We're going to go through this chapter because I don't think this is, this is probably a chapter that ought to be preached at least once a year, James chapter number 3. I think most people are under the persuasion that their, what word do I want to use here? I think a lot of people are under the persuasion that their, let me say it this way, their physical their physical desires, I guess I should say, or physical actions that two people have is their biggest problem. And it is a big problem, no doubt. The Bible teaches a lot and preaches a lot consistently about against fornication, and adulteries, and those things that are done physically. But there is little in our New Testament that gives as much attention to the condemnation of what is located, and what the Bible says a little member of our tongues. And so we've been dealing with that some when we were going through the previous verses that we've been through. And I ended up at 2 Corinthians chapter number 12. And so I just want to say just a couple of things in 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, not turning back there, but just reiterate what I went through the other night. I know a lot of people don't like that. I know those are fairly controversial verses. But shouldn't be anything new to most of you, but just in case you misunderstood or took something out of context, I want to be clear, that is an extreme circumstance. 2 Corinthians, when it deals with talking about in 1 Corinthians, put that evil person out from among you. I have been saved probably now, I'm going to say, if you correct me, I'm going to send you to the bank, 15 years now. I'm always wrong. I add a year every year. That's 14 years, I think, actually. Is that right, Amber? No, I'm wrong again. Don't shake your head. No, I said don't correct me. 13 years. Okay, 13 years. And in 13 years of being in church, I don't think, I have seen that happen one time and all the circumstances leading up to that had already occurred before I ever got saved and got there. And the individual had already left. So that's not a norm that I believe should be practiced for every person that has a situation in their life or a sin in their life that you're immediately, because of the protect the lump, that you kick them out. We have to keep it in context of what is going on there. And that is even in 2 Corinthians 12, when we get there, and he said, I will bewail many that have sinned already and not repented. That's the key verse there. So he didn't say he was going to bewail and put out from among you the wicked people that every time that they have done these things and then goes on to list those items. He said those that have not repented already, this is the third time that Paul had to deal with this situation and they refused to repent over it. So it wasn't like that was his first decision, was it just up every time somebody messes up and get them out from among you because a little leavened the whole lump. That is not the spirit in which the scriptures are teaching. You've got a rebel that has refused, who's involved in great wickedness, and he refuses to repent over the matter. And I would say being exhorted several times, I would have to imagine, and be refusing to do so, at least after Paul had dealt with it. And then also I want to say this, here's what he didn't say. Notice what he didn't say in 2 Corinthians 12. He did not say that those of you that had committed these sins here, and list the number of sins there, several of them, he did not say you're lost. Come on, help me out here. He didn't say, everybody that's done this, you're not even saved. But in a lot of churches today, that's what would have been said. Right? That's not what He said. In fact, what He said was, He's talking to Christians, addressing Christians, and He said, not only that, but I've exhorted you now going on the third time, and you refuse to repent of it. And never one time did He say that they weren't saved. Now, I know that caused me a little bit of trouble with the group on the other side, but we still have to understand and realize that when we even get to those situations, the Bible says, and you have to remove fellowship from certain ones, don't count them as an enemy, but admonish them as a brother. Right? and they're guilty of sin, as you cannot be around. And so I'm just sending some things into context, because I don't want you to think that what I am going through those verses when we were here Sunday, that that's a lot of the times I believe the problem in which we get to in these situations here, in those extreme situations, oftentimes has been the application of it, not the truth of it. And so I don't want you to get a misunderstanding about what I was saying. And then also when it came to that point, and something that I have to always remember and try to consider is that in those things, when we look at the church as a whole, we have to remember that it's not just you, right? So in that situation, and I read it again twice in both letters, and I did not see anywhere in there, really, where he was concentrating solely upon getting the man right with God. There was a piece that's always in that situation is to try to bring about a correction in the behavior. But what Paul's concern was also was the lump. Right? The body. So not only, so you think about, well, you're just mistreating me personally by coming out against my sin or taking corrective action against my sin. Well, no, you can't look at it that way. We're actually trying to help you. But also we got a whole group of people that we have to consider, right? And you get, so that's why I try to exhort you young people. It's one thing to have problems and seek help and need help and work on and preach or pray for me. But it's quite another thing to try to drag everybody else off into the same mess you're in. That's a different level, see. And when those things begin to happen, you have to consider the rest of the body and say, so that the little bit of leaven doesn't spoil the lump, leaven at the lump. then you need to