"Of the World, Or the Word? "
Notes
Transcript
Least week we learned false wisdom would say that God is about me, meaning God should do what I want. It is rooted in the attitude of there is no eternity, there is only now.
I will live my life for today only, eat, drink, and be merry, because only death awaits. The contrast is this. True wisdom, God is about God and His commands are leading me to a life that is for His glory.
"God is most satisfied in me, when I am most satisfied in Him. (John Piper). People who live in true wisdom have eternity in sight. The reward is yet to come. We learned how to grow in true wisdom as well.
One, we are to dig, dig, dig, into the word of God. You want to grow in Him, and testify about Him, then you dig into His word, not to memorize it, but to lead you to Him.
Two, we surround ourselves with people who love Jesus and submit to and love His word. Three, we should trust in the Godly leaders that God has put around us.
These should be people who are willing to lay their lives down for Jesus. So now we are going to use way we have already learned and put it to work.
Today we will see Jesus invades lives that are filled with fighting, envy, and selfishness and heals them in a way that creates humbleness, and unity among them.
James is talking about two types of believers, one motivated by false wisdom and one motivated by true wisdom.
Once motivated by true wisdom, the believer will embrace his or her community with a new favor. Let's read our passage. Read Passage: James 4:1-12
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
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.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
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.
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”?
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore 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 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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?
So, we start off today looking at people motivated by false wisdom. Those who motivated by false wisdom are ...
1. Motivated by the flesh (1-4)
1. Motivated by the flesh (1-4)
James addresses the battle at the end of verse 4 by addressing friendship with the world is a dangerous thing. Now keep in context the use of the word friendship here.
This is not a casual use of the word as we might think of today. We use the word friend a lot more flippantly today. We have a lot of friends and have even dulled the use of the word with FB (FB friends).
No, the use of friendship here is a lot more intense. It is describing a close intimacy in the context of what James is talking about here.
James makes it clear that friendship with the world leads to conflict with God. Not just conflict, but James says, and enemy of God. That is hostile.
When we are in friendship in the world, he says, we will bring about conflict with others, ourselves, and even worse conflict with God. James describes these quarrels right off the bat.
All of us have experienced quarrels, right? Sometimes these things come from legit issues, real hurts, but that is not what James is talking about here.
He is describing conflicts that come out of the flesh. These are an issue of the internal. These are flowing out of our desires within.
He is speaking of selfish gain, pleasure for the here and now, and what feeds our flesh. The problem begins to arise when you get people like that together. It will create conflict and quarrels.
These quarrels get serious when it comes our relationships with one another. No matter if it is our marriage, friends, or people in the church.
When we become more concerned and longing for earthly pleasure, we become disjointed. James even points to our covetous nature and murderous attitude, referring to hatred and anger.
When you feel as though you are entitled, you grow in a contemptuous attitude. You think you deserve, are owed, and God should give you these things.
First you grow in contempt against others and then you begin this resentment with God himself. What happens is you see other people get blessed, and you can't celebrate them. You take it as not fair. Illus: This is easily seen in the church.
And then James cuts to the core. 4 You adulterous people! Throughout scripture, God describes his relationship with His people as a marriage.
When he says, “You adulterous people!” James is sayings we are cheating on God because we have become more conformed to this world.
Do you ever want to know what that looks like? When we have satisfied our flesh with the things of this world. More possessions, nicer cars, and bigger houses, simply more more more.
When we have pursued popularity and lord ourselves better than others. Let me be clear, when we have lived for what is best for us in this world, we need to repent and come back to God.
When we’re motivated to repent and follow through with it, we become believers motivated by true wisdom because we are ...
2. Motivated by humility (5-10)
2. Motivated by humility (5-10)
The need to repent makes sense of what James is saying in verse 5 Read James 4:5 There are a lot of people that want to debate what the thought is in this verse.
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”?
No one wants to think of God as jealous because of the negativity that surrounds that word in our culture, and because of what scripture says about jealousy. But let's not forget the context here.
God is not jealous about anything that we have, but He does long for His spirit to be made alive in us and when that is not happening it should remind us of who He is about. God is about God.
In Exodus 20:5 and 34:14, God tells His people, "I am a jealous God."
Read Exodus 20:5
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Read Exodus 34:14
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Let me try and explain it in a way that might be a little easier to relate to. I love my wife very much.
As a husband, I long for affections, and anything that might threaten to steal her love from me will have to face me emphatically. Look, this is healthy. It's the way it should be.
God too is jealous for us in the same way. He has always been jealous for His people, and He opposes anything or anyone that threatens that.
This is not some sort of insecurity on His end because there is nothing better than Him and He is keenly aware of that.
This is a healthy jealousy that wants what is best for us and so He does not want us to pursue or cling to anything else but Him so that we find all that we might possibly need.
He wants us to experience the fullest joy possible. And how patient is God with us? I love this part. No matter how many times I stumble, He gives more. Read James 4:6
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
God gives all that we need to obey Him and even though we falter at times, He supplies even more. James Motyer 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. . . 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.
James then gives us the most practical advice in order to achieve this fullest joy. Resist the devil, pursue God, purify the core or your full self, and treat sin with the seriousness that it brings to the table. Read James 4:7-10
7 Submit yourselves therefore 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 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James tells us to mourn our sin, meaning, recognize it for what it is. The awareness of our sin often brings about the revival of the heart. The humbling effort of mourning over your sin allows God to fully lift us up.
It allows for us to experience the full joy that He has for us. That is the core of a good revival, to see full holiness of God after recognizing the weight of our sin. Illus:
Once motivated by true wisdom, the believer will embrace his or her community with new favor because we have been truly ...
3. Motivated by grace (11-12)
3. Motivated by grace (11-12)
When is the last time that you have been so motivated by God that it has affected the way that you spoke to people? The grace of God motivates us to not only honor and exalt God, but to encourage each other. Read James 4:11-12
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 is saying, look if you have mourned your sin and been motivated by grace then you have the ability not to condemn the weaknesses of your brothers and sisters, but to rejoice in their strengths.
With your life you do not tear down but build up. You should check yourself on this. Are you more likely to build others up and celebrate God working in them, or point out their short comings?
I'm not talking about holy discernment, but an attitude of condemnation. James would say, "Look if we are walking in true and healthy wisdom, then quarrels and fights should be leaving among us."
Now, yes, we are sinful, and we will quarrel from time to time, but the litmus test of growth is if we are quick to seek forgiveness.
Are we willing to take on some of the wrongs against us and see them through with grace, even undeserved, just like God did with us?
Some of us owe people an apology today, maybe even in this room. Maybe you can't see past faults, but God somehow has managed to. Do you revel in the defeat of people you don't like?
Are you or have you actively torn down people, and maybe not even out loud, but in your minds?
My encouragement is for you, for me, to live as people who are experiencing and have experienced the grace of God. Let's pray.
