Jeff Gelineau - Class 5: Bitter & Sweet

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is the 2007 Florida Bible School. Our first speaker is Brother Jeff Jeleno from Semihills. And his subject theme of this week is Be Ye Doers of the Word.

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   It's Class 5, and the title is Bitter and Sweet. Brother Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We are working our way through this radical and different message that James brings to the Jews and to us. Talked a bit about the concept of faith and works. It's entirely different than the concept of earning your salvation.

3. 0:54

   And the Jews had to learn that rules and regulations have no value in curtailing the fleshly indulgences, a lesson that hopefully we have learned also. James spoke to us about the importance of prayer and how effectual and fervent prayer can change the natural course of events. Today we want to talk about something that's bitter and sweet.

4. 1:20

   In Chicago, on October 8th, 1871, at 8.30 p.m., it's reported that a cow kicked a bucket in Mrs. O'Leary's barn. The bucket scraped against a metal pole, creating a spark. And before it was over, the fire that that one spark created from that one cow in that one barn burned down 17,000 buildings.

5. 1:50

   300 people died. 125 people were left homeless. And in 1871, they estimated the damage at 400 million, which is the equivalent of about 6 billion dollars today.

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   The tongue also is a small thing. But what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It's full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction.

7. 2:31

   For it is set on fire by hell itself. Today we talk about the tongue. Like I said on Monday, I've always loved the book of James. So I was excited to get the opportunity to sit down and prepare these classes. And I sat down, I think it was like October or so, and I looked at it and I said to myself, Oh, this is great.

8. 2:57

   I don't even have to prepare an outline. I can just start right into work. Because they want six classes for the Bible school, and there's five chapters. So I'll do an introduction chapter, an introduction class, and then I'll do five classes, one in each of the five chapters. It's so much easier that way.

9. 3:16

   The format of the chapters just guide the lesson, move you through the study, and you don't have to spend time getting an outline drawn up. So I started looking at chapter one, and I noticed quite a bit what's being said about the tongue. My dear brothers, he says, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

10. 3:42

    For man's anger does not bring out the righteousness that God desires. And then a few verses farther down, he says it again. If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Then I looked at chapter two, and it said, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.

11. 4:05

    Now I was starting to worry because, you know, chapter three was the chapter I was planning on talking about the tongue. So my hope for, you know, having a simple outline and following the chapters was falling apart quickly. I continued reading in chapter four. He says, speak not evil one of another, brethren.

12. 4:25

    He that speaketh the evil of his brother, and judgest his brother, speaketh the evil of the law, and judgest the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. And again in chapter five. Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.

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    The judge is standing at the door. And verse 12, above all, my brethren, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. You'll be condemned. And I realized that James brings up this matter of the tongue in every single chapter.

14. 4:59

    So I threw away my notes. I realized there was no way I was going to be able to do any justice to James by addressing it chapter by chapter. You see, James deals with issues that are bigger than one chapter. And they're often all combined and connected together. I think that's what we're going to find out when we look at the tongue.

15. 5:19

    In chapter two, James introduced us to the topic of faith. And James actually combines these ideas of faith and the tongue. And he presents the matter of the tongue as a test of your living faith. Remember that salvation only comes to you if you have a living faith. Not just a fake faith or a false faith.

16. 5:45

    And in James' eyes, true faith, this living faith, is demonstrated by your speech. And so also is false faith. You see, nothing is more telling on the heart than the tongue. Transformation of the disciple of Christ will show up most readily, most apparently, in the way that we talk. James is demanding that we recognize that living faith shows itself in the control of the tongue.

17. 6:21

    So that's the goal of what we're going to talk about today. The first thing I had to get over, though, was the question that kept coming up in my mind as I read chapter three over and over again. Why does James blame the tongue? When we know that, in reality, it's the heart, right?

18. 6:42

    Or the mind, technically, that controls what we say or what we don't say. Why does James then personify the tongue? Why not blame the real root of the problem? The mind. Wouldn't it be more appropriate and more effective to actually get at the heart of the matter and talk about where good speech comes from and where bad speech comes from in the first place?

19. 7:09

    Wouldn't it make more sense for us to try to, you know, talk about reigning in our thoughts than our tongue? As I thought about it, though, I realized it's actually a fairly common way to speak in Scripture, isn't it? We read about feet swift to shed blood, as if somehow the feet were the culprits in the murder.

20. 7:36

    We read about eyes full of adultery, as if the eyes were guilty, when we know that it's the inner person that made the decision that led to the action. That's the way the Jews thought. The distinction between the man and the guilty member is not as clearly distinguished in Hebrew thought. The Jew, frankly, focuses very often on the guilty member rather than on the heart.

