As we continue on in our series in the book of James, written by the half-brother of Jesus, one of the elders who was in the Jerusalem church, the early Jerusalem church, he is writing to Christians who are scattered from the Jerusalem area due to persecution. And so he writes this letter in order to help them, instruct them, as they are all over now, the Roman Empire, and needing help. They're reaching out to their former pastor. for help, and so he heard of this help, and now he writes these letters in order to give them very practical help on how they should live their life as Christians in churches scattered everywhere, very much like us. We are Christians in churches scattered all over the earth, and we need to know how to live rightly in these churches. And as we've gone through this series, we know that, if you've been with us, that chapter one has introduced to us all the major themes and topics of the whole letter. And so today's passage, as we talk about the significance of wisdom, the different types of wisdom, what is wisdom, and who has it, and who is it for, and how are we to understand it rightly, this topic of wisdom has already been introduced. And so let me remind you, if you've heard it before, but James 1, verse 5 says the following. If any one of you lacks wisdom, assuming that many people do lack wisdom, Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." James has already let us know that wisdom is something we need. Wisdom is something that is available But God is the one who gives us wisdom and he is a good, gracious, generous God who will freely give out wisdom to people who ask for it. But part of receiving wisdom is having the humility of spirit in order to know that you lack it. You need to not be prideful, but humble, and say, I need God's help. I need his wisdom. I need his knowledge, and I need to know what to do and what is pleasing to him. We'll praise the Lord that we have a promise in scripture that we, God's people, who love him, who know him, who seek to obey him, who seek to receive him from his word, have a promise that God will give us his wisdom. So our main question for this morning in our passage as we go through verses 13 through 18 will be this. It's what must God's church, those who are Christian believers who are part of God's family, what must God's church understand about true wisdom? What must God's church understand about true wisdom? That is what James is looking to help his readers understand. You need to understand something specifically about what, quote, true wisdom is. There are all different types of wisdom, there's more than one. What is true wisdom? What are we to understand about it? Well, our first point for this morning, we'll be having four points this morning. Our first is this, you can write it down if it's helpful to you. It's this, what must we understand about true wisdom? It's that true wisdom will display itself with good conduct and humble reception of the instruction from God. True wisdom will display itself, meaning you will know if you have true wisdom if that true wisdom is accompanied by a lifestyle and a practice that has good works. Good conduct will be connected to true wisdom. So you will not have wisdom from God and be living a lifestyle that is sinful or that is hurtful or harmful. No, your life will be matched up with the wisdom from God. But not just good works because there it's true that even pagan people can do some good works. Even pagan people can serve their children meals, could help the needy. So it's not merely the works themselves that make it good, it's your relationship to God that makes your works good. And that shows that you need to have a humble heart that says, please give me all the wisdom that I can handle, God. I need your wisdom. So you need a heart that is submitted to God and humbly ready to receive that wisdom from God. And that paired together with good work shows that you are operating in God's true wisdom. So let's see this now as we further go on. James 3 chapter 13 says, this question, Who is wise and understanding among you? Almost like, oh, you guys need help, you need wisdom. Well, who really is wise? In fact, I would ask you, who's wise amongst us here this morning? Who would be considered wise? Are you wise? Are you one of the wise people? Do you have true, right, best understanding as taken from God's word? Are you wise according to God? Well, How do you tell? He says it clearly, by his good conduct. Let him show his works. It's not merely, true wisdom is not merely one of lip service. It's not merely one of brilliance or intelligence. No, no, no, true godly wisdom is one that has both right understanding and right living, right practice, right following through with God's commands. We read it this morning, that if we love God, we will obey his commands. So by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. There are two parts here. We must show our good works to be consistent with the wisdom of God, and we must show our humble disposition of our heart that says, I need help, I need wisdom. Just like James 1 says, if you lack it, ask it, he will give it. Well, he repeats this idea again in chapter three. You need to have the meekness of wisdom. Now, we should talk about that word meekness. We've brought it up before, but for way of reminder or for hearing it if you're hearing it for the first time, meekness in our day and age does not mean exactly the same thing that it meant in their day and age. In fact, a lot of times when you use the word meek, it's often associated with maybe weakness or somebody who is easily trampled on or taken over. They're kind of meek and mild and that kind of has that connotation of somebody who's not strong or somebody who's unable to care for themselves. It doesn't always mean that, but people would often go to that understanding of the word meekness. But this word meekness here, biblically speaking, is totally different. It's not the modern understanding of meekness. Meekness has much more