James chapter three. We're going to move on with our study in James tonight. And Cheryl alerted me to the fact that I had not covered the first part of this chapter. And although last week I did review it, I guess I had worked up the lesson, my notes, and then we had prayer night and I forgot when we went on. I just sort of skipped it. But I think we've covered most of what was in those first six verses. last time and we'll talk a little bit about it tonight. Let me read James 3. We're going to begin in verse 13, down through verse 18. Follow as I read. James 3, verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation a way of life his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife are, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace." Well, we have been, for the last little while, talking about the tongue, the difficulty of controlling it, The fact that it is a small member, a small part of our body, and yet, like small things sometimes do, it produces big effects. And James gives us the example of the bit in the horse's mouth to be able to control it. The tiller, the till on a helm on a boat can steer it in, this huge boat goes wherever that little till turns. And then he likens it to a fire. It doesn't take much of a blaze. The old song says it only takes spark to get a fire going. Well, that's when you're talking about the tongue. That is certainly true. And so like a fire, the tongue, our words can be destructive and also our words spread like wildfire. So there's a lot of analogies there. And so he started off the chapter by saying, don't be many teachers. And I think what he means, looking at the context, is the teacher is the one that does most of the talking. So don't be many talkers among you, because your talking gets you in trouble. And that most certainly is the case. And then he reminds us that it's only the perfect man, the man that's not sinlessly perfect, but mature, in control of himself, that can control his top that's a sign of christian maturity when you can control your top okay let us move on uh... we're talking tonight about the wisdom that the sins from above and sold the question that we start out with this how do we detect a wise man notices question in verse thirteen says who is a wise man how do we know who he is well as it by his schooling uh... Is it by the initials after his name? All the degrees he has earned? Could it be that he's a wise man because of experience? We would say that experience ought to produce wisdom. Doesn't always, as we say with age, does that make us wise? There's an old saying, there's no fool like an old fool. He should, but doesn't necessarily. How about his success? His success in the world, in the business realm, and whatever he endeavors to do? Is that how we detect who the wise man is? Well, James gives us a very different definition of how we spot a wise man. He said, it is by his good works flowing from a humble, or he uses the term meekness here and wisdom read the last part of our state thirteen the wise man is the one who shows out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom it is a rare combination to have wisdom and meekness paired together and yet that is what james is stressing here and it will see why in a minute before we go there let us notice there is a false wisdom that is now spoken of in verse 14 and It produces envying and strife What somebody tell me again the difference between envy and jealousy? Are they synonymous? Well, I would say you usually have one when you have the other Jealousy is wanting something that somebody else has for yourself Envy is that bad feeling you get when something good happens to somebody else to you. Y'all know that bad feeling? You know, when they win the lottery and you don't. Okay? When they hit it big. When their ship comes in, your sink's in the harbor. Okay? That feeling you have when good things are happening to somebody else. Jealousy is wanting those things for yourself. Now, and as I say, usually those things go hand in glove, go hand in hand together. So there's not a big distinction here. But notice in this case that the false wisdom produces envying and strife because it flows from pride. It doesn't flow from meekness and humility. In other words, what we're looking at here is a contrast between true wisdom and that which calls itself wisdom. Notice pride says, I'm better than you. And our heart naturally being prideful, We look for ways to say and show that we're better than somebody else. It may be that I can do what you can't do. I'm better than you because I can do what you can't do. The athlete can say I'm faster than you. I'm stronger than you. Okay? Or it may say I have what you don't have. I've got more stuff. I've got more toys than you've got. So I win. I'm better than you. Or it says, I know, and this is the one that we're dealing with tonight, I know what you don't know. I know something that you don't know. Notice in each case, I am using what I have, what I can do, or what I know to prove that I'm superior to the next guy. That's how pride influences this thing. And so when it comes to wisdom, that last one, I know what you don't know, I am wise, and I'm proud of it. And the fact that I'm wise means that I look down my nose that you're stupid. At least you're not as wise as I am, right? And so I'm superior to you. Let's just stop right here a minute. Have I left out something? There's probably other areas here. But you understand that pride demonstrates itself by trying to show a superiority over somebody else. Yes, sir. Ah, yes, I haven't done what you've done. Therein lies another area. Not only have I done what you haven't, but I haven't done the things you've done. So that makes me superior to you. Do you understand why legalism appeals to the lost man? To the prideful man? You know, I ran into somebody not long ago. I think they were from a Church of Christ background. