The following sermon was delivered
on Sunday morning, January 5, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Now I would ask you to follow
as I read two portions of the Word of God, passages to which
reference will be made and some attention given, though I will
not be giving a detailed exposition of either one of them. The first
is Matthew chapter 7. verses 15 through 20. Towards
the conclusion of what we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount,
our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 7, 15, Beware of false prophets,
who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know
them. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by
their fruits you shall know them. And now to Matthew chapter 12,
where the good tree, good fruit, evil tree, evil fruit, imagery,
has a particular area of focus, namely the matter of the tongue. In the context, the tongue of
these Pharisees speaking words of blasphemy, but in addressing
that particular evil use of the tongue, our Lord articulates
some very vital generic principles concerning the use of the tongue. I begin the reading at verse
33 and conclude at verse 37. Either make the tree good and
its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt,
for the tree is known by its fruit. You offspring of vipers,
how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man, out of his good
treasure, brings forth good things. And the evil man out of his evil
treasure brings forth evil things. And I say unto you, that every
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment. For by thy words you shall be
justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. Our Creator, in His creative
design and wisdom, has made us with two feet, with two hands,
with two eyes, and with two ears, but with only one tongue. And as a preacher from a past
generation has quaintly observed, having given us only one tongue,
He has shut up the use of that tongue with two rows of teeth. And it's a quaint way of stating
that reality. However, this marvelous creation
by which we frame the words, which convey to others the thoughts
of our minds, the affections and dispositions of our hearts,
has been so radically influenced by the intrusion of sin into
the human race that in the letter of James we are told that this
very instrument of communication, our tongues, is likened to a
raging fire and to a deadly poison. And it is with a deep pastoral
pressure that our tongues be instruments of grace and healing,
and not tools of sin and destruction, that we are engaged in a series
of studies which I have entitled, Now Concerning the Use of Our
Tongues. In the first sermon some weeks
ago, I set before you five categories of biblical truth each one of
which underscores the critical importance of this matter of
the use of our tongues. We saw in those five categories
of biblical truth, this is no little thing. We were reminded
of one of those categories in the reading of this second passage.
In the day of judgment, God will need nothing more to send some
people to hell than a transcript of their words. That's all. to
make evident to the entire moral universe that his judgment that
this is a wicked sinful man and belongs in hell, all he'll need
for evidence is their words. By your words you shall be condemned. And then we spent several weeks
identifying and describing some of the major sins of the tongue
as they are identified, defined, and described in the Word of
God. We looked at the sin of the tongue
called lying, the sin of the tongue called corrupt speech,
the sin of the tongue described as abusive speech, and the sin
of the tongue set before us in scripture as gossipy, meddlesome,
and intrusive speech. Now this morning I plan to preach
the first of two or possibly three sermons on the subject
divine directives for overcoming the manifold sins of the tongue. Having demonstrated from the
Bible that this is a big deal, having sought from the Scriptures
to identify some of these major sins of the tongue, we now come
to consider divine directives for overcoming these manifold
sins of the tongue. And as we do, we want to focus
our attention on how to lay hold of God's provisions that our
tongues may more and more be instruments of grace and of blessing
rather than instruments of sin and of cursing. And the biblical
materials for these two or three sermons on this subject will
be set before you in two major categories. The first we'll deal
with this morning. I've called it the essential
prerequisite for overcoming the sins of the tongue. And then
in a second or possibly a third message as well, some additional
directives for overcoming the sins of the tongue. So we come
directly then to our subject for this morning, the essential
prerequisites for overcoming the sins of the tongue. Now, what is a prerequisite?
Well, a prerequisite is something that is required before something
else can be done. Requisite, require, pre, beforehand. A prerequisite is something you
must do or possess before you can do or possess something else. A healthy I is a prerequisite
for seeing. But not a healthy eye? No matter
how much light is around you, how many vivid objects, you can
see them. Functioning lungs are a prerequisite
for breathing. Can't breathe no matter how much
air, no matter how much oxygen is around you. A prerequisite
for breathing is healthy, functioning lungs. A knowledge of the alphabet
is a prerequisite for reading. If you don't know the alphabet,
you don't know the combination of the letters, you can't read.
