The Wisdom Giving God: Are You Asking?

Let's just begin reading in chapter 1, verse 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. And as I mentioned last time, it is very likely we're dealing with the James who is the half-brother of our Lord.

He is speaking to the Christians that had been at Jerusalem when we're scattered, dispersed, because of the persecution that came at the time when Stephen was martyred. That's very likely. This is a pastoral letter.

As I said before, you don't get more imperatives in such a concise number of verses as you get here. Fifty-four imperatives in 108 verses. Very practical.

An epistle that deals with reality. He says, "...Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Okay, that's what we dealt with last time. In the original, right here at the end of 4, the word order is this. It literally ends with, "...in nothing lacking." Lacking is the last word.

But then notice what James does. And this is going to pick up where I want to deal with today. V. 5, "...if any of you lacks wisdom." Now, I can tell you this, some translations, and if you look at the original, there is a but.

There is a connecting word here that a number of the translations leave out. But there's a connection. "...But if any of you lacks wisdom." And so, "...in nothing lacking, but if any of you lacks wisdom." Now, James in 4 wants us perfect.

No lack. But then he recognizes that something might be lacking that he doesn't want lacking. So, I take this from James that one of the most important virtues that might be lacking in our lives... You know, brethren, don't you feel it? I feel it.

How often do we just feel, Lord, I need wisdom. I need help. I've got to be able to figure this out.

It seems like James thinks that one of the most important virtues that a Christian might lack is what? It's wisdom. And so let's keep reading. "...If any of you lacks wisdom." Well, there's something you ought to do.

"...Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways." I have a question for you. You ready? You ready? According to verse 5, who should be the wisest people on the face of the earth? The ones who what? The ones who ask for wisdom the most. I hope you can see that.

Let that sink in. The person that is most often at the throne of grace asking for wisdom, you'd expect that that person to be the wisest. No? Yes? Brethren, when you find a truly wise person in this world, I'll guarantee you you can connect it to a reality.

It's a reality about their knees. Knees bent before the Lord. Those are the wise people.

This teaching, this doesn't just teach us here, folks, that anybody gets wisdom from God whether or not they ask. That's not being taught here. The meaning is plain.

You who ask God for wisdom, you'll find it. There's no promise here for those who seek wisdom in other places. There's no promise here for people that think that God may be wise, but then for whatever reason they refuse to ask Him, or they're lazy to ask Him, for whatever reason.

No promise for those. And I think the thing that I want to ask is this, what is wisdom? We're being given a massive promise here for something that we all need. I mean, you guys can look at the message in the first hour and think, well, am I really in that position where I've got a wife situation and she's lost, and maybe that applies to some people.

Maybe that doesn't apply to people. You might have been thinking, I don't know who that applies to. It doesn't apply to me.

Maybe it applies to somebody. Paul's obviously doing it. He's very practical.

It applies to somebody out there, maybe not you. But I can tell you this, that when it has to do with wisdom, every one of you, there's no escape. You can't dodge this.

Every one of us needs this. What is wisdom? What is wisdom? We need it and we're supposed to ask for it. We're given a promise here that God will give it to us generously if we ask.

But what is wisdom? It sounds like a good thing. Okay, one thing we could do is we could go to secular resources. Let me do that.

I went through a thesaurus and one of the synonyms is common sense. But you know something, according to verse five here, there's nothing common about wisdom. You know, worldly wisdom is common.

But you know what? God-given wisdom is not so common. For one thing, true Christians are not so common. And then to find true Christians that are regularly going to God and asking for prayer, I find, or asking for wisdom.

Christians ask for lots of things, but I have a feeling that there are some of you Christians that probably not on a regular basis are asking for wisdom. Maybe you are. Maybe I could be wrong in that.

I know this, I ask for wisdom, but I don't ask for wisdom enough. There are many things I ought to be asking God for wisdom that I don't ask God for wisdom. I had a brother telling me right when we were all walking in here before 10 o'clock, and he told me that he has been reminded lately that he's given himself to doing certain things in his work and he's not asking God for help.

He's not asking God to give him, which a lot of times equates to wisdom. You need wisdom, you need help, you need insight. And so there's nothing common.

There's nothing common about the kind of wisdom that's being talked about here. This is not simply common sense. Or I went to a dictionary.

One dictionary says this. Now catch this, because this is not far off of what the Greek word for wisdom is what? Anybody know? Sophia. This is a secular dictionary.

It says this, wisdom is the knowledge, get that, there's a knowledge of what's true and right coupled, so it's not just to have the knowledge of what's good and true and right, it's coupled also with something. With what? Just judgment as to action. Did you get that? That is really key.

It's knowing the right thing and then it's putting into action a pursuit of that right thing. It's having the judgment to take what you know and apply it to your life and what you do and the decisions you make. Another secular dictionary says this, wisdom is the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.

There it is again. They're both the same. This just inverts it.

This one starts with the action and it's the soundness of an action. And you're applying experience, knowledge, and good judgment to that. Okay, now when I come to my Bauer, Denger, Arndt, and Gingrich Greek lexicon, Sophia is defined this way.

