The Problem With the Tongue

Transcript

GR 1650
07/29/2012
The Problem with the Tongue
James 3:2-12
Gil Rugh

We’re going to James chapter 3. James chapter 3. We’re talking about the tongue. James is concerned about the tongue. He’s touched on it in chapter 1 as we’ll remind ourselves. He’ll come back to it later but not to this extent. He has a rather full development. You get the idea James is a concerned for the believers that he is writing to, these Jewish believers who have been dispersed out from the land of Israel. James is centered in Jerusalem, in the church at Jerusalem, but the reports he gets would indicate he’s concerned that the use of their tongues does not reflect the work of God’s grace in their lives, so he addresses it rather directly.

He began chapter 3 by addressing the issue of teachers and warned them not many of them should become teachers because teachers will incur a stricter judgment when we stand before Jesus Christ. So we need to be careful about taking on the responsibility of being a teacher and then be very careful when we are exercising that responsibility. The reason in verse 2 is “We all stumble in many ways,” we all fail, but if anyone doesn’t stumble in the area of their speech, they are perfect. They are truly mature. They are able to control the rest of the body as well. So the last part of our bodies brought under control are our tongues. When a person has the control of their tongue, they will have the ability to control the rest of their body as well. So we all stumble in a variety of ways. Many times, would be the emphasis of that first part of verse 2, but if anyone would not stumble in the use of their tongue, they would have come to true maturity as a believer.

Now James is going to talk about the difficulty entailed in that, but before we’re done we’ll realize that doesn’t mean there is an excuse for anyone not to have control of their tongue. He talks about the almost impossibility of controlling the tongue, but he will conclude by saying there is no excuse for not to be controlled. So that balance. He moves on with that transition verse, in verse 2 after warning teachers in verse 1, to talk generally about the problem we have with our tongues even as believers. The end of verse 2 he says, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well,” able to bring the whole body under control. And that, referring to bridling the whole body, leads him into talking then in verse 3 to everyone. “Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.” He’s going to illustrate the significance of the tongue. It’s going to be a comparison. The tongue is a small part of the overall body, but it has tremendous influence and power over the rest of the body. So he’s going to illustrate that, and then he’ll move on to talk about the damage the tongue can do.

A horse is a large animal. You put a small bridle and bit into the horse’s mouth, bridle with the bit, you control the whole body. There’s the picture he talked about at the end of verse 2. If a person could control his tongue, not stumble in his speech, he’d be able to bridle the whole body, bring it under control. The example here, that small bit in the horse’s mouth and you control the whole mouth. You can control the whole body, get the horse to do what you want it to do. We direct their entire body as well. Amazing. That big, powerful horse. You put that little bit in their mouth, and a person controls the horse.

I believe it because James said it. I rode a horse once; it didn’t work, but it does work if you know what you’re doing. Uh, I kept hollering, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop,” but he didn’t understand. But the person who rides the horse, they use it and control the horse. So a small item, a bit in a horse’s mouth, with that the whole powerful horse can be brought under control.

Verse 4, second example, “Look at the ships also,” other words James is writing in the day of sailing ships,” though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.” So another example of a large item brought up under control, directed by something small. First the bit in the horse’s mouth controls the whole horse. Now a sailing ship, and they could be large. Josephus writes about sailing on a ship that had six hundred passengers. So you have these sailing vessels. Paul was on a ship in the book of Acts, and he noted there were almost three hundred people on that ship plus the cargo. But you have a relatively small item: the rudder, and that’s steering the ship and turning the direction at, determining the direction it will go, and the pilot sets the direction. So the large being controlled by the small. Now when you have control of the small, you have control of the large item is the picture that he is directing. You have to have control at the right place. So if you’re going to control the whole body, back to the end of verse 2, you have to have control of the tongue, and when the tongue is out of control, you don’t have control over the rest as well. So verse 5, “the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.” The point is the smallness of the tongue, the greatness of its impact. The greatness of its effect. A little bit in the horse’s mouth, a small rudder on a sailing ship, and it achieves big results. So it is with the tongue. “The tongue boasts of great things.” The point is the tongue can boast of accomplishments for good or bad all out of proportion to its size. The tongue is small in our body, but it can boast. It accomplishes great things. Great achievements. Great impact. That’s the point. It boasts of great things. This small tongue has an impact all out of proportion to its size.

