Tongues, Tempers, & Temples — Don Wilkerson

Galatians 5 .23 lists self-control as one of the fruit of the Spirit. Of the nine fruits of the Spirit, self-control is listed as one of them. And then the Bible warns that in the last day, society will be characterized by a total lack of restraint and a lack of self-control with passions running wild.

In 1 Timothy 3 .1, it says, in the last days, difficult times will come and men will be this and that, this and that, but it lists among it and it says, malicious gossips without self-control. Now friends, all you have to do is look today on the bestseller list and look at the bookstores today.

America is obsessed with gossip. The books that are selling, it's on the front pages right now. One of the president's trusted men has written a book, whether it's right or wrong, good or bad, I don't know, but there is an obsession all across America with gossip and it sells today, it sells.

The Tongue as a Measure of Spiritual Self-Control

And so I wanna address two major problems that relate to a lack of self-control. First is the tongue. David spoke Sunday night about the look, the face. Well, every face has a tongue in it and I want you to note the power and potential of the tongue.

Go with me to James chapter three because James probably more than anybody else puts it so distinct, so clearly and lays it out and describes the tongue and James says that the tongue can be either good or bad, depending upon whose brain and whose heart it's connected to.

James chapter three and verse two, James says that for we stumble in many, many ways, but if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. And what James is saying here is that the tongue is an index of our character.

I remember when I was a kid and I'd go to the doctor, he'd always say, stick out your tongue. I never could understand that, I never could understand it. I always was looking for the tongue chart, you know, to see if there were certain colors or whatever.

What did he do when he said to stick out your tongue? Well, just as the doctor says, stick out your tongue to see if there's something wrong with us physically, as soon as we open our mouths and we stick out our tongues and say something, it reveals our spiritual health.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Socrates said, speak that I may see thee. Speak that I may see thee. Proverbs 18, 21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.

You see, our speech may be the most helpful or the most hurtful of all the powers that we possess. With it, we can corrupt our whole being. Nothing, James says, nothing in our body, nothing is exempt from the damage that our tongues can cause.

If there is hate in the heart, the tongue will tell it. If there is envy in the heart, the tongue will reveal it. If there is murder in the heart, the mouth will shoot out its poisonous arrows. You know, if you've got a dead skunk in your apartment wall somewhere, you don't have to see it to know it's there.

Your nose will tell you. And so the heart's fragrance is smelled and felt by our speech. And it's no wonder that James says, the one who is able to control his tongue is the perfect man. Meaning, that means mature or complete.

In other words, we cannot be the godly man or woman that God wants us to be. And we're preaching from this pulpit that the Lord wants us to walk in holiness. He wants us to walk in righteousness. Well, my friend, he wants us also to talk in holiness.

He wants us to talk in righteousness. Nobody can walk in holiness unless the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit reaches our speech and our tongue. And to not stumble with our words is to be able to control the whole body.

The Tongue as the Rudder of Life

Now, James goes on and he says that our tongue not only reveals what's inside us, it not only reveals whether we have fresh water in us or bitter water, but it also steers us towards more godly character or away from it.

The tongue steers us. Look at verses three and four. It says, now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Now, behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are well directed by a very small rudder, whatever the inclination of the pilot desires, so also the tongue.

You know what amazes me? You can go to anywhere and bring a people together, a new church or a new group of people. You can bring them together almost any setting. And it's amazing how like tongues will find each other out.

It's just amazing how they'll pilot their ships right in the same waters all together, people of a like precious tongue. And not only does the tongue reveal what's inside us, it determines what waters we navigate in.

Therefore, it determines the future state of our soul. We can turn the rudder and pilot our ship into dirty, mucky waters where evil words flow. We can pilot our ships into the polluted waters of complainers and gossipers, or we can go into the clear blue waters where righteousness and peace is the talk of the hour when we talk about the things of God.

