Taming the Untameable Tongue: Part 3

Redeeming Grace Church

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for us to continue to look at our series in the book of James. We're looking at taming the untameable tongue.

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Sounds like an oxymoron, but it can happen. We can do this by the help and the power of the

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Holy Spirit. Did not get a chance to finish up the message last week, so I'm gonna try my best to pick up a little bit where I did not finish.

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God's Word's good, isn't it? When we go through verse by verse, precept by precept, through these verses, we don't want to miss nothing.

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We don't want to have no stones unturned. That's what I love about Bible Ed's position.

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We don't miss it as the Lord would help us to see what he has for us.

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And I also was thinking, I used to be a bread man. I'm a milk man now. Deliver milk.

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There's a lot of customers out there that depend on me to deliver fresh milk. I don't think it would be nice if people would come in and buy milk, and knowing it was out of date, and they get home, they pay good money for it, and they get sour milk.

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The same with bread. Wouldn't be nice to allow stale bread to be on the shelf.

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People buy it with their hard -worked money and go home, and they got stale bread, moldy bread.

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It's like the Word of God. It's fresh milk. We need fresh milk.

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It's fresh bread. God has fresh bread. We can't live off the stale bread, can we? We've got to have a fresh

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Word from God. And God has plenty of fresh bread. Plenty of it.

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So we're going to look at the tongue as power to control today. This little member. Such power to control.

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So if you're already there, we're beginning at verse 2 of James chapter 3.

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James chapter 3 verse 2. We looked at verse 1 last week, so I'm going to begin with chapter 2,

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I'm sorry, verse 2. Reading through verse 5. So hear the word of the living

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God. For we all stumble in many ways.

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If anyone does not stumble in what he, in many ways, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

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Verse 3. Now if we, don't you love the we, we put bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.

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Look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds and are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

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And then he gets to his point in verse 5. So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet boasts of great things.

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May God bless the reading of his word to our ears, to our hearts this morning as we look at his word.

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I think I just skipped verse 3. My mistake. Now if we put bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct the entire body as well.

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Don't want to skip nothing in God's word. Amen. Let's pray.

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Our Father and our God, this is your holy word. We would ask now

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Lord by your Holy Spirit to sanctify us. Sanctify us holy.

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W -H -O -L -L -Y. Holy completely by your word.

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We're in desperate need of hearing a fresh word from you. And Father, we thank you for this word.

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There's nothing that compares to it. Nothing. For your word alone is truth as the

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Lord Jesus prayed for his own. And only by your word do you sanctify.

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So Father, I would pray today that you would convict us, challenge us, correct us, and Lord in the end change us.

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That we would be more like Jesus. We ask this for your glory and your honor.

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In Jesus name. Amen. Taken from his book written a few years back,

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The Disciplines of the Godly Man. I highly recommend this book. It's loaded. Chapter 11,

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The Discipline of the Tongue. Kent Hughes, he's a Presbyterian man, he's very solid.

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Kent Hughes gives this story, this true story by the way, of the power of the tongue.

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And I quote him here in this wonderful story that he gives that happened back in 1899.

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Four reporters from Denver, Colorado met by chance on a Saturday night in a

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Denver railroad station. Their names were Al Stevens, Jack Turney, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshire.

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They all worked for four Denver papers, The Post, The Times, The Republican, and the

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Rocky Mountain News. Sounds like the Motley Crue there, doesn't it? Each had the unbelievable,

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I should say uneditable task, finding a scoop for the Sunday edition. They hoped to spot a celebrity arriving that evening by the train.

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However, none showed up, so the reporters wondered, what on earth would they do?

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So they got to thinking as they discussed options in a nearby saloon, someplace to think, and Al suggested that they make up a story.

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Well, it's not surprising in a saloon, is it? The other three laughed at it at first, but before long they were all in agreement.

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They would come up with such a whopper, no one would question it, and that their respective editors would congratulate them on their find.

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Well, a phony local story would be too obvious, so they didn't go there.

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So they decided to write about someplace far away. They agreed on China.

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China, out of all places. And they said, quote, what if we say that some

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American engineers on their way to China told us they are bidding on a major job?

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The Chinese government is planning to demolish the Great Wall. That would be a great story.

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It'd get their attention, wouldn't it? Talk about the Great Wall. It's incredible.

