The Characteristics of Heavenly Wisdom

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James chapter 3, and I'd like to focus on just one verse, verse 17.
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We're talking about the characteristics, or you could say the fruit, of heavenly wisdom.
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The wisdom that's from above. Hear the word of the Lord. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits.
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Unwavering, without hypocrisy. Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, our prayer this morning is hallowed be thy name.
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Holy is your name. Our first priority in worship this morning is to hallow your name.
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So Lord, you alone are holy. And as your word says, you're just not only holy, you are a holy, holy, holy
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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Lord, as your word has said, not unto us,
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O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory. And because of your loving kindness, there's the reason right there.
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Because of your loving kindness, your hesed, your all -compassionate love, the love of Jesus in which we just sang about.
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Because of your truth, Lord, you have declared that you would share your glory with no one.
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You've declared this. No one will glory in you.
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No one. So Father, hide me behind the cross this morning.
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May you alone be exalted, glorified, and praised. May you have the preeminence in all things.
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Exalted. And you've even exalted your word,
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Lord, above your name. So this should give us reason and cause to tremble this morning before your word.
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So Father, as the psalmist prayed, open my eyes, Lord, that I may behold the wonderful things from your law.
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Oh, that we would see Jesus is our cry and prayer this morning.
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Open our eyes as you did to the disciples on the road of Emmaus. Lord, only by your sovereign intervention can you do this for us.
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It's not some intelligence that we chose to do this. It's by your divine sovereignty.
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So Lord, as these men on the road of Emmaus truly recognized who
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Jesus really was, so only you can intervene through your word and your revelation and by your spirit to help us see
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Jesus for who he really is. So Father, we would give you all the glory, and only by your
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Holy Spirit can we worship as we should this morning. We ask this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. James the apostle, the servant and slave of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, has just described earthly wisdom, and actually he's just described its miserable fruit in verses 14 through 16.
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14 through 16, and he says this, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth.
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And in verse 15, that was actually, this wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but it's earthly, natural, demonic.
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It's demonic, it's devilish, but it's not of God, in other words.
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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there's disorder in every evil thing.
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There's confusion. You know what the word of God says about confusion. God is not the author of confusion.
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Now James proceeds to describe the characteristics of the wisdom from above in verse 17.
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Verse 17 is a turning point, then he says this, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
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Now James has described this, and these are the characteristics of the wisdom from above.
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I love that, don't you? Everything that we have from God is from above.
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The faith that you have, I have, to believe in God is from above.
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It's a gift, and so it is with wisdom. True wisdom is from above, the heavenly wisdom, and is identified by the quality of life that it produces.
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And then he says this, above all things, and this is what he's actually saying, above all, is first of all, this wisdom from above is pure.
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Now I want you to take note of this. This is very important, because everything else I'm going to say from after this follows after this great anchor,
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I guess you could say, this landmark of virtue, characteristic, its fruit.
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It is first pure, then peace -loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial, and it is sincere.
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Now I want you to observe this, that since this wisdom is from above, it is received from God as a gift.
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This is a gift. How do we know this? Well, the Word of God says it.
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James 1 .5, James 1 .5, But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, that means without partiality, and it will be given to him.
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Then he goes on to say, you ask in faith, and don't let your faith waver when you ask. And then he says in James 1 .17,
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along with that, Every good gift given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
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Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In other words, it's not anything changing within the
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Godhead. God never changes. We are the one that changes.
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Change decays about us constantly. But God never changes. This heavenly wisdom from God is not achieved through human ingenuity, or by something that we can work up.
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It is a gift that is solely given by God. It is a free gift of God. Generously given, and it is received with a humble attitude.
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No other attitude. You cannot receive it with a proud attitude. God does not give anything to the prideful.
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He gives to the humble. Now, James enumerates something here very important.
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He enumerates the characteristics of this divinely bestowed wisdom from above.
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And I don't know about you this morning, I need to hear this. There are so many situations that when
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I look in my past eye, in my past life, that I have failed miserably not having this kind of wisdom.
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And can I say this? In every situation that you and I encounter, we need this wisdom.
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This is the wisdom that God gives us instruction and to receive, and to how to work it in our lives by the
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Holy Spirit and by His grace. Now, again, there are seven characteristics here.
