James 4
Notes
Transcript
James 4
James 4
Good morning church, and Merry Christmas! I want to encourage you all to join us this evening for our candlelight Christmas eve service. As Nicole said, it begins at 5pm and will last no more than an hour. The kids will be in here with us, so it will mostly we a time of song and praise. We will have a short Christmas message and end with worship by candlelight.
We will be resuming our study in James this morning in the fourth chapter. What better present than some hard truth for us. James has been a reality check for lots of us over the past few weeks. I think its pretty easy to get a messed up perspective of ourselves when we only look at ourselves.
I know for me, I’m a completely different man than I was when Nicole married me 31 years ago, and I’m a better man than I was 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. And if the old me was the standard to shoot for, then I would be doing pretty good. But then James writes stuff like I should count it all joy when I fall into various trials…because those trials will produce something in me…ok, room to grow there. He tells me I should be slow to speak and quick to listen, especially when it comes to what the Bible says....
I am to lay aside every form of wickedness in my life, all the time. I shouldn’t favor certain people over other people, especially just because they have money, or could help me in some way....ahhh, and my tongue, the words that come out of my mouth, they tell the story of my heart, so I need God’s help to make my heart and my words pure, words that build others up and don’t tear them down. Those are just a few of the things that have stood out to me.
Maybe, the list isn’t the same for you, or maybe you don’t have a list. You’re not a hearer only, you are a doer of the Word. Your faith is a real and living saving faith and your walk lines up with your talk. If that’s the case then praise the Lord...
But in this chapter I think James has something for us all. The last time I taught through James, I broke this chapter up in three different messages ( those are on the website if you want to break it down a little more), but we are going to try to take it as a whole this morning. I’m going to read it all the way through…to begin.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Let’s pray. Father even as I read this again, I’m humbled by the depth and the wisdom in Your Word. Help us to get it. Help us to understand what You want us to see, and help us as a church to live it out in the days ahead. We love you Lord and pray these things in Jesus’ name., amen.
Just a reminder that when James wrote this letter, the chapter breaks and the verse numbers weren’t there, they were added later by the publishers, so that when we gather we could all be on the same page.
But in this case, James it really continuing the thought of controlling the tongue and the things that we say…and then our conduct that he wrote about at the very end of chapter 3…he says...
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
So James lays it out for us and then he addresses the heart issues in the church and the consequences we see.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
First off, understand this was written almost 2,000 years ago, ok. They were just figuring this Christianity thing out, Christians don’t still fight, and have disputes with other Christians do they? The sad reality is that peace and unity is not the norm. I think it is here, and we are very intentional about keeping it that way.
But I want you to notice something about the way James addresses these conflicts, or what he does do and what he doesn’t do. James doesn’t say, OK lets sit down and talk about things. Why don’t you start and you can tell me everything that he has done wrong, and then you can tell me everything that she has done wrong…to James it is almost as if the topic of the fight, or the issue of the debate…doesn’t matter.
What matters to James is why we are fighting, not what it is about. Don’t they come for your desires for pleasure…self gratification of your flesh rather than yielding to the Spirit of God. All fights between believers as the result of this. I had a discussion with someone about this yesterday, and we talked about this being a principle, but I want to double down on it now, and say all the time.
Two Christians being led by the Spirit, yielded and submitted to the Holy Spirit, should never be in the position of Waring and fighting with one another. If they are, then at least one is being led by their fleshly desires for pleasures. Because the fruit of the Spirit is love, the Fruit of the Spirit is peace, and the Holy Spirit can be divided against Himself.
Someone is dealing with a heart condition. James is saying that these heart conditions will wage war in our churches and in our homes.
We don’t want to admit it when it’s us, but the Bible says it’s so. If Nicole and I are fighting about something what does that tell you guys? I’m probably right and she’s wrong right? No, it means I’m being stupid, I’m not yielded to the Holy Spirit, and there is a war going on in me.
The Apostle Paul talked about this..esv
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
We have been made perfect in Christ, but yet we are not yet sanctified. There is still a battle going on. That is why it is so important that we begin our day with prayer and time in the Word. James goes on to say in verse two...
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
This makes pretty good sense when you consider the state of the heart that he is talking about… We are not to lust, or murder, whether in the flesh, or through hate like Jesus talked about when he spoke of murder beginning in the heart. We aren’t to covet what someone else has. I wonder how often this happens to you and to me. We have not because we haven’t asked God. We haven’t talked to Him about it, just everyone else. We’ve loudly complained, maybe even pouted a little, but we never took it to the Lord…or there is this other issue, where maybe we do talk to God about it or at least talk at Him...
