Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 11. Welcome again to Solomon's School of Wisdom where everyone's welcome and the fees are low cost, no cost. everyone who studies in this school graduates with a diploma there we are because it's God's wisdom and it's for you to make you wise unto salvation we've done the 10 chapters and we're going to change gear a little bit today because we're going to read chapter 11 I'm going to pick up on two characters that come in Proverbs and two people you will meet let's pray for God to speak to us shall we through his word we thank you Lord for your word we thank you Lord we're reading the words not only of the wisest man who ever lived Solomon but we're reading the words of God through Solomon to us. What a privilege, what a blessing. Our prayer, Lord, is that you, by your Holy Spirit, might speak to each one in this church today. Lord, as we read your word, may it pierce us, may it instruct us, may it comfort us and do us good, and may our eyes be open to see the one of whom the word speaks on every page, the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again for our justification. It is in his name that we pray these things. Amen. Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord. But a just weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes shame. but with the humble his wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright will deliver them but the faithful will be caught by their lust. When a wicked man dies his expectation will perish and the hope of the unjust perishes. The righteous is delivered from trouble and it comes to the wicked instead. The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbour but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered. When it goes well with the righteous the city rejoices and when the wicked perish there is jubilation. By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbour, but a man of understanding holds his peace. A tale-bearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. He who is surety for a stranger will suffer, but the one who hates being surety is secure. Well, our subject this morning is words. Words. We all say them. We all hear them. we're all affected by them and our words very much affect the lives of others the Bible says this death and life is as big as that death and life are in the power of the tongue death and life are in the power of the tongue Donald Trump and Barack Obama are two modern politicians who know the importance of words. John F. Kennedy was the first modern politician to employ a speech writer and after that they all started doing it. Adolf Hitler mobilized Germany with his speeches for a bad purpose. Winston Churchill rallied this country with his speech famous speech on the radio quoted all over the world in which he rallied the British people to fight against tyranny words are powerful and yet they are non-material you can't touch a word But a word can hurt you more than a knife or a sword. Is that true? Words define you. Three things define you. Your thoughts, your actions and your words. They are you. That is the footprint you make on planet earth. Your thoughts, your actions and your words. They are very important. And so, in this chapter, we're thinking about words. And it's the final... I'm going to introduce you to two people. One of them is in this first section here. He's called the Tale Bearer. Sometimes at school, you may have heard of the phrase, a tell-tale. Well, that's where it comes from. But it's far more than just telling tales in school. and so in the chapter itself it speaks about righteousness and unrighteousness in verses 1 to 6 and we've got those contrastive proverbs dishonest scales but a just weight pride but humility integrity perversity opposites to teach you through that means but then when we get to verse 11 We get five verses which speak about words, our words. So the first one is there. By the blessing of the upright, a whole city can be exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his peace. He doesn't say many words. And here is the person I want you to meet today. A tail-bearer. What does he do? Well, he reveals secrets in contrast with a man who is of a faithful or a truthful or a reliable spirit who knows how to keep a confidence. Where there is no counsel, advice, people fall. but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety it's a good thing to ask advice when you don't know what to do Heidi got it bang on very good that wasn't it you pray but you ask advice as well that's what it says in the multitude of counsellors where there's no counsel just do what you think all the time it's not a great thing but God has put other people around us who can counsel us and advise us the multitude of counselors there is safety seek advice if you don't know what to do and here is surety for a stranger will suffer Becoming a guarantor for someone else is spoken against in the book of Proverbs. Normally you do that with a word. You make a promise that you'll underwrite the debts of another. Not a smart thing to do. So we're focusing today on the tail bearer. Let's think about him. We first meet him in the Torah, that's the first five books of the Bible called the Book of Moses and this word, Rachel, comes in Leviticus chapter 19. Have you heard of the phrase, love your neighbor? The first time we find that phrase is in Leviticus. You shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people. You shall not take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord." The idea being, I'm the Lord and I see what's going on. I am holy and I don't want you doing this. So the idea is, is you shall not go about. The idea there is, the word tailbearer