JAMES 3:13-182009 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: James 3:13-18

So James chapter 3, we're talking about the subject of wisdom.

What do you think of when you think of the subject of wisdom? Perhaps in your mind you envision the wise old owl of Winnie the Pooh, who, you know, his wisdom is not really that sound and his reasoning is really skeptical. Maybe you think of the guru who sits on the mountain and you can go to this guru because he has all wisdom and he has the answers to life and the mysteries that you're looking for and the answers to those questions that you have.

Maybe you think of wisdom and you think, well, it's the ability to make good choices, to make good decisions, to know what's going to happen in the market and make some financially profitable decisions or to make decisions that bring peace between people. You could think of Solomon and the answers that he gave and the insight that he had. And maybe you think, well, that's wisdom.

Maybe you think of wisdom as special insight or discernment, that there's just this inside information, this inside tract that this person has, and that is wisdom. Or perhaps, maybe you don't think of any of those things, perhaps to you it's some unquantifiable element, that it's, you know, you know what it is when you see a wise person, but to say what it is that makes up a wise person...

well, that you don't really know how to do that or how to describe someone who is wise. I think often as Christians, we picture a wise Christian as one who knows the Word, who can answer tough questions, who can wrestle with apologetics and the cults, someone who can solve difficult problems, who can share scriptural truths well, and we can look at a person like that and we can say, well, that's a wise Christian.

But what is wisdom really? Are any of those accurate understandings of the concept of wisdom? Well, James will be explaining to us this morning what wisdom is really all about. And there's a very simple definition that we often hear, which is pretty close to the truth. It says, wisdom is the application of knowledge.

Knowledge, of course, is knowing things. We are instructed, we learn, but wisdom, we would say, is applying that knowledge to certain questions or situations. And that's fairly true, but James will take it even a step further. Wisdom, he will share with us, really has to do with character and conduct. Whether you are wise or not,

depends upon your character and the way that you conduct yourself. It's not what you know or who you know, but who you are that makes you wise or not. It actually has little to do with your head and it has a lot to do with your heart and with your feet and with the rest of your body as you conduct yourself in this world.

Now James does make it clear there are different kinds of wisdom. So it's possible to be wise but not have godly wisdom. And so he challenges us then to prove which kind of wisdom that we have. What kind of wisdom do you have? Do you have wisdom? And if you do, where does it come from? Of what sort of wisdom is it that you operate in? James will be explaining to us this morning that you can see how wise a person is

and where their wisdom comes from by the way that they live and by the way that they are. And so let's take a look at wisdom this morning. Three things I want to point out about wisdom here from the portion of Scripture that we have before us. The first thing is that wisdom is shown by works. Wisdom is shown, it's revealed by works. Look at verse 13.

He says, Who is wise in understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. James begins by asking the question, Who is wise in understanding among you? Would you please stand up if you are. Who's wise in understanding among you? Reveal yourself. Let's see it. There's not one wise guy, huh?

Who is wise and understanding among you? He asked the question. Who is it that has wisdom? Now, we can probably take this back to the very beginning of chapter 3 where James says, Hey, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.

We can get the idea that there were those who were anxious to become teachers. There were those who were itching to fill that role, to have that position. And he says, hey, let not many of you become teachers because there's a stricter judgment. And in keeping with that, understand, hey, if you think you have wisdom and you think you have understanding and you're anxious to teach others, well, he says, here's what you need to do.

You need to prove it. You need to show that wisdom by good conduct. And you need to demonstrate with your life that your works are done in the meekness of wisdom. And so you and I, we are able to determine whether or not we are wise. We're able to determine what type of wisdom we have by our conduct.

By the way that we live, by the choices that we make, by the attitudes that we have, we demonstrate, we reveal to ourselves and those around us whether or not we have wisdom and where that wisdom is from. He says, let him show by good conduct. Wisdom is shown by good conduct. A wise person lives right.

They live right. They do what's right. They are obedient to God. And of course, this makes perfect sense as we go back to and think about the book of Proverbs. It's the book of wisdom. And there, Solomon, as he's writing the Proverbs, he explains to us in Proverbs 9, verse 10, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

James says, who is wise and understanding among you? Solomon says, well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Wisdom and understanding begin with a relationship with God.

And without a relationship with God, none of us have any wisdom at all. We cannot have the wisdom of God if we do not, first of all, have a relationship with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. He says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You haven't even begun to have wisdom if you do not fear the Lord.

Fearing the Lord is the right path. It's choosing the right course. When you fear the Lord, now you've chosen the right course, the way of God, and are on the beginning of the path. You're beginning the journey to learning the wisdom of God. So what does it mean to fear the Lord, we could ask? Well, Solomon also has the answer for that in Proverbs 8, verse 13. He tells us there, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

So the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord and fearing the Lord is hating evil. So we understand here what James is saying. Let him show by good conduct. Wisdom is shown by good conduct because the beginning of wisdom, even to start on the path and the journey of wisdom, you must hate evil because that's what it means to fear the Lord.

