Active Faith (Part Thirteen): Taming the Tongue

Transcript

JRNT 13
02-12-23
Active Faith (Part Thirteen): Taming the Tongue
James 3:1-12
Jesse Randolph


Well, according to a news story I ran across recently the average American will spend more than $350,000 on health and fitness over the course of their lifetime. And when I say $350,000 that does not include basic human necessities like water and food and medicine. No, we're talking about purely optional health and fitness items like gym memberships and gym clothing and vitamins and supplements and powders and proteins and dumbbells and barbells and Fitbits and step counters and aps and exercise bikes and rowing machines and Pelotons. You know, that kind of thing. Now no matter what side of the tracks you come from, no matter what part of town you live in, $350,000 is a lot of money. Right? Here is another statistic I discovered. The global health and wellness industry is now estimated to be valued at somewhere around $1.5 trillion, which makes it larger than the gross domestic product, the GDP, of many key nations, nations like Spain and Mexico and Indonesia, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

What do those figures tell us? Where does the money lead us? It leads us to this conclusion that people want to feel good physically and they want to look good externally. People want to shed pounds and they want to build muscle. People want to build strength and they want to build stamina. People want to live long and healthy lives and they want to look in the mirror and like what they see. Now if you are into physical fitness, that's great. Keep up the good work. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “bodily training is of some value.” But then there is this other group, and by the way, historically I've counted myself as being a member of this group, this latter group, that doesn't have quite the structured exercise regime, whose fitness legacy is maybe less than stellar, maybe haven't contributed as much in terms of dollars or hours to the world's booming fitness and health industry.

Well, whichever camp you are in, whether your muscles are constantly in use or whether your muscles have completely atrophied, there is one muscle that each of us has which completely levels the playing field. This muscle serves as the great equalizer for everyone here in the room this morning. This muscle I am referring to is only about 3 inches long, it only weighs about 2 ounces, this muscle is the most flexible muscle in our body, it's the strongest muscle in our body and it's that muscle that is attached to the floor of our mouth, it's that muscle that plays an instrumental role in how we form and articulate our words. I'm referring, of course, to the tongue. The tongue, that pink, fleshy muscle that sits in each of our mouths, is a muscle that we use all of the time. In fact, according to one recent study the average person composes 12,000 sentences every day, making up something like 50,000 words every day which if transcribed and put into print would amount to a 150-page paperback that we are producing every day. Can you imagine reading that book at the end of the night? The point is, the tongue is a muscle that we use all the time. And because of that the tongue is a muscle that we all need to train, harness, and get under control.

Which takes us right back into our study of the book of James, and specifically James 3. The title of this morning's sermon is “Taming the Tongue.” Turn with me please in God's Word to James 3. We're going to attempt to take a big bite this morning by going from James 3:1 all the way down to 3:12. God's Word reads, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.”

Well, something James could never be accused of ever is shying away from how he really feels, or baring the point that he is trying to make in such complicated language that you need an Oxford don to decipher for you. Not at all. In the passage that I just read for you, James in this vivid and clear and powerful language is letting us have it. He is delivering blow after blow as he describes the profound power of the tongue. Now before we do more of a deep dive into our text I do want to throw out there two preliminary matters that I think are worth noting. First is that even though the verses we've just read are recognized as James' fullest and most well-known treatment of the tongue, these are neither the first nor the last words he'll give us on the tongue in the letter of James. In fact, please turn with me back to James 1:19. Let's do sort of a flyover in the letter of James about what this man, this half-brother of Jesus, had to say about the tongue. James 1:19, he says, “This you know, my beloved brethren, that everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” Or James 1:26, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.” Move forward to James 4:11, we'll be there in a couple of weeks. He says, “Do not speak against one another, brethren.” Or James 5:9 where he says, “Do not complain, brethren, against one another so that you yourselves may not be judged.” Or James 5:12, he says, “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.” What's in view in each of these passages? Our speech, our words, our tongues. You see the entire epistle of James, not just James 3, is laced with these warnings related to our tongues and to our words. So that's preliminary item #1.

