and become wise. But he who associates with schools suffers harm. Choose your friends carefully, but they impact you and affect you. I think the serendipity of teaching that I did not anticipate or understand is the peer group. Every school I have taught, the faculties have been tremendous without exception. I have never been on a faculty where there's been fighting and arguing. There's always been a grubbing relationship everywhere. That's not always true, but I have learned volumes from my peers. Third, sound doctrine. Produce this, sound doctrine, 22, 17 through 19. This is the introduction to the 30 sayings of the wise. Incline your ear and hear the sayings of the wise. Set your heart to my knowledge because it is lovely when I'm reading very little. You keep them in your belly when they have fixed together upon your lips. In order that you trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you. And this book, I hope, the lecture has been an encouragement to you. It is sound doctrine, by which we learn. Finally, it is prayer. Proverbs chapter 15, and verse 29, the Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. And if you have trouble with your tongue, you realize it's constantly getting you in trouble. It's a God of salvation. And this would be to pray according to God's will that I might have the heart that produces the good fluid of healing speech. Well, that's the lecture on speech. I think a time is almost gone.
I'll let you, Dan, if you don't mind, be the monitor of the time. As I said, your questions can range if you wish to. Yes. 31, yes. Pardon? Sure. Thank you for, and thank you for your sincerity. And every way we all respond to God's word that we might live it out with integrity and with sincerity. I think that we ought to be saying as well, that the whole idea is that the wife can participate in the economic well-being of the home. I was about saving money. I saved the well-being because she's a tremendous shopper. She often shops in the 15 and 20 percent. I said, okay, you make more money by your saving than I could possibly make an investment. Very few investments give you 15, 20 percent, especially today. Well, they didn't, and you lose them all. I'm not into that, but I've just said I observed that. And I think we have to keep in mind that the point is in that give us this day our daily cake. I mean, we should be give us this day our daily bread. I think often we're working because we want, we have greed in our hearts. I'm talking about myself and all. I've got to think we tend to that. We want more than what we need. And I wasn't talking about that. Your sensitivity there about the freeing up to do other things. The point of it was that it freezes up to do better things than simply making money and just providing. That was the point. It's not so you can have a bigger house. That's not the point. The point is so we can be in the city gate shaping public opinion and public discourse. We can be involved in the church and doing better things. That was the point. I think sometimes in our culture, which is so materialistic, we might be hearing that through a wrong ear. So thank you for asking that because I hope that helps to expand for a bit more. Thank you. Pardon? Oh, thank you. Say it again. Honest? That was the last one. Yeah. Honestly it was. Yes, Betty. Sure. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And like all the proverbs, it presents a truth that the woman can contribute to the economic well-being of the home. It's not concerned. That proverb is not concerned with children. That's why I brought in the first Timothy passage last night because other texts deal with children and how you say through the child berry that is the God we see that's in Christ and the baptism of the children and God we see and so forth. And you have to hold it all in detention and sometimes a certain prioritization has to come in the way you work life out. It would seem to me that the fundamental is life itself and the child itself. And I'd have to fit the other into that. Keep that in mind as another desiderotum. But that can't be the whole thing. And that's the problem that you have in proverbs is that you get a truth and we tend to override it sometimes. And when I'm suggesting this, it's just like if you just read that book, that proverb you would think, well, what does the man do? But I'm saying the whole book is a, he prepared the field and had the source of income ready before he ever married and set the whole economic foundation for the home within which she is freed now to operate. And it's very clear he's not the sluggard at so forth. So the tension is to put it all together in the way we live it out in our lives. And I think that under God we have to think through our priorities sometimes. How as a Christian do I live this out? Yes. Yeah, I was dealing with that from the proverbs chapter two where it says, by paying attention to wisdom you will apply your heart to understand. And I use the illustration from from Constantine when he said you know as a king it's wickedness to give negligent ears when the word of God is being read. Just when it's being read it is wickedness and he recognized not to listen to the king and not to get the message straight is the beginning of rebellion. And when we gather and we're in the presence and we pray for God's presence in you always have word and spirit when you're in that context. Not to listen, not to get the