to do with a disposition of being ready and willing to receive and to change whatever they need to do. It's a very humble heart saying, I'll do whatever is needed. That's not weakness, that's smart. Meekness is, I actually am able to be strong, and I have enough strength, whatever God has called me to do, but I'm not gonna use it according to my own devices. I'm going to really let myself be led around by what God wants me to do, and so I'm humbly being led. There's a picture of kind of like a large horse, right? Have you ever been on a horse? They're pretty strong. and they have lots of muscle. And we've used the horse before in James when he talks about by that little bit in the horse's mouth, you can steer the whole horse, right? But do we think that horse is weak just because it's being steered around by the bit? No, the horse is very strong, but that horse is being led around. That horse is submitting to the leading of that bit of the rider. And so in that way, it shows that the horse is, although strong, meek. It's able to be guided to where it must go. A prideful, stubborn, obstinate person is the opposite of meekness. But a willing, learning, humble, willing to be guided is a person of meek, and that's not weak. That's wonderful. It's wonderful to be meek. Jesus is called meek. In fact, Jesus calls himself meek. It's also been translated as gentle. Gentle. So, in fact, I appreciated this one definition by Sinclair Ferguson. He makes it more explicit. It's not just generally being able to be guided. Actually, no, the biblical concept is much more specific in relationship to God. It's being guided by God. It says, meekness is yielding to the revealed will of God, meaning whatever God says in His Word, that's what revealed will is, I'm going to yield to whatever God says in His Word and being submissive to Him in His sovereign providence. It's yielding to the revealed will of God in his word. God, whatever your word says, I'll do. And being submissive to God in his sovereign providence, meaning I believe that God is creator and sustainer of this world, and that things don't happen by accident. There's no such thing as chance. No, God is guiding this world, and I'm gonna submit to, I'm not gonna rage against God if there's something happens that I don't like or want. I'm going to accept that God is ruling this universe, and I will be a part and play the part that I'm supposed to. I'm not looking to run the world. God is already doing that. I'm happy to be led. Put me in, coach. I'll do whatever. It's that sort of idea. That is what biblical meekness is, not weakness. I think we can get all these components of this definition from the opening pages of Proverbs. Proverbs is known for its being a book of wisdom. There's probably too many, there's definitely too many verses we could quote, so I'll just give one passage here. in Proverbs chapter 1, verses 1 through 7. If that's helpful, you can write that down. But I'll be reading this, the opening words of the book of Proverbs. Let me read this now. And pay attention to what it says about wisdom. It says this. It says, the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive, notice the humble reception, to receive in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity. I'm teachable. Give me what I need to know how to live a right life. Verse four, to give prudence to the simple. Simple don't know how to live life, but if they can be prudent, they'll know how to live life better. Knowledge and discretion to the youth. Our youth, our children need to grow up. We would be considered failures as parents if we don't have our children grow up into maturity. We want to train them in righteousness, train them in wisdom. Well, wisdom will grow our youth. Verse five, let the wise hear. Wise don't close their ears, they open their ears and increase in learning. The wise are always learning. and the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying and the words of the wise and their riddles. Let me just stop there for just a second. Everything I've read so far could be said about a person who is seeking to generally be teachable, to generally do a good job in life, but I want to tell you that That is not wisdom according to the Bible. Wisdom is not just generally a person trying to be humble and teachable. No, no, no. Wisdom is directly related to that posture and their connection to God. Look at what it says. The fear of the Lord, verse 7, is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. You cannot be wise without submitting to God. It is an impossibility, according to the scriptures, for a person to be called wise if they are not a Christian, if they are not a believer, if they're not submitting to the Word of God. They're not wise. In fact, it's something I hear all the time. And it's true, there's different types of wisdom. You can have a knowledge of something like, so let me just speak maybe broadly or generally. It's true that there are mechanics in the world who are wise with the ways of cars, right? And we could say that, if you will, that they have a wisdom of sorts. They have a knowledge and understanding of how cars are put together and what they need to do in order to fix them and get them going again. And so we could say, we could use the word wisdom in that sort of lesser subordinate way, and it's okay to use the word wisdom, but that's not the kind of wisdom that the Bible's talking about. The kind of wisdom the Bible's talking about is not merely, oh, you know a lot about something. It's no, you know a lot about something because you're submitting to God to help you understand that something and to do whatever you're supposed to do according to God's will. So it's an important thing that we must call out. According to the Bible, you cannot be wise if you are not submitting to God and His ways and His knowledge. So let me ask you a question then. How humble are you to receive teaching from God's word over your own ability to understand the truth? How humble are you to