All right, now I'll turn to James
chapter 3, verse 6. Let's see, the last time we gathered
on this day, it was a two-part message. Verse seventeen and eighteen,
the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, easy to enter into. full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy, and the fruits of
righteousness, sung in peace of heaven and of nature. If you
notice the hymns we sang, one, the first one was, Hallelujah,
what a sight to call upon our Lord, what He can be to me is
what He is. And then the second verse, of
Him that we want to be like Him, we aspire to be like Him. That's
what this message, that's how this message is going to be.
We're going to give Him all that we're given. He had the must-have between
us. When you read this, you understand,
you never understand this first and foremost fix of Him, of Christ. You know the scripture talks
about Christ being our wisdom, the wisdom of God. So, we're
going to give him all the preeminence and then in a little while we're
going to talk about how we want to have that wisdom and what
it is. Wisdom, in the Proverbs and all
the Scriptures, Scripture says much about wisdom. It says something
about man's supposed wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1, turn there quickly. It talks about man's supposed
wisdom. It talks about man being wise
in his own conceit, so that he thinks he's wise. Man's opinion. Wisdom, was there an exact word
you're talking about? But before that, it says that
wisdom and all these other wisdoms, earthly wisdom, sentient wisdom,
devilish wisdom, man's purported wisdom, supposed wisdom. Romans
1 says that the eternal power of Godhead is clearly seen by
creation. And the man is seen by creation.
No, no. Man is still going to stay vain
in his imagination, and his foolish heart is darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, on the one hand, they become fools. Fools. The fool is Paul in 410
and says, there is no God. That's most human beings. There's
no Creator. No, the heavens clearly show
it. Why? Because they see it. They're
blind. Why? Well, they're born that
way. But can God blind their mind? It even says, God sends strong
deluvions. Doesn't He? You notice that.
You notice that. The fool has said, no God, there's
no creator, there's no sovereign ruler, there's no judge, there's
no law, there's no right, there's no wrong. And that's the other
truth, you see. And man cannot see the endless,
mindless, trolley that mankind is in the dust. Just keep your
feet. First Corinthians 1, verse 20,
let me read it. Where is the wise? Show me a
wise man. James said that. Show me a wise
man. Let him show his work, his wisdom. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the distributor of this work? Has not God made
proof of the wisdom of his work? But after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world, by wisdom, that is how they're supposed
to science and philosophy and all that, they don't know nothing.
They do nothing. If pleased God, by what the world
calls better wisdom, preaching. Preaching. And mind you, God's
true preaching is out in the Old Testament and the New, or
not those. They were wise men. Matthew and
I were talking about how the people respected the prophet
Saul. Egypt respected Moses. Pharaoh respected Moses. I think he feared Moses. Don't
you? Ahab. He feared Elijah. So did the rest of the people. Isaiah and so forth. In the New
Testament. Oh, these men weren't fool. They
were bad. But God chose, by what the world
calls foolishness, to save them and believe them. The Jews of
Paradise find and seek after wisdom. They don't seek it where
it's found. What do we do? We preach, verse 23, Christ's
Crucifixion. As the Jews of Sondheim bought
one of the greatest foolishness of blood. Of blood he sacrificed? Come on, that's old-fashioned,
that's archaic, that's barbaric. Why? Ancient civilization used
to kill virgins and throw them. He's right. We're going to get
that notion. And then they're called, verse
24, Jews and Greeks. God saved Jews and Greeks out
of their foolishness. Christ is the power of God above. Now go back to our text. And don't go back. We've got to look at verse 30,
don't we? You can quote it, can't you? You know these things. You know
these verses, don't you? You see your God is written,
not the other way, not in any way, not in any sign. God has
chosen the foolish thing, what the world is all about, to come
down the way. Verse 30, it goes, "...of God
are you in Christ, and of God is made unto..." That's what?
Everybody say it. Wisdom's not what? Wisdom's not
a concept. Wisdom's not a doctrine. Wisdom's
not a philosophy. Wisdom's not something you come
up with, you study hard, and you figure it out. It's a person. Wisdom's a person. Pat, go back
to your thing. We're running out of time. True wisdom. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is
wisdom for Sonata, in person. Colossians 2, verse 5, 6, "...in
Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Did
you hear that? "...in Him are hid..." How much? "...all the treasures..." And
we just read that in front of them, of wisdom and knowledge. No matter what people think and
does, if they don't know Him, they don't have any knowledge.
