On today’s Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack Hibbs brings forth a message from the heart of the Book of James, illustrating the delicate balance between words and faith. Drawing from scripture, he discusses the implications of being a teacher or leader, and the stricter judgments that accompany such responsibilities. Pastor Jack offers both guidance and caution for those who teach, emphasizing the critical link between what is spoken and what resides within our hearts. This enlightening discussion invites believers to self-reflect on their faith journey, addressing the constant battle with the tongue and its significant impact. Prepare to be
Christians are to read their Bibles. Christians are to just lead people to Christ. But when you get a taste of what God wants to do with our tongue and with our body for His glory, there’s such an energy that comes into the heart and into the soul that you must equate that with becoming a full-time minister or a full-time evangelist or whatever. That’s not the case. James says that’s very few.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.
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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called The Book of James with a message titled, The Tongue and What It Can Do. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter written to the Jews who chose to follow Jesus Christ. And as new believers, James had a lot to say to them about the tongue. You see, James has been stressing practical Christian living, about how true faith is followed by good works, and how we can stumble in many things, and that would include speaking before thinking. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we really need to be mature about the use of our tongue. Our words are not always obedient to the Word of God and can become a real danger to our faith. Now, with his message called The Tongue and What It Can Do, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Everything that comes into our life, everything that comes into your life, what you’re going through right now, if you have yielded your life to Christ, no matter what’s going on, you can draw a big circle around it and know this, that God has specifically prepared the events or the situations or the dilemma that you’re in. And one of those reasons is that you and I might see God at work in the very difficulties of our life. I enjoy, I don’t mean this in a… Sick way. But I enjoy when people come up to me and they say, Pastor Jack, my world’s falling apart. I really just need to get together. And, you know, I understand the frustration. I go through that maybe three or four times a day, I think. But, you know, oh my goodness, the world’s coming to an end. Well, are you a Christian? Yes. Well, hey, that right there just lifts the load tremendously with that proclamation. Well, I’m a Christian. I’ve given my life to Christ. Well, if you’ve given your life to Christ, who do you think you belong to? And we know from the book of Job that everything that comes into the believer’s life has stamped on it God’s permission. Nothing comes into our life. You may be battling great illness, or you may be battling financial difficulty, or maybe family problems. God knows. And if you’re not a Christian this morning, boy, you ought to be. Why don’t you just become one right now where you’re at? You just say, Jesus, I want you as my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me for driving my own life. And I want to give the will to you, and I want to follow you all the days of my life. You can do that right now where you’re at. And know from this moment on that Christ will be working in and through your life. James chapter 1, the trials and difficulties of life. James chapter 2, he talks to us there about if we say we’re Christians, then we had better be acting like a Christian. And what is a Christian? In this world, we are the light, we are the salt, we are the love, We are the witness of Jesus himself. And we talked about in great detail how there are a lot of Christians, well, we should say a lot of proclaiming Christians that you and I know, who in fact don’t live anything like Christ, but in fact live in direct opposition to what God would have us to be living. And they are in fact just simply proclaimers. They don’t walk the walk. They just talk about the walk. And in reality, they’re not Christians at all. They’re deceivers. They’ve deceived themselves first. And they might get by deceiving a few people. But the fact of the matter is, James chapter 2 teaches us that they are in fact those who are of a false faith. They have a desire to be religious. They have a desire to own a Bible. They think, well, I’m just going to go to church. It’s the moral thing to do. And yet in all reality, they have no true conversion power in their lives. Now, James comes to chapter 3 this morning about the Christian and our tongue, our mouth, what we say and what we speak. And this is strong stuff. And what did you expect from James by now, huh? strong stuff about the tongue and about the mouth. And we’ll just cover this morning chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, but next week we’ll cover down to verse 12. But James chapter 3, this morning. He says, Verse 2. Verse 3. Look also at ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles? Or do you see how just a little spark can torch an entire