It's very similar. The capacity to understand, there's the knowledge part, and function accordingly. That's the action.

Function is what BDAG hits us with. Now, I look at it this way. Those things are extra biblical.

How about if we try to look at what wisdom is from where the Bible gives us our weighty ideas about wisdom. Where would that be? Proverbs. Let's go to Proverbs.

Let's all turn there because I want you to see. When you go to Proverbs, you know what you find? You find wisdom and it's often interspersed with synonyms. What are some of the synonyms of wisdom? Fear of the Lord.

What else? Well, you're kind of giving definitions that's telling us wisdom is a fountain of life, but that's not really giving us the synonym of insight is one of them. Understanding is one of them. Even knowledge at times.

We know wisdom goes further than just knowledge. It's the application. It's putting it into action.

The idea of discretion comes up as a synonym. Now, I want you to go to Proverbs 2, verse 3, because this is really important. The first thing I want you all to deal with is what is it exactly that we're asking for? I want you to see how important it is, brethren.

I want you to go out of here today and I want your life to change when it comes to prayer and it comes to asking for wisdom. I want you to see how important this is for you. How much this matters to your life.

So, Proverbs 2, verse 3. I'm going to start with the word yes. Yes, if you call out, well, there it is. You're asking.

This is the same thing that James says. So Solomon says, if you call out for insight, there's one of our synonyms, raise your voice. See, you're asking.

You're asking for understanding. Another one of our synonyms. Then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom. Well, that's why we ask God for wisdom. He gives generously.

It's the Lord who gives wisdom. There is the source. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Two more, again, of our synonyms. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. And jump to verse 9. Then you'll understand righteousness, justice, equity, every good path.

Now that jumps out at me. You know what good path, what does a path imply? I'm going somewhere, right? There's a path. I'm here.

The path lays before, the good path. That's what wisdom is all about. So many possible paths that face us in life.

But there are good paths. Oh, folks, there are. Remember what Paul says to the Philippians, approve that which is excellent.

There are good paths and there are excellent paths. Here, good paths basically is representative of all that's good. That's what wisdom is about.

And brethren, I'm talking about your life. I'm talking about your decisions, your choices. What you do with your time.

How you give yourself to prayer or how you don't. How you deal with problems. The relationships that you have.

This is the kind of thing, the work you do. How you raise your children. What you do with money.

What you say to the lost. You ever been there where it's, I don't know what to say to this person. You ever been there where you're evangelizing, you go out on the streets or you go door to door, you go to the college campuses or wherever we go to take the gospel, you go to the nursing home and you're confronted by somebody.

You ever find yourself on the inside, Lord, give me wisdom, what to say to this person. Brethren, I don't know about you, but left to myself, I'm just a bundle of wreckage. I don't know the right way.

You try to, I lean on my own understanding and you do too and what happens? Where do we end up? Falling on our face. And brethren, we're just interpreting Scripture, counseling others. Sometimes we get two pressing things.

You ever been here where you got two things pressing in upon you but you don't know how to bring them together? You don't know how to carry out both. It's like I feel like God wants me to do both or I have commandments in Scripture telling me, but it feels impossible to pull them off. There's a million other things.

Brethren, if you have wisdom, you know what you have? You have God indicating to you this is the good path. That's what I want to know. And wouldn't you like to know that? What is the best path I could take with regards to all sorts of things in my life? That's the idea.

Now, I've studied Proverbs for years and I've tried to do this. Okay, I want to start studying Proverbs and go all the way through it and I want to try to develop some idea about wisdom is just from the Scripture themselves. Without going to secular thesaurus or dictionary or to the lexicon.

What does this say? And I have a definition like this. It's acting so as to pursue your own greatest good for the greatest amount of time. And you might add other things to it, but you can't argue with those words.

And I want to show you from the Proverbs. Go to chapter three, verse 13. Acting so as to pursue your own greatest good for the greatest amount of time.

Because obviously, if you pursue what's for your own greatest good for the next year, but after that you go to hell, that's not so great. That's not so wise. You want to pursue what is for your greatest good forever.

Right? That's behind wisdom. And I want to show you. Proverbs 3, 13.

Notice this word. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom. Did you get? You are blessed.

You get the blessing. This has to do with you. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding for the gain.

You get that gain, folks. The gain from her is better than the gain from silver. And her profit, this is wisdom's profit.

You're the one who profits. You profit by wisdom more than if you had gold. She, that's wisdom, is more precious than jewels.

Nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.

Again, you get those riches. You get that honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness.

You're the one that gets the pleasantness. All her paths are peace. You get that peace.

She's a tree of life. To those who laid hold of her, those who hold her fast are called blessed. And you know what happens in the Proverbs? Wisdom is given a voice.

Wisdom, she talks to you and me. Go to Proverbs 8. She cries out. She's speaking.

Proverbs 8, verse 35. Listen to what wisdom says. She says, whoever finds life, whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.

Oh, brethren, I want that. I want favor from the Lord. And if you find wisdom, that's what you get.

