James chapter 3 now. As most of you know, being familiar
with this book, begins with patience. Look at chapter 1. It begins
with patience. Verse 3, that trying of your
faith, work with patience. Let patience have a perfect,
a maturing work that you may be perfect, mature, and entire,
wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, in
the name, ask of God. It begins with patience and wisdom. Look over at chapter 3. Look
at verse 13. It says, Who is a wise man and
doer of knowledge? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. Verse 15. This wisdom that is
sensual, it doesn't come from God. Verse 17. Wisdom from above
is pure, peaceable, gentle. We're going to devote a whole
message to that right there. Verse 17 and 18. That's such
a wonderful picture of our Lord. He's made unto us, Scripture
says, wisdom. He's not only our wisdom before God, like Isaiah
53 says, by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify
me. His knowledge, keeping the law, was wise to do good and
did all that as our covenant head. He's made unto us. We're fools. We're born fools.
And we still act foolish. What's our hope with God? Christ. He's wise. He's wisdom. He's made unto us
that and wise to know God. And anyway, he's also made unto
us the supreme example of personification and the epitome of wisdom, of
patience, of the tongue. How to speak, what to speak.
So, oh, we need wisdom and we need patience, don't we? Wisdom
begets patience. Patience begets wisdom. They
go together. You can't have one without the
other. Look at chapter 5. Chapter 5, Wisdom and Patience.
Look at verse 7. Be patient therefore, brethren,
in the coming of the Lord. Verse 8, Be ye also patient,
establish your hearts, come in the Lord, draweth nigh. Verse
10, Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of
the Lord for an example of suffering and of patience. Behold, we count
them happy which endure. You've heard of the patience
of Job. Wisdom and patience. Anybody
need wisdom? Anybody need patience? We're
going to see that we need wisdom to know when to speak, what to
speak, and how to speak. So he says, ask. Without him,
we can do nothing. He said, no man can tame the
tongue. You and I can't do it. Someone
can. Must. I go back to chapter 3
now. This is a vital, needful, helpful,
profitable message from God's Word. This is a joint message
by my pastor and me. I read his commentary on this
and I thought that can't be improved upon, but I added a few words
perhaps. But he began by saying no one
needs this message more than me. He kept saying that. This is for me. This is for me. And I feel the same way. And
I hope you feel the same way. Not that it's for me, I mean
for yourself. Shouldn't we? That's how we should
all take it very personally. All right, verse 1. My brethren,
don't be many masters or teachers as it were, knowing that we shall
receive the greater condemnation. That is, don't be so ready to
try to teach others. You know, the more you know,
the wiser you become, the more you realize you don't know. And
the more you realize you're just a fool. If any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing he has to know,
right? My, my. If Paul said this, Paul
said, who is sufficient for these times? He was the wisest man
ever, more wisdom than Solomon, except our Lord, of course. But
Paul said, who's sufficient to me these times? He says, don't
endeavor to be or try to be or think that you need to be a teacher,
that you're able. Myself included, who thinks that
they are qualified to teach other people God's word? The men, in the Scripture, very
plain, men, the men whom the Lord used were all hesitant,
tried to get out of it. One old writer years ago, I remember
reading this, he said no prophet ever applied for the job. Nope,
no prophet ever. The apostles didn't want it. He didn't ask for it. It's a
calling. Paul said, necessities are laid upon us. God called
me to preach to God. He didn't ask for it. There was
a time he thought, when he was a Pharisee, he thought, I can
teach. He didn't even know God. And he spent the rest of his
days trying to undo all the errors. Moses said, I can't speak, Lord. Don't ask me. Don't call me.
Jeremiah said, I'm just a child. Moses said, after the Lord kept
speaking to him, he said, I'm not eloquent. I wasn't eloquent
before, and I'm still not eloquent. The Lord got angry with him.
He said, I made man's man. I'm going to send you. Timothy,
Paul had to encourage Timothy not to be, to shirk this, and
anyway. Don't take this, he's telling
this to believers. I think that you are qualified
to teach God's Word because whoever does has a greater condemnation.
