All right, James chapter three.
I titled our lesson this morning. Is my tongue harmful or helpful? Every message ought to be prepared
and preached in such a way that it's for everyone. And that certainly
is the case this morning because we all have a tongue and we can
use it. One of two ways to be helpful
or to be harmful. You know, we need to be very
careful what we say and how we say it. because the tongue can
be destructive or it can be helpful. You know, the same tongue that's
used to give encouraging words and comforting words can also
be used to destroy peace. The same tongue that can give
good instruction can also teach damnable heresies. James here
in James chapter three begins talking to preachers. Verse one,
he says, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we
shall receive the greater condemnation. Now, here's what James is saying
here. He said, don't desire to be a self-appointed teacher of
the gospel. That's what many masters means
to preachers or teachers. Don't desire to be a self-appointed
authority where you can hold everybody to your standard because
you think, I'm right qualified to preach. I'm the one that can
tell people, you know, I'm so much smarter than everybody else.
I can do that. You know, a person who's willing to put themselves
in a ministry, I promise you has no idea what they're asking
for. James' warning here to teachers
and to preachers is this, that you will be held to a higher
standard by others. If you don't like it, I'm sorry,
that's just so. That's just a fact of the matter.
People hold preachers to a higher standard than they do other people.
And more importantly, God will too. God's going to judge preachers
and teachers with greater severity. because they're supposed to know
better. We must give account of our ministry to the Lord.
And this is why we're told not to lay hands on any man suddenly.
Don't be so anxious to make a man a preacher that you put a novice
in the pulpit because you're not doing him any favors. There was a, I don't even remember
who it was, a young, young man that his pastor was, was wanting
him to preach and an old man said, what are you Do one. Don't
you love that boy? Don't do that. Don't put a novice
in the pulpit. It'll be harmful to him. It'll
be harmful to the congregation. Look back at 1 Timothy chapter
1. Almost all of the problems in religion today come from the
pulpit. Come from untaught and unfortunately,
untaught men and untaught women, unfortunately. being in the pulpit,
who were not sent there by God. 1 Timothy 1 verse 6, from which
some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling. What they're saying is not, it's
just noise. Desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Now I understand them wanting
to teach. I mean, most believers would
like to teach, would like to tell people about the Lord. But
they've got no business doing it. Not in the pulpit, they don't. God hadn't taught them. God hadn't
sent them. God hadn't given them a message
to preach. And nothing can be more harmful to souls than that.
We won't let somebody teach our children social studies until
they've gone through the right amount of training, until they're
ready. And that's the way it should be. Well, teachers of
God's word must be held to a higher standard than that. We ought
to care a whole lot more who's teaching our children the gospel
than we do who's teaching them geography. Now, all that being
said, we should never discourage young men from entering the ministry.
Scripture tells us if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires
a good thing. Our Lord told us, pray that the
Lord send forth laborers into his harvest. Well, don't pray
that the Lord send forth laborers and then discourage them when
they're ready to go labor. We need men to preach the gospel.
What a blessing it is both for him and for us. I'm, I'm always
encouraged to see the Lord call a young man to begin preaching. It encourages me. I think the
Lord's not done yet. He's not done with this generation
yet. Now, I never will try to make a man a preacher, but I
will encourage and support a man if God's in it. Being a preacher
takes more than a fluent tongue and not being afraid to speak
publicly. Y'all might be shocked by this,
but when I was in high school and college, I refused to speak
publicly. I refused to speak in front of
a class. I'd take an F rather than do it. I know that surprises
you now. But in my very last quarter at
Ohio State, I thought, you know, you might should take a speech
class. You might have to speak in front of somebody someday.
That might be the whole reason I went to college. I don't know.
But by God's grace, I kind of got over that. But a fluent tongue
and not being afraid to speak in front of a crowd, that's not
what qualifies you to be a preacher. Henry said, this is not an exact
quote, but he said something like this. He said, it takes
more than a fluent tongue and a loud voice to be a preacher.