receive teaching from God's word as opposed to just trusting your own sensibilities, your own understanding of the world, your own concepts of God, family, life, politics, work? How open are you to have God tell you exactly what to believe and exactly what to do? Or are you just like, God, I want you in parts of my life. But not all of my life. I'll receive the parts from you that I like, but the parts that I don't like, well, I'll kind of ignore those. That would be called foolishness. That would be called dangerous. I know for many of us here, as we are Christians, we genuinely are eager, Lord, teach me. Teach me what to do, teach me how to live, teach me what to say, how to parent my children, how to work my job, how to be a good neighbor. And for you, I'd say, Good. Keep that humble posture. Keep asking God for help. Keep understanding that even though it's good and right to get proficient at something, we should get proficient at something. We should get good at living. Christians should be awesome at living. We really should. We should be crushing life. Why? Because we have access to God, the truth teller, the God who is truth, who is all truth, has made himself available to us and spoke our language, made sure that we got the message, and ultimately the message of our need for Jesus Christ, God's son, to save our life from our own sinfulness, and then to start a new life, not of rebellion against God, but actually living in love, in a love covenant family relationship with God instead of being God's enemy, we must keep an understanding of our life must be consistent with God's Word, and it must be a humble posture of reception from God's Word. This is what the first point is in James chapter 3. So let's look at our second point. What are we supposed to understand? What is God's church supposed to understand about true wisdom? Well, the first is that what true wisdom is the type that will show its works as well as it will be humble in receiving God's word. Let's look at our second point. Our second point is that false wisdom now, false wisdom is rooted in selfish ambition and bitter jealousy. We've talked about true wisdom, we're gonna come back to true wisdom, but now James takes us to the next contrasting category. There is such thing as false wisdom, and let me tell you a little bit about false wisdom so you don't fall into that trap. It's rooted in selfishness. It's rooted in doing your own thing your own way. and being jealous, being discontent with your own life, or discontent with how God has chosen to run this world, and so you want something for yourself in bitterness, in anger, in impatience, and say, no, I wanna do something differently. Well, let's read the next verse here, verse 14, James chapter three. It says, but, he goes, true wisdom is this way. Now, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, notice where these things lie. They lie on the internal part of a man, meaning a man's spirit or a man's soul is where their sinfulness lies. Everybody has a body, and yes, our bodies are affected by sin, but Our bodies can work fine sometimes. It's really the issue of humanity. It's true we have decaying bodies and healthcare is an important thing, but the more important thing than our bodies, although they're important, is our soul. Our soul, our heart, the inner person of a man is actually where you get and understand true life or death. And he says, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, in the inner man, Don't fool yourself, don't boast and be false to the truth. Person who has false wisdom often thinks they're doing great and often will lie to themselves and lie to others saying, no, I know what I have and I know what I need and I'm doing just fine. But really what's going on is they're prideful. They don't want to say that they need God. They don't want to say the truth. They reject the truth of God. They reject their neediness. They reject Christ as their only Savior. They reject church as the people of God. They reject the need to worship God rightly or the need to follow God's commands. And they say, I'll do what I want, where I want, how I want. Now, even some people may not be that bold. They may not be that brazen, because they realize even they have a standard of, well, that's pretty obnoxious for somebody to be that. Straightforward. But here's the thing. Their hearts say one thing, and yet their lips may say another, trying to cover their shame. But this is what James is speaking to us. Hey, true wisdom is going to look a certain way, but false wisdom is really just deceiving people from their own hearts. They're bitter. They're jealous. They're selfish. They're boastful. They're not submissive to God and what he's done for them. They're just like, I've done it. I'm the one who did it. I'm smart enough. I'm strong enough. I accomplished my work. I'm the one. Yeah, that's great that you have those ideas, but I'll go ahead and keep living my life because I'm doing a decent job. And maybe they even say, I'm not perfect, but they'll say, but I'm doing better than you. And this is all in their heart. We have a biblical example of this in 3 John in the New Testament, verses 9 and 10. This is somebody who was in the church, his name is Deotrephes, and he was basically a bully, and he was doing whatever he wanted to do in the church, kicking people out, not letting people in. He was not ruling the church in the way that God said the church ought to be run. He was doing his own thing because he cared about control. Look what this says, 3 John 9 and 10. I have written, this is John the Apostle, I have written something to the church, a letter, but Diotrephes, this is this guy's name, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. Oh, so what is this man? He's in the church, he has some role of authority, but he's like, I'm not gonna listen to God's ordained authority. I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do. I'm gonna put myself first. And it says, so