teaches me not figure too much
it went into much more than that and then after the study and
wrote just really had no direction as far as what book to go to
and teach from so I've just been kind of bouncing from one book
to another and I ran on to this verse in James chapter three
if you'll turn with me over there James chapter 3 and I titled
the study Wisdom from Above and the more I looked at it the more
I decided this might be the book I need to go to and begin to
teach so we've already started our study in james but i had
this message that i've been working on so we'll use it this morning
for our study we'll be looking at james chapter three and verse
seventeen let me say this james is without a doubt one of the
most controversial books in the bible I hear people argue this
and argue that, and even the old writers, they were all over
the place with the book of James. Some of them wanted to take it
out of the Bible altogether, you know, because it seems totally
contrary to sovereign grace. But I find it to be controversial
even among Armenians. The Armenian religion believes
it plainly teaches salvation by works, and they go to James
a lot. And in sovereign grace circles,
they avoid the book of James for the same reason, because
it seems so complicated. They read these verses and they
seem to teach contrary to sovereign grace. And then by most people
that I know, it's just avoided altogether. they'll bring a message
here and there and just avoid the book. But James is a letter
written by a man that most believe. Nobody's really certain. I can't
go to a passage and say this is the James that wrote the book
of James. But most of the people that I've
read agree that this was the James who pastored the church
in Jerusalem. And so he had one writer said
there was over a hundred thousand members in that church which
is highly possible but be that right or wrong he dealt with
hundreds and hundreds of converted jews jewish professors of faith
and so and they were dispersed by the romans and found themselves
living in all kinds of heathen cities and places where they
were persecuted just for being Jews, let alone for what they
believed in the gospel. And what makes the epistle of
James so difficult, I think, is being ignorant of its subject.
If you're ignorant of the subject of James, you're going to go
every which way when you go through James. His subject is not justification
by faith. His subject is rather justifying
the faith by which we're justified. What kind of faith do you have?
James uses language like this, show me your faith. Show me your
faith. I'll show you my faith by my
works. So he's not trying to prove justification by faith. That's made very clear in the
book of Romans. And actually, the justification
of God's saints is a work already accomplished. We're not attempting
to be justified. I'm not trying to get you to
do something to be justified. All of God's saints are justified.
It's a work already accomplished. In Romans 3, 24, Paul writes,
being justified. freely by his grace. And he said
this following this statement, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The all meaning Gentiles and
Jews. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Being justified, therefore freely
by his grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, that is Old Testament believers. And he did this through the forbearance
of God and to declare at this time his righteousness that he
might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. And then again in Romans four,
verse 25, it said he was delivered for our offenses Now watch this,
and raised again for our justification. He's not waiting on me to do
something to be justified. He declared openly our justification,
all the justification of God's sanctions declared openly by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we're fully justified. So
who are these people that are justified? Who are these saints? That's what James is dealing
with. Who are these people? Must we wait for the judgment
before we know who they are? Are we all gonna act the same,
live the same, do the same things, and then one day when the Lord
comes back, he's gonna say, well, I know y'all acted the same,
but these are saints and these aren't. No. That's not how it's
gonna be. God'll make his saints to be
known by the gift of faith. And these precious souls given
to Christ before the world began and for whom he lived and died
were raised up together with him, seated with him in glory,
it says in Ephesians 2. That, in order that. in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. God's gonna tell you who's justified.
He's gonna do so by faith. By faith. and that not of ourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boot.
So how can these blessed saints know they're saved? How does
a man learn of his election? How can I ever come to that place?
I know we preach the free justification of God, uh... through the redemption
of jane crash but how do i know for whom crash dot where do where
do we come to know who these things are how do we come to
know how can you place in fact that they're saying well he began
to john chapter six our lord does with the state He told those Jews, he said,
I'm telling you, I'm the bread that came down from heaven, and
I'm telling you this, you've seen me. You're standing here
looking at me in the face. And you believe not. You believe
not. And then he makes this statement.
