Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So, Lord, I just thank youk this morning. I thank youk for grace. I thank youk for your word. I thank youk for your kindnesses.
[00:00:08] I thank youk this morning for your people. I thank youk that we can gather in youn name in a country where there's freedom to worship youp.
[00:00:15] We think of other parts of the world right now, where there's conflict, there's persecution, there's famine, there's a lot more heartache in other parts of our.
[00:00:26] Our globe today.
[00:00:28] And yet, Lord, as we stand here this morning, we can still be just as needy in an affluent and a very safe environment. We can be walking through illness, we can be walking through relational tension. We can be walking through loss. I know there's so many things happening in our church family right now, both things of great joy and things of great sorrow. And I recognize that this morning, and I pray as we look at your word today, that your spirit would speak into our innermost being and that we'd hear the voice, your voice, not the voice of the songs we sang or the pastor's voice, but I pray, Father, the spirit of God would speak in every heart and that we'd leave this place, maybe having an aha moment or an awakening in our soul, Father, that would bring about lasting change in our life. And we just thank you for that as we look at the Jesus way of doing things. And we thank you for that. In your precious name we pray. And God's people said Amen. Amen. You may be seated. So we're doing a series this morning on the Book of James, and we're going to look just at five verses this morning, very limited text, but we're going to look at a lot of things from James, Chapter three. And I've entitled this message Experiencing the Heart of a Beautiful Life.
[00:01:43] How many recognize that in the human heart, there's always a hunger for freedom, freedom from oppression, and actually, many times it drives people to extreme things, revolting against oppressors.
[00:01:58] You know, there's, you know, a whole history of freedom fighters and all the rest of that around the world.
[00:02:04] You know, the Jewish people actually successfully revolted against the Syrians under the Maccabees, but now they were oppressed by the Romans. And at that moment, Jesus shows on the scene. And when Jesus is talking, his messaging is radically different than some of the other people that are living in his state, who actually assumes that the Messiah is going to be like a Maccabean who's going to deliver them from Roman oppression. So in The Zealots mind, it's all about, you know, killing Romans. It's all about being free from political oppression. Okay, that's the picture you need to understand. But on the other side of it, you have Jesus coming along and he's telling people, love your enemies. Oh, by the way, if they ask you to walk a mile, by law, the Romans could do this, conscript somebody to carry their pack for a mile. Jesus says, no, just don't carry it for a mile, go two miles with it.
[00:02:55] Everything about what Jesus was saying, how many recognized, was extremely radical in their thinking. But the Jewish people, most of them didn't hear the message of Jesus. I mean, they might have heard it, but they didn't apply it. They didn't take it to heart. It didn't bring about transformation in the vast majority of them. It did in some of their lives, and thank God it did. And the people that were affected by Christ, we're going to find out, literally changed the world. But let's take a look here. What happened not during just the first Jewish revolt, because I think most of us understand that one where, you know, the Romans destroyed the temple and the rest of that, but, you know, life continued on. And then we come to the second century, 132 to 135, where there was a false messiah leading them again in revolt. And Hadrian now is the Roman emperor. And he reigned between 117 and 138.
[00:03:50] The Jewish people revolted in the second revolt. And the Emperor Hadrian was so angry that this occurred again.
[00:04:00] You know, what's this, another 60 years later that he literally killed 580,000 Jewish people in that revolt. He destroyed 985 villages. He was so angry, he forbid the people to enter the city of Jerusalem, as much as was left. I mean, he did so much damage to that city that when he rebuilt it, he rebuilt it as a Roman city. He rebuilt a temple to honor Zeus on it, or Jupiter, that's the Roman God.
[00:04:29] And then he forbade the people to enter the city, scattered many of the remnants of the of the people.
[00:04:37] And many of the poor people didn't go anywhere. But then he wanted to obliterate their memory. And he called the region Palestine. Isn't that interesting? So a lot of people don't realize that's where the name comes from.
[00:04:48] Now, in contrast to the revolt of the Zealots second time around, here, I want you to hear the words of Philip Schaft. He's a Christian historian. This is what he says about Jesus in his book, the person of Christ.
[00:05:02] And yet this Jesus of Nazareth, without money, arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon. Without science and learning, he shed more light on things, human and divine, than all philosophers and scholars combined.
[00:05:21] And without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words as were never spoken before or since produced effects which lie beyond the reach of any orator or poet.
[00:05:32] Without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, furnished the themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, sweet songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.
[00:05:48] How many go?
[00:05:50] What did Jesus do?
[00:05:52] Why was his approach to the problem so much more significant? So I'm just going to say what an amazing contrast between the human approach to life's problems and God's approach in addressing even the great injustices of life. We're either going to do it, you know, the way that normally people do it, or we can hear how God is going to now teach us to follow his ways in order to address even the most difficult, most unjust situations possible, even as these people were living under oppression.
