The following sermon was delivered
on Sunday morning, November 17, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Now I invite you to turn with
me to the epistle of James and chapter 3. We will be considering
a couple of verses in this paragraph. in the opening up of the scriptures
this morning, but in order to give us a fresh sense of what
Professor Murray so delightfully called the universe of discourse. That's a big phrase for the context,
but universe of discourse as a ring of something about it
that I like. I'm not quite sure what it is.
I read in your hearing James chapter 3 verses 1 through 12. Be not many of you teachers,
my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.
For in many things we all stumble. If any man stumbles not in word,
the same is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body also. Now if we put the horses' bridles
into their mouths, that they may obey us, we turn about their
whole body also. Behold, the ships also, though
they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned
about by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the steersman
wills. So the tongue also is a little
member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a forest fire
is kindled by a small match. That's a paraphrase. The tongue
is a fire. The world of iniquity among our
members is the tongue. which defiles the whole body,
and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by
hell. For every kind of beasts and
birds, of creeping things and things, and the sea is tamed
and has been tamed by mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is a restless evil. It is
full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we the Lord and
Father, and therewith curse we men who are made after the likeness
of God. Out of the same mouth come forth
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. Does the fountain send forth
from the same opening sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my
brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither can salt water
yield sweet." Now the Scriptures are very clear
in asserting that the care of the flock of God is the joint
responsibility of the entire eldership. Such passages as Acts
20 and verse 28 and following, 1 Peter 5, 1 and 2 are among
the primary ones which make very clear this simple reality that
the care of the flock is the joint responsibility of the entire
eldership. And in taking this joint responsibility
seriously, those of us who minister the word of God to you in our
stated public meetings do not make unilateral decisions with
respect to the subject matter of our public preaching and teaching,
especially when it comes to embarking upon a lengthy series. We are
given a measure of latitude to make unilateral decisions for
our individual messages at a communion meditation or a fill-in-between
series. But otherwise, we jointly pray
over and jointly discuss what biblical books, subjects, Messages
ought to be taken up in the light of the general state of the congregation,
the current and long-term issues related to this particular assembly. And as we have done these things
in recent days, it has been tentatively decided that when Pastor Jay
completes his brief series on biblical meditation, that he
will embark upon a series of expositions of the little book
of Jude. So you're going to get a dose
of the oft-neglected book of Jude. And further, it is most
likely that within the next several months I will begin a series
of expositions of the Book of Romans. However, in the interim
between the completion of my series on marriage, motherhood,
and homemaking, and the blessing and dangers of the second generation,
and the beginning of our studies in the Book of Romans, I shall
be bringing a topical series under the broad heading, Now
Concerning. And it will be Now Concerning
followed by the issue that pastorally we believe ought to be addressed
in relatively brief series of sermons. Now let me explain where
that terminology now concerning comes from. If you're familiar
at all with Paul's letter to the Corinthians, you will know
that in the first chapter, he indicates that the house of Chloe
did some holy snitching on the Corinthians. He says in verse
11 of chapter 1, it has been signified to me concerning you,
my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that
there are contentions among you. And so he plunges right into
the matter of division within that church, and makes this very
unashamed statement, I'm doing this because the house of Chloe
snitched on you. They were among you, and when
they were among you, they picked up this fact, and now they've
told me, and I'm going to address it. And if anybody said, well
that wasn't fair, they shouldn't have squealed on me, they had
to live with the inspired word of the apostle coming to them,
dealing with the problem of divisions in their midst. Furthermore,
it's most likely that the household of Chloe or some of their companions
also picked up on other critical pastoral problems that Paul addresses
throughout the first six chapters of 1 Corinthians. But then you
will notice in chapter 7 in verse 1, he says, Now concerning the
things whereof you wrote, So they not only came back with
a report of pastoral concerns that they observed needed to
be addressed, but apparently they came back with a shopping
list of things that the people wrote about and said, Paul, please
give us some direction about these issues. So chapter 7 begins
with, Now concerning the things whereof you wrote. Chapter 8,
verse 1, now concerning the things sacrificed to idols. Chapter
12, now concerning spiritual gifts. And so he takes up one
by one these issues that were apparently before him in a shopping
list that came from the church at Corinth. Paul, please address
these issues. And as far as I can see, and
most responsible commentators that I've consulted over the
years, there is very little, if any, logical connection between
now concerning, now concerning, now concerning. The underlying
logical connection is they were issues that needed to be addressed
in a pastoral way to the current situation there at Corinth. That's the underlying logical
