How to get God's Wisdom When You Need It

Now we turn the heat on today to tie you out so that we don't tie that out. So I would need to James, I'm just kidding, we've just begun to look through the book of James. It's a wonderful exhortation, it's a pastoral letter that James writing to this congregation that has been scattered because of circumstances and persecution specifically. And there's something in all kinds of things and James's primary objective is in the midst of their tribulations and their troubles they would live in a way that reflects the true character of God. And so he gives them some instructions that are so helpful for us because we face similar things, pal, all kinds of things in our own lives. And sometimes we forget that our primary purpose in this world is to reflect who God is.

Even for the glory of God, the true nature of who God is, that's our purpose. Today what we want to look at in the next few verses, verses 5 through 8, is to answer this question of how do I get wisdom from God when I meet it in the midst of these trials. Let's reading James chapter 1. But I'm actually beginning reading the verse 2 in the old YouTube verse 8. James writes, consider it all joy in my brethren when you... And then endurance is a perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete rocking and nothing. But if any of you ask for wisdom, that is in the midst of the trial. Let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without endowning.

But the wonder of God is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded person unstable in all his ways. In verses 2 through 4 we looked at last week, was this exhortation for us to embrace our trials and understanding that they are opportunities for spirits of growth. That's why the Lord allows us to go through his people of those three trials. Today's passage, James is going to continue to talk about this and he's going to encourage them to pray for wisdom. The wisdom that they need in order to grow through their trials. One of the places to try to make last week is trials don't necessarily produce growth.

There are opportunities for growth. But James says that the condition for growth is that in the midst of the trial I endure. And as we saw endurance has to do with the continuance of our faith and obedience and love for God in the midst of our trials. Well sometimes when we are in the midst of trials we don't know how to do that. We lack the wisdom to do that very thing. Any disciple who reads James chapter 1 verse 4 has to say that I want that. I want to be mature and complete and not lacking anything. And yet in times of trouble, in times of trials we find ourselves to be such fools. We don't know how to respond. We don't know what we are to do. And we end up doing the very thing that God has instructed us not to do.

What's the solution? Well the solution is always for fools. And I don't mean to be derogatory to you. It's just the fact that foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. And it never reads us. It's like a virus that's always there. Even though it's driven out as we put faith in Christ, fear the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the fear of the Lord is the thing that helps us escape from the effects of our foolishness and falling. But it's always there. John Calvin said that the heart is an idol factory. We're always quick to create idols, something else to worship besides God. And so in the midst of our trials often we find it very, very appealing to feed to an old idol that used to give us comfort before we came to Christ when we need comfort so badly instead of turning to Him alone.

And if you don't think you're foolish, then read the book of Proverbs. And you will discover your characteristics there. You will find that Solomon describes some of the very things that you're characterized by. And he says these are manifestations of foolishness. So what do fools need? Well we need wisdom. But what is wisdom? What do we mean by wisdom? Wisdom sometimes we think of as simply having a lot of knowledge. We think of somebody who wants to gain wisdom there for learning a lot of facts and get a lot of data. And in this generation we've learned that we can accumulate an incredible amount of data, can't we? I mean you can download so many things off the net. I know a church in Chicago that let their pastor go because he had been preaching John Piper's sermons off the Internet.

And the reason they let him go is when they confronted him over it, he denied it. And yet when they went back and looked at his sermons, he preached the verbatim, John Piper's sermons. Well you can find a multitude of sermons on the Internet. A man would never have to study again if he simply wanted to plague you as somebody else's sermons. And he was a good actor. And you know there's an every area, every field, every little thing that comes up in your life you can go on the Internet and download gigabytes of information. And yet that's not wisdom. Wisdom is, when knowledge is necessary for wisdom but obtaining a lot of knowledge that's not necessarily give you wisdom. Because wisdom is not just having knowledge, it's being what we ought to be.

In the Old Testament the primary word for wisdom is an attribute of God. He is the all wise God, he is the God, the Old Testament tells us that by wisdom he numbers the clouds and he found the earth and he made and created all things through his wisdom. God is what he ought to be because he understands all things. In the New Testament we are told that the heart of wisdom is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, turn with me for just a moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And notice how Paul talks about true wisdom in contrast to the false wisdom of this world. He says and this world system is what I mean that that repels the truth of God as he's revealed in Christ Jesus. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 17 verse 18.