[00:06:29] How should we handle this? And if you don't think this is relevant today, let me point out to you something.
[00:06:34] Our country is very polarized, just like most of the world. And everybody has a viewpoint. And I talked about that last week in my message on words. Remember that all the words we say and how damaging and how destructive they really are earlier in this chapter. Now, James is going to bring out another way of dealing with the problem. And we're going to look at the difference between divine wisdom and human wisdom. And I think this is something we need to understand in James. Well, look. Well, like, think of this.
[00:07:07] I'm trying to bring this point across. The zealots in Jesus day murdered and revolted against Rome, ultimately destroying themselves in the process.
[00:07:14] Jesus message of love and forgiveness prevailed over that very empire until finally the empire began to crumble from within. And the one sustaining force within the Roman empire in the 4th century was Christianity. And eventually the Roman Emperor embraced Christianity as a dominant theme in his empire. In other words, Christianity overcame it.
[00:07:40] How many think that's amazing? Now, it didn't happen immediately. See, that's the problem between God's wisdom and human wisdom. We want things now.
[00:07:50] God's way is a way of patience, long suffering. It takes time to maturate and mature. But in the end, it's a way that brings harmony, peace.
[00:08:04] It brings people together, it builds community, it builds humanity's wisdom. Usually is at the expense of great strife, conflict, death, and the breakdown of community and relationships. That's what we need to understand. And so Jesus is still ushering in his kingdom today and he's still capturing the human heart. In James, chapter three, we're going to discover the difference between a wisdom that originates from God and a wisdom that defies God, which origin is demonic and it's destructive in nature. It is a wisdom that alienates human relationships while Jesus message brings about transformation in those relationships. James now is concluding chapter three, which began.
[00:08:52] The chapter began with a challenge about our mouth. You know, it's pretty challenging. I had so many people last Sunday say, pastor, that was an extremely challenging message. And I'm going, yeah, the book of James is challenging. You know, it does challenge us.
[00:09:07] But what James is now going to do, and I said it and I alluded to it and I mentioned it last week, was that the problem isn't her mouth, it's coming from our heart.
[00:09:17] Now James is going to go right at it again. He's going to zero in on what needs to change about our heart. It's got to change from the inside.
[00:09:26] Real lasting transformation is always a change from the inside out.
[00:09:30] Isn't that right, Jen? We took that book. It was powerful, wasn't it? We studied a book on how to have change from the inside out. That's the most profound, long lasting change. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. So what is the condition of my heart? What's the condition of your heart? What's the state of our soul? What wisdom is affecting us? How are we thinking about life? What lens are we looking through? Are we embracing God's wisdom or are we embracing humanity's wisdom? That's the question James is going to challenge us with. You know, as we evaluate the nature of the sources of this wisdom that shapes our heart and it affects our speech and which in turn brings either peace and harmony or conflict and strife.
[00:10:17] We're going to examine how wisdom affects the very condition of our heart. So I'm going to look at just two conditions.
[00:10:23] You know, the first condition is simply the wisdom that comes from God. It's the wisdom that comes from above.
[00:10:30] And we determine the nature of this wisdom. We know how this wisdom is operating. If we're operating in divine wisdom by the product it produces. Isn't that interesting? If you're operating in God's wisdom, it's going to produce something in your life. If you're operating with the wisdom of this world, it's going to produce something totally different. And you can actually tell which wisdom you're operating out of based on the outcome.
[00:10:56] So this is going to tell us a lot about ourselves. You know, we could say, well, yeah, I'm operating from God's wisdom. Yeah, but if the outcomes are wrong, I would beg to differ with you. You've got the wrong wisdom that you're operating from. So let's take a look at this passage, begins in verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you?
[00:11:15] Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done, and the humility that comes from wisdom.
[00:11:24] Now, the nature of biblical wisdom. You know, I remember some of you have been in the church a long time. I actually preached through the whole book of Proverbs and I talked a lot about wisdom. Proverbs is a wisdom book. It's wisdom literature.
[00:11:37] And I'm trying to show you that James is actually wisdom literature. And he's totally affected by the book of Proverbs. And so wisdom is actually a skill.
[00:11:47] Isn't that beautiful? So God's kind of wisdom is going to give us a skill. But, you know, how many know that? There's a lot of people that are really bright. They have high iq. You ever met people like that? Very bright people. But sometimes they have very low eq. You go, what's eq? That's called emotional intelligence, and that's relational intelligence. That's good people skills. And biblical wisdom gives you high eq. It's going to give you amazing social skills. And how many know to get ahead in life you need to have good social skills? You know, it's true. You need those kind of skills now.
[00:12:26] So this, this skill is really a skill helping us to relate to other people in a loving manner, which helps create a healthy environment.
[00:12:35] How many like being in healthy environments?
