Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he continues his examination of the Book of James, focusing on the intrinsic power embedded in our speech. This episode reveals six critical dangers our tongues present and emphasizes the need for divine guidance to control them. By reflecting on historical examples and biblical truth, listeners are reminded of the vital role their words play in their spiritual journey and the importance of aligning their speech with God’s will.
We can sing songs to the Lord, or we can turn and hurt somebody with our mouth. How do we respond to people? Are we conscious of the fact that other people feel? Other people care. Other people are just like us. And I want to ask you this morning, what do you want to hear? This is Real Life.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Did you know there’s an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It’s a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today’s headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening Now is not just about information. It’s about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what’s happening around you. These discussions are eye-opening, they’re thought-provoking, and they’re a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God’s Word and what’s going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don’t just watch the news. Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called The Book of James with a message titled Six Dangers of the Tongue. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James tells them that no one can tame the tongue without help from the Lord. Now, this little member of our bodies called the tongue can pray and sing to the Lord one minute and then curse the next. It can boast great things and yet start a war with just a few little words. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that one danger of the tongue is its size. It’s small, yet it can really govern our lives. It’s connected to who we are and what’s in our hearts. Now, with his message called Six Dangers of the Tongue, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Why don’t you grab your Bibles this morning and turn to James chapter 3. And we will be covering verses 5 through 12, but what we’ll do, just by way of remembrance and all and preparation, is that we’ll look at verse 1. And as last week we covered verses 1 through 4, we’ll read all the way through down to verse 12, seeing how it deals with James’ message to the tongue. And he says, In our text for this morning. See how great a forest a little fire kindles? And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among the members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. Verse 2. Verse 3. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring can yield both salt water and fresh. James no doubt is talking to us about the incredible power that the tongue has. And we’re looking this morning at six dangerous evils concerning the tongue. He’s going to enumerate to us six key evils that the tongue is guilty of performing. And you and I might be sitting here this morning and we’re thinking, oh yeah, you know, preach it. Pastor, that old tongue, yeah, I’ve been vandalized and victimized by many a tongue in my day. Well, James is going to say to us, our tongue has done some vandalizing itself in this world. In fact, he’s going to teach us. I know you just sat down, but don’t get up and leave with this little bit of exhortation here. James literally is going to teach us that our tongue, in our mouth, is really the one that is guilty of committing the six dangerous evils that the tongue has within its power to do. It’s something that he’s going to show us that none of us as human beings can gain enough power, enough strength, enough planning to bring our tongue under control. I am amazed. at what our tongues are able to perform. I mean, think about it. Our tongues can sing songs. A moment ago, we were enjoying wonderful worship. We’re singing songs unto the Lord, and our tongues are articulating words that, as we sing, are a prayer unto the Lord. I mean, you can’t get anything more holy than that. And then, possibly, not in this church, but in other churches, Later today, there will be people leaving their church, and they’ll be going down the road, or they’ll get their lunch, their brunch, or whatever, and the waitress or waiter will bring something that’s not to their liking, and they’ll say, hey, you know, these eggs are runny. Well, what’s the matter with the cook? Or something will blurt out, and you’ll wonder, boy, he’s a little testy this morning, isn’t he? Or somebody might cut you off and out spurts this thing. And a moment ago, you know, we were praising the Lord. And then the next moment it’s like, why don’t you stay in your own lane? And it’s like, what are we doing? Have you noticed in your life that you and I could be like Peter and say unto the Lord and to the disciples gathered around, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And then in the next moment, Jesus says to us, get thee behind me, Satan. Now, Jesus wasn’t calling Peter Satan, but I wish I could have been there because Peter makes this great exclamation, thou art the Christ. And Jesus says, flesh and blood hasn’t told you this, Peter. This was revealed from the throne room of God. And I bet Peter’s going, oh, yeah. And then in the next moment, Jesus begins on that wonderful declaration. I am the Christ and I’m going to tell you something. I’m going to go to Jerusalem and be really delivered into the hands of sinful men and be beaten and tortured and crucified. And then Peter pipes up and says, be it far from you, Lord. And Jesus rebukes Peter. Peter’s declaration, but he addresses the fact that it was Satan who was fueling his words. Get thee behind me, Satan. I bet you Jesus looking at Peter, Peter had to look behind him. You know, who are you talking to? Notice that God had influenced Peter’s tongue to reveal this great truth, and then in a moment’s time, Satan, hell itself, inspired Satan’s tongue to say something terribly evil. We’re just like that in this life. And for us to say, well, you know, I don’t know if I really am like that. Maybe other people around me are like that. No, James says we’re all like this. Our tongue cannot be tamed. Only God can control that. True story. In 1899, in Denver, four key writers of the four predominant newspapers in Denver got together and to write stories about what’s going on in Denver. And as they got together, they all concluded in 1899, there’s nothing going on in Denver. And