Bridled Tongue: Measure of True Religion

Introduction: The Pastor as Master Dietician and the Need for a Digression

0:00 A woman by the name of Adele Davis has written a book well-known in the circles of those who are nutrition-minded called Eat Right to Keep Fit, and one of the basic theses of that book is that in a very real sense, you are what you eat. Now, assuming that Miss Davis is right in that thesis, what is true in the physical realm is also very true in the spiritual realm. You are, as an individual Christian, we are as a body of God's people, in great measure, what we eat.

0:43 Now, the great problem is that someone must be the master dietician to lay out the diet of God's people, and though one may seek help from his fellow elders and seek to use all the means available to discern what abouts. A balanced diet is, for the people of God, there comes that lonely place, such as a president feels when he's consulted all his advisors and then he must make a decision, so there is that lonely place of the teaching elder when he must make the decision what the diet of God's people shall be at any given time in the life of that particular assembly.

1:27 And I've made a choice to digress again from our studies in Ephesians. I trust that God's people will be the master dietician to lay out the diet of God's people. I trust, on the basis of some very sound reasons, which I'll not go into with you this morning, but I say these things because I think you have a right to understand why these digressions come from time to time when we've established a basic course and have set a basic direction in our regular exposition. I want to direct your attention for the next few Lord's Day mornings to an area of biblical truth that is very vital and yet one which I want to direct your attention to.

2:03 I do not believe has received sufficient attention in recent years from this pulpit, and therefore if there's any blame, I have only myself to blame. And that area is the matter of the Christian and the use of his tongue. Now, I'm not going into the in topic of the Christian and the gift of tongues.

2:28 Frankly, if I could only see more grace of the Holy Spirit in the use of the one tongue, I would. I would. I would. I would.

2:34 In the one language I have, I would therein be very content. Now, our approach to this general subject is going to be that that Owen or Flavel would have taken were they to have handled the subject, namely, to direct your attention to a fundamental text in the Word of God, which brings together the major strands of truth on that subject, then having expounded that text, extracting the main or structural principles of the Bible, setting it up before you, and then going to the rest of God's revelation, the scriptures, and bringing various lines of truth together under that general heading. You will notice that this is how Owen treats the subject of mortification. He expounds Romans 8.13 and then ranges from Genesis to Revelation under that general heading. Flavel does this in several of his major treatises, and I think it's a very good way to approach a subject so that we do not come at it simply topically, but we come at it basically from an exegetical standpoint, that is, opening up a fundamental text of scripture, getting the field, as it were, staked out by that text, and then seeing the relationship of the rest of the Word of God to it.

The Foundational Text: James 1:26 and the Nature of Vain Religion

3:54 Now, the fundamental text that I've chosen in order to deal with this theme, under the general heading, a bridal tongue, the measure of true righteousness. True religion, and that's the subject that we're going to be addressing ourselves to in the next few Lord's Day mornings. A bridled tongue, the measure of true religion. You've already guessed the text, many of you, James chapter 1 and verse 26.

4:25 James 1 and verse 26. If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. Now, just a word about the book of James in general, so that this text will be seen in its relationship to the larger context. The great concern of James was to show that a notional religion was not a saving religion.

4:59 He was dealing with people who had come into that area of the grossest form of religion, of religious deception, namely, an area in which they thought that it was sufficient to have proper notions in the head and proper actions in the external religious life, and if those two things were present, then you had saving religion. And so James is constantly striking at the heart of this delusion. It's James who deals with the subject of dead faith, showing that a faith that is not productive of godly works is a dead faith. And hence, no saving faith.

5:40 He shows that though faith has an intellectual content, it has something more. These people said, we believe that God is one. That's a fundamental confession of orthodoxy. Is not that enough?

5:51 And James says, no, the demons also believe and they shudder. And it's in that general setting of James concern to show that saving religion, though it does involve certain aspects of notion. It has intellectual content. And though it involves certain external practices, certain external deeds as expressive of the reality, James goes to the heart of this subject again and again, showing that true religion has something more than notion and something more than external activity.

