Directives for Bridling the Tongue, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Martin announces the sermon's purpose, recaps the series so far (five categories of biblical witness, four sins of the tongue, and the essential prerequisite of regeneration), and…

Martin describes the tongue as a relatively small, fleshy organ bounded east and west by two cheeks, north and south by two jaws, placed behind two rows of teeth — yet possessing the awesome power of death and life, establishing the series' governing paradox.

Solomon is here asserting the sobering fact that deposited in the activity of this relatively small, fleshy organ, rooted in the upper front of our throats, bounded on the inside, east and west by two cheeks, on the north and south by two jaws, placed behind two rows of teeth, is this organ possessing the awesome power of death and of life.

0:48 - 1:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in consistent, earnest prayer asking God specifically to guard your tongue — not just generic prayer for holiness, but focused petition for this member.

Martin poses the absurd alternative to active effort: sitting back and praying 'Lord, you've made the tree good, let the fruit grow' or 'you've made the treasure good, unpack it yourself' — a passive quietism he immediately refutes with Philippians 2:12-13.

of God's regenerating grace, what then are you to do, if anything, to overcome the sins of the tongue? To state it differently, to say, I am truly confident, I trust, that the tree has been changed from a corrupt into a good tree, and therefore in a position to bring forth good fruit, that the evil treasure has been changed into a good treasure, so that it can bring forth good things. What do we do so that day after day there is an increasing measure of grace to overcome the sins of the tongue? Do we simply sit back, and allow the fruit to be born on its own, with no conscious, deliberate effo...

8:30 - 9:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in consistent, earnest prayer asking God specifically to guard your tongue — not just generic prayer for holiness, but focused petition for this member.

Martin explains Philippians 2:12-13 by saying God's working in us does not bypass our willing and working but works through them — so my working is the validation and manifestation of his working, and God's work assures the possibility of my work.

your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure and in that text that only causes people to scratch their heads who don't understand the ways of God the apostle says you Philippians I want you to engage all of your faculties and all of your powers and conscious that you're living before the face of God I want you to give yourself with all of those faculties and powers to the working out of your salvation and I want you to do so in the confidence that God all the while is continually effectually working in you both to...

10:13 - 11:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

Martin expounds Psalm 141:2 — as God smelled the incense rising from the tabernacle sacrifice as a sweet savor, so David asks that his prayer be sweet to God's nostrils, giving a rich sensory picture of earnest prayer reaching God.

As God would smell the incense going, going up from a sacrifice offered in the tabernacle, according to divine directive by the divinely appointed man. And God would smell it and it'd be a sweet savor to him. David says, Oh God, give ear to my voice when I call. Lord, let my prayer be sweet to your nostrils as the incense of the evening sacrifice.

16:42 - 17:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

Martin explains the word 'cognate' by comparing words to an extended family — first cousin, second cousin twice removed, aunt, uncle — to help the congregation understand that 'watch' and 'keep' in Psalm 141:3 belong to the same word family as military guard terminology.

Now these words watch and keep our words, which along with their cognates, when people talk about the cognates, that's the verbal cousins. First, cousin, second cousin, twice removed uncle or aunt. It's words that come out of the same family. They have a family relationship and these words keep and watch and their cognates are with their verbal cousins, aunts and uncles of the very words used to describe a military activity of placing soldiers in a strategic place in order to guard someone or something.

17:34 - 18:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

Martin explains that a military watch is typically posted to prevent unwarranted entrance into a protected area — as soldiers stand outside city gates — giving the basic military meaning of David's prayer for a sentinel before his lips.

we find the words used that way in judges seven, 19 and Nehemiah four in verse nine. Now usually when a military guard a watch is posted, it is to prevent an unwarranted entrance into a protected area outside the city gates. You remember in the gospels, they set a guard, a watch outside the tomb of our Lord Jesus in order to prevent any unwarranted entrance. Lord Jesus in order to prevent any unwarranted entrance.

18:15 - 18:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.

Martin illustrates the word 'watch' from the gospel accounts — the Jewish authorities set a watch at the tomb of Jesus to prevent the disciples from entering and removing the body, lest they claim he had been raised.

Lord không warranted intrusion in order to prevent anyone from going in and removing his body and the jewish authority said then they would claim that he had been raised from the dead as he prophesied he would be now in the case of some instances recorded even in the scriptures in first samuel 1911 saul sets a watch to keep david from going out of his home but generally the watch is set to keep unwarranted people from entering somewhere whether it's the camp of the philistines whether it's entering into the tomb of our lord jesus but we do have that instance in which the word watch is used wit...

