Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13 verse 3.
The title of the message tonight is "Keeping the Gate."
"Keeping the Gate."
We begin with the phrase, "He that keepeth his mouth."
"He that keepeth his mouth."
Solomon tonight speaks of someone who keeps his mouth.
Keeps his mouth.
And the word translated "keeps" here has the idea of guarding and preserving.
And by the way, when you hit those little "likes" and those little "hearts" on there, I see those, and in any comment, I see them pop up as I'm preaching, and it's all the same as someone saying "Amen" to me.
And it's very precious.
So Solomon is talking about someone who keeps his mouth, And that word "keeps" once again has the idea of guarding and preserving.
So, "He that keeps, He that guards His mouth, He that preserves His mouth," is what He's talking about.
Now, listen to how this word is used in 2 Kings chapter 17 verse 9.
2 Kings chapter 17 verse 9.
And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God.
And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city."
From the tower of the watchman to the fenced city.
The word "watchman" there is the same word translated "keep" here in Proverbs chapter 13.
So, think of it this way, you have a watchman, the tower of the watchman, and so the watchman's up here in a picket.
He's overseeing and watching out for that city to make sure no enemy comes in.
And so that word, once again, "watchman" is the same word translated "keeps."
In 2 Kings 17, 9, it says, "the tower of the watchman to the fenced city."
So the watchmen were posted on a tower, so they could watch over, hence "watchman," watch over the fenced city.
They kept the city in the sense that they kept it safe.
So, we're going into this text tonight with that in mind.
They guarded the city as a bodyguard watches over his client.
And as watchmen watch over their fenced cities, so we should watch over our fenced mouths.
Our mouths speak the thoughts of our hearts.
And God has wisely fashioned lips for us, like gates to a city.
Think of your lips tonight, you know how those doors close like that on the city gate, and they open them up like that.
Think of your lips, like those two doors on a fenced city.
That's the gate right there.
And so God has fashioned our lips for us like gates to a city, to seal our mouths shut and protect the city on the inside of us.
A fenced city doesn't stay closed, of course.
Mine's open right now.
All right?
It's measured, but it's opening to let words out.
It was open when I ate some meatloaf and mashed potatoes that my wife made for me before I came up here too.
So a fence city doesn't stay closed.
There's necessary business that must be conducted in the city.
There are commodities that must enter and exit because the city has to be engaged in business.
And there are people who need to enter the city, and there are people who need to leave.
So that watchman must be able to recognize the right people, to let the right people in, and keep the wrong people out.
Think of that with the watchman.
Think of that with keeping your mouth, as the watchman keeps the gate to the city.
So it is with the watchman, it is with us who keep our mouths.
As the watchman watch the city, so we watch our mouths.
Solomon said, "He who keeps his mouth," what?
Looks back in your text, "keeps his life, keepeth his life."
So understand, as the watchman of the gate keeps the lives of the people inside it, so the watchman of the mouth keeps the life of the person inside it.
So the watchman of the gate, he keeps the lives by keeping that gate, he keeps that lives of the people inside that city.
And by us keeping our gate, we keep the life of the person inside this fenced city.
So we need to think of ourselves as a fenced city.
Think of yourself as a fenced city tonight, and think of your mouth as a gate to your city.
And we need to think of ourselves as watchmen.
That's what the Proverbs are trying to get us to do here.
Think of ourselves as watchmen people who are having to keep guard.
We're watchmen who God has assigned to sit in the tower on the wall and to keep watch over the mouth gate.
Now when it comes to the gate of a city, the watchman keeps the gate to prevent unlawful entries.
When it comes to the gate of Ramaz, however, it's just the opposite.
We keep the gate to prevent unlawful departures.
See how that works?
The watchman on the tower who's watching the people come, they're keeping watch over that gate to prevent unlawful entry.
God sets us up on a tower to keep watch over our gate to prevent unlawful departures.
In Mark chapter 7 verse 15, Jesus said, "There is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him."
So that's why it's the opposite with us.
We're not trying to keep the enemy out of our mouth.