Well, I'm glad I'm getting a few amens tonight. I was almost afraid to preach this message. There's such a good atmosphere here tonight. I knew the subject of my message and I don't know whether my message would stop the tongues or not.

Proverbs 13, two and three says, from the fruit of a man's mouth, he enjoys good. But the desire of the treacherous is violence. The one who guards his mouth preserves his life. The one who opens his wide, his lips comes to ruin.

I have seen marriages set sail on beautiful, smooth waters only to be wrecked or to go on the rocks because of the rudder of a divisive, bitter, treacherous tongue. And if you have that kind of a marriage, God help you and God deliver you and God cleanse the tongue tonight.

I was in a counseling session some weeks ago. A couple came to see me. They don't attend this church, but they called and I told them I couldn't see them because we try to limit our schedule, our time for people who come to the church.

But the woman just pleaded, she insisted that I talk to her and her husband and so I made the schedule and they came in. I wish you could have been a fly on the wall. I wanna tell you, you talk about a ship with a rudder.

It were two ships and they'd start out talking and their ships would circle around like this, circle around and all of a sudden, bam, they were going like two ships. Or have you ever seen it, a great adventure or whatever, you get in these little cars and you bump each other.

That's exactly what they were doing. I wanna tell you, that was some explosion. James says, for every species of beast and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.

In other words, it says you can go to SeaWorld and you can see something accomplished there that sometimes you can't see accomplished in the house of the Lord. It says they tame animals there, every of the human race, but no one can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. You know, in South America, there is a snake, they call it the two-step snake. It bites you, you take two steps and you die. That's the truth, the venom paralyzes the nervous system, which stops the heart.

And you see, words can do that. They have the potential to kill relationships, to paralyze a marriage, to poison minds, to undermine confidence, to ruin reputations and to defame character. No wonder the Lord said in Proverbs 8, 13, and the perverted mouth I hate.

Blessing and Cursing from the Same Mouth

Now, James goes on and he says that the same tongue can be like night and day. He said the same tongue can spill out both blessings and curses. Look at verses 10 and 11. James 3, from the same mouth, and I have to picture James writing this, when he's writing this, I have to picture him when he's writing it.

And he's putting it down and he's shaking his head. He said, I don't understand this, but I have observed that from the same mouth, from the same mouth comes forth 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? You know, I was in a restaurant one time and I saw an illustration of what I'm talking about. I was alone and I noticed the waitress went to the next table and she picked up her tip.

Which she didn't like. Evidently she didn't like, but she walked by me, she smiled, and she went back into the kitchen. You know how they have, and it had swinging doors. And I watched for, during my meal, I watched this young lady, I watched this waitress, this particular time she went by me and as soon as the door swung open, as soon as she would, had just hit the door and all of a sudden she started to complain, she started to curse because she didn't like her tip.

But pretty soon she comes back out with some food in her hand and the door swung open and she came out, there's a beautiful smile on her face and she walked out and she treated me wonderful and then she'd go back in the door and I'd hear her complaining again.

And every time the door, depending on which way it swung, it was a different person, different tongue. Somebody has said that most tongues are tied in the middle, wagging at both ends. Timothy said deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued.

Not double-tongued. I told the illustration about a little boy who told me one time, he said, I have two dads. He said, I have a church dad and I have a house dad. And they're two different, they're the same person but two different people.

In other words, he was talking about a double-tongued dad. And isn't it amazing and yet sad how we can come and worship and praise the Lord so fervently. And then on our way home or even before we get out the door we can spew out some complaint or speak some harsh word to another.

Learning to Lay the Tongue on the Altar

And James says, brethren and sisters, these things ought not to be. Now, one of the reasons that I share this with you because I come to you with experience. When I was in Bible school, the Lord dealt with me about the tongue.

I was a young 17 year old, went off to Bible school. I had start preaching when I was 16 years of age. And now I'm 17, I'm off to Bible school reluctantly because I figured Bible school needed me instead of vice versa.

