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Well, this morning we continue on as we make our way down from the head toward the heart.
It will be next week. Before we make our way into the torso, we're going to be looking at the mouth.
The mouth is our focus in the series on the whole body. Again, the idea here is what we've been pulling out of Ephesians 4, the idea that we are all individually members of one another, individually members of one body, and we are to grow up into all things.
Into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working, by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
And so we began with an introduction and the head, and then worked our way down to the eyes, the ears, last week was the nose, and this morning it's the mouth.
And a lot I want to cover, and of course we'll have an opportunity not this evening, but next
Sunday evening to discuss these things more practically in a circle. There's a lot
I want to cover, and hopefully that'll be grist for the mill next week. And we're going to boil that all down into two parts, very straightforward, very simple.
We're going to look at the unrighteous mouth, and then in contrast, the righteous mouth. The way that we ought not use our mouths, and the way that our mouths ought to be.
And so we're just going to, I have sort of Ephesians 4, 17 through 32 as sort of a banner. We'll get there in a moment, but I just want to start galloping through some aspects of the unrighteous mouth.
We'll begin here in Proverbs 12, verse 18. Proverbs, of course, has a lot to say about the mouth.
Not only the sins of the mouth, but the needs to hear the words of the wise mouth. My son, hear my words.
My son, listen to my voice. So we have even there a contrast between the righteous mouth and the mouth of folly, the mouth of strife.
But here, beginning in Proverbs 12, verse 18. He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit.
There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.
Now again, this idea of a whole body, that idea of whole, we said also means something complete, mature.
It could also mean sound or healthy. And notice here, the tongue of the wise promotes health.
It promotes soundness. It promotes shalom, wholeness, peace.
And that's over against the one who speaks like a piercing of a sword.
And please notice that. It's not the swinging, the wild swinging of a sword. It's the piercing of a sword.
I don't know if any of you are World War II buffs like myself, but if you've ever seen the movie
Saving Private Ryan, there's this rather harrowing scene where this rather scrawny private, private mellish is wrestling with a
German soldier. Happens to be the very German soldier that he let loose earlier in the movie. And as they're wrestling, he somehow has his bayonet turned against him.
And it's a very uncomfortable scene to watch because he's pinned against the ground and the German soldier is over him and he's turned his knife against him and he's slowly pushing it toward his sternum.
And if you're sitting there in a theater, you can't eat popcorn and you're kind of squirming in your seat as you're watching that bayonet get closer and closer and closer until it finally presses in.
That's the piercing. Not the swinging, but the piercing. That's the power of the tongue.
There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword. And then there's one who is wise.
And their tongue actually brings about soundness, wholeness, health. Now that's just a way to start.
Look at how sharp that contrast is. There's one who pierces, devastates, destroys.
A mouth that takes away life. And then there's a mouth that actually promotes, gives, is a wellspring of life.
This is the contrast we see in Scripture, which is to say we underestimate the power of our mouths.
If you pause and think about it, how much more sanctified would your life be if you were mute? Would you be any more holy than you are if you were mute?
If you couldn't communicate with your mouth? You'd still have sin in your heart, sin perhaps in your thoughts.
You might have sin in sign language, I don't know. But probably you would be a little more sanctified than you are.
In fact, as we'll see next week, as we look at the heart, it's out of the heart that the mouth speaks. So in dealing with the exit ramp of the mouth, we're not actually dealing with the roots or the source of the fountain, but we are dealing with the stream, we are dealing with the gate.
The mouth is, as James will say, as we'll see in a moment, a world of unrighteousness.
That's an unrighteous mouth. Not a little facet or feature, a world of iniquity, a world of unrighteousness.
That's to say, compared to that, we have a pretty shallow view of the power of words, don't we?
With a word, God created all that is. With a word, Satan stole and undermined and perverted all that is.
We have a shallow view of the power of words. From beginning to end, Scripture speaks about the power of our speech, whether for good or for evil, whether for health or for destruction.
The world comes into being by the word of God, and the ancient serpent, by his words, brings the world into ruin.
We also can bring forth life, goodness, light, health, or we can bring forth sourness, malice, destruction.
Our purpose, our relationships in society, our own souls will either be made, equipped, strengthened by words, or brought to ruin, destroyed by lies.
That's the power of human speech. How quickly our speech can turn from blessing and worship to backbiting and murmuring.
A problem that James gets at. And he, of course, gets there in chapter three, but notice that he's already highlighting the importance of speech, or the use of the mouth, as early as the beginning.
In chapter one, verse 26, if anyone thinks he's religious, but doesn't bridle his tongue, his religion is worthless.
It's worthless. It's a sham. That's how powerful our mouths are.
They corroborate our Christianity. We're deceiving ourselves if we're actually saying or emitting from our mouths, out of our hearts, something that is over against the semblance of Christianity, the appearance of faith.
And that carries us into James chapter three. If anyone doesn't stumble in a word, he's a perfect man, a complete man, a sound man, a healthy man, a whole man.
He's able to bridle a whole body. Remember, James three begins at the very beginning, let not many be teachers.
We all stumble in many ways. Teachers are held to a stricter judgment. Now he's pressing into what seems to be corporate imagery.
If anyone doesn't stumble in a word, he's a perfect man, a mature man, a complete man, able also to bridle the whole body.
That's corporate imagery. Is it talking about the self -control that he has of himself?
Certainly, but it's more than that. He's just mentioned teachers. He's just mentioned one who doesn't stumble in word.
He's able to actually bridle, to direct, to guide a whole body. Notice how this imagery continues.
Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
So the bit, that presence, that teaching, it's a bit in the mouth that's able to now turn and guide the whole body.
More corporate imagery. Look also at ships, though they're so large, driven by fierce winds.