We're trying to keep the enemy in.
So there's nothing from without or on the outside of a man, Jesus said, that entering into him can defile him.
But, Jesus said, the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
Every good city has evil characters trying to get in.
Every evil city.
Man, we've been working trying to keep evil characters out of our nation.
They're going to come in, they want to come in.
They want to get in here.
And every good city has evil characters trying to get in.
And every good person, every child of God, has evil characters trying to get out.
That's just the way it works.
Why?
Because the enemies from within It's that old Adamic nature inside of us that keeps trying to get out.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15 verse 8, Matthew chapter 15 verse 8, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth..."
What are we keeping tonight in the book of Proverbs?
We're keeping the mouth.
Jesus said, "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart."
So the heart is the innermost part, that's downtown City of Richard, okay?
Downtown City of Becky Shepherd, that's the heart.
And the mouth is the gate of that city.
And those evils proceed from that heart and they're trying to get out of that mouth.
Jesus said, "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man."
How do they defile the man?
By coming into him?
No, by going out.
By going out.
You see, because of our fallen Adam, Every one of us have ungodly thoughts, ungodly desires, ungodly imaginations of our hearts, that lurk within.
We're not going to get rid of them until our death.
That's the only thing that's going to free us from that Adamic nature, is our physical death.
And praise God, when we're raised again, we won't have those enemies from within.
We'll have the Holy Spirit, we'll have the knowledge of good, and not the knowledge of evil any longer.
But right now we do.
And so, because of our fallen Adam, we have those enemies that lurk in our hearts, ideas pop into our minds.
With the heart and the mind, the same thing.
But those evil imaginations will pop into our minds sometimes, and sometimes they're absolutely vile.
Sometimes they're blasphemous, they're just downright mean and ugly.
And we say, "Oh God, forgive me for having that in my mind."
As long as we dwell in this fallen flesh, we're going to have enemies lurking within our hearts.
Just like a city, there's always going to be enemies lurking without.
That's how come we lock the doors to our houses.
When you go to bed at night, you don't leave your doors open.
If you leave your door open, you may get an unwelcome guest inside.
And so we lock those doors because not everyone's welcome in.
Even if it's just a raccoon, I don't want them in there, or a possum.
But I sure don't want a bad person come in either.
Same way with our hearts.
We've got to keep our mouths locked and set a watchman over there to make sure that these evil things don't come out and thereby defile us.
So as long as we're in our fallen flesh, they're lurking in our hearts and they're hoping to get out and spoil our city.
As an enemy wants to get in and spoil the city inside, he wants to go in and steal and kill and to destroy.
The Adamic nature wants to get out and destroy our city from the outside.
That's how it works.
They're hoping that because how does the enemy, how does that Adamic nature that lurks within our heart, how does, why is getting out of us, why does that defile us?
Because how does it get out?
That thought, that evil imagination of the heart from Adam, it gets out only one way.
It gets out through a member of our body.
I get mad at someone, I think, "I ought to hit that person."
Well, the only way that's going to get out is through a member of my body.
Right?
I ought to tell that person off.
The only way it's going to get out is through a member of my body, my tongue.
And so the evil is trying to get out of the city, trying to escape the city.
That old Adam is trying to bear that Adamic fruit.
And it bears that Adamic fruit through our members, and when it's bearing it through our members, it's getting out of the city.
And when it acts out on those evil imaginations, It is sin and that defiles the sinner.
You see?
Yes, we can act in our imagination and we can take a thought in our heart and we can entertain it and grow it.
And that is wrong too.
As a man looks on a woman to lust, Jesus said, and he's committed adultery already in his heart.
But this is the concept that Solomon is giving us tonight. that enemy is trying to get out, that's what Jesus is talking about, is trying to get out and defile that person and they're hoping that that we will act on those thoughts, on those Adamic thoughts through the members of our bodies and the member that is the hardest to control is the tongue, the hardest to control.
James chapter 3 verse 6.
James chapter 3 verse 6.
It says, "And the tongue is a fire."
