Let us pray.
Lord, once again we thank you for your
having kept us till this day.
And that we have the opportunity, the chance
to meet around your word.
And to examine ourselves in this mirror of
your word.
And that the one who hears can sit
at your feet so that your word would
find entrance.
Lord, please meet with us by your holy
word.
Amen.
Now, today I would like to speak on
another topic.
The tongue.
The tongue and the...
As I examined the Bible, I was astonished
what it had to say about the tongue.
When you are at home, study James chapter
3.
Read there about the tongue and the sins
thereof.
Perhaps it will shock you as you read
it.
I'll read verse 6.
And the tongue is a fire, the very
world of iniquity.
The tongue is set among our members as
that which defiles the entire body and sets
on fire the course of our life.
And is set on fire by hell.
Is set on fire by hell.
We should read the whole chapter.
But for the sake of time, I think
it's sufficient just to read that verse.
There are members of the body which can
be dangerous.
If we think of sex, we
presume that this is the sin which causes
all the conflict and damage.
And we sometimes think that the sins of
a sexual nature are the worst possible sins
in this world.
But the Bible says no, the more dangerous
one is the tongue.
Think of what promiscuity has achieved and how
many it has destroyed and the many who
are six foot under today as a result
of it.
Just in Africa, millions have died only as
a result of this.
And as one looks around and observes, one
thinks that this is like a spirit that
has just poured upon the people.
And you see things that are absolutely shocking.
Children who aren't even yet in school who
get involved sexually.
You find people who have no regard even
for their own family.
And I wouldn't like to go into more
detail for the Bible says there are some
things which shouldn't even be mentioned.
But had you just been married couples, I
would have mentioned some of the awful perversions
that are going on.
Sodom and Gomorrah.
I was speaking to Uncle Horgat who was
telling me that he may not make it
to go up to Malelana because he makes
daily visits to a boy who is dying
of AIDS.
He is in hospital.
When he first began visiting him, the boy
said, Uncle, my heart is so hard.
It is just iron hard.
Yet he used to come to services while
still a little boy.
His mother goes to services.
Those who forsake the Lord and forsake coming
to services, their hearts are hardened in an
awful way.
The Lord Jesus himself said that when a
demon leaves the heart and he finds it
swept, but not occupied, he brings his pals
along and then seven enter in and the
man's latter state is worse than the former.
But when he asks for prayer that the
Lord would soften that hard heart, he says,
Uncle, my heart is so
hard.
As he asked the Lord for a softened
heart, he said, Uncle, after having been to
that meeting, Uncle, it was like the Lord
showed me my sins for the first time,
like a film before me.
And he poured out his heart one thing
after the other, confessing his sins.
And then he said, Uncle, won't you please
call that certain person, though he himself is
wicked, I was more wicked and I was
united with him in his wickedness.
Ask him please to come and see me
in hospital, for I need to put right
with him.
And Uncle Hogarth says that he is just
pouring out his heart and has asked him
to please come as often as possible for
chances to make right.
The AIDS crisis is
awful and is tragic.
However, it preaches a wonderful sermon and deals
with those who refuse to listen from the
pulpit when they are lying down.
And their hearts are
softened.
And I said that perhaps we will find
many in heaven who were reached by the
gospel which AIDS preached at them.
When I got there these days, when Uncle
Hogarth got there to this boy, this boy
said, Uncle Hogarth, are there Psalms in the
Bible?
Psalms.
Is there a book of Psalms?
He said indeed.
So he asked him to read them.
He asked him to read Psalm 103.
And then Uncle Hogarth started at verse 1
and he said no, not verse 1, start
at verse 13.
Psalm 103 verse 13.
And so he read it to him.
Just as a father has compassion on his
children, so the Lord has compassion on those
who fear him.
The way in which the Lord speaks to
his people, like a father pitying his
children, so too the Lord has compassion on
those who fear him.
Oh God is someone else.
Our inclination is to say, well, you got
what you deserved.
You got AIDS and you deserved it, etc.
But God, even when seeing that a person
has received the just rewards of his life,
still says, I will show compassion on you
if you fear me.
God pities those who fear him.
It is wonderful to fear God.
The Lord has compassion on those who
fear him.
I remember visiting, I think it was the
third witch who I had visited.
It was there in the Vienna area, right
in the sticks in the hills there.
And she said, Pastor, I no longer fear
God.
I've got my life sorted out with him.
I don't fear him anymore.
But I'd heard that actually she had returned
back to her occult practices.