6:28 Now put this text in that general thrust of James concern. If any man thinketh himself to be religious. While he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. Now to think our way through the text, very briefly this morning.

Analyzing James 1:26: The Person, Condition, and Indictment

6:49 First of all, consider the person envisioned in the text. What person does James have in his mind when he speaks in this way? Well, he describes in these words. If any man thinketh himself to be religious.

7:07 , John 3,1-3. He has a general category of men, women, fellows, or girls in his mind, and he indicates that by using the very general word, if any. The man doesn't even need to be there. It's the same word used in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

7:23 If any be in Christ, he is a new creation. If any among you seemeth to be religious. So the person he envisions is, in one sense, very broad, very general, and the only limiting phrase is the one that follows, he thinketh himself to be religious. Some of the older translators have translated it, if any among you seemeth.

7:50 And the word in the original can mean seem or think, and in this particular instance, it is to be preferred to translate it, if any man thinketh himself to be religious. That is, his estimation of himself is, is that he is engaged in the external aspects and formal acts of true devotion, which comprise what we would call true or saving religion. Those things which are never divorced from the inward dispositions, which the outward exercises reflect. So the person envisioned is one who is esteemed religious in his own eyes, because externally, visibly, and frequently he is identified with the people of God and their worship. So as he assesses his life, he cannot regard himself as irreligious. He is there at the stated hours of worship. He is there singing the announced hymns and psalms of praise.

8:58 He is there, perhaps even, entering into public prayer. He seems to be religious in his own eyes, and even in the eyes of others. So in a very real sense, this text could apply to everyone in this building this morning. If any of you thinketh himself to be religious, and I would hope that all of you regard yourselves to be religious in this sense, you cannot, with any degree of mental honesty and personal integrity, say that you're irreligious if you're found in an appointed place of worship on the Lord's Day.

9:38 If you're found in an appointed place of worship on the Lord's Day morning. If you were sitting home with your feet kicked up, reading the New York Times, and looking at the funny section, and reading about all the college football games, you might have some reason to regard yourself as irreligious. Unless, of course, you've been to 8.30 Mass, and your religious duties were done for the day.

9:57 But you regard yourself as religious, being here this morning, because you're engaged in the external acts of religious worship. Because you're engaged in the external acts of religious worship. So much, then, for the person envisioned in the text. But now notice in the second place, the condition existent in that person.

10:16 And how is the condition described? It's described in two ways. He bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his heart. So the focus is on two things.

10:28 His tongue unbridled, his heart deceived. Now James uses the word tongue, of course, as the organ of speech, in the same way that we use it. We say, ah, that woman's got a wagging tongue. We don't mean that she goes around simply with her tongue hanging out, wagging it.

10:47 We mean that the tongue as an organ of speech is hyperactive, and hyperactive in the wrong direction. When we speak of a loose tongue, we don't mean someone whose muscles have lost their ability to hold the tongue in the mouth, and it just simply hangs out. We mean it's a tongue that is too active. Now James is using the word tongue in precisely the same way.

11:10 Now he uses a figure of speech. And he says the condition existent in this apparently religious person is that the tongue, the organ of speech, is unbridled. And James is the only one who uses this precise figure, and he uses it twice in his letter. We find it again in chapter 3 and verse 2.

11:31 For in many things we all stumble, if any man stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body also. Now what is the function of a bridle? Well, a bridle on a horse is that constant restraining influence by which the energies and the desires of that horse or that camel, whatever the animal is, those energies are directed into useful ends and purposes. That's what a bridle is for.

12:07 Let me repeat it. A bridle is that constant restraining, that governing, that directing influence by which the energies and desires of the animal bridled are directed to useful ends and purposes. Whether it's to convey a man from one town to another, in the case of a bridled horse, whether it's in the case of a bridled animal to bear a burden, this is the purpose of the bridle. Now get James' figure in that context.

