Let me get to chapter 3. So I'll just go back and just say, keep in mind what he says, and I'll read to the tongue here. I'll read verses 19 to 26 of James 1. Notice, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, and notice, slow to speak. Slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant weakness and receive with meekness the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer. He is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he is like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious, who knows this, and does not bridle his tongue, what's the situation? But to seize his heart, that person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unstained from the world. Then going over to the verses for today, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Not many of you should become teachers. My brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. I wonder if the children, and look to you, how many of you children have heard, maybe on the playground or something, the words, sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt. Well, when I was about your age, I think I heard it quite often on the playground. You know, one child would say something mean to another child, and the response, at least when I was growing up, was to say, well, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. And children, and adults, that's a lie. are incredibly powerful. They can do great harm. You know, I don't remember a single time of somebody hitting me and hurting me and thinking back, oh, what so-and-so did in first grade or second grade. But I'm sure that if I had thought of it, I could think of some things that people said over the years that hurt and still hurt. Words are powerful. We can get over a broken bone, a broken collarbone and heal. Right? Much harder is when someone says something and hurt us. I suspect all of us who are adults can maybe think about a time When we said something, and we maybe didn't mean it in a bad way, but if you saw that person's expression, that pained look on their hearts, you just wanted to be able to grab those words and bring them back, as if you've never said them. But you can't. And maybe the friendship has been hurt. or even broken because you said something and maybe it was taken the wrong way or it came out wrong or whatever it is, but it hurt. And that's not even dealing with deliberate words or insults because I know often that teenagers like to do things that rub someone the wrong way. You know someone is sensitive about their height or their weight or their nose or whatever it is, and what is it? that they mock and make fun of. It's that one thing that you don't like. And often times, even in adulthood, that child is still hurting. You're now maybe 35, 40 years old, but somebody mentions your height or your weight or your face or whatever it is. You still feel the pain. You still feel defensive, and maybe you say, I shouldn't do that! And still, the pain is there. Words have tremendous power. Power to inflict great harm, or power to inflict great good, to produce great good. And as we look at this section that deals with the tongue, and it will go on next week, in two weeks as we go on further in the book, it will talk even more about the tongue. It's teaching us about the very nature of our words. How important they are, how critical they are. And this week it will be specific to those who are teachers. That what someone says as a teacher, And the church is crucial and important. And their words matter. And their words are important. And so the first point that we can see is a very surprising statement in verse 1. Not many of you should become teachers, as the American Standard says. Let not many of you become teachers. Now isn't that a little bit surprising? Wouldn't we want everybody to be teachers and to be able to teach the truth? Now it's not speaking about just teaching in everyday life, because we all teach in all sorts of ways. I think of parents, or one of the primary responsibilities of parents is to teach their children, and you do that all the time. Whether it's good lessons or bad lessons, how to tie your shoe, or how to sit at the dinner table, or what to do when you come to church. You're teaching your children all the time. But it's not talking about that type of teaching. Rather, it's talking about the teaching office. Another reference would be in Ephesians 4.11 where it talked about those that God has given to lead the church and have gone with the apostles and prophets are those that are called pastor-teachers. Those who give themselves to shepherding and to teaching God's people. We often refer to that as the teaching elder and their responsibility. And the teachers in the New Testament, and even until today, had a very prominent role. Similar to the Jewish rabbis, of teaching the people the Word of God. What does the Word of God say? Now, it was especially important when Not many of the people could read that you'd have people who were skilled and learned and could teach. But part of what the teacher was to do was to transmit the Word of God, to teach it to God's flock. To pass it on. And you can look at 2 Timothy 2 chapter 2 verse 2 to point out that important role of teaching. Now if you look at the warning here, Let not many of you be teachers. It's not saying no one is to teach. The church doesn't have any teachers or any teaching going on. It's not prohibiting teaching. James is