• 3 months ago
David Mortimer from Newtown Baptist returns to Chartridge with a sermon on the Book of James and its warning about learning to tame the tongue.

Chartridge Mission Church began in 1844 and is still found in the village of Chartridge, just outside of Chesham in the beautiful Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.

Filmed on Sunday, 18th August 2024.

Join us for our Sunday service at 18:00.

www.Chartridge.UK

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Transcript
00:00Well, it's nice to be here again. I think the last time was in February and it was very
00:10cold. It is nice to come here in the summer, I must confess. Driving in the daylight, going
00:17back in the daylight is great. Anyway, greetings from the folk at Newtown. We keep up to speed
00:24down there about Chartridge from certain quarters and vice versa I suppose. So it is great to
00:33be with you and to share worship together. We read these words in Psalm 19. The heavens
00:45declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they
00:53pour forth speech. Night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they
00:59use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
01:07their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
01:14It's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
01:22It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived
01:28of its warmth. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord
01:35are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy
01:40to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear
01:47of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them
01:53are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter
01:59than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned. In keeping
02:06them there is great reward. But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
02:15Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then I will be
02:21blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation
02:30of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
02:38Well, tonight we're going to be thinking about the power of words and, indeed, the tongue
02:44that well-known passage in James chapter 3 we'll be looking at under the title Taming
02:50the Tongue. Well, you know I like to bring a little story, usually a hymn story. It's
02:57a very little one today. It's about a chap called Edward Moat. Know Edward Moat? He's
03:04a name I've seen there and I've not thought much about him other than when I started work
03:11as a trainee accountant 50-odd years ago in Harrow Borough Council. The previous borough
03:19treasurer had been a Harry Moat and I'd never seen the name before other than in the Bible
03:25and it kind of amused me because, of course, take the Moat out of your eye, but not anymore
03:30in the modern versions. But Edward Moat, whether it was related to this other one I don't know,
03:37but Edward Moat, whose significant years are 1797 to 1874, is not one with a big story
03:47but it's a lovely story. The hymn writers whose songs have influenced Christians through
03:55the years haven't always come from a Christian background. Edward Moat, the author of My
04:03Hope is Built on Nothing Less, The Solid Rock on which I Stand, Edward Moat grew up
04:10in an ungodly home in London. His parents were innkeepers and he knew nothing about
04:18God or the Bible. Moat was born in 1797 and as a youth was an apprentice to a cabinet
04:26maker. When he was a teenager, his master took him to hear the preaching of John Hyatt,
04:34an evangelist missionary who preached in the slums of London. Moat received Christ as his
04:41saviour and his life was greatly changed. This cabinet maker, because that's what he
04:48carried on doing for a while, had a great interest in writing and singing hymns. One
04:55morning as he walked to work, the lines came to his mind, On Christ the solid rock I stand,
05:04all other ground is sinking sand, which became the refrain, and by the end of the day he
05:11had written four stanzas. The following Sunday he was asked to call on a friend's wife who
05:18was seriously ill. And in those days when they visited, someone would sing a hymn or
05:25read the Bible, and I'm sure that happens today, doesn't it, when we visit people. Well
05:30Moat couldn't find his hymnal, so he used the verses he had just written and sang the
05:38verses to the melody of a well-known hymn. The words ministered so to the wife that she
05:45asked for a copy. Moat went home, wrote two more stanzas, and took a copy to the dying
05:53woman. He published the song two years later, in 1836, in a collection called Hymns of Praise,
06:04a new selection of gospel hymns. It's suggested that this is the first time the term gospel
06:13hymn was used. Well at the age of 55, Moat became a Baptist preacher, and he built the
06:22building for the strict Baptist church in Horsham. Out of gratitude for their pastor,
06:30the congregation offered to give him the deed to the property, because it built it. His
06:37response was, I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit, and when I cease to
06:45praise Christ, then turn me out of that. He served there for over 20 years, until poor
06:53health caused him to reside in 1873, one year before his death. Well we haven't got many
07:01hymns from Moat in the hymn book, it's 473, if you'd like to find it, and I will read you the
07:08other two verses, which I have here. Most hymn books only have the four verses really. This was
07:18the original. Nor earth nor hell my soul can move, I rest upon unchanging love. I dare not trust the
07:28sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. The refrain is the same. My hope is built on
07:38nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Mid all the hell I feel within, on his completed
07:47work I lean. When darkness fails his lovely face, I rest upon unchanging grace. In every rough and
07:56stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, and his blood supports me in
08:03the sinking flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. I trust his
08:13righteous character, his counsel, promise, and his power. His honour and his name's at stake to save
08:25me from the burning lake. When I shall launch in worlds unseen, oh may I then be found in him,
08:32dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. And the verse that it's
08:43referenced back to is 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that which
08:52is laid, which is Jesus Christ. James chapter 3 and the first 12 verses. Not many of you should
09:06become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more
09:12strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect,
09:20able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them
09:27obey us, we can turn the whole animal, or take ships as an example. Although they are so large
09:34and are driven by strong winds, they're steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
09:43Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great
09:51forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of
10:00the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the course of one's life on fire, and is itself set
10:09on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and
10:16have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full
10:24of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings
10:32who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
10:38My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same
10:46spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?