Go back to Hebrews chapter 13 real quick. Whoever has this
position of teaching God's Word, preaching God's Word, has a much
greater responsibility and is held in a greater accountability
than those that are just sitting here. Look at Hebrews 13 verse
17. You have it? Obey them that have
the rule over you. And there are people, men, whom
God has put, overseers, pastors, elders. Submit yourselves. They
watch for your souls. As they that must give account. They must give an account. Like
the stewards which our Lord spoke of. Oh, that they may do it with
joy and not with grief. Well, that's unprofitable for
you, grief. So, and my dad brought out this
point, my pastor, unqualified, uncalled, untaught teachers and
preachers are mostly responsible for all the corrupt doctrine
and practice that's in the church. There's been so much damage done
by laying hands on young men suddenly. That's what Paul warned
Timothy. He said, don't put anybody in
the place of teacher or preacher suddenly, quickly. Not a novice.
He said, if he's a novice, he'll be fall in the condemnation of
the devil. That's pride. He'll be lifted
up with pride. I can do this. He stands up and
he brings one message and somebody, some dear old soul that loves
him and loves the truth and all that and trying to be an encouragement
to him, just fawns all over him, tells him what a great preacher
he is. So he thinks, well, I'm the next Charles Pershing. Yeah,
right. And that's happened. You can't
believe how many times. And several times, those men
who ended up out of them, those young men were removed because
they got lifted up with pride. And that comes before falling.
Who wants this job? Listen to this. In fact, if I know then what
I know now, listen to this. Paul said to Timothy, he said,
you be an example of all the believers. Do you want to be an example
for people? In Word? Not only the Word of God. You
need to know the Word of God more than anybody. You can't
be a teacher of God's Word if you can't quote five scriptures.
Can you? No. In Word, and not only that,
but in your own speech, in conversation, your whole lifestyle. Be an example.
Who would want that? In charity? Love? Be more loving
than anybody. As an example. In spirit? Attitude. In faith? Stronger
in faith than anybody. As an example. Who would want
that? Well, it's a calling. It's not...
In purity? Hmm. Okay. Back to James. So he says, Brethren, Don't seek
this job. But we shouldn't discourage. If any
man desire the office of a bishop, the Lord called a young man. He's desired a good work, Scripture
says. The Lord puts that in a man. If he's really calling him, he'll
continue. So verse 2, he says, in many
things we offend all. We all offend each other in many
ways. You know, we're all sinners,
aren't we? And though we're all sons of Adam, we're all basically
relatives. But we come from different backgrounds,
north, south, east, west, different parents, different families,
and raised differently and all that. We're still a bunch of
sinners, aren't we? But we're different, aren't we? And male and female, boy, that's
different. And we offend each other. It's
personality traits and all that. We just do, don't we? We look
at somebody and they don't do things like our family always
did, and we think they're strange. Don't we? We all do. I think
we've got it right. Let's just not say it. But we
offend in many ways and everything. But if any man offended, verse
2, not in word, and speech. Boy, that's a mature man. That's a wise man. And here he says, if you can
do that, you can keep the whole body in check. Man. So he began
with teachers and my, my, a man standing up, speaking, speaking,
speaking, speaking, hours and hours and hours and hours. Are
you going to mess up? Are you going to offend somebody?
Absolutely. And it's happened far too many
times. And the man regrets it. He knows
it's been time. Like Moses, the Lord got angry
at Moses when he spake unadvisedly. He got mad at everybody, didn't
he? And rightfully so. But the Lord said, You've got
no right to be... I mean, you know what I'm saying,
they kept murmuring against Moses, and she said, I didn't ask for
his job. But then he got mad, like, that's when he smoked that
rock. He said, must I bring you water
out of that rock again? Oh, Moses. Moses, how could you
say such a thing? You didn't get water out of that
rock. But he did, didn't he? How could
a man like Moses say such a thing? That's awful. That's blasphemy.
But he did. The Lord let him do that. He
did. And we all offend. If we can
just not offend in word. So you don't want to be up here
doing this because you're going to offend somebody. Let it be
the truth. But, you know, me and you and
trying to witness to people, we offend people with the truth.
