Taming the Untameable Tongue: Part 4

Redeeming Grace Church

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I'd like to speak to you about taming the tongue, its propensity to corrupt, its propensity to corrupt.

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And I like Brother Keysi's idea here on the orders of worship.

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If you notice, it's a small fire that kindles such a large flame as well.

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A small flame can kindle a large flame and then do so much destruction.

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It's real good thinking. I don't know how you got that picture, but I love that, Brother Keith. Thank you for your time and putting together the orders of worship there, but I really like that picture.

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That gets my attention, is that picture, and that says it all, doesn't it? If you look at that picture, it's just one small flame kindles a large destructive flame, and that's what the tongue is.

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It's a small member that can do so much damage. Well, there's nothing more greater than we can see in the

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Scriptures what is said about the tongue than what the Holy Spirit tells us.

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Theologians can write books about it, but the greatest teacher is the

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Holy Spirit. And out of all the chapters in the

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Word of God, James does a comprehensive in -depth study on the tongue, the control of the tongue.

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So, look with me to chapter 3, and I'm going to read verses 1 -12, but we're going to zero in on verse 5 and 6 this morning.

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So here are the words of the living God. This morning I'm reading from the old King James to kind of give you a different perspective of translation.

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Whatever translation you're using this morning, whether it's the new King James to ESV, the

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New American Standard, it's all pretty much the same message. The words are very closely related, so it says the same thing, it's just in a different translation.

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So here are the words of the living God. I'm reading from the old King James. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

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For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

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Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.

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Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small hem, whithersoever the governor listeneth.

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Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.

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Again the word, behold, how great a manner a little fire kindleth.

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And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

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For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.

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But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

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Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the stupiditude of God.

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And out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

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Doeth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine, figs?

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So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

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Let us go to the Lord in prayer this morning, as we look to our God once again, and this time we'll be praying specifically,

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Lord, help us hear, help us give us ears to hear what the

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Spirit has to say to the church. Let's pray. Our Father, as your word always goes forth, it does not return unto you void.

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We are reminded once again, Father, that your word, your word is spirit and life.

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Father, your word is a sharp two -edged sword. That means it cuts two ways.

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It cuts, it has a two -edged sword to it. It's so sharp. It's razor sharp. And Father, help us to see, as these words are spoken to us today, that it is always in your great love to reprove, to rebuke, and to exhort with all longsuffering.

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Father, we need your Holy Spirit within this hour to help us, to give us ears to hear what your

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Holy Spirit says to the church, to the brethren, to the sisters here among us at Redeeming Grace Church.

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But Lord, as this letter was written years ago, it was to your people.

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It was for the good of your people. And help us to remember, Father, it's for the good of us today.

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It's for the good of our souls that we are reminded of such hard truths.

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Father, we see so many hard truths in your word. And Lord, we know it cuts us to the core.

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But Lord, there's great healing too. There's a great balm in Gilead. It's always for the good of our soul.

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Our flesh may want to run from it, but the flesh is vain.

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The flesh is all worthless. The flesh is not reliable.

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There's death in flesh. But Father, in the Spirit of God, in life, your word is life.

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There's healing. So Father, we look to you now to help us within this hour.

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And may your Holy Spirit be the true teacher as to apply your great word to our hearts.

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And may Jesus Christ be glorified in all that is said. In His name

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I pray, Amen. But before our text here, we have a very strong, strong word from the

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Apostle James. And as I was studying, I find myself cut to the core even more.

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Notice in verse 5, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.

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Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.

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A little fire kindleth. And then he says the tongue is a fire. He gets to the point.

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He tells us what that fire is. It's the tongue. And then he gives very pointed graphic definition to it.

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A world of iniquity. So is the tongue among of our members, that it defileth the whole body.

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And then he says something so strong. And it setteth on fire of the course of nature.

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And it is set on fire of hell itself. Now notice the

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Apostle James, his next point here, he focuses on the tongue's tremendous potential to corrupt and to destroy.

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And it has great power to do that. Because what, as Jesus says, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.

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And that's really the problem. Whereas the tongue's power to control is neutral, being capable of working either for the good or for the ill or evil, as we looked at.

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But his emphasis is entirely negative here. And there's a reason why it's negative.

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No specific problem areas are mentioned. But since the tongue is able to talk about any conceivable issue, it is able to talk about any conceivable issue, which it has the power to corrupt every conceivable way, every conceivable issue, whatever subject it speaks of, it gives damage and perverts.

