The Tongue

James 3

19 Sep 2007

James 3:1-2 (NKJV)
“1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.”

The power of the tongue is amazing. It reveals what is on the inside our hearts. In Mat 15 Jesus talks about how the things that come out of the mouth are what defile us. The tongue operates under the control of the mind.

Who has ever opened their mouth before they thought about what they were going to say? I can remember an instance when I was in the 8th grade, my gym teacher, Mr. Thrasher, were joking around. I don’t even remember what I said but just remember the feeling as the words were coming out, oh no! … and I landed myself an hour of detention.

Illustrations:

A. Horse bit-powerful horse little bit

B. Ship-big ship little rudder

I. The mature person

A. James here is talking about the person who is not perfect, as in, absolute perfection but the person who is mature in their walk, someone who is careful to speak. The horse and the ship are powerful , yet they are controlled by such a little thing. Think about it like this we must continually depend on the HS for self- control. We must look to Him for strength, we must yield ourselves to Him, we should be letting go and giving up the reigns of our lives to the HS more and more every day. Just like the boat and the horse can be directed by a skilled rider or a skilled pilot so can our tongue be used for many good things.

EPH. 4:25-32 We are transformed by the power of the Cross.

B. “Remember only you can prevent forest fires!” Look at what verses 5, 6 say. Lets look at some other verses Proverbs 26: 20, 21.

· We talked about Mat. 15 lets turn there and look at it more closely. Mt 15: 17-20 Jesus is explaining to His disciples how the tongue is the means by which we are corrupted. The world system is what James is talking about here: “…a world of iniquity.” All the things Jesus mentioned here are the makeup of the worlds system of corruption.

· All the evil that is on the tongue affects the rest of the body. Think about some of the things that have caused you the greatest pain a fair number of them were probably things said to you. All that defilement that is within has to come out through the tongue and that is how it stains every part of us. The tongue is the fire, fires are hot and they burn, spread, and make smoke.

· Looking back to Jas. 1:26 we see that if someone does not bridle his tongue his religion is useless, people look at us by the way we walk and by the way we talk. We already talked about faith without works is not faith at all.

· The word Hell is Gehenna. This is actually a place called the Hinnon valley, it basically became a huge trash dump where people burned trash dead animals and the bodies of criminals. Josiah you will like this it was first used as a place where the Canninites offered humans sacrifices. However, King Josiah put an end to that!

James goes on to give some more illustrations of how the tongue can be used for good or bad.

II. A split tongue

A. Verses 14-16 look at the negative split. Think about it like this if you are zooming down the road and you get to a T- intersection. You have two possible ways besides turning around. The motivation for the words we say and the actions we do comes from the heart we have established that from Mat.15. James here is talking about a bitter, salty pungent envy or resentment. James is saying that the self-centeredness we use when we talk to people in jest, or selfish actions. Also the self seeking or in other words extreme selfhishness.

James says this kind of wisdom only comes from three places, earthly, natural and demonic.

· Earthly comes from things that only things that we can see and understand… things that we as man can accomplish, things that we do or accomplish that do not include God.

· Natural would be things that are fleshy: things that only relate Turn to 1 Cor. 2:14. The person who is not redeemed will not understand things that have to do with the HS.

· Demonic is those things that Satan directly uses us to destroy us. This would be similar to Gen 3 and the fall of man, where Satan uses lies and half truths to deceive.

B. This wisdom is that of someone who has realized all the sinfulness in their life and has committed it to God. They are not seeking out their own wisdom but that of God’s. This wisdom is pure and undefiled, it is peaceable , gentle or faith courteous and considerate, it is also reasonable or in other words it is willing to humble itself or yield.

Essentially these two things obviously contradict each other. They are similar to the fruits of the spirit in Gal. 5:16-26.

It is without partiality, in other words it is unwavering… James 1:8 Lastly it is hypocrisy….

Conclusion:

James is making a point that the life of the Christian should show in word and in deed. Last time we talked about just saying we are Christians is not enough there should be evidence that proves our faith. This week James is telling us that the things that we say should show our faith in Christ. In other words the tongue is a hard thing to tame but the person who can tame it is mature. That little bit or that little rudder can steer such powerful things. We must rely on Christ and the power of the HS for that kind of control.

The only way we can do this is recognizing our need for it. When we all get to the bottom line we are all sinners. We have all lied, stolen, murdered… we are guilty or punishment is eternity in hell without God. The Bible makes this oh so clear. However, Jesus Christ offers to pay this penalty for us if we are willing to give him the reigns to our bit or let him steer the rudder. We must place our faith in JC.

Why is it so hard to control our tongues?

Someone give me an example of sometime when you slipped up?

Why is gossip so easy?

What about the opposite of gossip? Flattery?

Why is it easier to cut someone down instead of just building them up?

What is something that you can to to put your tongue on the altar, so to speak?

· Ask God to help you with this issue

· Make a point this next week to say something encouraging to someone

· Read through Proverbs to see what is said about the tongue, speech…