Sermon Tone Analysis

“Alas, how easily things go wrong!

A sigh too much or a kiss too long.

And there follows a mist and weeping rain, and life is never the same again.”

George McDonlad

Donald Barnhouse told a story of young man who had fallen into the temptation of adultery.

This young man was in his thirties spending a lot of time at his office.

His normal secretary was replaced by a younger secretary and a mutual attraction ensued.

It started with a subtle caress of her hair by his face as she handed him papers.

Then and innocent touch of hands at her desk.

Eventually a he gave into the temptation of adultery.

Barnhouse described the war inside the young man his own words:

“I hated what I was doing, but I kept on.

I had the greatest desire to push her (the secretary) from me, but I kept pulling her to me; my body was doing one thing and my mind was doing another.

Before a month had gone by I realized that my lust and my love were in a terrible battle.

When I came home, there was everything I wanted in life.

When I went to the office, the machine of my body seemed geared to something terrible that was purely mechanical, and which I wanted to get out of more than any fly ever wanted to get off flypaper.”

The man recognized what he was doing was wrong, but the lure of adultery battled hard and eventually won out.

He was unfaithful to his wife who loved him faithfully.

Adultery is an act of unfaithfulness.

Adultery breaks the marriage covenant between husband, wife, and God.

God condemns such treachery in the seventh commandment of his law.

He hates adultery so much that he made it punishable by death in the Old Testament.

Adultery is the antithesis to marriage, which is the very picture of God’s faithful love to save sinners by sending his Son to die for them.

James Bolick notes that “the Word has a lot to say about adultery among the human relationships.

It is the scarlet sin in the social realm today.

It is an awful and terrible sin that blights lives, wrecks homes, and damns souls.

Gal.

5:19–21; 1 Cor.

6:9–11.

But worse than this scarlet sin in the social world is the spiritual adultery being committed by those who are married to God.”

James confronts such spiritual infidelity in chapter four.

He calls his hearers adulterers in James 4:4a

James 4:4 (ESV)

You adulterous people!

He is not speaking of physical adultery.

There is no mention is sexual sin in the letter.

James is speaking to something even more serious and consequential.

He is speaking to their spiritual infidelity to God.

The church was in jeopardy of being lured away by the lust of this world just like the man who was lured away by his lust for his secretary.

Their conduct toward each other was the evidence their hearts were teetering with unfaithfulness.

Spiritual Unfaithfulness has always been a problem...

God has always had to deal with people he loves being tempted toward unfaithfulness.

When James calls them adulterers, he is alluding to the Old Testament view of Israel as the bride of Yahweh (Isaiah 54:5-6) who commits spiritual infidelity when she chases after other gods, (Isa 57:3,7-8; Jer 3:6, 20; 13:27; Ezek 16:35-38; Hos 9:1).

Her spiritual infidelity was so bad that God told Hosea to marry the prostitute Gomer as an object lesson of Israels whoring herself out to false gods.

In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-27; Rev 19:7-8; 21:2,9).

And when the church chases after the world, she commits spiritual infidelity.

Her unfaithfulness stifles her love for God and disrupts the unity of the church.

Just like adultery ruins family relationships, so does spiritual infidelity ruin love between brothers and sisters in Christ.

This morning through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James will reveal to you that spiritual unfaithfulness is friendship with the world and is the source of disorder in the church.

Therefore, brothers and sisters,

You must love God jealously, your neighbor faithfully, and resist the devil always to protect the unity of the church.

We will begin in verse 4, where James calls his readers adulterers.

Then, he explains what spiritual adultery is in the following verses, 5-6.

Next, we will look back at verse 1-3 to see the consequences of spiritual infidelity.

James calls you to action in James 4:7-10.

Spiritual unfaithfulness is friendship with the world (James 4:4a)

James 4:4 (ESV)

You adulterous people!

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

James defines spiritual adultery by using a rhetorical question.

Don’t you know Christians, friendship with the world is enmity with God?

The answer should be a resounding, YES!

But there seems to be some confusion.

So James explains what friendship with the world is in relation to God.

In the context of James’ readers, friendship carried the idea of a strong allegiance to one another politically and socially.

It was an intimate relationship that shared the same goals, standards, and sought the same pleasures.

Its comparable to what conservatives and liberals experience in their political party.

There is a deep camaraderie among its members that bonds them together to fight for their cause and the way of life they feel will flourish.

When James speaks of the world, he is not speaking of the cosmos such as the created order.

He is speaking to the world system- the people constituting the world whose values, beliefs, and morals are in distinction and rebellion to God’s.

Jesus describes the distinction of the world this way when he said

Paul describes the wisdom of this world as foolish in comparison to Gods when he says,

Furthermore, John reveals that the world system is ruled by the devil.

He says

1 John 5:19 (ESV)

the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Friendship with the world means to share an intimate relationship with the world that is in rebellion to God and is ruled by the devil in order to pursue the same goals, standards, and pleasures as the world would pursue.

What kind of goals, standards, and pleasures does the world pursue?

I think John sums it up with the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:20), desires of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).

It’s everything that God abhors.

The bride of Christ shares the same standards for living, the same goals for flourishing in this life, and the same pleasures as her husband.

What business has the church with seeking love and intimacy outside of her covent marriage to Jesus?

Christian, you are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:11).

The bride of Christ is regarded as dead to the world (Gal 6:14; Col 3:2,3).

You are separated from the world (James 1:27).

To befriend the world is to forsake your relationship with the Father (1 John 2:15).

John is clear, if you love the world you do not love the Father,

Friendship with the world is to forsake your love for God and give it to the world, like the man who gave his love to his secretary instead of his wife.

You cannot serve two masters.

You will love the one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24).

You commit spiritual adultery when you give your heart to the world.

You will love the world and hate God.

James says as much.

He says, friendship with the world makes you God’s enemy.

Spiritual adultery makes you an enemy to God (James 4:4b)

James uses a strong word in 4a to describe the consequence of your infidelity.

Its the word enmity.

It is is military term the describes the hostility between two enemies at war.

Later in the verse 4b, he calls the adulterer an enemy.

Paul clues us in to the hostility James conveys in verse 4.

The word hostile is also translated enmity.