James 1:5-8 - The Way to Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction:
James started off his letter with encouraging the dispersed Jewish believers to see trials as a blessing from the Lord. He admonished them to seek joy even in the midst of trials.
And now, he is going to urge them to seek wisdom in the midst of these trials. In order to face the difficult decisions that come to us day after day, we must seek wisdom from the Lord in order to make these decisions in a godly way.
There is only one way to wisdom - and that way is not by following those in the world.
Lee Atwater found this out the hard way.
He was the campaign manager for the late George H.W. Bush in 1988. By the world’s standards, Atwater was an extreme success. Yet, he quickly found out the lack of wisdom that he had shown in his life when he was diagnosed with cancer of the brain. He began to reflect on his life and realized that he had bought into the wisdom of the world. He said the following:
“The 80’s were about acquiring—acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with my friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the 90’s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.”
The way to wisdom doesn’t come from following the way of the world. Instead, it comes from following the Way Himself - namely Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
Let’s dive into our verses for today…
Read Full Scripture:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Prayer
Today we are going to see three important questions we need to answer when seeking wisdom. The first is…
I. When Seeking Wisdom, When Do You Ask? (5a)
I. When Seeking Wisdom, When Do You Ask? (5a)
If any of you lacks wisdom…
This is what is called a conditional clause or conditional statement. If any of you lacks wisdom.
It is almost a tongue in cheek kind of comment here. IF any of you lack wisdom. Could we ever assume there is a time where we don’t lack some form of wisdom? Well, of course not! We all could use more wisdom!
The author is obviously assuming that all who read this lack wisdom.
So… when should we ask for wisdom?
The easy answer to this question is - at all times!
When do we ask for wisdom? Every minute of every day.
But with that said, there is something we need to nail down.
What exactly is wisdom? We use this word a lot, but I’m afraid that our modern understanding of wisdom has been thrown off by the world.
Many people seem to believe that wisdom just means having a high intelligence or being really smart. Is that really the correct definition of wisdom, though?
If that is the case, how come some of the smartest people in the world believe obvious lies and contradictions such as evolution and theories of relative truth? Why do they believe that an explosion created order, nothingness became something, and that two truths can clearly contradict but both be true?
It is because wisdom and intelligence are not the same.
In order to understand wisdom, there are at least three key parts in its definition.
The first is to understand where wisdom begins - or originates from…
Proverbs 9:10 states:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…
1 - Wisdom begins with the Lord - namely fearing the Lord. This speaks of a reverential fear and respect and submission to His authority. (Proverbs 9:10)
A wise man or woman’s worldview starts with God as supreme. He or she understands that in the beginning there was God. A wise person understands that God is eternal and that all wisdom flows from Him.
Many of the intellectual elites in our world refuse to concede this truth. Because they refuse to even ponder the idea of a sovereign Creator, they become fools. Listen to Paul teach this in Romans 1:25…
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
They have decided to worship man and his ideas instead of God. They have exchanged the obvious truth of God for a lie. Creation screams that there is a Creator as Romans 1:20 asserts so strongly.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
God has made it clear that He exists. His creation proves His existence. Those who refuse to acknowledge God are without excuse. They must intentionally deny the obvious - and by such they have becomes fools.
Not so for the wise person of God. The wise man or woman acknowledges the sovereignty of his or her Creator. They humble themselves before Him and are given wisdom from above. Even those who are more simple can be incredibly wise through the Scripture and power of God.
Next, we see that…
2 - Wisdom also involves gaining knowledge of God’s Word (Proverbs 1:7).
Proverbs 1:7 states:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Solomon, the writer of much of the book of Proverbs, has in mind a particular kind of knowledge that leads one to wisdom, however. It is Biblical knowledge with reverence unto the Lord that leads to wisdom. One gains this type of wisdom by regularly reading and studying the Word of God, learning the truth of the Scriptures under the Biblical teachings of pastors and church leaders, and being sharpened by other believers in one’s life (Proverbs 27:17).
This all requires effort. One must make the Word of God a priority in his or her life.
And finally…
3 - Wisdom is found in those who rightly apply the truth of God’s Word. (Matthew 7:24)
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
We not only attain right knowledge from God, we must rightly apply it. The wise man mentioned in Matthew 7 is the one who takes the wisdom of God and applies the truth of that wisdom. In this account, the wise man takes his knowledge of building a foundation from the wisdom of God and builds his house upon the solid rock. The metaphor is clear here. He builds his life upon Christ. And when the floods come and the rains fall, the house stands through the trials that come.
