Taming the Untameable Tongue: Part 5

The Untameable Tongue and the Need for the Holy Spirit

Well, we continued the series here on taming the untameable tongue and we found out, as Scripture says, no man can tame the tongue, so we surely need the power of the Holy Spirit to help. So, turn with me to James chapter 3, please.

James chapter 3, as we look into our study, and this will be a part 5, and I'm going to do my utmost, by God's help, to conclude this series today on this. And we'll be looking, as a whole, He speaks from verse 1 in chapter 3 to verse 12 on the tongue, but today I'd like for us to look at its primitiveness and intrinsic evil, get my words right here, to combat and its profanity to compromise.

The text in chapter 3, we're going to pretty much, we're going to look at verse 7 to the end of the chapter. Verse 7, beginning with verse 7 through verse 12. Hear the word of the living God. For every species of beast and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Verse 9, he says, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.

My brethren, aren't you glad he says my brethren? My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives?

Or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. Let's pray. Father, we, only you can take your words from our ears to our hearts this day. Lord we're so limited. Lord, this burden's upon me to minister this word and Lord I would pray that you would help all of us today to receive it.

Lord, it steps on my toes, it steps on all of our toes, it pierces our heart. Your word is like a sharp two-edged sword. So we pray, Father, come Holy Spirit, may Jesus Christ be glorified. Teach us, Holy Spirit, the things of Christ to us this morning.

And we would pray with the psalmist in Psalm 119, deal bountifully with your servant, O Lord, that I may live and keep your word. Help us to keep it, Lord. Help us not just to be hearers, but to be doers of your words.

So Father, open our eyes that we may behold wonderful things from your law. I would pray today, challenge us, mold us, break us, change us, and Father, in the end, use us for your glory. I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Verse 7 and 8, James, through the Holy Spirit says,. For every species of beast and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue.

He gets right to the point, doesn't he? It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. That's the point that James is making, really, in these two verses. Simply, that the human tongue is innately uncontrollable and untameable.

It cannot be tamed. Why? Why? Well, number one, because it's wild. That's what he's saying. It's wild. Secondly, it's undisciplined. Third, it's irresponsible. Fourth, it's irrepressible. And to say the least, it's extremely savage.

It's like Brother Keith chose that picture, I think. You chose it, didn't you, Brother Keith? Okay, good one. That lion can be tamed. That's a pretty strong beast, isn't it? Bring a lion in here, he'd tear us apart.

He wasn't tamed. But think about the tongue. You can't tame it. It's undisciplined. In what might be called its primitive or intrinsic evil, it combats every effort to control and to direct it. So James gives us a very vivid picture here, doesn't he?

He gives almost like word pictures, very practical, and very clear and very vivid to our mind's eye of the tongue and how savage it really is. And it's very serious. In verse 5b and verse 6, he says the tongue is like a fire.

We looked at that last Lord's Day. In verse 6, he says it's an entire world of a world of iniquity. A whole world of iniquity. Think of that. It is said among our members as that which defiles the entire body.

It's small, but it's deadly. It acts like an untamed beast. In verse 8, it is like a restless evil, he says. It acts like deadly poison. What I love here is an imagery here for the whole lifetime for us for self-examination.

We could take a whole lifetime to examine our own hearts on just this one area, the tongue. And we do need to take inventory, don't we, this morning? We do need to take it all to heart of the seriousness of what James says about the tongue.

So the tongue can be very, very dangerous. That's what he's saying. Now James gives to us in these verses really an alarming conclusion of what he's saying everything previously. He concludes it in verse 7 and 8, every kind of beast and bird, reptile, and sea creature.

Notice he goes to nature. He goes to the creation. The wildness of nature. And he says it can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It's amazing, isn't it? Creatures, great and small on this planet, this little planet Earth.

Gentle and wild. Fast and slow. Here have been tamed, but yet the tongue no one has tamed. Untameable. And as I said before, only God can help us tame the tongue. So what's the evidence? That's a question I'd like to set before you here.

What's the evidence? He gives us the evidence. The evidence is found, really, in the deep contradictions in what we say. What do you mean, Pastor David, in the deep contradictions? Well, it says here that we bless God the Father, but we curse people made in the image of God.

