"Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Speaks."

A little bit of wisdom from Dr. John MacArthur (an excerpt from his sermon series, Taming the Tongue, The Speech of the New Man:

**Matthew 12:34 says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

**The mouth is probably the truest indicator of the spiritual condition of a person.

**A person's speech should be greatly altered by the fact that he has been saved.

**"Let no rotten word proceed from your mouth," Ephesians 4:29.

**An unregenerated mouth speaks gossip. Romans 1:29 describing the pagans says; "They are gossips and slanderers."

He lists a lot of verses about the tongue and what we are to use it for:

Our mouth is to confess sin, to confess Christ, to speak good, to speak God's law.

**Luke 1:64 says that our mouth is to praise God. "His tongue was loosed," it says, "and he praised God."

**Our tongue is to teach truth. God said in Exodus 4:15; "1 will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall do and say."

**Our mouth is to bless. First Peter 3:9, "Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing; but on the contrary-­blessing knowing that you are called to this." In other words, our mouth is to be used to bless.

**Psalm 77:12 says our mouth is to speak of God. "I will talk of Thy doings," the psalmist said.

**Our mouth is to speak wisdom and kindness. Proverbs 31:26; "She opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness."

**Our mouth is to be that which conciliates and brings peace, a soft answer turns away, what? Wrath, Proverbs 15:1.

So, the Bible has a lot to say about what the mouth is supposed to say and what it isn't supposed to say. As new creatures, then, we must be committed to the fact that a new man should have a new mouth and a new mouth should have a new speech.

Lord, help me to tame my wicked tongue!