We're going to be in James chapter 3 Looking at verses 13 through 15 If you want to open up your Bibles to James chapter 3 13 through 15 Father I just pray that This message goes out and helps people. I know it's hard, as my father-in-law often says, to fit in the ear, but it needs to be preached. So we commit this to you. We ask your anointing on your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Look at James chapter 3, verses 13 through 15. This is really hot. I'm sorry, 13 through 18. Forgive me. James chapter 3, 13 through 18. Look at the text as I read this, and I want you to be reading this text as I read it out loud, and you're reading it along with me, that you ask, what is the text saying to me? So he starts with a question in verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? answer. 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 what church? In your hearts, do not boast and be false. Be false to the truth. This is not wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where, now look at this church, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, consequences there will be disorder and every vile practice. Now look at verse 16. For where jealousy ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But, look at verse 17, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in what? In peace by those who make peace." That's some pretty good text there, isn't it? Put up slide one. Now in our last time, we looked at how James has exposed our hearts by how we talk to each other. So let's attempt with God's Word to draw us deeper into the text. I want to ask some diagnostic questions. Again, I love how Paul Tripp puts questions together. So look at these questions in slide one here. What happens to my prayers and how I talk about God When I don't get what I want, ouch, that hits hard. What happens to my prayers and how I talk about God when I don't get what I want? What happens to my talk when circumstances are painful and difficult? Does my mouth start hurling out profanity? What happens? Uh-oh, I'm not making friends already. Dr. Davis, I don't know. What happens to my talk, oh here's one, uh-oh, when I see other people being blessed while I'm struggling? How often is grumbling and complaining a regular part of my everyday conversation? And self-satisfaction, how about this one? Do you feel regularly discontent Always looking for something new to satisfy you instead of being satisfied with a God-honoring life Now I church I know these are some really tough questions, but let's face it. They need to be asked so this morning we're going to continue on in James and see what he has to say about wisdom and how we deal with each other and communicate with each other. Slide 2. Look at James 3, verse 13. Let's dig into the text this morning. You'll notice that James starts this out, this portion of scripture, with a question. Who among you is wise and understanding? Now look at that question. Who among you is wise and understanding? He answers it. If that is you, let him show by his good behavior and his deeds in what? Harshness? Does that say harshness there? Does that say mean and cruel and rotten? Oh, gentleness of wisdom. Okay. So notice that question there. Another way we could say it is, Whom among you is wise and intelligent? Now, the Greek is interesting here in this verse. For that word, understanding, James uses the word epistemon. The idea of this word really means comprehension. And it's very interesting, this word, put up slide two. Is it up there? Yeah, look at that word, epistemon, for understanding, intelligence. It's actually, the Latin term actually has the idea of a seizing. So what goes through your mind when you think about seizing upon something? Okay? So, when you have gained comprehension or understanding of a subject, in essence, you have now seized that information, and the idea is you've now incorporated that information into your knowledge. You've seized it. You've taken hold of it. You've now incorporated it into your knowledge. There's some retention there. There's now understanding there. There's intelligence there. Amen? So he has that word understanding, but he also uses the word wise. The Hebrew word is the word Chagma. The word that is mostly used for wise in the New Testament is the word Sophia. And this idea has the idea of a skilled person, a craftsman, somebody who's highly skilled. So this person here is skilled in how to deal with the affairs of life. He or she has seized upon the Word, it is now endued, and they are now endued with practical moral wisdom and understanding of applying the Word of God to their life. Does that make sense to you? Are you understanding that? We're seizing the Word, gaining understanding by studying it. It is now incorporated into our knowledge, so we now have the skill of applying the Word of God to our life. Not the worldly wisdom system that says, argue, bicker, fight, and get what you want by harming people. OK? So that begs the question, OK, well, Pastor Jack, how do we get that wisdom? I would humbly suggest to you that we seize upon the Word of God. Put up slide three. Look what Paul, in writing to Timothy, had to say. I want to kind of like just walk us through this so that you can see it. Church, if you are not in your Bible, you are robbing yourself and other people of the wisdom that you need to live. There's no other way to say it. And when the Bible is getting dust on the top of it, you need the lemon pledge the top of it, because you're showing up at church on Sunday, you're not really getting, you're not seizing upon the word. So Paul says this in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 and 17. All scripture, not some of it, not part of