Let's grab our Bibles tonight. Let's turn to Matthew Chapter 12. Matthew Chapter 12. In case you haven't got all the different studies for the different nights straight, join the club. But tonight we're going to be continuing, actually concluding our study of the Watch Your Mouth series. We're going to start with a familiar passage that I want to hit just again, just very briefly. Matthew Chapter 12, starting with verse number 34. Jesus said this in Matthew 12.34, He said, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasures of the heart bringeth forth good things, an evil man out of the evil treasures bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Let's pray. Amen. Well, like I say, we're concluding our study on the Watch Your Mouth series that's based off of Psalms 141.3 that says, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. We need the Lord's help with it. Honestly, I do. We've looked at Matthew 12 before and we saw the differences between good fruit and good words and evil fruit and evil words. We come up with good definition, Bible definition of both those words. Good means beneficial or helpful to others. Evil means destructive or harmful to others. We even looked up what the Bible says idle means there. The Lord said that Verse 36, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they should give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Idle means unfruitful or barren or not productive of good. We saw how your words are being recorded. We talked about what I believe is a book that holds all of our words in it. We saw our words are being recorded, and you're gonna have to give an account of them one day, all the idle words. Last time, we looked at the power of the tongue. The Bible says it has the power of death and life in it, and how your words can affect others. We talked about different kinds of words and speech that we use that's harmful to other people, like guile, and railings, and lying, and good old fashioned digging up bones. We looked at that as well. Tonight, we're gonna look at how your words can hurt you. how your words can hurt you. You realize the words, because we always think, you know, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. And you think that just the words that you say to others only hurts them. No, whenever those words come out of your mouth, they're hurting you as well. They hurt everybody who hears them, and especially those that speak them. Matthew 12 is only, remember, we talked about how your words affect and they reflect your heart. Matthew 12 is only one of the many places that showed the correlation between your mouth and your heart. We saw in verse 34, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasures of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasures bringeth forth evil things. So we saw, we talked about other passages that reflect the correlation between your mouth and your heart. I want you to understand your heart is where you store up words. The Bible says here that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So those words are accumulating inside your heart and you get it so full it's gonna come out. I don't know that we need a marker here, but let's turn to Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs chapter four. Talking about how your words affect you, well, we know for sure already they affect your heart, because your heart influences your words, and honestly, your words probably influence your heart as well. Proverbs chapter four, verse number one. The Bible says, hear ye children the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live." We talk often about the rules of Bible study. One of those things you need to know whenever you're reading the Bible is who's talking, who are they talking to, and what are they talking about? Well, who's talking in the book of Proverbs? Solomon. He says, Solomon says in verse three, for I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. Who is Solomon's father? David. Verse four, he taught me also. So he said, I was my father's son, he was David's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, David taught Solomon also, and said unto me, Solomon, let thine heart retain my, David's, words. keep my commandments, and live." So David, a man after God's own heart, taught Solomon, his son, to retain his words, David's words, in Solomon's heart. Why? That's where we keep them. We store up words in our heart. That's why Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. There's the correlation there. That's one of the many correlations there. The words that you plan on speaking and the words that you hear. Have you ever heard, well, they took it to heart. Why is that? Those words, they entered into their heart. Why is that? That's where we store the words that we hear and the words that we say come from the heart. Your heart is a word warehouse, basically. And we already talked about if you have word problems, you have heart problems. Well, if you have heart problems, you have word problems. They're connected. Last time I even made the argument that one of the ways you can get your heart right is to fix what's coming out of your mouth. Remember, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. You start speaking right. That's a good way to help your heart. Why? Now you're getting good words in there. You hear good words. That's going to help. It helps if all you're hearing