And then we'll go through these verses together. James 3 verse 13. 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. Let's pray. God, as we come to your word this morning, we pray that you will speak to us, speak to your people. God, this morning, as a congregation, we are grieving with our brother Gary and the loss of his wife, Barbara. We pray for the family and for our church family as we grieve together, as we will also celebrate Barbara's life together. And we praise you for your grace in her life and how that was evident to so many, impacting so many others. And this morning, God, it's your intention to teach us from your word, so help us to pay attention. I pray that your Holy Spirit will speak to each one of us and apply these verses to our lives, that you'll convict us of earthly wisdom, that you will give us a passion, a desire to grow in your wisdom, in the wisdom from above. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, continuing in our study through James, we come to this passage here at the end of chapter 3, verses 13 through 18, where James contrasts wisdom from above with earthly wisdom. And you remember the previous section was about taming the tongue. This is what Pastor Gary preached on last Sunday. And in the concluding verses of that section In verses 9 through 12, we see that a double tongue is evidence of a divided heart. Look back with me again to those verses 9 through 12. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water." So you see, the fruit of our lives will demonstrate the condition of our hearts. And the fruit that comes, the words that come out of our mouths is very telling fruit. It's either bad fruit or good fruit. And it reveals what's going on in our hearts. You know, Jesus said, the tree is known by its fruit. And I think that's the point of those verses in James 3 verses 9 through 12. If it's a good tree, If you have a new heart, if you've been born again, then there will be good fruit from our lives, including from our mouths. The words that come out of our mouths will be evidence of that. Not that we won't ever struggle with sinful speech, but our speech will certainly be different than it was before we were believers. On the other hand, the unsanctified tongue is evidence of a divided heart. And the person who is consistently speaking in ungodly ways and is unrepentant of those sins, that may very well be evidence that that person is not yet a believer, not yet born again. And in our passage this morning, the reason I go back to a few of those verses is because I think it goes, this theme follows right through into what we're looking at today. We're going to see some further fruit, other kinds of fruit, both good and bad. And here the contrast is between wisdom that is from above and wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. James draws some very stark contrasts in this letter. If you've been here for the sermon series so far, you know this. If you've studied the letter of James, you know this. Thinking back to chapter one, James exhorts us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And he expounds on the differences between those who do the word and those who merely listen to the word. The doer will be blessed in his doing. The one who only hears deceives himself and his religion is worthless. So there's one stark contrast that James draws. Another in chapter two, remember the distinction between living faith and dead faith. And as we learned from that important passage, it's only living faith that is true saving faith. Quote unquote, faith by itself Faith that does not produce works, that is a dead faith and it's useless and it won't save anyone. In a passage we're going to come to later in chapter four, we're going to see the strongest rebuke in this letter where James contrasts friendship with the world versus friendship with God. He says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So we see these stark contrasts. There's these two paths that James continues to lay out before us. And in our passage this morning, the contrast is between two types of wisdom. And in many ways, it's the same distinction that is made in those other passages. Here in James 3, 13 through 18, he contrasts the wisdom from above versus what we might call the wisdom from below. It's heavenly, spiritual, godly wisdom versus earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom. True wisdom versus false wisdom. And what I want to do in this sermon is simply to point out the fruit of these two different types of wisdom. We'll look at the wisdom that comes from above and its fruit. And then we'll look at earthly wisdom and its fruit. And if you notice the structure of the passage, James begins in verse 13 by referring to wisdom and understanding. He doesn't call it wisdom from above there, but that is what he's referring to. And then he turns and contrasts that with earthly wisdom in verses 14 through 16. And then finally, in verses 17 and 18, he returns to speaking of godly wisdom, the same as what he started the passage with in verse 13. So we're going to follow that same structure. We're going to start in verse 13 by talking about wisdom from above and its fruit. Then we'll shift to earthly wisdom and its fruit in verses 14 through 16. And then we'll come back in verses 17 and 18 and look again at wisdom from above and its fruit. So look at verse 13. James starts with this question, who is wise and understanding among you? I don't think he's looking for a show of hands here. Instead, he wants to provoke some