The Tongue is a Hypocrite (James 3:6-12) [2025-12-7]

All right, good morning, church family.

If you would open your Bibles to the Book of James chapter 3 this

James 3 · chapter mention

morning, we're going to be in verses 6 to 12.

We've been going through James for several weeks now, and we

have made it to chapter 3. Last week I started a text and a

message on the tongue and I felt like it was just too long of a

text to do it in one sermon, so I broke up into two parts.

So last week was Part 1 and this morning is going to be Part 2 on

the tongue. So let's read the text.

I'll open us in a word of prayer and then we will jump into the

sermon this morning. James chapter 3 beginning in

James 3 · chapter mention

verse 6 is what James writes to us.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole

body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire

by hell. For every kind of beast and

bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has

been tamed by mankind, but no human being contained the

tongue. It is a restless evil, full of

deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and

Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the

likeness of God. From the same mouth come

blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought

not to be so. Does the spring pour forth from

the same opening, both fresh and salt water?

Can a fig tree, my brothers, bare olives or a Grapevine

produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield

fresh water? Let's pray, Father, we pray for

your spirit to be working among us this morning.

We pray that as we consider this topic of the tongue from last

week and this week, Lord, that you would help us to to to

pause, reflect, meditate, and contemplate.

Where in my life do I need to grow with my tongue?

Where am I guilty of sin? Where am both by Commission and

omission? What changes God are you calling

me to make? How can I use my tongue to be an

instrument of righteousness and not a weapon of destruction?

So, Lord, would you use this text this morning to help our

tongues to be in line with what they were designed for?

Praising you, I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

In 1991, in British Columbia, Canada, one of the trainers at

an aquarium was killed by an orca.

In 1999, a man trespassed into SeaWorld Florida and was killed

by an orca. In 2003, Roy Horn of Siegfried

and Royd was mauled by a tiger as part of the show.

In 2009 in Spain, one of the trainers was killed by an orca.

In 2010, one of the trainers at SeaWorld in Florida was killed

by an orca, and in 2016, a tiger at Palm Beach Zoo in Florida

attacked and killed one of the trainers.

What is the lesson to be learned from all of these incidents?

That wild animals are unstable creatures.

No matter how much we may have tamed them or think we have

tamed them, they are still unstable.

So is the tongue. No matter what kind of strides

we make with our tongues, the tongue is always an unstable

organ, meaning it's always liable to break out.

We may think that we have achieved victory in this area.

Some of you may even say that I feel like I'm a pretty good

master of my speech, my tongue that I don't think I send as

much with it. That may very well be true, but

all it takes is the right amount of stress.

All it takes is the wrong person saying the wrong thing at the

wrong time, or maybe just a spouse who knows how to push the

wrong button. Our tongues are always unstable.

They're always liable to break out.

This morning we're going to look at the second-half of our text

this morning that we started last week, and I'm going to do

the same I did last week, where instead of breaking up

exposition and application, I'm going to weave them together.

So application will be woven together throughout the sermon.

We'll look at it not only verse by verse, but section by

section. So let's start looking at verse

6A where James writes and the tongue is a fire, a world of

unrighteousness. Now last week we saw that James

had used 3 analogies to describe the very small nature of the

tongue and yet the tremendous power that it controls.

He used a bit and a horse, a rudder and a ship and a small

fire and a wildfire. And now James is going to shift

from using an analogy to a metaphor.

He's going to shift from analogy to metaphor.

He says the tongue is a fire. So not only is the tongue

similar to a fire, it actually is a fire.

Now what does James mean by this?

I think James is suggesting that the tongue, just like fire, is

capable of great destruction. If you look back at history, you

will see that there have been some tremendous fires throughout

human history. There is the Great fire of Rome

in 64 AD. It lasted 6 days and destroyed

most of Rome. There's the Great Fire of London

in 1666, burned up some 13,000 homes.

There's the Great Fire of Moscow in 1812, destroyed 3/4 of the

city of Moscow. In 1942 there was a nightclub

here in America where a fire broke out, killed almost 500

people. And we were all remember the

recent fires that destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral, the island

of Maui, and most recently the apartment complex in Hong Kong.

Fire is capable of tremendous destruction.

And James says the tongue is a fire.

He calls it a world of unrighteousness.

Now that seems rather dramatic, isn't it?

A world of unrighteousness? And yet, when we stop, take a

step back and consider how many people in Scripture send with

their tongue. Cain lied to God.

Abraham lied about Sarah. Jacob lied to his father.

Ananias and Sapphira lied about their offering.