He even says in Proverbs 16, 6, that by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. This is what the beginning of wisdom is all about. Turning from wickedness, turning from evil, turning from sin, and walking in a relationship with God. To fear Him, to hate evil, and to depart from it. How you live shows whether or not you are wise. It shows whether or not you hate evil. Do you hate evil?

It shows whether or not you depart from evil. Do you depart from evil or do you persist and continue on with sin in your life? Now, all of us are sinners. We're not talking about sinless perfection and we're all to be perfect. We all fall short. But the scripture gives us clear instruction on what to do when we fall short.

It gives us clear instruction that we're to turn from sin, we're to repent, to flee from sin. That's the beginning of wisdom. Do you do that? You see, if we don't even do that, we don't have wisdom, at least not the wisdom of God, not the wisdom that is really any value.

That is the beginning. That's where we need to start. Getting our hearts right with God. Repenting from sin in our lives. Hating evil. Getting the wickedness out of our lives. Turning from it and not allowing it to continue. We cannot be wise if we continue to live in sin.

If we don't do anything about it. How you live shows if you are wise or not. The way that you deal with sin shows if you are wise or not. And how you live shows where the wisdom is from that you have. Now wisdom, as I said, it's the application of knowledge. And application there is the key word. It's putting it into practice. Applying it to your life. Taking what God has said...

and acting it out. Remember, Jesus told the parable of the wise and the foolish builder in Matthew chapter 7. It's a portion that we refer to a lot, a very common parable, because it speaks something that we need to hear very frequently. Jesus said, look, there's this wise man, he builds his house, he built it upon the rock, and then the storms come and the house stands, it's not able to fall, it's not beaten down. But there's a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand.

Not really good foundation to build upon. And so when the storms come, the house collapses. It's not able to stand because it was built upon the sand. Jesus tells us the meaning of the parable as he tells it in Matthew chapter 7 verse 24. He says, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a man who built a house upon the rock.

The wise man is the one who hears the sayings of Jesus, hears the word of God, and then does them. It's application. It's putting it into practice. That's what the book of James is really all about, isn't it? Taking what God has said and the principles that we've heard from God, taking his word and now living it out, not just having a head knowledge of it or an understanding or an acknowledgement of it,

but practicing it and making decisions based upon what God has said and conducting ourselves according to what God has said. That's the wise man. The foolish man is the one who hears the things of God, who hears the word of God, who hears the sayings of Jesus and then does not do them. That is foolishness and a house built upon foolishness will not stand. That house, that life will be destroyed.

Have you ever known someone who is brilliant but lacks a certain amount of common sense? Anybody? You don't have to raise your hand or point at anybody. Patty. When I was young, now see if you smack people in the middle of service you get your name called out, just so you know. When I was young I went to a computer class. My parents would take me to this class in Riverside and

It was out of this man's home, and he was a computer genius. I mean, he was brilliant. Remember, I was trying to teach you binary for a little bit, all that kind of stuff. That's the stuff that we were learning in the class. That's the stuff he could teach, and he knew it like the back of his hand. We went up to his house. He had a big house with rows and rows of computers, and he was just...

because he loved computers, he wanted to teach it, and so he got a bunch of people and he just started teaching different things and programming and stuff like that. Brilliant guy. I mean, just incredibly brilliant. But he had some difficulties with combing his hair. And it was...

It was a particular challenge for him and buttoning the shirt, you know, all the way, so it matched all the way down and up and that was difficult for him. And he had these just incredible brilliancy and yet, you know, there was these areas that's kind of like, hey, you're a little quirky, that's kind of cool, you know. You're brilliant in one area but it's kind of like making up for some other areas, you know, so he's well-rounded all together and that's how often we are.

But we have this idea, we have those kinds of people, you know, you have the picture of the absent-minded professor, right? Someone who's brilliant, but really forgetful. You know, they can send rockets to the moon, but they can't get to dinner on time. I mean, there's some inconsistency there. It doesn't really add up. It doesn't make sense. And it seems ironic that this brilliant person struggles in something that we would consider to be something fairly simple.

Well, this irony that we see in these pictures and these people is often portrayed in the person who knows the Word of God, but continues to live in immaturity and in sin. You see, in the same way, they're possibly brilliant in the Word. They're scholars. They know the Word of God. And maybe this is you.

