James No.7 The Tongue

Proverbs chapter 15 and verses 1 to 4. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Here ends the reading. Thank you from the third chapter of James's epistle.

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is 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 and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man. But no man can tame the tongue. It is 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 comes 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 grape vine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. I want to speak to you this morning on the terror of the tongue, the terror of the tongue. If ever there was a church that should have thanked God for its pastor, it was that early Christian community that met at Jerusalem.

If these five chapters that constitute the epistle of James are an example of the sustained quality of the preaching of that godly man, then I say again, that church was blessed indeed and brother Martin Luther was so badly wrong in his assessment. This is not an epistle of straw. Here is wheat, good wheat, brother Martin, digestible wheat food that is necessary for Christian people.

And if I am correct in suggesting that this is the first letter of the new Testament ever to circulate amongst the Christian communities as they came together to read the new scriptures that were being written, then it indicates the practical nature of the Christian faith ever since its inception. Time and time again, pastor James brings before his flock at Jerusalem the practicalities of believing in Jesus. He will touch on subjects and count them important that many a modern preacher would not highlight and many, many a modern congregation would not feel that there was any undue value in them.

Now it would seem colloquially speaking that James, as we would put it, has got a thing about the tongue. He's got a thing about the tongue. For example, in the 19th verse of the first chapter, he says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear slow to speak, slow to be angry.

And in the 26th verse, if any man among you seem to be religious and brideless, not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. And again, in the 12th verse of the second chapter, so speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. He's indicated in the opening few verses of his epistle, what shall be a subject he will seize upon and open up and placard in front of us later on.

And that is the use of the tongue. It's like fire under control. It has value out of control.

It is absolutely dangerous. Come to the sixth verse just for a moment and listen to him. As he writes, 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. Strong words. The title of my address this morning leapt out from that verse, the terror of the tongue.

You can hardly think of a more dramatic way in which to spell out the dangers of an unbridled tongue than the fashion in what in which James does in that sixth verse. Well, let me suggest to you for purposes of my teaching this morning that James handles his subject in three slightly different ways. In the first two verses, I put it to you that as James considers the subject of the tongue, he handles it.

First of all, cautiously, there is a warning. There is an admonition tucked into those verses as he particularly has a word to say about teachers whose tools of trade happened to be of course, words. The use of the tongue is vital to such a profession.

So he approaches the subject cautiously in the opening verses. And then it seems to me from the third through to the eighth verse, he approaches it illustratively for there are four particular examples, four metaphors, which he brings to our attention to show us the danger of an undisciplined tongue and the use of the same. And then it appears to me that from the ninth verse to the 12th he handles his subject again, just a little differently, paradoxically, contrasting certain things which would be absurd in nature, which we allow in the use of the tongue, both praising the Lord and cursing a mankind with the same organ of speech.

Well, I put that to you as my outline. And as I say, it's just to help us as we push our way through these 12 verses to have these three aspects of teaching in our minds and help us to remember them later on when perhaps at our leisure we go through this passage once more. So I bring you to the first two verses in which I suggest that when John, when James approaches the subject of the tongue, he does so cautiously look at the first verse.

Not many of you should presume to be teachers or as the AV puts it, my brethren be not many masters. Why is this word of warning, this word of caution immediately sounded by James? Well, the reason is this that in the early Christian church, the office of teacher equaled the office of rabbi in the Jewish faith. Rabbi happens to mean the mighty one and in Jewish synagogues, the leader of the synagogue, the rabbi was a man greatly esteemed and revered.

Some were good men, some exploited their position and the, the possibility was as James perceives it, that the teacher in the Christian faith might carry with him the respect and in one sense, rightly so of old Testament Judaism. But James as Paul knows enough about the perversion of the office of teacher to bring in a warning that such a profession carries with it tremendous responsibilities. The man who is called to preach the man who is called to teach has at the bar of God's judgment to give an account for the way that he's lived his life and for the manner of his teaching.

That's why when Paul writes to Timothy on two occasions, he makes reference to teachers who slovenly carry out their duties. Some teachers who have moved into heresy and who therefore are corrupting other Christians. I says James, this office of teacher is one in which words are paramount very much to the forefront, but don't rush into that office my brothers because those of us, he says, including himself, those of us who teach will be judged very strictly and he is honest enough in the second verse to go on to say that most of us, whether we're teachers or not slip in our handling of words.

We all stumble, says James in many ways. He uses that word stumble in an earlier passage when in the second chapter and the 10th verse he refers to those who stumble at keeping the law of God. The idea is of slipping.