Peter denied Christ three times. The Israelites complained for 40

years in the wilderness. Job's friends failed to speak

rightly about God. The disciples argued over who

was the greatest. The tongue is indeed a world of

unrighteousness. You see, the mouth is kind of

like Pandora's box. Once you open it, you open all

sorts of unrighteousness. Let me consider what is one of

the first sins of a child? Is it not one word?

No. One of the first ways that we

learn to sin in this life is to look at authority and say no.

As John Calvin writes, a slender portion of flesh contains the

whole world of iniquity. Look at verse 6B.

The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole

body. Now what does that mean?

Staining the whole body? That word for staining can also

be translated as defiling. The idea here is that even

though the tongue is a small part of the body, when it's sins

it doesn't. It stains or defiles the whole

body. Which body is being used as a

metaphor or euphemism of the entire sin?

Now what does it mean that by by sitting with a tongue you stain

or defile the whole body or the whole person?

Well think of it like this. If you get a stain on the

sleeve, the arm sleeve of your shirt, the sleeve of a white

shirt, and you get a stain on the arm sleeve of your shirt, we

don't just say that the the the sleeve is stained, we say the

shirt is stained, right? Or other way to think of it is

that if if you have food and one part of your food has E coli on

it, we don't just say that one part is defiled.

We say the whole food is defiled.

Is it not? I think what James is getting at

is that we cannot pretend that our words are not a part of us

once they leave us. We cannot create this dichotomy

where like, this is me, but once I say something, it's something

else. It's an extension of me.

But that's not me. What I said is not me.

People often use phrases such as I don't mean it.

I didn't mean any harm, no offense.

I didn't mean to upset you. I didn't mean to be rude.

That wasn't what I meant. It came out wrong.

It was just a slip of the tongue.

I was just joking. It was a poor choice of words.

I mean no disrespect. I take it back.

That's not who I am. That's not how I feel.

But do not our words represent who we are and what we think and

what we feel? James wants us to recognize that

our words are not simply an extension of us.

They are US, Jesus says. But what comes out of the mouth

proceeds from the heart. And this defiles a person.

I was even talking about boys were telling me we're at a Bible

store. Yesterday, one of my sons came

to me and he said, Dad, why you keep emphasizing the tongue like

bug? And he stuck out his tongue and

said, why you keep emphasizing it's not the tongue, dad, it's

your mind. And I was like you.

You got it, son. Look at verse 6C, setting on

fire the entire course of life. Setting on fire the entire

course of life. Now like the parable of the

sower where the birds ate some of the seed, the sun scorched

some of the plants. The thorns choked out some of

the plants. We could add another group of

seed here. Some seed fell on fertile

ground, sprouted up a plant, but fire came and scorched it.

In other words, what James is saying is that the tongue can

dictate where you spend eternity.

The whole course of our life can be determined by our tongue.

He says that it's it's setting on fire the entire course of

life. Your whole life can be dictated

by your tongue, and this will always be true.

This is not the kind of fire that once you put it out, it

stays out. No, all throughout our life that

has the capability to burn always.

I remember many years ago, my friends and I went.

This is when I was lost. Many years ago, my friends and I

went whitewater rafting and camping together.

One night we had made this campfire, made this glorious

campfire. It was pretty large.

It was pretty hot. It was burning for hours.

As we go to bed, I took out a small amount of water and I

poured it on the fire and it kind of went out and my friend

said, you know, that fire will come back.

I said no, I just poured water on it, it's out.

He said no, it'll come back. I said no way, no, no way.

He said I can pour this and he had a gallon of water.

He said I can pour this entire gallon of water on this fire and

it will come back. I said there's no way, no way.

So we made some kind of bet. Again, I was lost.

He poured the gallon of water on the fire, a gallon of water.

We got inside our tents to go to bed.

About an hour or two later, I see this glow outside the tent.

The fire came back. That's why when you see

firefighters putting out a fire, the the fire has been out for a

while and they're still spraying it with water.

That's how it is with our tongues.

We can think I'm beyond. I have conquered this.

I have put out this fire in my life.

And yet, without fail, we will realize that the embers in our

mouth still burn hot. I don't care how mature a

Christian is. I don't care how long you've

been a Christian. I don't care how mature you are.

Our tongue always has the capability to burn.

Always looking for 60 and set on fire by hell.

Set on fire by hell? Now what does that mean?

To put it bluntly, the tongue is inflamed by the fires of hell.

It is the hell is a source of constant fire that will keep

this thing burning. When James says that the tongue

is set on fire by hell, hell is being used as a kind of a

synecdoche for Satan, for sin, for all that is evil in this

world. Now Paul tells us in Ephesians 6

that Satan shoots flaming darts at us, right?

