WWUTT 282 Wisdom from Above?

Jesus said you are the light of the world if you have a lamp you set it on a stand in the middle of the house so it gives light to the whole house and so in the same way let your light shine before others so they see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Here's your teacher Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky and greetings everybody we are in James chapter 3 today and we'll finish up the chapter today.

If you would open your Bible to James chapter 3 beginning in verse 13 and we'll read through to the end of the chapter

James says who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast and be false to the truth this is not the wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly unspiritual demonic for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder and every vile practice but the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle open to reason full of mercy and good fruits impartial and sincere and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace this is kind of James's section that he offers it's like his version of the fruit of the spirit versus the works of the flesh that Paul presents to the

Galatians in Galatians chapter 5 James is kind of doing the same thing here in James chapter 3 now when we we look at verse 13 where he says who is wise and understanding among you he's asking for the person whose tongue has been tamed by the

Lord to step up and show his good conduct as a witness to other believers as a witness to to everybody not just believers but unbelievers as well because remember what we've just read in the first 12 verses of this chapter is

James talking about how the tongue cannot be tamed that it is a restless evil full of deadly poison that mankind has tamed every other kind of creature on earth but no one can tame the tongue and so when he says here in verse 13 who is the wise and understanding person because that is a person who has had their tongue tamed by God their wisdom has come from above it has come from the

Lord and so that is the person that needs to step forward and show their good works that are being carried out by God in their lives they have submitted their whole selves to the

Lord as we talked about yesterday in Romans 12 1 where Paul writes to submit yourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the

Lord and this is your spiritual act of worship this is the same as when Christ said the greatest command is to love the

Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength the person that has submitted themselves fully unto the

Lord that way has wisdom and understanding that comes from God so his could his good conduct should be shown to all who are around him in meekness and in wisdom and James is coming here to the teachings of Christ Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16 you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven when the apostle

Paul goes through the the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6 he mentions the breastplate of righteousness it is that it is the righteousness that we wear that is seen by other people not that we boast in the things that we do but it's like others see the team that we play for like it's like wearing a jersey they know that we belong to the

Lord and we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom when they see the works that we do are the works that Christ did and so we show our works to others so that they can see that the works that we are doing are the works of Christ it bears witness to the

God that we worship and so this is something that James is calling forth from those brothers who have received wisdom and understanding from God who is the wise and understanding among you by his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom meekness is the antithesis to prideful boasting so a person is not doing their works to be noticed by all they're doing their works to benefit others and to give glory to God that is the meek person as I've said before anytime we have talked about meekness meekness is not weakness just because they sound the same doesn't mean the words mean the same however the

Greeks did consider meekness to be a a very unadmirable trait you didn't aspire to be a meek person

Greeks boasted in their knowledge that they had or their speaking abilities or all of these other kinds of things meekness was weakness in the eyes of the

Greeks but that's not the way that we should understand meekness Jesus instead took this virtue this trait which was considered to be uh the least of the virtues and he made it one of the greatest

Christian virtues that a believer can have in Matthew chapter 5 once again coming back to that chapter as he gave the uh the beatitudes at the start of the sermon on the mount he said blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth blessed are those who put the needs of others ahead of themselves who use the things that God has given to them to benefit others first they will receive the whole earth and that's to be taken literally that's not some kind of metaphor those who are meek who are humble and contrite in spirit who put the needs of others ahead of their own who give glory to God in all that they do they are not out to benefit themselves they are not out to store up things on this earth including including fame and glory but giving glory to God they will inherit the whole earth they're not out to gain worldly acclaim but they will get the earth and that will be the earth that we receive uh as citizens of the kingdom of God when we return back here in glory and God restores all things through the person and work of Christ redeeming even creation itself we who are fellow heirs with Christ of the kingdom of God receive the whole earth so blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth it's a it's an essential

