You would please take out your Bibles and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. We're going to do something tonight which is a little different for us in our study of Ecclesiastes. Because of the nature of the book, I've tried to cover a lot of territory rather quickly. Just by the way it's written, it's not the type of book that you get down and really analyze it verse by verse and spend a lot of time on just one verse. Last week, for instance, we got through almost the entirety of chapter 10. We missed it by just one verse. And that was because verse 20, just had too much in it. I wanted to give it justice. And so I saved it for this week, thinking that perhaps I could just start there and then go on into chapter 11. And as I did that in my study, I realized that verse 20 really, truly could probably just stand on its own. So tonight, God willing, we will look just at one single verse in Ecclesiastes, and that would be chapter 10, verse 20. But, for the reading portion, to set this verse up, I will back up a little bit and begin reading at verse 11, and we will read through the end of a chapter, verse 20. So, Ecclesiastes 10, verses 11-20. A serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The babbler is no different. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be. Who can tell him what will be after him? The labor of fools wearies them, for they do not even know how to go to the city. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes feast at the proper time. For strength and not for drunkenness. Because of laziness the building decays, and through idleness of hands the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry, but money answers everything. Do not curse the king, even in your thought. Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom. For a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter. Amen. Let's go before the Lord in prayer. Our blessed God Almighty, we do thank you for your holy word. Lord, we pray that we would understand and write these words of wisdom from the wise man. God help us. They are words that echo through time, and now we pray, Lord, that they would be properly understood and properly applied to our lives. Lord, we freely admit that we need your help, desperately so. God help us apply these things to our lives. May we be all the wiser after we read and study this tonight. God help us. God bless us. For your glory's sake, for your name's sake, we pray through Jesus Christ. Amen. So you've heard the saying, a little birdie told me so. A little birdie told me so. Perhaps someone has come up to you and said something to you that you didn't know anybody else knew. A little birdie told me that you were having a birthday. Or a little birdie told me you got a promotion at work. Where does that come from? We all know that saying. We've all heard that saying. We probably have all used that saying. Where does it come from? Well, I did a little study and it would seem, we can't be dogmatic about this, but it would seem that it's most commonly attributed to our text here tonight. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 20. For a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter. In other words, a little birdie will tell. And so Solomon has been sharing some proverbs, some wise sayings, and of course Solomon of all people would be properly fitted for that. He's been sharing some wise proverbs, some wise sayings with us, and they put wisdom on display. Because remember, he's been talking about how wisdom in this life of Havel, this life of vanity, this life here under the sun, wisdom is limited. It's limited by our sin, and it's limited, ultimately, by death. But, even under those circumstances, even with those limitations, wisdom is very profitable. Wisdom is something worth pursuing. And so he's been putting that on display, showing us the value of wisdom. And so we saw that in our study of chapter 10 last week. And as I mentioned, I want to slow down at this point. I want to look at this one verse and look at the wisdom that is there because it is so very applicable to our lives. And so I've titled this message, Wisdom in Guarding the Tongue. Wisdom in Guarding the Tongue. And in this chapter, Solomon has been focusing on the fool's speech, and he's been contrasting it with the speech of the wise man. We just read this in verse 12, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. And then he contrasts it, the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. So in other words, the fool's mouth tends to get him in big trouble. The fool's mouth tends to get him in big trouble. Verse 13, the words of his mouth, that is the fool's mouth, begin with foolishness. That's where they start. And the end of his talk is raving madness. And we looked at this last week. The fool doesn't start talking in foolishness and then get better. His words don't start off as foolish and then as he continues to talk, he slowly gets better and more wise. No. He starts off with foolish talk. And it only goes downhill from there. It gets worse as he goes. And of course, verse 14 tells us, a fool also multiplies words. Fools love to talk. They want to tell you all that they know. And so it's very easy in that regard to see a fool, to know a fool, to identify a fool. Because they're always talking. They're always talking foolishness. And so, with that contrast in mind, Solomon provides us with this proverb in verse 20. He says, So, in other words, be careful. Guard your mouth. Better yet, guard your thoughts. And of course, you can't talk about the tongue, the wisdom of the tongue, or the lack of wisdom of the tongue, the problem with the tongue. You can't discuss that without looking at the writings of James. So if you would, please turn to the book of James, James chapter 3. We'll be there for a little bit. James chapter 3, we'll be looking at