We all can fit in this category. We can all fall into this trap of knowing the Word of God. And you ask where a portion of Scripture is and we can tell you where it's at. And you can ask what story, you know, that this book is found in and we can tell you. And we can ask, you know, all kinds of questions and have debates and know it backwards and forwards and yet still have a life

That's, well, that's immature spiritually. That's demonstrated by bad attitudes. That doesn't resonate with the character of Jesus Christ. That doesn't demonstrate the nature of God. We can still have a life where we, well, we persist and continue in sin and yet know the Bible forwards and backwards. Well, there's a problem with that. That's what Jesus says is related to the foolish man.

The one who knows the word. The one who knows it back and forth. Hears the sayings of Jesus, but does not do them. James says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct. The way that we live shows whether we have wisdom or not. You see, it's not about the head knowledge. It's not about what we can get into our heads and which arguments we can win and which debates we're able to have the best points for. It's not about...

having scriptures memorized, but it's about being able to put them in practice and to conduct ourselves in obedience to the Word of God. You see, we're not to be the absent-minded Bible scholar where we know it all when it comes to the question and the trivia, but when it comes to living it out, well, it just doesn't find its way into our decisions, into our activity, into our choices, into our attitudes. We need to be people of God who walk in wisdom.

As demonstrated by the way that we conduct ourselves. He says, let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Okay, you think you're wise? You have wisdom? Great. Prove it by the way that you live. Not by the questions that you answer. Not by the insight that you have. But prove it by the way that you live. Prove it now.

By walking rightly with God. Prove it by having works that are done in the meekness of wisdom. We see the first characteristic that James is talking about here in regards to wisdom is that there's meekness associated with it. There's meekness in wisdom. The word meekness, I'm sure you've heard, is not weakness, but it's strength under control. It means to be mild or gentle.

One definition puts it this way. Meekness is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness, but in power. It is a virtue born in strength of character. Meekness is a virtue that's born in strength of character so that we have strength under control. You see, strength under control can be used with precision. When a surgeon applies strength

His instruments, it's strength under control. He can press much harder. He can use more strength, but he controls that strength so that there's precision as he makes the cut, as he makes the incision. Strength out of control is destructive. It's the proverbial, you know, bull in a china shop. Lots of strength, no precision, just lots of chaos and destruction that's left behind.

In the same way, you and I are to operate in the meekness of wisdom. Maybe there is a lot of strength, but it needs to be applied with mildness and gentleness. Jesus is a wonderful example of this. All-powerful, yet he dealt with people, he related to people with meekness. Last week we looked at the tongue and the danger and the destructiveness of the tongue. It's a powerful instrument for good or for bad.

And with our tongue we have the ability to bring great words of encouragement. We can bring great fruit and edify and build up and accomplish great things for God with our tongue. But with that same tongue we also have the ability to mouth off and bring great destruction. We can have control in meekness and share the right words, the specifically chosen words and apply them with precision. That's the meekness of wisdom.

Or we can say just whatever comes to our mind and bring great destruction. You see, our life will show. That's just our tongue. We have the rest of our bodies to consider. The rest of our lives demonstrate and show whether or not we have the wisdom of God. Wisdom is shown by works. We can't say that we have wisdom when our life says otherwise. Our life proves whether or not we have wisdom. He goes on now to describe for us

Earthly wisdom or wisdom that is not from above. And we find that in verses 14 through 16. He says, Here now he begins to contrast.

the wisdom that God desires, He says, look, if you have wisdom, show it by your life, show that your works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Wisdom is associated with, is tied to meekness. But in contrast to the meekness of wisdom,

If instead of having meekness, instead if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, he says, do not boast and lie against the truth. He'll go on to explain that these are things that are born not out of godly wisdom, but out of wisdom that is of this earth, of yourself or of the devil. It's wisdom that is not from God that brings forth these elements or these traits in our life.

And so we can look at these things in our life and understand whether or not we are operating in the wisdom of God or if we're operating in a wisdom that is not from God. And so what do these things mean? He says, if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts. These two things. He kind of sums them all up. I'm sure he could list a whole lot of things here that would demonstrate that we're not walking in wisdom. But he sums them up into these two things. First of all, bitter envy.

This word envy is an interesting word to me because, well, it's a word that simply means zeal or passion. It's zeal or passion and it can be good or bad depending upon the context. Do you remember that time when the disciples were watching Jesus as he drove out the money changers from the temple?

And drove out those who are ripping off the people of God. And it tells us there that the disciples remembered the scripture that said, zeal for your house will consume me. Jesus was consumed with zeal or passion for the house of God, for the temple of the Lord. That's the same word that's used here. It's the idea of this passion, this zealousness that consumed Jesus.

And that's good. It was good and right and appropriate. In the right context, this word can be good. It means zeal or passion. In the wrong context, well, then that's why it's translated or, yeah, translated envy here. In the wrong context, well, it takes an entirely different perspective. It can be good or bad, depending on which context it finds itself in.