All right, then James says, “See,” the word there is often translated in, our New Testaments “behold,” “how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” Now what James wants to do is draw our attention to the devastating impact of an uncontrolled tongue, and he compares it to a fire. Behold “how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” And the comparison continues to be the same. Something small has great impact. The impact of something small is all out of proportion to its size. The bit is small compared to the size of the horse. The rudder is small compared to the size of the ship. The tongue is small compared to the rest of the body. Now comparison to a small flame sets a huge blaze going. I mean somebody flicks a cigarette out of the window. That’s something small, insignificant in and of itself, but then you can have a raging fire. We’ve seen this in the fires in Nebraska recently, in Colorado. They can be started by something small, a careless match, cigarette, a little flame, and all the sudden you have a huge blaze going, a whole forest. How many hundreds of homes can be consumed? You say all out of that little thing? It has the power of great destruction. “See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” Now carrying it to the tongue. “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity.” The tongue is a fire.

Remember James is Jewish. He comes out of a strong Jewish background. He’s the head of the church, which is Jewish, in Jerusalem. He’s writing to believing Jews in other places. Come back to the Old Testament to the book of Psalms. Go to Psalm 57. Old Testament repeatedly talks about the devastating power of the tongue. Psalm 57, the psalmist here, David, the writer, is asking for God’s protection and deliverance from those who would destroy him, persecute him, destroy him. You come to verse 4, “My soul is among lions; I must lie among those who breathe forth fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. ” So it’s coming out of their mouth, geared toward destroying him. Their persecution, much of it comes from the rumors they spread, the slanders that come out of their mouth, seeking to destroy David. So their tongue described here is context of spears and arrows, their teeth. It’s coming out of their mouth, their tongue is a sharp sword. It brings destruction. So here he referred to it in the context of fire only, but he started out that “I must lie among those who breathe forth fire.” What’s that? What’s coming out of their mouth is for his ruin. You can use other examples then as he does. Weapons of war, a fire, weapons of war. The point is the tongue has this destructive power. It is being used against David, and it’s being effective. He’s calling on God to intervene on his behalf to prevent the destruction that his enemies would bring about with part of their weapons or their tongues.

Come over to, Psalm 120. Psalm 120. Again, the psalmist is seeking deliverance from his enemies and those who would attempt to destroy him without reason. “In my trouble I cried to the LORD, And He answered me. Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, You deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior, With the burning coals of the broom tree.” So you see the picture here of the devastating impact again using fire, again using weapons. That’s what the tongue becomes. As his enemies spread lies about David and slander about David they have the potential to turn a whole nation against him and bring about his ruin and his destruction.

Come over to Proverbs chapter 16. Come down to verse 27, “A worthless man digs up evil, While his words are like scorching fire. A perverse man spreads strife, a slanderer separates intimate friends.” I remember, uh, years ago when we were going through division and conflict among our own body. Someone in the body said to me, “You know if we could turn off the telephones for a while we would put an end to a lot of the problem.” That was their observation. What was going on? People talking to one another, passing on things. The devastating power, even among us as believers.

James is writing to believers, you know, “Oh yes, immorality, that’s a serious sin, murder, that would be a really bad one, stealing they say, but the tongue we let go. People can throw out these things with the tongue, “I don’t know if this is true or not, but” and we pass it on. Someone else passes it on, and pretty soon it’s what? It gets down to what? This is established fact. We can ruin reputations; we can ruin ministries. We can cast a cloud over people that’s hard to remove. Now with our vast access and exposure over the media we have, we can just pass things along, say things, put things on different sites that ruin people’s reputation. We don’t know how to stop that.

We as believers ought to understand the power of the tongue among ourselves and the reading about that. Come over to Proverbs 26. Making a point to bring us back to Proverbs as you noticed in our studies on the family, and here in James. There’s so much wisdom for us in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 26, look at verse 18. “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death,” you note the picture again, firebrands sending off the arrows that would cause, conflagration, a fire, and also arrows and death. What’s he picturing? “So is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, ‘Was I not joking?’ “For lack of wood the fire goes out, where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.” We wouldn’t pass it on, whisper it, share it with someone else. This is what I heard. This is what I think is happening. Things settle down. “Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.” What do we have? We have the words that fan the flames. It puts wood on the fire. “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.”