And I was there to straighten out everything and everybody and I had a sharp tongue. And I had an answer to everybody and to everything. And God began to deal with me, began to take me into Proverbs. And if you wanna, if you have a tongue problem then I invite you to go into Proverbs, seriously.

Go into Proverbs and that's what I did. And I remember, I knew I was in trouble one time when I told a friend of mine, I said, man, I gotta lay my tongue on the altar. And he said, you can't do it. I said, why?

He said, the altar is not long enough. We got no altar here. I know whereof I speak. One of my Bibles, I have it marked. About 110 different references. I have it marked with a plus when it talks something positive about the tongue or a minus when it talks about something negative or warns about the tongue, over 110 different I found in the book of Proverbs.

And there are three specific abuses of the tongue that I want to address myself to. One, the first of all is, and there's many more but I'll just address three. One is what I call the juicy tongue of a gossip.

Gossip as the Devil's Postman

Now gossip is the idle chatter. It's the rumor spreading. It's the whispering. It's a spreading of hearsay, of misinformation, half-truths and distortions. And the motivation behind, most of the time, the motivation behind gossip is that it makes a person feel important.

It makes them feel like I have something now and I have some information and I can share it and it makes me feel like I am important. That's often the motivation behind it. That we possess some piece of knowledge that others do not have.

Now both the Greek, Hebrew and Greek words for gossip are very picturesque. One of the Old Testament refers, words refers to going about from one to another. And Proverbs 11, 13 says, he who goes about as a tail bearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy conceals a matter.

The Greek word in the New Testament carries the thought of secret attack on a person's character. But a tail bearer, you see, is the devil's postman. Now, I've thought about what is the fastest means of communication today?

And we have a, UPS has a two-day delivery. A post office has overnight delivery. A Federal Express has an over, now you can do it by fax machine. But I wanna tell you there's something even faster than that.

It's the gossip line. I call it A, T and T. A tail bearer's tail. That's A, T and T. That's, you wanna get something spread, just tell it to a gossip. And it'll get there faster than anything that man has ever devised.

First Timothy 5, 13 says, they also learn to be idle as they go from house to house and not merely idle, but also gossips and busy bodies talking about things that are not proper to mention. And you know, today, how we go from house to house, we do it by phone.

They did it literally and sometimes it's done literally, but today, mostly we do it by phone. And Proverbs 20, 19 says, do not associate with a gossip. There's a Spanish proverb that says that whosoever gossips to you will gossip of you.

Slander as an Attack on Reputation

Now, akin to the juicy tongue of the gossip is the bitter tongue of the slanderer. Now, gossip often reveals a secret that's something that's repeated of somebody hears something, but slander is the calculated, intentional spreading of damaging information intended to bring damage or ruin to a reputation.

And I consider gossip and slander as the twin exhaust pipes of an unholy heart. We have been praying during our pastor's prayer time. Brother Victor has made us aware of a situation in a prison down in Texas.

There is a chaplain there that has been preaching a message like we preach from this pulpit here, a message of righteousness, a message of holiness. Brother Victor is there, he's ministered. His tapes are circulated there.

Brother Dave's tapes are there. And there was a chaplain that has been preaching to the inmates there. And there is a group of them that are walking, have a hunger for God. They're walking in holiness.

They're walking in righteousness. Now they're having severe persecution. And you know where it's coming from. It's not coming from the unsafe. It's coming from the compromising Christians and a compromising chaplain.

And in order to defeat or to get at the message that's being preached, now there is a slanderous remark about that chaplain to ruin his reputation in order to bring attack to the message of righteousness that's going forth in that prison.

And it's one of the major prisons in America today, a very volatile situation. Pray for that situation. But they're trying to attack it by slander. And that's the work of the devil, the work of Satan.

Slander in the Old Testament literally means to blemish or to fault. In Psalms 50 and 19 and 20 says, you let your mouth loose and evil and your tongue flames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother.

