In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of our words and how they reveal our true character. He warns that our own words will either stand against us or for us at the judgment seat. The preacher also highlights the power of the spoken word, using examples of Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill to illustrate its impact. He then turns to Isaiah chapter six and discusses the theme of holiness and unclean lips, urging listeners to adapt their behavior and develop good habits. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the influence our words have on others, particularly within the context of marriage and parenting.

Heard about a church member one time who Really wanted to encourage his pastor. So he developed a habit of going up to the pastor after the sunday services Reaching out his hand and shaking the pastor's hand and looking square in the eye and smiling and saying great message pastor great message This gentleman did this week after week month after month Always wanted to be encouraged encouragement to his pastor well One sunday the pastor Laid an homiletical egg. In other words, he had a bad sermon And this gentleman was determined to be an encouragement to his pastor. So he pondered about what he could say and finally he came up with a plan and he went to the pastor after the service and he Shook his hand and he looked him right in the eye and he said Great text pastor great text So tonight we have a great text and nothing else One pastor announced on sunday morning that he wanted in his entire congregation to return that sunday evening Because he had a very important announcement That very night he was going to be identifying the member That was about to split their church well, the community was abuzz that afternoon and People came early and people came who hadn't come for a long time and the pastor had to park blocks away Just to get a parking space to get into the service He came to the church and it was absolutely packed and he finally meandered his way down the aisle and the time came for him to get up in the pulpit and He said let's turn in our bibles tonight to james chapter 3 and verse 5 He said tonight i'm going to be identifying the member that's been wreaking havoc in our congregation And then he read the text Even so the tongue Is a little member And there he spoke on that little member the tongue that was calling causing all kinds of problems in the church Now the tongue is only three inches long But it can kill a man who's six foot tall And the bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue Never underestimate the power of the spoken word today germany tomorrow the world These were the words that adolf hitler used to capture the imagination of the german people He continuously repeated that simple sequence of five words today germany tomorrow the world And adolf hitler's oratory almost brought the world to its knees Had it not been for the equally inspiring voice of winston churchill who knows but what hitler's today germany Tomorrow the world might have become a reality Never underestimate the power of the spoken word I want you to take your bible at night and turn to isaiah chapter 6 And I want to speak tonight on the subject of holiness and unclean lips isaiah chapter 6 Beginning in verse 1 Here we find that holy prophet isaiah had a vision a vision of god isaiah chapter 6 And if we could stand for reverence of reading of god's word, I would appreciate it isaiah chapter 6 beginning in verse 1 In the year the king uziah died. I saw also the lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up And his train filled the temple Above it stood the seraphim each one had six wings with twain He covered his face with two he covered his feet and with twain He did fly And one cried unto another and said holy holy holy Is the lord of host the whole earth is full of his glory? And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke then said I Woe is me For I am undone Because I am a man of unclean lips And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king the lord of host Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar And he laid it upon my mouth and said lo this hath touched thy lips And thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged you may be seated And just a moment of prayer together, please Now heavenly father. We're looking at this sobering Text this encounter that isaiah had with you And our father tonight he came under conviction That he and his countrymen were people of unclean lips. Oh god tonight May we get a fresh vision of you And god all that accompanies that have thy way tonight. Thank you for speaking to our hearts in jesus name. We pray amen Now in verses one through four isaiah had a staggering vision of god But in verses five through seven he had a shattering vision of himself There in verse five we read that he saw isaiah said I saw the king He had a vision of the incontestable power of a holy god and let me say tonight that holiness defines the nature of god Because the text here says holy holy holy You understand that holiness is the only attribute that is emphasized Three times i'm going to tell you it's third degree holiness The bible never says that god is love love love It never says that god is nice nice nice, but it does say that god is holy holy holy It was this vision of a thrice holy god that brought the recognition of unclean lips in himself as well as others He said i'm a man of unclean lips. I'm a man of unconsecrated lips In james chapter three, we read that the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity That little member is literally set on fire of hell But here we find in verses six and seven That the seraphim came and took alive coal from the altar And put it upon the lips of the prophet literally Cauterizing the lips of the prophet which tells us it takes a holy fire To purge the hellish fire out of a human heart and a human tongue In chapter five we find that isaiah the prophet is pronouncing woes of judgment upon the people left and right But in chapter six when he had a vision of god when he saw god He said woe is me for I am undone