You know what happens when people pass that on? People come to my office and say, “Now I have to share this with you, but you can’t tell anyone.” I said, “Stop. That’s not something I can hear.” Is that kind of idle, and my ears are not open. Why? Cause if I hear it, now it’s in my mind, in my heart. I don’t want to hear it. If it’s something that you think shouldn’t be passed on, you don’t think I should tell anyone, then don’t tell me. What am I supposed to do with it? Do I look like the garbage can? I mean just dump it on me. Then I go home, and it’s goin on in my mind, and I’m wondering is that true, but I can’t tell anyone. Now I’m stuck with it. I mean no, I don’t want to hear it. Don’t tell me. What do I do? Honestly, literally I’ve had people leave my office crying because I couldn’t listen to them. What am I supposed to do?

They don’t come for help. They come because they want the pass something on to me. “Don’t tell anyone. You can’t, you must promise not to tell anyone.” “I promise you I won’t tell anyone cause I’m not going know it because you’re not going to tell me.” Now we’re all happy. But they’re not happy. Next thing I know they’re crying. What you crying about? I’m not going to tell anyone because I don’t know. Puts a dead end to it, right? If that kind of thing, don’t you tell anyone. If it’s a kind of thing that you don’t think ought to be passed on, don’t pass it on. “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, . . . they go down into the innermost parts of the body.” And we do like to hear those things, don’t we? Hmm, well, it’s nice that, you know, I, I know something. Better I don’t know. “Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart.” You don’t cover up what it is. There is a veneer over it, but it is what it is. “He who hates disguises it with his lips, But he lays up deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, For there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred covers [it,] itself with guile, His wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. He who digs a pit will fall into it, . . . he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, And a flattering mouth works ruin.”

You note those verses, just these that we pulled out, the devastating potential of the tongue. You know it’s terrible thing. You raise doubts about a person. How does a person cover that? What do you say? I have to say in my ministry I have feared rumors more than I have feared the actuality. I mean if I commit a sin and it’s exposed, it’s something definite but a rumor, how do you ever deal with it? An accusation, a specific sin you may deal with but rumors? How do you take hold of a rumor? You know it just floats out there. It raises doubts in people’s minds. They’re always wondering about you because of what they heard about what somebody said. And we can do that to one another. James is concerned about that. He sees it going on among the believers he’s writing to. Remember he’s addressing believers, but they’re using their tongues like unbelievers. You’re going to talk about the inconsistency of that–that’s where we’re going.

Come back to James chapter 3. So as he writes to these Jewish believers, he’s not telling them something new, he’s reminding them of what God has said about the tongue. Verse 6, “the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity.” The uncontrolled tongue is a vast system of all kinds of iniquity, of godless activity. Its potential for evil ought to frighten us. That’s what James is saying. “The tongue is a fire,” it’s there and it always has that potential. “It’s a world of iniquity,” and once I turn it loose who knows what the consequences will be. “The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body” because when I sin with the tongue, I’ve defiled my body. I say, “Well I’m proud. I don’t commit immorality. Thank the Lord I’ve never been guilty of immorality. Thank the Lord I’ve never been guilty at murder,” but I can have a body that’s been defiled by my tongue. James is concerned about that. He wouldn’t be writing and telling these believers about the seriousness of the situation. They’re probably confidant, proud of their good behavior because the tongue we, we excuse it. “Well, you know, I mean say things that shouldn’t be said. I pass on rumors that shouldn’t be passed on. I gossip when I shouldn’t gossip, but you know at least I don’t commit any of the big sins.” James is saying this is the big one. It does more damage than any other sin. It’s set in “our member as that which defiles the entire body”; it “sets on fire the course of our life.”

The picture here is what the tongue does pervades through all of our life, and beyond then into all areas. It’s like the forest fire started by the small match. So now my whole life is embroiled, the lives of others, and serious, how serious it is, it is set on fire by hell, gehenna, and hell used here to refer to those who are identified with hell, Satan and his demons behind misuse of the tongue. We’ve talked about that in our study earlier today–the God of this world, the way He works. You know we have but a glimpse of the awesome power of the devil. You know it’s frightening to consider the potential of the tongue and that the devil can motivate my tongue as a believer. James is writing to believers and telling them that Satan wants the tongue to spread the blaze. That ought to put a good, healthy fear in us that when I step away from obedience to the Lord, I open myself up to influence of the devil. Pretty soon he’s got my tongue going, and now I’ve started a fire that I just can’t control; it’s like someone who lights the match. Maybe they say, “Well I didn’t intend that.” Doesn’t change the destructive impact of it, does it. Doesn’t change the fact that thousands of acres may have been consumed and homes burned or lives lost. Doesn’t change the fact. “Well I didn’t intend that.” Well, that doesn’t excuse what you did. If you hadn’t done what you did, you wouldn’t of caused the damage.

