Taming the Tongue: Application (V)
(This is a sermon transcript, and may contain small inaccuracies.)
One of the most sobering statements found in the scripture, anywhere in the Word of God, is found in Proverbs 18 and verse 21. And it is this, death and life are in the power of the tongue. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Solomon, he here is asserting the sobering fact that deposited in the activity of this relatively small fleshly organ that is between the cheeks, upper and lower jaws, placed behind two rows of teeth, is this organ possessing the awesome power of life and death. And it is out of a deep pastoral concern that the life-giving power of our tongues be, by the grace of God, more fully exercised, and the death-emparting power be fully, by the grace of God, restrained, that we are engaged in an extended application of James 3:1-12, concerning the tongue, bridling of the tongue, taming the tongue. And I trust, by now, you are convinced, persuaded, that the use of your tongue and mine is indeed a major concern in the teaching of the Word of God, a concern with respect to the nature and fruit of human depravity, the nature and fruit and reality of true saving faith, saving religion, to use James' language, and the nature and the fruit of practical spirit-wrought godliness of life.
We then proceeded to examine four major sins of the tongue that are identified in the Word of God, defined and condemned by the Word of God, namely, you remember I trust the sin of lying, the sin of corrupt or unwholesome speech, the sin of abusive speech, and then fourthly, the sin of gossipy, meddlesome, intrusive speech. Tonight, as we bring this to a conclusion, well, not quite tonight. We couldn't condense all of them in one message to bring this to a conclusion, but I would like to consider the following. What does the Bible tell us with regards to this question? What question? Well, how may we overcome these sins of the tongue?
Of course, the fundamental, the essential prerequisite for overcoming the sins of the tongue, prerequisite, that word prerequisite, is something required before, and essential, essential prerequisite is one that you cannot do without. So what is the essential, that essential prerequisite without which there's no hope that I shall overcome the sins of the tongue, without which there's no hope that I would tame the tongue? That essential prerequisite is nothing less than the radical transforming power of God's regenerating grace.That is foundational. That is the essential prerequisite.
In a context that really oozes with the subject of words, you remember Jesus said in Matthew 12:33-35, that there must be a making of the corrupt tree into a good tree so that it may bring forth good fruit. Which in context, we all know, it's referring to good words. That the making of the evil treasure of the heart into a good treasure so that it may bring forth good things is the great concern set forth by our Lord in that chapter. This is what Paul describes in Titus 3, in verse 5, as the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
Or what is described in the promise of the New Covenant blessing in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 as the removal of the heart of stone and implanting by the power of God the heart of flesh. Giving the heart of flesh by the Holy Spirit, writing the law of God upon the tablet of the heart, giving the enabling power of the Spirit with respect to the will of God. Without this work of God, we have no gospel born power to overcome our sins, whatever they may be.
And secondly, we have no gospel born motives to overcome the sins of the tongue. And our motives can be described as the motors, the engines of our activity. And it's only when we are motivated by gospel born motives that there will be sufficient internal incentive to overcome the sins of the tongue. And that's why Paul says what he says in Romans 6. Our obedience then as a result of the power of regenerating work of God is what? Obedience from the heart.
Tonight, I would like to set before us the first three of six general biblical directives for overcoming the sins of the tongue. And assuming that you have experienced that radical spirit-wrought transformation of God's regenerating grace, what then are you to do, if anything, to overcome the sins of the tongue? To tame the tongue. What are we to do so that day after day there is by the grace of God an increasing measure of grace to overcome the sins of the tongue? Do we simply sit back and, you know, let go and let God? Do we sit back and allow the fruit to be born on its own with no deliberate conscious effort of our own, or on our own?
Do we passively now say, well, oh, God, you made the tree good, and you've said a good tree brings forth good fruit? Lord, let the fruit be born. No. No.
As we have been reminded many times, there's no more critical text that condenses the biblical teaching on how regenerate sinners, born again believers, live the Christian life than Philippians 2:12-13, in which Paul says, and you're familiar with this text, right? “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,” here it is, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure”.
And in that text, that only causes people to scratch their heads, who don't understand the ways of God, the Apostle Paul says, you Philippians, I want you to engage all of your faculties and all of your power and conscious that you are living before the face of God. I want you to give yourself with all of your faculties and powers to the working out of your salvation, that Spirit-wrought salvation. And I want you to do so in the confidence that God all the while is continually, effectually, working in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
In other words, the Apostle Paul is not ashamed. He is unashamed to say that God's working in us assures the possibility of my working. You work out for it is God who is working in you, and my working is the validation, manifestation of His working in me. Because He does not work by passing my willing and my working, but He works in me to will and to work. So I can then marshal all of my faculties, knowing that I'm not on a fool's errand, then God's at work in me. He's made the tree good, it can bring forth good fruit. He's made the treasure good, it can bring forth good things. So then in this consciousness of my need of His working in me to overcome the sins of the tongue, and in the determination to work at overcoming the sins of the tongue, the question is, what am I to do?
Here's the first of the three directives for tonight. It is this. Number one, we ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues. We ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God would guard our tongues. Ought. It's an important word, ought.
Ought is a word of duty, and I know in many circles today, it is considered a dirty word. But ought is a good word. It is thinking biblically. Paul could say to the Thessalonians, “we ask and exhort you,” 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us, as to how you,” what? “Ought to walk.” How you ought to walk.
And please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. So it's a good work. And so I'm asserting tonight that when we go to our Bibles with the question, O God, in the working out of my salvation, with fear and trembling, with respect to this specific concern related to my tongue, the sins of the tongue, how do I overcome the sins of my tongue? That the answer of Scripture is that we ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God would guard our tongues.
You remember when the disciples said in Luke 11, Lord, teach us to pray? Jesus answered by saying, “When you pray, say.” And at the end of the framework of prayer, that framework of prayer, we have these words, Luke 11:4, and “lead us not into” - peirasmós
“temptation,” in that context. The Lord is saying, when you pray, be sure that incorporated into your prayers are what? Consistent, earnest petitions that you will be kept from sin.
Consistent, earnest petitions that you will be kept from sin. And in the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, where the words are not when you pray, say, but pray then in this way, in this manner, clearly indicating that this is a framework for prayer, and within that framework, we find these words in verse 13 of Matthew 6, “and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
So, generically, we know that any well-instructed Christian walking according to the Word of God or the directives of the Lord Jesus Christ will have as part of his prayer life, engaging in consistent, earnest prayer that he be kept from sin. And I want to, by the grace of God, the help of the Spirit, seek to demonstrate from scripture that that generic concern needs to be focused specifically in our context upon this tiny member, the tongue.
Well turn with me to Psalm 141. Psalm 141, a very important passage, verse 1, “O Yahweh, I call upon you, hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be established as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” Here it is, “set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips.” What an important prayer. In verses 1 and 2 of the psalm, David prays earnestly that his prayer will be heard. Lord, I call, but in calling, Lord, please, please hear me. Hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you. And then he uses this beautiful imagery in verse 2, “May my prayer be established as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” As God would smell the incense from a sacrifice offered in the tabernacle, and God would smell it, and it would be a sweet savor to him.
Just like that, David says, “O God, give ear to my voice when I call to You!” When I cry out to You. Lord, let my prayer be sweet to your nostrils as the evening sacrifice. May it be a sweet smelling aroma well received in your sight.
Then, having pleaded that his prayer will be heard, notice what his first actual petition is that he desires will be heard by God. What is it? Verse 3. That's his first petition. “Set a guard, O Yahweh.” - Set a guard over my mouth - “Keep watch over the door of my lips.” You see those two words? Guard, keep. Two verbs, or one verb, one noun. “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” You see these words, guard and keep, along with their, what we call cognates. Cognates, when people talk about the cognates, that's the verbal cousins. You know, first cousin, second cousin, third cousin, twice removed, uncle, aunt, whatever. It's words that come out of the same family. They have family relationship, and these words, guard, keep, and they're cognates. The verbal cousins, aunts and uncles, are the very words used to describe what? A military activity of placing soldiers in a strategic place in order to guard something or someone.
We find the words used that way in Judges 7:19, Nehemiah 4:9. Now, usually, when a military guard, a watch is posted somewhere, it is to prevent unwarranted entrance into a protected area, like outside the city gates. You remember in the Gospels, they set a guard, a watch, outside the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to prevent any unwarranted intrusion, in order to prevent anyone from going in and supposedly removing his body, then the Jewish authority, you remember, they said they would claim that he had been raised from the dead, as he prophesied he would. So generally, a watch is set to keep unwarranted people from entering somewhere.
Now, here, David, with that military imagery, he's asking God to do something, and he's asking him to do this. “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Do you see what the imagery is? He says, Lord, I want a sentinel, a guard, to be set outside my lips, and I'm likening my lips to a door. I will not be able to speak unless the door swings open, and then I'll speak. But as long as the door is shut, I am silent. And, Lord, I want you to set a guard over my mouth. And I want you, Lord, to be the doorkeeper over the door of my lips. I am conscious, Lord, that unless you do this, the hinges on the door of my lips will be opening in times and in circumstances when they ought not to be opened. Will you not please, O Lord, act as a sentinel over the door of my lips? That's David's prayer.
Now, having prayed that and picturing that prayer as coming like incense into the ears of God, here's the question that we must ask and answer. If God were to speak to David and respond audibly, what would he say? What would he say? All right, David, I'll do that. Leave the whole thing to me. I'll take care of it, beginning to end. No. I think from the analogy of scripture, we could say God would say, my son David, I will answer that prayer, and in answer to that prayer, I will set four sentinels in front of the door of your lips. In fact, I'll send four captains, and on that door of your lips, I'm going to put four locks in vertical arrangement, every one of them with the deadbolt, one, two, three, four. And David, when you pray that I would set a guard upon your mouth, and that I would keep watch over the door of your lips, David, I answer your prayer by sending you four sentinels, each with a key in his hand. And David, when your words are knocking on the backside of the door, I charge my sentinels to ask them, do you meet my criteria for coming out? If so, I'll put my key into the lock and turn it. And David, unless all four of the captains turn their key, the door should be kept shut, and you should keep your words to yourself. And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.
Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips. All right, David, when you knock, about to speak, and Captain Purity says, David, are the words coming out of your mouth up to the standards of sanctity, purity? They are not lying words. They are not corrupt, unwholesome words. They are not abusive words. They are not intrusive, meddlesome words. And David can say, yes, Captain Sanctity, Captain Purity. They are none of those. And Captain Sanctity says, I'll put my key in. And David hears the deadbolt retract. Then of course, Captain Love speaks up. David is still knocking. I want these words to have exit. Captain Love says, David, are you going to speak the truth in love? Ephesians 4:15. Romans 13:10, “Love does not work evil against a neighbor.” Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Are the words which you're about to speak motivated by love, David? A love that does not seek to do ill, a love that is determined in some cases to wound, “for faithful are the wounds of a friend,” Proverbs 27, verse 6. Paul can say of the Romans, in Romans 15:14, “I am persuaded of you that you are full of goodness, able to admonish one another,”not the gushy notion of love, the syrupy notion of love that will never rebuke, never admonish in love. But is the word that desires an exit, a word that is motivated by love, love that seeks the good of its object, love that is not easily provoked, that seeks not its own? And if David says, yes, Captain Love, these words are motivated by love, shaped by love, then Captain Love will say, I'll place my key in the lock, and places it in, and another dead bolt retracts.
But then Captain Necessity speaks. Are these words necessary to be spoken, David? Are they words that just want to come out and run all over the place? For the scripture says in Proverbs 10 and verse 19, this very interesting practical thing, by the way. Listen to what Proverbs 10 and 19 says, “When there are many words, transgression is” - what? “unavoidable, But he who holds back his lips has insight.” Yes, Captain Necessity, love demands that I speak these words for a number of good reasons. They need to be spoken. And then Captain Necessity says, I'll put my key right in, and it retracts the bolt.
And finally, there's Captain Propriety. Captain Propriety. I like that word. We don't use it enough.
What is propriety? Well, what is proper? What is fitting? What is suitable? There's a marvelous passage that has to do with this. It indicates that this man, Elihu, the younger man who stood around and watched and listened as Job's comforters spewed out all of their verbiage. Turn with me to Job 32. He had a sense of the propriety of words. Listen to what he said in Job 32.
Elihu says this, verse 4, Job 32. “Now Elihu had waited with his words for Job.” Stop right there.
He waited for, he waited with his words for Job. There was a bolt yet, on Elihu's door. He was listening, and as he was listening, he was feeling things very deeply.
Verse 2, “But the anger of Elihu, the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned; against Job his anger burned because he was proving himself righteous before God. And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now, Elihu had waited with his words for Job because they were years older than he.” Interesting, isn't it? You see, Elihu believed that he had vital words to speak, words that needed to be spoken in a love that is not contradicted with righteous anger.
But there was one sentinel that he couldn't get past, and that was Captain Propriety. I'm the kid here. These men are the elders. I'm the young guy, and these are the older ones who ought to be giving wisdom in their speech, and I'm younger, and it's not seemly for a young guy to be shouting off his mouth in the presence of older, reputed, wise men. And as deeply as I feel, none of them has hit the mark. Job is off the mark, his friends are off the mark. It is not proper in ordinary circumstances for a young man to be shouting off his mouth in the presence of the older man. It's not proper. And then we read in verse 6, “So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said, “I am young in years, and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you my knowledge. I thought age should speak, And increased years should make wisdom known.”” But, verse 8, and now he goes on to tell them why.
His initial sense of the impropriety of his speaking is being overcome so that now he is ready to speak. And I think it's a marvellous example of Captain Propriety standing at the door of Elihu's mouth, and until he can say to Captain Propriety, look, initially your refusal to open the door, I consent was right. However, and then he makes the case that it's time to draw back the bolt, and out come his words.