And so the context that we're really looking at is not so much the context of this portion of scripture, but the context of you. And so we put this zeal or passion, we put this word in your life, and we find then that

Whether it's good or bad, depending on your life, the context of your life. What is it that you're zealous about? What is it that you're passionate about? If you're zealous and passionate about the things of God, that's good. It's a good definition, a good description of your life.

But if you're zealous and passionate about the things of this world or the things of yourself, if you're zealous and passionate about things that are not of God, well, that's when the word is translated envy. That's when it is not a good thing. That is when the zeal or passion becomes envy and begins to destroy our lives.

The idea, the philosophy of looking out for number one comes from this idea of envy or zeal. It's a passion of looking out for self, of acquiring for self, of making sure that I'm taken care of and that I get what I want. It's a zeal or passion for things that are not of God. It's translated envy because it's described this way. It grieves...

Not because another has something good, but that it does not have it. And it seeks to supply that deficiency in itself. So a person who has this quality, who has bitter envy, grieves. Not because you have something that I want and I don't want you to have it, but it grieves because I don't have it and I want it. And why don't I have it? And I deserve it and I've earned it and I should have it.

It's passionate, it's zealous about gratifying self. It's passionate, it's zealous about meeting its own needs, about acquiring for itself, and promoting itself, making accomplishments for itself. And as it progresses, then, well, it corrupts more and more until it becomes a desire to make war upon the good of another, because I can't have it, so I don't want you to have it either.

The corruption spreads. It degenerates worse and worse so that this passion, this zeal becomes bitter envy. We become bitter and envious. Now let me ask you, do you grieve over things of this world that you do not have? Do you grieve? Does it bother you that you are not in the role and the capacity that you think you deserve or that you're able to accomplish today?

Do you grieve over that? Is that troublesome to you? Do you worry about it? Is it something that rises a passion in you, an ire in you? Do you grieve that you don't have the type of transportation that you really want? Does that bother you? Does that grieve you? Do you grieve because you don't have the habitat or the abode that you really deserve? Does it grieve you that you are missing out

Perhaps maybe recognition that you feel you deserve or a place of honor that you think you've earned. Does it grieve you that you are lacking things of this world, things of this life? Does it eat you up? Does it bother you? That's bitter envy. And that is not the wisdom of God. Passion about self is bitter envy. And bitterness comes in. It becomes a part because we think we deserve much better than we have.

And since we don't have it, we become bitter. We begin to pout, to sulk over our state. Bitter envy. It's an ugly thing. And yet, he's not done. That's only the first half. Bitter envy and self-seeking, he says. If these things are in your heart. Now, self-seeking, I think it's somewhat self-explanatory what self-seeking is. Seeking self.

It's selfishness. It's being self-willed. You can see how it's related to bitter envy, the passion and zealousness for self. This word self-seeking is related to the word that is to receive a bribe. And a person who receives a bribe is one who is trying to acquire for themselves something they feel they deserve. It doesn't matter if they have to work some injustice. It doesn't matter if they have to do something that's not right. As long as they get something

what it is that they want. And so a person who is grieving over what they do not have and working and scheming and how to get it, even if it means taking bribes, will seek to obtain that which they feel they deserve. That's self-seeking. This bitter envy, this self-seeking, go hand in hand and paints for us an ugly picture. And James says, if you have this, do not boast and lie against the truth.

Can I remind you for just a moment that James is talking to Christians? All throughout this book he says, My brethren, my brethren, my brethren. He's talking to the brethren. He's talking to believers. He's saying, Guys, this has no place in your life. This is not from God. We would not want or expect these qualities to be found in Christians and yet we find the need to address them as James does.

It's written for a reason because, well, in our hearts, we can find bitter envy and self-seeking. And James says, if you have this in your heart, don't boast about it. You know, we have this strange ability to boast about wickedness. This strange ability to, you know, when we know we're doing something wrong, we're proud of it, we boast about it, we flaunt it.

Or we can go to the other extreme where we lie against the truth. We cover it up. We try to pretend, oh no, I'm not that way. I don't have bitter envy. We try to pretend like it's not there when it really is. James says, look, if this is in your heart, don't glory in it. Don't boast about it. Don't lie against the truth. Don't try to cover it up and pretend it's not there.

God is not wanting us to pretend to be in a right relationship with Him. That has no meaning. That has no value. He doesn't want us to pretend to have a right heart. That's not the point of what His Word is saying. He wants it to be so for real. And so if these things are in our hearts, well, we need to repent because they're not from God. Look at verse 15.

