Our Scripture reading this evening is from James chapter 1, the epistle of James chapter 1. James is sometimes called the Proverbs of the New Testament because it has a structure similar to Solomon's Proverbs and has much of this...or similar content as Solomon, especially as we see today in our text concerning wisdom. The theme of James is that works, good works are necessary. and that those works are to be done to show true faith. A couple of key texts that show that theme, James 1 verse 22, "'But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own self.'" And then chapter 2 verse 17, "'Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.'" So, James. Not in contradiction to Paul and Romans and Galatians, which speaks of justification by faith alone. James is emphasizing that that faith, which is alone in justification, that faith will produce good works of things. Now, we read James 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing. Then follows her text using that same word, lacking or lack, as verse 4, a play on words, "'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away." For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth. And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." We read that far in God's holy and inspired Word. The text this evening is verses 5 through 8 of chapter 1. We'll reread those verses. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." This past Thursday evening, your consistory had a meeting. this coming Thursday, your council will have a meeting. You know that as a congregation that your consistory as elders gather together, and then your elders and deacons gather together, and also your deacons gather in a separate time, all once a month so that there are many meetings as the leadership of the church gathers together for the good of the congregation. I want to share with you something that goes on in every single one of these meetings. Your minister, your elders, your deacons pray. At the beginning of each meeting, at the close of each meeting, they pray. Before church, before every service, morning and evening, they pray. Every meeting is characterized by prayer. Those prayers are not merely out of custom just because they have to. Those prayers are those that are prayed earnestly and sincerely where minister, elders, and deacons who have prayed through the week before the meetings for the congregation now gather together as a council, as a consistory, as deacons to pray for the congregation together. And personally, I speak that when I hear these men pray, what is true for my church is also must be true for your church, that these men pray out of love for your congregation, out of love for each one of you. You need to believe that. You need to know that. And they pray because they seek the best for Christ's flock. Here's one thing I want to share with you, too, about their prayers, that mainly. The most frequent petition, perhaps a petition that is prayed in every single prayer in somewhere or another in these meetings, is that petition for wisdom. But wisdom, Lord, give us wisdom as we meet. Give us wisdom as we seek to care for Thy people. Give us wisdom as we now go forth from this meeting and seek to labor. Give us wisdom as the congregation meets for worship. Give us wisdom as we preach the Word. Give us wisdom as we labor among God's people and counsel them. Give us wisdom. There's a great awareness of that need. Today we consider a text that shows that this is indeed what they ought to be praying and need to continue to pray for. For James says, "'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, and it shall be given him.'" But what we see in our text is not only that our office bearers should be praying for that wisdom, but that each and every one of us should be praying for that wisdom. Notice, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men, meaning all kinds, liberally. Wisdom, you see, is a virtue of God that is precious. We know that from Solomon. If you read Proverbs again and again, he will show that wisdom is the great gift that comes from God. Proverbs 4 verse 5, get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth, Solomon encourages his son in the church. Then moving on in verse 6, "'Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. Love her, love wisdom, she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom with all thy getting, get understanding.'" Wisdom is the first, the principal thing, Solomon says. Wisdom is what you need to live a godly life. is what you need to do good works. Wisdom is the character of the child of God that Christ gives through faith that makes what the child of God knows by faith become real in his or her life. If any of you lack wisdom, Let him pray for it, James says. And God says. On first reading in verses 5 through 8, we might miss the connection which James is making with the previous verses. And in James, not every portion of James is connected with one another, just like not every Proverbs of Solomon is connected with one another. But the connection with the previous verses is important. It's related. It's not disconnected. The connection is that of trial, or as our King James Version puts it, temptation. It's referring to the trials