Words from the heart
Category: Integrity & Godly Character
Key Passage: Matthew 12:33-37
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 9, 2025
If you would, turn over to Matthew chapter 12 tonight. We are going to continue on this subject of words. Last Sunday night we started on that subject. If you were not here, I would encourage you to listen to it. It kind of got us into the subject, but the Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue.
It is amazing everywhere we go. We are either giving life or we are killing, really, with our words. Praise the Lord, God gives us life through the written Word and through the living Word. Words are just amazing. But tonight, for just a bit on this subject, we want to look a little bit deeper than our words. We are in Matthew chapter 12, and we are going to start in verse number 33 tonight, Matthew 12 and verse number 33 in God’s Word.
And would you please stand as we read God’s Word together? Matthew 12. And look at verse number 33, would you please? Matthew 12 and verse number 33. Jesus is speaking here. He says, “Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit.” “O generation of vipers,” boy, He is speaking to the Pharisees here. “How can ye, being evil, speak good things?” Here it is, this little truth we want to kind of dive into: “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”
Let me just say a little note: the abundance of the heart. What is just all over in your heart? What is just spewing up out of your heart? “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. “But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Wow, that is some strong language. I think we will get back to that part of it next week. But for tonight, this phrase: “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” Let us say that little phrase out loud with me from verse number 34. Here we go: “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth…” Pray that God would speak to us about it, that maybe we can be wiser and grow and be better Christians for Him because of that truth tonight.
Your words will show what is going on in your heart. I battle pride like everybody battles pride, and it bothers me. I can see pride in me sometimes; I do not like it. God resists the proud; I do not want God resisting me. But He gives grace unto the humble. I would like to be humble. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” I would like to be the one that humbles myself because I would like God to exalt me instead of God resisting me. I do not know about you, but I need grace. Man, I need grace so bad.
Then it bothers me when I—a story about me when I was in high school. I had a coach from high school basketball or whatnot. He told me one time, he said, “Paul, you say this a lot.” Boy, I was so convicted when he told me this; he is right. But he said, “You say, ‘I know’ a lot.” I thought, do I really? I just had to think about it. I began to watch myself, and boy, I tell you what, that was very revealing of some pride in my heart. It is amazing how just our words show the pride. Our words show what is going on in our heart. It is amazing sometimes we do not even know ourselves. I pray for people to have discernment about themselves a lot. Sometimes we just do not know ourselves, really.
Words are very revealing about what is going on in our heart. It is amazing. You know, always having an opinion about everything—that might be revealing. We used to work at a shop, Samson Metal and Machine in Lakeland, Florida. It was not a huge shop, maybe 30 employees, maybe more than that. But anyway, in the back shop, the back building, there were maybe 20 workers. There were two guys that were not related, but they got along. They talked a lot. Everyone in the shop, including me—I do not know if it should be said or not—we called them the “All Brothers.” That is because no matter what subject came up, they knew it all, they did it all, and they did it better than all. They saw everybody in the shop; they were the All Brothers. “Hey, anything going on? Ask the All Brothers.” They knew it all. But it revealed something in their hearts. My words reveal what is going on in my heart: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” If nobody can ever tell you anything, you always have something to say—that is just revealing. It is just our tongue.
Sometimes, well, that is humbling. Maybe if I always have cutting, defensive words—maybe I just get on the defensive with just a little statement—well, that is revealing. Something is going on in there. If I always have cutting words, it is revealing. If I am critical of others so often, then it shows. Maybe I have a little lack of love in my heart for others. Maybe a little pride—I think I am better, criticize everybody. But my words are so revealing of what is going on in my heart. If I find that I—and it bothers me sometimes—if I turn every conversation back to me, back to my life, somebody told me something, and I have to tell my side—that is a little revealing. Maybe in my heart I am a little self-centered. But I am just saying our words, our tongue—“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Jesus said that statement twice.
So I can learn a lot. We mentioned that verse this morning, Jeremiah 17: the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. “The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it?” And the next verse, Jeremiah 17:10, talks about the Lord trying the heart. It can be very revealing to us through Jesus and His Word: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” I can learn a little bit about what is going on in my heart just by my words. I would love to have more of a praising heart. I wish I had more praising in my heart. You know, I can kind of determine if I am or not. How much praise do I have? Let me read you a couple of verses. Psalm 34:1: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Hebrews 13:15: “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
I am not saying I am always there, for sure, but I can tell if I have a praising heart or not by my lips, my tongue—our words are so revealing. I wonder if we could somehow have some kind of an artificial microphone. If you need one, I am sure Brother Patrick knows of one; he knows all that stuff. If they somehow had some kind of microphone on me all week long, and we could review my words and your words, that would be very revealing of what is going on in the heart. Jesus said it: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”
Now, let us do this. Go back over there, if you would, please, to Matthew 12. Let us get a little bit more of the context in here. Matthew 12. Look over in verse number 22. This is interesting. Matthew 12:22 is leading up to the statement Jesus made. It starts in verse number 22: “Then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.” Amazing. And all the people were amazed. Watch this, and said, “Is not this the Son of David?” They are saying a good thing.
