A Daily Walk

John Randall: Today on A Daily Walk, learn how to be a peacemaker instead of a peace breaker. If it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Do your best in a world at war with words and statements. Do your best to live peaceably with all men. Try. Again, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five verse nine, he said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."

Guest (Male): This is A Daily Walk. It's good to have you in our listening family as we begin another broadcast. If you're new to the program, what we do here is take a particular book of the Bible and study it verse by verse from beginning to end. Right now, the book before us is James. We're in chapter three. This section of James is dealing with wisdom and where to go to find the right kind of wisdom from above. Let's join John Randall there now.

John Randall: This is the foundation. Two types of wisdom: one is worldly, from below, and one is godly, and it's from above. But the second thing that James describes for us concerning the features of these two types of wisdom are some of the qualities or characteristics that actually manifest themselves when either form of wisdom is in operation or on display.

This is the byproduct. This is what this kind of wisdom will produce, and this is what this kind of wisdom will produce. See which one you prefer. Look at verse 14. Still talking about the wisdom that's from below. What does that look like? If you have bitter envy, self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

James says if you have this going on, and actually it implies that the wisdom from below that was sensual and satanic was actually existent in the church at that time. James is writing. Listen, if this is going on, or since this is going on, it's as if he had heard some of that was making its way through the church.

He points out, this is how you recognize it. There are elements of jealousy, self-seeking, bitterness, arrogance, deception. This is all a byproduct of the wisdom that is from below. This is how it manifests itself in this kind of behavior. There is nothing in this description that looks remotely like Jesus. Nothing. This is the exact opposite of Jesus.

When it says bitter, it is a Greek word that describes a harsh stance of demanding to be recognized as wise instead of being willing to learn. It's very arrogant. Bitterness. It would seem in the context of the entire chapter and especially these last several verses that James is dealing with some of those in the church that had the desire to be teachers.

You may recall last week, we mentioned that strong exhortation at the beginning of the chapter where James said let not many of you become teachers because you're going to receive a stricter judgment. Apparently there were those in the congregation who were set on being teachers for the wrong reasons, perhaps reasons like recognition or adulation from an audience.

Their motives were impure and they were rooted in worldly wisdom. It was manifest through bitterness. You could see it in the way they operated. Not only bitterness, but envy. This word used for envy describes selfish ambition. You've got this desire and there's selfish ambition attached to it.

It reminds me in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers. You remember in the book of Numbers chapter 16 that when Moses was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, that there was a group of individuals who were priests. They served alongside of Moses. They had the job of carrying particular articles of the Tabernacle and they were from the family of Korah.

The sons of Korah grew tired of their job description. So they started attacking Moses personally and they stood up in rebellion and accused Moses and Aaron of acting like princes over them. They take too much upon themselves. The whole congregation is anointed. You know what? We're going to be a congregational rule from this day forward. You're done, Moses.

Moses fell on his face and God struck them. But they were operating in worldly wisdom. There was envy, there was bitterness, there was this desire of self-interest that permeated and it came out and they began to accuse others in the midst of it and blaming them. The reality was they were in the flesh. They were in the flesh, and that's what the flesh looks like.

I was thinking about this today and posing the question: are you bitter tonight towards someone? Are you envious of what someone else has? Are you a person that is very self-seeking? Is life all about you? If so, it's an indication that you are operating in worldly wisdom.

The writer of Hebrews also comments on bitterness and he says this in chapter 12 verse 15. It says looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled. The author of the book of Hebrews uses bitter root as a metaphor for that which would bring harm to the church. It's a root. It's deep. It's embedded there.

A New Testament example of one who was governed by bitterness was a man by the name of Simon. He was formerly a sorcerer. When Philip came down to Samaria there in the book of Acts and a revival broke out, Simon joined with the crowd. He was into it. People were showing up. This is exciting. He got the t-shirt, he got baptized. He was in it.