Metaphorically, but in the in the spiritual world, literally.

And these flaming darts, they are not only meant to destroy

us, but they are also meant to ignite us.

That he would turn us into a flaming dart.

You ever said something and wondered where did that come

from? I don't even know why I said

that. How many times I mean like you

can take the sweet. My wife is the sweetest person

in the world. How many times that you can take

put four boys in your life and you'll say things or but you can

be the sweetest person in the world put and a man, a roommate

that rubs you the wrong way. You say something, you're like,

I don't even know why I said that.

I don't know why I said that. Where did that come from?

Where does that come from? One answer is this.

It came from the enemy. It came from the enemy.

Now, that's not to say that we are not responsible.

We are Jesus says that we will give an account for every

careless word that we have spoken.

But this text explains why we can say things that are so

hurtful and so destructive. I mean, you ever said something

and like, like in a moment somebody had hurt you or wounded

you or offended you and you knew how to put them in their place.

You knew what would be hurtful to them, and you took it.

You said it and then immediately afterward, or maybe the next

day, you thought, I don't know why I said that.

I shouldn't have said it. You know why we said it?

Because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

We wrestle against the forces of hell.

Look at verse 7 to 8A. For every kind of beast and bird

of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by

mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.

Now James goes back to his analogies.

Here he uses another animal analogy, but this time in the

broad sense. He says every kind of beast and

bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has

been tamed by mankind. And what does that mean?

To tame? That word tame means to reduce

from an uncontrolled to a controlled state or to subdue.

Think of it like this. If you go to a zoo, you will

find in the zoo. You do not find humans in the

zoo. You find animals in the zoo.

We have subdued them. You will find lions and tigers

and bears in the zoo. If you go to an aquarium, you

will find sharks and orcas. Apparently these are enormous

beasts. These are dangerous and deadly

beasts and yet humans have found a way to subdue them.

Now. This is because God has given us

a mandate from heaven. Genesis 128 Be fruitful and

multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.

How many dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of

the heaven and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

As humans we have the capability to subdue a £14,000 elephant, a

£5000 rhinoceros, a 4000 LB hippopotamus, a 1500 LB polar

bear, a 30 foot whale shark, a 3500 LB beluga whale, a £10,000

orca, a 2000 LB crocodile, a £300 ostrich, but we can't

subdue a three ounce tongue. James says no human being can do

this. Now when James says no human

being contained a tongue, he means just that, no human being.

But that doesn't mean God is incapable of taming it.

It doesn't mean that God is incapable of attainment.

Sometimes as Christians, even mature Christians, we are

perplexed as to why we keep falling into sin with our

tongues. You may have been a Christian

for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, you know, and you can see

yourself mature or you know, maybe if you're an elder, you're

a Deacon, you're a pastor, you're a missionary, you're a

teacher. You're, you know, you're like

man. And you got to wonder, like, why

do I keep falling into sin with my tongue?

Why do I keep getting angry? Why do I keep complaining?

Why did I tell that lie? I mean, it was an emotional lie,

but it was a lie nonetheless. Why do I still struggle to

gossip? Why?

Why do I still struggle with this?

Why do I keep sinning in this way?

Here's why. Because in our own strength, we

have no strength. We need the grace of God, we

need the fruit of the Holy Spirit to tame this animal, and

that is the only way to do it. You try to tame this on your own

and you'll keep biting people. The verse 8B it is a restless

evil full of deadly poison. A restless evil full of deadly

poison. Now one question we may have is

why is it so difficult to tame the tongue?

Why is this? James gives 2 reasons.

He gives 2 reasons why #1 the tongue is a restless evil.

The the word for restless is the same Greek word that James used

in James 1/8 when he said he is a double minded man, unstable in

all his ways. That word unstable, same word as

restless here. Unstable and restless, same

Greek word. What does that mean?

You ever seen those old school mouse traps like the, you know,

the ones with the spring that you put back, you know, and

people like like the cartoon has got a little piece of cheese on

it or something. I remember one time we had a

mouse in our apartment in seminary.

I bought all those fancy new mouse traps, you know those ones

that like to advertise and none of them worked.

And then I saw like like $1.99 just like cheap little like

ghetto looking mousetrap. I was like, let me just try this

thing. So I bought it.

First day I caught the mouse those I don't like those things

because you said it. They're so unstable like you

just touch it it's and man it hurts if you get your finger in

there is not our mouth like those mouse traps.

Sometimes the slightest comment can cause us to snap back.

We get caught at the wrong time, the wrong day of the month, the

slightest trial or inconvenience does it not cause us to

complain? Right.

