 So today we're going to look at James chapter three verses 13 through 18. And as is my normal method, I'm going to be reading to you verses 13 through 18. Then I'm going to give to you a refresher, remind you of the portion of scripture that we've already gone over so I can lay a foundation because we're going to be seeing how James is going to be asking a question. The question is found in verse 13. So let's begin at verse 13. I'll read to verse 18 and we'll get into our study. James asks, who is wise and understanding among you? Let them 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, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 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. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so James has been writing concerning teachers of the word of God. Remember how he had started the chapter in verse one where he had said, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment? He's been speaking concerning, writing concerning, teaching the word of God and teachers specifically. And he made it clear that because a teacher speaks for God, they will receive a stricter judgment. Now that's because a teacher has more opportunity to speak about God and speak about his kingdom and that that gives more opportunity to stumble in word resulting in misrepresenting God. So James is making it clear that teaching the word is never to be taken lightly. It's the teacher's responsibility to pass on the word faithfully without changing it. According to Proverbs 30 verses five and six, every word of God is flawless. He's a shield to those who take refuge in him and then he goes on to say, do not add to his words or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. So the teacher is to teach the word of God without adding to it or deleting the things that are uncomfortable to speak about. They're to give the whole counsel of God. So James's warning would be teachers to take heed and to understand the seriousness of opening up and teaching the word of God. And they need to make sure that their foundation is Jesus Christ and his gospel, his message, his word. They need to know that the foundation is not church tradition. The foundation is not revelation knowledge. The foundation is not messages by the spirit or the latest trend or prophecies or words of knowledge or what that preacher may be feeling at that moment. There are a lot of preachers who preach what they're feeling at that moment. And that's not the foundation. It's not people's books that they've read or faith conventions. It's not seminars or entertaining churches or entertaining preachers. Jesus needs to remain the foundation. He is the sure foundation. You know, when the Jesus movement began and God was using a man by the name of Chuck Smith and people began to wonder what is the secret formula of this? They thought that Chuck must be some kind of dynamic speaker who weeps whenever he's preaching and draws people in through the power of persuasion and Chuck speaks of how he was invited to go and speak somewhere. He said, and I'm sure that the guy thought I was going to begin to cry. And he said, the only person who cried is the guy who invited me. Because Chuck didn't have that dynamic personality. He was a teacher of the word of God and Chuck taught us that it's not our entertaining style and it's not our ideas and our visions and our creative projects. It's not those things. What it is is Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that. And James is pointing that out. He's saying that the foundation isn't a church tradition. It's not somebody's revelation at that moment or what he feels like speaking. It's not books. It's not convention seminars. It's the word of God. It's Jesus Christ as a sure foundation. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah 28 verse 16, Isaiah wrote, and therefore thus says the Lord God. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation, and whoever believes will not act hastily. Peter later on tells us that that tried stone, that sure foundation is none other than Jesus Christ. So why is this so important? You see, if people look only to other people, they become vulnerable to false teachers. This is especially true concerning the fact that Satan infiltrates churches and he knows that placing faith in Jesus Christ to the gospel is gonna set people free from sin and he desires to keep people from hearing the true message of the gospel. So in order to undermine the work of God, he will alter the message of the word. And his false message is preached through satanically empowered evangelists. And the message that the enemy will proclaim is a message that changes who Jesus Christ is. He's often presented as a good teacher, a kind man, a miracle worker, even a prophet. And you'll read that in certain people's books. You'll read that in some of the material that is presenting their belief system but bringing Jesus into it. Jesus is all of those things. He is a great teacher. Of course, he was very kind. He's a miracle worker. He is a prophet, of course. But when they're presenting their Jesus, there are differences between the Jesus they're presenting and the Jesus of Scripture. In their message, Jesus is not God in the flesh and he is not the only savior. He's what Paul called a different Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse four, Paul said, if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, he said to the Corinthians at that point, he said, you put up with it easily enough. You're allowing this to take place and though someone is coming in preaching a different Jesus. This false message of a false Jesus is distributed by false teachers who are evangelists. In 2 Corinthians 11, 13 through 15, Paul spoke of them in this way. He said, such men are false apostles. They're deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. They'll come and knock on your door and they'll give you a message and they'll say they're bringing the kingdom of God to you when in fact they're changing who Jesus Christ is. And so you have to be careful who you listen to. They'll stand on street corners, sometimes holding their printed material and they'll hand it out to people