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But that doesn't include the purity of it. The purity is the overall importance in which all these other seven characteristics, and I really believe that there is no mistake about that number.
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Seven is a number of completion. But it's all anchored in purity.
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And you will see this in Scripture. Well, I'm just going to touch on these. But first let me just say, what does it mean by purity?
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First and foremost, there is a priority and an order that God gives.
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And this purity is the word that carries the idea of being absolutely free from contamination.
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I want you to think of that for a minute. Absolutely free from contamination and absolutely free from any defilement and was used in the ancient
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Greek times of a cleansing ceremony whereby a worshiper was made pure and worthy enough to approach the gods.
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I want you to think for a second. Even the pagans realized that the deities in which they worship, which was false, but they even had that in mind that they should only be approached, these deities, with a pure heart.
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There's something within man that knows he's impure, he's unclean, he's defiled.
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And even the pagans recognized that. Now the writer of Hebrews reminds us that without such purity or sanctification,
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I can say, that means being set apart or cleansed. It has a meaning there that's double.
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But no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12, 14, one of my favorite verses.
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One of the verses I memorized when I was first converted to Christ. Follow peace with all men and holiness.
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And holiness without which no one will see the
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Lord. That comes right down to it. That's our life of sanctification.
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And that's what we will work on by God's grace and help until we're glorified with the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Now this refers to spiritual integrity. This word refers to spiritual integrity and moral sincerity.
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The Greek word is heginos. And it comes from the same root that is hegios.
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Heginos, hegios, which is usually translated holy. Now I remember
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A .W. Tozer talking about this, about holiness. How do you define holiness? Holy.
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And he said you look it up and basically says set apart, clean, and white, and pure.
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Beyond that he says I cannot tell you anything else what it is. And if you think about God, Scripture says even the stars is not pure in His sight.
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And how can people say He's the man upstairs? When I hear people say that,
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I cringe. God is not a man that He should lie. He is the holy
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God. And everyone that met Him in these Scriptures and the testimony, they fell to their faces.
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And some fell like a dead man when they met God. You know it's not a stretch here of the imagination or stretch of the word therefore to say that pure wisdom is holy wisdom.
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Pure wisdom is holy wisdom. And this is the wisdom we really need to live in this life as a
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Christian. I desperately need it. Lord give us this wisdom. And you know as we looked at wisdom, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.
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It's the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of it. That's just the starting point.
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The originating point. Coming from above, coming from above. That's the key right here is from above.
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And that's what James is talking about. The wisdom that is from above is first pure.
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It's from God. It's from a holy God. And it could not be otherwise, right?
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The sixth beatitude that Jesus taught on in Matthew 5 .8. Blessed are the pure in heart.
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For they shall see God. There's no other way to see God but to be pure in heart.
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We must be pure in heart. David, King David. I know Brother Michael loves to study about King David.
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I thought about you when I put this down. I said Michael would love this. King David sought purity of heart.
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Read Psalm 51. The prayer repentance. He cries out.
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And in verse 7 he says, Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
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Listen to his heart's cry. Purify me. Doesn't the scripture say that God will purify the sons of Levi?
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And Levi, that tribe, was a type of God's sons and daughters.
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Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
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You see, it's hard to believe we can think of a snow right now with this heat. But you know, when you think about snow, there's a whiteness, there's a blindness to it.
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It's so white, it literally glows. And David says whiter than snow.
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One scripture says white as snow. David says whiter than snow. Can you get much whiter than that?
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That's what the blood of Jesus can do. Wash me. Wash me. And we are washed.
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We are cleansed. We are sanctified by the Spirit of our God. And I shall be whiter than snow.
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And then he goes on to say in verse 10, Create in me. In me.
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Not my brother, not my sister. It's me, O Lord, that stands in the need of prayer. Create in me a clean, pure heart.
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O God, he cries out, O God, renew a steadfast spirit within me.
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That's the problem with people. It's not the society. That's what psychology says.
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It's your culture. It's your environment. No, sir. No, sir.
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No, sir. No, sir. It is within me. It is within man. It's the corruption that's within.
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The defilement within. That causes the world to be defiled.