21. 8:08

    And the Jewish writers of the Scripture continued in those same kind of thoughts. That's why Jesus told people, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. Jesus understood that the tissue and the flesh contained inside the eye socket wasn't really the problem. That blind men lust as much as those that can see.

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    But in the Jewish desire for concrete and practical expression, they very often spoke of the very member of the body itself, as if that member were guilty. So when James talks about the tongue, it isn't a fact that he blames the tongue, as if it operated independently of any other impulse. It's simply that it is the organ by which the heart expresses itself.

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    And nowhere is, I think, the union of faith and works more visible than in your speech. We all know that saying the right words don't make you a righteous person. We're all very skilled at talking like good Christadelphians. But that doesn't mean we're righteous. But right words are the manifestation of a righteous life.

24. 9:31

    That's what James is saying in chapter 3. James calls us to measure our speech, to see if it's consistent with what we claim to be the reality of our faith. Any faith that does not transform the tongue is not a saving faith. If the eyes are the window to the soul, then the tongue is the mirror of the heart.

25. 10:03

    And controlling the tongue, then, is essential. And James gives us five really compelling reasons for doing so. The first one, I think, is he talks about the tongue's potential to condemn. James calls us to control the tongue because the potential for the tongue to condemn is so great. If you go back to chapter 1, verse 26, we read, he says, If any among you seem to be religious, then bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart.

26. 10:38

    This man's religion is vain. We talked earlier this week about how you can do good works even if you don't really have a saving faith. But more often than not, your tongue will condemn you if you don't really believe, if you're not really converted. It's awful hard for people to control their tongue.

27. 11:03

    And what is in their heart often spills out. It often shines through. If you're not really converted in your heart, then the stresses that arise in life will more often than not bring out the most un-Christian of words.

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    James gives particular advice for people that stand behind this podium. He says in chapter 3, Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

29. 11:44

    Why not presume to be teachers? Because a teacher basically makes a living on their tongue. And you have such a high liability to abuse that it's easy to bring upon yourself potential judgment. So James isn't, he's not trying to restrain those that are genuinely gifted or qualified, those that are genuinely called, someone who's sincere and knowledgeable.

30. 12:14

    But he is saying you have to take very great pains to ascertain the seriousness of the role of teaching before you get up here and start shooting off your mouth. While you're sitting there, you're thinking you're quite comfortable, you say, Well, I don't teach. Maybe I can avoid being condemned by my tongue.

31. 12:36

    But you didn't read verse 2, did you? We all stumble in many ways. The implication James is saying, I think, is the mouth is certainly a major one. Everyone sins in a myriad of different ways. But this one way, the mouth underlines the warning that James has for us. The scriptures don't have much good to say about the tongue.

32. 13:03

    The Bible refers directly or indirectly to a wicked tongue, a deceitful tongue, a lying tongue, a perverse tongue, a filthy tongue, a corrupt tongue, a bitter tongue, an angry tongue, a crafty tongue, a flattering tongue, a slanderous tongue, a gossiping tongue, a backbiting tongue, a blaspheming tongue, a foolish tongue, a boasting tongue, a murmuring tongue, a complaining tongue, a cursing tongue, a contentious tongue, a sensual tongue, a vile tongue, a tail-bearing tongue, a whispering tongue, an exaggerating tongue.

33. 13:36

    I was going to go on, but I ran out of space. I mean, there's nothing much good to say. I heard a great saying that I think applies. The tongue is a wet place, and it can slip easily.

34. 13:57

    One of the easiest ways for us to sin is with our tongue. Nothing is more representative of a man's sinfulness than his mouth. And there's probably no easier way to sin with your mouth because you can say anything you want at any time. You can't do any evil deed that you want because maybe the circumstances aren't there for you to do it.

35. 14:26

    You don't have the time or the opportunity or the money, the resources, the availability, but you can say absolutely anything at any time. Your tongue has an incredible potential to condemn you. The second thing it has is this power to control. Not only does it have this potential to condemn us, but this incredible power to control us.

36. 14:55

    And to the degree that our holiness approaches the holiness of Christ, to that degree we're conformed to His image, and to that degree our speech will be godly. Continue reading what he says in verse 2 of chapter 3. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

37. 15:22

    I've never really grasped what this verse is saying before. Do you see what it's saying? What it's saying is if you can master your tongue, then you can master the evil tendencies throughout your whole body. Because the tongue is the instant expression of the heart, because it can sin more readily and more often than any other member of the body, just because of the circumstances, because it can sin so easily, because it's such a monitor of our depravity, if you can control it, the greatest sinner in your body, then by virtue of controlling the greater, you've gained control over the lesser.

