River Road Church Baptist

Dr. Cecil E. Sherman

September 14, 2003

Getting Control of the Tongue

Youth are peculiarly at risk of coming in conflict with our best teachings, or not saying the truth. You will hear me allude to this as we near the end of the sermon.

James was particularly concerned about the tongue. This text, twelve verses, third chapter, specifically addresses the subject, but he comes around to it again and again. This is not his only reference to misspeaking. The tongue has no mind of it’s own, there’s not a bone in it, yet it is strong out of all proportion to its shape; inferential, out of all proportion to its size, and possessed of an almost limitless potential for good and bad. The Bible takes note of the tongue again and again. A few references to make the point; in Proverbs there is this one – “Seesest thou man that is hasty in his words. There’s more hope of a fool than of him.” The Psalmist said, “Evil men have sharpened their tongues like a serpent’s adder’s poison is under their lips.” One of the Ten Commandments reads, “Thou shall not bear false witness.” But ominous of all Jesus said, “Your words will be used to judge you. Either to declare you innocent, or to declare you guilty.”

The epistle of James, which is the wisdom literature of the New Testament, has some counsel for us. First of all, James mentions the responsibility of teachers. Not many of you should be teachers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. The early church held teachers in high regard. They were ranked with apostles and prophets. They took the place of the Jewish rabbi. They were deferred to, given an elevated place. Some of them misused their station. Others gave the church the didicae, the teachings, pounded out the doctrine that we come forth with when we sing the songs that we sing again and again; the Doxology, and Glory be to the father. Phrases like this, terms like this, and ideas, were put together by those teachers.

I mentioned earlier the two dangers in teaching. We’re liable to teach things that are not truth. Perhaps more important, sometimes the things we teach and the way we live don’t connect well, in fact, our living contradicts our best teaching. This of course leads to the charge of hypocrisy, diminishes the teacher, and often empties the church. A good word for teachers: our society does not honor teachers as it ought. We pay some people ridiculous sums, and we give teachers a penance. Actually, the kind of people who received Bibles today, children, most of those people still hold their teachers in high regard. This is good and most teachers are worthy of it.

My life has been blessed by teachers. Patricia Edwards taught English at my high school. But actually, she taught much more. She told me that I could become a good student. She told me that I could make it in college. Neither of my parents had gone to college. She told me that if I applied myself, I had a chance to do something good. It came from a teacher. At a later time, the seminary – Charles Trenton took my aside and said, “You can do graduate work if you put your head to it.” He didn’t have to say that. He was overworked, but he took the time to single me out and encourage me. When he died, I made a trip to Knoxville. I had a debt to pay. Teachers, you’ll never know how much an encouraging word means to just the right kid at just the right time.

There’s a second idea – talked about teachers, then he talked about the power of words and that’s all through this text. Actually, it never says words have power, but all around the text there is the suggestion of the power of words. “Anyone who makes no mistake in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with the bridle.” What he’s saying it, almost the last thing we get control of is the tongue. And he speaks of all the tongue can do for good or ill. For instance, a small bridle directs the horse. A tiny rudder directs a ship. A small fire can lead to a conflagration. He’s talking about the power of the tongue.

The 20 th century the world was blessed and cursed by people who used the tongue. My German is not good enough to understand what I hear when I see those old films of Adolph Hitler, mesmerizing and whipping a people into a frenzy of nationalism and anti-Semitism. He did it with his tongue. Across the English Channel there was a bulldog-like creature, Winston Churchill who spoke slowly, put iron in the blood of a reluctant people. He gave them strength and heart and courage. Winston Churchill was the backbone, the stack pole. He did it with his tongue. When I was a child, about the size of these people who got their Bible and my mother and dad would say, “Tonight I don’t want you to go to bed, I want you to listen to the radio.” Usually when my mother and dad wanted me to listen to the radio, they wanted me to listen to something I wasn’t real interested in. And then would come on that voice, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, and I would listen to a fireside chat. How many of you listened as a I did to a fireside chat? Times were bad. Twenty percent of the people in the country were unemployed. It was hard times. My father was working for $175 a month. His boss came in and said John, it’s $90 a month or you can go. There was nowhere to go. Those were hard times. Dad had a job. Lots of people didn’t. FDR would talk to us, of course, the line that everybody remembers is “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” And we heard it. It gave people heart. They brightened and eventually we got through hard times to better times. FDR did it with his tongue.