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Well, Harold was not sure the story would be believable. Why would the

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Chinese ever tear down the Great Wall of China? Quote, as a sign of international goodwill to invite foreign trade.

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Sounds good. Well, by 11 p .m. that evening, the four reporters had worked out the details.

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The next day, all four Denver newspapers carried this story. This is true.

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On the front page, the Times headline, that Sunday, read, quote,

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Great Chinese Wall doomed. That got their attention, didn't it?

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Peking seeks world trade. Of course, the story was ridiculous.

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Tall tale made up by four opportunist newsmen in a hotel bar.

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But amazingly, their story was taken seriously and soon ran in the newspapers in the eastern

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U .S. and even abroad. It is incredible that this really happened.

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When the citizens of China, listen to this, and citizens of China heard that the Americans were sending a demolition crew to dismantle the

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Great Wall, most were indignant and even enraged. This got their attention.

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They thought this was really going to happen. Particularly angry were members of a secret society made up of Chinese patriots already against any kind of foreign intervention.

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Story goes on to say, moved to action by the news story, they attacked the foreign embassies, listen to this, in Peking and murdered hundreds of missionaries.

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Hundreds of missionaries were murdered from abroad. In the next two months, 12 ,000 troops from six countries working together invaded

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China to protect their countrymen. The bloodshed at that time, born out of a journalistic hoax fabricated in a saloon in Denver, was the time of violence known ever since as the

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Boxer Rebellion. You can look it up. It was called the Boxer Rebellion.

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What power the written or spoken word has. Nations have risen and nations have fallen to the tongue,

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Kent Hughes says. Lives have been elevated and lives have been cast down by human speech.

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Goodness has flowed like our sweet river from out of the mouths and so has the cesspool, all because the tiny tongue is a mighty force indeed.

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End quote. How true that is. Now brothers and sisters, this is what

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James is talking about right here before us. The tongue has intrinsic power to control and that story gives evidence of the power of speech, the power of the tongue.

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Such a small member, but yes, has tremendous power. James, our

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Lord's brother, understood this well as many in history and through the use of graphic analogies he gives here, he has given us the most penetrating exposition of the tongue anywhere in literature and you will not find any greater writings, sacred or secular, on the tongue than what

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James does. He gives it to us and then obviously it's inspiration.

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It's not like mere human speech. What he's writing is the spirit of the living God breathing within the pages of Scripture as he writes this down.

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So last Lord's Day we looked at verse 1, chapter 3. James basically says, I'll just recap that just very quickly.

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He says, let not many of you become teachers at my brethren, knowing that as much as such,

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I'm sorry, will incur a stricter judgment. So the point that James is really making in that text and that verse is that man should not take on the role of a teacher or rabbi unless God has called him to it.

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He must be called of God and we looked at that last week in detail from the Scriptures. Because the teachers will incur a stricter judgment.

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That's very obvious and there's many verses that back that up and those who teach the Word of God will be more accountable because of the great responsibility of being the very mouthpiece and spokesman for Almighty God.

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It makes me tremble, beloved, as I speak these words before you because I know that every word that comes out of my mouth,

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I'm going to give a stricter account. And just not myself but anybody that's a spokesperson for God and for all of us.

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And then now verse 2, he further explains it's just not only the teachers but all of us is going to give an account and there's no escaping it.

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So in verse 2 notice he further explains what verse 1 says for, see he goes onward, for James includes himself when he says for we, he's including himself there, all stumble in many ways.

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So in other words what he's saying is we all are prone to sin. It's just not a mistake or a slip of the tongue even though it's very slippery and it does slip a lot and that's why we need to guard it and watch it slip, watch, be careful that it don't slip

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I should say. We are all prone to sin. What this statement reinforces the truth that no one is exempt is in regard to the dangers of the tongue and the other forms of sin against God.

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Now the word stumble is an interesting word here and I think it's an important word because he mentions it twice in this two, in this verse.

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He mentions it two times. James uses the word, uses it word, a very fitting word.

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Apples of gold, pictures of silver, it's very fitting. That's the Spirit of God. It refers to any moral lapse it says.

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That's the definition. Any moral lapse, a failure to do what is right. We fall under that category don't we?

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If we're honest we pretty much fall under that category every day. Even as careful as we are it still happens.

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We still stumble and he says it. So we all stumble right?

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In many ways and that's what the writer of Proverbs says and he gives the question in Proverbs 20 verse 9.

