{"id":18700,"date":"2021-03-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/james-019-heavenly-wisdom\/"},"modified":"2021-03-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T05:00:00","slug":"james-019-heavenly-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/james-019-heavenly-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"James 019 – Heavenly Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[104],"series_event":[514],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18700","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-james","series_event-james","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"James 019 - Heavenly Wisdom","sermon_date":"20210317","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2021","sermon_notes":8906,"sermon_slides":8908,"sermon_mp3":8910,"sermon_id":"31721224785500","series_or_event":514,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":104,"chapter_and_verse":"3:17-18","sermon_transcript":"James 019 \u2014 A Faith that Works\n\nHeavenly Wisdom\n\nJames 3:17-18\n\nThe book of James 3:17<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 James, as you know, is writing a book to saved people teaching them how to live righteously.\u00a0 The first part of the book is how to live by faith; we are saved by faith but how do we live by that same principle?\u00a0 The first thing to do is to adopt God's perspective on trials where we learn to rejoice in the midst of trials.\u00a0 We learn not to charge God foolishly in the midst of trials.\n\nThe second way to live by faith as a Christian is to obey His Word.\u00a0 That is in the second part of James 1<\/u><\/strong> where we take in His Word and practice it.\u00a0 This is where we are slow to speech and anger but quick to listen, particularly to His Word.\u00a0 Then we don't just sit, soak and sour; we practice it.\n\nFrom there, we moved into the first half of James 2<\/u><\/strong> where we don\u2019t show favoritism in the assembly on the basis of some characteristic that God doesn\u2019t divide His church on, such as wealth or anything of that nature, giving wealthy people privilege that other people in the church don't have.\u00a0 That is favoritism, and we don't practice that.\n\nThen we allow our faith which is already inside of us to manifest itself in good works, and at that point our faith doesn\u2019t come into existence, but our faith becomes useful or productive.\u00a0 We spent a lot of time there because that is a misunderstood passage: \u2018faith without works is dead<\/em>\u2019 in the second half of James 2.<\/u><\/strong>\n\nThen James 2<\/u><\/strong> flows nicely into James 3<\/u><\/strong> where James says that the ultimate good work you can do as a Christian \u2014 in fact, if you can do this, then every other work that you do as a Christian is small potatoes.\u00a0 It is learning to control the tongue.\u00a0 So, I am glad that we don't need that chapter, so we can move right along.\u00a0 We have mastered that one, right?\u00a0 That is a tough one.\n\nThen, we get to James 3:13<\/u><\/strong> where James is now no longer talking about walking by faith; now he is talking about walking by wisdom.\u00a0 So, he is going to do this at the mid-point or so of James 3, <\/u><\/strong>and he will keep that train of thought going until the end of the book.\u00a0 It is hard to walk by wisdom unless we understand what wisdom is.\u00a0 What he does here in James 3:13-18<\/u><\/strong> is to define wisdom.\n\nThe Greek word, 'sofia<\/em>', is wisdom, and is always demonstrated by her actions in 3:13<\/u><\/strong> as we saw last time.\u00a0 You can tell someone who is wise not based on what they say, but on how they live.\u00a0 Wisdom is always knowledge applied.\u00a0 Now he begins to differentiate the two kinds of wisdom.\u00a0 There is a wisdom from above in 3:14-16 <\/u><\/strong>and a wisdom from below 3:17-18.\u00a0 There is earthly wisdom in 3:14-16<\/u><\/strong> versus heavenly wisdom 3:17-18<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 There is wisdom from God and wisdom from satan.\u00a0 The wisdom from satan is a false wisdom, so we should not buy into the idea that everything that sounds wise is from God.\u00a0 That is why the Proverbs<\/u><\/strong> will say things like, \u2018\u2019There is a way that seems right but the end thereof is death.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 There are a lot of things that look good, right and wise, but they aren\u2019t of God.\u00a0 I am reminded of the King James Version and its translation of 1 Timothy 6:20<\/u><\/strong> where it talks about knowledge falsely called, and I like the King James version because it translates it as science falsely called.\u00a0 So, there are a lot of things that look wise, philosophical, and even scientific, but they aren\u2019t of God.\u00a0 So, before James teaches us how to apply wisdom to daily life, he teaches us how to distinguish between the two kinds of wisdom: wisdom from God versus wisdom from satan.\u00a0 In 3:14-16<\/u><\/strong> he is dealing with mere human, satanic, or earthly wisdom, and we saw these verses last time.\u00a0 This is where he said, \u201cBut if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.\u00a0 15<\/sup> This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.\u00a0 16<\/sup> For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\n\n\u00a0<\/em>So, what he has done in the verses above is to describe the wrong kind of wisdom; the kind of wisdom that we don't want, as Christians, to embrace.\u00a0 Since James<\/u><\/strong> is the first New Testament book, in other words, you don't have a New Testament at all and the very first book written is James.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 He isn\u2019t quoting Paul here because Paul hasn\u2019t written anything to date.\u00a0 Most people believe that what James is doing is piecing information together from the book of Proverbs.