The Results of Heavenly Wisdom

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our series through the book of James, and we're going to close this out today in this section in James chapter 3.
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So please turn with me to James chapter 3, this wonderful little epistle, and we've been doing a wonderful verse -by -verse study through this wonderful book.
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And we're at the latter part of it. The first part of it was really very convicting, very strong, of course, dealing with the tongue.
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And you know all the examples that James gave in that.
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But right here in verses 13 through 18, he is dealing with two kinds of wisdom.
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And you know as we've been studying this, it's heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom.
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One is from God above, and one is actually earthly, which is demonic.
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And this is what he says, and beginning with verse 13, hear the word of the living
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God. The Apostle James, speaking about the inspiration of the
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Spirit of God, he says this, Who among you is wise in understanding?
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Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, in the gentleness of wisdom.
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But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth.
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Verse 15, he says, This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder, and every evil thing.
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And then the transition takes place in verse 17 through 18. He speaks about the heavenly wisdom.
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He gives the characteristics of it. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, good fruits, and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
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And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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Verse 18 again, And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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That's our text today, but I'd like for us to look at the application of everything that James has said up to this point, and this whole message here will be pretty much application to everything that has been said in the past several weeks of these wonderful verses from the
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Word of God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, our first important priority this morning is most of all to worship you, to glorify you, to magnify you, to exalt you, to praise you, to lift up you, you who are worthy to be praised and glorified and blessed.
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Lord, there's none like you. Heavens and all the heavens cannot contain you.
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Lord, we thank you that when we come before you, as you have given us instruction through your son, we are to hallow your name, your holy name, your blessed name.
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But most of all, it's your holy name. Father, we're to love righteousness.
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You said to seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness. Your righteousness, not ours.
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Your righteousness, a righteousness that we do not have, but your righteousness, a separate righteousness that's above us.
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And we know that it's been personified in Jesus Christ. It's been shown in Jesus Christ, your son, in whom you have exalted at your right hand.
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Who you raised from the dead, who you glorified, and who is now at the right hand of your power, making intercession for your saints.
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Father, we come into your presence now, recognizing who we approach.
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Lord, the sovereign, holy, holy, holy, triune God. Lord, may we tread lightly, may we tread carefully, as we come into your courts with praise and thanksgiving,
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Lord. We come in reverence, Father, but we come, we come by faith, and we come only by faith in the precious blood of the
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Lamb, because we could not come into the presence of a holy God unless the blood of Jesus would wash us and cleanse us from every stain.
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So Father, as we come now, we would ask that your word, that you would honor your word this morning, that you would forever change us by your word.
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Father, do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and Father, we pray that your grace and your power by your
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Holy Spirit would so change us, and our prayer this morning would be focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Oh, that we would see Jesus is our cry and our desire this morning. So Father, we pray and we ask this in your holy, blessed name, and for your glory, amen and amen.
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Now, in this text before us, we have, and we've been looking at for the past several weeks, it's all about wisdom.
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The text is all about wisdom. There's a contrast, as I spoke and mentioned briefly, that there's earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom.
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Now, keep in mind that this wisdom is the next test of true, saving, living faith.
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This is what James is talking about. If you notice, the whole book, this whole epistle is really speaking about faith that's demonstrated.
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It's not faith that's just spoken. Anybody could say, I have faith. You know people like this.
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They say they have faith, they say they have faith, but James comes along and he says, just don't say it, you show it to me.
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I want to see it demonstrated. That's what he's saying. So it's a test, really, a test of true, saving, living faith.
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And as we've seen throughout the book of James, this little general epistle, he's telling his readers that those who generally know
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God and those who possess a living faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ have a certain kind of wisdom.
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Now, he's going to wisdom. And this wisdom is very critical. Now, like I said,
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I like to give application here because this is so critical of everything that he's said up until this point.
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Why is it so critical? Because it's a matter of whether these tests that you could examine yourself to see, as Paul says, you're in the faith.
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But it's critical to see it's one thing to profess and it's another thing to possess.
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And those who possess genuine, living faith, authentic faith, and authentic wisdom are the true children of the living
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God. They demonstrate it. They show it. You know, you don't have to sit back and say, you know, that person right there is just a professor and his life doesn't back it up.
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No, a true born -again believer will back it up by the way they live, the way they conduct themselves, the way they talk, the way they walk.
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They are a different breed of people. They're a different sort of people. And you can tell that from everybody.
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They stand out, don't they? They shine as bright stars, as the Scriptures say. Jesus says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and that they may glorify your
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Father which is in heaven. It is by your good works. Now, we know good works doesn't save us, right?
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We get that straight. We've got to have that straight. A lot of people get the cart before the horse. No, we're not saved by good works, but we're saved unto good works.
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And the good works shows a manifestation of what's there. And that's what
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James is saying. And it's sitting here in these passages that we looked at. In other words, what he's saying, their spiritual conversion is a manifestation of the wisdom.
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And the wisdom that they have. And we're not talking about earthly wisdom here with the children of God. We're talking about a wisdom that's from above to those that's been born from above.
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It's from God. And wisdom is always evidence that what kind of person you and I are.
