Turn with me, if you would, to
James 1. The book of James 1. I have been looking at the book
of James for quite a while. And I opened up to it again this
week and I read something that really spoke to me. Something I personally needed,
I, we all need this, but it just really, it really hit my heart,
touched my heart. It's in verse five, it says, if any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him." I needed that. That was good
news to me. Now, what I'd like to do is begin
in verse one, and let's work our way to that verse. Verse
one says, James, a servant of God. I believe that those five
words, the first five words of the book, I believe that they
summarize what the entire book of James is exhorting. I believe
those five words summarize the whole thing being servants because
of Christ. Servants because of Christ. This
book is one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible. The book
of James. The reason is because it deals
with a believer's faith being proven by works. That's what
he's dealing with throughout the book of James. He deals with
being doers of the word. and for a especially newly converted
child of God. You almost hear this across the
board. Whenever a child of God who has
heard the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that message
comes and it pierces the heart, it grabs the heart, eyes are
opened, ears are opened, faith is given, And a sinner believes
it. God in mercy causes a sinner
to believe it. And when they hear it and they
believe it, when they come to a true understanding of salvation
by God's freely bestowed grace. I mean that's it. It's just grace. All these works and all these
things that people had been told all their lives. All these do's
and all these don'ts and all this bondage and it's just dragging
people down and dragging people down. And then when all that's
lifted and thrown off and they hear of salvation by God's freely
given grace. After a person hears and believes
that everything that is required is finished. That's a big moment. That's a big moment. After a
person hears that it's finished in the blood of Jesus Christ,
that blood has covered it all, accomplished it all. Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy,
He saved us. That's just good news. Somebody
stands up and says, let me tell you who God is and what he's
done for people who couldn't do it for themselves. By his
own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. By grace are you saved, through
faith, And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That becomes confirmed in the
heart of a child of God. So when he reads verses like
James chapter two, if you want to look at James two verse 21,
when he reads verses like this, Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his
son upon the altar? When he reads verses like that,
he thinks, what? I did. First time I ever truly
read the book of James, I thought, what? At first glance, it seems like
this individual book contradicts the rest of the whole Bible. But it doesn't. It does not. And I'm gonna prove that quickly
to us in Ephesians 2, and then we'll move on, all right? Turn
with me over to Ephesians 2. The whole Bible says what the
book of James says. Ephesians 2. Verse eight, it says, for by
grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. Salvation is by grace. Grace means gift. It comes to
centers. It is realized. They are quickened
to it, made alive to it through faith. It's given freely by grace and
they're made aware of it through faith. And that faith is not
of the center. It doesn't come from or out of,
it doesn't originate with the center. It is the gift of God. Verse nine says, not of works,
lest any man should boast. We are not saved by our works. We're not saved because of the
things that we do or don't do. Just because we act a little
more stiff on Sunday than the other six days, that doesn't
mean anything. Or just because we don't eat at certain restaurants
that serve this or who knows what, it doesn't mean anything.
We're not saved because of the things we do or don't do. We
are not saved because of our obedience to God. We're not saved
because of that. If we were, then we would have
reason to boast. But here's the thing. If you
would just act like me, you'd be saved too. And that's what
men are standing up and telling people in churches all over this
place. They get up in pulpits and they
say, if you all would just act like me, then you could be saved
too. That's boasting. Verse eight,
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But watch verse 10, for we are
his workmanship. That means he's the master builder. He's the master carpenter. He's
the one doing the work. And we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. We're not saved by works. We
are saved through faith in Christ's works. Every time you read something
in the scripture and it says you have to do this to be saved,
the moment your brain tells your heart or the moment your heart
tells your brain, I can't do that. The answer is, that's exactly
right. But Christ did. And we're looking
to the fact that He did it. He accomplished it. We are saved
through faith in Christ's works. That He accomplished everything
that had to be accomplished, and He fulfilled everything that
needed to be fulfilled. But here's the fact of the matter.
That faith in Him, produces a response. It produces a response. God produces
a working result in his people that proves the faith that he's
given to them. The faith that he gives will
be proven. His people become willing servants
of him. James said, that's what I am. I'm a willing servant. Now I
have to point this out because this is just precious to me.
One of the evidences of God given faith and one of the evidences
of his calling to be one of his servants is humility. All right, humility, that's one
of the great evidences. It just radiates from God's people.