I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He said I am undone That means that he was absolutely shattered Internally, he had disintegrated when he had this vision of god And I want to tell you when a man gets a clear vision of the holiness of god He begins to see something and comprehend comprehend something of the infinite distance between himself and that holy god The old puritan thomas manton said most of a man's sins are in his tongue And there are very few sins that a person can commit But what at some point the tongue gets involved? My brethren unclean lips speak the language of an unclean heart and I want to talk to you tonight along three lines first of all unclean lips defined second unclean lips Displayed and third unclean lips Displaced but first tonight unclean lips defined When isaiah said I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips What was he talking about? Somebody said that there are two natural fences that god has given us to hold our tongues two natural fences the teeth and lips But seeing as how that these natural fences were inadequate God had to give us a third fence and that being the ninth commandment And the ninth commandment says thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor in other words Thou shalt not lie One of the old confessions of faith List at least 50 ways in which it's possible to violate the ninth commandment. Listen to a few of these forgery Silence in a just cause do you understand that you can tell a lie by saying absolutely nothing sometimes? How do we violate the ninth commandment speaking the truth maliciously speaking an untruth slander Flattery speaking highly or lowly of ourselves or others rumors evil suspicion breaking a promise gossip One man said the tongue is in a wet place And it's easy for it to slip And isn't that the truth now, what is the meaning of the ninth commandment? Well, the ninth commandment is talking about overt lying exaggeration Deceit giving a false impression or any designed deception I was talking to a missionary on one occasion out on deputation. I said, how's the deputation coming? He said tremendous I said how much do you have? He said 100 Pledged I said fantastic. I said how much do you have coming in? You know what? He said Take a guess 35 percent What wait a minute 100 pledge from bible believing independent local church, uh born again soul winning pre-millennial, uh Bible believing churches 100 promised and 35 coming in something wrong here The bible says put away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor My cousin and I grew up together and boy We had a good time growing up gotten a lot of trouble some sin And I had some fun to go along with the rest of it. I got saved and our ways parted He came down with cancer had the privilege of leading him to christ as he was in the university of virginia hospital in charlottesville The family asked me to preach the funeral. I got into the church. It was absolutely packed Not only was the auditorium packed but the back of the building was packed out with his co-workers And the first thing the liberal minister said when he stood up in the pulpit was that my cousin found forgiveness through baptism And I sat there thinking to myself Funeral or no funeral. I can't let this slide So I was sitting there thinking how I was going to be diplomatic but get the truth out and as I sat there You know, it really irritated me that this false prophet Was misinforming my family and my friends and my people and he was lying to them I stood up at the funeral and got in and the message and I said this with all due respect I said nobody Finds forgiveness through baptism. I said nobody finds forgiveness through the church I said if you find forgiveness with god, you find it through the shed blood of the lord. Jesus christ But I want to tell you that fellow lied to those people that day and the bible says put away lying Now lying has been described as the sin of children The sin of children, you know It's amazing that you don't have to get bill clinton's autobiography to learn how to lie when you're born into the world You understand what i'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I mean it kind of comes natural to a lot of us It's called the sin of lie Now, why would a child lie? Well for two reasons to gain an advantage number one or to escape a deserved punishment If a kid's going to lie, he does it to to gain an advantage now cheating is a form of lying And when somebody cheats they steal the answers from somebody else's page They write them on their own page sign their own name and pretend like they're their own Now, why would a child do that? Well to gain an advantage Now if they get caught or questioned, of course, they would deny cheating now Why would they do that to escape a deserved punishment? But dear people children are not the only liars One man cheated on his income tax So he sent a letter to the irs and it went like this. It said dear sirs I cheated on my income tax and i'm enclosing this check And if this doesn't make me feel better i'll send the rest along later Now, you know the bible says the bible says a righteous man swears to his own hurt In other words the mark of a true christian is that telling the truth is more important than his own advantage or his own hide Now listen friend a less obvious meaning of the ninth commandment this bearing false witness is in exodus 23 Which says thou shall not raise a false report Thou shall not raise a false report that means things that we don't know to be fact Where we engage in reading and motives and misinterpreting actions, which is paramount to slander I was preaching in wisconsin on one occasion, by the way, billy sunday called wisconsin the graveyard of evangelism And hallelujah, uh that people still getting saved in wisconsin. Amen First time I came up here, you know, they called it america's dairy land My observation was they ought to call it america's bar room They got one on every corner a tavern on every corner, you know, but I was preaching up here one time And there was an 11 year old boy who had gotten jealous toward his classmate So he started a rumor against his classmate. He came to church got in