Book: James

Build from a Wise Heart
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Summary

James 3:13-18 teaches the stark contrast between worldly wisdom and the wisdom from above. We are reminded that true wisdom is not merely intellectual but is demonstrated through godly living, good deeds, and gentleness. The passage reveals that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition—the roots of worldly wisdom—are earthly, natural, and demonic, producing disorder and every evil thing. In contrast, wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy.

Key Lessons:
1. True wisdom is demonstrated through actions and character, not merely through impressive words or intelligence—it is the art and skill of godly living.
2. What is in our hearts determines the outcome of our lives; bitter jealousy and selfish ambition produce disorder, while purity and humility produce peace and righteousness.
3. Worldly wisdom is deceptive, demonic, and destructive, while God’s wisdom—embodied in Christ—is the opposite in origin, nature, and destiny.
4. A harvest of righteousness cannot be produced in a climate of selfishness; we must cultivate peace by first addressing the condition of our own hearts.
Application: We are called to examine our hearts honestly for traces of jealousy, selfish ambition, and pride. Rather than claiming to be wise, we should pursue wisdom humbly by asking God, walking closely with Christ, and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us from within. We should seek to be faithful and effective rather than merely impressive, sowing seeds of peace in every relationship.

Discussion Questions:
1. In what areas of your life do you tend to rely on worldly wisdom—seeking to impress others or promote yourself—rather than pursuing the wisdom from above?
2. How does the distinction between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom (the traffic light illustration) challenge you to move beyond merely knowing truth to actually living it out?
3. What specific seeds of selfishness in your heart need to be uprooted so that you can cultivate the peace and righteousness described in James 3:18?
Scripture Focus: James 3:13-18 is the central passage, teaching the contrast between earthly and heavenly wisdom. Supporting passages include Proverbs 3:19-20 and 24:3-4 (wisdom as God’s building material), 1 Corinthians 1:20-24 (Christ as the wisdom of God), Isaiah 53:5 (the gospel foundation of peace), and Galatians 6:7-8 (reaping what we sow).

Outline
Introduction

Well, good morning to those of whom I haven’t seen I I haven’t said happy new year. Happy New Year. I think it’s good all month.

Before we begin, I just want to pray and dedicate our time. And I just want to acknowledge Jane Bobby’s sister that just passed away yesterday. And so we want to she was a strong believer.

She has that hope in Christ. This is an occasion for us to pray for comfort and to reaffirm our hope in Christ. So this was unexpected and we pray for God’s hand in all this and may may people come to know him through this.

Amen.

So, let’s just take a minute to pray for that and to commit our time to him.

Father God, what an adventure this life is.

We prayed last week from Psalm 90 that we would that you would teach us to number our days, that we would present to you a heart of wisdom. And so, we just don’t know those days that we have, but praise you for that, Father. Praise you for the hope that we have in Christ.

Yes. We pray for Jill’s family, for Jane, all those who knew and loved her that you would comfort them and with that comfort enable them to comfort others and point them to the to Christ our only hope.

As we sing our only hope in life and death. Amen.

All right. Would you open your copy of God’s word, please, to James, the book of James, chapter 3.

Our text today will be verses 13- 18.

And you can find it in your pew Bibles on page 129.

The word of God. Who among you is wise and 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. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Let me pray again some specific things for us that this passage would land in our hearts today. Father, that you would show us what your wisdom is. That you would show your wisdom in us by changing us and showing something of yourself to others around us.

That we would trust you to generously supply wisdom as we humble ourselves before you. We praise you that as your word says that Christ is our wisdom. May we see that in new ways today and draw close to him a new father. We know that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Show show us how this lands specifically in our lives today.

Amen.

Background of the Book of James

Well, to give you a little bit of a background of the book of James, James is a letter written by one of the half-brothers of Jesus. One of the first martyrs of the faith as well. And, and while he did not believe in his brother Jesus during Jesus’ life, he later became a faithful follower after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension. And he pastored the church that his brother founded and that his brother worshiped. Imagine what that would have been like. His audience here consists of those he loves from the Jerusalem church who are now scattered due to the persecution of the believers in Jerusalem. It was traditional in those times for letters to be sent and dispersed by personal messenger and passed along to the believers. And so in this way, James continues to pastor and care for his people even though he couldn’t be with them directly as he was. A major theme of the book of James is build because it is an actionoriented book where the emphasis is on what we do emphasizing what is the blueprint or foundation for building a life that counts for something that has eternal value.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of the book of Proverbs. And James has many similarities with the book of Proverbs.

“A major theme of the book of James is building a life that counts for something that has eternal value.”

And in Proverbs, we learn that the ultimate building blocks of life are not physical but spiritual, but are but have manifestations in the physical world in how we live our lives. In other words, they can be seen by the evidence that our lives produce.

So, let’s look a little bit at what what does God build into our lives. If you look at the book of James, just follow with me through the first couple chapters that lead up to this that’ll give us some great background. Ver chapter 1:es 2 through 4 indicate that God builds character into our lives through trials. Trials that we don’t welcome, but that God and his wisdom and love bring to our lives. Isn’t that wonderful? God builds wisdom into us as we ask him. Look at verse five. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously. One paraphrase I’ve seen says, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, ask God. He loves to help.” And I am not as quick to do that as I should be. Maybe that’s true of you as well. So God builds character. God builds wisdom into us.

Look further in chapter 1:es 9-11 where God where we build with wealth that God that God gives us to be shared with others in verses 12- 18 of chapter 1 we God builds us through trials and temptations in verses 19- 27 which are key to the book we we build by not being merely hearers of the word who delude themselves but doers who are blessed in the doing right I I I can’t help but think of what our savior said when He washed the disciples feet. He said, “If these things, what you are blessed if you do them.” And that’s what James is very interested in in this book. In in chapter 2, we build by living justly. In verses 1-7, in verses 8 through13, we build on the royal law that God has given us. And in verses 14- 26, we build on faith that is evidenced by obvious works. And then just before our passage in chapter 3, we build by blessing and not cursing others. Very strong words for us about how we use our words to build up and not to tear down.

So we must as believers build on a firm foundation and with the sound materials that God has given us, things that have lasting value. And to do less will be certainly certain failure for us. So if we lack wisdom, we should ask God. We just saw that and we are wise to go beyond simply hearing but doing. And this is an echo of the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 where he said the one who does the word who obeys the word is like a man who builds his house on what? On the rock. And when the storms come and they will come, he stands.

Wisdom in Scripture

So we see echoes of the words of Jesus. It’s almost as if the Bible was written by a single author and giving us a consistent message. Isn’t that wonderful for us? So much of what we see in the book of James is crystallized in our passage today. So many scholars and I would agree with them consider this passage to be the apex of the book and reflective of its main theme. So let’s think a little bit about how wisdom is shown to us in the scriptures. The theme of wisdom is massive and important and it comes to us as we saw saw in our earlier reading from Proverbs and throughout the Old Testament leading to our passage today.

Consider this. God the creator in Proverbs 3:19-20 it says this. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens and by his knowledge his deeps the deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew.

So that when we read in Hebrews that the things that are made are made out of things which are unseen it’s these things the unseen things of God God’s knowledge wisdom and understanding that created what we see in front of us today. In Proverbs 8:30 it says that wisdom was with God as a master workman. And I believe that refers to the Holy Spirit. We think of Moses with the the passage that Tony read to us last week from Psalm 90. So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

Proverbs 3:19-20: “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens.”

Life is so short. We want to use it wisely, don’t we? We want to do things that really count.

David and Solomon. David said to said this, you I don’t know if if you read through Proverbs, a lot of those words in Proverbs, particularly in the early chapters, aren’t Solomon’s words, but they’re David’s words to Solomon. We see this in Proverbs 4:5 where he pleads with his son, acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. And then Solomon would say later in the passage that we read earlier, she that is wisdom is more precious than jewels. And nothing you desire compares with her.

Think about that for a minute. Think of the things that you dream about, the things you would you aspire to, the greatest things that you would want.

Doesn’t even begin to compare with wisdom. That is an awesome and amazing statement worth our consideration today.

Jesus said this in Matthew 11:19.

Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. We see that reflected in our passage today.

Wisdom isn’t just words that impress but deeds that actually perform something good. And that’s how wisdom is seen.

There must be some evidence of wisdom.

And then for us this is the theme verse for the Twambli family. Proverbs 24:es 3 and 4.

By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Don’t you see the echoes of that from God’s creation to how we build our families.

It’s an amaz it’s it’s the same unseen realities that we build our lives on. So wisdom is something very practical. It’s a foundation for us to build our lives.

What Is Wisdom?

So what is wisdom? Why is it so important for us to have it? And our first verse is something of a challenge, maybe even a taunt. Who is wise? Let him show it.

Let me see what you’ve got. So, if I can work, is this going to work? There we go. All right.

Verse 13. James 3:13. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

So what is wisdom?

We can summarize it this way from the scriptures. It is the art or the skill of godly living.

“Wisdom is the art or the skill of godly living.”

I think more importantly, I think wisdom is more demonstrated than described. It when you see it, don’t you?

Someone whose life is is actually working. If you want to look at how someone’s character is, and we see this even in the qualifications for church el church elders and deacons, what’s their family like? You’ve got to you’ve got to see something, right?

We’re invited to do that. And then what is understanding? The idea here is the ability to see things clearly so that we can act rightly. How many of you approach situations in life where you’re just confused? You’re just not exactly sure what to do next.

And what I love about the Lord as we walk with him, and this both delights me and frustrates me, is he’s not going to tell me what the next 10 steps are, but he’s going to walk with me and you in the next step because he wants us to walk with him. Remember, when you think wisdom, think Christ, who is our wisdom.

Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom

So we we saw those three words back from Proverbs 24 and Proverbs 3. We see we see knowledge, we see understanding and we see wisdom.

Simply put, knowledge is having the right information, which is no small thing these days, right? Understanding is knowing what to do with that information, but wisdom is actually doing it. I was talking to my dad this past week and he gave a very simple but I thought profound illustration of this.

He said it’s like a traffic light. You can know what those colors mean. Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means speed up or caution. It’s open to interpretation, I suppose. And you can understand what those mean.

That’s understanding. But wisdom is stopping when it’s red, going when it’s green. And for me, maybe being a little bit more cautious when it’s yellow.

“Knowledge is having the right information, understanding is knowing what to do with it, but wisdom is actually doing it.”

So, as I’ve mentioned, wisdom is maybe elusive to dis to define, but it is better described and defined. And that’s why we have this passage today that tells us what it looks like.

Are You Truly Wise?

Now, I think one of the things we need to be careful of is so this question, are you truly wise?

Can we legitimately answer yes?

Proverbs 26:12 says, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Isn’t that interesting? And if you think about all the things Proverbs says about fools, it’s a pretty harsh statement. It’s not a good picture. And so, I think the best we can say of ourselves, let others assess our own wisdom.

Proverbs 26:12: “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

But for us, I think it’s better said, not that we’re wise, but maybe we’re we’re we have foolish hearts and we’re pursuing wisdom and we’re pursuing Christ. I think that’s more accurate.

Wisdom Must Be Shown

Proverbs 11:2, I think Pastor Dave, you referred to this in your prayer with the humble is wisdom. And humility, like wisdom, who of us can say that we’ve attained that? It’s things there are things that we are we pursue. I would describe myself as a proud man seeking humility and a foolish man seeking wisdom. That’s the path that our lives are on. So, how do if you’re wise? What what is your what does your life show? It says, “Let him show by his good behavior.” Right? It starts from within. Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. The idea of of let him show is the sense of let him bring forth from within himself. If if you see it, it starts in the heart. And we see that right in verse 12, which precedes our passage today. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or vine produce figs, nor can salt water produce fresh? Right? Wisdom has to start within.

Brothers and sisters, you and I can’t fake this. We cannot fake this. We can only produce that which comes from within. As our words come out of our hearts, in the same way, our works reveal what is already in our hearts.