[00:12:38] How many love being in healthy social environments where people love each other and they're getting along? And actually, you know, I've been kind of emphasizing it in our church that Jesus gave us a new commandment. And I was really taken back. When I was preaching through John, I was realizing this new commandment sounds a lot like the old commandment. We're supposed to love God and love people. But I realized something. The new commandment Jesus gave was that we're to love one another even as Christ loves us. In other words, the kind of love that God was asking us to show each other is a divine love. It's an unconditional love. And so that Jesus could say to the disciples in the upper room, he says, this is how you'll know that these are my followers, because they'll show love one to another. Love is the characteristic or distinctive markings or an identification marking of a true believer. We have to love each other. And I believe that love is a very attractive thing. As a matter of fact, I like what Alec Montier says now.
[00:13:43] I entitled this sermon and I mentioned the word beautiful life. And I thought, you know, when I blog and I'm going to shoot this title up there, I already know it's going to get a good response, because people want to live a beautiful life. Everybody wants to have a beautiful life. It's true. But now we're going to talk about how to have it. That's the most important thing. Alec Motier says he announces its arrival, which is wisdom, in chapter three, verse 13, with the words this person is going to demonstrate here, they're going to show it by their good life. That word good in the Greek, there's actually two words for good. It's interesting.
[00:14:21] The one word is the word agathos, which literally means someone who is intrinsically good or possessing the quality of goodness.
[00:14:30] How many know there's only one person that's good who's good?
[00:14:35] God.
[00:14:37] Jesus told that to the one person that asked the question, only God is good. So only God is intrinsically good. So we're not going. We can't walk around saying, well, I'm intrinsically good. See, our culture will tell us that people are intrinsically good. I'm sorry to tell you this, guys. I hate to ruin you. I'm going to mess up your thinking. But humanity has been marred by sin. And because sin has invaded our nature, we're not intrinsically good now. We're made in the image of God, which is good. We have the capacity to do good. And we have, you know, if we surrender to God, we'll have the ability to do good more often. I'm not saying people that don't know Christ can't do good. They can.
[00:15:17] But we're talking about intrinsic good here. But let's move on here to the word that's actually used here in the Book of James. And the second word is kalos, and it means lovely.
[00:15:30] It's speaking of the loveliness of goodness. It's speaking of the attractiveness of a good life. Its wholesomeness and its helpfulness is seen in God's people. It's a way of life whose goodness is plain for all to see. In other words, it's attractive. That's why I call it A beautiful life, you know, isn't that neat? You ever met people, they just attract you to themselves. There's a beauty about their lives. It's like a magnet. They just draw you. There's a goodness that comes from them. They're understanding, they're considerate, they're kind, they're generous.
[00:16:05] You know, that's what we're talking about here. This is what James is telling us. God's wisdom is going to produce this kind of life. How many say, I would love to have God do such a work in my heart that my life would be attractive.
[00:16:21] It would be so beautiful. It would be like a magnet. It would just be attracting people because of the goodness that's flowing from my life.
[00:16:29] And I believe that's what God is interested in creating within our lives.
[00:16:35] Again, we see these words of James reflecting this wisdom literature. You know, I was thinking of Derek Kidner. He's describing in his commentary, the Book of Proverbs. And I remember reading this and I thought, this is such a sweet introduction. He says, God's Proverbs, or his instructions from Proverbs is to make, he says bad people good and the good people nice.
[00:16:57] I like that, you know, because I think a lot of times we can be not so nice.
[00:17:04] Isn't that true? How many know? You say every once in a while, I'm probably not that nice.
[00:17:09] I've had moments where I've not been that nice. How many say that's true? And so proverbs and this wisdom, this divine wisdom, actually facilitates and gives us an understanding of how we need to relate to people. It teaches us the Jesus way. I'm going to call it the Jesus way. This is how Jesus would do it. This is the way Jesus would come about relating to people. I think that's powerful. He goes on to say, and he makes the point with proverbial brevity. That's what a proverb does. It's brief that there are details of character small enough to escape what he calls the mesh of the law and the broadsides of the prophets, and yet decisive and personal dealings. What is he saying is, you know, sometimes the law of God in the Old Testament and the prophets who are calling people to obey the law miss some of the finer nuances of relational harmony and wisdom. Literature kind of zeroes in on that stuff and talks about it. You know, like stuff like, as James says, you know, be slow to speak, what quick to listen, slow to anger. Can you imagine relating to people? And we're going, you know, I'm going to learn how to be a good listener.
[00:18:22] The best conversationalists are good listeners and they ask good questions and they draw people out, and they're able to draw things out of people. And that's very powerful.
[00:18:31] Kidner is saying is that wisdom literature, as reflected in these proverbial statements, define for us the nature of how to live life ethically, morally, and lovingly before God and other people.