It's poured all over them, humility. James is no exception. Look with
me at Galatians 1. Galatians 1 verse 15, the apostle
Paul said, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them
which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned
again unto Damascus. Then after three years, I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. But other of the apostles saw
I none save James, the Lord's brother." Humanly speaking, worldly speaking,
fleshly speaking, James was our Lord's brother. But what did He call Himself? Who did He tell everybody that
He was? He said, I'm His servant. He's my God. All of God's people
say that. Well, doesn't the Scripture say
that He is your elder brother? Doesn't it say that we are joint
heirs with Him? Oh, yes it does. But He is my
Lord and He is my God. Aren't you going to be conformed
into His image? Oh yes I am, but I fall before Him. I give
it all to Him. He is my God. We decrease and
He increases. Alright, now go with me back
to James chapter 1. James one, verse one, James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes,
which are scattered abroad greeting. He's speaking to God's particularly
chosen people who are out of the 12 tribes. We know this because
he said in verse two, my brethren, Paul told the Romans, he is not
a Jew, which is one outwardly. He is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
whose heart has been circumcised. He said in Romans 9, they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel. They're not all my brethren
who are my fleshly brethren. They're Israelites in the flesh
if they are of the covenant of promise. That's what makes them
a Jew, a true Jew in the heart, in the spirit. And Paul told
the Galatians, it doesn't matter if you're Jew, Gentile, bond-free,
male or female, if you're in Christ, then you're Abraham's
seed and an heir according to the promise. In Christ, that's
who he's speaking to. Verse one, James, a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which are scattered
abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, different temptations, different
trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience. We've mentioned many times recently
that a believer's life will consist of many different trials. Many,
as soon as we come out of one, we need to expect for another
one to be right around the corner. We're so relieved. You know,
we come out of one. It's like, oh, I'm so glad that's
over. We need to be ready. There's one coming right around
the corner. And there is a reason for that. And just because I'm
declaring it to us doesn't mean I'm all strong in the faith and
I'm preaching to myself. There's a reason for that. Trials
prove faith. That's what it is. Trials prove
faith. He said in verses two and three,
even though they're difficult, they're troubling, he said you
can consider it to be a positive thing. Going through it, it's
tough, but you can count it a positive thing when they come, knowing
that they're only going to more so prove the faith in Christ
that has been given to you. It'll prove it to you, and it'll
prove it to everybody else. Verse two, my brethren counted
all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. Patience is submission
to God's will. That's what patience is. Only
God's will is going to be done. Only God's will is ever gonna
be done. Patience is suppressing my own
will so I can clearly know His when He's pleased to reveal it
to me. And I need that so desperately. We all do. We need it so in every
facet of life. Aren't we constantly crying,
Lord, what would you have me to do? Trials prove faith. Proven faith
produces patience. And patience brings maturity,
spiritual maturity. And I would love to have a, just
a drop of that. If the Lord would give it to
me, verse four, but let patience have her perfect work. The word
perfect means mature. That you may be mature, perfect
and entire complete wanting or lacking. Nothing. Mature, incomplete,
lacking nothing. There's a reason for the trials,
they prove faith. There's a reason for proven faith,
it produces patience. And there's a reason for patience,
it brings us to a full spiritual maturity. as spiritually mature
as we can be in this body of sin and death. We're never gonna
be fully mature until we're with Him. But we can grow towards
that, can't we? Oh, Lord, help us. One man wrote,
we are to endure trials without seeking a quick deliverance,
so that the full work may be done, the lesson well learned. We must not grow weary and seek
a premature relief. We must not resign from the race. The Apostle Paul said, let us
run with patience. the race that is set before us.
The commentary writer said, we must not resign from the race,
but we must endure to the end that we might be fully developed
and mature in grace, lacking nothing that is essential to
a strong, mature believer in Christ. Being grounded and settled
in faith, we must be gracious in love as well as grounded in
truth. We must be strong in patience
as well as sound in principle. We must be givers of mercy as
well as receivers of mercy. And James summed all of that
up. We started at verse one and came
to verse five because James summed all of that up in one word, wisdom. Wisdom. He said in verse five,
if any of you lack wisdom, Let him ask of God that giveth to
all liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to
him. That is such a polite way to
put it. He said, if just in case any of you lack wisdom, I'm going
to go ahead and tell you, I lack wisdom. All right, I lack wisdom. I'm not gonna speak for anybody
else, but I need more wisdom. I know I do. I know I do. I need wisdom. I want to very
quickly, I have scriptures here that tell us some things about
wisdom. These are some facts in regard
to wisdom. And really what I just want to
do is read them to you. And I'm going to read as many
as I have time to. But I hope that this will encourage
all of us in seeing this to ask for more of it. Lord, increase
our wisdom, increase our wisdom. Go with me over to Deuteronomy
34. Deuteronomy 34 verse 9, it says, And Joshua, the son
of Nun, was full of the Spirit of wisdom. There were many different
men, I looked at a bunch of scriptures throughout Exodus especially,
there were many men that it said, I have filled him with the Spirit