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And that is so critical. And the wisdom, again, does not necessarily mean knowledge.
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Now we talked about that last week and the weeks before. It's one thing to have information, right?
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It's a vast difference between the two. It does not mean information. And I've got a quote here in John MacArthur's commentary
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I really love, and I had to put this one down. I've been doing my best to quote more scripture.
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But when you come across a good quote, you can't ignore it, right? But listen to what he says here. He says, which
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I personally, I love this definition. He says in this commentary on James of wisdom in this text, he says this, means the application.
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It is the application of knowledge with divine power to the reshaping of life, transforming attitudes, transforming behavior into righteousness.
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Wisdom then is not what I know. Wisdom is how I live. And so how
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I live, according to the wisdom of God, is a barometer on my spiritual condition.
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God puts no premium in wisdom that is cerebral or wisdom that is creedal.
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And then he says this, the only premium God has to put on wisdom is the wisdom that transforms the life.
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That is a great definition. I could not ignore that. And it's a wonderful definition of what the wisdom that James is talking about here.
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So then, according to the biblical terms in the scriptures, as we have seen, true wisdom in which
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James is speaking of here is always grounded, and always grounded
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I should say, in the fear of the Lord. Now beloved, as you well know, this is missing in our society.
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This is almost gone from among us, even in churches, tragically and sadly to say.
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You rarely hear anyone speak about the fear of God today.
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And people probably get the hint that, well this is negative. But I'm here to tell you, when you start studying the scriptures, those who truly love
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God are those who fear God. And scripture says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.
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So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom is knowing God in a life -changing relationship, in a personal relationship with the
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Lord Jesus Christ. True wisdom is the outworking, or should I say outflow of a life -changing knowledge of God.
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Just not knowing about God, but it's life transforming. It is life changing.
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And that's the difference between those that possess earthly wisdom and those who have heavenly wisdom.
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See, now not just knowing about God, but knowing God. As I mentioned earlier about David speaking, the
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Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He's my rock.
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He's my salvation. And it becomes very personal. It's a very personal thing.
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It's intimate. There's a communion, a blessed sweet communion, that's joy unspeakable and full of glory.
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It's a peace that passes all understanding. And it's a joy and a peace the world does not have.
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Only the children of God have this. And that's what makes the church. You know, you can have people just meeting together, and if they don't meet in the name of Jesus, and Jesus is not in the midst, and the word of God is not upheld, and God is not glorified, it's not a church.
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But when Jesus is in the midst, and when God's words is preached, and when
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God is honored for who He is, you've got a church. You've got a blood -bought church.
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You've got the redeemed that's been changed and transformed and regenerated. You've got a people that's different.
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And that's what I love about the church. Jesus is the head of our church. And we said at that meeting last night,
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I said, this is not about us. This is about Jesus. This is about the head of the church.
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Our aim and goal as a redeeming grace church is to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. And as Brother Key said in his prayer, we must decrease,
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Jesus must increase. He must have the preeminence in all things. And we really believe when we honor
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God's word, God's going to do something. It's not about us. It's not about a preacher. It's not about a personality.
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God forbid that we'd be deatrophies and desire to be first and have the preeminence. Jesus is to have the preeminence.
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And Lord had us behind the cross as our prayer. Keep us down. Keep us humble.
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And I'm telling you, God will do something great even if it's through suffering and fire and tribulations and whatever may come.
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This time period we have on this earth is very short, and I say, Lord, time is short and you're wrapping things up and Jesus is going to come and he's going to judge the wicked and the living and the dead.
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He's going to judge us all. And hey, our time is short and we need to make sure we're right with God. But we're living for God and we're showing it by good works.
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That's what this text is talking about. So you see, James is talking about a wisdom from the
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Old Testament, okay, in the mind of James. When he's talking about wisdom, it's the basis of what
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James is writing to his audience. Now, how do we know this? Well, first of all, we know in the beginning that James, he's a
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Jewish man, right? He's a Jew. And they understand, Jewish people understand the literature of the
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Old Testament. So when he's speaking about wisdom here, he doesn't have to even, he even doesn't even define it.
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He's a Jew that's writing to Jews. That's dispersed. That's, in other words, dispersed means they're scattered abroad, they're persecuted.
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And he encourages them when they go through hardships and tribulations and trials, count it all joy.
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And he encourages them in the faith. And then not only in the faith, he encourages them in wisdom.
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Now, you know, I said this before, I'll say it again, because it's important. When you and I are going through a trial and a hardship, you know,
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I want your prayers and say, yeah, Lord, give me strength, absolutely. Lord, give me grace.
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And God's grace is sufficient. But you know, the greatest prayer that you can pray for a child of God, you or myself, when someone's going through a hardship and a trial,
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Lord, pray for wisdom for me. Pray for wisdom. Wisdom in how I respond to this, wisdom in how
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I handle this, wisdom that I would respond and see God's hand in this as a grace to make me more like Jesus.
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And that's what wisdom does. Wisdom helps you to see the truth.
