We're turning this evening to, again, the book of James, the chapter number three. We welcome all who join with us in the house of God. For those who join with us online and then for those hearty souls there in the car park, there are a number, and we're glad of their fellowship in the gospel. So James chapter three, we'll begin reading at the verse number five, where we ended last time. when we find ourselves in the book. James chapter three, beginning at the verse five. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, And it is set on fire of hell for every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Amen. And may God bless even the reading of God's word. Let's just pray briefly. Father, we now commit ourselves to thee, hearer and preacher. Fill me with thy spirit, I pray. May thy word challenge our hearts. We cry to thee, in the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen. At 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, the 2nd of September, 1666, A fire broke out in Thomas Farner's bakery on Pudding Lane in the city of London. It's believed that the fire began by a simple spark that strayed from the bakery's oven, falling onto a pile of inflammable fuel. For the next four days, first, that seemingly insignificant fire took hold of the wooden houses that populated the narrow streets of this capital city, destroying all in its pathway, including some famous buildings like St Paul's Cathedral, Guildhall and the Royal Exchange. In total, the Great Fire of London consumed 87 churches, 13,200 houses and left 100,000 Londoners homeless. By the time the fire was brought under control, one third of the city of London was reduced to ashes. In the city of Chicago, on the 8th of October 1871, A fire broke out in a barn on 137 DeKoven Street on the city's southwest side. The fire spread north and then east into the very heart of Chicago's business district. For more than 24 hours, the fire burned through the heart of Chicago. It killed some 300 people, leaving one third of the city's population, about 125,000 people homeless, and it created $400 million worth of damage. Truly, the words of James 3, verse 5 are true. Behold, how great a matter a little fire Kindle of for these historical events both the city of London and the city of Chicago They show to us how quickly just a little spark can inflame itself into a raging fire and inferno and destroy vast quantities of property and and other businesses. Now these words are the words we ended with last time we found ourselves in this book of James. James chapter 3 in the verse number 5. And James reminds us in these words of how little things can do great damage. having started to think about then the world's largest yet smallest troublemaker, the tongue, want to return there because that's what James does. Because James continues to speak about the tongue. In the verse six through to the verse number eight. Now James has already used three illustrations to picture for us and to display the extensive power and influences that small things can have over larger things. In verse 3 he speaks about the small bit that controls the horse's mouth, that little object that's found in the mouth and the rider by it is able to control the direction and the entire behavior of an animal much larger than himself or herself. In verse 4 he uses the ship's helm and how that little piece equipment though small in size and compared to the other parts of a ship yet the rudder has the ability to maneuver a vessel of large tonnage in the direction that the captain of the ship so desires and then in verse 5 he uses the subject matter or the illustration of a fire and how a little spark has a potential to causing great damage to large expanses of land and of property. Well, in verse six, he returns to that third illustration, that of likening the tongue to a fire, where he says, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and set it on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. want to simply walk through these verses, verses six through to the verse eight and see what God has to say to us about our tongues once again. Now the words in the verse number six, they bring us to consider a number of matters regarding the nature of our tongues, the nature of our tongues. The first matter that we're brought to consider is the defiling nature of our tongues, the defiling nature of our tongues. The tongue is described by James under inspiration as a world of iniquity, not as a province, not as a country, not as a continent, but as a world, a cosmos, that's the word used, a cosmos of iniquity and it has the potential of defiling the whole body, not just the mouth, but every part of the body. Thomas Manton, he said, there is a world of sin in the tongue. There is a world of sin in the tongue. When the tongue is spoken of here as being a world of iniquity, it's meant that all kinds of evil that are in the world are exhibited by the tongue in miniature. Now the tongue simply expresses what is in a person's Heart, if the heart is not right, the tongue will not be right either. And therefore the tongue has the ability to defile the entire body. It not only defiles the person who employs that tongue, but it also has the potential of defiling the body or the person who listens to the tongue of that individual, sadly. times we are guilty as believers of communicating evil to others through our tongues. Whether that's through gossiping, slander, falsehoods, lying, backbiting, murmuring, complaining. There is a potential that we actually defile others as we communicate with them. So we must not just think, well, it's just my tongue that I'm using, but rather we must understand that we can, by our words, defile even others. Now there are many sins that are connected with the tongue, and I've mentioned some of them in our previous studies on the tongue. But