The Terrible Tongue (Part 2)

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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Anyway, today we want to talk about the tongue and the personification of basically what's in our hearts, and it comes out of our speech.

The book of James talks about the tongue, and we're in James 3 today. Of course, you could read the

Proverbs, and if you're reading the Proverbs coinciding with the day of the week it is, or day of the month, rather, so if it's the 19th today, and it is

September 19th, and you read Proverbs 19, then you'd say, oh, you know, and I notice regularly in Proverbs 10 and chapter 18 and others, there's stuff about the tongue and making sure we speak rightly.

It's easy to sin with the tongue, and since we're Christian people, we'd like to live in light of the cross, and we'd like to walk by faith, and we'd like to live a life of gratitude, and therefore we should be concerned about what

God says about the tongue. We're not going to have to pay for sins of the tongue, thankfully, but instead of making that fact something that spurs us on to lawlessness, since we don't have to pay for those sins, we should be extra cognizant to not sin with our tongue, because we live lives of gratitude.

When somebody does something for you really above and beyond what other people would do, you're thankful, and if they ask you to do something, you would be more apt to do it, right?

Especially if it's something good, and right, and holy, well, how much more when it comes to the Lord Jesus and what

He's done? Some of the ways James deals with things are very vivid, right?

He's a vivid writer. He presents truth very graphically, so you kind of get the idea, and here, probably learning from his half -brother, the

Lord Jesus Christ, he talks about how the tongue is so bad because you can really do a lot of damage with your tongue.

Even though it's small, you don't want to underestimate the damage you can do with your tongue, and so here in this section of James 3, 3 and following, he essentially says, you know what?

Let me answer this question. How could something so little, so small, really be an indicator of how mature

I am? I mean, in the old days, you could say, do you know what? Are you mature theologically and spiritually in a

Christian fashion? And if somebody would say, well, I hope so. Is there a litmus test? Well, let me see your checking account, right?

That'd be a good way because of all the reasons we know about can't serve two masters and all that.

Well, it's the same thing, too, with the tongue. Little things can have far -reaching effects.

Little things can be powerful, and he gives an illustration of something that's a living creature, something that's going to be man -made, and others as we work through this.

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

You take this little tiny bit, and you put it in the horse's mouth.

I can just hear the teeth on that bit now, can't you? And it's kind of trying to not let you do that, and you're putting that thing in there.

You can control that horse with that small little instrument. Here's what we don't want to do.

Certain monks, Trappists, I don't know. What do we know Trappists for? I think they make some kind of ale now, right?

Trappists, they said you can't talk, right? So you go to a monastery, and you just can't talk, but of course, we know what we think, right?

It's the same thing. It's all connected. There's great power in a horse, yet here's this little bit.

You've got a 550 -pound horse, raw muscle, and they're powerful.

Think of prancing war horses, and you've got this bit, and with that bit, you can get the horse to obey.

Without the bit, well, that's another story, but here's this small thing that directs the entire body of the horse, and ours as well.

James is trying to say little things can affect, small things can control, right?

Because he's building up to the thing that, you know, okay, watch out for what you say, and I said this last show, and of course, today in real time is

September 19th. Last night, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, and I, again, do a lot of dumb things in life, but I realize this is not a good time to get on social media and be glad that people are dead.

Remember, Jim Elliott said, when it comes to die, make sure the only thing you have left to do is to die.

That is, make sure you're right with God by trusting in the person and work of our

Lord Jesus, the risen Savior. That's what he means there, and I don't know, maybe somebody came to Ruth's bedside when she was dying and told her that the

Messiah of the Old Testament is Jesus, and she trusted him. I mean, I have no idea. I hope that's true, because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living

God, and it would be excruciating. It would be eternal. It would be unabated.

It would be awful, and no anesthesia, and not getting any relief. That's awful, but I don't think it's proper to be rejoicing and saying certain things, and so just remind me, when

I saw people run their mouths through their keyboards last night, I'm like, uh -oh, let's all be careful.

I mean, I guess I could say it this way. It's easy to see sins when other people do them, right?

That's why it's easy to hear a sermon and say, oh, I wish my wife was here to hear that. I hope she's convicted.

Small things control. Look at the ships also. I mean, he's a master teacher, James is.

Though they're so large, James 3, 4, and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

Would you like another illustration of small things controlling? Here's one.

Maybe it's even a stronger case, because ships can't be taught anything, right?

A horse could be taught something, but here, this is inanimate object, ship rudders guided.

Pretty big ships back in those days. Josephus, the Jewish historian, talked about a ship that had 600 people on it.