If God doesn't equip a man and God doesn't send him, he's got
no business being in the ministry. But if God equips him and God
sends him, you watch out. You watch out. He's going to,
he's going to be helped somebody. But here's another warning to
preachers. And this is you, all of us take this warning to ourselves.
God or any preacher can be harmful or helpful to souls. Verse two,
he says, for many things we offend all. If any man offend not in
The same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole
body. Now let's begin with the gospel. Let's begin with God's
preacher. The gospel is offensive. It's offensive to the flesh.
The offense of the cross is this. This is what the cross declares.
That men are so lost. Men are so vile in sin. They cannot save themselves.
Men are so vile. wretched in their sin, that the
only way they can be saved is through the awful, bloody sacrifice
of Christ. They can't contribute anything
to their salvation. It must be all Christ. We are offensive to God. Every one of us here, by nature,
we're offensive to God. And the only way that we can
be brought into God's presence is through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We can't do anything to get God
to save us. Christ must do it all because we can't contribute
anything to it. Now that's offensive to the flesh.
That's offensive to the pride of flesh. That's offensive to
the righteousness of the flesh. So if the gospel is being preached,
we will offend the flesh every single time we preach. Jonathan
told me recently, kind of shocked me for a minute until I realized
what he was saying. He said, you offend me every time you preach. Well,
that's good. That must mean the gospel is
being preached. But let's be sure of this now, be sure of
this. If we offend somebody, let's
make absolutely certain it's because of the gospel we preach,
not because of us and our awful attitude. Now this doesn't just
apply to preachers, but to all of us. We can all fall into things
to a thought pattern, to an attitude, to doing things that will offend
other people. It's far too easy to do. It's far too easy for us to fall
into that, and it's far too easy for us to be offended by something
somebody's doing that they don't mean to be offensive at all.
So we must be watchful. But this is also saying this.
First of all, we offend the flesh by preaching the gospel, but
second, We offend all by preaching a lie, by preaching a false gospel. That gospel is offensive to God. And it will, right now it won't
be, but eventually that's going to be offensive to the person
who believes it. God sends them to hell for believing.
Here's a serious, serious warning to those who desire to be a teacher.
We who preach and be responsible for it. Well, a preacher can also do
this. We can offend all by how we say what we say. You can preach
the truth in such a way that you make people mad by how you
said what you said. It wasn't the content of the
message that offended them. It was the attitude of the messenger
that offended them. Now I'll give you an example
by telling one myself. We'll be sitting, Janet and I
will be sitting at night watching our shows. And she'll say, do
you want to rub my feet? And I'd say, sure, I'd love to. And she says, oh, good. And she
puts her feet up on my lap, and she gets lotion. She wants it
done just a certain way, you know? Or she can say, do you
want to rub my feet? And I'd say, sure, I'd love it.
And she won't stick her feet up my lap. And I said, what are
you doing? She said, no, I don't want you to rub my feet now.
You made me mad. I said the exact same words, the exact same words. How I said it made her say, I
want you to rub my feet. For me to feel good if I rubbed
it. But she said, no, I don't want you to if you said it that
way. God forbid that someone would
not come to Christ to have all the blessings that there are
in Him because I said something in a way that was offensive.
And the mature person learns when to speak and when not to
speak. And they've learned how to speak when we do speak. This is what James is telling
us. Somebody knows how to hold his tongue, that person won't
say something offensive. And that's a mature believer.
If someone doesn't offend people by how they say what they say,
they've learned something. That's a mature believer. Now
there are times to keep our mouth shut. One of my favorite quotes
is, take every opportunity to keep your mouth shut. Just because
we have a tongue doesn't mean we have to use it. Just because
I have a thought or opinion doesn't mean everybody's entitled to
hear it. I can't offend by word if I keep my mouth shut, can
I? But don't take that to the extreme.
There are times we need to speak, there are times Something must
be said. And the mature believer knows
the difference. And they know how to say what needs to be said,
so that person will accept their correction or their instruction.
And if we learn to govern our tongue, we're gonna go a long
way to governing our whole life. If we can control our tongue
for the glory of God, we're gonna learn how to control the rest
of our life for the glory of God. Now, the tongue's a small
thing, Boy, it can produce huge results, both good or bad. And James gives us three illustrations.