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Listen to the question here. It's in question form. Such wisdom Solomon had from the

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Spirit of God and that's wisdom because it comes in question. It puts you where you're thinking.

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What's the answer? But notice the question in Proverbs 20 verse 9. Who can say I have cleansed my heart?

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I'm pure from my sin. Well 2nd

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Chronicles 636 gives us the answer really to that question that there is no man who does not sin.

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So that's the answer really. We all fall short and the Apostle Paul says that in Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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What about 1st John 1 8? Backs that up saying if we notice how the

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Apostle includes himself. We say that we have no sin. We are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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Notice how many times the Apostle says we. He's including himself and this was the Apostle John.

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No one is exempt in regard to the dangers of the tongue. No one every single one of us stumbles in all of our ways.

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Then James zeroes in. That's the way I like to look at this. He zeroes in and the crosshairs on the tongue.

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That's the problem here and Jesus of course said that the real issue is the heart because out from the heart comes out of the mouth.

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What comes out of the mouth flows from the heart and then he says all filthiness from a cesspool of depravity, fornication, adultery, thieves, adulteries.

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He just names the list doesn't he? Very specific as our Lord Jesus Christ. But James zeroes in on the tongue and he says this, if anyone does not stumble in what he says.

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Notice what he's saying there. What he says he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.

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Now that word perfect could mean two kinds of perfection here. One that is perfect perfect.

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John MacArthur did a study on perfection one time and he said he went through the whole

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Bible looking up that word perfect and he came to the conclusion perfect meant perfect. So you can't get any better than that can you?

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It means perfect and we know only the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect. He did not stumble in any way.

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He was sinless without sin. From his birth to his death to his life, everything about the

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Lord Jesus, one perfect life. Only he is the perfect one.

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Everyone else in history has stumbled in many ways. Not the

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Lord Jesus. He's the one that we look to when it comes to perfection.

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But here in the Greek, James is not talking about that kind of perfection.

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The word perfect in the text does not mean sinless perfection in a sense, but rather spiritually mature.

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He's talking about maturity in this text here. To the Christian, to our sanctified walk, as we walk through this journey of life and aren't you glad because no one could be perfect as the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Even though we are to follow in his steps, as he walked, we cannot by no means come up to the measure of Christ even though we strive.

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But he's talking about being spiritually mature as a Christian. We can never achieve sinless perfection, even though that's taught in many churches of this crisis and this progress and crisis and finally they think you come up to a level of sin being eradicated.

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That doesn't happen. Read Romans 7. That's very obvious.

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Well in this life, even the best of saints fall short. We can grow, but we can grow to spiritual maturity.

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I like what Pastor John MacArthur gives, a wonderful encouraging statement here. It's one of my favorite statements he makes.

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You hear me quote it here all the time, but I think it's worth quoting again. It's not the perfection of one's life, but the direction of a life that provides evidence of regeneration.

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It's our heart direction and our hearts turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and our desires toward God and holiness and to live a godly and God -fearing life and to do everything we can by the help and the

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Spirit of God to be wise in what we think and how we think our thought life and the way we walk and the way we conduct ourselves and to live circumspectly.

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That's what Scripture says. So James is speaking about spiritual maturity and one important gauge of that is our speech.

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That's how we can gauge our spiritual temperature is the way we talk, what we say, and how we control the tongue or does the tongue control us?

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Pray not. So as I said in the past Lord's Day services, we looked at the one way we can all attain the tongue and is to recognize that we all have to be sober to the great judgment, don't we?

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And the judgment has a way to curb our life, doesn't it? Paul had a single eye and I heard

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Ravenhill say this, he had a single eye on the love of Christ and he had a single eye on the souls of men, of lost men.

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Martin Luther said, he says, I live by a two -day calendar, today and Judgment Day.

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The tongue is to recognize that to tame the tongue is to recognize that we are all going to be held accountable for our speech.

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And Jesus said it in Matthew 12, 36 and 37. I've quoted it many times and this one's worth memorizing.

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Jesus our Lord says, but I tell you that every careless word that people speak they shall give an account for in the day of judgment.

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That's sobering, isn't it? For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.

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Now again, let me emphasize that Jesus is not teaching justification by works, but like James he's teaching that our works reveal whether our faith is genuine, living, faith that works.

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That's what he's saying. But our words either validate that or that we are true believers or reveal that we do not know

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God. That's basically what it says, what the text is saying. And not if we sin.