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It's like there's a bondage to it. That's why he says, no man contained it.

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No man contained, none of us contained the tongue, no more than a wild horse contained itself.

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In verse 5, he says this, and we left there last week, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things.

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Notice the word boast, the pride, the pride of life.

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It's all of the world but passes away. Where the design in the text that's before us, the apostle is to illustrate the power and the influence of the tongue.

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He gives very practical illustrations, doesn't he? This may be done in great many respects, and the apostle

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James does it by referring to its boasting, also to the effects which it produces, and then also he brings out the illustration that resembles that of fire.

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Now we're going to talk about fire. I'd like for you to notice one thing here, that he uses the word behold many times.

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Notice this word. In verse 3, he says, behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths.

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Notice verse 4, behold also the ships. And then in verse 5, after he speaks, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things, and then he says that word again, behold, behold, how great a matter a little fire kindled.

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Now, remember this, every word of God is pure. Every single word is critical.

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And I want to show you how critical this is. I went looking at this word behold, and I looked it up in my

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Greek and Hebrew word study Bible. This is what it says.

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Although the verb idion literally means to see.

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That's what behold means, to see. The imperative mood and middle voice used is idio.

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Idio, I'm probably not pronouncing that right. Almost gives it the force of a command.

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Now what does that tell us? Consequently, this is a form that's often rendered behold, but it means more than, as I said, to see.

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It does mean to see, but it also gives the force of a command. So when you hear the word behold, it's commanding, especially in a dramatic narrative.

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In order to call special, what it means is it's calling special attention to what is about to be said, or about to happen.

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You see, notice that in verse 3, behold. It's a command word.

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It means to see it, but in other words, what he's saying, pay special attention to this.

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That's what he's saying. We put bits in the horse's mouths. He gives the illustration that they may obey us, and we turn about the whole body.

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He's got something very, very important to say here. Pay very close attention to it.

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Now I want you to notice this, and every time in the word of God, when that word behold is mentioned, something very important is about to be said.

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It's a command. It's a word that we better pay close attention to. In other words, cut your ears on to listen.

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Examples of this is Matthew 1 .20. While he, speaking of Joseph, he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the

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Lord appeared unto him in a dream. And in verse 23, behold, a virgin shall be with a child and shall bring forth a son.

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That's pretty important, isn't it? Matthew 25 .6. And at midnight,

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Jesus speaking, there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh.

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Go ye out to meet him. There's another one we're all familiar with, but notice the announcement that John the

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Baptist makes. John 1 .29. The next day, John saw

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Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 4 .35.

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Notice the important command word here. Jesus says, say not ye that there are yet four months and then cometh harvest.

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Behold, there it is. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for there are white already to harvest.

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And there's a lot of them in Revelation. I wrote them down. Revelation 1 .7.

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Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

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Even so, amen. Jesus himself says in Revelation 1 .18,

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I am he that liveth and was dead and behold. Notice that word, behold.

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I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and death.

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Revelation 22 .7. Behold, I come quickly.

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Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Verse 12 of chapter 22.

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And behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his worth shall be.

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So notice the point that James is making, the idea of this word behold.

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Pay close attention. What is he saying?

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Behold, how great a matter, a little fire kindles. You see how important that word is?

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It's a command word. Behold, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

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So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body and set it on fire, the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.

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So James is therefore here calling attention to great destructive power of hateful, false, heretical, gossiping, slanderous words, careless words, as Jesus spoke of, like commercials produced by forestry services.

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Today, he calls attention to a well -known truism here that a great matter, a little fire kindles.

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Or as the New American Standard says, a great forest can be set aflame by a small fire.

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Think of it as this picture as Brother Keith has so wonderfully put together on the orders of worship.

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The smallest match or the smallest spark can grow into such a large destructive force of fire can grow and literally just destroy thousands of acres of forest, killing countless animals, killing countless people, destroying human lives and property by the scores, all because of one spark.

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That's how the tongue is. There is such an abundance of sin in the tongue that it may be called, as he said, a world of iniquity.

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And how many defilements does it work? Many. How many in dreadful flames does it kindle?

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Oh my, it's so destructive. So is the tongue among the members that it defiles the whole entire body.

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Such a small member, such a deadly, deadly thing is the tongue.

