Two Different Friendships
Notes
Transcript
Friendship with the world
Friendship with the world
Last week we looked at 2 different types of wisdom
Can someone tells me the two types (earthly, godly)
This leads into what we are talking about today, two kinds of friendships
This is not a friendship with a person or even people
Friendship with either God or the world
The greek word for friendship is actually deeper than just having casual people in our lives
Friendship is a serious word describing intimacy between things
That is what these first verses center themselves around, the idea of friendship
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
Do you remember who he is writing this letter to? (the church)
He is not talking about quarrels between you and your next door neighbor
this is inside the church, people professing to be disciples of Jesus Christ
And they can’t get along, they are quarreling and fighting.
What are things that churches will fight about? (music, doctrine, color of the carpet, finances)
To put it simply, the reason these fights happen is because someone wants something and they cannot get it
This will both displease God and please Satan at the same time
Satan desires for churches to become disunited so that our eyes are taken off of the mission of God
What is the mission that God has given us?
He says that we fight because our passions are at war with us. I want one thing, he wants something else, while at the same time, Jesus wants something completely different
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
He is being over the top here to make a point. But I believe that he is taking it back to the sermon on the mount when Jesus equated hatred with murder Matthew 5:21–22 “21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
You want things your way so you start a fight because you want it that badly
What are things that are worth fighting over? (things that Jesus is clear on)
What is James talking about when he says that we do not ask? (prayer)
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Jesus gives us the formula for our prayer
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
James is saying that the reason they are not getting what they ask for is because they are spending their prayer on their passions
What should our prayers be on? (God’s desires, Christ’s commands)
This problem that arises in our prayers can be followed back to a friendship with the world
it brings to light a reality of my will be done and my name be made great
And what happens when we have a friendship with the world?
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
In a much lighter way of saying what James says, they have cheated on God with the world
He paints this picture that you are one of two people
a friend with the world (enemy of God)
a friend with God (enemy of the world)
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
Typically, when a writer in the bible says that scripture says, they are referring specifically to a certain verse.
But this verse is not in scripture
This doesn’t mean that James is misquoting
He, more likely, is referring to the whole of scripture teaching the truth of what he is saying.
What James is saying in this verse is that God yearns for his spirit to be made alive in us.
So he is taking it back to the verses before this saying that if we live that way, then this would not be true of us.
Friendship with God
Friendship with God
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
This is what we need to be thankful for.
He doesn’t just give grace, but gives us greater grace
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
Proverbs 3:34 “34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.”
Remember that the true definition of friendship is an intimate connection
What should our friendship with God produce in us? (humility, submission to God)
Submission is not something that comes naturally to us as humans
We are told in America that if we want something, then we need to go and take it, make our own opportunities and don’t let people stand in our way
Godly submission is something that is beautiful
James lists 5 ways that we show our submission to God
Resist the Devil forcefully (verse 7) - When we submit ourselves to God, we naturally resist the devil. James gives us the promise that when we resist the devil, then he will flee. We can’t be the people that blame the things we do on Satan. Because if we resist him, he will flee. Therefore, if we are doing the work of Satan, it is because we did not resist him.
Seek God repentantly (verse 8) - James tells us to draw near to God. This means that we are not near him, either we have never been or we have drifted. Because he is speaking to a church, we need to assume that he is talking about a drift, which could happen to all of us. We must repent (turn).
Pursue Purity holistically (verse 8) - Cleanse your hand and purify your hearts. We need to give our whole lives, our whole bodies to the work of Christ. Deuteronomy 6:5 “5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Our whole lives are God’s to use for our good and his glory.
Treat sin seriously (verse 9) (get someone to read it out loud) - For people who are friends with the world and live in the worldly ways, sin is not a big deal. But James tell us we are to grieve over our own sin.
Exalting Jesus In James Friendship with God (4:6–10)
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has noted how the awareness of sin grew in times of revival:
Go and read the history of revivals again. Watch the individuals at the beginning. This is invariably the first thing that happens to them. They begin to see what a terrible, appalling thing sin is in the sight of God. They temporarily even forget the state of the Church, and forget their own anguish. It is the thought of sin in the sight of God. How terrible it must be. Never has there been a revival but that some of the people, especially at the beginning, have had such visions of the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of sin, that they have scarcely known what to do with themselves. (Lloyd-Jones, Revival, 157)
Trust God completely (verse 10) - God will give us grace in our humility. We don’t need other people and the world to exalt us, God will do that when it is needed
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James goes back to an overarching theme here.
Do not speak evil against one another. Why?
Causes disunity, harm, divisiveness.
It goes back to our heart. Our heart for God.
If our hearts are truly changed by the gospel and tuned towards Christ, it will affect the way that we speak.
James is speaking to a church that is dealing with disunity and he knows that it stems from words
Words have immense power
Worldly speech does two things
it hurts others
it dishonors God
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
one who sows discord (stirs up trouble) among brothers
The problems that James has spoken about in the last couple of chapters comes down to one major thing, submission to God
Practical application
pray for God to show us one major thing in our life that we struggle with submission to God
maybe it is a nagging sin, maybe our tongues, maybe our eyes
Commit to giving that to God and submitting yourself to his leading
Memorize Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”