INTRODUCTION

I’d like to talk about something that I would guess every single one of us did before coming to church this morning. In fact, this same habit is something that I would venture to say nearly every single one of you does every single morning. And not only every single morning, you probably do it multiple times a day. It’s the type of discipline you almost never leave home without doing. It’s the type of thing that could make you feel comfortable and confident or could move you to action in an instant. It’s a practice that others in your house engage in, but you probably don’t like to share and do it at the same time. And it’s the type of activity that could take just a few seconds, or a matter of minutes or hours depending on the occasion. Does anyone know what activity I am describing? Looking in the mirror!

We all look in the mirror multiple times a day—you probably don’t leave the house without doing it. It could make you feel comfortable and confident—“wow, I look great today”, or could move you to action in an instant—when you see that piece of spinach stuck in your teeth. Others in your house do this, but, if your home is like ours, you don’t like to share the mirror with others in your family. Maybe you even have several different styles of mirrors—a waist-high one and a full-length mirror. It could take you a matter of seconds to look in the mirror, or it could take a long, long time depending on the occasion. We all look at the mirror. And when we look at the mirror, it shows us who we really are on the outside. We know that the mirror is not distorting the perspective—what we see in the mirror is really a true description of how we appear, because it’s our reflection. Now imagine with me—you get up in the morning, maybe take a shower, get ready for the day, and you spend time in front of the mirror. But you just stand there and look, and look, and look some more, and then you walk away without doing anything. The mirror gives you a true picture of what we look like on the outside, but we don’t do anything about it. Perhaps we are in denial—“That’s not who we really are”. Or maybe we think “It’s not really that bad”. Whatever the case, could you imagine looking in the mirror, and seeing what’s on our outside, and not doing anything about it? No! When we see something that needs to be addressed, we address it!

Sometimes, we are like this in our spiritual lives. We see something that needs taken care of, and we pretend it isn’t there. Maybe we pretend like we didn’t see, or we get mad at the mirror and break it because we don’t like what we see, but we don’t do anything about it. We can live in denial in our spiritual lives. Our passage this morning addresses one area in our spiritual lives where we might tend to live in denial. It’s an area that acts like a mirror—but instead of showing us what’s on the outside, it shows us what is on the inside. This area is the area of our tongues. Our tongues show us what is inside, and we need to pay attention.

Fallen Condition Focus: Too often, however, we fail to pay attention, or we fail to do anything about it. Perhaps we miss what our tongues are trying to tell us altogether. But as we come to this text this morning, James describes for us how our tongues can reveal what is truly inside of us, and how we use our tongues reflects the inside coming out. And as we examine this passage today, there’s one bottom line I want you to remember:

Big idea: your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention

James 3:9–12 NASB95

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

Big idea: your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention

Interrogative: What are we to look for if we are to pay attention to what the tongue reveals about our inside?

Transition: two ways the tongue points out who we really are inside

1) The tongue shows how we can be inconsistent in our conduct

Explanation: James opens up in this passage by highlighting one specific way the tongue points out what is inside—it can show how we can be inconsistent in our conduct. Boys and girls, you can draw a Bible character who was inconsistent with their speech. Look at what he says—With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. He points out the inconsistency or contradiction that often appears in how we use our tongues.

James teaches that what makes the tongue so evil is its duplicity. With it we bless God our Father, and curse men. We can be praising God one minute and cursing men another. We could be worshipping God one minute and using our tongues in a harmful way the next. With these two categories—blessing and cursing, James has in mind the best and worst of human speech. Now it’s important to note, when he talks about cursing men, I think there’s more in view here than just saying curse words, or wishing an actual curse on someone—“may God strike them down”. You can’t escape from under the scope of this text by saying “well, I’ve never cursed anyone!” The point James is making is that we all have cursed someone! So, it has to mean more than just curse words and wishing ill on someone. I think it metaphorically can be used of any time we use our words in a harmful or unbiblical way.

Application: and James points out the inconsistency here—you bless God, but you hurt men. You can spend all morning worshiping God in church on Sunday, but fight as a family all the way home. Or you and your spouse aren’t getting along well and you blow up at each other on the drive into church on Sunday, and then you get out of the car and put on a good face and walk into church and sing worship songs to God—this is the duplicity of our tongues. It can point out these inconsistencies—we are one way with God and another way with people.