The first one in verse three is a horse's bit. We put bits
in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about
their whole body. Now, a horse is a great, big,
strong animal. He's wild by nature. He's self-willed
by nature. But you know, a rider can tame
that horse. and put a bit in that horse's mouth and turn that
horse wherever he wants to go. That bit just weighs a few ounces. But those few ounces in the hand
of a skilled rider can turn a 2,000-pound horse wherever he wants to go.
So now that horse can be used for good, can't he? He can be
used for work. He can be used for transportation.
He can be used just for pure enjoyment. Last year, Jan and
I were down at the beach. Hundreds of people just kept
riding horses back and forth in front. For no other reason
than just pure enjoyment. That bit put in a horse's mouth
can be used for the good of the economy. How much do we here
in Kentucky love the Kentucky Derby? Boy, that just brings
money into our economy. No. All because of a bit. Well,
the tongue in our mouth is in the mouth of a strong-willed,
self-willed person. who's a wild sinner by nature.
That tongue, just a few ounces. But if it's controlled by grace,
the whole person can be used for good. He can preach the gospel
to the saving of souls. He can instruct people. God's
people can comfort and encourage one another with a tongue controlled
by grace. That tongue affects the whole
life and the life of everybody around them. All right, the second
example he uses is a ship's rudder, verse four. 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." I've heard Henry talk about those ship's
rudders he saw in the Navy, and those ships were up on dry dock,
and just how small the rudder is compared to the rest of the
ship. And I've just been on a large ship once, on a cruise ship,
and I went looking for that rudder, at least what you could see,
you know, from over the water. And the rudder is a very small
thing compared to that huge ship. But you know, a wise captain
can use that thing to control that ship. He can use it to put
her on the rocks, or he can use it to put her right in the dock. I watched that ship. That thing
was massive. And every time we came into port,
it utterly amazed me. I was just watching. And I kept
asking, how does he do that? Look at this. How does he do
this? He just brought that thing in there and parallel parked
it a foot from the dock. How does he do that? I'm just
amazed. It all depends on whose hand.
I couldn't do it. It just depends whose hand the rudder's in, doesn't
it? That's our tongue. It's small compared to the rest
of our body. But our whole life will be affected by it. That
tongue can put us and put others right on the rocks. make shipwreck
of men's souls like Hymenus and Alexander did. Or that same tongue
could be used to point men to Christ, to shelter in him. That
tongue can be used to make friendships or it can be used to put that
friendship on rocks and destroy it. It can be used to comfort
someone or it can be used to utterly destroy their confidence.
It just depends who's in control. The third example he gives us
here is fire. Even so the tongue is a little
member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members
that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course
of nature. And it is set on fire of hell. Now the tongue is a
small thing, but boy, it boasts great things, doesn't it? It
can produce great things. The tongue boasts of great spiritual
things that aren't true. It's the tongue that boasts of
our goodness, of our own righteousness, of our love, and our faith, and
our devotion, and our decision. The tongue boasts great things
that aren't true. And the tongue is little, but boy, it produces
great things. It produces big results. And
the example is fire. Your match is a small thing. And just a little bit of fire
on the end of a match could set the whole world on fire. Out west, you see every year
thousands and thousands of square acres burned up in a wildfire
where everything is just utterly destroyed. And often it comes
from somebody's campfire, just a match. It all started with
a match. A couple weeks ago, Jan was going
to be out of town before our church dinner. And I was going
to try to do what she does beforehand, decorate, put things where they
go. She took a sticky note and labeled every single thing. This one goes, this is a tablecloth
that goes on this table. This is a tablecloth that goes
on this table. You put these here, put this here. And she
had a sticky note on the matches even saying, put these by the
cake table out of reach of children. Why did she go to the trouble
of saying that? It's that little fire. Boy, it depends whose hands
it is, doesn't it? It could cause great damage.
