Heavenly Father, we thank you again that we are gathered in your presence, in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God moving on our hearts as we consider that God breathed word that reveals to us your counsels, your heart, our Savior, the Lord Jesus, the only way to know you and the path that we who know him should walk. Father, we pray again that the Spirit of God will apply your words to our heart with power. that the words may stay with us. We might be guided in our lives by your wisdom to live in a way that brings glory to you in a way that is a blessing to us and those we know in a way that is a testimony to the truth, the wisdom and the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. The next cluster of Proverbs that I think we see together are in Proverbs 10 verses 6 through 14. It really falls out into two sections when we'll consider those in two sermons. Let me show you how this is a cluster. It's a cluster that centers around one really big theme, and that really big theme is the mouth. Mouth is a big theme in Proverbs. I was just saying to Valerie yesterday that if I were to preach through the entire book, verse by verse, I'd have to really hit a thesaurus hard to find different ways to say about the mouth, about speech, about communication, about talking about because that's a big theme in all of Proverbs, because it's a big theme in our lives. So let's look at this section. I translated all of it for you in your outline and read verses six and eleven. Blessings come to the head of the righteous man. but the mouth of wicked men conceals violence. Then verse 11, a fountain of life is the mouth of the righteous man, but the mouth of wicked men conceals violence. Now you notice both of those verses, lines B, have the exact same words. And those exact same words, those identical words, mark those two verses in this case as heads of two sections. Two sections of four verses each. Verses 6 through 9 and verses 11 through 14. Look again at those two verses. Verse 6 is about the head and the mouth. Look at verse 11. It's about the mouth and the mouth. So you see it escalates the emphasis on the mouth. And as you look in these sections, you see mouth in verse 6, in verse 11 two times, in verse 14. So it's in the first verse of each section and the last verse of the whole. You see lips also, verses 8, 10, and 13. And you see other spoken things sprinkled throughout this cluster, throughout this section, such as verse six, blessings. Blessing, as I'll show you, is something good you say, something a good you call for, a good you pronounce on someone or a good God pronounces on someone. Verse seven talks about the name, which is what we call each other. It's the word we say to designate ourselves and other people. Verse eight talks about commands, which are spoken directives. And so speech, the mouth, the tongue, the lips, that's throughout this whole section. That's the emphasis. So the emphasis of this section generally is on the mouth and the effect it has on us with two emphases, two focus points. The first section, verses six through nine, which we'll look at today, focus on the mouth and its effect on us. And then the last section, verses 11 through 14, focus on the mouth and its effect on others. So the first section is the mouth and me. The second section is the mouth and you. And you may be asking, why do you keep skipping verse 10? Because verse 10 is a hinge verse. It's what we call a Janus. It looks both ways. You see that it's a reverse. If I were to do it visually, it's like this. Line A points forward to the next section. Line B points backward to the previous section. You see? Line A is the winker of eye will cause pain. That's the effect on others. Line B is, but the dents of lips will be thrown down. That's the effect of the mouth on me. So that's kind of a hinge verse. I'll explain that more for you next week, Lord willing, because this week our focus is on verses six through nine, the surprising impact of the mouth on us in our own lives. The first in verses six through seven, then, and use your outline as we go along, please. The mouth and lingering effects. What's done with the mouth casts a long shadow on us now and throughout our lives and indeed through eternity. And that's the focus of these two verses, the mouth and lingering effects. First of all, right now, verse six says, blessings come to the head of the righteous man, but the mouth of wicked men conceals violence. So the first person we see, obviously, is the righteous man. Lion A, blessings come to the head of the righteous man. Who is he? In the book of Proverbs, the word righteous usually is describing the fruit assuming the root. It focuses on the fruit, it implies the root. Know what I mean by that? The fruit of being righteous in God's eyes is always Genesis 15.6. What do we read in Genesis 15.6? Abram believed Yahweh and he counted it to him as righteousness. So this is an imputed righteousness, a position of being righteous before God's court that is given to us by grace alone through faith alone. Abram simply trust the word of God. God credits righteousness to him. But that faith through which he's counted righteous is a faith that becomes a living faith. That faith makes a difference in the life. So the person who is believed in the word of God. is motivated by that faith in the word of God to live in a way that goes along with God's word, a way that what I want to say harmonizes with God's commandments. And that's what's described in the word as being righteous. So the righteous person is the person who has trusted the word of God and encountered righteous by grace alone and who seeks to live as a result of that faith righteously. He lives according to the word of God, which he's believed in. It has an impact on his life. So he's a believer. He's a God fearer. He's somebody who walks with God. That's who the righteous person is. What comes to him, verse six says, blessings come to the head of righteous men. The head of. That's a figure of speech. If you want a 25 cent word