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 So, there is an allusion to a proverb in all these pieces or elements of false wisdom.\u00a0 Sometimes it is hard to find the proverb, but this was my best attempt at tracking down which proverb James was referring to.\n\nSo, what is human or earthly wisdom?\u00a0 It is jealous per Proverbs 6:34<\/u><\/strong>; it involves selfish ambition in Proverbs 16:18;<\/u><\/strong> it is arrogant per Proverbs 8:13<\/u><\/strong>; it is earthly, natural in Proverbs 14:12<\/u><\/strong>; it is demonic per Proverbs 27:20<\/u><\/strong>, and it is contentious per Proverbs 11:29<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 I have been involved in a lot of different churches and leadership type groups within churches, and I can walk into any church and determine what kind of wisdom is governing that church just by observing the characteristics, and if they emulate this kind of thing.\u00a0 They may sound very spiritual at first, but when you start seeing these characteristics rear their ugly heads, you know that you are dealing with a group of people who aren\u2019t being governed by wisdom from above but from wisdom from below.\u00a0 And that is the wrong kind of wisdom that we want to reject as God's people.\n\nSo, with that being said, what is the right kind of wisdom?\u00a0 We pick it up here with fresh material in James 3:17,18<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cBut the wisdom from above<\/em> \u2026 (so now he is giving us the right kind of wisdom in contrast to the wrong kind of wisdom that we saw earlier \u2014 that is why the contrast is there in the word, \u2018but,<\/em>\u2019 as he is contrasting heavenly wisdom versus the prior described earthly wisdom)\u2026 is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.\u00a0 18<\/sup> And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So, what then is the wisdom from above or of God?\u00a0 Like the wisdom from below, there is a proverb that goes with each of the above elements.\n\nSo, God's wisdom is first of all pure, and I would select Proverbs 15:26<\/u><\/strong> as the one he is alluding to that says, \u201cEvil plans are an abomination to the Lord, But pleasant words are pure.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>God is looking for purity, not just in actions, but in motives.\n\nFrom there, he talks about another element of God's wisdom; it is peaceable<\/u><\/em><\/strong>; first pure, then peaceable<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, then go to 3:18,<\/u><\/strong> where it mentions peace twice.\u00a0 It is the Greek word, \u2018eirini<\/em>,\u2019 where you get the name Irene from, and I think he is probably alluding to Proverbs 3:1-2<\/u><\/strong> which says, \u201cMy son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 So, it isn\u2019t surprising that God's wisdom involves peace since Jesus is the Prince of Peace, per Isaiah 9:6<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 There are a lot of people out there who are extremely argumentative and almost every conversation they get into involves a scuffle or borderline \u2018food fight<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 You see this kind of thing going on in churches, on social media, and the people who act this way claim to be Christians, so you wonder what kind of wisdom are we dealing with here?\u00a0 If it was Jesus involved, then there would be more of an \u2018eirinic<\/em>,\u2019 peaceful mindset.\u00a0 A verse that I thought of related to peace is Ephesians 2:14<\/u><\/strong>, the same word, peace, \u2018eirini<\/em>,\u2019 \u201cFor He<\/em> Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall<\/em>,\u201d\u2026. So, if the Lord is about anything, He is about peace.\u00a0 He is called the Prince of Peace; He gives us peace with God, He gives us peace in the heart, and He takes groups who were formerly at war with each other such as Jews and Gentiles, and according to Ephesians 2:14<\/u><\/strong>, He brings them into harmony with each other.\u00a0 That is the work of Jesus.\n\nSo, as we walk out His wisdom, we will find ourselves to be of peaceful, irenic sorts.\u00a0 We are following Matthew 5<\/u><\/strong>, in the Sermon on the Mount which says, \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers<\/em>,\u201d it doesn\u2019t say \u2018Blessed are the ones who are able to win every single argument and always get their way<\/em>.\u2019 \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 That is another element of wisdom from above.\u00a0 It is very different than satan\u2019s wisdom, which is contentiousness, as we saw earlier.\n\nThen he gives us a third element of God's wisdom, and it has to do with gentleness.\u00a0 It says, 17<\/sup>\u201cBut the wisdom from above is first<\/em> pure, then peaceable<\/em>, gentle<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u2026\u201d <\/em>I would choose Proverbs 16:32<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cHe who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>That is what you call synonymous Hebrew parallelism \u2014 in Proverbs 16:32<\/u><\/strong>, where the second line repeats what is in the first line, but in different words.\u00a0 So, the two lines rhyme in that sense, but if you are in a situation where your people are provoking you, cutting you off on the freeway, or you aren\u2019t getting a fair shake at work, or someone is slandering you, and rather than retaliating, which is very easy for all of us to do, instead you allow the Lord to subdue your spirit and bear up under the unfair circumstances. \u00a0Of that, the Bible says that you are just a mighty as a warrior, and as mighty as one who captures a whole city.\u00a0 If you can control your own spirit in that sense, then you are just as powerful as one who can take over or subdue an entire city.