And it's maybe not necessarily the truth that offends them.
It's the way we present it. Anybody guilty of that? I remember witnessing one fellow
in particular, and I tried to witness to everybody. after the
Lord saved me. I remember I was working construction.
We were down digging a ditch. And I was talking to this fellow.
He started talking about Scripture and the truth. And he said, Arminian
and unbeliever and all that. And I was getting angry at him.
And this is all I could do to keep from taking that shovel
and hitting my old head with it. You've never felt like that,
have you? Kelly, now you've never. Isn't
that right? Let it be the truth. He said,
Paul told Timothy, speaking the truth in love. Who's who's who's
sufficient for these times? Who can do that? Who can tame
the tongue? Who can? Who can restrain themselves
in such a way and constrain themselves with love and compassion? Who can do that? No man. God
can. That's why he begins this whole
chapter by saying, anybody that lacks this wisdom and how to
speak and act, ask. Have not, because you ask not. You're guilty of not asking. If we don't ask the Lord, He
may leave us to ourselves, and we'll find out real fast. If we speak proudly, Simon Peter,
well, he learned the hard way. Yeah, everybody will leave you
but me. I'll go to death with you. He meant it. The Lord had to teach him a lesson. And he started cursing like the
former sailor that he was. So we need wisdom from above,
don't we? We need His Holy Spirit. My,
my. The tongue is a major source
of offense. If a person can learn to control
his tongue, he's a mature person. A person who's learned when to
speak, what to speak, and how to speak, that person is controlled by
love and grace. Wouldn't you like to know? There's
this proverb, and I'll just read it for you, and you know it.
I've read it to you. We've looked at it together.
It says, Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like
unto him. You don't have to answer every
fool and everything that everybody says, though you're tempted to. You want to set people straight.
Don't do it. You can cast your pearls before
swine, and that which is holy unto dog, If somebody's not asking. But then the next verse says,
answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his
own conceits. He needs to be, his mouth, Paul
said this in Titus, some of these people, their mouths need to
be stopped. And we need the wisdom to know when to do which. Do you have that? I don't either. I still don't have it. How are
we going to get it? Ask. Lord, help me. Should I speak now? What do I
say? Help me say it right. You remember
this threefold criteria my pastor gave about speaking? Remember that? Is it true? Don't repeat or say, bring hearsay
about what they say. Who's they? You know what they
say? Hold on a minute. People say
this all the time. It says, well, you know what
the Bible says? Oh, does it? Where does it say that? Brother
James used to say, Scripture please. Is it true? And a thing may be
true, but is it kind? Is it kind? Is it kind? Is this going to be a kindness?
Is this going to be merciful? Is it necessary? The last thing,
is it necessary? Does it need to be said? The
gospel, surely. There's not many things that
fall under that criteria but the gospel. Right? Not much more worth talking about
than repeating. All right, this, you know, it
says, my pastor said, this follows verse, go back to the table,
James, I should have marked my Bible, but it says, I did have
it marked, I took the marker out. This follows verse 1 and 2. He uses this illustration of
a horse's bit and a rudder and a little, like a match, fire. Okay, verse 3. We put bits in
the horse's mouth that they may obey us. We turn about their
whole body. A horse is a big, strong, dangerous
animal. It's a good thing the Lord put
the fear of man and horse in there. He can kill you right
now. A horse can, Kelly will tell you this, these horse people,
can scratch its ear with its hind leg. You try that. You know
how powerful a horse, you ever been kicked by a horse? Like
a sledgehammer. And buddy, if they can flick an eye,
a fly off their ear, They can hit you in the head right now.
Hit them. And you're a goner. It's a good
thing the Lord put fear of man in horses and all creatures.
It's a good thing our Lord's sovereign over everything, isn't
it? Okay? All right. The horse is a big,
strong, dangerous animal. Self-willed. They don't want
to obey you. They don't want you on their
back. Oh, no. Well, what do you got to do?
To reign them in. What do you got to do? You got
to put this thing in their mouth. You got to cause them some discomfort.