“You and I can’t fake this. We can only produce that which comes from within.”

Words Without Works Are Empty

But this passage takes us further that we may have convincing words. Not just convincing words, but our works, our behavior is the real test. So where’s the evidence? Consider these verses from Proverbs. Proverbs 14:23.

In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. My friends who are in sales love that verse.

Proverbs 14:23: “In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”

This it’s so interesting. I’ve had more opportunities to share scripture from Proverbs in the workplace, and this is one of them that people, believers or not, tend to really resonate with. Yeah, we don’t want just empty talk. We don’t want that.

Similarly, in Proverbs 26:7, like the legs which are useless to the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

And then Proverbs 25:14 says, “Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely.” So I think the Lord is calling us to look deeper than the surface to discern wisdom both in ourselves and in others.

Faithfulness Over Eloquence

So often in in the business world, we’ll someone will say, “Hey, that was a really good meeting, wasn’t it?” And my stock answer is we’ll see.

We’ll see what the outcome is. It’s all in the follow through. Government diplomats generally have really good meetings.

I think the outcome is not always as good. So we tend to be impressed with intelligence and eloquence.

God would have us seek faithfulness and effectiveness, which is actually much more valuable and substantive. I think about the parable that Jesus gave in Matthew 21 starting in verse 31 where he talked about a father told his sons to do something. One said that he would do it and didn’t. The other said that he wouldn’t and did. And Jesus says, “Which one did the will of his father?” It’s in the action. So it’s not about stated intentions but proven outcomes. Right? For this reason leaders in God’s church are to be tempted are to be tested by the outcome of their lives.

“God would have us seek faithfulness and effectiveness, which is actually much more valuable and substantive.”

And that I mentioned right consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. It says in Hebrews 13:7 which means you don’t follow everyone but you are discerning. So what is it exactly that we are showing in this verse? Right? Good behavior is deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

Right? A virtuous countenance and mode of life is the idea there.

Good works, doing things that are pleasing to God and a blessing to others. And then what is meekness? What is this meekness of wisdom? I think meekness is a or gentleness is a word that is sometimes misunderstood, but really at its core what it is, it’s a strength of character which relies and rests on God’s goodness in such a way that reflects divine character and skill. It’s it’s a settledness that trusts in God’s provision in all circumstances. Proverbs says that wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding. There’s peace. We saw the word peace several times in our passage, did we not?

I thought this quote was really helpful from Ji Packer. It says, “For us to be truly wise in the Bible sense, our intelligence and cleverness must be harnessed to a right end. Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest good together with the shest means of attaining it. Sometimes I think we’re content with just impressing others. And as as I thought about the Christmas season, where it says, I believe in Isaiah 9, and arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of go of the Lord has risen among you.

The Root of Wisdom

Right? God could do things and he does do things that are outside of us that are so impressive. But what does our savior do? He draws near. He shows us personally. And if you are a believer in Christ, he has put himself in you through the Holy Spirit. And so that’s how we ought to be. Relational, personal, engaged, showing people something. Let’s talk about the root of wisdom. That’s the the bulk of what we’ll talk about here today. The root of wisdom. What is in our hearts determines the outcome of our lives. You’ll hear me use a couple words today of the pattern of root and fruit. Root and fruit. So, the root of our lives determines the fruit of our lives. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” And we saw that in James as well when it talks about our words. Have you ever said something or done something and you say, “Well, where did that come from?” as as if it’s a mystery, as if it came from someone else besides you. I think this is what this passage really challenges us with. I’ll give an example in my own life that really pierced my heart. Psalm 119 165, I think it is, says that those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble. Now, I’m often known as someone who loves God’s word, but I don’t think anyone has accused me of having too much peace. So there’s a that’s a disconnect, right, that I really have to look at.

Proverbs 4:23: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Where is the evidence of what’s in my heart?

Root and Fruit: The Pattern of the Heart

So we see the following in the book of James, right? You think about yeah, let me let me explore this a little bit with with with root and fruit. I’m going to read from chapter 1 verses 13-17. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

I’ve heard it said this way, we sow a thought and reap an act. We sow an act and reap a habit. We sow a habit and reap a character. We sow a character and reap a destiny.

“We sow a thought and reap an act. We sow an act and reap a habit. We sow a habit and reap a character.”

Every thought, every word, every action is going in one direction or another. In Galatians 6:7 and 8, it tells us that do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

Whatever a man sws this, he will also reap. For the one who sws to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sws to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. That’s much of what we’re talking about here today. So we have to watch every choice that we have day by day, moment by moment, thought by thought, word by word, action by action. We can go with the simple desires that are already in our hearts or with the perfect gifts that come down to us that are imparted to us by God. So the contrast could not be more stark between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below. So let’s explore this a little bit about what the wisdom from below is. We see this in verses 14- 16.

Wisdom from Below: Bitter Jealousy and Selfish Ambition

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.

You see disorder and evil manifested, it is not a mystery where it comes from.

Doesn’t come from God. Comes from the heart of man.

So I I presume we all want to show forth good things in our lives. I’m going to presume that we have those good motives in us. But there are two things that this passage points out that despite our good intentions will absolutely undermine those intentions.

The first is the phrase bitter jealousy that we see in the passage. What is bitter jealousy?

This has a sense of malignancy of cancer. Right? It’s a bitter and malignant quality that is not only jealous of the good in others that he or she doesn’t have but actually goes to war against that good. It actively seeks to put down and diminish the good of others. That’s bitter jealousy. And we all have to fight that I think every day. And then selfish ambition. The idea behind that is is mercenary interest.

“Bitter jealousy not only envies the good in others but actively seeks to put down and diminish the good of others.”

One who purely seeks their own benefit and not the benefit of others. At the time this was written, it was used of those who canvas or scheme for public office. Huh?

How much things stayed the same? Could it be that some of them aren’t really looking out for us? Is that possible?

Maybe. Let’s not be this way. And that that phrase selfish ambition, that might be familiar to you from Philippians 2 when it contrasts how we should not be and how we should be like Christ. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but what? Consider others with humility of mind. Consider others as more important than self.

Consider Jesus who did that. So interesting. And the idea behind that is with not even one thing, one iota of self- glory or desire for power. That should not exist in us if we love Christ.

And it’s in our hearts. This refers to the very core of our being, our motivations. Brothers and sisters, this exists in our hearts if we don’t address it directly.

And so something needs to change in our hearts to have and manifest true wisdom.

Worldly Wisdom Is Deceptive

So this is a deadly combination that we see so often in our world today. It’s an active seeking to put others down and to promote self and it cannot help but show if it’s in the heart. So what are the attributes? We see in verse 14 that worldly wisdom is deceptive. What does it say? Do not lie against the truth.

Isn’t that interesting? If we have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, we are arrogant and are lying against the truth.

You do know that humility is so in tune with reality because it acknowledges God’s greatness in our weakness. And pride could not be more out of tune with reality if we consider who we are and who God is. And that’s why when we have these things, it’s a lie. It does not reflect reality. It it dismisses the greatness of God and promotes the so-called greatness of self. In Proverbs, there’s a verse that says, “It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.” So, we need to be captivated with the awesomeness of God.

“Humility is so in tune with reality because it acknowledges God’s greatness and our weakness.”

This is why worship is so important both corporate worship and the daily worship that we have in our lives in our daily lives. Isaiah 66 1-2 expresses this well. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my foottool.

Where then is a house you could build for me and where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things.

Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord.

But to this one I will look to one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. That’s how you get God’s attention by making the most room for him. So when you think about it, this type of attitude, this worldly wisdom is so dissonant, so out of tune with the nature of God and the nature of reality and the life that he has for us.

Worldly Wisdom Is Demonic

It is the opposite of love which rejoices in the truth and considers others better than self. So that’s the first attribute of worldly wisdom. It is deceptive. But it but it’s worse than that. It’s demonic. We saw that in our passage.

It is earthly natural demonic.

We may ask ourselves, is a little bit of selfishness, a little self-indulgence really a big deal? You that’s one of the things I think about around the holidays. There are many temptations to self-indulgence at a time when we should be doing that even less and worshiping him.

We’ve seen that the malignant nature of this so-called wisdom wars on good diminishes others, exalts self, and is the very opposite of the life that God intends for us.

This so-called wisdom you I say so-called because you can see that it’s not wisdom.

It’s opposite in its nature. It’s opposite in its origin. And it’s opposite in its destiny.

It’s not from God. It’s from below. The sense of earthly is that it’s it’s earthbound. It’s not aspiring to anything higher than this life. Natural.

The sense here is that it’s unspiritual.

It’s of our fallen and corrupt human natures. We have to face the fact that this is naturally what we do apart from Christ. I was talking to my sister the other day. We’re talking about just kind of what’s going on in the world and in one sense it’s disturbing how people are behaving on all kinds of levels. But in another sense it’s a wonder it’s not worse when we really understand human nature. And then it’s demonic. The sense here is having its origin in Satan himself, the archeneemy of God and the enemy of everything that is good. So in Christian history, this is where we get the phrase the world, the flesh and the devil, which are the enemies of our faith, the enemies of our very souls. And so why would we pursue such a wisdom that is an enemy? So if you really want to limit your potential, you can go with this kind of wisdom. It doesn’t have a future.

“The world, the flesh, and the devil are the enemies of our faith, the enemies of our very souls.”

Worldly Wisdom Brings Disorder

Lastly, worldly wisdom brings disorder.

Disorder. The idea here is chaos, tumultuous instability both in the heart and life. And instability in the heart is manifested in instability in the life.

So when we see conflicts and things, well, we see this, right? What is a source of quarrels among you? Is it not is it not your selfishness, your desire?

There’s no mystery there. We see every evil thing otherwise translated as every kind of evil. So the sin of pride has been historically seen as a cardinal sin, a root of all kinds of sins. A a sin, a root sin that spawns many others, which is why we ought to fight it with all that we have. I heard one speaker say that we ought to embrace humility as our greatest friend and fight pride as our greatest enemy. And I think that’s that is certainly true.

“Embrace humility as our greatest friend and fight pride as our greatest enemy.”

So it brings disorder. The sense here is one of devolution, entropy to the extreme, deeds which go from worthless to utterly depraved. We saw that in James 1:15. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

The Consuming Nature of Sin

Every vile sin that we see started with a thought, which is why we ought guard our hearts.

Amen. So this goes from from bad to worse, from worthless to utterly depraved. And we note the consuming and insatiable nature of sin. It is not content to be toyed with, but it must rule us and force itself on others.

That’s how sin is.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. I think John Owen said that. It’s a good word for us today.

“Every vile sin that we see started with a thought, which is why we ought to guard our hearts.”

So looking forward in the book of James, we see in James 4:1, as I mentioned, what is the source of quarrels, conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members. Outer conflict begins with inner conflict in our desires. So when you see chaos, be discerning about where it came from, Satan, and where it’s going, hell.

So worldly wisdom is detrimental both in what it produces and what it misses.

Finding True Wisdom Through Humility

Well, God has a better way for us. I think Ji Packer put it again really well here. Where can we find wisdom?

What steps must a person take to lay hold of this gift? We must learn to reverence God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not till we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down. Can divine wisdom become ours? It is to be feared that many Christians spend all their lives in too unhumbled and conceited a frame of mind ever to gain wisdom from God at all. Not for nothing does the scripture say with the lowly is wisdom.

“Not till we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness, can divine wisdom become ours.”

And Pastor Dave, I so appreciated your prayer along these lines. We needed that.

Proverbs 12:1 says that he who hates reproof is stupid.

This challenges us. We need to be much more humble than we are. I think that applies to all of us. Well, let’s talk a little bit. Sorry, I already read that.

Wisdom from Above

Let’s talk a little bit about wisdom from above. It’s going to going to get better as we head toward the finish line.

Every Yeah, there it is. Every good thing given every perfect gift is from us. No, from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow says in James 1:17.

So that wisdom from from above that wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy.