That's our tongue. We need to remember, that's our
tongue. Our tongue can start a fire that's devastating, causes
devastation. Because notice what James calls
it? He said, it's set on fire of hell. Matthew Henry made this statement.
Hell has more to do in promoting the fire of the tongue than men
are generally aware of. We want to say something just
to satisfy my bad attitude. Could be the fire of hell. Probably
is if that's my attitude. The kind of fire that boasting
about the flesh starts, that's the fire of hell. That didn't
come from God. The tongue, preaching free will religion, starts a
fire of hell, burning in man's heart. Oh, they feel so emotional. They feel this fire burning in
them. They feel so invigorated. But it's the fire of hell that's
going to destroy their souls. The fire that starts because
somebody said something, just wanted to get back at somebody
and hurt their feelings. That's the fire of hell. That's
not of God. The tongue speaking hatefully, speaking of self-interest,
And self-promotion is the fire of hell and it destroys homes. The tongue can burn down a marriage
that once was happy. It can burn down the happiness
of a home that once was a happy home. The tongue can start a
fire that destroys friendships, that destroys reputations that
have stood for years. It's the fire of hell that comes
from our tongue. Tongue can start a fire. that'll burn down a church
that was once happy. The easiest way to burn down
a church and destroy the ministry, there's two ways. Number one,
is to start talking bad about the pastor's preaching. Just
picking at him over things that don't matter. And number two,
is carrying tales and gossiping about each other. We need to
remember this. There's enough sin in every one
of us that can be used as kindling to start a huge wildfire. It'll devastate this place. It'll
devastate a place that once was happy, that once was a place
where God was worshiped. But now everything's left charred
and dead because the fire of hell started on the tip of my
tongue. That's sobering, isn't it? Think
about that before we start talking about one another. But the tongue,
can also be used for good. See, that's why I'm not saying
shut your mouth and never say anything. The tongue can be used
for good. It just depends who's controlling
it. A controlled fire under the hand of a good cook makes me
eat a delicious meal. A fire that's controlled by a
furnace and a thermostat makes your home comfortable in the
dead of winter, makes it a nice, warm, comfortable place to be.
A fire controlled by smart engineers and a jet engine can send a plane
across the ocean in a matter of hours. It would take you weeks
to cross by ship. Well, the tongue is the same
thing. It can be used to start a fire that warms the heart because
you gave kind words, comforting words. The tongue can be used
to start a fire of a friendship, to stir up compassion, warmth
of compassion in the heart. It can start a good fire. It
just depends who's controlling it. Look back at Acts chapter
two. There's no doubt this is the
preeminent use that our tongues could be used for. The tongue
could be used to start the fire of the spirit. Acts chapter two,
verse one. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven. as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire,
and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance." And notice, they didn't start speaking until
the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, all that wasn't done to
give us an impressive show of the Spirit, an impressive miracle,
make us impressed with God the Holy Spirit. It was done for
the glory of Christ. This was done so that people
could hear the gospel in their own language. Now look over at
verse 41, this same chapter. Look what a good fire that started.
Verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them
about 3,000 souls and did stop there, and they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. What a good fire the tongue started.
It just depended on who was controlling it, didn't it? Now, back in our
text, James 3. For every kind of beast and of
birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and
hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It's an unruly evil full of deadly
poison. Now remember, God created Adam
and he told him, be fruitful and multiply. Go out here, you
have dominion over the whole earth. And for the most part,
that hasn't changed. Men can subdue and tame large
parts of the earth. And the example James uses here
is animals. Men have been doing this for
a long time, making animals do tricks. I mean, it's easy to
teach a dog to roll over, teach a dog to do tricks, you know.
People do it with dolphins. They do it with whales, they
do it with lions, even snakes. People charm snakes, train snakes
to do all these things. I mean, it's just, it's amazing.
And that's why people pay money to see them do it. I mean, it's
just, it's amazing. You just get a YouTube video
of dogs doing tricks, man, people watching this, I mean, wow. But
for all of our ability to tame things, to tame nature, to tame
animals, men cannot tame the tongue. It's not just that it's
seldom done. It's not just that few people
can do it. Nobody can do it. No man can tame the tongue. You
might be able to make it look like it for a while. But you
know what you've got? If someone thinks, well, he's
tamed his tongue. Just wait a minute. Just like
the lion tamer. Yeah, you think that lion's tame.
