The Role of Wisdom (James 3:13-18)

if you'd open your bibles and turn to james chapter 3 so we continue this amazing book and a study tonight on the role of wisdom i don't know how many of you actually thought about why god's wisdom is so important in our lives but for me this is one of those very practical topics that when we talk about it when we teach about it when we think about it wisdom permeates virtually every part of your existence every moment of every day and it could be one of two types it can either be god's wisdom or it can be the world's wisdom and wisdom simply stated is just the ability to use knowledge correctly understanding correctly to take things that you believe you know and know how to rightly use what you know and so wisdom is unbelievably important to every single person believer or non-believer but in this case james is writing to us as the church and he's speaking to us about this contrast between the world's wisdom and between godly wisdom and in order to speak of that contrast it's as if he lays this on i don't know how many of you have been into say a jeweler store and they've brought out that infamous piece of black velvet and when you take a nice beautiful ring and you lay it on black velvet it is all the more beautiful right why because you see the full contrast between this sparkling diamond and the gold and the dark background and so james does this with wisdom he lays it against the world's wisdom he says this is what god's wisdom looks like and this is what the world's wisdom looks like and it should not take you very long to figure out which one of these two ways is the best way for us to live and so tonight we'll pick up in verse 13 down to verse 18 and the role of wisdom would you pray with me father we do lift up our team that's in cartagena right now lord is throughout ministering on the island of tiarabamba to those precious ladies and lord all of those beautiful children we just asked god that you would minister through our team that you'd grant them great favor lord that many would come to know you commit their lives to you and walk with you in that wisdom that we are going to learn about tonight and so speak to us through your word we pray in jesus name amen verse 13. and first we have kind of the the broad stream if you will the wide river shown to us who is wise and understanding among you question mark who is wise and understanding among you question mark let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom you remember the context of chapter two that faith without works is dead that we're supposed to show the world how deep our faith is by the way we live our lives that there's a direct correlation between what we believe and what we do and what we say there should be zero hypocrisy in other words what we declare as the church what we believe and what we say we believe should be absolutely evident in the way that we live and so the question again who is wise and understanding among you question mark let him let her show by good conduct that her works are done with the meekness of wisdom again the word meekness is very important to that sentence because it is not weakness it's not you being a spiritual jellyfish pushed around any directions you get pushed you just simply give until you get out of the way no meekness from a biblical standpoint is seen in the life of jesus as the ultimate authority and power in all of the universe completely under control meekness is actually power under control it's not powerless it's very powerful but it's power used the right way so again who is wise and understanding among you question mark let him let her show by good conduct that his or her works are done in the meekness in other words the power under control of how you use the knowledge that you have correctly wisdom you can tell where someone's at spiritually by the way they lived their lives and very specifically how they take the knowledge that they have of jesus and put it into practice in this world it comes out in the way that you work it comes out in every facet of your life every moment of every day is an opportunity for you to show the world how wise you are meekly in the power of christ in you who is your hope of glory james goes on now to flesh this whole idea out and he gives us this contrast that i spoke of verse 14 but if you have bitter envy elos elos it's literally the same word twice bitterness and envy are so interrelated that in the greek language they're the same word it's how you use them in a sentence that determines whether it's bitterness or envy bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth for this kind of wisdom you see the world's wisdom is bitter self-seeking and envious it wants what others have it is angry that other people are doing well it seeks its own it does exactly what paul said does not define agape love it does seek its own instead of it does not seek its own but if you have bitter envy and self seeking in your heart do not boast and lie against the truth in other words don't lie about it for this wisdom does not descend from above but it is earthly and sensual and demonic and here it comes for where envy and self-seeking exist here's the fruit of not being in the spirit here's the fruit of not having godly wisdom here's the fruit of you walking in the flesh where indian self seeking exists confusion and every evil thing are there in other words at the heart of someone who does not possess god's wisdom or is walking in the devil's way in the world's wisdom in the devil's wisdom that person is primarily envious and self-seeking and the evidence of it is confusion and every evil work in other words you can tell when