[00:18:44] So they instruct us how to interact with others by doing what is right, what's fair. This knowledge gives us insight. How many I pray for this? I said, lord, would you give me insight? Would you give me discernment? Would you give me discretion? Would you give me understanding? Would you give me knowledge? Do you ever pray like that? That's how I pray. You're going, why are you praying these prayers? Because watch what Proverbs, chapter one says. I love Proverbs. Proverbs of Solomon, King of Israel, says, for gaining wisdom. Anybody here want to gain wisdom? I get my hand up. I pray for that all the time. To be a good leader, you have to have wisdom. You know, instruction, understanding, words of insight for receiving instructions. In prudent behavior, prudence means you have forethought. You're not just in the moment. You're thinking ahead and you're thinking of all of the potential pitfalls or also the potential benefits. We want to be prudent. We have foresight doing what's right, just and fair.
[00:19:41] Forgiving prudence to those who are simple. Simple means people that are uninstructed does not mean simple minded. He's meaning uninstructed knowledge. Discretion to the young. How many know? Young people think they know more than they know.
[00:19:56] Come on, let's be honest. And you know, when we're younger, we could walk around straightening the world out. We have all the answers. And then we get older and we realize, I have a lot less answers. And the older you get, the less answers you have. How many? Figure that one out. You know, I have more questions than answers, right? And then it says, for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and the riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instructions.
[00:20:24] You know, if we're not open to correction and we're not open to learning, we're not wise, we lack wisdom, and we're actually hurting ourselves.
[00:20:36] You know, how many want to learn from other people's mistakes rather than making them all yourself?
[00:20:42] I'm going to try to learn as many things from other people. So I don't have to go through that pitfall, right? I want to avoid those things. I want to learn from them.
[00:20:52] James is basically recapturing the essence of these proverbs and what they're saying to us in this letter. He's reminding us of the beauty and the benefits of the good life or the beautiful life that is reflected in the deeds done and the humility that comes from God's kind of wisdom. Humility is really recognizing that we need God's assistance. We can't do this on our own. Wisdom is that gift from God that must be sought from God as the source of wisdom that brings peace and grace into our lives. James has already challenged the readers of his letter. He's saying in chapter one, he said, listen, if you lack wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. So what is God saying? I know that you have a need, but I'm going to look past your faults and I'm going to give you what you need. How many appreciate that about God? If God was giving us what we deserved, we wouldn't do well.
[00:21:48] At least I wouldn't. I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't do well. But I know what God is like. God says, I'm going to look past your faults. I'm going to give you what you need.
[00:21:57] Anybody happy with that? God is willing to look past that. He says, okay, I know that you got issues. I'm not going to be a fault finder. You know, a lot of times we could say to this to somebody, let's move away from what we normally do. Think about what God does. He could look at somebody and go, they don't deserve that.
[00:22:14] Then I'm not going to do anything for them.
[00:22:16] See, that's how humans think. How many say that's how humans think? Well, they don't deserve this. Why should I do that for them? You've ever heard anybody say that kind of language before? Anybody ever heard that stuff? Well, they don't deserve that. Why should we do that? And God says, yeah, I know they don't deserve it, but that's what they need.
[00:22:33] Going to give it to them.
[00:22:34] How many are glad that God looks past our sin and gives us forgiveness when we ask him, I'm happy. I'm so happy when I go, I'm at a loss what to do here. God, would you help me to understand what I should be doing? And God says, yeah, I can see you have limitations. But I'm going to help you with this. And as we ask him for it, he answers those prayers, those cries of our heart.
[00:23:01] James even challenges us to pursue wisdom above financial gains, like Proverbs does. Look what Proverbs says. Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding. She's more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She's more precious than rubies. Nothing you can desire can compare with her. Now, what's he talking about? This is the wisdom from above. This is the fear of God. This is the kind of relationship we're saying. I'm going to put God at the center, at the heart of my life. I'm going to seek him above everything else. You know, a lot of people, this is a real sad thing. I'm going to say this about North Americans. We can get so caught up about making money that we lose out.
[00:23:43] Come on.
[00:23:46] Materialism. Can I just tell you, this is the tragedy. People work hard all their lives and at the end they have to give it all away.
[00:23:54] They don't spend it all.
[00:23:56] Or they work hard all of their lives. They don't even enjoy what they have. And sometimes it's just taken away from them.
[00:24:04] You could lose everything.
[00:24:06] So I'm just telling you, you better have the right aims in life and the right goals in life. And as you get older, you start realizing this is what it's all about, guys. It's about knowing God and relating to him and knowing people and helping them. That's what it's all about. That's the rich person.
[00:24:23] That's who the real rich person is. And listen to what Paul says to us. It's because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who's become for us, wisdom. So wisdom is actually found in a person.
[00:24:33] So it's not about gaining a bunch of knowledge. Wisdom is getting to know the person of wisdom, who's God himself, who's found in the person of Christ. That's beautiful. So as I get to know Jesus, I'm getting to know wisdom. I'm getting to know his way. I'm going to follow the way of Jesus.
