Has My Heart Sinned Even If I Stop Words from Exiting My Mouth?
00:00:00.000 | Pastor John, you were recently at a conference where Doug Wilson referred to Jesus' words
00:00:08.320 | in Matthew 12, 34, where we read this, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."
00:00:14.800 | And you raised the question there about the verse.
00:00:17.940 | Would you tell us what you asked and what's the takeaway for us today?
00:00:21.740 | I asked the question, not at all out of disagreement with anything Doug was saying.
00:00:27.200 | In fact, I was just totally tracking with his message, which I thought was excellent
00:00:31.600 | about the mouth and how it speaks in relation to the heart.
00:00:37.440 | But that text, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," creates a bunch
00:00:42.180 | of problems for me.
00:00:44.520 | Doug doesn't create the problems.
00:00:45.960 | God creates the problems for me because he said it.
00:00:48.800 | This is the word of Jesus, not the word of any mere man.
00:00:52.920 | That's one of the scariest verses in the Bible for me, because Jesus also said, "On the day
00:00:58.540 | of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak."
00:01:02.720 | And I say, "Oh my goodness."
00:01:04.400 | So out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is speaking all these careless words,
00:01:10.400 | and I'm going to be judged because those careless words signify what my heart is really like.
00:01:14.800 | I mean, that's a scary situation that we're in.
00:01:20.640 | And a related problem, this is the one I raised, is this.
00:01:24.700 | In Psalm 141, verse 3, it says, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.
00:01:34.380 | Keep watch over the door of my lips."
00:01:39.720 | And there are other passages that talk that way.
00:01:42.040 | Now here's the problem. If I'm about to say something hurtful, lewd, unkind, because my
00:01:52.280 | heart is producing it, and I catch it at my teeth and don't say it like this text seems
00:02:00.440 | to say I should, "Keep watch over the door of your lips," so you see it coming up, and
00:02:05.880 | you say, "Nope, you don't get out.
00:02:08.640 | Am I a good person?"
00:02:10.640 | I mean, am I a hypocrite?
00:02:13.640 | Am I a hypocrite?
00:02:14.640 | Like, the heart really did produce that nasty thought, and it was on its way to becoming
00:02:21.960 | a word, and I stopped it from becoming a word.
00:02:28.400 | So my question to Doug was, "Is that a virtue?"
00:02:31.480 | Or is that, "Am I just a hypocrite at that moment?"
00:02:35.440 | And I thought Doug's answer was exactly right.
00:02:39.680 | He said something like this, "The desire and the ability to stop the unkind or angry word
00:02:48.800 | or lewd or hurtful word at the teeth before it gets out and does its damage may also be
00:02:56.160 | a sign of sanctification, may also be a work of that same heart.
00:03:02.480 | That heart is not only producing that ugly thought on its way to becoming a word, but
00:03:09.600 | that same heart—we only have one heart—is also producing the hatred of what it just
00:03:16.280 | produced.
00:03:17.280 | It's producing a desire that nobody be hurt by that, and it's producing regret that it
00:03:24.400 | ever produced such a thought, and therefore it is in fact, or at least can be—I say
00:03:30.160 | can be because you might be a pure hypocrite, but you don't have to be—it can be a beautiful
00:03:35.280 | sign of sanctification that you have just put the brakes on a thought that you wish
00:03:41.280 | you didn't have."
00:03:44.840 | So of course it would be better if our hearts, for example, never felt any vengeful feelings,
00:03:52.760 | for example, never created any vengeful word on the way into being.
00:03:59.800 | The gospel is designed to change the heart.
00:04:02.920 | We should obey Jesus, cleanse the inside of the cup so that the outside can be pure as
00:04:08.680 | well.
00:04:09.680 | We shouldn't just focus on what comes through our teeth, but focus on what happens in our
00:04:14.920 | hearts.
00:04:15.920 | We want to be changed at the roots, but what came out of that little interchange for me
00:04:20.440 | that's been so helpful is that you fight at two levels.
00:04:26.080 | You fight to transform your heart with biblical gospel truth.
00:04:33.200 | Just as you have been forgiven by Jesus, you become a tender-hearted, forgiving person.
00:04:38.960 | That's a heart change that comes through dwelling on the gospel.
00:04:43.400 | But since we're sanctified slowly and progressively, there's another effect that the work of the
00:04:51.520 | Spirit has in our lives, and that is to help us see when our hearts are failing and to
00:04:58.600 | put a check on that so that we stop that.
00:05:04.400 | And one last thing emerged.
00:05:08.080 | It seemed to me, I don't know that any of us said that in that moment, but subsequent
00:05:12.160 | thinking, it seemed to me if a vine keeps producing or a branch keeps producing bad
00:05:18.520 | fruit and you chop it off often enough before it matures and poisons anybody, the branch
00:05:25.880 | just may get the idea, "Oh, we don't produce that in this heart."
00:05:31.680 | And so the secondary means of sanctification also becomes a means to the primary heart
00:05:37.320 | change.
00:05:38.320 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:05:42.080 | Email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:05:45.760 | Find us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books and articles, sermons,
00:05:50.040 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:05:52.480 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:05:53.480 | Thanks for listening.
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