Books of James & Jude - Chapter 3 review
James; Jude · Roger Henderson · Jul 14, 2013
James & Jude, No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926356472262

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, today we're going to do the review for chapter 3 and I'm going to spend a little bit of time looking ahead. These are the five classes that we're going to cover material in chapter 4. And chapter 4 is more, once again, it's more talking about temptations.

So I'm going to show you this. Actually, Brother Hal had a good chart of this on my show. So first of all, let's just go back and look at so far in the book of James and the temptations that we have in the book of James. Early on we looked at the temptations to have a quick negative response and a quick response to being irritable and angry and we looked at The temptation to be only hearers of the word, not doers. That's an incredible verse where a brother comes to you and says, I need help. And you say, well that's nice. Be warm and be filled. Have a good day. And I'll be praying for you.

And I feel convicted many times about that. Because many times, if you have the opportunity, you should do something. Anyway, and then there's the temptation to criticize others. It's interesting, everybody always has a criticism. It's just amazing. I'm always amazed by that. And then the temptation to show partiality and favoritism. Somebody comes in and we're all this way. That's a common malady.

Temptation to boast about our faith without works. The two for today are, and this is all of chapter three, kind of divided into two sections, one on the tongue and one on wisdom. The temptation to misuse or not restrain the tongue, because the tongue as we saw a couple of weeks ago, it's an incredible force and we know that.

Boy, just whole nations, just look at the political world today. Just one leader and what he says just drives and doctrines of people and just drive nations to war and all kinds of stuff. I mean, look at Hitler. He could speak well apparently, I might even understand German, but apparently he was able to motivate people by his words and just incredible. And then wisdom. Divine wisdom is what we seek. But man's wisdom is there. And many times we're tempted to, there's a temptation there.

So now before we get into the review of chapter 3, I just want to look ahead a little bit. at what's coming up here. Chapter 4 is going to be interesting. Chapter 4, the first lesson, we're going to cover verses 1 through 4. And there's two, a couple of things, temptations there. A temptation to quarrel and enter into conflict. A temptation to have friendship with the world. is in me toward God. That will be next week. I think Jim's going to be doing that one. Then the following weeks, these two temptations, we're going to cover that in two weeks. Basically verses 5-10.

Temptation to be proud. Temptation to not submit to God. Be submissive to God. And then there's a week we're going to cover temptation to judge others. And then the following week is going to be temptation to make decisions apart from the Lord. So that's going to be, and we're going to take five weeks to cover that. So there's quite a few temptations in there, quite a few. That's a pretty downer of a chapter. But the Lord has a solution.

Then chapter five, there's basically a temptation to hoard wealth and live in pleasure. Actually, the interesting, this first part of chapter five, You look at that and you say, who's he talking about there? So that's something that when you read the first part of chapter 5, especially those verses, who's he talking about there?

So I won't let you think about that if you read ahead. And then the last section, temptation to be impatient and complain. So we have just loads of temptations. And James is all about how my actions do something. He's not talking about. who we are in Christ or anything like that. That's Paul's job. But he's talking about what does it look like to live the Christian life. So that's what's coming up. So now let's look at the five classes we had on chapter three. So can someone read this? You can read it from your Bible or just read from up here. Read this section and we'll have some questions about this one.

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So the first question that I kind of pose here, I try to make the questions pretty straightforward.

Why should not many become teachers? And I think this is answered actually, not directly in the text, but by the context of the whole book. I'm trying to lead you. I think the context of the whole book kind of tells us what, and who the audience, who is James' audience. Let's ask that question first before trying to answer this. Who was the audience that James was speaking to?

Remember back when we had the first The twelve tribes. Okay, so that would be Jewish believers, right? Right. So the answer to this question, I think, actually kind of lies in the fact... Actually, there's another key. Another key here is that when it says, let not many... If you look at the Wyss translation or others that have translated that, that actually is a very strong opening statement. Let not many. It actually assumes something's already going on. It's assumed action is already happening. And it's actually a stop command. It says, stop. Stop becoming many teachers. It's literally, stop becoming many teachers, or it could be rendered, stop practicing. Stop the practice of many teachers. Stop the practice of many of you becoming teachers.

