Would you turn with me to James
Chapter three? While you're turning there. There's
a sign up sheet in the foyer where if you would put your email
address down and we're going to try to get the email addresses
updated. And tonight I want to announce
what I'm going to be speaking on, I'm going to be speaking
from First Corinthians Chapter 12, and I'm asking this question.
How can I know? If I have the Holy Spirit. How can I know if I have the
Holy Spirit? James chapter 3. Beginning in
verse 13. I've entitled this message. Who
is a wise man? Who is? A wise man. Beginning in verse
13. James asks the question. Who is a wise man? And in dude
with knowledge among you. Let him show out of a good conversation
his works. With meekness of wisdom. But. If you have bitter in being,
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 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 and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Who is a wise man? Who does God deem as wise? Now remember, his estimate of
who is wise is really the only estimate that counts, isn't it?
who he deems as wise. There was a pitcher through story
in a major league baseball game. And he threw the ball over the
plate and the umpire said, Strike three, you're out. A called third
strike. And the batter put down his bat
in disgust and he said, Everybody in this stadium could see that
that pitch was a ball. And the umpire replied to him,
unfortunately for you, my opinion is the only opinion that counts. God's opinion is the only opinion
that counts. And He tells us who the truly
wise man is. Now, there are two types of people
in this world. There are the wise and there
are the foolish. Right now, when God looks at
you, He either looks at you as a truly wise person or a foolish
person. You remember the parable of the
ten virgins? Five were wise and five were foolish. You remember
the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish
man who built his house upon the sand. Now the wise man is
the man who believes the gospel. All who believe are counted wise
by God And all who do not believe the gospel are counted as fools
by God. This is how God sees them. Now,
James asks this question. Who is the wise man among you? Who is the man who is endued
with knowledge, who has some true understanding? Who is that
wise man? Are you wise? Now, if you are,
you're not going to raise up your hand and say, that's me.
Not if you're wise. As a matter of fact, you'd know
that would be foolish, wouldn't you? You wouldn't do that. You may even think it, but you
wouldn't do it because you know that words are meaningless. Aren't they? They just don't
make... Are you wise? Well, sure I am.
Now, wait a minute. How does James say to answer this question?
Who is a wise man among you? Who has some true understanding
endued with knowledge? Well, here's how to answer that
question. Let him show it. Let it be demonstrated by a good
conversation. That's the only way it can really
be known. What is a conversation? You know,
the Bible has a whole lot to say about our conversation. It's
our conduct. It's our behavior in this world. It's our attitude. It's what
we do. It is our works. That's our conduct. He said the
only way you can demonstrate true wisdom is by what you do. What is the first thing that
the Lord said to the seven churches at Asia? What's the first thing?
Anybody know? I know thy works. Not I know what you say you believe,
but I know your works. Look how James speaks in verse
13. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge, a true understanding among you? Well, let him show
out of a good conversation his works, his conduct, what he does
with meekness of wisdom. You see, faith without works
is what? Dead. Being alone. Look in James chapter 2. This is something we ought to
always be going back to. James chapter 2, verse 14. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say, He hath faith, and hath not works. Can faith save him? That kind
of faith that he's talking about? Well, let me answer that question.
If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace. You say it real
religious, too, real gentle, real. Be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding, you give them
not those things which are needful to the body, what doth a prophet?
In the same manner, even so, faith, if it hath not works,
is dead. It's not saving. Being alone. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith and I have works. Well, show me thy faith without
thy works. I'll show thee my faith. How? By my works. Thou believest that there is
one God, ye do well. The devils believe the same thing,
and they tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seeest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled,
wouldst thou say, if Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God?
Ye see then how that by works. A man is justified, and not by
faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and
sent them away another way. For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Now James says if you want to
demonstrate your wisdom, show it in your works. And I like
the way he says that. Verse 13, let him show out of
a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. His works will all be with meekness
and humility, that meekness that comes from true wisdom. You see, true wisdom, the wisdom
that's from above, God-given wisdom is always meek, and with
it is humility. You see, meekness. And what is
meekness? It's an attitude toward God.