if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, meaning I'm gonna call out this guy's bad behavior. talking wicked nonsense against us, he's speaking ill of his leaders, and not content, there it is, is that jealousy, that bitter jealousy, not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, meaning he's keeping people out of the church who should be in the church, right, true believers who are wanting to do things correctly, he's keeping brothers out of the church, and also stops those who wants to put them out of the church. So this is a clear example. There are people, even who name the name of Christ, who say they're Christians, but are actually acting like the devil. They're acting selfish. They're acting bitter. They're acting jealous. They are not being led. They're not submissive to God's authority. They're not submissive to God's word. They're just going to do whatever they want, and they're going to get their way. And so this is condemned in scripture. We must not be the type who are self-willed. Now this doesn't mean that we don't have a will. Of course we have a will. We must make choices, but we must have the type of will that is not seeking its own glory, its own fame, its own name. We must have the type of will who goes, God, whatever you want is what I'll do. Whatever you say is what I'll believe. If you say it, okay. So we need to have a humble, I appreciate Paul's words here, it speaks to this very notion. Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 5 say, do nothing from selfish ambition, the same word, or conceit or boastfulness. But instead, what are we to do? In humility, count others more significant than yourselves. That is a mark of true, wise Christianity, that we are not self-seeking. We are willing to give for the sake of others. We're willing to flex for what might be needed, or might be better, or might be best, instead of demanding our own way and our own will. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Notice, what mind should we have? It's this mind of humility. It's this mind of looking to serve others. It's this mind of not being demanding of our own way, but being willing to flex for the sake of blessing others. And who has it? It's Christians who have it because they're in Christ. This is, in fact, only available to Christians. Now, it's available to non-Christians when they become Christian, when they submit their lives and say, I'm not in charge anymore. God, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Jesus is that only Savior. Please forgive me. We're talking about people who have not merely going to church, who are merely having lip service, who are maybe who have grown up in the church, maybe they've been baptized, maybe they've been a long time even a member of a church. No, we're not talking about mere externalism. We're talking about an internal, actual living relationship with Jesus Christ, the eternal God-man who came to save humanity, of which he came to save, and the Christians respond. We go, I see it, I need it, please help me. It's available to those who repent. So, what are we to learn about wisdom? There's true wisdom. It's consistent with not just words, but actions. It's also one that will be humble in its disposition. But we're also now talking about false wisdom. And false wisdom is selfish, it's bitter, it's jealous. That's where it stems from. It's this internal problem of sin of where false wisdom comes from. People may sound smart and may sound like they're able to be successful in the world, and they're very even confident in what they talk about, how to live life. But actually, their success is more about their control, and more about their own name and ambition, more so than it is about doing whatever God says. If God's the creator, and he made all things, and he's all-powerful, and look at how good and loving he is that he made this world, and he actually made it good and orderly, and if you read the Bible rightly, God didn't make the world corrupt, we did. God made the world perfect. There was nothing wrong in the world when God made it, but God, allowed for this world to become corrupted, and it was actually even a part of his plan for the world to become corrupted, because he planned from eternity past to send his son, the second person of the Trinity, who would take to himself humanity, Jesus, he would be the savior of the world. This was God's plan from the beginning, but God did not corrupt the world. Satan brought sin into the world, and man followed Satan. And what is Satan? Satan's a liar, Satan's prideful, Satan's selfish. If we know anything about Satan, when he was in the garden, he was perfect. He was a wonderful cherub angel of God, and he was one of the highest-ranking ones, but he was selfish and bitterly jealous. He wanted glory for himself instead of submitting to all glory be to God. So anybody who's selfish is following in the path of Satan. Literally, that's what scriptures say. Let's look at our third point. What do we learn about wisdom? True and false wisdom. Let's continue down the false wisdom train for now. This is false wisdom is from below. showing that it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Just mention this. False wisdom is from below, showing that it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Let's read these words straight from Scripture in chapter 3, verse 15. This is not the wisdom that comes from above, meaning it's not from God, it's from below. this selfishness, this selfish ambition, bitter jealousy. That's not from God. No, no, no. God is not the author of evil, and we cannot blame God when evil happens, because God is good and only can do good and only does do good. It's we, his creatures, who do bad. God is never on trial when it comes to evil. It's not wisdom that comes from above, but what is it? It's earthly, it's unspiritual, it's demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. God is not the one doing or approving every vile practice. God is the one who made things perfect and made things