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Scripture says when we sin, right? Now we're not talking about practicing sinning.

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We don't practice sin. We hate sin, don't we? But we're going to sin. Like we sung this morning about our heart prone to wonder from the wonder away from the

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God I love. The God I love I wonder away like that one sheep that leaves the ninety and nine and then the

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Lord comes after me with a hook and a crook. Amen, Michael?

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And he knows how to come after but it's love that does that. Love that disciplines us.

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Love that rebukes us. Love that chastens us. Love that warns us. Love that cares for us and that's what love is.

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God loves us. And think of it. It's our speech.

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We always confess. We always move toward repentance. And I like what Calvin said here, the reformer.

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Calvin said this, repentance is not the beginning of the Christian life. It is the Christian life.

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And that's what he's saying. He said we have a heart toward repentance. So read the Psalms. Look at David. Constantly just coming before God and laying his heart down on the altar of God so to speak and saying

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Lord here I am. You know my heart created me a clean heart. Oh God and renew a right spirit within me.

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Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Don't take that Holy Spirit from me. And he goes on and on.

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You know David's heart cry. He had a heart after God. A single eye after God.

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He knew he sinned against God. Bathsheba was not even mentioned once in Psalm 51. But he said

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God it's me. It's me. It's me. It's my sin. I've offended you. It's God.

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That's that's our concern and that's why we repent. That's why we confess. And by the way that's healthy for your soul.

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That's healthy for my soul. Stay in the gears of repentance.

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And if you don't, the hardness of heart will set in beloved. Got to have a tender heart before God.

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This is daily beloved. Always recognizing. Always noticing our own sinfulness within our own heart.

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And not never trust our own heart. And always asking for God's cleansing and God's touching our heart and also touching our tongue so to speak.

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Like Isaiah with the burning hot coals from off the altar and God touched him and it cleansed him.

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But it was painful wasn't it? Genuine believers have this sense of being accountable for their speech.

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So to tame the tongue by the help and the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by our own flesh. Not by our own strength.

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Not by our own striving. Not by our own trying. But by the power of the Holy Spirit as we surrender and lay it down at his feet.

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And submit to him and obey him. We must recognize and I say this, we must recognize that we will be held accountable for what we say.

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So true. The judgment before us curbs our life. Every day

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I think of it. This could be today. I'm gonna see him face to face. Jesus can come back.

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That's a reality. It's going to happen. And the next thing you know, we're standing before the judgment.

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But not only will Jesus come back, our life is like a vapor, like a shadow.

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We're not promised the next day are we? Just go to the graves. It's all sizes, different ages, all the way from infant to elderly.

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So we don't know when we're going to pass from this life to the eternal. But we're going to give an account, aren't we?

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And that's sobering, beloved. We've got to keep that before us. Well, and saying that, there's a great truth that's given to us in verse 1 and 2.

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And that is that great truth. But let's move on. Let's look at 2nd, the tamed of tongue.

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We must recognize its power for good and for evil. So he moves on to this and James uses, and don't you love the

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Apostle James? He comes right down where we can practically understand this.

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And he gives two illustrations to this text. And there's other illustrations he gives further down the road, but we're going to look at that later.

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But we're going to just take it from verse 3 to verse 5 and look at these two analogies that show the power of the tongue to control.

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Now let's look with me please at verse 3. Notice what he says. James gives the first analogy.

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What does he say? Now if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they obey us, we direct the entire body as well.

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What an illustration. Now James makes this point with these two everyday practical illustrations.

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That's what I love about James. There's such wisdom that's behind this. And he brings it to something that we can grasp and understand.

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He doesn't speak in the sense like Paul speaks, like the theologian, like in Romans.

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Paul's bringing a case theologically and then he brings it to everyday life, of course, and Paul was like that.

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But James steps right into the wisdom literature in a sense, like Solomon, and he gives it in an everyday illustration.

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Now I love this. The first he speaks about bits into the horse's mouth, which is an illustration that's particularly appropriate because the bits lie on top of the horse's tongue.

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The reason for that, and when attached to the bridle and the reins, it is possible for the rider, using that bit, to easily make the horse obey and turn that horse either way, to the left or to the right, and make the horse do whatever he likes.

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Thus controlling the horse's mouth controls the head of the horse, which in turn directs the entire body of the horse.