That's a contradiction. And by the way, a contradiction, this is not found in nature. The contradiction is not found in fig trees, nor in grapevines, nor in salt ponds. They do not bear olives or figs or provide fresh water.

Notice in verse 11 and 12 verse 11 and 12, does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? What a question. Then he gives another question on top of a question. Can a fig tree, my brother, produce olives or vine produce figs?

Very strong questions. Don't you love that kind of wisdom that just puts the question right in front of you and it makes you think? And of course, there's an answer. Of course, obviously no. So, you think of it, Isaiah the prophet realized this as we looked at the conclusion, and I think I brought a conclusion to it two times in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple and Isaiah saw his own sinfulness and he said, woe is me for I'm ruined, I'm undone. And he needed a cleansing of his tongue. He said, woe is me.

I was looking at the previous chapter of Isaiah 6. Go with me very quickly to Isaiah chapter 5. I'd like for you to just see this. Before he saw in chapter 6 the Lord high and lifted up in the year that King Uzziah died and then God met him and he saw this great vision of God.

But I want you to notice some verses in chapter 5 of Isaiah. And Isaiah the prophet was a godly, very godly holy man, a very righteous man in his day that pronounced woes upon in the name of God. And by the way, that was.

A very.

Holy calling upon a prophet to speak for God if you think of that. It was a place of suffering. He pronounces six woes. It's interesting. He pronounces six woes here. Look at chapter 5. Look at verse 8.

Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there's no more room so that you have to live alone in the midst of the land. That's the first woe he pronounces. And look at verse 11.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them. He pronounces a woe upon them. Look at verse 18. Woe to those who drag a nickel deep with the cords of falsehood and sin as if with the cart ropes.

Look at verse 20. I'm just pointing you out to the woes he gives here. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil and to substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Then he says in verse 21, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Look at verse 22. Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, valiant men in mixing strong drink.

Those are the woes he gave. Keep in mind a woe is like a curse upon them. A curse. But what happens when he sees God high and lifted up? This holy prophet pronounces a curse upon himself. And that's the seventh woe.

It's almost like a final climatic, seventh woe against himself. In verse 5 of chapter 6, notice that. Woe is me for I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. That's what we're talking about out there. This holy prophet recognized his lips were unclean and I live among a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts and after he saw the holiness of God, he pronounces this woe upon himself. He recognizes his own sin and that's the place we need to be. It's really a good place because there's hope for us when we see our own sin.

God has a healing balm. And of course, look what he does and God does. In verse 6, the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand. Burning live coal. Think of that. Hot. Which he had taken from the altar with the tongues.

He touched my mouth. The most sensitive part in the body. With it and said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. God cleanses him. Well, that's good news.

That's good news. There's hope for us. There's hope for us. We can be cleansed. So after he saw the lord of glory, the lord of hosts, he discovered his own sinfulness. I'd like to ask you a question. Have we ever reached this conclusion about ourselves?

Have you reached this conclusion about yourself? Well, back to James. Notice that in James. Verse 10. He says, my brothers. He says, these things ought not to be so. While this is so true universally by definition, what is sinful and evil ought not to be.

It should not be. It is particularly true for the Christian as well. Just not everybody else, but particularly true for the Christian. For we bear the name of God. This is to whom James is addressing is the brethren, is the church.

And he draws special attention to this. And this is great love that God would be loving enough to point this out to us. In the world in which, this pampered world in which we live today and of course within the church, even in the church.

Sad to say, you preach a message like this and you look down as scolding them or being harsh. But it's really great love that would point out this. And James does this by the Holy Spirit. Every word of God's peer isn't it?

And from the same mouth, he says, from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. What a warning. Now let me give a question around here. Why should they not be that way?

Well, that's a good question really. Why? Mainly, I would think it ought not to be this way because the first impact the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has upon our souls is an exposure of our own sinfulness.

Remember when Jesus first came up to Peter, or should I say the first time Peter saw the Lord, he said, depart from me for I am a wicked man. I'm thinking Jesus didn't say anything to him. He just walked up to him.

