WEBVTT 00:00:00.460 --> 00:00:05.440 Father, we thank you that we can be together in your presence. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.280 We thank you that you delight in having your children be present with you on the Sabbath, the Lord's Day. 00:00:13.099 --> 00:00:17.920 Father, we know that you are the great giver and that we are one unending need. 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:24.019 And so, Father, we ask that you would tune our hearts with that humility, 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.679 that we might receive all that you desire to give us this morning, 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:32.219 and that we might respond to what you give in a worthy manner. 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:36.159 And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:00:36.619 --> 00:00:37.439 Please be seated. 00:00:42.980 --> 00:00:50.359 There's a small movement in British intellectual circles over the last few years. 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:53.679 Obviously, it's not all British intellectuals, 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:59.640 but it's a small but surprising number of British intellectuals who are atheists or agnostic, 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:04.359 who over the last few years have started to write about the importance of Christianity, 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:10.180 to actually, in a sense, the importance of Christianity to their agnosticism and their atheism. 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:14.500 Two of the best-known examples of these public intellectuals, 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:20.780 one of them would be Tom Holland, whose book Dominion talks about his surprise. 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:29.439 He was challenged by a Muslim because Tom Holland had written a book sort of trying to show the origins of Muslim ideas, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 not to Islam's credit. 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:36.519 And so a Muslim challenged him to do the same thing for his secular atheism, 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:38.920 and he thought that was a reasonable request. 00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:43.020 And he did that, and dominion is the result of his quest. 00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:49.299 And he discovered that basically everything that he valued as an atheist, as a secular intellectual atheist, 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:54.140 all was from the Christian faith, to his complete and utter surprise. 00:01:54.899 --> 00:01:57.199 Douglas Murray has written some books as well. 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:03.239 So just after Easter, I was reading one of these public intellectuals, agnostic, 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:07.479 who talked a little bit about how they've now come to appreciate the Christian faith. 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:11.680 And one of the things he was talking about is that he grew up, you know, 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:17.020 I guess probably those private schools that British kids, richer British kids have to go to. 00:02:17.480 --> 00:02:20.240 They had to do morning and evening prayer and all that type of stuff. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:28.099 And he said as a child, as a teenager and as an adult, he loved the Norse gods, the gods of Norway. 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:34.599 And now he's come to realize, he said, that the Norse gods sound like something invented by a teenage boy. 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:40.120 And that the Greek and Roman gods, which many intellectuals like, 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.599 he said he realizes that they were invented by somebody who wrote, 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:49.079 they sound like something invented by somebody who writes soap operas for the Greek and Roman gods. 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:53.859 And then he said, but he loved the Norse gods, and he was fine with the Greek and Roman gods, 00:02:53.860 --> 00:03:02.040 because he thought Christianity sounded like something invented by an elderly aunt who is displeased if anybody has any fun. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.580 And that was his experience of the Christian faith, 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:11.600 an elderly aunt who is displeased if anybody has anything at all funny or fun or life-giving. 00:03:13.040 --> 00:03:16.680 Here at Church of the Messiah, one of the things we do is we preach through books of the Bible. 00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:21.420 We've taken a break for Holy Week for obvious reasons, 00:03:21.419 --> 00:03:24.519 and we've been going through the book of James, we're going to return to that today, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.239 James chapter 3, verses 13 to 18. 00:03:27.959 --> 00:03:32.119 And if you don't read the, if you read the text at a superficial level, 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:37.539 it sounds as if it's a text written by an elderly aunt who wants to make sure they don't have any fun, 00:03:38.079 --> 00:03:40.239 where you have to keep the rules and no fun. 00:03:40.679 --> 00:03:42.899 But if you actually pause to look at the text, 00:03:42.959 --> 00:03:47.799 it says something quite shocking and surprising about human flourishing, 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:51.280 and about how, about what human flourishing is, 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:52.800 and about the Christian faith. 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.719 So if you would turn with me in your Bibles to James chapter 3, 00:03:57.340 --> 00:03:58.880 beginning at verse 13. 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:02.439 And I might, in a bit, give you a little bit of the context of it, 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:05.080 but right now we'll just plunge into that text. 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:07.880 And here's how it begins. 00:04:08.860 --> 00:04:11.939 And by the way, when I preach, I use the English Standard Version, 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:13.980 which is a really good version. 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:15.399 And it's quite literal. 00:04:16.039 --> 00:04:19.279 In fact, often when I'm looking at the academic commentaries 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:23.839 and they have a little translator's note about what the little phrase is literally, 00:04:24.039 --> 00:04:27.079 that's actually what the English Standard Version is. 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:31.339 But those of you who know more than one language know that sometimes, 00:04:31.860 --> 00:04:34.719 I mean, there's times when having it very, very precise and literal 00:04:34.719 --> 00:04:37.159 in a little phrase is very, very helpful, 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:39.980 which is why I always work on my sermons from it. 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:45.080 But often it can make it hard to understand when you get to the unit of the sentence 00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:48.580 or the paragraph because the languages don't match up. 00:04:49.020 --> 00:04:50.379 So I'll read the English Standard Version. 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:51.439 It's quite literal. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.740 But in this particular, and then I'm going to read the NIV version of it 00:04:54.740 --> 00:04:56.939 because actually the NIV, which is a bit of a, 00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:00.960 we'll take a, anyway, it's a bit of a different translation technique. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:02.460 It'll help us to get the idea better. 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:03.640 But first the ESV. 00:05:04.020 --> 00:05:05.040 And it goes like this. 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:07.860 Who is wise and understanding among you? 00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:15.080 By his or her good conduct, by the good way, by their living, how they live, 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:20.280 by their good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:24.879 And if I read just to you how the NIV translates it, 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:26.860 it's a bit more of a dynamic translation, 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:30.420 but it actually in this case will help you to understand it easier. 00:05:30.820 --> 00:05:31.680 It goes like this. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.180 Who is wise and understanding among you? 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:37.060 Let them show it by their good life, 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.879 by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:42.720 Now, they both say the same thing, 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:44.879 but that's a bit easier for us to understand in English. 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:46.300 I'll say it to you again. 00:05:46.379 --> 00:05:48.120 Who is wise and understanding among you? 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:50.199 Let them show it by their good life, 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:53.280 by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:56.560 Now, you can easily see how hearing that, 00:05:56.620 --> 00:05:59.100 it sounds like it's something written by an elderly aunt. 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:03.600 Because for most of us, humility means saying bad things about yourself, 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:07.580 not looking down your nose at yourself. 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:12.400 And good deeds, well, that sounds like there's a list of good things that you have to do, 00:06:12.520 --> 00:06:14.820 and you try to check them off. 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:16.480 And that's what the Christian life is. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:25.840 But the text actually is saying something completely the opposite of what we think of from the elderly aunt perspective. 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:27.500 It's saying something completely and utterly different. 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:34.939 And it can be seen by the fact that the word translated as good in the original language is also the word for beauty. 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:37.680 It's also the word for beautiful. 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:44.459 So, and most English translators have translated it as good. 00:06:44.540 --> 00:06:48.879 In fact, that word is actually very common in the New Testament, this word. 00:06:49.300 --> 00:06:54.519 But English commentary writers or Bible translators almost always translate the word as good. 00:06:55.100 --> 00:07:00.360 I actually think it would be more helpful in our day and age if they chose the other word, which is beauty. 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:00.480 beauty. 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:05.199 Now, just what being said here, and I'll explain the significance of it in a moment, 00:07:05.300 --> 00:07:12.560 is what's being said here is something that, in a sense, the beauty is not just sort of merely attractive. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:19.840 Beauty is something that has a type of weight to it, a worthiness to it, a dignity to it, a presence to it. 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:24.180 But at the same time, if you've ever been in a situation which is just beautiful, 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:29.699 you realize that there's not only is there a sense of worthiness or thickness to it, 00:07:29.699 --> 00:07:31.439 but it's also actually light. 00:07:32.219 --> 00:07:33.719 You don't feel oppressed. 00:07:33.899 --> 00:07:39.399 You feel like your spirit feels lifted a little bit when you're in the presence of something which is sort of worthy 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:41.500 and has a type of weight to it. 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:49.339 But if you understand that what the Bible here is saying is that human flourishing is living a life of beauty. 00:07:49.339 --> 00:08:00.719 The Christian life is a life in a quest, a quest in terms of how you live towards beauty, towards living a life of beauty. 00:08:01.659 --> 00:08:06.179 And once you understand that that's what the New Testament is saying here and in many other places, 00:08:06.299 --> 00:08:12.179 you realize that the view of the elderly aunt as the writer of the Christian faith can't possibly be true. 00:08:12.180 --> 00:08:14.900 In fact, you actually understand something else as well. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:19.900 Because if you think about it, most of the decisions, like we make hundreds, maybe, I don't know, 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:22.220 hundreds, thousands of decisions every day. 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:23.780 I'm going to have coffee. 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.040 I'm going to, you know, in my case, am I going to make an Americano? 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:29.319 Am I going to have French press? 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:31.180 You know, am I going to have decaf? 00:08:31.280 --> 00:08:34.320 I'm going to have peanut butter with my toast or not. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:37.560 Like, you know, we make all these, we make a wide range of decisions throughout the day. 00:08:37.839 --> 00:08:39.519 And most of them aren't moral. 00:08:40.219 --> 00:08:41.899 Most of them aren't about good and bad. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:46.479 And if the Christian life is just about doing good things and not doing bad things, 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:49.679 well, that's, I guess, could just sound like there's not much to do about fun. 00:08:49.719 --> 00:08:53.419 But if you understand that human flourishing, because that's what the Bible text is saying here. 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:57.439 It's not just saying that Christians, I mean, Christians are like, 00:08:57.959 --> 00:09:01.059 non-Christians aren't called to go to church every Sunday, but Christians are. 00:09:01.139 --> 00:09:03.439 So there's certain things which are particular to Christians. 00:09:04.219 --> 00:09:06.119 Non-Christians aren't to share the gospel. 00:09:06.359 --> 00:09:07.039 I mean, why would they? 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:07.719 They don't believe it. 00:09:07.740 --> 00:09:09.199 But Christians are to share the gospel. 00:09:09.899 --> 00:09:14.279 But here it's talking about something which is human, human flourishing, 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.039 which is common to Christians and non-Christians. 00:09:17.699 --> 00:09:22.019 And if you understand that your life should be a quest into beauty, 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:26.259 you realize that just following moral rules isn't going to be enough. 