Book of Titus - Ch. 2, v. 8

Park Meadows Church

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All righty everybody, good morning. If y 'all would like to turn to Titus chapter two,

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I was really hoping that I'd be able to finish up this section on young men today, so we can move on next week.

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I don't think that'll happen. In fact, I know it won't happen, but we're continuing to make some progress.

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We're gonna pick it up at verse eight, where we left off last week, although I am gonna read, excuse me,

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I'm gonna read verses six through eight, so that we have the context, because for verses seven through eight, it's one sentence.

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So the Apostle Paul, again, Titus chapter two, let's start in verse six. It says, young men, likewise, exhort to be sober minded in all things, showing yourself a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about you.

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So we spent a good deal of time. I think this is the fourth lesson since we began talking about young men.

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We spent a good bit of time on verse six. Last week, we looked at verse seven in detail, and so here we are in verse eight, and I just want y 'all to remember, we have to connect one particular thing in verse seven to everything we're about to talk about.

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He says, in verse seven, in all things showing yourself a pattern of good works, and then he says, in doctrine showing, and then he goes on and talks about a number of things.

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About to talk about the sound speech in verse eight, but just remember that's connected to in doctrine showing sound speech, all right?

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So the need for, we're talking about sound speech first.

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Obviously, there's a couple of things he talks about here. You don't wanna be condemned by the things that you say.

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You want the opponents of the faith to be put to shame because their accusations against you are false.

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So sound speech, there is a running theme throughout the Bible, and in fact, the foundation for any reference in the

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New Testament is based upon the Old Testament references to it. It's all throughout the Old Testament, and that is the need for a bridled tongue or a controlled tongue.

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Again, it's an incredibly important message throughout all of scripture, as we'll see in just a moment. We're gonna go through a number of passages somewhat quickly just to give y 'all a snapshot of what

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I'm talking about, or really, it'll be more of a reminder because they're all familiar passages to us. We'll see that in just a moment, but it's worth noting the significance of Paul bringing up this theme, this idea, in the context of Titus being a role model for other young men.

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So again, this is not a unique theme to Titus in the context of young men. It's talked about at length in the

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Proverbs. It's talked about in James. The Lord Jesus talks about it in the Gospels. Again, we'll look at a few references shortly.

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Actually, if we get to it. I'm not sure if we will today, but we will get to those. But the fact that it's in this context is certainly worth noting.

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Now, I'm gonna talk about something for a second that at first y 'all might think isn't connected, but it will be. Men, we're talking about young men here, they have a

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God -given propensity toward violence. And the reason that they do, and the reason that it is a feature, not a bug, is because violence is what's needed for them to be a well -rounded leader of their households.

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I should say the capacity for violence, the propensity for violence.

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In order for them to be able to successfully defend their wives, their children, their property from their enemies, they must be able to actually put up a fight in the first place.

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And so God, when he created Adam and all men that would be born after him, he put in them an ability to really do some damage to their enemies when the time called for it.

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And of course, God in his grace gave men in particular the natural equipment, in other words, the capacity for concentrated violence to get the job done when it needed to be done.

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Now, it goes without saying that while the propensity for violence is necessary and God -given, it must be properly harnessed and directed or else it turns into, of course, many violations of the law of God.

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The violence of men that is God -given could, if it's not properly controlled, turn into murder.

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It could turn into the abuse of women and children instead of the protection of women and children. It can be directed towards stealing by force or perhaps even waging unjust warfare, you know, pillaging villages and so many other examples that we could look at where the masculine propensity toward violence is misapplied, it's not controlled.

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And when that happens, of course, it can be really bad. And so God gave men, young men especially, the capacity for violence so that when he raises up a young man to, for example, kill the giant and cut his head off before all of God's enemies in order to strike the fear of God in his enemies, they would be ready and they would be capable to actually do that.

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But the same God also wrote with his own hand, thou shalt not kill or the

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Hebrew term would be more appropriately translated murder. Obviously, there's a distinction to be made there.

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So what do you have here? Thou shalt not murder, okay? That is a representation of the very character of God and yet he put within every young man the natural equipment to be able to commit violence, acts of violence when it's needed and that was by design, not a mistake.

