Big Picture Theology (part 3) - [James 3]

Well, I've been told that if you look at someone's tongue, if a doctor looks at someone's tongue, you can tell if they're sick or not. By the color of someone's tongue, doctors can determine if you have, for instance, liver disease, you might have a black tongue.

If you have a bluish tongue, you could possibly have impaired circulation, asthma, or heart disease. A brown tongue denotes Addison's disease. A pale tongue could mean that you have anemia. Red tongue, typhoid fever.

Strawberry tongue, scarlet fever. And yellow tongue, jaundice. You can look at someone's tongue and then get an idea if they're sick or not. And the same thing's true in the spiritual world. By what people say, you can judge or know about their spiritual maturity or lack thereof.

Thomas Brooks, the Puritan writer, said, we know metals by their tinkling and men by their talking. All of us talk a lot. Between 12 ,000, they say, and 25 ,000 words per day. That is 13 years of a continual mouth motion and talking.

How do Christians talk? Should Christians be careful of what they say? Actually, the easiest way to sin in all the world is by talking. We don't have to do anything except talk. It's true in World War II when they said, loose lips sink ships.

But what they didn't say is loose lips also wreck lives, destroy friendships, cause divorce, cause church splits. How should a Christian talk? Take your Bibles, please, and turn to James chapter 3. And I hope to address that today through God's holy word.

What does the Bible say about talking? Too often, we just shove our mouths in gear and pop the clutch on thousands of things that we say. We have to be careful. In the old days, if you wanted to know about people's spiritual maturity, you could say, you know what?

If I looked at your checkbook, could I figure out where your heart is? That's probably still a good thing to think about. But the other thing you could do is just listen to someone and you'll know what they're like.

Because Jesus said, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. It doesn't take much discernment to figure out. You could know what was in the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees' heart when they said something like this to Jesus.

Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? What's in your heart comes out of your mouth. And now on this side of the cross for Christians, we want to live a life worthy of our calling, right?

To use Ephesians chapter 4 language. We want to make sure we say, you know what? I talk differently now because I'm a Christian. I want to honor the Lord, not just with my body, but also with what I say.

The way to think about James chapter 3, not just a bunch of laws, although it is law, not just this is what you better do or else, but I want you to think about what you've done in the past and what God has done about that.

I did some calculation. If you sin one sin per week after 50 years, that's 18 ,250 sins. If you sin one sin per hour, remember sin is not just not doing something, but it's supposed to be worshiping God with your heart, soul, mind and strength.

One sin per hour over 50 years, it would be 436 ,800 sins. If you sin one sin per minute after 50 years, that would be 26 ,208 ,000 sins. And can you imagine, Christian, you don't have to pay for one of those.

Jesus has paid for those. And so when I think of sins that he has forgiven me, I now, with a life of gratitude and thankfulness, want to live for him and speak for him. Remember the great white throne judgment in Revelation chapter 20.

There's two kinds of books. The books for people who aren't believers, and they have a list of everything that they've done in them that they'll be judged for. There's another book for us as Christians, and that book just contains our names.

Why doesn't it contain deeds? Because all the deeds that we have done sinfully have all been paid for by another. And just imagine, if someone redeemed you, and Christian Jesus did, don't you want to live a life to honor him?

Not to get in, you can't work your way into heaven. You can't talk your way into heaven. But since you're going to heaven, it should change the way you talk. I should talk differently. And that's the book of James chapter 3.

Two sections. 1 through 12 talks about the tongue, and 13 through 18 talks about deeds of wisdom. And they are related, and I'll tell you how they're related soon enough. So far in James, we've seen simply that how Christians live, they look at trials differently.

They can count it all joy because God's sovereign and Jesus is alive. They take God's word and instead of stiff-arming it, they accept it. That's chapter 1. Chapter 2, instead of looking at someone based on how they look and judging them, rather, you say, you know what, compared to Jesus, I'm nothing, and I'm not better than they are.

And so we'll love people with the golden royal law. And then there are some people that say, well, I'm a Christian, but there are no works. We see that was false faith, dead faith in chapter 2. So now, section number 1 of James 3, verses 1 through 12 that talk about the tongue and what we do when it comes to walking by faith and how we talk.

Verses 1 and 2 might not seem like it's tied in, but it is. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach, rather, will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able to bridle his whole body.

Think about what we do. I mean, if I had the gift of helps, you'd think, well, you know what, that's mainly something where he uses his hands for. He's helping people. He's moving people. He's working for people.

That's good to do. But when people have the gift of teaching or have the office of teaching or they're doing teaching, the main thing they use is their tongue. They're talking. You say, pastor, I already know that.