People back up. We have someone who burned down a building in our city. “Well I didn’t intend that.” Well, you lose control when you do what’s wrong. We think, “Well I can say this with my tongue, or I can start this fire, and I’ll control it.” No you won’t. Once it’s started it’s out of control,” and you can’t bring it back. I can’t undo it.” That’s James’ point. The devil sets it on fire, that’s what it means. “Set on fire by hell,” by those associated with hell. Hell was created for the devil and his angels. So when you talk about set on fire by hell, you’re talking about those for whom hell was prepared, the devil and his angels. It’s set on fire the course of our life; it’s set on fire by hell.

Turn over to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. The gospel in the eighth chapter. We’re going down to verse 43. Jesus says them, “You cannot understand what I am saying. ‘It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, . . . you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning.’” You know say, “Well there, there’s a serious sin. I can see the devil moves people to murder.” But you know where He goes with this? “’And [he] does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’” When I lie with my tongue, you know I have submitted myself to the father of lies, become an instrument in his hands for the accomplishing of his purposes. You may say, “How does that work?” How does the devil influence me like that? I don’t understand the awesome power that a being like Satan has. I appreciate the fact that the One in me is greater than the one who is in the world, but when I choose to rebel against the control of the One who dwells in me, the Spirit of God, and refuse to submit to the Word of God, I open the door to the influence of Satan in my life. That’s scary to think my tongue can become a lying tongue moved by the father of lies.

Well I want identified with the truth. That’s what James is writing to his Jewish believing friends about. The total, inconsistency of this. It should not be. Come over to 1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 Timothy chapter 4. Look at verse 1, “But the Spirit,” this is the Holy Spirit speaking, “explicitly [the Spirit explicitly] says that in later times some will fall away from the faith,” professing believers abandoning their profession, “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,” confusing those, at the end of verse 3, “who believe and know the truth.” I say once we get off track, that’s a serious issue. Because we get off track, we’ve now provided an occasion for the devil and his demons. He’s spreading here false teaching, false doctrines. These are the doctrines of demons geared to deceive and delude believers.

Peter writes about this and says “they make merchandise of believers” they gain support from, financial support. Why we get off track? We’re in trouble. We misuse the tongue. We start something, we just don’t say, “Oh, I apologize,” and everything’s together. How do we undo it? How do we put it right?

Had a pastor friend, what a great ministry. You know the rumors got rumbling, they couldn’t put them down. It got to the point his ministry was over. God has given him another ministry, but you can ruin a ministry. I had some correspondence with him. I tell other people that were, in the word there, “How do you stop it?” It just like a fire started, and it’s just feeding out there, and no matter who would step in of what stature, who spoke on his behalf, it just like you’re running around stomping on the fire, and it’s going around town and the ministry ruined. The impact of that, the power of the tongue.

Come back to James. Now what he’s going to do is draw attention to two more problems with the tongue. What he’s going to say is it’s both untamable and inconsistent, as a result you have to control it. So when he talks about it as untamable and can’t be tamed, he’s telling them that they have to do it, and in such a way that we realize this is serious business. It affects all of us, that’s where James picked this up.

“If anyone,” verse 2, ‘does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man,” he’s arrived at true, complete maturity because the last thing that will be brought under control is the tongue. None of us have mastered that yet, we’re all still stumbling in many ways. That doesn’t excuse us. That’s what James is going on to say here. So you see he’s really concerned about the misuse of the tongue. The tongue can be an instrument of great encouragement, great blessing, all of that, but James is concerned about its devastating impact when it’s improperly used.

Verse 7. “every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed [by man,] by the human race.” We brought it under control. God when He created, as we saw in Genesis 1, created man in His own image; male and female he created them to what? Rule over the rest of creation. Come back to Psalm 8, “O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed your splendor above the heavens” and so on. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon, the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God and crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; put all things under his feet. All sheep, oxen, the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, man rules over creation. That’s what James is saying back in James 3.