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People say, yeah, but it's the environment. And they were influenced. There is an influencing of the environment, but the reason they're influenced is because of the corruption that's within them.
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The Apostle John assures us that everyone who has this hope about purity fix on him,
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Jesus Christ, what does he say? Purifies himself just as he is pure.
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That is one of the strongest scriptures I know of. And if you read it, verse
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John 3, that's verse John 3, 3. If you read verse 2 before that, he says,
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Beloved, now we are the children of God. He's speaking of the children of God. And it has not appeared yet what we will be, but we know, we know,
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God's people know that when he appears, Jesus Christ, we will be like him.
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We will be like him. Why? Because we will see him as he is.
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And all of his glory and all of his power, we will fall down at our face and as Brother Ben and Brother Keith and Brother Michael and Zach and all of us and all the rest of you sisters, we will be paralyzed at his feet, casting our crowns before him.
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But this wisdom is from above. First, it's pure. And then, notice what he says,
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Then, then. The word then is the basis for taking pure.
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You cannot overlook that word then. It's to be the motive for godly wisdom, the purity, rather than the characteristic of James proceeds to give really a list of seven, again seven, and building the foundation upon purity.
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Then he says, this wisdom is first of all, peaceable.
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Peaceable. Again, James reflects on the Beatitudes. Where do you think
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James got all this? He listened to the Master on the Sermon on the
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Mount. He was given the Beatitudes, the greatest sermon ever preached.
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The greatest sermon ever preached. I would love to have been there just to hear
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Jesus preach. It's a masterful sermon. And to hear him pray.
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It's beyond me. But James is reflecting upon the Beatitudes, and here on this particular being peaceable,
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James speaks of, how does that fit in? Matthew 5, 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
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It's not talking about a compromiser. He didn't say blessed are the compromisers. He said blessed are the peacemakers.
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What does this mean? It means to be truly wise, means don't perpetrate conflict.
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They do not create conflict. Sin creates the conflict, and people that's abiding and practicing in sin, but the peacemaker does not perpetrate conflict by their selfish ambition, but produce peace by their humility.
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This adjective occurs in the New Testament only here, and in Hebrews 12, 11.
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In Hebrews 12, 11 speaks, it describes the peaceable fruit of righteousness that follows upon divine chastening.
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That's interesting, isn't it? The peaceable fruit of righteousness that follows upon divine chastening.
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When we're disciplined of the Lord, when He takes you to the outhouse and gives you a good old -fashioned spanking by disobeying
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His word, there's something that God's discipline produces.
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Peaceable fruit of righteousness. It's peaceable. As earthly, unspiritual, devilish wisdom causes disorder and divisions in churches, so divinely bestowed wisdom from above makes us for unity in truth.
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Where this prevails, contentions cannot thrive. And unity in truth will reign.
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Well, next, what is He saying? First, you've got the purity, which is the foundation.
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That's the origins of all the characteristics here. And then He says it's peaceable.
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Then second, He says, godly wisdom is gentle. It's gentle. It's not only peaceable, it's gentle.
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Gentleness. This word can be difficult to translate, but most nearly means a character, trait of sweet reasonableness.
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Think of that, sweet reasonableness. It's reasonable, but it's sweet.
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It comes from the ideas of equitable,
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Equitable, seemly, fitting, fair. It's moderate.
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It's forbearing. It's forbearing. It's courteous. And it's considerate.
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If I read, I just read those off, and that just pricks me to the heart. Lord, there's been so many times
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I haven't been equitable. I haven't been fitting and fair and moderate and forbearing and courteous.
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Considerate. Considerate. A gentle person is humbly patient. Humbly patient.
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What does that mean? It means He submits to dishonor. Not only to honor, but dishonor.
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He submits to mistreatment when He's mistreated. He submits to persecution.
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Now, where did He get that from? Where did I get that from, Pastor? Well, Jesus said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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And on down, Jesus talks about a special blessing is given to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
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Great will be your reward in heaven. So what Jesus is saying, when you're persecuted here for His name's sake, for righteousness' sake, know that your reward is great.
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In other words, set your mind on things above. That's what He's saying. Gentle.
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Gentle. Those who are genuinely gentle.
