James 1:26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”
We observed: The tongue reveals our spiritual condition
#1 – What is an unbridled tongue?
#2 – What is a bridled tongue?
______
In the last hour we gave 5 answers to our first question: What is an unbridled tongue?
#1 – An unbridled tongue is an unbridled tongue often
#2 Slanders under the guise of zeal
#3 An unbridled tongue gossips
#4 An unbridled tongue flatters
#5 An unbridled tongue boasts
Seeing that our very professions of faith hinge on whether or not our tongues are bridled let us ask and give an answer to our 2nd question:
What is a bridled tongue?
We will give an answer to this question and then we will close with some practical directions for bridling our tongues.
So then: What is a bridled tongue?
Let us say firstly in answer to this question what a bridled tongue is not.
Consider #1: A bridled tongue is not a perfect tongue.
One who has a bridled tongue is not one who never sins with their tongue.
One who has a bridled tongue doesn’t have a perfect tongue, but one who has a bridled tongue desires that their tongue would be perfect.
_______________________________________________________
Consider #2: A bridled tongue is simply the tongue that is being changed by grace.
We have just noted that a bridled tongue is not a perfect tongue.
But it is a tongue that desires to be perfect…
______
The one who has been purchased and redeemed by Christ is now growing into the likeness of Christ.
The one who is growing into the likeness of Christ, desires and purposes to obey the laws of Christ.
The person who is a true believer hungers and thirsts after holiness…they desire to obey the laws of God.
And so the one who has been saved by grace bridles their tongue.
(This happens by degrees, like all other growth in grace)
The one who has been saved by grace desires that no unwholesome word would proceed from their mouth.
And when unholy and sinful speech does come, and we all know that it does come, DAILY;………… it grieves the Christian deeply.
______
A Christian who has a bridled tongue (and all Christians have a bridled tongue) realizes that everything that he wants to say is not profitable to say, so he mortifies much of what he has to say.
It is not honoring to Christ to say.
It is not doing any other Christians any good; it’s not edifying.
It is leading others astray and causing others to stumble.
The Christian who is being sanctified incrementally realizes that they are sinning with their tongue or the tone of their words…….. a lot.
The sanctified Christian didn’t realize that they were so wicked. And they begin to put a bridle on their tongue.
They begin to weigh their words very carefully…because they are hating sin more and more everyday as they grow into the likeness of Christ, and they do not want to sin against Him.
Christians begin to see the ugliness of the sin that remains in them by paying attention to the words that come from their own hearts.
The one with a bridled tongue doesn’t have a perfect tongue; NO! But he desires that he have a perfect one….like his Lord and Savior.
________
A bridled tongue is simply the tongue of God’s true people.
It is a grace, like all other graces, that comes with conversion, and then, grows, incrementally, through trials, in sanctification.
Pr 10:32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.
_______________________________________________________
If an unbridled tongue is a mark of an unbeliever…
Then a bridled tongue is a mark of grace in the believer.
Proverbs 21:23 23 He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles.
Part 7 and the last in this series will be posted tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment