In today’s edition, Pastor Jack Hibbs invites listeners to explore the Book of James and understand the difference between having knowledge and possessing wisdom. As life presents difficult and trying situations, Pastor Jack emphasizes how wisdom acts as the guiding force to apply our knowledge meaningfully. Reflect on the early Christians’ experiences to see how steadfast faith and a clear, godly lifestyle can shine light in the darkest of times. Tune in to gather insights that can transform how you live, lead, and interact in your daily walk with Christ.
If you can relate with the early Christian, if your life is difficult, if your life’s a struggle, if there’s things in life that you don’t have all the answers for, you’re learning what is going on, the answer is not necessarily knowledge or more knowledge. What we need is the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called The Book of James and a message titled, Who Has Wisdom? Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Jesus Christ. And as new believers, James shares with them that you can have knowledge, but knowledge in itself is not wisdom. You see, knowledge is having specific information, and wisdom, well, that’s the practical application of that knowledge and making it really count. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that trying and difficult times reveal to us our spiritual integrity. Those who do good in times of trouble have wisdom, and their works are done in humbleness, knowing who they are in Christ. Now, with his message called, Who Has Wisdom?, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
James 3.13 this morning, down to verse 18. James 3.13-18, James says, “‘Who is wise in understanding among you? “‘Let him show by good conduct “‘that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. “‘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 is earthly, sensual, and demonic.'” Verse 2. Verse 3. The title of the message is, Who Has Wisdom? That’s with a question mark on the end. Who has wisdom? It’s been said that we live in an age where, and in fact, they tell us that knowledge is increasing every 18 months. We double knowledge. We double the acquired knowledge now every 18 months in the world. But listen, knowledge is not wisdom. Knowledge is the acquisition of information, but wisdom is the very tool by which we use that knowledge. You can have all the knowledge in the world and be absolutely void of wisdom. Now, the Bible tells us rarely, I’m not saying… It doesn’t say, but rarely does it encourage us to seek after knowledge. What it does demand of the Christian, though, that we what? Seek after wisdom, that we search after it diligently, because wisdom will save your life. Wisdom will keep you on the straight and narrow path. And James, of course, is writing to an audience that in his day was living in very difficult times. Their world was, so to speak, coming to part after they had given their lives to Christ. They had been expelled from their homes, expelled from their nation. As these Jews came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, they were greatly mistaken. And even among their own countrymen, they were persecuted and they were cast away. That’s why James says, I’m writing this in chapter 1, to the diaspora, those of the dispersion, because they were seeking shelter for their own life, becoming Christians, because the view of Judaism, and in fact the worldview, was that these people who call themselves Christians had forsaken all knowledge. They had given up on what was reasonable and logical and smart, and they went after this Christ, this itinerant preacher that came out of Galilee, this one who didn’t make his abode in palaces, and he didn’t rule and reign like the world was expecting the Messiah to reign. And so when Jesus came, not only was his ministry often mistaken, but his followers were mistaken. And the world began to persecute the Christian. Those that… drew near to Christ and received him as Lord and Savior. And because of that, their life was very difficult. And knowledge wouldn’t have helped all that much, but wisdom from God would have given you, if you were being persecuted and living that age, it would have given you a great insight into what was going on. Wisdom that comes from above. Now the knowledge is, hey, they’re throwing stones at us. Knowledge says, these stones hurt when they hit us. Knowledge says I need to run. Wisdom says and wisdom teaches how to deal with the situation God’s way. Listen, every one of us, every moment of the day are faced with decisions. Someone has said that we make over 250 decisions a day. Now, when I first heard that number, I thought, well, that can’t be true. But you start to think about what you’re going to wear, what you’re going to eat, should I take another bite, whatever it might be, and you make these decisions. Some of them are not so important. Some of them we can live without. Some of them are absolutely going to save our lives. And I’m convinced that a lot of our decisions that we make in this life are very much led by God that we may not even understand it or know it. But wisdom, wisdom allows us, and this is the wisdom that is from above, the wisdom we’re going to be looking at this morning, this wisdom allows, allows us to appropriate knowledge and to make decisions and to make choices that will be honorable to not only God, but to those of us in the body of Christ and even to our very, very own being, our very own person. And we’ll see that this morning. So if you can relate with the early Christian, if your life is difficult, if your life’s a struggle, If there’s things in life that you don’t have all the answers for, you’re wondering what is going on. The answer is not necessarily knowledge or more knowledge. What we need is the wisdom of God. And of course, James told us about that earlier on in this great book of his, that God gives wisdom liberally to any of those who will ask. So we need to remember that. We’re going to see three points