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Turn in your song books to page number 154. We're going to sing Blessed be the tie that binds, song 154. Song 154. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our father's throne, we pour our ardent prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims are won. Our comforts and our cares, we share our mutual woes. Our mutual burdens bear and often for each other flows. The sympathizing tear when we asunder part, it gives us inward pain. But we shall for be joined in heart and hope to meet again. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time together. We can meet again in your church this week. And I pray that you be with us and be with the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Turn in your Mountain Baptist song books to page 13. It is Rejoice in the Lord, song 13. Song 13, Rejoice in the Lord. God never moves without purpose or plan. When trying his servant and molding a man, give thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long. In darkness he giveth a song. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. I could not see through the shadows ahead. So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead. I bowed to the will of the master that day. Then peace came and tears fled away. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. Now I can see testing comes from above. God strengthens his children and purges in love. My Father knows best, and I trust in his care through purging more fruit I will bear. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. Amen. So welcome back to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday evening. And let me get my soul winning numbers and everything here first. So as far as during this week, what were the soul winning numbers during the week? Nothing Monday. There was one and then two during the week. Two on Saturday. That's three. I thought there was... Maybe that was brother Jim that stated that. I thought there was others during the week. Brother Richie had one. Is that the one you're talking about? Yeah. Okay, okay. Does that make sense? Okay, so three during the week. And then what was the numbers today? I know you guys had five in your group today. And then was there... Nothing in Morgantown. Who's with brother Anthony? You had two today. Okay, so seven today then. And so 10 total. So good job with the soul winning. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Amen. Yeah, brother Justin. Let's go. So that's 11. So praise the Lord there. Keep up the good work with the soul winning. And then as far as the announcements, everything is the same as this morning. So Wednesday, as far as service, we should be continuing on through our study through the book of Luke. So we'll be going through Luke 13, Lord willing, this Wednesday. And I misspoke in my sermon, by the way, when I was preaching about like, you know, not coming to church sick, but I was actually here that Wednesday. So just for the record, you know, I didn't mean to like lie in front of everybody. But anyway, I forgot. When it comes to just being like stuck in a hole somewhere, I just feel like it's been years, you know, when it hasn't been that long. But anyway, on that note, be in prayer for everybody that's not feeling well. We definitely have a lot of families that are out right now due to this sickness that's going around. So just be in prayer for them. And I pray that this thing finally bites the dust. And then soul winning throughout the week. We have the regional soul winning times on there. So if you want to get with any of these men that are leading those up. And then we have upcoming events. We have the men's prayer meeting this Friday. We have the women's prayer meeting the next week. And then soul winning marathons. I'm going to be uploading a video here soon on the June 10th one for Philadelphia. But brother Charles is going to be leading that one up. So get with him if you want to go out to that. And then June 24th, one in Indianapolis. If you want to go to that one, then get with me or brother Dave. We'll all be going out there. So if you need a lot, you know, we're trying to get lodging for everybody that's going out from here. So if you need, if you're coming, please let us know. So we know how many rooms and all that stuff we're trying to get. And then I'm going to be putting more details out with that. I'm going to be getting with the guys that are out there in Indianapolis and see how many people we're expecting and where we're going to be meeting up and stuff like that. So that one is going to be more of a morning, like soul winning push into the afternoon and not like necessarily going like real late into the afternoon because it's like a five hour or so drive. So I want to be able to get back here and not be coming into the wee hours of night to get back here and get, because we have church the next day. So we're going to kind of have like a, like we normally been doing where we go out for a big push instead of doing a morning and an afternoon. We kind of go through lunch a little bit and kind of have a late lunch after we're done. Late lunch, early dinner. But we're going to get some more details on that as we get closer. Chapter memory of the month, we have Psalm 120 and then Psalm 37 verse 25 is a memory verse for the week. And then just be in prayer for all the ladies on the pregnancy list there. Ms. Tiara, Amanda and Jennifer. And so be in prayer for all these. That's about all I have for announcements. If you want to give a tithe or offering or anything like that, there's a offering box in the back there. If you want to give that. The mother baby rooms for the mothers babies only. And I think brother David is going to be reading tonight. Or who, oh brother wait, okay. Well whoever's reading can come up after we do one more song. So brother Chris is going to lead us in one more song. And then we'll have the script reading and then we'll get into the sermon. Go ahead and turn in your Psalm books to song number 29. Song 29 at the cross. Song number 29. Alas and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day was it for crimes that I have done he groaned upon the tree amazing pity grace and love beyond degree at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature sin at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day but drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe here Lord I give myself away tis all that I can do at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day brother Wade will come up and read us the chapter as snow and summer and as rain and harvest so honor is not seemly for a fool as the bird by wandering as the swallowed by flying so the curse causeless shall not come a whip for the horse and a bridle for the ass and a rod for the fool's back answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit he that sent the message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage the legs of the lame are not equal so is the parable of the mouth of fools as he that bindeth a stone in a sling so is he that giveth honor to a fool as a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard so is the parable in the mouth of fools the great god that formed all things both rewarded the fool and the board of the transgressors as a dog returns to his vomit so a fool returns to his folly seeest thou a man wise his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than him the slothful man saith there is a lion in the way and a lion is in the streets as the door turns upon his hinges so doth the sloth will open upon his bed the sloth will hide his hand in his bosom it grieve with him to bring it again to his mouth the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a season he that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears as a mad man who casteth firebrands arrows in death so is the man that deceived his neighbor and saith am not I in sport where no wood is there the fires go out and so where there is no tail bear the strife seeth as the coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so is a contentious man to kindle strife the words of a tail bear are his wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross he that he that hateth the simpleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him when he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven abominations in his heart whose hatred is covered by deceit his wickedness shall be shown before the whole congregation who so dig at the pit shall father in and he that rolled up stone it will return upon him a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin let us pray dear lord let us get something for your message be with pastor as we hear your word jesus and i pray i think we got no songbooks up here so uh you're there in uh uh uh well actually you're there in proverbs 26 and there's a reason i'm taking you there we are continuing our study through uh a series called a time to every purpose and this is in ecclesiastes chapter three so keep your