it. All scripture is inspired by God. It's theopneustus, literally breathed out by God. And it's profitable for teaching us, reproofing us, correcting us, and training us in righteousness. Do you see that? Teaching us, reproofing us, Correcting us, training us and raises us so that the man of God or the woman of God may be adequate or some translations use the word complete. Thoroughly equipped or furnished for every good work. So, let's tease that apart. Okay, Paul. What do you mean when you use the word teaching? The word didoscleiae. Well, the idea here seems to be of receiving divine instruction, the instruction that's given to a believer so that they can walk in obedience with the Lord. In fact, in Romans 15, 4, slide it up on slide 3, Paul actually says, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for what? What was it written for, church? What's it say? Our learning, our instruction. So that through being lazy, oh, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the what? Scriptures, we, slide three, Romans 15.4. Slide three, Romans 15.4, do we have it there? Okay, let's slide it down a bit. Is that slide three? All right, well, don't worry about that's what Romans 15 for says whatever was written in earlier times was written for instruction So that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope So we are to study the scriptures church We are to meditate meditate on them and we are to put what we're taught in them into practice of our everyday life I believe that God, in fact, does guide his people to do what brings pleasure to him. But listen now, he guides us through his word. God has given us his word to educate us, to teach us how to walk in obedience with him. And then he uses the word reproof. Another word there is rebuke. So think about that. Teaching. rebuking or reproofing. So the idea here of this word means to rebuke in order to convict a person of their misbehavior or false doctrine. The whole force of this word here has the idea of forcing back. OK. Forcing back. See the truth of God's word exposes sin and falsehood as well as ungodly behavior. So God will reprimand and discipline his people when they're turning away from him. And if we are daily applying God's Word to our lives, we have the discernment to see when we get off track, and it warns us when we're going in the wrong direction. Church, God's Word has the ability to force us back to face the very truth about ourselves. Amen? But if you're not in God's Word, again, you're robbing yourself of the teaching. You're robbing yourself of the rebuking. Then he has another word there, correcting. I want you guys to think about what comes to your mind when you think about the word correcting. See, now let me make sure that we understand what did Paul mean when Paul used the word correcting here. This is important. It doesn't mean slamming somebody over the head with the Bible and ripping their heart out of their chest and going, look at you, filthy, ugly sinner. That's not what God's idea there is of correcting. Okay? The word correcting here, now listen, this is important. Because you need to understand this if you want to build God's Word into your life. The idea of correcting here has the whole flavor and idea of restoring something to its proper and original condition. In secular Greek, the idea is of setting upright an object that has fallen or helping somebody back on their feet who has fallen. So the correcting is, hey, brother, I see you're screwing up and you're falling. Let me help you back on your feet. So what does correction do then, Pastor Jack? I'm so glad you guys asked that question. Well, correcting has the idea of changing something from being wrong to being right. It makes us conform, listen, to the proper standards found in the scripture. See, God just doesn't scold us when we sin. He also offers us correction. He has the ability to pick you back up, put you upright again. so that we don't continue to repeat the same mistake over and over and over again. He puts our lives back on the right course, church. Amen? Then he uses the word training. I love this word. Training. The idea here has the idea of tutoring somebody or giving instruction, building somebody up. You know, sometimes kids need a little extra help in school. So what some people do is they find a tutor to give them that additional help they need so they can prevail and do well. You see, God's word guides us. It gives us the help and instruction we need to prepare us to live a life that honors God. It trains us and tutors us so we can live a life that conforms to his standards. So Paul gives us those words there, and he finishes with this, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. That word adequate, the word atrias, adequate, it speaks of a person who is now equipped and capable and proficient in whatever he and she is called to do to honor the Lord. And he equips them so they can finish out and accomplish those tasks. Church, hear me this morning. When a full-blown, born-again believer in Jesus Christ is now fully equipped and capable, this person can then now, listen, equip others who are now placed under their care. That's Matthew 28, 19. They can correctly, let me say this again, they can correctly Disciple others in why because their lives reveal and affirm the power of God to lead people to a saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ and equip them for righteous living and faithful service to the Lord Think about it. Are you equipped to lead somebody? to Christ Could you give them the gospel properly? So Paul says well who among you is has the skill of understanding others if you first do not apply God's Word to understand your own life. Church, hear me. There