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That's what God is doing in this. So he is speaking of an
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Old Testament understanding. And since we can't assume for ourselves as Gentiles, far removed from the
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Jewish context, we need to fill up a little bit of the understanding. So keep in mind that the wisdom of the
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Old Testament was basically initiated by the fear of the Lord. The fear of the
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Lord. Now, there are so many verses on the fear of the Lord. That's another sermon. That's another series. I'm telling you, you study it yourself.
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You could take it through Genesis. You could go to Job. You could go through the wisdom literature of not only
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Job, which is a wisdom literature, but you go through Psalms. David speaks about the fear of the
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Lord. Job speaks about the fear of the Lord. Solomon and the Proverbs speaks about the fear of the
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Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You see, and these writers speak about that.
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So what does it mean to fear God? It's a reverential awe. It's a reverential awe and a deep respect toward God, knowing that God sees me.
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He knows me. And I respect His character. I respect His personhood.
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So when the Old Testament says the fear of God, the fear of the Lord, it is a call to salvation as well.
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It's a call to know God. It is a call to reverence Him. It's a reverential trust and commitment to the
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Almighty God, which in person turns from sin and faith to God and has a deep hatred of evil and a deep -seated love for obedience.
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I can't say that enough. That's what it means to fear God, is to hate sin, to love righteousness.
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You see this in Scripture. So the true wisdom that James speaks of here as a
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Jewish writer begins at the point in which one is ushered into a relationship with God through reverential faith and trust in the
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Almighty God, and trust in God. You know, the life of Jesus was a completely total life of how
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He trusted His Father. Everything that He did, He trusted God. And don't we like that so much?
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We see ourselves at times, we become fearful. We begin to, we waver at times, let's be honest.
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We do. We lean on the arm of flesh. I've done it many times. And I find myself on the backside of a wandering desert going in circles just like the children of Israel.
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And it's like the Lord is teaching me, see, now didn't I tell you? You should have trusted me over here.
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Now I'll put you over here and I'll take you out to the woodshed and I'll give you a little discipline to teach you in love to trust in Me.
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And God is saying, you can trust in Me. I'm a God that never fails. Somehow we begin in our own flesh.
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We lean on that flesh and we say, somehow, you know, another way, and we try to work it out, and we think we got the answers, we think we do, and God says, no, son, daughter, you need to trust in Me.
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You see, that's part of what wisdom does. It helps us to see, to truly fear God and trust in Him.
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All this happens by a supernatural power of the Spirit of God. It's the Holy Spirit that is our true teacher.
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I can say that. It's by conversion. It brings us into this wisdom.
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You remember in the book of Acts, we see a believing Gentile. His name is
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Cornelius. Cornelius was, the Scripture says, a God -fearer.
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He feared God. He was a Gentile believer. He was one who feared
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God. A God -fearer is in the very essence of saving faith.
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That's what it means. It is a person who puts their trust in God, in God alone.
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And that has introduced the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of wisdom. So the fear of the
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Lord was to turn from iniquity and sin to righteousness, to God's righteousness.
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The fear of the Lord was to hate evil and to love righteousness. The fear of the Lord was to do God's commandments and to obey
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His Word. And that's what God desires. And that's what God desires for us to do.
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Now we do not always do that, but we do know that the Lord Jesus Christ always did that. And we lean hard on Him.
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But God also holds us accountable as born -again Christians. Because one day we're going to be judged according to our works, right?
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And that makes me fear and tremble as I speak that before you. He handled our sins, right?
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It's cast in the sea of forgetfulness. God does not remember them against us no more. Therefore there's now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
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And then, but you see later on, but each and every one of us were given a personal account before our
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Maker and before God by what we do. But can I submit this to you? We're going to be given an account by what we didn't do.
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That's what makes me tremble. Lord, I had the opportunity and time, and Lord, I don't want to fail you.
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I don't want to miss the opportunity. That's what wisdom helps us to see. Not to miss that opportunity that God gives us in His providence.
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And we do not need to take that for granted and pass it up. And you know, we excuse that, don't we?
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We say, well, some other time we'll have that opportunity. We may not. We're not promised the next day, are we?
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So the fear of the Lord was to do God's commandments and how all that is a part of a saving work of God's salvation.
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When a person puts his faith and trust in God, he or she is ushered into the very spear of wisdom itself.
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So this wisdom -like faith in which James is speaking of here comes from God above.
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Every good and perfect gift comes from above, comes from God. It is a gift, a divine gift from the
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Almighty God that comes to us. He graciously gives this to us. And all of us who know
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God through Jesus Christ in a personal way has received the wisdom of God. Now, can
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I say this? That wisdom of God is manifest. It's always evident in the life of a true believer.
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You see it. There's no questions about it. And every true believer will manifest the wisdom of God.
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I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we looked at that last week, right? Look at verse 17.
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That verse is packed. Characteristics of divine wisdom, this wisdom, he says, but the wisdom from above is first pure.
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It's pure. It's holy. It's separate. It's distinct. It's then peaceable.
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It's gentle. It's reasonable. There's a sweet reasonableness to it. It's full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
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And we saw that. And so there you have the characteristics of divine wisdom. And that wisdom of God is always manifest.
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It shows itself in the true believer. Right here. Every true believer has this wisdom.
