Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): Good morning. If you'll take your Bibles and stand for our scripture reading, it will be taken from the Epistle of James, Chapter 3, verses 4 through 12.

"Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh." May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His word. You may be seated.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: If you have your copy of the scriptures and you're not already there, I invite you to turn back to James Chapter 3. We're going to continue talking about that little red wagon. The passage has already been read, so I'll just highlight verse 8 and then we'll have a word of prayer and go on. Verse 8 says, "But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."

Father, thank you so much for all that you do. Even as we began a few weeks ago talking about the tongue and how difficult it is, we come away recognizing the truth of the matter. That is that constraining the tongue is beyond us, but not you. That means that we have to commit our way to you, and we have to lean on you and draw on your strength in order to have victory in the areas that you've called us to have victory.

Even as we pause for a few minutes to sit at your feet and hear instruction from heaven concerning the use of the tongue, we ask first that the enemy might be bound up so that we'll only hear from heaven. Then we ask, Father, that our hearts would be yielded, fully yielded to you, so that what we hear will not just stay in the earlobes, but that it will matriculate down to the heart and work its way out into the hands and feet.

We might be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving our own selves. To that end, Father, we are grateful that you love us so much that you'll speak to us. Speak, Lord, because your servants are listening. As always, we'll give you the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving. We ask all of these things in Jesus's name and for his sake. Amen.

During a normal medical examination when you go to your doctor's office, one of the things that they ask you to do is they say, "Open your mouth and say, 'Ah.' Stick out your tongue." They're not just doing that to make you look foolish. They do it, not even just to look to see if there's something wrong in your mouth. One of the things that the doctors understand is that the condition of the mouth can indicate a number of problems.

They can look into your mouth and they can see sometimes you may have an infection. They can look into your mouth and see that sometimes you have a particular disease or even a vitamin deficiency. Looking into your mouth allows them to figure out what's going on deeper within. That's not just true of your mouth; it's true of the things that come out of your mouth. Because the things that come out of your mouth indicate what's going on in a deeper way.

We're going to talk about that for the next few minutes. The Problem and the Power of the Tongue - Part 2. Three weeks ago, we looked at James Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. We said, "I will guard my tongue when I recognize number one, the potential it holds." Maturity is measured by the ability to restrain the tongue. Then we talked about the power that the tongue has, and James uses a number of illustrations there to talk about that.

He talked about the perversity of the tongue in verse 6. As we got to the end of that, we talked about the fact that the tongue being a fire, it burns up a lot of things, and your tongue can do a great deal of damage. This morning, we want to look at the next several verses, five of them, that talk about the perplexity of the tongue. I'll give you right up front all three things. The tongue is problematic (verses 7 and 8). The tongue is perverse (verses 9 and 10). The tongue is polluted (verses 11 and 12).

Then we'll talk about what we need to do about that. Let's get started. In verses 7 through 8, James says something interesting here. He says, "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 man can tame the tongue. It's restless, it's evil, it's full of deadly poison." When I recognize that the tongue can do that much damage, then I realize that I have to control it.

In order to guard my tongue, I need to realize that the tongue is problematic. Of course, as verse 7 says, man is capable of control over nature. You go down to Grant Park and you see all those animals. You go to the Georgia Aquarium and you see all those fish, some a lot bigger than you and me, and they've all been captured and they've all been placed in captivity.

Then you look at things like the lion tamer. The lion tamer gets up there, he has a chair and his whip. He snaps that whip and the lion sits down. He snaps that whip and the lion stands up and opens his mouth, and the lion tamer will put his head in the lion's mouth. They can't pay me enough to do that, but he'll do it because he's tamed the lion.

One of the things that I marveled at, I mentioned before, the elephant. You go down to the circus and you see that the elephant, this thing is huge, it weighs tons, and they have it tied to a little scrawny pole. You ask yourself, "Why in the world doesn't that elephant pull itself away from that pole and walk off?" Well, it doesn't because elephants have those memories. They say an elephant never forgets.

People recognize that elephants don't forget, so when the elephant is just a little baby, they tie a rope around its leg and they tie it to a truck. The little baby elephant will try its level best to pull away, and it can't. It's not strong enough. Then as the elephant gets older, the elephant remembers the rope around the leg and that it couldn't break free. So, you could tie that rope to a little stick. The elephant will not try to break free because it remembers that it can't.

People understand you can tame these animals, but nobody can tame the tongue. We're captive to our own human nature. We're not able to do anything about our human nature. In fact, the problem with me and my tongue is not a knowledge problem. I don't have a problem with my tongue because I don't know what to do. People are always telling me, "Shut up." They tell me what to do. The problem is not that I don't know what to do.