message or to misconstrue it is serious business before God. And we are of accountability to listen and to apply as the past to pray at the beginning of a lesson that we might apply it and live it out in our lives. It's a serious accountability but to whom much is given much is required. So I think good you pick that up again. Thank you. Okay. I recognize that from the football games. Okay. All right. In college in Vancouver. And I was asked by first Baptist church in Vancouver to speak on the doctrines of revelation, inspiration and illumination. I was trying to think how I could do that in an interesting sort of a way without being totally boring. I'm just doctrinal sermon. So I decided that I would speak from the experience of Bellum and his donkey from Numbers chapter 22 where you have both revelation and inspiration and illumination in a very interesting and interesting story. Well on Tuesday before the message, they called me up and said, what is the title of the message? And I'm very bad at that. I don't even think about it. And so on the spur of the moment, I said, well, we'll call it the talking donkey. So when I got down there at the church in the big bulletin, and this is on a major intersection in Vancouver, it says the talking donkey called and ducked the walkie. And I said, well, isn't that the truth? So it's just God's grace that He's willing to use us, isn't it? This is lecture number five in your outline. And I want to speak on why speech from the book of Proverbs. And I'll try to leave time for questions at the end, which you can range all the way. You can don't have to limit your questions to the book of Proverbs. You may want to ask questions pertaining to the series from Dustin Glory. At least I can suggest that. I haven't seen this series, but if I could be helpful to you and answer your questions for the Old Testament as a resource person, then at least do my best. I don't know if I could answer them all, but I'll try. The legend is told of a king who sent a servant out around his realm to bring back to him the most valuable thing in his realm. The servant came back with a platter, a silver platter, and on the platter was a tongue. He said, sire, this is the most valuable thing in your realm. The king sent the servant out again to bring out the worst thing in his realm. And the servant came back again with a silver platter, and again with a tongue on it. And he said, sire, this is the worst thing in your realm. The tongue can be the best thing you have, and it can be the worst thing that you have. The proverb speaks to this from Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 15. There we read, there is gold, and an abundance of, as we saw last night, literally quarrel, but that's no longer valuable, so we translate it normally by rubies. There is gold and an abundance of rubies, but lips that speak knowledge are a precious vessel, is what the Hebrew says. That is, by the supply of law and demand, by comparison to those who are able to speak well with knowledge, which means the knowledge of this book, and are able to apply it. That is far more scarce than rubies, and therefore much more valuable. And it likens your lips to a very exquisite, precious valuable vase or vessel. I think anything beautiful, and your lips can be that, but they are extremely rare to find such a person who has this kind of knowledge and can use it well. In this lecture, therefore, I'd like to encourage us in the use of speech, principally from the Proverbs, up to now I've been taking whole sections of material, but I'm going delve now into the Proverbs of Solomon that begin at chapter 10, verse 1 through 226, and we have there 375 Proverbs in the first collection of Solomon's Proverbs. There are 375 Proverbs probably, because that is the numerical value of Solomon's name. You only count constants, but the S is equal to 300, the L is equal to 30, the M is equal to 40, and as it comes out Solomon is actually an H in Hebrew, it's 5. So his numerical value of his name is 375, and we have 375 Proverbs, and let's put that way to help one to memorize these 375. So we'll be looking at those and selecting them and arranging them in the form of a homily. We will translate them into another literary form of a lesson that has our own kind of logic and its own sort of organization. I'll also be looking at the 30 sayings of the wise in 22, 17 through 24, 22, and then further sayings and the sayings of Hezekiah and the collections from Agro and Lemuel. I will arrange it into speaking on the power of speech, the characteristics of good speech, and finally the source of good speech. First of all, then the power of our words. You can see our words have the power of life, eternal life, and eternal death. Think of that. Your tongue can be a tree of life, eternal life, where it can be a sword of eternal death. Proverbs 18 and verse 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. The word power in Hebrew is hand. Your tongue can dish out life, and your tongue can hand out death. And as for those who love it, each one will eat its fruit. If you know how to use it well, you'll receive the rewards of so using it. We tend to denigrate words. Our proverb is, one picture is worth a thousand words. I'd like to suggest that a thousand pictures is not worth John 316. Your words have tremendous power and life. Proverbs 10 and verse 21, the lips of the righteous who seek to serve the community under God because of God's grace, operative in them. The lips of the righteous, the Hebrew word here, feed is the word for shepherd or pastor. Your words are like a pastor, like a shepherd. You can shepherd people. You can feed people. You can care for people with your words. The lips of the righteous shepherd many, but fools die for lack of sense. That is the incorrigible fool that's his basic characteristic. He will not humble himself before God's revelation. The incorrigible fool starts to death because he refuses the good fruit of sound teaching in the midst of the best teaching of person can starve to death. You can be in a church like this in Sunday school in which the teachers and the pastor are giving eternal life and reject it and you will starve to death in the midst of the best fruit.
