James chapter 1, my, my, I'm
going to talk about wisdom. Who's sufficient with each day?
And it says, if any man, woman, lack wisdom. Verse 5 says, if any of you,
the Word of God is written to you, Sitting to you, not talking
about somebody else. If any of you lack wisdom. This is the power of God's Word. If we hear it and think about
somebody else, not talking to us, we're not receiving it. If we get offended, are you talking
to me? Yes, I am. Yes, God's Word. If any of you
lack wisdom. Now, we talked about trials. Two, count it joy. Rejoice when
you fall into divers temptations or trials, knowing that the trial
of your faith worketh patience. Patience we need desperately. That means to wait. Wait, I say,
on the Lord. This James ends with talking
about Job. You heard of the patience of
Job? Have you heard of the patience of Job? He says, we count them
happy which endure. James said, blessed is the man
that endureth. You've heard of the patience
of Job. He's seen the end of the Lord. So we need this patience
to wait, and this patience comes by trials, waiting on the Lord. One man I just listened to brought
this out, wisely brought this out. When you think of trials,
what do you think about? When you think of trials, I know
what you think about. We all do. We think of death
in the family. We think of sickness. We think
of our own sickness, someone else's sickness. We think of
losing a job, losing whatever. Gaining a job can be a trial. Prosperity is one of the greatest
trials we can face. More people, my pastor said this
for years, more people fall to the trial of prosperity than
they do adversity. Nine out of ten fall to prosperity. This is what happened to the
children of Israel. It wasn't the adversity. It was prosperity. These things are trials. These
are a real test. That is, if a person is forced
to make a choice between this world and Christ. So there are
divers' trials, so many different trials, and they work patiently
to wait on the Lord. Maturity is wisdom and patience. Maturity is wisdom and patience. The opposite of wisdom and patience
is foolishness and impulsiveness. We need wisdom and patience. They go together. You can't have
one without the other. We need wisdom to know how to
think right. The word wisdom means sound judgment,
that is, think right. We need wisdom to know to think
right thoughts. As soon as we have the wrong
thoughts in our head, it's going to come out of our mouths and
come out in our actions. We need wisdom to think right,
to judge righteous judgment according to truth, not the sight and not
the hearing, but according to truth. We need wisdom and patience
to wait before we say anything. We need wisdom and patience to
know what to say, what not to say, when to say it, to whom
to say it, or if not to say it at all. Oh my, if any of you
lack wisdom. We need wisdom to know how to
act wisely. We need patience. We need wisdom
to know how to react. So, anyone lack wisdom? Verse 4 says, Let patience have
her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. The word perfect is not talking
about sinless perfection. Not at all. It's talking about
Christlikeness. Ephesians 4. says that the Lord
gave pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. That is, if he's a true shepherd
and teacher, or if she's a teacher of our children, they will teach
according to scriptures, which is able to make you wise unto
salvation. And in order for you to grow
in wisdom and stature, I'm quoting Ephesians 4, that we might grow
in wisdom and stature to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. In other words, that we might
be Christ-like, not babies, but grown men and women, not foolish
little children. Paul one time wrote, be children
in malice. That is, don't have any. Forgive
and forget, you know, how children are. They may get offended. They'll
stay away. But be men in understanding. Grow up, he said, that we be
not tossed to and fro like little children. Wisdom. Perfect. Actually, believers do have sinless
perfection. There's a new man in here that's
sinlessly perfect. He's perfect. But think about
this. It says that Christ, through His wisdom, He grew in wisdom. You think about that. Now, if
He grew in wisdom, where does that leave us? So, that's what
this is talking about. The measure of the stature. He
grew in wisdom and favor with God and man. So we need this desperately,
that wisdom or patience have a perfect, perfecting work comes
by trials. And here's where wisdom comes
from. Verse 5, now if any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God. Let him ask of God. And it shall
be given. Not maybe. It shall be given. God giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not. And it shall be given him or
her. Lack wisdom. Now turn with me
to 1 Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3. Here's wisdom. Here's how to
know if you already have any. If you could have anything, anything
from God, if He would ask you to ask Him
for anything, and He will give it, whatever it is, He'll give
it to you, what would you ask for? What would you ask for? Here's how to know if you already
have some wisdom. 1 Kings 3, the Lord did actually
tell Solomon this, ìAsk me anything.î Verse 5, ìIn Gibeon the Lord
appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ìAsk
what I shall give thee.î And Solomon said, ìThou hast showed
unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy.î Now, he already
has wisdom, doesn't know it. But he's seen what God did to
his father and through him as he walked before thee in truth
and in righteousness and uprightness of heart with thee. He's not
going to mention any material thing. Not one. And you kept for him this great
kindness. You've given him a son, verse
6, to sit on his throne as it is this day. Oh, 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." Now Solomon's 33 years old here. He's no baby. He's no fool. He's no child. He has an understanding. He's
already revealed that. But here's wisdom. It's to know
that you don't know much. I don't know how to go out and
come in. If any man thinks he knows anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he
ought to know. We need to start all over again.