So yes, if it is from above, it is from God. And it is the opposite. It’s not just better, it’s the opposite. My wife Betty of often reminds me, take what the world does and do the opposite. You’d probably be in really good shape. So if that which comes out of us is from our hearts, then that is where the change must occur. Jesus said this in John 3 6 and 7. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again.

“Take what the world does and do the opposite. You’d probably be in really good shape.”

Doesn’t this passage demonstrate this?

We must be born again. God has to do something in our hearts that we are utterly incapable of.

James reinforced this earlier in the chapter in chapter 3:12. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or or vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh?

And you might notice the similarities here with Galatians chapter 5 when it compares the fruit of the spirit with the fruit of this flesh. It could not be more opposite. So we’re asking God to do something radically different in us.

God’s Wisdom Is Pure

This is why when we see in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel and other areas where God God must give us a new heart, right? He must make us alive. This is well beyond our ability. Praise God that he does it. So the wisdom from above is pure. God’s wisdom is pure. First it says pure. And the sense here is that purity is wisdom’s primary and basic characteristic and the one out of which all the others flow. It is wisdom’s essential characteristic. The idea here is the idea here is free from moral define defilement absent of any sinful attitude or motive. It is essentially the opposite of the wisdom from below that we have been talking about which seeks to exalt self and diminish others.

So whatever else wisdom is, it must be free from sin so that its exercise will be toward the glory of God and the benefit of others.

“Whatever else wisdom is, it must be free from sin so that its exercise will be toward the glory of God.”

God will not give his glory to another.

It says in Isaiah 48:11, “And he’s eager that we be instruments in his hands.” Passages like Proverbs 25:4 and 2 Timothy 2:2-22 indicate that purity is a prerequisite to God using us as his instruments. So God’s wisdom is first of all pure. Next, it is peaceful. It is peaceful.

God’s Wisdom Is Peaceful

The sense here is disposed to peace, harmony, rest, quietness, contentment.

Harmony in relationships is incompatible with the bitter jealousy and selfish ambition of worldly wisdom. They both cannot exist at the same time. I was thinking about what it says in Romans 5:1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what?

Peace, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s where it starts.

And then for us to be peaceable and the only other use of this word in the New Testament is in Hebrews 12:11 when it talks about God’s discipline of his children. This is interesting. Hebrews 12:11, for the moment, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Yeah. It’s not joyful but sorrowful. But to those who have been trained by it, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Isn’t that amazing? Yeah.

In other words, peace can only come about through the vanquishing of evil.

“Peace can only come about through the vanquishing of evil.”

God reminds us in the Old Testament that there is no peace for the wicked, nor should there be. Nor is there peace in our hearts if we harbor sin that’s unconfessed. There won’t be peace. There won’t be peace. So peace can only come about through the vanquishing of evil.

And that must start in our own hearts as we respond to God’s discipline in our own lives. And of course, we see this perfectly reflected in the gospel, God’s work to reconcile us in Jesus.

Isaiah 53:5, he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging we are healed. So for those of us who have repented and believed in Jesus, God has once and for all vanquished sin so that we might have peace with him. And as believers, God calls us to walk in a path of purity so that we might draw strength from him and have peace with others. There there’s a connection that you might not have made of purity with peace. I think it’s worth our examination of our own hearts in this regard. So to have peace, we must have purity. We must be disposed to peace.

God’s Wisdom Is Profitable

That is a that is able to seek peace in our own hearts and in the lives of others. And then finally, God’s peace, God’s wisdom is profitable. Profitable.

We see these adjectives in the passage.

It’s gentle.

The idea here is that it is fair and accommodating, obedient and approach approachable. It’s inviting. It’s not weak. Kenneth Whis says that gentle is sweetly reasonable, satisfied with less than its due.

“Gentle is sweetly reasonable, satisfied with less than its due.”

Think about that.

What expectations do you have for others that might not be reasonable?

I struggle with this. I get frustrated easily.

I think our expectations need to be directed more toward him.

Reasonable. The sense here is that we are we are ready to obey. We are compliant and we are approachable.

And then full of mercy and good fruits.

The idea here is that we are overflowing with practical help and profitable effects.

We are useful to God and a blessing to others. Unwavering. The sense here is that we’re resolved to be fair and equitable. The people in your life that you can depend on, don’t you?

The Contrast: Above vs. Below

And the people in your life that you can’t like a bad tooth and or an unsteady foot is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble. We all have those people in our lives. Let’s not be those people. Let let’s be reliable and faithful without hypocrisy, meaning without pretense. It’s what you see is what you get. It’s not putting on an act. And if we understand this passage, we can only put on an act for so long, right? What’s on the inside, what’s at the root, will eventually come out in fruit. You can only fake it for so long. And so, the result of all of this wisdom is peace. Contrasted with the disorder and evil which worldly wisdom brings about. So if you want the right fruit, you and I must have the right root. So let’s think about the contrast here. You can have wisdom from above or wisdom from below. We want truth over falsehood. We want love over selfishness and we want peace over chaos.

“If you want the right fruit, you and I must have the right root.”

Do we not? I hope that’s not controversial. Let me repeat that. We want what is above more than what is below. We want truth over falsehood, love over selfishness, and peace over chaos. I was interested to learn as I studied this passage that the actual word flow in the language is so interesting. It moves from somewhat of an awkward cacophony. Just the language itself is rough when it talks about the wisdom of the world, but it’s soothing and smooth and flows when it talks about the wisdom from God. So interesting. One of the things I thought about I don’t know what brought this to mind, but I thought this is a great illustration.

So, I think we know by now that we can be easily fooled to think that some things are wise when they’re not. I think we know by now that we need to look a little bit more deeply, do we not? Both at ourselves and at others.

And has anyone ever does anyone know what this is?

Snowflakes. Snowflakes under a microscope. Looks like fine jewels. It’s beautiful. Wonderful. And I got to thinking, I wonder if man-made snow looks like this. It does not.

It looks like that. So, think about this. Wisdom from above. Snow from above, snow from below. Wisdom from above, wisdom from below. Right?

What a difference. What a difference.

Christ: The Power and Wisdom of God

And I I know that helped me. Hopefully, that helps you to really seek God’s wisdom. Let me share a quick word about how we can be easily fooled. I’m just going to read this from 1 Corinthians 1:es 20- 24.

And this is this starts in a similar way. It’s something of a challenge or a taunt if you will. So where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

To Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

That whole chapter is wonderful. The foolishness of God is wiser than men.

The weakness of God is stronger than men. So this is a similar challenge, right? Who is wise? What are you impressed with? God’s assessment of the world’s wisdom is an indictment. If the world in its wisdom missed the most obvious fact in the universe, that is the existence and attributes of God, then of what good is it?

“If the world in its wisdom missed the most obvious fact in the universe—the existence of God—then of what good is it?”

Foundationally, it is off. But God presents to us a much better way. Jesus himself, who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30. So God’s wisdom is entirely different from man’s wisdom in origin, in nature, effect, and destiny.

But wisdom isn’t always obvious. Let me share with you a quick verse that’s actually meant a lot to me. It it’s one of those you you read through some passages in the Old Testament, particularly if you’re reading through the Bible through a year, you might tend to go past this pretty fast. But Ecclesiastes chapter 9 says something that I think is worth our attention today.

Starting in verse 14, there was a small city with a few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded surrounded it, and constructed large siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man. And he delivered the city by its wisdom. Yet no one remembered this poor wise man. You and I willing to be that?

The Fruit of Wisdom

To maybe not be impressive, to not be noticed, but to be effective. Yeah. I think that’s what God is calling us to do. And so we end today with the fruit of wisdom. The fruit of wisdom. Verse 18. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Interestingly, scholars believe that James would was inspired here by the prophet Isaiah who said this regarding the Messiah in Isaiah 32:17 says, “And the work of righteousness will be peace and the service of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever.” When Christ reigns in our hearts and lives, the difference is massive and lifegiving.

Isaiah 32:17: “The work of righteousness will be peace and the service of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever.”

Remember, if you have the right root, you will have the right fruit. We reap what we sow. Got one final quote for us today again from Jipacker. This is the effect of his gift of wisdom is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quicksighted as to his will, more resolute in the doing of it, and less troubled, not less sensitive, but less bewildered than we were at the dark and painful things of which our life in this fallen world is full.

The New Testament tells us that the fruit of wisdom is Christ’s likeness, peace, and humility and love. And the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God. Thus, the kind of wisdom that God waits to give to those who ask him is a wisdom that will bind us to himself, a wisdom that will find expression in a spirit of faith and a life of faithfulness.

So we will reap a wonderful harvest of righteousness as opposed to lawlessness and chaos in our lives only if we sew seeds of peace. And that can only be sown if we if we are rid of the seeds and weeds of selfishness in our hearts.

In short, a harvest of righteousness cannot be produced in a climate of selfishness.

Let me repeat that. A harvest of righteousness cannot be produced in a climate of selfishness. So we must love peace, cultivate peace, be diligent in maintaining conditions of peace.

“A harvest of righteousness cannot be produced in a climate of selfishness.”

Conclusion: The Choice Before Us

A great harvest of rate awaits. So the choice before us this morning is clear.

So what does wisdom look like in us? We come full circle. Who is wise? Who is wise? As the scripture, the passage started, only one in whose heart has been revived and changed by the spirit of God. Only one for whom Christ paid the penalty for their sin. As we read in Isaiah 53, he was crushed for our iniquities.

By his scourging, we are healed. So, where do you come from? Are you truly spiritual? Are you truly born of God? Do you have the right root of salvation in your heart?

Wisdom is revealed in and through us by the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of his spirit as we die to self and live to him.

“Wisdom is revealed in and through us by the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of his Spirit.”

Proverbs 14:33 says, “Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, but in the hearts of fools it is made known.” Let me pray for us.

Father, would you make wisdom known?

Make Christ, who is our wisdom, known in our hearts.

For those who have not yet surrendered to Christ, repented and believed in him, may this be the day they do that and see that the path of worldly wisdom is a sure path to chaos in this life and destruction, utter destruction and torment in the next. But you who are our life, you offer a better way for us. So may your wisdom, may Christ himself be known in, among, and through your people today.

Amen.
January 11, 2026
The War Within: The True Source of Your Quarrels

In this sermon, David Capoccia examines the apostle’s teaching in James 4:1-10 as to where conflicts and quarrels come from and what believers must do about them. David Capoccia explains the passage with the following outline:

Three Steps to Reveal and Heal Our Quarrels and Conflicts
1. Understand the True Source: Idolatry
2. Understand the True Authority: Scripture
3. Understand the True Solution: Repentance

Full Transcript

Let’s pray before we go on:

Our great God and Savior, there is no one like You. Lord, Your word is essential, and it is our food. We need it more than the bread of this world. God, help us to understand this Word, and help me to be able to explain it well, accurately, and clearly. God, I pray that You would apply it to each person, so that they would see that this is not just a Word to people, but Your word to each one of us. Lord, I pray that You would bless this time now, and that You would grow us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please open your Bibles to James 4. We will be looking at James 4:1-10, but for the moment, I just want to start with James 4:1:

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

Right now, think about this question for yourself and your life. Why is it that, you, sometimes or even often find yourself angry, quarreling, and in conflict with other people? What is the source of your anger? Why do you get upset? What causes the conflicts between you and your spouse, between you and your other family members, or even between you and other believers in this church?

I can think of some typical answers to this question: it’s the other persons fault, he is just so unreasonable, she is just so selfish, or he makes me mad. A different line of answering: it is just the way I am, I have a short temper, I am Irish, and you know what they say about the Irish, or I have a mental illness.

Alternatively, we might say: it is due to my upbringing, my parents were too strict with me, I was abused when I was little, or my parents weren’t strict enough. They gave me free reign, everything came too easily to me, so that is the way I am now. Perhaps, we say: it is due to my circumstances. I get upset because, well, I am so tired, it’s been a long day, money is tight, or life is too stressful right now.