of life, the troubles of life, the hardships that God and His sovereignty allows to come upon us so that we fall into these trials. And the exhortation in verse 2 is that as we face these trials, whether it be death, whether it be conflict, whether it be marriage difficulties, whether it be any hardship in life, as we face them, count it all joy. Not find joy concerning the trial of itself, but count it all joy. Meaning, find joy in the gospel as you face these trials. Find joy in knowing that God is sovereignly working through these trials for the growth of faith, for the increase of patience. That's the idea of verses two through four. In trial. In trial, count it all joy, be patient. That's not so easy, is it? In order to do that, James is saying, you need wisdom. You need a lot of wisdom. And so pray for it. As trial presses in on some of you more than others, this trial brings a sense, a real sense of the need of God's wisdom and not my own. James exhorts us, pray, ask of God. Consider praying for wisdom. First, we consider the lack of wisdom. Second, the prayer of faith. And then third, the promise of God. Do you lack wisdom? That's the implied question here, as James says, if any of you lack wisdom. Do you lack wisdom? And every one of us, if we answer truthfully, must say, yes, I lack wisdom. If you're not saying that, then you need to stop denying it. You need to be honest with yourself. We lack wisdom. Whether you're a young person who thinks you know it all or a child who knows he has a lot more to learn, you lack wisdom. Whether you're an office bearer who has a lot of experience in the office or you are a young adult who doesn't know as much about church work, you lack wisdom. Whether you are a woman with a college degree or a man with many degrees, you lack wisdom and I lack wisdom. That's James' immediate point here in verse 5. He makes the assumption that the members of the church lack wisdom. That may not come out as clearly in the English language, but the conditional phrase is constructed in such a way that James means this. If any of you lack wisdom, and you do, then ask it of God. To illustrate, I might say today, if you are in church, children, then listen to the sermon. And that first part, if you are in church, doesn't mean I don't know whether you're here. You're here. It's an assumption that you are here. Now, since you are here, because you are here, now listen. James says in the same manner, if you lack wisdom, and you do. As really as you are here today, you lack wisdom. Then ask it of God." But more than that, not only does James assume that we lack wisdom, the present tense of this text is an assumption that we continue to lack wisdom of ourselves. If any of you are lacking wisdom, he means, and you are lacking wisdom, ask it of God. In other words, God may give you wisdom today as you listen to God's Word and as God's Word works in your heart and the Spirit takes that wisdom of God and brings it to you, God may work that wisdom in you. But that doesn't mean that an hour later you have all the wisdom you need. Or tomorrow when you wake up, you don't need any more wisdom because you got everything on Sunday night. The point is that you need the grace of God's wisdom all the time. You need His grace new every morning. You need His grace of wisdom again and again as you face every decision, every hardship, every question in life, you need His wisdom. I am lacking wisdom. You are lacking wisdom. That is your condition, James says. He makes that assumption. Now as he does this, he doesn't point the finger at you and he doesn't say, you lack wisdom forcefully, you need to repent of it. He doesn't mean it that way, but he puts it in this way to help us examine ourselves. Do you lack wisdom? If any of you lack wisdom, he says, so that we ask ourselves that. Do we? Do I? Do I lack wisdom? And we need to do that examination. We need to ask ourselves that and not answer, yes, because God's Word says I do. Not merely like that. But James, inspired by the Spirit, wants us to ask ourselves, do I lack wisdom as we face the specific situations, the concrete cases that we have before us? So to illustrate, the elders, when they think about this question, do I lack wisdom? They're thinking about their agendas. They're thinking about all the cases they're dealing with. They're thinking not only about the church work, but they're thinking about all kinds of other work that they have in their personal lives, how they guide their wives, how they guide their families, decisions they have to work on the job. And so are you, the problems you're facing with your child, the questions you're asking, how do I work through this conflict in my marriage? What step do I take next as I seek medical help? What should I do in singleness? Who should I date? And James is saying, as you think about all these concrete situations, ask, do I lack wisdom? And the answer should be yes. Yes. I lack it every day. Can you answer that yes, honestly? Proverbs 26 verse 12, Solomon says, see is thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. You know what that means? Solomon says this, he means this, that the man or woman or the young person who thinks himself or herself wise, I don't lack wisdom." While