Amen. Well we're turning to James chapter 3. We're in the book of James once again and we're reading a number just verses here. We'll read from the verse 8. Just a number of verses tonight and then we'll get down to prayer after I preach the word of God. So James chapter 3 and the verse 8. Tells us here, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. my brethren these things ought not so to be doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter can the fig tree my brethren bear olive berries either a vine figs so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh amen we'll end the reading at the verse 12 let's pray father in heaven now help us we need thee we depend on thee fill me with thy spirit and power for i pray this in jesus holy name amen Well, folks, there's no let up from James when it comes to dealing with the issue of the tongue. And tonight brings us to consider a number of other verses in which James becomes more specific as he deals with this issue of the tongue. Having spoken generally about the tongue in the previous verses, James now comes to focus on one specific kind of tongue, that being a hypocritical tongue a hypocritical tongue and he presents that word that tongue in the words of the verse number nine and ten of james chapter three therewith speaking of the tongue bless we god even the father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of god out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not so to be now here what we have presented by the Apostle James is what is known in English terms as a dichotomy. A dichotomy is a difference between two completely opposite ideas or things. I suppose an example wouldn't go amiss to explain what is meant by a dichotomy. In the Tale of Two Cities, that book by Charles Dickens, tells the story of two cities during the French Revolution, the city of London and the city of Paris. These two settings create an initial clear dichotomy that is added on to as the places are compared and contrasted. Let me quote the opening lines of that book. It was the best of times, It was the worst of times. There's two opposing ideas. The best of times, but at the same time, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was a season of light. It was a season of darkness. It was a spring of hope, and it was the winter of despair. Contrasting ideas at the same time are contrasting things in two different cities. Well James here presents what is known as a dichotomy in the verses 9 and 10. He speaks of one tongue and that tongue on one hand blesses God and on the other hand it's found cursing men. Now such happens in our world today. I know that some of you are football fans and so you know what the FA Cup is the Football Association Cup, the FA Cup as it's known, is the annual knockout competition there in the English domestic league. It was first played in 1871, 1872 season, and is the oldest national competition in the world. Now there are many traditions that are connected with FA Cup final day, that competition that really brings down the English premiership season. One such FA Cup tradition is the singing of Abide With Me just before the teams emerge from their changing rooms and out of the tunnel there at Wembley Stadium. It was Henry Francis Light who wrote the hymn and published it in the early 1900s. It was first sung at the 1927 FA Cup, and has ever been present since that particular FA Cup final. 90,000 people pack into the Wembley Stadium, and they take the words of Abide With Me upon their tongues before their teams come out of the tunnel. These are the words they sing. Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies, heavens, morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. And yet within minutes of the starting whistle and the first decision going against their team, the same tongues that were employed singing about the cross are now filled with oaths and curses. Here we have an example of what James is speaking of here. Out of the same mouth, blessing God and cursing men. But we're not to look at the ungodly. James does not cause us to focus on the ungodly's tongue, because this can happen in the life of the believer. He's speaking here to the brethren, to those who belong to the household of faith. Look there at the end of the verse number 10. My brethren, having spoken about out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing, my brethren, These things ought not so to be. And we can find ourselves as Christians guilty of doing the very thing that we find unacceptable when it comes to the ungodly. Let me give you an example, or a number of examples, of how this double-tongueness, and that isn't an English word, so don't be using it in English, but it is a word at least in my mind, double-tongueness, how this can happen in our own lives as Christians. We come to church, We sing God's praise. We maybe even say a hearty amen now and again to what is being preached. And let me say, I like a hearty amen now and again as I preach. But then we get into the car. To go home, the children misbehave in the back seat, or we get to the mini roundabout at the head of Portland Owen, and nobody knows how to use it. No matter how long it's been there, no one seems to know how to use it. And the language that we employ in such circumstance is a little more choice than we would expect from someone who has just left the house of God. Or we come to the prayer meeting. We employ our tongues to sing God's praise and to supplicate and intercede on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of others, only to find ourselves on the way home criticizing some Christian because they didn't look at us the right way, or they didn't acknowledge us, or we complain about the length of the sermon, or the length of somebody's prayer. Or maybe how warm it was or how cold it was in the house of God. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Very plain and simple. Now, in the first place, let me say that to use our tongues to bless God is a most suitable and most proper employment for these tongues of ours. It is a most suitable and a most proper employment for our tongues. It's the God who saved us. Is the God who justified us? Is the God who adopts us? Is the God who sustains us? Is the God who provides for us? Is it the God who keeps us? Is the God who comforts us? The God who shields us? The God who guides us? The God who empowers us? The God who sanctifies us? The God who will someday bring us to heaven and glorify us? Is he not worthy of the tongue's praise? Well, of course he is. For this is what the word bless means. It literally translates to mean to bless or to speak well of. to speak well of. And this is what we're to do with our tongues, brethren and sisters. We're to speak well of our God. And surely there's many a thing in your life, many a thing in your life's experience where God has helped and guided and sustained and brought you through and you could speak well of God. You could praise God for, you could use your tongue tonight as we come to the place of prayer. and we could offer the sacrifice of praise. Whoso offereth praise glorifyeth me. And so as we come to pray, brethren and sister, tonight, with all the trying circumstances that we find ourselves in and all the difficulties that we have in our families and in our lives and in the nation as a whole, yet let's praise God, let's bless God, let's thank God for what He has done, that He has lifted us that He's rescued us, that He's illuminated our minds and regenerated our hearts and brought us into the family of God, brought us under the faithful preaching of the Word of God, given us homes and families and health and strength. The list is endless. The list is endless. Brethren and sisters, we shouldn't have time to curse men. We shouldn't have time to complain. We shouldn't have time to murmur. We shouldn't have time to criticize, because we should be blessing the Lord. I wonder, have you come, is that your attitude tonight? Have you come to bless the Lord? Have you come to praise the Lord? Have you come to speak well of your God tonight, even in the place of prayer? The blessing of God, the praising of God, is the great end. Think of this. It is the great end for which the human tongue was even created. That's why it exists. This tongue of ours This and this alone is the highest employment that then the tongue can ever be engaged in. When we consider what God has done for us, when we consider what God is doing for us, when we consider what God is yet to do for us, then we would wholeheartedly have to agree with the sentiments of Charles Wesley when he wrote the words, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King that triumphs off his grace. John Blanchard tells the story of a friend who told them that the most challenging message he ever heard was called 10 minutes after the benediction. 10 minutes after the benediction. The sermon spoke of those who moved in moments from the gloria to gossip, from creed to criticism, from worshiping God to wounding man in a moment of time. That's the kind of hypocritical tongue that James is calling out here. He's calling it out. These things ought not to be. He's very plain, simple preacher. They shouldn't be taking place. Full stop, no excuse, no reason. They shouldn't be taking place. If you are one of the brethren, if you belong to the household of faith, now if the blessing of God with our tongues is the proper use of our tongues, then cursing men with our tongues must then be seen as the improper use of the tongue. James gives us a compelling argument why we should refrain from cursing others. The reason he gives is because human beings are made after the similitude. The word is simply likeness. They are made after the likeness of God. The thought that man is made after the image of God should therefore restrain our tongue, for in cursing others, God himself is being wronged. Did you ever think of that? God himself is being wronged by the injury done to his image that is within the person that you are cursing, criticizing against. The sad and harsh reality is that many a person speaks with perfect courtesy to strangers in love and gentleness, and yet snaps with ungracious and impatient anger at family members. There are people that you meet, and they speak sweet. They're sweet. They're sweet at the religious meeting. And then they go outside and they murder someone's reputation with a malicious gossiping tongue. My reverend, these things ought not so to be. The Bible commentator Matthew Henry, he said, for men