The return to the third chapter of the
book of James.
We want to look tonight at the first
twelve verses of this portion of the Epistle.
It would be well if we read this
portion before we consider it.
My brethren, do not many masters or teachers,
knowing that we shall receive a greater condemnation.
In many things we offend all, but if
any man offend not in words, the same
is a perfect or mature man, and able
also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths,
that they may obey us, and we turn
about their whole body.
Behold also the ships, which though they be
so great, and are driven of fierce winds,
yet are they turned about with a very
small helm, for this the reveler, the governor,
lifteth.
Even so, the tongue is a little member
of most of great things.
Behold, our greater matter, little five fingers.
The tongue is a fire, a whirl of
iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members, that
it defileth the whole body, and seteth on
fire the course of nature, and is set
on fire of hell.
For every kind of beast, and of birds,
and of serpents, and of things in the
sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed as
mankind, but the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly
poison.
Therewith blessed be God, even the Father, and
therewith cursed be men, which are made after
the humility of God.
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and
cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not so to
be.
For the fountains send forth at the same
place sweet water and bitter.
From the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive
berries, either of vine, fig, so can no
fountain yield salt water and salt.
May God's blessing be added to the reading
of this portion of his life.
So, James is continuing his instruction of believers
concerning the life of faith.
He wants to show us that faith operates
in a realm over which we, by nature,
have no control.
Faith operates to bring unruly members of our
bodies into subjection to the will and the
word of God.
This is one of the outworkings of faith,
and James is going to deal with a
very practical problem of the believer and his
tongue.
He begins this chapter by giving a word
of warning.
As he says, My brethren, do not many
masters, or, as the margin has it, do
not many teachers.
Or, if I may paraphrase it, do not
covet the privilege of teaching.
The connection between this and what follows is
that teaching is communication of truth, usually orally,
and it involves the speech and the tongue.
He's dealing here with a possible misuse of
the tongue.
We will covet a position that gives us
a position of a teacher, so that as
we communicate orally, we're exercising authority over those
we teach.
In the word of God, when we have
the ministry of teaching or the gift of
teaching presented to us, it's presented as a
gift that carries authority with it, and the
one who is taught is putting himself under
a teacher.
The relationship between teacher and student, or teacher
and disciple, is very akin to the relationship
between master and servant, and the one who
comes to be taught is laying aside his
own thinking and his own interpretation and his
understanding of a truth, and he submits himself,
submits his mind to a teacher so that
the teacher's business is to mold minds.
One, therefore, who is in a position as
a teacher is molding life.
Now, there is honor that goes with the
position of a teacher.
We've referred to it often in dealing with
the Gospels, the life of Christ, that among
the Jews, the rabbi who was the teacher
was held in high, high esteem.
Perhaps only the priest himself would be given
more respect and more honor than the rabbi.
Why?
Because the Jewish concept was that the scriptures
are unintelligible, God has a message for us,
but we have to depend on the teacher
for all that we know about God.
So the one who taught them the scriptures
or taught them about God was held in
high esteem and respect.
So that to address a man as rabbi
was to address him with a high title
of reverence and respect.
And those rabbis in the Jewish system enjoyed
the prominence and all the privileges and the
side benefits that went with being recognized as
a rabbi.
And many times, some of the Jewish leaders
came to Christ and they addressed him as
rabbi.
Now, he wasn't a rabbi in their system,
and they often ridiculed him because he hadn't
been to their school.
And yet, they felt they were paying him
a compliment.
Now, when a man is in a position
of respect, a position of prominence, it places
responsibility upon that individual.
There is no opportunity without responsibility, and when
God gives one privilege, we are held responsible
for the privileges that are given.
Now, these people wanted the honor and the
authority and the prestige that went with being
recognized as a teacher.
But they wanted it not to mold minds
and inform minds.
They wanted it for personal promise.
They were purely selfish in their desire to
be teachers.
And so, James warns them, do not covet
the position of a teacher for the honor
that goes with it, because I want to
warn you that those who are in the
position of teachers are going to be held
responsible by God for the discharge of the
privilege that has been given to them.
See, no opportunity without answerability or responsibility.
And so, he says, we shall receive the
greater condemnation.
We're going to be held responsible before God,
and if I desire to teach so that
I can get authority over you or I
can build myself up in your estimation that
I can be held in honor or esteem,
I am using that privilege selfishly.
