Faith Submits Part 2

Opening:

In the movie a Walk to Remember the opening scene is one that is pretty memorable as you see a group of students by a factory and one of them is dared to jump off of a tower into some water as a means of initiation into the group. One of the main characters, Landon, assures him it’s safe and climb up with him promising to jump with him. Of course Landon doesn’t jump and the other character jumps in and as soon as he lands the others realize something is wrong. As they frantically jump in to help him a security guard shows up and they all scatter except Landon who is in the water with him and gets him up on the deck and then flees but is too late and winds up in jail. The rest of the movie is of course as you would expect with a Nicholas Sparks movie and in the end Landon’s character meets Jamie and well you’ll have to read the book or watch the movie if you want to find out the rest…

But what stands out from that dramatic scene is how easily we can be persuaded to follow the ways of the world, or peer pressure, just to fit in or belong. I’m sure everyone in this room has experienced this in some form, hopefully not to the point where you nearly die from jumping off of a tower into water like in the movie. So what does it look like when the pressure to conform to the world pulls us not away from better friends or better choices, but a relationship with God? Well in today’s passage we will look into James 4:1-12 and James will challenge us to prioritize friendship with God over friendship with the world.

Scripture Reading:

James 4:1–12 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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. 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”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 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. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Two Types of Friendships

‌Friendship with the World v.1-5

We start chapter four of James and he takes this idea of worldly wisdom and then applies it to friendships with the world. The sobering thought here for me is that James was addressing the people within the church not those outside of the church and the list of things we do is not pretty. James in fact pushes it out to the extreme speaking of murder and though he’s not saying people in the church have murdered he’s showing how devastating sin is and how uncontrolled leads to murder.

The quarrels within the church were stemming from people who were focusing on worldly wisdom instead of humbly submitting to God. In verse one James highlights this when he talks about the “passions at war within us”. Another way to think about this is though we worship God we still let our earthly desires override our loyalty to God. James uses the word passion which in the Greek is hedon or the root word for hedonism which was a philosophy of life that thought man’s chief end was pleasure. In this text we see that even the people of God, in the local church, were being influenced by this philosophy and that wether conscious or not people within the church were chasing after their own desires instead of seeking the will of God.

In verse 4 James introduces the idea of friendship with the world and how it opposes the ways of God. First we have to acknowledge that we use the word friendship in many different ways including people we just met to people we’ve known our whole lives, whereas the word in New Testament time was a word used to describe close intimacy. So when James says “friendship with the world” he is talking about people who are trusting in the ways of the world instead of God.

“Your kingdom come your will be done” turns into “My will be done, and my name be great”. Hostility between God’s people is really hostility towards God.

-David Platt

This is where we have to pause and acknowledge the gravity of what our friendship with the world causes with our relationship with God. James in verse 4 call his readers “adulterous people” based on their love of the world and its sinful desires. We are in essence cheating on God when we decide to trust the ways of the world more than Him. In my study bible it explains it this way:

“God created mankind with a ‘spirit’, and he deeply desire that our spirits worship him and thus we have this divine jealousy that is mentioned here in James”

Sadly, we all have been guilty of this and sadly this has often become the norm within the church. Disfunction in the church always starts with individuals who are chasing after the things of the world more than they are chasing after the things of God.

Jeremiah 3:20

Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,

so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.’ ”‌

Platt in his commentary summarized the jealousy of God for his people’s heart in this way which I think is helpful:‌

“In light of the context, we should probably understand James to be saying that God jealously longs for the spirit he made to live in us. We’re taken back to Exodus 20:5 and 34:14 where God tells His people that He is a jealous God. An illustration may help to explain why this is good news for us. As a husband, I am jealous for the affections of my wife, and anyone or anything that threatens to steal her love from me is met with the strongest of opposition. This is a good thing in marriage; it’s the way it’s supposed to be. And it’s a good thing in our relationship with God that He is jealous for our affections. God is infinitely jealous for His people, and He will oppose with divine force anything or anybody who threatens their good. God is jealous for the affections of your heart as a follower of Christ. This is not an insecure jealousy that is afraid you’re going to find someone or something better, for there isn’t anyone or anything better. This is a secure jealousy that seeks what is best for you by guarding your heart from adulterous pursuits. He tells us to run from the things of this world and cling to Him in order to find all that we need.”