has got the idea of a merchant. Someone who's selling something. someone who's going about with some produce taking it to this one and that one and this one and another one peddling a story and he says you shouldn't do that you shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people and the second aspect is when you take a stand against the life of your neighbor so in other words to falsely accuse someone in a court of law the judges sit and the witnesses stand and of course if you stand against your neighbor and you accuse him falsely it can actually result in his life being taken you know the great example of that was Jesus they bore false witness against him at his trial they broke that 9th commandment and he was condemned the tail bearer then that's how it's defined in the Torah and its references to the 9th commandment you shall not bear false witness the fourth duty in the 10th commandment about our neighbor the first one Don't kill. Second one, don't commit adultery. Third one, you don't steal. And the fourth one, you don't lie or bear false witness about your neighbor. Your four duties and my four duties to my neighbor. For when I love my neighbor, I keep the Ten Commandments. That's how you love your neighbor. It's also how you love God, by the way. The first four commandments are all about loving God. What does it mean to love God? Well, no other gods before Him. Don't make a graven image, don't worship him in the wrong way. Don't take his name in vain. We should never use God's name lightly. Never say, oh my God. Never say that, never say it. It's blasphemy friends. And keep his day holy. Worship day, Sunday, every time. In the Lord's house, hearing his word and singing his praise. It's the Lord's day, not your day, not my day, his day. Let's honour him. That's how you love God. and that's how we love our neighbor that's why Jesus said he summed up the law when someone asked him about it he said asked him about the law Jesus said spoke about loving God loving our neighbor got the Ten Commandments in one sentence wow what a Bible teacher he was so there's the tail bearer a tail bearer then speaks falsely lies or unjustly about his or her neighbor. Now what we're going to do this morning is not just focus on one passage but to go through because in sometimes in the book of Proverbs you get a character that comes on one page and then you don't meet him for a few chapters then you meet him on another page and then another page and so on. and so this is how we're going to study the tail bearer we just read that one it's the first mention in the book of Proverbs he reveals secrets he can't keep a confidence question can you keep a confidence can you keep something secret if you're asked to keep it secret or have you got to divulge it now normally a child can't keep a secret. You know them? They've got to tell someone. But we're not children, are we? And we need to be grown-ups in this matter. A tail-bearer reveals secrets and sometimes it's damaging to someone else. The words of a tail-bearer are tasty trifles. Now, in the authorised version it says wounds. The idea here is tasty trifles is there's something juicy about this and of course gossip is like that and that is how a lot of the magazines and newspapers and programs make their money they hook people in with sometimes a salacious tale about this or that or the other it's gossip friends It's the tail bearer again and it can go right down into a person's innermost body. Tasty trifles or wounds. Passes on gossip. Shares things that would be better left unsaid. What about this? He who goes about as a tail-bearer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips. The Bible says he who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet because we can puff him up, make him feel great about himself and the next thing you know pride goes before the fall. So the tail-bearer then, what does he do here? He causes problems for others, therefore we should keep away from the tail bearer. Don't allow him or her to gain your ear. And the fourth one. Where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Terrible to see the fires this week in Southern California, Los Angeles. Whole communities burnt down. You know the Bible compares words to a fire and a forest fire can be kindled with one cigarette with one match with one piece of glass in the wrong place and the sun comes through and the next thing you know you have a blaze and communities and churches can be upset big time by the tail bearer but where there is no wood the fire goes out and where there is no tail bearer The strife ceases. Forest fires caused by a single flame. Big problems in our lives, in our families, in our communities, in our places of work and sadly in our churches sometimes by tail bearing. The Bible is very bang on when it speaks about death and life in the power of the tongue. How often we have failed in this department. We struggle to speak as we should. Most of a man's sins are in his words said the Puritan and it's true we have to be careful how we speak and what we say. Who's the first tail bearer? In the Garden of Eden Satan came to Eve and said has God said introducing doubt But then a little bit later, Eve said, well no, we can eat the trees of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we must not eat. Satan then told a lie, you shall not surely die, and then he maligned the character of God, because he said, God knows that in the day you eat of it, you'll be like gods. In other words, God is keeping something back from you. Satan was maligning the character of God. He is the first deceiver, the first liar and the first tail bearer then. And when we do this, whose work are we doing? We're doing his work. So he's the first person then that we need to meet in this passage today. This is talking about sins, sins of word and how careful we need to be and how much we need, all of us, to be forgiven for those wrong words that we've spoken. Let me introduce you to another one. If the tail bearer was an example to avoid, this person is the example to follow. He's called the encourager. You don't find that word in the book of Proverbs, just to summarise what he's like. We met him in verse 21 of chapter 10. The lips of the righteous feed many. Isn't that great? The picture here of someone whose words are a blessing, are an encouragement to you, are a way of building you up, I'm helping you out, the encourager. Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression. There's two things which cause depression in the book of Proverbs. One of them is anxiety in the heart of man, the other is a disappointed hope. We won't be speaking about that today. But this one, the anxiety in the heart of man causes depression. Anxious, you're worried about something and a good word an encouraging word can make your heart glad the encourager can take away the anxiety and can build you up and put you in a better place he brings comfort with his words the Holy Spirit Jesus said after I'm gone the Holy Spirit will come and he is called the comforter because he brings comfort and encouragement as one of his ministries to us as God's people a good word makes it glad and it's good to get a good word isn't it a soft answer that's not a foolish answer but it's a gentle answer so you got a conflict somewhere along the line and it gets worse and he says that and she says that and he says that and someone says this and this and it gets higher and higher and higher and suddenly it's a conflagration but sometimes a wise person will give a gentle answer and it's all diffused grievous words stir up anger when Gideon in the story of Gideon in the book of Judges He fought the Midianites and he won. But he didn't call the Ephraimites to come and help him. And they got upset. Pride or pique. Why didn't you call us? We could have come. Why didn't you do that? Fully, it was wrong words. And Gideon could have said something like, well you were no good, I did it all myself. He could have answered in a grievous way. But instead he didn't. He answered very wisely. he said well look I've done this but you actually killed their two kings so the gleaning that you got is greater than the harvest that I took and it's a real example of a soft answer which just diffused the whole situation and avoided a civil war in Israel at that time check it out a soft answer turns away Roth let's be those who can give a gentle answer rather than use grievous words which make it worse you've heard of the bomb disposal squad I think those men and women who do that are very brave there's a bomb left somewhere and everyone's evacuated and someone has to go in and look what's there and they have to work out how to deal with it Their lives are on the line. It could be timed to go off at any time. We have to go in, open the bomb, dismantle the mechanism for the fuse and make it safe. A soft answer turns away Roth and diffuses a situation. Let's be those who are bomb disposal experts, as it were, in the conflicts that are around us. Maybe in work, maybe in family, maybe in community. Hopefully not here. Pleasant words. A honeycomb. I got a honeycomb for Christmas. Okay, I like honey. and honey out of the honeycomb is even sweeter than out of the jar. Try it. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. Did you ever think that your words can do this for someone? They can. They can. Why don't you aspire to be one who says pleasant words and be an encourager to others to promote healing and to promote comfort. May that be your aim. May that be mine. And here's the final proverb about words. You probably know this one. A word fitly spoken at the right time is like apples of gold in pictures of silver so you walk into the art gallery and there's a lovely frame and it's a you know it's a nice silver frame it's valuable and it's depicting a bowl of apples golden apples they look so realistic it's they're almost edible you feel you can reach out to the picture and take one a word at the right time in the right way to the right person it's like apples of gold in pictures of silver the encourager builds up others brings comfort diffuses difficult situations promotes healing and comfort and he gets the timing right and he makes a difference she makes a difference in the situation do you want to be a tail bearer? or an encourager. Pray, God will make you an encourager of others. Oops, there's one more slide please Alec if you could open it up for me please. Let me tell you about the Encourager. It might be hidden if you can work on that for a minute. The Encourager is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good to think about how these proverbs relate to Him. Let me tell you about the One who is the Great Encourager of God's people. He is from all eternity the Word of the Father. OK? God's word is Jesus. The expression of God's thought is Jesus. How people know your thoughts is through what you say and what you do. The expression of God's thoughts is a person. the Son, and the expression of his actions is through another person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who interacts with our flesh. He is from all eternity the Word of God, the expression of his thought. All things were made by him, God created by speaking. He really built the universe through his word. once the Pharisees and the Sadducees wanted to arrest Jesus and so they sent along some officers, the temple officers and Jesus was preaching in the temple and the