Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: Today on Fellowship in the Word, For me of all the different things that I preach on this is one that's extremely convicting. For me personally, and one of the reasons is that if you put me in the right environment, in order to be accepted in the environment and in order to appear, let me quote unquote, funny, I'll say things I shouldn't say at all. How you sarcasm, cynicism, things I shouldn't say at all. But you'll laugh, that'll make me feel good. And what I should be doing is say Lord set a guard over my mouth.

I should not be talking like this. This is not honor you at all.

Jason Gephart: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gephart. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gephart now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Your tongue is you. Your tongue is you in a very very unique way. What you find in the word of God is that our tongues reveal who we really are. The misuse of your tongue is one of the easiest sins by the way you could possibly commit. It's interesting that when you go to the scriptures and say, well, what does the scripture say about our tongue and the way we use it? This isn't all, but this is many of what the scripture say. It describes your tongue as wicked, deceitful, perverse, filthy, corrupt, flattering, slanderous, gossiping, blasphemous, foolish, boasting, complaining, cursing, contentious, sensual, and vile.

Your tongue is you in a unique way. Science says that whenever you speak and you set a sound in motion, do you realize that we don't have the instruments for this and I'm sure you're lucky and feel lucky about this to measure, but once you set sound waves in motion, they go on throughout the universe. They never stop. That's why we have radio telescopes by the way to see if someone's out there. The idea that everything we say goes out and just continues to go. The power of the tongue is an amazing thing. Solomon says in Proverbs 18, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Jesus said in Matthew 12, speaking to his enemies, the Pharisees, concerning him as Messiah, and he said, every careless word that people speak they shall give an accounting for in the day of judgment. James wants us to know the relationship between the way you speak and who you really are. If I were to put it in a question, James would say it this way. If you say that you believe like you should, then why do you say the things that you shouldn't? Think of the tongue. After Adam and Eve had sinned, how long did it take them for sit to sin again with their tongue?

When they were confronted, Eve said, let's see, wait, it's not my fault. The serpent, he deceived me. And Adam said, no, no, it's not my fault either. That was the woman you gave me. She gave it to me and I ate. So easy to sin with our tongue. James tells his readers and us that real faith will possess and maintain a sanctified or set apart tongue. Open your Bibles to James chapter 3. Of all the books in the Bible, this is by a mile the most intrusive. Most of you don't like reading James because he says things you don't care for.

And James, by the way, I can't speak for him, but I will, he doesn't care. He he is just going to go right after it. The whole book is like that. One thing right after another. And what James is trying to describe in his book is what does real faith? What does real faith look like? And he said, remember real faith, consider it all joy when you have various trials. Real faith when you have trials from the outside can consider it joy. He said, real faith when you have temptation on the inside knows how to handle temptation.

He said, real faith has an accurate assessment of itself. It doesn't brag, doesn't think it's really spiritual when it's not. He said, real faith is not prejudiced to anyone. Sees everybody in the world is just in two camps, lost people and saved people. And last time he sort of summarized it all and said, you know what? Real faith is always followed by real works. It was sort of what John Calvin said. We are saved by faith and faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. And James went after that and we talked about that last time.

Now he's not done yet. Now he wants to go and talk about the way that you speak in the way that I speak. And he says, look, you're going to have to learn to tame your tongue. I would imagine most of you know that. And if you don't, just find someone else in the room that knows you and ask them and they'll probably tell you you do need to tame it. Of all the areas of pervasive sin we have, the way we talk is by far the most. It's the worst thing about us. And somehow because we all do it in such a pervasive way, we think it's okay.

James says no. The first thing he is going to tell us is to tame the tongue, we have to recognize that we're going to be held accountable for what we say. Notice these first two verses. He said, let let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. The first thing he says is, look, you might not want to become a teacher.

And you might be thinking, why is he talking about us wanting to be teachers? Well, I guess if I'm going to put it in a way in the culture in which these believers lived, these are Jewish believers in Jesus Christ by the way called the diaspora. They're dispersed throughout the empire. In the Jewish culture, nobody in the culture gets as much respect as a rabbi. Rabbis are the most highly respected people in their culture. And in fact, you can read extra biblical literature from a Jewish perspective and they say you should respect your rabbi more than you respect your parents.

That's the respect. And so a lot of people probably thought as they came to Christ then, hey, I want that kind of respect. I think I would like to teach. And we know a lot of people that were teaching that shouldn't be teaching because the Apostle Paul in every epistle he wrote kept saying, boy, I wish these guys would shut up. There are so many false teachers out there saying preposterous things. And so he said, look, he said, not many of you should be teachers, but notice what he says, let not many of you become teachers knowing it.