keep your finger in proverbs 26 but ecclesiastes chapter three verse one it says to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven and we'll be going down line line upon line if you will through these different times for every season and so uh basically there's there's a time for every single one of these and some of these people think there's no time for but the big thing when it comes to uh having time or for a season or anything like that is knowing when that time is okay so when you're dealing with um you know what we dealt with last week uh which is a time to rend and a time to sow there's a time to do both those it just depends on you know when is that time right um and so we're on we're actually down to verse seven there uh and the last part of that verse is a time to keep silence and a time to speak time to keep silence time to speak i actually preached a sermon on this probably back in 2018 or something like that um so it's been a little while um but uh this is a great example of uh why uh we want to have a sermon on uh some or a series on this because i believe this is really where we need to know uh discernment right because you can know that hey we need to love or we need to hate but the question is when right uh and in this case there is a time to keep silence and not say anything and there's a time to speak the question is when do you do that right and this takes discernment now proverbs 26 this is a passage which a lot of people that are always trying to say there's a contradiction in the bible they'll go to proverbs 26 and say see you know well do you answer a fool or do you not answer a fool right it's like yeah that's a contradiction because they put them right next to each other you know obviously it show it's stating something here is that there there's a time to answer a fool and there's time not to answer a fool okay and obviously context will tell you a little bit it says in verse four there of proverbs 26 answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit and i'm going to be getting into like when you answer a fool and when you don't answer a fool but usually it's not it's not for that the sake of the fool now you could look at this and say well you're kind of damned if you do damned if you don't kind of thing right uh in that scenario of like if you don't answer them they're going to be wise in their own conceits if you do answer them you're kind of like you're kind of acting like them to answer them right you're kind of wasting your time which in a lot of cases uh you are but i'll give you i'll show you a case later on where why would you ever answer a fool right and i believe there's times to answer a fool but there has to there's a specific reason why you're answering them and it may not be for their specific reason it may be for other people okay now um proverbs chapter 15 proverbs 15 and verse 28 proverbs 15 and verse 28 says this proverbs 15 verse 28 it says the heart of the righteous studieth to answer but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things this is one of one of the uh i think clear-cut uh times and seasons if you will or there's a time to every purpose to where you really need to know the bible and have discernment to know when to apply it okay and the bible talks about strong meat belonging to them that are in full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil okay you know when it comes to uh being wise that takes experience and work you know the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that win his souls is wise and you know obviously keeping god's commandments going out soul winning doing what you should be doing i believe god will impart discernment and wisdom upon those that are doing the work okay but this is something to where really just studying to answer okay and the question is you know a lot of times it's studying when you should answer or when not to answer okay and a lot of times people are like i'm gonna go to safe route and just never say anything it's like well that'll get you in trouble because there's a time where it's commanding us to answer you know we're commanded to give an answer or to speak and so that you can't just go to safe route same thing people do with like love right it's like well i'm just gonna be on safe side just love everybody well that'll be a problem because there's cases where it's actually a sin and it's wrong to love certain people or love certain things and so you have to have discernment and obviously you're getting into strong meat when you're getting into these type of aspects right when you're when you're trying to understand okay when should i speak when should i not speak and uh go to proverbs so let's hit on first of all keeping silence okay when should you not say something right because that's you know a time to keep silence and there are times where we just need to not say anything and uh proverbs chapter 18 and verse 13 this is a great example of a time to where you shouldn't say anything is when you don't know what's going on okay and notice that proverbs 18 and verse 13 it says he that answered the matter before he heareth it it is folly and shame unto him so when you basically answer a matter you basically have given your opinion before you even heard the whole matter right that's that's that's a not a time to answer not a time to speak right you need to keep it in and until afterwards right uh go to uh proverbs 17 proverbs 17 proverbs 17 this isn't all-inclusive this isn't an all-inclusive list of like times when the speaker not speak but i'm just giving you some examples here that in general i would say this in a lot of cases we need to we need to spare our words and we need to keep silence for the most part you know and you know it's kind of like when you think of like love and hate which i'll be getting to uh you know later on in another sermon but the same time is that you kind of lead off with loving somebody right you lead off with that and i'd say you lead off with kind of just keeping silence and taking it in right be swift to hear slow to speak right swift to hear slow to speak and so you kind of just take it in and you know kind of speak when you're asked a question right uh one thing that uh you know i've learned throughout the years or just a principle that i live by is that unsought advice is rarely heated meaning when when you have like someone is doing something you have and you want to give them your opinion about what they're doing or how to do it or whatever unless they're asking you that your opinion you should probably just not say anything unless they're like literally teetering teetering off the edge of like a building or like a cliff and you don't want them to die i'm talking you know an emergency situation speak up and say something but when it comes to let's say you're like hey you know this you'd be better off doing this or you know you should do this or that or you should buy this or you shouldn't buy that or you know things that uh is is up basically is subjective as far as like you know how someone should do something um you know in general with those i don't give advice unless it's asking i'm the pastor right so there'll be people in church that'll be doing things and maybe i wouldn't do it that way but i'm just like well if they ask me you know if they ask my opinion then i'll give it but if they don't ask my opinion you know then i'm not going to say anything so and obviously i'm talking i'm not talking about grievous sins and all that stuff obviously i'll take care of that but um in general you know there's a time and place when to speak up and answer something an answer is kind of the key word there right when you give your advice without someone asking it you're not really answering you're just kind of throwing it into their face right so um proverbs 17 verse 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 everybody knows this like you see that person that doesn't say anything they automatically seem wise don't they like someone that's really quiet right you'll run into those like quiet old men that don't say anything and just off the cuff you don't know anything about that person could be a complete fool but because they're not talking you kind of look at them like that's that's probably a wise old man right there he's just got a whole bunch of wisdom just hidden right there locked up he's not saying anything right but there's just on the surface that you just kind of feel that way when you when you someone that's not speaking you say well you're speaking a lot you're up there just laughing around about all this well one i'm using the bible you know the bible talks about how god uses the foolishness of preaching when the lost right you know the foolishness of preaching to preach the gospel and all of that and you may ask yourself why is he called foolish because what the bible teaches about much speaking but here's why it works because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god and when you're preaching with bearing precious seed meaning the