to reproach those who have not only the image of God in their natural faculties, but are renewed after the image of God by the grace of the gospel, this is a most shameful contradiction. to all their pretensions of honoring God. Now to highlight the ludicrous situation of a tongue uttering blessings one minute and a little while later uttering curses, James appeals to two illustrations from nature to show that such a state of affairs is not compatible with logic. It's not reasonable. Doesn't make any sense. And so he speaks and he brings two illustrations, the verse 11 and the verse 12. Doth a fountain send forth the same place, sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear all of berries, neither a vine figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and bitter. Fresh two illustrations the first one concerning a fountain He asked the question doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and better now the term sweet could be also Translated fresh the term better brackish we would call salt and water and that's how it's translated in the next verse the verse 12 can so can no find in both yield salt water and fresh and so james asks a rhetorical question does it make sense is it logical to you he's saying that the fountain can send forth salt water and at the same time from the same fountain head it sends forth fresh water? Is that logical to you? Well, of course it isn't. It either yields salt water or it yields fresh water. It cannot. It cannot yield both kinds of water. And with them coming to that conclusion, James then leaves them to join the dots. He doesn't apply what he's speaking. He hopes that he's speaking in simple enough terms that they, in and of themselves, they're able to join the dots and bring the application to their own hearts, just as it is unnatural for a fountain to send forth two kinds of waters from its fountainhead, so it is unnatural for a tongue to bless God and to curse men at the same time. It's either one or the other. If it's true, if it's true that a fountainhead emits brackish or salty water one moment and then fresh water the next, then we must conclude that there's something happening at the fountainhead. The fountainhead, there's where the source of the problem is. There must be something wrong with the fountainhead. If there's salt and then there's fresh water, and so it is with the tongue. When the tongue one day is blessing God and the next day it's cursing men, this points to the problem or a problem in the heart. The heart, there's the problem. It's not the tongue. Rather, Christ said, And so it's not the tongue initially, primarily the cause. It is the heart of man. I suppose if we were writing this portion of God's Word, we would use the example of a tap. You know, you turn on the tap, you're not going to get fresh water and salt water at the same time. It's one or the other. It's the same kind of idea. If there's something wrong with the water, there's something wrong with the source, the fountainhead. And it's the problem of the heart. Now, we do find an example. of this very thing, this blessing God and cursing man. We do find it happening in the life of a child of God. That person's name is Peter. You'll all recall how Peter said in Matthew 16, verse 16, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. However, the night when Christ went on trial, Matthew 26 verse 74, when Peter was challenged on that occasion with his association with Jesus Christ, we read there in Matthew 26 verse 27, that he began to curse, to swear, saying, I know not the man. What had happened? Well, the language Peter used that night evidenced a far deeper problem, a problem of the heart. His heart had grown cold. His heart had departed from God. I wonder, does your double speech, does it evidence that a departure has taken place in your life? with regard to your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what to say in church, but take yourself out into the world, in a place of employment, and the language just isn't what one would expect of a believer. It may be that the heart is far from God. A departure has taken place. How often has our speech not bereath or accused us, as the little girl said to Peter, thy speech doth berevi, betrays you. You're a Galilean. Such double speech should cause alarm bells to ring in our minds and our hearts. and to bring us to examine ourselves in order that we might pinpoint where and when the departure from God has taken place. And then the second illustration, it's the same almost as the first. It's of a fig tree. The question is asked, can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either of vine figs? Now, of course, the reply is, of course not. If the tree is a fig tree, it will bear figs. If it is a vine, it's going to bear the fruit of the vine. Sure, anyone with any bit of wit between their two ears, any bit of sense would understand that that is the case. You see, the nature of the tree determines the fruit that it's going to bear. And Jesus Christ said something similar to this. and over there in Luke chapter 6 verse 43 to 45 let me read the words Jesus said for a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit for every tree is known by his own fruit For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, for