“But,” verse 8 of James 3, “no [man] can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” Despite our ability to rule over the rest of creation and bring it under control, dominate it, we can’t tame our tongue. It’s a restless evil. Back in chapter 1 of James, verse 8, this word was translated unstable. Talk about a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, restless in all his ways. Now we have the tongue, and it’s a restless, unstable evil. It never stops no matter how long you’ve been a believer, how faithful you’ve been to the Lord. The tongue is ready to give out some venom. Ever had a situation where you say something, you go away and you say, “Why would I say that? Why did I say that? Why would I talk that way?” You know even being rude to someone. You know and you say somethin, and you go away and say, “That was a terrible thing to say.” You know all of a sudden the tongue blabs! How did it get out? You know that’s the problem with the tongue. It walks around loaded. That’s why, James says here it’s full of deadly poison. You know the picture like the snake. It’s ready. When it strikes, the poison is there. You know walking around with its tongue, and it’s a restless, unstable evil, and it’s full of poison. It just ready. Could be let loose at any time. You don’t say, “What? What did I do?” Power of the tongue is immeasurable. It’s full of deadly poison.

We got to go back to Psalms again, Psalm 58. I remind you if you read one Proverb a day and five Psalms a day, you will go through the whole book of Proverbs and the whole book of Psalms in one month. So if you want something to do for the next month, we’re getting into a new month, the month of August, maybe break off your other reading in scripture pattern and say, I’m going to do Proverbs this month. That’ll be one Proverb every day and five Psalms. Now sometimes you’ll have to stretch yourself on the Psalms, they may be longer, but overall you’ll find you move through both books. All of that now to give you chance to get to Psalm 58 while I try to find it. Psalm 58 verse 3, “the wicked are estranged from the womb,” we talked about this with children. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, they’re born that way.
“Those who speak lies go astray from birth.” Now note this: “They have venom like the venom of a serpent; Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear, that does not hear the voice of charmers, Or skillful caster of spells.” I mean this tongue here is not controlled, and that’s a characteristic of our fallenness. The potential is here from birth. We are born sinners. “In sin we were conceived,” David says. “The wicked are estranged form the womb,” and they have the venom of a serpent.

While you’re there, come over to Psalm 140. Now you see here James is not really writing them anything new. It’s like we understand as believers today, it’s not we’re hearing new things; we have to be reminded of the old things. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about the tongue, not the first time we’ve studied James. We go back over it and I realize, I need to hear that again about my tongue. Psalm 140, again, David is talking about “Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; Preserve me from violent men; Who devise evil things in their heart; They continually stir up wars. They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; Poison of vipers is under their lips.” Now David sees here these violent men, their potential. Their tongue becomes a tool, and their tongue is full of venom. It’s destructive. That’s the picture.

That’s where James, what James picks up when you come back in verse 8. The tongue is this unstable evil. No one fully has it tamed because even though I’ve controlled my tongue and it seems like I’ve done well with it, it can just break out. I mean it’s more of a danger to me than immorality. I can plan to avoid a situation so I cannot get in a situation where immorality is a potential. But I take my tongue, and it’s just loosed. It doesn’t need anybody else to join in. I just can let it loose at the store, let it loose in the church, let it loose after church. I mean it just is a restless and unstable. I like that picture when you talk about explosives. They’re unstable. You have to be very careful. Now this is full of deadly poison. You have to be very careful because it can come out quickly.

An example: “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.” That’s the way the unbelievers are. That’s the way they function. But then James makes the next statement, “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” He’s concerned about believers, and the inconsistency there. He’s not surprised the unbeliever functions this way. Of course, they go astray from birth. They always do the will of their father the devil, and he was a liar from the beginning. And he’s the father of lies. But now we have the children of God, “brethren”. “My brethren, these things ought not to be.” We’ll use our tongue, and we’ll bless God. We sing praises to God to bless; to speak well of Him, to give Him praise. (Literally it means to speak well.) We give praise to God. We bless Him. We’re giving Him honor, the glory due to Him. Then we turn around and curse men. We’re made in the image of God. I mean even though we’re fallen beings, we are still in the image of God. That’s the foundation for capital punishment in the Noahic covenant because you’ve struck the image of God, and the cursed man is in the image of God. I recognize he’s different than an animal, but the world doesn’t.

The world is totally upside down. It approves what God disapproves, and it disapproves what God approves. We kill babies who are in the image of God, and we spend untold billions of dollars caring for our pets. Do I watch the world? What in the world are they thinking? You can go to jail for mistreating your dog, and you have the right to kill your children. They tell me the world is not confused, they live in darkness, spiritual darkness.

