Bridled Tongue: Gossipy Meddlesome

Driving home: James says since true religion is a religion of faith faith in the proper object the living god revealed in his son if your attachment professed attachment to this god and to the truth of the gospel in faith does not pla…

Just as the body is poisoned by rancid food, so the spirit is poisoned by rancid words, illustrating the harmful effect of corrupting speech.

not be guilty of breaking the ninth commandment thou shalt not bear false witness either in the obvious sense of telling a lie actually in the obvious sense of telling a lie actually in the obvious sense of telling a lie constructing a lie or a story or in the less obvious and this is more our sin passing on as facts that which we are not certain are indeed facts being guilty of tail bearing then we looked at what paul calls in ephesians for corrupting speech let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth that's speech that does not have wholesome edifying content and just as the body is pois...

2:21 - 3:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: James says since true religion is a religion of faith faith in the proper object the living god revealed in his son if your attachment professed attachment to this god and to the truth of the gospel in faith does not pla…

The tongue is described as a weapon that cuts, lashes, and wounds, emphasizing the destructive nature of abusive speech.

not be guilty of breaking the ninth commandment thou shalt not bear false witness either in the obvious sense of telling a lie actually in the obvious sense of telling a lie actually in the obvious sense of telling a lie constructing a lie or a story or in the less obvious and this is more our sin passing on as facts that which we are not certain are indeed facts being guilty of tail bearing then we looked at what paul calls in ephesians for corrupting speech let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth that's speech that does not have wholesome edifying content and just as the body is pois...

2:21 - 3:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to face specific sins in detail which may be obscuring Christ's glory in your life and in the life of our congregation.

Paul's context in 2 Thessalonians 3 involves 'hyper-spiritual' non-working Christians whose meditation should be interrupted by a growling tummy, illustrating the link between idleness and busybody behavior.

detached from your own life that's all if you long for his glory you don't want the glory of christ you just want something detached from your own life you're willing for the pain of the excising work of the holy spirit cutting out of us that which detracts from his glory second thessalonians chapter three the context begins with verse six in which paul is commanding the brethren to do something that sounds very strange in our lovey-dovey day he's commanding certain christians to withdraw from other christians today is the day of the brotherness orgy everybody get together at any cost at any p...

6:26 - 7:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to face specific sins in detail which may be obscuring Christ's glory in your life and in the life of our congregation.

A play on words in the Greek is explained: those who do not work at all have tongues working too much, vividly describing busybodies.

verses 10 and 11 for even when we were with you this we commanded you if any man will not work neither let him eat for we hear of some that walk among you disorderly that work not at all but are here's the word busybodies and in the original there's a play on words the word for work is the same root word in the two words they do not work at all but their tongues are working too much that's the best way you can render it in the uh english or we might do it this way they do not do their own thing but they're always meddling in the things of others and so in this particular text we see a descript...

7:53 - 9:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He supplements the New Testament texts with Old Testament passages from Leviticus and Proverbs, illustrating the sin of 'tail-bearing' and 'whispering' as revealing secrets…

The image of a person running 'up and down from tent to tent in Israel' asking 'Did you hear this?' illustrates the active nature of a tail-bearer.

Thou shalt not go up and down as a tail-bearer among thy people. You see the picture? Here's the person that runs up and down from tent to tent in Israel saying, Oh, did you hear this? Did you hear this?

16:32 - 16:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He supplements the New Testament texts with Old Testament passages from Leviticus and Proverbs, illustrating the sin of 'tail-bearing' and 'whispering' as revealing secrets…

The words of a whisperer are like 'dainty morsels' that 'go down into the innermost parts,' conveying how insidious and deeply affecting gossip can be.

Again, Proverbs 18 and verse 8. The words of a tail-bearer, the authorized version, and it's a different word in the Hebrew. And so rightly, the ASV translators have translated it differently. The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels.

17:45 - 18:06 Read in full sermon

The point: As a congregation, begin to cut yourselves off from social fellowship with those who become whisperers, tail-bearers, and gossipers.

Just as a fire goes out for lack of wood, contention ceases where there is no whisperer, illustrating how gossip fuels conflict.

Isn't that a beautiful description? You don't put any more logs in the fire, what happens? It becomes dull embers and finally nothing but white ashes. He says, if only you can take the whisperer out of the situation, contention will die.

19:52 - 20:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be guilty of a form of mental and spiritual rape in probing into areas that are none of your business, even under the guise of 'praying more intelligently'.

Idle curiosity to know things that are none of our business is likened to a 'craving to be God,' who is omniscient, highlighting the prideful root of meddling.

He's omniscient and knows all things. And we're not content that we're creatures and know very little. And just as we seek to be God in so many other areas and usurp the rights of the deity, I wonder, if this isn't part of the evidence of our fallenness, we want to be omniscient. I want to be able to look at my brother and know everything about him that I want to know, even though three-quarters of it may be none of my business.

21:57 - 22:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be guilty of a form of mental and spiritual rape in probing into areas that are none of your business, even under the guise of 'praying more intelligently'.

Probing into areas of a brother or sister's life that are none of one's business is called a 'form of mental and spiritual rape,' emphasizing the violation of privacy and trust.

But this meddlesome spirit says, well, you know, I'd like to be a bit more intelligent as I pray. Oh, what a pious fraud. God knows what the need is. And if your brother or sister has only felt free to disclose, oh, so much, don't be guilty of a form of mental and spiritual rape in probing into areas that are none of your business.

23:26 - 23:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Get down off the throne and let God get back on it; stop playing God by judging others.

Martin shares a lighthearted anecdote about advising a man on his mustache length, carefully distinguishing his personal opinion from his pastoral authority, to illustrate judging matters of liberty.

