Devotions

“The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back” (Isaiah 50:4-5).
Note the last verse: Jesus was awakened every morning by the Holy Ghost. And the Spirit attuned His ear to hear the Word of His Father. When Christ testifies, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back,” He is saying, “When I was on earth, I was taught what I should say, do and hear. And I never turned away from it.”
Beloved, I need this kind of spiritual wake-up call every day. I must have a reminder from the Holy Spirit, “David, close your ears to all slander, gossip and filth. Keep yourself from being defiled.”
Jesus’ own disciples had defiled ears. On one occasion, He told them, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men” (Luke 9:44). He was saying, in other words, “Pay close attention, because I’m about to give you an important revelation. I am going to be crucified. Now, let that sink deep into your ears. It’s something you need to know.”
So, how did they react to this? Scripture says, “They understood not this saying” (9:45). Why couldn’t they hear what their Master was telling them? Because their ears had been defiled by self-interest. Immediately we read, “There arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest” (9:46).
Here is proof positive that defiled ears cannot receive the deeper revelations of God’s Word. These men couldn’t hear Jesus’ voice, even as He stood before them in the flesh, speaking to them plainly. Instead, Scripture says, “It was hid from them, that they perceived it not” (9:45). I have to wonder: Would the disciples’ experience at the crucifixion have been different if they had been able to hear Jesus?
The truth is, anyone who is engrossed in his own interests cannot see that fact about himself. And if he did, he wouldn’t admit to it. That’s why the disciples couldn’t hear what Jesus was telling them. They were so self-centered, so bent on boasting about themselves, they couldn’t hear the voice of Christ.
 

Psalm 50 spells out the sin of the unclean use of the mouth and its consequences. Many in God’s house have taken His Word lightly on this matter.

“Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. . . . Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. . . . Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God” (Psalm 50:19-23).

So, why don’t we fear and reverence God’s Word on this matter? Why do we so easily speak of others with vain words? Why do we continue to use words carelessly, with an uncontrolled tongue? This psalm tells us why: “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.”

Simply put, we make God out to be like ourselves. We bend His Word to reflect our own tendency to judge the outward person. And we ignore God’s ways of considering the hidden, deeper issues of a person’s heart.

Now the Lord is telling us here in Psalm 50, “I’m going to reprove you, because I want you to set this matter in order. You have to see your defilement the way I do: as wicked and evil, a serious danger to your soul.”

As a minister of the Lord, I want Christ’s life to flow out of my preaching. And as a husband, father and grandfather, I want it to flow out of me freely to my family. Therefore, the fountainhead of Christ’s life in me cannot be polluted. I cannot allow any poison in the spring, or any roadblocks to hinder its free flow in me.

But this must be a conscious decision on my part. I must cry out to the Holy Spirit continually, “Lord, convict me each time I defile myself.” David made this kind of determination. He wrote, “I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (Psalm 17:3). “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (141:3).

You may wonder, “Is it really possible to control the tongue, to purpose not to sin with the mouth?” David answers with this testimony: “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me” (39:1). He’s saying, in essence, “Every time I mount a horse, I have to put a bridle in its mouth. And as surely as I do that with my horse, I have to do it with my tongue.”
 

James warns the church, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; 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” (James 3:6).

We read a similar warning in Isaiah: “Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity” (Isaiah 58:9). The Hebrew meaning of vanity here signifies rudeness, irreverence, disrespect.

Isaiah is making an astounding statement. The very reason we pray, fast and study God’s Word is to be heard in heaven. But the Lord attaches a big “if” to this. He declares, “If you want Me to hear you on high, then you must look at your issues of the heart. Yes, I will hear you—if you quit pointing a finger at others, if you stop speaking about them disrespectfully.”

It’s a great sin in God’s eyes for us to speak in ways that tarnish someone else’s reputation. As we read in Proverbs, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1). A good reputation is a treasure that is carefully built up over time. Yet I can quickly destroy anyone’s treasure with a single defaming word from my mouth.

Now, we wouldn’t dare rob somebody of his gold watch or bank account. Yet God states clearly that slandering someone’s name is robbery of the worst kind. And we can do it in the subtlest of ways: by pointing an accusing finger, questioning one’s character, passing on tidbits of gossip. Indeed, three of the most damning words we can speak are, “Have you heard?” The mere suggestion of the question robs a person of something valuable. And it defiles our own mouth.
 

In the story of the woman caught in adultery told in John 8, Jesus turned the accused into the accepted. Instead of rejecting the adulterous woman, whose life hung in the balance, He accepted her. And He does the same for us today. He takes everyone pushed to the margins by their own sin and tells them, “You are mine. You’re right in the center of the Father’s love.”

This gesture by Jesus was crucial for the adulterous woman. Why? Because she still had to live in her community with the reality of what she’d done. You see, while it’s true that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, there are still real- life consequences to sin. Ask any addict who’s gone through a recovery program. There are broken bonds to mend with family, friends, children, coworkers. In the case of adultery, there can be unwanted pregnancies, broken love with a spouse, strained relationships with children, betrayals of trust within a community—matters that can take years to be repaired.

That’s why there is very real mercy in Jesus’ two distinct statements to the adulterous woman: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). I would not be a faithful minister of God if I didn’t say that while, yes, Jesus loves you, accepts you and forgives you, there is very real fallout to sin. As a pastor I see it all the time. That’s why our sin is of great concern to God beyond the moral reasons of law-breaking. Paul says, “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18). This is all the more reason to bring any and every sin to Jesus. Only His powerful, redeeming grace can fully heal and restore.

There is a third group transformed by God’s grace: the accusers. The Pharisees’ heartless, accusing plan backfired on them. Ultimately, the sinful woman wasn’t condemned but instead was rescued and healed. And when that kind of radical grace manifests, evil is forced to slink away in shame. “They slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman” (John 8:9).
 

“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:33-35).

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus was addressing His disciples not long before He went to the cross. It was an incredible scene! The One who was the embodiment of God’s extravagant love for all mankind was commanding His disciples to follow Him into the depth of this love for others—particularly toward those who belonged to the household of faith. Of course, this was not a commandment solely for those present with Him at the time; the Lord is issuing this command to you and me today.

Note that the kind of love Jesus is referring to does not simply mean having affection or an affinity for one another. No, the Lord is calling His Church to be an expression of a love so deep and so far beyond our natural human ability that it will stand as an undeniable testimony of the reality of God. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things . . . endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NKJV).

Upon receiving this new commandment, the apostle Peter assumed he had the inherent ability to do what Jesus was calling them to do. He asked Jesus, “Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward’” (John 13:36, NKJV).

In other words, Jesus was saying, “Peter, you do not have the strength now to go where I am going. You cannot love the way that I love.” We, too, must recognize this weakness in ourselves. I cannot love people the way Jesus commands me to, and neither can you. Only God has this kind of benevolent love that we need. It is only when the Holy Spirit comes upon us—when the victory of Christ becomes our victory and God’s heart becomes our heart—that we can fulfill this new commandment.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. A strong, compassionate leader, he is a frequent speaker at the Expect Church Leadership Conferences conducted by World Challenge throughout the world.