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Powerful animal. James has this in mind. Now he gives this illustration because in James's day,

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I think of the Romans. Now if you were to think in his days, I would think of the chariot races, if you've seen

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Ben -Hur. There was a tremendous chariot race. That's something, isn't it?

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I mean you see these horses and they're controlling these horses with the small bits, and that's what he's saying.

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Now in our day, let's bring in our day about horses. It's very practical. You think of a jockey.

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A jockey that's in the Grand National or the Kentucky Derby. That's what I think of, and he controls the horse by means of that small bit placed in its mouth, but although this horse weighs a tremendous amount, it's controlled.

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It enables the rider to control and harness the energy of a thoroughbred horse that weighs a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds.

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That's what James is thinking of, and the horse is traveling up to over 35 miles per hour, which is pretty fast for a horse and even faster sometimes.

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But not only the the bigness and the largeness of the horse is controlled by the bit, but also even gentle horses.

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Think of this. Gentle horses, which have been ridden for many years, are not controllable without the small bits in their mouth.

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Even a gentle horse, as long as they are expected to perform service, whether for riding or for pulling or plowing or whatever it may be, they require that control from that small bit.

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The tongue is like that, beloved. That's what James is saying. The little tongue, small and light, but it harnesses the power of the whole person.

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That's what he's saying, for good or for ill, for good or for evil. It harnesses that, and so it is with the believers.

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To be useful to God, we need our tongues to be controlled. That's what he's saying. This little tongue, a world of iniquity, needs to be controlled and everything else following in submission to it.

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A tongue that is so small has the power to control one's whole person, influence everything in his entire life.

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That introduction story basically tells it, doesn't it? That's just one story.

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There's many, many other things that's happened because of one tongue. James goes to a second practical illustration.

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Look at verse 4. Now he says, look at the ships. Went from an animal, a large animal with small bits, now he says, let's look at the large ships now.

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Also, though they are so great and they're driven by strong winds, are still directed, that's the key word, directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

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Now again, what's he doing? The tongue, he's saying the tongue is like that rudder of the ship. Very practical illustrations, isn't it?

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Rudders are much bigger and heavier than horses' bits, but back then, ships are much larger than horses, of course, but in proportion to the ship, the rudder is very small, isn't it?

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And yet it can steer a great ship, great size. Think of that, it's incredible.

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The ship is driven by strong winds across the ocean, powerful winds, powerful oceans, yet that rudder is controlling that large ship.

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I like what Sinclair Ferguson says in his book, Let's Study James. I know everybody's going through Let's Study Mark, but thank you,

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Miss Lillian, for that gift and I read it as I'm going through this and it's really a great book, but he said this, the person who controls the rudder is the master of the vessel, the whole vessel.

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Now that preached. The person who controls the rudder is the master of the whole vessel and if you think of it, the little tongue has no bone to it.

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Brother Keith brought this up one time. This little tongue has no bone, but yet it can crush and destroy entire lives.

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This one little muscle is probably stronger than any other muscle in our body because we work it all the time, don't we?

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But think of history's dictators down through the ages and how they have swayed whole nations and brought much terrible conflict and death by the tongue, the small tongue.

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Look at Adolf Hitler when he rose up in power, what his speech did to move. You look at the old tapes and stuff and you see thousands of people just moved by this man speaking with charismatic unction and empowered by Satan himself.

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Look at verse 5. James drives home the point, doesn't he? So also the tongue. That's what he's saying.

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So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet boasts of great things. In his commentary in James, J .E.

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Molitor says this, if our tongue were so well under control that it refused to formulate the words of self -pity, the images of lustfulness, the thoughts of anger and resentment, then these things are cut down before they have a chance to live.

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The master switch has deprived them of any power to switch on that side of our lives.

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And he goes on to say that the control of the tongue is more than evidence of spiritual maturity.

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It is the means to it. And that is so true. It is the means to it.

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So there's not only the negative, there's the positive. It could be used for the positive, but we have to allow the

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Holy Spirit to help us. James gives no specifics in saying here that the tongue boasts of great things.

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He doesn't tell us the specifics, but you can imagine what the little tongue can boast of because there's such pride.

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The number one sin, I believe, that we deal with is our pride. The tongue.

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That's what he says. It boasts of great things. He obviously has in mind man's natural inclination to boast, to brag, to claim to be somebody, to be self -centered.

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Contrary to the claims of much popular psychology to have high self -image. Yeah. Whenever and however the tongue boasts, it leaves a serious wake of destruction, doesn't it?

