Well, this morning we return after a four-month hiatus to the letter of James. You'll find that between the book of Hebrews and the first letter of Peter. Toward the back of your Bible, in the Pew Bible, it's on page 1290. James, we'll turn to chapter 3. And we want to remember that throughout this letter, James is focused on the Christian life. the visible evidence of our invisible relationship to Jesus Christ, our Lord, through faith. James affirms the gospel of salvation. He doesn't present it front and center much like Paul does, but he affirms it that by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we're saved. But he's eager to have our saving faith find expression in how we live. From the start, James says that the Christian life is and will always be filled with trials. that God will use to reveal the faith He gives us, to refine that faith and to perfect us, to sanctify us more and more. Through them, God produces the patient endurance that we need to keep us going when the going gets tough. To strengthen our desire and to empower our resolve to more and more practice what we say we believe, even when we don't feel like it. And James does not want us to underestimate or neglect the great salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus. In Him, we're not already, not only already justified, made right with God forever. We're also being sanctified. Made more willing and able to be doers of this Word, not just hearers. More and more willing and able to speak and to act in fulfillment of the law to love our neighbor as ourselves. That's James' concern all the way through this letter. And today we turn to James chapter 3 where James gives his attention to what it means to so speak in a way as to fulfill that royal law, to show love for our neighbor by giving us just cause to mind our tongues, to pay attention to it, to be on guard against it because it is a very real danger. So we will read from James chapter 3, beginning at verse 1 through verse 12. Hear now the word of God. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 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. 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. 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. With it 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 salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Therein is the reading of God's Word. Today, and as we consider these words from James, this word of God, we will consider why we must mind our tongues. And we'll do so under three points. First of all, it's a lifelong responsibility that we all share. It's a lifelong responsibility, verses 1 and 2. Secondly, it requires our constant attention, verses 3 through 6. And thirdly, it humbles us to continually seek grace, verses 7 to 12. It's our lifelong responsibility, it requires our constant attention, it humbles us to continually seek grace. Well, James is taking us on a one-way ride to the end of ourselves. It's not pretty. It's not comfortable. but it will lead us to look to the light at the end of the tunnel, which is Jesus Christ, our Savior. The only assurances we find in this text that this is for God's people is the reference to my brothers twice. We have to remember that. James is going to show us things about ourselves that we don't want to see, but we need to know if we're going to live a life that's pleasing to our Lord. And he begins in verses 1 and 2 by reminding us that mining our tongue is a lifelong responsibility. He approaches this indirectly by talking to the preachers first, to the teachers and would-be teachers in the church. He says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Throughout history, teachers have been granted a lot of authority in the communities they work in. And that authority has often been symbolized by a robe. So in James' day, you would see the Jewish scribes in their robes. You would find Greek philosophers in their robes. And we still see robes today that indicate authority to teach. We see them on judges in the courtroom and our professors at graduation and sometimes ministers in the pulpit. These are all symbols of authority to teach. And James says, be careful. You know that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James certainly had in mind the ministers of the Word. He's talking to the church. They and the congregation must be careful about who is granted authority to teach the Scriptures in the church. The words that we use, that they use, affect not only themselves, ourselves, myself, but also the entire congregation. With greater authority comes greater responsibility. And you need to know that your ministers feel that way. This week in particular, talking on this topic. I still have a ways to go and a lot of words to say. And this makes me nervous. But having said this, James is not trying to discourage anyone from teaching who, like himself, has received teaching gifts and has been confirmed by a call from the church to do this, is overseen and accountable. He is, however, echoing Jesus who said that those who are granted this authority but do not attend to the responsibility will receive greater condemnation. And to this sober warning, which all of us can identify with, James intensifies it when he reminds us that we're all sinners, like our teachers. For we all stumble in many ways. he's come to all of us through the preacher but we all stumble in many ways we do not all sin in the same way except for one way a way that is particularly concerned to the teacher and that's because it involves our tongue we all stumble in what we say we all stumble in what we say which is what James says to all of us in verse 2 He says, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. James is not saying that if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect person in the sense that he's sinless. The