"Taming the Tongue (James)" - Pastor Jean Ross

do you father once again we thank you for the Bible we thank you for this book and the opportunity that we have to study together so we invite the Holy Spirit to come and guard our hearts and our minds and we ask this in Jesus name Amen now as mentioned our study today lesson number seven entitled taming the tongue and our principle passage of study is James chapter three we'll be looking from about verse one through to verse 12 so with that a little bit of an introduction as we get into our study we have a memory text now Mary text is actually the words of Jesus found in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 37 jesus said for by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned you know words are very powerful both for good and for bad you read in the Bible how that God created everything how did God create by his word of course we also know when it came to the creation of man God didn't just speak man into existence but God formed man with his hands and then he breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living being but for everything else God said let there be light and it was light and God spoke the world into being now in Genesis we read how that God spoke let there be light and it was light and so on but when we get to the book of John in the middle of the Bible the beginning of the New Testament there about we find John chapter 1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made so we find God's speaking in Genesis and then when we get to the Gospels we find the Word of God again referring to Jesus but when we get to the last book of the Bible the book of Revelation we find Jesus being referred to as the Alpha and the Omega now that's an interesting name by the way in Revelation where Christ is referred to as alpha an Omega God the Father is also referred to as Alpha and Omega in Revelation both Christ and the father is called Alpha and Omega now that's an interesting name for Jesus why is he referred to as Alpha and Omega what is alpha that's the beginning or the first letter the first letter of the Greek alphabet what is omega there will be the last letter of the Greek alphabet Jesus is called the a and the Z of the alphabet now that's a strange name why's Christ called the a and the Z of the alphabet what do we do with the letters of the alphabet we arrange those letters in different orders to make up words what are our words our words are our thoughts expressed Jesus is the thoughts of the Father revealed if you want to know what the father is thinking look at Jesus that's why Jesus said he who has seen me has what seen the father remember that experience for the disciples said father speaking to Christ said show us the father and it will suffice us and Jesus said he who has seen me as what seeing the father so words are very powerful Jesus came to reveal to us what the father is like and Jesus came to tell us to show us by the words that he spoke what the father is thinking what the father is like so our lesson for this week is all about word power it's about God's Word but it's also about our words how we use our words how we can use our words for that which is good but how we sometimes can use our words for that which is bad now the key passage as mentioned earlier is James chapter 3 from verse 1 all the way through to verse 12 and so we're gonna have some folks help read these various verses and we're gonna get to that in in just a minute so if we want to get set up for our first verse which is James chapter 3 verse 1 and I'll have you read it you Jeremy in just a minute but as we get ready for that a couple of background themes that we see so far in our study of James firstly in James chapter 1 verse 19 James sets the stage for the whole book by emphasizing the importance of receiving the engrafted word that's the phrase that James uses he recognizes the importance of the Word of God and as Christians we need to be feasting on the word just like the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abide in the vine or in the tree so as Christians we can't bear the fruit that the Christian needs to bear unless we are grafted into the Word of God we need to be receiving God's Word when we receive the word that leads to meekness that's the next theme that James emphasizes and then there is impartiality in our relationship with others whether somebody is rich or somebody is poor we treat them with the same degree of kindness and respect that leads to faith and it's the kind of faith that works by love that results in a christ-like character now in Chapter three James continues to describe the importance of holy living and how that holy living is demonstrated by the words we speak and the manner in which we speak those words so let's take a look then James chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 in Jeremy I think you got this for us my brethren let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment thank you so James begins here by saying let Martin let not many of you become teachers in the church it is Christ who calls a person to be a teacher he is also the one who qualifies an individual to be a teacher in other words to be a teacher in the church is not a position that an individual lobbies for or campaigns for it is a position that Jesus calls somebody to and Jesus qualifies that person to be a teacher we read in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 and 12 speaking of Christ and he himself through the spirit gave some to be apostles and some to be prophets some to be evangelists some to be pastors and teachers for what reason then it goes on for the equipping of the Saints for the work of ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ so the purpose of teachers in the church it is to build up the church it is not to make the teacher look good or to show how much the teacher might know it's really to build up the body of Christ and James warns