Well, one of the towering figures of the Great Awakening, the first Great Awakening, I should say, in the 18th century was Jonathan Edwards. And he was a famous preacher and theologian, if you haven't heard of him. His grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, was also well-known. He was a powerful figure in New England. In fact, he was known as the Pope of Connecticut Valley because of the influence that he wielded. Edwards, likewise, his grandson emerged as someone who towered in brilliance and in godly wisdom. However, in 1750, Edwards was dismissed from his own church in Northampton, Massachusetts. This was a church that his grandfather pastored for 57 years, the last two of which Edwards himself helped to pastor as an assistant or associate pastor there. And when Stoddard died in 1729, Edwards took over for the next 21 years. So what happened to prompt his dismissal from that church when there's such a history there with him and his family? Well, rest assured, there's no disqualifying behavior that led to that, nor was there a scandal except for a theological one. And that's what the issue was. Edwards took a stand on a doctrine that proved unpopular with his congregation. and that was the fencing of the communion table. Now, if you have not heard of that term before, Edwards was teaching that communion should only be for believers, that unbelievers should not be partaking in communion. Only those who give credible evidence to their saving faith should participate with the Lord's table. Now, this was contrary to the more inclusive view that his own grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, championed. that even those without a profession of faith were invited to partake in communion as what he would call a converting grace, that is, that it would be something that God may use to bring that person to himself. Well, the congregation of North Hampton had been raised up under Stoddard's teaching on this, and they strongly opposed Edwards' change in this regard. And they voted 200 to 23. 200 to 23 that Edwards should leave the church. Now, This was humiliating, obviously, on a couple of levels. Obviously, this became public very quickly as folks outside the church learned what happened and that this church had dismissed their prestigious pastor. And considering that his goal all along had been just simply to make the church more biblical, And he had been treated so roughly, you might imagine that in the midst of all of this, he might have had a few choice words to say about his congregation to other people. He might have had some words to say to his congregation as parting shots as he was leaving. But you know what? He bridled his tongue. He bridled his tongue. He refrained from speaking bitter or divisive words. And his behavior was so honorable that the church, despite the awkwardness, sheepishly came back to him. And of course they hadn't decided to change their view, but they did ask whether he would be willing to say and supply, pulpit supply, until they found his replacement. And he agreed. Now that shows you just how humble and how lacking of bitterness he must have been to be able to continue preaching at the church that had just kicked him out until they found a replacement. And he sought to be peaceful. even though he refused to compromise on what he saw as a biblical principle. And when the time finally came for him and his family to move on, they left quietly to a small remote town in Stock, or the town of Stockbridge, and there he faithfully ministered to the Indians. And he also wrote a couple of his more influential theological works, including the freedom of the will. His life there demonstrated purity, gentleness, and a commitment to righteousness, while also avoiding marks of envy and selfish ambition. Of course, that leads us to ask ourselves, well, how do we respond when we're wronged? Do we respond with that same kind of grace Do we speak and act in a way that shows heavenly wisdom? Well, that brings us to where we are in James here. We're studying a passage that follows right after James's words about the tongue, about the dangers of the tongue in verses one through 12, and how often the tongue can get us into trouble. Well, this evening we see it's not just the tongue that can get us into trouble, and in fact, there are underlying thought processes that lead to our problems that keep us from achieving the kind of blessedness that we know we should engage in, but when the time comes, we just don't. How, how can we change our behavior? If you have genuine wisdom, it will be seen in how you live. Not in what you say, it will be seen in how you live. And if you want to be people of wisdom, you need to note these three points tonight. You want to note first that we have proof with wisdom, and that's in verse 13, we have proof with wisdom. True wisdom is demonstrated by good conduct and humility. It is not simply claimed. Second, we also need to note that we have a problem, a problem with worldly wisdom. rooted in jealousy and selfish ambition. It leads to disorder and to every evil thing. Third, we can have purity and peace with heavenly wisdom. That's in the remaining two verses. It provides us with a corrective and the exact fruit we need in life. And so let's look at each of these. And first we are noting that we have proof with wisdom. We have proof with wisdom. Who among you, verse 13, who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds in gentleness of wisdom. Again, wisdom is not just something we claim to have, it's something that we demonstrate. We don't need to say that we have true wisdom if we demonstrate it. It would