Paul writes, for the word of the cross is sporesness to them and to a parishing. But the ones who are being saved, it is the power of God. What is written I will destroy, the wisdom of the lies and the clearness of the cleverness that is said aside. Where is the lies man? Where is the scribe? Where is the devotee of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message. That is of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message preached to save those who believe. The wisdom of God is overlooked by the world. It is not seen as wisdom in fact Paul says it is seen as supreme foolishness.

We live in an age and most of us are not even familiar with the terms like postmodernism and method narratives. But the fact is that it is filtered down to the whole culture. And as you watch TV every night you have the world views that are common in our world being put right through your heart, right through your mind, and you're thinking in some of its settles there we begin to take on assumptions. And one of these assumptions of postmodernism is that there are no method narratives. There is no method narrative. There is no story that really is the true story that gives us that let us know that the truth is so that we could have wisdom and we could approach the world with ultimate wisdom. Because it is the truth about all things.

Instead our children in school and we through other means are being taught that there are many, many different stories. And everybody has their own perspective and not one perspective is not necessarily better than another. And it is great that you have a perspective and if it works for you that is wonderful. But I have my perspective. I have my worldview. I have my method narrative. I have my narrative of how things really are explained. I have my own story. But what the Bible teaches is there is only one story that is true. And that is the gospel. That is the unveiling of truth through Jesus Christ. And yet the world considers that as foolishness. Christianity is the only religion in our culture, almost the only religion in our culture that is in danger of being outlawed.

And that is because we talk of the exquisite of Jesus Christ. He is the one and only one we are to worship. We don't believe in the multitude of gods. We don't believe that Jesus is one among many. We don't believe he is a good prophet like other religions say that he is. We believe that he is the very son of God. And that his resurrection from the dead is God's testimony to that fact that he has all authority in heaven on earth. And you are under his authority. And you will bow your knee. If you don't bow today, there is coming a day that you will bow to knee. And you will confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the story of the Bible. And that is the wisdom of God. Well, Jesus paints a portrait of what a wise person is.

The wise person has come to understand God's story to some degree or another. And because of that, he describes what that person is like in the sermon on the mountain. In fact, it is the reason that that sermon is so disturbing. The reason there have been so many methods of interpreting Matthew 5 or 7 in the sermon on the mountain in ways to get rid of those things that Jesus said. Because who in the world can live like the man that Jesus describes the disciple that Jesus describes in the sermon on the mountain? When somebody asks for your coat, do you give him your shirt as well? Do you look up to the wisdom of Christ? Well, what Jesus is describing there is the truly wise man. But notice something.

At the end of that sermon, notice how Jesus describes what true wisdom is. He does it with a little parable, a little story that I think will drive us home to our hearts. That wisdom really is. There is not simply knowing some things. It's more than that. In Matthew chapter 7, in verse 24, notice how he concludes his sermon. He says, therefore, based on all that I've taught you and what I've been proclaiming in these three chapters that we have in Matthew, he says, therefore, everyone who reads these words of mine and acts upon them. Everyone who fears and obeys may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods of Rinsbrew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not follow for it, had been founded on the rock.

Because of this man's wisdom, as he looked into the future, he recognized that when the storms came, he had better be upon a sperm foundation, and so in wisdom, he built his house upon a rock. And then it describes the fool, everyone who hears these words of mine. Even those who have knowledge of my words, even those who would say, I'm a Christian, but everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them, does not obey them, does not live as life according to this wisdom. Who doesn't seek the wisdom of God, and how do I apply the truth that God has unveiled to his son? In my situation, in the midst of my trials, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, the rain fell, the floods came.

You know, it looks so plausible on a sunny day to build your house upon the sand. It looks like the right thing to do, what a wonderful spot you don't have to dig deep in form of foundation. Sand is so pliable, and you could simply build right there on the sand. Who worries about a foundation? It doesn't look like you need a foundation. And yet he says that man's a fool because the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell and great was its fall. Here's wisdom and here's foolishness. Wisdom is when we look at life through the lens of God's revealed truth about himself and about us. John Calvin wrote a work, he actually began to write it when he was barely twenty years old, the Institute of the Christian Religion.