the members of the church and he says be careful don't strive out of selfish ambition to be a teacher you see teachers are in constant danger of losing that spirit of genuine humility whenever people start looking to an individual to provide them guidance and expertise in a particular area it's quite easy for that person to start looking to themselves as having the answers trusting in their own wisdom now if you look back in the Old Testament who do you think was one of the greatest teachers human teachers during the Old Testament era well if you look at the Old Testament time period all the Old Testament Scriptures the scriptures is divided up into two parts the Old Testament you have what's referred to as the law and then the rest of the Old Testament is referred to as the prophets the law and the prophets the first five books of the Bible written by Moses it referred to as law and in the rest symbolized by Elijah is referred to as the prophets now probably one of the greatest teachers of the Old Testament period was Moses I mean he brought the teachings that God had given him to the children of Israel and how easy would it mean for Moses to become South Saints that all puffed up with all of this great truth that God had revealed to him yet the Bible tells us that of all of the people in Scripture Moses is said to have been one of the most humble spoken of being a meek individual that's an important characteristic for a teacher especially a godly teacher to have a spirit of humility to be a humble teacher so somebody might be very talented they might be knowledgeable but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have the right spirit to be a teacher in the church an important characteristic of a teacher in the church is a spirit of humility they need to follow the example of Moses they need to have meekness now of course in the church there are degrees of responsibility the more we have leadership responsibilities in the church the more we are held accountable before God those who teach the truth are held accountable not only for the things that they teach and their own example but they are also held accountable for the influence that they might have on others during the time of Jesus Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders of his time and he said to them go to you scribes and Pharisees you hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense you make long prayers so they claim to be very religious therefore you will receive greater condemnation it's a sobering fact but leaders in the church do bear an influence on others and we are held accountable for the influence that we bear a friend was telling me about an experience that she had she was attending a church and fairly new to the church and on one occasion she arrived early at the church and she was helping out in the Sabbath School Department and she went to church early Sabbath morning to set up the Sabbath school classroom she thought she was the first one there and she opened up the side or when she went into the church and she's walking down the hallway and she heard just this terrible yelling somebody was just screaming and shouting and somebody else at the church she was amazed at this this couldn't be and as she turned the corner walking into the lobby area of the church would you know it was the pastor's wife just screaming at her husband just telling her husband off and it was suddenly the pastor's wife turned and saw this new church members standing there and a terrible moment of embarrassment didn't quite know what to say and quickly the pastor's wife changed attitude smile happy Sabbath welcome to church while needless to say the influence of that pastor's wife was suddenly diminished in the mind of that new church member so the influence we have on others especially as leaders we need to be very careful in the things that we say it makes a difference and that's what James is reminding us off don't strive to be a teacher because you need to be careful recognize that you're gonna be held accountable by the influence that you have be careful with the things that you say that's the important point that James is emphasizing here all right well let's take a look at our next verse this is James chapter two so I think we have our next reader who's ready to read for us now for we all stumble in many things if anyone does not stumble in word he is a perfect man able also to bridle the whole body thank you so in verse two James begins by reminding us that we all stumble at things in one sense he's bringing us to a reality that all of us have weaknesses in our characters and we all make mistakes on the other hand he's not making an excuse for sin but he's helping us realize that when working with individuals especially in the church let's have patience with one another recognizing that we all make mistakes we all stumble at things but then he encourages us saying we ought to strive to control our words he goes on to say if anyone is able to control their tongue he is able to control the whole body meaning that his life his character is able to be under control if he can control his words this warning of course is against boastfulness or self-confidence if we can control our words I'm reminded of Peter there in the upper room with the disciples and Jesus justice this is just before Christ's betrayal and crucifixion Jesus said some of you standing yet speaking the disciples norfolk's he said all of you here are going to be offended because of me tonight and you're all gonna leave me and Peter said you know in front of the other disciples Lord if everyone shall leave you I will not leave you matter of fact Peter said I am ready to go with you to prison and to death and then that same evening that same night Peter denies knowing Christ while keeping warm at the enemy's fire yeah it's easy for us when our friends are around us to be Christians and to say the right things but when when we're all alone when