And when God will judge me at the
judgment seat of Christ, he will not judge
on the basis of my act that I
taught and commend me because I taught.
He will examine me on my motive.
Why did he teach?
And if I will be turned inside out
at the beam of Christ, as 1 Corinthians
3 and 2 Corinthians 5 teach, which reveals
that I did it for self-glorification, there
will be what James calls here judgment, condemnation.
We must remember that when God gives us
a privilege, he holds us responsible.
So, these people wanted to use the tongue
to promote themselves, and a way to do
it is to put themselves in the position
of a teacher.
And so, they are misusing the tongue.
Now, that, I see, is the connection between
what James says in verse 1 and what
he says in verse 2 and down through
verse 12 where he deals with the misuse
of the tongue.
Many things we all offend.
We all offend.
But there is a mark of maturity and
that is that the mature man bridles his
whole body.
He brings his body under subjection to the
authority of God and to the word of
God.
The mark of a mature man, according to
James, is that he is able to exercise
self-control over every desire.
He is able to exercise self-control over
every word as well as every thought.
It is a sign of immaturity that a
man abandons himself to unrestrained desire or appetite
or unrestrained sleep or unrestrained thoughts in his
thought life.
And when he uses the word perfect, as
it is in my translation, where James says,
the man offend not in words the same
as a perfect man, he's not speaking of
sinless perfection.
He's talking about having outgrown childhood to come
to maturity.
You see, a child doesn't know how to
wait.
A child doesn't know how to restrain himself.
What he wants, he wants right now.
What he thinks, he just babbles without thinking
of the consequences or the effects of it
on someone else.
But when a man can bring desire under
control and sublimate those desires to something higher,
when he considers his speech before he blurs
something out and refrains from what would offend
another, he's showing self-control, which is a
mark of maturity.
So, while in Hebrews chapter 5, where we
deal with a question of maturity, one's knowledge
of the word is a test of a
mature man.
Here in James, one's ability to control his
tongue is the mark of a mature man.
The individual who prides himself on saying what
he thinks, a man who prides himself on
his bluntness is showing his immaturity, and that's
the problem that James is dealing with.
I think there are two marks of a
mature man in the first two verses.
The first one, he's able to speak, and
that would parallel Hebrews 5.
The second mark of a mature man, he's
able to control his speech.
These are good tests as to how far
along we are up the ladder of spiritual
maturity.
Now, James, in verse 3 and down through
verse 12, is going to move on to
deal specifically with this matter of the tongue.
He's going to, first of all, in verses
3 and 4, describe the power that is
in the tongue.
We put bits in the horse's mouth that
they may obey us, and we turn about
their whole body.
He's going to use two illustrations of how
powerful an insignificant thing can be.
The book that you put into the horse's
mouth is insignificant in comparison with the size
of the horse.
A man does not have the physical power
to control the horse.
He can't do it.
The horse can resist the will of the
master, and yet when you slip that insignificant
little bit into the horse's mouth, that weak
master is able to control the direction in
which the horse goes.
The bit is insignificant, but it can bring
the entire strength of that mighty animal under
the control of one who is teeny in
comparison to the horse.
Then he uses a second illustration, verse 4,
to hold a stick, which though they be
so great and are driven of a fierce
wind, yet are they turned about with a
very small helm, whithersoever the governor wishes or
desires.
Once again, he's using a graphic illustration, and
here is the sailing vessel with the sail
furled, and there can be an angry storm,
and you raise this ship before that wind,
and no man could change the direction in
which the wind takes that ship.
He would be utterly helpless to try to
get out and push the power of that
ship into the direction he wanted it to
go.
But he stands in that ship and just
turns the helm a little bit, and what
happens?
That ship changes its direction immediately.
A small helm can change the direction of
that ship, driven by a mighty wind against
which a man is held.
Now, he's using a teaching that man would
never have power to control a horse and
a ship under full sail given by a
fierce wind, and yet man is in control.
How does he do it?
Not by kicking his strength against the strength
of the horse or the ship, but he
does it by a small, insignificant kick.
A kick or a helm.
Now, what does he try to say?
That a man can have the whole course
of his life changed by a carelessly spoken
word.
His tongue can change the course of his
whole life.
While it is a small member in comparison
to the rest of the body, it is
that which, quicker than any other member, can
change the direction in which that life goes.
So, first point, the power of the tongue
that can change the direction of a life.
