Bridled Tongue: Constructing a Bridle, Part 2

The point: Deal effectively with any particular sin only as you wage warfare on an all-out front against all sin in your life.

Compares a chronic physical problem (hives, ulcer, breathiness) that flares up when general health declines to how besetting sins manifest when general spiritual health is poor, illustrating that specific sins are indicators of a broader spiritual condition.

You see, it's like the person who has a chronic medical, physical problem. Maybe when he gets overtired and gets under strain, it shows itself by breaking out in hives. Well, when he has his hives, he knows that this is an indicator that his general physical condition is below par. Maybe it's someone who has problems with an ulcer.

19:04 - 19:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is utterly impossible to keep the heart in a prevailing holy frame in any one duty unless it be so in and unto all and every duty.

Quotes John Owen on the impossibility of maintaining a holy frame in one duty unless it is maintained in all, emphasizing the interconnectedness of spiritual disciplines and the holistic nature of sanctification.

And so we must, as we think of this matter of a bridal tongue, recognize that if we would have bridal tongues, we must determine by the grace, the grace of God to maintain general spiritual health. Let me quote from Owen. And oh, I just determined again, after I got dipping into Volume 6 again, I've read many parts through three, four times, and I said I'm going to go back through the whole thing again. Such perceptive insights and helpful things in this matter.

19:51 - 20:23 Read in full sermon

The point: If you begin to sever intimate friendships due to unbridled tongues, tell the person why, prioritizing obedience to God over fear of offending.

Uses the analogy of someone with bad breath losing friends and being motivated to use mouthwash to illustrate how social pressure within the church can motivate a person with a sinful tongue to address their sin.

Look suppose there's someone that's got a terribly bad case of Beal I'll really descend to the come and Mr. Morey did it this morning so I will. And he finds that it works he's losing his friends and everywhere well if he likes people bad enough he's going to come around to thinking it worthwhile to go down and buy some light boy or dial or something else. Why?

31:49 - 32:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Prove your love by reproving brothers and sisters when they sin, especially when they try to engage you in gossip or meddlesome speech.

Recounts a personal story of a missionary friend rebuking him for engaging in meddlesome speech, highlighting the lasting, healing virtue of a loving, direct correction.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are cruel. Prophuse you say you love me you say you love your brothers and sisters God says open rebuke is better than secret love. Prove your love by reproving them when they sin by rebuking them when they are guilty of trying to make your ears a garbage can for the latest swill and slop of somebody's gossip and meddlesome speech somebody's gossip say no no my brother my ears are not going to be garbage cans because what goes into the ears sinks down into the heart. I don't want that garbage in my heart. Thank God for my missionar...

40:59 - 42:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Prove your love by reproving brothers and sisters when they sin, especially when they try to engage you in gossip or meddlesome speech.

Compares a father who only shows love through the rod to the need for mutual love and affirmation in the church, so that when rebuke comes, it is understood as an expression of love, not the sole expression.

Now follow closely. The father who never proves his love but by the rod something wrong with him.

42:26 - 42:32 Read in full sermon