worldly wisdom last week. And as we looked at worldly wisdom, we saw how morally deficient it is. It is earthy, sensual, and devilish. I want to give you a story, kind of introducing where we're going with the wisdom of God, which comes from above quite a few years ago. In 1975, a friend of mine, and let me tell you I was not living godly during that time, a friend of mine, and that friend was not too godly neither, we hiked the Grand Canyon. I've told this story before. Some may have heard it. Most probably have not. In the Grand Canyon, there is two major trails. There is the South Kabob Trail, and there is also the Bright Angel Trail. And so what we did, we got a map and we looked at the trails and we kind of tried to figure out which way we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. And looking online, if you look up the Grand Canyon, you'll find those trails and it would recommend that if you're going to do a one-day hike, which is what we did, you need to be fit and fast, which neither I nor my friend were qualified in those areas. So as we looked at the map, what happened is like the South Kebab Trail was 7 miles down. The Bright Angel Trail was 9.5 miles down. Now we got our two boneheads together and with worldly wisdom, we decided we'll do the 9.5 first because that's the longest. Well, that was the side that had shade. It wasn't as steep. When we came to the rim of the Grand Canyon, it is one thing that literally made me gasp. It was so vast. I was in awe. I knew it was not evolution. I was just in awe of the vastness of this massive canyon. We started around the Bright Angel Trail around 10 a.m. in the morning. We got down it pretty fast, nine and a half miles, because I know we look crazy, but what I started doing y'all gonna think I'm crazy when I tell you what I did. I literally skipped down because you could glide, because you know when you're on an incline, you kind of jump, you kind of, you go a lot farther. And so, I would probably look like two crazies gliding down the Grand Canyon, everybody else was just hiking, you know. I'm sure some people made fun of us. That's irrelevant. We got down to the bottom of the canyon, quite quickly. I mean that's for a nine and a half mile hike. And at the bottom of the canyon is the Bright Angel Camp. And they got a little campground there and they got a bridge that crosses back over going over to the other trail. And in that campground I got introduced to cactus. from the backside. Anyway, that was my first experience with a cactus. So when we crossed the bridge, crossing the Colorado River, we were going up the South Kabab Trail. And as we start going up that trail, there was one sign that said, four canteens of water is required per person. I had one canteen, my friend had zero, so we had to share one canteen of water, which required eight. This side of the Grand Canyon, as far as going up that trail, was all desert. No water, no brakes going up. At a seven mile hike, compared to nine and a half miles, you would not believe what the steepness of climbing up, what difference it makes, if only we'd had reverse the order of what we did. Nevertheless, our ignorance and our lack of wisdom took us up the desert side. About halfway up, man, our water's out. There was an emergency phone on the side and I was very tempted to pick that phone up. There have been people who literally died going up this desert side simply because it gets so hot and no water. By the time I got to the rim of the canyon with my friend, I kid you not, it's the only time in my life my legs from all the way down were nodding up. You could see them jumping. Every muscle in them were just tensing up, just constant tensing up. The very first person that drove by was a woman in a van by herself, and she stopped, and she says, I can see y'all are in trouble. And we were. We were in some great dehydration, misery, and needless to say, I did not make it out. I'm somebody you're looking at. I'm a figment of your imagination. No, I'm kidding. The Lord did deliver me from that, but I guarantee you I would never do it in the order I did it in that day. the lack of wisdom, youthful wisdom back in that day and time for me was very earthly, sensual, and devilish. I had not much wisdom. Now whether I have wisdom in our day and time now, I do believe I have much more simply because I know the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we see in verses 13 through 16 in chapter 3, we see the foolish wisdom that this world offers. But when you get to verse 15 and 16, it says, this wisdom descends not from above. It's earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. That's earthly wisdom. And there's a lot of earthly wisdom in this world today. And Christians can be influenced by that earthly wisdom. May God help us not to be. What James does, he contrasts this earthly wisdom with the wisdom that comes from above, the wisdom that comes from God, this heavenly wisdom. I want you to notice in verses 17 and 18, the Word of God says, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." What James does, he contrasts the earthly sensual and devilish, with that which is pure and peaceable and gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." Here I want you to notice that what James is doing, he's showing that by good works it shows forth that you're a child of God. And what he's doing here with wisdom, he's showing that wisdom that comes from above, it shows that you have been born of God. It shows that you have true wisdom which can only come from knowing God. Because when you know the Lord, It has a life-changing effect and impact upon your life, the way you think, the way you act, the way you live your life. You remember what we said last week? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Here's what's lacking in our nation today. Throughout the world is a lack of a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I believe the fear of the Lord is the beginning of salvation because the fear of the Lord teaches us to hate evil and to love righteousness. It's a holy reverence toward God where we hate all that is ungodly and we love all that is righteous and that is good. Jesus taught down this line when He is teaching with the Sermon on the Mount. Listen to what He said in Matthew chapter 7. In Matthew 7 and down in verse 21, Jesus said this, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And you remember what James says, faith without works is dead. Jesus is saying you must do the will of the Father. Now, we are not preaching and teaching that this is a work salvation. What we're saying is that what comes forth when one has trusted in Christ, they are going to produce good works. You do the will of the Father, but it's only after you come into a relationship with the Son. After you come