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Fire. Now, let's look at this fire here. Fire has the amazing, virtually unique capacity to reproduce itself in almost unlimited ways as long as it has the fuel to burn it.

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Like the vast majority of things, water, really, water cannot multiply in a sense.

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When it is poured out, no matter where or on what, it never expands into a flood.

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It's just there. It has tremendous force to it, but it really doesn't have the expansion.

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But fire feeds on itself. Think of that if you look at fire versus water.

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So if there is a significant flammable material and enough oxygen to supply and sustain this combustion, it will burn on indefinitely, won't it?

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And you know that. Put oxygen to it, and to sustain the combustion, the fire will literally grow and expand.

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James 3, 5, Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Behold, behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.

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In the Old Testament, Job, you know, the more I look at these references on the tongue,

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I keep looking, more and more keeps coming up. I'm thankful I made this into a six -part series because there's no way you could get this all in one sermon.

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If someone does it, it's amazing. James 3, 5, according to what

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James 3, 5, Job, listen to this, Job 15, 5. Job, one of the oldest books in the

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Bible. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity. Now, think of that.

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Thy mouth utters thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

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And then we have Psalms 12, 3. The Lord shall cut off all the flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things shall be cut off.

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Give an illustration here. On October 8th in 1871, about 8 .30

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in the evening, this is another true story I'd like to give, a little bit shorter than the last one last week, but a lantern in Mrs.

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O 'Leary's barn presumably kicked over by her cow.

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Anybody heard this story? Ignited the great Chicago fire. Kicked over by a cow.

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Before it could be contained, this fire contained, listen to this, and this is saying something in 1871.

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Before it could be contained, 17 ,500 buildings were destroyed. 300 people died in the

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Chicago fire, and 125 ,000 others were left homeless.

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It cost the city over, and this was a lot back then, it cost the city of Chicago over $400 million.

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In 1903, another illustration, a pan of rice boiled over into a fire, spreading coals across the room and started a blaze that eventually consumed a square mile of a

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Korean city, burning some 3 ,000 buildings to the ground.

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Some good illustrations there, true stories. It all started from something small.

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So the writer of Proverbs observes that the heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

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How close we should guard and put a muzzle over our tongue.

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He says this also, that a worthless man digs up evil while his words are as a scorching fire.

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That's found in Proverbs 16, 27. Worthless man digs up evil while his words are like a scorching fire.

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And that, like charcoal to a hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

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That's Proverbs 26, 21. Solomon also observes that he notes that in Proverbs 26, 20, one verse back, for lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there's no whisperer, that means gossiper or slanderer, contentions quiets down.

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What does that tell us about the tongue? It says a lot, doesn't it? Like a fire, like a fire, the tongue can heat things up, so to speak.

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King David wrote in Psalm 39, 1 and 3, and I've mentioned this already several times, but I think it's worthy of us to look at these words and ponder them and take them to our heart.

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I said I will take ye to my ways that I sin not with my tongue.

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My heart was not within me while I was musing the fire burned.

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Then spake I with my tongue, speaking without thinking.

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How many of us has done that? I raised both hands. How can we tame this tongue?

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It's like you do everything you can to watch it, but still it happens.

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Of course, we all have, haven't we? Tozer mentioned about a hot head and a hot heart can lead to burning words that later we regret.

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And I like what he says. Let's have a cool head and a hot heart rather than a hot head and a cold heart.

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David had a temper. You look in Scriptures. David had a temper. He had a hard time with his temper.

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He had to ask God's help in controlling it. No wonder

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Solomon wrote in Proverbs 17, 27, He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

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David lamented over his sins and said this, My soul is among lions.

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I must lie among those who breathe forth fire. Like a fire -breathing dragon in a sense.

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And then he says this, Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows are like the tongue of a sharp sword.

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Psalm 57, 4. Isn't it amazing how many verses of Scriptures that God has preserved for us and a lot of it speaks about the evil of the tongue.

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Because of our iniquity and our heart of evil boasting men, he wrote.

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Your tongue devises destruction. This is Psalm 52, verses 2 -4.

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You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking what is right. You love all words that devour,

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O deceitful tongue. He pinpoints it. The tongue.

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And we know what Jesus, Jesus being God in the flesh, took it a level more.

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As bad as the tongue is, but it reveals what's coming from the heart. So it's who we are.

