Major Sins of the Tongue: Corrupt Speech

Introduction and Series Review

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 1st, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4, and I shall read in your hearing verses 17 to 32. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning the reading at verse 17.

0:40 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart, who, being past feeling, gave themselves up to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you did not so learn Christ. It so be that you heard him and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus, that you put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old man that waxes corrupt after the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man that after God has been created, created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

2:03 Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that has need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Let us again pray and ask the present aid of the Holy Spirit as we come to the ministry of the word. Father, we bow again in your presence, knowing that you are not weary when your people come, out of a felt sense of present need. Your word only condemns the prayers that are vain repetition,

3:23 the prayers that are offered as a covering for sin and a substitute for serious holiness. But as best we know our hearts, Lord, we are not praying out of the matrix of such foul and wretched desires, to use our prayers as a substitute for heart dealings with God. We long that in this time together this morning, your word will come with power, that our minds may be enlightened, that our hearts and wills may be moved. We look to you for the aid of your Holy Spirit, upon preacher and listener alike, for Jesus' sake.

4:06 Amen. With a measure of sanctified hyperbole, the volatile German giant of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, wrote the following words, and I quote, The greatest mischief which has been inflicted upon Christianity has not arisen from tyrants with persecution, murder and pride against the word, but from that little bit of flesh which resides between the jaws. This is that which inflicts the greatest injury upon the kingdom of God. End quote. Now I say there's a bit of sanctified hyperbole. Luther doesn't know how to speak in anything other than sanctified hyperbole.

5:08 He was a volatile, volcanic man, but he put his finger on an issue that surely is one that no one will debate who is aware of the baneful influence of that little bit of flesh that dwells between our jaws. And it is a shared pastoral concern and burden relative to this very issue which has brought us to our present series of messages that I have entitled, Now Concerning the Use of Our Tongues. In the initial sermon two large days ago, I sought to do but one thing, namely to demonstrate from the scriptures the profound significance of this matter of how we use our tongues. I opened up five categories of Biblical truths culminating in the sobering fact that our words will constitute a major factor in God's dealings with us in the day of judgment. For our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12 and verse 36, By your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned. And then in the second message, last Lord's Day,

6:35 I began to address some of the major sins of the tongue as they are identified in the scriptures. And at the head of the list of the sins of the tongue most frequently addressed in the Bible is the sin of lying. In addressing that sin we defined lying as a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth, the attempt to deceive another with our words. And then we asked and answered three questions regarding lying.

7:11 Number one, what is God's assessment of lying? And doing a sweep through the Old and the New Testaments we saw that there was a consistent witness of the Word of God in every epoch of redemptive history concerning the fact that lying is not an innocent foible. It is condemned everywhere as a heinous sin, culminating in God's statement in Revelation 21.8 that along with murderers and whoremongers and idolaters, liars shall have their part in the lake of fire where they join their spiritual father the devil who was a liar and the father of it. Second question, what is God's attitude and action towards the liar and his lying lips? And here again, we looked at the witness of the Old and the New Testament and demonstrated that God hates liars and their lying lips. That God has a sanctified holy antipathy.

8:23 He is not simply a distant judge that points at lying and says, naughty, naughty. His own soul is the God of truth is stirred with righteous passion against the liar. And then the third question, what is God's remedy for the sin of lying? And we looked at that remedy for those in whom lying is a reigning sin and the remedy is nothing short of a new heart.

8:51 A heart in which the God of truth takes up residence by the spirit of truth and enables us to begin to speak the truth as it is in Jesus. And for the believer in whom lying is a remaining sin, he must trace the sin to its roots and he must bring the dynamics of gospel grace upon it that he might be one marked by the speaking of truth. Now this morning, with our Bibles open before us, I will seek to identify one more major sin of the tongue which we as the people of God are to put to death if we are presently indulging in it. And one concerning which we are always to watch and to pray lest we fall into it. And furthermore, one which when we detect in the presence of others we are to soundly and roundly reprove it and rebuke it and refuse so far as is humanly and socially possible to have it enter us. This is the sin of the tongue. Now, the minute you hear me announce that I am going to address one specific sin of the tongue,

Two Dispositions Toward the Light

10:17 what is your inner disposition and reaction? Only you and God know. I don't know. But I can tell you it's one of two things.