It's easy for us to grasp in our English language because we have a colloquial expression, do we not? A slip of the tongue. Now, ordinarily speaking, a slip of the tongue may not do a lot of damage, but a person who is a teacher who lets out words that shouldn't fall from his lips and those words are like arrows and they find a place in the hearts of many a person. And that teacher is responsible for what he says and for the bad influence that he might be.

I says James with absolute commendable honesty. There are times when I've slipped, but let me caution you. Those of you who want the office of teacher to appreciate that we shall be tried for the language that we have used for the words that we have allowed to slip out and possibly with someone else in mind, as I shall refer to later on, assuming I have time, which is perhaps a reckless assumption.

He says if anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man. He's able to keep his whole body in check or as the AV puts it, he's able to bridle the whole body. The man says, James who controls the tongue is a man who has a controlled life.

Spiritual perfection is tested by this one means. How does a person control his tongue in vocal speech and in talking to himself in allowing certain things to happen within his body privately, within his lifestyle publicly, the acid test of the use of the tongue. That is what James is referring to in the opening verses of the third chapter, and he does so cautiously.

You may remember that in the book of Proverbs and the 15th chapter read to us by my brother Richard, references made to a wholesome tongue being a tree of life. And there's a book that never quite made the Bible, though it's a good book called Ecclesiasticus. And that has in the 14th chapter in the first verse, blessed is the man who has not slipped with his mouth.

Blessed is the man who has not slipped with his mouth. When you allow words to slip out, which you never really meant to say, you can't recover them. As one modern commentator gives a most aposite domestic illustration, he says, it's difficult to get toothpaste back into the tube once you've squeezed it.

And that's quite true, isn't it? Not that I've ever tried. I take his, his word for it. So the oozing out of words that you never meant to say, difficult to get them back.

Be cautious, says John says James, as he speaks to would be teachers, because your ministry involves the use of language and such is tested by God. But not only does he approach his subject cautiously, but if I might move on from the third to the eighth verses, let me show you that he does so illustratively. He brings together four examples in helping us grasp the reason for his caution in the opening verses.

And the four examples are these. First of all, verse three, the bit in the horse's mouth. Secondly, verse four, the rudder of the ship's helm.

Thirdly, verse five B, the spark of fire. In a forest. And then fourthly, the beast of the jungle.

Verse seven. Here are four examples that James selects to show us how the tongue itself, if it is undisciplined, can do tremendous harm. You see, he is supposing that there's an objector.

Sometimes Jewish teachers did this. They imagined that somebody was hostile to what they were saying. And so here is an inquirer and he says, James, your argument's all wrong.

You're putting too much store on one small bit of the human frame, the tongue. No, says James. I'm not.

Have you never considered how in the realm of nature and in ordinary commercial life, a small thing can have tremendous importance. Look at the horse. Look at the horse, that mighty beast with all its power.

How is the horse controlled? Well, there's a skillfully shaped piece of metal that's placed into its mouth, the bit. And the horse rider knows as he pulls on the reins that he can signal the horse as to what to do. The bit controls the horse.

As the tongue controls the body, an undisciplined horse can give you bruises and make you embarrassed. As Prince Charles would testify if he were here this morning, an undisciplined tongue can bruise you spiritually and embarrass you eternally. What the bit is to the rider.

So the tongue is to the human frame. Control the horse and you're fine. But an undisciplined horse can bring you to an accident as an undisciplined tongue means that your passions are out of control.

First of all, then the bit of the horse. Then, then secondly, his next illustration, the rudder of the ship. Look at the fourth verse.

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. See the contrast, the largeness of the ship, the velocity of the wind, the force of the wind and the smallness of the rudder.

And yet a ship that has a rudder under the control of the pilot can be steered no matter what the outside pressures may be upon the ship. The example is almost the same as the first one, but there's this difference with the example of the horse and the bit. James is talking about control of the passions inside.

With the example of the ship and the rudder, James is talking about the control of the boat no matter what the external climate climate might be. So the Christian who has his tongue under control can cope with the pressures and the frustrating difficulties of life, providing that he or better still the governor, the pilot, none other than Jesus has control of the speech organ of the tongue. Here then you see the nature of the practicality of James's of James's teaching.