00:09:27.379 --> 00:09:35.899 See, it's not a moral rule whether you paint your room a drab institutional gray or beige. 00:09:35.899 --> 00:09:39.019 It's not a good thing or a bad thing to do that. 00:09:39.579 --> 00:09:43.039 But the Bible here is saying, in a sense, I mean, and some of you like gray and you like, 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.039 I'm not making any comments about that aesthetically. 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:49.559 But in a sense, the Bible is saying, well, why wouldn't you make it more aesthetically pleasing? 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:54.259 Like, why wouldn't you pick it a nice, interesting color? 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:57.539 And why wouldn't you think about how things match? 00:09:58.159 --> 00:09:59.419 And why wouldn't you think about it? 00:09:59.460 --> 00:10:01.840 And this idea of beauty is expansive. 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:05.500 It's expansive in terms of the beauty of relationships. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:08.559 It's the beauty of a family that seems to get along well. 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:09.740 It's the beauty of friends. 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:13.940 It's the beauty of a type of beautiful way of being old. 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:20.139 It's the beauty of a singleness that is just there's something beautiful and wonderful 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:26.379 about the way the person embraces and lives into their singleness, which is just beautiful. 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:34.939 Like, you know, there's a beautiful way to organize an administration or organize a project or a concert or a meal or your neighborhood, 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:39.899 that beauty is expansive and it's a quest towards living a life of beauty. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.779 And if it's living a life of beauty, beauty isn't going to be less than right and wrong, good and evil, but it's going to be more. 00:10:47.539 --> 00:10:52.259 And you can't understand the quest for beauty if you merely follow the Ten Commandments. 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:56.179 If you cheat on your wife, it's going to ruin the beauty of your marriage. 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:59.639 If you lie to your friends, it's going to ruin the beauty of a friendship. 00:11:00.579 --> 00:11:04.259 But beauty puts you to realize there needs to be more. 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:12.120 You need to think about something more and you need wisdom to help you to understand what it means to be on this quest into beauty. 00:11:13.259 --> 00:11:14.919 And that's what this text says. 00:11:15.439 --> 00:11:19.259 I'll read it again in the NIV, which is going to be a bit different than on the screen. 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:21.559 Who is wise and understanding among you? 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:29.139 Let them show it by their beautiful life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. 00:11:30.179 --> 00:11:31.299 So what is wisdom? 00:11:32.059 --> 00:11:35.459 What is that wisdom that helps you to make those decisions? 00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:45.259 And to realize then that if, in fact, it's a quest towards a life of beauty, you know, it takes some understanding. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:49.320 Let's say it's just involving paint about how paints work and how they match. 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:52.280 If it involves the music that might be in the background or the ambience. 00:11:52.279 --> 00:12:01.939 It's just, by the way, if you come to the house and I, you know, back when, eventually when we can have people come over, if you come over to the house and let's say Louise is gone and I've set up the meal. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:03.839 I'll just be honest. 00:12:04.259 --> 00:12:04.579 Why? 00:12:05.019 --> 00:12:07.839 You know, you cook it in the pot, serve it in the pot. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:09.559 Like why waste an extra dish, right? 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:13.559 It would be purely functional. 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:15.059 It wouldn't be beautiful. 00:12:15.219 --> 00:12:19.039 But if you came in after Louise has set everything up, you'd go, oh, this is a really nice room. 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:20.439 This feels good. 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:26.239 And we all know people have some spectacular gifts of hospitality and all. 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:28.000 And you just go in and you think, what did they do? 00:12:28.119 --> 00:12:36.599 Like just everything about this just, I remember I've been in some rooms and I'll come back to Louise and say, it's the oddest colors in the world. 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:43.120 All of the colors that you would never pick if you're looking at paint chips and different walls and different parts of the room. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:47.480 But somehow when you're in the room, gosh, it was just something about it. 00:12:47.620 --> 00:12:48.960 There's understanding, right? 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:49.540 And wisdom. 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:50.879 So what is wisdom? 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:56.220 Well, this is what the Bible is going to say, talk about, which has a few things which are a bit shocking to Canadians. 00:12:56.800 --> 00:13:00.399 And that shockiness comes right off in the very first thing in verse 14. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:18.480 So remember the quest now, as we understand, the Christian quest is the same as the human quest, is to walk, is a life that moves into beauty, into having a beauty in relationships, beauty in your home, beauty in your soul, beauty in your appearance. 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.019 For some of us, there's not much we can do about that. 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.639 One guy said a smile always makes your face look better. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.919 And everybody can smile. 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:32.399 But if it's into beauty and we need wisdom to do it, well, listen to verse 14. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.720 Verse 14, 15, and 16, in a sense, is the bad news. 00:13:36.319 --> 00:13:37.179 It goes like this. 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:45.299 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:53.620 Now, what bitter jealousy and selfish ambition is really referring to is the habit of your life. 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:58.479 People make micro decisions all the time, one way or the other, micro decisions. 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:07.120 And we can embark on a path of micro decisions that makes it more and more, that we become more and more self-centered. 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:11.859 More and more see everything in terms of how it affects us. 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:18.680 And not only, and as we go on a journey, a bark on a journey of micro decisions, which are more and more self-centered, 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:25.120 what happens is that it becomes then that my other people increasingly become threats. 