You will open your Bible with
me again to James chapter 3. James chapter 3 and we'll begin
reading in verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthy, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the
wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is shown in peace of them that make peace. We continue this
morning to look at verses which speak to those who James referred to
in the first verse of this chapter as masters. Remember he said,
my brethren, be not many masters. And we saw that that refers to
teachers and pastors, those who would teach and be pastors of
the people of God. In Ephesians chapter four, The
Apostle Paul wrote that when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
on high, that he gave gifts unto men. And he named those gifts
first as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And most agree that those four
offices, the pastors and teachers, is one office. Apostles, prophet,
evangelists, than the office of pastor and teacher. In the qualifications that we
looked at last Sunday in 1 Timothy concerning a pastor, we saw that
he is to be a man apt to teach. And the Apostle Paul, in that
place in Ephesians where he listed those four offices that God had
given, the Lord Jesus Christ had given, He tells us that they
are given for the perfecting of the saints, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, the body of Christ, the mystical body
of Christ, that is, his church. The writers also say or believe
that James began with the tongue. He began with the tongue because
it's probable that teachers were chosen more for their elocution
than anything else. In other words, people listened
to how they spoke, paid more attention to how they spoke than
what they spoke. And that's always a danger. Many
men are very gifted speakers, but what are they saying? And
we encourage pastors, encourage our flocks always when you hear
someone preach, listen to what he's saying, pay attention to
what he's saying. more than how he says what he
says. Now, in looking at these five
verses this morning, I'm going to have four headings. First,
if you look again at verse 13, the teacher, the pastor teacher,
is identified as a wise man endued with knowledge. Notice that in
verse 13, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you."
The word endued in the dictionary is defined as providing and endowing,
providing and endowing. And as I looked at that, those
definitions, I thought, well, first of all, God provides. He provides teachers with both
wisdom and knowledge. And he does this through his
spirit and his word. Through his spirit, God, the
Holy Spirit, and his word, he gives the pastor, the teacher,
wisdom and knowledge. No man has this in and of himself. And I thought about the passage
in Acts chapter six, when the church at Jerusalem There was
some discussion over how the widows were being treated and
they came to the apostles and the apostles said, choose out
men for that work that we may give ourselves to the ministry
of the word and prayer. So it is the wisdom that is needed
and the knowledge that is needed to be a pastor teacher is provided. And God provides it to a man
through his word. A man must be a man of the Bible,
a man of the book. If he's not a man of the book,
he's not a man of God to be a pastor and a teacher. You must study
this word. Because after everything is said
and done, when everything is wound up and all of this is over,
it's not going to matter so much what I have said and what I have
thought but it's going to make a whole lot of difference what
God said, what he has told us in his word. Men are free. They're free to think what they
want to, but God also will have the final word. He'll have the
final word, and the final word is given to us here in the scriptures. We're not looking for a new revelation. God has spoken to us in these
last days in His Son. He is the final, the perfect
revelation of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. God provides, He endows,
or yes, He endows us, and He endows men with the necessary
gifts for the work of the ministry. The wisdom, notice our text declares
unto us, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you. The wisdom gives the teacher
the right use of knowledge. To me, that's the difference
between wisdom and knowledge. Some people have a great deal
of knowledge, but no wisdom. And so wisdom is the ability
to use the knowledge that God has given us in the right way
for the good of God's people, for the glory of God's name,
and the good of His sheep. Now, as I looked at these verses
this past week, I thought, there's so many different truths that
a man who would be a pastor teacher must know. There's so many truths
that he must know how Can I bring this down to just a few? And
I've chosen these four truths that a man who would be a pastor
teacher, he must know. Number one, he must know the
glory of God. You say, well, pastor, no one
knows fully the glory of God. I understand that. I understand
that throughout eternity, ages, years without end, we will still
be learning more and more of the glory of our great God, the
