I've entitled this message, The
Wisdom That Is From Above. I'm interested in that, aren't
you? The wisdom that is from above. There is a wisdom that
is not from above. And the Lord said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hid these
things from the wise and prudent. and revealed them unto babes. The world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God taketh the wise
in their own craftiness. The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of the wise that they're vain. I love that verse of scripture.
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God. to an image made like unto corruptible
man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. The wisdom of this world, the
scripture says, is foolishness. God. The wisdom of this world. Now you see worldly wisdom is
not true wisdom. Now what is the beginning of
wisdom? The fear of the Lord. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You know it's the
fear of the Lord that makes me afraid of sin. That's why I'm
afraid of sin. That's what scares me so much.
Because it's against the Lord. And the fear of the Lord makes
me afraid to look anywhere but Christ only. I wouldn't dare
plead anything else. And that's what the fear of the
Lord does. It's the fear of the Lord that creates this fear of
sin. And a fear to look anywhere but
Christ alone. But there is such a thing as
truly wise men and women. And we're going to see about
that in verse 13. James asked the question, James
chapter 3, verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Now, there is such a thing as
a truly wise man, someone whom God would call wise, someone
who has had Christ made unto him wisdom. somebody that God
can embrace in fellowship and the infinite God can commune
with and make himself known to, a truly wise man. Now who is this wise man who's
been endued with knowledge, endued with knowledge of the living
God, endued with saving knowledge? Now, wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge without wisdom It's
like a car without an engine. Doesn't do you any good at all.
Useless and pointless knowledge. Wisdom is the right use of that
knowledge. Now who is this wise man and
dude with the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the scriptures?
What's he say about this man? Verse 13, let him show out of
a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Now, wisdom that's in word only
is not really wisdom, is it? It's knowledge without wisdom. But if someone has true wisdom,
it's always demonstrated in a good conversation, a good conduct
with the works meekness. I love that word, meekness. Not
weakness, but meekness. Now if you have any wisdom at
all, you're gonna have a low opinion of yourself. If you have
a high opinion of yourself, you don't have any wisdom. Let that
one who has this wisdom and endued with knowledge, the gift of God's
grace, the wisdom that comes down from above, let him show
with a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. What is meekness? It's the understanding
that God is on the throne and whatever he does is right and
we're just fine with it because he did it. Aren't you glad he's
in control and that whatever he does is right and you're just
fine with it because he did it. You're not going to sit in judgment
on God or disagree with what he does. You really believe in
your own ignorance that he knows what he's doing. and you bow
to it. Meekness is submission to God.
Whatever he does is right. Samuel told Eli, God's gonna
kill your two boys. What'd the Lord say? Or what'd
Samuel say? Or what'd Eli say? It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. Whatever God does to me or you,
by the grace of God, if I'm meek, I'm gonna say it's the Lord.
It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Verse 14, but, but if you have
bitter envying and strife in your hearts, envying, that feeling
of displeasure at the prosperity of others, thinking it should
be you and not them. This word strife, it's the only
time this particular word is used in the New Testament. It
means electioneering. It means politicking. It means
rivalry and competition. Now, if what you see in your
heart is bitter envying and strife, glory not, Lie not against the
truth, telling yourselves everything is all right. This wisdom descendeth
not from above. This is not the wisdom that's
from above, but it's earthly, sensual. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. It's devilish. Devil-like
is what he calls it. Where envy and strife is, verse
16, where envy and strife is, there's confusion. and every
evil work. Now, if someone is made up of
envy and strife, let me tell you what that means. It means
I don't have any love in my heart for that person. If I'm envious
of you, that means I don't love you. That's what it means. If
I love you, I'm thankful that the Lord has prospered you, and
I want the Lord to prosper you, and I'm happy that the Lord prospered
you. If I love you, I think it's just as good as if it happened
to me. If I love you, I'm thankful. Now, when your children are prospered,
are you jealous of them? No. You're thankful because you
love them. And when your brothers and sisters
are prospered, are you jealous of them? No. You're thankful
because you love them. And there's a true unit, a love
of the brethren, a unity between God's people where we really
rejoice when others rejoice and we mourn when others mourn. That's
real in a child of God. But where envy and strife is,
there's confusion and every evil work. Instability and every evil
work. Now we're going to get to the
good part. The wisdom is from above. There is a wisdom that's from
above. It's not found in the natural
man's heart. This is a holy supernatural wisdom
and it didn't come from this earth. Now, the first way I would
like to look at this as a description of the character of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The wisdom that's from above.