someone is not wise in the things of the lord because what follows them what swirls around them it's constant envy constant strife self-seeking and because of that confusion whenever you find massive confusion in this world you can be sure that the lord is not in it confusion is a fruit of the devil's existence in this world when you see confusion especially confusion over things that you shouldn't be confused about you can be assured that the devil has some hand in it whether directly or indirectly because it is not a fruit of god's wisdom it's a fruit of the devil's wisdom but the wisdom that is from above and here's the contrast so in order that we can see the contrast we've had the darkness of that black velvet laid out it's now on the table here's what the devil's wisdom looks like it's envious it's bitter it's self-seeking it's earthly it's sensual it's demonic it has confusion and every evil thing that's a lot of that black velvet being laid out so that you can see the beauty of what should exist as wisdom in the life of a believer the role of wisdom that it plays in our lives but the wisdom that is from above is first pure and we're going to break this whole thing down tonight because it's so important for our lives practically to walk in wisdom and then peaceable and i would cause you to know those of you that know your bibles know that these things are the very substance of what paul would write to the church at galatian chapter 5 this is the fruit of the spirit is love and then the evidences of that love that agape love is joy peace gentleness meekness self-control and about those things there is no sense the law needs to gover govern over them it is peaceable gentle willing to yield it'll give in rather than fight it's full of mercy it doesn't give what is earned good fruits that's a that's a broad way of saying that which comes from because all good things come down from our father of lights who is in heaven amen so anything good that you have came from good from a good god who wants to give good gifts to his kids and his good gifts that he's given to his kids his kids should want to give to others god's kids should be the most generous people on the face of the earth with the good things that god's given us we shouldn't be envious we shouldn't be jealous we shouldn't be stingy we definitely shouldn't be lying we shouldn't be earthly or sensual in that sense we should be willing to yield full of mercy good fruits without partiality and here it comes without being an actor without being a hypocrite without playing the part without speaking christianese the true christian in wisdom of the lord that's from heaven is genuinely someone who wants to be like christ not trying to fool people into thinking that you're a believer it's genuine it's not hypocritical and now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace god's righteousness when we use that term only god is truly righteous and i hope you all understand that there is none righteous not one the bible's very clear on this in our humanity we're not actually even capable of god's righteousness so the righteousness that we have actually is the righteousness that came to us from christ it's been placed into our lives through our relationship with him so in that sense you possess righteousness but that righteousness that fruit of what god has done in your life the fact that you are a christian is sown in peace by those who make peace jesus is the prince of peace amen and so he desires that all men have his peace and in order for all men to have his peace they must have his righteousness and so we have to sow that righteousness into this world in peace you cannot beat people into the kingdom of god it doesn't work you're not ever going to find that standing on a street corner with some absurd sign that all homosexuals are going to burn in hell is ever going to win anyone to christ now ultimately maybe that is a truth but is that what jesus would say and is that how he would say it and i would say to you that's not only not what he would say that's not how he would say it case in point the woman caught in the act of adultery the woman at the well what he did when constantly confronted with evil he never took out the battle ax and beat people he loved people into the kingdom so much so that he laid down his own life he gave up all of his rights so that we might become the sons and daughters of god amen so real wisdom doesn't need the types of tactics that the world uses the world uses those things the world uses the insane speech the world uses the angry bitter mob the world uses those types of devices and so the contrast is very clear in this passage it is not god's wisdom that causes people to do those things which keeps people from seeing how much god loves them notice i didn't say that god's not truthful or that god doesn't have standards but there is a way to tell people about those standards without beating them to death so that they have no hope god's wisdom is peaceable it's gentle it's willing to yield it is merciful anybody thankful for the mercy of god amen so god's people should also be merciful doesn't mean we don't tell the truth but we do exactly what paul wrote in the book that he wrote to the ephesians we speak the truth in say it love amen you can speak absolute truth into somebody's life wisdom says if you want that person to come to know the loving king that's the prince of peace then you might want to represent the loving king who's the prince of peace amen do you have to tell people the truth of course but there's a lot of ways to do that and it doesn't require that they get hit in the top of their head with the holy baseball