Is Your Religion Worthless Your Speech Will Show

Let's get on topic here. We're in James. I just want to deal with this.

James 1. The verse I want to deal with is v. 26, If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Anyone thinks he's religious, does not bridle his tongue. So, we're going to deal with the tongue today.

Now, let me ask you this. Is there anybody here that since you've been in this building, you have not spoken? No words come out of your mouth. Anybody? I've been amused listening to my two grandchildren.

They have a lot to say. I imagine both of them have said lots of words. They're incomprehensible to you, but they've said a lot.

Amen? You can usually get an amen out of them and you understand that. What kind of conversations have you had? Spiritual ones? Since you've been here? Who have you talked to? My longest conversation this morning was with Jesse Miranda out on the playground. And you know what? It was profitable to me.

It was encouraging to me. It was instructive to me. We talk.

We use our tongues. That's what we're talking about today. You see it there.

And let this really sink in. Because listen, when I'm done with this, you're going to have to admit, this is James under inspiration talking. This isn't just Brother Tim going in the pulpit and saying a bunch of stuff.

If anyone thinks he's religious... now, we don't sometimes like that word religious, but you know what he's doing. When he's using it, if anybody thinks they're a Christian, we know exactly what he's talking about. We don't have to get hung up on that.

If you think you're a Christian and you don't bridle your tongue, then what happens? I mean, James is pretty straightforward. He doesn't pull any punches. If this is the case, you deceive your heart.

Why? Because they've got a form of religion. They've got a form of Christianity. But it's lacking something.

It's lacking the power to control the tongue. You've got a form of Christianity, but you lack the power thereof. That's really problematic, folks.

That's what he's saying. And this person's Christianity is worthless. Now, what I want to ask you is this, how do you read this? I mean, you come across a verse like this.

Do you just... whatever. Ho-hum. Or is it convicting? Do you find it threatening? Do you find it unsettling? You know what jumps out at me when I first read it? It's amazement.

Because I was thinking about this text and I was thinking about, okay, where are you going to start out? And I thought, it is absolutely amazing. I'm struck by the reality. Does it sink in? I mean, God created us with the capacity to talk.

We don't hardly think about it. I mean, I actually have the ability to think, to reason, to reflect on myself, and then to turn to You and express what's inside through sounds that come through my vocal cords and there's air pushed up out of your lungs and it comes across these cords and your tongue is flapping in different ways and your lips are moving in certain ways and actually sounds come out and they go in your ears and you're actually able to comprehend them in language. Brendan, this is absolutely amazing.

Have you thought about it? We are the only creatures in this world. Now, I know there's angels and there's other creatures, but in this world, we are the only ones with this capacity to speak. And we are the only ones that are said to be created in the image of God.

And I've got to believe there's a connection there. We have the ability of expression. All this reflects upon... You know what Romans 1 says that men are without excuse.

Why? Because God has come along and in the creation, through all of the creation, He just shows forth these attributes. His eternal power. His divine nature.

And you know what? God comes along to Moses and He said, Moses, who's made the mouth? You remember when Moses was saying, Lord, don't send me. I'm not good at speaking. And God said, Moses, who made the mouth? And how did God answer? I made it.

It is phenomenal! It's a miracle! We don't bark! I sit in my office and I've got these trees out there and I'm watching the birds. All these birds and they fly around and they sing. And the mockingbirds, you listen to them sing and the cardinals are out there singing.

But you know, there's no words. We, man, is the true singer. We sing.

We can speak to the Lord Himself. I was just reading this morning, Elijah and God. And Elijah escaped to Horeb, to the mountain of God.

And God, in this still, small voice, spoke to him and He spoke back. We can talk to God. This is absolutely amazing.

And God did this. He made us able to proclaim His Son. James was talking about that, evangelizing.

We can go out and we can speak the truth of the Gospel. And isn't it amazing? God can turn it on and turn it off. Zechariah, if God says you can't talk, you can't talk.

And the moment He says you can talk, then you can talk. And you know what? He can go to Babel and He can say, you can talk, you just can't talk in the language you used to be able to talk in. And He can turn that.

And you've got guys running around and they start speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost. And God can do that. God has control.

It is amazing. God designed this whole thing. And I'm not even thinking about it.

I get the thought in my head and boom, it's coming out. Think about it. You're hearing me talk, but I'm not even thinking about how to make all this happen.

It's just like my voice is connected with my brain and so is yours. And you can just rattle words off. This is a miracle.

The whole thing is a miracle. And what James is especially hitting on is there's another miracle with the voice. It's the glory of the new voice.

