James 3

Well, today I want us to continue in James, and what we're going to study this morning follows well with what we have been studying about the tongue. And it's the idea of wisdom. I know that many of you are facing difficult places in your life.

Either you messed up and you've got some real difficulty to deal with. Maybe you have someone in your family who has not been all he or she should have been and their falling short has affected you in some significant way, but you're having to deal with the fallout, and you're trying to decide what should I do or what should I not do. Some of you are facing financial difficulties, and you're trying to decide, you know, where do I go? How do I handle this? It could be any number of situations, but I think this lesson today will be of great help to us Think about wisdom.

In search of wisdom. And I want us just to begin by reading the five verses for our lesson today. James 3, verses 13 to 18. So if you have your Bibles, let's read together.

James writes, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit. impartial and sincere, peacemakers who sow in peace, raise a harvest of righteousness. Let's pray as we begin.

Lord, I pray this day that as we come to your word, you would help us to have wisdom. Give us a desire for it, a desire to understand what it is. Help us to see in our own lives where we fall short of it. But then by your Spirit, help us to acquire it and live it. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

As I was preparing for this lesson, I have these books of quotes that I go and read. In one of the books, there was a story about a new bank president who went to visit the retiring bank president, wanted to get advice. And the new bank president asked the retiring bank president, of your success. The retiring bank president said, two words, good decisions.

The new bank president said, well, how do you know which decisions are good decisions? The retiring bank president said, that's easy, one word, experience. The new bank president said, well, how do you get this experience? And the retiring bank president said, Two words, bad decisions. And there's some truth to that, isn't there?

That sometimes it's in the bad decisions we see what the good decisions were. But wisdom comes maybe in some part by erring, erring, erring, making mistakes, making mistakes, making mistakes. But wisdom is making them less and less and less. We don't just repeat the same old mistakes over and over and over and over. But I want to suggest to you that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

And it is found first and foremost not in good decisions but in God's Word. God has given us a blueprint to help us avoid a lot of the bad decisions. He's told us what is bad. He has told us those actions that will be harmful and hurtful if we take them. We just need to listen to Him and believe Him.

And so often, and this has been one of, I think, the benefits of having been in a legal career, so often I've seen people in circumstances, if they had just followed biblical admonitions, biblical truth, they would have avoided all of those problems. So I'm going to press us today that wisdom, the wisdom we're seeking, It's knowledge, yes. It's understanding, yes. It's insight, yes. But it's applied insight.

It's not wisdom if you just know it in your mind. It's only wisdom when you live it. The wise person puts right knowledge, good knowledge into action. There are a lot of us who know the right thing to do. but at the point of decision, at the point when it comes time for us to take action, we don't follow through.

How many of us know that a gentle answer turns away wrath? And harsh words stir up anger. So when somebody comes at us and they're just as mad as they can be, we may know intellectually we need to respond with gentleness,

with calmness, not letting them get us upset. But at that point of when we have to respond, what do we so often do? We may know the right thing to do, but we so often don't do it. So wisdom, and James is going to show us this, genuine biblical wisdom is always about applied insight. It's about how we live, putting into practice those things we know to be right.

So there are two types of wisdom that James describes in this passage we just looked at. The first type is earthly wisdom.

This earthly wisdom is not from heaven. Its origin is not from heaven. In fact, James says it is of the devil.

Now, you don't get to use the excuse, the devil made me do it. What James means here is that the type of wisdom that he calls earthly wisdom is the type of wisdom that Satan and his demons are just delighted for you to follow. It's the kind of wisdom he tries to foist on people. It's the kind of wisdom that led Eve and Adam into sin when they began to listen to that voice from the other side instead of heavenly wisdom. of wisdom that is unspiritual.

This is obviously the kind of wisdom we don't want to follow because it is associated with the deceptiveness that Satan tries to foist on humanity and he has been good at it. He has fooled our culture into believing that so many things are good and right and the way we ought to do it. After all, you deserve it. You're number one. Whatever you want, you ought to have it.

