Transcript

Well, I want you to find Numbers 16. Numbers 16. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and then Numbers and then go to chapter 16 and put your Bible ribbon in there, and then turn to James 3, alright? Numbers 16 and then go over to James 3.

James is, um, the pastor of a local church, a people who are suffering significantly, greatly, ah, yet a church with problems and a church with difficulties and he’s doing quite a bit of, ah, practical shepherding to deal with things, correct things and align things properly in the church and then we come to a section here in James 3, beginning in verse 13 and I’ll go through the end of the chapter, chapter 18, where I just simply call this “Church Fights.” I’m so glad that at Grace Life Church it’s been a long long long time since we had a church fight and I’ve determined, like I said this morning, we’re just not gonna have another one. Ah, we’re just not gonna participate. So if you like church fights, you’re gonna have to go somewhere else and we’ll beat you up [laughter]. No, we just don’t need to do that kind of stuff but in mature churches and, and, and I’ll, I’ll say it this way: when a church is immature, um, it’s easy to get a group up to have a fight over things that don’t matter to God, but as a church matures, it’s very difficult to get a group up. Matter of fact, as a, um, a, a, a rebel-rouser tries such in a mature church, there’s mature brothers and sisters who lovingly but rather firmly sit them down and say, “Look, if there’s an issue, you deal with this with the person it involves and resolve this biblically. We don’t do that here.” Ah, we passed that a long, we’ve grown out of that nonsense and I praise the Lord for that because it greatly dishonors the Lord and hurts the body of Christ. It’s just a confusing thing when churches are fighting and I think very very often what we call a church fight, well, somewhat often what we call a church fight is actually a perhaps a segment of the unregenerate that are on the membership roll that can only think in terms of selfishness, that only think in terms of fleshly desires, and they rage against those who are at least striving or trying to be scriptural and spiritual in the church.

Ah, working with pastors for all these years and, boy, my heart goes out to dear men, men of God who have tried to faithfully pastor in some of our churches and come up against opposition after opposition after opposition but what’s happening we’re reaping the harvest of many generations of packing our churches full of people who are unregenerate, people who have not come to true saving faith in Jesus Christ. I don’t mean that judgmentally, I don’t mean that harshly, but I mean as you watch it, um, Dr. Gray Allison, one of my mentors who, ah, had been, has probably been around and preached in more Southern Baptist churches and more Southern Baptist settings than anybody of, of the last 100 years and Dr. Gray Allison used to say 75% of our church members in Southern Baptist churches are not truly saved, and then he’d say, “You’ll know them by their fruit. Look at the fruit.” He said, “I’m not talking about finding an investigator to go check out all their little secret things, I’m talking about the way they live just openly.”

And so a lot of church fights are because there’s a carnal unregenerate group fighting the spiritual progress of the church, and here’s where a lot of pastors we try to help, here’s where they want to quit because it’s so hard. As I exhorted the pastors in Brazil, I told them over and over and over as they were grasping the truth of what I was teaching but realizing that was a big big, ah, ah, undertaking to begin to reform their churches to function biblically and in a healthy way, I would keep telling them, “But don’t quit. Don’t quit.” Abraham had to keep going and keep going and keep going with Isaac up the mountain of Moriah to sacrifice his son as God told him, he had to keep going a long way before he finally saw the ram and pastors have to do that, stay faithful and God will let you see the ram and God will give you the deliverance you’re looking for and let you pastor a church that is more mature and that is not about those kinds of things. And quite frankly, um, one thing I study is churches, ah, but one of the things that’s, ah, very disheartening is that pastors sometimes fall into the trap of appeasing or reaching out to fleshly type folks to keep building their numbers. The problem is pretty soon you’ve got so many different agendas because you’ve let so many different people come in with their own agenda, how you gonna ever keep peace among all of those different, ah, ah, vying or, or contrasting viewpoints and approaches and, “I’ve got my thing and he’s got his thing”?