word of god that's not foolishness that you're speaking i mean you're if you're using the word of god that's why in a both outsourcing and in a sermon you should have the word of god right at your fingertips right you know like you should be using the word of god constantly so that it's not your words that are being stated or your opinions that are just being a state stated all the time now i know my sermon this morning was a little more opinion a little more subjective we're talking about wanting cows and all that stuff but in the end you know there's still like bible principles here's what you should be doing all of that but uh when it comes to speaking in general i think we should keep our words few let's say you're at a meeting right and whatever you do as far as work let's say you're at a meeting and there's a whole bunch of people there's a round table and everybody's discussing of like how we're gonna do this project how we're gonna do this or that in general i don't say anything until i'm spoken to now there's times where it's like okay we're gonna talk about the structure it's like well i need to speak up you know that's that's why i'm here right but if there's a whole bunch of stuff going on and maybe it's something over here i'm like yeah i probably wouldn't do it that way i don't say anything until they ask me something because you don't want to be that person in the room that's just knows everything and you know that know it all that you're just like i wish that person would just stop talking for a minute and there's been times where i you know there'll be conversations and it's not even it's not work it's not anything like anna look up here and don't talk or you're going back to where mama's at speaking of time to not speak but the thing is is that there's times where i've been in conversations with people and people will be talking about things they you know maybe things that they've gone through experiences and stuff like that and there's similar experiences that i've gone through and i just kind of i want to talk about it and be like hey yeah you know that happened to me over here but there's points where i'm just like i need to stop talking because i'm like inserting my my thoughts and what's going on with me way too much you know because that gets annoying and sometimes you have to reel yourself back and say hey it's not this this isn't all about me and i shouldn't bake it all by me sometimes there'll be things where someone will state something and they'll say hey you know this happened to me and there may have been something that happened to me that was very similar and even more extreme and i won't even i'll just hold back and be like i'm not gonna say anything i'm just gonna let them talk about it and be like yeah man that's cool you know that's that's awesome and i'm not being fake about it i'm just you know don't want to be that person that's the one upper you ever run into those everybody's like oh yeah you did that you know it's kind of like oh you want you want five people well i want 10 people one time you know it's like okay you know it's like those one uppers and those people are always annoying to be around because it doesn't matter what you say you know you'd be like listen i flew you know i was on a plane the the pilot died and i had to take over the plane and land the plane you'd be like oh yeah well i had to like i had to jump out of the plane with everybody on my back and we had to parachute and parasail all the way back down to the ground you know and it just gets ridiculous and obviously that's being a little hyperbolic okay but you know those guys that are like that and i don't want to be that guy and i think that's something that everybody should be looking at and say hey in general i should try to not speak as much i should let other people talk and you know if they ask hey you know what do you think about this and be like okay well now it's my turn to talk right and you know it takes discernment too you know as far as that goes now if no one's talking you're just sitting there and everybody's just kind of twiddling their thumbs and speak up and say something you know like someone's got to talk right you know we don't want to be bored but um but in proverbs chapter 10 and verse 19 uh and obviously proverbs hits on this a lot proverbs 10 19 says in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refaints his lips is wise the more you talk the more you're gonna end up saying something stupid you know i mean it's just facts the more you you talk the more the more chance of something coming out that's that's not going to be something that you want to say okay um and ecclesiastes go to ecclesiastes chapter 5 ecclesiastes chapter 5 ecclesiastes chapter 5 so in general you know i lean i try to lean on the side of keeping silence and really it's kind of this idea of taking it all in right and for example if someone is sometimes i'll have friendly little discussions or debates on doctrine with with you know friends people obviously at the door we try to refrain from like debating with people but in general you know sometimes what you want to do is just be like you're wrong here's why boom and you just like here's the verses boom boom boom boom and you're just like but you know what i try to do i hear them out and in my mind i'm like that's why that's wrong i'm gonna i'm noting it in my mind and i'm just kind of taking down mental notes okay i'm gonna destroy that verse with this verse right here and then i'm kind of thinking about okay this verse okay and you you hear them out okay and i'm and obviously if you know they're wrong now obviously there could be cases where you're wrong and you should just hear them out and maybe you're wrong and you just need to hear out their side and just maybe contemplate it and think about it and see how it works out but if you know that they're out in left field somewhere a lot of times i'll hear them out and i'll just hear the whole thing and okay here's why you're wrong and then boom and then you drop the bomb on them okay instead of like just because if you if you if you're in a let's say a discussion like that and you're just kind of picking them apart as they're going down the line you know what's going to turn into it's going to look like you didn't even give me a chance to even like give you what i was trying to say right but if you allow them to kind of like okay here's what here's what i i'm saying here's what uh you know the doctrine is here's what all my verses are and you let them do that then at that point you know it's kind of like you're keeping it in until afterwards right that you're not uh answering before you've heard the matter okay now listen if someone's coming at you and saying well no you can lose your salvation well then nip it in the bud wherever you want okay i'm talking about like side doctrines right i'm talking about things that aren't uh damnable heresies right because you know the bible talks about how paul didn't give them space no not for an hour you know when it came to the the gospel and all that stuff so if someone's like preaching to you some they're trying to explain to you why you can lose your salvation or why it's not by jesus alone or why you have to do good works then you know what i'm not going to hear that out you know it's just packaging it in a different package and here i'm just going to nip that in and be like you're wrong here's why and if you don't want to hear it bye you know that's really how that's going to go now ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse 1 it says keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of god and be more ready to hear to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before god for god is in heaven and now upon earth therefore let thy words be few for a dream cometh with with uh for a dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words so the whole idea is that you be swift to hear slow to speak you know um the idea of uh you know you have two ears and one mouth so it's kind of like you give kind of double amount of time to hear than to speak kind of thing and i think this is a general rule of the fact of okay most of the time i should just try to be keep silence when i'm in a conversation or if i'm like around people or and stuff like that and just speak when it's your turn or when it makes sense and all that um and so uh when it comes to that that's that's that's the case now the also before god obviously keeping silence i mean when you think about the fact of um you know joe for example at the end of joe and joe 40 for example joe says this uh it says behold i am vile and shall answer thee i will lay mine hand upon my mouth once have i spoken but i will not answer yea twice but i will proceed no further so he's kind of like even in the and when he's saying he's not going to talk he's like i'm sorry that's that's the last time right and meaning this is that before god really what we need to be doing obviously we can pray and god wants us to pray and speak to