Let's get our Bibles tonight. Let's start in Psalms 141. Psalm 141, that's going to be our primary text here. You want to keep a marker. We're going to be back and forth a couple of places tonight. I bet you all can handle it. But it is good to see you here tonight. We're going to be starting up a new study. We're going to do a little series here. In the evening services, I imagine it's going to be Wednesday night, Sunday night, that sort of deal. We'll see how the Lord leads. Psalm 141, we're going to start in verse number 1. The Bible says this, Psalm 141, notice it's a Psalm of David. Psalm 141.1, Lord I cry unto thee. Make haste unto me, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties. Let's pray. Amen. Our primary verse there is gonna be verse number three, where the Bible says, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. All right, keep the door of my lips. If I'm gonna title the sermon series, I'm basically just gonna call it Watch Your Mouth. So isn't that friendly? It's going to be nice. We're going to have fun. Because see, the problem is words are too cheap in America today. They're too cheap. As a society, we tend to talk first and think later. We say things, and then we retract later if we even think that we can. We'll just blurt something out, offend or hurt whoever we offend and hurt, and then just go, oh, never mind. Oh, I'm sorry, whatever. Act like it's all better, and it's usually not all better. We have too many ways to get too many words out very, very quickly. OK, we've had cell phones for decades now and everything. That'll let you call up and ramble on to somebody real quick. But then we had text messages, and that made it even faster. Now we've got the social media, Facebook, X now, and Snapchat, and all that stuff. Listen, I can appreciate some modern conveniences, and I do. I use my smartphone, no problem there. But back when you had to handwrite letters, you had to sit there and think about what you were going to write before just blurting it out. It's not just delete or send something that sounds a little better afterwards or whatever. I mean, because that's why they cared about handwriting and everything. They wanted it to look pretty. They didn't want scribbled out, you know, using ink and all that. You had to put some thought into what you were going to say. We don't have that anymore. Words are cheap. We don't think much before speaking. This causes us often to say things that we shouldn't. You know what happens? Cheap talk has expensive consequences. And that's where we're at today. And there's a lot of problems that can arise from things like talking too much or saying the wrong things or saying things the wrong way. There's a lot of hurt and damage we can do. There's a lot of consequences to ourselves, to other people, to our spiritual life, to our relationship with the Lord. There's a whole lot of damage we can do with our mouths. As a matter of fact, I believe it's easier for us to sin with our mouth than with any other part of our body. And we'll get over that in later studies of this. You say, man, I sure wish so-and-so was here for this. They're not. You are. You know what that tells me? Lord wants you to have it. So don't worry about anybody else, let the Lord speak to you about it and that'll help. See, David was a very, very wise man, we know this, and he was a very godly man. The Bible says a man after God's own heart. And I like what he said, he asked the Lord to set a watch before his mouth and to keep the door of his lips. I think that's very smart. That's what he says there in verse three. Set a watch, O Lord. See, notice he's leaving it up to the Lord to do it. He's putting God in charge of that. He's not saying, Lord, help me to watch my mouth. He's saying, Lord, can you set a watch on my mouth so I don't say the things that are displeasing to you? Because my standards are subpar. I'll let a lot of things get out of my mouth that God's not pleased with. Why don't we let Him set the watch, okay? And let Him keep the door on my lips. David said something like this, well, he said something exactly like this in Psalm 1914. He said, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. I've prayed that often. Lord, please, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. That's Psalms 1914. That's a good prayer. In this study, what I'd like to do, I was trying to figure it out. It was supposed to, like every other series I do, it's supposed to be a one night sort of thing. Yeah, that didn't work out. But the best way I could figure out how to divide it is basically we're gonna go over four main reasons as to why we should also ask God to set a watch before our mouths and do our very best to watch what we say. We're gonna give you four reasons why we should watch our mouth. and we're gonna cover one of those tonight. Okay, that's how far we're gonna get. Lord willing. And if you want the main point for that, keep a marker here. Let's turn over to Matthew chapter 12. This is where the whole idea started. And this is what I think the Lord has for us tonight. Might as well start with what he started with me about. Matthew chapter 12. So you want some reasons why we should watch our mouth Number one, it's gonna take a little bit of explaining, we'll get there. Basically, number one, what you say is being recorded. Okay, we don't have microphones in the seats. Okay, we got a couple up here. We may or may not have some cameras, but I don't know that