needs to be a seizing of God's Word, a taking of God's Word and incorporating it into your own life. Why can people tell me all the different blow-by-blow plays of a movie in a movie theater, but they can't tell me where 2 Corinthians is at? They can tell me what they're watching on TV, but if I ask them to quote a verse, they're sitting there going... And then they wonder why their life keeps crashing and burning and going off track. But they're not in the Word. Now we've already learned from our last teaching in James, We can't tame our tongue with an act of our own will. As James taught us in the scriptures, well listen to this, church. I know this is none of you. One minute we're blessing people, and the next minute we're hurling out profanity out of our mouth like a junkyard dog, cursing them out. One minute we're telling our spouse how much we love them, and then the next minute we're assassinating our spouse with our words, and then we're trying to justify why we're right and they're wrong. That doesn't line up with James 3.13. Maybe we need to seize upon the Word of God a little bit more. You see, our tongues reveal to others as well as ourselves when we are lacking self-control. Slide 3, Matthew 15, 18, 19, there it is. But the things that proceed out of the mouth, where do they come from, Church? the heart. And those things that come out of the mouth pollute and make unclean the man. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts. Out of the heart comes murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slandering. That's what comes out of the heart. Why would we ever want to rob ourselves of getting into God's Word? See, I need my heart to be plunged every day deep into the washing machine of God's Word. I need it to be pre-treated with prayer. So all that ugly stain in my heart gets washed out. And it's... Jesus said it. You're clean because of the Word I've spoken to you. Right? So, finishing up verse 13, we read this. let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom." See, James is saying, listen, if we claim to have wisdom and understanding, if we claim that we're skilled in this area of our lives, we're to show it with our good behavior, in deeds and gentleness. I want that to really simmer in our hearts and minds. With our good behavior, D's and Jenna's Who are you when you're alone? When you're not with your churchy friends and you're out during the week on the streets or at your job Who are you really putting on display? Slide four. Here's some more of those wonderful questions that everybody loves that I ask. Just loves it. How about this? Do our everyday activities that we are involved in reveal to others that we possess this wisdom and understanding? Does the way we talk to others reveal to them that we do, in fact, have control over our behavior? Or can we still find ourselves at times being a hot-headed person, a person who lacks wisdom and gentleness when conflicts occur? See, if I'm there, if I'm the or, I need to spend a lot more time with God's Word and a lot less time with the television. Ouch. I'm not making friends. So how about this church? If there are a lot of old wounds and anger inside my heart that's making me toxic to be around, you know what? And there's this anger and all this stuff that's always there, ready to jump out at the first opportunity. You know, that really, and I can tell you this from 15 years of counseling people, it reveals that I need some healing in my life because that kind of toxic sludge has me so full of anger and bitterness that there's no room in my heart to love others. And there's no room for gentleness. My soul needs healing. So when I thought about this, I said, OK, James, What do you mean when you use the word gentleness? See, I don't want to put 21st century thinking. I want to do some digging. I'm going to go down into the text and say, OK, James, what do you mean when you were telling these early Christians when you were using the word gentleness? Let's make sure. The Greek word is prautes. And it has the idea of forbearance. Do we have slide four up there? See, Webster's defines gentleness this way. I like Noah Webster's definition, because it's very close to the Greek. Because the Greek's really meekness and forbearance. So Webster's puts it a little bit more of a modern vernacular. And they define gentleness as this. Enduring injury with patience and without resentment. Quiet, unaggressive, kind, courteous, humble. Whew, got quiet in here, Dr. Davis. Let me say that one more time. Gentleness, prautes. I need to be willing. as a child of the true and living God to endure injury and endure the injury with patience without being resentful towards that person that's hurt me. There's the essence of forgiveness. Being gentle, being unaggressive. I don't need to snap back and hurl out profanity at you to slam your head against the wall 16 times. Being kind, being humble. It means being humble, it means being gentle towards others, and willingly being submissive and obedient to the Lord. What it is not, gentleness is not being selfish and arrogant, loud or obnoxious. Rather, gentleness is having a quiet, but complete and total confidence and trust in the Lord and being willing to and able to do whatever he commands." Put up slide five. It's interesting what Aristotle had to say about gentleness. Sorry, I didn't put a whole lot of time into this message. Forgive me. Aristotle defines this word this way. It is the middle standing between two extremes. getting angry without reason, and not getting angry at all. It is the result of a strong man's choice to control his reactions in submission to God. It is a balance born in strength of character stemming from a confident