But notice this. Notice how that is for your good, but if you fail to find wisdom, notice how it impacts you. It doesn't impact me if you don't find wisdom.

It impacts you. If you get it, you find favor. If you miss it, then you get this.

You get injury to yourself. All who hate me love death. There's one Proverb that has always jumped out at me.

Go to chapter 9, verse 12. Notice the first part of this. Listen, if you are wise, you are wise for who? Did you see that there in your Bible? If you are wise, you are wise for who? You are wise for you.

You want that, right? You want wisdom because if you are wise, you get all the benefits from it. This is very personal, folks. See, what I'm talking about right now, it applies to every single one of us because every single one of us want good for ourselves.

Every one of us have a preservation mechanism. But the fool is the guy who thinks, well, you know what? I'm going to go after what feels good right now and I don't care about the consequences later on. That is a fool.

You got to think about how your actions now, as good as it feels, is going to impact you later. How does this affect you? God will show you the good path. You take that good path and there's just pleasantness and there's peace and there's good and there's prosperity and there's riches and there's honor and there's life.

You want that. I want that. So be wise.

But that doesn't mean be wise in your own eyes. That means you go to God because it's interesting when you seek God, He often will show you something different than what you might have thought in your own ability to think through the thing. Many of the Proverbs drive this principle home again and again, that you're wise for yourself.

Look at Proverbs 11, verse 17. The Proverbs are wise statements. And notice what the preacher says here.

A man who is kind, you see, that's the path of wisdom, that's the good path, that's the path that God would show you. Be kind. And if you're kind, who do you benefit? Well, yes, you benefit the people that you're kind to, but isn't it interesting that when it comes to wisdom literature, what does it really point out? Who gets the benefit? You do.

You are the one who is going to benefit. A cruel man, who does he hurt? Me? Who does he hurt? He hurts self. Proverbs 15, verse 32.

This type of thing comes over and over. I'm touching just the surface here so that you get the idea. Proverbs 15, verse 32.

Whoever ignores instruction, remember instruction is one of our synonyms for wisdom. You ignore it, what happens? You despise yourself. He who listens to reproof gains intelligence.

Go to Proverbs 19, verse 8. Proverbs 19, verse 8. Whoever gets sense, good sense, we might say that's another synonym of wisdom. Whoever gets that, notice this, he loves his own soul. Do you love your own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Jesus once asked.

A man will give everything. But isn't it amazing how men do the most foolish things with life? Why? Because they're wise in their own minds. And they think that they can get away with all sorts of foolish things and that in the end, they're not going to reap the consequences of their foolishness.

That is foolish, folks. Whoever gets sense loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding will discover good.

Notice, if you're wise, you're wise for you. Proverbs 27, verse 18. Proverbs 27, verse 18.

Just such basic wisdom literature. Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit. He who guards his master will be honored.

You see, the idea here is again and again and again that you reap the consequences of your wisdom. Job said it this way. You don't have to look there, but in Job 22 he said, Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

You see what he's saying? He says that when you're wise, you don't profit God. When you're wise, you profit you. The fool.

The fool. You know what happens when you go through the Proverbs and you find the fool? You know what words are often attached to him? Ruin, death, folly, harm. That's what defines him.

You know what the fool does? The fool does what's going to be fun, what's going to be satisfying and gratifying and pleasing and pleasant right now. He chooses very short-sightedly. He chooses what's going to feel good.

And God says that guy's a fool, and ruin and harm are on his steps. You see, what God will do is He'll show us the good path and He shows us where it leads to. And He shows us that in the end, it is going to end up being best for us.

And what's best for us is always what His will is. It's always which is most pleasing to Him. Because listen, God is ultimately responsible for all the pleasantness and all the peace and all the good and all the blessedness.

And so we want to be on the path He wants us on. That's the safe path, folks. That's the good path.

That's wisdom. And brethren, you do recognize, right, that there's nothing selfish about this. It's not selfish to seek your own greatest good.

Seeking your own greatest good is never said to be wrong in Scripture. It's always at the heart of true wisdom. Jesus Christ, we know Scripture says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That Christ, He said, what does it profit you if you gain the whole world and you lose your own soul? You see what He's appealing to there? What's He appealing to? He's appealing to your own profit in the issue. He's saying to you, don't spend your whole life pursuing everything and anything at the expense of your soul. Don't do that.

Don't cheaply throw your soul away. Brethren, I'll tell you what, it is absolutely foolish to live for this world. We want to live for eternity.

We want to be people with the long view. And God has the long view for us. And He's telling us, don't spend all your time trying to gain everything here and in the end lose your soul.

Don't do that. Jesus would say things like, you know what, if that eye offends, if that eye causes you to sin, it is better to gouge that thing out and throw that thing away. It is better for you to lose that eye than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Did you see what He appeals to again? Your own greatest good. It is for your own greatest good to chop off a hand or pluck out an eye rather than to go to hell. Jesus reasoned that way all the time.