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Job asked Bildad, one of his so -called comforters, How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

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Job 19, 2. As the fire spreads, fire destroys.

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We've got to keep that before us, folks. And the words we speak have the power to destroy.

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As the Scripture says in Proverbs 18, 21, I said it last week, I'm going to say it again.

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Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

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But you think of this, for every word in Hitler's book of Mann Kampf, 125 lives were lost in World War II.

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Our own words may not have caused wars or wrecked cities, but they can break hearts, can't they?

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And they can ruin reputations if we're not wise in what we watch and what we say.

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Proverbs 12, 18, There is that that speaketh like the piercings of a sword.

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And then he says this, But the tongue of the wise is health. Another illustration here.

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Some years ago, a man by the name of Morgan Blake, a sports writer for the Atlanta Journal, wrote the following satire, and this is what he said, and it's so true.

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And by the way, this came from the book of Faith That Works. It was George Sweeting's book he wrote,

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Moody Press in 1983, page 76 and 77. This is what he said.

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A journalist can tell you something. Listen to what he says.

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I am more deadly than the screaming shell from a howitzer tank.

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I win without killing. I tear down homes. I break hearts.

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I wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me.

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No purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless.

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My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and often as innocent.

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I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is

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Gossip. Ouch. That's an old me, isn't it?

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The tongue has such power to hurt. Well, in James, verse 6, the apostle

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James gives us what is doubtless one of the strongest statements in Scripture on the danger of the tongue.

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And this is what he said. I'm going to say it again. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

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So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell.

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Now, using the figure of fire, this is overwhelming. This is an overwhelming declaration that presents four major elements of the tongue's danger.

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And I want to give you basically four elements. And you can write this down. I think it will take you far in what we see here.

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And I will try not to spend too much time on it because I kind of dug in on my introduction a great deal.

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But notice here, number one, these four elements are the tongue's danger.

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First, it is the very world of iniquity, James says. It is the very world of iniquity.

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This word world does not here refer to the earth or the universe, but rather to a system, a scheme, an arrangement.

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In this case, it is a system of iniquity. That's what he's talking about. It's not talking about the world itself as cosmos.

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It is a system of iniquity, a world of iniquity, a evil, a rebellion, a lawlessness, and every other form of sin that it speaks of.

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It is the very source of unrighteousness, ungodly behavior within sinful man.

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John MacArthur in his commentary actually says, it breeds and it gives vent to every sort of sinful passion and desire.

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One commentator describes it as the microcosm of evil amongst our members.

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It is a vile, wretched, wicked scheme of fleshly humanness, and no other bodily part has such far -reaching potential for disaster and destruction as the tongue.

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It is a very world of iniquity. Second, let's look at this.

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It is an evil. An evil tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the whole entire body.

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Let me say that again. I just took these from Scriptures because Scripture says it. An evil tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the whole entire body.

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Think of that. Let's look at that for a second. Okay, if the system of evil spreads out and contaminates the rest of the body, the whole body is corrupted.

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And to modify the metaphor somewhat, the destructiveness of the tongue is like smoke that penetrates and permanently contaminates.

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So everything that is exposed to it, whatever fire itself cannot destroy, the smoke will permeate and ruin it.

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Think about that because out from the fire comes the smoke. Smoke can be fire's biggest threat.

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And by the way, most people die before the flames get to them of suffocation because of the smoke.

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It's caused by the fire. Most people who perish, like I said, in fires are choked and suffocated by the smoke way before the fire gets to them.

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So in a similar way, I mentioned that, the tongue can stain and damage and can even choke what they do not entirely consume.

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A filthy and defiled tongue can stain and choke the whole entire person.

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It can ruin your life, folks. It can ruin it. I'm telling you.

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And once it's said, you ask for forgiveness, but it's said. And I do believe there is forgiveness.

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There is hope there, but what I'm saying is it's already been said and the damage has already been done.

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And then a lot of people say, well, there's a problem with trust. And you know what I'm talking about.

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I know people like this and you know people like this that's come to us and once they've said something, you know it's come from their heart and we have a hard time trusting them.

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We can forgive them, but the damage is already done and we've done the same thing. Well, Jesus said it in Mark 7, and this is powerful here.

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This is the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark 7, verses 20 -23, that which proceeds out of the man, that which defiles the man.

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From within, out of the heart of men, now notice

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Jesus gives a comprehensive list here. He says, what comes out of the heart, proceeds evil thoughts.