the meeting got under conviction And he went back to school and went up to his classmate And he said i'm the one that initiated that rumor. Will you forgive me? And that kid said you started that rumor. He said i'll never forgive you Well, the kid came back to church and heard another message on praying for somebody I guess and anyway He came forward and responded again And he went to school the next day and that same boy came up and said You know, you came up and asked me to forgive you for starting that malicious gossip He said well i've thought about it and just forget it. I forgive you Don't worry about it. And that kid was so excited that god had answered his prayer But you see that 11 year old boy had started a rumor about his classmate That is a form of breaking the ninth commandment One of the puritans said he that receives a slander carries the devil in his ear He that raises a slander carries the devil in his tongue, but he that receives a slander carries the devil in his ear Unclean lips defined as lying speech, but second unclean lips defined as corrupt speech corrupt speech Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you that word corrupt there means putrid It means rotten You know if you eat putrid food, it'll make you sick Now my brother and I we grew up in south side. Virginia on a farm and we raised our own potatoes Now I got a sneaking suspicion. We mostly have city slickers here tonight So I don't know if you'll get this illustration or not But how many of you have ever dug potatoes out of the ground anybody ever done that? Oh, all right Okay, we're we're okay here tonight then well, we were out there harvesting these potatoes The way we did it my father had an old john deere tractor and we had an old horse plow We'd put behind it and we'd go along and the theory was If you hit the row, right? The potatoes just roll out. All you got to do is come pick them up Now that's the theory the reality is half of them are stuck in the ground. You got to dig them out so we were going along picking them up and I noticed this potato baseball-sized potato kind of sticking out of the furrow there and I Reached down to grab it and and as I grasp it in my hand I begin to detect It was an unstable potato kind of like santa claus belly like a bowl of jelly man That thing was uh, the skin was all intact, but the insides were all rotten and smushy Well, I got it out of the ground and didn't break the skin I look around and there was my brother five feet away He saw what was I used to pitch baseball and he saw what was coming man He turned around and he began to run and I planted that rotten potato dead center of his back and that thing splat How many of you ever smelled a rotten irish potato? Oh brother It's about the worst most putrid corrupt thing you can conceive of and when that thing splattered all over his back He got sick. I mean he was throwing up and after he finished throwing up He started throwing fists in my direction and that was the last potato I ever threw at my brother or anybody else by the way But you know something that thing was absolutely corrupt It was absolutely rotten and if you eat rotten food, you'll get sick. You'll get food poisoning You know, you'd never think about giving your children or friends tainted food because it would affect their bodies How much more important that you don't give corrupt poison words that can affect people's eternity? I want to tell you that your words are the diets of other men's minds and emotions People feed on the words that you speak There was one hebrew sect that had such an awesome respect for the spoken word That if they ever heard or thought they were going to hear negative derogatory speech Immediately, they would put their hands over their ears and they would dive to the ground so that those Corrupt words would float over and would not find a lodging place in their hearts The words of a whisperer the bible says are like dainty morsels going down into the innermost parts and bitter words Corrupt words cause bitter consequences But let me give you another another definition of unclean lips Not only lying speech and corrupt speech, but abusive speech Abusive speech the bible says put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy and filthy communication out of your mouth You know what? You know what abusive speech is It's the kind of speech in which your tongue is turned into a verbal whip To lash out at other people It can be used as an offensive weapon A means of whipping your enemy kind of like that kid that started the rumor against his classmate It was a means of striking out a means of whipping his enemy Now it can also be used as a defensive weapon You know when somebody says something to you or about you And it hurts you your tongue can retort kind of like a porcupine, you know when it gets attacked the quills rise up in defense And brother if we're not careful when things are said to or about us Our words can rise up like quills and go out and attack other people There was a missionary who announced his call to preach in europe The mission committee in his church advised him to go abroad. So he and his family went to africa When he got to the field his wife and children got deathly ill In fact, they were so sick He decided to take them back to england and he got accommodations And then he went back to africa to fulfill his missionary call But while he was there There was a woman who knew the family that started malicious rumors About this man and his wife. She said that their marriage was in trouble and she began to say all kinds of things She slandered them. Well, it got so severe That a friend of this family and a friend of this missionary Went to the field these were the days before airplanes and took it was a big deal And he went to the field and he found the missionary and told him what was happening So immediately the missionary went back to england Gathered up his family and took them back to africa To shield them from this verbal abuse. Well when they got back to the field his wife got sick And she was the first to die They say there were a few people gathered over the grave of the missionary's wife Where the