10:30 In John chapter 3, the Lord Jesus said this, Everyone that does evil hates the light and comes not to the light lest his works should be reproved. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his works may be made manifest that they have been wrought in God. Upon announcing that I was going to preach on one specific sin of the tongue highlighted in the scriptures, you began to have one of two attitudes in the deep recesses of your heart. On the one hand, there may have been an attitude that said, Lord, as unpleasant as it may be, I want to come to the light of your word. Lord, send the searchlight of Holy Scripture. And if I'm guilty of that sin, whatever it is, Lord, search me and try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

11:35 Your disposition was already one of coming to the light. Your heart is going out. Though your remaining sin would draw you back, your heart, as a renewed man or woman, boy or girl in Christ, has already been saying, Lord, flood the light upon my soul and flood the light upon the use of my tongue. Or, or, you've already begun to pull down the shade.

11:58 He that does evil does not come to the light lest his works should be reproved. And you've already begun to pull down the shades of your soul and say, whatever that crazy preacher's going to talk about, it's not going to get to me. Now, which was your disposition? It's one or the other.

12:21 No middle ground. And if it was the latter, it's an evidence you're lost and you're not saved and you'll never dwell eternally with the God of light. You'll go into the darkness that you love with the prince of darkness into outer darkness.

12:42 So speaking on this subject becomes a very, very searching, accurate index of the true state of your soul. Keep that in mind as we begin to work our way through the scriptures addressing the sin of corrupt speech. The sin identified in the passage read in your hearing. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth but such as is good for edifying as the need may be that it may give grace to them that hear.

Context of Ephesians 4:29 in Paul's Argument

13:23 I'm going to address this morning the sin of corrupt speech or speech that does not build up and edify and minister grace. Now let me say just a brief word about the setting of this text, Ephesians 4 and verse 29. The Apostle Paul having set forth this breathtaking description of the marvelous salvation that is ours in Christ in chapters 1 to 3 begins in chapter 4 to work out the practical implications of that salvation. In chapter 4 and verse 1 I therefore in the light of this magnificent salvation that is ours in Christ I beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called. He's now going to set before them a walk, a pattern of life a lifestyle worthy of all of the privileges of grace. And as he is working that out in chapter 4 in verse 17 he says that lifestyle will be marked by this negatively you will no longer walk as the Gentiles walk. It will be a lifestyle in direct contrast to those who have not experienced this salvation.

14:45 Their lifestyle is regulated by their darkened minds by their perverse hearts and by their spiritual deadness. But in contrast he says your lifestyle if you have truly learned of Christ in the gospel and have experienced the truth as it is in Jesus verse 21 will be a lifestyle in which you will make it evident that you have put off the old man with his doings and that you have put on the new man and that you are pressing after conformity to nothing less than the very character of the God who has conferred this grace upon you and put on the new man that after God as the pattern and paradigm of moral virtue has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Now having set forth that generic statement a walk worthy of our calling is a walk that is in direct contrast to those who still are governed by a darkened mind by spiritual death and deadness is characterized by the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new. He now is going to descend to some very specific aspects of that contrasting lifestyle. And notice verse 25 begins with the words wherefore in the light of this

16:13 generic description of the walk to which you are now called in Christ I want to descend to specifics. You see Paul didn't have this silly notion entertained by a lot of preachers and theologians all you need to do is give the general and trust the Holy Spirit for the particulars. He doesn't trust the Holy Spirit for the particulars he gives the particulars. Trusting the Spirit of God will make them effective in the hearts of the Thessalonians.

16:39 And so he begins with the matter of lying. He begins with the matter of the tongue. The first specific he addresses wherefore putting away falsehood speak truth each one with his neighbor. We looked at that as a parallel to another passage in our study last week.

16:57 Then he deals with the passion of anger. Verse 26 be angry and sin not. Verse 28 he deals with their past patterns of thievery let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands. Now he comes in verse 29 in this string of specific aspects of what it is to walk to live as new man new woman in Christ in contrast to what we were and what the rest of unconverted humanity is in its spiritual darkness he now says and let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

The Meaning of 'Sapros': Corrupt Speech Defined

17:40 Now having said that brief word about the context now then secondly let's consider the meaning of the term corrupt speech. The NIV renders it no unwholesome talk. Now Paul used the Greek word sapros. Sapros.