Don't let people tell you you shouldn't have it. You're free to do whatever you want to do. Don't let anybody tell you you don't have the right to do that. You stand on your rights because you're free. And that kind of philosophy has taken people down the road of destruction.

And I think I see a whole culture headed that direction. It's from the dark side. It's not from the light.

James tells us that there's some qualities of this earthly wisdom. this isn't an exhaustive list but here's what he here are some of the qualities of this earthly kind of wisdom earthly wisdom is seen in the bitter envy that people have in their lives this is the jealousy that people have the I want it because you got it This is the person who is not content with what they have, what God has provided, but is always envious of what others have. And this is the person who's always grasping after it, wants to have the same thing everybody else has. And they're bitter when they don't have what other people have. Don't we see this in our culture?

I mean, isn't this sort of envy part of the whole mechanism of advertising? They've all got it. Why shouldn't you have it? And people, we can actually develop a real bitterness when we don't have what others have. But it's this earthly wisdom that says you need to be envious of others and try to have as much as they have or more.

And it is wisdom that is characterized by selfish ambition. Self-seeking, self-interest, the kind of ambition that will crawl over others any way that needs to occur in order to promote oneself. It's the kind of ambition that promotes strife in the office. co-workers not able to get along. It's the kind of rivalry that you will sometimes see in churches when people want certain recognitions or want their way.

But this worldly wisdom is all about me, me, me, me. It's self-centered and it's all about pride, pride, pride, self-pride. There's nothing wrong with being proud of somebody else. But it's this self-pride that is at the center of this earthly wisdom. Don't you see it in our culture?

The promotion of self, number one, deserving whatever you want, freedom to do whatever you want. That is earthly wisdom, this me, me, pride, pride, pride. And it has bad results.

disorder, chaos, strife, confusion, rivalry. It's the kind of thing that destroys peace because people are always self-seeking and after their own. Creates factions, division.

You hear all those words that are disorder, division, factions. And it's because of this worldly wisdom that says, go for it yourself, get what you want.

And its result is also every evil practice. And I think what James is saying here is that it's this selfish ambition, this bitter envy, this self-centeredness that is at the center of so many evil practices. Adultery.

I want her or him. I'm going to take her or him if I can. Theft. Slander. You know, somebody's doing well and you're feeling kind of bad about it, you're not doing as well, so what do you do?

You cut them down. You say bad things about them. murder is actually often arises out of selfish ambition or bitter envy, so angry with someone about something to the point that you would even kill them. So there's so many evil things that occur as a result of this me, me, me, pride, pride, pride, this bitter envy and this selfish ambition. So when we see the result of it, it's clear we ought to want to avoid this kind of wisdom Instead, we ought to want the heavenly wisdom.

And here's what we're after, folks. Heavenly wisdom. The origin of heavenly wisdom, James says, is from above. This is the wisdom that is spiritual and that is of God. This is the wisdom we want.

And if it's of God, I think for those of us who have the scriptures, this is where we begin. This is where we get heavenly wisdom right here in this book that we study. But what are the qualities of this heavenly wisdom? We've seen the qualities of the earthly wisdom. Here's some words that James uses to describe heavenly wisdom.

Let's see how we measure up. It's pure, he says. it's pure not only in the sense that it is a moral it leads to moral living it's pure in the sense that it has but a single loyalty real wisdom heavenly wisdom is a wisdom that is pure in the sense that there is only one ultimate loyalty in life. There's only one person I need to ultimately please. And if I have heavenly wisdom, I will live every day of my life to please that one. This is a big, big, big quality of heavenly wisdom. Living every day with the desire to please the one who is first.

That's purity. There's one loyalty. One person I want to please. It's also meek.

Earthly wisdom produces strife and rivalry and bitterness. Heavenly wisdom is meek. Meaning it's gentle in dealing with others. It's not weakness because the meek person is the one who can make allowances for the weaknesses of others and still get along with them. Even though they're mean-spirited and angry and ugly, the meek person can still be gentle and kind to that person.

