                    [Times Square Church Pulpit Series]

                             Tame Your Tongue!

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By David Wilkerson
February 7, 1994
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          "But the tongue no man can tame; it is an unruly evil,
          full of deadly poison" (James 3:8)

          In this verse from his epistle, James is talking about
          the tongues of believers. He is issuing a call to the
          church to gain control of their tongues - before they
          are destroyed by them!

          How serious is this matter of taming the tongue, you
          ask? Can an "unruly tongue" really be that sinful?

          Indeed, many Christians right now are waging intense
          spiritual warfare against powerful habits such as
          drugs, alcohol, tobacco, lust. They can't imagine an
          unruly tongue as being a very serious sin. I can almost
          hear the reaction of the believer who is engaged in a
          titanic struggle with some great temptation:

          "Hey, pastor - you've got to be kidding! I'm fighting
          the battle of my life, trying to get victory over a
          demonic stronghold, and you're talking about little
          words. How can you compare a loose tongue to the kind
          of battle I'm engaged in?"

          Dear saint, I tell you, an untamed tongue is the
          world's deadliest weapon! An unsanctified, loose tongue
          is worse than drug or alcohol abuse - it is worse than
          any sin of the flesh! The Bible calls the tongue a
          world of iniquity, a defiler of multitudes, a taste of
          hell on earth! (see James 3:6).

          Let me show you from God's Word how dangerous and
          damning an unruly tongue is:

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                   1. An Unruly, Careless Tongue Negates
                    Everything Spiritual in Your Life!

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          A loose tongue renders all religion absolutely
          worthless! It can make your every spiritual activity
          totally useless in God's eyes: "If any man among you
          seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but
          deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion in vain"
          (James 1:26).

          James is speaking here of those "among you - that is in
          the church. These aren't drug addicts or street people
          - they are part of the body of Christ who appear pious,
          spiritual. They are active in the work of the Lord. But
          their tongues are unbridled, out of control! James is
          zeroing in on those who seem to be holy, kind, gentle,
          loving - yet who move about the church or on their job
          or in their family with acid tongues, always listening
          to and telling morsels of gossip. They think nothing of
          murmuring and complaining. God says their religion -
          all their show of spirituality - is in vain, It's
          valueless, worthless!

          Beloved, I do not want to stand before the judgment
          seat of Christ and discover that all my works for the
          Lord - my entire spiritual endeavor - has been in vain!
          I don't want to hear Him say, "David you did mighty
          works in My name. You established drug rehabilitation
          centers, homes for alcoholics. You preached to
          countless thousands and won many to My kingdom. You fed
          the hungry, clothed the naked, cast out devils, healed
          the sick.

          "But it was all for nothing - all in vain! I simply
          don't know this man who spoke with a divided tongue.
          You used your tongue to bless and then condemn! Out of
          your mouth came such sweetness - many wonderful,
          uplifting words. But there were also bitter, unkind
          words - killing, hateful, envious words! You took My
          warnings on this matter of the tongue too lightly. I
          warned you that all your spiritual activity was in vain
          if you did not control your tongue. But you did not
          heed!"

          Beloved, think of all you have done in your walk with
          God - all the tears you've shed for others, all the
          compassionate, caring acts you've performed. You've
          even been willing to lay down your life for others. Yet
          all that is in vain if you have spewed out careless
          words!

          You may wonder, "Surely God isn't so unloving that He
          would discount my spirituality simply because I said
          something uncharitable?"

          I am speaking here of Christians whose tongues have
          never been tamed. They speak against God's people
          without blinking an eye! Here is what God says about
          such uncharitable tattlers:

          "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
          and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or
          a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of
          prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
          knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
          remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
          And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
          though I give my body to be burned, and have not
          charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians
          13:1-3)

          All your spirituality, all your sacrificing, is
          rendered worthless because of an uncharitable untamed
          tongue! Can you imagine dying for Jesus - being burned
          at the stake, giving your every dollar to feed the
          poor, forsaking all in this life for the Lord, yet it
          is all in vain?

          You won't receive a martyr's reward, because when you
          stand before the judgment seat the Lord will say, "You
          did it all with the wrong motive. You didn't have love
          in your heart! You had bitterness inside, and it came
          out through your mouth. Your tongue was not charitable
          and loving - it was bitter, unkind, acid. All your
          works have profited you nothing!"

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           2. The Words You Speak Reflect What Is in Your Heart!

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          "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak
          good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the
          mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34).

          Whenever I said something naughty as a child, my mother
          washed out my mouth with soap. But it wasn't my mouth
          that needed cleansing, - it was my heart!