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That knocks every one of us out. How many times have we had evil thoughts? It comes out of our heart.

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Fornication comes out of our heart. Thefts comes out of our heart. Murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

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Jesus said this, all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.

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Oh, the depravity of the heart. How deceitful, desperately wicked.

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No wonder God tells us, He puts a piercing point to it, and this is what we've got to deal with.

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And He has solutions to it. Aren't you glad? Third, let's go to the third point.

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The evil tongue sets on fire the course of nature itself. The word nature means life.

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The evil tongue sets on fire the course of life. Like the physical fire, the destructive effects of evil speech can expand, not only contaminating ourselves, but also everything that we influence through the course of our life.

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I wonder why James puts all this emphasis in God by the

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Holy Spirit in 12 verses in most of this chapter, that we would pay close attention,

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I don't know. And then directly after this, he talks about true wisdom coming from God, how we need wisdom.

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And we're going to be looking at that in verses 13 through 18, the rest of the chapter. And then he talks about what is a wise man.

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He endures with knowledge among you. Let him show out of a good conversation his life, in other words, his works, with meekness and wisdom.

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And we're going to look at that. Don't we so desperately need heavenly wisdom from God and how to deal with this tongue?

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You know, to a large extent, we're known by the way we talk, aren't we? Over the long haul, really, what we say gives others a pretty good idea of who we are and what we really are.

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The principle applies to every good thing as well as sinful things. But James' emphasis is entirely on the negative.

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And he's not doing it to be harsh or mean. Actually, I believe it's the most loving thing he can do for us. You know, in this world in which we live today, even in the churches, evangelical churches, so -called, you know, you preach something like this, and you preach about what is said about hell, about the tongue, about iniquity, people do not detune you out.

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You're mean. You're a Pharisee. You're condemning me. But beloved,

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I'm telling you what, the most loving person is a person who tells you the truth and warns us, and God is so loving.

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He says, this is what the tongue is. This is what the truth is. And I tell you what,

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I find myself on my face after I read these first 12 verses. I said, Lord, cut me up.

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I need to be cut. In order to be healed, I need to see my sin.

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You know, think of it. The principle applies to the good things as well as the sinful. And he's speaking of the sinful things.

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And he talks about, you know, you can break this down, and we can have a series of sermons on each one of these things.

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Think about gossip. Just gossip itself. What about slander? What about falsehood?

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False accusations? What about lying? How much lying is going on in this world today?

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Filthy language! He talks about that. Telling stories.

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People call it white lies. White lies, there's no such thing really as a white lie. A lie is a lie. Other sins of the tongue can destroy individual lives, and you know this as well.

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Families, schools, churches, communities. It's tragic. Well, the fourth thing is, very quickly, most horribly, the most horribly, the sinful tongue is set on fire of hell.

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I just took this from Scripture. It's set on fire from hell. Think of that.

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Tongue has the power of hell fire? The present active form of the verb here in the

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Greek means is set on fire. Indicates a continuing state.

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That's the original Greek. It's a continuing state of setting on fire.

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The idea is reinforced by the term that James uses for hell. And you know what he's referring to?

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Jesus spoke about it. And you know, by the way, Jesus, when He spoke about Gehenna, fire,

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Jesus took opportunities like no one else could. They call it in the

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Scriptures, the Valley of Hinnom. The Valley of Hinnom. This was a deep, deep gorge that was southwest of Jerusalem where trash and garbage and even bodies of dead animals and executed criminals were dumped.

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And as Jesus took this opportunity to speak about fire in the

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Valley of Hinnom, by the way, the combustion from the dead bodies, you've seen it, of animals that's dead on the side of the road, the sun gets to them and the heat hits them and they swell.

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And you know, there's a combustion that comes within and then literally it explodes with fire.

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That's what he's talking about. That kind of fire. This was a location that had originally been used, and I didn't know this, but I wrote this down from a study on this, used by Canaanite and even some

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Israelite worshippers that sacrificed their children as burnt offerings to the pagan god

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Molech. And when the heinous practice was permanently halted by the godly

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King Josiah and Judah, and you can read this in 2 Kings 23 .10, the place of Hinnom was considered to be unclean, wholly unfit for any decent usage.

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Now, I want you to think about this. This is what's in James' mind when he's talking about hellfire.