purge out from among you and that situation there. And like I said, that's an extreme situation. I have not, I don't know, Brother Jones could probably count on one hand maybe how many times he's been through that in 40 or so, some odd years. So, don't get the idea that the breach of things you just go in there. I don't. I understand in its context the situation that Paul was dealing with there. Even not in just the person being put out, but in there was others that were still there that he did not recommend to be put out. but said, I am going to bewail many, and talks about them also in that second chapter. So I just wanted to put that into perspective that that is a lot of the times we're guilty of doing kind of like the Jews did when they said, the Sabbath's a day of rest, and here you're healing people. Right? And Jesus said, well, the rest should never trump making a man whole again. Right? You got the spirit in which we try to do things is often very important. And so I want to follow back up now and just kind of finish this up and we'll be done. I'm going to try to just get through this quickly, but go through the whole chapter, James chapter number three. and just kind of end this thought. We've looked at various situations that we can get ourselves into, and we try to cut it off quickly. We've tried to speak with purpose, and we looked at various things, putting things into perspective. And then now we're looking here in James chapter number three at really the root of the problem that started all of this, really. It's been a matter of the tongue, right? Hey, that's so with discord. Remember we started in Proverbs 6? Well, where is that problem at? That's in his tongue, in her tongue, right? And so we'll end on this little bit of problem here, what the Lord uses in James chapter three. My brethren, be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. And so just starting out there, I just want to say, I'll leave this up to you. It's not particularly very crucial right now because of what we're dealing with, but most people translate that word or define, I guess I should say rather, masters there being teachers. And so they say, be not many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. And I don't know there, I think it is attending, it may include teaching, but I think it's talking about more of taking rule also in the teaching. Let me put it in good language, you'll understand. We need fewer chiefs and a lot more Indians. Does that sound about right? You know what happens most of the time I get in, I've ever seen problems coming to Battery Church? It's because we got a lot of people that want in charge but don't know why they want to do nothing. Right? We got a lot of chiefs and no Indians. You know what Jesus said, or what's exhorting us here? God needs some good little Indians that'll just humble themselves and they don't have to be the one to get the credit. They don't have to be the one who come up with the idea. They don't have to be the one in control. They'd just be happy to serve God and be an Indian. Amen? Is that all right to say? I hate comparing Christians to Indians, but... Language will understand. Okay, so be not many masters, knowing that we will receive the greater condemnation. And that should help you to look at men like me and others that preach. And I've heard many of you say this, and I want to thank you for having this. I know it's come from the good Bible teaching you've had down through the years, but you've many times have said this to me and several of you men. So I appreciate it. And I want to encourage all of us to have this kind of mindset. But in light of the fact, Brother Boyer, that you have to meet God with it. I want to help you with it. And I've been told that by several of you. And I love that. That's a great spirit to have. And, you know, this is not about who gets the credit and who gets in charge and who gets... It's not about any of that. It's about making sure God gets all the glory. And you can't have 10, 15, 20 people in charge. And, you know, there's got to be... The leadership's got to be headed up in a man. God chose a man. He didn't use deacon boards to run churches. He used men, right? and called men. And so thank you from the bottom of my heart for having that in your hearts. And I want to make sure that continues because you do have to consider a man that has to meet God with something. I certainly don't want to make that more difficult for him to stand before God and answer for. Do you? so if I'm going to answer for it then I want to be able to help, or if that man, somebody else is going to answer for it and their name is going to go on it I want to make sure and do it right. Don't you help them with that. And so it is the spirit in which he is saying, here my brethren be not many masters knowing that we as masters shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all, but And I want to just stop here just a minute. Let me read the verse here. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. So for in many things we offend all. So can I say something here? I have to believe this applies to everybody. Do you know some people, they get their feelings hurt and say, well, you've offended me. I'll take a message like Sunday night that I preach, say, well, you offended me. Well, you know, I hate that you're offended. If it's the truth, I'm not gonna apologize, but certainly I probably could have preached it in a better spirit or something. But you know, you've probably been very offensive in your life. You ever think about that? It'll help you sometimes. You know, I am going to offend you at some point if you stay here, but there's gonna be a good chance you offend me too, right? And we love each other, and we understand those things, and we try to forbear one another in love, you know? That's what this thing's about. We don't have it all figured out, remember? And so, when we think about things sometimes, say, well, try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Do you ever do that? Do you ever give somebody