You slander your own mother's son. It's interesting that the Old Testament word for foot is the root word for the words translated spy and slander. In other words, some people's feet are quick to run off, to tell some tale and to go about as malicious slanderers as the Bible says.

In 1 Timothy 3, 11, it says women likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips. And it's interesting that that particular translation of malicious gossip, the root word is from the word we get devil. That it's a diabolic thing.

Lying Tongues and the Judgment of God

And it puts you in the category of what Satan, it puts you in the same category as Satan when you are a slanderer. And then there is another abusing tongue and that's the tongue of a liar. And I'm gonna tell you something, the Bible has some very harsh words.

Turn to Proverbs chapter six. Proverbs chapter six, you talk about harsh words. There's probably no harsher words in all of the Bible than that which is spoken about the lying tongue. Proverbs six, verses 16.

It says there are six things that the Lord hates. Yes, seven which are an abomination to him. 17 are haughty eyes. Now that relates to David's message Sunday night. That relates to the face, the look.

And then verse 17, it says a lying tongue. And verse 19, go on down to verse 19. A false witness who utters lies and one who spreads strife among brothers. You see the tongue when not under the control of the spirit of truth is capable of all manner of speech which is deceitful and destructive and deceptive.

The kind of truth that overstates, it understates, it exaggerates, it makes various other statements of mistruths or half-truths or distortions or outright lies. And there are some people who are habitual liars.

It's a way of life with them. And I've known those who lie so easily that they believe it themselves, they fool themselves, and they do not know the difference between truth and a lie, it comes out of them so readily.

And eventually the habitual liar comes under the control of lying spirits right out of the pit of hell. Peter said to Ananias and his wife, he said, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?

And if you continue to lie, you open yourself to be controlled by Satan and by lying spirits. Revelation 21 and eight says, hell is going to be populated with liars, but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Psalms 117 says, no one who practices deceit will dwell in my house. No one who speaks falsehood will stand in my presence. My friend, a lying tongue does not belong in the house of God. It does not belong to the child of God.

Psalms 15, two and three says, the one who enjoys fathership with God, listen, speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander in his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and cast no slur on his fellow men.

The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. And listen, my friends, Jesus is the spirit of truth. When he came, he was announced as the spirit of truth. Hallelujah. And when he dwells in you, the spirit of truth ought to dwell within you as well.

Uncontrolled Temper and the Christian Disposition

It'll sanctify your lips. Praise the Lord. Then let me go on and talk about the uncontrolled temper. Because the tongue is so closely associated with our disposition, it's almost impossible to address the problem of losing one's temper or having anger without seeing it in relationship to the sins of the tongue.

That's why I'm dealing also with a temper. Now, temper is actually a neutral term. The word actually means to bring to a favor a favorable state of mind. It means our disposition, our frame of mind. Now, you can come into a service and not be in the best of temper.

And your disposition, you're just, we say, out of sorts. You could have a negative temper. You could even have a bad temper. Not necessarily to really be angry, but just not be in a good frame of mind.

But hopefully you go out of the service and you're good tempered. You're in a good state of mind. And a good tempered person is one whose normal frame of mind is good natured, composed, peaceful, and unruffled.

And 1 Peter 1, 4, it says that we are to be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the pollution that is in the world by lust. And then it goes on and it says that we are to add certain things to our lives that come out of this divine nature.

And one of the things it says is that we are to add moral excellence to our character. And that also, it also lists temperance or self-control. In other words, the Bible says that the nature of Christ gives you, you are good tempered.

You have a good disposition. You don't fly off the handle. Your spirit, your temperament is brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. Now, there is an unholy anger, which is an uncontrolled temper, which is the ugly fruit of sin and a great hindrance to the cause of Christ.

It was a bad temper that caused Moses, the meekest man, in a fit of anger, in a fit of bad temper. He did something. He spoke evil and he did not have the privilege of entering Canaan's land with God's people after having led them out of Egypt and across the wilderness.