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It tears down others. It destroys churches. It can destroy families.

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It can destroy marriages. There's verbal abuse going on.

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Personal relationships have been destroyed because of the tongue. It can even lead to murder and it can even lead to war.

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We don't ever underestimate the power of the tongue because if you do, we won't be able to tame it.

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Proverbs says so much about it. Well, in conclusion to this, let's consider both the bit and the rudder real quickly.

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Small as they are both must be overcome contrary to the forces to direct the horse and the ship.

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Think about that. I want you to think about those two illustrations that James gives us and I believe there's something there we can take home with us.

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A horse is a very powerful animal as I said earlier that can do much useful work but only if it can be directed and controlled.

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It can be used for the good but it has to be controlled. What about the ship?

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Well, the ship is a useful means of transporting cargo, people. But if the rudder is broken, what's going to happen?

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It will be at the mercy of the winds and waves and can be lost and shipwrecked, causing lives and cargo to be damaged and ruined forever.

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It must be controlled. It must be directed. That's what he's saying.

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So to work properly and accomplish good things in our lives, both the bit and the rudder must be under the control and the strong hand of the power of the

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Holy Spirit. We can't tame it. He says that. No man can tame the tongue.

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But what about God? God can help us tame our tongue.

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So in the same way the tongue must overcome the contrary force of the flesh.

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It must be the control of the power of the Holy Spirit if it is to accomplish anything good. And I believe

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James would disagree with any familiar children's taunt, sticks and stones may break my bones but words would never hurt me.

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How many times have we heard that? The truth is that words do hurt.

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Words are harmful. Literally, they do hit harder than sticks and stones.

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Well, how do you know, pastor? Proverbs 12 .18 tells us, there's no one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword.

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I'm sorry, there's one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

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Imagine everyone here, if today we carried into this little room,

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God forbid, I'm glad we didn't, a real sword rather than the Word of God, okay. We're talking about a literal sword, razor sharp.

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When we came in here without a sheath, I would think somewhere along the line someone would get cut.

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So it is with the tongue. The Bible says the Word of God is the sharp two -edged sword but our tongues could be a sharp sword too.

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Only our tongues do the kind of damage that we cannot return.

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The damage is done. So we should use our, with great care, our tongues with great care and wisdom and that's why we need wisdom to bring healing and not injury.

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What about Proverbs 16 .24? Pleasant words, pleasant words, pleasant words are a honeycomb and sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

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Well, let's give some application to this real quickly. How can we tame, control this little small member that is restless evil, full of deadly poison?

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How can we do it? And as I answered, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit. But let me help give some specifics.

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Speaking of getting the tongue in gear, I need to pronounce my words right.

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How can this be done specifically? Well, let me answer that question, not with my own opinion but that wouldn't be of any avail for you.

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What about God? That's what we need to hear. We need to hear what God has to say and I'm going to the book of Proverbs and I'm going to end up to the words of Jesus.

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Let me give you chapter and verse to this question. Proverbs 18. Here's some good verses in Proverbs you can take.

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Proverbs 18 .20 and 21. Proverbs 18 .20 and 21 says, now

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I want you to get a hold of what he says here. With the fruit. That's very important here.

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The fruit or speech. It means speech. Man's power, his stomach will be satisfied.

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Life and death is in the power of the tongue. But notice what he says. His stomach will be satisfied.

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A man's, from the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach will be satisfied. He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.

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And then he says this. Death and life are in the power, or there's another translation, or in the hand of the tongue.

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Think of the tongue like the hand. In the power of the hand of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit.

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Now, what Solomon is saying is that the consequences of one's words should produce satisfaction and fulfillment, rather than the reverse.

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So rather than doing great harm and injury, there should be great good that comes forth in healing.

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And that's the way the child of God is. And that doesn't mean not to warn people. Actually when we do warn people, it's in love.

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Right? And speak the truth in love. We don't speak it in hate.

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We speak it in love and compassion and concern. Solomon here is accompanying the reward.

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Now notice in Proverbs 12, 14. This is a reference verse to Proverbs 18, 20, 21.

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Proverbs 12, 14. A very similar verse, and by the way, I would say it's like a brother or sister verse to the verse we just read.

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He says this, a man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words or his mouth.

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And notice what he says, and the deeds of a man's hands will return to him. So what is

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Solomon saying? He is comparing the reward of wise words like the reward of hard physical labor.