Solomon says, there's more hope for a fool than for you. You are more foolish than a fool, in other words. People of God, I exhort you this evening, recognize that lack of wisdom. To help you to be convicted of this, there are three ways that James impresses this upon us. Three ways. Number one, in order to help ourselves be convinced of the lack of wisdom, James uses that word wisdom when we need to know the definition of wisdom. One reason we might say, no, I'm not so sure I lack wisdom is because we think we have a misunderstanding of wisdom. We forget what wisdom is. Wisdom is not merely knowledge. People of God, Protestant Reformed people, you have taken catechism, you who have gone through Bible societies, you who read your Bible, I understand. You know a lot. You have a lot of knowledge. And that's good. We're not speaking against that. That's a good thing. But our wisdom is more than that. It's more than just knowledge. You might know every single thing that the Bible says. You might have the entire Bible memorized. You may have the whole Bible memorized, every science book, every math book. You may not have all the knowledge in the world combined, put together in your brain, and you still may not have wisdom. In fact, you might be the most foolish man or woman. Because wisdom, you see, is not just knowledge, but wisdom is the right application of that knowledge. It is taking the knowledge and actually using it in your life, applying especially God's Word to your everyday moment-by-moment living when no one's watching privately. Wisdom is a practical virtue, to practice what is preached. For example, children, you sit here in church and you hear a sermon on prayer, and the second point gets to that. We'll get to that soon. You hear a sermon on prayer that you should pray, you should ask God, you should pray for wisdom, specifically. Wisdom is not only to know that. Wisdom is to actually take the exhortation of God's Word to pray and remember to pray, discipline yourself to pray, and to pray in the manner that God calls you to pray. That's wisdom. Doctrine applied. Here's the opposite of wisdom James says later on in chapter 4 verse 17, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Foolishness. Wisdom is to know the good you ought to do and to do it. That's wisdom defined. And when you think about wisdom, is there any of us that can say, yes, my life is fully consistent with what I know? Yes, my life practices everything that is preached and everything that I know from God's Word. No, I lack wisdom. Second, in order to be convinced that I lack wisdom, remember our tendency to the wisdom of the world. James brings up the wisdom of the world in his epistle in chapter 3, verses 13 and following. We'll read that in a few moments, so prepare by turning there, chapter 3, verse 13. The wisdom of the world, however, is not truly wisdom. The wisdom of the world is foolishness, to illustrate. The wisdom of the world is what Satan takes and the world takes. And they know it's foolishness, Satan especially does, and he gift-wraps foolishness with wisdom-wrapping paper, so to speak. He says, here's my advice to you. Here's my counsel. This is wisdom. And you take it from the world, and you look at it, it's wisdom! And you open it and use it, and you realize that was foolishness. That's the wisdom of the world. James gives examples of the wisdom of the world, contrasting it with the wisdom of God in chapter 4 or chapter 3 verse 13. So what's wisdom? One example, meekness in your life. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This, and you can put quotes, wisdom, descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. It's the wisdom of the world. For where envying and strife is, there's confusion in every evil work. The wisdom of the world, which is really foolishness, gift-wrapped in wisdom. James gives two examples here. It's envy. And it's strife, fighting. But often, according to our human nature, it feels like it's wisdom. Think about it. Someone hurts me. What's wisdom? I've got to stand up for myself and teach him a lesson. It's foolishness. Strife is foolishness. But we feel and we're tempted to believe it's wisdom. And there are many examples, many more than what James shows as the wisdom of the world. Verse 17 continues to describe in contrast to the wisdom of the world, the true wisdom. The wisdom that is from above is first pure and peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. without partiality or taking sides, and without hypocrisy. That's true wisdom. Some examples are given by James to give you a few more that are appealing, which seem like wisdom to our sinful natures, but really it's just wisdom gift-wrapped, or foolishness gift-wrapped when wisdom paper. The wisdom of the world says, look at science. Look at intelligent professors. In their observations, they see the world must be old, really, really old, millions of years old. And they teach evolution. And since these intelligent professors have made all these discoveries, that must be wisdom. And we're tempted by that. Sounds wise, but the wisdom of God says the opposite. The wisdom of the world says, if marriage is not working out, if my spouse is mean to me, then divorce. Get out of