I friends all around us when we not a church are we still standing up for what we know to be right you've probably heard the saying you need to practice you preach how true that is I remember as a child my parents would often say you have to practice what you preach really it's not so much what you say it's how you live your life that gives the greatest testimony to others so as Christians we want to show that what we believe is true in the way that we live our lives how many people have been turned away from Christianity by the hypocritical behavior of Christians people look at what Christians do and they say well if that's what it means to be a Christian I don't want anything to do with Christianity we don't want to be those kind of Christians the last part of the verse says if anyone does not stumble in word he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body now controlling our words especially under difficult circumstances is evidence of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart and the mind of the individual in Matthew chapter 12 verse 35 jesus said a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things our words reveal our thoughts if our words are pure and kind and good that is evidence that our thoughts are under the control of the Spirit of Christ in Matthew chapter 12 verse 34 for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks we talk about things that are closest to our hearts so if our hearts are filled with the love of Jesus we will demonstrate that love in the way that we interact with others we'll talk about the love of Jesus we will treat others with that same love with that kindness with that respect if our hearts are not filled with the love of Jesus we will treat people with harshness with a critical attitude what our hearts are filled with will come through in the way that we speak you know recently I youth passed at the Granite Bay church got married now I remember before he got married when he got engaged he was in laughs I mean he couldn't hold it back every Vespas somehow he'd have to talk about his fiancee and you know every pre-meeting and have to bring in an illustration about how wonderful his fiancee is and finally when he got married he thought okay you know that's gonna come to an end it didn't it only increased every sermon it has to be an illustration about his wonderful wife why because his heart was filled with love I mean I just Shawn threw in everything he said and just it's gleam in his eye you know when we love Jesus it's gonna shine through in everything that we gonna do it's gonna affect our speech not only do we talk about Jesus but the way we talk about other people will be seasoned with the love that we have for Jesus we will treat people differently because there are the children of Jesus right they the children of God so the love the love that we have for Christ should affect the way we talk about others the way we interact with others that's a demonstration that Christ is living within our hearts I think we're getting ready for our next verse James chapter 3 verse 3 now James is gonna give us some illustrations with reference to the power of our words and how we ought to control our words and then he's going to tell us how we can control our words which of course the important part we need the Holy Spirit's help for that so let's take a look at James chapter 3 verse 3 behold we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body thank you notice he uses the illustration here about a horse and putting a bit in the horse's mouth as an unruly horse in dangers its rider so the unruly tongue in dangers the Christians witness how many times have you said something only to think oh I wish I didn't say that I saw a banner that somebody had went something like I wish my mouth had a backspace key have you ever thought that I wish I could just erase that but it's already been said how do you get that you know how do you remove that but it's been said you know I wish we could do that but we can't once it's said it said it's not always easy to control our words especially you know when somebody irritates us or they say something that we might you know know is not true and it's so easy for that selfish nature to just sort of spring into action and say something only to regret it later on you can control the horse but can we control that tongue you know our words can bring encouragement they can bring joy but they can also bring pain they can also bring sorrow well it's for just a moment before we talk about the danger of saying the wrong thing let's talk about the positive side first about the power of saying the right thing at the right time how words can bring encouragement and how they can bring joy the Bible has a lot of things to say about the power of the word for example in Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 16 we read thy words were found this is speaking about the Word of God thy words were found and I did eat them that means to receive them and thy word wasn't to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart so the word the word of God can bring joy and rejoicing and we can bring joy and rejoicing to another we can speak a word of encouragement you've probably had that experience where you might be burdened down you might be troubled with something and you meet a friend and they smile and they speak a word of encouragement and they help lift that burden they give you the encouragement to keep pressing on and maybe you're discouraged and go to church and a friendly church members shakes your hand and they encourage your they have a word of Prayer with you and they encourage you to keep pressing on we need to do that especially as we near the end of time we need fellow brothers and sisters to be encouraging us to be lifting one another up to be pressing together so so words help to bring joy to bring encouragement we need that words of course also bring spiritual life on one occasion