called a synecdoche. A synecdoche is where you just sing out one part, but you mean the whole thing. Like if somebody says, well, I've got 25 hired hands. Does he mean he's got 25 hired hands, just a pile of hands out in his front yard? No, he's got the men who are attached to the hands. We just described the whole person by hired hand. Or if somebody says he's got a hundred head of cattle, I don't even want to think about what that would mean if you thought it just meant that. But obviously, a hundred head of cattle means including the cattle that's attached to the head. We're just calling them by one part. That's a synecdoche. So when Solomon says, blessings come to the head of the righteous man, it doesn't mean his head as opposed to the rest of them. It means to him. It comes to the whole person. Blessings come to the righteous man. Now, blessings is interesting. We want to understand what Solomon means when he says that blessings come to the head of the righteous man. A blessing is a verbal thing and it can have, to be general, it can have two emphases. A blessing might be pronouncing good or asking for good. You know one very famous blessing. It's in Numbers chapter six. If you read number six, God tells Aaron and his sons to bless the congregation of Israel. He uses that word, bless the congregation of Israel. And he says, when you bless them, use these words. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So you see, there's a pronouncement of God's good that God directs the priest to give. And that's what a blessing is. It's asking God to do good. It's a pronouncement of good. The priest is saying, may God do these things for you. That's a blessing. Or once you receive the blessing you've asked for, then you can call that a blessing. It's receiving the good that we've asked for. That in itself is a blessing. I pray that God do me good. that he bless me and when I receive that good, that good I receive is a blessing. The priests pronounce good on Israel when they receive the presence of God and the peace of God and the protection of God. That is a blessing. It's God giving what he's been asked to give. So you apply that here. And what does it say when it's what does it mean when Solomon says blessings come to the head of the righteous man? Well, it means this. That when I walk in God's ways, when I fear God and I seek to walk in God's ways, I'm a benefit to people around me. I'm a blessing, if you will, to people around me. And so they pray for me. They pray that God will do me good. And that good that God does me is blessings. People bless me. People ask God to do me good because of the life that I live in God's ways. And so blessings come to my head as I walk in God's ways. There's a vivid depiction of that in Job 29. And I've written those verses down for you in your outline. Job 29, verses 7 and 11 through 17. I'll read. You can turn there if you like. Job is remembering the days past of his blessed past. And in verse seven, he says, when I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square. Now, the significance of that most of you will know is that he's saying that he had a prominent place when he's saying he's in the gate of the city. Well, that's city hall. He's saying he had a position of some leadership. Now, you know, the saying power corrupts. An absolute power corrupts absolutely. It depends on the person. Job had power. What did he do with his power? He describes it in verses 11 and following. He says, when the ear heard what he was doing, it called me blessed. And when the eye saw it, it approved because here's what he did with his power. Verse 12, because I delivered the poor who cried for help and the fatherless who have none to help him. The blessing. Here's the same word Solomon uses. Birkath, the blessing of him who was about to perish, came upon me. In other words, him who was about to perish, asked God to bless Job because Job rescued people like that. And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, the word Solomon uses, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth. Now, this is a book that Solomon would have had. As I said in the past, the best guide to understanding what Solomon meant is to look at the Bible that he had. He didn't have the Bible we have, but he had a number of books. And one of those books, I believe, would have been the book of Job. And here's the description of the blessing that comes to a man who lives in a righteous way. That righteous way is a way that honors the two great commandments, as Jesus will later say. Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Job used that priority. He loved God and he loved his neighbor. He did good to those in the city. And so they called for God to bless him. Of course, Job's point at that point was that he wasn't having a very blessed life at the moment. But that's another subject for another sermon, probably. It does illustrate the meaning of the word to us. Blessings come to the head of the righteous. Line B turns us to think about the wicked, a very different walk, a very different lot. But the mouth of wicked men conceals violence. So what does the mouth of the wicked conceal? Violence. Now, it suggests when Solomon writes that their mouth conceals violence, it suggests that that's not what's on the outside. That's not what they talk. That's not what they broadcast. But it is what's on the inside. It's like some Psalms that, again, Solomon could have read because they came from his father, David, just to pick one out, Psalm 55. Psalm 55, 20 and 21 laments, My companion stretched out his hand against his friends. He violated his covenant. His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Smooth talk, violence on the inside. We know our Lord Jesus was surrounded with people like that. Once in Matthew 22, the Pharisees wanted to catch him and they thought they could outsmart him. Oh boy, oh boy, what a miscalculation, but they thought they could. So they sent Herodians saying, teacher, we know that you were true and teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anybody's opinion for you were not swayed by appearances. Whoa, did they try to butter him up? And what came after that? Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? They were wanting to trap him. Their words were flattering and swelling and gracious, but they hoped that he would either get himself in trouble with Caesar by saying don't pay tax or in trouble with the people by seeming to be a disloyal, a turncoat, loyal to Caesar instead of to Israel. So you see, that's what is inside the mouth of the wicked. And look at the contrast that Solomon is painting. He says, blessings come to the head of the righteous. They're as if it were a crown on his head that everybody can see. But the mouth of the wicked, what's on the outside isn't what's on the inside. The mouth conceals violence. Violence is what's inside of them. Violence is what's in their heart. Now, what does that reveal about the wicked? The fact that his mouth conceals violence. It reveals about him something true to the theme of the whole book of Proverbs. What is the theme of the whole book of Proverbs? It is living in the fear of Yahweh and that his mouth conceals violence, reveals that he does not fear Yahweh. Now, how does it do that? Well, first of all, it reveals he doesn't fear Yahweh because he is unmoved by Yahweh's command. to love his neighbor as himself. If he loved his neighbor as himself, he wouldn't be planning violence against any of his neighbor. He wouldn't be thinking of ways to harm anybody, right? He'd be thinking of ways to help, serve, do good to people. Instead, he's plotting violence. But then the second and perhaps subtler thing, the way in which this reveals that he doesn't fear Yahweh, is because if he feared Yahweh, he'd know that all a man's ways are before Yahweh. As Proverbs says, he would know that God's eyes search the hearts and the minds. He would know that it's impossible to deceive God. It's impossible by some external show to flatter God and to fool God into thinking that we are what we aren't as if God can't see what's inside. And he wouldn't try to live a double life. He wouldn't try to be two people because he would care most about how God saw him. And he would know that God sees what's inside of his mouth. That's what it reveals about him. He doesn't fear God. And what does it mean to him when it says that the mouth of the violent conceals violence? Well, the word of God is pretty plain about where the course of violence leads, isn't it? Doesn't this take our minds back to the first discourse in the book of Proverbs? What was the first discourse? Chapter one, verses eight and following, where father and mother call to the son. What do they say in verse 10? They say, my son, if sinners entice you, what? do not consent. And what are these sinners that they imagine say? They say, come with us. Let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without cause. Well, why particularly? What do the parents hold out as being one of the issues with going with such a crowd? Get rich quick at the expense of the blood of the innocent. Verses 17 through 19. Proverbs 1, 17 through 19. Proverbs 117-19, For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. They are dumber than birds. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. So it's a Proverbs wave saying you live by the sword, you'll die by the sword. You choose the path of violence, you'll have a violent end. And so that is what lurks behind these words here. When the mouth of the wicked conceals violence, that means violence is going to be in their future. Boomerang retribution. What they sow, they'll reap. What they put out there will come back, will be brought back by God. on their own heads, not blessings. So for the righteous right now, blessings linger in the life of the righteous. Blessings linger, the blessings of God and the blessings called for by those who are benefited by the righteous. For the wicked, violence lingers. They live a violent life. They cherish violence in their hearts and mouths. They're heading for a violent end. What about the days to come in verse seven? The memory of the righteous man will be a blessing, but the name of wicked men will rot. Well, again, the righteous, the memory of the righteous man. There's an interesting ambiguity there in that word memory, the memory of the righteous man. That word memory can be translated mention, the mention, like you remember somebody by mentioning that person. Zechar is the word. So it could mean that just remembering the righteous man is itself a blessing. It's a blessing to remember somebody who's righteous. Like Hebrews 13, 7 says, Hebrews 13, 7. Hebrews 13, 7 says, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. So remember that they spoke to you the word of God. Remember that they lived out what they preached and imitate that. And that's a way of being blessed, remembering the teaching and the life of those we've known who've taught us the word of God. Or it could mean that the name of the righteous itself will be used as a blessing. Like as to say, may you be blessed as this man or that woman of God. And there are several examples of this in scripture, both of blessings and curses. To be cursed like this person or to be blessed like this person. One is in Ruth, chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. Boaz redeems Ruth and is going to marry her. The people of the city say, may the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. And then they say, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. So you see, they're using these names in blessing. That may be also part of the ambiguity here. Remembering the righteous man will be a blessing or the righteous man's name will be used in the blessing. Both are true. And Proverbs can be deliberately ambiguous like that. So his righteousness, the life he lives before God in living out the faith he has in the word of God. will create a lingering memory from his lifestyle, a lingering association. One commenter says that verse six talks about what happens to