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If, therefore, it came to be used as a garbage dump, we all, where all the filth of the city of Jerusalem, surrounding areas, was taken to be burned, because the fire burned all the time, there was maggots, there was stench, always was present, and the

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Lord Jesus used Gehenna to represent the eternal, never -ending torment of hell itself.

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And folks, hell is far worse than that. That was a physical illustration. But Jesus would take a physical illustration that people would see, and then

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He would tell them the truth about it, of the eternal truth. The unquenchable fire,

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Jesus said in Mark 9 .43 -44, Isaiah 66 .24

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says too, in Matthew 5 .22, the unquenchable fire where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

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It's never quenched. It's eternal. It's an eternal burning.

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I always wondered about that. We know that Scripture says that God at first, hell was intended for Satan and his angels, fallen angels.

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And God has no pleasure for the death of the wicked. But I think, Lord, why?

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I think this time, why fire? Why fire? And you ever think about a person's unrepentant sin throughout eternity?

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A fire purifies, a fire cleanses, but it's almost like the sin is never cleansed.

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A person takes that sin with their soul right into the depths of eternal hell itself and is never extinguished.

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How awful sin is. You know, people take light of sin, but I'm telling you, sin is the most serious thing.

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And you see how God, through all the pages of this Scripture, has dealt with sin. And most of all,

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He dealt with it by sending His own Son on a cross that nailed Him there. Your sin, my sin, that nailed

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Jesus on that cross. How serious it is. And the sin of the tongue, how serious it is.

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Hell is Satan's place, prepared for him and his demons, Jesus said it. But, as such it is used here, the valley of Hinnom is a synonym for Satan and the demons as well.

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That it's said to be set on fire of hell indicates that tongue can be Satan's tool.

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You ever thought of that? It's not only the depravity, but Satan uses it.

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The devil uses it to destroy, to hurt, to tear apart, to damage, fulfilling hell's purposes to pollute, to corrupt, to destroy.

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And you know something, we're part of God's kingdom. And that's why it's so important that our tongues and our hearts be cleansed, that we speak things holy and right and pure, something edifying.

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Yes, truthful, but even say the truth must be done in love. Speak the truth in love.

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Look at 1 Corinthians 13. You could clatter tongues like a gong, but if we don't have love, it's what?

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Nothing. It's unbelievable dangerous and destructive, isn't it?

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The tongue is a fire, defiles a world of iniquity, set on fire of hell. And using another death and destruction, the psalmist says this of those who misuse their tongues in Psalm 55 -21.

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His speech was smoother than butter. Listen to this. But his heart was war.

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His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

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Psalm 40 -64 -3. Behold. There's that word behold again. Pay close attention.

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It's almost like a silo word, isn't it? They belch forth with their mouth. Well, that's very graphic, isn't it?

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They belch forth with their mouth. Swords are in their lips. And as those who have sharpened their tongue like a sword, they aim their bitter speech as their arrow, like an arrow.

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So even mature believers know that in the remaining fleshly humanness, as we well all know, sisters and brothers, our tongues still have a great power to devastate, therefore need constant guarding and control.

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Ecclesiastes 5 -6 says this. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.

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Neither say thou before the angel that it was error. Therefore should

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God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands.

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That's a sobering thing. That's sobering words, isn't it? Well, that's pretty much what

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I've got to say. I've tried my best to go into the Scriptures and what God has to say, to the

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Proverbs and to Psalms and to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and drawn upon what

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James is talking about, about a fire. And we looked at this one thing. But I tell you what, this cuts me.

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This cuts me. And I'm thinking, Lord, how can I bring an application to this?

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How can I give a closure to this? How can I give a conclusion to this? What do we do with it?

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How do we deal with this world of iniquity, this one little member that's set on fire from hell?

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I think, Lord, what about a cleansing?

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This is what comes to my mind. What do you do with the tongue? What do you do with the heart? And I've already gone there.

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I mentioned a little bit about 1 Corinthians 13. The heart must be filled with love.

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And the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But we are redeemed, right?

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And we need to be sanctified. We've already been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but what about this ongoing sanctification?

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I don't know about you, I need it. And that's why I love the Word of God, don't you? Sanctify me.

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Lord, pierce me. Cut me. I need this. But Lord, I need in the end, I need some healing. And God knows that.

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Aren't you glad that God as our Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit has given this wonderful Word to us to tell us the truth about our true condition?