walking in to stores or donut shops for that matter and they're bringing a different Jesus during the holidays. They'll come and knock on your door. You will be having visits by people who are preaching another Jesus. And the bottom line is these are satanically energized unfortunately but true. False teachers, they're evangelists who are preaching a false message. In 2 John verse seven, John said many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh and have gone out into the world. Any such person is a deceiver in the antichrist. Because this is true believers are commanded to safeguard God's word. Jude verse three reads, Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all and trusted to the saints. Contend for it vigorously defend and fight on its behalf for the faith, not the faiths, the faith. And it was one time for all time delivered to you. We don't need additions to it. We don't need new messages. The Quran is not necessary. Neither is the Book of Mormon. We don't need new messages. That's what Jude was saying. There were already false teachers creeping in bringing different saviors or different iterations of Jesus Christ presenting him in a different way. It was already happening in the early church and they made it very clear. The various writers of scripture and so many of them spoke concerning this Jude and Paul and the apostle Peter and John. They all wrote about this and they said, be aware of this. You need to be aware because false teachers are coming in and they're undermining the truth of the gospel. Safeguard God's word. Now how does Satan undermine the gospel with the intent to destroy? Well basically he has what has been called a two pronged attack. He attacks from the outside as well as from the inside. He attacks from the outside by using agents who infiltrate the body of Christ. They enter into the church in order that they might destroy it. Like Jude said, again in verse four, certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign Lord. And so what happens is a false teacher will creep in amongst you. They come in and they seed themselves amongst you. They're the terrors among the wheat. And they'll be seeded there and they wait long enough to get some notoriety. People begin to know them. Maybe they'll share their opinions with some people. And before you know it, people become friends of theirs and as they're becoming friends they begin to share with them some of the things that they believe in their undermining the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what do we do? Well the church is to be safeguarded through teaching. And so as the church is taught what the truth is is what we're doing as we go through our books and all that we study, the books of the Bible, the church is being safeguarded, that way they're being taught not to listen to the lies of false teachers. And second John verses 10 and 11, John said, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching don't take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work. Don't invite him in. And what is he saying? If somebody knocks on your door and you shouldn't talk to them, you'll say, well yeah, didn't he just say that? Do not take him into your house. You need to remember that in the early church they met in houses. This is a warning for me as a pastor not to let somebody step into this pulpit to give you bad doctrine. Don't let him into the house. Don't let him infiltrate. Don't let him speak his nonsense, his false teaching. That's why we vet the people that we bring here. That's why we wanna make sure that whoever is here in this pulpit occupying this teaching you is somebody that is orthodox in their belief. Somebody that's teaching you the truth. The scripture teaches us to do so and that's how we protect you. And sometimes what they'll do is they'll infiltrate but sometimes they actually attack from the inside. There are people who appear to be genuine but they're drawing people to themselves. Their false teachings are elevated into what is considered actual real authority. False or carnal teachers always draw men and women into themselves. But they're the heroes of their own stories. You can tell generally, not always, but you can tell generally that somebody is not giving you the full truth because suddenly they are the hero. They're the one telling you what they do, all the things that they do in the name of Christ. You know, they say things like, I was on the plane and the pilot came on and said, we're going down. And I said, oh no, God, we can't go down. And then God said, no, my son, we're not going down. So I stood up and I said to people, I said this, I said, you need Jesus Christ. And everybody began to listen. As they began to listen, they were falling, they were weeping, they were all over the place. Then the pilot comes out, he put the plane on automatic pilot and he came out and he spoke and I brought him to Christ. And then I went and took him into the bathroom and I put water on, baptized everyone. They're always the heroes of their own stories. They never fail. They always do something. I remember this one guy who said that the spirit was on him so much that he stepped off the platform, hovered there for just a moment as God suspended gravity on my behalf. And then he came back on to then finish this message. My goodness gracious. And then people give them offerings. They're supporting these charlatans. And this from the very beginning is something the church has been warned about. Be not teachers. You will receive a stricter condemnation. God is very careful about the things that you speak in his name. But they do this. They're heroes of their own story. They boast of their knowledge. They boast of their experiences. They're seeking to build a following but it's for themselves and not the Lord. In Galatians 4.17 Paul spoke and said, those people are zealous to win you over but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us so that you may be zealous for them. Paul is a true apostle who's speaking of false teachers who are undermining the gospel because they wanted to boast in their flesh. They wanted to bring these followers after them undermining what God did through a true apostle by the