The lesson this morning will
be taken from James chapter 4, verses 1 through 10. I like to say this every now
and then when we're studying the Scriptures, that in the original
there are no chapter divisions, no verses. They were added. to the Word
of God for easy referencing and for study purposes. They added
those things so it's easy to go find. And then most of us
don't memorize whole verses or even chapters in the Bible. So if we got the text, whoever
we're talking to can go read it for themselves. So they added
these things. And I think it was a good thing
that they did. It makes it easy to study. And I say that this morning because
Chapter 4 is a continuation of the writer's teaching concerning
the wisdom of which true faith operates. It's the basis of it. The title of the study this morning
is Two Wisdoms, Two Ways, and Two Ends, or Two Results. So let's read our text together.
James chapter 4 beginning with verse 1. From whence come wars
and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your
lusts, your desires, that war in your members? You lust and have not, you kill
and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet
you have not because you ask not. Is there anything, anything,
that our Lord does not control or has ability to give us, and
yet He's the last one we seek when we want something? You have not because you ask
not. You ask and receive not. because
you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is an enemy of God. Do you think the scripture
saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God. And He'll draw
nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. So let's start here. There's two wisdoms. Two wisdoms
that James talks about when he goes through these several verses
of Scripture. Two wisdoms that he sets apart
here in James chapter 3. Wisdom from above. Wisdom that
cometh down from the Father of light is distinguished from the
wisdom of the world by certain qualities. There's a quality
about the wisdom of God that does not accompany the wisdom
of this Word. James tells us in chapter 3 verse
17 that this wisdom that's from above is pure. It's pure wisdom. It's pure because it comes from
God Himself. What is it about God that is
not pure? That's why we can't, nobody can
say unto him what doeth thou. We have no right to say that
because everything he does is right. Everything he does is wise. And
everything he does is good. Christ is our wisdom. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
30, he's talking about the revelation of the Spirit of God to believers. God hath revealed these things
to us by His Spirit. And he says, he gets down here
to verse 30, he said, but, I'm sorry, this is 1 Corinthians
1. But of Him, the Father, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. We've got
no excuse for not having wisdom because here's wisdom personified. This is the one in whom we believe,
or at least we profess to believe. If we truly believe, he is our
wisdom. And this whole unbelieving world, Ephesians 4, 17, walk
in the vanity of their mind. What's he mean by that? It's like a mirage. It's vain. It's not there. It's an empty
hole. They walk in a vanity of their
mind, a mind that believes in free will. Man doesn't have a free will.
My soul, anybody who's lived on the earth ought to know that.
You don't have a free will. When I would do good, that's
will, isn't it? Evil's present in me. There are no free wills. And
yet this whole world professes faith and walks in the vanity
of their mind, believing in a free will. That's vain. It has no
basis. It has no foundation. A mind
that believes in a flawed God. That's what a man told me one
time. He said, even the Lord got angry as though it was a
flaw. We believe in a God who's changeable. Isn't that a flaw? Why would
He change? He's all-wise. He's all-knowing. He's everywhere present. Nothing
can sneak up on Him. Why would He change? And then we believe God can be
defeated. Really? A sovereign God? A God who spoke
and creation appeared, a God who has maintained this world
from the beginning, a God who has ordered all things and all
things work, not only for His glory but for
our good. This world believes in a God
who cannot always have His way. You see what I'm saying? They
walk in the vanity of their mind. They don't look at the Word of
God to take counsel from God. They take counsel from this fallen,
ignorant heart. They walk believing that He doesn't
truly reign unless you let Him. He's a lecture God. He's a flawed
God. You thought, God said, I was
altogether such a one as yourself. But I reproved you. I'll make
you to know who I am. They walk in the vanity of their
minds, but true wisdom he calls having the mind of Christ. Having
listed in a previous verse those who are past feeling, those who
have given themselves over to lasciviousness, given over to
such things that a carnal heart would lust after, and then to
work all manner of uncleanness with greediness, but he said,
ye have not so learned Christ." That's what we've got to learn.
It's not a whole list of things here that you have to go learn.
We have to learn Christ. If I learn Him, the list will
fill into blanks for itself. This is what we need to do. We
need to look to Him, study Him. You have not so learned Christ,
Ephesians 4.20. And then in verse 21, he said,
If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by
him, as the truth is in him. Look with me over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. He tells us down in verse 14,
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God reveals those
things which God has prepared for them to love Him. The rest
of the world don't see these things. They're mysteries. They
don't understand what He's talking about. They read things in the
Bible and apply it one way when it's meant to be applied another.
They walk in the vanity of their minds and they receive not the
things of the Spirit of God. What things? The preaching of
the Gospel. Those are the means that God
has ordained. The Spirit of God reveals himself through the Word
which he has inspired men to write. He's the only one who
can truly reveal what's in the Word of God because he's the
one who inspired them to write it. Why won't men receive these signs?
