Now let's open our Bibles to
the book of James chapter 3. James chapter 3. We're going to talk again this
morning about faith and controlling the tongue. That's the subject
of James chapter 3. Now, I cannot speak for everybody
here, but I would venture out to say that all of you, if not
the vast majority of you, are like me. In this sense, you all
claim to be believers. Claim to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You claim to know Christ. You
claim to be born again by the Spirit. You profess that you
know Christ and that you're a disciple of Christ. Incidentally, now
to be a disciple of Christ is to be what? A follower. The word
literally means a learner. A follower and a learner of Christ. And the only way we learn about
Him and learn from Him and learn Him is from His Word and the
power of the Holy Spirit. And so you claim to be a disciple
of Christ. I do. You do. You claim to love
Christ. You see, if any man loved not
the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema, Maranatha. That's what scripture
says. So a disciple of Christ, a believer
in Christ, one who's been born again by the Spirit, is one who
loves Christ. And again, you can't love Christ
without loving his word, what his word says. To know Him is
to love Him, and to love Him is to love His Word. Well, the
book of James, the whole book of James, is dealing with you
and dealing with me. That's what it's dealing with.
It's dealing with those who claim, who make that claim that I just
made. And again, I believe I'm speaking
for, if not everybody here this morning, most of us anyway. And
it's dealing with this issue. It's telling us this, that now,
is that a genuine claim? Or is that just words that we
say? You know, people can say anything
and not mean it. Somebody says you can have a
profession of faith, but not true faith. That's what James
is dealing with. We who make that claim, is it
really a true claim? Or is it just a false profession
of words? A false profession of faith?
And that's the issue of the book of James. And so James launches
out, he says, now here's the way that this faith is tested. The only way you're going to
know if it's true and genuine, the only way I'm going to know
if my claim is a real heart faith brought in me by the Holy Spirit
through Christ, life given to me by the Spirit of God through
Christ, the only way I'm going to know the reality of it is
for it to be tested. You know, we spend our lives
most of the time trying to run away from the test. Because sometimes
they're not pleasant. They're very tough, very difficult.
But those tests are the only way. The Scripture says that
we're going to know the genuineness of our faith, and it's tested
by the Word of God, and it's sometimes tested by circumstances.
For example, James starts out talking about the trial of your
faith. It's going to be, you're going to go through trials. I'm
going to go through trials. This life, you know, this life
for everybody, even unbelievers, is a trial and a test. But it's
really a trial and a test for a believer, one who genuinely
knows Christ, loves Christ, and is seeking to follow Christ.
I mean, it is a trial. And I'll never, you know, I've
always said this because, you know, we go through it individually
and we go through it as a body of believers, collectively. This
church has been under trials. I've been under trials. You've
been under trials. And somebody says, when is this particular
trial going to be over? And I answer and I said, as soon
as the next one begins. And that's the way life is. And
you know that. And you young people now, now,
even if you're a believer now, sometimes because of your mindset
and because of sometimes because of your your physical prowess,
you know, you can bear up under some of these trials better than
we old people can. But but it's still there. It's
still there, and it's not going to get any better. And I'm not
trying to just paint a picture of doom here, you know, or anything
like that, but it's just the fact. And James says that saving
faith, true faith, will be tested by these trials. And the genuineness
of the faith, of that real faith, is perseverance under the trial.
And of course, we know. We know where that comes from.
We know that if it were left to our power and our goodness,
we'd fail miserably. Fail miserably. another pastor
last week, and he's talking about people who say you can be saved
and then lost again. And I told him, I said, well,
you know, as well as I do, if you can, if you can lose salvation,
you would lose it. No doubt about it. You could
lose it. You never had it to begin with.
That's what the scripture says. Never had it to begin with, but
saving faith is going to be tested. And one of the tests is the Word
of God. We need to study and read and feed upon and immerse
ourselves in the Word of God. You see, it really doesn't matter
what you say about me or what I say about you. What only matters
is what does God say. And so as we read this book,
you see, that's why I like for us to stop thinking about going
to church. Because you didn't go to church
this morning. The church is the people of God.