Today you can buy a translation of it in big two volumes set. He rebiles it over the years of his life, but it still begins with the same words. In fact, I think I wrote those words down here somewhere if I could quote them to you. But when he begins this book, this work that was designed actually to disciple young men in the faith, when he begins the book, he says that wisdom, real wisdom, in fact here it is, he says all of these men and so forth is that ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts. In other words, Calvin said, John Calvin said that wisdom, true wisdom, consists of two things. First of all, he says, the knowledge of God, and secondly, the knowledge of ourselves.

But as these are connected together by many times, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. In other words, he goes on to tell us that we learn more about God, as we learn more about ourselves, and as we learn more about ourselves, we learn more about God. That wisdom comes when we begin to look at truth and reality as we look at the world through the lens of God's revelation. That we begin to see the truth of this creation based upon God's unveiling. Look with me back at the book of Proverbs, this book was written by Solomon to his son. It was written to give him wisdom. It was written because Solomon believed that firstness was bound up in the heart of a child, and in order for our child to become wise, they not only had to be disciplined, but they had to be taught, and that was a part of discipline, teaching them.

Teaching them the truth about God's creation and about the character and nature of God, so that they would begin to look at the world through the lens of the truth of who God is, and the nature of his creation because of who he is. And so he begins this book, the book of Proverbs, written to his son, in which we have been given as a treasure. These wise sayings. In order to instruct our children, he says, this is the purpose of it. Notice verse two of Proverbs one, to know wisdom and instruction to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction and wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity, to give prudence to the naïve that is to wisdom to those who are not taught, that they're naïve, they don't understand the truth about this world.

Like a little child, you don't just send them off into the world and let them try to make it, but to give prudence to the naïve, to the youth knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire a wise counsel. In other words, a person has wisdom seeks knowledge and understanding and counsel. To understand a proverb and a figure, to understand what God is teaching through these problems, what is he trying to drive home to the heart? The words of the wise and their riddles. The wise person wants to hear wisdom and wants to learn, but then he says this, and this is so key in verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That causes people at times, because in our world especially, in other times, to talk about the fear of the Lord sounds anti-gospel. Since God is love, and He loves His enemies, and He does good to His enemies, He sent Christ to die for sinners, that He's a loving God. Why should I fear Him? In fact, John says, the terrific love is continually casting out fear. The fear has punishment, and since we know that we've passed out of judgment, we'll never come into judgment, because we believe on Christ, why should we fear the Lord? Well, words in Scripture, we should never absolutize them in a particular usage. The word love, for example, is used in five or six different ways.

God loves the love of God is described in five or six different ways. We don't absolutize any of those. That's why we don't tell people to tell their children. They don't know whether God loves them or not. Some Calvinists do that, because they forgive me for using that term. Somebody confronted me last week about that, and everyone used it again. Some people who believe in grace, strongly, that in the Saviour of God, that God is the initiator of salvation, are afraid to tell their children that God loves them, because what if they're not the elect? The elect's an absurdity. John 3.16, which you all know about heart, isn't saying, for God said, love the elect, that He gave his own begotten son.

The word world doesn't mean elect there or anywhere else. It means the world. God said, love the world, that He gave his own begotten son. Absolutely, you can tell your child that God loves them. You can tell any sinner that God loves them. That God has manifested His love for them by appealing to them, and yearning for them to come to Him and believe upon Him. They may never come to faith in Christ, but God does love His enemies. So we don't absolutize the word love the way it's used in different contexts. He loves his elect in a different way. It's like you men love your wives in a different way than you love the other sisters in Christ. And the word fear here is, we don't universalize it, we don't absolutize it.

It means something very specific when it talks about the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is that unfolded in Scripture is, what I live my life in such a way that my concern about what God thinks is the primary thing. But I see God for who He is, and therefore my life is characterized by this mindset. It means more in me what God thinks than what anybody else in this world thinks. God's attitude about me and about my actions and decisions, and affections are the most important thing if I fear the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When you teach your child that everything came from God, that He created all things, when you teach your little children that everything they see is an expression of the glory of God, the Creator.

That's a good thing because they need to come to understand who this God is. That fear of the Lord is coming to understand, not a cringing fear that's always running and afraid to God's about the Lord, but this understanding that this is an almighty God, a holy God. It changes your whole life. That's why the fear of the Lord, this basic adjustment, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. Solomon goes on in this chapter, in fact, down a little further. Now it's in verse 20, and he says, Wisdom shouts in the street. In other words, God wants to give you wisdom. That's one of the things that's so wonderful in James 1. When he says that we should ask God for wisdom, we need to understand that He wants to give you wisdom.

