Well, it's good to be with you again, and the opportunity and privilege to share God's
Word with you.
I discovered from my records that this time last year or thereabouts, I was here spouting
forth on the tongue, which is interesting, from the book of Proverbs.
Of course, John kindly in his email reckoned I was becoming a specialist in the topic.
I probably am for all the wrong reasons, as I discovered.
So I suppose it's interesting to work out just why on earth it comes round with this
frequency.
Is it because your elders here reckon that this is a topic this church needs to hear frequently?
Well, they'd be right, not just from this church's perspective, but any church really
needs to get their head round what we do with this muscle that flaps around between our gums,
frequently letting us down.
So it might have been that reason, but I suspect not.
I think that the reason simply is that the Bible has a whole lot to say to us about the
tongue, the things we say, the things we articulate, the use that we put it to.
So I suspect that is the reason.
And it's your misfortune that you've got me twice on the topic.
But hopefully we'll share some things this morning that are different.
But I rather suspect you can't remember what I said last year anyway.
So we're okay.
James chapter 3 is our passage.
Turn with it if you have a Bible.
If not, I think the words are behind me.
Almost.
James chapter 3.
Let's read the first 12 verses together.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach
will be judged more strictly.
Ain't that the truth, John?
You'll all go home at lunchtime and work out how good I was.
You don't need to phone me up and tell me.
Verse 2 says, as Paul pointed out,
We all stumble in many ways.
If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.
Or take ships, as an example.
Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder,
wherever the pilot wants to go.
Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.
Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.
It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire,
and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, creatures of the sea are being tamed,
and have been tamed by man.
But no man can tame the tongue.
It's a restless evil full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father,
and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness.
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
My brothers, this should not be.
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or a grapevine bear figs?
Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Amen.
God will bless his word to us.
I don't know if you read the books of Chuck Swindle at all.
He's an American, but we can forgive him for that.
He writes really accessible and interesting books,
and he always comes at them from an interesting perspective.
And one of his books is called Killing Giants Pulling Thorns.
And in it he tells of an epitaph on a tombstone
that he came across in a kirkyard or a churchyard in England.
And it said this,
Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Arabella Young,
who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue.
Well, being told to hold your tongue,
it's usually advice that's reserved for children, isn't it?
But perhaps it ought not to be.
Maybe there's a spiritual discipline hidden in amongst all that.
I'm sure we can all reflect on occasions when,
oh boy, we wish, we wish, we'd held our tongue.
Now, in the normal course of our life,
we say an awful lot.
Now, somebody apparently, according to Google,
so it must be right,
has estimated the number of words that we say.
So, in an average 70 years for a bloke,
308 million words.
Apparently.
For a woman,
637 million.
Now, I know you'll find that really hard to believe.
So, it is perhaps inevitable,
and amongst all of that stuff,
we're going to say something wrong.
We're going to allow our tongues to slip,
as we say.
Now, the psychologists estimate that for every thousand words,
you'll make a couple of errors.
So, at an average speed of talking,
that's 10 to 20 times a day
when you'll say the wrong thing.
Remember old George W. Bush?
He was great at this kind of thing, wasn't he?
He was great.
And had enormous fun trolling the internet.
And you can spend hours on this.
Poor man.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
where wings take dream.
They misunderstood me.
And my personal favourite,
in addressing the sort of national association
of primary school teachers in America,
he opens up by saying,
I'd like to spank all teachers.
Poor man.
Now, they're humorous.
Probably not all that important.
And not the kind of thing
that this wise old pastor is highlighting for us.
Rather, he is highlighting the impact
that our tongues can have,
and the harm they can do
when we don't allow them to be under the control,
and the guidance and the direction of God's Spirit.
And in this one short letter,
he has repeated this warning several times.
So, back in chapter 1,
you maybe remember in verse 19,
we read this.
Dear brothers, take note of this.
Everyone should be quick to listen,
slow to speak,
and slow to become angry.
That's good advice, isn't it?
Quick to listen,
and slow to speak.
Then, towards the end of the chapter,
verse 26,
if anyone considers himself religious,
and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue,
he deceives himself,
his religion is worthless.
