Lord willing we've done two messages
on the tongue in this chapter and one message about those who
seek standing in the church and how they are to be avoided and
then two messages on the tongue in the context of those who are
seeking standing in the church and lording over God's people
today we're going to look at wisdom from above and last week
we finished the section of again James Three verses one to two,
which dealt with certain people, Lord and over the church, seeking
position, a power within the church, not being able to control
their tongues. We also learn through three illustrations
about bridling the tongue, and though it's the smallest member,
one of the smallest members, not the smallest member, but
one of the smallest members of our body, it is the hardest to
control, isn't it? We can all attest to that, it's
the hardest to control. And then we saw that even by
nature, that a spring cannot bring forth both fresh water
and bitter, or salt water. And so it not so to be with us.
We ought not to be blessing God and cursing man. It just not
ought to be so. With that in mind, let's read
verses 13 to 18 of James chapter 3. Who is a wise man and endured
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envy 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 is confusion in every evil work. So he's setting forth before
us the wisdom of the flesh. which is envying, brings forth
envying and strife, confusion. God's not the author of confusion,
we know that from scripture. He's not the author of 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, without hypocrisy. and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. So in today's portion
of scripture, we see that James here in the book of James, we
see our dear brother James warns believers against strife and
being contention. And pride. This is not the behavior
of God's people, it should not be the continuous behavior of
God's people. James, again by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, addresses the Church of God and asks, who
among you is wise? Who among you is wise? Well,
we know that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise, right? Now, like what Henry says, that
doesn't mean God's people are dumb. That's not what that means.
It means we're common. We're common people. I'm a common
man. I come from a Canadian family,
a common Canadian family. My dad was a trailer mechanic
and my mom was a housewife. Just a common family. And you're
all common folks too. We all are. And a wise man is
one who's learned to exercise judgment and knowledge. It means
information concerning how he or she may execute and exercise
good judgment. Good judgment. And James, in
these verses, is giving us some specific suggestions of how such
a man or woman may manifest those traits in our conversation. Now, conversation here is everyday
life. It's not us speaking to one another.
Back then, conversation meant everyday life. So how we may
manifest these things in our everyday lives. So very practical
things for us here, as God's born-again, blood-washed people.
Very practical things. Thyre defines the word conversation
in the Greek to mean manner of life. So again, it's our, let
your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such as you have, that's your manner of life. See, people,
because of our language, people think, well, conversation, that
means my speaking. No, that's our manner of life again. That's
our manner of life. Our conduct or our behavior.
And James brings forth that he or she who is truly wise is to
have a manner of life or conduct with meekness. Wisdom from above,
not fleshy, earthly wisdom, but wisdom from above. And how do
we get wisdom from above? Can we obtain it? God has to
give it to us, doesn't he? And we're gonna see that this
wisdom is something that we can't manifest. And even the fruits
of this wisdom, which we looked at, are not some things we can
manifest. It has to be worked in us by
the Spirit. That's why it's called the fruit of the Spirit, right?
We saw what the fruit of the flesh is, envy, strife, contention. The fruit of the spirit is peace,
goodness, love, meekness. Oh my, all those things are worked
in us by our great God. And James brings forth that our
manner of life or conduct with meekness of wisdom We are to have a true, a teachable
spirit. And God's people have a teachable
spirit. There was a time when I didn't have a teachable spirit.
When I was in religion, now I want to learn. Donny and I were talking
about how even we preachers, we want to have a teachable spirit.
Gary Shepherd and I have talked about that before, too. We want
to continuously have a teachable spirit. We ought never to think
we've arrived or obtained a point where we can't learn from someone.
Because God is the one who's teaching us, ultimately, this
wisdom from above. And so no matter how much knowledge
we've obtained, no matter how much we've learned through the
years in our walk with Christ, we should always have teachable
spirits. Be willing, be like a sponge, be ready to soak it
up. Be ready to soak it up. Paul
what did Paul remember what Paul said we in Peter's has said this
too I believe is that I'm going to continuously bring forth before
you the truth I'm just going to keep repeating it because
it's good for us that's what gospel preachers do we continuously
bring the report of the good news of what Christ is on he
came here to save sinners and he did it he did he shed his
precious blood to redeem our eternal souls Look again at verse 13. Who is a wise man and endured
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. So let him show with his conduct
or her conduct in life. our works with meekness of wisdom.