There's foolishness to them, absolute total foolishness. Neither
can they know them because they're spiritually discerned. If you
deny the things of the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the
preaching of the Gospel, and so forth, if you deny those things,
then what you've done is you've cut off all avenues of ever knowing
the truth. They're spiritually discerned.
Neither can you know them because they're spiritually discerned.
You reject that, you reject the wisdom of God. But he that is
spiritual, he judgeth, the word here is understandeth, All that,
yet he himself is judged or understood of no man. For we have known
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him. But we have
the mind of Christ. We understand his instructions.
Our wisdom is pure because it comes from God incarnate. God manifested in the flesh.
Wisdom from above. is pure, and then he says it's
peaceable. We're not at war. I'm not trying
to go to war with anybody. There are lots of folks who do.
There are lots of Calvinists who do. They're ready to go to
war, any place, any time. Now, our wisdom is peaceable.
That wisdom, as it's demonstrated in Christ and exampled in Christ,
is peaceable. It's peaceful. And then listen to this. It's
gentle. It's gentle. Oh, aren't you glad
it is? Godly wisdom does not produce
men who run roughshod over their congregations and over one another. If you see a man doing that,
he's not a son of God. They're gentle men. Brother Mahan,
in a message, oh, this has been years ago. I'm going to say at
least 30 years ago. He said this in a message. He
was talking about me, and it was the best compliment I've
ever received from anybody. He said, he is a gentle man. And that's exactly how he said
it, a gentle man. We want to be gentle, don't we? The world, they go to war. It
don't take too many words. They're duking it out in the
parking lot. We don't do that. Don't do that. And wisdom from above, he said,
is easy to be treated. What's he talking about? Well,
it's like apple pie. It's easy. Somebody say, hey,
you want a piece of pie? What kind you got, apple? Yeah,
I'll tell you. Like Italian cream cake. Well,
Rick, oh, you got Italian, oh, yeah. Maybe I better have a piece
of that. The gospel's easy to be inherited. What makes it difficult is what's
in here. Once you know what the gospel
is, boy, it's easy to listen to, isn't it? It's full of mercy. It's full
of good fruits. Love, joy, kindness, faith, forgiveness. Full of good fruits. And it's
without partiality and hypocrisy. Several of us went out to eat. And Brother Walter was with us
and he ordered a cheeseburger. And she said, what do you want
on it? She said, everything? He said, everything. But hold
the onions. Hold the partiality. That's what
James was saying. Don't put that on there. Hold
the hypocrisy. You don't need that. But, James goes on to tell us
there's another wisdom. James chapter 3, verse 14. Look
at this. 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. This is not a gift from the Father
of lights. This is of your own self. This is out of that polluted
heart. This descendeth not from above,
but it's earthly. Now watch. He's going to tell
you something about this wisdom. It's earthly, it's sensual, and
it's devilish. It's earthly in the sense that
it's in its source and in its end.
It's earthly. Where do we get it here? What
seems to me, well, who are you? You ain't nobody. Where were
you in eternity when God created the earth? That's what he asked
Job. Tell me about the migration of
the wild ass. Why don't you explain that to
me? Or the tiny whole cross. Why don't you tell me where that
comes from and all about it? And he asked him like 40 questions,
just one right after the other. Job said, once if I've spoken
to you twice, I'll never speak again. This wisdom doesn't descend from
above. That wisdom is, it's ever-renewing,
it's ever-growing, it's ever-being-revealed. I know more now than I did back
then. But not earthly wisdom. Earthly
wisdom never changes. It's always the same. This wisdom descended not from
above, it's earthly. Secondly, it's sensual. It grows
out of the fallen nature and is sown by an assortment of worldly
philosophies and religions. It's sensual. It's based on emotions,
feelings, and sinful desires. It's sensual. Sensual. That's
why when religion has entertainment, they get professionals. They get men up there. Oh, I'm
telling you. They're appealing to men's senses.
Natural religion, it doesn't appeal to God. It's not based
on grace, it appeals to men's feelings. And then he says it's deadlish.
That is, it's after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders. Satan loves to sow discord among
the brethren. Take those small little things
that you would never You probably dealt with them a thousand times
and didn't even put a wrinkle on your face, but in this one
time, now it's going to cause division. He loves to sow discord
among the brethren. So there's two wisdoms. And then secondly, he tells us
that there's two ways, works and grace. That's it. Well, you say there's thousands
of religions. Melt them all down and here's what you've got, works
and drugs. Works religion is any religion
that believes that favor with God can be obtained on the basis
of your works, whatever that is. That's works religion. You can rearrange the facts.