Don't you? And with this little bitty thing
in their mouth, you can control that whole body. Can't you? Those
hind legs can be controlled by that thing in their mouth. And
you got to. They'll kill you. So that's what... Now this is
all alluding to the tongue. If you can control that, you
can control everything that you do. And this is wisdom from above. This is why I was saying, who
can do this? The ship's rudder. Look at verse
4. Behold, ships are great, driven of fierce winds. They're turned
about with a very small helm or rudder. With us wherever the
governor listed, a ship's rudder. I just read, wrote it down somewhere,
an aircraft carrier weighs how many tons? 100,000 tons. An aircraft, 100,000 tons. The
rudder weighs 40. But that little rudder, I mean,
it's big, but compared to that ship, that controls that whole
ship. Keeps it from going shipwreck. And verse 3, so the tongue is
a little member, and boy, it boasts great things. Behold,
how little, how great a matter, a wood, just a little fire can
kindle. Just a match, just a spark. small
spark. So he uses these illustrations
of horses, be it a runner or a mat. The tongue is what he's
talking about. It can do great things. It can
do mighty things. The tongue, well-ordered, sanctified,
can preach the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Look at Proverbs 16. Go back
to Proverbs. Proverbs 16. You say, unless
somebody says, where is Christ in all this? Where do you think
James got this wisdom? If everything our Lord said was
written in a book, the book would be as wide as this room. These men were there, and our
Lord taught them throughout every day. And they, in turn, wrote books
like James. He was there. And so he's telling
us what the Lord Jesus Christ tells them to tell us. Right? And I'm going to show you in
a minute that he is the epitome of that, the personification
of that. But look at Proverbs 16, verse 23. The heart of the
wise teaches his mouth, and of learning his lip. Verse 24. Pleasant
words. as a honeycomb, sweet to the
soul, health to the bones. Well, buddy, the opposite is
true. Verse 28, 27, an ungodly man diggeth up evil. His lips are like a burning fire. A froward man, verse 28, soweth
strife. A whisper separate the cheap
friend. Look at chapter 17, verse 9.
Look at verse 9. He that covereth the transgression
seeketh love. He that repeateth the matter
separate the very friend. Is it true? Is it necessary?
Do you know it's a fact before you repeat it? Is it kind? Is it really necessary? No. Love
covereth the transgression. It doesn't repeat a matter. Who
covered our transgressions? Our Lord. Was He guilty of anything? What did He do? He took our guilt. He took our blame. He was completely
guiltless. God laid on Him the iniquity
of us. He who knew no sin. that we might
be made the... and gave us His righteousness.
What have we got to boast of? What have we got to talk about?
Our goodness? Oh, man. And when He was standing
before all of His persecutors and all those false witnesses
and all those people that came to slander Him and accuse Him
of blasphemy and all that, what did He do? What did He do? didn't
answer a word. He spoke not a word. Why? He's
us. He's taken the blame. One time
Paul said, suffer yourself to be depraved. Suffer yourself
to be mistreated. That's what our Lord did. Our
Lord, at first, Peter, and I'll turn there in a minute, but this
is where I was going at the end of this message. I couldn't wait
to get to it. Our Lord said, the scripture
said, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. So how, what
can tame us, our tongue, other than considering our Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified for us? Nothing. That's the only
thing I can do. The tongue. Look at chapter 18
of the proverb. Chapter 18, verse 8. The words
of a tail-bearer, whisperer, are as wounds. They go down into
the innermost parts of the belly. Some of you can vouch for this
that some of the deepest hurts you've ever had is from your friends, saying things
about you. You know, some of it may be true,
but a real friend that covers it and repeat it. Well, all right,
go back to our text in James chapter 3. He says in verse 6,
the tongue is a fire. It's a world of iniquity. His
tongue among our members defiles the whole body and set on fire
the course of nature and set on fire of hell is what it is.