There are many sins, like the sins of
promiscuity.
The sins of lying, of the occult, of
stealing, but there is nothing worse than the
tongue, the sins of the tongue.
At the end of verse 8 it says,
the tongue is full of poison which kills.
AIDS kills people.
But the corpses that there are as a
result of the tongue are many more than
as a result of AIDS.
Where people are dead spiritually because of this
thing, the tongue.
And our text says, and the tongue is
a fire, a very world of iniquity.
The tongue is set among our members as
that which defiles the entire body and sets
on fire the course of our life and
is set on fire by hell.
And Satan came wanting to deceive Eve.
He came with the tongue, deceiving her softly
with the tongue.
Be very careful of the tongue of a
person.
That she fell, man fell because of the
tongue of the old serpent.
The serpent came in a very nice way,
a helpful way and noticed that he wanted
to open their eyes.
Those are the most dangerous people.
They come and they want to enlighten you,
they want to help you, they want to
teach you.
And the most deadly poison is under their
tongue.
Beware of the person who comes with that
serpentine poison, wanting to open your eyes.
But he comes with the poison of a
viper.
The psalm
asks,
who will ascend the hill of the Lord?
He who has a pure heart, he whose
lips have not been given to evil.
That is why this chapter starts with the
point, let not many of you become teachers.
Knowing that such as we will incur a
stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many
ways.
But if anyone does not stumble in what
he says, he is a perfect man.
But the slanderer is one who comes, coming
to teach and instruct.
But your reply should be, let's leave that.
It says the tongue of the person is
the world.
It is the cosmos, full of all manner
of iniquity.
How great is the evil and the iniquity
found in the world.
There is murder, witchcraft, prostitution,
drunkenness, jealousy, many things.
Our text says that the tongue of the
person is the world.
The tongue contains all that iniquity, for it
is the very world of iniquity.
Think deeply upon that.
You should be testing and examining yourself and
asking the Lord, God how is my tongue?
What is it like?
It says that there is a direct connection
with hell, between the tongue and hell, set
on fire by hell.
In this past week I sat down praying
and thinking.
I thought back of the 50 years which
I have been preaching.
I have been through many experiences.
I have been through much.
I could never tell you all.
What I have met up with in relation
to different people, the blacks, the whites, the
coloreds, the Indians and every nation.
I asked, where did people fail?
What has been the main cause of people
falling?
And I found that in probably every case
it was the tongue.
And I said Lord, indeed your word is
true, that the tongue can be set on
fire by hell itself and defiles the entire
body.
Wicked is the tongue and I don't want
to just pass by from this point.
I want it to sink in.
Some
ask, When
will we have special men's meetings or special
women's meetings or special youth meetings?
But I am now telling you, I collect
all these together.
If you want and have a need for
men's meetings, here, this is the message for
you.
Likewise for women's meetings and youth meetings and
children's meetings.
Consider your tongue, whether you are here or
in your home, in your room or at
work or at school.
For your tongue will bring upon you perversion
and wickedness that isn't found elsewhere.
For at a spring of water you will
not find simultaneously salty, brackish water and sweet
water together.
You will not pluck grapes from a fig
tree.
You will not
pluck
grapes from a fig
tree.
But with the same tongue we will praise
God and then curse others.
You won't find such a thing in the
animal world, whether they are under the sea
or on land or in the air.
It says, all the animals you may tame,
you can tame.
Whether it's a horse or a donkey or
a mule or a cow or bird or
the creatures of the sea, every creature
you can tame.
But you can never tame the tongue of
a person.
Some years ago I told you the story
of an Islamic lady who was troubled by
her tongue even after conversion.
She had become a Christian and she went
and asked for prayer from others.
For two or three days she would lay
off her gossiping but then it would be
back again.
Finally she took a needle and she went
to the Mary and she preached to herself.
She held her tongue, some of her shorter.
She must have had a longish tongue.
She said, now listen here, you tongue.
If you just dare to gossip again, I'm
going to pierce you with this needle.
I will make you to feel the pain.
She told me that she was genuine in
what she said.
She was totally sincere that she would have
done it.
She said she now has asked the Lord
that her tongue would be circumcised and that
she took those strict measures.
I once heard a man tell me a
story.
He said his wife used to forget so
much.
When she would forget yet again, he would
be so furious and scold her.
One day he was travelling by plane with
his wife and they got out the plane
and they took a taxi to
visit a certain person with whom they had
agreed on a rendezvous at a certain place.
