-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. To God be the glory. Thank you for joining me today.
00:41 Welcome to the cafe. It’s a wonderful day at the cafe. We are wrapping up a whole week here.
00:47 This is the fifth episode in a series on godly wisdom. And as I told our congregation just last night, godly wisdom, to preach on it is not something you can do in a single message or even a single series of messages. So I encourage you to get into the Bible, get into the book of James, and read about godly wisdom.
01:11 And our text verse here is James 3:17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And this week we focused a lot on the purity of God’s wisdom and how we see here godly wisdom or the wisdom from above is first pure. We looked at the context of how godly wisdom is pure in the context of worldly wisdom, because if you look into James 3, and I’m sure you know, it’s always good to take scripture in context.
01:51 Some of the scriptures that the world quotes, if they took them in context, I don’t know that they’d quote them anymore, amen. But James 3 puts godly wisdom in the context of worldly wisdom and shows the carnal, earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom of the world is not pure, but it is corrupt, it’s contaminated, it’s perverted, it leads people astray, it leads to death. The wages of sin is death.
02:20 Worldly wisdom will lead to spiritual death, will lead to distance from God. It’s so true. Nine times out of ten it seems like the world disagrees with what the Word of God says.
02:31 And so when you seek worldly wisdom, imagine going to a counselor, they’re going to tell you something different than what God wants you to do, what God is telling you, unless you went to a Christian counselor. I guess I should make that note. So we see first godly wisdom is pure, we understand godly wisdom being pure because we understand that the world is contaminated and corrupt in their wisdom.
02:54 And so we understand the context. We then see that godly wisdom is peaceable, free from argument or conflict. We know that God himself is peace from 2 Thessalonians 3:16. We know that God gives peace, John 16:33, these things I’ve spoken unto you, that ye may have peace in the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
03:20 We know that God keeps us by peace, Philippians 4:7, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And we know that true peace is only found when we’re reconciled to God, and that’s 2 Corinthians 5:17-19. I know I’m throwing a lot of scripture at you here today, but I’m trying to get through the rest of this verse, and so I want to make sure that we understand these principles before we move to the third part of the verse. 2 Corinthians 5.17-19 tells us we must be reconciled to God, and then we must be in the ministry of reconciliation once we’ve been reconciled to God.
03:56 And we know the only way to be reconciled to God is to be saved by His blood, to be saved by Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. Now what do we have after that? Because this is a whole list from James 3:17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, and then gentle, gentle, that still small voice of God. Godly wisdom will not knock you to the ground, I don’t believe.
04:27 It won’t pin you over and scream in your face. Godly wisdom comes from that still small voice, from that Holy Spirit living within you. Now how do you tap into godly wisdom? I mean if it’s a still small voice, how do you make sure that you can hear that godly wisdom? Well I would say that you have to be attentive to what the Word of God says.
04:49 How can we know godly wisdom if we never get into the Word of God? So we must seek, in the Word of God, we must seek godly wisdom in order to have a chance to hear that still small voice. How about Psalm 119:9 Wherewithal shall a man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy Word, accordingto thy Word. So in order to get that pure wisdom, that cleansing wisdom, that godly wisdom, we must adhere to God’s Word.
05:21 We must be in God’s Word, and as we seek His will through His Word, that gentleness of God will come upon us, that still small voice. I would say with God, often, almost, not always in my experience, I can’t say every time, but God’s wisdom to me is very methodical. God is very orderly.
05:46 God lines things up in a certain way. God opens certain doors, closes certain doors. God prepares His servants for what He’s calling them to do, maybe from a very young age, but at least certainly through their lives as they get older.
06:00 And so we see the still small voice of God is all around us, but we must be tuned in to that, and we can only be tuned in to that if we are in the Word. I wish I had more time to focus on the gentleness of God because He is very gentle, very sweet, very loving. He doesn’t impose Himself on us.
06:21 We must seek Him to have His Word on our hearts and live it out. Next, the Scripture says, wisdom from the above or godly wisdom is easy to be entreated. It is easy to ask for.
06:37 To entreat means to ask for, and so we see that godly wisdom is easy to be entreated, and so that’s so wonderful to know that our Lord and Savior, the creator of the universe and everything that we’ve ever seen, the creator of it all, that has infinite wisdom, that wisdom easy to ask for. Let’s look at James 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given him.So James 1:5 probably got to be one of my favorite verses in the Bible in the sense that how practical is that? The Lord Himself, through His Word, is telling us, okay, if you lack wisdom, ask me and I’ll give you liberally.
07:32 And the word here, abradeth not, what does abrade mean? It means to find fault or reproach severely, to censure, to find fault. So God isn’t gonna find fault in us because it says abradeth not. If any man, if any, excuse me, James 1 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given Him.
07:55 James 1:5. So if God is not abrading, that means that God is not going to be finding fault with us or telling us to be quiet when we admit we don’t know. That means that God knows us well enough to know that we don’t know, and to reverence the fact that when we come to Him humbly and seek His wisdom, He’ll provide it. And if you’re in the ministry, if you’re serving the Lord, or you’re thinking about going into the ministry, I promise you there will be so many times where you will count on God for that wisdom, and He’s not gonna hold back.
