Spiritual Diseases of the Tongue

Today, I’m going to diagnose for you certain specific diseases that affect our tongues. I’m going to speak today about three diseases. Number one, can you guess what it’s going to be? Excessive talking.

And that’s a disease which is so common that people take it for normal, when it isn’t.

“When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”

Another version says,

“When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable.”

In other words, if you say too much, you’re bound to say something wrong. There’s no alternative. We’re also warned in the Bible not to use too many words toward God Himself. And I think this is a warning that most of us really need to hear. It’s found in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 1 through 3.

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.”

The sacrifice of fools, as we will see in a moment, is saying a lot of words to God that we don’t really mean. The next verse says,

“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”

Oh, what sound advice that is. Somebody said to me once, “Remember, it’s just as much a sin to sing a lie as it is to tell a lie.” I’ve heard people sing hymns of total consecration and surrender to God. “All to Jesus I surrender.” When the offering plate comes round, they drop in a quarter. The two actions are not consistent. If you’re not going to give your life to God, don’t tell Him that you’re surrendering all, because God is going to hold you to account for the words you speak in His presence. I’m going to read those words again.

“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”

A little further on in the same chapter, the scripture indicates that there’s an angel records what we say when we’re speaking or praying or worshipping. One day, we’re going to be confronted by that angel and the record of what we’ve said. And then the Bible says it’ll be too late then to say, “I didn’t really mean it,” because we will be held accountable for that which we’ve said in church. The hymns we’ve sung, the prayers we’ve prayed, the sermons we’ve preached, one day they’re all going to be held up before us, and we’re going to have to answer for them if we’ve been insincere and have not really lived according to the things that we’ve said.

And then, the next verse of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 3 says this,

“As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.”

So to use too many words is the signature mark of a fool. The King James Version of that is even more blunt. Ecclesiastes 5:3 in the King James Version,

“For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.”

In other words, when you hear a person continually talking, you don’t need any other evidence, that person is a fool. “A fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.” What is the root problem? I believe it’s restlessness. Compare what James says in James 3:8,

“No man can tame the tongue, it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

People who are always talking are restless people.

Disease number two, idle or careless words. Matthew 12:36, Jesus says this,

“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”

See, every word we’ve spoken we’re going to have to answer to one day. And words that we’ve said that were idle, that were insincere, that we didn’t really mean, that we weren’t prepared to stand behind, that weren’t worked out in our lives, we’re going to have to answer for them. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 verse 37, Jesus says this,

“Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

That’s an astonishing statement. If we say more than we mean, then that exaggeration, that unnecessary emphasis, that overdoing in our speech comes from the evil one. Let me sum it up in just one simple word of advice. If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. If you will follow that one rule, I promise you it’ll change your whole life. You’ll be a different person. If you would keep that rule for 1 year from today, I promise you a year from now you’ll be a different person and a much better person.

The third disease, gossip. Leviticus 19 verse 16 says this,

“Do not go about spreading slander among your people.”

Going about spreading slander, idle, untrue, exaggerated, malicious talk, that’s a gossip. Now, the very title of Satan in the New Testament, the word that in English is rendered devil, in Greek diabolos, means a slanderer. That’s its root meaning. So the main description of Satan in the Bible is a slanderer. And I have to say this, I hope it won’t hurt you. If you go round as a gossip, telling tales, you are actually doing the devil’s work for him. You are a representative of Satan.

But not only must we be careful not to give out gossip, we also have a responsibility not to receive gossip. Proverbs 18:8,

“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”

How true that is of human nature. When we hear something about someone that’s bad, that shows them up in a bad light, there’s something in the human heart that kind of rejoices. “Those words of a gossip are like choice morsels.” We swallow them down. If we’re not very careful, be careful when one of those choice morsels of gossip is placed in front of you that you don’t swallow it, because, I want to warn you, they’re poisoned. They taste sweet, but they’re poisons. And if we receive them into our hearts, our lives will become poisoned by those morsels of gossip.