We might make these answers, but do you notice what two assumptions are common to each of these replies as to why we get upset and why we quarrel? Two main ideas: it’s not my fault and there is nothing I can do about it. What I really need is for my circumstances to change and for other people to change.

This is the way the world thinks. Then, is there any wonder that there is so much conflict in our world? So many angry words exchanged, so much violence, so much divorce, so much murder, and so much war. According to the world’s way of thinking, there is no real hope for peace, or for lasting peace because none of us can really help ourselves. What about Christians, God’s people, and God’s children? Should we be making the same excuses? What does the people say is the true source of our anger, quarrels, and conflicts with one another?

Now, the things I have mentioned can and do play a role in producing conflict. Other people may indeed provoke us. Our flesh may be particularly prone to anger. Our upbringing may have had a poor influence on us. Indeed, we might be in difficult circumstances right now. However, none of these, according to God, are the true source of our quarrels, so what is?

Let’s hear from God, on this critical topic, via His apostle James, a brother of Jesus. We want to give full attention to this Word, so that we might not only know what the true sources of our quarrels are, but also know what we can and must do about it. That we might live in peace and might be a greater witness of Christ in this world so filled with conflict.

We’re looking at James 4:1-10, and a quick note of background on this book is that this is a very early New Testament letter. James is giving various exhortations to scattered and persecuted Jewish believers. Besides encouraging these Christians to persevere, in their circumstances, James also warns and confronts the believers not to excuse sin in the midst of their difficulties.

A particular concern to James is relations between the believers in the church. In James 3, James rebukes the Christians for using their tongues for evil against one another, and for their manifest, their demonstrated jealousy, and selfish ambition, which is being masked, by some, as some kind of maturity. It is in the context of these concerns that we read this section of teaching in James 4:1-10:

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? ²You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? ⁶But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” ⁷Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Like a doctor, who truly understands the nature of a dangerous illness, the Spirit of God reveals, in this passage, what is the true source, nature, and treatment for our frequent quarrels. This disease is not physical, mental, or psychological. It is a spiritual disease. One that we have done to ourselves, and one in which we must carefully deal with, so that it does not do more damage to ourselves or to others.

We can break down James teaching into three steps to reveal and heal our conflicts. Step one, in James 4:1-4, understand the true source. Step two, in James 4:5-6, heed the true authority. Step three, James 4:7-10, embrace the true solution. We will find out more about each one of those things, and we will identify them more specifically as we work our way through the text and look at each verse.

The first step James wants us to follow is to understand the true source of our quarrels, and what is that source? The answer is: idolatry. If you want to truly reveal and heal your conflicts with one another, you must understand that the source of your conflicts is not truly external, but internal. Quarrels come from the hearts own idolatry. Look again at James 4:1:

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

Clearly, these two questions from James are rhetorical. James doesn’t have to find out what are the particular sources of every and each quarrel for all of these various Christians. He knows that the source of every quarrel is basically the same. The source of all quarrel is, as James says, your pleasures that wage war in your members.

Notice the military terms at play here. In the first question, we have quarrels and conflicts, but more literally, those words are wars and battles, or wars and fights. This military theme continues into the second question: there is something waging war in your members.

Essentially, James is asking: you know why you keep seeing war and battles among your people and relationships? Isn’t it obvious? It is because you have something waging war within you, within your body parts, and within your very heart. There is no peace without because there is no peace within. What is waging war within? James says that it is your pleasures.

Now, your pleasures are all the things that you really like and really want. They are things that you find delight in. So, James is saying that it is your wants and desires that are waging war in your soul. They are seeking to dominate you, and demand that you seek after them. In regard to the origin of sin, James 1:14-15 says:

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. ¹⁵Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Our sin, even our quarrels, comes from the desires within our hearts. Now, consider how this works in real life: you’ve got something you really want – a pleasure – something you feel is so essential to your happiness, wholeness, and your security. Maybe it is something abstract like love, respect, or comfort. Maybe it is something more concrete like money, sex, or even a particular food.

You are pursuing this thing, and you are looking forward to obtaining it. Then, someone gets in the way of you and your expected pleasure. You know you want to be loving toward this person, and you know the teaching of Christ. Meanwhile, that pleasure, in your heart, begins to assault you and it demands that you fight for that pleasure and punish those who are in the way.

You become overtaken by your pleasure and you become angry. Essentially, you communicate to the other person:

How dare you get in the way of me and my pleasure! How dare you threaten it! How dare you take it away from me! Don’t you know that I need this and that I deserve this? Now, you are going to pay!

Thus, you quarrel. Really, this is idolatry. Your pleasure becomes your God, and you worship that pleasure instead of the true God. All sin, at its root, is idolatry. This is true for our quarrels as well. In every quarrel, in every angry conflict, one side or the other is engage in idolatry, and it is often both sides. One side has a certain desire, the other side has a competing desire, and both sides are not willing to let go of their desires, for Christ’s sake, so they, instead, go to war.

This process I just describe is the exact same as what James next describes in our texts. He says in James 4:2:

You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

Here, the word lust refers to any strong desire, not necessarily a sexual desire. However, James says that you have these strong idolatrous desires, and when they are not fulfilled, you sin. Notice the sins that James says they commit. The result of not obtaining your desire is that you commit murder. You mean Christians back then were murdering each other because of their lusts?

Well, it’s possible, but it’s probably not literally the case. Though, even Christians can commit murder. Certainly, those who claim to be Christians, but are not, can commit murder. Even if these are not literal murders, which is I don’t think they are, the use of this term, by James, is significant. It should remind you of the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. In Matthew 5, Jesus says those who get angry at others and use insulting words with others are as guilty as those who commit murder.

How can those things be equated? The heart intent is the same. When you get angry at someone, you are saying, in your heart:

I want you to suffer for getting in my way. I even want you to die

Make no mistake, at the heart of every murder, is an idolatrous lust. In the blossom of every angry desire, lurks the seed of murder. After all, this is war as far as the idolater’s heart is concerned, and war requires killing. “I will fight to the death for my pleasures,” says the idolaters heart. Unfulfilled lust leads even to killing. Unfulfilled envy leads even to waging battles and waging war. Should Christian’s be enslaved to heart idols in this way? Of course not.

Not only is idolatry revolting and unacceptable to God and those who claim to be followers of Christ, but God has also promised perfect provision to each one of His own and pleasure unending with Him in heaven. Why would a Christian seek after idols? Consider what James says at the end of James 4:2:

… You do not have because you do not ask.

“You foolish Christians,” James says. You are ready to fight, quarrel, and kill to get what you think you need and want when, the whole time, you could have just asked God. After all, James already said in James 1:5:

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

God responds to the prayer of His people. He knows their needs. He is so happy to provide, according to His own perfect wisdom, for His children. Don’t go to war with one another. Go to God in prayer. Well, someone will say:

I did. I prayed to God and nothing happened. I didn’t get what I asked for. Prayer doesn’t work. God obviously doesn’t know my needs, He doesn’t care about my needs, or He is just not able to do what it takes to provide for my needs.

However, James anticipates this reply, which is seen in James 4:3:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You know why God didn’t give you what you asked in prayer? He knew that doing so would only encourage you in your idolatry. Basically, you were approaching God in this way:

Hey, God, can you give me this thing that I want more than You because that would be really great. Thanks.

Brothers and sisters, God is a good God. He is a good Father. He is not going to spoil His kids. If you belong to God, He will not give you what is not good for you. In giving you more means to pursue your idol, apart from Him, that is definitely not good for you.

In fact, your idol is a great affront to God, and will you impugn His character and kindness for not indulging your idol and granting your wicked prayer? Yes, asking God instead of fighting one another about our needs is the right way, but even in asking God, you cannot come with idols in your heart.

I don’t think we realize just how serious anger and quarreling is to God. However, what we have seen so far should help us to understand. If God is God and angry quarreling is idolatry, then what does that make you, in essence, if you are a quarreler? James 4:4 tells us:

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

Do you know what your anger and quarreling is to God? It is spiritual adultery. When you fight with others, when you berate them, and when you seek to hurt them with your words or even with your fists, you are manifesting spiritual harlotry. You show forth a love for someone else or something else more than God, and will God tolerate such adultery?

In over what do we quarrel? Is it not the passing things of the world? In doing such, we manifest that our love is for the world, for the things of the world, and we want to be friends with the world and the idolatrous world system. However, this is unthinkable in a follower of Christ. James draws his audience back to Gospel basics in James 4:4:

don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

You can’t do both of these things. You can’t love the world and love God at the same time. You can’t be the friend of the world and God’s friend too. Again, this should remind us of the sermon on the mount. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Dear Christian, when did the world and its passing pleasures become so important to you again? Have you forgotten your first repentance to follow Christ when you turned your back on the things of the world and said along with the hymn rider?

Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also

You left the army of the worldly rebels to join the army of God, so why have you deserted to join the rebels again? Beyond adultery, that’s what quarreling is. A quarrelsome heart is not only a declaration of spiritual adultery, but a declaration of war against God. In the last part of James 4:4, James says:

… Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

So, Calvary, let these sobering words sink into your ears. What do you love? What are your pleasures? What do you delight most of all? Are your highest loves the things of the world? If your heart is captured by the world and its treasures, and if such leads you to quarrel with others, then know that you have made yourself an enemy of God.

God is a jealous God, who will not endure any competition for worship. Only He is worthy of honor and glory, not you and not the things of the world. Brothers and sisters, consider this a very sobering first point from James. Understand the true source of your conflict is idolatry.

Think about your recent quarrels, conflicts, arguments, and fights that you have had. What pleasures were at the root? What idols were you and/or the other person clinging to in those moments? Do you see how that pleasure, or idol, caused you not only to turn against your fellow, but even to turn against God?

Now, someone might say:

I’m pretty sure that in my recent quarrel, I was being righteous. I was righteously angry.

Oh really? Well, did your righteous anger look like Jesus’ righteous anger. Jesus’ righteous anger had a very noticeable quality: it led to good and loving actions rather than sinful and hurtful actions. Is that what your anger led to? Let’s not deceive ourselves. James 1:20:

for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Someone may yet say:

I don’t believe this. I am pretty sure that my conflicts are not something from idolatry. Indeed, it is from some other source. I am not truly at fault.

However, James is not going to let us get away from this first point. He gives us a second point to help us even further reveal and heal our conflicts. In James 4:5-6, the second point is that if we are going to be healed, we need to heed the true authority.

People might listen to all sorts of authorities when it comes to assessing their actions and motivations. Authorities like feelings, philosophies, and psychological theories, but James points us back to the only true authority for understanding our quarrels and even our heart, which is Scripture.

What I am presenting to you, brothers and sisters, is not my opinion. It is not even a man’s opinion. I am giving you God’s declaration via His word. If you would love to serve God, then you must heed it. Not only is James writing inspired Scripture, and that we have it for us today, but notice his appeal in James 4:5:

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

James points to the Old Testament Scriptures to back up what He just said. Immediately, the statement, in James 4:5, presents us with a couple of puzzles. First puzzle is: how exactly should we translate this verse? The Bible might have a little note on the two main ways we could take this verse.

The Greek verb used for desires could have as subject either He, meaning God, or the Spirit, so the sentence could read, as it does in the NASB:

He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us

Or, the sentence could read closer to what it does in the KJV:

Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

In other words, who is jealous here: is it God or our corrupt spirit? That is one puzzle, and the second puzzle is: no Old Testament Scripture says exactly either one of these things. What verse are you quoting, James? We can’t seem to find it. So, what do we do with these puzzles? Well, let’s start with the second one.

Most likely, James is summarizing the teaching of the Old Testament rather than quoting a specific passage. Indeed, either sense of that statement, in James 4:5, finds ready support in the Old Testament. For example, when it comes to God’s jealousy for the soul’s worship, we see, in the Torah, Exodus 34:14:

for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

Or, Deuteronomy 4:24:

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Or, even Nahum 1:2:

A jealous and avenging God is the LORD;
The LORD is avenging and wrathful.
The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies.