Now, the teaching does not say be silent. That’s not the teaching. The teaching is “Guard your mouth and speak aright.” In fact, some of the boldest, bravest people ever I know in history are people who refused to be silent. Long time ago, early in the life of the church, Christians were told to say, “Caesar is Lord.” You could buy your life if you’d say that line and the best ones didn’t. They wouldn’t say it, they said, “Jesus is Lord.” They refused to misspeak. Later on, a Swiss reformer Felix Mines, could have lived if he’d only said two words, “I recant.” But he wouldn’t misspeak. John Bunion stayed in Bedford Jail 12 years. Any time he would promise not to preach, he was free. He stayed and he stayed, though his wife and children were cared for by others. Roger Williams could have stayed in Massachusetts if he’d said the right things and not said some other things. The reason he was exile in Rhode Island was because he would not be silent. He told the truth. Now this teaching is driving us, not to silence, but to speak aright.

The last idea in the text is the difficulty of control. He said, “Beasts have been tamed. The tongue has not yet been tamed.” It also says, “Out of the same mouth flow forth blessings and cursings.” As far as our Indian friends used to say, “We speak with forked tongue, this way and that, out of the same mouth.” Good religion issues in self-control. The tongue is probably the sharpest and the most accurate measure of self-control. It says it’s the last thing to come under control. Most of you have known for a long time that the salvation God gives us comes to us an inch along. We’re not saved, that’s done, that’s over. No. We’re saved by the inch; a little along. Get to where you don’t lie. First you get to where you have a guilty conscience when you do. Then when you quit lying, you being to get into the corralling and management of careless words.

I have given illustrations of people who appear in history books about the right and wrong use of the tongue. But this sermon really has its value in its personal quality. Have you ever said something to your wife or your husband that you wished you could take back as soon as it got out of your mouth? I’m afraid I have. And did that haunt the way you got along for a while? Sometimes for a while. Teenage kids have the capacity to rub parents the wrong way, and I might reverse that statement. Did you ever say something to your teenage kid that you wished you could get back? Well, I did. I wish I hadn’t. That kind of stuff’s not going to appear in a book, but that’s how my tongue betrayed me. Was there perhaps reason for my irritation? Yes, but not a reason for the way I expressed myself and I couldn’t get it back. Trying to get back a hastily spoken word, well it can’t be done. It’s gone. You’ve loosed it, and you can’t get it back. So, what are we to do when talking about the difficulty of control? Very simple. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Today you get encouragement to do what you do know.

First, speak the truth. Speak the truth with kindness. Second idea, praise God. Some of the best use of your tongue is when you stand to sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” You don’t say anything lovelier, truer, all week than Praise God from whom all blessings flow and this worship leads you to that exalted speech every time you assemble. Third idea – counsel and encourage. A word fitly spoken, well, it’s a beautiful thing. I referenced a couple of people who took the time to encourage me. You could give the same illustrations. Counsel and encourage, this is the correct use of the tongue. A word of warning; fourth idea – Beware the vulnerable moment. I’ve tried to figure out how I can get angry about something that’s wrong and not misspeak and when I figure out the answer to that, I will preach it to you. I’m not there yet. I do better when I get angry to shut up until I cool down and sometimes I’ve done it right and sometimes I’ve done it wrong. Well, I have talked to you about what you can do about your tongue. Most of you are full grown, you’ve thought about all these things. Some of you have thought about them in a way that is wiser than my counsel. But God’s grace seeps into us. God’s salvation o’er takes us a little along. One of the last places we are saved is the tongue. It’s almost a measure. That’s the end of the sermon.

I have a postscript for this sermon. For a number of Sundays I have finished my sermon and gone down to greet anyone who would join River Road church and most of the time, no one has met me. I have counseled with a lawyer and he tells me there is nothing in the statutes of Virginia to forbid you joining a church during an interim. I have read the literature of this church. There is nothing in our constitution that prohibits you joining in that in-between time. Some of you are thinking about this and you’re thinking, “You know, I’m thinking about joining that church, but I don’t have any idea what they may get for a preacher.” Well, you’ve got a point. But, most of the people around you have pretty good sense and the ten we chose have unusually good sense. Would it be out of place to ask you to have faith in God and have faith in the future of this place and proceed to your intention in this interim? It would be a good thing, it would be good for us and most of the time, we’re good for you. Give it a thought in the next 30 seconds.

CES; Lisa King, mt