name of Paul. What do you do about them? When they're infiltrating, when they're exposing bad doctrine. Romans 16.17 I urge you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. Keep away from them. Avoid them. Have nothing to do with them. If someone comes to your door and they're bringing a false doctrine, you smile at them. You give them the true gospel if you can and send them on their way. If a teacher misrepresents God in his teaching he is held accountable for doing so. And if he's teaching and makes an honest error he's not looked at as being unsaved. He simply needs to be brought to correction. The fact is, as we all stumble even as he had already said in verse two in chapter three, in many ways the sheer volume of our words gives us more opportunity to make errors. And because of this we need to prayerfully consider what we say. Like Psalm 141.3, set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Now James made it clear that to be a teacher of truth your speech has to be disciplined. And he illustrated this with a horse and a ship. And he had pointed out that both are steered by a master and our speech is steered by a master passion. So in order to be a teacher of truth one must have their tongue under the Spirit's control and that's what James is developing. He used the Jordan River and the Dead Sea as an example. The origin of the Dead Sea is fresh but its destination is bitter. False teachers can begin with truth, add a twist and end up with heresy. So a genuine believer has their spiritual thirst quenched in Jesus Christ and after their own thirst is quenched they provide water for those who are thirsty. Remember John 4.14, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The water isn't just for me but it actually springs out into other people. That's a genuine teacher. So in order to be a teacher God uses the water of life must remain fresh and that means it must flow without pollution from its source to its destination. You have been as a believer in Christ entrusted with the gospel. I don't know how much you've grown to value it yet but you have been. Do you hand your key to your house to just anybody on the street? Would you do that? Of course you wouldn't. I wouldn't. You're at a store, you see some guy. Oh here by the way this is the key to my house. My address is such and so. Would you do that? Well of course not. Would you give the keys to your car to somebody? Probably if you want it stolen and you want to claim it on insurance but other than that probably not. Why not? Because it's your car. It's a valuable item to you. My dad told me David there's only two things that are very valuable that you'll purchase in your life. He said two things, the two most valuable things that you will purchase with your money it's your house and it's gonna be your car. And he said take care of those things and those are things that we do take care of. We steward those things, a house and a car. Why? They're very expensive. You're making house payment, house payment, for all these years. And so you take care of it. Would you give your house key to somebody? No, why not? Because I need to know that person. Have you ever given your house key to someone? Yes. To who? To a son? To a daughter? My close friend? To somebody I trust in value. Yeah I would do that. My kids have my house keys though I keep changing the locks. They keep finding it. Jesus gave you the keys to the kingdom. The keys to the kingdom. It's a lot more valuable than your home or your car. It's how people get into heaven. We have to value it. We have to understand that. Paul said it like this in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 4. He says, but as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Even so we speak not as pleasing men but God who tests our hearts. We have been entrusted the way Jesus said to the apostle Peter I give to you the keys to the kingdom you have been entrusted with the gospel message that opens up the door of heaven to those who will enter. And so we're entrusted and we ought to understand that. And again James is saying to teachers in particular you've been entrusted. You have the keys. So how can I safeguard this? Well, I wanna carefully study the scripture and I have a healthy fear of mishandling the word of God. Studying, teaching, even witnessing should not be done with a careless heart. Isaiah 66 verse two says it like this. But on this one will I look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Who trembles at my word. His word is a lamp, it's a light, it's life. It's his very word that brings life to the dead. It gives people the opportunity to know what spiritual life is. It's the only message God entrusted to men whereby we must preach it for people to be saved and a genuine teacher values that and trembles over it. Doesn't just walk out casually and say a few things in the name of God. We spend hours preparing our studies, hours looking at words and finding ways to put them in such a way that they can be communicated quickly and understandably. And that takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of prayer, it takes a lot of time. It's not something you just kind of like put together in a moment and go out and speak. You're speaking in the name of God. The false teacher doesn't have that kind of belief system. They never offer living water and that's because they've not partaken in living water themselves. You see Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 15 verse three. He said, I delivered to you first of all that which I also received. I received it and I gave it to you. I'm not speaking about what somebody over here said or somebody over there said or some commentator over here spoke. I'm telling you what God has placed in my heart and that's what a genuine teacher is able to do by taking the scriptures and presenting them in a way that is understandable. So he is speaking concerning that. He also in verse 12 has spoken of a fig tree and a grapevine and that's because trees and vines produce what is conformed to their own nature. A genuine teacher leads us to the work of the spirit but a false teacher will always bring us into bondage and that's what he's been saying as we