So a prerequisite is something that is necessary in order to
do or to possess something else. And we're going to consider what
I have described as the essential prerequisite. And something that
is essential is absolutely necessary. It is indispensable. You Latin students, it is the
sine qua non, the thing without which the other cannot be or
you cannot do. Oxygen is essential to breathing. A functioning heart is essential
to life. Cut out a man's heart, he's not
going to live. Stop the heart from beating,
he's not going to live unless you have him on a heart and lung
machine. I'm fully aware of these exceptions,
but we're talking now in the ordinary course of things. So
what we're going to focus upon this morning is to seek to discover
from our Bibles what is the essential prerequisite, singular, for the
overcoming of the sins of our tongues. The thing without which
any of these other particular directives will not prove effectual. In fact, they could prove to
be self-deceptive. We're going to focus our attention
this morning upon this one thing, the essential prerequisite for
overcoming the sins of the tongue. And as we do, we'll do so under
three headings. The essential prerequisite identified,
what is it? The essential prerequisite justified,
why is it an essential prerequisite? And thirdly, the essential prerequisite
qualified. And we're going to address some
wrong implications that people draw from this essential prerequisite. First of all then, the essential
prerequisite identified. When we ask the question, what
does God say is the most important issue to face when considering
how to overcome the sins of the tongue, what is the answer? Or
to make the question a bit more pointed, if I were to ask you,
what do you think the Bible says is the one most basic requirement
to overcoming the sins of the tongue, how would you answer? Now let me make it even more
personal. If sitting here this morning, you are to overcome
the sins of your tongue, what is the one most essential issue
that you must face? For our deaf friends and hearing
impaired friends, how to overcome the sins of your hands that frame
your words and your thoughts and become an extension, as it
were, and a substitute for your tongue. What is the one most
essential prerequisite in this thing that sits between your
jaws? guarded by your two rows of teeth is to be mastered and so governed
that it becomes more and more an instrument of grace and a
blessing. And remember, this is no little
issue. For by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned. If any
man thinks himself to be religious and bridles not his own tongue,
he deceives himself, and his religion is vain. Don't take
this as more creatures blow from the pulpit, folks. This is vital
stuff. And you must ask and answer with
an open Bible this question, what is the essential prerequisite
for the overcoming of the sins of my tongue? And if I do not
overcome them, I'll be damned. If the sins of the tongue govern
me, they are the evidence that I am still under sin's dominion.
And my Bible says sin does not exercise lordship over a Christian
for he is not under law but under grace. Well, we're going to answer
by going to the Matthew 12 passage. And I ask you to turn there if
you've turned away from it. We're going to consider the words
of Jesus in Matthew 12, 33 to 35. The context I've already alluded
to, it's one in which Jesus is dealing with the sin of words. Look at verse 32. Whosoever shall
speak a word against the Son of Man. The context is speaking
a word. The context has to do with words. Again, verse 36. I say unto you
that every idle word that men shall speak Verse 37, for by
thy words you shall be justified, by your words you shall be condemned. It is a word-saturated context. I hope you see that with your
own eyes. You hear it as I articulate and underscore with emphasis
those particular parts of the text. Now, in dealing with this
sin of words, in the context, the sin of blasphemy, But our
Lord is dealing with broader principles. He uses two analogies. And do you see the two analogies
He uses? He uses, first of all, the analogy
of a tree and its fruit, verse 33. Either make the tree good
and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt,
for the tree is known by its fruit. Our Lord injects into
this context of dealing with words the analogy of a tree and
its fruit. But then he uses a second analogy,
that of a secret treasure and its open manifestation, verse
35. The good man, out of his good
treasure, in a parallel passage in Luke 6, Jesus says the good
man out of the good treasure of his heart. It is a secret
treasure. The good man out of his good
treasure brings forth good things. It is the secret treasure and
its open manifestation. The bringing forth of the stuff
out of the treasure. The good man out of the good
treasure brings forth good things. And the evil man out of his evil
treasure brings forth evil things. Now do you see how our Lord is
using two different analogies to make one central point with
respect to this issue of the use of the tongue? As he is homing
in on this horrible use of the tongue by the Pharisees, engaging
in that which he describes as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,
our Lord brings these two analogies into sharp focus and he says
to these people, if there's ever to be a change in what's coming
out of your mouth, This issue of the tree that is evil that
brings forth evil fruit or the tree that is good that brings
forth good fruit must be faced. This issue of the hidden treasure
that brings forth out of a good treasure good things or a bad
treasure bad things. He says to these Pharisees and
he says to you and me, you can never think as you ought about
this matter of words and evil words and dealing with evil words
unless you understand the principles embodied in the analogy of the
tree and its fruit, the hidden treasure and the manifestation
of the stuff in that treasure. Now what is the common denominator
in both of these figures as they relate to this issue of the tongue,
the words that we speak? But I think you will agree with
me that the common denominator is this. It is the necessity
of having a good source or a good origin if we are ever to speak
good words. That's the common denominator.
