Let's turn in our Bibles to James. James chapter three. God's word is holy and infallible and sharper than any two-edged sword. And because of the authority of God's holy word and the glory of our God, let's give him honor as we stand to read this portion of scripture. James three, starting in verse two, we'll be reading through verse 12. Here, God's holy and infallible word. James three, starting in verse two. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. Let's pray together. Our glorious Lord, thank you for this your word and help us, we pray, by your grace, to control our tongues, help us to bridle them, to control them, to restrain them for your honor and glory that we would show forth ourselves as truly your disciples. But we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord, amen. Please be seated. When preaching the right discernment, well, I'm gonna correct myself. when preparing to write this sermon, I was struggling to have hope with how I was going to deal with certain parts of this passage to help people change. I was kind of discouraged by some of what James actually wrote. How can I tell people to change and improve the use of their tongue for the sake of Christ and his kingdom if James himself says, no one can tame the tongue? So well, if no one can tame the tongue, why even preach on it? Because it's not possible, right? I hope that we can clarify this a little bit. And I do want to say that I'm immensely thankful for having godly men who have written wonderful works on this passage that I've been able to read. I'll cite a few, but one of the specials wonderful things to read was Matthew-Henry. And if you have Matthew-Henry in the, I guess you would call it the condensed version, basically all in one volume, it's not going to be as good as the full complete Matthew-Henry set. And I do have to thank Mr. George Frapedis for giving me that full set because my computer only has the abridged one. You know, sometimes when you struggle with a passage, again, the key thing is to let scripture interpret scripture. Earlier, when I preached from James chapter three, I want us to look back at verse two, at how James uses the word perfect. Let's read that again. Again, I preached on this verse last week, but we're gonna touch on it again. It says, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. able to bridle the whole body as well. You kind of know something's up in this verse that James is not talking about someone having the potential to be perfectly sinless in the use of their tongue in this life. Because he opens it up by saying, we all stumble in many ways. That includes James. But a key to look at for how to understand how James uses the word perfect is to keep your place in James 3, 1. But look back at chapter 1, verse 4. Well, we'll pick it up at verse 2. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So in James chapter one, verses two through four, James is not saying that trials and tribulations testing us is going to produce a sinless perfection. But the way that the word perfect is being used here means proven, tested. Just like you have a tool or a piece of machinery and you run that engine, you tested it and it's proven itself reliable. It's been tested. It's proven. Is it flawless? No. But does it run? Yes. It's proven. It's tested. That's, I believe, the sense in which James uses the word perfect in chapter 3 when he says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. He's a proven man. He's been proven in the use of his tongue. He's been proven as a whole. And we have to keep that in mind as we look at today's text. The main focus of this sermon is that God calls you to flee the sins of your tongue. God calls you to flee the sins of your tongue. We'll look at this in two main points. The power of a small member. And secondly, we'll look at the call to wrestle to tame the tongue. So let's look at this first main point, the power of a small member. Verse 2, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. This verse suggests that one's ability to control the tongue can help you lead to an overall improvement in self-control of the rest of the body as well. So in other words, you learn to control this small organ, this small member of your body, and it would allow you to have control over the rest of the body. And we could say that, logically speaking, that fruit of the Holy Spirit is one in particular that's pertaining to this, is self-control. If you exercise self-control, and God gives you self-control by His Holy Spirit, it will not only be for the tongue, but it will carry over for the mind, it'll carry over for the body, it'll carry over for many other areas. You could say self-control begets self-control, whether in one area of the body or the other. Now, as a student of nature and as a student of man's ingenuity, James gives some illustrations of the power of the tongue. And he does this in verses 3 through 5. Let's look at that again. Now, we put the bits into horses' mouths so that they will obey us. We direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So a bit is a small piece of metal that's placed in the horse's mouth, and it has restraints that are attached to the harness, and you can pull that horse to the left or to the right, or you can pull it back to rear it up and stop it, Um, it's a very small piece of equipment. I don't