Yet the foolish man we are told builds his foundation on the sand and great was its fall.
The difference between the foolish man and the wise man wasn’t on how to build a foundation. I am sure that they both knew how to build it. They had both probably intellectually learned how the foundation of a house was done. However, the wisdom came in the application - namely where to build it.
Those in our world build foundations all of the time - on worldly philosophies, political ideologies, false religions, and even on their own works. Yet, all of these fail when the floods of trials come into their lives. Only those who build their lives upon Christ can withstand the floods of this life that come.
This group of dispersed Jewish converts that James writes to would have understood the floods and rains that were hitting their own lives. James knew that if they were going to stand the test of these trials, they needed to have wisdom. They needed to be turning to Christ in the middle of their trials and asking Him to lead them and guide them.
Another good illustration of the need to rightly apply truth can be found in gardening.
Someone might have knowledge of exactly how to plant a tomato plant. They might know the right kind of soil to use. They might have the perfect tomato stakes picked out to help support the growing plant. They might have the right kind of fertilizer picked out that will produce the most robust of plants. They might have measured out the perfect amount of water needed to keep the plant healthy.
However, if that person doesn’t have the wisdom of how to apply all of this truth correctly - for instance if they should plant these tomato plants in the wrong season - all of their knowledge will prove useless. This lack of wisdom will lead to a failure of their crop.
Perhaps an all-encompassing definition of wisdom would be this:
Wisdom is the God-given ability to understand truth, apply it correctly, and live in a way that honors God.
In short, it isn’t just about knowing the right thing - it is more than that. It is knowing the right thing to do and knowing the right time in which to do it - all the while honoring and revering God.
Our definition of wisdom has alluded to the answer to our second point, but getting more direct, when seeking wisdom…
Scripture References: John 14:6, Proverbs 9:10, Romans 1:25, Romans 1:20, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 27:17, Matthew 7:24
II. When Seeking Wisdom, Who Do You Ask? (5b,c)
II. When Seeking Wisdom, Who Do You Ask? (5b,c)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
As we saw in our first point - all of us lack wisdom. So, what should we do with this knowledge that we all lack wisdom.
James tells us to ask God. That seems simple enough. But isn’t God amazingly big and holy? Can we really ask Him and expect Him to answer our humble prayer for wisdom?
Actually, James says yes. We are told that God gives generously without reproach.
Let’s take a moment to address these two important things mentioned about God’s character here...
When We Ask for Wisdom…
1 - God Gives Generously
God is not miserly. He gives wisdom without hesitation and without reservation. The literal here is that we can ask the constantly giving God. This giving is unconditional and given with a singleness of heart.
God has enough wisdom to pour out upon everyone for all eternity. His gift of wisdom is limitless - just like He is.
And next we are told that when we ask for wisdom…
2 - God Gives Graciously
We are told that He gives wisdom to all believers who ask without reproach. This means that He gives regardless of our past failures. He gives regardless of whether we deserve it or not - as frankly - none of us deserve anything but death!
Have you ever asked someone for something, and they gave it to you reluctantly? They acted like you just asked them to give you one of their eyes and you only asked for a drink of water?
God never treats us this way. He gives graciously. Grace is unmerited favor. It is getting what you do not deserve. You don’t deserve wisdom, but God desires to graciously and generously give it to those who ask for it.
He gives without reprimand and without insult. He gives without shame and reproach. He desires to pour out wisdom upon believers.
Interestingly this is one of the few direct promises in the Scriptures for a guaranteed answered prayer. Our church is far from being a name-it-and-claim-it prosperity false gospel church. We believe that God answers all prayers according to His will and not ours.
We believe that our job as a praying people is to align our hearts to the will of God and not God’s heart to will of man.
But this is a prayer that you can take to the bank. This is a guaranteed prayer that James says will always be given a yes. If you lack wisdom and ask God for it in faith (as we will expound upon further in our next point) - it will be answered. This is a situation where we always know the will of God 100%. His will is that all believers are filled with wisdom. Thus, He will always answer this prayer with a yes!
Have you been asking God for wisdom?