\u00a0 So, that may be what he is referring to when he talks about gentleness.\n\nRemember in James 3:13 <\/u><\/strong>when he was talking about wisdom in general, he speaks of the gentleness<\/u><\/em><\/strong> of wisdom.\u00a0 The guy who is the loudest in the room is not necessarily the wisest.\u00a0 The one who has the sharpest wit and can defeat all his opponents in an argument, is not necessarily the wisest.\u00a0 According to the Bible, the wisest is the one who operates in the spirit of gentleness.<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Now, obviously, I am not talking about self-defense issues and the like, only about personal wrongs, and the Lord, with the resources that He has given to us, wants us to walk in gentleness <\/u><\/em><\/strong>in the midst of those circumstances.\u00a0 Like Jesus did when He hung on the cross \u2014 some of His last words were, \u201cIt is finished<\/em>,\u201d but before that, He said, \u201cForgive them, Father, they know not what they do<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 He didn\u2019t hang there on the cross and say, \u2018You guys just wait<\/em> till the Second Coming because I am going to beat everyone of you down; you just wait and see<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 That would be the human way to react that we would tend to do if we were treated that way, but Jesus said, \u201cForgive them Father, they know not what they do<\/em>.\u201d That is the gentleness of wisdom that James, the half-brother of Christ, is speaking of.\n\nAnother element, I think the fourth element of divine wisdom is reasonableness<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cBut the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable<\/u><\/strong>\u2026\u201d <\/em>I would choose the proverb to undergird that as Proverbs 14:15<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cThe na\u00efve believes everything, But the sensible man considers his steps.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So, we are called to be like the Bereans were with Paul; we aren\u2019t called to be so open-minded that our brains leak out of our heads. \u00a0We are called to be people of judgment in the sense that we are always discerning things.\u00a0 Is this idea consistent with God's Word or inconsistent with it, and we reject things that are inconsistent with God's Word.\n\nSo, worship is mentally active.\u00a0 God never calls the Christian to check their brain when they go into church.\u00a0 Everything you hear anywhere, including in church, should be screened through God's Word, that you already know, to see if these things are so.\u00a0 So, that is what the Bereans did with Paul in Acts 17:11<\/u><\/strong>, \u2018The Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians for they received the word from Paul with great eagerness; they weren\u2019t closeminded, but they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so<\/em>.\u2019 Paul didn\u2019t say, \u2018How dare you challenge me<\/em>!\u2019\u00a0 He was open to being challenged because he wanted his ministry to emulate God's Word.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t provoking Paul or trying to irritate him; they received his teaching with eagerness, but they just wanted to look at the Scriptures to see if these things were so.\u00a0 It says in Acts 17:11<\/u><\/strong> that they did these things daily, and that is what made them more noble than the Corinthians who did not put this into practice.\u00a0 So, I believe this is what he is getting at when he talks about being reasonable in Proverbs 14:15<\/u><\/strong>.\n\nThen he talks about, \u2018full of mercy and good fruits<\/em><\/u><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 The mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong> part of it, I think, can be found in Proverbs 11:17<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cThe merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0So, we think if we are gracious or merciful to people, that somehow, we are getting behind, because we have to look out for number one, but the Bible actually teaches that the more gracious and merciful<\/u><\/em><\/strong> you are to people, the more you water yourself.\u00a0 I think it is Proverbs <\/u><\/strong>somewhere around chapter 11:24,25<\/u><\/strong>, \u2018He who waters others himself will be watered.\u2019<\/em> So, that is what this proverb is saying, \u2018a merciful<\/u><\/strong> person does himself good, but the cruel person does himself harm.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 So, that\u2019s what he means by full of mercy, but what does he mean by good fruits?\u00a0 He may have his eye on Proverbs 3:18<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cShe (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who take hold of her.\u00a0 And happy are all who hold her fast.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 A lot of times in the Bible, you will see wisdom analogized to a tree bearing good fruit.\u00a0 That is how we are supposed to be \u2014 like a tree \u2014 in fact, per Psalm 1<\/u><\/strong> we are to be like a tree, and you see the imagery going back into the Upper Room with the vine and the branches where we are just called upon to draw from the nurturing sap of the vine, and as branches, we are connected to the vine and bear fruit automatically.\n\nOne of the things that Dennis Rokser said when he was here at our church, or perhaps at the Chafer Conference, was that \u2018the Christian was not called to produce fruit.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 Did anyone hear him say that?\u00a0 Someone said, \u2018yes<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 Did he say that?...\u00a0 Either he said it here or at Chafer or maybe somewhere else, and when I heard him first say it, it was sort of revolutionary.\u00a0 He said that a Christian is not called to produce fruit.