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That means meek. You could put meekness and gentleness right hand in hand. Know that the
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Lord's bondservant in 2 Timothy 2 .24 must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all.
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Not to some. To all. Isn't it amazing how Scripture just sets that down?
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Not a select group over here. Not to be partial, but to all. That's convicting.
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Be kind to all. Able to teach. Patient when wronged. If you can't say amen, say oh me.
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Oh me. Patient when wronged. Humbly.
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And as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .25, the next verse, and with gentleness, listen to this, gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.
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That's how we are to correct. In gentleness. And then he says, if perhaps
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God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.
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See how God uses the fruit of the Spirit? Gentleness. Even in correcting.
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Third, Godly wisdom is reasonable. It's reasonable. That's the next one.
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What does reasonable mean? What does it mean? It means willing to yield without rancor or disputing.
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Are you willing to yield without disputing? Reasonable means being teachable.
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It means to be compliant and not stubborn. It was used of a man who willingly submitted to military discipline.
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And to y 'all that's been in the military, I believe Ben has and Brother Michael has.
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I miss anybody. But to military discipline, and you know about it.
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You other men know about this. To military discipline, accepting and complying with whatever was demanded of him of a person who faithfully observes legal and moral standards.
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He submits to it. No matter how hard it is. How difficult it is.
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He submits to it willingly. This quality reflects the first beatitude of our
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Lord. Matthew 5 .3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.
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See where James has taken all this? He's taken every bit of this as a reflection or commentary on what the
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Lord Jesus Christ taught on the Sermon on the Mount. The fourth characteristic of godly wisdom is full of mercy.
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He didn't say some mercy. He could have just said mercy, but he said full of mercy.
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It's full. Again, very clearly corresponding to the beatitude. Matthew 5 .7
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Everything James is reflecting is the beatitude. But blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
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The teachings of Jesus is all over these pages. A believer who is full of mercy evidences his saving faith and transformed life not only by forgiving those who have wronged him, but by reaching out to them to help them in whatever ways are needed.
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Such was the good Samaritan in Luke 10. He has a genuinely loving concern and a compassion for anyone he encounters who is suffering or who needs any kind of support or assistance.
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He has a special concern for fellow believers. First of the household of God for his brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
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The Apostle John reflects on this. Turn with me very quickly to 1 John. Read right out of the page of Scripture.
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See, John was there on the Sermon on the Mount. So was James and so was Peter. And if you read these men, these great apostles, what they teach, it all has its origins in Jesus Christ.
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You see, John 3. Notice this in John 3. Look at the beginning at verse 16.
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John 3. Verse 16. This is some really convicting words here because we all fall short of it.
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We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.
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Notice what he says. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's the kind of love that God's calling for.
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He's just not saying this off the cuff. He's talking about laying down your life.
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Think of that. Then he says in verse 17, But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
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Wow. Verse 18. Little children.
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He's speaking little children. Let us not love with word or with tongue. Now James has just talked about the same thing.
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Then he goes on, But in deed and truth. It's not real until it's deed and truth.
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Amen. That's where it's real. And then he says this in verse 19,
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And we will know by this, by this, that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before Him.
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That's a good verse. And whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
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Hallelujah. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
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And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
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Notice obedience. Notice keeping His commandments. It's one thing to observe it, but it's another thing to obey it.
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We are to observe it, but we are to obey it. I tell you, you cannot separate loving
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Jesus from obedience. Because loving
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Jesus is obedience. And this is where he gets this from Jesus.
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Now if you jump over to chapter 4, look at chapter 4. He speaks about this again. Look at verse 7. This is talking about knowing
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God through love. That's how we know God. It's God's nature to love.
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And can I say this as a footnote? The world out there, beloved, as you well know, has a warped concept of love.
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Matter of fact, it has infiltrated the churches today. And this is what they're hearing even from the pulpits.
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When these ministers of a false gospel, and I'll say that, is preaching about love, they're not preaching about the holy love of God.
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We must know what love is. When it's talking about God is love,
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God is holy. And everything about God and all of His attributes is holy.
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Keep in mind, right now, as we are listening to the Word of God and we're worshipping
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God and we're praising God, right now in heaven, constantly, does not cease, holy, holy, holy.