It is the corrupt tree that brings forth corrupt fruit. For the
tree is known by its fruit. The source is bad, therefore
what issues from that source is bad. The bad treasure is manifested
in the bad stuff brought out of the treasure. What our Lord
is doing is pressing home this issue that the source of our
words is the great concern. that until the source is what
it ought to be, what comes from that source will never be what
it ought to be. A good tree is essential to good
fruit. That is, a good tree is essential
to healthy, healing, God-honoring words. A good treasure can alone
bring forth good things, healthy, healing, God-honoring words.
Now by these two analogies and the common denominator, our Lord
is making it clear that the essential prerequisite for overcoming the
sins of the tongue is that of a renewed heart. That's what
our Lord is teaching. He's saying to these people obsessed
with externalism, Your problem goes as deep as your heart. What's coming out of your mouth,
like the fruit on a tree that manifests the nature and the
quality of the tree, your words are the revelation of the state
of your heart. What is brought out of the treasure
reveals the nature of the treasure, and the treasure is either a
good treasure or an evil treasure, the good bringing forth good
things, the evil bringing forth evil things. So our Lord is saying
that the essential prerequisite for overcoming the sins of the
tongue It is that of a renewed heart that we must experience
that wonderful radical spirit-wrought change of the inner man called
in Titus 3.5, regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. By nature, each of us in his
heart is a bad tree. And being bad trees, evil trees,
what comes out of the mouth is evil, for the tree is known by
its fruit. For from within, out of the heart
proceed. Mark chapter 7, that what we
are in our external lives, except in those instances where we are
calculating hypocrites, is but the profusion, the overflow,
the manifestation of the state of our hearts. By nature, we
are born with an evil treasure, and out of that evil treasure
come evil things, that is, words that are suffused and marked
by evil. And so in these figures of the
good tree and the good treasure, our Lord is pointing to one of
those four fundamental blessings that He Himself will mediate
to sinners under the new covenant, under the covenant that Jesus
sealed with His own blood. That very sealing we will remember
in this place tonight at this table. This is the new covenant
in my blood. And there are four great blessings
promised in that covenant. In Hebrews chapter 8, you have
them listed as the writer to the Hebrews summarizes the teaching
on the new covenant out of Jeremiah 31. And those blessings are these,
God says, I'll give them a new heart and I'll write my law upon
them. I will cleanse them and purge
them from all of their sins. I will commit myself to them
to be their God and I will bring them into a saving acquaintance
of myself. They shall all know me. Their
sins and iniquities I will remember no more. I will write my law
upon their hearts. These are the great blessings
of the new covenant. God giving a new heart, writing
his law upon the heart. God forgiving us all of our sins. God committing himself to be
our God. And God bringing us to a saving
knowledge of himself. But I want us to focus our attention
on that blessing which results in making the tree good. and
making the treasure good. It's that first blessing of new
covenant salvation, the taking out of the heart of stone, the
giving of a heart of flesh, the imparting of the Holy Spirit. And that blessing is most clearly
articulated in the prophecy of Ezekiel. And here I want you
to turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 26
and 27 for God speaks of the gathering
together of his people sprinkling clean water upon them cleansing
them from their filthiness and their idols verse 26 a new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I
will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep
my ordinances and do that. Here is God's promise In covenantal
commitment, God says, this is what I will do under this gracious
covenant that I will enact after the gathering together of my
people. A new heart will I give you.
I will do something that touches the very springs of your being.
You see, the imagery of the good tree and the bad tree is just
another way of expressing the same reality. God is saying,
I will take the bad tree that brings forth bad fruit. I will
take the evil tree that brings forth the evil fruit of evil
words, lying, abusive speech, unclean speech, meddlesome speech,
gossiping, slander, hurtful speech that is all part of the fruit
of that heart. I will take out that heart. And
I will give you a new heart, and I will put My Spirit within
you, and I will cause you to walk in My statutes and to keep
My judgments, even those that pertain to your speech. Let no
corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth. I will so work that
that statute will be embodied in your eyes. Wherefore, putting away lying,
speak truth to every man with his neighbor. God says, I'll
so put my spirit within you that lying will not be a dominant
sin in your life. I will so put my spirit within
you and you will love your neighbor as yourself, that as you do not
like people to probe and to pry with meddlesome speech with you,
you will not probe and pry with meddlesome speech with them.
I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to keep my statutes
and judgments, even those that pertain to the use of the tongue.
That's what God says He'll do. He had previously made the same
promise in chapter 11 of Ezekiel verses 19 and 20. And I want
us to see this in the previous passage as well because we're
going to see another reference to the new heart and a new spirit
in chapter 18. And it's critical to see that
the reference in chapter 18 is bounded by the reference in chapter
11 and 36. Ezekiel 1119, I will give them
one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will
take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of
flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances
and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their
God. Here are two of those four dominant
blessings of the New Covenant highlighted. God taking out the
heart of stone, giving a new heart, a heart of flesh, which
will enable us by the indwelling Spirit to keep His statutes.