bat of god's word you can tell them the truth while still telling them that jesus loves them that he cares deeply about their eternity that he actually died so that they can spend eternity with him that actually he is willing that how many should perish church none so if he's unwilling that then he should perish but desires that all should come to repentance don't you think that the message of the church ought to be principally a message that the prince of peace loves you that's why it's so damaging when the church becomes a voice that's so similar to the world that the world can't distinguish the difference between the world and god's people we're supposed to be different we're supposed to have this broad river of wise living pouring out of us it's true an unsaved person can hold their tongue and watch their speech when there's something to be gained by it amen i've watched people do it throughout my entire life both in business and in the church you know people can be good for a time but the real them eventually comes out i can tell you that as well so if you're really a believer and you're really supposed to be peaceable and kind and gentle and meek and humble and merciful when you're put to the test when you're tried as we've already seen as we began this wonderful book knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience and patience when it has its perfect work leaves you lacking nothing then what's going to come out at the end is all jesus you're going to look like him and talk like him and sound like him and love like him you'll confront like him you'll call sin sin but you'll do it in such a way that there's hope left at the end of the sentence people will know that it's not just that they're wrong but they're wrong because god says that he loves them he wants them to be right with him that that righteousness is peaceable notice what it says all these characteristics that are positive in this passage are the characteristics of jesus matter of fact you can find every last one of them in the sermon on the mountain they're contained in the beatitudes these are the things that jesus repeatedly taught while he was here on earth and i would remind you that james the man who writes this book who's jesus's half-brother was actually for a period of time himself blind to these truths so this is on no one's case it shouldn't be a surprise to us that we need an instruction in this area of life and living why because it's not easy it's not easy to be wise in this world it is easy to default to the world's ways it's easy to become bitter it's easy to become angry it's easy to start doing things the world's way because the world does it the world's way and we're in the world but we're not supposed to be of this world we're supposed to be different notice verse 14 begins what you might call the the muddy stream the dirty river the polluted river of wickedness or wicked ways and you'll see really four things here there in verse 14. james kind of says to us look if the holy spirit's actually in you then the stream that is your life should be pure it should be righteous it should be holy and it should definitely be a quiet flowing stream it shouldn't be something that causes people to wonder whether they can cross into it or not what does that muddy river look like it begins with a bitter spirit people who are not wise in the things of the lord have a habitually bitter spirit they are bitter about everything nothing meets their standards they always feel that they're on the short into the stick they have to be at the top of the heap they are habitually bitter they can't get past their own bitterness they always feel as though they have somehow been wronged in a greater way than virtually everybody else on earth and this phrase that's bitter envying as i said it it's it's really zelos zelos the word that we often translate jealousy it's it's as if james the holy spirit is speaking through it's like you're doubly jealous you're bitterly envious that's what jealousy does it makes you bitterly envious when you're overcome with jealousy you are bitterly envious you want what other people have you believe they don't deserve it you do this was so dangerous that to the jewish people in numbers chapter 5 god actually commanded there was a penalty for being bitter and jealous it was written into the civil code how many people's lives have been forfeited how many people have died over bitterness and jealousy how many fortunes have been lost how many good people's names have been slandered to have that bitter and envying heart towards someone who maybe is perhaps more wise or more gifted or more successful shows the exact reason why you probably don't have what they have because god is not going to entrust to you the things that he wants to give you until you are going to use them the way he wants you to use them and that's not in bitterness and envy it's in freedom and in joy and in peace a second thing it seems as though the person mentioned here the person with the world's wisdom has a belligerent spirit if you have strife notice the second portion of verse 14 in your heart strife is striving with bitterness involved it's being contrary it's never having a good thing to say about anyone or anything is constantly being possessed of the negative the strife-filled person constantly is negative they create strife they actually thrive on it to some degree and they become belligerent about it's like everybody should feel the way they feel and ultimately i would say this that that person's god is actually themselves that they sit on the throne of their own heart and so everyone gets compared to them i would tell you that's why in