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That will go on throughout all eternity. God is absolutely holy, but yet, the
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God that is being preached in most churches, sadly to say, is another God.
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It's a God of their own making. It is a God of their own image because you never hear anything about God's wrath.
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That's mean. And they'll tell you, my God's not like that. Well, excuse me, you open this
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Bible, God hates sin with a vengeance.
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He hated it so much, and I heard a minister say this, before it even came to the garden, it was in heaven in the heart of an archangel.
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Yeah, that's right. And sin turned an archangel into a devil.
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That's where it really began. And then it went to the garden and it was waiting at him.
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And it's a serpent. A lot of people ask, well, why did God allow it to happen? Listen, God's got a great plan.
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Read your Bible. Get the big picture.
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I told a person the other day, read your Bible every day and read it from Genesis to Revelation. Yeah, but I've been listening on YouTube about these interpretations.
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I said, stop it. I said, that's your problem. And then he started telling me about this world that was infiltrated and inhabited by demons and all this theory.
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I know what he's talking about. I've heard it before. It's the gap theory. And it's talking about a world. And it was a misinterpretation.
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I said, get away from it. Turn off YouTube. And amen.
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Let the Holy Spirit of God, if He has the Holy Spirit of God, get on your face. And I said, read your
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Bible and stop listening to people. Yes, there's a need for teachers, but you better make sure
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His interpretation... I said, be a good Berean and search the Scriptures whether those things are so. People are so ignorant today and there should be no excuse for it.
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But if you notice right here, we know God through love. In verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
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And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That's powerful.
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The one who does not love does not know God and for God is love. For by this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent
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His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And in this is love.
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Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
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His Son to be a propitiation for our sins, basically a sacrifice. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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What are you saying? If the Spirit of God dwells in you, basically that Spirit of God is love.
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And you're not only going to love God, you're going to love others. That's how you know it. That's how it's demonstrated.
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And then why? Verse 12, No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.
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And by this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit.
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And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the
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Savior of the world. I don't know if you noticed, did you notice right in there, God, three in one, right there.
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He spoke about the Father, He spoke about the Son, and He spoke about the Holy Spirit.
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How can anybody deny the Trinity? They're in trouble if they do because God is one
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God in three persons. Well, if you go on, He speaks about His full of compassion.
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The next thing He says, the fifth is, Godly wisdom is full of good fruits. Now this refers to good work, good deed.
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In other words, He demonstrates His faith, His genuine faith by authentic, real good works.
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It's demonstrated in that and He spoke about that in James 2. Verses 14 through 20.
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So a true believer is known for doing good. He's not saved by good works.
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We get that. But the good works follow. Jesus talked about this.
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He talked about they shall know you by your works, what kind of works you have, what kind of fruit you produce.
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And then He talked about the tree. The tree is going to be bad or it's going to be good. It's not going to be in between. It's going to be bad or good.
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So the true believer is known for doing good and exemplifying the fruit of the Spirit. In all this,
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He reflects His hunger and thirst for God and for truth and for righteousness. Sixth, the next is
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He speaks, Godly wisdom is unwavering. It's unwavering. Now, I'd love to camp out right here and preach on this.
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I'm going to do my best to pull it in as quick as I can, but there's a lot here.
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It's not only used here in the New Testament. It literally means to be parted or divided, hence without uncertainty, indecision, inconsistency, a doubtfulness.
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The word was therefore sometimes used to indicate impartiality, treating everyone equally without favoritism, regardless of their status, regardless of their skin color, regardless of where they come from.
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I tell people all the time, I say, you see all these nationalities, you see all these skin colors. I say, folks, look at it.
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We're all creatures of the dirt. Some dirt's darker than others and some's lighter than others, but you cut me, you bleed blood red.
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And that blood in you is life. God is really one blood.
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That's basically what Scripture says. So the word was used in that sense.
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It's important spiritual quality that comes, that James, I'm sorry, has already emphasized in chapter 2.
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Well, the Sabbath one is a strong one. Godly wisdom is without hypocrisy.
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Now, I don't know about you, that one hits me harder than any of them because all of this has some kind of hypocrisy in us.
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Now, we may not practice hypocrisy. We need to put hypocrisy to death, but somewhere down the line, we have been hypocritical.