connection. But the things themselves have
no real logical connection. And this series that I'll be
bringing over the next couple of months before plunging into
an exposition of the Book of Romans is going to be a now concerning
series. There will be no discernible
logical connection between the various issues that I'm going
to address. However, there is a foundational
basis to them, and that is ongoing mutual discussion among the elders
with respect to matters that we believe ought to be addressed
and that most likely will not be addressed for some time either
in the expositions of the book of Jude in the exposition of
the Book of Romans, in the completion of Dr. Carlson's book on the
priority of impulse prayers, and we're not quite settled yet
where Pastor Carlson will be taking us next. We're wrestling
with that as elders. It's under constant discussion
where we will go in the next book that he will take up and
lead us in our adult class. So, this series is going to be
a now concerning series. And as I've reflected on it in
a very real sense, the series I've just completed could be
the first in the now concerning. Now concerning the second generation. And the one before that. Now
concerning marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. and the one before
that, now concerning the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But without post-dating the three
previous series, we start this morning now concerning. And in the next several Lord's
Days, I want to address in a series of some four to six messages
now concerning the use of our tongue. Now I recognize with
our hearing impaired and deaf people that this semblance, or
I'm sorry, this title, the use of our tongue might on the surface
have little application to them, but it does. For the tongue is
but the organ by which we express the thoughts of our hearts and
of our minds. And for our brethren who are
hearing impaired, we could say now concerning the use of our
hands as a medium of conveying our thoughts in the heart and
in the mind but I'm going to use the terminology the use of
our tongue and not continually repeat the other but I want you
brethren to know you are very much in my mind and in my heart
for everything that the Bible says about the use of the tongue
applies to the use of your hands as you are communicating one
with another it hardly seems possible that it was thirty years
ago this past month that I preached six sermons entitled The Bridled
Tongue. Thirty years ago in October of
1972. And in recent years, I've had
a number of the congregation, as well as within the eldership,
saying, Pastor, don't you think it's time to repeat that series? Well, I'm not repeating that
series. There will be things that will be extracted from it,
but I've gone back to the drawing board. What I have in front of
me today are four closely handwritten sheets of fresh ink on paper.
This is not old rehashed stuff. It's got some blood in it, present
blood. And yet, in some ways, one cannot
address the subject without covering some of the ground that was covered
before, because there are pivotal passages that address the issue,
such as the James 3 passage, which no responsible treatment
of the subject can afford to pass over. Now then, we come
this morning to our first study in this matter of the use of
the tongue. And what I want to do in our
study this morning is simply to set before you the profound
significance of this issue of the use of our tongues. The profound significance of
this issue of the use of our tongues, or in more contemporary
language, the use of my tongue. What's the big deal? Alright? Whatever you prefer. So if you
feel a little more contemporary, you take the subtitle. The use
of my tongue? What's the big deal? I want to
show you what the big deal is. Or if you feel a little more
formal, the profound significance of this issue of the use of our
tongues. And as time permits, I want to
do this by setting before you five categories of biblical truth. Each one of which underscores
the profound significance of this issue of how we use our
tongues. This little member that sits
between the upper and our lower jaws and is rooted in the back
of our throats. This member situated between
our left and right cheeks, that in conjunction with the larynx
and the teeth and the other organs of speech, frames words which
clothe and express thought and desire and reaction to people
and interaction. We want to address this morning
the profound significance of the use of our tongues. Alright, first line of biblical
evidence is this. The pattern of the use of our
tongues constitutes an incisive revelation of the true state
of our hearts. The pattern of the use of our
tongues constitutes an incisive revelation of the true state
of our hearts. Now why have I said the pattern
of the use of our tongues? For the simple reason that I
am not talking about what any one of us may do in a moment
of weakness in the use of our tongues that is not an incisive
revelation of the true state of our hearts. In my own devotions
this morning, of Peter, when he took oaths and maledictions
upon himself in the presence of witnesses, saying, I swear
by Jehovah, the living and the true God, I do not know this
man. The use of his tongue in those
moments was not an incisive revelation of the true state of Peter's
heart. The use of his tongue in that moment of weakness was
entirely contrary to the true state of his heart. So a few
days later, the Lord Jesus looks him in the eye and says, Peter,
do you love me? He says, Lord, you know. You know that those maledictions
and oaths and curses, those lies that I did not know you, Lord
Jesus, you know those words were not a revelation of the true
state of my heart. The true state of my heart, Lord,
and you know it is that I love you. So I've used the word carefully. The pattern, the overall drift,
the overall connection of how we use our tongues in the general
unfolding of that use. It is the pattern of the use
of our tongues that constitutes an incisive revelation of the
true state of our hearts. And the key text that makes this
clear is found in Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. How important is this subject?