And we will come into this intimate, personal, saving acquaintance
with this God of the Covenant as our God. Now, when Jesus said
in the context focusing on the sins of the tongue, Make the
tree good and its fruit good. He was echoing this theme. Even
the theme of Ezekiel chapter 11, chapter 36. But now I want
you to notice how God expresses that theme in chapter 18 of Ezekiel. And he's not a God who contradicts
himself. But he is a God who knows how
to press us into the corner and strip away our excuses for who
we are and what we are and what we're doing and to press us with
our ethical and moral responsibility. Notice what he says in Ezekiel
18 in verse 31. Just a moment about the context.
This whole chapter is the prophet dismantling the excuses by which
these people were charging God with unrighteousness and injustice
and all the rest and the prophet just strips away these things
one by one and then he concludes with this appeal cast away from
you all your transgressions wherewith you have transgressed and make
you For why will you die, O house
of Israel? You who have the new King James,
it says, get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. The NIV,
get a new heart and a new spirit. The old ASV and the authorized
version, cast away your transgressions and make you a new heart and
a new spirit. I have no power to make a new
heart and a new spirit! That's right, no more power than
these Pharisees had to make the tree good. Yet Jesus told them
to do it, didn't he? Make the tree good! Make the treasure good! What do you think the Lord would
have said if they said, but wait a minute, Jesus! We read from
the prophet Ezekiel that only God can take out the heart of
stone. Only God can give a heart of
flesh. Only God can put his spirit within
us. What do you think the Lord would
have said to that? You see, when God lays upon us
the duty of doing what only He can do, it is to the end that
we make the business of applying ourselves to the God who alone
can do it, and the use of every means He has given to us make
it the one business of our lives. And that's what he's telling
these Pharisees! He says, as long as you go on the way you
are, content with your external religion, going up to the temple
every time the doors are open, offering the proper sacrifices,
praying the proper prayers, fasting and all the rest, you'll go on
with a corrupt tree, and what comes out of your mouth will
be the evidence that it's an evil tree. Content with your
externalism, you'll go on manifesting that the true treasure is an
evil treasure, because out of that treasure will come forth
bad things. And he's telling them, give yourself
no rest until you know that you have experienced this inward
radical transformation of the heart that will turn the bad
tree into a good tree, that will change the evil treasure into
a good treasure. So I say the essential prerequisite
for overcoming the sins of the tongue is the blessing of a new
heart and a new spirit and the indwelling presence and power
of the Holy Spirit, one of those fundamental graces and blessings
promised in the New Covenant. I hope I've carried your judgment
from the Bible. Having sought to identify this
essential prerequisite, we come secondly to the essential prerequisite
justified. In other words, why is this the
essential starting place? Is this an arbitrary thing? No. I answer for two basic reasons.
Two basic reasons as to why this renewal of heart is the essential
prerequisite to overcoming the sins of the tongue, and here
are my two reasons. Without this renewal of your heart in regenerating
grace, you will have no gospel-born power to govern your tongue as
you ought, and secondly, Without this renewal of your heart in
regenerating grace, you will have no gospel-born motives to
govern your tongue as you ought. Without this regenerating grace,
you and I lack both power and motivation to govern our tongues
as we ought. Again, you see, the connection
with Matthew 12, Matthew 7, what comes out of the mouth is a revelation
of the state of the heart and we have no power to change our
hearts and when God gives specific directions With respect to this
matter of how we use our tongues in the members of our bodies,
he does so in the context in which he is assuming that the
directives come to people who are within the orbit of gospel-born
power. The dynamics of grace given through
the gospel are operative in them. Let's look at a couple of examples.
Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. The Apostle has opened up the
great truth that in union with Christ we died with him, we were
buried with him, we've been raised to newness of life. And now he
says in the light of that, verse 12 of Romans 6, do not let therefore
sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lust
thereof. Neither present your members unto sin as instruments
of unrighteousness, but Present yourselves unto God, now notice,
as alive from the dead. Whatever I'm asking you now to
do, and this is the first imperative in the whole of the book of Romans,
verse 11. Let not sin reign in your mortal
body. I'm sorry, verse 11 is the first
imperative. Reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, and
here's the outworking of it. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body. Don't allow the sins of the tongue
to govern you. And it's as though someone says,
but Paul, how can I do that? He says, because in union with
Christ, you have died with Christ, you have been raised from the
dead in union with Christ. As alive from the dead, you must
now present yourself unto God. Now notice, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God, for sin shall not exercise
lordship over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."
You see what he says? Here's this unruly member, the
tongue, what am I to do with it? I am not to deal with it
detached from the dynamics of grace, of gospel-born power,
but in the power of union with Christ, my living Head, in whom
and with Him I died to sin. I have been raised from the dead.