writing this letter as teaching. But there's a care about how it should be done. It's a very legitimate office. But the encouragement is to be careful about how it's done and who does it. And there's a realization in this warning that there's a certain amount of authority and prestige that goes along with teaching. By its very nature, it's very visible that the one who teaches is up front and is leading. And people can be drawn to it, to want to be in the limelight, to want to be up front, to be very visible. And there's a sense of which many people crave that. And just think about the phone-in talk shows. What's the attraction? Well, for a few moments everybody gets to be an expert and say their point of view for the whole world, at least the listening world, to hear you. As if what I have to say is important and everybody should pay attention. And so it's not surprising that in the church there'd be those who'd be attracted to that public teaching, who'd want that position of meeting others and thinking about the Word of God. But there's a warning. That this is serious business, and not everybody is called to do it. And not everybody who wants to do it should be doing it. And I think sort of the Christian version of this, what happens sometimes is, you know, when a celebrity, a sports celebrity or movie star becomes a Christian, and some pastor proclaims the gospel and they pray a prayer, what immediately happens to that person? Well, they're put on the Christian circuit. They're now speakers at churches and at conferences. and on Christian TV. And often times, they're a new babe in Christ, or maybe they aren't even a genuine believer, but they're put in this place where they're teaching, and they're asked their opinion, and they're on TV telling what the Christian life is all about, and their Christian experience, when they need to be taught. And they're not ready to be teachers. And yet, because they're celebrities, They quit in that world. And too often, there's very disastrous results, either to their own lives, if they're asked maybe some question that they don't know the answer to, they've never thought about, you know, well, what about abortion? Where's your stand on abortion? And they've never thought about it, and they're part of the Hollywood elite that has always supported abortion, and it's disastrous. Or maybe they get caught away in some fanciful idea, and they teach something that's strange, and absurd, and people are listening, and people are buying into it. And so we have this warning, and not many are to be teachers. So this is something that is just not for everybody. So the second point is you can see the reasons for this instruction, for this warning. First of all, in verse 1, there's a stricter judgment upon teachers. Notice James includes himself. He's one of the teachers that he's talking about. We who teach will be judged with greater strictness. And really that translation tones it down a little bit, because literally it says, we shall receive a greater judgment. And this too is part of teaching, of a higher accountability. It's easy to look up front and say, oh, I wish I was like that one who's teaching, and that's a great thing to be doing, and I'd like to do that too. It's another thing to think, well, boy, what a scary thing. And I'm going to be judged more severely, more strictly, if I'm up front. Because my words influence people. And we need to understand that teaching in church is a very serious business. Jesus warns in the Gospels that we will be answering for every idle word. That's something to think about next time you're kidding around and wasting time or whatever. We'll have to answer for each one of those idle words. But how much more will we have to answer for when we say something on behalf of God, we're saying, God says this. And we're telling God's people, this is what God is saying to you. Because with that is the possibility of great harm. And our words can harm, and they can do great harm, just that we think, and just sort of a secular thing, there's a fire and a fireman comes in and says, this is the way out, and he leads the people astray, so they die in a fire. That's tragic. Or the psychiatrist who's dealing with a marriage couple that are having difficulties, and the wife is saying she doesn't find fulfillment in marriage, the love is gone, and he advises, well, you need to leave your husband. You need to find something that will fulfill you, that will satisfy you, and the marriage breaks up. It causes great harm, and his words can cause great harm. How much worse when it comes to the spiritual realm, when we're dealing with matters of eternity, of eternal life and eternal death. Recently in Bloomington, there was a well-known minister that came and was advertised, and you could see the topics for his speech. And knowing him and having read about his life, I was hearing what the thrust of this topic were. The first one was, do you have a sinful nature? Or are you evolving higher? And of course the thrust is, no, we need to get rid of this idea that we're sinners. We need to see ourselves as always evolving higher and better. And then the second thought, is we need to rethink the whole idea of eternal life. And of course that's the idea that we shouldn't really be thinking about eternal life. What we need to be thinking about is that here and now there is no eternal life. And what does that mean in terms of how we help people as they're