It's as important as you knowing the true state of your heart.
That's how important it is. Here in Matthew 12 verse 22 We
have the record of our Lord Jesus casting out a demon. This demon
had caused a man to be unable to speak. And when the Lord cast
out that demon, verse 23, the multitude were amazed and said,
Can this be the Son of David? They see in this miracle a credential
of Messiah. And so they are weighing the
issue. Could this really be Messiah? But when the Pharisees heard
it, they said, Now notice, the focus is on what they did with
their tongues. They said, This man does not
cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. And knowing
their thoughts, they said, and what they said was a revelation
of their thoughts. And our Lord knows the thoughts
as well as hears the word. And he addresses these Pharisees. And in the course of addressing
these Pharisees, he says, and now we come to verse 33, either
make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt
and its fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruits. You offspring of snakes, how
can you, being evil, Speak good things, for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man, out of his good
treasure, and in a parallel passage in Luke 6, it's the good treasure
of his heart, brings forth good things. And the evil man, out
of his evil treasure, brings forth evil things. See what our
Lord is saying? Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. This word, out of the abundance,
could be rendered out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth
speaks. Your mouth is the catch basin
of the overflow of your heart. When the heart is filled up with
something and it spills over, What comes out of the mouth is
the catch basin of the fullness of the heart. And Jesus said
of these Pharisees, you are saying what you are saying with your
mouth because you are what you are in your hearts. And he says heart is an evil heart. Out of that evil heart speaks
evil things. The good man who is good in his
heart, out of that goodness the overflow of the good heart is
good speech. Jesus makes it abundantly clear
in this passage that the state of your heart is known by the
words of your mouth. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. How important is this issue?
It's this important. The pattern of the use of your
tongue constitutes an incisive revelation of the true state
of your heart. And then there's a second passage
that underscores this very clearly. It's in the Book of Romans. The
Apostle, as many of you know, in chapter 1 verse 18 all the
way through to chapter 3 and verse 20, is demonstrating that
all mankind is in a condition of depravity and guilt and wrath
deservingness. Jew and Gentile alike, those
who have had the revelation of God in scripture, those who never
have. And when he comes in chapter
3 and verse 9 through verse 20. He's going to summarize all that
he's been saying about universal sinfulness. He's going to wrap
it all up and then bring it home to the conscience with a plethora
of quotes from the Old Testament. Notice what he does in verse
9. What then? Are we, that is, we Jews, better
than they Gentiles? No, in no wise. For we before
laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks that they are all
under sin. as it is written. Now he's going
to buttress it with text after text. And what he does in verses
10 through 12 is to give these general sweeping statements that
apply to Jew and to Gentile as it is written. There is none
righteous, no, not a one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after
God. They have all turned aside. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good.
No, not so much as one. Have you got the message? There
is no one who is inherently righteous. That's the generic condemnation. Now he's going to move to specific
manifestations of that condition and notice what heads the list
of the specific concrete manifestations. Look at the next two verses.
Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of snakes is under
their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Then he moves to their feet,
he moves to their ways, he moves on to the general state of their
hearts, no fear of God, but at the head of the list, of the
specific concrete manifestations of universal sinfulness. He zeroes
in. He takes the zoom lens on everything
from here to here. And he says that their throat
is like an open sepulcher. Think of the imagery. There's
a sepulcher. In it are the bodies of the dead.
Some have been in there for a few months, some a few years. But
as long as the sepulcher is sealed over, whitewashed regularly,
as Jesus alludes in Matthew 23, everything looks fine. But on
a given day, you roll away the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher,
and you stick your head in. And without any flashlights,
just your old factory nerds, Activated by what? The stench
of rotting flesh, he says. This is what their throat is.
When they open their mouths, it's like rolling away the stone
from a sepulcher and out belches the stench that is rotten and
foul and noxious. That's the picture. Their throat
is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, instead of
speaking truth, speaking reality, they use their tongues to deceive. They have purposes and designs
and ambitions that can only be accomplished in the context of
dishonesty. With their tongues they use deceit.