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This word hypocrite, hypocrisy, comes from the word of the Greeks, a stage actor, a theatrical stage actor with a mask.
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And Jesus used it in that way when He spoke to the Pharisees and the scribes, and He called them hypocrites.
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He didn't back off. Yeah, but Jesus wasn't loving, was He? He was mean.
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Oh, see, read Jesus. He gave us more of a revelation about hell than anybody else.
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He gave us the revelation of the wrath of God, a hatred towards sin. And by the way,
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He used the word hypocrite many times. Let's look at it. Hypocrisy is one of the deadliest sins
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Jesus condemned most, most, beloved. I want you to think of this. It's the one sin that Jesus bore it in on, the cross hairs, and hated it more.
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Four times just in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of this. Go with me to Matthew chapter 6.
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Let's look at it. Jesus, can
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I say this without reservation, that Jesus was the most powerful preacher that ever lived.
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No one preached like Jesus. John the Baptist was a powerful preacher, but even
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Jesus surpassed him. Of course, He's the master. John the
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Baptist was just the forerunner. But next to Jesus, I would say John the
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Baptist, no doubt. Because Jesus said so. But think of this,
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Matthew 6 -2. Notice in 6 -2. So, and then He says, So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you.
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In other words, don't toot your horn. As the hypocrites do. There's the word right there.
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Hypocrites do. They do it in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be honored by men.
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What does He say about that? He said, Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. They got it.
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And then He says this, and this is very strong. But when you, He's speaking to the people of God now, the children of God.
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When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Your closest companion.
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So that your giving will be in secret. Why? And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
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Wow. That's strong. Now, He goes on. Notice verse 5.
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When you pray, now He's talking about charitable deeds there. Now He's talking about prayer. When you pray, now
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He gets down to the motives of things, doesn't He? That's what He's doing. He's getting down to your motive. Why are you giving?
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Why are you praying? Are you doing it for outward show? Or are you doing it because you really love
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God? When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, like the play actors, the theatrical actors.
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They love, oh, isn't that interesting? They love it. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.
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He says it again. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
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But you, isn't it amazing? It only gives the negative, it gives the positive.
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He says, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, your closet. Close your door.
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Pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
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Twice. On charitable deeds, on prayer. Jesus talks about it.
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He repeatedly scathed the scribes and the Pharisees and the hypocrites, the Jewish leaders of His day, for their gross hypocrisy and their insincerity.
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And He warned His disciples in Luke 12 -1, Beware of the leaven. What's leaven?
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Something that grows. It doesn't stop growing. It spreads. The leaven of the
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Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy.
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When a group of the Pharisees in Matthew 22 -18, you can read this. At that moment, they conspired to trick
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Jesus into criticizing, to paying taxes to Caesar. You remember this story. They tried to set
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Him up and trick Him. Jesus perceived. Listen to this.
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Here is wisdom in the flesh. He perceived their malice and said,
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Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? A short while later, in Matthew 23 -27 -28,
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He told a similar group, a group of them. And then He says this, Woe to you. Now He is speaking as a prophet.
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He is not giving a blessing as He did on the Sermon on the Mount. He is giving a woe.
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Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful.
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What was it Jesus' graphic about His illustration? But inside, you ever dig up somebody from a tomb?
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That is what He is talking about. But on the inside, they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
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It is unclean. It stinks. There is decay. There is worms.
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There is rottenness. Actually, if we did something like that, it would make us sick and vomit.
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That is what He is talking about. And He says, So you, too outwardly, and He speaks to the theologians of His day, so -called theologians, to you, outwardly you appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
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Strongest preacher they ever preached. He ended the parable on the wise and the evil servant by these sobering words in Matthew 24, 50 -51.
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The master of the evil slave in which he speaks of will come on a day when he does not expect
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Him and in an hour which he does not know, and He will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites.
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Guess where the hypocrites are going? That's right. They are heading to hell.
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And actually Jesus says, In that place, in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Don't you tell me that hell is not a place of torment. That the soul just evaporates and is annihilated.
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Don't believe that. Jesus said it's a literal place of punishment. Sobering, sobering words, folks.
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I'm telling you. All of these godly virtues here we just talked about with divine wisdom from above as taught in Scripture.