Okay, anyway, James is dealing with these things and notice how he words it here, James 3 beginning in verse 13. He says,

13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But [now here’s the contrasting group] But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

In other words, if that describes you, don’t go around lying that you’re righteous and you walk in the truth because that’s not the truth.

15 This [the wisdom described in verse 14, verse 15 says] This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural [or sensual], and demonic. 16 For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil thing.

These, this, this disorder, these fights start popping up. Verse 17,

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

By the way, if you have people that love Jesus first, not perfectly but they’re striving to walk in verse 17, pure, peaceable, gentle or meek, reasonable, full of mercy, good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy, you don’t have a fight on your hands. Those kind of people don’t fight. They’d rather, they’d rather do without. They’d rather suffer loss even when they’re right than hurt the church of Jesus Christ. They have the Spirit of Christ about them. Verse 18, picking up on the flow of what happens from those kind of folks’ lives, he says,

18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Church fights, I., the source. The source. Look at verse 15 again and he says, ” This wisdom that comes down from heaven,” rather, “This wisdom, ah, that which is that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural and demonic.” So he’s saying what’s causing this disorder and problem in the church is some in the church are grasping, holding and walking in a so-called wisdom that did not come from God, it came from the earth, it’s natural. And then back up in verse 13 of our text he says, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior in his deeds of the gentleness of wisdom.” So when he starts this whole section, he first wants to define what godly wisdom is so he might make a sharp contrast to what the world’s natural wisdom is.

Now he says in verse 13 and there’s two groups remember here he’s dealing with, there may be more than two but at least two groups and he says, “Okay, if you’re among the faction, if you’re among the group and you say, ‘We’re the wise. We have God’s wisdom. We have God’s understanding. We know how this ought to work.'” He says, “Now do you?” Now when we talk about truly the wise and those who have true godly understanding, these are folks who have practical wisdom for everyday life. So James is going to dissect so that both groups who are claiming, “Well, we’re of God. We know God’s will for the church. Well, we’re of God. We know God’s will for the church.” James says, “Well, let’s dissect this and look at it.”

James says, “There is a criterion by which those who are led of God become evident.” He says one thing in verse 13, part of that criterion is their good behavior, their life, the ethics of their daily lifestyle, the honesty of their daily lifestyle. They’re not swindlers. They’re not, ah, devising things all the time. They’re not scheming. They’re straight up in their dealings. They’re honest men and women. They’re unselfish in their daily life. They’re not perfect, that’s not what I’m saying but like I’ve been talking about elders in the morning services, their pattern of their lifestyle shows they are people who are generally of good reputation and good behavior. Ah, the point being, um, and, boy, have I seen this in my lifetime not just in my experiences here but, um, ah, it seems like every pastor around when they get in a problem calls our office and says, “Can, can you tell me how to deal with this problem?” And when we deal with those problems and sometimes we’ll even meet with the people involved, ah, Brother Steve and I to some degree have been mediating a problem in a partnership church and you begin to live, deal with things not so necessarily in this case, you look at things and you find out, “Well, no wonder this guy’s causing problems. We’re finding out he’s a rascal in his personal life. He’s kind of, ah, shady about his personal life. He’s kinda underhanded in the way he functions in his home and in his business and in the neighborhood.”

So James says, “If you’ll just give it some time and you’ll just pray,” and I’ll tell you something you need to pray sometimes. When things are kinda muddy, say, “God, I pray You’ll expose hearts and by Your grace may mine be pure when they’re exposed.” I’ve had to do that many times as a pastor. Things get all muddy, well, he’s saying this, “God, expose hearts.” So here’s what I’m telling ya, I’ve told you this many times, you’ll be shocked how t-i-m-e exposes and clarifies a lot of things.

Now James says, “First of all, look for real genuine Christian behavior as a pattern of their life, not just in the church but in their life.” And then he talks about another aspect that we should look for and he says not only, um, um, ah, let them show by their good behavior but he says their “deeds in the gentleness,” or meekness, “of wisdom,” and, and that means that there is a sense about them that they’re not a combative person. It doesn’t mean they can’t be firm and tough if they need to be for righteous causes, Jesus was and Paul was, but overall these are folks who are not always in a combative confrontive-type mood. They, they want to achieve peace. Now they’re not gonna compromise the truth. It’s not peace at all cost, but generally if there’s any way, they’re gonna be men who die to themselves and seek for a gentle and wise solution. The gentleness of wisdom. What, what a powerful phrase because just having wisdom is not enough, is there gentleness with your wisdom. He said look for that kind of spirit.