Love does not behave itself unseemly, it does not act unbecomingly, 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul says to Timothy, you remember, an apostolic representative with the authority of the Apostle standing above him and behind him, Timothy, 1 Timothy 5:1, “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather plead with him as a father.” Propriety. Timothy makes sure that the manner in which you speak to older men can pass the test with Captain Propriety. And when those four sentinels turn the bolts, then you could say, Lord, O Lord, thank you for watching over the door of my mouth, my lips, that I might speak that which is honoring to you. And that would prevent me from speaking that which is dishonoring to you. Grievous, unedifying to others. Lord, thank you. Thank you for hearing my prayers, that you would set a guard over my mouth, and that you would keep watch over the door of my lips.
You see? Maybe you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, are you serious? You're really serious about this? That before I say anything, I should run down that checklist with the four captains? Listen. Listen, beloved. Here's the point. When you have conditioned your conscience to think in these biblical categories, it is amazing how quickly these things can be run through, and at times, in really milliseconds. What I'm appealing for is not some kind of legalism that we go around with a checklist to mute until we come up to one another, and someone, someone, after like ten minutes of silence, dares to say, I think I've got a word that came by the four sentinels. And then you stand there, mute for another ten minutes, and going da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da in your head. No, no. That's not the point. Not talking about that.
God doesn't lay upon us the ludicrous. But I do believe the text that I've quoted under these four headings validate that our speech is to be speech that does indeed pass the test of purity. It's not dishonest speech. It's not corrupting speech. It is not abusing speech. It is not meddlesome speech. And we've spent four weeks demonstrating that from the word of God concerning those four major sins of the tongue. And surely, if we're to walk in love and speak the truth in love and whatever else is present in us, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I've become what? A noisy gong and a clanking symbol. I am nothing, Paul says. Surely, our speech should pass the scrutiny of sentinel Captain Love. And then likewise, with necessity, all that the scripture speaks about unnecessary speech and Captain Propriety, then we'll much less find ourselves repenting of things that we shouldn't have said, careless, loveless, improper things, things that we say to one another about one another.
Could it be, could it be that many of our sins of the tongue are the results of simply not crying to God like David did? For James reminds us, you have not. Why? Because you ask not.
May I pastorally entreat you as I had to have dealings with God in preparation concerning this? May I entreat you as an under shepherd, and I can't bind your conscience, but I certainly can plead with you to determine that in the coming week, that you will incorporate into your own devotional prayer at least one utterance from the heart of Psalm 141, verse 3. Once a day, perhaps.
That's an entreaty. It's an entreaty. Like I said, I can't bind your conscience by it.
I can, however, bind your conscience by the Word of God, that your speech ought to be pure and loving and necessary and proprietous, as that applies to me as well. I can't bind your conscience to take this step to say, you must pray at least once a day, Psalm 141, verse 3, but I can entreat you, can't I? I can plead.
And it is not laborious, burdensome, entreaty to pray, Set, “set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Before a phone call, “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.” And then you make that call. Before a text, an email, pray Psalm 141, verse 3. It is very, very easy to let all kinds of things come out of the door of your lips, through your fingers, texting, emailing, through electrical impulses in the laptop computer, your phone, that would never pass the approval and get by the bolts of Captain Purity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, Captain Propriety. And so I urge you, I entreat you, as I urge my own heart, if you are serious about overcoming the sins of the tongue, then cry to God in all of your relationships and pray Psalm 141, verse 3. If indeed we take this seriously, we will engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues.
Now, in the second place, we not only ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues, but secondly, the second directive, we ought to engage in the conscious, constant effort to bridle our tongues. I know. I know that a division without a distinction ought not to be. And some may think, well, there's a lot of overlapping in that, isn't there? Yes, I consent. But I want biblical images to be stamped on your heart and mind. And there's a biblical image in two critical texts that is completely distinct and different from the image of the guard, and that is the image of the bridle or the muzzle.
And so we ought to engage in the conscious constant effort to bridle, to muzzle our tongues. In the first directive, we focused on crying out to God, and yet it did involve our activity of consulting the captains of the door of our lips. The biblical imagery of the bridle or the muzzle focuses on our conscious activity in a totally different category of imagery.
Text number one, Psalm 39, verse one. Psalm 39, verse one. And if you read through the psalm, it's obvious that there's a situation in which David felt something very, very, very deeply.
He says at the end of verse two, Psalm 39, “And my anguish grew worse. My heart”, verse three, was hot within me.” Anguish grew worse, heart was hot within me, yet for compelling reasons, and if we read the psalm carefully, we see it was the honor of God.
He judges. It was not yet time to speak. So what does he do? Verse one, “I said, “I will keep watch over my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will keep watch over my mouth, as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence,” I was mute with silence, I even kept silent from speaking good, and my anguish grew worse. My heart was hot within me, while I meditated, the fire was burning. Then I spoke with my tongue.”
So you see the situation. Here David feels something very, very deep. His heart is hot within him. His anguish grew worse. Everything within him wants to break out and articulate this with his mouth, with his lips, but he's not able to do so. There are good and wise reasons to be restrained, to be, to hold back. And so what does he do? He says in verse 1, I renewed my determination that I would be careful about my way, particularly that I would not sin with my tongue.
In other words, David knew himself well enough to know, here's a situation where I could sin with this member, this tiny little member, and I was determined that I would not carelessly walk into a path of sin. And so he says, “I said, “I will keep watch over my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.”” And then he uses this imagery, “I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle.”
Now, whether it's the bridle or the muzzle, the imagery is graphic. If it's a bridle, what do you do when you bridle a horse? And we studied that together, right? Here's this majestic animal, this bundle of muscle and sinew, and the unbridled horse goes wherever he wills, does whatever he wants to do, and he goes wherever he wills at whatever speed he wants. But when he's bridled, no matter how much he wants to move, now picture that horse bringing his head up and down, up and down, snorting through his nostrils, pawing with his feet, with his foot, but the rider is in control. Everything in that huge beast with all the muscle and sinew wants to go here, wants to go there, in keeping with his own will, but the rider holds him in with a firm grip. A firm grip upon the reins, joined to the bridle.
Or the imagery of a muzzle. Think of that yelping dog howling on a hill, thinking he'll scare everyone around him. And you go to that animal, and you put a muzzle on its mouth, and that holds shut his upper and lower jaws. David says, that's what I did with myself. That's what he says.“I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle.” My mouth at this time may be like an energetic horse that is pawing the ground, bopping his neck up and down, determined to go, but I'm going to rein it in, conscious, with a conscious, deliberate effort. It may be like a yapping, yelping dog. I'm going to clamp the hands of my soul over my mouth and shut it up. I'm going to muzzle it.
Now, beloved, the point is this. You don't do this. I don't do this unconsciously. You don't do this while you're sleeping. You don't do this without thought. That's the point. And it's an important point. You don't do this without the full engagement of the activity of your will. And that's the point that we need to underscore. When I say we ought, having prayed that God would set a guard over our mouths and keep watch over the door of our lips, we ought under the imagery of this passage, we ought to engage in conscious constant effort to bridle, to muzzle our tongues and our mouth. That's what we're saying. And though we may feel something very deeply, so deeply, that we can say, like David, our hearts are hot within us. It's like fire within our breast yearning to break out.