It's worth it. No matter how wise people may
think they are, if they don't know Him, they're fools. Right? Why? It's here. You see, it's from the what? Revealed unto babies, and wisdom
is justified by worship of Christ. Thus in our wisdom, for us to
be wise is to know Him, hear Him, worship Him, follow Him,
look to Him, And the reason we do is because he's been made
under that wisdom. God has chosen the foolish thing
and made Christ to be out of this thing. So, everyone in here that knows
the Lord Jesus Christ is wise for that. The wisest supposed man or woman
on this earth. Alright, we're going to look
at how Christ has made the wisdom of God imputed to us and imparted
that, given that. Alright? Imputed. You know what
the word imputed means? Charged. Reckoned. He's made
unto us. He's reckoned on us. He's charged.
His wisdom is imputed unto us. Christ came to save fools. Know that? We talked about it
in Psalm 14, the fool has said no God, and says for some of
you, yea all of us were born that way. And Christ thanked,
let's say, some of the, yet many of these foolish sinners. It's
a fool to reject your Creator. It's a fool not to call on your
Creator and ask permission to use His Word of love on your
trespasses. It's a fool not to thank the One who provides everything
for you. It's fool not to fear him in
whose life your breath is, in whose hands your breath is, and
whose life is in his. Everything about you is completely
in his sovereign power. It's fool not to fear him, fool
not to worship him. Thank you. And God made this
whole universe as a monument to the victory and title of his
son. And it's a fool who doesn't acknowledge That's foolish. The only reason
we do it is because He's made us and given us an understanding
of 1 John 5, 20, that the Son of God has come and given us
an understanding. Otherwise, we'd still be foolish.
Once I was foolish, sin ruled my heart, causing my footsteps
from God to depart. Fear had alarmed me. Now I have
you in my case. Now I'm a sinner. I'm still a
sinner, but I'm saved by grace. And I know what it is to be a
representative. This is Psalm 107. Christ came
to save the fools. Psalm 107 says, Men sit in darkness,
the shadow of death, bound in affliction, because they rebelled
against the words of God, contemned, or thought nothing of the counsel
of those who had brought them down. Then they cried unto the
Lord, and he saved them out of their distress. He brought them
out of darkness and the shadow of death. How does he bring us
out of darkness? What's the life of Christ? that would stand in purpose and
have seen a great light, just like Saul of Tarsus on the eve
of the night of Shabbat. Get the light, got both of them,
the knowledge, the glory of God, in the face, the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this, it's on a note
that says this, He says, fools, because of their transgressions,
because of their differences are afflicted. Then they cry
unto the Lord, and He saves them out of their distress. He sends
His Word. And he was... What's His Word? My wife. Christ was a Word, and
again, was a Word, was a person. Word is made of flesh. You know that, don't you? Why
not? Because Christ is there in you. Listen to this. Isaiah 53 says,
By His knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify
him, or he shall further by his knowledge." See, salvation is to know Him,
but even more than that, it's to be known by Him. You, He said, of all people,
have I known. That means chosen, and loved,
and foreknown, and foreloved, and predestined. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant, that's Christ, by His knowledge of the
Holy God, by His knowledge of the Law of God, by His knowledge
of the Wrath of God, by His knowledge of the Righteousness of God,
By His knowledge. We didn't know this thing. We
didn't know the wrath of God. We didn't know God. We didn't
know what we knew against God. He did. And He came. We didn't know what it required
of us for God to accept us and say, He did. We must fulfill
all righteousness. We can't do that. He did it. Do you understand? Christ is
by his word. So he, he can't. Christ can't. There will be no believing in
true God or son of His foolishness. righteousness for sinners, a
substitute for the guilty. Hanging on the cross, he said
that his blood was shed for the remission of the sins of his
people, and this is what he said the first time, He knew what he was doing. He
knew what he was doing it for. And you see, Christ's wisdom
imputes that. He is God. He knew. He knew God. Back in our text, says wisdom
from above. This wisdom is from above. Listen
to John 3. This is what John the Baptist
says of our Lord. John 3 says in verse 31, he said,
He that cometh from above, John's preaching Christ. He that
cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthy. Earthly. Speaking about the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. Christ is the wisdom from above. Right? He said that. He said
that on his ass. Listen to this. John 8, verse 23. He said, you're
from an angel. I am above this world. You're
of this world. I am not of this world. It took a Savior from above to
come down here below to take us back up again. This is wisdom. I'm not going to play on words
here tonight. The wisdom's not from above. It's personal. Personal. Look at our text. It says in 91-17, or 91-17, every