The poison of snakes is under their lips. The poison of slander. of lies, of viciousness, of cutting
with sarcasm. Their tongues deceit. The poison of asps under their
lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. You want to know the state of
the heart of men? Right here. Right here. How do we know there
is none righteous? No, not one. None that understands,
none that seeks after God, that turns aside. Those are conditions
of the heart. Just listen to their mouths,
Paul says. Just listen to their mouths. My heart is ripped open every
time I go to the Collins Cancer Clinic with my wife. The nurses
there, Have compassion and love and concern. You have to believe
in common grace. You have to believe in it. If
God's put into their hearts genuine kindness and concern, but you
know what is so grievous? You want to know who they really
are? Every exclamation is punctuated
with, Oh God, Oh God. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Until sometimes
after four hours of it I'm ready to scream and say, Dear women,
don't you know what you're doing? You're revealing the true state
of your heart! God is so trivial to you, you
speak His name with no fear, no thought, and no dread. Even
pagans don't speak the name of their gods that rightly. They
have more fear of their gods than to, O God, O God, O God,
O God, dozens of times without thought. You want to know the true state
of your heart? These passages tell us the pattern of the use
of our tongues constitutes an incisive revelation, not an exclusive
revelation. You know me well enough, I choose
my words deliberately. and purposely, but it nonetheless,
according to these passages, constitutes an incisive revelation
of the true state of our hearts. And it will not do if we have
patterns of bitterness and anger And sarcasm that cuts and wounds
to say, oh well, but I really don't mean them, I have a good
heart. If they're the pattern of your speech, they are a revelation
of the true state of your heart. For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. Second line of biblical evidence,
and I must press on. The pattern of the use of our
tongues constitutes an accurate test of the reality of our Christian
profession. The pattern of the use of our
tongues constitutes an accurate test of the reality of our Christian
profession. And here our key text is James
1 and verse 26. It was this text that I expounded
and made the framework of that series 30 years ago entitled
The Bridled Tongue. James 1 and verse 26. If any man thinks himself to
be religious, while he bridles not his tongue, but deceives
his heart, This man's religion is vain. Now again, just a word
about the context. James in this chapter has been
passionate about being doers of the word and not hearers only,
I should say in the immediate context. Verse 19. This you know,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak. Verse 21, putting away filthiness,
overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word.
Verse 22, but be doers of the word, not hearers only, deluding
your own selves. If anyone is a hearer, not a
doer, here's his passion with James' passionate prophetic practicality. He's saying, come on, man. Don't
be a mere hearer, but be a doer of the word, lest you deceive
yourself. And at the end of this chapter,
he gives two specific applications of what it means to be a doer
of the word. One negative, one positive. He
points to the tongue, and then he points to the way we relate
to the fatherless and to the widow. So in that context, James
says, if any man thinks himself to be religious and I want you
to notice as we look at this passage briefly who is envisioned
in this text it is the one who judges himself to be a true worshipper
of God this word religious is a rare word in the New Testament
but in its secular usage it means someone who is a devoted serious
formal worshipper of his God. So James says, if any man thinks
himself, judges himself to be religious, that is, makes a judgment
about himself that he is a true worshipper of God, he sits in
this place Sunday morning. Sunday night, he's in that other
building. Wednesday night, he has family
worship. He makes a judgment about himself
that he is a true worshiper. He's not a fake. He's the real
thing. If any man thinks himself to
be religious, that's who is envisioned. But what is the dominant pattern
of his life? Look at the text. While he judges
himself to be religious, while He bridles not his tongue. It's a present tense of the verb. All the while, the pattern is,
he has an unbridled tongue. In other words, his tongue goes
wherever his evil nature wants to take it. He's not constantly
reining it in with the reins of love. or of truth, or of kindness,
or of gentleness. He just lets his tongue. I tell
it like it is. I'm an honest man. I'm a blunt
man. He prides himself. He seems to
be religious and judges himself to be religious, but all the
while the pattern of his life is not an occasional Peter-like
unbridled use of the tongue. The husband, the wife, in the
occasional unbridled expression of anger, of hurt, wounding,
cutting with the tongue. But this is the pattern of his
life. He bridles, not his tongue. While he bridles, not his tongue. That's his pattern. So who is
in vision? The man who judges himself to
be a true worshipper. What is the dominant pattern
of his life? An unbridled tongue. What is his true condition? Two
things are said about him. But deceives his heart. He is self-deceiving. He's done
a con job on his own heart! Now that's frightening. You see,
the hypocrite, he knows he's two different people. He knows
what he is in secret, and he knows what he wants to project
himself in public. He's two different people, and
he knows it. He's Mr. Sweetsie, the young man sitting
in this congregation who's a hypocrite. He knows what he is behind the
closed doors of his bedroom, where he curses under his breath
to his mother and his father, where he indulges his mind in
vile, filthy thoughts. But then he projects himself
as the sweet, submissive, lovely, young Christian son. He knows
he's two people. Maybe you're sitting here today.