Well, I know you know. What's the job of a preacher? To remind you of what you often forget and to help you forget what you often remember, right? That's the job of a preacher. James is not saying, you know, teachers are bad.

I mean, God actually has ordained pastor teachers in Ephesians chapter 4. He's just saying, you know what, it's not just what you say when you teach, but what people hear and you're influencing a lot of people.

So you better be careful what you say because it's just not you before the Lord, it's you teaching other people. So be very careful. Back in these days, in the Old Testament days, especially in just into the New Testament, not many restrictions for people walking into a synagogue and getting up to teach.

I mean, if somebody came in today and said, I'd like to teach and you better let me or else, I'm going to preach. First, I would think they were joking and then I would think I would get the ushers, especially the big ushers to help out.

But remember, regularly, Jesus went to a city, he went to the synagogue and they let him teach. Paul went to a city, he went to the synagogue, he taught with Silas. They could pretty much walk in and open up the Bible and begin to teach.

So you have to be careful when you're a teacher that you don't say things that are not right. I mean, I regularly say to people, I have to be careful what I say because a preposition wrongly stated is heresy.

If I tell you you're saved because of your faith, faith becomes somehow meritorious, that's not Christianity, that's works righteousness. You're saved because of God's great love through faith. You're not saved because of faith, you're saved through faith.

So you have to be very careful when you talk. Ministry is serious. Good teachers, we want good teachers. Biblical teachers, we want biblical teachers. And if you're going to talk a lot, what's the text say?

Knowing we shall incur a stricter judgment. These are God's people you're talking to and you better be careful what you say. Knowing, verse 2, we're all fallible. Teachers are sinful, teachers are fallible, teachers stumble in many ways.

And so if you stumble a lot and then you teach a lot, you better be careful. And of course, I think of the Lord Jesus when I look at verse 2, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, can you imagine Jesus never slandered, gossiped, deceived with his mouth, said complaining words, never anything unholy out of his mouth?

If you don't do that, what? You're a perfect man, a mature man, able also to bridle his whole body. So James says, you better be careful what you say and glorify God with your speech because it affects the church.

Serving affects the church, giving affects the church, helping affects the church, but also the tongue of the teacher affects the church. And now we move to verses 3 and following. And I think what James is trying to do here is, he's trying to say don't underestimate the power of the tongue because little things control.

Now James is a master teacher, he's learned at the feet of his half-brother Jesus, how do you create a word picture and it's vivid and it's vibrant and watch what he does here, small things affect big things.

That's his point because eventually he's going to get to, what you say with this little two-ounce slab of mucous membrane can have detrimental or wonderful effects. And as I read verse 3, I can also hear verse 3.

You ever put a bit in the mouth of a horse or seen it done? There's a certain sound of that, isn't there? There's a certain smell to that also too. If we put bits into the mouths of horses, can you imagine a 550-pound mass of muscle, that horse with this little bit in its mouth, they what?

Some kind of wild horse does what? They obey us. They don't just control the mouth, you control their whole bodies as well. And he alluded to that in verse 2, also able to bridle his whole body. So he's talking about bridling our tongues and it affects a lot and now he's talking about bits into the mouth of horses.

Powerful horse with a little tiny bit, you can control it. He gives another illustration. Look at the ships also. Lots of ships back in those days, Mediterranean, Sea of Galilee. They are so large and driven by strong winds.

How do you control a large boat? How do you control a large boat driven by winds? But they're guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs. Josephus, the historian would say, boats back in those days could hold maybe up to even 600 people.

How do you get a sailboat with 600 people to go the way you want? This tiny little thing affects, controls. Very small rudder. Even if you looked at aircraft carriers today, rudders steer them. The tongue is like a rudder.

The tongue is like a bit. Small things control. Do you see the tie-in? Verse 5. Here's the tie-in. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. The tongue controls. The tongue can control people.

It affects you. It affects other people. Don't underestimate what you say, in other words. You could probably recall things that have said to you and you've never forgotten. Negative things are things that were never said to you.

I'm proud of you. I love you. You mean the world to me. You can tell that things that are said positively can change lives. Things negatively can destroy lives. Verse 5 goes on to say, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.

Yeah, but it's just my tongue. It's just a little thing. It's not going to be that big of a deal. Now for us, you look at sunsets even tonight and you might see California smoky sunsets that are beautiful.

How about if you live back in the Palestinian day with dry seasons and brush fires and it only takes a spark to what? To get a fire going or whatever that song is. A little thing you say just comes out of your mouth and all of a sudden it's combustible.