So that's pretty big. And even if you think about today, what are the largest ships? If you take an aircraft carrier, it is controlled by rudders that steer the ship.

I don't know how many rudders they have or backup rudders or anything like that, but that's how they're guided by these rudders that steer them.

These ships are great. They're driven by strong winds, of course, sailboats back in those days. And the rudder, a very small rudder.

And probably in the background here, you're thinking, how do you navigate this sea? Remember, Jewish people weren't really sea people, seafaring people.

They were not. And if you had a ship and it was going through this murky, ominous, powerful, spooky sea, it'd be impressive.

This rudder able to control everything because the pilot wants to direct a ship a certain way.

We have to be careful. Small things influence. What's Bruce Walkie say?

He's got that commentary on the Psalms. A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.

How do the rudder and the bit and all that, how does that apply to my tongue? So also the tongue, there's a tie in three, five, is a small member yet a boast of great things.

I mean, the ship's pretty big. How do you get the ship to do what it wants? Horses are pretty strong.

How do you manage a horse? How do you get those things done? Well, this tongue is small and it directs things.

It controls things. It controls your life. It controls your body.

It controls all kinds of stuff. It can boast of great things. It's got power almost, right?

It's just this personification. Chuck Swindoll always called the tongue the two ounce slab of mucus membrane, but it can get people to do mob rule.

It can get people to start wars. It can do anything, destroy reputation.

You cannot underestimate the power of your tongue. I've said this before on No Compromise Radio.

I just think about what my dad said or didn't say. I have probably misrepresented my dad and have forgotten the times he did say good things.

That's on me. What's I think on him is that there were so few of those times that I don't remember any of those times.

Now, maybe there were no times. Maybe there's just a few. Maybe I'm just deceived, but I think for you,

Christian, especially dads that I'm talking to since I'm a dad and can identify, what you say to your kids, there's a lot of power in that.

That's why I regularly and often and almost always tell my kids,

I love you. We're not allowed to say love you. It's I love you. Now, the kids have got onto that because that to me is better than love you, but to each his own.

I also say, if I'm going to be leaving or something, I don't say this all the time, but just if we're together for Thanksgiving, then they fly back home or whatever,

I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I love you. For me to be able to think of those words from my dad to say those things,

I don't remember. Maybe he did say them. I think

I got a love you from my dad when I went off to college. No, no. When I moved to Los Angeles, I think that was it.

But anyway, there's a lot of power in the tongue.

So while he's kind of doing this, it's not negative, but just small things control. Just think about what you say and what you say to your spouse, what you say to your spouse in front of your kids, what you say to people at church about leadership, what you say to people at church about other church people, what you say about the politicians that God has ordained to rule over you, and the list goes on and on and on.

It is hard. It is hard because the tongue is powerful.

It says in 3 .5, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.

And we don't have to do very much thinking these days in current events to tell our listeners how brush fires spread and turn into forest fires.

Think about Palestinian dry seasons in those days, right? You have a little tiny fire, and then it's going to really show forth its power when it turns into a forest fire.

Somebody just pulled into the church, and they have a road bicycle on their back of the car.

I wonder what they're doing. Do I know these people? Huh. Interesting. It only takes a spark to get a fire, what, going.

That's so true. And that spark can make everything happen. You've got bits, you've got rudders, and you've got tongues, and they're small, yet they can do great, powerful things, right?

And even when it comes to forest fires, it's usually negligence or gender -reveal parties.

Get that little tiny tongue, probably causes divorces, church splits, world wars.

You've got something so small, so you better be careful. What's the point?

Better be careful. That's all. Jesus has redeemed you. He's reconciled you to God, and therefore, shouldn't you be careful how you talk?

How do you live a life of gratitude under the Lord Jesus? Answer, I think I better be careful how

I talk, because I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price, and I think I better speak well.

And if the Lord Jesus spoke well, he's more than an example, of course, but his speech is an example.

I can't say everything the God -man could say, but I could say things in a way that's righteous, and that's what the

God -man did. Your tongue is dangerous, and that's what he goes on to say in verse 6. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Ouch. Ouch. And now it's not just talking. I mean,

I guess in the old days, you could write a letter. It could cause a lot of problems with a letter. But you could now...

What do people use? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Parler.

I don't know. What else do we use? I think we use other things. There's so many more ways now that our tongue can express itself, even though we're not talking.

I guess you could do... What's that thing? Marco Polo. You know

Marco Polo? We don't really do too much as a family, but we used to. I looked up the most dangerous animals in the world.

