Book of James, Part 4

Okay, now we go to the blue notes. The book of James, I think, is one of the most meaty books in the Bible. When I say meaty, because it contains so much in it, that's practical, and he gives a lot about practical Christianity. And you'll find here, he begins in the first part of this chapter talking about the use of the tongue. But from a particular perspective, let's notice.

Verse 1, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. Now, anyone who claims to be a teacher of God's Word and way of life is going to be held to a higher standard, a stricter judgment, as it says. You see, back at this time in the synagogues, the Jewish synagogues, especially those of the diaspora, virtually any male could get up and have the opportunity to speak in services and teach and expound the Scriptures.

This is why the Apostle Paul, as he traveled all over Asia Minor and Greece, whenever he went to a Jewish synagogue, would probably put on his rabbinical garb. And they would ask if anybody wanted to speak, and Paul would hold his hands up. And I'm sure he headed down pat, after doing it dozens of times, that he would have, I'm sure, a lead-in talking about the promise to Israel, the Messiah, and what God said.

Do you realize that God has answered our prayers? And then he could get off into this, showing that Christ truly was the Messiah. Now, it's likely that this custom carried over into the early New Testament church. And you'll find that the Apostle Paul had to address in 1 Corinthians 14 as an example, about people just popping up and speaking in church.

And he showed that, well, there should be two or three, and everything should be done decently and in order. But James is showing here that not everyone is suitable for this position or this responsibility or this duty of teaching. Just because you were male doesn't mean that you should be one who is teaching. The problem you find in any organization has certainly been true of God's church over the years. People often desire position. They desire to become what they perceive as being prominent, while failing to recognize their own motives and their own limitations. The word here for teacher actually means teacher or doctor or master.

A teacher is one who should make a difference. Teachers are going to have a stricter judgment. You might ask the question, why? Because they have the opportunity to influence people. And when you are in a position to influence people, you better be careful about what you say.

Because you can influence people for good or you can influence people for bad. What about Hitler standing up in his ranting and raving and moving a whole nation to go to war? What about Winston Churchill in the Second World War, who galvanized the English people and helped them to stiffen their backbone and to stand up to the Nazi tyranny? Well, you find that words can help or they can hinder. Teachers have to watch their facts and words because generally if a person is put into a position of authority as a teacher, given that responsibility, you assume they know what they're talking about.

And so people believe those who are in those type of positions. So you don't state confidently what you know if you don't know it. I've heard people get up and dogmatically state things and I've studied that before and I asked myself the question, how did they come up with that? Because I don't believe you can prove that one way or the other. And so you've got to be able to base what you teach clearly on what God says. If it's my opinion, I need to state it's my opinion and my opinion is no better than your opinion.

If my opinion is I like white cars, your opinion is you like red cars with yellow stripes. Now I might think that's sort of yucky, but who's to say whose opinion is better? They're just opinions. But that's why we have to be held accountable. You see, teachers are held accountable. You find teachers have two responsibilities. We must be careful that we teach the truth and not our own opinion or our own prejudices, because it's easy to give your own opinion and your own prejudices, and must take care that we don't contradict our teaching by our life.

Now that simply means that if you say, well, brethren, we ought to be tithing, and you don't tithe, that's a contradiction. If you say we should keep the Sabbath and you're not keeping the Sabbath, that's a contradiction. You can't say, do as I tell you, don't do as I do. And see, that's where sometimes parents get into trouble. You know, parents may tell their children, well, don't you do such and such, and yet they're doing it.

So our words must emulate action. Now in verse 2, he says, for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, or a complete man. So I know I'm not perfect yet, because if you, it says here, if you don't stumble in words, well, that's something we all do. If he is, he's able to bridle the whole body. Now the word stumble is not merely to declare that all human beings make mistakes. You know, sometimes we tend to justify things that we do by saying, well, we're all human.