Preliminary item #2 is that though it looks like James here is beginning in James 3 this entirely new train of thought, that's actually not the case. See, James didn't write in chapters. Chapter divisions weren't added to our Bibles until much later for our convenience in the 13th century under the leadership of a man named Stephen Langton. We didn't get verse divisions until the mid-16th century. The point is James didn't write in chapters and verses, rather he wrote as any letter writer would, in these blocks of logically connected thoughts. And what James is saying here in James 3:1ff about our words is actually a continuation of the dominant thought he has articulated in James 2:14-26 about that important link between our faith and our works. And as we have seen through our study of the book of James so far over these past many months, faith is a God-given gift. James 1:17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:18 says, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth.” But we've also seen in our study of James that while faith is a God-given gift and while we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, genuine faith will never be alone. Genuine faith is not idle. Genuine faith won't be dormant. Instead, genuine faith will always be active. It manifests itself outwardly through actions, through works, through fruit. That truth is all over the book of James. James 1:22, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” James 1:25, The “one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” And then of course all of James 2 which we have studied the past few weeks is the same idea. James 2:20, “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless.” Or where we ended last week, James 2:26, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” As we saw the last two Sundays, as we really drilled down on this topic in the second half of James 2, true saving faith in Jesus Christ will result in God-glorifying works.

And now as we are going to see today as we turn the page to James 3, true saving faith in Jesus Christ will result in God-glorifying words. In other words, one key outward manifestation of our God-given faith, and whether the faith that we say we have is genuine and real and effectual, is how we use our tongues, how we use that small and powerful and potentially poisonous muscle that is attached to the floor of our mouths. So what we are going to do this morning is unpack what James has to say in this condensed form here in James 3. And I'm compelled to give you three alliterated points. Point 1 will be verses 1-2 where we are going to see “The Tongue's Didactic Peril”; point #2 which will be verses 3-5a will be “The Tongue's Dynamic Power”; and then verses 5b-12 will be “The Tongue's Destructive Potential.” So “The Tongue's Didactic Peril,” “The Tongue's Dynamic Power,” and “The Tongue's Destructive Potential.” That's what we are going to see come out of the text this morning.

Let's start with “The Tongue's Didactic Peril.” The first point is related to verses 1-2. And this section on the tongue here in James begins with this warning, specifically it is a warning directed at teachers in the church. James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” Now as we've seen as we've worked our way through the book of James, this letter does have this uniquely Jewish author, James, who had this uniquely prominent role among those who had converted from Judaism to Christianity in his day. And James wrote from this uniquely Jewish perspective to these early Christian believers who he calls there in verse 1, “my brethren.” And as James gives these words of warning here in verse 1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren,” I believe he has a specific referent in mind, a specific case study, a specific negative case study in mind. And that would be the teachers of the Law, the scribes and the Pharisees who he, along with his half-brother Jesus, had witnessed back during His earthly ministry.

In fact, why don't you turn back with me to Matthew 23 for an example of what I believe James has in mind here that is sort of the backstory to his warning here about teachers in the modern-day church. Look at Matthew 23:1, it says, “Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called Rabbi by men.”

See, the teachers of the Law in Jesus' day, the scribes and the Pharisees, they were known for a few things that we see here. They were known for where they sat -- the chair of Moses, the places of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, it says. They were known for what they wore—phylacteries and the tassels of their garments. They were known for what they desired—respectful greetings. They were known for what they were called—rabbi, meaning teacher or great one. They were known for what they said, it says, “all that they tell you.” And they were known for what they required—“They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders.” What these Pharisees and scribes were not known for though, was living godly lives. Matthew 23:3 says, “do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them.” And then in verse 4 He says, “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”

See, Jesus' description of the Pharisees here sounds a lot like what passes for godliness in church world today. People who wear the right things, people who sit in their appointed seats, people who enjoy their titles and greetings, people who like to sit in judgment over how others are living when they themselves aren't so much as lifting a finger. And this is James' concern in this entire letter, is it not? A supposed Christianity which is marked by preaching but not practicing, talking but not walking, form but no substance, all the external trappings of what religiosity ought to look like but no evidence of a real internal heart-level change and resulting obedience. People who are spit-shined and polished and suited up on the outside but degraded and rotten and deceived on the inside. You see, James is calling out over and over throughout this letter a hollow and rootless and ultimately fake faith, what he calls multiple times, dead faith.

All this to say, when James is saying here back in James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers,” these words have a specific context and they carry an intended heavy weight. Now in light of this context, and I've been praying about how to say this, when to say this, and I think this is about as good time as ever with our seminary partnership and all these young men coming in and coming up and being trained and the like, I think this would be as good a time as any to have a real and upfront conversation with the young men of the church, especially those young men who say they are gifted to be teachers, who say they have a call to preach, who say that they aspire to be a pastor one day. Here is how that conversation is going to go.