12:42 An unbridled animal does constant damage to people and things and to whatever gets in the way of the expenditure of its energy. Now James says this seemingly religious person has a condition in which his tongue is not under that constant restraining influence. So instead of the tongue and all of its capacities and energies being channeled to useful ends and purposes, it becomes a destructive force. And everything it touches feels that destructive influence.

13:24 So the condition existent, the tongue unbridled and coupled with it, he says, but deceiveth his heart. The heart, of course, referring not to the organ by which the blood is pumped through the body, but the biblical use of the word heart. It's the seat of the whole man. It includes the mind, the affections, the will, what I am in my heart I am.

13:48 Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Now James says, the condition in this person is such that though he carries on all the appearance and semblance of true religion in his eyes and the eyes of others, he has an unbridled tongue which always is found joined to a deceived heart. That is, at the seat of his being he is deluded and duped as to his true state before the eye of the living God. Convinced that his religious state is good, he fails to see that the unbridled tongue exposes the lack of true religious reality. But he's utterly deceived by this. He sees no relationship between what he is in his own eyes because he's there at a place of worship at the appointed hour, saying the right things, entering into all of the external activity. He sees no relationship between that and the fact that that tongue has no bridle upon it.

15:01 So the unbridled tongue is invariable, invariably joined to the deceived heart whenever such a person professes to be a possessor of true religion. So much then for the person envisioned, the condition existent. Now in the third place, look at the indictment issued. What does James say to such a person?

15:25 This man's religion is vain. The indictment is that in spite of all the external form, the activity, the abundance of notions, and the proliferation of religious activity, it is all a mere delusion. It is vain. It is nothing.

15:50 It is idle, empty, and fruitless. In other words, it's not for real. It's a sham. It's a fake.

Core Principles: Bridled Tongue as the Measure of True Religion

16:01 Regardless then of what this man appears to be in his own eyes or in the eyes of others, the indictment of God through James is that this man's religion is vain. All of that external conduct that is apparently reflective of inward realities of the knowledge and love of God, James said, it's a pile of delusion. Now if that's the meaning of these words, and I think it's obvious to all of us that it is, what is the great principle that we are warranted to extract from this text and make, as it were, the fundamental basis of our study on the whole subject of the Christian and his tongue? Well, the principles are these. True saving religion will always be evidenced in the external activities and conduct of its possessor. You never can subtract the internal reality of true religion from the external activity.

17:10 That's why James can go right on in the next verse and say, pure religion and unbefiled before God and the Father, and he deals with two external activities. Visiting the fatherless and the widows and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. James assumes that true saving religion existent in the heart and expressed in outward religious rites will always be joined to and evidenced by activities and conduct consistent with that saving religion. Flowing from that fundamental principle, the degree to which saving religion is operative in us is the degree to which our tongues are bridled by the Word and the Spirit. If saving religion is always joined to activity and conduct commensurate with that profession, then in terms of our text, the degree to which saving religion is operative in me, in you, is the degree to which our tongues are bridled by the Word and the Spirit. James is speaking in absolutes. I'll not be dealing in absolutes throughout our study.

18:27 James is saying if there's no bridling influence whatsoever, then there is no saving religion. I am saying that, as with all of these things, there is the degree of conformity to the general principle in the life of the child of God. No true Christian can be under the dominion of sin, but every Christian does wrestle with the remains of sin. So then, the degree to which saving religion is operative in you and in me is the degree to which our tongues are bridled by the Word and the Spirit.

19:01 If those two principles are valid, then the conclusion we come to is this. The great concern of the possessor of true religion is to know and to implement the biblical directives for a bridled tongue. Anyone here that says I'm content to have vain religion, I'm content to seem to be religious in my own eyes and in the eyes of others, I don't care what God thinks. I trust there is no person in that category here this morning.

19:35 I'm assuming that the great majority of you having been touched by the power of God's grace, you long to please God. You long to have a life that is answerable to your profession of a saving acquaintance with His Son. Hence, the great concern of the possessor of true religion is to know and to implement the biblical directives for a bridled tongue. If a bridled tongue is the evidence of true religion, then I want to know what a bridled tongue is, and by the grace of God, I want to implement it.