<\/em>\u00a0 A Christian is called to bear fruit<\/em>, and when you study John 15<\/u><\/strong>, Jesus never says, \u2018Get out there and produce<\/em> fruit.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 What He says is to \u2018bear fruit,<\/em>\u2019 and there is a big difference between producing fruit<\/em> and bearing fruit<\/em>.\u00a0 Amen?\u00a0 Producing fruit<\/em> is the branch that seeks to do it in his or her own power. Bearing fruit<\/em> means that the branch stays connected to the vine by way of fellowship, in this case, Jesus Christ, and the fruit comes spontaneously or naturally without even exerting much effort.\u00a0 Then it becomes, not your<\/em><\/strong> fruit, but Hi<\/em><\/strong>s fruit, which will last, whereas your <\/em><\/strong>fruit won't.\u00a0 So, you start to understand that, and it changes Christianity for you because now you see your job is to just be around Jesus. \u00a0If Jesus is the focus of your life, then whatever fruit you are supposed to bear, will happen. If going out and producing fruit<\/em> is your focus, then Jesus gets left out of the equation, and the fruit that you do produce, will be mustered up through the flesh of self-discipline, and it won't last.\u00a0 That is why wisdom here is analogized quite frequently to good fruits.\n\nSo, we have can have mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong> on people when we are around Jesus, who is the King of mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 If you are telling me to exercise mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong> in my own power, I don't think I have the ability to do that, but as I find myself around Christ, and I see His mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong> towards people, to the point where He hung out with the prostitutes and the tax gatherers, who were known as the scum of the earth, that is how merciful<\/em><\/strong> He was \u2014 if He becomes your role model, then exercising mercy<\/u><\/em><\/strong> towards others actually becomes easier or easy and enjoyable, because it isn\u2019t you doing it, but Jesus, through you.\n\nAnother element of wisdom from above is being unwavering<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I was hoping and praying that we would get to this today, because this is the In and Out Burger proverb.\u00a0 Have any of you ever eaten at In and Out Burger?\u00a0 They have a new one here in Houston\u2026. that was like the New Jerusalem, when that came.\u00a0 It is kind of cool when you look at their cup \u2014 inside it says, John 3:16<\/u><\/strong>, and then you order some fries, and at the bottom, it says Proverbs 24:16<\/u><\/strong>, so as your spiritual exercise tonight, you need to go to In and Out Burger to see if this is so.\u00a0 I got really interested in Proverbs 24:16<\/u><\/strong> because that is akin to the French fries verse.\u00a0 It says, \u201cFor a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 I think this is what he is talking about when he uses the term, \u2018unwavering<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 I don't know if it was Abraham Lincoln or someone else, who said that it isn\u2019t the fact that you get knocked down that is the issue.\u00a0 The issue is that after you get knocked down, because everyone gets knocked down, it is how fast you can get back up that is the issue.\u00a0 So, as you walk with the Lord, you will find that you have a resilience; you aren\u2019t as thrown off your game as you are when you aren\u2019t walking with Jesus, because you have a reservoir of unwaveringness<\/u><\/em><\/strong> about you.\n\nFinally, is without hypocrisy<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, the wisdom form God is without hypocrisy.\u00a0 What is hypocrisy?\u00a0 Hypocrisy is basically a double life which all of us as Christians are capable of living.\u00a0 If you notice, your sin nature did not just disappear when you got saved?\u00a0 Am I talking to the right crowd here?\u00a0 You all look very spiritual with your Bibles and taking notes, but you still have a sin nature as a Christian.\u00a0 You also have a new nature, but you still have a sin nature, and we have the ability to overcome the old nature that we didn\u2019t have before because we have resources inside of us now that didn\u2019t exist before.\u00a0 So, you have the ability to tell the sin nature, \u2018no<\/em>,\u2019 whereas prior to your conversion to Christianity, you had no ability to tell your sin nature, \u2018no<\/em>,\u2019 \u2014 you were a slave to it.\u00a0 The sin nature is always going to be there to go back to if I choose to do so as a Christian.\u00a0 Therefore, the Christian is completely capable of a double life.\u00a0 I am completely capable of looking one way on Sunday and acting in a totally different way on Monday.\u00a0 In fact, when you run into people like that who are at your church \u2014 this happened to me in a work situation in California where I ran into a guy who I went to church with, and he was out of his church environment, and the profanity flowed like you wouldn\u2019t believe from him.\u00a0 I am thinking to myself, \u2018Is this the same guy who I was with at church singing praises unto the Lord?<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 It is rather eye opening when you see that in someone, and then the Lord says, \u2018That\u2019s what you are like too \u2014 you have the same ability to go right back to the sin nature.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 When I saw that in that person, I said, \u2018Lord, I just don't want to be that way.\u00a0 Whatever you<\/em> have to do to change me or get me in line so that I don't have this double life, please help me with that<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 And that is wisdom from above; wisdom without hypocrisy.