You know you're two people. You're a hypocrite. But the man
that's deceived his own heart, he believes in the depths of
his being. He's something that he's not. That's the most frightening condition
in all of the world, this side of hell. This man judges himself
to be religious, but he's got the pattern of an unbridled tongue.
What is the reality of his condition? He deceives himself. And you know what God says his
religion is? It's a nothing. This man's religion is vain. This is the very word, again
a rare word in the New Testament, that Paul uses to refer to idols
in Acts 14-15. He says that you should turn
from these vanities unto the living God. His religion has
no more substance than the man that bows down to his well-shaped
little idol made of jade or wood. Paul says in Corinthians, an
idol is nothing! This man's religion is nothing! As he bridles not his tongue
If he had a true and vital saving union with Christ, that union
would place a bridle upon his tongue as the pattern of his
life. And without it, his religion
is vain. There were many then in James
Day, as there are now, who are persuaded that true and saving
religion consists only right judgments of the mind with respect
to the truth, good feelings of the emotions in the presence
of the truth, proper actions with respect to the outward forms
and rituals demanded by the truth, but no bridal tongue. Ask his
wife. Ask her husband. Ask the children. Ask the people at work. Ask those
who know him where he really is. And they know him to be a
man, a woman, with an unbridled tongue. God says your religion
is a bunch of nothing. Now is that important to know? whether your religion is got
substance or is a pile of nothing. How important is the subject,
my dear brothers and sisters? It's crucially important. But
then, we want to move on to a third line of biblical evidence, trying
to persuade you of the importance of this subject. Use of my tongue,
what's the big deal? This is the big deal, the use
of your tongue. is an incisive revelation of
the true state of your heart. Secondly, the use of your tongue
is an indication of whether or not your professed religion is
real. Thirdly, the pattern of the use
of our tongues constitutes an accurate index of our general
progress in overall godliness. The pattern of the use of our
tongues constitutes an accurate index of our general progress
in overall godliness. Now we come to James 3, verses
1 and 2. Be not many of you teachers,
my brethren, knowing We should receive heavier judgment. James says, if there are those
among you got an itch to teach, whether publicly, privately,
but to have some formal framework of teaching, he said, think twice,
because you traffic more in words when you teach. And when you
traffic more in words, you traffic in a way to your judgment. That's
what he's saying. Be not many of you teachers,
my brethren, knowing you should receive heavier judgment, for
in many things We all stumble. After giving the warning, then
he gives this observation. In many things we all stumble,
and that stumble means sin. James 2 in verse 10, a rare word
again, but he uses it here in James 2.10. Whosoever shall keep
the whole law and yet stumble in one point is become guilty
of all. The stumbling equals guilt. It's
sin. James is acknowledging someone
who was an inspired penman of Holy Scripture. He says, in many
things we all stumble. There's not a one of us in the
light of 1st John who can say, I have no sin. John says if a
man says he has no sin, he's a liar and the truth is not in
him. James says, in many things we all stumble and the true believer
says, oh God, it's true. It's true. It's true. It's true. That's me. In many things we
all stumble. Now he goes on to say, notice,
if any stumbles not in word, The same is a perfect or mature
man able to bridle the whole body also. You see what he's
saying? We all sin in many things. However,
When it comes to the mastery of the tongue, the man, the woman,
the boy, the girl that's making significant substantive progress
in the mastery of the tongue, it will be seen that controlling
that unruly member has a spillover in generic progress in practical
godliness. If any man stumble not in word,
the same is a mature man able to bridle the whole body also. And it's as though James anticipates
someone saying, wait a minute James, you're saying that mastery
of the tongue is a crucial thing and has this general influence
upon the whole pattern of one's progress in godliness. Doesn't
that give a disproportionate place of influence to the tongue? He says, well, it may appear
that way, but that's exactly what happens in nature. Look
at horses and their bridles, look at ships and their rudders.