10:55Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words
11:07will never hurt me. If only this were true. There's great power in speech, isn't there? We have the
11:19facility of speech, and it can be used well, it can be used badly.
11:29A fluent speaker can whip a crowd up into a frenzy. A stumbling speaker can turn people off.
11:40A panic-stricken individual can cause further panic to his hearers. A voice of authority
11:49can quell fears. The voice, what we say, is very powerful, isn't it? The tongue is powerful. We see
12:01this in the world, we see this in the church, we may well have suffered tongue lashings ourselves
12:07in the past, or we may remember the honeyed words of a saint of God, and we wanted more and more.
12:19Using our tongues, then, is something we do every day. Have you ever thought,
12:23how many words do I speak? How much do I say? How many things have come out that really shouldn't
12:29have come out? We need to consider carefully, then, how we use our words. We might not have
12:38ever used a gun or a sword in anger, but we may have used what we said as a weapon against someone,
12:49and we need to be so, so careful. A sharp tongue can be even more dangerous a weapon than a gun
12:58or a sword. Well, it was obviously a problem within the early church, because James is spending time
13:05in this letter, this letter written to Jewish background believers. He spends quite a good
13:11part of the letter dealing with issues arising from wrong use of the tongue. There are references
13:19to the right and wrong ways of speaking. Early on in the letter, if you look at chapter one
13:25and verse 19, a very salutary lesson. My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.
13:32Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. In verse 26 of chapter
13:42one, those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues,
13:51deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. In chapter two and verse 16,
14:00under the section headed in the NIV, Faith and Deeds, verse 16, someone is saying to another
14:08person, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, and doing nothing about it. Empty words mentioned
14:16there. The right use of the God-given gift of speech is therefore important, and we need to
14:24think about it. Yes, it's very practical, but James's letter is very practical, and we need,
14:33I think, like is suggested, to look in a mirror and just think about ourselves, and I certainly
14:40need to do that, particularly as you will see. So three headings tonight. Why say anything?
14:48If it's so dangerous, why are we saying anything? Secondly, a particular warning to those who would
14:57be teachers, and thirdly, a common problem, the tongue, for each one of us to take heed.
15:07So why say anything? Well, the facility to communicate using a breadth of words and language
15:15is pretty much unique to human beings, isn't it? Yeah, they say that dolphins communicate a bit,
15:21but they don't really have a big conversation that goes on for a long time. Monkeys, cats, birds,
15:28yeah, they're kind of communicating, but it's nothing like the gift we've been given by God
15:36to speak to one another and understand one another. Men and women, boys and girls, most of
15:44people on the planet Earth can talk to one another, can speak words, expressions,
15:53phrases, sentences, the things that come to us almost naturally. Yes, we've had to learn them
16:01as a baby, but isn't it wonderful? Isn't it amazing what comes from such a small organ,
16:09larynx, the tongue, all that? We take it for granted, but what a wonderful God we
16:15have who's designed us that we can communicate one with another. And it's only when we lose
16:23our voice, maybe through an infection or something like that, that we realise how much we rely
16:31on speech. I don't know if you remember back four years now to lockdown when we couldn't really
16:40interact much with anybody. That was bad enough, but if there were people in your house and people
16:45nearby, it did a bit. But when people were kind of isolated, it was bad. But we are
16:52social beings created by God, aren't we? And the human voice is amazing. We can speak
17:02softly or loudly, harshly or in a winsome way. And we convey what we're thinking
17:12through the tone of our voice. Imagine a parent and a child comes up to them
17:18with something they've drawn, a wonderful piece of artwork according to the child,
17:25goes up to the parent, shows the parent and the parent looks away from their mobile device and
17:33goes, that's interesting. What's that saying to the child? However, wow, that's really good.
