Burning Heart a Burning Tongue 1978

It's so often when somebody says, I can't get into those old hymns. I like the modern stuff. But to consider, a lot of the modern, more bouncy songs that we sing are written by people who are making money on it.

You know, some of them are making quite a bit and they go after their copyrights. If you violate their copyright, they'll take you to court. The hymn you just sang, whether you sang it with your heart or not, was written by a man who died at the stake for his faith in Jesus.

And when you consider that, this was an utterance from his heart and has much to give us. And before you want to throw out all the old hymns, those who do, think about where they come from and who's behind them. Surely we're all agreed that second to the absolute and utter need of each of us having a burning relationship with God, is the need for all of us to be in touch with the anguish of the world around us.

People complain about their faith drying up. The reason your faith dries up, the reason you get stagnant and stale, is because you've insulated yourself from the pain of the world around you. It'll happen every time to individuals and fellowships when they don't stay in touch with the pain of the children of this world.

But suppose we do stay in touch with the suffering going on around us. We see it every day, we hear its cries, we work among people who are the victims of every kind of sin, and yet we find ourselves unable to convey to these people any kind of help. If our contact with these people goes on and on and on, and we're not able to bring them any kind of healing, any kind of lasting help, then there's something wrong with our gospel or there's something wrong with our conception of it or living of it.

And it's at this point that many of us are now experiencing frustration. If Jesus really gave us a gospel, good news. And if he in fact has sent us forth to touch other lives with healing, to reveal his kingdom, to bring people life instead of their death, why is it that we just can't seem to find that word that will do the trick? Or even when we speak a word of healing, it seems that no healing follows.

From Isaiah 50, verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. The emphasis is on the power of a word to strengthen somebody. And from Luke chapter 4, 16, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and he went to the synagogue as was his custom on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

And there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found a place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to say something, to have that word. He has sent me to proclaim with words released to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, comes through a word, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Now if there's anything that set Jesus apart from every other teacher that ever came to Israel, it was his word. They wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. What is this word, they said in Luke 4? For with power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out.

Jesus spoke with a new tongue and the words that flowed from that tongue made things happen. Things happened when Jesus spoke. He spoke to the blind, he opened the blind eye and it opened.

He addressed the deaf ear and it opened. He talked to the dead and they rose. He commanded demons and they came out and people were restored to their right minds.

Jesus did not just mingle with the anguish of this world and leave it at that. He spoke to that anguish and he healed it. We mingle with the anguish, let's hope.

But all too often we just get overwhelmed by it. Or we crawl back into our shell. Or we're defeated by it or we run away in fear from it.

When we too ought to be able to address the anguish that surrounds us and bring healing to it. Is it too much for us to expect that Jesus will fulfill his promise? These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils.

They shall speak with new tongues. Is it too much to expect that we should be able to speak a word that will truly bring life to people and set them free and give them a new start? And now Lord look upon their threats and grant thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness. While thou stretchest out thy hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed in the name of thy holy servant Jesus.

And when they had prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. All of them did. And it was this speaking of a word that was alive with God's presence that brought through them healing and life and redemption, peace, every kind of manifestation of God's kingdom.

Is it too much for us to expect the same should be happening in our ministries? That we should be able, every one of us who goes forth in the name of the Lord from this place or any other gathering of believers, that we should be able to speak with a new tongue. Now a new tongue is not simply eloquence. An eloquent tongue is wonderful to listen to, it's like music and it will move your emotions and it will thrill you and it will hold your attention but it will not change your heart.

A new tongue is not salesmanship. We'll often say, you know, we hear it again and again, somebody who's a superb salesman and then we'll say, if only his talent or her talent was used for the kingdom of God. God doesn't need salesmen or hucksters or conmen or magicians or anything else.

All he needs are tongues that are willing to be taught to speak a word that will sustain him that is weary. A new tongue is the outgrowth of a new heart. Bring your heart to God and then let your heart teach the tongue the things of God and you will begin to speak words that will indeed heal the brokenhearted and bring life to the dead and open the eyes of the blind.