You need to make sure that you are checking your heart and measuring your motivations and making sure that your so-called call to preach is not being brought about by the way that you fancy yourself the smartest guy in every room that you walk into, and not because you have some desire to be under the lights, and not because you don't like the job that you are doing now, and not because your wife or your mom think you would be good at it, or not because you just have this feeling that this is what God wants you to do. That's not how it works, guys. No, a faithful teacher of the Scriptures, a called preacher of God's Word, a true pastor of God's flock is not motivated by the position or notions of popularity or hopes of prestige like the Pharisees and the scribes of Jesus' day. Nor is he fueled by feelings or family members.

Instead, such a man has an inner compulsion given to him by the Holy Spirit to do whatever he needs to do to feed the flock here, by studying and proclaiming God's Word no matter the cost or the circumstances, and proclaiming His gospel. Such a man is willing to study until his eyes sting, not closing his Bible and his books, not turning out the lights until he is confident that with the help of the Spirit that he has it right. Such a man is not cutting corners because he has had a busy week at work. He's not turning down what he believes to be lesser opportunities like teaching in the children's ministry or teaching our teens on Tuesday or teaching in a nursing home on Sunday afternoons until he waits for one of those plum opportunities to speak before adults in a larger setting. Such a man does not fancy himself the next Calvin or Spurgeon or Lloyd Jones. He doesn't point to the seminary training he is receiving or has received. He doesn't glory in his bookshelves or the theologians who populate them. No. Now I'm confident, I'm confident that some of the most faithful men in this church who will end up being the most qualified and able and gifted teachers in this church are the ones who mow in the summer and push snow in the winter, the ones who shoot Nerf bullets at our kids at VBS and on Wednesday nights, the guys who take out the trash and jump in on service projects and sit and grow in a home Bible study, who don't need to be “the guy.” But instead, simply show up, connect, and grow. Exit soap box.

Now we know from Scripture that there is such a thing as a gift of teaching, a call to teaching, pastors for instance, 1 Timothy 3:2. Ephesians 4:11 speaks of Jesus giving pastors and teachers as gifts to the church. James 3:1 though is not limited to pastors. It speaks to all teachers, “didaskaloi,” hence the didactic first point (hope you got that) “didaskaloi,” So whether you are facilitating a book study or teaching in nursing homes or leading a discussion in Boys of Faith or Girls of Grace, you need to take this verse seriously. “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren.” Now James continues on in verse 1 with these words, “knowing that as such,” meaning as teachers, and then look at what he says, “we will incur a stricter judgment.”

The words of James there echo Jesus' words in Matthew 12:36 where He says, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” Now for the unbeliever that means that as they stand before God on their way to hell, among the things that they will give an account for at the Great White Throne as they prepare to face an eternity in flames will be their words. The selfish and the sinful thoughts that they entertained and verbally expressed. The hurtful and harmful words that came flying from their mouths. The many ways they not only rejected but cursed the God who is now issuing His just sentence on their souls. For the Christian, though, we face a different type of judgment in the future, don't we? We're not going to be judged for the sinful words we have said or the thoughtless words we've said or the careless words that we've said in the same way as an unbeliever will. Our salvation is secure. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand. Or Romans 8 (verse 39), nothing can “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” For the Christian, our words will be put before us by the Lord at the Bema seat, described in 2 Corinthians 5:10. And there at the Bema seat we will either receive eternal rewards or lose out on those rewards. And whether we receive those rewards or lose out on those rewards will be based at least in part on the things we said as Christians.

So back to James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” But why? Why will teachers incur a stricter judgment? Why the greater risk of lost reward at the Bema seat? Well, it comes down to the fact that teachers, case in point right now, use a greater number of words than those who don't teach. Teachers hold a greater degree of sway and influence over those who don't teach. And teachers of the Bible, specifically, are teaching material which Psalm 12:6 calls “pure words,” like silver refined in a furnace. And we dare not corrupt it or distort it or pollute it or water it down with either unwise or uninformed or unprepared speech. No, we are to be, as Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, “diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

See, the most dangerous job on the planet is not to be a Venezuelan oil worker or an Alaskan lobster fisherman or even a Nebraska farmer. The most dangerous job on the planet is to be a teacher of God's Word, what I am doing right now not just in front of all of you but in front of the God that I will give an account to one day for each and every word I have said so far in this sermon and each of the words that will come. The final exam is coming, the day of testing is coming, the Bema seat judgment is coming. Not just for me, though, but for anyone here who opens God's Word and purports to speak for God as they explain to others what His Word says and means. That's why there is the old story of John Knox, the Scottish reformer who famously when called to pastor and called to preach just broke into tears over the weight of the responsibility of being called to pastor and preach a flock there in Scotland. He just broke into tears. And frankly, a lot of Bible teachers in our day, whether they be here in this church or in our city or out there in the world, would be wise to feel a lot more of that weight.