All that the Father giveth me. When did the Father give these
people to Christ? Before the world began. So how
do I know who they are? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." They're going to come to Christ. How are they going
to come? By faith. By faith. Oh, but you say, Preacher,
everybody says they believe. Yes, I know. I know they do. Everyone professes to have faith
in Christ. But let me say this, God's grace
is distinguishing grace. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Somebody does. And grace is distinguishing
grace. And faith is the means whereby
God's election is made known, and it's in his hand to give
this faith, or withhold it. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and whom I will ahord. He could have given Pharaoh faith,
but he didn't. He could have given a lot of
men faith. Who's gonna resist him? Huh? Faith is the means whereby God's
election is made known and it's in his hand. And this being his
gift and his work, he himself has ordained the means by which
this faith shall be distinguished. and it's gonna be distinguished
from all imitations. Paul wrote his first epistle
to the Thessalonians and he told them in his opening address that
he knew their election of God. You know, he knew some of those
men were elect who didn't know themselves that they were elect.
And so Paul gives them six reasons why he knew this. His first reason
was because his gospel came in power and in the Holy Ghost with
much assurance. And that assurance is not only
talking about assurance that he was sent of God, and it's
a funny thing, the first time I heard Brother Henry Mahan preach,
I had this deep-seated belief that this man was a servant of
God. He was opening things to me that
I'd read 100 times and didn't see. And I just knew that he was sent
of God. I knew that he was a servant of God. He was sent to preach
to me and to open unto me the scriptures, and he did. He did
this. And that's one of the things
that he's talking about when he said, with much assurance.
The other, and the main thing, is assurance in Christ. that
Christ had actually been appointed to do these things and that he
appeared and accomplished everything that the Father sent him to do.
And that he now sits in glory, having all power over all things. He's ordained these means and
Paul said, I know your election because our gospel came not in
word only. but in the Holy Ghost in power
and in much assurance. And then he tells them this is
another reason. Here's the second reason. They
become followers of him and the Lord, submitting themselves to
him as a teacher sent of God. This requires the work of God. Those of you in here that's ever
tried to preach to people, that's one of the first things you're
gonna learn. People not just gonna bow to you because you're
you. If they submit themselves to
you and receive what it is you're preaching, it's because God did
a work in them. And they submit. And that's what
Paul saw. They willingly submitted to him.
And watch this. He don't say you just submitted
to me. He said you submitted to me and the Lord. That is recognizing
me as God's servant. And a lot of folks, they begin
to pastor churches and they want to set themselves up as kind
of dictators over everything. You'll never find that submittal
because of that kind of action. That submittal is willing, it's
loving, it's in appreciation, and you do those things that
God sent you to do, and he'll do the work in man and make them
submit. And then the third reason is
because they become examples to all that believe. I don't care where you go, in
the South, in the North, in the East, in the West, it doesn't
matter where you go, believers are examples. God saves them
the same way. He saves them by his grace. And
their experiences are always very similar. They're coming
out of ignorance into light. They're coming out of darkness
into light. They're coming out of death unto life. And they're
seeing these things and knowing these things. And they become
examples. And then fourthly, he said, they
sounded out the word of the Lord. Everywhere they could, anywhere
opportunity presented itself. They sounded out the gospel.
That's what they were interested in because that's what happened
to them. That was the means God used to
give them faith. And so they sounded out the gospel. And then hearing this gospel,
he says, fifthly, that they turn to God from their idols. There's
an interesting passage over in 1 John chapter five and verse
20. All through this first general
epistle of John, he uses the term, and we know, and we know,
and we know. He just says that over and over
and over. And he gets down to verse 20, he said, and we know.
