Who Made Man’s Mouth?

Who Made Man's Mouth?

All right, let's take our Bibles. Please turn to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4 together. And when we arrive there in Exodus chapter 4, let's look in verse number 10 beginning. Exodus chapter 4 verse 10. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

The Lord has given us, he's given us the members out of which the thoughts of our heart issue. You know, we sing that children's song, be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, feet where you go, mouth what you say, the Father up above is looking down in love. Be careful, be careful what you say, be careful what you look at, be careful what you hear, what you listen to, be careful where you go, be careful what you do with your hands.

God has given us, like Proverbs 20 verse 12 says, The hearing ear, he says, the seeing eye, and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them. The Lord formed the mouth, he made the hearing ear, he made the seeing eye. And then we have, as we said this morning, by faith, what is the response of faith toward the Lord to be? In so many words, if I'm going to do, Your will, Lord. I need your, I need your grace. I can't speak the right words. I can't, I can't walk right and do right without your help.

God be merciful to me. God be gracious to me. The proud, he knows afar all, he resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, doesn't he? The Lord gives grace to the humble. If you think about this, why did God give us a tongue? Why did God give us lips? Why did he give us the ability to speak? Well, he gave us the ability to do this as he did with everything else, so that we would use it in a particular way that would bring glory to him.

That we would honor him with the instrument of speech. And we see that here, he's telling Moses, Moses is making excuses, Lord, I'm not eloquent. I can't really speak very well. Couldn't you have found somebody else to do the job beside me? And what the Lord is making abundantly clear here is, as we know from other passages, he delights to use those who feel that they're not quite up to par.

You know, he likes to use those who feel insufficient for the task at hand. I don't know if I can do this, Lord. Well, that's okay. That's okay. I will. I'll be with your mouth. I will teach you what to say. You know, if we could just take that little phrase right there, I will teach thee what thou shalt say. If the Lord would teach Moses what he should say, he certainly can teach us what to say, can't he?

He can put words in our mouth. He can guide our speech, and he will. There's many passages that indicate this, right? That the Lord will do this for us. But think about what we read in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. What does it say over there? Revelation chapter 4 and verse number 11. We read these words. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things.

Well, that's, as it says here, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. So that's not only every creature, but every member of every creature that he's created. He's created every aspect. I mean, Lucas likes to watch animal documentaries. You know, I mean, his sister bought a duck-billed platypus-stuffed animal for him at the yard sale, evidently, yesterday.

And it's amazing about, when you look at these little documentaries about animals, there's stuff, you didn't have any clue what was going on with these animals. I mean, I remember sometime in the last few months, we were watching a little documentary on duck-billed platypus, and I did not know that they had a venomous spur on the male duck-billed platypus, and it's got 80, some kind of 80 neurotoxins in its system, and it can be very painful.

If it ever were to sting you with that, it wouldn't actually kill a human, but it would, you would be in pain for weeks and even months. Anyway, what does that got to do with anything, you might say? Well, all these different animals have different instruments in their bodies, and in a fallen planet, even the animal kingdom glorifies God in the way they use the instruments that they have.

It's amazing the design that God has put in these animals, how they protect their young, how they make their nests. I think I mentioned we saw a different bird we'd never seen in our backyard before, and watching those birds, I mean, when you look at, they're so consistent. When you look at a book, you look at the Audubon, or you look at the National Geographic-type animal book, I can't remember which ones we have in there, but several different.

And you look it up, and it says, this bird will make this kind of nest, and it'll do this kind of thing, and it has this kind of sound, and you look, and yeah, that's what it's doing. It's doing all those things. And there are little tiny differences between, there's a Mississippi kite, and there's this other kind of kite, and this kind of kite, and all of them are specific, very specific in the way they do what they do.

And they don't change. They just keep doing the same thing. They're glorifying God in their own unique way that God has created them to bring glory to Him. But we're to bring glory to Him in that we don't think like the world thinks. By faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God. But by faith, we want to please God with the mouth He's given us, with the tongue He's given us.

And so we don't say things. We ought not to be heard saying things like the, we read in Psalm 12, verse 4, where it says, where they say, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? We're going to say whatever we want to say. No, that's not how we should think. That's not how we should talk. We can't just, we should be found, once again, like we've read many times, Psalm 19, verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

That's how we're to think. Lucifer, he rebelled against God with his mouth. He rebelled against God with his mouth and slandered. He said, I will be like the Most High. He created dissent among the angels. He drew a following of angels, it seems, a third of them, with him in his rebellion against God. And he used speech against God.