The Fundamental Significance of the Tongue: Proverbs 18 & 6

20:10 Hence, the general theme of our studies, a bridled tongue, the measure of true religion. Now, having laid before you this basic text, I have enough time this morning to move into the first broad general area of our topical study. We're going to consider the fundamental significance of the use of the tongue in the Word of God, and we're going to make a quick trip through seven key texts in the Old and the New Testament. Then, God willing, next week we'll begin a study of the specific sins of the tongue condemned in Scripture.

20:46 The third area of our study will be the practical directives in the Scripture for the bridling of our tongues. First of all, then, within this general framework set by James 1.26 and the principles emerging out of it, how significant is the use of the tongue in the overall revelation of Holy Scripture? Well, turn first of all, please, to Proverbs chapter 18.

21:14 Proverbs chapter 18, verses 20 and 21. Proverbs 18, verses 20 and 21. A man's belly shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth, with the increase of his lips, shall he be satisfied. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

21:53 The last part of that verse is difficult to interpret, to exegete, but I think the thought is this. Here is the great potential of the tongue. It has inherent in its use the power of life and the power of death. The power of blessing, the power of cursing.

22:14 The ability to bring the frown or the favor of the living God for time and for eternity. Now, Solomon says, they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. He could perhaps be referring to the fact that if they love the life-giving power of the tongue and therefore give themselves to having a tongue so bridled as to produce it, as to produce life, they will eat the fruit of it. Or, it could have reference to the general principle.

22:46 The man that loves the unbridled tongue and delights in what his unbridled tongue can accomplish, the law of the spirit is, or the law in the spiritual realm, as in the horticultural realm, what you sow you reap. And if you sow to the flesh in the realm of the use of your tongue, you shall of the flesh reap corruption. But the main principle that I want to lay before you from this passage is the little phrase, life or death and life are in the power of the tongue. Those words death and life in the scriptures seldom refer just to the existence of animal life, our heart beating, our lungs breathing, or to the succession of the same death. But those words in the scriptures we find them introduced in Genesis, the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life. When you find God saying to Israel, I set before you the way of death and of life, of blessing and cursing, the overtones of those words are always such as to bring us into the realm of our relationship to God, death being severance from him, life being communion with him.

24:09 This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God. And then the projection of that relationship into eternity, death being separation from God in the lake of fire, Revelation 20. This is the second death, life being the consummate bliss of being like him when we see him as he is. Now the power, the power to produce those things lies right there, right there in the tongue.

24:41 Death and life in the power of the tongue. What a frightening thing that that which has the potential of death should ever be found without a bridle, lest to run free with its death-dealing sting. And what a tragedy when in any degree that's found in the life of a Christian. How important is the use of your tongue?

25:08 God says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. Second text in Proverbs, back in chapter 6. Just trying to have our hearts impressed with the weight of the Biblical emphasis upon this general area. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 and 17.

25:31 There are six things which the Lord hateth, yea, seven which are an abomination unto him, haughty eyes, which of course would be the external reflection of pride, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked purposes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren, probably again a reference to the use of the tongue. Of these seven things, the Lord hates. Three of them have direct relationship to the activity of that organ that sits right there between your upper and lower jaw. These things does the Lord hate and put into the same category of murder. He puts the false witness, the lying tongue, the tongue that is constantly dropping out seeds that create friction and discord amongst the brethren. A parallel passage to this is Proverbs 8 and verse 13.

26:46 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. What evil? Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the perverse mouth do I hate. Has God purpose to make us like his son in his grace if we are Christians?

27:08 Well, the scriptural answer to that is clear. You all know it. Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And conformity to the Lord Jesus is among other things a being brought into the moral likeness of Christ so that we hate what he hates and we love what he loves.

27:32 What is God's attitude to lying lips? He hates it as he hates murder. What is God's attitude toward a perverse, toward a perverse mouth? He hates it.