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It's holy. There's a purity. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
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God. Then peaceable. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God or the children of God.
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Gentleness. You have meekness there. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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Reasonable. Full of mercy. Blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall be merciful and receive mercy.
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You see, and good fruits. And Jesus talked about good fruits, didn't He? Everything He summarizes here, He is taking it and reflecting on our
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Lord's Sermon on the Mouth. So, you know, you have that. So let's go a little further with this.
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So a true believer will love Jesus Christ when he has this wisdom, but he will love Christ more and more and more.
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He will serve Jesus more and more and more. He will obey God more and more.
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It just doesn't stop. It continues. There's a growth in the grace and the knowledge of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He's a disciple of the Lord. He follows Jesus. He realizes
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He has many faults and many shortcomings and many sins, continue to struggle with these sins.
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And I'm here to tell you, as you well know, sin's not eradicated. There's some people that do teach total eradication from sin, sinless perfection.
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I said, no. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 made that very clear.
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And that was the Apostle Paul. And even Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin?
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And then, of course, he gives the question and then he gives the answer. Thanks be unto God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He gives us the victory. See, not until we glorify what He's saying. We have Christ and all, and Jesus Christ is wisdom because He is wisdom.
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We're going to look at that in just a minute. And He is our righteousness, but we're not perfected, not until we get on the other side.
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We're not glorified until we get on the other side. Hey, you ever think that's what trials come along for and crosses and losses and all these things that are painful, and we say,
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Lord, why? And then God's smiling back and saying, oh, to make you like my son. God knows what
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He's doing, doesn't He? And perfect wisdom from above, He knows. He knows exactly what
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He's doing. So as believers in Jesus Christ, I just mentioned that Jesus Himself is our wisdom.
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Let me show you this in Scripture. Go with me to 1 Corinthians. Go with me to 1 Corinthians and look at verse 23.
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Wonderful verses here. Yeah, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 23.
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I love these verses here, and I love what Paul is getting to. Now, starting with verse 18, he's speaking about Christ as the power and the wisdom of God.
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Did you know that all of God's attributes and all of God's power and all of God's wisdom and His fullness was demonstrated on the cross?
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Just take it to the cross. You want to see the mercy of God and its fullness and its glory?
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Look to the cross. Look at the Lamb of God, and that's what
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John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus Himself.
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But notice what he says right here, but we preach Christ crucified. Now let me say this.
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I want to stop right there. If you're not preaching Christ crucified, you're not preaching the gospel. He is the gospel.
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Christ, Jesus, Him crucified. There is no church unless Christ is being preached and Christ is seen as crucified.
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And notice what he says, unto the Jews a stumbling block. A stumbling block.
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And unto the Gentiles, foolishness. Absolutely foolishness.
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And what he says, but unto them that are called, don't you love this? This is a call to salvation, it is the power of God.
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Both Jews and Greeks, Christ, Christ Himself, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
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Don't you love that? The power of God and the wisdom of God.
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And then because I love what he says in verse 25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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So what is he saying? He's saying so when we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He became to you and me the very wisdom of God.
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Isn't that incredible? All that God is. Now we can't contain all of God's wisdom, can we?
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I like the way Tozer illustrated it. I'll give you a simple illustration but it's really profound.
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It's almost like a child at the beach, he takes a little cup and he sees the vast ocean beyond him and how many billions of gallons of the ocean that there is.
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And you know this as well as I do, there's more water on this planet than there is land. But you're looking at the ocean, you've been at the beach, isn't it beautiful?
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And you see the vastness of the ocean and it's almost like the child takes this cup, an empty cup, and he just puts that cup and baptizes it in the ocean, fills that little cup up.
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Well that's like us, beloved. You could get full of that little cup, it's like us.
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We're full of the ocean at that time but the ocean is so vast and measurable in a sense.
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But even God himself is even more vast than the ocean. He's infinite, there's no limitations.
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He's without limitations and yet you gaze at the ocean and the vastness of it.
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And that's the way it is with the wisdom of God and the power of God. We only can get our little cup so full and that little cup stands in comparison against the ocean, the greatness of it.
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So wisdom is equated with saving faith, it's equated with saving faith in God.
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So you see this in verse 30, do you see? Look at verse 30, but by His doing, who's doing?
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God's doing. You are in Christ Jesus, it's not our doing, by God's doing who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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And so that just as it's written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord, he who glories, let him glory in the
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Lord. In other words, this is God's doing, salvations of the Lord, blessed be
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His name. So it's not anything we've done, it's God's doing. Paul said it in Colossians, in Jesus Christ dwells all the treasures, the fullness of the
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Godhead, the wisdom and the knowledge of God are complete, that we are complete in Him.
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Now those who put saving faith in God and those who are wise, when you fear the Lord, you begin the very path of true wisdom.
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That's when you are on the path of true wisdom. Now you may be zealous for truth and you got a lot to learn, but you know, you learn growing a little here and a little there, like a baby.
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A baby doesn't grow up to a mature giant overnight, and God's patient is a godly, in a sense like a parent and understands our shortcomings, our difficulties, our uprisings.