into a relationship with the Son, you produce good works. So Jesus goes on to say and says, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Therefore, whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which buildeth his house upon a rock." Now notice what Jesus is saying. Those who hear his words and implement or do his words, they are wise. You see how Jesus equates salvation with wisdom. The Word of God says, when this wise man built his house upon the rock, you know how the children's song goes, you know how the scripture goes, the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that hears these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one, having authority, and not as the scribes. I want us to notice here. Heavenly wisdom comes when you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. When you turn from your wickedness and you believe by faith that Christ died for my sins, was buried, and He's risen again. He's coming back. We believe Him. That's when wisdom starts. That's the fear of the Lord. James describes this wisdom. And I want you to notice what he says. He says, The wisdom that is from above is first what? Pure. Now when James is talking about this wisdom that comes down, he makes it preeminent that this wisdom is pure. Now what is he talking about? If you look back in verse 15, it's talking about a moral deficiency. This wisdom that descends not from above, it's earthly, sensual, and devilish. That means it's without morals within that wisdom. But the wisdom that James is talking about is pure. That means it's morally pure. I want you to look back in are over a couple books to 1 John. In 1 John, Jesus is described as this wisdom as being pure. Notice what it says down in verse 3. Every man that has this hope... What is this hope? That Christ is coming again and He's going to appear. Every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure, as Christ is pure. This wisdom has a purifying effect. What it does to a child of God, if you are a believer in Christ, here's a telltale mark that your faith is genuine, is that the wisdom that you have and how you live your life, it is pure. In other words, you have pure desires. I'm not saying you're perfect. I'm saying you have pure desires. You desire to do the will of God. That's what James is saying. You live in such a way that you desire to please the Lord your God. Notice what it says in chapter 4 in verse 8. of the book of James. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hangy sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Purify. Have a singular heart and purpose to serve the Lord your God and to glorify Him, to live to do His will. James says this wisdom that comes from above is first pure. And then because of this pure wisdom, what flows out of pure wisdom is these other seven characteristics that he describes wisdom by. Pure wisdom. I want you to notice. James is going right down hand in hand, line in line, with the Beatitudes. You remember what Jesus said over in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They shall see God. The pure in heart shall see God. That's pure in wisdom, pure in desires, pure in motives, and singleness of heart desiring to do God's will. Let me ask you, are you pure in heart? I'm not asking you, are you perfect in heart? There is a difference here. Are you pure in heart? Let me ask you, are your desires pure? Are you pure in your thoughts, in your words, in your deeds, in your devotion to the Lord? You know what? That's where we as Christians need to check ourselves. We need to question ourselves. There are times we slip. There's times our thought life goes places where it should not go. There are times we say words we should not say. Do deeds we should not do. We need to check ourselves. Is the wisdom that we have, the way we live our lives, is it pure? Or does there need to be some changes? Out of this pure wisdom flows, notice what it says, what comes after that, then it's peaceable. In other words, It has a peaceful spirit. I find this very interesting. When you have the wisdom of God, when you have that wisdom which comes down from God, He gives you peace with that wisdom because it's pure first off. Listen to what it says in Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians, the second chapter, And down in verse 14, for he, that is Christ, is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. It is Jesus Christ that has made peace with God the Father on our behalf. He is our peace. Because we have peace with God, we have peace. Because we have peace with God, we have peace with one another. It is a peaceable fruit that comes from wisdom. It's not as the world gives. The Lord gives peace. Peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Jesus gives peace. He promises peace to the believer. We can have peace in the times of turmoil like we're going through right now. Oh, how Isaiah pops in my mind over and over again, chapter 26, verse 3 and 4, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed or stayed upon him, because he trusteth in thee. Trust in the Lord, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. You can have peace no matter what's going on in your life. You remember the Beatitude? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Notice how this wisdom is coming from Jesus' teaching as James, who is our Lord's half-brother. In Ephesians 4, down in verse 3, the Word of God says, endeavoring, working, striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, those who are believers strive for peace. They work for peace. They don't like to be caught in confrontations. They don't like to be boisterous and calling people down and yinging at people. They love peace. I want you to notice the next word in our context here. But the wisdom which comes from above is first of all pure and then peaceable. The next word is a very difficult word. It is the word as translated by King James and also the ESV is gentle. But that's not the normal word for gentle that's translated gentle. This Greek word It's the word epiekes, which is a rare word. It's the only time used here in the Greek. It has a very difficult meaning. Translators have wrestled with this word. Pretty much what it comes down to, what it is saying, it is talking about when a person is wronged. When somebody does you wrong, you yield. You surrender, you forfeit your right to that which is your right. You forego the wrong. It means one who is wrong, they forgive. They are courteous. What they take into account, they can take into account the other person's weakness, the other person's sinfulness. It's like when you're driving down the road and somebody cuts you off. You take into consideration they might have an emergency. They might have a major problem. They might be a jerk. I mean, that's automatically