the righteous in this life. Verse seven talks about what happens after this life, the way people remember him, the way we look back at mighty men and women of God, such as Charles Spurgeon and others who've lived their faith. are blessed at that memory and we use their names in a happy and blessed way. There's a whole chapter in the Bible devoted to doing this very thing. Hebrews chapter 11. Isn't that what that is? That is remembering faith exercised by people of God in the Old Testament and gaining a blessing and encouragement from that memory. So that's the idea here. The memory of the righteous man will be a blessing, but the name of wicked men will rot. Now, both these verses start with a blessing, quite a contrast to the previous section. Remember, chapter 10, verses 1 through 5. Verse 5 ends with the fact that a stupid son who doesn't harvest and season is shameful. Well, the opposite of shameful is blessed. The righteous man will be blessed and his memory will be a blessing. However, the name of the wicked man, we're told, will rot. Now, what's his name? His name is his fame. It's his reputation. It's how people know him. It's what they think when they think of his name. You say a name and people have an association. I could say some names and depending on your politics, some of you would chuckle and other names, some of you would groan. We have associations with names or the same with people in entertainment or various famous people. Their names have a fame. Their names have a smell about them. It may be a fragrance. It may be a stink. In the case of the wicked, we're told. The name of the wicked, the name of wicked men will rot. Now, this word rod is a word that's used of meat going bad. And so their name will go the course of a corpse. And that is that there will be smell and then there will be stink and there will be rot and there will be decomposition. It'll be smelly and then it'll be gone. And that's the idea of the name of the wicked. It'll be smelly. And it'll be gone. You all know people who, or have known people who are expecting babies. You've got a nice crop of them circulating here in church in any given year. And when parents know that their child, for instance, is going to be a boy, you might ask them, what do you think you're going to name him? Well, you get a lot of different answers if they even have a name picked out, but you usually don't get the answer. I'm thinking of naming him Adolf Hitler Brown. I just, you know. That just sounds good to me. Adolf Hitler Brown. It kind of has a duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. Adolf Hitler Brown. You just don't hear that. Or you don't hear some Indian thing. Well, I'm thinking of calling him Judas Gutierrez, you know. Judas has got a ring to it. Or Osama Bin Thompson. You know, just something about that name. Strikes me like a good name. Or, I don't know, Charles Manson Gonzales. You just don't put these names together. And why? Well, these are wicked men. These are men of an evil memory and their name smells. Their name has rotted. They're not names that we use as names of blessing. And that's what this verse is saying. Daniel 12 says that in eternity, the righteous will shine like the stars of heaven. But the future of the wicked is very different. The future of the wicked is that their name will smell, it will stink and it will be at best forgotten. are used as a malediction. It will have horrible associations. And when the righteous man comes before God's judgment, his name will be in the book of life, but the name of the wicked will not be in that book. So people's mouths call for blessing on me if I am righteous, if I'm living in the fear of God. While a wicked's man mouth conceals violent plans against his neighbor, If I walk in the fear of God, people will speak of me and remember me with godly love. People who love God will when I'm gone. But if they do not, if I do not, I should say, if I do not walk in the fear of God, then godly people will remember me sadly or sorely or not at all. Secondly, then we're brought to the mouth and learning effectively, we saw the mouth and lingering effects. Now we see the mouth and learning effectively in verse eight, which reads this way. The wise of heart receives commands, but the dense of lips is thrown down. First, then we have the happy verse, line A, the happy line, the wise of heart. Who are we talking about? We're talking about the person who's wise of heart. That is the opposite of an expression that occurs about 10 times in the book of Proverbs. We've seen before, that means short on brains, short on heart. I translate it short on brains. ESV translates it lacks sense. But it means you're short on heart and heart meaning brains, meaning a good mind. And this guy's short on it. Well, the opposite of that is the wise of heart. We saw the short on brains in chapter six, verse 32. He who commits adultery lacks sense, the ESV says. He's short on brains. He who does it destroys himself. Or again in chapter 12, verse 11. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits Plays video games all day, reads comic books, watches TV. Short on brains. Lacks sense. So the wise of heart is the opposite of the person who lacks sense. And in this verse, he's the opposite of the dense of lips. That's what's in line B. Why is he wise of heart? Well, he's wise of heart because he fears Yahweh in his heart. Remember Proverbs 4.23. Above all that you guard, guard your heart, because from it flow the issues of life. And in his heart, he fears Yahweh. It's not just talk with him. It's not just theory with him. He actually fears Yahweh. And so, that's why he, what? Receives commands. This is what he does. He receives commands. To receive is to welcome something. It is to accept something. To make it mine. To receive is the opposite of spurning it, of ignoring it, of neglecting it, of forgetting it, of forsaking it, of belittling it. You see, it's the opposite of all those things Solomon warns us not to do with the Word of God. And it lives in the happy pool of all