Watch Your Mouth!

Your mouth can sing truth on Sunday and still set a fire on Monday. James 3 refuses to let us treat that as “no big deal,” and neither do we. We walk through one of the most practical passages in the Bible about Christian speech, showing how the tongue functions like a rudder that steers a whole life and like a spark that can ignite a forest. If you’ve ever felt the regret of a careless comment, the pull of gossip, or the habit of exaggeration to make a point, this message puts real language to what’s happening beneath the surface.

If you’re ready for your words to become instruments of grace instead of destruction, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the one line you needed to hear.

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Amen

SPEAKER_02 0:20

You are our hope. And God, we know there's coming a day when you are returning for your bride. And God, may you find us faithful. May you find us faithful. This morning we just say thank you. And with grateful hearts, we say we love you.

Military Appreciation And Church Updates

Prayer For Wisdom And Guarded Speech

James 3 Reading On The Tongue

Potluck Humor And Gossip Warning

The Gospel Reorders Desires And Words

Teachers Face Stricter Accountability

Speech Exposes A Divided Heart

Gossip Exaggeration And A Church On Fire

Wisdom From Above Makes Peace

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Amen. Amen. Good morning, church. If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to turn me to James chapter 3. May, the month of May, which is next month, because it's still April, right? Is it? Yes. It's Military Appreciation Month. And every year we have the opportunity in our foyer we set up a special table that anyone can make a special gift or an offering to support our work with both the USO and also at Fort Campbell and gifts that we send out every year to military families who are part of our family here or families of our church. So that's going to be available for the next few weeks, and that's starting, of course, next week. If you want to serve at the USO with us, that opportunity is coming up. We have another Warrior Wednesday lunch, uh, May 6th. That's a Wednesday. We go down around 10, 10:30, and we're there for two or three hours. We serve lunch to about 120 troops down at Fort Campbell at the USO, and we always have a great time. Uh next Sunday, we have our first step lunch. Uh, it's designed for those of you who are brand new. Maybe this is your first week with us or your fourth month or whatever it is. Uh what we do is we set up this lunch every two or three months, and it helps us get to know you better and to um help you get to know us better and just help to navigate the life and the patterns here at First Baptist Church. Um we will have it, of course, if we get signups to it. So you can sign up on our website, fbchopkinsville.com, and you go to Pathway, and you'll find Next Step Lunch, and you can register there. And if we have registrations, we'll of course have it next week. We did our first one a few months ago, and it was a really good, intimate time getting to know some of the folks that are newer to our church here. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll go to his word. Heavenly Father, we doubt we we bow before you because we are needy and we are dependent, and we are grateful that we don't come to the one who is distant or unwilling, but to the living God, and you delight to hear the cries of your children. And we thank you that in your kindness you have given us another day, another breath, another opportunity to know you, to serve you, and to walk in your ways. Grant to us this wisdom that is from above, that is pure and peaceable and gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruit. Help us to guard our tongues from careless words. Teach us to speak what is true and kind and necessary and honoring to you. And Lord, we we pray for those who are burdened today, the one with the anxious heart, the heavy heart, or the weary soul, and the grieving family, the wandering child, the discouraged servant. Draw near to each one according to their need, Father, we pray. Let no one leave your care untouched by your grace. And strengthen us, Lord, your church. We ask that we may be faithful in doctrine, joyful in our worship, steadfast in trial, bold in witness, and we ask that you would raise up humble servants who love Christ more than anything else. And so, Lord, as we open your word, may your spirit be our teacher. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. James chapter 3. 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 any one does not stumble in what he says, he's 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 given by strong 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, but it boasts 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. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It's 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. Who's wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works and the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Amen. This is God's word to us. Many, many, many years ago, long before I was in full-time ministry myself, one of the first times I ever preached on the topic of gluttony, and it wasn't even the main point of the message, it was a secondary point from Philippians 3, where he says, their end is destruction, their God is in their belly. The point is that gluttony becomes idolatry. It becomes worship of appetite. But my timing is always what my timing is, obviously. And the church was having a big potluck that day. So we went from big old rounded 10,000 calorie plates of heart disease to small bites. It kind of turned into a Baptist tapas almost, if you will. I was not highly favored that afternoon. A lot of side eyes from little plates. The first time I ever preached about the destructive nature of the tongue, the church had just hosted a prayer meeting a few nights before. And apparently that prayer meeting turned into a gossip fest. And although nobody ate anything, a lot of people were