But there's a real gentleness to this kind of heavenly wisdom. Peace-loving. Heavenly wisdom is peace-loving. peaceable, wanting to get along with others, willing to set aside one's personal rights, one's personal freedom even, to be able to get along with others.

This heavenly wisdom is considerate.

You know, kind words spoken gently to people, concerned about the feelings of others so that when we speak to them or talk to them we are always weighing how does this affect them?

It's the kind of person that says please and thank you. Yes ma'am and no ma'am. Yes sir and no sir. It isn't pushy. Not pushy.

always consider it. Submissive. That's a great American word, submissive. There are different words in the New Testament for submissive. This is one that means easily persuaded.

And the notion here is that you are somebody who's reasonable. That heavenly wisdom is reasonable. You are able to dialogue with people. Disagree with them. Heavenly wisdom says you will be reasonable.

Able to talk with them. Able to converse. And you will be willing. Particularly on things that don't really matter. You will be compliant.

You will do what the other person wants to do. Instead of what you want to do. You will be willing to let them have it their way. Rather than your way. Where are we going to go eat tonight?

well, I will not go anywhere else but this place. And I don't care what you say.

What would you like to do tomorrow night? Well, I would like to do this. Well, I don't want to do that. You know, and we're not going to do that.

How about projects in the church that we need to accomplish? Well, I think we ought to do it this way. Well, the person who's got heavenly wisdom is willing to listen and not just be rock solid stuck in doing it only one way just because that's the way they want to do it. This is the person who is reasonable and who is easily persuaded to do it another way, particularly on matters that are of secondary importance. This is somebody who is full of mercy.

The person who's displaying heavenly wisdom is full of mercy. person doesn't give people what they deserve. This person gives people what they don't deserve, kindness. This person is willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, to assume the best in the circumstances, not the worst about a person. This is the person that's willing to say, I forgive you. That's okay.

Don't worry about it.

Kind and compassionate. That's wisdom. This is the person that is impartial. This word, I've written out the word here, the Greek word, it has two meanings. It can mean impartial, but it also means unwavering. And I think but it's closely related.

The person who is ideakratas is a person who is unwavering in the sense they're not swayed by the culture. This is the person who's going to do the right thing because it's the right thing even if 100 million people are against them and they stand alone. This is the person who will say, I don't care if the culture all goes left, I'm going right because it's the right way to go this is the person who in the crunch you can always count on because they will stand there like a rock because they know the right thing to do and heavenly wisdom says always do the right thing no matter how many you want to do the wrong thing don't we want to teach our children that oh man I can remember Louise talking with my children from early age, you know, there are going to be a lot of people not doing the right thing. You always do the right thing. Stand firm.

Don't give in.

But you see, this person who is that kind of person, who always does the right thing, is also impartial. they're not going to make judgments about people

that come from partiality because the culture doesn't like that kind of person they're not going to just go along because the culture doesn't like them this person will be unwavering in the sense that they will judge people fairly and not on the basis just of externals

this is the person who will treat people of all races properly and won't be prejudiced just because others around him may be this is the person who will treat people of all nationalities fairly

and won't treat them unfairly just because others around them might you see how that unwaveringness and that impartiality sort of come together. And even though this one Greek word can have those two meanings, they're very closely related. How many of you have been in situations where somebody was sort of an outcast with a certain group, would not be befriended, and others wouldn't befriend this person for fear of sort of offending the group? Well, the person of heavenly wisdom says, I'm going to do the right thing. even though others may be prejudiced against them.

And this heavenly wisdom is sincere. Literally, the person who has heavenly wisdom is without hypocrisy. Without hypocrisy. That means they are genuine. They are the same in private as they are in public.

What you see is what you get. This is the person who isn't trying to be a play actor. to pretend to be something he or she is not. This person is just who they are. They're transparent.

Isn't that a great kind of, don't you love being around that kind of person who's just, you know, they're just, they're just down to earth folks. They're just who they are and they're not trying to put on airs. They're not trying to be something they're not. That's the person that's showing heavenly wisdom. Well, the result of heavenly wisdom good deeds and good fruit.

