Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
VAIN
WORDS
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Isn't that an awesome thing?
Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." You are going to pay for what you say. If you say it, you are going to have to pay for it somewhere along the line. Somebody says, Well, I'm a Christian. I can say something, and Jesus has already paid the price. Really? Jesus will pay the price for someone who comes to him with a humble and contrite heart, and says, Lord, forgive me. I've sinned. I shouldn't have said that. God, forgive me, set me free, and give me strength to not say it again. That person will go away forgiven. However, when a person says that they can do and say anything they want to and still make heaven, they are wrong. That person will not see Jesus in heaven, nor will the world see the Lord in them.
Jesus wants us to be a holy people. It says this in Hebrews 12:14, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." If we have holiness, and walk, talk, and live for God by obeying His Word and seeking his face as he has told us to do, then we will see the Lord Jesus move in our lives. Others will see the Lord in our lives.
One of the most destructive forces is the power that is in the tongue. Something that you can think, can roll right out of your mouth. The Bible says in Matthew 12:34, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." A lot of people will say something, and then say, Oh, I didn't mean that. Yet, it was in there, and it came out. In might be foolishness, or lust, or various forms of perversion. It might be consistent, continual mockery. It might be "religion," but there is no glory or praise of God in it. What's going on?
Jesus said that we will be judged by every idle word that we speak. I believe on judgment day God will look on a man, a woman, a young person, whoever they are, and tell them that they said thus and so, and remind them that they did not ask forgiveness for it. Neither did they seek to be delivered from it. I believe He'll tell how people have taken His name in vain. The Bible decrees that we should not take God's name in vain. This is found in Exodus 20:7: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." If we take God's name in vain, how can we make heaven?
In James, Chapter 3, it talks specifically about how we are supposed to speak, and in particular what our enemy is, and some of the wrestling that we have. James 3:6 says, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."
The Bible declares that our tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. You gossip; you backbite; you talk your jealousy; then you come in on Sunday and praise the Lord. You try to get down on your knees and praise the Lord, and you try to get God to answer your prayers. You try to seek the Lord to get the victory for yourself. Maybe you go along your mellow way, and just think that everything is okay. I go to church. I pay my tithes. I speak right things and good things. Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." This is why the "Name and Claim" syndrome doesn't work. You can speak the Word of the Lord, and quote scripture, and talk it all you want to, but if you're not living it and believing God's Word, how can your words have life? Rather, they will have death, because death and life are in the power of the tongue.
I am convinced that God fills one with the fullness of God and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the speaking in tongues, because that's the first member that God wants to get a hold of in you. Although you may tremble and shake under the conviction and power of God, He wants to get a hold of that tongue. He wants you to quit wagging it like you have been doing. He wants you to walk in holiness and speak the truth. He desires that you would be touched, and your tongue would no longer kill, but would rather make alive by blessing instead of cursing.
Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." A lot of people say, You will eat your words. You are going to eat them sooner or later, either now or on judgment day. Many times it comes now, but the worst will be on judgment day. You will spend eternity in hell if you're not saved. You will spend it in heaven if you are living for God. Notice something else here. It says in James 3:6 that the tongue defiles the whole body!
What you say, the way you talk, the way you act, and the way that you use your voice that God gave you to praise him is so important! You use that voice to lift others up in the Lord, and to come against sin. Don't use your tongue in bitterness, cursing, nagging, complaining, or murmuring. Remember that murmuring is one of the things the children of Israel had trouble with that made God so angry. Moses had to stand between them to keep God from destroying them on two or three occasions. They were wagging their tongues. They were talking against God, against Moses, and against those who were trying to lead them out of the bondage and into the promise land. They murmured, and using their tongues, they were fighting them. It was spreading throughout the whole congregation. It spread out through the whole body of three million people who had been set free.
As you speak evil things or as you ramble on, as your constant foolishness goes forth, it defiles your whole body. The Bible also speaks about defiling the temple of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 3:17 says, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
In other words, God can and will destroy you if you keep your tongue under your own ways rather than letting it be subject to the ways of God. If you let it ramble back and forth to foolishness, and the wisdom of this world, God will destroy you, because you are defiling your temple. This is one reason many people can't get their prayers answered for themselves or others. They use their tongue day and night for vanity and pride, foolishness, boasting, lusts, or cursing and bitterness, and then they go to use the same tongue to try to pray to God. On Sunday they go to praise the Lord. They use the same tongue during the week to tell dirty jokes, and to curse, and laugh, and carry on. Maybe you don't do that. Oh, I would never do that! you might say. Maybe you gossip or backbite. If people would use their tongue for prayer, and praising God, and binding the devil in Jesus' name as much as they use it for murmuring, they wouldn't have anything to murmur about.
God wants us to use that little member, that boasteth great things, to praise the Lord. God does not want us to continuously stab ourselves, defiling ourselves with the tongue, and the wickedness thereof. Rather, He wants us to yield our bodies, lips, and our ways over to God.
Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." The tongue is the part of the body that you need to watch the most, because you are going to eat the fruit of that thing.
James 3:8 says, "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." This is what God says about your tongue; I didn't say it. God says it's full of poison! You go and try to pray, asking God to heal you. You wonder why in the world you can't get healed!
God says this in James 3:10, "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. Verse 11 says, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" Is there any way that you can get blessing after you've used the same tongue for cursing five minutes before? Can you go to church on Sunday and say, Hallelujah, and then go into the world next week and say everything else? That doesn't work. That's why you are not getting through. That's why you are miserable, and why your kids are miserable. That's why your spouse, family members, or friends are miserable. That's why a lot of people are calling you a hypocrite!
People are not going to judge you by the many things you say you are doing. They are going to judge you by what you are saying at that moment. Promises and talk are cheap, but the doing of them is another matter. If you go to saying it, and don't do it, that convicts you even more. What about when you say, Well, that's okay, we will let it slide. Your mouth right there is condemning you! Those were idle words.
Ministers, how many times have you prayed, and nothing has happened? Aren't those idle words, too? Jesus said that we would be judged for every idle word. We need to get closer to God! We need to be redeemed, sanctified, straightened out, and get a fresh touch and fresh oil in our life with the Lord, and get our tongue sanctified. If you can't say anything that is godly, then don't say anything except, God help me, a sinner.
God wants you to sanctify all of your body. He wants you to sanctify all the things that you can use for the glory of God. Wars are started with the tongue. Fights are started with the tongue. It all starts with a command, or a word, or with a smart aleck remark, or with mockery, (or even worse) with perverted doctrines that are against the Word of the Lord. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
If the Word of the Lord is going out of a mouth that curses and then blesses, that's not the mouth of the Lord. It doesn't matter if they are quoting scripture or not. Saying, and confessing, and professing, and claiming things in the name of the Lord, and quoting scripture doesn't do any good if that tongue hasn't been used continuously for the glory of God. It's been used for the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is why there's confusion in the ranks.
Look at this in James 3:14: "But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." This is talking about someone who says they are living holy, but are a hypocrite. In Verse 15 it says, "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish." If you cannot get your conversation lined up with the Word of God, the devil is working you over, and your flesh is having a heyday with you. Your carnal ways are still at large, and you are not walking in the holiness of the Lord.
Many prayers aren't answered, because people pray and curse out of the same mouth. These things ought not so to be, according to God's Word. Pray that God will help us today to yield the tongue over to the Lord.
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