Adult Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church

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All right, we're continuing on with the study of James, and we're in Chapter 3 today.

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So let's just begin by reading that, Chapter 3, Verses 1 through 12.

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James Chapter 3, Verses 1 through 12. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

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For many things we offend all. If any man offend not a word, the same as a perfect man unable to bridle the whole body.

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

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

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Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.

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

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

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

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

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Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be. Doth the fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter.

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Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either of vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

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So last week, Brother Foreman looked at the importance of what you do, and this week we're looking at the importance of what you say.

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And James continues to be very blunt about concerns he has about the reader's spiritual condition.

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And so this portion of scripture is about the test of the tongue.

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And so we're talking about that today. Psalms 33, six says, by the word of the

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Lord, the heavens were made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. God's words are powerful.

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And when God speaks, things happen. And Jesus personifies the word of God.

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John 1, 14 says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the

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Father, full of grace and truth. Words matter a great deal to God, and we want our words to also be full of grace and truth.

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And our words can be powerful as well. Not in the same way as God's words, but our words can be powerful.

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And Proverbs 18, 21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

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Our words have such great power, they can result in life, or they can result in death. Whatever you say, you'll reap the result of it.

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Words are powerful tools that can be used either for good or bad. So it's up to us to decide.

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When things go wrong, you can often trace it back to something someone said, something someone texted or emailed, and what followed after that spun out of control.

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And we often have emailed chains at work that get out of control, and somebody says, stop, let's have a meeting.

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And so, yeah, things can go bad with that. And James 3, 1 says, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

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So the word masters in this verse is talking about a teacher, someone that's a teacher.

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The word condemnation means judgment. So a person who teaches has to be careful that they're not judged to be a hypocrite.

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If they are, it nullifies the message that they spoke. So this whole passage about speech is a warning to those who wish to teach that they better take care to live a genuine life.

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People are watching to see if you live what you preach. On the one hand,

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James says, be not many teachers. But on the other hand, I was thinking of Jesus in Matthew commands us to go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.

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And lo, I am with you all the way even unto the end of the world. So what do you think? Are they contradicting each other here?

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I think we should be reluctant.

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Should we be, sorry, should we be reluctant to be a teacher and only a few of us teach?

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Or should everyone want to teach everyone like Jesus' command?

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So how do you reconcile the two passages? It seems that in James' day, many people were wanting to be teachers in the church.

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And most of these guys probably should not have been involved in teaching as they were living in such a way that people could easily see that they were not genuinely living out the things that they were teaching about.

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So it's best to refrain from teaching if you're living hypocritically. People who are immature

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Christians should not be teachers in the church. James wasn't saying that good teachers should not teach.

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He was saying that bad teachers shouldn't teach, basically. So the Jews had, it seems that in James' day, many people were wanting to be teachers in the church.

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And these guys were possibly looking at the Jews, the

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Pharisees, the rabbis as teachers as an example of what a teacher looked like.

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And Pharisees and rabbis were people who were trying to get attention for themselves.

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These bad teachers were performing their teaching to be seen of men. They were self -seeking.

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They wanted the prestige, the praise of men. And Jesus was very much opposed to this type of teacher.

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The teacher in the church must not be motivated by pride. God would like us all to be living genuinely and to be teachers so that his message can reach the world.

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God wants us all to live genuinely so that we can be good teachers. It was a sad thing that James didn't feel that very many of them were fit to teach.

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James isn't trying to stop people from being teachers who were genuinely suitable teachers.

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It's one thing to stick your foot in your mouth during a private conversation, but it can be much more damaging to offend while you're speaking in public.

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Then verse two says, "'For in many things we offend all. "'If any man offend not him, we're the same as a perfect man "'unable also to bridle the whole body.'"

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So if a person's able to control their tongue so that they don't offend others, it's a sign that they're mature and able to control the rest of their body as well.

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If you can control your tongue, you can control your body. It's people who are in good control of their tongues that should be sought out to be teachers.

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And then verse three through five, "'Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth "'that they may obey us, "'and we turn about their whole body.

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"'Behold also the ships, "'which though they be so great "'and are driven of fierce winds, "'yet are they turned about with a very small helm, "'withersoever the governor listeth.

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"'Even the tongue is a little member "'and boasteth great things.'" The tongue is small, but it has power to steer great things.

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Has power all out of proportion to its size. And so a very small bit can cause a big horse to go where we want it to go and do what we want it to do, even though the horse may have a desire to go some other direction.

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And it's interesting that the bit goes in the horse's mouth where the tongue is, and a person who can control their tongue can control their whole body.

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If you can master the tongue, you can control your actions also. And then the example of the ship, ships have a very small rudder that controls the direction that the ship goes, even though the wind might be trying naturally to push it in some other direction.

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Since the tongue is small, it doesn't seem like it should have much power. But yet the tongue of a teacher can turn the hearts of a great number of listeners to go in some different direction than what they've naturally been heading.

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Do you think it could be a good thing if the teacher's genuine in pointing his listeners towards God?

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A teacher who is a hypocrite, however, may turn the hearts of his class and send them off in a dangerous direction.