Now, we all here have been given a measure of responsibility.
I'm speaking mostly to adults here, all adults. And we're either
husbands and wives or fathers and mothers or grandparents or
brothers and sisters, employees, employees. We've all been given
a measure of responsibility like Solomon. Solomon was set as king
over a kingdom, had many people to deal with. We do too. We need the same wisdom. We need
the same gift. We need to ask for the same thing
that Solomon asked for. Verse 8, "...thy servant is in
the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen." I sure should
have said this. We're members of Christ's church.
We're supposed to be sons of God out there in the world. I need wisdom. I need to act
like one. I need to talk like one. I need
to treat people like one. Any of you lack wisdom. Lord,
verse 9, He said, Give therefore thy servant an understanding
heart, to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and
bad, who is able to judge this thy so great a people. You see
what He asked for? Did you notice when he said an
understanding heart, did you look at your margin? If you have
a Cambridge Bible, what does it say? Hearing. It all comes by hearing. This
wisdom comes by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Proper
discernment and judgment cometh by hearing. There's a scripture
that says, he that answereth a matter before he heareth it,
it's followed to him. It'll come out here and it'll
come out in our action. That is, if we don't hear a matter,
the truth of a matter, both sides of a matter, weighed and judged
accordingly, according to the book, according to the facts.
Wisdom is having the facts and dealing with them wisely. If we don't have the facts, and
most today have thoughts of many things,
They come out here real fast, and they start by, their thoughts
are by innuendo, by implication, by rumor, by unknown sources. And they have these thoughts,
everybody has their opinion, like a certain part of our anatomy,
and it just spews out here, and everybody's acting like fools. The wise man heareth. And the first thing that happened
to Solomon was two identical women, harlots, came to him,
and one said one thing and one said another. And he had to judge, and there
were no witnesses but God. And he had to judge between this
one and that one, who's telling the truth. There was a life at
stake, a great consequence. First thing. And he heard them. And he heard them. And he let
them talk. And he judged. And oh, was it
good judgment. We need the same wisdom. We need
the same wisdom. If God were to ask you or tell
you, I'll give you anything you wish, anything you ask, if you
ask for wisdom, You'll get it. And where would you go in the
Old Testament to learn about wisdom? After all these years, Proverbs 4, Proverbs 8, Proverbs
8, the whole chapter is about wisdom. So is Proverbs 4. And
it says this. Proverbs 4 says this. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Forget it
not, neither decline from the words of my mouth." Wisdom is
the principal thing. This is the primary thing. This
is the one thing needful. Therefore, get wisdom. With all
thy getting, get understanding. With all your
getting, what is wisdom? Proverbs 8, Christ says, I have
wisdom. And that means so much more than
just a head knowledge of who Christ is. It's Christ in you, formed in
you, the hope of glory. And coming out, whatever is in
you will come out, won't it? Out of your... this mind. Let this mind be in you. Let
this speech come out of you, which came out of him. And let
these actions follow that he did. Wisdom. Wisdom. It's wisdom to be a good
hearer. Swift to hear. James. He's going
to talk about this, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to
anger. Wisdom is two things. Wisdom
is saving wisdom. Wisdom is saving wisdom. That's
toward God. It's being wise toward God. And wisdom is living wisdom. Wise toward man. Be wise toward
God. And it wires toward man. You
can't be this without this. If you don't have this, you don't
have this. So, wisdom toward God, that both
go together, both come from God. Saving wisdom is to know God. What's the beginning of wisdom?
