Sin has caused misery, confusion, and disorder in the creation of. God. “It groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” So pervading is the disturbing power of sin, that there is no organ of the body which distinguishes man from the brute, and no faculty of the mind but what is misused or misdirected. In the natural order, hearing necessarily precedes speaking. In one born deaf, the tongue cannot be used intelligently. The same word in the Greek is rendered deaf or dumb according as the context may require. The tongue and the ear are very distinguished organs of man. The tongue is said to be his glory. “Awake up tray glory, awake psaltery and harp.” It is with the tongue we “bless God.” “All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee; they shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom and talk of Thy power; to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.” All God’s works, intelligent and unintelligent, must eventually praise Him; for “He has created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created.” But the tongue of the redeemed is exercised in intelligent praise, in blessing God, in performing the function for which it was given to man. The redeemed are thankful to God, and “speak good of His name.” “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
But just in proportion as the tongue in its legitimate use is the glory of man, so is it in its misuse the evidence of the desperate wickedness of his heart. “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God: out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing.” Nature itself cries aloud against such disorder. “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
There are three special characteristics of the tongue as “an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin.” 1St. It is the great instrument of deceit and flattery. Of the perfect One alone can it be said, “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” But in reference to others, even to those who had the light of revelation by the law, this is the solemn verdict, “There is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward part is very wickedness, their throat is an open sepulcher, they flatter with their tongue.” (Comp. Ps. 5. and Rom. 3). Such flattery and deceit, ever since the Devil himself, the father of lies, said, “Ye shall not surely die,” has been one mark of false prophets and false teachers. The Prophets prophesied “lies,” “deceits,” “smooth things;” and the people loved to have it so. They said, “Peace, where there is no peace.” “They daubed the wall with untempered mortar,” so as to appear safe, and suddenly involve all under it in ruin. They “sewed pillows under all arm-holes,” bolstering up people in self-complacency, and at the same time making the hearts of the righteous sad, whom the Lord hath not made sad. “Much fair speech” is the characteristic of the harlot of the Proverb, “enticing” to destruction the passer-by—true picture of the harlot Church with her “sorceries” and fair speech, saying in her heart, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”
The tendency to flatter with the tongue was betrayed even by one who appeared candid and sincere (Mark 10:17-2217And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. 19Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother. 20And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17‑22)), “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why tallest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Flattering words were used as a cloak for the wickedness of the heart, when the Pharisees sent to Jesus their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither rarest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness.” Whilst the Spirit speaketh expressly that there would arise those who would “speak lies in hypocrisy,”—awful characteristic of priestly assumption in forgiveness of sins—for such speak lies in hypocrisy, knowing that they are not doing that which they affect to do—there are those who, “by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple.”
Men may flatter God, even as Israel of old. “When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flatter Him with their mouth; and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with Him; neither were they stedfast in His covenant.” Man may flatter his fellow man; but the wisdom of God gives solemn warning, “He that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.” “A flattering mouth worketh ruin.” “A man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet.”
“A man may flatter himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.” But the time is coming when “God shall cut of all flattering lips;” for nothing can be more opposed to the truth of the Gospel. There is necessarily a piercing power in truth. “The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” God, by the word of His truth, “tears” in order “to heal,” “smites” in order “to bind up.” By the word of His truth He upsets self-complacency, in order to make the soul only satisfied with Christ. The Apostle used not “flattering words,” as his converts well knew. He did not corrupt the word, in order to make it more palatable to human passions and prejudices, “but as of sincerity, but as of God in the eight of God speak we in Christ.” We are admonished to speak “the truth in love,” and “he that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.”