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, why would anybody gravitate to this? Why would you even go there? Well, there's an appeal to the natural man. He's being motivated by pride. And if I can say, well, I did all this stuff and you didn't do it, then that makes me superior to you. But especially tonight, we want to center on that last one. I know what you don't know. Therefore, I am superior to you. I have a wisdom that you don't have. That's how false wisdom works. And notice the next thing is that it produces what he calls here envying and strive. We've talked about envying. What is strife? Well, it's division, but it's warfare. Yeah, there you go. It's going to fist city. When men strive together, we have in the Old Testament law, it means they're fighting, they're wrestling, they're trying to go to fist city with each other. And so, in other words, false wisdom will produce These two things, envy and strive. Go to Galatians 5 just a minute and notice how these things are set forth here. Here is the fruit of the Spirit that has been described in the previous verses. And then right at the end of Galatians 5, Paul says, Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, that's striving, fighting, provoking one another, envying one another. Notice that he's talked about the fact that we have this battle going on between the flesh and the spirit. The spirit produces this fruit that he has just described. Now he gets to the very last verse and says, let us not be desirous of what he calls vainglory. This is boasting in something that you should not be boasting in. And that this vainglory produced by the flesh, motivated by our pride, produces these same two things. And in this case, provoking, but that's the same idea as striving one another. Provoking one another, I still envision myself in the back seat when my sister and I were kids and, you know, sitting back there poking her in the ribs till finally she slaps me across the face and then we both get in trouble, you know. Just keep on provoking till she reacts. And that's what is being demonstrated here. So notice how this terminology keeps keeps popping up. So we can spot false wisdom because it produces this, and we'll get around to why in just a minute. And thinking I'm better than you produces strife, produces provoking. Because if I'm better than you, then I want you to acknowledge that fact. I want you to make way. I want you to get out of my way. I don't want you sitting in my place. I don't want you getting the best stuff. Because you see, I'm better than you, so I deserve that. You understand how pride then, if we think we're better than everybody else, we provoke them? On the other hand, thinking I'm less than you produces envy. I want what you've got. You understand that our self-concept here is what's moving us, and that we're Our concept of wisdom is disturbing the peace. I don't know if I'm making this clear, but notice James then will say, if you have this bitter envying and strife in your heart, notice how he brings this out in verse 14. He says, glory not and lie not against the truth. In other words, don't claim wisdom if these things are being produced by your life because what you've got is nothing but vain glory. It's not wisdom at all. All right. Let's go a little further. So now we have a contrast between a wisdom from below. That's down here in verse 15 and a wisdom from above in verse 17. Now, we've been talking on Sunday morning about this above beneath have from heaven from earth. Okay, guess what? Here we got it again. Except this time, it's a wisdom, one of which descends from heaven. The other is that which rises up from the earth. And so we start with a description of this wisdom that is from below. First of all, he says it's earthly. Well, I guess so. If it's rising up from below, it's not heavenly. It's of the earth. Its spear is the earth. Again, the motif that we have seen in John 3, and then again Sunday in John 8 of this dichotomy between Christ coming from heaven. He says, you're of the earth, I'm not of the earth, I'm from heaven. You're earthly, I'm not. I'm bringing wisdom down. I'm bringing revelation down from heaven. So notice this dichotomy continues here. This wisdom that is from below is earthly. It is sensual. Sensual is the idea that it is unspiritual, it is natural, it is fleshly. It appeals to man's fleshly lusts. That's how it operates. Then notice it's devilish, meaning it is satanic in its origin, and