Explanation: and James tells us why this is such a big deal because men are made in the image of God. Well, what does it mean to be created in the image of God? There’s a lot of confusion on this today, so let me park on it for a moment:

Created in the Image of God

This means that God intends for mankind to reflect Him and His glory. Like a mirror reflects an image, so God’s intention was for us to reflect his glory back to him. This is not to say that every aspect of man reflects specifically the nature of God (hands, eyes, mouth etc.) but that certain aspects of our design is intended to reflect God. There are four ways specifically in which we know that we are like God:

•     God is a relational being, and so are we. This is to say that just as we are, God too is a relational being. Not only does He relate to mankind, but He also relates to Himself. Because God is relational we know that He intends to have a relationship with us.

•     God is also a creative being, as are we. In Genesis God creates and then delegates the care of His creation to mankind. The exercise of this care is part of God’s image in us. So is the ability to create. We are different than God in that we cannot create out of nothing, but we too can create—God made us rational and volitional beings.

•     God is also a communicative being, and so are we. God made us with the ability to reflect His image in our communications.

•     God is a moral being, and so are we. Humans were created without sin and God’s intent was that they reflect God’s holiness back to himself. He saw his creation and called it good. This was God’s intent before men chose to sin.

So this is what it means to be created in the image of God. We are created to be image-bearers, and we bear God’s image. We reflect Him back to Him. But James points out an inconsistency between how we were created and how we live our lives. We’ve been made in his likeness and we can bless God, and then use our words to hurt men, who are his creation, who were created in the same image of God, and James says these things ought not to be this way!

Application: many of our sin problems could be resolved if we simply remembered that people are created in God’s image—that this person is meant for God and not for me. Wouldn’t that change our relationships so much? That we stop using those around us to get what we want? We would stop making our relationships about us and come to realize that people are made for God, not as a means to get what we want. This is especially true when it comes to our tongues. If we remembered the value God places on a person, we wouldn’t talk to them, or about them in careless and hurtful ways. We wouldn’t gossip, or fight, or say words that harm. In short, we would use our tongues for good rather than evil. James points out the inconsistencies of our speech—we play both sides: praising God and hurting men all with our speech.

Now it’s important to note where this comes from—you might see this tendency in your life and wonder “how did I get here?” Very often it comes from this very common misconception: our spiritual virtues make up for our sinful vices. That I do enough good to counteract my bad, so as long as most of what I do is good I can have a little bit of bad. This is not Gospel living. This is a form of legalism—where my good works outweigh my bad and the more good I do the better standing I have with God and as long as it’s an even wash in the end, or there’s more good to outweigh the bad, I’m good. Let me just say, there’s no hope in living like that! True hope is found in recognizing that Jesus came to save us from the inconsistencies of our lifestyle, because so often we live this way!

Application: and James gives us a much-needed caution: things are not supposed to be this way! Perhaps you see this tendency in your life—to be one way in front of God and another way in front of people. What we fail to remember is that God sees it all! God sees when we sit in church on Sunday morning, praising him, and then spread gossip in the foyer afterwards. God sees when we have our devotions in the morning and post something spiritual on our social media—a picture of us with our coffee and Bible, and then post a hurtful or cutting comment later on in the day. God sees, boys and girls, when you do scripture memory or read a Bible lesson, or fill out your kids worksheet, and then fight with your brothers or sisters and use unkind words. God sees, teenager, when you come to church on Sunday morning after being disrespectful in your speech to your parents on Saturday night. God sees our claims to follow Him and bless Him as James talks about, but God also sees how our tongues, when left unchecked, can say something completely different altogether. And James writes to warn us—your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention!It shows us who we are by revealing how we can be inconsistent in our conduct.

2) The tongue shows how we can be inconsistent with God’s creation

Explanation: James continues his discussion here in verses 11-12, giving us the second way the tongue points out what is really inside—the tongue shows how we can be inconsistent with God’s creation. In the next several verses James goes into God’s created order and he finds three simple illustrations for us to show very visually and practically how the way we use our tongues can reflect an inconsistency with the way God designed creation. James just got done telling us “these things ought not to be” and now he tells us why with these three illustrations from God’s created order.

Illustration #1: water from a spring

The first illustration is one of water coming from a spring—James says Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Boys and girls, you can draw water from a fountain or spring. This is an understandable illustration for James’ day. Water was important. You know, they didn’t have city water in Bible times! So, a lot of their water supply was dependent on a spring, or a well that was fed by a spring. And entire cities were built around these springs because you needed water and there was a very dry season in that area of the world. But you wouldn’t expect that one day you find a spring, decide to move there, build your home and even a settlement around a spring, and then one day it puts out bitter water. And then the next day it puts out fresh water again, and it moves back and forth. You wouldn’t expect that to happen—it just doesn’t happen.