the early church when that verse began you read in the book of acts that they had all things in common do you know that that only lasted about a year and the church found out very quickly that you couldn't have all things in common because it was filled with people and people were not always filled with the spirit that's why communism doesn't work it's why socialism doesn't work communism and socialism in a perfect world where everyone was like jesus would probably work but it doesn't work when you have people that are people because people take advantage of other people there will be a hierarchy there'll be someone who has more and someone who has less incomes bitterness and envy and strife and so the apostles recognized that and so they appointed some godly gracious men to watch over the church to administer everything they actually started the role of elders and deacons in the church so that those men those leaders in the church could hopefully even things out to where someone might be tempted to be filled with strife by getting their own way that they would knock that down by making sure everybody had their portion a third thing that you can see here is that there was a boastful spirit there in the third part of this verse james says do not glory don't boast it also means to exalt or exalt yourself the the world has no need for boastful people it really does no good to anyone it doesn't even benefit the person who's boasting about themselves they think it does they think that somehow other people look at the words they say or hear those things and all of a sudden they're going to rise to the top of the pile they'll be at the top of the heap but normally it's a ruse it's a guy's for those things that are internal in that person's life when they begin to boast it's because there's actually some very deep lack that they're trying to cover for there's a boastful spirit in man's wisdom you can see that virtually everywhere you can certainly see it in the world of sports you can see it in academics you can even see it in science you can see it all over you can see when man exalts himself it's normally at the cost of others it's not the way jesus would have it remember he's not willing to do he should perish and he's merciful to all he's providentially good to everyone he loves us each as his own sons and daughters and so really god's saying don't be partisan about this don't boast about it don't glory in yourself where we go is the church we go together a fourth thing there was also a blinded spirit in this group that was being led by the flesh do not lie against the truth the contrast here is truth is exactly who jesus is amen i am the way and the and the life and no one comes to the father but by me so truth is a mark of god's people lies on the other hand john 8 44 is exactly the tool that the enemy uses most frequently so the lying person the person who has to lie against the truth the person who makes up their own version of the truth is actually exercising demonic wisdom you have to think about it that truth is throughout the bible you can see it virtually in almost every book somewhere where the devil is involved where people are involved and go all the way back to the life of david and see how in david's life there was truth and there was lies and every time lies were told he got in trouble amen same is true in the life of saul it's always a liar most of his life he was at times a pretty good leader but he ends up taking his own life because he had lived a lie be careful so here's the the dirty water it's pretty easy to see and so when you see those things again whenever you see these contrasting things in scripture they're always for our benefit and so we can look at and go i don't really want to be like that or i really should try to be like this this is how the lord is god's good at that and so he shows us these things notice the source of this wisdom or the outflow of it if you will because there are really two kinds of wisdom there's only two there's earthly carnal worldly wisdom and there's god's wisdom and it's interesting that the bible doesn't say there's any kind of mixture it's very much like your salvation there's only people who are saved and people who are not there's believers and unbelievers saints and names there are people who are in the kingdom and people who are not in the kingdom there's there's no in between ground and in a similar way you either are exercising god's wisdom or the world's wisdom it's either from the lord and has the markers and characteristics of wisdom that's from the lord or it's from the world and it's pretty easy to tell which source there is and so james begins first with the secular source this wisdom is basically not from above that's pretty plain amen it has a secular source in other words it's not from heaven it's got an earthly source and so if it originates from earth it has not originated from god and because it's originated on earth no matter what it looks like it's never going to do god's work because it's not of god to begin with it may even look religious it may actually look like it's doing some good some of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known when you talk about aristotle and plato you you talk to talk the great roman cicero you think of some of the things that were said there were some marvelous things said by these men the problem is their conclusions would lead you to following following after a pagan god so it sounded good on one hand but it was earthly wisdom and so it didn't lead you to the truth it led you to a further lie it's very much what we see in our world today there are things that you can read on the internet you