Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / 17.11 - James 3:1-12 - The Power and Danger of Your Words

Transcript

17.11 - James 3:1-12 - The Power and Danger of Your Words · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
• 0:03
  podcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
• 0:08
  We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in
• 0:11
  his word, and show his love to others.
• 0:14
  Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
• 0:16
  Today we are in James chapter 3 and verses one through 12.
• 0:21
  James three one through 12, and I'm going to call this episode
• 0:27
  The Power and Danger of Your Words.
• 0:31
  The Power and danger of Your words.
• 0:36
  Now, James is pastor of the Church of Jerusalem.
• 0:39
  He's writing to people that were once a part of his local
• 0:42
  congregation that are now scattered all across the Roman
• 0:45
  Empire because of persecution. And he gives them a very solemn
• 0:51
  statement and command right at the beginning of this next unit
• 0:56
  of thought, this next chapter that we have now, he's going to
• 0:59
  go on to talk about all sorts of other things related to our
• 1:03
  speech and our words. But he starts it off in verse #1
• 1:06
  by saying this. Not many should become teachers,
• 1:10
  my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter
• 1:16
  judgment. I'm going to stop there first
• 1:20
  and foremost because then the rest of the passage deals with
• 1:23
  our speech more broadly. But here he brings one specific
• 1:28
  application of the truth that he's going to talk about.
• 1:31
  And it's this here, not every believer, not every person is
• 1:38
  called to become a teacher within a local church, within a
• 1:43
  local church. It's not even just the people
• 1:46
  that volunteer to be teachers that should be teachers.
• 1:51
  Those that would teach within a local church, whether that is
• 1:55
  the, you know, pastor, the one that's bringing messages,
• 1:59
  whether that is the elders at large for whom one of the
• 2:04
  initial commands is that they be able to teach, whether in public
• 2:10
  or in private settings. And whether that's even, you
• 2:13
  know, those that are instructing the young kids or teens.
• 2:19
  Everyone that is going to teach the word of God has to reckon
• 2:23
  with this incredible truth. He says not many of you should
• 2:28
  become teachers. Now we might go, OK, well, that
• 2:31
  seems kind of odd. Shouldn't all of us be teaching
• 2:33
  the word of God? All of us can teach the Word of
• 2:37
  God, but not all of us should become teachers.
• 2:41
  That is specifically because of what James says.
• 2:44
  Because you know that we will receive a stricter judgement for
• 2:50
  those people that tell other believers or that tell an
• 2:55
  unbelieving world or unbelieving people in an in an audience or
• 3:00
  in a congregation or in a classroom.
• 3:04
  There is a judgement for our words and our speech as teachers
• 3:11
  and God will hold you accountable for how you speak
• 3:15
  and communicate. Whether you told the truth,
• 3:18
  whether you said things that just benefited you.
• 3:21
  And we're not caring for other people, but instead we're just
• 3:26
  looking out for your own self-interest.
• 3:28
  If you said things that, you know, financially benefited you
• 3:33
  and we're not caring about, you know, other people's state.
• 3:36
  I think about some of the prosperity gospel preachers and
• 3:39
  those that, you know, fleece believing, trusting people
• 3:46
  because they want, you know, a second private jet or whatever.
• 3:50
  We should not be those people. We should not be the people that
• 3:52
  spread false doctrine. I was reading just earlier
• 3:56
  today, I was looking at the the catechism of a particularly
• 4:02
  large kind of the largest group that would call itself a
• 4:05
  Christian in the world. And in their catechism, they
• 4:09
  have a statement that says that you have to partake in the
• 4:13
  sacraments in order to have salvation.
• 4:17
  That if you don't get baptized as a baby, if you do not partake
• 4:25
  in the Lord's Supper every single week, you will not be
• 4:30
  saved. And that your salvation is
• 4:33
  accomplished through your working of the sacraments.
• 4:39
  Things like that. It receives a judgment for those
• 4:42
  that would say, OK, well, I know the Bible says this and this and
• 4:45
  this about sexuality and what we do with our bodies.
