Sermons

The Uncontrolled Tongue

" But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." (James 3:12) The tongue can be tamed by submission to the will of God. First, Christ must be received as Savior. Without Him the life will be without pilot or governor. Second, the life in Christ must be guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The only hope of control of the tongue is in Christ the Spirit of God.

Christians gossip and why? And who is a gossiper? A gossiper is a man or a woman who does not know the power of speech. In James chapter 3:5-6 hear the word of the Lord: "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."

The tongue has power to make or break. the tongue can bring joy or sorrow. The tongue can lift up or cast down. How many homes and churches have been brought to ruin by foolish, sinful gossip! How many lives have been made to suffer needlessly because of gossiping tongues. Joseph was slandered maliciously and made to suffer.

Daniel also suffered because of the evil tongues of His enemies. Yes, a gossiper is a reckless person who does not know the power of speech. The gossiper is as reckless as a drunken man with a high powered car. It is more than a terror for a man to drive down the road with a high-powered car, and under the influence of liqour. But such a one is no more dangerous than a gossiper who wrecks life and happiness by silly, foolish, or lying words.

Do you remember Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. Here is what Solomon has to say about the power of the tongue: "An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowlege shall the just be delivered." (Prov.11:9)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof Prov.18:21. How true it is that gossip has been the assasin of many good man, and the atom bomb which has destroyed many a home and church. Christ says that in the day of judgment we shall give an account of the words we have spoken. How careful then we ought to be, and how we ought to take heed to our ways that we sin not with our tongue.

Christians become idle when they take time out to gossip. In (2 Thess.3:11), the apostle Paul comment on wasting time as a gossiper this way. "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies." And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not."(1 Timothy 5:13)

Paul was forever condemning the wasting of time. His message was "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Time spent in useless chatter can be given to happier accupations-Amen. There are so many people who complain that they do not have time to read the Bible or to pray. Yet, a little check-up on their days will show that they have plenty of time for gossip and for foolishness. There are those who say they do not have time to witness for Christ, yet these same individuals spend much time in talking about others in a way which can help no one. The word condemns idle people who wander from house to house, tattling, and speaking things they ought not. May God have mercy on them!

A gossiper is a busy body and also a trouble maker if you please. "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a theif, or as an evil doer, or as a busy body in other men's matters."(1 Peter 4:15) The apostle Paul says, don't bring trouble upon yourself by doing wrong. If you must suffer, then suffer as a Christian. Suffer for righteousness' sake, and not because of your evil doing. Yes, friends, Some people are forever interfering in the affairs of others. Their own house is dirty and filty, but they love to pick fault with a neighbor. Their own lives need correction, but they prefer to spread gossip regarding not others. Their days are numbered and God's judgment is sure. They are mean and vicious. A gossiper is usually mean and malicious. He or she is happier with the downful of others. Christian sympathy does not hold a big place in the heart of a gossiper. Quite often jealousy and gossip go together.

Man likes to criticize and slander those who have gone a little higher than he has. Remember, friends, it is easy to scatter stories, it is difficult to stop them. Slander is an injury which is hard to undo, even when one might desire to do so. Here is a good illustration that might help to get my point across to you. You can take a bag of feathers on top of a hill and when the wind blows, then open the mouth of the bag. What will you see, all the feathers will be blown away. Now, try to gather all of the blown feathers. My friends, this is true with a person's character.

Christian sympathy does not hold a big place in the heart of a gossiper. Remember, friends, it is easy to scatter stories, it's difficult to stop them. Slander is an injury which is hard to undo, even when one might desire to do so. The tongue is to be restrained-Amen. "Keep the tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." (Psalm 34;13)
The Bible said, "He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: But he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction." (Proverbs 13:3) If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain (James 1:26)

For he that love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile." (1 Peter 3:10). This restraining of the tongue can only be when we submit ourselves unto the Lord. Our lives cannot know the fulness of joy until we learn the secret of control through Christ. The tongue is to be used for Him. The command to every Minister is, to "preach the word." This will be using the tongue for the glory of God. The command for every Christian is: "And ye shall be witnesses unto me." Paul tells us "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The world needs faith."

