The Most Serious Sin is the Tongue

Transcript

GRM 540
9/28/1997
The Most Serious Sin is the Tongue
James 3:1-12
Gil Rugh

On Sunday morning we were talking about the area of sin and those things which must not be part of a believer’s life, and I want to look a little bit at that related theme out of the book of James, this evening. The third chapter, focusing in on one particular sin. The sin that is the most tolerated and most accepted within the church. The sin which does the greatest damage, has been the most destructive, has ruined more churches and more ministries than any other one sin that we could name, and that is the sin of the tongue. You know, certain sins, it’s a little easier to be serious about. Everyone agrees murder is wrong, even the unbeliever wants to speak against murder. Sexual sins have become more acceptable, but there are still some lines that are drawn. But in the church, even where there would be a position taken on sexual sin, on certain other open sins, the sin of the tongue somehow becomes a matter of tolerance and acceptance.

It’s dealt with very directly and firmly by James in James, chapter 3. James is concerned about the behavior of those who profess to be believers. “Faith without works is dead” and the works that James talks about includes what we say as well as what we do. In Chapter 2, verse l2 he said, “So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty”. So, our speech and our actions are a concern of his.

In Chapter l of James, verse 19, James says, “This you know, my brethren, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” The issue of anger will come up in our study of Colossians in Chapter 3, verse 8. Verse 26 of chapter l, “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.” Just think what a statement like that says about the religion of many people, about the Christian faith of a number of people in evangelical churches, who have recked havoc with their tongue, and yet James says, under the inspiration of the spirit, if your tongue is not bridled “your religion is worthless”. You’ve deceived yourself by thinking that you’ve really experienced God’s salvation.


The background for James= discussion probably comes out of some of what Jesus said himself. Turn back to Matthew, Chapter l2, verse 34, and Jesus is dealing with religious people and the religious leaders of His day, and we break into the discourse here in verse 34 of Matthew l2, “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good, the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgement. For by your words, you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” Now verse 37 has to be taken in the context of the statement in verse 34, that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” That explains what happens is our speech, our tongue reveals our character. They are a window, if you will, into our hearts. They are a window that shows perhaps more clearly than any other of the windows, what is really down there on the inside. So, James picks up on this matter of the tongue as a revelation of what is in the heart and the true spiritual condition of a person in James chapter 3, so come back there.

Really, the first twelve verses, and we’ll just do a quick overview of these verses, deal with the issue of the tongue, and he begins with a warning to those who would be teachers, because teachers are those who use the tongue regularly and they use the tongue in the communication of God’s truth. So, there is danger, especially for teachers. So, he says in verse l, “Let not many of you become teachers my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgement”. “Let not many”, I take it the is indication there’s not going to be a large number of teachers proportionately. You don’t need a large number of teachers. We need to be careful that we don’t try to push people into teaching responsibility who have not been called and prepared by God to do it. That doesn’t mean that a person who has been called and prepared shouldn’t do it, but there is a warning here, “don’t let many of you become teachers”. Teaching is a public gift. It is a gift that gets attention. In the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12, I believe it’s verse 28, it would be the most important gift we have in the church today. Paul says there are first apostles, then prophets, third teachers. Apostles and prophets are no longer present today, so the dominant priority gift in the church today is the gift of teaching.

So, there is a warning here, “let not many of you become teachers, my brethren”. He’s talking to believers and he talking about true believers and believers becoming teachers. The prime issue here is not false teachers. They have their own set of problems. But, how believers ought to conduct themselves in the body and not many of them ought to be teachers, and that would be true in a body the size of the one we have. We would have a large number of teachers in one sense of speaking, but the vast majority of people, the overwhelming largest percentage, are not teachers and they should not be teachers. It=s not God=s plan for them to be teachers.