Yes, it is in your self-interest, but there's a big difference between being selfish and pursuing your greatest self-interest. And Jesus everywhere told us to do that. Listen, nobody gets saved, calls out upon the Lord Jesus Christ and asks Him to cleanse them of all their sin, except you're doing that in your self-interest.

Save me. What must I do to be saved? It's got to do with me being saved. And so, many paths.

And we recognize so many ways we could go. And having God's Word is not enough. You say, blasphemy! Really? Having God's Word is not enough.

You need God's wisdom. Because you know what, even if you've got this Word, you ever find you need God's wisdom to figure out what it's saying? What it's teaching? I mean, James is over there wrestling with 1 Corinthians 7. You've got to have God's wisdom. It's not just enough to have this book.

You can have God's book and you don't know what it means by what it says. You've got to have that opened up to you. I mean, you need to have God's wisdom just to know when certain truths in this book apply to your life at a given time or a given situation.

You need wisdom for that. We have a very big book here, 66 books in this Bible and all sorts of truths coming at us. Which one do I apply at any given time? It's like, I'm okay, I have this, but is that enough when I'm evangelizing the lost? I mean, I find that Jesus spoke one way.

I mean, you go call your husband to one gal and over here, he's on this other side and he's going to go sell all your stuff and give to the poor. Well, which do I say? I mean, I need wisdom for that. I encounter somebody on the street or one of my next door neighbors and what do I say? Brethren, just because we have our Bibles, the thing is, even with the sermon, I'm trying to preach to you from the Word of God, but what do I say to you? There's a bunch of different things I could say to you.

Brethren, we need wisdom. We need wisdom in how to use this book, how to interpret this book, how to apply this book. I have God's Word, but I need help from God to know if there's anything.

Brethren, there's lots of things that this book doesn't specifically deal with. Like what should I tell my daughter, Charity? What could I do to be an instrument in God's hand that God might use to save my daughter? I have this book, but I need wisdom to know what to say. Brethren, sometimes we need wisdom to know when not to say.

We all need help to know how best to endure trials. And I need God to give me light on all sorts of things, to know all sorts of things that the Scripture doesn't directly deal with. And brethren, it's wisdom that I would not otherwise have if I did not go to God and ask.

And I know from my own experience, brethren, I have gone to God again and again and again and asked for wisdom. These verses right here, they mean a lot to me. And I have found that God answers.

And I found that God gives and that God helps. Do you know what the Proverbs says the beginning of wisdom is? You say the fear of the Lord. There's a text, and probably if you're still there, look at Proverbs 4.7. Because I thought when I asked you that question, you'd probably answer that way, and everybody did.

Nobody answered according to Proverbs 4.7. What does 4.7 say? What is the beginning of wisdom? Get wisdom. Don't you love that? You know what that says? You really want to be wise. You don't start to be wise until you are deliberate to go after it.

You know what that's saying to us? You can't just sit there passive. You can't just sit there and think by some kind of osmosis or something that wisdom is going to come into your head. There's got to be a pursuance of it.

You've got to make it your life's endeavor to find it. There needs to be searching and striving and agonizing, but not aimlessly. James tells us there's one place to go.

What does he say? Look at James 1. Go back to James now. We're pretty much done with Proverbs. Go back to James 1. James says, you want to strive? You want to go after it? You want to search? You want to get wisdom? You want to be deliberate? You want to be intentional? Well, this is it, brethren.

James 1.5, if any of you lacks wisdom, there's one place to go. Let him ask God. You don't go first to men.

You don't go first to school. You don't go first to seminary. There is a direct correlation here between wisdom and that man on bended knee lifting up his prayer to God who gives liberally.

That's what we find here. Ecclesiastes says, wisdom is better than might. Think about how much effort the folks in this church have put into weight lifting.

Wisdom's better. Wisdom's better than strong muscles. It's better than might.

Another place in Ecclesiastes, it says wisdom is better than weapons of war. If it is, then we need to be much in asking for it. If wisdom's better than might, pray to God to get it.

Proverbs 3, she is more precious than jewels. Nothing you desire. I already looked at this, but I just want you to hear these words.

With regards to wisdom, folks, nothing, this is God's estimate of the value of wisdom. Nothing, nothing that you can pursue in life, nothing you desire can compare with her. So I would say wrestle with the Lord till you prevail.

We're talking about God-given insight, enabling you to see God's will, see the best path for you along with, because if you're going to pray for wisdom and wisdom actually goes beyond just the knowledge, then it isn't just God showing you the right path. It's God also giving you the initiative to go down the path, the desire to go the way of God's will, the brokenness, the yieldness. Do you not need that? Brethren, I don't just need to be shown the right way.

I need the grace of God to go that way, because that's what wisdom is all about. Wisdom is not just having the knowledge of which way the best way is. It's actually putting it into action.

You don't have any wisdom if you know the right way and you don't go it. That's not wisdom. And so I need this, the impulse, the desire, the will to do what that best path is.

Now to the text, I want you to see this. The first motive for asking in verse 5 is need. You see it? If any of you lacks.

Brethren, God has purposely designed us to be weak and needy. Without Me, you can do nothing kind of people. He takes great glory in that.