what we think. But they might have a legitimate concern and they might have some serious issues. You take into consideration the other person. It's being kind and thoughtful, not vengeful. That's what this word gentle means. Not full of hate. This wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, and it's easy to be entreated. I find this very fascinating that this wisdom, this godly wisdom, It's easy to be entreated. You know what that means? It means willing to submit to reason. It has been reported that our president got a report back about a month ago that Afghanistan would fall quickly. He was not easily entreated. He did things his way. There are people suffering immensely. I don't know how many people have seen the video clip of the mothers who are handing their babies over double wire fence to soldiers to get them out of the country. They wanted something better for their children. I read one report of a British officer that was helping an American. An American officer confronted him and told him to stop it because you're making America look bad. Let me tell you something wrong with our nation, drastically wrong. When our soldiers who give their lives to defend our country When our leaders turn their backs on our people, and let me tell you, our leaders have turned their backs on us, we've got major problems. Is this part of God's judgment? Yeah. Sin is ruling and reigning in certain areas. May God have mercy on us. Wisdom that comes from above is willing to submit to reason. It's easily entreated, is what the Word of God is telling us. It's willing to yield. It's teachable, having a teachable spirit. It's the opposite of being foolish and obstinate. which causes so much problems in our world. When one is not easily entreated, that means they're so obstinate in their ways, they can ruin marriages. They can break up homes and break up relationships, and they can destroy nations. But the wisdom that comes from above, which is what we need, is easily entreated. It's full of mercy and good fruits. If I were to say what this means, mercy and good fruits, it means mercy with clothes on, compassion with clothes on. In other words, having such a compassion and love for others that they're not going to sit back idly, but they're going to produce good fruit in helping those that are in need. That's what mercy is, it's compassion in action. Oh, how we need more of that. Brother Wayne Sparks shared with me a news article he read about how many nurses are quitting because their compassion is hardened so much toward those that are suffering. Oh, how we need the wisdom that comes from above. This wisdom is impartial. It does not show partiality. It is consistent. It doesn't show favoritism toward the rich like we looked at back in chapter 2. It's not partial in yourselves and becoming judges of evil thoughts as James said back in chapter 2 and verse 4. It's impartial. It's consistent in how it works and how it acts. It's without hypocrisy. This word hypocrisy comes from the word hypocrite. Hypocrite was the word used back in that day and time in the Greek for someone who was a play actor. It was somebody who would actually have a face made up on a board and they put the face in front of their face to play the character. In other words, that was a hypocrite, somebody who's pretending to be somebody else. Wisdom from above does not play the hypocrite. In other words, it means without a mask. It means being genuine. I remember years ago, Sister Barb Johnson said something about Why should I trust you as a pastor before she joined her church? Why should I trust you as a pastor? It hasn't been many years ago. I looked at her and I said, you know, what you see is what you get. Respect is earned. Are you genuine? Are you put on a front, put on a mask in front of other people? You're a hypocrite. All of these results of this wisdom, I want you to notice marked first by purity. Pure motives, pure thoughts, pure actions, pure in your ways, and that's what we need to check on ourselves consistently. This ain't something that we just check on once every year or two, it's every day. And what happens, the results are seen in verse 18. It's the principle of reaping, sowing and reaping. What you sow is what you're going to reap. You sow to the wind, you're going to reap the whirlwind. The Word of God says, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Now did you hear what the Word of God said? The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. How many of you sow fruit? How many of you sow seed? Now it's natural to sow seed to get the fruit. But here the Word of God says, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Sowing and reaping. Righteousness is equated with wisdom. As you live your life, You sow in righteousness. You sow in wisdom. The fruit of that wisdom, the fruit of that righteousness becomes seed to produce more righteousness. The more you sow the wisdom of God, the more it'll produce the wisdom of God. You want to grow in the wisdom of God? What you got to do is you got to ask. Like it says back in chapter 1 in verse 5, And God, who upbraideth not, will give and give. You want to sow in wisdom? You need to share Christ with the lost and dying world. And you know what? Then they can learn the fear of the Lord and depart from evil and love righteousness. When one sows the fruit of wisdom or righteousness, It becomes seed to produce more righteousness. What do you have? Let me ask you this morning. Is it earthly wisdom? Earthly? Sensual? Demonic? Nobody would say, yeah, that's mine, huh? Let me ask you, is your wisdom the opposite of that, pure, peaceable, gentle? easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. This morning, heavenly wisdom, wisdom from above, comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. As you believe upon Christ, you learn the fear of the Lord. You've departed from evil, you turn from your sin, and you love righteousness, you love the things the Lord loves. Which wisdom do you have this morning? We're gonna give a hymn of invitation. I ask you simply to respond as the Spirit of God is working in your heart and your life. If you know not Christ as your Lord and Savior, would you surrender your life to him? Let us stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, each and every one of us here today stand in need of your wisdom, your guidance, your spirit leading. We are a needy people, Father. So we're calling upon you as your word tells us to. that we need to ask you for wisdom. And Lord, we believe that you hear our cry. We pray that you'd help us to sow the fruit of righteousness in peace. We pray that you would take your word and use it in people's hearts and lives even as we speak. Lord, only you can change the hearts, work effectually and mighty, for Christ's sake. Amen.