really, you can classify All tongue sins under two main headings. Firstly, we have the sins of the tongue that relate to God. The sins of the tongue that relate to God. Now some of them are obvious. Blasphemy, cursing, swearing, taking the name of God and using it irreverently, profanity. These are all ways in which the tongue can be used and sins committed. But don't forget that as believers we can use our tongues and we can sin against God as we employ our tongues. Consider the sin of lying. We do that in relation to God. We sign tonight the words, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Take my moments and my days and let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my silver and my gold, not a night would I withhold. Was that true? Was that true? You may have already been guilty, I may have already been guilty of committing a tongue sin against God. Or what about the vows that you made with God as a believer? Maybe once you stood before a congregation of people and with a child in your arms, You vowed, you covenanted that you would bring that child up in the way that he or she should go. That you would instruct them and catechize them in the things of God. But have you kept that vow? Maybe another occasion when you lay on a sick bed. And you cry to God that God would touch you and heal you. And if he would do that, that you would involve yourself in the work of God. You would become more industrious for God. Have you kept that vow? Have you kept the vow? You see, we can often look at others. And we can look at those who profane the name of Christ. And those who blaspheme his name and say, well, they're guilty of committing tongue sins against God. But I believe that we as believers, if we would only be honest before God, that we're just as guilty. Guilty of unfulfilled vows. Even in our eyes, the mockery of the scriptures. Or at times we draw near to God with our lips. But at times our hearts are far from God. What about murmuring, complaining against God's providential dealings in our lives? God in his providence sends sickness, sends sorrow, sends trouble, and we murmur, and we complain, and we sin against God. And God hears it. And so we could classify them in this group. We have the sins of the tongue relating to God, and then we have the sins of the tongue relating to our fellow man. Tongue sins relating to our fellow man include idle talk, foolish talk, jesting, gossiping, lying, slandering, backbiting, boasting, exaggerating, flattering, words of anger or wrath, cruel words, malicious words, critical words. What about sowing discord among the brethren? You use the tongue to do that, do you not? What about running down the minister? Or running down the elders? Or running down some fellow Christian in the assembly? That's a tongue sin. Sarcasm. These are sin, tongue sins. They lead to the defilement. I wonder, when's the last time you ever heard a Christian in a prayer meeting confessing and repenting concerning the sin of gossiping? In my 41 years, nearly 42 years, I've never heard one Christian ever pray that. and yet it's rampant among God's people and slandering and blackening an individual's name. Brethren and sisters, the tongue, it defileth the entire body. What's the remedy? What's the remedy for any defilement? Well, it's always the same answer, it's the cross. It's the blood of Christ. If the tongue defiles the body, then the body, then it needs to be cleansed, as it were. Not that we seek God for salvation again, but all for that daily washing in the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, we're told. 1 John, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us, continually cleanseth us from all sin, because we're continually sinning. Even with the tongue, we sin with our tongues. Do you remember that great prophet, Isaiah? The evangelical prophet of the Old Testament. What was his sin? It was the sin of the tongue, or of the lips. Listen to what he says, Isaiah 6, verse 5. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For I have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. So what happened? But verse six and seven tells us that one of the seraphim, they fly to the altar and they take a live coal in his hand. He's taken it with tongs from off the altar. Now what was the altar? It was the place of sacrifice. The place where the blood of the sacrifice would have dropped onto those very coals. And so he's pointing us to the remedy. What is the remedy? It is the cross. even for the sins of the tongue. We need to repent of it, brethren and sisters. We need to have done with it. We need to get to the cross, and get to the blood of Christ, and have done with foolish talking, and done with being critical, and murmuring, and complaining, and jesting. We need to have done with our angry words, and our malicious words, and our cruel words, and our hurtful words. The old rhyme my grandmother used to say whenever I went into her, probably crying, my brother, I blame Andrew, he probably called my names, and she would say, sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you. Well, sounds good, but it's not true, not true at all. We all know that words hurt, they do. And the remedy is the cross. Have our tongues crucified? That's what Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Every part crucified with Christ. And so we have here, first of all, the thought of the the defiling nature of the tongue. And then secondly, we have the destructive nature of the tongue. You see, the tongue has a fearful potency for destruction, and it's used, and this is brought to our minds as we think about the imagery of a fire. And the tongue, James says, is a fire. It is a fire. Now James is not the first inspired pain man to liken the tongue to a fire. Solomon, in Proverbs 16 verse 27, he said these words, an ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire. In