SINGLE SERMON SERIES
THE DANGER OF THE TONGUE, PART I
DR. JIM DIXON
JAMES 3:1-13
AUGUST 4, 1991
Perhaps the greatest, most powerful, fast, and feared warship in all of World War II was the great German battleship called the Bismarck. The British wanted nothing more than to sink the Bismarck, but the Bismarck was said to be virtually unsinkable.
It was March 23, 1941, when British warships sighted the Bismarck in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. Those British warships made a horrible mistake. They decided to engage the Bismarck in battle. Two British warships went down, including the great British cruiser ship called The Hood. The British summoned all available warships and what ensued was the greatest sea chase in naval history as five British destroyers and two British battleships and one British cruiser chased the Bismarck for 1,750 miles across the Atlantic.
The Bismarck was faster. It appeared as though the Bismarck was going to reach the safety of a German controlled French coast when suddenly the Bismarck did an amazing thing. It turned around. It turned from the French coast and it went back to sea into the face of those eight British warships. The eight British warships, accompanied by British air power, did battle with that German battleship call the Bismarck. On the morning of March 27, 1941, the Bismarck went down. Why? Why did the Bismarck turn from the safety of the German-controlled French coast? Why did the Bismarck go back out to sea? Why did the Bismarck run right into the face of those eight British warships?
The answer is a faulty rudder. Something had gone wrong with the Bismarck’s rudder and the captain of the Bismarck suddenly realized he only had two choices. He could shut off the engines and just float and wait for the enemies to arrive or he could continue to power the engines but have no control of the ship. He chose the latter and the Bismarck turned about and that faulty rudder took the Bismarck right into the face of the enemy and the Bismarck went down.
The Bible tells us that the human tongue is like the rudder of the human body, and the tongue can lead us to victory or defeat. The tongue can lead us into trouble or into blessing; into danger or into safety.
This morning, I would like us to examine some of the dangers of the tongue and some of the examples the Bible gives us of a faulty rudder. I have five dangers of the tongue. The first is gossip. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs, “He that gossips is a fool.”
I know most of you have heard of Mark Antony. Mark Antony was a Roman General and Statesman. He was co-ruler of the Roman Empire. He was the husband of Cleopatra. Mark Antony died 30 years before Jesus Christ was born. On one occasion, Mark Antony was conducting a military campaign in the region of Gaul. Incredibly back in Rome, the Roman Senate declared him public enemy number one. The Roman Senate did this because they were convinced by the slander of Cicero. Cicero was, of course, that skilled orator so gifted with his tongue. Cicero used his tongue to slander Mark Antony.
Months later, when Mark Antony returned to Rome in power, with all of his armies, having heard what Cicero had said about him, the Roman Senate could not stand against him and Mark Antony had Cicero taken and beheaded. Cicero’s head was strung by the tongue from a tree.
You all know what slander is. You can look it up in the dictionary. Slander means to “bear false witness about somebody that defames them.” Gossip also means “to tell the truth about somebody if it defames them.” This is the scary thing, when we share the truth about somebody, but it’s malicious and diminishes them in the sight of the person we’re talking to its gossip. If it isn’t serving goodly or godly purpose, its gossip.
Of course Christians don’t gossip. We just share prayer requests. But I think if we’re honest, we must all admit we do gossip. We gossip, and if we’re really honest, we have to say that we’ve had a lot of fun with it at times. I think as Christians we don’t take gossip seriously enough. Faulty rudders. It is dangerous when we gossip.
In fact, in Romans, chapter 1, gossip is listed in a group of sins for which people deserve to die. That’s how God feels about gossip. Now, of course, we are saved by grace through faith, and by God’s mercy, we do not receive what we deserve and we can all be grateful for that. But God calls us, challenges us, warns us, “Do not use your tongue to gossip.”
There’s a second example of a faulty rudder, a second danger, and this danger we might call assault – verbal assault. If gossip is speaking against the person behind the person’s back, verbal assault happens in front of the person, face to face. Of course, the Bible says, “A soft answer turns away wrath but harsh words stir up anger.” The Bible says, “Put away every word of malice.” We live in a world of verbal assault. People say mean things to each other. We have faulty rudders and verbal assault is a great danger.