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Isn't that good? Proverbs 13, here's another one. These all connect.

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They interconnect. I don't like to take one verse and just lay it here. We look at verse, verse, verse, run it through Scripture.

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But Proverbs, there's one proverb just stacked up on top of another here. Proverbs 13, 2 and 3.

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Notice what he says. From the fruit of a man's mouth, he enjoys good.

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But the desire, or I should say the soul of the treacherous is violence.

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Verse 3, the one who guards his mouth preserves his life. Underscore that.

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One who guards his mouth preserves his life. The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

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In other words, if you're gossiping and slandering and having a big mouth so to speak, ruin is going to come to you.

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But if you're wise and guarding what you say and preserving your mouth and what you say and guarding it, you're preserving your life, your life.

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So in order for the tongue to be controlled in our lives in the right way, we must resist the ever -present inclination and temptation to boast, to brag.

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We should speak only gracious words, kind words, words that build up, words that edify, words that are not tearing down, but edifying and comforting and blessing and encouraging.

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It should be words of humility, words of gratitude, words of thanksgiving, words of peace, words of holiness, words of truth, words of wisdom.

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I can just go on. Such words, of course, can only come from the heart that not only is indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit, but is also wholly submitted to His controls. And this may seem impossible, but by the help of God, we can do this.

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But when the task seems great and too hard to remember, remember, if it seems impossible, the word of the

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Lord that came to Zerubbabel. When he was discouraged in completing the rebuilding of the temple, and God gave him a word to assure him of divine enablement.

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And that's the key, and that's why I'm mentioning this verse. For him to complete that great task that was before him, and the reason

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I mention this, it's like a great task before us to tame this tongue. It's monumental, beloved.

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And I considered it like building the temple. Zechariah 4, 6, and he said to me, this is the word of the

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Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my

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Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Only by that and the Holy Spirit can we control this tongue that's set on fire from hell, that's a world of iniquity, such a small member.

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Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by human might, not by human power, not by trying, but trusting.

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I take you to the words of Jesus, the greatest example, the perfect man, our Messiah, our

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Lord, our Savior, our King. And he spoke about this, and I'm going to tie it in to John 15, verses 1 -5.

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You can go there if you like. John 15, 1 -5, very familiar verses to believers in Jesus.

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But this is, I believe John 15, 16, and 17 should be studied constantly. You get discouraged, go to John 14, 15, 16, 17.

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You read those four chapters and that's the thing, you will be soaring with eagles, because it brings you down.

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And the way up is the way down, and the way down is the way up. The words of our Lord Jesus says this, and Jesus said it right from the beginning.

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I am, I can stop right there. He is the I am. I am the true vine, he says.

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My Father is the vinedresser, or the husbandman. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, remember what

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Solomon said about fruit? Now here he's talking about fruit that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

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And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

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Notice how many times he mentions fruit here. He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which

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I have spoken to you. And then he says this, abide in me. Here's the key, beloved.

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Abide in me. That abiding is a persevering. That is abiding. And I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

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Verse five. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit apart from me.

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You can do nothing. We need to take that to the bank and we need to make sure it sticks right here.

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Without Jesus, we're not nothing and we could do nothing.

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This whole chapter is about abiding in Christ. Verses 1 -11, relationship of believers to Christ.

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Verses 12 -17, relationship of believers to each other. Verses 18 -27, the relationship of believers to the world.

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Everything about relationship here. And by the way, what Jesus is saying, in order to have this power and this strength, it is abiding in him and that intimate communion with him in the secret place of the

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Most High and communion with God and union with Christ and taking the time to be holy and get before him in the word of God and in prayer and listening to God.

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Do not neglect your devotional time. That's where the strength and the power comes from.

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Being filled with the Spirit of God and how does that happen? It's not some mystical thing that happens or some emotional thing that happens.

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It is staying in the word of God and obeying God and coming in communion with him and making sure that I'm abiding in him and obeying his commandments.

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See, you're in Christ, but it's this constant communion he desires for us to come to him and have sweet communion with him.

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That's the wonderful thing, don't you love, about the Lord. We can come right into his presence because Jesus has paid the price and shed his blood.

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We can pray. No charge, beloved. It's all about abiding in Jesus and that word meaning abiding means remaining in Jesus, staying around.

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Jesus says, stay around. It's evidence that salvation has already happened so he's not the vice versa, but this is perseverance of the saints and Calvin didn't come up with it either.