audio is attached. No, I'm not talking about in the church house. I'm saying what you say is being recorded. There are several things that we need to break down in this passage. Let's look at Matthew chapter 12, Start in verse number 33, we're going to read it, break it down and then hopefully Lord willing make the point that I'm trying to make in this passage tonight. Matthew 12.33, Jesus says this, He says, "...either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit." O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For 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 bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." There are several things we need to break down in this passage before I can continue making the point. The Lord is using the illustration of a tree and its fruit that it bears to teach things concerning different kinds of people and what they say. Notice this. Number one, that there are two types of trees being mentioned. A good tree that has good fruit, we see that in verse 33. You have to make the tree good and its fruit good. Okay, so there's a good tree with good fruit. This represents a good man speaking good things, verse 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. So we have a good, good tree. Well, let's not have a blue tree. Not yet anyway. We have a good tree. That's how I make all my trees. Isn't that nice? Don't worry about that one down there. Mine's better because it's bigger. We've got a good tree that's got good fruit. All right? Green is good. Good, good, good, yummy, yummy, yummy green apples. There we go. All right, got a good tree with good fruit. That represents good men bearing, that speak good things, right? A corrupt tree that bring forth corrupt fruit. Hmm, that'll be the blue one. Blue tree's gonna be our corrupt tree, because I have not seen a blue tree. I don't know if you have. If you have, don't tell me about it. It's gonna have lightning bolt fruit, because that's what kind of blue evil trees have. is lightning bolt fruit. So in case you're wondering, that's what it looks like. The corrupt tree that brings forth corrupt fruit, verse number 33. It says, Or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit. This represents the evil men that speak evil things, verse 35. Good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. So the Lord tells us about two different kinds of trees, that represents two different kinds of men speaking two different kinds of things, either good or evil. I want you to notice this, number two, notice that evil and corrupt are used as synonyms. Okay, did you notice that? Whenever speaking of the tree in verse 33, it says, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. All right, but in 35, whenever he's making that correlation between the tree and the men, he says evil. and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." So he's using evil and corrupt as synonyms there. Evil, you may remember from our Bible word study, means harmful and destructive. Let's get some confirmation there, we won't spend a lot of time on it, but turn to Jeremiah chapter 18. Keep a marker here in Matthew, we'll be back. But turn to Jeremiah chapter 18, and we're going to start in verse number 7. Cause this one, this was just happened to be the one that I picked. I have several different ones to be able to illustrate this point biblically, what evil means, because a lot of times people hear evil and they just think wickedness or sin or something like that. No, no, no. The Bible talks about God doing evil to people or God withholding evil from people. God doesn't commit sin towards anybody. Okay, that's not what evil means biblically speaking. Let's get our definition from the Bible, Jeremiah 18, starting in verse number 7. Jeremiah 18.7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it. This is the Lord talking about destroying a nation. If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. What's the evil God thought to do to them? To destroy them, to pluck them up, or to pull them down. That's what it says right there in the verse before. So what's a good Bible definition of evil? To pluck up, to pull down, or to destroy. What are you doing? You're breaking them down. Verse 9, And at what instant shall I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant it? And if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. So what's the good that the Lord is saying to do? In verse 9 He's saying to build And to plant it. What's he doing? Building it up. Building up. Making that country to flourish. That's the good that he's doing. So, evil in the Bible is to tear down, to destroy, to hurt, to harm. Good is to build up, to encourage, to benefit in some way. That's Bible definitions. Another good synonym there for good is to edify. To build up, to edify. Let's turn back to Matthew chapter 12. This is going to help us. Back to Matthew 12. I want you to notice this third in Matthew 12. Notice that the good trees and the people provide good fruit that benefits and helps others. Okay? We saw it at verse 33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit. 35. A good man, under the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things. An evil man, under the treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things. So good trees and good people provide good fruit and that benefits and helps others. The evil corrupt people and trees provide fruit that harm and destroy others. Okay, the