So, there's a measure by which you can assess
whether your religion is worth anything.
And it's the extent to which you accept or don't
a controlled tongue.
Verse 12 of chapter 2,
speak and act as those who are going to be judged.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged.
In chapter 4, verse 11,
brothers, don't slander one another.
Whoever speaks against his brother or judges him,
speaks against the law.
And then in verse 9,
chapter 5, verse 9,
don't grumble against each other.
James has a lot to say about the tongue.
It's a big deal for James.
But as we've already said,
if you check the Bible out,
you'll find James not the only writer
who wants to tell us something about the tongue.
We thought on Proverbs last year,
there's 150 verses or so in Proverbs
that Solomon's responsible for
that are all about the tongue or speaking
or lips or mouths.
Isaiah, central to his testimony,
I am a man, he said,
of unclean lips.
Not I've got a terrible heart,
as black as pitch.
I'm a man of unclean lips, he said.
The Lord Jesus warns us
that one day we'll give an account
for every careless word
we've uttered.
The apostle Paul talks about the tongue.
Peter talks about it.
Even the apostle John talks about it.
So this is a big deal for James.
It's a big deal for God.
And therefore, it ought to be a big deal for us.
Let me pick up two or three things in this passage
just as we go through it.
I want to say, first of all,
there's something here about the tongue's influence
on the direction that our lives take.
There's something about the influence
on the direction.
These verses three to five
are all about direction, aren't they?
They're all about control
and about impact.
And we are familiar with these metaphors
that James uses.
Horses, ships, fires.
I've only ever been on a horse once in my life.
That's not an experience I want to repeat.
It's a long time ago
and I can still remember it.
You go on these YF adventure weekends.
I'm far too old for all of that now.
But there's the obligatory horse riding
up there, up north.
You know, and I was the biggest,
so I got the biggest animal,
which I didn't think was entirely fair.
So I get on this thing rather nervously
and the girl says to me,
don't worry, it's very easy.
There's two controls.
Kick it to go.
Pull it to stop.
The kick it to go bit worked.
And it didn't go terribly fast,
fortunately, to begin with.
Then all of a sudden,
it clearly smelt its stable
and it set off.
And that's when I realized
that the pull it to stop bit
wasn't quite working.
I began to doubt the inerrancy
of scripture here
because I could remember James saying
the bridle will control the horse.
No, it doesn't.
Finally got to a stop all on its own.
But we get the picture, don't you?
There's this thing in a horse's mouth
that controls it.
Or there's a small thing
at the back of a ship
that steers it.
Likewise, James is saying to us,
the tongue has a huge influence
to steer the course of your life.
How you use it,
the things you think and verbalize,
says James,
will play a significant part
in the way your life goes.
And if you control your tongue,
it can direct your whole life
into what is acceptable
in God's sight.
If you don't control it,
the implication is
that you're going to get
into a whole lot of trouble.
You see, our tongue
is more than just a muscle
that over time
we are able to control
so that it makes sounds
that people understand.
It goes deeper.
Its influence extends
to the very core of our beings
because before we speak,
what we say
has come from our hearts,
our inner beings.
It's so true, isn't it,
that especially if you're going
to tick somebody off
or you're going to say something,
we often rehearse it,
don't we?
I'm just going to give them
a piece of my mind.
I'm going to tell them this.
I'm going to say this.
There's a commentator
called T.C. Baird.
He put it nicely.
He said the tongue
is the hinge
on which everything
in our personality turns.
I think he's right.
Ultimately, James is saying here
the tongue is a key factor
in living a kind of
controlled, disciplined life.
And if you let it loose,
it gets out of control.
It will damage
just like a forest fire.
So there's something about
the tongue's influence
on the course of our life.
the kind of people we are.
But James goes a lot deeper
than that because he
also says to us this,
the tongue here plays a part
in your eternal future.
That's quite interesting,
isn't it?
Look at these verses
sort of six onwards.
They're really severe
in their warning.
He says the tongue's a fire,
a world of evil
among the parts of the body.
a world of evil
among the parts of the body.