38. 16:06

    What James is trying to tell us is if we can gain control over that tongue, then every other sin in your body will be easy compared to that. Proverbs says, Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. So to help us understand this idea, James gives us two allusions.

39. 16:27

    The first one is in verse 3, these illustrations. He says, Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. How do you control a horse? Well, don't ask me. I'm not getting anywhere near those things. But I do understand from what I've read is that you control a horse by controlling its tongue.

40. 16:53

    You place a piece of metal in a horse's mouth and it lays on top of the tongue and you put a harness around that and pull it over the head and you take some reins and when you pull the reins, you pull that metal bit against the horse's tongue. And by controlling his tongue, you control his movements.

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    And a horse, by the way, is pretty useless without a bridle. Did you ever see a horse volunteer to go plow a field? Did you ever see a horse volunteer to carry a rider? By controlling the tongue, the whole life is directed to a useful purpose. And without control of the tongue, a horse is absolutely useless.

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    Without controlling our tongue, our lives are not very useful either. All of a sudden, what David said in Psalm 39 makes a little more sense to me. He says, I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.

43. 18:03

    If we want to be useful to God and not some willful, rebellious, beast, we have to bridle our tongues. James gives us another illustration in the next verse, James 3, verse 4. He says, Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, with us whoever the governor list us.

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    My first thought is, well, how big were their ships? Right? It's 2,000 years ago. The ships at that time probably weren't that very large. And then it struck me, remember the ship that Paul was on in Acts 27? It had 276 passengers. That's a pretty big ship.

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    And no matter the size of the ship, they're all guided by a very small rudder. such a small thing has a control over the entire course of a huge ship. He sums it up when you add in verse 5. He says, Even so, the tongue is a little member, and it boasteth great things.

46. 19:17

    What does he mean when he says, the tongue boasts great things? I think it's because the tongue knows that it can do great things. The tongue is proud of its power to control. It's a powerful instrument. It can tear down people. It can break apart ecclesias. It can destroy relationships. It can wreck a marriage.

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    It can devastate a family. It can rip up a nation, ruin a business. It can lead to murder. It can even lead to war. On the other hand, it can build up. It can create love. It can create enthusiasm, encouragement, comfort, peace, joy. It can exhort.

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    The tongue can do wonderful and great things. It's a powerful thing. It has this great power to control. The tongue has the power to do great and wonderful good things, and the power to do terrible and rotten, bad things. And if we get hold of the tongue, and if we're able to control the tongue, it can control the rest of our bodies.

49. 20:36

    The problem is number three. There's a big peril to corrupt. The tongue can lead us to terrible things. It's very dangerous. In verses two through five there, James was simply saying that the tongue controls. He didn't necessarily say that it was good or bad, just that it controls.

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    And because of its power to control, we have to control it. The analogy of the rudder, I think, is very helpful because the rudder controls the ship, but it really doesn't tell the ship where to go.

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    The captain guides the ship into port safely, but if pirates take control of the ship, they'll drive it into destruction. The person that has the control has the power, and the tongue knows this, and it's going to fight you for control. Like all power, the power that the tongue has corrupts. Now James is going to go on to show us that the tongue, because of its power to control, is a tremendously dangerous thing.

52. 21:45

    A definite negative tone dominates James' words as he talks about the power of the tongue and its danger. Continue reading where we left off in verse 5. He says, Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things, behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Now James begins to warn us about the real dangers behind this little member.

53. 22:08

    It has a fearful potency for destruction. I think more recent translations get a little closer to the actual meaning of the text. The NIV says, Behold what great a forest is set on fire by a small spark. I come from fire country, and we see every year how one single cigarette can burn down tens of thousands of acres of forest.

54. 22:41

    You see, fire is kind of unique, right? Fire has an amazing capacity. Water can't multiply. If you have a cup of water and you pour it out on the ground, it won't just become a flood on its own. But if you have a match, you can burn down a whole city, because fire has this ability to multiply and to grow.

55. 23:08

    And the tongue is like a fire. Consider gossip, for example. like toothpaste that you squeeze out of the tube and you can't get back into the tube. Once you say something about someone, you can't get it back. And it spreads and it spreads and it spreads like a forest fire. It multiplies and it grows, consuming everything that's healthy and thriving and alive in front of it, and leaving behind nothing but ruins and ashes and waste.