Look at what James says next. Verse 2, “For we all stumble in many ways.” I mean, you just have to appreciate the honesty and the transparency of James here. Note he is not saying, for you all stumble in many ways. No, he is including himself here in the problem, though he himself is the teacher. He is recognizing here that no one is immune from problems and sins related to the tongue. Yes, teachers are going to incur a stricter judgment as we see in verse 1. And yes, pastors and elders are called to live, 1 Timothy 3:2, a life that is “above reproach.” And yes, James here was a pillar and foundation of the church so his words carry this especially heavy weight. But like anyone else, even those in authority, we all stumble in many ways. As one commentator colorfully put it, “It seems that the Christian life is a path littered with banana peels.” And the path gets especially slippery, and we see that from the context of James here, when we start opening our mouths and start using our tongues.

And James is right, isn't he, I mean, isn't that the testimony of Scripture? Person after person after person who stumbled with their words or who otherwise had to learn the importance of taming the tongue. Job 40, Job has to put his hand over his mouth. Isaiah 6 says, “Woe is me… I'm a man of unclean lips.” Moses is recorded in Psalm 106:33 as having spoken “rashly with his lips.” Peter had the notoriously foot-shaped mouth and in Matthew 26:33 he gives that famous statement, “Others may fall away but I will never fall away, Lord.” And it is so easy for all of us to stumble with our tongues, is it not? The child who lashes out in anger toward his or her parents. The parent who lashes out in anger toward his or her child. The employee who lies to his employer, the friend who speaks insensitively, the wife who shares with her husband her thoughts about his developing “Dad-bod,” the husband who tells his upset wife to just calm down. One foolish word, one rash word, one overstatement, one lie and an otherwise productive conversation has gone off the rails and an otherwise healthy and stable relationship is now in peril.

And that's not a problem unique to the 21st century, James was aware of this in his time, he understood this. He understood what the Proverbs taught about our tendencies with the tongue, how we mess things up with our mouths. I don't think it is inaccurate to say that James is the Proverbs of the New Testament as many have said. He would have been familiar, James would, with Proverbs 12:18, “There is one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword.” He would have been familiar with Proverbs 15:1, “a harsh word stirs up anger.” And Proverbs 15:2, “the mouth of fools spouts folly.”

And what are those proverbial statements ultimately pointing to? James 3:2, “we all stumble in many ways.” Now that word “stumble” there does not mean to fatally fall into a ravine, it's not talking about a once-and-for-all death tumble. It's more of a slip. And in the context of the chapter it means to slip up in what we say. And note that James here when he says stumble, he is using the present tense, which means he is describing the experience of stumbling over and over again. “For we all stumble,” he says, “in many ways.” And pertinent to our discussion here, we all stumble in our many words.

Continuing on verse 2 he says, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” There is that word “perfect” again. We've already come upon it a couple of times in our study of James. James 1:2-4, you can turn back there if you'd like, he says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” James 1:2, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Perfect is the word. And then James 2:22, we just saw that last week, he's speaking of Abraham here in James 2:22, he says, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected.” The word for perfect or perfected there is “teleios.” It carries the idea of completeness or maturity, it's referring to a maturing that is in progress, it doesn't mean arriving at perfection. So if anyone does not stumble in what he says -- that's what James is saying here, again present tense -- what it means is if anyone does not continually or characteristically stumble in what they say, he is a perfect man. He's not perfect in the sense that he is sinless, rather he is perfect in the sense that he is maturing and he is growing. What James is saying here is that as we mature as Christians, as we grow in Christ, we ought to be able to grow in our ability to hold our tongues, to watch our words, to be self-controlled with our mouths.

And if you can control your tongue, he says at the end of verse 2, “you will be able to bridle the whole body as well.” And why is that? Well, because the tongue is the most difficult part of our body to control. See, the basic logic is like this. If you can ace calculus, you'll have no problem doing subtraction. If you can perform brain surgery, you'll be able to remove a splinter. If you can run a marathon, you can take a walk around the block. Similarly, if you can control your tongue, you should have no problem controlling the other less difficult-to-control parts of your body. The person who controls their tongue, is able to control their tongue the text says, “is able to bridle his whole body as well.”