A great forest fire set aflame by such a small fire. In other words, small thing seems insignificant. It's just words. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never what? Hurt me. It may be a mom says that to a child or a dad says that to a child because of the bully saying things and they say, well, I love you, son.

And what they say doesn't matter. But words are like fire. Human carelessness. They have a gender reveal party in California and now firemen die. I'm not making any comments about gender reveal parties, Mark.

Just just stating facts. I don't know if it's true or not, but when I was a kid, I was told if you were a black belt in karate, you had to register your hands and feet as deadly weapons. I think that was just made up, but we should probably register our tongue because we can cause so much good or cause so much damage just because something's small doesn't mean it's not influential.

Is there anything more dangerous than the tongue? Verse six. The tongue. I mean, James languages is just so. Descriptive, the tongue is a fire. A world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body.

Setting on fire the entire course of life and is set on fire by hell. I looked up dangerous animals this week. What's the most if you were here the first service, you can't say for the second. What's the most dangerous animal in all the world?

What kills more than any kills kills humans more than anything else in the world? Mosquitoes. On my list here, I've got most dangerous animals, mosquitoes, snakes, dogs, titsy flies, something that sounds like they kill assassin bugs, freshwater snails, scorpions, roundworms, tapeworms and crocodiles.

I don't want to come close to any of those things. Yet you should be more afraid of the tongue and what you could say. I mean, how convicting is this? Slander, gossip, criticism, complaining. You ever complain?

Ever say anything harsh? I mean, we are all convicted. And again, this is not well, if I do any of these, I'm going to go to hell. No, since you're going to heaven, don't do these things. Honor God with your speech.

The tongue is so destructive. Lots of times the Old Testament ties in fire with wrong speech. Listen, the scoundrel plots evil and his speech is like a scorching fire. Proverbs 16, Proverbs 26, without wood, a fire goes out without gossip.

A quarrel dies down as charcoal to embers, as wood to fire. So is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. When tongue comes bulldozing in with negative words, it just destroys everything in its path. Someone said, I believe it.

There are few sins people commit in which the tongue is not involved. See verse six, a world of unrighteousness. It's the essence of wickedness and awful iniquity. It's like if you just take everything in the world that's not right, that's unrighteous and just condense it down into some kind of concentration.

That's what it is. It doesn't take you long to go back to the garden after Adam sinned. Where are you? I heard the sound of you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree of which I've commanded you not to eat? The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate. And the tongue is so bad when used negatively, it stains. See the middle of verse six, it blackens, it sullies.

It corrupts, it pollutes, of course, any Christian would say in light of my free forgiveness and salvation in Christ Jesus, who's pure, who's unsullied, unstained, who's righteous. I'd like to live a life commensurate with my calling.

I'd like to live by faith and honor God with my words. Calvin, the vice of the tongue spreads and prevails over every part of life. It is as active and potent for evil in old age as it ever was in the days of our youth.

I mean, some sins, you know, you sin for a while and then you go, well, I grew out of that one. That's like youthful lust and I grow out of it. But you can be two years old, 10 years old or 80 year old and say something with your mouth or different subject.

But it's the same thing. I remember the man who was in an iron lung. He couldn't get out of the iron lung. He's 80 years old and it's helping him breathe in the old days. And they'd be in the iron lung.

And a man brought some young teenagers that he was discipling young men and said to the man, what's the biggest struggle that you have as a Christian in the iron lung? And the man said, the lust of the eyes.

And even at 80 years old, still struggling with that. This too, you can be young or you can be old and you still have to be careful. James is saying, everybody be careful when it comes to the tongue. Watch out what you say.

And it's set on fire by what? By hell. At the end of the verse, Satan behind it all, as it were, he's certainly the chief slanderer. Jesus said in John eight, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. There's no truth in him. When Satan lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies. Very, very convicting. Verse seven, it's full of poison.

And by the way, there's nothing you can humanly do about it. So you better be dependent upon the Lord in prayer. Verse seven, for every kind of bird and beast, reptile and sea creature can be tamed. Matter of fact, and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

It's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. I mean, God said to Adam and Eve, and now we live in this long lineage of subduing the earth. Can you imagine you can train a lion? You can train a tiger. How would you like to say to yourself?

And I don't know if there were, you know, if Adam did this or who did it, but let's see, there's this huge Falcon. I mean, you ever seen a Falcon up close and the wingspan of a Falcon and the talons of a Falcon?

I think I'm going to train that thing. First, I got to catch it. That's a good trick. I guess you have to do it when they're young. And then I'm going to teach it that when I put it here and take the hood off of his, if it's head, it's going to fly over there, go get something for me to eat and come back and give it to me.