go oh that sounds good and before you know it you're following after a lie because it's the world's wisdom it's not god's wisdom it's interesting how brilliant people you know i sit around sometimes and i'm amazed i'll you know just do simple search same thing that you guys can do the 10 greatest buddhists alive today and you find some people have done some amazing things there are some people that profess to be hindu very brilliant have started some fortune 500 companies very very very successful but is does that mean that that hindu caste system that they believe in they happen to be brahman they're of the very highest class of the royal class they don't tell you what they think about the dalits that they're not even worthy of life if they were to be found dying in the street you shouldn't help them because that's their karma fortune 500 company and can't care for somebody who needs help it's the world's wisdom to be honest science is filled with wondrous things i love science personally but a lot of science comes from the world's wisdom it's not all good give you a couple of examples nuclear weapons mass destruction chemical weapons modified diseases that are being used as biological weapons we have a weapons lab in this country that that's what it does we talk a bunch about what happened in wuhan and we can't point the finger very far because we have the exact same thing here we've been creating new ways to kill people for decades we've created weapons system after weapons system all in the name of wisdom probably most of you are pretty reliant upon the internet now amen there we go again welcome to carson ladies and gentlemen that was pretty good timing it was not a nuclear weapon though yeah we're dependent on the internet i mean your cell phone is like how much stuff can you you can real-time data all over the world and you can get real-time pornography all over the world you can read stuff that's patently not true completely false total lies but purported to be truth and you can do it all day every day whose wisdom do you think that is how about genetic engineering when is it going to be that we actually don't need people anymore we have enough genetic material i don't think that's from the lord being as he's the author and creator of all life i'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be supplanted by that so where's that wisdom coming from oh it looks brilliant the basic accepted cosmology of our world is still darwinian evolution you talk to most people they're like eh we came for monkeys ah you know it's what i was taught in school can i also tell you that that's the basic hypothesis used for the holocaust that's not god's wisdom that is sensual wisdom it's from a secular source this wisdom actually come from comes from our psyche comes from the human mind we can conjure up all kinds of things the word that's used here actually is the same word from which we derive the word psychic in other words we make stuff up the lower nature of man allows us to think of all kinds of very not good things oh we're capable of wonderful things too but the fact of the matter is unless you're led by the spirit of the living god you're going to have a tough time discerning which is which the third source here very easy to see this wisdom is devilish or of the devil it's literally demonic the world's wisdom ultimately is demonic and we can see the outcome of it because it produces unrest and ungodliness it does those two things and i want to speak to this issue for a moment it is that wisdom that has developed hundreds of religious cults perhaps thousands it is that demonic wisdom that makes it look like it's a good thing look buddhism is a is primarily a religion of peace i mean who doesn't care for the smallest thing on earth and in that sense there's some good in it but it also says that you need to keep reliving your life and be reincarnated over and over and over and over again until you finally become one with the great cosmic consciousness that's demonic because it's not true it is appointed under man one time to die and then judgment so that good that's over here in the kindness in the doing no harm turns into your lost eternally you see the world gravitates towards the world's wisdom because it makes us feel good i feel good about myself and so the lord's trying to help us with this to make sure that we have our wisdom meter set correctly this all began with cain and abel the the root of these false ideas and it's crept into virtually every part of our society really every part of the world's existence has these diabolical ideas in them again it's not that everything is demonic and everything is diabolical but the systems that operate behind the scenes the things that govern the way the world actually functions it's not governed by god that's why i said last week god doesn't care one iota about our politics why because our politics is not firmly rooted and grounded in christ it's firmly rooted and grounded in self it's so messed up that you couldn't possibly disassemble it and turn it into something godly you'd have to erase the whole thing and start over and so in that sense god's concerned about people he's not concerned about politics make sure you understand what i'm saying here does he concern himself with righteousness absolutely should you vote for godly candidates absolutely should you pray for laws that absolutely preach the righteousness of christ as best we can in our communities that our laws would represent how god would want us to live yes of course but ultimately you can't redeem this earth that's why the bible plainly teaches one day this entire world and everything on it is going