him and talk to him but more so we need to be listening to what he has to say and i'm not talking about some audible voice out of the sky i'm talking about the bible meaning that reading the bible and people put too too much focus on maybe you know what when you get into this pentecostal realm of the idea of people speaking to god is like oh i have a relationship we speak to each other it's like well god should be speaking to you probably more than you're speaking to him and i'm all about prayer but listen you know what the bible is a big book and we need to be hearing that on a constant basis i mean even to know what to pray for i mean if you're going to speak to him how do you know what his will is if you're not reading it because if you're going to have your your prayers answered it needs to be according to his will it says we have confidence that whatsoever we ask of him he hears us if it's according to his will you know and so we need to and also if we do those things that are pleasing in his sight you know the idea of keeping his commandments is according to his will and we're asking it in faith all those elements need to be there and so don't uh you know this this idea of uh wanting to speak more than hearing okay um and you know Habakkuk 2 20 you don't have to turn there but the idea of being silent before the lord it says in Habakkuk 2 20 it says but the lord is in his temple let all the earth keep silence before him and there's so many verses on this about the lord keeping silent or keeping silence or uh before the lord think about when the the seventh seal is opened in revelation chapter 8 if you remember there's silence in heaven for the space of half an hour and obviously i believe that's when uh the lord is going to pour out his wrath right so the sixth seal opens and we see uh you know the lord coming in the clouds and he's sealing his servants and there's the uh obviously all the saved are caught up and they're before the throne that seventh seal is open in the i believe that's when the book is open you know that book of the the book that the lamb takes out of the father's hand and there's this silence before the presence of the lord coming in and his wrath being poured out and the idea of that silence is that respect and fear if you will before the lord and so that's definitely a time to keep silence now go to luke chapter 23 luke chapter 23 luke chapter 23 and this gets into answer not a fool according to his folly okay there's times where we we're not to just you know basically spin our wheels and waste your time with a bunch of reprobates and a bunch of people that uh you know are ever learning and never able to come to know the truth now i want to give you an example of jesus not answering somebody okay so jesus we're supposed to be walking in his footsteps and we're to be like him and this is an example harrod he would not answer harrod he would not speak to harrod now i want you to think about this harrod wanted to see jesus harrod you know was like desiring greatly to see jesus he wanted to see some sign from he heard so many things about him but if you remember this is after harrod killed john the baptist and uh jesus calls him a fox and you know basically he's calling harrod out and all that and i believe that this point harrod has passed the hope of salvation okay and you say well how do you know that well the lord jesus wouldn't even speak to him so if jesus won't speak to him then why should i speak to him right why should anybody else come and speak to him right and there are people out there the word of the lord will not he's done with them he's not speaking to them anymore he's not drawing them he's not calling them anymore and he's cut them off and this i believe is an example of that it says in verse 6 of luke chapter 23 it says when pilot heard of galley he asked whether the man were a galilean and as soon as he knew that he belonged belonged on the harris jurisdiction he sent he sent him to harrod who himself also was at jerusalem at that time and when harrod saw jesus he was exceeding glad for he was desirous to see him of a long long season because he had heard many things of him and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him then he questioned with him in many words but he answered him nothing so notice that jesus doesn't say anything to him and there's other cases where jesus doesn't speak to certain people and he just keeps silence and you may ask yourself why why doesn't he say something to him why doesn't he you know put him in his place you know and uh obviously jesus is right for what he did and that's the thing that you have to understand is that when jesus does something he's right and what you have to figure out is why is he right you know right and that's kind of the idea is like okay he said this to this person he did this over here why is it right it's not a matter of is it right okay and then it goes on to say and the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him and harrod with his men of war set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him again to pilot so jesus didn't say anything to him this whole time people are accusing him and harrod's asking him with many words okay so i mean it's not like he just asked him a question here and there i mean he he's questioning him about a lot of things nothing he answered him nothing go to matthew chapter 15 matthew chapter 15 notice what jesus says about these religious leaders okay now in these cases i'm talking about speaking directly to them okay what what i'll be getting into later is that when you're speaking about them it's a different story okay because it depends on who you're talking to because right now i'm not talking to unsaved people or reprobates or anything like that so i can speak about the rep base i can speak about how harrod he didn't answer him and but if harrod was in the room i would you know what's the point of even speaking to him you know it's not going to help him out it's not helping the people around him but it says in matthew chapter 15 verse 12 it says then came his disciples and said unto him knowest thou that the pharisees were offended after they heard this saying he but he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up so it doesn't sound like these pharisees are a good plant here is it we're talking about corrupt trees right we're talking about corrupt plants they're going to be plucked up by the roots if you will and he says let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch so when it comes to this what he's stating is just like leave them let them you know leave them alone don't even mess with them you know the idea is like if you had you know let's say john macarthur came walking in the building right he'd probably fall over dead just even being in a new ip realm but the idea is that what am i going to say to that guy you know what what am i going to say that's going to change his mind i i believe john macarthur's devil okay that he's just an example you say well why are you so hard against john macarthur the guy vehemently since the 80s and he's doubled down on it has basically said that it's not by the blood of jesus that you're saved and just completely discounts the blood and says well no it's the death and that's what the blood is talking about yeah because when jesus went up to the mercy seat in heaven he sprinkled death upon it right because that makes sense that were washed in his death right that were sprinkled with the blood of his death right obviously the blood you know when he shed his blood is when he died but you know and obviously there's many other reasons why he's unsaved i mean the calvinism stuff that he teaches the limited atonement and the perseverance of the saints and the fact that he doesn't believe in eternal security he believes in basically you're saved because you do the good works and all that okay so if he were to walk in here and meet me and him we're going to have a one-on-one conversation that'd be worthless i'm going to leave him alone right i'm not going to him i'm not going to reach out to him be like hey we should discuss this let's talk about this now i'm going to rebuke him and i could talk about him and say hey beware of that guy that guy's a false prophet but i'm not saying it for his sake am i i'm saying it for others so they don't follow this false prophet so they don't get duped by this false prophet right and go to um titus chapter three titus chapter three and we apply this a lot out soul winning but listen this would apply to a you know a preacher or something like that and the idea that you kind of test the water to see if this person's even going to take any type of scripture or any reproof or anything like that titus 3 9 says but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strives about the law for they are unprobable and vain a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such as subverted and senteth being condemned of himself so sometimes you don't know you know like that person is like a heretic