Nevertheless, we bridle it. We muzzle it. We restrain the yelping dog. Now, the New Testament passage that takes up the same imagery is, of course, James 1, right? We've gone over that. A text we looked at in our studies of James. Just turn with me there for a minute. James 1, verse 26. James 1, verse 26. James says, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue,” who bridles it? Who bridles it? Not the Lord. He does. Enabled by the Lord, of course, but he does. His power, yes, but his power, enabling me to do what God requires of me to do. He does. While not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is what? Worthless.
There's the imagery again. Anyone who thinks himself to be the possessor of true and vital saving religion in its internal reality, as well as in its external expression, who is stranger to conscious, deliberate, effective restraint of the natural impulses of the tongue, James says that person is self-deceived. That's what James says.
If you don't know what it like at times to feel that restraining, your tongue is like holding back a horse that wants to bust out of the gate and go running at breakneck speed, he says then you're a stranger to real religion. The possessor of true saving religion is no stranger to this activity. This conscious deliberate reigning in of the tongue.
Now, this has peculiar application when we are in social settings. When there is an atmosphere of conviviality and a nice, happy, pleasant atmosphere, words are flowing, hands are moving, and particularly an area in which we can, in that context, so quickly get so careless with our words. And we need to cry to God when we come into such circumstance, Oh, God, help me to take hold of the reins and the bridle. Lord, give me grace that I may not sin with my tongue.
Just look at a couple of passages in Proverbs. Proverbs 17:28, “Even an ignorant fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise.” Wow. An ignorant fool, when he's silent, is considered wise. And when he closes his lips, he is considered understanding. This guy doesn't know much, but he keeps his mouth shut, and you just don't know how little he knows. So he's wise. Solomon says, even the ignorant fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. At least he's got enough wisdom to know how to take the reins upon his mouth and keep quiet when he ought to, and not be running off at the mouth. Right?
Proverbs 13, verse 3, the same vein, not identical, but similar, “The one who guards his mouth keeps his soul; the one who opens wide his lips comes” - to what? - “ruin”. Ruin. The language is very strong. Remember what James said in James 3, every kind of beast and birds has been tamed, but the tongue, no man can tame, it's unruly. And that's true of all of us left to ourselves. And we need to cry to God not only for the divine sentinel, that we may know the grace and power of God to guard our mouth, and the door of our lips, but that we may be enabled to muzzle our mouths by the grace of God.
And then briefly, very briefly, as we conclude this evening, and I pray this would be encouraging to you and to me tonight, not only we ought to be engaged in a constant earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues. Not only ought we to engage in conscious constant effort to bridle our tongue, very briefly, number three, we ought to engage in continual faith-suffused response to the reality of our union with Christ.
Now, what in the world am I talking about? Turn to Romans 6. We ought to engage in continual faith-suffused response to the reality of our union with Christ. Paul had opened up in chapters 3:21, all the way to chapter 5, the marvelous doctrine of justification by faith, God imputing to sinners the very righteousness of Christ, so that where sin abounds, grace much more abound. Then Paul takes up what might be called the devil's logic in chapter 6 and verse 1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?” And Paul's answer, very, very vivid, graphic, powerful language in Greek, mḕ génoito, God forbid, may it never be ever. And then he says these words, “how shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We who are such as have died to sin. This translation brings forward the emphasis of the words and construction in Greek. We who are such who, we who are, who in our true identity as Christians, we who are such as have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? Impossible.
And having made that pivotal statement, then Paul goes on in verses 3 through 10, to give us what we would call these wonderful indicatives. These wonderful indicatives. He's declaring what is true of us, if we are indeed in Christ, if we have known that radical life-transforming work of the Spirit, and we are now united to Christ and united to Him in such a way that the virtue of His death, burial, and resurrection is passed over into us, we died with Him, we were buried with Him, we were raised with Him, we are now in union with Christ. Those are the great indicatives.
Then He takes up the imperatives that grow out of the indicatives.
What am I to do in the light of who I am in union with Christ? Verse 11, “Even so, consider yourselves,” - reckon yourselves - “to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” You say, I don't feel very dead unto sin. Listen, listen, beloved, it has nothing to do with your feelings.
Did you hear that? It has nothing to do with your feelings. It's the reality of who you are.
Fix your mind on this reality and say, Oh God, I don't feel this way, but help my heart catch up with my head. Help my feelings catch up with what I know to be true and real. And it's as if someone says, all right, considering ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ, what are the practical things growing out of that?
Paul says, let me tell you, verse 12. Look at this. This is magnificent. Not only, by the way, not only this is revolutionary when it comes to the sins of the tongue, but when it comes to really sin in general, how to live as believers. “Therefore,” - he says, - “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Here are the imperatives.
In the light of the great indicatives, who I am as a new man, new woman in Christ, I am such as have died to sin in union with Jesus Christ, and in light of that, I'm to reckon on that reality. I'm to count it as true, because it is true. And counting that as true, I am then to assert that I do not need to be under the lordship of sin. My tongue does not need to be. There is no moral necessity that my tongue be an instrument of sin, because I'm no longer under that dominion. And if it's not to be this, this is what I must do. I must determine that I will not present my members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, and sin will come as a usurper, master, and say, Give me your tongue. I want to use your tongue for my purposes. Paul personifies sin as a master. I want this, member. I want your hands to steal. I want your eyes to lust.
I want your feet to go to forbidden places and forbidden paths. I want your tongue to lie, to speak abusive speech, corrupting speech, intrusive, gossipy, meddlesome speech. Paul says, no, no. You refuse to present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But you say, as alive from the dead, as alive from the dead, I belong to him. I belong to God through the work of Christ. And I present myself to him. And I present my members to be instruments of righteousness unto God, because he is my master.
Lord, here's my tongue. May it know the virtue and power of my union with Christ. That the sin-breaking, sin-conquering power of Jesus, that is mine in him, oh Lord, may my tongue know that conquering power, for you have said, sin shall no longer exercise lordship over me. You said it, Lord, and if you said it, it's true. I'm no longer in that realm of bondage. No longer. No longer. In that realm of bondage, I am in Christ, free in Christ, empowered by Christ, to live a life of righteousness to the glory of Christ. And you and I, beloved, need to learn more and more to bring those gospel dynamics of what I've called faith-suffused response to the implications of our union in Christ if we're to know an increasing measure of victory over the sins of our tongues, over sin in our life.
May our minds and our hearts be really suffused with this truth, that we really take it to heart. Sin shall no longer exercise mastery, lordship, dominion over me. No more.
I am in Christ. Died with him, buried with him, and raised to newness of life with him. Let's pray.
Our Father, we thank You. We thank You. Oh, how we thank You for Your Word.
Oh, that precious Word, a lamp to our feet, a light to our pathway. We pray that in this matter of the sins of the tongue, we may know Your grace to internalize and apply and work out in fear and trembling all that we have considered from Your word tonight.