those things he tells us to do with the Word of God. Listen, think about, attend to, remember, accept, live. That's what it is to receive commands and to receive commands. Now, what are commands? That word is used a number of times in the book of Proverbs. always for God's word as taught by the parents. That's what commands are. Commands are and are their authoritative directions for life, their directions for how to live, what to do, what not to do, given with authority. That's what a command is. It's directions given with the authority of God. It's interesting. We see that word ten times in Proverbs, seven of them in the first nine chapters. So in these introductory chapters by the parents leading on to the rest of the book, Command is stressed, the need to accept authoritative direction from God. And then the other three times are here and chapters 13 and 19. So I've given you a little paragraph summarizing the uses of that word. If you were to look all these verses up, as I'd encourage you to do that, you'd see here's what the son is to do. Here's what a wise son does with the commands of God taught by parents. He's to treasure them up. His heart is to guard them. He's to keep them so that he can live. It is a lamp in the world's darkness. If he fears it, he will enjoy reward. And in keeping it, he keeps his soul. So someone else's mouth gives the commands. Ultimately, the mouth of God gives these commands and the wise son doesn't spur them, doesn't neglect them, doesn't ignore them, doesn't forget them. He receives them. He takes them to heart. That's what the wise of heart does. So this is a real dividing point. It's sad to see that there are so many who name the name of Christ who just can't take directions. They can't take commands. They bristled at the very thought of an authority outside themselves. I even had a man in a church I pastored who bristled at commands coming from the Bible. He had a theology that he would have called a theology of grace that didn't leave any place for commands from Jesus, the apostles, or God. And he finally left the church because he didn't like continually hearing, well, you know, the New Testament, which is full of commands and full of directions from God, The mark of the person who's wise at heart isn't that he argues about commands. It isn't that he tries to explain away commands or he tries to come up with very complicated interpretations that make them not be commands, but he accepts commands. He knows he needs them. He knows that that's what he desires from God. Who else better to give us directions than God? He yearns to know God's directions. And when he's taught them, when he sees them in God's word, He accepts them. He receives them. That's the mark of a wise heart. Do you know anybody who was like that all the time? I had you till I said all the time, huh? You might have known people who were like that, but not all the time. Well, I know one person who was like that all the time, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He was like that all the time. God incarnate talked that way about his heavenly father. God incarnate did not think that it was demeaning to him to take commands from God the Father. John chapter 12, verses 49 and 50. John 12, 49 and 50. Jesus says, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father told me. God, the Son, delighted to accept and carry out the commands of the Father. And here's the thing. God, the Son, tells us to grow to be the same way. He tells us to head in the same direction, to pray and strive for the same quality of life. Am I making this up? I am not. John 14, verse 15. If you love me, you will what? keep my commandments. It's like he's read Proverbs or something like that. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And John 14 21 says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. It was the mark of the Lord Jesus and he calls for it to be the mark of his students, the mark of those who believe in him. Now, the future of the wise in heart is implied here when you contrast it with line B. Line B says the dents of lips will be thrown down. Line A doesn't tell us what will happen to the wise of heart, but the implication is that it will happen to him opposite to what happens to the dents of lips in line B. So if the dents of lips is thrown down, then the wise of heart will be held up He'll be supported. He'll have a stable walk upheld by the hand of God. As another verse of Proverbs says, even if he falls seven times, he'll get up. God will rise him up, will raise him up. That's the fruit of his life. But line B calls us to consider the dents of lips, the dents of lips. The wise of heart receives commands, but the dents of lips is thrown down. What does it mean to say he's dents of lips? It means that he's a dense person and you especially tell it by his lips. That's the mark of the dense person. How can you tell he's dense when his mouth gets working? That's the revelation he did. He did OK till he started talking and his lips showed what a dense person he is. This word dense occurs 19 times in Proverbs and he shows his denseness, his thick headedness by his mouth. I give you a number of verses reworded there, but I'd encourage you to read the verses. The wise listens and he learns, but on the other hand, the dense person blabs and ruins. The wise loves to listen. The wise loves to learn. The dense loves to talk. And the more he talks, the worse it gets. So bloated with self-confidence is he that he will not listen to advice. Why would he need advice? He knows everything already. He's got it all together. Dense of lips. He verbally blows up at the slightest provocation. He's touching inside. He knows that his position is precarious. He knows the judgment of God in his heart. He's trying to distract himself from that. And one little provocation and boy, the words of anger start flowing from his mouth. His mouth is constantly getting him in trouble, constantly writing checks he can't count. He can't cash. Constantly his worst feature. Constantly causing ruin for himself