That's what it is. True meekness is an attitude
toward God that bows to whatever He does as right. That's what
meekness is. Whatever He does is right. He doesn't do it because it's
right. It's right because He does it. If He does it, it's
right. That's meekness. Whatever He
sends my way is right. And meekness has a twin sister
called humility. It's lowliness. Now, the works
that come from true wisdom, they always come with meekness and
humility. They're not haughty and self-righteous
and arrogant. You know what it is to be around
people who've got all kinds of good works, so they think. And you feel uncomfortable
around them. You feel judged by them. You
feel you don't even like being around them. That's not true
wisdom. That's not the wisdom that comes
from above, if it creates that kind of mess. No. The wisdom
that's from above, it has works of meekness and true Humility
through wisdom and understanding is not proud. It's always lowly. And look back on our text, verse
14. He says, but. He's speaking to these people
who want to. Be wise, he says, but if you have bitter envy.
And strife in your heart. Glory not. And I'm not against
the truth. Now, this is what I'm all about.
Bitter envying. Jealousy. That feeling of displeasure
at the prosperity or blessings of others. Believing that I am
the one that should have this blessing. It's born of self-righteousness,
this attitude. That's all it is, is self-righteousness.
Thinking it should be me. Strive. Strive is ambition. Self-will. Self-seeking. Rivalry. Seeking to gain a following
is what the word actually means. That's what someone who's filled
with strife is doing. He's seeking to gain a following,
seeking to win followers. It's self-promotion is what it
is. Self-promotion. Jealousy. Self-promotion. Now, that's what I'm all about.
That's what my heart's all about. He says, glory not. Don't imagine yourself to be
a recipient of God's grace. Don't lie against the truth.
The evidence is in. You've been laid in the balances
and found wanting. Don't lie to yourself and tell
yourself everything is all right when it's not. He says in verse
16 or verse 15, this wisdom that has bitter envy and strife. That's what it's made of. This
wisdom descends not from above. That doesn't come from God, but
it's earthly. Not heavenly. It's sensual or
natural. And not spiritual. It's devilish. These are the same principles
upon which Satan himself works. It is devilish. Satan works from
ambition. That's what he's all about. Remember,
he wanted to exalt his throne above the stars of God, above
the heavens. He said, I will, I will, I will. Self-will, self-promotion. It's the opposite of love. Love
to men and love to God. It finds its roots in self-righteousness
and self-love. This thing of jealousy and bitter
envying and strife in your hearts. Now, question. Is this person
described in verses 13, 14, 15, and 16 an unbeliever? The answer to that question is
yes, if that's all I'm made of, if that's all that's there. Now,
let me explain this as it ought to be explained from the scriptures.
The natural man, this is the description of what I am by nature.
Jealous, and if there's one thing that makes me ashamed of myself,
it's when I can be jealous of somebody. You know, somebody,
somebody preaches a good message, even right now. Somebody preaches
a good message. And I think, boy, I wish that
was me. I wish I would have preached that message. I wish I had the
ability. I wish that was me. And is that
the way you were before you were saved, before you knew the Lord?
No, that's the way I am now. That's the way I am now. Well,
are you saved? Well, yeah. I've got that old
nature, but you know what else I got? I got a new nature. I
got a nature that wants God to be glorified. And really, that's
what I want more than anything else. Lord knows whether I'm
telling the truth. If it would glorify Him more
for that fellow to be exalted and me to be abased, so be it. That's what I want. You see,
a believer has a new nature. It's not dominated. He's still
got the old nature, but yes, he does have that stride and
that ambition. And I hate it. But the new nature
detests that. It hates it. And it wants to
be delivered from that. Strife, ambition, and so on. Verse 16, he says, where envy
and strife is, where that's the dominating principle, jealousy,
lack of love, self-righteousness, strife, self-seeking, self-promotion,
he says there is confusion and there is every evil work. Now, that word confusion means
instability, anarchy. Disorder and it comes out in
the work every evil work and the word evil here It means light
it can be blown away easily. It can't stand before the test.