God had created Lucifer for his glory, but Lucifer turned that into his own, seeking his own glory, seeking his own pleasure. Well, Proverbs 18, let's look there. We see Moses, God says to him, I formed the mouth. And the Lord says that he made man's mouth. So that he could now tell us and lead us in what to say with that mouth.

Moses, I want to give you, I've made man's mouth and I'm going to give you the words you need to say. I'm going to lead you in what to say. Don't worry about, well, Lord, I don't know what to say. Don't worry, I'll give you the strength and I'll give you the wisdom to know what to say. And he will. Look in Proverbs 18, verse 21.

We're going to tend to do one of two things. We're going to tend to do one of two things. We're going to tend to do one of two things. Two things, as is seen in this passage here. Proverbs 18, verse 21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

So what kind of speech, what kind of words are we, are growing on the tree of our life, we might say. What kind of, you know, what kind of words can people draw from our lives? What are they going to find? And when we speak, well, death and life are in the power of the tongue. We can, our words can be destructive or they can be life-giving.

Not because the life is in us, but we have wonderful words of life and we have edifying words because we have the truth, right? We can either, we can either build up and give strength or we can tear down and destroy. And the tongue is capable of doing great harm as well as great good. So we tend to please, what is the tendency? The tendency as creatures is to please ourselves with our words, to build up our self-image, to tear other people down or to flatter certain people so that it makes us look good, right?

Right. That's the sinful tendency. We craft our words in such a way to boost our image, but not to glorify God. That's the natural tendency is to do that. And James doesn't pretty it up at all. In fact, James says some very clear things about the tongue. In fact, in James chapter three and verse eight, when Moses said, Lord, I'm not eloquent. I don't know what to say.

Well, this is true. If left to ourselves, well, we're going to say the wrong things, aren't we? We're going to, we're not going to be able to glorify God in our own strength. But in James chapter three, verse number eight, we read here, verse number eight, but the tongue can no man tame. Think, let that sink in. The tongue can no man tame.

Well, you know, sometimes we might say, if I was in Adam's position, I would have done better than he did. Well, you just proved how proud you are by saying that, right? If you say, I would have been, I would have done better than he did. Probably not even having the advantage of knowing what you know about Adam, would you do any better than he did?

But the tongue, here it says, can no man tame. It is an unruly evil. The tongue, the tongue. Yes, the tongue. It is an unruly evil. What does, what does that mean? It's, it's an evil, literally, which cannot be held back. It's unruly. Talk about an unruly child. You know, he's just, he can't control the thing. Can't, or can't control the child, you know, like the tongue.

And unruly, and unruly. It's restless. It's always, it's like a, like a wild animal, like a lion roaming about, seeking, what it may devour, right? The lion is, is certainly Satan. Satan is walking about as a lion, but the tongue is kind of like that as well. And then we notice here, it says the tongue can no man tame.

When we were going through our series on, in James a few years ago, we saw the tongue was compared to like a horse that has no rider, a bridle, a bridle. We need a bridle on that tongue, like you need a bridle on a horse to control it. The tongue was talked about in the context of a ship. It will be aimless like a ship without a helmsman or a captain for that ship if we don't, the tongue is unpredictable in itself, but we need, we need a captain to control that tongue, don't we?

Because what the tongue is going to affect which way that ship goes. The tongue is an unruly evil here, a deadly poison. We read in James, it's like a wild, like a fire burning up things in its path. It's like a fire. You know, I've taught our, I'm still in the process of teaching our girls more about firearm safety.

They're getting to the size, now, especially the older two, where they can, they can handle firearms and they need to know how to handle them properly so they don't hurt themselves and they don't hurt other people. And there are certain things that you need to know about firearms. And we've gone through those rules again and again and again.

And there's, there's, you know, you have to exercise trigger discipline. You don't ever put your finger on that trigger until you're ready to squeeze it in. You don't ever put your finger on that trigger until you're ready to squeeze it in. You don't ever put your finger on that trigger until you're ready to squeeze it and put a round, a round down range.

You never point the gun, loaded, unloaded, while you're cleaning it, whatever. You never point the gun at yourself or anyone else. You always keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction. You never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. Whether, you know, hopefully that's just the target, right?

You know, hopefully we don't ever have to point it at an individual. But that's the purpose. That's why we, one of the purposes is that we have, we have a gun is so that we can defend life, not and preserve life, not take life is not the goal, but to protect and to preserve. I have four children and a wife here that I need to, in this unruly world we're living in, I have to be conscious of that.