his lips there is a burning fire. Why does then Solomon and James take this image of a fire because a fire can be useful. You see, a fire can be comforting. I lit the fire today in the home. I think it was a bit too warm for the fire, but I lit it anyway, and it's very comforting. And it's comforting because it's contained in a little boiler that the church put in before we moved in. But you see, if that fire got onto the carpet in front of the boiler, and started to take hold of the property, it would no longer be comforting, rather it would be troublesome, it would be destructive. And so it is with our words. Yes, our words are like a fire, our tongue is like a fire, and our words can comfort. By what we say to one another, by encouraging one another. I'll tell you, we'll get no encouragement from the world. Don't you be thinking when you go tomorrow morning and you tell your workmates that you were at the prayer meeting last night that they're gonna slap you in the back and say, hallelujah, praise the Lord, you're at the prayer meeting. They're not gonna do that. The world's no friend to God or to his grace. And so brethren, we need to encourage one another, the family of God. helping one another on the road to heaven and toward home. And we should use our tongues. Yes, they are a fire. Aye, but the fire can comfort, but the fire can also be destructive. Because if it's not controlled, and if it's not managed properly, it has the potential of causing great destruction. And we need to see, brethren and sisters, and we need to realize that our words can start fires that can take years to put out, sometimes decades, with simply a word or an accusation. And for years, that fire will burn. An uncontrolled tongue in a moment of time can destroy a marriage. It can destroy a family. It can destroy a friendship. It can destroy a church. It can destroy a business relationship. A suicide's body was found one night floating in a river. And whenever it was brought out of the river and after Her body was searched, a little note was found in her pocket. The note had only two words written on it. They said. They said. Don't know what they said, but it drove that girl to take her own life. May God help us to realize how Great a damage a word from our tongues can do. I'm sure you've heard the statement before, but it carries truth. It says there are three things you can never get back, a spent arrow, a spoken word, and a lost opportunity. When the arrow is fired, you can't get it back again. Spoken word, can't retrieve it. Lost opportunity, it's lost forever. May God aid us then in controlling our tongues because once a word is spoken, and let me bring it up to the 21st century, let me be relevant, whenever a word is typed into some social media post or text message, whenever that happens, Words have the potential of inflicting great damage on a person's character or reputation. Is it any wonder then that the Old Testament tells us for us to let our words be few on earth? And then there is the third thing, the devilish nature of our tongue. James speaks of the tongue's fire as being fueled by hell. In verse six, it is set on fire of hell. Now the Bible reminds us that the devil, for whom hell was made for and his angels, the devil is expressly called a liar, a murderer. He's known as the accuser of the brethren. And whenever men's tongues are employed and that which brings destruction, such is said to be set on fire of hell." In other words, hell fans the flames of the tongue. Of course, the devil wants to carry slander and gossip and ridicule and murmuring and complaining. Of course, he wants to fan the flames. Let's get the congregation. Let's get the body of believers murmuring and complaining. Let's get them critical. Let's get them gossiping about each another and he'll just stand back and he'll fan the flames. I wonder has he fanned any of your flames this week? I wonder has he fanned any of mine? The devil's quite happy for a person to use their tongue to bring destruction, to bring division, to bring untold damage. We must then see that the unseen influencer behind the tongue's malevolent potency is the devil himself. Nothing ever good came out of hell. Nothing. So when we read that it is hell that influences our tongues, then we have to realize that nothing good can result from a tongue that is controlled. and manipulated by the wicked one. Remember what Peter said to the Savior? Spoke about it a number of weeks ago. I hardly remember what happened today, but it was a number of weeks ago. Remember, Peter tried to stop Christ going to the cross. He said, far be it from thee, Satan. Far be it from thee. And Christ revealed that he would be taken by wicked men and crucified. He said, far be it from thee. And what did Christ say? He said, Satan, get thee behind me. Satan had taken, as it were, control of his tongue. And oh, the devilish nature. Is your tongue like the devil's forked tongue, the serpent? Double-tongued, is that you? All nice and pleasant in front of the minister or the elder or some other believer. Ah, but whenever you get home, that tongue is unleashed, and all the hurt and the damage you do with it. Quickly, moving on to the next two verses, they need to be taken together. For we read, therefore, every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things of the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. James appeals to our simple minds. I'm glad of that. I'm glad of that. He gets us to think about all the animals that can become domesticated. We think of the, or to be tamed at least by men, we think about the lions that used to be in the circus. I don't think you maybe even get lions anymore, but you used to. And the man used to put his head into the lion's mouth. restrained to do that or you can go to SeaWorld today in Florida or across the world or a