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:29.100 If people have a type of prominence that I think I should have, they're a threat. 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:34.840 If somebody else has a good idea, well, and I start to think that I'm the only one who can have good ideas, 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:39.159 where people side with that person's good ideas rather than ours, they become threats. 00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:46.819 And this is what's being described here is this path of micro decisions, of being increasingly focused around yourself, 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:51.139 your party, your tribe, your interests, just you. 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:59.980 And it's saying that, what it's going to be saying is that if we understand that the human flourishing quest is a life towards beauty, 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:06.379 something which is going to be something which is going to walk us away from beauty, 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:11.159 is a life characterized by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:19.259 a life where us becoming the center and the most important is something that comes to dominate who we are. 00:15:19.800 --> 00:15:21.840 Usually it's unconscious. 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:34.420 By the grace of God, sometimes a word by a friend or a boss or a spouse or a child will shock us into realizing how we've been walking down this path of increasing self-centeredness. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:36.220 But that's what's being described. 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:42.200 And an interesting thing, it's a very, very profound truth, which the Bible is saying here as well. 00:15:42.660 --> 00:15:45.080 Many of us are familiar with the phrase, I don't know if it's true, 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:49.680 but the first casualty in war is the truth. 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:51.379 I don't know how many of you have heard that expression. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.420 The first casualty in war is the truth. 00:15:54.560 --> 00:16:01.840 I don't know if that's true, but what the text here is saying is that if you embark on a journey, 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:07.860 when we embark on a journey, when you embark on a journey to increasing self-centeredness, 00:16:08.300 --> 00:16:10.879 truth is always the casualty. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:21.000 That you will start to repress the truth, suppress the truth, ignore the truth, deny the truth, 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:25.919 experience truth, not as a friend, but as a threat. 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:30.919 That you will be like, you know, back when we go to restaurants, 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:36.460 those waiters are waiters who have that ability to not notice that you're waving at them because you want attention. 00:16:36.460 --> 00:16:42.259 You know how there's those waiters and waitresses that seem to have the ability to always see you as if you're invisible? 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:44.840 That that's how you start to be towards the truth. 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:47.840 That's a very profound insight. 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:49.860 It's a really important one. 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:55.259 And by the way, because you think about what's one of the best pieces of advice that we can give somebody in our culture? 00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:59.540 The type of advice, it wouldn't matter if you're in Tim Hortons, it wouldn't matter if you were in Bridgehead, 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:02.120 it wouldn't matter if you're in something more trendy than Bridgehead. 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:10.299 But if you were somebody who's talking about their problems and you said to them, you be you, you got to be you, you be you. 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:13.619 We all go, yeah, yeah, you be you. 00:17:13.700 --> 00:17:14.339 Oh, one moment. 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:20.099 Isn't you be you a slogan into self-centeredness and self-absorption? 00:17:21.619 --> 00:17:28.599 Like the fact of the matter is, is that all of us are better than our philosophies or most of us are better than our philosophies. 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:34.480 And so, you know, people will take that and not go the full route into what it's going to necessarily mean. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.839 But, you know, at the heart of that, you be you. 00:17:36.939 --> 00:17:42.000 At the heart of the fact that only you can figure out who you are and you need to pursue who you are. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:46.799 And you need to have the you need to have the buy in and the and others. 00:17:46.919 --> 00:17:50.459 You need to have the applause as you try to be you, as you try to be autonomous. 00:17:50.460 --> 00:17:52.860 And that's what's seen as wisdom in our world. 00:17:53.660 --> 00:17:59.799 And yet, if it's taken, really, it means it doesn't matter what chaos you cause in your family. 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:07.579 It doesn't matter what chaos you cause in the business or in government or in your neighborhood or with your spouse. 00:18:08.420 --> 00:18:08.900 You be you. 00:18:11.299 --> 00:18:12.160 You be you. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.900 And this this leads us to the next thing. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:17.820 If you think about it, verse 15. 00:18:20.560 --> 00:18:22.779 This is not the wisdom. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:29.019 In other words, what the text is saying is that there's false wisdom and true wisdom. 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:30.400 That's what it's going to be saying. 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:31.920 There's false wisdom and true wisdom. 00:18:32.560 --> 00:18:37.120 And so we need to try to figure out a little bit about what false wisdom is and what true wisdom is. 00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:39.180 And here's the shocking thing in verse 15. 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:46.580 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly and spiritual and demonic. 00:18:48.060 --> 00:18:51.500 So when it says here's the shocking thing. 00:18:52.100 --> 00:18:56.460 All true wisdom comes from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:02.340 And if the wisdom is not coming from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:10.379 it wouldn't matter if Canada had the Wise Book of the Year award and it wins overwhelmingly, 00:19:10.659 --> 00:19:14.919 if in fact the heart and the bulk of the wisdom in that Wise Book of the Year award, 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:18.659 according to Canada, if it's not in fact ultimately wisdom, 00:19:18.659 --> 00:19:21.699 which is coming from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, it's not true wisdom. 00:19:22.099 --> 00:19:25.759 In fact, it says that it's earthly, unspiritual and demonic. 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:28.879 Now, what those three words mean are very interesting words. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:34.660 Earthly, if you read the Book of Revelation, you'll see often earth dwellers and other types of words 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:37.560 like that word group used throughout the Book of Revelation. 