Lord, don't let us simply take these things as another sermon and walk away the same. But by Your grace, may we know that You're working in us in power even as You promised. And so we ask this evening that You dismiss us with Your blessing. Watch over us as we go each to our homes. And may we this week know Your nearness and the working of Your spirit in us and among us. All to the praise of Your glory. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Solomon, he here is asserting the sobering fact that deposited in the activity of this relatively small fleshly organ that is between the cheeks, upper and lower jaws, placed behind two rows of teeth, is this organ possessing the awesome power of life and death. And it is out of a deep pastoral concern that the life-giving power of our tongues be, by the grace of God, more fully exercised, and the death-emparting power be fully, by the grace of God, restrained, that we are engaged in an extended application of James 3:1-12, concerning the tongue, bridling of the tongue, taming the tongue. And I trust, by now, you are convinced, persuaded, that the use of your tongue and mine is indeed a major concern in the teaching of the Word of God, a concern with respect to the nature and fruit of human depravity, the nature and fruit and reality of true saving faith, saving religion, to use James' language, and the nature and the fruit of practical spirit-wrought godliness of life.
We then proceeded to examine four major sins of the tongue that are identified in the Word of God, defined and condemned by the Word of God, namely, you remember I trust the sin of lying, the sin of corrupt or unwholesome speech, the sin of abusive speech, and then fourthly, the sin of gossipy, meddlesome, intrusive speech. Tonight, as we bring this to a conclusion, well, not quite tonight. We couldn't condense all of them in one message to bring this to a conclusion, but I would like to consider the following. What does the Bible tell us with regards to this question? What question? Well, how may we overcome these sins of the tongue?
Of course, the fundamental, the essential prerequisite for overcoming the sins of the tongue, prerequisite, that word prerequisite, is something required before, and essential, essential prerequisite is one that you cannot do without. So what is the essential, that essential prerequisite without which there's no hope that I shall overcome the sins of the tongue, without which there's no hope that I would tame the tongue? That essential prerequisite is nothing less than the radical transforming power of God's regenerating grace.That is foundational. That is the essential prerequisite.
In a context that really oozes with the subject of words, you remember Jesus said in Matthew 12:33-35, that there must be a making of the corrupt tree into a good tree so that it may bring forth good fruit. Which in context, we all know, it's referring to good words. That the making of the evil treasure of the heart into a good treasure so that it may bring forth good things is the great concern set forth by our Lord in that chapter. This is what Paul describes in Titus 3, in verse 5, as the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
Or what is described in the promise of the New Covenant blessing in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 as the removal of the heart of stone and implanting by the power of God the heart of flesh. Giving the heart of flesh by the Holy Spirit, writing the law of God upon the tablet of the heart, giving the enabling power of the Spirit with respect to the will of God. Without this work of God, we have no gospel born power to overcome our sins, whatever they may be.
And secondly, we have no gospel born motives to overcome the sins of the tongue. And our motives can be described as the motors, the engines of our activity. And it's only when we are motivated by gospel born motives that there will be sufficient internal incentive to overcome the sins of the tongue. And that's why Paul says what he says in Romans 6. Our obedience then as a result of the power of regenerating work of God is what? Obedience from the heart.
Tonight, I would like to set before us the first three of six general biblical directives for overcoming the sins of the tongue. And assuming that you have experienced that radical spirit-wrought transformation of God's regenerating grace, what then are you to do, if anything, to overcome the sins of the tongue? To tame the tongue. What are we to do so that day after day there is by the grace of God an increasing measure of grace to overcome the sins of the tongue? Do we simply sit back and, you know, let go and let God? Do we sit back and allow the fruit to be born on its own with no deliberate conscious effort of our own, or on our own?
Do we passively now say, well, oh, God, you made the tree good, and you've said a good tree brings forth good fruit? Lord, let the fruit be born. No. No.
As we have been reminded many times, there's no more critical text that condenses the biblical teaching on how regenerate sinners, born again believers, live the Christian life than Philippians 2:12-13, in which Paul says, and you're familiar with this text, right? “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,” here it is, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure”.
And in that text, that only causes people to scratch their heads, who don't understand the ways of God, the Apostle Paul says, you Philippians, I want you to engage all of your faculties and all of your power and conscious that you are living before the face of God. I want you to give yourself with all of your faculties and powers to the working out of your salvation, that Spirit-wrought salvation. And I want you to do so in the confidence that God all the while is continually, effectually, working in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
In other words, the Apostle Paul is not ashamed. He is unashamed to say that God's working in us assures the possibility of my working. You work out for it is God who is working in you, and my working is the validation, manifestation of His working in me. Because He does not work by passing my willing and my working, but He works in me to will and to work. So I can then marshal all of my faculties, knowing that I'm not on a fool's errand, then God's at work in me. He's made the tree good, it can bring forth good fruit. He's made the treasure good, it can bring forth good things. So then in this consciousness of my need of His working in me to overcome the sins of the tongue, and in the determination to work at overcoming the sins of the tongue, the question is, what am I to do?
Here's the first of the three directives for tonight. It is this. Number one, we ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues. We ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God would guard our tongues. Ought. It's an important word, ought.
Ought is a word of duty, and I know in many circles today, it is considered a dirty word. But ought is a good word. It is thinking biblically. Paul could say to the Thessalonians, “we ask and exhort you,” 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us, as to how you,” what? “Ought to walk.” How you ought to walk.
And please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. So it's a good work. And so I'm asserting tonight that when we go to our Bibles with the question, O God, in the working out of my salvation, with fear and trembling, with respect to this specific concern related to my tongue, the sins of the tongue, how do I overcome the sins of my tongue? That the answer of Scripture is that we ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God would guard our tongues.
You remember when the disciples said in Luke 11, Lord, teach us to pray? Jesus answered by saying, “When you pray, say.” And at the end of the framework of prayer, that framework of prayer, we have these words, Luke 11:4, and “lead us not into” - peirasmós
“temptation,” in that context. The Lord is saying, when you pray, be sure that incorporated into your prayers are what? Consistent, earnest petitions that you will be kept from sin.
Consistent, earnest petitions that you will be kept from sin. And in the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, where the words are not when you pray, say, but pray then in this way, in this manner, clearly indicating that this is a framework for prayer, and within that framework, we find these words in verse 13 of Matthew 6, “and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
So, generically, we know that any well-instructed Christian walking according to the Word of God or the directives of the Lord Jesus Christ will have as part of his prayer life, engaging in consistent, earnest prayer that he be kept from sin. And I want to, by the grace of God, the help of the Spirit, seek to demonstrate from scripture that that generic concern needs to be focused specifically in our context upon this tiny member, the tongue.
Well turn with me to Psalm 141. Psalm 141, a very important passage, verse 1, “O Yahweh, I call upon you, hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be established as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” Here it is, “set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips.” What an important prayer. In verses 1 and 2 of the psalm, David prays earnestly that his prayer will be heard. Lord, I call, but in calling, Lord, please, please hear me. Hasten to me, give ear to my voice when I call to you. And then he uses this beautiful imagery in verse 2, “May my prayer be established as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” As God would smell the incense from a sacrifice offered in the tabernacle, and God would smell it, and it would be a sweet savor to him.
Just like that, David says, “O God, give ear to my voice when I call to You!” When I cry out to You. Lord, let my prayer be sweet to your nostrils as the evening sacrifice. May it be a sweet smelling aroma well received in your sight.