On the flip, if we take the other sense of this statement, in James 4:5, we see many Old Testament depictions of a human heart, incessant, lust, and idolatry. Consider Israel, despite a special covenant, God’s own presence among them, miraculous provisions and deliverances, especially prepared to land, and many other blessings, then what, basically, is the record of Israel’s history?

It is just them continually going after and turning back towards idols. So much so that the metaphor God uses to describe Israel, in Ezekiel 16, is of a brazen and ungrateful adulteress, who can never be satisfied no matter how many lovers she obtains for herself. Even in the Torah, God describes Israel as being uncircumcised in heart. If that is true of Israel, with all these privileges and blessings, then what about the rest of the world?

Remember what God said about humanity before the flood? Genesis 6:5:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Even after the flood, man’s heart had not changed. In Genesis 11, God had to disperse man’s rebellious attempt at Babel. Understandably, Jeremiah says of the human heart in Jeremiah 17:9:

The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?

So, why is the sense of James 4:5 would fit and be supported by the Old Testament? However, which sense is James actual intention? In going back to the first puzzle, how should we translate this verse? The key clues are in the beginning of James 4:6:

But He gives a greater grace…

If God is the jealous one in James 4:5, then the beginning of James 4:6 is kind of awkward: God gives a greater grace than Himself, or His own jealousy? If our spirits are indeed characteristically prone to lust, jealousy, and idolatry, then we might ask: what hope is there for us? We have become enemies of God, we’re adulteresses, we’ll be destroyed, but, in James 4:6, God gives a greater grace.

God is able to overcome our own wicked hearts and rescue us from ourselves, so I favor this second translation. Either way, the overall sense of the passage is not greatly affected. In sum, what is James saying in James 4:5?

In response to the notion that James is going too far in identifying quarreling as the manifestation of the idolatrous heart, James points to the Old Testament, where again and again the spirit of man, which belongs to God and was given by God, should worship God. Nonetheless, does not, but incessantly lusts, envies, and seeks idols. As well said by the reformer John Calvin:

Man’s heart is an idol factory.

Then, it should come as no surprise to us to hear that our hearts idolatry is being exposed in a new area – our quarrels. However, James doesn’t just point to the Old Testament to affirm the evil idolatry of mans hearts, but also points to hope in Christ because God’s mercy is also put on display in the Old Testament. James 4:6 says:

But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

There is grace and underserved favor available even to spiritual adulteresses, or people who have made themselves enemies of God through their idolatry. This grace is the abundant salvation and cleansing that comes by repentance and faith in God’s savior, the substitute, the Messiah – Jesus, God’s son.

For all of those who will turn to God for mercy, in light of their sin, they will find it when they embrace the Son, but this requires humility. James recalls that fundamental principle, of humility and pride, in Proverbs 3:34:

Though He scoffs at the scoffers,
Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.

For those, who refuse to admit their deep-heart wickedness before God, and refuse to turn to Jesus, will not receive any grace or mercy. For those, who in pride, suppose they could do enough good works to make up for all their evil, will receive no mercy from God. However, for those, who in complete humility, throw themselves before God’s mercy and embrace Jesus Christ, and all Jesus’ taught and demonstrated Himself to be, will find grace greater than all their sin.

Then, in James 4:1-4, he is not giving some radical new teaching. This identification of quarreling with idolatry fits right in with the rest of the Scriptures, and what the Scriptures have to say about the human heart, pride, and about God’s judgement. This teaching also fits in with everything the Old Testament declares about the abundant and available mercy of God toward all those who will look to Him in humble faith.

What James declares has the authority of both Old and New Testament Scripture, and it is an authority greater than any other supposed authority on earth. Are you willing to recognize that? Are you willing to heed the very voice of God? Do you see that your unrepentant quarreling idolatry puts you into a long line of scoffers, who do not experience God’s grace? Do you also see that your anger and your lusting after pleasures can find grace no matter how long you have been labeled, “hot tempered,” or have been idolatrous?

So far, we have seen that in order to reveal and heal our conflicts, we must both understand that the true source of our quarrels is idolatry, and we must heed the true authority on quarrels and human heart, which is Scripture. If we do these first two things, then we ought to come to the same conclusion that James does in our text, which is our third point. We must embrace the true solution, so what is the solution to our idolatrous hearts and incessant quarrels? It is repentance.

The solution to our quarrels and conflicts is not medication, therapy, changed circumstances, or simply getting others to act to our way. Such solutions may improve our symptoms, but they fail to deal with the root cause. If you want to be truly healed, then we must repent. What is repentance and what does this repentance look like? James describes in the first part of James 4:7:

Submit therefore to God…

This is the necessary conclusion. If God has a grace greater than all of our sin, then we must submit to God. We may have heard something about this term submit, and the Greek verb is used frequently as a military term. Meaning, to line oneself up under someone else, which is what we are to do to God. We are to line-up under Him and come under His authority.

No longer serve your pleasures and no longer follow their orders. Dethrone them, dessert the rebel army, and line-up again under God. This is repentance and a change of heart resulting in a change in actions. Now, this command to submit is an overarching command over these final four verses. What follows, in the text, are four parallel couplets illustrating what these submission and repentance looks like.

In this last point, from James, I am going to give four subpoints to summarize what James says and describes what true repentance and submission is. Our first couplet straddles part of James 4:7-8, which says:

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…

What does necessary repentance and submission to God consist? First of all, reverse stances. Notice that the structure of these two statements, in James 4:7-8, is reminiscent of Hebrew poetic parallelism. We have a contrast set between the stance repented believers have towards the devil and the stance they have toward God.

On the one hand, believers are to withdraw from the devil, no longer walk with the devil, but must take their stand against the devil. On the other hand, the believer must no longer run away from God, but draw close to God. It is interesting that the devil is only, now, mentioned in the text.

Up to now, all of the impetus that we’ve heard toward evil has been coming from mans own heart. Indeed, as I have heard Mike Riccardi say recently:

Even if the devil and his demons never tempted us at all, we have enough wickedness in our fallen nature to bring us away to even the worst iniquities.

In a sense, we don’t even need the devil’s help. However, we are reminded here, since James brings up the devil, that the evil one and his forces do have a hand in drawing our hearts toward idolatry and quarreling. If we are true to repentance and submitting to God, what must we do now?

We are to resist the devil. We are to set ourselves up for battle against the devil. We are to stand firm against him and hold the line as we have faith in God. As we do this, notice the promise James reports to us: if you resist the devil, Satan will flee from you.

Oh, Satan will test you, he will probe your defenses, he might even engage you for a prolonged period of time, but don’t give an inch. Hold until relieved, and eventually, the devil will break and flee. The devil is truly powerful, and he has an ally in our flesh. However, God is greater, and His grace is greater, so that we can even resist the devil.

On the one hand, we are to set up a reverse stance against the devil and fight against him until he flees. We’re not under his power. We’ve been given a greater grace. On the other hand, we open our stance toward God, and we are to seek Him.

In the Old Testament, to draw close to God is a very dangerous choice. Even as we read, God is a consuming fire. He is holy, and you can’t get close to this Holy God if you, yourself, are unholy. If you try, His bright Holiness will have to destroy you. Yet, God is the source of all goodness, all beauty, and all salvation. If only we could get close to Him.

Well, look at what is promised by James: if you draw close to God and seek to get near to God, then it’s not that God’s holiness will smite you, but instead God will draw near to you also. He is telling us that you can have fellowship with God, you can approach God’s face, and you can experience His blessing. In fact, you are commanded to do so, and promised that God will respond.

So, why is this? Is it because of our own merit where we have earned something with God? No, it’s because of that greater grace that we have received in Christ. In other words, no longer make God your enemy, but draw close to Him as Friend and Father, so that you might enjoy Him, and God will grant your request. God will grant you His joy and His fellowship. This is the first way we see repentance illustrated. We’re changing our stance towards the evil one, and we’re changing our stance toward God because we have new promises.

A second illustration of this repentance comes from the couplet at the end of James 4:8:

…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

We could describe this element of repentance as thorough cleansing. Notice that these verses say we are to cleanse both our hands and our hearts. Together, these terms really represent a totality, the whole person. The hands are often representative, in Scripture, of external acts whereas the heart describes the inner person.

The heart is the place where the thoughts, desires, and emotions are all generated, and James says that both must be purified. All of you are to be purified. It is to be a thorough cleansing. Repent of sin both externally and internally. It can’t just be one. You are to repent, trust Christ to make you clean once and for all – both inside and outside, and then walk in new holiness. Not just on the outside, but even on the inside – your thought life, what you believe, and what you desire. This is what true repentance and submission comprises before God.

Also, notice the term sinner and double-minded. They are also set in parallel, and they are two ways of describing the same concept. To be a sinner is to be double-minded, so what does it mean to be double-minded? We get a clue back in James 1:6-8:

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The double-minded man is the man who cannot quite believe God. He prays to God, but then he acts like God is not going to answer his prayers. This man is not able to successfully stand against the evil one’s temptation or even his hearts own lusts. As soon as his flesh or Satan suggests that he might not be able to trust God, then this man abandons the cause and goes back to serving his pleasures.

Interestingly, James says that the double-minded man needs purification of heart, not instruction of his intellect. The double-minded man does not suffer from a lack of information – not that, “Oh! I just need to learn more.”

Rather, he suffers from a lack of sanctification. He still believes the pleasures of his heart even though they are not worth trusting. He believes that those pleasures are worth serving, they will fulfill him, and he somehow thinks that he can serve those things and God at the same time. However, God says, via His apostle James:

If you are to be truly submissive to God and have repented, then it must include a turning away from this unbelief and double-mindedness. Stop believe what your idols tell you and believe the word of God. Stop vacillating between two sources of authority – “God says this, but my feelings say that,” or, “God says this, but the opinion of the world says that.” Stop vacillating! Have faith in God. Unmask your idolatrous pleasures for what they are. They are frauds, unworthy of your service, and unworthy of your praise that only belongs to God.

Indeed, true repentance consists of a thorough cleansing both inside and out. A third element of necessary repentance is given in the couplet of James 4:9:

Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

This third element of true repentance is sincere sorrow. Notice how emphatic James is here. Five times, within these two lines, he tells us that we should express sorrow. This is the logical result of someone who finally understands what his quarreling heart truly is before God. Brothers and sisters, are we not guilty of underestimating this seriousness of our conflicts in God’s eyes?

Ah! It’s not big deal. We fought a little bit, but common! Let’s get back to fun, to life’s pleasures, let’s laugh, let’s have joy, and let’s be merry!

All the while, we are, in essence and according to James, committing murder, idolatry, and spiritual adultery. Brethren, let’s see our sin and ourselves for what we really are before God, and let us weep. Weep for how seriously and senselessly you have betrayed your Lord and turned against your brethren, God’s children. Mourn for how you have dishonored the name of Christ, your Savior.

Stop being so “happy-go-lucky,” and realize your great crime. Let the magnitude of your sin and betrayal of God drive you to contrition, and let your contrition drive you to repentance. This repentance causing you to forsake your old way and draw near to God in new faith. God promises to the truly contrite in Psalm 51:17:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Now, James is not commanding us to be morose for the rest of our lives. There are many other Scriptures that say Christians should be characterized by joy. However, friends, brothers, and sisters, sorrow is the expected response when someone realizes just what his sins are before God. This is another necessary element of our true repentance and submission before God.

A fourth and final element is in James 4:10:

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

I’m calling this last element humble expectation. With this final command, James, refers us back to that Old Testament principle he cites in James 4:6. If God gives grace to the humble, then we must humble ourselves, which makes sense with the command to submit. You can only submit if you humble yourself. You can only bring yourself under another person’s authority, truly, if you humbled yourself, which makes sense once we realize what we have done and have become sorrowful.

We cannot come to God holding our heads up high, or asking begrudged:

O.K. God. I’m sorry. Please pardon me.

Instead, we come abased before the Lord like that repented tax collector, beating our breast, and saying:

God, be merciful to me, the sinner of sinners. Please be merciful to me.