that the Son of God hath come, and given to us an understanding
that we may know him that's true, that we're in him that is true,
even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. What's the next verse say? Keep
yourself from idols. And that's what he's talking
about here. Everybody has a sense of who God is, And you talk to
them for a little while, or go to a funeral. If you really wanna
hear what people believe, go to a funeral and just sit and
listen. It's something, what they come up with. But anyway,
these people turned to God from their idols, and they were found
content to wait upon the Lord. Now, what's that mean? everybody
has to wait on the lord i can't make him do anything you can't
make him do anything what you're talking about waited on the lord
well we wait on the lord with the understanding that the will
of his father's being done and we wait on that patiently knowing
that god's calling out of people he has a leg When I guarantee
you, when the last of God's elect is called out, he'll fold this
place up. That'll be the end of it. So
I know that there's a work going on here. And so I patiently wait
on the Lord. And to wait upon him, I also
wait upon him to settle disputes. Don't ever try to settle a dispute
from your part. submit to the lord wait on him
he'll settle the disputes he knows how to sit men down and
how to make them stand up he knows how to do it he takes care
of those things and we want to wait on him until all his saints
are called election will be known to all his saints as God makes
them know and that faith will be tried is it going to be proven
of God and it's gonna be proven to be a divine work. And these
trials are called fiery trials. Trials compared to the purging
of gold in the furnace. That's how Peter liked it. Trials
are not punishments, they're blessings. And we're to count
them all joy. When we come under these, he
uses the word temptation and then in the next verse he calls
it a trial. So we count it all joy when we
come under these things, knowing this, that the trying of our
faith worketh patience. It proves not only to the world,
but to the saint himself, the faithfulness, power, grace, and
love of God, who protects him and preserves him, proves to
him that God has done a work in him, establishes an attitude
of patience in the believer. I was on the school bus. I was just a young boy and we
were on the school bus and I buddied up with this young man and he
came over to me and kind of elbowed me and he said, hey, he said,
we're rich. And I said, what do you mean
we're rich? And he had this little paper bag and he opens it up
and it's got money in it. He said, I found this. He said,
we're rich. And now remember, I'm probably
seven years old. So we all went down to the local,
what they called a western auto store, had all kinds of stuff
in it, part hardware. Anyway, bought a cowboy. The guns, the jacket, everything. And I came home and my mother
said, where did you get all that? And I said, I didn't know what
to say. I said, well, my friend bought
it for me for my birthday. She said, your birthday's in
December. It's not your birthday. So anyway, after some discussion,
she caught me up in my lie, and I had to tell her where I got
it. And then she started calling and found out that this money
was money raised by a cheerleader. And the cheerleader was just
sobbing and weeping. She'd lost all this money. And
so we had to go back to the Western Auto Store and take all the stuff
back and apologize to him. And then they took me over to
this young girl's house. And I don't know how much of
this was made up, but anyway, we went in there and oh man,
this guy was just laying down a lot of may i was trembling
and tears in my eyes justin low value now i thought i was going
to jail i'm sure that's what they wanted me to think he won
a little overboard and for whatever reason my dad stepped up and
he pushed me behind him and he said whatever he owes he said
you put it on my account and you know if you read evasion uh... not evasions if you read uh... romans chapter five where he
tells you that tribulation worketh and so on how it works and he
said at the end of it and the love of god is shed abroad in
your heart by the holy ghost and this is what happens when
god proves his faith he proves his love his faithfulness his
grace his glory all of these things in this trial are exposed
for what they are and for the first time in my life that word
love took on a whole new meaning to me i'd always known that he
loved me but never like that and so on we we know that god
loves his people but when he proves these things and you experience
these things it says the holy ghost is shed abroad in your
heart The spirit of Christ is shed abroad. He really reveals
himself in these things. But anyway, to get through these
trials, it takes wisdom. That's the key to the trial,
wisdom. Wisdom to discern the difference between chastisement
and trial. And wisdom to discern what trials
are, what they are and why they're given. And in James 1, 5, it
says, if any lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him,
but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. That is in truth, understanding
of what this trial's all about. And who sent it? And he said,
for he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, he's driven
with wind and tossed. So here's what we're talking
about. I'm kind of getting all over
the place here, but we're talking about the faith of God's elect
and what this book of James is all about. God is gonna justify
his gift. That's what he's gonna do. He's
gonna prove to you and to this world that what he's giving you
is real and it's from him and you can't do it. You can't produce
it, only God can. And he'll send that trial in
such a way as to prove that. He's gonna prove it. And everything
about this work is a mystery to unbelieving men and women.