Many sailors, we could say, are passengers within their midst, but they're turned by a very small rudder.
That word, the use of the mouth being the rudder on the ship, or the bit in the horse's mouth.
The whole body, the whole vessel, the whole congregation is moved therefrom. This is all corporate imagery.
Again, coming out from 3, chapter 3, verse 1. Even so, the tongue is such a little member.
The rudder is so small, the bit is negligible. But look at what it can do. Look at what it can guide.
It can lead to life, or it can lead to ruin. It can come to safe harbor, or it can come to the shoals and the rocks.
The tongue is a little member, but it boasts great things. James says, see how great a forest a little fire kindles.
The wildfires in California, one of the more devastating ones in the most recent years,
I think was started by sparks coming off a wheel that was scraping against asphalt.
Just a few sparks. And then you have hundreds of thousands of acres absolutely ravaged by unstoppable flame.
That's what James is tying into. See how great a forest a little fire kindles.
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body.
You see, again, are we talking about an individual's body? Certainly yes, but more than that.
The tongue can also defile the whole body. That little member, that rudder, that bit can guide a body.
It has a power, a restraint over a body. It can also corrupt a body. The whole body can be affected.
Just like trees in the forest are affected by that kindling of the tongue. This is all aggregate imagery.
Trees in a forest, passengers in a boat, the whole body being moved by this tongue.
And then where's this fire coming from? It's the imagery of hellfire. It says, the tongue is so set among our members it defiles the whole body.
It sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. Now that's going to come up again later in chapter 3 where he contrasts the wisdom that descends from above as opposed to the carnal knowledge that's churned up from beneath, the passions of the flesh.
Where is this unwieldy tongue that is a world of unrighteousness, where is it having this kind of effectiveness?
Well, James says, that kindling is set on fire by hell. It's a verbal flamethrower. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
Deadly poison. With it we bless our
God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the very likeness of God.
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.
Do you remember how James has been contrasting the need to be of single mind? A double -minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
Do you remember how James is calling for wholeness? The completion? The maturity?
And here we have the sort of double -tongued, double -minded man in full swing.
Out of the same mouth he blesses God and curses his brother. And so James says, my brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Can a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs?
No, spring yields both salt water and fresh. For you King James Only fans, brackish water and fresh water.
And of course, once you have the influence of that bitter salt, you can no longer maintain the freshness of the water source, can you?
That's why once water is brackish, there's no way to separate it unless you filter out those elements.
Or you have a whole new source, a whole new well or spring. And this is the idea is, if a spring once had been fresh water, as soon as something brackish or bitter makes its way in, it corrupts that whole stream.
Now it's undrinkable. Now it's something that perhaps can never be salvaged. No spring yields both salt water and fresh.
So James is concerned about duality. James is pressing that our speech will either demonstrate or falsify our faith.
The tongue has this kind of power, not just in our bodies, in our lives as individuals, but corporately it has this kind of power, this kind of impact.
That's the power of the mouth at work in the congregation. Now question 144 in the
Westminster Larger Catechism, which is dealing with the Ninth Commandment, what it requires. It says this, very helpfully.
Partly, what it requires is a charitable esteem of our neighbors, loving, desiring, even rejoicing in their good name, sorrowing for and covering their infirmities, freely acknowledging their gifts and graces, defending their innocence, ready to receive a good report, unwilling to admit an evil report concerning them.
That's a marvelous little description about how we are to deal with false witness or how we are to relate with words and reputations and a concern and regard for one another.
Proverbs 6 .16 and following. These six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven. This is a classic rhetorical device to get at the emphasis here.
Six things? No, even more than that. Seven things the Lord hates. These are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
Again, this is what the mouth is capable of doing. It's not just the tongue.
It's the look. It's the heart behind it. And what's the result of that? Innocent blood gets shed. Wicked plans are hatched.
Feet are swift to run toward evil. Discord and division amount among brethren. You see the power of the mouth.
Our speech will either demonstrate or falsify our love. Again, it comes out of the heart. We'll get there next week.
But out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Here all of a sudden the mouth is getting caught up in the cycle. It's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
As we'll see next week in Matthew 12. So what are some of these sins of the mouth?
What are the things that have this kind of forest fire impact in a congregation? Well, perhaps most importantly, right up front, is gossip.
Gossip. How do we understand gossip? In the book of Proverbs, gossip is likened to a dainty, a delicious morsel.
When Alicia and I had our wedding, we had sort of a non -traditional reception.
It was at an art museum in the lobby, and we had a few stations, but mostly it was meant to be sort of a gala reception, and we had waitstaff carrying trays with hors d 'oeuvres, or hors d 'oeuvres for you unenlightened.
And the entours were going around, and you almost can't help but to feel a little sophisticated when a waiter comes by and says, can
I interest you in whatever it is, some sort of prosciutto -wrapped scallop? And what do you do?
You almost twinkle your fingers and go, don't mind if I do. And it's so good, and if it's really good, you go,
I need more of that. I'm actually craving it. Like one wasn't enough. That was just a little bite in a mousse bouche, but I need another bite.
Now I'm craving, I want more. That's exactly what gossip is like. Don't mind if I do.
Ooh, that was really tasty. That was downright scandalous. I want more.
I'm going to follow that waiter around. There's got to be more on that tray with my name on it. No, no, no, don't pass it off to others.
I'm the one right here. Where does that interest come from? Well, sadly, we're so degenerate at times that it can arise just out of sheer boredom.
There's not enough going on in my life. I need to busy myself with the lives of others. And this is really the simple evil of a busy body is
I'm so discontent in my own life. I don't have enough that I'm occupying myself with.
I need to occupy myself with the latest gossip and scandal of others. When I was growing up, I don't notice this as much anymore, but when
I was growing up, if you were in line at a grocery store, they would have the gossip tabloids, and they would call them that, gossip tabloids.