verses 8 and 9. He says this, But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. We curse men with our tongue. James says that this is because it is an unruly evil. And the Greek there pictures the tongue as an instrument that is restless. It's as if it's pacing back and forth. It's always looking, always ready, always prepared to lash out in a sinful response. That's our tongue. And he says quite clearly, it can't be tamed. The tongue can't be tamed. So what do we have to do? Well, wisdom says that it is better to have never even entertained the thought in the first place. Guard your thoughts, and you will always guard your tongue as well. Quite a few number of years ago, I was at work I was working in an office, I needed to use somebody's desk, had some paperwork I had to file, and the accountant who was in the office She was on the phone with somebody. I don't know if it was a member, or if it was a salesperson, or who it was. But I had my back turned to her, and she was talking to this person. And I could tell she wasn't getting the answer she wanted. It started to get a little heated. But she kept her composure. She kept it professional. And she said goodbye. And as she hung up the phone, she slammed the phone down and then yelled, liar! And at that point I sat up and I just reviewed in my mind, I backed up in my mind what I had just heard and I replayed it in my mind because that's how she wanted it to be. How did it actually go in real life? I distinctly remember the word liar coming out just a split second. before the phone went slamming down. And so the person on the other end may very well have heard what she said. She kept her composure. She kept it professional until that last second. I don't know if he heard what she said. I don't know what came of it. But I guarantee you she didn't want him to hear that. She made a major mistake. And as far as mistakes go, Mark Grace, we all know Mark Grace, former Chicago Cubs player, and he played on the Diamondbacks team when the Diamondbacks won the World Series. He's a celebrated hero here in Phoenix. He's worked for the Diamondbacks off and on ever since, and he does their TV announcing. He's color commentary, does a lot of the commentary. Well, a number of years ago, he got in a lot of trouble. They were at a game. Yeah, I think at another stadium, they were announcing the game. He was off air, or so he thought. He had pushed a button that was supposed to kill his mic. And he made a lot of, well, pretty foul comments about the play that was going on on the field. Made some comments about this player and that player, and he used some words that aren't allowed to go out on our TV airwaves, even to this day. Well, come to find out that the button was faulty. They were in a visiting ballpark and the electronics that they were using, maybe they weren't familiar with it, whatever, but it was faulty. It wasn't operating correctly. And so what he said, he thought, was just going to the guy sitting next to him. He didn't know that was spilling out over the airwaves. And so he got in trouble. Now, he would have preferred not to have said that. And of course, the one way he could have controlled that is to have never had those thoughts at all. And we'll remember our president, President George W. Bush. He had what was called a hot mic incident. He was at a luncheon or it was some kind of an interview, panel discussion, world leaders. The discussion was over, people were done. Someone came over and had to ask him some questions and he was talking to that person thinking that all of the microphones had been shut off. Well, they hadn't been. And our president, who professed to be a Christian, was very outspoken about that, mentioned it quite often. Well, in private, or so he thought, he used some pretty savory language, stuff that a Christian normally wouldn't use. And it was shameful, and it was embarrassing. It was a hot mic problem, they said. Well, in every single one of these instances, The tongue got these people in trouble. Words were said that should never have been said. And of course, where did those words come from? They came from thoughts that probably should have never been thought. Our tongue can get us in a lot of trouble, because once you say something, you can't take it back, no matter how much you want to. And I suspect in every single one of these incidents, These people wondered and wished, oh, I wish I hadn't said that. If only I could take that back. So hopefully you've kept your finger in the book of James, chapter 3. I want to go back to that and look at verses 2 through 8. He says, for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles? And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. And so back to our text in Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, do not curse the king. Do not curse the king. Our tongues are full of deadly poison, an unruly, a restless evil. You need to be careful what you say, and how do you do that? He says, not even in your thoughts. Do not curse the king even in your thoughts. Now does that mean that the king can read your thoughts? We shouldn't think things because the king could somehow know our thoughts? Of course not, that's silly. But what happens when you think something about somebody? Somebody's done something, they've gotten in under your skin, and it just grates against you, it makes you so angry, and you just start replaying over and over and over in your mind. If I get the opportunity, the things I will tell that person. I'm going to put him in his place. I'm going to tell her exactly what's on my mind. Now, maybe you have absolutely no real intention of doing that, but you play it over and over, and you become embittered. And what happens? Eventually, you say something to somebody, and as it seems to always work out, somehow, someway, that statement ends up getting back to that person. And