The problem isn't that I don't know that I'm going to get into trouble if I open my mouth. That's why Angela was warning me, "Don't say anything when your wife walks away, just chill out." I appreciate that. The problem isn't that we don't know what to do. The problem isn't even that we're knuckleheads. That's not the problem.

I think about some people that demonstrate that they don't have the ability to control their tongue when they go down to that one store, Walmart. They go to Walmart and they carry their kids with them. All you hear is, "Stop! Put that back! Get down from there! What are you doing with that? I said 'No!'" It's constantly, constantly, constantly. It's like, can't you control that little thing? The tongue is like that; no control.

When I was in Michigan, I had a Sunday school class, a homebuilders class of about 20 couples. One of the men in the class, George, and I were having a conversation one day after church. He was telling me how his wife needed him to do an intervention because he said she has arguments with her son. They just go tit-for-tat, knock-down-drag-out arguments to tears.

I just stood there aghast because her son was the same age as my oldest daughter, about eight years old. I'm saying, "Why would a 39-year-old woman have an argument with an eight-year-old? You could just stomp on him." I said, "George, no disrespect, but we don't have that problem in our culture, because a black mama would never put up with that. Never. That kid would be in danger of their life."

We know how to control those little ones sometimes. Nowadays you go to Walmart and it's like none of these people know how to control anybody. Maybe it's because they had the baby when they were a baby and they still don't know how to grow up. Anyway, the problem is a knee problem. What I'm trying to say is the problem is that we are not willing to bend the knee and admit to God that we need his help.

We won't kneel before him and say, "I can't do it. I need your help. Unless you strengthen me, it won't get done." We just say, "Well, I got it. I got it." Well, let me use a backhand. Backhands don't work. You need heaven after you use the backhand. The only thing that works is to be able to restrain the tongue, and it takes the grace of God. It takes the wisdom, it takes the strength of God. I realize that I have to commit my way to God when I realize that it's not going to happen because it's not within me.

James goes on to say in verses 9 and 10, "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." He says, "My brothers, these things ought not to be so." It ought not to be that way. The tongue is perverse, and the law is a single unit. I'm drawing to that we talked about before, worship and work.

The Ten Commandments: Love God, love people. Worship, work. Treat God with respect and worship, treat people with respect. He's given us ten words so that we understand that it's not ten different words; it's one word. It's one unit stated in ten different terms. There's only one law; it's the law of love. The law of love is neatly divided into two categories. The first four topics in the law of love say worship God acceptably, and here are the four areas that rule that.

Then the next six steps in the one law of love, the law of God, says treat people with respect, treat people kindly. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. It's not saying "I want to cramp your style," it's saying "Listen, if you put the other person's needs ahead of yours, then you're going to back off from stealing, lying, cheating, committing adultery, coveting." You're not going to do those things.

Paul says, "Love works no ill towards his neighbor, so love is the fulfillment of the law." There's only one law; it's the law of love. He states it in ten words. So then I understand that it's one unit. If I break one part of the law, I've broken the law. That's the point. He says when you recognize that, you can't say, "Oh, praise God! I bless the Lord! He's so wonderful! Jesus is my Savior, my Lord!" and then you come over here and say, "You know you get on my nerves, you little so-and-so."

No, no, no. You've broken the law, because there's one law. It's not possible to worship God acceptably and mistreat people. It's not. It was interesting when back in the day I was reading about Preacher Brown. This is going back into the 70s and 80s. Preacher Brown, he was doing an exposition on the faith of the former slaves. He said they would have this saying among the slaves about white folks. They'd say white folks ain't got no religion because they sit together and they sing those songs, but then they treat us like dirt. That's not real religion.

James says that's exactly correct. Frederick Douglass says, in his autobiography, "How can God bless America when she has snatched babies from its mother's arms?" He's looking at the practice, and he's saying there's something wrong with the statement because the practice is wrong. But God has blessed America. God has forgiven us. In fact, God broke the nation, the Civil War, so that the people who prayed that God would not allow their children to grow up in slavery could be set free.

God did that. He answered their prayers, and God forgave and restored and blessed and built up this nation so that this nation is the most generous nation on the face of the earth. As we talked about before, it's because of the law of God and because of our ability to look at the scriptures and be influenced by what it says, even in the shaping of our government. Anyway, my point is the difference between what I do and what I say; they don't jive.

I can't say that I'm right with God if my actions are wrong before God. I can't bless God and then curse people who are made in the image of God and think that I'm right with God. That's the point that James is making here. He says out of the same mouth, this one mouth, but out of the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing. That ought not to be. As the kids used to say, don't make no sense.