so they were so frustrated that they walked across the street from the hotel that they were at, and they went into a saloon. And they began to drink a few beers, and they began to talk. You know, when somebody drinks a few beers, they do begin to talk. Everything becomes public. They get this jovial kind of generosity with words and even with money. By the way, when somebody’s becoming under the influence, that’s when you ask them for a loan. Have you noticed that? Oh, buddy, oh, pal, oh, palsy, wowsy. Oh, really? Hey, you got 50 bucks? I’d like to borrow. Because in the morning when they wake up, they’ll never remember. And then as the influence of alcohol comes along, they become bolsterous and kind of rude. And then they become belligerent, and then they can become passed out. Well, these guys were drinking, and they were ordering more beers and ordering more beers, and one of the guys from the Denver Republic newspaper said, I got an idea. We need to fabricate a story, seeing how nothing’s happening in this town, that is going to be something that nobody can really, really… seek out to see if it’s true or false. We need to create something tremendous. And so they began to do that. And do you know what they did? They said, I know. We will fabricate a story that the Great Wall of China is going to be torn down to create… trade and be an announcement to the world that China is going to open its borders to the world. This is in 1899. And they said, we like it. So what they did was they went back to the hotel that they had come from earlier that evening and they signed in under fictitious names. And what these reporters did, the four of them, they interviewed four engineers that were coming from New York through Denver to California to catch a ship to go to China to engineer the destruction of the Great Wall of China. And they wrote this great story, and it was produced on the papers the following day in Denver. Then it was picked up in Chicago. Then it was picked up in San Francisco. Then it was printed in New York until it was printed in London. Then it was printed in Madrid. and then it was printed in Beijing. And when the communist Chinese heard about this story, that a group of American engineers were gonna be coming over to China to destroy the Great Wall of China, China strengthened their borders and began to persecute the Americans and the Westerners that were in China at that time, and began to kill them by the thousands. Unfortunately, they were Christian missionaries And in 1899, over 3,000 Christian missionaries perished in China under what you and I have read in history known as the Boxer Rebellion. It all started with a fabricated story, a lie. China was so afraid that Americans and Westerners were coming to destroy its great wall. by the way that was created to keep Russia out of its borders. Did you know that? The Great Wall of Magog. We call it the Great Wall of China. And they became so fearful that they killed over 3,000 Christians. All because of a false word. The power that the tongue can place upon a person, upon a nation, used for good or for evil. And so we’re going to look at six dangerous evils that our tongues can create. Notice with me the first thing that we’re going to look at is in verse 5. And we’ll see a couple of points here. But the first point is that the evil danger of our tongue is that it is small. Notice the size of it. It is small. Verse 5 says it’s a little member. He says in verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member. And I want you to draw a little parenthesis or something around the statement here, even so. It’s very powerful. It connects us with verse 4 of last week, even so. That means the rudder. He’s calling us back to look at the rudder. Even so, just like the rudder that steers a great ship. Even so, verse 3, just like the bit that you put in a horse’s mouth. Just like a bit, just like a rudder, a bit who handles a great mighty horse, small, but it does great work. Just like a rudder that can control a great ship, even though it’s small. Just like that, the tongue is a little member. You see how James connects that? It’s a little member, minute. The word little is very, very small in comparison to the influence of the rest of our body. We don’t even consider our tongue. We don’t put makeup on it. We don’t take much care of it. We often bite it when it’s flapping too fast and too quick, or we’re eating too fast. We don’t, in the morning, get up and dress our tongue, and yet it’s literally the little member that governs our entire lives, our tongue. What we say, a lot of people begin to form their opinions about who we are. Have you noticed that? Well, they look nice. Oh, she looks like a nice person. Here she comes. She looks nice. Yes, I told you she was nice. Here she comes. And she walks up there, and what happens? She opens her mouth. And you are either convinced that she is nice, or she convinces you by the use of her tongue. She’s not that nice after all. It is this thing of our tongue, as we mentioned last week, that’s connected to our heart. Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So we know that it is very small. It’s a little member, but it’s connected to the real person of who we are. Of course, we’re not talking about the mucous membrane muscle of the tongue. We’re talking about, in the spiritual sense, what this tongue delivers. This tongue expresses what lies within our hearts at any given moment during the course of any given day. And that’s enough to start to convict us. Because you see, we can sing songs to the Lord or we can turn and hurt somebody with our mouth. How do we respond to people? Are we conscious of the fact that other people feel? Other people care. Other people are just like us. And I want to ask you this morning, what do you want to hear? Consider that for a moment. What do you and I want to hear in our own lives? Maybe that’s what we should be saying is what we want to hear.