446: True Wisdom | Tim Henderson

Before we jump into James, I want to give a quick shout out to my friend Steve Carras. Some of you know Steve. He's been part of this church for ages and ages. Dear friend of mine, former chairman of the board of Blue Ridge Fellows, and that great honor was recently eclipsed, I'm sad to say. Steve was just awarded the Virginia Veterinarian of the Year. Well done, friend. Steve and Val have owned the Cape Spring Veterinary Clinic, and they've been caring for our pets, including my sweet little dog Keeper. So we just really want to congratulate you, Steve, and honor you for the work you've done here in our community. I love you. You're a good one.

Now, Steve's not just one of the greatest veterinarians in the world, but one of the greatest adventurers in the world—and do you see how smooth that transition was? A guy named Ernest Shackleton. Who's ever heard of Ernest Shackleton? Some of you from the first service? You're going to hear a lot of things again, so just settle in.

Shackleton was an Antarctic explorer at the turn of the twentieth century. His most famous expedition was a failed expedition in 1914. His intention was to have a transantarctic crossing. Others had been to the South Pole before him, but they would get to the South Pole and then backtrack, which gave them access to supplies they left along the way. Shackleton's goal was to make it to the South Pole and then just keep going to the other side.

The definitive tale of his journey is a book called Endurance, which is also the name of his ship. It's written by Alfred Lansing. Write that down. Because if you can hear my voice, you should read this book. It is such a fantastic story. In it, Lansing quotes someone who said this: "For scientific leadership, give me Scott. For swift and efficient travel, Amundson. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." The dude was an absolute beast.

The reason I'm bringing him up is not just because I want you to read the book, but because of the lore surrounding the way that Shackleton recruited men for the crew of this journey. As the story goes, he placed this want ad in a newspaper:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.

Isn't that the greatest ad ever placed? It is said that he was overwhelmed with applicants. You guys, there's something about calling people into something difficult that stirs us, especially when those risks, when those costs are made clear.

James does something akin to this in James chapter three. He warns would-be teachers that presuming to teach for most people is a very bad idea. Because if you have the audacity to stand before others and say, "This is true. This is good. This is beautiful. This is what you should do," you had better get it right. You want to screw up your own life? That's one thing. But if you have the temerity to lead others down a faulty path, then be afraid, for you will be judged more severely.

Quig started us down this path last week when he began James chapter three. But the argument of chapter three begins in verse one, and it runs through about the first half, which Quig covered, and I'm going to pick up the second half. It's not often the case that people have noticed that the second half is really a continuation of verses one and two, but it is. So I'm going to read it again to you, the passage that Lauren just read to us, but I want to append verses one and two on it because it's really part of the same flow of argument.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. — James 3:1-2, 13-14

James is calling out those who think they have something to say, those who think they are wise, who claim to be wise. He's speaking to men and women of understanding. Now he doesn't specify what kind of teachers he's talking about, but I would submit to you that there are many kinds of teachers. Certainly, there's Bible teachers. That's probably central to James' claim. But there's also teachers of school children.

There are coaches of athletes. There are husbands who teach their wives. There are wives who teach their husbands. There are parents who instruct their children, mentors who advise proteges. There's just a lot of people who like to say, I know something. You should understand this the way that I understand it. You should believe what I'm saying.

My life has been absolutely marked by teachers, by great teachers of the scriptures. I think I've feasted on better teaching for most of my life than I think many people have. There's a guy that Sloop and I—part of a million things that Dave and I share in common—but one that just kind of coincidentally is a man named Tommy Nelson who's had a huge impact on both of our lives when we were college students and right out of college.

My pastor, when I was a student, was when my whole life was changed. There's a lot of things that happened in that time that were foundational. Phil Schmueland was my pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, and I remember very distinctly the first time going to this church. They did the scriptural reading, which I'd seen that done before in the kind of dead churches I grew up in. And so when the reading was over, I closed my bible because that was bible time was done. And then Phil gets up and he begins to walk through that sucker line by line. And I distinctly recall being surprised and scrambling to reopen my bible. It's the first time I ever saw somebody really teach the word of God.

Phil, as much as anybody in the world, he is the first guy that developed in me a love of and a knowledge of this book. A couple weeks ago, Lynette Joy gave me a gift. She gave me this bag full of Phil Schmulan's tapes—like, 08/08/1993. Back in the day, all of these things. This is the stuff that I cut my teeth on. She also found me a tape recorder at a thrift store. I think it might be the last one on Earth so that I can hear Phil's voice again, this man who had such a huge impact on my life. He was a lion, and he shaped me and changed my life.

When Phil dies and when Jesus comes back and we are all around the throne and there is some sort of a judgment, Phil will be judged as a teacher because he was. My suspicion is that Phil will fare better than most because he was a really good teacher.

The Evaluative Grid of Wisdom

I want to show you the evaluative grid that James is talking about here in the second half of the chapter. You might be surprised. I've read this passage a hundred times, but I never really noticed this.