The tongue is naturally inconsistent. James says it's an unruly evil. He says it's full of deadly poison. The tongue can be sweet one moment and then bitter the next moment. The tongue can be encouraging one moment and then destructive the next day. He's saying that ought not to be. We can't simply discipline our mouths without allowing God to do a work on our hearts.

Because the mouth reveals what's in the heart. And that's the point. The Christian life is not simply try harder to speak better. That doesn't work. The truth of the matter is to surrender my heart more completely to Christ. Because my tongue just lets me know that my heart isn't aligned with the agenda of Christ as it ought to be. If I'm out of sorts with him, it'll come out in what I say.

So then when I say the wrong thing, I need to stop. "Oh, there's a problem. The problem isn't in my mouth. The problem is deeper; it's in my heart." I have to examine my heart before the Lord and repent in my heart. Because when God changes the heart, he begins to change the speech. James isn't saying Christians will never fail with their words. He's saying that a lifestyle of blessing God while habitually tearing down people is inconsistent with genuine Christian faith.

I can't say that and have it be true. The third thing, you look at verses 11 and 12. He says, "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?" You may have a translation that says sweet and bitter. The word bitter is found at the beginning. When it says salt water at the end, it's the same word bitter, pikros. He says, "Does it send out both fresh and bitter water, or salty water? Can a fig tree, my brother, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh."

No, it doesn't happen. What are you saying, James? Well, I'll tell you what he's saying. I'm going to keep my promise to Bert. I said to him, "Bert, I'm going to introduce a new word: Bert-ism." James uses a Bert-ism. What's a Bert-ism? A Bert-ism is simply something that comes in threes. James uses three illustrations, so when I think of the number three, I think of Bert.

I think of Bert, I think of the number three, like Sesame Street: brought to you by the letter B and the number three. Maybe I should change Paula's nickname to Ernie. No, I would never do that. But he uses these three illustrations. A fountain, you know the fountain produces just according to the source. What comes out is nothing other than what's in there. That makes sense.

A fig tree produces according to its nature. If it's a fig tree, the only thing you're ever going to get from a fig tree are figs. It's not possible for a fig tree to produce anything other than figs. It's not its nature to produce apples, oranges, or grapes. A salt spring shows us that what comes out simply reveals what's inside. That's a simple point; that's all he's saying.

He says, "Listen, if you look at what comes out of the mouth, then you know what's going on with the source." The problem isn't the words; the problem is the heart that produces the words. The words simply reveal what's going on in the heart. That's why David says that the tongue is a daily reminder to purify my heart. That's how it is. So, if I'm going to be any good at this, the tongue has to be surrendered to God.

I've got to give my heart to him in order to change my speech, change my tongue. Heart transformation happens when I decide to do just a few things. I won't say how many. Number one, ask God to examine my heart. You don't have to have courage; just ask him. "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. You know what's going on with me. Point out anything in me that offends you."

Because ultimately it's not about you; it's about him. If I please him, I'm not going to offend you, unless you are out of sorts with him. Understand that. If you get offended because I share something that God says, then you don't have a problem with me; you have a problem with God. You've got to take that up with him. But now if I'm being vitriolic and mean-spirited and insulting, I can't do that in the name of Jesus. So, if I'm offending you, Lord, in what I say, point it out and then lead me along the path of everlasting life.

I told you before, my beloved and I, as we pray together each week, she's praying and she's asking for forgiveness of sins and all this stuff, for cleansing. One day she says to me, "You know, you don't ever ask for forgiveness of sins." This is the truth of the matter, and this is what I told her. I said I do, it's just that I practice the presence of God. Which means I realize that God is with me everywhere I go, watching, weighing, recording every word, every thought, every attitude, every action.

If I say, do, or think something that's not right with God, I don't wait; I confess it right away. So I keep short accounts with God. By the time we sit down together, if there's been anything, it's been confessed and repented of before we get together to pray. And that's how I try to live my life. I mean, I make mistakes all the time. I say things that should not be said occasionally, all the time.

But then I confess my sin because I don't ever want to be out of fellowship with him. I want to keep short accounts. So I say, "Lord, point out to me what offends you so I can confess that and get cleansing and get forgiveness, because I don't want to be out of sorts with you. Because then I'll be really out of sorts with people, and I don't want that."

Number two, not only ask God to examine my heart, but ask God to guard my mouth. "Lord, I need you to guard my mouth." I love it when the Psalmist says, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. You do it. Keep watch over the door of my lips." Just watch over me. I told you before, Irvin Whitaker, when he was here, I was early into my Christian faith. Irvin was sitting there, well, we were at Glenwood at the time, but he was sitting on that side, left side, sitting there by himself being quiet. Irvin was always quiet.