\u00a0 I would pick Proverbs<\/u><\/strong> 28:13<\/u><\/strong> as the one he is referring to here, \u201cHe who conceals his wrong transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\n\nAs long as we are living the double life and pretending to be one thing in public and different in private, or act one way on Sunday and another way on Monday, the proverb says that you will not prosper as long as you are doing that.\u00a0 The ability to do it still exists inside of us and will until the day we die, or until the rapture, whichever comes first.\u00a0 As long as we are in these bodies and not in a state of glorification, the old nature is there to return to.\u00a0 A lot of Christians do that, and I don't know what we think, maybe that God doesn\u2019t see, or that we are getting ahead?\u00a0 Proverbs 28:13 <\/u><\/strong>says that the person who does that will not prosper.\n\nSo, that is a bird\u2019s eye view of wisdom from above.\u00a0 Wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering<\/em> (they eat at In and Out Burger a lot as it is the spiritual thing to do), and without hypocrisy.\u00a0 That is very different from the wisdom from below which we studied earlier.\n\nNow, what James has done is to define wisdom because he is changing subjects; he is no longer talking about the walk of faith, but about wisdom which is demonstrated by her actions per James 3:13<\/u><\/strong>; false wisdom 3:14-16<\/u><\/strong>, in contrast to the true wisdom per 3:17-18<\/u><\/strong>.\n\nNow what James does is to take that wisdom which he has defined for us, and he begins to apply it to every area of life.\u00a0 That is how the book ends \u2014 with application of wisdom, because that is what wisdom is \u2014 it is always application.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t knowledge, \u2018gnosis<\/em>,\u2019 it is \u2018sofia<\/em>'.\u2019\u00a0 What is the difference between \u2018gnosis<\/em>\u2019 and 'sofi<\/em>a' \u2014 knowledge applied, that is wisdom.\u00a0 In the book of Proverbs<\/u><\/strong>, it is \u2018chokhm\u00e2h<\/em>\u2019 or taking knowledge and applying it.\n\nSpiritual grown and maturity is not measured by how much data you know \u2014 that\u2019s one of the mistakes made frequently in circles like our own which are very strong on Bible teaching.\u00a0 People will take notes and have an electronic catalogue of things they\u2019ve learned, and their Bibles \u00a0will be marked up \u2014 all of that is fantastic, by the way, but God never designed that to be the last step.\u00a0 He designed that as the first step.\u00a0 Once you have learned all of that, then the Holy Spirit says, \u2018It is time to live it out<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 As you start making daily and moment-by-moment decisions, based on what you have learned, you aren\u2019t merely walking in knowledge but in wisdom.\u00a0 You are not just walking in \u2018gnosi<\/em>s,\u2019 but in \u2018sofia<\/em>\u2019 or in \u2018chokhm\u00e2h\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0 The knowledge that you are learning applies to every area of life, so James first applies it to spirituality in James 4:1-12<\/u><\/strong>, then to business decisions, 4:13-17<\/u><\/strong>, and then to the use of wealth in 5:1-6<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 If someone is claiming to be wise, I might say, \u2018Well, can I look at your checkbook<\/em>?\u2019\u00a0 How we use our money as in 4:13-17<\/u><\/strong> and in 5:1-6<\/u><\/strong>, is evidence of whether or not we are walking in wisdom.\u00a0 He applies it to waiting for the Lord\u2019s return in 5:7-12<\/u><\/strong>, to prayer in 5:13-18<\/u><\/strong>, and to restoring the erring brother in 5:19-20<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 If someone has wandered off the path, how do you restore them?\u00a0 Jesus analogized it to taking a splinter out of someone\u2019s eye in Matthew 7<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 Think of how delicate of an operation that is, and the surgical precision necessary to remove a splinter out of someone\u2019s eye.\u00a0 That is the wisdom necessary to take a wayward spouse, child or grandchild, church member, friend and to turn them back to the things of God.\u00a0 If you get involved in this, you will need some real wisdom and that is why James concludes his book by dealing with the restoration of the erring brother.\n\nThat is the direction the book of James is moving in, so let's try to get into the first things James talks about in James 4<\/u><\/strong>, our spiritual life.\u00a0 We know what wisdom is, now how do we apply it to our spiritual life?\u00a0 James says that we must avoid two things:\u00a0 Wrangling<\/u><\/em><\/strong> in 4:1-3<\/u><\/strong> and worldliness<\/u><\/em><\/strong> in 4:4-6<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 One of the things I love about the Bible is that it is not a book of \u2018don'ts<\/em>\u2019 as in \u2018don't do this, don't do that<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 What the Bible does is to say, \u2018Don't do this, but allow God to replace that activity with something better<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 The Bible is not a no-book; it is a better book.\u00a0 So, he tells us to avoid wrangling<\/u><\/em><\/strong> and worldliness,<\/u><\/em><\/strong> but then he says that instead of that, here is something better that you can pursue in its place \u2014 that is the essence of spiritual wisdom per 4:7-12.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 I don't know if we do a very good job of communicating that to the world.\u00a0 The world looks at Christians who say not to be a homosexual; don't get an abortion; don't look at pornography, don't do this, don't do that as though we are a bunch of don'ts.