Why? So that we would go Him for all of our resources. We would go to Him for help. We would constantly... He's designed it all this way.

God delights to make us dependent. And you know what? The promise in verse 5 appeals to you if you're needy. Don't imagine yourself stupid for lacking wisdom.

Brethren, I know this. When it comes to knowledge, when it comes to insight, when it comes to understanding, when it comes to wisdom, if I see it in another individual, they didn't get that themselves. They're not responsible for that.

God gave that to them. And you know what? If you're going to get it, God's going to give it to you. And just because you look at them and you see they have it and you don't have it, brethren, some people are born into Christian families.

They are raised with a mother and father pouring wisdom into them from birth. I got saved at 25 and I didn't grow up in a Christian family. But you know what the reality is? That we have the sort of God who can make up, you ever read this in Scripture? That He's able to make up for what the canker worm has eaten? Oh, that's the kind of God we have.

All the wasted years, God's able to make up. I can see somebody else and oh, they had that Christian influence and Christian upbringing and they had all these favorable circumstances. But what? If God came along and saved me at the age of 25, that doesn't put me at any disadvantage, not with a promise like this.

So what? So what if you know something I don't or you have wisdom I don't? I have access to the source. I have access to the giver and I can go get that just as well as you got it. Don't feel bad if you look around and you recognize you're behind other people in wisdom and knowledge and insight and understanding.

Just go to God and get it. You have the resource at hand. God loves to help the needy in all our needs.

Brethren, don't lean on your own understanding. Wisdom isn't found in you. He is wise, altogether wise.

He's a very source of wisdom, the fountain of wisdom. And don't restrict God. He says, open your mouth wide and He will fill it.

Now look, there's a second motive for asking in this verse and it's God's character. You see it? If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. You know what? Translated in the original order and I really could have wished our English translations would have translated exactly in the order that the Greek has it because it reads literally, ask the giving God.

Don't you love that? In fact, I entitled this, the wisdom giving God. He's the giving God. You can stop right here.

The giving God, ever since Eve was there in the garden confronted by the devil, she believed and mankind has believed this ever since that God's against us. God's against our real joy. God is trying to keep something.

He's trying to deprive us. Man, ever since Eve there in the garden, man has imagined not God with an open hand ready to generously give. We have such a tendency to imagine God tight-fisted and He doesn't want to give.

He's hard and He's stern and He's demanding and He's the taking kind of God. He only wants from me. He wants to take, take, take, take.

And see, the devil's right there to say, well, God really knows. He's a jealous God. He's a small God.

He really, He knows what you'd be if you ate of this fruit and God just doesn't want you to be like that. He's trying to hold you down. He's trying to keep you back.

Like you can't be what you ought to be or you might be if only you could eat that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Man has ever since, man has this tendency to doubt the justice of God and the righteousness of God, the benevolence of God. Man just doubts His goodness and His sincerity.

And they doubted the very character of God Himself right there at the beginning. Just regarding God almost as a monster, as someone against them who delights in just spoiling our lives. Young people.

You know, the young people here that are lost, that's what you think. And you're not the first to think that. I thought that.

For 25 years, I thought you'd go to God, you can't do what's fun. You go to God, He's just going to spoil your life. Religion.

Oh man, that just sounded terrible. Any of you young people feel like that? There's nothing new. But you know what? James says God isn't like that at all.

Ask the giving God. Do you realize? Brethren, you know what jumps out at me? What are we asking Him for? We're asking Him for wisdom. What fruit did they want to eat? The fruit of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And here's God saying, I am offering you fruit of the tree of wisdom and it's there for the taking if you will simply come and ask Me. And there, she sinned to take it and here it is offered to us and we so stupidly don't go get it and eat it. So often, oh brethren, every good gift, every perfect gift is from above, James tells us in a little while, coming down from the Father of lights.

Every good gift, every, He gives generously. Generosity characterizes Him. Brethren, don't restrict God in your hearts and minds.

We have a tendency to do that. Why? Because we've gone to God in the past and He hasn't given us what we've asked. And a lot of times, brethren, the problem is that we have not done what Jesus tells us to do.

We have not continued to ask and continued to seek and continued to knock and our importunity wore out and we were happy to have no answer. There's many things God is very willing to give. Should we just go to Him and get it? And the thing is, He gives generously and notice this, to all.

If you're sitting here, I don't care if you're saved or lost. It says to all. You ask, none are excluded from the offer.

And it says without reproach. You know what that means? He never finds fault. God never tires of doing His people good.

And I was thinking, when I was in Manchester, Manchester's in the north. London is in the south. I met a pastor over there, his name is Jeremy Walker and he pastors just south of London.

Well, there was a guy up near Manchester who needed to get train tickets or bus tickets down to where he needed to go, maybe where he lived, where his mom was perhaps, down there where Jeremy lived. So somehow he knew about Jeremy's church and I guess that was his stomping grounds down there. So he called Jeremy.

He said, Jeremy, I need help. This is a lost guy. This is no Christian.