And Peter recognized right away the holiness of Christ. Peter says, depart from me. You know, it's really a good question. The first evidence upon our own souls as born again believers is that the gospel exposes our own sinful hearts.

Why? In order as Isaiah to cleanse us and to renew us. That's what God wants to do. He's in the business of cleansing us. And that's why we need continued cleansing, don't we, even as Christians because there's not a total perfection or a sinless perfection.

You notice we live in a dirty world and sometimes it rubs off on us and things happen and it's still down deep in our heart and what comes out of our mouth I think every time something wrong comes out of my mouth I say, something's wrong with my heart.

Something is still down in there. There's roots. But God is in the business of cleansing us and renewing our hearts. And by the way, He wants to silence boasting. Well, I want to look at this very quickly.

Silence boasting of ourselves so that we may boast only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should not boast of ourselves. You notice in the world in which we live people want to boast about themselves.

God is in the business of humbling us but what does He say? He says, He that humbles himself shall exalt himself and he that exalts himself shall be humbled. That's the way it works in God's economy. So in this connection we need to remember Paul's most basic and powerful presentation of our need for the gospel.

And here you have it. The need of the gospel. And Paul says this in Romans chapter 3. Go with me very quickly to Romans chapter 3. Look at one verse. Well, maybe two verses. Look at verse 19. I'm going to kind of connect a little bit here what James is speaking.

Paul the apostle says this, and you know Romans, it's one of the greatest theological books ever written. But first of all, he gives the good news in chapter 1, in the beginning of chapter 1 verse 16.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ but it is the power of God unto salvation. He goes on and he gives the gospel first and then he gives the bad news about the wrath of God. You don't hear that much today, do you?

But we do need to hear it. But notice in verse 19 of chapter 3, whatever the law says, Paul says, it speaks to those who are under the law. Whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law.

Notice what he says, so that every mouth may be stopped. Or may be closed is another translation. And all the world may become accountable to God. That's a strong verse, isn't it? That the whole world may become accountable to God.

Now I want to give you something. I love D. Martin Lloyd Jones. He was a wonderful expositor of England years ago. Great, great preacher of the gospel. And his book, when he did an exposition on Romans, which is remarkable, that and also he did others, the Sermon on the Mount and then the Gospels, but the book of Romans is incredibly good.

But this is what he says about this verse in Romans. Listen to what he says. Paul now points out, this is Lloyd Jones, that when you realize that what the law is truly saying to you, the result is that every mouth shall be stopped.

He goes on to say, you are rendered speechless. You are not a Christian unless you have been made speechless. How do you know whether you're a Christian or not? It is that you stop talking. The trouble with the non-Christian is that he goes on talking.

And then he says this, how do you know whether a man is a Christian? Once again, he brings that question to the forefront. He says this, the answer is that his mouth is shut. And then he goes on to say, I like this forthrightness of the gospel.

People need to have their mouths shut. Stopped. You do not begin to be a Christian until your mouth is shut, is stopped, and you are speechless and have nothing to say. End quote. How right is he? This is what happens when we are truly converted to Jesus Christ.

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, they called him the doctor, because that was his profession until God called him to the ministry. They still called him the doctor. He was doing spiritual surgery rather than physical surgery.

But the good doctor is so right, isn't he? Surely he put his finger right on the very essence of everything right there from what Paul says in the law about the gospel. And our tongues are so often the very motive ungodly drive that proceeds from the center of our being, isn't it?

And what's the center of our being? Our heart. The heart is the real you. The heart, and we're not talking about the physical pumping machine within us here. We're talking about your soul. We're talking about who you are.

Me. You. Your very essence. I got another good quote here. I think you'll like it. Sinclair Ferguson says this in his commentary on James. I could not hold back from putting this down. He says this about the tongue, but the slaying of the inner pride and the illumination of our minds and regeneration create a new disposition and affection, and the true convert will have a Jacob-like limp in his speech as well as in his walk.

Because in the spiritual autonomy as distinct from the physical autonomy, the heart and the tongue are directly connected to each other. And then he goes on to say this, and this is good. The subduing of the heart leads to the silencing of the tongue.