Fear. Someone just mouthed that. Good.
It's the fear of the Lord. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord
will make you hesitant to say too much. It will make you hesitant
to judge wrongly, to think wrong thoughts, and certainly wrong
actions. So fear the Lord. We could stay
there all day. Fear the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. To know God is to fear God. To know God is to believe
God. To know God is to obey God. To obey God. Christ said this
over and over again. If you keep My commandments,
you believe Me. You believe Me if you keep My
commandments. If you don't, you won't. And it will suffer the
consequences. To know God is to worship God. I mean to really know God is
to worship God, live in an attitude of worship. To know God is to
call on God. To know God, to know Christ, to believe Him,
follow Him, trust Him, saving wisdom toward God. And living wisdom is to walk by faith. Listen to this. I'm dealing with
things too wonderfully, I thought, on the way over here. I want
to try to talk about wisdom. Christ has made unto us wisdom. It's by His knowledge we're justified. His knowledge of God. He is wise
for us. He is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. God made Him to be wise for us,
because we were born fools. And Christ came and became our
wisdom toward God, acted right, thought right, did all this to
fulfill the law, and God is well pleased for His righteousness
sake, and that is imputed and charged to our account and accepted
in the blood. He made wisdom for us. You're
not saved by your wisdom. You're saved by Christ. You're
not saved by your knowledge and by your obedience to any of these
things. You're saved by Christ's knowledge and by His obedience. That's wisdom. He's made unto
us wisdom. And He's made unto us wisdom
in this sense. We can look at Him and say, now
that's wise. How should I think? How should
I think? This is where it all starts.
Look at things, hear things, see things. People treat you
this way. The first thoughts come into
your head are not necessarily right. First impressions. How true are they always? You're going to have to wait.
You've got to wait and see. You've got to hear it out. You're
going to have to judge, write your judgment. And we look at
Christ and everybody's saying this and doing this and pulling
at Him. He said, I don't judge according to the sight of the
eyes. I don't judge according to the hearing of the ear. Many
said many things. He didn't necessarily believe
them. We look at Christ and say, now
how should I think about this? We look at Christ and say, how
should I speak? He's made unto us wisdom. That's wise. He wouldn't answer a fool according
to his folly, lest he be like unto him. He's not going to argue
with a fool. But then the fool would come along and he'd answer
him, lest he be wise in his own conceits. We look at Christ and
say, now that's wise. I want to talk like that. We
look at Christ, He's made unto us wisdom. How did He act? You
say, that's wise. So this is living wisdom. Living
wisdom. Wise toward God is saving wisdom. Wisdom toward man is living wisdom.
Right thoughts, right speech, right action. This is wisdom.
Where does it come from? Where does it come from? How
are we going to get this wisdom? You're not going to attain it.
You're not going to work for it. You're not going to just
live long enough and you'll have it. Oh, they're more old than
fools than there are young ones. And old and fools sure ought
not to go together, should they? It comes from one way. It comes
from one place. It comes from above. It comes
from above. James is going to go on to talk
about strife and envy and division and fighting and war, and he
said this wisdom didn't come from above. But the wisdom that comes from
above is peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy
and truth. Now, this wisdom comes from above.
It comes from above. We don't have it. Man doesn't
have it. First, where would you go in the New Testament if you
wanted to look up wisdom? There's one or two chapters that
talk about it more than anything. All the way through. 1 Corinthians
1 and 2. speak of wisdom more than any
passage in the New Testament. All the way through 1 Corinthians
1, he talks about, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world? In the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, but in the wisdom of God, Christ has made unto us wisdom.
We don't preach the wisdom of this world, Paul said there.
He said the wisdom which man teacheth, philosophy and psychology
and sociology and all that. Now there's wisdom. No, it's
not. Man doesn't have any. Don't go
to man for it. I don't care what anybody says.
Because this is what God says. This is what 1 Corinthians 1
and 2 say. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, their foolishness to him, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
They come from above. They come from one place, from
God. We're not born with it. We can't attain to it. We can
live all our lives and not have it. But here's how you may have
it. Ask. It's like salvation, isn't it?