• 4:50
  But I think, you know, just love is love and we're, we're fine no
• 4:54
  matter what we do so long as we just really truly love the
• 4:57
  person that we are with. In all of these instances, there
• 5:03
  is a strict judgement that is coming for those teachers.
• 5:08
  For myself, I know that I'm going to give an account, number
• 5:12
  one, for how myself and our elders at our church, for how we
• 5:18
  led the church. Hebrews 1317 tells us that that
• 5:21
  God is going to, if you will, He's going to ask us on on our
• 5:27
  day at the judgement seat of Christ, what did you do with
• 5:31
  Tabernacle? Not only that, but we're told
• 5:34
  from Jesus that we will give an account of every idol or useless
• 5:38
  word that we said. And so even as I've done now a
• 5:42
  couple 100 episodes of Tabernacle talk, I do so with a
• 5:46
  consistent recognition of kind of fear and trembling going,
• 5:51
  God, would you please help what I say to be what you want me to
• 5:56
  say? Because if I just say things for
• 6:00
  me, if I say things to toe a particular line and I don't say
• 6:05
  things because God says it, I'm going to be in trouble on that
• 6:09
  day. And I don't want that.
• 6:11
  I want to be able to stand before the Lord and say, yes, I,
• 6:16
  I had times I failed. I had times that I did not say
• 6:19
  everything that I needed to or I said more than I needed to.
• 6:23
  But Lord, I, I attempted my best in the power of the Holy Spirit
• 6:27
  to be faithful in what I was doing.
• 6:29
  I want to be able to say that now here's then where James
• 6:35
  turns. So that's the initial
• 6:39
  application that he gives. There is going to be a stricter
• 6:43
  judgment for those that are teachers.
• 6:46
  So as a pastor, this means that I do not want to just throw
• 6:50
  anyone into a teaching position at Tabernacle.
• 6:54
  Whether that is in a Sunday school class, whether that's in
• 6:58
  a teen class, whether that's in even a kids class is important.
• 7:02
  And it's important because I don't want to throw people into,
• 7:07
  as the King James would have it, knowing that we shall receive a
• 7:10
  greater condemnation. I don't want to throw anyone
• 7:15
  into greater condemnation as a result of their errant or
• 7:20
  wayward or in some cases, predatory teaching of others.
• 7:25
  And it's why you watch closely a person's life and you only place
• 7:29
  into leadership those people that you can see, yeah, they're
• 7:33
  living it. It's real in them.
• 7:35
  And those are the people that should be teachers, the ones
• 7:38
  that are true livers, that you can see their faith being lived
• 7:43
  out through their works. Those are the kinds of people
• 7:46
  that should be teaching. All right, So that's the
• 7:50
  application that James gives. Now hears the whole body of why
• 7:55
  we would say there's power in your there's power and danger in
• 8:00
  your words verse #2 for we all stumble in many ways.
• 8:06
  If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able
• 8:11
  also to control the whole body. The person that does not sin
• 8:17
  with their speech, that is a mature, that's a complete
• 8:20
  person, and they're actually able to deal with every aspect
• 8:25
  of their life because they have they've matured in the hardest
• 8:31
  portion to control, which is your speech.
• 8:35
  Verse #3 Now if we put bits in the mouths of horses so that
• 8:40
  they obey us, we direct their whole bodies.
• 8:43
  You know, you, you pull to the right on you know the, the bit
• 8:47
  and the harness and, and the horse will go to the right, or
• 8:50
  you pull left and the horse will go left, or you pull back and
• 8:52
  the horse stops, or you know, you do the thing and they go
• 8:56
  forward. And it's the whole horse is
• 9:00
  controlled by this little itty bitty bit.
• 9:02
  Verse #4 And consider ships. Though very large and driven by
• 9:07
  fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the
• 9:11
  will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a
• 9:16
  small part of the body, it boasts great things.
• 9:21
  Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest.
• 9:27
  I went to College in California and it would happen almost every
• 9:33
  year, sometimes a couple different times a year, that
• 9:36
  there are incredible forests in California.