missionary was heard to utter in a prayerful whisperer when he said gossip killed my family gossip killed my family Life and death are in the power of the tongue unclean lips defined but notice second of all unclean lips displaced displayed Unclean lips displayed now the bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh out of the abundance of the heart You know what you are in your heart will be expressed in your speech They say it takes two years for a human being to learn how to speak And 50 years to learn how to keep quiet And i'm hoping i'm hoping that's going to kick in because i'll be 50 before too long I'm hoping that's the way it's going to pan out two years to learn how to talk 50 years to learn how to keep quiet Now unclean lips displayed and specific words Specific words. What about unkind words? Words that are designed to hurt somebody's feeling or reputation, you know when I was in grade school I had a knack at giving nicknames to people And they were not uh The kind of nicknames you'd want to get stuck with But they had they had a had a way of taking hold and I still remember to this day Unclean lips displayed in unkind words. What about sarcastic words? Smart words that are cutting and wounding making fun of people and Using verbal spears to gouge and pierce and wound other people You know in our culture we have been conditioned to the idea that wounding sarcasms are a legitimate means of entertainment Our situation comedies and so on and so forth where put downs are used to evoke laughter at a victim. I was in a Church one time preaching a buddy of mine was preaching in the christian school a very large christian school And he stood in chapel one day and he said how many of you've ever suffered? Wounds from the words of other people immediately hundreds of hands shot up into the air instantaneously and then he said How many of you're suffering right now because of things that people have said to you or about you and reluctantly and slowly i'd say 60 of the hands in that student body went up into the air You know, one of the main reasons that a lot of kids drop out of christian schools is because Of the put downs and the things that are spoken by the other students Sticks and stones may break my bones but words Will never hurt me I want to tell you sticks and stones would be a welcome relief compared to some things that can be spoken against us how much Psychological and emotional hurt is done because of these words one time a deacon had fallen into sin and the pastor went to try to rescue him and The deacon said this he said pastor If you knew what my mother said to me 30 years ago in the front seat of an automobile before she slapped me in the face You know my why my life is in such a mess today, and I want to tell you friend Getting cold oatmeal or what happened 40 years ago is no excuse for sin now But let me suffice it to say that these things can have deep penetrating wounds in our hearts What about dirty words unclean lips displayed dirty words suggestive talk? The double meanings the bumper stickers the language Of the popular media. What about profane words? Unclean lips displayed using god's name in vain Using god's name as an expression of mere surprise You know when we get converted We don't cuss like we used to Now we have to involve god in it You say well, what are you talking about i'm talking about using the name of god as an expression of mere surprise What about when people get all excited and they say well g double e Or g double e wiz What is that? That's an abbreviation of the holy name of jesus What about gosh, by the way, you know, the only way you can illustrate taking god's name in vain is by committing it you know on television if you want to Imitate a murder you can do it if you want to imitate immorality you can do it But you can't imitate taking god's name in vain So i'm very careful tonight not to try to commit the sin that i'm preaching against but g o s h And I don't care about uh, what's going up the road there in that clothing manufacturer brother I want to tell you that is blasphemy and I want to tell you it's taking god's name in vain And it's inappropriate for a child of god All my dear people. What about these words like oh my God You can't hear a charismatic preacher preach for 10 minutes just about without blaspheming and using god's name as an expression of mere surprise What about darn? That's just a a polite way of saying damn. What about he ck? That's just another way of using the word hell That's all that is Or what about this one which may not be so prevalent here But it is in some some places when somebody gets all excited. What do they say? Well bless god And it's not like bless the lord. Oh my soul It's not like that, but they're using god's name as an expression of mere surprise. I want to tell you friend It's unacceptable to god and it's a manifestation of unclean lips You know when I got saved I quit cussing And I remember By by the time I was six years old. I could have come up with a profanity dictionary I could have written it and I remember when I came to the lord It wasn't long after I was down at the river fishing And I was going to jump across this little creek to get to the other side and as I jumped about midway of the creek It didn't have a solid bottom It was kind of like quicksand and I went up to my waist and before I knew what I was doing Before I knew what I was doing out of my mouth came an expression of taking god's name in vain And I remember being smitten in my heart so severely. I didn't even try to get out of the pit Until I bowed my heart and said dear god, please forgive me for using Your name in vain and brother. I want to tell you from that day to this. I don't recall ever again Using the name of god in vain in that way Ah, dear people unclean lips displayed. What about unclean lips displayed in critical words? harsh Hateful fault-finding words spoken behind the back. I was in florida one time holding a meeting a little lady came up Short a short lady anyhow came up to the microphone and she said these words She said i'm not used to talking to y'all face to face She said i'm not used to talking to you face to face. She