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Young men have the capacity for violence but it must be controlled violence, hence the commandment thou shalt not kill or murder.

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It must be a controlled violence and if it's not controlled, all hell breaks loose, quite literally in some cases.

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Okay, so what's the point? Why are we talking about that in this context of Titus chapter two verse eight?

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What's the point? Well, aside from that being a very important truth in and of itself, what we just talked about, the same principles also apply to the tongue.

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So Paul tells Titus and in doing so, he's telling all young men that will ever live, all young Christian men that will ever live after Titus and of course, this principle is in the scripture long before Paul but again, he's doing this intentionally.

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He is doing this to show doctrine in sound speech.

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The apostle Paul tells Titus to show his doctrine so that people can actually see it and hear it in sound speech and this is because the apostle

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Paul is saying this because he knows that young men, just like they have the capacity for violence against their enemies when it is called for, they also have the capacity to be violent in their words, which is another

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God -given feature, not a bug. Men likewise have the capacity to be violent in their words, in their rhetoric, in their polemic, in polemical warfare when it is called for and this is because Paul knows that this is true, that this is a reality.

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Now, before I give you guys a little bit more of the biblical theme, kind of fleshing out the biblical theme of guarding your speech, let me give you guys just one example of what a righteous act of verbal violence looks like, not necessarily physical, we have plenty of examples of that whether you are looking at Samuel hacking up Agag or whether you're looking at, what was his name?

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Phinehas, I think, who took the spear and put it into the man and the woman in a particular act because the man flaunted this foreign woman fed up in idolatry right through the camp of Israel because he was that presumptuous, didn't think anything would actually happen so what does the priest do?

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He goes and he drives a spear through both of them in the act and God creates a covenant with Phinehas that is referenced thousands of years later in the prophecy of Malachi.

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It was a perpetual covenant with this particular man because of his righteous act of violence. So we have examples after examples of righteous acts of violence protecting

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God's people and things like that. But let me give you one example of a righteous act of verbal violence if you wanna call it that.

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And turn to Ezekiel chapter 23 and I want you guys to keep in mind because what we're about to read is rather striking.

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It's rather colorful but it is the very word of God. In fact, let me turn there myself.

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I have it in my notes here but we can kind of set the stage for it a little bit.

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And all of this does apply. You'll think that this is just kind of a random rabbit trail from the point of what

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Paul is talking about but I think it is rather applicable and a rather important message especially for today for our young Christian men to be aware of this.

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I have some more points I'll make in just a second but let me give you the story first. Here's the context. The prophet

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Ezekiel is speaking but it's the words of God through the prophet Ezekiel. He just finishes talking about the egregious sins committed by the nation of Israel, their idolatry, their constant leaving

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God for these false idols and things like that. And then you get to chapter 23 and what

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God does is he uses a story as an allegory just to really make the picture as crystal clear as he possibly can in the minds of his people to demonstrate how he views his nation

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Israel and what they've been doing to him. And what he does is he talks about two daughters. One of them is Ahola and this daughter is the eldest and she represents

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Samaria. And then he talks about the younger daughter Aholabah and this daughter represents

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Israel. And just so again to flesh out the context a little bit, the chapter begins with the word of the

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Lord came unto me again saying. So this is the prophet Ezekiel talking but it's literally the words of the

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Lord coming through this prophet. And he says a few things. Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother and they committed whoredoms in Egypt.

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They committed whoredoms in their youth. There were their breasts pressed and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

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And the names of them were Ahola the elder and Aholabah her sister. And they were mine and they bear sons and their daughters thus were their names.

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Samaria is Ahola and Jerusalem Aholabah. Okay, so obviously the reference to Egypt right off the top makes perfect sense.

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What do they do right after they get to the foot of Mount Sinai, they worship the calf.

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And of course they had been permeated with the idolatry of Egypt before that.

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And as they progress, they would often fall back into idolatry of various countries, Egypt being one of them.

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But now skip down to verse 17, now that you know kind of what's going on here. Remember, this is the prophet speaking on behalf of God.