What James is going to do is he's gonna use a familiar formula. A couple weeks ago, we looked at chapter two. In James two, he argues that the fact that you claim to have faith doesn't mean that you do have faith. According to James two, what is the evidence that your claimed faith is real? Good works. Your faith should be manifest in obedience.

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. — James 2

James is gonna follow a similar formula here in James three. Essentially, he's gonna say, claiming that you're wise doesn't mean that you're wise. No more than claiming you have faith means you have faith. Something else is the proof of your wisdom just like something else is the proof of your faith.

Take a look at what he says. This is what he says proves wisdom. The answer is meekness, humility, gentleness.

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. — James 3:13

Just as faith is manifest in obedience, wisdom is manifest in meekness. Now if you're reading in an NIV, it's not gonna say meek. It's gonna say humility. The same word is translated meekness in the ESV, humility in the NIV. Elsewhere in the New Testament, it's gonna be translated as gentleness, as courtesy. It's kind of a stretchy term.

Perhaps some of you have had a teacher who was unkind, harsh, arrogant, abrasive? Anybody have a teacher that used you as a foil for their own bitterness, their jealousy, their selfish ambition? Think about that class. Think about that coach. Think about that parent. Think about that spouse. How well did you learn under their tutelage? I'm gonna guess not very well.

You guys, teaching is the art.

I've said this 10,000 times to the fellows. Teaching is the art of building bridges from the known to the unknown. Any good teacher's gotta go back and find out where you are. We're gonna start where you are. We're gonna build a series of bridges. We're gonna walk you from here to here to here, and I'm gonna get you over here. Okay? Teachers are guides. They build bridges, and then they walk us across it to bring us from where we are conceptually to where we need to be.

Nobody wants to follow a guide that is harsh and mean. Right? And in fact, if we teach like that, then no one's gonna want to follow us either. And what that means is that we who presume to teach will be judged more severely, not just when we get our facts wrong, but when we lack humility.

In fact, look at what James says in verse 14.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. — James 3:14

Some of you might know that I am a huge fan of the truth. My favorite things in all the world are accurate statements about reality. James is suggesting that we can make accurate statements about reality, but if we make them harshly motivated by selfishness, we are still false to the truth. Good grief. We can lie in our teaching, not just because of what we say, but because of how we say it. And I think I might have done that more than once. I might have even done it more than twice.

And when I have done that, when we have done that, it is, and I quote, earthly, unspiritual, demonic. James just lays it out here. He goes on to tell us what real wisdom looks like, what real understanding is characterized by. He says it's peaceable. It is gentle. It is open to reason. That is a great thing to include in this list. It's full of mercy and good fruits. It is impartial and sincere.

I wonder, where does this land for you? Do any of you have the courage to think back? Just give yourself a minute. Nobody can read your mind. It's okay. And just play through the last time, the last few times, the last bunch of times that you gave instruction. How do you coach your son's little league team? How do you coach your daughter's lacrosse team? How do you train your subordinates at work? How do you communicate with your wife?

I would be surprised if there were very many of you who would not tremble if we were to play a low light reel of the ways that you have instructed others when you were short-tempered, frustrated, selfish. Is there anybody in this room that would be like, yeah, play the tape? I seriously doubt it.

I may have already told you this story, but I like this story, so I'm gonna tell it again in case I already have. When I used to direct Camp Screw State at Penn State, we'd have these directors conferences where they'd pull us all away for a week or three or four days for training. And we had one in the winter once, and it just so happened that our dryer was broken. It was in parts in my house, and I left to go on this thing. And while I was away, my wife got sick and all of our children got sick. And when I say sick, I mean vomit sick.

So Kelly spends this night throwing up and then going to kid number one who was throwing up, and then throwing up and going to kid number two who was throwing up, and then going to kid number three who was throwing up. There's puke everywhere, all the sheets. You can't do any laundry. So she's just piling them up in the tub. This is nightmare festival.

She calls me at like two in the morning to get me to come home. But I'm asleep, and my cell phone is off. And so she just gets through this hellacious night. Finally, at six in the morning, my friend wakes me up because Kelly waited till six. She kinda gave herself till six. At 6AM, she calls my friend's wife to say, call your husband. He's at the same retreat as my husband. Tell him to come home.

So I wake up and it's time to go home and enter into this kind of chaos and disaster at our house. It's wintertime, and I was at Penn State, and so I'm driving back through Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My car is out of windshield washer fluid. You know, the blue juice. And it's freaking winter in Pennsylvania. Salt everywhere. You just cannot see. So I'm trying to smear the windows. Everything's terrible. So I pull off at a gas station to buy a gallon of the blue juice that you pour into your thing so the windshield washer can be clean.

While I don't really need gas, but while I'm there, I get gas. So I put the pump into the tank, pop the hood, get the thing, run into the little convenience store, buy a gallon of the blue juice, run back out, pour it in the car, slam the hood, and head home. And you heard it. Right?