said I normally talk behind your backs And she confessed the sin of gossip, which was a public sin and it needed a public confession And I want to tell you when she made that confession It was like the spirit of god came in from the front of the auditorium Swept to the back and we went on five extra days after that week-long crusade Why because the spirit of god was no longer grieved on that account Ah, dear people listen to this One thing travels faster than the speed of light. It's the sound of gossip And I want to tell you where the devil doesn't go personally. He just sends a critic You know what the word devil comes from the word diabolos. You know what that means slanderer He is an accuser. He's in a slanderer Critical words. What about foolish words words that don't need to be spoken? Especially when you're tired and these unnecessary comments Well, the bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. I'll give you a little test for words. Number one. Is it true? Is it true number two? Is it loving and number three? Is it necessary and if it came past the test it might not ought to be spoken Well unclean lips displayed in specific words, but what about unclean lips displayed in specific relationships? What about in the family relationship, what about in the husband wife relationship You know, you know man when the bible says husbands be not bitter against your wives Do you know why it said that Because god knew there's going to be plenty of reasons if you wanted to you could be bitter You know when the bible says wives reverence your husbands, you know why it says that Because the lord knew that there were going to be plenty of instances when the gentleman was not worthy of being reverenced And we just go ahead and obey god. Anyhow, amen Now listen to this listen to this when your wife disappoints you sir And your anger gets stirred Of course, i'm sure that doesn't happen to you dear people up here with this Severe climate that takes some of the fire out of your heart. I'm sure i'm sure that happens up here But but but just suppose and imagine with me if you would that you can have your anger stirred up And you can use your tongue as a lash To literally whip and beat your soul as to where where if you could see it, it would be openly bleeding What about it ladies when you get irritated or just disappointed with your husbands? Of course if they go to the couple's uh retreat You probably won't be able to even identify with these kind of illustrations, uh that i'm sure i'm sure of that But but what about it ladies when you're irritated or disappointed? Your tongue will lash out And if you're not careful your children will witness that lashing out and it can send their souls to hell I met this godly woman one time that had four children that were grown and they all loved god and they all were serving god And I went to her and I said ma'am Can you tell me why your children are living for god? Can you tell me what you did and you know what she said? She said well, it's just the grace of god I said yes sister. I know it's the grace of god, but be practical. I need help. I'm searching for answers And she pondered and she said, you know When our children were growing up, I never down talked My husband in front of our children and they used that submission. They saw that submission to authority and they took that to the ultimate authority When our children were small We're having a problem Our oldest son michael a student up in northland. He would mind me giving this illustration He would uh lash out And yell in a very ugly tone of voice At his younger brother Now we had told him to stop it. We had disciplined him for it. We had instructed him with scripture verses and to no avail So one time we were visiting with this godly couple And I said, you know, we got a problem here One of our children is just speaking very harshly very roughly and very loudly and very critically To his younger brother and we just don't know what the problem is. Can you help us? And you know what this godly saintly woman said She said well Your son is probably just imitating the way one of his parents is talking to him Oh, well, thank you very much, I appreciate that for me and you know what She nailed it She nailed it and my dear people. I want to tell you unclean lips displayed. What about in the parent child relationship? You know when your child frustrates you If you're not careful, it's easy to strike out an abusive speech Very easy to do that We were in a grocery store Some time ago and the lady was coming out with the child and the child was talking to the mother trying to get her attention And the woman turned around and hauled off and yelled at the kid and hit him right in the chest and said shut up And I thought to myself man alive. What kind of a deal is this? We were in a japanese restaurant You ever go to a japanese restaurant? They all have the same jokes. I mean everywhere Sesame street and japanese egg roll and all of that stuff But anyway, we're in this japanese restaurant and uh, there was this kid over there and and the mother turned around and yelled at the kid and grabbed his hair and Try to pull his hair out of his head. It looked like and I thought to myself man What a sad situation that these children are growing up with abusive parents I want to tell you mom and dad. I want to tell you christian mom and dad It's possible for us to strike out an abusive speech to our own children I remember one time our children were doing something I can't remember what it was, but man, I was tense and strung out and messed up and wore out and I remember hauling off and saying shut up And I want to tell you my heart smoked me instantaneously And I called them in and I said I want to tell you I was wrong I am so sorry for what I said. I should never have said anything like that like that. Will you please forgive me? Oh friend unclean lips displayed. What about in the church? Or what about when a parent makes a decision the child doesn't agree with? I want to tell you young people You may never physically attack or openly lambaste your mom and dad But I want to tell you if you're mumbling under your breath and taking pot