You can turn in your Bibles or your bulletins to James 3. I couldn't help but think of an incident in my own life as I thought of these hard-to-read, hard-to-hear words of James 3. I've always had a bit of a struggle in my marriage - it's with the issue of time. Luella was raised in Cuba. She has a bit of an island and a Latin view of time; some of you understand. I was raised by a man who thought that the sole litmus test of the value of a human being was punctuality. And there was one Easter morning in the Tripp family; we were attending a church at that point that had decided the best way to celebrate Easter was to have a full breakfast before the service.
An Easter Morning Tradition
I don't know what that has to do with Easter, but it was a tradition. That meant that we would have to leave about an hour and a half early. I woke up with feelings of impossibility. I walked into the bathroom, and Luella was standing there; my nine-year-old son was standing there, and I could tell by the way that Luella was dressed that she was not near being ready. So I began to say "helpful things" to her like informing her that it was not, in fact, an Easter dinner; it was an Easter breakfast...letting her know that a couple of our children were probably already in the car waiting...reminding her that I was an elder in the church, and my arrival before the ham and eggs was very important to my ministry.
About then, my nine-year-old son said, "Daddy, may I say something?" I should've said, "No!" I said, "Sure, you can talk." And he said to me, "Daddy do you really think this is the way that a Christian man should be talking to his wife?" I'm a counselor; I'm good at these conversations. I said, "What do you think?" And this little boy with a sincere faith of a child said, "Daddy, it doesn't make any difference what I think; what does God think?" I slogged my way out of the bathroom being duly chided, got to about the threshold of the door, and he said, "Daddy may I say something else?"
I wanted to say, "No, No, please don't." He said, "What I mean, daddy, is what does the Bible say?" I went into my bedroom, and I had a series of thoughts. The first one was, my pride sort of reared up; I wanted to be a hero to my son. It hurt that he saw through and heard through those words and felt for his mommy. But that didn't last very long. I was overwhelmed with a sense of the love and grace of God. Think about how small this moment is in the Tripp family, just one moment, on one morning, in one room, in one house, on one street, in one city, in one state, in one nation, in one hemisphere, in one place, at one time, on the globe.
And my Lord was in that room, and He cares about the smallest moments of your life. He cares about those. It's an amazing thing. It's hard to imagine grace that present, that magnificent, that active. You see, the reason grace has to be present in those moments is because those little moments happen to be where you live. We live in the most mundane, normal minor of moments. And if that grace can't reach us in those moments, if God doesn't care about this moment, if His Kingdom doesn't have zeal to reign in those moments, we have no hope!
And that's why, as hard as the words are, that you are about to hear, you ought to hear them as words of magnificent love! Because if God didn't care about you, He surely wouldn't care about all those conversations you have every day. How can you pay attention to all of them at once? What magnificent power that is, but He does, and He cares. Remember where we are in James. We're in the second half of James where James is seeking to lay out this new agenda for our lives. His catch phrase is 'the righteous life that God desires' - the paradigm has changed.' And as I will say to you every sermon till we're done with James, it's not any longer a life that's directed by my kingdom purposes, by what I want, and what I feel, and what I've determined I need.
No, it's not that. It's a life that now is in love with God, in love with His purpose, and wants to live at the most practical levels of everyday life, that righteous life to which I have been called. My life is now shaped, not by my desire, but by God's plan - His will, His way for me. Now it's impossible for James to talk about that righteous life at the practical level without talking about our talk. Now, I don't need to know you very well; there's one thing I know about you; you talk; some of us more than others.
We're 'talkish' people. I mean, what is more exciting in the life of a little child than when that child begins to form language? It's such an exciting time because it's so intensely human for that child to talk. And one day he's with his daddy, and he mumbled something, "Mmasweradslflb." His dad says, "I think he said, 'John Calvin!" It was probably just indigestion. But we're hungry for that child to talk because it's such an amazing thing when we can have relationship that is now propelled by words.
The Gift of Speech
It's a wonderful thing; it's an amazing gift; it's God-like in its quality. There is perhaps no moment sadder in all of life than when someone you love falls silent, never to speak another word. Fortunately, God gave my mom a few days, and we all gathered at her bed, and I will never forget that moment when it became very clear that she would speak no more. I wanted to hear her voice again. I wanted her to say, "Paul, I love you." I wanted to finish a thousand unfinished conversations. There's something fundamentally human about this world of talk, and so it's impossible for James to talk about God's claim on our life, God's call to us, this righteous life that He desires for us to live, without looking at this important area.
Look with me at James 3, verse 1, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." It makes sense that as James, in his pastoral way, is thinking about talk, he immediately thinks about those who would want to be teachers. And surely James is reprimanding people that are teaching false doctrine to the people that he's been called to minister to. The chief of those false doctrines in James is a situation where people who were teaching this easy 'believism' faith, this gospel that would say, "Once you believe, you can live however you want because you're in."