He wants to give you wisdom more than you want it. The reason that you don't have more wisdom than you do is because you don't want God's wisdom as much as He wants to give it. And he uses a star here, a parable, a picture that's so powerful. And he personifies wisdom as well as a person. He says, Wisdom is shouting in the street. She lifts her voice in the square. At the entrance of the gates in the city, she orders her sayings. In other words, God has put things into your life. I'll guarantee you he's done it even when you've been reading a novel, or when you've watched the movie, or when you've experienced a certain thing, that God is trying to open your eyes to the fact that you need wisdom.

Wisdom shouts in the street. And notice what it says in verse 22. How wrong will naive ones will you love being simple-minded? The fact is, it's a great temptation to want to stay simple-minded, and not to come to understand the profundity of God's character, nature, and attributes, and plan and purpose. And every time somebody starts using a word that's more than two syllables about God that you go into neutral, or your clutch starts slipping, and you don't even want to think about what omniscience or omnipotence or the trinity. You don't even want to know what those words mean. You want to stay simple-minded. It's too much for me. And wisdom is saying to you, oh, naive ones, where you love being, how long will you love being simple-minded?

And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and for all Satan-knowledge. And wisdom appeals to you. Maybe you like that. You're here this morning. You like that. That you are a rejector of God's truth. And wisdom says, you turn to my reproof, behold, I will pull out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you because I, before I read these next words, which are a warning. In other words, God says, I sinned, bruised them out, bruised them appeals to the heights of men as the gospel is being preached around the world. I get emails every week from different missionaries. Yesterday, I got an email from, again, from a group of missionaries that are going to the par-sea people. There's 3.5 million par-sees in this world, and there are 30 Christians among them.

And for some reason, this little band of people has such a burden for them. And they write, and they tell of their struggles, and their opportunities to share Christ in forbidden places, and the responses. And those who reject the wisdom of God, reject the gospel. And listen to this warning that wisdom gives because I called and you refuse. He's talking to a young man here. This is primarily meant to communicate to young people, but I think it communicates to all of them. There's a severe warning because I call and you refuse. I stress out my hand and no one takes attention. And you neglected all my counsel. It's amazing how un-simple sin feels at times. Just turning a deaf ear to the wisdom of God.

Just neglecting truth that I know would touch my life and affect my decisions. To continue on down a path when I reject the wisdom of God and wisdom warns you neglected all my counsel. You did not want my proof. I will also wrap up your calamity. I will knock when your dread comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a roaring wind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Word. They will bring words, aren't they? So bring warning that he gives. And then he gives this promise down in verse 33 in contrast, but he who listens to me, wisdom says, shall live securely, and where it will be at ease from the dread of evil.

The things I like about James that we will go to eventually is that he refers to the law of liberty. The God's commandments bring liberty and freedom. The law of God, God's commandments to us are like a railroad track to a railroad train. The track is what gives the train freedom, isn't it? You take it off the track, you can't do anything. He created the image of God and for his glory he gives us his law because he loves us, just like parents give their children commandments, don't eat the rat poison. Don't play on the freeway. Why does he do that? Because he's mean and not steer that parent? No, it's because he loves his child. Because God loves his children. He says, be holy. Don't live in an immoral relationship.

It will destroy you and I created you for something wonderful and beautiful that's going to be played out in a marriage covenant. Don't steal. Don't hate your neighbor and be envious of your neighbor's things. Why does he do that? Because he loves us. It's a law of freedom and liberty. It's a law that sets us free the commandments of God. But when we reject it, we reject freedom. Now this wisdom of God then is at its heart. It is believing the truth about who God is. It's living according to this revelation of who God has unveiled himself to be. The commandments of God, in fact in the book of James is especially true, that he bases God's commandments on God's character. The reason God commands us to do certain things is because of his character.

This is the problem with using technology. I want us to look at four things that he says in this passage. Three things, actually, about how we get wisdom when we need it. We desperately need wisdom and we need to understand that God's the only source. And that's really the first thing that we have to do is to acknowledge your need for wisdom from God. In Job 28, and I want you to look there too, I know I'm running you all over the place today, but that's okay. Job 28, that's right before the book of Psalms. Job 28, listen to Job's question beginning in verse 12. But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Where can we find wisdom? Job 28, verse 12. Men does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

And there's you can search all of this world and you can't find it. Which is the deep says it is not a need. The sea says it is not a need with need. Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it. You can't purchase it, no matter what you are, or it can still be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of a fear in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for articles of foreign gold. And he goes on and on and talks about that it cannot be found. Verse 21, verse it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky. We can't get the clear picture of reality because of our alienation from God. It cannot be found in creation.