Then in verses 5 and 6, he speaks
of the destructiveness of the tongue.
The tongue is a little member and boasts
of great things.
Behold how great a matter a little fire
can do.
A forest fire started with one spark, and
that which burned the mountainside and blackened thousands
of acres didn't begin as a great conflagration
out of control.
It started with one spark that was out
of control.
The tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members, that
it defiled the whole body and set on
fire the course of nature, and it is
set on fire of hell.
It is a pleasant statement when he says
that the tongue set on fire the course
of nature.
May I make a suggestion as to what
he has in mind here?
In dealing with natural man and the sin
nature, the natural man doesn't seek to build
up another at all.
He seeks to destroy.
And the sin nature is always degenerative or
destructive.
And let's start the sin nature on this
process that ends in destruction.
The tongue.
If you want to destroy me, how's the
best way to do it?
Start a bit of gossip.
Someone wants to destroy our church.
What's the best way to do it?
Start a little gossip.
And that gossip, spreading and developing, will ultimately
do its natural work of destroying.
And what starts that destructive process?
The tongue.
So, in verses 5 and 6, by using
the figure of five, he's trying to show
how devastating and destructive the tongue is.
And it doesn't take us much imagination to
think of what an apt illustration this is.
You start out to broil your six-kilo
steak for your Sunday dinner.
And you put your briquette in your power
broiler.
You ignite them.
You broil your steak.
And you take the steak off, and the
fire is still glowing hot.
You go ahead and eat your steak.
You come back, and what do you find
left?
Just a white powder egg.
That's all that's left.
Total destruction.
Nothing left.
And that's what James is talking about, what
the tongue can do.
Then, in verses 7 and 8, the next
thing he says about the tongue is that
it's untamable.
Every kind of beast, and of birds, and
of serpents, and of things in the sea,
is tame, and act in tame to mankind.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly
poison.
He's done it with the first part of
verse 8.
The tongue can no man tame.
It's untamable.
Untamable.
And he uses an illustration, and it's the
most apt one.
Some people have the funniest pets.
Some people like to have a cheetah, or
a lion, or something like that, or some
monkey, or some wild beast.
I imagine that if we stopped, you could
cite illustrations of some very peculiar pets that
you've known people have had.
I remember once, before John and I were
married, when I was still in college, way
back there.
You know, it wasn't until the afternoon to
visit a professor friend of hers.
And we walked up through the large front
yard of the house, and I noticed hanging
from trees some long pieces that looked like
bamboo, about three inches in diameter.
They were hanging from all over the trees.
And then we went into the house and
sat down in the living room, and around
the inside of the house were these long
bamboos.
Things sitting around on tables, and just all
over the place.
And we visited for a while, and it
came time to go, and my curiosity couldn't
hang any longer, and I asked the professor
what these things were, and he said, oh,
that's where we keep our pets.
Pets, what are you keeping?
He walked over and, with his hand in
one, pulled out a snake.
And they had snakes all over that place,
in the yard, in the house, and these
long bamboo tubes were for the snakes to
live in.
And they lived there, and they lived with
them all the time.
I was plenty ready to terminate that visit
right then and there.
My first crawl to faith said, here I
was, sitting on a chair with a table
right beside me with this long bamboo tube.
There had been a snake in it all
the time.
But you don't have to be afraid.
There's pain.
I can think of better things to do
in life than spend time shaming snakes.
Because that's what appealed to him, and he
had them shamed.
But you know what James says?
He'd observed that people have some peculiar pets,
and pets you would think never could be
shamed or tamed.
But he says there's one thing that can
never be tamed, and that's the time.
It can never be tamed.
What does he mean?
He means that a man himself can never
bring the tongue under control.
Now, that's important to realize.
One of the best ways of gaining victory
is to admit defeat, to admit we can't
do it.
Because when we can't do it, we turn
to someone for help who can do it.
And it's important to realize what we're up
against when we're dealing with this problem of
the tongue.
And James teaches us not that it is
difficult.
Get this.
James teaches it's impossible for a man to
control his tongue.
Will you read it again in verse 8?
The tongue can no man tame.
He didn't say it's hard.
But if you try hard enough, you'll bring
it under control.
Now, what's he trying to show us?
The necessity of faith.
That we've got to trust God to do
what we can't do ourselves because of the
impossibility of the tongue.