00:19:38.120 --> 00:19:40.540 And it's also found in different places in the New Testament. 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:45.620 And basically it's the perspective that there is no transcendent perspective, 00:19:47.620 --> 00:19:52.740 that there's no eternal perspective, that all it is is the here and now. 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:58.720 What you can eat, what you can put on, what you can wear, you know, what you can sleep with. 00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:02.120 And that's the only thing that matters. 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:07.960 In a sense, the great song of it would be that he who dies with the most toys wins. 00:20:08.620 --> 00:20:15.620 It's a purely here and now perspective, which takes nothing at all about whether there might be eternal consequences, 00:20:15.819 --> 00:20:19.160 whether there might be a God, whether there's a higher purpose that you might have, 00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:21.600 a higher power, as they talk about in AA. 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:24.220 It's just all flat, all of this world. 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:29.500 The word unspiritual actually could probably translate it more literally as soulish. 00:20:30.120 --> 00:20:32.540 It appears, you know, at different times in the New Testament. 00:20:32.800 --> 00:20:35.060 And there's two basic ways to understand that. 00:20:35.620 --> 00:20:40.240 The first one is to understand that it means human nature, human life, 00:20:40.360 --> 00:20:44.420 completely outside of the Holy Spirit having any type of influence. 00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:52.600 But the other way to understand it is that, in a sense, it's life lived purely out of appetite and instinct. 00:20:53.860 --> 00:20:57.120 Life lived purely out of appetite and instinct. 00:20:57.600 --> 00:21:02.940 So that the first type of source of false wisdom is that which is merely of the earth, 00:21:03.080 --> 00:21:04.240 merely of the here and now. 00:21:04.660 --> 00:21:10.500 The second source is ultimately stuff which shuts the door to anything that's coming from the Holy Spirit. 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:19.200 But it's basically just, in a sense, enthroning or acting out of your appetites and your instincts. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:24.240 And the third one is demonic, which means literally from demons. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:32.500 So the text is making this very, very shocking claim that true wisdom, 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.839 which is going to help us to live the quest towards beauty, 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:41.059 has to come from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, or it's not true wisdom. 00:21:42.140 --> 00:21:46.539 I'm going to explain it in a moment, but I want to look at the rest of the bad news, which is verse 16. 00:21:46.539 --> 00:21:53.879 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, it's the same words as up above in verse 14, 00:21:54.359 --> 00:21:58.460 there will be disorder in every vile practice. 00:22:00.159 --> 00:22:02.819 So 14, 15, and 16 are sort of a group. 00:22:03.579 --> 00:22:08.559 And one of the things it's saying is that if the human quest towards flourishing is towards a life of beauty, 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:16.519 that in fact, if the opposite of that will be increasing self-centeredness, self-obsession, 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:25.539 self-concern, self-ambition, self-exaltation, me, me, me, me, I, I, I, I, 00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:27.579 and that's going to go against a life of beauty. 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:29.559 It's going to go against knowing the truth. 00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:37.220 And here it's saying that what it causes is disorder and evil, or vile things or evil things, 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:42.419 that it encourages evil because there's no check on doing things which are wrong. 00:22:42.579 --> 00:22:47.839 Like, if I understand that telling a lie destroys the beauty of friendship, 00:22:48.139 --> 00:22:53.419 if I understand that telling a lie destroys or wounds the beauty of a good marriage, 00:22:53.420 --> 00:23:00.940 that if I tell a lie, it ruins just how I see. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.360 If I tell lies about people groups, that's what racism comes from 00:23:04.360 --> 00:23:08.200 and prejudice comes from is believing lies about people. 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:10.220 And you can see that. 00:23:10.360 --> 00:23:11.500 It hurts it. 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:12.620 It wounds it. 00:23:13.080 --> 00:23:14.460 But it's not just that. 00:23:14.980 --> 00:23:19.980 It will then, when you're completely and utterly consumed with being yourself as the center, 00:23:20.120 --> 00:23:23.259 then the question is, if I need to be on top, why shouldn't I tell a lie? 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:24.319 If I can be on top. 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:27.259 Like, what's wrong with that? 00:23:27.299 --> 00:23:29.420 That's why it ends up contributing to evil. 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:33.119 At the end of the day, it makes science impossible 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:37.220 because you can't acknowledge that you were wrong. 00:23:37.319 --> 00:23:41.859 And science works on being wrong time and time and time again as the path towards truth. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:46.099 But disorder, it's not a fascist thing. 00:23:46.180 --> 00:23:48.379 In fact, what the text would say is this. 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:51.039 It's not that you have to keep order no matter what happens. 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:56.980 In fact, if you think about it, what communism and fascism does. 00:23:57.139 --> 00:23:59.599 Fascism and communism are, in a sense, the same thing. 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:04.139 In both of them, you have the high leader, the supreme leader, and the party 00:24:04.139 --> 00:24:08.740 that crushes anything other than them having power. 00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:13.740 And so whenever there's a communist society and whenever there's a fascist society, 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:15.740 they have to wound churches. 00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:17.299 They have to wound families. 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:20.920 They have to wound political associations and poetry groups. 00:24:21.120 --> 00:24:25.339 They have to wound and destroy and put their thumb down, 00:24:25.460 --> 00:24:31.200 their big, thick books, boots down on the heads and the necks of those organizations 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:34.480 because there can be nothing in the way of the will of the party. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.900 So even though there can be a type of order, it's an order of terror, 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:42.839 an order where the citizens are encouraged to report on each other. 00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:47.680 I'm not going to say anything more about that. 00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:48.400 I've just said it. 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:53.900 But that's not what the order here. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.040 You see, all that is is just at a bigger level, the selfish and ambition. 