Everything is going well. My week's been going well, but

having a great week. And then it's just The slightest

inconvenience can cause us to complain.

The slightest fear or anxiety could cause us to bend the

truth. You see, the tongue is an

unstable evil. It's unstable.

Second reason he gives The tongue is full of deadly poison.

The tongue is full of deadly poison.

I absolutely hate snakes. I, I, I hate them.

My boys were telling me last night they were like, hey, God,

did you know they're bringing back this show where like,

people like, get in boxes with snakes and stuff.

And I was like, man, they did that years ago.

The show called Fear Factor. He's like, yeah, that's what

it's called. They're bringing it back.

I was like, I don't know why I hate snakes.

I don't like looking at them. I don't want to touch them.

However, I am fascinated with people who engage with them,

like Steve Irwin or Bear Grylls. These animals have deadly poison

in them. Not all of them, but a lot of

them do. I have never been bitten by a

snake. I'm from Alabama, I've never

been bitten by snake. I would like to keep it that

way. I was so happy when I found out

that Western Washington does not have any poisonous snakes.

I was so happy. We do not have any poisonous

snakes, but we do have poisonous people.

God has given us the power to poison people with our words.

The tongue is full of deadly poison.

Not just a little bit, it's full.

Look at verse 9. With it we bless our Lord and

Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the

likeness of God. You see, James says the tongue

has the power to bless and the tongue has the power to curse.

When God gave us the ability to speak, He gave us the ability to

bless him, to praise Him. What a tremendous privilege we

have to praise the living God with our mouths.

You ever think about that? That we, you know the, the birds

praise him and and the flowers praise him, but not the way that

we do. We praise Him as children.

We praise him as people made in his likeness.

What a tremendous privilege. There is no greater feat that we

will ever do in this life than to praise God with our lips.

I don't care if you climb Mount Everest.

I don't care if you can dunk of basketball.

I don't care what we can accomplish.

Nothing compares to this feat, to praising God.

No painting rivals the beauty of this portrait.

No orchestra sounds like this Symphony.

God has given us the greatest privilege in the universe

praising Him. How many times does the psalmist

declare that he will use his lips to praise God?

I will bless the Lord at all times.

This praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 3410. Lord, open my lips, and my mouth

will declare your praise. Psalm 5115 because Your

steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You.

Psalm 63 Three. My mouth is filled with Your

praise and with your glory all day.

Psalm 71 Eight. My lips will shout for joy when

I sing praises to You. Psalm 7123 My lips will pour

forth praise. Psalm 1/19/71 my mouth will

speak the praise of the Lord. Psalm 14521 our mouth is

$1,000,000 instrument because it praises an infinitely worthy

God. I was watching Shark Tank the

other day. Yes I know I watch Shark Tank.

It's a good show, you should try it out.

One of the pitches on the show was a 3D printing company that

can print instruments. They had a cello on there.

My favorite instrument to listen to is the cello.

Absolutely. I mean hands down nothing to me

compares to it. They were saying on the show

that a good cello, a good like made out of wood cello can be

10,020 thousand even like the top ones can go up to $100,000

and there are 3D printed ones were selling for 3000.

They were trying to make like instruments that are very

expensive, more affordable to other to to more people.

Right? Because I'm who can afford

100,000 or even a $20,000 cello. This instrument is intended to

produce glorious sounds. But imagine if a cello was used

as a hammer. I got a cello upstairs.

It's Eugene's. Imagine if I went upstairs and I

needed to nail something in the wall.

I pulled it out. I didn't have a hammer.

I don't have a hammer, and I used it to hammer in this nail.

Or imagine. We went out to the parking lot.

My boys are playing baseball. They're throwing around rocks.

I'm like, hey, guys, I got a bat and I use it as a baseball bat.

Wouldn't that be a shame? Wouldn't it be a shame to take

this glorious instrument and use it for these purposes?

Imagine if we used this instrument not to praise God,

but to curse his creation, James says.

Not only do we bless God, but we curse people who are made in the

likeness of God. Now, when James says curse

people, he doesn't mean curse them out, nor does he mean to

put a curse on them. The idea of cursing is

essentially to speak evil of someone, to speak evil of them.

And notice James calls attention to not just cursing some people.

He says cursing anybody, all people.

He says we curse people made in the likeness of God.

Well, who was made in the likeness of God?

Everybody. The lying politician.

The annoying neighbor. The incompetent customer service

clerk. The bragging Co worker.

The friend who constantly interrupts you.

The chronic complainer. The unreliable friend who

constantly cancels on you. The person who never apologizes.