be another way of thinking about it. No, we should demonstrate good conduct and humility. But let's back up and consider first what wisdom is. What are we talking about when we're talking about wisdom? Well, the word wise here is from the Greek word sophos. And of course, that's where we get the name Sophia, right? That is wisdom. In Jewish usage, it referred to someone who is skillful in applying knowledge to practical life. So we don't want to confuse wisdom with knowledge or understanding. That's something that you can learn over time just by studying books or just by just by going to school. Knowledge is what you can know, while wisdom is the ability to apply that knowledge properly to a given situation. Now, we all have the capacity, the God-given capacity for knowledge and wisdom. Some of us obviously can have more capacity than others. Some may have lesser capacity due to just this fallen world. Maybe they have been born with some kind of a mental issue, but they still have the ability for some knowledge and wisdom. We have the ability for it. Some people may be born geniuses, but maybe they may not have a lot of wisdom because they haven't learned heavenly wisdom, or at least it doesn't seem like they know a lot or have a lot of wisdom. Some can have it in abundance though, both understanding and wisdom. In fact, Moses in Deuteronomy 1 verses 13 and verse 15 there, Verse 13 and 15, well, Moses was selecting people who were full of wisdom and understanding. And that's exactly what we would want, hopefully, in those who are leading the people of God. In fact, one study notes here that this combination of words describes a person who lives in accordance with the insight given by God. So this is something we not only have the capacity to hold on to, it's something that God actually reveals to us. He reveals to us what we need to know in order to have both understanding and wisdom. Because wisdom is also something that you can learn. And in this verse, we encounter an individual who might, for instance, say, hey, that's me, I've got wisdom, I've got understanding. Well, do you? Let's take a look at that claim, because there were many people, as the start of this chapter indicates, verse one indicates here, there are many people wanting to become teachers. And of course, that would be something you would want to say if you want to become a teacher. Well, I have understanding. I have wisdom. Well, do you? Let's find out. The exam for discovering such a person is not written. And it's not something that the false teachers who might have been around then or now would anticipate. James says that a person who has wisdom and understanding is someone who demonstrates it shows it by his good behavior or if you have the legacy standard Bible by his good conduct by his good conduct this is just like we saw in chapter 2 take a look at chapter 2 verse 18 Remember, we're talking about two kinds of faith out there. There's a false faith, a faith that doesn't save, and then there's a true faith, a faith that actually produces works in a person. You have faith and I have works, you might say. Well, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. There is going to be some kind of a demonstration So you say how does that happen when the Holy Spirit of God gets a hold of a person and regenerates the heart and that person is Committing himself or herself to the Word of God and to the things of God Yes, that's going to begin to come out in that person's life. That person is going to begin to show some fruit and James James might not be from the Missouri State but he certainly is adopting a show-me attitude show me show me so this should be something that's present if we claim that we have wisdom and understanding it should be something that or it should be a behavior action that aligns with what scripture has commanded And of course, actions are louder than words. I would tell people in the jail ministry sometimes that once they got released from the world, people are going to doubt their profession of a newfound faith. And partly that's because there have been so many people who have lied about that. I said, you have got to show people that you are different. You know, that's true for all of us. That's true for all of us, we have to show people. that we are different. We have to act as Christians. We can't act like the world. These works should be evident. How? How? Well, here we see that it should be evident in gentleness of wisdom. If you have an English Standard Version, it might be meekness of wisdom. Now, There is some debate on this. What does this actually mean? Does this mean, say, a wise gentleness, like we need to have a wise gentleness about us? Or does this mean that we should have a gentle wisdom? I think it kind of washes out either way we read that. We should definitely have a gentleness of wisdom, whether you want to read that as a wise gentleness or a gentle wisdom. There should be something that is visible to people in how we deal with them. We are not overly harsh or overly bearing with people. We don't lash out at people. We don't speak without thinking, or at least we shouldn't. Sometimes we do, though. I know I do sometimes speak without thinking, and we have to repent of that and back it up so that we can have a gentle wisdom about us. Remember what, what James said in chapter one, chapter one, verse 21, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and humility. receive the word and plan it out. We need to have a humbleness about ourselves by receiving the word, which is able to save our souls. Well, the listener of God's word should not only receive the word of God with gentleness, he should also deal with other people with gentleness. Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, verse five, blessed are the gentle. or some translations say meek there. There is a blessing for those who are gentle. Now, as I talk about meekness or gentleness, I do, as an aside, want to point one thing out with that. Meekness is not weakness, right? Meekness is not weakness. In fact, as the MacArthur Study Bible notes, the Greeks described it as power under control. Power under control. That was the original idea, I think, behind the term gentleman. It was a man who, yes, could fight and could defend his family if he needs to, but he operates with gentleness, power under control. That is how we are to operate. Moses, one of the greatest leaders in history, was also described as one of the meekest. That's in Numbers 12, verse three. When we take a stand like maybe Jonathan Edwards had to do, we take that stand, we do so unwaveringly, but we can also temper our language, right? We don't have to be bombastic. We don't have to throw verbal bombs at people. and try to destroy everything. We don't necessarily need to roll the grenade down the middle aisle of the church and just shake things up with our words and our demeanor. Meekness, in fact, is the opposite of promoting self. It promotes another. We should be seeking to bring ourselves under the authority of Christ and seeing him proclaim. and seeing him exalted. Now that's a stark contrast to what we begin to read in the next verse. Understand that there is going to be some kind of evidence present. Now I'm saying that there is proof with wisdom here in the general sense. There is proof with godly wisdom. There is proof with ungodly wisdom too. Because a lot of folks will operate with some kind of wisdom It's either going to be a well-thought-through wisdom that comes from God, or it's going to be a worldly, fleshly kind of wisdom. And that's where we turn next. And we all have this problem. We have a problem with worldly wisdom, a problem with worldly wisdom. Let's look at verses 14 through 16. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, Do not be arrogant, and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. And so just as I said in the previous chapter, there are two kinds of faiths there that are highlighted. Well, guess what? Right here, there are two kinds of wisdoms that are highlighted. There is a wisdom that comes from above, a heavenly wisdom, and then there is a wisdom that does not come from above. It is rooted in jealousy and selfish ambition, and it leads to disorder. every evil thing and when we witness this when we witness these kinds of results in our lives we have to stop and back up and say wait a minute what am I doing that leads to this I'm not saying that every time something gets shaken up it's a necessarily wrong. If there is something false, that does need to be shaken up. But sometimes we're trying to take care of issues with wisdom, and we end up creating disorder instead. We need to back up and say, okay, maybe I'm not approaching this with heavenly wisdom. Let's look at this. First, some may find that they respond to other people with bitter jealousy, bitter jealousy. Now, what is that? The word bitter is used of an undrinkable drink. Now there's a lot that we could say about that, but just think of like ocean water, something that you can't drink and it's not going to satisfy, right? Here we also have the word from which we get zeal. Now zeal can be a good thing. Jesus had zeal. Jesus said that he had zeal for his father's house in John 2, 17. Or at least it said there that he had zeal. So zeal can be a good thing. If you're jealous for God, that can be a good thing. God is sometimes jealous. But guess what sin does? It twists everything. And it twists everything into something bad. Most of the time when we are talking about jealousy, we are talking about something that is not good. Even zeal, as sometimes when someone is described as being someone with zeal, or being a zealot, that we're not always talking about something good there, are we? And so this is someone who has bitter jealousy. Obviously with the word bitter there, this is not something that's good. This is something that is twisted by sin. and something that can even turn violent. And this is something that we see an example of, just to give a quick example, Acts 5.17, there the high priest, we read, became filled with jealousy over the teaching of the apostles, and he had them arrested and beaten. So that's an example of what this kind of jealousy can lead to, and of course we can think about this in relationships as well, how jealousy can become toxic inside of a relationship. Well guess what, it is no less better within the Christian church. It can destroy your testimony, it can destroy the relationships that are around you. So we don't need to be seeing this, Bitter jealousy, but we might be seeing it and it's going to come with something else a cohort What's it going to come with it's going to come with selfish ambition not just ambition but selfish ambition Selfish ambition and this is something that will be rooted in the heart Something that's in the heart in fact one example of that is in Romans chapter 2 and I don't have this written down in my notes, so I'm gonna turn there real fast, Romans 2.8. But those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation. And so this is something that you see with someone who is selfishly ambitious, they don't obey the truth, They obey unrighteousness. They have wrath and indignation. And of course, King Saul is a great example of that as he's dealing with David. Oh, David slain his tens of thousands while I've only slain my thousands. Well, let me pin him to the wall with a spear. You know, that's how someone with selfish ambitions sometimes deals with his problems. This is pride at work. And within the church, it results in factualism, cliques, antagonism toward anyone with opposing views. It leads to division. And it all comes from the heart, the inner man. That's what Jesus said in Luke 6. Any of this, by the way, anytime we're reading these vice lists or anything like that, we're reading something that is telling us Problem with our hearts and that's what Jesus said Luke 6 45 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks It does come from the heart What did James say here in chapter 3, verses 11 and 12? Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. There is a problem. with believers who are sending out these mixed signals and in fact even bad signals in many cases. There is a heart problem, a heart problem. We need to recognize that even as believers who have had our hearts changed by the Lord, we still within ourselves have sinful patterns of thinking that we can fall back to and that we can even adopt later as Christians. And so we need to recognize that. We need to see that within ourselves. So James is warning us of this. And he says here, don't boast, don't become arrogant. Don't become arrogant. What does that mean, don't become arrogant? Well, of course, we understand in a sense what that means. Don't become proud, don't become puffed up. That's what Paul told the Gentile Christians. as they looked to the Jewish Christians. Romans 11 verse 18, they should not become arrogant toward the branches. But if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. There are Christians today who speak against the Jewish people. Like I said this morning, well I guess it was Sunday school, we need to develop hearts for the lost. We don't need to be speaking against the people that need to be saved. But speaking out of the mouth, James had to tell them to stop glorying in their sin. That's what they were doing. They were glorying in their sin. They were becoming arrogant. They were using their God-given mouths to promote their agendas. They were denigrating others. They were boasting about how great they were. This is a problem that Christians sometimes have, and it's something that we all fall into to some degree or another. Some might think that they are okay with all of this too. And so James continues, he says, don't lie against the truth. You're not okay. You know, you're not okay. It's not okay what you're doing here. There's a problem. The word of God is truth. We don't need to stray from it. In fact, we need to correct the brethren who do stray from it. You might ask, well, how does one stray from it? Romans chapter one is a great example of that, and verses 18 through 32 there. This is a passage we turn to quite often as we talk about the cultural downgrade, things of that nature. We see there three times God saying he will give them over. Who are the them? They are people who profess themselves to be wise. Ah, just like in this passage, who is someone who's wise with understanding, right? Well, these are people who profess to be wise. Guess what? They become fools as God turns them over. If you operate in worldly wisdom, not turning from it to the Lord, the Lord may just turn you over to it. And what wisdom you have, you'll lose. People have a worldly wisdom, as James notes here in the next verse. He warns that wisdom that such a person utilizes does not come down from above, it doesn't come from God, it's not from heaven. James had previously said in James 1 17 every good thing and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow well in this case we see there's a wisdom that sees value in envy and in selfish ambition. And this isn't the case with a lot of professed Christians. They operate with this kind of wisdom, and they just don't understand. They just don't see how it's disjointed from the Bible. And perhaps the Bible teacher here is someone who likes to engage in it. Sometimes you'll run across pastors, preachers, Bible teachers who like to become shock jocks. You know, there's that pastor who disqualified himself, and he's still around. Mark Driscoll, when he first came on the scene, he liked to throw in a few cuss words just to keep things spicy. Why did he do that? Well, he said, well, this is how the world talks. I need to talk like the world talks so I can communicate to them. That's worldly wisdom. We're supposed to be calling people out of the world. We're supposed to be changing how people talk. We don't engage in the same kind of language that they do, same kind of behavior that they do, but there are some who do. There are Christians who like to get into blue language and publicize that. They promote their beliefs, and they try to tear down others as they do it. Now, I'm not saying there aren't some people who need to be torn down. Don't mishear me. There is a place for godly polemics. But if we're doing this in an unwise way, or if I should rephrase this, if we're doing this in a worldly wise way, then we are not honoring the Lord in how we're doing it. Such self-righteousness arises within the church, and we have to be aware of it. Sometimes it's not just within the church, it's online. If you are someone who engages online, I hope that you watch what you say just as carefully as you would watch what you say with someone in real life. There's a quote, I don't know if it's exactly true, but I think it was Mike Tyson who said something like, some people say things they're not