He said that as such you will incur a stricter judgment. The implication's clear. We all going to be judged by what we say. But if you're a teacher, then you're really going to be judged by what you say. In fact, the scriptures say that over and over again the New Testament in Hebrews 13, the writer of Hebrews says, if you're a teacher of the word of God, you keep watch over the souls of those of whom you will give an account. I don't know of a passage in the New Testament that's less popular with me than that passage.

I mean if you think about that, I don't only have to give an account for me, I have to give an account for you. That's astounding. It's overwhelming. And the worst part of it is I've been here long enough that I really know you and that makes it worse. Not better. You see the idea behind it is pretty clear. Teaching is a very important responsibility. And we live in a day and age by the way where it's kind of interesting because I was reading what Chuck Swindoll was saying about what the role of the teacher is.

And he said the primary role of the teacher is real clear, and that is that you have to speak the truth and not your personal opinions. Sort of what Paul said to Timothy, preach the word. We live in a day and age where the word is being preached less and less and less and people's personal opinions are becoming more and more and more. Guys are just standing up and telling people what they want to hear and the people are like, all this is wonderful. And it may go well with the the people that are listening to you, but I can tell you this, it's not going to go well with God.

He doesn't want you to stand up and preach your personal opinion. He wants you to stand up and to teach the word of God. Swindoll also said you have to understand that when you teach you affect so many other people's lives. It's not just responsible for what you believe, you've become responsible for what they believe. And the thing that's most important in Swindoll that I loved was Chuck said this. He said that you have to be able to live the truth if you're a teacher. His view is and he said he told this to Dallas Seminary students when he was the president of the school.

If you can't live the truth, don't stand up and teach the truth. In other words, you have to have a certain kind of life. It's sort of what Jesus talked about in Matthew 12, to whom much is given much is required. And that's the first thing that James says. He said, look, if you're going to tame the tongue, you have to recognize that you'll be held accountable for everything that you say. Then he moves to verse two and he says, for let me explain it. That's an explanatory guard in the Greek. He said, for we stumble in many ways.

He he's not talking about perfection. He said, look, we all stumble. There's a lot of different ways in which we can stumble. It happens to all of us. Sin is universal. In 2 Chronicles 6 the scripture says, there is no man who does not sin. In Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. James isn't talking about perfection at all. He said, we all stumble in many ways, but he said, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he said he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.

And there is a regrettable word, perfect. See the implication of perfect is none of us are perfect. This verse doesn't apply to any of us. But that's not what he's saying. That's the word teleos. I keep telling you this over and over again, but let me try again. The word teleos has variety of meanings. It's what Jesus said on the cross when he said to It is finished. It means finished. It means complete. It means perfect and it means mature. That's what James is after. He's after the maturity. If you looked at it from this perspective, James is saying if anyone does not stumble in what he said, he's a mature man.

And you know what? He's able to bridle the whole body as well. The implication of James is clear. If you can control your tongue, you can control your life. What an interesting thing. If you control your tongue, you can control your life. I thought what an a fascinating way to put it. And he moves right into that idea with the next thing that he says. He says to tame the tongue we must recognize that our tongues do control our lives. That's what he begins to say now in verse 3. He said, now if we put bits in a horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct the entire body as well.

In other words, how do you a horse has so much more power than you do? How do you control a horse? He said, you put a bit in their mouth. You put that little bit in their mouth, you can control the whole horse. The implication's clear to him. If you can control your tongue, you can control your life. You can control your body. You can control yourself. He then says this. Look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they're still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

If you can control the rudder of the ship, you can control the direction of the ship. You can see the big giants ships go up and down the Mississippi River here. And it's astounding for the size of the ship what the size of the rudder would be. But the rudder controls the whole ship. Way back in 19 41 in 1941 you had this whole story in May of I think in 1941 of the great ship, the German battleship called the Bismarck. It was the greatest battleship built in World War II. And it could do anything it wanted to and everybody in the Allied side was terrified of it.

The British sent out the Hood, which was some World War I, a gigantic battleship, but there is a Bismarck sunken. And so the whole idea was nothing's going to be able to stop the Bismarck, but Churchill said we whatever we do we have to sink that ship. And so they went after the Bismarck. And there was a battle and the Bismarck then decided to get away. And it looked like the Bismarck was going to go into the French waters and be able to be under the protection of the rest of the German fleet and be safe.

But on its way to France as it looked like it almost got there, it sort of turned around and went right back out the sea toward the British. And then it didn't even go straight when the British pursued it. Even though it was a faster ship, it sort of zigzagged, so the British caught it. And the British sunk it. Why? How did that happen? Turned out that a torpedo had hit the rudder of the Bismarck. And they couldn't control where it went. And when they couldn't control where it went, it sunk them. That's a perfect analogy for us.