Christian virtue as Charles Spurgeon has said about the beatitudes the beatitudes do not describe how to be saved they describe the saved those who are in Christ should be uh representing or or should be displaying the traits that are shown there in the beatitudes blessed are the meek blessed are the peacemakers blessed are they who mourn these are the saved that are that are being described here in the beatitudes and so this is one of the traits that we must have and James comes to this as well who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom not out to gain anything for himself but to build up his brothers so that others might hear the gospel and to give glory to God in the wisdom of God that he does these things verse 14 but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts again that's the opposite of meekness that's the opposite of having wisdom that comes from above do not boast and be false to the truth you claim that you love

God and you claim to be a worshiper of Christ and yet you have bitter jealousy in your hearts toward another person who has a gift that you think that you should have or they have a calling to ministry that you think that you can do better how can you say that you are a follower of Christ if you have these kinds of desires in your heart a bitter jealousy for somebody else and a selfish ambition for yourself to accomplish things for yourself you know i remember when i was much younger in ministry and i'm looking at guys who are becoming pastors and ascending to uh conference speaking positions and stuff like that i'm looking at those guys going i could do that job better than them why don't they ask me to come be a speaker why don't they ask me to come be a pastor and i'm sure glad that uh the lord uh so graciously kept me from ascending into those positions because it would have been very easy to expose me as being a fraud of not knowing what it was that i needed to know in order to be in those particular positions and could have therefore probably destroyed my ministry to a point where it would have been unrecoverable and so i've i've had those moments of pride in my life when in my flesh i am i'm thinking that i could do a job better than somebody else but there is a time and a place that the lord has people appointed to the positions that he has given to them as we've read previously in romans 12 3 for by the grace given to me i say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that god has assigned the faith that you have the position that you have been given has all been assigned to you by god so be grateful to him for what it is that you have and be patient knowing that the lord is producing in you something now that he is going to you he is going to use at a later time specifically for you not somebody else's position but the calling to ministry that god has for you in the way that you will reach out to people with the gospel of jesus christ no matter where you are and what it is that you're doing there is a place for you to share the gospel and if you are responsible with little he will make you responsible with much more so we need to approach these opportunities that we've been given with meekness if we have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts we are uh we are maligning the gospel we are being false to the truth that seems like a contradiction but that's kind of the point that's the point that james is making if you are acting with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition then you're a walking contradiction to what the the christian behavior is supposed to be before the believers and also those who are unbelievers verse 15 this is not the wisdom that comes down from above it's earthly it is unspiritual it is demonic ouch as vody bachem has said if you can't say amen you ought to say ouch and this is definitely one of those ouch moments you know it doesn't matter how well you can deliver the gospel and people hear it and believe it and come to know christ if in your heart you are doing these things with selfish ambition you are doing something demonic doesn't matter how great your intentions are you think of peter in matthew chapter 16 jesus tells his disciples exactly what's going to happen he's going to go to the cross he's going to die but don't worry three days later i'm coming back but the disciples don't even hear that part it doesn't even register with them that jesus just said to them after i die i'm coming back again from the grave and peter stands up and he goes lord i'm never gonna let this happen to you i'm never gonna let you go to your death like this and what was jesus response get behind me satan for you are not thinking with the mind of god you are thinking with the mind of man so it doesn't matter that you have great intentions doesn't matter how much you think you can reach others for the gospel of christ if you have selfish intentions in your heart what you are doing is not of god it is demonic yeah i think also of mark driscoll a guy who had a a huge ministry mars hill church he was on the bestsellers list i mean however crooked it may have been that he managed to get on the the new york times bestseller list but anyway i mean he was nonetheless a guy that a name that people knew helped to found the axe 29 network of churches and all these other kinds of things and yet this was a guy that was clearly doing things for himself he was trying to build up his own fame and his own acclaim hence how he ended up on the new york times bestseller list he paid to get on that particular list it wasn't honest he did it by crooked means and so you have a guy that no doubt touch people with the gospel of christ but in hindsight we're able to see that the things that he did was to benefit himself and so now like even though he's kind of trying to make a comeback again everything that he does is always going to be suspicious people are always going to be looking at the stuff that he does and going i don't know is the guy on the level or is he just trying to selfishly do things in ministry the way that he was doing before and so this is the very point that james is making here if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts you will end up being false to the truth you will malign