Now here's my text. But the wisdom that is from above,
that's the wisdom we want, that's the wisdom we seek. Wisdom that's
from above is first pure, and then peaceable, and gentle, easy
to be entreated, full of mercy, full of good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy. And this wisdom is the wise counsel
of God. It's the wisdom of God in all
the affairs of salvation and judgment. A wise old pastor told
me one time, when you read the book of Proverbs, he said, draw
a line through that word wisdom and write right out beside it,
Christ. Christ is our wisdom. He hath
made him to be unto us wisdom. Wisdom. with them in car with
them in this person knowing him is where you get the way and
this wisdom come from a book right nobody else can reveal
god but crap no matter saying the father at any time the son And it's the wisdom of God in
all the affairs of salvation and judgment. In Romans 11, 33,
Paul talking about these things and how God used the Gentiles
and the Jews and how he did all this stuff together. He just
got lost in the grandeur of it. And he said, oh, the depths of
the riches, both of wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. And this wisdom
is declared in the gospel of Christ. All of the hows and whys
and ways are clearly revealed in our Savior, because in Him
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And in
our text, James gives us eight things concerning the gospel
wisdom and those who preach it and those who hear it. Eight
things, very quickly. First of all, he tells us it's
pure. This wisdom is pure. It's not mixed. I listen to men
preach and their wisdom is mixed. It's mixed, half of it's works
and half of it's grace. But we're told clearly in the
scriptures grace and works don't mix. If it's of grace then it's
no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. And the same
thing about works. It's unmixed. It's unmixed with
deceit. Unmixed with all the ideas and
concepts of anti-Christ religion. It's unmixed with the ungodly
imaginations of men. It's free of heresy. The grace set forth in Christ
our wisdom is pure grace. The love declared in Christ is
pure love. The mercy revealed in Christ
is pure mercy. The way set forth in the wisdom
of God is a pure way, no compromise. No unsure footing. Nothing left
to chance. And our God will show himself
righteous in his remission of sins and just in the justification
of all that believe. And it's pure in its source.
It comes from God. It's God's wisdom. Wisdom from
above. It's pure in its means. He hath
revealed it unto us by His Spirit. I have not seen, ear heard, neither,
that hadn't even entered into the heart of man, the things
that God had prepared for them, but God has revealed them to
us by His Spirit. It's pure in its doctrine, those
who preach another gospel. Paul said, you count them as
accursed of God. It's pure. And then secondly,
it's peaceable. He says in verse 18, the last
verse of that chapter in James, the fruit of righteousness is
sown in peace of them that make peace. Blessed are the peacemakers,
the Lord said, for they shall be called the children of God.
I'm not at war with men, are you? I'm not at war. When I was in Armenian religion,
I was at war. I went to battle every day. I
suited up and went into battle. But I'm not at war. Our ministry
is the ministry of reconciliation. I'm not sent to conquer anybody.
That battle's already been fought. The battle's over and Christ
won the victory. He's crowned. He's set at the
right hand of God. He's not waiting for somebody
to make Him something. He already is what He is. except
you believe that i am you'll die in your scenes trying to make god something
in my friend i'm not up here trying to make you do something
you don't want to do i'm up here doing the best i can to tell
you that the war is over or brother scott richardson he he brought
a message one time and he said stack your shotguns in the corner Christ is on the throne. He won
the battle. Peace has been secured and a
new king sits on the throne. We're just ambassadors. That's
what we are, ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech
you by us, we pray in Christ did be reconciled to God. What's that mean? That means
to be reconciled to God's reconciliation. God's already reconciled. What
he's telling us to do over there in 2 Corinthians 5 is to be reconciled
to his reconciliation. For God hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made to righteousness
of God in him. Our message, first of all, is
pure, then it's peaceable. And as it's received in its purity,
it's seen to be peaceable. And listen to this. Here's the
third point. It's gentle. It's gentle. As I read this text, I began
to wonder. I do this so often when I read
these things in here. I wonder if I've ever preached
the gospel as it needs to be preached. Be gentle. It's gentle. This wisdom is gentle. And I think about the Lord. You
know, I know a few things about the scripture. God's been pleased
to teach me a few things, and sometimes He surprises me with
revelations from the scriptures. But this is Christ. He has the
Spirit without limit. He knows all things. He's the