it certainly says something about what's going on in your own heart. And our Lord had a lot to say about that in Matthew 12, verses 34-37. Jesus says this, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. So, there's lots of ways that we communicate. Lots of non-verbal communication. We can learn a lot about each other by maybe how we dress. You can learn a lot about somebody simply by looking at how they dress. You can learn a lot about somebody by how they carry themselves. Do they walk with confidence? Do they stand up nice and straight and strong with a confident attitude, or do they kind of look shrunken in, kind of shy and withdrawn? You can learn a lot about them maybe by the house that they have, maybe where they live, or the car that they drive, or maybe what their family is like, or maybe what kind of a job they have. But what is the number one way that we can know what somebody is like? By what they say. The words that they choose, the type of language that they choose. How do they talk? That says what's going on inside of them. That's the window into the heart. And Jesus is saying that we are known by our words, and our words are an expression of the abundance of our hearts. It's not as though we're getting a little tiny sliver of what's going on in our heart. It's not that we get a tiny little picture. No, this is the abundance of the heart. It's as if what comes out of our mouth is the spilling over, the boiling over of what's going on inside of our heart. So when you curse somebody, that's an expression of what's been going on in your heart for who knows how long. And it says a great deal about you. And so Solomon says that you shouldn't even think of cursing the king, because eventually, eventually, those thoughts are going to be expressed in words, and those words can oftentimes, and do often, make it to the person in question. Don't even think it. Don't even think it. And the consequences are particularly severe, of course, when you're cursing a king. Because a king has the ability to take your life and the life of your family. So, in Solomon's day, and of course Solomon being a king would know this, you curse the king, and that makes it back to the king, there could be a whole number of different consequences. For instance, you wake up one morning and guess what? Your taxes just went up. Or perhaps you curse the king and guess what? You just got drafted into his army and you're on the front lines of the hottest battle. Or you curse the king and somebody's at your door to hand you a shovel because your new job is mucking out the king's livestock stalls. Or perhaps you just get thrown into the dungeon and left for dead. Or you end up hanging on the gallows. It is unwise, needless to say, to curse the king because he has absolute power and authority. You are at his whim. Ecclesiastes chapter 8, Solomon has already discussed this, we've looked at it previously. He says in verses 2-5, keep the king's commandment for the sake of your oath to God. Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing for he does whatever pleases him. Where the word of the king is, there is power. And who may say to him, what are you doing? He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful. So there are consequences in what we say. Without question, there are consequences. This is a basic principle of life. We need to guard our tongues. We need to watch what we say. We need to think before we speak. In other words, choose your words carefully. Things that our parents taught us when we were little guys, little gals, and yet we still need to learn those lessons today. And of course, like I said, Solomon uniquely gifted to understand this because he himself is a king and he would know what a king hears. He knows the intel of the king. He knows how well he can get word from his people. Someone over here curses the king, someone Tell somebody else, and eventually it makes it to the king. He would know that. It's amazing what spreads around. People love to talk. Did you hear what so-and-so said? Did you hear what so-and-so said about this? Did you hear what so-and-so said about that? But Solomon doesn't stop with just the king. He also brings up another person. He says, do not curse the rich. Well, why? Well, a better question would be, first of all, who are the rich? Well, possibly, probably your employer. The rich are your employer or possibly your landowner. These are people who have great power. They're probably the ones who have the ear of the king. When the king gets advice, he's getting it probably from the rich and the wealthy and the land. So when you curse them, it could very well wind up getting back to the king anyway, and you could be in the same trouble that we just mentioned. So what does it mean to curse? What is Solomon referring to when he uses that word? Well, the Hebrew there means to belittle, to bring down or to lessen, to make slight or small of someone. And of course, if you bring somebody down, because a king or a rich man is somebody that you can't possibly elevate yourself to, you're not born into that. You wouldn't be born into the royal family. And in Solomon's day, you wouldn't be able to become that wealthy man. In our country, we're used to trying to work our way up. If you're not wealthy, you can work your way up and get some good ideas and work hard, and who knows, someday you might be wealthy. But in Solomon's day, that probably wasn't a possibility. So how could you bring them down? Well, you would curse them in your mind and in your words. You would curse them. Bring them down to your level. You can't rise to theirs, so you can bring them down. What is that an expression of? It's an expression of your pride. I don't like where you are. You are where I would like to be. I can't get to where you are, so I'm going to bring you down to where I am. That's what cursing does. I'm