the truth and people will not believe what it is that you say but paul said to timothy in first timothy chapter 1 verse 5 the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make their confident assertions and so you see that the ambition that we should have when it comes to sharing the gospel should be out of love issuing from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith same thing that james is saying here james chapter 3 verse 13 by his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast and be false to the truth this is not the wisdom that comes down from above but it is earthly unspiritual demonic for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder and every vile practice where there is jealousy and selfish ambition there will be division in the body of christ there will not be unity it will always be dividing even if it appears to be unity if a person is continuing in their ministry with jealousy and selfish ambition eventually that division is going to rear its ugly head it is just going to happen it will always result in division but with but the wisdom from above is first pure same thing that paul was saying to timothy from a pure heart okay our our ambition is loving and our uh our our witness issues from a pure heart the wisdom from above is first pure then it is peaceable it is patient with one another it is gentle it is open to reason meaning that you are open to correction a person who is prideful is not going to be open to correction but a person who is gentle and peaceable understands that it is by the word of christ we are to encourage and admonish one another that person knows they are not perfect and they need guidance by others and so they are open to reason they also whenever they are disagreed with they don't just like lash out and that shows an insecurity that is in a person's heart whenever somebody disagrees with them or somebody asks them a question that they don't actually know the answer to and and what is being exposed is the lack of knowledge that they actually have but because they're so prideful they don't want to show somebody uh how much knowledge that they lack and so instead they'll lash out in anger all right because they can't answer the question i've seen this happen before as well so a person who has a a who has pure intentions who is peaceable and is gentle the gentleness of the spirit of god within their hearts they are open to reason they will be able to admit when they are wrong when they need help they will continue to study and grow in the knowledge of the word of god they're open to reason their their speech is seasoned with salt always gracious as paul talks about in colossians chapter four and so they know how to answer each person rightly they are full of mercy and good fruits they are patient with others because the lord has been patient with them they show mercy to others because they are filled with the mercy of god as we have received the mercy of god so we need to show it to one another good fruits you know ties in with the fruit of the spirit as i talked about earlier in galatians chapter five you will see that the the spirit of god that is what that is within them is producing it is producing good fruit it is impartial and it is sincere and this is a command that james had given earlier that we not show partiality james 2 -1 my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our lord jesus christ the lord of glory and so a person who has the spirit of god who has the wisdom and the understanding of god who is meek will be impartial and they will be sincere what it is that they say they mean it they have integrity they follow through they stand on the truth verse 18 and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace once again back to the beatitudes in matthew chapter 5 jesus said blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of god and what does it mean to be a peacemaker it is a person who takes the gospel of christ which brings peace uh paul talks about having fitted on our feet the shoes of the gospel of peace so the the gospel brings peace peace between god and man when a person hears the gospel they repent of their sins they they believe in christ as savior they have peace with god the wrath of god has been satisfied through the sacrifice of christ and his atoning sacrifices upon that person so a person that carries the gospel is a peacemaker because when a person hears the gospel and believes it peace has been made between god and man does it make sense do you understand what i'm saying so then james puts forward in verse 18 a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace who share the gospel and make peace between god and man because that person heard the gospel believed it and they now have peace with god and so this should be our effort to win souls for christ to give glory to god not to build things up for ourselves but so that others would hear the gospel and repent and believe that's where we're going to conclude and tomorrow we'll start in on chapter four let's wrap this up with prayer our great god we thank you so much for these wise words that have been given to us through your scriptures through your holy servants that have written these things down and have been gathered into this book that we know is the bible the word of god it gives us understanding so that we might have good conduct in the presence of god and our works would be seen by others giving uh giving testimony to the god that we worship let us not have any jealousy in our hearts let us not be pursuing these things out of selfish ambition keep us from boasting but let us rejoice in the truth rejoicing in god our savior give us the wisdom that comes from above that is pure that is peaceable and gentle help us be reasonable god let us be full of mercy be impartial and sincere we know the truth and when we say it we stand upon that truth the rock of christ jesus and let a harvest of righteousness be sown in peace by those who make peace with the gospel of peace we heard the gospel and repented of our sins and believed by the power of god and it's in christ jesus name we pray amen pastor gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues you can find a link to the blog through our website www .tt