I want to read the latest celebrity gossip. It's like, why? Who cares?
Why in the world would you buy and waste your time reading this brain rot? Now there's even worse brain rot nowadays.
But the idea was my life's just uneventful. It's too mundane. It's boring. I want to know the dirt that's going on in other people's homes and lives.
So it can come out of boredom. Certainly it can come out of shame. A sense of I always need to be comparing myself.
Where am I ranking? How do I measure up against those around me? It's helpful for me to know the inside scoop about what's really going on in someone's life, in their home, in their workplace, where they're at.
It might make me feel better about myself. It might help me cope with some of the shame that I feel, or maybe an inferiority that I feel.
So certainly it can come out of shame or it can come out of pride. I knew I was better than them. It's helpful for me to be validated in that feeling.
I've always wanted the opportunity to look down on them, and now I have that opportunity because of this gossip.
We crave the satisfaction that comes with having others put down. You see, it becomes this other -oriented way of holding ourselves up and over against those around us.
I don't know who this originated from, but someone very wisely, astutely said, gossip is confessing someone else's sin.
That's very thoughtful because what's tied in there is the total lack of self -awareness and humility of yourself.
That I don't begin with the plank in my eye. I don't begin with confessing my own sins and rightly understanding myself before the
Lord and counting myself of lesser esteem than those around me. So rather than confessing my sins and then going to the splinter in my brother's eye,
I actually confess their sins. And I don't confess the sins to them. I confess their sins to everyone around them.
Some of you parents maybe have some variation on this. You teach your children how to put a guard over their mouth and you say you should answer these three questions or something like it.
Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it helpful?
There's some variation on that. That's really helpful. How do you know it's true? Do you know it's true?
And even if it is true, is it necessary? Is it necessary for you to know? Certainly.
Is it necessary for you to share? Is it necessary for you to go to this person that you've learned this thing about or seen this thing in?
Is it helpful? Why are you going to this person? Why are you concerned with this thing? What's behind that?
What's the heart of the motive behind that? Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it helpful? Of course, the beginning there, is it true that the information, of course, may be false.
You may have just the wrong perspective. You may have come in to the wrong time or you have a wrong context.
You have an absolute misunderstanding. You have a bias. You have a tint that's causing you to view someone in a certain way.
And so your eye's upon them, waiting for them to fulfill what you're expecting them to fulfill because you can't look at them charitably.
Of course, where something is not known directly but rather indirectly, slander is usually a part of that gossip as well.
Character assassination, a sliding or staining of another's name, character, or reputation.
Perhaps you just think or you assume the story is true. But even so, do you recognize hearsay?
Again, is it true? Is it really true? How do you know? Why do you know? Should you know? Is it necessary that you know?
Is it necessary that you hold on to it? Is it necessary for you to share it?
Well, there's ways that we are to share in that Matthew 18 sense. You go to your brother. If he hears you, you've won him.
Already, that's telling you something about the motive you ought to have. My goal is to win my brother, to win my sister.
That's the only reason I'm going to them. If we're not going to them, it may be that we have a very different motive and it's not winning them.
It's actually making ourselves feel better, making them look worse. It's some other motive than winning them, do you see?
Is it necessary? Is it necessary to share something that may be true but can actually bring about a bad report?
Scripture warns against a bad report. We just saw that, this idea of the
Westminster larger catechism, that we're not looking for bad reports. In fact, we're disinclined to receive them.
Oh, I don't know about that. Are you sure you're looking at this rightly? Are you sure you're thinking charitably?
We have our ears open for whatever is true and noble and of good report. And is it helpful?
In other words, is it something that can edify? Is it something that will bear fruit? And that fruit may come out of faithful wounding.
That fruit may come out of rebuke or confrontation or exhortation. That is necessary as well.
But again, you have to check your motive. Some people are far too eager to be wounding than they are to be faithful.
Sign me up. I love faithfully wounding others. Like, ooh, what spirit are you of? It may not be gossip when you need to warn someone about a dangerous situation, a dangerous person.
We have that in Scripture. Paul warns about Alexander or others.
You have the apostles giving warnings to congregations of who they are to avoid. They call out certain people.
John Calvin, when he was preaching in the glorious pulpit there in Geneva at St. Peter's Cathedral, it was a practice to call people out in the middle of the sermon for certain offenses and sins.
It's a practice that's been lost to church history. You should be very thankful that that practice has been lost.
I wouldn't do that without calling myself out in many ways. But you have a practice where sometimes it's necessary to warn.
And that's not gossip, to give a warning if it's true and it's necessary and it's helpful.
But at the same time, it also can be gossip. You might be warning because it's hearsay or it's bias or it's slander.
You might be warning out of a motive of pride or a wounded ego or bitterness or malice.
So everyone wants to have a noble camouflage for what might be gossip or slander.
No, no, no, I was just warning. I'm just being faithful. Another example of this. I'm seeking counsel.
I'm seeking counsel from 85 people about this. Wow. I know scripture says wisdom is found in a multitude of counselors, but are you sure you're just seeking wisdom or are you actually bearing this out in gossip and slander and trying to have as much of an efficacy as wide flung as you can?
It may not be gossip when you're earnestly seeking counsel, how to deal with a person, a relationship, a circumstance.
But again, we always want to place what might be gossip under some noble camouflage. No, no, no, it's not that.
I was just sharing because I need some help or I wanted prayer. It's really difficult.
How can you tell the difference? I think I said this some weeks back. You can usually tell the difference when people are taking great pains in care, almost stumbling over themselves to present it in the most neutral, positive light they can, allowing anything that can be anonymous or rather secret to remain anonymous or secret.