the benefit of the doubt and think, well, you know, maybe they had a bad day today? You ever do that? Maybe somebody just had a rough day today and maybe they're just not in their most spiritual point today. And maybe, you know, just try to be understanding about people and how they are and what they're going through. There's some problems in the background of the lives of some people that we don't even know about. That's one negative, that's pastoring. You find a lot of that out, and it's weary, because you want to bear that with them, and you're under the same load. But there's stuff going on in people's lives. We need to try to understand them. Be long-suffering, forbearing of people. There's no telling what happened to them in that one single day. Sufficient, sufficient for the day's evil thereof. So you want to be hard on somebody, expect them to be something, well try to understand. And I'm not making excuses, but I am trying to say as a person, we should be able to understand each other, shouldn't we? Give somebody the benefit of the doubt. Don't always assume the evil, and assume the worse, and assume the negative. Amen, preacher. I have to say that to myself because I'm the world's worst at that. So I'm preaching to me. Don't assume the worst. Not everybody's against you. Believe it or not, you're not that important. I have to remind myself that all the time. Not everybody's against you, you're not that important. Right? Not everybody's mad at you. Why do people in our generation have such a chip on their shoulder all the time? Everybody's mad at them. Everybody's getting, no, not everybody's against you. I can tell you from where I sit, people in this church love you, right? And people just automatically assume in our day that just assume the worst. And, you know, try to give people the benefit of the doubt. You know, charity, I believe, operates that way. Try to assume the best in folks. I need to do better that myself. But in many things, we offend all. And if any man offend, not in word, the same as a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. If a man's got the power to control his tongue, what our King James Bible has said is that that man is also able to handle any other part of his body. It's helping us to see something about, really this is helping us, it is an opportunity for us to see some things about ourself, but it also helps us to see others in the correct light. Because, well, it gets down and talks about wisdom, and if any man seemed to be something, and so when you're, let me just go on through this, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Able also to bridle the whole body. And so we need to concentrate on trying our best to guard our tongue and to watch what we say. And because we offend things, many things, we offend all. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us. And we turn about their whole body, behold also the ships, which though they be so great are driven of fierce winds. Yet are they turned about with a very small ham, whithersoever the governor listeth." And so verse number five says, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindled. Now I was up there when the big fires came through in Gatlinburg. My family was down in Pigeon Forge and I was up in Gatlinburg and it was just smoky around the whole town all day long. And it finally got to a place where the smoke was so thick it would choke you. And I called my wife and I called my mom. I called everybody. I said, do you hear anything on TV? Is something on fire? I mean, it was bad. You had to close all the doors and the windows and everything. You still couldn't hardly breathe in that little condo type thing that we were in there. And she said, no, I'm not hearing anything. I don't know of anything. And I said, well, I can't deal with this. I can't even hardly breathe. I said, why don't y'all just come on up here and get me and let's go home. This isn't enjoyable. Anybody ever been standing by a campfire and you can't get out of the way of the smoke covering you? It's just miserable. You can't breathe and it smells terrible. And it's just, you just want to get away from it. And so anyway, so I told her to come on up. And by the time she'd come up by the little, what do they call that? spur or whatever they call it in between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. She was coming through there and all of a sudden my phone went off and the whole bank was on fire. And I thought, well, there it is, let's go. I mean, nothing was on the radio. Nobody come from the fire department. Nobody come from the town. Nobody called up there from the hotel and told us what was going on. Nobody said anything. We just smelled it and wanted to go home. And then all of a sudden, on this side of the road, she's headed into Gallenburg and she sees it on top and she sends me a video of it. So I get it and I said, well, just come on. She pulls in, I got everything packed. We throw it in the car and we take off. we get down through there about the same place where she had videoed before you get to them big Westgate things up there on the hill. Before you get to that all the cars were backed up, but that fire had done made it down the bank and was at the road. And it was actually jumping because the wind was so bad it was jumping over that other side, but you just got the big creek there. And I thought, well when are we going to be able to get through this thing? And That little bitty, what they say happened now, if this is true, was started by teenage boys, right? Trying to purposely start it. And you just, you take a cigarette about that big and light the end of it. I mean, you're talking about something about that big. And has anybody ever seen the videos of what they did destroyed that entire community? Just something that big, that's what he's talking about here. A little fire can destroy a whole town. That thing was done, them winds picked up, buddy, and that whole place was about down in about 45 minutes. It was quick, wasn't it? By the time you got from there where the