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And this is an act of verbal violence against God's people. Verse 17 says, and the

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Babylonians came to her into the bed of love. This is talking about Aholabah, which represents

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Jerusalem. And they defiled her with their whoredom. And she was polluted with them and her mind was alienated from them.

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So she discovered her whoredoms and discovered her nakedness. Then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

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This is God talking. Yet, yet she multiplied her whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

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For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

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Thus thou calls to remember the lewdness of thy youth in bruising thy teats by the

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Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. Now, verse 20 in particular is rather colorful and the old

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English of the King James veils it to a degree, although if you were living at the time this translation was written, it would have been just as colorful as it is when you read it in a modern translation.

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Let me give it to you. This is verse 20. She lusted after their genitals as large as those of donkeys and their seminal omission was as strong as that of stallions.

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Now in the KJV, just to go back to that for a second, paramour, what that is, is it's a concubine and in this particular context, it's a male concubine.

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So he's talking about Israel falling to the paramours of this idolatrous nation.

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Flesh in the Hebrew for what is translated into flesh here is a euphemism for the male organ of generation.

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And of course, issue would be the seminal discharge that the modern translation brings kind of more in focus for us so that we know exactly what kind of vivid imagery

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God is trying to make a point with here through the prophet Ezekiel. And so what's happening is you have

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God through this righteous prophet that is conducting verbal warfare against his people to make sure that they understand there is nothing that they can do in the darkness that will not be brought to light.

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He is saying, this is what is happening and I'm gonna say it exactly as it's happening because that's the righteous thing to do in this context.

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God is using an incredibly explicit, obscene story on purpose to demonstrate the egregious idolatry of his people that they have been committing against him with the gods of other nations for centuries up to this point.

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Now, what is idolatry? We've said it many times, it is spiritual adultery. And that is why

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God uses this particular allegory, this very colorful story of people to demonstrate how he views what

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Israel, what Jerusalem has been doing against him for centuries. He's comparing the false gods to the animal behavior by men in a sexual context to show that this woman,

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Jerusalem, was turned on by unnatural affections just as much as Israel was attracted to the idol worship that would send her to hell just like this woman in the story was on her way to hell.

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So there's one example of what you might refer to as righteous verbal violence by a man of God toward an adulterous people to show them,

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I am going to bring what you think is in the darkness to light. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, this is what's happening.

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Now in the New Testament, you have the apostle Paul bring curses upon the false teachers at the church of Galatia and he dooms them to hell.

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He says, and he doesn't just leave it at the false teachers, he says, I don't care if an angel comes in and commits these acts against the gospel of God, may they also be accursed, which is the

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King James translation of the Greek term anathema, which means to doom someone to hell.

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So the apostle Paul gives us an example of a righteous form of verbal violence toward these false teachers.

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Of course, the Lord Jesus himself in one of the most epic chapters of the entire

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Bible in Matthew 23, it's one of those chapters that doesn't matter how many times you read it, you'll get chills every time.

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As he stands before the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, the theologians of the day, the pastors of the day, and he knows what they're about to do to him, he knows what they wanna do to him and he doesn't hold back.

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He calls them vipers and snakes and hypocrites and children of hell and he does not relent, he doesn't let up, he keeps it going and it just, it picks up steam and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter by the end of that chapter.

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And then right after that, you have the scene of him on the Mount of Olives with his 12 disciples, right after verbally letting them have it, looking at the temple and prophesies of the temple about to be destroyed in 70

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AD and then gives the sequence of the end of the age to his disciples, it's just an absolutely incredible sequence of events there.

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So the point in bringing all of this up in this context in Titus, is that rhetoric can and sometimes should be used as a righteous weapon.

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And if pastors and if theologians and if those in the church had not forgotten this principle since a couple of centuries ago, we may not and I'm gonna speak as from the human viewpoint as a man here, we may not be experiencing so many of the things that we experience today where we call murder something like reproductive healthcare.

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We called it abortion for a while and then that was too much, so now it's reproductive healthcare rather than calling it what it is, which is murder.

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We call sodomy homosexuality and then that was too much so they just started calling it being gay.

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It's even, you know, the euphemisms just get softer and softer and softer. Trans, or I'll put it this way, the mutilation of children becomes gender affirming care.