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.” Jesus knew their faults, and He says, “Every kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” He said, “No, no, no, Satan is not casting out Satan,” and on and on. Then He starts talking about the Holy Spirit, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Now look at verse number 32. “And whosoever speaketh,” notice that, “speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Now He begins His statement here. He has spoken to these Pharisees; now He is getting on to them about their words. But He says, “Look, folks, if you just try to get your words right, it is much deeper than your words.” That is what He is saying.
Watch what He says, verse number 33. We have already read it. He says, “Either make the tree good and his fruit good.” By the way, that tree is your heart. You have to get the heart, and then you get the right fruit. If you just try to change your fruit without changing the tree, it is not going to happen. That is what He is saying. “Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit.” “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?” “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”
Jesus is rebuking them for their words. He says, “If you are a Pharisee, just trying to get your words right, it is much deeper than that.” He is saying you are going to have to get your heart right. When I have the wrong kind of words, I have to look a little bit deeper in my heart. It is revealing what is in my heart.
I am not just going to try to get all my words right; that is part of it. We will talk, I think, next Sunday night about bridling the tongue, and the tongue can steer the ship. But Jesus is saying, “Look, fellows, it is not going to work. You are going to have to go deeper, and then you have to look in your very core, your very center of you—your heart.” Your heart is not right; you are not going to be able to get your mouth right because your heart is not right. So when I have these things, oh boy, I know that is not where it ought to be; it is deeper. I cannot get good fruit without changing the tree. My heart is so very, very important. So when my words are not right, I want to say, “Oh my goodness, what is going on?”
Look over in Psalm 62. This is such a good, good verse. Psalms chapter 62. We will be over in Psalms and Proverbs, I think, for the rest of the night.
But when maybe my words are just all about me, or maybe my words are prideful words, or cutting, or I am just very defensive or whatnot—what do I do about it? We will look over in Psalm 62:8. Notice what he says. He says, “Trust in Him at all times. All times. All times. All times.” Good times, bad times, when you are spiritual, when you are unspiritual, when you are hot for the Lord, when you are cold for the Lord, when you are cold-hearted—all times. “Trust in Him at all times, ye people.” These next four words are so very, very important: “Pour out your heart before Him.” When your heart is not right, when your heart has bitterness, when it is defensive, when it is cutting, when it is prideful—pour out your heart before Him.
Then He makes this statement: “God is a refuge.” Mother, you need a refuge when things are not going your way, whether it is your own fault or you are just under attack. God is a refuge.
Then He uses that word, Selah. We had a family come last Sunday morning with seven and a half children, seven and one on the way. One of the little girls, her name was Celah. They pronounced it, “Selah.” Everybody kind of pronounces that one differently. But it means “Think on this. Dwell on this.”
He said this thing I just told you about—pour out your heart before the Lord; He is a refuge—He said, “Now think about that. Dwell on that.” Let that thing get deep in your heart and your mind. So when you have a bitter tongue, when you are just cutting, stop and say, “Okay, something is not right in my heart.” And then go and tell the Lord what is going on in your heart. It is not pretty. He knows that; He looks at the heart.
Sometimes we are very controlling. We have to be in control of our situation and our tongue, and we are maybe bossy and demanding, and we have to be in control of everything. Stop and say, “Well, something is not right inside.” It is out here. So go, “All right, Lord, I want to pour my heart out.” Tell Him what is going on.
I think this is so often anymore, and I think the Lord is still teaching, developing it in my heart and my mind. I think so often we are not getting our needs met by the Lord, and so we are not able to give others what they need. We are always kind of wanting from everybody else because, and honestly, the Lord is the one that can give you everything you need.
Some of the reason why we are not getting from the Lord what we need is because we are not opening our heart. We are not pouring our heart out for the Lord—good, bad, and ugly. God really works. It is amazing how God works so often when we do open our heart up and reveal it to Him. We are just very open with Him, and sometimes it is a little bit of work learning to pour your heart out for Him. Sometimes we do not know what is in our heart, and we have to work at this thing. I want to pour my heart out. It is amazing. Sometimes God shows you, you are so defensive because maybe something happened a long time ago that God has never dealt with, or whatever the situation may be. But learning—I am going to look, something is not right. My tongue has been off, and so something in my heart is not right. So I am going to go and I am going to pour my heart out to the Lord.