We all make mistakes. And so we just sort of sluff it off with that. The literal meaning here is to stumble in verse 2. And both in the biblical sense and the extra-biblical sense in the Greek writings, it was used figuratively to refer to the acts of sin. Notice verse 10 again of chapter 2. We just referred to this. Whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of all. So he's obviously sinning or breaking the law. So the author declares the universality of sin, even for believers, and shows that it doesn't matter who we are, believer, non-believer, we all still sin, don't we?

We all break God's law. So the person who is never at fault with his tongue, never commits any sin by what he says is a perfect man.

Now, if you could ever find someone like this, then he would never sin in other ways either. I mean, he would be a perfect man, but guess what? I haven't found him yet. I've looked for him.

And I haven't found him because we all sin. We all say things wrong. We all misinterpret things, our gossip, our misuse, our tongues, and in a way that hurts others.

So there are none of us who are perfect in that way. Now hold your place in Jane. So let's notice over here in Matthew 12, verse 37. Matthew 12, verse 37. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

So by our words, sometimes we don't stop and give enough thought to what we say or we're going to say. We just sort of blabber on, and we run off at the mouth, and we say things, and we don't give enough thought to what we're saying. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, as we'll read. If we can control our tongues, then we're more mature, and we can control the rest of our bodies. Now, Matthew chapter 19, verse 26, you might ask the question, how is it possible for us to do this?

Well, the answer is explained here.

The disciples asked who can be saved, but the principle applies.

Jesus looked at them and said to them, with men this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. It is impossible for a human being by himself, without God's Spirit, to truly control his tongue and be perfect in that way. But God can help us. We can begin in that direction. We can begin that process, and we should have a lot more control in that way.

In Psalm 141, verse 3, notice how David prayed Psalm 141, verse 3, Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, and keep watch over the door of my lips.

Do not incline my heart to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity, and do not let me eat of their delicacies. So we need to ask God to help us to watch what we say, to be cognizant of our words and the impact that they can have on other people.

As Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse 6 tells us, Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse 6, Do not let your mouth cause your flesh descent, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error.

Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?

You see, how we use our tongue can have lasting effects.

Words cannot be taken back.

How many times have you said something, and as soon as you said it, you said, Uh-oh, I shouldn't have said that. I wish I hadn't said that. But guess what? You did say that.

I will never forget one of the, and I think I've used this illustration before, but it perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about. We had a local elder back in the Uniontown, Pennsylvania Church, back somewhere around 64 or five, somewhere through there, gave a sermonette.

And he was talking about two buddies in the Marine Corps, and this really happened.

And they would, every time they'd see each other, they'd fast draw. They both had officers, they carried a gun on their hip, and they would try to see who could pull the gun the fastest, like they were in the Old West. Well, one day, one of them pulled his gun and accidentally shot his buddy, killed him. And his point was, he would have given anything to take that bullet back.

If he could have taken that bullet back and saved his life, he would have done it.

But our words are like bullets sometimes. Boom! They shoot into other people, they hurt people, they can harm people, or they can uplift people, they can encourage people.

So the point is, we need to think before we speak. We need to realize what our words can do to others.

There are good uses of the tongue. One's for chewing food. That's a good use. We chew food.

But how about compliments? Complimenting people? Encouraging people? Singing?

Proper rebuke? Induced season? Open communication? Praise? Support?

Counseling? Gratitude? Inspiration? Comfort? Teaching? Preaching? Passing on good news?

Conversation? New? Let's uplift it. There are many ways that we can use our tongue in a very uplifting and very positive way, which we should. So we have to be very careful. In verse 3, it says, Indeed we put bits in horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. And look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.

Now, a horse is normally a high-spirited, intelligent animal. And you can walk out, you know, jerk his head around, and you know, he'll run, or if you try to get on him, he might try to throw you off. But you know what? You can put a bright-owned bit in its mouth.

You can control that horse. You can go this way, you can go that way.

I grew up again on a farm, and we used to have horses that we would plow with, we would plant with. And you know, you'd have reins back here, and you'd pull whichever way, gee-haw, you wanted them to go. You'd pull back to stop them, you'd slap them to get them to go.