And as we've seen James argues, "That's not true faith." So he says to those teachers, "Watch out! Those who teach will be judged with a stricter standard." And then, James moves to this mundane world of talk in which all of us live. Let me read verse 2 for you: For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. (Or verse 7,) For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (ESV) Here's the first thing James wants us to know, this is humbling. There is no greater, more consistent, more penetrating evidence of your and my need of grace than our world of talk. There is nothing that argues for how deep and full my need of present grace - its rescue, its forgiveness, its deliverance, its power - than what comes out of my mouth. Think about it. Would you be quite comfortable with me playing a public recording right now of everything you said last month?
Last week? Yesterday? Today? On the way to the service this evening? It's an incredible thing. And we're going to understand why James would say this, and he speaks with strong words to us. He says, "If you're perfect in your world of talk, in order for you to be perfect, you would have to be an absolutely, completely perfect person." Now here's what I can tell you for sure. Since there are none of those kinds of people in this room, we can say this with surety: somewhere, someplace, for all of us, our world of talk is a world of trouble.
There's not a person in this room somehow, someway, who doesn't struggle with his tongue. And the possibilities are endless in the ways that we can struggle. How about the hasty unthoughtful word, the proud word, the selfish word, the self-serving exaggeration, the sly suggestion, the manipulative flattery, words of anger, words of slander, harmful gossip, innuendo, words of doubt, the competitive words, impure words, rebellious words, self-aggrandizing words, words of condemnation, threats, words that inflict guilt, words that induce shame, thoughtless words, boasting, conflictual words, self-servingly selective stories, words of criticism?
And we could just go on and on and on. It seems like the catalog of possibilities for trouble with our tongue is virtually endless. There are so many mines to step on. It's almost impossible not to step on one every day of your life. And then James says this in verse 7, "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue." You do not have the autonomous power to solve this problem. It is only solved by means of the exercise of transforming grace.
We Cannot Harness Our Tongues
And of all the things that a human being is able to tame, all the animals that we can harness, James says, "The one thing we all demonstrate - our inability to harness is our tongues." Now, these are hard words to hear, and I would encourage you this evening, wrestle with your hearts tonight. Wives, don't sit there and think, "I'm glad my husband is here this evening." Husbands, don't think of the wonderful applications you could make to your wife after the service is over. Parents, don't think of your children.
Friends, don't think of your other friends. Open your heart and say, "This is the mirror of the Word of God; this is describing me." Let God speak into your heart and show you where trouble exists for you in this area. But James speaks further. Not only is the tongue a principal evidence of our deep need for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, he wants to say something else to us, that the tongue has life-shaping and life-altering power. Hear these words, verse 3: If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (ESV) Could the words be any stronger?
James uses these wonderful, again, visual examples, these word picture - a small bit in the mouth of a horse allows him to be directed wherever you want him to go. A rudder, which is small in comparison to the size of the ship, is able to guide that ship wherever the pilot wants it to go. A small spark, as we have seen in great forest fires in America, can set acres upon acres on fire. And then James says, that is exactly the kind of power that God has given you in your ability to communicate. There is a very powerful proverb that says words like this, this is my paraphrase, "Words give life; words bring death; you choose."
What that proverb is saying is you've never spoken a neutral word. Your words always have direction to them. Either your words are moving in a life direction - words of hope, and peace, and reconciliation, and encouragement, and forgiveness, and wisdom, and instruction, and truth. Or, your words are going in a death direction - words of condemnation, and anger, and malice, and slander, and gossip, and criticism, and judgment. Listen, there is no such thing as a healthy human relationship where part of its health isn't wholesome, wonderful, sweet, loving, gracious communication.
And there is no such thing as a bad and broken relationship that part of its brokenness isn't evil words. Now, here's what we need to do with this. We must not back away from the power of the words that we speak. You know that old children's saying that says, "Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but names will never hurt me." Nothing could be further from the truth! Long after physical bruises have healed, wounds of the heart live with power. Parents, think about it, when in a moment of frustration and irritation and exhaustion, you burst into the room of your child, and you say things that those ears should never hear.
What Happens in the Heart of the Child
How can you back away and say, "Well, he knows that I love him." What's happening in the heart of the child in that moment? Is he saying, "Boy this is helpful; I'm so glad this person is in my life; I wish he or she was in my room more; I'm receiving such wisdom at this moment"? Those words encourage and stimulate the very rebellion that you would want to break down. Husbands, when you speak harsh words of criticism toward your wife, does that make her heart want to move toward you? Does that encourage trust of you?
Does it make her want to rest in your love and your leadership? Surely it doesn't! It's impossible to be honest and back away from the life-shaping, life-altering power of the tongue. One of my sad experiences has been to sit with couples, now barely clinging onto a terribly broken marriage. They would sit in my office, and their very posture on my couch would be a picture of what was happening in the relationship. And you could feel the acrimony. You could see the steely glances go between them.
