Great Forests make Great Fires
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Announcements
No Gathering this week.
Saturday, October 28th - Reliance youth "Totally Groovy" Harvest Festival. 5:30 - 8:00pm @ The Allen Home (7024 Road 71 N, Pasco) Dress up in 1970's attire. Bring a shirt to tie dye and your favorite casserole to share.
Pray
Pray
Ask God that He would help me speak clearly and faithfully.
Ask for help regarding our speech. How often we talk, and the kindness of our speech. Help us to reflect Christ.
Bless our conversation together tonight.
Amen
Review
Review
How do Faith & Works work?
Ask Shawn what R.C. Sproul’s equation was.
Have someone share an example of Faith & Works.
Introduction
Introduction
One of the greatest works of a Christian is what a Christ speaks. James knows this, so he begins his next section. Remember, James is talking to people he loves, not people he is angry with.
Judgment and Teachers
Judgment and Teachers
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
This statement is most directed at someone like me. If a teacher, who by nature talks and speaks a lot, is not spiritually mature, he will cause a great harm to others.
James includes himself here. He says, “we who teach.” He knows he will be under a stricter judgment.
The reason for this strict judgment is that a doctrinally flawed teacher can lead many others into error. We’ll talk more about how damaging our words can be in a bit.
This should also point us to the greatest teacher who never sinned or stumbled. He, truly, is a perfect man able to bridle his whole body.
Bridling
Bridling
Do you know what a bridle is?
It’s a harness for horses. It guides and directs the horse through the use of a bit placed in the horses mouth. When you turn the reigns on the bridle, the bit directs the horses head and instructs it where to go.
Horses and Bits, Ships and Rudders, Forests and Flames
Horses and Bits, Ships and Rudders, Forests and Flames
3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
James is using this idea of a bridle to show how a small thing can direct such a large animal.
He is using images and pictures to show how powerful the tongue is even though it is small.
Even these ships are driven by “strong winds.” They’re big ships to handle big winds. Yet, that tiny rudder directs the ship according to the will of the pilot.
Verse 5 draws out this fire imagery.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
This suggests an out-of-control destructive power. It’s not that the tongue is powerful, it is uncontrollably powerful. Like a natural disaster.
Attempting to limit the effects of one’s sinful speech is like trying to stop a wildfire from spreading.
This is a wildfire that comes from Satan himself.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Here’s some examples from the Psalms about the damage that a sinful tongue can do:
Here’s some examples from the Psalms about the damage that a sinful tongue can do:
9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.
2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
The Tongue and the Believer
The Tongue and the Believer
True perfection in speech awaits the renewal of all things in the new heaven and earth. For now, we stumble, repent, trust the righteousness of Christ, and see glimmers of the new age shining through our imperfect speech.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Even at our worst, we maintain a dignity as Christians the come from being made in God’s image. Our speech should reflect God’s care of his creation which includes people made in His image.
11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Should a Christian’s mouth pour forth both blessing and cursing? Absolutely not.
Application
Application
If we think James is exaggerating about the tongue, we should try to not sin in our speech for one day. It’s nearly impossible.
Have you ever stopped to examine your speech? Is it possible that our sinful speech patterns have become so ingrained in our lives that we no longer notice them?
Sometimes, our verbal sins get glossed over or redefined as something else. Slander or cursing get covered up with “sorry, I’m just venting.” We may like to think that’s how the tongue operates, but the tongue is an expression of how the heart operates. If we are slandering or cursing someone, we should repent and go talk with that person to get it resolved, not spread it around to someone else, like the beginning of a wildfire. We should consider putting it out at its source.
God welcomes even our tongues into eternity because of the sinless speech of his Son. He chose to make us a new creation by implanting His word in us, and now he is calling us to act and speak as his holy people.
Let’s ask God to convict us of our sin in our speech.
Pray
Pray
Question
Question