roasted. And not many were lifted up before God. One person came to me after that message and said, I'm glad you were not there at that prayer meeting because you probably would not have preached what you preached. Joke's on you, I still would have. Again, not highly favored that afternoon, and I think many people had roast pastor for lunch, which I hear is a little salty. Now I think gluttony is not ultimately a stomach issue. Gluttony is a worship issue. It reveals what we run to for comfort and what we rely on for satisfaction and whether we're governed by the Spirit or by our appetites. See, the gospel does not merely restrain appetites, it reorders them. So that we hunger first for Christ, and then we receive his gifts with gratitude and self-control. And James here helps us to see that same, that is the same thing is true of our words. Here in our text, the tongue is not treated as a small problem, the tongue is treated as a big revealing problem. The issue is what governs us. Are we ruled by the Spirit or by our cravings, our cravings for comfort, attention, for superiority? The gospel doesn't silence the tongue or the appetite, but it transforms the heart. And it gives us greater satisfaction in Christ so that we no longer need to consume endlessly or speak destructively. Instead, we learn to receive God's gifts rightly. Speech as a means of grace, building up others, speaking truth and love, reflecting the character of the one who has spoken life over us. If you remember the last chapter, James 2, he tells us about what faith does. Here, in this chapter, it's about what faith says or what faith does not say. And so today, we'll take a few big steps through this chapter. Let's start with first I want to give a word to teachers because that's where James starts. That'll be our first heading. Right in verse 1, he tells us this applies to anyone who wants to teach the Bible. Whether you're a seminary teacher or a Sunday school teacher, this applies to your work. Now, although all that I'm going to talk through is under this heading applies to anyone who would teach the Bible. This morning I want to focus in on the pastoral ministry specifically, the pulpy, the pulpit teaching ministry, if you will. Whenever a young man who wants to go into ministry seeks my counsel on the matter and says, hey, I'm thinking about going into pastoral ministry, the first advice that I give to them is the same advice that was given to me by Alistair Begg. At the very first pastor's conference I ever attended, Begg said this. And he said, if you can do anything else, you should. If a young man wants to go into pastoral ministry and he can do anything else, he should. See, pastoral ministry specifically is for the man who, under the hand of God, finds that he can finally give himself to nothing else. And so the reason behind that statement is not to discourage men from going into ministry, but to protect ministry and to protect the man. Not many of you should become teachers. And why? Because we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. That means ministry is not just another vocation. It carries a divine accountability that no amount of natural gifting can sustain. If a man cannot be content doing something else, it likely reveals, or if a man can be content doing something else, it typically reveals to me that he's not yet felt the holy burden that accompanies that call from God. And I can tell you from first hand experience that the man called to pastoral ministry is not simply choosing ministry among good options. He is, in a very real sense, being constrained to it. He may wrestle with it, delay it, and resist it, which I did, but cannot ultimately walk away from it in peace. I had, many of you know, I had a great career in finance. That was a year ago. And the Lord called me into the ministry of revitalization and teaching, and so here we are, and now I'm on track to retire at the age of 275. Now I don't seek sympathy. I don't seek sympathy. I only seek the affirmation that a great burden has been placed upon my life and my wife's life as well, because she is my partner in this, and that changes everything about our lives. You see, that calling, that burden, it can change. It can take you across the country, but without a deep spirit-wrought conviction, a man will either burn out, compromise, or quietly drift from the truth. So the point is not that ministry is undesirable, is that it's too sacred, that it is too demanding and too costly to be pursued unless a man is completely compelled by God Himself. And so here, James is not discouraging teaching. He's raising the bar of the seriousness of teaching. To teach the word of God, no matter how you do it, is to speak on behalf of God, to handle divine truth, and to shape the souls of others. That means a pastor or an elder or a teacher is accountable not just for his own life, but for how he influences the lives of those under his care. That's what our elder team here understands. Our team of elders here is not just another leadership committee or approval committee. These men are called, tested, selected as shepherds, not as supervisors. We are called to lead spiritually. We're not called to manage a committee. And so that's why when we get together, we do get together for business sessions as elders. We had one last week. But more frequently we get together to study the Bible. We get together to pray together, we get together to consider the future of our ministry, to see God and what we're doing here at First Baptist Church. And so at the same time, this verse does not paralyze the man who is called. I believe it actually clarifies him. And it helps you understand you don't enter into this lightly. But it also helps us understand we're not entering into it alone. Because the same God who will judge is the one who calls and equips and sustains. I can tell you the most anxious moment of my entire week. The most anxious moment of my entire week just happened. It's the moment that Pastor Mick stops and he starts praying, and I make my way up here. That's the most anxious moment of my week. I I don't fear public speaking. I don't mind being the center of attention. I don't fear man. I fear God. And I must ask myself, did I prepare? Did I pray? Did I study enough to honor God with what I'm about to do? Because there will come a time that I will face judgment for every word that is spoken from this spot. And you've heard me say this before. I'm not terribly concerned with anyone's approval. I'm not terribly concerned with anyone's disapproval with anything I do from this spot. That's not me being cavalier. Please don't take that as me being arrogant. That is the reality that the message that you receive on Sunday might be spoken to you, but the audience is God. And honestly, I would hope that that would be your desire. That anyone who stands in this spot has such a fear of God that our approval means very little. What I do week after week after week after week after week is seek to please God. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2.15. And uh and of course, my desire is that in pleasing the Lord, most of you in this room would say his desire is to please the Lord, and you would say, Amen and amen. And so when James says that teachers will be judged with greater strictness, he's pointing us to a very real, personal, eternal evaluation by Christ. One that is deeper in accountability, not in kind, for those who are in Christ. And so the pastor, like every Christian, we all stand justified by grace alone through faith alone. And so the judgment that James is talking about here is not about whether you're saved or whether a pastor is saved, but about how he has stewarded what is entrusted to him. It's the difference between being judged as a criminal and being evaluated as a steward. So for the faithful pastor, he will hear the word that every Christian longs to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. And so that brings us to the next piece, then, which is Christians. The second eddy, your words expose your heart. Verse 9. 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. Now, a simple point of clarification here: James is writing to Christians. The New Testament is written to the believer. We do read John's Gospel, he says it was given so that you may believe, but in the main, the New Testament is for the believer. I say that for clarity because it's common for Christians to say, or take portions of the New Testament to say, Well, Paul is talking here to non-believers. Hogwash. His letters begin with to the church, to the beloved, my brothers, to those in Christ. Why would Paul write letters to the lost? Why would they care if he did? And so James here confronts us as believers with a sobering inconsistency. With the same tongue, we bless our Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul. And with the very tongue we curse people who are made in his likeness. That's not a small contradiction. That's a direct violation of the order that God has established. Your words expose what's going on in here, don't they? So the first big thing here for the Christian is that we don't use the same tongue to bless God and curse people that are made in his image. We don't sing and slam, if you will. We don't sing of God and to God and then slam your brothers and sisters over fish tacos at the restaurant at lunch. That kind of inconsistency is not neutral. It's a contradiction of our profession of faith in Jesus Christ. To worship God on Sunday and tear down his image bearers during the week is to live with a divided heart. And James says this ought not to be so. And James says this is when he says this ought not to be so, he's not offering a suggestion. James is issuing a moral verdict. This kind of speech is out of step with new life in Christ. It does not belong to those who have been redeemed, reconciled, and made new. And the the language here is strong because the the issue is serious. Our words matter because they reflect what we truly are. And second only to that, we we must not treat sinful speech as no big deal because our words mean something. Do you believe your words mean something as a Christian? They absolutely do. Gossip, slander, harsh criticism, backbiting, exaggeration? Careless words, they're not harmless. Exaggeration is a big one that we don't think about. And exaggeration can be used for humor. It can be used harmlessly as a figure of speech, but that's not what James is talking about here. You know, if somebody says, Oh, I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse. That's exaggeration. But James isn't saying, oh, don't do that. He's talking about the moral weight of our words. That means exaggeration that's not neutral. It can become a form of distortion and misrepresentation of reality and inflating circumstances and shifts truth for the sake of effect and or attention or self-protection. And it can harm the reputation of someone made in the image of God, and then it creates division in the body. You think we'd say, well, you know, she always has an attitude. Or they never help with anything. These words always and never are exaggerations. They're sweeping judgments, not very specific instances. And I I I speak of this a personal experience. I I make jokes about potlucks. I'm not a fan of potlucks. I've been in too many people's kitchens, man. Amen. Okay, I'm Not the only one. But even in this church, I've heard people say Todd hates Christians getting together to eat. That's dumb. That is an exaggeration of something that I said about me not liking potlucks. I've also heard Todd hates potlucks, so we can't use the fellowship hall. Man, if you want to have a potluck, go ahead. I'm probably just gonna come in and wave and then leave. See, those are exaggerations for the point of making uh uh and so you're you're tarnishing my me made in the image of God for your own whatever it is. That's frustrating. And that defines a person in a way that isn't true or fair. So I'd say instead of exaggerating, we could say, hey, I've noticed that he seemed withdrawn, we should check on him. Or there's been moments where she seems frustrated, maybe there's something going on, and we should check on them. That kind