introspection, right? That's what he's wanting to do here with this rhetorical question. He wants to get us thinking. about ourselves, looking into our own hearts. What do you see there in your own heart? Are you wise and understanding? Do you think you're wise and understanding? Do you claim to be wise? And then he tells us what wisdom is and how it's manifested. So a couple things here in verse 13. Number one, good conduct. good conduct. He says, first of all, if you think you're wise, then by your good conduct, show your works. This is the evidence of true wisdom. The wisdom from above will show itself in good conduct. It will show itself in works. And notice what he doesn't say here. He doesn't say what we might expect him to say if we have a skewed understanding of wisdom, if we think wisdom is just kind of in your head. Notice that he doesn't say, by his keen intellect, let him articulate the depth of his theological understanding. He doesn't say that, does he? That's not what it's about. And my point is not to minimize the importance of theological understanding at all. But what we do need to understand here, when the Bible talks about wisdom, when James here, the inspired word of God, is talking about wisdom, it's not Head knowledge, it's not theological understanding of things. Wisdom, biblical wisdom, godly wisdom, the wisdom from above, it begins with a fear of the Lord. That's what Proverbs teaches us. Begins with a fear of the Lord. And as James is telling us here, the wisdom will manifest itself in right living. It's not just knowing the right things in your head, but it's living that out. It's not just knowing about the Lord, not just knowing about the Bible. It's fearing the Lord and loving the Lord, delighting in the Lord and rejoicing in His Word. And this kind of wisdom and understanding will show itself. It will produce good conduct. It will produce good works. Let him show his works. is what the verse says, and that's the same word that James used in chapter two, verse 18, when he challenged the person without works, when he said, show me your faith apart from your works. Show me. That's so much of what the book of James is about, right? Show me. Your life is gonna be different as a believer. Let it be seen. Let your faith be seen. So you can't just say you have faith and think that means something. And in the same way, you can't raise your hand when asked who is wise in understanding. Oh, that's me. I'm wise in understanding. You can't just say it and think there's any substance to that claim if it's not changing the way you live, the decisions you make, the attitudes you have. True wisdom, like true faith, will be shown in good conduct. It will be demonstrated in the works that it produces. The second thing that we learn about wisdom in verse 13 is that these works are shown in the meekness of wisdom, in the meekness of wisdom. Other translations say gentleness or humility. So another characteristic of this wisdom that's from above is that it is meek, it's gentle, it's humble. It's in stark contrast to the earthly wisdom, as we're going to see, the earthly wisdom that produces bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. This is the opposite of that. True wisdom is seen in the willingness to think of others first. to give up personal pride, to surrender your personal rights, what you feel like you're entitled to. Even when wronged, the one who is truly wise will respond graciously and with a willingness to forgive, to not hold that against the person. Jesus Christ, who is the personification of wisdom, he demonstrated this in his sacrificial death for us. It says in 1 Peter 2, verse 23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. That's the meekness of wisdom. That's our perfect example of meekness. and humility and wisdom. It's the opposite of pride. It's the opposite of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. And I want us all to see the joy there is in this humility, in this meekness of wisdom. I want you to see how desirable this is. I want to grow in this. I hope you want to grow in this in your life. You know, as believers, there are certainly sacrifices to be made, sacrifices which our Lord calls us to make, but the deep and abiding benefits far outweigh those sacrifices. It's not easy to humble ourselves and to give up our personal pride, our personal ambition, our personal comforts that we enjoy, but it's worth it for the peace and the contentment and the harmony and the joy that will result. So meekness, meekness is a key attribute of true wisdom and true wisdom will bring about the happiness of humility. Listen to what Matthew Henry wrote about the relationship between meekness and wisdom. He said, it is a great instance of wisdom prudently to bridle our own anger and patiently to bear the anger of others. And as wisdom will evidence itself in meekness, so meekness will be a great friend to wisdom. Think about this, how these two relate, meekness and wisdom. When we are mild and calm, We are best able to hear reason and best able to speak it. Wisdom produces meekness and meekness increases wisdom. You see that? So one evidence of true wisdom is meekness and then meekness also is necessary for increasing in wisdom. I mean, if you're puffed up and prideful and think you don't need any help, then you're not going to be able to get any help to grow in wisdom. But if you're humble and meek, then you can hear reason and you can hear wisdom and you can grow in that. There's nothing within us, within our flesh, that will produce godly wisdom. It's