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Jesus did. Abiding in Jesus, bearing fruit, being pruned.

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He talks about pruning. You know about pruning. You prune something, it grows even better and it produces more fruit.

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But there has to be a cutting. There has to be a pruning. I don't know about you,

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I want Jesus to prune me from this world. Prune it. Bearing more fruit.

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This is evidence of a true believer in Jesus. Abiding, continuing. So the tongue can only be tamed if we're in Christ and filled with his spirit.

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Then out from that, there's a beautiful relationship that comes.

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Out from that produces the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and what does he end with?

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Self -control. That one hits me hard. That's what I need.

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Lord help me have this self -control. I can't do this without myself, but at the same time there is a sanctification wall that God's not going to come down and do it for you.

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He's in you, he does it through you, but you must discipline yourself. It's the discipline of grace, beloved.

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It's something we have to do. Theologically it speaks bondage and synergistic.

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It's all God or all me or is it some God or some of me? Well ultimately it's all

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God, right? But in salvation, in sanctification, it's

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God in you, but you must do the obedience. See? That's what

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James is talking about. Be doers of the word. He didn't say God's going to come do it for you, did he?

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You be doers. You sanctify yourself. You set aside yourself.

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You set apart from the Lord. And that's why it constantly says, you notice if the charge is to the

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Christian, be holy for I'm holy. Sanctify yourself. Set yourself apart.

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Come out from among them. Be a separate. All of this,

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Paul says against such there is no law. It's the power of the Spirit, what he's saying.

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It's by faith. And all these godly attributes, attitudes, characterize the lives of only those who belong to the

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Lord Jesus Christ in faith and possess the abiding Spirit of God. Literally the

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Spirit of God taken up residence within your heart. As we abide close to Jesus Christ, may these attitudes be reflected in us.

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And that Jesus Christ will be beautiful and attractive to a lost and a dying world that needs to see

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Jesus. Why? It's not for us, is it?

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Hold that they may see the glory of God. That's what Jesus said. He said, let your light so shine before men that they may see what?

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Your good works. That why? That they may glorify your

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Father in heaven. That's the purpose of good works, beloved. And that is talking about sanctification.

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May God grant this for His glory and for His honor in Jesus' name. Let's pray. Our Father, this is a strong word to each and every one of us about the tongue.

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Our Father and our God, we pray and we plead as the psalmist prayed.

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As David prayed, I said, Lord, I will guard my ways. I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.

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I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence.

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Lord, we are surrounded by wicked people. We must place a muzzle, so to speak, a guard over our tongue.

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And Lord, help us speak the words of life to the lost and dying world. Words of truth and to make

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Jesus shine that the glory, that your glory may be seen. Father, only by your abiding presence, being filled with your blessed

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Holy Spirit and by the discipline of grace can we guard and control this tongue. This little tongue, this little member, like a rudder, like a horse's bit, controls the whole life, controls the whole body, controls our course.

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Help us, Lord, to be committed and obedient to your word and be doers of the word and just not hearers.

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Help us, Lord, not to be forgetful. Help us, Lord, to always remember and especially to remember the

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One who set the standard, the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

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Father, I think about the verse, He was reviled and yet He did not revile back. May our tongue be used to praise you and to bless you, not to revile and curse, but to bless those who persecute us, as your word says, to bless and not curse, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep, and to be of the same mind toward one another, and not to be haughty in mind, but to associate with the lowly, as Jesus did, and do not be wise in our own eyes, but to never pay evil for evil, but respect what is right in the sight of all men.

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Lord, we need help in these areas. Lord, would you come now and fill us afresh with your Spirit and be pleased, be pleased,

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Lord. Lord, you said this, but you're so willing to do this.

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As your Son said, if someone were to ask a stone, serpent,

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Lord, it's ridiculous to think that you would not bless your children in these things, and you are so pleased to give the

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Holy Spirit to those who ask. So Jesus, be Jesus in me. No longer me, but thee.

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Resurrection power, fill us this hour. Help us, Lord, to focus on our

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Savior as we walk and sanctify ourselves in this world. Lord, you called us out of the world, you redeemed us from the world, off the slave market of sin, now you send us back to the world.

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That's our mission. That's our mission. To bring Jesus to the world, to go back to Egypt, to go back there and to bring deliverance and say to the devil, let my people go.