first lift and the first traffic light picks me up, I'd say no more than 15 minutes up and back to where you were, and that fire had already covered that much ground, just eating it up as it went, consuming everything in its path. And that's what it's talking about here. A little fire, behold what a matter it kindleth. And so it's saying here, your tongue, you say, well, and I said it before and I'm gonna say it again. Sticks and stones may break my bones, word never hurts me. That's a lie. I don't know who come up with that, but they lied to you. Words hurt people. Words destroy churches. Words destroy, just take a look right now. I wish our president could come up with the right words. I mean, you see just one thing that's said on the news show, just turn on the TV, it's chaos in our world because people get on there and they say things, right? Somebody gets passionate about something, gets upset at somebody and says something, stirs somebody else up, stirs somebody else up, and here you know, for you know it, everybody's in a big fight in the church because of one little member and one little person's body about that long, and they said something they shouldn't have, and it just wrecked the whole thing. You just think of it like that fire, and what the Bible's saying spiritually here is just like that fire that consumed Gallenburg in a matter of hours. Just the whole town, millions and millions and millions of dollars being burned up in a matter of hours. If that can do that, that's comparing to what your words can do to come out of your mouth. Take years and years of somebody's life and rip them to shreds. Yeah, come on. You know, you punch somebody in the mouth, and then you can put a little slab of beef on it real cold, and it'll be better in a couple days. But you can say things about people, and you can accuse people of things, and you can tell false things, and things that you can say with your tongue and hurt people, and they may never recover from it. Now, I'm not for anything that makes our generation any softer. I think bullying's a good thing. No, I'm just kidding, please don't. Lord, they'll be out here picking in our building before it's over with. It's all soft. But we got picked on in school, Brother Reed, did you? I mean, people picked on each other and that's just the course of nature. And I'm not for that. I don't think you ought to treat people that way. But I can say this, I generally err on the side of toughening people up a little bit, I guess just in my flesh. But I can say this, I'm not for what the people use their mouth and belittle people and mock them and ridicule them. and say things about them that, oh, this person's ugly, or that person's fat, or that person's no good at this, or they're no good at that. You don't know the damage you're doing to somebody with your mouth. Behold, what a matter. How would you like to be the one where some teenager that you know, that just y'all kept ridiculing them, and jumping on them, and bad mouthing them, and making fun of something about them, and they went home and killed their self over it? How would you like to be like that? What about our homes? Men, ladies, how about our homes? I wonder how many arguments would be saved in the home if somebody just kept their mouth shut. Right? But what happens? We get in our mouth, can I say something? And I'm telling you this, and I'm telling you with knowledge, and I'm not gonna say it from up here, but I am telling you with knowledge from my childhood growing up, I can tell you with knowledge that I've seen women turn out better that have been beat than those that have been verbally abused and ridiculed and belittled and mocked with their words by their husbands. I don't know that I'll know that I'll never be a woman. I don't know, I guess I'll ever know the emotional, the damage that's done by the words of a husband towards a wife and some of the things he says to her. I think some of them probably, about like me, they'd rather somebody haul off and hit them than somebody say stuff like that to them. That stuff hurts. You can call me what you want to. I don't like that stuff. I don't think it's good to be bad-mouthing people, to be belittling them, to be making fun of them. I have seen the damage that it's done to people. I think you ought to do everything you can do, what we talked about earlier, to try to build people up. Not in the pride of their own heart, right? I'm talking about spiritually, edifying. I'll say, well, then if that's the case, then you're telling me that I can't ever say nothing negative to them? I hope I covered that Sunday night. Surely you don't believe that. Love will do that, but it will do it in such a manner. Can I say something that I thought about today? Well, I've got to get through this pretty quickly, but I thought about this today. Well, let's go on here. Even so the tongue is a little member, it boasts of great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. You know what I'm talking about? How great a matter, a little fire kindling there. Well, you can see that when you look at the devastation, when they went back and reported all that happened up there, and you see the devastation, you see the homes level, the lives ruined, the lives lost, that same thing happens, but you get your tongue loose and get it running out ahead of your brain. Can I say something? You have to be so careful. Anymore, I have been in situations that my intention was never to do anything or say anything inappropriate at all. I wasn't trying to say, in fact, I find myself, the biggest, the time I get in the most trouble is I actually, I don't want to talk to this individual at all. I got 500 things going on and my throat hurts and I really don't want to even talk to them, if you want the honest truth. But I try to show myself friendly and I know people need you and I want to encourage them, so I talk to them. Well, then they get all tore up in this big scenario about something going on in their life and I'm caught up in the middle of it. I'm thinking, man, I should have