Lord himself. But a man who would be a pastor
teacher, he must know something about the glory of God. You see,
a pastor teacher is an ambassador. He is an ambassador for Christ. And he must know something about
the glory of this God that he is going to present the truth
about him that he's going to present. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen,
when he was making his defense before those Jews, the Sanhedrin
who hated him and eventually stoned him, he said, the God
of glory appeared unto our father Abraham. The God of the Bible
is a God of glory. Everything about him is glorious. The psalmist said the heavens
declare the glory of God. All men are without excuse because
all men are able to see in creation the glory of God, His power,
His wisdom in His creation. But a man who pastors and preaches,
he must have some knowledge of the glory of God that shines
in the face of Jesus Christ. He must. He must. Everything about God is glorious. I mean, you can begin with his
attributes and just go through them, and they are all infinite. His omniscience, the fact that
he knows everything. He knows everything that is and
everything that could be. He knows everything. That's a
glory that causes men and women to bow down before Him, to fear
Him, not a slavish fear, no, but a reverential fear of God. This God with whom we have to
do, He's glorious. He knows everything. He's all
powerful. And He's omnipresent. He's in
every place present at the same time. Men never, never are able
to escape the presence of God. That's just one thing that we
could think about Him being glorious, but His creation is glorious,
isn't it? The smallest insect, whatever
it is, and some are born to live just for a few hours and then
they die. But everything in creation shows
and manifests His glory. It is God who hath made us and
not we ourselves. We didn't evolve from some slime
pit. I recently heard a man talking
to someone who believed in evolution and he asked him, said, well,
did your mother look like a monkey? And he got offended at that.
Did your grandmother look like a monkey? Oh, no, of course not. Why? Because we didn't come through
the line of the monkeys. In the beginning, God created
man, and he made him after his own image. There's so much glorious
about God, and a man who preaches must realize that everything
that God does is for his glory. You know, people get the idea,
and I believe we've got a generation full of people in this world
who believe, if they believe anything about God, is that He
exists for one reason. He exists for one reason, and
that reason is what He can do for me, how He can serve me,
when just the opposite is true. Just the opposite is true. Everything
and everyone exists for His glory. He's created all things for His
glory. Man must know something about
that, must believe that. And he must believe that in saving
a sinner, and thank God he does save sinners. He saves sinners
of all kinds. of all kind, and I'm so glad
he saved me. Are you saved today? Are you
thankful? He could have passed by you.
Oh, I know that. I'm so aware of that. And he
would have been right if he had passed by me. He would have been
just. No doubt about it. God saves
sinners in a way that His justice is not tarnished in any way. He's just and righteous and holy,
and yet in His wisdom, He has provided a way in which His justice
is satisfied, and yet He still forgives double-died sinners. That's what John Bunyan called
those Jerusalem sinners. Jerusalem sinners. They had actually
crucified, nailed the nails into the hands and feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet some of them cried for
his crucifixion, were saved just a few days later. Double-died
sinners. Jerusalem sinners, the Lord saves
by taking their sins and laying those sins upon His Son, and
His Son paying that sin debt. That almost makes me shout hallelujah. I'll tell you what. Doesn't that thrill your heart?
God saves sinners. Oh my, I've gotta go on. But
a second thing, he must know something about the glory of
the Redeemer and his work of redemption. That the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he is both God and man in one person. And that he
accomplished, he didn't give it his best shot. Someone said,
well, he just came and he gave it his best shot. No, he didn't.
He came here and he finished, accomplished the work which his
father gave him to do. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul. And he did travail. and he shall
see of the travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied. We don't serve and I don't preach
a defeated Jesus. I just don't do that. Why? Because that's not the Jesus
revealed in the word of God. Number three, a man should know
something of the utter lost condition of men. By that I mean that man, as we
come into this world, we could not be more lost than we are. Just couldn't. You could not
be any more lost than the way you came into this world. Why?
Because you were dead in trespasses and sins. To save your own soul would be
as easy for you to do as to create another world. Think you're up
for that task? Think you're ready to do that?