18:00 Imagine with me now that you are a Greek speaking man in first century Ephesus and at the end of your day of work you're making your way back through the local open market the local bazaar and there you come to the place where the local fishmonger as our English friends would call him sells his fish and there's a pile of one of the local delicacies the fish that everyone in that area loves piled up on the man's open air stand and you happen to glance up there and you see a sign. It had four dollars was the ordinary course for one of these local fish it was crossed out and the words were there a bargain today one dollar and it catches your eye you're a good bargain hunter and your eyes are caught by the indication of a bargain so you go over to the fish stand and you say yeah well they look good I think I'll wrap me up one of those and you plunk your dollar down stick your fish under your arm and you go home and you come through the door and your wife says hello sweetheart gives you a peck on the cheek or a peck on the neck or a peck on the lips however passionate your wife may be when you get home from work and you say dear I think you're going to appreciate what I picked up at the fish market they had a tremendous bargain on and then you name the particular fish it is one of the local delicacies and you plunk it on the counter and your wife says well dear that was so thoughtful oh let me give you an extra kiss for that and so she snuggles up

19:28 and plants a big one on you and you say oh boy that was worth the bargain just to get that and so then she starts to unwrap it and like a good wife who knows what a good fish is first thing she does she looks at the eyes and uh oh the eyes are not clear they're clouded look like they got thick cataracts over them she then begins to push the flesh and it's not firm but it's mushy she gets a little more suspicious now she strokes the scales and they're all slimy now she bends over and the thing stinks she looks at her hubby and says sweetheart we can't eat this fish it is sapros it is rotten it is unedible it is unwholesome it is laden with bad bacteria it's unsuitable for human consumption and the word his wife would use is the word Paul uses here that's sapros fish it's corrupt fish or imagine the next day this guy having lost it with the fish he's out for a walk with his son and he goes by an open field where someone has some apple trees and in that particular town any fallen apples if anyone's free to take them and as they're walking along

20:57 the son says oh daddy look over there there's a beautiful big red apple and he goes over and picks it up and turns it over and where it's been lying on the ground it's all brown and smelly and mushy and his father says son you can't eat that apple it is sapros it is unwholesome it's unfit for consumption it's rotten that's the word he would use with his son now you get a feeling of the flavor of this word now Paul says let no sapros speech let no curse proceed out of your mouth now that part of the issue is this our words are the diet of the minds and the hearts of those to whom we speak and in that diet there is to be nothing at all that is rotten that is foul suffused with bad spiritual and mental bacteria nothing that is rotten and foul only that which Paul says is productive of wholesomeness and nourishment the word he uses in the latter part of the verse such as is good for edifying building up as the need may be

22:25 it's the very word he used twice in chapter 4 of the building up of the body so it's not a mechanical word it is a building up by nourishment it is a living building up and the apostle says anything that does not fit the category of the wholesome that is productive of building up is corrupt it is sapros it is unfit for our consumption and therefore none of us is to peddle it into the ears of others let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth so any kind of speech that is corrupt worthless does not build up in minister grace is prohibited and under that umbrella would be all forms of abusive speech slander gossip vindictive speech sarcastic speech needling taunting and the list could go on and on anything that crawls with the unwholesome bacteria of that which is destructive when eaten by the minds of men by way of their ears is never to proceed out of your mouth and of my mouth

The Broad Umbrella and the Specific Focus

23:49 let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth and we shall address some of these that come under the more broad category in next week's message however in this very epistle there is a particular category of corrupt speech which is highlighted by the apostle and I believe has peculiar relevance in the hour in which you and I live in American society and as I've pondered this theme I've been constrained to focus upon it with the prayer that God by the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon us and help us to see the foul wretched totally unchristian nature of this dimension of corrupt speech and what is that category well I want you to turn with me to chapter 5 for this specific example of corrupt speech in chapter 5 verse 1 the apostle now calls them to be imitators of God to walk in love and then he goes to the negative but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness not even be named among you as become saints now look at verse 4 nor having dealt