afraid of being punched in the face for anymore. That's exactly what we see online sometimes. If you would not say something to someone standing in front of you, you shouldn't say it to them online because you have the freedom and the protection of the keyboard and the computer screen between you. We want to honor God in how we communicate. Of course, that's what we talked about with the tongue, but this is part of it. If we are engaging in bad language, that is an indication that we are operating with bad wisdom. James gives us a strong adversive here. He says, but, think about this, we are not operating with heavenly wisdom. Instead, instead, we are operating with a kind of wisdom that comes from the world system. It's worldly, it's worldly. Paul's use of the word here, is how he describes enemies of the cross of Christ in Philippians 4. Their thinking is earthly. Why would we engage in earthly thinking if enemies of the cross engage in earthly thinking? We need to get rid of that from ourselves when we catch it in ourselves. This wisdom is limited in scope to what the person sees around them. Look, I only know what I see. Well, the word of God gives us a greater perspective. Take that into account. Another way of putting this is that we engage in a cultural wisdom. We make choices based on what the majority of people around us think. And we say, well, most of the people around me think this, and there must be the way, or this must be what's true. Well, the word of God is here so that we can have a word that transcends culture, that transcends what the world says. In this case, this might even exclude expressions of worldly thinking, crass language for others, the respected secular thinking of the academy, where they might say, okay, well, I don't engage in that kind of worldly behavior. I just respect what the academy tells me, what the sciences tell me. I trust the science. I trust what the media says. Well, that's just a different kind of worldly thinking. We need to be where all worldly thinking. It's not from the Holy Spirit. And that's what brings us to the next term here. Not only is it earthly or worldly, it's natural or unspiritual. It comes from the flesh. In fact, the term can be translated sensual. Sensual, it's of the senses, not necessarily something that we think of sensual as maybe sexual, and that's part of it, but it's of the senses, what we see, what feels right in the morning, or in the morning and at night, what feels right in the moment, I should say. It's animalistic, it's instinctive, it's just whatever we, Knee-jerk too. You know, we could read it as rational. Some people say, yeah, well, I try not to be instinctive. I try to think things through. But if you're not thinking it through according to the Bible, then it's still an earthly, fleshly kind of thinking. In fact, Jude 19 says we don't want to be worldly minded. We want to think according to what God has revealed. So there is a sense in which or I should back up and say, this kind of thinking, in addition to being earthly and natural, it is actually unspiritual. Now, if it doesn't come from the Holy Spirit, of course that is going to be unspiritual. But it also might come from a different spirit, and that brings us to the third term. Not only is this kind of wisdom worldly and fleshly, It's also demonic. It comes from the devil. The demons are working to make sure you stay confused about life and godliness. Where does confusion in your life come from? It doesn't come from God. And so you're introduced mysteriously to philosophies that seem reasonable on the surface, but result in horrors in your life that stagger the imagination. Look at what Paul said in 1 Timothy. So to the left, 1 Timothy 4, verse one. 1 Timothy 4, verse one. He says, but the Spirit, and that would be the Holy Spirit, explicitly says that in latter times, or later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods that God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. There was some kind of weird asceticism that was going on back then, and Paul identifies it as a doctrine of demons. Now, I find it interesting that today, as this culture that we live in gets further and further away from Christ, it becomes more and more anti-family, anti-marriage, anti-children. There's a whole anti-natalist thing going on right now. where people want to be free of kids, child-free. Let's have whole forums about how great it is to not have kids. How selfish is that? I mean, think about that. That is just selfish living. We have people who think we shouldn't eat meat and we just need to have vegan lifestyles, even though God has given us food to enjoy. I'm not saying that every single person who advocates for these kinds of things are demon possessed or something like that. Don't mishear me. But this is the teaching that comes from demons. They want to keep you confused and thinking that things that should be blessings are somehow curses. And it's actually a blessing to deny yourself the things that God has given to you to enjoy. Some go so far, Revelation 2.24 describes some as knowing the deep things of Satan. There are some who are genuinely demon-oppressed and perhaps even possessed. as they are going into evil and wickedness. We don't want that kind of wisdom. And I think even some people in the world who don't know Jesus Christ would say, yeah, those are demons. I don't want to play with those. Well, as we get further and further from the truth of God, we get from heavenly wisdom, earthly wisdom, and we get from spiritual wisdom to natural wisdom, and we get from the Holy Spirit-inspired word to demonic wisdom, there is a departure