The great thing God does with a man's voice when He saves him. That's really what's here in v. 26. If anyone thinks he's religious and does not rattle his tongue, he deceives his heart.

This person's religion is worthless. But you know what? There's a connection here between the tongue and true religion. And some in this room, you have religion that is not worthless.

And you are not deceived. You think you're a Christian and you are. And the reality is, how do you figure that out? What's the proof? It's a mouth miracle.

You see it here in the text. New man, new mouth. God does it.

If your religion hasn't produced a supernatural change, you know what? One of the things, when I was lost, I was just like my dad. I wanted to be like my dad. He was a chronic liar.

So was I. He had the filthiest, wretched mouth. So did I. When God saved me, I've likened it to turning off a faucet of garbage. God stopped that voice in me.

And you know what? Every one of us are going to have something of that testimony based on this verse. You can't get away from that reality. You simply can't.

And if it hasn't produced a supernatural religion, it says you're deceived. You're deceived. You don't want to be deceived.

You know, yesterday, as I was sitting in my office, I was reading. And I'm in Matthew right now in my devotional reading. And I just came across those words of the Lord.

Unquenchable fire. And I thought about the number of people and the people I know and the people I love. Unquenchable fire.

Do you ever think about it? Like unquenchable. It never ends. Fire.

When you think about being burned, it's like out of all the tortures you can imagine, if somebody actually begins to burn you, it destroys, it is painful. We're talking about an unquenchable fire and it is forever. You do not want to be deceived.

Don't pass over verses like this lightly. Because listen, the thing is, if you're deceived, you want to find out that now. Not later.

Not when it's too late. Too many people are going to find out too late they're deceived. The place you want to find that out is here and now.

And the way you're going to do that is by being honest with Scripture. You don't want the unquenchable fire. Don't think it's all just some fantasy, some fantastic fairy tale, because you're removed from it right now.

All you have to do is glance over at the cemeteries over here. Death is coming, folks. And there's no getting away.

And if you're wrong about where you stand, and what God is saying through James, is hey, you want a good check on where you're at? You can find it in the tongue. You can find it in the voice. You see, folks, the issue is this.

The tongue always follows the heart. What did Jesus say? What was one of His classic statements that joined the tongue and the heart? He said, how can you speak good when you're evil? You remember He said that? Out of the abundance of the heart, what? The mouth speaks. That's what Jesus said.

Anybody know who Seneca is? Roman. Yeah, he was a Stoic philosopher. And maybe a senator.

But he said this. He wasn't a Christian, but he said speech is the express image of the heart. And you know what happened? Sin came in and wrecked us.

Adam and Eve were created with the ability to speak and there was no sin, so their speech was good. But what happened? Sin comes in and wrecks man. It didn't take away our ability to speak.

But you know this, it took away our ability to speak good. How can you speak good when you're evil? You can't. And so men fall.

You recognize what that did to the speech of all of humanity? There it is right there. And try as we might, you can try to hide it, but eventually folks, you can try to be the hypocrite, but the fact is eventually you're going to be betrayed by your mouth. How? Well, you look at the text.

If anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, he can't bridle his tongue. Think about a bridle. What do you bridle? A horse.

Yes, this is the exact imagery here. So we think of a horse, we put a bridle on it. What is a bridle? Yes, a controller.

I mean, you basically have a head harness that you put on the horse and you have a bit that goes through the mouth and there's reins that come off that and they come up into your hands. That's the idea. Bridle.

So listen, sometimes we'll say something like this, like a guy might say, you know, he's being harsh with, woman, bridle your tongue. How did you take that? What does that mean? Stop talking. Bridle does not mean to just stop doing something.

You don't bridle a horse to paralyze it. You don't bridle the horse to get it to just go lay down and be still and silent and do nothing. That's not what bridle is.

You bridle something to control it. You know why you bridle a horse? Because of all the good you want it to do. You want to control it.

You want to steer it. You want it to drag the plow. You want it to carry the cart.

You want it, you want to ride on its back. And you want it to go where you want it to go and you want it to do what you want it to do and work when you want it to work. That's the idea.

Don't think bridling the tongue is just figuring out when to be silent. Now that's part of it. Obviously you bridle this thing because there are certain things you don't want it to do.

And there are many things that you do want it to do. That's critical here. Brethren, we got to stop thinking about Christianity from a negative perspective.

It isn't just about what we don't do. Why I didn't swear. Well, that's great.

That's really good. But that's not the issue here behind bridling the tongue. We're not bridling the horse to immobilize, but to control.

That's the idea. And listen, James is making a point. What is his point? His point is that if you have genuine Christianity, you will be able to bridle your tongue.

Well, you have the capacity to do it. That's the idea. The only Christianity, the only religion that's not worthless, get that, of all the forms of religion on the face of this earth, the only one that is not worthless is the one that produces people with a bridled tongue.

So, most people are not Christians. So what's true of most people? They don't have bridled tongues. Many in the church are not genuine Christians.

That's just the wheat and the tare reality, folks. I'm not making any unbiblical judgment. So what would you expect is going to be true? Many in that day are going to say to Him, Lord, Lord, what do you expect of such people? They're in the church and they can't bridle their tongue.

So don't be surprised that some of the people even here don't bridle their tongue. And that's who He's dealing with especially, is the people that have this Christianity or this religion. They're in the church.

They're among God's people and they can't bridle their tongue. He's not targeting the general populace out there. He's targeting people within the church, within this community who can't bridle the tongue.

That's the issue here. And Paul sees this connection clearly. You remember what he said.

Paul looks at the lost man and he says, none of them, none does good, not even one. And as you go down through the list as he's describing, you know what he's got a lot to say about the tongue. Remember what he says? Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of Asp is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

So I just ask you this, in all the world, who are the only people that have the capacity to use their voice for good? That's the Christian, obviously. They're the only ones with the capacity for good with the tongue. And they don't only have the capacity, they actually seize hold of that capacity and they throw a bridle on their tongue that they might present that little member in their mouth as a member of righteousness to God.

You remember someplace where Paul says, maybe Romans 6, where he talks about presenting your members to God as members of righteousness. That's what you want to do. You got to put a bridle on this tongue so that you can come and bring it and lay it on the altar.

That should be our mindset all the time. We should be thinking. Brethren, a lot of times we just don't think.

We're driving to church and we're not really thinking about who we're going to talk to, what we're going to say. Brethren, we need to be intentional about this. You're going to bridle that tongue.

This doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen just in passivity. It's not going to happen.

And I just ask you this. Brethren, if we could take your words, all your words, let's say we all had the ability to bring your words out from the last month. And we were going to play them on these speakers.

And we're all going to listen to your words. Now, I know none of us would be, I mean, which one of you are going to say, yeah, I'm ready for that, let's go. And you're going to sit right there.

No, probably a lot of people would be out the door. Like, let them hear what I said. I don't want to re-hear it.

But folks, just let me ask you this. If we heard your words, what would we conclude? Would we conclude you are a massive gossip, slander, evil speaker, corrupt speak? I mean, look, the thing is, James knows, he knows who he's dealing with. He's not dealing with perfect people, but he's obviously dealing with people that have been radically changed by the power, the grace of God, so that they talk different than they used to talk.

And there's going to be a reality of that. James, with his characteristic bluntness, he just talks this way that if, look, if there's not enough bridledness of tongue to convince us that your religion is genuine, then James with this bluntness, not mine, it's his. He says, look, your tongue is unrestrained.

That shows that you have a heart that's unsubmissive to Christ. You just lay that down. There is a connection there.

You can't get away from it. Don't just go over this. Don't go along and it's like, well, you know, I'm religious now.

I go to church, but still, you know, I kind of just talk the same way. Brethren, this is serious stuff. And I just ask you this.

How are we supposed to hear this? I mean, I ask myself this. Okay, I come to this verse and it's saying, bridled tongue goes hand in hand with true Christianity. So if I look at my life and I'm saying, yeah, I see that something is lacking.

How do you, what do you do? Do you say, wow, I must be deceived? Or do you say, well, maybe I need to try harder? Or what do you say? How do you approach this? It's like, you almost feel like, well, you know, if you talk this way to people and it's like people are of works mindset, all they're going to do is try to what? Just, they're going to try to clean it up. And how do you process this? How do you think the Spirit of God means for us to process this? Just smug and, well, I'm good. Or hopeless.

I mean, I guess if that's what Christianity, or should I be uncertain? Should I be afraid? Should I just grit my teeth? It's like, what am I supposed to do? And one of the things that, because I think this is really practical. And as I thought about this, I thought, well, one of the things that we can do is we can come at it the way Paul came at what was true in his life. You remember when Paul said in the first Corinthian letter, chapter 15, that he ran harder than all the others.

You remember when he said that? And how did he talk? He said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And you know what, that is a good place to start. Because I can look at my words, and I can say, yeah, if you put everything up on that speaker over the last months, there's some things that I'd be embarrassed that you heard.

But you know, I recognize the way I spoke when I was lost. It's radically different. My words are radically different.

And I would say, you know what? I'm not what I'm going to be, but I am not what I used to be. And it is by the grace of God that the change has happened, that has taken place. Now there are still things, there's still work to be done.

And I can recognize that. But see, you got to be honest. I can be honest and I can say, wow, God radically changed the way I talk.

I mean, I talk, you know, the way you talk has everything to do with the way you think. What's going on in your mind? And I know this, my mind is captivated by the Word of God and by Christ and by the things of the Lord. It's on my mind all the time.

And so that would be one thing. But the next thing would be this. This is a warning.

I mean, on the one hand, we're recognizing, yes, God did this, there's thankfulness. Thank you, Lord, that I am not what I used to be. But the next thing is, this is a warning.

You can't get away from that. There is a warning that if you don't have the kind of Christianity that is here, you're deceived. That is a warning.

And you remember how Jesus warned? He said, look, I'll tell you who to fear. Don't fear those who can kill the body, but then they don't have any power to touch your soul. You fear Him.

God is worth being feared. Listen, if your mouth is such that you're proving the reality of what James is driving home here and you're deceived and your religion is worthless, you may sit in the same building. Don't think that because you're in the church building and because you talk to Christians that somehow that makes you safe.

Listen, we can have people that come in here and they're just as ready to gossip as people out there in the world. They're just as ready and willing to speak evil. So we should fear.

James would have us fear. There's a healthy fear here. Also, there's a duty implied here.

I mean, it says that if we don't bridle our tongue, I've got to bridle my own tongue. If it's going to be bridled, I'm responsible for using my voice to accomplish good and bestow grace. I'm responsible.

I've got to bridle it. If you're passive, if you just go around neglecting this, if you're indifferent to this, if you're lazy, if you're stupid, apathy, carelessness, Christian, hear me. God has saved you with the capacity.

This is a massive capacity He's given us. We can sing. We can evangelize.

We can help each other. We can communicate with God. Oh, you can do it on the inside, but He's given us the ability to express this.

This is amazing. We've got to think. There's got to be some effort.

Brethren, as I stressed last week, this is not about what we don't do. This is not just morality. We need to think about the good we can do, we should do, and strive by the grace of God and prayerfully abiding in Christ to do it.

Paul speaks of the tongue this way. You remember this? Some of you were here years ago when I preached on Ephesians 4. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. There's the negative.

So you lay aside the old man qualities, but you're supposed to speak in such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it might give grace to those who hear. Brethren, how pathetic are people who aim at neutrality. I don't cuss anymore.

When you walk in here, do you help people? Do you help people in your family? Do you help your children? Do you help your parents? Do you help your co-workers? Do you help? You know what? You're supposed to be light in this world. And one of the ways we're going to be light is by the words you speak. Yes, your actions, they're watching your whole life, but oh, brethren, such a window to who we are comes right out of here.

You can't get away from the reality. Brethren, we've got to bridle the horse. Not simply to get it to not do certain things.

We bridle it to get it to do what we want. And brethren, to bridle the tongue, you've got to recognize, I don't despise the simplicity of what I'm about to say, but you bridle the tongue, why? Because what you say, other people hear. You see, that's a big deal.

I'm talking right now and you're all hearing me. And then it goes out on that thing. And other people hear it.

And when we speak, that's the idea. Other people, we've got to embrace the obvious here. When you talk, someone is listening.

Now I know you can talk to yourself. And God is always listening, obviously. But the vast majority of the time that we're speaking, we're speaking and other people are hearing.

Absolutely essential to this whole subject. Your voice affects others. And what you don't want to do is say, who am I? You know, I'm like the least guy.

Jesus talks about one of the least of these, my little ones. And you feel like I'm that, I'm no pastor. My tongue is so insignificant, you don't want to think that way.

I'm just one person, I'm meaning a whole scope of things. That's not true. You know what, in this same epistle, you know what James is going to say in chapter 3? Listen to this.

Look at the ships. They're so large, driven by strong winds. They're guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs.

And you say, what's that got to do with it? You know what he's talking about? He's talking about the tongue. And he says, you can take this massive ship. You've got one little rudder.

You see, you've got a massive amount of people, or massive whatever it is, and you've got one little tongue. And you know what he goes on to say? One little fire can start a fire in such a big woods, such a large forest. You can say, it doesn't matter.

Yes, it does matter. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. What you say matters.