Again, Proverbs 11 and verse 30, where we have it, it is the tree of life that has been restored. Your tongue is like the tree of life in the garden of Eden from which people can eat and be healed and find life. 11 and 30, the fruit of the righteous referring to their speech and lives is the fruit of a tree of life and the one who literally takes lives is wise. So you have the ability, therefore, to be the tree of life as you represent with words of knowledge, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the truths of Holy Scripture. Not only is it the tree of life, it's a well spring of life that can be very attractive to people. Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 14.
The teaching of the wise is a well spring of life and it's so bubbling and attractive, it turns people aside from the snares and traps of death as they feed from attractive fruit and healing fruit. So your tongue has the power of life, you shape convictions, no one has come to Christ without somebody's tongue, someone had to talk somewhere, somehow for any of us to have come into eternal life and you can be part of that. On the other hand, the tongue has the power of death. Look at the prologue, we said that the problem that the father is confronting, he's confronted with the tension of communicating the heritage that's been passed on by generations of our faith. Now it's at a very critical point of a young person at the age of puberty, at the age of marriage and the tension is that that young person is struggling between the peer group and the heritage. And we have a generation gap, it's the critical point in the transmission of the faith is that 10 years of about 14 to 16, 17 years of age, that's a critical age group, that's the point that this book is addressing. And at that point the youth is confronted by a peer group that may advocate easy money, getting money quickly, easily apart from hard work and discipline and righteousness and easy sex. So we said what the book is about is to allow us to have liberty within law, freedom within form, love making within marriage. And this is often reading you, the seductive group will offer you sex without marriage and it is the way of death. So you hear them if you look at Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 10, the father doesn't shield the son from the group that will say an easy way to making money is by taking advantage of other people. Chapter 1 and verse 10, we hear the words of death, my son, if sin is entice you, do not give into them and then he develops how they entice. If they say come along with us, let's lie and wait for someone's blood, let's weigh lay some harmless soul, let's swallow them alive, we're in league with the grave. And whole like those who go down to the pit, we will get all sorts of valuable things. And Philla houses with plunder, he portrays it almost as a punching duty show in black and white, but that's largely what's going on with false advertising, selling people what they don't want, selling people what they don't need, the whole idea is to get their money so you have a bigger house and you have better things in your house. You have a better car, plundering other people, that's the seduction and it's done all the time by Madison Avenue, it's done all the time on TV, they're selling us stuff we don't need, they're seducing people to use credit cards, they want not to be using, they're destroying lives, why? To plunder them and get their money, that's what it's all about. And the book shows it very clearly and it's saying don't be party to that, those are the words of death. And then so far as easy, sex is concern, he's very concerned about that, that's one of the biggest snares when youth is robust and active and virile. And you'll see in chapter five, in verse one, my son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge for the lips of an adulterous and there may be a double entente going on here. For the lips of the adulterous drip honey and literally the word for speech is palette, a palette is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bit of a skull sharp as a double-edged sword. If you turn to chapter seven, he gives a real insight into the whole speech. Chapter seven, he portrays a speech scene. Verse six, at the window of my house, I looked out for the lattice, I saw among the goable, that is the uncommitted, who haven't made a decision of life and therefore are both vulnerable. I noticed among the youth a youth who lacked sense, who was going down the street near her corner. Walking along in the direction of a house was a twilight as the day was fading, as the dark of nights they came