He's the wisdom of God, isn't he? He's from above. He said,
I'm from above. You're of the earth. The wisdom
that's from above is first. Here's what you got to say first.
First. Pure. Pure. Unmixed. Jesus Christ is pure Godhead. Jesus Christ is pure, perfect
humanity. Jesus Christ is pure holiness. You know, when he walked on this
earth, people didn't recognize that, and that reminds me of
how little the natural man knows about holiness. When they saw
him, they didn't see him who is holy, but I love that hymn
we sing, holy, holy, holy, Though the darkness hide thee, though
the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, only thou art holy. There is none beside thee perfect
in power and love and purity. The Lord Jesus Christ is utterly
unique. There is no one like him. Peaceable is what it says. The
wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable. the prince of peace and who made
our peace with God. And I think of the peacefulness
of Christ right now. You know, he never panics. He's never worried. He's in absolute
sovereign control of everything and everybody. And he's at peace. He's not in turmoil. He's not
frustrated because his will's not being done. He's an absolute
peace. He's the Prince of Peace. And He's the one who made our
peace with God. And the only peace I have is
knowing that everything God requires of me, He looks to His Son for.
And oh, what peace I get from that. He's the Prince of Peace. It's peaceable. And look what
it says next. The wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle. Paul said, I beseech you by the
meekness and the gentleness of Christ. You know, that word gentle
means you don't hold people's feet to the fire. You have a humane way of looking
at people, recognizing their weakness. As a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knows our frame. He remembers
that we're dust. He remembers that. And He's gentle,
the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I love that passage of
Scripture where it says, He shall not strive nor cry nor cause
His voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed. What
is weaker than a bruised reed? What good is it? I mean, it doesn't
serve any purpose. Christ said, I won't break it.
and a smoking flax stinks, about to go out, Christ says, I won't
quench it. He's gentle, meek, and lowly
in heart. He can say, come unto me, and
I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart. Next, it says the wisdom
that is from above is easy to be entreated. easy to be entreated. You know
what that means? Approachable. Approachable. You can come into His presence,
and He said, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. Approachable. Oh, how approachable He is. And then it says in James chapter
3 verse 17, the wisdom that's from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy. If you see yourself right now
to be a sinner, all your sin is all your fault. You know what? He delights in pouring his mercy
on you. Now that's our Redeemer. He delights
in mercy because he's full of mercy. The wisdom that is from
above is full of mercy. He's more willing to give me
mercy than I am to receive it. That's just an amazing thing.
He's full of mercy. And then it says, good fruits. Good fruits. Now I think of the
fruit of the Spirit, love. Think of the love of Christ.
His love to his Father. Think of his love to you. We
just sang that song, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me. How he could actually
love me. You know, that's the hardest
thing to me. The hardest thing that I just
can't grasp is that he actually loves me. Joy. The joy of the Lord. His joy in serving his Father. His joy in saving his people. looking unto Jesus, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of God. The joy of doing
his Father's will. The joy of saving his people.
The fruit of the Spirit is peace. The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to think of this, you
know, people People talk, there's a sign somewhere I've seen where
it said the panic button is always on here. You know there's no
panic buttons in heaven. Not a one. He is at perfect peace. The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering. You think of the longsuffering
of Christ. That passage you read out of
Isaiah 57 told me something about longsuffering. We were reading
and that fellow, he's going to go on in his way and it's forwardness
or frowardness, however you say it, and he's going in this direction,
but I'll heal him. I'll heal him. It doesn't say
he'll turn around and then I'll heal him. It says, well, he's
going in that wrong direction, I'll heal him. That's the long
suffering of our Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. I beseech you by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is goodness,
merciful. The fruit of the Spirit is faith.
I'd love to think of the faith of Christ. Even when God forsook
him, he never quit believing God. Never did he ever not believe
God. Even when he had no sign or feeling
of His presence or favor, he said, though He slay me, yet
will I trust Him. Meekness. The meekness of Christ.
The temperance of Christ. You want to talk about someone
who has absolute complete control of himself? The Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality. Utterly impartial. Utterly impartial. Doesn't show
any favoritism to anybody. He has no respect of persons. Without ambiguity, without uncertainty. You know, one time the Pharisee
said, how long you make us to doubt? He never made them to
doubt. They might have doubted, but he didn't make them to doubt.