The Tongue and Blessedness: Psalm 34 & 1 Peter 3

27:43 And if we are being conformed to Christ, we will hate what he hates and hence our tongues will be under the bridle of the restraint of his word and of his spirit. An unregulated tongue is one of those evils most repeatedly mentioned as the object of the just anger and wrath of the living God. Now turn to Psalm 35. We've seen death and life in the power of the tongue.

28:17 The tongue that is not used to the ends that God has designed its use. God's anger is directed toward that sin. Psalm 34 and verse 13. Or we could back up to verse 11.

28:32 Come ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good? Anybody here that would deliberately say I want my days to be filled with misery.

28:51 How about you kids? How many of you would take a vote this morning? You say I want to have the most miserable life possible. I want to have the meanest mom and the meanest dad and I want to have the ugliest mayor.

29:03 You say no, nobody is right. Mind we all want to see good. As much good as can be expected in the wicked world. Sure we would see good.

29:12 Any among you that wants to live a short life to be cut off in the midst of your years? David's asking a question and his question is directed to those two things. What man is he that desires life? And again life there is not just existence.

29:28 What man is he that desires life, communion with God, life indeed and loveth many days, days in which he sees good? He says alright here's the prescription. Here's the path you must walk and notice the first thing he mentions. Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile.

29:50 The first characteristic he mentions of that man who truly aspires to true life and to length of days and to blessed days is the bridled tongue. Keep, put the bridle upon your tongue. Ah, but someone says that's in the Old Testament. That has reference to Israel when God was in such a covenant.

30:11 That was in such a covenant relationship as to promise external temporal blessings. Well Peter didn't understand it that way. For he quotes this in his first letter and this passage is lifted out in almost quoted verbatim in 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at it for a moment.

30:29 1 Peter chapter 3. One of those paragraphs beginning with a finally that didn't end immediately. The perpetual problem of preachers who say and now for our final point and then they still go on for almost as long after that as they did before. They have good company in Peter and in Paul and in the other biblical writers.

30:56 Finally, verse 8. Be ye like-minded. 1 Peter 3.8.

31:00 Compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, humble-minded, not rendering evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but contrary wise blessing. Why? For here unto were ye called that ye should inherit a blessing. And what is that blessing?

31:17 For he that would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. He extracts that passage right from the Psalm to prove and to enforce his point and he says dear child of God would you know the blessing of true life of communion with God and days blessed with the goodness of God? Then be sure that the bridle is ever upon your tongue. The reason some of you are not enjoying good days and you wonder what's the cause of my spiritual dryness?

31:53 What's the cause of some of perhaps the calamities that have come upon me? It could well be right here. It is part of the chastening hand of God for your unbridled tongue. Now I'm not saying if you're in bad days you are of necessity guilty of an unbridled tongue.

32:11 I did not say that. I'm not omniscient. I could never make such a statement. There may be some Job's amongst us whom God is making a monument of his grace before principalities and powers.

32:24 Granted. But it could also be that the reason some of you are not knowing good is because you are not refraining your lips and your tongue from speaking evil. Alright, now the fourth text. James chapter 3.

The Tongue as the Ultimate External Test: James 3:2

32:40 Life and death in the power of the tongue. An unbridled tongue. An object of God's hate. The path into blessedness.

32:57 A bridled tongue now. James chapter 3. Verse 2. For in many things we all stumble.

33:09 If any man stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body also. And I think what James is saying is this. That the use of the tongue is the ultimate external test of the whole moral and ethical development of the child of God. Now there are inward tests of your moral and ethical development by the Spirit of God into the image of Christ.

33:43 But James is saying the man who bridles the tongue who in the use of this organ and its external activity is the man who is able to bring all the outward concerns of his life under the government of the will of God. Now if that's true, how much have some of you grown in the past year? How are you to measure your growth? The use of the tongue is the ultimate external test of the moral and ethical development of the child of God.

34:20 Not the only test. It's not the ultimate inward. But it seems that James is saying it is the ultimate external test. Some of you have picked up a lot of knowledge in the past year.

34:33 You've become a little junior theologian in your own right. You've listened carefully. You've taken notes perhaps. You've read books.

