You Talk Too Much

Now the really interesting thing that James says is right at the end of verse 6, "is itself set on fire by hell." - So why do you think he says that? Satan absolutely loves it when you choose to be free with your tongue. That's his moment of opportunity. If you choose not to give control of your tongue to Jesus, then Satan steps in and says, "Fine, I'll control it. I'll use that tongue" How many times have you heard the words of the accuser spewing lava your way? Let me show you a classic illustration of this in Scripture:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matt. 16:21-23)

Classic illustration of Peter after Jesus tells them the plan of the cross -- he says "No Lord, not you, never! -- What's Jesus say? "Get behind me Satan." When Peter opened his mouth and gave his opinion about how things should progress -- Jesus made it very clear that he was being used by Satan. Jesus says, "Just get behind me -- I can't listen to you." Jesus calls Peter Satan -- He says your mind is not on the interest of God but on man. You're not thinking about what God wants -- you're thinking about what man wants -- so get behind me satan. That's a strong statement -- At that moment who was in control of his tongue? Hell. The motivation behind what Peter was saying was demonic. Now Peter probably was stunned. He probably thought his motivation was what? Compassion -- love -- concern for Jesus, right? But his compassion and concern was misguided. The issue isn't whether or not he was expressing concern for Jesus -- The issue is that his counsel stood in opposition to God's revealed purpose. Peter could have rationalized with Jesus, "But Jesus I was just saying that because I love you. Don't you understand?" How many times have we done that? Under the guise of concern and love and exercising discernment, spew demonically inspired ideas towards others? How many of you know that Satan loves to play around in the area of our emotions? He loves to take those emotions and twist and turn them around so that it seems totally reasonable to ignore God's will. Be very careful when you're using emotion to rationalize a behavior. Sometimes we don't think through or pray through what we say in conversation. Sometimes I hear people say, "Well I was just speaking my mind?" Really -- Are you sure? Are you sure it's your mind that's speaking or is that just the cover-up of what the devil is trying to speak through you? Peter thought he was just speaking his mind -- and it was actually the devil speaking through him.

It was Satan who enflamed his heart -- not the Lord -- not even his own emotions.- And Peter didn't even understand that. Sometimes we are way too quick to give our opinion on something without it actually being carefully thought through -- way to quick to attack and criticize and condemn. Who enflamed your tongue the last time you became a verbal arsonist? What's the text say? -- set on fire by hell itself.