25:18 with all forms of sexual immorality under the canopy word fornia fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness and many commentators say in this context it could well mean that he's thinking of covetousness in a more limited sense thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife any kind of sexual greed fornication but it's clear that he's addressing specifically sexual aberration and sexual sins fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not even be named among you as becometh saints let it be something that is far removed from those of you who have been set apart unto God in union with Christ and then he brings right on behind it in addition to these deeds notice the focus nor filthiness translated by many modern translators obscenities nor foolish talking or jesting which are not befitting but rather giving of thanks and here the apostle focuses on three specific sins of the tongue that fit under the category of corrupt unwholesome

First Sin: Filthiness or Obscenity

26:44 unsuitable speech the first is filthiness or obscenity or indecency this would take within its orbit all shameful speech and I want to get very specific and I've cried to God that I may be specific enough to get into your conscience but not specific enough to cause your mind to sin and that's no easy razor's edge to be on in preaching I don't want anyone to go out scratching his head saying what in the world are we talking about but I don't want anyone to go out with my having put words and thoughts in your mind that become an occasion to sin but Paul wrote the word and he expected the people at Ephesus when the service was over to say do you remember what he said nor filthiness nor obscenity how would that apply to us so that this should be discussed only with a view to understanding it that we might deal with it by the grace of God what is this filthiness or obscenity which is forbidden it is all bathroom and locker room coarse talk the use of vocabulary and slang terms which have grown up around personal body parts private bodily functions and sexual activity I think that's specific enough

28:12 and right down to the seven and eight year olds you will understand what I'm talking about when the apostle says nor filthiness nor obscenities nor indecencies he's putting under the searchlight of the word of God all bathroom and locker room coarse talk the use of vocabulary and slang terms which have grown up around personal body parts private bodily functions and sexual activity in a word that is different but has the same root in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 8b Paul says this but now put them all away anger wrath malice railing here is the root word shameful spirit regret and humiliation and contempt but you don't need any explanation you need to understand why it is that God comes to you after you and tell you what you can't do a word that is not yours not yours

29:39 if you don't know what can nor filthiness, out of your mouth,

29:51 any time, any circumstances. This is not to mark the new humanity in Christ. It is created after God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

30:06 And the great embodiment of that holiness and righteousness is the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine Him in the intimacy of the home at Nazareth using bathroom talk with His siblings?

30:20 The slang language referring to bodily functions and bodily parts and sexual activity. The lips of the Holy Son of God were never stained with one such word for He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And even when He used bodily functions for an illustration, He spoke of it in a chaste way. He says, Don't you foolish hypocrites, know what goes into the mouth doesn't defile a man.

30:55 He swallows it and He gets rid of it when He goes to the bathroom. That's what Jesus said. There was no prudish bypassing of those realities. A woman, when it's time to give birth, has pain.

31:17 He speaks of birth pangs, bluntly, frankly, but in a beautiful and chaste way. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of you. Mouth. No filthiness or obscenity.

Second Sin: Foolish Talking (Morologia)

31:33 But now secondly, this is where the knife of God's going to cut deeper. Notice the language. Nor foolish talking.

31:46 Moros, compound word. Know where we get our word moron? From this Greek word. Moros.

31:57 Logia, word. No moronic words.

32:03 No banal, stupid, mindless,

32:14 the kind of speech that is beneath the dignity of image-bearers of God. It's the speech of the fool or of the drunkard. The fool or the drunkard reflect the image of God. And the apostle says, nor the talk of fools and of drunkards.

32:39 Contrary to what we are as image of God and secondly, contrary to what we are in our identity as the saints of God. We are set apart. We are set apart. We are set apart in front of God with the renewed dignity of renewed image in Christ and in Christ as new men, new women.

33:02 To be what God intended we should be, Adam, had he not sinned, would never have indulged in foolish talking. The talking of a moron or of a drunkard.

33:16 The kind of talk that marks 99% of current television sitcoms. Why? Once in a while I will sit and force myself to watch three to five mimics sweeping across the channels. And when I do, I say to myself, what banality, what stupidity, what a mass of inane gibberish with the recorded laugh track.

33:51 Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Image-bearers of God carrying on like fools and drunkards.

34:01 Now let me say for the sensitive of conscience, this is not a prohibition of innocent and playful banter which brightens human relationships. There is an innocent, playful banter that brightens human relationships.