He's utterly impartial and without hypocrisy. Lord Jesus
is no actor. Everything about him is real. He's who he is, and it's never
an act. Verse 18, and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. When he made our
peace, the fruit was righteousness. Now, is it the Lord Jesus Christ
beautiful? He's utterly unique. There's
nobody like him. And here's what is most amazing
about this. We're talking about the beauty
of Christ. Every believer has been predestinated to be perfectly
conformed to His image. That's your future. Perfect likeness
to Jesus Christ. Seeing Him as He is will be made
like Him. But now this passage of Scripture
first It's a description of the beautiful person of the Lord
Jesus Christ and what a beautiful person he is. But this is also
talking about the wisdom that's from above that descends down
and is given to the believer. Every believer has this wisdom
from above. Now, in some it might be more
obvious than others, but every believer has it because if you're
born in the Spirit, Christ is made into you. Wisdom. And you
have this wisdom that's from above. utterly divine. It's not the product of human
works or achievements. It's the fruit of being born
from above and not being of this world. Now, the wisdom that's
from above, and this is with the believer, is first pure.
It's first pure. Now, the Lord said, blessed are
the pure in heart, didn't he? Blessed are the pure in heart.
And if I'm a believer, I have a pure heart. And you know what
the main evidence of having a pure heart is? Well, first, you see
Christ. But second, you see how ugly
your old heart is. You see how sinful your old heart
is. It takes a holy nature to see the sinfulness of the old
nature. If you don't have a holy nature,
that pure heart, you can't see it. You don't even know what
sin is. You have no idea about sin. But if you're ever given
a new heart, you see the sinfulness of your old man. And you're straight
on that. A pure heart looks purely to
Christ. It looks nowhere else. The only
righteousness that I have is the righteousness of Jesus Christ
my Lord. I won't plead anything else. Not Christ and, but pure Christ. Pure grace. No mixture of grace
and law. Pure. And the wisdom that's from
above. You find me a man who purely
looks to Christ. He doesn't have anything else
to plead. All he has is the Lord Jesus Christ. He wouldn't dare
look anywhere else. I'll tell you, man's got a pure heart.
He's been given this pure heart. Blessed is the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. But then, peaceable. Peaceable. We serve the God of peace. He's a peace. You remember when
the Lord said, My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives,
give I unto you. And we have the peace of knowing,
really believing, and knowing that everything Everything that
God requires of me, He looks to His Son for. And He didn't
look for a thing out of me. He looks only to Christ. Now,
that's the only thing that gives me peace. If I thought He had
to look for anything in me, I would have no peace. But oh, the peace
of knowing that everything God requires of me, He looks to His
Son for. It's the peace of justification.
Having been justified, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God. Now, justification? If I'm justified, that means
I don't have anything to feel guilty about, that I stand perfect
before God. When God looks at me, He sees
someone exactly like His Son. Someone who is His Son, in His
Son. Now, that's what justification
means. It means that God doesn't see sin because there's no sin
there. When Christ died, He put that sin away. And what peace
there is in knowing that when God looks at me, there's nothing
for Him to be mad at. I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
Well, what about all your sin? What sin? There isn't any. In
him is no sin. Whoso abideth in him sinneth
not. I don't have any sin. You don't
even want to say that. I'm thinking about sins I've
committed today. But I'm not excusing them. I wish I had them. But they're
gone. They're gone. They've been separated
from me. I don't bear them. Reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. It's the peace of knowing, Romans
chapter 8 verse 28, that everything, all things, all things are working
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. Every regret that I have is working
together for my good. God's in control of it. Everything
that's going to happen between now and Judgment Day, it's all
going to be for my good. Every bit of it. My Heavenly
Father controls and rules everything. And He's too wise to err with
me. He's too kind to be cruel. Now
what peace there is in knowing that God's on the throne, ruling
and reigning. Peaceable. And you know, this
makes a person peaceable, not contentious. not looking for
fight, not trying to stir things up, peace. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall see God. If it be possible, it's not always
possible, it's not always possible, but if it be possible, as much
as life in you is, live peaceably with all men. Not trying to start a fight.
Not a drama lover. Peace with God. Peace with the
brethren. Peace with God's providence.
Peace with this world in the sense that I'm not looking for
it. You know the reason people fight? Because I want what you
have. And I don't want what this world
has. I really don't. I can't wait till the Lord comes
back and I'm delivered from myself and I'm made just like Christ.
And you can have what this world has. It's the things that men
find so attractive. I don't find them attractive.