It can't stand before the wind It's an evil work. It's not even
so much talking about any moral work. Although that is certainly
in it if flesh did it but it it can be Go back and forth back
and forth the wind blows it if there's there's no stability
to it and that's what happens when When it's the work of a
natural man, it's not going to stand the test. It's bad. It's worthless. And let me say
this, when I read this description. If this is me, God give me grace
to face it. He said, glory not. Don't lie
against the truth. Don't tell yourself everything's
all right when it's not. Now, he goes on to describe true
wisdom, and this is this was such a blessing to Just to read
this, he says, the wisdom that's from above, verse 17, the wisdom
that is of God, the wisdom of which he is the author, the wisdom
which comes down from above. Remember, in James, it also says
every good gift and every perfect gift is from where? It's from
above. And comes down from the Father
of life with whom is no variable, there's neither shadow of turning. That's the wisdom that's from
above. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without
hypocrisy. Isn't that beautiful? Now, I take this first to be
a description of Jesus Christ Himself. He is the wisdom of
God, isn't He? And He is that wisdom that is
from above. And what a beautiful description
of Him. First, He is pure. He is purely God. He is purely man. He is the God-man. He's not half
God and half man. He's all God. And He's all man. The man Christ Jesus. And He is pure. He's without sin. He's holy. harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. He is the only holy man in His
person to ever live. He is pure. Isn't that a wonderful
description of our Lord? He's pure. And that's why His
blood puts away sin. You see, if I died for you, what
good would it do you? It wouldn't do you any good,
would it? You know why? Because my blood is sinless. And it won't
do anybody any good. But he, the holy, spotless Son
of God, kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. He's pure. And He, the pure One,
was made to be sin. All that sin is, He was made
to be on Calvary's tree, and His pure blood is what washed
away all our sins. And His perfect righteousness
is counted to every believer. I love that description of our
Lord. First, He's pure. He's pure. But then, Scripture
says He's peaceable. He Himself is peaceable. He's not in turmoil. He's not
stressing. He's not worried. He's peaceable. He has the peace of knowing who
He is. He has the peace of knowing He's
in control. You know, when you get in turmoil,
when you get stressed, that's because you don't have any control.
Every one of us, to some extent, are control freaks. And what's
ironic about our being control freaks is how much do we have
control over? What in the world can you control?
Not a blessed thing. Nothing. You've got no control. He does. And that's why he's
so at peace. He's got complete control of
everything. He has the peace of conscience. He's perfect. He's God. And you
know, he's at peace with his people. He's not mad. This is how real union with Christ
is. This is how real saving faith
is. This is how real his salvation
is. When he sees Todd Divert, this man talking to you, he sees
somebody without sin. And He has no reason to be mad
at me. You see, my sin was washed away
by that pure blood. And His pure righteousness is
mine. And He has every reason to be
at perfect peace with me. He's peaceable. And look at this next description
of our Lord. The wisdom that's from above,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle. Gentle. That word means moderate,
forbearing, and patient. You know, the Lord's description
of Himself, and this is one of the things I think is so glorious
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says regarding Himself, I
am meek and lowly in heart. Do you know you can come into
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and not be threatened?
Not feel like you're under His microscope? He's gentle, moderate. The word means literally not
insisting on the letter of the law. Not holding people's feet
to the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ is gentle. Gentle. filled with gentleness. And look what it says next regarding
Him. Easy to be entreated. He is approachable. He's approachable like nobody
else is. Now, I've said this before. If
you come to Me and if you would bear your heart, first, don't do it. But let's
say you did. If you would come to me and open
up to me what you're really all about, you know what I'd do? You'd believe that. Wow. I don't
want to have anything to do with them. You know what that says
about me? Tells me what a hypocrite I am.
Because whatever's in your heart, it's in mine too. It surely is. All that would do is show what
a hypocrite I am. But the thing is, and this is,
you bear your heart to me. I'll act real gracious. Oh, bless
your heart. I'll act real gracious. But I
know what's their problem. Same problem I've got. But here's
the point I'm making. You come into the Lord's presence
and you'll be received with open arms and you won't be threatened
You won't be. He's approachable. He's easy
to be entreated. He's like nobody else. Nobody,
no man is like this, except the man, Christ Jesus. He is easy to be entreated. Isn't that a wonderful characteristic
of our Lord? Look what it says next about
him. Full of mercy. He is full of mercy. The scripture
says He delights in mercy. Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. You know He delights in giving
mercy. He's full of mercy and He's more
willing to give you His mercy than you are to receive it. That's
how full of mercy He is. He is full of mercy. He delights in mercy. What's it say next? Full of good
fruits. Talk about the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
The Lord Jesus Christ, this is a description of Him. He is love. He is joy. He is peace. He is gentleness. He is goodness. He is faithfulness. He is long-suffering. He is meekness. He is temperance. He is all those things. They
all dwell completely in Him. He's full of good fruits. And
it says next, without partiality. Now, I looked the meaning of
this word up. I was kind of surprised as to
what it means. It says without partiality means the word means
without uncertainty. Without uncertainty. Christ is
never uncertain, and there's nothing uncertain about His Gospel. I love that Scripture in 2 Corinthians
1.17 where it says all the promises of God in Him are what? Yay! Positive. There's no going back
and forth. Well, does grace really save? Well, yeah, it does. Yes! Yes. Is His blood really effectual?
