Runaway Tongue, Part 2

Your tongue will show up with you at work tomorrow and it can distance and discourage your fellow workers or unite.

That could determine your career. Your tongue can accept an invitation it shouldn't or reject it, which can determine the course of your integrity. Your tongue can argue and disagree and refuse God or with a little word it can follow him and maybe the word today is yes. Your tongue is powerful.

It can cause great damage to the people in your life and it can also bring hope and healing. You've likely experienced both of those in what others have said to you. You see it all depends on how you use your tongue. The problem is that the tongue is very difficult to control. Sometimes things come out of our mouth that surprises even us. Here on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen is in a series called Speech Therapy for Saints.

We're not talking about the therapy you would use to control a stutter, but therapy to help you control what you actually say. Here's Stephen. So if you have your Bibles, this is a letter from James, turn to chapter 3 and it begins with a rather serious caution. Look at verse 1. Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. This is actually an imperative, one of over 50. You could put an exclamation point at the end of this verse.

He's saying we could render it a little more woodenly. Don't be so quick to be a teacher, exclamation point. Kind of an interesting way to start, isn't it? Pastors, youth leaders, Sunday school teachers for children, adult teachers, Bible study leaders, itinerant preachers, missionaries, parachurch leaders who handle the word, Bible conference speakers, radio, television Bible teachers, Christian counselors, and the list could go on. Basically anyone who serves the word of God to others and communicates his truth to students are going to get a double dose, a closer look, a stricter judgment. Every word will be judged, not only for its delivery but its accuracy, its effect, its tone, its purpose, its spirit, its motive, its influence. Do you know what this means? This means that teaching is the most dangerous occupation on the planet.

Do you really want to do it? I appreciate the fact that James, let me show you this, he changes the pronoun. This will be a little tedious. We'll get to it quickly, but I want you to notice this. He changes the pronoun.

It's first person plural. Did you notice we, the word we, let not many of you become teachers, my brother, knowing that as such we will incur stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways. James is not saying, now let me tell you something. All you out there are going to incur a stricter judgment.

No, he's holding himself in with this company. He's saying, I'm in this too, and I find that very encouraging. Not just all you, but us, and so am I. As I study this, I'm not just preaching this to you who teach, I'm preaching this to myself. I understand that by standing here and opening the word, I am inviting the indictment of God upon my life, that this very act will be evaluated. This is especially dangerous for me at this moment too. I knew when we started James that James 3 verse 1 was coming.

I was hoping for another snow day. Maybe you're out there thinking, well I just volunteered to teach in ABF, now I'm not so sure about that. I just volunteered to teach a ladies Bible class, or I was thinking about teaching third graders until now. Go ahead. Go ahead. James is not trying to shut down the recruitment office. He's simply delivering a very serious caution. Be careful. Don't come unprepared. Don't treat it lightly. Don't enter into it for yourself.

Study and live for the benefit of your student. Resist the accolade. Resist this heritage of appreciation.

Remember you are a clay pot, and I am too. Fear to teach. Pray that you will not lead your students astray.

Why? There is, James says, a final exam just for teachers. How's that for irony? A final exam, especially for teachers, is coming, and Jesus Christ, the teacher, the chief shepherd will do the grading. And he will determine and then reward that which was indeed accurate, and spiritually minded, and spiritually motivated, and beneficial, and edifying, and courageously truthful, and God-honoring, and honorable. You see, no one makes a mad dash for the stage if they understand the gravity of the coming beam of seat, and its evaluation of our speech that will be greater and more strict than for any other. The Scottish reformer, John Knox, was so awed and burdened by the responsibility to declare God's word faithfully, that when he stood at the pulpit to preach his very first sermon, he burst into tears, and wept uncontrollably, and had to be escorted from the pulpit until he could compose himself again.

Frankly, I fear more than ever the trivialization of the pulpit, and the sermon, and the lectern. Now, following this serious caution is a rather surprising admission. For we all stumble in many ways. Notice again, James includes himself. For we all stumble.

We all. Thank you, James. I would have expected an apostle to have it nailed down, and he could say, Now, you all stumble in many ways, and we'd all go, Yeah, you're right. But how encouraging that James would say, Look, I got the same, I'm in the same kettle. I'm in the same soup, so to speak, especially regarding speech. But isn't it true? Aren't we a little weary of teachers who teach as if they mastered it?

Job had the same problem. He's confronted by God at the end of the book, chapter 40, around there, and he says, I will make no reply. I lay my hand upon my mouth.

That's another way of saying, I have been talking way too much. Isaiah, a great prophet, faithful prophet, encounters the living God, and says, I am a man of unclean lips. Peter periodically opened his mouth only to change feet, right?

Makes this an incredibly noble and passionate resolution. They will all fall away from you, Lord, but I will never. Now, that came back to haunt him. Alcibius, the first church historian, informs us that James had a couple of nicknames. One was camel knees because of his hours spent in prayer.

