1839. Wisdom from Above

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, evangelist Steve Pettit is continuing a study series called Wisdom from Above, which is a study in the book of James. Please take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to James chapter three. James chapter three, as we continue our study in the book of James, and tonight it will be a part of our discipleship group study in the dorms. We will look this morning at the 17th and the 18th verse of James chapter three, as James speaks about this wisdom that we have or can have that is from above.

Notice what James says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. In the 18th century, something radically happened to Western culture. A transition took place that was so dramatic that there's not a subject that is being taught today in high school or in college that hasn't been influenced by this movement. This movement we characteristically call the Enlightenment. This period was a time in which Christianized culture of the Western world, where they received their basic principles of life from God's revelation in the Bible, these principles were laid aside, and man became the measure of all things. It also corresponded to a time of scientific discoveries, which is very interesting to me because many of the scientists were actually believers.

They understood that if we listen to the Word of God to hear what God said, then we should listen to the book of nature to hear how it is that God put nature together because they were influenced by the Reformation. But of course, the Enlightenment period took that beyond revelation. And in the Enlightenment, man believed that truth was discovered by the power of human reasoning. That movement started with the intellectuals, but it has pervaded all education today by what we would commonly call worldly wisdom. However, we also note that the Enlightenment has now passed, or what we call modernity, and has actually moved beyond the Enlightenment to what we call today as postmodernism. And in postmodernism, there is no singular truth that is discovered, but truth is as I experience it.

The only thing that is really authentic and genuine or true is my own experience. And I want you to know that all of us sitting in this room are being highly pressured by the world to think this way because postmodernism has deeply influenced our lives. And that's why I believe James's message is so crucial for us today.

For in his own day, his teaching was counterculture. For James taught believers in a pagan society how to live lives that please God and how to leave a mark on society by being a model, by being an example of spiritual maturity and having wisdom from above. So let's look this morning at what James describes as this wisdom that is from above. Last week, we began to realize that there was a contrast between wisdom from above and wisdom from below. One wisdom is bad, the other is good. One wisdom is destructive, and the other we'll see today as constructive. One wisdom will tear people down, the other wisdom will build people up.

One is from God and the other is from the devil. And today, as we look at this wisdom that is from above, it will be very clear that these qualities actually unfold in a deeper way the quality of wisdom that is known as meekness because we saw that two messages ago. That wisdom is demonstrated by a meek spirit and what we will do this morning is dive deeper into what this meekness actually looks like.

I want us to see three things this morning. Number one, the first is the obvious and that is the source of wisdom. Notice what James says in verse 17, but the wisdom that is from above. That is, he's speaking of wisdom's divine source. It comes from God in heaven. Fact is in James 1 and verse 17, James says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights and whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

Above simply refers to where God lives, God's realm. And the way that we get wisdom is we have to get it from God and that's why James tells us that wisdom is given to those who ask for it in prayer. James 1 5, if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not it shall be given him.

God is both generous in his giving and God will not reprimand you for asking. If you ask God for wisdom, it is very clear that he will give it to you. That's why wise people are praying people. When God called Solomon to be the king of Israel, he received this daunting task with one request. He said God don't give me riches and don't give me honor but God give me wisdom.

Help me to be able to rule in such a way that I will understand and perceive people's needs and I will be able to make right decisions that are right and good for God's people and not decisions that are hurtful and that are bad. No wonder Solomon could write in Proverbs 2 and verse 6, he says for the Lord giveth wisdom. So where does wisdom come from? It comes from God. Who receives this wisdom?

Those who are praying. We also know that James the author of this book was exemplified as a man of prayer. There was a Christian chronicler who was born in 110 AD just after the Apostle John died. His name was Hegesippus and listen to his account of James. He says after the Apostles, James the brother of the Lord, surnamed the just, was made head of the church at Jerusalem.

He went alone into the temple and prayed in behalf of the people in so much that his knees were reputed to have acquired the hardness of camel knees. Where does wisdom come from? It doesn't come from those who are smart.