The reason he gives, we shall incur a stricter judgment, and James includes himself here as a teacher, that as such, he doesn’t say, they shall incur a stricter judgment because James is a teacher, he’s writing a letter in which he is teaching the church, and we are learning from it today. It is a principle of scripture, in all of the varying judgments of scripture, that greater responsibility brings greater accountability. That those who have greater light, Matthew, chapter l0, verses l4 and l5, the cities of Jesus’ day, will be judged more severely because Jesus was present there. They had a greater light than Sodom and Gomorrah did, for example. Those who knew the Master’s will and didn’t do it are beaten with many stripes. Those who didn’t know the Master’s will and didn’t do it are people with fewer stripes. So, the principle of stricter judgment and accountability pervades the judgment. Every believer will stand at the judgement seat of Christ, the Bema seat of Christ, and there we will give an account. Teachers will be held to a stricter standard than others will be. Does that mean, oh well, I’m not a teacher, I have more freedom for looseness in my life? That’s not what he’s talking about. I have to be all the more careful in the use of my tongue as I am teaching you. And we all err with our tongue, as James is going to say. It’s a more serious thing to err when you are a teacher and have that responsibility.

Just as a somewhat aside, I’ve noted three things that must be true of the believer who would be a teacher. One, he must know the truth. Passages like 2 Timothy 2:15 where Paul tells Timothy to “be diligent, to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”, in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 3-11. Paul condemns false teachers because they want to teach things they don’t even understand, and there he is dealing with false teachers primarily, but the principle would be true as well. Believers, and particularly teachers, must know the truth.

Second, those who would be teachers must live the truth and that’s been the thrust of James, chapter l, verses 22-25, where you have to be a “doer of the word” as well as a hearer, and in passages like 1 Timothy chapter 3 with the character qualifications for elders who are to be teachers of the word, Titus, chapter 1, they must not only know the truth, but they must also live the truth.

And then third, they must teach the truth. That seems to be an obvious requirement, but
We’ve lost sight of it as a church today. If you do any reading you find that a major element of the training of pastors today is not focused on helping men become students of the scriptures and teachers of the scriptures. A lot more time is spent on management principles, church growth principles, those kinds of things, then on teaching men to be students of the word of God.

These three things must be there. Now I take it within that, those who are going to teach the truth and will teach the truth must be those called of God and gifted by God to do it. Teaching is one of the gifts of the Spirit and the list of the gifts, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4. Teaching is a gift of the Spirit so a person who is gifted by the Spirit to be a teacher ought to know the truth, live the truth, and then teach the truth. But people ought not be rushing to be teachers and there ought not be large numbers of people saying I want to teach, I want to teach, because there is a danger associated with this responsibility.

With that, in verse 2, James gives his reason. We shall incur a stricter judgment, verse 2

“For we all stumble in many ways”. Now, he expands his comments beyond teachers, but he’s moved into this realm of the tongue by mentioning the issue of teachers because it is of upmost importance that teachers be careful with their tongues. “We all stumble in many ways.” So, the first thing that James says in this verse is everyone sins in some area. This doesn’t mean that we come to accept it, but the reality of it is we fall short of the perfection that is provided for us in Christ in a variety of areas. All of us stumble in many ways. That includes teachers as well as other believers. Chapter 2, verse 10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.”
He uses this word stumble to refer to sin, a failure to be obedient to God, a failure to do what would be pleasing to God. That concept of sin, even for us as believers, is not new.
There is not a believer alive who does not sin and does not sin in a variety of ways. We are thankful for the ongoing cleansing of Jesus Christ, illustrated by Christ with Peter in the foot-washing service.

Now the second point that gets elaborated here, not only do all of us stumble in many ways and in many areas, but the most common and most damaging of sins is the sins of the tongue or the sin of the tongue. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. In other words, the most difficult part of the body to control is the tongue, and if you exercise the godly discipline in the power of the Spirit by the grace of God to control your tongue all the time, you would have taken control of the most difficult part of the body, you would have dealt with the most difficult area of sin. You would have everything else under control as well, you would be a perfect man, one that has everything that you should be in Christ. Now, that’s a strong statement. That’s why I said to begin with that the sin of the tongue is the most serious sin. It is the most prevalent sin. It is the most difficult sin. And if there was a man who didn’t sin with his tongue, you would have a person who had come to perfection in Christ. Perfect, mature, able to “bridle” the whole body as well. The word “bridle”, we read it back in Chapter 1, verse 26, bridling the tongue, bringing it under control, like a bridle is used for a horse, to control it. Well, if you could control your tongue you could control the rest of your body. Now he is going on to illustrate this in the following verses.