something we must receive from God. So we need to recognize how desperate and needy we are. And then we can receive and we can grow. Remember how James exhorted us back in chapter one, verse 21, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. And we also need our brothers and sisters in Christ around us to encourage us and to spur us on toward greater wisdom. If we're too proud to cry out to God, if we're too proud to receive counsel from others, then we're cutting ourselves off from wisdom. Proverbs 11 verse 2 says, when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. There's a very close connection here between humility and wisdom. Well, now we turn to earthly wisdom and its fruit as we come now to verses 14 through 16. Earthly wisdom and its fruit. And we're going to look at four things in a moment here as we go through verses 14 through 16. James here, he's talking about a different kind of wisdom that is the antithesis of godly wisdom. It's interesting that he even calls it wisdom, but I think he does so because people claim to have wisdom, but it's not the wisdom from above. It's not a real wisdom. It's a worldly wisdom. This is similar to the way that James speaks of faith in chapter 2. Remember that? He refers to a kind of faith. That's an alone faith, a faith by itself. It's not true saving faith, but he talks about it in terms of faith. Individuals claim to have faith, but when that faith does not produce works, it must be concluded that their so-called faith is a dead faith. And in the same way, many claim to be wise, but if a person's so-called wisdom produces bad fruit rather than good fruit, then it must be concluded that that's an earthly, unspiritual, even demonic kind of wisdom. In that great story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, hopefully you're familiar with that. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Remember Edmund? In that story, Edmund serves as an example of earthly wisdom, aka foolishness, foolishness. Edmund illustrates the contrast between earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom versus true godly wisdom. Do you remember Edmund's mistake? his foolishness that played out in that story. Edmund, he entered Narnia, he stumbled into Narnia, made his way in there, and he was fooled by the White Witch. He was there by himself, and he ended up with the White Witch, and Edmund fell for the White Witch's schemes. She gave Edmund that Turkish delight, that really tasty dessert. And he just wanted more and more of that. So he would do anything if he could just get some more Turkish delight. And where did that get him? He ended up in the clutches of the white witch's power. But by the time he realized what was happening to him, it was too late. He couldn't escape. And fortunately, Aslan, the Christ figure, Aslan, was able and willing to save Edmund later in the story. But Edmund's actions there illustrate the folly of what he was doing there as opposed to wisdom. He was so selfish and prideful. And that's something we see going on there, the connection between that foolishness and the selfishness and the pride of what he was doing. He just wanted more of those tasty treats for himself. And he was fooled by the white witch who was promising him that he might actually become prince in her kingdom if he would bring his brother and sisters to her. This obviously brought a painful division between him and his siblings, how foolish he was and what misery it brought him. I hope as we look at these verses that we'll see how miserable it is to follow the path of earthly wisdom. And I pray the Holy Spirit will impress upon you how much more desirable it is to have the wisdom from above. So let's look now at this disgusting fruit, this destructive fruit that comes from earthly wisdom, starting in verse 14. And there's going to be four of these, as I said. The first one is bitter jealousy. bitter jealousy. The word for jealousy here is the Greek word zealos. And the word can have a positive sense or a negative sense, depending on the context and how it's being used. It can refer positively to zeal, zealos, a good kind of zeal, or it can refer negatively to sinful jealousy. And it's clear in this context, with the adjective bitter placed in front of it, that this is referring to sinful jealousy. We see a couple of examples of this in the book of Acts, where the unbelieving Jews were jealous of the attention that the apostles were getting as they preached the gospel. One of these places is in Acts 13, 44 and 45. It says, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, They were filled with jealousy. There's that word. They were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. So there's an example of bitter jealousy. A second thing that James mentions here is selfish ambition, selfish ambition. And this goes right along with bitter jealousy. Bitter jealousy is the sinful desire to have what someone else has. And this accompanies pride and selfishness. These attitudes are the opposite of the meekness, the humility that characterize true wisdom. James tells us that if we have in our hearts bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, then we're not exhibiting true wisdom. To boast and to claim to have wisdom would be a flat out lie. And so he says there in verse 14, do not boast and be false to the truth. And then he clarifies that there is a kind of wisdom that people claim to have that is not true wisdom. It's not the wisdom that comes down from above, he writes in verse 15, but rather it's earthly, it's unspiritual, it's demonic. It's earthly and unspiritual in the sense that it is of the world. This is not a wisdom from God. This is worldly kind of thinking. It's of the flesh. And it is demonic in origin. It's a scary thing to think about. Just a few verses earlier, James described the tongue as being set on fire by hell. And what's true of the wicked tongue is also true of this false wisdom. It has its origin in hell. This reminds us of Ephesians 2 where it says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil. the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh." Okay, here's the world, the flesh, and the devil in this passage in Ephesians 2. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So that's describing our sinful condition apart from Christ. We followed the course of this world. It's earthly. We lived in the passions of our flesh, unspiritual. And we followed the prince of the power of the air. This is from the devil, it's demonic. And this is how James describes false wisdom. It's the opposite of true wisdom, which is heavenly, spiritual, and godly. Well, then we see two more products of earthly wisdom. So here's number three now, disorder. Verse 16 says, For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Let's talk about disorder. It should be easy to see how disorder will result from jealousy and selfish ambition. Pride and selfishness and jealousy, what do those things do to a group of people? They divide people. These sinful attitudes separate people, put people at odds with one another, competing with one another, trying to step on others in order to elevate oneself. And I want to challenge you this morning. I want to challenge each one of us this morning. And we're going to see this more when we get into chapter four. But think about the relationships in your life that are in a state of disorder. What relationships in your life are in a state of disorder? Where have there been divisions? Is there someone you're avoiding? Someone you're not talking to? And of course, our natural tendency is to always blame the other person. But I want to challenge you this morning to think about how your own bitter jealousy, how your own selfish ambition is somehow producing elements of disorder in some of your relationships with others. This is not the fruit of wisdom. It's earthly, it's unspiritual, it's demonic. And we need to repent of these things. We need to cry out to God for true wisdom. which will produce very different fruit than that. And then number four, every vile practice. Every vile practice, kind of a catch-all for all kinds of other horrible things that is produced here. Disgusting, destructive fruit that comes from this earthly wisdom. The person whose heart is filled with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition will do anything to feed those egocentric desires. Sir Conan Doyle, he was the writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories. And there's an interesting story about him that might be urban legend, but here's how the story goes. He was bored one evening, and being someone who enjoyed practical jokes, he decided it would be amusing to send a telegram to several of his acquaintances. And the telegram stated, very simply and straightforwardly, all is discovered, flee at once. Okay, so he sent that out to 12 individuals who were upstanding citizens. And he just thought, let's just see what happens. All is discovered, flee at once, and as the story goes, all 12 of them, after receiving the telegram, fled the country. So whether that's true or not, it is a reminder that many people who appear wise and upright are in fact hiding secret sins. And that's the facade that James is cutting through here, isn't he? In the world there can be an appearance of, oh, everything's put together here, everything's good. There's wisdom, there's success here. It may look successful in the world's eyes, but it's fueled. Underneath, there's this jealousy, there's this selfish ambition, and it will breed disorder, and it will involve all kinds of vile practices. In our Sunday school lesson this morning, we looked at the very sad story of King David slipping into a mindset of worldly wisdom that was earthly and unspiritual and demonic. When he thought he could go and sleep with another man's wife and then try to cover it up, he thought he could just arrange to have her husband killed in battle. How one vile action led to another vile deed. The good news is that there's forgiveness for our vile actions, repenting of those vile practices and resting in the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ. There's amazing transformation that comes in our lives. And this morning, as we reflected on that story from 2 Samuel 11 and 12, I mean, we see how grotesque David's sins were, but we also see the amazing grace of God there. So as we're considering this earthly wisdom, and as you detect that in your own life and see some of the destructive things, some of the disorder that has come from your foolish decisions, I also want you to know there's great hope in the grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and who rose again on the third day. There is hope in him. Well, this brings us to verse 17 now and brings us back to where this section began, describing the wisdom from above and its fruit. Back in verse 13, we saw that true wisdom is manifested in good conduct and in the meekness of wisdom. And now, in contrast to false wisdom, James says that the wisdom from above is first pure. It's first pure. not producing every vile practice. In stark contrast to that, the wisdom from above produces purity. Listen to how the Apostle Paul expressed his desire for the church. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 11, for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. We as the church, we as believers, as we've been bought by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be singularly devoted to our Lord and Savior Jesus, not flirting with the pleasures of the world, but wholeheartedly following him and enjoying the gladness of living a holy and pure life. than other fruit of wisdom are listed here, and they are the genuine fruit that will be evident in the life of believers. The list is similar to the list of the fruit of the Spirit that are found in Galatians 5, where Paul writes, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And so similar to that, James here is giving us a list of the fruit of true wisdom, godly wisdom. Another one he mentions here, peaceable. Let's just go through them just briefly, but peaceable. So the opposite of disorder. Peaceable we just see stark contrast after stark contrast here comparing The wisdom from above versus the wisdom from below so peaceable the opposite of disorder gentle Open to reason which is related to humility and the meekness of wisdom as we looked at full of mercy and good fruits full of mercy and good fruit so the opposite of every vile practice and impartial and sincere. Impartial, that makes us think of the exhortation in James 2, show no partiality. So true wisdom is impartial, not showing favorites. And sincere, being honest and authentic, not flattering, not exaggerating, but sincere. And James concludes this section and leads into the discussion at the beginning of chapter four about quarrels and fights. He concludes chapter three with this proverbial kind of statement in verse 18, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Again, in contrast to the disorder produced by jealousy and selfish ambition, wisdom will produce peace and a harvest of righteousness. I want to close by turning to another passage, 1 Corinthians 1. And you can turn there with me if you'd like, or you can listen to me read this. This is a familiar passage to many of you. 1 Corinthians 1. starting in verse 18, because here too we see a contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world. Listen to what Paul writes here in 1 Corinthians 1, I'm going to read from verse 18 to 31. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Verse 26. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not. to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." I just want to mention two things. First of all, God is the one who saves, and who grants true wisdom. In our flesh, in our earthly wisdom, the word of the cross is foolishness. That's in v. 18. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But by God's sovereign work of regeneration, He opens our eyes to see that what we once thought was folly, we now see is actually the power of God and it's the wisdom of God. And it's the best news there is. What we used to scoff at, now we rejoice in and we cherish. This is our hope. And the second thing I want us to see is that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Do you see that in verse 24? But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then also in verse 30, He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So if you want to know wisdom, If you want to be wise, look to Jesus Christ. Look to the perfect God-man who lived a sinless life on this earth. He never harbored in his heart any bitter jealousy or selfish ambition. But instead, he lived a life of purity and of righteousness, full of mercy and good fruits. He is the personification of wisdom from above. He is the wisdom of God who came and who became foolish in the eyes of the world by dying on a cross. He died for all those who will repent of their sins and cling to Him as the only hope of salvation. And He rose again. He is our conquering King. Well, we return to the question that James asks of us, who is wise and understanding among you? And the answer we could give is those who are forgiven through the blood of Christ and who are being changed into the likeness of Christ. Gradually, by his grace, we're being conformed to his image. Those who recognize their need for wisdom and desperately cry out to God to give it. James 1.5, if any of you lacks wisdom, and that's where our hand could go up. Yeah, I'm one who lacks wisdom. I need help. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. So let's ask God for this wisdom as we pray now together. God, we humbly come before you as your people, recognizing that we need your wisdom. And we can think even to recent days, to the past week, surely each one of us could think of foolish words, foolish decisions, foolish attitudes that we've had. And so we ask for your forgiveness and we ask for your help to grant us the wisdom that we so desperately need from you. We know there's earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom that is all around us and can be very persuasive, very enticing. So God, help us to have our attention on your word. And to be attentive to your spirit, to be sensitive to your spirit, to also be listening to. To mature believers around us who can help us and who can speak wisdom into our lives. May you be glorified in all of this. We thank you for the forgiveness we have through Jesus Christ. We thank you for. For Jesus Christ coming to this Earth as as the wisdom from above. We look to him now, Amen.