I think I'll do that. And it was done, but you can't tame your tongue. You can tell pastor James is trying to say, you're going to need help. You're going to need divine intervention. You're going to be dependence on the Lord.

You have to walk by the spirit because you can't do this on your own. It's impossible. Unbelievers can quit drinking. Unbelievers can quit gambling. Believers can do the same thing, but what no one can do is tame the tongue.

While these, okay, but here, no exceptions, right? Because we don't have the ability to do it. We talk a lot. We're still dealing with sin as Christians. See what James says, verse eight, it's a restless evil.

I mean, it seemed like everything was going fine and, you know, just kind of sitting over there as it were kind of lounging and yawning and sleeping. And then out of nowhere, it just pounces. You just having a nice meal with your wife.

Everybody's talking properly. Everything's going. And then somebody says something. It's a restless evil. It's like pacing back and forth, looking for an opportunity. What word pictures from James and it's full of deadly poison.

Poison. You know, the old days you go to the medicine cabinet and if there was something that was poison in there, it have what on the label, skull and crossbones. Do they do that anymore? I mean, now they make hand gel that looks like soda as far as I'm concerned.

Isn't that wrong? There's something wrong with it. James is saying, listen, when you talk, it's dangerous. Be careful. I think of poison like cyanide or arsenic or strychnine, but there's other kinds of poisons.

Maybe I guess you're not supposed to have a favorite poison, but if I had a favorite poison, it's the South American Indians use those venom tip blow pipes to hunt their prey and they take the toxins from the frogs and put it on the end of their, their, their arrows.

But here it's worse. You're doing a great job. You're at church praising the Lord. You get home for lunch. Say, well, you know what? No one contained the tongue lay back and let God, I'm not gonna do anything about it.

I'm going to just resign myself to the fact I'm going to say a bunch of dumb things. I'm going to be passive when it comes to sanctification. How about Psalm 34? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

Proverbs 10, when words are many, sin is not absent. He who holds his tongue is wise. Proverbs 13, he who guards his lips, guards his life. God, I need your bridal. I need your restraint. I realized what I could do with my tongue.

Look at how illogical these things are. Verse nine. It's crazy. It's illogical. It's inconsistent with it. He's talking about our tongue. We bless our Lord and father. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

And with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God, which means really we're cursing people who are made in the likeness of God. That means we're cursing God double. Blessing the Lord and father.

Remember Peter? Peter said to Jesus, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. Praise, trust, extolling who Jesus is. I'll stand by you. 30 verses later, a little Galilean servant girl came and said to him, you too were with Jesus, the Galilean.

But he denied it before them all and said, I do not know what you're talking about. That's the nature, the insidious nature of the tongue. John Bunyan said in Pilgrim's Progress of the character named Talkative, he was a saint abroad and a devil at home.

How we talk at church and then how we talk at home, we have to be careful. You can hear the pastoral heart of James. See it in verse 10. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things are not to be this way.

Don't don't do that. It's inconsistent with your calling. Your savior, Jesus, didn't talk that way. He doesn't want you to talk this way. Now, a life of gratitude and thankfulness for your salvation, your hope of eternal life.

Don't talk that way. And he uses nature, does he not, to show the inconsistency of it all? Verse 11, does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Nature would tell me that's not right.

Verse 12, nature also tells me fig tree should produce figs. Olive trees should produce olives. Vines should produce grapes. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh water.

It's even more amazing to me when I think then of the Lord Jesus in first Peter chapter two, who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth while being reviled. He did not revile in return without while suffering.

He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. I love Luke four, and they were all speaking well of Jesus and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips.

Is this not Joseph's son? So we have to be careful, and one of the things we could do probably is just talk less. I read this week this phrase, a wise old bird sat on an oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke.

The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why not model after that wise old bird? John Calvin said pastors ought to speak from fasting. Oh, wait, wait, sorry, fast from speaking. Almost makes sense both ways, doesn't it?

Spiritual disciplines. Let me rephrase that. I'll say it again. Pastors just shouldn't talk so much, right, when they're not in the pulpit. I mean, it's so convicting. Do you complain? Do you criticize?

Do you gossip? Do you slander? I mean, we're all guilty, but it just not ought to be that way. To give us a little breather, just a few little comments that I found that I thought were kind of amusing.

Talk is cheap because supply always exceeds the demand. First service thought that was funny, right? Maybe it's the delivery. Plato said, wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.

Maybe we don't need word processors, but word condensers. Proverbs 30. Can you believe this in the Bible? If you have been foolish in exalting yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand on your mouth.