The church came here to this building to worship and to study
his word. We're here to worship God, aren't
we? That's what we're here for this morning. Worship him in
spirit and in truth. And this is an opportunity which most
of us would not take and would not have and would not discipline
ourselves to do unless this time was set aside. You know that's
so. Now, there are people who do
set times aside, and that's good, to discipline themselves at home,
to study the Word of God, but most of us don't. Now, we've
got a busy life, you know, we're busy people, aren't we? But now here's the time that
you do, and that's why we have other services. Listen, we don't
have Sunday night and Wednesday night to make all of you who
don't come there feel guilty, believe it or not. That's not
why that was instituted. That's just another time. That
people can discipline themselves to come and study the Word of
God, feed upon the Word of God. And that's a test of faith in
this sense. I want to know what God's Word
says about me. I want to know what it says about
me. And that's the issue. So immerse yourself in the study
of the Word of God. That's why it's sad that most
worship services, so-called worship services, a lot of people don't
even bring their Bibles. They don't need them. All they
do is just entertain and provide activities. But that's not what
you need. There's plenty to entertain you
out there, and there's plenty of activities you need to feed
upon the Word of God. That's why James said in James
1.18, "...of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creature." We're begotten
again by the word of truth. We live by the word of truth.
Christ said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. That's how
we live. And these tests of faith, James
says here, he says, those who truly believe are not just going
to hear the word, they're going to do it. Now, doing the Word
doesn't mean trying to work for your salvation, because the Word
of God tells you not to try to work for your salvation. That's
why when people read in the Scripture about keeping the commandments
and doing the Word, they always go to legal thought. Well, that
means if I don't keep the commandments, then I won't be saved. No, the
commandment of God is to look to Christ for salvation. That's
the main commandment. That's the commandment of all
commandments right there. You believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. You look to him. You rest in
him. You follow him. He is all my salvation. He's
all my holiness. I've been preparing some messages
on holiness. Do we really understand holiness?
Well, here's where you got to start. Christ is my holiness. He's all my righteousness. My
works do not make me righteous. The Bible talks about believers
working hard. We read this morning in Romans
16 about a woman that Paul commended because she worked hard to the
point of exhaustion. But not one work she ever did
made her righteous before God. Christ was her righteousness.
Do you see that? My salvation is in the blood
of Christ. It's not in my suffering under
trials. It's not in my persevering under trials. It's not in how
I come out of the trial. I've told you before, I never
feel good about myself when the trial is over. How I acted, because
I usually don't act right. But I feel good about Christ.
I look more to Christ. I have assurance in him. And
His blood and righteousness is my whole salvation. That's the
peaceable fruit of righteousness that Paul spoke of in Hebrews
chapter 12 after we go through chastisement. It's not a peaceable
fruit that I come out of. Well, I'm at peace because I
did such a great job going through that trial. No, it's the fruit
of grace, the fruit of mercy. And so James says that. He says
that faith, saving faith, is going to express itself to some
degree and love to the brethren without partiality. In other
words, love is no respecter of persons. And that's what we have
to strive for. You know, respecter of persons
is such a part of our fallen human sinful nature. And it's
a fight to get away from that, isn't it? I mean, it's a fight.
That's warfare of the flesh and the spirit. He says that That
saving faith is going to prove itself by, to some degree, good
works. Now again, that's not good works,
or works performed in order to be saved, but it's works performed
as motivated by grace and gratitude and love. Now here in chapter
3, what he's talking about is that saving faith is going to
evidence itself in some degree, in some way, in how we talk. How we speak. The use of the
tongue. How we use our tongues. And this
has a two-fold application. The first application, and I
believe the main application, lies right up here behind this
pulpit on me. I'm held more accountable than
you. Because I'm up here every Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday,
on television, radio, and other places. And I'm preaching the
gospel, telling sinners what it is to be saved. And that's
an awesome responsibility. So he starts out in verse one,
my brethren, be not many masters. That word master, there's teachers,
preachers. Knowing that we shall receive
the greater condemnation, that's judgment there. What he's talking
about, he's not talking about at the final judgment there. What we do and what we say as
far as the final judgment will only evidence our standing in
Christ or our standing in ourselves. But it's a great responsibility.