That is the way we ought to come, but notice something wonderful, and perhaps unexpected, appears with this last command: He will exalt you. You say:

That’s not what I deserve. I deserve to be banished to some corner, never exalted, never made great, never honored, or never blessed.

That is true, but do you know who God is? Yes, you need to know what your sin is, but do you know who God is. God is a God full of abundant, loving kindness. Overwhelming wrath to His enemies to be sure, and we can’t ignore that, but for His children, amazing grace.

When you humble yourself before God and repent, He will restore you even to the place of honor in His household. He will do for you as He did for the prodigal. As it were, He will put a new cloak on you, a ring on your finger, He’ll kill the fatten calve, He’ll put on a feast, and He will declare you His son or His daughter.

Now, why would he do that? He is trying to make much of us? No, there is nothing in us that is worthy of honor. He is making much of Himself – His glorious Self. He is putting on display, to us and all the universe, the greatness of His glorious love. When we come to God in repentance, you do not have to wonder whether God will accept us. He will do more than that. He will exalt us to show forth His own glory.

With all of this, is not quarreling over the passing things of the world the must senseless thing? If God will exalt you when you seek His face in humble repentance, then why clutch the empty idols of the world? Don’t forget what God says about His Messiah and those who belong to His Messiah in Psalm 16:11:

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

The expectation of God’s undeserved exaltation is a necessary element to spur us to humble repentance. Here, we come to the end of this section and the end of our text, so let’s review James argument: we have conflicts in our lives as a plain fact, but God’s Apostle, James, gives us three steps by which we must reveal and heal these quarrels.

One, we must understand the true source of our quarrels, which is idolatry. Two, we must heed the true authority on our quarrels, which is Scripture. Three, we are to embrace the true solution for our quarrels, which is repentance.

We saw how that repentance was illustrated to us in four ways: It is reversed stances toward Satan and God, it is a thorough cleansing of our hearts and actions, it is sincere sorrow for our great offense to God, and it is a humble expectation of God’s provision and exaltation.

Brothers and sisters, will you obey the word of God? Will you listen to how God is speaking to you today from James? If you are a Christian, will you confess that your angry conflicts are indeed the result of idolatry? Therefore, will you unmask and cast away the idols of your heart? Will you patiently, and in love, help one another to get to the root of your conflicts, exposing the idolatrous pleasures each of us so often blindly and foolishly cherish?

Will you acknowledge just how deeply you have betrayed and offended your saving God? Will you be grieved enough over your sin to thoroughly repent and seek reconciliation with others, trusting that if you will humble yourself before God, then before men, He will exalt you in the end?

If you have not yet trusted Christ and have not yet submitted to Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you must hear the great warning of this passage. True believers may fall into quarreling idolatry and spiritual adultery for a time, but for you, who do not really know God, this describes your constant state.

You may put up a good front and be moral, by worlds standards, but God knows your heart. Outside of Christ, you do not love and serve Him, and you have not submitted to Him. In pride, you still serve yourself. You refuse to give God his rightful place. You still worship idols even if they are the unseen idols of your heart.

Thus far, He has shown you patience and undeserved mercy in your life, but there is no guarantee that He will do so any longer. In your heart, you know the words of this passage are true, which is why you continually have these quarrels and conflicts in your life. You must repent, and you must line yourself up under God.

Heed the imperatives of this passage. Take hold of the promises. Draw near to God, and He guarantees He will draw near to you no matter what you have done. You are not beyond God’s greater grace. God can and will free you from your slavery to your desires and to the devil if you will repent and believe.

So, give up your old thoughts, your old way, and believe the good news about Jesus. God sent His son to take on human flesh, live a perfect life, die an innocent death, suffer God’s punishment for sin on the Cross for all those who believe in Jesus, and to rise again. Everyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior will never suffer God’s judgement but will instead see God’s face forever and enjoy God forever.

I urge you to be rescued from God’s wrath, and from your own diseased heart. Indeed, our hearts are wicked, prone to idolatry and quarrels, but God’s grace is greater. May God grant us repentance, so that we might no longer be like the people of the world overtaken by war-within manifesting in wars-without. Instead, may we be characterized by the peace of God, and a testimony to our raging world. Let’s close in prayer:

Our God, we have, indeed, underestimated the seriousness of our sin. Even our quarrels seem like no big deal, but You call it out, God, and You say that it’s idolatry, adultery, and making ourselves into enemies of You. O, God, forgive us for this sin. Forgive us for so easily turning away from You. God, we repent. Lord, let us no longer walk in this way. God, we do not want to go in this path anymore. Forgive us for our failures, but we trust God, because we belong to Christ, that we are secure. No judgement will ever come upon us. We have been clothed in the very righteousness of Jesus, so we know that nothing will ever separate us from You. Nevertheless, God, we want to be good testimonies of You, and we want to experience Your blessing. Grant us peace, God. Grant us the casting away of these idols. Grant us the discernment both for ourselves and for one another. That we may identify these idols that cause our conflicts and pleasures we cling to, so that we can get rid of them and enjoy Your way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

July 8, 2018
Saved by Grace

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 4 Lesson 7

This week in Sunday school, we return to the New Testament epistles and investigate the apostles’ teaching on the relationship of faith and works. Are Christians really saved by faith alone? Can a person be saved without a life of righteousness? And what should be the source of a Christian’s assurance of salvation? We’ll take a look at these questions and more.

Our main texts for this lesson are Ephesians 2:1-10 and James 2:14-26.