So that's point #1, “The Tongue's Didactic Peril.” We've seen that while the tongue can be used to teach, because we all stumble in many ways it has to be used with care and with caution. Now we're going to see “The Tongue's Dynamic Power” in verses 3-5a, “The Tongue's Dynamic Power” where James here drives this point further in by giving these two illustrations. The first relates to horses, the second relates to ships. Look at verse 3, he says, “Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.” Horses are amazing animals. They are beautiful, they are enormous, they are incredibly strong. You can put 500 pounds on a horse's back and they will hardly break a sweat. They weigh on average 1300 pounds but they can run up to 30 miles an hour, twice as fast as the average human. But the really incredible thing is that once you know they are so big and know they are so strong and know they are so powerful, they can be tamed and subdued the minute you put a 5-inch bit in their mouth. And once you put that bit in their mouth, you have control over them, you can control the horse's direction. It's a matter of influence. That physically small bit has great influence on that mighty horse. And so, too, do our physically small tongues have great influence on our bodies and on our lives. Proverbs 18:21 speaks directly to this when it says, Both “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

Next James gives us this illustration of the rudder on the ship. Look at verse 4 into verse 5. He says, “Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.” And then verse 5, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things.” Like the ships of today the ships of James' day would have had these disproportionately small rudders, in comparison to the size of the ships they were attached to. And it's been a truism of sailing for centuries that if you control the rudder, you control the ship. Doesn't matter how big the ship is or how small the ship is, if it's a dinghy, a fishing boat, a tug boat, the love boat, it doesn't matter, the rudder controls the ship. It has disproportionate influence on the direction of the ship. A mammoth ship can hit the rocks and sink if the rudder is positioned one or two degrees in the wrong direction. Similarly our mouths, our tongues, our words, set the entire direction of our lives, even to the point of devastation and destruction based on what we say. Our tongues can bless or benefit a relationship, Proverbs 10:20, “The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver.” But our tongues can destroy a relationship, Proverbs 17:9, “he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” Our tongues can be a balm which brings peace, Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” But our tongues can be a storm, bringing great distress, Proverbs 15:1b, “But a harsh word stores up anger.” Our tongues can promote joy, but our tongues can promote worry; our tongues can uplift, but our tongues can drag down; our tongues can build up, but our tongues can destroy.

And note though, that while James here in verses 3-5 appears to be referring only to these two small parts, the bit that goes into the horse's mouth or the rudder of the large ship, in reality there is another agent in play because in James 3:8 he is going to tell us that no one can tame the tongue, meaning that the tongue itself is not the ultimate issue. Just as the bit doesn't place itself into the horse's mouth but instead is placed in the horse's mouth by the rider, and just as the rudder doesn't turn itself but instead is turned by the pilot, the captain -- our tongues are moved by something else. And that something else is what we really need to evaluate and really need to control and ultimately put in check. And that something else, you may have guessed it already, is the heart, the human heart. Just as the rider inserts the bit and so moves the horse, and just as the pilot of the ship moves his hand and so turns the rudder, the heart moves the tongue. And that's a problem. Why? Because of what Scripture teaches us very plainly about the heart. The heart is what? Jeremiah 17:9, “more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick,” meaning our tongues are being directed by a corrupted control center. They are being steered by a sinful source. They are being moved by some messed up machinery. I mean, isn't that what our Lord said in Matthew 15:18, “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from” where? “The heart.” And that's why David would pray, not only as he did in Psalm 141:3, “Oh Lord, set a guard over my mouth,” but he would also pray as he did in Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

So we've seen in these first few verses in James 3 how the tongue presents a didactic peril, we've seen that the tongue is dynamic in power, and the remainder of our time in James 3 this morning we're going to see how potentially destructive the tongue can be. For point #3 you can put it this way, “The Tongue's Destructive Potential.” Look at the second half of verse 5, and this will take us all the way through the end of the chapter, this third heading. He says, “See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” You know, they say in California where we are from, there is basically just one season—fire season. One of the most devastating fires that hit California was about five years ago, it was actually in northern California, far away from where we are from, called the Mendocino Complex Fire and it ended up spreading over and scorching more than 640 square miles of northern California. It spread over four different counties, it destroyed 160 homes and even killed one of the firefighters who had been called to battle the blaze. And that fire started with a hammer driven onto a metal stake on a camping trip and one spark flew. It was shown, it was proven. And that one hammer strike, that one spark brought about massive damage, devastation and even death. And what James is telling us here in James 3 is that each one of us has that type of ember and that type of spark in our mouths.

