The Power of the Tongue 2
Notes
Transcript
James did not live in our society and culture
His culture and society was different than ours externally.
People are people wherever you go
Circumstances or the external may change, but the flesh each of us battle deals with pride and sin
The culture in which James was familiar with and wrote to:
Synagogues would have “open platform” policy
Custom that made room for visitors or members of the congregation to speak
Jesus took advantage of this feature:
And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.
And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Paul took advantage of this as well:
And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said,
Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
Others took this as opportunities to preach Jesus Christ
My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
Masters - didaskalos - teacher
There were some teachers, like James, Paul, Timothy, and others that taught the truth carefully, but there were others that Paul had to warn Timothy about:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
Self-appointed teachers or those who taught with wrongly
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
James understood that every word spoken would be held accountable
He warns the brethren, that it is not wise, to have many teachers teach
This was the cultural thing to do, but James understood that this was not wise
James gives us the standard:
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Offend - stumble or trip
James grew up in a home where he saw perfect speech. It didn’t come from his mother or father, but rather from his older brother, Jesus
Every word Jesus spoke was perfectly placed:
No moments of vitriolic speech after someone mistreated Him
No angry and vain words spewed out
Every thing Jesus said was good
No cursing or swearing
Never did Jesus tell one lie or speak a cross word
Not a suggestive moment or a vulgar joke
He saw Jesus use His words to teach, encourage, debate, rebuke, and warning in perfect wisdom, love, kindness, and truth
James knew that, His perfect brother, His Saviour Jesus controlled His tongue like no one else
Thus the statement - If you can control your tongue, you can bridle (control) every part of the body
James shows us the standard in which all of us are to aim - Christ Jesus our Lord!
Death and life are in the power of the tongue:
And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
The Controlling Power of the Tongue
The Controlling Power of the Tongue
A controlled tongue demonstrates a yielding of self
James 3:3
Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
ILL - Barnabas Beverley, bought and subdued a fierce and ungovernable horse. The horse had just thrown its owner, Captain Slingsby of the guards. In his rage, the bruised and battered captain decided to auction off the intractable steed to the highest bidder. He described it as an ugly, vicious beast that nobody could hope to ride, a regular terror that had already killed one groom and would doubtless kill another. Barnabas bought him.
While Barnabas was settling his accounts, “the great black horse, tired of comparative inaction, began again to snort and rear, and jerk his proud head viciously,” a proceeding that alarmed the two hostlers who were holding it. Having finished his business, Barnabas proposed to ride the black fiend.
“In that moment the powerful animal reared suddenly, broke from the grip of one hostler, and swinging the other aside, stood free, and all was confusion.” A groom sprang for the horse’s head, but Barnabas was ahead of him. He caught the hanging reins and swung himself into the saddle.
“For a moment the horse stood rigid, then reared again, up and up, his teeth bared, his forefeet lashing.” Barnabas brought down the heavy stick he was holding between the flattened ears, once, twice, and brought the animal back to earth again. The struggle for mastery began.
In the end, Barnabas won. He dropped the stick, leaned over, and patted that proud head. Now his hand was gentle. He spoke to the horse softly and eased his tight grip on the reins. He sat back and waited. The battle was over. The horse gave in. Now all that was needed was for Barnabas to indicate his will by means of the bit and bridle.
If man can control a powerful animal like a horse with a simple bit (bridle) in a horses mouth, why cannot we control our tongue?
If a Christian is willing to bridle the tongue, it demonstrates a yielding to the Holy Spirit in life
A controlled tongue navigates life carefully
James 3:4
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.
James knew about the sea - He knew the great ships of crossing the Sea of Galilee were controlled by a simple piece called a governor or rudder
ILL - The battle cruiser Bismarck. She was the pride of the German navy, the newest and most powerful ship afloat. She could make short work of convoys. Britain’s two biggest and fastest luxury liners, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, were racing back and forth across the Atlantic, relying on their speed to out sail the U-boats. The Bismarck, however, was faster than they. Moreover, no ship in the British navy could face her alone.
When news was received that the Bismarck was at sea, the Admiralty sent the battleship Hood and the carrier Prince of Wales to intercept and sink her. Hood was England’s largest and most powerful battleship, served by two thousand officers and men, but she was twenty years older than the Bismarck. As for the Prince of Wales, she was brand new and was still not completely finished. Civilian workers still were on board when she put to sea to fight.
The first encounter was disastrous. The Hood was blown up and sunk with all hands, and the Prince of Wales was hit and broke off the engagement. All that the Bismarck suffered was a hit by one shell that damaged a fuel tank and caused the ship to slowly lose oil. She was now footloose and fancy-free. The oceans were before her. She could play havoc with British shipping. The situation was desperate. The sea-lanes were Britain’s lifeline for survival. The war would be over if the Bismarck could sink enough ships.