They sold me a truck and I went in and I sat down with, I guess,
a finance officer. She'd punch in a bunch of stuff,
and I'd calculate the payments, you know, and the interest involved,
and it's like $2,000 more than what y'all did. I said, well,
there's a $2,000 discrepancy. Oh, well, you know, over here.
And then she'll do something, and then she'll just rearrange
it. That's what religion does. It just rearranges all these
evil facts. It just puts them in a different
place. Why? Because it's made to hoodwink
you. That's why. It's made to deceive. Deceitful workers. That's what
the Lord calls them. Oh, but grace. Paul said, is it of grace? If it is, then it's no more work. It's no more work. Oh, what's
that mean? That means there's no more works. Yeah, but what about, it's no
more works. It's either grace or works. One or the other. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. I used to watch A little comedy
called The Little Rascal. Some of you in here old enough
to know what that is. They had a wagon. And they had
a goat pulling the wagon. And they had a stick with a carrot
hanging down on it. And they'd push that one end
down, that carrot go up where the goat couldn't see it, and
he'd stop. When they wanted him to go, they'd lower that carrot
down. He'd go after that carrot. He could never get it. It was
dangling right there. And he'd just go and go and go
and pull that wagon. That's religion. They dangle
something out in front of you that you can never have. And you pull the wagon. You pull
the wagon. And when they want you to stop,
he takes it away. And he puts it back, and away
you go, chasing that. Men spend their whole lives doing
that. Everything in false religion
appeals to the natural tendencies of men. And it works religion
as an evil, twisted, deceitful way. Here's the basis of it. This is how they reason. I know
that because I was one of them. I reason the same way. If somebody's
friendly to me, I'm going to be friendly to them. Somebody
gives me gifts, I'm going to give gifts to them. Makes me want to do these things. The problem is neither one of
us are God. You see what I'm saying? All
this earthly religion stuff comes from earthly philosophy. Neither
one of us are God. Neither one of us owes an eternal
debt of sin to one another. Neither one of us demands a perfect
obedience from birth to death. Neither one of us has a perfect
character or hold a high station of being God. God's not like
us. He's like himself. I'm God. There's none like me. Isn't that what he says? Then
why do we go somewhere else to study God? To form our opinions
about God? Where do all our arguments and
controversies and divisions come from? From an evil heart. That's where
they come from. And there's no excuses for sin
and no reason for division. There's nothing any of us can
do to one another that we ourselves haven't already done against
God and are forgiven for it. So we're going to run over here
This guy, I owed a great debt, but he don't owe me just in comparison
a penny. I'm going to go over here and
beat him up over a penny. I'm going to go over here and
lambast him and destroy his reputation over a penny when God just forgiven
me for millions. You see what I'm saying? There's
no reason for divisions among brethren. None. Well, Lord, how often should
I forgive my brother? Seven times? Seven times seventy? Seven times that. Go on and on
and on. I want you to listen as I read
these two verses and hopefully the Spirit of God will press
these truths upon our hearts. In Ephesians 4 verse 31, listen
to this. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all manners. Get rid of it. It's not useful
in the kingdom of God. Just get rid of it. Get rid of it. It has no place
in the kingdom of God. It has no place in the household
of faith. And it has no place in the brotherhood
of saints. Rid of these things. Lay them
aside. Let all those things cease. And be ye kind, verse 32, one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's the pattern. That's the pattern. You want
to know how far should I go, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven me. That's how far you go. James chapter 4 verse 5. Do you
think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth
in us lusteth to envy? Now this is not pointing to any
one passage in particular, but it's the teaching of scripture
as a whole. And as near as I can see, it's
not talking about one spirit. The commentators go on, they
love to do this anyway, but they'll go on debating about is he talking
about the spirit of God or is he talking about an evil spirit
and one will go this way and one will go that way and they'll
debate and use up half a book. He's not talking about one spirit
here, he's talking about two. How do I know that? Because in
Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 it says, For the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. What is this
flesh? He tells you that over Ephesians
chapter 2. We walk according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit, that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. There's an evil spirit in us.
And that spirit lusteth against the Holy Spirit, and the Holy
Spirit lusteth against that. They're contrary, the one to
the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
I can't be as holy as I would be. But I can't be as sinful
as I would either. Huh? That's what he said. Either way. We can pray, but
we'll never pray the way we ought to or the way we want to. We
can give, but I'll never give like I would give. And we can
preach, but the same thing's true. Many times I've come out
of my study and then come up here and preached and went home
so disappointed. It just didn't come out the way
it went in. And it's true of sinful ambitions
also, but the Spirit of God restrains us and brings us back to repentance. So there's two wisdoms here,
the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of Christ, and there's
two ways, the way of works and the way of grace. And then lastly,
there's two ends, two results, two effects. The result of a
man left to himself is absolutely devastating. Destruction and
misery are in his ways. If God leaves him to himself,
he's going to self-destruct. Might not always be in the same
fashion or to the same degree, but the end is the same. He'll
self-destruct. It leaves him, here's the results
of this, worldly wisdom. It leaves him hateful and hating
one another. That's what the Lord said. It leaves him mean-spirited.