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Now, I've got to close this up. How does all this apply to us?
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If I don't give an application of how this applies to us, just hearing the instruction would not suffice.
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We've got to have application. So how do we apply such high and holy virtues of wisdom, divine wisdom from above into our everyday living?
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I don't know about you, but we need this. Can I tell you this?
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That the virtues are only produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.
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There's none other. It's produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
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And all this is taught beginning with our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me say this.
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Even before Jesus, Ezekiel and Jeremiah spoke of it too. The prophets. And Jesus has pretty much just clarified what the prophets said.
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You can read it in Ezekiel 36 about the new birth. Go with me to John chapter 3.
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You're well familiar with this. Now, this is foundational and this is so important.
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What is he doing? He's speaking to a Pharisee. He speaks to a very religious man,
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Nicodemus. He comes to him at night. He's a ruler of the Jews. He comes to Jesus by night.
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And he says, Rabbi, we know, in verse 2, we know that you have come from God as a teacher.
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Now, he's more than a teacher. And he learns this. Jesus corrects him.
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And then he says this, For no one could do these signs, these miracles, that you do unless God is with them.
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So he's kind of flattering Jesus here. And Jesus doesn't say stop flattering me.
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Jesus gives the point and he answers him to him and he says, truly, truly.
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Now, when Jesus says that, it's a very important statement. What he's doing in the
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King James, it says, verily, verily. I heard this from R .C. Sproul. Jesus gives us two amens before when the truth is given.
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Isn't that great? We say amen after the truth is given. Jesus is saying, amen, amen.
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I say to you. Now, I'm telling you what, this is the truth speaking. Amen. We say amen because truth is spoken.
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So be it. Jesus is saying, so be it, so be it. Amen, amen. I say to you.
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And notice, he didn't say, oh, thank you very much, Nick. Thank you for telling me about these miracles.
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He did perform the miracles. But no, he didn't say that. He says, amen, amen. I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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And then he goes on. Nicodemus said to him, oh now, Nicodemus, he's thinking natural, isn't he?
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How can a man be born when he's old? He doesn't get it. He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?
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Jesus answered, truly, truly. There it is again. Amen, amen. I say to you.
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To you, Nick. Unless one is born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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First he says, see it. Now enter. You can't enter into it unless you see it first.
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The Spirit of God has to reveal this. And it is the Spirit of God. And how do we know this?
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Verse 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
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Do not be amazed or do not marvel or don't be surprised that I said to you, you must be born again.
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This needs to be preached, folks. Everywhere in churches. Preachers need to preach it just right out of this book like it is.
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And then Jesus gives an illustration of nature. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, so you can't see it.
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But you do not know where it comes from or where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the
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Spirit. There's the effects of it. The effects of the
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Spirit of God. Now, you can read this story in your devotional time more and more, but this is what
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I want to say. This is foundational because in order to have spiritual, godly wisdom from above, you must be born from above.
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So you're not going to get spiritual wisdom from above unless you're born from above.
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Now, Paul the apostle picks this truth up in Romans 8. Turn with me to Romans 8.
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You know, you think of it. Every time, I heard MacArthur say this and he is so right about this.
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Every time that you read the apostles, everything that they're saying is just commentary on what
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Jesus taught. Amen. It is. See, that's why we need to know and study the gospel because it is foundation.
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Jesus is the head cornerstone. Jesus is the foundation. Amen. He is the gospel.
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Amen. But see, and then you got the apostles. They took the baton.
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They took the torch to take this truth to the church. To the believers. So everything...
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Notice what Paul says in Romans 8. Pretty much the word of God proves that.
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He starts by verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of the sin of death.
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For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending
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His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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Notice how many times he talks about the spirit and the flesh. The spirit and the flesh. Notice this. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.
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But those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. You notice what
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Jesus just said. When you're born of the spirit, you of the spirit. And He was telling
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Nicodemus, you born of the flesh? It's flesh. You'd think people would get that.
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But they're not going to get it unless the spirit of God opens their eyes. And then
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He says this, for the mind set on the flesh is death. But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
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Because, now Paul gives us the reason why. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.
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For it does not subject itself to the law of God. For it is not even able to do so.