Church, we have been given a blank check from God here. He will pour out His wisdom upon us. All we need to do is ask! He will pour out wisdom through His Holy Spirit, His Word, and His people. He will guide you and direct you throughout your life’s decisions.
Proverbs 2:6 tells us…
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
All wisdom comes from God.
However, before moving to our final point, there is one further explanation of wisdom that is necessary for us to understand in order to gain wisdom. We need to understand a little more thoroughly the source of wisdom. We are told in the Scriptures that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). In Christ are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).
If you want to have wisdom, you must start at the source of all wisdom - namely Jesus Christ.
The first step in gaining wisdom is coming to Christ for salvation. Those who are not believers will never find wisdom. Only those who repent of their sins and place their faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation - trusting in His finished work on the cross for salvation - can ever find wisdom.
Be sure that you have done that, friends. If not, I’d love to talk with you after the service about how to be a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ.
Maybe you find yourself making the wrong decision all of the time. Maybe you seem to have trouble making any kinds of wise decisions. If that is the case, maybe the biggest problem in your life isn’t a knowledge problem - it may very well be a wisdom problem. And the first step to correcting this problem is to come in faith and repentance to Jesus Christ.
It is interesting that the Holy Spirit is only possibly mentioned once in this great book (James 4:5). The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to understand the Word of God through illumination. He guides and directs us and imparts wisdom. It appears that James sees wisdom akin to the Holy Spirit. When one is exuding wisdom, he is being led by the Holy Spirit.
Only those who are saved believers are filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus true wisdom is only available to those who are followers of Jesus.
So far we have answered two really important questions - when seeking wisdom - when do we ask and who do we ask…but now we come to our final question to answer…
Scripture References: Proverbs 2:6, 1 Corinthians 1:24, Colossians 2:3, James 4:5
III. When Seeking Wisdom, in What Way Do You Ask? (6-8)
III. When Seeking Wisdom, in What Way Do You Ask? (6-8)
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
There is a caveat to our asking for wisdom from God, however. God tells us the way in which we must ask Him for the blessing of wisdom. We must ask in faith. The opposite of faith is also listed here - namely doubt.
You should not assume that you will receive anything if you doubt - much less wisdom.
God does not answer the prayer of the doubting person. He does not reward doubt with blessing.
As Warren Wiersbe once stated:
“The greatest enemy to answered prayer is unbelief.”
Warren Wiersbe
Those who doubt are like a wave of the sea - driven and tossed by the wind. They have no anchor in Christ (Hebrews 6:19). They are not looking at the lighthouse of Christ and staying focused on Him.
Instead, they doubt the sovereignty and goodness of God.
The Greek word translated doubt here means to dispute with oneself - to waver. Doubt is a conflict in loyalties which we will discuss further in verse 8.
Consider Hebrews 10:23:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
We are to hold fast to the Gospel - namely Christ and His Word - without wavering.
Where is our faith to be placed when we ask God for wisdom - or anything else for that matter?
Our faith is placed in God through Jesus Christ. Our faith is placed in His goodness, love, mercy, and grace. Our faith is placed in His omnipotence - His all-powerful ability to answer any prayer according to His will.
As we also discussed in Hebrews, our faith is no blind faith. It is a faith that is clearly placed on a firm foundation. Hebrews 11:1 tells us…
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Our faith is a sure faith. Despite not being able to see the Lord with our eyes, we see everything that He has created, we see His Word that is inerrant and life-changing, we see His working in us and through us as well as others. Though we cannot see the wind - no one doubts its existence because they see the effects of it. In a similar way, no one can doubt the reality of God because of the obvious workings that He has done and continues doing.
James takes the understanding of the wind to illustrate something else. Although we can use the wind as an analogy of the workings of the Lord, we can also see the winds of false doctrines at work in our world as well. We can see the rotten fruit provided through the work of Satan and his demons. We can see the false teachings and evil that move across our world.
One of those ways that we see the effects of the wind is given by James here. A doubting man is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. The waves result from the wind’s effect on the water. When the wind blows across the surface of the water, it creates friction energy which leads to the waves. The stronger the wind, the stronger the waves.
I can think of nothing more terrifying than being out in an ocean with large waves such as are in the picture we have here. Being tossed back and forth and driven deep into the sea is one of the most frightening things I could imagine.
Yet, so many in our world live their lives like this.
They are tossed back and forth by any new doctrine or philosophy.