Now again the word “weakness” here is the word that can be translated meekness and it means “power under control.” It means they walk with a selflessness and they walk with a humility. You sense from them they want the glory of God and the good of the church in contrast to a phrase that’s used twice in this text to describe those who are not about God’s will, who are up to no good, they’re full of selfish ambition, the text says, not the glory of God and the good of the church.

Now this worldly wisdom that James refers to here, a good illustration to that is how our world uses knowledge because one good definition for wisdom is the right use of knowledge, the right understanding or right use of knowledge. Now think about our world, think about how there’s been an explosion of understanding and knowledge in our culture. I mean, ah, ah, you know, from just my lifetime, the technological, medical, scientific discoveries and advancements are astounding yet have we used that knowledge with wisdom? We gain these great advances in medical science and we use that great medical science to kill unborn babies and literally mock about it, laugh about it, and celebrate it in the streets. That’s not wisdom. That’s barbarianism. That’s evil. The scientists of Germany, ah, ah, under Hitler, Hitler’s regime were the, the most brilliant men of the culture. That’s why after the war we brought them all over here, Wernher von Braun and others. They were the top scientists but they used their abilities to the ends of the wickedness, the barbarianism of the Nazi system. Just good illustrations of how the world gains knowledge but doesn’t have the wisdom to use it rightly, at least not in any sense of justice and holiness and righteousness.

The whole concept that we, we, we’re applauding ourselves today that like never before our country and maybe many regions of the world are finally achieving equal rights for all people, women’s rights, minority rights, and on and on we could go, and by the way, much good in that within biblical teaching, there’s much good in that, but God forbid that members of a culture just because of their racial or ethnic background are somehow demeaned as lesser value than others in the culture. We would as Christians strongly denounce or stand against any such notion, yet under this notion of equal rights, we begin to celebrate and advance what the Bible calls unnatural sexual expressions and perversions and wickedness, and we call those things now good and acceptable and right. Again, we just don’t know how to use knowledge. It’s a perversion of God’s truth and God’s goodness to us.

Over 100 years ago, Henry David Thoreau said, quote, “We have improved means to unimproved ends.” That is a great statement and it continues on. We keep having improved means to, ah, decreasingly or should, I guess I should say increasingly unimproved ends. Well, that’s way man always is, he doesn’t know how to use knowledge and that’s another thousands of testimonies from the culture that men are fallen in sin, men are naturally totally depraved before a righteous and holy God. Even when he advances in such knowledge, he uses it wrongly so many times. Now thank God in common grace God, man, mankind does use knowledge in many good ways but the fact that he’s so, ah, ah, has such a tendency to continue to misuse knowledge, reminds us of man’s sinfulness and his fallenness.

Now back to this good characteristic of, of what we should be looking for, wisdom and meekness. Meekness, again, is the right use of power and wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Now look at verse 14, he says, “But if you’re not like that, if you’re not truly wise and with understanding, if you don’t really have the kind of behavior that, ah, is characteristic of one who really loves God and the church in the right way, if you’re not walking in the deeds, in the gentleness of wisdom, but contrary to that, you’re a rebel- rouser, you’re a trouble-maker,” verse 14, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart.” Bitter jealousy. Now that was, that’s the beginning of the problem in the church here. Zeal can be good but what we’re talking about here is folks who have a zeal for self-promotion, a zeal to get even, a zeal for advancement, a zeal to be seen and made much of, and on and on we could go. That’s all involved in this phrase “bitter jealousy.” “I want, I wanted that position. I wanted voted onto that committee. I wanted that role in the church.” And what happens when you don’t get that, instead of dying to yourself and saying, “May God be glorified, I’m here for His glory and the good of the church and I don’t count, I don’t matter,” instead of having that attitude, a bitterness and a resentment, a jealousy begins to brew in the heart and like the biblical counselors call it, it’s an idol of unmet expectation.