34:20 Two of the sisters delivered a meal to us last night. And in the course of that, I mentioned something and one of the sisters had a moment of forgetfulness. And I said, you know, I heard this little joke recently. The guy said, I got three problems.

34:33 Three problems. I got bad knees. I got bad eyes. And I can't remember what the third one was.

34:43 The third was he was having problems with his memory. And we had an innocent laugh. But then the moment the sister said that this was beginning to be a problem, my spirit was grieved. I said, no, no, she said, I wasn't offended by that at all.

34:59 Innocent banter. It brightens human relationships. He's not talking about that. He's talking about the foolish talking that is just the prattle of mindless engagement of the tongue that has no wholesome influence in the cultivation of human relationships.

35:21 In the passing on of information, one man has said this, the purposes for which the faculty of speech was bestowed upon us are these. To carry on the business of life. To minister to the needful mental and emotional refreshment of ourselves and others. To help our fellow men by instruction, encouragement and comfort and the highest use of all.

35:47 To praise God and hold direct communion with Him. When speech is devoted to these ends in suitable proportions and to no other ends, we need not fear that we are sinning with our tongues. And this wise commentator concluded among the divine purposes for the faculty of speech to minister the needful mental and emotional refreshment of ourselves and others. The kind of wholesome banter that those of us on the staff here at Trinity engage with one another.

36:22 That is an affirmation of our goodwill. That is a constant reminder that our hearts are one and that we're so secure in each other's love that we're not going to be We can engage in wholesome banter. This is talking about foolish talking. The talk of fools and of drunkards.

Third Sin: Coarse Jesting (Eutrapelia)

36:41 I say the kind of stuff that forms the content of these banal, stupid, juvenile, I can't come up with enough words,

36:56 that glut the sitcoms on the television. And Paul says, No filthiness, obscenity, indecency. No foolish talking. And then he says, No coarse jesting.

37:17 Jesting which are not befitting. And most of the modern translations will say, No coarse jesting or joking. This word in the Greek speaking world of the first century, was used sometimes to speak of a virtue, of someone who was quick-witted and could turn a phrase. The etymology points toward being able to quickly turn a phrase and be clever with words.

37:43 And it was considered by some to be a virtue and an attainment of some degree, apparently, of mental alacrity and acuity. But in the alternate lifestyle of the people of God, this thing that could be used in order to turn something into double entendre, that was, that was quick to be able to make a bridge from an innocent statement to something unclean, or an innocent statement to something that was sarcastic and bit and cut into the heart of another's feelings, joking at the expense of another's feelings, joking at the expense of moral purity. William Hendrickson says this, Some people seem to have the ability to move any conversation to the ribald, the suggestive and the unclean. They seem to have a garbage-can type of mind and every serious topic of conversation is one that they can turn to an off-color jest or anecdote. Hence, this word most likely refers to a clever wittiness in telling coarse jokes.

38:56 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Filthiness or obscenity, foolish talking, coarse jesting or joking are to have no place among the people of God in their alternate lifestyle as the new humanity in Christ. Now, in O'Brien's very helpful commentary on Ephesians, he gives a wonderful summary of these three words. I read this brief paragraph.

39:29 Each of the words used for sinful speech, obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking appears only here in the New Testament. Only here in the New Testament. The first is best understood concretely in the present context as signifying disgraceful speech. And in the light of the preceding sexual sins is rendered rightly obscenity.

39:53 The second term means foolish or silly talk. The third word in the triad was used in classical Greek in the good sense of wittiness or that sense of wit that was regarded as essential to good speech. It was used in classical Greek as a good social conversation. Even in early times, however, the term could have negative connotations, perhaps buffoonery of some kind of inhumane or degrading jesting.

40:16 Van der Horst, obviously not an Italian or an Irishman, thinks that the context of Ephesians 5.4 suggests the meaning of coarse joking that has suggestive overtones and double entendres. All three terms refer to a dirty mind expressing itself in a dirty way. This kind of language must be avoided as utterly inappropriate among those whom God has set apart as holy.

Cultural Observation: How Talk Becomes Behavior

40:48 Now as I've tried to give you from the scriptures the meaning of corrupt speech and then to focus in upon one aspect of corrupt speech as identified by Paul in these three words, I now come to what is the heart of the burden of the message this morning. And I want to bring set before you an observation and then an exhortation. And I want to make an observation concerning the present state of our society and our culture. The average American hearing what I have preached this morning would sneer.