Instead, he ended up buried in a lonely grave on Mount Nebo, all because of a one-time fit of anger. That's how much God wanted to make it an example and saying, brother, that ought not to be. Balaam lost his temper when blind with passion.

He swallowed his ass and thereby proved himself as having less sense than the beast of burden. I've seen the best of saints lose their spiritual influence and lose their credibility to say nothing of the sorrow they caused because they could not control angry words or hasty passions and a temper that dogged their steps.

I've seen unknown men of God, and you would say that he is a man of God, except, except, except for that one area. Proverbs 25 and 28 says, like a city that is broken into without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.

Someone has said of all the bad things with which mankind is cursed, his own bad temper surely are the worst. Oh, how disastrous are the effects of sudden out-of-control anger. Proverbs 14, 17 says, a quick-tempered man does foolish things.

I've seen young people in the church, I've seen them grow up bitter and bitter at their parents, at their father, because of a father's quick temper, a mother's quick temper. I remember giving an illustration here one time.

My son is here back from Bible college. And I told the story of how one Sunday morning I was driving him to church and just very casually I said to him, I said, Todd, I said, why do you like, do you like to go to church?

He said, yes. I said, why do you like to go to church? And he very casually said, because Jesus don't holler at me, because Jesus don't holler at me. And my wife gave me that look. And the Holy Spirit gave me that look.

And my son gave me that message. Something about controlling self-control. Anger is one of those sins that it, if it's not stopped, my friend, it's carried from one generation to another. And you can see young children, you can see them having fits of anger and they grow up and they get married and they have children and their children is carried on from generation to generation.

And I wanna say to you tonight, if you are an angry man or an angry woman, God wants to bring a stop to it, not only for your sake, but for the sake of your children and generations to come. He wants to reach into that situation and put a stop to it.

And he can, praise the Lord. Paul in writing to the church at Ephesus associates, anger is coming from Satan. Ephesians 4, 25 and 26, it says, be angry and do, and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity.

And if ever he gets an opportunity, it is in when you are out of control and you have anger. It goes on, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

My friend, the Holy Spirit is grieved, is offended by our hurtful words and by an uncontrolled spirit. It says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Keeping the Temple Holy

Now, let me close with this and say that the tongue and the temper are two things required to keep our temples holy. First Corinthians chapter six, verses 19 and 20. Listen to it. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own.

For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Now, please follow this for a moment. Follow my thinking. Paul wrote this to warn that the body must not be defiled by sexual immorality.

He used the same illustration to teach that our bodies are not to be defiled in ways with fornication or adultery or homosexuality or whatever it might be. For example, also Christians should not smoke because it brings destruction to the body.

The US Surgeon General, the Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, they've all verified what preachers have been saying for years. Smoking ruins one's health and as Christians, we are not to abuse our bodies, whether it be sexual immorality, whether it be homosexuality, or whether it be cigarette smoking or overeating or undereating or whatever.

We are not to abuse our bodies. But Christians often fail to see that we also defile this temple with an abusive tongue or an uncontrolled temper. And that's why I've titled my message Tongues, Tempers, and Temple.

James says, and the tongue is a fire, verse six. And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue sets among our members as that which defiles the entire body, which is the temple or to be the temple of the Holy Ghost.

And it sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell. My friend, you would not come into the church, at least I don't think you would, and light up a cigarette. You wouldn't come into the church and start a fire.

And the Bible says that if we have a defiled tongue, that we are destroying the temple of the Holy Ghost. A bitter tongue defiles the whole body. A lying tongue sets off an iniquity that affects the entire being, our whole body, mind, soul, and spirit.

Now there are believers who would never, never think of defiling their body by engaging in sexual immorality. They would never think of it. And yet they may engage in gossip and thus defile the body. There are husbands and wives who are faithful to each other in the marriage bed, but they are not faithful to each other in the words and the speech or the temperament with which they treat each other.