is bad words all the time, it fills your heart up with evil words. Well, get away from that. Start hearing some good words. That reminds me of our song, Afterwards 421, if I remember it. 421, so maybe between me, you, and everybody else that heard it, 421. But maybe what we need to do is fill our heart up with some good words, and that'll have an effect on our heart. Good thing is, Some words right here that are really good for our heart. We start reading the word of God, it's gonna affect our heart, it's gonna change our heart, and it'll help the words that come out of our heart. The words that you speak affect every part of your being. They do, the Bible says so. Look at Proverbs chapter 15. Proverbs chapter 15. Look at verse number four Well, we've talked about this before and I have the board up so I might as well use it wasn't planning on it But man is a trichotomy. What's what's that mean? Man is a three-part being God's a three-part being father son Holy Ghost. We're a three-part being what are our three parts? Body Soul and spirit Your words affect all three. That's what the Bible says. Proverbs 15 verse four, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. You see that? A wholesome tongue, talking about what you say, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein, where's the perverseness? In your tongue. Bible says, is a breach in the spirit. Having a perverse tongue is a breach in your spirit. It affects your spirit. Now a breach, that's a break, that's a rupture, that's a gap, that's a space between severed parts of one body, okay? This is very dangerous for a Christian. You say, why? Well, keep a marker here in Proverbs 14, and let's turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse number 3. Ephesians 4.3. The Bible says, "...endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." God desires unity and peace. And it says that in verse four, there's one body, oh, I'm sorry, verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. God desires unity and peace within the one spiritual body of Christ. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Jesus Christ is one. He has one body, the Church. Every saved believer is part of that one body. Well, back to Proverbs 15.4, since we are part of the body of Christ, part of that spiritual body, Proverbs 15.4, a wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the Spirit. So if you have a perverse tongue, you can create a breach in the spirit. That sounds pretty dangerous. You can cause a rip, you can cause a tear, where? In the spirit. It says if you have a perverse tongue, perverse means obstinate in the wrong, disposed to be contrary. I like this one, stubborn. Stubborn. If you have a perverse tongue, you can create a breach in the spirit. That breach, that break, that rupture is going to be between you and the rest of the body of Christ. So if you're not watching your mouth, if you don't put a guard around there, if you like to speak evil, destructive things instead of good and edifying things, you're going to cause a breach, a tear, a rupture in the spiritual body. You're not losing your salvation, you understand, but you're not getting along with the other parts of the body of Christ. There's going to be an issue there. An evil tongue in the mouth of a believer will alienate him from the rest of the body of Christ and will severely damage his spiritual growth and ability. You say, what you say has spiritual repercussions. It can affect you spiritually. It can affect your closeness with the Lord. How many times in the New Testament do we hear Jesus Christ saying that if you love me, you love the brethren? And, you know, this new commandment I've given to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you. God desires unity within the body. He wants oneness. He wants spiritual closeness with one another. He wants us united. He talks about us edifying and building up one another, not tearing each other down. He tells us time and time again to watch how we treat one another. He desires that unity. If we refuse, if we say, no, no, no, I wanna speak the evil destructive things instead of the good edifying things, you're gonna cause a problem for you spiritually. It'll separate you from other believers, it'll separate you from the Lord. If you're not as far along spiritually as you thought that you should be, you might wanna analyze your words. Are they good or are they evil? Are they destructive or are they edifying? That's how it affects your spirit, your spiritual walk, your words, what you say. Turn back to Proverbs, let's look in Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. So we have your spirit in Proverbs 15.4. Now let's look at your soul in Proverbs 18.7. Proverbs 18.7. The Bible says, a fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. See that? What you say has an effect on your soul. Your soul is the part of you that houses your core beliefs and your personality. It's the psychological or mental part of you. It's your thought process, it's how you rationale, rationally, ration, ration, rationalize, thank you. Not how you ration things, I want more, you know. Rationalize things. It's your soul that will live forever in heaven or hell. Your soul is unique, okay? Nobody has the same soul, we each have our own souls. Your soul is unique, it reflects your personality, and it is shaped by your experiences. Do you realize how your soul is right now is not how it's always going to be up in heaven? Your soul is changing. It's clear, it's been washed in the blood, it's not gonna get sin stuck on it, it's gonna go to heaven if you're saved. But your soul is changing. Your soul is getting experienced by your life. It's shaped by your experiences. What you say and what you've been told being part of your experiences. Keep a marker in Proverbs, we'll probably be back, but turn to Luke chapter 16. You want to know one of the most valuable passages of Scripture to know where it's at? It's Luke 16. Luke 16 will help you a lot. There's an account in here of the Lazarus and the rich man. They die and everything and the rich man goes to hell. Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom. That's paradise. This is not a parable. It's a literal account of two literal people. And you can learn a lot, especially about souls, by reading Luke 16. Look at Luke 16, verse 23. We'll jump in the middle of the story. I know you know it. 22, and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by angels in Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. Both their bodies are in the grave. We're not talking about their bodies. We're talking about now their souls. verse 23, and in hell, the rich man, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." So we see here that these are now souls that are in, one's in hell, one's in Abraham's it's not their body, it's not their spirit. Spirit goes back to God, that's like your life force, whenever you die that goes back to God. Even beasts have spirits, they don't have souls. But your soul has memories, it can see, it can hear, it can feel pain. How do we know that? Well the rich man It says, verse 23, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, he has eyes, his soul has eyes, it can see, being in torment, it can feel pain, and seeth Abraham afar off, see there's that vision again, and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried, he can speak, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. He's got feelings, he's got emotion. Sin Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue For I am tormented in this flame. He feels pain You say oh, you know, I don't believe hell has literal flames This rich man does it does Your soul and these are souls they have memories they can see they can hear they can feel pain the soul of the rich man was begging for help and compassion Verse 25, But Abraham said, Son, remember thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. I wonder if some of those things might be the words that they heard. I wonder if that rich man was sitting there being buttered up so the people would try to give him money or show him favor. Those would be good things. They would sound good. And likewise Lazarus evil things." You worthless beggar, get out of here. Man, you stink. What's wrong with his skin? Look at that. What's that? Evil. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Verse 26, And beside all this between us and you there is a great goal fixed, so that they which pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come in the place of torment. So the soul of this rich man, realizing that his fate was sealed, the soul of this rich man now had concern and compassion for his brothers. He must have loved his brothers. He didn't forget about them. What's he doing? His soul is realizing, I'm doomed. He's given up hope. And he's saying, well, it's not too late for my brothers. He must have loved his brothers. What's that? His mind's working. It's rationalizing. He's thinking about it. Why? He's a soul in hell, but he's still thinking about it. He's still processing. He's still coming to conclusions. You know, apparently he wasn't the kind of guy that hated his brothers. He didn't say, well, bring them down here with me. And you know, he must've thought enough about Lazarus that Lazarus would be willing if it was even able to come over and drop that drop of water in his tongue. His opinions about Lazarus were still there in hell with him. Words can alter who you are and how you think. They're one of the things that shape your soul. It's one of the things that stick with you. This applies to both the words that you hear and the words that you speak. Look at 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. Your soul gets shaped. It's like you. It's unique. It gets built up. It gets tore down. It gets influenced by your history, your life experience, your relationships. So that's just how I was made. Your soul, it's still changing. You're still experiencing things. So give me a biblical example. 2 Peter 2. Look at verse 4. 