Let me tell you a little story about a boy whose name was Heintz. It’s a true story. Heinz grew up in Germany, in Bavaria, in the 1930’s. It wasn’t a good time to be a Jew. It wasn’t a good place to be a Jew, and Heinz was a Jew. In the 1930’s, the Nazi thugs and Hitler youth began to verbally assault Jewish children. When they would verbally assault these children, they wanted them to verbally fight back so they could physically assault them. As Heinz grew up in Germany, in Bavaria, he experienced verbal assault constantly. His intelligence was questioned, his character, his integrity. He was verbally shredded time and time again. He learned a certain kind of diplomacy. He learned what the Bible means by, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” Heinz learned to stay out of physical fights by using his tongue to disarm his enemies and to try to bring peace. Though he was verbally assaulted time and again, he rarely got into a physical assault.
In 1938, Heintz’s family fled Germany because of the Nazi persecution. They came to the United States of America. Heinz was 15 years old. Later, Heinz became an American citizen and he served in the United States military. After his military service, Heinz went to Harvard where he received three degrees. Later Heinz began to use his diplomatic skills and he became the primary adviser to two American presidents. He was appointed the United States Secretary of State and ultimately he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and of course Heinz Americanized his name to Henry. He is called Henry Kissinger.
I’m sure, in this sanctuary, there are many different feelings about Henry Kissinger, but I think, on this, we would all agree: that there have been many instances where Henry Kissinger has demonstrated great skill and diplomacy. He learned that skill in Germany as a child, handling verbal assault.
Most of us do not handle verbal assault so well. It’s hard isn’t it, when people say mean things to us that are not justified. Mean things that hurt, that cut deep. Most of us, when we’re verbally assaulted, we want to assault back. We want to say mean things back. We want to say harsh words back, and this is true in the workplace, and it’s true with our friends. Its true in our marriages. How many husbands and wives have had horrible fights, saying things to each other that cut deep – things that are difficult to forgive. We say things in a moment of anger that we would never say in better moments, perhaps not even think or feel in better moments – things we cannot take back. God warns us to be careful. We need to be in His word every day, in prayer every day that our tongue would be given to Him – that we not use our tongue to assault the people we love or even our enemies.
The Bible says, “Be angry, but sin not.” The Bible says, “Be slow to speak.” Verbal assault. Faulty rudder.
There’s a third danger of the tongue and that’s lying. The Bible says, “Lie not to one another.” In the Bible, God has said, “He that tells lies shall not remain in My sight.” God hates lies. Of course we’re told of George Washington that when he chopped down the cherry tree, he went to his father and confessed, “Father, I cannot tell a lie.” The story may be apocryphal. There is no evidence that that story or event ever took place. But even if that story is true, it is also true that George Washington didn’t go through his life never telling a lie. We all tell lies. And if you say, “I do not lie,” that statement itself is a lie.
Now perhaps you’ve heard of Carlo Collodi whose real name was Carlo Lorenzini. In the year 1883, he wrote the story called the “Adventures of Pinocchio.” Children in America and all over the world are familiar with the story of the wooden puppet who came to life and whenever he lied, his nose grew. Pinocchio couldn’t get away with a lie. It became evident to everyone around him because his nose grew. But, you see, children when they hear that story, they soon learn it isn’t true. You can get away with a lie. You can tell a lie and your nose doesn’t grow. You can tell a lie and people don’t necessarily know it, particularly if you’re good at telling a lie.
We live in a nation where many people are very good at telling lies. What should be your motive in telling the truth? What should motivate you to tell the truth? Certainly the fear of being caught shouldn’t be your primary motive in telling the truth. Your primary motive and mine in telling the truth, should be that we want to honor the Lord. We want to do what is right in His sight. The Bible tells us that, “Jesus Christ is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” He is Truth. The Bible tells us that, “Satan is a liar and is the father of lies and he has lied from the beginning, and it is in his nature to lie.” He lies today. The Bible says Satan is the ruler of this world. He is indeed a usurper and one day Christ will come and claim what is His own; but in this age, Satan rules the world and his nature has become the nature of this world.