41:26 He would regard obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse jesting as a mere peccadillo. You know what a peccadillo is? That's not a cousin of an armadillo. A peccadillo is a person A peccadillo is a slight sin.

41:39 If it's a sin at all, it's a fault, nothing to get upset about. And for this preacher to stand up here and get red in the face and strain his vocal cords to talk about obscenities, bathroom talk,

41:58 that's ridiculous. That's fiddling while Rome burns. It's a mere peccadillo.

42:07 Insignificant. Doesn't demand any kind of sober consideration. But when we turn to our Bibles, Paul understood what few in our day understand. Calvin captured the danger of this kind of speech when he wrote.

42:23 And I want you to gird up the loins of your mind and capture this simple sentence of Calvin. If only vice can be made common, then it seems those vices possess the field. If only vices can be made common, then it seems that they possess the field. Follow me now.

42:49 What is made the stuff of ordinary and acceptable language and the subjects of jokes and banter is soon the stuff of acceptable behavior.

43:06 You got me?

43:08 What is made the subject, the stuff, of ordinary language? So it's not obscenity. It's not uncleanness. What is made the stuff of jokes and banter?

43:21 What is made the stuff of ordinary acceptable language and the subject of jokes and banter is soon the stuff of acceptable behavior. If you can laugh at it, why can't you do it? It must not be that serious an issue. And we have in our present society three indisputable evidences of the fact that that's exactly what has happened in our society.

43:52 Number one, in the realm of pop music, in the realm of pop music, what was made the subject of so-called innocent lyrics, though it fit the category of the obscene, the foolish, and the coarse jesting, has now become acceptable behavior. I was able to watch this past week the documentary on Elvis Presley when he hit the television screen in 1990, 1956. I had no television then. I was totally ignorant of what was going on in television.

44:34 But as I saw for the first time why there was this flap over Elvis the pelvis, and the fact that he had crossed lines of decency, not just pushing the envelope an inch or two, but light-years from where it had been, so that a secular man admitted to some of the far-out rocks of music, assessing what Elvis did, said this, the sexual revolution did not begin in the 60s with the hippies on our campuses, it began with Elvis Presley. That's a secular man, recognizing that when the bodily motions and when the language love me tenderly, sung by a man who drips sensuality, and who went through the physical postures of sexual activity without shame, with teenage girls and screaming while he did it, what was then the subject of lyrics and the bodily motions that shocked many in an older generation has become the acceptable behavior not only of the younger generation,

46:00 but the older as well. Now Eminem, with the most vile, coarse, vulgar, and obscene words, is the icon of a whole generation of young men. He's welcomed as a special guest star on music award ceremonies. How did we get there?

46:30 What is made the stuff of ordinary acceptable language, the subjects of jokes and banter is soon the stuff of acceptable language. From Madonna to Britney Spears to Jennifer Lopez, the icons of a whole generation of young women. And when I drive by any place where I see kids getting out of high school, I want to throw my arms around these girls sporting their belly buttons and proving to the world they have breasts and say, my precious girl, you've been sacrificed upon the altar of a lie. Paul understood. Obscene language, stupid foolish talk, jesting not befitting, break down the morals in the soul. And what becomes acceptable talk and prattle and laughter and jokes

47:55 will become acceptable behavior. Second category I've already alluded to at the realm of popular TV sitcoms, MTV, late night TV. The diet of this generation has been that of Seinfeld, Friends, The Simpsons, Will and Grace, Sex and the City. And while there was much in the Cosby family that was idealistic and a lot of blacks resented the fact that Cosby's home life didn't represent urban black experience but middle class, upper middle class white experience, be that as it may, what a profound difference you knew that Cosby and his wife still had something going between them but there was never anything ribald, lecherous, double entendre. You laughed because they were the struggles of families that you recognized. Some of the standards you knew were unbiblical and you could critically analyze them but what a profound difference between a group of singles sitting around talking about who they've got the hots for, a generation that feeds on a generation that feeds its soul upon it. There's probably no more profane man adulated by millions than David Letterman.