I need help to get trained down there. I need some money. You know what Jeremy did? He said, oh, Tim is up there.

So he gave the guy my number. And so the guy calls me and says, Jeremy gave me your number and I need tickets. And I thought, thanks Jeremy.

And so I gave him money for his train ticket and I gave him extra money for food. Okay, phone rings the next day and he says, I need food for my dog. Well, he had already taken the train down there to Jeremy's area south of London.

And I said, well, you're down there now. I'm gonna hand you over to Jeremy. He says, well, I don't have a meeting with him till tomorrow and I gotta eat today and my dog's hungry today.

I said, well, if it's a real emergency, you just go call Jeremy and tell him it's an emergency. And I never heard from him again. And the reason I say that is because you get the guy, somebody comes to, the classic is, somebody comes to your door at home and you say, I gave it the office.

We tend to have excuses for why we won't give. Well, because we already gave. I told the guy we already gave and there was some excuse there and I didn't give it to him the second time.

But the fact is God never tires. God doesn't, you know what? God's giving is not governed by a nature that is like ours. God is a generous God and God keeps giving and keeps giving.

We tend to think God is like us. You remember one of the Proverbs that says, it says, let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house. You ever read that one? Like, don't go hang out there too much, lest he tire of you.

He has his fill of you and hate you. You see, that's how we tend to be. Don't bother me too much.

But your God's not like that. With God, brethren, don't you love this? He's the generous God. He is the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes.

It's like with God, the more frequently you come to Him, the more welcome you are. God doesn't get tired of blessing us. It's like I can run to Him for wisdom with this thing and I can run right back to Him and I'm not gonna get, well, you're down there at Jeremy's and so I'm not gonna give to you right now.

He's not like us. He doesn't do it like us. Why would James stress that God gives without reproach? Brethren, certainly to dissolve our fears, lest we think that we're coming to God too much.

We might have excuses for not giving to people, but God isn't full of those excuses. Have you ever found in Scripture that I don't care if you're Ahab, if you're Manasseh, you come broken to God and you come looking for help and you come crying out to Him, God hears. Doesn't matter all the wickedness you've done, God doesn't rank this thing based on our worthiness.

You come to Him, you come to Him, you're needy. Did you ever find that with Jesus? You know what? When people came with needs, He met those needs. Even though oftentimes those people didn't go away converted.

That's the kind of God we have. It's like God responds to the asking. He's altogether ready to add new blessings on top of the old without any hesitation.

The giving God. Ask Him, brethren. Ask Him.

And notice this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Does that sound like a promise to you? It does to me.

You need wisdom? I need wisdom? There's a promise here. Ask. You can be lost.

Maybe the wisdom you need is wisdom in how to be saved. Wisdom on knowing what that thing is that stands between you and God that's keeping you apart from Him. So ask.

How to be a better husband? How to be a better wife? Brethren, do you ever have the question is there anything that is responsible in my life for the fact that we don't have revival? Do you ever ask, Lord, what's the one thing in my life that ought to most be changed? What is the one thing that I might change or the path, the good path that I might get on that might help bring me to a higher plane, that might lift me? Wisdom, brethren. We need wisdom. Anybody need that? Wisdom to know how to change what is most needed to change in your life.

Is there anything more certain than this? We're given this. It will be given. The wisdom you need you will get if you ask.

The crucial question is always this, brethren. Do you pray? Should I watch that movie? I'm afraid. See, this is the thing.

You come to the movie. You come to the video game. Are you afraid to get on your knees and ask? Or do you already know what God's gonna tell you? Brethren, that's foolish.

That's foolish. Because if God doesn't want you to do it, I'll tell you this, it is not gonna be for your blessing. It is not gonna be for your good.

It is not gonna be for your pleasantness. It is not gonna be for your peace. It is not gonna be for your fruitfulness.

You ever read some a hundredfold, some 60-fold, some 30-fold? Anybody need wisdom here to figure out how to get beyond where you are closer to a hundredfold? You ever think about the fruitfulness of your life? Lord, how can I take what you've given me and live the most fruitful life I possibly can? Anybody need wisdom with regards to that? How can I be the best church member? How can I be the best citizen? How can I be the best spouse? How can I be best? How can I choose the good path in my work, in my school, in my all, in my life? What can I do? What should I do? There's so many options. There's so many possible paths. Should I watch that game on TV? Should I get absorbed in that hobby over there? Should I do that? Even my R and R. We don't work all the time, but how should I rest? What's best? What's the best way? Lord, give me wisdom.

And then we get three verses warning against doubt. Verse six, verse seven, verse eight. Look at them.

Let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways. And I just want you to think, the word doubt in verse six. Doubting, the one who doubts.

That's to dispute with oneself. It means to waver or to hesitate. The doubter is like the surface of the ocean when the wind is blowing and tossing and churning.

It's unstable. It's moving all the time, those waves, but it doesn't go anywhere. And when we have prayers that lack faith, it's like the sea and it billows and it churns and it's unstable.

