Book of James, Ch. 3 - 09/05/2021

Okay, good morning. We're going to do the last six verses of James chapter 3, and I'm going to begin by reading those three verses, then we'll pray and have a little discussion.

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of the good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

This wisdom descendeth not from above, but it is earthly, sensual, devilish.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good works, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us once again meet here in person at your sanctuary, protected by you and the

Holy Spirit. Thank you for protecting us through this time of stress, and thank you for letting us understand that even bad things, all things, work together for good to them that love

God and to them who are called according to his purpose. We thank you for all that, and we thank you more than that for giving us your

Son who came into the world to forgive us of our sins, and the

Holy Spirit that you gave to dwell within us, as well as your written

Word that you gave us and that you gave along with it the

Holy Spirit to let us, help us to be able to interpret what it says.

Bless us and keep us and go through all services today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Okay, we have now reached the seventh test, according to John MacArthur, the test of humble wisdom.

And that's the last six verses of chapter 3. But before we begin to break down these verses, let's take a few minutes to look at knowledge and wisdom.

There's two kinds of knowledge. There's God's knowledge and men's knowledge, and there's two kinds of wisdom,

God's wisdom and man's wisdom. So there's two kinds of both, two kinds of wisdom and two kinds of knowledge.

We're gonna go first to Job. Job is a man whose lifespan overlapped that of Abraham.

Job was slightly older than Abraham, and he went through a time of crisis unlike that of anyone else.

And in that, he called on his friends to consider that maybe

God's wisdom was beyond their comprehension. Job maintained that the wisdom of God is not gained by natural means, and it's not something that we can gain apart from God.

His contention is, or was, that what God does not reveal, we cannot know.

So let's go to Job chapter 28 verse 12 and begin. This is the middle of a long speech to his friends, and Job says this to them, but where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?

Men knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living.

The depth says, it is not in me. The sea says, it is not with me.

What's happening here is, he's saying, you can't find true wisdom in the natural world.

All that you can find there is knowledge, and that only knowledge of the natural world.

Spiritual things, and most of everything is spiritual. Spiritual things cannot be found in the natural world apart from God.

He goes on to say, it cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for a price thereof.

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx or sapphire.

The gold and crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels or fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral or pearl, for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

Now to sum up what he said so far, verse 20, whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding, seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living?

Nothing living can see it. And kept close from the fowls of the air, the birds can't get to it.

Destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

So they've heard of true wisdom, and now the Lord is going to give us our first clue, or actually,

Job is going to give us our first clue that God gave him. God, God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

So what does Job now know? What's Job telling his friends? God knows where true wisdom is, and how it can be found.

He knows where it is and how to find it. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth unto the whole heaven, to make a weight for the winds, and he weigheth the water by measure.

When he made a decree for rain, and a way for lightning of thunder, then did he see it and declare it.

He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And to two men he said,

Behold, the fear of God, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

So what did Job say about true wisdom and true knowledge? Only God can provide true wisdom.

And what is the true wisdom that God provides to us? The fear of the

Lord. And understanding, if you understand, if you truly fear the

Lord, and you understand it, then you will depart from evil. So that's what

Job said. Years later, Solomon showed us that he understood the source of true wisdom.

When he asked God to grant him wisdom and knowledge, he knew where to go to have someone give him wisdom and knowledge.

In fact, one of the things he said, that reading many books is tiresome, if you remember that.

But he knows where to go. Solomon knew where to go. Even before he was granted this great wisdom,

Solomon knew where to go to gain wisdom and knowledge. He asked

God. So here we go. Second Chronicles, chapter one, verse nine.

Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David, my father, be established. For thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.

Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people.

For who can judge this thy people that is so great? So Solomon asked

God to grant him wisdom and knowledge. And God said unto

Solomon, unto Solomon, because this was in thine heart. And thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither hast thou asked long life, but has asked for wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou may judgeth my people, over whom

I have made thee king. So why is Solomon asking for wisdom?

Is he asking for wisdom so he'll be the smartest man in the house? He's not asking for that.

He's not asking for the life of his people. He's not asking for great fame. He's not asking for great riches.

He is asking for God to give him the knowledge and the wisdom to do what the

Lord has already ordained him to do. He is to rule the people that God put him over.

And he is asking God for wisdom and knowledge to be able to do that expeditiously.

So to go on. Wisdom and knowledge is granted to do this is God speaking. Okay, you asked for wisdom and knowledge so you could judge my people and do what

I've commanded you to do. I'm going to give you that. That's what God said. But more than that,

I'm going to give you wisdom and knowledge. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.