And this is the workings of the Spirit in us. This is the love,
the peace, which we can't muster up. When I was in religion, I
used to always say, I need to have more joy, I need to have
more joy. I was miserable. I couldn't muster up that joy.
But I'll tell you what, now I have a peace that passes all understanding.
I can't explain it to you. So are you too, isn't it? Some
situation comes up, well, we know the Lord's in control. We
don't have to stress out like we used to. We don't, we're just
trusting it. Now, do we get excited sometimes?
Oh yeah, we do. Let's be honest, oh yeah. First
thing we do, usually that tension starts, that anxiety starts in
our hearts, doesn't it? Okay, Lord, no, I don't want
to be like that. I want to trust you. And then
it goes away. So if we would prove to be wise,
spiritual wise, let it be by our conduct and our conversation.
Let us flesh out what we live, or what we believe. Let us flesh
it out. God's forgiven us so much, let
us be forgiven to others. And remember, these words are
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so they're for our learning,
aren't they? They're teaching us, they're teaching us. And
those who are wise in our text live their lives with the spirit
of humility and peace and love. This, again, is all wrought in
them by the Holy Spirit of God. And they are quick to give God
all the glory. Give them all the glory for this, because we
can't do this on our own. These are things that we can't
muster up the love of God. Brother Donnie says the one thing
Satan can't counterfeit is the love of God that God's people
have for the brethren He can't counterfeit that. He can't. He just cannot do that. Paul brings forth the same truth.
Turn, if you would, to Colossians 3. And I'll read a portion from
1 Timothy 6. He says, But thou, O man of God,
flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness. So Paul's setting forth that
those are the things that we're to follow after. Again, bowels
of mercy. kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, and long-suffering. And then here in Colossians 3,
in verses 13 and 14, Paul writes this, forbearing one another,
be long-suffering with one another, and forgiving one another. If
any man have any quarrel against you, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. So when you go to forgive someone,
think, Lord, how much have you forgiven me? I can forgive this
person. I'm just going to let it go.
Even if they don't ask for forgiveness. You know why? Because if you
don't, it'll eat you up. We've all experienced that, haven't
we? It'll eat you up. Just let go. Forbearing, and
this is talking about believer to believer, forbearing one another
and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things put on charity, which is love, which is the bond
of perfectness. And let the peace of God, there's
that peace that passes all understanding, beloved, rule in your hearts.
Rule in your hearts. to the which also ye are called
in one body and be thankful. You know why it says, let the
peace of God rule in your hearts? Because we battle the flesh every
day. Flesh and the spirit are at war
and every single day they're fighting each other. Let the
peace of God. See, situation comes up, we,
oh, oh, oh. No. We're going to take care of it.
He already knows it was coming. He already knows it came. He's
already made a provision for it. And whatever falls out will be
for our good and for his glory. We just keep learning that, aren't
we? That's something we got to keep learning. So daily godliness,
word seasons with grace, and attitude of humility and love,
these are evidence of spiritual wisdom. They're evidence of us
growing in grace. And again, they only come about
by the power and working of God the Holy Spirit. He works that
in us. Now James is going to show us what is not from the
Holy Spirit of God. He's gonna contrast some stuff
here. Where the spirits move and there be unity and peace.
There will be unity and peace. There will be. We've experienced
that, haven't we? Unity and peace in the body,
it's been wonderful. But where the spirit's not moving,
there'll be strife, bitterness, envying. Look, it's brought forth
right here in verses 14 to 16. But if ye 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 envying and
strife is, there is confusion in every evil work." So he's
showing us here, again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, what
the works of the flesh is. And James, again, he's bringing
this forth by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And
if you notice, these things are in opposition to the workings
of the Spirit. They're in opposition to the
workings of the Holy Spirit. If you have a bitter spirit,
an envious spirit filled with jealousy, strife, and contention
in your hearts and from your mouths, then one should not glory. in their so-called knowledge.