in, then out came a woman to meet him, dress like a prostitute, with crafty intent, she's loud, defied, the feet never stayed at home. Now in the street, now in the squares at every corner she lurks, she took him, she took hold of him and kissed him with the brazen face she said. And there we have her seductive words, and she makes herself out even to be a religious woman. I have fellowship offerings at home, today I have fulfilled my mouths, and here's the lie I came out to meet you, your big hunk of man. I look for you and I have found you. I've covered my bed with, I've covered my bed with colored linens for me. If I perfume my bed with burrow arrows and cinnamon, I can't quite picture that myself, but anyway. We would say I have a water bed with satin sheets, something like that. Come let's drink up raw till morning, let's engage in all forms of love making is the proposition, and there you have her seductive words, the words of death. I know when I was reading Paul Johnson's book, Modern Times, a fascinating book of the history of modern times in 1920 to 1980 that gave me a real insight into our generation and our age. And he made the point that the speech of Stalin and Hitler, the counter for World War II, it was their propaganda, 50 million people died in World War II, 50 million. That's twice the population of Canada, by the way, twice the population of California. Our words and what the teacher teaches in the classroom and the university is sending many youth to eternal death with its unbelief, and so is our news media, and the devil has a very loud voice these days. Our speech then has the power of life and of death that pulls a lot of responsibility. Secondly, our speech has the power to heal and to destroy people. For over 1624 it's likened to the sweetness of a honeycomb, and the beauty of honey is its both medicinal healing and sweet. Normally what is sweet is not good for us, and what is good for us is not sweet, but honey is both. And he makes the point, 1624, present words are overflowing honey. Sweet to the appetite, the word deficit salt means appetite, sweet to the appetite, and a remedy to the bones. And as I said the other night bones is your psychological well-being, so your speech can be attractive and at the same time a remedy and a healing. When I taught at Dallas I was a faculty colleague with Jean Gets who at one time was president of Moody Bible Institute, at least the night school at Moody Bible Institute. And he said when he took the job he found the whole school in the doldrums, the faculty was underpaid, and so they had to teach at night they had a moonlight to supplement the salary and they were tired. The students worked all day and tried to get an education at the same time, and they had to come to class at night tired, so both the faculty and the students were tired in the educational process. And then he received a letter of a student who attended the night school and what a blessing the class had been, and he sent that letter to the faculty member. It revived the class, revived the faculty member, and then he discovered that this was very important for all the faculty. And he said you know I think the most important thing I did as president was to encourage the faculty by sending them the letters from students. It revived the class with attractive words, a word of encouragement, a word of affirmation that's truthful can revive a person, and a word a harsh, caustic word can be destructive. That's Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 18. I take it a stream case here, there are many Proverbs to this as you read me through, I'm just taking out one of two. And frankly the book of Proverbs has more to say about speech than any other topic. And the second most important topic is money which I'll take up in the next hour. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 18, one where you don't even intend to do wrong. There is one who speaks recklessly, that is you're not thoughtful about your words, you don't value them highly enough, you don't understand the power of your words and what it can do to people. There is one who speaks recklessly like the stabbing of a sword but the tongue of the wise is a remedy. And no one time I was chairman of our condominium where I lived and there was a complaint about against the concierge. And I received this letter and I answered them by appealing to Gautama and Truth and Method. And he makes the point that one of the problems we have as human beings is to understand what is exemplary about a person and what is incidental. Was there behavior, characteristic, exemplary of the way they are, or was it incidental? My observation in life is that if you like a person, when they do bad, we call it an incident. Well, we don't like a person and they do bad if we say that's exemplary. I think a lot of people do with your subjective response. And so I was my point and this letter was simply it's hard for me as a chair to decide whether this is the issue here is whether this incident that occurred was exemplary of our concierge or an incident in my judgment was it was an incident and not an example. Well, they took great offense of my letter and now you got back I'm highly incensed and insulted by your letter. I didn't intend that but I knew this proverb and I wrote back and apologized it did not mean to stand. I didn't understand trying to bring remedy. Interestingly enough, they never returned to