And that's the first and main application that he has here
on the use of the tongue. When I'm standing behind this
pulpit and I'm preaching to you, how am I using my tongue? What
am I saying to you? What am I saying to myself? But
it also has an application to all of us as believers in our
everyday lives, in our relationships with each other, how we talk
about, how we treat, how we speak to each other. And that both
applications are true. And last week I gave you, I ended
the message with these two things. Two startling realities. And
this is the thing. Now listen to this. The first
startling reality that we have to face. And if we're going to
have our faith tested now and proven to be genuine, we've got
to face these things. We can't avoid them. And here's
the first one. Number one. Just as faith reveals
the true state of the heart. Now you know what the heart,
the heart of man, that's the inner man, that's what you really
are. That's how God sees you. God doesn't look on the outward
appearance now. He looks on what? The heart. That's how God sees
you. The Word of God reaches to the
heart. It's the sword that cuts. It talks about the motives. It
talks about the intents. It talks about the attitude of
the heart. And that's where God does business,
see. It's a scary thing, isn't it? And so you think about it. And so, faith reveals the true
state of the heart. Do you rest in Christ? That's
what our faith is. Abraham believed God. Well, what
did God say to him? He said, I'll save you for Christ's
sake. Do you rest in Him? So, just as faith reveals the
true state of the heart, and works reveal the genuineness
of our faith, in other words, we can say a lot and not do anything.
That means nothing. He says, our words, now listen,
our words reveal the true state of our hearts too. As I said, turn to Matthew chapter
12. Look over here with me. I said
last week, the tongue, or somebody said, this is a quote, I don't
know who said it. It's a good statement though. It says, the
tongue is a tattletale. It tells on the heart. Here our Lord, in Matthew chapter
12, was healing and casting out demons. And the Pharisees came
along and they said, you cast out demons by the devil, Beelzebub. By Satan, your work is a work
of Satan. And that's when he told him that
all manner of sin and blasphemy, verse 31, shall be forgiven unto
men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto him. That's not talking about any unpardonable sin. That's
simply just saying this. If you don't have Christ, you
don't have forgiveness. Somebody says, well, what is
the unpardonable sin? Well, you tell me. I don't know how many
people we've got here this morning, but I guarantee you we'll have
different variations on every one of you on that. It's just
simply saying this, if you don't have Christ, you don't have forgiveness,
period. If you're not washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness, you're condemned before a holy
God. No matter how you look or appear
outside, these Pharisees, the Lord said, they appear righteous
unto men, but not to God. He said, they approach me with
their bodies, with their mouths, with their hands and their posture,
but their hearts are far from me. Look, he says in verse 32, or
verse 35, he says, a good man out of the good treasure of the
heart bringeth forth good things. Now, what is the good treasure
of the heart? I always think that when I read that, I thought
about Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6. He said, For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then in verse 7, he said,
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. You know what the treasure
of the good treasure of the heart is? It's God's grace in Christ.
It's the gospel. It's Christ in you. That's right. By his spirit and by his word.
And out of the good treasure bringeth forth good things."
Christ working in us and through us to do his will in good pleasure. And it says, "...and an evil
man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But
I say unto you," now listen to this, verse 36, "...but I say
unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall
give account therefore in the day of judgment. For by thy words
thou shalt be justified." Vindicated, just like James talks about works.
Justified by works? He's not talking about justified
before God by our works. That's impossible. By deeds of
law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. But what he's
saying is that our works will evidence our standing before
God in Christ. And this is what he's saying
about our words here. Verse 37, For by thy words thou shalt be
justified. What am I preaching to you this
morning? Am I preaching salvation of the Lord? By grace, through
Christ and Him alone, or am I preaching salvation by man's works? Now
if I'm preaching salvation by Christ and Him alone, what does
that tell you? What does that tell you about
my heart? Well, I'm going to show you something here in a
minute. It tells you it's a heart of faith. If that's all you feed
upon and want to hear, what does it tell you about your heart?
Now if you want to exalt man and lift up man, What does that
tell you about your heart? And that's what he says here,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Now that certainly
works in the preaching of the gospel or a false gospel. It
shows you something about the person. These Pharisees, what
did they do? They preached the righteousness
of men. Where was their heart? Huh? With themselves. But Paul
the Apostle comes along and he preaches Christ and Him crucified. John the Baptist comes along
and he says, I'm not the light, I'm not the Messiah. I'm just
a voice crying in the wilderness. I'm not even unworthy. I'm not
even worthy to tie his shoelaces. He must increase. I must get
out of the way. I must decrease. Don't look to
me. Look to Christ. Don't look to
yourselves. Look to Christ. What did that
tell you about John the Baptist's heart? Told you that it's true
faith. He loved Christ. Paul wrote in
Galatians chapter 1 and verse 6, he said, if they come along
and they preach any other gospel than that which we've preached
unto you, let them be anathema. The man who stands behind a pulpit
and preaches salvation at any stage, to any degree, in any
way, by the works of men, he's telling you where his heart is.