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He knows our frame, doesn't He? And knows that we're but dust, aren't you glad? And I like what
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R .C. Sproul says right here, the greatest consolation I have is that God knows everything about me, but yet He loves me.
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He loves me with an everlasting love. And He will never ever stop loving me, because He is love, that's
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His nature. He loves us with an everlasting love, and if we know that, when we go through trials and hardships and crosses and losses, and Ms.
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Lillian is shaking her head, she knows, she's been through some severe trials and sufferings, you know if God loves you.
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And when it's talking about this, you know, I don't question God's love for me, but I question my love for Him.
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I said, Lord, give me grace, I want to love you more. Teach me to love you more.
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You know, here's another verse of Scripture, you don't have to turn there, but you can if you like, 2 Timothy, 2
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Timothy chapter 3, verse 15, and this is one we should know. The Apostle Paul is speaking to Timothy, and he says this,
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From a child, says Paul to Timothy, from a child you have what?
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Known the Holy Scriptures. It's important to know the Holy Scriptures. You've got to have a knowledge of God, and how do you get a knowledge of God?
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Through the Scriptures, about who God is. So we've got to have a knowledge of who we are, and a knowledge of who
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God is, it's in the Bible, in the Scriptures. And what does he say? Which are able to make you wise, there it is, to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
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Did you see how Paul pulled that together? Saving faith, salvation, wisdom,
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Jesus Christ. You see, true wisdom is identifying the mark of a saved,
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God -fearing person. This is what Jesus is saying, in essence, and to his people.
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Now go with me to a very important, another important text of Scripture with me.
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This is one of my favorites, Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, and this is all that James is reflecting on, right here.
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Matthew chapter 7. How did
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Jesus conclude the Sermon on the Mount? This is interesting, isn't it? But this is what he does. He goes to a parable, and he goes to a very important parable of two builders.
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Very familiar verse of Scripture to any of us who studied the Gospel, right? And Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John especially here in the
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Sermon on the Mount chapter 7, beginning with verse, look at verse 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, see, there it is right there.
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This is what James is reflecting on. He acts on them, may be compared to a wise man.
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There it is. A wise man who built his house on the rock, and we know who that rock is, right?
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The Lord Jesus Christ. And what Christ is saying, everything I've said in this teaching on the
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Sermon on the Mount, he said, you can sit back and hear it. It's not going to do you any good.
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As a matter of fact, he says, you're foolish if you just hear and do nothing about it. He says, but if you want to be wise, you act upon it.
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It's in the action. And then notice what he says, and he gives a parable here in verse 25, and the rain fell, and the floods came.
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We all have rain in our life, we all have floods. And we have winds, the winds blew and slammed against the house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
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And then he says this in verse 26, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man.
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Notice the comparison. First, the wise man, now the foolish man. What does the foolish man do?
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Well, he just hears it, he builds his house on the sand. And then he says, the rain fell, the floods came, winds blew, slammed against the house.
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Notice what he says, and it fell, and great was its fall.
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And then after he finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. What an application.
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What an application to everything that he spoke, the greatest sermon ever preached. And then he says, you need not only to hear it, you need to act upon it.
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Jesus knew how to deliver a message, didn't he? And that's how he delivered the Sermon on the
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Mount. And so what he's saying here is that all the people who do the word of God, and they are the true believers, but the ones who only hear it and not practice it, or not do it or obey it, are the ones that are foolish.
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They're non -believers. They can say and profess until doomsday, until judgment day, literally.
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But they're not believers. It's those who practice the word of God. It's those who just don't say, but those who practice it.
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Go with me very quickly to another one. Go to chapter 24.
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Chapter 24. There's much more I can say about this, but oh, by the way, when
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Jesus is speaking about the foolish and the wise, he's referring to both being very religious.
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He's not talking about one, you know, one over here that's just an absolute pagan.
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Well, he is a pagan, but he is claiming to be Christian. He's claiming to be religious. That's what
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James says. He reflects upon that, that true religion is undefiled and pure, and then there's action behind it.
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He visits the fathers and visits the widows, and he practices what he does. So he has an external superstructure in a sense.
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But there's another one that really ties into this, and it's chapter 24. And this is a very incredible verse here, a chapter.
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I'm sorry. Notice in verse 42. I'm going to just give you 42 just to end part of it.
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He gives illustrations of two servants, and it ties into what Jesus is saying on the Sermon on the Mount.
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Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your
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Lord is coming. We don't know, do we? A lot of people try to put dates on the coming of Jesus Christ.
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If they do, they're false teachers. I'm going to say that right clear from the cuff. But no one knows the hour.
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He's going to come like a thief. But be sure of this, Jesus says, that if the head of the house had known what time in the night the thief was coming, he would have been on alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
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In other words, you know if a thief is coming. If you know he's coming, you're going to be ready for him. Well, a thief is a thief because he is sneaky and he comes back in an hour you don't know.
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Jesus is given this illustration. Notice what he says. For the Son of Man is coming in an hour when you do not think he will.
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He's coming at a time when people are going to be caught off guard. And then he says this, verse 45, and who then is going to be a faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?
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Great question, isn't it? Now notice in verse 46, blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.