First, the significance of the tongue, verse 3, “Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well.” And the picture here is a small object controlling a large object, the influence that it brings. You put a bit in a horse’s mouth you can control the whole horse’s body. Now, that’s amazing because you can walk over and pick up the bit and carry it over to the horse, you couldn’t pick up the horse. You say, I’m going to move that horse and pick it up. No, you grab this little bridle that you could hand to your kid or say to a child, here, bring me the bridle, and you’re going to take that and control this huge horse. So, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well.


Second illustration, “the ships, they are so great, they are driven by strong winds, yet they are directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.” So, you take a large ship, and that’s still true today. You look at a huge ocean-going vessel that’s in dry dock for repairs, being painted, whatever. It’s up and you see the rudder and compare it to the tremendous size of that ship and the weight of that ship. You say, boy, can they really steer that ship with this? But they do. So, what it’s showing is control in the right place. You have the bit you control the whole horse. You have the rudder you control the whole ship. You have the tongue you control the whole body.

Verse 5, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.” So, don’t play it down because it’s little. It doesn’t do the gross sins that we think of. It doesn’t commit murder, you do that with your hand and a gun or a knife or something. But, don’t sell it short. The tongue is a small part of the body, and the point is, the smallness of the tongue, the greatness of the impact. Yet, it boasts of great things. The impact of the tongue is all out of proportion to its size. That’s the thing, here you have a little tongue, but what it can do is all out of proportion to its size. Behold, pay attention, I want to turn your attention, James is saying, to the devastating impact of an uncontrolled tongue. So, you get some idea of the damage. “Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire.” We have examples of this on the West Coast in some of the drier parts of our country, there will be parts that haven’t had rain for a while. It only takes a match, an ember from a fire, a cigarette, hey what, you have thousands and thousands of acres, many homes consumed, it’s all out of proportion. You look at that and say, boy I could hold dozens of these matches in my pocket. I mean, the size of them is nothing, they’re not heavy, you can put a whole pack of them in your coat pocket and forget you had them. But, just one of them has the potential to devastate thousands and thousands and thousands of acres, all out of proportion to the size.

Verse 6, “the tongue is a fire”, that’s the point of connection. The tongue is a fire. It has that potential for that kind of damage and destruction. Put a marker in James 3 and come back to the book of Proverbs. We’re not looking at many verses back here, there are many we could but because of time, but do want to look at Proverbs, chapter 26 with you. Proverbs 26:20, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.” You know, you can have one person who unsettles
the whole church. Take that one person out and the whole atmosphere of the church changes, were there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. “Like charcoal to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body”.


Isn’t that true. Someone says something to you about someone. A preference, now I don’t know whether this is true or not, but, you know this is what I heard. Or sometimes they don’t preference it, they just tell you, you know what, and they tell you something about someone, and you go away, and what, it made its way down inside of you. You go to bed that night, you’re laying there thinking about that. Now, you may pass it on to someone, you say, I don’t know if this is true but you know what I heard. All of a sudden it’s passed along. It may go to how many people. It may be found to be false, but there is no way then to undo what’s done. But, the picture is very clear, it may go down into the innermost parts of the body. Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart. Looks good on the outside, but terrible on the inside. He who hates disguises it with his lips, but he lays up deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred covers itself with guile, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. Verse 28, “A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.”

Come back to James. This issue of the tongue is not a new issue. It’s an issue in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. The tongue is a fire. It=s a world of inequity.
A world of inequity is a vast system of evil, the tongue is. It has all kinds of wicked potential. Just like you talk about the world and you say, boy, there is a whole world out there. Well, that’s what we are talking about with the tongue, it=s a world of inequity. It has so many facets, so many twists and turns for evil and sinfulness, that I don=t even know the potential that I have with my tongue. It’s a world of inequity, the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body. The tongue has the potential to defile the entire body. An uncontrolled tongue pollutes you, just like immorality pollutes me as a person, just like murder pollutes me as a person, just like lying pollutes me as a person, anything I do with the tongue pollutes me as a person. So, it’s set among our members or sets itself among our members, is that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life. In other words, the tongue can begin a blaze which reaches out into all areas of life, and not only our own life personally, but the lives of those around us. How much damage done in our homes by the way we speak to one another, what we say to each other, how we talk to one another, the husband and wife.