So David didn't have what Solomon had, nor did Solomon's sons. No king before, no king after.

In fact, I think we can fairly say that no man before or no man after has ever had what

God gave Solomon. If you take out of the mix, Jesus of Nazareth, which we know that God gave him even more.

Now, in the New Testament, Paul tells us that salvation does not rely on the wisdom of man, nor on the glibness of his speech, but only the grace of God.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1, Paul says,

And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with the excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

I'm going to pause here a minute and tell you something I think I remember. I think this message was after the message that Paul delivered the

Athenians on Mars Hill. And you'd see we have a church at Corinth.

You ever heard of the church at Athens? Because even though Paul probably made his greatest speech that would be more likely to draw

Gentiles to him, it didn't.

Because it didn't rely on the glibness of Paul or his excellence of speech or the excellence of his message.

It depended upon the testimony.

It depended upon God, the grace of God. Let me reread that so we won't lose track of where we are.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring...

I don't know what happened. It popped to a different place. And I, brethren, when

I came to you, not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the

Spirit and of power. Not like my preaching that I gave to the

Athenians last month. This one is not dependent upon my wisdom, my fitting a sermon based upon your needs.

This message was not that at all. My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the

Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

How be it? We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of the world, nor of the princes of this world, which came to naught.

Remember when we started at the beginning, we said there's two kinds of wisdom, the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men.

Paul is relying on the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of men. How be it?

We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that came to naught.

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which

God ordained before the world unto our glory. Now, he calls it a mystery, and now he's going to begin to kind of illuminate what this mystery is, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the

Lord of glory. So what was that mystery? Part of it we just read.

Anybody got an idea? What is this mystery? The part we've already read.

It was a hidden wisdom, which the Lord ordained for you before the world began.

That was part of it. It's a wisdom of God ordained before the world unto our glory.

Let's read on. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor eared heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which

God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his

Spirit. There it is again. That's part of the mystery. God hath revealed those things unto us by his

Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him.

Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the

Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

And that's part of the mystery. Part of the mystery is we have received the

Spirit of God so that we might know the things that are freely given to us.

But that's only part of the mystery. Let's go on and we'll see the other part.

Verse 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the

Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now look at verse 14.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

And that's the rest of the mystery. Not just that those that are ordained to have to receive the

Spirit receive it, but the natural man can't receive it. He doesn't receive it because he can't receive it.

He can study the Scripture all he wants, but if he doesn't have God in the picture and the

Holy Spirit in the picture helping him interpret what is being said, the message will pass him right by.

But he that is spiritual judgeth of all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But then you see that other little sentence, but we have the mind of Christ.

Why do you think that sentence was put there? Okay, you're right.

So we understand. Okay. Who hath known the mind of the

Lord, that he may instruct him? The answer to that question is nobody. Nobody can instruct the Lord on anything.

No man can judge what the Lord says. We can either accept it, we can reject it, but we can't judge it.

But we can judge one another, and we can judge the non -elect.

And why is that? Because we have the mind of Christ that allows us to judge.

Not to condemn, but to correct. To guide people toward what is right.

All that is part of this hidden mystery. The mystery that God reveals to his children and not to everyone else.

And as we'll see a little bit later, not all things at the same time to all of his children.

Okay. We are now ready to launch into James chapter 13.

I'm gonna read it again. It's been a long time. Who is a wise man endued with the knowledge among you?

Let him show out of a good conversation, that means lifestyle, his works with meekness of wisdom.

Now some interpreters believe this phrase or the phrase addressed in verse 13, who is a wise man among you, refers only to teachers or would -be teachers.

But it seems more probable that like the previous section on the tongue, not on tongues, but on the unruliness of the tongue that we dealt with last week, but it seems more probable that like the previous section on the tongue, this section on wisdom applies to everyone in the church to whom

James is writing. True believers as well as mere professed believers.

What James is attempting to do is to identify those who are truly skilled in the art of righteous living.

In what way are you wise, he is saying. How do I know you're wise? He is saying in what way are you understanding.

And the answer that you give will be in your lifestyle and it will reveal not only your inner character, but also the spiritual condition of your soul.

And in fact, some of God's chosen, some of God's elect are presently not acting in the way that the

Lord would like them to act. And so what does he do when he sees that? But he always does.

He brings discipline into your life and he does that discipline so you will change your behavior the same way a parent disciplines his child.