• 9:40
  However, when you have even one small area or one tree that gets
• 9:46
  lit on fire, or that someone you know forgets to put out a
• 9:50
  campfire or someone you know throws a cigarette butt or
• 9:53
  something and it falls into a pile of leaves, you can have
• 9:58
  literally 10s of thousands of acres.
• 10:03
  I I think that's probably on the low end.
• 10:05
  You can have so much that is destroyed by a tiny little spark
• 10:11
  and verse #6 James says. And the tongue is a fire.
• 10:17
  The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among
• 10:22
  our members. It stains the whole body, sets
• 10:26
  the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
• 10:32
  Here I think James is doing, he's doing two things here.
• 10:36
  Number one, I think he's talking about our physical body.
• 10:39
  That would be the the primary application here, that the
• 10:41
  tongue is set amongst all of our body parts, that the members of
• 10:47
  our body and the tongue can get you into big trouble.
• 10:53
  If I insult someone at a bar with my tongue, they're not just
• 10:58
  going to, you know, attack my tongue, they're going to punch
• 11:00
  my face. You know, they're they're going
• 11:03
  to grab my arm. They're going to, you know, you
• 11:05
  might have a bouncer or something that grabs all of me
• 11:08
  and, you know, trucks me outside.
• 11:10
  All of my knowledge of, of bars and bouncers is pretty much just
• 11:13
  taken from old pirate movies where they get thrown into the
• 11:16
  pig pen. So I don't think that's how it
• 11:17
  actually works. If you have been kicked out of a
• 11:21
  bar, I guess you can message me or comment on Facebook or
• 11:25
  YouTube and and you can tell me how it really goes down
• 11:29
  nowadays. I've, I've just got just watch
• 11:32
  Pirates of the Caribbean, the first one with my wife the other
• 11:34
  day. And so that that's what I have
• 11:36
  in my mind, that your whole body is affected by what your mouth
• 11:40
  says and your, your tongue, your, your mouth, your words,
• 11:46
  your speech, your tone, the the words that you use is one of the
• 11:53
  areas that Satan has so corrupted and used.
• 11:59
  It is the gateway from our inner person to the outside world.
• 12:05
  And what we have on the inside is a sin nature that we're
• 12:09
  dealing with before Christ, that has total sway and total hold
• 12:15
  after Christ, an old sin nature that is dead and defeated but
• 12:19
  still wants to be in control. And so you have to beware of
• 12:24
  your mouth, of the words that you say, of the tone that you
• 12:29
  use. Even in today's day and age,
• 12:32
  even more so than back when James wrote this, you have to be
• 12:36
  aware of your thumbs, of your fingers, that what you text to
• 12:41
  others, what you type to others, that it would be honoring and
• 12:45
  glorifying to God and you would not be spreading death and hurt
• 12:51
  and devastation. Maligning, vulgarity,
• 12:56
  complaining, gossip, arguing, all of these things that are bad
• 13:01
  things for our mouth, that lying, all of these bad things
• 13:04
  for our mouth to do that we would not allow it to leave our
• 13:09
  lips or to leave our fingers on on our devices.
• 13:14
  That we would choose to not let the fire out.
• 13:21
  I think I'll say it here. Fire is a great thing in a
• 13:27
  fireplace. Fire is a great thing in the
• 13:31
  engine of a train. Fire is a great thing in a
• 13:36
  candle. But you take that same fire and
• 13:40
  you put it in the living room. You take that fire and you put
• 13:44
  it in, you know, the the bathroom or the bedroom or the
• 13:48
  kitchen and it lights on fire. Fire is no longer good.
• 13:52
  Your speech and your words, they, they have a place, but
• 13:56
  their place is not everywhere at all times.
• 14:00
  You have to be careful about what you say, when you say it,
• 14:04
  who you say it to, and how you say it.
• 14:08
  I've heard one phrase and, and I think this might be kind of a
• 14:10
  spinoff of one of the proverbs. It's, it's not what proverbs
• 14:14
  directly says. So it's better to shut your
• 14:17
  mouth and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all
• 14:21
  doubt. Better to shut your mouth and be
• 14:24
  thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
• 14:29
  Verse #7 James says this. Every kind of animal, bird,
• 14:32
  reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but
• 14:37
  no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of
• 14:42
  deadly poison. The tongue is one of the hardest
• 14:47
  things in the world to get under control.