As a new man raised from the dead, I say, Lord, I'm yours. I'm your resurrected man. I'm
your resurrected woman. I'm your resurrected young woman.
I'm your resurrected young man. Lord, here's my whole body. And Lord, I'm going to get specific.
I give you my eyes, that they might function as rays from the
dead eyes. Eyes over which sin has no rightful
lordship. Lord, I present them to you.
Ears, Lord, they are rays from the dead ears. And I present
them to you. My tongue is a raised from the
dead tongue. I present it to you to be an
instrument of righteousness, a tongue over which sin has no
rightful lordship, because sin's claims over me were exhausted
in my union with Christ in death, burial, and now in resurrection
life. You see, Paul does not ask them. to present their members in cold,
naked obedience, detached from gospel-born power, but as those
in whom that power is operative. Am I making sense? You see? And that's why Jesus
said, you've got to make the tree good and its fruit good.
You've got to get the treasure good, if you want good things
to come out of the treasure. For without that renewing, regenerating
grace and power and union with Christ, we have no power to deal
with these sins. And then in Colossians chapter
3, you have a similar emphasis. One of the main texts we looked
at in dealing with specific sins of the tongue was here in Colossians
chapter 3. Shameful speaking out of your
mouth, wrath and malice, verse 8. Now look at the context. Paul
has demonstrated that we are united to Christ in death and
resurrection and he says in chapter 3 verse 1 if then since then
would be a better rendering you were raised together with Christ
seek the things that are above verse 5 put to death therefore
your members upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire,
covetousness for which things sake the wrath of God comes on
the sons of disobedience wherein you once walked when you lived
in these things But now put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice,
railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don't lie one
to another. Why? You have put off the old
man with his doings and have put on the new man that is being
renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Since you have put off the old man, here's another biblical
category of imagery. What is regeneration? It is not
only this new heart, the heart of stone removed, the heart of
flesh given, the spirit imparted. It is not only being united to
Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. It's a putting
off of the old man and a putting on of the new. He said, now since
you put off the old and put on the new, as those within the
orbit of gospel-born power, you are to put away these sins of
the tongue, lying, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your
mouth. Those were things characteristic
of what you were when you were old man. You have put off the
old man. In union with Christ, you've
put on the new. Let your tongue Be reflective
of who you are as a new man in Christ. That's the emphasis of
scripture. And that's the explicit teaching
of our Lord when he said, without me, apart from me, severed from
me, you can do nothing. Nothing. They that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Romans 8 and verse 8. That's
why the essential prerequisite for dealing with the sins of
the tongue, for overcoming them, seeing the tongue cultivated
and developed into an instrument of grace and blessing, the essential
prerequisite is regenerating grace. We've got to make the
tree good. We've got to make the treasure
good. Reason number one, without this
renewal, You will have no gospel-born power to overcome the sins of
the tongue. And secondly, without this renewal,
you will have no gospel-born motives to govern your tongue
as you ought. Now, I want you to think for
a minute. This is not an age that thinks a lot about anything,
except how to make money and how to have sex. That's the definition of the
average American. Half his time is spent thinking how to have
money and the other half is thinking about sex. Sad, but that's true. If you don't believe it, just
watch any sitcom between 8 and 10 on network television. I want you to think now. I'm
saying that the second reason why the essential prerequisite
to overcoming the sins of the tongue is that without that renewing
grace, we have no gospel-born motives to govern our tongue.