[00:24:50] So as I'm saying here, how does. How are we to walk in this wisdom? Well, you know, all of these writers in the New Testament are wisdom writers. I don't know if you know that.
[00:24:59] Look at Paul. This is what he says in Ephesians. Be very careful then how you walk. Now, he's not talking like this.
[00:25:07] No. He says the word walk means be very careful how you what live lifestyle. Be Careful in the lifestyle you have.
[00:25:17] Not as unwise, but as wise. So back, you know, you have to understand those terms because the fool and the wise person is really the person. That's foolish as a person who's deficient in his understanding and relationship with God. Why the wise person is not necessarily intellectually smarter. It's just that they're trusting and fearing and obeying and following God's words and doing them. That's the wise person. It says, make the most of every opportunity. Because the days are evil. You know, we keep walking around going, it's so bad out here, Pastor. It's so terrible. It's getting worse all the time. I'm going, they've always been evil.
[00:25:52] What's new?
[00:25:55] The days have always been evil, guys.
[00:25:58] Therefore don't be foolish. Don't over respond to that stuff he says, but understand what the Lord's will is. Well, you go, what's God's will?
[00:26:06] Don't get drunk on wine. In other words, which leads to debauchery. You say, what's debauchery?
[00:26:13] Debauchery is living an uncontrolled, sense filled, materialistic kind of lifestyle. It's all about pleasure and doing my own thing and living for myself. That's debauchery. Which leads to all kinds of excesses in life and leads people into bondage, addictions and all kinds of problems. But he said rather be filled with the spirit.
[00:26:32] How do you get filled with the spirit?
[00:26:35] You pursue God, you get to know God, you open your heart to God. He says we should be speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, songs from the Spirit, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything. Oh, always giving thanks to God.
[00:26:55] So all of the people that are walking around, you know, upset, grumbling and complaining, and don't tell me Christians don't do this.
[00:27:04] They do.
[00:27:06] And they're the guys in the Old Testament that ended up dying in the desert. Right.
[00:27:12] And you know, earlier in this book, I said, when trial comes into our lives, by the way, and we'll all have trials, and trials are not necessarily God's punishment. I don't think they are that at all. They're just a test and they just reveal the true state of our soul. But you know, we can choose our attitude in a trial. We can be joyful. He says, consider pure joy. Why don't we just choose a good attitude? Why don't we walk around singing and praising and worshiping God every single day and people are Going to go, what are you on?
[00:27:42] You know, I want it, you know, hey, I know all about this. You know, I think I told you the story. Before I was a brand new Christian, I was working in a restaurant. I was kind of down. You ever have down? How many have ever had a down day? Yeah, I had down day and I was not.
[00:27:57] And I was reading a book about praising God and worshiping God and giving thanks to God. So I decided, let's try this, see what happens. And so I'm working a graveyard shift at this restaurant and all the people that came out of the bar usually came afterwards when it closed to come in and eat so they could maybe be a little more sober when they left.
[00:28:15] Whatever.
[00:28:16] So I'm back there, I'm having a wonderful time. I start out, you know, not excited, but I start praising and singing and worshiping God. And pretty soon, you know, the spirit of God comes on me and I'm having a wonderful time. Now I'm just singing away, praising God, having a great time. And the people start filling out of the bar, they're filled with the wrong spirit, I'm filled with the right spirit. And what happens is they can see through the. There's a past shelf where you pass the food over that's called the past shelf. They pass the food over and these people are looking at me and I'm not even paying attention. I'm just cooking away their orders. There's a lot of orders, you know, they're all coming, ordering, I'm fixing their food.
[00:28:52] And finally a waitress comes back, she goes, you know, there's a couple people out there, they want to know what you're on.
[00:28:58] Because they could see I was having a great time. You know, obviously what they were on wasn't working, so they wanted to know what I was on. Like, you know, what kind of a substance abuse that I was involved in here or something, you know, And I said, just go back there and tell them I'm on Jesus, I'm on Jesus. I'm just worshiping Jesus, you know, that's the thing. So what's the nature of God's wisdom here? Verse 17. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, peace, loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial and sincere. That's quite a list, isn't it? Kind of like the fruit of the spirit, the Bible. Once in a while you get these amazing lists.
[00:29:39] Now what are these characteristics? Douglas Moo explains that purity here is an overarching virtue of divine wisdom. To be pure means to be holy or sacred. What does it mean to be holy or sacred? It means to be set apart for God.