Humility within leads to humility expressed, and only when we have been thus silenced are we in any position to begin to speak. And when we do, by God's grace, we speak as those who have first been silenced.

Amen. That is good, isn't it? I love these men. They know how to put it right down to the nitty-gritty and to the point. And it's convicting, but I said, Lord, this is what I need. So there is a deeply truthful statement there.

So, it's a deadly inconsistency that plagues the tongue, isn't it? The tongue is so inconsistent. Well, you know it as well as I do. We can be blessing God, Father, one minute, and next thing you know, we can curse some men.

Let's be honest. We've all done it. I have. I did it this past week. So as James probes deeper and deeper, almost like with a surgical knife, he goes deeper and deeper and draws attention to a fourth characteristic and as an analysis, he analyzes now the rise that rises, I'm sorry, to a crescendo in a sense, of what is, I would say, an exposure of who we really are because of what we say.

And you see that in verse 12. But see, last week, we looked at the tongue and noticed that little tongue, being such a small member, is like a fire. Like a fire. And he says it's set on fire from hell itself, from Gehenna.

Wow, that's scary. It shows you how the heart really is. But it's also like a dangerous animal. It's restless. Isn't it incredible the word pictures he gives? Like a small fire and then next thing you know, it's blazing and causing destruction abroad everywhere.

Now he speaks to us and it's like a dangerous animal. It's restless. It's a word that translates the same word rendered unstable. It's unstable. And you see this in James 1 .8. Unstable man is what? A double-minded man.

That's right. He's unstable in all his ways. Very unstable. Restless. That's the same word here. It reminds me of, I think, when I was studying about this, I was thinking about the old cowboy Indian movies.

You know as well as I do, the Indians got did in pretty wrong when the white guys came over here and just took over their land. I think the worst thing about it was the politics that was involved and still you see a lot of this today.

The corruption in politics and the old Davy Crockett pictures and you see the government supposedly and the way the Indians looked at it. These are the white man making promises and they don't live up to the promises.

And you remember what the Indian always said? The white man speak with a forked tongue. Yeah. That tongue's forked, isn't it? It was meant as really a damning indicament, really. That's what I think of.

But here James has shared that perspective really but brought forth in a more profound analysis. The forked tongue is connected actually with a forked heart. Such speech as Lark marked with a double-minded man and unstable in all of his ways.

So the tongue is restless and cannot be ruled and it seeks its prey like a wild beast and it pounces and it kills and it devours. It's deadly, isn't it? It's terrible. I was listening to David Wilkerson this morning and he was talking about the tongue and he said you know actually we ask for forgiveness about the tongue and you know what he said?

And he said so right. Once you say it, it's out there. It's gone.

You can't take it back. That's scary.

Oh how we need to ponder and watch what we say and be wise in these things. It's restless. It cannot be ruled. It seeks its prey like a wild animal and it kills animals. There are some animals that are poisonous.

Notice what he talks about. He talks about poison here. There's poison. Scriptures are very clear about that. So some tongues spread poison. It kills. It's deadly. And if you think about it, the deceptiveness thing, the deceptive thing about poison and I got to think about what's so deceptive about poison?

It works and kills slowly but secretly and then it eventually takes its victim. That's what he says. That's what the tongue is. It's deadly. It works secretly. It works slowly. It kills. How many times has some malicious person has injected a bit of poison into a conversation that you might have had and hoping it would spread and finally get to the person he or she wanted to hurt?

How many times have we done that? Well James reminds us that here animals can be tamed and for that matter fire can be tamed but you can tame an animal. You can get a worker like in the picture this morning to tame that animal.

You get a worker instead of a destroyer, right? You control a fire by generating power. You can control fire in a sense and here and can I say the positive side before I give any more negatives about the tongue?

The tongue cannot be tamed by man but it can be tamed by God. Now how do we know this? Well you look at scriptures. Rather than it being set on fire from hell from James 3 6, I like what the apostles did at Pentecost and they would set on fire from heaven.

