Theme: Destroying the temple (Pt. 9)
Topic: Destroying The Corporate Temple Through The Attitude Of An Unbridled Tongue
Text: Luke 21:1-7. John 2: 13-21
Introduction: We have considered the temple as individuals as well as collection of individual temples of God (I Cor. 6:18). Having scanned through the various ways of destroying the human temple of God (Jn. 2:19, 21; I Cor. 6:19), we began to survey the ways of destroying the second type of temple i.e. the corporate temple or congregation of believers (I Cor. 3:16). We have touched some contaminants such as immorality, idolatry, religious spirit but today, we shall deal with another destroyer known as unbridled tongue. As we proceed in the series, it is necessary to warn against the mediocre=s attitude of loss of interest due to familiarity with text or theme. It should rather be remembered that repetition is for emphasis as there is always the tendency in humans to forget (Dt. 6:1-2,6-12; Ps. 119:9; Pr. 3:3; II Pt. 1:12; Jude 5) and that the act of keeping to the instructions of God amounts to righteousness (Dt. 6: 24-25) which yields longevity (Dt. 6:2; 4:40; Pr. 3:1-2).
The Attitude of An Unbridled Tongue: While the first three sins [immorality, idolatry, murder] mentioned are unpopular and generally disapproved by the decent, and therefore relatively scarce, this attitude of unbridled tongue sits perniciously in the assemblies wrecking the fabrics of the temple. It actually appears benign, and so it is more readily adopted as the devils= weapon of choice to fight the church (Hos. 4:6; Jas. 3:3-5). This damning attitude acts like the wild fire kindled in a very dry bush during a dry windy afternoon. (Jas. 3:5, 6). It is a very terrible spiritual infirmity. It begins by eroding the fabrics of the assembly just as the termites that have infested a pile of wooden furniture, until nothing is left of it. This treacherous attitude is found to flourish among untreated, carnal or backslidden ministers and their wives, un-cleansed women leaders, untaught church committee members/workers and carnal or natural church members. It is more pronounced with presumptuous and ‘un-sound Christians’
This merciless monster [unbridled tongue] manifests in the church as murmuring (Ex. 16:2-8; I Cor.10:10; Phil. 2:4; Jud.12, 16), talkativeness (Pr. 10:19), gossiping and tale-bearing (Lev. 19:16; Pr. 18:8; 20:19; 26:20), ungodly [sinful] boldness or arrogance in speech (Lk. 19:22; I Sam. 25:4-11), making of unguarded comments or statements (Num. 13:1-3, 25-29, 32; Mt.18: 6, 7), meddling with and prying into other people=s affairs (Pr. 26:17; II Thess. 3:11; I Tim. 5:13; I Pt. 4:15), aptness to criticize or break news (Num. 12:1-7; II Sam. 18:10-16, 19-30; Job. 42:7; Mt. 11:16-19), speaking mischievously [anointing in sin] (Ps. 52:2-4; 140:1-3).
Fellowship Hymn
Thou my everlasting portion (HSCF 177)
Bible Discourse: Should the parents stop the marriage of their children for any reason?
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