If you're really seeking counsel about the issue and about your role within that, then you're going to take great care and great caution to protect whatever you can protect about the person at issue's name, reputation, character, or so forth.
If those things are just freely flung and they're getting all the Louisiana mud boat, you know, filth flung at them, you probably don't have the right motive or heart in how you're seeking counsel.
It might just be an umbrella to excuse what is truly gossip or slander, which is a way of saying this.
The presence of gossip depends largely on how you're talking and why you're talking to others.
How you talk about others and why you're talking about others will largely answer the question, is this gossip?
Is this slander? Is this a bad report? Is this really true? Is it really necessary?
Is it really helpful? What about backbiting?
What an image that is. Backbiting. Do you remember that viral video from like 15 years ago with the little kid that was with his young brother
Charlie? All of a sudden he goes, Charlie bit me! And Charlie's there, big grin.
He's so proud of himself. That's what it's like. It's like I don't even have to see the impact.
It's just the joy of the backbite. I get all the joy, the vent, the release, the vindication, and I don't actually have to see the impact.
I certainly have no regard for what this means for them because I can't even see their face and I don't care to see their face.
I'm behind them, undermining them. Backbiting. You ask these kinds of questions.
Would I be saying this if the person in question was here? Why or why not?
Has the Lord ever done that to you? Maybe there's a difficult situation and you're prone to talk about it and all of a sudden the person that you're wanting to talk about is right there, right in your midst.
That's a rebuke from the Lord. Oh, and all of a sudden you have to have a totally different conversation.
Are you hiding the conversation from some people but freely flowing it toward others?
And the question is why? Why? Are you ashamed of it?
The fact that you had spoken about it and how you spoke about it became public. Is that something that would be embarrassing or shameful to you?
Or to ask simply, in light of the golden rule, is this how you would want others to treat you or to talk about you behind your back?
The golden rule is so elusive in these kinds of situations. A gossiper never assumes that they're gossiped against.
A slanderer never assumes that they're being slandered against. The Lord is just and He's composed the world in this way.
Our slander always comes down against us at some point. The gossiper finds himself to be rather lonely and having fraught relationships at the end of it all.
Wisdom is known by her children. Fruitfulness is something that accrues over time.
A backbiting that is fueled by malice, by some offense that hasn't been rectified, will often not only stay within that person but begin to spread.
This is why James is using corporate imagery in James chapter 3. The tree can't remain aflame without affecting the forest around it.
The rudder has to have an impact. It has to have a direction. That bit has to pull the horse one way or the other.
And so it is. These things rarely stay contained within ourselves. It's out of the heart again that the mouth speaks.
What about slander? Slander closely tied to gossip. And that's more, it's rather than sharing something that could potentially be benign.
This is something that's malicious. Slander often comes out of jealousy, envy.
It's an evil eye. It can be the dynamic of just having it out for someone because you have it out for them.
It could be the slightest of slights. With that, jealousy, with that envy, is always pride.
Pride and envy are always a package deal. If you read the Psalms, you'll find that most of the psalmists were suffering under slander, the assaults of the tongue.
David, for example, in many of his psalms, speaks about his distress because of the lies and the false witness and the reproach that has fallen upon him.
Psalm 52 is an example when he's speaking of the distress against Doeg the Edomite. Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor working deceit.
You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking what is right. You love devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
That's the distress he was feeling about this man's words, the character assassination. It was like a sharp razor cutting and working into David's life.
And he could see that this man loved this deceit. He loved the impact and influence it was having over against David.
He says it was a devouring tongue, devouring words. Of course, you get the idea because you read the
Psalms and these things mount up that slander is something that we always will face. We should expect it as Christians living in the world, as salmon swimming against a stream, you should expect to be spoken ill of, to be treated contemptuously.
No servant is greater than his master. It's not hard for us, I would hope, as Christians, to bear the scoffing skepticism of the world around us.
That's always a little bit easier than bearing the tongues in our midst, the other trees in our forest, the other passengers on the ship.
It's hard when it's our own brethren that we find ourselves in distress from. To the degree that we find this foreign, it will be very hard to relate to the
Psalms because so many Psalms are composed in this very sense to be delivered from slander.
Psalm 64, the first four verses, again from David. Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation.
Preserve my life because of fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the rebellion of workers of iniquity who sharpen their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows.
Bitter words that they may shoot in secret at the blameless. You see the imagery there?
That's sniper fire. I've been at the battlefield of Gettysburg a few times, and thanks to Paul Wanamaker, who's a pastor down in Easton.
He's a Civil War buff, and he's explained how the battle actually unfolded.
And it's amazing where you see some of the artillery points were set up, and then imagining how far that artillery was firing.
And of course, so far that you'd probably not hear the cannon shot until well after the cannon ball had struck across.
And just thinking at some of these places where trees were just shattering and men were getting rolled over like some bowling alley from hell, and they couldn't even hear or see where the shots were coming from.
That's the imagery here for David. It's like in secret, in darkness, I'm just taking arrow after arrow after arrow.
A man, Proverbs 25 says, who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, a sharp arrow.
You get the imagery. A club. I don't know what's worse, getting clubbed to death or taking a lot of arrows.
Either way, that's unpleasant, and this is the imagery that the Psalms use. This is something of the experience of what it's like.
Doesn't that show us the power of our mouths? The power of our tongues? That is a hard thing for us to bear.
It's hard enough in the world, in the workplace, among relatives that are unbelievers, but how much harder is it in the very house of God?
Now Paul's whole point in Ephesians 4 is to get at this. And I want you to notice the connection between where we begin in verse 17.
I'm just gonna begin toward verse 20. And I want you to see how important that is as a bridge into what
Paul commands. We are something before we do something. Really important we always understand that.
We are members one of another, therefore we ought not to speak evil of one another.