00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:01.340 It's not the type of order that the Bible means here. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:05.500 The other thing that it's talking about in terms of disorder is if you watch movies like 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:12.759 Contagion or Greenland, you know, and there's some threat of a contagion or some threat of 00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:16.960 destruction, and then the police stop functioning, the army stops functioning, people loot. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:20.259 There's no human flourishing that can go on in a situation like that. 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:25.620 And that's what happens in a sense, the Bible is saying, when there is a pursuit of these 00:25:25.620 --> 00:25:31.299 micro decisions that build within you a habit of being the center of being the thing which 00:25:31.299 --> 00:25:32.700 is the absolute most important. 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:36.680 And these things will not lead towards a life of beauty. 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:38.600 Now listen to verse 17. 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:44.319 And then I'll try to explain a little bit about why it makes this bold claim that only the 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:48.799 triune God can be the source of the wisdom that leads to a life of beauty. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:50.959 Listen to verse 17. 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:57.539 But the wisdom from above, you hear from above, it means from God's throne, from the Father, 00:25:57.659 --> 00:25:59.019 the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:25:59.639 --> 00:26:01.719 But the wisdom from above is first pure. 00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:05.159 And pure here means morally pure. 00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:07.400 It means morally blameless. 00:26:08.800 --> 00:26:11.220 It means a commitment to telling the truth. 00:26:11.340 --> 00:26:14.540 It means a commitment to not stealing. 00:26:15.240 --> 00:26:18.840 It means a commitment to that which is pure, moral. 00:26:19.660 --> 00:26:21.259 Then peaceable. 00:26:22.900 --> 00:26:27.080 You see, this is a real direct contrast with what you're just saying beforehand. 00:26:27.340 --> 00:26:33.440 It means that in the life of beauty, you're looking for a type of peaceable order. 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:39.980 You know, I guess it would be a little bit like the difference between, my wife was so 00:26:39.980 --> 00:26:41.400 much better with the kids than I am. 00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:45.080 I tell everybody, you know, I don't know, my kids would all maybe be in jail or something 00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:47.940 if I'd been a single dad too long with my kids. 00:26:48.600 --> 00:26:52.320 My wife was so important to a well-functioning family. 00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:55.039 So I might get the kids to settle down out of fear. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:56.960 So long. 00:26:57.220 --> 00:26:58.360 I get mad at them. 00:26:58.580 --> 00:26:59.519 They all sit there. 00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:06.180 But my wife will think of a game or distract them or something fun to do. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:08.839 Two types of order. 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:11.079 One of them is the way to beauty. 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:15.740 The other one, you know, maybe it settled them down enough for my wife to do the good thing. 00:27:15.819 --> 00:27:16.119 I don't know. 00:27:16.259 --> 00:27:18.139 But anyway, but peaceable. 00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:21.500 The third thing is gentle. 00:27:22.460 --> 00:27:24.500 And only the strong can be gentle. 00:27:24.500 --> 00:27:29.380 Open to reason. 00:27:30.740 --> 00:27:33.359 Full of mercy and good fruits. 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:35.819 Now just sort of pause. 00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:37.299 You know what's at the heart of a lot of these? 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:39.019 And this is very important to today. 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:47.059 One of the big, you see, if you are pursuing a path towards the self being enthroned and 00:27:47.059 --> 00:27:52.359 the party that you like, the groups that you like being enthroned, the ideology that you 00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:53.460 like being enthroned. 00:27:53.659 --> 00:28:01.119 And when that becomes the thing which starts to dictate how you live, at the heart of it, 00:28:01.159 --> 00:28:04.039 what happens is that you see evil as out there. 00:28:05.700 --> 00:28:07.139 Evil is out there. 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:10.560 And so if evil is out there, you've got to stop it. 00:28:10.620 --> 00:28:11.420 You've got to quelch it. 00:28:11.460 --> 00:28:13.259 You do whatever you have to do to stop it. 00:28:13.520 --> 00:28:18.160 But at the heart of the biblical understanding isn't that evil is out there, but that evil 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:19.200 is in me. 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:23.440 And the evil is in you and in you and in you and in you and in us. 00:28:24.700 --> 00:28:30.400 That as Solzhenitsyn put it very well, the line between good and evil runs right down 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:31.720 the center of every human being. 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:37.700 And if you start to understand that, then you realize that these virtues are the virtues 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:40.299 that are going to be important even when you're dealing with evil. 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:46.700 Like in a good family, even when you deal with the wrongness of what a child has done, 00:28:46.759 --> 00:28:50.920 and it has to be done consistently, and it has to be done rightly, and it has to be done 00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:57.319 sternly or strongly, especially the more evil, the greater the bad thing is that the kid has 00:28:57.319 --> 00:28:58.799 done, the more it has to be clear to them. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:02.839 But there is a way of doing it which is gentle, and there is a way of doing it that is harsh. 00:29:03.299 --> 00:29:07.039 And the way that we are to choose is the gentle way, because the gentle way is part 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:10.159 of the path, the quest to the beautiful life. 00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:19.460 Peaceable, if you think about it, means that there is a chance for the amendment of life. 00:29:20.379 --> 00:29:26.799 There is a chance for the restoring of the relationship at the heart of being peaceable. 00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:31.639 I'll start reading it again from the top, that the wisdom from above is pure, then peaceable, 00:29:32.539 --> 00:29:34.079 gentle, open to reason. 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:36.319 Open to reason. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:43.759 Nobody would describe our current cultural moment as a moment of open to reason. 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:53.779 I mean, it's just so lacking in our society. 00:29:55.379 --> 00:29:57.140 Full of mercy and good fruits. 00:29:57.619 --> 00:30:01.940 The word here, impartial, some of your translations might say unwavering, and that's one of those 00:30:01.940 --> 00:30:04.940 cases where the original language, the word, can go either way. 