me but a month later they apologized to the concierge and it did bring healing because I was able to pull out the proverb and say it wasn't intentional but I could see I stabbed you. And I apologize for that. There is one who speaks recklessly like the stabbing of a sword but the tongue of the wise is a remedy. Again, we denigrate words. Our proverb is sticks and stones may hurt my bones but names will never hurt me. That's a damnable lie. Sticks and stones are a little account beside what's done to a person by names and words. What is done to you is a little account beside what is done in you. So we have the power to heal. You can heal a spouse, you can heal a child and you can destroy a spouse with a sharp tongue. You can destroy a child with a sharp tongue. And finally, it not only has the power of life and death, the power to heal and destroy it has the power to reward or damage yourself. Ultimately, it boomerangs upon yourself. So we'll probably put it this way. It is observed in the course of worldly things that men's fortunes are often made by their tongues and by their virtues. And more men's fortunes overthrown thereby them by their vices. First of all, then, the power to reward yourself, Proverbs chapter 12, at verse 14. From the fruit of one's mouth, he is filled with good things, that is as you head out fruit. As you feed others, here's the paradox, you yourself are filled, think of that. See, the paradox of that. As you feed and take care of others, you feed and take care of yourself. That's the result, not the purpose, it's simply the result of it. And the deeds of his hands are returned to him, 12-14. There's two ways to reward yourself. One is by the way you talk, and the other way is by your word. This is a bit of a situation, but my daughter is rather girl-less, and her emotions are right out in the open, and you just know where Susan is, and she loves to talk, and she's the light. My boys, when they were younger, were more taciturn. And it was like playing conversation with my boys was like a tennis match where you hit the ball and it never came back. It's a very difficult game to play. I was trying to encourage the boys to engage in conversation more. This would be a bit of frustration, but to get to point across. That was after a Sunday meeting, and we came home, and Elaine had prepared this lovely meal. She had out the best china, and it was just exquisite. I said to the boys, do you realize we have all this because I talk? Yes, they think that's all I can do, but in any case, I know it's a bit of frustration, but anyway, that whole table was full of food because I talk. That's all I could do. In any case, all right, so it's a bit of frustration. It also has the power to damage yourself, probably chapter 18, verses 6 and 7. The lips of a fool come into strife. His mouth cries out for a beating. The mouth of a fool brings terror to him. The lips are a trap for his own life. Think of the numbers of careers that have been destroyed by one bad word. Most of you can't recall it, but I recall very vividly rubbed these, one of the candidates for the Republicans back in 1960. He made one bad word. He gave back from the bank from Vietnam, and he said I was brainwashed. That was the end of this campaign. Some of you remember Jimmy DeGreek. Some of you remember Tom Watson as a bad joke in the Reagan administration. Most of us can remember rocker. One bad word can hurt your career. In other words, some people's tongues are long enough to cut their own throats. All right, so that's the power of words. The power to give life and death, the power to heal and to destroy, the power to reward and to damage yourself. It's a very important topic. So what are the characteristics then of wise speech? And to help us remember it for seven points, I put them under the acronym of gentle breath. I'm not witty enough to do something like this. A student did this for me, I used to have the points differently, and the student rearranged it. You know, they got whipped. My students are usually smarter than I am, believe me. They're just that smart enough to know it yet. All right, anyway, the first one is its gentle. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 1. A gentle tongue, a soft tongue that's sensitive. 151, a gentle tongue turns back wrath, but a painful word stirs up arouses anger in the other person. The whole idea of the covenant person today in Christ, but then too, the covenant person in Christ, the whole idea is to serve the other person, to heal, to restore, to help. That's salvation. The Japanese put it this way. Soft drives out hard. Remember when I'm listening to a congresswoman from Dallas? They asked how she was so effective in Congress, and she used the metaphor that a woman would use. She said, I have learned that oil is more effective than vinegar. When I was a teen age, I read Ben Franklin's autobiography, and he said that his illustration was, instead of saying, any fool can see that. One should say, I may be wrong, but I understand it this way. Of course, on the end, I be when we had a proposal. Nobody else on the committee would accept it or understand it. We would say, as you know, any fool can see that. I see it. When deep within us swelling hearts, the thoughts of pride and anger rise. When angry words are on our lips and tears of passion in our eyes, then we must stay, the angry blow, and we must check the hasty word. Give gentle answers back again