He says, He says, He says,

The wisdom of the world, the wisdom of the flesh, demonic wisdom, brings forth, breeds bitter envy and self-seeking. It's not from God. God did not plant those things. I like what Ironside said about this. He says, If bitter envying and strife are ruling in the heart, it indicates an unsubdued will and life out of harmony with God. For this there is no reasonable excuse.

for abundant provision has been made in order that one may be freed from such bondage. Ironside says, look, if this exists in your life, if this is in your heart, it demonstrates, it indicates your will and your life are not submitted to God. You're out of harmony with God. And there's no excuse for this, he says, because an abundant provision has been made. Jesus Christ upon the cross made provision. He gives us

New life when we come to Him. 2 Corinthians 5.17, we know it well. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, all things have passed away and all things become new. The old things are gone. All things become new. We have new life, spiritual life. We're being transformed by the renewing of our mind, Paul says in Romans 12. There's been abundant provision.

We've been set free from the bondage to this destructive pattern of bitter envying and self-seeking. There's no excuse for us to continue in it. We need to turn. We need to repent. We need to be obedient to God and be set free from this wisdom that is not from Him. And again, what James is saying is, look, your conduct reveals the way that you live. It's not about what you know. It's not about...

what quizzes you can pass. It's not about, you know, what answers you have. It's about what you do. Your conduct reveals if you have this earthly wisdom. And so if this is in your heart, don't boast about it. Don't lie against the truth. But instead, deal with it the way that God has said. Repent. Confess. Agree with Him about the state of your heart. Turn from it the sin

And commit to walking in His ways. Well, what are His ways? What is the wisdom from above that we're to have then? The wisdom that's not from above, that's characterized by bitter envying and self-seeking.

Now he goes on to give us the characteristics of the wisdom that is from above in verses 17 through 18. Verse 17 says, Here we have the characteristics that will fill the life of a person who has wisdom from above.

These are the characteristics that should reveal themselves, that should be made manifest in our lives by our conduct, by the way that we live. These things ought to be apparent. That's the wisdom from above. Now,

We can also look at these things. It's often been used in this way and it's a good, it's a valid way to look at these things. When you have to make a decision and you want to seek God for wisdom, you want God's wisdom on a situation, on a course you need to determine which way you need to go, you can look at these characteristics and it will help you determine whether it is of God or not.

And so as you look at these things, as we look at these traits and characteristics, we can ask these questions about the situation and the choices that we have and determine which one is of the wisdom of God and which one is not. However, what James is really talking about here is more than just in the middle of a crisis, okay, here's my list and I go through and I check it off and I find out what's the wisdom of God and what choice he wants me to make and where he wants me to go.

What James is talking about here is a life that's filled, that's walking in the wisdom of God. And so often we wait until the crisis point and it's a very, well, it's a dangerous thing to do. It's why we encourage you to spend time in the word of God regularly on a daily basis. Because as you do, God will be speaking to you and he will be

directing you. He will be preparing you. Perhaps He will be helping you avoid the crisis to begin with because you're walking with Him and He's speaking with you. And it's a day by day, moment by moment relationship and walk with Him. That's what God desires. But when we wait to the crisis and then we pick up the Bible and we're like, I don't even know where to turn. How do I find out what God wants to say? Well, it's kind of late now to try to find out and try to determine. Now we can call and God is gracious and He's merciful and

And many, many, many, many times, He answers. Even though we don't deserve it, we haven't been walking with Him, but He answers. He's gracious. He's merciful. We call to Him and He answers and shows us great and mighty things that we've never heard or seen. God is good. But the better way, the way that God intends, the way that James is describing here, is for us to make these our lifestyle. For us to walk in the wisdom of God.

in our conduct, in our choices, in our decisions, in our attitudes. This is what we're called to do. And so as we look at these things, I would challenge you to ask yourself, does your life reflect these characteristics? Do these define your life? Do you have the wisdom from above? He says, the wisdom that is from above is first pure. First of all, first and foremost, before anything else,

The wisdom that's from above is pure. It's free from impurities or defilements. Is your conduct free from impurities or is your conduct defiled? Now, again, we cannot live perfect lives. We all sin and we all fall short of the glory of God.

But what God calls us to do is to turn from that sin. And as He brings it to light, we're to confess it. We're to agree with God about it. We're to turn from it. And we're to flee from sin. We're to run from sin. We're to kick it out of our lives. If our hand causes us to sin, we're to cut it off. Not literally, but Jesus said that to demonstrate the seriousness of sin. And so that if there's things in our lives that cause us to sin, that we don't just kind of go, okay, well...

I'll try to be a little bit stronger next time. No, get it out of your life. You're around those people and you fall into sin and then you're around those people again and you fall into sin again and then you're around those people again and you fall into sin. Hey, cut it out of your life. Remove yourself from that situation. If you struggle with drinking, you know, don't go witnessing at the bar. If you struggle with drugs, don't go witnessing to your friends who are trying to push drugs upon you all the time. If you cut those things out of your life,

Remove them. The wisdom that's from above is first of all pure. First and foremost, it's pure. God will never use something that's impure. He will never say, well, that's not really a good thing to do. I mean, it is lying. But if you can use that lie to get them to church, well then, okay, go ahead and do it. God doesn't do that. The ends don't justify the means when it comes to God. First and foremost, His wisdom is pure.