Jesus was surrounded by a large crowd of people and he said except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and the people looked at one another and they said what does it mean eat my flesh and many were offended by this and they turned and they left the disciples they looked at one another and said we don't understand what he's saying jesus said to the disciples are you also going to leave they said Lord we have nowhere to go but this is a hard saying what do you mean eat your flesh and drink your blood Jesus finally explained to them he said the flesh profits nothing but the words that I speak unto you they are spirit they are life to eat the flesh of Christ is to receive his word to make it your own there is life-giving power in receiving the Word of God so every day as we spend time in the Word of God as we feast upon his word as we read the Bible we are receiving that life-giving power that brings spiritual strength and nourishment to our life and Jesus Illustrated this with a story he said one day there were two men building houses you familiar with us the one man Jesus said built his house upon a rock and when the winds came and the rain and the floods the house stood firm because it was founded upon a rock the foolish man jesus said built his house upon the sand and when the winds came and the floods and the storms of the house fell and great was its fall now all of us whether we recognize it or not we're all busy building something what do you suppose we're all building we're all building character and one day our characters are going to be tested they're going to be tested with trials and difficulties our faith will be tried if we're building our faith if we're building our characters upon the rock Jesus Christ upon his word if we're feasting upon the Living Word when those trials come our way when our faith is tested it will endure if we feasting upon the Word of God if we building out characters simply upon the shifting sands of our feelings because our feelings go up and down if we simply building our characters upon our feelings when those trials and those difficulties come our way when our faith is tested our characters will collapse our faith will fail but if we feasting upon the word of God we will endear so we need to be feasting upon the Living Word that'll give us spiritual strength and nourishment that'll enable us to endure when these trials come our way now of course James is gonna go on he's spoken about how that you can control the tongue of a horse or you control a horse by putting a bit in its mouth but you can't control the human tongue now he's gonna go on and give us some further illustrations so the next one here is verse 4 so let's get ready to read verse 4 and it's gonna use another object that was fairly familiar to the Jews let's take a look at verse 4 look also at ships although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires thank you now of course to the Jews to those to whom James was originally writing people were very familiar with the ships during New Testament times the Roman Empire was bordered by the Mediterranean and Roman shipping was a very important part of the Roman economy the Roman ships were big for their time the ships used by the Roman Empire for trade was very large in comparison to the smaller fishing vessels which you read about during the time of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee some of these big Roman ships could carry as much as 270 or 300 people the ship that Paul was on on his way to Malta carried 276 people plus gear and water and food so it was a fairly big ship of course all made out of wood that would be small in comparison to the ships that we have today but it was still big for that time period and so now he's using an object that people were fairly familiar with and he's illustrating how that this big ship could be controlled by a small rudder just like a big horse could be controlled by a small bit so now this big ship can be controlled by a small rudder the last part he talks about how that the rudder controls the ship it's interesting to note that even though the rudder guides the ship it is the captain or the pilot that control the rudder so although the tongue in a sense guides the character it is the will or the mind that has to control the tongue does that make sense so what we say is a revelation of our heart but it's still the mind that controls what we say we want to make sure that the will or the mind of the Christian is under the control of the Holy Spirit and that's why we need to be surrendering our hearts and our minds continually to the working of the Holy Spirit surrendering ourselves to Christ we need to be able to have the right answer the answer that God would have us give under different circumstances in proverbs chapter 15 verse 1 it says a soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger it's always better to give a soft answer it turns away wrath I remember an experience where this verse really came home to me I spent a year as a student missionary in Taiwan and a while there we had a group of students and we were traveling from one city to another it was late at night and we had a local person who was driving the car I was sitting in the front seat and we stopped at a light and there weren't very many cars on the road and the light turned green and he was busy fiddling with something I think it was the CD player or the radio whatever it was but there was a car behind us and when I like to in green he didn't pull away right away I'm not sure what the situation was with the driver at the back but he got very angry that we didn't pull away fast enough and finally when he did pull away the car behind us drove up next to us and and pushed us over into the center divide until we came to a standstill and the man jumped out of the car and I looked over and when he climbed out of the car I noticed that he had something in his hand and I thought of myself