If you join Grace Life Church, you don’t join this church with a concept in your hip pocket of what you’re gonna do and what position you’re gonna hold. That becomes an idol, then you’re disappointed if it doesn’t work out like that. I’m gonna tell you what God does if he’s gonna use you in service, first he humbles you and builds character before he places you in the service he wants you to do. God wants to find out if cleaning toilets is okay with you. God wants to find out if sweeping the floor after the youth event is okay with you. God wants to find out if, if, if turning the lights off and all those menial tasks that nobody sees that night shift, remember the night shift sermon? It might be time to do another night shift sermon again. God needs to see that you’re happy if you just get to work the night shift and nobody gives you applause or credit or position. Oh, but the person who causes trouble in the church, James says, “No, he’s not happy with that. He may act like he’s happy but inside his heart he’s brewing and he’s jealous.” “Well, I’m as wise and godly as Sister So-and-so over there and she gets to dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m as wise and godly as Brother So-and-so over there and he always kinds of gets ahead of things in this and that and whatever.” No, you might be more godly but God’s just trying to prove it by you continuing on in gentleness and meekness and not being jealous about it. That’s when you prove you’re godlier.

Bitter jealousy. Now, the scholars say this, this, this idea of selfish ambition that he says is also in their hearts, bitter jealousy and along with that selfish ambition, means a striving or a rivalry and all of a sudden something starts rising up in you and says, “I’m gonna get what I want. I’m gonna challenge some things around there. As soon as I get a little crack, you watch me, I’m gonna attack that. I’m gonna undermine that a little bit. I’m gonna, I’m gonna get my way eventually.” He said that’s where these problems are coming from. So it leads to what we call a faction, what the Bible calls rather, a faction in the church or a party spirit. As you begin to look for that other, other folks in the church family who are also have some bitter jealousy, who also are walking in some selfish ambition about the church instead of for the glory of God, and it’s amazing how these folks can find each other. Matter of fact, there’s some churches that are kinda built on that kinda thing and people kinda, kinda find their way to those kind of churches when that’s what they’re about and what’s interesting about it, they end up trying to cut each other’s throat down the road.

So here’s what James is saying, James is saying, “Now get honest about it. Are you walking crucified with Christ? Are you walking with a gentleness, a meekness whereby you don’t have to exert yourself, you don’t have to push yourself out there to certain positions or places? Are you walking with that kind of gentle wisdom in the church or do you have bitter jealousy and a selfish ambition about what you ought to be about in the church?” If you’re motivated by a zeal for self-promotion and self-gratification and then you formed yourself a coalition to go along with you for your cause, James is saying don’t be arrogant and lie, you’re not godly and you don’t have godly wisdom.

Now look at verse 15. He says, “Here’s what you’re walking in, this wisdom you’re walking in is not that which came down from above,” this didn’t come from God, God didn’t give you bitterness in your heart, he didn’t give you selfish ambition, “what you have is from the earth. Any ungodly God-denying pagan can do what you’re doing.” That’s what he’s saying. Any worldly can walk like that. Now, child of God, is it not true all of us can have some of this rise up in our hearts? Isn’t there some of this in all of us? But thank God the preacher get in the pulpit or I’ll have my quiet time or the small group leader teach a lesson and boom, the Holy Spirit of God it’s like Whack-A-Mole whacks it right back down and you say, “Lord, forgive me. I’m not walking in that. I am not walking in that stuff. I’m not here for me, I’m here for the glory of God and the good of the church.” But what he says when he says this is, this is, ah, from the world, he’s saying any, any pagan can live like that. He says that is natural. Natural has the idea of sensual. That’s just what comes out of the natural man before the new birth. It’s demonic. That’s the kind of stuff that demons stir up in people.