Then, having pleaded that his prayer will be heard, notice what his first actual petition is that he desires will be heard by God. What is it? Verse 3. That's his first petition. “Set a guard, O Yahweh.” - Set a guard over my mouth - “Keep watch over the door of my lips.” You see those two words? Guard, keep. Two verbs, or one verb, one noun. “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” You see these words, guard and keep, along with their, what we call cognates. Cognates, when people talk about the cognates, that's the verbal cousins. You know, first cousin, second cousin, third cousin, twice removed, uncle, aunt, whatever. It's words that come out of the same family. They have family relationship, and these words, guard, keep, and they're cognates. The verbal cousins, aunts and uncles, are the very words used to describe what? A military activity of placing soldiers in a strategic place in order to guard something or someone.
We find the words used that way in Judges 7:19, Nehemiah 4:9. Now, usually, when a military guard, a watch is posted somewhere, it is to prevent unwarranted entrance into a protected area, like outside the city gates. You remember in the Gospels, they set a guard, a watch, outside the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to prevent any unwarranted intrusion, in order to prevent anyone from going in and supposedly removing his body, then the Jewish authority, you remember, they said they would claim that he had been raised from the dead, as he prophesied he would. So generally, a watch is set to keep unwarranted people from entering somewhere.
Now, here, David, with that military imagery, he's asking God to do something, and he's asking him to do this. “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Do you see what the imagery is? He says, Lord, I want a sentinel, a guard, to be set outside my lips, and I'm likening my lips to a door. I will not be able to speak unless the door swings open, and then I'll speak. But as long as the door is shut, I am silent. And, Lord, I want you to set a guard over my mouth. And I want you, Lord, to be the doorkeeper over the door of my lips. I am conscious, Lord, that unless you do this, the hinges on the door of my lips will be opening in times and in circumstances when they ought not to be opened. Will you not please, O Lord, act as a sentinel over the door of my lips? That's David's prayer.
Now, having prayed that and picturing that prayer as coming like incense into the ears of God, here's the question that we must ask and answer. If God were to speak to David and respond audibly, what would he say? What would he say? All right, David, I'll do that. Leave the whole thing to me. I'll take care of it, beginning to end. No. I think from the analogy of scripture, we could say God would say, my son David, I will answer that prayer, and in answer to that prayer, I will set four sentinels in front of the door of your lips. In fact, I'll send four captains, and on that door of your lips, I'm going to put four locks in vertical arrangement, every one of them with the deadbolt, one, two, three, four. And David, when you pray that I would set a guard upon your mouth, and that I would keep watch over the door of your lips, David, I answer your prayer by sending you four sentinels, each with a key in his hand. And David, when your words are knocking on the backside of the door, I charge my sentinels to ask them, do you meet my criteria for coming out? If so, I'll put my key into the lock and turn it. And David, unless all four of the captains turn their key, the door should be kept shut, and you should keep your words to yourself. And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.
Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips. All right, David, when you knock, about to speak, and Captain Purity says, David, are the words coming out of your mouth up to the standards of sanctity, purity? They are not lying words. They are not corrupt, unwholesome words. They are not abusive words. They are not intrusive, meddlesome words. And David can say, yes, Captain Sanctity, Captain Purity. They are none of those. And Captain Sanctity says, I'll put my key in. And David hears the deadbolt retract. Then of course, Captain Love speaks up. David is still knocking. I want these words to have exit. Captain Love says, David, are you going to speak the truth in love? Ephesians 4:15. Romans 13:10, “Love does not work evil against a neighbor.” Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Are the words which you're about to speak motivated by love, David? A love that does not seek to do ill, a love that is determined in some cases to wound, “for faithful are the wounds of a friend,” Proverbs 27, verse 6. Paul can say of the Romans, in Romans 15:14, “I am persuaded of you that you are full of goodness, able to admonish one another,”not the gushy notion of love, the syrupy notion of love that will never rebuke, never admonish in love. But is the word that desires an exit, a word that is motivated by love, love that seeks the good of its object, love that is not easily provoked, that seeks not its own? And if David says, yes, Captain Love, these words are motivated by love, shaped by love, then Captain Love will say, I'll place my key in the lock, and places it in, and another dead bolt retracts.
But then Captain Necessity speaks. Are these words necessary to be spoken, David? Are they words that just want to come out and run all over the place? For the scripture says in Proverbs 10 and verse 19, this very interesting practical thing, by the way. Listen to what Proverbs 10 and 19 says, “When there are many words, transgression is” - what? “unavoidable, But he who holds back his lips has insight.” Yes, Captain Necessity, love demands that I speak these words for a number of good reasons. They need to be spoken. And then Captain Necessity says, I'll put my key right in, and it retracts the bolt.
And finally, there's Captain Propriety. Captain Propriety. I like that word. We don't use it enough.
What is propriety? Well, what is proper? What is fitting? What is suitable? There's a marvelous passage that has to do with this. It indicates that this man, Elihu, the younger man who stood around and watched and listened as Job's comforters spewed out all of their verbiage. Turn with me to Job 32. He had a sense of the propriety of words. Listen to what he said in Job 32.
Elihu says this, verse 4, Job 32. “Now Elihu had waited with his words for Job.” Stop right there.
He waited for, he waited with his words for Job. There was a bolt yet, on Elihu's door. He was listening, and as he was listening, he was feeling things very deeply.
Verse 2, “But the anger of Elihu, the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned; against Job his anger burned because he was proving himself righteous before God. And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now, Elihu had waited with his words for Job because they were years older than he.” Interesting, isn't it? You see, Elihu believed that he had vital words to speak, words that needed to be spoken in a love that is not contradicted with righteous anger.
But there was one sentinel that he couldn't get past, and that was Captain Propriety. I'm the kid here. These men are the elders. I'm the young guy, and these are the older ones who ought to be giving wisdom in their speech, and I'm younger, and it's not seemly for a young guy to be shouting off his mouth in the presence of older, reputed, wise men. And as deeply as I feel, none of them has hit the mark. Job is off the mark, his friends are off the mark. It is not proper in ordinary circumstances for a young man to be shouting off his mouth in the presence of the older man. It's not proper. And then we read in verse 6, “So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said, “I am young in years, and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you my knowledge. I thought age should speak, And increased years should make wisdom known.”” But, verse 8, and now he goes on to tell them why.
His initial sense of the impropriety of his speaking is being overcome so that now he is ready to speak. And I think it's a marvellous example of Captain Propriety standing at the door of Elihu's mouth, and until he can say to Captain Propriety, look, initially your refusal to open the door, I consent was right. However, and then he makes the case that it's time to draw back the bolt, and out come his words.
Love does not behave itself unseemly, it does not act unbecomingly, 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul says to Timothy, you remember, an apostolic representative with the authority of the Apostle standing above him and behind him, Timothy, 1 Timothy 5:1, “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather plead with him as a father.” Propriety. Timothy makes sure that the manner in which you speak to older men can pass the test with Captain Propriety. And when those four sentinels turn the bolts, then you could say, Lord, O Lord, thank you for watching over the door of my mouth, my lips, that I might speak that which is honoring to you. And that would prevent me from speaking that which is dishonoring to you. Grievous, unedifying to others. Lord, thank you. Thank you for hearing my prayers, that you would set a guard over my mouth, and that you would keep watch over the door of my lips.