It's the same dynamic in Ephesians 4. There's something that's true of us as Christians, as a congregation, that therefore means something about our mouths.
We have not so learned Christ, verse 21, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus.
And so you put off concerning your former conduct that old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God and true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, here's the result. Because this is true, you're no longer the same old man.
You're a new creation created in Christ Jesus for good works because you put on a new man created by God in true righteousness and holiness because you are now the body of Christ.
Therefore, putting away lying, right off the bat this is impacting our mouth.
The first thing that he goes to, and it's a participle, it's in stride. As you're putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.
Again, put off, put on. You're putting away this in order to put on that. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another.
That's an automatic for Paul. Because we belong to each other, this is how we are to relate.
That means something for our mouths. Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath.
What is that saying about a congregational life? It means every day if I'm harboring anything against a brother or a sister,
I'm to deal with that in a biblical way. If it's something that love can cover,
I'm to cover it. If it's something that love must confront, I must confront. But I'm not to let the sun go down on my wrath.
Even if I'm wounded and I'm angry, I'm not allowed that anger to become sparks in a forest.
That could intentionally burn down the congregation.
That's the power of the mouth. And notice what he says, verse 27, nor give place to the devil.
Didn't James say that our tongue is set on fire from hell? Who's actively prowling and at work in our midst?
It's the evil one who sows division. He's the father of lies. No wonder Paul says, putting away lying, speak the truth to your neighbor.
Be angry where that's difficult, where relationships are frayed and slander or gossip might be in the midst, but don't let the sun go down on your wrath.
The devil is at work. Don't give him a foothold. I give some practical advice in the way this carries into life, but he's going to quickly get back to the mouth.
So let him who stole steal no longer. Rather let him labor, working with his hands, what is good that he may have something to give him as need.
Right back to the mouth, verse 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification.
We're going to come back to that phrase shortly. That it may impart grace to the hearers.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. You see who else is at work in the congregation? The very
Spirit of God. Who's at work? The devil looking for a foothold so he can divide and destroy.
Who else is at work? The Spirit who is grieved when we give our tongues over to corrupt speech.
Let all bitterness, Paul says, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you.
So the Holy Spirit creates us as a new man, a new body created in Christ Jesus for good works.
He's applied the redemption that Christ has accomplished to our hearts. We now have new hearts.
Not hearts of stone, but hearts of flesh. We have a transformed way of thinking, a renewed mind, a transformed life.
That transformed life begins in many ways at the mouth. The first evidence of a new heart born by the
Spirit is the mouth confesses something. The mouth professes something.
We said that the ear is the quickest way into the heart. Well, the mouth is the quickest way out of the heart.
Out of the mouth, the heart speaks. The first and most obvious place that you can find a window into your heart is your tongue.
It's what you say and how you say it and why you say it to begin with.
You want to know what your heart is like? Look at your mouth. Do we want to know what our corporate heart is like?
We have to look at our mouths. How do we use our tongues in this church? How do we open our mouths?
Has the reality of verses 17 and following come to that therefore in verse 25?
The Holy Spirit applies the gospel in this way.
It transforms us. Listen to what Greg Bonson... Greg Bonson has this old article he wrote called something like A Moral Checklist for Our Mouths.
It's a tremendous read. You should be able to find it very easily. Greg Bonson. It's like seven or eight pages.
And he just basically puts together a ton of scripture and says, saturate this and then check your mouth.
Check your mouth in light of it. Here's what he says. The outworking of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work is not as vague or mystical as many well -meaning
Christians imagine. Ah, the mystery of sanctification. Who could ever know if they're being sanctified?
It's like, no, no, no, it's actually not that mysterious. You can look at all sorts of aspects of your life and discern whether or not you are growing in holiness.
It's not something vague or mysterious. It can be seen in very definite ways in our conduct, particularly the way we use our mouths.
Reforming the way we use our words, then, is a key to our sanctification. The mouth is so troublesome and sinful that if it can be made more holy, there's almost no other area of our conduct that will be untouched.
Isn't that exactly what James is saying in James 3? That's the world, that's the bridle, that's the rudder.
A man that can be perfect in word can actually control his whole body.
That's what Bonson's getting at. In fact, if morality, in other words, if Christian conduct,
Christian righteousness were more evident here in our mouths, God would surely receive greater glory, not only among us, but also through us before the world.
We're to walk no longer like the Gentiles. Let's make that more pointed. We're to speak no more like the
Gentiles. How many of you can see the influence of evil speaking and clamor and malice and envy and jealousy in the workplace, with your co -workers, or in the home between siblings or relatives, and you just see how destructive and cancerous that is, but then can come right into a congregation and participate in it or contribute to it?
When we bear false witness against our neighbor, we're actually bearing false witness about God.
When we're slandering our brother or sister, we're actually slandering God who purchased us with his own blood.
When we lie to or gossip about our brethren, we're unwittingly saying that God doesn't really care about our holiness.
He's actually fine with our level of impurity. We don't have to be charitable. God himself is biased.
He's probably unjust. You see, our word has a lot more impact than we could ever realize.
It's hard not only to stop gossip in ourselves, slander in ourselves, false witness in ourselves, but to be the person that stops it, stops perpetuating it, especially when it's concerning us, but that's exactly what we're called to do in Ephesians 4.
So how do you react when you're slandered against or gossiped against? Someone misperceives you.
Someone slanders your reputation, stains your character. How do you hold up against that? The Puritan Thomas Watson gives this advice.
Let those whose lot it is to meet with slanderers labor to make a good use of it. If John Piper wrote a book on this, it would be called
Don't Waste Your Slander. Make a good use of it. See that you have no sin unrepented of, for which
God may suffer for you to have this reproach. See if you have not at any time wronged others in their name and said that of them which you cannot prove and should lay your hand on your mouth and confess that the
Lord is righteous to let you fall under the scourge of your own tongue. You examine yourself.