It doesn't come from those who can process lots of information. But it comes to those who are humble and they are prayerful and they have a meet spirit. So I hope that this morning that we're beginning to understand that wisdom has a profound effect on the way that you live your life. That it comes out in the spirit and the attitude of the person. And that leads me to the second thing this morning and that is what are the characteristics of this wisdom? What does this wisdom look like? And James sets forth a catalog of virtues that describes meekness but I think it's very interesting that the qualities of wisdom actually resemble the fruit of the Spirit. James wrote his letter before Paul and what James says about wisdom is very similar to what Paul says about being controlled by the Spirit.

And I actually believe that a spirit-controlled believer and a wise believer are actually synonymous terms. And so notice what James says about a wise person. He says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure. Here we see the inner quality of purity.

The word first there means first in order of importance. You might want to say it this way that purity is the root and everything that follows are the fruit. And when we consider purity, purity is the fundamental quality, inner quality of wisdom. If meekness is what we see about a person then purity of heart is what we don't see but it's there as it's manifested in meekness. So what does the Bible mean when it says first pure?

Well the word's a very interesting word. It actually means chaste and it means more than sexual purity. It actually means a resolute commitment to be for one person and one person only.

When a man and woman get married and they stand there at the wedding altar and they commit their lives to one another, it is a commitment to be chaste or pure, pure for one another. It was not long ago I met a young lady who I noticed she had a very intense interest in boys, plural. And so we were having a conversation one day and I said I noticed that you like a lot of guys. I said at one at one point in your life you're gonna have to make up your mind.

You're gonna become a one-man woman. That is you're gonna love one person and you're gonna be committed to that person for the rest of your life. That's the idea of the word chaste. Now when we think of it from a spiritual standpoint, it means that wisdom is a resolute commitment to be spiritually chaste for Jesus Christ. And Paul writes about this in 2nd Corinthians 11 2. He says, for I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Do you know when you become a believer you are spiritually married to Jesus? And what does he want? He wants your heart, he wants your mind, he wants your will, he wants your life, he wants your talents, he wants your time. And it should become clear to us of what James is really driving at. For earlier we learn about the problem of being double-minded, two souls. What James is saying is God wants believers to be single-mindedly and wholeheartedly committed to Christ. We receive purity through the blood of Jesus Christ. We receive purity by the imparted nature of Jesus that has come to live inside of us and there should be no rival in our life.

The virtue of first importance, purity, is what our life should be like and this purity has two basic concepts. One is that there's a devotional purity. That is a passionate devotion towards the Lord. How do you manifest a passionate devotion towards Christ? Well you get to know him. You communicate with him. You spend time in his word. You read the Bible. You meditate. You pray. You seek the Lord.

There's this unmixed passion about knowing him and then when you know him what do you want to do? You want to obey him. Obedience is from a heart of love. But not only is there devotional purity but there's also moral purity. You know you cannot be spiritual and be immoral at the same time. You cannot do it. It is crucial that you recognize that to be wise is a person who is free from sexual vices and defilements.

I think this also includes a sensitivity. A willingness to shrink back when something that is immoral affronts your moral sensitivities. A couple of years ago we were in a revival meeting. My family and I and our team and we were having a Sunday night get together at my fifth wheel trailer. We did that every Sunday night and we had the television set on.

Oftentimes we would watch maybe you know Sunday night football or something like that and we would be eating and having fellowship together. And a commercial came on that was pretty risque. But what was really interesting was the response of three of our girls on our team. Two of them were sisters and they were identical twins. Kimmy and Katie Allen and then another girl named Jessica and I called them the trio. They all were almost like sisters together. And simultaneously this commercial comes on and they go who?

And we were like what? And obviously it was a fairly foul risque stupid commercial that is trying to sell a product by using some kind of a sexual appeal. And that instantaneous response is actually a wise response. It is a shrinking back from everything that is defiling in word or thought or action. May I say to you this morning that people that are immoral are not wise people.