The tongue he says in the fifth verse is a small part of the body, but it boasts great things or as the NEB version of the Bible says, the tongue makes huge claims and James will now go on to bring to us the most fearful illustration of all in showing the devastating potential of an undisciplined tongue. Come to the latter part of the fifth verse. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

You ever been on a picnic? Of course you have, but probably I trust you were never so careless as to leave a piece of broken glass after you'd moved on into the country. Why not? Well not only because of the danger of cutting someone, but when the sun gets into the heavens and it pours its rays down on that on that glass, there's a magnification of the ray. There is a creation of heat.

There's the possibility of a flame, then a fire, then a mighty conflagration and air along the whole countryside is lit up. I've seen that happen in various parts of the world. I saw it once in Cape province and it wasn't a pleasant sight at all.

Here, James has in mind Palestinian countryside. Sometimes it's, it's so dry that the thorns and the bushes, they only need a slight spark and along there'll be a mighty conflagration and mile after mile of countryside is swept under the greed of the flames of the fire and devoured. Now says James, the tongue uncontrolled is like a spark of fire and just in case you haven't got the nature of the seriousness of the teaching, James goes on to tell us that the tongue is in effect a miniature world.

Look at the sixth verse. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. The world as referred to in scriptures taken as representing sinful humanity, men and women controlled by evil, hostile to the forces of God.

Charles Spurgeon once said that in one lie, the whole of hell is encapsulated in the wrong use of the tongue. The world seems to be reduced to one simple thing. The hostile world becomes the spark in the personality of a believer or the personality of a nonbeliever that can let out a mighty conflagration.

You say I'm exaggerating. I was listening and I recommend the program to you. I was listening to the second or third edition of the life of Muggeridge, Malcolm Muggeridge.

I think it was Wednesday evening on BBC two and as he was taking us back to the thirties and the forties last Wednesday evening, one saw a picture of Hitler. What caused Europe to become a conflagration during the infancy of my life? It wasn't the weapons. Weapons in themselves are inanimate.

It wasn't the bombs or the submachine guns or or what have you. The most dangerous thing in Europe in the 1930s moving onto 1945 or when Hitler was killed was the tongue of Adolf Hitler. It was a fire.

It was a flame. And that flame caught on amongst the Nazis in Germany. It captured the lives of noble young Germans.

It twisted them. It warped them. And when the tongue is inspired, when it is ignited by the flames from hell, it can have a devastating effect upon the whole human race.

As many of us here can testify who can think back to the second world war. James is not exaggerating. This is no pulpit hyperbole.

This is for real. James realizes the problems that there is within an uncontrolled tongue. It defiles the whole body.

It set it on fire. The course of nature says one modern commentator, the tongue uncontrolled is in James's opinion like a Catherine wheel. You remember that firework that sets off many different shades of crimson and spins round and round and round.

So says James, within your personality, if your speech patterns are not disciplined, there can be a veritable Catherine wheel that affects the whole aspect of your nature. And when you trace the source of its ignition, you discover the latter part of verse six that it comes from hell itself. James will express his teaching bluntly and clearly.

The tongue uncontrolled can be to the personality and to the world. What a spark of fire can be to a dry countryside. William Barclay says, let a man before he speaks, remember that once a word is spoken, it is gone from his control and let him think before he speaks because although he cannot get it back, he will most certainly answer for it.

Three illustrations of the use of the tongue or of the dangers of the tongue that causes James to lead off with his opening caution, the bit in the horse's mouth, the rudder of the ship's helm, the spark of fire in the forest. And finally the beast in the jungle come down to the seventh verse and their reference is made to many types of animals which are controlled, tamed by men. Every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and has been tamed of mankind.

But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Man originally was told to subdue the world and there is a fear of man in most animals.

I says, James, the beasts and the birds and the serpents and to some extent the inhabitants of the sea come under the control of man. But twice he emphasizes the fact that the tongue, no man can tame the tongue. No man can control JB Phillips puts it when he makes reference to the word to the word restless in verse eight or unruly.

If you're using the authorized version of the Bible, it's capable of breaking out again. You've got the tongue, it's in a cage. It seems as though it's disciplined.

It's shackled for a while, but then like an animal that bursts out of its cage. So the tongue is like loose and it does damage and it causes hurt. So what have we discovered from the illustrious teacher James as he approaches the subject of the tongue? It needs to be handled this topic with caution and any man who's going to be a teacher, let him be cautioned because words are his tools.

And he brings four illustrations to bear to help us to see the significance of the tongue, but he's not through. He's going from the ninth to the 12th verses to feel certain paradoxes. He's going to show us how absurd we are.

If in blessing God with our tongue, we then use it to do damage to men and women who are made in the likeness of God. Verse 10 out of the same mouth, or rather verse nine with the tongue, we, we praise our Lord and father and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. The religious Jew would always bless God several times during the day.