trust in God, not from weakness or fear. We all know that people who are wise in their own eyes can be very arrogant and prideful and have a very elevated view of themselves. But a person who is gentle, and I'm not implying that this is easy. I'm just preaching what the text says. And it takes work. It takes humility. It takes being on your knees. It takes, God, give me the wisdom to manage the people that you brought into my life in a way that you're put on full display instead of my shortcomings. See, a person who's gentle will be willing to be tender and gracious to others, and they have self-control when they are sinned against. Think with me, Church. Being gentle is a God-honoring character trait, and it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. See, a person who is gentle will not be bitter towards someone. They're not going to be malicious or self-seeking. They're not going to be arrogant or vengeful. or vengeful. It is the balance born and strength of character stemming from a confident trust in God, not from weakness or fear. That's what Aristotle said. That's powerful. So where is that found, Pastor Jack? Well, I'm glad you asked. Put up slide five. You got it there? Blessed are the gentle, the praetace, They're the ones that will walk. What's it say? Blessed are the gentle. What would it be like to practice that the next time somebody freaks out on you? Or gives you incredible sign language at a traffic light if you accidentally cut them off? What would it be like to be gentle and just do it God's way? Go to slide six. What does Jesus have to say in Matthew 11, 29? Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and what from me? Okay. If you have a personal Bible, you have permission to highlight that, circle that, learn from me. Why? I am what? Oh! Oh, so he's modeling it for us. Okay. I'm gentle and humble in heart. Now the result is you will find what? So the opposite of freaking out, hurling out profanity like a junkyard dog, screaming, yelling, and raging, if I do it this way, and if I give all of that over to God, if I cast all that anxiety, throw it on God, because he cares for me, he's telling me I will find rest for my soul. My psuche will find rest. So he says, look, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Why is that so hard? Simple, pride. For some reason, we think we can do things better than God. You know, if you remember what we learned back when we started James 3, first 10 verses, I said this statement to you. Who you are will inevitably be revealed by how you speak to others. So remember, every time we use profanity, freak out, scream, it's like smacking God in the face and saying, you know what? You're not enough. I need something else. Look at slide six. Look at verse 14. James is a book we should be looking at each year. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, so look at the two things. Bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, and your what? Do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. Now this word, bitter, it's an interesting word. The word is picross. We're jealous he's a loss. So when he looks at the word that I have to sit there and think OK well we think it's something better we think about putting something in our mouth and it's like we want to just spit it out. And again our English doesn't always do the Greek justice. That's why we have a doctor Carter in this church to help us with a Greek. But this word bitter actually has the idea of something pointed and sharp and has the idea of something that has the ability to pierce through. a little bit deeper than just spitting something out of your mouth. It has the idea of something that's pointed or sharp, something that has the ability to pierce through something. So think about that. When you think about what James meant when he used the word bitter as something that pierces, something sharp. How about this? How many times have we found ourselves piercing open somebody's heart and wounding that person with our words. Oh boy. And he thought he was the hammer. Jeans ties that word with the word zelos, or jealousy. Jealousy, now think through this, and I know this is hard to swallow. I was under my desk crying when I put it together, so you're not alone. Jealousy has the idea of discontentment or ill will towards somebody else has something that you desire and don't have. It conveys the idea of that. So, think about it, church. Envy. Jealousy, the opposite of grace and gentleness. You see, church, when a person is envious, that person only wants to take rather than to give. He wants others to serve his or hers own self-interest. Does any of that find any of its trails in our hearts? Why is that person allowed to have that? Why can that person be so incredibly successful and they have all of that and I only have this? Bam. What if God only wants you to have what you have? Why does our mouth have to be so piercing? When you put this together, James is sending a strong message. What is he saying? He's saying, listen, bitter jealousy, this envy is harsh. It's destructive. It has absolutely no concern for the welfare benefit of another person. Those whose lives are governed by human, ungodly wisdom are self-centered. They live in a world of their own personal desires and ideas. Is that something that we, at times, have to find ourselves repenting of? This also has the opposite of caring for the needs of others, because it only sees its needs and desires. See, Church? As we're rounding the horns here, God wants us to choose His way of wisdom and understanding. The world you and I live in wants us to serve our own interests and follow our wisdom system. One of the smartest things you can do, if you want something, get God's permission. If there's something you want to buy, listen, hear me. Do not be fooled by the commercials. We don't care if you ever paid a bill. By now, we'll have your payment start six months from now. You've got to have it now. That 60-inch television set. Pay the 29.99% interest to Best Buy. Come on. Get it now. Pay later. What happened to praying about it? And what happened to delayed gratification? Why spend $30 for a pair of pants on credit and end up paying $110 for that same pair of pants? That's a sermon for another day. We'll let Dr. Davis do that one. So think about it. Think about the two paths of life. Think about the two gates we can go through. Think about what wisdom system will you choose to operate out of, and so what path will you take? Look at slide 7. Jesus, man, I'll tell you, look at this. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leads to what? And there are many who enter through that gate. So, he says, enter through the narrow gate. This is Jesus. Jesus is saying, listen church, go through this gate. Notice this word narrow in the Greek is the word stenos. This word actually means, because we want to draw out of the text and say, okay, Jesus, what did you mean when you used the word narrow? The word stenos has the idea of moving carefully through obstacles. Jesus wants you to know this narrow gate that he's asking you to travel through is confining and then it will press it upon you There's a name for the people that go this through this gate. They're called a few So in order to enter through this gate, there's something that a person's going to need to do He's going to need or she's going to need now you listen up You're going to need to strip yourself Of all the things that get in the way of your relationship with Christ, the few who travel through this gate are going to have to leave the baggage of self-sufficiency behind. If you go through the narrow gate, you're going to also have to leave behind the love of sin and the love of self. Going through this gate is going to require all of us to repent. It means we're going to have to strip ourselves of all of our self-righteousness. We're going to have to strip ourselves of earthly desires, bitter jealousy. We're going to have to strip ourselves of an unforgiving spirit, selfishness, self-righteousness, pride, arrogance, hatred, and profanity. That is what is going to need to be done for all of us to go through the Stanos Gate. And there's going to be a lot of obstacles there. But that's when you don't see his hand, you trust his heart. The wide gate, those travelers have a name. They're called the many. You will notice that this wide gate has tons of room. You will notice that this gate is easily entered And you can bring all the baggage of life in tow with you through it. In fact, Church, there's a large crowd of people that can enter this gate all at once. It says, keep your pride. Bring all of your self-indulgences. There are no demands, no discipline to acquire. Let your flesh and your emotions guide you through. Drink up. Party. Have sex out of marriage. Live a homosexual lifestyle. All of that stuff. Invite your friends to come with you. You know, here's the problem with the wide gate. Listen. The wide gate is very tempting. It's like a lure dangling in front of you. waiting to ensnare you. It promised you pleasure and said, listen, don't be foolish. Everybody's going this way. You don't need to do it Jesus' way. See, the wide gate does something else. The wide gate appeals to your imagination. The wide gate takes your heart into your imagination and it makes it like a live infomercial which falsely advertises from your simple heart, my simple heart, in such a very seductive way that we're wondering how we've ever been able to live without it. See, the wide gate system says this. The wide gate says, listen, Jesus is not enough to make you happy. It says to the alcoholic, the bottle or your family, just one more drink and you're going to forget about it. It says to the drug addicts, whether it's heroin or PCP or Coke or crack, it says that or your family, that or your job. Listen, church, the wide gate doesn't want you to think about the consequences of sinful choices. The wide gate says, drown your mind in senseless TV for 20 to 30 hours a week. It says you don't need to pick up your Bible and spend time with it. Jesus is broad and wide is the gate that leads to ruin, destruction. Church, listen to me this morning. I know this is a tough one. Nothing declares war on your flesh in my flesh more than the doctrine of Jesus Christ. For true followers of Christ, you and I are called to walk the narrow road because of where it leads. Hear me this morning. This is important, church. There's something else that's very important that the narrow gate does. Hear me this morning. This is very important. The narrow gate separates the true follower of Jesus Christ from the crowd. All of Christ's teachings show us the way that you and I, if we are born again, the way we need to travel is only one gate. That's the narrow gate. In fact, Luke uses another terminology as he states it. Go to slide seven. Luke 13, 24. Luke says, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter it. And look what Luke says here. And they won't be able to. Let's take one more look at that. And this is bone chilling to me. I hope you're seeing this. Strive to enter through the narrow gate or the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and won't be able to." So what is the stuff that hinders me from wanting to go through the narrow gate? You know, that word strive is where we get our English word agonize from or agony from. See, the word agonize or strive has the idea of struggling, suffering, endeavoring to accomplish something. So what is Jesus telling us here? I want you to think about this. What is Jesus saying? Now hear this. Jesus did not tell you that you are going to have your greatest life here on earth, and you're going to have your best time now. Don't believe the garbage on TV. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible doesn't say that you can speak it into existence. You won't find anywhere in the 66 canonical books of any of that stuff. There's a lot of that teaching infiltrating the church, and it sounds really attractive. But here's the thing. When you hear something, here's a question that the man that I sat under, Dan Peter, said. What does the Bible say? Forget man's wisdom. What does the Bible say? Jesus is telling us something in these verses. Jesus is saying, listen, follower of me, hear me. You're going to have obstacles in your life. You're going to have struggle in your life. You're going to have pain and heartache in your life that you will need to be working through. Strive to enter through this stenos door. You're going to be battling your flesh that is a war against your soul. You see, church, you and I going through the narrow gate involves something important. It involves a change of our hearts. It involves a change in the way that you and I live. Hear me. When you and I come to faith, saving faith in Christ, and we are born again from above, Hear me! Your purpose and my purpose becomes different from what it used to be because we are called to live a kingdom life, not a fleshly life. We are not to be self-seeking people anymore like the wide-gate people. So back in James, we are to show our wisdom and understanding and how we behave and how we treat others, being gentle, respectful. Yes, we're going to have obstacles because this narrow way of life is a hard way, but it's the way that God has set before us. And those obstacles are there to strip us of self-sufficiency, to bring us to the end of ourselves, where our dependence goes from trusting in earthly things to trusting in Christ. So there's strength and character building going through the stenoscape. And if we're going to claim that we are wise, it will reveal itself in our behavior. James says, selfish ambition in your heart. Wow. Another closely related mode of behavior that comes from the heart. This selfish ambition here has the idea, now listen, of strife and contentiousness. A selfish, ambitious person is only concerned for their own personal gain, and they have no concern and welfare for others. And if that is in your heart, you need to ask yourself, have I truly surrendered my life to Jesus Christ? See, a selfishly ambitious person is someone that is striving for gratification at any cost. That's the ultimate goal of all fleshly endeavors. James says this is how this behavior reveals itself. You're boasting. It's all about self-centeredness. Hear me. Hear me this morning. This is never to be the behavior of a Christian. When a person lives a self-glorian way of life, it reveals the absence of a saving relationship with Christ. A person who claims to be a follower of Jesus, who is proud and self-glorian, who's self-centered, and cares for no one except him or herself, is a fraud. In fact, James finishes verse 14, that if they're practicing that, they're lying against the truth. Beware of what you hear on your TV. Beware of some of the preachers that say, send me a seed gift, and you're going to get $10,000. Buy this little cloth, put it on your lap, or buy this bottle of oil, and oh, the Lord's going to bless you. That is a lie from the pit of hell. You won't find any of that in the scripture. Beware, Christian. Turn the TV off. Spend more time in the Word. Exactly. The word lie. Think about it. What does that word lie mean? If some 12 year old kid pulled on your coat and said, can you define the word lie for me? Think about it. What would you tell them the word lie means? Pseudome is a Greek word. The idea of lying, church, is making a false statement. Anything said or done that is meant to deceive or give a false impression. Hear me. This behavior and way of life contradicts the gospel of Christ, and it contradicts the clear teachings of Scripture. There is nothing more revealing of an unredeemed, unsaved person than that person lives a life that is characterized by self-ambition, self-glory, and bitter jealousy. To say that you belong to Christ and yet practice these other behaviors as a way of life, you are self-deceiving. You're lying against yourself. Too clean to be saved, and yet willfully choose to live that way, reveals that you're not saved. Let's finish up with verse 15. We'll stop there. Slide 8. I know I'm giving you a lot, but I'm hoping that you're capturing some of it. Now, the wisdom that we saw in verse 14 is not... Well, he says it here. This wisdom, what he just got done talking about in verse 14, is not that which comes down to you and I from above. That earthly wisdom is earthly, natural, and demonic. Notice the three words there in the text. Do not miss this, please. Do not miss this. The wisdom is not that which comes down from above. It's earthly, it's demonic, and it's natural. Do you see that, Church? So the question is, okay, well, James, what did you mean when you said earthly? All right, because we, again, they talk a little bit differently than we do today, don't they? So, and the Greek is a very emphatic language. I can imagine James just saying, listen up. This self-glory and wisdom is earthly. It's natural. It's demonic. It's not from God. So earthly. He means that earthly wisdom is limited to the present material world. It is limited to that which man can only discover and accomplish by himself. Earthly