You’ve been in situations when there is someone you have been with and you’ve had the opportunity with them in a setting and you hear how they talk to each other, and you come away and say, I never thought they would talk to each other like that. It’s a revelation of character you did not expect. You know we have the potential to turn our houses on edge. You can look forward to your husband or wife coming home, they walk through the door and say something with their tongue, your whole attitude can change just like that. Things can be turned around very quickly with the tongue, and wants it=s set in motion, it sets on fire the course of our life. Whole nations have been influenced by propaganda, by rumors. Periodically, you will see part of the world where somebody spread a rumor and what, several people got killed because people went on a rampage because they heard a rumor, turns out there was no substance to it, but you can’t undo the damage.

A terrible thing is said at the end of verse 6, “the tongue is set on fire by hell”. Hell, here, stands for those associated with hell, the devil and his demons. So here you see the potential of the tongue and its wickedness is magnified, not only now as my own sinful self-involved, but the devil himself and his demons set the tongue ablaze. So, an uncontrolled tongue becomes a tool of the devil, an instrument he uses for his purposes. Jesus said in John 8:44 that these unbelieving Jews were of their father the devil and he had been a liar from the beginning and when he tells a lie he speaks out of his very character, and when they lie they are manifesting his character. So, you’re into a serious issue if you don’t control your tongue, it’s becoming a tool that the devil uses.

One of my experiences over the summer has been the damage that’s done in some churches by the tongues of some people. They haven’t laid a hand on anyone, but this ministry is all but destroyed by the way certain people are talking and somehow that’s tolerated. You know, if someone committed an act of immorality right out here on the floor you’d say that is so repulsive. You shouldn’t even say that from the pulpit, but somehow people can walk up and down the aisles of the church and whisper things to one another, nothing is done. You say, well, they shouldn’t have said that they shouldn’t talk about those people like that, I know they said it, they shouldn’t, but. But we let it go on. The damage done is of overwhelming proportions.

Verse 7, “For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race.” Man has the power to subjugate all kinds of creatures, he dominates the animal world. But verse 8, you ought to underline that, “no one can tame the tongue”. “No one can tame the tongue”. So there’s not one of us here today who can sit and say, I’m glad I don’t have this problem, I hope so and so is hearing this sermon, not one I need but they do. I may be able to say that about certain other sins, murder, haven’t committed any murder, immorality, no I haven=t been immoral. The tongue, oh yea, I’ve got that tamed. Liar. Because no one can tame the tongue, it’s a restless, evil, full of deadly poison, restless, unstable evil. You know, a graphic picture here of the instability of the tongue. You know, we’ve all experienced this, at least I want to say we all, I don’t want to get too much confession. Well, you know, it seems like you’re walking with the Lord and you enjoy fellowship with Him, something comes up and you say something with your tongue, and what, you’re appalled. Where did that come from? Why would I say that? The tongue is an unstable evil. I don’t have to do any preparation to turn it loose. In that sense it can just strike out like that and it’s just like the match thrown out the window that starts the forest fire, away it goes, and all I did was carelessly indifferently throw out something with my tongue. I did damage far beyond what I realized at the time. It’s a restless evil, it’s full of deadly poison. Again, that’s drawn from the Old Testament, we won’t go back there, Psalm 58, verses 3 and 4, Psalm 140, verse 3.

You get the idea that James under the direction of the Spirit is just trying to build up an emphasis here, of the terrible potential of an uncontrolled tongue. It’s a restless evil, it’s full of deadly poison. Look at this, verse 9, “with it we bless our Lord and Father, with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God”. The same tongue blessing God and cursing those He has made in His image. Again, going back to the Old Testament, Genesis l, where we’re made in the image of God, same tongue, bless God, curse men, something is wrong here. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brother these things ought not to be this way. How inconsistent that these things should come out of the same mouth, blessings and cursings. I mean, this body shouldn’t be immoral and moral. You say, no, there is no place for immorality in this body because it=s to be moral. Well, how can I have this mixture in my tongue and that=s tolerable, the blessings and the cursings, destructiveness. 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? Neither can saltwater produce fresh. You note, he says brethren, he’s addressing them as believers, and these illustrations from nature help to make his point.