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And then he goes on to say, truly I say to you that he will put in charge of all his possessions but if that evil slave says in his heart my master is not coming, he's delaying in other words for a long time, he begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards.
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Oh, he starts to act terrible. And then verse 50, the master of the slave will come on a day when he does not expect him in an hour which he does not know.
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And we will cut him to pieces and assign him in a place with the hypocrites and that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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That's the illustration of the two servants. And there's something important about this, it's again
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Jesus is equating with true salvation, with true working faith. And this is what
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James is drawing upon. Jesus is teaching so that faith is always working faith.
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It's faith that works. Well you have one more I'd like to go to look at, carry right over to chapter 25.
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Now this one's really very sobering as well.
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Notice what he says in verse 1 in chapter 25. See what he's doing, he picks right up after what we just read in chapter 24.
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Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
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Five of them were foolish and five were wise. They were prudent, in other words, they were wise.
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For when the foolish took their lamps and they took no oil with them, but the prudent, the wise, took oil in their flask along with their lamps.
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Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight, the midnight crying, there was a shout, behold the bridegroom, come out to meet him.
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And then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, give us some of your oil, we need some oil for our lamps, we're going out.
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And Jesus says in verse 9, but the wise answered, no, it will not be enough for us and you too.
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Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. And in other words, there needs to be some preparation done before he comes.
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In verse 10, and while they were going away to make purchase, the bridegroom came. That's when he came, when they least expected him to come.
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And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. And the door was shut.
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And later, the other virgins also came and said, Lord, Lord, notice what they say,
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Lord, Lord, open for us, open. You almost see like the judgment came in Noah's day when the door was shut.
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Oh, please open the door, we were wrong. It was too late. Judgment came.
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See, this is what Jesus is saying. And then he said, answer, truly I say to you, I do not know you.
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Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
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You see, what Jesus is speaking of here in this Olivet discourse, he's speaking of his second coming, and we need to be sober to this great truth about the kingdom of heaven, like the ten virgins who took their lamps.
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And the lamps, by the way, represent the Christian profession. That's the Christian profession.
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And those who are symbols, and the symbols of the Christianity in this parable, and they went out to meet the bridegroom, then they wanted to meet
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Christ when he came, and then all their symbols of their Christian faith, but only five of them were wise.
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Five were foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps. They had a
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Christian profession, but they did not have the oil. That's the difference.
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The oil. You know what that oil means? The reality of the presence of God.
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Some say the oil of the Holy Spirit abiding, residing within. You see?
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Yes, the balm of Gilead. See, the reality of the presence of God. See, when
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Jesus is residing within us, abiding within us in His Holy Spirit, there's reality, isn't it?
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Jesus is real. He's real to us. And He's everything to us.
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But that's what James is reflecting on. So saving faith will always manifest itself in faithful obedience to the
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Word of God. That's what Jesus is saying. Be faithful and be obedient. He said, don't honor me by just saying,
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Lord, Lord. He said, you don't honor me by that. He said, but you've got to do what I say.
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And Jesus says this time and time and time again. If you love me, you obey me.
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You keep my commandments. And that is so critical, isn't it? So back to James 3, a quick refresh.
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Let's look at what he's saying. And I've got to wrap this up here, but I think there's something very important that the
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Lord wants to teach us here. And look at the question. I always love this question.
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I'm recapping a little bit, but this is important. Who among you is wise and understanding?
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That's the question. Who among you is wise and understanding? Well, it's important to know this question, that who's a wise man.
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And no doubt, there were people in James's day parading themselves to be wise. I think that's an obvious truth.
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Oh, I'm wise, I'm wise. I know. James says, really? Really?
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Okay. Then show it by your good behavior. Show it by your deeds.
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In other words, I just don't know this saying, it's not having a profession, it's not good enough.
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You've got to show it. That's what he's saying. You know, they say talk's cheap, actions speak louder than words.
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Well, that's true to that. And actually, that's what the Word of God says. But to know who has true wisdom,
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James says, let him show it. Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, his works, by gentleness of wisdom.
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And first of all, he says, out of his good life. That means his general conduct.
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And if he's truly a wise man, endued with true divine and spiritual knowledge, he is really redeemed, if he's really redeemed, he will show it in his general conduct.
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But not only by the way he behaves himself, but the way he lives, and the way he acts, the way he responds.
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You know, people's eyes are upon us. And I think of this all the time, and Spurgeon, I got this from Spurgeon, but Spurgeon says, you are an open
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Bible before the world. The only Bible, think of this, that people will ever read is you and me.
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That's it. Because a lot of people, they don't read the Word of God, but they read us.
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They see us the way we talk, the way we react, the way we speak, the way we, all that.
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Your whole general life. So in other words, if you know Christ, and over a period of time, and see him, and know him that through the trials of life, and the tribulations, and like you will see by conduct the wisdom of God demonstrated in a true believer.
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Not only in general conduct, it's in specific, in a good life, a righteous life, and also his works, his specific deeds.
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Not only it will be generally made manifest, but specifically in a given deed, that the wisdom of God will be seen and will be evident.
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There will be no questions to it. Not perfect, oh by no means not perfect.