The husband said, don't worry, we didn't even
meet there, we will take a taxi all
the way to your home.
When they got there, the taxi stopped outside
and they took their luggage.
As they were getting out, his wife began
trembling, fearing that she would be decapitated that
day.
She came to her husband trembling and said
softly, I am dreadfully sorry but I have
forgotten my handbag in the taxi.
The husband was furious yet again and used
violent language against her and scolded her.
And so they had to get back to
the airport and seek that handbag for it
contained very important things in it.
Fortunately they got it back and so it
took them hours off their way.
But he had given her a real peace
of his mind and had shown great anger.
But this wife had a certain disease,
epilepsy.
When they got to the home, she said
I need to go to the bathroom to
bathe and she went off to bathe.
And the husband was relaxing in the bedroom,
his wife wasn't returning from the bathroom, she
heard a noise there.
He opened the door and asked what was
happening.
He heard the noise, wondering what was happening.
When he got to the door and he
listened, he heard a knocking on the bath.
She had had an epileptic fit in the
bath and remember that if you are in
the bath water you can drown.
He called out
her name but she didn't reply.
That man said he felt like it was
hell itself, he sweated.
Hanged on the door demanding that she opens.
Just heard that noise and heard what
sounded like her head smacking the side of
the bathtub like a stone.
He ran around hoping that he could perhaps
save her life.
He ran around hoping that he could perhaps
get through the bathroom window but he found
that the windows were just slits only his
hand could go through.
He then ran back and tried to break
down the bathroom door, some doors especially those
owned by wealthy people.
But difficult and very strong and he then
heard the noises becoming less and less.
He thought to
himself well she is probably drowned and when
I find her it will just be her
corpse in the bath.
He told me that he prayed as he
had never prayed before calling upon the Lord
for mercy and also beginning to wonder whether
her epileptic fit hadn't been brought on by
his severe anger and scolding of her earlier
on that day.
Remember husband that the Bible says your wife
is a weak awake vessel.
Live therefore with wisdom and gentleness with your
wife.
Don't overburden her.
Remember that she is given to you and
you are to help.
Finally he heard her respond very slightly as
if though she was waking up from her
unconsciousness.
He thanked God and said she is breathing,
she is still alive.
Finally she came to the door and opened
it.
He noticed on her face the severe injuries
from the fit.
What had happened was that she had just
let the water out, she had taken the
plug out and as it was running out
she had had that severe fit and it
injured her face on the bath and also
the handle of the bath and it bruised
herself very badly.
He told me that he knelt
down there and then
and said oh my God forgive me, save
me from my anger.
He told me earlier
I
was
healed of that anger that very day.
I have never been troubled by it again.
God used his shambok on me.
He received a great shock.
He was like a child who had been
thrashed by a parent.
He said that was the end of the
problem.
The doctors
and
scientists who are not believers, they don't understand
what conversion means.
They would find a sentence like the person
got converted or repented, they would translate it
and say oh it means that they had
a shock, they had a shocking experience.
A shock can be good if it is
from God.
But it can help you to stop completely
with what you have been doing.
The tongue, the most evil thing in our
bodies, an unbridled tongue
is a sure sign of an
unsanctified soul.
The
tongue?
The
unrestrained
tongue.
The tongue that is at liberty to speak
what it wants to speak is a sign
of the pit of filth and wickedness in
the heart that is the world.
And not just unsanctified, but undisciplined.
And maybe even an unsaved soul.
You live in a fool's paradise, a hypocrite
calling yourself saved, but your tongue bears testimony
to the fact that you are the opposite.
It is a sure sign as well that
you are not under the government of the
Holy Spirit.
Take this home.
Take this home with you.
That it would dawn on you that Satan,
the devil has been given free reign because
of your tongue.
Moses, the man of God, one
day uttered a hasty and foolish word.
It was just a very, very short speech.
He would have taken it back undoubtedly if
he could have done so.
However, his speech was already recorded in heaven.
It had gone up already to be recorded
up there.
And there it stood in heaven, those words
which he uttered.
And that, those few words, that little short
speech of his destroyed the
hope of a lifetime.
All his life he wished and he longed
for the day when he could put his
foot on the promised land, enter that promised
land.
And he lost it because of a word
he had spoken.
You hear men.
Be careful what you say.
You want a spiritual life?
You want the full blessing of Christ?
You'll never get it.
Unless that sin problem in your tongue has
been dealt with.