The British admiralty scraped together a small fleet in hopes of catching the Bismarck before she could get back into port. One of the ships was the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, an experienced ship but ill equipped with only antiquated sword-fish aircraft to send against the powerful foe. The aircraft took off. One came in for the attack, swooping at the stern as she swung low. The wake of a torpedo could be seen. On board the Bismarck, the captain tried to swerve out of the way, but it was too late. The torpedo struck, and the Bismarck’s rudder was jammed.
The Bismarck was now almost within sight of France. A few more leagues, and she would be safe. The Luftwaffe would be able to protect her from her foes. But the Bismarck was doomed. With a jammed rudder, all she could do was steam in a big circle. Admiral Lutjens put a brave face on to his crew. He spoke of the two British ships now closing in. “We can sink the King George V,” he boasted. “We can make the Rodney run away, as we did the Prince of Wales. By noon tomorrow, we’ll be surrounded by U-boats, and then no one will dare attack us.”
Darkness descended, and five British destroyers took up their positions and began to torment the foe. Then the King George V arrived, all thirty-five thousand tons of her, with her massive sixteen-inch guns and her speed of twenty-four knots. She began to fire, and still the Bismarck steamed in her doomed circle on the sea. Shells began to explode as hit after hit was registered. Her hull was reduced to a shapeless ruin, and smoke poured out from everywhere. She became a floating wreck; and then, ships with torpedoes were sent in to finish her off.
All because of the rudder! Once the rudder got out of control, the great ship was lost.
Just as a great ship can be lost by lack of control with the rudder, so can a great ship be safely navigated by the rudder!
If a Christian learns to use the tongue wisely; it can bring life!
A tongue can be controlled
James 3:5a
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
The tongue does not make up a large part of our bodies physically, but it’s power is unmistakable
Boasteth - megalucheo - meg-aw-hhhe-o - Boast - lifting up - literally: to lift up the neck
Boasting
Look what I can do!
Haughty
Don’t you know who I am
Provocative
If you do ____, I will do this to you
Pro 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue:
And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Pride - building up one’s self
Eph 4:29
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Humility - gracefully edifies and builds up others
The Destructive Power of the Tongue
The Destructive Power of the Tongue
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.
Notice how James begin to show the destruction a tongue can cause:
Great a matter - is referring to that of a forest - a forest that is ignited through the fire of the tongue
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out:
So where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire;
So is a contentious man to kindle strife.
Roast marshmallows in front garden of my parents - wasn’t a big fire, but the dry conditions led to the whole field catching fire
3 Ministers fishing
Catholic - drink
Methodist - smoking
Baptist - gossip
The tongue is an arsonist!
Exploring the Epistle of James: An Expository Commentary (b) The Untrammeled Tongue (3:5b–6)
Take, for instance, the history of the Second World War. The Third Reich lasted twelve years and four months, but it caused a holocaust of destruction on this planet more violent and earthshaking than anything that the world had ever experienced. At one point, the Germans reigned supreme from the Atlantic to the Volga, from Norway to the Mediterranean. But then the tide turned, and the German people were thrust down to the uttermost depths of destruction, desolation, and despair. During the days of their power, the Germans instituted a far-flung reign of terror that outdid in savagery all of the oppressions of the past.
By the end of September 1944, the Germans had seven and one-half million slaves to do their will. Most of those people had been dragged from their homes and transported to Germany in boxcars from all over occupied Europe. They were put to work in the factories, the mines, and the fields. They were beaten, starved, and deprived of proper clothes and shelter. Families were savagely broken up as a matter of course. Children were beaten, brutalized, put to work, or killed. Jews and Slavs were looked upon as subhumans who were unfit to live and exterminated by the millions. Prisoners of war, especially Russians, died in captivity in vast numbers. The Germans retaliated for acts of sabotage by freedom fighters. The formula was one hundred to one—one hundred hostages rounded up at random and shot for every German life lost. The fate of Jews was death in the extermination camps. At Auschwitz alone, at the peak of operations, six thousand Jews were gassed every day. The joke among the German exterminators was that Jews came in by way of the gate and left by way of the chimney. Atrocious medical experiments, barbarously conducted with great cruelty, were routine. And millions of people died on the battlefields as a matter of course. The whole world became engulfed in the carnage.
The human cost of Hitler’s attempt to seize world power staggers the imagination. Thirty-five million lives were lost. On the battlefields, one out of every twenty-two Russians was killed, one out of every twenty-five Germans, and one out of every 150 Britons. The toll on the Jews was even higher—two out of every three European Jews perished in Hitler’s attempt to rid Europe of all of its Jews.