dying and that sort of thing. We don't give them a false comfort that there's somehow some heaven that they would go to. No, our only comfort is our loved ones remember us. And that sort of thing. And of course, behind this is a whole homosexual agenda that wants to get rid of saying that that's sin, that that would somehow keep us out of heaven, and all the rest that would go on with us. That that's how God made you, it's okay, it's good. And what is he doing? He's leading many astray. Many are being influenced by his teaching. And the result is they have an incorrect view of sin, an incorrect view of holiness, an incorrect view of how you can be saved before God, and ultimately an incorrect view of God Himself. He's testifying. to something that isn't true about God and the way in which God works. Instead of saying to those who are caught up in certain sins, this is sin, you need to repent, you need to seek forgiveness, you need to seek the Savior. He's saying, it's okay. And the person can become hardened in their sin. that they can die in their sins, thinking they're okay, when they're not. And thus, James is warning. Ones who do such things will incur a stricter judgment. Because they're not just deceiving themselves, they're deceiving an audience. And that person with a guilty conscience and thinking, am I right in what I'm doing? Instead of finding the biblical answer, is being told, don't worry about it. And it's having a negative impact on lives. I can't help but think of the ones who are preachers on TV, and not all of them, but it seems like so many. have listened to and what they're teaching is not what the Word of God says. And they're giving false promises of wealth, of prosperity, of health. And God has not made those promises. But this is true of everyone who teaches. Since we're all sinners, capable of misleading, misguiding people, even though our intentions could be right and we're wanting to bring the word of God to bear on people's lives directly and not in any way be teaching anything in error. I suspect if I thought long and deeply enough about this whole issue, I'd resign as a pastor. Good thing the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Because I'm asking myself, do I adequately portray the majesty of God? When you leave here, do you see God in His majesty? Have you come and you go away saying, I have met God? I suspect we don't leave every single time feeling that way. And it's at least partially my fault for not presenting the majesty of God. Do you see the beauty of Christ and the beauty of what He has done the way you should? Sadly, I think not. At least partially because you're not showing Him Which then brings us to the second point, which is the second reason for this warning is the ease with which we sin. And that's especially true with regard to our words. As you look at verse 2, it says, for we, and again, James is including himself, we stumble in many ways. And he's saying something that is very simple. We're all sinners. We maybe try our best. We may be as diligent as we can be, but we're all sinners. And he's saying in many ways, and really this idea that in many different situations, many different ways that we go about doing it, we're not all sinning maybe in exactly the same way. So one person maybe is sinning in terms of lust and envy, another in terms of slander, another in terms of anger, but we're all sinners in some way. And maybe you don't have any problems with anger, but there is some sin that will be showing up, more than one, that will be showing up in your life. And it's just a simple fact of life. As we live on this earth, you and I are going to be sinners, and we're going to sin no matter how hard we try not to. And it's not an excuse to say, well, now I can go out and sin, or I don't need to care about holiness, or trying to live right before God. It's not an excuse for that, but it's a recognition that we will not live up to the standards that we set for ourselves, let alone the standards that God has set for us. But it goes on to really say, the hardest area to control is the tongue. You know, you think it's hard to control your anger, your lust, or your envy, the tongue is even harder. So it goes on to say, if anyone does not stumble to what he says, if you could do that, he would be a perfect man. Now, perfect may be a little bit too strong. It's the same word as in chapter 1, verse 4, the word perfect is used there, but it's really having a sense of maturity, fully developed. So if we saw a Christian who never once stumbled on what he said, you'd see somebody who is incredibly mature. And James had seen that in his older brother in Jesus Christ. But I don't think we see it. Because we do see it. And the point he's making, the easiest area for us to stumble is with our lips. Now if you're able to control that area, then you can control all the easier areas. Like pride, and lust, and envy, and sloth, and those things. Those things would be easy. If you have the self-control to control your tongues the way you should. How often we should be crying out with the Prophet Isaiah, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. Because what Isaiah is saying and what James is saying here is that our tongues are an indication of our separation from God. You want to see that you don't live the way you should? Look at your tongue, look at your speech. What have you done this week? And does it show estrangement for God in