And everything that He instructs and everything that He calls us to do will have that characteristic. It will be pure. You can automatically tell and know right away if something is not of God, if it's not pure. If there's sin involved, if it's defiled, a wise person is pure. Again, not perfect, but they deal with sin appropriately. They respond according to what God has instructed. They receive the mercy and grace of God.

By confessing. Turning and repenting. By running and turning from sin. Again, going back to the beginning of wisdom. It's the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And in the fear of the Lord, we depart from evil. We turn and we move away from it. So are you pure? Is that a trait in your life? Is that a characteristic in your life? Do you have the wisdom of God? If so, show it by your conduct. Does your conduct show purity? The next one he gives is peaceable. Peaceable.

Wisdom that's from above is first pure and then it's peaceable. Now, peaceable is a very simple word. It's not very difficult to understand it. It means to bring peace or it's one who loves peace. Are you a peaceable person? Do you love peace?

When you walk into a room, do you bring peace into that room? Or when you walk into a room, is there automatic conflict? Is there automatic contention? Do you bring peace with you into a conversation? When there is contention, when there is difficulty and conflict, and you enter into that situation, do you bring peace to that situation? Are you peaceable? Do you love peace? Or does conflict...

Follow you around. And everywhere you go, there's a struggle here and there's some fighting there. There's some contention over here. There's some arguing here. Listen, the common denominator is you. You need to be peaceable. The wisdom that's from above is peaceable. Now, there are some battles that are worth fighting. But there's many, many, many more that are not. Wisdom that's from above is peaceable. Brings peace. Brings the peace of God.

to the hearts and minds of the people of God. A wise person is peaceable. We could go on and on there, but we'll continue on. Gentle. Gentle, it means to be mild, to be fair. I like the way William Barclay puts it. He says, The man who is gentle is a man who knows when it is actually wrong to apply the strict letter of the law. He knows how to forgive when strict justice gives him a perfect right to condemn.

This is the idea of gentleness. One who knows when it's appropriate to forgive. One who knows, I don't need to apply the letter of the law in this case. That's gentleness. And it brings to my mind the picture of Jesus and the woman who is caught in adultery. You remember there as he's amongst the people and the religious leaders throw this woman at his feet and

They proclaim loudly, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. How would you want your sin pronounced and made public like that? They throw her at his feet. And they say, the law says she must be stoned. We have to put her to death. What do you say, Jesus? They challenge him. Well, Jesus deals with them. You can read about it in John chapter 8. He deals with them. They, one by one, walk away. Until lastly, it's just...

Him and the woman. And he asked the woman, Woman, where's your accusers? Where are those who were just a moment ago saying, Hey, we need to put her to death. She committed adultery. The law says she must die. She committed adultery. She's got to die. We got to put her to death. Where are those people? Jesus said. Is there no one who condemned you? And she said, No one. And Jesus said, Well, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Again, there's the turning around, right? The purity. Sin no more. Turn from sin. Flee from sin.

Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Now, according to the letter of the law, she could have been, should have been stoned. But Jesus, having the gentleness of God, knew it's not the appropriate time for the letter of the law to be applied. But it was the time to forgive. Even though he had the right, Jesus said, Whoever has not sinned, let him cast the first stone. And all the people went away. He hadn't sinned.

He was able to cast the first stone. He was able to stone her. He had the right. Justice would have been on his side. The letter of the law was on his side. But he was gentle. He forgave. A wise person is gentle. Even when we have the right. Even when justice is on our side. Even when the letter of the law is on our side. A wise person is gentle. A wise person is also willing to yield.

Now we know what that means, right? Willing to yield. You know, you're driving along, you're about to merge in traffic and you see this triangle and you go, oh man, I hate those triangles. I got to wait for all those people. I got to wait for them to leave a gap and leave an opportunity for me to go. To yield, it means I let them go. They have the right of way. I let them go and then...

when it's clear, when I'm not going to cause anybody else problems, then I'm going to go. I'm going to let them go first. Are you willing to yield? Maybe I should put it this way. Has the word stubborn ever been used to describe you? If yes, you can just laugh really loudly and we'll know.

Stubborn. Is that a word that's used to describe you? That's the opposite of being willing to yield. Now, it's good to be stubborn, kind of in a sense, when it comes to the truth and the gospel and obedience to God. You know, we should not live in compromise. Willing to yield doesn't mean we just kind of give in to whatever comes around. No, we need to stand our ground when it comes to the things of God, the Word of God, obedience to God. But honestly, that's not normally when we're stubborn. Right? Right?