And it can take a number of different forms. It can take the form of the snarky retort or the biting comeback or that juicy item of gossip or the little white lie or the backhanded compliment or the overshared prayer request or the social media comment that is unrestrained or the verbal jab over text or email. Whatever form it takes, the moment that that spark, that ember leaves our lips, there is no limit to the amount of damage it can cause. Our tongues can be incredibly destructive and damaging. They are weapons. Proverbs 16:27 refers to the worthless man and it says that “his words are like a scorching fire.” One proverb over, Proverbs 17:27 says in contrast, “He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” Which one are you? Do you keep your cool as the man of Proverbs 17:27, as a person with knowledge and understanding. Or are you instead the hot-under-the-collar firebreather of Proverbs 16:27? See, James isn't giving us these words here to give us some sort of detached, dispassionate, abstract assessment of ourselves and specifically our speech. No, he is giving us a warning as believers, and he is saying to us that if we refuse to submit and surrender our tongues to the controlling direction of the Holy Spirit, a five-alarm fire awaits. And all it takes is that one spark flying from our mouths.

He's not done though, hardly, we're only halfway through. James 3:6 -- which I think contains some of the strongest language and words of warning in this passage -- look at verse 6, he says, “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” James here is showing us that the tongue is not only powerful, it is perverse.

First he calls the tongue a fire. He doesn't say it is like a fire or as a fire. No, he says it is a fire. I dare you to find stronger words about the nature of the tongue and the power of the tongue than that. “The tongue is a fire.” And he's not the first, by the way, to point out the fiery nature of the tongue. We already saw it in Proverbs 16, but you could also jot down Proverbs 26:21 which says, “Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.” And then James also here in verse 6 calls the tongue not only a fire, but he goes on to call it “the very world of iniquity.” And in using that expression he is exposing for us the hidden pockets of filth and sin and unrighteousness that are laced between every single taste bud on our tongue. And though we can do all that we can to clean and wash our mouths with toothpaste and Listerine and whatever else we use, the reality is that our tongues continue to generate and breathe every type of evil, including pride and jealousy, deceit and covetousness, slander and disobedience, strife and dissension. You name it, the tongue is capable of bringing it about. “The tongue is… the very world of iniquity,” he says.

Next he says, “the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body.” Here he is referring to the overall polluting effect of the tongue—it's like gangrene, it stains. It's like campfire smoke, you can't get the stench off you. And when you meet somebody who is using foul speech or filthy speech, you know that you are in the presence of somebody that has a foul and filthy heart. That doesn't mean that they are irredeemable, it just means that their tongue has stained their whole body, it has defiled them. As James says here, it has defiled “their entire body.”

He next says that it “sets on fire the course of our life.” You've undoubtedly heard the phrase, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Whoever came up with that obviously had not read the book of James. That saying is not only unbiblical, it's nonsense. You know when a bone breaks, of course it hurts, but even if it is a complex fracture it's going to heal to some degree. Well, words can hurt as well and with words the hurts last far longer than the pain of a broken bone. The pain of hurtful words can last an entire lifetime, no doubt. I bet if I called a few of you up here right now (and I won't do it, don't worry), to come up here and share your most vivid story of the most hurtful words that anyone has ever said to you that it wouldn't take you very long to come up with that story, that you would be able to rattle off with some detail what happened, that you would have the name of the person in mind, that you would remember where those words were said, that you would probably even remember the color of the shirt the person was wearing when they said those words to you. That's how deep the cut was.

And why? Well, these hurtful words attach to us deep beneath the surface. They are like barnacles at the bottom of a ship that you just can't get off. That's what James is indicating here when he speaks of it “sets on fire the course of our life.” It impacts the entirety of our life. Words follow us. That's true when we are the dispenser of those ungodly words. When we lie, we are thought of as a liar; when we complain, we are thought of by the other person as a discontent; when we overpromise, we are thought of by the other person as an under-deliverer. What comes out of our mouths follows us and determines so much about our life's circumstances—our marriages, our careers, our ministries in the church, our relationships with our children once they leave the nest.