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:07.779 Both of them are very good words, by the way. 00:30:07.779 --> 00:30:12.019 The impartial is just that, obviously, that it's the opposite of being self-centered. 00:30:12.139 --> 00:30:12.819 You're impartial. 00:30:13.619 --> 00:30:18.240 Unwavering is, the idea behind unwavering is that you know where your loyalty is. 00:30:18.779 --> 00:30:20.740 Your loyalty is to the wisdom from above. 00:30:20.839 --> 00:30:22.639 Your loyalty is to the life of beauty. 00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:24.399 And so you're unwavering in that. 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:27.139 Your commitment, your loyalty is sure. 00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:32.579 And sincere means that it's not just surface, but it goes all the way down. 00:30:32.579 --> 00:30:34.199 I just want to say something to you. 00:30:35.639 --> 00:30:37.079 Doesn't that sound beautiful? 00:30:39.259 --> 00:30:42.079 Wouldn't you want to have that characterize your life? 00:30:43.579 --> 00:30:49.319 Wouldn't you want to have that characterize your church, your family, your marriage, your 00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:53.579 friendships, your community, your work, what has just been described? 00:30:53.579 --> 00:31:05.339 If that doesn't do something within you of some type of a longing, I don't know what I can 00:31:05.339 --> 00:31:05.859 say to you. 00:31:11.539 --> 00:31:16.819 Why does the Bible say that it can only come from the triune God? 00:31:18.699 --> 00:31:20.199 Well, there's several things. 00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:29.700 If I was to find a guitar in an attic somewhere, and then I was to use it to prop open the door 00:31:29.700 --> 00:31:36.759 on a windy day, and JP and Jill and Alan came over and they saw that guitar and they went, 00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:41.460 Do you realize how valuable that guitar is? 00:31:41.539 --> 00:31:42.340 What are you doing? 00:31:44.860 --> 00:31:46.580 But they might come to that guitar and say, 00:31:46.660 --> 00:31:49.340 The only thing that guitar is good for is to hold the door open. 00:31:50.200 --> 00:31:53.120 That's just a piece of crap. 00:31:53.900 --> 00:31:58.940 You see, the fact of the matter is, you know, if I said this isn't a good cup because I tried 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:03.580 to break a rock with it, and you know, I have four cups like this, and the other three that I 00:32:03.580 --> 00:32:06.319 tried to break the rock with, it didn't break the rock, so it's not a good cup. 00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:08.900 You'd go, George, you don't use cups to break rocks. 00:32:09.220 --> 00:32:12.240 The idea of something being good implies that you know what it's for. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:21.299 And you see, at the very heart of the Christian faith is that there is a God, like, if you 00:32:21.299 --> 00:32:27.180 believe that everything just happened for no reason, that it just happened by chance, which 00:32:27.180 --> 00:32:29.920 is what our culture fundamentally means. 00:32:29.980 --> 00:32:34.380 If you believe that everything just happened by chance, there can be no purpose for anything. 00:32:34.380 --> 00:32:38.620 And in a sense, then, it means that there is no good. 00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:44.680 You can't have, in a sense, a good life because the good life implies that there's a life that 00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:49.140 had some type of a purpose, but there is no purpose, so it's not good. 00:32:49.140 --> 00:32:53.960 But the Bible believes that God created all things, and because he created all things, 00:32:54.060 --> 00:32:55.520 he created everything for a purpose. 00:32:55.700 --> 00:32:56.400 There's a good. 00:32:56.860 --> 00:32:58.920 And if there's no purpose, there's no meaning. 00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:04.640 And the Bible says that God has created everything, and so therefore, things have purposes, things 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:07.400 have meaning, things have value, things have worth. 00:33:07.840 --> 00:33:11.980 And in fact, part of that meaning is which we must have a sense at least a tiny bit of 00:33:11.980 --> 00:33:16.080 longing for it when we hear the adjectives to describe it, when we hear that it's connected 00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:20.740 to loving the truth and a quest towards a life of beauty that's going to be characterized 00:33:20.740 --> 00:33:26.279 by open to reason and gentleness and peaceableness and purity, that it's going to be connected 00:33:26.279 --> 00:33:31.919 by it being unwavering about these first principles, that you have this sense that there is a purpose, 00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:36.899 there is a direction, there is a meaning to life that comes from the fact that there is 00:33:36.899 --> 00:33:37.899 this triune God. 00:33:38.419 --> 00:33:42.519 But only the triune God, and it means when the God created all things, just as there's a type 00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:45.980 of physical order that means that a glass like this won't break rocks, 00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:49.899 but that there's also a moral and a physical, a moral and a spiritual order. 00:33:50.019 --> 00:33:53.759 And just as I wouldn't give you engine oil to drink because it's not going to fit with 00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:57.899 that physical order, that there is a moral order, there is a spiritual order, and only 00:33:57.899 --> 00:34:01.740 God, who knows the beginning from the end, can possibly know the purpose and the meaning 00:34:01.740 --> 00:34:02.460 of all things. 00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:06.419 And so we need to get that wisdom and understanding from him. 00:34:06.419 --> 00:34:11.739 And it goes even deeper, because as the text went on before this, if you go back and you 00:34:11.739 --> 00:34:15.920 listen to the sermon from two Sundays ago, that human beings, there's this 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:18.340 fundamental mystery about what it means to be a human being. 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:21.200 On one hand, we're natural, but on the other hand, we're not natural. 00:34:21.340 --> 00:34:26.000 That dogs are always dogs, and cats are always cats, and dolphins are always dolphins. 00:34:26.200 --> 00:34:31.960 But we have people groups that created both Bach and Auschwitz. 00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:40.780 I can tell, I can be articulate and say loving things to my wife, and I can be rude, I can 00:34:40.780 --> 00:34:41.480 be hateful. 00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:44.699 Like, how is it that both of these things naturally come out of us? 00:34:44.740 --> 00:34:49.400 And what the Bible tells us is that while God created this order that is both physical 00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:54.240 order and spiritual order and a moral order, that is, and that was what God intended, things 00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:55.599 are not the way God intended. 00:34:55.599 --> 00:34:58.059 That evil has come in. 00:34:58.059 --> 00:35:02.839 And not only has evil come in and bent things, it's given us this direction towards selfishness 00:35:02.839 --> 00:35:07.360 and self-centeredness, but it also means that it's dark in the intellect that our minds by 00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:13.659 ourselves cannot always detect fully the order and the physical and the spiritual and the 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:16.119 moral order that God has woven into all things. 