So it seems like, with that little piece of information in the context of the book, The James is not this can apply to all teachers, but it seems like that he was particularly concerned that there were at the first row is not you'll get bitten or, you know, I won't throw something at you. Yeah, I'll say this. We thought he would get a people in the first row. I can't get a I'm willing to settle for.

You know, when you ask about that, not becoming teachers, obviously I have some experience with that. And I would not have become a teacher if I hadn't felt the Lord led me very definitely. I've had two very definite leadings in my life in terms of just absolutely change from where I was going to a totally different path. I wasn't in a wrong path, but I wasn't in the place where God wanted to use me.

I think just in the context of what James is talking about, he's talking about very practical matters. And the Jews were used to having rabbis who took the scripture and then said, well, this is what God is trying to tell you. This is what God means. And I think of the judgment, as it were, that Christ made when he talked about the Pharisees being blind, leaders of the blind, and they'd both fall in the ditch.

And I just think so strongly that when someone has a position as a teacher, they are assuming, maybe not of themselves, maybe it isn't a pride within themselves, although that's always a danger, but there is an association with a position. Just like if you go to a doctor or you go to a lawyer or you go to some other professional, quote unquote, you expect them to be trained and knowledgeable and to be able to help you with whatever you're trying for. And so this. ideas that we're all learners, we're all students and not to set ourselves above one another. So you talk about that partiality and connection with clothes.

Right. But it's also with respect to our earthly wisdom. We look for a plumber who knows how to handle plumbing, etc. You want to make sure it's not his first rodeo, as they say. As soon as you ask him, this is the first house you built? No, this is the first house you built. Well, maybe I don't want to hire you.

So that's very true. Actually, I think there's a verse that talks a little bit about, let's look at 1 Corinthians, talking about teachers. And obviously, in scripture, being a teacher is a spiritual gift. And so let's just look at 1 Corinthians 12, 28 and 29. If someone could read that, 1 Corinthians 12, 28 and 29.

And God hath said some in the church, first apostles, second to their lay prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles and gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles? Thanks to the Lord, that's good. So it goes on. So what I thought was interesting here was first of all, he delineates the gifts.

And some of these gifts, if you're careful about dividing the word, some of these gifts are no longer in view. But teachers is certainly in view today. What's interesting is he says, we can't all be Not everyone can be a teacher. Not everyone can be this.

And so he's pointing that out as a warning. And so Paul's talking about this. So I think Al had a good point. I mean, your walk with the Lord in terms of teachers in this day and age should be a careful decision and that should be something the Lord would lead you into. So I think he's directing that there probably were abuses.

There were abuses of being teachers. That was something to gain power. People have motivations. Why don't they become teachers? Fortunately, in this day and age, especially like the Holly Hills, there's no, we're not going to gain power necessarily or certainly not monetary reward by being teachers here, and that's actually a good thing. So you can be a teacher for the right reasons, but it seems like there it's possible they were teachers for the wrong reasons.

Go ahead, Jeremy. I think a lot of this fits into, so like here at Holly Hills, our way of operating is, if you're acting within a certain role, why not go ahead and throw the title on you? Rather than, okay, we're going to make you a deacon, now you've got to start acting like a deacon.

That's the grace way. God gives us these gifts. He gifts certain people to the body so that through them he can teach them. This seems to be very much centered on grace, where rather than, OK, I want to be a teacher, I want to be an elder. God's using you as an elder. I don't know if we can pull it from the passage, but I think when you look at the rest of Scripture, especially the New Testament teaching, there's that idea that God is going to give you gifts and start using those gifts.

All my life, I grew up in an environment where people talk about, I've been called to preach, or called to be a missionary. I'm 13 years old at camp, and I felt the call of God. Well, I think that's totally different than what Al's talking about, where through the circumstances in your life, there's a clear opportunity there for God to use you in a specific way, rather than, well, all my life I've wanted to be a pastor, so I'm going to try to be, even though that may not be how God is using you and has necessarily gifted you, it's, I'm going to seek after this. So, in a way, it kind of comes down to, are you understanding grace and living by the power of God in you, or are you seeking to go out and do that yourself as well?

And so, I don't know if that's what James is getting at here, but I think when you look in the context, the broader context of the New Testament, that seems to be a what the Bible teaches about. God's going to use you in a way. And whatever we do ought to be simply focused on learning about God and allowing Him to do the good works He has prepared through us. I mean, it's not that you're not recognized. I recognize it. My brother is sister. They have a gift. So it takes you to some degree out of the equation.