          You see, your tongue speaks only what is in your heart.
          Those are the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
          He says that loose, careless, evil talk can come only
          from an evil, unclean heart!

          We as believers have not yet taken seriously what our
          Lord has said about taming our tongues. He has made it
          a heart issue - an issue of life and death! Not only
          does my careless tongue discount all my supposed
          spirituality - it also makes me face the undisputable
          [sic] fact that my heart is unclean, defiled. Something
          of hellfire is smoldering inside me!

          If I hear sensual, lustful words coming out of my
          mouth... if I speak any gossip... if I tell a dirty
          joke... if I run another person down... if I speak
          unkindly or jealously about someone... if I raise my
          voice and scream at my family... if name-calling pours
          from my lips... if I utter curse words... if a stream
          of angry words flows out of my mouth... then I must ask
          myself: "What unclean, filthy stuff is still treasured
          up in me that I could talk this way?"

          I've got to examine my heart and ask, "Where does this
          come from? There must still be something I haven't
          dealt with, or I wouldn't be saying such things Why do
          I go on gossiping and bad-mouthing? Why do I utter such
          mean, careless words? What unsanctified strongholds
          still hold my heart?"

          Careless, unruly talk is not just a flaw. it is not
          just a weakness or a habit we fall into occasionally.
          You can't say of a fellow Christian, "Oh, sometimes he
          can hurt you with his words. But most of the time he
          really is sweet and kind. And he loves the Lord deep
          within. He doesn't mean to hurt anybody."

          No! James says all of that person's spirituality is
          discounted! And more than that. Jesus says he has an
          unclean, evil heart!

          Do you know someone at church who occasionally comes up
          to you and whispers, "Did you hear what I heard?..."
          Mark it down: No matter how pious that person may
          appear, no matter how she may pray or praise God in
          church, there is something evil in her heart -
          something wrong that has not been dealt with by the
          Holy Spirit!

          Jesus gives this matter serious weight: "... out of the
          abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man
          out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth
          good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure
          bringeth forth evil things" (Matthew 12:34-35). Jesus
          is saying, "If you are careless with your tongue -
          quarreling, complaining, murmuring, tattling - you have
          a serious heart problem! Your heart is not right with
          God, and it goes very deep. There is an evil treasure
          stored up in you, just as a snake has bags of poison
          stored behind his jaw. If deadly poison is coming out
          of you, it is because the bag hasn't been drained!"

          No minister, no Christian worker is exempt from this
          warning of the Lord! To all of us Jesus says, "Check
          your heart - find out why you still speak unguardedly
          and carelessly!" "Doth a fountain send forth at the
          same place sweet water and bitter?" (James 3:11).

          Whenever I allow a morsel of gossip to come out of my
          lips, I must stop and say to the Lord, "Master, there
          must still be in my heart a root of jealousy or envy.
          How else could I take it so lightly to judge my brother
          or sister? It must be there is much cleansing, much
          Holy-Ghost dealing, left to be done in me! Oh Father,
          dig deep into my heart and pluck out the roots of
          bitterness, covetousness, pride - whatever it is!"

          Recently a young convert was overheard by one of our
          staff as he tried to excuse the adultery of a brother
          in Christ. This new Christian said, "No problem - the
          blood of Jesus covers all of our sins. He's covered."

          My young friend, you've got it all wrong! The blood of
          Jesus covers only those sins that are truly repented of
          and forsaken. The blood never excuses or overlooks sin.
          Your brother living in adultery needs to fall before
          Jesus, confess his sin, and cry out for power to
          overcome the lure of that Delilah he is living with!

          And so it is with the sin of the tongue! We dare not
          continue mouthing off gossip, slander, argumentative
          words - and then lie down at night and utter a casual
          prayer of confession: "Lord, if I've said anything
          wrong today, forgive me. Cover me with the blood."

          No! God wants to get at that evil in your heart - that
          bag of poison hidden inside you! It doesn't need to be
          covered - but uncovered, and removed. God wants to root
          out the cause of it and to heal you of it completely.
          Your trouble is, you pray to be covered by the blood
          when you've never truly repented and gotten to the root
          of the evil!

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                 3. On Judgment Day, We Will Have to Answer
               for Every Careless, Vain Word We Ever Spoke!

                    ------------------------------------

          "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men
          shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day
          of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified,
          and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew
          12:36-37).

          We seem to think our words simply fail to the ground
          and die, or vanish into thin air and dissolve into
          nothingness. Not so! Our words live on - they do not
          die!

          You may say, "But I only told this gossip to one
          friend, and he promises never to repeat it. It will end
          with him." No, it won't! Every single word you and I
          utter is recorded, written down in eternity - and we
          will hear them all repeated to us verbatim at the
          judgment. Those words will condemn us unless we confess
          them, forsaken [sic] them, and pull up the evil roots
          that caused us to utter them!

