In James in chapter 3, James
in his epistle has this to say, My brethren, be not many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For
in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle a whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths, that they may obey us,
and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships,
which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds,
yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever
the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little
member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course
of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts
and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed,
and have been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even
the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after
the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. The tongue is a little member,
and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and seteth on fire the course
of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. The tongue, who can
tame it? Who can tame the tongue. It's what comes out of our mouths.
It's what we say. It's what we utter that exposes
just what we are as sinners. It's that which comes out of
a man that defiles a man. If we could but keep our tongues,
if we could but keep silent, we'd sin much less in the outward
sense. But what's within our hearts
has a way of coming out. The iniquity within, we just
can't keep hidden. We can't help ourselves. We can't
help our own tongues. We can't help our speech. So
often we speak, so often we shout, so often we utter that which
we wish we never said. We cannot control, we cannot
tame this little member of our bodies, the tongue. We just have
to say something. We just have to tell others what
we think. We just have to let vent on our
frustration or our anger or our irritation or our opinions. They just come out all the time
and how we're defiled by them. When speaking of the natural
man and what a sinner he is, what a sinner we all are. In
Romans, Paul quotes scripture where he says, There is none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way
of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. That's what we are all like.
We do not seek God. There's no fear of God in our
hearts. And our tongues, our tongues,
our mouths, are full of bitterness. Our throat is an open sepulcher,
our tongues, with our tongues we have used deceit. And the
poison of asps is under our lips. How wicked we are by nature.
How deep within is that sin and iniquity which defiles each and
every one of us. It's throughout us. It's not
those things that we hear which defile us. It's not those things
that we see and observe in the world around us which defile
us. It's not those things that other
people do and other people say and other people think that defiles
us. It's not the other man that defiles
us. It's that which is within the
heart of each and every one of us. We're the sinner. Iniquity is within us. This vile
cesspit of sin in our hearts is what defiles us, it springs
out from our own hearts. Every word that we utter reveals
what we truly are within. No matter what pretense we may
make, no matter what attempt we may make to wrap ourselves
up, in clothes of self-righteousness. Like the Pharisees, we may clean
the outside of the plate, we may clean the outside and make
ourselves look good, but we are like a grave where the outside
has a polished gravestone and flowers neatly laid. But in the
grave within, there's a stinking corpse. And no matter what appearance
we may make on the outside, our hearts within rage with sin. And our tongues can't keep it
within. We try in our own strength to
say that which is right. We put on an appearance, we're
careful of what we say in the presence of others, but then
something happens and something's said and suddenly we respond.
And suddenly all that we are is laid bare. We cannot tame
our tongues. We cannot tame it. The tongue
can no man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse
we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of
the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these
things ought not so to be. And yet they are, yet they are,
even amongst believers. Because believers still have
the flesh, and there's still that within, which comes forth,
and their tongues still let them down. Except God, in grace, restrain
us, and keep us, and lead us unto Christ, and point us unto
Him, and cause us to fall silent in His presence, and to hear
Him. Left to ourselves, we have too
much to say. James opens the chapter with,
My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive
the greater condemnation. Don't seek to be a teacher, don't
seek to be a leader, because your words, with the influence that they
have, will be held to account. Don't
rush in to being one who leads, one who would teach. Know what you are. Those whom God would use to preach
his gospel are brought in much bitterness to know what they
are. to know their tongue, and to
know that they cannot tame it. And except God put his words
upon their lips, as he did with Isaiah, except he comes with
a coal from the altar and touches our lips with it, all that we
say and all that we would do would be just sin continually.
He must speak. He must speak. It is His gospel,
His word, His power. Oh keep us from the words of
men. Men who with one side of their
mouth bless God and with the other side curse men. Miss James is reminding us just
what we are in ourselves. In many respects, he's pointing
us at our weakest point. Our weakest point. No matter
what we are, no matter what self-control we may have, no matter what we
may think we can achieve, no matter how faithful we may feel
we have been, our thugs destroy us. One word can lay us bare. We cannot control our tongues. We cannot control what comes
out of our mouths. We murder, we kill with our words. We kill with our words. How much
offense, how much destruction, how much murder is caused by
loose words, by angry words, by proud words, by disparaging
words. How harmful are our words to
our brethren. How ready we are to condemn others
and justify ourselves. How ready we are to put ourselves
up on a pedestal at others expense how ready we are to expose the
faults and the failings in our brethren when we see not the
beams in our own eyes when we see not the wretchedness within
ourselves oh how silent we should be because there's nothing that
another does that we have not done ourselves. There is nothing that another
may say that we have not said ourselves within or without. There is no sin that a brother
can fall into that we cannot fall into ourselves. There is
nothing that our brethren might endure that we might not endure. Who are we to condemn another? Who is he that condemneth? Paul
asks. It is God that justifieth. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? or tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Who is he that condemneth? If
Christ died for you, then in God's sight ye are perfect. If Christ died for your brother
or sister, then in God's sight they are perfect. Who are we
to condemn? And yet we cannot hold our tongues. In this, God keeps us humble. In this, God will continually
bring us to the feet of Jesus Christ, to look and behold Him
who suffered for every word, every sinful thing that we said,
every phrase of condemnation, every vile remark, every proud
and arrogant word. In this God will bring us to
look on Him who died because of our speech, our hatred, our
anger, our tongues. We cannot control our tongues.