It must be found in God's revelation. And listen to these final words, verse 22 is where he answers his question. The question is answered here in verse 12. When he says, I mean, verse 22, verse 23 says, God understands its way and he knows its place. In other words, the only place that you can find wisdom is in God. Wisdom is beyond our reach. You can have 52 degrees and not have wisdom. All of us have known educated fools. And we've known uneducated fools. And we've known uneducated wise people and we've known educated wise people. But there's no place that we can find wisdom apart from God. It's not in us. It's not around us. It's source cannot be found in man. It comes from heaven, James is going to say in chapter three.

It's coming down from heaven. God must give us wisdom. He is the one who gives us the world view that we are to live by. He's the one who opens our eyes to truth and the center of truth. Spreads and said, wisdom is a beauty of life that can only be produced by God's workmanship in us. So the first thing we have to do is to acknowledge our need for wisdom from God. That God is the only source for ultimate wisdom. It doesn't mean that people can't live well in this world to a certain degree. It means that people cannot live a beautiful life before God unless they get wisdom from God. And this is God's world. This is God's world. He created this world for himself. And he says the only place that we can find wisdom is from him.

And so if we need wisdom in the midst of trials, if we are in the midst of trials and our heart really is that we want God's wisdom, we don't want to remain fools. We don't want to waste the trial and not grow through it. And all of us have done that. We've all experienced that. We've been in severe trials and we didn't grow at all, because we didn't persevere in faith and live in obedience. We weren't changed by it, except maybe for the worst. And so the first thing we must do is acknowledge our need for wisdom and that God is the only one who can give us that. The second thing we must do, James says, is that we must ask God. He with any man lacks wisdom, let him ask God. We have to ask him for wisdom.

We have to request it. Now this is important, because we have to have a certain mindset about God. We have to believe that he wants to give us wisdom. This is the great motivator in prayer is that we know that God has bent this way. And forgive me for using that term for God. The God is such a nature that he loves to give gifts to his children. Jesus said to the disciples, and they were foolish disciples. In fact, as they wrote their gospel, they were very open about their own following foolishness. The Apostle Peter, the Apostle with a foot-shaped mouth, as they say, says to Jesus when Jesus tells him he's going to go to the cross, no way it's never going to happen to you. See, these were foolish men like you and me.

And Jesus said to those foolish men, do not be afraid to reflect. For your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. This is a wonderful verse. So we're glad that you're the key. That means that God takes great pleasure. He has pleased when he can give you of his kingdom. It's not something that you have to twist his arm. You don't have to go to God and use vain repetition and ask him a million times over. Or have a real prayer will that blows in the wind and the prayer goes around and around in circles. So that God is informed every rotation that this is what you want. Because God gladly gives. He joyfully gives the kingdom to his children, to his flock. He delights in giving. That's why we can ask him.

That's the kind of God he is. James Jesus, a phrase here, that's literally a title of God. It isn't quite as, it isn't quite as obvious in the English text, but in the Greek text, it's striking. That he says he is the giving to all men graciously and not upgrading God. The giving to all men generously without reproach God. That's his title. That's who he is. That's his character. As James is unveiling him here in this word. This is why we can come to him and ask him for reason. This is because this is the kind of God that he actually is. He is a God who gives to all men generously and does not reproach. How many of you would love to have fathers like that, human fathers, who give generously and do not reproach when you ask for things?

The idea of generously, quite literally, is this. It means with clarity of motive. It really isn't the word that's used sometimes for generously, but the primary meaning of this word is, without folds or with sincerity, it's the word that Jesus used when Jesus said, if your eye is clear, then your whole body will be full of light. If your eye is without wrinkles, if your eyes without ear is hidden agenda, when you look at God's revelation and you don't have a hidden agenda, when you look into the world, when you look at God, and you don't have a hidden agenda, your whole body is full of light. We are commanded to have this kind of motivation to have a single, simple, without wrinkle, wrinkles, motivation when we live our lives, because that's how God is.