Why is this motive business so important? A motive is described
in our dictionaries as an inner drive or intention that causes
us to do something or to act in a certain way. I tried this
out on my wife when I was trying to think through some imagery. I like to think of our motives
as the motors of our soul. Our motives set in motion the
things we do. They're the motives. They're
the motors of our lives. I mean, the motives are the motors
of our lives and of our actions, not of our souls. The internal
motors We do what we do because we desire what we desire. And motive is critical. Motive
can mean the difference between an action being virtuous or vicious,
being pleasing to God or displeasing to God. Remember what Jesus said
to the Pharisees? All their external religious
activities were all right in themselves. They prayed, They
gave alms, they fasted. But what made them wrong? It
was motive. He said they do these things, why? In order to be seen
of men. So a noble action in itself was
made rotten and stinking in God's nostrils because of the wrong
motive. Remember what James says? He
says you have, but you don't get what you ask for. Why? Because
you ask with a wrong motive. You ask in order to consume it
upon your own lusts. Motives are critical. And I am
saying that one of the reasons Jesus said, you've got to make
the tree good, you've got to make the treasure good, this
essential prerequisite for controlling our tongues is renewing grace,
for without it, There will be no dismantling of the internal
sinful motives that drive the actions of our tongue. We need
to have God come into the motive factory, which is the motor of
the soul, and dismantle the machinery and set up a whole different
set of motors. And our motives are the motor's
motives of the soul. What are some of them? Well,
when God takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of
flesh and puts his spirit within us, with that mighty renewing
work comes a whole new set of motives. Now, they need to be
nurtured and cultivated. And sometimes through carelessness
and backsliding of heart, some of them can be dimmed and dulled
in the motors of the soul that ought to be driving us are just
barely moving, and sometimes it seems like a bearing in them
is burned out and it needs repair. I'm fully conscious of all the
vicissitudes, but the Spirit of God implants a whole new set
of internal motors, or motives. And what are some of them? Well,
first of all, love to Christ, rather than love of self. 2 Corinthians
5. The love of Christ constrains
us. For we thus judge, Paul said, one died for all therefore all
died and that he died for all that they who live should henceforth
no longer live unto themselves but unto him over their sakes
died and rose again Paul can go on to say in 2nd Corinthians
5 wherefore we are ambitious to be well pleasing to him that's
a motive implanted in the soul of every single regenerate man
or woman boy or girl If you do not know what it is to some real
degree to be constrained by the love of Christ, no longer to
live with yourself at the center, you are not a Christian. Write it down. If you're a stranger
to this motive of wanting to please Christ out of gratitude
for what Christ has done, His love holds you in its grip. The love of Christ constrains
me. It presses in upon me in such
a way that I no longer am committed to a self-centered, self-pleasing,
self-willed life, but to a Christ-pleasing, Christ-centered, Christ-governed
life. That's the motive of the soul. Now think of that relationship
to the tongue. Here someone's done wrong to me, and my initial
tendency is to want to take words and make a club and beat them,
take a sword and pierce them. But I say, Lord Jesus, I'm not
living to please myself and to give vent to the passions and
the pressures of my remaining sin and some of those old motors
that used to drive all that I was. Lord Jesus, You died for me that
I might live to You. And I know that saying this word
will not please You and making this club and this sword will
not please You. Lord Jesus, give me grace to
please You. And what I don't say. Love to Christ becomes a motive
for the restraining of our speech. Not only love to Christ, but
love to the members of the body of Christ. Remember how Paul
put this central in Ephesians 4? He says, lie not one to another. Why? Seeing we are members one
of another. When we do something to a brother
or sister, we do it to Christ. 1 Corinthians 8, he says, when
you abuse your liberty and wound a weak brother in so sinning,
he says, you sin against Christ. When you touch the members of
his body, you touch Christ's head. And surely this motive
of wanting to do good to the fellow members of the body is
a powerful motive. It's one of the motives implanted
in our hearts in regenerating grace. There is the motive of
maintaining a good conscience to God and man. Oh, how many words will be kept
back when we are governed by that motive of the maintenance
of a good conscience. Furthermore, the motive of pleasing
God, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4 in verse 1, he said, in our
instruction to you, what was the thing we were conveying?
Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you that as you received
of us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you walk. Paul said, I assume you people
have this motor in you that says, please God, please God, please
God. not to earn His grace, not to earn His favor, but because
you received His favor, you want to please Him. Paul said, we
taught you how to please God. That's a motive in the heart
of every regenerate man or woman. You know anything of what that
is? I want to please God. I want to elicit the smile of
God in what I say, in what I don't say, in what I refuse to say,
in what I'm constrained to say. That's a gospel-born motive.
Love to Christ, love to the members of the body of Christ, the maintenance
of a good conscience, seeking to please God, fear of grieving
the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4, in a context that
deals with words and attitudes of the heart, he says, and do
not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed to
the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you.
It's the context, the words. And when I realized that what
comes out of my mouth can grieve the very one who has come as
my gracious gift and indwelling guest in new covenant blessing.