necessarily but listen if you let's say someone is confused let's say on the trinity or on salvation or something like that and then you give them a verse that's just a clear statement in the bible and they're just like nope don't believe that like okay well how about one more and you give them a verse clear statement and they're like nope and they'll just say it's the opposite of what that is bye you know we're not to be wasting our time with people that are just rejecting clear scriptures okay and uh so when it comes out soloning that's usually the way i deal with it is that if i give them a verse and they just completely reject it it's one thing if they're confused okay that's different if you give them a verse and they're still kind of like yeah i see what you're saying that makes sense but you know i still think that you have to do this over here that's a different story i don't count that as like a first admonition i'm talking like you say the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works to say amen to both and they're like no you have to do good works it's like then you're just completely so it says not of works no but then no you have to do good works you can't just be that and you're like well how about you know how about when it says not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us nope works are involved by i mean i don't know what you mean at that point like what do you say to that person and that gets into like where jesus is talking to the rich young ruler and the guy wouldn't even admit that he's ever sinned you notice that he didn't go any further with him you know he didn't you you notice that he didn't say i realize that you don't realize you're a sinner but let me tell you that to get saved though you have to believe on me you have to believe on you know the son of god i mean you can't go on to that point and so they realize i need a savior what's the point of going on you say well i think jesus should have went on well you're wrong jesus is right and it takes discernment to know when to leave someone with condemnation when to stop speaking when to just leave that leave that that door and go on to another because when it comes to this you say well you know maybe you could win that person eventually there's been many times where i've applied that verse in titus 3 9 where i stopped speaking and moved on to where a couple doors down there was someone that was just like pretty much like what must i do to be saved i've been ready to hear this all you know for a long time and then they get saved what if you just wasted your time on that heretic though and you never got to that door that's happened many times so you know what uh there's times where we just need to shut it down stop talking and go on and listen sometimes it's very hard because these people will be belligerent and they'll you'll be like all right well i'll see you later have a nice day and then you walk away and they're like yeah next time maybe you should know your bible before you come to someone's door right and they start like coaxing you you know because they want to have an argument they want to have this back and forth and it's just this whole like they're like appealing to the flesh you know because fleshly speaking you want to come back and just throw down on them right be like i'm going to put you in your place but spiritually speaking you have to just kind of pull that in and take it in and be like nope i'm going on and because they'll they'll they'll be like yeah you know young kid young punk you know and they'll just start using ad hominem on you you're like so anyway it's a good principle to know when to kind of shut it down even when you are speaking sometimes there's a point where you're just like all right i'm done and you kind of stop it okay um now when it comes to soul winning and when it comes to preaching the gospel it is the time to speak you know go to uh go to first peter chapter four you can go to first peter chapter three actually first first peter chapter three and verse 15 so when we go out soul winning it's the time to speak okay know that there's times when you need to shut it down you know you run into a heretic you're running someone that just doesn't want to hear it you know shut it down go on to the next but it says in first peter chapter 3 and verse 15 it says but sanctify the lord god in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear so you need to be ready to give that answer you need to be prepared to answer go to chapter 4 there in verse 10 chapter 4 and verse 10 it says as every man has received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of god so if you've received that gift of eternal life then you know what we ought to be ministering that to others right and and preaching the gospel if our gospel we hid it is hidden to them that are lost and we need to tell others about it notice what it says in verse 11 if any man speak and here this does not apply to a time to speak if any man speak it's kind of like if you're going to speak it says if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which god giveth that god in all things may be glorified through jesus christ to him be praised in dominion forever and ever amen now i'm not saying that you have to be a walking like bible where everything you say is a quotation from the bible right don't speak unless it's from the bible right that's not what i'm saying the and that's not what this is saying either it's just saying let it be as the oracles of god right i mean that if you're going to speak then speak as you know as things pertains about you can think about like subjects about the bible or just bible principles and wisdom of the bible and how you're supposed to speak and i'm getting to some of those aspects of like how do you speak right because the first aspect is when do you speak like when's the time but then you get into that like how do i speak and there's different ways to speak depending on the situation right i don't go up to the door you know you think people think when i'm preaching a sermon and i'm getting i'm getting like excited and i'm i'm you know lifting up my voice and i'm hitting the pulpit that when i go out soul winning i'm doing that you know and i'm just like yelling at them and be like you're gonna go to hell you know and it's like no there's a different way to speak depending on the situation okay and so know this is that obviously preaching the gospels there's time to speak go to go to epsilon chapter six epsilon chapter six and this is a famous passage dealing with putting on the whole armor of god epsilon chapter six and verse 15 you know getting down to you know in your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel peace now obviously when it comes to the gospel it's something that's prepared right you know where you know what you're doing before you go out there right you don't want to go out there and just be rogue just going rogue on every time it's good to have a preparation that hey i'm gonna start off with hey realize you're a sinner that the punishment for sin is death and that you know jesus paid that price and that you need to trust in him alone and then you have verses to back up each point and you're not just just winging it be like all right turn to ezekiel i'm going to show you about the cherry bins and and somehow weave that into the gospel i mean you keep it simple have a plan you can use different verses every once in a while you know just kind of add some flavor you know because you're hearing it all the time maybe maybe you don't use john 316 you use john 336 or john 647 and you're just like hey i'm just gonna use this verse instead of this verse for a little bit or something but ultimately the plan of action is there notice what it says in verse 19 and for me that utterance may be given unto me that it may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in bonds that therein i may speak boldly as i ought to speak so no doubt preaching the gospel is the time to speak so when you're in progress it's just like you know let your word be few and basically he that shut off his lips it's kind of wise yes in most cases right that that's the case but when you're out when you're out trying to preach the gospel you must speak right you have to you know say something and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god so you have to explain it right you have to how should they hear without a preacher and to preach is to proclaim you know something spoken right people are out there like well what about people that can't hear obviously you can read it to them they can read it like people are just always looking for something like well you can't call upon the lord because you can't what if you can't speak like of course you do it in your heart you know it's and you know all checkmate my friend but obviously uh when you're talking about speaking and here's the thing though just because like there's a very small percentage of people that can't hear what you're saying right because either