17:41So, totally different. And we have that, again, given us by God to be able to show emotion in our voice.
17:55Human voice books is amazing. So why speech? Why do we talk? Why do we do so? Well, number one,
18:06because we are made in the image of God. He speaks. He spoke creation into being. Genesis 1
18:15has at least 14 references to God speaking. And it was so.
18:23The man Adam and the woman Eve both spoke in the Garden of Eden before the fall, didn't they?
18:29Second reason why speak, because we are called to praise God with our lips. You just go through the
18:37Psalms, including the one we had at the start of the service. We are to extol the Lord, to sing,
18:47to glorify, to proclaim and so much more. How would you do it if you're silent? You can't.
18:56So you use your lips there. Look at Ephesians 5. There's an instruction there,
19:08under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote in chapter 5, verses 18 to 19.
19:19Well, let's start at the beginning of 18. Do not get drunk on wine,
19:24which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with
19:33Psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.
19:42And then also, we are to use this gift of speech to encourage one another, to lift one another up.
19:52A kind word can often go a long way. A couple of references from Proverbs here,
20:01and there are loads more. Proverbs 12, 25. Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it
20:13up. And then chapter 16 of Proverbs, verse 24. Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul
20:26and healing to the bones. I like that. Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul
20:34and healing to the bones. And the other reason for why I speak is this. To advance the cause
20:44of the gospel. We have opportunities given us. We often say that we witness to people.
20:51What does a witness do in a court of law? They tell plainly of what they know. And we can do
21:00that through what we say to people. Yes, how we live before them, that's true. But also
21:06through backing up our deeds with our words, or the other way round. Christians can testify,
21:15that is witness for their Lord. What he's done in their life and what he is going to do when they
21:24die, that they'll be with him. We're told to proclaim and to share the gospel. And we can do
21:33it with the gift of speech. Well, that's some of the responsibilities. Why have we got it? That's
21:39some of the reasons. But let's go on to the warnings. Back to James chapter 3. And there
21:46is a particular warning in verses 1 and 2. Words particularly addressed to teachers.
21:58Particularly those likely to be in those sort of positions within a church. But it does have
22:04application for all of us really, as you will see. Because sometimes we help others by showing them
22:12things from the scripture. Well, that's kind of teaching. Although here it's probably talking
22:17about those who have formal authority in the church. But let's listen to what the Lord says
22:24here. James probably had Jewish background teachers in his mind. Those who had liked to
22:33be called rabbi, to be noticed. Those sort of people, they could well have been from that kind
22:41of background. And maybe we're still bringing it with them. Such teachers might be great in their
22:48own eyes. But were they in God's eyes? You remember Nicodemus? Came to Jesus by night. He was a Pharisee.
22:58Member of the Jewish council of Sanhedrin. Came by night. He didn't want to be seen.
23:03But Jesus had words for him. You must be born again. You know very well what
23:10the conversation went into. But in verse 10 you get this.
23:24The person who was supposed to teach others, Nicodemus,
23:28didn't understand himself any of the fundamentals that Jesus was teaching him.
23:35So how could Nicodemus then teach others? His credibility was in question. To be a teacher,
23:44to tell other gospel things, matters of life and death, is a high calling. It's an awesome
23:50responsibility. The opportunity to speak of these things is a great privilege. But it's an awesome
23:59responsibility. Paul, who we consider to be a great servant of the gospel, knew that.
24:07He had a very low opinion of himself. And he gave all the glory to God.
24:13In Ephesians 3 verse 8.
24:28To be a teacher of God's word, then, is a noble thing, not to be taken lightly. And James here wants to put the record straight.
24:38He recognises that no teacher will be perfect. Verse 2 tells us that.
24:47These teachers are no better than anyone else in terms of their background in sin.