The Lord disciplines his children. Now when you look at the phrase again and it says, let him show, that translates an aorist imperative, making the verb a command.

This you must show. If you claim wisdom and understanding, he is saying show it first by your exemplary lifestyle.

If your lifestyle does not show you have wisdom and understanding, then you probably don't yet have it.

As with faith that we looked at in chapter 2, wisdom and understanding have no spiritual value if they're not demonstrated in righteous, godly living.

Now, do you have to live righteously and godly every second of the day,

Dave? Okay, you're supposed to try. And we know what happens when we do the best we can.

What is that? We fail. And so what do we have to do? Call on the

Lord who will understand that we fell short. He knows already that you want to fall short.

He will forgive you. He will forgive you for all unrighteousness. What a wonderful gift.

Even if you don't know all of the things that you fall short on, the Lord knows. Verse 14, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth.

I'm gonna read that again and highlight a word. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.

He's not talking about the physical organ in your body, about right here, that's your heart. We now understand that the heart really, what he's talking about, is located somewhere up here.

And we have access to it. The tongue has access to it. The eyes have access to it.

All the senses have access to it. And if we're here, God has access to it. And if we're

Satan, Satan has access to it. That's what he's talking about when he's talking about the heart.

Motivation is always determined in the heart. That's where unbelief and belief originate.

That's where sin and righteousness originate. And I've got some statements here of times when people in the

New Testament referred to heart as the place of understanding.

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus told his disciples, oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

You had it written, fellas, but you didn't understand it. These are God's disciples.

These are Jesus' disciples, and yet they did not fully believe. We found that in Luke.

Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch, if you believe with all your heart, you may be saved.

That was in Acts. Paul declares, if you confess with your mouth

Jesus as the Lord and you believe him in your heart, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That was in Romans. Now, good things come out of the heart. But the

Lord made it also clear that evil things can come out of the heart as well. In Matthew, he says this, out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulterers, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

That was in Matthew 15 verse 19. And it is for this reason that Solomon warned, watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.

That was in Proverbs 4 verse 23. Now, whether you are fallen or not, whether you're fallen, unredeemed, or whether you are one of God's children and redeemed, there is nothing more characteristic of the fallen and unredeemed man than being dominated by one's self.

James is saying this, if a person claims to belong to God and do have the wisdom of God, but his life is motivated and characterized by selfish ambition and bitter jealousy, he is simply lying against the truth.

Whatever he might claim, he cannot be saved. He is a living liar.

So I want to ask you a question. What's the source of the kind of wisdom that this man has?

And what kind of wisdom does he have? Does he have man's wisdom, or does he have God's wisdom?

A man that is unredeemed, dominated by self, claims to belong to God and have the wisdom of God, but his life is motivated and characterized by selfish ambition and bitter jealousy.

I'm going to read it the way James wrote it. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

That's what he said. So what kind of wisdom does this man have?

Clearly, he has man's wisdom. Now, again, wisdom can be two.

There can be two kinds of wisdom. God's wisdom and man's wisdom.

Verse 13 points out that if one has God's wisdom, his lifestyle will show it.

But 14 and 15 is a different thing. 14 says, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your heart, glory not, and lie not against the truth, this wisdom descendeth not from above, but it is earthly, sensual, and devilish.

So now we're looking at the second case, man's wisdom. What does it say? What's the source?

You may be tempted to believe that man's wisdom is the result of diligent study, and indeed, that does play a role.

Man's wisdom is what you get if you go off to college and spend six or eight years trying to become a professor of physics.

You get man's knowledge. If you go to law school and spend years trying to become a lawyer, you get man's wisdom.

You go to medical school and become a doctor, you get man's wisdom. There's nothing wrong with man's wisdom in and of itself except you must be careful, and you'll see why in a minute.

But that diligent study that does play a role in man's wisdom is ultimately not the true source of a man's wisdom.

That's found elsewhere. Anyone care to guess where it's found? I'm sorry.

No, no, no, no, no. You misunderstood one word that I said. I didn't say God's wisdom.

I said man's wisdom. You are absolutely right. God's wisdom is found in the word and in the spirit.

I passed that one over because you had done such a good job on that. We're talking about man's wisdom.

What you acquire if you go to law school, if you go in the physics department to study physics or medical school, you don't get

God's knowledge there. Oh, you can, but not by itself. You get man's wisdom, and you got to be careful with man's wisdom.

It can lead you on a detour away from where you want to go. You can think you know all the answers when you don't even know the essential question.