You have to be willing. Now, if you say, well, I'm I'm not going to teach or I'm not going to I'm not going to do whatever the function is. I'm not going to play music. I don't like to play music. Right. All right. I like the music, but not for people. And you know, you can you can say no to that. But if others recognize your ability and it seems like that's a that's a normal progression, the way things should be recognized.

I've come here to teach. Hi, I'm Joe, I've come here to teach. And actually, believe it or not, we've had people come into our body in the time I've been here that have said, well, I've come to do X and Y ministries. Because at first, I've taken back a bit.

Oh, thank you. All right. Don't you want to get to know us a little bit? Just walk in the door. I'm ready to do that. So that's the model is that your gift is recognized. And that's a gift. What about the stricter judgment? What should we decide about that? That's actually one of the harder ones. Let's talk about that. That kind of gives you pause.

Do I want stricter judgment? In the context of scripture, for the believer, what kind of judgment, and I put that in quotes, You know, the judgmency of Christ, as it's called. Is that a judgment in the sense that we think of judgment like the great white throne judgment? You compare the judgmency of Christ and the great white throne. They're dramatically different operations. It's a reward ceremony. So you have to be kind of careful. For the believer, stricter judgment can't be, for example, loss of salvation. That's an impossibility. Because you're not maintaining your salvation. The Lord is maintaining your salvation.

So it's something, it's possibly less rewards. You know, you could have enjoyed more rewards, but because maybe you got carried away with your gift of teaching. And, you know, and the thing is with teaching, as I was going to point out, like this question, and we kind of alluded to this, it's not just you you're influencing. You know, if you do your own thing, let's say you, music, for example, you know, if you, It's possible that you won't hurt anybody else but yourself, I mean, or whatever you get. But teaching, there's an opportunity to lead others as well as yourself astray.

So that's one of the things that, I think that's why Scripture Judgment is there. Scripture also teaches, I think pretty clearly, that when you claim to have knowledge of God, you can easily set up a yardstick by which you're going to be measured. Whereas if you're ignorant of God, there are a number of places in Scripture where God deals with ignorance much less harshly than with people who claim to have knowledge and know it. So I think the stricter judgment is because you're claiming to understand God's ways and God's will.

And be careful what you say. It's like that old business, I have warned the prisoners, don't ask for justice, you might get it. Ask for God's mercy and grace. Well, I think this fits in what I was saying earlier about grace. In the New Testament, judgment is not I don't think it's about punishment. Certainly it's not about punishment, because there is no condemnation. So the judgment there is, how well are you walking in the grace of God? That's what the judgment is. And if you are a teacher, that's a much higher standard. So the standard of, are you walking in the grace of God, is much higher.

And this goes back to what I said, I think, in most of my lessons. James is out here to say, this is how you ought to be living. And I think the expected response is, well, how on earth can we accomplish that? And then later Paul comes and says, this is the mechanics of how you accomplish that. So here he's saying, understand the responsibility of being a teacher. And our response is, well, how on earth can I accomplish that?

Well, it's by resting in God. It's by walking in the grace of God. That's where the judgment lies. And that's, like you say, in particular, teaching is such an essential... I don't want to say it's THE essential ministry. But certainly, all the New Testament writers place so much emphasis on the careful teaching, careful dividing of the Word.

And so, it is only going to occur as we are walking by grace. And so, because the standard there is so high as far as whether or not you're walking in the grace of God, obviously the only way we can do it is by being fully focused and beholding Him. Again, it's not, I want to go out, I want to be a good Christian, I want to be a good teacher. That's not the motivation.

The motivation is, let me walk in faith in God and all these works He's prepared for me, He's going to do through me. So I think this does completely fit into the gracious picture of how God works in the life of the believer and also in the life of the body.

In the Old Testament, you get a foreshadowing. Why is this pile of stones here? Well, it's a memorial or something. Why are we doing the Passover piece? Well, that's a memorial to show how God delivered us, etc, etc. Parents, teacher, children. I mean, it's all the way through. The model, even under the law, the teaching was very important. Whether you were officially called a teacher or whether you were a parent, overseeing the spiritual education of your family. So I think it runs through all of scripture. Teaching. Letting people know who God is and what he has done and how he operates. Even under the law it was very important. OK, that's great. Oh, good. OK, so let's move on. Next question. And we know Bob covered this and he did a great job. I'm not trying to say that, you know, come along and say, well, here's a here's the right view.

