WWUTT 281 How to Tame the Tongue?

No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

Yet we are also told in Scripture to submit our bodies as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the

Lord. So how can we do that? By the power of God when we understand the text. Many of the

Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Greetings, everybody. Open your

Bible today to James chapter 3. We finished off last week with verses 1 through 12, and I want to come back to that section again today and make a particular point about it.

So James chapter 3, verses 1 through 12, and as you're opening your Bible there, I want to mention that I just finished up the first draft of a new book entitled,

Predestined for Hell, a gracious response to Dr. Adrian Rogers. If you've been a regular listener of the podcast, then perhaps you'll remember earlier this year when we were going through Romans 9,

I offered a message from Dr. Rogers that was entitled Predestined for Hell, Absolutely Not, in which he was arguing for the autonomous free will of man, and I provided counterpoint arguing for the sovereign will of God.

Well, those couple of episodes have been put into transcript form and are being published into a book.

I've also kind of expanded out those arguments a little bit and provide a little bit of a history lesson on understanding

Calvinism versus Arminianism. So that's all in the book that hopefully will be coming out next month.

One of the plus sides to doing self -publications is I don't have to wait for a publisher to finish up.

I can just do it when I know that the draft is finished. But I have a few people that I want to read what it is that I've put down to make sure that everything there makes sense.

And so it's a little bit different when you say it and then when you put it in written form. And so I want to make sure that all those arguments have been properly laid out in the book, and then it'll be available for Kindle and also in print form in November.

So thank you so much for your support of this ministry. And you can find the publications listed on our website, www .utt

.com. All right, let's get to the text today, James chapter 3, verses 1 through 12.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle his own body.

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and 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 set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our

Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?

Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs?

Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. I wanted to come back to this again today because of news that had arisen toward the end of last week and kind of carried us through the weekend concerning comments that Donald Trump had made.

Donald Trump, of course, being the Republican nominee for president of the United States. And I'm not going to repeat those comments or even get political with you here.

But because because these things have been on the forefront and it was a major topic in the debate last night as well.

The first set of questions that came up in the debate were concerning these comments that Donald Trump made in private yet taped conversations, very lewd comments, very disrespectful toward women and other people for that matter.

And and that's putting it lightly. I mean, I really can't expound on it much more without repeating the comments, which

I'm definitely not going to do. But now it is on our mind, these things that Trump has said privately.

And some people are trying to say that, OK, well, it was just locker room banter and that sort of a thing. And and that's how we excused it in the debate last night as well.

Dr. Russell Moore, writing in The Washington Post, he talked about how there are there are going to be many more tapes than just this.

There are probably thousands, tens of thousands of comments that Donald Trump has made just like this.

This will not be the last. And and the constituency was forewarned before Donald Trump even became the nominee for president of the

United States, that he was a lewd man. He was he's all about himself. He's very proud and boastful.

And and these kind of comments, this is not going to be the last that we're going to hear of these comments that Donald Trump has made.

And so as our our minds have been kind of attentive toward this kind of a thing, let me put something on you.

Let me put this toward you. What if there was a tape recorder in your car or or in your office, you know, wherever taping the things that you say like these?

These were comments that Trump made with somebody else doesn't excuse them in any way, shape or form.

You know what he's what he has said in private is who the man is, even though he's tried to say that's not who

I am. No, that is who he is. And we knew that's who he was years ago. But anyway, let's say there was a tape recorder in your vehicle picking up the words that you say even by yourself when there's nobody else around comments that you're making to other drivers as they pass by.

What what would what would be the kinds of things that would get picked up on that recorder? Or what about a recorder that hangs so close to your mouth that even when you're in a group of people or in a crowd and you mutter something under your breath, nobody could have possibly heard you say, but there's that little recorder by your mouth that's picking it up.

What would be the words that that recorder would be would be recording? If we were to play it back, would you be proud of the way that you are able to control your tongue when other people are not around?

Would you be proud of the words that you say that you think nobody else hears? And yet the

Bible says to us, Jesus said that we are going to have to give an account for every careless word we speak, whether or not we are directing those words at a person who can hear what we say, if we are being demeaning, they're still careless words.

Even if nobody hears us say them, they're still careless. They are still demeaning.

They are still putting down a person that was made in the image of God. And here,

James is saying, verse nine, with our tongues, we bless our Lord and father. And with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

So yesterday, I'm hoping that you attended church, right? With the with the brotherhood of believers, with the body of saints in Christ Jesus, and you lifted up praises to God together.

You sang songs together. Perhaps you even recited psalms together. You had that call and response thing where somebody is standing before the congregation will read a part and the congregation will respond back with maybe the other part of the verse or the psalm.