Verse 16, ” For where jealousy and selfish ambition or where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” So the world’s wisdom is not from above, it’s not from the Father of lights, not from the Spirit of holiness, the world’s wisdom is natural and sensual, in other words, it’s animal like, any pagan can walk in this, and it’s demonic, it’s birthed out of hell. It did not come down from heaven.

Now he talks about, um, ah, in verse 16 one of the symptoms actually if you’re doing an outline, I’ve been talking about the source, basically verses 13 through 15, and now I’m in II., the symptoms. The symptoms. He says there is disorder and every evil thing. So there’s jealousy and selfish ambition, that leads to a party spirit or disorder or unruliness, and the scholars say this idea of disorder here means tumultuous anarchy, a tumultuous anarchy. The little groups get together and begin to decide, “We don’t like how this is going. We don’t like how this is being done. Tell you what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna come against it. I tell you what, we need to kind of maneuver and get our guy in power, try to get this thing straightened out in the church.” Thank God we don’t deal with that kind of stuff. So many good pastors have heartaches and sleepless nights with men whom that’s the way they’re functioning and they’ve got a, they’ve got a foothold in the church and they put on a show of spirituality and either, either sincere Christians who are gullible are following them or other lost people are right in party with them.

So that’s the, that’s the thing that happens, a party spirit, a disorder becomes brewing within the church. It’s the same thing that we see from Korah and Dathan an Abiram and Eliab and on and Peleth as they get 250 men, the Bible says, men of renown in the congregation of Israel who rose up against Moses and up against Aaron. So these guys, they really did their homework. They really did well in stirring up a large contingent of very impressive leading men in the nation of Israel to rise up and challenge Moses because they didn’t like the way Moses was doing it, they didn’t think Moses was the only one who could hear from God, they didn’t think Moses was the only one who had the authority to tell them what to do and when to rise and when to go and when to come. It wasn’t working out the way they thought it was gonna work out when they left Egypt and so they did this disorder of rising up against Moses.

The text says here in verse 16, it’s, it’s every evil thing. Every evil, disorder and every evil thing. It means worthless things, only worthless stuff can come out of that kind of movement. The little, ah, commentary, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown that’s on all of your little Bible programs, I’m gonna tell you, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown are about as good as it gets for a little brief commentary. They had this statement and going back up to the roots of the whole thing, the jealousy and selfish ambition, it says, “This man stands in the light of his own candle which cannot shine in the presence of another man’s sunlight.” So he begins to form groups of like jealous types and he begins to strike back against the men who are in leadership but actually these men are fighting God who made men different and gave different men differing gifts and differing men differing positions in the church. So it’s God they end up attacking, not the men they’re jealous of. Now I don’t, I don’t, I’m looking out, I don’t see a trouble-maker out there. If I did, I’d just call your name right now. I don’t see a Korah in the whole bunch but here’s what you’d better be careful of because a lot of preachers hear this broadcast, some preachers hear it over in Scotland, some will hear it in Brazil, I know because they tell me, let me tell you something, if you rise up against the man God’s called to pastor that church and then he goes to God about it, you’re in trouble. You’d better hope he fights back in the flesh before he thinks about it, but if he just says, “Okay, time out, let me go to God about this and let’s ask God to make clear who’s supposed to be the leader here,” because that’s what Moses did. When Korah and his 250 men of renown rose up to take this thing on, Moses said, “Okay, I’m gonna go get on my face before God.” At that moment, Korah was done for.

Now here’s the interesting thing, Korah and Abiram and Dathan and all those guys probably could find some pretty legitimate arguments against Moses that he wasn’t perfect and he failed and the Bible tells us that, doesn’t it? He wandered around in the wilderness a long time because of unbelief. I mean, there was a lot of things that were not perfect about Moses but here’s the, here’s the final thing and Moses makes this very clear in the text that we’ll look at in a moment, Moses says in effect, “I didn’t decide this. I was on the backside of the Midian desert keeping my father-in-law’s sheep minding my own business and boom, God appeared to me in a burning bush and said, ‘You’re gonna lead My people out of Egypt.’ And I said, ‘Lord, I don’t want that job.’ And God said, ‘I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t call you in for an interview. I’m giving you an assignment.'” And so Moses goes to God and says, “God, do you hear Korah and the 250 men of renown? I mean, all the big shots are against me, all the power players in Israel are against me. How am I gonna survive? God, You started this.” And God said, “Get out of the way. I’ll take care of it.”