56. 23:40

    By its very nature, it multiplies. Everything you say is going to multiply. Don't think that you can ever say something in private about someone else and that it will stay there. It will stay private. It will spread like wildfire. And the only way to control it is not to say it in the first place.

57. 24:05

    Look at what comes in the next verse, verse 6. He says, The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person. It sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. This is the most powerful verse here, the most powerful statement on the danger of the tongue.

58. 24:25

    Look at the progression of these statements. It says, first of all, the tongue is a fire. And then it says, a world of evil.

59. 24:36

    That's a word world is a system or a cosmos. cosmos. That's a kind of strange title for the tongue, isn't it? A cosmos of evil. What James is trying to get us to understand is that the tongue is a sinful system.

60. 24:54

    It's not just a simple little thing that speaks. It's an unrighteous, hostile, rebelling system within ourselves. It has its own agenda. It has its own goals, its own desires for how it wants to take control of your life and corrupt you. It inflames all of your capacities in an effort to bring the whole person into its wicked system.

61. 25:22

    No other part of the body has such a far-reaching potential for disaster as the tongue. Look, he says, it corrupts the whole person. It's not just something you said that was rude or impolite. It defiles your entire body.

62. 25:44

    Its evil is not just constrained to what you say. It corrupts your entire character. And look what it says last. It's almost impossible here. It says, it sets the whole course of your life on fire. Your tongue affects the entire machinery of your life. life. How many times have you met people whose lives have changed?

63. 26:07

    They're no longer in a relationship with their own family members because of something someone said 20, 30, 40 years ago. It touches everyone and everything that you touch. Gossip and rumors, slander, false accusations, lies, evil speech. It can stain and pollute and destroy a whole family, a whole group of people, a school, an ecclesia, a company or a community.

64. 26:40

    Talk about a peril to corrupt. It doesn't just want to control us. It actually wants to ruin us. It's purpose, its goal, its system is designed to bring you down. It ruins more than just your life too. It ruins everyone around you.

65. 27:00

    We have to learn to control that tongue because of its potential to condemn us, its power to control us, and its peril to corrupt us. Ah, but it's hard, isn't it? That's number four. It's prohibitive to combat. You see, the tongue is primitive. It's wild. It's untamed. It's savage, uncivilized, undisciplined, irrepressible, irresponsible, and it'll fight every effort you attempt to try to combat it.

66. 27:32

    It simply will not let you rein it in. That's what he says in verses 7 and 8. He says, for every kind of beast and of bird and serpents and of all the things in the sea, everything, Shamu, the killer whale, has been tamed and have been tamed of mankind, but not the tongue.

67. 27:53

    No man can tame the tongue. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. They make elephants stand on top of little red buckets. They make cobras dance up and dance around. And they make killer whales and sharks jump out of the water, do flips. animals.

68. 28:21

    And yet they can't stop themselves from saying that one thing to you. What James is saying is that this tongue is untamable, so that's it. We give up, right? Why else should we continue talking? What hope do we have? How are we supposed to control something that's uncontrollable? If James says we can't, why bother having this class?

69. 28:49

    Why bother having this discussion in the first place? Look a little bit closer at what he says. No man can tame it. Who can tame the tongue? Who can tame your tongue? Who can rein in those things that you can't stop yourself from saying? God can. It's a wild, uncontrolled, and primitive beast that you battle when you battle against your tongue.

70. 29:17

    And you will not be successful in trying to tackle it on your own. Give your tongue over to the Lord and ask for his help in controlling it. Only then will you ever begin to make any headway. I think of the wild man legion whom no man could bound, not even with chains.

71. 29:39

    He would run about naked and screaming. When people tried to bind him, Mark says he would pluck the chains apart and break the fetters of iron. He was prohibitive to any kind of control. But when he meets the Lord, next thing you know, he's sitting there peacefully clothed in his right mind. Your tongue has that same kind of superhuman strength like Legion did, able to tear chains apart and throw off shackles whenever you attempt to bring it in.

72. 30:12

    only when you bring it to meet the Lord will you ever combat its natural tendencies and begin to control it. The tongue is prohibitive to combat, but nothing can withstand the power of God. The last reason James gives us for controlling the tongue is the tongue's propensity to compromise.

73. 30:37

    Although it's hard to curl your tongue upside down, nothing can flip-flop quite as easy as a tongue, can it? Your tongue has this built-in predilection to speak out of both sides of its mouth. To say one thing once and the opposite thing next has a natural propensity to compromise. It's like your tongue wants to be two-sided, it wants to be two-faced, it doesn't want to be genuine or truthful or honest.