It's like a fire from the heat of it. Heat, it's an instrument
of wrath. It stirs up passions. Impure
thoughts. That's why I suggested language
and all that should be avoided completely. Anger. Only one thing
will turn away anger in it. Soft wrath. Soft answer. The opposite. you know, sets
on fire. And a tongue is a fire for the
danger of it. No one's safe from it. My pastor said this, it can turn
a happy home, a happy church into a barren wilderness like
a fire. Look what happened in California.
Where did that start? Probably somebody started that
fire, arson. How'd they start it? One match. All those homes, all those lives,
right there. One match. Boy, we need this,
don't we? It's like a fire and the duration
of it, a fire out of control. How long did those fires burn
in California? And we back here in the Bible
Belt may think, well, those sodomites, they deserve it. We deserve it. No. Barnard, you say anything is
a sign of hell's mercy. And that's to all of us. Who
maketh us to differ? So this small member can destroy
Friendships that have stood for years destroy homes, destroy
churches, destroy character, destroy reputation,
plant suspicion, little innuendos, little suggestive, you know. And we are so bad, so evil by
nature, that we believe something without it being proven. Our
justice system says a man is innocent until proven guilty.
Doesn't it? God's justice system doesn't
say that. What does it say about all of us? Guilty until not proven. Made innocent. How? By Christ. We have no room for
boasting. Zero. It's all mercy. It's all grace. It's all something
Christ did for us. But our little judicial system,
a man is supposed to be innocent before proven guilty. That's
just not so. It's never been less so than today. That's when
people say, they say something about somebody, they repeat something
without substantiating proof, everybody believes it. Don't
you? And you can't forget it. You
think they must be guilty, they wouldn't bother. tongue, the dangerous tongue. Now this is written to believers.
I'm talking to believers here. David said this, set a watch,
oh Lord, before my mouth. Let me watch what I say. Keep
the door of my lips, he said, keep them how? Shut. There's a proverb that says,
he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his soul from troubles. You think about that. The magnitude
of that saying. I love what Brother Shanks used
to say. Brother Jack Shanks, a few of
you knew him. He was a slow walking, low talking
Texan. And he paused between words,
which all of us should do. And he said this, he said, take
every opportunity to shut up. Boy, this generation doesn't
need that. I need that. Do you? I do. Shut the mouth and only open
it when it's necessary. What was this mouth created to
do? What was our tongues created
to do? Why did God make the mouth? To commune with God. To sing
praise unto God. God made birds to sing. Why?
The praise and the glory of God. So did He make man for that reason. Any other use of it is abuse. Verse 7 and 8 said, every kind
of beast, birds, serpents have been tamed of mankind. Verse
8, the tongue can no man tame. It's an unruly evil. It's full
of deadly poison. No man can tame it. No man can
tame it. We try, don't we? And we should. But as we said at the very outset,
without Him, we can't do anything. And as I gave that illustration
of Simon Peter, you know, it was just a little while before
that, Peter said, when the Lord said, who do men say that I am?
They said, some say this, some say that. Whom do you say that
I am? Simon Peter with faith and love and praise and honor
and glory and confidence that thou art the Christ. He said,
We believe. No, we're sure. Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Most High God. He said, Flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to you, Simon Peter, but my Father which is
in heaven. That's one time he spoke up and he showed help. Another time, you remember, people
were leaving our Lord and he said, Will you go away also?
Simon uttered these words. And don't you love them? To whom
shall we go, Lord? You have words of life. You're
our Lord, you're our life, you're our everything, you're the Christ.
God, the Spirit of God was speaking through Simon Peter. You're our
everything. You're the Christ. Nobody else
believes that we do and are sure that you're the Christ. Oh, blessed
Simon. I can see our Lord smiling now.
It wasn't just a few words after that that Peter rebuked the Lord
and the Lord said, get behind me, Satan. Honestly, in the same chapter.
And then a little while later, Simon Peter said, I'll go to
the grave with you any minute. And he eventually did. He eventually
did. He was eventually crucified for
preaching Christ. He bore the cross of Christ.