Hopefully this is additional ideas that will help be helpful. So what does stumbling in many ways imply? We kind of talked about this, I think, involved or maybe talk about this later. So stumbling in many ways. And there's a real key to this in another verse. But do you remember what I've forgotten exactly what was exactly. But I have to think about it a little bit. You know, so I look at this point by saying, let's look at let's look at James chapter two verses nine and ten. Some of you have changed to nine.

But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. So what do you think from that verse? So if you look back up at verse 9, it says, if you show partiality, you're committing sin and convicted by the law. Now, he talked about law. allow us to kind of interpret this. And then 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles in one point. So what would you say a synonym for, in verse 10, for stumbles would be in that context, in that verse? Transgress. A sin, right? Right.

So maybe this isn't a biggie in the context here, but I think it's important to see that where we all stumble in many ways, it's not talking of something less than sin. And that's my whole point. That's the whole reason for that question. It's just to kind of zoom in on the fact that we said we all stumble in many ways.

It's not like, well, this is a little white line. There we go. Thank you. You know, it's citizen and stumbling, but we all stumble. So he's pointing out here. So he's just talking about what we can become teachers. And he comes right back and says, wait a minute. As a person walking on this earth, as a believer, we stumble, we sin in many ways. And then he goes on to talk about a mature person. So anyway, my whole point of this question was that stumbles implies sin by its very nature.

So the next question is, what does it mean to be a perfect man? We'll see that word perfect. And it's so important to kind of get that in your head, that word perfect. That's one of those key words that pops up over and over again in the New Testament. So does someone have a synonym for perfect? Usually it's mature. Mature belief. Something that's gone to the point of bearing fruit, along the line that you were talking before. If we actually do seek God's direction, then we're promised that there will be fruit there.

So that's why he starts off not making any teachers. He says, well, oh, by the way, don't forget that we are sinners in a sense. We're all sinners. And it happens in many ways. And he says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, so a mature man. And then he goes on to the next question. wasn't involved in bridling the whole body.

Maybe in the interest of time, I'll just come answer my own question. So it seems like to me in this context here that the tongue is the key indicator of a man's walking with the Lord or controlling his body. I mean, he's going to spend a lot of time on that. He's going to say the tongue is the key element. or the tongue misuse is just going to destroy.

It destroys you and it destroys Everything around you, it's just devastating. So the tongue, the body can be bridled. The tongue is a mechanism. So that's how we bridle the whole body, by our tongue. And then lastly, what's the underlying principle of the bit and the bridle? And what I was just trying to point out here is it's a small, and he's leading up to the tongue again, a small instrument controls a big ship. or a horse, a big horse. And by analogy, we're going to find out that the small tongue controls a man and controls the destiny of nations and controls all kinds of things. So small controls big. So now there's two sections we've covered in two weeks on the power of the tongue. So what two ways is a time different from a different life?

And it's right. That's right in the first five years. And so I'll just once again ask my own question here. The first thing you see in verse five is that is that unlike the bit of the rudder, the tongue not only it says how great it is, There was a thing that man was saying. I didn't. I thought the session was saying, I copy down. I hear you. The tongue suggests sins. The tongue commits sins. The tongue defends. So in this case, the tongue, in contrast to the bit of the rudder, it can boast. It can boast about itself that it's done great things. And then secondly, in the last part, Once again, the small creates the big. The small fire can create this enormous fire. So that's his point to that question.

In what way is the tongue a fire? And this is something that I taught this section, and then I went back and reviewed it. I thought, well, the answer, I struggled on the tongue is a fire. I said, well, what does that mean? The tongue is a fire. What is he trying to say there? Well, if I just looked at the rest of the verse, I'd have my answer. The tongue is a fire, and he goes on to explain that. The very world of a NICOLET. So the key to the tongue is a fire is what's the definition of a NICOLET. So what do you think about a NICOLET? What comes to mind with a NICOLET?