I mean, you just think of how many people do you talk to? How many people do you talk to? And how many times do you talk to them? And how often do they repeat what you said? And to how many people do they repeat what you said? I mean, think about this. Isn't it amazing you can say things and it goes around and it can come right back to you? Somebody playing with the switches? Anyway, this is a big deal. How often? Think with me.

How often has somebody said something to you that has really discouraged you or really encouraged you? You know what Spurgeon said? He said he could have so many people pat him on the back, encouraging words. He said one person's criticism can wreck it all. You ever had that? It's like one person's words can devastate a person.

Typically, over the years, folks, I was here on day one when we started the church. What was it? 21st day of June. What day was it, sister? Where's Connie? Is she not here? What was that? 23rd.

That's right. Who said that? Okay. So yes, 23rd day of June, 2001.

Can I tell you this? As I think through those years and about the most problematic people that we've had in this church, you can trace it to their tongues. Every time. I doubt there's an exception.

The tongue. Look no further than the tongue. Brethren, you eliminate one bad tongue in the church, you know how Scripture speaks? Drive out the scoffer, strife will go out, quarreling and abuse will cease.

For lack of wood, the fire goes out. You know what Solomon does? He gathers around the campfire and he withholds the wood and he lets that thing... Have you been around the campfire, children? And you've watched it get low. And it's like dad needs to throw some wood on that fire.

Get the thing roaring. You've been out at the men's retreat. Scott has a big fire out there.

Well, it's kind of getting low. You've got to throw some wood on it. That makes the fire really go up.

Solomon says, you know what? The tongue is like that. Don't throw fire on it. There's lack of wood.

Fire goes out. You get rid of that tongue in the church and the fires go out. It's amazing the damage that a tongue can do.

You know, people say, what do kids say on the playground? Sticks and stones. That is a lie, folks. And we all know it and it's not true.

You know words matter. That one person, one time, slander you, lie about you, attack you, and you know how you feel. And you know what? Mack Tomlinson was telling Ruby and I about a dark season that he went through and how one brother's words, God just used him to totally bring him back out in the light.

Brethren, that's how it is. Now let's think about the bad. So if we're going to bridle the tongue, obviously you lay aside the bad and you put on the good.

Let's talk about the bad. Let's talk about the things as we're bridling the tongue. Paul, when he's interested in laying off these qualities of the old man, killing this old man, how often the mouth comes into play.

Listen to this, therefore having put away falsehood. That's the first thing Paul says in Ephesians 4 that we need to lay off as we're laying off qualities of the old man. Lay off falsehood.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths is verse 29. He goes on in verse 31 to say, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from you. In chapter 5, he says, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place.

We lie. And you see, as Christians, maybe it's not the flagrant thing. You embellish.

Something's a white lie. You kind of stretch the truth. There's exaggeration or false accusation.

You know one of the classic things is we suppose something evil or wrong about somebody else. And you say it. It's like they do something.

You hear that somebody else does something and you suppose that they did it for a bad reason and you articulate it. You know they probably did that because... or destructive criticism. I'm talking destructive.

There is constructive, but destructive. You only harm by the criticism that you bring. It's not helpful.

It's not helping anybody. We need to be very discerning there. But you know you can get into this assuming the worst or speculation and then of course next to that there's filthy talk.

Like Paul talked about, there's this coarseness or vulgarity or profanity, offensive language, blasphemy, swearing, cursing. You know what's interesting? When I moved down here and I was working for John Sytsma, John had a guy come out and he was... No, it was before I got there. Johnny, John's son, told me that a guy came out to bid on something that John wanted to have built.

And the guy had a foul mouth. And John said, you know, I've usually found that people with a foul mouth are also liars. John told him that.

Hey, you watch your Bibles, you'll see that connection. I mean, just one example is Psalm 10, verse 7. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit. Cursing and deceit are brothers there.

We can use the vain use of God's name. And I'm talking even the Christian in places like this. You sing the song, you're not even thinking about it.

Christ's name, God's name rolling off your lips, and you're thinking about work. And it's just coming off. That's what vanity is, folks.

Profane. How people talk about the holy. Isn't it amazing how much the world they use holy and they put all sorts of garbage behind it.

That's profanity. That's taking something that is holy and it's making it normal. It's associating it.

You just go through all the different ways. Ridicule. Scoffing.

Disrespect. Mocking where we just laugh at. People babble.

There's a multitude of words that Proverbs talks about that. The person with a big mouth. The gossip, the slander, the backbiter, the divisive, inappropriate humor.

People that are trying to be funny when it's just not the time to do it. There may be a time for humor. But people joking about godliness or making fun of people who are really trying to live for God the extra mile.