The tongue can’t be controlled and yet the tongue must be controlled. What’s he saying?
Number one, the most difficult thing that we have to control is the tongue and any hope of control comes not from myself, but outside myself and that is from the power of God who first subdues my heart, because, remember, my mouth speaks out of what fills my heart.

Joseph Parker, a preacher in London the last century, said “It is vain to attempt to tame the tongue until the heart has been subdued”. That’s why we begin again with a new heart. I have to get a new heart because “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things”. So, it’s not any wonder that people are spreading lies and you read the newspaper, you watch the news, you don’t know whether these people are telling the truth or not. Because they have hearts that are desperately wicked and you don’t know what the truth is. We just had an incident with some sports figures, now it comes out the person said I made up all the stories that I accused of them. I just made it up. But, you know, for many who read this in the paper, people say, Yea, they aren’t a very good character anyway. I can see them doing it, I can see them doing it. It goes on.

What we need is a new heart, that’s the start. Now, we as believers, do have a new heart. So, then we’re on the track that we’re on in our study of Colossians, and I’m to have “my mind set on things above”. I fill my mind with things consistent with the character of Christ. Philippians 4, “whatsoever things are lovely and just and pure and so, think on these things”. So in my heart and mind the character of Christ is being developed, so that when I speak and use my tongue it is His character that is being revealed and presented.

Back up to Galatians, Chapter 5, parallels where we are in Colossians, Chapter 3. In verse 19 of Galatians 5, just note under the deeds of the flesh. You have “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions”. You see, the destructive use of the tongue mixed in with the other sins of the flesh, whereas you have the contrast with the fruit of the Spirit in verse 22 with the “love, joy, peace, patience, you have kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control”. I think for us as believers and us as a church, it is good to remind ourselves.

I can say having been in the ministry for 30 years, nothing has done so much damage to my ministry as the tongue. I mean, nobody has physically assaulted me yet, but people have recked havoc on the ministry by the tongue. It amazes me how freely people will speak with their tongue, things that have no foundation, in fact, or truth, but, you know, you float enough things out there and pretty soon we all, what? Well, where there is smoke, there is fire.


We’ll have to be careful, maybe we just got a devil-controlled tongue. I want to be careful. Gil, do you have your tongue under control? You know, you can use the tongue in subtle ways to destroy, to run down, to ruin, to divide. You say, what was your motive in saying that, why did you say that, why did you say it the way you said it, what are you doing with that tongue. You think, I really ought to work on my tongue. Because if I work on my tongue, I’ll be working on bringing the whole body under control. That’s something for us as a church to work on, our tongue. I didn’t preach this sermon because I’m thinking, boy, I have to get you to stop doing what you’re doing with your tongue. I’m sure you have trouble with your tongue and I’m sure you don’t have it totally tamed because we just saw that that’s true in James. I don’t either. So, we want to be careful that we don’t tolerate what ought not to be there with our tongue. If we get that under control, we’ll be a church that the testimony, remarkably, they’re the perfect church, whatever else you say about them, you can’t say they ever sin with their tongue. We’ll never get to that point, but we should be working toward that point. God by your grace, help me get hold of my tongue. Sometimes things pop out and the only thing you can do is correct it the best you can. But, it’s far easier not to start the fire than it is to try to put the fire out after it has been started. May God give us the grace to be biblical in this area. Let’s pray together.

Thank you, Lord, again for all you’ve done for us in Christ. Lord, we acknowledge the tongue is a problem, we acknowledge, Lord, that almost daily there are things done with our tongue, said that shouldn’t have been said, said to people that they shouldn’t have been said to, said in a way they shouldn’t have been said, things we have no business talking about, we have given ear to things that we know we shouldn’t listen to. Lord, I pray that we will take seriously the issue of the sin of the tongue and be careful, Lord, those who we disagree with, that we would not use our tongue improperly in those disagreements. Lord, I pray that we as a church, will walk circumspectly in this area as well as others. Thank you for the grace and power that makes it possible through the indwelling spirit. Thank you for the new hearts that you’ve provided, which are a new source, a new fountain to enable us to speak forth those things which are lovely and beautiful and kind. Lord, may that be the character that is seen and heard in us, we pray, in Chris’s name. Amen.