name. James chapter 3 and we'll begin reading at the verse 1. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whethersoever the governor listeth or pleaseth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. We'll end our reading at the end of verse five because that's where we'll get to in the will of God this evening in our Bible study. And with the word having been read and it opened before us, shall we unite in prayer just one more brief time And before the Word of God is preached. Loving Father, we pray that thou wilt now come by thy Holy Spirit and fill this preacher and every hearer. We look to thee, O God. We rely not on the past. If we did that, we would be but like Samson. He pursued that God would be with him. Lord, be with us tonight. There are two or three here gathered, and we are sure that there are families And there are individuals who are gathered around a computer screen, a smart television, through some laptop or iPhone. We pray that thou would use, O God, the word wherever it will go this evening. Grant, Lord, our lives to be sanctified through the word. We offer prayer in our Savior's holy and most precious name. Amen. Well it is hard to believe that tonight is our 18th message in the book of James and we have really only got to the end of chapter number 2. However I trust that the time that we have spent already together in this epistle has been profitable and beneficial for you and that your day to day putting into practice that which has already been learnt by us in our studies. We must remember as James puts it there in chapter 1 in the verse 22 that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. When the Holy Spirit applies the word to our hearts and then we in turn by his grace seek to have it applied in our lives. We are progressing along the road that James is trying to bring his readership along, that of the road of spiritual perfection or as we thought of spiritual maturity. To hear the word of God but never see it out working in our lives is to leave us in a spiritual or a state of spiritual immaturity, a state of spiritual infancy and none of us want that. We want to go on with God. want to win the well done of God, want to grow up into Christ and want to mature in our Christian life. And we want to progress and go deeper and further and higher with God, even in our own Christian experience. And that is done whenever we apply the word of God to our lives and to, and by the spirit he does apply it to our hearts. Now as we come This evening, we now step into James chapter number three, a chapter that deals almost exclusively with the world's smallest but largest troublemaker, the tongue, because that's what the tongue is. The tongue is the smallest and yet the largest troublemaker in the world. The mature Christian has already being seen in this epistle as one who has passed certain tests. He passed the test of trials, temptations, obeying the word of God. Yes, also the trial of their working out charity towards the poor and needy. The trial of partiality and favoritism, adherence to the law of God and works. And now James returns to a test that he hinted at very briefly in James chapter 1. Because he returns to the test of the tongue. If you look back there to James 1 in the verse 26 we read, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. knowing the importance of the matter of the tongue, James now returns to speak about it. It's as if he has come to some other thoughts concerning the matter of the tongue. And so he returns to this particular matter that he briefly mentions in chapter one and the verse number 26. And he gives almost an entire chapter over to the matter of the tongue. 14 of the 18 verses of this particular chapter is given over to the matter of the tongue. As James then returns to the matter of the tongue, we're taught an important lesson. Whether we are a minister, a Bible class leader, a Sunday school teacher, a children's meeting worker, an open air preacher, an evangelist, Repeating something, revisiting a matter to expound it further, and to emphasize it, is biblical. It's biblical to repeat matters over and over again. You see, repetition is a teaching principle that teachers and lecturers frequently employ to instill into their students' minds the learning that they want them to commit to their long-term memory. In ancient Greek, the philosopher Aristotle commented on the role of repetition in learning by saying, it is frequent repetition that produces a natural tendency. Repetition is the mother of all learning. One preacher remarked, the church needs some level of repetition to get the import of certain concepts and to have a chance to really weave them into her life. And so he comes to repeat some matters about the tongue and then to expand the subject matter a little wider. Now in James chapter two, the question was, do your works match your words? But here in James chapter 3, the question is, do your words match your works? And so, we want to think about what James has to say about the matter of the tongue. And we'll just make our way through the five verses here chronologically. Note there then the words in verse 1 again, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Now the word that we need to get our heads around this evening is the word masters if we are to understand what the Holy Spirit through James is teaching here. The Greek word here translated masters is the word di-das-kalos, di-das-kalos. It is a word which really translates to mean teachers or instructors. And therefore the word speaks of those whom God calls to teach His Word, to instruct others in His Word. Now, don't get James wrong here. James is not discouraging people from being teachers of the Word of God. He himself was a teacher nonetheless. What he is discouraging here is the tendency of those who are not called, those who are not qualified or gifted to rush into Teaching. James is not prohibiting, as I said, one from the use of their gift of teaching. Rather, he's simply warning that the ministry of teaching should never be entered into lightly. Being a minister, or going into ministry, should never be entered into lightly. And James gives us the reason why that is the case. The reason why they're not to enter into the ministry lightly is that those who do so receive the greater condemnation. The end of the verse. They receive the greater condemnation. Now the word condemnation is not the condemnation of the sinner. We think about those words there in Romans. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. That's not the condemnation that is being spoken of, the condemnation because of our sin, but rather this word condemnation, it translates to mean judgment, trial, account. They receive a greater trial, a greater judgment, what seemed to have been happening in the various assemblies that James was writing to that was that there were many men and they were aspiring to the teaching role within the assembly with little or no thought as to the implications of entering such a position. And so to offset this spirit of, I'm sure, self-promotion, fueled with the desire to be in a prominent position within the church of Jesus Christ. James reminds these men who were aspiring to such a role that the teacher, the pastor, the minister, the instructor is headed for a greater, or we would say a stricter judgment than the Christian who simply occupies the pew. They are headed for a greater judgment. How sobering for this preacher or any preacher or any young man who would aspire to the pulpit ministry or to any other kind of full-time ministry that involves the teaching of the Word of God, how sobering to think that there's coming a day when God is going to evaluate my ministry. every part of it, every section of it, God is going to bring this preacher before the judgment bar. Every message I've ever preached, the motivation behind every message, the spirit in which I preached the message, the time that I gave to the preparation of the message itself and the preparation of myself to preach, down to the very choosing of my text for the message, I and the doctrine preached in the message will be judged by the judge of all the earth at the judgment seat of Christ. It is a sobering thought. Terrifying. if truth be told. To think that I will stand before God and give an account of what I've preached and what I have taught. And really it matters not the opinion of men, the accolades of a congregation, what an eldership will say about their pastor or their minister. It'll matter not. It is what God will say when I stand before him. When Dr. Alan Cairns knew that he was dying, he left strict instructions with his minister, the Reverend David Park. He said that no tributes were to be given at his funeral service. He said this, and I quote, when that time comes, I will be before the throne of God, and he will pass judgment on Alan Cairns. That's what it is to live, and that's what it is to die in light of the greater judgment that awaits the teacher of God's word. Albert Barnes, the Bible commentator, made the observation, a young man when about to make choice of a calling in life, should place himself by anticipation at the judgment bar of Christ and ask himself how human pursuits and plans will appear there. If that were the point of view taken, how many would have been deterred from the ministry, who have sought it with a view to honor or involvement, how many too, who have devoted themselves to the profession of the law or to the army or navy, or to the pursuits of eloquent literature, would have felt that it was their duty to serve God in the ministry of reconciliation. To enter the ministry, In whatever form that ministry takes without a clear call of God, to do so is most dangerous. Self-glorification, self-advancement, self-interest disqualify a man from the ministry. All the responsibility, all the accountability, associated with being a teacher of the word of God. A.W. Ping said, how diligently should those who think of entering the ministry scrutinize their motives? For thousands have abused this divine institution through love of ease, desire for authority and fame, or love of money, and brought upon themselves the greater condemnation. And so to all ministers, to all pastors, to all who are involved in any way in teaching the word of God, whether that be in a pulpit, in a Sunday school class, or in the open air, we need to remember that there's a day of accountability that is still to take place. In what we teach, we need to live up to the standards that we expect of others. Failure to do so by the help of God only makes us hypocrites. We're just like the scribes and the Pharisees that Christ spoke of there in Matthew 23, who by their teaching, they bound heavy burdens and grievous to be born and laid them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move with one of their fingers. Oh, happy to put the burden on their hearers, but as for themselves, they never put into practice what they taught. We need to practice what we teach. There's a day of judgment for us all. The book of Romans reminds us that we will all appear and stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but the preacher, the minister, will receive a greater, a stricter judgment. May this heart of mine be solemnized by such a thought. James then goes on to say in verse number two, he starts to speak about the tongue. Now you may think that that is quite a leap. He's speaking here about teachers and the judgment, and now he goes to speak about the tongue. And we may think to ourselves, surely there's no connection really involved here in what he has just said and what now he comes to say with regard to the tongue. But don't forget that the tool employed by the teacher is the tongue. While an artist will use a paintbrush, A mechanic will use a wrench or a spanner. A builder will use a trowel. An author will use a pen or a keyboard. The tool of choice for the teacher is most obviously the tongue. That is how he communicates the message via the mouth and the voice box and ultimately the tongue. Now James notes here that the tongue can be a source of great offense. For in many things we offend all. That simply means that we're all sinners. And not only sinners with regard to one sin, but many sins. Many sins we commit, and in them we offend. Every one of us. All without exception. And then he focuses on one specific sin. the sins connected with the tongue. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Now there's no doubt in many different areas of our lives we sin and we offend, but there's one way above every other way that we could imagine or even think in which we sin greatly, and that is by our tongues. Just think for a moment of the offense that is caused by 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 vile tongue. a teal bearing tongue, a whispering tongue, an exaggerating tongue, all tongues that the Bible makes reference to in some way, in some place. The particular matter that James has in his mind here is the liability that the teacher of God's word has to commit error or to do wrong with the tongue. James reminds his readership that a mark of a spiritually mature person is that they offend not in word because they are able to regulate, they are able to govern their tongues. That means on the reverse side that the spiritually immature individual is one who cannot regulate. cannot control their tongue. The mark of spiritual immaturity is looseness with our tongue when it comes to what we actually say. James's argument, if a person can control their tongue, then they'll be able to master every other faculty in their body. See, if a person gets the mastery of this unruly member, you can be sure that he or she will be able to control the rest of his powers. Subdue this, get this little member under control and you'll have no problem with your hands. You'll have no problem with your mind. You'll have no problem with your feet, with your heart. You'll have no problem with any of these other faculties. If you're able to master the tongue, then you'll be able to master the entire body. If a man offend not in word, the same as a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. What state is your tongue found in tonight? You know, whenever you go to the doctor and you're not well, he'll often or she'll often say to you to stick out your tongue. Because the tongue is a good indicator for the doctor as to the physical health of any patient. from vitamin deficiencies to more serious health threats. Doctors know that truth is often written on our tongues with regard to our physical well-being. But what does our tongues and the words that are uttered by our tongues, what do they say about our spiritual health tonight? Are the sins of speech prominent in your life? Are you someone whose speech is marked by hasty words, untruthful statements, sly suggestions, harmful gossip, destructive slander, innuendo, impurity, exaggeration? If so, you have got a heart problem. You have got a spiritual problem that the grace of God needs and you as an individual need to get dealt with tonight. You see the tongue that has prayer, the tongue that has praise, the tongue that has thanksgiving, The tongue that has encouragement, the tongue that has truth upon it, indicates that the soul connected to that tongue is in good spiritual health. To allow your tongue to run wild, for it to be unbridled, for it to be unrestrained is a sign of spiritual immaturity. The one who is spiritually mature is the one who is able to hold their tongue, to bridle their tongue. Robert Fuller said, learn to hold thy tongue. Five words cost Zacharias 40 weeks of silence. What Fuller was referring to was whenever the angel Gabriel went into Zacharias in the temple and told him that His wife, Elizabeth, would have a son. And we all know what happened. Zacharias spoke unadvisably with his tongue. He said that he was too old to have a child, and most certainly his wife, Elizabeth, as well. And because of unbelief, he found himself, at that moment, struck dumb until Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. 40 weeks of silence, of dumbness, because he spoke unadvisably with his lips. Let me ask you, are you able to hold your tongue? You might be able to hold it in public, but do you hold it at home? Do you hold your tongue at home? Or do you let your tongue run wild? Putting people down, criticizing the minister or the elder, gossiping about this person within the congregation, sitting on phone for hour after hour, criticizing and murmuring and complaining. Is that your tongue? It's not the tongue of a spiritually mature person. Brethren and sisters, we would do well at times just to bridle the tongue. Really, honestly, let's be honest, which one of us could really say that we have conducted ourselves in such a way throughout our entire life that we've never offended another person by our tongues? They're not one of us. Not this preacher, not you. You'd be sitting there with a little halo around your head, as it were, and thinking you're such an angel. Your words have hurt people. My words have hurt people. Our words have been used to discourage people, to damage their character, their testimony. You know, brethren and sisters, there is really only one person who walked this world who never offended once in word. And thus he was the perfect man of whom we read off in verse two. The man who offends not in word is a perfect man. Who is this one? This is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to these words. about the Lord Jesus Christ that we find in 1 Peter 2, verse 22 and 23. And don't forget Peter was with the Savior for all three years of his public ministry. This is what Peter said. Who did no sin, speaking of his Savior, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who? When he was reviled, He reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before her shears, he was done. He goes on to say in that great chapter there in the verse 9 of Isaiah 53, that he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. In speech, never man spake like this man. It's no wonder that they all were astonished at the gracious words that proceeded out of the Savior's mouth. Oh, to be followers of Christ then, when it comes to what we do with our tongues. There were times that he spoke, and yet there were times that he held his peace and said not a word, because he knew the import