some way? And think about the relationship this has to being a teacher. Why would a teacher, because of his tongue and the difficulty in controlling his tongue, Is there a warning that not many be teachers? Well, first of all, the very nature of what a teacher does is to use their tongues to teach. And so it's required, essentially, that they would be speaking and be communicating. And the more words, the more opportunities you have to say something wrong. I suspect if I gave like a two minute sermon, and have less chance to say anything wrong. I expect you wouldn't want that. Well, maybe some of you would, I don't know. But it's easy to fall into. One of the things that preachers do, and I expect I do it too, is we like to use personal illustration. But why is that? Well, one reason is easy. It's something that happened in our life and we're thinking about, and so it's easy to bring that up. But it's easier to be drawing attention to myself. Maybe my sin, but still drawing attention to myself rather than to God. And we now do not even be aware of it. But we can do that. I've met preachers who, wives, their discernment and illustration, and of course it's usually in a bad light. It's almost, almost, he doesn't say it, but so, let me tell you what my wife did wrong this week. And she has to sit there. Second, think of the greater the audience, the greater the sin can be. In some ways it's terrifying to speak to 30 or 40 people, and to think there may be something wrong. And that might affect the thinking of 30 or 40 people about how they see God, how they see Jesus Christ. What happens when you're speaking between 500 people, or 5,000 people, or 5 million on TV? The influence for wrong is tremendous. And then the warning about those who would teach. And I do think of it in terms of You know, in some sense you're a captive audience. You're all too polite to get out and leave if I say something wrong. And there's a dynamic that goes on there. You know, the teacher is now suddenly the expert. And maybe it's not an area that they have any knowledge of, but oh, you're used to giving your opinion. It's easy then to just let it go over to other areas, even though you may not have any factual basis for saying something. You can use humor to wound or to hurt. You can speak with arrogance. You can slander others. You can name drop for vainglory. You can slander. attack someone's position when they're not here to defend. Christian teachers are called to be models of virtue. Therefore, they're subject to a stricter judgment. The third point, as we look at verse 2, is pointing us really to a wider application. This has an application to teachers and what they say. But it's really leading up to how all of us should consider the use of our tongues. We ought to consider very carefully, how am I using my tongue this week? And maybe look back, how did I use it last week? Was someone hurt by what I said? Or was someone built up by what I said? So I encourage you to examine yourself, to think about this, you know. What's that hasty word that you should have said, that you'd like to pull back, that you saw that pain look on a friend's face? Did you realize I should have said that? Was there some untruthful statement? Or maybe some half-truth? And a half-truth is also a half-lie. Is there some lie suggested you put in? Or some harmful gossip? Or some misleading innuendo? Or some impure speech? Oh, we'll be looking, Lord willing, on some legitimate uses of the tongue, and there's certainly some very legitimate uses, and one is here as we worship, as we praise, as we sing God's praises. What a beautiful use of the tongue, and to be able to sing God's Word, what a very great thing it is to have that freedom, to know that we're praising God with our tongues in exactly what He has said. And we're to use our tongues as witnesses to Christ and speak to others. But if we're really paying attention, we'll be seeing how much of what comes out of our tongues isn't proper. It reminds you and it reminds me of how we need to be bribing. There's a word that's used in this section. our tongue, even to teach you how much more. But it also reminds us of how we need the grace of the one who committed no sin, and on whose tongue there was no guile. That as we sin, it drives us to Jesus Christ who committed no sin, to be cleansed, and then to be able to persevere. and faithfulness to Him. And so as we would see that we can't control our tongues, it should drive us to Christ and the forgiveness we have through Him. That's right. Heavenly Father, we give You thanks for these words. that you caused the Apostle James to write down, that causes us to think thoroughly and deeply about our words. Because too often we do not think about our words and the harm that they can do. We get into sinful patterns of speech, We're in a culture that regards often the sins that we're saying as being unimportant, and to speak a little white lie. Nothing is seen that's wrong with that. It would help us to see that your standard is much higher, and that we should desire to be slow to speak, to see each one of our words as important in its manner, and that they can do great harm, or they can do great good, and that we would be doing great good with our lips, and keep us from doing harm. I pray that would be especially true for me as I would teach, as I would preach, for all to have that responsibility. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.