of course that goes back to Satan's desire to exalt himself, the root sin being his pride. So in other words, the nature of this wisdom that comes from below is, what is it Paul says, knowledge puffeth up? He's dealing with the matter of eating meat, sacrifice to idols, and he says, you know, you know there's only one God, and before you look down your nose at these folks that still have conscience of this idol, just remember that knowledge puffeth up. It's like it blows you up like a balloon. And, of course, it's nothing but hot air inside the balloon. There's nothing of any substance, but it puffs you up. It makes you proud because you know something somebody else doesn't know. And he's warning you that is a dangerous thing, that that type of knowledge tends to puff you up if it's not tempered, if it's not the wisdom that comes down from below. Do you understand why we call this devilish? That if Satan's sin is to exalt himself from his assigned position, then the quest for this kind of wisdom is to do exactly that. I think had a good dose of that at a lecture when Tanya was still in college back at University of Memphis. Stephen Jay Gould, who was one of the top evolutionists in the country, a professor from Harvard, came and gave a lecture. and found out he was going to be there, so I snuck in to hear this guy. And it was quite enlightening of how an evolutionist thinks. But his main point was that he saw his role in life to humble man. You say, well, what does he mean by that? Well, to humble man, to knock him off his pedestal, that if you think you're a special creation, I'm here to pop your bubble and to bring you down to just an evolved animal. Okay? So he saw his role as popping your bubble and humbling you. But just listening to the guy, his words reeked of arrogance. He was among the most arrogant people I've ever listened to in my life. And you begin to realize that, yes, if you're an evolutionist, if you're thinking according to that philosophy, that wisdom, Then the guy who knows all this stuff like him is at the top of the ladder. He's the top of the heap. He's the most highly evolved in the room, you see, because he knows all this stuff. And he had the attitude that went with it. Now, he's dead. He's long gone off the scene at the moment. But that was an eye-opening thing that, OK, you talk out of one side of your mouth that I'm wishing I want to humble man. Out the other side of your mouth, everything you're saying is doing the very opposite. You understand where I'm coming from. So this is the idea that here is this wisdom that is from below. Mere learning, just knowledge in general, tends to do these things. On the other hand, we have a wisdom, well, I better, I guess, finish this up. Notice in verse 16, after he's described this wisdom that descends not from above, He says, verse 16, where envying strife are, and those are the very two words he used back in verse 14, right? Now he says, where envying and strife are, there is confusion in every evil work. Well, the point is, is that this wisdom produces confusion. That is disorder, the word means literally, or we might say anarchy. We have all, especially in the religious realm, that we have all these competing ideas, religious systems. It produces, he says, every kind of evil work under the sun. Every kind of sinful behavior it produces. And the reason is because when we think of the truth, there can only be one truth. How many errors can there be? Infinite number of errors. It's like saying one and one equals what? How many right answers can you give me? Just one. How many wrong answers can you give me to that equation? And so, in other words, once you leave the wisdom that comes down from above, it's a free-for-all. It's this marketplace of competing ideas and competing philosophies. If I am just an earthling, if that's my game, then how do I pick the wisdom, the philosophy that rules my life? How do I pick it? Well, it's the one I like the best. It's like going in a cafeteria. And by the way, in the cafeteria, they don't have just one food. They just don't have strawberry shortcake. But they've got all this variety. Well, guess what? In this world, there's all kinds of competing philosophies out. Philosophy being Well, literally the love of knowledge, but it's the science of knowledge. How do we know what we know? What do we know? How does that knowledge then guide our lives? Well, how do I pick which philosophy I like? Well, it may be because that's the one handed down to me by my parents, and where I came from, that's the way you do things. Could be that. Or more than likely, if you get exposed to a variety of philosophies, what are you going to do? You're going to pick the one you like the best. Give me some names of philosophies. Hedonism? What's that mean? Love of pleasure. Whatever floats your boat, whatever pulls your string. Yeah? Existentialism. I hadn't heard that one since the 60s, but Al, being the child of the 60s that he is, well, anybody understand existentialism? It's a difficult thing, but it's the idea that at least the way it works out on the street is you do things to prove your existence. In other words, the more off the wall, the more