And you know, you could control that horse. A bit is very small, but it's just like the tongue, is it not? It, the tongue, can get the rest of the body into a lot of trouble.

How many people, because of what they have said, have ended up with black eyes? Teeth knock down their throat, a broken jaw, or just plain knocked out, beat up, you know, whatever it might be. Well, our tongues are like that. They get the rest of us into trouble, the rest of the parts of the body. But if you can control it, maybe small, but if you can control that little three to six inch item in there, then you can exert a lot of power with it.

Same thing is true here in verse four. It uses the example of the rudder. Here you have a huge ship, and yet here's a little rudder that can steer that ship and direct the direction that it's going in.

And it can do that in the midst of strong winds.

And what you find is our tongue can influence a great mass of people, or, you know, in whatever way. A person's entire course of life can be altered by how he uses his tongue, whether he uses it for good or he uses it for evil. Our problem is this, and I apologize for the burbage before I say it. We can have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.

See, that's our problem. We run off at the mouth, and the brain is not engaged in what we're saying.

So it shows that a bit can control a horse, a rudder can control a ship, and yet who can control this little tongue that's within us. Verse 5, even so, the tongue is a little member and boast great things. Oh, how people like to boast about what they've done, who they know, their accomplishments. You will boast great things. See how great a forest fire, or forest, a little fire, kindles. Well, like the bit in the rudder, the tongue, though small, can exert a great deal amount of direction and control. You find a tiny spark can destroy a forest that has survived for centuries, and the tongue can exert a destructive power and influence. Small cigarette, a spark from a campfire and dry leaves. The first thing you know, hundreds and thousands of acres can be destroyed. So James is not advocating silence. Sometimes people think, well, therefore I shouldn't say anything. He's not advocating that you and I should be death mutes and not say anything, but what he is advocating is a wise and careful use of the tongue.

So it is not any strange thing as we progress through this chapter that you will find that he progresses from the use of tongue to what? Wisdom. Because the two go hand in hand.

The wisdom is going to guide and direct many times how we use our tongue.

Now, we can have the fire of misuse. You know, you can have somebody who comes up and calls you names, strikes you, wants to fight with you, and you can ward off these blows, can't you?

I mean, you can put your hand up and you can ward the blow off or you can push it aside, or you can push him, or you can, you know, take off. So you can sort of defend yourself against that and avoid it. But how do you stop malicious words? Or scandals or untrue stories that are told?

Maybe they're by somebody hundreds of miles away, or you don't even know they're being told, and they can cause infinite harm to people. There's nothing so impossible to kill as a rumor.

You get a rumor started and it can sweep the whole nation. And as you know, with the internet, people see something on the internet, and it's gospel to them. And so we have whole websites set up today concerning urban legends or urban rumors. Sometimes you find things that are going around and pass this on. And so if everybody passes it on to eight or ten people, pretty soon millions have received this. And it's a falsehood. So you find that rumors get started that way.

Before we speak, remember that once a word is spoken, it is gone from our control. While it is still here, you have control over it. Or you may say it and you can say, well let me clarify what I just said. I didn't mean. I can see where that could be mistaken. Let me clarify. What I mean is this. And so you can clarify. You have control over it.

But once it's out there, you can't get it back. But you will most certainly have to answer for it.

It will come back to haunt you. I mean, it will come back. And very seldom does somebody say something that it doesn't at some point come back to haunt you or to bother you.

So going on then, verse 6, he says, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

The word world there is cosmos, an orderly system or arrangement. And what it's talking about is a world of iniquity is that the tongue can completely upset the orderly arrangement of things.

You know, a household can be going along smoothly, a church area can be going along smoothly, the church as a whole can be going along smoothly, and then bingo, something happens, something is said, something is done. And the whole orderly arrangement, you know, everything is just sort of in topsy-turvy for a while. The tongue is capable of causing damage in a great variety of ways. You might say this, there are few sins that people commit that the tongue is not involved in one way or the other. So we have to be extremely careful with the tongue. So the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. It's just like a forest fire. Once you get started, boy, it begins to roar, the bigger it gets, the hotter it gets, and pretty soon you can't put it out. It's a gigantuan fire. So it goes on to say, the tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell.