You know, and there's so many, there's simple basic rules that you need to follow. And I, like I told the children, you could, you can forget. And we have had times where there was a lapse and we forgot, we forgot one of those. I said, but you better not forget all three at the same time. You know, that's why there's several, there's several different ones that we need to observe so that we are, we're careful.

Well, we need, we need the Lord. We need the Lord to control our tongues, don't we? Because we need to remember he gave us this thing to bring glory, glory to him. It is capable of destroying people and families and churches. It's capable of doing great harm. Maybe it could be argued in some cases, worse than a firearm.

It's, it could, it can do great damage. You know, that little saying sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That's not really true. Actually, as if that is not at all true. Words can, words can hurt. But James says that this tongue can no man tame, but there is, there's one who can tame the tongue.

There's one who can, we can put it in the, in the verbiage of this morning's message, who can give us the victory over, over this tongue. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can do it. I can't do it. You can't do it. None of us can, can control our tongue and can really bring glory to God, except we in faith say, Lord, here's my tongue. Take it. Help me to, help me to glorify you with this.

And then we, as we see, it's full of deadly, deadly poison. You know, when, if you, thankfully, I've never been bitten by a snake, but if you're bitten by a snake, it doesn't automatically mean that you, you're going to die from it. But that's a, that's something, once the venom's in your body, you, you can go get antivenom, but you're not going to get that venom back out of the body, out of the bloodstream.

It's, it's there. And some people, they say that if they've been bitten several times, there's nothing they can do about it. They might eventually just, just die from it because the, because of the buildup of venom in their, in their body. At least that's my understanding of it. Let's look in James 1 26, James 1 26.

Remember the, remember the principle we shared at the beginning with Moses. God has formed our tongue and he will, he will, he will help us to, he will say what we need to say. We can't do it. Just as Moses couldn't lead the people with his tongue in his own strength. So we cannot, we cannot properly use this tongue in our own strength.

We need to have that attitude that Moses has. Lord, I need help. I can't do this. So we see that James 1 26 says this. If any man among you seem to be religious and bridle, if not his tongue, this is not the habit of his life, that there's a bridle in his tongue, you know, but, but deceiveth his own heart. This man's religion is vain.

In other words, if he says I have faith, but, but he never has any control over the tongue, then this calls into question his, his religion. Well, we know that I think all of us would honestly say that, that we have not always properly use the tongue, but we need a bridle. We need a bridle on it. We need the Lord to help us. Lord, bridle my tongue.

We see here that this is, this is, our life and our lips need to match, right? Our lips don't need to betray what we say we believe. Look over in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 10, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 10 as well. 1 Peter chapter 3, we were, let's turn over there in verse number 10. Here's an example of what kind of speech we should not be speaking with our tongue.

1 Peter 3 10 says, for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Honest speech. Speak honestly. Don't speak deceptively. Don't speak hypocritically. Don't speak with hypocrisy. Crafting your words in such a way to deceive the hearers or to present an image that's not actually true.

No, speak truth. Speak the truth. Don't speak hypocritically. Don't use your speech to charm, but to, but to give the truth. John says in 1 John 3 18, we've seen this not that long ago, my little children, let us not love in word and neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

So in other words, we won't speak hypocritically if the things that we say are the things that we do. And the reality of what we're doing is what we're saying. You know, we're not, we're not saying I love you brother, but then we don't, then we don't actually show that right. We say one thing, right? To sound good, but we don't actually mean it.

We speak in a way. And that's, that's how the world does, right? The world speaks in the hypocritically to, to make themselves look good, but they don't actually, they don't actually mean it. Say what you mean and mean what you say is the idea. So let us love not only in the words that we speak, but also in the, in the D indeed. And in truth, be careful with your speech.

God's going to have, to guide us in our speech that our speech is not, we do not inflame others. It's like a fire. The tongue can be like a fire. It can set on, it can set on fire another individual or a group of people because we didn't use the tongue, right? We didn't use it. Well, look in Proverbs 15, Proverbs 15, verse one says something very important about this.

Proverbs, Proverbs 15 and verse number one there in, in, in verse number one, Proverbs 15, we will read these words. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Grievous words stir up anger. Verse two says the tongue of the wise use the knowledge of right. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.

God will, God will show you. This is what you should say, but I feel like saying this. I'm upset. Well, your tongue is not yours. Remember God made your tongue and we're to glorify God with the tongue. That's one of the rules, just rules. But one of the principles that we must always keep in mind, like, you know, trigger discipline and all these different things that we talk about with firearms, because this, it can be deadly, right?

When it comes to the tongue, never, ever, ever forget. God made my tongue and he wants me to glorify him in the way I use it. I should never use my tongue to bring shame to the name of the Lord, to destroy and bring death to another person. I should use my tongue to speak truth, to glorify God, not to not to build myself up.