offbeat, that then shows that you exist, that you are expressing your existence. And so, the existentialist is the person that does these far-out crazy things. In the 60s, they dressed in crazy colors, combinations, They did crazy things, off-the-wall things, but all of that is demanded by the existential philosophy that I do these things. In other words, it is the opposite of being a conformist. You don't conform to the group. You do these weird offshoot things to show that you exist, and so it's just sort of throwing out all this stuff. All right. What's another philosophy? We have Stoics. epicurean in scripture do you think most people are philosophers do most people think about the philosophy that they let's put it this way let me let me divide that question up do people think about that there is a philosophy of life that is ruling them i don't think most people think that do they have a philosophy of life that is really absolutely maybe materialism Searching, seeking stuff. Maybe hedonism, as we say, seeking pleasure. What's some other possibilities? Power, yeah, what would you call that one? Power hungry, power greedy. Egotism, yeah, the idea of I want to express myself. That goes hand in hand with existentialism. Machiavelli, yeah, well, ruling, dominating, yeah. Okay, well you get the picture that most people have some philosophy that is guiding and directing their life. They've bought into some philosophical system where they know it or not. They may not recognize it, but they're thinking a particular way. The materialist sees that this world is all that there is and he lives accordingly, seeking material things. The pleasure seeker does the same thing in other realms. What we're seeing is that there are myriads of earthly systems that are all satanic. And when I say satanic, you're going to say, well, that means we grow horns and have a forky tail. I don't mean that at all. I mean that it is bought into the idea that I am going to show my superiority over you. I'm going to exalt myself, which is the heart of Satan's fall, to exalt himself from his assigned position. And again, there's just one right philosophy. There's just one wisdom system of wisdom, that one that comes down from above. Well, let's describe it. Notice, first of all, it's pure. And what's interesting, the word translated pure here is only translated pure one other time in the entire New Testament. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the word means either indeed or verily or in truth. It's a strange word, m-e-n, in Greek. Man, it's a strange word. I think it carries the connotation that it's the real deal. It's the true wisdom, or it is, we might say, the right stuff. So, in other words, the wisdom that is from above is pure. It's verily wisdom. It's indeed wisdom. You get the sense of the word? It's putting that twist on it that this is real wisdom as opposed to pseudo-wisdom that comes up from the earth. Secondly, he says, it's peaceable. Now notice that other wisdom produced what? Strife. This wisdom produces peace. It's peaceable. It's peace-loving. It pursues peace. It's not trying to find a fight and start a fight. It's also gentle. And the word gentle is a difficult word to define. Mild, moderate, considerate, all of those things sort of, if you lump those together, that's the idea of being a gentle person. Do you want to be known as a gentle person? I mean, I would think most women do. I'm not sure about the men. You know, we want to be known as, you know, fear me. You know, you better watch out. I'm a bad hombre. In the case of this wisdom is to produce a gentleness. Moderateness. You say moderate as opposed to what? Extreme. Eccentric. This produces a... I think the word considerate is a good way of looking at it. What's our word for considerate? Manners. Good manners. Go a little further. It is easily entreated. And that's a fascinating concept. In other words, it is reasonable. That is, you're able to reason with it. It's approachable. There's an approachability with the person who has this kind of wisdom that's from above. Go a little further. It's full of mercy. And notice, James lumps these two things together, so I will too. It's full of mercy and good works. The idea of a good work goes beyond a righteous work. The man who does a righteous work does what's right. But sometimes we are called to do not just what's right, we're called to do what's good. Jesus went about all Galilee doing good. He didn't just do right, but he was doing good. The miracles he did, the healings, casting out demons, those are characterized as good things. Notice that it is meaning the idea of this is a compassionate person who is touched with the feelings of the sufferings of others. Therefore, he's merciful, full of good works, not just works. And then it is without partiality. Again, the word in Greek is from the root, to discriminate, and it's not to discriminate. It doesn't discriminate. You say, well, what do you mean? We're usually thinking of discrimination in racial terms here in the South. And it certainly involves that, but it's bigger than that. In other words, that we are not showing partiality, that's the way it's translated, that we are