Because that's earthly knowledge. That's earthly wisdom. They shouldn't
glory in that. It's a contradiction for a Christian
to say, I believe Christ, I'm born again and be full of envy
and strife. And jealousy and contention.
It's contradiction. They're deceiving themselves.
Remember, the heart's desperately wicked, right? Oh my. So all this so-called knowledge
here brought forth in verses 14 to 16 is, it's a lie. It's contrary to the truth. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
3. Now we've seen in our studies
in the scriptures that men and women are prone to follow other
men or lift them up, right? We even have to be careful as
grace believers. People are prone sometimes even
to lift a preacher up. Don't lift me up, please. I'm
just a safe sinner. And God's given me a message
to preach and proclaim. And I'm no better than any of
my fellow preachers. I'm probably worse. Right. And so don't don't don't lift
up preachers one over another. We just ought not to do that.
And Paul's going to you know it's not something that just
happens nowadays. It's been happening for years.
And part of it I've talked to some other preachers about this
part of it is probably because we live in like a celebrity kind
of society. Right. So it's natural that people
lift the preacher up like a celebrity. It ought not to be so and that
preacher probably tell you don't do that to me. Don't do that. In Corinth, there was some preacher
worship going on. And Paul's gonna deal with this.
Again, never compare your preacher to another preacher. We're different
personalities. We are, we're totally different
people. We're different people. Same message, if it's a true
gospel preacher, but different people. In Corinth, there was
some, again, preacher worship going on. Paul's going to deal
with this. And when people start comparing
one preacher to another, then there will be envying and strife.
It's gonna occur. It's gonna naturally occur. So
let us be content with, again, who the Lord sends to preach
the gospel to us. As long as they're preaching
the truth, right? Let's be content. And look what Paul brings forth
here in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1-7. And I, brethren, should
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and
not with meat, for hithero you were not able to bear it, neither
yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal. Exactly
what James is bringing out, right? That wisdom that brings contention
and strife is carnal. It's not wisdom from above. For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you
envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as
man? For while one saith, I am of Paul, look at this, they were
actually saying this, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos. Are
you not carnal? See, they were saying, well,
when Paul's preaching, man, I'm there. When Paul's preaching,
I'm gonna stay home. Oh my, no, they're both preaching
the gospel. They got the same message. And
in chapter one, they're even bringing Christ down to the level
of these men. It ought never to be so. For while one saith,
I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is
Apollos? Who are we as preachers? We can't save anyone. That's
what Paul's bringing forth. Who's Paul and Apollos? We can't save anyone. But ministers by whom ye believe.
God sent them to preach the message, they preached the message, and
then God gave them faith, the hearer's faith, to believe. But
they're just instruments in the hands of the Lord, as every one
of us are. Every one of us are just instruments
in the hands of the Lord. He uses us how he's pleased to
use us, right? He has a message going forth
from here, he's using the church here to send his message out
into the world, it's marvelous. It's absolutely incredible. And
then look what he says, I have planted Paul's water, but God
give the increase. It's God who gives the increase.
It's God who does it. So then neither is he that planteth
nor anything, look at that. Look how he brings this, I love
this. I love this. Because we preachers, we don't
feel like we're nothing. Or we feel like we're nothing.
We don't feel, who's sufficient for these things, Paul wrote.
And I love this, he says, so so neither is he the planet anything
so he's saying he's saying i'm not that because he says in the
burst before i planted now he said i'm not the head but but but but but but
but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but
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but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but
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but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but
but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but
but but but but but but but but but but In verse 3 of 1 Corinthians
3, Paul brings forth that the envy
and the strife is from their flesh. And we see in verse 4
that they're dividing over who was preaching. Again, both men
were preaching the gospel. And Paul brings forth that they
should rejoice in the truth. And that's what we should rejoice
in. We should rejoice in the truth. We should rejoice in the
gospel being preached and proclaimed because it's God who gives the
increase, and I love that. He said, Paul's and I are nothing. Oh my, isn't that wonderful?
That's how we preachers feel, we're nothing. God's given us
a message, we proclaim the message and watch what God does with
it, and it's absolutely stunning to see what he does with it.