Word hell here is gehenna. Now, let me read this verse out of the contemporary English version of the Bible. The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body.

So it's going to get the rest of the body in trouble and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. It's sort of like leaven. Remember the principle in the Bible?

Leavening can leaven the whole lump. Well, the tongue can get the whole body into trouble.

And it can play with your psyche, your emotions, you know, you begin to feel bad, wish you hadn't said that, and you go on and on. Well, verse 7 goes on to say, every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed or has been tamed by man.

You might remember back in Genesis 1, 26, 28, God gave man dominion over all the animals, over the whole earth. And man has consistently exercised that power.

And it's not saying that we've gone out and tamed jellyfish or tamed tadpoles or this type of things, but man is in charge. He's up here. And we can tame many of the animals. We have dominion over the earth and the animals. But as verse 8 says, but no man. But no man. Now let me tell you what that means. No man. It means no one.

And I'll say no woman, no person is what it's talking about, can tame the tongue, and I'll add by himself. You and I need help. We need help desperately in almost everything that we do.

For it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.

So James is just simply stating the man by himself cannot subdue his tongue. This is not saying that God can't bring it under control. A converted person should begin to concentrate on this and control what he says by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Then it goes on to say that it is an unruly evil. Unruly evil means not able to hold it back, unsettled, a restless evil.

It's like a ferocious beast that you can't subdue. It's like a caged lion that hasn't been fed in days. And every time you walk by the cage, you know, it's roaring at you. And it's ferocious. And if it could get at you, it would just destroy you. Well, this is the way the tongue can be. It's like an unruly evil. And then it goes on to say it is a deadly poison.

It is a death-bearing poison, deadly bringing. It's like a cobra snake ready to inject its venom. You walk by, gotcha! And so it injects you. Now, that's the way the tongue can be and is without the help of God. So you and I need to pray and need to ask God to help us in controlling our tongues. Now, normally the tongue is going to express what's going on in here.

So the self-control begins back in the mind, in the heart, in our thinking, in our outlook on life.

Now, verses 9 and 10 says, With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. See, this shouldn't happen, he says. So, when it says that man was made in the similitude of God, when we curse man in an essence, it goes back to the fact that we're made to look like God or in the likeness of God, and in essence we're going back indirectly and even cursing God. Now, you'll notice here, he says, With it we bless our God and Father. Now, to the same mouth proceeds blessings and cursings. My brethren, he is addressing a problem in the church. This was a problem in the church in the first century that he's writing about, and over the centuries, guess what? It has continued to be a problem, and it's why sometimes we give a sermon on gossip or we talk about the tongue, and here you find a big part of James the third chapter dealing with this, and it continues to be a problem. Now, verses 11 and 12, James makes the point that even nature shows you cannot have two opposites proceeding from one source, that that goes against nature. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus, no spring can yield both salt water and fresh water. Now, he's showing you don't have two opposites.

What would happen if salty and polluted water and fresh water gushed out of the same opening?

The fresh water would become polluted and unusable. If you add fresh water to salt water, it just waters down the saltiness. Christians are not to water down God's way or to water down evil. Say, well, it's not too bad. You know, everybody else is doing more than this.

One of the problems we have as we get closer to the end time is that we do tend to water down what we wouldn't have even considered years ago that was evil, and we begin to compromise with it.

An olive tree or a fig tree cannot bear fruit that are contrary to its nature.

You don't go, you don't say, go out to the fig tree and get me a banana, or go out to the banana tree and get me an apple. No, they produce different fruit.

In the same way, a salty spring is incapable of producing fresh water.

A man cannot produce fruit contrary to his nature either.

You and I, if all we have is the fleshly carnal nature, then this is what is going to be produced.