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I like what Mark Arthur says here, it's not the perfection, but it's the direction that gives evidence that you're saved.
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So, the wisdom of God is claimed, and should be demonstrated in our conduct, the way we act, in specific ways.
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This is important. And all this calls for us to do some self -examination, doesn't it?
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I mean, because it's important. Wisdom is manifesting the power and the
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Word of God in every area of our life. Proverbs 11 .30,
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got this, Brother Keith sent these verses, and I asked him, I said, can I share these?
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He said, it's the Word of God, share it, of course. But Proverbs 11 .30, listen to this, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
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Proverbs 13 .20, he who walks with the wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
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It's important the kind of company we keep, for bad company corrupts good morals. We need to be careful.
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We need to be wise. Yes, we want to reach the world, but we've got to be careful, don't we?
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Only Jesus Himself can go into a crowd of sinners and not be affected by them, because nothing was in Him that He wanted to sin.
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He was sinless. That's different with us. Now, God can keep us, and that's what
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Jesus prayed for, but we need to be careful, don't we? All of us do. It demands, really, wisdom in how to reach the people.
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It's kind of amazing how God takes us out of the world, He cleanses us, and He puts us back into the world to reach the world, to keep us from the world.
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It's amazing, isn't it? It is a miracle. Oh my,
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Proverbs 14, 16, a wise man fears and departs from evil. He knows.
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But a fool rages and is self -confident. We're not self -confident, are we?
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Well, if you go back to James, if you look right here, notice very quickly, he speaks about in verse 14, and in 15, and in 16, what false wisdom looks like.
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He says, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, that's what he's talking about, your heart, and do not be arrogant, don't be prideful.
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He says, so you lie against the truth. That is connected to the gospel, actually, the truth of salvation.
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And then he says, but this wisdom, he's talking about false wisdom now here, is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly.
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In other words, it's fleshly, it's natural, it's demonic. It's demonic. Did not the devil promise
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Eve in the garden that if you eat of this fruit, you shall be wise?
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Yeah, he did. He promises something he can never deliver, and because he's a liar, and Jesus says he's the father of all lies.
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And then he says in verse 16, but where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder, that means confusion, and every evil thing, every evil thing.
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And then James comes here, and he says, but the wisdom from above is first pure.
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Now, I need to conclude here, and this is very important. Notice verse 18, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness sown in peace by those who make peace.
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Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons, children of God.
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So what does it produce? What does it produce? What are the results of wisdom? What is the result of true wisdom?
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The fruit of righteousness. The fruit of righteousness, there it is. There's a fruit of righteousness.
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True heavenly wisdom is always equated with righteousness. Now we're talking about the righteousness of God.
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It's not by good works, again, that we earn our way. No, it is works that follow a regenerate person.
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So the fruit of righteousness, the righteousness is equated with true wisdom because wisdom is righteous living, and the fruit of this righteousness is sown.
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Now that's strange, isn't it? Notice what he said. The fruit of righteousness is sown.
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Brother Keith brought this to our, we talked about this, didn't we, yesterday. It's not harvested.
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It's sown. Now don't you think about this, if you know a little bit about agriculture.
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Is fruit sown? No, seed is sown. But what is he saying here?
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Okay, if seed is sown, then why is he saying fruit sown? On the other hand, you see, fruit is harvested and becomes seed for the next crop.
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That's what he's saying. Did you hear what I said? The fruit is harvested, and you know that's how it works.
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It's the law of sowing and reaping. It's the cycle. We see this a lot.
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We see, God, we have no excuse. If there's a farmer here, he'd flag up, you got it, you said it.
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I'm not a farmer, but hey, we know how it works. You see, it becomes the seed for the next crop.
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Isn't it interesting that what he's saying here, the fruit of righteousness is in a sense re -sown in peace by them that are making peace.
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Now let me say this. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and he comes to bring peace, but it's not a false peace.
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And by the way, it's not this hippie peace either. I say hippie peace because you know what
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I'm talking about. We chuckle about it. You remember during the hippie revolution in the 60s, and you all are a little older.
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Ms. Lillian knows what I'm talking about. She's definitely, hey, in the 60s was the sexual revolution that came, and I'm telling you, these people preached peace in another
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Jesus. And they got it all wrong when it comes to love and peace.
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That's right. Come on, Patrick. And by the way, this is in the churches today. It's the liberal bent side of another gospel, another
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Jesus, and another peace. Jesus said, I didn't come to first bring peace.
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I come to bring a sword. That's right. And Jesus said, in other words, what he's saying, the gospel first divides, and it cuts, and it separates.
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In order to pull you in on his side to be reconciled to God, the world is going to hate you.
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Everybody isn't going to embrace you. As a matter of fact, they're going to hate you. Jesus said, the world will hate you.
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He said, they hated me, and he encourages disciples on this. He said, know this. If they hate you, they hated me first.
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As a matter of fact, that's the reason they hate him, because he's the truth. The gospel offends, but the beautiful thing about it is you have peace with God.
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You have a peace that passes. You know, I like this. There is a difference. You have a peace with God and a peace of God.