What's the most dangerous animal? Well, according to this poll here, mosquitoes kill an average of a million people per year.

Snakes kill 50 ,000 humans per year. Dogs kill 25 ,000 humans per year.

Tsetse flies, 10 ,000 humans a year. Assassin bugs, 10 ,000 humans per year from Chagas disease.

Freshwater snails kill a lot. Scorpions kill a lot. Roundworms, tapeworms, crocodiles.

I'd be afraid of some of those things. But there's something that you'd be more afraid of, and that's the tongue.

It's a fire. This is destructive, catastrophic destruction.

The tongue, not commensurate with its size.

It's a fire. Think about rumors and gossip and slander. It says here in the

Bible, the scoundrel plots evil and his speech is like a scorching fire. A perverse man stirs up dissension and gossip separates close friends.

Proverbs 16. Proverbs 26. Without wood, a fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down.

As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels. They go down to a man's in most parts.

Combustible. It's like you get the fires of the beach in Santa Cruz.

And the nice part is you just go down to the lumber store and they have the little pieces of lumber you can take for free that, you know, they're cutting on the saw and then they've got a foot long, two foot long and they just different pieces and it burns pretty easily.

And then if you don't have paper, because right, you know, who has newspapers anymore? So you just get a little bit of that.

What's it? It's not called fire starter. What's it called? What's the stuff that you squeeze on there? The liquid. What is that called?

A gas igniter. Oh, man.

But anyway, you know what I'm talking about. You put on the stuff and then you light it and then, you know, it lights much easier.

I don't want my words to be like a scorching fire. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

That's so false. Destructive. It's like dynamite.

It's like the stuff you spray on a wood to light the fire easier. A world, the tongues of fire, a world of unrighteousness.

You boil it all down and it's like the essence of wickedness, right? It's iniquity concentrate.

Right. You used to get the orange juice deals and you'd put them in the freezer orange juice concentrate.

At least I know what that is. What's that called? I don't know what the other thing is. The stuff that's in a little bottle and you spray it on the wood and then you light the fire and it lights faster.

Fire starter, wood burner. I'm going to ask

Siri right now. Hey, Siri, what do you call the stuff that you put on wood to help light a fire?

Oh, I don't. Oh, let's see. 10 fire starters you have at home at OutdoorLife .com.

Let's see. Chances are newspapers, starting fires, crumpled paper products, cotton gauze, feminine hygiene stuff, plant -based cloth, dryer lint, wood shavings, greasy chips and snacks.

Fritos are not only a delicious snack with lots of calories, but they're a surprising good fire starter. I'm so glad I looked up this article.

Cardboard, plastic, fiber cloth, rope, cotton balls. Tell us your most creative fire starters.

But what is it? Liquid? What's it called? Liquid fire starters or something like that? I mean, come on.

Things that you can use to light a fire. Um, cordwood, incendiary, match, tinderbox, wood pile.

Oh, kindling? No, it's not kindling. Small pieces of wood. Um, lighter, lighter fluid.

No, wait. Is that it? Is that, is that it? Lighter fluid? Anyway, it's bad.

I'm going to look it up for next show. I'm going to do another show on this and I'm going to have looked it up so I'll know.

Just look in the Bible and see some of these things that have been said. Can you imagine slander against God by Adam?

Uh, you know what? Uh, I heard you God and I was afraid, so I hid myself and, and, uh, who told you you're naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I've commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate it.

He blames God for his disobedience. All the way up into Hitler's mind comp, right?

Everybody said for every word of Hitler's book, 125 lives were lost.

Uh, it, it, it defiles, it stains people, right? Setting among our members, staining the whole body.

It, it, it sullies, it, it, it blackens, it scorches, it consumes, it stains.

It affects the individual universal pollution. Not like, you know, my hands are stained, but not the rest of my body, but everything not compartmentalized, but universal pollution setting on fire the entire course of hell, right?

It is the course, the general course of life. That's the idea. I guess democracy said the proverbial expression probably originated in ancient, ancient

Greece. The phrase in Jewish circles refer to the general course of life. So my name is

Mike Avendroth. How would you like to live by faith in the light of your salvation out of gratitude and thanksgiving answer?

We want to control our tongue. And by the way, the spirit of God dwells in us and we have the power to do that very thing.

So why don't you use your words today to build up, to edify, to say, I love you. I'm proud of you and trying to be strong for my wife, but I'm just hurting.

You would have the gall to come up to me and say, I don't know if you're a Christian or not handling this trial, right?

But that's what we have now in evangelicalism. It's crazy. Oh, the show's already over. My name is

Mike Avendroth. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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