The Sinfulness Of Sin - Preach The Word

The Sinfulness Of SinRalph Venning(v) The tongue is either man's glory or his shame. It is either worth much ornothing, according to whether it is good or evil. God made man's tongue his glorybut sin makes it his shame. Holy David says to his tongue, 'Awake up, my glory'(Psalm 57.8), and 'My glory rejoiceth' (Psalm 16.9); the Apostle, following theSeptuagint, renders this, 'My tongue was glad' (Acts 2.26). And when is our tongueour glory but when it speaks to the glory of God? Then, its words are savoury andgracious. If, on the other hand, our tongue is a lying tongue, a slandering tongue,or in any other way evil, then it is our shame. What a vast difference there isbetween a good and a bad tongue the tongue of the just is as choice silver (aprecious commodity): the heart of the wicked (and therefore his tongue) is littleworth' (Proverbs 10.20). He who pays even a farthing for that which is worthnothing pays a farthing too much. A bad tongue is worth so little that he cannot tellhow little; it is worth nothing, or if you will, it is worse than nothing in beingnothing. Again, 'There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongueof the wise is health' (Proverbs 12.18). We talk of speaking daggers, or dangerousand killing words; the tongue of the wise, on the contrary, is not only a medicineand wholesome, but, in the abstract, health. There is as much difference between agood and bad tongue as between soundness and wounds, health and sickness. Yetagain, 'A wholesome tongue is a tree of life (which is for healing): but perversenesstherein is a breach in the spirit' {Proverbs 15.4). A wounded spirit who can bear?Who can bear up under a broken spirit?(vi) God will judge us for and by our words, as well as by our works and actions.There is a place in Scripture which should make us tremble and engage us to takeheed to our words so long as we have even a day to live:--'But I say unto you, thatevery idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day ofjudgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt becondemned' (Matthew 12.36,37). If we must give an account of idle words, whataccount shall we give of filthy and harmful words! Of words that are corrupt andcorrupt others! For this reason Solomon tells us that death and life are in the powerof the tongue {Proverbs 18.21); a man shall be judged and sentenced according toit. There is such a connection between heart, tongue and deed that he who isjudged by one is judged by all of them, for they agree in one. It is noticeable inPsalm 50 that all or most of the charge against men is for words, the sin of thetongue. They have abused God's good word, used their own bad words, giving theirmouth to evil. Yet though this is so, the heart was consenting and the handexecuting, and therefore there was a concurrence and coworking of all three. Thus,after speaking of their words, God says, 'These things hast thou done' and then'thou thoughtest' (Psalm 50.21). 'But I will reprove thee', he goes on, that is, for allthis, and especially for your words. This is according to what is said elsewhere,'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgmentupon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodlydeeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their (note this!) hardspeeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him' (Jude 14,15); that is,they have spoken against him in his members. It is also said that their mouthsspeak great swelling words, as murmurers and complainers do (verse 16). They willjeer at the people of God and taunt them with the name of holy and spiritual, andutter hard speeches against them. But when Christ comes to judgment, he will callthem to account for all the hard speeches and all the great swelling words which byway of complaint they have spoken against his members; or by way of flattery and135