it. Find someone else. The wisdom of God says very differently. The wisdom of the world says, date whoever you want and however you want, young people. And don't set the boundaries and stick with the boundaries. Don't worry about purity. After all, you have to be with them to know whether you will enjoy marriage in the future. The wisdom of God says, no, such only belongs in marriage. The wisdom of the world says, be proud of yourself. You hear this on TV all the time. Be proud of yourself. Work on self-esteem, self-love. That needs to be the focus. Believe in yourself. And we think, yeah, that sounds pretty good. That's wisdom, and it's not, because God's Word says the opposite. Not a focus on self, but a focus on God. Our problem is not that we need self-love, but we need more God-love. The wisdom of the world says, do what you want, what feels right, and it sure feels like wisdom. The wisdom of God says, no, not what you feel like, but what God says. People of God, don't you see, every single day you and I are inundated with the wisdom of the world, and you feel the pressure. If you don't, you're not being honest. You feel the pressure as the world brings in upon us from internet sources, from diagnoses and reviews on the internet, self-help books, therapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists. Christian psychologists and psychiatrists and ministers, the wisdom of the world is coming in upon us every day. It sounds like wisdom. I'm not denying that. It's useful to consult. We may evaluate counselors of this world. I'm not saying it's wrong to listen to them. Think about what they have to say. But you feel the pressure, don't you, to listen to them instead of the wisdom of God? And therefore, every believer must acknowledge, I lack wisdom. I need wisdom to discern what is true wisdom from what is not. To be convinced that we lack wisdom, we need to define wisdom as a practical application of knowledge. Secondly, we need to remember that the wisdom of the world comes in upon us every day. And third, in order to be convinced that you and I lack wisdom, we need to remember that trial makes wisdom more difficult. That's the context. Remember, James is talking about trial. In trial, he illustrates in the previous verses as something that you fall into, like a pit, like a trap. You're not expecting it, and all of a sudden it's upon you, or you're upon it. Having fallen into this hole in the ground, so to speak, in the way of the Christian life, it's as though you're surrounded in darkness. That's a sense the child of God gets when He falls into trial, hardship. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what decision to make. I don't know where to go. I've got everyone else telling me what to do, and I don't know what to do. It's when you face trial that decisions, wise decisions, are made more difficult. When the stress of work and home hit us, it's very difficult to behave wisely and have patience with our children. When trials of someone else's sins against me hurts us, it's extremely difficult to respond in wisdom in the right way without rash decisions. When trials upon us, the pressure increases to follow the wisdom of the world, and therefore, In trial especially, we say in answer to James, yes, I lack wisdom. But now notice the solution. The solution is not go find a really wise man or even a really wise pastor or a really wise counselor or a really wise woman so that you know what's wisdom. It's not wrong to do that. But the solution first and foremost, James says, is not to go to all the sources of wisdom there may be on this earth, but go to the source of wisdom, and that is God. God. Ask it of God. Seek wisdom of Him. And all the while, even after you seek wisdom from God, as you go to other counselors upon this earth, all the way, as you listen to them, you're seeking wisdom from God. Because you know they're all fallible, men and women, in this life. Seek wisdom from Him, from His Word. James brings up the topic of prayer repeatedly in his epistle. He tells us what to pray for, what not to pray for. He explains how to pray, but notice the first prayer, the first petition that James calls a child of God to make is this, pray for wisdom. During trial, that's the context, during hardship, the first thing we want to ask of God is what? What do we want to ask of God during trial? Well, take away the trial, right? Take away the hardship. Heal me of my sickness. Restore my marriage. Give me a child. Deliver me from my enemies. Remove pain. Bring judgment upon that sinner. Restore my relationships, bring reconciliation, take away this unexplainable depression. I don't want this trial anymore. Make everything better. And we may pray for those things. It's not normal to enjoy trial. But James says. As you understand. That God is actually taking you through trial. for your good. Don't just pray for the trial to be removed. Pray for wisdom every step of the way through that trial. That's the first thing to pray for, that I may apply God's Word so I don't just know it but apply it, that I may put aside the wisdom of the world and only take the wisdom of God, that I may, when the trial makes it more difficult, not walk in folly's way but walk in wisdom's way. Is that