Let us therefore give to the world the Word of God that men might hear and believe and be saved. The whole life is to be submitted unto Christ. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12:1)
Dear friend, Ask God for His forgiveness from this idol, the tongue. Self is an idol. It is when this idol is broken down that we will find the priceless jewels of peace and joy and usefulness.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Father, may the power of your word draw souls to repentance. We invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and draw them to the annointed Christ who will save to the uttermost is my humble plea, Amen.

Salvation is of God through Jesus Christ

Because of man's inborn sinful nature causing him to depend upon himself, he insists upon contributing something to his own salvation. It is the hardest thing to for man to learn that he cannot do so. That is undoubtedly why the Bible at every point reiterates the fact that, that which is done in salvation is of God- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It therefore seems needful to look stillfurther at God's own emphasis upon the fact that salvation is of Him and Him alone.

To think that man can be brought back into fellowship with God and into union with Him by anything that man can do or that man can contribute is to fail; to realize the aweful gulf of the separation between man and God that was caused by sin. Nothing less than God's work can span that chasm.

To hold that man can contribute anything toward being saved is to fail to understand that the finite cannot contribute to the infinite, it is to fail to realize the utter helpless and sinful condition of fallen man. It is therefore necessary for all to realize with David,the Psalmist, that "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord" (Psalm 3:8), that "The Lord is ... my salvation" (Psalm 27:1), and that, "He only is ... my salvation" (Psalm" (Psalm 62:2).

Salvation Has It's Source in the Love of God God does not only love man, He is love (1 John 4:8). It is by such as He that salvation is wrought. That salvation is the expression of God's love is repeated over and aver again in the Bible.

"For God so loved the World (i.e. mankind), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). As the measure of God's love is here said to be His Son, and He is infinite, so God's love for mankind is infinite and cannot be limited by man's sin. "But where sin abounded, grace (God's love in action) did much more abound" (Romans 5:20)

My dearly belsoved, salvation is because of God's love We hear the writer say: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His Son (the only begotten Son) into the world, that we might live through Him.

Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1John 4:9,10). "But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,... has quickened us (made alive) together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4,5).

It is an expression of God's love that those who are saved are called the children of God (1 John 3:1), and His correction or chastening of his children, as was seen in chapter 12, is also because of His love for them (Hebrews 12:6). It is God's purpose that they shall through out eternity be before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4). And Paul declares in the most emphatic terms that nothing can separate those who have been justified, from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

Salvation, then, is a work of God for fallen man and is promted by His infinite love. It is not an insult then to God's love to hold that man must or even can do something, however little, to contribute to it's perfection? That salvation is of God alone apart from my contribution any man is evident from the source and the execution of God's plan of salvation.

Salvation was planned and purposed before the earth was created and that was long before God brought man into being. Believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the earth (Ephesians 1:4). Eternal life was "promised befor the world begun" (Titus 1:2) The death of Christ on the Cross as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) was "foreordened before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20)

Salvation was decided upon in the councils of God long before man came into existence. Surely man had nothing to do with those plans. Regeneration, or being born again, by which man receives eternal life and enters the Kindom of God, (John 3:3,5) is of God. It is expressly said to be "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man" (John 1:13).

As no man ever contributed to his physical birth, so can no man contribute to his spiritual birth. When he is born he is saved for all eternity because he has eternal life. The Holy Spirit reproves the unsaved world of sin (John 16:8,9). Christ has redeemed by His own blood unto God (Revelation 5:9). "God was in Christ (on the cross), reconciling the world unto Himself" (11 Corinthians 5:19).

"It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33). The Bible tells us that the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17), but Jesus is the author and finisher of that faith (Hebrews 12:2) and it is God who work in believers "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

Truly my dear friends, believers are kept safe by the power of God and that through His own name (1 Peter 1:5 and John 17:11). Finally, the Lord Jesus Christ shall change the bodies of all believers so that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body (Philippians 3:21). Now, where in all this is there room for man to contribute anything? By the very nature of the things that are done that is impossible. "The Lord is ... my salvation." "He only is ... my salvation."

Jesus keeps and He saves. These are days of apostasy when the doctrine of the Trinity is widely rejected and the Unitarian idea, which denies the deity of Jesus Christ and teaches that salvation is by character, is being taught. It is therefore highly important to notice what the Bible teaches as to the place of Jesus Christ in salvation. It is possible to consider God's salvation as offered in His Word without realizing that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and that salvation is through Him. But because of the denial of Christ's work in Salvation it is needful to point out that apart from Him there can be no salvation for man. To reject that teaching is to reject the very central message of the Bible.