evils, that's what he's talking about. Trees don't produce fruit that cause sin and wickedness. But there are many plants and trees that produce fruit that harms people. What is that? Evil fruit. Poisonous fruit. Harmful fruit. So I got curious, because I don't know anything about plants, really, outside of a couple of crops and things like that. So I looked up and I was wondering, especially trees, what kind of trees are poisonous? All right, well, there are some. The one I like the best was the first one I came across. It's called the manchineel tree. Y'all ever hear of the manchineel tree? No? Well, it grows in places like Florida or the Caribbean or South America. It produces something they like to call death apples. They're little green yellowish balls, probably about that big and everything. They look like little apples. And they talked about somebody that there was a testimony from a radiologist that accidentally ate one of those or started eating it. When you first bite it, it's really sweet. But then after just a couple of minutes, it starts turning your mouth on fire and your throat starts swelling up and you can't hardly talk. And the lips, they'll start blistering and everything from just that one bite. And it gets to the point, after a couple minutes, you can hardly breathe through your mouth or anything, because everything's swelling up. And I thought it was interesting about that tree, the natives, the Indians, whenever whoever came over, you know, Conquistadors or whoever it was that came over that region there, the natives would dip the tips of their arrows in the sap from that tree to make poison arrows to be able to shoot and poison someone with it because the sap was poisonous. Well, if that wasn't enough, this tree is so poisonous, it's like the deadliest tree on the planet. If it starts raining, and you run underneath that tree to get some shelter, the water that runs off the leaves and falls on you will cause your skin to blister and boil from the water off the leaves. And if that's not enough, I'll give you another one. If you say, well, that tree's no good. I'm going to cut it down. I'll make some firewood out of it. You start burning that wood, and the smoke from the fire from that particular wood will cause temporary blindness, OK? It's a poisonous tree. And what I thought was interesting, as I did with the rest of this, is there's only one animal that can safely eat of this tree. It's called the garabo, or striped iguana. You know what it is? It's a reptile. Most poisonous tree on the planet. No reptile's the only one that could eat that fruit and not be killed by it. I think that's interesting. We're talking about the wicked things that come out of your mouth and the evil that can come out. But that reptile is immune to that poison. I thought that was interesting. Sounds like Satan a little bit. I want you to understand what you say can either benefit and build up others. You know, you can edify them. Or what you say can tear others down. You could harm them or destroy them. That's evil. You can speak good, help people. You can speak evil, tear them down. That's the only options. All right, I want you to notice this, number four. Notice that what determines the fruit is the heart, verse 34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Okay, so it all happens from the center of you there. It's the trunk that determines what grows from them branches, okay? It's the heart that determines what comes out of the mouth, whether it's good or evil. You don't have evil fruit on a good tree And you don't have good fruit on an evil tree. It's either evil fruit on an evil tree, and that's... Get my colors all mixed up. You either have good fruit on a good tree, or evil fruit on an evil tree. You don't have them the other way around. You know, I like how he says, verse 34, O generation of vipers, says, how can ye being evil, speak good things. They are in the process of hurting, destroying, harming. They're leading people, these Pharisees that he's talking about, they are actively hurting everyone around by denying Jesus is the Christ. They are being evil. And he says, how can you speak good things? You are being evil. No matter what you say when you're being evil, it doesn't make what you're saying good. You're still doing the harm. A tree is identified by the fruit that it bears. A good person is identified by the good things that he or she says. If he speaks and he's building up, he's encouraging, he's edifying, what's that mean? He's a good person with a good heart. If he's tearing down, if he's hurting, if he's destroying, it doesn't matter what the outside looks like. That's an evil man, why? He's got an evil heart. That's according to Jesus. I don't know about you, but I'd like to be known as a good person, not an evil person. Well, number five, notice this, an evil person can be made good, and a good person can be made evil. Verse 33, either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. You can make yourself a better person. You can make yourself a good person instead of an evil person. What do you do? Quit producing evil fruit. A good person can do evil things. An evil person can do good things. Something's going to give after a while. Your heart's going to be showing. Do you realize how can you How can an evil person be made good? How can a good person be made evil? It comes by a change of heart. And it's evident by what a person says. Keep a marker here, let's turn back to our Psalms 141. Because we read it in the text. There's a distinct correlation between what you say and your heart condition. how you speak and what's in your heart. There's a direct correlation about that. Psalm 141, verse three. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties. So he's got the Lord watching his mouth and he's saying, Lord, you're gonna watch my mouth, how do I need you to watch my mouth? Incline not my heart to do evil things. I need you to protect my heart, because I don't want anything wicked, evil coming out of my mouth. There's a direct correlation between the condition of your heart and the things that you say. And this is a bigger topic that we're gonna cover later. Turn back to Matthew chapter 12, we'll start making the point that we turned there for. Matthew chapter 12. The point I want to make tonight is that your words are being recorded. There's a record being made of your words. Matthew 12.36 but I say unto you, remember Jesus speaking here, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words, not someone else's, for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. In order for you to be able to be held accountable during a time of judgment, evidence must be presented. Okay? You stand on trial, there's evidence presented for or against you, and that's how a judgment is made. So some record is being made of all that you say. Now let me give you my opinion. Okay, I'll give you my opinion here. I don't think it's a video or an audio recording. I don't think they're going to play back your life and just back up the tape, you know, back up to the front and play it again and then back up again and then do it again. I don't think they're going to do that. I think our words are being written down in a book. So why is that? You don't have to turn there if you don't want to, I'll turn over there, Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation chapter 20. In Revelation chapter 20 verse number 11, the Bible says this, it's talking about some books here. Revelation 20 verse 11, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. So here we have, we understand this great white throne judgment is not for saved people, but there is a judgment taking place and there are books that are opened. There is also, not included with these books, is the book of life that's going to be opened. Verse 13, it says, In the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. So their works are written down in these books. and death and hell were cast in the lake of fire, this is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire." So they are being judged based on what is written in these books. You say, that's not for us. Okay, the judgment seat of Christ says this in 2 Corinthians 5.10, this is the one for us. 2 Corinthians 5.10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So how you tore down or built up people with your words would definitely count as things done in your body, whether they're good or bad. Why? Because you're affecting other people with what you say. That's something that you did. That's your works. That's your decisions. I think that right now there might be angels assigned to writing down and taking notes of what you say. I think that Luke's angel is having the most interesting time in that. Why? Because Luke has his own language. Luke's angel is sitting there writing stuff down and Luke's just being Luke at home, not here. Here he's at home. You know? But I could imagine the angel writing stuff down and be like, well, you know, he is a teenage boy and stuff like that. And then he gets there and he goes, toop-doop. I said, what is that? Toop-doop. I don't know. And he just keeps writing down. And he goes, weet-woo. And I was, weet-woo? Weet-weet? He said, what's that? I said, that's Luke language. It's being written down in a book. I hope he's not writing that down. He might. You probably make him chuckle a couple of times anyway. What I want you to know is every man, woman, boy and girl will give an account of every idle word in the day of judgment. Let's turn back to Matthew chapter 12. I want to show you this because Jesus didn't say that we're going to give an account of every word that we say. He says in Matthew 12 verse 36, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Notice Jesus did not say they will give an account for every word, but for every idle word. It's important that we understand what that means. Idle describes the word that is spoken, not what you are doing when you speak it. It doesn't say that you're gonna give an account for every word that you speak when you are being idle. No, idle describes the word. Read it again. But I say unto you that every idle word, that describes the word. It doesn't describe you when you're speaking the word. That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Sounds to me like we need to know what idle means. Wouldn't that help us? Well, there were tons of definitions for idle in the Webster's 1828, and I found some that just matched up so nice and pretty, I picked those. Idle, this one says, idle means unfruitful, barren, not productive of good. Huh, how about that? That fits perfect with our context, doesn't it? Here, that's definition number six in Webster's 1828 if you want that. Definition number eight says unprofitable, not tending to edification. What's idle? Everything that you do that tears people down that has no good or benefit. The words that you will have to give an account for the judgment seat of Christ are words that you use to harm, hurt, destroy, or tear down people with. That's what Jesus just said. Those are the ones that are being written down. So I hope toop-doop doesn't mean anything bad. I hope that doesn't tear anybody down, because then we'd have to give an account for it. And I use that pretty often. So I don't think it means anything bad. So I think we're OK. I think it means too bad or something like that. Is that close? Is that what it means? What's it mean? Oh, yeah, that means something really bad. OK, we're not doing that one then. So I got to quit using that at work daily. You say this. You say, well, I don't like your definition of idle. I mean, I think it means that you're not working and that you're lazy and things like that. OK. You realize it doesn't take much effort to tear people down with your words or to criticize. It often takes effort to edify. You know what you're doing whenever you just blast words off real quick? They tend to be cutting words that hurt and tear down. Why? You're too lazy to form your speech in a way that's going to build somebody up and help them. So what's that? An idle word. You're too lazy to, ooh, hold on, let me think a minute. Instead, it just comes out. What's that? Idle words that we're going to have to give an account for. Paul, who wrote most if not all that we know about the judgment seat of Christ, had this to tell the church about our speech. How about in Romans 14.19, you can write this one down if you like. Romans 14.19 says, "...let us therefore follow after things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." That sounds like saying things that are building people up, that sounds like good fruit making speech right there. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, this one's got some good ones in it. What's interesting is how many times in just this little study here we can see that our speech is correlated with good fruit and bad fruit and that bad and that evil is tearing down and that good is building up and edifying. It's all throughout the New Testament here. Look at Ephesians 4 verse 29. Ephesians 4 verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." So notice no corrupt communication, verse 29. Isn't that interesting? What word was it that was used to describe the tree and the fruit that was not good by Jesus in Matthew 12? Corrupt. And here, Bible says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying. Edifying means to build up, to encourage, to strengthen, to help. That's what edification is, to build up. Wasn't that the definition of good we found in Jeremiah? To build up, edification. That's what our speech is supposed to be doing. But instead, we often have corrupt communication, that's evil fruit, that's evil communication, that's tearing down. And if it's not enough, look at verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking. Gee, I wonder what that is. Things you say that tear people down, destroying them, hurting them, harming them. That's what evil is. This is all through the New Testament. In 1 Thessalonians 5.11, we don't have to turn there, but in 1 Thessalonians 5.11 the Bible says, "...wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." So we're told to edify one another, yet again, that's to build up, we're doing good, hoping to produce good fruit. 1 Thessalonians 5.15, "...see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men." We're not supposed to tear down anybody. We're not supposed to destroy anybody. See that none render evil for evil. They're trying to hurt me. Jesus said, love your enemies. That's hard. Well, yeah. Jesus does hard things. He expects hard things of us. Listen, we can build up with our words or we can tear down. We can speak evil or we can speak good. Just remember that every idle word that you speak is being recorded and you will have to give an account of those words to the Lord on the day of judgment. Your words hold more weight than you realize and we need to think before we speak. It doesn't mean we can't joke around. It doesn't mean we can't have fun with one another. That means if your goal is to tear somebody down That's an evil goal. And I like, you say, well, I just think it, I don't speak it. You know how many times in the Bible that someone says, and he spoke in his heart, or, you know, she spoke within herself. What's that? It didn't come out, but that was evil in here. Where's that coming from? The evil in here. And it comes out as the evil fruit. I don't know about you, but I want to pray more like David now. He did in Psalm 141 verse 3, set a watch, oh Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. I don't want to be an evil person. I want to be a good person. What's going to change that? The right heart and watching what comes out of my mouth. Also in this series, I plan on going over who your words can harm, because we're going to go over how you harm others, how you harm yourself. That's an interesting one. I'm really encouraged about that one, because you're a trichotomy. Body, soul, and spirit, you know what you say, hurts all three. I found verses showing that it hurts all three of you. what your words can do. And it can also hurt your relationship with the Lord. So we're gonna go over that because not only do I not want you to be an evil tree bearing evil fruit, but I want you to have a good relationship with the Lord. So let's stop there tonight and we'll grab our prayer list.