Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Who has wisdom? Where do you go to find wisdom? Well, from the dusty pages of ancient history, you can turn to the great philosophers of Greece, which, according to historians, was the golden age of wisdom. According to Socrates, Aristotle, Plato. Here is to be found great wisdom. And certainly, there were great truths that were studied and discovered by these men. It was said of Aristotle, for example, that he knew all there was to know about all there was. Now, that’s a wise person. But how many of us today have made decisions out of the wisdom of Greece? When was the last time that you opened the writings of Aristotle for wisdom? Or if we look several centuries later, we find that man entered what was referred to as the great age of reason.

It was during that age that faith was to be ushered out, and all of the superstition of Christianity was to be replaced by reason. And so France embraced that reason and said, we will be wise. Wisdom will rule. And in 1789, at the cathedral of Notre Dame, there was placed on the altar the goddess of wisdom. And what was the result of that great wisdom? Well, that reason became very unreasonable. And we find that it became frightening and terrifying as the guillotine began to consume its victims like some phantom, until the streets of Paris ran with blood. And the wisdom of the age of reason passed. And what about today? Where is wisdom to be found? Where do we turn? Shall we turn to education? Education, which we have as a nation, spent literally hundreds of billions of dollars to educate our children.

And the book is written, why Johnny can’t read. And then another book is written why Johnny still can’t read. And in our nation, we find that over a period of some 15 years, the standard achievement test, the SAT tests, continued to go down. Today in America, there are over 25 million Americans who are unable to read and write, unable to sign their name. We find that there are fewer and fewer students who are studying and dedicating their lives to the sciences, to mathematics. And we also find within this same school system, that is to be dispensing wisdom. Instead, there is a greater concern for the dispensing of contraceptives, as currently in our own county.

Mercer county will make the decision within the next month from a recommendation of a committee as to whether or not clinics will be set up in Mercer county, in our schools. And those clinics throughout the United States are now dispensing contraceptives to students. Is wisdom to be found in education? Is wisdom to be found in the legal system. The legal system, which, according to scripture, has a primary purpose of punishing the wicked and having the purpose of rewarding those who are good, is that what is happening in our legal system? Are we to turn to our political system to find wisdom? Shall we turn to our senators, to our president, as the source of wisdom? During a period between 1970 and 1976, indictments of public officials went up over 500%.

And during that six year period, it included a president who resigned, a vice president. Three cabinet members were indicted, three state governors were indicted, 34 state legislators were indicted, 20 judges were indicted, five state attorneys, 28 mayors, eleven district attorneys, to say nothing of what we face today as a nation as we try to find presidential nominees who are able to be viewed with the eyes that seek wisdom from those that we would entrust political power with. And so we find that of those who would stand forward to say, I am wise, what happens? We find an adulterer, we find a liar, and even more recently, as a Supreme Court justice, would come forward and have to withdraw his name because of the use of marijuana.

Is there a sense on the hearts of Americans that we are able to come to the political world to find wisdom? Is wisdom to be found in the medical profession, which recently, according to a study, found that 10% of physicians in America are disqualified, are malpracticing, are not suited for the field of medicine, to say nothing of the difficulty of a physician who would walk into one room to deliver a child, and that afternoon called upon to abort a child in another room. Do we turn to medicine for wisdom? James asks the question, who is wise? Who is understanding among you? And very clearly, he presents two worlds of wisdom. He presents first, what he refers to as earthly wisdom, sensual, demonic wisdom. But he also talks about heavenly wisdom. Now, how can we know the difference?

According to verse 13, we have one clue that will help us to understand the difference between godly heavenly wisdom and earthly demonic wisdom. He says, let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Godly wisdom, according to James, shows itself primarily in good conduct. Heavenly wisdom is not related to the number of degrees that we have to our grade point average. It’s not related to the number of languages that we’re able to speak, although those are very valuable and wonderful as a person would learn those skills. But godly wisdom, that wisdom that comes from above, is related primarily not to what we know, but to what we do. It shows itself in good conduct. John Newton said, a man may be able to call a broom by 20 names in Latin, Spanish, Dutch and Greek.