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And I'm telling you, I don't know about you, you tell people the truth, they don't want to hear it unless they want

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God. Now, if they're hungry for God and hungry for truth, they'll take it.

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They'll receive it. Even if it's a rebuke. Faithful to the wounds of a friend.

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Well, all I can say in this closure, I'm thinking, how do we deal with the tongue and its deadliness, its poison, its world of iniquity, its fire?

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We've got to be sanctified. And Jesus is our sanctification.

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Jesus Himself is our sanctification. But how do we know? We've got the living Word. He's the living Word, but it takes the written

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Word to take us to the living Word. This Bible is all about Jesus. Amen. So we always look to the

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Word of God, right? For cleansing. For help in controlling the tongue.

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And I say how, there's a sense last week I mentioned about the help of the Holy Spirit. And we do need the help of the

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Holy Spirit. But there's also a part that we must do as well. God's not going to come down like repentance.

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He can grant repentance, but we must do the repenting. The sanctifying of our hearts.

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We must do the separating. We must, by wisdom, will not to do that, which is evil.

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Discipline, self -control. And by the way, there is a grace to that, right? Because we can't do it in our own power.

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Like I mentioned, it's not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. But as I was thinking about this,

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Lord, where do I end with this? Go with me to Isaiah 6. I always find myself going back to Isaiah 6.

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And didn't we sing it this morning? Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And we come before the holiness of God and His majesty and His purity.

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And we know that God Himself is the standard. He is the standard.

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His holiness is the standard. And we all fall short of this. You and I have read this many times and we've heard many messages from this, but we cannot get enough of this.

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And the year King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

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God is high and lifted up. His train filled the temple. We see majesty. We see a King in all of His glory.

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And above it, the seraphims, burning ones, each one had six wings.

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With twain, He covered His face. With twain, He covered His feet. With twain, He did fly. It's an incredible sight.

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And all these wings that covered their eyes. Two of them, they're flying and hovering above.

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These burning ones. Burning ones above the thrice holy God.

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God created these creatures only to praise Him for all eternity.

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And think of this. And then twice, they covered their feet. A sign of submission.

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Above it, the seraphims, they had the six wings. And verse 3, and one cried unto another.

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This is what their cry was. And they said, Holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies. The whole earth is full of His glory. The glory of God.

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That's what we've fallen short of, beloved. And the post of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried.

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And the house was filled with smoke. This is the glory of God. When God speaks, notice the door was literally shaking.

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The gates of the door of the house of the throne of God there was shaking.

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And this is a holy prophet. Keep in mind, this holy prophet Isaiah spoke God's word and then what did he say?

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Woe is me. Then I said, woe is me. He pronounces a curse upon himself for I am undone.

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I like the old King James translation there. Some says I'm ruined. Some says

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I'm lost. I think undone says it. Why? Because I'm a man of unclean lips.

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Now there it is right there. This man sees this holy prophet and I'm telling you, if you read through the book of Isaiah, you know what kind of man

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Isaiah was. He was a holy prophet of God chosen to suffer affliction to speak for God to Israel and concerning Israel's sins.

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But right here, this holy man of God cries out, I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips.

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Notice, he didn't first say Israel was full of uncleanness. I am. Because he saw the holiness of God and he focuses.

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This was Isaiah. I am a man of unclean lips.

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And yet this man spoke righteous words to the people of Israel, a man of God, and yet when he sees

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God, I'm a man of unclean lips. And first he pronounced the curse upon himself.

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And then he says, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. But first it was his own sin, right?

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And then he says, For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now this is where I'm taking you.

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Verse 6, Then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand.

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That live coal is the only thing that's going to give healing. Now all this is a picture of repentance.

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Now notice this. Which he had taken from the tongues from off the altar. Tongues, of course, touching that live hot coal was too hot to handle.

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Now here we go, we've got a different kind of fire here. We've got the fire from the altar of God. But fire has a cleansing element to it, doesn't it?

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It purges. It purifies it. I don't know about you. When I get blisters, a lot of times you've done this.

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To get the infection out of the blister, you take a needle and then you heat it.

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And you and I know this, that heat purifies it. I know Teresa said don't be too graphic there,

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I promise I won't. But that pin, that needle, it purifies it until it glows red hot.

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Now think about this. Now you keep your finger away from that, you're going to get burned pretty bad. Think about how hot this coal was off the altar of God.