The tragic thing is that so many Christians, and so often all of us as Christians, partake in this nature. We lie. And God wants us to understand how it grieves Him and how important it is to the Lord that we tell the truth in all things, no matter how painful, no matter the cost.
You know the story in the Bible of Ananias and Sapphira, Christians who live in Jerusalem in the first century. In that Jerusalem church, so many of the Christians were selling property and taking the proceeds and giving it to the church. Not all the Christians in the church were doing that, but some of them were selling their property, taking the proceeds, giving it to the church for the work of the kingdom. Ananias and Sapphira could see that when Christians did this, it was well received in the church. Ananias could see that when Christians did this, they were really praised and appreciated, so Ananias and Sapphira decided, “Well, we’ll sell some property. We’ll take the proceeds and we’ll give it to the church,” but they decided they were going to hold some of the proceeds back and only give part of it to the church, but they would tell the church they were giving all of it.
When Ananias came to Peter and said, “Here’s the proceeds from the property we’ve sold and this is all of it,” Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit discerned that Ananias was lying and he pronounced a judgment of God. In that incredible moment in the Bible, Ananias falls dead and three hours later his wife, Sapphira, comes and she tells the same lie and she joins her husband in death. The whole church stood back in fear and awe. God demands the truth.
Through the centuries, many pastors and ministers have misused that passage from the book of Acts – the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They tried to use it to say, “We need to give everything to the church,” and, “We need to give more to the church.” Certainly, we do need to support the church and the work of Christ, but the point of the passage has to do with lying. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira wasn’t that they didn’t give enough. They were free to give what they chose. Their sin was they lied, and God hates lying.
The fourth danger of the tongue, faulty rudder, that I would mention this morning is swearing. Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 5, “I say to you, swear not at all.” If you look in an English dictionary, you’ll notice immediately that the word “swear” has two meanings. The word “swear” can refer to profane or obscene language. Certainly, God doesn’t want us to use obscene language. There are plenty of warnings regarding obscene or dirty language in the Bible.
In Ephesians, chapter 4 verse 29, is one passage where the Bible warns us not to use unwholesome words. In Colossians 3:8, the Bible warns Christians not to use dirty language and it is a great tragedy that so many Christians today feel so free to use the world’s language. Of course, there’s so much bad language in movies and all around us. But, I think, never before in the Christian world have so many Christians begun to adopt the faulty language that surrounds us and God does grieve.
We need to understand, however, that in the Bible, when the Bible speaks of swearing, the Bible is not referring to obscene language or profane language. When the Bible speaks of swearing, the Bible is talking about taking an oath.
You know the story of Jephthah in the Bible – how Jephthah was Judge and ruler of Israel. His story is told in Judges, chapters 11 and 12. You know how Jephthah led the Israelites to victory over the Ammonites and Ephraimites. You know how Jephthah wanted to win so badly and he wanted victory over the Ammonites so much that he came to God in prayer, and he said, “God, if you’ll give me victory, I vow I will make a human sacrifice. If you give me victory, I vow, I promise, that I will offer up in sacrifice the first person that comes out of the door of my house when I return home victorious.”
How dumb is this? I’m sure Jephthah thought, “Well, you know, maybe a servant will come out the door first,” as though God doesn’t care about servants. You know what happened? He came to his house and the first person out the door was his only child, his daughter. You know how he gave her time to go into the mountains and “bewail her virginity” as the Bible says. And then returning, she was given in sacrifice in fulfillment of the vow.