Okay. In verse 15, James briefly presents three of the most distinct and basic characteristics of false ungodly wisdom, which is not that which comes down from God.

Now, Brother David talked about the wisdom that does come down from God. That's found where?

In the water and in the spirit. Did I get those two right? It comes from below.

It comes from below. It comes from Satan. We're going to get there and his dominions. It's not.

It's not the wisdom that comes from above. James clearly says that, and he gives the three most distinctive and basic characteristics of this false ungodly religion, which is not that which comes down from God by revelation and spirit, and that's the word and the spirit that Brother David was talking about.

Now, we all know the three great enemies of the believer are what? The three greatest enemies of a believer are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

These are the same three characteristics that James is going to give in this verse. It's earthly.

It's of this world. It's sensual. It's of the flesh, and it's devilish.

It's of the devil. First, such wisdom is earthly.

That is, it is limited to the present, the present material world of time and space.

By definition, it's restricted to things that man can theorize, discover, and accomplish apart from God, or as I've said often, things that man can see and measure.

If you can't measure it, you don't know anything about it. It has no place for God or for the things of God.

It has no place for spiritual truth or illumination. It's a closed system.

It's a box of man's own making and choosing, but as Brother David mentioned just a second ago, under the prompting of Satan from below.

As James has just noted, this wisdom is motivated by pride, selfish ambition, arrogance, self -centeredness, self -interest, self -aggrandizement.

It spawns a society whose watchwords are these, and I can add many more. Do your own thing.

If it feels good, do it. Have it your own way. Look out for number one.

It pervades philosophy, education, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, and every other dimension and aspect of contemporary human life.

Second, this false wisdom is natural or sensual.

It's fleshly. It relates only to the fallen, unredeemed man who is wholly corrupted by the fall and separated from God.

It originates in the natural man, and as Paul said in 1

Corinthians 2 14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Those who rely on this kind of wisdom are, as Jude said, they who separate themselves sensually not having the

Spirit. All other feelings, desires, appetites, standards, and impulses are grounded in a humanistic view of the world and of man, which understandably becomes the measure of all things.

So, if you measure things, you will compare them to other men. Such wisdom not only feeds the flesh, but it also is foolish.

1 Corinthians 1 19, Paul said, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise? Where is the described? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not

God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not

God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

And thirdly, the false wisdom is devilish. Now, remember, we've had the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now we're to the devil. The wisdom is devilish. Although it's human wisdom, it's earthbound and fleshly, its root source is

Satan himself, who through his demonic fallen angels, who rebelled with him against God.

Satan has always promised to those that he attempted, always promised wisdom to those he attempts, asserting that God's word should be doubted and his word should be accepted, which is the essence of the temptation, his temptation of Eve in the

Garden of Eden. What did he do? Contradicting what the Lord had told Adam, Satan said to her, for God doth know that in the days ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall become as gods, knowing good and evil.

Now, here's what he is promising her. If she did what God had forbidden, she would not die.

But not only would she not die, but she would actually become like God. And thus was born the lie that man can be his own

God. To world philosophers, religion in general, and Christianity in particular, are relics of a superstitious pre -scientific age that relied on fantasy to explain what had not yet been discovered by man's own efforts.

And you know what that proves? Only how foolish they really are. Now, 1

Timothy 4 .1 says things will not get better, they'll get worse. Now, the

Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrine of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

Only the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of righteous men in this world protect the world from absolutely satanic and animalistic existence.

But when both are removed from the earth in the latter times, Satan and his minions will cause hell to break loose on earth.

And one might do well to consider this. Is this the condition of the world today as we speak?

Are we entering in that latter time when some shall depart the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of the devil, speaking lies, having their conscience seared with a hot iron?

They don't even realize when they're speaking lies. In any case, whether it's the condition today or not,

I think it is. In any case, the great demonic delusion that will fall on the remaining or unbelieving mankind at that time will not be anything new.

It will be the full unleashing of the demonic delusion that has gripped the unreading man since the fall.

And that infection will continue unabated until the Lord returns in his judgment at the end of tribulation and ushers in his millennial kingdom.

Until then, evil men and impostors will in fact proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

And 2 Timothy 3 13 says that. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Verse 16. For where envying and strife is, there's confusion and every evil work.

Jealousy, self -ambition. James said wherever they exist, there's disorder and every evil thing.

Now disorder and every evil thing are obviously broad terms, and they cover a multitude of specific details which we're not going to list, but there's no question that these things are included.