18:44 - 20:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.

Martin notes 1 Samuel 19:11 as an instance where a watch is set to prevent outgoing rather than incoming movement — Saul set soldiers at David's house lest David escape — showing the word's range of meaning.

Lord không warranted intrusion in order to prevent anyone from going in and removing his body and the jewish authority said then they would claim that he had been raised from the dead as he prophesied he would be now in the case of some instances recorded even in the scriptures in first samuel 1911 saul sets a watch to keep david from going out of his home but generally the watch is set to keep unwarranted people from entering somewhere whether it's the camp of the philistines whether it's entering into the tomb of our lord jesus but we do have that instance in which the word watch is used wit...

18:44 - 20:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.

Martin's central extended allegory: God answers David's prayer by sending four captains — Purity/Sanctity, Love, Necessity, and Propriety — each with a key and deadbolt on the door of the lips. Words must get past all four captains before they are permitted to exit. Unless all four turn their keys, the door stays shut.

And David, when you pray that I would set a watch upon your mouth, and that I would guard the door of your lips. David, I answer your prayer by sending you four sentinels, each with a key in his hand. And David, when your words are knocking on the back side of the door, I charge my sentinels to ask them, do you meet my criteria for coming out? If so, I'll put my key into the lock and turn it.

21:54 - 22:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.

The first captain asks whether the words seeking exit are free from lying, corrupt speech, abusive speech, and meddlesome intrusion — the four sins of the tongue examined in previous sermons. If yes, Captain Sanctity retracts his deadbolt.

Lord, keep the door of my lips. All right, David. When you knock, about the same time. And Captain Purity or Sanctity says, David, are the words that are coming out of your mouth up to the standard of sanctity?

23:02 - 23:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And I'm going to call them Captain Purity or Sanctity, Captain Love, Captain Necessity, and Captain Propriety.

The second captain asks whether the words are shaped by love that seeks the good of the hearer, is not easily provoked, and is willing to wound when faithfulness demands — including the love that rebukes and admonishes rather than merely flatters.

Then Captain Love speaks up. David's still knocking. I want these words to have an exit. Captain Love says, David, are you going to speak the truth in love?

23:48 - 24:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

The third captain asks whether the words need to be spoken at all, grounded in Proverbs 10:19 — 'in the multitude of words there lacks not transgression.' Words that merely want to run all over the place fail this test.

Are these words necessary to be spoken? Or, David, are they just words that want to come out and run all over the place? For the scripture says, in Proverbs 10 and verse 19, this very interesting and practical thing. In the multitude of words, there lacks not transgression, but he that refrains his lips does wisely.

25:29 - 25:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

The fourth captain asks whether the words are proper, fitting, and suitable given the relationship, setting, and timing — illustrated by Elihu's restraint before older men and Paul's instruction to Timothy about not rebuking an elder.

But then finally, there's Captain Propriety. And what's Propriety? What is proper, what is fitting, what is suitable? There's a marvelous passage that indicates that Elihu, the younger man who stood around and watched and listened as Job's comforted spewed out all of their verbiage, he had a sense of the propriety of words.

26:10 - 26:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin grounds the first directive in the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:13) and Psalm 141:1-3, expounding the military imagery of 'set a watch' and 'keep the door.' He…

Martin expounds Job 32 — Elihu had deep, valid, righteous things to say, but could not get past Captain Propriety because he was younger and it was not proper for him to speak before older men. Only when he could persuade Propriety did he finally open his mouth.

Listen to what Elihu says in Job chapter 32. Job chapter 32. Elihu says this, verse 6, or verse 4. Elihu had waited to speak unto Job.

26:37 - 26:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I think it's a marvelous example of Captain Propriety standing at the door of Elihu. Until he can say to Captain Propriety, look, initially your refusal to open the door, I consent was right, however. And then he persuad…

Martin responds to the objection that running four tests before every word is impractical by comparing the trained conscience to a computer that accesses millions of bits of information in fractions of a second — what the conditioned conscience does by second nature.

But when you've conditioned your conscience to think in these biblical categories, it is amazing how quickly those things can be run through at times in milliseconds. If men with their gray matter can make computer. That in fractions of seconds can access millions of bits of information. What about the thing that produces that?

31:12 - 31:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply the four-captain test to emails before sending — email lacks the compositional discipline of formal letters and is especially prone to words that would never pass face-to-face scrutiny.