\u00a0 That is not Christianity; Christianity is \u2018Those things are evil, and you should stay away from them, but God has something so much better for you than the pursuit of those empty things.\u2019<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0So, he tells us what to pursue in those last verses of James 4:7-12.<\/u><\/strong>\n\nSo, starting with the first one thing to avoid:\u00a0 wrangling<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 He describes a problem in James 4:1<\/u><\/strong>, then he describes the source of the problem.\u00a0 So, what is the problem that James has his finger on?\u00a0 You will see it there in 4:1<\/u><\/strong>, He says, \u201cWhat is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>He is telling us here to avoid wrangling<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Notice what it says here: \u201camong you<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 So, he is talking about conflicts among Christians.\u00a0 It is like, \u2018Gee, James, I wish you would talk about something more relevant<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 I am being facetious here because it is very relevant.\u00a0 Christians get out of sorts with one another constantly, and James says that if it is within your power to do that, you should avoid it.\n\nAs you probably know, most church splits, and churches do split all the time, and when you study church splits \u2014 I was in a Presbyterial pastor\u2019s office, and he had a chart where he had every church split in his denomination going back to the Civil War.\u00a0 This group split from this group and from this group, they split from that group.\u00a0 Literally, looking at that chart, was like a maze, and I hadn\u2019t ever seen anything like that.\u00a0 But it does show you how fast churches split and how fast Christians can get upset with each other.\u00a0 The sad thing about it is that when church splits happen, I would say that over 90% of the time, it has nothing to do with some great doctrinal issue.\u00a0 You might think that it might be over the virgin birth or the deity of Christ \u2014 sometimes that is the issue, but not typically.\u00a0 Many times, things like that are used as the issue.\u00a0 But the issue is not the issue; it is the attitude as far as God is concerned.\u00a0 Generally, when church splits happen, it has to do with personality issues; \u2018Sister so and so gets more time on the piano than I get, I don't like the pastor because he didn\u2019t allow me to start this ministry<\/em>,\u2019 etc.,\u00a0 the silliest of things \u2014 related to the color of the carpet.\u00a0 So, to be honest, we elders, were a little nervous when we were putting in new carpet \u2014 \u2018Good grief, are we going to start a war here?<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 But that is human nature, people are like that, they get mad because \u2018That pastor parts his hair on the wrong side of the head so I am going down the street and find a pastor who combs his hair the way I think it should be<\/em>,\u2019 if the pastor has hair to comb, which is sometimes not the case.\n\nSo, James basically is saying to avoid those kinds of things.\u00a0 He says, \u201cWhat is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Now what James does is to tell us where those things come from.\u00a0 Why is it that Christians have such a difficult time getting along with each other?\u00a0 What is the root of the problem?\u00a0 James\u2019 analysis here is completely and totally different than secular psychology.\u00a0 A secular psychologist, or even a Christian drawing from secular psychology, at this point, will start going on and on about temperaments.\u00a0 Have you ever seen that teaching on temperaments with the different personality types and temperaments?\u00a0 There are animal names for each of them, so a lot of churches will get you to become embroiled in these temperament or personality tests.\u00a0 The name of the game is to get the right personality types working together.\u00a0 On a church staff you must get the right personality types to work with each other.\u00a0 The idea is that if we get all that figured out from a personality type\/temperament level, then conflicts within the Church will cease.\u00a0 When people analyze it from that standpoint, they're not analyzing it from the lens of God's Word.\u00a0 They're analyzing it from what secular psychology has to offer.\u00a0\u00a0 Notice that James doesn\u2019t even talk about personality types or temperaments here.\u00a0\u00a0 He gets into a source; he tells you where the source of these things is \u2014 these conflicts that have nothing to do with the findings of modern-day psychology.\n\nSo, James, where do these things come from?\u00a0 These conflicts arise because of our hearts.\u00a0 Look at the second part of 4:1<\/u><\/strong> into 4:2<\/u><\/strong>:\u00a0 He says, \u201cIs not the source<\/em>\u2026 [in other words, the conflicts that he has just talked about, he is now giving us the source of where these things come from]. \u2026 \u201cIs not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 In the Bible, you will see \u2018members\u2019<\/em> is a reference to the body many times.\u00a0 Then in the first part of 4:2<\/u><\/strong> he says, \u201cYou lust <\/em>\u2026 (What is lust?\u00a0 It is desiring what God has forbidden, and we think of it often sexually, but it doesn\u2019t just have to relate to just that, because you could desire someone else\u2019s talent that God didn\u2019t give to you; someone else\u2019s prestige, someone else\u2019s reputation, and James says that is really the source of conflicts among Christians).\u00a0 He says, \u201cYou lust and do not have; so you commit murder.\u00a0 You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 So, where in the world do all these conflicts among Christians come from?\u00a0 They come from the heart, which is sinful, and they come from sinful desires and Christians moving into lust.