Not only that, the end of verse 6, James says the tongue “is set on fire by hell.” When we use our tongues for evil, we are playing right into the hands of hell. The tongue is the fuse, but the source of the deadly fire is hell itself. When we are using our tongues for ungodliness, we are not walking by the Spirit. Instead we are going by Satan's playbook. e're being used as instruments of Satan as he seeks to pollute and hurt and divide and deceive and destroy. It's what he does. As one old Puritan said, “An unbridled tongue is the chariot of the devil, wherein he rides in triumph.

James continues on in verses 7-8 by tying the destructive potential of the tongue to our seeming inability to tame it. Look at verses 7-8, he says, “For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue.” Now think about this. When James is writing these words he is arguing from the greater to the lesser and he is thinking in his context of domesticated animals, house animals, domestic animals, that could be tamed for usage around the house, to live around humans. He is thinking of chickens and horses and oxen. The way that we tame and train animals in our day would have been a fantastic idea to James. He couldn't have dreamed the things that we do with animals. The fact that we would have an African lion in a zoo in Omaha would have blown him away. The fact that we have killer whales in San Diego jumping through hoops around crowds would have blown him away. The fact that there apparently last weekend was a water-skiing chipmunk or squirrel at the Sports and Boat Show, he couldn't have fathomed the idea. Nor can I, frankly. But the point is, and this is the main idea, despite all of the advancements that we have had in taming animals and training animals, including some of the most deadly animals to do the wildest things for entertainment -- but we cannot tame the tongue. James 3:8, “But no one can tame the tongue.” We can put a squirrel on skis but we cannot tame the tongue. What an indictment on a generation that thinks of itself as being so advanced and so progressive.

And why can't we do it? Why can't we tame the tongue? Well, he gives us the answer at the end of verse 8, “it's a restless evil.” It's like a pit bull trying to snap off the leash. The tongue is ready to break out of its cage, our mouths, at all times—when our spouse is acting insensitively, when our children are acting disobediently, when our co-worker is acting disrespectfully, when our pastor is running long. That 3-inch muscle is just itching to get out of our mouth. “It is a restless evil.”

And then he says at the end of verse 8, and it is “full of deadly poison.” That brings to mind Psalm 140:1-3 where David says, “Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men who devise evil things in their hearts. They continually stir up wars. They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips.” And James' words here also bring to mind the words of Paul in Romans 3 [verse 13], who as he is referring to the unbeliever says, “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, and the poison of asps,” vipers, “is under their lips.” Meaning to be on the receiving end of a sharp tongue is not like receiving a cat scratch or a dog bite or a bee sting, it's like being bitten by a viper. I had to look into this. A Harvard zoologist describes being bitten by a viper this way, “It felt like somebody had a blowtorch and was burning the inside of my arm.” Ouch. That's what James is saying about the power and the pain and the poison that resides in the tongue. Exaggeration, stretching the truth, undue criticism, complaining, lying, flattery, gossip, it's all poisonous, it's all deadly, it all flies out of the mouth which in turn flows out of the heart.

But as if that weren't enough, James starts to wind down this letter with yet another set of observations concerning the tongue. It is double dealing, you could even say it is forked. Look at verses 9-10, “With it,” meaning the tongue, “we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.” What is James saying here? He is saying that the tongue is duplicitous, it is deceitful, it is dishonest. It is capable of blessing or praising our Lord and Father in prayer, in church parking lot conversations, in song. I mean, that's what our tongues were formed for. “When this poor lisping, stammering tongue, lies silent in the grave.” “O for a thousand tongues to sing.” Right? But then that tongue can turn around and do the complete opposite of praise. It curses, meaning it proclaims evil upon or wishes evil upon people made in the image and likeness of God. You can sum up James' thought in these two verses, 9-10, with a single word—hypocrisy. On Sunday we can sing passionate praises to our God, but on Monday we are cursing the people of God. We're singing a praise song while we're driving on “O” Street and then someone cuts us off or rides our tail and we lose it. That does happen here, right? I mean, how awful. How awful to bless only to curse, to be like the man called Talkative in “Pilgrim's Progress” who is a saint abroad but a devil at home. When we act this way, cursing fellow image-bearers, cursing those who are the apex of God's creation, it's like a spiritualized version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And James here is saying when we do that we are being double-minded, two-souled hypocrites. Thomas Watson once said rightly, “How can Christ be in the heart, when the devil has taken possession of the tongue?” And the implied answer there is he can't, which is why James says at the end of verse 10, “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”