And or, or, or to be hypocritical in what I say or to flatter or any of those things. But instead I should, I should be careful to be wise. Lord, help me to be wise in the way I speak so I can use knowledge. Right. We can have knowledge and not use it in the right way. And so he says here, the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness because it's just, what is wisdom anyway?

Wisdom is knowing and applying. The truth. Let me, let me back up for a minute. Wisdom is when we take the truth and apply it to the situation in a timely way. Lord, give me wisdom to know how, what to do in this situation at hand. What do I need to say? What do I need to do right now?

It in the matter of hand, I might have someone asking me a question. I might have a, have a dilemma that arises with one of my children. I might have, uh, a conflict or a misunderstanding and I need to say the right thing. I need to, I need to respond with maybe a soft answer here in this situation. I might need to deescalate something.

I might need to, I might need to stop and pray and then explain carefully with self control, with temperance what I meant by something that I said, or I might in this particular situation, I might just need to ask forgiveness. Lord, you know, sometimes we say, Oh, I didn't mean it. Well, maybe we didn't mean it, you know, and yet we need to ask the Lord to forgive us.

If we meant it, if we said something we shouldn't have said, are we acting in a certain way? I think about, you know, the times with my wife and I, we just, you know, they, they say, uh, kiss and make up. You need to, but you need to ask for forgiveness. I, I said it and I was upset at that moment with you. And, and please forgive me for that.

That's wisdom. We need that wisdom to, to, to, to just humble ourselves. Sometimes just acknowledge I was wrong. I used my tongue in the wrong way in that, in that thing. I was complaining about something. I was upset about something, whatever the case may have been, but grievous words, stir up anger, but a soft answer, turneth away wrath.

Um, in Ephesians chapter five, verse four, we're told that neither filthiness, nor foolish talking. That's a silly conversation. We all, we all like to joke around. I'm not, I don't think this saying there's no place at all for having joking. That's not, not making fun of other people, but, but don't, don't, don't be marked by foolish talking, nor jesting, just, just being a sarcastic soul, uh, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.

I think God has a sense of humor. I think God is okay with a sense of humor. Let's be careful with our humor that we don't, we don't, we don't, we aren't, we aren't destructive with it. We don't hurt other people in the way that we use humor. Um, that it, that it is, even humor can glorify God in the right time, but there's, there's where wisdom is needed, right?

And we don't always get it right, but we need to pray, Lord, help me even in the use of my, my humor. We have thankful words that we use, that are mentioned here rather giving a thanks. Oh, you know, complaining is such a common thing now, isn't it? Everybody's complaining about something, complain, complain, complain, complain.

Well, we need to give thanks in everything. Actually, we're to give thanks, aren't we? This is God's will for us. You know, if you, if you just stop and, and give thanks even publicly about something, people might look at you like you're growing a third eye, you know? Why, why aren't you complaining about something?

I, I think it actually is encouraging to people. When they hear a word of thanksgiving, when they hear a word of, of encouragement in that way, we're not to let any, I know this is a, this is a well-worn one, but Ephesians 429 says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Turn to Psalm 141 with me. The Lord made our mouths. We're to use them to glorify him. We're to use them to speak words of life and grace, not words of death and deception and destructive and corrupting words. Here it says in Psalm 141 verse three, this was the heart. This was the humility of the Psalmist here.

When he says this, he's acknowledging, Lord, I need help. I need help. Help me. He says, set a watch. Verse three. Oh Lord, set a watch before my mouth. Keep the doors, keep the door of my lips and even goes back beyond the mouth, back to the heart, incline not my heart to any evil thing.

I think it's interesting. He says, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, not only what I say, but what I think about before I say the thing, incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties.

He even goes so far as to say, let the righteous, let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, right? And let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head for yet. My prayer also shall be in their calamities.

So, you know, the words of constructive criticism, even from, from brothers and sisters in Christ can be helpful to me. And, you know, we, we, we need to, we need to speak truth. One, to another in love that we may grow up into Christ and all things. Proverbs 17. Let's look over there in verse 27, Proverbs 17 and verse 27.

God made our tongue. We're to glorify him, glorify him with it. And in order to do that, we need wisdom, right? We need wisdom. We need the Lord to help us and give us the words like he would give Moses to say, Lord, give me the words. Lead me in what I should say. Psalm 141, verse three.

Well, let's see. We just, we just read, we read that one just a moment ago. Um, let's, let's, I meant Proverbs, uh, Proverbs 17, actually Proverbs 17 and verse 27, actually Proverbs 17 and verse 27. What does it say here? Proverbs 17 and verse number 27. It says, he that hath knowledge, spareth his words.