I was talking to him before service, and he was saying, "Well, yeah, I don't have a lot to say. The Lord put the bit in my mouth." What does that mean? He said, "Well, Lord's teaching me I don't have to say a whole lot." As I began to read the scriptures, when it says, "In the multitude of words there lacketh not sin," the more you say, the more you increase the odds you're going to say something you shouldn't have said.

Irvin was smart; he was right about that. He who has knowledge spares his words; he doesn't say a lot. In fact, the more you keep your mouth shut, the writer of Proverbs says, people look at you and they say, "I think he's kind of wise." It's better to have people assume that you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. You just keep your mouth shut, people think you're smart, they think you're wise and you haven't said the wrong thing.

I need this. "Lord, just set a guard over my mouth. I don't need to talk all the time. I don't need to say the wrong thing. I don't need to be the one. I don't need to be the life of the party. I just need to be like you." Every word of God, the scripture says, is perfect. God measures his words for impact, and he only says the words that would accomplish the purposes that he has in mind. And that's all he says. That's why a lot of things that you wonder about in scripture don't say anything about; you don't need to know about that. Ain't your business.

Anyway, let's move on. Number three, James says this before in verse 19 of Chapter 1, "Think before you speak." Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters, you must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. That little red wagon always wants to run down the road and make a lot of racket. But it doesn't need to. I need to restrain my speech and I need to think before I speak.

Sometimes my wife and I are having a conversation, and you know, I have a tendency to speak low because I look down and then I'll say a few words and she'll say, "What did you say?" I do it deliberately, because sometimes I want to hear what I said before I say it. I'm serious, because sometimes when you say it and you hear it, you say, "Man, that don't need to be said." So when she says, "What did you say?" I'll say, "Nothing."

"You did say something." "Yeah, I did say something but it doesn't need to be repeated. I need to stay out of trouble." So you just need to think about it before you say it. If I thought about it, I wouldn't even get the words out. But I get the words out low so I have time to think about the impact before I have to take them back. They say, "Make your words short and sweet because you may have to eat them."

Number four, the tongue must be surrendered to God, so I need to use my tongue to build up and not destroy. I want to be able to use it to lift people up, not tear them down. God didn't give me a mouth to trash you. He gave me a mouth to be an instrument of blessing from him to you. So why would I use my mouth in other ways? In Ephesians 4, it says this, you know the verses: "Don't use foul or abusive language."

That's why you have to hold the remote in your hand when you're watching streaming shows, because you have to mute every third word, it seems. The TV will curse you out. The streaming platforms are horrible. Don't use foul or abusive language. Don't say either, "You make me curse." No, I didn't. There were no curse words in there, there wouldn't be no curse words coming out. So don't blame it on me.

Let me move on from there. You are not to use foul or abusive language, and the only way I know to not ever use foul or abusive language is not to have foul or abusive language harboring in your heart. So it can't come out because it's not in there. "Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them."

I told you Mike Benton and I, doing the "good report" thing, and if we say anything bad about anybody at any place, no matter where we are, if you say something that's a bad report, you've got to stop right there, bow your head, and ask forgiveness. We were on the elevator going down in the department store and I said something about this guy, and Mike said, "Oops, that's a bad report." There were like four other people on the elevator and he was looking at me.

"Father, please forgive me for what I said." It's embarrassing. But I tell you what, if you make the rule, no bad reports, it'll guard your speech. That "good report club," at first it was hard, but after a while it got to the point where it wasn't so bad because I was conscious, more conscious of the things that I said. "Get rid of bitterness and rage and anger and harsh words and slander." Get rid of harsh words and slander; it ought not to come out of my mouth. As well as all of that other stuff, instead be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

I want my tongue to be a welcome wagon. So, I put down seven "welcome wagons." My tongue should be an instrument of these seven things: Praise. I ought to praise God and praise you for the things that you do. In fact, I ought to look for things that you do well so I can give you some praise. Find reasons to praise you. I don't mean make up lies, but I mean find something that you did and then give a word of praise.

Or I like side-door praise. This is where you do it, and then I come over here and I tell this person how much I appreciate what you did. Why do I do it that way? Because if I come to you and give you praise, you say, "Okay, what do you want?" Because you impute my motive. But I tell this person, and then when this person comes along and says, "Did you know Ray said this about you?" "He did?" "Yeah." That's giving you a side-door praise; that's a lot better because I'm not doing it trying to butter you up. I'm saying it from the heart.