00:35:17.139 --> 00:35:22.259 And on top of that, we Christians believe that there is the normal that was meant to be, 00:35:22.260 --> 00:35:27.080 and there is the normal that will be when there is the new heaven and the new earth, and we 00:35:27.080 --> 00:35:28.700 live in that in-between time. 00:35:29.560 --> 00:35:34.320 And so the only way to understand the meaning of things and the purpose of things is to receive 00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:35.780 that knowledge from God. 00:35:37.160 --> 00:35:43.280 Now, the Bible has the distinction between special revelation and general revelation. 00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:48.780 It means that God reveals, and it also has the distinction between special grace and 00:35:48.780 --> 00:35:49.640 common grace. 00:35:49.639 --> 00:35:55.179 And common grace is why people can get that idea of you being you, and they don't take 00:35:55.179 --> 00:36:00.179 it to their logical conclusion and just wreck everything, because there's this common grace 00:36:00.179 --> 00:36:06.460 that tempers it, common grace which is found in just the, well, the fact that the rain will 00:36:06.460 --> 00:36:09.940 come, that things grow, that people can still know the truth. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:11.359 There's this common grace. 00:36:11.859 --> 00:36:15.239 Special grace is Jesus, is life and death and resurrection. 00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:20.019 And there's this general revelation that people still can know some true things, but special 00:36:20.019 --> 00:36:22.799 revelation is the Bible and preeminently Jesus. 00:36:24.219 --> 00:36:27.539 And so what the Bible is saying is not that it just, if it doesn't come out of the Bible, 00:36:27.619 --> 00:36:29.379 it can't be true or it can't be wise. 00:36:29.819 --> 00:36:34.799 But what the Bible does is, is that you're gripped by the gospel as you receive that special 00:36:34.799 --> 00:36:40.500 grace, which is that God, the Son of God came amongst us, that wisdom walked amongst us, 00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:45.760 that wisdom is at one with goodness and beauty and truth and love and peaceableness. 00:36:46.019 --> 00:36:51.079 And so that wisdom itself incarnate and in flesh died upon the cross because what human 00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:55.719 beings needed was not just more insights, but we needed to be rescued. 00:36:55.940 --> 00:36:57.079 We needed to be saved. 00:36:57.199 --> 00:37:01.579 We needed to be God to do what we could not do for ourselves, which is to be reconciled 00:37:01.579 --> 00:37:01.980 to him. 00:37:01.980 --> 00:37:08.320 And it is as we receive special grace and are grounded in special grace that we start 00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:12.139 to see the common graces of the world better and more clearly. 00:37:12.920 --> 00:37:18.039 And that as we, in a sense, are more gripped with the special revelation of Jesus, his life 00:37:18.039 --> 00:37:22.719 and death and resurrection, and see it how it is from that that we understand the Bible 00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:26.860 and from the Bible that we understand that, that we can go from that as that grips our mind 00:37:26.860 --> 00:37:31.579 that we can start to recognize that which is true wisdom that ultimately comes from God, 00:37:31.579 --> 00:37:33.900 even if it doesn't specifically come from the Bible. 00:37:36.599 --> 00:37:46.159 It is the way, in a sense, we acquire the taste to recognize as we immerse ourselves in 00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:52.079 the word and in the gospel as individuals and in discipleship and mentoring partners and 00:37:52.079 --> 00:37:57.980 in small groups and in Sunday schools and in families and in churches, that that's what 00:37:57.980 --> 00:37:59.780 the Bible is calling us into. 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:05.599 Only God understands the meaning and the purpose of things and the order of the world, which 00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:07.519 is physical and spiritual and moral. 00:38:08.579 --> 00:38:13.740 And so we need that wisdom from him and that understanding from him that we might live a 00:38:13.740 --> 00:38:19.380 life not that is drab and dreary to merely follow the rules, but to understand that human 00:38:19.380 --> 00:38:26.940 flourishing is to move more and more into a life of beauty, which is what God has called us to. 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:27.980 Please stand. 00:38:33.980 --> 00:38:36.160 Just as we stand, Jesus is for you. 00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:37.500 The gospel is for you. 00:38:38.180 --> 00:38:39.720 The beautiful life is for you. 00:38:39.719 --> 00:38:45.779 There is none whose life is so messed up or so wrecked that Jesus will not take. 00:38:46.459 --> 00:38:50.439 There is no one so far gone that Jesus will not take. 00:38:51.059 --> 00:38:55.779 There is none so self-righteous or so self-centered that Jesus will not take. 00:38:57.819 --> 00:39:04.079 The Bible here is just telling us that I need to understand every single day of my life that 00:39:04.079 --> 00:39:07.239 I need more wisdom because I am not wise. 00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:09.199 I need more wisdom. 00:39:11.059 --> 00:39:18.059 And I need to have the gospel help me to understand and recognize wisdom to propel me and to move 00:39:18.059 --> 00:39:20.559 me into this life of beauty and to be thankful for it. 00:39:21.359 --> 00:39:24.619 And if you have never received the gospel, there is no better time than today. 00:39:26.519 --> 00:39:33.279 You've been walking towards beauty without knowing that one that will truly lead you into a beauty 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:38.820 that is not only begun to be tasted in this life, but just goes into life everlasting. 00:39:39.240 --> 00:39:44.380 And I encourage you to reach out your hand towards him and he will take it. 00:39:45.100 --> 00:39:45.740 Let's pray. 00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:48.360 Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. 00:39:48.940 --> 00:39:53.340 We thank and praise you, Father, that you have not called us to a drab and dreary life. 00:39:54.100 --> 00:39:56.640 Father, some of us have very hard times that we're going through. 00:39:56.639 --> 00:40:02.440 And I know that there's times emotional hardness or emotional dryness or troubles in our marriage 00:40:02.440 --> 00:40:05.059 or troubles in our jobs or troubles with our finances. 00:40:05.319 --> 00:40:07.219 And things can be very, very hard. 00:40:08.099 --> 00:40:11.339 And Father, we know the harder things are, the more we need your wisdom. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:15.739 We know that we know the more we need the wisdom that ultimately comes from you. 00:40:15.739 --> 00:40:21.799 And we give you thanks and praise that you have called us towards beauty, to a life of beauty, 00:40:22.579 --> 00:40:27.939 a life with you that is true and good and beautiful. 00:40:29.179 --> 00:40:33.059 And we give you thanks and praise that when you accept us as your child, 00:40:33.179 --> 00:40:36.279 you don't weigh our merits, you pardon our offenses, you take us, 00:40:37.259 --> 00:40:43.639 but that you nudge us, you draw us, you propel us, you ground us, you stand us on this quest towards a life of beauty. 00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:47.799 And we ask that you would help us day by day to call on you to be more wise 00:40:47.799 --> 00:40:52.159 and more desirous to walk in this path. 00:40:52.359 --> 00:40:55.039 And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. 00:40:55.619 --> 00:40:55.900 Amen.