Everything I know of Christ saving me, the Holy Spirit has shown
me. Everything I know of the consolations of the presence
of Christ, the Holy Spirit mediates it to me. Everything I receive
of new light from the Word, the Holy Spirit gives it to me. Do
I want to grieve so gracious a guest? What a powerful motive
is this motive of not wanting to grieve the Spirit. Well, I
could go on. Have I given you enough to persuade
you? That when God renews us, friend, He comes in and dismantles
a whole bunch of motors that drove us and motivated and governed
what we did. And He puts up a whole new shop
of motors within us. And that's why the Lord said,
come make the tree good. Part of making the tree good
is implanting within that heart these gospel motives. Now do
you see in summary why I've said that this powerful spirit-wrought
internal renewal is the essential prerequisite for overcoming the
sins of the tongue. Only as you have a new heart
and are given the gift of the Spirit will you have sufficient
power and sufficient motivation to overcome the sins of the tongue. Only as you've had a demolition
of your native internal motors and the installation of a new
array of motors Will you be able to control and overcome the sins
of your tongue? So for some of you, hear me carefully
now, and here I'm reading what I've written because I want to
cut very carefully. For some of you, the greatest
evidence that you are a stranger to the transforming work of the
Holy Spirit is your tongue. You're not out womanizing. You're
not out stealing, staying up late at night when wife or husband
has gone to bed and using your computer to drink in pornography. All kinds of sins all around
you. You're innocent. But the way you use your tongue
is the evidence that the tree is still bad. Is the evidence
that the treasure is still rotten. The words you speak to your husband,
the words you speak to your wife, the words you speak to your children,
there is a dominance of sin in this member. And my Bible says
if you're a Christian, sin does not exercise lordship over you. You've deceived yourself. Because
you're not guilty of some of these grosser sins that the Bible
says are inconsistent with professing to be in a state of grace. I
remind you that in such a list where Paul says, don't be deceived,
you Corinthians, no adulterers, no fornicators, no unclean people,
no idolaters. Remember what he put right in
the middle of those? No railers. No people who have a pattern
of abusive, aggressive, ungodly, hurtful, wounding speech shall
enter the kingdom of heaven. I didn't write it, God's written
it. God puts your railing tongue
alongside idolaters and adulterers and he said you'll all go to
hell unless you repent. And some of you need to face
that issue. Not only adults, but some of
you kids that have learned the unholy art of picking, of pricking
and probing with your words, needling to get a negative response
from your siblings, from your classmates. You've become masters
of using your tongue to provoke others to sin. And it's the evidence you've
got an unchanged heart. You need to face it. And I've
cried to God, Oh God, use your word, use the preaching of it
to cut through the self-deception of some children and young people
and adults sitting in this place. Make the tree good, Jesus said. Make the treasure good. What's
the true state of your heart? It's what comes out of your mouth,
for the tree is known by its fruit. And if I could have a transcript
of the words that a number of some of you have spoken this
week, and just push the button, play them back, and say, all
right, folk, impartial judgment. Are those the words that you'd
call good fruit from a good tree? Are they the rotten fruit from
a rotten tree? Are those the words of a good
treasure opening itself out in good things? Or an evil treasure
pulling out its evil things? Now remember, I am not denying
the words of James. In many things we all offend.
If any offend not in word, the same is a perfect man able to
bridle a whole body. Rarely does a week pass that
I don't have to confess, at least to my wife, some sin or other
with my tongue. I'm not talking, don't even sit
here and say, oh, he's talking about sinless. You know me better
than that. Now don't cop out. Don't do that. Don't do that.
Have enough love for your soul to let me love your soul, to
be honest with you, without that kind of cop out. I'm not talking
about perfection. I'm talking about a pattern.
And the pattern of your tongue is a tongue under the governance
of sin. And my Bible says sin will not
exercise lordship over you if you're under the domain of grace.
You're still under the condemning, galling power of the law. You
are outside of Christ. You need to go to Jesus, mediator
of the new covenant, and say, Lord Jesus, you said in that
covenant you'd take out the heart of stone, you'd give a heart
of flesh, you'd give your spirit, you'd make your people keep your
statutes. Lord Jesus, give me a new heart. new spirit. Place your spirit
within me, giving me power and motivation to deal with this
rotten, foul, sinful member that exists between my cheeks and
my jaws. Lord Jesus, as I come to you
as Medarator of the New Covenant, to pardon and cleanse my sin,
to bring me into a saving acquaintance with God, to bring me into covenant
commitment of the whole Trinity to me and my salvation. Lord
Jesus, give me this great blessing of the New Covenant. Take out
my heart of flesh. Give me heart of stone. Give
me a heart of flesh. Write your law upon it, that
I might begin to do what Paul said, as one alive from the dead,
present my members, including my tongue, to be an instrument
of righteousness unto you." Well, we've considered the essential
prerequisite identified, justified, and now very quickly and briefly,
the essential prerequisite qualified. We've seen that Jesus teaches,
under the figures of a tree and a treasure, that the essential
prerequisite for a governed tongue is a renewed nature. We have
seen why this is so. Without it, there will be no
gospel-born power, nor gospel-born motives to govern our tongue.
Now, the devil will seek to abuse and distort this truth in two
areas, and I want to address them briefly. Number one, for
those of you who are not yet Regenerate. You're not yet converted. You're not yet the recipient
of a new heart. The devil will come along and
try to get you to reason like this. Well, since you don't have
the power and you don't have the motive to govern your tongue,
why be a hypocrite? Isn't it hypocritical to govern
your tongue when you don't have either the power or the motive?