[00:29:55] So the first one he gives us is first of all pure. We have to be giving ourselves and setting ourselves apart for God. How do we do that every day? Well, I think you got to spend time with them. You know, Bill, I love your testimony. You know what Bill told me one day? He said, you know what really turned my life around? He felt like God spoke to him and said, I'm going to use this, Bill, if that's okay. Wave your hand. You giving me permission? Yeah. Okay. He said to me, God said to him, you don't love me, Bill. And Bill said, yeah, you're right, I don't. But help me to love you. And he said, once he made that prayer, everything changed in his life.
[00:30:33] Everything changed. God changed his heart, and he began to love God. And I've seen a great change in Bill's life, great spiritual growth and development.
[00:30:43] He has a heart for God.
[00:30:45] We need a heart for God. That's what it's all about.
[00:30:49] Then we see the fruit of this thing.
[00:30:52] I like what Douglas Smith says. He says, james begins with the quality of peace loving because this virtue is especially prominent in this context.
[00:31:02] You see, he criticizes those who falsely claim to be wise for their contentiousness and their dispute that they're fawning. In other words, there's conflict in the church. They're arguing with each other. He's going, wait a minute.
[00:31:15] He's going, you guys are not exhibiting divine wisdom. That's what he's saying. He's saying, according to the Old Testament also, wisdom produces peace. And Paul lists peace as a fruit of the Spirit. So if this is not happening in our lives, we got to say what's going on, because we should have peace in our hearts, ruling and reigning, and we should have peace with the other believers who are in relationship with us.
[00:31:42] Why is wisdom peace loving? Because it's also considerate and submissive. How many know it's easy to get along with somebody who's considerate of other people? How many know it's easy to get along with somebody who's willing to say, it doesn't have to be my way. Whatever you want is fine. I'm happy with that. That's an easy person to get along with. To be considerate or gentle is to be kind, willing to yield, unwilling to exact strict claims.
[00:32:08] With such an attitude, the believer motivated and empowered by wisdom will follow in the footsteps of his or her Lord, who also is characterized by meekness and gentleness, which is really having your soul under control. You're not just going off the handle.
[00:32:25] Then he goes on to say this. The person who is submissive is one who is easily persuaded. Not in the sense of a weakness, credulous gullibility.
[00:32:35] That's not what he's talking about. You're not just gullible, he says, but rather in that of a willing deference to others when unalterable theological or moral principles are not involved. Wisdom is also full of mercy and good fruit. In other words, he's saying, is you just know what hill to die on. You're not fighting every battle. You're not uptight about everything. You go, yeah, that's fine, let's go ahead.
[00:32:59] You know, we're easy to get along with. How many like being around people are easy to get along with? They're not always demanding their way, you know, of course.
[00:33:09] And this is what he's saying, Divine wisdom produces. That's the nature of it.
[00:33:13] So the results of God's wisdom, what is it? Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. Now, chapter three, at the end of this chapter, you have to understand these divisions are arbitrary.
[00:33:26] This part is really fixing itself to chapter four. It really does. It starts with the words we say, talks about the wisdom, where it's coming from, and then it talks about the outcomes of what's going to happen as a result of this. But here's the introduction of it. It reaps a harvest of righteousness. In other words, we're going to start doing the right things.
[00:33:48] James is concerned about conflict in relationships within the church families, writing letters to all these believers all around the Mediterranean. He wants to see mutual love and support as the foundation in every congregation. How many know you got a church where people are loving each other and there's no bickering and fighting and there's harmony, you know, and by God's grace, I feel like that's what we have. It's attractive. People feel like, I can come, I'm safe. How many like going into an environment? You go, I've walked into churches and they've said, something's going on here. I can feel the tension.
[00:34:22] Or you walk in a home and you can immediately feel the tension. Or you walk in a home and you immediately feel the peace.
[00:34:28] You can tell, boom, right off the bat, you know, these people are getting along or they're not getting along.
[00:34:34] Douglas Moose says, in this verse, James singles out for special emphasis One attribute of wisdom, it's peaceableness. The emphasis is no doubt the product of James desire to eradicate the bitter, contentious quarrels and disputes that were rending the church.
[00:34:49] It was tearing the church apart. It was divisive. The peace that genuine wisdom should produce in those situations was notably absent. So I'm going to pause for a moment. Let's just. Let's take a little test for ourselves. Here's the question. We're going to evaluate our life. Is my life a life of peace?
[00:35:08] Yes or no?
[00:35:10] Do you have peace with God? Do I have peace with God?
[00:35:16] Are we in a right relationship with God? Do we have the peace of God? Which means that I'm just, you know, I'm not living in anxiety or frustration or anything. I'm just happy. I'm at peace with myself. I'm at peace with God. I'm at peace with people.
[00:35:30] How am I relating to my inner circle, my family? You know, is there tension there?
[00:35:36] Do I have peace with my co workers?
[00:35:39] Are we exhibiting a considerate, submissive, impartial and merciful attitude and actions to those that we're relating to?
[00:35:47] If we are, you're walking in God's wisdom.