24:53But they have this extra responsibility now and they need to fulfil it well in God's sight.
25:00And that's awesome for people who stand in the pulpit, teach in the Sunday school,
25:07teaching ladies' meetings, all that kind of stuff. It's a profound privilege, but it's a great
25:14responsibility, as I say. Therefore, clowning around in the pulpit is not wise, it's not right.
25:23Being flippant with the things of God, some people are, that's not right either.
25:31Preachers and teachers should use their words carefully. Speak as a dying man to dying men.
25:42Huge responsibility then. But Jesus has words for teachers. Luke 12.
25:53Luke 12 verse 48.
26:00It's so easy in these days of small things to be tempted by the quick winds.
26:21There's some churches where they'll be having a sort of disco thing tonight, I'm sure.
26:27Let's stick to the truth. Let's stick to the Lord. The gospel is not entertainment.
26:34People will be entertained to death. The gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ
26:41and it's life. And it's life to the full. That's the message we should be proclaiming.
26:48But let's go in, particularly now then, to the tongue. Not what teachers say, but what all of us
26:56may say, not say. Let's look at the tongue. And the first thing we should know is that it is
27:03extremely powerful. These pictures in James are vivid, aren't they? They're great pictures.
27:11If we can direct our tongues, we can direct our lives. We need to control our tongues,
27:20not to be controlled by them. And the pictures here are of a horse and a ship.
27:28First one then, let's picture a horse, a fine stallion or mare, strong legs, racing down that
27:37course at Ascot, or maybe in the Grand National, jumping fences. How does the jockey control that
27:44horse? Through the bits. A piece of metal, rubber, or plastic that applies pressure to the horse's
27:54mouth, and which is itself attached to the bridle and reins. That's what causes the horse to go
28:03That's what causes the horse to go that way or that way. Yes, they'll get it to go faster,
28:09but maybe by giving it a little kick. But the direction it goes in is the one that is dictated
28:17by the way in which that bit is being influenced. An animal weighing up to something like 400
28:27kilograms can be directed by a man or a woman an eighth of that weight because of that.
28:36Incredible, isn't it? Okay, hold that in your head, and then think about a ship. Maybe today
28:43you might think of an oil tanker or a container ship or a warship or an aircraft carrier,
28:49one of those great big vessels. What controls the direction in which that ship is going?
28:57The rudder. The tiny item at the ship's rear. The stern? Is that right?
29:07I think it's the stern. Yeah, the back of the ship. Even though there may be many other forces
29:13seeking to drive the ship along, maybe the waves, the wind, certainly in the olden days that was
29:19the case, the rudder has the greatest influence in directing the ship in the way it should go.
29:27Again, it's a tiny, tiny part. Apparently, it's a tenth of one percent of the whole structure,
29:37but it has a disproportionate influence. If the rudder is under control, the ship is under
29:44control. Given the sort of boats that they had in James's day,
29:49this was a matter of life and death. The ship had to go where you wanted it to go.
29:58Well, he goes on to say, likewise, the tongue is very small, but it's very, very powerful,
30:07and so it can make great boasts. It can be used for good or evil. It can go either way.
30:16James is suggesting that it often doesn't go the right way. If it goes the wrong way,
30:23there are disastrous consequences. That's where James, of course, develops a picture
30:31into the fact that the tongue can be extremely destructive. What we say can cause untold hurt.
30:40This is where we get the other picture, of course, of a great forest fire set off by a tiny spark.
30:49I don't need to ask you to visualize that, really, do I? In recent years, there were some in
30:55Australia. There were some in Greece very recently. There were some on Greek islands last year.
31:02Great big fires, swathes of countryside, burnt down. Indeed, we had some in the UK, didn't we?
31:11Not too... Was it last year, year before? Over London Way, discarded cigarette, a barbecue
31:19left smouldering. Just a spark and devastation on a large scale. A small spark is all that's
31:30required. Well, James, again, is using that picture to focus our minds. He's telling us
31:38that the tongue is like this. A seemingly small thing, a little thing, a careless word, for
31:44example, can turn into a major disaster in the home, in the family, in the church.
31:542020 saw the 850th anniversary of Thomas Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral.
32:04Many historians, certainly when I was at school, believed that this happened because a group of
32:11knights overheard King Henry II saying, will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?