34:40 And that's wonderful. Some of you are the paragons of faithfulness at the stated meetings of the assembly. Some of you aren't. And for that you ought to be ashamed if you have no good providential reason.

34:52 Now the real acid test, James says, is right here. How about that tongue of yours? Is it being restrained from activities in which it once engaged? And is it doing things that it never did before because the Lord Jesus holds the reins of the bridle in His hands and He is making it go in directions it never went before?

35:19 He is holding it back from going in directions in which it used to go? Puts it pretty close to home, doesn't it? That's how important the use of the tongue is. Now then, a fifth text.

The Tongue and the Holy Spirit: Ephesians 4 & 5

35:37 Ephesians chapter 4. And I'll only touch on it briefly because we studied this text together last Lord's Day. You remember that I pointed out something that is very clear and a very surface, cursory reading of the passage. The thought begins with verse 25 in Ephesians 4.

35:59 Putting away falsehood, speak ye truth every one to his neighbor. An exhortation regarding the use of the tongue. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may minister grace to them that hear and grieve, and grieve not the Holy Spirit.

36:37 It is the treatment of the use of the tongue that precedes this precise exhortation about grieving not the Spirit and what introduces it follows it. Verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, that is evil speaking and railing, be put away from you with all malice. In the light of that text we are warranted to say that an improper use of the tongue is the primary external cause of grieving the Spirit.

37:08 Internally, bitterness, hard-heartedness, unforgiveness, wrath, anger, those are the inward. Externally, improper, unbridled speech is the primary external cause of grieving the Holy Spirit. Would you knowingly, deliberately grieve Him who, when grieved, withdraws not His presence but His powerful operations and activities from our hearts and lives? Perhaps, again, this is the key to some of the snags that some of you have faced.

37:50 You've ransacked, as it were, your life and heart saying, why am I not making more progress in the Christian life? Could it be that a grieved spirit is the answer? A spirit grieved by carelessness, with that member, the tongue? How important, then, is a bridled tongue when it is inseparably joined to the great subject of grieving the Spirit?

38:20 Then, Ephesians chapter 5, a sixth passage, beginning with verse 18. And be not drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit. And then you have five participles that follow. The duty is be filled with the Spirit and then Paul tells us, as it were, the direction in which a Spirit-filled life will be manifested.

38:49 And he gives us five participles. Notice the dominant emphasis in those five participles. Here they are. Speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks, submitting.

39:04 Four out of the five have to do with what? The tongue. The tongue. Now, I don't agree at all with the polemics of the Pentecostal position when they say, and I've had dear Pentecostal people tell me this, I don't agree with this at all.

39:25 They say, well, why is it when people ask them, why is it that speaking tongues is so significant? I've heard some of them say, well, that's the last thing for the Lord to get hold of in anybody, and when he gets hold of it enough to make it speak a language he wants to, then he's really got hold of it. Well, I don't agree with what they're proving from that, but the principle is right. The measure to which you are filled with the Spirit is the measure to which your tongue is under the government of God to do what?

39:54 To speak in that which edifies to your brethren psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, giving thanks. I'm sorry, there's the third. The other would be inward, would it not? Making melody with your heart?

40:09 Could be either. Let's even assume for the sake of argument, that's inward, not even external. Three of the five have to do with the use of the tongue. You find in the parallel passage in Colossians 3.16 essentially the same thing. So then when we put this up alongside our lives, it again is quite searching. To what extent am I being filled, controlled, possessed by the Spirit only to the measure that my tongue is being bridled to flow out in giving thanks, in edifying speech, and in that which ministers grace to others. And then the last text, and I've deliberately left it for the last.

The Tongue and Final Judgment: Matthew 12:35-37

40:55 Because as I preach beneath the shadow of that day when I shall give account of my stewardship, so you sit and live beneath the shadow of that day. And every single hour of every day is heading toward that one great day when we stand before God to give account of the deeds done in the body. What place will our words have in that day? Well, turn to Matthew 12 for our closing text this morning.