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let’s begin welcome to Sunday school happy Mother’s Day tinium in our study of the New Testament in the epistles our next four lessons are gonna highlight certain great themes of the epistles and today that great theme is faith and works our title is sacked saved by grace but really we’re talking about the relationship between faith and works and historically this has been a very contentious issue in Christianity it was central to the Protestant Reformation a works centered gospel is very popular among those who profess to be Christians today but on the flip side so is they works less gospel it doesn’t matter what you do is all about faith it’s all about loving Jesus just pray this prayer and by Jesus in your heart and you’ll be saved this is a lot of confusion over this issue today and our time our culture so it’s definitely worth our exploring more fully so today I want to do that by looking at two different passages with you we’re going to be looking at first Ephesians 2:1 to 10 and then we’re gonna look at James 2:14 to 26 what seemed like contradictory passages but passages that are actually both very important for a full understanding of the relationship between faith and works and then we’ll talk about how those fit together and some of the applications of those passages at the end of our class let me pray briefly our Lord in God I pray that you’d help us understand this truth and apply it to our lives Jesus name Amen please let’s first turn to Ephesians chapter 2 friesan chapter 2 verses 1 to 10 and we’re going to take this passage in tiny bites remember the context of Ephesians Paul’s remaining these this church of mostly Gentiles of their full salvation so that they will walk worthy of it in Chapter 1 he gives his greetings he gives this doxology of praise and then he shares a prayer for them that they would know Christ more but then in chapter 2 he begins to talk a little bit about their salvation or it’ll talk more fully about their salvation especially as it relates to the past let’s look first at verses 1 to 3 in chapter 2 each in chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 we’ll look at verses 1 to 10 in total but we’re taking it in small verses or full small sections so verse 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we’re by nature children of Wrath even as the rest let’s notice a few things we’re gonna follow our method of observe interpret apply notice a few things in this first couple verses in Ephesians 2 who is the you of verse 1 where he says you were dead in your trespasses and sins it’s the effusion believers these Gentile Christians you Christians were dead you were once dead in your trespasses and sins that was your condition so this is their former state notice verse 2 says in which you formerly walked this is their condition before what they are now before they’re being saved and notice what he says is true about them in the past says first of all that they were dead yet no power no life no cognition nothing they were dead in trespasses and sins they weren’t physically dead obviously that he’s talking about but they were dead in another sense spiritually and the trespasses and sins and what if his deadness consistent how did it manifest itself well they walked according to the course or the age of this world they walked according to the ruler of this a certain ruler the Prince of the power of the air they were sons of disobedience they were pursuers of fleshly lusts they were by Nature children of rats but notice he is not just laying it on the Ephesians because verse 3 says that we – we – all formerly lived now whose though we this would be the Apostle Paul his companions and their by extension Jews Jewish believers and Gentile believers together all once were in this condition we – formerly lived according to our lusts this wasn’t just a Gentile thing yet you Gentiles are really bad this is the way we all were and you see that further emphasized in verse 3 he says we to all everyone is included or when he says that you were children of Wrath or we were children of Wrath even as the rest that doesn’t leave anybody out we were just the same as everyone else he says so from this first couple of verses we can already ask some interpretation questions or Nick come to some conclusions interpretation wise who is the Prince of the power of the air this is Satan he’s also called of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience so he says you all walk according to the will of Satan and so did I so did we you know interesting here he says on the one hand that they were dead and on the other hand that they were walking how can those two things fit together well the dead the deadness describes the helpless and rebellious spiritual condition that they had while the walking that’s a pretty common metaphor in the New Testament to describe their behavior how that deafness was manifesting in their lives really they were spiritually dead men walking they had this total deadness spiritually and it was showing up in the way that they thought the way that they desired and the way that they acted the theological term that we use for this condition is unregenerate and you can see how that relates to even the metaphor Paul uses they have not been regenerated they do not have life they have not been made alive like regenerated they are unread gentlemen it says that’s what you were you a fusion Gentile believers and that’s what I was that’s a Jewish unbeliever he says we were all children of Wrath what does it mean to be a child of wrath it’s kind of a vivid metaphor but you are an inheritor you it’s almost like you’re part of the family of those who are under rap that’s what your inheritance is your sinful nature and the consequent actions that come from that they have brought you under their very holy and hot wrath of God it says this is what you were this is what everyone is this is what the whole world is before anyone is saved and it is a very desperate state Paul is painted a very bleak picture of a saved person’s former condition and this describes all people this is the former state of Jew and Gentile and so for you at Calvary this is your former state and for me this is my former state do you recognize that you confess this description to be accurate of you because this is what the word says but this is only the former state because something happened and let’s read the next few verses verses 4 to 6 to see what changed look at verse 4 but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you’ve been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus let’s observe this section it starts with a contrast but God I think some of you’ve heard some pastors theologians say these are some of the two greatest words in scripture together but God indicated as terrible things can be God is able to act and to change things in contrast to our pitiful state God did something but before Paul tells us exactly what he did he reminds us who God is and some of the motivations within his heart it says he was rich in mercy being rich in mercy that was his constant state and is his constant state and because of his great love with which he loved us he acted in love he is full of love then another quick reminder who we are though we dead in our transgressions just as he said in the first three verses what did God do notice the verbs he made us alive both Jew and Gentile he made us alive he saved us by grace he raised us up and seated us with him that’s God in the heavenly places though notice all these actions they have a certain phrase attached to them what phrase is repeated over and over with each one of these actions with him together with him or through him talking about Jesus Christ all of these things happen through and with Jesus and that’s destructive again if we talk about interpreting these verses what does this repetition of with Christ tell us that all of this this change from our former state into what what we are now that came about through Christ in Christ that’s actually a great theme in the book of Ephesians it’s this idea of union with Christ all of your salvation blessings Calvary they come on the basis of your being spiritually joined to the Son of God he’s the source of your life he’s the source of your blessing when you become attached to him you are saved you were transformed now when we talk about the word saved what exactly are we saved from I’ll remember what verse 3 already said we were children of there are plenty of things were saved from there’s a purposelessness unwise way but chief among them is that we were saved from God we were saved from the anger and wrath of God and of course the self-destruction of our own way now there’s an interesting phrase here that’s worth pondering what does it mean to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus notice that’s a present reality since we have been seated we are seated in the heavenly places with Christ now can’t be literal you guys are all still alive so you’re not seated your souls are not seated in heaven and in a way they will be after you die so what is this talking about well this is again going back to the idea of union with Christ this is where made alive spiritually we’re also exalted with Christ and in a sense we have been brought we’ve been exalted glorified right into the very heavenly places in which Christ is glorified right now we have salvation secured through him but also our glorification has become a reality not yet fully experienced but one that is partially experienced and one that is objectively true God doesn’t just save us in Christ you also glorifies us in Christ we are glorified through and with his son it’s a present reality now we have a glory before God not none of our own but one that through Christ has been given to us and what a contrast what a contrast to our former state as described in the first three verses we were to a sinful state under wrath helpless then God did all this through Christ and we were changed now says that we were saved by grace a little parenthetical in there what is Grace yeah unmerited favor is a great definition yeah it’s something that we receive a gift that we did nothing to earn he says that’s how you were saved you didn’t do anything now if that’s true then why did God do it if we didn’t deserve it why did he do it and we get a little bit of an answer to that in the last section of this set of 10 verses verses 7 to 10 we hear some of the reasons why God did this we know that it was part of his merciful nature his love which he chose to set on us but listen to some of the reasons that come in verses 7 to 10 we also seen these verses a very clear description of what exactly happened to make us become saved verse 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them and did you catch the three reasons that are presented in these last couple of verses for why God transformed us verse 7 says that so God can show off his lavish grace in kindness in the ages to come this is all about showing off his work it’s showing his glory by saving us he’s now able to show his great kindness into the forever ages and in verses 8 to 9 he did it he did all of this he transformed us so that no one may boast and then in verse 10 it says another reason why transformed us is that so that we might walk in the good works that God prepared for us to do now we’ll come back to the idea just a second but notice what appears in verses eight to nine now I’m sure you have read and countered memorized these verses because they’re so clear and critical for understanding what salvation is this very carefully worded constructed salvation formula describes what happened we again see the phrase that a pert appeared in verse five by grace you have been saved that is it was an unearned gift it was an undeserved act of kindness from God through faith you experience this undeserved gift by the means of faith that is by means of your personal belief and trust in Jesus Christ as God as Lord and Savior as the truth so by grace you’ve been saved through faith and that not of yourselves and what does the that refer to that as a demonstrative pronoun referring to something that’s come before and it’s actually a little bit tricky grammatically to figure out what is the antecedent of this word that and just to give you a little bit of the grammar here from the Greek side boasts both the word grace and faith that appear earlier in the verse they are feminine nouns in Greek but the word that the pronoun is in the neuter sense and so it doesn’t easily refer to either one of those nouns so theologians pastors debate exactly what the the referent is here and the best understanding appears to be that the word that doesn’t refer to one or the other of those terms but both of them together and really the idea of salvation in general this grace through faith that you experience that whole paradigm that whole system that experience that is not of yourselves you didn’t have really anything to do with that you didn’t earn that you didn’t produce that so then what is it if it didn’t come from you it is as the verse goes on to say it is the gift of God God gave you salvation as a gift and just to be even clearer about that notice he says next not as a result of works I mean is being very emphatic you it’s another way of saying the same thing if it’s a gift it can’t be from works because else elsewise it’s not a gift now what do we mean by works we mean any effort and he act any deed any thing that you might do to bring about a certain result he says no your salvation did not come from any work that you did it was a gift from God so in multiple ways in this earth by using the word grace by talking not of yourselves it is a gift it did not come from works Paul has iterated again and again that this transformation from God this transformation you experience in salvation was totally of God even the belief you exercised which God uses as an ordained means of bringing you to salvation that was not of yourselves it was a gift God placed that in you he gave you the faith to believe so that you would be saved and what was the what was the outcome what’s the reason behind all of that we already mentioned that second reason is that so no man can boast he’s got nothing to say look I did that look you know these other people they’re they’re foolish they don’t understand salvation but I understand and I did it how he says that’s not the case anything that you received that resulted in your salvation that came from God I like what one I think it’s Calvin or maybe somebody else one tailored and says the only thing that you contributed to your salvation is a sin that made it necessary so we see these things in these last couple of verses and let’s let’s again interpret now what is the means that Paul most clearly identifies as what brings about salvation it’s all of God but what does the means that God uses by grace through faith its me faith in Christ now what is the relationship according to Paul in these verses between faith and works we can say two things first of all works do not contribute to your salvation that is so emphatic from Paul here but works are related they’re actually one of the reasons that God saves you not in the sense that you earned it but this it’s one of the outcomes you’re saved so that you may do good works you’re saved so that you can walk in the works that God has already ordained that you do he’s already laid them out for you so far from being a prerequisite for salvation works are a purpose or result of salvation your good deeds their righteous things that you do the holy life that you live that is an outcome an intended result of salvation not a prerequisite now how does this teaching Square with the rest of the New Testament let me just show you some verses you can turn there if you’d like but Titus chapter 3 Titus 3 verses 3 to 8 just to show you this is not an isolated idea that’s been taken out of context Titus 3 verses 3 to 8 in this passage Paulette explaining why Christians ought to be patient understanding towards all people in the world even those who do not believe in Jesus and listen to what Paul says Titus 3 verses 3 to 8 for we also were or we also once were foolish ourselves disobedient deceived enslaved to various lusts and pleasures spending our life in malice and envy hateful hating one another but when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done and right but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the holy spirit when we poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life this is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds now notice all the parallels to the passage we just examine in ephesians 2 1 to 10 the previous state our previous state is described before we were believers we were hateful foolish cetera as an emphasis that God saved us not on the basis of deeds we did or any righteousness that we have it was God’s mercy wholly it’s his work that saved us but notice the result and verse 8 of Titus this is this all happened so that we would be encouraged we would be made to do good deeds and again we can see the same thing if we go to John go to the book of John chapter 1 John 1 verses 12 to 13 this is kind of an introductory section of the Gospel of John and the context the Apostle John is writing about the incarnation of the son as a man and man’s rejection of God in the flesh but notice what it says in verses 12 to 13 John writes but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God so notice what we see again here repeated what is the means of becoming a child of God it is to receive Christ it is to believe in his name but how does this happen what brings about this new birth it’s not your will not the will of the flesh not the will of man but it’s God God does it all and we see this teaching explore even further in jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter 3 I won’t read through that section but I’ll remind you that some of the things that are said there Jesus tells Nicodemus unless you’re born again of the Spirit you cannot be saved and we’ve even looked at this passage before ourselves and sunday-school you didn’t do anything to bring about your physical birth you can do nothing to bring about your spiritual birth God must do it all but that means he uses is the belief the faith that he himself provides and we could go to many other passages in the New Testament elsewhere but I think you understand you get the point salvation is all of God and it comes by faith righteousness and good works are an effective salvation but not a prerequisite to salvation and many of these truths that I’ve been discussing with you right now these are about the heart of the Reformation that great rediscovery and re assertion of biblical truth and salvation and those truths those Reformation truths those Bible truths are captured well in the five SOLAS even those five Latin phrases that swim up a lot of what the Reformation was about in particular when it comes to salvation each one of these phrases has a noun and then the idea of alone Sola scriptura scripture alone salvation is revealed in the scriptures alone not in man’s wisdom or religious tradition Sola gratia salvation is by grace alone Sola fidei salvation is by faith alone Solus Christus salvation is through Christ alone and soli Deo Gloria salvation is for the glory of God alone notice how these Soler’s they practically line up with the formula of salvation we read in Ephesians 2:18 not all those things were present in the context and in the words of those verses now such a teaching this biblical truth it offends the pride of man who man wants so badly to justify himself before God because he believes deep down you know what I am good but this truth that we’ve seen here describing our former condition and what was necessary to save us it shows us no none of us were good none of us were able to work for God’s acceptance God must do it all and he extends his gift of salvation to many who call upon him by faith so this teaching it confounds the Judaizers the legalist the catholic or any other person who tries to make salvation a means or a salvation a matter of works or of faith plus works which is really another way of saying salvation by works it has to either be a gift or it’s not either God gets all the glory for his loving-kindness or he doesn’t man gets some of the glory oh good question asked related to this just thinking a little bit about application is what do you place on what do you place your salvation you might affirm your belief in the Bible but practically do you put your trust in good works or rituals did you start by grace through faith but now as you continue to live as a Christian are you proceeding on the basis of works to keep you safe or to keep you acceptable to God if God did everything in salvation and there’s no more work to be done why do you try to add to his work now immediately there’s concern in all this and that’s the idea of cheap grace what are those who claim faith in God but then live like the devil or of those who professed faith in God at some time in the past but they’re no longer walking with Him they don’t even believe in God anymore doesn’t the Bible say that those who sin will not go to heaven how do we bring how to be.we night this with what we just read and learned from Paul we now need to look at another passage let’s go to James James chapter 2 we’re gonna examine this set of verses a little bit more thoroughly so this is towards the end of the New Testament right after hebrews hebrews 2 verses 14 to 26 now in this context that we’re going to be looking at right before our passage james is rebuking jewish believers that’s his primary author and audience scattered jewish believers he’s rebuking them for showing partiality to the rich and abusing the poor among them those who