But you and I have another nature within us. We have God's nature. We have God's spirit dwelling within us. And now we know these two war against each other.

But God's spirit is in the inner man, and we are to learn to control and to use our tongues in a proper way.

Now we come to verse 13 to the end of the chapter, and as I said, this naturally flows, the use of the tongue. You and I need Godly wisdom to help us in using our tongues properly.

And he talks here as the heading of this says, heavenly versus demonic wisdom.

What you find in this world is filled with demonic wisdom, the wisdom of this age, and not the wisdom of God. Who's wise in understanding among you?

Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

Now when it talks about wise, he's not talking about the Greek definition of wisdom. The Greeks looked on wise men as those who could debate, those who could argue, and those who had the Greek philosophical approach.

But wisdom, as we understand from the Bible, is a practical application of God's word and way of life to our lives. How does this principle apply to me? How does it apply to my family?

How does it apply to the church? How would this principle apply if the whole world were keeping it? And so you meditate on these things and you try to take God's word and apply it. But you get skillful in applying it to practical, everyday living. That's what a wise man truly is.

Now the book of Proverbs was written to give us practical wisdom, wasn't it?

It's just chapter after chapter after chapter. Don't do this, do this. This is what will happen if you obey God and you use wisdom. Here's what happens if you don't. And so he says here, who is wise and understanding? Word understanding means having special skills or talents in a particular area, an expert, one who has special knowledge and training, special know-how, and you'll notice here, it says, let him show by good conduct, that his works are done in meekness of wisdom. Conduct means your manner of life, how you live. These terms are used, or were used at that time, and applied to teachers, to those who instruct it. So James is saying that those who teach God's truth must not only be concerned with what they say, but how they live.

You and I have to be concerned by how we live. Then it talks about meekness of wisdom.

This is talking about the humility that comes from wisdom. You realize that a person who has godly wisdom is going to recognize the value of being humble or having meekness.

He's not going to be all vain and cocky, but he's going to be meek and he's going to have humility, because true wisdom leads to humility. Here's why he's saying to go something like this. Knowledge is proud that she has learned so much. And so there are a lot of people in the world who have knowledge, and they're all puffed up. What does the Bible say? Knowledge puffs up, but what edifies? Love edifies. Knowledge can puff us up. We can say, oh look, look at me, I know so much. And yet the Bible says none of us know anything the way we should.

We're just scratching the surface down here. It's like the earth. You and I are down there in this top soil, and we've got down about half an inch. And there are thousands of miles down there that we haven't even scratched yet, and we think we know so much. Well, we're up here on the surface, scratching around. Well, this is the way it can be. Knowledge is proud that she has learned so much. Wisdom is humble that she knows no more. Actually, wisdom allows a person to know that they don't know.

See, there's a difference. Sometimes people who have a little knowledge are really hurtful because they think they know things. But when you're wise, you realize how much you don't know.

The more I learn, the more I realize how stupid I've been, how dumb I've been, how much more there is out there to learn. And it's a never-ending process. So instead of puffing you up, you realize, you know, I'm not very bright. Look at what I haven't known, and you're always learning more. This past week, as an example, I was in Cincinnati, as I mentioned to you. We went up to have the steering committee of the Strategic Planning Committee interview three companies or three facilitators. And we listened to all of them. All of them would be good facilitators, but there was one of them that sort of stood out, head and shoulders, above the rest. He was a very dynamic type of individual, and we discussed whether we were being influenced by his dynamism, his enthusiasm, or by what he knew. But I sat there and listened to those three individuals, and after I listened to them for a day and a half or two, I realized I don't know very much in this area. Now, these people know so much more than I do, but just listening to them, I learned so much. I learned different things that I know that I could come back and imply in my life on how to make decisions, how to help other people make decisions, and how to cut through all of the phony baloney and get down to what you should be doing. So it was very profitable, and I expect over the next four or five months, I'll learn a great deal from these individuals. Since I'm the chairman of the committee, they've got some courses, and you know, they're going to be working with us hands-on. So I think it's going to be extremely helpful from that point of view. So again, the more you grow, the more wisdom you have, the more you realize you really don't know. Now, going on to verse 14, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above. This doesn't come from God, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

Now, the word envy means selfish zeal, often used to describe fanatical zeal that sometimes people have for a cause that leads to intrigue and faction. Remember the word envy, jealousy, and the word zealous come from the same basic root word in both the Greek and the Hebrew.

