Taming the Tongue, Part 1 B

Nothing is more representative of man's sinfulness than his mouth, and there is no easier way to sin than with your mouth because you can say anything you want to say.

There are no restraints. You can say absolutely anything. Your tongue has tremendous potential to judge you. United States law gives citizens the right to say pretty much anything they want, however they want, whenever they want, at least that's how many Americans tend to interpret the First Amendment of the Constitution. Of course, if you're a Christian, living in the U.S. or not, the question is, do you have a Biblical right to free speech?

The fact is, God's Word advocates and even commands restricting what you say. That's John MacArthur's focus today on grace to you. He calls his study Taming the Tongue, and it's a practical look at the kind of speech you should and shouldn't be known for as a Christian.

So now, here's John. Nothing is more telling on the heart than the tongue, and it's of great concern to James. He mentions the tongue in every chapter, and he spends a large portion of chapter 3 dealing specifically with the matter of the tongue. James calls us to control the tongue because its potential to condemn is so great. Its potential to condemn. Verses 1 and 2, my brothers, stop being so many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater judgment. For in many things we all stumble.

We'll stop at that point. James speaks about condemnation or judgment. And the whole context of what he says at the beginning, though he doesn't mention the tongue there, is this matter of speech. And the implication of what he is saying is you must take good care not to thrust yourself into a teaching position because a teacher basically trades on his tongue and you have such a high liability to abuse that and to bring upon yourself potential judgment. That's the point he's making.

And he begins with teachers, starting at the top. If speech is the mark of true faith, and if you go back to chapter 1, verse 26, he says that, If any man among you seems to be religious, but bridles not his tongue, he deceives his own heart, the man's religion is useless. A faith which does not transform the tongue is no saving faith at all.

So since speech is the mark of true faith, it should be a proper measure, then, of those who articulate the faith, those who teach the faith. Look at verse 2. We all stumble in many ways. And the implication James is laying down here is, and the mouth is certainly one major one. Everyone sins in a myriad of ways.

And this one way, the mouth, underlies the warning regarding hurrying into the position of teaching. He says we all stumble. This is a comprehensive word on the depravity of everybody. Proverbs 20, verse 9 says, The answer is nobody. Second Chronicles 6, 36 says, Folks, you can't put it any plainer than that. There is no man who does not sin. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we all sin, and we all sin in many ways. The word here is the word stumble, which is a substitute for the word sin. It means a moral lapse, a failure to do what is right. An offense against God is the idea. We all do it.

It is present tense. We all do it commonly. And we all do it in many ways. In all kinds of ways, all of us continually fail to do what is right. And the tongue is one very, very dominant way in which we fail. And so it has great potential to condemn us.

Now while in a sense this is a confession on the part of James, it is more an observation of truth than a personal confession. What he is saying is don't hurry to be spending your life using your mouth if you realize how potentially disastrous that is because you are a sinner, you'll take it quite reluctantly rather than hurriedly. Scriptures refer to the disaster of the mouth. The Bible, and I just wrote down a list of things as I went through the Scriptures. The Bible refers directly or indirectly to a wicked tongue, a deceitful tongue, a lying tongue, a perverse tongue, a filthy tongue, a corrupt tongue, a bitter tongue, an angry tongue, a crafty tongue, a flattering tongue, a slanderous tongue, a gossiping tongue, a backbiting tongue, a blaspheming tongue, a foolish tongue, a boasting tongue, a murmuring tongue, a complaining tongue, a cursing tongue, a contentious tongue, a sensual tongue, a vile tongue, a tail-bearing tongue, a whispering tongue, an exaggerating tongue, etc.

Did you see yourself anywhere in there? No wonder God put your tongue in a cage behind your teeth walled in by your mouth. May I be bold to say most problems relate to the tongue, most of them.

Somebody said, remember your tongue is in a wet place and it can slip easily. The easiest way to sin is to sin with your tongue. Nothing is more representative of man's sinfulness than his mouth and there is no easier way to sin than with your mouth because you can say anything you want to say.

There are no restraints. You can't do any evil deed you might want to do because maybe the circumstances aren't there for you to do it, but you can say absolutely anything. But your tongue has tremendous potential to judge you. To look at this from the vantage point of our Lord, turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 verse 34, most pointed. And here Jesus is in a very intense dialogue with the Pharisees who have accused Him of doing His works by the power of hell rather than heaven. And Jesus comes back at them in verse 34 and says, O generation of snakes, how can you being evil speak good things?

That's just a basic truth. James will get back to that same principle later. How can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

I expect you to talk the way you talk because your heart's the way it is. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you, mark this, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned. What a statement.

Listen to this. Do you realize that in final judgment your eternal destiny can be determined by your words? You say, I thought I was justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

That's right. But the justification you receive by faith in Jesus Christ will be manifest in your words. So that you can literally be judged according to your words for your words are a tattle tale they tell on your heart.

And so in the end it is right to say you'll be judged by your words as to whether you are to go into the kingdom of God or be shut out of the kingdom. Your words, you say, does the Lord keep a record of everybody's words? It's easy for him.