It's as if
all the sin and unrighteousness
you could possibly imagine
gets zeroed in
on what you say.
We often concentrate
the things we do,
don't we?
James puts some emphasis
here on the things we say.
I think he's right.
Seems it's a tool
that we've got
that too often
and too readily
becomes at the disposal
of God's enemy.
And it's more than
just the odd word.
It's a world of evil,
he says.
Then he says
it corrupts
the whole person.
It seems as if
total havoc continues
and our whole personalities
get marked out
by the things we say.
It's almost as if
our lives
get a stain on them
that
mark us out
as certain kinds of people.
Whether it be
critical people
or
flippant people
or
obscenities,
whatever it might be,
he says,
James,
it's marking us out,
it's corrupting.
But here's the rub
and here's the real warning.
He goes on,
he says,
you know,
our whole life
is destroyed.
The whole course
of our life
is set on fire.
It's a blaze
because of a failure
to master the tongue.
It's got this huge potential
it seems to be
influential
right through
our life
and to impact
us
and impact
others.
So that's serious
stuff,
isn't it?
A world of evil,
the whole person,
a whole life,
but he's not finished
yet.
And here's the
real force
of the warning.
He says,
it's set on fire
by hell
itself.
self.
That's where the influence
comes from
and where destiny
is if it's not
sorted,
set on fire
by hell.
No one's really sure
what James was meaning
by all of that.
But he's certainly
grabbing our attention,
isn't he?
It seems,
of course,
very directly
that if we fail
while we are alive
to confess
the Lord Jesus
Christ
as our
personal
saviour,
scripture is very
clear about
our destiny
and maybe that's
something you've got
to sort out
this morning
before you say
anything else.
Maybe you've got
to confess
that the Lord
Jesus Christ
is your Lord
and your saviour.
But I think
there's something
else here.
It's as if James
is saying to us
here that there's
a danger that
hell's influence
will remain on
all of us
and will in
some way
impact
on our
eternal future
if we don't
pay attention
to this.
Now that's not
to say if we're
a Christian
we'll lose
our salvation.
The Bible's
very clear about
that.
But there's
something also
that when we
stand before
the Lord
Jesus Christ
we will be
asked to give
an account
not for our
sins
but for the
rest of our
lives,
our service,
the kind of
people we have
been,
the way we
have helped
others,
the way we
have hindered
others.
I think James
is giving us
a very clear
warning here
however mysterious
it appears
of the real
influence of
evil that we've
got to be
careful and
watch out for.
So there's
something about
the impact of
our tongues in
terms of our
lives and the
direction.
There's something
about the fact
that our tongues
can play a
part in our
eternal future.
I think the
third thing I
want to highlight
here is that
our tongues
impact on the
lives of other
people.
Of course they
do because
unless you're
prone to
talking to
yourself and
you might be
generally when
we talk it's
because someone
else is around.
How much
thought then do
we really give
to what we
say?
Now verse
one and I bet
you thought I was
skipping over it.
I wasn't.
I want to go
back here.
James very
rightly focuses
on those he
says who
presume to be
teachers.
Those who want
to set
themselves up
as those who
know more than
others.
Who want to
teach.
Now I want to
say to you that
platforms, this
one included,
are not made
of wood.
They're made of
very thin
ice.
And as
preachers we
have to learn
to be very
good skaters.
Because all
the time we're
skating on
very thin
ice.
And I'm
acutely
conscious that
I will say
things to you
this morning
and doubtless
next week the
devil will have
a real good
go at me
and do his
very best and
he may well
succeed in
demonstrating
that actually I've
not got this
mastered any
better than
anyone else
has.
Therefore I
hope you
pray for your
preachers and
your teachers.
I hope this
week in your
prayers you
were mentioning
me.
I hope you'll
pray for John
and others who
occupy this
particular position.
Because as
James says,
I'll spend
more time in
front of the
Lord giving
him an account
for what I
said from
platforms than
others will.
And we need
to think about
that.
Jesus was
very clear
about it.
He talked
in the
Sermon on
the Mount
about the
law and
how he
hadn't come
to abolish
it.