Then Peter and John came down to actually pray over them that they might be baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit. When they laid hands on these new believers in Samaria and they saw the manifestation of the empowering of the Holy Spirit, Simon the sorcerer took out his checkbook and said, "I'd love to... where do I get that? I'd love to have that trick in my bag so that I could use it."

Peter, recognizing the intention of Simon's heart, he turned to him and he rebuked him in his wickedness in Acts chapter eight verse 23 and he said this: "I can see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." He's going through the motions. He was doing it, but he was bitter.

I remember one time a pastor sharing at a conference that I attended and it was wise what he said and it made a lot of sense, that bitterness, he said, has the shelf life of a Twinkie. If you don't know what a Twinkie is, ask your mom. It can last a long time. In other words, it's sad there's no longer Twinkies, but that's quite alright. It's better for us that they're not here.

Let's have a moment of silence. No. Simon's wickedness was his desire to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, essentially treating God as some commodity to enhance his own career as a magician. Listen, he was operating in the flesh. Worldly wisdom for his own benefit. James paints the picture of this worldly wisdom from below with envy and bitterness and the fact is that's ugly. It's ugly.

Thankfully, there's another wisdom that he describes, and this wisdom from above and its characterization. Notice in verse 17: but the wisdom that is from above, it's pure, it's peaceable, it's gentle, it's willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Eight things that James says as he uses to describe this godly wisdom.

Its foundation is different. It's not from below, it's from above. And this is what it looks like. These are some of the things that will come from a life that is governed by this kind of wisdom. It's pure, meaning it's undefiled. It's not tainted by selfishness and selfish motives. It's morally pure.

Today we are made pure by the blood of Christ. The Bible says it's the blood of Christ applied to my life that atones for my sin, that makes me pure white as the driven snow. My sins are washed away, the Bible says. You can be cleansed, made pure, and as you operate in this wisdom, there is a purity.

The Bible says Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." There's power in purity. In this wisdom is also peaceable and it's a word that describes a peaceful spirit. There's no striving. Ultimately Jesus is our peace.

He's brought us to a place of peace with God and bringing us to a place of peace with other members of the body of Christ. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 12 verse 18, you remember: if it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Do your best in a world at war with words and statements.

Do your best to live peaceably with all men. Try. Again, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five verse nine, he said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." This wisdom is pure, it's peaceable, but it's also gentle. Gentleness is a fruit of the spirit.

When you see a brother or sister who's overtaken in sin, you remember that we are to approach them with gentleness, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted. There is a sense of gentleness. When there's trouble in the body of Christ, when there's problems in the fellowship, we're called to bear one another's burdens in a spirit of gentleness, Paul mentioned to the Ephesians.

In writing to the Thessalonians, Paul said concerning his own ministry, he said when we ministered among you, we were gentle among you. We weren't harsh. We weren't making demands of you. We weren't saying shine our shoes or wash our feet. We just were gentle among you. We were serving you.

In Philippians 4:5, Paul said to the church there, "Let your gentleness be known to all men because the Lord is at hand." To Timothy, Paul wrote and instructed him in caring for the flock in First Timothy chapter six verse 11. He said, "But you, oh man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness."

If you're going to minister to God's people, make sure that you do so in a spirit of gentleness. And the world needs to see our gentleness. Jesus said it best in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 29. He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for yourselves."

If Jesus was known, he's saying I'm gentle. And if I want to be like Jesus, then that's what I'm going to seek. That's wisdom. That's from above. This is how it manifests itself in an attitude of gentleness. I think that this is one area that certainly is being challenged: patience and gentleness right now as it relates to all that is going on in the world.

You think well they're not gentle, why do I have to be? Because Jesus is. But why else? That's it! Because he said to. I'm not saying it's easy. It's not. But I find that the more time I spend with him, he rubs off on me in a good way, helps me to be gentle when I'm not thinking gentle right now. I'm thinking harsh.

Sometimes we think violent. That's not the heart of Jesus. He's gentle and lowly in heart. Then it says in verse four: this wisdom is willing to yield. How about this? It doesn't always have to be right in every situation. It's my way or the highway! Maybe you've said that before or thought it.