Jephthah did a horrible thing. He became an illustration in the Jewish world and later in the Christian world of rash vows. Don’t make rash vows. Jesus says, “Just let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don’t be quick to make a vow.” Of course this much we have to say for Jephthah. At least when he did vow, he took his vow seriously. We live in a world today that seems to take vows very flippantly. We feel so free to make promises and not keep them. When our children say, “Oh promise, will you take me next Thursday.” We say, “Sure, I promise.” We just want to have them out of the way. The Bible says, “Before God, not an idle word is spoken.”
Of course in marriage thousands of people every day say vows, vows to each other in the presence of God and witnesses; and yet, feel so free later to break those vows. So we have this warning from God regarding swearing falsely, a faulty rudder, a great danger.
And finally, I just want to mention another danger and that’s grumbling. It says in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 10:10, “Do not grumble.” That seems pretty clear. Do not grumble. God just doesn’t like grumbling. The Greek word in the Bible for grumble is the word “gunguzmos.” It’s onomatopoeic. Apparently in the Jewish and biblical world when people grumbled, it sounded like “gunguzmos.” In the Septuagint, this is the word that is used to describe the grumbling of the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings.
The children of Israel felt great when they left Egypt. They felt great – I mean, they were really high when they crossed the Red Sea as if upon dry land. But boy when they went into the desert and the wilderness and there was a scarcity of water and food, even though the promise of the promised land was before them, they began to lose faith and they grumbled. The Bible says God was angry. God hates grumbling. In fact, the Bible incredibly tells us that one of the primary reasons the children of Israel, that generation of Jews, never entered the promised land was simply because they grumbled and they were left to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. A million Jews died there, grumblers.
God says to us, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” And God says, “Rejoice always.” This is the choice He wants us to make and it’s the kind of people He wants us to be. But some people just choose to grumble.
Every church has some grumblers. There are a few grumblers in this church. Hopefully none of you. Some people grumble about the music here. I know music is really a matter of taste. There are great varieties of music that can please God. We don’t all have the same taste. I must say I think we have the greatest music program in this state. We recognize that some music is more contemporary and some more traditional, and we try to have a blend. Some people who are more traditional have repeatedly said that we’re not traditional enough. We want you to know that we’re committed to trying to maintain something of a variety. We’ll always have some traditional music and we’ll always try to have a service that has certain traditional dimensions. We want to honor Christ in each of your lives, but we’re also committed to the contemporary music we use. We feel like it is a great tool for reaching people for Jesus Christ in the culture in which we live. We hope you’re going to be with us on this and certainly not grumble.
Of course some people grumble about the direction of our church – the decision to relocate and build and that’s hard. I think the overwhelming majority of our congregation is for this but there are some against. It’s okay to be against it but don’t grumble. You see, we had our elders and we had our staff and our leadership of this church, after two years of prayer, make this decision. We had a congregational meeting and we voted and God led. If you disagree, do not sow seeds of discontent.
Sometimes you ask questions and wonder why some people who seem so dissatisfied with so much in the life of the church remain in the church. I hope you understand my heart on this because the last thing in the world wants is for anybody to leave. We just want to serve you, but you can’t help but wonder why some people who are so dissatisfied with so much remain. I mean I need to say to you, in the Lord, it would be better for you to go to a church where you have joy and are pleased to go to a church where you love the direction the leadership is heading. That is where you ought to be, but if you don’t believe in the direction of this church, and it grieves you, don’t grumble and sow seeds of bitterness.
Of course there is a proper place for constructive criticism and we do always need to be open, and we know that. You know what studies have shown? Maybe I shouldn’t share this but I will. Most people who grumble when they leave the church and go to another, they also grumble at the next church.
So, you see, we have this word from the Lord. “Be careful regarding the tongue.” Careful. Faulty rudders. Great danger. Don’t gossip. Do not assault. Don’t lie. Don’t swear. Do not grumble.
We live in a world that’s very diet conscious. People are concerned with their health and they are increasingly concerned with the things they put into their mouths. But the Bible says, “It’s not what goes into a person’s mouth that defiles him. It’s what comes out.” We need to be more concerned with what comes out of our mouths. So we have this message from God, and prayerfully and hopefully we’ll take it to heart. Let’s close with a word of prayer.