of speech protects truth, it preserves unity, and it opens the door for grace rather than fueling gossip. Then, of course, you should pray for them and text them and say, I prayed for you, which I hope you're doing. Or if you're led to it, you can call them or you can visit them, whatever it is. I can tell you right now, if you can't say amen, you can at least say ow. Listen to me. You don't build your house by burning down someone else's house. Our words mean something. I had a lighter back here, somebody took it. I had a newspaper back here, somebody took it. But I also brought firewood. Nobody took that. Now, could you imagine if and I tried to figure out a way to do this, but I was just gonna light that on fire. Like when I started preaching, just go and just have it light on fire. Everyone would have meant, oh somebody whined because I dropped rocks on the stage. Could you imagine if I set fire to the stage? You think he is Jimi Hendrix? What would happen if I lit that on fire right now? Anybody? The building would burn down, right? I should probably be fired. I would likely be arrested. I should be, arson, endangering people's lives. But if I set that on fire right now, that's relatively dry. That's Scotty Heartwood, so it's kind of dry. That would go up pretty quickly. You would catch my pulpit on fire, this carpeting and this stage, which is pretty dry, it would all go up pretty quickly, right? And it would be the talk of the town. Oh, did you hear that Pastor Goulet set First Baptist Church on fire? And they ain't speaking metaphorically. How terrible to burn down a church, right? I mean, it's happening in other countries right now. Actually, churches are being burnt down. Friends, that is exactly what you are doing with your words every single week. How many times has this church, this church, burnt down because of backbiting, gossip, exaggeration, and slander? Every time people come up and they set it on fire and they're like, it's harmless, it's words, you are burning down the church. You're not gonna go to jail, you're not gonna lose your job, but you're burning down the church. How many in this room have caused a great fire? And as you say in Kentucky, by being ugly with someone, especially when they weren't in the room with you. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Our words mean something. Third, we need to seek wisdom instead and make peace. Verse 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. So James turns from exposing the problem of the tongue to describing the kind of life that reflects true godly wisdom. So the wisdom from above is not just intellectual, it's it's moral and it's spiritual and it's seen in character and conduct. It's the kind of wisdom that comes from God and it's shaped by the nature of God and it's produced by his spirits. A pure heart produces pure speech. A pure heart comes from a right relationship with Jesus Christ. And that's where true wisdom starts. The book of Proverbs tells us the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. So a pure heart leads to pure motives, and pure motives shape righteous actions. And this steadies us no matter what life throws at us. We become like the great ship that is not tossed around but kept on course by a small rudder. Where does that practical purity come from? Psalm 119, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. So this purity is not first about modifying our behavior, it's about direction and it's about authority. A young man or woman, an old man or woman keep their way pure not merely by avoiding certain sins, but by placing their life under the rule of God's word. You see, the heart will always move toward whatever governs it. Our hearts will always move toward whatever governs it. If it's governed by impulse or culture or desire, that impurity is going to follow. But if it's governed by Scripture, if it's governed by God's word, then there's a new standard, there's a new compass, there's a new direction, and a new power that is at work. And so that means you watch what you allow into your mind and what you dwell on and what you pursue and what you entertain. It's a deliberate aligning of your thoughts and desires and actions. And so the word doesn't just inform us, it reshapes us, it exposes sin and it directs our soul toward righteousness. And that's why, just a few verses later, the psalmist says, I have stored up your word in my heart. Why? That I might not sin against you. And then James says that this wisdom, the result of this wisdom, it is peaceable. It does not stir up conflict unnecessarily. It doesn't thrive on division. Friends, I've said this before. There are people that in this world that are just not unhappy unless they're miserable. There are people in this world that are not happy unless they can make everyone else around them miserable. We are to be peacemakers. Now, there's a big difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. We are to be peacemakers. See, peacekeepers are actually part of the problem. Peacekeepers seek to keep peace at any cost. And that typically involves ignoring sin and sidestepping hard conversations and tolerating dysfunction for the sake of outward harmony. And it looks gentle on the surface, and it but underneath it allows bitterness and gossip and division to grow unchecked. And you see this in a lot of families where there's one person in the family that everyone has to tend to their emotional well-being. And so you have a peacekeeper in the family that tries to make sure that nobody upsets them and they try, and it's it's exhausting. We are not to be peacekeepers, we are to be peacemakers. Peacemakers actively pursue true reconciliation. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, because peacemakers are not passive. They step into conflict with wisdom and with humility and courage, and they're willing to speak truth with love and to confront sin when necessary. And so when they're around people who are using their tongue to tear other people down, they are willing to step into that and say, no, this ought not to be. Why are we tearing down this person?