Matter of fact, let’s look at that right quick. Look, look over at, ah, did you, did you put your Bible ribbon over there in Numbers 16? Numbers 16 and look at verse 1. Here we have a church fight and it didn’t end real well for one group. Numbers 16:1, “Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi,” notice that, he’s of priestly lineage, “with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action.” They took action, “We’re gonna get this straightened out.”

“And they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘You’ve gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy,'” aren’t we all saved just like you are, Moses? “‘Every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?'” Well, Moses wasn’t exalting himself, he was meekly doing what God told him to do. That was, it’s humility when you lead if God told you to be the leader.

Verse 4, “Moses heard this,” here’s their problem, “he fell on his face.” You’re in trouble. Right there you are in trouble. Moses does not fight back in his strength, he goes to God and says, “God, You’ve got to fix this bunch.”

Verse 5, “and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, ‘Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself.'”

Now flip over to verse 19, the same time, let’s go to the conclusion of the matter, “Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of meeting.” They had by far and away the majority vote. They had the whole congregation who followed all these men of renown who followed Korah. “And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation.”

Verse 20, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.'” Verse 22, “But they fell on their faces and said, ‘O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?'” Here’s Moses and Aaron pleading for mercy. “God, don’t kill all of them.”

Verse 24, “Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘Get back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’ Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him, and he spoke to the congregation, saying, ‘Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to them, or you will be swept away in all their sin.’ So they got back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doorway of their tents, along with their wives and their sons and their little ones. Moses said, ‘By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds,” notice this, “for this is not my doing.” I didn’t run for this office. I didn’t party for this or canvas for this and get voted in. God appointed me as your pastor and leader, basically is what Moses is saying.

Verse 29, “If these men,” that’s Korah and his group, “If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD.’ As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.”

Moses said, “Now God’s made clear His will.” Was Moses holier? Not necessarily. Moses have less sin? Not necessarily. But Moses said, “God put me here and that’s what you should honor.” But Korah and Abiram and Dathan and on and the other men of renown had bitter jealousy that Moses was the leader and bitter and rather selfish ambition. That led to the disorder of all kinds, just saw that: a party spirit, a rising up of a sect against the leadership. And then the Bible says and go back to James, the Bible says in James what’s the fruit of all that? Every worthless thing. Nothing good comes out of it. Nothing good’s gonna happen.

If you’re ever in this church, if you’re fellowshiping with someone from another church and you sense this spirit, you need to get away from that kind of person. Notice, everyone who hung with Korah suffered the same outcome. The companion of fools, the Bible says, suffers harm. Do not, do not run around with those who act a fool about the things of God. This is not a plaything. This is not the ball team, it’s not the social club, it’s the church of the living God. You say, “Well, I know some people who kinda did some things, seems like they’re doing okay.” You keep watching. You keep watching. You call me, I can’t say anything but this, call me in year 39, see how it’s just down the road because I’ve been doing this for 39 years and watching it. Call me down the road and tell me how it ends up for them.

Now here’s what I want to say: praise God that though there can be some Korah in all of us, the Spirit of God helps us repent it back down out of the way. Amen? There’s some Korah in all of us but it don’t have to control who we are. We can repent and not walk in that spirit.