good and perfect gift comes from above. Christ is risen from above. Now, here He is. This is a wonderful
country to Christ. That's what I'm doing. All right? I'm going to preach Christ. And
man, I'm going to preach this, I'm going to say what we ought
to do, and I'm going to tell you what He is, what He's made
of us, because that's our salvation. All right? Verse 17. Wisdom from
above is first and foremost, and above all, pure. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God, the Scripture says
that Christ is holy, harmless, and separate from sin. Oh, He
was raised in the likeness of sinful flesh, but that's Him. Scripture says in Texas 12, every
man must have lamb. You know these things. Here's
the wisdom to know you need a lamb. Who told you that? God did. From
his word. Who's your lamb? Christ. Your lamb, he said, must be what happened to me. You know where I was going with
all this, didn't you? Your life. Our life. Our life. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born
a virgin. No seed of man. This is the Son
of God. Holy Son of God. Holy One of
God. He's pure. He's the first pure. Guilty vile,
we sing that. Guilty vile and helplessly spotless
Lamb of God, was He, full atonement. Can it be? Yes. All men cry. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Now my heart, convince me not,
purely for the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spots,
Satisfy this lusty man, sing it o'er, yeah, and o'er again. Christ receives the same from
me. Pure is first, pure. Peter wrote
this, seeing you have purified your hearts and obeying the truth.
What does he mean by that? believe in the gospel, it's imputed
unto you for purity and righteousness. Do you understand that? Yes,
you do. Yes, you do. And flesh and blood is our guarantee.
It's a possibility. Believe in Christ. It's imputed
unto you for righteousness, for purity. He's magnificent. He's pure. He's sanctified. He's
peaceful. The wisdom from above, which
is Christ, is peaceable. Peaceable. Christ would make
sin and make peace. That's what the Bible is talking
about. Peace with God. It's a fool that
says, you must make your peace with God. It's a fool that believes
we can make our peace with God. God's angry with the way you
take that. How are you going to make your bed? What are you
going to do about your past sin? It's got to be redeemed. You can't do it. You've got to
be redeemed. And you can't redeem with your
own corruptible works. No, no. We're redeemed one way,
by the precious blood of Christ. Christ is made at peace. He made peace. And the scripture
says He came and preached peace. What peace? Him. Peaceful. He
said in John 14. Listen to Him. He said, Peace I leave with you. Peace with God. Now this is my peace. I give
unto you peace of conscience. Only one thing will purge your
conscience, the blood of Jesus Christ. Otherwise God's not going
to give you a clear conscience. If you trust anything or anyone
of the Christ, God's not going to let you rest. Peace of heart,
mind, peace among ourselves. Not as a world giver, Christ
said that. They say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. No peace
for those who think they can make peace with God. No, no.
But there is peace, infinite peace, eternal peace, peace with
God, peace of heart by God, for those who trust God. He kept
saying to his disciples, peace to him. Especially after he arose
from the grave. After he arose from the grave,
the worst things out of his world. Peace, he had peace with God,
but not such a sinner. That's right, isn't it? Isn't
it? But, but, but God. If you're
going to say but, say but God. Peaceful. The opposite of peace
is war. God is at war with his world.
God's not in love with his world. Romans 1, verse 18 says, The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and are unrighteous.
Does it say that? You know it says that. You're wise in that you fear
God's fear of God. We don't fear God. Because Christians
have told them so long ago that we might be in war. God said war was at work. Look
at it. The war turned the world upside
down in all of Egypt. Was God excited with Egypt when
he sent all those plagues? How many were destroyed? The
children of Israel saw that. Why wasn't God at war with them? Why didn't the plagues come down
hard on them? How was it that not one single
Israelite Died. How was it? There wasn't one
house in Egypt where there was not one dead. But there was not
one house in Israel where there was one dead. Why? Because there
was one dead, and he was a lamb. And every house had a dead sacrifice. That's Jesus Christ. If you trust
in Christ, God is not angry with you. He kept saying that, peace be
unto you. He's the Son of God. He's not the world. He never
stood up and said that to the world. Not once did Jesus Christ
stand up and say, God bless you. Not once. But he said it to his
people. Kept saying it, peace be unto
you, you, you, you, you, you that trust me, you that call
me, you that believe me, you that I've called, you that I've
chosen, you that believe me. I fear Him. I worship Him. and
kept saying, let not your heart be troubled. I take peace, peace
I take from you. I don't know if you really want
that, just to go to sleep and not worry about anything for
a little while. That's the best, it's peaceful.