• 14:51
  Verse #9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and
• 14:56
  with it we curse people who are made in God's likeness.
• 15:00
  Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth.
• 15:04
  My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.
• 15:08
  Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same
• 15:12
  opening? Can a fig tree produce olives,
• 15:15
  my brothers and sisters, or a Grapevine produce figs?
• 15:20
  Neither can a salt water spring yield fresh water?
• 15:26
  Here James gets right down to it.
• 15:28
  He says, if we're going to say that we are Christians, then we
• 15:32
  need to back it up through our words that we should not with
• 15:36
  the same mouth be going like, Oh yes, I, I can't actually sing
• 15:40
  any songs on here. I think otherwise I'm going to
• 15:43
  get copyright strikes or whatever.
• 15:45
  But but we could be singing holy forever.
• 15:47
  We could be singing holy, holy, holy.
• 15:50
  We could sing I could sing of your love forever.
• 15:53
  And then immediately after church or after the song during
• 15:58
  a greeting time, we can go and we can be complaining to someone
• 16:00
  else about Oh, well, I really wish you would have done this
• 16:04
  instead. And Oh, I, I missed out on this
• 16:08
  thing. And so I'm really, really going
• 16:09
  to let you have it right now, Unfortunately, as a pastor, I
• 16:12
  can say as I, you know, over the last year and a half, you know,
• 16:19
  through leading the church, especially being at the, the
• 16:22
  front of the sanctuary every week.
• 16:25
  That's one of the saddest things that I see as a pastor is
• 16:28
  people, they will, well, a lot of times the people complaining
• 16:33
  or the people using their, their mouth not for good in a, in a
• 16:37
  worship service, they are silent and, and they've got their mouth
• 16:41
  shut when it comes time for the singing and the praise of God.
• 16:44
  But as soon as you know, you have a time of greeting, a time
• 16:48
  when they're kind of let loose, then they're be lining it
• 16:51
  towards someone they've got a problem with.
• 16:52
  And they're really going to let him know all of the things that
• 16:55
  they wish that they would change about this other person.
• 16:58
  And man, that breaks my heart as a pastor to see that.
• 17:03
  And I, I echo James, cry here. Let's not be double tongued.
• 17:09
  Let's not use our mouth both to like passingly praise God and
• 17:15
  then to deride and demean and malign and spread gossip, all of
• 17:20
  those things towards other people.
• 17:22
  Instead, let's build everyone up.
• 17:26
  It is so easy to be a blessing to others.
• 17:30
  It's so easy to use your words for good.
• 17:35
  So can I encourage you today? You have power in your mouth, in
• 17:40
  your fingertips to be able to encourage someone else.
• 17:45
  You can. You can literally make this week
• 17:50
  for someone else an amazing week.
• 17:54
  Do you know what it would mean to someone else to hear you to
• 17:59
  to hear you speak some good words over them?
• 18:02
  To encourage them? To let them know that you are
• 18:04
  praying for them? To let them know the ways that
• 18:08
  you see God working in their life and that you are cheering
• 18:11
  them on and that you want them to continue in?
• 18:15
  Do you know what it would mean to receive a text from someone
• 18:19
  else going like, hey, I know you're really going through it
• 18:22
  right now, but I want you to know like, you've got this and
• 18:25
  God is for you and the Holy Spirit is in you and your church
• 18:28
  family is around you and I am for you.
• 18:31
  And you can do this, man. That can give some energy,
• 18:35
  energy to some people. Earlier today I was texting, I,
• 18:40
  I was texting a couple pastors, a couple elders in, in my area
• 18:45
  at another local church. And I just let him know, Hey,
• 18:47
  I'm praying for you both today. I'm praying that God would
• 18:51
  protect you, that he would bless you, that he would guide you
• 18:55
  and, and, and that he would equip you.
• 18:58
  Love you guys. And it, it was just short.