So the tongue, yes, they misuse their tongues all the time. Lies becomes accepted so our political leaders lie. Anybody surprised? Even these new people, you know it’s a given. They lied. You sometimes hear them say, “I don’t know why they just don’t say they lied.” Lies are part of what people do. It’s not acceptable before God. So we bless God, we praise you Lord. Then we go out, and we curse men who are in the image of God. We realize that we are to function consistent. I realize that they’re made in the image of God. The way I use my tongue, what I say, how I treat them, my words are crucial. I mean this just ought not to be. It’s an inconsistency. I’m treating them like they’re an animal. I’m ignoring the fact they’re in the image of God. That doesn’t mean that we don’t speak against sin and those kinds of things, but the ultimate, curse in condemning to hell rest in the hands of God. I can warn people about the danger of hell, but it’s not my position.

I mean think of an expression like “God damn.” How often is that used? People just use the expression. I was watching a golf program. The guy made a putt while the other golfer didn’t. They were friends. He just turned around and said, “God damn you.” What is that saying? “God condemn you to hell.” I mean it just becomes trivial. It’s not trivial before God. Now think about us as believers. “I would never say that! That’s cursing! I don’t even think you ought to say that when you’re preaching!” But then we’ll go out and use our tongues in that destructive way against someone made in the image of God. Serious business. “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.” That’s inconsistency in our speech. “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” James is speaking out of love for them, concern for them, fellow believers. This shouldn’t be. From the same mouth blessings and cursings? “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?” In those days they would look for, a fountain, a spring, and if it was sending out bitter water, it was not drinkable. It sends out fresh water, it was drinkable. You have the same spring now today it’s giving fresh water. Yesterday it gave bitter water, undrinkable, no! But the same tongue does that? Oh today people see me praising God, enjoining with believers, and speaking of the greatness of our God. Tomorrow they’ll hear me at work using my tongue, speaking to people in ways, and I say, that coming out of the same mouth?

“[Can] a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can saltwater produce fresh.” James is concerned about them. Something’s wrong. Are you a freshwater spring? He’s dealing with the possibility of some inconsistency, but he’s warning them, something’s wrong. A tree produces the fruit consistent with the tree. You’re producing one thing one day and another thing another day. Something in this situation, something else in this situation. Something’s wrong.

Come back to Matthew. Matthew chapter 7. We come here often. Verse 16, verse 15 warning about false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. How do we tell when they’re dressed in sheep’s clothing? We can’t see the inside. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, the bad tree bears bad fruit.” We don’t like that kind of clarity. We like to think there’s this huge grey area. Jesus doesn’t allow it. He says you either have a good tree or you have a bad tree. How do you know? Your tree bears good fruit or a bad tree bears bad fruit. What about when a good tree bears some bad fruit? A good tree bears good fruit. The bad tree bears bad fruit. “’A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you will know them by their fruits.’” Verily, not everybody who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” is going to get into heaven. There must be more than that. There must be the reality. Those who practice lawlessness will be sentenced to hell, verse 23. I’ll declare to any of those who tell you all the good things they did in my name, “Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.” Wish He would have said they just did these good things, yes, but their life’s filled with disobedience, lawlessness. So you don’t cover that veneer over by going to church and participating in some good things and doing some things with believers, but the real pattern of your life is disobedience to the Word of God.

You know the measure of our life is not what we’re like here, it’s like what we’re like at home. I remember a teacher way back in college, bible college, saying, “What you are when you’re alone, is what you are.” I mean that reveals my true character. What I am with my family, ask my wife, ask my children, ask those who work with me. That reveals what I am. That’s what Jesus is saying. Same thing James is saying. Know the tree by its fruit. So he’s challenging them. My brethren these things ought not to be! Things are coming out of your mouth, and things are being done with your tongue that are not consistent.

Come back to Matthew chapter 12. Over to Matthew chapter 12 if you’re still in Matthew. Over to Matthew chapter 12. Same kind of context. Verse 33, “’Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.’” He is speaking to them of the inconsistency. They’re professing righteousness and practicing godlessness. “’You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.’” That’s the key of the words. In the tongue let loose with its evil is what? Revealing the condition of a heart.
That’s James’s concern here. The way they have inconsistency here was believers were failing to deal with their tongue properly. Maybe we have to go deeper then that. Maybe we don’t have a good fruit tree. Maybe we have a bad tree. Maybe we don’t have a freshwater spring. Maybe we have a bitter spring. My brethren, you have to sort this out. Good trees bear good fruit. Good springs bring, produce good water. Something’s wrong. “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” That’s what Jesus said. “The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” This is James’s concern.