And a man of understanding, is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. And he that shutteth his lips, is esteemed a man of understanding. Well, if you know me, you know, I like to talk. I like to talk. I like to talk. I like to talk. Uh, I think there's a few of you that like to talk too.

We like to talk, but that's different personalities. There's nothing wrong with some being, more talkative than others. But what we see here is, you know, we do need to spare our words if we don't have anything good to say at all. Right? Spare our words so that we're not just talking just to be talking. Right?

A man of understanding. We need to be, we need to have, speak with knowledge. Speak, speak with the intent to glorify God with the words that we speak. When we do speak, um, a fool is known for just running off at the mouth. We might say as, as the passages is indicating here. And James tells us every man, let every man be swift to speak or swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Um, sometimes have you ever found that you can talk yourself into a frenzy? You know, you can talk yourself. You can talk about something that was disturbing, disturbing to you. I have found my wife is a witness to this, that sometimes I can talk about something and get myself worked up over it. I can just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk about it.

I, you know, I'm just analyzing this thing. Well, maybe you need to stop. And when you feel your spirit rising, Lord, help me to just stop and pray about this thing. Call my spirit about it so that I don't say things I shouldn't say about this matter. And then, you know, what do we have? The Lord made my tongue.

I need to glorify God. I need wisdom from him to say the things, to think the things that will, that will be pleasing to him and say the things that will be pleasing to him. And then I need to also be conscious that every word that I speak will be brought into judgment. Boy, that is a, that is a humbling thought, isn't it?

That the Lord will, will, will judge. He knows not only the words, but there's not a word in my tongue. The psalmist says, but thou knowest it all together. He knows everything about the motives behind the words, right? And he's going to bring it as Matthew says on chapter 12, verse 36, Matthew 12, verse number 36.

Let's look there. In verse number 36, he says this, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of, of judgment. They shall give account thereof in the day of, of judgment. Well, we're going to, we're going to answer for our words.

How many words will, we'll make it through the fire, right? How many words will, will be gold, silver, precious stones? How many words will be, uh, the Lord will be able to say, well done in that. How many, how many things have we said? And so, you know, that, that, that even, that even goes to things that we, we type, right?

That goes into things that words that we write out, maybe not even just with our, our tongues, but with our, with our fingers, we write with our, with a pen. How many people, not much, not much, uh, letter writing going on anymore. A lot of it's digital communication, but in all of that, may those words be wise.

May those words be, uh, even where don't, don't speak with harshness, but speak with, speak with a soft answer, a wise answer, a wise response. It may, it may need to be at times constructive criticism, but it, it should always be. Even then, Lord, let me see where the log is in my eye before I, I write this or I say this.

Let me be careful. You know, when you do that, it changes the way you approach things in the spirit that you say them in too. They're spoken in love. When you really remember, Lord, I'm standing in need before you myself. Here I'm standing in need in my own heart and my own words. So, um, those safety measures, just like I, I, I just use the example of, of firearm safety because it's something that is fresh on my mind that we, we talk about.

Um, and I, I think about one of our daughters. She was devastated when she forgot one of those, one of those rules. And I said, I, I'm glad that you feel that way. I mean, I don't want you to grovel in it, but I'm glad that you, that it, it, it, it, um, was serious to you that you forgot one of them. I said, you still kept the other two, right?

I said, but I said, that's, isn't that a picture of Lord? Forgive me when I say things that I shouldn't say. I don't want to hurt your name. I don't want to hurt others. That's the, that's the, that's the motive. I want to glorify you. I want to, I want to encourage your people. I want to strengthen and not tear down with the words because you given me this tongue.

The Lord can, the Lord could take away the ability to speak. Thank God we have the ability to speak. So let's use it for him. Let's use it for his glory. Uh, and for the good of, of his people, not only his people, but the good of souls that are lost in sin. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for these moments we've had around your word tonight.

We thank you for the tongue that you gave us. You've given us, you formed it, uh, just as you've made the hearing ear and you've given the seeing eye. You've made them all Lord. These tongues do not belong to us. They belong to belong to thee. We're to bring glory with them. We're to use them wisely because we will give an account for how we've used them one day and help us to be able to stand before you to give a one day to, to give a good account.

Lord, not that there won't be things burned up, but Lord, that we would be able to lay at your feet, precious stones, gold and silver, uh, that will be bringing glory, uh, to thee. We pray now that you'd bless us as we conclude this service with a final hymn and we go out into the week. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.