Secondly, the tongue is that instrument by which the hatred of the heart towards God, and the heart’s defiance of God, is frequently manifested. It is indeed “a little member,” but it is “a world of iniquity;” “it setteth on fire the whole course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” It is that member of the body, for which man demands there shall be no restraint. “The Lord shall cut of all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things; who have said, with our tongue will we prevail; our lip are our own; who is Lord over us?” It was with the tongue, for he could go no further, that the proud Assyrian set at defiance the living God. “Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice;....even against the Holy One of Israel.” So again one characteristic of the little horn in Daniel is thus given, “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the Horn spake.” So of the Beast in the Book of Revelation, it is written, “There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” Man had his hour given to him, and he crucified the Lord of glory. No such hour will ever be again allowed to him; he has been able to vent his malice against God in putting to death His servants, but Jesus is on high, and the impotent rage of man against Him can only be shown by his words,—but “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” The tongue, however through education it may be used to conceal the thoughts of the heart, is often, in the off-hand expression, so truthful an index of what is passing in the heart, as to carry with it the moral certainty that we know what is passing there. It was thus that Jesus convicted the Pharisees of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. They said, “This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” This was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. This drew from the Lord the cutting reproach, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And then He adds, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou. shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” The last days are characterized by “scoffers walking after their own lusts.” However conventional decency may restrain man in the presence of his fellow, yet when godliness elicits ridicule, or provokes the contemptuous expression, light as persons may set by it, there is the idle word so true an index of the real state of the heart before God; that by such words condemnation is sealed on those who use them.
Thirdly, the tongue is the chief instrument whereby men express the proud thoughts of their heart, however impotent they may be to carry them into effect. “The tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.” It is the characteristic result of false teaching brought into the Church (2 Pet. 2), that men would “speak great swelling words of vanity,” promising “liberty,” unrestrainedness either by God or man, as though man were all-sufficient to keep himself, save himself, and make himself happy. So again when “the grace of God” is turned into the license of human will, “they speak evil of dignities” – “speak evil of those things they know not,”—and like their prototype, Borah, contradict both the Priesthood and Lordship of Jesus, in asserting the self-sufficiency of man. Of “the Beast,” the last recorded form of man’s wilfulness before the judgment, it is written, “There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things.” It is manifest from his words, what the intention of man is. “He hath done great things;” and talks of doing greater; and as he goes on he asserts, at every step, his independence of God, till at last he openly defies God and the Lamb. But God “scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” They may do great things, but the word is, “Fear not, the Lord will do great things.” When men said, “Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth;” God scattered them. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” “How much she hath glorified herself.... for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day.”
God joins issue with man in terrible judgment upon the ground of the boastful arrogance of his tongue, as well as the daring willfulness of his deeds.
It is not the tongue to speak that men need, but the “ear to hear;” and never will the tongue be used aright for the glory of God, until there be the ear to hear. “Let every one be swift to hear, slow to speak.” Men have inverted the divine order and coveted readiness of speech, although the ear be deaf to hear. All would be talkers, few have patience to hear. The sorest judicial act ever inflicted by God on Israel was leaving them with “ears dull of hearing.” It alarmed the Apostle as to the Hebrew converts, lest there should be a turning back unto perdition, because they were “dull of hearing.” The eye might be blinded, the ear deafened, and the heart made fat; but the mouth was left untouched to tell out their real condition; “your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath uttered perverseness.” And when it pleased God to open the eyes of one to see His glory, the confession was, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5).
If the tongue is to be retrieved to the glory of God, we must begin with the ear. This is the divine order. Jesus Himself thus speaks, “The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” The whole of the humiliation of Jesus, in obedience to the will of Him that sent Him, is expressed in the words, “Mine ears hast Thou opened.” “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; Mine ears host Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will O God; yea, Thy law is within my heart.”
Men still desire the tongue of the learned; they confess that they have inability to express themselves, and wish they could speak as others of Christ and His salvation; but they are ignorant that the thing lacking is the obedient ear.