Application: and James applies this to our speech. We should not expect it to be normal, or acceptable, or ok to use our tongue for good and evil. It shouldn’t be normal to have this dichotomy between blessing and cursing—saying something good one day an evil another. That’s just not how it’s supposed to work.

Illustration #2: fruit from a plant

James continues with another illustration showing the same point—Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Here James takes it a step further. Not only is it unexpected to have different types of speech come from the same source, it’s also against nature itself!

Illustration: any of you ever plant a garden? Or plant a field? I know we have some farmers in our church. When you plant that little seed of corn, or beans, or tomatoes, or zucchini, you expect that if it is truly a corn seed, or bean seed, or tomato plant, it is going to reproduce what it is—right? Growing up we didn’t have a big yard, but we had about ¾ of an acre, and my dad was into fruit trees. He had seven or eight apple trees and about the same number of peach trees. One time we even had a plumb tree, but that didn’t last. Anyway, we knew which was which—they were very different types of trees. They had different types of buds and flowers, and they produced different fruit. And we would never go out to an apple tree and find a peach growing on it, nor would we go to a peach tree and find an apple growing on it. It’s just a simple concept—it’s unnatural to reproduce against its nature.

Application: and James applies this to the area of our tongue. You don’t produce against your nature. Here’s where James gives us a focus on the heart. What you are producing is not some foreign substance that you have no idea how it got there, it is what is inside. And James is trying to help us see how our tongues reveal who we really are. So, if you use your tongue in an ungodly way, and we don’t produce different from what we are, then what does that indicate about who we are? This reveals that we have some ungodliness inside.

Matthew 12:34 (NASB95)

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

If what comes out is bad, that indicates what is inside is bad.  We have some areas of our lives where the truths of the Gospel have not penetrated. And our tongues reveal this to us.

Illustration #3: changing salt water to fresh

James takes this a step further with the next illustration: Nor can saltwater produce fresh. This takes it a step further, and I think James is building here. He starts with: we don’t expect something to produce other than what’s inside; then he moves to showing how it’s against the created order to produce something other than what’s inside, and now he brings this to a head with “you don’t expect something good to come from something bad!” Saltwater cannot produce freshwater. It doesn’t happen.

Illustration: Saltwater doesn’t have a lot of good uses. You can’t drink it, you can’t give it to your animals, it’s not meant for cleaning and washing. Freshwater on the other hand, is useful and beneficial. It has a purpose it serves, and we use it for that purpose. But something that is virtually useless doesn’t turn into something that is useful.

Application: apply that to your speech—bad speech doesn’t turn into good speech. Or we could take it even a bit deeper—a bad heart doesn’t produce good speech. I think this is really the center of what James is talking about here. If you have a problem with your speech, you have a heart problem. If you have a problem with blowing up when you don’t get your way, you have a heart problem. If you have a problem keeping your mouth shut and find yourself spreading gossip about other people, you have a heart problem. Kids—if you have a problem talking respectfully to your parents, you have a heart problem. Husbands, wives, if you have a problem complaining about your spouse, you have a heart problem. If you have a problem posting hurtful and unkind material on your social media account, you have a heart problem. And this is the whole point James is trying to make, and this is why we say your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention. Because if what is coming out is bad, that means what is inside is bad. This is so important! Many times, though our theology says we believe in total depravity—man is completely corrupted by our sin, we don’t really approach life that way. We think that we are by and large good. Just like we talked about—we focus on the good. But we are poisoned and controlled by sin. And even if you’re a believer, you still have that old man creeping back up and taking control. What James is trying to get us to realize is that if you have a speech problem—and many believers do today, you have a heart problem. Just like a fountain can’t produce two types of water, and just like it’s against the nature of fruit to bear another type of fruit, and just like you can’t turn useless salt water into useful freshwater, so if you have corrupt speech it comes from a corrupt heart. You can’t separate the two. Your tongue is showing you what is really inside, and you need to pay attention!

I think this could be the opposite as well. This could be saying good things but not backing it up with actions—I want to control my anger, but won’t memorize verses to help; I want to overcome sin, but won’t get help; I want to grow spiritually but won’t get up in time for church or take time to read my Bible; I want to be a godly husband, father, wife, person, but I won’t take the extra time to focus on that. Sometimes we can say a lot of good things—things that sound really good and spiritual, but we don’t follow through with actions. This is yet another way in which our tongue shows us what is on the inside.

