Faith And Wisdom

Faith And Wisdom

James 1:5-8

Main Idea: Faith is a single-minded desire to seek what we need from God alone who loves to give generously to His children.

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5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 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. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Pray

Intro: What is God’s greatest desire for you?

Psalm 23 - Provision -, His protection, his transcendent peace, his abiding presence, His grace, Our joy, our rest, our blessing, and resolute trust

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.

What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it–the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands; I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me.

–J.I. Packer, Knowing God

God desires us to know him, trust Him and enjoy him.

What is our greatest need and our greatest barrier to knowing, trusting, and enjoying Christ?

James says it's divine wisdom. There are several types of wisdom but this morning James' desire is that we desire divine wisdom

If you ask any Jewish person or any follower of Christ the first step to gaining God’s wisdom what would they say?

Job 28:28

Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

Faith and Wisdom

Faith is a single-minded desire to seek wisdom (what we need) from God alone who loves to give generously to His children.

Our Greatest Need in Times of Trial is Divine Wisdom - V.5

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

The need: divine wisdom - “If you lack”

This verse begins by assuming that people lack wisdom.

Divine Wisdom is required because

We are bombarded with trials, temptations, and even oppression by the wealthy.

We who believe do not always know how to persevere. We feel like:

we can't take this

we don't know what to do

We who believe can not muster up the will to be joyful in something God promises in the future while our suffering is in the present.

Divine Wisdom is essential to endure the testing of faith.

Jesus himself endured his sufferings thru this divine wisdom.

1 Cor 1:24 …Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

What is divine wisdom and can anyone receive it?

What Divine wisdom is not:

Jewish Christians should understand wisdom.

To James and to Jews, wisdom was much more than knowledge and intelligence.

Our own earthly wisdom grows through three different factors: knowledge, perspective, and experience.

Our limitations in all three of these areas lead to limited wisdom.

When we walk through trials, we realize we don’t know all that is going on (limited knowledge); we don’t see our situation from every angle (limited perspective); we oftentimes lack experience in what to do (limited experience).

We make decisions based on our knowledge, our perspectives, and our experience.

Earthly (human) wisdom is the natural ability to use my knowledge, my perspective, and my experiences so that I might embrace prosperity and avoid suffering no matter the cost. (to make choices that benefit me and others)

Pros & cons list of making decisions

James 3 - will look at this deeper

God, on the other hand, possesses all knowledge, He has an eternal perspective, and in Christ, He has experienced every kind of test and has prevailed.

Divine wisdom is the supernatural gift of the Spirit that imparts God’s divine knowledge, His divine perspective, and His divine experience to our hearts and minds so we may know Him, trust him, and enjoy him in our everyday lives no matter our circumstances.

This wisdom is only available to the redeemed

How do we get this wisdom? V.5 “let him ask God,”

Divine wisdom is not automatic in the Christian life.

We must ask God for it.

“ This is the God of the universe saying, “I will impart My wisdom to you.” But it’s not automatic. You must ask for it. And God doesn’t give us the easy answer. When we are in a trial, we just want our circumstances fixed. But God says, ‘Draw near to Me, and ask Me to help you understand why this is happening and to give you perspective on what you are going through and to walk alongside you as the One who possesses all knowledge, eternal perspective, and perfect experience.’”

Four realities as we seek divine wisdom.

God is a giving God delighting in giving good things to his children

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

God gives generously to all without favoritism

No favorite kids & no neglected ones

We are all dead in sin and all saved by faith and all children thru adoption - Acts 15:8-11 - speaking of the salvation of Gentiles

8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

God gave without finding fault. - shaming or patronizing

God does not give in such a way as to humiliate us.

Ex: Helping those in need without patronizing them.

God's twofold promise - v.5b - and it will be given him.

To answer those who ask for Wisdom in authentic faith

A request according to his will receives his answer (1 John 5:14–15).

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

To reject those who ask for wisdom without authentic faith - v.7

Our Greatest Need in Times of Trial is Divine Wisdom but our:

Our Greatest Barrier In Times of Trial Is Sinful Doubt - vv 6-8

6 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.

The barrier of inauthentic faith - v.6

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,

Authentic faith then is an unwavering, single-minded trust in God’s person, character and promises to do what He says he will do

For James, the power of prayer is asking God with no doubt.