This vast conflagration was kindled by one man’s tongue. Adolph Hitler was an orator, a master at whipping his audience into a frenzy. He could mobilize men by the millions at a word. His rages cowed visiting statesmen, and his tirades paralyzed his top generals. And his countrymen, urged on by the lash of his tongue and mesmerized by the power of his words, fought on and on, long after the war was lost, until all of Germany was reduced to rubble.
James was right! How great a forest can be set ablaze by a mere match. Europe was the forest. Hitler was the match.
Creates a framework for unrighteousness and wrongdoing
James 3:6a
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.
World - Kosmos - co-sm-os - created and set in order
Iniquity - adikia - ah-dik-key-ah - unrighteousness and wrongdoing
The tongue is as dangerous as fire:
Lies
Filth
Smooth as butter
Sharp as a knife
Curse
Cajole
Criticise
Complain
Yield death
Flourish life
There is no evil to which the unregenerate heart of man is heir that the tongue cannot promote
Sin came into the world:
Gen 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Gen 3:4
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:12-13
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Adam - God’s fault and Eve
Eve - Serpent
Gen 4:8-9
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
Lie
Disrespectful
Arrogant
Organised society
Gen 11:3-4
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
World capital was to promote a society that was self-centred and humanistic as they wanted to promote their name above everything else
God’s response was to confound their speech into different languages
Over 5,000 different languages around the world
Saints
Abraham - lied twice about his wife, Sarah
Moses - called God’s people rebels and through his fit of rage smote the rock instead of speaking to it like God instructed - this caused him to never set foot on the Promised Land
David - lied to Ahimelech the priest that would result in the death of Ahimelech
Stains the testimony
James 3:6b
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.
Defileth - to blemish ⇔ stain v. — to mar or impair with a flaw (as ritual impurity); conceived of as marking or discoloring with foreign matter.
Mat 15:11
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
When someone is caught in a lie, we say they are a liar - Has everything they’ve done been a lie, NO. Is everything about them a lie, NO. However, that lie has stained the testimony.
Woman coming to the Pastor at the end of the service during the appeal - Large church with a large platform and long curved steps stretching for over a hundred meters
I’ve been a gossip and I’d like to lay my tongue at the altar
Pastor looked to his left then to his right from one end of the steps of the altar to the other
Maam our altar isn’t long enough for your tongue
The Persian Gulf War also taught us afresh the risks of fallout. An estimated one million to six million barrels (a barrel equals forty-five gallons) of oil were released into the Gulf (as compared with 250,000 barrels spilled by the tanker Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska). At one point, the Iraqis deliberately brought in loaded tankers and dumped their contents into the Gulf. About three hundred miles of the shoreline waters were contaminated, and wildlife was killed in a wide swath along the coastline. Then the Iraqis set fire to more than six hundred Kuwaiti oil wells, sending black plumes of smoke, soot, carbon dioxide, and toxic gases into the air. This pall of doom was carried downwind for some five hundred miles. One estimate was that one hundred thousand tons of carbon, in the form of soot, and fifty thousand tons of sulfur dioxide were released into the air every day by this wholesale act of vandalism. Acid rain was one result. Also, black rain, caused by the enormous amounts of soot in the air, fell.
Destroys the circumstances of life
James 3:6c
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.
Setteth on fire - set ablaze - Burned up
The course of nature - wheel of life
James pictures here the circumstances of life that revolve around and around - lives moving forward, growing in the Lord, serving Christ, reaching others with the Gospel and then an unruly tongue ignites and disrupts everything!
Tongue can ignite:
Passions of lust
Envy
Hatred
Malice
Murder
Many other evils!
Mom - Pastor Cowgill
Church shut down to nothing!
Fed by the fire of Hell
James 3:6d
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.
There was Caiaphas, for instance, Israel’s reigning high priest. When all of his other tricks failed, he wrapped his tongue around the most solemn oath in the Jewish legal code
Mat 26:63
But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
As Jesus affirmed His deity, Caiaphas, then used Jesus’ response to sentence Him to death
False witnesses:
Mat 26:59-62
Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Beat Jesus
Mat 26:68
Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?
Herod Antipas
Luke 23:7-11
Wanted to see a miracle, but Jesus would not answer or perform for him
Set Jesus at nought and mocked Him
Chief priests and scribes
Accused Jesus vehemently in Luke 23:10
Persuaded the Jerusalem mob to choose Barabbas over Jesus and demand that Christ be crucified in Mat 27:20-22
Mocked Jesus at Calvary as He hung on the cross:
Matt 27:41-43
Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
These tongues were set on fire from hell! They were devilish in deed and destruction!
A tongue set on fire from hell can destroy lives!
REMEMBER, James is talking to Christians - Some of the most hurtful things that have wounded my heart have not come from the world, but from those that were saved.