God-man. And here's this God-man who knows
your thought before you ever speak it, and he's sitting at
a well talking to a lady, and he's so gentle in his conversation. So gentle. and i think about
sometimes how i deal with people and and and that's not the right
attitude uh... wisdom is gentle it's gentle
oh think about it he's talking to a gadarine demoniac i wouldn't even attempt to try
to talk to somebody but he did he did and he made that man able
to receive his word and he did it with gentleness all so many so many that our
lord talked to the disciples you can't get out and the lord
took that little child sitting on his lap said if you become
as one of these little ones you're not going to enter into the kingdom
of god and then watch this here's the
fourth thing it's easy to be entreated to any rebel who will
not bow to Christ and submit himself to the Word of God, the
gospel is foolishness. It's foolishness. He hates it,
he despises it, and he despises the one who brings it. But to
those who know they're sinners, those who see themselves as they
are, this wisdom is easy to be entreated. Boy, I can remember
the being so convicted of my sin and I tell our folks all
the time here's what's going to happen you're going to get
on God's side in this thing of judgment and sin against yourself
you're going to sit on the jury and you're going to convict yourself
you're going to look at yourself and say God has every right to
send me to hell this is what I am That's what it means. We know
we're sinners. Those who see themselves as they
are. And when I did, boy, the simplest truth that that preacher
brought. Oh, how easy they were to be
entreated. Ah, good news. Good news. And then fifthly, it's full of
mercy. Anything aside of judgment's
mercy. And God's merciful to allow such
sinners as we are to draw another breath, and yet God is long-suffering
to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. And God's merciful allowing His
gospel to be preached to sinners. And the gospel itself, oh, what
mercy! Pharisees looked over and saw
those publicans and sinners and that harlot washing his feet,
and they were sitting and listening to Christ, and they said, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? And the Lord answered. They weren't talking to him,
but he answered them. And he said, the whole need not
a physician, but those that are sick. Now he said, you go learn
what this means. I'll have mercy. and not sacrifice. This wisdom is full of mercy. And then sixthly, of good fruits. Everything concerning the salvation
of sinners is the fruit of our Savior. And actually, he's the
firstborn of every creature, or the parent, if you will, of
every created thing. And in John 15, one, he said,
I am the true vine, My father's the husband man. You're just
branches. You're just branches. And without
Christ, there's no revelation of God. He alone is the image
of the invisible God. No man has seen the Father at
any time. But he said, he that seen me
hath seen the Father. And grace, grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Glory, God has shined in our
heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. And there's nothing that can
be known in a saving way from God apart from Christ. And I'll
read this in a little bit, in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in Him. The good fruits
of wisdom are the fruits of the vine, Christ Jesus. And then
here's another thing about this heavenly wisdom, it's without
partiality. And since all are under sin and
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there's
nothing in men to be partial about, is there? We dare not
look on men from our own point of view. Man looks on the outward
countenance, God looks on the heart. And this is what he's
talking about, how God sees. How God sees. Partiality is something
that belongs to God alone. We don't look for any kind of
potential in men and then treating them in some special way or giving
them some special place or special treatment. His gospels preach
without partiality. And then lastly, it's without
hypocrisy. Hypocrites say one thing and
do another. God doesn't do that. God's no
hypocrite. What he says he means. What he
says he does. And this wisdom's altogether
the fruit of christ jesus our lord and those who bring it to
me and strive to be true ambassadors knowing that we represent god
when we stand before i'm not representing uh... our church
although i may in some way from down at at lewisville i'm appears
an ambassador of god but sadly we all find ourselves
so far short of christ We have the mind of Christ. That is,
we see all of our hope, our life, our work, our ministry as Christ
in us. And I cannot preach Christ if
I do not have Christ in me. And the clearer we see that,
the more we want to be as he is. And so John said, now are
we the sons of God. and it does not yet appear what
we shall be but he said we know this we know the when he appears
will be just like and every man that have that hope in him purified
himself how does a man purify himself in knowledge and in wisdom
and that wisdom's in Christ and that wisdom is from above I'm
sorry I took so long alright lord bless you