Then let me say this. We are in Psalms. We are looking at Psalm 139. It is one of the Psalms that God used David to pen. I think David worked through some of these things so very, very much. Psalm 139 is a great, great chapter. I know some of you have memorized a lot of verses out of it. Notice what he says in verse number 23. Psalm 139 and verse number 23. He says, “Search me, O God, and know my what? Heart. Yes, heart.” David is saying, “Lord, I need to get my heart right. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
If I am not totally honest with my tongue, if I am prone to angle everything a little bit, exaggerate, or I am just not dead honest, go to the Lord and say, “Hey, Lord, something must be off in my heart. Search me, O God, and know my heart.” There is some kind of iniquity in there; it is not right because it is allowing me—somebody ever come to you and say, “Hey, remember when you said such and such?” and you are like, “I never said such and such.” That never happened to y’all? Come on now, y’all are quiet tonight. And you are like, “Wow, they haven’t got a good memory.” I have not got a good memory. Somebody tried to manipulate the situation. But I am just saying, look, if you are prone to those things, something in the heart is not right. You go before the Lord and say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”
When God gets our heart right, the Bible uses these words—I will read them later on here—you use pleasant words. Pleasant words are pleasant to the people around you. Your spouse likes to be around you then; that is always a good thing. People around you, your friends—there is not a drudgery for them to be around you. They want to be around because you have pleasant words. And somehow, yes, our words—we talked about last Sunday—death and life are in the power of the tongue. But friend, you cannot just have good fruit if you do not work at the tree. And the tree is your heart. So it is very, very important. My words reveal. Sometimes they reveal I am not doing a good job of guarding my heart. Remember that verse in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
It may be revealing that I am—sometimes I will never forget, and this is not—I hope you do not think badly of us. I hope Trey does not get mad at me over this, but Trey, I am trying to think of the word that he uses. I do not know if he still does, but he says a word in just a certain way. I cannot remember what the word is right now. I cannot remember if it was Zach or somebody, and that other guy started saying that word just the same way that Trey says it. And I said, “You have been hanging around Trey.” He says, “How do you know that?” Because he started saying the same word, the same way Trey was saying it. I cannot remember what the word was. It was not a bad word, just a word. Sometimes, if I am not doing a good job of guarding my heart, it is because I am hanging around the wrong crowd. They are going to rub off on you. I am not saying Trey is the wrong crowd; I am just using that as an illustration. It is going to rub off on you. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” That is the Bible.
Guarding my heart sometimes may reveal I am watching something I ought not watch, whether it be movies or—let me say this—I like to keep up on the news, especially since we got a new president. Man, it just gets to be where I am kind of checking out for a while. Man, I want to go home and just find out what happened today. I was enjoying some of this stuff, but I must be careful of watching it 24/7. You have to guard your heart and be careful of that. It may be, you know, the Bible says, “Mine eye affecteth my heart.”
God has been so good to me in a thousand different ways, financially. Man, I have a nice house, we have a nice car, I have a nice truck, we have clothes, we have all that stuff. Usually, I am very content until, you know what? If I find myself being discontented, maybe with the things—you know what? I find out my heart is not right. My heart is not right more often than not because I am looking at somebody else with a bigger house, somebody always has a bigger truck, bigger tires, whatever. It is a matter of keeping the heart with all diligence. Part of me guarding my heart is my eye affecting it. “The light of the body is the eye,” the Bible says. But it is very revealing when I am not content with what I have. Then, all right, something is not right in my heart. I go to the Lord, and the Lord says, “Hey, you have not been guarding. You have got your eyes looking at everybody else and all the things they have.”
But our words. Now let us go back over here. We are not going to be long. Praise the Lord. We are going to get out of here because VBS is starting tomorrow night; you are going to need all your energy. Amen. Look back over here. I am sorry; I said we were going to be in Psalms and Proverbs the rest of the night. I do want to go back one time here. Forgive me; my words are not right. Go back over here to Matthew chapter 12. Look over here in verse number 35.
Verse number 35. Jesus here has been speaking to the Pharisees; it is a little bit negative, if you will—if you know exactly the right way to say it—negative. But He is just getting on to them and rebuking them, maybe the right word. But watch what He says in verse number 35. Verse number 35 is more in a positive light. He says, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.” What is He talking about, the good things? He is talking about your words. Yes. “So a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things”—your good words. “And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
Here is one I am getting out for just a bit here; we are going to be done. Ask the Lord to give you a good treasure in your heart. You want treasure in your heart so you have good words to give to people. We mentioned last week, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and you are going everywhere either giving off life or death. I like to go everywhere and give off life. Ask God to give you a good treasure in your heart.