32:19And they acted upon what they'd heard. Now, he didn't mean it, it seems, because
32:26there was a lot of penance that he did subsequently.
32:30But those words were taken possibly out of context, and there was murder committed.
32:37You can see how people's passions can get inflamed by people in authority. People who
32:44perhaps should know better. I won't go into the details. You see it on the news, but there are
32:49rabble rousers in various nations of the world. The tongue is dangerous. Small,
32:56small, but not insignificant. Extremely dangerous. The tongue can burn with a fire
33:07from the place where fires never go out. That is hell. If you go to Matthew
33:16chapter 15, you find the Lord Jesus speaking about this. The Lord Jesus speaks about what comes
33:24out of a person. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their
33:32mouth, that's what defiles them. And then he explains what that means later in that chapter.
33:39Our tongues can speak with poison, because they can be hellish. We can be influenced by the evil
33:47one. Pray that you won't be. But we do need to be very aware of these things. So the tongue is
33:54powerful. It's destructive. And thirdly, James reinforces his message by telling us that
34:04naturally speaking, our tongues are ungovernable. That actually they run away with us if we're not
34:13careful. And he draws our attentions to the animals. Another picture. We've got it, haven't we,
34:20in verses 7 and 8. He contrasts the animals. Animals can be trained, generally speaking.
34:31It's fair to say. My son has got himself a puppy in the last six months, and I've seen him
34:43deal with this puppy. This puppy is absolutely scared stiff of Andrew now, I think. Martin and
34:50Pat will have seen the early days of the puppy, and she was all over the place, wasn't she, really?
34:56Now, stay there, we can tame animals. But the tongue, can we tame that?
35:07Well, it says here, no human being can tame the tongue. So what's the hope? Well, the hope is
35:15that the Lord Jesus coming into our lives has made the difference, that our tongues then become
35:23under his sovereignty, as all of our bodies are, and we submit to him. We think about what we're
35:33saying. We wonder whether it would honour him to say such and such a thing, to not say something
35:42in a certain situation. We need to be careful that our unregenerate self, if you like,
35:52doesn't surface. Yes, I know, we can't be unregenerate again. But if we're Christians,
36:00we need to subject the tongue, just like we subject every aspect of our life, to the sovereignty of
36:07Christ. We have to think through. He, our Saviour, never uttered a word that was inappropriate,
36:18flippant, or wrong. His words were perfect. They were like words from that honeycomb.
36:26So should our words be. So we do need to review what we say, how we say it, when we say it, don't
36:33we? Yes, our tongues are the overflow of our hearts. This is a very humbling passage. Our hearts,
36:45if they're full of Christ, should influence our words to be equally full of him. But we can so
36:54easily be taken in by emotion. Let's pray that we will be those who are good ambassadors for him,
37:05good witnesses for him indeed, as we are called to do. The tongue, you see, is a kind of
37:14spiritual barometer. It reveals what's going on inside us. If you look at verses 9 to 12,
37:23as we close, you'll see that we are contradictory people.
37:31The Jews open and close each day with blessings upon God, but in between there be cursing men.
37:38We're not to be like that. The Christian who can pray to the Lord in exalted language,
37:45but who breathes ridicule at everybody who does not quite live up to his expectations,
37:51has not faced his own depravity. We need to, you know, take that
37:59beam out of our own life before we take that moat out of somebody else's.
38:07It's a humbling passage. It's a simple message we've got here in one respect.
38:14James says in verse 10, out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
38:19My brothers and sisters, this should not be, and goes on to explain why.
38:26If our hearts are on fire for the Lord, we won't be breathing fire on other people.
38:32We'll be breathing balm. We'll be those people who are coming alongside others,
38:40and who will be those who have those honoured words. We should be using our tongues for good,
38:48not for evil. Quick to listen, slow to speak. The spirit of this age is to make yourself heard.
38:58As Christians, yes, we should be speaking about Saviour. That's what we're told to do.
39:04But not by battering people, not shouting at them. We should be winsome in order to win some.
39:18Jesus, and then James, give us instructions then. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says,
39:25let your yes be yes, let your no be no. Christians should be people of integrity,
39:34not people of many words. People who honour the Saviour above all in their words and deeds.
39:45May we be like that. Let's pray that that is the case. May he help us to do so. Amen.