I can't believe it and I looked over he had he had a gun in his hand I thought what well fortunately I had the presence of mind to lock my door and I did a lock my door and the windows it was dark was a night and so he couldn't see through the side window because it was tinted and he tried to open the door well when he couldn't open the door I think that made him even more angry so he flew around to the front of the car and he pointed the gun through the front window windshield of the car and he pointed right at me so they're always staring up the barrel of this gun and the man was shaking terribly and just in a terrible rage and it's one of those moments where you all you can do is pray and think what's gonna happen next well when he saw that it was a foreigner sitting in the car I think that kind of threw him for a little bit of a loop but the driver who was Chinese I rolled Danny's window just a little bit and started speaking in very soft gentle tones I couldn't understand what it was saying but he started speaking a very soft gentle tone to this man who was just beside himself with rage and I witnessed how that this verse literally calmed the man down I don't know what he said but he spoke very calmly very gently and finally he convinced the man to come over to where he was on his side of the car and he kept talking and talking just in gentle tones calmly just and the man was angry and angry he just kept talking calmly gently calmly and finally the man calm down to the point where he put down the gun and he walked over and he got into his car and he drove away and of course there was some other student missionaries that were with us in the back of the car and as we drove away there was this quietness in the car and everyone is real sober and guess what verse popped into my mind a soft answer turns away rough I think well thank you Lord I'm sure glad that this man had the presence of mind not to respond in a hasty fashion not to try and do something silly but to respond in a soft gentle manner and I think it's saved people's lives so it's true a soft answer turns away wrath you know Bible counsel works and it's true as Christians it's always better to seek peace right don't allow that selfish nature to rise up when someone offends us a rather respond in a soft gentle manner follow the example of Christ Jesus even when he was being arrested and being accused he didn't retaliate with anger he didn't get mad he responded in his soft gentle manner that's his example that he gives us are we ready to read verse five who's got verse five for us thank you even so the tongue is a little member and boast great things see how great a forest a little fire Kindles thank you a great forest can be brought to ashes by just a tiny little flame now living here in northern California we've actually a witness here of late just some tremendous forest fires just yesterday we got a call here at work that a fire had broken out in the foothills in Northern California I got a message from my family that there was a evacuation notice posted for our area and that we had to go home and pack our belongings and get ready to evacuate fire was moving in our direction we did I lost power and we waited for the sheriff to come and tell us to to leave but the wind changed direction we didn't have to leave unfortunately some homes were burnt in our neighborhood just down the street from where we were but it's amazing how that just a little flame and I guess this fire started with an individual just throwing out some papers that were on fire and it turned into this raging forest fire and how strange it is that just one or two careless words spoken in the church can bring about so much just pain and sorrow and can tear apart the harmony of the church just careless gossip can bring about so much pain you remember as children we used to play the the game broken telephone you all remember that where even if we did it here if I went over to Jeremy and I whispered something in his ear and then he went down and he we just went made our way all the way down to the very end could you imagine if I gave you a line here told you something here by the time it reached all the way down there to Ellen do you think what I told Jeremy would reach Alan in perfect order and completion probably not right it'll probably be completely different I tell Jeremy one line over here it'll probably be completely different by the time he reaches Ellen isn't that exactly the way it works if gossip starts in the church I've heard it you know many times where something will be sitting the church and finally it makes its way back to the pastor and I know the facts and I'm thinking to myself this is so far from the facts it doesn't even have a resemblance of truth because it goes from one person to another person to another person and by the time it works its way around the church it is so far away from what it actually began with and that's why when we face gossip what is the best thing to say you know what I'm not even gonna go there you know why don't you talk to the person involved go directly to the person that's following the biblical counsel if somebody raises a concern go talk to the person directly that's following an example that Jesus has given us if we have a concern talk to the person directly all right we're ready for verse number six who's got verse six right up here in the front we'll just wait for the camera to get here all right let's take a look at verse six the tongue also is a fire a world of evil among the parts of the body it corrupts the whole person sets the whole course of his life on fire and it is itself set on fire by hell thank you again James he's talking about the tongue and he's connecting with fire yeah I don't know if there's a more destructive force in nature than that of fire and so James is emphasizing how that words spoken without thought or care can be very destructive especially in the church now he refers to the word