To create another world like this world or all that is within
it? You could save your own soul
just as easy as you could create another world. Why? Because,
first of all, you have no interest. You're dead in trespasses and
sins. You love darkness rather than
light. Man must know something about
the true condition of man since the fall. It's not rhetoric. It's not a man's rhetoric. It's
not a man's gimmicks. And oh, in my lifetime, I've
seen these so-called preachers come up with all kinds of gimmicks. to get people down to the front
of the church building, to get people to sign a decision card,
to get people to raise their hand or do something. And man
can do all of those things, but the one thing man cannot do,
he cannot give another person a new heart. Only God can do
that. And man must recognize that.
He must recognize that. The thrill of preaching. The
thrill of preaching. Some call it the romance of preaching.
To know in a service just like we're in today, preaching the
Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel, God may quicken someone here
this morning. He might. That's my prayer always. You may have come into this room,
and you may have thought, I have no interest. When is this going
to be over? Look at your watch, and oh, you
just, for whatever reason. But I want to tell you something.
If God's on your trail, he's going to get you. He's going
to get you. Maybe here today, we believe
in an effectual cause. A fourth thing, a man must know
something about the fact that he's a New Testament minister. In other words, we're made ministers
of the New Testament, of the New Covenant. This is what Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 3, who, that is God, hath made us able
ministers of the New Testament. The New Testament, the New Covenant. Look with me in Hebrews 8, just
a moment, at the new covenant. In Hebrews chapter 8, beginning with verse 10. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them
a God and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. This is a new covenant that God
made with spiritual Israel. It's amazing how people read
this and think, well, that's some covenant God's going to
make in the future with the national Israel. No, the Apostle Paul's
talking about a covenant which was already made when the Lord
Jesus Christ said, this is my blood of the New Testament, the
new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. And Paul said he was made a minister
of the new covenant. That's a covenant of grace, isn't
it? You see what God said? I will,
I will, I will, I will. You don't read any place there
where he says, and this is what you've got to do. This is what
you've got to do. It wouldn't be grace then, it'd
be merit, be justice. Salvation is by grace, by grace. Well, notice the second thing.
So James tells us that a man who would be set apart to the ministry must first of all be given wisdom
and knowledge. And then second, the teacher
is also identified by his conversation, and this is important. Who is
a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of
a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Now
the word conversation today has changed since this translation
was made, of course, and primarily the word conversation today means
speaking, talking with one another. But in this context, it means
the lifestyle of a person, the man who would be the pastor teacher. Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. What would make a good lifestyle? If this word conversation and
it means lifestyle, what would make a good lifestyle? Well,
a good lifestyle is one that is ordered by the word of God,
by the word of God. point I made when I mentioned
that text in Ephesians, for the perfecting of the saints. You see, people, every child
of God is a saint. He's set apart by the Spirit
of God and the work of God in his heart, giving him a new heart. But we grow. We grow in grace
and knowledge of the Lord. for the perfecting of the saints. We need to study the word of
God and the man of God, the pastor. How will he have a good conversation,
a good lifestyle? By taking heed thereto according
to the word of God. And the apostle John tells us
in his first letter, he that saith he abideth in him, that's
what we confess. We abide in Christ. We are accepted
in the blood. We are perfect in him. He that
saith he abideth in Christ ought also to walk even as he walked. I want you to look with me in
Matthew five. You're talking about a pastor
teacher now. Matthew chapter five. Beginning with verse three, through
verse 10, we have eight Beatitudes. And I want you to notice the
word the and they, as we read through these Beatitudes. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
thee meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are thee merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now those beatitudes are true
of every child of God, everyone who is saved by the grace of
God. But now notice with verse 11, I want you to see we don't
see thee and they anymore, but ye. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my namesake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out and be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the
light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick. And it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. Most all of the older writers,
the older commentators point out that when the Lord changed