Well, finally to drive home his point, James gives us three additional illustrations in verses 11-12 which are taken from the natural world all around us. They involve a fountain, plants and the sea. Look at verses 11-12, he says, “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olive, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” So first we have the illustration of the fountain in verse 11, “Does a fountain,” he says, “send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water.” Now the land of Israel is dry, it's arid, it's a place where, both in James' day and today, streams and springs were in short supply, and highly valued. And there were both fresh water springs and salt water springs in James' day. But here is what you wouldn't find: you wouldn't find coming from a single spring, a single opening in a rock, two types of water flowing out. It was either one or the other. So in other words, James is saying here that just as one spring won't produce both fresh and bitter water, one mouth (we're getting under the root of the matter), one heart won't produce both blessing and cursing. It won't promote godliness on Sunday while promoting godlessness on the other six days of the week. Instead, only one type of water will be coming out. And that type of water will tell you what kind of spring it is, and for us, what kind of heart we have.

Second is this illustration in verse 12 of the plants. He says, “Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs?” Now, each of those plants, the fig tree, the olive tree, the grapevine were well known in Israel in James' day and the horticultural lesson that James is teaching us here is both simple and singular. He is saying essentially that neither of these three plants will beget or produce fruit that comes from the other two plants. Fig trees will not yield olives, and grapevines will not produce figs. It's a question of source, it's a question of origin. One will not produce the other. And just as a fig tree won't produce olives, the mouth of one who has been set apart by God and who in some settings is blessing and giving praises to God will not simultaneously curse those who have been made in God's image.

And then last, verse 12, is the illustration of the sea, “Nor can saltwater produce fresh.” I believe James here is referring or thinking about the Dead Sea, whose salt content was too heavy to sustain any life. Yet the Jordan River was a freshwater source flowing into the Dead Sea, but as soon as those living creatures in the river, fish, would make their way to the Dead Sea they would die. The salt content was too high. In other words, the saltwater of a body like the Dead Sea had too much saline, too much salt, and it wouldn't produce fresh water and it couldn't sustain life in its environs. And to James that's the idea of the tongue again, of both blessing and cursing. It can't produce both. It can't produce salt and fresh, or fresh and bitter. If it is habitually inconsistent, it's like the salt sea producing fresh water. But that's impossible, it doesn't work that way.

So each of these illustrations, the fountain, the plants, the sea is teaching this same fundamental lesson which is that what you produce externally shows who you are, reveals who you are internally. The tongue tells us what is happening in the heart as John MacArthur says, “the tongue tattles on the heart.” Or as Thomas Brooks many, many years ago once said, “We know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.” And infinitely better than that though, are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in Luke 6:45 who said, “For his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” Our tongues, in other words, will reveal whether our hearts truly, singularly, devotedly belong to Him.

All right, well, I think that the Holy Spirit working through James has done His surgical work here this morning through James 3 as He always does when we read His Word and hear His Word and especially in passages like this. And what He has shown us today is that as disturbing as those who would profess to have faith but have no works would be those who have the works but undermine those works with their words. It's not that we are called to never speak, it's not that we are called to permanently hit the mute button on the entirety of our existence, it's not that we are called to stuff it all down and make it all go away and never talk about anything of significance, to be on this endless conversational loop about the weather and aches and pains and summertime travel plans. We're not called to be permanently silent, but as we've seen this morning we are called to tame our tongues. I'm going to let Spurgeon have the last word this morning. He writes this, “The tongue can no man tame, but the grace of God can tame it; and that man begins life with a prospect of happiness whose tongue has been tamed by grace.” Indeed. I pray that with the power of God's Spirit living in us that our tongues would be tamed by grace.

Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its clarity, we thank You that You have communicated to us with such clarity and such conviction through the pens of men like James to help us understand how You would have us live in our day as we seek to live godly and upright lives in Christ Jesus. We thank You for Your Spirit who illuminates the Word for the believer, who convicts us of sin and ungodliness that remains, who spurs us on as He conforms us into the image of Your Son Jesus. I ask that as we leave this place this morning that we wouldn't go away where it is an in-one-ear-and-out-the-other kind of event, but that this would be a morning where we really reflect as we open our Bibles and pray to God to reveal where that ugliness and darkness and sin still clings. That we repent of it and seek to have it purged from us so that we might be more pure and holy and faithful as those who have been redeemed by grace. And if there are those this morning, God, who don't know You, who are open in their rebellion or deceived, I pray that they would do some diagnostic work as they think about their tongue and what that says about their heart. And that this would be the day that they would give their heart to You as they trust in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross to save their souls. Thank You for this morning, we give You thanks and praise for Your goodness to us. In Jesus' name, amen.