Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
Although this passage is largely a rebuke to the people/God who abuse
their tongues and inflict a lot of damage, yet it is not all doom/gloom
Every cloud in God's word has a silver lining as far as His people are concerned - our text is the silver lining in this passage
The word "abuse" (although a negative word) presupposes a positive
If something can be abused for the bad…it can be used for the good
James here gives us a good use for our otherwise troublesome tongues:
We use them aright when they are employed to bless God
Just as James says of those abuse, "My brethren, these things ought not
to be" (v10) so too, concerning the good things i.e. the blessing of
God with our tongues, we say "These things ought to be! "
4 main thoughts on this more positive theme of so blessing God
We can only cover the first point in this message - several sub points
1) WE ARE TO BLESS GOD WITH OUR TONGUE SO MANY WAYS:
A/ We praise God/our tongues when we praise Him simply for who He is
[i] This is when we take our S/Catechisms and think upon the 4th question:
Ans:- God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth
As we meditate upon each of these attributes both in themselves and
they are they relate to one another (for He is the indivisible God) we
must cry out in worship/praise that this is our God
Even if God did nothing for us, we would yet be required (and would do
so) fall at his feet and bless Him on the sole basis of Who He is
One day Satan Himself will bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:11)
[ii] This is a lost concept in the church of Jesus Christ
It has been lost partly because we have elevated views of ourselves
Although as a Reformed church, our theology does not lend itself to
self exaltation, yet our natural tendency is more in line with that non
Reformed theology that minimises the sinner's depravity and exalts him
A side effect of Free Will theology will always rob God of His glory, because it forces God to share His sovereignty
True: God does not share His sovereignty, even if every last Christian
believed He does, but it does slacken the praise we give Him
True: Charles Wesley (Arminian) has written some of the greatest hymns of praise to God
Ans:- We thank God! The ruling principle was not his Arminianism, but his Bible based faith that overrode it
[iii] We ought to try and cultivate this angle of praise unto God
True, we cannot discover all about God (Romans 11:33-36)
Bullinger gives his own translation of Job 16:14
Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? (AV)
"Lo, these are but the outlines of His ways; A whisper only, that we hear of him…"
But even if this is so…we have a big Book of nearly 1200
chapters, scanning God's dealings with the world over a period of
around 4000 -5,000 years, including the things he has revealed about
Himself and we have enough material here to know: The Lord is worthy to
be praised
[iv] Cultivation of this element/praise comes neither naturally/quickly
Wesley (and others) did not write those great hymns overnight
Read the letters/Samuel Rutherford and see the depths/calibre of His
praise and worship - again: Looking at a man sold out to God, who has
taken the necessary time/effort (thorough the Bible) to know God
B/ We praise God/our tongues when we praise Him for what He has done for us i.e. we thank Him for His many benefits towards us:
[i] He daily loads us with benefits (Psalm 68:19) - new and fresh
every morning (Lamentations 3:23) - and keep coming to us and will do
While the earth remaineth, seedtime
and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and
night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)
Consider the Psalmist's own life and the goodness/God towards Him:
He speaks of the earliest days:
But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. (Psalm 22:9)
Obviously he was not fully conscious to God's benefits towards him, but such unconsciousness does not make anything void
He sat before God during the middle years/his life and contemplated what God had done for Him and was yet to do:
Then went king David in, and sat
before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my
house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small
thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy
servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of
man, O Lord GOD? (2 Samuel 7:18-19)
He sought the Lord to look after him in his old age:
Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. (Psalm 71:9)
God's answer is revealed to us through Isaiah:
And even to your old age I am he; and
even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even
I will carry, and will deliver you. (Isaiah 46:4)
What of death's dark valley itself? When the grim reaper calls?
Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
[ii] How much more we who've been redeemed/precious blood of Christ?
We who have been regenerated by the Spirit/God?
We who are being continually sanctified and eternally preserved/glory?
Wonder is: How can we be silent when we are recipients of such things?
No coincidence that having been lifted out from the fearful pit and the
miry clay and established - God put a new song in the Psalmist's mouth
Not to hum it quietly to himself, but to sing it to God in praise
"I sing! For I cannot be silent, His love is the theme of my song."