He's telling you that. But the man who consistently
preaches Christ, He's doing the same. The book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 speaks of that. You can read that sometime. I
won't turn there. We don't have time. But it talks about the
ministers of Satan. And it says they transform. I
think it's verses 13-15. 2 Corinthians 11. They transform
themselves into angels of light. That's messengers of light. In
other words, they can say good things a lot of times, okay? And even disguise themselves
as ministers of righteousness. And I read one commentator, and
he said, well, they preach the righteousness of men. Not when
they disguise themselves. Because you see, Matt, to preach
the righteousness of men, man doesn't have to disguise himself
to do that. That's what comes natural. He has to transform
and disguise himself when he preaches the righteousness of
God. But he transforms. Now the tense
of the verb there, transform, means a temporary change. And what that means is that the
minister of Satan, he can transform and preach the right things for
a little while. He can preach grace, he can preach
the gospel for a little while, but he cannot stay there continually,
day in, day out. It won't be long. You keep listening
to him, he'll transform back and preach where his heart is.
That's what it's saying. Look over at Psalm 37 that I
read to you. Psalm 37. It says in verse 30
there that I read. It says, the mouth of the righteous
speaketh wisdom. Now, what is our wisdom? Christ
is our wisdom. The Word of God is our wisdom.
Christ is made of God unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1. Proverbs 8 speaks
of Christ, the personification of the wisdom of God. So, the
mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh
of judgment. Now, you know how your tongue
talks of judgment in the Old Testament? You remember in Isaiah
42 when it talks about Christ being the elect of God and he
shall bring judgment to the Gentiles? He's talking about the gospel.
Because my friend, the only way that you're going to make any
right judgment or assessment concerning salvation and the
state of your eternal soul is to hear the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. That God will save sinners for
Christ's sake and not by their works in any way. And so his tongue talks of judgment.
Now, why does he do that? Look at verse 31. The law of
God is in his heart. The Word of God. That's what
that is. The Word of God is in his heart. None of his steps
shall slide. The Word of God is in his heart.
Look over at Psalm 40 that Brother Bill read. You notice there,
he's talking about how the Lord brought him up out of a horrible
pit, out of a miry clay and set his feet upon a rock. That's
salvation right there. God brought me up out of the
horrible pit of my sin and my depravity, ruination and Adam. God brought me up out of the
horrible pit and the miry clay of my works, which are even my
best, are vanity. evil in the sight of God. God
brought me up out of the miry clay in the horrible pit of false
religion and self-righteousness and pride. And what did He do?
He set my feet upon a rock. And who is that rock? Christ
Jesus. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. He established my goings, my
life, my conversation, my conduct. He established it by His grace. How? By setting me up. Now it
doesn't say that I established it and then He set me on the
rock. It says He set me on the rock and then He established
it. But look at the next line there in verse 3. Here's the
first thing that you can know about that. He says, He put a
new song in my mouth. What is that new song? You can
read about it in Revelation chapter 5. You can read about it from
Genesis to Revelation actually. You know who sung that song?
Abel sung it. But you can read about it all through the book.
But here's how you could, it's just simply put in Revelation
5. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. That's the new song that
he put in my mouth. And so when I come up before
you to preach, I want to talk about the worthiness of the Lamb
that was slain. I don't want to talk about your
worthiness or my worthiness because of our works, or how long we've
been here, or how long I've preached, or how I've persevered. I don't
want to talk about it. I want to tell you how worthy
Christ is to save His people from their sins. That's the new
psalm. We didn't have that psalm before
God took us up out of that miry clay in that horrible pit and
set our feet upon the rock. You see? And that's your song,
too. Now, it's not just mine. It's
yours, too. And it's not just mine behind
the pulpit. It's mine when I get down and when I go home. And
sometimes I don't live up to it. I'm not telling you that
I do. But that's my song. And that's what he says. Even
to praise our God, many shall see and fear and shall trust
in the Lord. Look down there where he says
in verse nine. Or verse 8, he says, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. You
know, this is a prophecy of Christ himself, too, because he's the
only one who did these things perfectly for his people. But
he says in verse 9, I preach righteousness in the great congregation.
Who's Christ? I've not refrained my lips, O
Lord, thou knowest. I've not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. You know you can't do that. If
his righteousness is in your heart, if his truth, if Christ
is in your heart, you can't hide him. Jeremiah found that out.
Jeremiah was being really persecuted by the enemies of the gospel,
the enemies of God. I mean, they persecuted him and
persecuted him. He was outnumbered. He was outnumbered. He was telling Israel the truth.
He was telling Judah the truth, the southern kingdom. He was
telling them that God's wrath was coming. You need to turn
to the Lord. And the false preachers were
all saying, ah, Jeremiah, that prophet of doom, he's just a
burden. He has a burden. The burden of the Lord never
has anything good to say about us. Everything's okay. They would
say, peace, peace, settle down. He's just no prophet of doom.
And they got so mad at him. One time they threw him down
a well. He had to preach down to the bottom of a well. I've never
had to do that. I don't know, I'd want to quit too. And Jeremiah
said that. He said, I'm going to quit. I'm not going to do
it anymore. I'm not going to say anything else. These people don't want
to hear it. They won't listen to me. I'm not going to do it
anymore. But he said, the Word of God burned within me like
a fire. And I could not keep from preaching
it. And look down at verse 16 there
in Psalm 40. He says, Let all those that seek
thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, The Lord be magnified. That's the new song. The new song. Now turn to Colossians
3. Now it's not that we never, we
as believers, now listen to me. Let's be real. Let's be honest. It's not that we never use our
tongues wickedly, and that's a sad situation, but we do. Look
here at Colossians chapter 3, look at verse 8. He's talking
to believers here. He says, but now you also put
off all these. Now, what does it mean to put
it off? It means stop doing it. What? Anger. Losing your temper. Wrath. That has to do against
somebody else's judgment. Malice. You know what malice
is? Hatred. Stop hating. Stop it. That's what he said. Well, I
didn't think there was any room in the heart of a believer for
hatred. Oh my soul, you better look again. Let's be real. Blasphemy. Using the Lord's name
in vain. Filthy communication out of your
mouth. And look at verse 9. Lie not one to another. Seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds. That's how
we know he's talking about believers. What is to put off the old man
with his deeds? That's our former standing in Adam, you see. That's what I was. And he says,
you put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created. That's what I am in Christ. Stop
doing those things. And you could go on and on through
the scripture with that, couldn't you? We could talk about believers
and our downfallings, our shortcomings, all day long. God doesn't hold
them back in the Bible. We've been studying the life
of David. Boy, I'll tell you, from a human point of view, there's
a whole lot more you could say about David's disobedience and
sin than you could about David's obedience, just from his biography.
But he was a man after God's own heart. Look back at James
3 now. How do you know where David's
heart was? Read the Psalms that David wrote.
God the Holy Spirit inspired him to write. The issue of the
heart now is not perfect behavior. If it is, then none of us are
saved. We should desire that We should
aim towards that, again, not to be saved, but because we already
are. The issue of the heart is the
battle, the battle within, the fight within, the warfare within,
fighting the warfare of the flesh and the spirit, and the godly
sorrow that leads to repentance. Godly sorrow. And that brings
me to this second reality. Here's the sad fact about the
tongue now. We cannot control it. I can't
control mine, and you can't control yours. Look back at James 3 again. You remember? We read this last
week, but let's read it again. He says in verse 3, Behold, we
put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we
turn about the whole body. Little old bit. Control that
horse. 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." That ship,
that big old ship, that small rudder. Even so, the tongue is
a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great
a matter a little fire kindleth. I've got in the back of your
bulletin there an article called, The Most Dangerous Member of
the Church. And I put there, I don't know
who coined that phrase. I really don't. I read it somewhere. It's a description of the tongue.
The most dangerous member of the church. And it came from
this verse 5. Even so, the tongue is a little
member. A little member. Talking about
the whole body. Tongue's a little member. But
it boasts of great things. The tongue's such a little member,
it can talk about big things. You ever been around anybody
that talks big all the time? I was around a guy in college
one time. You could be talking about anything, and he'd use
it as something to boast about. If you were talking about light
bulbs, his grandpappy started GE or something, you know. I
mean, it was always like that. Always boasts great things. Well,
where do we see that mostly? In religion? Boasting great things? Do you know anytime a sinner
comes before a holy God, in any way or to any degree in anything
but Christ, crying, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner, that if you gave me what I deserved, it would
be eternal damnation forever. Anytime a sinner comes in any
other way, boasting of his works, seeking salvation by his work,
that's that tongue, that little member boasting of great things. That's right. Say, think about this. Somebody
says, I know I'm saved. All right. I know I'm saved,
dot, dot, dot. I know I'm saved. What comes
afterward? Well, because I was baptized.