Reckless drivers. Parents who don't discipline

their kids, the micromanaging boss, the friend who only calls

when they need something, the person who always one UPS your

stories, the slow Walker in the grocery store, the Co worker who

takes credit for your work, the argumentative person.

And on and on and on. How easily we can criticize and

complain and condemn and cancel and curse God's creation.

Brothers and sisters, God gave us this instrument to praise

Him. Look at verse 11:50, last

section. From the same mouth come

blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought

not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from

the same opening? Both fresh and salt water?

Can a fig tree, my brother's bare olives, or a Grapevine

produce figs? Neither.

Can a salt pond yield fresh water?

Now James goes back to his analogies and it gives us three

more analogies. He's making one central point

with these analogies. But before we look at that

point, let's look at the analogies.

He asked 2 questions and makes one comment.

Let's look at them individually. His first question, does a

spring pour forth from the same opening, both freshwater and

saltwater? If you've ever seen a naturally

occurring spring, it pours forth water, right?

That's what that's what it is. Now in, in an arid environment

like Palestine, this would have been vital.

They would actually probably build entire villages around

wherever a spring occurred, right?

Because water is, is everything, it's life.

And so this was vital for them. Now you can have a saltwater

spring or a freshwater spring. They both exist.

Saltwater springs are far less common, but they do exist.

Florida has some saltwater springs, the Dead Sea has some

saltwater springs, the Mediterranean has a few, and the

Caribbean does. But most springs are freshwater

springs. They pour forth freshwater that

you can drink, but what you can't have is a spring that six

months out of the year produces freshwater and then six months

out of the year produces saltwater.

Or biweekly or bi monthly, or every other day.

A spring is one or the other. It's either a saltwater spring

or it's a freshwater spring, but it's not both.

That's the first question. Second question, can a fig tree

bear olives or a Grapevine produce figs?

Now, you do not need to be a botanist or an arborist to know

this. Ask any child in this service.

Jonathan, let me ask you right now.

A lemon tree produces what lemons see.

He is not an arborist or a botanist.

An apple tree produces apples. A fig tree produces figs.

It never produces anything but figs.

You will never walk up to a fig tree and see it growing olives.

Nor will you ever walk up to an olive tree and see it growing

figs. Likewise, if you have a

Grapevine, you will get grapes. You will not get Peaches.

You will not get plums. You will not get avocados.

A Grapevine cannot produce figs. And his Third Point?

Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Literally neither can salt water yield fresh water.

If you have a saltwater spring or a saltwater pond, you can

never get freshwater out of it. Now, what is James's point in

all of these analogies? What is the central point that

he is making here? Here it is.

The type of spring tells you the type of water.

The type of tree tells you the type of fruit.

Likewise, the type of person should tell you the type of

speech. I say should because James

writes from the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

In other words, the tongue is a hypocrite.

And James says, my brothers, these things ought to be so

imagine if you had a freshwater spring that would sometimes give

you salt water. You went you, you, you go to the

spring and you drink and you drink and all of a sudden it's

salty. He's got a mouthful of salt

water, right? That's what it's like when we

speak evil of others. It's like trying to drink salt

water or imagine if we needed to make some wine and we went to

our vineyard to go collect grapes, but our vineyard was

full of figs. I don't know if you can make

wine out of figs. Maybe you can or you needed to

make some fig cakes, but the fig tree only has olives in stock.

You see what James is doing is James is highlighting the

hypocritical nature of the tongue.

There's, there's an age-old joke of the person who is late to

church and racing to church and they're yelling at the driver in

front of them, maybe even, you know, like making comments about

them, maybe even commenting things that I won't repeat.

And then they walk inside the church.

Oh, praise his name or husband and wife are singing praises to

God at church and then on the drive home they're speaking

negatively of their brothers and sisters.

We have a phrase talking out of both sides of our mouth.

We have to strive so hard to not be a hypocrite with our tongues.

Yes. Let me be very clear in case

you're like, well, what about you, pastor?

Are you hypocrite? Yes, yes.

I don't stand up here as as especially if you know me.

If you know me well, you know how much I struggle with sins of

the tongue. I don't want, I want anybody to

walk away thinking that like I'm deceived about this.

I pray you are not either. What should define our speech is

praise and compliments and encouragement and thankfulness

and blessing and forgiveness and honor and all the sons

inspiration, motivation, admiration, exhortation,

affirmation, validation, reconciliation, recognition,

edification. James saying that there's not a

time and a place for correction or instruction or admonition.

There certainly is a time and a place for those.

But what should define our speech is blessing, blessing God

and blessing people. A renewed person gives renewed

speech, and a live person speaks words of life.

We are to speak as not only as those who have new hearts, but

also have new tongues. Let's pray.