and others. And finally, he loves to argue endlessly and abusively and pointlessly. Ever known anybody like any of this? No, of course not. Yes, we all have. And some of us have at times perhaps been someone like this till God chastens us. That's what it is to be dense of lips. Rather than listen and learn, he blabs and heads for a smackdown. So, heads for a smackdown, I say? Yep. But the dense of lips is thrown down. People are going to know him for what he is. There's a verse, Proverbs 17, 28, that says, even a fool, and it uses that word dense, a wheel, even a dense person who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he's deemed intelligent. The implication is once he opens his mouth, the secret's out. I think it's Abraham Lincoln who said it's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think that you're a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. He doesn't get the sense of that. He opens his mouth and people know, oh, this is a dense guy. This talk about being dense of lips makes me think of a character in Pilgrim's Progress, a character, who am I thinking of? Who do you think I'm thinking of? Anybody know? Talkative. A character called Talkative. pilgrim and the Christian and faithful meet. His name is talkative because he loves to talk about the things of God. In fact, he says, what thing is so pleasant and what's so profitable as to talk of the things of God? And faithful answers him and says, that is true. But to be profited by such things in our talk should be that which we design. And he says, well, that's what I said. For to talk of such things is most profitable, for by so doing a man may get knowledge of many things, as of the vanity of earthly things, and the benefit of things above. Thus, in general, but more particularly by this, a man may learn the necessity of the new birth, the insufficiency of our works, the need of Christ's righteousness, etc. Besides, by this a man may learn by talk what it is to repent, to believe, to pray, to suffer, or the like. By this also a man may learn what are the great promises and consolations of the gospel to his own comfort. Further, by this a man may learn to refute false opinions, to vindicate the truth, and also to instruct the ignorant. But the reason why he's called talkative is because it's all talk with him. And to expose him, then Christian engages him in dialogue and talks about doing, talks about mortifying the flesh, talks about living in righteousness and self-denial. Well, then he loses interest because that's not the talk he wanted at all. He loves to talk about religion. He is great at affirming it, but he does deny the power of it. It has no power in his life. Talk religion doesn't save. Talk religion damns. Do you know that Satan could ace theology exams that would destroy you and me? No matter how much you've studied the Bible, he could ace a test. Talk, yeah, yeah, he can do that. But his heart does not kneel to the Lordship of God in love and adoration, nor does any lost person. The issue is what is the heart doing with those truths? Not does the mouth like to talk or hear talk about those truths, But what's the heart and life's response to those truths? The Apostle John strikes this note a number of times, and he's very, very pointed. I read a commentary once that worked really hard to make him say the opposite of what he's saying, but what he's saying is really pretty plain. It doesn't take a rocket science degree to interpret. First John 2, verse 4. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. His mouth says the right thing, but these dense lips are not saying anything that the heart reflects. He says, I know him. And if we could be saved by claiming to have faith, well, he'd be saved. But the Bible doesn't say we're saved by claiming to have faith. It says we're saved through faith. It says that faith bears fruits. We're saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves does not remain alone. It bears fruits in our lives. Those fruits show in how we respond to God's commands. And this man wants no part on it. Remember, a command by definition requires action, not just admiration. It's not enough to just think, well, that's a fine moral code in that Bible. That Bible has a fine moral code and never touch it and never be touched by it. Now it's a matter of seeing it and acting on it and responding to it as a command, accepting commands. That's the wise of heart. But the dense of lips is thrown down. He's thrown down. He's headed for a smackdown because his words will not save him. His words will condemn him. Thirdly, the mouth and living earnestly, verse nine. The mouth and living earnestly. Seen lingering effects. We've seen learning effectively. Now we see living earnestly in verse nine. First, the way of integrity, which is set out for us in line A in terms of cause and effect. Cause and effect. He who walks with integrity will walk trustfully. So the cause is a walk of integrity. What does integrity mean? It's a very interesting word often used in the Bible, used sometimes in a literal sense and often in a metaphorical sense. What it means is it means to be whole. It means to be of one piece, like we talk about when we say something is integrated, that everything's connected together. It's a one piece. It's not 25 separate things going in 25 different directions. He is a person of one piece. He's a person who's all connected together by something that holds everything in common. It's the opposite of line B. What is line B? He who twists his ways. That person's here and there and all over the map. This person is an integrated person. He doesn't say one thing and then do another. He says one thing and he does that. He is what he professes. What he says is what he does. What he says he believes is the way he lives. Psalm 8611 is a wonderful verse to memorize for prayer. And this is the prayer of this man, Psalm 8611. He says, if you can turn there quickly, I'd encourage you to do that. It's a wonderful verse. His prayer is, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Well, there's