of the message this morning. That’s in verse 13. Who has wisdom? Well, in verse 13, we’ll see those who have a good conduct. So you can jot that down in your notes. Verse 13, those who have a good conduct have wisdom. Wisdom from above. And then the second point is in verses 14 to 16, and that is, who has wisdom? Those who recognize the conflict. This is rather surprising, but we’ll see this morning that there’s a great conflict amongst those and internally within those who have wisdom. You would think maybe it’s the opposite, but it’s not true. There’s a conduct, there’s a conflict, and then in verses 17 through 18, who has wisdom? Those who have a godly character. Those who have a godly character. And so let’s look at the first point this morning found in verse 13. Who has wisdom? And that is those who have a good conduct. He says, verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Remember, James is talking to us about the Christian life publicly. Remember this. It’s been that way all the way through. Remember, he’s talking to us about faith. How do you know if you have faith? Well, people will know by our living, by how we conduct ourselves. Remember, he says, what faith, what kind of faith is a prophet to anybody? If you see your brother and sister hungry or without clothing adequate for the weather, and you say to them, well, that’s… Tough. Be warm and be filled. God bless you. And you turn and walk away not blessing them at all. James says, that’s not faith. Because real Christian faith tangibly, publicly is exhibited. And so James is saying this morning, real godly wisdom is tangible. People will be able to see it. People will be able to know it. Because James is talking about the public Christian faith. Life and how they live. So we’ll have a good conduct. Those who have wisdom from God have a godly reputation. A godly reputation. It doesn’t mean that reputation is going to be under attack. In fact, if you have a godly reputation, what’s going to happen? Listen, not only will demons and devils try to attack that reputation, but sometimes even Christians… will attack another Christian’s reputation. We’ll talk about that more later. But the thing is, we are to have a good conduct, a godly reputation. James is asking another question again, as he always does in his book. Who is wise and understanding among you? It demands an answer. And his answer he gives. He says, let him show by good conduct. This word good conduct, some of your Bibles say conversation. Having a good conversation. That doesn’t mean, though it does include talking well. It does include that, but that’s not what it means. It means you’re a lifestyle person. The word conduct is having a good lifestyle. That somebody can look at you and say, you know what? They live a commendable life. They live a life that is pointing me to Christ. They live a life that is pointing me to scripture. When I watch their life, I want to know more about Jesus. Can people say that about me? Can people say that about you? It’s very important. That’s what James is talking about. So whoever’s wise has a good conduct and it’s going to be able to be seen. The first thing that we see regarding this is that we’re all called to be wise and understanding. Look at that right there. It says, who is wise and understanding among you? The word among you means it’s to be expected among us as Christians. James is asking us the question, isn’t he great? He’s so pointed to the point there. Remember, in his Jewishness, he was asking questions before. He says, who’s wise among you? He points to the church. It’s not kind to point. James would say, I don’t care what you say about me pointing my finger. James points with his words. Who’s wise? Well, I’ve got a PhD, so I must be wise. That’s not what it means. That’s not what he’s talking about. Not knowledge. Wisdom will be seen in a good character, a godly conduct. Wise and understanding. The word wise means clear. So we’re called to be clear. We see this in verse 13. Who is wise? and understanding among you? Let him show by a good conduct. Being wise is being clear. There’s no murkiness. It’s very, very clear. The word means untainted regarding our resolve to have the ability to act upon what we know and wisdom implementing or putting into action that clarity. It means to understand God is holy. So you know what? I’m going to strive to be holy in my outward conduct. That counts before men. The word understanding. This word is a great word. It means to be well-informed, having insight to the issues. And it can also be translated having the know-how. Having the know-how. James takes the lofty teaching of heaven and brings it right down to where we’re supposed to put it into practice. Having the know-how. Who’s wise and understanding among you? Who has the clarity? It’s the person that has the wisdom of God. It’s the person that has a godly conduct practiced in this life. They have this wise or clear knowledge. understanding, it’s untainted, and it is something that is very, very usable. It has know-how, elbow grease. It’s not some kind of a monastery type of pie-in-the-sky dream of, boy, if. James says, no, because this is how we’re going to live. So we’re all called to be wise and understanding. Isaiah 33, verse 6 says, “‘Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times.'” Boy, don’t we need stability in our times? “‘And the strength of salvation, the fear of the Lord, is his treasure.'” Boy, wisdom and knowledge, wisdom and understanding. We need that today. Look at the things that are going on in the world. We need to pray for Russia, that the people will have the salvation of God right now. And all the things that are taking place, not only Russia, look at the world. Look at what’s happening in Germany as their economy and the German economy is plummeting. Hey, the knowledge of that can cause you to have a heart attack. Wisdom will say, you know what, I have a clear understanding of what’s going on and I know what to do right now. Do we know this?