forest itself? That’s how the tongue is. And I thought about this, and… looking at what the Bible tells us about the tongue, and we’ll cover a lot of scriptures this morning talking about speech and what we say and how the tongue needs to be kept under control. But listen, every one of us this morning battled with this thing that’s right proper center in our face called the tongue. Isn’t it tragic? Look where it’s situated. Right there. That thing is right in front of our eyes. It’s right in front of ears. It’s right there. Now, if we use it for good, then that’s a great place to position the tongue. The problem is, and James will even encourage us a little bit, we all stumble when we use our tongue. Our tongues are never completely obedient to what we ought to be doing. And we’re going to see the reason why this morning. Why does our tongue sometimes jump out and say things? You know, somebody has often said, many commentators have said that Peter had such a problem with his tongue that he would often, you know, pull one foot out of his mouth to put the other foot in because he was always getting in trouble with his tongue. And I love Peter in the Bible when every time he goes to open his mouth to preach a message or to say something, he’s constantly interrupted. Did you know that? Every time he opens his mouth, even with the great conversion of 3,000 people at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, he’s speaking and the Holy Spirit interrupts and Peter’s always getting cut off. And one of the reasons I love is they’re on the Mount of Transfiguration. They’re seeing all of this glory take place. And the Bible says that Jesus took James and John and Peter up to a mountaintop. And they’re on the Mount of Transfiguration. Everybody, well, the three of them are just silent as they see Jesus transfigured in front of them. And Jesus is speaking to Moses and Elijah. And it says there that Peter says, Lord, it’s so good that we’re here. Let’s build three tents, one for you, one for Elijah, one for Moses. It’s so great that we’re here. And it says in the Mark’s Gospel, this Peter said because he didn’t know what to say. When you don’t know what to say, what do you do? You say something. That’s Peter. I don’t know what to say, so I guess I better say something. Let’s build three tents. One for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus. Our mouths. We need as Christians, now James is teaching us chapter 3, to be mature in the use of our tongues. And he first of all introduces… Really, the main topic this morning, verses 1 and 2, and then he’ll show us in verses 3 and 4 the great illustrations regarding the tongue itself. But what an unusual body part our tongue is. You know, it’s one of our most powerful muscles. Did you know that? Our tongue. We only see a little bit of it, even if you stick it out as far as you can. It’s only a little part that you see. You know, your tongue’s pretty big. It goes way down inside there. I don’t know where it goes, but it goes down inside there. And it does a lot of work and helps us speak, helps us eat, keeps our mouth, you know, how it functions, nice and moist usually most of the time. And, you know, it usually does a great job. But Christians have found out, we have found out that our tongue is not always obedient to the will of God. And the reason why that’s true is because our tongue is in fact connected to to our hearts and our heart needs to be kept in check always by the word of God so we want to look at this most interesting most interesting thing the tongue and what it can do the first point I want you to see this morning if you’re taking notes is found in verse one and that is the mature Christian needs to be aware of its danger that the mature Christian is in fact aware of the danger that the tongue can generate James 3 verse 1, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the stricter judgment. The first thing we want to notice and we want to heighten this awareness is that we are called brethren here. He says it again. This is the third time James has called us brethren like this, my brethren. And he’s encouraging us that we are, in fact, the Christians. We’re together. He’s talking to every one of us this morning that would claim Christ. And he’s saying, listen, not many of you, don’t let, don’t allow, within the body, many people to become teachers. Now listen to this. This is kind of a cultural thing. Back in James’ day, the early church, many of them, because they were fleeing from Judaism, or I should say from the… Jews who were persecuting the Christians. Many born-again Jews had fled their homes. They had lost their families. They had lost their jobs to become Christians. They were driven out. There was no real structure or organization to the diaspora. Remember James 1, verse 1? He writes to all those who are scattered abroad throughout all of Asia and Asia Minor. And so there was not much of an organized leadership there. And James is saying to the church, my brethren, don’t let many of you become teachers. And the word teacher here is one who instructs, or some of your old King James Version Bibles might have the word masters, rabbis, instructors in the word. One who stands up and gives out the teaching that will cause people to, you know, hopefully to know God better, but that wasn’t always the case. But he says, don’t be many. Because in that culture, in that time, many people