And so he's saying, some of you know that I say this in jest. Some of you fellows, I do it occasionally with some of the girls, but mostly with the fellows. Recently, one of the guys began to let his mustache go hanging over the edges. I said, now look, what I say to you now, I don't tell you as your elder, your pastor.

30:05 - 30:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Get down off the throne and let God get back on it; stop playing God by judging others.

He shares an anecdote about Mrs. Blair's dislike for beards, using it to illustrate that personal preferences are not grounds for judging others in matters of liberty.

I have a right to have my personal opinions. Here, Mrs. Blair lets me know, Pastor, I don't like beards. If you grow one, I won't come to church.

31:10 - 31:19 Read in full sermon

The point: As parents, you have the right to make decisions for your children before God, but don't judge other parents who have different priorities in matters of liberty.

He presents a hypothetical scenario where a family must choose between Christian school (requiring the wife to work) and the wife staying home (public school), illustrating how different priorities in matters of liberty should not be judged by others.

Suppose the alternative between two families is this. Have children in Christian school. The wife must go out to work.

32:27 - 32:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He said, my brother, the chapel speaker will give account of himself to God. I will give account of myself to God. You will give account of yourself to God.

Martin recounts a personal story from his freshman year where a missionary friend sharply rebuked his attempt to commiserate about a critical sermon, teaching him to mind his own business and let others give account to God.

I'll never forget, if I may bring in an illustration. I was a freshman in a certain school that was very unsympathetic to what I believed. And I believed a lot of things then that I don't believe now. But I still believed enough then that was out of joint with what was around me.

33:37 - 33:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third manifestation is passing on general, unnecessary information about people and their lives, which he calls 'tail bearing' and links to an unwholesome desire to be the…

The 'unwholesome preoccupation with making yourself the town crier' illustrates the desire to be the first to spread news, highlighting the motivation behind unnecessary information sharing.

This unwholesome preoccupation with making yourself the town crier in the church or in your neighborhood. Always wanting to be the first one to tent, to pull back the flap and say, have you heard the latest?

36:11 - 36:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the peculiar temptation for women, especially single women, to use social contacts and the telephone as an occasion for meddling in other people's matters.

The telephone is described as bringing 'house to house into your own room,' illustrating how modern technology facilitates the sin of gossip without needing to physically 'gad about'.

And then this sin, was committed. Now, we have a problem they didn't have in the early church. You don't need to gad about from house to house to be guilty of this sin. You can bring house to house into your own room by means of that little thing that Bell Telephone puts there for a price.

37:30 - 37:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the peculiar temptation for women, especially single women, to use social contacts and the telephone as an occasion for meddling in other people's matters.

Gossip is described as 'erecting barriers' between people, illustrating its destructive impact on fellowship and relationships within the church.

There are times when I just wish I could pull out of my ears what someone has put in because what went into the ears was converted into a barrier that the next time I saw a certain brother, there it was. I didn't create it. He didn't create it. The gossiper created it.

39:22 - 39:37 Read in full sermon

The point: If a gossiping, meddlesome tongue is the primary manifestation of your unregenerate state, you need to be born again; the tree must be changed before the fruit can be good.

The drunkard's bondage to drink and the covetous man's bondage to things are used as examples to illustrate how a gossipy tongue can be the 'cardinal manifestation' of an unregenerate state.

But let me just say this much this morning because I don't know that I'll be here next week nor that you will be either. For some of you, the problem I've dealt with this morning is the cardinal manifestation, listen carefully, of your unregenerate state. You see, for the drunkard, the man who wakes up, if he wakes up at all, and looks at his own red eyes and his red face and all the marks of his drunkenness, upon him, for that man, the cardinal manifestation of his bondage to sin is his bondage to the buff.

42:13 - 42:50 Read in full sermon

The point: If a gossiping, meddlesome tongue is the primary manifestation of your unregenerate state, you need to be born again; the tree must be changed before the fruit can be good.

Conviction of sin is likened to a 'preview of the day of judgment,' where God holds up a mirror, urging listeners not to run from self-examination.

Your cardinal sin is a gossiping, meddlesome, intruding tongue. And until the Holy Ghost gives you a new heart, you'll never be able to bridle that tongue. So I call upon you this morning, if you've seen yourself, and oh, may God help you to be honest, if he's held up the mirror and it's turned in your direction, don't you run. If you run now, there's a time coming when the mirror will be held up and you can't run.

43:53 - 44:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If God has held up the mirror of conviction, don't run; face yourself and look to Jesus, the great liberator, to save you from this sin.

The blind man crying 'Son of David, have mercy' is used as an analogy for those struggling with an unruly tongue, acknowledging its untamable nature without divine grace.

And so from facing this sin, I would turn you to the Savior and tell you to call upon him. And as that man in his blindness, knowing there was no hope, but in the Son of God cried out, Son of David, have mercy. Some of you look upon that unruly member and say, Son of David, have mercy. This is untamable, but by thy grace.

45:01 - 45:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God to slay the attitude of self-righteousness, Pharisaic pride, or a cruel spirit of destruction that produces gossipy speech.

The parable of the Pharisee who trusted in himself that he was righteous and set others at naught is referenced to illustrate the self-righteous pride that often underlies gossipy judgment.

Other things. It's a subtle feeling of self-righteousness. Remember the parable we've been studying Sunday night? He spoke this parable to certain who trusted in themselves that they were what?

45:47 - 45:59 Read in full sermon

The point: When together with fellow students, before criticizing faculty members, suggest a word of prayer to ask the Lord to bless you.

He suggests students pray before criticizing faculty members, illustrating how prayer can transform conversations and prevent gossipy speech.

Make a difference, wouldn't you?

48:16 - 48:17 Read in full sermon