People that are defensive. People that espouse false doctrine. People that use their mouth to oppose truth.

Hypocrisy, boasting, grumbling, complaining, expressing jealousy. Tempting others to sin. Reviling.

It's basically trying to humiliate somebody or intimidate somebody or insult somebody. Making fun of others. Provoking others to anger.

Flattery. Just unseasonable worldly talk. You can be in here and you're wanting to talk to the Lord and somebody comes up and they always want to talk about work and other stuff.

And it's just idle talk. I mean, you think about all these things and it's like, oh, did you hear Psalm 141? Put a watch before my mouth, O Lord. I mean, we need help.

We need to kill these things. These are old man qualities and they're ugly and they're filthy and they're no good. But to stop there, to stop at the negative, that's not Christianity.

That may be morality, but that's not the heart and soul of what it means to bridle, to hold in check. We want to get to the good. God doesn't want us to keep our mouths shut only.

There's all sorts of good that He wants us to do. Think what you can do with your voice. You can magnify the Lord.

You can sing to the Lord. You can sing about the Lord. He's given us a voice.

We can whisper. Shout! It is amazing. We can lift it.

We've got inflection. You can hear when somebody's excited about something, right? Or if I'm up here and take it in monotone. Do you like me shouting? And see, you can laugh with your mouth.

It's crazy what God has done. This is really a miracle if you just think about it. But the good we can do, oh, I can ask you for help.

I can defend the innocent, the weak. We can do things like that. We can express respect and express thankfulness and gratitude.

We can confess sin. We can exhort each other. We can reprove.

We can correct. We can pray. We can transact just the business of life, which is a very good thing.

We can encourage one another. We can go out and evangelize. We can be witnesses in this world.

We can do all sorts of things. Defend the truth. Tell what God has done for you.

Declare the mighty works of God. We can teach. We can read Scripture out loud.

We can do all these things. Brethren, have you ever found that talking to some people is a total waste of time? You know what? In this place, strive to not be that guy. Strive.

There needs to be an effort here. Fight. Think.

So as to not be that person. Just because you're standing here, you stand in the church, that doesn't make everything somehow sanctified. You can come in here and you can just whine.

Or you know what? You can come in here and be selfish. Oh, Ruby and I have had discussions before. You know, it's like the person in the church that every time you engage them, all they want to do is consume the conversation by telling you all their problems.

Now look, there's a place to communicate. But when you get that person in the church and it's just like they won't stop. They don't care about you.

Which is obvious because they never ask about you. It's just gush. Well, you don't want to... Folks, we can whine.

We can complain. We can grumble. We can display that we don't trust the Lord.

Brethren, that is one thing in the church. You can gossip. You can slander.

Slander! You can be a devil. You can come in the church and be a devil. That's what slander is all about.

You can express bitterness. You can express anger and unforgiveness and ingratitude and self-pity and arrogance and hardness of heart and lack of sympathy for people like James is talking about. Having sympathy for people.

You can just get upset with needy people and doctrinal error and wrong views of God and you can come in here and misapply Scripture and you can show indifference to what's important and just fall asleep. Of course, we're talking about words, not your sleeping. Folks, you can express cruelty.

You can express lust. You can express idolatry and greed and covetousness. Listen, all of this can be expressed in words, in certain expressions, by the tones that we have.

Any and every evil that you can feel and experience in your heart on the inside can be expressed in words and tones and expressions on the outside. And it never leaves the hearer unaffected. You cannot come in here and whine and show your unbelief in God.

You basically make God small because you can't trust Him for anything. Some guy comes in the church and wow, he's ready to do some endeavor and you're like this bucket of cold water and it usually comes right out of your mouth. You can't do that.

All the reasons why that won't work. God's so small. We're so helpless and this will never work.

You get that voice in the church. There's always a hesitation. We don't want to do something crazy.

You better rethink that 20 times until we just think it right out the door. Brethren, the things we can do with our voice, and Scripture says this, do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals. You know where that comes from? Where does that come from? What's the context? Resurrection.

People were saying things. Paul doesn't say bad company ruins good morals in a vacuum. He said there were people at Corinth using their mouth in a way that was corrupting.

And you get in that kind of company. So brethren, like last week, we were talking about being doers of the Word, not hearers only. And what I wanted us to do was look into that perfect law of liberty and say, you know what the most important things to God are? What are the weighty matters? Justice.

Mercy. Kindness. What's the law and the prophets doing to others what we would have done to us? What's the heart and the soul of this? He desires mercy and not sacrifice like we were hearing about in the first hour.