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So many other things we look at, adultery becomes an affair. Fornication doesn't even have a euphemism.

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It's just, that's just a healthy relationship these days. Premarital sex is just totally fine.

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I mean, I cannot remember the last time I heard any pastor condemn premarital sex even in the context of a couple of kids that will by all likelihood be together forever.

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Maybe they'll get married eventually or something like that. The Bible calls that fornication. We don't even have a euphemism. It's just healthy relationship at this point.

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So there are times when you have to weaponize rhetoric and use the verbal tools that God gave us like the prophet

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Ezekiel did in that really colorful context to make a point come across that is needed.

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Okay, so let's back up for a second and get back to our context in Titus. So we now know that this is a reality.

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We now know that there is a time and a place for verbal warfare and to not shirk away from the responsibility, especially ministers of the gospel.

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I don't know how that happened. That mic must have popped or something. To call out sins for what they are and to not be afraid to call it what it is regardless of what word forms it takes to get them there like God did through Ezekiel in that passage.

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But the problem of course is that many times, coming back to Titus now, young men who haven't been trained in the scriptures for long enough yet can misuse this weapon.

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They can misuse the weapon and get themselves into a whole lot of trouble because it takes being trained in the scriptures.

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It takes being discipled by older men who have been here and done that. It takes maturity and spiritual growth in order to know when to weaponize verbal warfare, rhetoric in a certain context and when to talk about things that are good and lovely and things and so on and so forth.

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In fact, just to give you a little bit of contrast really quick, you don't have to go here.

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This isn't in my notes or anything, but listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter five. Be you therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also have loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor that fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh saints.

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And then listen to this, neither filthiness nor foolish talking or foolish talking nor jesting, foolish jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.

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And there's another verse a little bit further down somewhere, but y 'all get the point where he kind of fleshes that out a little bit more. So obviously

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Paul cares greatly about the Christian guarding their tongue and ensuring that they aren't doing foolish jesting and foolish conversation and things like that.

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So there you have, once again, two ditches that you could fall upon. You could have the type that gets crude and lewd and obscene and all of these things in an inappropriate context.

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And that would defy much of what God says, especially through the words of Paul.

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But then on the other side of the ditch, you have the sanctimonious type that don't wanna ever say anything to offend anybody in the name of being meek and all of these types of things.

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And they will do it under the guise of being obedient to things like what Paul just said, we're not gonna be coarse, we're not gonna jest and all these kinds of things.

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Again, in kind of the sanctimonious air about them, while the debauchery of the nation around them is just eating up everyone and everything and it's consuming everyone and everything because they refuse to call things what they actually are.

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Like God did through the prophet Ezekiel in that passage we read. So what's the point?

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Young men have to be trained to be on that straight and narrow, not to fall on either side of the ditch. And they normally would lean more toward the side of misusing the rhetorical weapon rather than the sanctimonious side.

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That is usually reserved for the more winsome people as they get older and want to look a certain way to their peers or to whomever it is they care about.

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Young men just wanna get in there and cause a ruckus. And so that goes back to our passage in Titus when he says, in doctrine, show sound speech.

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In doctrine, show sound speech. So we gotta teach them how to use the weapon and not misuse it.

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So now let's look at some passages that demonstrate the need to bridle the tongue.

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And when it's bridled, that is when you can control yourself and know when it's time to go nuclear like the prophet

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Ezekiel did, like Paul did in Galatians, and when it's time to be like what Paul was saying in Ephesians chapter five, which is not to jest foolishly or something like that.

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Proverbs chapter 13, verse three says, he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life.

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He who controls his mouth keeps his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

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You can't go out there and going nuclear on anything and everybody. And that is true whether you're talking about physical violence, which is what we started with or rhetorical violence.

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That's what Solomon is saying. You skip a few chapters in Proverbs and I'm only giving you all a taste of what

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Solomon talks about because he cared a lot about this topic. 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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Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Couple chapters later, Proverbs 21, 23, whosoever keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

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And man, again, you're teaching your young Christian men how to wield a sword appropriately so that they don't fool around with it and cut themselves or cut someone that they care about rather than saving it to aim at the enemy when it's needed.

