP!! GET OFF THAT BIKE!!” But generally speaking, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. I find that with my kids, if I speak harshly to them, they’ll either cower, which I don’t want; or they’ll be more disobedient, they’ll rebel; or they’ll learn to only respond when I speak harshly. “Oh, daddy really means it now.” Tongues are powerful. Let’s use them right.
Another way to use our tongue in a kind way is to speak pleasantly. I have a friend who is incredible at speaking pleasantly. His name is Robert. This man… you’ve heard the saying. I’ve heard this said about Ken Rogers, actually. There are two kinds of people. One kind, the kind that when they step into the room they say, “Here I am.” And the other kind, when they step into the room they say, “There you are!” And this is the kind of person Robert is. Robert, when he first sees you, he might have seen you yesterday. But he acts as if he hasn’t seen you in years. “David. It’s so good to see you.” I can’t do it, I sound fake. But he doesn’t. He’s very genuine. And he’ll start asking you questions. And he’ll zero in on a question, on a topic that interests him. For me it was always my, whatever I was doing to try to help my back. Whatever natural remedy I was doing. And he’d sit there and, “That’s incredible David. That’s amazing. You’ve got to tell me how that works.” And so much so that when I moved away from where he was at a year ago, he sent me an email. “David. You’ve just got to write down all the things you told me about what you did for your back. It’s just amazing.” Robert uses this and does it naturally, I believe. But it’s helped him. It helped him to gain information, that is useful. And it helps him, it actually helped him in school. Because, when we were in seminary together, Robert used to come to me and he’d say, “David, you want to study together?” “Sure, that’d be great.” And we’d come, we’d sit down and I’d open up my notebook with all my notes, and Robert wouldn’t have any notes because he was very sanguine, he didn’t take notes. And he would sit there and he would question me about all my notes, and I’d read them off to him, and we would sit in the library where there was a little white board, and I’d write graphs and charts and show him how it all worked. And the whole time, “Wow! David, that’s amazing! You’re incredible.” And on and on and on. And finally we’d go and we’d take the test and he’d always do better than me, on the test. And you know what? I didn’t mind. He always gave me the credit. And I felt good. He made me feel like I was important. This man knows how to speak pleasantly. Your tongue is powerful; use it right. Pleasant words are honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Another way that Solomon says that we can use our tongue in a kind way is to speak without cutting people down. “He who despises his neighbor lacks sense.” Which is translated into today's language. “He who cuts his friend down is a dummy.” Ok? Here’s where I tell on myself again. This time I have a story about myself, yes. I’m sitting on the ball field at GCA. I’m a sophomore, brand-new. Very awkward. Concerned about what people are thinking about me. And just had only been back a year from being a missionary’s kid. And, down the road, across the field, comes this family. And even I can tell that they’re not dressed quite right. And revealing just how I felt about myself, I looked at them and I said, “Oooh. You can tell they’re missionaries by the way their dressed.” And the girl sitting in front of me turned around, looked me in the eye and said, “Those are my parents.” She was a popular, pretty, junior class-man, class-woman. I was tongue-tied. I really didn’t say anything. I just sat there. Humiliated. Embarrased. The bleachers were very quiet, after that.
Some how, some way, we managed to become friends, later on. We’re working together at camp, and we’re sitting out in front of camp Cohutta, there on the bench out there in front of the office. And I turned to her and I said, “You know, I feel so bad about what I said about your parents, 3 or 4 years ago, actually 5 years ago.” And she turned to me, and she grinned, and she said, “David, those weren’t my parents. I just thought I’d teach you a lesson.” Lesson learned! Ok!? I learned it, I hope. “He who despises his neighbor, lacks sense.”
Another way that we can speak in a kind way, is to speak truthfully. Another story about myself. Before that, “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
My cousins and I were together again. We didn’t get to spend much time together. My cousins had been through a terrible divorce. They were running on the wild side of life. I was, perhaps, I guess, the goody-two-shoes kid, trying to be. But being with them, I wanted to really show how bad I was. And together, with my leading, we devised a scheme, so that we could go watch a movie at a theater and come back with a tall tale to cover our tracks. And we had an adult friend of theirs who got us in to see a movie we shouldn’t see. And then we came back, and the lie was fantastic. Just amazing. It amazes me today. And we got away with it. Because my parents trusted me, they believed it. I’m not sure if their mother trusted them as much, but everybody believed it. My grandparents, everybody. Never, ever caught. And that lie sat on my shoulders and it was horrible for years. I didn’t think about it all the time. But I do know that a number of years later, my dad and I are actually staying in a room in the dorms at Southern. It’s camp-meeting time and I’m in one bed and he’s in the other, and in the darkness of that room, that night, I finally confessed to him. I’m in college now, and I felt like I had to. To get it off my chest. The worst part about it is… and I know that that one lie didn’t cause my cousins to make wrong choices in life; but I will tell you this. They ended up in jail. Drug lords. Drug, actually meth lab producers, everything. And I had the sad privilege of visiting one of my cousins in jail, and hugging him and crying with him. And encouraging him to give his heart back to God. And I wonder, I wonder, if I hadn’t led out in that lie, I couldn’t have changed, perhaps, the direction of their life, I don’t know. But at least I could say that I was a witness to them. Instead of leading out in un-truthfulness. And I wouldn’t have had to bear that on my shoulders for so many years. Your tongue is powerful, use it right.