to be folded up like a scroll i was waiting for another earthquake i thought you know come on not tonight obviously but this world has a date stamp it's not going to last forever that's why jesus never preached a single message against rome you know that never one of the most wicked governments that ever existed on the face of the earth the apostle paul did not preach a single message against rome peter didn't preach a single message against who killed them all rome we have to get our wisdom from the lord because if we don't we start fighting the wrong battle we're going to waste all our time fighting something that god has already taken care of in his great wisdom and before you know it we're worrying about the wrong things we need to care about what god cares about that's using god's wisdom i get all jacked up and worried about the things that's going on in every single little niche of our life and living and i miss the fact that i am supposed to care about the people that god cares about and that causes confusion then you have people running all over go well you know we need to boycott this and boycott that and join this and join that in the meantime they haven't led anyone to christ they got so caught up in those other things again be a great citizen absolutely exercise your right to vote tell your representatives what you think of their godlessness absolutely do all that stuff but get back to living the way christ wants you to live every moment of every day and that isn't to be possessed of those things that ultimately you can't change this world is on a collision course with a destiny that has already been marked out by god it's not going to get saved the u.s isn't going to miraculously turn around and all of a sudden become you know some utopia it isn't going to happen not because i say so the bible says so it's heading towards an end that is already predetermined by god so we're supposed to have wisdom in this world we shouldn't be confused we definitely shouldn't be seeking after things that are patently evil we have to keep our eyes on the source of this heavenly wisdom why is that notice what this goes on to say but this wisdom first is from above is pure its first characteristic is that is undefiled that's another good word the greek word here is hagos from which is hagios which is saints it means so pure that it could be identified with god himself we could actually use the word chaste there that god's wisdom is absolutely pure because it has the character of god himself then when people see it we go that must be god because it looks like him sounds like him acts like him this type of wisdom you you can't mistake it it is so clearly from heaven why because it's not like the world's wisdom it isn't those things that we would look at and go i think well that came from man it's pure wisdom just as solomon said is pretty easy to discern but you know what's crazy solomon himself didn't exercise wisdom in his life the end of his life was not good he actually didn't do what he himself wrote down and is accredited to him as that beginning of the book of proverbs matter of fact he got overcome by the very things that he told everyone else not to do and he died in essence a lecherous fool this wisdom is also benevolent and so that's kind of you could look at this way that's that's like the motivation of the wisdom of god it's benevolent in that it wants to bring peace it's gentle it's easy to be entreated in other words it's not hard to talk to the wisdom of god is is soft in the right way and truthful always in other words the things that god would say to you will always be truth but they'll be in such a way that it's easy to take them it's like oh that's what god's wisdom looks like the idea of god being gentle is that he forebears with us that he's moderate in his responses that he's very approachable we would use that term probably the most often god is actually a pro have you ever thought that god is approachable that his wisdom in his wisdom he wants us to be approachable because he's approachable hence the reason it doesn't do any good to do some of the nutty crazy things that people do because they say they're being holy yeah but you're not approachable nobody wants to be anywhere near you when you take out your protest signs and you you go to crusades and say well no one really comes to faith in christ because you don't do the altar call the right way you're leading no one to christ i can tell you that you're not approachable nobody wants to be anywhere near you this also means to be easily persuaded in other words if there's something going on did you know that god actually is inclined to be merciful he's easily persuaded to be gentle and kind and loving it doesn't mean that he's also not truthful doesn't mean that he doesn't have standards those things are not true god does have standards and they're very high but he's also very loving in how he makes those standards available to us so that we look at it go god i need your help can you help me he's going sure i can let me walk with you through that god is easily entreated is another way to look at this in other words what god says he wants from us he helps us obtain he helps us obtain it your thought about that one what we need most is forgiveness of our sin amen that has to come from the perfect righteousness of christ being in us so that there's no stain in our life when we get to heaven you're not going to have a little bit of stains kind of like well you're you know you're kind of sort you're mostly okay no you're going to be perfectly like christ when you get there but god gives us the power he gives us the help to be that way and he's gentle