actually are assembled as part of their congregations a showing favor to the rich and they’re being prejudiced against the poor and he warns James warns that transgressors of God’s law even those who show partiality will be judged and then he explains this next teaching in starting at verse 14 and again we’ll take this passage in sections first verses 14 to 17 James says what use is it my brethren if someone says he has faith but he has no works can that faith save him for brother or sisters without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them come on peace be warmed and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body what uses that even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself make some observations here notice verse 14 begins with two rhetorical questions have expected answers when he says what uses it if someone says he has faith and has no works the answer is it’s no use it’s useless or when he says can that kind of faith save him the expected answer is no if a man says he has faith but no works that kind of faith can’t save say wait a second is this contradicting Paul well let’s let’s hear James out he presents an analogy in verse 15 he says faith without works it’s like someone telling a fellow Christian in desperate need I really want to see all your needs met but then he does nothing to actually meet those needs now what use are such words well they’re no use it’s a useless thing does the person who says I really want your needs to be met does he actually want those needs to be met if he does nothing about them there’s no reason to believe so he doesn’t really desired that because he’s not doing anything about that you’d know he actually desired that if he actually worked to meet the needs you know that he had compassion if he actually acted in a way consistent with that compassion he didn’t just make compassionate claims the same way James says faith without works is dead by itself now note something here or what something we should ask is James saying that this faith he describes is real but insufficient or that this faith is not really real faith just keep that question in mind is he actually describing what is real faith or something that only masquerades as faith let’s look at James next argument in verses 18 and 19 a little short a couple of here James says but someone may well say you have faith and I have works show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works you believe that God is one you do well the demons also believe and shudder now for this section James imagines a hypothetical response to his earlier assertion when there’s some debate as to where the quotation marks should end in verse 18 remember that in the original Greek there are no quotation marks they’re just part of our translations to help us understand in a new American Standard translation puts the end of the quotation at the end of verse 18 whereas the NIV and the ESV for instance they end the quotation right after the phrase you have faith and I have works that’s that’s the extent of the hypothetical according to those translations I wouldn’t lean on the side of the NIV in the ESV here that that usage of quotation marks makes more sense to me in how the argument of this verse is laid out so that’s the way I’m going to interpret it so the hypothetical contention that James deals with is the idea that you have faith and I have works or that is to say it’s possible to have either one or the other you can’t have faith without works is the assertion that’s one way to be saved but you can also have works and that’s another way to be saved but what’s James challenged in response this hypothetical assertion show me your faith without works now let me ask you as James is really asking us how would you show your faith without works tough question right how can you do that what possible way could you have there’s maybe one answer someone might suggest you could say well you say the right things you affirm true doctrine that’s a way to show your faith but that’s a trap that’s a trap answer because notice what James says in response you believe that God is one now that’s a clear allusion to the Old Testament that’s a very famous section of scripture that a Jewish believer would recognize that’s the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 and five Deuteronomy 6:4 says here of Israel Yahweh is our God Yahweh is one now that’s a true statement that’s true doctrine that is a foundation for true dropping to true doctrine that’s why the Jews knew that phrase so well there was a key section of the law but does this affirmation that God is one that Yahweh is one does that demonstrate true saving faith hardly because who else affirms that statement the demons and they tremble James says they tremble at this truth they tremble at God’s judgment they can affirm true doctrine but they are not saved they will not be spared from the wrath in the same way if you’re going to affirm your faith by merely speaking true doctrine yeren as much trouble as the demons that’s not the way to demonstrate faith what’s the only way to demonstrate faith it’s what James says I will show you my faith by my works by what I do and notice the way he phrases them I will show you my faith I will demonstrate my faith this language is specifically about showing a faith that is present and real not necessarily adding to it but showing it now let’s take a look now at the last section here in this part of James James 2:22 26 it’s a little bit longer but you’ll see how these six or seven verses they fit together to form one final mode of argumentation for James look at verse 20 but are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow that faith without works is useless was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar you see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled which says and abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness he was called a friend of God you see then a man is justified by works and not by faith alone in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messenger and sent them out by another way for just as the body without the Spirit is dead so also faith without works is dead now as we observe this last section we might say uh isn’t this directly contradicting what Paul wrote in Ephesians and other places but as we understand this form one will see that it’s not real this is not a different gospel notice the kind of argumentation that James employs in this last paragraph this is an argument by example and he cites two examples from the Old Testament Abraham and Rahab James explains the justifying work of Abraham is his offering up of Isaac on the altar that’s the example that James wants to point to and that took place in Genesis 22 that way back when that’s one of the portions of the Old Testament that we examine together this offering James says perfected or completed brought to a conclusion brought to a fulfillment brought to an end Abraham state James also says this action fulfilled another scripture this statement about Abraham believing God and being accounted to him as righteousness now that you may also remember it comes from Genesis 15 Genesis 15:6 and the context of that statement was God promising to multiply descendants far more than Abraham could ever count bring his Abraham outside look at the stars your descendants will be just like these and says abraham believed God and it was accounted to Abram as righteousness Abram at that time wasn’t even called Abraham yet now that’s interesting that he refers to Genesis 22 as a completion or perfection of Abraham’s faith but then he refers to this statement from Genesis 15 this was not only earlier in the biblical record by seven or eight chapters but chronologically it was also a hearth Genesis 15 that statement occurred at least 20 years before Abraham had Abraham’s actions Genesis 22 and yet 20 years earlier God was able to report a Baberaham he is accounted righteous so we have on the one hand example of Abraham and then the other hand the example of Rahab and her hiding the spies in Joshua chapter 2 a ray of an interesting example not only because you represents an extreme as a harlot but she’s also not Jewish she’s a Gentile and yet she displays something similar to Abraham she displays a justifying work or what James describes as a justifying or completing work now notice it’s not Rahab’s lying or yeah it’s not her lying to protect her spies that is cited here as example a good work but it’s her receiving the messengers the spies from Israel and sending them out another way which would have been a very risky action for her in that city of Jericho now from these examples notice James conclusions in verse 24 verse 26 he says you see a person is justified by works and not by faith alone and as a body without a spirit is dead so also is faith without works now what do we do with this how do we interpret this especially in light of what we already know from Paul let’s ask a few questions in the example of Abraham was Abraham righteous before he offered up Isaac or only after it had to be before because that’s when God pronounced him righteous twenty years before eight chapters before abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness if he wasn’t fully righteous at that time then God’s declaration makes no sense because God doesn’t accept partial righteous righteousness if Abraham was not fully righteous then God could not have declared him to be so and yet if Abraham was fully righteous then in what sense could Abraham have become justified or have his faith completed in offering up his son Isaac what do you think if Abraham was already will already pronounced righteous fully righteous before God and what sense could his offering up of Isaac complete Abraham’s faith or justify Abraham’s can you say that again loudly yes I think that’s the way we have to see this this is about demonstrating giving evidence of the faith that has already been pronounced righteous already produced the accounting of righteousness that God announces his faith demonstrated or shown that he had real life within himself this is why I say James sounds like he contradicts Paul and other teachings in the New Testament but he actually doesn’t how do James’s teaching and Paul’s teaching about the relationship of works and faith fit together we can answer in this way true faith always produces good works as evidence of that faith true faith always produces good works as evidence of that faith in that sense that person is justified or completed or perfected James uses those terms a little bit differently than some of the other writers do another other section of the scripture but it’s about this demonstration of real life within someone it’s not that work save a person it’s faith that saves a person and that is wholly the gift of God holy the work of God but this work always produces a changed life and so if you claim faith without that change then James says you’ve got a problem because think about all the blessings that come to a person in salvation just some of them the Holy Spirit comes dwell inside him his mind is open to understand spiritual truth he is made to be in union in that with the death the burial the resurrection and exaltation of Christ these things make it so that a Christian will by simple cause and effect demonstrate evidence of faith in his life he will produce holy living and James is not the only one to lay out this truth and such strong terms consider Paul’s own words in Romans 6 verses 1 to 4 Romans 6 when the for Paul says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may increase may it never be how shall we who died to sin live in it or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father so we too might walk in newness of life there’s no contradiction between James and Paul Paul said the very same thing oh we could go to John in 1st John chapter 2 verses 3 to 6 John says 1st John 2 verses 3 to 6 by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his Commandments the one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word in him the love of God has truly been perfected hmmm same word same idea by this we know that we are in him the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked or consider the words of our Lord Jesus himself Matthew 12 verses 33 to 35 either make the tree good froot good I make the tree bad and it’s fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit you brood of vipers how can you being evil speak what is good but the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart the good man brings out of his good treasure what is good and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil this idea of trees and fruit isn’t is it gives us a helpful metaphor to understanding salvation and the relationship of faith and works it’s been said that the tree of set of salvation of this tree of salvation if we think of salvation or justification before God it’s like a tree faith in Jesus is the root and holy living is the fruit so if we apply this analogy to the two passages that we’ve looked at today from effusions and from James Paul clarifies that fruit are not what give the tree life it’s the root that does that’s why he says salvation is by faith but James clarifies that no how no matter how much you claim or a person claims that a tree has a good root if it doesn’t bear good fruit there’s no reason to believe so without the fruit there’s no reason to say that the root is present and all of these and they’re helpful principles for us today on the one hand when we consider these truths in the scriptures we are equipped against legalism works/righteousness trying to do things to earn God’s aver favor and salvation because we understand it is not what I do that saves me but it is what Jesus had done for me I am accepted by faith in the Sun so on one hand we are equipped to answer those kinds of temptations and objections and on the other hand we are equipped by these truths against licentiousness what’s sometimes called antinomianism no law anti law doesn’t matter what you do you don’t have to the commands of God that’s not important because we see if I truly believe in the Sun then I will pursue holiness if these realities are true I cannot tolerate sinful living in my life and this is key for us to understand because of the great confusion around these truths today we need to help people understand this even those who claim to be religious claim to be Christians they will have misunderstandings in these areas now we need to help them that’s part of our fulfilling the Great Commission but two other things I want to point out briefly by way of application before we close two questions for you to consider when it comes to assurance of salvation on when I say come speak of assurance I’m talking about that settled sense that you were at peace with God you know Jesus you will be spared from God’s wrath and you will be with the Lord forever in heaven what is the primary source or what ought to be the primary source of a believers assurance is it his belief in Jesus or is it his works of righteousness what ought to be the source of his assurance now may I submit you an answer that may be a little bit surprising it’s both your assurance ought to come from both your belief in Jesus and the works of righteousness that are produced in your life because if you only have one or the other if you only holds one or the other you’re going to find yourself in trouble if you make good deeds your only source of assurance then not only are you in danger slipping into works righteousness that idea of I need to keep doing good works to be saved to be acceptable to God but you will probably find yourself deeply discouraged whenever you sin because you will say to yourself oh how could i as a Christian have committed this sin oh I don’t even know if I’m saved every time you sin you will doubt your salvation and you’re probably struck to do a whole bunch of extra good works to make it up to God every time you’ve upset him now this right for us to grieve over sin and repentance does result in a change of life but you must never forget that it was not your righteousness that saved you or made you acceptable to God in the first place it was Christ we can consider the example of the thief on the cross when it came to his assurance of salvation did he point to his righteous works he said I know I’m going to heaven because look at the fruit in my life no you didn’t have anything to point to but he was confident he had a reason for confidence what was that reason the words of Jesus because jesus said I tell you today you will be with me in paradise I tell you that today you’ll be with me in paradise right it’s merely the words of Jesus and his belief in those words and belief in Jesus himself that he says I know that I belong to him I know that I’m saved so his assurance was based on the word of Jesus and his belief in Jesus but if anyone if any one of you makes his belief the only source of assurance you say oh I believe in it doesn’t matter anything else I know I believed if that’s the only source of your assurance then you also are in danger you’re in danger of slipping in a cheap grace and antinomianism doesn’t matter how I live Jesus will accept me you may find yourself inappropriately comforting yourself while you pierce yourself through with sins and pierce the church through with sins and many sorrows you may even believe yourself to be saved when you’re not forgetting that’s believed in Jesus will result in a change life and a commitment to love and holiness do not forget the haunting words of Jesus in Matthew 7 22 and 23 Jesus says many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in you name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and then I will declare them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness now in some way it might seem difficult to you unite these two ideas how come my shirts come to my from my works and at the same time come from belief apart from works I’m not exactly sure how to explain all of it but I know that they’re both true as they’re both related and important in the in the process of salvation that we’ve looked at today so they are important in our assurance it’s very interesting historically to see how depending on the climate of Christianity at a certain time one part of a Christians assurance will be emphasized over the other and today in today in our period in America we’re cheap grace is the predominant gospel the true church rightly stands up and says but you forgot that without fruit in your life if you live a life of wickedness you don’t have a right to assurance of salvation but in other periods this wasn’t the phenomena gospel in fact in the Reformation the truth about assurance that Calvin and Luther and others felt the need to proclaim was that don’t trust in your imperfect works your source assurance should be in the work of Jesus itself should be in your Lord so we need to be sensitive to both of those things of course in our culture area especially what we are you know still dealing with the idea of lordship do you really have to submit to Jesus we we err on that side of the assurance formula or at that side of assurance but it’s the other aspect we need to keep in mind – I have one other question but we don’t have time to explore today and that is do Christians have the right or responsibility to judge their fruit or salvation state of other people that takes some explanation there really the answer is yes with an asterisk we have to judge with the righteous judgment it cannot be hypocritical it cannot be a man-made standard that’s what Jesus was talking about when he said do not judge lest you be judged but to do the Christian life we have to make decisions we have to make conclusions we have to come to judgments not kind of Nations but conclusions on what is a person’s likely spiritual state how can I best speak to a minister to that person if we’re called to admonish a courage or buek how can we do that unless we pay attention to the evidence that is before us and even our apostles in our Lord they told us how to do that they told us what the fruit of the flesh looks like and what the fruit of the Spirit looks like we can never see into someone’s heart all we can do is say hey look this is what I see I’m concerned for you brother I’m concerned for you friend but can it be sweeping with our judgments and say you’re in sin so you obviously are not a Christian there may be misunderstandings about how sanctification works that we need to help that brother or sister understand but we do look at fruit as a way to help assess how we can better minister to a person now there’s a lot more we could say in the subject of faith works this is all the time we have for today in the end these truths are to help us not only be faithful to the scriptures but to glorify God this is also ludia glory for the glory of God alone next week we’ve returned to the New Testament epistles and we’re can consider a new theme another theme another very important theme and that is the idea of our being made children of God why is it important what does that mean let’s talk about that next week that’s praise be close our Lord and God we thank you that for this revelation of your truth that salvation is indeed all of you and it comes by faith and yet God we know that works are going to be a purpose and result in that Lord we struggle in this area we struggle to not forget one aspect or the other we can easily become legalist we can easily excuse Lord protect us from that and lord I pray that that we would give you the glory just as you deserve thank you Lord for performing this work for delivering us out of darkness from being children or wrath and even making us into your sons in Jesus name Amen all right thank you all I will see you next week

May 13, 2018