As I'm pulling out of the gas station, I can feel the car jerk and I hear the pump. They have a disconnect valve, but this one didn't. I pull the hose off and gas just begins spewing everywhere. So I stopped the car and got out, and it's just flooding gas. I'm like, oh dear Jesus. This thing is going to cost me a couple thousand dollars somewhere between that and exploding. Right?

So I run inside in a panic. My phone was off, Kelly's at home with puke everywhere, and I need to get back. I run inside and I'm like to this guy working at the store—some guy with bad teeth and greasy hair. I'm like, "Hey, I pulled away and the pump was still in the thing and gas is everywhere."

And Charlie—who I'm expecting to just tell me I'm an idiot—instead he's like, "Yeah, man. That's cool." And he goes and hits this red button, the emergency shutoff valve. He's like, "Yeah, man. No problem. I know how to fix those." We go outside and he's like, "Oh yeah, man. That's cool. We can take care of this, and we'll mop it up. I can fix it. No problem."

And I'm like—I've done something stupid and terrible. I need to get home. How long am I going to be here? Is anybody going to die? And Charlie was so kind to me. He was so patient with me. I had done something foolish, but in my moment of great distress, he was just kind.

I get in my car and drive the rest of the way home. We deal with all of this stuff. But I was struck. As I'm driving home, I'm thinking: I have this exalted position leading this huge campus ministry at this incredible campus that is generating laborers for the kingdom. And this guy working with bad teeth and greasy hair at a gas station outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has done more good in this five-minute interaction than I have done all semester long. Because he was simply kind and gentle to a bruised reed. Makes sense?

On the Spectrum of Our Nature

Now I want to talk to you in particular who perhaps have a longer low light reel than others. We're built in different ways. Some of us are courageous and strong-willed and forceful and not very gentle. Some of us are very gentle, but maybe not as dynamic and don't get things done. We exist along the spectrum. A lot of our personality traits get clustered.

Some of you, every word I've said today has been a reproach because you're like, "Man, I'm just so bad at this."

Let me show you something. The greatest teacher of all time is the one who said this:

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. — Matthew 11:28-29

If you have cause to be embarrassed when you recall how unlike him you have been—particularly when there's been some category in which you're the smartest guy in the room, you are the one who instructs others—I want you to see that this is what he is like, and it is what he is like to you. He's gentle and lowly to you. He is patient with you even in your impatience. He instructs you, inviting you to learn to be what he is and to be what he is to you. He invites you to repent and to begin again.

James is deeply interested in repentance. He's not inviting us into self-righteousness, and he's not inviting us into behavior modification. He's inviting us into a faith that changes us.

So if you believe that Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived and that what he said was true and good and beautiful and untarnished by the way he said it, then James' invitation to you is to, in faith, imitate him. That you would yield to his Spirit who lives in all believers so that his life would be manifest in your life.

Andrew Murray on Humility

In fact, I want to read you one more excerpt from a book. It's from the book Humility by Andrew Murray. This is, hands down, the most impactful thing I've ever read in my entire life. Short. It's little. It's 90 pages. But I had to read every chapter three times before I was able to read the next chapter because it was obvious to me that it was true, but I could feel it leaking out my head even as I read the words. And then I've read it many times since then. You should read this book too. Also read Shackleton's book. But this one will probably do you more good. The other one will just delight you.

I'm going to show you three slides worth of Andrew Murray's book, which is too long. You're not allowed to do this. It's too much. People can't follow that much. But suck it up. Okay? Stay with me here.

This is so good. Here's what he says. He says:

I'm sure that there are many Christians who will confess that their experience has been very much like my own in this, that we had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart are to be the distinguishing feature of the disciple as they were of the master. And further, that this humility is not a thing that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire and prayer and faith and practice. As we study the word, we shall see what very distinct and oft repeated instructions Jesus gave his disciples on this point and how slow they were in understanding him.

Let us, at the very commencement of our meditations, admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous as pride. And let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of humility and how impotent to obtain what we seek.

Third slide's the best slide. So if I lost you, come back. You with me? Alright. Take a deep breath. A little bit more. Here's what he says:

Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of his lowliness. And let us believe that when we are broken down under a sense of our pride and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ himself will come in to impart this grace too as a part of his wondrous life within us.

You guys, your only hope is that Jesus would live his life in you through his spirit. But that is a good hope because Jesus did not merely die to forgive us, but to change us, to rescue us from ourselves so that we would be more like him. It is a process. But as you cooperate with the Holy Spirit who lives in you, you can accelerate the transformation. And I pray that God might give us the grace to accept his lowliness and that we might grow to be wise like him. Amen?

Lord Jesus, we honor you for you are this. You are the one who came from the Father full of grace and truth. You are the one that is lowly and that you invite us to come to you. Lord, I pray that through your spirit, we might be more like you. And, Lord, I pray in particular for those in the room right now who you have built on the more forceful, dominant, alpha side of the spectrum, that you would give them the grace to be more like you. There is no one more alpha than you. No one more dominant, no one more powerful. And yet, no one more lowly. Lord, I pray that we would be so filled with admiration for you that your life would be manifest in us as your spirit works it out. We love you. Thanks for loving us. Amen.