His knees were leathery with calluses. He was also nicknamed the just because of his great virtue and commitment to Christ. So here you have an apostle, an aged apostle, pastoring the church in Jerusalem, writing to the scattered Jewish believers. And he, the apostle, known for his prayer life, known for his virtue, says, for we all stumble. Would you note he does not say, for we all fatally fall. The word stumble means to slip up, by the way, slip up in what we say. James uses the present tense to mean that this happens over and over and over and over and over and over.

Again, does that surprise you? That kind of realism that you'd have an apostle saying, we, I, stumble over and over and over again? Maybe you're out there saying, he's not talking about me. I don't stumble over and over and over. Would you just lean over and ask your wife, is this about me?

Go ahead, I'll wait. We all stumble in many, if you look at your text, the next word is italicized. It's offered by the translator. Ways could easily have been translated words. We all stumble in many words. In fact, James goes on to write, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, so that's the context, he is a perfect man. And you go, oh no, not that word again.

Let me remind you that that word is different from what we think of, teleos. It means someone who is in maturing progress, not arriving at perfection. James is simply saying, the one who is maturing, his progress is revealed by that tattle tale that lives in his mouth. How are you doing today?

You're still going to have to battle it tomorrow, but how are you doing today? Maybe you lost it before you ever got to church. We all stumble, but those who don't, he's a perfect man, teleos, he's growing, he's progressing today. Thomas Manton, a Puritan who wrote in the early 1600s, preached in the early 1600s, shed light on this concept in his commentary on this word teleos, which was very helpful.

I've had the commentary, I've picked it up every once in a while, picked it up this week. He wrote this in the Jewish discipline, there were two categories of students. One was called beginners, and he wrote those who've begun their Christian walk and experiment in virtuous action.

Good Puritan language. And the second category was called the perfect. These were they who had attained some progress in their instruction. And so Manton goes on to say, Manton, however you want to pronounce it, that this verse could be read, anyone who bridles his tongue is not a beginner, one who is experimenting in virtue, but a perfect that is one who has made or making some progress.

And isn't that the challenge? About the time you think you've made progress, you slip up. One author commented, why is the Christian path littered with so much orange peel? Can I show you the implication that James feels the same way, which is in my view the proper attitude of progression and maturing? Now I've already pointed, and again back to a little tedious grammar, but I've already pointed out that he uses the first person plural pronoun to include himself. Verse 1, we will incur stricter judgment. Verse 2, we all stumble. Now as he describes the perfect one, the one progressing, he switches the pronoun. Look again at verse 2, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man.

Fascinating. James holds up the standard for us to pursue while at the same time encouraging us with a subtle turn of a pronoun that he's with us. None of us have arrived. He with us is still classified back over here as a beginner. By the way, that attitude is the mark of a maturing believer. I've had the privilege over the years in ministry to be around some very godly, holy tour saints who've served Christ for 30, 40, 50, even 60 years. It's always a delight to have some of these aged men come and preach during the summer, and I can tell you this, to a man, at least those who get invited back, to a man in private conversations, every one of them does the same thing James just did. They classify themselves in the conversation as a beginner. Those who have much to learn, and this is James' encouragement.

He's with us. So don't give up. Keep going. It may involve slipping and it will, stumbling, starting again, and I repeat, the Christian life of maturity is nothing more than a series of new starts. But keep in mind you are not pursuing perfection. You are making progress, and that's daily.

So don't give up, and don't let up either, by the way. James is giving none of us a free pass here. He's been challenging us in this letter to the very core of our attitudes and being, our thoughts. He's attacked our prejudices and our partiality. He's challenged our response to trials. He's challenged our response or view of temptation. He's called into question the very sincerity of our faith by the absence or presence of works. And now he's signed us up, all of us, in a course that he says he's involved in, as well, related to our speech.

And on that subject, James will spend more time than any other subject. In fact, he mentions the tongue in every chapter. And he writes, in verse 2, look back there one more time. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. In other words, you bridle the tongue, you bridle the body. Now, what does he mean? Well, think of it this way.

A man who runs the marathon can take a lap around his house. A trained surgeon can take out a splinter. A professional golfer can handle a two-foot putt most of the time.

A world-class chef can scramble eggs. See, they've learned the hard things. Everything else is easier. James is saying that whenever you bridle the tongue, and that's the hardest thing to do, everything else is easy. And there's truth in that. Now, watch as James illustrates for us how powerful the tongue really is. He uses two simple illustrations for this truth. Notice verse 3. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. It really doesn't need any commentary.

I'm going to give you some because I've had three weeks to prepare, so here it is. If you put an instrument of pressure in the right place, guided by the right hands, even that instrument, though it is a small, slender bit, can turn the entire body of that massive horse. And here's the amazing thing. That horse is, even in the moment you're directing it, still more powerful than you are. That horse is stronger than you are. That horse is bigger than you are. That horse is faster than you are. But you can gain control of that magnificent animal by slipping the bridle over its head, getting the bit into its mouth, and when you do, you can canter along into the sunset as the music plays. See, in this analogy, the bit is your tongue.

Your tongue directs your body. Something less powerful, this is less powerful than my body. This is two ounces. I weigh a hundred and, well, you know, somewhere in there, just over a hundred. I weigh more than my tongue. That's the point.