good, and God is the one, yes, who is allowing that to take place, that does not make God an approver. No, no, God is a judge who will judge the evil person. Nobody's getting away with anything. Every single human being who has ever lived and who will ever live will go through the final judgment at the end of time. Nobody's getting off or getting away from the judgment of God. Everyone will have to give an account for every single word, every single thought, every single deed All humans are accountable to God, even though many humans, and even some of us, live like that. We don't think about that often. We don't think about, hey, there's a judgment coming. I better be ready for that time. God is not unjust, he is just. He will not let the wicked continue forever. Even what we sang today, God will keep you from all evil. The idea is, when evil is taking place, it's not that God won't let you experience evil. No, God will let you experience evil. But in the end, God will make sure that all evil is punished and that he, by his grace, will reward those who follow him, who love him, who obey him. He punishes the wicked and he blesses the righteous. So, wisdom that is from below. is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. We could kind of see these three words. It's probably worth spending a little bit of time on these three words, because James uses these three words. We could see, kind of from the beginning, earthly pointing to, it's not from heaven, it's from earth. It's not from above, it's from below. There's an inferiority about this kind of thinking and living. It's not good, it's not great. Yeah, it has some, maybe, ability to have, maybe, modest, temporary, if you will, success. But that's ultimately not going to get you through God's judgment. So it's earthly, it's temporary, it's limited. So being earthly is not inherently bad, by the way, because God created the earth and He created it good. And in the future, if you are one of God's followers, if you submit yourself to Him and worship Him, And you are found in Christ you and I will be living on this earth God will send his son Jesus to come back to judge the earth and he will separate the sheep from the goats and guess what the sheep will be cast into hell forever for eternal punishment and and the Christians who are left heaven and earth are separated now, but They will be joined together again in the end, and we who are left with Christ will be living on this earth. It'll be a new earth. It'll be a renewed earth. It'll be a perfected earth. It will no longer have the stains of sin and decay. It will now be eternal because Christ will make it that way. That's what the scriptures teach. So being earthly is not inherently bad. But during this time of history, when we say earthly, we often compare it to heavenly. And so when we say earthly now, we mean tainted, corrupted, sinful, not eternal. But there will be a time when we say earthly, and that just means where all God's people will live for eternity. But in this case, hey, we don't want to be merely earthly. We are earthly. We don't live in the skies. We live here on earth, and so we must be earthly helpful and earthly good. But there is an earthliness that is just temporary, selfish, and sort of like, hey, you help me, I'll help you, and that's good enough, instead of being more worried about what God thinks. So, earthly. Philippians says, Philippians 13 through, or I'm sorry, 18 through 19 says, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Earthliness or worldliness is not compatible with Christianity. Christianity is the type of people who are not looking to live a mere earthly life. No, if you look to live a mere earthly life, you're an enemy of God. That's what it says. You're an enemy of God. Your enemy is the cross of Christ. Now, it doesn't mean you don't live in the world. It just means you don't live like the world, right? We are to be different, distinct, godly, not earthly. We're not to look or live like the systems of this world. Verse 19 says, their end, who? These enemies of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. They're just living for the here and the now. And they glory in their shame. They should be ashamed of their life, but they actually glory in it. With minds set on earthly things. You see that? Earthliness. Wisdom that is earthly is not helpful. Unspiritual, Romans 8, verses 5 through 8. makes this contrast between those things of the spirit and those things of the flesh. Flesh is another way of saying earthly. Look what it says, verse five. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. I'm actively thinking, what would God want me to believe? What would God want me to love? So this is why Christians are distinctive in the way that they parent. They're distinctive in the way that they work. They're distinctive in the way that they are involved in politics. Why? Because they're not just thinking earthly. They're not just thinking, how do I do a good job and make people happy with me? They think spiritually. They think What does the power of God through the Spirit reveal to me through His Word? That's what I want. That's what I'm working towards. And even though we don't do it perfectly, and boy is that true, Christian, amen, we do not live perfectly. But by God's grace, He has sent His Spirit to those who are His, so that we can live an empowered life to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. We can. If you're a Christian today, you are no longer a slave to the flesh. You're no longer a slave to the earthliness that maybe you were a slave to before you became a Christian. It says, those who walk according to the flesh, they set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who walk according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. It's death if you set your mind on the flesh. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Oh, what a better life it is. We just talked about this Sunday morning, Sunday school morning, how even in the midst of trials, in the midst of suffering, 1 Peter 5 says, hey, after you've gone through some suffering, that's normal for Christians to suffer on this earth? Even after and in and through that? God's got you. He's gonna sustain you. He's gonna strengthen you. He's gonna help you. So don't fret over worldly, temporary suffering. Jesus suffered. Jesus didn't fret over the suffering. He stepped into it, not because he was looking to get beat up. He didn't antagonize things. No, no, no. He never was asking for it. He did everything that was righteous, and all the violence and the suffering that was against him, all of it was immoral. Jesus never was an instigator. but he received that suffering and he trusted God who would save him and who actually vindicated him by resurrecting on the cross, resurrecting from the dead. So we must set our ourself on the things of the flesh. In verse 7 it says, the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God. This is why we must understand there are only two ways. There are the way of God which is submissive to God and his word and his ways Or there is the flesh, the world, the devil. There's no third way. There's no middle ground. There's no playing both sides. You're either for God and living for Him, imperfectly, yes, but your heart and mind are fully His, or you're not. It says, in fact, it says, the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. In fact, that's why we are believers the way we are. We believe that God is required to save you, that you cannot, you don't have the ability to be saved on your own merits or in your own ability. God has to literally turn the light bulbs on. God, through His Spirit, actually does that through the preaching of the gospel. That when people hear the good news that Jesus Christ alone can save you, that the person, through the operation of the Spirit, hears that message, and God chooses to open your mind and go, what? That's true? Or maybe before, you were hostile. Maybe before, you were pushing back. You're saying, I don't believe this, it's too narrow, this is too, no, I think people are good. This is one of the lies of our earthliness, is that people are essentially good. That's a lie from Satan. No, we are not essentially good. We are evil because we've fallen to sin. Our first parents were essentially good, but then they got corrupted, and everybody who's been born since has been corrupted. And so what do we do? We receive our corruption, and then we live out of it. So, wisdom from below is earthly and unspiritual, not from the Spirit. Let's look at this last part, demonic. It's not just earthly, it's not just unspiritual, it's literally from the power of Satan. Verse 19, now we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. There's only two groups here. In fact, this is exactly what happened in the garden. The devil came to a good thing and corrupted it by lying to Adam and Eve. To Eve, she's the one who's got deceived. And so what did he do? He lied, he didn't trust God's word. He wasn't helping others to do the same. No, it's demonic to try to get people off course and not trust the Lord. Another quote here from Sinclair Ferguson, helpful, talks about the injected into the human race. The wisdom that comes from below is the false wisdom that was injected into the human race in the Garden of Eden. It is a refusal to take God's word as our authority, doubting his goodness as the foundation of our actions, and refusing his truth as the starting point for our interpretation of everything. We must have a God grid. A God set of lenses on that says, God has made everything. God is in control. God is true. God knows all things. I am not God. Therefore, I must submit to all things that God says and calls me to do. But it's this wisdom that disrupts that and say, you could do it your own way. You don't have to submit to those things. That's old. That's archaic. That's, oh, we've outgrown that. We're more progressive than that. No, that's satanic. It says, all this leads to the acceptance of the evil one's lie, that his interpretation of reality will bring true wisdom and true freedom. In fact, that is part of what the Renaissance was about, and the Enlightenment age was that they try to divorce kind of religion from human reason. Essentially they were saying, we don't need God in our project of civilization. We as man have the ability to, through our own faculties and our own reasons, to figure out what true wisdom is. And so this enlightenment has often been said as a good thing because it liberated people to see the light, which is that they don't need God. That's an endarkenment. That's not an enlightenment. That's what that is. When people say, I don't need God, you're moving away from truth, away from what is good and true and beautiful. You're moving towards what is ugly and destructive and distorted. We're not saying that we want to live in any sort of dark ages or that we're against technology in any way. We're just saying humans are not fundamentally meant to live on their own power, by their own strength, in their own wisdom. We're fundamentally meant to live operating under the power of God and His Word and His wisdom. So let me ask you, are you discerning enough? How discerning are you to be able to distinguish between the spiritual wisdom and the earthly wisdom? That's what this is talking about. There are different types of wisdom. Do you get duped into believing earthly wisdom that is lower than God's standards, that is actually maybe against God's standards, but they sound nice? It sounds, you know, pleasing to the ears. Do you have spiritual eyes to see or to hear the truth of what God says? Let me tell you, in 1 Corinthians 2, God says that you must have the Spirit in order to discern the spiritual things. Really, are you a Christian here today is what it's asking. Are you discerning enough? Are you Christian? Because if you're a Christian, you should have the Spirit of God, which will help you discern spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 