Anger, bitterness, resentment, racial, ethnic, social, and economic divisions, and a host of other bad things.

Moreover, they have the absence of love, intimacy, trust, fellowship, and harmony.

Now verse 17. Describe the characteristics of true wisdom.

But the wisdom that which is from above. Now that's God's wisdom. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

All of these virtues of divine wisdom taught in the scripture is produced in believers by the

Holy Spirit. And Paul tells us in Galatians essentially the same list.

In Galatians 5 22, he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Against such there is no law. And now verse 18. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

There is a causal relationship between godly wisdom, genuine righteousness, and peace.

Godly wisdom produces a continuing cycle of righteousness which is planted and harvested in peaceful harmonious relationships between God and his faithful people and between them those people themselves.

Now I'm going to take a couple of minutes, just a couple of minutes, and summarize this entire passage.

There's two kinds of knowledge. There's man's knowledge and God's knowledge.

Man's knowledge is acquired through diligent study. And though it can be valuable, it is limited to physical things that we can measure and detect.

And furthermore, it is a dangerous thing to have too much of. God's knowledge.

God's knowledge can only be acquired as a free gift of God. And it's a gift only to those chosen by God before time began.

And I'd like to add one other thing. When do you get this gift? If you're

God's child, when do you get this gift that he promised to you before time began? When you ask for it for the right reason.

Solomon got his wisdom when he asked for it for the right reason. He didn't ask for it to get rich.

He didn't ask for it to be the richest man in town, the wisest man in town, to drive the fanciest car, to have the biggest church.

He didn't ask it for any of those reasons. If you ask God for any other reason except to do what?

Except to further his will. He may not give it to you, but if you ask for the gift in order to further his will, he will give it to you then.

So that's God's knowledge. And there are two kinds of wisdom. There's man's wisdom.

Man thinks that he alone is responsible for what he thinks. And that what he thinks is wisdom.

As I think it was Rene Descartes said, I think therefore I am. That may be the wrong quote.

It's somebody. I think therefore I am. I would change that.

I think therefore I think I am. But that's what he said.

He's wrong on both accounts. What he thinks is wisdom is actually foolish or foolishness.

And it often leads to calamity. And why can it lead to calamity? Because it's influenced by satanic forces.

I'll give you my example first. I went to graduate school. I spent years in college preparing, learning man's wisdom.

I thought I was doing all the right things. I was a child of God at that time, but I was sidetracked.

You know why I was sidetracked? Because Satan made me think I was the smartest guy in town.

That I had all the answers. Then we'll give you a better example.

Adam and Eve. After all, both Adam and Eve thought they were making a wise decision when they ate the apple.

And then we have God's wisdom, and I'll be finished. God's wisdom is the gift of a loving

God and consequently always leads you to the decision that God wants you to make.

And furthermore, the decision that God wants you to make is always the best possible decision that can be made for you.

Whether you understand that or not, whether you recognize the decision that God wants you to make and you make, even if it brings you temporary hardship, it is the best possible decision that can be made for you.

Okay, I have really run over into Brother David's time a little bit, but any questions or comments?

Verse 17, the wisdom that is from above is for a pure and peaceful gentleman to be treated.

What really struck me there was the words first and then, because something that I've been studying a lot lately is how righteousness and relationship go together.

And if you read that the way it's supposed to be, it literally says that wisdom that's from above starts with righteousness.

It's first pure. And then after that, it's peaceful, gentle, easy to be treated, which means compliant.

And it's amazing to me how Satan will sometimes change words, but other times in the church, he'll just flip them around because he doesn't have to change anything in this verse.

Word wise, he just flips them around and makes us think the priority is harmony with the world.

We've got to make the world like this first. And then maybe as a result, they'll become holy, but we lose our own holiness and sacrifice it for the sake of harmony.

So we get those backwards. So if I understand what you're saying, they're saying we should make ourselves more like the world so the world would understand us better so that we can draw them to God.

Right. But we sacrifice holiness for harmony. So we sacrifice holiness for harmony, and we yet neither.

Right. Which is what Satan wants. What he always gets is what? Chaos and confusion.

That's exactly right.

And we see way too much of that. Okay. I think we're running past time.

I'm going to do a quick prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together again face to face because it's always more comfortable face to face.

But also, thank you for providing for us the opportunity to reach out and touch those people that are not present with us physically, but present with us in spirit, because Lord can keep us all together, even through these hard times.

And we understand that all things work together for those who love God and obey