49:21 He's an utterly profane man, mocks sacred realities, filthy mind. Leno's not far behind. Then in the realm of our national leaders from the shameful revelation of what went on in Clinton's Oval Office and his activities with Monica Lewinsky, what followed? A spate of jokes about what went on in that Oval Room and from his activity to the jokes and the laughter.

49:58 It is now epidemic among teenagers indulging in their perversion and saying, I'm not having sex. Sexually transmitted diseases in parts of the body that they never appeared before. I'm being discreet. How did it happen from talk to the breaking down of a sense of moral outrage?

50:30 It is acceptable behavior. Child, mark it down. A fundamental ingredient of the soul in maintaining a holy walk in an unholy context is the maintaining of a deep sense of moral revulsion in the presence of that which displeases God. And if you begin to break down that revulsion with your mouth, your body will follow.

51:04 For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Therefore, the apostle says, let no corrupt, foul, putrid communication proceed out of your mouth. It is impossible to maintain this moral revulsion to that which displeases God when it becomes the subject of ordinary foolishness and coarse joking and obscene speech.

51:45 Now you can just sit there and write it all off and say that's a man sitting around thinking too much. But are you going to argue with me that this nation is drowning in a cesspool of sensuality? If so, you don't know what this nation is. And no little part in bringing it there is the very thing the apostle addresses here.

52:12 Why does he move from prohibiting fornication and uncleanness and say, nor sanity, nor foolish talking, nor joking. He asks for connection. God have mercy on us if we don't. Well, that's my observation.

Exhortation to Children and Young People

52:37 Now I conclude with an exhortation and warning particularly to my precious children and young people here. Kids, hear your old pastor this morning, will you? As I often say when there's something particularly on my heart, I greet you at the door and I say, did you listen to me with three years? I want you to listen with three years now.

52:58 You young people, you children, listen to your old pastor today. Don't be guilty of putting poison in the souls of others because you feel smart that you've learned a new dirty word and you want to pass it on to someone else. You've heard a joke, it's got a double meaning to it and you think it's clever and you'll be cool if you tell it. Listen to what Jesus said.

53:22 It is necessary that offenses come. In a sinful world, people are going to sin and find occasions to sin. But he said this, but woe to him through whom the offense comes. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the sea.

53:38 If you become the occasion of putting poison in the mind of another, Jesus said, it'd be better for you to be drowned in the sea and you can tell the dirt. Kids, don't do it. You're putting poison in the minds and the souls of others and God will hold you accountable. And if the Lord should be pleased to save you, you'll have a lifetime to regret that you can never take those things back.

54:12 From time to time as I think of what I was before God saved me and I think of the dirty jokes that someone may be telling their grandchildren that they learned from me and I can't take them back. I don't want you to have that as an old joke. I don't want you to be an old person. You say, for me, no corrupt will go out of my mind.

54:55 No dirty words, no dirty jokes, no stupid tomfoolery, just talking nonsense. I'm going to learn to harness my tongue to make it useful for God. Kids will say, ah, you're too good, mister, too good shoes. Forget what they say.

55:09 As pleased as God. You determine that by the grace of God you'll please him. But then the second part of my exhortation is that you're not going to be a good person if you don't allow others to put this poison into your soul. Don't you allow anybody to make your ears the inlet of the poison of obscene speech, foolish talk, coarse jesting.

55:38 Listen to Calvin speaking to his own generation. Back in 1556, I was going to read his opening part of his sermon on this text and say, where do you think this guy lived and when do you think he lived? You say, that's somebody living around the corner. It was Calvin in Geneva preaching through Ephesians.

56:04 But listen to what he says, kids. We would not willingly expose our throat to a dagger when we see it drawn, nor would we go looking for someone to murder our bodies. Any of you here, someone puts a dagger to your throat, you can say, oh, welcome dagger, stick it in. Calvin says, we would not willingly expose our throat to a dagger when we see it drawn, nor would we go looking for someone to murder our bodies.