they're deaf or maybe they have a hard hearing it doesn't mean that most of the time you should be speaking and they should be hearing it audibly okay so in those cases where they can't hear it it's going to be a little harder so why would you make it harder on most people anyway i'm getting way too far off subject on that one but when it comes to preaching for example like i said you know when it comes to preaching the gospel the bible talks about being gentle and meek and instructing those that impose themselves right when you go out soul winning it's you know we're not there to just be abrasive with people and just get into a fight with people like we're gentle and if they don't want to hear it and they're abrasive they'll be like hey you know have a nice day see you later you know the idea there is that we're not trying to strive with people and all that so the servant lord must not strive but be gentle and me and going on down the line but when it comes to preaching to save people right when it comes to preaching behind a pulpit well you know sometimes your voice is going to be lifted up sometimes you're going to be a little more abrasive right and one of the one of famous passages in isaiah 58 one where it says cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of jacob their sins and so sometimes the voice is going to get higher and you're going to start hitting the pulpit you're going to you know hit things i don't hit this one because i want to break my foot but this is a little harder but but you may you may get a little more animated you may start yelling you may get angry but the idea there is that the basically get the word across through preaching the bible talks about his word was manifest through preaching now preaching could be preaching you know gently the gospel to somebody or preaching could be like you know thundering across a pulpit and breathing fire if you will hard preaching and so uh there's a time and place for all that and obviously matthew 10 27 says what i tell you in darkness that speak ye in light and what you hear in the ear that preach ye upon the housetops and so when it comes to the word of god listen is the time to say it anna and clara if i hear you talk one more time you're going to be in big trouble so you better separate now go to matthew chapter 23 matthew chapter 23 now the question would be is there ever a time to rebuke somebody that normally if you're on one-on-one with that person that you were not you're not going to say anything to that person right so think about think about i'm using john macarthur as an example okay john macarthur if i was one-on-one with that guy i'm gonna be like get out of my face i want to talk to you right but let's say john macarthur was in a group of people and he's like teaching those people something and he's stating something he's preaching some false doctrine to them then i may call them out in front of everybody actually most likely that's what i would do if they were if there was a group of people and they're and this guy's like saying something that's just heretical and he's saying like yeah you know the blood you know that's that's garbage and you know it's not the blood that saves then i'm gonna rip his face off in front of every single person there and show them and speak if it's not for him okay and it's not for me to be like hey look at me i can put john macarthur in his place it's for the truth's sake and it's for the people around that hear it okay because think about this jesus you know he wouldn't he wouldn't speak to a lot of these guys but yet he rebuked them in public okay matthew 23 is one of my favorite passages where jesus is just ripping the the Pharisees and Sadducees faces off and he's just calling them out calling them on the carpet and notice what it says here in verse one it says then spake jesus to the multitude and to his disciples and i want you to notice who's he speaking to speaking to them right he's not speaking to the Pharisees or the Sadducees is he he's not speaking directly to them it's not for their sake that he's saying this though he is speaking to them he's basically saying you know won't he scribes Pharisees hypocrites right so he's speaking to them but not but only to them for the sake of the multitude and his disciples right he's speaking this for their sake okay so when it comes to this it says in verse two saying the scribes and the Pharisees sit in mosa's seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not be after their works for they say and do not and that's why throughout this chapter he keeps calling them hypocrites because they say and do not they say they believe but they don't they say that they do these things but they don't you know outwardly they look right outwardly they look righteous but inwardly they're dead men's bones they're whited sepulchres and he's calling them out on the carpet and go to proverbs chapter 19 you may ask yourself why why do it publicly because some people say well why are you why are you calling out john macarthur why are you saying his name you know why what's the point of name calling well because you need to mark those which cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them but here's the question how you gonna avoid someone if you don't know who they are they're like okay avoid this person hey i'm gonna i tell you like everything that they believe right i'm like hey this person says this this this this you need to avoid that person be like who are you talking about well anybody that believes that it's like when we're playing like uh you know guess who here you know throughout the bible people are called out by name even believers are called out by name when they do something wrong sometimes but false teachers are called out all the time by name and so when it comes to this i'm calling him out by name and i'm bringing him up so that others will will basically heed that warning okay but in uh and what i have you turn in proverbs chapter 19 proverbs 19 and verse 25 notice it says smite a scorner and the simple will beware and reprove one that hath understanding and he will he and he will understand knowledge listen he was verbally smiting the Pharisees and Sadducees in chapter 23 but it wasn't for their sakes it was for the multitudes and his disciples it was for their sakes why so they can increase in understanding right and so the question is okay i'm not to answer a fool according to his folly because i don't want to be like unto him right it's kind of like you don't want to just get in the mix and now you're back and forth you're like yelling with each other you're contending with each other and now you're just like that person right but if i'm going to answer a fool according to his folly it's going to be because others are around so that it's for their sake okay this is another you think about like why you write something on social media for example right what's the reason i think is a big a big thing of why we should post something okay and i'm not here to be the facebook police or anything like that but the question is when you post something and let's say it's offensive let's say it's biblical okay are you posting it for edification for others to say hey yeah the bible says that i need to take heed to that it's offensive who cares right you know someone's offended whatever but some people will post things just to be offensive right just to make people angry just to cause a rift just to cause a rift right and i don't believe i think everything should be done under edifying and whether that offends somebody or not i don't care right but if your reasoning behind putting it out there is because i want people to know about this people need to know about this someone needs to speak up about this because that's the truth this is righteous that's wicked so be it if someone's offended and praise the lord but if it's more of like i want to just make people angry and i want people to be offended then i don't think that's a good reason okay i think that there needs to be that heart of like hey i want people to be edified right if i'm going to rip john macarthur's face off it's not just so that i can feel better about myself and be like i won that battle right it's like whoop-de-doo you know you want to battle with some heretic but if ripping his face off others around like yeah you're right this is wrong this guy doesn't know what he's talking about that's false doctrine then it's worth it right but it's not for his sake it's for the others around and it really comes down to that others will hear it and know okay there's another side to this story there's another there's another uh there's another answer here than what they're being fed by this false teacher okay so i believe that's why jesus rebuked the pharisees and why he did it publicly it's not in contradiction with what the bible would say on this like not answering a full nose according to his folly or you know basically uh the bible often say not reproving a scorner right but the idea here is that you're smiting