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This is a weapon, this is a tool. You gotta keep your mouth and your tongue. And when you do that, it keeps your soul from troubles.

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Then you get to the New Testament and you have our Lord Jesus say this, but I say unto you that every idle or lazy or careless word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

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So young men, Sam, Matt, Noah, everyone that's listening online,

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Tyler, myself, Dave, remember young men here is pretty broad because it's talking about men that are within the vicinity of child bearing and child rearing.

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So you're still rearing up kids, Dave, so you qualify too. You're not old, but then brother

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Russell and dad and Pop -Pop, they would fall into the category of men that we started with in this chapter. And so this applies to men in their prime, essentially physical prime, when they are more, they're not as wise like brother

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Russell, dad and Pop -Pop and brother Bill and brother Otis, brother Rocky, they're not as wise as those guys yet.

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And so they have to keep these principles in mind so they don't misuse the weapons that God gave them for his glory.

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So the Lord Jesus, again, I'll repeat it one more time, every careless word, every idle word that men shall speak, they will give account thereof in the day of judgment.

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So we gotta be careful of that. We gotta remember that. Jesus, three chapters later in Matthew 15, verse 11 says, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

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So very important principle, Jesus cared about it greatly. And then you get to the general epistle of James.

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The half brother of Jesus. And he is the one that really puts it into some, again, very strong terms for us.

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He starts by telling us in James 1, verse 26, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain.

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So you see a guy going around misusing the rhetorical weapon that God equipped him with by design.

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When you see a man going around misusing that, his very religion is in vain. And of course, the very next verse is where James defines what religion is for us.

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So even if you are conducting true religion, visiting the widows, visiting the orphans, visiting the fatherless, even when you are living up to the

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New Testament standard of what true religion is, if you don't bridle that tongue, it's all in vain. That's what

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James is saying. But then you skip a couple of chapters and you look at James 3, verse five, verses five and six.

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He says, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things.

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Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, a world of sin.

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

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So it's a little member, but a little fire kindleth much. This thing, if it is not controlled, if it is not wielded correctly, is on a war path, not to righteousness, but to hell.

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So in the same way the young men must learn to control their physical strength and use it for righteousness, they must also learn to control their tongue for the same purpose.

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It can be a formidable weapon in the hands of a righteous man, but it can also be an instrument of death if it is used carelessly.

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And Paul is warning Titus of this in verse eight. Now, of course, one of the greatest benefits, and this also comes back to verse eight, because what does he say?

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What does he say? In doctrine showing sound speech, for what purpose? That cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil to say against you.

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What is the result of having self -control over the tongue? One of the greatest benefits of having self -control of the tongue is that you put your opponents to shame, to open shame.

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You're not the one that's put to shame, they're the one that's put to shame. When they try to bring a railing accusation against the young Christian man, if he has self -control over his tongue, and he has actually practiced that in his life over every word that he speaks, then all of a sudden those opponents are the ones that will be put to shame, not the young Christian man.

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And this is a promise of God. And that's what Paul is talking about in the point that he's trying to get across to Titus here.

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So, I'm shocked, we did finish the material. We can move on to a new section next week, and Paul then moves on to a completely new category.

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We have talked about old men, old women, young men, young women, and next week we will begin a different category of people, that being slaves.

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And the importance of what Paul's words to them are, that they also not blaspheme the word of God, just like the older women and the younger women and the older men that he's already talked about.

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So, that's what we'll be getting into next week, and we're moving right along. So that is chapter two, verse eight.

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Do y 'all have any thoughts or anything you'd like to share before we dismiss? Yes, ma 'am. In James three,

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I was just reading a little bit of what he did, it said, the first two verses down says that the tongue can no man's hand.

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It is an underlying, does that just mean a man in and of himself, like a power of God, it's just impossible to actually bring it into subjection.

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Sure, so let me read this passage, because it is very interesting. So, he begins, let me just read a little bit of it.

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We have some time, I actually finished early, somehow. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

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For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

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So, he's making a contrast here. So, he says, brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

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They were all trying to find, number one, they were looking at the philosophical arguments, beliefs toward religion by other people, and what's interesting is

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Paul talks about this in the same chapter that Dad is in in Colossians right now. Then what happens after that?