just drove on down the road and never even talked to them. Sometimes it would be better just to avoid people. Because before you know it, they get all torn up, and here's what will happen, your name will get thrown in the mix, and you never even said anything. They were the ones going off about everything. Anybody ever been in that kind of situation before? You know what would have been better? If we don't think we could have kept our tongue, you know what we can do? We can walk away. just go on down the road and say, well, they're going to think you're ignoring them. That'd be a whole lot better than you saying something you shouldn't. And you know what I had a man tell me, I had two different men that would do you this way. When they'd get into a situation and just, and you know, you run out of things to talk about and it might go into a situation you shouldn't talk about something, they'd end up and they'd walk out and I'd say, well, and I asked them one time why they did that. I said, because that's the only way I know to keep from saying something I shouldn't. So I just got to get up and walk away. And it looks really rude, but you know what? I'm going to have to start learning how to do that, I think. Just get up and walk away. I know it's difficult. You get in those situations and you've got somebody mad, and they're going off, and they're saying things, and they're just, you know, you can just tell in their flesh they're disturbed, and they're all emotional, and their hands are going, and they're all talking about it. You know what you're going to have to do to avoid from probably saying something you shouldn't say? And it doesn't matter how many times you say, yeah, but let's pray for them. or let's do this, and you try to divert the situation and make it better, it seems like they just keep going, and what you need to do is just walk off. Just walk off. Young men, you get in a marriage in your home, and you get into an argument with your wife, best thing you can probably do is just walk off. If you can't keep your mouth from saying something you shouldn't, just walk off. according to the Bible you certainly aren't going to tame it in that situation. But you can walk off from it and have less to repent about. Amen? That's good, that will help you. So, how do I say the right thing? Well, I don't know, it's almost impossible from what I'm reading right here in the Scriptures. But I know it's not impossible, it's just you're putting one foot in front of the other and going on somewhere else. That's not impossible is it? Well, that's not too deep, but that'll help you. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Say, well, I'm not really saying that much. I'm just kind of, well, if your tongue's going and tearing other people down, before long, a great matter will be a result of that little fire. And so he says here, the tongue is a fire, 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 itself set on fire of hell. And you just look at our world, look at our country, look at our nation, look at our world. Most of the problem is not a virus, it's people in their mouth. It's their perverted ideas. And then they get online and spew it out for everybody else to see. Instead of saying it, now people type it, but it's still the tongue, right? Then they put it out online for the world to see. And the tongue's a fire, it's a world of iniquity. It sounds like a problem. Young men, you do have a problem physically, but you got another one that's probably more dangerous than you give attention to, and it's your tongue. Ladies, too. All of us don't get to miss that one, do we? Sets on fire the course of nature. Look here what it says in the last part. It itself is set on fire of hell. God didn't set it on a course to do that. Hell itself is what turns that thing loose. kind of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things of the seas tame, and man has been able to tame all of those things. But in verse number 8, the tongue can no man tame. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Therewith, bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God." Not even talking about just saved men. Talking about all men right here. All men are made after the similitude of God, are they not? So we're blessing God and we're cursing men with the same tongue. And this, of course, we know what it means to curse. It's to wish evil, to injure, or to vex. So the same tongue that comes in on Sunday and says, hallelujah, bless God. Oh, get on the phone Sunday night and say, I never have liked that preacher. Amen, He'll do it. You say, well, would you be surprised if that happened? I'll be surprised when it don't happen, right? That's just nature of people. If you're gonna get, here's what we gotta do. Knowing that things are this bad, I'm gonna try to pick it up here. Knowing things that are this bad with the tongue, and knowing every man has the problem with the tongue, boy and girl, I'm just using mankind, knowing that's the case, we need to toughen ourselves up against it. Quit having the expectation that somebody's got their tongue under control and they're not gonna say nothing about you. If that's your expectation, you're not gonna last long. And what you gotta do to keep from getting mad at them is just go ahead and say, well, my tongue's just as wicked as they are, and the Bible said no man can tame it, and they can't tame it either. They'll be lucky to ever walk away and not say something. So give them the benefit of the doubt. Help them see them properly, and don't get so mad at people when they say things about you, because you've said bad things about people too, right? Why is that happening? He's not saying this happened when we were lost. He's saying it's happening now. Your tongue is so wicked, even a saved man is blessing God and cursing men. That's how defiled your tongue is. And so if it's that bad, then what we need to do is put up a good defense in ourselves and have a good understanding of those things and quit getting so mad at everybody and try to understand things and