Well, sin and sinfulness. Or literally, it's unrighteousness. And there's a verse that, you know, it's basically that word, the Greek word behind Iniquity is unrighteousness. And it's translated like in first John, all sin is unrighteousness is one of the translations. So the way the tongue is a fire is that it can be the very world of unrighteousness. One translation has the sum total of unrighteousness.

I mean, this is just devastating words about the tongue. You think, I mentioned that Macaulay said he wanted to have a tonguectomy after teaching this section. I mean, you think, why do I want to say anything again? My tongue's out of cademia. But we see there's a solution. God has a solution to the tongue. The next one is, since a tongue is set among its members, what are the three negative things that can result?

And once again, it's right in the verse. from verse 6, that which defiles the entire body, just number one, defiles the entire body, sets on fire the course of our life. And then the last one is just mind-boggling. It says it's set on fire by power. That last one is, you know, we kind of struggle. It's got to be the influence of our three enemies and basically the devil. So anyway, those are the three things that are members of three negative things. And then this is a good one.

Why can animals be tamed and not our tongue? This is not actually a hard one. You can tame your dog, your cat. Well, some people don't. I've been to some people's house. Oh, it's OK if Joey jumps on you, and you make dogs run atop you, hit you to the floor. Oh, he didn't want to hurt you. No, that's the way cities are. But you can tame animals, but you can't tame your tongue, right? Well, the answer is, I'm going to ask another question. Animals act exactly as God designed them. They do not deviate in the slightest. If they're a cat, they meow. If they're a dog, they bark. Fallen man has a sin nature, and that's why his tongue is untamable.

That's so important, because the materialistic worldview, the evolutionistic worldview, is man is basically an animal. And so they seek to understand man's behavior in the same sense that they would understand an animal's behavior. I mean, there's that, I don't think it's still on, that show The Dog Whisperer where the whole point of the show is this guy had studied animals. He knows what their nature is, what they want. And so if you're going to train your dog, you have to understand their nature and how they're responding to these different, because they're just acting Like you say, according to their nature. In a broader sense, all this psychology and stuff in the modern world tries to begin from that standpoint.

We're just an animal wrapped in stimuli in our universe. And when you take away the spiritual aspect, you end up with a shooting an aurora. How on earth can this happen? And we're trying to understand it. Well, it happens because man has a sinful nature and does terribly evil things.

So we're not going to be tamed like the animals. And it's so sad to see society saying, oh, we'll just give you a course in anger management. You just need some social readjustments. You're being challenged here and we'll just help you do better. And it's like Vern says in the sermons so many times, don't seek to improve, don't seek to be a good Christian.

Christ's condemnation back in Matthew chapter 12 verse 34. How can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you for every idle word You will give account of it in the day of judgment. Or by your words you will be justified. By your words you will be condemned.

I'm in Christ. among other things. Well, he basically, he confirmed, he's just saying what James is saying. Yeah, James is sort of picking up on that. That's good. And we haven't done, you know, as we pointed out, we really haven't, and you could go through and take up Matthew and we can match up that. We really haven't done that, but you could do that. So, okay.

And then the last one is, since no man can tame the tongue, what was God's course of action? Should we go to anger management school? He controls it for us. Basically, it's that we had to be crucified with Christ. All of Romans 6 talks about the fact that we're to know that we've been crucified with Christ and we're to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. God has provided the method his son dying on the cross, and us dying with him. He's provided the mechanism to tame the tongue.

But it's only the believer who knows that, understands that, that has a chance. I mean, it's sad that believers that don't understand that, their approach to taming the tongue isn't much better than the rest of the world. They're the same, which is really sad. They don't have the game plan. And it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate.

I feel so blessed that we have been exposed and we understand that. And it's not something that is a mystery. It's wonderful. And that's the whole secret of the Christian life. If you miss that, you miss... How can you be a good Christian? You can't. Without understanding what Christ has done for you. What's interesting is that the human will is pretty powerful. Oh, absolutely.

I heard a writer recently telling a story how he Smoked most of his life and he became famous and he'd go on these book tours and they'd put him in hotels. Well because he smoked, he would get the not nicer hotels. So he wanted to stop smoking. So he told himself this story that he was only given a certain amount of cigarettes he could smoke in his life and he'd use that up so he had no more cigarettes left to smoke. And through that he was able to just stop cold turkey.