Wow, this is hard. Am I getting a taste of my own medicine? Is this what it's like? Have I been like this toward others?
Or if you are slandered or falsely accused, but you know you're innocent, be not too much troubled.
Let your rejoicing be the witness of a clean conscience. You have a security, a peace.
What we said last Sunday evening, thick skin but a soft conscience. There's a contentment, a peace, a willingness that though you be reviled, you revile not.
Like Christ, you entrust yourself to him who judges justly. This is what Watson says.
A good conscience is a wall of brass. It can withstand all false witness. Is your conscience clean?
Is it clean because it's sensitive and it's self -examined and it's humble? Or is it clean because you're so calloused and insensitive that you just have too much pride to feel bad?
You don't want to have an Andrew Tate conscience, if I could put it that way. A good conscience, a clean conscience, a humble conscience is a wall of brass.
As no flattery can heal a bad conscience, so also no slander can hurt a good one. God will clear up the names of his people.
That's the antidote. That's what James goes to in James chapter three. How do you react? How do you bear these things?
What's the antidote to the deadly poison of a tongue? Well, he asks a rhetorical question.
Who's wise? Who has understanding among you? You want to prevent that forest fire and do your diligence?
You want to have the antidote for that poisonous tongue? Let him show by good conduct. His works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
Wisdom is a meek virtue. But if you have bitter envy and self -seeking in your hearts, like the bitter brackish water he just mentioned a few verses earlier, do not boast and lie against the truth.
There's the mouth again, reacting, counter -reacting, seeking to self -vindicate. This wisdom doesn't descend from above.
It's earthly, sensual, demonic. Where envy and self -seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
But the wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits.
Do you see what James is getting to? This is the pure spring. This is the pure water. You can't combat brackish water with more salt.
You can't answer reviling with more reviling. You can't counter gossip with more gossip.
You need something that's pure, that's peaceable, that's gentle, that's full of mercy and good fruit.
This is the kind of wisdom shown in meekness that only comes from above. To put it simply, you don't fight fire with fire.
That's just doing the devil's work for him. One of God's answers to our distressing, psalm -like cries about slander and lies and gossip is that our experience in distress keeps our eyes fixed on him rather than on our reputation.
We get a Godward sense of what matters. We have an eternal perspective. We humble ourselves and we have this frame of mind so that we can have the mind of our
Lord who even at the trial spoke not a word in his defense.
Isn't that stunning? Like a sheep before his shearers, he remains silent.
Our own sinfulness ought to humble us so that when we speak, we're speaking what is true in love.
There'll be a time to speak. How you speak and why you speak matters as much as the slander or the gossip that's come against you.
It ought to be speaking the truth in love because you've humbled yourself and you've looked at Christ and received his example as your marching orders.
And so by the time that you open your mouth, you're opening your mouth not as a counter, not as self -indication, but you're speaking the very truth of the gospel in love.
That's full of mercy and good fruit. You see? That's the antidote to deadly poison.
Satan can't withstand that. So that's the unrighteous mouth.
Let's talk a little bit more, more briefly, on the righteous mouth. Proverbs 10, 11, and 12 puts it this way.
The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. So you have two images here, the mouth of the righteous being this well of life or even a wellspring.
Some translation's a fountain of life. But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Now notice the transformation. So a well is something that you'd plunge down deep and maybe stir up or drudge up some water.
So the mouth of the righteous is this well of life that you go and stir up and plunge into and pull up what is life -giving and fruitful.
The violent mouth is wicked. It's a covering of wickedness. Violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Then we have the opposite. Now, hatred stirs up, drudges up, pulls up strife.
Love is now the covering. Love covers all sins. You see that poetic contrast.
Well, the idea here is there's not a stagnant well, but a wellspring. Proverbs 18, 4 puts it this way.
The words of a man's mouth are deep waters. The wellspring of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
This is something active and moving. It doesn't become insular, self -focused, inward.
It doesn't throw a pity party. It doesn't become stagnant and odious. There's something moving.
There's something spreading. There's something glorious about this wisdom. This is what James is tapping into.
No spring yields both salt water and fresh. So the idea is you have this source, this wellspring, this fresh water.
What would it look like, perhaps, to have a brackish stream, salty stream?
Well, Proverbs are really helpful in this. They give us some really practical ways to avoid stepping on each other's toes.
Really helpful ways to think about the way that we're speaking and the way that our words might be received.
So here's one way you might be brackish. You might be brackish if you're overbearing. Proverbs 27, 14 puts it this way.
He who blesses... What a beautiful word choice there.
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it is counted a curse to him.
Brother, I just want to bless you. Are you awake yet? I just want to bless you on this fine morning.
Jesus is like, thank you, brother. It wasn't the right time.
It wasn't the right place. It wasn't the right tone. You did it with a good intention.
You wanted to bless your friend with all that zeal and excitement because you didn't understand where your friend is, what your friend is facing.
What was meant to be a blessing is more like a burden. So you can be a brackish stream when you're overbearing.
To put it in Sermon on the Mount terms, you don't make a hobby out of splinter hunting.
We can label splinter hunting a blessing. Aren't you blessed to have a splinter hunter like me in your life?
Aren't you blessed to have your life under my microscope? What a blessing I am to you. Aren't you glad the
Holy Spirit doesn't move in those ways? How paralyzing that would be to our walk if he convicted every slight, every wrong thought, prodded at everything that goes erroneous in our thoughts and our lives?
Aren't you glad for that gentle influence, that patient, long -suffering witness? That conviction that can shake us to the core, but that comfort that ends up bearing us through?