[iii] We carry out these two injunctions when we sing the Psalms and
any spiritual hymns (though of human composition) that are
faithful/Bible
It is very important that we maintain this element of praise
Sometimes an aggressive and muscular Christianity can push it out
I'm all for rousing hymns where needful, but sometimes a still small
voice singing praises should push out the thunder/whirlwind
C/ We praise God/tongues when we urge others to so worship Him also:
[i] This furthers the idea that the Lord is worthy to be praised
Many of the Psalms exhort others to do these things:
Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. (Psalm 47:6)
Again...note the emphasis in the exhortation, underlining the reason why He is to be worshipped: Who He is: Our King
These exhortations are legion in the word/God:
May be an element of necessity in the exhortation because of our
sluggishness/coldness, but there is also an element of further praise
Seen in:
Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the
LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all
his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. (148:1-2)
There is no sin/sluggishness among the angels/God…yet still exhorted
[ii] I think we see this point worked out in a very practical sense
Not only is there the actual exhortation to praise God, but the use of
the tongue exhorting diligence: means whereby it can be accomplished:
So David testified: I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. (Psalm 122:1)
Here were saints, using their tongues not only to praise God
themselves, but to encourage (David was pleased) another to do likewise
Not merely; Go to the house/God, but come (Psalm 122:1)
Thus: Peter and John went up together to the Temple (Acts 3:1)
What praise God gets in all these things
D/ We praise God/our tongues when we pray/supplicate:
Of course, prayer is much more than mere supplicating/asking
We should never reduce it to that - we praise God and confess our sins etc., and thank Him…and then we supplicate
In our supplicating, we too are praising God with our lips
We are acknowledging His greatness to meet our needs
This is heightened considerably when:
[i] We bring Him our deepest needs, even spiritual ones
[ii] We come to Him day and daily all our lives
[iii] We come to Him corporately i.e. as a group of people
[iv] We appreciate His greatness in those words: Ephesians 3:20
E/ We praise God/our tongues when we witness for Christ
God is greatly glorified in the proclamation of the gospel
Just to retell the old, old story of Jesus and His love to sinner, even
if they don't get saved, is to glorify God and bring Him praise
Angels desire in wonder to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12)
How much more so, when one sinner repents - great rejoicing/Heaven
Joy is the atmosphere of great praise
Already mentioned; The new song/mouth…even praise unto our God
Then was our mouth filled with
laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the
heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. (Psalm 126:2)
F/ We praise God/our tongues even when we warn sinners
[i] Although not as attractive to us as the first part of John
3:16, yet even this golden verse carries a warning in it - "should not
perish"
Even the concept of Hell glorifies God - It is "God's Hell"
He is sovereign even in its utmost depths
[ii] Hell stands as a testimony to His righteous wrath/hatred against sin
See Revelation 19:1-4 and the use of the Alleluia as the whore is judged
OK…we should not develop a lurid love of damning sinners, and it
is natural and NT orientated to ever seek for and rejoice in their
salvation (Galatians 1:22-24) but still: the whole counsel/God brings
Him praise
How can it not? How can God author something that is less than worthy
of praise? Such would be a denial of Himself and that cannot be
[iii] While we are to praise God with our understanding (1 Corinthians 14:15) yet we need not necessarily understand it all
We know enough to know that God is holy/just in all his ways and esp.
in relation to Hell: Judge/all the earth will do right (Genesis 18:25)
With that, we press forward in our praise, even if men hate us for it
G/ We bless Him/our tongues to strengthen saints
[i] Whether it is in preaching (like this) or in singing or in 1-1
exhortation etc., if it leads to a saints renewing his strength/vows to
battle onward with his face thither/Zion - then God is glorified
[ii] Was it not ever to God's glory that He could confront Satan with
the words: Hast thou considered my righteous servant Job? (1:8)
Whoever encouraged verbally Job did a great work and played his part
When we think of how much damage we can do with our tongues, it is a
very nice thought that we can put them not only to good use, but to no
better use than glorifying God
[TO BE CONTINUED]