2 Peter 2.4. The Bible says, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." So he's talking about the wrath of God on unrighteousness and on unrighteous people and angels. Verse 7, and delivered just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Verse eight, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Bible says that Lot's soul was vexed with the conversation of the wicked in verse 7, and by seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds in verse number 8. His soul was affected. Why? By the people he was around. By the sin that he was around. By the conversation. That's back and forth. That's not just hearing. The conversation of the wicked, verse 7. Vexed, his soul was vexed, that means teased, or provoked, or irritated, or troubled, or agitated, disquieted, or I like this one, afflicted. It affected his soul. See, Lot, he was a good God-fearing man, but he lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. He listened to the perverted talk of the Sodomites. He had conversations with them. And those wicked words, which he both heard and eventually began to speak, had an effect on his soul. It was shaping who he is. Because your soul, that part of you that lives forever, that's who you are, who you really are, not who you pretend to be. And who you are is shaped by the words that you both hear and speak. And you get shaped by the people that you hang around. That's why it's so important for kids to have the right friends. Why? They're forming who you are. They shape who you are. Have you ever been around someone who's just positive and happy all the time? You've never seen them in a bad mood, and they're just always cheerful and happy. They always speak positive things. They would say something positive about the devil. Well, he sure is a hard worker, or something like that. They often speak positive, happy things. You know what, I found out about those people, they usually come from positive and happy backgrounds. They've usually heard a lot of positive, happy things. They don't let any of the evil, destructive things that they heard, if they have the harsh background, they didn't let it get down to their heart. They didn't store those evil words in their heart. So since it never found a place in their heart, Now the words that come out of their mouth are positive and happy and they're edifying and they just, they love people. Why? Because of their heart. Have you ever been around someone who's condescending or vicious all the time? Chances are their past is filled with evil speaking and guile and railings and hurtful language. So what happened? That affected their soul. It vexed it. Why? Words have an effect on your soul. They change you. The words that you grew up hearing are the words that shaped you, the real you, your soul. And if you speak evil now and you continue to do so, it will affect your soul and it'll make you the kind of person that really nobody wants you to be. Praise God, though, that none of us are unchangeable. He can still fix and heal and reshape us. What do we need? More of the right kind of words in us. I love during this study just remembering that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word. We talk about the effects of words on us. We have the Word. Both, we have the written word, the King James Bible. We have the living, breathing word, the Lord Jesus Christ. What's that? Good words that we need. We need to let this book sink down into our heart. We need to let Jesus Christ work in our hearts. Why? He can purge out evil words and he can replace them with good words. Turn to James chapter three. Back to your left, just a couple of books before 1 Peter. James chapter three. Here we get to look at the effects on the body. James chapter 3. Let's start with verse 5. James 3, 5. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. 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. See here we have the tongue, our words, defiling the whole body. You've probably noticed that in other people before. Have you noticed how words defile other people? You might see this beautiful, attractive person, right, and you say, oh man, they're just gorgeous, they're stunning, look at their hair, and what a wonderful shape, and just look at them, and then they talk. And you hear that filth come out of their mouth. You hear their sarcasm, their criticism, their lies, that profanity, they're just, it's just, like a sewer coming out of their mouth. And you say, what's that? It turns the most beautiful person into a vile creature. Their tongue just defiled their whole body. There's so many of them. Oh, don't you, aren't you attracted to those twiggy little models? I was like, no, they're all jerks. You ever talk to any of them? Those people that know that they're pretty and stuff like that? Their words are horrible. Words are horrible. I got the only model-esque woman I know that, Yeah, okay, let's keep going. More of that talk later. More of that talk later. You know the evil words that you speak can defile and harm your own body? They do. They have that power. You say, well, I've noticed it in other people. It happens to us. It happens to you. I looked up a little bit, I've heard some things like this. I read this article, it says this. It says there's a Japanese scientist, his name was Murasu Emoto, performed experiments on frozen water in the late 1990s. He tested the crystallization of the frozen water through the use of positive and negative verbiage. To one group of water, he spoke negative words and phrases. To the other, he spoke positive words and phrases. After a period of time, the negative group produced ugly, cloudy crystal formations, while the positive group produced clear, beautiful crystals. The point of the study was to demonstrate the power of words and their impact on how living things are transformed. You say, that's on water. Last I checked, your body's what, 80% water, 75% water? Your words have an effect on your body. I saw this other study. It was pretty interesting. It was a little video. But I watched what they did is they went to a school and they placed a couple of plants, potted plants, in the school inside these glass cases so everybody could see them. They put them in the same room, you know, just right there next to each other. They were separated by two or three feet, something like that. And they had these recordings inside those cases. They were glass cases sealed up, but they had recordings in them. And they even got some of the students to help them and things like that. And one of the recordings, they had a bunch of criticism and harshness. And it was basically a study to show the kids not to bully. And so one of them was a bunch of bully talk. You're stupid, you're ugly, you do this, you do that. And they played it in a circle for the plant. On the other plant, same room, same type of plant, same amount of water, everything like that. For the other plant, they played a tape over and over and over again. of encouragement and positive speak. Hey, you're doing great. Wow, you sure look beautiful today. And this, that, the other. And they played it in cycles. And they did it for 30 days. And after about a week of that, you see the negative plant. The leaf starts drooping down. They start sagging. They start withering. And by the end of 30 days, that one looked like a dead plant. And you say, what's that? Plants don't have eardrums. They can't hear it. Those words, those evil, destructive words, they go against life. They go against growth. They go against bodies. They're just destructive. They hurt. It doesn't matter if they can really hear it that well or not. It's the words. If you're speaking those words, you're hearing those words. It's coming out of you. It's defiling you all the way around. It affects your heart. It affects your mouth. It defiles your body. It hurts you. Words are powerful. You know, I had this thought, which sometimes I do. You know, many people have noticed the decline in health in America over the past 20 plus years. You know, I'm sure you've noticed. I remember whenever I was younger, we didn't have anybody like in our class that had allergies. Even in my whole graduating class, I think we had one to two people in a graduating class of 112 that had any kind of allergy. You know, some of them moved in and they had a peanut allergy or something like that. Nowadays, you can't take anything into a classroom, a public school classroom, because somebody's allergic to something. It could be peanuts or wheat or soy or milk or anything. Everybody's allergic to everything. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed the mental disabilities that are at an all-time high? Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, they're more prevalent now than in any other time in history. How about cancer? Everybody gets cancer now. It doesn't matter. I mean, you get a little spot. My grandpa, he had a little spot on his head. It's cancer. Grandma Davis, her eyelid, cancer. It's everywhere now. People didn't used to have it this much. Now listen, some people say it has to do with chemicals. It sure might. Maybe it's modified or engineered food. It could be. Maybe it's pollution or what's in the water or what's not in the water. Maybe for people especially, maybe it's vaccines or changes in weather patterns. I don't know what it is. Nobody really does. And I'm not saying that those don't play a part. But what if words are responsible? What if it's the words that we keep hearing on TV, on music, in the schoolhouse, in the home? What if it's the words that are doing it? James 3.6, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body. You know, It used to be that foul or evil language was not allowed on the radio or on television. Now it's everywhere. I remember whenever the FCC, I think it is, they're the ones that regulate what goes out on the airwaves and all that. I remember whenever they just kind of let the restrictions go. I was in high school and it used to be that they'd have a couple of these smaller curse words that they could let slip every now and then. And then there in the late 90s, early 2000s, they just said, have at it. And they just let it go. And they come out with blasphemies and even just the criticism, the hate speech, the name calling, the everything. It's just word vomit all over the airwaves and everywhere. Now, my grandparents, I guess just my grandma now, but my grandma and grandpa both used to drive a public school bus. And I was talking to them a little bit the other day, and they were telling me how, man, you wouldn't believe the mouth on some of these kids. They come in there, five, six-year-old, they're in kindergarten, and it's the F word, every other word, you go, what in the world happened to that kid? It's in their house. Oh, well, you know, here in a couple years, now they're autistic, now they got ADHD, you say, Well, you know, maybe it's this, maybe it's that. Maybe it's the filth that they're hearing inside the house. Words have power. Words affect your spirit and your soul and your body. That's what the Bible says. We got to watch our words. You got to watch the words that you're around, what you take in, what you store up in your heart. It's dangerous. Your words carry more weight than what you might realize, and they affect you, your body, your soul, and your spirit. I agree with David. Now more than ever, it says, set a watch, oh Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. It'll help your spiritual growth. It'll help shape your soul into the type of soul you want to have, and it can prolong your life. It really can.