now enter into verse 13 and he continues by asking the question, who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. The phrase wise and understanding when he asked the question who was wise and understanding well that phrase is another way of identifying a rabbi. During the time of the writing the Jews would use that term for their teacher. He was wise and understanding and it spoke of the one who had practical moral wisdom that was built on the knowledge of God and so if a Bible teacher is truly teaching God's word his life is gonna match his words. Notice what he says in verse 13 again. He says, let him show by good conduct. I was speaking to someone just yesterday and mentioning to them that sometimes we think that teachers are only those who speak, who spend time studying and do word studies and outlines and then come and stand in front of people and present facts. I said, that's part of what we do but when you look at first Timothy three and it gives you the qualifications of an elder and overseer of bishop and that's speaking concerning a leader of the church especially pertaining to the pastors. It has a variety of traits that are outlined. Not a brawler, somebody who's not given to wine, somebody who loves his wife, you see and when you look at all of those, they're character traits. He adds though apt to teach and I was sharing with this person just yesterday. I said apt to teach. Many times people look at that as being the spiritual gift of teaching meaning to be able to do what I'm doing right now open a Bible and speak verse by verse and give you content. That of course is being spoken of. The person is to know doctrine well enough to communicate it but it doesn't remain just with the ability to speak. You can get an unbeliever who is a well-polished order and you can give to them Psalm 23 and watch them begin to speak it. The Lord is my shepherd and do it in such a way that can move you emotionally but he doesn't know the shepherd. He doesn't know the Lord. He's just reading and if he reads well people can be entertained by it but a genuine person who knows Christ when he speaks and says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He's not just speaking words from a book he's speaking words from a life that knows that Jesus Christ is that and in teaching that person has to have moral character because apt to teach is not simply able to communicate it's living out and that's what James is saying here in verse 13 when he says let him show by good conduct. So his life is gonna be in evidence of the things that he's teaching. His life reveals the truthfulness of what he's saying. Somebody said the wisdom that does not teach a man to govern his own spirit and to be humble in his conduct towards others is of no value. A truly wise person is one who is seeking for wisdom and living it out and wisdom is gained over time through experience it is something you seek for. In Proverbs four, five through seven it reads get wisdom get understanding do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth do not forsake her and she will preserve you love her she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and in all you're getting get understanding seek for her as if you're searching for silver. So the first step to godly wisdom is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Why because that's the source of all true wisdom. Proverbs nine verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So when you genuinely fear the Lord your life will reflect this because you're obedient to him. That's what Jesus said in John 14 15 when he said if you love me keep my commandments. Now if wisdom according to verse 13 if wisdom is our guide our lives will reflect this in our conduct wisdom is shown by good conduct and genuine meekness and Ephesians four two Paul said it like this he said be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing with one another in love put up with one another is what bearing means because sometimes we have to put up with one another don't we do you ever wake up grumpy I used to now I let her sleep in just seeing if you're listening Titus three verse two says slander no one be peaceable and considerate show true humility toward all men you see godly wisdom is never expressed by arrogance or self-righteousness it's demonstrated through meekness of spirit that's the kind of spirit that Jesus revealed to us in Matthew Jesus said this in chapter 11 verse 29 he said take my yoke upon you learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls but we're to be like Jesus according to Matthew 10 25 it's enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master and second Timothy 2 24 Paul said a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach and patient and so he's speaking concerning this this is your conduct that your works are done in the meekness of wisdom verse 14 but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth so this speaks of a spirit of ambition and contention it speaks of what would be called a party spirit bitter envy resents others who have more gifts and attributes more possessions or honors it produces an argumentative and angry self-seeking person so any teacher of God's word that harbors his bitterness is going to undermine the gospel it's interesting how he says in verse 14 do not boast and lie against the truth if this is the fruit of your teaching do not boast of your qualification to be a teacher nothing makes you more disqualified than this kind of fruit he's saying you are lying against the truth because you're ignoring what God says is the standard of a teacher you glory in your success but are not producing godly disciples of Jesus Christ you're filled with envy and your disciples are like you they're divisive and they're contentious well where does this wisdom come from verse 15 this wisdom does not descend from above it is earthly sensual demonic for where envy and self-seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there this kind of wisdom isn't from God it's a product of fallen nature it reflects what demons have but it doesn't reveal the spirit of God notice in verse 16 the fruit of this where envy and self-seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there