The Tongue
by Tony Alamo
James 3:1 states, “My brothers [in the LORD JESUS CHRIST], be not many masters.” I am the pastor of many churches throughout the world and a teacher of the WORD of GOD. I cannot be the pastor and teacher of the faith in the WORD of GOD if I continue making money as I was doing before I became a Christian. This is because I cannot be the master of Christianity and be the master of anything else! “Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. [We must choose to be a Christian or a sinner.] If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:1-2).
There have been men in my church who have never written a Gospel tract, never been an evangelist on radio or television or purchased properties, purchased vehicles, built houses, founded churches, or done millions of other things for GOD or people of the church. Nor have they given anything to the poor and needy throughout the world. They don’t really preach the gospel at all, and they have never purchased insurance policies, paid lawyers, or anything else. Yet they attempt to build a church within my church by telling people with their tongue how strong, holy, and benevolent they are, and they attempt to lead the church. They receive free rent, utilities, as well as food, clothing, and all other things necessary for life for years. They have enjoyed our properties and all the other blessings that GOD has given Sue and me. The reason that GOD gave all these blessings to us for all the people and for all of these years is because we have served HIM and given HIM our all, and all the thanks, the praise and all of the glory, and so did all the beloved brothers and sisters.
Again, the WORD says, “For in many things we offend all” (James 3:2). These kind of people are very offensive to not only me, but to all. I understand one man in the LA church earns a few dollars in the summer, and the rest of the church spends much more in less than a month. However, he tells many that he is the backbone of the whole church. He doesn’t contribute anything like that, and is filled with delusion and illusions of grandeur. His daughters have fallen away, his wife is no testimony, and he has corrupted both of his sons-in-law.
James 3:2b states, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body [is able to control himself at all times, but only by the HOLY SPIRIT]. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds [which is symbolic of the devil driving hard against people to make them be somebody when they are nothing], yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth [whereever the captain of the ship guides it]. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity [iniquity is a wicked or unjust act]: so is the tongue among our members [all the members of the church], that it defileth the whole body [the whole church, the body of CHRIST], and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed [or can be tamed], and has been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. [The poison of this man in church is corrupting many, and he must be stopped or asked to leave.] [With the tongue] 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 proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be. Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying [envying means discontent and ill will over another’s advantages, jealousy] and strife in your hearts [strife is fighting or quarreling], glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom [does not descend from Heaven], but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure [pure means unmixed, free from anything that adulterates or taints the WORD of GOD], then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:2-18).
Matthew 6:23-24 states, “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve GOD and mammon.”
The man that I have previously talked about in this message fails to remember the order of how things are to be conducted in a church of GOD. First of all, all people in the church are to take whatever money they have earned or gotten by the sale of property, or wages that they have earned, and lay it at the apostles’ feet. Then the apostles give it out to all that have needs so that no one lacks anything. But this person, like Judas, carries the bag, handles the money (the small amount of money that he has earned), exalts himself to be a pastor, and pretends as though he is supporting everyone in the Los Angeles church. This is not done according to the church of the LORD, but is demonic. It is the same as Satan saying, “I will be like the most high GOD” (Isaiah 14:14). “I will run this church, and I will corrupt the people therein.” He has duped the people of the church so much that they don’t even know they are duped.
One woman in the church who is married to a truck driver (and both rarely go to the church) pretends to know more about GOD and the people at the church more than the man divinely called by GOD in 1964 to run the church and successfully keep it operating. She even states that she understands about getting witnesses on her report, and maybe, just maybe, a few will witness it. She states that others do not want to get involved with writing reports on anyone usurping authority or sinning in the church. (She doesn’t seem to understand the way the church operates.) She doesn’t say why they don’t want to be involved. Even if they don’t want to be involved, they have to be, if they want to stay in the church, because it is the LORD’S will that you must be involved in the church if you want to be in the church, a member of the Body of CHRIST. She said that they have seen what has happened to those who have come forward. Then she accuses the pastor of believing this type of person that doesn’t want to be involved. In other words, she is saying that the people who don’t want to be involved are more righteous than the GODLY pastor, and she states these unrighteous people also know that the man they are accusing of being unrighteous will attack them if they counter the report. She adds that they don’t want to go through this Hell. In other words, she is calling it Hell to do what GOD says to do. This woman is Spiritually sick and filled with Spiritual pride, which shall be disastrous for her at the judgment bar of GOD. She says if I still want her to try to get witnesses, she will. She says, “I stand on my own report before GOD.”
Then this unscriptural female began preaching to me, the pastor. She stated that GOD knows the truth about the whole situation. She said that people can lie to me, as though I am so gullable that GOD made a mistake in calling me to be the pastor, and she says that really, GOD should have called her. She then says she and her husband can lie to others, but they will stand accountable before GOD for what they do or don’t do. She states, “I am being very honest with you [meaning me].” Then she borrows a phrase from Queen Esther in the Bible, who stated, “If I die, I die.” This one states, “If I get rebuked, than I get rebuked, but I stand on what I am saying because it is the truth.” She says she was very sick in her heart to hear that I believed I was duped by this family in the church. She says it made her so sick that she can’t sleep or focus on her work for the LORD. She states it really cut her to the heart and made her cry. Well, my dear, it really doesn’t matter if you cry or if it cuts you in the heart, if you want to do the work for the LORD, you have to do it the LORD’S way. In other words, you have to get witnesses and counters, and if you don’t get witnesses and counters, you have to leave, because this is a church of GOD. I have been interested in winning souls for years before you were born, and I pray that you really want to be honest and do things GOD’S way. I have reproved and rebuked you and your husband before, and neither you or your husband received it. Instead, you lashed back out at me. The WORD of GOD states that the tongue is the rudder or unruly member of the body. The true body is the body of CHRIST, and an unruly tongue in CHRIST’S Body is like a loose cannon or cancer in the Body of CHRIST. It can corrupt the whole body, the whole church, and this cannot be.