[00:35:51] You're living out God's wisdom. You're following the Jesus path. And I'm going to tell you something. Sometimes you go, it doesn't seem like it's going the way it should, Pastor, but I'm at peace with people. I'm doing what I should be doing. I'm not creating a problem there. In the end, you will rise to the top.
[00:36:08] You see, in the end, Christianity rose to the top.
[00:36:12] All the people that thought they had to do it, fighting, bickering, arguing, dividing, contending, they just, they all sank to the bottom. That's the way it works. It's the way it works.
[00:36:26] James is painting a picture of contrast between wisdom from above that comes from God and the opposite, which is brokenness within our hearts. Look at the second expression here, the wisdom that comes from below.
[00:36:41] It's cunning, it's worldly wisdom. Its origin is demonic. And what we see as its basic characteristic is driven by the will. I want my way. It's got to be my way.
[00:36:55] I'm moving in this direction. Look at the nature of the wisdom from below. But he says, but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Now, I think we need to unpack these words. Remember, this is Greek being translated into English. So what is he really saying here? Well, the word translated here is envy or another translation. Jealousy should be thought of as simply strong emotion or passion. Okay? That's the word you need to get in your mind.
[00:37:25] The other word we need to understand is the word bitter. Now, earlier in the chapter just above, when I was talking about the words, remember I talked about the salt water and the good water.
[00:37:35] Well, the NIV uses salt water twice, but in verse 11, it's actually. The Greek word is actually focusing in on bitter. You know, a lot of people get bitter. There's a lot of bitter people.
[00:37:48] Right? So that's what he's talking about here. And then he goes on.
[00:37:56] The problem is he's going to say, as I pointed out is it's not what we're saying. It's coming from within us. It's within our heart, the essence of us. The tragedy is so often we don't realize the condition of our own sense of being. We're in a state of self deception.
[00:38:13] Does anybody know that sin actually hardens your heart? And then you're deceived. You think you're doing good and you're not. You know, James talks about not boasting or denying the truth about our state of being. A lot of people say, hey, how are you doing? Doing great.
[00:38:27] Really well. When I'm looking at the outcome of your life, it doesn't look so good. So how can you say that everything's going good? I think you got to be more honest with yourself and say, why are these outcomes happening?
[00:38:39] Am I the problem in some of these things? I got to evaluate my own heart and say, what's creating this stuff? That's what I'm trying to get at. Alec Motyar describes it this way. Does not of itself contain the thought of hostile envy or other people's, you know, of other people's gifts or affections. In other words, he says this bitter envy. He says it's not this jealousy about other people.
[00:39:04] There are those who are quick on the. He's saying what it really is. Talking about those who are quick on the draw, more than ready to fight for their rights, easily prepared to feel that they are in some way threatened by others. They're insecure.
[00:39:17] It's more the sharpness of spirit in personal relationships. This over concern for one's own position, dignity and rights or whatever that James has in mind. In other words, I'm standing up for myself.
[00:39:30] I'm not going to let anybody push me around here. I'm asserting myself. How many know that today we have a lot of you know, we got to be more assertive. That's the world's wisdom. It's always promoting self.
[00:39:41] If you don't assert yourself, you don't push, you're not getting ahead. Isn't that what you're told? Come on, that's what we're told. And hear the Christian message. The divine wisdom is saying, no, just relax. Let God be the one that promotes you.
[00:39:56] You don't have to advance your cause.
[00:39:58] How many want to walk with God? How many want to walk in step with God? How many want to get to the place where God really has for you, rather than in your mind going, this is where I want to go. And God goes, that's not even where I want you to go. And off you go on your own little jaunt out here, and you're fighting every single battle and you're all upset and you're bent out of shape. Or you can just say, you know, I'm going to relax, I'm going to flow, I'm going to walk with go.
[00:40:23] I'm going to trust God. I'm going to let God bring me where I need to go. And if I don't get to where I think I need to, who cares?
[00:40:30] Isn't it really about where God needs to get me? And at the end of the day, you're in peace. You got peace, you got joy, you got hope.
[00:40:39] And you know what happens?
[00:40:40] Those are the people God uses. And you get to places you never dreamed you'd get to.
[00:40:47] Dan McCartney, he says it, this is really the sharpness of self interest that leads into the formation of parties and cliques.
[00:40:55] It's that inner force that the world translates as selfish ambition. How many know that we're really polarizing today? This is what he's talking about. This is a wisdom that's coming from below. That's what he's describing, Dan McCartney says, as the desire to impose one's own opinions on others. It's what James is condemning. James point would be that although zeal for what one thinks is as of truth may have the appearance of wisdom, if such zeal, even if based on truth, introduces discord and instability into the community of faith, it's not true wisdom. In other words, you know, all these people go, this is the right thing to do. We're going to do it. It doesn't matter the outcome. The outcome matters.
