Controlled Speech

Controlled Speech (James 3:2b-12; 4:11-12; 5:12) Like it or not, our speech defines us. Bad language, gossip, slander, criticism etc. reveals a corrupt heart. (Matt. 12:34; 15:11 & 19, Luke 6:45) Gossip Test A. IS IT TRUE? B. IS IT NECESSARY? C. IS IT BENEFICIAL? D. DO I HAVE PERMISSION TO SHARE IT? E. IS MY MOTIVE PURE? A lying tongue causes misery. (Ps. 120:2) If out of control tongue = deceived heart = useless religion (James 1:26) Tongue = fire set by hell (James 3:6, Prov. 16:27; 26:21) Great destructive potential You may never know how much damage (or good) your words may create (Prov. 18:21) In 1899, 4 Denver newspaper reporters, met by chance one Saturday night, in a Denver railway depot. Each had been sent by his respective newspaper to dig up a story for their paper’s Sunday editions; so the reporters were in the railroad station, hoping to snag a visiting celebrity should one happen to arrive that evening by train. None arrived. The reporters started commiserating. For them, no news was bad news; all were facing empty-handed return trips to their city desks. One finally declared he was going to make up a story and hand it in. The other three laughed. Someone suggested they all walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer. They did. In fact, they had several. One of them suggested that a phony domestic story would be too easy to check on, so they began discussing foreign angles that would be difficult to verify. They decided that China was distant enough, so it was agreed that they would make up a major news story about China. One of them came up with the idea of saying that they had encountered a group of American engineers, stopping over in Denver en route to China. It seemed the Chinese government was making plans to demolish the

Great Wall; and the engineers were bidding on the job. Reportedly, they were going to tear down the wall to symbolize a new attitude of openness to foreign trade! By 11:00 p.m. the four reporters had worked out the details of their preposterous story. After leaving the Oxford Bar, they would go over to the Windsor Hotel. They would sign four fictitious names to the hotel register. They would instruct the desk clerk to tell anyone who asked that four New Yorkers had arrived that evening, had been interviewed by reporters, had left early the next morning for California. The Denver newspapers carried the story. All four of them. Front page. In fact, the TIMES headline that Sunday read: GREAT CHINESE WALL DOOMED! PEKING SEEKS WORLD TRADE! Of course, the story was a phony, a ludicrous fabrication concocted by four capricious newsmen in a hotel bar. But their story was taken seriously, was picked up and expanded by newspapers in the Eastern U.S. and then by newspapers abroad. When the Chinese themselves learned that the Americans were sending a demolition crew to tear down their national monument, most were indignant; some were enraged. Particularly incensed were the members of a secret society, a volatile group of Chinese patriots who were already wary of foreign intervention. They, inspired by the story, exploded, rampaged against the foreign embassies in Peking, slaughtered hundreds of missionaries. In two months, twelve thousand troops from six countries joined forces, invaded China with the purpose of protecting their own countrymen. The bloodshed which followed, sparked by a journalistic hoax invented in a barroom in Denver, became the white-hot international conflagration known to every high school history student as the BOXER REBELLION. (Harvey, 136-38) With the tongue — Moses said, “Let my people go” With the tongue — Joshua said, “We can possess the land” With the tongue — David sent for Bathsheba With the tongue — Jesus said, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Good use (Prov. 12:18 & 25; 15:4, Eph. 4:29; 1 Thess. 5:11) Don’t wait for a “special occasion” to give praise or encouragement, because in doing so you miss an opportunity to bless others and yourself. Controlled mouth = controlled person (Prov. 21:23) Calvin Coolidge said, “I have never been hurt by anything I did not say.” Proverbs 10:19 puts it this way: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” As Samuel Clemens, more notably known as Mark Twain once said, “A closed mouth gathers no foot.”

Bit and Rudder Both the bit and the rudder must overcome contrary forces. The bit controls the wild nature of a horse; the rudder must fight the winds and currents that would drive the ship off course. Both the bit and the rudder must be under the control of a strong hand. Meekness = Power under control No man can tame the tongue (James 3:8) Then who can? God has the power to cleanse “unclean lips”, and to empower the cleansed believer. How? Like Isaiah, we need God to touch our lips with a coal from the altar (Isa. 6:5-7) When Isaiah was in the Presence of God, he only could see his faults more clearly and was ashamed. He realized that he was not worthy of being there and he was merely a man of “unclean lips.” Does our unworthiness make us useless? No! No matter what your condition, if God wants you to do something, He will make you qualified, if you allow Him to. Coal from the altar (with a continual fire burning) can be a symbol of a person constantly sharing the truth of the Gospel. Do not swear (James 5:12) By God or Heaven (Matt. 5:33-37) Instead, cultivate a reputation for truth telling Closing Prayer: Psalm 19:14 says "May the words of mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. O Lord, my Rock and my redeemer."