All you have to do is just watch California when those winds blow.
And someone set something on fire the other day and burned a whole bunch of acreage I saw.
And that's where the tongue is.
It's a fire.
What happens when a fire gets loose?
Fire is fine in the fire pit.
But you let a fire out and it's going to destroy a whole bunch.
And that tongue's fine as long as it's in this fire pit.
But you let the wicked concepts that lurk in our heart work their way out through that tongue.
And it says here, "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity."
So the tongue, so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell."
In other words, death, hell, that which came from our fallen Adam is what ignited that flame in our heart.
And then when it reaches the tongue, it's just like that little fire starter, and you just take it down there and there it goes.
You just start your little fire and you can cause all kinds of trouble.
So understand when we speak the ungodly thing in our heart, we are affirming that thought and making it our own.
We have thoughts pop in our minds and we think, "I don't want that, I don't want to think that way, that's wrong."
We self-check ourself all the time with our thoughts, "Ah, that's not right, I shouldn't think that way, Lord forgive me for that."
And we go on about our business.
But when a thought pops into your heart, and then you verbalize that, and you say that thing to another person, you say that which is evil, you curse and say those curse words that come into your heart, and you say something that's ungodly, that's wicked, what are you doing?
You're taking that little fire right here, and you're yielding to it, and by verbalizing it, you are affirming that thought and saying, "I own that thought.
I broadcast that thought, and this is my sin.
This is my thought here, and now I make it my own."
So by doing so, we affirm it, we make it our own, and by failing to keep the gate of our mouth shut, and not act on that thought, but rather embracing that godly thing as our own, we defile ourselves, as Jesus said, by letting it out of our fence city.
Just as a bad character spoils a city by being let in.
He who keeps the gate of a city, keeps the enemy out.
And he who keeps the gate of his mouth, keeps the enemy in.
And that's what we're called to do.
He keeps the enemy in, and thus keeps Solomon says, what?
His life.
His life.
In Matthew chapter 12, verse 37, Jesus said, "For by thy words, thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
There will be many men who stand before God one day whose own words will be used as evidence against them.
Men who denied God, men who mocked the Lord Jesus Christ, men who cursed their Creator.
The devil wanted Job to do that.
He wanted Job to curse God.
The devil even put the idea in Job's mind, using his wife to do so.
Plus his own Adamic heart.
But Job would not curse the God he loved.
What did he do?
He kept the gate to his city.
Job went through a terrible trial in his life.
In Job chapter 2, verse 9 and 10 says, Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain that integrity?
Curse God and die.
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
Now that was his tongue yielding to the the Holy Spirit inside him.
He put that woman her place.
He says, What?
"Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
In all this did not Job sin, how?
With his lips, with one of those members of his body.
That enemy was in Job, that enemy was trying to get out, that enemy could have just said, "You know what?
You're right!"
Just like Moses getting mad, smiting that rock, when he shouldn't have.
That was that thought coming out in his member of his body, and he affirmed that thought and made it his own, and he had to pay for it.
Job didn't do that.
He said, "No."
Job kept his mouth.
As a watchman on the city, Job kept the gate of his mouth.
The enemy was lurking, but Job wouldn't affirm him, and the Job wouldn't let him out.
In the last days, right before Jesus comes, The beast in the book of Revelation is going to open wide his lips, affirming the wickedness of his heart.
Revelation chapter 13 verse 6 says, "And he opened his mouth."
Now that's not keeping it.
He's just throwing those gates open, throwing that mouth open, So that whatever is in that Adamic heart of his can just come right on out.
He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name in his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.
He who keeps his mouth, keeps his life, look back in your text, but he that openeth wide his lips, which is what the beast was going to do, He that opens wide his lips, I tell you, it's a foolish thing to leave your gate open.
We can't always control what comes into our hearts, can we?
But we can control what comes out of it.
You cannot control what comes into your heart all the time.
But you can control what comes out of it.
You're the watchman.
That gate belongs to you.
You have authority over that gate in the name of Jesus Christ.