He would praise the Lord, but says, James, it's absurd with that same organ of speech as worship is offered the most high. He will engage in character assassination of his brother and the latter cancels out the acceptance of the first. My brothers says, James, this ought not to be.

Can you bless and curse with the same tongue without the latter neutralizing the former? Peter tried it. All men may deny you Lord Jesus, but this thing you can count on in your hour of great need. I'll be with you.

What fidelity, what eloquence, what stability of character? He is praise of the most high. He is absolute dedication. Count on me.

The words tripped off Peter's tongue and you can read them for yourself later on in Matthew's gospel and the 26th chapter, but by the time you get to the end of that chapter, the scenes changed and Peter is in front of a maiden from the high priest palace. He's there warming his hands by the fire and she says, Peter, you are one of his disciples. You really were.

The insinuation comes from different people three times and Peter is incensed. He's as inflamed as the fire and with oaths and curses, he denies Christ. I was before praising Jesus by an act of absolute dedication.

I was later denying, but when I castigate Peter, sometimes my friend, the vision of Peter blurs and I refocus and I see myself so easy to stand as a congregation here. Sunday morning by Sunday morning, singing praise God from whom all blessings flow and by the time one o'clock strikes, criticism, hurtful comment has fallen from your lips and the act of worship is neutralized, is made of none effect by the slippery speech which you allow to come out of your tongue. My brothers says, James, this ought not to be.

Nature teaches us that it's absurd. You don't get a spring. Verse 11 of water sending out sour and sweet or salt and sweet.

12th verse. You don't get a fig tree, my brothers, that bears olives. You don't get a vine that bears figs.

Nature is consistent, so no fountain. He repeats verse 12 can yield both salt water and fresh water. James has got a thing about the town.

He's also got a thing about consistency. He speaks in the first chapter. You remember about the, the double minded man.

He's unstable in all his ways. He's not consistent. You see, he says he has faith and yet he doubts in the second chapter instability.

Again, the way you treat men and women, the rich you are more inclined to welcome into your assembly. The poor, the smelly, the underdog, you don't want them. Inconsistency.

You see, and again here in this third chapter, inconsistency with your mouth. You praise God with your mouth. Man would you curse man says, James, it's ridiculous.

It's a nonsense. It all adds up to one big zero. He pricks the bubble, you see, and he hurts us where we need to be hurt.

I need it. I dare to say with humility and love, you need it yourself. Well, what's the corrective to all this? What did James have in mind in the character that I said is lurking behind, not lurking.

That's too sinister a word. The character that you can see behind the second verse. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.

Who was the perfect man? The brother of James. When the common people heard him, they heard his speech. They heard him gladly.

He spoke in words that they understood. He was never hostile without justification. He was never cynical.

He was never nasty. There was no deceit found in his mouth, says Isaiah in the 53rd chapter of the prophecy that bears his name and Isaiah knew what he was talking about. For in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, you remember how that prophet comes into the presence of God and having denounced the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

He then denounces himself. Who am I? For I am a man of unclean lips. And when Isaiah looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, he says his Messiah ship shall be tested in this one essence.

There'll be no deceit in his mouth. What's the answer to your problem? My friend this morning, if sloven and slippery speech happens to be your difficulty, take your ignition from your inspiration. Take your ignition from your inspiration.

Who inspired James? None other than his brother who ignites the Christian church. None other than the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost down came the power of God, the Holy Ghost, as there is a fire in hell. So there's a fire in heaven.

You see the tongue is combustible material. It will either be fired by heaven or it will be fired by hell. It cannot be controlled.

It cannot be contained by the human being. That's what John says in the James says in the sixth verse, thus I called my address the terror of the tongue. But how wonderful to know as those disciples did on the day of Pentecost when the spirit of God comes down and he plays upon the mind and the speech organs, it's possible to praise God and to work for God in a sanctified, wholesome, loving fashion.

Take your ignition from your inspiration. If you've got trouble with the use of your tongue, Jesus, the inspiration, the Holy Spirit, the ignition, and the consequence of that reaction is a tongue that's controlled and lives for and glorifies the gospel of redeeming grace. May this message, the terror of the tongue have been of benefit to each one of us.

Amen. Father, God, we pray that there might be a bit across our mouths controlled by the spirit, a rudder in our ship directed by the captain, even Jesus, the Lord and may our tongues to change the metaphor, be ignited from the flame that comes from heaven and never from the one that comes from hell for Jesus sake. Amen.