Here's that fifteen, eighteen hundred pound of bone and sinew
and muscle, a racehorse, not an ounce of fat on him. And that
big beast is controlled by one piece of metal right here. Arthur
James says, look at it. We put bridles into their mouths
that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. We get the mouth, we get the
whole body. See that ship? A thousand foot
long ocean liner. And they have a twenty foot rudder.
And out on the seas with the pounding of 20-foot waves, that
rudder controls that whole thousand-foot, I don't know how many tons of
displacement, massive, huge ocean liner. Little rudder. Said, I'm the boss. You go where
I'm telling you, you do what I tell you. Disproportionate
relationship between the mouth of the horse and the whole horse. the rudder of the ship and the
whole ship, the tongue and the whole body. And you see the mastery of the
members of our body is a crucial element in sanctification according
to the New Testament. Romans 6, 13, neither present
your members, instruments of unrighteousness, unto sin, but
present yourselves unto God and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. And when this member is so presented
and under the governance of the Word and of the Spirit is bridled,
it is significant in the generic progress of the Christian life. As I was meditating upon this,
it struck me with freshness when Paul said, Be not drunk with
wine, Ephesians 5.18, but be being filled with the Spirit. What's the next word? The first
participle, indicating the outflow of a Spirit-filled life. Be being
filled with the Spirit, not feeling, but speaking. Speaking! Be filled with the Spirit speaking. To be filled with the Spirit
is to have a tongue under the governance and control of the
Spirit and of the Word. James tells us, this is a big
deal, for the pattern of the use of our tongues constitutes
a significant, I'm sorry, constitutes an accurate index of our general
progress in overall godliness. Listen to one of the older writers
who addresses this. If I can find the quote, apparently
I don't have it with me. But he underscored that very
simple principle in a very profound way. But I want to hurry on now.
What's the big deal? Well, let me give you a fourth
line of biblical evidence. The pattern of the use of our
tongue constitutes a significant part of our evangelical law-keeping. The pattern of the use of our
tongue constitutes a significant part of our evangelical law-keeping. Now, what in the world do I mean
by the term our evangelical law-keeping? Well, give me four minutes and
I'll explain what I mean. A Christian is one who has embraced
from the heart the fact that by nature and by practice in
Adam and in himself He is a hell-deserving, law-breaking, depraved sinner. He reads Romans 3, 9-21. And he said, that's me. That's
me. That's not somebody out there. That's me. And I have my mouth
shut and I stand under the condemnation of God. A Christian is someone
who has been brought to the place where he knows that by nature
and practice, in Adam and in himself, he is a hell deserving
lawbreaker. Furthermore, A Christian is one
who has come to understand and embrace from the heart that Christ,
in his law-keeping and in his bearing the curse of a broken
law, is the only ground of his hope for acceptance with God. A Christian is one who has been
driven off every other ground and can say, on Christ, the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. But further,
the Christian is one who, having been regenerated by the Spirit
and given a new heart and the law written upon his heart, out
of gratitude to God and love to Christ and in the power of
the Spirit, he now seeks to keep the very law, which breaking
condemned him, and he owned his condemnation, which Christ keeping
and dying under its curse has provided salvation, this one
who now no longer seeks acceptance with God by his law-keeping. but rests solely upon Christ
in His law-keeping, and in His bearing the curse of the law,
because He's been given a new heart, and the law of God's been
written upon His heart, and He now has been brought to love
Him who first loved the Christ, who first loved Him out of love
to God and love to Christ, and under the impulse of a regenerate
heart and the law upon the heart, in the power of the Spirit, he
now seeks to keep that very law which condemned him to hell.
Not to gain groundy points, but to demonstrate his love and show
his gratitude. Now, when we turn to that law
epitomized in the Ten Commandments, what's it say about this member
of the tongue? And this was a refreshing exercise
for me to just go down through the commandments afresh and reflect
upon how many of them touch this member called the tongue, the
third commandment. You shall not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain, in a light and frivolous way. We
shall not use the name of God in any setting in a light and
frivolous way. That has to do with the tongue.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Read Isaiah 58. Call this day a delight in it,
not speaking your own words, nor thinking your own thoughts,
not speaking your own words. bridling the tongue so that it
lines up with the unique privileges and blessings of one day and
seven, set aside from all the normal employments and concern
of life. What about the fifth commandment?