God gives with a pure motive, without hidden agenda. God never gives to you in order to get you to do something, like we often do his parents. When we try to bribe our children, God never does that. He never bribes his children. You can't whine God into giving you something, but God loves to give good gifts to his children, and he always gives with a pure motive, and he gives without reproach. To me, this is one of the hardest things that I've ever learned in Scripture, that this is how God is, because I am not like this at all. It's so hard to give the way God gives with a pure motive, unlike telemarketers, if you have had somebody call you up on the phone and say, we'd like to give you a vacation to Florida.

A free paid vacation to Florida. We want to give that to you. When is their motivation? Is it pure? No. They have an agenda that's not all that hidden, and you can find out about 10 minutes when you say, is this about a timeshare? When God gives, he gives with purity of motive. He's not trying to manipulate you, and he doesn't reproach you. I love the way John Bunion translates to this. He says, God gives without quitting. Twitting in Old English means counting us for embarrassing mistakes. Are you proud to do that? That your child begs you for something you finally give in, but you taunt them. You berate them. All right, one more time, but I'm getting sick and tired of this. See, that's sometimes how we feel God is feeling about us when we go to Him for wisdom, because He's given us wisdom over and over again, and so many times we haven't followed it, and we shouldn't be much more grown up than we are spiritually.

God isn't like me. He's not sarcastic. Well, He can be sarcastic when you read the Bible, but He doesn't pounce you. He doesn't abroad you. He doesn't reproach you for asking. He delights in you asking, what God is angry about is you don't ask, because you don't care. James later is going to say, we do not have, because you do not have, because you do not ask. When you do ask, you ask with wrong murders, not to glorify God, but to squander on your desires. When we ask Him for His glory, we can be assured that He loves to give. It's a great delight to Him. And then, the point that James is making to us, that he wants to drive home to your heart, is that the believer should have, that is you who followed Jesus Christ, should have no hesitation in asking God for wisdom, as if God would scold us for not already having all the wisdom we need.

You know how we do one another? People get in trouble, and it's the same old thing, they've done it before, and they get into the same kind of old trouble, and so they call us up, and they're sheepish, and as they're telling us what's happened, and where they're at, and what's going on, and we take this big sigh, and then we just can't resist, we're approaching them. We just can't resist. And so we assume that that's how God is, and then when we go to Him, we'll be rightist and reproach us. And in fact, he's like the Father that's illustrated in the prodigal Son, that when the Son, he sees the Son of far off, coming down the trail to come home, this stupid Son, who took his inheritance, and went and squandered it all, and ended up being bereft of everything, living in a pigpint, is coming home, and the Father's heart is moved to such a deep degree that he hikes up his robe and begins to run down the path, and takes the Son into his arms, and pulls him to his chest, and begins to kiss him, and kiss him, and kiss him.

That's how God is to you, who are stubborn, and who rejected His wisdom. That's the kind of Father He is to us. He doesn't reproach, but He gives freely. And then one last thing, James tells us, if we're going to get wisdom from God, we have to abandon our doubt. And maybe this is the hardest part, we have to ask Him in faith without doubting, because, James says in verse 6, because the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, the one and toss by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable, in all of his ways. Wow. Wouldn't you hate for that to be put on your tombstone? Unstable in all his ways, but that should be on the tombstone of many people, shouldn't it?

We've met him, unstable in all of his ways. The only thing I ask in verse 6, James is going to say, we must ask in faith without any doubting, because our asking God must coincide with His nature. In other words, sometimes when we talk to God, it is apparent in our talking to Him, it's apparent in our making requests of Him that we don't understand Him at all. We don't understand Him at all. Sometimes we encounter, sometimes we act as though He hates us and He's disgusted with us. Sometimes we act as though He's not holy. You think that in your extreme? That, our asking, James, has to reflect who he really is. We have to ask with singletonism of intent, because he has a single heart and we have to ask in the same way with singleness of intent.

In faith without doubting, it's a very strong expression, expression in 30th without doubting. Everybody doubts. The Apostle Paul talks in Romans 4 about Abraham. He said he did not remember, through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but he was aware that Abraham had times of doubt. God made him a promise once reiterated a promise. He had made to him and Abraham couldn't help it. He began to give it because he thought it was so ridiculous that God would make in this promise. He knew he couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. He had doubts, just like you have doubts, about the promises of God. But what James is talking about is not that you never have any doubt, but that we make a right commitment to entrust ourselves to God in the midst of our trial, if we want His wisdom.