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was in an airport on Wednesday or Thursday and I was watching on CNN the stock market plummet like maybe you were. People losing millions and millions of dollars. Aren’t you glad you have some insight and some understanding to what’s going on in the world? Hey, you know what? Some people in this body may or may not have money. If you have money, you know what? God gave it and God can take it away. It’s his money, isn’t it? It’s his money, isn’t it? All right. Amen. Hallelujah. You got that, didn’t you? You kind of forgot that. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Well, we’re going to use gold for asphalt, remember? It’s going to be great. So cheer up. When the market opens tomorrow, praise the Lord. It’s okay. He’s got a plan. In Psalm 111, verse 10, the Scripture says, “…the fear or the awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and good understanding. Have all those…” Who do his commandments, his praise endures forever. The next thing we see here in verse 13 is that we are to have a new lifestyle regarding our living. It says, let him show by good conduct. Let him show it. We’re to have a lifestyle that is to be lived and it’s to be shown. This is interesting because most of our understanding of Bible is Jesus teaching us, you know, do what you do regarding religious things quietly and privately. Don’t let it be seen by men. And that is true. But what James is saying here concerning your godly conduct, you know what? Let people see it. It goes right in line with when Jesus says, let your light so shine before men. It doesn’t mean that you go, hello, hey, I’m a Christian. I tithe. I’m an usher. You don’t do that. But what you do do is you show forth. this good conduct by your lifestyle. It means bless others, show it, display it. The very word show means to make it public. To make it public. I gotta tell you, I was not being public. I didn’t wanna be and I didn’t need to be at that moment. I was so blessed Wednesday morning flying up to Seattle because I sat down on the airplane and I just, I looked out the window because I had a very heavy situation on my mind and it was crushing me. And it was just heavy on my heart and I was really just saying, Lord, show me what to do about this thing. Show me the clarity on this thing. And I’m just looking out the window. There was no evidence of me being a Christian. I was just sitting there silent looking out the window. And this lady was seated, not next to me, but there’s an empty seat. And then there’s a lady sitting in the aisle. And I’m going to say she was maybe 50, 55-ish. And I’m looking out the window. This lady leans over and she says, now, you got to understand, I have no Christian sticker on my backpack. I had no markings, nothing. I didn’t have what would Jesus do sticker in my, I mean, you know, yeah, yeah. I mean, none of that. This lady says, do you mind, I want to share something with you. And I thought, great. But, you know, I went, yes. And she says, you know, I have a message for you from the Lord. And I thought, oh, here we go. I’ve never seen this lady and come to find out she didn’t know me, I didn’t know her. She said, and she went down this list of exactly things that have been going on in my life. Exactly. And she went line by line and she said, the Lord wants you to know that he is pleased with you. That don’t become weary at well-doing. Don’t give up. Don’t cave in. Don’t listen to the words of men. Follow him alone. And I’m going like this. And I mean to tell you, I got goosebumps started going up on my back. And in my mind, I’m thinking, I honestly thought in my mind, goosebumps are going up my back because this lady is nailing my life right on target. This is awesome. This is exactly what I needed to hear. This is wonderful. But I didn’t want her to know that. So I’m like, I’m going like this. And then I’m trying to keep from crying. And I’m just there. And then she got done and she said, by the way, what do you do for a living? I’m curious because the Lord gave me this to give you. What do you do for a living that you would need to hear this? And I said, I pastor a church. And she says, honey, of course you do. And she went right back and she was reading Gone with the Wind. That woman, listen, by the time I got to Seattle, I was able to do the message Wednesday night in Seattle. I was heading up there and I didn’t know how in the world I was going to even get to the church. I didn’t even want to go to the church. I wanted to go into the forest and die somewhere. Lord, you know, oh, it was wonderful. I had so much knowledge. This woman had wisdom from above. My knowledge was not doing anything for me. God sent wisdom. And her lifestyle was displayed publicly right to me. Nobody else knew. Nobody else needed to know. I was so incredibly ministered to. Fantastic. Listen, our lifestyle, we’ve been changed. We are Christians. We have been delivered from the previous world that we once lived in. We’re no longer like the world. We don’t look to the world anymore. The world, when they look at us, we may be dressed like the world. We may have a shirt on that the world sells. Where else are we going to buy our clothes? We might have air walks or, I don’t know, Ross dressed for last shoes on. Whatever the case might be. Listen, that in and of itself displays nothing. But inside we’re different. And when given the opportunity, we can make it public. When somebody says to you, hey, what’s that in your car? They might recognize your Bible. Say, it’s a Bible. Don’t say, that’s a cookbook. Tell them it’s a Bible. They might be asking for a purpose. Let our public witness of Christ be known. Our lifestyle is different. And you know what? I don’t care what the world tells us. The world is hurting and they want an answer. Their life stinks. That’s why drug sales is up. That’s why, especially in America, you know, we take more painkillers than any other nation. People are afraid of life. They’re afraid of all the things that come with life. alcoholism, because the world is miserable. We’re Christians. We have the only answer that can change their life and will come by our lifestyle. The next thing we see in verse 13 is that Our works prove our new lives. It says that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. His works, public works, the things that we do, the things that we do are done in meekness of wisdom. The word meekness means, of course, you know, power under control, but also this word meekness can be translated as it is here in this particular verse and chapter to respond with mildness, not to be critical or judgmental, The person who has a godly conduct, the wisdom of God in their life, their works are done in meekness. That is, they’re not looking at people and they’re picky and critical. The word means here to be responding with mildness, gentleness, not with a haughty, self-righteous arrogance, lording their Christianity over another. No, not at all. Very gentle.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called, Who Has Wisdom? You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word of God and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