We kill with our words. And those words not only kill
others, but they killed the Saviour. Vatanka no man tame, it is an
unruly evil full of deadly poison. Deadly poison that slew the innocent
one in the believer's place. How we need Christ to keep us
then. to keep us silent in his presence,
to cause us to listen, to cause us to hear him. God says unto us, this is my
beloved son, hear ye him. Hear ye him. Be silent in his presence. Close your mouths in his presence. And listen. Listen to the one whose speech
is perfect. Listen to the one whose words
are always true. Listen to the Son of God. When we're brought into His presence,
when we're brought to listen, when we're given a sight of this
Saviour, how it will teach us what we
are before Him, how it will silence us. Isaiah knew something of
this. When the Lord brought him to
see something of His holiness, Oh what Isaiah saw of himself. In Isaiah 6 we read, In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And
one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me. For I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, go and tell this
people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Oh, how we need to be brought
where Isaiah was brought, to see by faith the glory of God
in the person of Jesus Christ. And if we're brought there, we
will be brought like Isaiah to say, I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And how we need for
the Lord to take that coal off the altar and lay it upon our
mouths and touch our lips and say unto us, thine iniquity is
taken away and thy sin purged. Thine iniquity is taken away
and thy sin purged. We need to know that Christ went
to the cross, went to the altar, endured the fires of God's wrath
for our sins and our iniquity, that He took our speech, that
He took our vile words, that He took our cursing and our blessing
that He took all the iniquity that came forth from our tongues
that comes forth from our tongues and He paid the price for it
He suffered the wrath of God for it He endured judgment for
it He died for it and we need Him to come with a call from
off the altar upon which he burnt and touch our tongues with that
coal and tell us in our hearts tell us within that thine iniquity
is taken away you are forgiven forgiven thy sin is purged Has
He done that for you? Does that bring you to cry out,
I am a man of unclean lips that dwells among a people of unclean
lips? Does that bring you to fall down
silent in the presence of Christ and listen to His words, to His
speech, to His gospel? Yes, we need to hear His voice,
the voice of the Son of God. As dead sinners, as vile sinners,
we need to hear the voice of the Son of God. Except we do,
we will lay in a grave. We will lay in a grave full of
iniquity, iniquity within our hearts, iniquity that comes forth
from our tongues. We will lay in a grave. Christ says in John 5, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. We are the dead and we need to
hear the voice of the Son of God and live. Have you heard? Have you heard as he come unto
you in his gospel and said unto you, live? The Son of God, Jesus Christ,
is the Word of God. All that He is, is perfect and
pure. All His speech, every utterance,
is perfect and pure. Indeed, He is the speech, the
Word of God. When God comes and speaks unto
man, he speaks unto us in Christ, through Christ, by Christ, as
Christ. He is the Word. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it
not. He is the Word of God, the very
Word by which God spake. He spake through His Son and
the world was created. The heavens were created. All
that you see, all that is around you, your very being was created
by His Word. He spake and we came forth from
our mother's wombs. He spake and we lived, He speaks
and we continue to exist. We are in His hands. We are commanded
by His word. He can say one word and we are
no more. In Him was life and the life
was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and
the darkness comprehended it not. We cannot see Him. Though He is our life, we cannot
see Him. Though He gives us natural life,
we do not comprehend Him. We don't see Him there. Though
He created the world around us and speaks to us every day through
creation, we do not see Him there. The heavens declare His glory. Yet in our darkness, in our blindness,
in the depravity of our sin, we cannot see Him in them. How
many men, proclaiming themselves to be wise, have become fools
in their utterance when they study the world, when they study
the universe, when they study the laws of science, and they
cannot see God. Though God is speaking to them
through everything they see and everything they observe, though
God's speech is there throughout, they cannot see Him. And all
their words betray this. We're just the same by nature.