          You ask, "Can t I just pray one blanket prayer and say,
          'Jesus, forgive me. Blot it all out!" No - not if you
          refuse to deal with the root of your sin!

          I recall coming under deep conviction some time ago,
          after sharing a vicious bit of gossip with a friend.
          What I said was indeed true - it was about a moral
          situation I'd had to deal with concerning a certain
          minister. His name came up in the conversation, and I
          said, "Don't trust him. I know something about him!"

          Even as I mouthed off, I felt condemned. The Holy
          Spirit whispered to me, "Stop right there! Nobody needs
          to know that. Don't say any more, because there's no
          purpose to it - it's just gossip. Even though it's
          true, don't repeat it - because it can hurt the man's
          character!"

          What I'd already said was bad enough. But then I
          blurted out the lurid details! I knew I should have
          been quiet. And, sure enough, I was deeply convicted by
          the Spirit. So I later called my friend and said, "I'm
          sorry - that was gossip. I was out of order. Please
          don't repeat it. Try not to even think about it."

          My friend assured me it was a dead issue. "I don't know
          the man," he said. "And I never repeat such things."
          That seemed to satisfy my spirit at first. But the
          Spirit's conviction still nagged at me. Why? Why
          couldn't I let it go? Because when you plant something
          in someone else's mind. you can't pluck it out! Even if
          it is never repeated. It does not die there!

          The feeling that continued to nag at me was: "Why did I
          do it? God, do I have something against him? Did I
          secretly delight in his fall? Why was I not more
          interested in his recovery? What kind of heart do I
          have? Lord, forgive me. But also heal me of this. I
          don't want to face You on Judgment Day with any
          unresolved evil in me!"

          Is my sin covered by the blood of Jesus? Yes - because
          I fully acknowledged that I had sinned grievously. And
          I allowed the Holy Spirit to show me some of the
          legalistic pride left in me. I allowed Him to humble me
          and heal me! Now, whenever I begin to say something
          against somebody, I obey the Holy Ghost as I hear Him
          say, loud and clear, "Stop!"

          Jesus' warning has awakened the fear of God in me: "For
          by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
          thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:37). By our words!
          Jesus didn't say we would be condemned by lust or drugs
          or alcohol; those are all ugly sins, and yes, there
          will be judgment because of them. But, rather, Jesus
          told us, "You're going to be judged by your words - by
          what you've said!"

          I ask you - are you one who blesses with your tongue,
          yet also curses? "Therewith [the tongue] bless we God,
          even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are
          made after the similitude [likeness] of God. Out of the
          same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My
          brethren, these things ought not so to be" (James
          3:9-10).

          The Greek word for curse here means "to tear down,
          bring one down, denounce as evil." And indeed, so often
          out of our mouths come praises to God, worship and
          blessing of Him - but also evil gossip that tears down
          the reputation of His servants. Such loose talk tears
          down the body of Christ! It opposes the work of God!

          Yet you can damage a person's reputation without saying
          a word - simply by making negative facial expressions.
          On one occasion I was asked about a certain individual
          with whom I'd had to deal concerning a number of
          problems. When asked about the person, I didn't say a
          word - I just wrinkled up my nose and shook my head.
          The person inquiring told me, "Well, you haven't said a
          word, but you've told me everything I need to know."
          I'd planted negative thoughts in that person's mind!
          This also has to do with an untamed tongue.

          Now, some believers are very careful not to speak their
          thoughts; they aren't careless with their words. Yet
          the good things that many Christians say are
          hypocritical - because their thoughts are full of evil!
          "...they bless with their mouth, but they curse
          inwardly" (Psalm 62:4).

          These people take your hand, smile warmly, and say nice
          things to you, such as, "How are you? Nice to see you.
          You're looking so good!" But as they turn away, they
          mumble to someone nearby, "What a phony! She looks like
          death warmed over. Did you see how much weight she's
          gained? Her eyes look terrible!" "...they flatter with
          their tongue" (Psalm 5:9).

          No Christian should have this kind attitude. Rest
          assured, there are roots of bitterness and rebellion in
          that person - something desperately wrong in her heart!
          A true believer who walks closely with the Lord
          couldn't even conceive of that kind of behavior.

          You say, "Now, wait a minute, pastor. First you tell me
          how serious it is to have a loose tongue. But now you
          say I'm going to be judged by my mere thoughts about
          people?"

          Absolutely - yes!