\u00a0 Rather than surrendering them to the Lord, saying, \u2018Well, I really wish I was as good a singer as so and so, but Lord, You didn\u2019t make me a singer,<\/em>\u2019 so rather than being jealous of the person where your jealousy leads you to take shots at them behind their back, etc, rather than being jealous of them, \u201cLord, help me to overcome my jealousy and to be who You want me to be rather than who I lustfully desire to be<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 But we don't do that by taking it to the Lord, rather we tend to move off into envy and jealousy; we start taking shots at others behind their backs, and James is saying that this is where these conflicts come from.\n\nOne of the things to understand about the Bible is that it teaches that the human heart is wicked.\u00a0 I never had to sit my daughter down, well, let's not pick on my daughter.\u00a0 My parents never had to sit me down and say, \u2018Okay, we are going to teach you how to be selfish today.\u00a0 Ready?\u00a0 Oh, by the way, when you don't get your way, we will teach you how to throw a tantrum; this is how you do it.<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 So, all of those things \u2014 being selfish, hoarding my toys and not sharing them with my friends \u2014 I never had to be taught any of that.\u00a0 In fact, I had to be taught by my parents the opposite:\u00a0 How to control my anger, selfishness, how to be a giver rather than a taker because I am selfish by nature.\u00a0 That is what James is saying here \u2014 where the conflicts among Christians, most of them, where they come from.\n\nJesus made this same point in Mark 7:20-23<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cAnd He was saying, \u2018That which proceeds out of the man,<\/u><\/strong> that is what defiles the man. [<\/em>In other words, they were criticizing him here because He allowed His disciples to eat on the Sabbath.\u00a0 What a terrible thing, and He was acting as though He was involved in some kind of unspiritual enterprise.\u00a0 Jesus, here, makes a tremendous anthropological point, meaning a point relating to the doctrine of man: \u2018It isn\u2019t what man takes in that corrupts him; it isn\u2019t eating on the Sabbath that\u2019s the problem; it is what spills out of his heart which is wicked in original sin\u2019<\/em>]\u2026\u00a0 23<\/sup> For from within, out of the heart<\/u><\/strong> of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders [<\/em>now, didn\u2019t James here say that you commit murder? Was his audience physically committing murder?\u00a0 No, you can commit murder as a Christian by simply hating somebody according to the teachings on the Sermon on the Mount.\u00a0 \u2018Well, why would I hate somebody?\u00a0 Because they're better at something than I am, or they're more talented than I am, or they live in a nicer area than I do, or they drive a better car than I drive, so I am jealous<\/em>.\u2019 So rather than going to the Lord, asking Him to help us with our jealousy, we start to attack each other], adulteries, 22<\/sup> deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy [<\/em>that\u2019s a big one], slander [<\/em>that is what James is talking about here \u2014 Christians slandering each other], pride and foolishness. \u00a0<\/em>And if all of that is not clear enough, Jesus circles back to His main point:\u00a0 \u00a023 All these evil things proceed from within<\/u><\/strong> and defile the man.\u201d\u2019<\/em>\n\nPaul, the apostle, in the book of Galatians 5:19-21<\/u><\/strong>, is going to make the same point.\u00a0 Paul is going to call these things the works of the flesh.\u00a0 These are the ways that the sin nature manifests itself in observable ways.\u00a0 You always know as a Christian that you are moving off into the sin nature when these things become habitual in your life.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cNow the deeds of the flesh [<\/em>the sin nature, the Greek word is the \u2018sarx\u2019<\/em>]\u2026are evident, which are:\u00a0 sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, 20<\/sup>idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger<\/u><\/strong><\/em>, [those are relational sins \u2014 what James is dealing with.\u00a0 Christians arguing and contending with each other.\u00a0 Where does it come from?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have anything to do with the fact that you are working with the wrong personality type.\u00a0 It has everything to do with the sin nature which is not in subjection because you are allowing it to reign]\u2026 selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21<\/sup> envy, drunkenness, carousing, [<\/em>and it is almost as if Paul gets tired of mentioning things.\u00a0 He says, \u2018I can go on and on giving other manifestations of the flesh, but you get my point<\/em>\u2019]\u2026 and things like these, of which I forewarned you, that those<\/strong> <\/em>[see the shift from you to those<\/em><\/strong>; how he just went from second person to third person?\u00a0 When he talks about those he is talking about unbelievers] \u2026 those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.\u201d <\/em>\n\n\u00a0<\/em>I bring this up because many will use a passage like this to teach the insecurity of salvation.\u00a0 If you move off into these things, then you aren\u2019t going to heaven, but that is resolved when you see the shifts in pronouns from the second to the third person \u2014 from you to those<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s point is that you as a Christian<\/em> have the potential to act just like an unbeliever<\/em> through these works of the flesh.\u00a0 This is what unbelievers are like all the time, and since you, as a Christian, are dual natured, you have the propensity to go right back to the flesh and act just like an unbeliever.