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And what does he do in verse 7? And as he laid it upon what? My mouth. That's where we need to take this live coal, don't we?

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Painful repentance. Put it upon our mouth, the sin of our iniquity. And then he says it's low, this hath touched thy lips.

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We need the touch of God's fire from the altar to purify our sinfulness, to cleanse it.

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That's repentance. This is a message of repentance. Painful repentance brings healing.

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This is what's happening. And thine iniquity, notice what he says, and thine iniquity is what?

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Taken away. In other words, that hot coal purifies it.

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This is what we need, beloved. It's the remedy for our sin. It's the remedy for our tongue, sense.

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And I heard R .C. Sproul, I can just hear him now when he was teaching about it. He taught about this and he said, this is

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Isaiah the prophet, and he said you can almost see this, picture it, as he takes this hot coal in the tongue and he's holding that hot coal, and where does he touch?

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The mouth. And he said you can almost hear the flesh sizzling and singeing and smelling it, and the most sensitive part of the body, urged.

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Notice this, thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged.

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I believe that's the only way that we can have our sin purged. And where do we go for this?

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Calvary's cross. Jesus, where that precious blood came down, the blood and the fire.

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Blood and the fire. Blood and the fire. I'm telling you what, redeeming grace church believes in blood and fire.

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And then you know, look what happened. Verse 8. Also I heard the voice of the

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Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Now he's ready. He's commissioned. And he said, who will go for us?

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There's the Trinity. And then said I. Oh, I'm ready. I. Here am

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I. Send me. And he said, go and tell this people. Hear indeed, but understand not.

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They're not going to understand what you've got to say because of the words of God. They're going to turn a deaf ear against it, but still preach it.

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And then he says, see indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy.

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Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart.

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And convert and be healed. Remember what Jesus preached?

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He came for the brokenhearted. The gospel has the power to pierce into the worst of sins, but yet it gives that truth.

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It says this is what I need. And I don't know about you, when I first heard, when I first came to God and my uncle warned me about hell,

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I thought, I don't want to hear this. I'm a good person. And then he told me, and it's almost like he read my mind.

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He said, you know, good people go to hell too. And I thought, what? Good people? And then he started giving me

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Scripture. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I said, all?

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All. Nobody's good. No, not one. And you know what the Scripture's saying.

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He gave me Scripture. And by the way, when he was telling me about hell, he had a huge, he was very wise in doing this, huge mountain of tires.

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And I kid you not, when I was in the presence of that, I was like standing from here, like far away, and I could feel the heat from off the flames.

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And then he told me, hell's hotter than this. And I thought, you got me thinking. You had me thinking.

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I needed a Savior. I needed some help. Because I knew right then,

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I had broken God's law, and I had fallen short of the glory of God. And I knew I was on my way to hell. And I ran toward truth.

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Amen? That's what we do. We run toward truth. Well, may God help us run toward the truth and be cleansed and healed.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank You so much this morning. What a strong word this is to all of us,

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Lord. But Lord, I think the stronger the word, how great

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Your love is, how much You love Your church. Father, it's the false teachers that's out there telling people what they want to hear.

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Itching ears, people desiring to have their flesh pampered, to hear a soft peddling message.

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But Father, we're so thankful that Your Word cuts, it warns, it reproves, it rebukes all to bring healing to our soul.

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Now, Father, do this in our hearts today. Do it in our hearts so our tongues will be pure and speak the good things of God, the blessings.

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Father, may it help us, save us from cursing and blessing at the same time. Save us from these things.

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Save us from ourselves. Purify us as what Isaiah said, the hot coal from off the altar of God.

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Lord, we need Your touch this morning. We need the fiery touch as our

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God is like a consuming fire. Lord, purify us today through the blood of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And may we be cleansed by that precious blood that flows from Calvary's mountain.

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Father, nothing else is going to matter when our last breath is drawn that we're cleansed by the blood of Jesus and our faith is holy on Jesus Himself, His works,

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His righteousness, and all that He's done for us. And we can say we've been redeemed, we've been justified, we've been sanctified, cleansed in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we just do thank You for this time of worship. Thank You that we can go to Your Word even though it's strong, strong truth, but the good medicine here of Your Word brings healing to our soul.

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So Father, we ask, do it unto us, Lord. Do it unto us. Cleanse us for Your glory and for Jesus' sake, in His name