the fruit of your ministry is confusion and strife with no unity, no stability all love and peace disappear and only anger and self-promotion is allowed the false teachers often filled with bitter envy and self-seeking and the fruit of their work is confusion and evil I was sharing with the first service today and I probably should share with you the same kind of thing it won't be identical to what I was saying so we've all heard about Kanye right you know I'm gonna share with you some things you know if you we can always remove it from the tape it's interesting because when Kanye West whom I really don't know much about I'll be honest with you his music isn't something that I drink coffee to I'm not aware of it I'm really not I know who he is he's very well known of course and he used to let us know how famous he was I remember that too and I know he's married to a Kardashian I know that and all and whatever but as he has began to proclaim his faith in Christ well first and foremost I pray for him I pray that God will use that man because doors can be open to him that the name of Jesus can be preached in in a very effective way and I'm praying for him and we ought to pray for him and one of the things that concerns me about all of this is because well he's opening himself up right now to a lot of a lot of attack and it comes not just from the world you expect the world to say things about Kanye and all of that that he's already put himself in a position aligned himself in places that people don't really agree with and thus they think he's a sellout and this and that and I've been following that in the news for some time but now that he's openly professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and is excited about it and is going on platforms that that many of us cannot we can't go on these talk shows we don't go on these radio shows and he's speaking to a non-churched audience people who don't know Christ I'm praying for that man may God open the doors for him to preach the gospel and for millions of people to come to faith in Jesus Christ we ought to be praying for him we should be praying for him that's what we need to do I'm not putting an imprimatur on his music in the past but my goodness if my story when the true story we're ever putting in print form it's triple X you wouldn't want your kids to read what my life really was without Jesus and that's a testimony we have what we call the testimony that we give to people and we have the real testimony that only we and God know and that's ours we keep that to ourselves and so some of the things you did and I have done I would not want people to be publishing in magazines or on talk shows I think that's legitimate that's my private life and he deserves the same thing and the same respect he does and you have the world and the world is going to be taking him apart oh he's Trump's puppet and this and that that is just evil and you ought not to be saying that but I expect that from the world but church we better be praying for this man because he claims to be our brother in Christ and he deserves our prayer and our love and we need to keep him in prayer because the thing about the church that is sad and I've been a part of it for a long time is we have a tendency of shooting the wounded we bite and devour one another and if he doesn't do what we say he's supposed to do well we have a habit of saying he can't be the real thing because my brand of thinking is the right brand well guess what it's not always the right brand it's my brand is what I believe but you know in the end when I go to heaven there are a lot of things that'll be sorted out that's the way it works let's pray for Kanye and pray for his wife I don't know if you know anything about Kardashian I know they have their programs again I don't watch that but one of my friends Lloyd Pulley's wife Karen is her cousin and Kardashian's according to Karen Kardashian's dad before he died he was a lawyer for OJ that's where he became famous before he died he had gotten a right with the Lord see people don't know those things because they're not in the paper so Kim is aware of what the gospel claims are and now her husband's on fire we need to pray for him he's going into prisons thousands of people are listening to him he's got his thing he's doing on Sunday in LA thousands come just to look at him some to mock and others to listen but the thing that concerns me is he needs to be mentored he needs to be trained and taught he needs to be given the elements of the gospel and his pastor from what I understand and I've been looking into this from what I understand his pastor is solid Bible someone told me that his pastor didn't even know who Kanye was when Kanye was beginning to go to his church he's just one of the guys in the church and later on he's introduced to him this is Kanye and he goes yeah my name's Bob you know I don't know who you are and I like that because he's not apparently not one of these guys latching our own now I can build my church I'll give Kanye a Saturday night and we'll just pack out that's what I'm concerned with because we have a tendency of taking the famous and using them up and when they fail or if something is exposed or when their youthfulness is brought to out oh see I knew I knew he wasn't real now there are already people blogging about that already people and I want to just say a big shut up to those people just pray for this man pray for him my goodness when we got saved when I got saved and no I'm no Kanye I was John Lennon no I was no you know when I got saved I mean the church world was out there saying these hippies aren't the real deal these hippies are bringing in what they called voodoo music because we use drums you know and everybody knows that Satan plays the bongos I mean they brought that in they said these Jesus freaks are bringing in a bunch of garbage and everybody knows that Jesus had a real short haircut and a tie he wore on Sundays everybody knows that didn't wear sandals and they would look at us and they would question and they would say you guys can't be saved look at you look at the way you looked if you really were saved you'd cut your hair if you