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We can see in the next verse that James was concerned that tongues were prone to influence others in a bad way.

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But each of us has a tongue with the power to turn the hearts of others. Are you steering others towards Christ?

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Or are you pointing them towards division and boasting and deception and whatever?

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But do we use our tongues in a good way? How many of us just get lazy when we talk to others?

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You know, do we stray away, do we stay away from the rudder and let the wind drive the ship wherever it wants to go?

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Do we drop the reins and just let ourselves blab on in any direction we naturally want to go?

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Or do we have a good direction in mind and try to steer others in that direction?

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Proverbs 15, 28 says, "'The heart of the righteous studieth to answer, "'but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.'"

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So many times in God's word, you know, it encourages us to think about what we're gonna say.

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You know, don't just drop the reins and blab whatever, but think about it a little bit first.

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We should give some thought to what we say. Try to be careful with our answer and make sure it's in line with God's word.

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So notice that the ship is turned wherever the governor listeth. This word listeth means will.

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So essentially it means to turn the ship wherever he will go. Who is your governor?

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Does God govern your life or are you going your own way? It's not easy to go against the wind.

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We need to steer people in the direction that God would have us go. Sometimes that means going against the wind of opinion in order to be true to God's word.

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And when you're teaching and influencing people with your words, are you taking them toward God? Taking the reins can be difficult.

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The horse might want something fierce to gossip or to complain or go in some other direction. Are you able to rein it in?

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Taking the rudder can be a lonely position. You'll have opposition when you're going against the wind.

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Are you confident in what you believe because you know the word of God and you understand his heart?

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Do you care more about what God says than what others think? In Philippians, we had a lesson on thought.

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Do we think good things so that we might be able to align our thoughts with God? When our thoughts are right, we can speak right and steer others toward something true, something honest, something just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous or praiseworthy.

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People in our day don't know what to do. They don't know what to think or they're wanting to do the wrong thing.

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So many people don't even know what's right anymore. We need people who know what is right, who will grab the reins, restrain their tongue and instruct others in what is good and loving and right.

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So many people are wandering around all over the place. So many people have no direction in life.

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They get blown around by whatever society thinks is right at the time. We need people in our day who have bold tongues, people with tongues that are backed up by right thoughts, who know the right way to go because they follow the leading of God as their governor.

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We need people who will use their tongues for life. We need people who know where the rocks are and can steer others clear of them.

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We need people who against all odds, though the ship is enormous and the wind is fierce, will stand up for God and pull on that tiny rudder and turn the hearts of others towards God.

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So in our day today, what do we have available for us to use as rudders?

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Who can think of a, what can you grab ahold of as a handle to turn a rudder?

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We have a lot of rudders in this world compared to the time of James. Texting, social media, yeah.

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We still have teaching and preaching like James had. What else?

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Personal conversation, the word of God, yeah.

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Good, mm -hmm.

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Yeah, we have his Holy Spirit. Any other thoughts?

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What can we use as rudders? Blogs, YouTube, what else?

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Email, preachers and teachers, yes.

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Twitter, school board meetings. And I've been thinking a lot about parades lately, that that's a place where the word of God can be easily spread to a lot of people.

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And we have every little town in this area has a parade.

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It's possible to reach a good -sized chunk of northern Illinois. So yeah,

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I'm, you can't really do a parade alone.

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So anybody that wants to labor alongside of me in the gospel, this is a good opportunity. If you wanna take some action and do like last week's lesson, see me?

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We can do a parade. So anyway, that's rudders.

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James 3, 5 and 6, behold how great of matter a little fire kindleth.

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

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The tongue can, not only can it defile the whole body, steer something all out of proportion to its size, but it can also destroy all out of proportion to its size.

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We talked about how it could turn a big ship, but it can set a whole forest on fire.

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The tongue is capable of igniting great destruction.

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And behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Words have a way of spreading like a fire.

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You might think that you said some small thing to just one person or a few people, but that thing you kindled, though it may seem like just a couple of little twigs at first can get all blown out of proportion and it can cause great damage.

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It can become a forest fire of trouble. And once words come out of the mouth, you don't know where they're gonna go or what damage they might do.

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So notice the phrase world of iniquity. The tongue is tiny, but yet as big as the whole world when it comes to iniquity.

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A whole world of iniquity can be wrapped up in the tongue. And then notice it defileth the whole body.

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The word defileth means to stain. So an unruly tongue stains the whole person.

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It's like smoke from a fire permeates everything and makes something smell. If your tongue's out of control, it can stain your reputation.

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An out of control tongue can cause your reputation to stink. And then notice the phrase it is set on fire of hell.

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The word hell is the word for the Valley of Hinnom, the garbage dump in Jerusalem.

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And that garbage dump was known for being continually burning. So what's the source of the destructive fire of the tongue?

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It's the worthless things of the world. This whole world is full of intellectual garbage.

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And do you lick those things up with your tongue and catch your tongue on fire? Or are your thoughts grounded on the word of God?

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Are the things you say garbage talk fit to be burned up?