were, in fact, giving a message from Sunday to Sunday, a different person each time. And what happened was, if you have immature or new believers, or a false believer, we just came through that, you would have these men up there speaking, and James says, listen, I want to give you this warning. You just don’t walk up and proclaim yourself a teacher. James says, listen here, don’t many of you become teachers? Be careful. It’s a very serious thing. It’s not a call that you put upon yourself. Now, I have seen people who have been a Mediocre type Christian or they’re kind of lukewarm and somehow, and this doesn’t always have to happen, but somehow they wind up going with us on a short-term mission trip. And they come back completely changed. And you’ll ask them, well, what happened? I want to know what happened in your life. Why are you different? Because I shared Christ and it was a wonderful experience. And it is. Oh, the energy level. I want to read my Bible now all the time. Great! In fact, I think the Lord’s calling me into the ministry to be a pastor. Okay, why? Well, because I led someone to the Lord last week, and I’ve been reading my Bible all the time since I got back. Do you realize you’re doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing all the while you were backslidden? Or all the while that you are lukewarm. Christians are to read their Bibles. Christians are to just lead people to Christ. But when you get a taste of what God wants to do with our tongue and with our body for His glory, there’s such an energy that comes into the heart and into the soul that you must equate that with becoming a full-time minister or a full-time evangelist or whatever. That’s not the case. James says that’s very few. The fact is, all of us who are Christians should be experiencing that wonderful rush all the time. I had somebody last week say, I’m really trying to stop doing drugs. I’ve been coming for a few months and I want to stop doing drugs. I’ve given my heart to Jesus last month here at the church and I want to stop doing drugs. And I said, why are you doing drugs anyway? Are you hooked? No, I’m not hooked. I just feel this need to do it. Well, why? Well, it just makes me feel better. I said, you know what? Let’s get together on a Thursday night and I’ll hold your hand and we’ll go lead somebody to the Lord out on the street. If you want to rush, friend, that’s a rush. You see? This thing that the Christian is to be doing is to be a witness. Jesus said the power of the Holy Spirit will come in us and we will be witnesses even out to the uttermost parts of the earth. This is normal for us to be sharing Christ. It’s normal for us to be in the Bible. It’s normal for you to be here this morning. This is normal for us.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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James is saying, listen, don’t many of you become teachers? The word implies here about let not many. It means do not assume and don’t think, well, you know, I guess I’m just supposed to be a teacher. He says, knowing that we, James includes himself, of course, he’s an apostle and a great teacher, we shall receive the stricter judgment. The term here, stricter judgment, is exactly right. Any person, according to the scripture, who opens this book or speaks for God as a teacher, an evangelist, a prophet, an apostle, has just put themselves into a category of great judgment. And that judgment is coming. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 that we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Every one of us who are Christians, Jesus will judge us. The Bible says that we’ll have to give an account for every idle word. The word idle is empty. I know none of us would ever speak in empty words. It’s just not in us. But for the other people who don’t go to this church, they’re going to have to give an account for every idle word. And I don’t know how that grabs you, but it grabs me right around the tongue. And I begin to think, Lord, am I guilty of having idle words? I am so often like Peter. I don’t know what to say, so I guess I better say something. No, the Bible says, hold your tongue. And James is saying, to those of you who are assuming the place of a teacher, you better know what you’re talking about. And one of the things is that you better know you’re called. Listen, the calling. Now, all of us… are to be ministering one to another. This is not the position of a teacher. This word implies here one who has authority or is granted authority. Do you know how scary it is to be, I guess, opening the Bible and there’s people sitting and they’re listening and they’ve been praying, Lord, I’ve got these things going on in my life. I want you to speak to me as I go to church today. Lord, speak to me. And the thing is, I don’t know what’s going on in your life. And sometimes I’m extremely glad to know that because sometimes God will drop into the message or will come out of my mouth things that you’ll say later. How did you know to say what you did? Because that’s exactly what I was going through. I didn’t know what to say. But the vessel, this carcass of mine, was laid open to the Lord, and I’m just saying, Lord, fill me. I’ve studied. I know the text. I know the context. Lord, help me. I’ve done my grammar, this, that, and the other. Lord, I’ve done my part. Now, God, please do your part. And he’s faithful to his word. And