from thee to ye, he begins to speak to his disciples, especially
to the ministers of the gospel. Ye, ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the, and I know it applies
to all believers, I understand that, but especially to those
who are teachers and pastors of God's children. He is to show
his good works. And that doesn't mean that we're
to make a show of our good works. That's what the Pharisees did. They made a show of their good
works. They loved to stand on the street
corners and pray so that everyone who came back could hear them
pray. They were trying to show their good works. No, we are
to live out of a good conversation, a good lifestyle, and show forth
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to our text. So the teacher
is identified by wisdom and knowledge. He's also identified by his conversation. Now, Number three, a misnomer. A misnomer. Look in verses 14
through 16. But if you have bitter envy and
strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the
truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthy,
sensual, devilish. For where envy and strife is,
there's confusion and every, every evil work. Should you call
this wisdom? Should you call this wisdom where
there is envy and strife? Oh, that's wisdom misnamed. That's a misnomer. Call it what
you will, but don't call it wisdom that God gives. It's not the
wisdom that comes from above. It's wisdom that is earthy, sensual,
devilish, where there's strife. division in thee. You know, there's
a verse that has come to be called by the world, the golden rule,
the golden rule, as you would that men should do to you, do
you also to them. But how has the wisdom of this
world changed that golden rule? Now the wisdom is take advantage
of others before they can take advantage of you. That wisdom
is devilish. That wisdom is sensual and it's
earthy. Now in the Proverbs we read,
wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who? Who is able to stand
before envy? And the answer is implied. No one can stand before envy.
And where there is wisdom from this world, there's envy. Now,
envy, listen to me carefully. Wisdom, most people think, is
a little sin. Little sin. Most people have
their list categories of sin, don't we? And we think, well,
that's a big sin. That's a big sin. And then we've
got some, those are little sins. But think of the sin of envy.
People usually think, that's a little sin. How little was
it when it caused Cain to end up murdering his brother Abel? Envy is not a little sin. There's
no sin that is little because every sin is committed against
God. against Him who is infinite. And it takes an infinite sacrifice
to put away one sin. No, where there's envy and strife,
there's not that wisdom that comes from above. And I'm thankful
this morning that the Lord has given us a spirit of love and
and peace in this congregation for many years, and I pray that
he continues to do so. Paul said, God is not the author
of confusion, but of peace in all the churches. And where there's
envy, there's strife, and there's confusion, where there's this
wisdom that comes from the earth. But now notice, fourthly, Here's
a challenge for all of us in verses 17 and 18. But the wisdom that is from above. Now, keep your place there, but
look back to chapter one and verse five. Remember what James
told us. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God. which giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. What a promise,
right? What a promise. Now, the wisdom
that is from above, that is the wisdom that God gives us. And
later he's going to say you ask and have not because you ask
to consume it upon your own lust. But we should all ask for wisdom
from God. And this wisdom that he gives,
he tells us it will produce this in the life of a man. First of
all, purity. The wisdom which is from above
is first pure. Pure. Think about that verse
in Philippians where Paul, writing to believers, said, Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think
of these things. The wisdom from above is pure. And we should think upon these
things that are lovely, that are pure, things that come from
the word of God. And I tell you, you know, in
this world, you see a lot of things, but don't expose yourself
needlessly to places and things where you do not see things that
are pure and lovely. honest. The second thing about
this wisdom is peaceable. Paul said, if it be possible,
as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. And third, it's
it's meek, meekness, ready to listen. Not to be one of those
people who knows everything. He knows everything. Be meek.
Not to be like Job's three friends. He told them, when you die, wisdom
will die with you. No, we don't know everything.
Be me, be teachable. And number four, full of mercy. We realize that we need mercy
every day, don't we? We do. Then we should be merciful
unto others. And the fifth thing, without
partiality or hypocrisy. Let me give you, in closing,
Matthew Henry's comment on verse 18. You look at verse 18. And that which is sown in peace
will produce a harvest of joys. Let others reap the fruits of
contentions. and all the advantages they can
propose to themselves by them. But let us go on peaceably to
sow the seeds of righteousness, and we may depend upon it. Our labor will not be lost."
Our labor will not be lost. May the Lord bless His word to
each of us here today.