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Or do the things you say have value in God's estimation? So why eat garbage?

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Eat something sweet and something wholesome. Psalm 119, 103 says, how sweet are thy words unto my taste?

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Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. And then Proverbs 16, 24 says, pleasant words are as in honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.

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And then notice about fire also that it devours. Psalm 52, four says, thou lovest all devouring words

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O thou deceitful tongue. And then Galatians 5, 15 says, cautions us that, but if you bite and devour one another take heed that you be not consumed to one another.

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And this, I always loved reading this story to my kids when they were little about the gingham dog and the calico cat.

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They got into a fight and they basically there was fur flying everywhere and they were chewing on each other and they ended up eating each other up and disappearing.

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But yeah, don't devour each other with words. I mean, that's the opposite of what

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God wants us to do. He wants us to be loving and kind. We should work at building each other up, not devouring and destroying.

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James was concerned about these people that wanted to teach that their tongues would do great damage like a wildfire.

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And for every kind of beast, James 3, 7 through 9 says, for every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankind.

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

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The tongue can't be tamed by man. This makes the tongue unique. Every other type of critter can be tamed by man somehow.

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Unruly means unrestrainable. Something unrestrainable and poisonous makes us think of a snake, but even a snake can be tamed, but not the tongue.

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James was concerned about some of these people who wanted to teach there was no way to control what they would say when they got up to teach.

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And man can't tame the tongue, but God can. God is well aware of what you say.

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Psalm 139, 4 says, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

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The words of a saved person should be different. Psalm 37, 30 says, the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment.

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And Psalm 35, 28 says, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

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A person who knows the Lord has different things to talk about. They no longer spout the filth and garbage of the world that sets on fire.

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They have a fountain of living water that quenches the thirst. They have Christ in their heart. So they speak of wisdom, of judgment, righteousness, and praise.

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And James 3, verses nine through 12. Thereby bless we

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God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made in the similitude of God.

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Out of the same mouth proceed with blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

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

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Either of vine, figs? So can no fountain, both yield salt water and fresh.

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James is not saying that you can speak both good things and bad things mixed together. He's saying that mixed words reveal corruption at the source.

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What comes out of the mouth is in harmony with what's at the bottom of the well. And speech is a window to the soul.

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And it shines a light on what's going on beneath the surface. It appears that James might have learned this from Jesus.

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Jesus said something very similar in Luke 6, 43 through 45.

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Jesus said, for a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

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For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns, men do not gather figs nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

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A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.

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For the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh. What you say is a fruit of what's in your heart.

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What you say is consistent with what is actually going on inside of you. Do the words that come out reveal a good man who's been changed by God's spirit?

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Or do the words that come out reveal a person who doesn't know the Lord? The tongue is a publisher of the soul.

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And what's inside can't be kept there. Who we are is more visible to others than we might think.

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We've all said words that we were proud of saying, things we thought were good.

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And we've all said words that we would give anything if we could take them back. But God's words matter more to us than anything we have said.

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There's nothing we've said that can't be forgiven and wiped clean by God. God is able to change your heart in the fountain of words that flow from it.

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So James uses the examples of grapes and fruit and fresh water because good words can give life.

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Are your words nourishing to other people? So how can our words be used to nourish others?

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Any thoughts on that? What can we do, what can we say to nourish others with our words?

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Share scripture, good. Yeah, ask people how they're doing.

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Encouragement and compliments, good. Tell them the truth in love, that's good.

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Beth, praying with people, praying for people, good.

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Anybody else? The word fitly spoken is like apple of gold in settings of silver.

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Anybody else? And we can be a good listener too,

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I think, is a good way. Proverbs 10, 21 says, the lips of the righteous feed many.

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So we can nourish others with our words. Have you ever harvested something because of words you sowed a long time ago?

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Have you ever built something with your words? Can you think of someone who has changed the course of your life with their words?

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Have you ever tried to change the course of others with your words? Pull on a rudder to steer others in a good direction.

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So where is James' message aimed? It's at the church.

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You know, we would never say some things to a stranger, yet to those we're very familiar with, we're more candid and blunt.

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The true fountain of our words often comes out in our homes. Do our children know that we're gentle, kind, compassionate, merciful, and forgiving?

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Do we pull the rudder to steer our children in the right way? Proverbs 16, 24 says, gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

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Our words ought to produce sweet fruit, bring health, bestow beauty, sow in righteousness, and reveal wisdom from above.

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What kind of fountain do you have inside? Does the sweet truth of good thoughts based on God's word bubble to the surface?

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Where is the bitter trouble of the world churning in your heart? And how can we nourish others?

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Thanks, I'd appreciate that. And a lot of good probing questions in that lesson, weren't there?

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So very helpful. Let's pray and then have a nice break. Stand up, get some exercise to get the blood flowing so you can be awake with the rest of the services today.

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Thank you, our God, for challenging words from your word, challenges us with our words.

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Oh Lord, may we use our tongues to help, to edify, to encourage, to lift up, and be fruit -producing in the lives of others and in our own lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.