And then he hung on a cross himself. And he meant that. But where
he failed was in not saying, by the grace of God, I'll do
this. By the grace of God. No, he said, everybody may leave
you, but not me. And our Lord said, Simon, listen
to this. Before the sun comes up. Before the cock crows, before
the rooster crows, in a few hours you're going to deny, you're
going to act like you don't even know me. And he did. He started cursing and acting.
And Simon never got over that. And so James said this, how can
this be? Have the same mouth blessing
and cursing. I'll tell you how. Because you've
got two men in you. And this old saying is, which
one wins? Well, the Indians said, the one
you feed. That's good. That's good. What
do you feed it with? The Word of God. Who feeds it?
You can read all you want. You can try all you want. You
can endeavor all you want. You can't do it. He can. Where does it come from? This
grace. From above. This wisdom is from
above. So I'm giving you a secret. Me, I'm learning here. Ask, ask. Before you speak, ask. Ask the Lord, don't let me speak
unadvised. Put a watch over my lip. Because
I can cause a lot of damage. I can hurt a lot of people. Don't
let me do it. And if you're not praying, if
you're not asking, if you're not seeking, he'll let you do
that. Have you found that from experience?
He'll let you feel like you're a devil. Like Simon Peter. So ask. The grace of God. Here's what my pastor said. The
grace of God is the only thing that can slay the corruption
that the tongue uses. The grace of God is the only
thing that quenches the flame of hate and jealousy and envy
and wrath, the only thing. The grace of God puts a new nature
of love and a tongue to speak kindness and truth and sincerity
and the glory of God and the good of men and comfort and console
and only one great power can attain this Little bitty members. We don't even have control over
one little thing. Not one little thing. But he
does. So we ask, we ask. In closing,
1 Peter, let's read this in closing. 1 Peter chapter 2, in closing. I've partially quoted it for
you. Look at this in closing. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 19. It's thankworthy if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief and suffering wrongfully.
What glory is it if you suffer for your faults if you take it
patiently? No. But if you do well, suffer for
it, and you take it patiently, this is acceptable unto God. You are called to suffer because
Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example You should follow
in his steps. Don't you know, and it did happen,
Peter was so ashamed of himself, and he lived with that shame
for so long for denying the Lord, he thought, I'd like somehow,
some way to be able to make up for that, for denying my Lord. You know that? For acting like
that. So one time he was beaten to a pulp for preaching Christ.
Remember that? He and James, was it, were with
him? It says they went back rejoicing. They were able to suffer shame
for His name. Peter said, I didn't get nearly
beaten hard enough. But it showed me something of
what my Lord did for me. And here I denied Him. Paul never got over watching
Stephen being stoned while he sat there. Give it to him. Hit
him again. Knit him. And we'll never get
over some of the things we've done, but my, my. Oh, may we
use, may the Lord use our tongues For good. Verse 21, we are called
to suffer. Christ left us an example that
we should follow, who did no sin. Neither was guile found
in His mouth. It says of those in heaven, they're
not defiled, they're virgins, and there's no guile in their
mouth. No guile. No ulterior motive. No self. No pride. Man, I want to be like
that, don't you? That was our Lord, who when He
was reviled, verse 23, reviled not again, but when He suffered,
He threatened not. Oh, my. Didn't He tell us that
in the Sermon on the Mount? Somebody smites you on the cheek,
what do you do? How will it end the fight? How will it end it? Turn the
other cheek. It'll end it. Oh, this is wisdom from above,
isn't it? He threatened not. Committed himself. If we've been
wronged, who's going to right it? Whose vengeance is sure and justice
is sure? Him that judges righteously.
And it says here, oh, listen to these verses, Christ bore
his own self, bear our sins in his body, not just our past sin,
but today's sin. And we've yet, we're still going
to, we're still going to sin and maybe no telling what we're
going to do. He bore our sins in his own body
on a tree, that we, being dead to sins, that is, by the body
of Christ, should live unto righteousness. And by whose stripes your heath?
You were a sheep gone astray, but now you return to the shepherd
and bishop of your soul. Isn't that something? All right,
may the Lord bless that to our understanding. And may we be
earnest hearers and not let these things slip. May the Lord apply
this. All right, stand with me.