We usually have it the other way, right? When it comes to the things of God and the Word of God and obedience to God, yeah, we're pretty flexible with those things. We kind of give and take. Oh, well, sometimes we justify ourselves. But then when it comes to the things that we think and our ideas and our ways, well, we're stubborn on those. We hold to those and then we're loose, you know, kind of with God's standards and His Word. We've got it backwards.

We need to be willing to yield our ways and our thoughts and our opinions and be steadfast in the things of the Lord. A wise person is a teachable person. A wise person is able to be taught. The Proverbs is full of examples of this. Proverbs 9, verse 9 says, "...give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning."

We need to be willing to yield. That is, willing to be taught. Willing and humble enough to recognize, I don't have all the answers, and God wants to speak to me. And very often, God wants to use other people around me to speak to me, and He wants to use them to instruct my life, and I need to be willing to yield, to recognize that I don't have all the answers, and that I can be wrong, and that I can make mistakes.

And I do make mistakes. And I make lots of mistakes. I need to be willing to yield, to be instructed, to be taught. That's the characteristic. That's a trait of a wise person. A wise person is also full of mercy and good fruits. Full of mercy, abounding in mercy. Mercy here, it's really the idea of compassion. It's a special regard to the misery, which is the consequence of sins.

It's the compassion of looking upon a person who is suffering the misery of sin in their life. Experiencing the consequences of that sin. And having compassion. Showing mercy. Being full of mercy. Having special regard for those who are in that state. Are you full of mercy? It's very easy for us to react in kind. When someone yells at us,

We like to yell back. When someone curses at us, we like to curse back. When someone pushes us, we like to push back. But I would challenge you to consider, are you full of mercy? You see, the people who cut you off on the freeway, well, they're miserable because of sin. They're suffering the consequences of sin. The people who treat you that way, it's because they're miserable because of sin. Are you full of mercy? Are you quick to forgive? Do you have special regard that

You don't fight back in like manner, but that you recognize, that you have compassion, that you look, and there's pity because, well, that person is suffering the consequences of sin in their life. And that's why they treat you so. That's why they react that way. To be full of mercy, it's a characteristic, it's a trait of someone who is wise. To be without partiality is the next one he lists. Now, we looked at the subject of partiality in James chapter 2.

It's showing favoritism based upon the outward appearance, based upon the social status, based upon the things that we perceive or the things that we use to judge and the criteria that we use to evaluate a person. But a wise person does not show partiality. A wise person does not evaluate a person from the outside based on what is seen. A wise person does not value someone by appearance.

their status or their position or their role. A wise person is able to look through the superficial, to look past the labels and to see the human being that God loves, that God created, that God desires to reach out to and minister to. They're without partiality. And a wise person is without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not an unfamiliar word to us because we're all hypocritical. Hypocrisy, it means to pretend or to simulate something.

A wise person is not hypocritical. Do you ever pretend to put up the image that you read the Bible more than you actually do? Do you ever put up the image, do you ever pretend to pray more than you actually do? Do you ever put up the image or pretend that you are closer to God than you actually are? Do you ever put up the image or pretend, when it comes to the areas of spirituality, relationship with God, do you put up a front? Do you

Carry yourself in a self-righteous manner. It's hypocrisy. That's like the Pharisees. God doesn't call us to pretend, to fake it, to simulate the Christian walk. He calls us to live it, for it to be real, for it to be who we are, not to be a costume that we put on. A wise person is not hypocritical, not saying one thing and meaning another, not pretentious, not putting on a show. But a wise person is who they are for real.

He says in verse 18, now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. He concludes, or we conclude the chapter there, but in the original letter, you know, there's no chapter divisions. He didn't say, okay, chapter 4, now next subject. It flows right into the next verse, which says in James chapter 4, verse 1, where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? As he's talking about wisdom and the characteristics and the traits of wisdom, he says, look, now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Again, he's talking to Christians. He says, look, these things are brought forth by those who make peace, by those who walk in the wisdom of God. And so those who are walking in the wisdom of God are producing fruit. They're sowing fruit in peace because they're peacemakers, because they're peaceable. So where does the wars and the fights come from among you, James asks? You see, you cannot hide who you really are. And you cannot behave one way and say that you're another way.

The wars and the fights, they come from among you because, well, you're not walking in the wisdom from above. It's not reasonable to say, no, I'm really a peaceable person, but these people make me fight and these people cause me to argue and to debate furiously. No, the fruit of righteousness, the way that God brings forth His righteousness, the way that God brings forth His plan, it's sown in peace by those who make peace.