And a lot of people that have a vice like that wouldn't be able to do that. So there are examples where the human will is pretty strong, but of course that's not what God wants at all. You're going to control one area, but then it's still the fact that you're not in grace, you're not walking in faith. And there's going to be other areas where you have no control over.

And so it's easy to point to examples and say, well look, I can just decide I'm going to live a certain way, and I live that certain way, and there are people that can do that. But that's not at all what God contends. And ultimately, though, the Bible is so clear, out of the abundance of the heart, that the mouth speaketh. Whatever is in your heart is going to come.

And even if it's just the fact that, look at me, look what I can do, and you're so self-centered that you don't have a place in your life for God. Well, that's, I don't want to say the ultimate sin, but that's what it comes down to. Are you going to trust in Christ? Are you going to live your own way?

And so, it's not just that. We're powerless over these vices, but ultimately we're not powerful enough to live the life that God has declared. This is what you need, and anything short of that is not even close. That's great. So that's part one of the tongue. In part two, they said, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men. who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

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? Or can salt water produce fresh? So it kind of changes, in this section of verse, it kind of changes. So actually, I really had the same questions I had back when I taught this section. Basically, And this is just Christianity 101, really. Who's in control when we bless? Who's in control when we curse? And what is our part in this? Understanding that, we'll take care of why we can bless our Lord with the same mouth and curse him with the same mouth. So we have two natures.

Here's where just some basic critical things are in view. And of course, James does not talk about that at all. He just presents his case. But it's interesting, the verse that Jeremy had last week, and hopefully we'll get to it here. It's just a beautiful verse, and it opens the door on that he understands grace. He really understands it. But you wouldn't be able to tell that from a lot of, he just says, this is how it is. This is how it operates.

When we bless, we're in control of the spirit, we're walking with Christ. When we curse, we're walking in our sin nature. Our part is to operate by faith, faith in what we have in Christ. What's James' point in verses 11 and 12? His point, once again, In God's design, God's designed things to operate according to the way he designed them. Man is the anomaly, if you will. Because of his fallen nature, he stepped outside of God's plan.

A fig tree produces frigs. Olives produce olives. Fresh water is from that same opening. The water could go bad, but in the context it means that if you're getting fresh water from this, It's not going to instantaneously change the soul. It maybe over time might degrade. So in God's creation, things operate according to his plan.

And that's kind of his point there about the different kinds of openings. So that's section one of this chapter. And section two is going to talk about wisdom. So any last thoughts on the tongue before we move on to wisdom? OK, good. Would someone like to read this first part here, the first four verses in wisdom? Who among you is wise in understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

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.

So this is a neat section. So the first question is, what is meant by being wise and understanding? Before we answer that, just look at the verses here. The first one is going to be a positive statement. And then the next three are going to be kind of negative statements. I mean, that's probably obvious. So what does he mean by being wise? So that's kind of another question. What kind of wisdom is he talking about here, being wise? Is he talking about man's wisdom?

That can only be based on God's wisdom, understanding God's will, the scriptures, just the heart and life of Christ. It goes back to chapter 1. If you lack wisdom, by the mask of God it gives freely and abundantly, but don't ask with a divided mind of just sort of trying it as an experiment and saying, well, I'm not doing too well. Maybe God knows better. Hey God, I'm out here in a life raft in the middle of the Pacific. Do you have any suggestions here? Absolutely.

Like in Romans, the only wise God. God by his very nature is wise. And if we want to have any wisdom that we aspire to as believers, it's his wisdom. And understanding is really applying that wisdom. And actually the word is, you're skillful. Understanding is the word for skill. You're skillful in applying the wisdom you have from God.

And so he goes on with that. And the next question is, why is good behavior and deeds the indicator of wisdom and understanding? And this one, once again, this is back to James' modus operandi here. He's going to show you that your life is going to reflect what you know.

I mean, your good behavior and deeds should be indicators of the fact that you have God's wisdom and you're operating in God's wisdom and using it. Let's see if I have something else to point out about that. There are some neat verses along the way. Basically, in 1 Peter 2, it says, keep your behavior excellent among Gentiles. And basically, even more to the point, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.