So those are the symptoms, now the solution. What we need is this kind of spirit to not have church fights and divisions and disorder, we start in verse 17, but this is what we need, we need “the wisdom that’s from above.” He said, “I’ve talked to you about the wisdom that comes from these, from the earth, that, that, that these men with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition walk in. It’s really not wisdom, it’s a misnomer. It’s not wisdom at all. But here’s true wisdom, from above is first pure,” and when he says first he don’t mean numerically, he means above all there’s a purity and there’s only one way there can be an abiding purity in the heart and that’s if the heart has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. The people who can walk in long patterns with impure motives and selfish ambition have not been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

It’s first not numerically but in being essential. It means, hagis, it’s the word “hagios,” it means “holy.” It means that as a pattern of life though not perfect but as a pattern of life, there’s this pure ambition in their heart and, brothers and sisters, always remember it this way: the motive and the ambition of my heart must be the glory of God, the good of his church, I die to myself. You know what I found in 39 years of striving? Haven’t always done it right but repenting and striving to walk that way? The glory of God, the good of the church, and strive to die to me, is I get all the stuff I thought I wanted before I died to it. Once he knows you don’t have to have it, he tends to let you have it. Did you hear that? Once God knows you don’t have to have it, he tends to let you have it.

Pure means my heart is to glorify God, I want to work for the good of the church and I want to die to myself. A church who has people who generally walk in that way are the people who have as an outgrowth, a fruit, a sweet and a blessed peace in the congregation. Now we’re not again, we’re not about peace at all cost. Jesus, for example, spurned the devil’s peace of surrender. He just said, “Jesus, surrender to me and we’ll just fix all this thing. There’ll be no more problem, just, just, just go ahead and just worship me and I can fix everything.” Jesus said, “No, you and I are at war. There’s no peace between us.” And there was no peace between Jesus and the Pharisees, the false hypocrites of the day. So it’s not a peace at any cost but he’s talking about the peace of the sweetness of a congregation walking in purity, pure motives from the heart.

Then he says peaceable, that means you’re a type of person who above all loves peace, so you are willing to deny self and go to the furtherest possible lengths within purity that keeps the peace. As the Bible says as far as it is possible, as far as it is possible, be at peace with all men. Then he uses the word gentle here. It means a sweet reasonableness. Then he uses the word reasonable here. That means, ah, an approachability, not a harsh exterior. Then he uses the phrase full of mercy. One who’s looking for ways to be kind and be helpful to their brothers and sisters in Christ. Good fruits. That’s the overflow of the previous traits being practiced. Unwavering, it means you can pretty much count on this person. Boy, praise God for church men and church women who are unwavering. I don’t have to wonder where they’re gonna land next week. They watch Kenneth Copeland and they’re over here, they watch another guy, they’re over there, they read another book and they’re chasing another fad. No, they’re just, they’re just solid. They know the things that are essential and they’re without variance, they’re unwavering. And without hypocrisy, which just means a genuineness or a sincerity.

And then the fruit of all of that, verse 18, “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” It means there’s a gentle, there’s, a, a, a, a general spirit about these kind of people that they walk peaceably, reproving and restoring those who are in sin. They avoid having to be harsh or having an edge if at all possible. They want to function with a peaceable and meek spirit. Why? Because in meekness and being peaceable they want to be faithful physicians to those who are in sin to save and restore them. They’re physicians for sinners and not executioners of sinners. Did you hear that? When we sin and we know about it in the congregation of God, we ought to come to one another in meekness and peaceably, seeking to be physicians who restore and heal, not executioners who slam or want to punish. In God’s wisdom, sometimes that’s necessary but that’s never our first course of action. We want to be forced to that position.

And then what happens is as time goes by and a congregation is walking in that peaceable meekness one to another, restoring the one who’s wavering, restoring the one who’s wondering, lovingly bringing them back to a sweet repentance and walking with God, the fruit of that is amazing and that’s what he’s talking about. He says, “And the seed whose fruits is righteousness,” that’s all righteous right there, “the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” He’s saying there is a fruitful righteousness in that kind of congregation that goes on and on and increases and multiplies for the glory of God.

Well, right quick tonight in closing, are you walking in the gentleness of true godly wisdom, maintaining a pure peace in God’s church, or are you prone to bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in the church? Be one of those who is sowing the seeds whose fruit is righteousness and not one of those who comes to the ultimate calamity of Korah and his followers.

Church fights. We don’t believe in them. We don’t allow them. Something wrong? Yes, fix it righteously and properly.