And those waves, they don't go anywhere. It does no good. The doubter is like that, ever shifting, ever moving, never fixed, no anchor for the soul.

And then you have this, double-minded in eight. That means one who has two souls. It implies this idea that a person is divided.

He's just, his thoughts floating between two different opinions, as if he has two minds. And brethren, one of the places you see this is that somebody prays. God gives a promise.

Somebody prays. There's no immediate answer, so they give up. Well, see, there was a moment there where they had one mind that, well, I'm gonna, maybe, I'm hopeful.

I'm gonna get an answer. It doesn't come immediately, and then I give up hope. And it's followed by, you see, there's double, there's another word here, unstable.

You see that in verse eight. Unstable in all of his ways. There's just no constancy of soul.

Sometimes ready to pray, sometimes look to solve the problem by themselves. Praying at one moment, not ready to wait for an answer the next. Trusting God in fits and starts.

And brethren, you may ask, well, what sort of unbelief is it that I'm not supposed to have when I come to God and ask? What is it to be avoided? What kind of unbelief? My answer is this. The question's pretty much already been answered for the most part. We're not to doubt two things here that you find in verse five.

What are the two things? One is God's character. He is the giving God. And two is God's promise.

He promises that if you ask, you'll have it. You can't get away from that. We've gotta take God at His word.

To pray in faith is the only way to pray. And that means character of God. You've got to have right thoughts of God.

If I go to God and I recognize He doesn't just give wisdom out sparingly. He gives it out generously. Okay, then that's gonna be my expectation.

He's the giving God and He's given me a promise. And so I'm banking on that. That's what faith does.

Faith is not willing to take no for an answer or silence for an answer, knowing God's character and knowing God's promise. Faith will not be content with that. I pray.

And when I pray, I've gotta magnify God's attributes in every prayer. And listen, if you're okay to think that God gives this promise and then doesn't come through with it, you are not upholding God's character and God's attributes in the right way. You're dishonoring Him.

God might help. You come to Him at first. Kind of guesswork on your part.

I think He might help me. What do you mean He might help? He's given a promise that He will help. When you approach it from this unstable way, thinking He might help, but then after that thinking, well, maybe He's more cruel and unapproachable and unwilling, when He says He is willing, that's the heart of the unstable one, half convinced.

Doing prayers, just mere guesswork as to whether God might come through. The unstable pray and don't look for success in prayer. Brethren, don't we have a God that says, ask and it will be given? That if you seek, you will find? This is the kind of thing we're told over and over.

And we have a distinct promise that if you come to Him in faith, believing that He'll give it, He will give you this wisdom. The double-minded is okay having God not be good to His Word. Divided in His basic attitude about who God is.

Believing one way at one time and another way at another time. He's just, well, He might answer me, and then you give up. Why? Unbelief.

That's the only thing that'll make you give up, unbelief. Though He says He'll give to any who ask, well, it must not mean me. There must be enough things wrong with me.

Though He says He's generous, well, I guess. I mean, I can't really count on that generosity. You see, the unstable doesn't get answers and he accepts it and he goes on his way.

They ask and there's silence. Well, I guess that's just the way it is. There's so many unknowable, unsearchable, complicated factors in prayer that I just don't know about.

And I don't know, I guess God has His reasons for why He wouldn't uphold His promise. Okay with no answer. Unanswered prayers just become normal.

Brethren, that's unbelief. If you're like that Syrophoenician woman and you're actually convinced that that guy right there is the only one who is going to save my daughter from that demon, then you don't give up if there's silence. You don't give up if you're called a dog.

You keep after it. And Jesus commended that faith and that's what faith does. Faith sticks to it.

Listen, our faith is not in prayer. Our faith is always in a person. And that's what we have.

Believing prayer is the prayer of a man utterly convinced of the kindness and the love and the wisdom and the generosity and the grace and the faithfulness. Faithfulness to keep His promises. Of the God to whom He is praying.

I believe God is faithful to do what He's promised. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who would give generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. Do you believe that? If you do, let him ask God.

Brethren, the Lord said one time something like this. Secret prayer. Go into the secret place.

Go into the closet and close the door. And He said, you cry out. You pray to your Father in secret.

Your Father in secret will give to you openly. That's what He said. Brethren, I'll tell you this, your desires, the goodness of them or not, your sincerity, and at the deepest level, your Christianity, you know where it gets tested? In secret.

We all can portray ourselves and posture ourselves, but you know where you really get found out for what you truly are? It's tested in secret. Your desire for wisdom is found out in that secret place. What you really are is what you are in secret.

Because if you come here and you sit here and you go home and you watch pornography, what you do when no one else's eyes are on you is what you truly are. Your desire for wisdom in secret is what you really are when it comes to desire for wisdom. A man is most truly and most certainly what he is when he's beyond the seeing eyes of other people.

Faith. A man who really has faith, he has faith in private. He doesn't just talk good when he's in front of others.

A man with faith, he goes into that secret place and he will cling to his Father in heaven and he will not let go. That's what faith is. Faith is bold.