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Those very men want to become the masters themselves. They want to become the leaders. They want to become the ones that rule, perhaps even over a congregation, over a church.

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And what James is saying is, look, and this is important for the overall context here. What James is saying is, look, guys, calm down a little bit, because those of us that do rule, like James did, those of us that do rule will receive the greater condemnation for our actions in that position as a master.

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For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man or a complete man.

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So, it's not talking about sinless perfection there, but just like the qualifications of an elder that Paul expects to be above reproach, if you're that kind of man, a complete man, it says you will be able to bridle the whole body.

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All right, so that's important to take note, and then he continues. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths that they may obey us, excuse me, and we turn about their whole body.

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Behold, also the ship. So, he's given us a couple of allegories here. First, the horse with the bridle. Then he's talking about a ship.

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

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The captain, the one controlling the ship. So, you got a couple of allegories there, and then what does he do? And he gets the verses we looked at.

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Even so, the tongue is a little member. It's like the rudder on the ship. It's like the bridle on a horse.

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The horse is powerful, the ship is powerful, but it's the little bridle that controls the whole thing. It's the little rudder that controls the whole thing.

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The tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

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So is the tongue among our members that defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature.

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And it is set on fire of hell for every kind of beasts and of 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.

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Therewith, bless we 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 so be.

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Doth have found, and listen to this. So what is he doing? He's contrasting the carnal man with the new man. He's contrasting where we were prior to salvation with where we should be post -salvation.

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And remember, what is one of the driving themes of James? It is a faith that produces works.

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It is a faith that people can see through the works and actions of the person doing it.

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Death of fountains send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Well, the answer is, of course, no.

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But like the schizophrenics that we are, as dad often says, sometimes a Christian can give this really weird picture to the world as if we are somehow a single fountainhead from which forth springs fresh water and salt water.

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James is saying, let not this thing be. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs?

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So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh? Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?

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Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth, this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

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For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

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And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So Katie, to answer your question, the answer is yes.

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This is something that man, natural man cannot control. And yet, and what's interesting about it, is

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James calls back greatly to the book of Proverbs, which is where we started with. Solomon taught this same message.

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And this is one of the reasons why in Ecclesiastes, you have what seems like this very bleak and dreary picture.

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Everything is vanity under the sun. And he goes on to list a bunch of good stuff. No, it's all vanity. It's all worthless.

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It's all a vapor. But what's the point that he's trying to make? He's trying to point out that the natural man without God has absolutely no ability to find purpose and meaning in life whatsoever.

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And then he also goes on in Proverbs to talk about the need to control the tongue and whatnot. And so you have James here saying, the man has no power over this little member whatsoever.

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But of course, he preceded that statement by talking about the fact that the complete man, the man that has been converted, the man that now walks with the spirit of Christ living within him, he can control his members.

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It's just a matter of contrast there. And it's also a matter of the wording that James uses there in verse eight.

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It's a particular, I won't say it's hyperbole, but it's meant to exaggerate on purpose to prove a point.

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It's meant to really emphasize the point here. Number one, how dangerous the tongue is.

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Number two, how man has absolutely no control over this little thing, no matter how hard he tries, but he preceded it with letting us know that we actually are free as brothers and sisters.

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We are free from being controlled by this little member. We, in fact, can control it through the power of Christ, which the world cannot say that they have that ability.

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So that took a long time to answer that question, but I did want to give the full context because it's a very, very important passage of scripture there in James chapter three.

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Do y 'all have any other thoughts or anything? We still have like two minutes left. Was that helpful,

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Katie? Okay. Alrighty, guys. Well, lots of good material today.

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Covered quite a bit of ground, more than I thought we would. So we'll go ahead and dismiss and we will get into verses nine and 10 next week.

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Dave, would you dismiss this in prayer? Father, we thank you for this message where we ask you to give us this intentionality that comes to brighten our tongues.

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Help us to be, it seems there's nothing neutral.

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There's scripture that says there's life and death, and there are two opposite extremes.

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There's not a new ground here. So the things we say now, every single word, so help us to be aware of that.

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Help us to control our tongues. Help us to love the

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Lord. We love you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you all.