inability to speak does not keep sinners from sinning. We have to read the rest of the sentence. He says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able also to control or to bridle his whole body. He is a perfect man in the sense that he has become mature in an ability. Mature in a sense of self-control. Mature in a skill that is translatable to other aspects of his life. Douglas Moo, a commentator, explains, So difficult is the mouth to control that the person who has it in control surely has the ability to conquer other, less unruly members of the body. That's James' point. minding the tongue and gaining control of the tongue must be a top priority if we're going to make progress in our sanctification if we're going to make progress in the life that looks like we're Christian and this process of becoming more like Christ this process of sanctification is lifelong therefore the responsibility to mind our tongue is lifelong we will never outgrow it and we'll never leave it behind now in verses 3 through 6 James illustrates why the tongue requires our constant attention not only lifelong but constantly in verses 3 and 4 he calls to mind two of the most powerful things in the ancient world to remind us of the obvious that small objects can be used to control big ones that's his point small things can control big things and he calls to mind the two most powerful things in the ancient world horse-drawn chariots that are mighty for war and are controlled by a bit and wind-driven ships that brave the chaos of the ocean and are controlled with a rudder. Now children, a lot of you may have never ridden a horse. And if you see someone riding a horse, you probably won't see the bit. It's small and it's in the horse's mouth. but it's strapped to the horse's head and it's tied to the reins so the rider can pull the reins and whichever way he pulls, he pulls the bit and the horse turns. And perhaps you've never been on a sailboat. You see them on the ocean when you go to the beach and they sail by, but you don't see the rudder. It's small and it's underwater. The captain can turn his wheel or he can pull his lever and that rudder will turn left or right, port or starboard if you know your terms, and he'll turn that ship. perhaps you'll relate to something a little bit closer to home you ride in the car with your parents and they turn a small wheel to control a big car or you sit on your couch and you push a remote to control your television that's the point something small controls something large and James applies this point in verse 5 to the tongue he says so also the tongue is a small member yet it boasts of great things Phillips, a paraphraser, wrote the human tongue is physically small but what tremendous effects it can boast of the power of speech has been used to raise up nations and make them fall to persuade and to convince to overpower ideas corporations lies. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. The tongue is mightier than the pen. In other words, James would have us not underestimate the power of the tongue. It's small, that's for sure, but it's a controlling member of our body and it requires our constant attention. He explains why by calling to mind something far more powerful and destructive than a herd of horses or a fleet of ships. He calls our attention to fire. He begins with a proverb in verse 5. He says, How great a force to set ablaze by such a small fire. This is a general truth. It's a proverbial statement. Everyone in the world knows and some in this room know from intensely personal experience that it only takes a spark to set the whole landscape ablaze. when fire season is on, we are looking for those sparks. James would have us looking for sparks all the time. It's always fire season in the human heart. And he applies this proverb to the tongue. He says the tongue is a fire. It is that spark. It's wild and it's destructive. And if it's left to itself, or worse yet, it's set with arsonist intents, it will destroy everything in his path. Proverbs 16, 27 says, A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. This image is throughout the Bible, throughout the wisdom literature. The tongue is a fire. And it is not simply a world of unrighteousness, as we read in the ESV. It is the world of unrighteousness in the Greek. Very emphatic. It's the world of unrighteousness. It's the epitome, the ultimate example. It's the sum total of this sinful fallen world packaged into this little thing that is set among our members, he says. It's part of who we are. Mine belongs to me. Yours belongs to you. It's a fire. And if left unattended, or used for sin. It causes destruction in two ways. He goes on to say, first, it stains the whole body. It blemishes your whole character. It blemishes everything about your life. It reveals things about you that you would like to keep hidden. Jesus said, what comes out of the person is what defiles him. What comes out of the mouth? From within, out of the heart of man comes such things as deceit, Slander and foolishness, all verbal sins. But not only does it stain the whole body, it sets on fire the entire course of life. That's as broad as it gets from birth to death, every time in between, every place in between, every relationship in between. There's no part of your life, no season of your life that is safe from the destructive power packaged in your tongue. We have burned one another with words from our youngest days. If we go to a strange culture, what are the first words we usually learn? And there's no aspect of our complicated lives, there's no relationship within which we enter that we will not or have not scorched with our words. There's no other member of the body that can wreak more havoc in the Christian life than the tongue. How is it that this is the case? How can something so small be so destructive? Because, James says, the tongue is a fire that is set on fire by hell. Direct connection. Ever since Adam believed the devil's lie and plunged us all into sin by nature, our inborn nature, we use our tongues like the devil uses his. To lie and to kill. That's his purpose. When the Pharisees opposed Jesus in John chapter 8, Jesus said to them, You are doing the work of your father. You are of your father the devil. And your will is to do your father's will. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. For he is a liar and the father of lies. And James' point is, is that as children of Adam, born in Adam, that's what our tongue is prone to, lies and murder. By nature, we use our tongues to lie and murder, to hurt and destroy in countless ways. I'm just going to pick a handful from the Proverbs, largely. We use smooth talk and flattery to deceive and to get what we want. We use corrupting talk that tears people down rather than building people up. We use gossip to publicize secrets that are not our own. We use slander to destroy reputations. Obscene talk that excites like the activities it describes. Rash words that hurt. faster than we can wish we didn't say them. Each of us have experience with all of these, senders and receivers. And you can think of more, I'm sure. This is not a pretty picture to be reminded of. Brothers and sisters. And so at this point, we need to remember, we need to pause and remember that James is writing to Christians. He's writing to brothers and sisters in the Lord who through faith in Christ have been saved from our sins. Even these sins. And yet we must continue to mind our tongues all the days of our lives. Where does that leave us? What are we to do? With our mouths we confess to believe in Christ and the forgiveness of sins and the new life that we have in him, but in our activities and by our speech in particular, it doesn't look so good. Well, the devil would have us believe one of two lies, both of which will cause us to look at ourselves as the strength to get out of our trouble or the source of our trouble that is beyond all hope. On the one hand, he appeals to our pride so that we grow deaf to our own scorching words. We grow blind to the damage it does. We compare ourselves to others whose speech is clearly much more sinful than ours. We believe our own press about how well we're doing. We neglect our tongues. We don't think they deserve our attention. We're above and beyond all that. On the other hand, the devil will point us to our guilt so that we hear only our scorching words. We fixate on the destruction they cause. We compare ourselves to others who don't seem to struggle like we do. What's wrong with me? They seem to have it all together. We despair at our lack of progress. We should be doing better than this by now. We should be done with this by now. and we're tempted to give up why bother and we can go from one hand to the other hand in a millisecond and back because the devil has us looking at ourselves well in verses 7 through 12 James exposes the devil's lie and our misplaced hope by giving us three reasons the tongue humbles us to continually seek grace outside of ourselves. There's nothing in here to give us hope to conquer this problem. The first reason in verses 7 and 8 is because we cannot tame it ourselves. Now when God created man in His image, He set him over all the creatures of the earth. He gave man dominion over all other creatures, which we in our sinful pride have long boasted means that every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man. That's been going on, that's been being said for millennia. We've domesticated house pets, we've domesticated farm animals, we've trained the king of the jungle and killer whales, and we've housed hundreds of species in our zoos. Surely, we can control our tongue. not so says james no human being contained the tongue not so says jesus i tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak not so says solomon when words are many transgression is not lacking no human being can tame the tongue why? for the second reason in verse 8 because the tongue has a hellish character we've already seen it set on fire by hell here James sets before us the character of our tongue it's hellish it's a restless evil full of deadly poison as a restless evil. It's difficult to control. It's always ready to break out. It's looking for a chance to strike. And with it, we oppose the God of peace. He's purchased our peace with the blood of His Son, who has established peace in His church and longs for and desires for us to be behaving in a decent and good order. But with our tongues, we're in opposition to that. We're restless. the tongue is full of deadly poison that's how often described in the wisdom literature and in the Psalms the tongue is compared to a snake and David does it in Psalm 140 he says they make their tongue wicked man they make their tongue sharp as a serpent and under their lips is the venom of asks the venom of cobras the tongue is full of deadly poison and with it we oppose the living God who sent His Son into this world so that we might have life and have it abundantly. You see the opposition, the hellish character of our tongues. And the third reason in verses 9 through 12 goes much deeper than those two because it exposes to us the truth that the tongue is merely an instrument of our double dealing hearts. Out of the mouth comes things that defile, but those things come from the heart, Jesus says. And so James makes this observation of Christians. It's not that our tongues never speak good. They do. By the grace of God, the redeemed people of God are able to speak good. We're able to speak with love and care and concern. We're able to do those things because the Spirit is at work in us to do them. But our tongues also speak evil. with it we bless our lord and father and