know, maybe weighing a couple, one or two pounds. But at the same time, this small bit, small piece of metal with some rings on it, can control a horse weighing hundreds of pounds. I was looking at draft horses. Some of the largest draft horses that have ever been can weigh up to a thousand pounds. Yet you have this little bit in the mouth pulled by a harness that you're able to control an animal weighing up to a thousand pounds. Same sense a boat, now a boat weighing not just hundreds of pounds or even up to a thousand pounds, but thousands and thousands of pounds, immense boats controlled by one little rudder that directs that whole massive ship. And that ship is able to be maneuvered even when going through heavy and strong winds anywhere that the pilot desires to direct it. So both the boat's rudder and the horse's bit and bridle are examples of something very small that have control and exercise great power over something greater. And the same is true of the tongue in matters of this life. The tongue has the power for good or it has the power for evil. I love this quote here by Dr. Curtis of Vaughan. He wrote this concerning this passage in the tongue. It, that is the tongue, can sway men to violence or it can move them to the noblest actions. It can instruct the ignorant, encourage the dejected, comfort the sorrowing, and soothe the dying. Or it can crush the human spirit, destroy reputations, spread distrust and hate, and bring nations to the brink of war. I firmly believe that. It's written in Proverbs 8.21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. If you have a family and your family, or especially in your marriage, the way you use your tongue can either break or make your marriage. It can either break or make your family. The use of the tongue can either break or make a church or business. If you have people who are exercising dissension and backbiting and gossip, it can tear a business or a church apart. James used another force of nature to describe the power of the tongue. Look at verse five. The tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. Now a fire is not all bad. A fire can help you keep warm in the midst of a very cold winter. It could save a person's life, depending where you live, if you're extremely cold. But a small fire, you might think I'm exaggerating, but a small fire could destroy millions of acres. One fire. There was a great fire in 1910. It's called the Great Fire of 1910. And it says that nearly three million acres were destroyed in two days. in 1910, and that was burning across Idaho, Montana, and Washington. Of course, there was a great drought that made the land dry, just like we had an immensely dry season during the summer. Many, many days of 100-degree weather, no rain, no rain, and if somebody would have started a fire here in central Louisiana, we would have been in some great trouble. So just thinking about our drought that we had, just as you would be very cautious to follow the law and not light a fire and burn anything outside when you have a burn ban because everything is so dry that you're ready to ignite the whole region of Central Louisiana on fire, be cautious with the tongue. Just like a fire can cause immense damage, a tongue in similar fashion can cause immense damage. James taught that the tongue can be influenced by the evil one. Look at verse six. And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. I'm speaking of this defiling of the whole body. Usually the sins of the whole body, whether it's sexual immorality or some other thing, whatever sin that you carry out, somebody plotting to do a crime, there's always the sin of the tongue involved. because there's talking and plotting and planning in doing that. Describing the dangers of hell involving the tongue, Matthew wrote of not only the dangers of hell regarding the tongue, but of the necessity of the Holy Spirit for our tongues. He wrote this, He said that hell has more to do in promoting the fire of the tongue than men are generally aware of. The devil is expressly called a liar, a murderer, an accuser of the brethren, and wherever men's tongues are employed in any of these ways, they are set on fire of hell. But he goes on and says the positive flip side of this. where the tongue is thus guided and wrought upon by a fire from heaven. He mentions the tongues of fire coming down in Pentecost. When you have these tongues of fire, where it's wrought of heaven, the Holy Spirit, there it kindle, it kindleth good thoughts, holy affections, and ardent devotions. So you can have the fire of heaven through the Holy Spirit, causing us to have good thoughts, holy affections, and ardent devotions. Now, keep in mind, there's a connection here. When we talk about the tongue, it's not as if the tongue has a mind of its own, it does what it wants. The tongue is connected to the brain. You could say the tongue is connected to the heart, too. Jesus points out that there's an important relationship between your tongue and your heart. And let's look at that. Keep your place in James. Look at Matthew 12. This is where Jesus is, again, rebuking the Pharisees. Matthew 12, starting in verse 33. He's actually finished rebuking them over the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. But he says this in Matthew 12 starting in verse 33. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good, and the evil man brings out of his treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. key part here is that a man brings forth out of his heart the treasures of his heart and it comes out in his lips. It comes out by the use of the tongue. So sometimes you can say that a foul tongue is a sign of a foul heart. Let's look next. at this calling of God for us to wrestle to tame the tongue. It can be done to a degree. Look at verses seven through eight. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Now, again, James says, no one can tame the tongue. Well, rather than give up on this, I decided, you know, we should really let scripture interpret scripture. In order to define what James is saying here, you don't have to go very far. You could just look back a little bit at what James says earlier in chapter one, verse 26. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless." Well, you could say, well, James is telling us to bridle the tongue, but he says you can't bridle it because it cannot be tamed. So isn't he saying with one end that it's impossible to do, and the other time he's telling us if you're not doing it, you're not even a true Christian? And I think that's what James is saying here. If you want to paraphrase James in chapter 1, verse 26, he's saying that you're not really a Christian if you can't bridle or restrain your tongue to some degree. If you don't have at least some fruit of the Holy Spirit to restrain your tongue in some degree, maybe you're not a Christian at all, is what he's really saying. That's a fruit of the Spirit to do so. So let's say this. Is it possible to have a tongue that's bridled and yet not fully tamed? Yes, I think it is if you want to carry the illustration of the wild horse. Okay, so you got this wild horse and people call it broken when you take an animal and you can break it and you can cause it to be ridden. But you have a wild horse and you're able to put a bridle on it. You're able to restrain it. Maybe you're able to ride it from time to time. But at the same time, it's always going to be a very vigorous wild beast. If you step behind it, you might get kicked. If you get close to it, it might step on your foot. If you get on a ride with it and you don't restrain it properly and you don't really pull on those reins like you ought, it's going to buck you. You could put a bridle on it, but it's still never going to be perfectly tame. It's always going to be a dangerous creature that you have to be very cautious with. So I guess if you're looking at these metaphors and these There's a, yes, you can bridle it, but it's still a dangerous wild creature that you have to exercise caution with it because it could hurt either you or someone else. So it is with the tongue. I'm sorry for citing Matthew Henry so much, but I couldn't help it. Matthew Henry said this about the tongue again. He said that the tongue cannot be tamed by the power and art which serves to tame these things." That means the creatures of the earth. No man can tame the tongue without supernatural grace and assistance. The apostle does not intend to represent it as a thing impossible, but as a thing extremely difficult, which therefore will require greater watchfulness and pains and prayer to keep it in due order. Amen to that. Very wise statement. So James here, according, to Matthew Henry, he's not saying that this is something very impossible, but it's extremely difficult. And no matter how long you live, you have to be careful that things might come out of this mouth that you're going to regret. And it's, I mean, even if you've been a Christian for 60, 70, 80 years, you still have to put a guard over this and you have to ask God, put a guard over my mouth as David prayed, right? Now James then, after mentioning this difficulty, he then points out that even among the Christian community during his day, there were problems with, you could say, an inconsistent use of the tongue. Look at verses nine through 12. With it, the tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men. who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or a vine tree produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. My first thought in this was that what about the imprecatory Psalms? Aren't there Psalms as prayers in the Old Testament to pray for God's judging his and our enemies? I do think that the New Testament take on this is that we should pray that God would cast down those who were against him and his kingdom. bring them to their knees so that being brought to their knees that they would call upon God and still pray for their repentance because we don't want them to have to suffer the eternal fires of hell. So in many cases we pray for God to work in them and convert them. I think that's both, sometimes that involves God striking them down and God causing them great hardships and God causing them to lose everything they have and suffer great pains, that God would break their teeth so that they would not devour God's people as bread, but that instead he would cause them to repent." I know in war there are people who are actively seeking to shoot and kill you and maybe You can't be praying in that fashion. Maybe you're praying that God will allow you to be faithful in your service as a military officer and that God would help you to destroy your enemies in that sense. But think about how people