and the truth of Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 7, that there is a time to keep silence and there's a time to speak. May God help us to know if it's a time to speak or the time to keep silent. Controlling one's tongue is most certainly a sign of spiritual maturity. Now to impress upon his readership's mind the importance of what they do with their tongues, which is such a small body member, James uses three illustrations to show the extensive power and influence that small things can have over much larger things. He's so practical in his teaching. Look at the first illustration, we'll not be long. In James 3 verse 3 he speaks, Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth, that they may obey us and turn about the whole body. Now compared to the size of a horse, a horse's bit is very small indeed. But with that small object placed in the horse's mouth and under the control of the horse's rider via the reins, The whole body of that horse can be so easily turned about. Just a little tug to the right will steer that horse right. Little tug to the left will steer that whole entire horse to the left. And just as we control a horse by a bit, though the bit is small, so the whole body, our whole bodies are controlled by our tongues. The person who has proper control over their tongue can govern their whole body, just as the person who has control over the horse's bit can control the whole horse. Get that right, get that under control, under your dominion, under your governance, then all the rest will fall into its rightful place. The second illustration James uses as he takes us, he takes us away from the equestrian and he brings us to the aquatic because he brings us down to the seaside. He brings us down to look out, out of the harbor and watch the ships as they make their way out across the silver waves and right out beyond the horizon. Behold, he says, behold, look, Look also the ships, which though they be so great, are driven of fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small helm, wheresoever the governor listeth." James has us considering here, as I've said, the sailing vessels that sail the high seas. What is it that controls those vessels? It's that small, unseen rudder. controlled by the ship's captain. A slight turn of the wing, which in turn changes the direction of the rudder, results in that entire ship changing course. The application is the same as before. Small things can influence much larger things and thus must be kept under the strictest control. The third illustration James uses is now he takes us to nature. Look there in verse five. Behold, look, consider, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Last year, we all remember those bushfires in Australia. I'm told that those fires destroyed some 5.9 million hectares of land, 14.7 million acres. across the entire nation. Simple spark, little fire beginning, and all the devastation. Just think about a spark that enters a home. Maybe some little piece of ember falls onto a carpet from an open fire. Or maybe an electrical fault from a toaster for a computer. What happens within a few moments, within a few minutes, the whole house is ablaze and reduced to ashes. Just a little spark can cause such great devastation. I and your little tongue, yes, and my little tongue, can cause great devastation. I wonder Has your unbridled tongue caused hurt to others in recent days? If so, then there are apologies to be made with no accompanying excuses. Do you ever have an apology like that, that has accompanying excuses? I'm sorry, but... But if you hadn't have treated me like that, then I wouldn't have treated you, no. You maybe need to make an apology without any accompanying excuses. I would hope that we would all be humble enough to ask for their forgiveness. If words were said that were unwise and unkind, folks, one careless word one thoughtless remark, one angry response, one vindictive reply, one false accusation, one defamatory comment, either spoken with the tongue. But let me bring it up to the 21st century. Not only the tongue, not only the tongue, but any comment made on social media, Facebook comments, or any other type of text messaging, or any other type of social media platform, any kind of comment that is not what God would have you to say can result in incalculable damage to be done to a person's character, a person's testimony, or to a person's relationships. It seems to be now that social media is a platform where we can just spill out everything and let the world know how we think. That is not how the Christian is to behave. You may think, well, I'm not speaking it with my tongue. You may as well be. People read it as if you have said it. It's about time that God's people had a little bit more discernment. Think of the damage that some of your social media posts have caused. May God search your heart. How careful will you need to be with our tongues? That little member that boasts his great things. Now boiling it down, James is teaching here in these opening verses, boiling it down to a single sentence. We could say that a tongue out of control points to a life that's out of control. A tongue that's out of control points to a life that is out of control. May our entire bodies, including our tongues. May they be under the control of the Holy Spirit and may we use our tongues to spread abroad Christ's fame and make him known. May God challenge us and may God speak to our hearts and we'll be returning again in the will of God to this matter of the tongue in the will of God in coming weeks. Let's bow our heads in prayer briefly and then some matters to pray for. Let's pray. Loving Father, how quick we are to vent our opinion, to let the world know what we think, when at times we should have been silent. Forgive us. Thou art in heaven, we are on earth. Let thy words be few. May we, O God, know how to control our tongues. And may, dear God, we not be known as gossips, slanderers, men and women who are untruthful, but may our tongues May they be used for your glory and for your praise. We offer our prayers in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.