We ask wrongly, amiss, again, simple to gratify our flesh, our pleasures...
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
I imagine this is a little startling to some of you. Perhaps some think its wise to be a friend of the world. But Jesus said this...
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
See when James and Jesus is talking about the world, it is the world system. It is the rule of man, not the rule of God. It is the world and those of the world in their misplaced pride elevating themselves to a position of self rule. And James says if we want to be a friend to that then we are at enmity - hatred with God and we are not submitted to Him. Now does this mean that if you weren’t aware of this before this morning that you’re going to hell? No.
I mentioned doing stupid stuff in my marriage. In our marriages we can be at enmity, but it doesn’t mean we are no longer married. We just need to fix it. It is the same here, a matter of understanding what it means to be a friend of the world. In 1st John it says
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
So why would we want to be friends with the world? The world is man’s system of self rule, and is not submitted to the Lord. In verse 5 James asks...
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
Now we hear the word jealousy and we think of it as a bad thing, and most of the time it is. But this is a jealously that’s different from yours and mine. Our jealousy is about us and our wants, or even our needs. I need my wife, so I can get jealous, but even when I try to not let it be that way, my jealousy is about me and how much of her I have. Whether it be her time, or her attention, it’s about me. The jealousy of the Lord isn’t the same.
God’s Jealousy is pure. It is because He loves us, but rather than self motivation, He wants the best for us. He loves us, He wants us, but He doesn’t need us. He’s God.
He wants to bless us. He wants us to have joy, and peace, and security, self control. SO He is jealous for us. And the Spirit years for our surrender to Him and not to our flesh. Now when we look back to verse 4 where he calls us adulterers and adulteresses, we have to remember that James was the Pastor the of the church in Jerusalem, so the bulk of his church was made up of Jews, or he certainly would be writing to more Jews than Gentiles, so he uses alot of OT language from their heritage that they would understand and be familiar with.
We have the same picture in the NT, where the church is the Bride of Christ. He is the Husband, we are the bride, so when we put things or people, or even ourselves above Him we are committing spiritual adultery. The world can be one of those things. We have an example in the bible with a guy named Demas…in Paul’s letter to Timothy he wrote...
10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.
The indication is that he loved the world and abandoned his faith. I hope he came back, but the bible doesn’t tell us that.
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
Have you guys ever tried to walk against the current. Some of you have hiked what they call the Grand Cannon of Maine, Gulf Hagas. To begin that hike you have to ford a stream. At certain times of the year the water can get up above your knees and it is not wise to face that kind of resistance in the water. Many of you have experienced resistance in your children, especially if they have lived into their teen years.
A common definition is the refusal to accept or comply with something, opposing or withstanding. It that the kind of relationship you want to have with God. Him opposing and withstanding against you? That is what pride brings, but to the humble His give grace. The logical course of action then in verse 7...
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
True Humility is the complete surrender to God. Understanding who you are in light of all that He is. James tell us ...
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
Those are humbling words...
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
What is your life?
Paul answers this for us.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul understood this…He knew he deserved Hell, but rather than receive what he deserved, God gave Him grace and mercy, and those things weren’t free, they came at a price…and it was Jesus that paid that price.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Boasting is vanity and it doesn’t belong to us.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Knowledge of right and wrong brings responsibility. Jesus said the same.
48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
This is where James calls us all to the carpet. This letter isn’t a pep rally, it isn’t an encouragement to try a little, in this last verse he says, I’ve laid it our for you guys, not if you don’t act, if you fail to have a faith that results in works, you’re not too busy, you are in sin.
We all know about sins of commission right? Thou shall not covet, thou shall not lie, thou shall not have any other God’s before Me…we understand it as God defining the bad stuff and we are not to do the bad stuff. We are not to commit any of those things. So sins of commission. He lays a new one on us here what is a sin of omission.
If you know to do good and you don’t to you, it is sin. I had a situation yesterday, were the Lord told me to do something I don’t normally do, and I didn’t really want to do. But I was teaching on this verse this morning, so I really kinda had to ya know, the sticker judgement and all. I won’t tell you what it was…but I will say that the Lord completely blessed it and turned it into something I never saw coming. And blessed me for having been used by Him.
So Gang, lets listen to His still small voice and read his Word for His clear and direct instruction and when we know that we are supposed to be doing something, lets follow through and do it.
Grace and Peace