Not all doubt is sinful. Doubt our doubt - doubt some desires - false teachers

What then is SINFUL doubt? It is a defect in our character through a weak faith that questions the character of God and the reliability of His promises.

Doubt in the garden

Sinful Doubt is everyone's struggle

The truth is we all struggle with doubt to varying degrees.

One guy wrote that “doubt is often the birth pain of true faith.”

God uses doubt to deepen our faith or to reveal its defect

Sinful Doubting is about God’s character

This doubting is not about the existence of God but about what kind of God we serve.

God is the source of faith and His promises are the subject of faith

Doubting can doubt the source or the subject

Isaiah 40:28

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Faith is always a matter of personal trust in God,

To doubt God in any way is to call his character or promises into question.

To doubt his promises is to doubt his character

Doubting reflects our character - v.6b

for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Sinful Doubt then is an act of distrust when action is called for by the loving God

My life is not always consistent. I am faithful today but spiritually lazy next week.

I am up today and down tomorrow.

My circumstances impact my peace, my joy, my obedient action to God's revealed truth.

Last week: I trust without entrusting = inauthentic faith

The barrier of the doublemindedness - v.7-8

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Doublemindedness reveals divided minds and affections - v.8

God is not here to give you a second opinion on your life

God is not about rubber stamping things you already decided.

Praying when we already know what we want.

1 Kings 18:20-21

So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word.

Later James will deal with our love for God and our love for the world.

These are people who are unwilling to let go of the world and truly follow Christ, torn between sin and obedience, reluctant to let go of the pleasures of the world for the sake of discipleship.

We sometimes still see trials has an interruption to God’s best plan for my life.

We sometimes still believe ease and comfort produce maturity.

A double-minded person is a “soul divided between faith and the world.”

This description hits close to home in an age of nominal Christians who attend church from time to time, perhaps even regularly, but who refuse to let God interfere with their daily lives and goals.

Doublemindedness leads to instability

8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Radical amputation is the only way to deal with sin

Two reasons amputate/reject doubt?

Doubting makes us spiritually unstable (root-fruit)

Re: Unstable treestand is dangerous

The fruit of doubt looks like being indecisive, fickle & unreliable.

Such people may not be willfully rebellious, but they are often unwilling to commit to anything and thus prove unreliable. One cannot necessarily depend on them.

The doubting man is is like a small boat in the storm-tossed sea.

God, on the other hand, acts with unwavering generosity. He does not offer a gift only to pull it back a moment later.

He does not renege on his promises

He does love you today and is apathetic about you tomorrow

Doubting leads to rejected prayers - v.7

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Prayer without faith is like faith without works; it is useless.

Faith receives precisely because it trusts.

Doubt, which is also idirected toward God, is totally rejected by him.

Faith alone opens the door to God’s limitless treasury of wisdom.

Unbelief receives God’s rejection slip which reads, “Request denied due to insufficient faith.”

Matt 9:20-22 (Save your place)

20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

Go to Jesus’ life and watch his healings and see the common connection: faith.

So What?

Do we desire what God desires? Or Do I desire a God who desires what I desire?

1 Cor. 1:20-25;30-31 - Seek to know Christ and he will give you wisdom because He will give you Himself.

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The secret of being wise is not to seek wisdom as an end in itself but seek wisdom in order to know Christ, to trust Him, and to enjoy Him

To receive answers from God, you must come to him with the conviction that he gives rewards to those who diligently seek him

Heb. 11:6

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Do we understand the danger of doubt and the power of authentic faith?

Matthew 9:27-30

27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

If God answered my prayer according to my faith what would change?

Ex: We would like to update our worship space. It's expensive and would increase our expenses to keep it up.

What would it look like if we prayed for God’s mind, his perspective, his provision?

Is this not where God has put us?

Did not Paul go to the center of a city and there begin the work?

Will not God provide for us as we advance His kingdom?

“First, we must recognize how much we lack knowledge of God. We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us.” - Knowing God - J.I. Packer

Now What?

How have you struggled with doubt? How can we help those who struggle with doubt?

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-ways-to-deal-with-doubt/

Why is there such a close connection between faith, wisdom, and prayer? Discuss the heart and essence of prayer.

Read Mark 9:23. What does this story reveal about faith or our need for faith?

Read Job 28:12-28. According to this passage where is wisdom not found and where is it found? Why is it found there?

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