guys went along to arrest him but they couldn't do it not because they weren't powerful enough but his words overcame them and they came back and they said no man ever spoke like this man it says people were astonished at his words when people heard Jesus preached they were they were we would say blown away they were astonished at what they heard the authority the power the wisdom the grace it was all there as the Lord spoke unique in his words he was kind to sinners they brought to him a woman who'd been caught in adultery in the very act but that was unjust because the man had somehow didn't bring the man along well they should have brought both if they're going to bring either but they just picked on the woman and they brought her to Jesus and of course she was guilty and there were witnesses and Jesus came out with those wonderful words let him who is without sin cast the first stone he didn't say she was innocent he didn't say they were guilty but that was enough from the oldest to the youngest the crowd melted away why the oldest first because those of us who are older have done more sins than those of you who are younger and the whole thing was gone and Jesus was left just alone with that woman does no one condemn you? no man Lord neither do I condemn you go and sin no more He doesn't condone the sin but he does deal kindly with the sinner. What a master of words is our Lord Jesus Christ. Creator, he is the means by which the universe is created, unique in his words, kind to sinners. Often you find Jesus say to his disciples, be of good cheer, Be of good cheer. And at least three occasions he says that. He's encouraging to his followers. If you're a Christian today, do you know the Lord says that to you? Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Be of good cheer when they were in the boat. I can control the storms. Be of good cheer. I will never leave you nor forsake you. be of good cheer if you're a Christian today we should have a smile on our face and a song in our heart we can be of good cheer because Jesus is who he says he is and we belong to him but there are lots of words we could choose from the Lord isn't there the final phrase is from the cross the first words, the first words from his mouth when the pain was at its most excruciating. Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing. Willing to forgive sinners who were torturing him Amazing, isn't it? The words of our Lord Jesus Christ. They encourage you to follow. So what about your words? What are they like? How do you stack up in this weighing of words? How do I stack up? Are there any words today that you need to say sorry for? Or how many disputes and problems can be avoided by that simple word sorry? Some people can't say it you know. They can't. They struggle. They can say a million words but they can't say that one. Admission that they are in the wrong. Dear friend, if you can't say sorry, there's something seriously wrong with your Christian life. The Christian life starts with the word sorry. Not to me or man, but to God. Lord, I'm sorry. We need to be able to say sorry. Are there any words that you need to say sorry for? Maybe I'm speaking to someone today and you've never said sorry to God. Have you? Can I push you? When was it then? Did you have a time when you realized you were a sinner and that your sins sent Jesus to the cross? And was there a time when you said sorry to God for your sins and asked for forgiveness? If not, the good news is you can do that today. The door is open. The invitation is made. Come unto me, all you who are laboured and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. He's kind to sinners. He's encouraging to his followers. and he offers forgiveness to those who are sorry and turn from their sin Peter the great apostle he denied Christ three times but hey let's not be too hard he was at least in the room when the others had forsaken Christ and fled he had a northern accent we all suffer with one of those from around here and the servant girl and the men who were in the room when Jesus gathered round the fire and the Lord was on trial they were from the south they were from Jerusalem and they heard him speaking and they said you also are one of this man's followers because your speech betrays you His accent, his speech showed that he was a follower of Christ. May our speech, may your speech and my speech tell to others we follow him. May they realise that we are Christians by the words that we say and the way that we say them. Shall we pray? Lord we thank you for your word this is a convicting word Lord because we realize that all of us have failed in this area in the lives that we've lived and all of us need to be forgiven by you for those wrong words that have come out of our mouths said in the wrong way said at the wrong time said perhaps to the wrong person Lord we bow and thank you for that promise that if we confess our sins if we admit and we seek your forgiveness you are faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness and to cleanse us from all sin may that be the experience Lord of each one here today to confess their sins to you and to have asked for your forgiveness we thank you that your spirit is given to enable us not only to think right thoughts but to say right words and do good things we pray Lord that for those of us who are Christians we might be those who yield to you that we might have useful lives here on planet earth while we're here and our prayer Lord too is for any who've been hurt by words Lord we pray for your comfort and your strength and your help. May Lord the Word of God be of comfort to all of us as we're instructed by it today because we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.