And the Lord says that you are to have as much conviction about your tongue as you would if you were practicing sexual immorality. That's the context in which Paul shares all of this. I opened with this scripture.

It says, do you not know that you are a temple of God? And that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are.

Recognizing Anger and Walking by the Spirit

I remember during the first years of my ministry in Teen Challenge with the drug addicts, how they used to test my tongue and my temperament and my sanctification. And you know, the Bible says that Satan, Jesus said, Satan cometh and finding nothing in me.

Well, sometimes Satan cometh and finds something in us. And I found in working, especially with street people, that if they recognize it, they'll push that button and push that button and push that button.

And I had a young man do that to me. One time he said something and I must have reacted and something he said, something he did or said, I didn't like and he said, brother Don, are you angry? And I said, no, I'm not.

No, I'm not angry because you see, you have to understand that at that period in my life, I did not get angry. I was saved. I was filled with the Holy Ghost. I had graduated from Bible school. I was called to the ministry.

I had my minister's license and a person like me did not get angry. Oh, I get righteously indignant, but not angry. And so when I told him I wasn't angry, the worst part of it was that I was sinning twice.

I was lying and I was not recognizing that I was angry. And the Lord had to deal with me. The Lord had to show me that that is defiling the temple of the Holy Ghost. Now what's the solution to the tongue problem or temper problem?

Paul states it clearly. Listen to Galatians 5, 16. He says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. And that was said right after the preceding verse when he said this, but if you bite and devour one another, take care lest ye consume one another.

And then he goes on. He says, but I say, this need not be the conduct. What he's saying, this need not be the conduct of a child of God. If you walk by the Spirit, then you will not carry out the desires of a fleshly tongue or a fleshly temper.

Now I remember when I grew up as a kid in the Pentecostal church and the Pentecostal movement. I used to hear teaching and preaching and I could not understand why in my dad's church, they believed and rightly so, they believed it was wrong to smoke.

They believed it was wrong to go to movies. They believed it was wrong to wear pants in church on Sunday. They preached against makeup. They preached against participating in certain sports, but they did believe in backbiting.

They did believe in gossip and slander and anger, which some justified, as I said, as righteous indignation. But if we're going to keep our eyes pure, my friend, we have to also keep our ears pure and we have to keep our tongues pure and walk, as Paul said, by the Spirit.

And Galatians 5, Paul lists the deeds of the flesh. And among those deeds, he includes the biggies, such as immorality and impurity and sensuality. But then also he includes the fleshly sins of strife and anger and disputes and dissensions and factions, all of which are committed with the help of an unholy tongue.

And he says, those who practice such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And I don't know about you, but that strikes the fear of God in my heart. And then Paul ends up. He does not give us a warning without also giving the answer and he goes on and he says, but the Spirit of God is this.

He said, the fruit of the Spirit is this. The fruit of the Spirit, and incidentally, that word is fruit, not fruits, it's singular. So you can't just pick out one and say, well, I've got this, but I'm still working on that.

It's singular. It says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with his passions and its desires.

Oh, my friend, let's crucify that part of our flesh as well. And as I said, I don't believe that there is a breakout. If it's happening here, thank God I'm not aware of it. And I'm preaching it not because there's an outbreak of gossip.

I'm preaching it so it won't happen, hallelujah. I wanna douse it before it begins. And we wanna walk in holiness, and we wanna lay our tongues on the altar, if we have to, praise the Lord, as well as our tempers, so that the Holy Spirit can bring them under his control.

Steve, would you come? Let's bow in a word of prayer. Servant coming out to reach him, and he walks back to the camp. And I can see the wives and children coming out to meet him and saying, oh, Jacob, oh, Jacob, what has happened to you?

And he says, no, he said, I'm healed, I'm healed, I'm healed. And they grab him and said, oh, Jacob, he said, please.