Doesn't matter who they are or what they're doing or what office they're running for if they're immoral they're not wise people. For the wisdom that is from above is first pure. But then notice he gives us the outer qualities of purity for he says it is first pure and then that is the word is is telling us what follows from purity and these are these are interpersonal relationship attitudes. And there are six qualities and these qualities describe the various aspects of meekness.

I think it's very interesting if you have an interest in this that the Greek words for each one of these qualities the first four words all start with the exact same letter it's the letter E or epsilon. And so I take great comfort in knowing that the preachers of the past actually used alliterated outlines. Do you know what we mean by an alliterated outline?

When we talk about the past the present and the future you understand what we're talking about? Well James obviously being a preacher used a little alliteration here you can look it up for yourself if you don't believe me. And what are the words? Well notice the word peaceable. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom it's a beautiful word if you go to Israel and you greet one another you say shalom shalom shalom. It's the same way we would say how are you doing you say fine.

It means well or whole it's the opposite of being sick unhealthy. And heavenly wisdom longs for peace. Do you want to go fishing in a boat during a huge storm? I don't think so. Do you want your own house to have to face a hurricane or own coming tornado?

No. All of us avoid storms if possible. And wise people are peacemakers. They're not strife causers. They seek to settle disputes they don't want to provoke them. They're not eager to argue or to fight or to quarrel.

I remember very clearly a number of years ago sitting at a table with a group of pastors and they were speaking about another well-known pastor and as we sat there I became very uncomfortable with their language because their language was caustic and critical and judgmental and sarcastic. And as I sat there there was just this uneasy feeling about the words that were coming out of their mouth that reminds me of what we read in verse 16 of James 3 when he says that this this is strife and envy. It's not what God wants. God wants peace.

Why? We see it in Jesus. What did Jesus come to do? He came to bring peace. Ephesians 2 and verse 14 Jesus is our peace.

What did he do? He broke down the middle wall of partition that is between us and what is Paul speaking about? He's talking about the wall that separated Jews from Gentiles in the temple courtyard as they would go to worship God and Gentiles could only go so far in the court of the Gentiles and there was a wall and only Jews could go on the other side of the wall and there was a sign there that said that a Gentile would be put to death if he went on the other side of that wall. And Paul uses that as a figure to show what the Lord did for us. He made of one body both Jews and Gentiles.

He broke down the wall. He brings peace in our life. Wherever there's genuine wisdom the people are peaceable. They notice secondly they're gentle. The word gentle means to be considerate of others, to be respectful of other people's feelings.

One of the things that I would honestly say about your generation is that you're very very sensitive to words that are spoken that are offensive or hurt people. And I think that there is a very positive aspect of that. Where you are sensitive to what people say. A gentle person makes allowance for others weaknesses. They avoid being severe or stern when they deal with other people. Paul writes in Philippians 4-5 let your moderation be known unto all men. That word moderation means your gentle spirit. Paul says in Titus 3 and verse 2 to pastors that they're to speak evil of no man.

They're not to be brawlers but they're to be gentle showing all meekness unto all men. I think one of the classic illustrations of the New Testament is in Matthew 18 when Jesus tells a story about a man who owed 10,000 talents. And he begged for forgiveness and he was forgiven of his debt. And then that very same man who owed the money had another man who owed him a hundred denarii.

And he took that man by the throat and he threatened to throw him into prison because he couldn't pay him back the hundred denarii. And when you go in and you start studying the difference between a hundred denarii and ten thousand talents is unbelievable. What was a denarii? Denarii is what a man made working one day a day's wage for a laborer. That's one day's work one denarii. So a hundred denarii is about a third of a year's salary for a day laborer.