number of sites and you can see large killer wheels and they're doing what the person is doing on the bank or on Not the shore I can't think of the word but on the side of the pool and they just follow the killer wheels like these massive massive mammals just copy what the person is doing and And these animals and serpents he mentions here, go to India and you see how a serpent can be tamed and moves to the music. And so he really brings to our thoughts, there are things that can be tamed, domesticated in the world, but there's one thing that man has failed in 6,000 years to ever tame. And that's the tongue, the tongue. Killer wheels, lions, dogs, cats, tigers, all can be tamed, but man can't tame the tongue. Powerless. He has no strength, no power to tame, to subdue, to restrain his own tongue from the evils that flow from it, whether it be lying, or cursing, or swearing, or whatever else you care to think of. And he gives two reasons why man cannot tame the tongue. Firstly, because it is an unruly evil. It means it's an unrestrainable. That's what the word means. It is an unrestrainable evil. It can't be restrained, it is without restraint. No effectual check can be applied by men to bring the tongue under control. Second reason, because it is full of deadly poison. The tongue is said to be full of deadly venom, poison. Averaging a length of some 5.9 feet, The inland Taipan snake found in Astria is believed to be the world's most venomous snake. Its venom is estimated to be so toxic that one dose, one bite, has the ability to kill a minimum of 100 adult men. One bite. And yet there's something more toxic. There is something more deadly. There is something more venomous than the inland Taipan, and that is that tongue of yours and that tongue of mine. There's no sting of a snake that does so much evil in the world. There is no poison more deadly to man than the poison of a tongue. In a minute, it can kill. a man's reputation, it can destroy a woman's testimony, and it can wipe out a young person's good name in a moment of time. I wonder, do we see our tongues like that? Do we look at our tongues and see them as the lethal weapons that they are? You know, they talk about trying to ban guns and all in America and how they speak of them as being lethal weapons, and they are. But I'll tell you, the tongue is a lethal weapon. Do you know, brother, sister, do you know what it is to put a restraint on your tongue? Think of the untold damage that can be done by the tongue. In the work of God, I believe that more damage has been done with the tongue than anything else. More than heresy, more than whatever else you care to think that would cause damage in the work of God, the tongue. Tongue is most likely the root cause of the greatest damage. The psalmist prayed that God would set a watch over his mouth. That God would guard his lips. We need to seek God for his help in this. There is a time to speak, of course there is. Time to speak out against that which is wrong and that which is sinful, of course there is. But there's a time to be quiet. And so we have here, it says that there is the tongue can no man tame. You know, there was one exception to the case. One exception. One tongue, one tongue on this earth that was most certainly not like this tongue. And that was the tongue of Jesus Christ. It would never be said of him that his tongue was an unruly evil. It most certainly was not full of deadly poison, but rather the contrary. When he spoke, his retractors said, never man spake like this man. They wondered at his gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. He did not use his tongue to inflict death, but rather his words were life, life. It is then for us to follow him. He is our example. Now there might be someone listening and you say, well preacher, I have a problem with my tongue, no doubt about that. And yet you would justify your misuse of your tongue because you read this verse and you say, well, but the tongue can no man tame, and so there it is, what can I do? Well, it is true. It is true, the words here. The tongue no man can tame, but what man can do, God can. I think of one example. I think of the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus. In 1st Timothy 1 verse 13 he gives his testimony to Timothy and this is what he says before grace triumphed in his life, he says before, who was before a blasphemer? That's what my tongue was like, that's what my tongue was used for, for blaspheming. and yet grace triumphed on the Damascus road and he used his tongue from that moment on to spread abroad the theme of the name that he had defamed. And he preached the gospel. God and grace tamed his tongue. Don't tell me that God The creator of all things and the changer of life, of lies cannot give you a new tongue. He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise on to our God. And so yield your members. That simply means your bodily parts. Yield your members on to God, not on to unrighteousness, and unto sin, but unto God as those that are alive from the dead and are members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6 verse 13. And so may God give us the tongue of the learned that we may know how to speak a word in season to them that are weary. That's us concluded for tonight. I end with words from Paul. Ephesians 4 verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edified, building up that it may minister grace onto the hearers. God gave me such a tongue. God gave you such a tongue. And may God through this message May he sanctify us, and may our tongues be used only for his praise, for his word, and for the advancement of his gospel. May God be pleased to bless his word to our hearts. Let's briefly pray. Father in heaven, bless us as we now wait on before thee in prayer, and take thy word and apply it to our hearts. We offer prayer in Jesus' name, amen.