from the things of God that continues to grow. It's like we are on a trajectory, and the angle is leading us further and further and further and further from the mark that we are aiming at until we can't get back. This is the kind of wisdom we want to avoid altogether, lest we drift from God's standard. Now James sums all this up in the next verse. He writes there, from where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder in every evil thing. Paul also addressed this, and there is a problem in some churches, and Paul addressed this in the Corinthian church, where there were lots of issues of disorder, for instance. Well, part of this was just simply spiritual gifts. Of course, that's something that creates disorder in churches today. Corinthians wanted the showy gifts, and so in 1 Corinthians, we don't have time to really dig into that, but 1 Corinthians 14, verses 26 through 33, he is having to put limitations on people so that there is not so much of the confusion that was happening there. He says that there should be, for instance, a limit on the number of people speaking. There should be no more than two or three people speaking in the service. because there were people standing up, like I was saying this morning, the spontaneity that some churches want to adopt, that's actually a problem that Paul was trying to clamp down on. There doesn't need to be more than two or three people speaking in a service. It needs to be clear. He also said the gifts, guess what, they're for the building up of the body, they're not for yourself. They're not for you to build yourself up because there were people who were puffing themselves up. He also notes this, that the God who structured the universe did not do so with a cacophony of noise and sound. He did it with order. Guess what? The worship service should be done decently and in order. Confusion and evil works are always a sign of worldly, sensual, and even demonic wisdom. That was a problem in the Corinthian church, that's a problem in the churches that James is addressing, and that's a problem that we continue to face today. When we see it, we have to understand that this is what arises when we engage in the wrong kind of wisdom. So we have to evaluate ourselves. We have to check ourselves to make sure that we are engaging in the right kind of wisdom. because those who teach contrary to scripture create conditions for a storm, and then wise teachers have to come along, excuse me, and they have to seek to navigate the difficult waters and bring a congregation back to a peaceful harbor. And of course we want peace, and that's what we're gonna consider in our remaining time. So let's consider the last two verses here in James 3. we have purity and peace with heavenly wisdom. Verses 17 and 18. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness, excuse me, is sown in peace by those who make peace. There's somewhat of a poetic quality to these verses here. In the original language, there's a lot of alliteration that just doesn't come out in the English language. Alliteration is, where you have a bunch of words that start with the same letter. The last two words have the same number of syllables. There's something that is meant to be beautiful about this, and I think that James is writing in this way purposefully to highlight the beauty of wisdom, the beauty of wisdom, of heavenly wisdom, that is. Now here's how to know if, The wisdom and knowledge you utilize is from God. He says first that purity is the manifestation of heavenly wisdom. And of course, he puts this up front and he says it is first pure. It is first pure. That's why I say we have purity and peace from heavenly wisdom, because it is first pure. This is the word that shares the root with the word holy. It is something that is set apart and untouched by filth, untouched by filth. It is intermingled, not with the wisdom of the world, but with the spirit of God. It is pure. It is not touched by the worldly or fleshly whims that might drive us. And so this is a pure wisdom. That's what we want in our lives, is something that's pure, something that's clean. He says, second, heavenly wisdom is peaceable. Peaceable. Well, Jesus, again, in the Beatitudes, in this case, Matthew 5, 9, he says, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers. And then he goes on, for they shall be called the sons of God. But we should be people who love peace, and that should be something that defines us. Now, again, this is something that we have to understand, because sometimes we jump over our want for purity, and we supplant that with a want for peace. This is something that we see in interpersonal conflict sometimes, marriage conflict, maybe it is conflict within the church, maybe it's conflict with the world. We want to jump over purity and get to peace. How can we get to peace? How can we get the fighting to stop? And some people would have us to think we need to be committed to peace at any cost. Well, in warfare, that's a horrible idea. Guess what? In wisdom, that's a horrible idea. We, do understand that there is a cost to peace, yes, but the first thing we need to be seeking is purity, purity. If, for instance, there is an issue in your life that comes up and you say, well, I've prayed about it and I have a peace about it, if the decision you arrive to is not pure according to God's standards, then the peace that you have is false. And you should not seek that peace over what God has said. But those who seek purity without compromise are operating according to heaven, to its wisdom, to heaven's wisdom. And if you are seeking peace, or if you're seeking purity without compromise, if