wisdom has no concern for the things of God. Let me tell you something. Earthly wisdom has absolutely no concern for the things of God. And I could go on and on. I'll give you an example. Earthly wisdom. On the news this morning, as I'm getting ready. Big LGBTQ pride day. Somebody sent me a thing on Facebook about the Satanists coming together to protect the woman's rights so they can abort their unborn child. I'm telling you right now, we are in a time where what is evil is made to look good, and what is good is made to look evil. I am telling you, you are going to see stuff happening in the coming year and two years. You better choose this day whom you will serve. I am telling you right now, earthly wisdom. That all sounds good from an earthly standpoint. But that's not what the Bible teaches, church. It is not what the Bible teaches. I know that there may be coming a day when Pastor Davis, Carter, myself are arrested because what I'm teaching right now could be under a hate crimes thing. But I'm not going to compromise what the Word of God says. I'm telling you right now, that is earthly. It's limited to that and it has no concern for the things of God, no concern for spiritual truth, motivated by man's pride and arrogance, man's selfish ambition and his self-centeredness. Earthly wisdom teaches you to look out for your own interests. You're number one. You'll find earthly wisdom pervading through the educational system, politics, economics, and yes, psychology. I could tell you where I almost got thrown out of some meetings, because I have a different position on stuff. That's OK. Earthly wisdom teaches that I've got to get what I want. I deserve what other people have, and I'm going to get it. I'm entitled. It teaches me to take care of self. See church, people who have selfish ambition and envy actually think that their identity and worth are found in their status or material possession. As long as they see that someone else has what they feel they're entitled to, they're miserable. Natural. Let me move this through. Two more to go. Natural. Second form of earthly wisdom that's not from above. This natural has the idea of that which is sensual and fleshly and it originates from the natural or unsaved person. Look at slide eight. The natural. But a natural unsaved man does not accept. He does not welcome into his heart the things of the Spirit of God. Why? The things that are the Spirit of God are foolishness. They are nonsense. They are meaningless to an unsaved person. And they cannot understand it because they are spiritually appraised. They are spiritually appraised. So think about it. What does an appraiser do? If you guys go to trade in a car? An appraiser tells you what something is worth. So when he says or spills you pray, they see no value in worth in having an intimate relationship with Jesus the Christ. Because that to them is foolishness. Slide 9. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 1.18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's what, church? Everything that you need for your life to live with God was accomplished at the cross. And if the church doesn't preach, the cross runs. Everything I need for my walk with Christ he accomplished for me at the cross When he was nailed to that cross and died She spilled his blood and paid my sin debt in full and the only reason that any of you and I will ever enter into heaven Will never be because of anything we can do or accomplish on our own There's no act by where you and I can make ourselves right with God on our own I'm hoping you're hearing me this morning. I hope you listening around the world are hearing me this morning The only way that you and I enter into heaven is because of what Jesus has already done for us. So the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are unsaved and perishing. To us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Let me close there. I'll pick this up when I preach again. Let's bow our heads. Father, I know that this was a very challenging message to preach. I'm still trembling up here as I think about it, Lord. Lord, I am praying that we all develop an insatiable hunger to feed on the life-giving nectar of your word. Lord, I pray if there are people that are listening around the world or people here that have not placed their faith and trust in you, that now is the time for them to do it. Now is the time. Now is the time to get right with God. The seven soldiers or sailors on that ship, when they woke up that morning, they had no idea that they would be later that day ushered into eternity. Lord, we don't know when we will draw our last breath here. We don't know it, Lord. Only you do. Because, Lord, you know the end from the beginning all at the very same time. So Lord, I am praying that if there's anybody here this morning or listening around the world, that they would surrender. Lord, your Holy Spirit needs to wake them up so they can believe and repent and place their faith and trust in you, Lord. You said faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. Lord, I pray that I am faithful to this word. I pray for all of us that have unsaved loved ones, Lord, that their hearts would be turned towards you, that our behavior would change in such a dramatic way in our homes, that you're put on full display. And I know that's hard because we have so much pride in our life, robbing us, choking out the gospel. Satan wants to dump hell inside our hearts so there's no room left to love. So help us, Lord. Help us to surrender. Help us to allow ourselves to be humble and vulnerable so that we can point people to who the Redeemer is, that you are the Redeemer, Jesus. We ask this in your precious name, in Jesus' name, amen.