You speak what you like in your bedroom
to your wife, to your children, to your
friends, but you won't dare say it in
public.
You'll gossip, mention people's names, but you don't
go to them.
Oh, you're an evil man, a curse to
the Church of God.
You're an
evil
man, a curse to the Church of God.
And women, what you say, all those things
that you freely speak to your friends and
pals, do you know that they're all being
registered in heaven?
I've often mentioned regarding that great preacher of
Germany, Werner Heuckelbach.
Where he would preach till he got exhausted
and he noticed that people weren't coming as
usual and they weren't repenting as they usually
did.
And he got tired and he lost the
divine fire, not the fire of hell that
kindles the tongue.
Now listen to what he said.
He
said,
He
said,
He didn't do as I often instruct people
to do, to go and test and examine
themselves.
Because he said to himself, let me stop
preaching while I examine myself before the Lord.
And he took his writing pad and he
would write names of sins, unfaithfulness, sins of
the tongue, and various things where he said,
I'll examine myself around these sins one by
one.
After that he did it yet again, praying,
saying, Lord help me, I don't want one
stone to remain uncovered, unturned over.
For two weeks.
While his coworkers were nagging him, asking him,
when are we going out to preach?
He said, just leave me alone, I'm seeking
the Lord in prayer, searching my heart.
After two weeks of cleansing himself, he began
to preach.
And the people poured in as had been
in the beginning.
People cried about their sins as they repented
of their sins and surrendered to the Lord.
Do you hear that secret?
A great secret.
Do that if you want to avoid being
a hypocrite, a Pharisee, a scribe.
Just today, take only this sin and ask,
have I ever used the name of somebody
else, speaking about, gossiping about him without him
being there?
Have I ever gone to somebody and spoken
and chatted about that person?
It is said, by your tongue you will
be justified, or by your tongue you will
be condemned.
If Moses lost so much on earth, the
earthly treasures, just because of a few sentences,
how much more so with all your intoxicated,
drunken speech?
When Isaiah the prophet began his real ministry,
it was his lips that were sanctified first.
His lips had to be dealt with.
The live coal
was only applied to those members of his
lips.
When he said, woe unto me, I'm a
man, he didn't say I'm a woman.
It's a pity that we men can sin
with our tongues as well.
And that live coal touched his lips, and
God says, lo, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin
is purged.
His tongue had to be purified
before God could use him.
That's where it starts.
And all the trouble in these years, just
about all the trouble that we have gone
through, was because of unclean lips.
On the day of Pentecost, tongues of
fire came down.
Tongues possessed and filled and sanctified by God
the Holy Spirit.
If you have received the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, your tongue
has received the first touch.
And if it hasn't, that baptism needs to
be questioned, whether it's from above or from
below.
To claim that you filled and baptized with
the Holy Spirit, and your tongue didn't receive
the first touch, your whole experience is just
mockery.
If those tongues of fire come down, that
fire is from above and not from below.
You will never talk as you have talked
in the past.
The way you used to talk, never, never,
never.
You will never have that unlicensed freedom that
you have had all your life, once the
Holy Spirit has sanctified you and filled you.
And a man of God said, A.B.
Simpson, When the Holy Spirit has filled you,
your language will be under the control of
a watchful spirit.
A watchful spirit.
You won't go around speaking all nonsense and
foolish things.
Playing the role of a silly woman, even
if you are in dead earnest.
What a pity that many men, many a
man and many a woman of beautiful qualities,
Wrecked their whole lives and their fantastic testimonies
by an uncontrolled tongue.
And this evil tongue settles, influences
our very life, our whole character.
Even
here, like
here and now, today, or yesterday, But if
it affects our life and character and testimony,
how much more in the sight of God,
Who has said, By your words, you will
be justified.
By your words, you will be content.
Everybody who takes this seriously, By
your tongue you will be condemned.
Even if you claim to be a child
of God.
We may ask the question, Why is the
tongue such a wicked, wild animal?
It is because you have an adulterous spirit
inside your own heart, And what you say
unto others is simply expressing what you are
inside.
Maybe jealousy inside, self-seeking, Excusing
yourself, justifying yourself, and seeking to excuse yourself.
That is why you have a tongue like
that of a mule.
What is your tongue like?
Now take it, do it properly, don't just
do it in a reckless way.
The member of your body which is killed
in the name of
Jesus
Christ, The member of your body which has
killed and destroyed many others, And yet you
say, I am a teacher, I instruct others,
I preach to others.