their iniquity talks about the tongue and he describes it as fire but then he also says it is a world of iniquity now in the Bible there are three words that are often used associated with sin you have the word sin which literally means to miss the mark God has set a standard for Christians when we fall short of that standard we are guilty of sin that is to miss the mark another word that we find in the Bible with reference to sin is transgression the word transgression means to break our law the third word iniquity means a bane towards self or selfishness now it says here speaking of the tongue it is a world of iniquity meaning often gossip is motivated by selfishness will often say something bad about somebody else because ultimately we trying to make ourselves look good it's motivated by selfishness 90% of gossip in the church is motivated by selfishness wanting to make ourselves look good now this shouldn't surprise us because the father of lies is who Satan the devil and he started all of this rebellion in heaven because of selfishness are we reading revel in Revelation chapter 12 verse 4 talking about this war in heaven Satan the dragon it says his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth so here we have this description of this war in heaven Satan and his angels fought against Michael Michael is the symbolic name or the prophetic name of Christ and the angel there's a swore in heaven it says the dragon was able to deceive a third of the angels now it says he used his tail and he drew a third of the angels to join his rebellion he didn't use his claw he didn't use his teeth but he used his tail any significance to the dragon using his tail yes revelation is a symbolic book it's significant that the dragon used detail in the Old Testament the tail is used to describe false prophets who speak lies who speak deceit they're referred to as the tail so here you find Lucifer in heaven speaking lies using deceit to deceive a third of the angels to join his rebellion against God he's still using the same tactic today in the church to bring disunion to try and disrupt the harmony of the church people speaking lies and again the motivation behind that is selfishness or iniquity in the book patriarchs and prophets speaking about this war in heaven we have this statement it says Lucifer began to insinuate doubts concerning the laws that govern the heavenly beings and so they began to spread about these these rumors in heaven Psalms 34 verse 13 says keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit the last part of verse 6 is and it sets on fire by hell speaking about the tongue and deceit and lies and iniquity the words we receive always produce a harvest in our hearts or in our lives so if we listen to gossip and we feed on gossip it's going to produce some kind of a harvest within us it's just a law of nature we become what we behold so if we constantly feeding upon these things it's gonna change us it's gonna have an effect upon us Jesus told a parable and you find it in Matthew chapter 13 about a certain farmer who planted seed in his field but at night while he slept an enemy came and planted tares amongst the wheat you familiar with that parable and then when the wheat began to grow the tares appeared with the wheat and then the servants came and said well do you want us to go up and pull out the tares and the landowner said no let the tares grow together with the wheat and then at the time of the harvest will send out the Reapers and they'll gather all the tares bind them in bundles to burn them and will gather the wheat into the barn well after a while the disciples came to Jesus and they said Lord explain to us the parable of the wheat and the tares then Jesus explained it explained to them that the farmer was the son of man and the field was the world and he who sowed the good seed is the son of man and the good seed would be the word the scriptures but he who sews the tares would be the wicked one and the tares would be the children of the world or those who receive the lies of Satan and the description given here of Christ is that in the world or even in the church there would be both the weeds and the wheat growing together the harvest is the end of the age what we receive if we receive the Word of God it is ripening us for the harvest for heaven if we are feasting upon the lies of Satan if we are feasting upon the gossips even in the church it is having an impact upon us it is harvesting it is ripening us for the wrong harvest what we feed upon is having an impact upon our characters so it's important upon it's important for us to think about what we're feeding our minds on what we are feeding our hearts and does that make sense it is a serious matter what we think about what we receive what we talk about it has an impact upon our characters upon our hearts all right let's take a look at verse 7 for every kind of beasts and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind alright so now James is using another illustration talking about how that a ship is controlled by a little rudder horses are controlled by a bit and now he's using animals in general and he says you know mankind has been able to tame all of these different animals and yet man cannot control his words that's the point that is getting to here in just a few moments so the animal creation has been subdued by mankind and God ordained it that way right from the very beginning God ordained that mankind have preeminence over all creation Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 it says then God blessed them speaking of Adam and Eve and God said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth so the wild beasts have been tamed but the tongue has not been tamed so I had that selfish stubborn rebellious nature is a constant struggle even for the Christian when you give yourself to God it doesn't mean that suddenly that selfish inkling that bing towards self is immediately removed you