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It cannot do it. And all those who are in the flesh cannot please
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God. And then He goes on. However, you're not in the flesh. He's speaking to believers.
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But in the spirit. What He's saying is, you've been born of the spirit of God. You understand these things of God because the spirit of God dwells in you.
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Why? Jesus said the spirit of God is the spirit of truth. He will lead and teach you and guide you into all truth.
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Okay, but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, notice what He says. He does not belong to Him.
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Is that black and white? Yeah, but He's a carnal Christian. Hold on, hold on.
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Yeah, amen. Yeah, but in other words, He could be over here.
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Jesus says, No one can serve two masters. You will hate the one or love the other.
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Period. So if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
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And notice this wonderful verse here. But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
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He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life, quicken your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you.
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Isn't that powerful? Well, what I'm saying here is what
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Jesus is saying. You must be born from above. You must have the Holy Spirit. And only the
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Spirit of God can give His wisdom. It's holy wisdom. So this whole chapter in chapter 8 gives us the contrast of the
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Spirit of God and His flesh. Now one more thing. I want to close with this. Go with me to Romans in shorthand,
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Galatians chapter 5. My time is clocked. I'm telling you, I wish
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I could put a stop to this thing. But God's got the clock. He's got it going, don't He?
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So anyway, only God stops the clock. Amen? Galatians.
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Here it is. He tells us how to apply all this.
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Galatians chapter 5. Notice I started with Jesus, went to Romans, now
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Galatians, being filled with the Spirit. Not only be filled with the
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Spirit, you need to walk in the Spirit. That means our walking, our conduct, the way we conduct ourselves.
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And notice what He says in verse 16. Let's look at it. In chapter 5.
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But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the
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Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. He's saying it again. Same thing Jesus said. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
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Verse 16. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Aren't you glad you're not under the law?
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Amen. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. Now He gives the deeds of the flesh, and He gives a list.
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Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing.
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Oh my goodness. Aren't you convicted? And these, these things like these, which
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I forewarn you, notice what He says. Just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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They will not inherit the kingdom of God. They're not going to be in heaven, folks. But, here it is.
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This is what comes, this is the evidence. This is the way we conduct ourselves.
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But the fruit, notice He didn't say fruits, it's one fruit.
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And He does not, by accident, say love as the first, on purpose, by accident, saying love is the first.
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Love is definitely the core, like purity is the beginning of all those other virtues, so is love the beginning.
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You see what I'm saying? We just talked about all that. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.
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Didn't James speak about that? Yes. Self -control. Old King James says temperance, but that's what it means.
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Self -control. Against such there is no law. And don't you love verse 24?
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Now those who belong to Christ Jesus, they have what?
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Crucified the flesh. That's a strong, strong language.
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We put it to death with its passions and desires.
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There's sanctification right there. So if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the
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Spirit. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.
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Amen. Don't you love the sound of a baby? Amen. See, that baby cries out for one thing.
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That baby's hungry. That's the kind of desire we ought to have, folks.
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Cry out for the Word of God. Amen. Amen. Like a newborn baby.
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Amen. Like a newborn baby. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.
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Our Father, our Lord, and our God, oh, to be like Jesus.
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That is our cry. Oh, to be like Jesus, to be in His likeness.
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Oh, to be like Thee. Like the old hymn says, Blessed Redeemer, this is my constant longing, this is my prayer.
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Gladly I'll forfeit all earth's treasures, Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
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Oh, to be like Thee, full of compassion, loving, tender, and kind, helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, seeking the wonder and sinner to find.
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Oh, to be like Thee, lowly in spirit, holy and harmless, patient and brave, meekly enduring, cruel reproaches, willing to suffer others to save.
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Oh, to be like Thee, Lord, I'm coming, now to receive that anointing divine.
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Oh, that I am and have I am bringing. Lord, from this moment, all shall be
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Thine. Oh, to be like Thee, while I am pleading, pour out
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Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love, make me a temple, meet for Thy dwelling, fit me for life in heaven above.
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Oh, to be like Thee. Oh, to be like Thee. Blessed Redeemer, pure is
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Thy heart, come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness, stamp
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Thy own image deep on my heart. Stamp Thy own image deep on my heart.