Brethren, you know what? You know what we want to be doing with our mouths? We're supposed to be encouraging one another, stirring up one another to love and good works. You know what you want to use your mouth for? To these weighty things. Brother, sister, be involved in that.

We need to be encouraging one another. Not painting a picture of a small God all the time. Oh, brethren, somebody comes in here and they want to do some radical venture and they're going to step out on faith and here comes that unbelieving voice.

You remember the ten? Brethren, we can't go in there. We're grasshoppers. Brethren, do you know what their voices did? Their voices poisoned the whole group.

And they had to walk in the wilderness. Isn't it amazing what voice can do? Cause you to walk in the wilderness for the next 40 years. Cause you to not be used how you might otherwise be used.

Brethren, beware. You know what? You've got to face the problem. Look at the way you talk.

Look at what you do. Are you strategic? Do you really plan? Sometimes we can just be so much recipients and responsive. We walk in here.

We just kind of respond to everything that we're confronted with. Be strategic. You've got to really think.

Okay, if I'm going to go in there and I'm going to exhort, I'm going to warn, I'm going to reprove, I'm going to teach, I'm going to instruct, I'm going to seek to encourage. Well then, you've got to go in. Use your spiritual gifts.

Some of you have a gift of encouragement. Some of you do not have a gift of encouragement. But if you have it, use it.

If your gift is somewhere else, look, we have different gifts. And a lot of them have to do with the tongue. And we need to be using those and we need to be strategic.

Listen, you're never going to stir up one another to love and good works unless you're thinking. And you better know your Bible. Because if you're going to really talk biblical, you've got to know your Bible.

If you're going to really say things that God wants you to say, you need to know your Bible from beginning to end. But you need to study one another. Look, if you're going to stir up that guy right there to go to some crazy thing for the Lord, you need to know Jake.

And you need to have some idea. Where are his gifts? Who is he? What would be a good thing to try to stir him up? What is just the thing for him? But you've got to know one another. The problem is, you know what? Sometimes you get people sit over there, you don't even know that guy over there.

It's like we kind of stay in our own things. I find that. I tell Ruby, I'm concerned because I haven't seen so-and-so.

Oh, I saw him. It's like, well, where are they? Well, they always hang out in the back. And we hang out right here.

Well, sometimes you've got to get out of your... I mean, we've got to find each other. We've got to talk to one another. We've got to know one another.

We've got to know where people are at if you're going to use your tongue. Listen, a lot of us have spiritual gifts that are directly related to our tongues. And we've got to use those.

We can't be burying them. Listen, the most healthy churches are going to be ones where the tongues... As I said before, you know what? You know what? Over the last 23 years, I guess, we're in our 24th year now as a church, I can say this. The biggest problems in this church have been people with unbridled tongues.

But do you know who the greatest people are in this church? Do you know who the greatest people who have been the greatest help and the greatest nurturing and the greatest benefit to this church? It's people whose tongues are used profitably. Oh, brethren, we've got to fight. You know what? Paul says get rid of the corrupt speech.

Corrupt. The other day, they said, Ruby, something stinks. Well, there's something in the refrigerator that shouldn't have been in there.

It was in there too long. But you know what? When you've got something corrupt, well, you don't empty the whole refrigerator out and throw everything out. You get rid of the bad.

And if it's bad, if it's like one of Josiah's diapers, you don't just throw it, especially the nasty ones. And you know what I'm talking about. You just don't throw them in the garbage.

You get them out of the house. We get them out to the bin. You get them out far away as quick as possible.

And Josiah runs over and he puts his arms out. We're glad to run it out there and get rid of it. You want it out of the house? Get it out of the refrigerator.

Get it out of the kitchen. Get it out of your house. Brethren, we really have to be thinking.

How do we speak? What are our words doing? Do they provoke others? Brethren, we've got to be on this. Quick as possible. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth.

None! He doesn't give place for any of it. But only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion. You think about that.

Do you guys really think about what fits the occasion? You know what doesn't fit the occasion? To walk up and you've got two guys talking. They're talking about their spiritual life. And they're exhorting one another.

And you walk up and want to talk about money and your projects at home and your work. That is not the occasion for that. So brethren, bridal.

That's control. That's self-control. As fits the occasion.

There's fitting words. Do you know a word in season? How good it is. That's how the Proverbs.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. God's people are meant to meet one another's needs. Do you know what Scripture says? It says exhort one another.

Why let's call today? Why? Why? Aye, aye, aye. Do you think there's a possibility of any one of us in this room becoming hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? It can just be coasting. You know who He's talking to? People that were straying.