Martin singles out email as a special danger because it lacks the compositional discipline of a formal letter — making it very easy to let words exit through the fingers and electrical impulses that would never pass the four captains' approval in face-to-face speech.

When sitting at your computer you guys.

35:46 - 35:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One of the most wretched manifestations. Of our remaining sin. Is that we feel the liberty. To hurt the most. Those with whom we have the most secure relationship.

Martin observes that husbands would never dare speak to their boss the way they speak to their wives when aggravated — because the boss might fire them, but the wife won't divorce them. The security of the marriage relationship becomes a framework that enables the abuse of remaining sin.

Some of you men would never dare. I don't care how aggravated you were. You would never dare speak to your boss. The way you speak to your wife.

36:57 - 37:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the second directive with the distinct biblical imagery of the bridle and muzzle (Psalm 39:1; James 1:26), contrasting it with the doorkeeper imagery of…

Martin vividly pictures an unbridled horse — a bundle of muscle and sinew going wherever it will — then the same horse bridled, snorting, pawing, bobbing its neck, but held in by the rider's firm grip on the reins joined to the bridle. This is the image of deliberate, willful tongue-restraint.

What do you do when you bridle a horse? Well here is this animal. This bundle of muscle and sinew. And the unbridled horse goes where he will at whatever speed.

43:50 - 44:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the second directive with the distinct biblical imagery of the bridle and muzzle (Psalm 39:1; James 1:26), contrasting it with the doorkeeper imagery of…

Martin pictures a yelping dog howling at the full moon, thinking it will scare the moon to another galaxy — then someone going over and clamping the dog's upper and lower jaws shut. David says that is what he did with his own mouth in Psalm 39.

Joined to the bridle. Or if the proper rendering is a muzzle. Think of that yelping dog. Howling on the hill.

44:33 - 44:44 Read in full sermon

The point: In convivial social settings where conversation is flowing freely, be especially alert to the need to bridle the tongue — ease and laughter are conditions in which careless words slip out most readily.

In expounding James 1:26, Martin says that anyone who is a stranger to the experience of restraining the tongue as though holding back a horse at breakneck speed is either a stranger to real religion or more sanctified than biblical doctrine about remaining sin allows.

A horse that wants to bust out of the gate. And go running at breakneck speed. You're a stranger to real religion. Or you're so sanctified my friend.

48:47 - 48:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Young people, put a bridle on your mouth in the presence of parents and older believers — their encyclopedia of proven knowledge from life's crucible cannot be matched by academic study, and smart-mouthing them stinks in…

Martin applies the bridle to young people who think their classical education makes them wiser than their parents — urging them to recognize that their parents possess an encyclopedia of proven knowledge from the crucible of life that no Latin class can match, and that smart-mouthing parents stinks in the nostrils of God.

able to pronounce one latin word right they've got an encyclopedia of proven knowledge to which you are utterly ignorant and it is your wisdom to acknowledge it and to put a bridle on your mouth when you're ready to debate with mom and dad and ready to smart mouth them that stinks in the nostrils of god you may be smarter they may say things that you could argue them and show them up don't do it now if they say now look dad knows he's ignorant in this area can you help him well then you sit down and say well very humbly dad i'll be glad to you see okay that's different from you taking the init...

50:57 - 52:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply the gospel directly to the tongue by reckoning yourself dead to sin in union with Christ — count it as true that there is no moral necessity for your tongue to be an instrument of sin.

Martin personifies sin in Romans 6 as a usurper master who approaches the believer and says: 'Give me your tongue — I want your hands to steal, your eyes to lust, your feet to go into forbidden paths, your tongue to lie.' The believer must refuse, presenting each member to God instead.

I must determine that I will not present my members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Sin has not died to me. I've died to it. But sin will come as a usurper master and say, give me your tongue.

58:13 - 58:25 Read in full sermon

The point: When sin comes as a usurper master demanding your tongue, actively refuse to present your tongue to sin and instead deliberately present it to God as an instrument of righteousness, trusting Christ's sin-conquering power…

Martin leads the congregation to pray: 'Lord, here is my tongue — may it know the virtue and power of my union with Christ, that the sin-breaking, sin-conquering power of Jesus that is mine in Him, O Lord, may my tongue know that sin-conquering power.'

Lord, here is my tongue. May it know the virtue and power of my union with Christ. That the sin-breaking, sin-conquering power of Jesus that is mine in Him. O Lord, may my tongue know that sin-conquering power.

59:11 - 59:30 Read in full sermon