That's the tongue boasting a great thing. You think a whole lot
more baptism than the Word of God does, if that's what you
think. I know I'm saved because I quit
smoking or I quit drinking. Well, that's what you think.
That's that tongue, again, boasting of some great thing. You think
a whole lot more of that stuff than what God does. Well, preacher,
are you saying it's all right to smoke? No, I'm not saying
that at all. I'm saying that's not what's going to save you. I know I'm saved because I had
a dream and it was real. And I woke up in a sweat, went
to church the next day and missed the service. That's the tongue
boasting of a great thing. I know I'm saved. I know I'm
saved. Why? Because Christ died for
me. Christ died for sinners. And that fits me to a T. Christ
died for the ungodly. That's me. I have more confidence
in my salvation through that statement than if I open this
Bible and read there is a faithful saying that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save Bill Parker. I wouldn't have any confidence
on that, because I know there's several other Bill Parkers around.
I'd be wondering which one of us it was. That's right. But when he says,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, that fits me
right to a T. How about you? How about you? That in order to be forgiven
of all my sins, I'm forgiven. Why am I forgetting? Because
I wore out the carpet last night on my knees praying. That's the
tongue boasting a great thing. That's the most dangerous thing
you can do. I know I'm forgiven because I'm washed in the blood
of Christ. I'm clothed in his righteousness.
I have no righteousness to plead before God, but the righteousness
of his son. And you know what he said about
his son? He said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. You hear him. And you know what
he tells you and me and tells me, especially as a preacher?
Speak of him. Speak of him. Look back at verse 6, James 3. The tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity. Oh, I tell you, you can say a
lot of things. Ever said anything and it gets out there and you
wish you could just reach back out and take it back? Can't do
it, can you? Because you can't control it.
Sometimes they'll speak out of anger. Speak out of anger. And that's the flesh. boasting,
whatever. So is the tongue among our members,
it defileth the whole body. It setteth on fire the course
of nature, and is set on fire of hell." That term, set on fire
of hell, as I told you last week, that word hell there is Gehenna.
And that was a dump outside the city of Jerusalem that had a
perpetual fire burning. It's where they put their trash,
and it always burned. And what he's saying there is
that the match that lights the tongue to do these evils is a
garbage dump. Our mouths are full of garbage,
that's what he's saying. So that when we speak in a way
that doesn't glorify God, and doesn't show love for God and
love for our brethren, and doesn't encourage our brethren, when
we speak in ways of gossip, accusation, That's a tongue that the match
that lit it is the fires that came from the trash heap, Gehenna.
He's using symbolic language there. So when we open our mouths
to use it for anything but good, that which honors and glorifies
God and for the good of our brethren and for the salvation of sinners,
and to promote obedience, then you can say, well, that match
fire that came from the dump only began. Isn't that something? And he
says in verse 7, For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of
serpents, and of those things in the sea is tame, and hath
been tamed of mankind. You can go to the circus, go
to these places, you can see they've taken every kind of beast
and tried to tame them. Now, you can put them in a cage.
We learned last week they can't tame them all, can they? Killer
whales are called that for a purpose. But they could shut it up. They
could kill it. But the tongue, verse 8, can
no man tame. It's an unruly evil full of deadly
poison. With that tongue, look at verse
9, with that tongue we bless God even the Father, and therewith
curse we men which are made after the similitude of God. Now that's
the same way, you know, the book of 1 John says this. It says,
how can you love God and not love your brother? God whom you
haven't seen, and hateth your brother whom you have seen. Those
are inconsistencies, that's what he's saying here. In other words,
if you talk about, oh, I love God, I just worship God, I serve
God, how great God is, but then you look at a child of God. Now,
we know all men in some sense were made in the image of God,
in Adam, but that image was defamed and it fell in Adam. But look
at a child of God. A child of God who's been chosen
of God, who's been justified, By God? Justified by God? You see, again, it doesn't matter
if you justify me or if I justify you, but there's God. You see,
in God's sight, that's the key. Justified by God, how? Through
Christ. That's how I stand before God,
complete. Justified before God in Christ,
again, by grace. I didn't deserve it, didn't earn
it. A child of God who's been redeemed by the blood of Christ.