He is the king of your city that set you on that watchtower to keep watch over that gate.
So, when the devil pops an uninvited thought into our head, it is not reckoned unto us as sin until we act on it.
You see?
The devil likes to pop uninvited thoughts into our heads and then accuse us of it.
And we say, "Oh God, I'm so sorry."
You know, but it's not ours until we act on it, until we affirm it.
Either by nurturing that thought along in our heart, and loving it, and cherishing that thought, and building on it.
Or by verbalizing it, or by acting it out with one of the members of our bodies.
Oftentimes our lips will be the target of Satan's attack.
I think my lips, my mouth is probably the target of Satan's attack more than any other member of my body, my mouth.
So, you know, being a retired auto theft guy, I'll tell you this, I'll put it this way, don't leave your key in the ignition for the devil.
Don't you do it.
You keep a tight rein over your lips.
And make sure that the words of your heart are vetted well before they're let out.
We always want our enemies vetted well, or we always want my immigrants, we want them vetted well before they come into our country.
Hey, people are welcome in our country.
We want them well vetted before they come in, So we don't let in an enemy.
In the same way, we want our words well vetted before we let them out.
Before they defile us.
"He who leaves the gate to his vile heart open," look back in your text, "shall have destruction."
That simple.
"Shall have destruction."
You leave the gate to your city open, you're going to have problems.
You leave the gate to your city open, Yet that mouth, you're going to have problems.
Revelation chapter 19 verse 20.
Look what happens to that beast who opened wide his mouth and just let it all come out against God.
It says, "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast. and them that worshipped his image, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
He didn't keep his mouth.
He opened wide his mouth and he got destruction.
His own words one day will condemn him as with many, many other people.
And listen, what is true on the grandest scale, and that's the grandest scale, But what's true on the grandest scale, such as blaspheming God, as the beast will do, it's also true on the smallest scale, according to this proverb, such as speaking unkindly to your neighbor.
Many of you may have seen that on the news this week, there was a video of a man on a motorcycle, And he was really telling somebody off in a van.
Did you all see that on the news?
You saw it?
Just really telling that person off.
And, you know, it's very foolish because if you're on a two-wheeled motorbike and you've got someone in a 5,000 pound van next to you and you're over there telling them off, The only way that they don't just come across and just run over you and crush you is because they're nicer than you.
So you doing that to someone is... you're only doing it because they're nice people.
And you assume that they're not going to be mean like you.
But this person wasn't a nice person.
And so he's telling them off and they just went, just ran over and just drove right on off.
The man opened wide his lips and he got destruction because of it.
I don't know if he died or not, but I guarantee he got hurt.
He got destruction because of it.
The vast majority of the time, if a person could learn to control their lips, They could prevent a lot of sin, a lot of sorrow, and a lot of trouble for themselves and others.
So let's be good watchmen, and remember the next time we're tempted to say something, remember, God sent me here in this tower, I'm going to keep a watch over this gate.
And it's going to pound, and pound, and pound trying to get out of that gate.
Y'all ever had that happen to you?
"Let me out, let me out."
And you just want to let it out so bad, you look for a reason to let it out.
To try to justify it.
And finally you open that gate and there it goes.
And once it gets out you think, "I wish I wouldn't have said that."
Too late.
That gate's done open and that enemy's done got out.
So be a good watchman and remember, God designed us to keep our enemies in.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
Thank you for all those who tuned in tonight, Lord, and came here and sit in these pews, dear Lord God.
Thank you, Father, for this precious, precious Church.
Thank you, Father, for the family of God.
Lord, what a blessing it is to be part of the body of Christ and to see the members come together to learn your word, to want to yield, Father, as their own members to their own bodies, but Lord, as individual members, Lord, to the corporal body of Christ.
Lord, that we come together as a body, Father, so we can learn how to be the body of Jesus Christ here on earth, to represent you, to walk in your Spirit.
Lord, make us keepers of the gate.
We ask it in Jesus' wonderful name, and forgive us where we haven't.
Amen.