51st sentence in general. You see why we have to talk about
our moral authority? kind and tender and compassionate. A woman one time was taken and
caught in the act of adultery, and so have you been. God loves
you with a heart. Oh yeah. But if you say, I didn't
commit adultery. And God loves you with a heart.
Every single person, guilty. Murder, somebody paid in anger. Nobody really did kill him, didn't
have to, I wish I did. Listen, the woman taken in that
coffin act of adultery, those Pharisees who thought they'd
get the law, and the law is hard. The law's good, God's good, holy,
just, and true, but the law is a curse. The law condemns, the
law kills, the law says guilty, guilty. The law never justifies
us. The law never clears anybody.
It never clears anybody because all are guilty before the law.
Carry them out and stop. And those lawyers, those law
people, those pharisees brought this woman, and she'd guilt him
all right. Well, so were they. But they didn't know the law.
The law was spiritual. So they brought that woman in
and cast her at Christ's feet, and said, now Moses said she's
a bitch, that way you say it. And the Lord gently, tenderly,
kindly, compassionately, to her suit now, where she was. You start writing in the sand. What is old is just you and her.
I said so gently and so kindly, woman, we're not accusers. Can you hear his gentle voice?
Kind of his tender voice. He had it. Woman, we're not accusers. I said, no man accuses. First time she looked at me,
no man looked. And neither did I. And no one said no more. So gentle, so kind. Listen to
Isaiah 40. It says, "...he shall feed his
flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm,
carry them in his bosom, shall gently lead those that are with
him." Babies, tender babies. Holy, harmless, harmless. God's a consuming fire, you know
that? But in Christ, it's gentle. Gentle. No harm shall befall
him. No evil shall befall him. He
knows what trust is. Now, I was going to tell you about the
story of Isaac and Jacob. Isaac is an old man who represents
God the Father, and Jacob, one of the blessings. Remember that,
in Genesis 27? The blessing is for the eldest
son, Esau. Jacob doesn't deserve the blessing.
He's a subordinate. He belongs to the eldest son.
Well, Adam and Jacob was told, now, Rebekah, you've got to go
to the Father with that savory meat that He loves, wearing the
garment of your older brother. You've got to feel like Him,
smell like Him, and have that meat that He loves. That's all
right. You know they're going to tell
you this. Somebody doesn't know that story,
I'll preach my own. But, okay, so, that's Jacob's
transplant. He wants a blessing, he's coming
to his father, he says, he's going to find me a house. Go
back there and find us a nice apartment. Just that. You got
to discover it. You got to believe it. You smell
like your brother. You feel like your brother. You've
got that savoury sacrifice that you have. And when it came, John,
when it came to Isaac, you know what Isaac said? Come here. Come
closer. Come here. He said, you've got
that savoury belief. I smell it. He said, it feels like the voice
of Jacob. He said to him, kiss her. He kissed her. Oh, that's lovely. Gentle. In Christ, only in Christ. Outside of Christ, I've got you. Don't come any other way. And
I don't mean to present our Lord as our God as being reluctant
to pursue sinners, though it's the love of God that sent Christ.
But you know what I'm saying. And people that try to approach
God with what they do, don't spew that on out. Verse 17, I
think, is easy to be intrigued. Easy to be intrigued. Oh, my. Approachable. Come here. Easy
to talk to. Easy to ask favors of. Ask, he
said. Ask and you'll see. See and you'll
find it's not hollow. Ask, ask, ask. Say whatever you
ask. God will hear you. In my name.