a series of sermons and that verse isn't there. Teach me your way, O God, O Lord. In other words, lay out for me your will, your values, your right and your wrong, your directions. Well, we could say it in a word, your commands. Teach me your way, O Lord, but not so that I may know them and be smarter than other people. What does he say? That I may walk in your truth. Show me the path and I'll walk it. Not show me the path and I'll sell a map to other people. Show me the path and I'll get my shoe leather going down that path. Show me your way. Teach me your way that I may walk in your truth. And I have prayed this second part so many times. Unite my heart to fear your name. Unite my heart. In other words, it views the heart as the heart often is. Is it not distracted in so many different directions? Tempted here, distracted there, running all over the place if left to itself. But what he's saying is, God, I'm praying for your grace to work in my thinking, work in the center of my personality, in my heart, and unite all this on one theme, the theme of fearing your name. that all the energies and the abilities of my heart created and recreated in you birth may be united to fear you, united in devotion of you, united in holding you as Lord. So that is the prayer of that man. And to walk with integrity is to live what you profess. There's two terrible errors. One is the error that denigrates profession, says, well, you shouldn't talk, you should just live. Win people by a winsome life. Just set an example. Nobody ever went to heaven because he saw a winsome example. Amen? The gospel is not watching people live. The gospel is good news. It's particular information about Jesus. But the person who preaches that information can deny or adorn the news that he's preaching. He can live a life that says that to him it's a lie, or he can live a life that says to him it's a life. So it's a great error to say, well, all that matters is what you do. But it's equally a great error to say that all that matters is what you say. That all that matters is having an orthodox creed or an orthodox profession or orthodox opinions. Nobody is saved by orthodox opinion. What matters is to confess Jesus as Lord and have a life that says amen to that confession. It is pretty much as simple as that, but we work that out for the whole rest of our lives. That's the bottom line of what we're working out. We profess Jesus as Lord and we learn to live like it. We seek God's grace to live like it. We seek the Spirit's enabling to live like it. We learn the word of God to live like it. But it's all a matter of living out that profession of Jesus's Lordship. So to live with integrity is to live what we profess, to make the right profession and to walk accordingly. It's the marriage of the two, not the divorce of the two, you see. So it's not saying, oh, yeah, Jesus, he's a great guy and then spending no time in his Word at all when I have free time. I just think Jesus is the greatest. Really, what did you read in the Bible yesterday? Oh, I don't remember. How about the day before that? I think nothing. Oh, I flipped open to a page and saw a verse that was kind of interesting, something about Parbar. Changed my life. Yeah. I don't think that's not living out the Lordship of Christ. That's not living out that profession. If you think that you can live the profession, Jesus is Lord, but have no idea what the Lord Jesus teaches, what the Lord Jesus has done, what the Lord Jesus is going to do. what the Lord Jesus directs us to think and do and be. So it's not professing Jesus as Lord, but spending no time in his words, not professing Jesus as Lord, but surrounding myself with friends who don't share that profession, who don't even know that I believe in Jesus. And if they did, would probably stop being my friends. That's not the life of integrity. The life of integrity is to say that Jesus is Lord and sit daily at his feet, learning, of him, his heart, his will, his direction, his person. It's saying Jesus is Lord and walking that truth and seeking God's grace daily to show his Lordship in my life. It's saying Jesus is Lord and telling others about him, about his Lordship and pointing them to him. That's a walk. And so the cause is a walk of integrity. Effect is a walk of trust, a walk of trust. What does Solomon mean when he says that he will walk trustfully? Think about what we learned about trust when we studied chapter 3, verse 5. It wasn't what most people think that verse means. Most people think trust in the Lord with all your heart just means have the absolute conviction that things are going to work out, or God's going to take care of you, or God will make everything fine eventually. He'll watch over you. No, that's not what that verse means at all in context. Trust for God means taking Him at His word. I trust God when I trust His word. I trust his word when I learn it and live by it. And that's what that means. To trust him with all my heart is to trust his word, learn it, live by it. So my walk of integrity will be a walk of trust. Trust that everything that he says about himself and his word is true. Trust that everything that he says about me and his word is true. Trust that everything he says about his promises and his plans and his provisions for me is true. Trust that his direction for how to handle my life is always the best because it comes from the best heart, the most wise heart, the most loving heart, the most holy and the most righteous heart. And so I will never think of a better way to handle things than the way my God directs me to handle things. And so I trust him. I learn his word. I live by it. Sin, carnality, all of that comes from a failure to trust. Everyone who goes his own way, who goes the way of sin or the ways of the passion of the flesh isn't trusting. That's the bottom line. He doesn't trust God's provision. He doesn't trust God's word. And so the man of integrity walks a walk of trust. The ways of perversity, line B, but he who twists his ways will be found out. What