OK, maybe you were even reading scripture aloud together. This is how you submitted your tongue before the

Lord with the congregation of the saints. But then after church was over and you went out from there, how was your tongue after that, after church, through the rest of the day?

How has your tongue been this morning? Are your words being submissive to the

Lord in everything, even when nobody else can hear what it is that you say? And here,

James is telling us that no one can tame the tongue. The man has tamed every kind of beast there is, but no human being can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. And we've read this before.

We read this recently, in fact, when we were going through our study of the book of Romans, when Paul was talking about the depravity of man, whether Jew or Gentile, we all stand before God condemned.

He read from the Psalms in Romans, chapter three or wrote from the Psalms, I guess would be more accurate.

And here's what we read in Romans three, verse 10, as it is written, none is righteous.

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

They have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one person. Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. So when a person in their heart is unrighteous, when no one does good, when no one understands, when no one seeks for God.

That is manifest our behavior that is that is within the very core of our being from the inside out.

We are corrupt. That behavior is manifest in the words that we say, the words we say, the things we talk about, the words that come out of our mouths give evidence to the darkness that is in our hearts, the sin that still lingers there.

And I say sin that still lingers there because because for all of us who are in Christ, if you are listening to me and you know that you are a

Christian, that Christ has saved you from your sins and that you glorify in God in all that you do, yet there are still those things within your heart, a sin that lingers there that you constantly need to be submitting before the

Lord and seeking his grace and forgiveness for. And it is that sin that will still come out your mouth in such a way that develops into words that either frustrate the situation that you are in or put other people down.

Whether or not you are saying words to another person that they can hear the very fact that you have that contempt for another person and would say something about them under your breath still speaks of a sin and a contempt that is in your heart for other people.

And what Paul describes here in Romans chapter three is how the very physical organs of ours show the corruption that is within our hearts.

The throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive the venom of ashes under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Those things are not inherently evil. It's the heart that is evil.

And then the things that come out of our mouths bear witness to the evil that is in our hearts.

And we have no ability on our own to control our speech. That is something that we must submit to the

Lord and let him redeem us, even in the areas of speech and comments that we would make toward or about other people or about our circumstances.

The Apostle Paul says later on in Romans chapter 12, verse one, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to submit your bodies as a holy and pleasing sacrifice unto the

Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. And when Paul says bodies, he's meaning every part of the body, the things we do with our hands, the things we look at with our eyes, the stuff we listen to with our ears and the things we would say with our mouths, with our tongues.

Even these things submit to the Lord as a holy and pleasing sacrifice.

Paul said to the Ephesians Ephesians chapter four, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only that which is gracious, which gives grace to the hearer, which is good for building up instead of tearing down.

So corrupting talk that comes out of your mouth is not just talk that you say to or about another person that someone else can hear, even when no one else hears it, it's corrupting.

It corrupts you. It is it is continuing to soil a mind that is not rejoicing in God, but instead complaining about your situation, your circumstances or cursing other people.

My brothers, this ought not to be so. We need to have tongues that are submitted to the

Lord and he will help us guard our tongues. In Psalm 141,

O Lord, I call upon you, hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when

I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

So here you have in Psalm 141, David submitting his whole self to the

Lord. The words that he said, the words that he says would be like incense.

They are pleasing to God. They sound good, like incense smells good,

OK, my the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice, the very things that we do with our hands would be pleasing to the

Lord. David goes on, verse three, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips.

Do not let my heart inclined to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in in company with men who work iniquity and let me not eat of their delicacies.

Boy, I wish there are some people who support Donald Trump that would understand that particular passage. But let me put it upon you to memorize this

Psalm 141, verse three, that whenever you get frustrated with somebody or something and your your reaction is to curse about that circumstance,

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with with taking your concerns to the

Lord, but let it be done in a holy and a righteous way. So if there is that temptation in you to curse about your circumstances, then recite this.

Be reminded of the words of God and let that be what fills your mind and your heart.

And then that's what will come out of your mouth, that which is praising instead of cursing.

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips.

Do not let my heart inclined to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity and let me not eat of their delicacies.

Verse five, let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me.

It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. So are you the kind of person that when somebody corrects you, that you would get upset with that particular person because they would dare to tell you that you were wrong?

It says to us in Proverbs twelve one, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Are you so opposed to those who would offer such correction that you would see it as as hostility, as contemptible rather than as a kindness?

Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Paul put it before the

Colossians and Colossians chapter three that we are to lovingly encourage and admonish one another, not encourage or admonish.

I'm either going to encourage you or I'm going to admonish you. We all need to be encouraged and we all need to be admonished.