Every day we wake up and the sun rises and we see not God
behind it. Every day God gives us life,
he gives us food, he gives us water, he gives us shelter and
we cannot see him and we do not thank him. And yet there he is,
the Word of God, who creates and sustains all things and speaks
through all these things unto men. Every day he's speaking,
every day the heavens declare his glory, and we cannot see. The light shineth in darkness,
it shines, it's shining every day. And the darkness comprehended
it not. We cannot see. Until he opens
our eyes, like he opened Isaiah's eyes, to see his glory. and then suddenly we fall down
undone. I am a man of unclean lips. Suddenly all that we fought and
all that we said in our proud wisdom before concerning God,
concerning the world, concerning our fellow man, concerning life,
all that we thought comes crashing down as the lies that they are. And we see ourselves undone in
the holiness of God. When we hear the Word of God
in reality, we see ourselves for what we are. And we see His
glory, His love and His mercy in giving Himself for sinful
wretches like us. Yes, the Son of God is the Word
of God. when he came into this world
of darkness, this world that received him not, this world
that despised him, this world that hated him like you do and
I do by nature, when he came and walked amongst us, though men knew him not, his
speech was nevertheless speech unlike they'd ever heard before.
when he came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, when he came
declaring his father, when he came speaking the truth with
every word he spake, they said of him, never man spake like
this man. Never man spake like this man. So different was he from us.
So different was his speech. So different were his words. With every word he honoured God. With every word he gave thanks
and praise unto the Father. Every word he showed forth the
love and the righteousness of God. With every word he showed
forth meekness and mercy. Never a man spake like this man.
He spake with authority. He spake in truth. He spake with
faith. He spake in love. He spake with
grace. He spake in mercy. Always the
truth. Always the truth. Unlike man, who goes forth from
the womb, speaking lies. Even when we know the truth,
even when we believe the truth, how much of it we wrap up with
the lies of man. Not Christ. He always spake the
truth. He always spake in righteousness. He always spake in holiness.
He always spake with life. everlasting life. He spake and
the worlds came into being. He spake and blind men received
their sight. He spake and the deaf heard. He spake and the lame walked. He spake and those who were mad
received their minds. He spake and the dead were brought
to life. Oh what speech, oh what words
came from his tongue. And oh how we need our tongues
tamed. by hearing His everlasting word. How we need a new tongue. How we need new words, new speech,
a new song on our lips. How we need the grace of God
that brings salvation. How we as blind men need to hear
His Word that makes us see. How we as deaf women need to
hear His Word that makes us hear. How we as unruly children need
to hear His Words that makes us follow Him. How we as the
dead need to hear his words that makes us live. We read in Mark,
and they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment
in his speech. And they beseech him to put his
hand upon him. And he took him aside from the
multitude and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and
touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed, and saith unto him, Epaphapha, that is, be opened. And straightway
his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed,
and he spake plain. How we need Christ to come and
to touch our tongues, that our lies may cease. and that we may
speak plainly the truth of God by his grace. Later in Mark we read that these
signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they
cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. With new tongues. They shall
speak by the faith of Jesus Christ. They shall speak with his life
within. They shall speak his word by
his grace, by his spirit. Consider his speech, his word. Consider his speech. When he faced death, when this
people that received him not, this people in the darkness,
you and I, when he faced death, when they would crucify him. when we cast him out in our own
hearts, when we said away with this man, we shall not have him
rule over us, when we said crucify him, crucify him, when we pierced
him through with our hatred and our unbelief and our rejection,
when we said I will not listen, I will not believe, I will not
follow, when we cast our words in his face, when we reviled
him, he reviled not again. And when he faced death and prayed in the garden of Gethsemane,
as he knew what he must suffer, as he knew what he must endure
to deliver his people from their sins, when he went by faith before
his father, and endured by faith and communed with God his Father
alone with the world raging around him when he knew that the world
outside would put him to death and he came unto God knowing
what God the Father must do, that he must lay his people's
sins upon him, that he must make him to be sin in their place.
When Christ knew that he must take that cup and drink it, that
he must be made sin, this one that knew no sin, this one who
was righteous, who was perfect, this one whose speech was pure
and perfect, when he knew that he must be made as they are,
that he must bear the sins and iniquity of all his own, all
their vile speech, all their lies, all their hatred, all their
murderous words must be laid to his charge. When he knew that
he must bear that, he said, he prayed, nevertheless,
not my will, father, but thine be done. He fought not against it. He
argued not against it. He's not said that's not fair.