Yes! Yes. all the promises of God
in him. Nothing uncertain about him or
his gospel. And he's without hypocrisy. Isn't Jesus Christ beautiful?
Can you say from your heart, He is altogether lovely. He is the wisdom of God. Now, this first of all, the wisdom
that's from above is first pure. And after that, peaceable, gentle,
easy to be entreated, and so on. First of all, this is a description
of Jesus Christ himself, the Lord of glory. But it is also
a description of the wisdom that every believer possesses. Every one of them. They have
this wisdom that is from above. And how is this wisdom described? It's first Now, if I have this
God-given wisdom, if I have this wisdom that makes me believe
on Christ, the first thing that can be said about this wisdom
is it is first pure, it's true. You know, John tells us that
no lie is of the truth. True wisdom is not contaminated
by false doctrine and man's religion. True wisdom isn't. Now, I just
read that passage of scripture from James chapter one, where
it says pure religion. There is such a thing. There's
nothing pure in this world. The Bible's pure. The word of
God is pure. God is pure. Our Lord said, blessed
are the, what in heart? Pure in heart. Pure in heart,
that they shall see God. They've been given a new heart
and The religion that's from above, the wisdom that's from
above is first pure. It is true. It's according to
the truth of the gospel. My faith is God given. I believe the Bible is the word
of God. I know it is. I know it is. I know it's the
pure word of God. I know God is sovereign, absolutely in control. I know men are dead in sins,
unable to save themselves. I know God elected a people before
time began. I know Christ died for the elect,
accomplished their salvation. I know God's grace is invincible
and irresistible. I know God's people are really
saved. They persevere all the way to the end. I know that.
Well, somebody says, I don't agree with that. Then you don't
have pure religion. No, I have man's religion. Pure religion
is first true. That's where it begins. This
is where it is first. It's true. If it's not true,
it's not of God. Now, you can just write that
down. First, pure. It's true. But after that, it's peaceable. It's peaceable. Peace with God,
the joy and peace of believing. Therefore, being justified. In God's sight, I'm without sin. I'm justified. That means I'm
not guilty. That means I don't have anything
to be guilty about. I don't have anything to feel
bad about. I'm perfect before God. I am righteous before God. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
I don't have anything to be stressed about. I don't have anything
to worry about. I'm perfect before God. Christ's
righteousness is my righteousness before God. And I have peace. I have peace with God. And you
know what? I have peace with you. You know
why I have peace with you? Because I'm not competing with
you. I'm not striving to get one up on you. No competition. We're all brethren. We're all
nobodies and He's everything and everybody. Christ is all.
I'm nothing and I find complete satisfaction in that. Now listen
to me. My self-image. I'm telling you the truth. I
hope I'm telling you the truth. I mean, I hope this is what's
really in my heart. My self-image is not in what I do. It's not
in how I compare to you. My self-image is who I am in
Christ Jesus. I am in Him. As He is, so am
I in this world. And I just rest in that. He is
my self-image. So I have peace. I have peace
with God. I have peace with you. And next it says, the wisdom
is from above. It's first pure, then peaceable,
gentle. Gentle. It doesn't hold people's
feet to the fire. It doesn't insist on the letter
of the law. That's what the word means. Literally,
it doesn't insist on the letter of the law. It's gentle. You
see, I know what I am. I have a little bit of understanding
of what I am. Nothing but a sinner saved by grace. And therefore,
I'm not going to hold your feet to the fire. I don't want my
feet held to the fire. Do you? I know I've been saved only by
the mercy of God. And I'm not going to hold your
feet to the fire. If I really believe God is sovereign,
I'm going to be gentle. I'm going to be long-suffering
if I really believe that. Now, when I'm not thinking of
that and I start going the other direction, I realize that. But
when God gives me the grace to see the truth, I'm going to be
gentle, compliant, and approachable. Look what it says next. I love
this. He says the wisdom that's from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated. If you're around me. And if I make you feel threatened
and judged. I'm not demonstrating the wisdom
that's from above, am I? The wisdom that's from above
is easy to be entreated. You can come into their presence
and not feel threatened, not feel judged, not feel condemned. There isn't anybody I'd at least
rather be around than somebody where I feel like I'm under their
microscope and they're just looking me over. My nature wants to give
them something to look at. If you want to look at me this
way, okay, I'll give you something to look at. That's not right.