You enlighten other people.
You can see the mistakes that others make,
but your own you do not see.
But the word says, For we all stumble
in many ways, But the way you speak,
it seems like you never sin.
If it was possible, I would like to
preach this sermon all over again, Just to
make sure that you can hear and understand,
Or that those who haven't understood remain behind,
and we preach it again.
If you find that you have sinned with
your tongue, Immediately make that thing right, get
right with God, Go and apologize to those
that you have defiled with your tongue.
I know it's difficult.
If you have plucked a chicken and walked
along in the wind with the feathers floating
away, It's difficult to go and collect the
feathers again.
However, you will never receive the blessing, And
stand in the holy place, If lies have
come out of you.
Your tongue needs to be cleansed, sanctified, And
that there is discipline put on your tongue.
The brother of the king, This brother of
the Lord, This brother of the Lord who
wrote these words said, The rudder of a
ship is a very small instrument, But small
as it is, it drives the ship's direction.
The rudder of a ship is a very
small instrument, But small as it is, it
drives the ship's direction.
This brother of the Lord, This brother of
the Lord who wrote these words said, This
brother of the Lord who wrote these words
said, to
speak some vain words and notice how it
will steer a whole group of people in
a certain direction although there are those who
have discernment and will not just be taken
with the crowd.
That's why Paul said, I'm afraid lest you
are deceived like Eve was deceived by the
serpent.
Don't be the offspring of Eve and be
deceived.
Pray and say, Lord, deliver me from a
tongue that is full of the world and
all manner of wickedness.
When will you wake up?
Do you want to wait until you are
on the throes of death when God's hand
is squeezing you and you want to make
right with certain people but they are perhaps
long since dead?
May
the
Lord work in you that you would have
a true spirit of repentance and be like
that boy who had called Uncle Horgat and
has that freedom to confess his sins and
get things right and deal with things continually.
Something else, just by the way, which is
just by the way, which might have something
to do with the tongue but may not.
The letters and the books that you read,
what are they like?
Are they good, those which you chat to
other people about?
Some men will take evil books and pornographic
things and hide it under their mattresses or
under the pillow, things that are hellish.
The videos you look at, what are they
like?
Certain men who died in my bed there
where I sleep, a young man, he had
been born of my uncle, from my mother's
side.
He said, Birla, please go and tell the
people to watch out for their videos.
For it can happen that a bird flies
overhead and drops something on your head.
That's just an accident which can happen.
But don't go into the birdcage or into
the aviary and collect all the bird droppings
and smear it on your head.
Such are people who look at videos, and
you parents who have children, you
should be able to check every single thing
that they look at, every video, go through
it, and if it's not a good one,
bring it to me, we can have a
fire service, we can burn the lot.
And you parents even here, watch out for
what you've got in your homes, lest you're
seeking the Lord for him to work, but
you're hiding the devil and putting him in
your pocket.
And you say, I'll be silent, I won't
say a thing.
You're as guilty and will go to hell
with the one who commits his sin.
So expose sin, directly confront, and ask what
should be done.
If they don't listen, come to me, and
we deal with the matter.
Let's take that thing and throw it out
the window.
Should the person not be willing to part
from it, he can go with it, out
the window.
For if we have such things, the tongue
becomes the world of evil.
I don't want to be used to it.
I don't want to be
your preacher while you sit on sin, for
I'll always then remain a thorn in your
flesh.
I know that very clearly.
Many of you have not experienced revival, that
is why you live as you do, and
you need to be rebuked every Sunday.
Sunday after Sunday, you've got to be told
these basic things.
And every day, pray that you'll get saved
thoroughly.
And when you are saved, that you'll be
revived.
And that you'll meet up with that divine
fire, with those cloves of fire that came
down at Pentecost.
That Pentecost will be a reality in your
life.
I think I've spoken long enough, it's close
to two hours that you've been here now
in the service.
If God isn't gracious to us, and this
help doesn't help you, I don't know what
will help you.
God alone knows, and may he use it,
what he knows.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
We ask you Lord, that your words wouldn't
be in vain to us.
As you say that the tongue is a
world of unrighteousness, defiling the whole body,
and defiling the whole body of Christ.
Lord, send revival beginning with the tongue of
each and every one.
That the Holy Spirit would be able to
fill the church of Christ.
And put out Lord, that fire of hell
which is on the tongue of some.
That we may worship you in truth, and
in the fear of you.
And show forth the fruit of repentance.
Amen.