Words

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Bless every one of you that is reading this! God bless you, and make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace!  Today’s program is about words. Psalms 33:6,  By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Mat 12:36&37,  But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Do we believe that? I believe that this is one of those scriptures that most of us just sort of glance at and move on when we are reading the Bible. But we need to pay attention to this, because Jesus did not speak idly. He did not speak empty words. He only spoke what He heard His Father saying. And He is our judge, and we will stand before Him, and we will give an account for every word that we have spoken. Now if you know in your heart that you have spoken wickedly, most of us have, you can come to the Lord, and humble yourself before Him, and ask Him to forgive you for every evil word that you have spoken. And He will; He will, and He will cleanse you. But you must come to Him in humility and fear. Prov 17:27, He that has knowledge spares his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. 

Verse 28, Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise: and he that shuts his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Prov 18:6&7, A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calls for strokes. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. Prov 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Let’s go to James 1:19-26, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. The way to be saved from foolishness and evil speaking and wrath; the way to wisdom and understanding is for the Word of God to be engrafted in your heart by the Holy Spirit, as you read and meditate in it, fearing God and seeking Him humbly for understanding and righteousness. Verses 22-26, But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. In John 8:31&32, Jesus said, If you continue in my Word, then you will be my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Psalms 34:12-14, Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 

We need to treasure God’s Word in our hearts. Mat 12:34&35, …For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. Mat 15:11, Jesus said, Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Verses 18-20,  But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man… Whatever is in our hearts comes forth out of our mouths and defiles us, and others.  If we will humble ourselves before God and continue in His Word: seeing, hearing, and doing His Word, the truth will cleanse our hearts and set us free from evil, as we are forgiving and being forgiven, repenting and confessing our sins, and believing Jesus’ sacrifice and His cleansing Blood. James 3:14-18, But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Mat 5:9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. As we, as sons and daughters of God, as followers of Jesus, our Lord and Master, continue in His Word, being doers and not hearers only, we shall be cleansed and set free, more and more, as more and more mercy and good fruits, peace and righteousness are sown in our hearts. He will set us free, and if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed: from all bitter envy and strife, and from bruises, wounds, and putrefying sores, bitterness and unforgiveness. Our hearts will be changed! Our words will change; our deeds will change, as our treasure changes: the treasure of our hearts. He that seeks after righteousness shall be filled. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things that are needful shall be added to you. As you look into the Word of God, it will expose those evil things in your heart. It’s not easy or pleasant when God shows you some evil in your heart, but if you will acknowledge it to Him, confess it, and repent of it, He has promised that He will forgive you and cleanse you, through your faith in the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. 

Mat 4:1-4, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. When Jesus was being tempted by the Devil, he spoke deceitful words to Jesus by powerful seducing spirits. Jesus responded to him with the Word of God spoken in the power of  the Holy Spirit. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is the truth. We stand in the truth, with the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness; we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus; made righteous by faith in His shed Blood, our loins are girded about with truth; the truth is in our hearts; our feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; we are walking in peace, believing the Gospel, taking the shield of faith, wherewith we quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God spoken by the Spirit. This is how Jesus stood, face to face with the Devil, in His hour of temptation; all this is how we will stand. We must continue in His Word, with the Holy Spirit teaching us, and revealing His Word to our hearts and minds, and leading us in doing it every day. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Jesus overcame him by speaking the Word of God to him in the power of the Holy Spirit. God will also lead us in righteous paths to try us and prove us, where we must rely upon His Word with all our heart to overcome in each situation, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, believing the Gospel; the word of our testimony: what Jesus accomplished on the Cross for us. As we continue in His Word, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free: free from all the lies and evil things that have brought destruction to us in the past.

Let’s turn to 2 Pet 1:19-21, And so we have the prophetic Word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2, verses 1-3,  But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. Verses 18-22, For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.  Jesus said, Take heed that no man deceive you. Satan’s ministers speak great swelling contrived words to deceive you and bring you into bondage; to make merchandise of you; to lay hold on your money. They care nothing for you. Our only protection from being deceived and being brought into bondage is to take heed to the Word of God; to read it and meditate in it every day; to do it and live it and speak it, with the Holy Spirit leading us, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus. Remember: what is in our hearts will come out of our mouths, and it will either bring forth good in our lives, and the lives of others, or it will bring forth destruction. Choose this day whom you will serve! God has already proved His great love for you through the gift of His Son on the Cross of Calvary, to die for you and to take away all your sins and bring you into fellowship with Him. But you must respond to Him: you must come to Him. Those that come to Him, Jesus said, He will in no wise cast out. In James 4, verses 1-12, we read, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you! Cleanse your hands (your deeds), purify your hearts, be afflicted and mourn and weep; humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up!

I want to ask you to pray a prayer with me. I’m going to pray a prayer from my heart that the Lord gave me concerning all this about which I’ve been speaking. So, if you have a willing heart, please pray with me:

Lord, grant me grace. I humble myself before you; I draw near to you. Please forgive all the evil and foolish things that I have spoken and done in the past, and please grant me your grace, through the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ, that as I continue in your Word, you would purify and cleanse my heart of all evil and foolishness and wickedness and strife and wrath, by your Holy Spirit, with your Word, and create in me a clean heart and righteousness from the God of my salvation. Please put your wisdom and your love in my heart, that I might speak and live in a manner that is pleasing to you, and that you would be truly honored by my life going forward, and that others would be truly edified and provoked unto love and good works. Amen!