          "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."
          (Proverbs 27:3). "(Love)...thinketh no evil" (1
          Corinthians 13:5). Show me a person of a suspicious
          nature, and I'll show you someone with a legalistic
          spirit. That person has a stubborn nature, perhaps
          never fully yielded to Jesus. He always suspects others
          of falling into the things he himself is greatly
          tempted to do!

          Perhaps the most dangerous person, though, is the one
          who passes along gossip - who gets involved in
          conversations that are not edifying, but destructive -
          and yet believes he meant no harm! When you question
          him about it, he might even get teats in his eyes and
          say sorrowfully, "I'm not like that. I love my church
          and my pastors - I love the body of Christ. Yes, I may
          have said some things that could be construed as gossip
          or careless. But God knows my heart. I've never meant
          any harm."

          Such an attitude is dangerous! The Bible says great
          fires are caused by little sparks! And your little
          spark can ignite a big fire, even though you don't mean
          it to get out of hand. "Behold, how great a matter a
          little fire kindleth!" (James 3:5). You can
          nonchalantly drop a tidbit about somebody - and it can
          end up affecting their character, spirit and very
          nature!

          It doesn't matter what your motive was - the damage is
          done. Your little spark has already started a fire, and
          it's raging out of control. It could damage a
          reputation. It may bring someone shame, disgrace and
          sorrow. And no matter what your motive was in telling
          it, you are still guilty - you are the fire bug! It was
          your unruly tongue that started it all!

          How can you gain control over the deadly weapon of your
          tongue?

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           4. You Cannot Tame Your Own Tongue - God Must Do It!

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          "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil,
          full of deadly poison." (James 3:8).

          How does God expect us to bridle or tame our tongue
          when His Word says no man can do this? Jesus gives us
          the answer: "But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them,
          With men this is impossible; but with God all things
          are possible." (Matthew 19:26). You can no more tame
          your tongue by yourself than a wild horse can tame
          itself. Wild horses are tamed by experienced trainers
          who "break" them. And the Holy Spirit is our trainer.
          Only He can break our unruly, wild tongues!

          The prophet Isaiah provides us with an example of how
          we can heal our tongue:

            1. Isaiah drew near to the Lord. and he prayed for a
               vision of God's holiness. He said: "...I saw...
               the Lord... upon a throne, high and lifted up... "
               (Isaiah 6:1).

               Anyone who wants to live pleasing to the Lord must
               constantly go into His presence until he obtains a
               vision of God's holiness. All healing, all true
               blessings, all victories begin at His throne. That
               is where we see God in His holiness!

            2. In God's holy presence Isaiah was deeply convicted
               of having unclean lips. "Then said I, Woe is me!
               for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
               lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
               unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King,
               the LORD of hosts." (verse 5).

               Why did Isaiah cry out, I am a man of unclean
               lips"? It was because he'd seen the King of Glory!
               "I've seen Him in my mind - I've seen the glory of
               His holiness! And I know He will not tolerate
               sin!" Our sin becomes exceedingly sinful when we
               are in God's presence. The light of His holy
               countenance exposes everything that is unlike Him!

            3. Isaiah allowed the Lord to touch him and cleanse
               him with His holy fire. "Then flew one of the
               seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
               which he had taken with the tongs from off the
               altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo,
               this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is
               taken away, and thy sin purged." (verses 6-7).

               God's Word is a live coal - and the Holy Ghost is
               its fire! Right now you have been touched by the
               Holy Ghost through this message. And God wants to
               put His fire to your tongue and sanctify it. He
               can do it for you - if you'll let His Word convict
               you! He is the only One who can do it. Your part
               is simply to confess as Isaiah did, "Woe is me,
               I'm unclean!"

          The secret to victory over drugs, alcohol or an
          uncontrollable tongue is closeness to Jesus - intimacy
          with Him - knowing Him! Drawing nigh to His presence
          will reveal what is in your heart. Many Christians
          continue to gossip and slander because they never
          really have been close to Christ. They have never been
          intimate enough to see how unruly their tongue is!

          Let this word go straight to your heart and purge you
          with its fire. Confess, "Yes, it's me, Lord! I'll not
          let this word pass me by! Purge my lips, purge my
          tongue. Cleanse my mouth and my heart!"

          Ask the Holy Ghost to put such conviction in you that
          each time you start to say something careless,
          unthinking or unkind, He will raise a flag and wave it
          at you. Ask Him to make you super-sensitive to His
          voice - and then obey Him when he speaks. He may stop
          you in the middle of a sentence with Holy Ghost
          conviction, and you'll say to the person you're talking
          to, "I'm sorry - God told me to stop. Let's drop it
          right now. Forget it!"

          May only blessings come forth from your life - from a
          pure heart and a kind tongue - tamed by prayer and by
          the Holy Ghost!

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