Remember, heavenly wisdom is always about conduct ultimately. It's not just good insight, but it's having characteristics, understanding about things that you put into action. So you're going to get a lot of good fruit from these folks. And James says the result is peace and righteousness. The person of heavenly wisdom is a person who produces peace.

That's first because they're at peace with their God. They have a right relationship with Him. But then because they have all of these characteristics of heavenly wisdom, they tend to create harmony wherever they go. Instead of strife and rivalry among people, this is the person that has good relationships with others. able to get along with people, is liked by people, and produces peace because of it.

And wherever they go, they just sort of spread righteousness. You know? Have you ever been around somebody who was just a good person? And even when they got around people who weren't so good, those not so good people suddenly were better?

I remember Billy Graham being on The Tonight Show. You have never seen cause others to be righteous like he did that night. I mean, suddenly the whole tenor of the show changed. Billy Graham, and he was so gracious and kind and answering the questions and just so likable, but the conversation was different that night. The other guests spoke differently.

The host of the show spoke differently because they were around somebody who had heavenly wisdom and lived it. people we should be. We should be changing people's lives because we're different and we're displaying this heavenly wisdom. Wherever we go, harmony, peace, and the whole tenor of things is more righteous.

Here are my suggestions for gaining wisdom.

Number one, Let's analyze ourselves to see how we measure up to God's standards. You know, we're not always so wise, are we? We've fallen a lot. All of us have. But the beginning of, I think, gaining wisdom is to look at ourselves and see where we're falling short.

And then secondly, to admit our faults and weaknesses. Don't try to cover them up. Let's be honest with ourselves. them and let's accept personal responsibility for who we are and what we do. It wasn't your mama's fault that you did it. It wasn't your spouse's fault that you did it. It wasn't your children's fault that you did it. It wasn't anybody else's fault. It was my fault because I was the one who did the action. So let's accept responsibility. That's part

we live in a culture that wants to excuse everything we can blame a lot of folks it's the way I was raised it was the way this or that we need to accept personal responsibility

acknowledge Jesus as Lord some of us have said it but let's begin to live it if he is Lord then let's live it. Every day seeking to please Him above everybody else. So my first task when I get up in the morning is to say, Lord, today I'm going to please You no matter if it displeases everyone else in the world I'm going to please You. And in every decision I make and in every action I take I'm going to take it with the concept I'm going to please You. That's heavenly wisdom.

and it will change how we live.

Ask God for wisdom. That's what James says. He is the dispenser of wisdom. Ask Him to give it to us. Pray for it.

And I don't know how it works exactly, folks. It's kind of mysterious to me. But if we want it, and we seek it, and we ask Him for it, and we try to live it, somehow we begin to acquire it. And every day as we seek it and ask Him for it, He gives it to us. it's from him that we get this wisdom.

I would strongly encourage studying God's word because that's where the wisdom is laid out. And I think a good place, if you really are interested in this wisdom, go and start reading the Proverbs because they are all about wisdom and how we should live if we want to have the kind of life that pleases God. F. put God's wisdom into practice in our lives every day in every aspect of our lives. You've got to start to ask the question, what would God want me to do right now?

What would heavenly wisdom say I should do?

And ask that question over and over and practice. The Christian life is like a lot of sports. You get better the more you practice it and live with it and try to do it every day. And lastly, when we stumble, let's ask for forgiveness, learn from our mistakes, but get up and keep moving forward.

There's not a person in this room who hasn't stumbled and fallen. Some of our stumblings may be more obvious and apparent than others, but we've all stumbled and fallen. But we serve a Lord who is a lot more interested in what we're going to do right now and going forward, and we serve a Lord who's always willing to forgive what's past. So if we have failed in the past, let's ask His forgiveness.

But then let's determine right now, going forward, we're going to display heavenly wisdom and live the way he wants us to. And wherever we go, peace, harmony, righteousness. And it'll start to pervade everything and everyone around us. Good words, good lesson right after the tongue, right?

But also in our conduct, we do, let us display heavenly wisdom. Let's close in