He doesn't even have to write them down. Do you know that even science has some interesting things to say? I read some years ago about a man who turned on his television in London, England, and saw a half hour program that came out of Texas. He was so absolutely curious about the program that he called the station, found out that that was a local program that had been broadcast three years earlier.

The only explanation they had that made any sense as to how he picked it up on his television was the fact that scientifically once something goes out into the airwaves it stays there and somehow it found its way to his receiver. Scientists say that the sound waves set in motion by every voice go on an endless journey through space and that if we had the right instruments, delicate and sophisticated enough, and the power to recapture those waves, we could recreate every word every person has ever spoken. Frightening. God has that machine. And so there's a real sense in which men's words will be the basis of their judgment because they are the absolutely accurate judge of their soul. A man's heart is the storehouse and his words indicate what is stored there. Proverbs 15, 28 says, the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. So when you give your life to Christ and your life is transformed and you have a new heart, you have a new vocabulary and certainly that great gift ought to be cultivated. I believe God gives us a new heart and with it comes a new tongue, but even that new tongue is the victim of that old fallenness, isn't it? So James says, control your tongue because it has such potential to condemn. Secondly, it has such power to control. Not only does it have potential to condemn, but it has power to control.

And this is absolutely fascinating. I hope we can get to this just dramatic spiritual insight. Everyone sins with a tongue. James says in verse 2, if anyone stumbles or offends not in word, he is a perfect man. The only people who don't sin with their mouth are perfect people.

Now there's an interesting sort of debate about what James means here. Does he mean perfect teleos? Does he mean perfect in the sense of absolutely perfect like God, like Christ? Well, he could mean that. He could be saying if a man does not ever stumble in his words or offend in his words, he would be an absolutely perfect man.

That's correct. And if he is saying that, then he is really saying none of you are perfect. So forget the idea that you think you might not stumble with your words because only perfect people don't do that and nobody's perfect. On the other hand, he may be using the word teleos to express maturity. And what he is saying then in a general sense is if a man does not continue to stumble with his mouth or words, the same is a mature man. That is, he has reached spiritual maturity.

He is like Christ, though not exactly like Christ. I don't know that we can be dogmatic as to exactly which one James means, but let's just take them both. And let's say that James could be saying if you don't ever do that with your mouth, you're perfect and no one can be perfect. And if you get control of your tongue, you're demonstrating spiritual maturity.

I kind of lean toward that view. James is saying only spiritually mature people are able to control their tongue. The only human being who ever lived who had an absolutely perfect tongue was Jesus Christ. And in John 7, 46, you remember what they said? No man ever spoke like this man. He was perfect in his speech, absolutely without error.

Listen to this. Who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. No sin in his life, no sin in his mouth. And so we can say then that to the degree that our holiness approaches the holiness of Christ, to that degree we are conformed to his image, to that degree our speech will be godly.

And look what he says. Verse 2. If any man doesn't stumble in word, he is a mature man and able also to bridle his whole body. To bridle the whole body as well. Now get this, this is a tremendously practical spiritual thought.

I don't think I ever really grasped this before. If a person can master his tongue, he can master his evil tendencies throughout his whole body. And that means his person.

Now how do you come to that conclusion, James? Listen, the tongue, because it is the instant expression of the heart, because it can sin more readily and more often than any other member of the body just because of circumstances, you can't get in a position to sin in every way with your body, but you're always in a position to sin with your tongue. Because the tongue can sin so easily, because it is such a monitor of depravity, if you can control the tongue, the greater, the greater sinner in your body, then by virtue of controlling the greater, you have gained control over the lesser.

You see that? The person who controls the tongue will also control the body with all of its other impulses. Since the tongue responds more immediately and more quickly and more easily to sin, if it were controlled, the slower responding parts would also be controlled, because the means of divine grace applied to the greater are then also applied to the lesser. What an insight. You know what that says to me?

That says if I want to focus my Christian life on one thing, if I want to get my act together, if I want to bring my whole spiritual life into control, I ought to work on my what? My tongue. Well, now we realize that it's not fully possible to totally have a holy tongue, but to the extent that one controls his tongue, he will control his body.

Why? Because whatever spiritual dynamics work to control your tongue will therefore work to control the rest of you. But it makes it so simple and so dynamic if we can just concentrate on the tongue.

Isn't that practical? I mean, just get it down to that. Focus on your mouth, and if the Holy Spirit gets control of the most volatile and the most potent member, the rest will be subdued. Well, what a simplification.

Just concentrate on what you say, and whatever means of grace and whatever dynamics of spiritual commitment take care of your tongue are going to, by virtue of controlling that, control the rest of you. To help us understand that, James gives us two illustrations. Verse 3, now, he says, We put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Here's illustration number one.

Boy, this is a first-class illustration. To show that if you control the tongue, you control everything. He uses a horse. How do you control a horse? You control a horse by controlling his tongue. You put a piece of metal in a horse's mouth. It lays on his tongue. And then you put a harness around that, pull it up over his head, take some reins, and when you pull that, you pull that metal bit against the horse's tongue.