You’re close; turn over to chapter 15 of Matthew, verse 18. “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” See, they all come from the same source. We like to divide and say, “Well fornication, that’s a bad one, adultery, murder.” But Jesus includes same source for false witness, for slander. It’s the things that come out of the heart that are defiling, and James is concerned that the tongue clearly reveals the condition of the heart.

James Parker was a preacher in London in the last part of the 1800’s. He was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. He said this, “It is vain to attempt to tame the tongue until the heart has been subdued,” saying the same thing. Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? We don’t understand the depths of depravity of the heart. Jeremiah goes on, sharing what the Lord says, “’I, the LORD, search the heart,” I test the mind. He’s the only one who knows the heart and its true condition. He’s the one who brings cleansing.

We got time. Come back to Ezekiel 36, what God promises He would provide in the New Covenant salvation with the New Covenant based on the redemption provided by Christ. This is the promise given. Verse 26 of Jeremiah 36, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” The heart apart from this redeeming grace of God is deceitful and desperately wicked. But God’s salvation brings a new heart. That’s why now it comes out of our mouths, and what we do with our bodies reveals whether we’ve gotten the new heart because the new heart produces new things. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, a new creature. Old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” One more passage. Galatians chapter 5, and you’re familiar, there are many passages that we could look at. I have a list of verses contrasting the tongue of the wicked and the tongue of the righteous in Proverbs, but we won’t take the time for those tonight. In Galatians chapter 5 he’s talking about those, who have been set free in Christ and now are to live in light of that freedom. Then verse 13, “you were called to freedom, brethren; do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Verse 16, “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire[s] of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; [and] these are in opposition to one another. But if you‘re led by the Spirit, you‘re not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident.” There’s what we are in our fallen state apart from the work of God’s grace. This is what the flesh produces, “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, . . . [outburst] of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing.” Things like these. These are the things that characterize those who will not be part of the kingdom Christ will establish on earth in contrast to what the Spirit of God produces in the life in verses 22 and following. Verse 24 tells the solution to the problem of the flesh. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” Where we talked about in our study this morning. We are to be controlled by the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, have the riches of the Word of God permeating our lives and overflowing, dominating us in all things.

That’s James concern that the tongue be brought into subjection to the Spirit. If it’s not and it’s a pattern of our lives, we need to evaluate. Do we have a new heart? Maybe we’re trying to control that which is uncontrollable in our own strength and power. Maybe we ought to ask our spouse. “Do you see the character of Christ produced in me in in the way I talk, the way I act?” Maybe our speech is something like “I say things I shouldn’t say.” Why? “Well, you know I do.” “Well why?” You know we need to ask; that’s what James is saying! “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” I’m saying things I shouldn’t say. Why? My tongue seems to be out of control at times, why? And James has said this in context of already telling us, the almost impossibility of controlling the tongue. Now he’s telling us it has to be controlled. The controllability comes from the work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives, but it’s something even we as believers have to be constantly working on.

I’ve been a believer since 1953, I won’t even ask how many of you were alive in 1953, but I still don’t have the tongue under complete control. It’s always ready to break out. So I always have to have that in mind, be careful. Be careful, think. I’ll let the Spirit control and submit to the Word. Is this a word for edification? Is this profitable? Is this consistent with the Word? Sometimes the tongue I let it loose; that’s, “Oops, I shouldn’t of said that,” but you know it’s hard to pull those words back in. So, we want to be careful.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your words. Lord we would acknowledge indeed Your Word is true, and our tongues are in our bodies as an unstable evil full of deadly poison. Lord, it should cause us to fear the damage we can do with our tongues; the ruin we can bring, the destruction, the conflict, the dishonor to You. Lord may we take these words to heart, examine ourselves personally in light of Your Word to be sure indeed that we have the new heart that only You can give. The presence of Your Spirit provides what we do not have in ourselves. Lord may we indeed walk under the control of the Spirit, filled with the truth of Your Word that You might be honored in all that we say in all situations in all places. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.