But my wife, who knows only one name for a broom but also knows how to use it, is not far behind him. We are caught and captivated so often by simply information that we never intend to use. But according to scripture, godly wisdom will be shown by good conduct. Now, how can we begin to understand the difference? Are we looking at godly wisdom or earthly wisdom? Well, when Timothy Leary encouraged a generation to tune in and to turn on to drugs, what mechanism did we use to understand his recommendation? That was earthly wisdom. It was sensual wisdom. It was demonic wisdom. Why simply look at the conduct that it was encouraging? When Hugh Hefner and Bob Gaccione present their slick colored magazines and they present a playboy way of life, is this earthly wisdom godly wisdom?

How do we discern very simple standard, what type of conduct does it produce? Is it good conduct or is it evil? And clearly it would be a demonic evil, earthly sensual wisdom that would be proposed by those we know as christians. What is godly wisdom and what is earthly wisdom? And the primary way that we know it is by the conduct that is produced as a result of that wisdom, because godly wisdom always produces good conduct. Now, what is the difference between this earthly wisdom and godly wisdom? Well, first, James records for us some qualities of demonic wisdom. We read in verses 14 through 16. But if you have bitter envy and self seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but rather is earthly, sensual, demonic.

For where envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there. One of the clearest marks of earthly wisdom is that it produces envy. We’re told in Philippians two three let nothing be done through strife and vain glory, that envy is at the heart of a person who is motivated by earthly wisdom. Now, how can you recognize in your own heart envy? Well, I would suggest three very simple principles. Very often envious people are people who often ask curious questions about another person. When you ask questions about another person, are you asking out of encouragement, out of a desire for their edification? Or are you asking questions so that you might gain information that can be used against them?

You see, the envious heart is always gathering information for the purpose of being able to drop what they learn along the way against the person they are envious of. Envy in the heart can also be detected by criticism. Very often, people that we are envious of, we are most critical of, and we look for those contexts to be able to drop our criticism, listen to your own critique of another person and ask yourself, is my critique for their good? Or is it simply motivated out of my envy and wanting some way to be able to detract from this person? The third quality of envy has to do with a desire on our part of seeing them fail. And so if you look at another person, perhaps they are smarter, perhaps they are more successful, perhaps their family is doing better, perhaps it’s a boss.

Why do you ask questions about them? Why do you bring criticism against them? Why do you harbor in your heart a desire for them to fail? Could it be that you are basing your analysis of another person simply from earthly wisdom? Because one of the first things produced from earthly demonic wisdom is a spirit of envy. It has been said envy is the worst of sins. An old story is told of a group of demons who were trying to figure out a way to tempt and to cause the sin of a holy man. And so they tried. First, seduction. It didn’t work. They tried filling his mind with doubts. It didn’t work. They tried to bring before him the great fears of his own failure and his inadequacy. It didn’t work.

And finally Satan himself appeared and he said, I’d like to try one simple thing. Your methods are much too crude. Permit me this one strategy. And so Satan went to the holy man and he whispered in his ear, have you heard the news? Your brother has been made bishop. And over the face of that holy man was a cloud of envy, as the news penetrated his heart. Are you glad when you hear that a family member is doing very well? Are you glad when your boss gets that promotion? Or that the person who is competing against you gets that promotion? Or does a look of envy cloud your face? Know this, that is not from above. It is from below. It is based on earthly wisdom. Envy is a toxic waste.

It is a gas that is able to take the life out of anyone who would breathe in its noxious fumes. And these fumes have been inhaled by every merchant, by every lady, by every scholar, by every laborer. And envy seeps into every heart. It’s the foul breath of Satan himself. And envy, if undetected, will bring rottenness to your bones. Envy fills the air with its pungent odor. It is earthly wisdom, James tells us, secondly, that self seeking comes from earthly wisdom. Charles the Gaul said, we do not have friends. What we have are interests. That is earthly wisdom. How often are we motivated simply by self seeking? And to know this, that when we are motivated by self seeking, it is earthly wisdom. It is not from above. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to deceive ourselves on this point?