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Let us build this person up. And that's why James says where wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason.

Teachable Hearts And A Harvest Of Righteousness

Invitation Prayer And Offering Response

SPEAKER_00 31:31

And what does it produce? A harvest of righteousness. And so that brings us to the third piece here is that we Christians, we need to be teachable. We need to pursue that purity of heart. We need to be peacemakers, but we need to be teachable. Instead of harshness or defensiveness, we we should be approachable and teachable and willing to listen. Is there anyone in here that is that is too old to learn something? I'm glad nobody put their hand up. I'll never forget a man that I knew well. His name was Pastor Bell. He was, I think he was, he was probably 95 years old when he said this to me, but he had been a pastor for 50 years, and he said, he said, you know, every day I wake up, God's teaching me something new. Every time I open the word, God's teaching me something new. And I said, man, I want to be like that when I grow up. You see, our words should reflect a gracious strength that's firm in truth, but very soft in tone. And this gentleness here speaks of a gracious strength. It's a willingness to yield rather than to demand one's own way. To be open to reason, to be teachable, approachable, not defensive. And this stands in sharp contrast to prideful speech and stubborn hearts. And this stands against the duplicity that James had already been warning about, where speech and life don't align. And James says a result is a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Righteousness does not grow in an environment of strife and pride and harshness in the heart. It flourishes where peace is intentionally cultivated. And when you pursue peace, you're not doing it passively. You are actively sowing seeds that will yield a life that is marked by this righteousness. And so, friends, I'll end this way. The call of James in the whole book, but here especially, is that it's simple, but it's it's weighty. And here especially, we need to examine our words, we need to examine our relationships and our hearts, and understand that we may be keeping quiet to preserve comfort instead of stepping in to pursue righteousness. And maybe our tongue has revealed a divided allegiance. And so today, by the power of the Spirit, we can choose to act. We can speak truth and love where it's needed. We can seek reconciliation where there's fracture. We can commit to using our words as instruments of grace rather than destruction. You see, we don't wait for peace to happen. We go and make it. That's, James says, a harvest of righteousness will flow from that. In a moment, we're going to pray and sing our final song. And we've determined to do an experiment over the next few months. Um the way we take up our offering, of course, varies. And so we wanted to bring some consistency to it in our time of worship. Uh many give online, uh, which is what we do. Others give through the offering boxes in the foyer. Uh starting today for a little while, we're going to use this time of response during our final song for several things. Uh first and foremost, if you don't know Jesus, if you feel Jesus tugging at your heart, don't harden to that call. Uh, you're welcome to come down. I'm going to be down here. Uh the elders will come down and join me as well. We'll be down here at the front as we sing this last song, and we can talk to you and we can point you to Jesus. If you want to come and pray at the altar during our final song as a form of response, I welcome you to do so. If you want to be prayed for, you can come down and the elders, we can pray for you. If you want to make a tithe or an offering during this final song, uh we have the plates down here, right in front of the campfire. And we welcome that today. If you don't feel led to come forward, I encourage you instead to sing and to pray. And pray for those who need Jesus, for those who are hurting, for those that you might need to reconcile with. But let's pray together and we'll sing. And I encourage you, if you're led, to join us. Our God, we thank you for the truth of your word and for the searching light of this chapter. And we confess that we have too often spoken hastily and wounded carelessly and failed to use our tongues for the good of others and for the glory of your name. And we ask that you would do within us what we cannot do for ourselves: cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, sanctify our speech, cause our words to be marked by truth and kindness and gentleness and wisdom. Make us peacemakers, and keep us in the coming days from careless speech and from cold hearts, and bring quickly to mind the lessons that we've heard and grant that we would be doers of the word and not just hearers. And now, Lord, we commit ourselves to you. We ask all of these mercies through Jesus Christ our Lord, and we ask this for his everlasting glory and our good. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Just let this be a time of worship from your heart.