If we indeed desire to speak with a new tongue, the first thing we have to do is get a new heart. And I believe that has to go on and on and on, not just, now I got my new heart, I'm all set. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart, her heart, shall flow rivers of living water. Come to me and drink until your heart begins to overflow with God's mercy. Until your heart begins to burn with God's fiery love.

Ravish your heart on the goodness of God until it's new. Oh God, my heart is as stone, it's sick. It lies within me like a hunk of lead.

Help me. Cleanse my heart with your blood, Lord. Wash me.

Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Take this heart of stone out of me, not everybody else that's wrong, me.

And give me a heart of flesh. Secondly, if we indeed wish to speak with new tongues, we have to learn to give for alms such things as are within. It's a passage we don't look at as carefully as we should, I feel.

And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean to you. All right, what do we have within? The one thing we have within is what we have received from God, which is his mercy.

So if we're going to give for alms the things that are within, we're going to begin to come forth with mercy from our hearts, a merciful attitude, merciful prayers, a forgiving, forbearing, generous spirit. There is no way that we are ever going to have anything good to say to somebody else until in here there is mercy and forgiveness and forbearance toward all without exception. When we begin to come forth from our hearts with the mercy we have received, all things then become clean for us, including the most defiled member of our body, our tongue.

Now the tongue is ready to be taught from the heart the things of God. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those that are taught, that I might know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. And the first thing the heart has to teach the tongue is to talk to God.

Long before Jesus ever taught a word in the synagogue or ever spoke a word of healing to the sick, he was already speaking to his Father. And that speaking to his Father went on all through his ministry. If we are ever going to have a tongue that belongs to God and is of use to God, we're going to have to give our tongue to God in speech.

Present it to him by uttering to him words of praise, thanksgiving, worship, honor and glory. We're going to have to utter things that are meant only for God. Your heart has received mercy.

So now let the heart teach the tongue to express what the heart believes first to God. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall be continually in my mouth. If the heart is full of praise to God, how can the tongue keep silent? If your heart is overflowing with gratitude to God, how can your tongue hold its peace? Satan will try to threaten you and, you know, just all the way around, cut you down when you begin to speak words to God. You're wasting your time.

You sound like a fool. You're out of your mind. What are you doing? Just remember that your tongue, the main purpose of your tongue is not eating or drinking or gossiping or talking to other people but bringing glory to its Maker and Redeemer.

When the tongue begins to do that, then it's ready to learn from the heart how to speak also to men and women. Jesus came out from these times of being alone with his Father and uttered words that were absolute life, burning with the grace and mercy of God, never wasted. He was never wordy, never verbose.

He wasn't all over the place with his words, but every word went exactly where it was to go. And those words brought healing because they came from a heart that was on fire with the mercy of the living God. And you and I are called to do exactly the same thing, to speak words that are spirit and life, that heal, that quicken, bring vision, cleansing, encouragement, hope.

All of us are to do that. All of us. Luther talked about the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and that's about the last we ever did anything about it.

Many of us think when we found somebody who appears to be right for the kingdom, we immediately have to march them off to hear some evangelist or some great teacher or we shove a book in their hands which we think is the greatest Christian book ever written, but that's not what we were called to do, good as those things may be at times. Jesus did not say go ye into all the world and bring them to your favorite preacher. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

You preach it. You speak with that new tongue. You give forth a word of life from your heart.

For if you have received a new heart from God and if you are indeed giving for alms such things as are within you and if you are glorifying God with your tongue, you can be sure that you have been given a tongue that knows how to sustain with a word him who is weary, that you have been anointed to preach also good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, life to the dead, and that God's word on your tongue will not return to him woe. Let's pray. Father, you know that not only do we always pass the buck when something's wrong, somebody else's fault, but when the work needs to be done of bringing life to the dead and encouragement to the people who are so broken down, we always look around for somebody to get to do it who we think can do it better.

We don't want the responsibility. Help us, Lord God, to become bold before you and before men and to speak your word with boldness. Grant your servants who are also surrounded by many threats that we might speak the word with boldness while you stretch forth your hand to heal that signs and wonders may still be done in the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

Amen.