When we're willing to come to God and
say that this tongue is malicious and it's
backbiting and it's gossiping and it's slanderous and
it's deprecatory of somebody else, when we confess
to God what the tongue is, then faith
begins to exercise itself, can exercise itself to
gain justice.
Or, again, in the last part of verse
8, he says that the tongue is an
evil member.
Not only powerful and destructive and untamable, but
it is evil.
It is an unruly or an untamable, uncontrollable
evil full of deadly poison.
And then finally, in verses 9-12, he
shows that it is an inconsistent member.
You don't have a weekday tongue and a
Sunday tongue in your shift years, so that
you use your Sunday tongue to sing, Praise
God, from whom all blessings flow.
You don't do that.
You don't use your Sunday tongue, and then
Saturday you're out carrying a brother in Christ
Jesus.
It's the same tongue that does both.
And he shows that there is an inconsistency
in this physical body that has found no
place else to meet.
Out of the same outflows, he is blessing
and cursing.
Does a fountain send forth to the same
place sweet water and bitter or salt water?
No.
You can't go to a well and get
two times the water out of that well.
There's only one time to see the salty
or sweet water.
A fig tree will never produce olives, and
a vine will never produce figs.
There's never that inconsistency found any place else
to meet.
Now, what's his intent?
To think we're up against an inconsistency that
we cannot control.
We must exercise faith so that God can
bring the tongue under control.
I think we need to be reminded again
of the potentiality for evil that there is
within everyone.
To admit to God what the tongue is,
then ask God to set a seal on
our lips that we don't destroy a brother
by unbridled use of the tongue.
God, in response to faith in himself, will
handle the problem that we can't handle, and
will let our tongues be an instrument to
build up the brethren rather than as instruments
to destroy the brethren.
Instruments to glorify God rather than instruments to
destroy sin.
We pray, O Father, that the Spirit of
God may be pleased to use this portion
of the word for our edification that we
who live with this powerful, destructive, untamable evil
within us might recognize the potentiality that there
is there and that we might submit control
of our tongues and faith to thee so
that we use the tongue as an instrument
of praise and blessing.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
The tumor as a result of the treatment
he has had is only half the size
that it was, and to him that is
the most encouraging sign.
He is regaining her appetite and is feeling
a little stronger, so for this we can
praise the Lord.
And we see that Middleton was in the
hospital yesterday, was released today.
They took tests.
They found no malignancy in the knee and
no infection.
That means they will be able to put
in a new joint for her rather than
freezing the joint which would pretty much immobilize
the limb as the doctors had been afraid.
So this is of great encouragement to her,
and for this we are thankful.
The surgery cannot be performed for about three
weeks until they make up the new joint,
Marie tells me, and so she has this
week.
But at least there is this encouragement that
there is no infection and no malignancy that
they were testing for, and that there is
need for continued prayer for her and want
to remember her.
I'd like to request special prayer for the
Phil family.
You'll have to share this together.
I did not know it until today myself,
but there's been a problem with a 14
-year-old daughter.
She's run away for the seventh time.
The Fishers were trying to minister to her,
taking her into their home to try to
be of help, and she left today.
This has been a great shock, particularly to
Kathy, who feels the responsibility for this very,
very deeply, and, of course, it is to
the parents, and I think the parents need
our love and encouragement, and sending means prayer,
and I'd also request prayer for the Fishers.
There are other families that have some deep,
deep needs.
We've shared so much with so many in
these last days, and the needs are enough
to break the heart, and pray for those
who have these needs.
The Lord knows them.
I won't mention any more names, so that
you know.
In others, you don't, but the Lord does.
Let's pray for these.
We also...
These things just remind me how much we
need to pray for our families, that God
will keep our families strong in the Lord,
and all that a family is designed to
be, according to Scripture.
Parents are brokenhearted over children, and husbands over
wives, and wives over husbands, and so on.
There's so much.
And ask the Lord to work with you.
These are some of the requests that have
come to me, that are in my heart,
and I want to share with you.
Now, what request do you have to share
with us?
Thank you.
Chuck Ball, the father, is in the hospital,
still in intensive care.
He's still in intensive care in Jackson, Mississippi.
And I know that he takes care of
it for him.
Okay.
The Bible fellowship, Ruth and Solomon Agnes, is
in duty to prepare.
There seems to be a movement to close
out these religious groups from having duties to
prepare this year, but it has been.