Application: This is something I emphasize a lot in counseling. When I meet with people to help with with their struggles I often take time help them listen to what’s coming out. I think this is so important. Many times we don’t take time to listen—listen to our hearts. There’s a lot of talk in the secular world about listening to yourself or listening to your heart. Often times we’re quick to oppose this, saying “we are not to listen to ourselves, but to God’s Word.” This is true, but there’s also a case to be made for listening to our hearts so that we can self-counsel ourselves. Because our hearts are speaking—our hearts are speaking to us all the time, and we need to be listening. Because it’s only as we listen to what is coming out, that we can begin to recognize and unpack and deal with what is on the inside.

So what is the solution? What is the help available for us? If your tongue shows you what’s on the inside, the hope is to pay attention, first of all. Pay attention to what your heart is speaking to you through your tongue. I’ve been ever mindful of this in my life. If I get angry, or upset and I fail to speak something edifying, I’ve been thinking to myself “ok, what is coming out now?” And sometimes it’s kind of scary to think and ask yourself that question! But ask yourself “what is my heart speaking to me in this moment? If what’s inside is what is coming out, then what am I seeing that is inside right now?” So ask yourself those questions, and then take it to Jesus. Because Jesus is the only one who has the power to change the inside. That’s why Jesus died for you. Jesus died to give you victory. Jesus died so sin would no longer have dominion over you. If you see yourself in this text, and probably all of us do at some level, the solution is to take what you see coming out to go vertical—take it to Jesus, because only he has the power to change what’s inside!

CONCLUSION

We opened today by talking about looking in the mirror. And we established that this is probably a near universal experience—we all do it. And we like doing it because it shows us what’s on the outside, and when we see what’s on the outside, we make appropriate changes.

Our passage today teaches that our tongue is like a mirror, only a mirror for the inside. It shows us who we really are and what is inside our heart. What would it look like in our spiritual lives if we realized that the tongue shows us who we really are and we took the time to pay attention to it? Let me give you several application points:

●We would realize that what comes out is what’s on the inside, and that should concern us, because that shows us who we are: you don’t just get angry, you’re an angry person; you don’t just gossip, you are a gossip; you don’t just say something unkind, you’re an unkind person. This text should make us ever mindful of that and it should cause us to think accurately about ourselves. Have you ever said something wrong or hurtful and later apologized and said “I’m sorry I didn’t mean that?” Well according to this text, actually you did, that was in there! The solution isn’t to make excuses “well I didn’t really mean that”, because that’s what that is, and excuse. The solution is to deal with what is on the inside.

●Based on this text, we need to deal with our stuff. When our heart speaks through our tongue, we need to take the time to listen to what’s in there, for Scripture says out of what’s in the heart, the mouth speaks. And we need to take care of it. So for starters, you need to confess it to God and confess it to anyone else who may have been exposed to your sin. From there, maybe you need to start keeping a journal of what’s coming out so you can listen and deal with what’s there.

●If the tongue shows us who we really are then maybe we need to get help to deal with the person inside. Maybe this week you need to ask someone to help pray for you or keep you accountable in the area of your tongue. Perhaps you talk with me about sitting down and doing some Biblical counseling to help get to the root of your problem.

●This text should cause us to invest in anything that’s going to help us deal with what’s on the inside—to put our time into studying and memorizing Scripture and prayer. Maybe this week you need to get a list of scriptures that deal specifically with your area of struggle or write down some specific prayer requests that you can ask God in order to help with your struggle.

That’s how we can deal with our heart, but beyond that, how can we deal with our tongues?

●For starters, we should pay attention to how we speak. You might consider keeping a journal of ways that you fail with your tongue. And maybe you didn’t realize it before, but you might find that you’re a gossip, or you’re and angry person, or you are really good at cutting people down, or all you do is talk about yourself.

●Find some verses to memorize on the topic of your tongue—you could even memorize James 3 as a way to help you overcome this struggle in your life

●When you go to give an unkind word or spread a word of gossip, stop and pray, and remind yourself that this isn’t who you want to be, and this isn’t who Christ has made you.

●When you want to get angry and spout off, take a moment and say a prayer and take some deep breaths before you let loose.

●Children, slow things down when you want to be disrespectful in your speech to your parents or argue with them because you didn’t get your way, maybe take a moment to thank God for the parents you do have.

These are all ways we can live out the text we studied this morning, and I’m sure you can think of more. Imagine what Faith Baptist Church would look like if we did all of these things! Our church would model to our community and to our world what it looks like to have a life controlled by Jesus! Your tongue shows who you really are inside, and you need to pay attention. Let’s commit to paying attention to our tongues this week!