then do all that we can to control our own. If you can't control your own, you can't control nobody else's. You will waste your life trying to correct the tongue of other people. You just go around all around the world and try to fix every time somebody bad mouths you and you go up to them. I have seen people literally waste their life and drive themselves crazy because somebody doesn't like them and somebody said something about them and they can't sleep at night till they fix it. You're not gonna fix it. You can make them apologize today and you know what they'll do with their wicked tongue that's set on fire of hell? They'll bad mouth you again in two weeks and not even probably mean to. Because their tongue is so wicked, right? and not even mean to. Nobody else is smiling like that. You're smiling, I don't appreciate you, man. Right? Just say, hey, them people said this about me, they don't even love me. I've seen people leave the church over words, and I'm gonna tell you something, I'm not making fun of them, because it does hurt when people say things about you. It really does. And I'm just as guilty as anybody in this building, and I'm not trying to pretend like I'm not. But I am saying this much. I am saying this. If you have that kind of attitude towards God's church, that if somebody bad mouths me or says something about my family, I'm quitting. You might as well go ahead and leave now. And don't go join another one, because you got people over there that's got a tongue just like they got here. You might as well just stay home. You can sit up there and bad mouth everybody that bad mouthed you. You wouldn't do that, would you? wouldn't project on them what you're guilty of, would you? Isn't that funny? Somebody will spend 30 minutes bad mouthing the person that bad mouthed them. What a mess we are. Who's got it figured out yet? I'm going to let you preach this one tonight. It's tough, but it's worth aiming towards, isn't it? I'd like to get to the place where my tongue was used for nothing but the edification of God's Church. But the reality is that there's times that if we're not careful that we'll be guilty of this thing. So let me just finish, I'm done here tonight. So we do this, therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made out of the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, my brethren. These things ought not so to be. You know what that means? It shouldn't be happening, but the fact is it is happening. And so you can do one of two things. You got two options. You can get revenge, or you can just forgive them and go on. Doesn't mean you may not need to say something to them about it. Maybe try to come to some sort of reconciliation between you and them. But I can tell you this, if you spend your life trying to fix every problem and every mouth that says something about you, you are going to waste a large portion of your life. You'll never do it. So best thing that I know to do is just forgive people and love them and know and pray and hope that you get the same courtesy when you start running your mouth. Amen. Wouldn't that be nice? Out of the same mouth. Brethren, these things ought not so to be, but the fact and the reality is, it is that way. verse number 11, does a fountain send forth at the same time place sweet water and bitter? And so here's what can be confusing here. It's almost saying like this is impossible, and that's not what it's saying. It's talking about in nature that it's impossible, but he's just already said that these things ought not to be, but this is what's happening. So what he's saying is, be more true to your nature, right? If you're saved, your nature is that of God. Did you see Jesus say one thing with his tongue out of the way? Never one time did he. Right? And so what He's exhorting us to be, that's what you are. That's the kind of tree you are. That's the fountain that you are. And so let those things that become of the gospel, that are befitting to the gospel, let those things come out of your mouth and not all the other. It's not saying it's impossible so that if you say something and misuse your tongue, then you're not the proper tree. That's not what's being said here. Right? It's saying it should not be this way. If you're a tree, if you're a born of God, then you ought to speak of heavenly things, right? Because you shouldn't be a vine, excuse me, you shouldn't be a tree that's bearing olive berries, either a vine and figs. So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show of good conversations worked with meekness of wisdom. And I'm gonna have to read this, because I'm gonna turn to these two verses. But if you're bitter, envying, and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. You're not gonna get ahead pretending that you ain't got a problem, right? Glory not, lie not against the truth, and young people, this will help you. I'm for good counsel, but you gotta be careful where you get wisdom and counsel from. This wisdom that descendeth not from above, but is earthly and sensual and devilish. Boy, that's tough right there, isn't it? Remember, it's talking about them masters. But now verse 16, let me go on. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. There certainly isn't peace. There's confusion where envying and strife is. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, it's peaceable, it's gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Boy, that's what we ought to strive to be, shouldn't it? Somebody, you go to get some wisdom from somebody and the first thing they tell you to do is something that's not right with the Bible, just go ahead and file 13 and throw it out, it wasn't no good. That wisdom didn't come from God, right? Somebody you go to get wisdom from and they say go over there and burn their house down, that didn't come from God, that's not peaceable, right? gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy. In verse number 18, and we'll just look at these others too. Verse number 18 said, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Well, that's what we ought to be. Not so in confusion, but we should be so in peace, right? So the fruit righteousness comes from the seed of peace and it's sown by them that seek to make peace. Are you trying, can I say this, turn to Matthew 5 real quick and we're gonna finish this whole thing out and I'm just gonna read them to you, okay? Because I know you know them, but I think you'd be good to end on this. So in that situation, we've looked at putting things into perspective and the speaking with purpose and all those other things. And now we need to pay attention to making peace. So we ought to seek with our tongue to try to be as such character as to try to make peace. You know how many people, you know what could have been stopped. I've heard something before and I can't remember it exactly, but I'm just going to tell you the gist of it is what it's saying is, you know, somebody goes and tells something and they say something, it could be stopped right there most of the time. If you've got somebody that seeks to make peace, and somebody gets all upset and they bad and say something about somebody, and they probably wish they didn't say it, but they said it, and you got that person, that person that hears that, if they're not a peaceful person, if they're not trying to see righteousness and peace come through, you know what they'll do? They'll turn and they'll go and tell that person, listen to what so-and-so said about you, almost like I would never say that about you. I'm a good friend, see, I've told you what they've said about you. to exalt themselves up. And now they've got to strife now. Now you got strife going on. So when you hear people, not just in what you do, but when you see others do that and you're having to listen to that, you know what you need to do? You need to see if this information is gonna make peace or not. Right, I wouldn't wanna be guilty of taking something and purposefully going and sharing that information for the sole purpose of sowing strife, would you? I've seen people do it. How about any of you young teenage girls, you ever seen that? You ever see somebody just go purposely go call strife? Here's what we need to have in our mind. We need to have in our mind our goal and intentions have got to be to seek to be peace amongst each other, right? I mentioned teenage girls and I've seen grown men that ought to know better do that very thing. They can't hardly breathe without having to call some kind of strife. So let's look at Matthew five and we're done, okay? Matthew five, verse number 20. We'll just read them, you know them very well. I'm gonna end it on this. Because this whole thing really is summed up in that word peace. What we're wanting, if we're wanting unity and peace in the church, then we've got to learn how to use our tongue, cut off things quickly, hear the whole story, all those things that we went through, using pleasant words, putting things into perspective, all those things that we look through is for this matter of peace. We want there to be peace in the church, don't we? In order to do that, it takes some hard work. We've already seen how wicked all of our tongue is. And now look at verse number five, here's something else and we'll be done. There's two things we got to look at. If you'll give me just five minutes, I'll do it quick. For I say unto you in verse number 20, Matthew five, I say unto you that except your righteous shall exceed the righteous of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And let's see, did I get you in the wrong place? Am I in the wrong place now? I'm in the wrong place. Okay, go to Matthew 18, I'll have to come back. Go to Matthew 18. Matthew 18, 15. We know this one pretty good, don't we? There's two responsibilities you have in a situation. Here's the one if your brother trespasses against you. Verse 15, Matthew 18, 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. Now, why is that not done in Baptist churches anymore hardly? Let's read it again quickly. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell your neighbor first, Then tell your pastor. Then call the deacon. And while you're at it, I'd go ahead and call the previous pastor too while I was at it. Just get them all. Get your Sunday school teacher too. Tell them about it. Well, preacher, I'm not telling them about it. I'm getting wisdom about it. I'd be careful about that. I don't know about that. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him. Is that what it's saying? Go tell him his fault, and between thee and him, look at that word, alone. Now, why is it everybody else in the church, the person that actually did the wrong, usually is the last one to ever find out, and they usually find out from somebody else. Amen, God help us, come on now. So, well, I'm not a confrontational person. Well, you're causing a lot of confrontation when you go and tell everybody else. That's a scapegoat. You are confrontational. You just want to create the confrontation with other people. Go straight to the person that did the wrong, right? Between you and him and do it alone. And if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. Now you go get somebody else who won't hear you. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be put unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Now, I'm done because I went longer than I wanted to, but I want to say this. There's another side of that thing. So let me say it quickly. If your brother trespasses against you, if I make you mad, I do something to defend you, you come to me, right? If you do something, if I do something to offend you, you come to me, tell me about it. And you go straight to that person. You don't go around telling everybody else, that's how the strife gets started. Because then it comes back around to that person and you'll be hard pressed to win them now because you done spilled it to the whole church. Your chance of winning that brother is when you go to him alone, right? And quit trying to go around and destroy their character. That's wicked, that's wicked. But here's there's another side to it. What if that brother has trespassed? What about this where the Bible said, if you come down to the altar and you've got your gift down before the altar, now it's talking about making an atonement for yourself. It's what it's talking about in that offering and that gift. And you go down to that altar and you remember that your brother has an alt against you. Now, just as simple as I could tell you, I've researched that word all that I could research it, and it comes down to meaning anything. That's all the word means. I thought it was going to be something real neat and special. It means anything. If you get down on the altar, and you're going to ask God to forgive you, and you brought your gift down before the altar, because that's what's being used in the Word picture there. It's not talking about coming down here. It's talking about the Old Testament and the altar. And when you go down to the altar, and you remember that thy brother has aught against you, that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift, get straight up, and go straight to them, and be reconciled to your brother. Now, here's what the Bible said. You remember that your brother has ought against you. You got to do all you can to make it right with them. You may not be able to, but to fulfill your obligation to scripture, you've got to go make an attempt. They may not hear you. Not everybody's going to forgive you or they will to your face and then they'll bad mouth you behind your back. That's okay. You did your job, right? Now, if your brother trespassed against you, here's what I've heard people say. Well, when they came to me and they said, sorry, their sorry, wasn't very sincere. So I'm not going to accept it. Did you see that in any of those verses? As long as they're sincere, then make it right with them. You don't get to judge somebody's sincerity. That's not, we're on liberty to do that. We talked about all that judging. We don't judge the gray areas, the scruples and those matters in the scripture, but we don't judge intent and motive. You can't judge it, you're not the holy goat. So you sit there and say, well, I'm, you know, I'm not even gonna waste my time trying to sit down and meet with them and try to make it right with my brother, because I know they're not sincere when they say it. That's just a real dignified way to just admit you're wrong. You are wrong not to try to make it right with your brother. You're just wrong. Everybody involved in the situation is wrong. If you're trying to say, well, but you don't know what they did to me, it was really bad. It doesn't matter how bad it was as far as I know. Right? Now, come on, I'm not stabbing at anything. You're saying, well, you know, I'm not talking about any particular situation. I'm talking about in general ever. If somebody trespasses against you, go straight to them and go to the, and you alone, and then you at seven times 70 in a day, if they get up, you don't get to say, well, I just forgave them for this two hours ago. And so I'm not gonna forgive them again because if they were really sorry, they wouldn't have done it again. That's not what the Bible said. I know I've been long, but is that true or not? It doesn't say, well, I've forgiven them this 10 times, I'm not gonna forgive them anymore. Then you become the one wrong now. It doesn't matter how many times, if you get through seven times 70 today, I don't know what to tell you to do, but you've gotta forgive them every single time. It doesn't matter how many times they've done the same thing to you. I don't know how many times I've heard that. If you were really sorry, you wouldn't have done it again. Well, that may be true, but you know what you gotta do? Just forgive them again. So what if they do it again in a couple hours? You gotta forgive them again. Say, well, I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna fool with it. I'm just gonna go on and serve God. I'm here to tell you, you will never go on and serve God as long as your attitude is that your brother doesn't matter. You'll go nowhere with God. Say, well, they've got something against me. That's their problem. No, it's your problem. Come on now, how many times have you heard that? Well, I'm not the one that's got a problem, they're the ones that's got a problem. If you're aware of their problem, it becomes your problem. So much so that God said, don't even waste your time coming down, you better go try to make it right with your brother. Isn't that good stuff? That's hard living. But you can do it, we're done. Stand to your feet. No song tonight, Brother Reed, we'll just be done here tonight. Stand to your feet. Thank you for being patient through that little bit of stuff there, and be praying through these things. It's hard to do. You'll find your flesh is so unforgiving, isn't it? It wants a lot of forgiveness, but it's hard to forgive sometimes. Lord, help us. We need your help. We have, you've just told all of us, we all have a problem with our tongue. So I'm asking you to help me, help me with my tongue, help me to use it properly, help me to have good discernment, good judgment, help me to seek peace. And as much as it lies within me, help me to be at peace with all men. And Lord, all the endeavoring that it takes to keep the unity of the Spirit and bonded peace, I just pray that you'd help everybody in the church, Lord, that we do all that we can to get our tongues and our mouth under control, Lord. We've all let it loose, and it's caused a lot of damage, more damage we probably ever were aware of. So please forgive us of these evils and help us to do better as Christians, Lord. Help us to edify one another and build up and lift up and all those things we heard preached here in the past couple of weeks. We love you. There'd be any here tonight, Lord, that are lost without Jesus. I just pray you'd help them to see, open their eyes to the scriptures, help them to see the Lord. And we'll thank you and praise you all you do in Jesus' name, amen and amen. All right, thank you. We're dismissed.