It's wonderful. My even John brings this forth.
He says about envy and in strife. He says He that saith he's in
the light and hated his brothers in darkness even until now If
a man say I love God and hated his brother, he's a liar. For
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen? 1 John 4 verse 20 and 1 John
2 verse 9. Turn if you would to 1 John chapter
3, or no, I'm sorry, to James chapter 3 again. Let's go back
there. James chapter 3. James is bringing forth again
that envying and strife. in our hearts does not proceed
from God, but it comes from it comes from our flesh. It comes
from our flesh, beloved. Again, let's read verses 14 to
16. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory
not. And lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended
not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish for where envy
and strife is, there's confusion in every evil work. And notice
that the fleshy wisdom is not from above, it's earthly. It's
earthly, therefore it produces the works of the flesh. Envy,
strife, contention. It's unspiritual. And you can
be sure that when our attitude and words create strife, confusion,
division among the brethren, that we speak from the flesh. when envy and strife and bitterness
and selfishness, it's not from God. It's not from God, that's
what James is bringing forth here for us. And it's so clear,
isn't it? It's so clear in the text. Where
wise men and women worship, there's love, mercy and peace. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter five, Galatians chapter five, but keep your finger in
James because we're going right back there. Galatians chapter
five. Where there is envying and strife,
there'll be confusion of evil works, the scripture declares.
And Paul warns about this over here in Galatians chapter five. Look at this, verses 13 to 15. For brethren, so again, he's
writing to God's born again, blood-washed people, those whom
Christ has redeemed at Calvary's cross, right? Those who have
obtained salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, he's writing
to us as believers. Not writing to the whole world.
For brethren, you have been called unto liberty. There is that.
I was talking to somebody this week and I said, we do not understand
the liberty we have. I don't think we fully grasp
the freedom that we have in Christ. It's wonderful. We are so free,
beloved. Oh my. Even in those that you've
been called into Liberty freedom only use not liberties and occasion
to the flesh So don't use the freedom we have in Christ to
sin Don't Antinomians are famous
for that They said well God forgive me for everything. I can do whatever
I want. That is not a spirit from God Not at all. We have great liberty, and I
will speak about that liberty and that freedom. But we see
a warning here. Don't use that liberty for occasion
to the flesh. But by love, what? Serve one
another. Serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.
Look at this. Here's the warning, though. But
if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed
one of another. That's what can happen. Sheep
bite. Sheep bite. So when this fleshy
wisdom, where this fleshy wisdom is, there's strife and envy in.
And where there is a critical, unforgiving, unkind spirit filled
with bitterness and division, you're fine that that will destroy
the unity of the church. There won't be any peace there.
And you can feel it. Sister, you can feel it. Right.
You remember we talked about that. You can feel that. I'm amazed at the peace we have
now, the unity that we have now. It's it's I'll tell you what,
it's just been amazing. It's been incredible. My, oh,
my. But it's the love that binds
us together, isn't it? It's the love of God in our hearts
that binds us together. We're bound together in Christ
we're here for the furtherance of the gospel. That's what we're
here for. And we go forth in unity and
peace with humbleness of mind fellowship wonderful fellowship
We had a just had a wonderful conference and and and to me
the love of the body in the love of Christ in the in our body
was was evidently manifested and and it was wonderful to see
everybody working together and everything going so smoothly
and the wonderful messages by Brother Donnie and just we were
all edified by that by the preaching of the gospel and we I feel refreshed
personally as your pastor refreshed that I got to sit and listen.
I need that too. I need that too. It was wonderful.
So again, where this fleshy wisdom is, there's envy and strife.
Critical unforgiving spirit, unkind spirit. And James has
revealed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God that that
which is fleshy and earthly wisdom. Now he will contrast that. So
we've seen in verses, verses 13 I mean, I'm sorry, we've seen
in versus. In versus, yeah, or 14 to. Sixteen, we've seen the fruits. Of this fleshy wisdom, now he's
going to contrast things. Look at this in verses 17 and
18. He's going to contrast that fleshy earthly wisdom with true
wisdom, true wisdom. And again, this truism comes
from above. Comes from above. God works it
in us. Look at verses 17 and 18. But the wisdom that is from
above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy being treated, full
of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Now, I was thinking about something, you know, God works that in us,
right? But who's the epitome of all that? When I was looking at this, I
go, Christ is pure. Christ is peaceable. Christ is
gentle. Christ was easy to be entreated.