[00:41:38] If you're going to have to destroy things to get to where you think you need to get to, you're going about it all wrong.
[00:41:46] It's an argument. You know, a lot of people say, well, you know, the ends justify the means. And I go, listen, if you don't use the right means, you're never going to get to the right ends.
[00:41:56] You have to. The journey is as important as the destination. And in Christianity, folks, it's all about the journey. And if you journey correctly, you'll get to the right destination.
[00:42:09] That's what I'm trying to drive at today. And that's what divine wisdom is all about, that you and I are walking with God on the journey, doing what he's asking us to do, and not having to roll over and beat up people on the way to get to where we're going. That's what he's talking about. I mean, we could summarize this by saying that if our words create contention and division, what we are doing is not wisdom from above. It's demonically inspired. In other words, the effect of our words should be telling us something of the nature of where our thoughts and words and actions are coming from.
[00:42:42] What we are saying is that in the Christian community, if we keep demanding our own way at the expense of others, we can be assured that this is a sinful course. And the wisdom that we think we are advocating is not divine wisdom. And matter of fact, he goes on to say, I mean, I think our Word should build people up. But the origins of this wisdom, it's not coming from heaven, but it's earthly, unspiritual and demonic. And it's basically the desire to advance one's own power and influence to the detriment of others. What's the result?
[00:43:15] That kind of wisdom, Basically, I'm just running out of time. That's why I'm skipping things, he says, where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you'll find disorder in every evil practice.
[00:43:26] Here's what the end result of this position is. It creates a defiance of authority and it leads to anarchy.
[00:43:35] That's what it leads to. Disorder and anarchy.
[00:43:39] And when that happens, you have every evil work that's the devil's playground, and maybe we don't even realize it. Well, let's.
[00:43:47] Let me close here. Why don't we stand as we close? I could easily talk about James, but I'm going to move down here. James actually was a peacemaker. I don't know if you know that.
[00:43:58] I could bring you to the Council of Jerusalem in chapter 15. James actually helps deal with a very deep theological divide in the church and actually helps bridge the Church together and moves the church from being a small sectarian group to a group that could actually reach the entire world.
[00:44:17] He's often overshadowed by, I would say, other apostles, but James, the half brother of Jesus, was actually the letter writer here and actually was the leader of the Jerusalem church. But here's what I'm going to say in closing. I want to go here.
[00:44:34] Oh, I don't have those points, but here's what I'll say.
[00:44:38] Four Steps to Becoming a Surrender Yourself to God's will.
[00:44:44] Ask God for wisdom.
[00:44:47] Meditate on God's word to discover who he is and what he's like and how to follow his way.
[00:44:55] And if you're in doubt about something, have relationships with mature believers where you can go to them and say, you know, before I go off on a tangent here, I want to bounce this idea off of three or four mature believers and ask them what they think.
[00:45:11] Because in the multitude of counsel, there's safety.
[00:45:15] You know, I didn't always do that.
[00:45:20] You know, you can save yourself bad decisions.
[00:45:23] You know, you should have people in your life where you can say, knowing me, knowing who I am, would this be something God would be calling me to? Wouldn't it be great to ask people who really knew you and go, yeah, that suits you. Or they could say to you, no, I don't think that would be God, because it just seems outside of who you really are.
[00:45:42] That sounds like something maybe you aspire to, but I don't think that's how you're wired.
[00:45:46] And I think it'll cause a lot of hurt and heartache in your life and in other people's lives.
[00:45:53] So with every head bow, we're going to close in prayer this morning.
[00:45:57] Wow.
[00:45:59] I'm going to go, this is pretty powerful stuff.
[00:46:02] Am I walking in Jesus way?
[00:46:05] Am I exercising divine wisdom?
[00:46:08] Am I experiencing peace in my life?
[00:46:12] Or do I have a lot of contention?
[00:46:15] Am I open to instruction and correction, or am I insecure and I don't want to hear anything?
[00:46:23] I'm just raising questions today. How many here say, I want to walk the Jesus way?
[00:46:29] I want to have wisdom that comes from above. I want to walk in that beautiful life of being considerate and impartial.
[00:46:39] And, you know, I want to behave like Christ would in this situation.
[00:46:43] So, Lord, I just thank youk. As we stand in youn presence this morning, I believe that yout're speaking into our lives and you'd're challenging us right now. And maybe for some of us we have to make a shift because maybe we've been operating out of the wrong paradigm. We've allowed the wisdom of this world to encroach into our hearts and it's dominating our thinking and it's causing us, Lord, to, you know, create conflict and sectarianism and disharmony in relationships. And Lord, I don't want that.
[00:47:12] I don't want it for my life. I don't want it for our church family. I don't want it for any individual that's listening to what I'm saying. I pray, Lord, that we would embrace the wisdom from above that's pure, peaceable and gentle, that it will produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave.