08:29 He’s gonna give it to you, and He’s not gonna be mad that you asked. I think it makes the Father happy for us to show humility, and there’s scripture in there that the Lord will raise up the humble and cast down the proud, and we show humility when we seek His wisdom, and we’re blessed by that when He gives it to us, and that shows that He’s easy to be entreated, easy to ask. This also shows God’s mercy, because we understand two principles.
09:00 One, that His mercy is upon us, that He knows that we don’t know anything, really, and we need His wisdom desperately. And by the way, we need His to even discern the scriptures. It’s impossible to discern them without God.
09:11 God is the one that allows us to understand, and there’s examples of that in the New Testament, where there are people that didn’t understand, and the disciples would ask Christ, why don’t they understand? And Christ would say, God has to open their hearts to understand, and they are blinded, right? The devil has blinded them. And why would God allow them to be blind? Well, He’s giving people free will, number one. Number two, He knows their hearts.
09:38 He looks on the inside. He knows within their true intentions. So we have God’s mercy in that sense.
09:44 We also have God’s mercy in that He allows us to be saved and to be sanctified through His wisdom. How are we saved? We’re saved by the Word of God. We’re saved by going down Romans Road or 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 4. We are saved by understanding what Christ did for us.
10:01 We are saved by God through His work on the cross and His written Word. I was gonna say Word that is alive. Amen.
10:11 We’re saved by that living Word. That was what I was looking for, that living Word. We’re saved by the living Word.
10:20 And so that’s godly wisdom, and that’s full of mercy. And then we are sanctified by that Word, and we understand that the Lord will allow us to go to Him daily throughout the day and repent of our sins and be forgiven of our sins and to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. So that’s godly wisdom that’s full of mercy.
10:37 And then how about this? Godly wisdom is full of good fruits. Godly wisdom, when followed, will have us bearing fruit. Have you ever thought about that? That what you read in the Bible, what you pray over, what you seek the Lord over, and what doors He opens, and where you have peace, and where you go and serve God, that when you do those things, it’ll bear fruit for God.
10:56 See? It’ll bear fruit in your life. You will do what God wants you to do. And as servants of the Lord, isn’t that our goal? To bear fruit for God.11:05
11:06 And we say, well, we don’t know how, or how would this work? Just trust in God. Have faith, Amen And you will see good fruits from what you’re doing and how you’re living. It’s amazing.
11:15 And I believe this wholeheartedly. If God wants you to be the accountant for a church, and you think you need to be the music minister, you got to keep seeking the Lord as He nudges you to be an accountant. And in that role of accountant, you will do a great job and bear fruit for God, and keep that church on the right track, and bless missions with funds that weren’t previously available, and do all these great things.
11:39 Through that one little role that the world would call little, it’s big to God, and it’ll be big for you because you’ll bear fruit for Him. And if you go counterwise and do what you want to do, you cannot bear fruit for God. Because we know that God’s will will be done, and that in order to be right with God, we need to be close to Him, and we need to repent, and we need to be in His Word, and we need to be living for Him.
12:01 And when we do those things, we will receive godly wisdom that will bear fruit. Without partiality is the next part here of godly wisdom from James 3. God loves all His children and knows what’s best for them individually. So God is not partial.
12:17 He will bless you. He loves you. He cares for you.
12:21 He will do what He intends to do with you and through you if you submit to Him and are obedient to Him and seek His wisdom. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory. And finally, without hypocrisy, God cannot lie.
12:33 Here we are in the book of James, in chapter 1 again, verse 17. Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So God cannot lie.
12:48 So, we see that there’s no hypocrisy, because a hypocrite is either lying to someone else or lying to themselves, but they’re playing a game where they’re not being honest and not being forthright in what they’re doing or what they’re saying, or one of the two, right? That’s how you become a hypocrite. You say one thing, you do another, or you do something and you’re saying something. Whatever it is, God can’t do that, because there’s no variableness.
13:11 There’s no change. There’s no shadow of turning. He is perfect.
13:14 He cannot lie. He is the truth. Amen.
13:17 He is the way. He is the life. He is everything.
13:21 And so what we have to understand is He will not lie. He’s not a hypocrite. Again, He’s not partial.
13:25 He’s not any of these things. And so we see that collectively together that God is an incredible God, that He’s pure, that He’s peaceable, that He’s gentle, that He’s easy to ask, that He’s full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Godly wisdom is incredible.
13:43 It’s there for you in the Bible. All you have to do is go and seek it out. You have to make it a priority.
13:49 You have to go seek out godly wisdom through His Word and through prayer. And when you do that, you will be richly blessed. And you can and should do that every single day.
14:00 And watch what the Lord does in your life as you do that. I’m so thankful you’ve taken the time to listen to this message. And again, I appreciate it so much.
14:10 And I’ll talk to you soon. Take care, God bless, and Amen.