says now, verses 12 and 13, now we who have not the spirit of the world, we have not the spirit of the world, we are not worldly. but the spirit who is from God. We have God's spirit that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. Isn't that great? God is not a stingy miser when it comes to wisdom. He's free and generous and wants us to live wonderful, productive, glorious lives. That's the design of God. And that design of God, we can use the ministry from today, does not include murdering our babies. It does not include choosing convenience after conception. That's just one of many topics. But that's not God's design, that's not life, that's not good, that's not flourishing, that's destructive. And it sounds good, oh, just follow, there are exceptions to every rule, right? Therefore, it's okay. No, it's not okay. It's worldly, it's not from the Spirit. The Spirit of God says, no, we must protect that life. We must protect those who are, and that's more than includes babies in the womb. We must protect all kinds of people. that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And it says, and we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom. You see, it's not just earthly, it's not just human, it's not just lower, but taught by the Spirit. There's different kinds of wisdom here. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Do you have the Spirit of God which will enable you to discern spiritual things? And if you are here today and a Christian and you do have the Spirit of God, are you constantly listening and growing in your understanding of the Word of God? Are you studying the Word of God? Are you memorizing the Word of God? Are you with your church members coming together saying, let's learn, let's be under the preaching and the teaching, let's come tonight to the to the documentary series. Why? Because it's a wonderful use of the Lord's Day. You could come together and see a film that was made by other Christians trying to show, this is what the Bible teaches about how we are to rightly worship God. Let's learn, let's receive, let's incorporate, let's change our ways to align with God. That's true wisdom. Do you not, do you just have the spirit? Are you actively pursuing wisdom in the spirit? Or are you just doing your own thing your own way? Christians are often worldly in that way. They just go about doing their own thing, making their own decisions, doing their, and you know, there are things that we can make. Go ahead, choose your toothpaste, choose your clothes like colors. There are certain things that are indifferent. But there are many things in our life that aren't indifferent. We're just kind of flying by this myth of complete independence. when really we're supposed to be dependent on God. Let's look at our last portion here, last word from this section. What did we learn about wisdom? We've heard about true wisdom and two things on false wisdom. Let's look at our last thing. It's gonna come back to true wisdom. Our fourth point is that true wisdom is found from above and will yield righteousness and peace. True wisdom is from above, it's from God, and it will yield righteousness and peace. In the same way that you can look at the wisdom from below and see that it will result in every vile disorder, all kinds of wickedness and destruction, whether you can see it now or later, it will come. The opposite is true of true wisdom. It's not from below, it's not earthly, it's not unspiritual, it's not demonic. No, it's from above, it's heavenly, it's from God, and it will have good fruit. It will bear the truth of life. Verse 17 says, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. Look at first pure, it's not mixed. It's not mixed. It doesn't flirt with worldliness. It doesn't try to be cool, try to have a lot of friends, or try to fit in with the world. No, it says, hey, I live in the world. I realize people are gonna think we're weird and different, but from above, people are worried about what God thinks, not what the world thinks. And yes, they're not trying to be unclear or unhelpful to the world, but they care about purity. They care about a single focus on God. And it's not aggressive, if you will. Yes, it's convicted, but it's not militant. It's in the sense that they're gonna do physical, no, it's peaceable. It's looking for peace. It's looking for the way of love. We must militate against our sin, for sure. And we must call out sinners from the law of God. We must not be scared to do those things that are maybe hard or intense. But the soul, the spirit of a Christian and the wisdom that is from above is actually bringing good and peace. And so what does it say? It's pure, it's peaceable, it's gentle, it's the word meek, it's open to reason. It's full of mercy and good fruits. It's impartial. It's sincere. Look at these words. Isn't this exactly what you want for a best friend, for a spouse, for a parent, for a sibling? Aren't these exactly the type of things that you want? Somebody who's pure and peaceable and gentle, open to reason, full of mercy. And this doesn't mean weak sauce, by the way. This doesn't mean pansy. No, no, no, you can have some very good godly men and women who are strong in the Lord. I remember my mom was strong in the Lord. She was not a pansy. She told people straight. She didn't do it to hurt them, but what they needed to hear, she gave it to them. And because there was a courage of, I love you and the truth more than how you might receive this. I'm going to help you receive it the best, but you need truth more than believing a lie. So peaceable, in fact, you won't get peace unless you correct this lie. So bringing peace could include correction because they're stuck in bondage. So being peaceable may include correction. I'm just saying that because sometimes we get this idea of a person who's just floating and people get this view of Jesus. floating on the air because he's so nice all the time. It's like, no, he's a real person with emotions and