of God in wisdom. If a man or a woman has wisdom,
he or she has the Spirit of God. Men and women are not naturally
wise in the flesh. Just like faith, it doesn't come
from us, neither does wisdom. Where the Spirit is not, there
is no wisdom. Where the Spirit is, there is
wisdom. The Spirit of God, if God gives His Spirit, then He
is giving wisdom. Wisdom is a person. The Spirit
is a person. And how we desire to have this
person in us, Christ in me, His Spirit in me. Oh, we desire to have the Spirit
of God. Alright, now what will the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of wisdom, do for a child of God? If God sends the Spirit
into a child of God, what will he do for a child of God? What will he produce? Turn over
to 1 Kings 3. 1 Kings 3 verse 5. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, ask what I shall
give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shown
unto Thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he
walked before Thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness
of heart with Thee, and Thou hast kept for him this great
kindness that Thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne
as it is this day. And now, O LORD my God, thou
hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but a little child, I know not how to go out or come in. And
thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen
a great number that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart." If you
have that center reference, it says hearing. A hearing heart. To judge thy people that I may
discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this
thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord,
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast
thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to hear judgment." That's what discern also means. To hear judgment, behold, I have
done according to thy words, lo, I have given thee a wise
and a hearing heart, so that there was none like thee before
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. A hearing
heart. Is he saying a hearing heart
to hear the people? Absolutely he is. But more importantly,
a hearing heart to hear you. A hearing heart to hear what
you have to say, your judgments concerning all things. Over in
1 Kings 5, if you turn just a couple of pages over, verse 12, it says, The Lord gave Solomon
wisdom as He promised him, and there was peace. Between Hiram
and Solomon, and they too made a league together. No man had
peace like Solomon. No man had wisdom like Solomon.
And no man had peace. Wisdom brings peace. And the reason is because Christ
is our wisdom. And Christ is our peace. But physically speaking, where
wisdom is involved, there will be peace, and that's what we
want in all things. We want peace, peace. So to have wisdom is to have
the Spirit of God, it's to have the Word and judgment of God,
and it's to have peace. And all that can be summed up
in this word, Christ, is to have Christ. All right, look at 1
Chronicles 22. 1 Chronicles 22 verse 11, Now my son the Lord be with thee,
and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God, as
he hath said unto thee, "'Only the Lord give thee wisdom and
understanding "'and give thee charge concerning Israel, "'that
thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. "'Then shalt thou
prosper if thou takest heed "'to fulfill the statutes and judgments
"'which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel. "'Be
strong and of good courage, "'dread not, nor be dismayed.'" Wisdom
is written in this word. It is written in this word. It
does not come from the mind or the word of any man. It comes
from God's word only. And I'm running out of time,
but in Proverbs, he kept telling, if you very quickly go to Proverbs
1. In Proverbs 1, he said in verse
1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,
if you want to know wisdom. and instruction, to perceive
the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom,
justice, judgment, equity, to give subtlety to the simple,
to the young man knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear
and increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain
under wise counsels. It is wise to get counsel. Wisdom comes from a multitude
of counselors, but there is no wise counsel like this wise counsel,
the wise counsel of the Word. We were going to read Proverbs
2. He goes on saying the same thing. The wisdom of this Word
will lead you in the path you need to go. Proverbs 3 is where
he says in verse 5, He will. In Proverbs 4, Verse five, he said, get wisdom,
get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the
words of my mouth. Forsake her not, she'll preserve
you. Love her, she'll keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing,
therefore get wisdom with all you're getting, get understanding.
Exalt her and she'll promote you. And again, all this means
get Christ, get Christ, get His will, get His Word, beg for His
Spirit, beg for all these things. His way is our life. And in Colossians 1, it talks
about the wisdom of knowing His will. And in chapter 2, it says,
Colossians 2, it says, all wisdom is in Him. All wisdom is in Christ. And when His Spirit of wisdom
comes to a child of God, when it comes to a child of God, it
will produce the fruit of the Spirit in the child of God. And that's what James is getting
at. Okay, we'll close with this. I've run over way too long. We're
going to close with this. Go with me to James chapter 3. James 3 verse 13 it says, 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 earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and
strife is, there's confusion in 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, without faking it, acting. And the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Is that
not Christ? Is that not Christ in us? Pure. Peace. Oh, He brings peace. Easy to
be entreated. He's so full of mercy. Thank God he was without partiality.
And without hypocrisy. Full of righteousness. If any
of us lack wisdom, he said we can ask for it and he will give
it to us liberally and he won't upbraid us for it. He won't say
what happened to the last bit of wisdom I gave you. And anyway, I believe we'd be
wise to do it. Lord, increase our wisdom. All
right, you're dismissed.