We want to be like the Spirit is to us. So we don't make a hobby out of splinter hunting and call that a blessing.
Yes, again, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but there's a difference between being faithful to a friend and being relentless.
That's the idea is we're not really a friend if at 4 .30 a .m. on a megaphone, we're seeking to bless them.
Another way you might be brackish, you might be salty is if you're insensitive. This is all kind of related.
Proverbs 25, verse 20, like one who takes away a garment in the cold, think about being outside and you're stripped down to a t -shirt.
So is one who sings a song to a heavy heart. Yeah, no, it has a lot to do with tone.
You're aware of who you're talking to. You have some regard, some watchfulness. You understand that if they're facing some difficulty, it's not appropriate to go and parade in front of them.
That's making it worse for them. That requires something, doesn't it? It requires the kind of sympathy that a congregation has in this way.
We know how to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and to mourn with those who mourn. That's not an easy thing. Because at any given time, there's people in this room that are rejoicing that they're free, they're happy in the
Lord. They're in a good moment of providence. And then there's people that are really suffering. And both those people have to somewhat be tempered by each other.
The person that's suffering has to put on that half smile that's like, I don't want to be fake, but I also can't pretend that everything's hunky -dory right now.
I'm really struggling. The person that everything is cotton candy has to be reminded that it won't be cotton candy for long.
In fact, others don't have that experience right now. I need to be reminded of that. So you have to become sensitive.
It means you're watchful. You're thoughtful. You love in this way. A mature body begins to detect those half smiles.
I got the sense something's not quite right. It should be, it should be, at some point, if we're not there already, that a half smile gets you about 13 text messages later that day.
Hey, I'm just praying for you. Don't know why. You're just on my mind.
I'm just praying for you. We're all throwing fishing lines. Are you okay? Do you need a cup of coffee? Do you need to talk? What's going on?
Your mouth might be a brackish stream if you're overzealous, not overbearing or relentless.
This is something a little bit more, and this is just, again, Ephesians 429. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for it necessary edification, that it may impart grace to your hearers.
That's so helpful. It doesn't just say, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only what's good for edification.
Everything can be used to build. At some point, any word could be edifying, but what's necessary?
In other words, what's the next step for this brother or sister? Where are they at, and what do they need right now?
Where do they need to go next? What's light to shine immediately ahead? What's necessary?
A parent has to do this with their children. You don't put on a three -year -old what a nine -year -old is capable of.
Can they be edified in that? Certainly. You'll probably also frustrate them and overwhelm them, and you'll become frustrated and overwhelmed.
What's necessary for them? What are they capable of? Where are they at? How can I encourage them in this next step?
That's the idea, necessary edification. And what's the goal? What's the heart behind it? To impart grace to the hearer.
You ask the question, is that your goal when you speak? Has that ever slowed you down at all to say, how can
I impart grace to so -and -so today? I'm going to go sit down with them at the lunch table.
How can I impart grace to them? That's my goal. That's what I want to do whenever I open my mouth. Three quick checks that maybe would help you in that goal.
The first thing is from Colossians 4, verse 6. And I'll say, here's the check.
No bland speech. No bland speech. Colossians 4, 6.
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
So the idea is you're actually thinking, how can I make what I want to say a little better?
That's what seasoning does. It enhances something. It makes it better. I'm Scots, English.
We're known for bland food. We're known for lack of seasoning. And that's the whole point of dreary pub food in the
UK. It's kind of like the running joke that it has no flavor. It's rainy and foggy.
What do you want? That's what we do. The idea is if you go to a good restaurant, they have an understanding of how to enhance, how to make better the raw ingredients.
They season. They don't just take the raw words, the raw speech. There's a seasoning.
And the idea is you need to know how you need to answer each one. It's part of that watchfulness, part of that understanding.
What are they capable of? Where are they at? What would be the next step? How can I impart some level of grace to them? I need to season my speech.
I need to be more thoughtful. I need to be more careful. I don't want to over -salt. I don't want to under -salt. I want to just say what's fitting, what's appropriate.
So that's the first thing, no bland speech. Secondly, set a watch. Psalm 141, verse 3, set a watch,
O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips or guard the door of my lips.
That is a prayer. Lord, I know and believe what James 3 says.
Help me to watch my mouth. Lord, no, you watch my mouth. You set a guard over my lips.
Restrain my speech. I want to season it. I want to impart grace, but I also, there's a lot
I don't want to say, Lord. It's the other side of Colossians 4, 6.
You need to know not only how you ought to answer, but what you should not answer, what you should not say.
That's wisdom. And then, thirdly, part of putting off and putting on is rather thanks.
Rather thanks. Ephesians 5, 4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
It would be a good thing for married couples in this congregation to remember this third point especially.
To check each other. You know, you've just said a lot, sweetie. Is there anything you're thankful about?
Rather thanks. That was an interesting tour of complaints and issues.
Now, is there anything that you're thankful about? You see what
Paul is doing in chapter 5 is just what he's been saying earlier in chapter 4. You've put off something in order to put on something.
That includes putting off this foolish talk, this coarse jesting, this filthy language. Put on giving of thanks.
Be content. Be thoughtful. Be thankful. Things could be so much worse than they are. There's not a relationship that you've experienced that couldn't be in some measure worse than it is.
Be thankful for that. If you have nothing else to be thankful for, be thankful that it's not worse than it is. When slander, when gossip comes your way, be thankful it's not worse than it could be.
When difficulty and strife arises, be thankful for any measure of grace that God has given.
If you have thankfulness on your mouth, this law of kindness on your tongue, you will not give the enemy a foothold to do a lot more damage in and through you.
The righteous mouth, of course, lives in this world of lies. The last point
I want to say is simply this. Because the righteous mouth lives in a world of many lies, we have to have our minds, our hearts, our eyes fixed toward the inevitable judgment of God.