It is salvation. Ask. Let him ask of God. There in verse 5, it says, Let
him ask of God that giveth to all liberally. That word means freely. The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance, liberally, freely,
no strings attached, no conditions. Anybody ever given you anything
with strings attached to it? You need to judge before you
take something that's free. I was talking to somebody recently
about one of these timeshare things. And I'm going to give
you a free this or a free that, free cruise, a free three days
and three nights. Believe me, I've been through
that three or four times now. Well, let me get off of that.
But anything that man says is free is generally not. Beware
of it. What God gives is free. No strings
attached. No condition. Not, I'll give
you this if. If you use it wisely. This is
what he goes on to say in verse 5. He upbraideth not. I gave
you, I taught you wisdom last week, and you acted like a fool
this week. No, that's not what God says,
does it? That's not what a parent says
to children, does it? He does gently reprove and rebuke. Didn't you hear a thing I said? Didn't you say that to your children,
your grandchildren? Haven't you heard a thing I've said? Didn't
our Lord say that to His grown disciples after three and a half
years? Or are you yet without understanding? After all this
time with me, you don't understand yet? So what do you do? I'm through
with you. I'm through with you. You wait. You won't do what I tell you
to do. Oh Lord, we believe. Help our
unbelief. Okay. Just ask. Gives it liberally and abundantly,
liberally, bountifully. How much wisdom do you need?
You know, that's how much you'll get. How much grace do you need? That's how much you'll get. If
you think so-and-so sure needs a lot of wisdom, you just revealed
you need more than them. Job, after thirty-some chapters
of debating with his friends, Job said in the end, after a
young man named Elihu preached to him, he said, I have spoken
things too wonderful for me, things I understood not. And I'm just going to shut up. Good, Job, that's where you should
have stayed in the beginning. That's what you should have done
all along. Let him ask in faith, verse 6. Ask in faith. And again, those
of you who really know me and love me know that I'm not preaching
down to you at all. I'm not preaching to you because
I know these things. I'm preaching to you because
I mean these things. I'm not preaching to you because
I'm perfect. But I'm preaching to you because I press toward
these things. I'm preaching to you when I get
loud. It's not because I'm angry at you. It's because I'm angry
at myself. Like, haven't you learned anything
yet? You're supposed to be a master
in Israel. Come talk to me. I need to learn. We've been through
this four times. This is the fourth time. I've
got thousands of pages of notes. I didn't look at one of them.
I hadn't looked at one of them. I'm not going to. I thought,
I need to learn all over. Again, I need to start afresh
like I don't know anything. I started reading this and I
thought, my, my. My, my. It was sufficient at this time.
Ask. So I've been asking. What I do
now more than anything is ask. Ask. Let him ask, verse 6, in
faith. Now this is vital. This is vital. Let him or her ask in faith,
nothing wavering. He that wavereth is like a wave
of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Read on. Let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A woman, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. This is vital, people. Please,
stay with me here. Stay with the Lord. Go over to
1 John 5 with me. What does this mean, to ask in
faith? 1 John 5. What does this mean? Ask in faith. Let him ask in
faith, nothing wavering. Well, it's not talking about
this modern religious concept of claim something. Say it and claim it. This is
modern religion, a kind of a positive thinking. Norman Vincent Peale
religion, the power of positive thinking, where God's Word says
it and you just claim it, you just say it, it's supposed to
be yours and you just claim it. Whatever it is, whatever you
think you need or want, just ask for it, believe and you'll
have it, and you'll have it. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Most of what we ask for is to ask amiss. James said
it. We ask amiss to consume it upon
our own lusts. We ask, we pray for things we
already want and desire, not even asking God what the right
thing is. We need to ask God to ask Him
for the right things. Lord, give me wisdom to ask for
the right thing, to pray for the right thing. 1 John 5 verse 14 says this, this
is a confidence that we have in Him, concerning Him, that
if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And I had so much I wanted to
deal with about the will of God. You know, the will of God is
revealed. You have it in your hand. The revealed will of God. Where to go? What to do? What
to say? How to say it? When? When not to? Should I make
this decision? Should I make that decision?