Ok. But how? Solomon is really good on what to do. I believe, unfortunately. Not unfortunately, this is all in God’s timing, how God works. Solomon doesn’t address as much how to do it. That’s why we have the whole Bible. That’s why we have the book of James. “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” No one can tame it. Have you ever felt like this? Have you felt like, you know, “I want to say what’s right. I want to speak gently to my wife. I want to speak kindly to my children. How do I do this?” I can tell you right now, it’s not going to happen without a battle. Without a struggle. And I, you know, like I said, I’ve really been trying hard the past few days, past few weeks. And it’s hard work. But by God’s grace, I believe it can be done. James gives the answer in his book. He talks about the tongue and all the bad things it does, and how hard it is to control. But then he brings it down to the punch-line in James 4, verses 7 and 8. He says, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and He will draw near to you.” If we submit ourselves to God and say, “Lord, I can’t use my tongue right. But I give my heart to You. I give myself to You,” He can and will take control of our tongue.
And there’s lots of examples, in the Bible, how He has done this. See, I believe that God is a God of salvation, and a huge part of His plan of salvation has to do with saving our tongues. And all through history, He’s been using the tongue to fight back at Satan and his evil tongue. In the garden He used His tongue to promise to Adam and Eve that a seed would come that would crush the serpent’s head. With Noah’s tongue, He saved all creation, at least the animals and humans on the planet. With confused tongues, He stomped Babel. With His own tongue, He set Isaac free and He made a promise, through the symbol of the ram that a substitute would come and take our place, to take Isaac’s place. Through the angel’s tongues, He rescued Lot. Through Miriam’s tongue, He rescued Moses. Through His own tongue, He called Moses. Through Aaron’s tongue, He dressed down Pharoah. Through Joshua and the people of Israel, through their tongues, He knocked down the walls of Jericho. Through David’s tongue, He sang praises to God and wrote the Psalms. Calmed the heart of an evil king. Through Solomon’s tongue, He wrote so many wise sayings that we’re discussing today. Through Daniel’s tongue, he warned kings of their future. With a lion’s tongue, He gave Daniel a licking. With Esther’s tongue, He rescued Israel. With John’s tongue, He paved the way.
With Jesus’ tongue, He defeated the devil in the wilderness. With Jesus’ tongue, with His own tongue, He healed the sick. With His own tongue, He healed the leper. With His own tongue, He turned water into wine. With His tongue, He was wise. With His tongue, He was kind. With His tongue, He prayed in the garden, for you and for me and for all people who’d ever live. Prayed for Himself, that He wouldn’t have to go through it. With His tongue, He submitted to the plan. With His tongue, He was silent under abuse. With His tongue, He said, “Father, forgive them.” With His tongue, He said, “It is finished!” And with His tongue, He stood over the grave, and said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And it’s because of His death and His resurrection and His life, and because He used His tongue right, that you and I can use our tongues the right way.
With His tongue he comforted His disciples. With His tongue he told them that He’d return. With the disciples tongues, they prayed for the Holy Spirit. And with tongues of fire he sent the Holy Spirit, on their heads. And then tongues that had denied Him, that had betrayed Him, that had run away from Him. Tongues that had fought amongst each other, just a few days later, were preaching eloquent sermons in their own language and in the languages of others.
God through the Holy Spirit had taken control of their tongues. Their choice, but He had taken control. And this is what we need. If we’re going to win the battle of the tongue, we need God dwelling within, to take our tongue and do what is right.
Your tongue is powerful. He’ll use it right. God has a plan for our tongues. Our tongues are the tongues that are going to speak the truth in the last days. Our tongues are the tongues that are going to warn the world. And I believe that it may just be that our tongues will be the tongues that will say, “Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him.”
You want to use your tongue in the right way? I do. If you’d like to, won’t you join me and just say, “Jesus, I give you my tongue.” Ok? You want to say that with me? 1, 2, 3, “Jesus, I give you my tongue.”
Hymn of Praise: #250, O For a Thopusand Tongues to Sing Scripture: Proverbs 15:1,2,4 Hymn of Response: #286, Wonderful Words of Life
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 8/6/07.