• 19:01
  It didn't take more than like 30 seconds of my time, but I know
• 19:06
  that it was an encouragement to those pastors because I know the
• 19:08
  times that I've received stuff like that, man, I can go take on
• 19:11
  the world for at least, you know, 30 minutes to, you know, 3
• 19:16
  hours. I, I can be like, yeah, I, I got
• 19:18
  some more pep in my step because I've been encouraged.
• 19:21
  And man, what a joy it is when God's people use his mouth for
• 19:27
  his purpose. Because here's the truth, if you
• 19:30
  are a Christian, if you profess to be a believer in Jesus, your
• 19:33
  mouth doesn't belong to you, it belongs to Jesus.
• 19:37
  Which means use it for the same things that Jesus used his mouth
• 19:41
  for. Encourage, bless, speak the
• 19:44
  words of God, pray over, motivate and and encourage and
• 19:49
  exhort others with your words if you can't find whatever
• 19:55
  complaint you have with someone else.
• 19:57
  If you can't find it in the word of God.
• 20:00
  Shut your mouth. I and I, and I say that lovingly
• 20:05
  for this reason, because I need this.
• 20:07
  Goodness knows I need it. Sometimes I get all up in my own
• 20:11
  I, I get in my own way because I want to live the life that Jesus
• 20:15
  wants me to live. I don't want to live Brian's
• 20:17
  life. Brian didn't die for me.
• 20:19
  Jesus died for me and I, and so I need to live Jesus's life.
• 20:22
  This is Galatians 220. I'm going to have to pull up
• 20:26
  that verse real quick because my memory is failing me, but I'm
• 20:29
  going to pull this up real quick.
• 20:30
  There's a great verse, the apostle Paul writing.
• 20:33
  He says this, I have been crucified with Christ and I no
• 20:38
  longer live, but Christ lives in me.
• 20:41
  The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of
• 20:46
  God who loved me and who gave himself for me.
• 20:51
  I don't belong to myself anymore.
• 20:53
  I belong to the Lord. And if I belong to the Lord,
• 20:56
  then that means that I can take some hits.
• 20:59
  Jesus went through so many hardships in his life and yet he
• 21:01
  wasn't complaining about his hardships.
• 21:04
  He was speaking the words of God to others.
• 21:07
  And so when I, I'm at a restaurant and, and I, I can
• 21:11
  have two choices. When a waitress gets my order
• 21:14
  wrong or when a waiter, you know, is, is taking a while to
• 21:18
  get to my table. I can either get an attitude and
• 21:21
  be all huffy and I can be like, listen, you need to this and
• 21:23
  this and that, or I can realize I am in the place of Jesus right
• 21:29
  now. Jesus lives in me and he would
• 21:32
  want this waiter or this waitress to experience his love
• 21:37
  and care and he would want them in some way to hear about the
• 21:41
  gospel or where a group of believers is that would love to
• 21:45
  have this waiter or waitress join them sometime.
• 21:48
  And so I'm going to, even in a restaurant, use my words and my
• 21:53
  tone to speak the words of God. I'm going to speak
• 21:58
  encouragement. I'm going to be kind.
• 22:00
  I'm going to ask what I can pray for.
• 22:02
  I'm going to say, hey, I would love to have you come to my
• 22:04
  church. OK.
• 22:05
  Do I have a right to get extra Pickles on my sandwich?
• 22:09
  Absolutely. I have a right.
• 22:10
  But I'll give up my rights if it means that I can be the voice of
• 22:14
  Jesus for another person. Thanks for tuning in today.
• 22:19
  I know I got a little impassioned here.
• 22:20
  I had some coffee right before this.
• 22:22
  And so I feel, I feel energized about this.
• 22:24
  This is something that I'm passionate about.
• 22:26
  May we use Jesus's mouth to speak the words of Jesus.
• 22:32
  May we say things in the tone that he would say it with the
• 22:35
  words that he would say it. May we give up our rights so
• 22:38
  that we may forward the message of Jesus.
• 22:41
  Thanks for tuning in. Have a wonderful day.