I mean, knowing even as Christians the depth of our sin and the assiduous nature of our hearts and the pollution, all the more that we need to say, Lord, protect us, guard our hearts to pray, Lord, we're going to need your strength to say the right thing.

And of course, what you can do if you have negative things that come out of your mouth, the New Testament would teach us to replace those with positive things. I think of Hebrews 13, through Jesus, then let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. Singing unto the Lord, Psalm 13, I will sing to the Lord because he's dealt bountifully with me. Preaching the gospel to the lost, how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him with whom they have not heard?

How shall they hear without a preacher? Encouraging one another. When's the last time you encouraged someone with your words? Well, we move to the second section in James 3, verses 13 through 18. We've seen the tongue part.

Yes, it's convicting. Yes, we realize we fall short and we're just going to entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus. We know our sins are forgiven and we also receive power to say no to sin. So we want to watch out for what we say, how we say it, especially in a local church, especially at home, parents and marriages.

But then there's also this wisdom aspect here and it's tied in. Do you see the connection? Let me read verse 13 as James begins to ask good questions. And of course, it's probably a sermon or an extract of a sermon.

And every preacher knows listeners can listen at 400 words a minute, but we can only talk 150, 200 words a minute. So to get you thinking about what we want you to think about the text, we ask questions.

Here's a question. Who is wise and understanding among you? Of course, we don't really want to raise our hand after the last section, but if you'd like to see wise people and understanding people, how does that come across by what they say?

Of course, they could give you some good wisdom by what they say, but the context here is by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom or the gentleness of wisdom. See the tie in he's just got done saying in chapter two, faith without works is dead and you show me faith with your works.

I show you my faith without my works, all this kind of demonstration. If you want to see wisdom, it's not necessarily I will give you the Socratic thought with my words and I will teach you. It's how you live.

Wise people do give us wise things to say. Ecclesiastes, obviously, Proverbs, yes. But the context here is we've got the tongue that just runs its mouth and people that really are wise, it affects their conduct, their meek, their gentle, it's daily living things.

Show me someone who's wise and they have the fruit and evidence of this kind of meek wisdom, good conduct. I'll show you the opposite. But if you have bitter jealousy, verse 14, selfish ambition in your heart, that's not wisdom.

Don't be arrogant and so lie against the truth. That's the exact opposite. Disputes and dissensions and factions and follow me, that's the last thing the church needs. That's the last thing a marriage needs.

Bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, factionalism, resentful attitudes, that's not wise. And so he just goes through this list. Bitter jealousy, that's not wisdom. Selfish ambition, that's not wisdom. No wonder Philippians 2 reads, you know, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.

How about the next little section there? Arrogance, don't be arrogant, boasting, look at me, kind of chest bump, I'm the best. I don't know if this is true or not, but when Muhammad Ali was flying in an airplane, he was in the airplane and it was a commercial airplane.

The boxer was seated and there was a bunch of turbulence and the flight attendant said, put your seatbelt on, sir. And the account reads that Ali said, Superman don't need no seatbelt. I love how fast the lady was, the flight attendant.

Superman don't need no airplane either. That's pretty good. You laugh more this than the last. Now they just walk by and say, put the mask over your nose, sir. When you think about really where you've came from, where I've came from in terms of dead and trespasses and sins, and now we're made together alive in Christ.

And then all of a sudden we're prideful and we're boasting and we're ambitious and we want people to follow us, even in church settings versus following Jesus. It's just not the way it's supposed to be.

What actually is this? Verse 14, it says at the end, you're lying against the truth. You're lying against the truth, this party spirit and zeal, and I'm at the center of it all. This is just wrong. You want to know where this comes from?

Verse 15. This wisdom. That manifests in this kind of conduct. That's not pointed to the Lord Jesus. And his people, this wisdom, this line against truth, wisdom, this arrogant wisdom, this jealousy, wisdom, the selfish ambition in your heart, wisdom.

Is not that which comes down from above. It's not from heaven. You want to know where it's from? It's from the earth. It's from nature. It's from demons. Wow. Tell me what you really think, James. By the way, what comes from above?

James has said in chapter one, verse 17, every good thing bestowed in every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. That's what comes down from above.

And so when you see things like this false wisdom, you can realize it's not coming from God. Blanchard said it has none of the fragrance of heaven about it. And you can just see it's almost like climatic here, getting farther and farther away from God.

It's earthly. That is, it's not heavenly. It's natural. It's like instinctive. It's what beasts do. It's what animals do. And then it's literally demonical. It's demonic, it pertains to demons. He said, you know what, I'll tell you where this comes from.