and fight the battle for the Lord. We may do that, but ultimately it's the grace of the Spirit of God working in us. Not of ourselves. That's why we need the first nine chapters, as you abide the word that it bears this fruit, and that's why I took the first nine, because this is a book not of how to. The whole sequence is character, then conduct, then consequences. But fundamentally it is character that comes by faith and grace and the fear of the Lord as we discussed it Friday night. The B stands for boast not. Chapter 27, verses 1 and 2, do not boast about tomorrow. For you do not know what a day may bring forth. Another's praise is proper, while self praise is unthitting, because recognizing existence is uncertain. One must live day by day being grateful to God for the life he grants is totally improper before God. Again, verse 2, let another praise you. Not your own mouth. Someone else. Not your own lips. It's very important. Part of the problem we have sometimes is by promoting ourselves. We end up in positions where we don't fit. That others promote you. Sometimes you're liable to advance yourself by self-talk and self-promotion. And then you're at the head of the table, and you're always worried about being demoted, because you don't fit there. That others promote you. And not yourself, and then you will fit. Society has its own way of affirming who you are, and accepting who you are. Where society will not take the boaster seriously, it has its own way of testing him before according him acclaim and of trusting him with power. Of course, this is why Paul said, I'll make a fool of myself where he had a boast of his apostleship, but if I must boast, then I will boast in my weakness. So we had to make an exception to this proverb. But when he made an exception to it, then the only way he could handle to defend his apostolars is that his apostleship is to boast in his weakness, but he would glory only in the cross of Jesus Christ. The R stands for being restrained. It's restrained. I read a book by Robert Boyd in Edmund Adio, Eagle Speech. The subtitle is, why no one is listening to you. I cannot believe this. They say the average person opens his or her mouth 700 times, speaks 12,000 sentences, speaks 100,000 words a day, but reads less than three books a year, and no one is listening to you. The wise person's speech is never involuntary or ill-considered in contrast to the big mouth and blunders into trouble. We are under the constraint of the spirit, self-control, which includes speech. The proverb is chapter 17 and verse 27. One who knows knowledge is one who restrains his words because you know the power of it, and the importance of it. The understanding person is cool of spirit. In contrast to the hot temper who cannot control their speech, the discerning keep their cool and speak neither repulsively nor compulsively. It comes out of character. The proverb is chapter 17 and verse 14. The beginning of strife is one who breaks open a den. So before a quarrel breaks out, drop the controversy. If you know it's not going to heal anything, know what it may do is breach a den. Don't begin the quarrel. The process of reconciliation must be brought to bear immediately on a quarrel, less like small seepage from a den. The terms into a cataclysm, it gets out of hand and does irreparable damage. And that sometimes happens in churches. Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 28. Even a fool who holds his tongue, which he can't do, but even a fool who holds his tongue is thought to be wise, one who stops up his lips is discerning. Of course you know the one by Abraham Lincoln, better to keep your mouth shut and be thought stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. That's sort of a thing. That is really not a good proverb. I disagree with that. So show a Matthews. When your mouth, money or money is in copper, you may throw it about, but when it is in gold, you have to be cautious. We strained. E is the difficult one. This is the bad one, but anyway, we've got to have an equanim here. It says, the Eves drop not, which means doesn't gossip, but G doesn't work. But anyway, Eves drops not. Proverbs chapter 11, verses 12 and 13. A senseless person shows contempt for his neighbor. But an understanding person, a competent person, holds his tongue. One goes about as a slander as one who reveals secrets, but one who conceals a matter is one who is faithful in spirit. This is the ninth commandment, isn't it? Not to bear false witness against your neighbor. The Ten Commandments, those four in there, grant us bestow upon us our fundamental rights. Our right to life, you shall not murder, or take innocent life. Our right to our homes, you shall not commit adultery, take another person's spouse. Our right to our property, you shall not steal, and our right to our reputations, you shall not bear false witness. Notice what I'm saying now? I'm not saying, those are your rights. I'm saying, that's what the Americans would say. This is my right. I know my rights. That's not what I'm saying. These are the rights we bestow upon others. Christ gave up his life. Christ made himself of no reputation. He became poor for our sex. That's the Christian attitude. We give up our rights. But these are the rights we bestow upon one another. We bestow the right to life. We will not commit manslaughter by having bad breaks or driving when our eyesight is not good. We bestow the right to