Now, the word self-seeking means selfish ambition, a self-seeking attitude bent on gaining advantage or prestige for oneself or for one's group that they belong to. You can also be translated party spirit, full of the spirit of self-devotion. It applies to those who serve in official positions, such as politicians, for their own selfish interest. What do you find most politicians are in it for? They're in it for power. They're in it for the glory, but the power, the prestige is what they're in it for, not to serve. They don't have that generally as their attitude. Again, what you find, it appears that James is addressing a problem with the church and not just what's going on in the outside world. What was the problem in the church? Well, there were factions in the church. There were divisions in the church. Everybody had his own selfish viewpoint. What do you read back in 1 Corinthians 1? There are divisions among you, and Paul said, I partly believe it because one says, I'm a Paul, another says, I am a Peter, another says, I'm a Vipalis. Others said they were a price. He said, aren't you divided and don't you act as men when you do that? So you'll find that there is self-seeking, and that's a proclivity of human nature. Here you have James, who is writing a book for the church. This book is included in the scripture, and he deals on topics that are some of the major difficulties that you see down through the ages that God's church is faced with. Rather than having a humble honest search for the truth, there's always a selfish struggle that people have to have their own way, and then have that our own way enshrined in an official position within the church.

It was officially what we should be doing.

So he says, look, this wisdom doesn't come from above. Now, what does he mean, come from above?

Well, if you remember back here in chapter 1 verse 17, it says, every gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of attorney. So he's referring to God.

He says, whenever you see this type of wisdom, bitter ending, jealousies, self-seeking, all of this, that is sensual. It is demonic and it's earthly. It's of this world. This world is not God's world. This society is not God's society. It is Satan the devil. He is the unseen influence.

There's a difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom. Pure wisdom comes from above.

The word sensual simply means of the natural man. You know, what the natural man does.

It's nature. Worldly wisdom brings selfish ambition, envious behavior, chaos, and evil.

And why do we see so much chaos in the world? Why do we see nations that can't get along with each other? Parties that can't get along with each other? Management and unions that can't get along with each other? Couples that can't get along with each other? Well, each one has their own ambition and they're not willing to really work together. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

Hold your place again. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 25 talks about the way this world is. It says, Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

People think God's way, law, is foolish. Notice chapter 3 verse 19 here in 1 Corinthians.

The wisdom of this world, though, is foolishness with God. And he goes on to say, For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. 1 Corinthians 14.33 chapter 14 in verse 33. We read here, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. So there should be harmony and peace within God's church.

You see, in the world, people will do anything to get ahead.

One party will do anything to stay in power or to get back in power.

They'll put the other party down. Be little, be smirk, twist, anything to help them get ahead. They'll push others down. And in the corporate world, people step on others all the time to get ahead. And they go over them. They'll tell lies about them, anything to push themselves forward.

So we find this wisdom doesn't come from above.

Notice verse 16. For where envy and self-seeking exist.

Now you notice, whenever you see this, confusion and every evil thing will be there. There's going to be confusion and every evil thing. God is not the author of confusion.

Again, 1 Corinthians 14.33. If he's not the author of it, where does it come from?

Satan's world is a confusing world. Satan is confused himself. The word confused means restless disorder anarchy. The most notable thing about this arrogant and bitter wisdom of the world is that it causes disorder. It causes anarchy. That is to say, instead of bringing people together, it separates people. It divides people. It doesn't bring them together.

Instead of producing peace, it produces strife.

Godly wisdom is just the opposite. Godly wisdom does us good.