often curse others. Okay, aside from war, aside from combat of terrorists who want to destroy us and destroy our religion, what about everyday life here in central Louisiana? It's worse in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, but if you're driving around and someone cuts you off, someone is tailgating you, or someone's doing something very mean and nasty, you want to curse them. Now, I get angry with this, and I complain to my kids. I complain to God about it, and I say some angry things. But I try not to curse those people to hell. You know, because somebody cut you off in the road, do you really want them to go and spend eternity in hell because they cut you off in the road? And I used to have a bad habit of calling people, that stupid fool. Well, you know, Jesus warned about not doing that. And I remember Isaiah laughing about this. Instead of calling him fool, I sometimes call him babies. Get out of the road, you babies. At least they're not being called fools, right? Call him something else, but not a fool. You little baby, get out of the road, you little baby. Getting back to the text, though. Not Moses, surely not Moses with his flaring anger at times. Not Paul, not even James who wrote this epistle, was flawless and sinless in the use of their tongues. They weren't perfect in the sense of being sinless. Now, James and many of these others were proven. They had proven their use, their faithful use of the tongue, but they weren't sinless. The only one we can say was flawless and sinless in the use of his tongue was the Lord Jesus. As mentioned in Isaiah 53 9, only could we say of this Jesus, he had no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. Jesus never sinned with his mouth. He never said one evil word. He was holy and pure his whole life. He never sinned in thought, word and deed because he was the perfect sinless son of God. Now if there's one thing tonight's text teaches you is that you're not perfect. You're not sinless, especially regarding the use of your tongue. And you sin daily in thought, word and deed. And apart from forgiveness through Jesus Christ, you have no hope of salvation. Unless Jesus washes you clean of your sins, you will perish. But the good news of the gospel is even better than that. The perfect record of Christ, the perfect, sinless, undefiled, holy one of God, his perfect record is accounted to us by faith. in that great exchange. He takes our sin upon the cross, but he, God reckons, considers his obedience and his perfect keeping of the law as ours. If you believe that gospel, does it mean that you then live any way you want? Does it mean that you act any way you want? You speak any way you want? If you are truly a recipient of this wonderful gospel of Christ, your calling is to earnestly endeavor to war against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and seek as much as you can to put sin to death. We've mentioned this in Sunday school this morning. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Price is the blood of the Son of God who suffered and died for your sin. How then should you live? Therefore glorify God in your body. And glorifying God in your body means also glorifying God with the use of your tongue. Remember the power of the tongue. Just as that little bridle can direct a horse weighing hundreds of pounds, maybe a big, huge draft horse, weighing up to a thousand pounds, that little bridle. It's powerful. It's small, but powerful. The same with the rudder of the ship directing a massive ship through great winds and seas. The same thing with that tongue. It's powerful, but dangerous. The tongue can set a whole forest on fire. Be careful with the use of your tongue. And I do tell you one thing, one of the fruits from this passage is that, man, studying this and having to prepare to preach this has made me to want to be a lot more careful with how I use my tone. And I think that's the intention of James writing it in this fashion. You are called to wrestle to tame it. Like a wild horse, you're not gonna be able to take the wildness completely out, but you can put a bridle on it. But watch out, it might kick sometimes. It's the same with that tongue. You have to endeavor to seek to control it. And by learning to control your tongue, you can gain in self-control of the whole body as well. And God calls you to do this as part of your service, part of your holy calling as one who has been bought with a price. Glorify God with your body, even with your tongue especially. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this, your word. Thank you for the blessed Lord Jesus who is holy and undefiled and sinned not at all with his tongue. And we thank you that through Jesus that we have forgiveness for us, for the use of our tongues, the sinful use of our tongues. But we do pray that you would work in us the ability to restrain them, to bridle them. We pray that you would put a guard over our mouths and we wouldn't sin against you. Help us to grow in this exercise of self-control. Help us, we pray, to bring you the honor and the glory and to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ for all to see. Help us, we pray, to be faithful witnesses. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. For our closing hymn, we have a fitting one here. My sins, my sins, my Savior. Let's look at 505. and stand and sing.