one of the things that he’ll do is that he’ll speak to the congregation or to people or to a person as he uses his word. But to be a teacher in this context that James is talking about is to be very aware of the fact that there’s a great danger, that we can say something that will affect someone’s life. And you might say, well, I’m glad you’re in that position. Hey, you’re in that position too. How many of us have children? Some of you go like this. I do, but I don’t. How many of you know children? Really, how many of you are grandparents? How about that? Boy, that’s a powerful, powerful position to have. You grandparents, we who are parents, don’t forget how you looked at your grandparents or how you looked at your parents. When they would say something, did you know that your father and your mother or your grandpa or your grandma or you, your teacher, or if you are the teacher, the power that they have, the power that you have, that someone can say, just turning in a moment, someone can say, you know what? I like you. oh, wow, that does something to you. I remember Larry Taylor was here so many years ago. And Larry Taylor once, in one of his messages, he says, you know, God loves you. And nobody reacted to that. And he goes, he said, God even likes you. And that hit me hard. God likes me. I know he loves me. He’s got to love me. He made me. I’m his creation. He doesn’t turn his back on his creation, so he’s got to love me. He’s love. But nowhere does it say God is like. It says God is love. But when Larry brought it to our attention, God likes us. All of a sudden, that created in my heart a little sense of closeness to the Lord. He likes you. He wants to be with you. He wants to talk to you. What we can say with our mouth can change the course of someone’s life. James is saying, because that’s true, don’t many of you become teachers? It’s a dangerous place. We live in an age where there are so many false teachers and things being said that are leading people astray. A very dangerous time. But those of us who have a place of authority, and if you have one grandchild, if you have one child, if you have one friend, you have a place of authority. Why? Because you can use words. You can use your tongue. And it can be used to bless people. Or it can be used to cut somebody in half. You can turn to a child and you can say, what do you want? And kill them. Destroy their will. And you think about the tone, the tone in which we speak. You can say to someone, clean up your room. Now, this doesn’t sound very threatening. Clean up your room. Or you can say to someone, clean up your room. You hear the tone. We might say, come over here. Or we might say, come over here. You see, it’s not only the words we use, but how we say it. It’s not only the tongue, but the tone. Jesus tells us, out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouth speaks. Now think about this. Try not to. This last week, what did we say? Did we have to go back to anybody this week and say, I’m sorry? The reason why I’m bringing that up is because that’s what happened in my life this week. I had said something to my daughter and I had to come back later and say, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. And you can sure tell that you have teens. The last time I said that, I don’t think they were teens, but now they’re teens. And I said, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. That’s right, you shouldn’t have said that. And I said, well, who asked you? I’m just confessing. I’m laying it out there. You’re to forgive me. Now let me start over. I’m sorry I said what I said. You should be sorry you said it. Okay, will you let me do this? Not, will you let me do this? I said, will you let me do this? And it was pretty comical. And teens have a way of doing that. They’ll call you on the carpet sometimes. And the tone is so important. But listen, if we’re going to be mature Christians, we need to be aware of the problem. We won’t always have victory over the problem. So cheer up. We won’t always have perfect control of our tongues because our hearts from hour to hour or sometimes by day to day, our hearts will either be stronger at some point in time or weaker in the other and our tongues connected to the heart and we’ll say things or we won’t say things that we should have said. We’ll say way too much more than what we should have ever or we should have piped up in that moment and gave encouragement and we didn’t because our hearts is what governs the tongue it says what it says because what we have is in our hearts and that’s what’s coming out and so we need to heed this warning let not many have you become teachers in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 27 Bible says now you are the body of Christ that’s all of us and members individually and God has appointed these in the church some apostles and prophets and teachers Regarding the gifts after that, the miracles, the gifts of miracles, the gifts of healing and helps and administrations and variety of tongues. And then he says in 1 Corinthians 12, 29, he says, are all of you apostles? The answer to that’s no. Are all of you prophets? No. Are all of you teachers? No. We are to be called to these areas.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called The Tongue and What It Can Do. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word of God and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