It's willing to yield. This wisdom is willing to listen to somebody else's opinion on a matter, to take into consideration somebody else might have a good idea besides yours and it might be really good. Maybe you should listen to it. Willing to yield. Some people are extremely offended if their opinions on any matter are not agreed with.

I'm tolerant as long as your opinion is the same as mine. If it's not, I am not tolerant of you. But I still call myself tolerant of everything, but I'm not. Full of mercy. This wisdom manifests itself in a demonstration of mercy toward others. It's merciful. Do you desire mercy from God for your life? I do.

I don't always desire it for other people. "Lord give me mercy, and if you want you could judge them because they deserve it!" Again that's from below. That's from below. But this wisdom is full of mercy. I need mercy and thus I should be merciful. Then it says without partiality.

This wisdom is not partial. It is fair and equitable in its assessment. It's also without hypocrisy, meaning it is sincere. It doesn't have an ulterior motive feigning one thing and yet really thinking something else. No, this wisdom isn't like that. That's earthly, but this is godly. This is the wisdom that's from above and the characterization of it.

But the third thing we want to consider and we'll wrap this up is: what is the fruit of either type of wisdom being applied? What can I expect to find if I am operating in either form of wisdom? What will follow wisdom from below and what will follow wisdom from above? First, the fruit of wisdom that is from below.

It's seen here in verse 16. We mentioned it, but I want to highlight it again: envy, self-seeking, confusion, and every evil thing are there. Well that pretty much wraps it up. That's pretty much what we're seeing right now. Envy, self-seeking, confusion. What's going on? Is that real or not real? Is this true or is that not true?

I'm confused. You know who the author of confusion is? It's not God. It's the devil. So much confusion. Everybody's confused. And then what follows confusion? Well I don't know. Every evil thing. Every evil thing follows the wisdom that is from the world. A lot of people right now operating in the wisdom from this world and confusion and evil and self-interest.

That's what's going to happen. Confusion, it's a word that means disorder, which leads to instability. People don't understand what's going on. They don't know why we're moving in this direction and sheep are unsettled. Where there's a lack of vision, there's no real clarity. So people are just confused.

You remember the Tower of Babel in Genesis? They built it because they wanted to make a name for themselves and they wanted to reach heaven as if that were possible. So they built this massive Tower of Babel. Man's work in all of his wisdom engineered. Look at this! And at that time everybody spoke the same language. And God came down and looked at it. Tiny tower.

These guys are trying to make a name for themselves and the Lord just said you know what, let's just mix up their language. So suddenly everybody's speaking a different language. Could you imagine? Everybody's now everybody here just instantly a different language and now we can't communicate.

No more tower. They left it. Tower of Babel. That was the whole thing. They were just babbling one to another. That's what it sounded like, thus the name. And that's man's attempt to build something and the flesh and worldly wisdom. What followed? Confusion. Confusion.

Man trying to build his kingdom. Man trying to build this, man trying to do this and all of his demonic satanic wisdom and it's like what does it come to? Confusion. Babel. Nonsense. This is something we need to be very careful of today. There's a lot of confusion and I just want to tell you: be very careful.

Be very careful. Even in the church, that you don't get wrapped up in the latest conspiracy. There's a lot of conspiracy out there. You'd be surprised, maybe you wouldn't be, what people will tell me and send me. You got to see this! I don't repost that stuff because I don't know if it's real or not.

It looks real, it sounds real and everybody's like, "Ooh, you better stay in your house for the next 48 hours because something's going to happen!" Jesus is coming back? That's a new normal I'm looking forward to. Really the only one actually. People get everybody hyped up.

"Ooh, hey, you better, oh you better watch it. You better, hey, did you hear about this? You better watch it." And suddenly everybody's like, "You better watch it, you better watch it, you better watch it." And there's this babble, babble, babble, babble, confusion.