He'll come along and tell you that. So then you'll go on and
say, oh well, so I can do what I want with my tongue. No, listen,
don't do that. Remember what Jesus said, every idle word that
men shall speak. Do you want to increase your
judgment? If for no other reason than to keep your judgment as
a minimum, you better learn to control your tongue insofar as
you are able to control it. You want hell to be hotter? Then
just lay the reins on the neck of your tongue and say, go wherever
you want. Kick the sides of the horse of your tongue. and let
it rail on and rant on and cut and wound and curse and lie. And God will intensify the flames
of hell for you. No, don't believe the devil's
lie. You'll say, well, isn't it hypocritical? You're not a
Christian. No, it's not hypocritical. It's a matter of you saying,
I must do something with this tongue. And you want something
that will make you feel keenly you need Jesus? You try to control
your tongue for one day and you're not a Christian. And you're going
to come to the words of Top Lady, what though I cannot break my
chains, I cannot throw off my load. God, you command me to
speak truth, but my tongue lies as natural as breathing. And
the Bible talks about people who breathe out lies. Some of
you can lie as easy as breathing. And you say, I'm going to tell
the truth. You're going to see how bound you are to your lies.
And that's going to be God's means to remind you, you need
Jesus. You need Jesus. Set yourself
to control your tongue with whatever power you presently have, and
it will bring you to the persuasion. I don't have power in myself
to change it so that it becomes what God says it ought to be.
And in that very effort, God will, with His blessing, bring
you to despair and to throw yourself upon Christ. And then He'll come
to some of you parents and cause you to reason this way, Since
my children don't yet know the power of the gospel, they don't
know the motivations of the gospel, I don't want to make Pharisees
and hypocrites out of them, so I'll just let them talk meanly
one to another. I'll just let them lie. I don't
want to make hypocrites. No, no, parents, remember your
duty. You're to rear them, nurture them in the chastening and admonition
of the Lord. You can't change the tree and
the treasure, but you can and must. condition their consciences,
and govern their external behavior. They may curse in their heart
in their bedroom, but you don't let them curse to your face in
the living room. They may speak meanly under their breath in
the privacy of the bedroom, but you do not tolerate mean speech
between siblings where you can hear it. The rob and reproof
give wisdom. Give them wisdom about how to
use their tongues. And don't buy into this nonsense
that since they're not Christians, I can't expect this pattern of
behavior from them. You are God's instrument to impose
that pattern of behavior by instruction, by discipline, by the use of
the rod. And under God, hopefully, your
faithfulness will be a little mirror image of what God will
do to them in the last day if they despise that instruction
and despise that correction and become an instrument in God's
hands to bring them to seek the Lord. while he may be found. Well, that's what I desired to
tell you this morning. What are you going to do with
it? Can you sit here and say, by the grace of God, I know from
Jesus that great blessing of new covenant salvation. I remember
a time when lying was as easy to me as breathing, when I could
cut and wound with sarcastic words, and I was a master of
bloody repartee, and I could enter the joust with anyone and
cut and slash. God's taken that away from me.
I know sin no longer has lordship over me because of what's happened
to my tongue. Can you say that? And even if
sins of the tongue were not a dominant sin, can you say, sitting here
today, the things I do say and do not say have no explanation
but that gospel-born power and gospel-born motives are influencing
this little member between my jaws? Can you say that while
fully acknowledging I sin with my tongue daily? I must go to
Jesus daily for the sins of my tongue. But I bless God that
sitting here today, I can say my tongue is governed by gospel
born power and by gospel born motives. If so, bless God for
it and pray that more and more that power and those motives
will more and more sanctify this tongue so that what God says
will be true of all of us. that our speech will be seasoned
with grace, that in turn it may minister grace to those that
hear. Let's pray. Our Father, we're so thankful
that you do not traffic in mere external moralism, vapid behavior,
without internal transformation. And we pray that the Holy Spirit
would take this word and cause it to be brought home to each
of our hearts with power. We do thank you. Many of us can
thank you that we can say with judgment day honesty that our
tongues have known the transforming grace of the Spirit's regenerating
power and that we do know to some measure those motors, motors
of gospel motives, regulating what we do and do not do with
our tongues. But Lord, we want more and more
of that grace to be operative and evident in all of our interactions,
that our tongues may be so governed that it may be evident to all
that Christ the Lord possesses them. We pray for those who,
if they are honest, must acknowledge that their tongues witness against
them, and their tongues reveal their graceless state. Father,
don't let them remain in that state, but in mercy draw them,
constrain them, give them no rest until they know Jesus and
His saving power. Hear us and answer us, for your
praise and honor we plead. Amen.