-David Platt, Exalting Jesus in James

This is a powerful reminder that we turn away from God to fulfill our own selfish desires, yet God desires for us to be close to him and ultimately wants our hearts. James says we “ask wrongly” (v.3) when we approach God. When we think of it in the context of unbelievers we can conclude they don’t have because they won’t turn to (ask) God. For the believer it’s a reminder that often we approach God in prayer, but have our own selfish desires we come with instead of seeking what is God’s desire.

It’s the sad reality that God wants an intimate relationship with his children, yet sadly many time we would rather chase own selfish desires, wether we are far from God or claim to be a son or daughter. One commentator mentioned that it’s not that God doesn’t want any of our passions to be filled, it’s just that our passions have to be aligned with his. What things are you chasing after today that don’t line up with God’s kingdom? Are there things in your life that you are passionate about that you can leverage for God’s kingdom? Now you might have to change the way you pursue that passion to fully submit, but God can use/redeem things for His glory!

I’ll use a really simple example on this. If I come before God every day praying that the church would grow that would be a good thing right? I think so…but what if I come before God every day praying that the church would grow but ultimately my hearts desire in it is so people think that I’m the reason for the growth, or that it somehow elevates my platform, or we are doing it by simply taking members from other churches, or I want a sanctuary full so I can make a post on social media so everyone sees how “successful” I am as a pastor.

See this is where things get tricky really quick and we have to be on guard against this. Our passions should always line up with God’s desire and what God wants will not include stepping over each other, or disparaging other point of views, or trying to leverage a position of power to get our way. I believe this is what James is getting at in this opening part and we would be wise to self-reflect on this area and make sure that we are not chasing our own desires or earthly passions instead of the will of God.

The question for us today then is this…”how are we doing individually at this? How are we doing as a church in this regard?” “In what areas am I still seeking my own will over God’s will?”

Friendship with God v.6-10

As we move on in James 4:6 we see where we have this great promise that God “gives more grace.” I don’t know about you but when I come across proclamations like this in scripture I’m so encouraged. In the first 5 verses we are reminded of how sinful we are and as the old hymn puts it “prone to wander”. But then James gives us this great promise of verse 6.

“The only ray of hope in man’s spiritual darkness is the sovereign grace of God, which alone can rescue man from his propensity to lust for evil things. That God gives “more grace” shows that his grace is greater than the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan. The OT quote (from Proverbs 3:34 “Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.” reveals who obtains God’s grace—the humble, not the proud enemies of God. The word “humble” does not define a special class of Christians, but encompasses all believers.‌”

This is so helpful as we can often feel overwhelmed in our sin and the propensity we have to live in the flesh. Yet scripture reminds us God wants to give his grace abundantly. Renowned Old Testament pastor-scholar J. Alec Motyer who passed away 8 years ago at age 91 captured it beautifully when he said:

“What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit our salvation, for there is always more grace. No matter what we do to him, he is never beaten … His resources are never at an end, his patience is never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace. “ -J Alec Motyer

I don’t know about you but I need this reminder. God is tirelessly on our side. His grace is readily available in abundance. Some of you might feel like the things you have done are too much for even for God, but let me tell you my friend, God’s grace is never ending and has never encountered a person who was too far from his grace and love.

In verses 7-10 James gives the readers 10 commands to receive God’s grace.

James used the word submit to describe a willing, conscious submission to God’s authority as sovereign ruler of the universe. A truly humble person will submit to God just as we submit to authority in other areas. I think the Olympics that finished up last week are such a great example here. The athlete submits to the training of their coach trusting that the plan they have is better than what they would come up with on their own. There’s probably days they question that or would rather just hang out on the couch, but a good coach will always push the athlete beyond what they think they’re capable of with the end goal, a gold medal, in mind and so is our submission to God. We trust that what he has in store for us is far greater than what we might chase after.

I love verse 8. It’s a picture of an intimate love relationship with God. You draw near to things you love and who is more deserving of our love than God? I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the creator God of the Universe desires an intimate relationship with us. What a beautiful truth we find in scripture that paints a picture of a great God who wants to be close to you and me. This would be a great verse to put up on your mirror or by your nightstand as a daily reminder that God desires a relationship with you. How underserving we are of his great love and his desire to be near to us!