You just wait. You'll bite your head off. It's
not really tame. That's the tongue. It's not tame. And I tell you
the reason for it, and I've said all that to get to this point
right here, okay? Here's the reason our tongue
is such a problem. Do you want to know why? It's
because our heart's such a problem. That's the root of the problem.
The heart is the real problem, not the tongue, because it's
out of the abundance of the heart that mouths speak. You know why
our tongue says so many evil things? Do you know why we enjoy
saying evil, mean things? because our heart's evil, mean,
wicked. That's why. You know why it's so easy for
our tongue to tell a lie? I remember, I was a little, little
guy, the first time I consciously told my mother a lie. I mean,
I consciously decided to do it. You never taught me to do that,
but I remember consciously deciding to tell her a lie. You know why
that came so natural? Because my heart's full of lies. It loves a lie. Our evil heart
is so full of hate, that's why our tongue loves to say hateful
things. That's why it just makes us feel good sometimes to say
hateful things, because our heart's full of it. Our heart hates God. Our natural heart is enmity against
God, and that's why the tongue so fluently, so easily preaches
a false gospel. Well, is there any way the tongue
can be tamed? I mean, it sounds to me like
the best thing for me to do is just shut my mouth and never open
it, right? Is there any way this tongue can be tamed? There is. But men can't do it. Only God,
in His grace, can control the tongue. And I'll tell you how
He does it. He doesn't do it by reforming the tongue. He does
it by giving a new heart and a new birth. See, where there's
a new heart, the tongue is going to talk about new things. Out
of the abundance of the heart, the tongue is still going to
speak, but now it's going to speak of new things. Now it's
going to speak about grace and love and peace. Now it's going
to talk about forgiveness. Now it's going to talk about
the things of Christ because that's what the new heart is
full of. When there's a new heart, the tongue is going to talk about
things that promote Christ, that promote the cause of Christ.
When there's a new heart, the tongue is not going to be willing
to expose the faults of others. The tongue is going to speak
about forgiveness, speak of covering those things up. The tongue is
going to talk about ways we can have peace among brethren. And
God gives a new heart. Now that tongue is going to talk
in love. If you want to know, how do I
talk in love? How do I speak about my brethren,
my sisters? How do I speak about others in
love? Give you a rule of thumb. If we would talk to our brethren
and we would talk about our brethren, the way that we talk about our
children will speak in a way of love that promotes peace. If I talk about Sean Thornberry
the way that I talk about Holly and Savannah, Sean, you and I
are going to be friends a long time. You're going to like being
talked about that way. I mean, you know, my, not just
my time, my whole body lights up when I'm talking about them
girls. Well, if I talk about Sean the same way, We're gonna
be friends a long time. Brother Henry told us, how many
times did he tell us, before you speak, ask three questions. Number one, is it true? Number
two, is it kind? And number three, is it necessary?
I picked this up from Brother Todd Kniper. He said, before
you speak, think. Think, T-H-I-N-K. T, is it true? H, is this helpful? Is it helpful or is it harmful?
If it's harmful, I'm going to keep my mouth shut. If it's helpful,
I should say it. I, is it inspiring? Is it going to inspire somebody
to good? Is this going to inspire somebody
to Christ, to love, to peace, to joy? Is it inspiring? N, is
it necessary? A lot of things we say just aren't
necessary. But if it's necessary, we ought
to say it. And K, is it kind? If it is, we should say it. If
it's unkind, we shouldn't. But if it's kind, we should say
it. If God will teach us by his grace to control our tongue,
we'll control the rest of our life around us. And it'll be,
we won't cause this wildfire to destroy everybody around us,
but it'll be good for them. I don't want to be a blessing
to people. detrimental and harmful to others.
I want to be a blessing to others, don't you? Well, the way we start
is by controlling our time with grace. All right. Well, I hope
the Lord will bless that too.