Jesus said to his disciples, "ye believe in God, belive also in me" (John 14:1). It is not enough to believe in God - to acknowledge that there is a God who created and provides for man. To reject that teaching is to reject the very eternal God who sent His Son to die for the sins of the world. It is equally necessary to believe in His Son Jesus Christ.

This is so because no one can come to the Father except by Him. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). He is the way; that is, the way to God. No man can find God apart from Jesus Christ. No man has seen God but the Son of God.

When He lived on earth as a man among men He declared God to man. He is the truth and He is the life. To reject Him is to reject both truth and life and the only way to God. The Bible said "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12) It is very simple but direct. Without Christ in your life you are eternally lost.

How terrible it is to hear one day from God depart from me into everlasting damnation. Man hates God, hates his fellow men, and because of his rejection, He has been separated from God and to be truthful, he is shut out from God. He can only come to God by Jesus Christ the Lamb that was slain.

Oh dear sinner, the Bible tells us "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John 4:14). As many as received Him, (the Son) to them gave he (God) the power to become the sons of God" (John 1:12) "He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

There is a very important question that comes to every person. It is this: how it is possible for any individual to inter into all of the things that are included in salvation? What must be done, if anything, to be saved? The Bible when properly interpreted, gives a simple and definite answer.

Salvation is by grace on the part of God and received through faith on the part of man."For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: It is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9).

So, if salvation is by God's grace, which is a free gift, then my question to you is this: Do you know where will you spend eternity? It can be only one of the following: Heaven or Hell, it is as simple as that. Have you yet decided where. I would advice you, time is running out. God's clock is ticking away. It might appear to you that it is ticking slowly but let me remind you, Jesus is at the door. Do it now before it is too late. Father, take this message today and bring lost men, women, boys and girls to you in Jesus name. Amen!

America's Challenges

Where is America in history today?

Although America has a rich spiritual heritage, our nation still faces its share of challenges. The life of Nehemiah provides a valuable lesson of how prayer can heal a country. Nehemiah was in Persia serving as the cup bearer for king Artaxerxes. After finding out that his home city of Jerusalem was in shambles, Nehemiah became very sad and frustrated. Instead of complaining, he got on his face and cried out to God. He fasted, prayed, and pleaded with God to intercede. Nehemiah didn't give up and continued to bring his request before the Lord. One day, the king noticed that his servant wasn't looking well. After Nehemiah told the ruler about the plight of his homeland, Artaxerxes allowed his servant temporary leave to rebuild Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1- 6). Like ancient Israel, America has its share of damaged gates and walls in need of repair. God will heal a nation, but people must humble themselves, repent of their sins, and cry out to Him. Your Father delights in helping His children. 2 Chronicles 7:!2-14 dipicts how Jehovah appears to Solomon regarding "The divine acceptance". And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the Locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

America has been suffering from the lack of concern and support for our neighbor has stripped the American family of critical resources in troubled times. Individually and corporately, we need to repent has the people of Nineveh did, so that God might be gracious to us.

Today's Thought

The life of Nehemiah provides a valuable lesson of how prayer can heal a country. Nehemiah was in Persia serving as the cup bearer for king Artaxerxes. After finding out that his home city of Jerusalem was in shambles, Nehemiah became very sad and frustrated. Instead of complaining, he got on his face and cried out to God. He fasted, prayed, and pleaded with God to intercede.

Nehemiah didn't give up and continued to bring his request before the Lord. One day, the king noticed that his servant wasn't looking well. After Nehemiah told the ruler about the plight of his homeland, Artaxerxes allowed his servant temporary leave to rebuild Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-6)

Like ancient Israel, America has its share of damaged gates and walls in need of repair. God will heal a nation, but people must humble themselves, repent of their sins, and cry out to Him. Your Father delights in helping His children.

2 Chronicles 7:12-14 depicts how Jehovah appears to Solomon regarding "The divine acceptance". And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the Locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

America has been suffering from the lack of concern and support for our neighbor has stripped the American family of critical resources in troubled times. Individually and corporately, we need to repent as the people of Nineveh did, so that God might be gracious to us.