our homes. We bestow the right to property, and we bestow the right to the other person's reputation by not holding court in our living room or the cups of coffee, which sometimes happens. I was once a board of a Christian school in Vancouver and it was a Christian-reformed church school. I wasn't a member of that church. I was an outsider. They had me on there because of my academic credentials, I guess. In any case, I wasn't a part of the church, but I guess that there was a lot of sland going on against the principal, a lot of gossip. And at one of the board meetings, one of the members said that we should ask for the principal's resignation. And I have this very firmly in my mind that you've never entertained rumors or gossip. And I suggested that the motion was out of order. That we needed to have eye witnesses that would make the case against the principal and the principal must be present to defend himself. That's biblical principal. And when we had the eye witnesses and the principal there to answer the accusations, then I think we could evaluate it and the motion would be in order. Eye witnesses never appeared. The matter was dropped. That occurred back in 1976. The principal is still there. The school has gone from 200 to 1500. Under his leadership, I think it's the most important thing I did. I didn't know anything about money that they were usually talking about, but I understood the principal. Some people don't have a tremendous sense of humor. They have a tremendous sense of rumor. The A stands for Act, A, P, T. That is, you know the right word, and you also have a timing. There is a time to speak. You can say very valuable things at the wrong time. And they wasted. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 2. The tongue of the wise, the N.A.B. I think has commenced knowledge. I would say the tongue of the wise adorns knowledge. But the mouth of the fool gushes falling. The word translated commenced. Adolachian Hebrew is used in 2 Kings 1930 for Jezebel when she arranged her hair to make it beautiful. And that's the thought here. You arrange your words. You think about the timing and you think about how you express yourself. Wise people consider the style as well as the substance of what they have to say. Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 11. A word aptly spoken. 25 and 11. A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold. That's the substance in settings of silver. That's the aptness. A wise person talks sense and well-praised language. Otherwise it's like having a bell without a clapper. That the aptness gives it a ring. The taste stands for thoughtful. Not rash, these overlap but they are worthwhile distinguishing. One never speaks because it can be reckless without thinking first. Proverbs 15 and verse 28. 15 and 28. The heart of a righteous person ponders its answer. But the mouth of wicked people alerts out evil things. Proverbs 18 and 13. As the hymn will be prized before listening, it is to him folly and shame. A Lord exacerbated that and brought back to you 12, 36. We will give an account for every idle word and the word we have ever spoken. Well, wife says hell will be having to listen to everything we said. The age stands for honest and not false. It is healing and remedial but always truthful. It is honest and not false. We tend to minimize lies. We have all kind of euphemisms for lies. There's children's fibs. The exaggerations are called fish stories. The politicians denials. He says I was misquoted or misunderstood. I will have church holds. He talks about terminological inexactitudes. And one can lie by telling the truth even as you know. You heard the story of the captain in the first mate, the first mate, the drunk. And the captain put in the log of the ship's journey. The first mate was drunk today. And the captain said the truth is the truth. So the next day the first mate broke in the log. The captain was sober today. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 22. Rying lips on abomination to the Lord. But those who show conscientiousness find his favor. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 23. This is an amazing proverb. He who rebukes a person will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tone. If you can heal a person, my biggest regret in life, not my biggest perhaps, but one of my regrets in life. I wish people were more truthful with me. So I could learn and tell me where I'm failing. I would value that very, very highly. Sources of good speech finally. Where does it come from? Well, fundamentally it comes from the heart. That's where it comes from. We already saw that the heart, probably as it says, is 16 and verse 23. The heart of the wise causes his mouth to be prudent. And upon his lips he adds teaching. Matthew chapter 12, 33, 37, where he talks about the good tree and the bad tree. The good tree produces good fruit and the bad tree produces bad fruit. And he's referring to your heart. That's the source of the whole thing. We have to be born again by the spirit of God. For what we have been saying is the very characteristics of our Lord who spoke the truth, with restoration, but it did speak the truth. But in another way, Solomon is a much better feel-ogen than Frank Sinatra was. Thanks not to saying, do be, do be do. Solomon says, do be, do be. My wife prepared me a t-shirt, not it has. Do be, do be do Frank Sinatra. To be and not to be William Shakespeare.