That we stop running out of shelter, looking this way and that, trying to find solutions to our problems independently of God, and we come to Him and by faith we ask Him without doubting. Doubting means to dispute with yourself, to argue with yourself, to go back and forth. James wants us to understand that God responds to us when our lives reflect this basic consistency of purpose and commitment and intent, a spiritual integrity. That's what the book of James is all about. Spiritual wholeness. That we're not like John Bunions, Mr. Facing both ways. A blessing when he prayed before his conversion. He prayed because his mother constantly prayed for his conversion and he felt like God was offering, but he didn't want to give up his immorality and so he prayed, Lord, make me pure, but not yet.

And that's how we are, isn't it? I want to, but I don't want to. I want God's wisdom, but I want to remain in my sin. Now, my sin is killing me. People get in the midst of trials and they continue down their path of sin and independence of God and rebellion. They keep seeking to get those comfort from their idol and their idol is destroying their life. And they know they need God's help, but they can't quite bring themselves to completely cast themselves on God and ask with faith without doubting, committing themselves to God's answer. They can't bring themselves to do it. And so they're like a man with a speed in two canoes. And it's one of the South American languages. That's the word picture for doubt.

A man with a speed in two canoes. They're going this way and that. James says, if you're like that, you'll never receive from God. He describes a person like that who does not ask in faith without any doubting in verses seven and eight when he says, that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything. By the way, that is, we could translate that person. This isn't just the domain of win, is it? That person, that man or a man or a girl ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord being a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. A double-minded man, quite literally, is a two-sole man. He has handkings for this and handkings for this. He desires to go this way, but he also desires to go down this path.

He's unstable, back and forth. Joseph and God will say, God will carry us in his arms until we can walk. And he will carry us when we cannot walk, but he will not carry us in his arms if we will not walk. There's truth to the fact that God respects you too much to make your decisions for you. The Bible does not teach that God makes your decisions. It teaches that he sovereign and he works out his will according to his purpose, but you have a will and you have to make decisions. And you are where you are today because of decisions you made in the past. And James is appealing to them. Make the right decision. There'll be a double-sole, two-sole man. Have a hard-hearted, consistent, integral faith commitment to God in the midst of your trials.

Now, I think the reason that he does it in this context is because trials, the reasoning speaks like this, is that trials are the place. They are the place where our faith is truly tested and made visible and it's seen for what it is. And sometimes we give ourselves credit for having faith. We give ourselves credit for having strong faith, but in the midst of trials, when the fire is burning and we begin to see all those impurities and we begin to see how too sold we are and how our heart is divided. And James is appealing to us. In those times, there's a great time to get your heart together. It's a great time for your heart to become undivided and whole. It's when your idols are crushed. When they're shown up for what they really are, unable to provide what God alone can provide in your life.

That's the time to unite your heart. And to fulfill the two great commandments that Jesus said are the greatest commandments of all that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and love your neighbors yourself. You cannot love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your idol, the idols of your heart at the same time. You can't serve two masters. Jesus said you will either love the one and hate the other or you will hate the one and love the other. You can't love God. And so he calls to us great opportunity in the midst of my trial. You're not your heart. Commit yourself to God. Ask him for wisdom and commit yourself before the wisdom even comes.

Before he opens his word to you in such a way that you can see it's clear what I have to do in this situation because of who God is and who has revealed himself to be in Christ Jesus. Take the trials as an opportunity for God to unite your heart and for you to stop becoming if you are a two soul person. Commonality and it's like a virus that hides within your very nature and you'll always be proud into it. But he can always deliver you from it. That's the great joy. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful that you have not called us for the purpose of defeating us and allowing us to be defeated by trials and the difficulties of life that you have called us or God to make us whole and complete lacking in nothing to demonstrate in us and through our lives and especially in the midst of our trials to display in us, O Father, the truth about Christ and the truth about the wholeness that he brings to our lives, that he can make us one's with one heart purely devoted to you.

We pray that you do that work in our lives. As we face trials, some live some small. Father, I pray you'd help us to see them as opportunities to unite our hearts and love and faith towards you. As you'd discipline, I pray that you'd be gentle with us, that you would change us and not destroy us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.