When you think of the book of Proverbs, you probably think of a bunch of witty little sayings, sayings that communicate something practical or something weighty or something profound, something that when spoken at the right time and in the right place, adds a lot of wisdom to the situation. It's wisdom that God has packaged into a sentence or two, and this wisdom penetrates deeply into the hearts of its hearers. For the most part, that is a correct summation of the book of Proverbs. I say for the most part because these witty little sayings do not appear throughout the entire book of Proverbs. They only begin to appear in the 10th chapter. The first nine chapters are structured more like the New Testament epistles are. They're more personal and conversational in their structure. But from chapter 10 to the end of chapter 29, nearly every verse contains one of these little witty proverbs, most of them written in the form of a couplet. These couplets are comprised of two sentences or two sentence fragments that relate to each other. And sometimes the second sentence mirrors the first one, reinforcing the point by saying the same thing with different words. These are called synonymous proverbs. And sometimes the second sentence contrasts the first one. These are called contrasting proverbs. In a lot of cases, the two sentences that comprise synonymous proverbs will be joined by the word and. Some examples are Proverbs 16, 28. A perverse man sows strife and a whisper separates the best of friends. Proverbs 17, 21, he who begets a scoffer does so to his sorrow and the father of a fool has no joy. In Proverbs 19.3, the foolishness of a man twists his ways and his heart frets against the Lord. As you can see in these three examples, each of the sentences in the synonymous Proverbs say essentially the same thing. It's a repetition of the same truth with different words. The sentences in contrasting Proverbs are often joined by the word but. Some examples are Proverbs 12, verse four, an excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness to his bones. Or Proverbs 13, 24, he who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. And Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Well today, we're going to look at a contrasting proverb that deals with the way we use our tongues. We need to acknowledge up front that the words that we speak are a powerful tool of influence, a powerful tool that we can use to influence the people around us, whether we are influencing them for good or influencing them for bad. Consider for a moment how powerful the tongue is. Why do you think dictators are always trying to suppress free speech? It's because the spoken word is a powerful tool for influencing people, right? Dictators rely on projecting an image of unquestionable authority and legitimacy and free speech allows people to challenge that narrative and the policies of the dictator. So the dictator attempts to remove this threat by restricting the words that people were able to speak. In other words, eliminate the vehicle of influence and you eliminate the influence. Words are very powerful. Spoken words are very powerful. Written words are very powerful. How many revolutions have been decided because of words spoken or written by compelling orators? How many reformations have been achieved by spoken and written words? How many soldiers have willingly sacrificed their lives in battle because of their military commander's stirring speech? Football coaches give their team a pep talk at halftime. This is nothing more than words that are spoken, and yet those spoken words often motivate the team to play with more enthusiasm when they come out. Consider how many people have received the gospel through the spoken word. Consider how many people have been persuaded to commit a crime because somebody talked them into it. Consider how powerful the three little words are, I love you. Or the impact it has on a man when a woman says, I do. Or the impact it has on a man when a woman says, let's just be friends. The Apostle James says that even though the tongue is just a little part of our body, it has a vast disproportionate influence. He illustrates this by describing how a large ship is steered by a little rudder, right? That the entire ship can be turned in different directions because of a little rudder that is part of the ship. Your tongue, brothers and sisters, is that little rudder. The words that come off your tongue have the ability to change the direction of people's lives. And the Bible tells us that since we've been equipped with such a powerful instrument of influence and potentially a weapon, right? Since we've been equipped with such a powerful weapon or a powerful instrument of influence, we need to be responsible to use our tongues in a way that blesses people rather than harms them. Our sermon text from Proverbs 10 verse 20 is one of the many, many passages that brings this warning to us. It reads, the tongue of the righteous is choice silver, and the heart of the wicked is worth little. Now, the point of wisdom this proverb is teaching us is that the tongue is directly connected to the heart. The tongue is directly connected to the heart. That may not be evident on the first reading, but as we unpack it, I think you're going to see that this is indeed the point of wisdom that this proverb is teaching us. The tongue is directly connected to the heart. Notice how the proverb is structured. There's an implied correspondence between all three sets of key words in the first and second sentences. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. And the key words from the first sentence parallel the key words in the second sentence. Tongue parallels with heart. Righteous parallels with wicked. Choice silver parallels with little worth. But now here's where it gets intriguing. You cannot have meaningful parallel if all three sets of the key words stand in contrast to each other. For the parallel to work, there has to be at least one set of words that are synonymous. What's blatantly obvious is that righteous and wicked are contrasting each other, and so are choice over and little worth, which means there's going to be, if there is going to be a meaningful parallel between these two sentences, the tongue and the heart have to be synonymous. If they're not synonymous, if they're contrasting like the other key terms are, then this proverb is just two random sentences thrown together. There's no correlation between the two of them. There's a sentence that says something about the tongue of righteous people, and then there's a sentence that says something about the heart of wicked people, but there's no correspondence between the two if all of the terms are contrasting. But we know that God doesn't speak in disjointed and meaningless ways. We know that God intends for this proverb to communicate something profound, some profound point of wisdom. Whenever you see, A contrasting proverb structured this way, you might think of the synonymous terms to be the same term, at least in a way of trying to process what it's saying. For example, it would be consistent with the truth that God is proclaiming in this proverb if it read, the tongue of the righteous is choice silver, and the tongue of the wicked is worth little. We can say that. It's consistent with the teaching of this proverb. That would be meaningful. That would clearly show the contrast between the righteous person's tongue and the wicked person's tongue. But when the Spirit of God inspired Solomon to write this proverb, he did something more profound. He made Solomon write the word heart in the second sentence and not tongue. which is God's way of indicating that there's correspondence between the person's heart and the person's tongue. The correspondence between the heart and tongue is what makes this proverb so profound in its meaning and its application. It's telling us that the words a person speaks are an accurate reflection of that person's heart. The words that a person speaks are an accurate reflection of that person's heart. And the fact of the matter is, none of us are able to see what's going on inside another person's heart. But what this proverb is telling us is that you can hear what's going on inside another person's heart. If we listen to the words that are coming off of a person's tongue, then those words reveal the condition of that person's heart. Critical words reveal a critical heart. Angry words reveal an angry heart. Lying words reveal a lying heart. Loving words reveal a loving heart. Joyful words reveal a joyful heart. Thankful words reveal a thankful heart, and so on and so on and so on. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, but people can be deceptive, right? They can make you think that they are somebody that they're not by saying deceptive words. So how can I know if the words that I'm hearing a person speak are a true and accurate reflection of that person's heart? Well, Solomon acknowledges this point in another proverb, Proverbs 26, verses 24 through 26. He writes, he who hates, disguises it with his lips and lays up deceit within himself. When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. Now the point that Solomon is making here is that God will expose liars, God will expose hypocrites, God will expose the deceivers amongst the people of God. How and when God exposes him is entirely up to God. Sometimes God exposes him right away. Other times he waits for a while. Consider the wisdom that we read in 1 Timothy 5, verse 24 and 25. I'll put it up here on the screen. Some men's sins are clearly evident preceding them in judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden. Now, this is another contrasting parallelism. The contrast is between sins of the wicked men and the good works of righteous men. But all the other key terms in this parallel are synonymous. Some men's sins or some of the sins of the wicked people are clearly evident and some of the good works of righteous men are clearly evident. And the sins of the wicked that they think they're able to conceal will eventually be exposed by God, just as the good works of the righteous do in privacy. Those good works that are done in privacy, they cannot be hidden. They too will eventually be revealed. And the point of these two verses here is that nothing can be hidden. The wicked man's deception will eventually be exposed because God will expose it. He may expose it quickly, or he may expose it after some time, but God will expose it, and when he does, he often does so in some of the most unpredictable ways. If you listen to the stories of people who got caught in adultery, or who got caught partaking of pornography, or who got caught in some other secret sin. If you listen to the stories of people who get caught, many of them will tell you just how extremely careful they were to try to cover their tracks. They tried to anticipate all the scenarios where their sin might have been exposed. And so then they, anticipating the scenarios, they made what they thought to be the necessary defenses to prevent those scenarios from exposing them. but then some seemingly random one out of a million scenario developed where the wrong person happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and everything became uncovered. That's no accident, brothers and sisters. That is no accident. That is God fulfilling his promise to expose the wicked. Some men's sins are clearly evident, preceding them in judgment, but those of some men follow later. Or as we read in Proverbs 26, 26, though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. When God sees fit to reveal people's deception, you will know it. When God sees fit to reveal lying words, you will know it. When God sees fit to reveal gossip and slander that was spoken in secret, you will know it. When God sees fit to reveal hatred and bitterness, you will know it. When he sees fit to reveal the unbelief in people's hearts, you will know it. And when God sees fit to reveal evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, you will know it. God will eventually reveal whatever is in a person's heart, and when he does, God does so publicly. He reveals it before the assembly, Proverbs 26, 26 says. This is not only true about revealing the hidden sins of the wicked, but God will also reveal the love and compassion of the righteous. Consider Proverbs 27, verse six. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. This is where we need to hearken back to the point of our sermon text, the point that the tongue reveals what's going on inside the heart. even in times when your friend quote unquote wounds you, he wounds you or she wounds you with the words that are spoken to you, those words are an accurate reflection of the love that's in your friend's heart. Which is to say, there's a vast difference between the rebuke that comes from a friend and the rebuke that comes from an enemy. The rebuke that comes from an enemy is going to reflect the hatred that he has in his heart for you. He doesn't care if his words hurt you. He doesn't care if your reputation suffers in the community. He doesn't care if you are truly repentant or not. He doesn't have your best interests in mind. He just wants to vent his anger at you. and he probably gets some sort of satisfaction out of seeing you suffer, seeing you put in an awkward position, seeing you squirm under the guilt of your sin. You deserve it, he said to himself. You had it coming to you, and I'm glad I'm able to hear to dish it out. That's the rebuke of your enemy. but when a true friend speaks words of correction to you, he's going to do so in love. His tongue is going to be gentle with you. He's going to be kind with you. He's going to be patient with you. He's not gonna be rude to you. He's not gonna be easily provoked by you. He's not gonna think evil of you. Rather, he's going to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. Which is to say, your true friend will not only identify his concern to you, but he'll also provide a righteous resolution to the issue. whereas the wicked man will be satisfied to unload his criticism on you and leave it at that, the true friend will see the situation, will want to see the situation end in a righteous resolution. And so this is because your friend has your best interests in mind. He wants to maintain a relationship with you. He wants to see your relationship with God improve and for the sin to be put off. Knowing that there's a direct connection between the heart and the tongue is a big help for discerning the difference between those faithful wounds from a friend and the unloving criticisms of the wicked man. Even if the wicked man tries to camouflage his words with kisses, God will expose the wicked before the assembly. Sooner or later, you will know who the wicked are. And as we grow older in this world, and we don't have to get too old to start learning this lesson, the betrayals that we experience at the hands of the wicked tend to grow more significant, more intense. What you experienced on the playground in grade school is not as significant as the betrayals you experience as an adult. And it doesn't take long before you realize that the people who can hurt you are the ones who are the closest to you. It's the people into whom you've invested your love and energy and devotion. It's the family member who knows everything about you. It's the friend who you confided your most intimate secrets to. You felt safe with them. You trusted them. You became vulnerable with them. And then they hurt you. Think about how much pain Absalom caused to David. This is the son who would wait at the city gate, questioning the people who came to his father for justice. And when they told what David's verdicts were, Absalom made comments about how negligent and unjust his father was in the affairs of the kingdom. Oh, that I were the judge of the land, Absalom would say. Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and I would give him justice. Absalom was trying to steal the loyalty of the men of Israel through these deceptive words. And once he stole the people's loyalty, he tried to steal his father's throne. And this is when God exposed the wickedness of Absalom before the assembly. And do you remember what David wrote about Absalom after the Lord exposed his deception? Psalm 55 verse 21. The words of his mouth, this is David writing about his son Absalom. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. They were drawn swords. This is an example of how the people closest to us can inflict the most grief and sorrow upon us. When the people you've loved and trusted are exposed as liars and deceivers, you can be certain that a burden of grief and sorrow will come upon you. The closer the person was to you, the greater the burden of sorrow will be. The more love, the more time, the more companionship, The more loyalty you had invested into that relationship, the greater the burden of grief will be if and when that person is exposed before the assembly. And when this happens, our instinctive reaction is to erect walls of defense to prevent that from happening again. There's even a popular saying in our culture that implies this. The saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The point of this saying is, I'm going to learn my lesson the first time. I'll only be taken advantage of once. After that, I will have the proper boundaries and safeguards in place. I won't trust people so easily. I won't let people get that close to me anymore. I'm not gonna let my defenses down with people. I'm not going to make myself vulnerable again. For now on, I'm just gonna keep a safe distance from people. But that's not really a biblical response, is it? No, not at all. Does God want you to treat everybody as if they are going to hurt you? Rather than treating or acknowledging that only some people are gonna hurt you? Here's a more biblical way of handling these situations. When the person you thought was a friend turns out to be a foe, that's God being faithful to his promise to expose the wicked. God is bringing the lies and deception to an end. You're going to experience the emotional grief and sorrow that accompanies betrayal, but you can be grateful that God did not let the deception go on any longer. And David provides us with a good example of how to deal with the emotional grief and sorrow. I read Psalm 55 verse 21 just a few moments ago, where David acknowledged that Absalom had spoken deceptively smooth words when his heart was really full of warfare. Now listen to the next verse David wrote. Psalm 55 verse 22. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. The person who puts up walls of defense so nobody can ever hurt them again is a person who's trying to sustain himself. What David is telling us is that the Lord will sustain us. We need to trust the Lord to sustain us. Don't take that upon yourself. Don't put up those walls of defense. Let the Lord be the one who sustains you. God will never permit the righteous to be moved. Because he is sovereign over the affairs of his creation, he is in complete control of everything that happens. Or to put it in more applicable, words more applicable to the assurance that David is writing about, God is in complete control of what doesn't happen, what does not happen. He will not let the righteous be moved. Remember in the book of Job how Satan had to appear before God in order to request permission to afflict Job? And remember in the Gospel of Luke how Jesus told Peter that Satan had requested to sift Peter like wheat? These are evidences that the mistreatment you experience is within the scope and framework of God's benevolent care for you. These are evidences that the mistreatment you experience in this world, in your relationships with friends and family and people who betray you, as well as the good experiences you have with people who do not betray you, people who are loyal to you, these are within the scope and framework of God's benevolent care for you. Do you remember the assurance that Jesus gave to Peter when he told him, that he was going to experience a trial from Satan. Luke 22 verse 31, Jesus said to Peter, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail, Jesus said to Peter. And the reason the righteous will not be moved is because Jesus intercedes for us. The reason the righteous will not be moved, it's because Jesus is our high priest who continually makes intercession for his people. A great example of Jesus' intercession is recorded in John 17. And throughout the entire chapter, our Lord is praying to the Father that the righteous will not be moved. In verse 14, he acknowledges the predicament that all of us are in. The world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, Jesus prayed. And then he continues in verse 15. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. It's because of this type of intercession from Jesus that you can have confidence in knowing that God will never permit you to be moved. When the tongue of the wicked reveals the treacherous heart that's inside of them, when God faithfully exposes the wicked before the assembly of the people, this will produce grief and sorrow in you. There's no doubt about that. This is part of what it means to live in a cursed and fallen world. And Jesus, who knows what's best for you, prayed to the Father, do not take them out of this world, Do not remove them from this fallen and cursed world. Do not remove them from the trials and tribulations of this world, but keep them from the evil one. Keep them from being moved. Brothers and sisters, the Lord will not permit you to be sifted as wheat. He will not permit you to be moved. Or as 1 Corinthians 10, 13 puts it, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will always make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. That you may be able to bear it. And when you embrace these promises by faith, trusting in the intercessory work of Jesus as your high priest, then you do not need to be your own defender. You do not need to put up defensive walls to keep people from getting too close to you. God is your protector. He is your shield. He is your defense. If you try to defend yourself against the deceivers and betrayers of this world, then the inevitable result is that you're not going to develop close relationships with other people, which means you're not going to be able to invest love into other people or receive love from other people. God commanded you to love your neighbor as yourself, which you cannot do if you are keeping everybody a safe distance away from you. You hear that? God commanded you to love your neighbor as yourself, and you can't do that if you're keeping everybody a safe distance away from you. That's not the life that God has called you to. Yes, there are going to be those who deceive you, who get close to you and then betray you. There are going to be people who take advantage of you. They'll take advantage of your time. They'll take advantage of your generosity. They'll take advantage of your loyalty. They'll take advantage of your love. but not every person you give your time, generosity, loyalty, and love to is going to be a wicked person. Many will prove to be the choice silver that our sermon text describes, and you can be choice silver to them. In John 15, verse 12, Jesus said to his disciples, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. And note the standard that Jesus is holding us to. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Our love that we give to each other and to the other people of this world is to be an emulation of the love that Jesus showed to people. It's to emulate Jesus' love. Well, what did Jesus' love look like? He didn't raise up defensive walls to keep people away. Rather, he let people get close to him. Or better put, he drew close to other people. Jesus is the initiator in the relationship. You didn't choose me, he said to his disciples, but I chose you. So one of the ways that you can love others as Christ loved you is to initiate relationships with other people. You be the person who reaches out first. You be the person who picks up the phone or sends the text message or walks over and says, can I sit here with you? Remember, brothers and sisters, that when you became a Christian, the Lord gave you a new heart. The heart that he gave you is a heart of righteousness, which means your tongue is now able to speak choice silver to others. God has equipped you to speak uplifting words of encouragement to people. He has equipped you to share the good news of the gospel with people. You are able to comfort your fellow Christian with gospel promises. You're able to speak faithful words of correction to your friends. You're able to use your tongue to intercede in prayer for other people. You're able to use your tongue to lift up songs of praise to the Lord. You're able to speak blessings upon other people. You're able to tell of all the wonderful things that God has done in your life to the edification of other people. And you're able to give praise to God when he doesn't permit you to be moved, when he exposes the wicked, and when he heals the grief and sorrow the wicked have inflicted upon you. You're able to give praise to God for these providences. The tongue, as we've already acknowledged, is one of the most powerful tools you have for influencing the people around you. Because you have a heart of flesh that is in contrast to a heart of stone, because you have a righteous heart that's in submission to the Lord, you have a tongue that's capable of speaking choice silver to the people around you. Let's pray that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be acceptable to our Lord. Let's pray.