And I would look at that couple, and I would always think, there was a day when they adored one another. There was a day when they longed to be in one another's presence. There was a day when they hung on one another's words, when a phone call would come and they would hear the voice of another person, and love would fill their hearts. And that relationship has been set on fire and burned down with words--words of selfishness and bitterness and anger, words of judgment and criticism, words of condemnation and hopelessness.
There have literally been times in counseling where I would hear the things that a husband and wife would say to one another, and tears would stream down my face - hard to imagine that it had come to this. Brothers and sisters, James is saying, "God has placed in your mouth a powerful gift, and it will influence the course of your life, the character of your relationships." Now here's why we're so able to minimize that - because most of our talk is in little moments. And yet isn't that exactly what James is arguing about, is this very small thing, this seemingly inconsequential thing, this seemingly minor thing that has great ability to set the course of life?
Are you taking seriously the powerful gift that you have been given? Well, if that's not enough, James says one more thing. He wants us to see, look with me at verse 9: With it (that is the tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or grape vine produce figs?
Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (ESV) Now, here's the final point, and this is a very, very important point. It sort of collects those other points and brings them to a very practical place; here it is: James is arguing that your words always reveal the true character and condition of your heart. And he does that again with a physical example. James is in good company, this is exactly what Christ taught. Christ said, "It's out of the heart that the mouth speaks." Christ used the example of a tree, the example we thought about.
You know an apple tree is an apple tree because it has apples, but you instinctively know that that tree is apple-istic all the way down to its roots. If it didn't have apple-ism in its roots, it would not produce apples as fruit. In the same way, your problem, my problem with the tongue, our problem with talk is not a vocabulary problem; it's not a technique problem; it's a heart problem! And what you have James teaching here, and this is important to get, is the principle of organic consistency, the principle of organic consistency: whatever is in your heart will rule your words.
Perhaps Our Hearts Are Not as Pure
There's organic consistency between what is in your heart and what comes out of your mouth. Now here's actually what James is saying, this is very humbling: perhaps our hearts are not as pure as we think they are, because salt water doesn't come from a pure water spring; cursing doesn't come from a heart filled with blessing. Now, I don't want to believe that. I want to believe that my problem with talk exists outside of me, not inside of me. I want to point this way and James says, No, No, No, don't you actually see what's being revealed here?
Your heart, the true character and condition of your heart, is always revealed by the words you speak. You have never spoken a word that is not ruled by your heart. Word problems are heart problems. And here's the issue. In laying claim to every word you would speak, your Messiah is laying claim to every thought, every intention, every desire, every motive of your heart-- He wants your heart! In Ezekiel, the prophet rises and speaks to the Lord, and he says this. "This one thing I will do. I will recapture the hearts of my people to serve me and me alone."
Why does cursing, anger, impatience, bitterness, flow out of our hearts? Because, in our hearts, there is still a war between the kingdom of self and the Kingdom of God, and we need help. You say, "Well, Paul, this has been encouraging." Well, hear these words: you and I do not need to be afraid to look in the mirror of James 3. God puts this mirror in front of you because He loves you, and He wants to rescue you out of the claustrophobic confines of your own little self-defined kingdom to live in the glory and beauty of His Kingdom of goodness and grace.
The place to start is by owning your helplessness. You see, there is a solution here. James says, "No man can tame the tongue," and he's right, but Jesus can. And the hope for us here is found in one word--that word is not an item of vocabulary; that word is not something you would look up in a dictionary; that word is a person, and His name is Jesus. Your struggle with words is found in Jesus, The Word. He came and He lived utterly perfectly. In fact, His perfection is most powerfully demonstrated by His talk.
Never was there deceit found in His mouth; never did He utter a threat; everything He said was perfect in every way. And He lived that perfect life for you and for me. And He went to the cross as the perfect Lamb of God. He suffered and died for you and me so that tonight, March 9, we could be on our knees and say once again, "I need your help; I need your forgiveness; I need your rescue, and I need your grace. I have a heart problem!" And we could do that utterly unafraid, full of hope, full of joy, receiving the love that is offered by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen, you can only be two places: You will minimize and justify your world of talk...or you will look in the mirror of the Word of God, and you will fall down helpless. There's no in between. And as you fall down helpless, you fall into the arms of the Word, and He rescues you from you! Praise Him! Praise Him! There's hope for us; there's hope for this little member that has such power because His grace is sufficient; His strength is made perfect. Where? ...In our weakness. Let's pray: Lord, how humbling, how exposing, how convicting this passage of Scripture is.
How much we have taken this gift as our own. How often we've used it for own purposes. How far we fall beneath Your standard. And yet, we are not hopeless because You 'are,' and You are a God of glorious, transforming grace. I pray for everyone in this room: man, woman, boy, and girl--Oh God, Mark. that we would embrace our need of You and find the help that can only be found in You. In Jesus's name, Amen.