God is the heart doctor. He is a wonderful heart doctor. He is the one that can regenerate you at salvation and daily. He can just give you a new mind and a new heart. God does that. Ask Him, “Lord, give me a treasure in my heart.” He is the one that can meet all your needs, the needs of your heart. And then you have treasure in your heart. You go everywhere speaking good words, pleasant words.
Look back over in Psalms, if you would, please, Psalms. This is another Psalm of David, Psalm 19. Notice what he says in the very last verse of Psalm 19, verse number 14. We sing this song sometimes with the children, and that is a good song. We leave out a couple of words, just emphasizing them a little bit on purpose. We will work at that when we sing with them. But notice what he says. Psalm 19, verse number 14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart…” Notice how he is putting those two together, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.” If you let Him get your heart right and your words right, they are pleasing to the Lord. The Lord likes that. They said, “Be acceptable in Thy sight.”
You know Satan, Lucifer? He was one of the three high angels, a cherub. Lucifer, I think he was somewhat second in heaven, if you would. I do not know if there is really a second, but I think he was a song leader of heaven. He has the pipes built into him. He has all those precious stones built in, Ezekiel talks about that. He reflected the glory of Jesus. Stones do not give off light; they just kind of reflect the light. That is why when you go in the jewelry store, there are all those lights everywhere. Satan was like that; he reflected the glory of Jesus. He was just a high angel, a cherub.
What happened? Let me read it for you exactly. Isaiah 14:12: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations?” For thou hast said in thine heart… And then the five “I wills”: “I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne.” Oh no. What happened? He said it in his heart. You have them both: words and your heart. That is where it all went wrong. That is where all the problems started, before Adam and Eve sinned, before it all, with Lucifer’s fall—why? What he said in his heart.
Oh, how important it is what we say! That is revealing of what is going on in our heart. But we can go to the Lord and say, “Lord, give me some treasure in my heart. Give me some treasure in my heart.” And when you get that good tree, you have good fruit, and it is amazing how people want to be around you because you have good words.
Let us browse to our Bible. Look over in Proverbs. We will start in Proverbs 10 for just a minute here. We are going to look up six or seven verses; they will all be in Proverbs. There are a couple of verses about this thing here: our words. When we get our heart right, and our fruit, our words, our lips are right, notice just a couple of verses about that. We go everywhere just giving life to people.
Look at Proverbs 10:21. He says, “The lips of the righteous feed many.” Man, you get your heart right, you have good treasure, and then you are giving off good words, and God says those people feed many. They are just feeding everybody they are around, giving them energy, giving them life—feed many. But fools die for want of wisdom.
Look in chapter 15, Proverbs 15:7. He says, “The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.” Boy, you get treasure in your heart, and you just disperse the knowledge everywhere you go. “The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.” But watch this: “But the heart of the foolish…” That is not so. I want to give out knowledge; I have to get all this—no, get your heart right; that is what you have to do.
Proverbs 15:26: “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant words.” Bless the one who is pure in heart. Get your heart pure, you have pleasant words. Your spouse will want to be around you. Those people close to you like to be around you because you have pleasant words. You are giving life, you are giving knowledge, you are giving all these wonderful things. It is pleasant to be around you.
Look in chapter 16, Proverbs 16:21. He says, “The wise in heart…” There it is. “…should be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.” Boy, yes. It is kind of sweet to be around them; enjoy the time with them. It increases learning. Why? Their lips, because their heart is right.
Look in verse number 24, Proverbs 16:24. “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.” Boy, it is just sweet, and it brings health to yourself and the people you are around. Look at the verse before there, Proverbs 16:23: “The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.” Wow.
One more passage. Look in chapter 22, Proverbs 22:11. “He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend.” The leader, the king says, “I like to be around him; I want to be his friend because, man, he is just speaking grace with his lips.” That leader says—you ever find a leader who says, “I just like so and so to be around because it brings such a good, sweet spirit”? Those are the last words that are talking about.
Our tongue is very revealing of what is going on in here. Jesus is telling these Pharisees, “Hey, your words—you are speaking blasphemy to the point of the Holy Ghost, and that is not going to be forgiven you.” But He said, “Let me tell you something: Hey, you have an evil tree; you cannot get good fruit from that tree. You have to change the tree, and then you get good fruit.” And then He makes that statement: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
The good thing is we have the best heart doctor in all the world, and we can bring our heart to Him. Say, “Hey, Lord, He can meet all your deepest needs, and He can bring healing to your heart.” And then you have treasure in your heart. You go everywhere speaking just pleasant words, bringing life, feeding many, giving wisdom. That is what God wants out of us as children.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Words From The Heart＂ - Sunday PM 06⧸08⧸2025 [otrKNE-z5gs]