What's that mean? Unforgiving. Not kind. Not tender-hearted. mean-spirited
and unmerciful. It leaves him proud. It leaves him
arrogant and haughty. He calls us a worm. That's a
maggot. Look it up for yourself. Here's
a maggot. Can you picture a maggot with
his thumbs in his suspenders? Huh? Proud, arrogant. Well, you've got to be arrogant.
You're a maggot. We've got nothing to be proud of. We've got nothing
to stick our thumbs in our suspenders and talk about what great things
we've done, the way Nebuchadnezzar did. Huh? It's not this great
babbling that I built. Oh, look at my house. Look at
myself. Look at my finances. Look at
me. Look at my station. Oh, Walt, you're a maggot. And how foolish it would be for
a maggot to sit there, huh? To be haughty. And I'm going to tell you something
else. When religious profession is
behind these things, and it always is, think about what this man is.
He is in. The end of him is worse than
the beginning. He'd been better off not to have
ever went to church. Look at verse 6 here in James
chapter 4. Here's the solution. Now that's the evil end. That's
the end I just described to you of worldly wisdom. Follow it.
That's going to be your end. I'm telling you. I'm warning
you. But listen to this. In verse 6 he said, but He gave
us more grace. What's the answer? More grace. His grace is sufficient, Paul
says. When I'm weak, then am I strong.
When I'm down here having my little pity party, that's when
I'm strong. Now I see myself as I really
am. And my faith rests in His strength,
not mine. When I'm weak, then am I strong. That's when we really rely on
God, on Christ, and on His grace. And we're going to have confrontations,
disagreements, and hard feelings, but He gave us more grace. Huh? He gave us more grace. There
is a spirit resident in natural men, and that spirit is always
inclined to hate, to envy, always trying to get something for nothing,
always trying to get something from other men, and always grieved,
if someone else has something that they don't have. How can this spirit be met and
dealt with? Verse 6 tells us the answer.
He giveth more grace. Brethren, this is the great remedy
for hate and envy. More grace. This is the healing
salve for sorrow. More grace. This is the hand
of God pulling us out of our troubles. More grace. And this
is a universal recipe for all that we need, more grace. Peter said, ye therefore, believe. You beloved children,
you know these things before. Beware, lest you also be led
away with the same error of the wicked, Fall from your own steadfastness,
but grow in grace. How are we going to do that? Because He gives more grace.
If God ever gives you His grace, He'll never take it from you.
Huh? He'll never take it. You'll never
grow beyond the amount of grace that's sufficient to save your
soul. He never will. Somebody said, well, he fell
from grace. No, he didn't. No, he didn't fall from grace.
I don't know what he fell from, but it wasn't from grace. By
grace ye are saved, and by grace are ye saved. And then we grow
in grace, and his grace is sufficient. Real saving faith is distinguished
from all other so-called Christian religions by the sovereign grace
of God. And all those who truly believe
have an eternal supply of grace. Grace reigns. Isn't that what
it says? Grace reigns in them and over
them and over all their brethren. So here's the thing to do. Verse
7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. In all things and all
ways and to all ends, submit yourselves to God. Resist the
devil. How you do that? Don't listen
to him. That's right. Don't give in to
his ways and desires. Paul said we know how he was. And then thirdly, he said draw
nigh unto God. How? In prayer. in prayer. You have not because
you ask not. And you ask to miss in your ignorance
because you didn't pray and study to start with. Oh, draw an eye to God in prayer,
in the reading of the scriptures. Well, I just don't understand
sometimes what it says. Read it anyway. Read it anyway. Someday you might. But if you don't read it, it's
never going to teach you anything. And in the hearing of the gospel,
forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. And here's
something else, and very little, this is practiced very little,
private meditation. Get up to yourself. Think about
what it is that you've read and asked God for. Repent, be afflicted, and mourn,
weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness. And then lastly, humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up. Now it's one
thing for a believer to offer you a hand, and for you to reach
out and accept it. That's one thing. But I'm telling
you, it's quite another for God to lift you up. And that's what
he's talking about here. Be sure which one you reason
with. Two ways. There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. And two ends. One is a good hope through grace.
The other one he describes as a broken cistern that can hold
no water. May the Lord teach us the difference
and establish us in true faith and enable us to live accordingly. Two ways, two ways, two ways. Alright, thank you.