Tongues of fire and the Holy Spirit came in its power. They spoke the praises of God and they preached the gospel. We read it just a minute ago, Charles Wesley talking about oh for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise.

We need to be praising God with our tongues, right? We need to be speaking good things from our heart. If God lights the fire and controls it, then the tongue can be a mighty tool. But God's got to light it.

It can be used for evangelism for the good of winning the loss of Jesus Christ and building up the church. An important thing to remember of course is the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, Jesus said.

That's what's so convicting, isn't it? So if the heart is filled with hate, Satan will light that fire. But if the heart's filled with the love of God, then God's going to light it. Can two be together?

Well, we're going to look at that. Verses 9 -12, finally the tongue is characterized by what is called, it's perfectly it's profanity I should say. It's profanity to compromise. Well, look at that word profanity.

I borrowed that word from MacArthur's commentary. He used it. But I looked it up and it says this, it refers to a deliberate breach. Profanity. You don't hear that word often, do you? It means a deliberate breach or a trust or a treachery.

Treacherous, that's another word. And the unbridled tongue is a frequently guilty of such evil that we see this. The tongue is not just wild and raging like an animal and full of deadly poison, but clever, plotting.

That's treacherous. It's clever. It plots. It is subtle. It's deceptive. I think that describes the tongue perfectly. In other words, it's hypocritical. Eagerly willing to deceive in order to achieve its own advantage.

And how do we know this truth? Because of the scriptures, right? The scriptures, the Word of God gives light to sin and how sin really is. People don't want to hear this. That's why people want to don't tell me the truth.

I want to do what I want to do. I want to love my sin. Why? Because the truth exposes the darkness within the quarters of the heart. With the same mouth, James says, we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men.

I don't know about you, that's convicting. Men have been made in the likeness of God. So notice what he says, we bless, we curse. Isn't it amazing that the apostle includes himself here? I think he's probably slipped up.

Of course, he's human. I think everybody in the whole entire human race has failed right here except for the Lord Jesus Christ. James gives to us in verse 11 and 12 these three illustrations from nature that demonstrate the sinfulness of cursing and the genuine believer will not contradict his profession of faith by regular use of the wholesome words.

With the same tongue, we bless God. Then James says, we curse men have been made in the likeness of God. That is perfidious. It's treacherous. It's hypocrisy from the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.

Every believer, if we are honest, has been guilty of that hypocrisy to some extent. I confess, I did this last week. I think somebody cut in front of me or something while I was on the road and little Felicity was right there in the back and I said, that clown.

I kept it clean actually. She said, people, why did you say a clown? That's not a clown. I think she was looking for a clown. I said, oh, lawyers are listening. Wow, people is not being a good example.

It's convicting, isn't it? I've gotten pretty mad before. I've had truck drivers ride on my bumper in a milk truck and thinking how dangerous they drive. This guy was literally pushing me off the road.

I took a turn as slow as I could because I couldn't take it quick because all my milk would spill. Next thing I knew, the guy was just, he just laid on the horn. I'm thinking. You know what I mean? There's some crazy drivers.

My real test, my sanctification, brothers and sisters, is on the road. But that's where you see a lot of road rage, don't you? Why should we act like the rest of them? We need to be Christ-like, even on the road.

That's what he's talking about. We need to watch our tongue. You know, if it comes out of my mouth and I notice I say something, I'm saying, this is coming out of here. This is still in here. It's in my heart.

It has roots. Well, here's some examples from Scripture. I gave a personal example. I think the best example is from Scripture. I think Ms. Lillian would amen that, right? It was not only the wicked scribes and the Pharisees who claimed to bless God and yet demanded that the crucifixion of the Son of God, accusing Him of blasphemy, but remember Peter?

What about Peter? He was the head apostle. He confessed with his mouth that Jesus, in Matthew 16, 16, listen to what he says. And, of course, Jesus says, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, my Father in heaven.

But he confessed it with his mouth and he said Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. What a confession. But while His Lord was on trial before the high priest in Matthew 26, verse 74 through 75, notice what it says.