shots at mom and dad when you get with your friends I want to tell you it's still unclean lips and it's unacceptable to god What about in the church when you don't get your way? Rather than confront face to face often what takes place is this backbiting? Accusations behind the back i've even been in some places where they use prayer time to air grievances In fact, I was in a church one time. We were having a testimony meeting and a guy stood up and railed on the pastor You know what the problem was One of the problems was the deacon rebuked the pastor for having too many children Well, I wasn't gonna let that one ride either and I said, you know It's really none of the deacon's business How many children the pastor has and it's none of the preacher's business how many children the deacon has? Why don't we just keep our nose out of our own business in our own business and out of other people's business? Well, I stood up in the meeting the guy stood up and rebuked the pastor. I said that's out of line I said let's meet in the office before I knew what was going on here We're supposed to have a testimony time of victory and praise and lo and behold here Another guy stands up and lays into the pastor and before I knew what was going on a third guy stood up They were all deacons in the church I said let's go to the back and have a meeting in the pastor's office. So we went back to the back I was referee three for him three against him for an hour and a half I listened as these men brought accusations against this pastor and you know, I believe in respecting my elders And now that i'm becoming one i'm glad I did and uh, I didn't say anything to him But after an hour and a half I had all I could take and I finally said sir Just a moment. Do you have a doctrinal charge against this man? No Do you have a moral charge against this man? No Do you have an ethical charge against this man? No I said well if you don't have any moral ethical or doctrinal charge Then I think you've got one of two choices all three of you either submit to the authority of the local church Or there's the door now. What's it gonna be? My friend unclean lips displayed and all kinds of things what in the church? What about in the workplace? All this feuding between employers and employees all the murmuring and complaining I was in a school a meeting one time when a christian school teacher said this He had a student that was a troublemaker and he stood with tears in his eyes And he said i've even looked forward to the day when I could fail this student And there he was weeping about his bad attitude. But listen to me my friend what parents face once Or maybe several times teachers face countless times in a classroom setting without the affection of a parent And I want to tell you unclean lips can be displayed in all kinds of places and all kinds of All kinds of words and all kinds of relationships, but we got to get to this third point unclean lips defined unclean lips displayed But thank god for this point unclean lips displaced Displaced how do we get rid of unclean lips? Now when I was growing up I learned all of these words that I should never have heard And I employed it myself and when my mother would catch me using foul language. Do you know what mom would do? Wash out my mouth with soap Now, I don't care if ivory is 99.9 pure It still don't taste good And my mother had the economy size bar that fitted my mouth and she would put that thing in there and wash it all around How many of you had your mouth washed out with soap? Let's see those hands Now, you know something it didn't do me any good All I got was uh hydrophobic bubbles coming out of my mouth I mean, uh, it didn't do me any good. Now. My problem was deeper than my tongue. My problem was my heart Bitter water and sweet water cannot come forth from the same fountain You know, the genuineness of a man's religion is evidenced by his ability to control his tongue James 1 26 if any man among you seem to be religious, but bridal if not his tongue his religion is vain Listen to the words of jesus You heard it said by them of old time thou shalt not kill And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause Shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother. Rekha. That's an insult shall be in danger of the council But whosoever shall say thou fool Shall be in danger of hell fire Do you understand that when you have anger unresolved unrighteous anger in your heart? You're in danger of the judgment But when you call somebody a fool a knucklehead idiot Stupid do you understand that that's a manifestation? Of a murderous spirit and brother when you say words like that you're in danger of hell fire because anger weaves words into a lash Which if they could have their way they would take the other person's life Do you understand that kind of speech comes from a murderous spirit? That's what jesus is saying here Ah, a man's destiny is foretold by his words Listen to what jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of The heart bringeth forth evil things But I say unto you That every idle word that men shall speak they should give account thereof in the day of judgment For by thy words by thy words thou shall be justified and by your words. You'll be condemned friend by your own words You'll be judged by your own words or but you'll be justified or condemned by your own words on the day of judgment You're going to meet with your words because your words reveal your true character And and this is sobering your own words will stand against you or for you at the judgment seat You know, our words are like a deep well and whatever's in the well will come up in the bucket And our lips reveal what's in our heart And until you purify the fountain the stream will never be cleansed Listen to this thomas manton said a tongue set on fire from hell will be set on fire in hell Revelation 21 for all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire by your words. You'll be justified by your words. You'll be condemned Dear people. Jesus is the savior from unclean lips Has he been saving you? I was preaching in indiana one time a lady ran forward. She didn't come forward. She ran