So that's that's a little bit of money. But one talent was the amount of a man working for 20 years receiving a day's labor. Twenty years salary for one talent. And the dude owed 10,000 talents. That's that means he'd have to work 75 million days to pay it off. And the guy forgave him of his debt but he would not forgive the guy that owed him a hundred denarii. And what's the point of Jesus? The point of Jesus is this, that all of us owe God this insurmountable unpayable debt.

And God forgives us of all the sins we've committed against him. Can we not least be gentle and kind and forgive others who offend us? And then notice the third characteristic it says he's easy to be entreated. Wise people are reasonable. They're open to reason. They're they're approachable. They're willing to listen and cooperate when the better way is shown. They're willing to yield to others when there's no principle that is being altered. They're ready to cooperate. They're not stubborn or obstinate. They're open-minded, persuadable. Abigail pled with King David not to kill her wicked husband Nabal and David listened to her reasoning and he complied.

Are you an approachable person or you're the kind of stubborn person that nobody can talk to? And then notice it says full of mercy and good fruits. Mercy means helping the helpless. Good is the word good there has the idea of doing that which is a benefit of blessings, a moral good to other people. And so a wise man's life is full of compassion. He helps those in distress. He seeks to practically help the needy with acts of mercy by giving aid to those that are in need. It's compassion in action. And so what James is doing is he's showing us what this person is like, this spirit.

This is a wise person. And notice he says without partiality that means he treats people the same. He doesn't play favorites. He's straightforward.

He's consistent. Fact is a wise person is the person that once you get to know them you're pretty sure what the decision they're going to make when an issue comes up because of their consistency. And then notice finally without hypocrisy.

That is a wise person doesn't wear a mask. He is free from pretense. There's no hidden agendas.

We say it this way what you see is what you get. He's open, forthright. He's not a manipulator. He's not trying to use you for his own self-centered purpose. He has nothing to hide.

He is without hypocrisy. Now James is describing that this is what a wise person is like. This is how they manifest their wisdom by their meek spirit. And as we finish this morning what's the effects of this kind of wisdom when people are wise?

What is the result? And notice what he says in verse 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. James here speaking about the powerful effects of wisdom and he uses farming as an illustration.

He describes the fruit of a wise man's action before he ever makes a single choice. James is guaranteeing a harvest of righteousness when we plant the seeds of peace. Wisdom from below produces instability, confusion, conflict. Wisdom from above produces peace and righteousness. And the proof that we are being guided by wisdom is seen and the way that we respond to the issues that come our way for the way we respond will ultimately lead us into peace among the people of God. I think this morning as I was trying to contemplate how do I how do I finish off this challenge about wisdom from above and what would be a current illustration for all of us to help us somehow feel what this means?

And I think one of the best examples maybe the best example I could come up with actually happened this summer when school was out. It was on the 17th of June 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church a historic church in Charleston South Carolina where they were having a Wednesday night prayer meeting. A 21 year old young white male walked into the church and was welcomed by the congregation. He sat there during the Bible study that was taught by their pastor who was also a state representative to the state of South Carolina. And after one hour of sitting there and being treated with kindness and respect he stood up with a pistol and unloaded the pistol and he killed nine people. Seven ladies, two men, one being the pastor himself.

And I don't know how you responded to that or what went through your mind there were many things that went through my mind. I know where the church is. I lived in Charleston for four years. The school that I attended in Charleston there were six of the people that were killed who had family members that worked at my alma mater. But one of the things I thought is what's going to happen in Charleston? Are there going to be riots? What's going to happen? And the most amazing thing took place over the next couple of days when the family members who left who lost their loved ones publicly said to the young man who killed their own loved ones that we forgive you.

Obviously justice is going to be served on the young man because we live in a government that has laws and rightfully so. But these people sowed seeds of peace. And what's been the fruit? Things are right. Righteousness. And those people were wise people. May God help us to be wise. You've been listening to a sermon from the book of James by evangelist Dr. Steve Pettit. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study in the book of James from Bob Jones University Chapel Services in Greenville, South Carolina.