It's most truly and certainly a reality that is there in that secret place. Faith wrestles. You remember what Jacob did out there at the fort of Jabbok? He went to the secret place at night.

When other people are sleeping, he's wrestling. It's God. God's given us a promise.

And faith refuses to take no for an answer. The promise to Jacob was, I will do you good. And you know what God's promising us here in James 1.5? He's promising to do us good and to give us wisdom.

And we should be just like... We should be Jacob's in search of another name because we're wrestlers of God just like He was. And faith insists we need to be Jacob's like that. We insist we're going to get the blessing.

Remember how Jacob got to that place? He was all alone there and yet he was never more or less alone. And here comes the angel of the covenant. And folks, they really wrestled.

I mean, there was hands engaged and there was arms engaged and it was shoulder against shoulder so much so that his thigh got put out of joint. And they're maneuvering. You know how it is in wrestling? You're trying to pit yourself and move into advantage over the other person? And that was really happening.

And as much as anything, Jacob was out there and it was his soul wrestling with God. He withdrew from family. He was all alone there.

Private prayer. What did he do? He took God captive. He wrestled.

He latched onto omnipotence. Jacob and the angel, he was trying to resist and conquer and subdue this angel. And I'll tell you what, he did do it.

And he did it by the very strength that the angel of the Lord gave to him. But that angel of the covenant is willing to be conquered by us. But, oh brethren, he wants us to wrestle.

He wants to come to grips with him. Jacob's soul took hold of God. He had his tears over in Hosea 12.

It tells us that there were tears on his part. Jacob overpowers the Lord by that very strength that God Himself had given to him and he conquered. The thing is, as much as Jacob was determined to conquer, the angel of the Lord was willing to be conquered.

And God is willing to be conquered by you. And you've got to go into that secret place and you've got to wrestle. Brethren, we need wisdom.

We need more wisdom. Brethren, what would it take for us to be a church like Smyrna or a church like Philadelphia with nothing that Christ would say against us? No wrong. Nothing out of place.

Nothing major anyway that would bring reproof or reprimand from Him. The angel of the covenant there, so willing to give. You see the great power, the great prevailing in secret prayer.

Folks, don't play with God. Faith conquers the great conqueror. Or it's not faith.

And God gives us promises to be believed and be grabbed hold of. Jacob's faith laid hold on God's promise. It wouldn't let go.

He promised to do me good. Okay, God has promised to do me good too and you good too, so don't let go of Him. You keep going.

If you're God, if you're wise, God makes you wise for yourself. That's not something you want to give up lightly. Brethren, we lack wisdom right now.

What do you lack wisdom about? And I'm just calling you to the secret place. Wrestle with God. Don't be content until you get it.

God, show me. I want the wise path. Brethren, I want to run this race as well as we can.

We don't get a second chance at it. There's no doing it over. If you prevail with God in the pursuit of wisdom, who's it for? It is for you.

And God is very pleased to generously, without ever reproaching you. You can't go to Him too much. He just adds blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

I need wisdom for this thing and I can go right back to Him two seconds later for wisdom for the next thing. Brethren, talk to Him. And there's a secret place right here.

You need to be talking to Him all the time. Brethren, we need to be. You cannot live your life independently.

We need to be talking to God all the time in our minds. Lord, what should I do? I have a, I mean, what am I going to do with the rest of the day? There's many things I could do after the service is over. There's different people I could go to and talk to.

What am I going to say to you? What am I going to do? What am I going to do with my spiritual gifts? What, there's so many things. I need wisdom about. Brethren, sister, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle you lost ones to the secret place.

We need to wrestle. We need to prevail. We need to pray.

We need to keep at it. Brethren, we need to be people of prayer. That is the great question.

Are we asking? Are we asking this generous God? Do you have some semblance in your mind of just how generous He is? And He doesn't hold back. He doesn't upbraid us. He doesn't rebuke us.

He doesn't fault us. He is so willing to lavishly give the Father of lights from Whom every good and perfect gift comes. He just lays it all out there.

We need wisdom for ourself. And if you are wise, you are wise for yourself and you will never be wise for yourself until you get that wisdom from God by asking God. And He will show you the way.

He will give you insight into the good path. We need it, brethren. This is practical.

This is right where we live. Every one of us. God, I pray that You would help us.

Help us to be the wrestlers. Help us to be like the Jacobs, renamed Israel. We want to be those who have prevailed with God.

Make us the prevailers when it comes to wisdom. Lord, I need wisdom. I need wisdom to know what to do with the rest of my life.

I need wisdom to know which way to go, which way is up, which way is going to take me furthest up. Lord, we all need that. We need to know the right path.

Lord, we want to be on a path of fruitfulness. We want to live the way that we have wished we'd live. And when we get all the way to the end, we want to live the way that is going to be most profitable, most fruitful for all of eternity.

We recognize that when we get to the end, even as it says in the book of Revelation 14, that our works follow us. And Lord, we know that the things we do in this life are going to follow us out into eternity. They matter.

And Lord, we don't want to be a fool. Help us to not be fools. Help us to not waste our lives.

I ask it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.