The Word of God says He began, speaking of Peter, began to curse and swear. And what else did He say? I do not know the man. He cursed. He was swearing. This was the same apostle that said thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And there at the most important time in history, Jesus was about to go to the cross and be crucified and Peter denies Him. And Peter remembered the Word which Jesus had said, before a rooster crows you will deny Me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. In Acts 23, 3 on one occasion, even the apostle Paul, the greatest theologian that ever lived, the greatest Christian that ever lived, the great man of God, the greatest missionary, Paul's tongue even slipped.

And he called the high priest a whitewashed wall. You whitewashed wall. Now listen, even though he did not realize he was speaking to the high priest in verse 5, he uttered the words that are not fitting in the mouth of a servant of the living God.

You know, that's a great example, isn't it, from Scripture? Therefore James, he says, my brethren, my brethren to the church and employees these Jews, these Jewish Christians here, these things ought not to be this way.

Now I want you to notice these two words, ought not. Ought not is a strong negative. It's used here only in the New Testament. That's pretty interesting. It's only used here in a strong negative in a certain way in the New Testament, in all of the New Testament.

The idea is that there should be no place in a Christian's life for this kind of speech. That's what he's saying. No place whatsoever. There is no acceptable reason. It is unacceptable, it's intolerable, compromise of righteous and holy living, and we are all guilty.

And in the same way, why is it not to be tolerated before God? That would be a question. First of all, it is, as Jesus said, it's careless speech. Careless speech. I don't know about you, that's still some of the strongest words that Jesus ever spoke about careless speech.

Every word that you speak is being recorded. And think of it, it's in the presence of God. It's before men, lost men. It's made in the image of God. And James explains this truth using three illustrations.

First of all, he asked, does a fountain, notice closely here in this verse, does a fountain that would be verse 11, send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Well, obviously the answer is no.

Does the same spring, a fountain, does it issue two vastly different kinds of water? Well no, the fountain of course provides cool water. Man needs to stay alive. Water is very, very symbolic of something important here.

Proverbs 18 .4 says this, the words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. Proverbs 10 .11 says the mouth of a righteous man is a well of life. Proverbs 13 .14, the law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.

Now think of that. These verses parallel what James has already written. They underscore the importance of our words. Our words are important. How important are they? Proverbs 18 .21. This is how important words are.

Say they are so important that death and life are in the power of the tongue. That's powerful. Death and life is in the power of your tongue today. And Jesus our Lord says in Matthew 12 and I've already quoted this many times but I think it's worth repeating again.

Verse 36 and 37 that every careless word, every idle word, some translations use, careless word that people speak, they shall give on accounting for it in the day of judgment for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.

That is so convicting isn't it? Every single word. Every thought. Every motive. Wow. I don't know about you, this keeps me really, really on my face before God. It makes me tremble. Because I don't trust myself.

I don't trust my tongue. I don't trust my heart. Second, the next illustration James gives is the fig tree, right? The fig tree. The tongue is also like a tree. Now that's interesting. A tree. What way is he talking about is it like a tree?

James says, can a fig tree my brethren produce olives or a vine produce figs? Now what do you think he's alluding to? I think he's alluding to the Lord's words in Matthew 7, 16 when Jesus asks this question on the Sermon on the Mount.

Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they? You know Jesus renders people speechless when he asks questions doesn't he? He shuts them up. Notice the words of truth. It shuts people up.

And it shuts us up. And of course again the answer is no. You can't. Such a thing is utterly and completely contrary to nature and it cannot happen. Most important thing about a tree is this. It's root system.

You and I know this. When strong rains come the strongest trees stand when all the water goes down and softens the ground but the trees that have the deepest roots are the ones that are still standing.

The ones that have shallow roots come down and fall. Well the most important thing about the tree is it's root system. If the roots do not go down deep the tree will not grow in a healthy manner. So if we Christians are rooted and grounded in the love of God and the things of God and the word of God and the truth of God then our words will be the fruit of our fellowship.

When we are like that blessed man in Psalm chapter 1 that produces good fruit we'll be like him in due season. Fruit will come because his roots go deep. And one of the very reasons our Lord Jesus was able to say the right things and the right words at the right time is why because he communed with his Heavenly Father.