this corner so others will fear right so the simple ones will beware be like oh i need to not be like that okay now um proverbs chapter 21 and verse 11 it says when the scorner is punished the simple is made wise and when the wise is instructed he receiveth knowledge and so i believe that's kind of where you get into answer a fool according to his folly and how that would apply when you would speak to a fool right because technically he was speaking to the pharisees and sadducees he was directing it personally to them saying ye scribes and pharisees right so he's speaking to them he didn't say the scribes and pharisees are fools he says ye are fools right ye hypocrites he's directing it towards them but it's for the multitude's sake so i hope that makes sense as far as like why you know you would answer a fool or what's the reasoning for answering a fool now what's another reason for speaking up uh go to leviticus chapter uh five leviticus chapter five there's other reasons why we need to speak now obviously speaking the you know the gospel uh you know preaching a sermon to the saved you know and and you know either teaching doctrine or truth or anything like that obviously it's time to speak parents obviously this would apply to your children children you know a time to keep silence is definitely applies you know when it comes to when your parents are you know you're in subjection to your parents and all that but there's times to speak when children are allowed to speak and all that and the same thing applies to adults we need to know when to keep silence when to speak but how about this in leviticus chapter five verse one it says and if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing and is a witness whether he has seen or known of it if he do not utter it then he shall bear his iniquity okay meaning this is if you witness something you need to speak up let's say you witness a crime or you witness some wrongdoing right then that's a time where you need to speak up and not keep silence right don't just keep that to yourself right and so you know that that's something that's you know just kind of a principle as far as speaking up for something that's been done wrong or let's say someone swore something and you're a witness to that and you know if you don't uh if you don't utter it if you don't say hey i saw that or hey i i'm a witness um you can think about if it's a major crime right if it was like someone that committed murder right well out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established and you can't put someone to death unless you have two witnesses at least right according to the bible anyway um and so let's say there's one witness and like i witness this and then someone else witnesses but they wouldn't speak up they wouldn't speak up for that you see how justice can't be served because of that and that is a time where you need to speak up okay now go to proverbs 31 proverbs chapter 31 proverbs 31 and verse 8 and obviously this is this is written to king lemuel and he's a king but i do believe this would apply to us as well you know obviously the bible says that that that jesus has made his kings and priests um but it says in verse 8 here it says open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all that's all such as are appointed to destruction now dumb just means they can't speak now one obvious one that i can think of is on the case of abortion right speaking for those that can't speak that are literally appointed to destruction so when it comes to this issue of abortion i have no qualms calling it murder and i don't care where i'm at i don't care if i work i don't care about my meeting i don't care with a client if that subject ever got brought up which usually doesn't you know it's not like people are just like let's talk about abortion you know you know in a meeting at work or something like that but if it does get brought up and someone's just like yeah i think people should be able to uh to abort their babies they'd be like nope that's murder you know life begins at conception and you're murdering a child and you don't like that i don't really care you know what it needs to be spoken it needs to be spoken loudly and listen they can't speak for themselves the unborn can't speak for themselves so we need to speak up for them you're like well you don't you don't have a uterus so you can't speak for that i don't need to be a woman to speak for an unborn child that's being murdered you know what if more men would stand up and say no to it it wouldn't be even a problem okay and so we need to we need to speak up for those that can't speak but then it says in verse nine open thy mouth judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy did that just say the judge oh my you know in today's age where it's like judge not judge not the bible says open thy mouth and judge righteously obviously so you don't just judge the judge right judge righteousness right you know the idea of uh and throughout the bible uh christians are being rebuked for not judging not judging a cause and you know what the bible has called us and and god has called us to judge righteous judgment and we need to open our mouth to that okay obviously there's gray areas there's things that are subjective right when it comes to like what we should be doing what we shouldn't be doing or you know what should we wear what we shouldn't wear but there's things that are just black and white right okay if you know murdering somebody in cold blood i can call spade spade on that can't i yeah i could just be like hey yeah that's wrong oh how dare you judge that and there's things that are black and white there's things that are more gray but you know what even on the areas that are gray even those areas where you know maybe are a little more subjection subjective listen i'll get my judgment on it and you could like it or lump it but uh going on from that uh the question is how to answer too so go to colossians chapter 4 colossians chapter 4 and we're almost done um colossians chapter 4 because you know the idea is like when to answer who to answer who to speak to who not to speak to and a lot of this takes discernment right some of these are black and white some of these are pretty easy right you know if you had some uh transgender cross-dressing queer come up to you you're probably gonna be like ah it's no-brainer there not dealing with that so that's kind of like okay check that one off the list uh but there are cases where you're gonna be like okay when do i when do i shut this down right when do i when do i apply like okay i'm not gonna talk to this person anymore or when do you apply hey i need to speak up and this takes discernment is it gonna take experience there's gonna be times where you're gonna make mistakes and you're like hey i should have just shut that down a long time ago or hey i should have spoken up you know i kept silence but i didn't say anything we've all been there and no one's perfect on this but the idea here is that no is just having discernment learning wisdom in this area and this this applies for every single one of these categories in uh calisthenia chapter three when there's a time to every purpose under the heaven and that there's a time for it all where discernment comes in is when do you do it when do you do it and how do you do it right because when it comes to answering colossians chapter 4 and verse 6 says let your speech be all way with grace seasoned with salt notices that you may know how you ought to answer every man you know the idea is like how do you answer like is it a soft answer is it a hard answer right you know the the that the you know kind of the how when why where you know kind of the kind of idea of all of it what know this is that there's a time for both but then you have to understand okay when do i apply these how do i apply these you can and the why is more of uh you know just kind of the reasoning behind it but you don't really need to know why if the bible says to do it right it's kind of like why is god three persons one god it's like well you can ponder that the rest of your life and maybe one day we'll figure that out but it doesn't really matter why does it you know why did god harden certain people why does god get people over for everybody mind you can ponder that you can wonder that and study that out and figure out why but ultimately it doesn't really matter why it's just a matter of that's the way it is and so um but the how and when uh that's something that you can apply to yourself and say hey i need to know these you know when should i do this how should i do this um titus uh one in verse 10 uh you know we're we're talking about rebuking false teachers and everything and when you should do it how you should do it and when it comes to this i think that in most of these cases you're going to be dealing with this behind the pulpit right you're going to be preaching sermons against it and just preaching it that way you're not usually going to have these cases where you're like