is reality twisted? Well, reality itself isn't under debate. It is God's word and God's world. And it is what God says it is. Life is what God says life is. Things work the way God says they work. But the crooked person is the person who sets his heart on deviating from that. God says this about marriage, but he's got his own ideas. God says this about meaning in life. He's got his own ideas. God says this about property, about relationships, about many things. But he wants to come up with his own ideas. He wants to be, in short, his own God. And so he walks away that's deviant. It's deviated from God's ways. And he thinks he's being brilliant. He just thinks he's getting away with murder, murder of God. He's removed God from anyone he needs to care about. And he thinks he's doing a brilliant, wonderful, noble thing. And he's living a charade. I would encourage you to read Psalm 10. Psalm 10. You've got your pencil for there. It is an exposé of exactly this attitude. We quote from Psalm 10, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. But if you read the Psalm, he believes there's a God. He just believes that God's irrelevant. He can do what he wants to do. He can live as he wants to live. And God's not going to bring anything to him for it. God's not going to bring any consequences. There's no God that he needs to worry about. And that's a charade. That is walking in twisted ways, but it's a charade. So reality triumphant is what is shown in the last clause. He who twists his ways, what? will be found out. I remember a time when I was a kid, I didn't understand how bowling went. A friend invited me bowling and I thought that was great fun and we just bowled and bowled and bowled. I didn't realize that the longer we bowled, the bill was going up. I was that young, I didn't know that. The more we bowled and the guy came and said, you know, can you really afford to pay for all this? Pay? I thought that was the greatest thing. And then reality came in. Well, it's going to come in for people who walk with twisted ways as well. They think they got a great thing going, but then there's this court date that they will never be able to avoid. With this judge, they will never be able to snow. And I've given you some verses that point to that. Ecclesiastes 12. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. To the person who hasn't made peace with God through Christ, those are words of terror. Every secret thing. Your wife doesn't even know. You've persuaded yourself and you've forgotten about yourself. You know who has not forgotten? That would be God. God will bring every secret thing to judgment. Paul says the same, Romans 2.16. He speaks of the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of man by Christ Jesus. When God judges the secrets of man by Christ Jesus. And then Revelation 20 speaks of a time when earth and sky flee away from the face of God and no place is found from them. And the dead are raised. Death and Hades give up the dead that is in them. People who may have thought that they could hide in death find the death and Hades hand them over to the judge. They stand before God and God judges. God has a book of life and he has a book of works. And these whose names were not written in the book of life are judged by their works. And every last one of them is condemned. Every last one of them is sentenced. Every last one of them is sent into the lake of fire. Yes, Jesus says that we will be judged by his word, by our words and how we respond to his word. Jesus says that what's whispered in secret will be shouted from the housetop. And Solomon says that the one who twists his ways will be found out. His secrets will be judged. God will judge his life. He'll have a day when everything is called to account before this God and The charade is over. The charade is over and it's over forever. And it's over without any hope. So you see, through these verses, the mouth makes a huge difference in our lives now and our lives in days to come. Jesus said we would be judged by our words, and indeed we will be. Jesus said to confess him as Lord with our mouth. And Jesus says to keep his commands if we love him. to have lips that confess God's truth and a life that adorns that truth. This is the only way to know God's blessings on our head. It's the only way to be remembered as a blessing by others who we serve in God's name. It's the only way to walk with integrity and have grounded trust in God's care for us. And it's the only way to avoid that crooked path, which, though it looks right to our eyes, Surely and certainly ends in destruction. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and for the clear counsel that has given us the direction that you have given us, the revelation you've given us, contrary to human wisdom, but according to the eternal wisdom of God. Father, may these words burn in our hearts and minds and affect our lives, that our lives may adorn a profession of faith in Christ. The people will hear us saying that Jesus is Lord, and they will look at our lives and see, yes, indeed, to us, Jesus is Lord. And Father, we would pray for any who's come in today not knowing Jesus as Savior. We pray that you will draw those people to trust Him, to believe in the Lord Jesus, that they might be saved by your grace alone. You know, among your family, among we who are your children today, there's not a one of us. who wasn't wicked. There's not a one of us who didn't walk crookedly. There's not a one of us who didn't despise you in our hearts. But one day your grace found us. You arrested us. You convicted us of the truth of Jesus Christ and you drew us to saving faith. We pray that they will know that same transforming grace, Father, through the gospel of Christ. Now, Father, we also pray for the fellowship we're about to enjoy in our fellowship meal. We pray that you'll bless it, guide our conversation and our time together. And again, we thank you for your goodness, your love, and for being our Father through Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.