Praise, and then prayer. Using my tongue to lift up other people before the Lord. That's a good use of my tongue. Then evangelism, telling people the good news of the gospel. People are lost, they're under the judgment of God, and yet, he has given us the solution. It's good news, and I can be a bearer of good news instead of a harbinger of judgment. "You're going to hell and burn." No, God loves you.

He don't want you, I mean, he's a just God, he must punish sin, but he made provision for you to be forgiven. Aren't you glad for that? Then encouragement. You can do it. I believe in the Lord's ability to use you. Sometimes I may not believe in you because you might need some help, but the Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we're able to ask or think. So, I believe that God will use you to get this done, and I'm praying for you that God will strengthen you to get it done. See, that's an accurate prayer.

Wisdom. That means use God's word, because my thoughts aren't always worth much. But God's word is always worth a lot, and it works, always. Speak truth. Don't lie because I don't think they're ready for the truth. What does that mean? Tell the truth, always. Then use your tongue to reconcile people. Get the warring parties together and say, "You know what? God loves each of us. We don't have to be like this. Why are you guys like this? Come on, let's talk this out. Let's pray this out."

You know, when there were ladies or young ladies in the youth group who didn't get along, I took them aside and said, "Listen, y'all are arguing and fussing. Let's hold hands, let's pray." And we prayed together, and I prayed that God would strengthen them to walk in love. Then this one prayed and said, "Lord, forgive me for what I said and for my attitude." Then this one said, "Well, Lord, forgive me too," and then they hugged each other. That's what God wants. So you don't use your words to say, "You know, y'all need to be shot." No, you say, "Well, hey, you know what? We can do better."

All I'm saying is that the tongue must be surrendered to God. One last thing, number five: let my speech point people to Christ. I should use my tongue to tell other people about the goodness of God. I mean, what else is there? My time's gone. What does God want me to know? What does he want me to feel? What does he want me to do? Let me just mention a couple of things. James asks a simple question: Who controls your tongue? If you can't do it, you can't tame your tongue. If it's a wagon making a bunch of racket, you know that God doesn't have control, because the fruit of the spirit is self-control.

James says this, the summary of verses 1 through 12: your tongue can be a bit that directs, it can be a rudder that determines direction, it can be a fire that destroys, it can be a poison that wounds, it can be a fountain that reveals what's inside. The tongue is not merely a speech problem; it's a heart problem. The answer is not just better vocabulary or greater self-control or learning to be quiet, although all of those are helpful. The ultimate answer is Jesus Christ transforming my heart so that my heart is filled with praise.

The last thing that I have to say to you: our words have tremendous power. Our tongues are naturally difficult to control, and only a heart surrendered to Christ can consistently produce speech that honors God and blesses others. That worship and work, only Christ can pull that off. I need to surrender my tongue to him, surrender my heart to him so that my tongue is disciplined.

In 1866, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. He developed the explosive power of nitroglycerin in stick form so that it could be of great benefit to mankind. They began to use dynamite to clear debris from the building of roads and for the building of roads and bridges. The power of dynamite had the ability to improve the convenience and progress and livelihood of mankind. That's what he had in mind. But soon nations discovered how to use it for war.

That same dynamite that was created to build society could also be used to destroy life by bombing an enemy. Alfred Nobel was so impacted by the negative use of dynamite that before he died, he bequeathed his entire, his vast fortune to the establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't want his legacy to be connected to destruction; he wanted it to be connected to peace.

Our tongues, the enemy wants to use it to do a lot of damage. But I don't want to devote my tongue to harming others; I want to devote my tongue to peace. So I want the Lord to have control of my tongue. Dr. Evans, in one of his statements, he talks about the mouth and he says, "You've got dynamite in your dentures." That's just a way of saying I need to let the Lord control my tongue.

Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for your love for us. It's because you love us that you give us the wherewithal to surrender our tongues to you. Father, there are so many good things that could come about if we use our tongues the way you prescribed. Your spirit can use the tongue to produce love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

Your spirit can allow us to build up other people, and people will be so encouraged and thankful for us because of the speech that comes out of our fountains. But for that to happen, our hearts have to be fully yielded to you. I pray today, strengthen me, strengthen us. May our hearts be fully yielded to you. I pray for anyone who may be here today who has not come to a settled recognition of the fact that Jesus Christ needs to have control of every area of their life.

They've never bowed the knee of their hearts to surrender to him. I pray that today would be the day that they do so. And I pray, Father, that as you take control of their hearts and each of our hearts, the end result will be blessings and peace and purpose. May we find meaning in the way that our tongues are used because they're used for your honor and glory. We ask in Jesus's name and for his sake. Amen.