The Tongue (1); Reflection on James 3

[Singing: "Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on."] Church Jesus' fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] We thank Him for another opportunity again to have our marriage forum, the second edition for the year 2024. In the January edition of it, we were able to look at bitter envy, a common mistake among couples. Today, which is the second edition for the month of February edition, we want to come together again to consider another very important topic, but which we will not be able to exhaust for this month of February edition. It might take us two to three editions for us to complete the series. So in a way, we are starting a series today, one, and then we move on from there in the month of March, possibly in the month of April. And the series is on the tongue. The tongue. The Bible says life and death, they are in the power of the tongue. We want to look at the matter of the tongue in relation to marriage, in relation to relationship, and to see how God can help us to learn to have light, to have direction from His word on this matter. We want to welcome our brethren who are joining us on Telegram. We want to welcome our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr. We want to say you are all welcome to this February edition. And please don't forget our usual practice: when it is 11:00, if you have any question, please send in your question, either to the Telegram page or to the WhatsApp page or to the Mixlr page. Whichever question comes in, the technical will harvest it for us, and we attend to such questions if there are. So let us have a word of prayer as we start this morning. Our Father, we give You glory. We give You honor. We give You adoration. We bless Your holy name for Your mercies. We bless Your holy name for Your love. We thank You, Lord our God, for the privilege to gather again unto You this morning. We say, Lord our God, it is unto You that our gathering shall be. Lord, we pray that You will work in our midst. You will work among us. All of us together, we who are physically here, our brethren joining us on Mixlr, on Telegram. Lord, we pray You will work among us to the glory of Your name, in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we consider the topic, "The Tongue," particularly as we lay the foundation for the discourse today, Lord, we pray, give us light. Give us understanding in the name of Jesus. Lord, we look up unto You. The Bible says it is unto You shall the gathering of Your people be. Lord, we prophesy over our gathering this morning. We say our gathering shall be unto You, not unto ourselves, in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, looking at what I sent out yesterday for our consideration, what I sent out is "The Tongue 1," because we are trusting the Lord that we will have "The Tongue 2," "The Tongue 3." I don't know whether we'll have "The Tongue 4," but let's see how God will help us through the topic. So we are starting with "The Tongue 1," and "The Tongue 1" is actually a background study to lay foundation for the subsequent series. "The Tongue 1" is a reflection on James 3. A reflection on James 3. Bitter envy, which was our focus last month, was also from James 3 from verse 13. Incidentally, "The Tongue 1" is also from James 3, but this time we are starting from the earlier verses. We'll be taking it gradually on and on into the later verses in that scripture. So let's go to James 3. James 3. Let's see what the Bible has to tell us. James 3, I take my reading from verse 1. It says, "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment." I'm reading from the NKJV. I will still read from other translations. "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 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." And that is verse 12, which is the last verse for our reading. The topic before us is "The Tongue." And we are using James 3 as a background for the study. Now, looking through James 3, brethren, you will agree with me that certain fundamental issues arise in the book of James about this matter of the tongue. But before I do this, I want us again to read from other translations. As I speak, I'll be reading from other translations, just to make some things clearer. Now, look at James 3:2. James 3:2. It says, "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body." NLT says, "We all make many mistakes. But those who control their tongue can also control themselves in every way." Now, NIV says, "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." The Message translation says, "And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get this wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life." Now, you will notice that the Bible is connecting the tongue, perfection, life, together. The Bible says if you find anybody who perfectly does not offend in his word, does not make mistake—you can't find any fault in whatever the person says—then that person is a perfect person. The person can control his whole body. But every time you find an individual who is not able to control the tongue, you also find somebody who cannot control his life. Now, look at how the NLT put it. "We all make many mistakes. But those who control their tongue can also control themselves in every way." Anybody who can control the tongue, that person is able to control the way he thinks, the way he acts. It's telling you that everything about your life, if I want to know who you are, I can know it from the things you say. Your life is in your tongue. The real person anybody is, you will get it on their tongue. By what people say, the way they say them, by the kind of things they say, you can know the kind of persons they are. You cannot separate a man's life from what he says. You cannot separate who a man is from what he uses his tongue to say. So this tongue gives you the entire picture of a man's life. I give a good example. Some of us, we are familiar with Judas, one of the disciples. Judas went to the Pharisees, the chief priests and the elders, and he negotiated with them. Negotiated, negotiated. "How much you go buy? How much you go sell? How much? How?" After all the bargaining and bargaining, what happened? He decided that, "Okay, give me 30 pieces of silver. I will betray Jesus to you." And he collected the money. And the money was where? He pocketed that money. And then he appeared again to be with Jesus and the other disciples. And Jesus said, "One of you is going to betray Me." And everybody was asking, "One of us?" And this one would come, "Is it me?" Another would come, "Is it me?" Another would come, "Is it me?" And Judas also came. "Is it me?" Now, from what he said, is it not clear the kind of person Judas is? It is clear that Judas is a deceitful man. Judas is a liar. Judas is a betrayer. Judas is somebody who loves money more than life. Judas is somebody who would rather make riches and let others die. That is Judas. From the simple thing he said, you know the kind, the totality of who Judas is. I give another example in the person of Brother Gehazi. You are familiar with Brother Gehazi? Old Testament story. Who knows Brother Gehazi? Brother Gehazi was the man working with Elisha. And Naaman came to be healed. And when Naaman was prayed for, wanted to give gifts to Elisha. Elisha said, "No, there's no need." And then Naaman went. Then Gehazi left his master, pursued Naaman, went to collect all kinds of things from Naaman. And when he collected everything, he came back to the house. And the master said, "Gehazi, where have you been?" He said, "Me? I didn't leave this place. I have been here. I didn't leave here at all." What could that tell about Gehazi? You know everything about who Gehazi is. What we are trying to make you see is that the failures in every other part of your life, they show forth on your tongue. The failure in every other parts of your life, if you're a wicked man, it'll show in your tongue. If you are a betrayer, that's where it will show. It will show on your tongue. If you are somebody who does not easily forgive people, you know where it will show? It will show on your tongue. If you are somebody who is wicked, you know where it will show? It will show on your tongue. The Bible is saying that anything in your life that you have not conquered, anything you have not made to become godly in your life, you will see that thing where? You will see it on your tongue. Inside you, there is something you have not conquered. There is something that is ungodly, anything, anywhere, in your value system, in your orientation towards life, in your appetite for things, everything that you have not made, anything at all that is ungodly, that thing will show forth where? On your tongue. That's what the Bible is saying in the verse. So the tongue becomes a very, very, very, very crucial thing in our life. If you can get anybody that every time the person opens his mouth to talk, that person will always say things that is from God, that is of God, that God will approve. Every time the person wants to talk, it'll always be something that God will say, "High five." That person is already a perfect person. It means there is no area in his life or her life that has problems. No area has problem. Any area that has trouble will show on the tongue. You don't know how you