This is one for whom Christ died. Listen, you know, we see things
about each other that we don't like. Now, that's just honest,
right? I mean, we do. I mean, personality, character
flaws, everything. And I hate to burst your bubble,
but when God saves you, that on the whole doesn't change a
whole lot. I mean, I know people want to think it does, but it
doesn't. I mean, we just keep our same personalities We go
along our little business and do our little thing. And we see
those things and we don't like them. And so we, you know, do
our little thing and tongues get the wagon and all that. What
do you suppose Christ sees in every one of us? More than we
see in each one of us. And yet the Bible says he loved
his own unto the end. How could he do that? How could
he love me? Unto the end there means unto
the finishing door, it's John 13.1. It means that he loved
me so much that he went to the cross and died for my sins, knowing
everything about me that I don't even know myself. And yet he did that. So here's one for whom Christ
died. Here's one whom the Holy Spirit has given spiritual life
and brought to the same faith that I have, faith in Christ,
repentance of dead works. We have that fellowship. We might
not like the same basketball team, or the same football team,
or the same foods, and we might not hang with the same people
socially, but we have the sameness there of the grace of God in
Christ. And that's a fellowship that
we don't create, and therefore we can't break. You see, the
fellowships that we create will be broken. But this is a fellowship
that God created. You didn't create it. You don't
have a right to try to break it. If you break it, you're sinning
with a high hand. You see, you didn't create this
fellowship, and you can't break it. God did. It's the creation
of Christ, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So if this fellowship is anything, and if it's going
to last forever, I guarantee you we didn't have anything to
do with it. God did. It's a fellowship with the Father and the Son,
which we realize and enjoy and enter by the Spirit. And it's
based upon truth, truth about God. He's holy and just and righteous,
truth about ourselves. We're nothing but sinners and
truth about Christ and salvation by him. And so what he's saying
here is how inconsistent of us it is for us to sing praises
unto God and then to go around and Talk about each other, accuse
each other, say evil things about each other. He says in verse
11, look here, or verse 10, out of the same mouth proceed a blessing
and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be. That's just not the way it should
be. And if that's the way it is, then we need to pray to God
that he'll bring us to godly sorrow and repentance over these
things. Verse 11, doth a fountain send
forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig
tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either vine or figs?
So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh? He's showing
the inconsistency of this. Now, that's the warfare. That's
the warfare. And that's what we're saying
here. You see, this issue of the heart is a battle. It shows
itself in a lot of ways. But one of the main ways is the
tongue, how we speak. And it's very inconsistent of
me to go around here preaching the gospel and claiming to love
God and love Christ and to love His Word, and to go out here
and talk about one of my brothers or sisters in Christ like a dog.
Or even say anything to anybody about them that is negative.
Now, you know, if I've got a problem with a brother or sister in Christ,
you know who I ought to be talking to? That person. Am I right? Go to them. Brother Henry taught
us in the preacher school something that I've always always remember. And I'm afraid I don't always
put it in practice, but thank God I'm going to. I know and I ought to. But he
said, you know, when somebody comes into my office or calls
me on the phone, they said, did you hear about brother or sister
so and so what they did or what they said? You know what Henry
said? He said, they come to your office,
they say this, they say, hold on, pick up the phone. Let's
call brother or sister so and so and get them on the phone
before you say anything else. Nine times out of ten, you know
what happens? That stops it cold. And if there's a real matter,
then what does the Bible say to do? You go to that person,
you deal with it. If you can't deal with it, then
you get two or three witnesses. Now, witnesses are not just people
who agree with you. That's people who saw the crime,
like in a courtroom. And you take them, and if that
doesn't do any good, then you go to the church. That's the
process. Now, why would people avoid that
process? Because they won't achieve their
goal. What should our goal be? To recover that brother or sister
in Christ. How are we going to use our tongues,
you say? We have the flesh and the spirit. We can use our tongues
for the flesh or we can use it in the spirit. What's the scripture
say? Be filled with the spirit. Walk after the spirit. Look to
Christ. Follow him for he's our only
hope. All right.