You can't control your tongue, you're sunk. You see if you can't control your tongue, your spiritual life is not at all what you think it is. That's what he is saying. The tongue has this incredible capacity and power. He says to control us, and it does. Turn with me for a moment as we hold right here to Psalm 141, Psalm 141. I want you to see something here and then I'll ask you a question about it. And if you're convicted enough and truthful enough, you'll be honest. And if you not, you'll pretend that you're spiritual.

That 'll be up to you. This is David. David's going to pray in verse 3. And this is what he says. Set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth and keep watch over the door of my lips. Let me ask you something. How many times have you prayed that? How many mornings do you get up and you pray that prayer? Lord, set a guard over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips. You ever pray that? At all. You see that's what David said. Now notice he gets the rest of life. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing to practice deeds with wickedness, with men who do iniquity.

Do not let me eat with their delicacies. Now I guess to the rest of my life, but the whole point is he said, Lord, you what you got to do is you got to stop the way I talk. Do you pray that? You see it's an amazing thing because we can sin so easily with our tongue. And we do it all the time. For me of all the different things that I preach on this is one that is extremely convicting. For me personally, and one of the reasons is that if you put me in the right environment, in order to be accepted in the environment and order to appear, let me quote unquote, funny, I'll say things I shouldn't say at all.

How you sarcasm, cynicism, things I shouldn't say at all. But you'll laugh, that'll make me feel good. And what I should be doing is say Lord set a guard over my mouth. I should not be talking like this. This is not honor you at all. You see the the tongue is an amazing thing. And sometimes it's humor and sarcasm and cynicism. For another you, you might be really vulnerable to gossip. You hear some joycey tidbit about somebody and you can't wait to talk about it to somebody else. You just can't wait to be able to share this with somebody else.

We do this kind of thing all the time. That's what David is saying. And And Solomon is saying, look, you got to understand the power. Look at Proverbs 15 with me for a moment. Just a few pages to your right. Proverbs 15 verses 1 to 4. This is Solomon speaking, the son of David. And he sort of gives us some insights. The first thing he said is this. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Let me ask you that. How How well How well do you do with that? If somebody gives you wrath, somebody aggravates you, somebody confronts you, somebody accuses you, somebody's all up in your face, what do you do?

You give the gentle answer? Or is it an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth? Hey, you started it. You know, you give me wrath, I'll give you wrath. Find that in the Bible. You see what I mean? We We respond in a certain way initially, intuitively. He says the tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable. Notice the good you can do with your tongue. The The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts folly. You see the words you say could be wise or they could be folly.

That's kind of up to you. You see that's the point. You have this power. Think of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul says to the Ephesians, let no unkind word come from your mouth. Only words that edify others. How are you doing with that? You see how does that work in your own life? How do you speak on a day in day out basis? See what sometimes it's not unkind, but very infrequently do you ever find it to be edifying. See that's what he is talking about, this incredible power that we have. He said the eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good.

A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit. Don't you see the power? Let me ask you something right now. And I think this is universal to us. I want you to think back from yesterday all the way back to when you were a little toddler, anytime in between. I want you to think back to the worst thing anybody ever said about you, that you heard or that you knew about. The worst thing anyone's ever said about You know what you find when you talk to people, especially in counseling situations, they remember.

They remember. You could go back to preschool and their father said something. They remember their whole lives. Why is that? Because it's a fire. It's It crushes you. It affects you. And that's what he is saying. He is saying, look, you got to understand the power of the tongue here. It has an incredible ability to do absolutely terrible things to us. So the question comes back, how do you use your tongue? What your speech sound like? Now go back with me to James. To tame the tongue we have to understand or recognize that we will be held accountable for what we say and our tongues control our lives.

And now James wants to move and says there's something else we have to do. We have to realize it's incredible destructive power. Notice the latter half of verse 5. See how great a forest is set a flame by such a small fire. What a great analogy. Every year this time of year by the way, it's every year, but somewhere in California, Colorado, somewhere there's fires. There's always a fire. And if it 's not done by lightning or something like that, it almost inevitably turns out that somebody had a cigarette, you know, got their last one and then flipped it off to the side and then 30,000 acres burned.

You wonder how does it just a little cigarette, you know? But that's the nature of fire. You see and that's what he says here. Notice his point is that he said, see how great a force is set a flame by such a small fire. That's the point. October the 8th, 1871 the city was Chicago. And there was a little barn in Chicago. And the barn was owned by the O'Learys. And apparently as the story goes, they had a cow. And the cow kicked over a lantern and caught the barn on fire. And 100,000 people were homeless when it was done.

17,500 structures were burnt to the ground. 300 people gave their lives because of a cow and a barn. Now please understand I'm not trying to make a case of just how destructive fire is. We all know, but James is saying that's what you have in your mouth. That's what you have in your mouth. You have an ability to say something that seems small and insignificant. It can spread like a fire and do incredible damage to people. That's what he is telling us. He said that can happen to any of us or all of us.

Jason Gephart: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gephart on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible.

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