At the end of verse 8 and into verse 9 we see James confront our often times flippant attitude towards sin. Salvation involves more than submitting to God and resisting the devil; the redeemed heart longs for communion with God. Cleanse your hands. The OT priests had to ceremonially wash their hands before approaching God, and sinners (a term used only for unbelievers) who would approach him must recognize and confess their sin. Cleansing the hands symbolizes external behavior; the phrase “purify your hearts” refers to the inner thoughts, motives, and desires of the heart showing that the it’s both external behavior, but most importantly the inward posture had to match the outward expression of faith. That’s true for us today as well.

The culmination of the 10 commands is to humble yourself. When we as sinful humans are able to be in the presence of an infinitely holy God how can we respond any other way? You know we all have our little pet peeves, but one of mine is when people claim to have heavenly experiences and they don’t describe falling down on their knees to worship as they are overwhelmed by being in the presence of God. I mean what other response can we have?

When we come before God in worship or in prayer how do we approach God? Do we come before God in humble adoration? If that’s something that is lacking from your worship & prayer time, I suggest making it a priority….why? Because God our father loved us enough to save us from our sin and wants a relationship with us…he is worthy to be praised!

Two Pictures of Speech v.11-12

The last two verses are another reminder by James to watch our speech, in particular how we judge others, specifically other believers. When we do this we go against Gods will as he is the ultimate authority and we wrongly elevate ourselves. In essence James is finishing this chapter where he started by talking about how we should watch how we talk.

Two quick thoughts can be pulled from these final verses of chapter 4. The first is our speech, when we allow follow our worldly desires, will speak negatively about others and in the context of a local church body will kill community. The second thing is it dishonors God. We are putting ourselves in the position of God as judge. These two things go against fundamental aspects of faith which we often proclaim…love God & love others.

Once again James goes back to one of his main thoughts which is our words should be in line with our heart. We should build up each other and show grace instead of judge…my desire is to be a church that is known for speaking in a way that honors God and reflects a genuine love for one another.

Closing:

Many people think Christianity is:

I do whatever | want & however | want. And, God exists to help me accomplish my dreams & goals for my life.

However, Biblical Christianity is:

Jesus saves me from my self. And, I exist to do whatever God calls me to for His Kingdom & glory.

By Shane Pruitt

If we truly believe the gospel, that God saved us from ourselves by sending Jesus to go to the cross on our behalf, defeat death by being resurrected three days later, and giving us the hope of eternity…than it should change the way we live. We should avoid friendship with ways of this world and instead draw near to God. I don’t know about you but the promises found in this chapter of God’s abounding grace and his desire to be close to us give me hope.

“The ultimate test of our spirituality is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)

Wherever you find yourself today, wether you’ve walked with God for a long time or you walked in here today feeling far away from God, we all find ourselves in need of this great grace from God. The charge of James to his readers is one that rings true today we are to turn from our son and pursue God. A couple of weeks ago Lannie & Abbie and I went to a Christian concert…it was Forrest Frank & Josiah Queen. We had a great time but one thing that blew me away was the amount of young people there ready to worship God. Forrest Frank shared part of his testimony and honestly it was these verses lived out And Josiah Queen’s lyrics are full of not chasing after the world but drawing close to God. Here are two examples:

Even when I fell far away Your love it always stayed the same Even through all this time You never left my side I'm talking 'bout a friend who never leaves Who's always got my back when I fall to my knees Who took all of my shame and he called me by name Oh, Lord, I'll never leave your side

-Forrest Frank “Never Left my Side”

Josiah Queen “The Prodigal”

I don't need the money I don't want the fame I don't want what I can't take with me In the grave

Oh, and I don't wanna lose my soul Chasing after things that don't Lead me straight to You and

I believe wholeheartedly that this generation of young people want more than just religion but something that is real…a relationship that is genuine and meaningful and is lived out by chasing after God and not this world. They want to worship the true God who is mighty to save and gives grace in abundance despite our wandering hearts. It’s easy to talk about young people in a negative way, but let me encourage you to foster this kind of faith we learned about today in our young people. Not only that but may that be true of all of us as this world will try to distract us from God’s unfailing love and living a life that seeks his kingdom over ours.

Let’s pray…