constant, meaning it doesn't matter who we're dealing with. The situation that we find ourselves in, we're reacting the same way every time. So it doesn't matter if It's a black man or a white man, a rich man or a poor man, an educated man or an uneducated man. We are constant. We show no partiality in how we deal with others. It's without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy here is the idea of feigning something. And so it is unfeigned, or as it's sometimes translated, sincere. It's not put on. It's not fake. Isn't it interesting how he describes true wisdom, the wisdom that comes down from above? If I'm going to try to describe wisdom to you, I would probably take another tact. I would say the wisdom that comes down from above is smart, intelligent, it's able to discern, and so forth, and instead James is all about the character that wisdom from above produces. You see that? These things are character traits. That the wisdom from above will produce these qualities in your life. Alright? Then he describes it by its effects, and he uses this last little picture here in verse 18 from agriculture, that the sower, in verse 18, I'm sort of doing this in reverse, The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace." Here you have the farmer, the one who's doing the sowing, is himself a peaceable man. His acts, his works are sown in peace. And then finally, the harvest is righteousness flowing from this peace. So, notice over and over, we have this thrust that false wisdom produces disorder, disharmony, fighting, strife, struggle. Righteousness from above produces peace, harmony, concord. See the difference? The Gospel is the only wisdom that can produce peace. The reason, for in Christ, first of all, I am no better than any other man. fellow was criticized by somebody else, called him everything but a dirty, rotten scandal. The guy said, yeah, I'm that and worse. That is, every Christian confesses that he ought to go to hell. Right? In fact, if you don't believe you ought to go to hell, then you're probably not a Christian. That's fundamental. That I'm a sinner, and I'm not just a little sinner. I'm a helpless sinner, I'm a lost sinner, I'm a hopeless sinner, and I'm a hell-bound sinner. If you don't believe that, then you're probably not a Christian. In other words, that's fundamental. Well, how can anybody then be worse than me? Where are you going to go, hell number two? I mean, there's only one. Where are you going to go? How can you be worse than a man headed to hell? Anybody got an answer? I mean, that's as bad as it gets, and that's me, okay? So in other words, there is nobody out there who's worse than me. I'm the worst of all men. And yet, in Christ, I'm no worse than any other man. In Christ, I have everything He has. You say, well, I'm a better Christian than you. You have a better Christ than I have? You're joined to a better Savior than I'm joined to? You understand, in Christ, there is a leveling of the playing field. That no one is worse than anybody else and no one is better than anybody else. That in Christ, we are made equal in Him. Whether we're bond or free, barbarian or Greek, male or female, it really doesn't matter. In Christ, whatever we have is what He's got. And if that's what you've got, and that's what I've got, then do you understand, if envying and strife come about because you're better than me or I'm better than you, Christ does away with all that nonsense. And so He establishes the ground of peace. And we don't have to be bickering and complaining. We don't have to be proving we're better than somebody else. Because all that we are is wrapped up in who He is. You get the picture? And so Christ is the Prince of Peace, no wonder. The One who makes peace between us and God and then bestows peace upon His people. Well, alright. Stop there. Give you a chance to react here. Anybody have any thoughts as we've gone through this? Only one of you can win. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's back to proving I'm superior to you. And we may do that by fist fight. We may do it by our bank account. We may do it by the car we drive, the house we live in. Or we may do it by the knowledge that we possess. But the wisdom... Let me just ask, do you see this dichotomy again? The same thing we were talking about Sunday. This thing from above, this thing from beneath. Here we've got it in James, speaking of wisdom. Or what we would call a philosophy of life. That there is a Christian worldview. There is a Christian way of life. Call it a philosophy of view. And that it is only in Christ that we can then live peaceably in harmony with one another in His kingdom. Because every other kingdom on the face of the earth is built on these other things. Me showing you I'm better than you are. Or at least trying. And envying when you're better than me. If I'm in Christ, I have nothing to envy anybody else. I've got everything they've got. And I'm not superior to anybody else. They've got everything I've got. Because both of us are basically casting away whatever we are in ourselves, and we're laying hold of what... Well, and when it comes to when I say the gospel is the only thing that produces this, I mean the whole gospel. I'm meaning sovereign grace. Because if my standing with God is based on my performance, then I still have the ground to both. I still have a reason to say, well, I'm better than you because I chose to obey Christ or believe. You didn't. But if my very faith is, in fact, a gift of God, if God could have passed me by and left me in my darkness, my blindness, and the guy that I'm condemning had given him the gift of faith instead of me, if repentance is a gift of God produced by His grace, then where Do I have any grounds of boasting? Paul asks, and I always sort of fall back on this passage because it is so cutting and it's so clear. 