your first request? James says this should be your first request and this should be your constant request. Be asking, literally. Be asking. Personally, people of God, When I think I have enough wisdom to take on this or that. When after perhaps a really hard case, something easier I think comes up, I say, yeah, I know how to deal with this. I don't rely on God's wisdom for the easier. as when I fall flat on my face into folly. No situation, no matter how easy we feel it is to solve, we may seek to encounter without depending with prayer on God's wisdom. Children, before you go to bed, you pray. Before you eat dinner, you pray. After dinner, you pray. And you know, in your prayers, you're used to praying, including in your prayers, right? Our Father, which art in heaven, usually, or Lord. Children, at the end of your prayers, you include, for Jesus' sake or in Jesus' name, And often, you remember, I need to pray, forgive my sins, that's necessary in prayer. Now add this to the list to pray all the time. Lord, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. Your parents are gonna make sure you pray that tonight. Give me wisdom. I need wisdom. But pray with faith, in faith. Verse 6, let him ask in faith. Adults, you and I, as much as the children here, need to remember that prayer is not just a folding of our hands, a closing of our eyes, and the using of our mouths. We can do that and not pray. James is pointing to the heart of prayer, the essence of prayer. We pray with an active faith, believing. The prayer in faith is simply, but most importantly, an active faith in Jesus Christ. Do not close your ears to this. This is the most important part of the sermon. This is the gospel connected to every text and every sermon ever preached, or should be, every sermon ever preached. The gospel connected here of Christ and Him crucified. Pray. Believing in Jesus Christ. Pray with Christ in mind. Pray, remembering that Jesus Christ is covering you. Pray, remembering that because of His perfect righteousness, because of His death on the cross, because of His shedding of blood, that's why God hears you. And that's why God answers you, that's the only reason. And that's why He forgives you as you bequest. And that is in Jesus Christ, you see, that all your petitions are answered. The petitions that He believes is for your good are fulfilled. You and I must pray depending on Christ Jesus. Any prayer that is prayed without a thought of Jesus Christ, even though you might say His name, is not a prayer. It's not a prayer of faith. Pray as a Christian. Pray with faith in Christ. with faith in Christ. And secondly, a prayer of faith is not only a prayer of faith in Christ, but prayer of faith in Christ as the giver. That's his identity. See, the identity of God that James brings up here, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God and then to modify God, to explain who this God is, the identifier, identifying phrase of God, the one that giveth to all men liberally. Jesus is not only the one who earns for us forgiveness. He's not the one who only gives us heaven. He's the one who gives us every good gift. He's the giver. He's the giver. God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Jesus loved us so much that he gave his life for us. And knowing that, people of God, that he is the giver who gave us the best, the most awesome gift in that sacrifice. His giving attitude cannot change. It will not change. It does not change. He's always the giver. We know that at the foot of the cross. continues to give. And he continues to give liberally. To pray with faith is to pray with faith in Christ as the giver, as the one who gives liberally, James says. Liberally. That means, yes, abundantly, as we know. He gives a lot. He gives much. He gives more than we ask for. But the second idea that James means is he gives sincerely. That's what liberally means in the original. He gives without hesitation. When you ask, when he decides to give, it's decisive. He's never wondering, should I give? Should I not give? I'm not sure. Never is it that way. It's always here. Yes, I give it to you with all my heart. I love for you. That's the idea of liberally. The phrase abradeth not draws us out. When you and I give, we might abrade, meaning we might speak reproachfully in our muttering, in our murmuring, sometimes under our breath, sometimes out loud. A child asks for something and we say, here you go. Don't ask again. Here you go. Man, I'm giving a lot and not getting much in return. You're giving the offering plate, perhaps. You say, man, I hope those deacons know what they're doing with my money. That budget's too high. No, when Christ gives, it's not like that at all. He gives in love, He gives gratuitously, He gives liberally. His hands are open wide. He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? To ask in faith is to pray with faith in Jesus who gives as a giver, who gives liberally and sincerely. Some of you are saying in response to that, He doesn't give me what I want. He doesn't give me the healing I want. He doesn't give me the income I want. He doesn't give me the home that I want. Maybe you ask amiss, as James says later on. To ask in covetousness is not to ask in faith. To ask without