You see? Maybe you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, are you serious? You're really serious about this? That before I say anything, I should run down that checklist with the four captains? Listen. Listen, beloved. Here's the point. When you have conditioned your conscience to think in these biblical categories, it is amazing how quickly these things can be run through, and at times, in really milliseconds. What I'm appealing for is not some kind of legalism that we go around with a checklist to mute until we come up to one another, and someone, someone, after like ten minutes of silence, dares to say, I think I've got a word that came by the four sentinels. And then you stand there, mute for another ten minutes, and going da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da in your head. No, no. That's not the point. Not talking about that.
God doesn't lay upon us the ludicrous. But I do believe the text that I've quoted under these four headings validate that our speech is to be speech that does indeed pass the test of purity. It's not dishonest speech. It's not corrupting speech. It is not abusing speech. It is not meddlesome speech. And we've spent four weeks demonstrating that from the word of God concerning those four major sins of the tongue. And surely, if we're to walk in love and speak the truth in love and whatever else is present in us, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I've become what? A noisy gong and a clanking symbol. I am nothing, Paul says. Surely, our speech should pass the scrutiny of sentinel Captain Love. And then likewise, with necessity, all that the scripture speaks about unnecessary speech and Captain Propriety, then we'll much less find ourselves repenting of things that we shouldn't have said, careless, loveless, improper things, things that we say to one another about one another.
Could it be, could it be that many of our sins of the tongue are the results of simply not crying to God like David did? For James reminds us, you have not. Why? Because you ask not.
May I pastorally entreat you as I had to have dealings with God in preparation concerning this? May I entreat you as an under shepherd, and I can't bind your conscience, but I certainly can plead with you to determine that in the coming week, that you will incorporate into your own devotional prayer at least one utterance from the heart of Psalm 141, verse 3. Once a day, perhaps.
That's an entreaty. It's an entreaty. Like I said, I can't bind your conscience by it.
I can, however, bind your conscience by the Word of God, that your speech ought to be pure and loving and necessary and proprietous, as that applies to me as well. I can't bind your conscience to take this step to say, you must pray at least once a day, Psalm 141, verse 3, but I can entreat you, can't I? I can plead.
And it is not laborious, burdensome, entreaty to pray, Set, “set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Before a phone call, “Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.” And then you make that call. Before a text, an email, pray Psalm 141, verse 3. It is very, very easy to let all kinds of things come out of the door of your lips, through your fingers, texting, emailing, through electrical impulses in the laptop computer, your phone, that would never pass the approval and get by the bolts of Captain Purity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, Captain Propriety. And so I urge you, I entreat you, as I urge my own heart, if you are serious about overcoming the sins of the tongue, then cry to God in all of your relationships and pray Psalm 141, verse 3. If indeed we take this seriously, we will engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues.
Now, in the second place, we not only ought to engage in consistent, earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues, but secondly, the second directive, we ought to engage in the conscious, constant effort to bridle our tongues. I know. I know that a division without a distinction ought not to be. And some may think, well, there's a lot of overlapping in that, isn't there? Yes, I consent. But I want biblical images to be stamped on your heart and mind. And there's a biblical image in two critical texts that is completely distinct and different from the image of the guard, and that is the image of the bridle or the muzzle.
And so we ought to engage in the conscious constant effort to bridle, to muzzle our tongues. In the first directive, we focused on crying out to God, and yet it did involve our activity of consulting the captains of the door of our lips. The biblical imagery of the bridle or the muzzle focuses on our conscious activity in a totally different category of imagery.
Text number one, Psalm 39, verse one. Psalm 39, verse one. And if you read through the psalm, it's obvious that there's a situation in which David felt something very, very, very deeply.
He says at the end of verse two, Psalm 39, “And my anguish grew worse. My heart”, verse three, was hot within me.” Anguish grew worse, heart was hot within me, yet for compelling reasons, and if we read the psalm carefully, we see it was the honor of God.
He judges. It was not yet time to speak. So what does he do? Verse one, “I said, “I will keep watch over my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will keep watch over my mouth, as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence,” I was mute with silence, I even kept silent from speaking good, and my anguish grew worse. My heart was hot within me, while I meditated, the fire was burning. Then I spoke with my tongue.”
So you see the situation. Here David feels something very, very deep. His heart is hot within him. His anguish grew worse. Everything within him wants to break out and articulate this with his mouth, with his lips, but he's not able to do so. There are good and wise reasons to be restrained, to be, to hold back. And so what does he do? He says in verse 1, I renewed my determination that I would be careful about my way, particularly that I would not sin with my tongue.
In other words, David knew himself well enough to know, here's a situation where I could sin with this member, this tiny little member, and I was determined that I would not carelessly walk into a path of sin. And so he says, “I said, “I will keep watch over my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.”” And then he uses this imagery, “I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle.”
Now, whether it's the bridle or the muzzle, the imagery is graphic. If it's a bridle, what do you do when you bridle a horse? And we studied that together, right? Here's this majestic animal, this bundle of muscle and sinew, and the unbridled horse goes wherever he wills, does whatever he wants to do, and he goes wherever he wills at whatever speed he wants. But when he's bridled, no matter how much he wants to move, now picture that horse bringing his head up and down, up and down, snorting through his nostrils, pawing with his feet, with his foot, but the rider is in control. Everything in that huge beast with all the muscle and sinew wants to go here, wants to go there, in keeping with his own will, but the rider holds him in with a firm grip. A firm grip upon the reins, joined to the bridle.
Or the imagery of a muzzle. Think of that yelping dog howling on a hill, thinking he'll scare everyone around him. And you go to that animal, and you put a muzzle on its mouth, and that holds shut his upper and lower jaws. David says, that's what I did with myself. That's what he says.“I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle.” My mouth at this time may be like an energetic horse that is pawing the ground, bopping his neck up and down, determined to go, but I'm going to rein it in, conscious, with a conscious, deliberate effort. It may be like a yapping, yelping dog. I'm going to clamp the hands of my soul over my mouth and shut it up. I'm going to muzzle it.
Now, beloved, the point is this. You don't do this. I don't do this unconsciously. You don't do this while you're sleeping. You don't do this without thought. That's the point. And it's an important point. You don't do this without the full engagement of the activity of your will. And that's the point that we need to underscore. When I say we ought, having prayed that God would set a guard over our mouths and keep watch over the door of our lips, we ought under the imagery of this passage, we ought to engage in conscious constant effort to bridle, to muzzle our tongues and our mouth. That's what we're saying. And though we may feel something very deeply, so deeply, that we can say, like David, our hearts are hot within us. It's like fire within our breast yearning to break out.