know and often we set ourselves up for for failure when we think that the moment we give our lives to Jesus that suddenly all of our battles are over especially when it comes to evangelism we think somehow that the baptistry is the finish line when in reality the baptistry is actually the start line that's that's when the battle really begins and by the way how do we win the battle with self it's on our knees every day all right it is the surrender of self every day humbly giving ourselves to Jesus asking for the Spirit of God to work within us that's where the battle takes place surrendering ourselves to Jesus over and over again it's a day-by-day experience it's through repentance and through confession and through surrendering ourselves to Jesus that we gain the victory but the idea that suddenly we give our lives to Jesus and then we never have to worry about self you know that's not true that's not the Christian life Paul speaks about enduring to the end and pressing on in faith and and trusting in God now the promise is as we do that we're a shirred victory as we trust in God we gain the victory for greater is He that is in us then he that is in the world but we have to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus as we keep eyes fixed upon Jesus he gives us the victory all right let's take a look at verse 8 but no man can tame the tongue it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison so without the influence of the Holy Spirit the tongue by nature or our words by nature is an instrument of evil why because it is motivated by self you see only Jesus can change the heart it's only under the influence of the Holy Spirit that we can speak words of kindness and encouragement versus speaking words of selfishness Psalms 140 verse 3 speaking of the wicked it says they sharpen their tongues like a serpent Romans chapter 3 verse 13 it says with their tongues they practice again speaking of the wicked Jesus speaking of the devil says he is a liar and the father of lies in John chapter 8 verse 44 telling a lie sometimes is considered a little thing you've probably heard about a white lie it's not a big deal you know telling an untruth but we have to be careful of little things little things added up turning to big things and these little things really shape our destiny they affect our characters they make us into the kind of people that we ultimately become I heard an interesting story about Margaret of Austria it's one of these amazing facts in the 16th century Holland was ruled by Margaret of Austria the clever daughter of the german emperor maximilian who is the most powerful ruler in europe in those uneasy days of intrigue and murder the rulers took every precaution against sudden death and margaret was no exception she feared death by poisoning and because was believed that pure rock crystal would disclose the presence of poison she drank from nothing but a goblet made of this rare mineral a one day a servant handing Margaret a drink dropped the Goblet to a stone floor shattering the crystal carefully it was swept up but a tiny fragment flew unnoticed into Margaret's slipper a splinter of glass just a tiny splinter worked its way into her foot which soon became painful and grew red and swollen with infection by the time the doctors were called gangrene was far advanced immediate amputation was necessary but the great Margaret of Austria did not survive the terrible ordeal ironically she died from poisoning caused by the very crystal she believed would protect her from such a death it was a small thing but it ended that ended up costing her her life and so it's the little things in life that we need to be careful of those little white lies we might not think that it's that important but it's the little thing we say that have an impact upon our characters upon the direction of our lives our attitude and these things all added up together influence our witness and really our destiny alright well I think we're getting ready for our next verse verse 9 so we'll set up to read verse 9 where James now is gonna continue to talk about our words and our tongue how that we don't only bless God but we turn around and curse those made in God's image let's take a look at verse 9 with it we blessed our God and Father and with it we curse men who have made who have been made in the similitude of God so the evidence of genuine Christianity is not only blessing God but also blessing our enemies it's one thing to bless our friends but Jesus says if you want to be sons of your father in heaven if you want to bless your enemies a Matthew chapter 5 verse 44 jesus said but I say unto you love your enemies this is true Christianity right here bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you and then verse 45 that you might be sons of your father in heaven for he makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust so it's one thing for us to bless God because of his goodness to us but what about blessing your enemies what about praying for them that's a true revelation that the Spirit of God is working within our hearts and our lives that's not natural you see a Christian is of course a follower of Jesus we want to treat people the way Jesus treated people how did Jesus treat his enemies he loved his enemies we have an example of how Christ treats even his arch enemy even the devil in Jude Chapter nine all days only one chapter is actually Jude verse nine we have Michael the Archangel prophetic name of Christ who is talking with the devil and it says he does not even bring a railing accusation against the devil but says the Lord rebuke thee now if there's anyone if there's any one deserving a railing accusation it will be the devil but God doesn't even bring a railing accusation against the devil he just simply says the Lord rebuke thee now Satan is the one that brings railing accusations against the Brethren because the devil is referred to as the accuser of the Brethren in Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 it's not interesting God doesn't even bring railing accusations against the devil God simply says the devil the Lord rebuke you and that's the example that we want to follow even our enemies it's not worth trying to bring railing accusations against our enemies rather follow the example of Jesus pray for them right be kind to them you've probably heard the illustration before when we point fingers at others you point one finger at somebody else you're pointing three fingers back at yourself probably three times just as guilty as they are but you're also pointing one finger back to God right because we are doing something that God is telling us not to do rather he's telling us to pray for our enemies I remember the story where they brought this woman to Jesus and they were accusing her there in the temple and what did Jesus say he said those who are without sin what were they to do cast the first stone so it's a it's a very sobering thing for us as humans to think that we know the hearts of people that we're able to pick up stones and cast stones at others so let's be very careful when it comes to spreading gossip or spreading stories that's not really the things that God would want us to do alright well then her next verse that we need to look at here is verse 10 so who's gonna be reading verse 10 for us alright Jeff if you'll be ready verse 10 out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not be so you know on one hand it's encouraging me as a pastor that even in the early Christian church the church that was filled with the Holy Spirit and had great evangelistic advances there in the first century even in the Church of James there were still the same challenges that exist in the church today even in his day there were still these challenges evil-speaking existed in that church of course that exists even today and James says that ought not to be that shouldn't be in the church you know before the tongue can be tamed before our words can be brought under control our thoughts need to be brought under the control of the Spirit of God this is a day-by-day experience it begins with the surrender of self it's an individual experience the Apostle Paul says I die what daily it is there day by day surrender of self and I think the the best explanation of how we can practically do this comes in the book steps to Christ and let me share this with you it's page 47 you cannot change your heart you cannot love yourself give to God its affections but you can choose to serve him you can give him your will he will then work in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ your affections will be centered upon him your thoughts will be in harmony with his thoughts so the truth of the matter is we cannot change our hearts but we can choose to have our hearts be changed by Jesus we can give him our heart so we can surrender ourselves to him this is a day-by-day experience every day we can give ourselves to Jesus and allow Jesus to work within us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure by the way I just want to encourage us we can be an influence for good in the church right we don't have to just stand there and allow gossip to go on I found it in my own experience when we are in the presence of gossip it's quite easy to change the conversation you can change the direction of the speech by if somebody is talking negative about somebody else it's quite easy to maybe introduce a positive thing about the person have you ever experienced that before they're talking negatively about the person you say yeah but have you noticed how so-and-so is very good at it kind of throws somebody off god right and they don't quite know how to handle that and the conversation sometimes changes we can redirect it so let's be an influence for the good as much as we can maybe we might want to say to the person if somebody comes to you and said did you hear what so-and-so did or what so-and-so said you can respond by saying what have you had an opportunity to go talk to so-and-so usually the response is no I haven't or I heard from so-and-so saying well you know what this might be the perfect time to go talk to so-and-so and clear it up maybe find out what the real reason is so we can be a a force for good to be an encouragement to people try and build them up and I think that's the lesson here we want to be an influencer to go to try and encourage people and help them in their war James finishes up this passage by emphasizing the importance of being a positive influence it says you don't get fresh water and bitter water coming out of the same spring that was familiar to the the people that he was writing to and down close to the Dead Sea there were these Springs that produce bitter water people couldn't drink it those who did drink the water from the bitter springs would get sick but up further north closer to the Sea of Galilee there were these fresh water Springs that produce life we want to be life-giving Springs but in order to do that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit brings a life and joy and peace we want to be those kind of examples and encouragement stew others that's the emphasis of the lesson so let's allow the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts let our thoughts be guided by the spirit and let's be the best example that we can be for others again let me remind you of our free offer for today it's entitled tiny troublemakers for those of you who are joining us if you'd like to receive this free offer call our resource line it's eight six six seven eight eight three nine six six and our free offer again is number 196 call and we'll be happy to send that to you again thank you for joining us in our study of the book of James until next time may God bless

Channel: Aaron

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Length: 53min 23sec (3203 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020