about it now out of all the things that i can honestly look back on my life and go well that was god correcting me not once can i really recall that god was just like the first thing out of his mouth in essence was jeff you're a dead man it was always like jeffrey scott gil what are you doing he uses my full name when jeffrey scott go what what are you doing why are you doing that how come you said that why are you going there and yes in that message was repent and yes and that message was change what you're doing because i'm not okay with this and yes if you keep going the way you're going things are not going to be good for you but it was never he got out the baseball bat and hit me between the eyes and said man you're dead god gently spoke to my life now that bountiful nature he is full of mercy notice what it says he's completely filled with being merciful he doesn't kind of have a little limited supply of mercy and a whole lot of law giving he's full of mercy he's rich in kindness he overflows with gentleness he also is fully truth but if you look at what he's full of insofar as it relates to us he's full of these beautiful things peace and joy and gentleness and meekness and he himself controls himself it produces good fruit it's easy to see the world's wisdom does not produce good fruit the philosophy of man take a guy like nietzsche his hero if you will the superman of his way of thinking is cesar borgia evil brutal heinous that's what man thinks you know philosophically i think i need to be like that where's the mercy in darwinism continued survival of the fittest the passing along of the genetic traits of the things that do the best and other things die i mean where's the mercy of god in that thinking where's the mercy of karl marx friedrich ingalls they in essence abolished any thought of god it's like we got it get rid of god god's the problem and so when people run around we should be socialists we should be communists we should be marxists really have you read what those guys wrote what mercy did linen and his heirs have in imposing communism on russia the rest of the world what mercy was there in hitler's mein kampf but he claimed to have great wisdom hitler is actually responsible for eugenics he's responsible for racism so when i hear people well you know [Music] take that and do something with it because it doesn't belong in the mind of a child of god when someone says that they're a white christian nationalist i look at them like you're you have a hole in your head spiritually the love of god has leaked out of you matter of fact i'm not sure it was ever in you if that's what you think we're supposed to have mercy hello that's a cry of a child going mercy mercy mercy story from napoleon's life interesting character napoleon if you ever want to read about someone who's just very interesting napoleon was interesting not everything he did was bad but he had condemned a man to death and his mother appealed to him i mean and asked for a pardon and napoleon said well this was the man's second offense and justice has to be done he was basically the first time let him go second time says look it's just we gotta put him to death that's what it's called what's called for and the mother persisted she said i'm not asking for justice i'm asking for mercy i'm not asking for what he deserves i'm asking for what he doesn't deserve i'm actually asking for mercy and napoleon had no argument for it i let the man go a second time and essentially that's how god views us when we cry out for mercy god gives us mercy resulting in grace unmerited favor that's god's wisdom it seems like you're giving in it seems like you're giving up it seems like you're letting someone who's guilty go free but isn't that what we are as the body of christ aren't we the guilty gone free that's who we are in god's wisdom that actually works the guilty go free and the guiltless one died in our place that's god's wisdom man didn't come up with that the greek pantheon the roman pantheon you're not going to find any gods who gave up their own life they were capricious and selfish and constantly doing whatever they wanted to please themselves so when man makes up a god it's just like us that's how you can tell the difference between man's wisdom and god's wisdom god's wisdom does things that we would never think of the guilty go free we who should die for our own sins get saved by someone who dies for them in our place these characteristics are totally balanced they're not given with discrimination they're just given to everyone who asks god's wisdom gives mercy to all who ask gives peace to all who ask is gentle to all who ask it is just simply available the term there is really says without hypocrisy it it really means that there's no acting in it there's no false motivation in it there's no ulterior motive behind it what you see is what you get with god god loves you god loves us and he wants us to have his peace he desires for us to experience his mercy he wants us to walk in that joy of being his kids and ultimately that produces power in our lives and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace in other words when you are a bearer of the peace of god as the lord is the bearer of the peace of god then when you do that righteousness is sown into your life there's literally a deeper sense of righteousness to the peacemaker you remember what jesus said in the sermon on the mount blessed are the peacemakers for they shall have peace same exact thing if you sow peace you have peace if you sow discord if you do the opposite if you're envious and jealous if your life is filled with bitterness and strife and hatred if you are envious