There's nothing you'll ever face. Nothing you've ever gone through.
No decision you'll ever have to make. It hadn't already been recorded in this way. From Genesis. We went all the way through the
book of Genesis. Everything, every person, every event, every
circumstance that you face in life, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Jacob, Joseph, it's all there. It's all revealed. There are five basic things I
was going to bring to you. I don't have time about the will
of God, knowing the will of God. It may be not. It's revealed
in the Scripture. But to ask in faith means to
ask according to His will, not ask with our own desire in mind,
but His will. Like our Lord said, Lo, I am
come to do Thy will, O God. He said, My meat and my drink
is to do the will of God. Now, there is wisdom. There is
wisdom. Not my will, but Thy will be done. I will
tell you this, the key, it has everything to do with the glory
of God. Every decision. Every word, every
thought, the glory of God. Bringing every thought into captivity
to the mind of Christ. Wisdom. Asking faith according
to His will. He says we'll have those things.
Verse 15 in 1 John 5 says, we know that He hears us, whatever
we ask, we know we've the petitions that we desired of Him. Now here's wisdom. Pray this
prayer. The Lord said, Our Father who
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. The gospel come now. I need this more than I need
bread. A man's getting up. Here's wisdom.
A man's getting up to preach and teach wisdom. Boy, I need
to be on every one of those. That's wisdom. A man's getting
ready to stand up and preach about the kingdom of God. We
don't know if tomorrow will be. Here's wisdom. Boy, I mean, thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
What's daily bread? Well, food. Yeah, but you don't
live by that alone. That goes out in the draft. Here's
bread. There's bread. Christ said, I'm
the true bread. Here's wisdom. Give us this day
our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. Here's wisdom, how to deal with
the adversary who walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Satan hath desired you and you
and you to sift you, you like wheat, no less than Peter, and
you are easy sifting. Here's wisdom, how to resist. James talks about resisting the
devil and to flee from him. I don't know. I need wisdom. Ask. Here's the things he says
ask for. Seek ye first. Kingdom of God
and His righteousness. All this stuff, the attitude. One thing that Christ formed
in us, He says, He that wavereth. In our text, and I close, He
that wavereth. See, one that doesn't ask in
faith, wavereth like waves of the sea or like children Paul
wrote about in Ephesians 5. Four, toss to and fro, up, down,
in, out, hot, cold. Remember what the Lord said about
double-minded. Double-minded. Here's a double-minded,
wavering person. All right? Here it is. And we're
this way because we don't have wisdom and we don't ask and we
don't do what He tells us to do when we do that. The Lord
says, all right, we ask the Lord, Lord, give me wisdom. Give me
wisdom. Give me grace to do what you
say. And yet a divided mind, a divided
heart says, I know this is true, but I sure like this. I know
this is the way, but I'm going to go this way. This is what
he says. This is the way he walked there
in it. And an unstable, unwavering person said, yeah, but I'm just
going to take my chances. Fool. What a fool. And that person
may know in their head that's not where the rubber meets
the road. And they can talk, 1 Corinthians
13 says this, say, I may have all wisdom, that I understand
all things, gift of prophecy, understand mysteries, but mysteries
that don't have this Love, nothing, nothing. And so he says in our
text, ask. A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. Ask in faith. Lord, I need wisdom
and I need grace. Please. Please, give me the grace
to do what you said to do. To act in faith. This is what
you said. You can't have God's will on
your own. You can't have the kingdom of God in the world.
It's a double-minded man. And over in chapter 4, he says,
purify your hearts, you double-minded. Isaiah 1. I was going to have
us turn over there. Isaiah 1. He talks about those whose heads
are sick and heart faint. That shouldn't be so with the
people of God. That's people by nature. The
Lord has given the people of God a mind of Christ. Let this
mind be in you. He's given them a new heart.
And so he goes on in Isaiah 1 to say, Come now, let's reason together.
Learn to do well. If you be willing and obedient,
you'll lead to good in life. That's wisdom put into action. Knowledge put into action. And
I've spoken things too wonderful for me. And we're just wading
ankle deep in an ocean of His fullness. Come back and we'll keep looking
at them.