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And it all is in Jesus Christ, who is our peace. He's our peace.
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He's our righteousness. He's our wisdom. He's everything. But this is the law of sowing and reaping.
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And Paul talked about this in Galatians. He sowed to the flesh. You're going to reap corruption. You sow to the spirit. You're going to reap what?
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Life, peace, everlasting. That's what he's talking about. So where you have the true wisdom equal true righteousness, that true righteousness is being worked out in its fruit.
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It's fruit. And Jesus talked about fruit. He says the trees don't bite fruit. It's good or it's bad, black and white.
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There's nothing in between. You can't mix that. You see, how does people try to mix all that up and make it gray?
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Because people like to justify their sin. But Jesus says the tree's good or it's bad, period.
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Nothing in between. So true righteousness is the fruit that comes, that becomes seed and generates more true righteousness, the law of sowing and reaping.
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So as you sow the fruit of righteousness, it produces more righteousness. It's an ongoing process.
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It is a continual cycle of righteousness. One righteous act harvested from a field of true wisdom becomes the seed to grow to another one.
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So in all this, a harmonious relationship between man and God and man and man. And Jesus said it, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
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Now I've got to conclude this, again, there's a flourishing here.
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The benefit of it, the results, it's the climate of peace in the hands of peacemakers.
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And James follows a crystal clear line here of thought. And one professes to be a
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Christian, he must prove that by living like a Christian, and nothing is more convincing than that kind of wisdom that's revealed in his or her behavior and the way you and I act.
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It shows in one's life. So we hear Him, we love Him, we obey
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Him. That's the order in which God gives. Now, it's manifested, it's purified from a holy heart and humble peacemaking deeds of righteousness and it reproduces itself.
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That's what he's talking about. There's a harvest from this, it's the cycle of law, of sowing and reaping.
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And James says it's how a person proves whether or not he has the wisdom of God. And let me get real personal right in this conclusion.
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Do I have the wisdom of God? The answer is, not anything other than what is the character of your life.
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What are the specific deeds that you do? What are the acts that you do? That is shown.
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What is your attitude, your motives, your heart motives, your desires, your loves, your hates, all these things?
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Is your life one of worldly wisdom or is it a life of heavenly wisdom?
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Well, there's much that could be said here, but let me summarize it to this in closing.
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Wisdom equals lifestyle. The way we live, Tozer put it this way, there's no wisdom in sin, whatsoever.
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There's pleasure in sin, but it's only for a season. But there's no wisdom. It bears, sin bears terrible consequences.
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Satan will tempt us to make us think, oh, here it is, the good life. Live your best life now.
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And it's all a farce. It's all fake. It's all a lie.
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And that's what Satan would want us to believe. But God says, no, here's the good way, here's the path.
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And people say, well, that's a hard path, yeah, that's hard. Oh, but my brothers and sisters, is it worth it?
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He's worth it. In the light of eternity, I'd rather suffer a little pain here and there in crosses and losses than to spend a whole eternity in the hell and I can know there's no escape.
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There is a sobering thing about that, about eternity, isn't it? Because we are all eternal, the
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Bible says in Ecclesiastes, God has put eternity in all of our hearts. You and I and every person on the face of this earth that God created will live in eternity one day.
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We are eternal souls. I'm telling you, it's so important. And the gospel commands us to repent and believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And I will leave that with you. That's wisdom, is to turn from your sins and live.
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That's what the gospel calls us to do. Turn and live. Hey, turn and look and live.
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And who do we look to? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's our blessed Savior. He's our Redeemer that has saved us with an everlasting love.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have given us this great truth, a wonderful truth.
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And if any of us lacks wisdom, we hold on hard to James 1 .5.
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But if any of you lacks wisdom, let them ask of God and give. And Lord, you give.
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You give graciously. You give generously. And without partiality, without reproach, and it will be given to Him.
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Lord, you don't hold nothing good back from those who call on you. Yes, Lord, the way of the cross is hard, but oh, how blessed it is.
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It's all worth it because Jesus is worth it. And all we have to do is look at what He endeared for us. Look at what
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Christ endeared for us. Our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our peace.
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And who has reconciled us back to a holy God in something that we cannot do.
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So Father, help us to believe. Lord, grant to us the wisdom.
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Grant to us the faith. Grant to us the repentance, the turn from our idolatries, our sins, our iniquities to serve the living
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God. Lord, and all the treasures of heaven itself is given to Jesus Christ.
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Lord, what a blessing. He's the pearl of great price. And Father, we thank you, Lord, that you graciously give and hold nothing back.
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Lord, we thank you for what your word says, that we're to walk circumspectly, not like fools, but be like wise.
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So Father, we thank you for the word of truth that's able to save our souls to the uttermost. Father, we thank you that your scriptures makes us wise unto salvation.
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And Father, help us to be, to prove ourselves doers of the word and not only hearers, that we will not deceive ourselves.
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And Father, we thank you. As Jesus said, as we act on these words of yours, we'll compare to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
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Help us to be that wise person, to build our house, our life on the rock of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that we may live forever and ever in that blessed place in eternal heaven.
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So we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who paid it all. In his name we pray.