if you're not the person who wants all people to be at peace then you start bearing some of the fruits of it and it's fruits of unrighteousness the person that's bitter bears unrighteousness of bitterness in their life the person who's hateful bears the unrighteousness of hatefulness in their life there's a cost oh you can make your own decision you know we have so much of that conversation going on in the public square today it's like everybody's demanding their rights you know what my rights are to die and perish and spend eternity without christ that's what my rights are actually because that's what i've earned but praise god because of his mercy that's not what i'm going to get amen i should want that for other people that should be every child of god going look i i you know i may disagree with you but i still want you to have the god that wants you to be in at peace with him i still want you to experience his love and his care and his concern i've listened to way too many christians almost set up a hierarchy it's like well those people are outside and these people are in you better pray that those people that are outside can get inside because if they can't get inside maybe you never were maybe you never were that's the god that i know he seeks after those who are lost he goes hunting for the one he leaves the 90 and 9. he checks every inch of the house for the one coin he doesn't want to lose a single sheep so we should stop making the exclusionary notes that those people are outside of god's grace the only person that's outside of god's grace literally is the person who no longer has breath of life that's what every believer should act on it's like nobody's completely lost until they're unable to be found all this talk well you know that person did this or did that yeah that may be true and it may be wrong it could be completely sinful but you don't know what the grace of god is doing in somebody else's life so don't you judge them you preach christ to them and to that end jesus expressed all these things he was pure he was peaceable he was gentle he was easily approached he was absolutely full of mercy think about what jesus did in pilate's courtyard you want to see the mercy of the lord jesus was the most powerful entity to ever walk on this planet in him all the fullness of the godhead dwelt bodily paul would write to the church at colossae he was fully god and in his mercy he allowed pitiful pilate to condemn him to death he allowed a roman soldier to drive nails through his hands and his feet he allowed himself to be beaten and bruised he's the epitome of mercy not one of his rights he was god in human flesh and he not only didn't demand his rights he laid down his rights for us that's god's wisdom the wisdom of god says if i yield i can't go wrong what's the worst thing that can happen the world kills me oh darn i go to heaven you know think about it for a second i got into this conversation yesterday with the guy well you know if this happens you know he was going off on something that our president did i'm just like okay let's say that you're right what's the worst thing that happens to the church i mean you know he's like he wanted to hang up on me but he couldn't i said the worst thing that can happen to the church is we all get killed china invades russia invades mexico invades the dolphins invade the whales come unglued the whole world turns against us we lost all of our rights we all get killed where are you going to be well be in heaven said yeah that's a real bummer it's like be merciful be kind there's people in china that need jesus there's people in russia that need jesus there's people in iran that need jesus there's people in afghanistan that need jesus we just stop having this this mindset it's like well we need what we got here but nobody else on earth needs it no i need mercy and without the mercy of god none of us would have what we have we should want that for other people the church of christ the body of christ should be the most merciful peaceful people on the planet that's god's wisdom amen would you stand with me and we'll close in prayer after service we're a little short pastors we have guys all over the we had people in colombia and people out on a couple of other missions things so we have our prayer team in our prayer room so if you need prayer tonight going to ask you to go to the prayer room let's pray together and ask god to fill us with this kind of wisdom lord we come as your church and we just invite you lord change us mold us and shape us and make us into the image of our savior help us to be peaceable and kind and pure of heart willing to yield help us to be approachable or help us to live lives without hypocrisy and lord what you did on the cross drew all men unto yourself lord you gave up every single right that you had even your human rights your right to life lord you surrendered that you you died so that we could have life lord help us to think that way help us to go all the way to that place if necessary or to live our lives with such abandon that when people see it they attribute it to some other source than this world's wisdom so that we'd have the opportunity to tell them it came from heaven lord help us to have heavenly wisdom and live lives that are pleasing to you we ask this in jesus name amen you

Channel: Calvary Chapel South Bay

Views: 140

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Calvary Chapel South Bay, God, Jeff Gill, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Lord, Pastor Jeff Gill, Scriptures, South Bay, ccsb, ccsouthbay

Id: UfGjEEeRGng

Length: 64min 42sec (3882 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021