People get nosy, all right? But my tongue can direct my body. James gives another illustration, verse four. He says, look at the ships also. Though they are so great, are driven by strong winds, and they're still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. Again, compared to the size of the ship, the rudder seems like an afterthought. Yet without it, that massive floating vessel is helpless to the movement of the wind and waves. That little rudder makes a difference in whether or not that vessel is seaworthy or not, illustrated perfectly by John Phillips, a British commentator I enjoy reading.

Now he's with the Lord. But he illustrated in his commentary on James the Bismarck, and what happened in World War II. The Bismarck was the pride of the German naval fleet, designed and destined to bring the British Navy to a watery grave. As soon as news leaked out that the Bismarck had left port, the British Navy sent their finest battleship, named the Hood, with her 2,000 officers and crewmen to intercept the Bismarck and sink it. Instead, when the two ships engaged, the Bismarck, far superior, larger, more sophisticated, newer, faster, blew up the Hood and it sank. The situation was now desperate. The Bismarck could now impact the British sea lanes, which Great Britain depended upon for survival.

In fact, this could turn the war. The British Admiralty scraped together a small fleet of what they had, in hopes of catching the Bismarck before she could get back into port for refueling. One small aircraft carrier, limping along, got close enough to let loose a few airplanes, and one airplane got close enough to drop a torpedo, one torpedo in the water, which sped toward this massive battleship. One little torpedo, especially in World War II, wouldn't do a lot of damage, but that one torpedo struck and jammed the rudder of the Bismarck. And now all this naval powerhouse could do was steam around in a circle. The night five British destroyers showed up and basically began target practice on this ship that could do nothing but circle until the Bismarck sank. All because of a little, comparatively small object, the rudder.

The pilot could no longer control that ship and the Bismarck sank beneath the waves of the sea. Look at these ships, James says. He's traveled on them. During the days of James, there were ships large enough for 300 passengers, and corn to feed an entire city for a year. James says, look there in verse five as he wraps up this, So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. That's not a negative. It really does boast of great things. It does great things. This little thing called the tongue, so small compared to the body, does great things.

Think about it. Little thoughts that are conceived in your heart and fashioned into words can direct your life, effectively determining destiny in many aspects. Your tongue can sour your marriage or sweeten it. Your tongue will show up with you at work tomorrow, and it can distance and discourage your fellow workers or unite.

That could determine your career. Your tongue can accept an invitation, it shouldn't, or reject it, which can determine the course of your integrity. Your tongue can argue and disagree and refuse God. Or with a little word, it can follow him, and maybe the word today is yes, I will.

I confess, you're right. The tongue is so small, yet what it utters determines life. And the key then, remember, is not tongue control. In fact, we're going to discover in verse 8 or in our next session that no man can tame the tongue.

You can't do it. This isn't about tongue control. This is about spirit control. And the implication in the reference to the pilot, we don't have time to deal with it today, but the implication is both the bit and the rudder are similar illustrations in that they must be under the control of an expert horseman or an experienced pilot, and you aren't either one and neither am I. The hands holding the reins must be Christ. The one piloting the ship must be our Lord.

This is why David would pray, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. You do it, Lord. I'll surrender to you. I will cooperate with you. I will commit to this with you, but my hands are weak.

They can't handle the reins of this runaway horse. David asked the Lord to hold him accountable when he said, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. And for those who teach, surely that should be a theme verse. But for all of us as saints, the Lord of your life is the only one strong enough and wise enough to be the Lord of your lips. So what do we take away today as we have to stop here in really mid-theme? Well, I want to give you a couple of principles quickly of application from Thomas Manton, that Puritan pastor who preached through the book of James with his congregation in the 1600s, and I found them fascinating. I reworded them a little bit so they're a little more easy to understand. First, rebuke others all the more tenderly.

Where would he get that from? An understanding of the pronoun. We, we all stumble. Rebuke others all the more tenderly. Second, depend upon God's grace all the more earnestly. He writes, God wants you beholden to his power, not yours.

Third, magnify the love of God all the more gratefully. He says it isn't enough to stop saying things, but we should begin saying things with thankfulness and gratefulness, training our tongue, as it were, as best we can, as we surrender to him. Finally, walk all the more cautiously. He gets that from the idea of slipping.

Walk all the more cautiously. He writes this, and I quote him in this. You carry a sinning heart within you, and the man who has gunpowder on him should always be afraid of sparks.

It's good, isn't it? Well, James is just getting started. There's a forest fire, a snake, a fountain, fruit trees ahead, as James illustrates, the power of the tongue. But right now I'm mindful of a prayer, a prayer of an old saint which needs to be the ready prayer on our own lips and certainly will be mine now. It goes like this, O Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff and nudge me when I've said enough.

I feel the nudge. That was Stephen Davey, and his message today is called Runaway Tongue. Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. If you're ever in our area on the Lord's Day, please come and join us for a worship service. If you're ever in our area on a weekday, let us know that you're coming and come visit the Wisdom International office.

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