Honor thy father and thy mother. God says, Whoso curses father
or mother, let him die the death. One of the ways, primary ways
we honor father and mother is the way we speak to them and
the way we speak about them with our mouths. The way we refer to them when
speaking to others. But about the sixth commandment, You shall do no murder. Matthew
5.21, Jesus said, when from the heart you say with a bitter spirit,
you fool! Jesus said, you've committed
murder in your heart. When your words reflect a disdainful,
demeaning, angry disposition to any other human being, you've
broken the sixth commandment. What about the seventh commandment?
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ephesians 5, 4 and 5 speaks of
filthy communications out of our mouths. When our speech about
sexual matters reflects anything less than the dignity and the
nobility and the purity of the sexual relation within the sanctity
of marriage, we break the 7th commandment. And what about the
8th commandment, you shall not steal, when reputations are stolen
by slander and by gossip and by lies about another and what
about the ninth commandment thou shall not bear false witness
you do that with your mouth and what about the tenth commandment
you shall not covet for often the coveting heart is the heart
when coveting what another has will strike out in anger at that
object and lie about that person to bring them down in the eyes
of others you go down through the ten commandments and I tell
you the use of the tongue has a very prominent place in any
evangelical law keeping. You say you're a Christian? You
say God has regenerated you? You say God has placed within
you a passion and a desire to keep his law, not out of any
silly notion you'll gain brownie points in the court of heaven,
but because you love the God who's reconciled you to himself
in Jesus Christ? Then my friend, you will have
a passionate concern for what you do with this tongue. The
use of the tongue, I say, has a very prominent place in evangelical
law keeping. And then fifthly and finally,
the patterns of the use of our tongues will constitute a major
part of our judgment in the last day. The patterns of the use
of our tongue will constitute a major part of our judgment
at the last day. Here I ask you to turn back to
the Matthew 12 passage. I've saved this for last because
I believe in a very real sense it is the most sobering, the
most profound of all of these reasons as to why we ought to
take seriously this matter of the use of our tongues. The Lord
has been speaking about making the tree good and its fruit good,
the good tree bringing forth good things the evil tree bad
things now he comes back specifically to language verse 26 words and
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 you shall be justified and by your words you will be
condemned. The pattern of the use of our
tongues will constitute a major part of our judgment at the last
day. In the day of judgment there
will be a public condemnation of the wicked and the public
vindication of the righteous based upon their works. Now listen carefully. The righteous
are not taken to heaven on account of their works. They're taken
to heaven on account of the work of Jesus. But that they are truly
the people of God, and not just sham Christians, will be established
by their works being brought forward in the day of judgment.
Remember Matthew 25? Then shall he say to the righteous,
I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came
to me. I was hungry, and you fed me.
Lord, when did we do this? And the Lord says, Inasmuch as
you did it unto the least of these, my little ones, you did
it to me, then shall the righteous go into his presence. Are they
going to heaven because they visited the sick? No! That would
negate the whole significance of the death of Christ. But because
they have embraced Christ and the virtue of His death, they
are regenerate, and they love Christ, and they're attached
to Christ, and the way they show that, one of the major ways is
how they treat Christ's people. And so judgment in the last day
will be not according to profession, but according to works. 2 Corinthians
5, 10, We shall all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each may receive the deeds done in the body, whether good
or bad. And here is one of the major
categories by which God will demonstrate to the whole assembled
moral universe the validity of his sentence. This is a righteous
man. This is a wicked man. He'll do
it on the basis of our words. the basis of our words. By your
words, you will be justified. You will be declared one of the
truly righteous ones. By your words, you'll be condemned. Your words manifest your true
character. Now let me ask you sitting here
this morning, if you were summoned to judgment today, Is the pattern
of your words such that Almighty God could say to the assembled
universe of moral, intelligent beings, you want proof that this
is one of mine? Let me show you how he talks.
His mouth speaks words of kindness. His mouth speaks words of truth,
even when it's not to his own advantage. His mouth speaks truth
in the workplace. when it jeopardizes his promotion.
His mouth speaks purity in a setting where he gets mocked for being
overly fastidious. His mouth speaks words of confession
when he has sinned. His mouth speaks words of extending
forgiveness when forgiveness is sought. His words justify
my declaration. He's one of mine. He's a real
thing. You giving God stuff to justify
you by your words? You giving God enough stuff to
justify you by your words? What's God got? I know that's
a crass way to put it, but hopefully it'll stick. What's God got?