Worldly wisdom gives people false confidence. How to get ahead? How to be crafty? How to be sneaky?

And to get their aim? The word here for evil says confusion in every evil thing means cheap, paltry, trivial, worthless.

Meaning that it doesn't produce anything good. When people are envious of others, they engage in their own way and it does not produce anything good. It cannot produce a positive result. Verse 17 says, the wisdom that is from above. I want you to notice, how can you tell when there is worldly wisdom, demonic in its influences, and godly wisdom? How can you tell the difference? Well, by their fruits you will know them. Again, you always come back to that. By their fruits you will know whether it's one or the other. The fruits of the world's wisdom, bitterness, envy, strife, sedition, fighting, confusion, evil things. These are the results. Now, before we read this section, let's notice Isaiah 55.

Isaiah 55 and verse 6. Verse 6 here. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the righteous man, or the unrighteous man, His thoughts. Let Him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on Him and to our God and He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not Your thoughts, nor are Your ways My ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than Your ways and My thoughts than Your thoughts. Man bask in his own vanity, in his own thoughts, in his own ego, in his own intellect, in how much he knows and what he knows. And God says, His thoughts, His ways are so much greater than ours, they're as high as the heavens above.

Millions and billions of light years ahead of our thoughts. And yet, man doesn't realize that because we're so sold on ourselves. Well, if we can finally come to realize how limited our thinking is, how limited our ways are, and how great Gods are, then we go to this book to seek God's direction. Because in here, God reveals His way to us that is so far superior above others.

So how do you identify the right type of wisdom? Well, let's notice here.

It says, the wisdom that is from above is first pure. The word first doesn't give you a list, first, second, third, fourth. The word first here means, essentially, it is pure.

It breeds pure thoughts. So one of the signs of godly wisdom is it will give you pure outlook.

It will be the absence of any sinful attitude and motives, the opposite of the self-seeking attitude, wanting to put the self forward. And then it is peaceable.

The word peaceable means peace, having a right relationship between man and God and man and man. Its basic meaning is a right relationship. The true wisdom produces right relationships. The false wisdom produces the exact opposite, envy, jealousy, bitterness, resentfulness, competition, confusion, evil. So it produces right relationship.

There is a wisdom that is clever, arrogant, that separates man from man, which makes a man look superior and have contempt for his fellow men. There is a kind of cruel wisdom that takes delight in hurting others, and that is clever with cutting words and putting people down, belittling them. But the true wisdom of God brings man closer, produces, and is a kind of peace with one another. Now notice going on here, it's essentially pure in its motives.

It's peaceful, peaceable. In other words, it is going to produce right relationships, and then it is gentle. The word gentle implies that it does what is just beyond the written law.

Whenever the law says something, you might remember it says mercy, triumphs over judgment.

Sometimes the law may say, do this. What does the law say about us? You sin, you die, right? But Christ came along and he said, if you repent, I will extend mercy, forgiveness to you.

You don't deserve that, but God extends it. That's what this is referring to, that type of an attitude.

So there are times when we do things that are wrong, and a person comes, and strictly speaking, we should pick a club up and beat them over the head with it.

That's not figuratively speaking. But instead, you extend mercy to that person.

And you have a perfect right to condemn him. You have a perfect right to maybe boot him out.

But instead, you give them another chance. You work with them. You deal with them.

The ability to extend to others the kindly consideration and mercy we would wish extended to ourselves. Because God extends mercy to us every day, doesn't he? In forgiveness, when we repent of our sins. And then it goes on to say, willing to yield. Now notice all of these fruits. Willing to yield. This has to do with being willing to listen. How are you going to yield to somebody else unless you listen to them? You understand them. This means that we have to become better listeners, learners. We're willing to be taught to be listened or to listen to be corrected. The word implies to be easily entreated, easily persuaded. It's the opposite of being obstinate and self-seeking and wanting their own ways. Now I've got to have it my way and no other way. If it's not done my way, then it's not going to be done.