his humanity, not in his divinity, but he was self-controlled underneath the Spirit. And what did the Spirit bring? Purity, peaceableness, gentleness, open to reason. Yeah, let's talk. Let's understand. Full of mercy, good fruits. And look what it says, verse 18, the harvest of righteousness. What does that mean? You plant a crop expecting what? A harvest. You put a seed in the ground, you water it, you till it, hoping what? That you will get a harvest. The payoff in the end. What's the payoff? Not success, not earthly fame, not a big house. What are we ultimately heading for? Righteousness. Wait, that's weird. I want a harvest of righteousness? Yes, when you are living in God's wisdom from above, it will make you more like God. It will change you into the person of, or change you to be more like the person of Christ. He was righteous. In fact, he's the only one, the only human who's ever lived who was fully, truly righteous. Every human besides Christ has been tainted in some way. Imperfect. That's why we need Christ. In fact, this whole passage is pointing us directly to the person of Christ. When we talk about the wisdom of God, we're talking not about a concept, we're talking about a person. We're talking about Christ as the wisdom of God. So when we're saying we want to see God from above and live his life, then you must look at Christ. You must look to Christ for life. What does it say in 1 Corinthians 1? It says, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, that's everyone. You're either a Jew or you're a non-Jew. Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ the person is called, not the one who has wisdom, he is wisdom. That's why we worship Him, that's why we serve Him, that's why we obey Him, that's why we seek to be like Him, because He is the wisdom of God. He does not merely possess some wise attributes, He is wisdom itself in His divinity. It doesn't just say that there, it says it in verse 30 of the same chapter, Corinthians 1. Oh, you know what, let me look it up. Beat me there, beat me there, go ahead. Ready, Corinthians 30. 130. All right. It says it here. Because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who have become to us wisdom from God. righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Because of Christ, we have access to God and His wisdom and His righteousness. That's exactly what it says. When we have wisdom from above, it will yield righteousness and peace. So let me tell you, what is this whole sermon about? Yes, it's about Christians living godly lives. Yes, it's about understanding the difference between true wisdom and false wisdom. Those are all true. But what is this passage ultimately about? It's about understanding that we have Nothing good in and of ourselves unless we look to and cling to Christ. This whole passage is about you need wisdom and that only comes from Christ, who is the wisdom from God. In fact, let's just look in James how he makes this connection for us. In James 1, 17 and 18, he says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Oh, kind of like wisdom from above? coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God doesn't change. He's so good to keep giving us good things. What are those good things? He gives us salvation of his own will. He brought us forth. That means he birthed us. He gave us spiritual life. That means he gave us conversion from non-Christian to become a Christian. He's the one who gives us that new birth by the word of truth, by the preaching and teaching of scripture, which points us to Christ. It says Christ is our salvation. Christ is our only hope. Christ is our righteousness. Cling to Him. Forsake your own control. Forsake your own sin and say, I can't live my life anymore. I must live it according to Christ. Forgive me of my sin. This is salvation. This is the process of becoming saved in Christ by forsaking that and grabbing onto the word of truth, which should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. And one last verse for us. It says, therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. and receive with meekness, there's that weakness, meekness language, the implanted word, which is what? The teaching and preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation, which is able to save your souls. Today's passage is about living in the wisdom of God, which can only be found in having a saving relationship with Christ and Christ alone. Are you in the saving relationship? If you're not, fall on your knees. Pray to Christ to forgive you. He will. He saves sinners. But you must repent from the heart. We can't play games with Him. If you're a believer here this morning, and you've been challenged by, I've not been living a godly, wise life. I've been kind of living my own life, even though I'm a Christian. Grow in your submission. Grow in your knowledge of the Word. understanding of how to rightly live this life according to Christ's life. And if you are a Christian here today, and by God's grace you are knowing how to live a life according to the word, keep growing, stay humble, don't be selfish, and don't get slow or be a sluggard. Continue that process of growth. So, let's bow our heads as we pray. Father, thank you so much for handing us your word through the ministry of the apostles and down now to us through the ages. Lord, your church has preached and taught and translated the word of God into many different languages so that we, Lord, your people can hear it, believe it, understand it, memorize it, Lord, teach it to our children and to our friends and family, that we may teach it to the world and all nations. Lord, thank you for the wisdom, not only that is from Christ, but that is Christ himself. May we seek him as our righteousness. May we trust him for his righteousness and not our own work. Lord, so thank you for this word, and we pray that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to understand it fully and to obey it fully. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.