1 Corinthians 4, 7, where Paul says, asks this question, Who maketh thee to differ from another? Now let me back up a verse. He says, These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes." Remember, he's talking about some of you say, I was baptized by Apollos, among by Apollos. You're glorying in man. And he has used himself and Apollos as an example. He just said that I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase. Okay, so he's using himself and Apollos here to teach them a lesson. Let me say it again. These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes. that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written. And that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. There's that puffed up stuff. Then he says, for who maketh thee to differ from another? Now he's assuming you and I are smart enough to answer that rhetorical question. He's assuming that you're going to realize that what he's saying is God is the one who makes me to differ from another. And that's a very important question, because your answer to that question will tell me who your savior is. If you are the one who made the difference between heaven and hell. Oh, you say, but I couldn't have done it without Jesus. OK. I couldn't have done it without his help. But in the final analysis, I'm the one that made the difference between heaven and hell. Then you're saying you're the one that made the difference. He made it possible. You made the difference. You see? And you become your own Savior. You saved yourself with His help. That's about what it boils down to. But if it is God and God alone who makes the difference between heaven and hell in our life, then we have absolutely nothing of which to boast. And then He asked a second one, if that wasn't enough, He says, What do you... What hast thou? What do you have that thou didst not receive? Name me one thing you have that you didn't get from somewhere. And of course he's talking about a gift of God. You say, well, I'm smarter than everybody else. Well, where'd you get that intelligence? Maybe you are. You say, well, I'm stronger than everybody else. Maybe you are. I'm richer than everybody else. Maybe you are. But where'd you get it? How come it came to you? In other words, he's pointing back to the fact that every good thing you've got in life has come from the Father. It's his gift. You don't have one thing that you didn't receive. And it could have been given to somebody else. They could be the rich one and you the poor one. They could be the smart one and you the dumb one, right? So in other words, you could say, well, I do have a natural intelligence that other people don't have. Most of us think that's the case, right? We're smarter than the guy next to us. Maybe it's true, but where did it come from? Some of you got more stuff than the guy sitting next to you. That's true. Where did it come from? Do you understand? God could have enriched the guy over there rather than you. So down the line we go. Who made you to differ from another? What do you have that you did not receive? And then he says, and if you did receive it, why dost thou glory boast as if thou hadst not received? Why are you bragging, boasting, as if you were the reason? Is it hitting you? like a sledgehammer between the eyes, there's that difference between the gospel truth that comes down from heaven that puts me in a completely different perspective than the wisdom that rises up. And therefore, if I truly believe that all that I am, to use Paul's words, I am what I am by the grace of God, if I truly believe that, then I have no reason to go to war with anybody. I'm called to live at peace, pursue peace, harmony. To esteem you, as Paul would say, better, if anything, better than myself. To look on your things rather than my things. That means to look, not just envy your things, but to look out for your things. So there's that difference again. This thing that comes down from heaven, we call it the gospel. It's this revelation, this knowledge, this truth. I keep coming back to old William Huntington. a strict Baptist preacher back in the 1800s. And he always signed his name William Huntington, S.S. They asked him, what does that mean? He said, well, he said, I didn't have enough money to go to school to get a D.D. or any of those other degrees, so he said, I just signed my name S.S. It means sinner saved. He says, I am a sinner made wise unto salvation. That's my only credentials. William Huntington. epitaph, right? I've been made wise. Alright.