down the aisle She had her handkerchief over her mouth like she had a case of leprosy or some sort of a communicable disease And she literally ran with her head toward the wall And and a cloth over her mouth and she made her way to the prayer room and fell on her face and confessed the sins of the tongue Now, let me talk to you about the displacement of unclean lips Isaiah said i'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips How do you get how do you get rid? How do you get shed of unclean lips? Well number one You have to acknowledge the sins of the tongue Acknowledge the sins of the tongue speech that is untrue lying speech Speech that is unkind sarcastic abusive words speech that is unclean dirty words profane words critical words foolish words corrupt words Oh dear people I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king You know, sometimes we become desensitized to right and wrong until we have a fresh vision of the holiness of god An acknowledgement of the sins of the tongue. How do you get? Unclean lips displaced number two accept responsibility for the sins of the tongue accept responsibility for the sins of the tongue During the middle ages. There was a man that came and confessed gossip the sin of gossip to a monk And the monk told him to go and place a feather on every doorstop every doorstep in the village in the town Well, the man returned and told the monk that he had completed the task That he put a feather on every doorstep in the entire town And the monk said to him now go back and gather them all up and the man protested and said why that's impossible The wind has scattered them all over the place. It's impossible to retrieve all those feathers and the monk said this That's exactly right, sir, and it's impossible for you to undo all the damage that your gossip has done Don't underestimate the power of the spoken word brother it will set the course for your life and other lives as well I want to tell you you might not be able to undo everything you've ever done But you can attempt to put things right as far as you can You say how do you do that? You need to ask those that you have offended by with your tongue to forgive you And if you've gossiped to somebody You need to ask those that you've talked to to forgive you from aligning somebody else's character in their estimation accept the responsibility for the sins of the tongue acknowledge the sins of the tongue, but number three appropriate the victory of calvary When isaiah came under conviction of his sin and he confessed it that angel took the live coal and Applied it to that sensitive part of his body to his lips and and that holy fire purged and cleansed that hellish fire out of his mouth appropriate the victory of calvary Colossian says put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth Lie not one to another seeing you put off the old man with his deeds You know, we need to put off the old man. You say well, what do you mean put off the old man? What is this talking about? You need to recognize you have a problem Sometimes you need to recognize you have a problem You need to recognize you are the problem In other words, you need to confess that your old man your flesh is the problem and dear people hear me on this Hear me on this i'm not prolonged introspective Mourning and grieving but I want to tell you something. There are occasions in our lives when a good dose of Mourner's bench repentance and grieving and mourning over the sins of our mouths would be a good thing Are you with me on this point right here? I remember being a service one time and there was this godly man that preached on the tongue It was one of those services when I was the only man in the house It'd been a long time brother, but there wasn't anybody else in the house There was 500 people there But I was the only one in the house and everything that fellow said Applied to me and god smote me and I remember that god gave me a place of weeping repentance brother, we need to appropriate the The victory of calvary because godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of You know calvary Is god's answer to the sin problem no matter what the sin When moses and the children of israel came to merah those bitter waters God told moses to cut down a tree and put it in the well to cleanse the water Dear people the only thing that can cleanse the bitter water of a human heart is a tree called calvary And I want to tell you the tongue is never satisfied. It must be crucified That's why the bible says mortify your members which are upon the earth, especially that little member Deliver it up to death. The tongue is never satisfied. It must be crucified brother. We need to apply the cross The cross to our little member of the tongue appropriate the victory of calvary but number four adapt your behavior Adapt you're going to be delivered from unclean lips. You need to adapt your behavior There's more to putting off the old man. You got to put on the new man You say what does that mean well, how about eliminating unnecessary negative speech Can I give you a little tip here tonight no extra charge for this You don't need to overdose on negativity Rush limbaugh says some good things, but I want to tell you a lot of his profane irreverent humor is not fit for a child of god It's good to be pro-life. But if you're pro-life and lost you still go to a devil's hell I mean, uh, michael savage might have a very popular program, but he's a very angry man And I just want to tell you some of us are geared toward that We're attracted toward that kind of stuff and I just want to say that they say some good things I'm, not saying that they're not i'm just telling you you don't need to overdose on negativity. That's what i'm trying to tell you You need to adapt your behavior what a blessing to get around people that can talk about things that are just and pure and Virtuous and if there's any good if there's any praise to think and dwell and speak on these things brother If you can learn a wrong behavior, you can learn a right behavior Listen, if you can develop a wrong habit a bad habit, you can develop a good habit You say well you can't teach old dogs new tricks