Our enemy is the devil, and in order to win the war against him, we must fight him lawfully, according to GOD’S WORD.
It has been reported to me that the man I was speaking of does favors for people in the L.A. church. He buys small things for them to the point where others are doing the same thing without putting them on the finance list. This is out of order and is causing a wildfire of unlawful spending in the church. This kind of fire means that the tongue of the body is out of control. It must be put under subjection to the HOLY SPIRIT if the church is to begin hearing from the LORD again. Unscriptuality cannot exist in the church if it is going to be the church of GOD, the body of CHIRST. Some ungodly pastors are still saying that they are the sons of GOD, and yet they are sinners. However, this is impossible. You must either be a saint or a sinner—you can’t be both.
Romans 6:1-5 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? GOD forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into JESUS CHRIST were baptized into HIS death? Therefore we are buried with HIM by baptism into death: that like as CHRIST was raised up from the dead by the glory of the FATHER, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of HIS resurrection.”
James 2:14 says, “What does it profit [a Christian], my brethren, though a man says he has faith, and has not works [the works of GOD]? Can faith save him [when faith is alone]?” James 2:17 says, “Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.”
After reading this message, you can obviously see that the tongue of some who think that they are serving the LORD belongs to a world of iniquity. This very couple doesn’t even record that they have distributed literature, and they rarely attend church. They need to begin living in the SPIRIT of GOD, and, dear reader, you need to begin living for the LORD as well. But first you must become born again of the SPIRIT. The SPIRIT of GOD must enter you and stay in you for as long as you live, forever. HE will enter you right now if you say this prayer:
Prayer
My LORD and my GOD, have mercy upon my soul, a sinner. 1 I believe that JESUS CHRIST is the SON of the living GOD. 2 I believe that HE died on the cross and shed HIS precious blood for the forgiveness of all my former sins. 3 I believe that GOD raised JESUS from the dead by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT 4 and that HE sits on the right hand of GOD at this moment, hearing my confession of sin and this prayer. 5 I open up the door of my heart, and I invite YOU into my heart, LORD JESUS. 6 Wash all of my filthy sins away in the precious blood that YOU shed in my place on the cross at Calvary. 7 YOU will not turn me away, LORD JESUS; YOU will forgive my sins and save my soul. I know because YOUR WORD, the Bible, says so. 8 YOUR WORD says that YOU will turn no one away, and that includes me. 9 Therefore, I know that YOU have heard me, and I know that YOU have answered me, and I know that I am saved. 10 And I thank YOU, LORD JESUS, for saving my soul, and I will show my thankfulness by doing as YOU command and sin no more.11
Now that you are saved, serve GOD with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).12 Be baptized, fully submerged in water, in the name of the FATHER, of the SON, and of the HOLY SPIRIT.13 Diligently study the King James Version Bible and do what it says till the day you die.14
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If you want the world saved, as JESUS commands, then don’t rob GOD of HIS tithes and offerings. GOD said, “Will [you] rob GOD? Yet ye have robbed ME. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed THEE? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed ME, even this whole nation [and this whole world]. Bring ye all the tithes [a ‘tithe’ is 10% of your gross income] into the storehouse, that there may be meat [Spiritual food] in MINE house [souls saved], and prove ME now herewith, saith the LORD of HOSTS, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of HOSTS. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of HOSTS” (Malachi 3:8-12).
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Prayer footnotes:
1. Psa. 51:5, Rom. 3:10-12, 23 return
2. Matt. 26:63-64, 27:54, Luke 1:30-33, John 9:35-37, Rom. 1:3-4 return
3. Acts 4:12, 20:28, Rom. 3:25, I John 1:7, Rev. 5:9 return
4. Psa. 16:9-10, Matt. 28:5-7, Mark 16:9, 12, 14, John 2:19, 21, 10:17-18, 11:25, Acts 2:24, 3:15, Rom. 8:11, I Cor. 15:3-7 return
5. Luke 22:69, Acts 2:25-36, Heb. 10:12-13 return
6. I Cor. 3:16, Rev. 3:20 return
7. Eph. 2:13-22, Heb. 9:22, 13:12, 20-21, I John 1:7, Rev. 1:5, 7:14 return
8. Matt. 26:28, Acts 2:21, 4:12, Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14 return
9. Matt. 21:22, John 6:35, 37-40, Rom. 10:13 return
10. Heb. 11:6 return
11. John 5:14, 8:11, Rom. 6:4, I Cor. 15:10, Rev. 7:14, 22:14 return
12. Deut. 4:29, 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 13:3-4, 26:16, 30:6, Josh. 22:5, Matt. 22:37-40, Mark 12:29-31, Luke 10:27 return
13. Matt. 28:18-20, John 3:5, Acts 2:38, 19:3-5, Rom. 6:3-5, Col. 2:10-12 return
14. Deut. 4:29, 13:4, 26:16, Josh. 1:8, 22:5, 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:14-17, James 1:22-25, Rev. 3:18 return