Every single one of us to admonish means to correct with goodwill. And so if we are brothers and sisters in the body of Christ and we need to offer that kind of correction to one another, which we do need to do.

All right, we do these things with a kindness that should not be refused.

Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head.

Let my head not refuse it, because I know that when a brother or a sister in Christ has to correct me on my on my attitude, on something that it is that I say,

I know that what they what they are pointing out to me is that this holy and pleasing sacrifice that I need to be submitting before God is not so holy and pleasing right now.

And I need to correct this behavior and ask the Lord for forgiveness and ask him to anoint my head and purge me with hyssop, as David puts it in Psalm 51, so that I might be able to present a holy and a right sacrifice unto the

Lord. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds, David goes on to say in Psalm 141, verse five, now verse six, when their judges are thrown over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant, as when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord, in you, I seek refuge, leave me not defenseless, keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers, let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by safely.

And I think that's what's happening politically. You can observe those things happening right now that these candidates are falling into their own traps.

Now, you might look at certain situations like Hillary Clinton being able to avoid the justice that she deserves because of the laws that she has broken.

And you wonder, well, she's not falling into her own net. She seems to be getting away with the stuff that it is that she's doing.

My friends, my brothers and sisters, she will stand before God one of these days and will have to give an account of every word that she spoke and everything that she did.

Pray for her soul that she would repent of her sins before Judgment Day, lest she stand before God condemned for all eternity.

And let us pray also the same for Donald Trump. So we come back here to the book of James again, keeping these things in mind here as we have been seeing this stuff erupting in our culture presently with the kinds of comments that are being made, questions that are being asked.

And I mean, you know, some of the news reporters that come out and will will peg, you know, either

Trump or Hillary with stuff that they've said and talk about, oh, how hypocritical they are, how terrible it is that they've made these particular comments.

I know that the individuals that are pointing these things out pointing these things out are no better. They've made comments just like this, not just in private, but in public before an entire listening or viewing audience.

We have we live in a world where the tongue just wags and it just comes up with all kinds of poisons and evils to spill out across the culture.

This is this is the tongue that is connected with the human heart. What comes from the mouth is what pours out from the heart, out of the overflow of the heart, out of the abundance of the heart.

The mouth speaks, as Jesus put it. So let us submit ourselves totally unto the

Lord, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. So what comes out of our mouths is pleasing to God and how

James follows up this section. This is what we're going to talk about tomorrow, but I want to go ahead and read this.

James, chapter three, starting in verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct.

Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

This is not the wisdom that comes from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist.

There will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

And that's where we'll pick up tomorrow. Our great God, as we have considered these words today, I pray that we would be convicted, thinking about the kinds of things that come out of our mouths when nobody is listening.

But we know that you hear it. We know that there is not a word that we say that can be hidden from God. There's not a word that we can even think that can be hidden from you.

As David says in Psalm 139, before a word is even on my tongue, you know it fully, oh

God. So even the words that we don't say are exposed before you. Jesus has said in the book of Revelation, he is the one who tests hearts and minds and judges each person according to their works.

There is nothing that we can hide from you. It is all exposed before you. And so, God, I pray that we would be convicted about these things.

There is nothing that we can do in secret and that we would lay ourselves before you, prostrate, seeking

God and asking for your forgiveness, your grace upon us. We humbly submit ourselves to you and ask to be cleansed by your righteousness so that we may walk in a way that is pleasing and acceptable to you, that we may speak words that are honorable to God.

And in so doing, we say words that are an encouragement to others that hear them as well.

This is not a thing that we can do on our own. We have no ability to tame our own tongues. It is only by a heart that has been transformed in Christ that we might be able to speak words that flow from that heart that are pleasing to you and are gracious to the hearers.

Lord, I pray for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, two evil people who stand to condemn before God unless they turn from their sin and find the righteousness of Christ.

But it is a work that only you can do in their lives. And I pray that their hearts would be softened to understand the gospel message of Christ.

Lord, if they will not turn from their sins, then they would be used as examples before the American people of how not to be and that the

Lord will judge those who live in this kind of evil behavior and would turn from such sin and unrighteousness that are characterized by these two individuals, but are in no way set apart from the rest of our nation.

There are so many people in our culture that are that are walking in unspeakable evils, even worse than what we see coming from these two political candidates.

And so, Lord, we pray that your gospel would be ever before the people that are in this nation so that they would turn from their sin and know the righteousness of Christ.

And may we be held accountable as your saints to deliver that gospel to this nation, as we should do.

Cleanse our mouths, our hearts, our minds to be able to speak your words in a way that is pleasing and honorable to the

Lord. And we pray this in the name of Christ. Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books and more.

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