you're seeking purity without compromise, you will have both heaven's purity and peace. So it is something that comes when we first seek purity, when we first seek the kingdom and its righteousness, then all these things will be added to you. Don't seek peace before you seek purity. But if you are operating according to heavenly wisdom, you will have both purity and peace, and you'll see that you also have gentleness, because third, heavenly wisdom is gentle. It is gentle. Now again, this word doesn't mean soft, despite all of the laundry ads out there. Gentle doesn't always mean soft, but it does mean fair. It does mean fair. I'll give you an example, a parent who refrains from spanking his child because of the appearance of wrongdoing but waits to find out the whole story is a parent who's operating with gentleness. You say, wait a minute, a parent who spanks isn't being gentle. Oh, yes. Yes, it's far better to spank than to let that kid go off and never have any kind of discipline in his life. But you also don't just spank at the drop of a hat either, right? You wait for information. You want to make sure that you are being fair, that you are being just. Philippians 4.5 in the ESV says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. and how you interact with other people. This should also be the case. You don't just jump to conclusions. You're not quick to speak. You're slow, in fact, to speak. You're quick to hear. You're quick to hear. Christians should operate in a considerate manner, which is what the LSB says here. And so, heavenly wisdom is gentle. Fourth, heavenly wisdom is teachable. Now the word here is reasonable. But it means easy to be entreated or open to reason, as the ESV says here, or if you have the New King James, willing to yield, willing to yield. It means that a person is approachable and will be moved. And so this is someone who is not so absolute about everything he says and does that he can't be approached and be taught something new. Right? And so he is teachable. Some of the best lessons in life is that you don't know everything, so you must be willing to learn. You must be willing to learn. And so we see that he must be teachable if he's going to be someone who operates in heavenly wisdom. If you are someone who operates in heavenly wisdom, you will also be someone who's full of mercy, full of mercy. James commanded us to be merciful, or Jesus, excuse me, commanded us to be merciful in Luke 6, 36. I was skipping to James there in my mind because James also says something about mercy. If you take a look back to chapter two, verse 13, he says, for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment, and then, Well, I'll just leave it at that. Unforgiveness is a trait of worldliness, of fleshliness. A Christian who's operating with heavenly wisdom should be quick to give second chances and maybe even third and fourth chances. So full of mercy and sixth, good fruit. Heavenly wisdom is full of good fruit. Now, of course, is a general term that encompasses many praiseworthy markers. We might think of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter five, verses 22 and 23. James is talking about, or has been talking about good works, and he's talking about good fruit. We need to have good fruit, and that comes when we employ heavenly wisdom. Seventh, heavenly wisdom is also impartial. It's impartial. Now, of course, the NASB here translates it unwavering, unwavering. But impartial is probably a better way of rendering this. That's what the English standard has. The New King James and the King James both say without partiality. This is someone who gives equal regard despite appearances. That's someone who's operating with heavenly wisdom. Finally, someone who's operating with heavenly wisdom is without hypocrisy, someone who's without hypocrisy. That means that they are not, or that they are consistent, they are not inconsistent. The average person's overall picture of our lives should point to the fact that we are people of conviction who are yielding on reasonable matters, but unyielding when it comes to truth. Now, as a way to cap all of this off, James then points us to the harvest that's available to us. And he says, the seed of whose fruit is righteousness is sown and peace by those who make peace. that kind of reflects Proverbs 11 18 which says the wicked earns deceptive wages but he who sows righteousness gets a true reward and Galatians 6 8 Galatians 6 8 says for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption but the one who sows to the spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. We reap what we sow. So Let's sow in peace. Let's sow in peace. Christ commanded peacemaking and he is a peacemaker. We who follow him should also engage in this peace. If we are operating in heavenly wisdom, we will not only have peace and purity, we will operate in peace and purity. So let's wrap this up. What kind of wisdom do you use most often? We should not be quick to assume that we have our minds set on heavenly wisdom. That might be the assumption. How often did the disciples in the Gospels think that they had it right when they didn't? We have to evaluate ourselves. If you're seeing bad fruit, it may be that you have not been operating consistently with heavenly wisdom. And so we should be quick to deny conventional wisdom, worldly wisdom. If a God-denying world suppresses the truth and it agrees to something, it may be correct, but woe to us when everyone agrees. We should not just do something simply because everyone agrees with us. Let's instead promote Christ and others above ourselves to operate with heavenly wisdom.