with it we curse people made in his image from the same mouth come blessing and cursing that's the point it's a mixed bag with our tongues we bless our lord and father we utter the highest and most noble form of speech there is to praise and honor god we sang it this morning that's the highest honor we have as human beings is to honor our God to sing His praises. It is our created purpose. And with our tongues we curse people. We utter the lowest and most vile speech against them. We declare them cut off from God, set apart from Him, cast into hell, which is what our sin deserves. Not only is this morally wrong, sinful, to bless the divine person, God, and to curse those that bear his image, people. That's not only morally wrong. It's impossible, James says, for such impure speech to come from a pure heart. It can't be. Once again, James illustrates this point with the obvious. He asks the question, does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? No. The nature of the spring determines the type of water that flows. Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? No. The nature of the plant determines what type of fruit grows. Neither can salt pond yield fresh water. It's impossible. The application unstated, which we should certainly have clear, is that neither can a pure heart produce impure speech. James has brought us to the end of the line. To the end of ourselves. We have met the enemy and he is us. Our tongues, more than any other member of our body, serve as lifelong reminders that while we serve the law of God with our minds in our flesh we serve the law of sin the tongue more than any other member of our body reminds us that we live in Romans chapter 7 with Paul the good I want to do I I don't do and the evil I don't want to do I find myself doing we cannot tame it ourselves it must be tamed by another it's inherently hellish it must be vanquished by another it reveals our double dealing hearts that must be purified by another. All we can do is cry out with Paul, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin and death? And all we can do is look to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith. Jesus Christ has tamed the tongue in our place. 1 Peter 2. Peter says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. Christ has tamed the tongue. in our place. Christ has vanquished our hellish foe. Romans 8 and again in Romans 16. There we read, By sending His own Son in His likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, God condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Jesus has vanquished the hellish foe in our flesh, exemplified in the tongue, and he promises in Romans 16, he will soon crush Satan under our feet. Soon this battle will be over. The victory is won. The war still rages. And Christ has perfected our impure hearts. Hebrews chapter 10. When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet, which is the time in which we live. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Did you catch it? He has perfected. He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That's us. Christ has tamed the tongue. Christ has vanquished hell. Christ has perfected our hearts. And so with Paul, when we cry out who will rescue us, we can also cry out thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. we need to remember this reality, brothers and sisters, just as much as we remember the reminder about our tongue. And so, at the end of ourselves, we lift our eyes upon Jesus, we fix them upon Jesus, And we count it all joy that in the power of the Holy Spirit we can press on in this trial with our own tongues. This is a lifelong trial which will produce steadfastness. And we can trust that God is at work in this as we strive to get control to will and to do what is pleasing to Him and that He's molding us to be more and more like Jesus our Savior. We pray to God for wisdom from his word and he gives generously to all who ask giving without reproach and I hope after today as it has done for me that as we read the scripture we realize how present the tongue is how much he has to tell us how much wisdom he has to give and with our eyes fixed upon Jesus we receive grace upon grace through the means of grace that he gives us We come together each week. We gather together as His people because we know we're needy. We need His good news, His gospel of what Jesus has done for us. We need the good news of His gospel that comes to us in the sacraments to strengthen our faith and encourage us in the fight because this fight will go on. And today, tonight, we have the Lord's Supper to be encouraged, to be sustained. And I'm promised by Reverend Gordon that we have a lot of gospel tonight. We need it after this morning. And we pray until the end, as John prayed in Revelation, come, Lord Jesus, deliver us from this misery. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word this morning. A difficult word for us to hear for it reminds us of truth about ourselves that we are prone to forget and not want to consider and not want to remember. Remind us very strikingly that we are sinners and saints, redeemed by the blood of Jesus and yet still tripped up and bound up by the sin of our flesh. And the tongue, this smallest of members, is a constant reminder, Father, that we are dependent not only for our salvation, our justification, but also our sanctification on someone other than ourselves. We're dependent upon Jesus. Help us to see past these hard words to the good news of your provision in Him. Help us to be mindful, to mind our tongues. Help us to grow in grace, to use them in a way that is glorifying to you and loving toward our neighbor. that more and more we would live as those who belong to your household and show evidence to you, to ourselves, and to our neighbors. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.