So it is a very good illustration. By controlling the horse's tongue, you control the horse's movements. A horse, by the way, let me tell you, is useless without that. Did you ever know a horse to volunteer to plow a field? Just show up one day, like to plow your field, sir. You ever know a horse volunteer to pull a wagon?

How about a horse volunteer to carry a rider? You have to break them, don't you? And you break them with a bit in the mouth, and you control the whole body by controlling the tongue. You can direct the whole body. That's what James is saying. You get control of your tongue, and you can direct your whole body. Everything else comes into line. What a graphic illustration. In fact, this is axiomatic enough that it may have been standard stock for writers and wise men in that time and place, and James may even be borrowing the illustration.

But the point is clear. By controlling the tongue, the whole life is directed to a useful purpose. Without the control of the tongue, the horse is absolutely useless. You want to know something? An unbroken, unbridled horse is absolutely good for nothing.

Just run around. Another illustration he gives in verse 4. Behold, he says. Here's another one. The ships, though they are so great and driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires or wherever the impulse of the pilot desires.

That's another very graphic illustration. It's a huge ship. And you say, well, they weren't so big in that day. Well, the one in Acts 27, if I remember right, had 276 passengers on it. That's a pretty good-sized ship. Driven in tremendous uroclodon, uroquillo, that nor'easter wind that came, that great ship driven across the Mediterranean, of course, was out of control in Acts 27, but under control was guided totally by the rudder. That small little rudder moves that massive ship.

That's what James says. If you can just get control of the little tongue, you can move everything else. The idea is this.

Listen to it. Power applied at the right point is efficient to control the whole vessel. And power applied at the right point being the mouth sufficient to control the whole person.

And that's the second point. James says control your tongue because of its power to control you, its power to control you. Speak only gracious words.

Can I be real practical with it? Speak only gracious words. Speak only kind words. Speak only loving words, true words, thoughtful words, holy words, sensitive words, edifying words. Speak only gentle words, comforting words, words of blessing, words of humility, words of wisdom, words of thanksgiving.

Speak only unselfish words and peaceful words. And if you do that, you'll control every other part of your life because the only way you can do all of that is being under the power of the Spirit of God. But the focal point is to concentrate on the control of your tongue.

Why does that simplify things conceptually? Your tongue is like a master switch. One commentator writes, If our tongue were so well under control that it refused to formulate the words of self-pity, the images of lustfulness, the thoughts of anger and resentment, then these things are cut down before they have a chance to live. The master switch has deprived them of any power to switch on that side of our lives. The control of the tongue is more than an evidence of spiritual maturity. It is also the means to it. The master switch.

What an idea. Your tongue is the master switch. Throw that thing off and nothing else can function.

Every other thing becomes inconsequential. And he sums it up in verse 5, Even so, the tongue is a little member, but boasts great things. Stop there.

What does he mean? It's a braggart. It boasts great things.

You know why? It can do great things. Boy, it's potent. It is proud of its power to control, and it can really do it.

It is a powerful instrument. It can tear down people. It can tear down churches. It can destroy relationships. It can wreck a marriage. It can devastate a family. It can rip up a nation. It can lead to murder. It can lead to war.

On the other hand, it can build up. It can create love, enthusiasm, encouragement, comfort, peace, joy. Powerful, powerful thing is the tongue.

And if we get a hold of it and control it, it can control all the rest of us. So James says, Look at your speech. Is it the speech of living faith? And apply yourself to control your tongue because of its power to condemn you and its power to control you.

What a practical word that is for us. Let's pray. Father, we do ask you that you would give us the grace by your Spirit to control our tongue. Forgive us. Forgive us, Lord, for the violations of speech so frequent and sanctify our mouths and sew our whole bodies for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in Southern California. Today he continued his study titled Taming the Tongue. Well, with everything we're seeing about the dangers of not controlling what comes out of our mouths, maybe you find yourself wondering, what about the other ways that people communicate today? Text messages, social media posts, things like that. So what about that, John? How readily do the principles we're seeing in Colossians and James apply to those non-spoken forms of communication?

Well, of course they apply directly to those. You have to guard your tongue not only in what is spoken audibly, but you have to guard your writing because the Bible is very clear, out of the mouth the heart speaks. Well, it's also true that out of the mouth the heart writes. So you want to always have speech that is uplifting, that ministers grace to the hearers, that is God-honoring, Christ-exalting, that is virtuous and righteous and pure and never unkind or unclean.

That's just a way of life. That's in anything you say. That's in anything you write.

But what controls both your speaking and your writing is what's in your mind. So your mind should be pure. To the pure, all things are pure. If your mind is pure, your speech is pure, your texts are pure, your social media posts are pure.

Everything is pure if your heart is pure. We would see someone who spoke one way and wrote another way if the two were not the same as a hypocrite. You can't feel like you want to be kind when you speak or righteous when you speak, but you can be wretched when you write something on social media.

That's just hypocrisy. So it covers everything. All of our communication should be honoring to the Lord. Thanks, Jon. And friend, of course, nothing will keep your heart and mind pure like the Word of God. So I encourage you to pick up the MacArthur Study Bible.

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