What of your words has God got to declare this man, this woman,
this boy, this girl is a real thing? What's He got to identify
you as a wicked man, a wicked boy, a wicked girl? What's He
got? Your words of dishonesty to your
teachers, to your mom, to your dad, to your wife. Words of bitterness. Words of
uncleanness. Words bespeaking an arrogant,
self-willed spirit. Words clothed with pride and
clothed with self-defensiveness. God got enough words to say this
one's not the real thing. Here's the proof. The words. The words. The words. The words. The words. The words. The words.
The words. I write this. By your words you'll be justified. By your words you'll be... Oh
yes, but pastor, I have a good heart. Don't tell me about your
heart. I want to know about your words. Oh yes, boss. No, no, yes, boss.
By your words. By your words. By your words. And remember, this is the judge
talking. He knows how he's going to do his business. When he does
his business, your words justify or condemn you. Don't anyone go out of here and
say, oh, Pastor Martin's going to spend four or five weeks on
this little snotty issue of the words. My friends, there's no
little snotty issue. This is a matter of your condemnation
or vindication in the day of judgment, and you better take
it seriously. You can go out of here and say, oh, I'll go
to an evangelical church where they don't preach this law stuff.
That's all right. Go to hell being stroked by easygoing
religion, my friend. But my hands are clean of your
blood. By your words. By your words. By your words. So we come around
full circle to where we started an hour ago. What's the big deal? What's the big deal about the
use of your tongue? We've considered what the big
deal is. The pattern of the use of your tongue constitutes an
incisive revelation of the true state of your heart. The pattern
of the use of your tongue constitutes an accurate test of the reality
of your professed religion. It constitutes an accurate index
of your general progress in practical godliness. It constitutes a significant
part of evangelical law-keeping. It constitutes a major part of
our judgment in the last day. My friend, if you came in here
this morning, a stranger to Christ and His salvation, you've heard
enough to make you know I don't want to stand before God without
a Savior. I don't want to go in the presence
of the God who knows every word I've ever uttered, who in his
infinite mind that has perfect memory and perfect recall can
bring forward every lie I've told, every dishonesty, every
shading of the truth, every unclean remark, every bitter, sarcastic,
self-defensive word. I don't want to meet a God like
that without a mediator. Oh, my friend, such a mediator. offers himself to you this morning.
You need Jesus to save you from all the sins of your tongue.
If you have no other sins, that's enough to drive you out of yourself,
out of empty religion, to flee to Christ. And I beg you, go
to Christ. Go to Christ to be pardoned from
all your sins. And dear child of God, considering
these things, surely You've been brought afresh to know I can't
live the Christian life without the power of Christ operative
in me. This tongue is an unruled...
That's what James said, it's that. Yeah, James knew us. He
says, in many things we all offend. If I could only get hold of my
tongue! It's like the horse, if I could just get a bridle
in its mouth and get hold of the reins. It's like a ship,
if I could just get at the helm that moves the rudder. My friend,
there's one who has power, who has power to harness that tongue
of yours, has power to make it an instrument of life and of
healing. Life and death are in the power
of the tongue, Solomon said. And what a wonderful thing is
a spirit-controlled tongue. It's a controlled tongue, as
we shall see when we come to the particulars that is swift
to hear and slow to speak. It's kept back from a thousand
things that would otherwise be fueled for repentance. It knows
how to speak that word seasoned with grace, the word of encouragement,
the word of inquiry, the word of sympathy. It's a tongue that
brings healing, that brings encouragement. where necessary brings the timely
reproof and rebuke and admonition. What a wonderful thing is a spirit-controlled
tongue. And dear people, that's what
I want. I want from the top down in this place to have the benefit
of tongues that are controlled by the Holy Spirit. Who can measure
the blessing that will come? Is that what you want? I trust
it is. Let's cry to God that in the coming days the Lord will
so work in us that that will be our experience. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word. It searches us. It nails us,
as it were, to the wall and doesn't let us wiggle out. And we pray
that it would find us at the point of our need today. We pray,
Lord, that you would cause your word to be applied particularly
and specifically to every conscience in terms of what you know our
need is. Seal your word to our hearts
and use it for our good, for Jesus' sake. Amen.