56:32 Why then do we long to have our souls murdered, which is much worse? Wherefore, let us keep far from such people as can do nothing but quench and put out the fear of God in us and make us shameless and hard-hearted and rob us of all honesty and shame. Let us fear God should pay us the wages we deserve for having acquaintance and familiarity with such people and let us labor hard that such plagues may not reign among us. Listen you kids, anybody comes to you and says, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

57:59 them with chlorine. Do you want that? Is that what you want? Same way some of the men among us can say that pictures they allow to flash on the screen of their mind, unclean pictures, long since forgiven for indulging them. But you can't scrub them from the walls of the mind. And in the most inopportune time the devil puts a flashlight on them and there they are. There they are. Pleading with you young people and children.

58:39 I beg of you.

58:42 Don't allow them. Don't allow them. I don't care if you're the loneliest person on your block and in Trinity Christian school. You say nobody is going to put poison in my soul by way of my ears.

58:59 Keep your rotten fish to yourself. Keep your rotten apples to yourself. I don't want your sapros fish. I don't want your sapros apples.

59:08 I want wholesome fish. I want wholesome edible.

59:15 Now I feel for some of you because you're in settings where you don't control whether or not you hear it. I think I'll remember as long as I live one of our young ladies telling me that in one of her first classes at college she had a professor that to prove he was cool to the students sat down with them and as he began to instruct them used every form of profanity and foul language to prove he was with it. I'd like that professor to sit here. You know what I'd tell him? I'd say, sir, if you cannot express your thoughts clearly, convincingly, logically, without the use of obscenities and foul language, you're a stupid, uneducated man. You have no business teaching in a college.

60:11 The English language is so rich, so profuse with adjectives and adverbs and the way we can work with that language like a painter with a full pile of the colors. No one needs obscenities. To express his mind clearly if he's an educated man or woman. And I feel for you.

60:34 I don't know what the answer is. You have to pray that God somehow immunize you against the permanent influence. I don't know the answer. But I'm talking about the situations and the places you have a choice.

60:49 That's why it bothers me when people have a choice and they pop in their videos.

60:57 I had two sex scenes. I only had six curse words. How many times do you need to be in a relationship? How many times do you need to be in a relationship?

61:00 How many times do you need to hear a curse word for it to lodge itself in your mind? Am I so wicked?

61:16 What's your threshold? I get sick of this. There's too much of it in this congregation.

61:24 You'll go to heaven if you never see a movie. But you may go to hell because you feel you've got to see a movie. You see what I'm saying? I said you may.

61:36 It may be the very means that God the devil will use to unravel the moral fabric of your soul. Why risk it? It ain't worth it.

61:49 I saw three movies growing up. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a Gene Autry movie, and I think it was one other. And terribly twisted, socially maladjusted, ignorant, and unrelated.

62:09 I only saw three movies growing up. I said, Pastor, you're being sarcastic. Yes, I am. Because I want some of you to stop letting the world dictate these issues and start thinking as a new man, a new...

62:27 a new woman in Christ.

62:37 I rest my case with my Bible.

62:42 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. By analogy, let no unnecessary corrupt communication proceed into your ears.

63:01 I said unnecessary. Some situations you can't go into the office and tell everyone to stop their foul language. You may not be able to clean up the language of that. I fully understand that. But I'm talking about the things where you have a choice. You have a choice about your friends. You have a choice of the music you listen to. You have a choice about the things you watch.

63:24 You have a choice.

63:34 Don't choose the path that will dull your ability to feel and to sense something of God's antipathy, to uncleanness, and to rival all three, and to the lecherous, and to the things that dishonor the living God. Well, that was the burden of my heart.

Closing Summary and Benedictory Prayer

64:00 I have to leave with God what you do with it. I trust it will be the response of thoughtful reflection and obedient faith. Let's pray. Our Father, when we think of the horrible tidal wave of moral filth that breaks over this nation day after day after day, we can only cry out to you to have mercy.

64:40 We marvel, we marvel that you have not just obliterated us as a nation. When we think of our moral filth, all the laughter that will go on today at unclean speech, all of the indifference to purity and sanctity, nobility and dignity, Lord, we become such a coarse, vile, filthy nation. Have mercy upon us. Have mercy.

65:14 We pray especially for our precious children and young people. God, help them to see the issues that are before them. And by your grace, to deal with these matters. We pray for those who may be enmeshed in these very sins and for whom nothing less than the sovereign regenerating work of the spirit will ever release them from the bondage into which they've fallen.

65:42 Be gracious and deal with them for their good and for your glory. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.