It's not sown in peace by those who make war. It's not sown in peace by those who walk in the flesh. It's sown in peace by those who make peace. He's going to go on, we'll see this next week, and talk about the wars and the fights and the struggles of the flesh and the lust of the flesh and the selfishness and all of it. It goes back to this idea of wisdom. That whether or not we really have the wisdom from above is demonstrated by our life. And the things that come forth out of our life, they're not...

the fault of the situation. They're not the fault of everything around us. The root of that is in our own hearts. There are issues that we need to be addressing in our own hearts. Wars and fights come from among us from our foolishness. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Do you want the fruit of righteousness in your life? The effects, the things that righteousness produces? It's sown in peace by those who make peace.

You want the blessings of the righteousness of God in your life? It's sown in peace by those who make peace. You cannot do the work of the Spirit in the strength of the flesh. You want to see God work? You want to see the fruits of righteousness? You can't do the work of the Spirit in the strength of the flesh. This last week I've been considering meditating on this picture of Peter. Peter the disciple, Peter the apostle. There in the garden...

He's trying to do the work of God. He's sincere. I mean, he really means it. They come to arrest Jesus. He pulls out his sword and he whacks off an ear. It was the best he could do. It's what he did. He cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. In his strength, an ear was cut. In the power of the Spirit, same person, the Apostle Peter, in the power of the Spirit, not too many days later, people were cut to the heart.

By the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. 3,000. Compare that. One cut to the ear versus 3,000 cuts to the heart. One was the work of the flesh, the other was the power of the Spirit. You see, we want the fruits of righteousness in our lives, but they don't come. The fruit of righteousness is not produced by our flesh, by us working really hard, by us determining, by us lying and cheating and stealing to get to where we think we need to be.

It comes from walking in the wisdom of God. It's sown in peace by those who make peace. So who is wise in understanding among you? Are you wise? Do you remember the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz? Dorothy, you know, and her friends, they're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Why? Well, because he's got wisdom and he's going to solve their problems. He's going to fix their issues. He's going to get her back to Kansas and he's going to give him the heart and give him the courage and give him the brain. But they finally get there after all these things. They finally get there and they go in to have an audience with the Wizard of Oz. And man, they are freaked out. It is scary. There's just...

This intimidating presence, this booming voice, overwhelming. They're terrified, they're petrified until of course they find out it's just a little man behind a curtain. And this little man behind the curtain had this intimidating presence, this booming voice to cover up his real lack of wisdom. And sometimes you and I do that. We carry ourselves in a self-righteous way

We become loud and put on a big show and are very intimidating to try to cover up that in reality, we lack wisdom. We don't have the wisdom of God. Listen, the wisdom in your life is demonstrated by how you live. It's shown. It's revealed by the way that you conduct yourself. If it's earthly wisdom, bitter envy and self-seeking, it's revealed.

And if it's earthly wisdom that is revealed in your life, then you need to get right. You need to repent. Later on in chapter 4, as he goes on, he tells them in verse 7, submit to God. Verse 8, draw near to God. Verse 9, lament and mourn and weep. Verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

This is what we need to do. He's like, there's these fights, there's these wars that are among you, there's these things going on. You're revealing that you're not walking in the wisdom of God. Here's what you need to do. You need to lament. You need to mourn. You need to repent. You need to turn to God and humble yourself and He will lift you up. And so if the wisdom that is not from God is revealed in your life, that's what you need to do. You need to turn. You need to repent. If you don't have the wisdom of God...

you need to start walking in right relationship with God. The wisdom from above, while it reveals itself with purity and peaceableness and gentleness, with a willingness to yield, it's full of mercy, it's without partiality and without hypocrisy. Those are the things that come forth from our lives when we have a right relationship with God. It begins with the fear of the Lord. It begins with departing from evil. It begins by getting our hearts right with God.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let's pray. God, as we look at our own hearts, as we see in our lives revealed whether or not we have the wisdom from above, I pray that you would help us to respond appropriately. And Lord, if there's those who have not known you, Lord, that as they look and reflect on their lives, it's clear they don't have the wisdom from above.

that's from you. God, I pray that you would turn them towards you, that they would mourn, that they would lament, that they would confess and humble themselves before you, that you might lift them up. Lord, that you would do a glorious work. God, we need you to work in our lives and we fall short. Lord, we blow it. When it comes to wisdom, our lives reveal so much inconsistency.

God, bring us into right relationship with you. Help us as you reveal in our lives issues that need to be addressed. Help us, Lord, to confess them and turn from them, to flee from sin, to handle it appropriately. Lord, that the characteristic of purity would become evident in our lives as we continue to turn to you. And God, as we walk with you, as we seek you, as we fear you, would you fill us with your wisdom that we might represent you well,

God, that we might have the fruits of righteousness abounding in our lives, that the world around us may be blessed and may know that you alone are God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.