This isn’t the will of the Lord. He doesn’t want us to be men and women of doubt. Though we are sure to have our struggles from time to time, He calls us to be mature and not carried away by the wind and waves. Instead, may we be like Ephesians 4:14 charges us…
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Instead of being deceived by human cunning and craftiness - instead of being deceived by the enemy of our souls - may we be faithful and mature.
God wants to continually be increasing in our faith, Church.
He rewards the humble prayer for faith as well. In Mark 9:14-29, we see a man with a son who is demon possessed. The disciples are unable to cast the demon out. When Jesus returns, He starts to converse with the father of this son. Listen to this interchange…
And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Jesus honors our humble cry of prayer. I want to make sure that you don’t think God requires perfection to answer prayers. Here we see Jesus answer the humble prayer of this father. I believe - help my unbelief!
The Scriptures remind us that God knows that we are but dust (Psalm 103:14). He understands our weakness. And He offers grace to those who humble themselves before Him in faith - even weak faith.
Moving to our final two verses, James expounds further upon this concept…
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Many men and women have missed out on blessings because of their doubts. They have not seen the amazing workings of God because of their lack of faith.
Note very clearly that wisdom and faith are not opposites here.
Faith and doubt are squared off as opposite.
However, faith and wisdom run hand in hand. It is wise to place your faith and trust in God. He never fails and never will. He will always come through.
Those who ask the Lord yet doubt His ability and/or love and grace to come through are double-minded. They are unstable in all their ways.
The Greek word for double-minded used here literally means two-souled. It speaks of one who has a heart that is divided between the world and the Lord. This man is unstable in all he does. He is not reliable. He wavers like one tossed to and fro by the waves of the sea as we discussed already.
Friends, we either trust God or we don’t. There is no middle ground in the Christian life.
Do you trust Jesus Christ? Do you trust Him with your life? Your finances? Your marriage? Your children?
The Bible is replete with warnings to those who are double-minded. Consider Elijah when he is addressing the people of Israel…
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of the Lord, rebukes the people in Isaiah 29:13:
And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…
And even Jesus tells us 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 the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
True wisdom is faithfully trusting in God for everything.
It is foolish to trust in the things of this world.
Unfortunately, many believers are limited more by their lack of faith than their lack of finances - by their doubt more than their deficits.
(read twice)
I love reading the autobiography of George Müller. If you haven’t read it before, I would highly suggest you reading it.
Müller was born in Germany in 1805. He lived a worldly and rebellious life as a child, yet was dramatically converted at a Christian prayer meeting.
He ended up moving to Bristol, England where he set up orphanages and ended up caring for thousands of orphans.
The amazing part of it all was that he never asked anyone for anything. He refused to accept a fixed salary and chose to depend on unsolicited gifts.
The highlight of his autobiography comes from his prayer journals where countless answers to prayers were recorded. There were many times that the work he was doing seemed like it was not going to make it financially - when seemingly out of the blue the Lord would provide.
I’m not saying that Müller provides us a prescription for our life. This was a call that he had. However, his faith for God to provide is a great example to us.
Where is your faith brothers and sisters?
The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 20:7:
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Maybe a modern application of this would be understood like this: some trust in governments and some in bank and retirement accounts - but we trust in the Lord God.
Friends, may we place our faith and trust in Christ alone - who never fails and never will.
May we approach the Lord with faith and not doubt. May we ask with confidence in Who He is. And then we can know that He will answer our humble prayer for wisdom.
Scripture References: Hebrews 6:19, Hebrews 10:23, Hebrews 11:1, Ephesians 4:14, Mark 9:14-29, Psalm 103:14, 1 Kings 18:21, Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 6:24, Psalm 20:7
Conclusion:
As we come to a close we have answered three really important questions in regard to wisdom.
When do we ask for wisdom? Constantly!
Who do we ask for wisdom? The Lord alone!
In what way to we ask for wisdom? In faith and not with doubt.
If we want to grow in wisdom, we need to be sure that we are going to the source of all wisdom - namely Jesus Christ.
I pray that each person here makes it a priority to go to the Lord in prayer for wisdom.
May CrossPointe be a church marked by a family of wise believers - believers who know their source of wisdom is Christ alone - believers who make the Word of God and following the commands of Christ their number one priority - and believers who place their unwavering faith in the King of kings and Lord of lords.