Easy to be intrigued. God will hear you. Ain't he right? You come to God pleading Christ,
God will hear you. Unless you will. Easily entreated. What do we need from our Lord
more than anything? What do we entreat our Lord,
pray for our Lord more than anything? What do you find yourself asking
God for more than anything? One more. Mercy. There you go. Don't we? Look at the next one. He's full of mercy. That's his
name! When the Lord said in Exodus
33, the Moses, show me your glory. He said, all right, I'll make
all my goodness special for you. What's all God's goodness? We're
all the goodness of God found in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the goodness of God. He's the gospel. He's the good news, the goodness
of God forever. He said, I make all my goodness
passion for you, the Lord God, I proclaim the name of the Lord
God, the Lord God, mercy. Gracious. That's his name. Full of mercy. Delights to show
mercy. And he keeps showing mercy. He
takes pleasure in the spirit and the hope in his mercy. He
delights. This is the reason. The thing
we need more than anything is mercy. And God just, may I say
it, just loves to show it. Delights to show it. Full of mercy. May I read from
Moses. He's fine, and nothing runs out. And once you know the mercy,
once you've asked for mercy, if you keep asking for mercy,
it never runs out. It endures forever. What psalm
was that, Scott? 136. You're supposed to remember
these people. I know verse 50 verses. John,
James 4, verse 17 and 18. As Psalm 136 says, twenty-six
times, have mercy and do it with Him. We'll figure that one out in
a second. God have mercy, good fruits,
look at this, good fruits. Galatians 5, 22, this is the
fruit of the Spirit, nine fruits. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
zeal, spirit, faith, meekness, temperance. In Christ, fullness
of all things. Isn't it? In Genesis 2, there's
a tree of life, right? Genesis 1, the first things God,
the plants God created were grass. Grass is grass. Herb, even seed,
that's grass. And trees that produce fruit,
crops. Chapter 2 is the tree of life. Chapter 22, the last chapter
of Genesis, of Revelation, of the Bible, The last chapter begins
this way, with a river of water of life, chapter 2, verse 6.
In the middle of that string is a tree, a tree of life, of
fruit, twelve manner of fruits. And the leaves of that tree are
for the heathen and the nation to eat. His fruit. It's his fruit
that he bore unto God. Exactly. You understand? Sure
do. History. And it says in the last
verse, in verse 17, full verse, good fruit without partiality. Verse 18, fruit of righteousness.
The Son of Peace, and then He made peace. Didn't He make peace?
The fruit of His righteousness, doesn't that create this? The
verse 17 says He is without partiality. I like that. He loves every son of God the
same. He loves every son of God the
same. John was a beloved disciple. John, you can think of John as
just being so tender and meek, and he's always leaning on our
Lord. Well, John, John, he didn't leave
the Lord. He stayed right there at the
foot of the cross. The Lord went ahead and did it. How do you think of Simon Peter? He posted a picture of him. He
didn't love John more than he loved Simon Peter. Simon Peter, you know, he loved
him. No, he loved that prodigal son. The father loved that prodigal
son as much as he did that other son. Huh? He killed the father's
dad for that prodigal son. Yes, he did. He was allowed for
a shot. He does every time. Without hypocrisy,
this sincere, true, all He says, all He is, all He did, true,
everything He says to people, when He says, come unto me, He
remains it. Ask, He remains it. Without hypocrisy. That healing to you, that peace
out of you, my peace out of you, He remains that way. All right,
now look at this. You know, we aspire, we want
to be like Him. That's what we sang, didn't we?
Didn't we sing that? Hope to be like Him? But here's
the Scripture in 2 Corinthians, let me read to you. We always
open the face, behold Him as in a glass, the glory of the
Lord. You just saw His glory. This is the glory of His beautiful,
merciful, pure, peaceful, gentle person. The glory and beauty of His righteousness,
the peace that He made. It took beautiful glory. It's
the glorious gospel of our glorious Lord. He must have it there. So we always open faith, behold
it as in a glass, this, the glory of the Lord. Well, how can we
think like that? Well, it says by looking at Him,
looking to Him, we're changed in the same way. So am I. You can't make yourself be pure. You can't make yourself be gentle. You can't make yourself. Well,
who can? Who's on one king? He does. Spirit
of God. But he takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto you. He shows you how peaceable
our Lord with us makes you want to be peaceable. Don't we? Gentle. When you see how gentle
he treats us, it makes you want to be gentle. Huh? Easy to be
intrigued. When you see how easy he is to
talk to, easy to be intrigued, make you want that. Doesn't do
nothing else with it. Try as you might. Only God can hold you. You understand
that. This is wisdom. So we need to look to Him and
at Him and full of mercy. The only thing that will cause
us to truly show mercy is we realize and see how much mercy
we've got from God in Christ. How merciful, oh how merciful. Good fruit, love, joy, without
partiality. But we see Now, when we think,
well, I'm the chief of staff, how could he possibly live in
there? Well, he does. Just as much as he does John
and the others out there. Is that possible? It's certain. It's not impossible, it's certain.
When we see that, we won't have our shelter. All right. Don't worry. Don't worry. And
then through the Christ, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed
are those that sow peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They shall be called the sons of God. Christ is the Son of
God. The only way we can be like Him
is through Him. Christ in you is an open door.
There's a new man creating His image. It's complete. And yes, we want to be more like
Him. How? Now they hold him down in
this position.