74. 31:06

    Keep reading what James says in chapter 3 verse 9, he says, Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

75. 31:20

    That's the duplicity. That's the hypocrisy. That's the treachery of the tongue. The same tongue that we use to bless God curses those who God made in his image. Slanders them, criticizes them, accuses them, abuses them, in anger and jealousy and envy and hatred and bitterness.

76. 31:55

    And so in verse 10, James says, Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. It's just simply not right. Any profane speech is inconsistent. It's unacceptable. It's a compromise of everything that we hold dear, everything that's important to us, everything that we value.

77. 32:23

    Your tongue has a propensity to compromise. God has saved us and when God saved us, he transformed us. When he transformed us, he gave us a capacity for new speech and he expects us to speak that way. And it's an impossible compromise to tolerate in your life. James illustrates the obvious with this great analogy in verse 11.

78. 32:50

    doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? No. It's not really a question, is it? What James is saying is that a clean heart can't produce bitter water. The taste of the product tells the nature of its source, right? So we're kind of right back to where James started.

79. 33:25

    We're right back to what James has been saying all week long. True believers, those who have the saving faith that believes that God has forgiven them, will be revealed by their works.

80. 33:38

    We're clear that it's not your works that save you, but you have to have good works if you are in the way of salvation. The reality of what we've learned is that you have to come to fully believe deep in your heart that God's mercy is great enough to save even a wicked person like yourself.

81. 33:55

    And then no matter how hard you try, you will not be perfect. You'll need grace at the time of judgment. God wants you to have the faith required to believe that now. And the test of whether or not we truly believe that is the kind of faith is how we respond to it.

82. 34:11

    if you were to take a small child up here on the stage last night and you were to tell them that you're going to give them a really, really, wonderful gift on their 50th birthday, I don't think you'd expect much of a reaction, would you?

83. 34:40

    And that's the problem with us. We've been told that laid up for us, promised for us, at the return of Christ, a long time from now, possibly, is a great gift.

84. 35:01

    But we're not children, are we? We're supposed to be mature. Our faith should be mature. When God tells us that we're going to receive the most wonderful, amazing gift that could ever possibly be given, He expects us to have some kind of reaction to that message. He expects us to wake up every morning and remember that and wake up and say, thank you, Lord, I'm one day closer.

85. 35:27

    And He expects us to be so full of love and thankfulness that we just won't be able to control ourselves. And that the good words will just pour out of our mouth.

86. 35:41

    But if you don't really believe Him, you're not going to have that much of a reaction, are you? if you think that salvation is probably not something you're going to get because you are really not doing that good. You've slipped and you've fallen and the kind of things you've done and said you probably can't be forgiven for.

87. 36:13

    and you don't have this multi-million dollar gift waiting for you in the future, you're probably not going to be that moved, that motivated. But if we truly do believe Him, if we truly do believe that we will be forgiven, we'll be so grateful, so joyous and full of love, we won't be able to contain ourselves from doing great works of good to those around us.

88. 36:47

    It's simply an effort to try to share some of the great love that we've been given and our speech will reflect that wonderful sense of appreciation.

89. 36:58

    David does a wonderful job of expressing this in several of the Psalms. We see the love of God deep in his heart. He can't contain it. It flows out in what he has to say. David believed in the salvation of God. It was reflected in his tongue. Look what he says here in Psalm 35.

90. 37:15

    My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day. He talks about the captives returning to Zion in Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captive to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.

91. 37:38

    The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. We've been brought back from captivity also. The Lord has done great things for us. We need to be filled with joy also. True believers will be revealed by their speech. That's why James has reminded us of these five things to remember about the tongue.

92. 38:08

    One, it has this potential to condemn. We're revealed by what comes out of our mouth. People know us by what we say. It has a power to control. And if we can control the tongue, the greater of all the sinners, we can control our whole body. If you're able to reign in the tongue, the rest of it's going to be easy.

93. 38:36

    It has a peril to corrupt us. Not only does it control us, but if we don't control it, it can lead us to terrible things, to us and to those around us.

94. 38:50

    But it's prohibitive to combat. It's a wild, uncontrollable beast. And only by calling for the miraculous help of your Father can you begin to reign it in. And it has a propensity to compromise.

95. 39:09

    Out of the same mouth comes both bitter and sweet. True believers speak with a tongue, though, that's under control, under the control of a loving God that wants the best for us. True believers will not have bitter and sweet coming out of the same mouth. only sweet.

96. 39:45

    Our next class is 10 o'clock sharp. will to the to the best to the to ! best the