right in front of them out in the public and all that but in titus 1 10 it says for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers especially they of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake one of themselves even a prophet of their own said the creations are all way liars evil bees slow bellies this witness is true wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed the jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth now let me unpack this a little bit meaning this is that there are vain talkers and deceivers of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped and they're subverting whole houses okay now that's who it needs to be sounded in the faith you're rebuking sharply these false teachers right so that those people they're subverting are sound in the faith does that make sense that that's the reasoning behind this and by the way when it says one of themselves even a prophet of their own said the creations are all way liars evil bees slow bellies this witness is true it's not true that the creations are all way liars what's true is that they said it does that make sense it's true that one of their prophets actually said that the creations are all way liars meaning this is that listen you can't say that about any group you can't even say that all about the jews okay like the jews are all liars you can say that to a certain extent don't get me wrong meaning that obviously who's a liar but he's denied the jesus of the christ i mean that's obviously true but when it comes to being like a habitual liar meaning like someone that's just a liar all the time and that's all they do is lie you can't say that about any one group holistically so when they say that on the surface you should take that be like that's that can't be completely true right that can't be right and basically saying they actually said this they actually said that the creations are this that they're evil bees slow bellies which i think that they mean like they're overweight i don't know about you but slow bellies meaning like it's hard to move it's slow i don't know i think it's kind of a we should bring that back and call people slow bellies anyway no one's with me on that but uh in chapter two of titus it says these things speak in verse 15 these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority let no man despise thee now titus is a preacher he's a pastor and he's going around ordaining other people to be a preacher so you can obviously see how he has the authority to speak these things and all that but ultimately listen every believer has the authority to rebuke false doctrine okay i don't think you have to be a pastor to basically rebuke false doctrine when you have the truth on your side okay the question that you have to ask yourself is when is it most profitable when is the time to do it right when's it going to actually help the situation okay but speaking the truth is always a good idea um the question is are you being profitable with it's like when you're speaking to let's say a reprobate and it's just you and them what's the profit like what are you gaining out of that who's gaining anything out of that you're just spinning your wheels wasting your time that's why jesus says let them alone but if you're in a group of people and there's people that you can affect with what you're saying meaning that you can cause other people to understand the truth then that's when that would be applicable um and then the last thing i want to show you here is in proverbs chapter 15 proverbs chapter 15 and this is just a principle when you're answering this gets into the how as well um the how when you know when you're answering how to do it and this gets into when let's say you're in an argument with somebody you're like in a heated argument and this could be someone that's saved unsaved doesn't matter you know this principle applies all the time and i have i have experience with this working really well actually it's hard to do it works it's hard to do okay imagine you're in a big argument with somebody and the volume keeps increasing right you're getting heated everybody's getting heated is getting higher and higher and higher and higher this principle right here it says in verse one of proverbs 15 a soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger the tongue of the wise uses the knowledge of right but the mouth of fools pour without foolishness the eyes of the lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good a wholesome tongue is a tree of life but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit the idea here in proverbs 25 verse 15 it says a soft tongue breaketh the bone is that if you've ever been in an argument where it's kind of getting heated heated heated everybody's kind of accelerating you know you know it's just getting out of hand that when you bring the volume down that's part of it okay it's not just the volume it's not like you just speak softly but you're still ripping their face off okay bring the volume down but then say something that's nice right so let's say you're just you're you're almost getting to the point where you're just like ad hominem you're like attacking the person you're like your face is ugly and you're going down this line and it just gets starting to get just dirty and then and then you bring it down and say you know i see what you're saying and you know i think i think we need to get back to this point over here uh you know and you can even say hey i apologize for getting loud but you just kind of like bring it down i've had this be the case with doctrine but i've also you know it's discussing doctrine or out soul-winning or anything like that i've had this at work where i've had contractors architects and they'll just be ripping my face off and the thing that's that's frustrating a lot of times is that it's not even my fault it's like someone else's fault right but they're my face off because someone else dropped the ball but they're accusing me of dropping the ball right and then inside you want to be like listen buddy you know this is why you're out to lunch and you know i'm gonna i'm gonna read you to the riot act right i'm just gonna like rip your face off about how this isn't my fault it's this person's fault or it's maybe your fault but see that's just gonna escalate okay and so what what you do is you you bring the volume down and you say hey listen um you know let's just figure out how we fix this you know let's let's uh you know what do i need to do what do you need for me to where we can fix this problem right and you know i've had this happen where i've actually i've actually had had architects multiple times call me back and apologize for the way that they spoke to me right and say you know i was out of hand i was just i was upset about this over here you know it wasn't even your fault it's not your problem you know i appreciate you taking care of this but what if we just kept escalating that i could end up losing a client because i just want to win a battle and my pride is on the table right and so uh when it comes to this you got to put pride out the door sometimes of winning that argument because that's what everybody wants to do you want to win the argument you want to put them in submission and you want them to say mercy but what you have to do is be the one that take a knee essentially you take a knee you bring the volume down and you answer softly okay and don't be passive aggressive with it either okay you know what i'm talking about when passive aggressive is like when you're basically you're saying something nice but you're saying it in a backhanded way right that's worse okay you do that you're going to make someone even more angry okay so you can go on and on about principles in the bible about when to speak when to keep silence ultimately you just need to study the self-approved unto god a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth and really when you're coming down to there's a time to love a time to hate a time of war time of peace time to keep silence the time to speak what you're dealing with here is dividing the word of god and saying okay when is the time to do this when is the time to do that then you get into that group okay okay here's the either time to speak here's when i need to do it how do i do it okay and that's where discernment study comes in and just experience you know a lot of this is going to be on the ground boots on the ground experience that you're going to learn from mistakes and you're going to get better at it as you go so let's end with a word of prayer the only father we thank you today thank you for your word thank you for the souls that were saved both today and throughout the week and just pray to be with us as we go back home be with those that are traveling and be with those that aren't feeling well pray to heal them of any sicknesses and lord bring everybody back at the point of time lord we love you pray also in jesus christ's name amen brother chris will come and sing one more song you you you you