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s connected to our hearts. Even so, the tongue is a little member. The word member here in the Greek is a fantastic word. The root word of it is melos. It’s where we get the word in the English melodi. Melodi. It’s a little member created to be a song. The little member, the little melody. It’s to be the melodious part of our lives. Our tongues are yielded to singing God a melody. You know, that’s how he created us. When he created us in the Garden of Eden, Created us in the dust, I say us, through our father, our physical father, Adam, and Eve there, mom and dad. The tongue was placed in there, and it was created to be something that creates a melody under the Lord. We are to sing unto him. And I find it interesting that the word here, James uses this word, the little melody of our bodies. So the first thing that we see is that we are not to be fooled by the tongue’s size. That’s the first danger. It’s a little thing. James is telling us, don’t be deceived. Don’t be tricked. Even so, like a bit can control a horse, and like a rudder, that it can control a great ship, the tongue, listen, even though it’s little like those other things, those other things are not connected to a heart. They can’t make a melody. The rudder and the bit can’t do it. It simply exercises the will of the pilot. Regarding the tongue, it is equally small… But unlike the others, it’s extremely dangerous. Because of its size, we don’t often give it much attention. And he reminds us and warns us that it is something that was created intentionally and in the beginning to be something of a melody. It’s important. When we worship the Lord, by the way, we are going back to the beginning. purpose and the use of our tongues being originally created. I don’t know if you are going to approve of what I say regarding this. This is my opinion, what I’m going to tell you. If you do not approve, do not let me know. Again, if you do not approve, do not let me know because I like this little concoction that I made up. I like to think that in my physical life, in our temporal life that we live on this world, I like to think that you and I can affect eternity. Because, you know, we are spiritual beings now that we’ve been born again by the power of God. We can affect eternity. I believe this. And I’ll give you a little bit of proof. When a sinner repents, the Bible tells us, and comes to the knowledge of the Lord, what happens in heaven? Angels rejoice. Now think, where do angels live? They live in eternity. They live in the presence of the Lord. When a person here on this earth accepts Jesus Christ, let’s say it’s 9 o’clock in the morning here, California time. Well, it’s a different time in New York. It’s a different time in Hawaii. But what time is it in heaven? It’s always the eternal, right? Where God lives, it’s always the eternal. He doesn’t live in time. So there’s an amazing thing. When a sinner comes to faith in Christ, we can say, oh man, look, he came to the Lord at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning. But it’s not nine o’clock Sunday morning in heaven. It’s now in heaven. And the moment that sinner says, Lord Jesus, the angels say, all right. And they, you know, the party, they’re blowing whistles and confetti’s going everywhere. And the angels are doing their angel thing. And it’s tremendous. In that moment, in a temporal world, on a clock in California, it affects eternity. You have any problem with that? That’s true, don’t you think? Well, listen, what else? When we pray, in a moment, when we pray unto the Lord, we are leaving this temporal realm and we are talking to the God of eternity in heaven in that instant. Now, you know that’s true because when you’re driving down the street and you get caught in the train tracks and that train’s coming down the road, what do you do? You say… Oh, God, help. And God gets you out of the jam or you’re not feeling good. And you say, oh, Lord, help me. Oh, I got to tell you, Friday night, the church went on the fishing trip and I’ve never been seasick in my life ever. And I’ve been on some pretty cool stuff, pretty rough stuff. And I love to fly airplanes and fly in airplanes. And I just and nothing can get me sick. I’ve never gotten sick. And I get on this boat and it was kind of rough going out and, but I liked it. And we’re going, we’re on the front, we’re hooting and hollering and you know, and then I’m going, and I’m going, I’m not, there’s no way I’m not sick. I’m not, I would have made the greatest word faith movement guy so proud. I’m not sick. I am not sick. I am not sick. I am not sick. Well, you know what happened? Thank the Lord, because after a while, you know, I got kind of quiet and then my kids are hanging on me and they’re going, you know, what’s the matter? I’m fine. It’s nothing. And I’m thinking, you know, we are so arrogant. I can’t believe I’m sitting there going. I am now more concerned about this boat finding out that I’m sick than the reality of me truly being sick. My pride is going to be damaged any moment now. I can feel it coming up. Well, I was so excited to realize it had nothing to do with the boat. I had driven down to the beach there to get on the boat eating this. I drove through Del Taco and got a macho combo burrito. Have you ever seen one of those things? I mean, the lady, you know, puts it into the car. You know, she hands it. And thank you very much. And I’m driving and I’m eating this thing. And Rebecca goes, she goes, what is this? She’s handing it to me. This thing’s huge. And I go, it’s great. Well, I realized that I ate it in less than 15 minutes. And I’m driving. I wasn’t getting seasick. I had completely ruptured my stomach by eating so much food. And thank God I didn’t get sick and everything wound up being okay. And my pride was saved. But you know what I did? Oh, Lord. Oh, God. And I’m praying, Lord, help me. He heard from heaven my cry, and I began to feel better. In a moment, I was able to connect with eternity, where he’s at. And through prayer, we can talk to God in a moment. The Bible says that our prayers arise before him as incense. Another way that we can affect eternity is when we praise the Lord. You were just doing it a minute ago. When you’re singing songs of worship unto God, He listens in. He loves it. We can affect eternity. We can pull our tongue out. We can sing Him praises. And in a moment’s time, we can make a melody unto Him and really do eternal, eternal benefits. But in the same token, I can turn to somebody on this globe, in this church, in our little fellowship together and say, you know what? I think you’re a nincompoop. That hurts somebody. And in the temporal realm, that may affect them for the rest of their life. It can hurt them. The Bible tells us that we, as Christians even, will have to give an account to God for every idol that is ignorant, wasteless, worthless word that we speak in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Six Dangers of the Tongue. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word 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. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That’s jackhibbs.com. 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.