going to bring you down verbally to my level. Or in my thoughts, I'm going to bring you down to where I am. It's just an expression of our ugly, sinful pride. And of course, we might think that we could do a better job than the king. We might think that we could do a better job than the rich man, our employer, whoever the leader is in whatever situation. We might think we can do a better job than them. But ultimately, who appointed that man to lead that nation? Or who appointed that woman to lead that company? Or who appointed that man to be in that position of leadership? Well, the book of Daniel, chapter 2, verse 21, Daniel tells us that God changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and he raises up kings. And also Paul in Romans chapter 13 verses 1 and 2 says this, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. So you may not like that person, you may not like that person in power, that person in leadership, but ultimately, God is the one who put them there. We need to guard our mouths, we need to guard our thoughts and consider that. We may want to curse, we may want to belittle the king or the president or this leader or that CEO or what have you, But we have to be careful and remember that God is the one who put them there. And so he says that in our thoughts, we must be careful, and even in the confidentiality and the privacy of our bedroom, we have to be careful. He warns us. What does he say? He says, be careful. what you say, even in your bedroom, because a little birdie might hear your words and tell the matter. What you want to be kept as a secret has a way of getting out and spreading around. We must guard our thoughts and our words. That must be a priority. Great example of this, 1985, the trial of the century. You know what it was. Those of you who are alive, you know what this was. It was the O.J. Simpson trial. If you're old enough to remember this, O.J. Simpson was on trial for almost an entire year, was on the news every single day. They played it live every day and then the news would dissect it. What happened that day, they would dissect it in the evening. O.J. Simpson was on trial for the brutal murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. And it looked as though Simpson was going to be found guilty The evidence seemed quite overwhelming, but the defense did something where they were able to take the focus off their client and put it on the police. And that was the infamous Mark Furman tapes. I don't know if you remember that. Mark Furman, who was one of the lead detectives for the LAPD, He was the one who encountered a lot of the initial evidence and brought it in. Well, the defense did some checking and they found some tapes that were recorded by a woman named Laura Hart McKinney. She was a screenwriter and she met with Furman from 1985 to 1994. She interviewed him for background information for a novel or a screenplay that she wanted to do about female police officers. She taped every single one of these interviews. She recorded every one of them. Well, in these interviews, Mark Furman very openly, very freely made sexist remark after sexist remark. very racist remarks, incredibly foul racist remarks, and he admitted that the LAPD brutalized suspects and planted evidence. And so all of this was brought into light during the trial. And so it took the attention off of OJ Simpson and then put it on Mark Furman, the lead detective, and on the LAPD as a whole. Now, after the not guilty verdict, the LAPD looked into this. They did an investigation, and they said that their investigation proved that what he had said on those tapes was false, primarily, or in the cases where there was some evidence of truth, he greatly, severely exaggerated it. And so what he said on those tapes, we don't know the motivation, but he just thought that, you know what, this is going to maybe make it into a novel someday. This is going to maybe become a movie someday. And so he made these things up. Oh, it was juicy stuff. And she must have thought this was really good stuff as she wrote all this stuff down and as she recorded it all. He never realized that someday he would be sitting On trial, in front of not just the entire nation, but indeed the entire world, the greatest trial of all time, viewed by the most people of all time, he sat there and all of this was brought to bear on him. His name was drugged through the mud, his family's name was drugged through the mud, and the entire LAPD was drugged through the mud. I have a feeling that he strongly wishes he had never said those things. Oh, to have those words back, to be able to just say, no, thank you, I think I'll pass, and never, ever say those things. He would do anything to take those back, but he can't. We need to have discernment enough, be on guard against that before we get ourselves in trouble. Good advice from King David, Psalm 19, verse 14. He says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Words we need to follow. May the words of my mouth and the very meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O God." And all of God's people said, Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these words that are encouraging, but they're words of warning, dire words of warning. God, help us to guard our tongues. Help us to guard our words, to be careful, to be oh so very careful to think before we speak, and to even be careful of our thoughts, lest those thoughts become words. Lord, our tongues are an unruly evil, so we pray for strength. We pray for wisdom to control them, to control our thoughts first and foremost. God help us. God bless us. May we honor you with our lips. And Lord God, may we bless our fellow man with our lips. To that end, we pray, O God, and ask humbly through Jesus Christ and by the power of your Holy Spirit who indwells us, Amen. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.