When Moses received commission from the Lord to deliver Israel out of Egypt, he saw all the difficulties in the way of the people receiving him, and Pharoah listening to him. Among other difficulties, he pleads, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” Moses was ignorant that the thing needed was the ready ear. And the Lord said unto him, “Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord. Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” If Moses had the tongue of the learned, it must be by having his ear wakened to hear as the learned, else the doctrine is the doctrine of Moses, and not the doctrine of God. When God would speak to Israel by the youthful Samuel, the obedient ear gave to him the tongue of the learned. His call of God, was answered by Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” Solemn was the message he had to deliver to the aged Priest of the Lord, his kind and honored patron; but Samuel’s mouth was opened with humble boldness, and he “told Eli every whit, and hid nothing from him.” But the divine order is seen most clearly in the Perfect One Himself. “As I hear I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me,” Again, when the Jews marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” And then He adds, that true learning and ability to speak it can only be acquired in the same school.” “If any man will do His will (has the ready ear) he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself,”
Satan from the outset gained access to man’s ear. He is the “whisperer that separateth chief friends.” And so entirely is Satan in possession of the ear of man, that though the Lord Himself be the speaker, and grace and truth, mercy and peace the subject, man has no ear to hear what the Lord saith. “Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My word.” The ear is preoccupied; every false prophet can find ready access to it; it is open to every idle tale, and only closed against the message of God. The ministry of the Prophets was to turn the ear to listen to God. “Incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live.” “And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his Messenger, rising up betimes and sending, because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messenger of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” Subsequently He sent His Son, and this was His message, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” But such marvelous words fell upon deaf ears; men were “like the deaf adder that stoppeth his ears, be the charmer never so cunning,” even the Lord of glory Himself. Jesus as The Prophet, as the full Revealer of God, and Expounder of the thoughts and ways of God; was thus announced to Moses,— “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words, which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.” Moses and Elias appeared on the Mount of transfiguration with Jesus, but they entered into the cloud, and there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son: hear Him; and when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone.” The ministry of the Lord Jesus Himself was to retrieve the ear to God. “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” But he had again to complain, as when He said, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” “But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would none of Me;” or in His own words at the close of His ministry, “If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
The Apostles had to reiterate the Prophet’s complaint, “Who hath believed our report?” And the closing word of the Apostle to Israel was to rivet on them the fearful denunciation of the Prophet, “Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand.” And then he adds, “Be it known unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” A mighty result was produced by “the heating of faith.” But in process of time professing Christians lost the ear to hear what the Lord Himself said. “The time will come, (says the Apostle, and we live to see his word verified) when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Hence, when the Lord addresses Himself to priestly judgment of the Churches in the Book of Revelation, He has to get the ear to hear His message. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.” When the description is given of the Beast and his actings in Rev. 13 the notice is given, “If any man have an ear to hear, let him hear.” No cultivated intellect, no moral advancement is proof against the delusive power of the Beast. “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear.”
Little do men think where the defect is. God’s almighty remedy for human misery, and His certain way to present and eternal happiness is addressed to the ear. It was deafness, so characteristic of the state of Israel refusing to hear His voice, that drew the sigh from Jesus, when he said, “Ephphatha, that is, Be opened” (Mark 7:3434And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. (Mark 7:34)). And when He most severely rebuked the unbelief of His own disciples, it was to class them with the multitude round them, “Having ears, hear ye not?” (Mark 8:1818Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? (Mark 8:18).)
What solemn truth do we find in the aphorism of the wise man. “The bearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.” The change is not less wonderful indeed, when God has arrested the ear of one, be he ever so thoughtless, than actually unstopping the ear which has been naturally deaf. That ear hears God speaking peace.. It has never heard such music before—all that it heard before left the sense of unsatisfiedness, for “the ear is not satisfied with hearing.” Like the believing Samaritan, the ear would say, “We have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” The verse or chapter known by rote, and vainly supposed to be understood, now strikes the ear with thrilling interest. It is as it were the chief organ of the awakened sinner, awakened in his ear to hear as the learned; for “the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.” It is discord to that ear to hear of human wonders. It is able to detect, however unable to explain, that doctrine which does not honour Christ, and its safety is in turning away from it. “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” We dare not presume on our ability to detect the false doctrine and to refute it,—our safety lies in not putting ourselves in the way of hearing any doctrine which tampers with the doctrines of grace. The Scripture speaks “of doctrines of devils and seducing spirits,” and much which naturally pleases the ear or the imagination comes from this source. But if Satan can no longer pre-occupy the ear which God has opened, he casts every impediment in the way of our hearing to purpose. Sometimes he boldly catches away the word, so that it entirely “slips” from the memory; thus he allows us to be satisfied with a momentary impression. Then he brings in some besetting hindrance which may choke the word and render it unfruitful. If it be important to take heed “what we hear,” it is equally so to take heed “how we hear.”