That we're willing to yield to one another. Now don't you find this is what makes a marriage click in one sense? Sure, the husband's in charge. But if the husband takes the attitude, I'm in charge. And if I say it, it is a papal announcement. It's like a papal bull. And if you don't do it, you're defying the word of the pope. Well, it's not that way in marriage. You find that in marriage, you know, yes, if it comes down to having to make a decision, you've laid all the facts out on the table, you still feel it's the right decision, you go ahead and make it. You're in charge.

But aren't there times that we yield to each other?

Aren't there times when you maybe would like to go over here and eat? And your wife said, well, you know, I've really been wanting to eat over here. You yield to her, and you do what she wants to do. And so we learn to yield to each other, to be entreated and easily entreated. Now, it's not saying that a person's a bowl of jello and doesn't have any values and doesn't stand up for anything. That's not what it's talking about, but it's talking about this attitude.

And then it goes on to say, full of mercy and good fruits.

Now, it's talking about mercy for the man who gets into trouble, even if it's own fault, and you extend mercy to this individual. And so it shows that a Christian has pity, has concern, that his compassion is not merely an emotion, but it's also translated into action, that we have mercy. And mercy will lead to good fruits, to action. So there's action connected to this.

Again, it's not, oh, I'm a compassionate person. Nobody around here is more compassionate than me.

No, if you're compassionate, it will be translated into something that you're doing.

Then it says, without partiality, meaning you're not a respecter of persons.

The word actually means undivided. What do you mean undivided? Well, you could seek out people that would help to elevate you, get you to move forward. See, with worldly people, people maybe establish their friendships with those who will advance them. People will help them.

Somebody who will put in a word for them. Be around the rich all the time, because they'll help us. Well, that's not the way that we are to be. We're not to have respecter of persons.

We're not to look at a person and say, well, I want to be friends with that person. You dress as nicely. I don't want to be friends with this person. They don't dress nicely. Or, this person's got a good job. That one doesn't have a good job. I don't want to be his friend. I'll be this person's friend. See, you don't show respect a person. And then it goes on to say, without hypocrisy.

Never pretending. That's what hypocrisy is, being a hypocrite. Pretending.

It simply means that you are sincere and genuine. We will be who we really are, not putting on airs, not pretending, so that you can get what you want. See, sometimes people will put on airs to get. You're too impressed. And then when they're away, boy, they act differently.

When they're out of sight of the other individual. So, if you were to look at these two wisdoms, it would be a good thing when you go home sometime this week, put down worldly wisdom, and put underneath a list of the fruits as they are spelled out here. Godly wisdom, and put a list of the fruits. And anytime you find that you do something or react, go back and ask yourself, which one of these am I following? Which one am I practicing and putting into practice?

Now, notice verse 18 again, a summary. Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So, the fruit of righteousness. The fruit are harvests that is produced.

You find peace and righteousness go together.

They are the result of true wisdom. The wisdom that is from above. On the other hand, strife and evil deeds belong together. They are the result of the wisdom of this earth that is demonical.

To raise a harvest of righteousness, as it says here, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. To raise a harvest of righteousness, and that's what we should try to plant, demands a certain type of climate, a certain type of environment. A crop of righteousness cannot be produced in the climate of bitterness, resentfulness, selfish ambition, and self-seeking. Righteousness will only grow in a climate of peace.

It must be sown and cultivated by peacemakers, just like a farm is, a field in the farm is a field in the farm is cultivated by a farmer. Somebody knows something about farming. Such persons not only love peace, but live in peace, but also strive to create the conditions of peace.

And it's like Isaiah chapter, and we'll finish here, chapter 32 and verse 17 says, Isaiah 32 verse 17, the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effects of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever. This is the way it's going to be in the future, in the millennium, and hopefully it's the way it is in the church now. So, brethren, you and I then have been called to produce righteousness and peace. So, we will stop there, and we will, the next time we have Bible study, we will pick it up, and we will continue on in chapters 4 and 5. Thank you for your attention.