He hadn't
come to
stroke any
of it out.
He was
there to
fulfill it.
And he
then said,
look, if
anyone sets
aside the
least of
these commandments
or laws and
teaches others
to do it,
they'll be
called least
in the
kingdom of
heaven.
So there's
real warning
there for
those of
us who
preach and
teach.
And that
includes
Sunday school
teachers,
it includes
home group
leaders,
it includes
youth leaders,
any position
where you
open up the
word of God
and seek to
help and
instruct somebody
else, do
it with much
prayer and
great carefulness.
But James has
all of us,
of course,
in our
sights, in
his sights,
rather in
verses 9 to
11, and
he's talking
here about
inconsistency,
and that's
the real
message,
of course,
behind James's
letter, that
if we're being
honest, of
course we would
call it
hypocrisy about
not living in a
truly consistent
way for Christ,
whether it's our
words or our
actions, not
really mirroring
the life that we
say we have.
And of course
when you're
inconsistent in
your Christian
life in some
way, shape,
or form, it
will not bear
fruit.
We can't be
one thing and
expect another
thing.
We must be
what we say
we are and
we must say
what we
actually are.
There has to
be a
consistency
there, especially
if we're to
ever make a
real impact on
our friends and
neighbours or
our colleagues.
But there's
also a message
here for
churches, and
some would say
that's what this
was all about
in James's
mind, how we
speak to each
other is at
the heart of
his concern.
You know, we
can raise our
eyes to heaven,
as Paul was
saying, in
praise and
blessing God.
And then we're
turning around and
we're looking for
the words to
say to someone
else that will
defame them or
denigrate them or
criticise them or
slander them or
simply gossip about
them.
And James said
that's not
right.
And of course
in all of these
things must
lie the
condition of
our hearts
before God.
Because Jesus
says out of
the abundance
of our hearts
our mouth
speaks.
What's inside
will come
out.
It will have
its impact
personally,
perhaps lastingly
and certainly
to others.
So what can we
do about it?
What can we do
about it?
Well, James,
this master
pastor,
recognises this
is really
difficult if
it's not
impossible for
us.
Twice over,
he points that
out.
We're not
perfect, he
says, able to
keep our whole
body in check.
We can tame the
wildest of animals,
he said.
There was a picture
in yesterday's
times of a
73-year-old
Finnish man who's
been adopting
big brown bears
all his life and
there was a
picture of him
kissing this
great brown bear
and I thought,
poor, that
wouldn't have
been me.
But you can
tame the
wildest of
animals, says
James.
Do you know,
you can't tame
your tongue.
You can't.
Only God
can.
And that's the
point.
God can bring
grace and
redemption to
hearts and
lives that
manifest such
things in the
things we say.
So maybe the
first thing is
simply to get
before God and
in the words of
Paul to
Romans, count
yourself dead to
sin but alive to
Christ Jesus.
Don't let sin
reign in your
mortal body such
that you obey
its evil desires.
Don't offer any
part of yourself to
sin as an
instrument of
righteousness.
Offer yourselves
to God.
Give God your
tongue.
Give him your
heart.
Give him your
tongue.
God.
The psalmist put
it this way.
Set a guard over
my mouth.
There's a good
prayer.
First thing in
the morning.
Before you've
kicked the cat,
kissed the wife
or kissed the
cat and kicked
the wife,
whichever way it
comes.
Guard my
mouth.
And then last
year I shared
with you Alan
Redpath's little
acrostic thing.
So I'll share it
again on the
basis you've
possibly forgotten.
Alan Redpath
said whenever he
was going to
say something,
he used the
little word
think.
Is what I'm
about to say
true?
Is it
helpful?
Is it
inspiring?
Is it
necessary?
And is it
kind?
True,
helpful,
inspiring,
necessary,
kind.
Once you've
gone through
that little
list,
people have
arrived at a
decision whether
what you want
to say is
really what
you want to
say.
And I guess we
need to remember
that when we
speak at all,
God is the
one who's also
listening.
May God bless
his word to
us and encourage
us and help us
in the week.
thank you.
Thank you.