trust in Him who knows best what is good for us is not faith. To ask in faith is to ask trusting in Jesus Christ our Lord knows. He knows what is best. Christ's word to us is simply, I love you too much to give you what you want. I love you enough that I won't give you what you want, even if you get angry with me. Because I know it's not for you. It's not for your good. But here's a gift, Christ Jesus says in his word. Here's a gift I will never say no to. Here's a gift that I will always give. Here's a gift that is always for your good. Here's a gift that when you ask, I will give liberally. I will always give, no matter what. Wisdom. Wisdom. I, Jesus Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, I will give you wisdom as you ask it of me in faith." To all men. That's not the common grace idea that he gives, this grace of wisdom to every single man in the globe. No. To all kinds. Young men, young women, he will give you wisdom beyond your years as you ask it of him. He will give you wisdom to you who other people may think is foolish as you ask of Him. Why? Because in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom. And in the way of your asking, He causes Christ's wisdom. to flow into you. Ask it of Him. Nothing wavering, James says. Nothing wavering. Two points briefly. First, without doubt, that's what it means, nothing wavering. James illustrates this doubt as waves of the ocean. Verse 6, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Think of the waves not on the beach, but the waves that rock a boat this way and that. Back and forth, back and forth. The one who wavers is a doubter. He says, I think Christ will give me wisdom. No, I'm not so sure. I don't think he will. I think he can. No, I don't think he will. He can. He waves back and forth, back and forth. James gives a second illustration. A double-minded man, verse 8 says, literally a two-souled man. Do you have two souls? Does anybody have two souls? No. But some act like they have two souls. One soul says, God will give me wisdom. Then at the same time, no, He won't. Such doubting prayers are not praying in faith, James says. 2 James means by nothing wavering sincerely. The wavering man or woman not only wonders back and forth, will God, can God give? The wavering man or woman doesn't really want. Wisdom. Doesn't see the value in it. Would rather want the wisdom of the world. Would rather have it. Doesn't see wisdom as a treasure, as Solomon explains it. Like a wave, he goes back and forth. Yes, I really want it. No, I don't really want it. Like a two-souled man, he says, I want Jesus to give me wisdom. But no, I don't really want wisdom through this trial, especially if I have to face this trial. Such a doubter, such an insincere person may not say then, amen, when he prays for wisdom. Because amen says truly. Truly, without doubt, do I believe Christ can give it and will give it. Sincerely, I want it. In faith, ask for wisdom, James says. And then echoing Jesus' words, the words of His older brother, He says, it shall be given unto you. That's the promise. Ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. That's the promise. It shall be given. Ask truck, and Christ may not give you a truck. Ask for a child, and He may not give you a child. Ask for healing, and He may say no, wait for a little while. Ask for wisdom, and He will give. He will give. Plead upon His promises, beloved. Come to Him and say, Lord, Thou has said in James, and Thou will give. I'll fulfill Thy promises and give wisdom as I face this hardship, wisdom every step of the way because I need it. The promise comes in a negative manner also. When the doubter or the insincere, the waverer, as James puts it, asks without faith, this is the stern promise. Not only he will not receive any wisdom, verse seven. Let not that man think he shall receive anything. Of the Lord. Anything. Nothing good comes upon one who prays. Without sincerity. for wisdom. And verse 8, a double-minded man is unstable then and there is no stability in all his life. That's the reality of many unbelievers in this world who do not have Christ, do not have His wisdom. and therefore cannot and will not ask in faith. They may go through life with all sorts of intelligence, all the smarts, all the right answers, all the self-help books and counseling, may be a respectable person in this world, but they have nothing. They're unstable. because they have not Christ and His wisdom. James' message is that good works demonstrate true faith. And this is one of them, one good work that demonstrates true faith. A true believer humbly realizes he lacks wisdom. and therefore sincerely prays for it, believing Jesus will give it. And then in enjoying wisdom and continuing to pray for it, walks in wisdom's way. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we praise Thee for Jesus Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Through faith, grant us that wisdom from Him. We ask it of Thee, not doubting Thy ability and goodwill and generosity as a giver, the giver of every good gift. We sincerely desire this precious gift through the difficult trials of life especially. Wisdom not of this world, but of heaven above. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.