41:24 Matthew chapter 12. The immediate context is our Lord's dealings with the Pharisees who attribute His power and His mighty works to the devil. And He then rebukes them and gives these sobering words about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But in the process of dealing with them and their particular sin, our Lord moves from the particular into the general.

41:56 And He often does this, even as He'll move from the general into the particular. And He says in that context, verse 35, the good man, here's a general principle, illustrated in you Pharisees, but true in every person, the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. And the evil man, out of the evil treasure bringeth forth good things. And the evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things.

42:25 And I say unto you that every idle word, not that you shall speak, but that men shall speak. He's in the general now. He's moved out of a particularized application to the Pharisees alone. And He's speaking in broad sweeping principles.

42:40 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. You say, Pastor, how in the world does that fit what you've been preaching in the evenings? We're justified solely on the grounds of the infinite merit and righteousness of Christ.

43:06 It's not talking about the same justification. Not talking about the same justification. One is our justification before the tribunal of God in which nothing but the righteousness of Christ will avail. The other is our justification before the moral universe in which our deeds and our works are the basis of that justification.

43:29 The declaration that indeed we were the true people of God who experienced an inward change so pervasive that it touched our tongues as well as the other members of our body. How important is this matter of a bridled tongue? Take seriously these words. By thy words thou shalt be justified.

43:50 By thy words thou shalt be condemned. Because your tongue is such a significant indicator of the state of your heart that merely isolating the use of your tongue in the day of judgment would be sufficient to declare to the whole universe the rightness of God damning you or the rightness of God saying, Come ye blessed into the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. That's pretty serious, isn't it? By thy words thou shalt be justified.

44:27 By thy words. Thou shalt be condemned. Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. And I want to close our study this morning on that sobering note.

Conclusion: Call to Conviction, Refuge in Christ, and Assimilation

44:41 Because if nothing else has pierced through to the place where you see the awful and I use that term in its loftiest sense not terrible but the awesome nature of the subject with which we'll be engaged over the next weeks may God grant that this note shall bring us into that orbit of sobriety and serious concern. If any among you thinketh himself to be religious is that you? Are you described by James? You think yourself to be religious?

45:16 What about your condition? Do you have a bridled tongue joined to a deceived heart? If so, God says all your religion is vain. The measure to which your tongue is bridled is the measure to which your religion is real and genuine.

45:37 As I've been thinking about this and have felt something of the pain of conviction in my own heart and life the only consolation I've found is again in looking to him of whom it was said who did no sin and what was the first specific description of that sinless life neither was guile found in his mouth. That's it. Our sinless Lord demonstrated his perfect sinlessness and top of the list the use of his tongue. And so as we feel I trust something without even having dealt with the specifics just the general thought of how serious it is and we reflect upon how careless we've used this member that has the power of life and death in it this member that can incur the hatred of God if it lies or bears false witness or sows discord this member the use of which determines whether or not we enjoy life and length of days and blessing this member which can grieve and quench the spirit this member which reflects the measure of our external conformity to the law and will of God this member which as we've seen if controlled by the spirit will be used in ways of edification this member the activity of which will meet us in the day of judgment oh I plead with you this morning

47:05 as you face these things to feel something of the guilt and the sin of being so careless what's your refuge? It's to fly to him whose lips never spake, Guile to find in the perfect righteousness of Christ your only refuge for your sin and your unrighteousness and if you're a child of God who has fled look again to him and looking unto him cry to God Lord by your spirit make me like him for we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image even by the Lord the spirit start going through the gospels looking for every instance where Jesus spoke every instance where he didn't speak and I find much greater conviction there at times may God help us that together as a body of his people as we feed for a few weeks upon a diet of the biblical teaching concerning a bridled tongue we may as a congregation be what we eat you are not what the food set before you is in itself unless you assimilate it you can have a perfectly balanced diet set in front of you and starve and be undernourished

48:32 and anemic and so the mere preaching of these things will not guarantee that there will be bridled tongues amongst us it's the assimilation in faith and obedience that will produce in our midst by God's grace into his glory an assembly of bridled tongues let us pray