We should keep our eyes open. There's some people in this church right now that over and above and beyond anybody else are beginning to stray. And you know, sometimes you've got to talk to people.

You've got to find out where people are at. And I know some people are more outgoing and you say, well, I'm so shy. I would just say this, ask God for an opportunity.

You don't have to come in here and fix everybody's life on any given Lord's Day. Just ask God if there's a brother or sister that He would have you to talk to. It may be that you need to hear them.

It may be that they need to hear you. It may be both. I've found that God will give opportunities.

Just ask. You think about what Scripture says. Admonish, exhort, encourage, rebuke, reprove, warn, comfort.

Scripture talks about a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom. Bridle your tongues. Control them in order to administer grace to the hearer.

Brethren, how do you determine what the need is? You're going to listen. You're going to observe. You're going to ask questions.

But like I say, know your Bibles inside and out and backwards. Scripture is what equips. You know what Paul said to Timothy.

He said the man of God is going to be equipped by this Word. For all doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, this is very sufficient. So you've got to know that.

You've got to be able to apply that. So, brethren, remember last week, I want to emphasize this because he's going to go to widows and orphans next. I'm telling you that what we really want to be involved with is stirring up one another to love and good works.

The kind of works that are not filthy rags that we heard about from Revelation that are going to adorn us as a garment. Brethren, listen. Remember, I was hungry and you fed me.

I was naked, you clothed me. I was in prison, you visited me. These are the important things.

When we come in here, yes, we have personal problems. But you know what? Through much tribulation, every one of us is going to make it. You know what? We have to encourage people to reach beyond themselves no matter what things we're suffering ourselves.

We can become, oh, woe is me, and we get so trapped in our own problems. We all have problems, folks. And yes, we need to minister to one another and encourage one another in the midst of those problems.

But in the end, Jesus was a man of sorrows. And yet for all of that, He went about doing good. He just did good.

We need to be stirring one another to make it to the end. You're only going to be saved if you endure to the end. We are responsible for one another's making it to the end.

And so much of that comes from how you use your mouth. Brethren, this is a reality. Wholesome words, get this, must first be in your brain.

You ever think your thought process is in words? You think the same way you talk. You don't think in a different language. You think in words.

And brethren, before you're ever going to speak pure and wholesome words out of this aperture, you have to think good words up here. And the reason I'm hitting that is because on a regular basis, you're thinking wicked thoughts. You've got to deal with it at that level.

You think there. Wholesome words have to be in your thoughts first before they're going to be on your lips. That's just a reality.

So think about that. Brethren, Christ came and He spoke like no other. You remember the officer said that? No one ever spoke like that.

I'm wondering why they didn't take Him. You remember what the psalm says? You're the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips.

Brethren, I'll tell you this, He's gone. Well, He's here spiritually. But His physical presence is gone.

And you know what He said? You are My witnesses. Wow! We have the place to use this the way He used His when He's here. Now, we are His witnesses.

Now, we have that responsibility. That should be our reputation just as it was His. People should recognize it of all the people in the world.

Those people talk like no others. No one talks like them. Because that's what they said about Jesus.

If people are around you and they discern, they talk just like the rest of the world. Well, the conclusion ought to be obvious what that means. So brethren, there it is.

Our words matter. Our mouths matter. How you use them.

You can be so fruitful with how this tongue is used. And you can be so destructive. Father, I pray that we don't want that worthless religion in this place.

Lord, purge it from among us. Lord, if there be some that sit here that are deceived and they have that worthless kind, I pray, Lord, awaken them and have mercy. Father, those of us that could say, by the grace of God, we are what we are.

We're not perfect yet, but, oh, You have radically changed us. Lord, I pray that there would be a diligence, a determination, a real thinking, a real purpose, a real focus from this church to be more fruitful, more intentional, more helpful to the well-being of the brethren in this place. Help us to use our voices to be light to this world around us.

We pray that the tax collector and the sinners would find in our voices something that resonated in the voice of Christ when they heard it. There was an attractiveness. There was an approachableness when Jesus spoke.

When Jesus spoke, the tax collectors and the sinners, as vile as they were, they didn't feel repulsed like it was with the scribes and the Pharisees, how they looked down and how the sinners with a capital S did not feel welcome in their presence, and yet here is the Holy Son of God. And they so freely approached Him. Lord, we want to be the same.

We want that to be the reputation of our church and of us as individuals. Help us, Lord, to be like Christ. We ask it in His name, Amen.