He did not seek to condemn them. He did not say we'll judge them.
They're the ones that did it. He said, no, I will go in their
place and I will bear their judgment. Thine will be done. as he looked upon that hour that
he must endure. That hour of suffering, that
hour of wrath, that hour of going into the darkness of judgment,
of bearing an everlasting eternal hell of God's wrath against all
his people. He prayed, Father glorify thy
name. bring glory unto thy name through
this. Though he must lose all, though
he must suffer all, though he must endure all, he praised and
honored his father. At the cross. as he was led to
the cross as he was taken to his trial before being led out
to be crucified at that trial when falsely accused when the
Jews falsely accused him and accused him of blasphemy and
accused him of claiming to be the son of God when in their
eyes he wasn't though he was When they found charges against
him that were not true, when he was falsely accused, when
he faced the lies of men, he answered nothing. He was silent
before his accusers. He reviled not again. As Isaiah says, he is despised and rejected of
men. a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He
was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he have borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her. Here is his dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. and who shall declare his generation
free was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression
of my people was he stricken and he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no
violence neither was any deceit in his mouth when accused he
was silent where we would answer back When mocked and derided,
he was quiet where we would justify ourselves. Oh, see his meekness. Oh, see
his wisdom. When reviled, he reviled not
again. When they nailed him to the cross,
and lifted him up above the earth. When they spat upon him, when
they jeered against him, when they mocked him, when they called
him to come down from the cross to bring a legion of angels to
save him, when they derided him, when you derided him, when I
derided him, when you spat upon him, When
I spat upon Him, when you pierced Him with your sins, when I pierced
Him with my sins, He said of those wicked men, of us wicked
men, that crucified Him, Father, forgive them. They know not what
they do. Father, forgive them. they know
not what they do. As he said of you, Father forgive
them. And when at the end of the hours
in the darkness, when he had endured all, when he'd waded
through the fires of God's wrath, when he'd been slain, when the
full fury of God's judgment and righteousness had been poured
out upon the Son of God, who hung in silence, who hung alone,
cast out by all men, cast out even by His Father in judgment,
when He hung in the darkness alone, at the end. At the end, he cried
out, in perfect faith, knowing that all was accomplished, knowing
that all was achieved, knowing that everyone for whom he died
had been saved, he cried out in victory, it is finished. It is finished. Did He finish salvation for you? Did He accomplish your salvation? Did He take your lies, your hatred,
your pride, your rejection, and suffer in your place? Did He
cry out, Father forgive them? They know not what they do. O
that he should come in power in his gospel and say unto each
and every one of us for whom he died that he should come unto
us as wretched sinners who cannot
tame our tongue who put people to death, who put the Son of
God to death on a daily basis, that He should come unto us,
those who are men and women of unclean lips, that He should
come unto us guilty sinners. And if He died in our place,
that He should come unto us and say in particular, thy sins be
forgiven thee. Live Look unto me and live. Look unto me all ye ends of the
earth and live. For I have taken away the judgment. I've taken away the iniquity. I've taken away the enmity. I've
taken away your sin. I've taken away everything that
keeps you from God. If you're mine, if I suffered
for you, I've taken it all away that he should come in mercy
and grace and say unto you, say unto me, live. There's no more
condemnation. Your sin has been blotted out. I've washed you whiter than snow.
I've brought in the righteousness of God for you. You're perfect
in me. My blood has cleansed you and
washed you from head to toe. Live. And then that he should come
and say, follow me. And if he does, what can we do? follow him. Where can we go but
where he goes? Where would we go but to follow
him who died in our place who brings us life whose every utterance
is a word of life? Where should we go where else
can we go? but to follow Him and to praise
Him with those new tongues which He's given unto us and to sing
a new song in His name of praise under His name. Where can we
go but to follow Him? When Jesus said unto Peter, Will
ye also go away? Peter said, To whom else shall
we go? Thou hast the words, of eternal
life. So I say unto you this day, will
you also go away? Will you also go away from this
saviour, from this word? Where will you go? Where will
you go in the darkness and death of this world? Where will you
go Where will you go when the years of your life draw to a
close, whether young or whether old? Where will you go when you
pass from this world into eternity? Where will you go? To whom else shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Oh, that the Lord would come
unto us in his gospel and say unto us, follow me, live.