Watch Your Tongue

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Revelation 5:13
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise the Lord (#113A)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 35 (Questions 96–98)
• Hymn — The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended (#161)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — O God, My Faithful God (#523)
• Benediction

---

Sermon Title: Watch Your Tongue

Scripture: James 3:1-12

I. The Powerful Tongue

A. James addresses teachers first because teaching is an act of sustained speech — those who speak much are more susceptible to sins of the tongue

1. James 3:1 — not many should become teachers, for teachers face stricter judgment
2. Proverbs 10:19 — when words are many, transgression is not lacking
3. The current epidemic of spiritual abuse in evangelical churches illustrates the danger of the powerful tongue misused by those in authority

B. The metaphors of the horse's bit and the ship's rudder (James 3:3-4) illustrate that a small instrument controls massive things

C. Speech is a gift uniquely given to God's image-bearers

1. God created the cosmos through the word of his power
2. Adam's first demonstration of dominion over creation was naming the animals — an act of speech
3. Proverbs 16:24 — gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body
4. Matthew 12:36-37 — people will give account for every careless word on the day of judgment

D. Our tongues have been redeemed by Christ and anointed by the Spirit; they are to be used for gracious, tender, loving speech

II. The Uncontrollable Tongue

A. James likens the tongue to a forest fire ignited by a small spark (James 3:5-6)

1. The fire is "set on fire by hell" — the word gehenna, originally the Valley of Hinnom, a perpetually burning garbage dump outside Jerusalem, became shorthand for hell
2. The devil, the liar from the beginning (John 8), is the spark that ignites the tongue of fallen man
3. When the serpent deceived Adam and Eve with his tongue, he ignited the tongue of fallen mankind, unleashing a "world of unrighteousness"

B. James 3:2 — the one who does not stumble in speech is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body

1. Guarding the tongue — the smallest yet most powerful member — is the key to guarding the whole person
2. If asked where to begin in pursuing godliness, James's answer is: start with the tongue

C. James is not teaching perfectionism or works-righteousness, but showing that speech reveals the state of the heart

1. Matthew 12:34 — out of the heart the mouth speaks
2. The way a person speaks in public is a window into who they are in private

III. The Double Tongue

A. The double tongue flows out of a double heart and a double mind (cf. James 1:8; James 4)

1. Psalm 12:2 — everyone utters lies with flattering lips and a double heart
2. James's audience was Jewish Christians familiar with the berachot (blessings) — the 18 benedictions recited daily, including the phrase "the Holy One, blessed is he"
3. The "cursing" in view is not profanity but invoking destruction on another — wishing them dead

B. The stark contradiction: blessing God while cursing those made in the likeness of God (James 3:9-10)

1. These two things cannot coexist — James says they ought not to be so

C. Three illustrations from nature show that nature begets like nature (James 3:11-12)

1. A spring does not pour forth both fresh and bitter water
2. A fig tree does not bear olives; a grapevine does not produce figs
3. A salt pond does not yield fresh water
4. Cf. Matthew 7:18 — a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a diseased tree good fruit

D. The remedy for the wayward tongue is union with Christ the vine

1. John 15:5 — apart from Christ we can do nothing; abiding in him produces fruit
2. When we sin with the tongue, the first response should not be self-resolve but renewed confession and renewed abiding in Christ
3. William Bridge: the greatest remedy for a wayward tongue is to be in the company of Christ
4. Isaiah 9:6 — Christ is the Wonderful Counselor whose speech is beautiful and sweet; proximity to him shapes our speech to resemble his