Nevertheless, we bridle it. We muzzle it. We restrain the yelping dog. Now, the New Testament passage that takes up the same imagery is, of course, James 1, right? We've gone over that. A text we looked at in our studies of James. Just turn with me there for a minute. James 1, verse 26. James 1, verse 26. James says, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue,” who bridles it? Who bridles it? Not the Lord. He does. Enabled by the Lord, of course, but he does. His power, yes, but his power, enabling me to do what God requires of me to do. He does. While not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is what? Worthless.
There's the imagery again. Anyone who thinks himself to be the possessor of true and vital saving religion in its internal reality, as well as in its external expression, who is stranger to conscious, deliberate, effective restraint of the natural impulses of the tongue, James says that person is self-deceived. That's what James says.
If you don't know what it like at times to feel that restraining, your tongue is like holding back a horse that wants to bust out of the gate and go running at breakneck speed, he says then you're a stranger to real religion. The possessor of true saving religion is no stranger to this activity. This conscious deliberate reigning in of the tongue.
Now, this has peculiar application when we are in social settings. When there is an atmosphere of conviviality and a nice, happy, pleasant atmosphere, words are flowing, hands are moving, and particularly an area in which we can, in that context, so quickly get so careless with our words. And we need to cry to God when we come into such circumstance, Oh, God, help me to take hold of the reins and the bridle. Lord, give me grace that I may not sin with my tongue.
Just look at a couple of passages in Proverbs. Proverbs 17:28, “Even an ignorant fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise.” Wow. An ignorant fool, when he's silent, is considered wise. And when he closes his lips, he is considered understanding. This guy doesn't know much, but he keeps his mouth shut, and you just don't know how little he knows. So he's wise. Solomon says, even the ignorant fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise. At least he's got enough wisdom to know how to take the reins upon his mouth and keep quiet when he ought to, and not be running off at the mouth. Right?
Proverbs 13, verse 3, the same vein, not identical, but similar, “The one who guards his mouth keeps his soul; the one who opens wide his lips comes” - to what? - “ruin”. Ruin. The language is very strong. Remember what James said in James 3, every kind of beast and birds has been tamed, but the tongue, no man can tame, it's unruly. And that's true of all of us left to ourselves. And we need to cry to God not only for the divine sentinel, that we may know the grace and power of God to guard our mouth, and the door of our lips, but that we may be enabled to muzzle our mouths by the grace of God.
And then briefly, very briefly, as we conclude this evening, and I pray this would be encouraging to you and to me tonight, not only we ought to be engaged in a constant earnest prayer that God will guard our tongues. Not only ought we to engage in conscious constant effort to bridle our tongue, very briefly, number three, we ought to engage in continual faith-suffused response to the reality of our union with Christ.
Now, what in the world am I talking about? Turn to Romans 6. We ought to engage in continual faith-suffused response to the reality of our union with Christ. Paul had opened up in chapters 3:21, all the way to chapter 5, the marvelous doctrine of justification by faith, God imputing to sinners the very righteousness of Christ, so that where sin abounds, grace much more abound. Then Paul takes up what might be called the devil's logic in chapter 6 and verse 1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?” And Paul's answer, very, very vivid, graphic, powerful language in Greek, mḕ génoito, God forbid, may it never be ever. And then he says these words, “how shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We who are such as have died to sin. This translation brings forward the emphasis of the words and construction in Greek. We who are such who, we who are, who in our true identity as Christians, we who are such as have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? Impossible.
And having made that pivotal statement, then Paul goes on in verses 3 through 10, to give us what we would call these wonderful indicatives. These wonderful indicatives. He's declaring what is true of us, if we are indeed in Christ, if we have known that radical life-transforming work of the Spirit, and we are now united to Christ and united to Him in such a way that the virtue of His death, burial, and resurrection is passed over into us, we died with Him, we were buried with Him, we were raised with Him, we are now in union with Christ. Those are the great indicatives.
Then He takes up the imperatives that grow out of the indicatives.
What am I to do in the light of who I am in union with Christ? Verse 11, “Even so, consider yourselves,” - reckon yourselves - “to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” You say, I don't feel very dead unto sin. Listen, listen, beloved, it has nothing to do with your feelings.
Did you hear that? It has nothing to do with your feelings. It's the reality of who you are.
Fix your mind on this reality and say, Oh God, I don't feel this way, but help my heart catch up with my head. Help my feelings catch up with what I know to be true and real. And it's as if someone says, all right, considering ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ, what are the practical things growing out of that?
Paul says, let me tell you, verse 12. Look at this. This is magnificent. Not only, by the way, not only this is revolutionary when it comes to the sins of the tongue, but when it comes to really sin in general, how to live as believers. “Therefore,” - he says, - “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Here are the imperatives.
In the light of the great indicatives, who I am as a new man, new woman in Christ, I am such as have died to sin in union with Jesus Christ, and in light of that, I'm to reckon on that reality. I'm to count it as true, because it is true. And counting that as true, I am then to assert that I do not need to be under the lordship of sin. My tongue does not need to be. There is no moral necessity that my tongue be an instrument of sin, because I'm no longer under that dominion. And if it's not to be this, this is what I must do. I must determine that I will not present my members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, and sin will come as a usurper, master, and say, Give me your tongue. I want to use your tongue for my purposes. Paul personifies sin as a master. I want this, member. I want your hands to steal. I want your eyes to lust.
I want your feet to go to forbidden places and forbidden paths. I want your tongue to lie, to speak abusive speech, corrupting speech, intrusive, gossipy, meddlesome speech. Paul says, no, no. You refuse to present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But you say, as alive from the dead, as alive from the dead, I belong to him. I belong to God through the work of Christ. And I present myself to him. And I present my members to be instruments of righteousness unto God, because he is my master.
Lord, here's my tongue. May it know the virtue and power of my union with Christ. That the sin-breaking, sin-conquering power of Jesus, that is mine in him, oh Lord, may my tongue know that conquering power, for you have said, sin shall no longer exercise lordship over me. You said it, Lord, and if you said it, it's true. I'm no longer in that realm of bondage. No longer. No longer. In that realm of bondage, I am in Christ, free in Christ, empowered by Christ, to live a life of righteousness to the glory of Christ. And you and I, beloved, need to learn more and more to bring those gospel dynamics of what I've called faith-suffused response to the implications of our union in Christ if we're to know an increasing measure of victory over the sins of our tongues, over sin in our life.
May our minds and our hearts be really suffused with this truth, that we really take it to heart. Sin shall no longer exercise mastery, lordship, dominion over me. No more.
I am in Christ. Died with him, buried with him, and raised to newness of life with him. Let's pray.
Our Father, we thank You. We thank You. Oh, how we thank You for Your Word.
Oh, that precious Word, a lamp to our feet, a light to our pathway. We pray that in this matter of the sins of the tongue, we may know Your grace to internalize and apply and work out in fear and trembling all that we have considered from Your word tonight.
Lord, don't let us simply take these things as another sermon and walk away the same. But by Your grace, may we know that You're working in us in power even as You promised. And so we ask this evening that You dismiss us with Your blessing. Watch over us as we go each to our homes. And may we this week know Your nearness and the working of Your spirit in us and among us. All to the praise of Your glory. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
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