Jesus Christ said, on judgment day, every careless word that we've uttered will be judged.
If that's not enough to cry out that God would put a watch over your mouth,
I don't know what is. Now part of that judgment is, for those who are bearing up under criticism, slander, gossip, let that be a comfort to you.
The Lord will vindicate you. If not in this season, in this life, then at the end you will be vindicated.
So don't lose heart. Persevere, be long -suffering, be patient, be thoughtful and wise about how you can respond so that you don't grieve the
Spirit and you don't give a foothold to the enemy. But if you're struggling, if you're feeling the pull of the flesh, if you're feeling that carnal wisdom that churns up from beneath, be reminded the day is fixed and your mouth will be judged too.
Your words will be held to account as well. I tell you, Jesus says, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.
And by your words you'll be justified. And by your words you'll be condemned.
The day is fixed when God will cut off every lying and slanderous tongue. When the world of lies becomes a world of pure water, everlasting life.
Every mouth that speaks deception will be brought to the knee and confess, Jesus Christ is
Lord. And so I close with this as a thought, this prospect of judgment.
Does it have the power to stop your mouth in its tracks? To be slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to wrath.
To let your words be few because you're on earth and God is in heaven. Does it have that kind of stopping power?
Have you ever covered your mouth because of the recognition of who God is and what must come?
Have you ever pulled the Isaiah from chapter 6 and put your hand over your mouth and said, woe is me,
I'm a man of unclean lips. My mouth is a wicked thing, it really is a world of unrighteousness.
If you haven't had any pause, any stutter step in the way that you've used your mouth, I would venture to say you haven't really thought deeply about the
Lord's presence and about His impending judgment. Because beholding the
Lord of glory has this kind of impact. It changes not only how we use our mouths, but why we use our mouths.
It's not just the profession and the thanksgiving that comes out, but now I want to use my mouth to testify, to worship, to give thanks.
It's that Psalm 145 imagery that we opened with. That's what happens. It's the first, woe is me,
I don't ever want to speak again. I want this mouth and all of its evils to be taken from me.
But as He's beholding this Lord of glory, as that burning call of atonement cleanses His speech, what's the next thing?
Send me. Now I want to use my mouth to testify. Now I want the nations to know of Your glory.
Do you see? You can't get to that latter end of praise and thanksgiving if your mouth hasn't first been stopped in its tracks.
Martin Lloyd -Jones made this point. Because in Romans 3 Paul says, Whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.
And Lloyd -Jones says so well, When you realize what the law is truly saying to you, the result is every mouth is stopped.
You are rendered speechless. And you are not a Christian if you have not been rendered speechless.
How do you know whether a man is a Christian? The answer is his mouth is shut. And I like this forthrightness of the gospel,
Lloyd -Jones says. People need to have their mouths stopped. You don't begin to be a Christian until your mouth begins to shut.
This is what it means for us to be a body. That our mouths are held in subjection to Him who alone is judge.
Others may give bad reports. Things may come our way. Things may emanate from us. Our mouths stop so that we may instead have tongues that lisp to His praise.
Have mouths that open to His testimonies. We want to have a mouth that's been stopped out of conviction and in repentance.
Then we turn to the glories of His forgiveness and the glories of His gospel. Hatred will only seek to strip bare, to expose, to ruin, to puff up, to enhance, to smother others.
But love will seek to cover, to sacrifice. Love will seek to save. It will seek to bless.
It will seek to edify. That's what it means for a congregation to understand what it means for a mouth to be a well of life -giving water.
A fresh and pure spring. And things get green and fruitful wherever those words and mouths go.
Whenever we speak to anyone of us in this midst, we speak words that impart grace to the hearer.
Well -seasoned words, thoughtful words. We give thought to thankfulness. We make sure that we're not overbearing or overzealous.
We're willing to faithfully wound, but everything is abundant in the cascading mercies of our
God. And we sweetly begin to echo that gospel call with wonderful words of life.
This is what it means to go from the silence of the law and our condemnation to, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing our
Redeemer's praise. This is what Bonson was getting at when he said, the mouth is so troublesome and sinful that if it can be made more holy,
God would surely receive greater glory, not only among us, but through us to the world.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you, Lord, for the hope we have in you. Lord, we cannot produce these things in ourselves. Thank you that you give us a new heart.
You give us a spirit to dwell within us. Produce these things that are from you and for you,
Lord. And we pray as individuals in this body, Lord, that you would put a holy guard over our mouths, that we would be slow to speak, quick to listen, that we would be watchful over one another, prayerful, yearning in love for one another, having that above all fervent love that Peter spoke of in his first letter.
And Lord, in this way, that we would be so thoughtful to season our words, to impart grace to those in our midst, to be sensitive,
Lord, to those who are struggling, looking for those half smiles that we can then seek to bless and edify as necessary, looking,
Lord, for perhaps those who are rejoicing and be able to support them and celebrate with them in your goodness to them.
Lord, help us to be a body that uses our mouths wisely, that gives no foothold to the enemy, no sparks to the forest, no rogue waves or broken timber to this vessel.
Lord, we pray that you would constrain us, that our mouths and our corporate mouth would be a wellspring of life.
And Lord, it wouldn't be just in our midst, but through us to those around us, in our homes, among unsaved neighbors and relatives, co -workers.
Lord, may our mouths be words of life, words that lead to that gospel call,
Lord, that is the word of life. And we pray, Lord, that in this way, you would constrain, you would convict,
Lord, as you bring things to our mind and hearts, Lord, that we would truly repent. And in repentance and in exercising faith,
Lord, we would walk in this newness of life that you have brought about through your Son and by your Spirit.