Do you ever notice that when another person is set in his ways, we call him obstinate? But when we’re set in our ways, we simply say that we’re firm. When we’re seeing another person who doesn’t like their neighbor, we say he’s prejudiced. But when we don’t like our neighbor, we are showing good judgment. When they treat others well, we say they’re politicking. When we treat other people well, we say that we’re being thoughtful. When they take a great deal of time to accomplish a task, we say they’re lazy. But when we take a great deal of time, we say that we’re deliberate and careful. When they take time to dress well, we say they’re extravagant. When we dress well, we say we’re tasteful. When they take risks in business, we say they’re foolhardy. But when we take risks, we’re wise, financial.

As each one of us looks at other people, we’re very quick to see the weakness and the self seeking in other people. But how often do we look at ourselves to see the same self seeking? And when we see it, to be able to call it earthly wisdom, demonic, that needs to be confessed, that needs to be brought to the father. What happens when earthly wisdom is at work? Well, we see first envy, then we see self seeking. But James tells us that it also produces confusion and all manner of evil. Now James changes the scene. And now it is a bright, fair, fragrant landscape that he presents.

It’s a landscape that talks about heavenly wisdom, he tells us, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Heavenly wisdom, quite different than earthly wisdom, he tells us first that heavenly wisdom is from above. It comes from the Father. He says, first of all, it is pure. It seems to avoid and excludes all that is false. It simply tells the truth. It is concerned with that which is right and holy. Secondly, he says, it is peaceable. Those who would be guided by heavenly wisdom are continually concerned with following a way of peace. They’re concerned with maintaining peace, with promoting peace.

Those who are guided from above with heavenly wisdom, we are told, are gentle, that they deal mildly with broken hearts, that they deal softly, that they are gentle. We’re told that heavenly wisdom is willing to yield. It is not determined to have its way all of the time. It is willing to yield also that heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. It can be seen for every curse it returns a blessing. For every insult it returns a smile that is from above, that is not from the earth. He tells us that heavenly wisdom functions without partiality. It does not look to people as being more valuable than another. It does not look upon the rich man more favorably than the poor man. It does not look upon the educated man more favorably than those who are not educated. That comes from above.

It is godly. It is a heavenly wisdom. We’re told, too, that this heavenly wisdom is able to work without hypocrisy. It simply is very open. It is crystal clear. There is no hidden motive, simply the desire to present truth, that these are the qualities of godly wisdom. When we look at Jesus Christ, we see, unlike anyone else who has walked upon the face of this earth, one who was able and was functioning always through godly wisdom. For he was the son of God. And in Jesus Christ, we find one who was pure. We find one who was peaceable, gentle, willing to yield to the will of the Father, who was full of mercy, full of good fruits, who ministered without partiality, without hypocrisy.

And the only way a person begins to live in the sphere of godly wisdom is to first give their life to Jesus Christ. Because godly wisdom comes only through Christ. It is through Jesus Christ alone that the gift of grace is extended. And those who would bear his name are called upon to be peaceable and pure and gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, full of good fruits, that they would minister without partiality and without hypocrisy. There is a difference between wisdom. There is a wisdom that is earthly, sensual, demonic, but it is wisdom, earthly. There is another wisdom. It comes from above, and it’s pure and it’s peaceable. And it comes from the Father through the Son. To all of those who would trust in him. Know the difference, discern the difference. For there is a difference. Let us pray.

Our God and our Father, we come before you as men and women who are asking the question, where is wisdom? Where is it to be found? Father, help us to see that wisdom is seen in good conduct. And that wisdom, that which comes from above, will bring peace and will be gentle. It is pure, it is willing to yield. It is concerned with mercy and good fruits. It ministers without partiality or hypocrisy. Father, we pray that as Christians, you would help us to function in the world of godly wisdom. And, Father, that if there be any here who do not know the source of that wisdom, that even in this hour they would put their trust in Jesus Christ alone, that they would know Jesus who was full of godly wisdom, because he is the son of God.

And we give you thanks in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.