This is what makes the Christian life impossible. Our standard is the righteousness of God. How can a Christian, you know, when you first come out, you say, that's an impossibility. I can't possibly do that. And you're right, and that's the whole point. It's Christ, you know, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, not I, but Christ lives in me, and so on. So it's Christ's life that has to be in view, to have a chance at having wisdom. Some of these are obvious. We've gone the blessing and cursing.

What is the source of jealousy and selfish ambition? That's our sinful nature. Why is arrogance lying against the truth? That kind of keys on the fact of the word arrogance. Arrogance can have a positive aspect. This is a negative translation. It's a word for boasting or glorying. You can glory in the Lord If you boast about something, you're presenting something that's not true. If you boast in the Lord, that's okay. But if you boast and making something more than it is, then you're lying. So you're lying against the truth.

What are the three sources of wisdom not from above? We're going to have the sources of wisdom not from above, man's wisdom, and basically they're earthly, which is speaking of the world system basically. This is where in scripture when we talk about the world, flesh, and the devil, if you challenge somebody to find that, you don't find the world, the flesh, and the devil. You say, find the world, the flesh, and the devil in scripture. I can't find it. Well, it's there, but the words are slightly different. Look at verses that talk about earthly. There's one in Philippians, set their minds on earthly things, or worldly things.

Then the natural is this world, Psychikos, the natural man in Corinthians. The one who is not walking in the spirit, that speaks to the sin nature. So there is a world, the flesh, or the sin nature, and then in Demonica is the devil. So there is the world, the flesh, and the devil.

If anyone ever asks you, where is the world, the flesh, and the devil in scripture, this is the verse you want to turn them to. They are a little explaining, but this is the verse, verse 15 there. What did you say? Is there a verse you say? Check me out. I do not think there is a verse that says the world, the flesh and the devil. I think this is a verse.

And I could be wrong, but to my understanding this is a verse that indicates that these are the opponents of the believer in the world. That's a wisdom not from above, right? The wisdom not from above is earthly, the world, natural, it's a sin nature, and demonic. Those are the three enemies of the believer, the three adversaries of the believer.

Well, first John, I was looking for it while you were saying it. I haven't run across it yet. The place where he says, love not the world nor the things in the world. Everything that's in the world is... I don't think it mentions... But you're right, it doesn't... I don't think it mentions all three. My point is, it's all three. Now I would agree, other places you're going to have the world system and the devil certainly, and the sin nature. But all three together, I think this is a verse. Now, check me out, make sure I'm right about that.

And the last question was, what creates disorder in every evil thing? Well, basically, in the context, if you look here, this set of words here, jealousy and selfish ambition occurs twice, in verse 14, and then again, it's the same words in the Greek. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition creates arrogance and lying against the truth, and then Jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder in every evil thing. What?

If that's how you're operating, you're operating with wisdom not from God, there's not going to be order. It's going to be disorder. And we see that. Lies just perpetuate more lies. If some truth is not told, eventually it's revealed, especially in today's world. And then some other untruth has to be told to cover that. And it just goes on and on and on. In this day and age, with the internet, it just goes on and on and on. Maybe it's run to ground, so to speak.

Maybe the truth finally comes out, but it's hard to even know if the full truth ever is revealed. Maybe another piece of the truth is revealed, but that's the way this world system operates. That jealousy and selfish ambition, there's going to be disorder and every evil thing. Boy, if we don't see that in our world today, it's just incredible. a famous old Japanese movie called Rashomon, which is about this crime that occurred.

And so they tell the story four different times from the perspective of the four different people. And the whole point is each time it's a little bit different, but each person, I mean, so it's ultimate is how do we know which one is true? How do we know what happened? Each person is not lying. They're saying things exactly how they saw it, but their four accounts of it are drastically different. For the modern man, that seems to be the big difficulty. How do we understand truth? How are we able to judge what's right and what's wrong? When everyone's perspective is going to be a little bit different because you don't necessarily have a perspective grounded in that absolute truth.

I like what you did last week. Just a couple more little points here. The first question is, and I thought yours was really great. You mentioned this, I kind of took your key on this one. The wisdom from above. What does that mean? What other parts of scripture talk about a list similar to this? And Jeremy mentioned it last week. He can't answer, but someone else answered. The Spirit? Yes, obviously. So it's not the same list.