Everybody wants to, "What are you doing John?" About what? "About this!" Nothing. I'm praying. I voted. I mean what do you want me to do? I did what I could. I'm praying. What else can I do? I'm doing it. I even went to Washington and prayed with 100,000 other people. I gave it to God and that's where I'm going to leave it.

So confusion. Be careful, church family. Be aware of these things. Check it out. Make sure it's solid and stay in the word so you don't get... even if something is accurate, you don't get worked up and freaked out and go underground yet. Don't do that. I'm totally kidding. But you know what I'm saying? Just be aware.

No confusion. Wise as serpents, gentle as doves, Jesus said. I want to be wise. I want to be aware of what's going on. I don't want to downplay information that's out there. But today you don't know what information is true and what information is false.

So we do our best to navigate through all of the things going on, but the straight course is the word. I stick to Jesus, I stick to the word. This is what I know for sure. This could happen? Yeah. What am I going to worry about it? No. Well what about... I don't know. I'm not going to worry about it. Jesus told me not to worry about it.

How is worrying going to help me? It's not. It's not going to help you. It's going to create confusion. Alright next, it says also it's this wisdom is evil. It's evil. It means useless. Evil wisdom. Confusion, evil, lack of health to the body of Christ. This is all wisdom that's from below.

Oh but thankfully there is another wisdom that's accessible to us tonight and it's from above and it's heavenly. It says in verses 13 and 18, kind of highlighting both of these: who is wise and understanding among you? Well let him show by good conduct that his works are done in meekness of wisdom.

And then it says now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What I see here in this wisdom, there's going to be good conduct in the life of somebody who's operating in the wisdom that's from above. The way they live is indicative of the wisdom that they have and also there is a sense of meekness of wisdom.

I'm not the know-it-all. There's a meekness about it, a humility. And there's also the fruit of righteousness. It's sown in peace. I love that. So if we find ourselves confused and self-interest and all of this over here then we're not operating in the wisdom that God has provided for us through Christ, through his word and by his spirit.

Guest (Male): Hey don't rush away. Pastor John Randall has more to say and we'll have that for you in a moment on A Daily Walk. The topic of the day is wisdom. We've received quite a contrast between God's wisdom and the world's. We house our recent programs at adailywalk.org and you'll find them on our mobile app as well.

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No gift is too small to be used by God in great ways. Again our number is 877-242-0828 or you can donate online at adailywalk.org. One other thing worth mentioning here at the beginning of the year is the A Daily Walk devotional. Short enough to watch on your lunch break or as you're getting up to face another day. You'll find these encouraging video daily devos at adailywalk.org.

We're reminded on a continual basis that the Lord is doing great things through the radio today and maybe he's doing something amazing in your life. We want to hear about it. Pastor John would be very encouraged by what you have to say. Write to us today by email at adailywalk@gmail.com. That's adailywalk@gmail.com. We'll leave you to think over this question as we close.

John Randall: So what is the wisdom that you select? Turn in your Bible and we'll conclude here. Proverbs chapter three. Would you turn there with me? Proverbs chapter three. Middle of your Bible following the Psalms. Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs written by Solomon. A man that asked God for wisdom.

God gave it to him. Wrote many Proverbs, wrote Ecclesiastes, built a temple, was the son of David. Good king until he married many women. 700. That's a lot of wives. One is plenty and a blessing. But sadly they turned his heart away from the Lord. Amazing he could have all this wisdom and then... anyways, but this was a good thing he said.

Proverbs 3 verse 13. "Happy or blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding." Talking about wisdom here. "For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies and all things you may desire cannot compare with her.

Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand, riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She, that is wisdom, is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her." Is that what you're seeking tonight? Look at the benefits and the blessings of this wisdom.

There are two types. There is the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the Lord. There is a wisdom that's from below and there is a wisdom that is from above. There is a wisdom that produces self-interest, self-seeking, bitterness, envy, confusion, and there is one that produces the fruits of righteousness and peace and humility and good works.

So which wisdom will you select? Which one will you choose? Tomorrow on A Daily Walk, our attention shifts to the war within as Pastor John Randall opens James chapter four.