out for for off the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." And really what James is simply doing, he's simply reminding his readership of the teachings of Jesus Christ. And that's what any good preacher should do. should simply point his hearers back to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his apostles and those men inspired of God in both incidences. There in Luke 6 and here in James chapter 3, the truth presented is the same. The type of fruit produced by the tree is determined by the species of the tree, and the application is simple. The type of fruit from one's mouth is determined by the condition of the heart. Therefore, the good fruit of blessing God that James speaks of comes from a heart that has been regenerated, a heart that has been changed, and the heart that curses man is a heart that is unregenerate. Now here's the application. fruit that you and I bear is determined by our nature. So then, is it a sin nature or is it the divine nature that controls what comes out of your mouth? A sin nature or the divine nature? If you want to determine which of the natures it is, just look at how you used your tongue in the past seven days. That will be a good gauge, a good indicator of where you are with God, if you are with God at all. The tongue is but a window off the heart. And therefore, if your words are bitter, it's only because your heart has become poisoned by bitterness. If your words are proud, it's only because your heart has been overtaken with pride. If your words are angry, it's because your heart has been infected by anger. If your heart is, or your tongue is, or your words are critical, it is only because you've become possessed with a spirit of criticism, a corrupt unholy heart. eventually will be exposed by corrupt and unholy speech. If the tongue is not tamed by God, if it is not restrained by God, if it is not controlled by God, then it is a sure indicator that the heart isn't either. If lip and life do not correlate, if they don't correspond, then there needs to be an examination of the heart because that's where the real problem lies. Now, since the heart is the problem, and since the heart is the source of the problem, then remedying the heart will lead to a remedying of the tongue. And only God can do a heart work. Only God. Only God can cleanse the heart. Only God can regenerate the heart. Only God can renew the heart and thereby transform the tongue of the Christian that has fallen into a deplorable state. God did it in the life of Peter. Here's a man who cursed and swore with oaths and curses. And yet that same tongue was brought to the cross. And thank God that same tongue was used on the day of Pentecost along with the other apostles that saw 3,000 souls added to the church of Jesus Christ. Don't tell me that God can't change your tongue. Don't tell me that God can't change your nature, that he cannot change your heart. What he did for Peter, thank God, he can do for you. And so what are you to do? You bring your tongue to the cross. You bring the tongue to the cross. You have it crucified and cleansed, the blood applied, and thank God then sanctified by the Spirit of God. With this illustration, I close tonight. A Greek philosopher asked his servant to provide the best dish possible for him to eat. The servant prepared a dish of tongue. The philosopher was taken a little back and the servant was asked to explain why he had brought a dish of tongue. The servant replied, it is best because with it we may bless and communicate happiness, dispel sorrow, remove despair, cheer the faint-hearted, inspire the discouraged, and say a hundred other things to uplift mankind. Later on in the day, the same philosopher asked the same servant to provide the worst dish that he thought that the man could eat. A dish of tongue appeared on the table again. The philosopher was bemused and asked the servant to explain himself. This was the best dish. Now you bring it again as the worst dish. Explain yourself. The servant said, it is the worst because with it we may curse and break human hearts, destroy reputations, promote discord and strife. set families, communities, and nations at war with each other. You would have to agree with me, the philosopher's servant was a very wise servant indeed, because he saw the blessing that the tongue could be, but he also saw the curse and the damage and the hurt that it could be. So how will we use our tongues Will we use them to bless God? Will we use them to curse men? May God help us to use our tongues wisely by promoting the gospel and by praising our God. May God challenge all of our hearts through his word this evening for his name's sake. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. O God, our Father, we commit the time around thy word to thee. We pray that the challenge will come as the spirit applies the word to our hearts, not to someone else, but to our own lives. O God, may we never fall into this contradictory state of life where we bless God and we curse man. with these tongues of ours, O God, such should send that emergency warning into our lives that the heart is not right with God. Therefore, give us grace to receive from thee thy word to our hearts tonight. We offer prayer in our Savior's precious name.