And I thought Jeremy, it was real good. Purity starts off That's a key, and that's kind of a cool thing. In John it says, just as he Christ is pure. Christ is the absolute reference for purity, for truth. So that starts the list of wisdom. The wisdom of love starts with the person who is the absolute truth. So it starts there and the rest of them kind of flow out of that. And then the last one, I'm not preaching the right thing. OK. So I did a little, I looked up, this is kind of interesting, and I think this is really cool.

That little phrase, and actually in the verse it says, the seeds whose fruit is righteousness. There's actually just two Greek words for fruit, which is karpos, and the word for righteousness. So it's actually, the subject of this is the fruit of righteousness. and is sown in peace, is kind of the clause there. And actually that could be translated, there's even another better translation, you know you always find a better one. It's a fruit that righteousness produces. So one of my questions here, and where's the fruit of righteousness? Okay, so What is the fruit of righteousness? I'll give you my take on it. I think it's verse 17. I think Jeremy probably said that too. The fruit of righteousness, or the fruit that righteousness is produced, there's a list of what righteousness produces.

Pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable. And it says, it's sown in peace. And what's interesting is that sown is in the passive voice. So this is beautiful. I mean, who's going to sow this fruit of righteousness? And it goes right along. If that's a fruit of the Spirit or a very close list, it can't be us, right? It has to be the Spirit of God that's going to do the sowing. We can't do it. And the verb tense leads you to that conclusion. It's in the passive voice. So the fruit of righteousness, which is the list in 17, is sown in peace, the question is, why must it be sown in peace?

And I think it's basically because if you look back at the previous verses, like 14 through 16 in the previous chart, that shows that's the wisdom not from above. God's wisdom is always, he's the God of peace, it's always going to be in peace. It can't be otherwise. It's not in disorder. Whereas man's wisdom, as 14 through 16 showed, is going to be jealousy, selfish ambition, and so on. So it's sown in peace because that's God's very nature. And then lastly, how do we make peace? If we know the Prince of Peace, we can make peace. So that's my quick review of this chapter. I think it's a really cool chapter. The more I dig into James, the more excited I get because you begin to see where James is going.

In verses like this, you begin to see, wow, he doesn't talk about our life in Christ, but he talks about the very character of our Savior. And these two verses are just so illuminating. And Jeremy pointed out, in the midst of all this, do this, do that, this is how it looks. He comes along with this verse, these two verses, and you say, wow, look at that.

That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's what Paul talks about. And when you follow through on that, It talks about, against such there is no law, which is another way of saying that it's sown in peace. That's the point. To me, one could explore that further. Cool. Okay. Any last thoughts? We're totally out of time here. Go ahead, Pat. Well, go back to this pearl flesh of the devil.

Okay. You found one. Good. Okay. Well, I just thought the flesh is, I mean, sensual. And you look at 1 John 2, 16. The lust of the flesh, that's sensual. So you got one out of three that matches. Then you have The lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, those are sensual.

And the pride of life, seems like that's the world. Possibly. Or the pride of life. Because that's the three. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. You do get sensual in there. I think you get two of the three, right? Maybe. So you've got sensual and then the world would be the pride of life. Loss of the flesh. Loss of the flesh would be the sinful nature. And then the pride of life, would that be the world?

We actually studied that. Here's what I'll do. I'll go back and look at that. And that's a good question. I made a blanket statement here. When you studied that, the pride of life had to do with being proud of being a teacher. You can go back to our beginning here. that you're not humble about the fact that God has blessed you. And if you are blessed above other people or with different gifts than other people, it is not something to say, look what I have done, look who I am. It's thankfulness toward God that he's So I'm going to get two out of three.

I think this is it. I think that verse... Actually I went too far, but I was trying to go back there. Earthly, natural, demonic. Those are the three. I think that's the world. Look at the verses that back those up. Anyway, okay, so check me out to make sure I'm right. Okay, so let's close.

Dear Father, we thank you so much Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. Lord, we just thank you for your marvelous word, for just the truths therein, Lord. Just the construction and the language and so many things allow us to have insight and to not be and doubt about what you're trying to convey Lord. We thank you for the many that have studied before us and we can benefit by those and also by your spirit to guide us in the language and so many things that allow us to see what you intend in your work. In Christ's name, Amen.