I want to tell you age isn't the problem and dogs of any age can't learn if they don't want to Now listen to me tonight. This is what I wanted to preach to the men the other night But I got sidetracked and didn't do it I want to I want to give you a little encouragement here tonight. I want to tell you something You might have slept with every girl in high school But god can still bring you out You might have drunk enough beer to drown the giraffe But god can bring you out You may have blown it in your home But god can bring you out you may have misused your tongue, but god can bring you out Brother, there's no past so trouble that god can't redeem And human failure is never final as long as the grace of god is still operative I want to tell you that your past has nothing to do with your future and that god doesn't consult your past To determine what's going to be in your future and my dear people what i'm telling you is this We need to adapt our behavior by the grace of god Our problem is not our age or upbringing our problem is our attitude and brother We can learn new ways if we come by the way of the cross I've been crucified with christ Nevertheless, I live yet. Not I but christ lives in me and brother I might not be able to pull it off, but bless god He can praise the lord. He can glory be to god. He can all my dear people Eliminate negative speech number five adopt a proper attitude Adopt a proper attitude. Don't you like to be around positive people? I want to tell you I love to be around positive people. I love to be around can do upbeat kind of people people that are believing god That's what it says. Whatsoever. Things are true and lovely any virtue any good report think on these things attitude is everything Don't saturate your mind with negativity because we have the mind of christ You know, the bible says that god's given us everything that pertains to life and godliness in christ jesus, you know what that means Some of us need to quit praying like sinners and start praying like saints Instead of begging god to give you what you don't have you need to go ahead and claim what god's already given Because he's already given you and already given me everything that pertains to life and godliness in christ Jesus and I pray advance this year on friday night. We're going to get into this thing of asking believing And claiming in other words when you need something from god Go ahead and believe god for it up front because faith is believe in what's not So in order for it to be so and brother you can claim the promises of god and you can claim the supply of god Which is already in hand my dear people adopt a proper attitude and faith is the way to get the victory with god What about this one obey the promptings of the holy spirit? Be very sensitive to the checks of the holy spirit Do you ever get in a conversation with somebody? And you've got a little negative tidbit That you're really just itching and wishing the other person would be quiet So you could spout out what you want to say and all of a sudden you get an impression upon your heart from god Don't say that Can you relate to this? You ever get a check upon your spirit keep your mouth closed But man, you are just itching and you can't hardly contain it because you want to just let it out I want to tell you friend when god speaks to our heart We need to learn to obey the promptings of the holy spirit of god We need to learn to clam up when the lord says be quiet. The psalmist said settle watch. Oh lord before my mouth Brother, the tongue is an unruly evil. No man. No man can tame it, but god can And then number seven adorn the doctrine of god Adorn the doctrine of god if you want to displace unclean lips, what do you mean? Listen more and speak less Let every man be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. You know what that means where there's a lot of talk there's going to be sin Where there's a lot of jabber brother sin's going to get in there sometime or other And that's why the psalmist said let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight Oh lord my rock and my redeemer Can you imagine homes? And churches where unclean speaking has been totally eliminated I believe that through judgment day honesty And judgment day thoroughness unclean lips can be displaced by the grace of god if isaiah a holy prophet of god Man, if he had unclean lips What about us in the 21st century What about us in the united states of america? What about us where we've got? freedom of speech Brother, I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king How many of us tonight as god's people need to confess the sins of the tongue? How many of us need a live coal as it were from off the altar to purge the uncleanness? Out of our lips how many of us tonight need to yield that little member that tongue to god afresh? How many of us tonight need to come to the fountain filled with blood and find a fresh cleansing? Through that power that powerful flood of calvary's blood unclean lips defined lying speech abusive speech corrupt speech unclean lips displayed in specific words and specific relationships But unclean lips displaced I believe there's a salvation application here I believe there's a sanctification application here. I want to tell you a friend that peter cursed and swore At the crucifixion of jesus christ, but i'll tell you how I know he was a child of god He went out and wept bitterly for his betrayal of the lord And brother if you have no qualms and no conscience about your talk You probably need a good dose of conversion What's many of us here tonight? We've been saved by the grace of god, but our tongues need that sanctifying influence and brother We can have unclean lips displaced by the grace of god acknowledge the sins of the tongue brother accept the responsibility Appropriate the victory of calvary adopt a proper attitude brother I'm telling you we can come by the way of calvary and our words can be acceptable and pleasing to our god Let's have a moment of prayer together father in jesus name, would you help people tonight god, would you cleanse us tonight? God, would you give us a fresh vision of your holiness heads are bowed