I want to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be in God's
presence. I want to be delivered from my sin. And then gentle. The wisdom from above is gentle. Let your moderation, your gentleness
be known to all men. Kindness, humane, not holding
people's feet. to the fire, not putting them
under the law, recognizing human weakness. And because of who you are, you can
see why they have the problems they have. And you can't look
down your nose at them because you know that you're worse. And
you're a disaster waiting to happen apart from God's grace.
And it will happen if he doesn't prevent it from happening. And
you're looking at that person. You're not going to put them
under law. You're not going to hold their feet to the fire. Gentle. Easy to be entreated. Approachable. Easy. Now listen to this. Willing to yield. That's what that means. This
thing of being easily entreated. Willing to yield. Easy to be
reasoned with. Not my way or the highway. Showing deference to others. The wisdom that's from above
Verse 17 is full of mercy. Our Lord put it this way in the
Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful. For
they shall obtain mercy. What is mercy? It's exactly what
I need. I need God to be merciful to
me. Oh, I need God to be merciful
to me. I need Him to not give me what
I deserve because if He gave me what I deserve, I know where
that would end up. I need His mercy, don't you?
Now, anyone who's experienced God's mercy, you know what they're
going to be? Merciful. Merciful. What I want most is God to be
merciful to me. And what I want right after that
is I want to be a merciful person. Blessed and merciful. For they
shall obtain mercy. Full of mercy. Full of good fruits.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love to Christ. His people. The
brethren. Joy. The joy of being forgiven.
The joy of forgiving. The joy of believing the gospel.
The joy of knowing I'm justified. The joy of knowing salvation
is by grace. Joy. Peace. Ephesians 2.14 says, He is our
peace. I got peace from that. He himself
is my peace. Long-suffering. The long-suffering
of God is salvation. You can be long-suffering with
somebody you love. You will be long-suffering toward somebody
you love. You'll go the extra mile with them. Patient, gentleness,
kindness, goodness, merciful. That's what a good man is when
it's all about goodness. It's a merciful attitude. The
fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Full of good fruit. The fruit of God, the Holy Spirit.
Next, the wisdom that is from above is without partiality. Clear in speech. Without showing
favoritism. Without showing favoritism to
one part of scripture over the other. Impartial. You bout all, God says. You don't
pick out one part you like and another part you don't. You just
say, well, I don't know what that means. I'm not going to deal
with it. No, you bow before the Word of God. Every believer does
that has this wisdom that's from above. It's without partiality
and without hypocrisy. Now, who in here is without hypocrisy?
Raise your hand. Don't think anybody's going to
do it. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think I'm
the biggest hypocrite to ever live. I mean, I think that every
single day. But that pure heart, it's not
a hypocrite. It's real before God. It's real. Now, all the stuff about me is
all hypocrisy, but not the new heart. Just as the Lord, the
Lord's not a hypocrite. He's not an actor. He's not a
pretender. and neither is the new heart. It's honest before
God. It doesn't practice hypocrisy
before God. Now, the old heart does. The
old man does, but the new man doesn't. Somebody says, should
you be making this distinction? Yeah, I don't know how else to
handle it. The old man always is unbelieving,
always hypocritical, always sinful. The new man always believes. It's never hypocritical. And
it doesn't sin. It doesn't sin. It's the gift
of God's grace. It's that new man. Verse 18, and the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now
this is the wise man who's endued with knowledge. He's a peacemaker. He's a peacemaker. He preaches
the gospel of peace. And the only peace there is is
righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. That's his message,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how beautiful
this wisdom that's from above is. First, it's embodied and
typified by our Lord. Oh, how pure in heart, peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated. full of mercy, good fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace." That's a beautiful
description of our Lord. But that's a description of the
wisdom that comes down from above that every believer has. It's
the product of the new nature. First pure, then peaceable, and
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits
without partiality and without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now don't you want
this wisdom that's from above? That's my prayer, that's my desire
that the Lord would give me and you this wisdom that's from above. Let's pray. Lord, we ask him, in the name
of thy Son, that we might be graced to have this wisdom that's
from above, that's pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now Lord, no man has any of that
by nature. We ask in Christ's name that
you give this to us, put us in us and Lord, order our steps
in your word and let no iniquity have dominion over us and bless
this message for Christ's sake. How thankful we are that he is
our wisdom that He is our righteousness, that He is our sanctification,
and that He is our redemption. Lord, we believe He's all, and
He's altogether glorious and beautiful. We know He's that
to you, and He's that to us, and we look to Him only. In His
name we pray. Amen.