Christ was full of mercy and grace, full of good fruits. He went around helping others,
didn't he? Without partiality, rich and
poor, he didn't care. He's no respecter of persons
and without hypocrisy. We're being conformed to the
image of Christ. Isn't that amazing? These things
are being worked in us by God, the Holy Spirit. He's conforming
us to the image of Christ. So the wisdom spoken of in verse
17 is the wisdom which is from God from above. And again, he
gave it. He's given us some characteristics
of these this wisdom. We see first that it's pure.
Well, out of the out of the mouth, or out of the heart, the mouth
speaketh. The mouth speaketh. So the heart
entertains pure and good thoughts. The mouth accordingly speaks,
speaks accordingly. Then we see that this wisdom
is peaceable. This is the opposite of strife. Peaceable, it seeks
peace. It doesn't seek to cause up,
to stir up strife. It's peaceable. We want to live
peaceful as God's people, don't we? None of us like strive. No, we want to live peaceable
in this world until we get home to be with the Lord. My, it's the opposite of strife. A soft answer turneth away wrath,
the scriptures say, but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue
of the wise uses knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pours
out foolishness. Oh my, I've seen that truth,
the soft answer turneth away wrath. It works. It works, beloved. God's born-again, blood-washed
saints. As God's born-again, blood-washed saints, again, we
desire to live peaceably in our lives. In the church, we also
desire peace too, don't we? We don't desire strife. Strife
brings about all kinds of anxiety and stuff. Strife just stirs
up all kinds of things. The next characteristic is that
it's gentle. Gentle. My. And the wisdom from above is
mild, courteous, kind and patient. It contends for the truth. Not
in a harsh, cruel and unbending way when defending the truth.
When I was in religion, I used to I used to defend supposedly
the truth by shredding other people. It's no way to do it. We contending for the truth,
we just we just proclaim the truth. Let it sit. Just let it sit there. We don't
have to be mean and cruel spirited and mean spirited. We don't have
to be that way at all. And gentleness is a fruit of
the spirit, not of the flesh. It's an attribute of Christ and
also of his servants, those who are born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. This wisdom is easy to be entreated or that means willing
to listen. Willing to listen. With any word of reason, explanation,
or exhortation. I've got to work on that. Sometimes
when me and my son are talking about certain things, I've got
to work on that. Oh my. Easily entreated. Oh, willing
to listen, Wayne. Okay. It's also quick to forgive. It's also quick to forgive. and
waits to be gracious, waits to be gracious. Next, we see this
wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. Well, remember who's
the vine and who's the branches, right? The Lord's the vine, we're
the branches. Without Him, we can't do nothing,
nothing. He's the one who produces the
fruit in us. And true wisdom from above knows who makes one
rich or poor. It knows where our help comes
from. Having received mercy from God and Christ, it gives mercy.
Having freely received, it gives freely. And true wisdom, it says
in that text, also acts without partiality. That means we don't
look at a person's skin color. We don't judge a person on outward
appearance, whether they're in new clothes or old clothes. Doesn't
matter. No. It's no respecter of persons. But it loves and reaches out
to all. And true wisdom acts without hypocrisy. True spiritual
wisdom in Christ is straightforward, free from fears and insincerity. So we see clearly then how opposite
the works of the spirit are to the works of the flesh. One brings
envy and the strive for contention. One makes us peaceable, gentle, without partiality. willing to learn, willing to
listen. True wisdom from above is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of
mercy, and good fruits, without hypocrisy, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy. Now let's close. With James 318 it says in the
fruit of righteousness is so in peace of them that make peace
Beloved where heavenly wisdom and love live and operate the
fruit of righteousness Is enjoyed the fruit of the spirits enjoyed
unity and peace abounds among God's people And all we can say
is praise is mighty