really were saved you'd go out and get a job if you were really saved you'd be like me no I don't want to be like you I want to be like Jesus Christ that's why we got saved to be like him and he comes in all colors in all fashions that's great about him isn't it that's a good thing and I'm concerned about that because they were saying that to me to Raul to Mike McIntosh so many of us that's not the real thing it's a flash in the pan it's just a moment they're just yeah they're all going to go back well guess what next month I celebrate 49 years of walking with Jesus Christ it's the real deal God changes life he changes life that's what God does he's in the business of changing lives that's what he does you fall on your face before him you say God be merciful to me I am a sinner I am so sick of being sick I need your help forgive me and he lifts you up and he puts you on something that's not sinking sand he puts you on a solid rock and your life is transformed let us pray that this man isn't used up by the church and discarded that's my greatest concern it really is there was a guy ancient history time by the name of Robert Zimmerman better known as Bob Dylan Bob Dylan was a prophet of the 60s and he wrote these songs a lot of songs that you would be familiar with if you're old enough you remember them if you're young you might have heard them in nostalgic radio I don't know but these songs were almost prophetic in many ways they were and then he came out and said he was a follower of Christ when he first began to look into Jesus he was going to a church in Westwood and the pastor there and I'll leave him unnamed the pastor there said to Bob Dylan after Bob had come up and said I want to be a Christian follower of Christ he said don't say anything keep your faith to yourself you need to grow and he discipled him for a year that was before his album Saved came out and in his album Saved that was a very you got to serve somebody it's pretty strong words of gospel of what Christ does everybody serves somebody it may be the devil it may be the Lord but you got to serve somebody was a very strong statement at that time and any failure that people saw in Bob Dylan was jumped on like vultures swooping in to tear him up we have a tendency of shooting the wounded instead of holding him up in prayer loving them and so God I pray for him oh God may his pastor may his pastor give him solid words of truth so that his life is built on a solid rock because the platform he has is huge let him not think of himself as being a preacher he's got too much to learn he's a novice he shouldn't be lifted up he can give his testimony great but I hear he's bringing in a pastor to share the truth of the gospel so people will know that's wisdom I hope he continues doing that but I'm telling you that he's been invited to big churches so that his choir and he can come on so that that big church can get attention in the press and more people can show up to show how cool they are and I'm sorry to say that that's my great concern again I don't know anything about his style of music I've never listened to anything that he's ever put out for shizzle my dizzle I heard that somewhere might as well use it here right but let's keep him in prayer shall we let's keep this man in prayer and not only him because you know what he's got a megaphone but it doesn't matter if it's Kanye every single person needs to know Jesus Christ not just Kanye everybody but because he's in the spotlight and I know some people want to pastor what do you think about that that's what I think about that we need to keep him in prayer and I pray that he's a genuine article because in the end we all stand before the same creator and I want him to stand in the righteousness of Christ and I want to keep that man in prayer because I believe he needs it and we should keep him that way and I want him to be kept away from the false teachers that are looking to build up their own selves that we are looking at there's their type right here in this passage and he says again and I'll move on and then conclude verse 15 I'll begin there again this wisdom doesn't descend from above it's earthly, it's sensual, it's demonic where envy and self-seeking exists confusion and every evil thing are there so that's the chief fruit of someone trying to establish their own following Jude 16 says these are grumblers complainers walk in according to their own lust they mow the great swelling words flattering people to gain advantage and so that's that kind of demonic wisdom and that's the fruit envy, self-seeking, confusion and evil but in verse 18 rather 17 but the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisy the fruit of righteousness is sewn in peace by those who make peace the wisdom that is above is first pure the word pure speaks of that which is sincere, it's moral there's a spiritual purity he says it's peaceable the peaceable that he speaks about is an inward peace that results in freedom from strife with other people he says it's gentle that speaks of a sweet reasonableness it speaks of being fair and considerate he says this wisdom from above is willing to yield that means it's open to persuasion when the persuasion is to glorify God he says it's full of mercy that's a quality of loving kindness it's filled with good fruit that's the desire to benefit others it's without partiality it's undivided in mind it only seeks what is righteous it's without hypocrisy it isn't saying you're one thing and being another and he says the fruit of righteousness is sewn in peace by those who make peace the heart of a genuine teacher is filled with love and the peace of God Isaiah 32 17 the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever that's how you see the difference between the true teacher and the false the fruit of their teaching and the style of their life and James outlines that for us and would to God starting with me that every believer especially the teachers of the word would evidence these as the fruit of their life that these would be what we're all about pure, peaceful, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy good fruits without partiality without hypocrisy and may we sow peace in righteousness