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s point was: \u2018Why would you do that?\u00a0 That isn\u2019t who you are; it isn\u2019t your identity, not your destiny.\u00a0 Why would you act like an unbeliever when the unbeliever, those, are going to a completely different destiny than where you are.<\/em>\u2019 That is why he mentions that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Notice that these works of the flesh come from within.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the human heart is corrupted and wicked; that is why Genesis 8:21<\/u><\/strong> says that \u201cthe intent of man\u2019s heart is evil from his youth.\u201d<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\n\nMarilyn, I think I heard you a couple of minutes ago quote Jeremiah 17:9,<\/u><\/strong> right?\n\nThere it is, \u201cThe heart<\/u><\/em><\/strong> is more <\/em>deceitful<\/u><\/strong> than all else\u00a0 And is desperately sick<\/u><\/em><\/strong>; Who can understand <\/u><\/em><\/strong>it?\u201d it is very interesting to me that when you get saved, God makes no attempt to reform the old nature.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t slap a coat of fresh paint over the old nature.\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t He do that?\u00a0 Because the old nature is unredeemable.\u00a0 It is unfixable.\u00a0 Putting lipstick on a pig is still a pig, right?\u00a0 What God does is to give you a new nature, and you become dual natured now with the ability to please the new nature.\u00a0 You have new desires, and the goal of your Christian life from that point on is to live according to the desires of the new nature, and to reckon <\/em>dead, \u2018logizomai\u2019<\/em> where we get the word, logic, which is an accounting term, \u2018reckon\u2019<\/em> dead, the deeds of the flesh.\u00a0 In other words, you do not have to go back to the flesh as a Christian because the deeds of the flesh have been crucified.\u00a0 The desire to return to the old nature is there and always will be, but you can do what Nancy Reagan said, \u2018Just say no!<\/em>\u2019\n\nNow before you were saved, you could not just say \u2018no<\/em>;\u2019 you were a slave to it, but now that you have new resources inside of you, you have the capacity to \u2018just say no.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 Why would I want to go back to that old nature?\u00a0 It is \u2018deceitful, sick, who can even understand it?\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 When God sizes up humanity, this is His assessment, because we are corrupted by the old nature; deceitful by nature, sick, and we don't even understand how wicked we are a lot of the time.\u00a0 By the way, you inherited that old nature from the point of conception.\u00a0 Psalm 51:5<\/u><\/strong>, David says, \u201cBehold, I was brought forth in guilt, And in sin my mother conceived me.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 In other words, at the point when life begins, which is at conception, what is transferred to every single human being is the nature that is at war with their Creator.\u00a0 God never tries to correct that old nature in the sense that He tries to fix it or rehabilitate it.\u00a0 God is all powerful, and not even He tries to fix it.\u00a0 What God does is to give you a brand new nature, and that happens not<\/em> at the point of physical conception but at the point of spiritual birth.\u00a0 The moment you trust in Christ as your Savior, boom!\u00a0 You are born spiritually, and you have a new nature.\u00a0 Now, you must be taught the principles of discipleship and part of those principles involve \u2018reckoning\u2019<\/em> \u2018logizomai,\u2019<\/em> considering dead, Romans 6,<\/u><\/strong> that old nature and live according to the desires of the new nature.\n\nSo, you walk into a church where is bickering and conflict and hostility and antagonism, and all the secular psychologists want to use that situation to showcase their personality profiles and inventories.\u00a0 James says that the reason that the church is in that condition is because there are a lot of believers in that church who aren\u2019t living according to the desires of the new nature.\u00a0 They went right back to the desires of the old nature and got involved in the relational sins:\u00a0 jealousy, envy, outbursts of anger, desiring something that someone else has \u2014 you move into envy at that point and don't get what it is that you think you deserve, so you begin to slander others behind their backs.\u00a0 Usually, it comes across as spiritual somewhat; you might be able to dress it up in a little spiritual language, but just because you throw a Bible verse in here or there, it could still be from the old, corrupted nature, and that becomes the source of conflicts.\u00a0 This is why we are to avoid wrangling.<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\n\nRather than being envious of something that someone else has within the church and moving into relational sins, what should I do instead?\u00a0 I should take that situation in prayer to the Lord, and he will talk about that in the second half of James 4:2b<\/u><\/strong>, and James at that point, says, \u201cYou have not because you ask not<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe it is that you don't have the status, wealth or talent because you never took time to ask God for those things.\u00a0 But in 4:3<\/u><\/strong>, he says to \u2018Be careful, because when you ask God in prayer, make sure that you are asking for the right reasons<\/em>. \u2018 Don't ask God to bless you so you can win a popularity contest.\u00a0 You want to be blessed by God so you can be a blessing to other people, and he will deal with that in 4:3.<\/u><\/strong>\n\nWe will stop here.\u00a0 We will pick it up with James 4:2<\/u><\/strong> next time.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t