But I'll tell you what, I can't stand when I'm preaching and
I know somebody's just They're not seeking to be fed. They're there to criticize and
to condemn. I want to give them something
to criticize. I'll throw something out there to you. Now, that's
wrong. I shouldn't do that. That's not the wisdom that's
from above. It's easy to be entreated. It's compliant. It's approachable. What it says next, it's full
of mercy. full of mercy. Now, let me tell
you this. If you've experienced the mercy
of God, you know what's going to make you? Merciful. And if I'm not a merciful person,
I know nothing of the mercy of God. Now, you can just write
that down. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Remember, the Lord says with
the same basket you bring, it's going to be measured out to you
again. If you're harsh and critical, that's the way the Lord's going
to be with you. If you're merciful, that's the way the Lord's going
to be with you. Oh, how beautiful is a merciful person. The wisdom that is from above
is merciful. And then he says it's full of
mercy and good fruits. The fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The good conversation with the works that come from the meekness
of wisdom come from the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And he says the wisdom that's
from above is without partiality, it's without uncertainty. It's
without uncertainty. Now, I want to examine myself
in this light. Now, I am certain. that the Bible's the Word of
God. I'm certain of it. Well, give me some proof. I don't
need proof. I mean, it's evident to me. It's evident. I'm certain the Bible's the Word
of God. I'm certain what the Bible says is true regarding
me. I believe in my sinfulness. Not so much because I see it,
because I don't see much of it. I'm a whole lot worse than I
imagine. But I believe what the Bible says about me. Believe
what the Bible says about you. It says you're nothing but sin.
I'm certain of it. I'm certain that salvation is
in Christ Jesus. Are you? I'm certain that His
righteousness is the only righteousness there is, and it's the only righteousness
I need. I'm certain that salvation is
by grace. I'm certain of what the Bible
says. I'm certain. I really am. That's why I'm not
getting in an argument with people, because the only time you start
arguing is when you're really uncertain of your position. It's
not up for debate. It's not up for debate. I'm certain. The wisdom that is from above
is certain. And it's without hypocrisy. It's
real. I'm not acting this thing out. This is real. It's not in pretense. It's real. Look what verse 18
says. And that's the wisdom that's
from above. It's first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be treated, 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. The fruit of righteousness. Well, what in the world is that? I always go back to this. There's
not a more important word in the Bible than the word righteousness.
Isn't that so? This describes God. I like what
David said in Psalm 71, verse 16. He said, I've made mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine. Anybody know the next
word? Only. Only. There's only one righteousness. His righteousness. I don't care
if you're talking about His righteousness imputed, imputed to the believer. And that makes His righteousness
my righteousness. I don't care if you're talking
about righteousness imparted. That's the new nature, the holy
nature, the new birth given to the believer. It's still His
righteousness. Now, the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace. What's this sowing about? What's
the preaching of the gospel? You know, every believer is a
peacemaker. We preach the gospel. It's sown in peace of them that
make peace. Now, who is a wise man? Is anybody
in here thinking, I don't know if I can honestly say that I
know anything about this wisdom. Boy, it's a blessed place to
be. That is, that's a blessed place
to be. And let me show you why. Turn
back to James 1. This is what we're going to close with. Verse 5. Now, James is speaking to believers.
The twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. He says, My brethrens,
count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptation. He's
speaking to believers. But look what he says in verse
five. If any of you lack wisdom, what are we to do? Let him ask
of God that giveth to all men liberally. And upbraideth not,
he won't bawl you out. It shall be given him. Now if any of you lack this wisdom,
what am I to do? Ask God to give it to me. There's a lot of things. It's
speaking with the Lord. It's communing with the Lord.
And I'll tell you what, prayer is asking the Lord for things.
And you ask Him for what you can't come up with. That's all
you'll ever pray about. You'll pray about that which
you can't do. If any man lack this wisdom,
let him ask of God who gives to all who ask liberally. And he upbraids not. And he'll
have it. The truly wise man is that man
who knows where to get wisdom. He asks the Lord to give it to
him. The truly wise man is that man who rests only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the truly wise. I pray
that God will make us truly wise. Let's pray together.